Battle stage.

Ashley stood on stage as opposite of her was the purple-haired girl. As Mirian introduced both of them, she gave the signal to battle immediately after.

"Go Wormadam!" the opponent said, as she sent out her Pokémon, the grass-type version of Wormadam, in a swirl of pink hearts.

"Let's have some fun, come out Sylveon!" Ashley too sent out her Pokémon with the usual confetti.

The timer started and Ashley didn't wait as she immediately called, "Sylveon, Shadow ball!"

Sylveon formed a Shadow ball, after which she covered her ribbon-like feelers with the dark energy coming from it.

The feeler seemed really omnious as Sylveon swiftly ran towards Wormadam, slamming her feelers against its body.

Ashley's opponent seemed shocked by the move, but immediately ordered her Wormadam to use energy ball and cancelled out the black energy on Sylveon's feelers.

"Sylveon, follow up with double team and then Dazzling gleam."

Sylveon multiplied as she surrounded the Wormadam, followed by a Dazzling gleam that left no room for escape for the Wormadam.

It was immediately engulfed by the light, causing an explosion of dust to rise up.

When the dust settled down, Wormadam lay fainted on the ground.

The crowd and the opponent were speechless as it hadn't even been a minute before Wormadam had been taken out.

Even the points on Ashley's counter had barely gone down, though not as much as one would think, the points taken off by the opponent were still around half.

Mirian seemed as surprised as the rest as she announced the results.

"And the winner is, Ashley with her Sylveon."

Ashley thanked Sylveon as they both got off the stage and went back to the dressing room. Inside they saw a lot of the remaining contestants, consisting of Dawn, Jessilina and Zoey.

When Ashley turned to look at the screen, she saw Ash previous battle against Zoey in replay. He was losing points real fast. He didn't seem to know that the battling was mostly about showing of his Pokémon.

The points he lost were getting more, until his Aipom fainted and he lost the match.

The following battle was of Zoey against Dawn, the battle was fierce, but Zoey managed to take the victory.

Ashley was up again, but this time against Jessilina. She and her Sylveon could see the conviction in each others eyes as they really wanted to win. Not because everything was pretty and all, but more for the winning and the fun of battling.

As she arrived on stage, she could see Jessilina stand on the other side, Pokéball ready with a big confident smile on her face.

When Mirian gave the sign, both Ashley and Jessilina called their Pokémon to battle.

"Now Carnivine, use bullet seed." As Jessilina called out, Carnivine immediately attacked.

"Sylveon use Moonblast."

Sylveon jumped in the air, charged up a powerful Moonblast and fired it at the incoming bullet seed.

The Moonblast collided, eventually winning and passing through it, leaving a dazzling glow of destroyed bullet seeds in the air, while the Moonblast hits Carnivine.

Jessilina didn't want to be outdone and made Carnivine bind Sylveon. Sylveon wasn't waiting for that and dodged. "Sylveon, Use misty terrain and finish with dazzling gleam."

Ashley called, seeing an opportunity. Sylveon understood her intentions as she jumped back, a pink mist enveloping the stage. Sylveon Then blasted off the Dazzling gleam, creating pathways of light through the mist an hits Carnivine.

Carnivine tried to dodge, but it seemed as if the beams of light had eyes as they followed its movements and still hit it.

Before Jessilina could think of another plan to salvage the situation, Carnivine had fainted, making the crowd cheer at the quite 'dazzling' display.

Jessilina didn't seem to agree with the result as she yelled in anguish, but Ashley didn't really care. The Carnivine had been taken good care of, but it seemed a little unacustomed to Jessilina's comands, so there was nothing she could do about it but bond a bit better with her Pokémon.

Ashley went back to the waiting room and gave Sylveon a nice brush before she had to compete in the finals.

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Ashley stood back on stage as she faced Zoey. She was prepared for a fine battle, not caring if she won or not. She discovered she didn't really care if the moves were pretty or not, she just wanted to feel the excitement of a fierce Pokémon battle.

Zoey too seemed to want to battle as she readied her stance. As soon as Mirian Said the words, they both called out their Pokémon for the last time during the contest.

Sylveon came out again in a swirl of confetti, her eyes focussed on the Glameow in front of her. Sylveon had watched the battles on the screen intently, coming up with a few counters she could use against this strong adversary.

Unlike with the other contestants, Ashley called out first, letting Sylveon use Misty terrain. The pink mist again covered the battlefield again. Sylveon followed it up with Safeguard as she managed to hide in the pinkish mist.

Glameow fervently looked around, Zoey called out for Glameow to focus on the sound, making Glameow close its eyes to focus.

Sylveon noticed the change and kept her distance as she powered up her swift. As Sylveon uleashed the swift, it began to circle around the Glameow.

Glameow finally paniced as its route of escape was being sealed.

"Glameow, the air!" Zoey yelled, giving Glameow a way out.

"No you don't, Sylveon use fury swipes."

Sylveon jumped in the air, as she started to unleash a dozen swipes with her claws.

Glameow countered with nighslash, but couldn't keep up. As a alternative, Glameow used the power of the fury swipes to lauch herself away from the attacks in front and below her, giving her more time to take a breather.

Sylveon however didn't want that to happen and grabbed Glameow with her feelers and threw her back into the air and fired off the finishing blow with a Moonblast.

Glameow was hit, but still managed to get up, but when Zoey was intending to call out another attack, the timer went of.

As everyone took a look at the screen, they could already see who the winner was. It wasn't a surprise as the battle had been completely one-sided.

Zoey had lost more than three quarters of her points, while Ashley a little short of a quarter.

Sylveon ran towards Ashley in joy as she saw they had won. They hadn't really paid attention on the appeal of the attacks and had focussed more on winning the battle. Ashley didn't really need to call out a lot, as Sylveon had let her know she had a plan. Ashley was glad to see that it had worked out.

Zoey came forward with a smile on her face as she admitted her sound defeat.

"It was really fun to battle with you, Zoey." Ashley said, a big happy smile on her face.

"Yeah, you completely beat my plan before I could even use it. But this was a nice experience." Zoey said as they shook hands.

The whole happening ended when Mr. Contesta handed her the ribbon and congratulated her on a wonderfull display.

Ashley thanked him and wished to be done with all the ceremonial stuff.

As she finally left, she was ambushed by a happy Ash and a slightly down Dawn.

They talked about the contest, while Dawn introduced her to Brock.

"This is Brock. He is another travel companion."

Before Dawn could continue, Brock stepped forward as he grabbed Ashley's hand.

"The names Brock, Pokémon breeder and cook. What do you say we cook something together and enjoy the starry skies with bright candle lig-Aaaargh!" Before Brock could continue, he was hit by a powerful poison jab in the back from a Croagunk and a powerful punch in the stomach by Ashley's Chimchar, who had gone outside of its Pokéball to protect Ashley.

The night ended very anti-climatic as Brock was dragged away as Ashley joined Ash and Dawn towards the Pokémon centre to rest for the day.