Dawn's Quilava (Japanese: ヒカリのマグマラシHikari's Magmarashi) was the first Pokémon that Dawn obtained as an Egg, and her seventh overall in the Sinnohregion.
In An Egg Scramble!, Dawn battled Lyra in the Johto Festival and defeated her. As a prize, Dawn was given an Egg, which was soon taken by Team Rocket. While it was in Team Rocket's possession, it showed signs of hatching. When Dawn finally got it back, it hatched right in front of her eyes, revealing it to be a Cyndaquil.
In Gone With the Windworks!, Cyndaquil met Dawn's Piplup. Cyndaquil, due to its shyness, ignored Piplup. This annoyed the Penguin Pokémon, which only grew worse when everyone praised Cyndaquil after its first official battle. The two then fought for the rest of the episode, forming a rivalry between them.
InDressed for Jess Success!, Cyndaquil showed its interest in Pokémon Contests after watching Dawn practice with her Mamoswine by trying to mimic it with the flames on its back. It was shocked and upset when Dawn told it that it could not compete in the Lilypad Contest with her.
In Last Call — First Round!, Cyndaquil was used in the Performance Stage of the Sinnoh Grand Festival along with Buneary. Their performance started with Buneary using Ice Beam to create a large frozen path resembling a roller coaster. Cyndaquil proceeded with Flame Wheel, rolling over the path and melting a trench for Buneary to slide on. After that, Buneary charged an Ice Beam and Cyndaquil used Smokescreen in order to cloak themselves above a large frozen spike. When the smoke was blown away, Buneary was seen inside a Poké Ball made of ice with Cyndaquil standing on top, impressing the Contest Judges and securing Dawn a place among the Coordinators advancing to the Contest Battles.
In DPS01, Cyndaquil was used in a Double Battle alongside Piplup against Johanna's Glameow and Umbreon, but when Piplup and Cyndaquil unleashed their Whirlpool-Flame Wheel combination, the battle was stopped due to them fighting. Cyndaquil then helped Dawn rescue a Piplup and a Chimchar that had escaped from Professor Rowan's lab from a group of Ariados. It became injured when it took a Poison Sting meant for Shinko. It was able to overcome its injury by evolving into Quilava and was able to defeat the leader of the group, a Shiny Ariados, with its newly learned move, Eruption.
In Goodbye, Junior Cup - Hello Adventure!, Quilava was used to battle Ash's Pikachu. It first hit Pikachu with Swift before dodging his Quick Attack and stopping Electro Ball with its newly learned Flamethrower. Quilava then covered the field in Smokescreen before stopping Pikachu's Iron Tail and landing a direct hit with Flamethrower. After their Flame Wheel and Quick Attack clashed in midair, Cynthia stopped the match, with Jervis declaring it a draw.
Cyndaquil's rivalry with PiplupCyndaquil copying Mamoswine's Contest move
As a Cyndaquil, it developed a strong bond with Dawn from the moment it hatched from its Egg. Prior to entering its first Pokémon Contest, it grew interested in watching Dawn train her other Pokémon, often showing Dawn its own variations of the moves that she was practicing with them, and sulked when it was not chosen to compete.
Dawn's Piplup appears to be jealous over the attention that it gets, though this may be attributed to the fact that Cyndaquil wasn't very responsive to Piplup at first. Piplup often attacks it and it in turn fights back, causing frequent squabbles between the two. They seem to be trying to compete for superiority over the other. These fights have stopped ever since Cyndaquil evolved.
It has a tendency to flare up its back when it's happy or when it's showing affection, and Dawn usually ends up getting burned in the process.
Description: A combination of Flame Wheel and Flamethrower. Cyndaquil uses Flame Wheel while Monferno pushes the spinning Cyndaquil forward with Flamethrower. This creates more red-orange flames and increases Cyndaquil's momentum as it uses Flame Wheel, dealing notable damage. This was used in Ash and Dawn's Tag Battle against Khoury and Lyra.
Description: A combination which was created by Mamoswine and Cyndaquil when they were training with Dawn. It involves Cyndaquil being trapped by Mamoswine's Ice Shard while utilizing Flame Wheel. It was perfected in the battle against Ursula in Playing the Performance Encore!. Dawn calls it "Flame Ice".
Description: Mamoswine uses the Swallowing Ice Shard Technique to create the Ice Armor. Cyndaquil then uses Swift in a circle around Mamoswine. Then Cyndaquil makes the flame on its back split into two. Mamoswine then uses Take Down while Cyndaquil is on the top part of the Ice Armor.
Description: Buneary uses Ice Beam on the field to create a giant sculpture of slides. Cyndaquil then uses Flame Wheel on the ice path, allowing Buneary to follow Cyndaquil by sliding down.
Description: Cyndaquil developed this while training with Dawn in Twinleaf Town. Cyndaquil would perform it by firing a ring of Swift into the air, then jumping into the center and charging Flame Wheel, causing the two moves to mix.
Description: Piplup jumps on top of Cyndaquil and forms Bubble Beam into a circle and Cyndaquil uses Swift in the middle of the circle. It is unknown what Dawn was going to do with this, as Johanna destroyed it with her Glameow and Umbreon in a matter of seconds.
Description: Piplup would surround Cyndaquil's Flame Wheel with a Whirlpool, which created the effect of a sphere of water with flames inside. Dawn attempted to use this during her second battle against her mother, however the combination failed throwing both Piplup and Cyndaquil to the ground.
Trivia
Quilava is the only Pokémon:
Belonging to a main character that evolved and learned a new move in a special episode.
Belonging to a main character whose Evolution episode was never dubbed.
