A few days into their latest journey, the group encountered a place called Alamos Town.

It was built on top of a mesa, connected to the outside world by a bridge, and at the heart was an enormous tower.

"Wow, that place looks amazing!" Ash said. "Though… wouldn't it be dangerous to fall off the edge? And I feel like you'd run out of space there."

"I think they already have," Dawn pointed out. "Look – the buildings go right up to the edge, and then on the other side of the bridge there's more houses."

She shrugged. "Still, I can see why people wouldn't mind. It's beautiful."

"I'd rather have a bigger shopping district," Whitney admitted.

"But then again, as we learned, people prefer different things!" Rapidash pointed out cheerfully.

"That's true, that was a lesson," Whitney agreed. "Well, let's go and see what it's like!"

"There's a Contest hall here, I know that much," Dawn said. "It's underneath those huge towers, I think… it's got a different design, with more seating."

"What does it look like?" Happiny asked.

"It's got seats at ground level, and it's got seats along the sides as well," Dawn explained. "Most Contest halls don't have both of those."

Happiny considered.

"Once I know what a normal Contest hall looks like, I'll know what the one here looks like," she said. "Except that I'm going to see this one first. So instead once I know what this one looks like I'll know what a normal one looks like."

"Hang on, maybe Ibid can help?" Ash suggested, getting out his Pokédex. "Ibid, what does a normal Contest hall look like?"

Ibid turned into a miniature Contest hall.

"Wow, so normally they don't have any seats at all," Happiny decided.

"Actually, that's the outside," Ash admitted. "I should have been more specific."

Ibid turned into a cutaway view, just to be helpful.

"Now I get it," Happiny said. "Thank you."

Alamos Town was a beautiful place.

Most of Sinnoh – most of everywhere Ash had ever been, as the most widely travelled of them all – were places where humans and Pokémon could live side by side, but Alamos was different because of all sorts of subtle clues that the architects had kept Pokémon in mind at all times.

There were window-boxes below most windows, that could serve as perches for Flying-type Pokémon. There were plants for shade in many of the public spaces, and belts of green weaving through the back away from the streets, and places where smaller Pokémon could slip under those same streets without interrupting people walking through the town.

And a huge spray of park land, behind the towers, which offered Pokémon who needed it a little space.

"It's a lovely place, isn't it?" asked a woman with a Chimchar. "I grew up here, but I've never seen a visitor who didn't enjoy their visit."

"It sure is a nice place," Ash agreed. "I'm Ash, and this is Pikachu!"

"Dawn," Dawn added, waving. "And this is Piplup!"

"I can introduce myself," Piplup sniffed. "I'm Piplup the Great!"

The woman gave a surprised laugh. "Well, I'm sure it's great to meet you, but I'm surprised you can introduce yourself."

"That's my work," Rapidash said. "I'm Rapidash, and this is my Whitney."

Whitney gave a thumbs-up. "Whitney, Whitney!"

That got another laugh – out of everyone, not just the woman – and she was still chuckling as she introduced herself. "My name's Alice."

"We're here for-" Ash began, then paused. "Huh. Actually, I guess most of us are here to watch the Contest! It's only Dawn who's here to take part."

"The Contest, huh?" someone asked. "Well, we're here for the Alamos Contest too!"

He sent out his Torterra. "Want a practice battle?"

The practice battle went well, though Pikachu did feel the need to apologize for electrocuting Torterra.

Since there was still a lot of time to go until the Contest, Alice showed them around the Alamos Town gardens.

She knew some of the spots which people didn't normally run into on a casual visit, and everyone sent out their whole team to enjoy themselves – something which left Alice a bit taken aback, because the Pokémon Ash sent out included both Zapdos and Raikou – before enjoying a lunch by the side of a fountain.

"This is really relaxing," Dawn sighed. "It's nice."

Buizel snorted. "I don't know. I prefer the kind of action there is in training."

"Well, that's fun too," Dawn agreed. "It's just that sometimes I prefer to relax, and sometimes I prefer action."

"Did you just understand what he said?" a Shinx asked, bemused. "How does that work? Humans can't understand Pokémon."

"That's because of my friend Whitney's Rapidash, at the moment anyway," Dawn explained. "My friend Ash has always been able to speak Pokémon, though, or he has for years anyway. From what he's said, I think he met Pokémon like Raikou before then, but by the time he had his starter Pokémon he could understand them fine."

"That is just so weird," the Shinx admitted, sitting back on her haunches and scratching her head, then yawning. "What do humans do with Pokémon, anyway? None of what my parents say makes any sense."

Dawn thought about that. "I think it depends on the Pokémon," she said. "So Buizel here-" she paused, and corrected herself. "Buizel who was here before he got bored and wandered off, is one of my friend Ash's Pokémon. He's only been around for a few days, but he's really into being fast and excitement and things like that. Like he was saying."

She shrugged. "But my Piplup wants to show off, and that's different enough that I interact with him in a different way to the way Ash interacts with Buizel. Piplup is a Pokémon who I use in Contests, which are all about showing off and looking good – it's what I do as a Pokémon Coordinator. And there's battles involved, but you can win a Contest Battle that you'd have lost as a pure loser-faints-first battle."

Shinx nodded. "So is it all about battling?"

"Not at all," Dawn said. "I think most Pokémon who have trainers tend to like battling, but not all of them do. I'd never want to force a Pokémon to do something they didn't want to do… unless it was something they needed to do for their own good. Like eating healthily, or putting in practice so they got better at something."

The Electric-type seemed to be absorbing that.

Then Raikou loped over.

"Are we still inside Rapidash's range?" she asked.

"I can understand you, so probably," Dawn replied.

"Good," Raikou said. "Ash has found a really weird thing going on, and Zygarde says that it's to do with spatial distortions or something. I don't really understand it myself."

She waved at Shinx, who seemed totally awestruck. "Hello, small Electric-type. How do you like my friend Dawn?"

"Wait, hold on," Shinx blinked. "You said Raikou, not Raichu?"

"Of course I did," Raikou replied. "I'm not a mouse… that would be our team leader."

"You're a Legendary Pokémon and you have a team leader who's a mouse?" Shinx said. "…I don't even know what Pokémon that would be."

"Pikachu, actually," Raikou told her. "He is very persuasive."

"I guess we should see what's going on," Dawn decided. "Does Marshadow have any idea?"

"Don't know, I don't think he got asked yet," Raikou admitted. "I kou raaii-"

"Oops, I think Rapidash just moved too far away," Dawn laughed. "I'll come with you in case it's serious."

It turned out to be serious. There was a whole area of warped space-time which puzzled all the Legendary Pokémon currently present, so Ash got hold of Mew and Mew scratched her head.

"Well, this is probably Dialga, Palkia or both," she said. "That's a probably, though. Not a definitely."

"This must be the work of that crafty Darkrai!" someone insisted, striding into the clearing.

"A crafty Darkrai?" Ash repeated. "Did he have a Victini with him?"

"Excuse me," Mew huffed. "Who is the expert here? You or me?"

The newcomer looked at Mew, did a double-take, and coughed. "Ah, that is… Darkrai has been a problem for a long time… I'm sure it's involved."

"Alberto, listen to the Mew," Alice suggested.

Pikachu's ears perked up. "Something's wrong."

"Okay, who just used Roar of Time around here?" Mew demanded. "I don't think I taught it to that many Pokémon… hmm. Is Shaymintwo around here?"

"I didn't get him," Ash replied.

Then a Darkrai appeared from a shadow.

"Get away!" it shouted.

"See!" Alberto demanded. "That's Darkrai!"

"Why do we need to get away?" Ash asked. "Is it because of the distortions?"

"Not safe here," Darkrai insisted. "Get away!"

It slipped into the ground as Alberto sent out his Lickilicky.

Then there was an eye-hurting burst of distortion, and Dialga and Palkia were standing there.

"Hi!" Ash called.

"Oh, so it probably was Dialga then," Mew said, nodding to herself. "That explains a few things."

"What's causing all the distortions?" Ash added. "It seems to be kind of dangerous."

Palkia turned to look at Ash.

"My apologies, Ash Ketchum," he said. "And Ash Ketchum's friends. We were having a disagreement."

"A violent disagreement," Dialga agreed. "It is a serious and important matter."

"About which we are both being reasonable," Palkia confirmed. "We are just being entirely reasonable about it with completely opposite views on the correct answer, and we both feel strongly enough about those views to resort to violence."

"Well, what's the disagreement about?" Dawn asked, which made the Shinx that had followed her give her a look halfway between admiration and shock. "We might be able to help."

"I feel that our recent-" Palkia began, but Dialga interrupted him.

"Hey, I think this is the wrong one," the Dragon of Time said.

"Are you sure?" the Dragon of Space said, then sighed. "The wrong one. Brilliant. So we were fighting over what you wanted to do as the best way of getting back at… the wrong one."

"Technically I was fighting over what you wanted to do, but I'm pretty sure the Darkrai that interfered in our otherwise assured victory in that race had a moustache," Dialga said.

"Darkrai!" Alberto announced, punching his palm with his fist. "I knew it!"

"A moustache?" Palkia replied. "A moustache? Why am I only hearing about this now?"

"Well, I'm only pretty sure," Dialga told him. "I didn't get that good a look and I didn't want to sound more certain than I was."

Palkia reached up and rubbed his forehead. "You have full control over time. You could just check."

Dialga snorted. "I am not going to use my ultimate powers over the fabric of the universe, the very weft of time itself, over a moustache."

Just about all the spectators, human and Pokémon alike, were looking back and forth like they were at a tennis match.

"We were literally talking about dropping this entire city into a time-space bubble to ensure that the Dastardly Darkrai could not escape their just deserts," Palkia said. "Over you maybe remembering a moustache."

"Um-" began a nearby man with pale-purple hair and glasses. "I think-"

"Fine!" Palkia decided. "If you're not going to use your powers to check then I'll use mine!"

Dialga blinked. "What? Your powers are over space, not time. How would you-"

Palkia reached out his arm. Distance warped and contracted through a fantastic application of Spacial Rend, and when his arm came back it had a small piece of plasticized fabric in it.

The Dragon of Space held it up so close the startled Dragon of Time could barely focus on it. "Well?"

"Well what?" Dialga asked. "Oh, that's a fake moustache-"

"Well," Palkia's voice grated, each word coming out level but only as an effort. "Did. It. Look. Like. This. Or. Not?!"

Dialga took a step back, so he could get a better focus. "...no, that doesn't look right. The price tag on Darkrai's moustache was bigger."

"I've just been reminded why our last discussion devolved into an argument," Palkia sighed.

The man with glasses eventually managed to speak up, saying that his name was Tonio and that he could vouch for Darkrai.

He said that he'd seen Alice fall off a cliff, years ago, and that Darkrai had saved her. Alice gasped, at that, saying she'd always thought that Tonio had saved her, and though Alberto sniffed Dialga and Palkia just exchanged glances.

"Well, definitely not the same Darkrai," Dialga said.

"Agreed," Palkia nodded.

"And it seems like it wasn't really fair to go after the other Darkraianyway!" Ash added. "I know he annoyed you… I think he annoys just about everyone… but the way you were doing it was really going to at least scare everyone in Alamos."

"He's got a good point," Palkia sighed. "You've got a good point, Ash. Sorry."

"There is one thing I'm wondering about," Tonio admitted. "You see… my great-grandfather was the architect who designed much of Alamos, including the Space-Time Towers."

"Is that what they're called?" Dialga said, interested, and jumped into the air so he could get a better view. "Palkia, they're named after us! I knew I liked this place."

"Well… he built them so that the music of Alice's grandmother, Alicia, could be used to calm Pokémon on a grand scale," Tonio explained. "His diary said that he saw visions of Dialga and Palkia battling, and since he knew Alicia could soothe Pokémon with the music called Oracion he thought it would be the best way to broadcast it and calm them both."

"Excuse me," Rapidash asked. "But are you saying that those towers are a gigantic sound system?"

He tapped his hoof on the floor. "Do they do karaoke?"

"I don't think they do," Tonio said. "But they can definitely play Oracion."

"Well, that explains it," Alice said, some minutes later, as they looked out of the Space-Time Towers. "Dialga and Palkia cannot dance."

"They're certainly trying, though," Tonio agreed. "I can definitely understand why my great-grandfather thought that they were engaged in a desperate fight to the death."

After all that, life in Alamos returned to normal.

Dawn took part in the Alamos Contest, with Pachirisu showing off an impressive Appeal using something which the judges discussed for about two minutes before tentatively identifying as Aura Wheel, and then in the Battle Round Buneary had a clash with first an Empoleon and then an Infernape.

Infernape was quite good at dealing with Buneary's Hammer Arm, but much less good at dealing with what happened when she encased two hammers in ice and smashed them together. The Fire-type might not have had much trouble dealing with Ice-type attacks, but adding Fire to a large amount of Ice just created a rain of water and that was never a good thing for a Fire-type.

"Something seems wrong about this," Pikachu said, twitching an ear.

"Why's that?" Whitney replied. "What's wrong with a cute little Pokémon beating a big one which could be cute but has made the – understandable but strange – decision not to focus on being cute?"

"Well, Dawn's part of the same group as I am, and especially as Ash is," Pikachu pointed out. "And Buneary is using basic scientific principles to overcome Infernape."

"But at the same time, she's using scientific principles to overcome elemental advantage," Happiny said. "She's overriding observed reality with her own interpretation. She's just doing it in a different way to normal."

"That is a good point," Pikachu said. "Hey, Ibid, mark Happiny down in Zorua's precocious category please! He likes us to keep track of that kind of thing. For science."

"Well done, both of you!" Dawn smiled, as she was sorting out her things after the Contest. "That's our second Ribbon!"

Pachirisu twitched her tail proudly, and Buneary jumped up onto Dawn's shoulder. Dawn gave her a pat, and Buneary nuzzled into it before returning herself.

"You too?" Dawn asked, and Pachirisu shook her head. "That's fine, then."

Dawn finished re-hanging her dress, then picked it up in one hand, took the strap of her bag in the other, straightened up, and nearly fell over.

"Did I leave something in here?" she asked, opening it, and a female Shinx fell out.

"Shinx!" the Electric-type said.

"Sorry, I can't understand you," Dawn apologized. "Not right now. But I know you can understand me, so… did you want to come with me?"

That got a nod.

"It's great to have you, then!" Dawn told her. "I'm just not as strong as Ash, but I'm sure it'll work out!"

AN:

No, seriously, the dancing is that bad.