What If Ash was in Pokemon Horizons?

Bread Bread Bread! Mini Nidothing!!

Ash, Liko, Roy and Ult watch Nidothing's current stream. Liko beams as Nidothing does her usual antics. Meanwhile, Dot notices within her costume that Tinkaton got a wire tangled in her leg. "Hey, hey, hey! I'll be right back! Just gotta take care of something."

Nidothing wanders off camera to help out Tinkaton as Ditto sneaks into the room and transforms into a miniature Nidothing and continues dancing with Quaquaval and Gholdengo. Not too long into the dance, Ditto knocks over the camera and ends the stream before Dot could return. "Looks like Ditto pulled another prank," Roy sighed, "It's been doing that a lot."

Ult nodded, "Like when it pretended to be a glass of water when I was totally thirsty."

"Or when it pranked Orla by being a bolt, or pranking Murdock by being whisk, or being medicine to trick Mollie." Ash recalled, "Ditto's a real trickster," he chuckled.

Dot dejectedly exits her room, "Thanks to Ditto, today's stream will totally be a black spot in Nidothing's history." she groaned.

"No way!" Liko exclaimed, her eyes still glued to screen. "People love Mini Nidothing!"

Liko showed her friends the screen of her Rotom Phone, Dot leaned in to see various positive comments about Mini Nidothing just before the stream ended. Ditto entered the room and transforms into Mini Nidothing, having overheard the trainers talking about it. "Y'know, he kinda looks like a squishy piece of bread." Ult remarked.

"Did someone say bread?" Murdock suddenly entered the room.

Roy raised his eyebrow, "Do you just burst in whenever we mention food?"

"No," Murdock chuckled, "It just reminded me of the Bread Festival Dot told me about. The bakery hosting it went viral for baking loafs of bread shaped like Nidothing."

"Oh yeah," Dot recalled, "I did tell you about that story."

"Anyway, Nidothing should make an appearance! Mini Nidothing too!" Murdock suggested, "I know you didn't want too since there'd be lot of people and I know you don't like large crowds-"

"Uncle Murdock!" Dot exclaimed in embarrassment.

"RIght! Sorry," Murdock said sheepishly, "Ditto being there could calm you down. Plus, Nidothing fans would love an IRL livestream!"

Dot placed her hand on her chin, "Hm, why not? But, we need to practive asap. C'mon Ditto."

Liko gasped as Dot and Ditto headed out to the wing deck. "Nidothing and Mini Nidothing together?!"

"Meow..." Meowscarada groaned.

The other trainers join Dot and Ditto outside to watch over their rehearsal, Ditto follow's Dot choreography perfectly, but notices Ult and Sableye doing their own dance. Ash squeezes Pikachu too tightly whilst holding him which causes Pikachu to reflexively use Thunderbolt, catching Ash by surprsing and charring the World Monarch. Meowscarada covers Liko's eyes with her flower bombs to avoid her trainer from fangirling too hard. The combined antics causes Ditto to laugh and the Mini Nidothing transformation comes undone in an instant.

The trainers arrive at the Bread Festival, hiding Ditto away in Ash's backpack. Dot dresses in her Nidothing costume as they enter the bakery to meet with the manager. "Ah, Nidothing and her crew!" The bakery's manager exclaimed, "It's a pleasure to have you, especially you Mr. World Monarch! I'm Tongs, I'll be baking the Nidothing bread and hosting the Nidothing appearance today. Say, where's Mini Nidothing?"

Dot hesitated, anxiety filling her veins, "Uh, the little guy's gonne be here later!" she exclaimed in Nidothing tone.

"Alrighty!" Tongs replied, "Show's at three-o-clock, you're free to go."

Dot finds a changing room and changes out of her costume in order to explore the festival with her friends without being recognized by Nidothing fans. The trainers are fascinated by the variosu treats on display, the trainers wait in line for some Sandaconda chocolate cornetto. The vendors run out before the trainers can get some so they decide to explore the festival further. As they leave, Ditto notices a young boy crying since he had been looking forward to getting a  Sandaconda chocolate cornetto. Ditto feels sympathy for the boy and sneaks out of Ash's backpack and transforms into the treat. The vendor hands Ditto off to the boy, much to his delight at getting his favorite treat.

The trainers sit at a table after exploring every inch of the festival, they munch on the baked goods as Dot notices some Nidothing fans nearby. "Hey guys, I think I'm gonna head back to Tongs and do some more rehearsing. I'll take Ditto and meet you guys there at three."

"Alright, Dot." Ash opened his backpack, only to find Ditto missing, "Wait, where'd Ditto go? We told him to stay inside."

The trainers jump into action and begin retracing their steps throughout the whole festival. Liko eventually checks the time and sees that its 2:15. "Dot, we're running out of time." Liko informed her, "Just head back to Tongs, we'll bring Ditto to you before the show!"

Dot nodded, trusting her friends, "Alright, just try to get Ditto before the show starts." she said before running off.

The trainers suddenly hear a scream and run over to the source of the noise and finds a woman holding a baking tray with a pizza looking like a Voltorb. The woman paled upon seeing Ash, "You're the World Monarch..."

"Yeah, I am." Ash replied, "Is everything okay, ma'am?"

"Well my oven broke and I needed to bake my Voltorb pizza," the woman explained, "I saw a smaller oven nearby to use, but as soon as I placed the Voltorb pizza inside the oven transformed into a Ditto and ran off."

"That's our Ditto!" Roy exclaimed, "Did you see where it went?"

The woman thought for a moment before she shook her head, "No, I'm sorry. Everything happened so fast I didn't see where it went."

"Well now we know Ditto's just transforming into random stuff," Ult remarked, "We just gotta expose it somehow."

Ash rubbed his chin in thought before snapping his fingers, "I think I know how to do that! Ditto's transformed back to normal during rehearsal when it laughed. So we just gotta make Ditto laugh again and we'll find it!"

The trainers spread out and recreate their antics from the earlier rehearsal, a pair of trash tongs suddenly transforms back into Ditto and Meowscarada grabs it with her flower-bud. The trainers rush back to Tong's bakery by three-o-clock to find Nidothing and her Pokemon preforming to a large crowd whilst avoiding questions about the whereabouts of Mini Nidothing.

Ditto transforms into Mini Nidothing and sneaks onto the stage, causing the crowd to go wild. Liko watches the joyful expression on Nidothing's face and recalls the woman's explanation of Ditto becoming an oven for her. "Y'know, I don't think Ditto's transforming was ever a prank." she admitted, "I think it was just trying to help people and make them happy."

"Yeah, I think you're right." Ash replied, "Like how Ditto helped out Meowscarada when we first met it!"

"Meow!" Meowscarada agreed.

"Pika!" Pikachu added on.

The Rising Volt Tacklers sit together in the dining room of the Brave Olivine that evening to chow down on Nidothing bread Tongs had gifted them. Liko anxiously stares at her loaf, "Liko, something wrong?" Roy asked.

"I just, I can't eat it!" Liko exclaimed, "It's too cute to eat!"

Ash chuckled, "Reminds me when my friend and I entered the Pokemon Grand Eating Contest and it's Champion Emperor Blaziken didn't wanna eat the Torchic manjū in the final round."

"I'll eat if you can't," Ult inched closer after chomping down on his loaf.

"No way!" Liko pulled her loaf further away from Ult and towards Meowscarada, allowing her Pokemon to munch on the bread, "Hey, Meowscarada! That's not for you!"