//------------------------------//
// Timber's First Fireworks 
// Story: From Savage to Civil 
// by Discorded SheepcityUSA 
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When Rarity had warned Critter about the dangers of waking up Opal when he came into the Boutique, she had hoped that he would take this warning with actual seriousness. Opal may look like a harmless house cat on the outside, but she really could be a little beastie when she was irritated.

When she actually stepped back into her home though, it took her less than a fraction of a second for her to see that Critter did not heed her warning.

While Opal appeared to be sleeping peacefully on top of a nearby shelf, Critter laid on the couch, holding a hoof over his face, where there was a long scratch mark over it where Opal had seemingly attacked him.

“…I told you to be careful around Opal dear.” Rarity said, covering her mouth and trying not to giggle at Critter’s unfortunate little mishap with her cat.

Critter on the other hoof, did not seem to be nearly as amused as he held his hoof to his defaced muzzle. “I thought you were exaggerating. That cat is the most vile thing I’ve had the displeasure of going up against…and I’ve been attacked by Cragadiles.” Critter grumbled.

“See darling, this is what happens when you don’t listen to me.” Rarity said rolling her eyes and sitting down on the couch next to him. “How badly does it hurt?”

Critter winced a little as the pain came back to his face. “It’s pretty horrible, but I’ll survive. Cat scratches are nothing compared to being turned to stone by a Cockatrice. THAT on the other hoof, hurts like a motherfucker.”

Rarity’s face turned a little pale at the thought of being turned to a statue by one of those creatures. Twilight had had that happen to her once, and from what she told her, it was utterly a horrible experience. “Goodness…what was that like?”

“Imagine being skinned alive and dunked in a vat of acid, all the while being completely paralyzed and unable to do anything about you predicament at all…now forget it because being turned to stone feels a lot worse. I should know. A Cockatrice did that to me on an expedition once and it sucks. You wanna know the worst part though? My colleagues thought it’d be funny if they didn’t get the Cockatrice to turn me back to normal right away.”

“Oh goodness, that’s just…cruel! Why on Equestria would they do that?!” Rarity exclaimed in shock. She knew Critter complained about his partners before, but she didn’t know it was on the level of letting him stay a rock after a Cockatrice attack.


“So they could doodle all over my stone body with a marker before they captured the Cockatrice and made it turn me back to normal…These are grown stallions…not high school fillies at a slumber party…let that sink in.” Critter seemed to recall the memory with a bit of bitterness and anger in his voice. Not much granted, but it was enough for Rarity to notice that it brought him great displeasure. 

“My…seems you went through quite a lot with your colleagues. I recall you saying they don’t respect you?” Rarity asked questioningly.

Critter laid his head back and groaned. “They treat me like a friggin’ joke. So I’m a professor that’s a little more laid back, big deal. It doesn’t mean I don’t take my work seriously. You’d think that anypony with common sense would know that. And yet to this day I have to put up with a whole bunch of crap from the institute and the scientific community and…” Critter stopped midsentence and laid his head in his hooves. “…It just sucks, ya know? Friggin’ hypocrites tell me I’m not mature and then they draw on my face…”

Rarity didn’t think she’d ever hear this coming from Critter in a million years. He’d mentioned to her and Fluttershy that he was not well liked among his peers because he didn’t act like a typical scientist, but had she known it was this bad, she would have given him a bigger break when she was constantly griping in the Windless Woods. “Oh dear….well…it’s their loss if they can’t recognize a genius when they see one!” Rarity said with a hardened look.

Critter immediately shot up at those last few words and looked at Rarity in shock. “…I’m sorry but…did you just say the “G” word?” Critter asked. 

“What? Genius? Why indeed I did.” Rarity said with a nod. “Darling, I don’t think I’ve met such an animal expert like you since Fluttershy. It’s quite obvious you know what you’re doing in your work, and I honestly don’t think it’s fair that you don’t get the recognition you deserve!” Rarity declared with shut eyes and her face tilted slightly upward.

Critter was at a loss for words at that. From the time they’d met, Critter and Rarity had been at each other’s throats. And yet here she was referring to him in such high regards. 

“…Never knew you thought so highly of me Miss Rarity. Uhhh…thank you.” Was Critter’s only response. For reasons Critter couldn’t quite get, that sentence made Rarity blush.

“Ehe…it was nothing at all darling. I only “call them as I see them” as it were.” Rarity said with the blush still ever-present on her muzzle. “…Say darling, since you’ll be going back to Canterlot tomorrow, do you perhaps want to watch a movie or something?...just while I have you here you know?” Rarity asked with a bit of a nervous smile creeping onto her face.

“Hehe, sure. Just keep me away from any of the Transformares movies and I’m good with pretty much whatever.” Critter responded with a slight chuckle.

Rarity’s nervous smile changed almost immediately into big, completely genuine one at that. She now had Critter to herself. That was a good start. Now she just needed to set the mood, and then hopefully Critter would catch the hint.

‘Oh this evening is going to be perfect~’ Rarity thought mischievously to herself.




Celestia’s  sun had finally set to make way for Luna’s precious night. The sky had gone dark and the bright stars had begun to twinkle in said darkened sky. Obviously the most defining feature of the night was the glorious and luminous moon that shone brightly and reflected across Ponyville’s landscape. 

Though, it would have been much more peaceful a night if it weren’t for a select group of ponies.

“Alright Scoots, light it up!” Apple Bloom yelled to Scootaloo as they hid behind a nearby bush with a bit of distance from the bottle rocket they had gotten from the pile of their collected fireworks. The only Crusader that wasn’t behind the bush at the moment was Scootaloo, who held a lighter in her hoof and was trying to light the fuse on the firework.

“Don’t worry Scootaloo, we have full confidence in you!” Sweetie Belle yelled to her from the bush.

“Yeah I can see that from the way you’re hiding behind the safety of a bush.” Scootaloo groaned a little to herself, rolling her eyes.

Timber stood behind the bush and watched Scootaloo try to work the lighter. As usual, he didn’t quite understand what it was these ponies were doing, but it interested him nonetheless. Though Timber didn’t get why they had to wait until sundown to do…whatever this was. 

Timber couldn’t dwell as long as he would’ve liked on these thoughts, as he felt a gust of wind pass through his mane and tail, making him flinch a bit and let out a low growl. He’d already dealt with this strange phenomenon earlier today, and it was so unusual and unfamiliar that he was really hating it.

“Grrrrrr…” Timber growled. 

Sweetie took immediate attention to Timber’s growling. From what she had seen of Timber so far, he seemed to be easily enraged and confused by some of the simplest things. And if his roar was any indication, he was aggressive too. Sweetie could imagine this would not bode well if she couldn’t get him to relax.

“Hey hey, what’s the matter Timber? You’re not still thinking about Diamond are you?” Sweetie asked him. She looked him over a little to see if there was anything wrong with him physically, and laid eyes on his toned and muscular physique. For a foal, he looked to be very strong, considering all that time in the jungle had forced him to push himself to that extent.

Sweetie quickly caught herself staring at Timber’s muscles and shook her head, blushing a little. What just happened? She didn’t really know but it had to have been embarrassing whatever it was. 

Sweetie looked at Timber again, doing her best to not blush anymore, and saw that the wind was making him shiver. Whether it was from rage at the wind or just his own temperature Sweetie didn’t know, but she figured winging it would be better than nothing. “Awww, Timber are you cold?” Sweetie asked, wrapping her forelegs around him and hugging him, hoping to make him feel a little warmer…

Though after seeing how muscular he was, she didn’t know if this was more for her own benefit or Timber’s.

Timber almost immediately stopped shivering and he looked over at Sweetie. He was getting that very weird feeling in his stomach that he had gotten at the library when Sweetie first did this. What was with this tiny pony and hugging? It felt…very weird compared to when Rarity or his Timberwolf mother ever did it.

After a few more seconds, Sweetie let go of him and smiled. “Just so you know Timber…You don’t smell THAT bad.” She said with that blush starting to come back. 

Meanwhile, Apple Bloom only snickered as she watched her friend, which of course caught Sweetie’s attention.

“…And just what’re you laughing at?” Sweetie Belle asked narrowing her eyes and giving Apple Bloom a suspicious look.

“Nothiiiiin’~” Apple Bloom said with an eye roll and a big smile. She had a pretty good idea about what was going on with Sweetie, but why actually say anything to ruin the fun?

Before anypony could even get another word in, Scootaloo came charging towards them at full speed and jumped behind the bush to join them. “Alright, the rocket’s lit! Get ready for liftoff!” She shouted as she and the rest of her friends looked on at the rocket with a now lit fuse sitting on the ground, getting ever so shorter as the seconds went by…

Then without any warning the entire bottom of the rocket lit up in fire and shot into the sky, leaving a long trail of smoke in its wake. Soon after it had gained enough altitude, the rocket had disappeared from view almost completely and burst into a big explosion of what looked to be a sort of blue fire. The explosion lit up the entire sky and made a very loud BOOM noise that could be heard for miles.

The fillies all watched it in awe and amazement at the artistry they had just had a hoof in with widened eyes and open mouths. But Timber, having never seen anything such as this, was the most mesmerized out of all of them. The explosion made him flinch a little, but after seeing how beautiful and magnificent this fire in the sky was, he promptly let his guard down to watch.

He sure was glad he did.

“Oh…my…gosh…THAT WAS AMAZING!~” Sweetie Belle cheered after the explosion had subsided, bouncing up and down happily and her voice cracking a little and sounding extra squeaky. 

“Ah gotta be honest, Ah almost thought this’d end up with somepony burstin’ into flames, but looks like nothin’ bad happened this time!” Apple Bloom added before looking at her flank and then her friend’s flanks.

All were still markless.

“Awww, dang it.  Still no Cutie-Mark.” Scootaloo said grumpily with a slight pout when she took a look at her own flank.

“Mmph. That’s a little disappointing…still, it was pretty cool to watch! Timber sure looked like he enjoyed it!~” Sweetie Belle said, looking at Timber. 

Timber had not come out of the trance that the display had put him in and was still staring deeply into the sky. The entire time he was doing this he had not blinked even once.

“...Geez Timber I thought it was cool too but snap out of it.” Scootaloo said, lightly tapping on Timber’s head. This unfortunately yielded no results and Timber did not take his eyes off the sky.

“Sweetie, ya think you can bring our new friend back down to Equestria please? It looks like you’d get his attention the beeeest~” Apple Bloom asked Sweetie Belle with a slight smirk beginning to form on her mouth.

Sweetie found herself blushing again. “W-What are you saying Apple Blo-“ 

“AAAAAAGH!”

Before Sweetie Belle could even finish her sentence, the entire group of foal’s attention was abruptly turned to something else. From what they were able to hear, it sounded like somepony in the forest was screaming loudly as if they were in pain. Whoever the screaming was coming from had to be distinctly male though it sounded a little flamboyant on a level none of the foals had really heard before.

Of course, the screaming was so loud that it snapped Timber right out of his daze and he quickly shook his head. His ears perked up slightly at the sound of distress and he turned to the forest. From the way he looked at the trees outlining the forest, this place wouldn’t be anything all that different from what he was used to. And now somepony in there was in danger.

So essentially, Timber would be in his element in the Everfree.

Seemingly without a second thought, Timber galloped his way towards the forest, shocking the three fillies that were with him.

“Timber wait! We don’t know what all is in there!” Apple Bloom yelled, quickly running after him.

“Dangit Timber you knucklehead, stop!” Scootaloo also yelled, giving chase to the red-headed colt as well.

“WAIT GIRLS SHOULDN’T WE-“ Unfortunately, Sweetie’s friends were all already in the Everfree Forest and out of her sight, leaving her by herself. “…Tell Rarity what’s happening?...” Sweetie Belle then let out an annoyed groan at her friends inability to wait for her. 

“Why does nopony ever listen to me?” Sweetie Belle groaned again; now deciding that she needed to get her friends out of there, followed them into the forest as well. Whatever was making that sound, she just hoped to Celestia it was friendly.