Let's start with the most famous creatures of the Everfree: timberwolves. However, before we dive into the study of these peculiar wooden wolves, we first need to look at the source of their beloved food.
Zap Apple Trees
A species well-known thanks to the Apple family's famous jam and the strange phenomena surrounding its production. However, that is not the case of the wild specimens. But I am getting ahead of myself.
I bet that everypony from Hoofington to Appleloosa at least once tasted the jam and heard the story of how these apples got out of the Everfree and into the light of Celestia's sun: the tale of a brave filly forced by hunger into the depths of the dangerous forest.
In case you are unfamiliar with her story, the short version is that she was fortunate enough to stumble upon a clearing with many trees whose branches were laden with the colorful fruits. Given the zap apples are ripe only for a very short period of time, it seems like a real stroke of luck, doesn’t it?
What appears as a huge coincidence in fact isn’t. The zap apple trees in the Everfree bear fruit much more often, mainly due to the more favourable conditions.
The trees grow very slowly when present in a grove of older trees of their kin, the meagre amount of light decelerating the saplings’ growth. On the other hoof, I dug a few test pits in a zap apple grove and found a very complex and delicate system of roots and fungal hyphae connecting the individual plants. I presume that the seedlings might use these to obtain nutrition from the older trees.
Zap apple seeds colonising new land grow much faster, but their habit is somewhat gaunt and sickly, and the trees are unable to bear fruit as often as trees grown in long-established groves (i.e. twice or thrice a month). This is likely the result of the tree investing all it has into rapid growth and lacking the extra sustenance from its brethren. Zap apple trees grown outside the Everfree can also call on their innate magic to bring forth the necessary weather for them to start blooming. This might explain the so-called "Signs of the Coming Harvest" observed in zap apple orchards outside the Everfree. Some of the phenomena, such as the flocks of crows and meteor showers might help the trees in the foreign environment, serving as possible pollinators and a way to scare off herbivores, respectively. Or, given these plants are distant relatives of the poison joke, and everything living in the Everfree has a pinch of chaos magic in it, all of these signs might as well be pure shenanigans without any purpose.
The zap apple trees usually grow in drier, semi-shaded clearings where the trees usually create groves consisting of three to ten individuals.
Timberwolves
Hierarchy
Unlike normal wolves, timberwolves lack a strict hierarchy and are usually present in family groups or packs of three to eight individuals. Members of a pack share one or rarely more clearings with a zap apple tree grove. The pack is usually led by one individual, usually the eldest. Females with pups might wander further away from the group, but are still treated as members.
You may also encounter loners, usually young male timberwolves repelled from their packs due to aggressive behaviour or an insufficient amount of zap apples. Loners just wander around the Everfree, looking for something edible and for another pack they could join. They might sometimes gather in smaller, unstable groups. These are also the timberwolves with the terrible stench coming from their maws, why is it so will be explained shortly.
Diet
Timberwolves feed primarily on zap apples. They are after them like Princess Celestia after cake Equestrian dragons after gemstones, and their pack's zap apple grove clearing is the most guarded part of their territory.
When there is an overall scarcity of zap apples--usually after the sudden onset of tough winter when the buds and young shoots of the trees freeze--the wolves turn to berries, roots, and meat for sustenance. Loners resort to this diet if they fail to steal a few zap apples for themselves.
However, there is hardly enough to sate all loners, and so some have to make do with devouring rotten wood, which is the worst possible option for their gastrointestinal tract. The wood continues breaking down in their stomach, decomposing the timberwolves on the inside as well. This also results in their stinking breath. The timberwolves can survive this for a while, though if the decomposition goes too far, the wolves are then unable to switch back to a normal diet as anything they eat will only worsen their state.
The most important thing for you to remember is that stinking breath means a hungry and possibly deranged timberwolf.
Range
Timberwolves can be found through the whole Everfree Forest, though they usually avoid the areas where cragadiles occur, including Froggy Bottom Bog and the rocky region above it. The packs tend to defend their zap apple groves and their immediate vicinity, but they are not strictly territorial. Give them a wide berth, and they’ll likely do the same.
Reproduction
The only act of timberwolf reproduction I was able to observe resembled some sort of ritual. It seems that it can occur only during spring and early summer. It also requires two different mating types, which I consider to be male and female, for the reproductive process to start.
Both partners gather sticks, leaves, bark et cetera from their surroundings or, less commonly, from their own bodies and build the pup from inside out. The male often initiates this, presenting a pile of the aforementioned materials he gathered. The female sniffs the pile and checks the quality of the items. If she finds the male’s contribution sufficient, she starts gathering more material herself and the two wolves start assembling the pup together. When that phase is done, both parents freeze in a howling position as if they were howling and release wisps of their magic. Each of these wisps looks and behaves differently, and given that the same individual always releases the same kind of magic, I dare propose that the wolf’s gender (or mating type, if you prefer), is firmly set.
The parents’ magics combine and together soak to the body of the little one. The pup then slowly awakes. It stays with the pack, usually pretty close to its mother for a year or so. A newborn timberwolf is about one third the size of an adult timberwolf and has the withers height of an average filly. Growth occurs through the wolves attaching new pieces of wood into their bodies. In theory, their growth can be unlimited, but it seems the wolves limit themselves only to a certain size, most likely because sustaining and moving a larger physique through the underbrush would be too cumbersome.
Appropriate behaviour
First option: Most timberwolves will let you go if you offer them a batch of zap apples. Throwing a few before their muzzle should be enough. However, don’t try to pick zap apples from the timberwolf groves, it’ll only provoke the wolves further. As I know, all of them are currently taken. Also, throwing zapples to loners is a bit dicey as their insides may have rotted so much that the fruit will only upset their stomach.
Second option is carrying something that you can make noise with. Timberwolves are generally unable to distinguish most loud sounds from the clapping of cragadile jaws. And since cragadiles are one of the few creatures that can seriously hurt a timberwolf, the wolves make sure to give a wide berth to anything that sounds like the ‘diles. Though I admit lugging around some pans or pots to make noise with is quite impractical. Furthermore, you are always at risk of attracting the attention of something worse than a timberwolf.
Fire might also seem like a viable option, since these creatures are mostly made of wood. It is not. Someone already tried it on a few timberwolves. I was lucky enough--if you can call it luck--to be around and witness the consequences. They burn quite slowly and become far more aggressive. And as they run around, trying to extinguish themselves, they can set the forest around on fire. You might escape a timberwolf, but you'll most likely end up in an inferno of your own making.
Typo in the first paragraph: Exatc
I like your portrayal of the timberwolves here, most people (including myself) like the theory of them being some kind of possesed dead wood scraps and that the bad breath comes from rotting meat in their non-functional wooden bellies, but your efforts at rationalizing them as an actual living animal is a breath of fresh air.
7617648 Fixed! Thank you!
Well, I was tired of them being just the monsters that everybody uses as a plot device whenever their characters stumbles into Everfree...
Also, interesting theory you have there. I've never heard of that one before.
7617703
I like to think that the wolves are left over from a time when ancient magicks were in full force where they were created as guardians and once their masters died due to some yet unknown cause they had to learn to be animals.
The zap apples were created by these druid-like beings to sustain their guard dogs by infusing a large amount of gaian magic into them which gives them such a particular taste and growing period.
Would be interesting if Timberwolves actually had clans where the wolves selected a particular type of wood for the properties of that wood. Lighter weight pine for flexibility and speed? Sturdy oak for brute strength?
Also cool story idea based on their reproduction: Say some enterprising ponies hit upon and idea to harvest wood (doing some lumbering) from the edge of the Everfree. Nopony has a problem with it until they come close to a Timberwolf Glen (or whatever name you choose for a center for one pack). Then, due to the trees having been cut and extra limbs having been left around, there is an explosion in the Timberwolf population due to all of the extra tree scraps where the wood cutters were working, and some problems arise with that, as well as misinformed ponies in what to do about it, until a biologist shows up... And go from there.
8442609
I believe different forms of wood and material (leaves, bark, needles etc.) account for different functions in the body, just like we have lots of different tissues.
As for the reproduction... I'm not so sure it would work like that. Sure, there would be more potential building material, but still the same amount of the Timberwolf pairs. There is a limited amount of pups they can have per one season, with the building material being their least concern. After all, the right parts are lying all around even in lumberjack-untouched forest. On the other hand, the potential parents would be stressed by the ponies' presence and the Zapple trees might be affected by the changes of the deforestation as well. In the end, I believe the Timberwolf population would stagger. Maybe only the already existing young Timberwolves would be able to grow faster by equiping themselves with the falled wood.
Fun Fact: the trees use these little fungi to send each other chemical signals and warnings if, say, a tree is being attacked by parasties.
9386650
Never heard that fact before, but I'll make sure to look it up. Can't really imagine how that would work though, maybe by the fungi sucking in some fytohormones by mistake? But the so called wood-wide-web is definitely a thing, plants of various species using the hyphae to steal nutrients from each other, some of them, like blueberries and heather and, at least during germination, orchids, can't even survive without that. The sapling feeding bit is actually based on beeches. It is also very well known that plants can warn their surroundings about parasites or predators (Yes, a cow eating grass is a predator!) by airborne volatile chemicals.
Interesting insight into timber wolves it makes sense that a being constructed from nature magic would use fruits that are filled with it as a food source though I wonder what the sand hounds I ran into in the central desert of the Mastralia island (I don't understand why we need to make all the places in our world named after puns we should have just left that island as the many countries the natives have within instead of making a pun name for the whole thing) feed on in that regard
From a fellow nature lover and explorer Strange Truth
Oh my gosh, I'm only one chapter in and I already love this! I'm such a huuuge fan of world-building! This is right up my alley...
I love the idea of their procreation and the connection to zap apples. Something I feel is missing from this chapter is the timber wolves ability to reassemble after being 'destroyed'. Is it infinite? Is it a one-time-trick they can pull? Does that make them immortal?
11170121
Thank you for such kind words and so many comments! I'm glad to hear you're enjoying this story!
Who knows. Definitely needs more data.