"All right, guys, Korrina needs help!" Ash said. "And I wanted to see if any of you had any ideas about what to do."

"It would kind of help if we had more details, maybe?" Cresselia suggested. "Not a requirement, I know, but I thought I'd just bring it up… might be relevant."

"Eh, the basics are that Lucario's kind of getting overwhelmed by his own powers," Sandile said. "It's just this massive rush of confidence and it's hard for him to keep his head on straight."

"Oh, right, I think I see," Cresselia nodded. "So this is more of us needing to work out the right way to help him in a psychological way, rather than the right way to help him in terms of what to teach him."

She shrugged. "I was wondering, since if it's to do with punching things I've sort of sworn off that."

"Well, if it's about his own power getting the best of him, then what we did with me worked for me?" Chimchar said. "I don't use Blaze."

"Didn't you get it working months ago?" Starly checked.

"Yes, but it doesn't actually help my fighting style," Chimchar replied.

"That might not really work, here," Ash said. "It's Mega Evolving that's giving Lucario trouble."

"Yeah, I can see why they'd want to keep that option open," Chimchar agreed. "Well… didn't Aten have a problem with massively overstating his capabilities relative to what he could actually do?"

Aten glared at Chimchar. "I hope for your sake that you retract that insult."

"Hey, now, Aten," Ash chided. "Remember, you're strong now but that's because of a lot of hard work to get there. You've really built yourself up into a capable fighting Pokémon, and every bit of that is improvement."

Aten simmered, but largely seemed to consider this acceptable.

"You could always sort it out with some kind of battle in the centre of someone's mind," Dewott said. "That way you can sort out a complex psychological problem, but it's mostly using the skills of hitting things very hard. Nice and convenient."

"That reminds me of how I became I," Unown chimed in. "Which, well… it's an option? But not necessarily a good one."

"A noble knight who's too headstrong and goes on the attack without listening," Zacian mused. "You know, I'd have a lot more input into how to resolve this if my history actually was like that Padarn fellow said… or like Zamazenta sometimes jokes about, for that matter."

"I know!" Croconaw said. "The solution is dancing!"

"Oh, here we go," Aten sighed.

Paused.

Looked at Ash.

"You're not actually considering this nonsense, are you?"

"Okay, here we go!" Ash said. "Three, two, one… and, now!"

Lucario Mega-Evolved into Mega Lucario in a flash of golden light, and Ash gave a thumbs-up. "Good! Now… Croconaw, Reflect Type!"

Croconaw did a twirl.

"And Revelation Dance!" Ash concluded.

"That's going to be Fighting-type, right?" Korrina checked.

"That's right," Ash said. "Which should make it easier for you both to copy the dancing Croconaw's doing. Remember, the goal is to copy his moves together, it's not a race for one of you to copy them first… that way, Lucario's getting a chance to get a hang of his extra strength without losing his grace, and because you're working together you're improving your bond and getting better at the same time as one another!"

"Keep it up!" Turtwig cheered. "Both of you, dance like you want to win!"

"Win what, exactly?" Pikachu asked.

"I think it's to do with defeating a pair of identical, powerful Pokémon with very similar names, or something," Turtwig replied. "I'm a bit vague on the concept. Possibly Latias and Latios?"

Korrina slipped over, and Croconaw stopped.

"Don't worry," he told them both. "You'll get better over time! Now, let's start from the beginning again?"

Gurrkin sent them to an acquaintance of his, a woman called Mabel, and she welcomed Korrina and the others into her house.

"I hear that you've been having trouble with Mega Evolution?" she asked.

"Yes, that's right," Korrina agreed. "Lucario just… finds it hard to listen when he's Mega Evolved. And, it's hard for me to know exactly what to think about it."

She sighed. "He's battling independently, which is good, but he's also not listening when I ask him to stop, and that's not good."

"Well, we can certainly help sort that out," Mabel said. "Have you been doing anything to help with it?"

"We have been dancing," Lucario provided. "Doing the same dances at the same time."

"Ah, I see you got another expert's help," Mabel chuckled.

"Wait, really?" Clemont asked. "Dancing is what the experts do?"

"Well, dancing, topiary… the best therapy is doing something that's not associated with battling, so you can work things out in a calmer environment," Mabel said pleasantly. "I myself am quite fond of starting with flower arranging. In fact, perhaps you should do that? Each of you should partner up with one of your Pokémon to do it… let's see what you produce."

"I'm torn," Pikachu admitted.

"About whether it should be you or someone else?" Ash asked.

"No, not about that," Pikachu replied. "Though I do think Zygarde and Lokoko should get to participate as well. More about whether or not to tell Aten that the professional advice we got involved flower arranging."

"Aten actually put some time into learning the language of flowers, you know," Lokoko provided. "Mind you, he was mostly trying to work out how to send threats."

"How do you send threats in the flower language, then?" Serena asked.

"Well, eventually he realized it would be simpler and more efficient to just send an invitation card to the threatee's own funeral," Lokoko replied. "It's probably a good thing that all the cards for that kind of thing are really flowery and sympathetic."

"This Aten sounds like they have a lot of trouble with anger," Mabel observed. "Do they need help with their Pokémon, while we're doing it?"

"Aten is a Pokémon," Ash corrected. "I don't know if we'd be able to do Mega Evolution, he's a Hisuian Zorua and I think he'd have to evolve for that even if Phanpy did find a new Mega Stone… and he refuses to learn Return because it obviously wouldn't work, apparently."

"Then let's get started!" Bonnie suggested. "I want to see what Dedenne and I do will mean!"

She frowned. "What… what Dedenne and I will do will mean? I think that's right but it sounds silly."

"Well, now," Mabel said, a few hours later. "Ash and Pikachu… your display is an excellent example of your Pokémon being on the same wavelength! It's actually quite startling."

"Thanks!" Ash replied.

"Clemont… well, I'm not so sure," Mabel went on.

"If it helps, I do now agree with Chespin that the Ikebana Gear was a bad idea," Clemont volunteered. "I shouldn't have used a plasma cutter, it was much quicker but it had unforeseen side effects."

"Which, for any Grass type, were foreseen ones," Chespin sighed.

"Bonnie and Dedenne have done well," Mabel resumed. "Congratulations! And Serena… I asked you to do flower arranging. That's a single rainbow flower which, now I think about it, I don't actually have."

"We did," Fennekin replied. "That's a dozen differently coloured chrysanthemums all arranged around a white one. Chrysanthemums are associated with sunlight, and sunlight is made up of different colours combined into white light, so when you arrange them just so…"

"They combine magically!" Serena explained. "Watch, if I move one of them a little…"

She tweaked the petal of the giant chrysanthemum, and it split back into a circular rainbow.

"...I'm going to call that a success," Mabel decided. "And, hmm… Korrina, Lucario, you've tried to make a single unified arrangement but you've ended up with two different looking levels."

"That's partly because I can't reach up there," Korrina replied. "Even standing on the chair."

"Well, dear, you're the one who chose to turn up as a Mienfoo," Mabel said. "Still, I think I see where we need to do work now. And as for you two…"

She turned to Lokoko and Zygarde. "Where's your arrangement?"

"All over Kalos," Zygarde replied. "I have spent the last two and a half hours forming 10 Percent Forms at various locations in Kalos and creating a five-fold circle of five-fold flowers."

"The downside is that it's impossible to view from any one place," Lokoko added. "I can do a very good illusion of it though."

She smiled. "It was actually the illusion which came first. Zygarde helped turn it into reality. Did you know that the begonia is a flower which is associated with Absol?"

"It is?" Ash asked. "That's neat."

"It's certainly been associated with Absol since I read that it means caution," Lokoko said.

"My diagnosis," Mabel said, later that afternoon. "Is that Lucario is getting overwhelmed by his own self-perception. He's got a very good sense of how strong he is, but what that means is that when his strength increases so massively then he finds it hard to relate."

"I… suppose that makes sense," Lucario admitted. "It sounds almost infantile, but there it is."

"Well, fortunately, there's a solution to that," Mabel told them. "Come on outside and we'll be able to apply it… you see, fundamentally, it's a visceral problem where Lucario knows how strong he is but doesn't have the ability in Mega form to put that in perspective. And while telling him is one thing, visceral problems need visceral solutions."

She clapped her hands twice, in a signal, then went outside.

"I guess we should follow?" Korrina assumed.

Outside, Mabel made a gesture to indicate the Pokémon standing next to her.

"This is Mawile," she said. "She's currently wearing a Mawilite in what I think is quite a fetching bow around her stalk. Now, Korrina, please Mega Evolve Lucario."

Korrina nodded, adjusting her Mega Ring, and Lucario flashed over into Mega Lucario.

Mawile followed suit, becoming Mega Mawile, and Mabel bowed.

"Begin," she said. "Swords Dance."

"Power-Up Punch, Lucario!" Korrina called.

Mabel's Mega Mawile ducked, doing a twirl, and the Power-Up Punch sailed just over her head.

Mega Lucario hissed in annoyance, landing with one forepaw and twisting himself around so he could use Bone Rush, only for Mega Mawile to catch the bone staff and then throw him into the nearest cliff wall.

The nearest cliff wall was over a hundred feet away, and Mega Lucario made a brief vertical crater before the rock collapsed.

"Ouch," Pikachu said, sympathetically. "Huge Power, right?"

"Correct," Ibid replied.

"Lucario!" Korrina called, hurrying over. "Are you all right?"

Mega Lucario surged out of the rubble pile, then grumbled something.

"Good," Korrina told him. "Listen, I don't think we're going to overpower Mega Mawile."

"We'll see about that," Mega Lucario replied, running back towards the battle.

Two seconds later he made a second crater which, because of the collapse, was in almost exactly the same place as his first one but six feet further back into the cliff.

"...so, you had a plan?" he asked.

"Yeah!" Korrina replied. "Dancing, remember? You need to dodge her attacks! Focus on that, I'll tell you when there's a good opening to attack!"

"Well done," Mabel said. "I think you've got the hang of it now."

She nodded at Lucario. "And do you think you've learned the lesson about Mega Evolving?"

"I have learned about how deep a crater I make in a hillside," Lucario replied. "Repeatedly. Which seems to have cured my delusions of grandeur."

"Happy to help," Mawile told him. "If help involves either green tea or trying to beat my distance record."

AN:

Ikebana and being knocked about by a Mega Mawile. That's about the right method, I think.