Take the Lombre Home (LAoPtS)

Plot
As Ash and his friends continue their journey back to Petalburg City, they realize that they’re out of water. However, Brock reveals there is a world-famous freshwater spring nearby. Meanwhile, Team Rocket are setting up another trap at the spring. They see Ash and the gang coming, so they hide and wait. Max and May are nervous about the dense forest, which is only made worse when a Zubat that flies out of a nearby bush, scaring the group. Then they're distracted by a Solrock floating nearby, and as they go to follow it they find themselves at the bottom of a hole. The Rocket trio emerge victorious from their hiding place and grab Pikachu out of the hole with a net. A Flamethrower suddenly knocks over Team Rocket, causing them to drop Pikachu back in the hole. It turns out to be the Solrock who decided to help. While Team Rocket is busy, Ash and the others manage to climb out of the hole. Ash discovers from his Pokédex that Solrock can read people's minds. James has Cacnea use Pin Missile on Solrock, but to no effect. Solrock angrily responds with a Solar Beam and sends Team Rocket blasting off. When the smoke clears, Solrock has disappeared.

With Team Rocket and Solrock gone, the group decides to continue on to the spring, only to discover that the spring is empty. May notices a village nearby, but as they get closer, they realize that the town is empty, and the river that runs through the town is gone too. Ash sends out Corphish because Water-type Pokémon can locate water if it is close. Brock has Lotad and Mudkip do the same. Skitty comes out of its Poké Ball wanting to help out too. Corphish immediately starts digging in the river bed, while the other three Pokémon take off in another direction. As Corphish continues digging, it only finds a large pot. Mudkip soon finds a well, but it appears dried up. Lotad hops up onto a bucket as if to say something, but it just loses its balance and falls into the well. Thankfully Brock manages to pull it back up without a problem. Suddenly Lotad begins to evolve and it becomes a Lombre.

An old woman runs up excited to see Lombre and explains that whenever hardship falls on their town, the "Great Water Lord" Lombre shows himself. The old woman is convinced that the Solrock and the bad luck it brings is to blame and calls out some other people from one of the houses. One of them is Mary, the old woman's granddaughter, whom Brock immediately falls in love with. Mary doesn't seem to share her grandmother's belief that it is the Solrock's fault, and brings the gang inside for some water. Mary explains that there is a water shortage because the source of their water, the spring that Ash and his friends found earlier, is no longer running. The spring is believed to be where the Great Lombre Water Lord lives. The villagers think the shortage has something to do with a meteorite they saw crash near the Great Lombre's shrine, and since then a Solrock has been wandering around the area. Since then no rain has fallen, all of which makes people think it is the Solrock's fault. Mary's disagrees and is convinced that there has to be an alternate and more scientific explanation.

Outside, the villagers have begun doing a rain dance in hopes of driving away what they believe to be an evil Solrock and end the drought. Ash defends Solrock by explaining that it saved his Pikachu. Mary continues by saying that the villagers should further investigate what might be stopping the water, but her grandmother believes that that would just anger the Water Lord. Tired of arguing, Mary's grandmother starts up the rain dance again. Lombre loves the dancing and joins in, which excites the villagers. Pikachu starts to get excited by it too, and soon some wild Pokémon start dancing as well. All of the enthusiasm is to no avail, though the villagers don't seem to mind. Mary, however, is incredibly frustrated with this since there doesn't seem to be any point in doing the dance if it doesn't work. Ash thinks that the villagers should keep dancing in the hopes that the Solrock will show up. Brock, however, points out that since Solrock can read minds, it probably won't go to a place where there are a bunch of people angry at it. Brock comes up with a solution, though, and has Lombre just dance on its own, that way Solrock wouldn't be scared away. Sure enough this works, as Solrock soon joins Lombre.

As the two Pokémon start having a conversation, Skitty suddenly comes out of its Poké Ball and runs off into the forest, with May quickly following. Mary joins the chase and soon Skitty goes into a cave, which thankfully Mary knows very well. Skitty is found quickly, as well a pump that has been pumping out all of the villagers' water. It turns out that Team Rocket is on the other side of the pump, filling water bottles in the hopes of making tons of money selling them. Wobbuffet pops out of his Poké Ball and spots Lombre and Solrock, so Team Rocket decides to try to steal the two Pokémon too. Meanwhile, Solrock has begun dancing with Lombre. Mary's grandmother believes that if Solrock is allowed to dance, the village will be cursed with even more sunlight, so she rounds up the villagers and they charge at Solrock. Solrock immobilizes them with Confusion, but Ash and Lombre convince Solrock to put the villagers down. Just as Mary, May, and Skitty make it back to start warning everyone about Team Rocket, the evil trio emerge from the ground with a new robot to steal Lombre and Solrock, but Brock has Lombre use Razor Leaf to cut through the capture net. Pikachu launches a Thunderbolt, but Team Rocket blasts a stream of water directly at him.

Team Rocket continues the stream of water and attempts to blast the villagers, but Solrock blocks the water with its body, and as Brock points out: Solrock should be weak against water since it's a Rock-type. The villagers are in amazement that Solrock saved them. Solrock is giving off so much heat as it spins that the water doesn't phase it, and it batters Team Rocket's robot. Pikachu tries another Thunderbolt and this time sends Team Rocket blasting off. Unfortunately, Solrock is giving off so much power that it can't control itself to the point where it turns into a floating fireball and starts heading straight for the village. To stop it, Lombre and Mudkip use Water Gun, and all the steam being given off by the two attacks creates clouds in the sky. Soon the rain clouds are thick and it begins to rain, with the spring quickly filling up again. Now that the villagers' lives are back to normal, they begin to give thanks to Lombre. Mary's grandmother then announces that Solrock is the new Sacred Guardian of their spring, so all the villagers remove their Lombre-style hats to reveal their new Solrock headbands. Mary is at least thankful that the villagers changed their minds about Solrock, and the group continues their journey to Petalburg City.

Major events

 * Brock's Lotad evolves into Lombre.