The Twinleaf Festival is drawing to a close in Dawn's hometown, with the younger twerps stuffing their face with candy while Mum (Johanna) and Mum (Brock) telling them to watch just how much sweet junk food they're eating. As Ash beams happily and stupidly that you don't get to go to a festival every day, he runs face first into an equally stupid young man who snaps that he will fine him.... yes, it's Barry! And the two idiots are about to go on a....

Barry is in town for the Twinleaf Festival, and Ash belatedly remembers this is Barry's hometown as well. It turns out that Johanna and Barry's father are friends from a long way back (ahahahaha..... ahahahahahahahaha).... but Barry doesn't know who she is and Dawn has to explain Johanna is her mother! Barry promptly forgets all about her as he hauls Ash into the latter half of a conversation they never had and says it is time for their battle. Ash - who has trouble enough following regular conversations - doesn't know what the fuck until Barry explains (kinda) that he is most interested in the Battle Event that takes part at the end of the Festival. He demands a battle with Ash right now and tells Dawn to come along and referee before both rush off headfirst into stupidity leaving a confused Dawn behind. Johanna, who has no problem with sending her daughter off with a couple of young adolescent boys, tells her to go and pick up some pointers as she assumes that Dawn will be taking part in the Battle Event herself. Just then, Mr. Sayer arrives to warn of yet another problem for the festival... apparently his voice has completely changed!
Oh yeah, and a booth person has gotten sick!
Brock offers to fill in since his friends have abandoned him and maybe looking like a pathetic doormat will make Johanna want to sleep with him! Sayer and his disturbing new voice thanks him with a slap on the back, which is the closest that Brock is going to get to "hitting that" today.
Meanwhile, Ash and Pikachu are fighting Barry and Heracross, which easily takes a Quick Attack from Pikachu, then flips Pikachu back with a Horn Toss. Barry insists that he is a gazillion times better than Ash will ever be in a gazillion years.... then freaks out at the sky while Dawn asks the question we've all been asking ourselves.... what the hell is wrong with him.
Barry has spotted a Xatu flying above them in the air, and freaks right the fuck out and takes off, leaving the battle behind. Ash and Dawn follow him trying to get the delightfully retarded, overly excitable kid to explain what the hell is going on. He leads them on and brings them to....... a circus!?!

Barry apparently saw it once before and thought it was a dream (he's a strange boy, Barry), and Dawn says it can't be part of the festival and is too far out in the forest.... but what the hell is it!?! Barry explains that he came out here once before when he was VERY young but they wouldn't let him enter. Apparently, being 10 years old or thereabouts is considered a-okay though, as a creepy fat clown comes bursting out and offers them the chance to enter a place that connects the past, present and future!
And then shit gets weird!

White light shines over them and when it clears, Ash is lying passed out in the forest.
Oh, it's THAT kind of circus!
Ash looks around for Dawn and Barry and then hears a booming noise and turns to see a giant Nidoking and Nidoqueen stomping by.... and then more and more huge Pokémon pass by.... has Ash shrunk? Or has the world gotten huge? He's chased by three Mightyena and falls down a little hole, then spots a running Natu which interests him for some reason.
Meanwhile, Dawn is in a rocky area by a large lake (or small pond, perhaps) being freaked out by big Pokémon. She also spots a Natu, then decides to call out her Pokémon to help her find Piplup.... but the Pokeballs won't open!
Meanwhile, Barry is having the time of his life because he's too stupid to know any better. He spots Natu as well and realises for the first time that Heracross isn't around.
Meanwhile, Brock is running the "Hit the Camerupt" Booth, helped out by Sudowoodo and Happiny's enthusiasm and.... Croagunk's complete indifference.

It turns to look over at the opposite stall, where Team Rocket are running the Goldeen Scoop game. People pay to get a small scoop net and try and scoop up a Goldeen, which they then get to keep. Unfortunately for all the people so far, the nets keep breaking, causing them to wonder if they're being gypped.
A rigged game... at a carnival stall!?! What is the world coming to!!?!
Jesse and Meowth are furious when it is suggesting they might be ripping the customers off, and while James tries to be diplomatic, Meowth scowls that if he wanted to be called a cheat he... would call himself.... a cheat.
Well, I suppose that's true.
Just then, a dramatically tall and skinny young heartthrob appears and asks for a chance to scoop some Goldeen. James is instantly all eyes on Mr. Slim and Pretty, telling Jesse and Meowth to watch his stance and the way he moves and holds his..... scoop. He believes this may be the infamous... Goldeen Scoop Master!
Well, everyone's gotta be something, I guess.
Meanwhile, Barry is running through the tall grass (well it isn't that tall, really... I mean, comparatively yes but if we're talking about.... ahhh forget it) looking for Heracross. He finds a familiar tree where he once caught Heracross by putting honey on the bark, only now it is HUGE and there is a big jar of honey nearby. He brushes it on and.... things get weird!

The bad kind of porno starts this way.
Barry has figured out FINALLY that he shrunk, and roars that somebody is going to get fined like they've never been fined before... and then spots the Natu again.
Ash is walking through a stormy night when he steps on a Spearow's tail and gets chased by it, only for it to be zapped to fuck by Pikachu... a big Pikachu! Bigachu! Spearow wakes back up and is joined by more, and Pikachu tosses Ash onto his back and gets running as the rain comes down and the lightning forks across the sky.

If you haven't figured out what is going on yet, Gentle Dodgers, then.... well, I don't know what to say.
Ash is thrown from Pikachu's back when it skids to a stop, and it uses Iron Tail to smack the Spearows away and then blast the others with Thunderbolt before picking Ash back up and taking off at a run as the rain stops, the clouds part and the sun shines once again.
Dawn meanwhile is moving along when she is attacked and webbed up by several Ariados rapists. Piplup bubblebeams them away and knocks her clear..... and gets to live out its greatest dream and fantasy at last.

While Dawn and her now equal-sized Piplup continue to be attacked by Ariados, Brock's stall is a giant failure, while across the stall from him Goldeen Scoop Master has been successfully scooping Goldeen after Goldeen. But James is sure that he can have sex... I mean, outscoop him based on his childhood experiences in the family mansion fountain. He proclaims that he is better than Goldeen Scoop Master, who takes it as a challenge - which it was! They will scoop against each other and the winner will get to keep ALL the Goldeen, but a single tear in the net will forfeit the match!

These festivals sure are exciting!
Jesse covers up her breasts after the cold wind of competitiveness whistles by her nipples, while Izzy and Cara eat their food and are completely useless.
Meanwhile, Ash is too stupid to be overly concerned at his situation and is riding happily on Pikachu's back when he spots Natu, remembers that it is the pre-evolved form of Xatu and decides to follow it. Meanwhile, Dawn is riding on Piplup's head in a reversal of their normal situation (and another part of Piplup's filthy fantasy) when she too spots the Natu and decides to follow it.
As they follow the apparently two different Natu, James and Goldeen Scoop Master are going at top speed scooping Goldeen after Goldeen out of the water tank, moving so fast barely anyone can follow. Finally they get down to one Goldeen each and the Scoop Master goes for it before James and.... tears the scoop in his net! James dramatically scoops it up and puts it in his tank, and Scoop Master drops to his knees before James (HEY HEY!) and admits defeat - his Goldeen are James'!
The crowd surrounds James in excitement, the kids asking for forgiveness for calling them cheats earlier and saying they want to train to be just like him one day!
Well, better practise that knee-drop movement Scoop Master was just doing!
Piplup and Dawn follow the Natu and run into Pikachu and Ash, Heracross and Barry, all of them running into each other with no sign of the Natu. As Barry shouts he is going to fine them, the Pokémon say hello to each other and they spot the Natu again. It looks up, they follow its gaze and see the circus tent again, but then it fades from view and Natu has been replaced by.... Camerupt!
It grunts at them but doesn't move towards them at all so they.... have their Pokémon attack it viciously. It seems unaffected by the attacks though, and Barry finally realises that Dawn is a girl.

Well okay not quite that, in fact he has just remembered that they need to attack Camerupt from the side. He and Heracross run around to its side as it continues to stand there NOT ATTACKING THEM OR MAKING ANY THREATENING GESTURES!
Barry has Heracross attack one of the "bullseyes" on the side of Camerupt, making one of the volcanoes on its back explode. Piplup does a move next and causes the second volcano to erupt, then Pikachu attacks and causes both to erupt, and then Natu walks in and glows white as if it was about to evolve, causing everything to return to normal and Xatu to fly over their heads.
What the fucking Christing fucking shit?
Barry tries to run after Xatu and runs straight into... his father! Palmer, a hippy-Cloud looking man who takes them back toward the Festival while explaining that the Xatu can see into the past and the future and showed them their past once again, as they all experienced their first major emotional encounter with their original Pokémon once again (hilariously, Ash's sudden flashback shows him looking cross-eyed in the rain). Inside the Festival, Sayer is delighted with Team Rocket's performance at their booth today, and tells them that if they do as good a job at the Octillery Snack Stand tomorrow, they've got it made. Team Rocket are delighted, while Brock is miserable and bored at his dreadful Hit The Camerupt booth.
Speaking of which, Dawn suddenly has a thought.... how did Barry know to attack the Camerupt's "bullseyes" (especially since they could have just gone around it) and Barry's reply is suitably Barry.... he hasn't got a clue!