Chapter Text
Dawn was bored… Bored out of her mind. Who knew Professor Elm would have unexpectedly disappeared from his lab. She mentally kicked herself for not listening to Brock and Misty’s stories about the professor’s scatter-brained nature.
She couldn’t even practice her Coordinating, because Kiawe was hogging the practice battle field, and he was busy battling other trainers. Meanwhile, Clemont was busy working on an invention that had exploded in his face, again.
Suddenly, her Rotom Phone pinged, and she fished it out. Her blue eyes lit up when she saw a text from Ash.
Ash: Hey Dawn! Are you near a Pokémon Centre?
Dawn: Yep! I’m at New Bark Town. I’m so bored. Kiawe’s hogging the field, and Clemont’s working on one of his inventions.
Ash: Could you come over to the video phone in the Pokémon Centre? We can talk face-to-face.
She scrambled to her feet and headed to the video phones. Sure enough, she got the call from Ash and answered right away. Dawn waved cheerfully, “Hi Ash! How did the Unova Redemption Run go?”
He grinned back, “It went great! Drayden was the last person I had to face, and I beat him.”
“Awesome! Are you on your way back?”
“Will be leaving Unova tomorrow. Oh… I almost forgot, Iris and I bumped into an old friend.”
Ash turned away from the screen and gestured to someone off screen, “Come on! Dawn wants to say hi.”
A moment later, another figure stepped in front of the screen, next to Ash, and Dawn’s brain short-circuited. She stammered for a second, before it clicked, “Salvia! What are you doing in Unova!?”
Her doppelganger flushed lightly, “You see… I wanted to go on my own journey. Father abdicated from the throne recently, and decided that the country our family was ruling over, will no longer be a monarchy. That was when he gave me his blessing to go on my journey.”
Dawn smiled happily, “I’m so excited for you! How did you and Ash find each other?”
Ash cut in, “Turns out, she was being accosted by some creep. He was looking to have a ‘good time’ with her. Of course, I wasn’t going to stand for that, and rescued her.”
Dawn giggled, “Oh you shining knight, you.”
Salvia spoke, “L-Dawn? There’s something we needed to talk about. Remember when we did our little switch in Arrowroot Town? Turns out, father was a bit more observant, and later confronted me about it. I couldn’t lie to him and I confessed the ruse.”
Dawn gulped, “He wasn’t mad, was he?”
Salvia smiled reassuringly, “On the contrary. He found the whole thing hilarious, though he did give me a ticking off. Said that it reminded him of his favourite movie, directed by Cleavon Schpielbunk. He also said that before I was born, he and my mother were having trouble conceiving.”
Dawn was fascinated, “I see.”
Salvia continued, “We lived in Hammerlocke City, in Galar, and your mother Johanna was travelling there at the time. My parents met her and spoke to her, and she agreed to be a surrogate mother. The thing is, at the time, the kingdom needed an heir. Safe to say, she was not expecting twins. There was a bit of a fix, because mother and father did not want the twin heirs fighting for the throne when the time came. So Johanna offered to take one of the twins and raise her, herself.”
For the second time, Dawn’s brain short-circuited briefly. Then it hit her, “Wait… Are you saying that you and I are twin sisters!”
At Salvia’s nod, Dawn cheered, “Yes! I always wanted to have a sister! We should meet up!”
Then a wicked thought entered her mind, “Ash? Salvia? Are you guys up for a prank on our friends?”
Ash cottoned on, “Oh this is going to be fun. Tell you what… We’ll coordinate over text. I’ll share Salvia’s Rotom Phone number in a bit. Bye Dawn!”
They waved goodbye and cut the call. From there, Ash and Salvia trekked to the airport. Along the way, the two discussed the prank, while texting Dawn. Along the way, Salvia revealed that, she had her starter, Turtwig. Ash also had a good laugh when she told him about Professor Rowan mistaking her for Dawn.
Aside from Turtwig, she caught a Petilil and a Bellossom. Salvia wryly noted that her team was very Grass-Type based. After a few days, they finally reached Mistralton City, home of Skyla’s gym and air hangar.
In the airport, Ash studied Salvia’s attire and hummed. She was wearing a red frock that ended a few inches above her knees, a white scarf and a white beanie hat with a pink badge. She also wore dull pink boots and knee-length socks. Finally, he hair was done up in a similar style to Dawn’s but her hair clips were pink. He grinned and texted, “Hey Dawn, if you have an extra set of clothes just like yours, we could pull it off! How do we coordinate this though?”
Her reply came, “So I just spoke to Clemont and Kiawe about what’s the scene with Professor Elm. We were supposed to meet him, but he’s disappeared somewhere. Nurse Joy said it might take a while, so it’s better if we came back another day. We’re going to be leaving Johto in half an hour. Once we’re in Kanto, I’ll split off from those guys and meet up with you. Shall we meet outside the Viridian Forest?”
He nodded, “Sounds good to me. Okay, our flight is here, we got to go. Oh by the way, I hope you girls don’t mind Salvia being part of our little collective?”
Dawn grinned, “No need to worry.”
A few hours later, Ash and Salvia were walking through the Viridian Forest. It took a day or two, but they eventually stopped off at the Viridian City Pokémon Centre. Dawn was waiting for them, and she enveloped Salvia with a hug, and then kissed Ash. Then she grabbed her twin’s hand, “Excuse us, one sec. We’ll meet you in the practice battle field.”
Ash shrugged and walked off to the chosen destination. While he waited, he had Pikachu and Riolu spar with each other. Eventually, Ash heard twin footsteps, and saw the twins standing and grinning at him. Sure enough, Salvia and Dawn were dressed exactly alike.
Grinning at him, they asked in unison, “So Ash, can you tell us apart?”
He walked up to the two girls and frowned, observing them. Then, Ash pointed to the girl on the left, “You’re Dawn, and on the right, is Salvia.”
Almost as if they practiced it, the girls raised a single eyebrow. Ash decided to humour them and elaborated, “Okay, so Salvia’s eyes are a deeper shade of blue, Dawn is an inch taller, and finally, Salvia has a tiny beauty mark on her left eyelid.”
The two girls blinked at him with blank looks on their faces. Dawn suddenly whirled around to face her twin. She stared at her for a few seconds and burst out, “Wow! I hadn’t even noticed that!”
She walked over and hip-checked him, “So THAT’S the secret behind your strategy of improvising? You’re just ultra-observant and you look for advantages?”
He sheepishly rubbed the back of his head, “Yeah… Well… I can’t really explain it. Anyway, let’s go home. I want to see everyone’s reactions!”
The three of them then proceeded to leave Viridian City, with Ash’s arms around the twins’ shoulders.
After a few days, they finally reached Vermillion City and went straight to their house. It was already close to dinner, when Ash rang the doorbell.
Dawn and Salvia quickly hid, and a few moments later, Brock peeped his head out. He grinned, “Ash! Just in time, buddy! Mallow, Cilan and I are almost done cooking dinner. Hey, did you meet Dawn? She told us before she left, that she was picking you up.”
Dawn moved into frame, “I’m right here, Brock.”
He poked his head further out, “Hey Dawn- Wait… Who’s…? Why are there…? Is that who I think it is?”
Salvia waved sheepishly and he greeted her. Ash interrupted, “We’re playing a small prank on the others. There’s a lot of us at the table, so let’s see who notices first. 10 bucks on Chloe.”
Brock grinned, “My money’s on Misty. It’s going to be fun seeing everyone’s reaction to a doppelganger. Get in quick! Salvia, you can hide behind me. I’m pretty tall. Also, I’d suggest that you and Dawn sit separately for the plan to work.”
A while later, Mallow’s voice hollered from the kitchen, “Grub’s up! Get your butts over to the dining table.”
There was a stampede of footsteps, and all of their friends began trickling in from wherever they had been hanging out. Ash, Dawn and Salvia blended in smoothly as everyone rushed to grab a chair. Brock volunteered to serve everyone and they sat down to eat.
About 10 minutes in, Chloe turned to Dawn on her left, “Oh hey Dawn, did you find Ash?”
She nodded and Ash called out, “I’m right here, Chloe.”
She turned and waved to him, and then spotted Dawn calmly eating next to him. She bent her head back down to slurp at her noodles, and then her brain caught up to her. Chloe froze, looked to her left to see Dawn. Then she looked over at Ash on the opposite side of the table, to her right. Dawn was right next to him. Chloe’s gaze switched back and forth and there was visible confusion.
Suddenly she exclaimed, “Wait… Is my mind messing with me or are there TWO Dawns at the table?”
That got everyone’s attention and they all finally noticed. Max deadpanned, “Am I tripping or something?”
Ash couldn’t hold it in any longer and fell off his chair laughing. That set off Brock, as well as the two Dawns. Brock wiped his tears and explained, “Guys, it’s okay. It’s just a prank.”
Cilan piped up, “A Zorua? I mean we did meet one Zorua who could shapeshift into a human.”
Dawn spoke up, “Nah, nothing like that. Guys, I would like you all to meet former princess Salvia. Turns out – trust me, this came as a surprise for me too – but she’s not my doppelganger. She’s my twin sister.”
Multiple voices yelled, “YOUR TWIN SISTER!”
Serena squealed, “YOU’RE ROYALTY!?”
Salvia finally spoke up for the first time, “Actually, I’m the former princess. My father abdicated and my country is no longer a monarchy.”
She then launched into the explanation of how she and Dawn were related. When she was done, they were all floored. After that revelation, Brock decided to change the subject, “Hey Ash! So how did your Unova Redemption Run go? How’s Iris doing? Oh, and when is the Vertress Conference? We can go cheer her on”
That got Ash to happily chatter about his battles.