When they actually got into Lilycove, the first thing May did was take them to the Contest hall.

"So, uh…" she began, to the woman at the desk. "Hi? When I was in Rubello I was told about a form that I had to fill out if someone else's Pokémon was going to compete in a Contest where I was the Coordinator."

"That's right," the woman said. "It's partly to make sure you're not overusing the privelige, but we try to make it simple so that people actually bother doing it."

She ruffled through files under her desk, then put a form on the counter. "You and the other trainer will need to fill this out… though what Pokémon is that next to you, anyway?"

"Um," Ash began, which made the woman blink in surprise. "How much of it do I need to fill out?"

"Oh, you're a talking Pokémon!" the woman realized. "No, you don't need to fill it out, your trainer needs to fill it out."

"Same thing," Ash replied.

"Miss?" Max asked, waving his hand in the air. "You don't watch the Pokémon Leagues, much, do you? Or… the news?"

"Oh, well, I'm more of a Contest girl," the woman said. "It's always nice to see what they're doing in Sinnoh or Kanto, you know, and comparing it to our own Hoenn styles… why?"

"I'm a trainer," Ash said. "So… how much of it do I need to fill out? And does it have to be by hand, because, I don't really have them."

"You can still write, right, Ash?" Brock asked. "I don't think I ever asked…"

"I can, yeah," Ash confirmed. "It's a bit awkward because I have to pick the pen up with my hoof, so… we should probably get two of the forms in case I make a mistake with one of them…"

Some minutes later, in a corner of the room, May finished filling out her part of the form and handed it across to Ash.

"I actually think some of it can be done by, well, Latias if you want," she said. "It's mostly trainer card number, Pokémon's original trainer card number, Pokémon name, Pokémon species, and your name and signature… then there's special notes, but I don't know what we'd even put there."

"Wait, doesn't that mean Ash is going to be filling out the same thing in two of those fields… twice?" Latias asked. "That's a bit weird."

"I guess there's times when all five fields would be different, but yeah, it is still weird," Ash agreed. "And – no, I want to do it myself if I can."

He glanced at May apologetically. "If I do end up breaking it, then I'll sign the second one and you and Latias can fill out the rest, okay? But doing it myself is… important, I guess."

"I get it," Max agreed, then stopped because it felt like explaining Ash's reasoning to Ash, even, would be bringing back up something that Ash wouldn't be comfortable hearing repeated.

"Pokémon species…" Ash said, carefully moving his forehoof and the pen attached to it. "Arceus… I actually don't know how that's spelled."

"R-K-S, maybe?" Brock said. "That's the fewest letters it could be."

"I think-" Ash said, stuttered, then kept going. "Latias, can you send out Unown?"

Latias retrieved the Pokéball and sent Unown out.

"Do you know how to spell my species name?" Ash asked. "You've – you've known all along, right?"

"Information has been available," Unown replied. "We are not good at context. I apologize on behalf of us."

"No, it's okay-" Ash said, then stopped. "It'd… probably have helped if you'd explained, but… I get it."

After a long moment, Unown switched to Alphabet Form, and one specific Unown drifted to the forefront of the collective. Then another.

A-R-C-E-U-S.

"Thanks," Ash said, writing it down in careful capital letters.

"Well, this should be interesting!" Mr. Contesta said. "An entirely new Pokémon is going to be competing."

"Are you sure it's an entirely new Pokémon?" Joy asked.

"Well, I saw the form, and it's not a name I've seen before," Contesta replied. "I wonder which of these Coordinators is going to be using it?"

"Well," Mr. Sukizo said. "I know I'm just an old man and I get confused sometimes, but I think it's the girl who's going first. On account of how she's got a Pokémon I've never seen before next to her."

"Oh!" Contesta realized. "So she does."

He frowned. "You know, I have seen that Pokémon before somewhere…"

"Really?" Joy asked.

"In the audience, perhaps?" Sukizo suggested.

"That's it, yes," Contesta agreed.

May stepped out onto the stage itself, and nodded.

"Okay, here goes," she said. "And… Flamethrower up!"

Ash used Flamethrower, sweeping his head upwards as he did so that instead of a jet it formed more of an arc overhead.

Work with Latias hadn't been enough to teach him Mystical Fire, not on short notice, but it had given him a bit more controllability to his flames. That was enough that he could make them cooler but more persistent, hanging in the air after he'd stopped actually using the move, and May pointed left.

"Dragon Pulse left!" she said. "Then sweep down and right!"

Ash's jet of multi-coloured light splashed off the floor, sending up a cloud of sparkles from the poorly-used energy, and while that would have been a problem if it was a battle it was another one of those times when doing something worse in a battle actually helped out in a Contest.

He swept the beam back and forth three times before having to stop, discreetly trying not to gasp for breath, and stepped through the curtain of sparkling light.

"Now, fire overhead!" May told Ash, reminding him of the next part of the routine they'd worked out.

Ash was glad of the help.

Preparing for the Contest had been entirely different from how you battled, and Ash had done his best to get each of the individual bits right, but transitioning between them was something else to think about and it was good to not have to think about that.

He tossed his head, sending fire drifting into the air, and May pointed up. "Takeoff!"

Ash kicked off from the ground, pushing hard.

That combined with his Feather Badge to send him soaring into the air, right through the flames still hanging there, and the air currents he created simply by moving that fast sent curls of fire rippling all around him. That led to a slow somersault, demonstrating that he had the ability to just hang in the air and that this wasn't just a jump, and Ash pushed down a brief worry that something would fall out of his saddlebags – he wasn't wearing them – before using Flamethrower towards the ground and shooting a Dragon Pulse through it.

The dragonfire overrode the flames in the middle, and Ash cut out his flight – dropping to land with a wham on the ground in the middle of the purple-and-orange flames as they dispersed.

That was everything they'd planned, but he had a sudden idea, and reared up a bit before turning on his flying again… a bit.

It let him sort of hang in a reared-up position, which felt like a good finish.

"That went great," May whispered to him, as the crowd began applauding.

"This was a good idea," Pikachu said, quietly, as Ash skipped sideways out of the way of a Thunderbolt, then at May's suggestion fired a Dragon Pulse into the second one and made the attack explode in a cloud of glitter and sparks. "Don't you think?"

"Yeah," Latias agreed.

She was silent for a moment, hovering invisibly next to the end-row seat Pikachu was sharing with Totodile, then smiled. (Also invisibly.) "Yeah. He needed something like this, I think."

"He did?" Totodile asked. "Why?"

"Ssh, don't speak too loudly," Pikachu reminded his teammate. "And – it's the first time in a few days that Ash has seemed to actually relax."

He sniggered. "That is a lot like our trainer, admittedly. He can't relax unless he's in some kind of battle… but the whole, Arceus situation has been different."

"No argument here," Latias said.

Out on the field, the Raichu Ash was battling used Iron Tail – driving it into the floor, giving them a pivot point for a swinging-around Volt Tackle, which prompted Ash to kick off and avoid the attack.

Doing something as basic as that meant the points value wasn't much, but it was better than being hit, and May called for a Dragon Pulse with extra sparkles.

"He's normally so confident," Latias added. "I hadn't realized what was missing until just now, and – I think he's getting it back again."

She sighed. "I hope he's still better when this is over?"

"It's funny," Totodile said, remembering to talk more softly this time. "It's like we're the trainers, we're saying the kind of thing a trainer does."

"That's because what matters isn't being a trainer, it's friendship," Pikachu said. "I think. I think that's what matters… but it's a good guess, anyway. And I think that's most of what Ash does anyway, and look how we turned out."

Latias covered her muzzle to hide the giggles.

In the final, May and Ash went up against a trainer called Kelly and her Grumpig.

"Psychic!" Kelly called, as soon as the battle began, and Ash wobbled backwards as Grumpig's attack hit him.

"Ash, let yourself slide or you'll fall over!" May realized.

The warning was just what Ash needed, and he relaxed the grip his hooves had on the flooring. That let him sort of skid-scraaaape sideways, then he trotted a few steps to shed the rest of the energy, and May pointed.

"Flame rain!" she said.

Ash aimed a Flamethrower slightly up, so it would arc down at Grumpig instead of just hitting him, but the Psychic-type raised his trotters at his trainer's command and used Psychic again.

And froze the attack in mid-air.

"Weave it," Kelly said, prompting a gesture from Grumpig, and the captive Flamethrower coiled upwards before darting back down.

"Dodge!" May said, very quickly, and Ash dodged.

Very quickly.

The sheer speed of his movement disrupted the attack Grumpig had taken control of, just from the force of the wind Ash's ring created, and Ash's hooves drummed on the floor for a moment as he skidded to a halt again at the far end of the Contest hall – almost but not quite out of bounds – then turned in a complicated dance of footwork that months in his new form had let him master.

Mostly.

He didn't trip over this time, but he could have.

"Dragon Pulse," May prompted, and Ash inhaled before firing one out. It detonated early, making a kind of cone of sparkling fragments instead of a single jet, but that seemed to surprise Grumpig and the result seemed to be good for their points.

Then Grumpig used Iron Tail, Ash didn't dodge in time, and he reminded himself to focus on the Battle Round.

"Flamethrower!" May called, because her attention was on the points and they were closer than she'd like.

"Psychic, catch it!" Kelly responded. "Now, turn it back!"

"Dragon Pulse!" May said.

Ash launched out a Dragon Pulse, which hit his repurposed Flamethrower, but only some of it – Grumpig re-shaped the attack he'd taken into a wide mass, so the Dragon Pulse mostly didn't hit it, then brought it down to engulf Ash in flames.

"Ash, dodge out of it!" May prompted.

Ash didn't move, and May frowned – wondering suddenly if Ash had panicked, or frozen, or if she'd need to ask them to call Battle Off.

It would mean losing the Contest, sure, but – but she couldn't think about the bad consequences of that for her. Only for Ash, because Ash would be upset by losing like that and that bit did matter.

...the flames had changed colour.

They'd started out orange-red, a typical colour for a Flamethrower, but they were going paler and whiter and orange-gold.

Then the flames spread like wings, and Ash used Sky Attack.

This was very good for the points situation, but it also launched Grumpig out past the edge of the arena, so it sort of seemed to decide the finals right there.

AN:

Trainer-Pokemon relationships can get a bit intricate.