They were at it again, babbling in their little language, utterly incomprehensible to the decent, legal, hard-working average Joe. And Preston had had enough.
He stood up, leaned over and shouted across his cubicle wall. “Shut up that babble! I don’t care how fresh off the boat you are, learn frickin’ English!” There. that shut them up...for a moment. Until the younger one started to cry, babbling something to the elder, who spoke to Preston in a broken English.
“She try very hard to learn your language, Mister. But it is..very hard.”
Preston ignored that, sneering, and motioned for them to be on their way. At least he could work in peace.
* * *
And then, suddenly, Emergence. Everything changed. Preston, eager to escape his go-nowhere cubicle life, was among the first to sign up when the Bureaus made it to his city. A new life, new opportunity, just waiting to be seized? Yes please.
After his two weeks orientation (he had been ponified on day 14, of all things) he was herded onto some sort of dirigible and soon found himself in a processing center in Equestria. As a unicorn, he had been assigned a temporary job cleaning until he had use of his magic.
He was not good at it. He was having to learn to use his mouth for everything, which led to dumping a bucket of sudsy water all over the hooves of another unicorn. She yelled something he couldn’t understand at him in a tone he very much didn’t like, but then, sneering at him, she spoke all-too-slowly, and all-too-angrily as he began to sob:
“Learn Equestrian, Newfoal!”