“Raaaaarity?!” Fluttershy yelled for her friend. No response.
“Oh no. Oh no. Oh nononononono!”
“Ms. Fluttershy, can you please try to relax? I know this looks pretty bad, but freaking out about it isn’t going to make things any better.” Critter said to his companion who treaded slowly behind him while he quickly cut their way through the dense jungle.
“But what if she’s in trouble? If it was anypony else I probably wouldn’t be as worried, but you saw how she reacted to that spider. A spider! And what if that manticore found her? Professor, Rarity REALLY isn’t used to this kind of place.” Fluttershy said nervously.
Professor Critter rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, that much is obvious. Look, just try not to always expect the worst out of every situation. You said it yourself. We need to keep our heads in this place. Things could go sour pretty quickly if we don’t.” he said.
Fluttershy meekly nodded, and went back to shouting Rarity’s name to get her attention.
“Rarity?! Raaaaarity!” Fluttershy called out.
This time, she got an answer back.
“Fluttershy? Fluttershy, I’m over here!” Rarity’s voice yelled to her. The professor increased the pace of his cutting in the direction of Rarity’s voice.
“Oh thank goodness we found her! I hope nothing hurt-” Fluttershy said.
Professor Critter turned back to Fluttershy and put a hoof over her lips.
“Ah ah ah. Remember what I said about not expecting the worst? I understand that you’re worried about your friend, but we at least we know she’s alive. So please…chill out.” He said before taking his hoof off Fluttershy’s mouth.
“Oh. Okay.” Fluttershy said quietly before they continued to trot through the dense leaves.
Eventually, they made it upon a clearing in the jungle, where Fluttershy ran in front of the Professor to see if her friend was alright.
“Rarity! Are you alright?! Did anything hurt y-EEP!” The next thing Fluttershy knew, there was a very angry brown Pegasus colt about to jump her, baring his teeth and growling, daring the yellow pony to come another step forward. Even though the pony was only half Fluttershy’s size, he looked like he could tear her apart with those teeth.
Fluttershy was sure that he probably would have too if Rarity hadn’t pulled him back by the tail with her magic.
“Timber darling, I’m flattered that you feel you need to protect me, but it really isn’t necessary. These are my friends.” Rarity said, pointing to Fluttershy and Professor Critter, both staring at Rarity and Timber with shocked expressions on their faces. Timber sat on his haunches and stared back, apparently just as surprised as they were.
Who knew there were even more of these things?
“Ummm…Rarity…who’s your friend?” Fluttershy asked.
“Oh right, you haven’t met. Fluttershy. Professor. This is Timber. At the very least, that’s what I’ve started calling him.” Rarity said, gesturing to the inquisitive little colt staring at the two.
Professor Critter seemed to be at the biggest loss for words given this new development.
“What the-wha-wazza…where’d this kid come from? I was so sure this place was deserted.” He stumbled over his own words. How a foal could survive in this kind of environment was completely beyond him, even in his years of experience working with animals and nature. He knew for sure that the jungle was too cruel a place for a child to possibly be able to live, so…how come this one was standing in front of him right now, alive and well?
“Trust me, I was just as surprised as you were. I was just out here trying to find you, when I came across that treehouse up there-“Rarity pointed upwards to the tree where the structure was located, to which both Critter and Fluttershy stared in silence at it.
“Then this manticore came out of nowhere and attacked me! That brute had the nerve to rip my saddlebags-“
“Your life was pretty much about to end as you know it, on the verge of being made into a bloody mess on the forest floor and about to be ingested by a giant cat with wings, and you were worried about your saddlebags?” Critter asked with a deadpan look.
“In my defense, they were made from imported fabric.” Rarity said.
Critter facehoofed.
“Whatever. Continue” he mumbled
Rarity awkwardly coughed.
“Yes well…That was when Timber came to my aid and…did that to it.” Rarity then pointed to the unconscious manticore laying under a tree, making Fluttershy gasp in a combination of fright and concern.
“Oh my goodness!” Fluttershy flew to the animal’s side and started to look it over. When she saw it was still breathing, she let out a sigh of relief, took a bandage out of her saddlebag, and placed it on the cut on the manticore’s nose.
“I would tell him not to pick on things that are smaller than he is…but I think he already gets it.” Fluttershy said, addressing the manticore.
If it was possible for Professor Critter to be any more baffled than he was before, that this definitely did it.
“…A little colt knocked out a huge, raging manticore?...Hehe. Now I’ve seen everything.” He said with a slight chuckle, shaking his head.
Rarity levitated the picture she obtained from the treehouse back toward her, and gestured for Fluttershy and Critter to come look, to which both ponies complied.
“Do either of you recognize these ponies?” Rarity asked.
Professor Critter looked quizzically at the framed photo, letting the ponies’ faces sink in.
“Hmmm…aren’t they those Canterlot nobles that disappeared a couple years back?” he asked.
“They do look pretty familiar.” Fluttershy said.
Rarity nodded and pointed back to the treehouse.
“Indeed they were. I found a few tapes in that treehouse explaining everything that happened, and it turns out that their air-boat crashed here, forcing them to take shelter in there.” Rarity said, holding the picture back up.
“Now look again. Does their foal look at all familiar?” Rarity asked, pointing a hoof to the baby pony. Both Fluttershy and Critter were about to say they didn’t have any idea, but stopped when they looked at Timber, who was still baffled by the sudden appearance of two other ponies. They looked back at the photo, doing a double take as they looked at the features of Timber and the baby. As expected, they looked almost identical.
“…Hooooooly shit...” Critter mumbled.
“O-Oh my…d-don’t tell me that’s…” Fluttershy stuttered.
Rarity put the picture back down and nodded.
“Yes, I have every reason to believe that Timber and that foal are the same pony.” Rarity said.
Professor Critter shook his head in amazement. He had just come into this place to explore and document a few new species. Never in a million years would he have expected something like this to happen.
“…Ms. Rarity, I’m going to need to listen to those audio tapes up there to try and wrap my head around this. I’ll see you two back at camp.” Professor Critter said before trotting over to the makeshift elevator to the treehouse and started to pull himself.
Fluttershy looked over at Timber who appeared to be a little uneasy at her presence, and was refusing to fully let his guard down around the new pony. Fluttershy had never gotten the chance to talk to a pony that was raised up in this sort of situation, and decided to try and talk to him.
“Umm…Timber? Do you…want to talk?” Fluttershy asked gently. Timber backed away from the yellow Pegasus with a slight scowl on his face, accompanied by a small growl. This caused Fluttershy to flinch in surprise. She was usually so good at this, so what did she do wrong?
“Oh my…I don’t think he likes me.” Fluttershy said with her ears to the sides of her head.
Rarity shook her head.
“Oh no Fluttershy, I’m sure it isn’t that. It’s just that I’m the only pony he’s ever met, and he might not feel very comfortable around new ones just yet. Seems he only trusts me right now.” Rarity said.
Fluttershy knelt down to Timber’s eye level, trying her best not to look threatening to the little colt.
“I’m really sorry if I’m scaring you Timber. I understand that you’re only acting this way because you haven’t seen much of our kind, and this must all feel very strange to you, but I promise I’m not going to hurt you.” Fluttershy said as softly as possible, as if she were talking to a little bunny and not a colt that had just knocked out a ferocious manticore.
Timber still didn’t look all that convinced, seeing as he had no idea what Fluttershy was saying, but he was able to put together that she wasn’t going to try anything. Timber was also able to see that this pony was severely lacking in the muscular strength department just the same as Rarity. If a pony like this was going to try and harm him, he figured they must either be very brave, or very stupid. Timber appeared to relax a little, and grumbled something under his breath.
“Is he trying to say something? Fluttershy you can talk to animals; could you maybe give a translation?” Rarity asked.
“O-Okay, I’ll try.” Fluttershy said, trying to listen to the sounds Timber was making to get an accurate translation.
“…It seems he’s talking in Timberwolf.” Fluttershy said.
That slightly disturbed Rarity, although she wouldn’t be surprised if this colt was raised around those beasts, judging from the way he behaved.
“Do you know what he’s saying?” Rarity asked.
Fluttershy’s face looked like she was heavily thinking.
“Timberwolves are very hostile creatures Rarity, so I haven’t been able to talk to very many. You’ll have to excuse me if my translation is a little rusty. But I think he’s saying something along the lines of…Oh my.” Fluttershy mumbled, looking a little worried.
“What? What is it?” Rarity asked, looking just as worried.
“He said…’What are you, and why do you look me?’” Fluttershy replied.
Rarity sighed and kneeled down in front of Timber with a consoling look on her face.
“Timber, I can’t express how sorry I feel for you. Not being among your own kind for so long to the point where you can’t even recognize a pony when you see one. Celestia knows what’s going on in your head right now.” Rarity sighed, shaking her head.
Rarity turned back to Fluttershy with a sad look on her face.
“Fluttershy dear, I think I’ll be going back to camp to fix my saddlebags. I’m still quite miffed that that manticore would do something like this, and I’m afraid I can’t use these in their condition.”
“Are you sure Rarity? Last time you went into this jungle alone…that happened.” Fluttershy said, pointing to the unmoving manticore.
Rarity looked at Timber for a moment. The colt seemed to be able to sense that Rarity wasn’t going to be sticking around for long, and he didn’t look very happy about it.
“Timber…would you like to come with me? I’ll be staying in the Windless Woods for a little while longer, and I sure could use the company of somepony that knows their way around here...and maybe wrestle a vicious beast to the ground if need be.” Rarity asked. Knowing that Timber couldn’t understand their way of speaking though, she also gestured her hoof towards her direction.
That much Timber could comprehend, and he immediately perked up his ears and started wagging his tail to show his happiness. He quickly trotted to Rarity’s side and nuzzled his head under her chin. Rarity awkwardly stepped back, mostly due to the fact that even though she thought the attention was adorable, Timber’s mane smelled terrible, very close to the smell a Timberwolf gives off, and it nearly made her gag.
“Erm…and maybe get you a bath when we get there.” Rarity said, still reeling a little from the smell as they trotted back through the path Fluttershy and Critter had made to get to the clearing, Rarity waving Fluttershy goodbye as they left. Rarity looked back at Timber, who she now noticed was chewing on his wings a little and scratching behind his ears with a hoof.
‘…Please don’t tell me he has fleas…lovely.’ Rarity thought sarcastically to herself.
She’d need to make that a long bath.