"...And then?"
"You know what happens next. Some big pink bubble shot us all off and away."
As amusing as Klaven's story was, Faltic still did not have any real answers about what went wrong. It was now a growing frustration. The original plan for Faltic was to meet here with these two and finally hear other perspectives about the invasion. At least a brief respite from his mind bothering him about it for some time. Yes, he was listening to what other changelings were doing , yet still, nothing pertained to how the shield came back and smote the Hive off.
Faltic had removed the green flower from his leg hole. Throughout Klaven's story, he'd kept his eyes busy admiring the petals. Upon first arrival to the campgrounds, Luna's moon hung to the east of the sky. It was now nearing the opposite end, signaling that Celestia's sun would soon begin to awaken the world in its light. Restel's gentle green fires began to ebb toward the end of Klaven's story.
"I would think you're a bookworm like Faltic here." Klaven was thankful his friends didn't open up with the low hanging fruit. He'd worn a dress and went on a half-date with a stallion. "I'll repeat what you said. You wanted to know, so I told you everything." Klaven rose from his spot and stretched as the unwelcome sound of his wearable sleeping bag began to swish on itself again. The time spent sitting felt as if it outweighed their trudging from place to place.
Restel rose to his full height and arched his back. "Fair enough. That makes two of us that have had story night." He glanced over to Faltic, who hadn't moved and remained silent.
Klaven already had one hoof down a step of the gazebo. "Well, let's follow the pattern: we walk to some new setting and pick up where we left off." With that, he stepped off and returned to the earthy ground.
"C'mon dude, your turn after some more walking." Restel waved his hoof towards where his underling had departed. Wordlessly, Faltic stood to follow.
When he's quiet, something's up. Restel had learned that long ago. There was a dearth of emotion on Faltic's face, aside from the subtle notion of his eyebrows drawing together. Disconcerting, if you were seeing it for the first time. The three stepped away from their second story location, and began to set out looking for their potential third. It was a relatively short walk before the marked path forked again. Just as before, a sign stood in the middle with directions.
Klaven looked at the other two, and spoke. "Right for lake access, left for the shed."
Faltic still remained silent despite Restel's internal opposition to it. "I think the shed. Looks like soon the moon will set and the sun will rise." Restel said.
"Guess you've got somewhere to be in the morning?" Klaven asked to Restel, seemingly the only one willing to have a conversation at the moment.
"Yeah, you could say that." The three started down the left choice of the dirt, where Restel took lead with his horn lit again. "I left a bed for this, shows how much I care about meeting you two out here." Restel had said it in a slightly sarcastic way with a wry smile, but he did mean it.
The trail to their next point of interest was more linear than their previous walks. The trees contradicted their usual behavior, and gave the hikers way more breathing room, not hanging their branches overhead.
Something felt oddly quieter this time around. Klaven hadn't yet seemed to notice. To be fair, he'd practically just met Faltic. Once again, the rest of the trek through the woods was silent. Passing conversations of wildlife was the only noise wafting through the night.
"Is that it there?" Klaven spoke up as he noticed another formation take shape in front of them.
"Looks like it."
Upon arriving, it lived up to the name. 'Shed.' A concrete floor replaced the earthy ground as a simple triangular roof hung overhead. Underneath it, three picnic tables were arranged parallel to one another.
"River view?" Klaven split from the three to investigate another sign planted at the crossroads of the path that they came from, and a new one that jutted off to the side of the shed.
"You go see about that, me and Faltic will sit here for a bit." Faltic had already done just that without Restel noticing somehow, taking his seat at the middle picnic table.
"Don't go telling the last story of the night without me." His back was turned to Restel, ready to vanish into the dark. Restel shot him a 'go already' look. "We won't."
With that, Klaven set off on his own.
Turning back to the now mute changeling, Restel made the move to sit on the opposite side of the picnic table. "If he gets lost, we can always listen for the sound of that Chrysalis-awful sleeping bag huh?"
No reaction. Silence.
Restel only just noticed the dormant candle sitting in the middle of the table between them, and decided to light it in his green flame, allowing his horn's light to wane.
"What did we do wrong?" Faltic suddenly spat out. Restel raised a brow in confusion.
"We didn't do anything wrong. We did exactly as told. I don't know what happened."
"You're trying to reassure me, but I'm not buying it."
Restel idly tapped his hooves to the table. "I know it was frustrating, but there's nothing we could've done."
A brief moment of silence. Those words echoed against the walls of Faltic's mind. Nothing we could've done. Was it true? They'd followed orders, not one pony interfered. It just all sounded too lackluster. From his perspective, Faltic had put more of his mind and efforts into the invasion than these two, possibly combined.
"It doesn't sound like you two did anything to me. Yeah, sure, tell me you followed our orders, but where was the effort?" Faltic wore a sharp glance that bore itself to the changeling sitting across from him.
In his defense, Restel started to look confused. "The effort? What did you want me to do?" It was almost senseless. What more could he have done? The commands to pick a spot and keep it on lockdown was fulfilled. Why was Faltic getting mad all of a sudden?
"Let me put it in more simple terms for you; why does both of your stories sound like you found the nearest hammock and rocked in it until we were all shot?"
This is ridiculous. Thought Restel. "You enjoyed listening to what we went through. I don't know why you're acting like this all of a sudden, like we were mooching or something."
Restel almost did a double take when he saw his underling standing along the edge of the shed. How long had he been standing there? "Hey dude. You find that river view?"
He nodded in response, keeping quiet. Most likely he'd heard some of their conversation. Restel stood, and started his way towards where the river view was. When he noticed there was a third one of them missing, he turned his head back to Faltic, who still sat. "You gonna join us?"
"No."
After lingering for just a moment longer, Restel shrugged, and started down the darkened path Klaven had disappeared into earlier.
*****
As per description by the sign, the river view offered those on it a broad spectacle of the river. A wide wooden shelf gently overhanging the side of a hill with the river coursing through the forest not too far below it. Similar to the shed, two picnic tables were there, along with a bench facing out to the view.
Restel had found his respite along the fence that guarded the ledge as he leaned on it, looking down at the river. Klaven had stayed silent up until them reaching this point.
"If you don't mind me asking, what was the argument about?" Klaven was speaking with caution, which was immediately assuaged by Restel's response.
"Ah I don't mind you asking. Faltic's just worried about something."
Klaven sat at the fence, looking out towards the river. Despite the moon making its retreat to the horizon line, the light it emitted still reflected off the current of water.
"Worried about what?" Klaven asked as timidly as he could, not wanting to overstep anything by pushing the matter.
"He says, like, our involvement sounds lazy and that there was more we could've done. It really came out of nowhere."
There was a minute of silence from the two. Klaven understood, somewhat. It did sounds like it came out of left field, but did Restel not just ditch Faltic in the middle of it?
"What time is it?" Restel asked. Klaven flicked his wrist before his face, looking down at just his holey leg. I need a watch... "I don't know. Uh-" He looked to the night sky to find the moon about to brush the tops of the trees on its descent. "-Looks almost time for the sun to start changing the color of the sky."
Restel hadn't moved. "Alright."
"Where is it do you have to be in the morning?"
"A bed. Specifically this one hotel bed that's on the twentieth floor of a hotel. Elevator was out of service, so, ugh, the walk down all those stairs."
Klaven turned his head to face Restel. "Hah, and you've been walking all night."
"Yup!" Restel smiled as he continued to peer out into the darkened scene of the river. "I can only hope it's back in service when I get back there. With my luck, it'll be another twenty floors of stairs." He finally shifted his attention away, and now looked to his underling. "Where do you gotta get back to?"
"I was actually nowhere important. Nopony to freak out if I wasn't around, sadly."
Restel sarcastically smiled at him. "What? You like freaking ponies out?"
Klaven gave his best look that said 'duh.' "Uh, yeah. It's funny."
"Good. You freak me out all the time." Restel laughed to himself, to which Klaven swiped at his leg. "Shut up!"
After some exchanged laughter, the two fell quiet again. The night's curtain call loomed in their minds, and their hangout would soon be over. There was still time, perhaps not so much for leisure, but time nonetheless. If there was anything Klaven could do to help, now would be the time to do it.
Klaven turned his focus straight to Restel. "Did you mean to leave Faltic by himself?"
Restel's head slumped just slightly. "Not intentionally." Klaven immediately followed up. "Shouldn't you go find out why exactly he's acting all weird?"
For the first time, Restel receded his weight from the fence and stood on all fours. He sighed. "Something to do with the invasion, I'm sure. He can be a perfectionist."
"Nothing wrong with that. Might just be bothering him is all." Klaven stood as well. "Plus, last story of the night. Let's go hear it."
*****
Faltic had been left alone under the roof of the shed. His cheek was held in his hoof, and his horn was mechanically flickering green fire to the candle on the table, just to blow the flame away. Just, how could we not have won? We practically did. Nothing made sense about it, and it seemed it never would make sense. I still don't know what the hell shot us all away like that. No word from the Queen, no gossip, not even any rumors to go by.
After casting his flame onto the candle this time, he decided to let it stay. A slow peek to outside of the shed showed that the night would be over soon. If the other two had to be somewhere, he didn't know. He did know, however, that there's not a bed, but a futon he has to get back to. Does a futon count as a bed? Yes, technically. There wouldn't be a need to sneak back in, but if he wasn't there, well, he wouldn't not want to be there.
As soon as his thoughts began to stray, it looked like they'd be coming back in the same fashion that Restel and Klaven showed up to the shed again. "The circus is back in town." Faltic hardly looked at them before deciding to watch his green candle be blown out by him again.
The returning two sat across from Faltic. "Dibs on ringleader." Restel said promptly, to Klaven's sarcastic distraught.
With each second of silence that passed, the awkwardness in the air grew denser. Restel wouldn't be having any of it. "Sorry, for walking out."
It grabbed Faltic's attention, since his eyes looked up from the candle. "It's fine." Silence again.
Still not having more silence, Restel spoke up again. "So what's up?"
Faltic sighed. "Eh. I just wanted it to go well." It was the expected answer, which had an easy response. "It did, really. We all followed suit with what we were told to do. We just, don't know how the bubble came back is all." Restel replied.
"Yeah, and that's what stumps me." Faltic said glumly. It was a successful invasion, until that point. The part that crept through Faltic's mind every now and then. Where suddenly, everything didn't work anymore.
Klaven was intently listening, but decided against joining the conversation. Though, realizing that they'd have to be leaving soon, now was the only reasonable time to. "Hey, Faltic. Why don't you tell us your invasion story? Let's clear your mind." Restel swiftly jumped the idea too. "Yeah dude, it is your turn after all."
Faltic gave them both a look over. With daytime approaching soon, the luxury of time wasn't as present as when the night began. "Alright alright, calm down. I'll tell you. After that, we're leaving."