Willow hmf!d and turned up his nose. "Yes well, she always 'means well' and 'wants to help.' That's how I managed to spend my entire day trying to rip her down from a coffee billboard surrounded by bulldozers, you know!"
"Oh, really?" Giovenith perked in surprise. "Why?"
"It's a long story," he waved it off with dismissive bitterness. "Or, like that time we all almost got kidnapped at that skii resort by that weird fucking juice cult. That was all her fault too. I had to dig that escape snow tunnel out with my bare hooves! And I still got junk mail from them for two years!"
"I guess that's a long story too?"
"Yes!"
"Okee dokee then."
He sighed, clearing himself of the annoying thoughts before smiling again at Sandy. "I do appreciate it though, Sandy. Princess Cadance has always been a source of a lot of comfort in this country. She'll help us through all this, one way or another."
"All of us?" Giovenith asked, bright eyed.
He nodded. And she nodded back, seeming serious.
The trip back to the hotel and the stint at camping in Everfree went by in a blur. Both the locals and Willow alike had been quick to try to dissuade the humans from going, citing the dangers of the wood. The poisons, the wild animals, the mythical beasts, but all to no persuasion. Finally (against his better judgment), Willow agreed to accompany them in order to make that
Willow stood back and didn't say much during the hunting, other than to usher everyone along if he even had the slightest sense of danger. There was way more than just undomesticated and untamed animals to fear here. Still, he gave advice here and there regarding the few normal animals that the couple managed to take down.
"Probably be discreet when you bring that back," he said. "Most ponies understand that there are carnivorous species out there, but some of them might consider it obscenity if you show it off in town. Plus they might not know you got it from the Everfree and try to report you or something."
"Does it matter where the animals came from?" Giovenith asked, curious.
He nodded. "The animals in the Everfree take care of themselves, so it's sorta fair game if you wind up killing them, because it's not like they were under our protection. But animals inside of Equestria are, so it's seen as a really dick move to mess with them."
The godling turned this in her head. "Willow," she ventured. "Why do ponies control nature?"
He shrugged, flying over some scratchy vines. "Why do bees build hives, or beavers dams? We just always have, even before the Princesses, it's in our nature. Probably there was a time in ancient history when ponies didn't even know that other species didn't control their own environments."
"But not this forest?"
"We could never manage to."
"Why?"
His stare cut into the endless black abyss of the trees beyond. "Nopony knows."