When Rainbow's eyes opened, she averted them to her present company one body at a time, finding them all still sound asleep despite the fact that a faint ray of sunlight had managed to cast itself upon all of their faces. She frowned and shrugged, opting to just lay there and wait for somebody else to wake up, yet nobody moved for twenty minutes straight. She noticed that the sunlight was tinged in green, but as she stared, the green hue faded and faded until only pure golden rays remained behind. She turned to the window, finding a hue of purple-scarlet, with a layer of darkened green at the edge of its bottom.

Rainbow got up, stretched her wings and cantered lightly to the window, her steps silent and swift. Peering out, she saw clouds parting of their own accord, with the rising sun coming up into the sky to greet Greenwood's side of Fantasia. Sighing through her nostrils, she started gazing down at the ground, seeing a few villagers trot out of their houses, mostly unicorns with bows and quivers slung over their withers in addition to standard saddlebags, with a hoofful of earth ponies lugging around axes, shovels, and hoes. All of them were stallions, a little wobbly-legged from the wedding procession the day prior, and strangely enough not one pegasus was to be found amongst them.

Rainbow fluffed her wings a bit and watched as the mares trotted out after the stallions, many with greying coats and manes. The few young mares out and about were either pregnant, or watching their pregnant fellows as if wondering when they'd have their baby. Like the stallions, there were a few earth ponies in the lot, but most were unicorns toting saddlebags around. The pregnant mares and those with greying bodies carried smaller bags, though none lit up their horns even once to better bear their loads.

A few foals emerged after the mares, and when they did they stuck with the pregnant ones like glue, bouncing up and down with mouths moving rapidly. Nopony seemed to even realize they had visitors yet, and honestly Rainbow wasn't sure if it was a good thing or not, given the intrusion upon their wedding ceremony. She cringed when she realized that, sooner or later, the whole of Greenwood would find out, and her brow furrowed when she also realized that there was no telling how they'd react to that news once they caught on. Some part of her hoped the welcoming committee would be friendly, though another part of her honestly doubted that being the outcome.

Caught up in her observations of the situation, seeing the trio of dark grey stallions with greying manes pausing to glare at the elder's house—ignoring the window, with muzzles seemingly affixed to the front door instead—she did not notice as a soft beating of hooves filled the area. She did look away when a rustling of cloth hit her ears, and craned her neck to find Shining Armor turning and opening his eyes lazily. "Mornin'," Rainbow greeted.

"Ey," Shining replied with a sluggish nod and a titanic yawn leaving his mouth. Slowly, on legs that were visibly stiff, he rose to stand and stretch as much as his limbs would allow. His ears caught the beating of hooves and he turned to the door leading to the stairs, his brow raising a substantial margin as he realized the noise came in a steady rhythm.

"H-hello?" he and Rainbow heard the elder call out. "A-are you awake?"

Shining cantered to the door and gently opened it, finding the elder beyond on a winding staircase with a small platform that let him stand before the guest room. "Only two of us are up. You're gonna have to wait a few," he answered.

The elder nodded and donned a small smile. "I'll make you some breakfast, then, before you head out," he offered. "Would fish be alright with you?"

Shining mulled it over in his head. "Um… only with some vegetables on the side," he answered after a few seconds.

The elder nodded again. "Would carrots, cabbage, and broccoli suffice?"

Shining nodded again and donned a smile. "Heaps of it, if you can," he replied. "Only one of us is really… comfortable with the idea of eating meat."

The elder's smile fell. "Eh? Why's that?" he prodded, tilting his head as his eyes went wide.

"We… come from Mythos, and in a specific country that farms so effectively that eating meat is, more or less, reserved only for wildlife and the occasional gryphon visitor," Shining explained with a tired sigh leaving his mouth.

The elder blinked, taking a few seconds to process what he'd just heard. Then he nodded again, and his smile returned. "Oh, some villagers here have taken to farming. I understand ye completely; not many would want to eat meat in these parts either, though it's still necessary…" he muttered, his smile faltering. "But only because not a lot of the land is arable here, ever since that meteor fell…"

Shining didn't say anything to that, figuring the meteor that fell five-odd years ago must have done quite a number on Greenwood's livelihood. Instead, he opted to change the subject, "Did you get any other visitors last week?"

The elder nodded. "A lilac mare from Whitefall came on her lonesome, hunting for game animals to feed the guards and replenish her stocks," he answered, his tone a bit chipper. "She didn't mingle with us too much, just asked to help her hunt. Last I seen of her, she was very badly spooked by the cursed trees, but otherwise she made it out of the trip alright."

"Well, she told us about an elder with bound wings in this area… it's why I asked," Shining replied, frowning as he found himself with a mental image of Eve getting a very bad, very understandable case of the heebie-jeebies.

The elder's smile fell again, and he looked away. "The… winged 'elder' you speak of wasn't actually an elder, really, but she did look the part; her mane and coat were already grey, and she wasn't even fifty years old yet. She… died the day after the lilac visitor left for Whitefall, so some of the other villagers told me," he muttered, his tone just as solemn and downcast. "How… I haven't the foggiest."

"Did she turn into a tree?" Shining prodded, his ears folding back.

The elder's ears drooped. "Nay, she didn't… or if she did, her body up and vanished," he replied. "Hadn't been able to find her since."

"Her wings?" Shining pressed.

The elder shook his head. "No clue in the slightest. She went out of her way to avoid the other villagers before vanishing," he answered. "Tried looking for her, but these old bones can barely keep up with the younger folk…"

Shining nodded and changed the subject again, seeing that the current topic wasn't getting him anywhere, "Want me to wake my companions up?"

The elder nodded. "They will need to be up to get breakfast," he answered, and with that he backed up to canter on downstairs to start making food. Shining retreated back into the guest room and made a beeline for Rainbow with a tight frown forming on his face.

"Did you catch all of that?" Shining asked, garnering an immediate nod from Rainbow.

"How couldn't I? You stood there with the door open," Rainbow grumbled, continuing to watch the scene outside with interest. Shining had the decency to blush a little from the admonishment.

"Anything out there of note?" Shining queried.

"Lots of elderly ponies, most unicorns with some earth ponies, and a couple of pregnant mares. Not one pegasus, at all," Rainbow answered, her tone sullen. "I get the feeling we're in a bee's nest just waiting to be kicked."

Shining's brow went up again. "Anyone with bound wings, then?" he tried.

Rainbow's head shook again. "Zero, zilch, nada," she stated tersely. "I don't even know how the elder-not-really's wings are tied."

Shining's face hardened a little. "Maybe the cursed trees would have something to say…" he muttered.

"Maybe," Rainbow agreed with a nod.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

It took some two hours for the elder to prepare breakfast, feed his guests, and gather them to then sit down in his rocking chair with them surrounding him in the living room and listen to a few interesting tidbits they had to share. Though, unbeknownst to the elder, said guests made sure to leave out quite a few important things of note, including the fact that Delta Unit was hovering on Greenwood's outskirts. "So… somepony told you not to come to Fantasia?" he asked.

Shining nodded. "We did anyway," he answered simply. "And we would like to help you… with your curse, or at the very least ease your pain."

The elder brightened up, and his eyes gleamed hopefully. "Y-you will?" he stammered.

Shining nodded, his face hardening slightly. He said in a tone of finality, "If nopony else will, then by Faust, we will." His companions nodded in agreement. "But we'll have to start small."

The elder nodded, and a small smile formed on his face. "Maybe the trees will understand," he mused, his tone resonating with just a smidgen of hope. A small smile crossed his muzzle. "Stay here for a few minutes. I will need to inform the villagers; and to also tell the newlyweds to stay indoors." He sighed and made for the door after rising from the rocking chair, but paused before the splintering frame to crane his neck. "Oh, by the way… have you heard of the Veil of Shadows?" he asked.

"No, we haven't. What is it?" Rainbow queried, both brows going up as her brain tried to process the name.

The elder sighed. "The Veil… has only appeared in recent years, about… eight or nine. I have heard of outsiders talk about it in Whitefall and Goldenbrick, whenever the need arose for me to go to either town to get supplies and furniture," he began, frowning a little. "Some have told me it is comprised of many beings who only appear at night, and are numerous enough to block the moon's light in any given area if they were of a mind to."

Rainbow's brows rose higher. "Do the things of the Veil fly?" she pressed.

"Yes, so I've been told. They signal their arrival with roars and a low humming noise, if the Veil is made up of many beings," the elder replied with a shrug. "Others've said it's a single living shadow, only following those who are able to tame it, which are very few but very powerful. Honestly, I don't know which of those descriptors to believe. I think it's all just a load of bollocks."

Applejack donned a skeptical look, eyes going half-lidded and a thin frown framing her muzzle. "Then why'd you tell us if you think it's a load of manure?" she asked flatly.

"Well, you did say you spent some nights in Whitefall, which is why I asked," the elder replied, shrugging in earnest. "I thought maybe you might've heard of it, but oh well, one cannot have everything in Fantasia..."

"What does the Veil do if you're under it?" Blueblood asked, frowning.

"Nopony knows, really. Some have told me you'd get eaten, others have said you'd simply lose a few of your limbs, but make it out of the ordeal alive. I have even heard the supposed individuals of the Veil use magic to conjure shadows," the elder replied, that time sighing. "But, personally, I have yet to see the Veil with my own eyes, so until I do see it, I'll still be of the mind that it's just a bunch of poppycock. All of it sounds like nothing more than a foal's tale that was recently invented." With that, he turned to open the door and trot out into Greenwood, closing it on his way out and leaving his visitors to ruminate over what he'd told them.

"The Veil, huh? Sounds mighty suspicious," Applejack mused, frowning as she put a hoof to her chin.

"Could that be what broke the barrier between the worlds?" Blueblood asked, tilting his head.

"Well, Laz did say the barrier was made by several unicorns, around the time the sun and moon went to Celestia and Luna's control…" Flash put a hoof to his chin and rubbed it, his brow furrowing. "The Veil, if it exists, could have very well broken it."

"But that's not likely, since he said Starswirl took part in that little project," Shining rebuked, shaking his head. "And he was a pony who knew what he was doing. Heck, Twilight found some things in that book she overlooked, which she showed me after lunch yesterday." He waved a hoof dismissively. "Which either means the Veil is obscenely powerful, or something else broke the spell."

"Well, at least we have one potential candidate to look into. I suggest focusing on that," Blueblood interjected, before he noticed someone amongst their little gathering was oddly silent. He turned to the lone soul who wasn't chipping in and asked, "Are you well?"

Rhinoc looked very pale, an impressive feat considering that he was in his disguise, and some rather large beads of sweat started trailing down his forehead as his horn gave a soft glow. A hoof trailed to his stomach again, and he muttered, "Oooo… not at all… there's… barely any love in this place."

"Barely any love? Then what are you picking up on instead?" Shining asked, turning to Rhinoc with a worried frown on his face.

Rhinoc lurched, clutching his stomach tighter. "D-despair…" he hissed in pain, his utterance more akin to a screeching whine that was barely kept in check. "A-and… hatred…"

"What do despair and hatred do to you?" Flash asked, grimacing as Rhinoc's horn ceased glowing, whereupon he slumped to the floor.

"W-weakens us… p-prolonged exposure makes o-our chitin and b-bones brittle… p-poisons us…" Rhinoc groaned, the hiss in his voice becoming far more pronounced. "Y-you guys a-are the o-only s-source of love h-here…"

"You gonna be okay?" Rainbow prodded, scooting closer to pat Rhinoc on his withers, her ears twitching as she caught a distant sound that sounded like a shout. She paid it no mind, as her attention was currently focused elsewhere.

Rhinoc slowly nodded. "A-as long as I-I don't eat a-any…" he murmured, the hiss in his voice starting to fade. "J-just s-sensing it… makes me w-woozy…"

Rainbow stopped patting Rhinoc and nodded, pulling her hoof away. "Now that I think about it, you had a pained look when…"

Rhinoc looked up, took a few breaths to collect himself, lurched up and looked Rainbow squarely in the eye. "The n-nooblet wraith o-only had teeny t-traces of despair and h-hatred. I-it wasn't enough t-to make m-me sick, b-but enough to c-cause pain," he stammered with a wince. "Th… this," he continued, lifting a hoof to gesticulate about the room for emphasis, "is a-a thousand t-times worse."

"And if it makes you a'n yourn sick…" Applejack paled as realization dawned, and her pupils shrank. "So… the rest…"

Rhinoc nodded, cutting her off. "Th-they can't come a-any closer. I-I can barely t-tolerate it my-myself," he answered grimly. "W-we need to r-report back t-tonight…"

Applejack nodded glumly, and she could only imagine the look on Lance's face once Rhinoc gave his report. She shuddered, mentally wondering if she should even mention the wedding to him when that time came, before something clicked into her head and caused all other trains of thought to stop then and there. "Do the trees, uh…"

"Ooze despair like blood?" Flash offered.

Applejack nodded. "Yeah, what he said."

Rhinoc nodded hastily. "L-lots of it," he groaned, sounding just a little better.

"Do they give off hatred?" Blueblood tried. He could've sworn he heard several ponies faintly yelling, though about what eluded him, and the noise grew in addition to the sound of several sets of beating hooves.

Again, Rhinoc nodded, though that time more languidly. "N-not a l-lot of them d-do," he answered. "A-and those that d-do don't h-have a lot."

At that moment, the door reopened, and the elder trotted in with a sullen frown on his face. Behind him, shrilly coming from outside, was a myriad of protesting voices, each one tumbling over itself and its companions until only little bits and pieces of words could be made out amidst a cacophonous orchestra. His guests shuddered and turned to him, seeing that a mob had gathered just outside the front door, and the few they could see through the doorframe were armed and narrow-eyed.

"—burn the outsiders—"

"—sharpen the pitchforks—"

"—ready the bows—"

"—flay them alive—"

"—turn their hides into brand new rugs—"

The elder lifted a back hoof and kicked the door shut with it, instantly dampening the myriad of angry clamors, though it wasn't enough to drown them out entirely. "Unfortunately, the rest of the community is not so eager…" he groused, shaking his head. "It's just like the last outsider who came here last week, really."

"Did they calm down when she said she wanted supplies?" Shining asked.

The elder nodded. "Oh, that they did, since it meant not putting up with her for very long," he answered. "But the outsider who married into the village? Oh, that poor dear got so much grief over the years… her foals fared no better, I'm afraid."

"Did you tell them about us wanting to help with their curse?" Rainbow pressed.

The elder frantically nodded, his frown deepening. "Unfortunately, they've accepted that the curse will follow them to the ends of time." His head stopped moving, and his eyes glimmered faintly. "They do not want help."

Shining's face twisted first into a grimace, then a hardened look that caused Flash to bolt up with legs perfectly straight under him and made his wings tense. "So… they're a stubborn lot?" Shining pressed slowly, his voice low.

The elder, again, nodded. "They've been hoof-fed the same thing I was in my earliest years, and they follow it like dogma. 'The curse always wins in the end, and breed while you can,' and other such rabble like that," he replied, lifting a hoof to wave it dismissively, giving Shining the impression he was chasing something away. "And look where it's gotten me." His hoof fell and he sighed sullenly. "Once the end of time happens, I'm pretty certain I'm going to get an earful from Godcat."

Shining exchanged glances with Blueblood, whose face had likewise hardened. They then turned to the elder in unison and stood up. Even with the door tuning out most of their ongoing tantrum, the villagers continued to get louder and more riled up by the second. "Such impertinence…" Blueblood hissed, turning to Shining with a nod. "Could you quell them?"

"Only if he lets me," Shining responded, staring at the elder with a determined look. "Will you?" When the elder nodded and stepped aside, he watched intently as his guest strode to the door with his chest puffing out. A magenta aura grasped the door and tenderly opened it up, before morphing to seize the door frame and create a shield to keep the shrieking villagers from entering the abode and running everybody over.

With his magical construct Shining forced his way out of the house, and right into a crowd consisting mostly of older stallions and mares that were armed to the teeth. Shining idly noted that the pregnant mares, children, and any other young-looking ponies were not part of the mob, which he'd attributed to said mob being a more vocal bunch. He formed a dome over the elder's house, then used it force the mob back before he calmly stepped out of it with a ripple forming in his wake, almost as though he went through a vertically-placed pool of water.

His own magic then gripped his throat, and as he took a deep breath, he felt it flowing towards his vocal chords and its surrounding muscles. The very moment the crowd stilled and all eyes turned to him was the same moment Shining exhaled, and only then did he speak in a voice so magically amplified in volume the mobsters found themselves flinching, dropping all weapons, and covering their ears under its might. "You will not sway me or my friends to change our decision; we only want to help you break your curse, and nothing more. Stop this foalishness this instant, or we may be forced to act in self-defense," Shining droned, his voice as clear and loud as the sharp clanging of a bell. "There is an awful lot I can do with a dome like this, so you had best not test my patience again."

One member at the front of the mob, an entirely grey unicorn stallion whose eyes flashed red, looked at Shining with a wince and his eyes narrowing. "Y-you fool!" he stammered bravely, though Shining idly noted that he genuinely sounded worried beneath his anger. "S-suppose the c-curse breaks… th-then what?" At this, murmurs swept through the crowd. "W-we already h-had to send a-another fool a-away after sh-she told us sh-she'd break th-the curse!"

Shining turned to the grey unicorn, a bemused brow skyrocketing to the top of his forehead. That was the only movement he made for several long moments, as he stood there contemplating what he'd just heard. The glow around his throat died as he finished processing the villager's statement. "So…" he began icily, his brow dipping back down as he spoke, "you're telling me that you banished somepony?"

The villager nodded frantically, and swallowed nervously before daring to continue, sounding much more certain of himself as he spoke, "That damned f-fool d-deserved it. Sh-she probably t-turned into a t-tree by now."

Shining's eyes narrowed by the tiniest margin. "She?" he pressed.

"A th-thirteen year o-old filly," the villager confirmed. For another long moment Shining simply stared at him, the corners of his mouth twitching in tandem with his left eye. The villager merely stared back, waiting for the moment in which he thought Shining would back down.

That moment never came. In its stead, Shining marched right up to the villager and lowered his head just enough to stare deep into his eyes. "You mean to tell me," Shining hissed, his voice frigid with scorn, "that you sent a child to die?" When the villager nodded, Shining began to outright scowl at him, his magic crackling dangerously as his anger surged through his veins. For just a second, he could've sworn that the air grew so hot he thought his mane and tail would catch fire. Despite himself, Shining restrained the urge, and the teeny voice in the back of his mind baying for blood.

"And all she did was simply state her desire to break the particular befoulment that I heard has fallen here...?" Shining pressed in a low, ominous tone that caused the villager before him to immediately wilt under his withering glare. "Had she committed murder? Theft?" The villager's knees buckled, and he fell to his haunches with his ears folding back. "Well?" The villager shook his head. Shining retracted and backed up a few paces, if only to turn his very irked glare towards the rest of the mob. "You all are a disgrace to everything that is holy. Godcat would be ashamed of you."

"Y-you don't know Godcat like we d-do, you uptight jackass!" a brave mobster, this one an earth pony, called out. He stood up on his back legs on the outskirts of the crowd, revealing a dulled sea green coat and lime green mane. With forehooves shooting up to the air, he declared with an accusatory gesture directed at Shining, "We were simply doing Her bidding! That filly had the desire to usurp the impossible! If she got a cutie mark, it would be much the same! She had to go!"

Shining turned to the earth pony and gravely shook his head, his withering glare not faltering in the slightest. He stood for another minute before posing a question that caused the second brave soul to flinch, "Would you banish yourself from the premises, had you gotten your mark?"

All eyes turned to the earth pony, who now started to sweat bullets. "I-I-uh…" he stammered.

Seeing he had an advantage, Shining decided to press it, "Would you banish your friends? Family? What if they got their marks?"

The earth pony slowly, haltingly, shook his head.

"And you said it would be the same, had the banished filly gotten her mark…" Shining concluded, his voice grim. "Aren't you quite the hypocrite?"

The earth pony promptly wheeled around and started galloping in the opposite direction. "I-I'm telling the village leaders!" he declared, tail tucked between his flailing rear legs as he raced to get as far away from Shining Armor as he possibly could. The rest of the mobsters had the same idea, and also turned tail to beat a hasty retreat, each uttering a dark promise to tattle on Shining.

Only when there was complete silence that settled once the sounds of many beating hooves faded did Shining drop his barrier, turn around, and trot back into the elder's house. His face eased, and he heaved a sigh. "Hardasses, the lot of them," he muttered. Turning to the elder, he added, "Who are your village leaders?"

The elder frowned. "Three stallions, a band of brothers you see. They took over…" The elder's eyes trailed up to the ceiling momentarily before he finished, "twenty years ago."

Shining's brow rose. "Twenty?"

The elder nodded. "Somepony has to lead us whenever the previous leader becomes a tree," he pointed out. Shining nodded, understanding that train of logic. "They did not take the previous outsiders well. I doubt they would put up with you for no more than a few minutes at best." His frown deepened. "Please… let me accompany you whenever you feel ready to take the burden of asking the cursed trees."

"Why?" Applejack asked, causing the elder to look at her.

"The leaders will chew me out if they discover you are here in my abode. I wouldn't be surprised if they banished me. Besides…" The elder sighed. "I need to hunt to gather more meat. If they see me carry home a black bird…"

"... then you'd be in the clear," Flash finished for the elder, who promptly nodded and turned to the door. Exchanging glances with his companions, he found them nodding.

"Well? What are we waiting for?" Blueblood asked, trotting to the door. "We have a whole forest's worth of trees to query, so we might as well get on with it!"

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

On the outskirts of Greenwood, watching the elder and his guests leave the village proper as the sun continued to climb higher in the sky, Delta Unit sat in disguised wait, all concealed eyes watching intently for any signs of trouble. They easily picked up on the group's unease, particularly that which came from Rhinoc, but stayed their hidden hooves with the knowledge that there wasn't really anything they could do unless ordered otherwise.

So they merely opted to continue with their little charade, silently hoping to high heaven that something interesting would grace them soon, with or without the risk of it blowing their collective cover. Armin's voice echoed through their heads after a disguised horn glowed, "Situational protocols all green. Let Major Rhinoc deal with the old colt. We tail them once they get twenty meters away from town."

The disguised changelings shook their false branches in confirmation, though only in a manner that resembled a slight swaying, giving the impression of a passing breeze. Armin swayed his a half-second later, and then everyling stilled, their eyes glued to Rhinoc and his entourage-plus-one as they trotted deeper into the thicket. Shining took point, and Rhinoc oddly lagged behind the elder whose limping gait did not escape the hidden soldiers' eyes.

One soldier decided to spark up a telepathic conversation, her branches briefly flashing in gold as she asked, "So, has anyling gotten on General Hardass's bad side this year?"

"I have, on the trip to Mythos," Armin replied, his branches drooping. "Told Windwood's sister, to her face, to peddle her little ass to the kitchen. Next thing I know, the General smacked me square in the jaw."

"How bad?" another soldier asked. Armin briefly lifted his branches up and down, which he figured was a tree's equivalent to shrugging.

"Knocked a few teeth out and sent me to the floor. Told me not to do it again, since Windwood was present and having a Godcat-damned coronary," Armin replied. "And the nooblet… also got on his bad side. Before he actually considered dragging her into the army, mind you. She up and punched him, then played keep-away until he grappled her neck and pinned her to the floor."

One of the disguised changelings drooped his branches, and telepathically groaned. "Self-defense?" he guessed.

"And to teach her not to bite off more than she could chew," Armin confirmed. "And she started calling him Brassballs. I am dead serious." The other changelings shook their branches for a few seconds before he heard the whole lot of them telepathically laughing their asses off.

The laughter died when one changeling noticed that she could no longer see Shining or his group. Her branches glowed briefly, a brilliant gold that was then overtaken by a bright purple. "We need to move our asses. Major Rhinoc's headed towards Mighty Oak," she reported, and her words triggered a chain reaction amongst her fellow troops; flames engulfed a lot of the trees, and where the trees were stood… nothing.

Or so it seemed, had anypony from Greenwood been present to see the anomaly. If one villager were to closely examine where the false trees used to be, and if they had eyesight sharp enough, they could see a sort of raised space that was moving; a trotting pool of transparent liquid seemingly given life. The moving changelings, using this invisibility to their advantage, filed away from Greenwood in hasty but silent steps, heading to the Mighty Oak's shrine with the pace of somepony tiptoeing around a bear's den.

Noling spoke until they reached the shrine at approximately noon, when the sun was at the peak of the sky, causing the temperature to skyrocket thanks to the closeness of Ashwood's proximity in direct relation to the shrine. "Alright, who wants to bet the nooblet would fry out here if we left her too long?" one soldier telepathically queried, his utterance causing the other soldiers to telepathically murmur and muse about.

"No idea, and I wouldn't risk it. General Hardass would chew our wings off if we did that and he heard of it," another soldier stated in a flat tone that brokered no argument. Several minutes passed before the same soldier asked, "Wait… where are they?"

Another waved false branches, rather dismissively at that. "Either we beat them to the punch, they got sidetracked, or they already left," she answered. Several minutes passed after she'd spoken, and all disguised eyes darted this way and that, searching for their charges.

It did not take them long to arrive; fifteen minutes after the silence fell, the sound of hooves snapping grass and twigs permeated the area. Ten after that, Shining and his group emerged onto the steps from the side of one of the gates, and immediately veered to the other side of the steps to vanish into the forest again.

"... he's going past the shrine? What is he doing?" Armin asked, and at once a few disguised changelings shrugged their branches.

"No clue, Lieutenant," another soldier said in earnest. "May as well ask why the General hasn't formed a herd yet."

"You do realize he'd wring your neck if he heard you talking about his lack of a herd, right?" Armin snarked, venom dripping from his telepathic voice.

"Well, excuse me, but if you've been trotting with him, you'd figure out he's pretty pent up! Seriously, Lieutenant, how the utter fuck did you not notice?!" the soldier snapped back, her tone marred in surprise and anger.

"I get the point," Armin sighed, groaning in exasperation, "but the thing is, he has yet to let himself indulge in even the basest of urges. I will bet ten bits and a wasp's stinger that he's probably facehoofing by now, wondering why the utter fuck he let Mythonians convince him to come back to this ironically-named hellhole."

The soldiers fell silent for a moment, their fake branches swaying with uncertainty. After a few seconds, a soldier decided to answer with a rather grandiose and borderline bizarre train of logic, "Maybe he did it to get them off his ass about it. 'Let them see the shitshow for themselves, and leave it at that. Maybe they'll get tired of it,' that sort of thing."

Armin shuddered before a branch lowered and he smacked it against a hollow hole in the bark with a telepathic groan. "Dude, seriously, what the fuck?" he hissed. "You know Lieutenant-General Windwood would fucking ride his ass with a sharpened arrow pointing at his nuts for that, right?"

The soldier with the bizarre train of logic shrugged his faux branches. "He'd just clamp a magic inhibitor on her and leave it at that," he pointed out.

"Mare still has earth pony magic at her disposal. That point is moot," Armin groused, shaking his branches grimly. A low buzz filled the air, and Armin twisted about, causing his disguise to act as though a tree was being sent through a wringer. "Wh-what the…"

A radio materialized in a flash of light in someling else's branches, and from it droned a very familiar voice that had the no-nonsense tone they were accustomed to. "Delta Unit, fall back immediately. I repeat, fall back immediately."

"F-fall back?" Armin stammered, that time without the aid of telepathy. "S-sir, wh-why?"

A tired sigh left the radio. "Shining telepathically messaged me a few moments ago, and told me about the worst wedding he'd ever attended." Lance paused for a moment and added, "And of critical levels of despair emanating from Greenwood. Get out, lest you get sick with emotional poisoning."

"E-emotional…" Armin faltered. "Is it…"

"Yes. According to Rhinoc, who also messaged me by telepathy, the situation has gotten much worse. It's as I feared; we've got another fast track to Frostbite on our hooves," Lance replied, his voice a little strained. "We'll have to think of something else once you come in and report." He paused again, that time for a full minute. "I expect you lot to be back by sundown. I've heard some of the villagers are suspicious already, and we do not want to rile them any further than needed."

With resignation, the entirety of Delta Unit shed their disguises in fire, turned invisible, made the radio vanish, and took to the air as one. As they flew, the beating of their wings gave off multiple buzzes that sounded more like a singular, ominous hum.