Travelers or Nomads?

by bigmacbush

Side Story One: Caring for a Wooden Dog

It was some time ago, not a long time ago, just some time. I had told the guys I was going for a trek into the Everfree, I don't know why but I just felt like going there.
After about roughly 40-60 minutes I heard something growling at me, looking around I saw it, a Timberwolf. According to research notes from Twilight, Timberwolves of this size were commonly known as Den Mothers, guardians of the pups for the pack, but this one was alone. Upon noticing it, I took a defensive stance, but . . . . . it didn't seem aggressive, it looked . . . scared. It looked at me, hoping I would offer help, in turn I let my guard down, letting it know I would help if I can.
Slowly and carefully, it walked towards me, barely six feet away from it, it got something off it's back, a pup, not even a few months old according to Twilight's notes. It put the pup down in front of me "Do you. . . want me to take it with me?" I asked, it did nothing but nod.
Off in the distance I heard some howling, the Den Mother panicked, then it ran off to the opposite direction. Quickly I decided to carry the pup in my satchel and ran off, flying could prove hazardous with a live creature in my satchel. After getting home, I decided to keep the pup in my room, then went to research how to care for a Timberwolf pup.

After checking the library, the town's library, Twilight's library, I found nothing on caring for a Timberwolf, oh well guess I'll just have to learn how and take notes on the subject. Some time later I had told the guys and they were more than willing to help me with the Timberwolf pup, as long as they had armor before seeing him. . . . her? I'm not quite sure yet.
Knowing very little, I waited until it woke up, and when it did, it panicked, running around; looking scared, and staying as far away from me as possible, "Don't worry little buddy, I'm not here to hurt you. You can trust me." Strangely enough it understood me, slowly edging closer to me, extending my hoof out to it, it came up to me and licked my hoof, like a normal dog.
After figuring things out about Timberwolves, I took notes for myself for later confirmation before handing them off to Twilight for research. I found out that the pup was male, there's no obvious tell for stuff like that, but it seems to act like a normal male. After what happened earlier, I decided to find out for myself, "Hey, can you understand me?" I asked, and all he did was nod in understanding, I have no idea why that is, when the guys tried talking to him, he tilted his head and then turned to me.
I contemplated taking him to Fluttershy, but decided not to, she might freak out and run off to tell Twilight there was a Timberwolf nearby. Later the pup looked like it wanted to go outside, reluctantly I agreed, we went out the back and it went to the Everfree, excitedly it ran around, now that I think about it, what do Timberwolves eat? I followed him around, hoping for an answer about his food situation. When it found what appeared to be a bushel of mushrooms, it just started to snarf them all down with ease, Timberwolves eat mushrooms from the looks of it, what else? I don't know.
When we got home, it was already late, he seemed tired, so I carried him back to my room. Late at night I took notes on everything I learned about Timberwolves today, strangely I felt as though I should probably just ask him about everything, instead of experimenting on him, like some wild animal, because he wasn't just any wild animal, he was more than a pet, he was more like a companion. I think I'll name him Timby.

It's been a while since I've had Timby over at the house. I decided to go see Twilight to drop off some of my research notes on Timberwolves, not all of them for obvious reasons, what I failed to notice was Timby following me there. At some point on the walk to her castle, I heard a few ponies screaming yelling "TIMBERWOLF!!!" It was then I found out that Timby was with me.
Many of the Ponyville Protection Force showed up, showing hostility towards Timby, instinctively I took a defensive stance, one of the officers said "Sir, move away from the Timberwolf." I did nothing but hold my ground, and giving all of them the strongest glare I could give off, most of them saw the fire in my eyes and backed away. The rest that did not back away, slowly moved in for a offensive move, I moved to stay closer to Timby. When they got close enough, I had hit one of them with all that I could, and knocked him out cold,
"Luckily it's just my hooves right?" The others backed away,
not wanting any of this, "M-m-move along, j-j-just make sure it doesn't hurt anypony." They said, in which I replied
"He's not an 'it,' his name is Timby, and I'm the one you should be scared about."
Everyone backed further away, as a sign of fear, I said "Come on Timby, let's go." All he did was bark playfully, then we went to Twilight's to drop off the notes I had made thanks to Timby. I noticed something about my behavior regarding Timby, I defended him as a sign of protectiveness, like a . . . mother would. I guess I must be a new Den Mother to him. Twilight was really excited about the notes, though I barely noticed, keeping an eye on Timby. Twilight noticed and asked about him,
all I could say was "I have a new buddy to go on adventures with."
in which she asked "A Timberwolf?"
I replied with "How do you think I got all these notes?"
She said nothing afterwards and I left shortly after dropping off the notes. Most ponies avoided me on the way, either scared of me or Timby, it didn't matter, they'll understand eventually, just not now.

The morning after yesterday's . . . events, I decided to train Timby to be a combat specialist, something those wild Timberwolves can't do. He's been doing well, for his first day of solid training, some of the other ponies were wondering if I truly had him under control, they asked about it, and I demonstrated by giving Timby precise orders and he pulled them all off flawlessly, proving that I had him all under control, but he still has his own free will.
He's gotten bigger over the last few days, I just recently noticed that he has little plant fibers on his legs, maybe he could use this to his advantage, in the morning I managed to make simple grappling hooks made from reinforced wood with tiny spikes to cling onto solid surfaces. It took a while to him to get used to it, but now he can freely launch them from his front legs, this could be very interesting, seeing what he would do with them, it may soon be time to go on another expedition, he could use real combat experience.

After some time on our short expedition into the Everfree, we had run into a couple of Timberwolves, both Timby and I went to defensive stances, waiting for them to make the first move, after three of them ran towards me, Timby pinned one of them down and went for a kill, without hesitation, like a professional.
The other two went down fairly quickly, just a few swings from my blade to take care of them, it may need sharpening after this, the edges are a bit rough. A week after that expedition, a couple of ponies from town came to thank me, why? I never did anything to help them, after asking why they were thanking me, it was for protecting the town, from what? I never heard or saw anything dangerous recently, then I thought for a second, was it Timby keeping the town safe? I later asked him about that, apparently he has been going out on his own fighting creatures of ill intent nearby, to keep the town, or me safe. I felt worried and proud, but mostly scared. This explains his professionalism about killing, even his own kind.
The next morning I had asked him to spar with me, not anything major, arena rules; no killing, just make your enemy surrender. Either I'm getting rough or he's getting too good, he managed to get a few strikes in on me, and dodged most of my swings. I won, with just barely a few knocks away from passing out, his training has yielded unexpected results.

Thanks to Timby keeping up the good work, no one is scared of him anymore, he's considered a defender, even the PPF is okay with him now.
Though he's gotten considerably bigger since he's been here, it may be time to check if he wants to get reinforced, reinforcing wood takes time, and may hurt a Timberwolf, but it makes them significantly tougher and stronger. He agreed to the idea, but I told him he'll have to take it easy for a few weeks, which he's not too keen on.
So I decided to take a break with him, maybe get a massage, relax for a while and just rest. The Spa Ponies were especially excited to hear that I would be taking it easy, according to them, they were wondering about the muscle and stress kept in my wings. The massage felt amazing, I have never felt so relaxed and refreshed in my life, they seemed to offer "special services" to stallions like myself, but I refused for my own sanity, I would rather focus on my work.
I finally caught up own my books and training manuals for new skills for me to learn and eventually master. It is currently taking forever for me to learn tailoring, frustrated I handed it off to Crazy Bread, and left to go let out some steam by destroying something relatively small off in the distance.
Being unsure of myself, considering I'm more of a blacksmith and not a tailor anyway, after dealing with all this, we decide to plan out our next expedition, maybe in a few months we'll head out.

After deciding to travel north next, we went over ideas for the future encounters, and coming up with a combat strategy, though we may not take Timby along with us, because Ponyville needs someone to defend it, and that's now his job.
For now in the meantime we went over house plans and discussed where should we keep our armaments, or weapons and armor for simpler words, and came up with keeping an armory in the lower floors of the house, maybe in the corner so we could have proper ventilation in there. Through blood (mostly mine) sweat (mostly Smiley) and tears (mostly Crazy) we finished it, though it took roughly three weeks to put it together. Finally finished we decided to take a break at the spa, remembering what happened last time, I decided not to, instead I felt like relaxing in the armory, for some reason I feel more comfortable in here, the smell, the heat, it's so relaxing here.
Suddenly, I fell asleep and when I awoke I had an idea, a hot spring in the house, perhaps at the back of the house, but that had to wait for another time, in the meantime while they were gone, I researched ores and materials in the north, turns out most of the things necessary for a hot spring could be found there. Upon their return, I asked them if a hot spring would be a good attachment to our house, they both agreed with no hesitation, apparently going to the spa ponies was really awkward for them, agreeing with the idea we decided to take the cart with us when we leave in a few months.

We had been preparing for a while, touched up on battle strategy, mentally prepared for the worse case scenario, added a couple rooms to the house, just in case something comes and we need a new room, there's now a storage area A.K.A. the brand new basement, took forever to renovate for it, but it was worth every Bit.
It was a month before our planned departure, so we needed to get our things ready and in the cart, our weapons especially, so we don't leave underhoofed, and what appeared to be three months worth of provisions, in case we decided to extend our expedition, or meet some new ponies willing to work with us. A week later, Crazy wanted some new tomes, I told him that the ones not in the library are in the basement, and the "forbidden" tomes are in a lock box, aptly labeled "FORBIDDEN" and Smiley wanted something to do, so I just told him to go see Pinkie Pie, there's never a dull moment with her around.
All I did was attempt, keyword "attempt" to learn cartography (mapping) and I cannot figure out how other ponies manage to pull stuff like this off. Hopefully we'll find some sort of scout to hire for part-time cartography or something, but it's not likely that will happen to us out there, we'd never be THAT lucky.
We have two weeks before we set out and explore the northern borderlands of Equestria, we debated about whether or not we should ask one of our friends to go along with us, but decided not to since it seems a bit too dangerous. Today's the day we leave for the borderlands, but I'll save that story for another time, not today.