“To welcome those who would not be willing to sacrifice for our cause is tantamount to deliberately giving up our horns, an action deserving of bottomless contempt.” Piercing Vision

-Cyclical Misery-

It felt odd for the castle to be this quiet. Ever since she had moved here, it felt like something was constantly taking place, whether it was a simple misunderstanding between friends or a misguided unicorn unwittingly trying to eradicate the very fabric of space and time as revenge. When she got to thinking about it, she kind of missed Starlight. Starlight had left Ponyville about three days ago to reconnect with her family in Canterlot and wouldn’t be back till next week. The fact Starlight was doing her best to improve herself and discover that she doesn’t always have to rely on herself and just needed to ask made her proud of her progress; she just wished the timing would have been better, right now she could really use support from anyone that could spare it.

She was presently writing everything she could about the new arrival in Equestria, the human. She couldn’t write with much certainty as to what humans were like given she had only interacted with the one, a fact that ground her gears to no end. What made it even more challenging was how representative he was to his race. Were humans inherently incapable of holding a conversation? Was that trait only shared by hunters, or perhaps he was the only human in existence whose personality was antithetical to everything Equestria held dear? With her luck, it would be the ladder with the added benefit of getting to meet an actually kind human just before both leave forever making it so that 99% of her interactions with humans would be with the absolutely worst paring imaginable. At least for the moment, she could work without any distractions, besides the oppressive silence and emotional turmoil the human had brought on.

Normally, she would be ecstatic to have the castle mostly to herself and the time to just relax and unwind, especially with how quiet it had become. The only problem with that was that the one individual she was sharing her home with was the individual she was writing about, someone who could apparently know exactly where anypony he met, scratch that, anypony at all was. She would like nothing more than to interrogate him on exactly how he did this, but it terrified her that the answer would be ‘I can smell their blood’ or some other disturbing answer. Until now she thought the phrase ‘don’t ask questions if you’re afraid of what the answer might be’ was beyond foolish, why wouldn’t anypony want to know an answer to something they were genuinely curious about, now she was grasping the reason. Added to the absolute silence he seemed to operate with if she wasn’t currently writing she would have thought that she was experiencing sensory deprivation.

Twilight’s quiet reflection was broken by the sound of the front door being opened and closed again. She could tell by the lack of clopping or wing beats coming down the hall but instead a sound of scaled feet that Spike had returned. When he opened the door to the kitchen she could tell that something was off with him. He didn’t look like his usual upbeat self or angry at her for volunteering him, instead, his posture made him look older than he actually was. It was the posture of someone that had just had their perspective of the world turned on its head, a posture she knew all too well from past experience. Spike decided to sit back where he had been before Fluttershy had unceremoniously relieved him from his meal.

“Is Fluttershy’s friend going to be able to help the timberwolf,” Spike asked, breaking the quiet with the voice of someone that wanted the best but was expecting the worst.

“I don’t know,” Spike didn’t seem like he was in the mood for somepony to try to cheer him up by telling him everything will turn out alright in the end, it was probably best to just tell him how she felt “very little is known about timberwolves as far as I know and if that’s the case he might be just as helpless as Fluttershy. All we can do is hope I’m wrong.”

Twilights words didn’t seem to have helped the situation but she doubted they had made it worse.

Spike had been pissed when Twilight had volunteered him to help with the timberwolf. The first time he had genuinely dealt with Timberwolves was the time when he had pledged his service to Applejack, they had nearly killed him then and subsequent meetings had only helped to enforce this. Why was Twilight having him join Fluttershy to see the timberwolf, wouldn’t it have been better to have Fluttershy ask for Featherweight to help take the pictures she needed and then give them to him to send with the message. Now that he was thinking, it would be more efficient this way but that wasn’t the point, someone should have asked him what he wanted and not just take it for granted that he was alright with being roped into everything.

Currently, Spike was being carried through Central Ponyville atop Fluttershy on their way to were Featherweight tended to relax. Since Featherweight had been appointed the editor-in-chief of the school paper his free time tended to get eaten up trying to help the other foals either clean up their articles of mistakes or help the new recruits find the position that they would fit best at. Because of his dwindling free time he tended to sit on a bench in the area that usually had several ponies with carts selling something or another just watching the other ponies go about their days. What was even funnier about this was that even when he did his best to get some time to himself he still couldn’t wrest himself from the paper. Invariably he would find something that sparked his meddlesomeness and led to a photo being taken and another article being added to the next issue of the paper.

As the two came upon the bustling center of trade for those who either were unable or unwilling to acquire a more permanent residence for their wares it was quickly made clear that they weren’t going to find featherweight here. Featherweight preferred the stories that he wrote to come from a more intimate environment, one where he could watch somepony and truly get a feel for what was happening, so the hustle and bustle that they were seeing now was definitely something that the young colt didn’t want to be around. Fluttershy started to feel depressed, Ponyville was so large it would take hours to find somepony if you didn’t know where they would be. Just as she was about to resign herself to hours of aimless wandering she remembered that the park she had been walking through when she saw Twilight and the human was just the kind of place that Featherweight liked to relax in.

“I don’t see him anywhere. Do you think he’s WWWOOOOOOOAAA,” Spike was barely able to hold on as Fluttershy suddenly took off. He had a feeling she had figured out where Featherweight was but she could have given him some warning beforehand.

Featherweight was enjoying his day off from school and the paper to the best of his ability, it always felt nice to not have to worry about anything. He had originally been planning to pony watch at the town center, especially given the fact that a new creature had come to town with the elements and had been seen traveling through there. Unfortunately, it had been too crowded so if he wanted to wait to meet the new arrival he would have likely needed to have waited as everypony else would have crowded them before him. He had settled for watching ponies in the park from a bench near the fountain after seeing the bustle around his usual spot. He had been sitting and waiting for somepony to come around and stay when he overheard some mares talking about seeing the new arrival walking through the park from the Apple family farm to Twilights castle. He had run as fast as he could in the direction of the path they would be taking but he hadn’t been fast enough.

He had been sitting on a bench near the path that the new arrival was seen coming down for the last few hours. He didn’t know if he was expecting to see this new creature, if he was hoping against hope that somepony would come down the path despite it being one of the more remote walkways, or if he was simply enjoying the peace and quiet. He had been trying to get time to himself as of late, he really had, he had even started to keep his camera in a bag and in pieces to dissuade himself from always looking for a picture to take but despite his attempts, he could never keep away from his job. Cheerily had said he was a type A pony, someone that always wanted to be doing something, he just needed to learn to moderate himself and not overwork himself.

Featherweight’s stomach let off a modest rumble as he was contemplating why he had stayed here, reminding him he had elected to skip lunch and instead only have a snack. He had been told countless times by both his parents and cheerily that he needed to maintain a decent diet, especially with how skinny he was, and stop burying himself in something on another and skipping meals. He was getting down from the bench and about to head towards home when he saw the pink and yellow shape of a running Fluttershy heading in his direction, and by the looks of it she was carrying Spike with her. Something was telling him that she needed Spike and him for something important, and he couldn’t help but start to grow a little smile.

Spike was hanging on as tight as he could to Fluttershy, well not as tight as he could but definitely tight enough that he was at no risk of falling off. The two of them had been to the more trafficked areas in the park but couldn’t find the young colt. It wasn’t until they overheard a conversation about a “new minotaur in town” that they received a clue as to where he might have gone to. Knowing the colt he couldn’t resist the chance to actually meet the new arrival and possibly interview it. The two of them, more so Fluttershy, questioned the ponies that were talking about it if they knew where the human had been seen. They said that they didn’t see it but had heard from those that had that the human was seen on the same path she had been on when she met up with Twilight and Draxton. She already knew this but the fact that the story of was Draxton had been was still being spread let alone being spread clued her into where Featherweight had gone.

Fluttershy made a beeline to the path she had taken earlier, cutting through grass and other paths on the way; occasionally stopping to apologize for her rudeness when she failed to notice ponies soon enough and almost cut them off. It didn’t take long to reach the path and when she got there Fluttershy decided to head in the direction of the castle, figuring that Featherweight was most likely in that direction. It didn’t take long, about five minutes later Spike announced, “there he is,” and Fluttershy made out the shape of the young colt of a park bench ahead. Featherweight looked surprised to see the two of them together and greeted them politely but gave off a sense of discomfort.

“Hi there Featherweight, I was looking for you. I was wondering if you could help me with something,” Fluttershy began in her usual timid fashion, “I need to send some pictures to a friend of mine to see if he can help, and I thought you would be the perfect pony to help; if you don’t mind that is.”

“Sure, I'm always glad to help,” Featherweight responded, all discomfort gone from his voice. He had been expecting something far scarier, specifically being questioned about why he was here and being reprimanded.

The two ponies and one dragon began the walk to Fluttershy's cottage in relative quiet only disturbed by the sounds of Featherweight piecing together his camera. They were moving at a brisk trot mostly due to Fluttershy wanting to get back as soon as he could partly due to her desire to help heal the timberwolf but mostly due to her not wanting to leave him alone for too long, especially after the look she had been given. Spike was still a little ticked over being brought along but had mostly mellowed out due to not being tossed around by all the running.

“So what do you need me to help with. I know you said you wanted me to take pictures but I was wondering what you needed me to take pictures of,” Featherweight felt somewhat foolish asking this now since he should have probably done so earlier, but he figured that Fluttershy was simply having work done on her cottage and the pony responsible needed reference pictures. It seemed rather silly since there were several ponies in town that could do the job just fine but considering that one of her friends was Rarity she had probably been convinced to use a more artistic pony.

“I found a poor wounded timberwolf yesterday but I haven't been able to help it get better. I thought I could do it myself but I don’t know enough,” Fluttershy responded melancholically, her ears flattening against her head as her head drooped and her pace slowed.

As soon as Featherweight heard the word Timberwolf alarms in his head started to go off. He knew how dangerous they could be. If he was remembering the stories around town correctly timberwolves had proved to be a problem for both Applejack and Rainbowdash and had only been stopped by a bit of luck. Despite knowing that the timberwolf was hurt and that Fluttershy would be able to keep it from hurting him he couldn’t help but feel on edge.

When the three of them arrived at the cottage Featherweight could feel himself tense up when Fluttershy reached to open the door, preparing to be assaulted by the timberwolf. When no attack came at the opening of the door just the sight of the inside of Fluttershy's cottage his nervousness seemed to dissipate only to return as he remembered there still was a timberwolf in the cottage that he was going to need to be neer in short order. When Fluttershy entered the cottage Spike lept down and proceeded to follow on his own, now that he wasn’t going to be left behind from all the running he could at least take back some control on his day. Fluttershy began to head upstairs to her room with the two tagalongs following close behind. When she reached for the door Featherweight experienced the same tension he had had at the front door only worse now that he knew there would definitely be a timberwolf behind this door.

When the door opened to reveal the inside of the room both Featherweight and Spike were surprised by what they were seeing. In front of them, laying down at the foot of the bed was what looked to be an actual wolf. Granted the fact that they had been told that it was a timberwolf and the fact its main body wasn’t hairy gave away it wasn’t an actual wolf but if they had seen it walking around they would have mistaken it for one. The most surprising thing though was the position it was in, the way it had been laying down along with the heads up position it had taken when it saw Fluttershy made it look like just another dog. Well, any other dog if you considered a dog slightly bigger than a pony to be normal.

When Fluttershy walked into the room the timberwolf’s tail began to slowly wag across the floor, creating a slightly unpleasant wood on wood scraping noise. As the other two entered the room the timberwolf seemed to become more nervous, with his ears partially flattening against his head and his tail stopping. Both Spike and Featherweight felt sorry for the creature before them and remorseful as to how they acted before; Spike for being so irritated with Fluttershy and Twilight, obviously this wolf made his personal problems look like a minor inconvenience in comparison, and Featherweight for assuming that this wolf was going to try to kill him as this poor thing looked to be in no condition to do anything.

“Are you ready Featherweight,” Fluttershy asked, turning to face the young colt.

Featherweight almost jumped after he heard his name. He had been so engrossed in how different the timberwolf in front of him was from what he expected one to be that he had forgotten about everything else around him. he simply nodded and held up his camera to show that he was ready. Fluttershy had him take several pictures from various angles, from full body shots to close-ups of the damaged eye and missing leg. The missing leg shot had been the more enlightening picture to take. When he saw how clean the leg had been taken off he really couldn’t imagine what could have done that. When he first tried to take a picture of it it had turned out too dark with none of the fine detail showing up. He asked Fluttershy if she could have him move to a brighter location but she explained that his other leg was broken at the hip and he needed to be held up or carried if he wanted more light from the window. She and Spike were able to lift him and place his back half in the direct light coming through the window.

After the final picture Fluttershy wanted was taken and all of the polaroids had finished developing Fluttershy quickly comprised a message and folded it into a letter and added the pictures. She added a note saying that it should be delivered to Forester at the Saddle Pine University of Ecology and that it was urgent that he get it. Spike was then handed the letter and in a flash of green fire and smoke, the letter had been sent. Fluttershy thanked the two of them for their help and went downstairs to start preparing dinner for all the animals she was housing. Spike and Featherweight seeing that there really wasn’t a need to stay anymore. The two of them started there decent downstairs and back towards their respective homes with Spike bringing up the rear.

Featherweight noticed that Spike hadn’t been his usual upbeat self since he had helped to move the timberwolf. Something about helping to move the timberwolf unsettled Spike and was now eating away at him. He tried offering to walk home with him but was met with a “don’t worry about it, I’ll be fine” from the purple dragon. On his way home the only thing on Featherweight’s mind was the hope that the letter arrives quickly and the other pony could make here soon.

The last half hour had been spent in silence by Twilight and Spike. Neither one of them willing to break it as both of their days had been spent in less than ideal circumstances, the stress and weight of their current situation. The oppressive silence that Twilight had been experiencing since Fluttershy left had resumed, so much so that she could make out the sound of a door being opened and closed upstairs along with the faint sound of footsteps. The pace of those footsteps was sending shivers down her spine though. Since she had met Draxton everytime she could make out the sound of him walking it had always been fairly brisk, never in a rush but definitely not relaxed. Now, the time between steps was much slower. Granted she was used to the steps of quadrupeds being an almost constant stream of noise but she had walked with minotaurs before and even their pace was never this slow and regular. Given what she knew about him, describing the sound as the slow approach of one's own death fit only too perfectly.

When Draxton reached the bottom of the stairs and turned towards the kitchen she could almost describe herself as happy. He was probably coming to talk to her about something but she had other plans. As soon as he opened that door she was going to lock it and try to beat some equestrian manners into him so he wouldn’t be so insufferable to deal with. Her plans to instill some form of decency in Draxton were thwarted however by him simply walking right past the door to the kitchen. Her elation at finally being able to curb the frustration Draxton had been giving her was replaced by absolute confusion. Why would Draxton be wandering around the castle? He hadn't shown any interest in being given a tour let alone even asked where anything in the house was. Granted there was NO instance she could imagine where Draxton would ask her anything. She would be willing to bet that if he became lost in the Canterlot Caverns and she had a map to the most efficient way out he would just aimlessly wander around until he found an exit of died.

It really was confusing though as to why he was just walking around the castle. He didn’t seem like the kind to do anything without a purpose. Every time she had been around him if he wasn’t occupied with something he seemed to be content to just write in his notebook or go to sleep if how she found him at Applejacks farm was any indication. While she was pondering this she heard the distinct sound of the heavy library doors opening and then closing again. Now she was unnerved, why did he go into that door, was it because it was just different to all the others, did he know that that was the library, and if he knew that that was the door to the library how did he know this? Even though it was too early to call Twilight was mentally noting that Draxton apparently had the power to know exactly where everything was at any time, a walking atlas with a penchant for murder.

Twilight quickly got up, she needed to get answers from Draxton on just what in Celestia's name he was up to. She opened up the door to the quickly trotted down the hall to the library. When she reached the door she yanked the doors open and was greeted the sight of the library as she had last seen it except for Draxon standing on the left side of the library with his back to her, seemingly browsing for a book judging by how his hand was moving across the fifth shelf up.

“If you aren't careful you're going to damage the hinges. Or are all doors made to deal with unicorn magic?” Draxtons voice was the same unchanging, almost bored tone it had been save for their first meeting.

Ok, he’s doing it again, knowing exactly who was where without seeing them. She needed to get to the bottom of this before she becomes paranoid.

“Ok, I don’t know what's normal for you but quite frankly you are the creepiest individual I have ever met and you are not leaving here until you answer some questions.”

For his part Draxton seems to have found the book he was looking for as he grabbed the book and simply turned around to face her. The silence that followed reminded Twilight that he refused to verbally acknowledge those he was talking to and simply wait for them to say what it was they were talking to him for. Despite her desire to pound into him the need to adhere to equestrian codes of decency, preferably by embedding a book on the topic into his skull as that was the most likely way to get it into his head she could hold that for another day. Right now the questions in her head took precedent.

“First off, why in Tartarus are in the library?”

“I was looking for a book about this world.”

Perfect, apparently he was a walking atlas, unless.

“How did you find the library?”

“Walking around last night.”

Ok, so at least he wasn’t all knowing. Still, him walking around the castle alone last night didn’t do anything to lessen the uncomfortable vibe she got from him.

“Secondly, how do you know it was me?”

“You’re the only unicorn here at the moment and your pet doesn't seem strong enough.”

“First off Spike isn't my pet, he’s family if anything he’s my brother. Second how do you know I’m the only unicorn.”

“The door opened two times since we arrived back, once on your friend and brother leaving and once when he came back. At no time did I hear another horse enter.”

That’s scary. He had been listening to everything going on in the house and could tell just how many ponies were in the house. Either he had better hearing than she had originally believed or the castle carried more noise than she thought. Granted she felt the desire to correct him that they were ponies, not horses as horses were taller with the closest population of them being Saddle Arabia, but that was a conversation for another time.

“Ok, then just how were you able to tell when I arrived to pick you up from Applejacks or when Fluttershy was coming up behind us in the park?”

Draxton held up a hand with two fingers raised before dropping one, signaling he was answering the first part. “I could hear someone approaching and when I smelled the air I could tell it was you,” Draxton stated before dropping the second finger, “and in the park we were traveling downwind so I could smell anyone behind us.”

“Then how did you know it was Fluttershy, you never met her?”

“I found her in the forest. Before I met you I was looking for the source of those wooden dogs. I saw her caring for one and figured it was hers and the other ones I had been wild.”

So that’s how he knew were Fluttershy had been when they first met. Well, that answers another question she had.

“What about when we were at the edge of the Everfree? You could tell where my friends had gone, I know you couldn’t have been able to smell them since the wind doesn't blow that direction.”

“I followed the path your friends made when they were running. When we left the forest I saw the disturbance in the grass in the direction of the house.”

At least he wasn’t lying about being a hunter. Even she hadn’t noticed the trail her friends had left. She just had one last question.

“Why did you bring all of your things with you? You could have left it back at your workshop.”

“If your royal family is anything like the ones I’m familiar with they will want to keep an eye on me. They will most likely take me to their palace to do so.”

It unnerved Twilight how right Draxton was in that regard. Well, at least she had gotten the answers she had been seeking, and to top it off he wasn’t as creepy as she had initially thought. Granted his sense of smell and sound were much greater than she thought animals could have but it was a far cry from the all-knowing being she had worked her self into thinking he was.

“Well, it’s a relief to know I was just being paranoid. In the future, when you do something that surprises somepony, please explain how you do it because when you don’t it makes you seem far scarier than you actually are.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Draxton turned to one of the chairs and proceeded towards it, obviously believing the conversation to be done with. Well, the conversation was done but would it kill him to just ask instead of figuring it out himself and assuming the other pony was fine with him just leaving. Again, a conversation for another day. She could not help but smile as she turned around and started to head out. She really had just been paranoid, as far as she could tell Draxton was about as normal as one could expect. When she reached the door and opened it she couldn’t help but turn around tell Draxton one last thing before she left.

“You know, it’s kind of funny. I came in here half expecting you to tell me you know where ponies are by the scent of their blood or something else really creepy,” she regretted saying this as soon as she got her response.

“I am.”

Why did she have to go and open her stupid mouth? Why could she have not just kept it closed and adhered to the saying ignorance is bliss? Why had she forgotten the don’t ask questions phrase she had JUST been thinking about not even an hour ago?. It was nice to know she wouldn’t be sleeping tonight. If last night was any indication she didn’t need it anyway.

Forrester was sitting at his desk going over some notes he had taken of a grigorpodi pack he had been observing this past week. The sun was about to set for the day but like most other days, that wasn’t going to stop him. He tended to stay late going over notes, remembering what it had been like and how the timberwolves had behaved. If he had his way he would spend more time with the timberwolves, heck he would spend all his time with them, but alas, the university required him to publish papers on what he found. Fortunately, he had been able to convince his boss not to place him in a lecturer position, citing the need to have a flexible schedule as he was still one of the only scientists that studied timberwolves so extensively. It wasn’t entirely true though, as several of his colleagues were lecture staff and could take a temporary leave to attend a speech or conduct research. He also had a pretty good feeling she knew that but never chose to push the topic.

He was just going over the section of notes he had made where he described that despite the introduction of balsa wood and the corresponding trees no timberwolves were seen incorporating it into their bodies, despite the calculations showing the loss in weight having a significant impact on the speed the timberwolves would be able to achieve. He hypothesized that despite the wood being lighter it being much more fragile suggested that the species required species of wood with a minimum weight to strength ratio. As he was about to pick up a databook on the properties of all known species of trees he heard several firm and quick knocks at his door. By the sound of It, whatever had brought this pony here must be urgent. He really hoped that it was another message from the Lama Empire asking him to come back to help with athrafstos repopulation efforts. He always loved to study the athrafstos. The species were the largest timberwolves and due to the wood they formed their bodies with were almost imposable to damage. When he opened the door to his office he was met with a mail pegasus breathing heavily.

“Are you Forrester,” the pony short-windedly asked after he had taken a deep breath to be able to do so without panting.

“I am.”

“I have an urgent message for you from the royal representatives,” the mail pegasus choked out before reaching into his bag and pulling out an unmarked letter.

“Are you sure that’s for me, its kind of blank?”

“Yeah, it’s the only piece of mail I have. A royal representative came into Parcels and Packages, grabbed me, and told me I needed to get this to you as fast as I could. I had just clocked out to.”

Forrester thanked the exhausted pony and tipped him for his troubles. When he closed his door he walked back over to his desk and began to analyze the piece of mail. The paper used for the letter was obviously equestrian in origin due to the bleaching and consistency of the color, so no urgent lama-grams. Judging by the lack of information on the front and back it hadn't been intended to ever go through the proper mail channels. When testing the letter to tell what was inside he could make out something thick and semi-flexible taking up the entire length of the letter behind two more ridged objects. If he had to guess, he would say the letter contained a written message and stacks of sticky notes. When he opened the letter he found that he was partially right, there was a message with the denser things he felt looking to be stacks of polaroids. If he had to hazard a guess, he would say that the letter was about some new timberwolf pack moving to an area around the castle. One of the citizens or a pony under Celestia was probably overreacting and asking him what they needed to do to get rid of them, with the pictures being of the pack in question. He tended to get a significant amount of letters about ponies wanting him to remove the timberwolves from an area and he was getting tired of it. Why couldn’t other ponies see what he did and just let the timberwolves be? They tended to stay to themselves for the most part anyways.

With resignation to what he was probably about to read, he removed the message from the letter with his mouth and proceeded to open it to see if the pony at least wrote their name at the bottom of their message. He was happy, and quite frankly relieved, to see it was Fluttershy, the pony he had met not too long ago when she was on a trip to study, what were they again, koopa, koola, maybe karma? Either way, at least he knew she was a fellow peer that understood wild animals shouldn’t be persecuted but understood.

Dear Forrester

I hope I’m not bothering you by sending this letter but I could really use your help.
I was recently deep in the Everfree and came across an injured timberwolf. I
brought him home to try to take care of him but when I tried to give him some
wood to help him repair himself, he just says none of it calls to him. He’s in really
bad shape and I don’t know if I could deal with being unable to help him. I included
some pictures if those could help you identify what I'm doing wrong. If you could
get back to me as soon as posable I would really appreciate it since I don’t want the
poor thing to suffer more than it already is.

Sincerely, Fluttershy

Finally, a letter asking to help a timberwolf. Unfortunately, the problem was probably extremely simple to solve, but he was willing to take any victory, no matter how small. If he remembered correctly she said the town she lived in only had rudervariabilis, so either she had found a different species when she went deep into the Everfree or the wood she had tried to give it was not good, either full of toxins or too damaged to use. If it was just another species he would just need to look at the pictures to see what species it was and what wood it would need. He just hoped it wasn’t an arborescens, he knew that adult specimens lost the ability to heal from wounds and he just didn’t think Fluttershy would be able to handle that kind of information.

He took the open letter in his mouth and proceeded to dump its contents of pictures out onto his desk and what he saw shocked him to his core. It, fortunately, wasn’t an arborescens but it definitely wasn’t a rudervariabilis, its body was too organized. The timberwolf in the pictures lacked the random scattering of different woods the timberwolves she was familiar with had. It instead looked to be made of different woods, all organized to make up only a certain part of the body. It was obviously not an athrafstos as there looked to be at least four different wood species, and while they were known to be packs that were made up of two different kinds of wood there had never been a pack with three kinds of wood, let alone four. The most interesting thing though was how closely it resembled an actual wolf. Usually, a timberwolf looked vaguely like some kind of Canidae with one species looking like a fox and another like a coyote no timberwolf had been recorded looking this close to an actual recreation of a canine.

While he did take a glance over the injuries it had sustained, and they were bad, particularly that eye. He couldn’t help but admire what had been sent to him, evidence of a new species of timberwolf. This was not only the opportunity of a lifetime but the one thing he had been dreaming of since he had discovered his love and subsequent talent for observing timberwolves. If this really was a new species he knew he would be able to convince his boss to give him the time and funding to study them, the perfect opportunity to get back in the field and out of this horrible office writing papers all day. He quickly got up from his chair and bolted out of the room and towards the office of Ruby Roots. When he arrived at her office he flung the door open, frightening the poor mare inside half to death as she had just been graphing the distribution and density of the conifers to look for where the boreal zones of Equestria were best defined as being.

“When does the next train going to Ponyville leave,” Forrester exclaimed before the mare had a chance to recover.

“I think the next one leaving south is in half an hour,” Ruby Roots responded half on instinct as she was still trying to figure out what was happening.

Forrester spun around and sprinted back to his office, inciting Ruby to yell after him to never burst in on her like that and to at least have the common courtesy to close her door after he left. But those complaints just went from one ear to the other as all he cared about right now was grabbing his traveling bag and booking it to the train station. After all, he only had half an hour and he wasn’t missing that train. Even though he knew another train would be leaving only a few hours after that one even that was too long to wait to finally see this amazing new specimen.

Author's Note

the species in the chapter [if you are confused as to why Forrester uses those weird names its because they are the scientific names and scientists almost never use the common name, so here are the explanations in order of refference]

Full name Composita Motorias Copiam Bestia Silva Lupus -
meaning; composition mobile supply animal forest wolf

Due to the nature of entities like the timberwolf posses being neith plant nor animal a new organic clasification was created for organisms that share properties of multiple kingdoms (compostia). They are a mobile organism (Motorias) and they suply material from them selfs when they breed (Copiam). The kingdoms they resemble are Animalia (Bestia) and Plantai (Silvia){when classifying the order you list the similar organisms goes animal, plant, fungi, bacteria, archaiea}. The genus they most closely resemble is the wolf (Lupus). Due to timberwolfs not being organisms in the manner we know it as, their "genetic uniqueness" is the magical signiture unique to them.

species name {what the name translates to} (common name); description

grigorpodi {quick footed} (blink paw) very lean and long, very fast, about as big as a shows Timberwolf, made from very light wood so can’t handle many hits and requires it to obtain wood more often than any other species to maintain itself, eats rabbits and squirrels mostly, about 10 kilos or 22 lbs. Evolved in this manner as long ago when larger, slower animals were hunted to extiction by several packs in an area and they could not easily migrate the wolfs that survived to pass on their "genes" were those that could chase and catch the faster animals. Over time, the timberwolves that had a stronger desire to use lighter woods became more successful and their genes were passed on.

athrafstos {unbreakable} (stone wolf) a species that evolved from oxyderkis with a majority of packs only being composed of one type of wood, these wolves are the largest being about twice the size of griffins and very bulky, name comes from the fact these wolfs are composed of woods that are extremely hard, diet is similar to oxyderkis only they will also eat the roots of most every plant, usually weigh upwards of 95 kilos or 210 lbs. Evolved in this manner as the location where they evolved contained more deadly threats so the timberwolves that survived were those that were larger and made of harder woods.

rudervariabilis {variable rubbish} (tinderwolf) “shows Timberwolves” very adaptable as it is the only species that can utilize any wood it finds as all other species can only use specific kinds of wood, weight varies by wood used and amount used. evolved in this manner due to pressure from the windigos killing off a great deal of plant life, forcing the timberwolves to be less selective. Native to regions were windigos first came from. Species is a good example of runaway sexual selection as female timberwolves desired less selective mates, even though they are the most succesful species and no longer need to be so open to any wood.

arborescens {shrub like} (bush wolf) about the size of a normal European wolf but its body is a thick mass of sticks and underbrush, upon reaching adulthood lose the capacity to repair themselves from damage by grafting on new wood, to compensate for the loss they are the second best runners, adapters, and camouflages’. Evolved this way as there was presure to be beter at hiding. Lost the ability to repair as their body exists in symbiosis with living plant matter so if a piece is lost and a replacement is introduced it would face chemical attacks from the already present plant life and might kill the timberwolf in the attempt to kill the foreign invader.