Cinders to Ashes.
[Leo]
I kept dancing my Rain Dance until Rainbow told me to stop. Exhausted, I finally looked around at the damage done. Sugarcube Corner was nothing more than a pile of charred rubble. I could still hear the cracks, pings, groans and bangs of cooling metal. Pinkie was draped over Fluttershy's shoulder, Conner leaning against her side. The poor mare was inconsolable. I folded my ears to dampen her wailing as I scanned the wreckage, watching a Feraligatr and a Blastoise lift a large, burnt beam, guardsponies searching under it.
I staggered over to Conner. <<Can you give me a quick heal? I need to join the search.>>
He nodded, placing a glowing paw on my head. I immediately felt rejuvenated, and left to pick my way through the wreckage. I stepped around glowing embers, trying to match what I saw to what I remembered of the bakery's layout. I made my way past where the kitchen was, looking over it.
Only the fridge and the stoves were still standing, if you could call it that. One of the stoves had been completely caved by falling beams, while the other was wielded shut and heavily dented. The fridge door had been melted off, and a metal... Something had been driven clean through it. Even if Zann had hidden in it, he would've been a burnt skeleton judging by the remains of the fridge's contents.
I turned away, and spotted Lulu standing by where the stairs were. I joined her, both of us looking at the mound of wreckage.
<<Zann was last seen on the upper floors.>> Lulu glanced at me. <<I never really went up there. Do you know of a place Zann could hide?>>
<<Pinkie's closet.>> I sighed. <<It had some sort of size enchantment on it. Maybe that would have been enough. From where we stand, it should be near the far side of this shit.>>
Lulu nodded, melding into water, flowing through the gaps in the rubble. I waited for her to come back. Sweetie came up to me, an Empoleon waddling majestically behind her. I at least I think it was Sweetie, it was hard to tell under the ash.
"What are you doing here, Leo?"
<<Kon'nichiwa, sukoshi Eievui.>>
Lulu flowed out of the rubble, glomping me. <<Leo, you're a genius! The closet wardrobe thing's fine! there's just a large timber blocking the door!>>
"You girls find something?" Sweetie looked between us. "What did you find?"
<<Watashi ni tazunenaide, karera ga itte iru koto o rikaidekinai...>>
Lulu and I paid the pony and bird no mind, and began trying to shift debris. Sweetie caught on quickly, and called the other Crusaders over. The caiman and the tortoise started shifting large chunks of rubble.
<<Tinbā o nigiru dake de, watashi wa sore o tōshite jibun no michi o kirimasu.>>
The two reptile summons braced themselves, supporting the weight of the wreckage above them. The Empoleon picked Lulu up and placed her in front of it, pointing into the debris. Lulu cocked her head to the side, before flowing to the first visible clear space. With a nod, the edges of the Empoleon's wing like flippers began to glow a bright white. With a war cry, the regal penguin began slicing its way through the rubble, following the Vaporeon.
The noise we made attracted the attention of the guardsponies. Making their way over, any present unicorns aided the summons in holding up the debris, while I helped the others in cleaning up after the cutting machine. Eventually, The Empoleon stopped with a final slash. The beam holding the wardrobe down fell away in two pieces. A guardsmare unicorn hefted the slightly charred wardrobe out of the wreckage. Once everyone was clear, the debris that was being held up was carefully set down.
A dark orange earth pony mare with a vibrant pink mane wearing slightly more ornate armour carefully brought a silently weeping Pinkie over to the rescued furniture. "Miss Pie? I'm Lieutenant Merry Weather." She sat beside the pink mare. "Before we open this, could you please inform us of any enchantments?"
"A Dimension Pocket and an Iron Shell." Pinkie sniffed. "It had a foundry in it, and a few tables. I used to use it for my party planning, but I gave it to... to..." She broke down weeping again.
"Just those two enchantments?" Pinkie nodded through her tears. Merry Weather gave the party pony a hug, gently stroking her straight mane. "We'll find him. My ponies are doing everything they can, and we will not rest until we can place him back in your hooves." She assured. She looked at the nearest pony, giving a slight nod.
The pony tried pulling the door open, hauling on it with all his might. Shaking my head, I barked at him before leaning on the other door. The door swung open, causing me to tumble into Zann's work room. I looked around.
The foundry had spilled its fuel across the floor near the back. Metal chunks and odd doodads lay strewn across the floor amongst numerous papers. I started sniffing around for Zann's scent. Finding the strongest trail, I followed it to a dishearteningly small lump hidden under a pile of paper.
<<Zann?>> I whimpered. With trepidation, I carefully slid the papers to the side. I nearly fainted when I revealed what was hidden. A pile of what looked like metal bones in various states of disrepair had been piled on the ground and left to be presumably recycled. I made my way to the doors, sadly shaking my head.
"He's not in here." I heard the stallion murmur to Merry Weather.
"Keep looking." She firmly ordered.
Movement caught my eye. I turned to look as the Cakes slowly began sifting through what they could for anything salvageable. Everyone jumped when the oven let out a large bang before smoke began drifting from its shortened chimney.
"Even after everything," Mr. Cake tried to chuckle, "that darn oven is still giving us trouble."
Mrs. Cake squinted. "Why does the side look like it's starting to glow?"
Looking again, I could see a spot fading to a dull red. It rapidly began growing in size and brightness, before a torrent of flame punched a hole through it. Every guard and summon set their stances, prepared to face this new threat. The Cakes wisely began herding Pinkie away.
A large orange canine with a tan tail and fur floofing around its neck and between its ears flopped onto the ground, laying on its back. Most notably, it only had three legs.
<<ZANN!!>> I cried out, charging to hug the life out of him, tears dripping from the corners of my eyes. Every Eevee quickly joined my impromptu stampede.
Pinkie beat me to him. "Zann LaMorac!!" She buried her face into his fur. "I was soo-oo-oo worried about you!" The rest of us crowded around him, wordlessly trying to comfort him, Pinkie, and ourselves.
<<How did this happen?>> Yomega asked. Conner began pulling red gem shards from Zann's belly fur. <<Are those the...>>
<<Yup.>> Zann wheezed. <<Spike's fire ruby shards.>>
Our reunion was cut all to short, as a small cough came from behind our huddle. We all turned to to see the slightly frowning face of Lieutenant Weather.
"Miss Pie? I'm very sorry to do this to you," She sighed. "But we will need to detain him for the time being." She held a hoof out as Pinkie growled. "It will only be until we can determine if he caused all this."
"He's innocent!" Pinkie yelled.
"He just used some sort of fire ability!" Merry shot back. "Unless I can find evidence to the contrary, he is our prime suspect!"
"But he is innocent!" A new voice joined in. Scootaloo came running up to the guardspony, the other Crusaders and their summons in tow, Twilight huffing after them. "Mom, listen! As we were putting the fire out, we came across a snail made of lava. Once our summons blasted it with water, it broke up into specks of light that flew out the back wall!"
"Honey, unless you can-"
Twilight huffed up to the group. "I can verify." She gasped out. "Twilight Sparkle, Element-"
"I know, I know." Merry interrupted with a sigh. "Report."
"I also saw the motes, and was able to track the area they disappeared in down after the fire was extinguished. I found the charred remains of a summoning circle. I was able to use my magic to restore the area, and I found the excess ingredients for a fire type summoning, minus the control reagent. Who ever summoned it used a rope circle, and it became disrupted either during the set up or after the ritual. This all points to a novice summoner." Gesturing to the Crusaders and the water type summons behind the group, Twilight continued. "These three are the only ones I know who have shown the interest and the ability for summoning, and, as we can all clearly see, they are no novices."
"But they don't have their licences, yet." Merry held a hoof to stall the questions. "Normally, they would be imprisoned for a few moons, and have a fine of a hundred bits levied against them. However, due to the circumstances, the mayor will most likely reduce the charges, if not drop them altogether." She focused on the fillies. "I will need you to banish your summons now, though."
I looked to Villhiem as the Crusaders began their new next ritual. <<What does Merry mean by licences?>>
<<All summoners have licences so that they can summon outside of laboratories or in public places. Think of them like firearm licences. Problem is, is that they can't get them unless they pass a test, which in turn they need to finish their course in order to take.>> He shrugged. <<Summoners are allowed to summon without a licence if they are being taught by someone with one. Twilight's expires next moon....>>
Merry turned to our group. "It looks like Zann is free to go for now. Please make sure that he is available if anything comes up, Miss Pie."
As a group, we left the guardsponies to their work and joined up with the rest of the element bearers outside the remains of the bakery. Applejack offered the guest room to the Cakes, while Fluttershy and Conner accepted Pinkie and Zann. Moon Dancer briefly joined us to ask Fluttershy to ask Zann to meet her in the library when he was ready.
As the sun neared the horizon, Merry rejoined to group. "I hate to be the bearer of more bad news, but I need to insist that the Crusaders come back to the barracks with us."
"May I ask what they're bein' accused of?" Applejack narrowed her eyes at the mare.
"Nothing related to the fire." Merry placated. "But they did break the law regarding summoning without a licence. I will ask the mayor to push their court date up, but I need to detain them until then."
"We'll be okay." Scootaloo added. 'Fillies and colts have their own comfy cells."
"And their legal guardians have unrestricted visiting hours." Merry added.
"Are we at least allowed to wash them first." Rarity asked, eyeing Sweetie's new coloration.
"With guard supervision." Merry sighed.
Lulu walked up, and gave each of the fillies a soft drenching. Once she was done, everypony was surprised to see a new addition. Adorning each fillies' flank was a runic summoning circle enclosing something different. Apple Bloom's was a Zap Apple with a bite taken from it, Sweetie's was an eighth note , while Scootaloo's was a silver feather.
"You... You got your cutiemarks!" Rainbow crowed.
Fluttershy stepped through to the crusaders, pulling a quietly crying Sweetie into a hug. "What's wrong?"
"I didn't want to get mine like this!" She sniffed. The other fillies joined the hug, their own eyes tearing up as they shared Sweetie's pain. "Does this mean that we will always be in situations like this?!"
"No." Fluttershy firmly said. "Your mark doesn't define you from here on. Your life is still yours to live how you wish."
Rarity joined the hug. "And, even though you may not have wanted to gain it like this, things could've been much worse if you three hadn't acted."
"Never forget the good you've done today." Merry added with a soft smile.
Zann bulled his way up to the group. He gave them all a critical eye, before giving his best attempt at a hug. Making sure to give each filly a lick, he let his internal warmth soothe the young ponies. Only once their tears had dried did he pull away.
He rejoined us, flopping in our midst with a tired sigh. After the ponies shifted their attention off us, he softly spoke up. <<Can we go somewhere quieter? I need to tell you guys something.>>
Without saying a word, we all relocated to a side street. After the ponies disappeared from view, Zann spoke up. "There is no easy way to say this, but, I shouldn't be walking right now..." He tried to wait for our uproar to die down. "My spine was snapped in two!" He barked, cutting us all off. "I fell from the upper floors and landed wrong. I think a rafter may have fallen on me at one point, too. But, as I evolved, I lost all of my old moves, except Swift and Glare. I got Fire Spin, Flamethrower, Heat Wave, and Searing shot. All of which are ranged moves. The... I think all physical moves I could've learned went into healing my back..."
He sighed. "As for evolving itself...."
[Third]
Zann managed to pull his way onto the open oven door. He rolled his way into the oven proper. Looking out the door, Zann was met with a new problem. How am I going to close the door?
He whimpered as a group of planks landed in front of the oven, a few of which bounced under the door's glass.
"I have an idea... You're not going to like it..."
Take the wheel.
"This is going to hurt!" Zann slammed his paw onto the heated glass as far out as he could reach. He screeched in pain as his paw pads fused to the glass. With a tortured cry of pain, he hauled back on it, forcing the door to close. With a thundering bang, something smashed into the oven's top, denting the metal, which jammed the door shut. It also knocked Zann's paw from the glass, leaving a bloody and charred piece of flesh stuck to the glass.
Please don't let me die here! Zann was thrown to the 'floor' by another hard impact. He barely felt the pain of multiple sharp somethings jabbing and piercing his belly. "Pinkie, save me! I'm in here! Pinkie!" The temperature inside the oven began to rise as the flames spread under, and heated, the oven's bottom. "I don't want to die, I don't want to die, I don't want to die!" His tortured wails faded as the oven's interior was lit up with a bright glow and Zann felt no more.
[Leo]
Zann shuddered and began to cry from the remembered pain. "What I went through I would never wish upon my most hated enemy... You ever heard of the Brass Bull? I evolved in one of those..." Tears streaked down his cheeks. "I'm... I'm going to go be alone with Pinkie for a while." He walked off, ears drooping and tail dragging.
We wisely left him to his own devices. We sat in a mournful circle in the middle of the street.
I was the first to move. I blurred around the street, smashing flower boxes, mail boxes, and anything not living in a rage. I only stopped when there was nothing left to break. I stopped back where I had started from, and roared. "I'm going to KILL whoever caused this!"
Cy begun launching quills into the nearest wall, venting his own anger. Everyone was doing something like that. All we could agree on in that moment was one simple truth.
We would do anything to destroy whatever removes Laughter's smile from here on out.
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8969851
what about This Thing is Driving Me, Ugh, Batty?
This is ....... good
.............
Poor Zann... and poor Sugarlumps when the vees get their paws on them.
poor zane
on a diffrent note 10 bits says it was snips and snails
Now i really wouldn't want to switch places with Diamond Tiara and silver spoon
Silvers just a toadie, and while I hope DT gets hers, I can’t help but wonder if she’s going to be sorry she burnt down a business and home, nearly killing five beings in the process or just sorry she got caught.
I feel Zann’s note is dedicated to all of the ones hoping Zann would get his leg back or evolve into Sylveon. There was a lot of debate these last few chapters about what Zann would become, and I know many were hoping Pinkie’s cheerful nature and love would carry the day.
A quiet part feels it is truly meant to the few who were strongly rooting for Espeon, as I was.
Edit: re-reading earlier chapters debunks Espeon for Zann IMO
Alas, being put through a literal crucible burns away the dreams and leaves us with only the truth of the matter: when love can’t save you and ability isn’t enough, sometimes you need to fight fire with Fire.
Unless they have spell to see the past, nothing shot of Luna's dream ability could close this arson case.
Hmmm, I blame Rumble
8971720
Or Diamond and Silver being caught with the book.
8971719
Poor guy. If only he'd evolved sooner, his Flash Fire would have been super helpful...
1 question did the statue in the gardens get fixed or worse with each new evolution?
Son of a....
8971719 People like DT only feel remorse when they get caught and only because they get caught
You misspelled guard as "gaurd" a couple times, and scent as "sent" once.
Let me know if you're cool with me posting corrections, if not I'll stop.
8971854
Please, keep pointing them out! I can't fix what I don't notice.
So the actual villains get off scotfree while the ones that helped stop it and the victims are blamed. The guards are incompetent.
8971849
Yea but in the show we find that Diamond is only a bitch because her mother pressures her to act that way, she doesn't truly enjoy it. She feels that she has to be mean to be what's expected of her.
So really the question is, is this version of DT an irredeemable bully, or a remorseful pressured child?
And the other real question is, with Zann taking Flareon, what on earth is Vince going to be?
8971899
Maybe Vince will be a Jolteon too, for Jolteon twins
Or maybe he’s the one that doesn’t evolve, causing a rift to form between him and Cy
8971933
Ooh, intrigue!
8971899
8971933
Or maybe a non-canon evolution
i.imgur.com/8bzJP.jpg
8971971
so, what was in that picture? it's not loading any known way
Sad as it is, I kinda expected Zann's Eeveelution to be something like this since I read the bit about Spike giving the Cakes his Fire Ruby shards...
Hoped I was wrong? Sure, but still expected him to be the eventual Flareon by getting stuck in the oven for some reason... Didn't expect all of Sugarcube Corner to burn down though...
8971762
Zecora ring a bell?
8971886
no horsefeathers!
8971994
Really? i noticed at first but i though i edited the message already and fixed it, here is the link to the image i posted
https://camo.derpicdn.net/d7f1e03ff2beabb54f9e3f71d85b470271fb51b6?url=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2F8bzJP.jpg
8971712
sorry but if u remember in a previous chapter the evees saw diamond tiara and silver spoon run off with a red book after school
8972065
honestly no the last few days for me have been hectick
8972067
thats understandable
that was a sad way everything has happen but hope dt and sp gets whats coming
On an only somewhat related note, it may be a sign that I've been playing too much Dark Souls 3 recently, but for a moment I thought Zann would come out as an Unkindled Eeveelution due to the chapter title...
8971876
Cool. Figured I'd ask, because some people don't like corrections in the comments, and I generally won't go to the effort of sending them in a PM.
Summoning a macargo is a bad idea if you can't control it
It's been a great week for updates
8972054
Ah yes, the fan made charts. If only they had names...although I’d probably end up with Yomega as the evolved Normal so the coloring wouldn’t change.
8972166
Well, still better than Houndoom. You know, burns that hurt forever and all that stuff...
Should have made Merry say "Yes, we know who you are."
So he is a Flareon. Though I must admit that I was in doubt if evolving would give him his leg back or not.
memecreator.org/static/images/memes/4139604.jpg
8972447
I didn't think of that. That would be worse
8972595
No, Seriously, Dark Souls 3 has consumed just about all of my free time over the last three and a half weeks when I haven't been keeping up with updates... Today's the first day in that time where I haven't played it at all, but I plan on getting right back into the Fire tomorrow when I get home from Work...
One thing I'll note no one has pointed out yet, either in story to the guards or in passing here in the comments, is that there are witnesses who can corroborate an alibi for Zann beyond the ponies who saw the Macargo summon. Pinkie and Blossomforth both saw Zann still as an Eevee before and during the Fire, and Twilight and Moondancer can corroborate the Eevees' extraordinary evolutionary capacity under extreme and/or peculiar conditions. They could hypothesize that Mutis Enigmus Eevee Ignus is an evolution borne from the need for Eevees to survive in extremely hot environments such as volcanic regions, or as a triggered evolution to survive natural disasters such as forest fires, and that the fire, along with the Fire Rubies in the oven, were enough to trigger the evolution in Zann.
And only now it dawned on me that Zann gonna have hard times having special moveset while being physical oriented eeveelution
So, Jolteon, Vaporeon, Flareon, Umbreon and Leafeon. Leo's gonna turn into a Glaceon, won't she?
I thought Scootaloo was an orphan, so why is she calling the guard mom? If she's not an orphan or runaway, why is she living in an abandoned shack on the edge of Ponyville?
I think Leo is going to evolve into a flareon
Author you broke a timeline should have gone back and watch the makeing a mark episode cause I have a few cracked nuckles here and I’m about too powpow my punching bag
But other then that good story I found a few errors there in this one thow
That is really unfortunate since Flareon's stats make it a physical attacker. Flareon has been kinda unfortunate in this manner since the very first Gen its moves always favored Special Attack.
There's going to be a reckoning.
Laughter... are they talking pinkie, or Zann? Because if it’s zann... then there’s three too many. The plant(cant remember they’re golldarn names!) is with the CMC, does he get an element? And what about the first evolver?
Sorry, two too many. I forgot the Duo.
Yeah ... they done goof'd ...
How do I classify this?: muffle
Punctuation Error: missing comma
Tense Error: placed
Typo: foundry
Grammar Error: do not capitalize
Grammar Error: hooves," she assured
again: foundry
Grammar Error: either 'disheartening, small' or 'dishearteningly small'
Punctuation Error: Spike's
Typo: Sweetie's
Typo: soothe
Typo: physical
Not going to explain those anymore
Tense Error: closed
hmm, i wonder when the legendary pokemon get involved. not gonna lie with the fully evolved summons i half expected articuno or regice to show up.