//------------------------------//
// Language Barriers 
// Story: From Savage to Civil 
// by Discorded SheepcityUSA 
//------------------------------//

There almost wasn’t enough room in Rarity’s mind for all the questions she was asking herself about this new development. Clearly, this was the foal that was in the picture, obviously having aged since then. Had he just been living in the jungle since his parents were killed? How did he survive the attack? Why was this manticore glaring down at him like he was a legitimate threat?

These questions were almost immediately shot down though when she saw that the manticore had pounced above the foal, ready to strike him down. Rarity covered her eyes, not wanting to watch the massacre that would surely ensue. 

Only to hear the manticore howling in pain.

She uncovered her eyes to not only see that the colt was alive, but also witnessed one of the most hilarious sights she had ever seen.

The colt had the manticore pinned to the ground on his stomach, repeatedly bucking his head with his hind legs, but also biting down hard on the monster’s left wing. The manticore struggled to stand up and growled in frustration at the little pony biting his wing. When he did manage to get to his feet though, the colt didn’t let up on his grip. The ferocious monster, still a little disoriented from the pony’s blows to his head, flailed around uselessly to try and throw him off.

The colt apparently saw what the manticore was trying to do, and wrapped his hooves around the monster’s neck, shifting his weight hard enough so that he steered the manticore head-first into a few trees, drawing blood from the creature’s nose. 

The manticore had officially had enough, as he raised his scorpion-like tail up above the colt on his back, preparing to sting him.

Rarity noticed the colt didn’t see the tail creeping up behind him, appearing to try and keep himself focused on keeping his grip on the manticore’s neck, and gasped in fright.

“Look out!” Rarity yelled to him. 

The colt’s ears perked up and was given notice of the tail about to sting him. Before it could make contact though, he managed to catch the tail with his wings, stopping it just inches from his face. The colt looked back down at the manticore and snarled again. The manticore did the same, baring his teeth. The colt flinched with a disgusted look on his face, and proceeded to give him a swift kick to the back of the head, knocking him out cold.

Rarity figured it must’ve said something he didn’t like.

The colt hopped off the monster’s back and started stretching his wings out to relax.

“Are you alright darling? Did that ruffian of an animal hurt you?” Rarity asked. The colt quickly turned to Rarity and looked at her with a curious face. He trotted next to her and started sniffing her coat. Understandably, this made Rarity a little uncomfortable.

“Umm, I mean no disrespect dear, but could you please stop that?” Rarity asked. The colt didn’t seem to hear her, and continued his sniffing. He conducted a few more tests, like touching her muzzle, and then doing the same to his own, and  scratching his mane and then scratching Rarity’s mane. When he got to her mane though, he coughed slightly, presumably never having smelled hairspray before. He didn’t seem to like it.

He backed away, and looked at Rarity with a tilted head, like he was trying to understand something that he’s never seen before. He stretched out one of his wings, and raised an eyebrow.

Rarity looked at the colt, trying to figure out what he was trying to say. 

“Erm…are you asking why I don’t have wings? Darling, I’m a unicorn. Unicorn’s have horns, not wings.” Rarity said. The colt didn’t seem to move from his stance, still with a wing stretched out and a confused look on his face.

“…Can you…even understand me?” Rarity asked. The colt didn’t respond, only blinking a few times.

“Hmm, I suppose that’s a no…Alright let me try to put this in a way you may be able to understand.” Rarity levitated a stick off the ground, which made the colt flinch, starting to look a little on the cautious side, flaring his wings again.

“Calm down, it’s only magic. I’m not going to hurt you.” Rarity said. Although the colt didn’t seem to understand her language, he took a good look at her body language. She wasn’t even attempting to look threatening in the slightest, and even though she was twice his size, he’d probably be able to break her in half regardless.

He decided that she posed no real threat, and lowered his guard.

“Very good. Now, let me explain pony anatomy to you.” Rarity said. She took the stick and started to draw in the dirt with it. The colt looked down at the dirt, curious as to what she was doing. When Rarity was done, there were drawings of three ponies, a unicorn, a Pegasus, and an Earth Pony. 

“You see darling, you are a pegasus, therefore you have wings, as well as the ability to fly and walk on clouds.” Rarity said, pointing the stick to the Pegasus, then pointing directly to its wings, and drawing a cloud below the Pegasus.

“While I am a unicorn, so I have a horn and can use magic.” Rarity said, this time pointing the stick to the unicorn drawn in the dirt, pointing at its horn and drawing a slight magical glow on it.

“And those that have neither are Earth Ponies. They have enhanced strength that more than makes up for it though.” Rarity said, pointing to the Earth Pony’s back and head to show the lack of horns or wings, and then drew a cracked rock in front of it.

The colt tilted his head sideways. What was this mysterious white creature that happened to be very similar to him trying to say? 

Rarity must have seen how confused he looked.

“You…haven’t ever seen another pony before, have you? No wonder you’re so confused; being isolated for so long.” Rarity said shaking her head. She then heard a slight growl and quickly turned to the motionless body of the manticore, only to see that it was still as the colt had left it; still completely unconscious.

It was only then when she realized that the growling sound wasn’t coming from any sort of animal, but was the colt’s stomach.

As expected, the young pony looked quite hungry, with a sort of pained look on his face as he looked down at his rumbling tummy.

“Oh dear, you sound hungry…hang on a moment.” Rarity said as she trotted over to where she had dropped the contents of her saddlebags due to the manticore’s attack, and mourned over her ripped bags.

“Hmph. I can’t believe that ruffian did that…Oh well. I suppose I could fix these back at camp. Now, where were those cupcakes?” Rarity said to herself as she shuffled through the pile. Eventually she came upon a small, white box with Sugarcube Corner’s logo on it; Pinkie Pie had made sure that her friends had gotten some cupcakes to take with them on the trip. Rarity opened it and found that there was a single, vanilla cupcake with pink frosting left inside.

“Oh dear. I didn’t realize I was so low on food.” Rarity said, turning back to the small pony, holding a hoof onto his stomach.

“Here darling, eat this. It’s  the least I can do after you saved my life.” She said, levitating the pastry into his sight. The pony was still a little wary about Rarity’s magic, and he curiously sniffed the cupcake. His senses told him that…whatever it was, was some form of food. He took the cupcake in his hooves and took an experimental lick…

And proceeded to shove the entire cupcake into his mouth, pink frosting getting all around his mouth, which had a big smile on his face. The colt’s tail wagged from side to side, obviously very grateful.

Rarity’s left eye twitched. Even though she started to piece together that this pony had spent pretty much his entire life in the jungle, she couldn’t seem to get over the extremely low level of manners he seemed to possess. 

She levitated the package of wet-wipes she brought with her out of the pile and trotted over to him.

“Now do try to have some form of class, dear. Just because you were raised in a jungle doesn’t mean you have to look like it.” Rarity said, trying to wipe the pink frosting off his snout. The colt struggled to get Rarity’s hoof away from his mouth, violently shaking his head and scrunching up his face. 

In the end though, Rarity won out, and managed to get the frosting off the pony’s face. The colt didn’t even seem quite sure what just transpired, looking back down at his muzzle in confusion. She didn’t seem to…harm him or anything, just got something off his mouth.

“That’s much better. Now I suppose we should just wait here f-“ Rarity was interrupted by the sound of her own stomach grumbling, indicating that she was also beginning to get hungry, making her blush in embarrassment.

“Oh my. It would seem I’m getting a little peckish myself.” Rarity said nervously.

The colt recognized when another creature was hungry, and was able to tell that this mare was in that state. She had helped him when he had the same problem, and judging from the lack of physical strength on this creature, he could venture a guess that she wasn’t going to last very long in this place without help. He galloped to a nearby tree and grabbed onto the trunk, shimmying up and grabbing onto some branches with his wings to slingshot himself up.

“Wait a minute! Just where do you think you’re going?!” Rarity yelled after him, before he was out of sight in the dense leaves above. 

Rarity would have begun to be truly worried if he hadn’t leaped back down about a minute later with a few bananas in his mouth, wagging his tail while he stood in front of the white mare.

“Is that…for me?” Rarity asked, pointing to the bananas. The colt put them at the mare’s hooves and gave her a face that probably meant something along the lines of “just shut up and eat.”

Rarity carefully levitated a banana up to her face and peeled it with her magic, putting it in her mouth afterwards, leaving her with a dazed, satisfied look on her face.

“Mmmm. Oh this is delicious! Thank you very much…oh dear, I don’t even know what to call you.” Rarity said. She looked the colt over a little, trying to think of how she could address the pony. She noticed the way the colt wagged his tail furiously like a dog or a timberwolf cub when he was happy, also keeping his animal-like behavior in mind.

“Hmm…Is it okay if I call you…’Timber?’” Rarity asked. The colt raised an eyebrow and tilted his head, blinking a few more times than usual.

“Umm…is that a yes?...oh dear, communicating with this pony is going to be difficult.” Rarity said.

“Raaaarity!” both ponies heard a voice coming from deep inside the jungle, startling them. The colt Rarity had appropriately named “Timber” bolted in front of Rarity almost immediately and got back into fighting position, preparing for the worst to come.

Unlike Timber though, Rarity recognized that voice. It was usually very soft and tender, but at the moment, sounded panicked and terrified, presumably from worrying over her.

“...Fluttershy? Fluttershy, I’m over here!” Rarity yelled after it.