Can a Pokemon be bred with an ability other than its own?

Question

Okay, so I got a Mareanie from the GTS with the ability Limber. Everything was fine, until I learned that Mareanie has an exclusive ability: Merciless. My Toxapex would be perfect with that ability, considering the moveset I had planned for it. I'm pretty sure that in X/Y a Pokemon would be bred and have it's second ability, and then bred again to get it's hidden ability. (I never did breeding for certain abilities, so I'm not sure.) I wanted to know if I could still get Merciless from breeding my Toxapex with a Ditto, even though it has its second ability already.

Comments

Keep in mind that, for Pokemon with multiple normal Abilities, you can use an item called Ability Capsule to cause the Pokemon to switch to it's other normal Ability.  So if/when you breed your "perfect" Mareanie and it comes up with the wrong Ability, you can use an Ability Capsule to swap it for Merciless.

Answer 1

Yes, you can get a secondary ability by breeding. If you breed a female with a male of the same species, or a Ditto, there is a higher chance of the offspring having the same ability as the mother. So keep hatching, and eventually you'll get a Merciless Mareanie.

Keep in mind that Hidden Abilities cannot be obtained by breeding regularly. At least one of the parents must already have the Hidden Ability, preferably the female.