"Ready, Eevee?" Cynthia asked.
"Ready!" her Eevee confirmed, nodding.
"Ready, Koraidon?" Ash checked.
"...yeah, overall," Koraidon said, a bit more nervously. "I know this was my idea but I'm regretting it a bit now…"
"You'll be okay, Koraidon," Latias reassured her. "But if you want to change your mind, go ahead."
"None of us are going to think less of you for it," Ash agreed.
"I might," Buneary said.
"None of us except Buneary are going to think less of you for it," Pikachu said. "Really, Buneary?"
"Well…" Buneary wavered, then shook his head. "No, I won't think less of Koraidon for it either. It sounded funnier in my head and I don't think it's worth trying to keep up the joke at this point."
"I guess a joke is an okay reason to say that," Koraidon decided. "Go ahead, Eevee!"
Eevee used Ice Beam, and Koraidon did her very best to ignore the attack.
Then shivered, and turned pleading eyes on Ash. "Can I warm up now?"
"I'll do it," Latias said, using Mystical Fire, and the Dragon-type made a contented noise as her temperature went up again.
"I'm really able to get an idea of just how Cynthia is such a famous trainer, now," she said. "Because she's trained her Pokémon to just completely ignore that kind of thing, and now that I've tried it it's a lot harder than it sounds. And it doesn't sound easy."
Ash translated that, and Cynthia nodded in reply.
"Yes – it's a difficult thing to learn," she agreed. "But because it's so difficult, it's something that people aren't expecting, and that gives it some of the impact it has."
There was a fzznt over where Dawn was training, and everyone glanced over to see what was going on.
Chimchar was waving his hand and blowing on it, and Pachirisu uncurled from using Rollout.
"Sorry!" she said, her cheeks sparking faintly. "I lost track!"
"That was an accident, right, Pachirisu?" Dawn asked.
Pachirisu nodded, looking embarrassed, and Dawn sat down.
"It's all right," she said. "I think it's time for a break, anyway."
"Should we have a break?" Koraidon asked.
"That depends," Ash answered, thinking. "Do you want to keep trying to resist ice?"
Koraidon looked thoughtful, then nodded.
"Yeah," she said. "I don't think I'm going to end up as good as Cynthia's Pokémon, but I can get better than I am now – and that's good, right?"
"I think so," Ash agreed. "Just let me know if you want to stop, though."
Koraidon nodded again, seriously, and Eevee waved her tail.
Then sneezed.
"Oops, it wore off again," she said. "Buneary, can you recharge my Mimic?"
"Sure!" the Normal-type agreed, Bouncing off Ash's back. This time he made it almost all the way to Eevee after two somersaults, and Koraidon sat on her haunches for a moment to applaud.
Zorua applauded too.
"Boing," he said.
"Here you go, guys," Dawn smiled, putting down some poffins – one for Chimchar, one for Pachirisu, and one for Riolu because he'd been acting as a spotter. "Sneasel, do you want to eat now, or train now and eat later?"
Sneasel sent herself out, and struck a pose. "I'd rather train!"
"Got it," Dawn said, with a nod. "In that case – let's work with Grotle on X-Scissor, okay? If you can cut one of his Seed Bombs and have it explode behind you consistently, that's a really neat combination for later – as well as a good move in your toolkit for now."
"It's one Piplup would appreciate, especially, to help keep him safe from Grass-types," Pachirisu said, glancing at Chimchar, then went to pick up her poffin.
There was a Gabite reaching down to grab it, and Pachirisu gasped. "Hey!"
"Hey!" Riolu agreed, stepping forwards to deflect Gabite's talon, then stood with his paws ready. "That's not fair!"
"What's going on?" a female trainer asked. "Why are you causing trouble for my Gabite?"
"Why are – she tried to steal my food!" Pachirisu protested. "Thanks, Riolu!"
"I didn't see a label on it," Gabite sniffed.
"Why would you put a label on food?" Chimchar asked. "Especially if you're about to eat it, that would just spoil the taste."
"I didn't see what happened, but I don't think any of my Pokémon would cause trouble," Dawn said, coming right back over again. "And nor would Riolu, given where he's from."
"Oh, it's you," the trainer said. "I recognize you from the Wallace Cup. I deserved that spot in the finals – and I'd have won."
All the Pokémon present except Gabite looked confused.
"...no?" Sneasel said, slowly. "That's… how tournaments work."
"Sneasel, can you get Ash or Lucario?" Dawn asked. "I think we're going to need translation to get to the bottom of what happened."
"You don't trust me?" Chimchar asked, sounding unsure if he should be hurt as Sneasel darted off.
"If you're saying what I think you're saying… I trust you, Chimchar, but this isn't whether I trust someone," Dawn explained. "If we both believe that our Pokémon didn't start it, we're just at an impasse where nothing gets decided."
"Sorry to bother you, Ash, Cynthia," Dawn said, as they arrived. "I wanted to make sure we could get the story from both Pokémon."
"Did you say Cynthia?" the other girl asked. "You can't mean- that actually is Cynthia, I did not expect that in the least."
"Why not?" Riolu asked, curious.
"Why wouldn't you?" Ash translated.
"Well, I saw Dawn at the Wallace Cup, but she didn't have anyone important with her," the girl replied.
"You're Ursula, aren't you?" Cynthia asked, looking at Gabite, then looked from the Dragon-type to Pachirisu and Riolu. "That's quite a nice Gabite you've got there, but it looks like she got in an argument with Dawn's Pokémon."
"That's why I asked you over," Sneasel clarified.
"So… what happened?" Ash asked, deciding that as one of the two translators he should probably try moving the conversation along.
Pachirisu, Gabite, Ursula and Riolu all began answering at once, as did Piplup, though Chimchar immediately pointed out that he hadn't actually been involved.
"Yeah, I can see where you went wrong there," Pikachu said, sniggering.
"All right, I get the point," Ash replied. "Hey!"
Everyone stopped, fortunately before it turned into an argument, and Ash thought before pointing. "Okay, uh… one at a time? Gabite first?"
"I saw some food and I wanted to eat it," Gabite shrugged. "I'm not sure why there's so much fuss about this."
"So Gabite saw some food and wanted to eat it," Ash translated.
He frowned, trying to think about what actually mattered here.
"What kind of food?" he asked.
He could see there were poffins around, but he didn't want to make assumptions.
"One of those," Gabite answered, pointing.
"Those are the poffins that Dawn makes," Ash said. "So, uh… actually I don't think we need what anyone else is going to say?"
"That sounds unfair," Ursula muttered. "You're not even letting me speak."
"I agree with Ash," Cynthia told her, making sure she was clear about it. "Between what Ash has translated and what I can follow of the conversation without translation, it's quite clear that your Gabite has tried to take food that Dawn made for her own Pokémon."
She frowned, and it was quite intimidating. Ash had been travelling with Cynthia for months, now, and while she was a really good trainer it was sometimes a bit hard to remember that she scared Gym Leaders almost effortlessly.
It wasn't hard now.
"That's a big problem," she told Ursula, distinctly. "Do you know why?"
Ursula looked like she wanted to object, but swallowed whatever she was going to say first.
"I don't, no," she replied. "What's the big problem? It's just a poffin, I can replace it with one of mine if it matters that much."
"It's not about the poffin," Cynthia said. "It's about making sure that your Gabite, who will probably be a Garchomp at some point, understands how to behave properly… and I suspect that she gets her attitude, at least in part, from you. Most bad Pokémon result from bad trainers."
"I'm not a bad trainer!" Ursula replied, stung. "I qualified for the Wallace Cup, and I'd have won it if I didn't have a bad matchup in the opening round!"
"That's not what I mean by being a bad trainer," Cynthia told her. "And I would hate to see your Gabite led astray."
"Why does her opinion matter, anyway…" Gabite muttered. "I don't get it."
Cynthia's Garchomp came out of her Pokéball.
"Honestly curious, does this help explain?" she asked.
Ursula's Gabite looked up.
"...yes," she replied, in a considerably less argumentative manner. "I now fully understand why your trainer's opinion matters."
She shook herself. "I didn't know Garchomp could have Intimidate…"
"I don't," Garchomp replied.
"Could have fooled me…"
"Do you mind if I say something?" Ash asked, most of his focus on Ursula. "Because, I was thinking about it and… I don't know if this will help, but it's something I want to say."
"I don't think I can stop you," Ursula replied, which wasn't a go-ahead but was close enough to be going on with.
"Right," Ash said. "Because what I was thinking was… you have Gabite, and you want them to do better. You want to win Contests because that's something that's… a way of demonstrating that, I guess? But if you have a Pokémon that you're responsible for, and that you want to help, part of that is making sure they understand when you're not supposed to do something."
He waved a hoof. "And it's not just about the poffin, not really, it's about… how she reacts, and how you react, when something goes wrong. People don't have to be perfect, but I think – there's a difference between trying to act like something isn't a big deal and trying to find a way to make sure it doesn't happen again."
"Really," Ursula asked, sounding dubious. "And you've done that?"
"I don't think so," Ash replied. "I don't know. I had a lot of trouble with a disobedient Pokémon in the past, that was my Charizard, but that was different to yours. I don't have anything I can say is the same as the way things are with Gabite."
He looked at Dawn and Cynthia, then back at Ursula. "I don't know if I'm saying this properly. I'm probably not. But I guess… if there's a problem like that, I feel like the quicker you get to fixing it, the better it's fixed. And Gabite could just not know it's a problem, and she'd change if she did… or she could try and insist that it isn't a problem and resist changing."
Then he sighed. "I guess… if Koraidon behaved that way, I like to think I'd make sure she changed, and talk it through with her. But that's not an option for you, and I don't know if I really would. I know what the right thing to do is, when it's someone else, but maybe I wouldn't recognize that if it were me."
"Maybe this will help," Garchomp said, head tilting slightly, and she flicked her tail from side to side. "Gabite. If you do that sort of thing, then sooner or later you might do it to a Pokémon who can beat you up. What do you think would happen then?"
"I wouldn't do that," Gabite protested.
"Really?" Garchomp asked. "Why?"
She smiled.
It had a lot of teeth.
"Because there's only two ways I can see. One of them is that you don't do it at all… in which case, great. But I don't think that's the one you mean, not honestly. The second is that what you're saying is… you only do that sort of thing to Pokémon who you think can't fight back properly. And I don't like bullies."
"I'm not-" Gabite began, then stopped, looking contemplative.
Lucario began relaying the conversation back, so the humans knew what the two Dragon-types were saying.
"It's a difficult label to think about, isn't it?" Garchomp asked. "Personally I think it's a sign of weakness, anyway. Bullying means you're afraid of losing, and picking fights means you're afraid of asking for a proper battle."
"And you have a great opportunity here to help Gabite," Cynthia added, once Lucario had caught them up. "By herself, Gabite might forget to behave. That's nothing unusual, because habits are hard to break. But you can help her by bringing her up gently when it happens… and if you can make it stick, that's a great display of a mutual rapport. It can only help you when you come to battle or do Contests."
Ursula frowned, thinking, then shook her head.
"I'll believe it when I see it," she said. "And I'm not going to keep talking about it."
She waved a hand. "Come on, Gabite – we're leaving."
"Do you think she actually listened?" Latias asked, that evening.
"I don't know," Ash admitted. "Maybe she did… but if she didn't, we can't really force her, I guess."
He sighed. "And if she's not sure, being too insistent might make her insist on not listening, because of pride. It's really hard to know."
"That's humans for you," Pikachu said. "And Pokémon, too, but still. Humans."
"Thanks," Ash groaned. "And, yeah, before you say it, my mom is human and I grew up as one. So…"
He shrugged. "Anyway, I guess… she's going to be one of Dawn's opponents at the Contest, so we might see then."
"Do you think I might have ended up behaving badly, dad?" Koraidon asked, clearly voicing a thought she'd been having for some time.
"I don't know," Ash admitted. "I don't think so, but… maybe. Maybe if I'd done things wrong, or… it's hard to know."
He looked up at her. "But you didn't, and… I'm really glad about that, Koraidon."
Koraidon made a pleased noise, and lay down.
"Thanks, dad," she said. "For… being you, I guess."
AN:
Another one on the list of "Cynthia encounters a Pokémon in one of the lines she trains".
This one's… less unambiguously positive.