Doug turns, only to go as white as a sheet as blood drains from his face.

Hulking along the fenceline is a pitch black timberwolf, easily the size of three ponies. Burnt and blackened spines ripple across its back like branches of pine needles in a storm. Beady magenta eyes, level with the human’s, stare intently above a protruding jaw that, were it not for the jagged spikes, might be comically oversized. Its bulky barrel shaped chest sinks all the way to the ground, paws with massive claws raking into the soft soil. It growls as it shuffles forward, a wooden rasp sending shivers down spines. It focuses solely on Doug as it stalks around the pen and ignores the pigs and stallion cowering in the somewhat concealing mud.

At least, until it’s obvious it has been spotted. Then the timberwolf crouches down, about to bound forward with terrifying speed and pounce.

Fluttershy whimpers as she freezes in midair, holding her hooves up as if they might offer any protection. The birds following the pigs scatter, a few chirping the alarm as they speed to Ponyville. Applejack backpedals, scanning the orchard for Granny Smith or any other pegasi that should be rallying to help.

Doug whips his arm forward, hurtling Granny Smith’s favorite pie tin as hard as he possibly can. It soars through the air, the slight spiral difficult to predict. The timberwolf barely has time to react before the heavy tin smashes right between its eyes with the crunch of metal and splintering of wood.

The threatening growl cuts off as the beast rears back, the great wooden head shifting back and forth. A brash voice, injured and on the verge of tears, comes from inside. “Ow! Ow, ow, ow!”

Doug stops, halfway from yanking his boot off his foot. “Rainbow Dash?” Worry crosses his face before rage consumes him, any thought of retreat gone. He rips the boot the rest of the way off as he bellows, “It ate Rainbow Dash!!” He charges forward, hoping to distract it and let Applejack or Big Mac get to a flanking position, his own armament limited to his boots and whatever fence railings he can rip out.

“No, you bucking foal!” The timberwolf flops to its side, revealing four white and four pink legs along the bottom. Doug skids to a stop as Pinkie Pie tumbles out, pronking up and somehow managing to not cover herself in mud. A sheepish looking Rarity, her body occasionally shuddering from obvious pushing, yelps at the very real possibility of getting mud anywhere but her black boots.

Rainbow Dash proves a physically stronger, if less observant, pony as she shoves Rarity face first into the mud. She flies out, snout in hoof and glaring daggers at Doug. “By Celestia’s desiccated teats! Who throws a pie tin?”

Doug looks at the boot in his hand as Rarity rears up.

“Why, you!” the mud caked unicorn shouts at Rainbow Dash. Her horn lights cornflower blue and drags the unsuspecting pegasus down. Her eyes go wide as she plummets, dunking underneath the soupy brown. “How dare you cover me in mud!”

“Ooh, are we having a mud fight?” Pinkie Pie whips up two perfectly circular globs of mud merely by dropping down for a split second. “They’re the best kind of pies!” One pie hits Doug square in the face while the other nails Applejack and leaves both of them sputtering.

Doug staggers from the unexpected hit and falls into the muck, the boot falling forgotten to his side. He wipes away the mud as best he can while Applejack merely blinks away the brown, leaving two green orbs above a grinning smirk. “Oh?” Applejack yells at Rarity as she charges forward. “Ah hear ya pay good bits for a mud bath at Aloe’s. Our mud ain’t good enough for ya?”

“Wha?” Rarity says, taken aback, only for Applejack to rush her. “You know that’s not what I mean!” Her hoofball training lets her stand up to Applejack’s playful tackle, a quick flare of her horn tripping the orange earth pony’s back leg. “It’s supposed to be a mud mask!”

“Like this?” Applejack’s grip prevails, dragging the unicorn down with her. Any hard feelings dissipate as Applejack refreshes the mud on her own face, grinning up at the unicorn.

“I suppose,” Rarity says, her smirk mostly hidden by the mud. “But you missed a spot.” Her horn lights, dropping a few carefully aimed droplets before she slumps down, fully immersing herself.

“Weee!” Pinkie Pie yells as she plows into Doug, knocking him into Rainbow Dash as the pegasus tries to get up. The ball of pony rolls towards the other three, ending up with Rainbow on her back, Doug laying on top of her with Pinkie Pie sitting on his back.

“You okay there, Dash?” Doug asks, a hand gunking up her mane as he scratches her neck.

“Of course!” she claims, pushing her snout against his chest to show how totally not in pain she is. She grins at him through watery eyes. “I’ve run into stuff way harder than that. It just startled me, is all.”

“Of course,” Doug echoes, nodding along. He glances at the timberwolf costume. “I’m just glad I didn’t have a...”

“A what?” Rainbow Dash asks.

“...Never mind,” Doug says quickly. He sighs at Rainbow Dash’s inquisitive stare. “A weapon that’s extraordinarily efficient at killing things.”

Rainbow Dash opens her mouth for a brief moment before swiftly shutting it and nodding, subdued.

“What is that, anyway?” Doug motions to the black timberwolf laying on its side. “I don’t want to believe that, on a whim, you crafted a giant wolf costume just to try to scare me.”

“Giant?” Rainbow Dash says, cocking her head to the side as she mentally measures the costume. “It’s, like, barely twenty percent of an astral cub. There’s way bigger stuff out there.”

“You didn’t answer my question,” Doug says as Pinkie Pie lounges on his back. Either she’s trying to drive them together, and doing a great job of it, or fortuitously clueless. Too bad she weighs only slightly less than Applejack, and the strain is starting to get uncomfortable.

“It’s a training tool we use for the weather trainees,” Rainbow Dash explains. “They have to be able to spot threats coming towards Ponyville, so we stalk around in it and see when they catch us.” She sighs to herself. “Either the last two are blind as a bat or they’re searching for me.”

“Y-you shouldn’t be so insulting to bats,” Fluttershy says as she peeks out of the mud. “Or to your trainees.”

“In which case,” Rainbow Dash continues with a roll of her eyes, “after they couldn’t find me they should have gone to Open or Clear and formed a brute squad.” She leans around Doug to scan the skies, her muzzle curling upwards. “And they there are.”

“Hey, Dash!” Clear Skies greets as she lands next to the timberwolf costume, a critical eye roving over the mud stains. Above her a half dozen pegasi hover, two of them trading relieved glances. “You know you’re cleaning this, right?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Rainbow Dash says as she pushes out from under Doug. She leaps into the air, a quick whirlwind sending mud flying in every direction and leaving her sparkling clean. She shouts to the others hanging back, “Thanks, everypony! You’re free to go!” While they fly off she turns to the two trainees. “Orange Swirl, what would you have done if you got here and couldn’t find the timberwolf?”

“Um,” the yellow pegasus says as she glances around the orchards, “Go to the last known spot and start a search?”

“Good, but,” Rainbow Dash continues, her expression hard, “why did both you and Parasol go to search for reinforcements?”

The two pegasi trainees gulp, their heads lowering slightly as their wings beat a little slower.

“One of you needs to keep eyes on any threat, not just to keep it from hiding away but to know what kind of help is going to be needed on the scene.” Rainbow Dash motions to Applejack and Rarity. “If they got mauled, you would need to triage and potentially decide on a course of action. As a first responder, it falls on you to make that call.” The two trainees shudder, flinching at the mention of injuries. Rainbow Dash’s hard gaze lightens as she flies closer, now reassuringly quiet, “Do you want me to go over some of the first aid techniques?”

The two pegasi nod quickly and gladly.

“Hey, guys?” Rainbow Dash says as she flies back to the herd. “Any of you want a quick rain-blow dry before I go?”

“A what?” Doug asks nopony in particular.

“Ah’m good,” Applejack says from her mud bath. Next to her Rarity shakes her head, less resigned and more enjoying her impromptu spa session that she might as well take advantage of. She might even parlay it into a massage afterwards!

Rainbow Dash grabs the costume and flicks her head up as she hovers in front of Doug. “Stand up, big guy. And hold this.”

“O-kay,” Doug says and takes the costume with a slight frown.

Rainbow Dash drops down, pulling away the apron before she spins around Doug. A rainbow tornado erupts from her wake, whisking away the mud and water and leaving him sparkling clean except for his hair, which is a complete mess. She hoofs the apron back with an exhausted kiss, reluctantly pulling away and flying off with the two trainees. “Alright, so, when you’re looking at a cut, you need to…”

Doug looks down at his body, then the costume. “Huh. Not at all what I was expecting.”

“Were you expecting this?” Pinkie Pie exclaims as she bounces up. Her tongue, easily a foot longer than it has any right to be, whips around her body as she spins like a top. All the mud on her coat flies off in every direction but Doug’s, mostly because he is holding the costume between the two and she doesn’t want to get it dirty.

“...Right.” Doug finds a dry spot to put the costume before returning to Applejack and Rarity. He looks over the pigs with a heavy sigh. “Hey, Applejack?”

“Yeah?” the farmmare replies, enjoying her break while she can.

Doug flicks his hair, which would make an anime character proud in how it stands on end in every direction, towards the pigs. “I think I’d like to focus on farming more in the future. And never mention pigs again.”

“Ah think Ah’m okay with that,” Applejack says with a wry chuckle.

Next Chapter: Ch. 106 - The Beast Fur Shawl Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 29 Minutes