From Savage to Civil

by Discorded SheepcityUSA

Complications Down the Road

“I am SOSOSOSOSOSOSO sorry! I had no idea that would happen!”

That basically summarized about 90% of anything that came out of Sweetie Belle’s mouth for the next half-hour as the group of ponies made their way back to Carousel Boutique to settle back in Ponyville. Joining them was the Crusaders, who planned on getting back to their original plan of setting off fireworks later that night. The reason they had tagged along was because Sweetie Belle felt that she needed to apologize to Timber…

Over…and over…and over again.

“Wow, you sure talk a lot don’t you?” Critter said, mildly annoyed. Honestly, he didn’t know whether he should interpret this as annoying, or whether Sweetie’s squeaky, adorable voice made up for it. It was almost enough to give the stallion diabetes just from hearing it. But was he going to show it and embarrass himself? Hell no.

“Sweetie, I think Timber’s getting sick of this...” Scootaloo said with a slight deadpanned look, slightly gesturing to the bags that had formed under Timber’s eyes from listening to this. She was honestly starting to get sick of hearing Sweetie’s apologizing at this point too. Honestly though, who wouldn’t?

“Ah dunno Scoots. Can Timber even understand what she’s sayin’?” Applebloom asked.

Overhearing their conversation and hoping to provide some form of an explanation, Fluttershy decided to speak up. “Umm….he understands it to a certain degree…a very little degree…I’m just a little surprised that he could get….” Fluttershy blushed a little in embarrassment. “Umm…THOSE….so early.”

“…Uhhhh what exactly are…THOSE?” Scootaloo asked.

The only response Scootaloo got was a pat on the head from Critter and his two cents. “You’ll find out when you’re older kid…”

Scootaloo’s face scrunched up a little and her face turned slightly red. “Mmmph. I’m almost eleven darn it…”

Rarity seemed to be the only silent one of the bunch at the moment, as she started to consider what went on in Twilight’s library. ‘Oh goodness, I hadn’t thought about this. What am I going to do when he gets interested in fillies? If I lock him in one of my rooms, he’ll probably just break down the door or maybe the window. And he already seems to be getting attracted to Sweetie Belle! Oooh, whatever is a mother to do?!’ Rarity wailed inwardly. This had to be one of the biggest complications that Rarity hadn’t taken into account when she took Timber in. She didn’t know EXACTLY why Timber seemed to be interested in fillies this early on, but from the behavior of some of Fluttershy’s animal friends that she’d seen when they…did the thing...in public…she could factor a guess that living around animals and seeing them….also doing the thing…in public…could’ve had some sort of effect on him.

To be frank, she had a lot more to consider too. How was school going to go? Would other fillies and colts treat him like a lesser pony because he acted like an animal? And of course, she’d need to potty-train him, which could be one of the more awkward things to go through, but was without a doubt necessary if she didn’t want Timber soiling her carpet. When were they going to celebrate his birthday? She had no clue about his actual life before the jungle, so this was going to be particularly har-

“Umm…Rarity?”

Rarity’s thoughts were torn from her due to the distraction of a slight nudge from her little sister to her side. It seemed Sweetie had decided to stop harassing Timber with her apologies for the moment in favor of talking to Rarity.

“Hm? Sweetie? What is it?” Rarity asked.

“Umm…me and the Crusaders were gonna umm…get back to preparing for our big crusade later on tonight…you know….fireworks and stuff…sooo…can I stay out a little later with them?....and uhhh….can Timber maybe come with us?” She asked with a hopeful look in her eyes.

Rarity cringed a little at the sound of this. Hearing that the Crusaders were going to be working with pyrotechnics was bad enough. But adding a colt like Timber into the mix just had “Disaster” written all over it. “U-Ummm…I don’t know Sweetie. I don’t know if Timber’s nerves are ready for that.” Rarity answered with a stutter.

‘Or MY nerves for that matter.’ She thought to herself.

“He lived in a dangerous jungle for ten years! And we’re PLENTY responsible! I’m pretty we can handle a little fireworks! Pleaaaaaase?” Sweetie Belle pleaded, giving her sister a pair of puppy-dog eyes.

“Yeah come oooooon. Pleeeease?” Apple Bloom and Scootaloo also pleaded, adding their own eyes to the barrage. Timber looked at the Crusaders, not quite understanding what they were trying to accomplish by making those weird faces at Rarity. Not knowing what else to do, he also gave Rarity puppy-dog eyes, adding a lip-quiver to it.

Having four little foals making that face at her wore very heavily on Rarity’s resolve; quite honestly, this could break the will of pretty much anypony that has ever lived. “Nnnngh…alright, alright fine. But make sure to come straight home after you’re done…and for goodness sake, don’t set anything on fire please.” Rarity sighed. The last thing she needed right now was her sister getting into trouble, especially with them dragging a seemingly unaware Timber into their antics.

“Eeeee! Thank you Rarity!~” Sweetie squeed, giving Rarity a quick hug before turning to Timber, smiling big. “Come on Timber! Come and see our fireworks set up!” Sweetie grabbed onto Timber’s hoof, dragging him away with her friends over to a hill in the distance as they galloped off, with Timber wearing widened eyes, and a frown that said “Oh no, what have I gotten myself into?”

“…Should I be afraid that they’re messing with that stuff?” Critter asked.

“…Very.” Fluttershy answered with a worried look on her face.

Critter didn’t even want to think about what damage those fillies could do. From the way Rarity had described their “crusading” as they called it, it sounded like staying away from those three would be most beneficial to his health. Trying to get the thought of being covered head to hoof in a cast thanks to those three out, he shook his head.

“Well uhhh anyway, my worries of impending doom aside…I sorta have to head back out to the Institution in Canterlot tomorrow morning…”

Rarity looked at Critter with a frown and her ears folded back. “…Y-You’re leaving?” She asked. Truthfully, it did hurt kind of hurt Rarity to think of Critter leaving. She’d rather gotten used to having him around since the beginning of the expedition, and he had been a pretty big help in providing insight with Timber’s animalistic behavior.

…Wow he seemed to grow on her a lot...

Critter uncomfortably rubbed the back of his head. “Yeaaaah not really looking forward to it actually. I tend to get a lot of crap from my colleagues. Always saying I’m “not serious enough for the job.”…I like cracking a joke every once in a while; is that such horrible a crime?” he asked.

“Oh n-no of course not. Your co-workers just don’t understand your…style.” Fluttershy stumbled a little over her words. She found it a little difficult to accurately describe Critter, actually. He was a standard, stuck up and boring professor that was for sure…

Starting to dread Critter’s inevitable trip back to Canterlot the next day, Rarity swallowed a little and began to think to herself. Critter still had a whole night left in Ponyville…perhaps she could use this to her advantage….

Taking this new enlightenment into account, Rarity smirked a bit. “Well, if you are lacking in a place to stay for the evening, then I would be more than happy to accommodate you.~” Rarity said with an ever-growing smile.

Of course, Critter picked up on this but didn’t quite know what she was implying. The look on her face seemed somewhat flirtatious, but the statement alone seemed innocent enough. Then again, they had been known to tease each other since they met. This was really confusing.

“Umm…I guess I could…only if you want me to I suppose.” He answered, not really knowing what else to do other than agree.

“Heeheee, splendid~ Carousel Boutique is just around the corner; you’ll know it when you see it, trust me….oh and if Opal is asleep, do try not to wake her….believe me when I say that she is far more terrifying when awoken than any wild animal you’ll ever see.” Rarity said, giggling a little.

“…Caaaan’t wait.” Critter said with a slightly nervous smile, trotting back down the road, wondering just what it was he really agreed to, and reminding himself that mares are “Just weird like that”

Fluttershy took notice of Rarity’s smirk almost immediately, which had done nothing but grow larger at the new development. “Um…Rarity…are you trying to get Critter alone with you?”

Inwardly, Rarity was snickering to herself, but on the outside her face grew a slight tinge of red, the smirk staying exactly where it was. “Oh Fluttershy darling, I would never~”

“Alright, Scootaloo. Where does the gunpowder go?” Sweetie said to her friend as she started preparations for their crusade for their “Pyrotechnic Cutie-Marks”. Her current task was to try and find where to lay out the gunpowder that led to the big pile of the fireworks they had managed to get their hooves on in the past week.

Meanwhile, Scootaloo was flipping through the book they had acquired from Twilight on the subject, but seemed to be coming up short. “I don’t know! There’s pages missing from this thing!” Scootaloo yelled, obviously frustrated over the matter. “Apple Bloom, did you mess with this thing?”

“Now why would Ah wanna sabatoge our own crusade Scoots?” Apple Bloom answered back, loading more fireworks into the pile using her back.

“…I don’t know! I just want to know what happened to this book!” Scootaloo yelled.

Scootaloo’s dilemma was soon answered by the sound of crumpling paper near their position. They all turned around to see Timber asleep in a dog-like position in the grass, lightly making snoring noises from his nose. As he slept, he appeared to be chewing on what looked like the pages from the book that Scootaloo was reading.

“Hey! Gimme those!” Scootaloo said, reaching for the pages in his mouth. Upon seeing her friend attempt to retrieve them, Sweetie Belle quickly pulled Scootaloo away from Timber before she did something drastic.

“Scootaloo, be careful! You don’t take stuff from a dog’s mouth! He’ll bite you!”

Apple Bloom facehoofed. “Sweetie, we discussed this already. Jus’ cause he acts like a dog don’t make him one.”

“Well…true…but even still! It could be dangerous!” Sweetie squeaked a little. She knew Timber might not mean any harm, but if she learned anything from some previous encounters with animals, specifically a certain chicken-headed, snake-like creature, it was that animals can be unpredictable. And this colt seemed to be the definition of unpredictable.

Before the debate about whether to attempt a recovery mission for the pages could be decided, a pink hoof slammed down on Timber’s tail, making him immediately shoot up.

“RAAAAAARGR!” He roared in pain, flailing from the sudden sense of agony that now enveloped his tail, making the crusaders flinch in response to the very sudden, and seemingly very rude awakening of Timber.

“Oops. Did I interrupt the new blank-flank’s nap?~” A snide and squeaky voice snickered from behind Timber, which was also the owner of the hoof. The crusaders and Timber all turned their heads to see two fillies standing there. One was a pink filly with a two-toned pink and white mane and tail, accompanied by a tiara, whose hoof still held Timber’s tail to the ground. The filly accompanying her was a grey filly with oversized glasses and a braided mane. Both fillies held malicious smirks on their faces as they stared the group down.

The group, save for Timber, recognized the fillies almost immediately and only groaned.

“And today was jus’ goin soooo well too.” Apple Bloom said a little bitterly to herself.

Author's Note:

Yeaaaah Diamond. Stomping on the tail of a colt that's knocked out manticores single-hoofed....You're gonna regret that.

Oh and look. More Rarity and Critter shipping fuel.

Comments are alllwaaaays appreciated.

Comments

[Moongaze14]

I really enjoyed the shipping and how awkward things got with Sweetie Belle apologizing and Rarity thinking about dealing with Timber's potty training.

[butterfield pancake]

Better get a soil plot ready silver (AKA a grave plot)

[SageBrony07]

This isn't going to end well. I do hope that Diamond gets and attitude adjustment, but I don't think that is going to happen. Good luck with the next chapter.

[Philosophysics]

This can't be good.

[BarthoBalchi]

this chapter has been brought to you by the letter D, cause lord knows rarity going crazy for it now

[Texus]

Rarity looked at Critter with a frown and her ears folded back. “…Y-You’re leaving?” She asked. Truthfully, it did hurt kind of hurt Rarity to think of Critter leaving. She’d rather gotten used to having him around since the beginning of the expedition, and he had been a pretty big help in providing insight with Timber’s animalistic behavior.

…Wow he seemed to grow on her a lot...

To be honest i somehow don´t like him yet, but isn´t that to soon for her to feel that sorry? I thought she would be that kind of pony that could accept it if someone is going away, especially if she hated the way he was acting sometimes, but then again she tried to cuddle with him. I hope he change a bit, i don´t know why but he isn´t my favourite Character right now, and well a Colfriend would be to soon right now i think.

The second thing is i hope Rarity doesn´t rush anything, i am not sure that she really knows how much she likes him right now.

Run Diamond, run for your life

Like i said, i have no idea why, but i don´t like Critter that much, but maybe it is just because in other storys it looks like Rarity would only do one Night stands, or something like that, you now every Stallion at least once, and stuff like that, haven´t read many Rarity romances.

I have nothing against it, but i usually don´t like it if i think she doesn´t really mean it.
Honestly i thought you would continue at the library but i liked that chapter too, i just had my usual problem with Critter, i hope he change his attitude while the story continues.

[Discorded SheepcityUSA]

5975910 I laughed at this probably way more than I should have.

5976126 I'm having a hard time figuring out what you mean by "Critter's attitude" actually. He's not really a huge asshole, just likes cracking the occasional joke at Rarity's prissiness. Rarity's done the same thing on her end by teasing him too. The best way I think I can describe Critter would be that his personality is sort of like Bill Murray in Ghostbusters. An intelligent scientist, but wisecracks a lot.

[Texus]

5976493 honestly i don´t know why i don´t like him that much, maybe i have just a problem with them, because i had read another story, that would at least explain why i am wary about Rarity, but i can´t say for sure, what it is that is bugging me about Critter.

One thing that is possible, is that Critter reminds me at an weird professor in a movie, that was a mean guy later.
I only saw him bugged, or that he started to to quarrel with Rarity, i guess it would help to have only one chapter where he shows another part of his hopefully widespread personality, i hope he isn´t only like that.

[rcmgamer218]

“Oops. Did I interrupt the new blank-flank’s nap?~”

I'd say it's been nice knowing Diamond Tiara, but... f her

[josue]

6363004 I am going to enjoy seeing her flank beaten

[Emperor]

Proof in this chapter why Rarity WOULDN'T make a good mother: she lets a colt with very little understanding of the local language and even less understandings of sensibilities and customs go off with three fillies who are known for destructive antics, in a town that seems to have a monster attack every other week. Really, Rarity? Really?

[DracoBrony]

To qoute John Tron: two kids gonna die tonight!