//------------------------------//
// Of Timberwolves and Zap Apples 
// Story: Natura Semper Liberi 
// by EverfreePony 
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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.