Only a day or two after leaving Gracidea, and with the Reverse World freshly cleaned after Shaymintwo had decided it was a challenge to be handled as fast as Shayminly possible, the friends were back on the road to the north towards Celestic Town when they came across Professor Rowan.

"Ah, hello to all of you!" he said. "How's that Piplup doing?"

"He's working out great, Professor," Dawn replied with a smile. "He's very self confident."

"Always good," Professor Rowan declared. "Always good. Self confidence is a fine thing to see in a Pokémon, or anyone else for that matter."

He stroked his chin. "Tell me… have any of you considered taking part in the Pokémon Summer Academy?"

"Only since you mentioned it, Professor," Whitney informed him. "I didn't know it was an option until then!"

Professor Rowan chuckled. "In that case, allow me to invite you formally to the Summer Academy. You'll find ways to connect to Pokémon that…"

He paused, and looked around. "Is that Ninetales of yours around, Ash?"

"No, but she taught Whitney's Rapidash to do the same thing," Ash supplied.

"In that case, you might not find ways to connect to Pokémon that you never knew before," he amended. "But you'll certainly be connecting to specific Pokémon that you never knew before, and under new conditions as well. So even you will be learning something quite new, I hope."

Professor Rowan went on to explain the structure of the camp. It would be divided into four phases of interacting with Pokémon, plus a number of minor camp activities like a cook-out and other such summer-academy-ish things.

The first was that everyone would be loaned a rental Pokémon, and have to make a connection with it over a few days before, ideally, showing off how well they were getting on together with a battle or some other kind of presentation.

Professor Rowan was just explaining the second bit – which was about doing a research report on a Water-type Pokémon – when his assistant came up to him and asked him if he was sure the Pokémon available for rental were the right ones.

Professor Rowan said that of course he was sure, how could you have a wrong rental Pokémon anyway, and the assistant looked dubious – but by that point the people who were booked to attend the Summer Academy were arriving, so they had to move on with getting people sorted out with rental Pokémon.

"It's nice to meet you!" Ash said. "My name's Ash, and this is Pikachu!"

Pikachu waved.

"He actually used your name?" Ponyta asked. "That's very impressive. How long did it take to teach him that?"

"It took me a year or two to really get it right," Ash admitted. "But once I'd got the hang of listening right, it was easy!"

Ponyta did a double-take. "Um, did you just…?"

Pikachu sniggered. "I love it when new Pokémon react like this," he confessed. "Yep. Ash speaks Pokémon, and I mean that literally."

"So, what I was wondering was… what do you want out of this, Ponyta?" Ash asked. "I know that the assignment is to bond with a Pokémon, but it doesn't make much sense to me to bond with a Pokémon without doing what the Pokémon wants. So, it's up to you, okay?"

Ponyta looked a little lost by the sheer choice that implied, then rallied.

"Well…" she began. "I have been wondering about if I can really… well, run as fast as a Ponyta should be able to. I've not been a wild Pokémon in a while, and I've heard that Ponyta are supposed to be able to jump really high – which is something I can't do."

"That sounds like a great project!" Ash said. "So, I guess we should start by seeing what you can already do?"

"I have to admit, I'm mostly a Coordinator," Dawn said. "And Rapidash isn't around, so I can't understand you. But what about if I suggest things, and you see if they sound good?"

Lunala considered that, then nodded in a regal sort of way.

"That's good," Dawn smiled. "So, firstly… what about if I help you work a move or two you already know into a Contest routine?"

At about the same time, Angie looked at the Pokémon she'd been partnered with.

"How do I even start?" she asked. "I just… I don't know where to start!"

Zamazenta tried to make an encouraging noise.

"Oh, this is quite the challenge," Whitney said. "Hmm… well, let's see if I can do it the usual way, and if I can't then I might need to ask Miltank if I can borrow her Ability."

She opened her bag, rummaging around for the right tools, and took out a pair of combs. "Hold still, okay?"

Spectrier duly held still, and Whitney started work on doing the Swift Horse Pokémon's mane (which, fortunately, turned out to be affected by combs).

"So, where did you go on your holidays, this year?" she asked, humming under her breath.

"Here," Spectrier replied. "This is my holiday."

"It's a good place for it," Whitney said. "Oh, do you think you'd rather have braids, or curls, or something else? Rapidash usually has curls."

Rapidash struck a pose to show off his curls, tossing his head so they flowed in a psychically-generated wind.

"Can we try braids and see how they look?" Spectrier asked.

"Of course!" Whitney agreed. "You've got a lovely mane for it, actually, it should look very nice when I'm done…"

"So… here's the idea I had," Ash said. "One of the abilities that a Ponyta can have is Run Away, which makes it so you can get away from a battle."

"Yes, I'm aware of that," Ponyta concurred.

"And that works even if you couldn't otherwise get away from the battle," Ash went on. "While another ability that a Ponyta can have is Flame Body, which means you've got a high body temperature. And heat rises."

"It does?" Ponyta said, already confused. "Why would it do that? It's heat, not air."

"It's because of density," Ash explained. "When something gets hot, it gets less dense, so the same sized amount of it actually weighs less. That's how hot air balloons work, the hot air is less dense so it weighs less."

Ponyta blinked. "Wow. I always thought those flame things were like rocket motors or something."

She looked down at her hooves. "So just by getting hotter, I can get lighter."

"But that's not all," Ash went on. "Remember I said about Run Away? Well, if you think about it, what about if there's a battle where the other Pokémon are all around you? The best way to escape is going to be to go up…"

As Ash kept talking, Phanpy tapped Pikachu on the shoulder.

"I was wondering about our trainer," she admitted. "Do you think that he thinks like this the whole time? Or do you think that this is all to convince Ponyta that she can do it?"

Pikachu flicked his tail.

"I think our trainer is really, really good at metaphor," he said, after thinking about it for a bit. "And that means he comes up with all kinds of ideas that rely on creative thinking – ideas which seem to be quite convincing to, well… the universe."

At the end of the two days, there was a big demonstration where all the attendees showed what they'd achieved with their rental Pokémon.

Professor Rowan was still slightly unsure how to take the fact that Ash had got the least Legendary Pokémon in the entire collection, but since Ash had entered for the Pokémon battle section of the demonstration that didn't come up at first. Instead Dawn demonstrated how she'd worked with Lunala to turn Night Daze and Moonblast into a self-contained fireworks display, where the Moonblast beams flashed out only to be absorbed by the darkness of the Night Daze.

Dawn's friend Kenny went next, having taken a leaf out of Dawn's book and worked with his own temporary Pokémon (a Heatran) to put together a surprisingly balletic display using Fire Spin and Stone Edge.

As someone else took their turn – this time talking about how they'd helped Regirock learn how to do pushups, and that that presumably in some way helped and Regirock seemed enthusiastic about it – Zygarde got up, yawned, and stretched.

"Are you someone's rental Pokémon?" one of the campers asked.

Zygarde shook their head. "I am warming myself in the sun," they said. "This is an efficient and pollution free way of generating energy, though admittedly it is not as efficient as brunch."

"Now, for the tournament!" Professor Rowan said, having decided that he should just record this and enjoy having all the extra data. "We've randomly assigned everyone who will be taking part, so please take your places in the stands unless you are one of the first two campers to be battling. The first battle is… Ash versus Whitney."

"Because of course it is," Piplup sniggered.

"Behave," Dawn chuckled.

"Here we go, Spectrier!" Whitney said, and the Ghost-type she'd been working with trotted out onto the field with their head held high.

There was a definite spring in their step, and they tossed their mane and swished their tail to show off the spectral halfway-there braids interlaced with glittery golden thread.

"So… out of curiosity," Dawn said, looking up at Rapidash. "What did Whitney do after she'd done Spectrier's mane and tail?"

"Well, there was the wash down," Rapidash replied, thinking about it. "Taking care of Spectrier's hooves… doing a proper currycomb… all of the important things!"

"Yeah, that's fair," Dawn agreed. "A Pokémon just can't perform at full capacity if they don't know they're appreciated."

Ash gestured. "Okay, Ponyta, you know what to do! Flame Charge!"

Ponyta nodded, then cantered forwards with flame swirling up around her body.

"Bounce!" Ash called, and Ponyta's hooves struck the ground with a tchak. She sprang into the air, and as she rose shadowy smoke wisped around Spectrier's mane.

"Now, Run Away!" Ash added.

Ponyta had just reached the apex of her climb, but when Ash ordered that she shot further up and away as if magnetized.

"That's what I helped Ponyta to learn!" Ash said, proudly. "She wanted to learn to jump as high as Ponyta are meant to be able to, so I helped her learn!"

"Nice!" Whitney replied, coming out onto the battlefield and giving Spectrier a pat on the back. "What's her personal best?"

"Uh…" Ash shaded his eyes. "That looks like about a mile to me. Pikachu, does that look like a mile to you?"

He frowned. "Maybe a mile and a half? I'm not great at judging distances like that… we should have given her an altimeter!"

"Well, in that case – was that what you were planning for her to do?" Professor Rowan checked. "Because she did leave the arena, which means you forfeit."

"I expected that!" Ash assured him.

"In that case…" Professor Rowan flipped over a page on his notebook. "Ah! Next up is Angie against Conway. That means Zamazenta versus a Pokémon which we decided was called Genesect."

Ponyta landed again, with a whud that left four burning hoofprints in the ground, and exhaled.

"Phew!" she said. "That was amazing! It felt like I could see forever!"

Meanwhile, behind one of the buildings, Yveltal looked at Yveltal.

"I have to admit, Ash Ketchum works fast," he said. "I only mentioned the possibility of there being a shiny me… what, a month or two ago? If that? And here you are."

He inspected Shiny Yveltal's wings. "Though you do look quite… streaky."

"I know," Shiny Yveltal agreed. "Still, it's easy to tell us apart."

The shiny Pokémon rested his head on a wing. "Aren't you up for the battle round before long, though?"

"Oh, good point," Yveltal admitted. "I'd better go and get ready."

AN:

The best kind of summer academy is where you undergo personal growth.

Or help someone else do that, of course...