What If Ash was in Pokemon Horizons?

Ult-imate Training

Liko's group stop by Briar's classroom to pick of Pagogo. Briar hands the little Pokemon back into Liko's arms.

"Thank you again for letting me do some research on the little guy." Briar seemed grateful.

"Of course!" Liko exclaimed, "I'm happy to help!"

The girls laughed and begin discussing more about Pagogo. The more they chatted, Carmine's face began to morph into a jealous glare that Iris picked up on.

"Jealous, Carmine?" She asked smugly.

"What?! No way!" Carmine snapped back, "I'm Miss Briar's assistant! And no one can take that away!"

Dot suddenly entered the room, "Hey guys, how's it hanging?"

"Oh, hey Dot!" Ash exclaimed, "How's you training going?"

"Alright." Dot shurgged, "Battled some Pokemon, met up with Penny."

Gimmighoul sneaks up behind Carmine, the girl turned and their eyes met. In just seconds she was crawling around the room grabbing coins and giving them to Gimmighoul. Everyone simply stared at her in bafflement.

"Oh, Gimmighoul, stop it!" Dot scolded, "Let her go!"

Gimmighoul pouted, but releases Carmine from its control. Carmine suddenly came to her senses. "Hey! You had your Pokemon control me?!"

"What, no, Gimmighoul just does that-"

Carmine got up in Dot's face. "Well no one controls me and gets away with it! Courtyard, right now."

Carmine stormed out and everyone followed her outside, Dot finds herself at the end of a battlefield with Gimmighoul. Carmine and Sinistcha standing against her.

"Use Astonish!"

Dot panicked as Sinistcha rushed forward. "Quick, Gimmighoul, use Astonish too!"

Gimmighoul rushed towards its opponent, both Pokemon meet in the center of the battlefield and scream in each other's faces.

Everyone watches, dumbfounded. "Use Astonish again!" Carmine barked.

"Astonish too!"

The crowd watched as the girls commanded the move Astonish repeatedly. Ash chuckled, "Reminds me of one of my first Pokemon battles."

"What kinda battle would remind you of this?" Ann asked.

"Well, I had a Metapod, the person I was battling had a Metapod and we just used Harden!" Ash laughed. "Those were the days!"

Iris smiled and shook his head. "Such a kid..." Her Rotom Phone suddenly began to ring, Iris put it to her ear. "Hello? Oh hey Lacy! Oh, really? Uh-huh, I'll send him down."

Iris walked up to Ash, "So, Lacy's having some issues getting Ult to listen, and she wants you back in the Terrarium to help out."

"Got it!" Ash exclaimed, already heading for the elevator whilst Dot and Carmine eventually calls the battle off, Carmine having cooled off.

"Sorry for snapping at 'ya Dot."

"Hey, I get it, it sucks to be under Gimmighoul's control."

"Gotta say, I love the hairstyle, reminds me of my little bro..."

Ash found Lacy and Ult sitting over a small cliff with Ult's Dragonite and Lacy's Excadrill.

"Woah, hey Dragonite!" Ash waved in awe. Lacy's Excadril suddenly ran up and began playing with Pikachu. "And hi, random Excadril?"

Lacy giggled, "My Excadril wanted to meet you again!"

"Again?" Ash asked.

"Well, that Excadril belonged to my daddy, after all!" Lacy exclaimed.

Ash gasped. "So you're the same Excadril I battled?!"

The Excadril cheered in response as Ult perked up.

"Dragonite was a gift from my dad too." He muttered.

Ash noticed Ult's expression, "Still hung up about the Explorers, huh?"

Ult nodded, "And I didn't stand a chance against Lacy."

"Well, all we can do is work harder, get stronger." Ash sat beside him.

"if I may..." Lacy sat beside Ult as well, "What drives you to keep going?"

Ult thought for a moment. "I wanna get stronger, so I can protect my friends and fight for them. But, I haven't done that at all."

"Well, the fact you're trying to get stronger means you're already fighting for other people." Lacy smiled.

Ult perked up, "Really?"

"Of course!" Ash exclaimed.

The trainers stumble at the impact of lou stomps. They look up and see a mightly Alolan Exeggutor glaring down at them.

Ult stepped forward, "We got this!"

Dragonite took to the sky firing off moves at Ult's command. "Woah, Ult usually rushes things without thinking, but now he's taking his time." Ash observed.

Lacy smiled cheekily, "Yep! I thought him how to wait and observe."

The Exeggutor quickly faints. Dragonite scoops Ult into its arms. "We did it, buddy!" Ult hugged his Pokemon. Dragonite lowers Ult into the ground and returns back into the Dusk Ball.

"Huh?" Ult exclaimed in confusion, "But I thought we were getting along."

Ash patted him on the shoulder, "Looks like you've got a long way to go. I had to do the same when my Charizard first evolved."

A/N: Sorry this chapter is shorter and not as good as previous ones. Not a lot happened in the actual episode that I could adapt.