• Published 9th Dec 2014
  • 4,517 Views, 664 Comments

Old Scars, New Chances - Arcticbrony



Ethan Summers is a Pokémon caretaker that has been hiding from the law for several years. But when Arceus sent them to a new world, he finds himself teamed up with an unusual and unwanted partner. And running away from his problems is not an option

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Chapter 14

“R-really? You guys did all of this?” Jenny and Ethan had reached the old warehouse that was currently being renovated and Ethan was speechless at the sight of things once they arrived. Not because of how it looked, because it was still far from finished, but because of how many were actually helping.

“We wanted to surprise you.” Mary was standing beside him and Jenny as they watched the rest of the ponies continue to work. “It was Zoey`s idea, actually.”

“Oh… so where is she?” Ethan asked. He had looked around but he could not see any other Pokémon, only ponies.

“She did not want to face you just yet… I'm sorry.” Mary apologized once she saw the downtrodden look on Ethan's face.

“No no, it’s alright,” Ethan flashed her a ghost of a smile. It hurt that she did not want to face him yet, but he had made that mess, so he would have to deal with whatever came of it. “This is great! I don't know how to thank you guys enough!”

“It’s nothing… but if you want to thank someone, it’s Zephyr and his weather team that have done most of the work,” Mary said as she pointed to the pegasus in question. “Just don't mention what happened in the forest just yet around him… it’s a sore subject since it was somepony from his squad…” Ethan nodded in understanding. It must have been tough for Zephyr to go through that, and Mary knew him better than he did, so he would respect her wishes.

“Well… I better get started then, it looks like there is still quite a lot of work to do!”


A loud crack filled the air as a large pine tree fell and shook the very ground that it impacted with. But it was not alone, as several of its brethren had also been felled and laid on the same ground as it now did. A lot of the other trees in the area also had claw marks on them, the very same claw marks that could be found near the base of the trees that had been slain.

Zoey stood panting from the exhaustion after her latest victim had given in.

She tensed up once more and swung her arm at another nearby tree, her claws tearing into the bark and wood below before making a small explosion of splinters and bark as her claws did what they did best, tore their targets apart.

Zoey usually did not act like this. She had left her more aggressive past behind her, but even she needed some kind of release from time to time. And she had really just felt like hitting something repeatedly.

She had left just a little while after Mary had sent Jenny to go get Ethan. She wanted to face him and tell him that everything was okay, but that was not how she really felt. She had too much frustration inside of her, and she needed a way to vent that.

She almost fell down to the ground with her back against the tree as she was panting from exhaustion. She felt a small sting of pain in her chest, as she sat there. She knew what it was because of how many times she had felt it before. It was her own body telling her that she was close to overexerting herself, her scars really did not like it when she went all out.

“You are better than this, Zoey…” she said to herself as she stood up from her little rest. She looked around to inspect her handiwork. If anyone would walk through that area, they would probably think that some sort of massacre had taken place by how it looked.

She had lost track of how far down into the forest she had traveled during her little rampage, and but she had noticed that the deep rumble of the waterfall had grown louder since she had started.

She had readied her claws and was about to take yet another swipe at a nearby tree when a loud voice stopped her in her tracks.

“Hey! I know that you are out there, I could hear you! Come out!” A powerful voice roared through the forest.

“What the…” Zoey looked around her, but she could not see anyone in sight. It was difficult for her to judge how far away the owner of the voice was because of the waterfall. But she knew that it had come from said waterfall’s direction, so she began walking towards it. She had been curious as to who had called her out after all.

It took a small while to get through all the foliage between her and her destination. Taking the trail would have been much easier, but she had abandoned that trail a while ago, and was not completely sure where it was.

As she came out of the forest, she saw the same Gyarados that had been there the day before, only that now it was awake, and was looking straight at her.

“Were you the one that were making all that noise?” Scylla growled at her. She was still resting her head on the banks and from what Zoey could see, she had gotten some medical attention. From Ethan, most likely.

“What if I was?” Zoey sneered back. She was not in too good a mood and she did not like the tone she was getting.

“Well I was trying to get some rest, until you came through and made it impossible with all that noise. If you don't keep quiet I'll-” Scylla raised her head and tensed her muscles just for another spike of pain so shoot through her, making her flop back down. “I-I could still take you…” She growled.

Zoey on the other hand, felt almost all of her aggressiveness melt away as she saw how hurt she actually was.

“I’m sure you could,” she joked with a small smile. “Does it hurt?” Zoey asked as she walked towards her.

“No…” Scylla lied, but her facial expression betrayed her words and showed the pain that she was actually in.

“... I’m sorry if I disturbed you,” Zoey apologized as she sat down in front of the large Pokémon. She had helped taking care of other injured Pokémon for so long with Ethan that she just felt an instinct to help her in any way that she could. “I’m Zoey.”

“...Scylla,” she answered under her breath.

“I’m sorry for disrupting your rest… I was just so angry and needed a way to release it all.” Zoey admitted as the two of them looked at each other.

“I… guess I can understand that.” Scylla said as she let out a sigh, she had calmed down a little. Though something about Zoey reminded her of something, or rather she knew that it should have, she just could not remember exactly what.

“What about you?” Zoey inquired. “It must be a little boring, if you can't move all that much.”

“Tell me about it.” Scylla said with a roll of her eyes. “I hate this so much! But… there is not much I can do about it. Urg, I hate feeling so useless.”

“Hey… you are not useless. You just have to get well, and accept the help that you get while you do so.” Zoey told her with a small smile.

“I know but… I should be better than this. I should have been able to withstand the attack… I am stronger than this!” She yelled out the last part before she slumped back down again. “At least I’m supposed to be… I am strong… I know it.”

“I’m sure you are, you look the part at least.” Zoey told her, in a hope of lifting her mood slightly. ”But being strong, also means being able to accept help and know when to take it easy…” She could not help but smirk when she noticed the grimace Scylla was making. She knew that Zoey was correct, she had known the entire time, she just did not want to seem weak.

“Zoey…” It finally clicked it Scylla’s mind. Why Zoey had seemed so familiar, and Ethan. “That means that, that Lopunny was Ethan Summers, right?” At the mention of his name, Zoey stood up immediately. It was more a reflex than a intentional action, but she unsheathed her claws nonetheless.

“H-how do you know his name?” Zoey asked. Ethan had mentioned Jenny’s idea about keeping his last name a secret since it would lessen the risk.

“...Calm down, before I make you,” Scylla growled at her before she let out a small sigh. “Besides, I'm not going to do anything to him… he helped me, I owe him after all.” Zoey retracted her claws and calmed down at Scylla`s words. She was not sure if she could have taken her in a fight anyway, even with how injured she was. Zoey was no stranger to fighting, and was therefore better than most at judging someone's strength. And Scylla simply oozed of it.

“I… but how do you know his name?” She asked again, more calm and collected this time.

“He is a wanted man… I never hunted him myself, but I saw his wanted poster more than one time,” Scylla told Zoey. “I have no reason to try anything. I am seperated from my team… and as I said, he helped me. I owe him, and I always keep my word!” Besides, she had formed her own opinion of Ethan after having met and spent some time with him. She knew what crimes he was charged with, but he seemed like a good person.

Her words made Zoey more than a little curious.

“What did you do back on Earth, if you don't mind me asking?” Zoey inquired. She could see Scylla consider and think about her answer for a moment before she gave it to her.

“I… don't suppose it would hurt. I was… am part of a mercenary group called Checkmate.”

Zoey blinked as the name echoed inside her mind. She had heard that name before, when she was stuck fighting before Ethan rescued her. The very human that Ethan had saved her from, had mentioned that name more than a few times… She could not remember much other than the name though, a lot of her memories from that time were fuzzy.

She held back on telling Scylla that though, she saw no reason to do so at the moment.

“So what did you do?” Zoey asked.

“We did what we were hired to do… mostly,” she remembered more than a few times where they had gone against the wishes of their contractor. They did a lot of unethical things, but they had a code, too. “I was a part of one of the group’s inside our organization called Queen, reserved for the strongest and mightiest.” Scylla said while wearing a big grin.

“And you said that you had wanted posters of Ethan?” Zoey inquired.

“Yes… among many others. I probably would not have realized that it was him, had it not been for you. You are rather unique in your appearance, after all.” Zoey looked away and nodded slightly, she was rather hard to miss after all. Not that many Zangoose are using purple sweaters, and she was even more easily recognisable without it.

“Do you think you can keep Ethan’s past a secret?” Zoey asked of her. “We just managed to avoid a rather unpleasant situation, and I would rather not have to deal with something like that again…” Scylla kept her gaze for a moment or two before nodding.

“You have my word…” Scylla promised her.

“Thank you… that means a lot to me,” Zoey smiled as she relaxed even more. “Urg… have you had any problems with love?” Scylla blinked at the sudden question.

“W-what do you mean?”

“You see… I sort of had this crush on Ethan for the longest time and…” Zoey began pouring her heart out to Scylla. She had talked with Brawly, but maybe having a more neutral party would help her get another or a better view on things.


Back at the warehouse, Ethan and the others were making good progress with getting the building ready for the Pokémon to move in. Jenny had also been spending a lot of time helping out in any way that she could. She wanted to get to reading and analyzing the journal that she had found, but it could wait for a little while. Besides, the sooner they were done, the sooner she could get started on her work.

“Hey, Ethan!” Jenny had walked over to him. “I’ve been wondering this for a while but… who is that?” She asked as she pointed off to the Mienshao that had just finished carrying some supplies. She had noticed his early on, and she had been curious about who it actually was.

“Hm? Oh, that’s Brawly.” Ethan could not help but smirk at the bewildered look on Jenny’s face as she blinked before looking over at Brawly once more.

“Like the Gym Leader Brawly?” Jenny asked as she kept her gaze on him.

“The one and only.”

“...Why is he helping out here then?” Jenny asked, she could not help but feel a little confused. What they were doing was a good thing, and they needed all the help they could get. But in her experience most people had their own agenda and did usually not do things unless there was something in it for them.

“He is an old friend. Besides, did you ever wonder how I got all those Pokémon I rescued out to their new families and trainers?” Realization lit up in Jenny's eyes.

“He was your accomplice? Brawly the Gym Leader?”

“You sound like it’s so hard to believe,” Ethan laughed. “Yeah, he helped me out with that part. He would investigate and do background checks to make sure that they were good people before he got the Pokémon out to them. It was much easier for him to do so, since I was a wanted man after all.”

Jenny saw his point, and she had theorised in the past that he had an accomplice that helped him from the outside, but she had never found any real proof on it. It made a lot of sense now that she thought about it. Most Gym Leaders were very influential in a lot of social circles.

“Anyone else I should know about that was in on that little operation of yours?” Jenny inquired after she had thought about it for a moment.

“No, just me and him. You know, initially he wanted to take a more active role in what we did… But I talked him out of it. He could be of more help with what he did… besides, he was a Gym Leader with a promising future… I couldn't let him ruin that.” Jenny looked up at Ethan as he spoke. That really did sound like something he would do.

“So is he going to be helping around here after we get everything up and running then?” Ethan hummed to myself for a second or two before answering Jenny’s question.

“I don’t know… I hope so, but that’s up to him!” Ethan said with a smile that Jenny saw through. Nervousness, that is what she saw in Ethan at that moment.

“If you say so…” She decided not to press on the matter. She was good at reading people, but she also knew when to keep quiet.

“Want to me call him over so you can introduce yourselves?” Jenny shook her head.

“No… we will have time for that later, now the important thing is to finish this place.” Ethan just smiled and nodded at her answer before the two of them got back to work.

It took a few more hours of hard work before the building was in a presentable condition. It was just one floor so everything was out in the open but everyone and everypony that helped agreed that it turned out alright. They did not have any proper beds, but they had several mattresses along with a bunch of blankets, set up into a makeshift sleeping area where it should be enough space for everyone.

They had also built some kitchen counters that would allow for some proper cooking and storing of their supplies. The building did not have any plumbing or magical electrical work done, but they had already made plans to change that during the next few days. Mary Care and the local doctor had also donated some medical equipment that Ethan would need for taking care of the Pokémon that would be staying there until they got better.

Ethan was going to go pick up the injured Pokémon that were staying at the doctor
s office. But before that, he had to go get Zoey… at the very least, he needed to talk to her once more. He had given her some time, and he knew that nothing good would come from pushing her, but he needed to talk to her to see if they were still okay. He left Chii with Jenny and Brawly to hold the fort until he came back.

He was a little worried about how he was going to find her at first, but her trail was easy to spot and follow. With all the claw marks on the trees that led further into the forest, one would almost think that she had wanted someone to be able to follow her.

It was not long before Ethan emerged from the forest and out into the very same area where Scylla was resting. Only that this time she was not alone, Zoey was there too and from the looks of it they were having a rather good time laughing together.

“Y-you have to be joking. He really did that?” Scylla managed to say in between her small giggle fits.

“Yeah, you should have seen the look on his face!” Zoey laughed alongside with her. Ethan smiled as he watched how well the two of them got along, though he could not help but be a little curious as to wonder what they had been talking about.

“Oh… seems like someone is here for you.” Scylla said to Zoey as she noticed that Ethan had shown up. She was a little miffed with him after hearing Zoey`s story about what had happened.

“Oh… H-hello there.” Zoey`s meekly greeting made Ethan wince slightly before he walked over to the two of them.

“Hello there, Zoey… I thought I should check up on you since we haven't talked since last night…” Ethan ignored the look he was getting from Scylla as he spoke to Zoey. “Especially after I saw what you did in the forest… Are you okay?”

“... Yeah,” Zoey spoke softly. “Well… I think I am now at least. Don’t get me wrong… I want to be mad at you for not telling me sooner… but I just can't stay mad at you.” Zoey said before she almost lunged forward and pulled Ethan unto a hug. “Just… dont say anything, just let me enjoy the moment.” Zoey told Ethan as she held him close. It took Ethan a moment to get over his initial shock, but he gladly accepted and hugged Zoey back.

Scylla could not help but feel a little uncomfortable as she looked at the two of them. She still thought that Zoey should have roughed him up a little bit… but seeing the two of them as close as they were made her miss Weiss and the others even more.

“So are you ready to head back now?” Ethan asked Zoey after a small while. “We are ready to bring the Pokémon over to the warehouse… I guess I should be getting used to calling it home… but we could really use your help.”

“I thought I told you not to ruin the moment,” Zoey huffed as she hit Ethan lightly on the shoulder. “... But yeah, I’m ready to head back.” She told him. In truth she had wanted to talk to Ethan for quite some time after what had happened, but her own stubbornness had stopped her from seeking him out. She loved him… nothing could change that. But maybe it would not be as bad to learn to love him as just family.

“I probably won't have time to come visit you until tomorrow morning,” Ethan told Scylla. “Will you be alright until then?”

“Of course I will!” She huffed at him. “I don’t need your help… though I do appreciate it.” She mumbled the last part so quietly that even not Ethan’s ears managed to pick it up.

“Sure you don't,” Ethan said with an amused smirk. “I’ll arrange for some food to be sent down to you as soon as I can.”

“Bye, Scylla! It was nice talking to you.” Zoey smiled as she waved goodbye to her new friend.

“You too Zoey… you take care now!” Scylla yelled back as Ethan and Zoey had already begun walking away from her.

“The two of you, seem to have really hit it off!” Ethan commented as they entered the forest, using the proper path this time around.

“I think we did… though she has a tendency of yelling at times,” Zoey said with a bit of a wince. “She is also really strong… and it seems important to her that people know that.” Ethan looked at her for a moment, thinking back to when he had talked with Scylla.

“Yeah, I remember that. Do you think I should talk to her about it?” Ethan asked.

“It’s nothing bad about it… but it might not be a bad thing if you offer your services,” Zoey suggested. “She reminds me about some of your earlier patients…”

“I’ll do just that then.” Ethan told her. “You know… I was surprised that you and Vernus never became a thing. I guess I now know why.” Zoey looked at Ethan with a surprised look.

“M-me with Vernus?” Ethan just nodded with his usual smile. “I… I never thought about him like that.”

Ethan smiled as he watched Zoey think about what he had just told her. He was still hoping that the two of them got together, but for that to even be a chance, they had to find Vernus too.


“Here you go, little ones, for now, this is your new home.” Ethan, Zoey, Mary and Brawly had gotten the injured Pokemon from the doctor’s office and the Swablu that had been staying at Mary`s Clinic and brought them to the warehouse.

They had gotten a little help from Zephyr and his pegasi to transport all of them over since the number came to a total of fifteen Pokémon that was now going to be living there for a while.

Most of them had been more than a little skeptical around the new ponies, which was more than understandable. Their first impression with ponies had been as bad as it could get, after all. But Ethan managed to calm them down enough that they could transfer them without any problems.

“S-so we can stay here?” The Tailow with the clipped wings spoke up after they had all arrived. “For how long?”

“As long as you need to, little guy! That goes for all of you. Think of this as a temporary home until you get well. But if you really want to stay after that, then that’s up to you.” Ethan told them with a smile on his face.

It took a while to get all the Pokémon settled in their new home. Some of them were still nervous because of what had happened, and some just wanted to leave immediately, even with their injuries. But after a bit of convincing from Ethan, they too agreed that it would be best for them to stay until they were in better shape.

Ethan and Zoey were the two main ones that took care of the Pokémon. Mary would come by when she had time and help out, but she had her own job and could not be there all the time either. Brawly did help out here and there, but that was mostly with the physical labor and cooking, he had little to no medical training after all. Jenny spent most of her time alone with her head buried in the journal that she had found. And Chii… was mostly just herself.

There were still things that needed to be sorted out. But they finally had a home of their own, and most of their family was back together again. Ethan could not help but smile at the thought of that. It was the first time that he really thought of Equestria as his new home.

Author's Note:

Thanks to V-Oblivion for letting me use his character Scylla. If you havent read his story go check it out^^
A New World - A New Game