Piplup's Choice

*One day...*

The gang arrived in Sandalstraw Town. Dawn wanted to train for the Pokemon Contest right away. She released her other five Pokemon; Ambipom, Cherrim, Clefairy, Chatot and Drifloon. Ash decided to enter this contest too and he sent out Snover, Zangoose, Prinplup, Luxio and Roselia.

"Okay everyone it's training day for the Pokemon contest." Dawn said. "And I'm going for my fifth ribbon."

As Ash had three ribbons, this would be his fourth ribbon. Just then Piplup started to feel giddy and fell over.

"Piplup are you okay?" Dawn asked.

Piplup pointed out he was okay, but Dawn wasn't sure about that.

Suddenly somebody ran into Ash; it was Barry. He had come to Sandalstraw Town and so had Kenny.

"I take it you two are here to enter the Sandalstraw Contest too Ash, Dawn?" Kenny asked.

"Of course." Dawn replied.

"Oh, so you know these guys Kenny?" Barry asked.

"I already knew Dawn and met Ash, Brock and Tomo in Floaroma Town." Kenny explained.

"I met Kenny some time ago and I'm in Sandalstraw Town for a Pokemon ping pong tournament." Barry explained the reason for his presence.

Pokemon ping pong was a sport where Pokemon and people play ping pong together in a group.

"That sounds fun." Ash said.

Barry released his Empoleon to show that they were ready for the tournament.

Suddenly Piplup started to glow. This meant Piplup was close to evolving. But then Piplup started to use Bide and the glowing stopped and then he collapsed from exhaustion.

"Oh no Piplup, what's wrong?" Dawn asked, holding Piplup in her arms.

"We need to take Piplup to Nurse Joy right away." Brock said.

It wasn't long before Piplup was being treated by Nurse Joy.

"Is Piplup going to be okay?" Dawn asked, worried.

"No need to worry Dawn." Nurse Joy said. "Piplup will be just fine. It just needs plenty of rest now."

Dawn was relieved to hear that.

While Piplup was recovering, the gang had dinner in the cafeteria.

"I was surprised and excited when Piplup was close to evolving." Dawn said.

"It's going to feel different in regards to training, battles and contests when Piplup evolves into Prinplup and then Empoleon." Barry and Kenny told Dawn.

"I'm sure you remember what my Prinplup and Grotle were like when they evolved from Piplup and Turtwig." Ash reminded her.

"Hey no need to worry." Dawn said. "I went through that with Swinub when it evolved into Piloswine and then Mamoswine." Dawn said.

"Uh even though he was disobedient when he evolved?" Tomo teased her.

"Hey that's over now thank you Tomo." Dawn said, a bit miffed.

The others giggled. Brock was thinking though; he wondered why Piplup used Bide to prevent himself from evolving.

*That night...*

Piplup had recovered and he couldn't get back to sleep. He was imagining himself as a Prinplup while looking at his reflection in a window. But he didn't want that; he wanted to stay a Piplup. Just then Dawn came in with some food for Piplup.

"Hey Piplup." Dawn said. "I'm sorry I didn't notice you were going to evolve. But isn't it great? Soon you will become a Prinplup and that's awesome."

Piplup chirped out loud trying to tell Dawn that he didn't want to evolve, but Dawn didn't understand.

"No need to worry Piplup." Dawn said. "It's natural to be scared, but I'm going to be right here when you do evolve."

Again Piplup tried to tell Dawn that he didn't want to evolve, but she still didn't understand.

"Calm down Piplup, you still need to rest from your exhaustion." Dawn said.

Suddenly Piplup started to glow again.

"Oh that glow again." Dawn said. "This time let your evolution take place okay Piplup?"

But Piplup used Bide again to stop the evolution.

"Piplup, why do you use Bide to stop the evolution?" Dawn asked.

She tried to tell Piplup all the wonderful things he could do as a Prinplup, but Piplup got angry. He was angry Dawn didn't understand his feelings. Piplup opened the window, jumped out of it and ran off.

"Piplup, come back!" Dawn shouted.

She ran after him immediately.

*Meanwhile...*

Barry was pushing Ash, Brock, Tomo and Kenny into practicing Pokemon ping pong. Kenny, Brock and Tomo had no desire to enter the tournament like Ash did. Barry insisted on them practicing anyway. Just then Dawn came up to them.

"Piplup's missing." She told the others.

She told them what happened.

"I get it now." Brock said. "Piplup must not want to evolve. That's probably why it used Bide to stop it from happening."

Dawn didn't understand why Piplup was acting like this, but she wanted to find Piplup quickly. So everyone split up to search for Piplup. Ash looked from the air in his dragon form and his Prinplup was on his back, Dawn went on her own, Tomo went with Growlithe and Brock, and Kenny went with his Prinplup, Barry and Empoleon.

Dawn went to look for Piplup through a grove of trees, when she suddenly came to a small waterfall. Piplup was sitting on a rock under the waterfall. He was still preventing himself from evolving into Prinplup. Suddenly he collapsed into the stream from exhaustion. Dawn quickly ran over to him.

"Piplup are you okay?" She asked. "You used Bide to keep yourself from evolving didn't you? Why do you keep doing that? You do want to evolve, don't you?"

Dawn still didn't understand Piplup's feelings regarding evolving and that made him angry. He jumped out of Dawn's arms and chirped loudly.

"Why are you so mad Piplup?" She asked.

Piplup angrily blew Bubble Beam at her and then ran away. Dawn pursued Piplup.

Suddenly there was a loud chirping noise; it was Piplup and he was in trouble. He was stuck in a big spider web. Dawn ran over to help Piplup right away, but she was stopped by Sludge Bomb. It was a wild Ariados. Piplup attacked it with Bubble Beam, giving Dawn a chance to try and help Piplup. But then the Ariados attacked with Sludge Bomb again. Dawn quickly dodged the attack, but the sludge hit the web and poor Piplup went flying.

"Piplup I'm coming!" Dawn shouted.

She caught him in her arms just in time. But then more wild Ariados appeared and they got ready to use Hyper Beam. At that moment Piplup bravely jumped out of Dawn's arms and got ready to use Bide. This reminded Dawn of what happened with some Ariados when she and Piplup first met. Piplup released Bide and the Ariados were sent flying.

"Oh thank you Piplup, you saved me." Dawn said, giving him a hug.

Just then Ash landed with Prinplup on his back.

"There you are." Ash said. "I saw Bide from the air."

"We were attacked by some Ariados, but Piplup saved me." Dawn said.

Piplup started to chirp loudly again.

"What is wrong now Piplup?" Dawn asked.

Ash stared at Piplup.

"You must not want to evolve, huh?" He asked Piplup. "You'd prefer to remain a Piplup."

Piplup chirped yes again and then chirped some words to him.

"What's Piplup saying Ash?" Dawn asked.

"He's saying he doesn't want to evolve because he's done so much with you as Piplup and wants to continue doing things with you as Piplup. Right?" Piplup chirped yes.

Dawn finally understood Piplup's feelings and immediately apologized for not understanding.

Piplup started to glow but used Bide to stop it once again.

"Oh no." Dawn said. She didn't like seeing Piplup exhaust himself.

"I know what can help." Ash said as he returned to human form. "An Everstone."

"A Everstone?" Dawn asked.

"You give a Everstone to a Pokemon to stop them from evolving." He explained. "This way Piplup won't use Bide to stop himself from evolving."

Dawn understood.

"Let's go back to the Pokemon Center." Ash said. "Piplup needs to recover some more and I'm sure Nurse Joy has an Everstone we can use for Piplup."

Dawn agreed and picked Piplup up.

It wasn't long before everyone got back to the Pokemon Center; Ash and Dawn met the others on the way back to the Pokemon Center and told them about Piplup's decision. Piplup fully recovered from exhaustion and Nurse Joy gave an Everstone to Dawn.

"Now Piplup won't need to use Bide to prevent himself from evolving anymore. Thank goodness." Ash said.

Suddenly his Prinplup began to glow.

"Prinplup, are you?" He asked.

Before he could say anything else, his Prinplup evolved into an Empoleon.

"Wow, look at that." Barry said. "Instead of seeing Dawn's Piplup evolve, we saw your Prinplup evolve Ash."

Ash was happy having an Empoleon and Empoleon was happy to have evolved too.

So now with the problem regarding Piplup's evolution resolved Ash, Dawn and Kenny could practice for the Sandalstraw Contest and Barry could train for the Pokemon ping pong tournament.