Old Scars, New Chances

by Arcticbrony


Chapter 9

The clinic had been quiet when Jenny and Zoey came in with the injured Swablu, but that quickly changed when Ethan took control of the situation.

“I need some bandages!” Mary ran around the clinic to get Ethan what he needed; she was the veterinarian but Ethan obviously had more experience with Pokémon. She happily observed and took the chance to learn all that she could though.

“Where did you say that you found her?” Ethan asked, as he bandaged the side of the Swablu. He had applied some ointment that Mary had to lessen the bruising before bandaging. He would give a lot for a couple of Potions but he would have to make due with what they had.

“Just around the back,” Jenny answered. She knew that Ethan had some medical training, but it was strange for her to experience how he took control of the situation once they came in. Even she did not hesitate when he asked her to do something. “It seemed like she had crawled quite the distance based on her wounds.” What she said was true, the bruising and scraping was worse on the underside.

“...How is she?” Chii asked with a sad voice. She had been watching quietly with Zoey since they came in. She had always liked to play with Swablus and it saddened her greatly to see it hurt. “Is she going to be okay?” Chii asked as she looked up to Zoey with teary eyes.

“Of course she is going to be alright, Ethan is taking care of her.” Zoey reassured Chii with a kind smile. She knew that the Swablu was in good hands, as she had seen Ethan handle all kinds of Pokémon with all sorts of injuries. “Right?” She asked as she looked back up to Ethan–he had been quiet other than when he had asked them to bring him something.

“I believe she is going to be fine, yes,” He told them. “The worst part is her wings… They are going to need some time to regrow…” It was not something another Pokémon would do either, no, the cutting marks on her wings showed some shabby work. If they were in the old world, this was something he would pin on humans… but they weren't, they were in Equestria now. There were still former humans around, of course, but Arceus had said that he had only taken those worthy and good… which left the ponies. It was a possibility that he did not want to consider but it was the one that made the most sense, and he was pretty sure that Jenny would agree with him.

“They are able to regrow the tuft on its wings?” Mary asked curiously. A lot of birds were capable of regrowing some parts of their feathers, but usually not their primaries.

“Oh yeah, it may take a while depending on its condition but it will be fine in the end,” Ethan told her. “Is that not normal here?”

“Well… not for every creature. Some maybe, but not all… How about limbs, would they grow back too?” Mary inquired.

“On some Pokémon maybe… but most would not, not without outside medical help of course,” he was going to continue but was interrupted as Chii jumped up onto him and climbed up to her perch on top of his head.

“She is waking up!” She cheered happily, seeing as the Swablu had begun moving slightly.

Everyone and everypony in the room kept their eyes locked on the Swablu as she stirred. A pained whimper came as she tried to move, so instead she slowly opened her eyes to see the gathering of Pokémon and Mary in the room.

“Hello there, little one,” Ethan was the first to speak up, he had moved over to the bench where she was laying and had knelt down to be on her height. “How are you feeling?” He asked, seeing the Swablu eye everyone carefully.

“It… it hurts,” she said with a quiet voice. Her wings kept twitching as she tried to move them. “W-who are you?” She asked as she looked up to Ethan.

“I’m Ethan, this is Zoey, Mary, Officer Jenny, and Chii.” Ethan introduced them all while pointing a hand at the Pokémon or pony in question. “You are in a safe place, so don’t worry.”

“Yeah, we are going to help you,” Chii said as she jumped down to the Swablu’s side. She made her squeak in surprise by the sudden move, but visibly calmed down as Chii carefully nuzzled against her.

“What happened to you?” Officer Jenny asked as she stepped forward, she had also noticed the looks the Swablu kept sending Mary Care.

“I…” She shivered for a moment. “I'm not entirely sure. I was knocked out… and when I woke up… my wings were like this,” She sniffed and tears appeared in her eyes. Her sadness only made Chii nuzzle her again in an attempt to comfort her. “There were some weird Ponytas there when I woke up…”

“Ponies,” Jenny muttered under her breath.

“I heard them talking about how much money they were going to get by selling us…” Tears were dripping down onto the towel she was laying on. “There were other Pokémon there too… Chained up or in cages. Why would they do something like that?” She cried. She was openly sobbing at that point.

“It’s alright… you're safe now,” Ethan told her has he gently put a hand on her back. He and Chii stayed close to her as they let her get her feelings out.

“What did she say?” Mary asked Jenny, She had been watching the whole time but seeing as she only heard one part of the conversation she was a bit left out.

“It seems that some ponies did it to her,” Jenny said with a sigh, making Mary gasp in return. Jenny wanted to ask how she managed to escape or more importantly, where she escaped from. But she held herself back for now, pushing the poor little thing in the state that she was in would not help anyone. “Luckily she managed to escape… but she said that there were more like her.”

“T-that’s horrible,” Mare Care exclaimed as she looked over to the Swablu. “That some ponies would do something that horrible…” she had seen a lot of cases of animal abuse, working as a veterinarian. But to think that some ponies could do something like that to another intelligent being was a completely different matter. She wanted to believe in the good that existed in Ponies… but she knew that not everypony was like that.

“There will always be pe-ponies that will do anything for self benefit,” Jenny said to her. “Scum like them needs to be locked away.” She could feel the passion of her profession return back to her. She lived for catching and apprehending criminals, now she would hopefully have the opportunity to do that once more.

“I agree,” Ethan chipped in. He had left the Swablu’s side, letting her get a moment to herself. “Both of us want to see these ponies caught…” He held out a paw towards Officer Jenny. “So, truce for now?”

Jenny looked at the outstretched paw and back up to Ethan. She already had her answer, but this could be a good situation for her to see Ethan in action and get to know him better, he did not need to know anything at that moment. “Truce!” She agreed as she lifted her paw to meet his and shook on it.

“Good, I’m glad we see eye to eye about this.” Ethan said with a broad smile. “Now we only need to ask her about where she was taken…” Ethan glanced over to the Swablu again. “Do you want to question her?” He asked Jenny. She was the one that had found her after all, so maybe the Swablu would open up a little easier to her.

“...Very well,” Jenny nodded and slowly walked over to the patient in question. She was usually brash and maybe a little threatening, but that did not mean that she had to be. She had experience in talking with witnesses after all, and a lot of times that required her to be a little more sensitive. “Hello there, little one,” she said kindly as she sat down next to the Swablu. “Are you feeling a little better?”

“Mmhh,” The Swably answered with a nod.

“That’s good, now, do you think you can tell us about how you escaped?” Jenny asked. If they were going to attempt to catch those ponies and free the other Pokémon too, then they would need all the information they could get.

“I… o-okay,” She nodded. “I woke up like this as I said. There were a lot of other Pokémon in the room with me too, all of them in cages or chained up… I was lying in a cage, I don't think the two weird Ponytas had seen me yet or knew that I was awake. They were too preoccupied with what they were doing…” She stopped for a moment, seemingly holding back more tears.

“And what were they doing?” Jenny asked in a calm tone.

“They… they were clipping the wings of a Taillow… I could hear how he screamed in pain, begging them to stop, but they simply ignored him,” she was shaking again. “There was a Seedot in the cage beside me… he said that he would get me out, that I should run to get help,” her tears started running down her small cheeks. “He started glowing very brightly and… he used Explosion.” She took a pause to gather herself, Jenny wiping her tears away for her. “He was close so it hurt a lot… but it also got the cage open. The whole room was filled with dust from the blast. I knew that I should have stayed and tried to help more of them, but I was so scared so I tried to run, but my legs hurt too much so I dragged myself out of there.” Chii had hopped up again and nuzzled herself close to the Swablu, wrapping her tail around her.

“It’s alright…” Jenny told her. “You did the best thing you could have done, you sought out help.” She offered her a comforting smile. “We will save the rest of them.”

“T-thank you.” the Swablu cried.

“Did you have to travel far before you found us?” She had to ask. It had to be some distance away, if they did not hear the explosion.

“Y-yes…” She nodded. “I don't know how far… I just wanted to get away, I'm sorry.” she hung her little head.

“Do you think you could explain to us how to get there?” Jenny knew that it was a longshot at best, but she had to ask.

“N-no, I just wanted to get away, so I did not pay much attention… I'm so sorry.” she apologized again.

“No, it’s alright… we will save the others, don't you worry,” Jenny gave her one last kind smile before turning walking back over to where Ethan, Mary and Zoey stood.

“So we are in the blind?” Ethan asked her, having overheard the conversation.

“...Yes, it appear so,” Officer Jenny answered. “Still… if she dragged herself most of the way, then I should be able to track it easily enough back to where she came from.”

“B-but, should we not report this to the police?” Mary asked.

“Yes, you should,” Jenny answered. “And give them all the information, but in the meantime, me and Ethan will go after them. At this point, every second counts.” There could be other injured Pokémon after all, from the Explosion or otherwise. Or the Ponies could have decided that they should run or relocate because of the incident. No, they had to get there as fast as possible.

“What about me?” Zoey chipped in as she stepped up to the group. “I should go with you to help too!” Ethan shook his head.

“No, you should stay here. You need to watch over Chii and the Swablu.” Ethan told her. Zoey could not do any serious battling because of her past anyway, she had gone too long without proper treatment so a lot of permanent damage remained. She would be fine if she took it easy; she was lucky to get out of the battle she had with the Whiscash without an incident.

Zoey wanted to protest, but she knew that he was right.

“J-just be careful,” she told them.

“I have Officer Jenny here to watch over me, so I will be fine.” Ethan said with a grin, making Jenny snort.

“We will be fine, now let’s go!” She made her way out to door with Ethan and Mary in follow. “The tracks are just behind the trees here,” Jenny said as she gestured to the treeline. “Make the cops follow the trail and hopefully they will meet up with us.” She told Mary Care.

“Right!” She nodded and ran off into the town to get more help.

“Are you sure that you will be able to track them down?” Ethan asked as the two of them made their way through the brush to where they had found the Swablu.

“I found you, did I not?” Officer Jenny retorted. “Compared to that, this should be a cakewalk with such an easy trail to follow.”

“I'll take your word for it,” Ethan answered as he followed after Jenny. He had never been much of a tracker himself, no, Vernus was the one that did that for him. “…So what is the plan once we get there?” He had to ask, he had a good idea of what he wanted to do, but he knew that Officer Jenny liked being in control so it would be better to ask her.

“We can't rush into things, that much is a given. Especially with how little firepower we currently have,” as far as she knew, Ethan knew no moved and she could only use Ember. “Best case scenario, we get the drop on them and are able to take them out before they know what hit them. They may also be damaged from the Explosion depending on how close they were…” Ethan agreed with her, it was a sound plan. He had always relied more on stealth and surprise attacks than pure strength when he and Vernus worked in the past. Why give your opponent a chance to fight back at all?

He looked intently at Jenny as they made their way through the forest. She had not mentioned anything about earlier. When she first left the clinic she had seemed slightly hostile, and angry. But that feeling was gone now, something had changed.

Ethans mind went back to when he first arrived in Equestria, to the two first ponies he had come across. He remembered one of them mentioning that he could be worth something because of his exotic look…

Most of the travel went in silence, neither Jenny or Ethan too eager to speak up. They were obviously uncomfortable with each other. But they still had a mission to do, and they would do just that.

After some time, Jenny slowed down and Ethan did the same, following her lead. She had heard something up ahead of them, that and she could spot something in the distance through cover of the trees.

“Something up ahead,” she whispered to Ethan.

“Yeah… I can hear some voices,” he told her. “Two by the sound of it.” His large ears were not just for show after all, even though they were extremely fabulous.

“Let’s try to sneak up and get a closer look then,” Officer Jenny responded. She took the lead again, moving slowly to avoid making any unnecessary sound that would alert them to their presence. They moved slowly around to the side of where Ethan heard the sound coming from instead of advancing straight on. The reason Jenny had for doing this was because there were more trees and better cover for them there.

“Ah told you, stop picking on it!” They could hear someone say, the voiced were a lot clearer now that they had closed in on them. There were two ponies that sat in front of what looked like some kind of run down house, though it was missing part of its wall thanks to the Explosion. Ethan recognized the pegasus from one of the first ones he had met. But the unicorn was not familiar to him nor Officer Jenny.

“But it still hurts… We better get a lot of bits from those stupid creatures,” the pegasus was poking on a bandage that covered his leg. “That fucker… to think that such a small thing could blow up like that!” It seemed like at least one of them had gotten injured in the Explosion the Seedot made.

“That only makes it more valuable,” the unicorn said with a disgusting grin. “Luckily it is in no condition to pull a stunt like that again.” He let out a laugh that made Ethan want to knock him senseless. It infuriated him to no end that he was actually taking pleasure in seeing those Pokémon hurt.

“I guess…” The pegasus let out a sigh and stood up, wincing once he put weight on his bandaged leg. “Are you sure that I don't need to see a doctor about this? It really hurts!”

“It’s just a flesh wound, you will be fine. Besides, we don't need to draw any kind of unnecessary attention to ourselves. You might be able to explain away how you got that injury there, but I don’t want to take that risk.” The unicorn huffed as he trotted away from his comrade and back into the house.

Jenny acted before Ethan had a chance to protest, or even stop her. She rushed out from their hiding spot and towards the injured pegasus who were looking towards the house, and therefore away from Jenny.

She put her weight into it and tackled the pegasus down. Unfortunately, it seemed like the had forgotten how small and light a Vulpix really is so it really did not have much effect on him, she only managed to trip him because she took him by surprise. She felt her inner fire grow stronger as it did when she used her fire moves, but the pegasus reacted before she had a chance to use Ember on him.

“What the?” He yelled as he reared back and kicked her off effortlessly with his hind legs. Jenny had lots of experience with taking down criminals, but never with such a light body, her surprise attack had failed. “Hey, SHADY! We got visitors!” The pegasus yelled out as he got back up and was about to advance on Jenny who were laying on the ground. But the first thing he saw when he got back up was a furry leg that was moving in high speeds towards his face.

Ethan had jumped out after Jenny after he saw her getting kicked off. He had hesitated to follow her immediately because of the initial surprise by her attack and since he had honestly thought that she could manage it. He knew he had acted too late, the pegasus had already called out to his comrade, but that would not stop him from taking him out.

Ethan knew that one of the main features of a Lopunny was its long and powerful legs. So Ethan used these powerful legs of his and he leapt towards the pegasus, using the momentum from his jump to deliver a bone shattering kick straight into his jaw. Ethan winced slightly as the pegasus was sent sliding away on the grass unconscious from his attack, at least that meant that they had one less problem to deal with for the moment.

“Are you alright?” Ethan asked as he went over and helped Officer Jenny back up.

“Y-yeah, I’m fine,” she answered. The kick had not been as strong due to the position he had been in when he executed it, so it had only pushed her off instead of leaving any damage. She was more than a little embarrassed that she had to get help, from Ethan nonetheless. She was not some kind of damsel in need of rescuing, so she just huffed and turned away from him. “We should be fine if his friend did not-”

“What the hell is going on out there?” Jenny and Ethan heard a voice yell from inside the house before the door slammed back open to reveal the unicorn from before.

“-Hear us…” Jenny lowered her head and cursed silently about their bad luck, their situation just turned really bad.

Ethan tensed up as he looked at the unicorn. Mary had explained unicorn magic slightly, but he was still not sure on what its limits were. From what he had seen, it could somewhat be compared to a Psychic type.

The unicorn named Shady looked from Ethan and Jenny, over to his comrade who laid knocked out a few meters away from them. Ethan and Jenny kept still as they watched him, his magic was bad enough, but worse was what he had behind him. If the house was still full of captured and possibly injured pokemon then he had a lot of potential hostages.

“You bastards…” his horn lit up and a few rocks from around him got lit up with the same aura as hit horn and raised to the air. He was shaking with rage as he glared daggers at Ethan and Jenny. “It was supposed to be easy money!” He roared at them. “The first batch, offered us next to no trouble. I’ll teach you to mess with us!” And with that the rocks shot out towards Ethan and Jenny at high speeds.

“Watch out!” Ethan grabbed Jenny and pulled her to the side just as a few rocks slammed into the ground where she had been standing. However, he still had the stones that was heading straight towards him, and with his decision to help Jenny he had next to no time to dodge and was forced to take the hit instead.

A cry of pain could be heard for quite a distance as the rocks slammed into Ethan’s side, throwing him to the ground as he dropped Jenny. He had expected it to hurt a bit, but that was far worse that what he had thought. He groaned in pain as he held his side and struggled to get back up. What was worse, the unicorn was getting ready for another attack.

“You fool! I could have dodged that,” he heard Jenny complain as he had managed to pull himself up into a sitting position. Perhaps it had been foolish of him after all, she was a trained police officer, it would not surprise him if she had superior reflexes to him. But that was exactly it, he had acted on reflex when he had pulled her away from the attack. Vernus was right, he could be a fool at times.

“My bad,” Ethan offered her a pained smile. “But if you have time to complain, do something about him!” The look of anger Shady had worn earlier was now replaced by one of delight as he watched Ethan struggle in pain.

“I already know that,” Jenny huffed as she turned back to Shady who now had another batch of rocks at the ready. Jenny was furious with herself, not only once, but twice now she had been saved by Ethan. She wanted to think that she could have managed to dodge the attack Ethan had saved her from, but she knew otherwise. In her old body, it would have been no trouble at all avoiding it, but she did not have enough training to move as efficiently in her new body. Her pride would not allow her to let the opportunity Ethan gave her go to waste.

She drew strength from her inner fire as she did when she used her fire moves. She remembered the feeling of the fire burning stronger when she used her Ember, but this time it was different. Instead of a strong fire, it felt like a wild furious blaze, she was angry and her emotions was fueling her fire. Jenny grinned to herself as she felt the fire tickle the insides of her mouth, begging to be set free on her opponent, and she would do just that. Opening her mouth she unleashed a magnificent Flamethrower towards Shady.

Officer Jenny was however not entirely prepared for the power behind the attack and flinched, making the Flamethrower to slightly off course. So instead of hitting Shady like she had planned, the attack hit the ground besides him, only gracing his leg instead as she also could hear from his painful scream. However, before Jenny had time to gather herself from the powerful attack, a handful of stones slammed into her side, sending her spiraling across the ground from the impact.

“To Tartarus with you damned creatures…” Jenny heard Shady curse, looking up at him from where she laid she noticed the burns on his left foreleg. A lot of the fur was burned straight off, and the skin underneath had seen better days. She got up a lot quicker than Ethan, she had not gotten hit that badly and was ready to fight more. However it would seem that she would not need to.

The look on Shadys face slowly shifted from a pained anger to fear as he looked at her. No, he looked past her.

“Looks like Mary came through for us,” Ethan let out a pained laugh as he looked at the approaching ponies, the backup had arrived.

Jenny on the other paw was concerned as she saw Shady hurry back into the house. Ponies can do strange and desperate things when forced into a corner, and he had a house full of hostages...