Once upon a time in a village on the edge of the forest, there was a little Pegasus filly called Sheppard Scoot. One day, she was given the job of looking after a herd of sheep in the meadow and she was told that if trouble came, she would alert the villagers immediately. She agreed and was left to do her task. After a long time of watching the sheep, Sheppard Scoot grew bored.
“Ugh, this is so boring. What to do? What to do?” She groaned, tapping her hoof on the grassy ground underneath her. Soon, a thought popped into her head. “Hmmmm. How about a little… joke to liven things up a bit? But what kind of joke should I tell?”
Soon, she concocted the perfect joke. Sheppard Scoot got onto her hooves, took in a deep breath, closed her eyes, and yelled as loudly as she could,
“Timberwolf! Oh no! It’s a Timberwolf! It’ll eat the sheep!”
When the townsponies heard the tiny Pegasus’s screams and cries from far away, they came running with gardening tools as weapons in tow to help her. They ran to the middle of the meadow and cautiously looked around the area.
“What’s going on out here?” “Are the sheep safe?” “Is everypony alright?” “Where’s the Timberwolf?” “Let me at it!” The confused villagers questioned.
But as they looked around the calm meadow, the villagers could see no Timberwolf. All that they saw was the little Pegasus filly laughing at their disgusted and confused faces and rolling in the grass. They realized what had happened and they all angrily trudged back to the village. About two hours or so later, Sheppard Scoot grew bored again and she decided to play the same trick one more time, just for another good laugh.
“Timberwolf!” She cried again. “Oh no! Help! It’ll steal all of the town’s sheep!”
The villagers heard the distant shouts again and they came running to help the filly again, only to find out that they’ve been tricked again. They saw little Sheppard Scoot rolling around in the grass, her face beet red from laughing so much and pounding her hoof on the ground.
One pony, who was the mayor, stepped forward and looked at the filly who was lying at her hooves. Scoot stopped laughing and looked at everyone with worried eyes. “What? Too much? Or too soon?”
“Young filly, I’m warning you, if you cry Timberwolf one more time, we won’t come!” The mayor said sternly.
“We’ll think it’s another one of your tricks if you do. And if do you cry Timberwolf again, you’ll be sorry.” A grey Pegasus mare added, hovering near the mayor.
“Capiche! I promise I won’t cry Timberwolf ever again!” Sheppard Scoot said nervously as she stood up and the villagers went back home.
Sometime later, Sheppard Scoot grew bored again and she thought about her Timberwolf trick. She stopped herself and she thought, ‘I shouldn’t cry Timberwolf again. I promised them and everything. So… so I won’t do it.’
But soon after making her decision, Sheppard Scoot smelled something quite rotten in the air. It smelled like rotting apples, moldy cheese, and skunk spray. It was absolutely repulsive. And when she turned around, she saw… a real Timberwolf standing right behind her! She gasped, flapped her wings and ran away from it while screaming:
“Help! Timberwolf! An actual Timberwolf really came this time! I really mean it this time! Please! Somepony, HELP ME!”
The Pegasus cried, yelled, screamed, and shouted for help many times, but no one came to her rescue. As they heard her distant claims, the villagers just told themselves, “She’s only does it for the attention. I won’t be fooled again.” They just shrugged it off and went back to whatever it was they were doing before.
Sheppard Scoot made up a story about the Timberwolf so many times, now no one believed him; even though there really was a Timberwolf. The Timberwolf chased the filly all over the valley and it eventually caught her; but she escaped from its clutches by using her back legs to kick it in the face. She ran straight to the town and she desperately tried to get the townsponies to help him defeat the Timberwolf.
But the Timberwolf followed her back to the village and now that they saw it for themselves, everypony believed the filly. The townsponies grabbed whatever they could get their hooves on and surrounded the Timberwolf, ready to fight. They used powerful kicks, punches, rocks, and fire to fight off the vicious beast. The Timberwolf was eventually overwhelmed and it shattered into nothing but splinters in defeat.
Soon after the monster was gone, Sheppard Scoot learned a very valuable lesson and she promised herself that she would never tell another lie for attention or a laugh ever again. Sheppard Scoot quickly became the town hero and official Sheppard and she and the rest of her hometown all lived happily ever after.