WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:02.639 --> 00:00:23.740
"Language Barrier" Written by Aquaman

00:00:23.740 --> 00:00:28.860
As all young colts and fillies know, lunch
is the most important meal of the day.

00:00:28.860 --> 00:00:35.710
Breakfast goes by too fast and dinner always
comes too early, but lunchtime—rain or shine,

00:00:35.710 --> 00:00:41.570
school day or weekend, inside at home or out
on the playground—is perfect.

00:00:41.570 --> 00:00:45.269
For half an hour between history and math,
anything is possible.

00:00:45.269 --> 00:00:51.289
Secrets are traded, friendships are strengthened,
contracts are written in saliva and blood—and

00:00:51.289 --> 00:00:56.359
above all, absolutely no grownups can hear
a word anypony says.

00:00:56.359 --> 00:01:02.359
Even if that word, whispered between three
fillies ensconced within the jungle gym, is

00:01:02.359 --> 00:01:05.089
one that none of them are supposed to know.

00:01:05.089 --> 00:01:08.390
“Are you sure you heard it right?”

00:01:08.390 --> 00:01:13.740
Mouth full as it was with mashed-up buttercups,
Dinky Hooves found it harder than she expected

00:01:13.740 --> 00:01:15.790
to bend hers into a frown.

00:01:15.790 --> 00:01:21.000
Once she chewed a bit more and swallowed,
she fixed Peachy Pie with a powerful stare,

00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:24.650
throwing in an eyeroll and a sigh just to
drive the point home.

00:01:24.650 --> 00:01:27.210
“I was right there,” she told her.

00:01:27.210 --> 00:01:29.960
“And they said it twice.”

00:01:29.960 --> 00:01:34.870
Beaten back for the moment, Peachy Pie pursed
her lips and hunched over her yogurt cup.

00:01:34.870 --> 00:01:41.670
A lull followed, buzzing with tension, until
Sunny Daze leaned in to break it.

00:01:41.670 --> 00:01:42.960
“But…

00:01:42.960 --> 00:01:45.120
Fluttershy?” she asked.

00:01:45.120 --> 00:01:47.960
“Are you sure you didn’t just…

00:01:47.960 --> 00:01:49.200
I dunno…”

00:01:49.200 --> 00:01:52.150
“She said it,” Dinky insisted.

00:01:52.150 --> 00:01:54.020
“And Rainbow Dash too.

00:01:54.020 --> 00:01:57.340
Both of them said they were… they said…”

00:01:57.340 --> 00:02:02.780
Dinky threw a furtive glance towards the schoolhouse,
matching Peachy and Sunny’s more anxious

00:02:02.780 --> 00:02:04.340
movements.

00:02:04.340 --> 00:02:09.500
Satisfied they were still alone, she wet her
lips and scooted forward a bit, until her

00:02:09.500 --> 00:02:13.160
head hovered inches from the tips of her friends’
muzzles.

00:02:13.160 --> 00:02:18.540
She let the moment play out, silent and terrible,
and then…

00:02:18.540 --> 00:02:20.280
“Peeved.”

00:02:20.280 --> 00:02:25.680
The word cut through the three fillies like
scissors through silk, like hoofsteps outside

00:02:25.680 --> 00:02:28.730
their bedrooms when they were supposed to
be asleep.

00:02:28.730 --> 00:02:34.430
Peachy shuddered as Sunny bit her lip, and
an electric thrill rippled through Dinky’s

00:02:34.430 --> 00:02:38.300
shoulders, tickling her spine and tingling
inside her chest.

00:02:38.300 --> 00:02:43.360
She’d tapped into something bigger than
herself, some secret power none of them could

00:02:43.360 --> 00:02:44.770
comprehend.

00:02:44.770 --> 00:02:51.159
It sounded so simple: just a few letters,
some probably repeated, all mashed together

00:02:51.159 --> 00:02:53.440
into one whispered syllable.

00:02:53.440 --> 00:02:57.200
But here beneath the jungle gym, it was anything
but.

00:02:57.200 --> 00:03:03.340
It was a grownup word—a bad word—and Dinky
Hooves was the only one who knew it.

00:03:03.340 --> 00:03:06.040
“I don’t get it.”

00:03:06.040 --> 00:03:11.610
As Peachy’s eyes widened and Dinky’s narrowed
into slits, Sunny Daze squirmed in place.

00:03:11.610 --> 00:03:18.200
“I mean… why aren’t we supposed to say
it?” she went on, fiddling with an emptied

00:03:18.200 --> 00:03:20.790
string cheese wrapper in her lap.

00:03:20.790 --> 00:03:22.909
“It’s just a word, right?”

00:03:22.909 --> 00:03:25.049
“It’s not just a word!”

00:03:25.049 --> 00:03:29.489
Dinky replied, with all the haughty confidence
of a foal who’d rather enjoyed not feeling

00:03:29.489 --> 00:03:31.200
like one for a moment.

00:03:31.200 --> 00:03:34.010
“Millie didn’t want me to hear it.

00:03:34.010 --> 00:03:36.090
She wouldn’t even tell me what it means!”

00:03:36.090 --> 00:03:38.580
“What does it mean?”

00:03:38.580 --> 00:03:44.159
Peachy swiveled her uneasy gaze Dinky’s
way, ready as Sunny was to hear her response.

00:03:44.159 --> 00:03:48.090
Too late, Dinky realized her mistake.

00:03:48.090 --> 00:03:51.060
“It… um…”

00:03:51.060 --> 00:03:53.010
She chewed on her tongue in thought.

00:03:53.010 --> 00:03:55.150
Why had Fluttershy said that word?

00:03:55.150 --> 00:04:00.230
What in Equestria would justify an action
so patently adult?

00:04:00.230 --> 00:04:03.190
“... angry,” Dinky semi-educatedly guessed.

00:04:03.190 --> 00:04:07.700
“It means you’re, uh… really, really
mad.”

00:04:07.700 --> 00:04:11.799
Like a pendulum on a string, Peachy’s head
swung back towards Sunny.

00:04:11.799 --> 00:04:15.390
“Why wouldn’t they just say they were
mad, then?”

00:04:15.390 --> 00:04:19.130
Sunny asked, her nose wrinkled with unsated
skepticism.

00:04:19.130 --> 00:04:22.340
“Because they’re grownups.”

00:04:22.340 --> 00:04:27.320
Dinky didn’t hesitate this time, her lungs
refilled with newfound confidence.

00:04:27.320 --> 00:04:30.700
“That’s who grownup words are for.”

00:04:30.700 --> 00:04:34.260
“That seems kind of silly,” Sunny said.

00:04:34.260 --> 00:04:38.750
“Well, so do grownups half the time,”
Dinky argued back.

00:04:38.750 --> 00:04:41.410
With a knowing shrug, Sunny conceded the point.

00:04:41.410 --> 00:04:45.080
“And that’s not the important thing anyway.

00:04:45.080 --> 00:04:49.400
The important thing is that we’re not supposed
to say it.”

00:04:49.400 --> 00:04:53.250
“But you said it,” Peachy meekly pointed
out.

00:04:53.250 --> 00:04:55.040
“That’s different!”

00:04:55.040 --> 00:04:59.710
Dinky paused to take a sip of grape juice,
her hoof angled to hide the blush dawning

00:04:59.710 --> 00:05:01.460
over her cheeks.

00:05:01.460 --> 00:05:05.750
“Just because we’re not supposed to say
it doesn’t mean we can’t.

00:05:05.750 --> 00:05:09.220
You don’t have to be a grownup to act like
one.”

00:05:09.220 --> 00:05:13.300
“How is saying a bad word acting like a
grownup?”

00:05:13.300 --> 00:05:18.240
Sunny folded her forelegs over her chest,
the seedlings of a pout sprouting around her

00:05:18.240 --> 00:05:19.600
eyes and mouth.

00:05:19.600 --> 00:05:22.910
“It doesn’t sound like a grownup word.”

00:05:22.910 --> 00:05:24.750
“Why would it?”

00:05:24.750 --> 00:05:30.531
Dinky said, following the time-honored foalish
practice of speaking first and figuring out

00:05:30.531 --> 00:05:32.050
later why what she’d said made sense.

00:05:32.050 --> 00:05:33.130
“Because… because grownups are boring,
and it’s a boring-sounding word.

00:05:33.130 --> 00:05:34.130
It’s obvious.”

00:05:34.130 --> 00:05:38.920
Sunny huffed and leaned back against the jungle
gym’s frame, but offered no argument to

00:05:38.920 --> 00:05:41.730
counter Dinky’s claim.

00:05:41.730 --> 00:05:46.770
Another quiet moment came and went, reversing
its previous course back over to Peachy.

00:05:46.770 --> 00:05:52.060
“I always thought it was an animal,” she
mumbled, only to shrink back once she noticed

00:05:52.060 --> 00:05:54.180
the looks her statement earned her.

00:05:54.180 --> 00:05:55.950
“‘Cause, uh…

00:05:55.950 --> 00:06:01.910
I-I heard my mom talk about having pet peeves
once and I thought… y’know, pets?

00:06:01.910 --> 00:06:02.910
Like…”

00:06:02.910 --> 00:06:07.540
Dinky’s eyebrow shot up, and Peachy cowered
beneath it.

00:06:07.540 --> 00:06:12.020
“I don’t know, I never asked what it meant!”
she wailed.

00:06:12.020 --> 00:06:16.820
“I just… wait, what are you doing?”

00:06:16.820 --> 00:06:21.720
Sunny had hijacked Peachy’s train of thought,
throwing papers and pencils everywhere as

00:06:21.720 --> 00:06:26.000
she dug through her saddlebag next to her
lunchbox.

00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:30.870
After a few seconds, she freed a dog-eared
book with a red cover from somewhere near

00:06:30.870 --> 00:06:36.650
the bottom, as thick around as her hoof and
filled with thin pages that rustled like fallen

00:06:36.650 --> 00:06:38.560
leaves when she flipped through them.

00:06:38.560 --> 00:06:43.810
“How do you spell it?” she asked without
looking up.

00:06:43.810 --> 00:06:50.150
When neither Dinky nor Peachy came up with
a reply, she grit her teeth and shot the former

00:06:50.150 --> 00:06:51.950
a disarmingly plaintive glare.

00:06:51.950 --> 00:06:56.340
“How do you spell the stupid grownup word?”

00:06:56.340 --> 00:07:01.300
Dinky swallowed hard, her teeth already hovering
around her tongue.

00:07:01.300 --> 00:07:04.550
“Well… it starts with ‘p’.

00:07:04.550 --> 00:07:07.690
Then ‘e’... and another ‘e’.

00:07:07.690 --> 00:07:08.690
And…

00:07:08.690 --> 00:07:10.470
I guess another ‘e’.

00:07:10.470 --> 00:07:13.210
And then, um…

00:07:13.210 --> 00:07:14.440
‘f’?”

00:07:14.440 --> 00:07:15.670
“Here!”

00:07:15.670 --> 00:07:21.180
With Dinky and Peachy peering over her shoulders,
Sunny bent down close and scanned one page

00:07:21.180 --> 00:07:26.450
with particular focus, moving her hoof down
as she read and then stabbing it towards a

00:07:26.450 --> 00:07:29.020
line near the bottom.

00:07:29.020 --> 00:07:30.060
“‘Peeve.

00:07:30.060 --> 00:07:31.830
Vulgar verb’,”, she read.

00:07:31.830 --> 00:07:34.870
“‘To annoy or irritate somepony.

00:07:34.870 --> 00:07:38.500
Derived from peevish’, which means…”

00:07:38.500 --> 00:07:40.910
She shifted her hoof another inch.

00:07:40.910 --> 00:07:45.590
“‘Easily irritated, especially by unimportant
things’.”

00:07:45.590 --> 00:07:50.740
Sunny sat back from the dictionary and looked
up at Dinky, a move which the more grownup

00:07:50.740 --> 00:07:53.870
of the two chose to take in stride.

00:07:53.870 --> 00:07:54.870
“See?”

00:07:54.870 --> 00:07:57.040
Dinky said with a tentative smirk.

00:07:57.040 --> 00:07:59.850
“Told you it meant ‘mad’.”

00:07:59.850 --> 00:08:05.371
“Technically, it means you’re annoyed,”
Sunny grumbled, though even she didn’t sound

00:08:05.371 --> 00:08:07.000
convinced of her position.

00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:11.250
Peachy, meanwhile, looked more perplexed than
ever.

00:08:11.250 --> 00:08:13.410
“Wait, so…” she said.

00:08:13.410 --> 00:08:18.680
“If it means the same as ‘annoyed’,
then does that mean we can’t say that either?”

00:08:18.680 --> 00:08:22.030
“I don’t think so,” Dinky replied.

00:08:22.030 --> 00:08:25.420
“‘Annoyed’ isn’t, um…”

00:08:25.420 --> 00:08:28.770
She craned her neck over Sunny’s head again.

00:08:28.770 --> 00:08:29.770
“... vulgar.”

00:08:29.770 --> 00:08:31.900
“So what can we say?”

00:08:31.900 --> 00:08:32.990
Peachy asked.

00:08:32.990 --> 00:08:39.370
Both she and Dinky looked at Sunny, who wasted
a moment sighing and acting dramatic before

00:08:39.370 --> 00:08:41.610
flipping through to the back pages of her
book.

00:08:41.610 --> 00:08:44.010
“Synonyms: irritate, annoy…”

00:08:44.010 --> 00:08:48.690
“Those are both fine,” Dinky assured both
her friends.

00:08:48.690 --> 00:08:51.399
“The dictionary already said those.”

00:08:51.399 --> 00:08:53.380
“... irk, gall…”

00:08:53.380 --> 00:08:54.380
“Yeeeeah…”

00:08:54.380 --> 00:08:58.520
Dinky said, less assured this time.

00:08:58.520 --> 00:09:00.040
“Keep going?”

00:09:00.040 --> 00:09:01.040
“Pique…”

00:09:01.040 --> 00:09:02.320
“Probably okay.”

00:09:02.320 --> 00:09:03.320
“Exasperate…”

00:09:03.320 --> 00:09:04.600
“Definitely grownup.”

00:09:04.600 --> 00:09:05.600
“Vex…”

00:09:05.600 --> 00:09:08.680
“That just sounds scary,” said Peachy.

00:09:08.680 --> 00:09:12.870
“Like a robot word or something,” Dinky
agreed.

00:09:12.870 --> 00:09:13.870
“Nettle…”

00:09:13.870 --> 00:09:16.360
“Isn’t that a plant?”

00:09:16.360 --> 00:09:21.820
Sunny looked ready to say otherwise, but the
lunch bell robbed her of her chance.

00:09:21.820 --> 00:09:26.390
Their discussion thus tabled, the three fillies
gathered up their trash and made their way

00:09:26.390 --> 00:09:29.300
back towards the schoolhouse together.

00:09:29.300 --> 00:09:34.310
As they filed into line with their classmates
outside the front door, Peachy sidled up next

00:09:34.310 --> 00:09:36.840
to Dinky to whisper in her ear.

00:09:36.840 --> 00:09:41.510
“I had no idea grownup words were so complicated…”

00:09:41.510 --> 00:09:43.590
“Yeah,” Dinky mouthed back.

00:09:43.590 --> 00:09:44.590
“No kidding.”

00:09:44.590 --> 00:09:49.230
“It’s still a dumb word,” Sunny muttered
up ahead of them.

00:09:49.230 --> 00:09:53.340
“You’re a dumb word,” Dinky shot back
as the line began to move.

00:09:53.340 --> 00:09:56.970
“Geez, Sunny, sometimes you can be such
a killjoy.”

00:09:56.970 --> 00:10:01.450
With no warning whatsoever, the world around
Dinky went mad.

00:10:01.450 --> 00:10:06.820
A collective gasp rippled through her entire
class, followed by a deathly silence punctuated

00:10:06.820 --> 00:10:09.520
by gobsmacked grimaces and gaping stares.

00:10:09.520 --> 00:10:16.070
Peachy’s hoof shot up over her mouth, and
Sunny recoiled as if she’d been slapped,

00:10:16.070 --> 00:10:19.870
tears filling her sightless, shimmering eyes.

00:10:19.870 --> 00:10:25.140
Dinky looked from her to Peachy and back again,
then at every one of her classmates in turn

00:10:25.140 --> 00:10:29.330
and finally at Sunny again just to make sure
this was really happening.

00:10:29.330 --> 00:10:35.270
By all evidence she could see, it was..
“... what?”

00:10:35.270 --> 00:10:40.140
Instead of answering her, nopony said a word
or—seemingly—even breathed.

00:10:40.140 --> 00:10:46.210
In the lack of chaos that followed, Miss Cheerilee
entered the conversation like a thunderstorm.

00:10:46.210 --> 00:10:50.840
“Dinky Doo!” she barked from the head
of the line.

00:10:50.840 --> 00:10:55.080
“That is a very inappropriate thing to say!”

00:10:55.080 --> 00:10:59.920
Sandwiched between her classmates’ collective
horror and her teacher’s unbridled wrath,

00:10:59.920 --> 00:11:04.370
Dinky could think of no other course of action
but to blink a few times and wonder whether

00:11:04.370 --> 00:11:07.220
she’d hit her head ducking out from under
the jungle gym.

00:11:07.220 --> 00:11:08.220
“It is?”

00:11:08.220 --> 00:11:12.840
Miss Cheerilee elected not to answer that
question, and instead yanked Dinky out of

00:11:12.840 --> 00:11:17.060
line so she could shepherd her forcefully
back towards the door.

00:11:17.060 --> 00:11:22.230
“I am sure you didn’t learn that kind
of language at home, young lady!” she hissed

00:11:22.230 --> 00:11:23.610
once they were outside.

00:11:23.610 --> 00:11:28.540
“For goodness sakes, don’t you know better
than to call another pony something like…

00:11:28.540 --> 00:11:30.370
something like that?”

00:11:30.370 --> 00:11:32.030
Dinky blinked again.

00:11:32.030 --> 00:11:33.030
“I…”

00:11:33.030 --> 00:11:34.030
“Well?

00:11:34.030 --> 00:11:36.480
I’m waiting, missy!”

00:11:36.480 --> 00:11:37.480
“It…”

00:11:37.480 --> 00:11:41.080
Dinky mumbled, each word taking ages to piece
together.

00:11:41.080 --> 00:11:47.260
“It just means she’s being a spoilsport…
like, acting kinda lame and being all…”

00:11:47.260 --> 00:11:51.260
She shook her head, then shook it again twice
as hard.

00:11:51.260 --> 00:11:53.940
“Okay, wait a minute…”

00:11:53.940 --> 00:11:57.640
But Miss Cheerilee wouldn’t wait, even for
a second.

00:11:57.640 --> 00:12:02.970
“You stay right there,” she ordered, pushing
down on Dinky’s shoulder until her rump

00:12:02.970 --> 00:12:05.610
landed hard on the schoolhouse’s front stoop.

00:12:05.610 --> 00:12:08.970
“We’ll see what your parents have to say
about their daughter’s behavior.”

00:12:08.970 --> 00:12:11.000
“But…”

00:12:11.000 --> 00:12:15.720
Dinky sputtered after her as she turned to
storm back inside.

00:12:15.720 --> 00:12:17.970
“You… wha…”

00:12:17.970 --> 00:12:23.870
The schoolhouse door slammed shut before she
could get a full word out, leaving her with

00:12:23.870 --> 00:12:28.150
only a blank wall to shout her single coherent
thought at.

00:12:28.150 --> 00:12:30.580
“How is that a bad word?”

00:12:30.580 --> 00:12:34.170
If anypony heard her, they didn’t say so.

00:12:34.170 --> 00:12:40.410
Alone and confused, Dinky slumped onto the
stoop and put her head between her forehooves,

00:12:40.410 --> 00:12:43.650
doing her best to rub some sense into her
skull.

00:12:43.650 --> 00:12:48.850
She didn’t know what just happened or why,
but there was one thing she certainly did

00:12:48.850 --> 00:12:50.610
know now.

00:12:50.610 --> 00:12:54.279
Grownup words were not to be trifled with.

00:12:54.279 --> 00:12:57.740
The End

00:12:57.740 --> 00:12:59.770
Hello everypony, Snogwritts here!

00:12:59.770 --> 00:13:04.090
Hope you enjoyed the reading, if so be sure
to leave a like and subscribe for more readings

00:13:04.090 --> 00:13:06.060
like this one every Saturday.

00:13:06.060 --> 00:13:30.790
Alright thats it for me this is Snogwritts,
signing out.