Ash headed upstairs, sat on his bed, and sighed.
Part of the sigh was because of how nice his lunch had been. Mom was always good at making anything taste nice, even a really simple lunch, and Ash had particularly enjoyed today's meal.
But a lot more of the sigh was because of his room, which was kind of a mess, and Mom had said he'd have to tidy it up today.
And really, it was a lot to ask a seven year old, to tidy their room. Moms didn't always understand that if he started tidying his room early on then he'd end up with a tidy room, and then he'd get it messy again within an hour or two, and then Mom would be mad he hadn't tidied his room even when he actually had.
But if he waited, then he'd know any fun he was having was just giving him more tidying to do.
It kind of sucked.
Ash sighed again, then opened his wardrobe.
There was a night sky on the other side of it.
Ash closed his wardrobe.
Then he peered around the back, just in case, but the wall didn't seem to have moved and anyway it was just after lunch, not night-time.
Ash opened his wardrobe again, and looked at the night sky.
There was a sort of gold ring around the edge, and Ash looked closely before reaching a hand through.
It sort of tingled for a moment, but it didn't seem to be a painting. And Ash should have started feeling his clothes by now.
He leaned further forward, then slipped and fell right through into his wardrobe, which was a lot bigger than it had been. He fell several feet, just starting to yelp in surprise, and landed with a thump on something big and warm.
"Mrfle?" it asked, as Ash rolled off onto the sand.
"Oh, oops!" said a young voice that sounded very amused.
"Hey, who's that?" Ash asked, picking himself up and brushing some sand off his clothes. "And, uh, sorry I landed on you."
"You didn't land on Hoopa, silly!" the voice said, and a Pokémon zipped in to hover in front of Ash – sort of short, vaguely humanoid, and with a golden ring dangling from one horn. "Hoopa brought you here, and Hoopa brought Solgaleo here, but Hoopa mixed up how high your portal was! But it was funny!"
"Oh, so you're Hoopa?" Ash asked. "And this is Solgaleo?"
He turned to get a proper look. Solgaleo was a lot bigger than Hoopa, even lying down, and rumbled something at Ash before giving him a dignified nod.
"Hoopa is not!" the smaller Pokémon pouted.
"You mean you're not called Hoopa?" Ash checked, now a bit confused.
"No, Hoopa is Hoopa, but Hoopa is not clumsy!" Hoopa said.
"Oh, right, Solgaleo said it to you," Ash realized. "Wait, does that mean you could translate what he says for me?"
Hoopa touched their fingers together. "Hoopa means, Hoopa could, but Pokémon like him always say the same things anyway. 'Hoopa, who is this?' 'Hoopa, don't you have anything better to do?' 'Hoopa, just why?'"
Solgaleo snorted, but it didn't try and refute the statement.
"So why are we here, anyway?" Ash asked.
"Hoopa is bored," Hoopa declared. "Hoopa is not allowed to leave here. Hoopa's portals can go, but Hoopa can't go through them."
The Pokémon slumped, and Ash winced.
He… had to admit, he kind of sympathized. He couldn't wait for when he could have a Pokémon of his own and go on a Pokémon journey, but while being ten years old seemed like an unfathomably large distance away it was at least something that would arrive eventually.
For Hoopa to be just stuck here, unable to leave…
Solgaleo rumbled something, and Ash glanced sideways.
He was pretty sure that the big Pokémon felt sympathetic as well.
"It's kind of rude to not ask us," Ash said. "But I guess it'd be okay to play with you for a bit?"
"Great!" Hoopa announced brightly, all their previous worries gone. "Then Hoopa thinks we should start with a race! First to the top of that cliff wins!"
Hoopa floated off, and Ash looked at the cliff.
"I… don't really think I can climb that," he admitted, looking at Solgaleo. "Can you give me a lift?"
Solgaleo regarded him for a long moment, then crouched down so Ash could get on.
"Thanks!" Ash said. "I'll do my best to hold on, um, whoaaa-!"
The big Pokémon's paws dug into the sand, and threw it up in wild rooster-tails as they set off – charging towards the cliff at amazing speed.