The sound of footsteps came closer, and the Arbiter slowly raised his Carbine. He took a long breath in, careful not to brush any branches from the shrubbery and trees he was hiding among, lest their movement betray his presence. Concealed, he lay in ambush, knowing his prey was near. Deeper into the forest, he heard the anticipation of the kill walking closer.

He peered around the trees. Through the trunks, he saw his quarry. Large ears stood on top of its head, and its dark eyes peered around the forest with weary caution. Against the white skin of the birch trees, its brown fur stood out. A breeze rolled through the trees' verdant arms, and the deer, on elegant stilt-like legs, slowly tip-toed closer.

The Arbiter slowly pivoted his Carbine, clamping his hand around the barrel and using the tree in front of him to stabilize his sights. His crosshairs found an opening in the trees along the path of her elegant promenade, but just before she presented a shot, a lazy current of air blew on the Arbiter's back and carried on towards his prey.

She tensed in an instant, and she snapped to the Arbiter's position, her ears standing up straight and her tail flitting up like a white flag hoisted high. The Arbiter knew it was impossible for her to see him, but she knew something was wrong. Cautiously, she changed direction, and carefully trotted farther into the trees.

With a sigh, the Arbiter relaxed his fingers on his weapon and deactivated his module, slowly phasing back into vision to the world around him. He waited a moment, regarding the cool, vibrant and bright trees, and once the birds began singing again, he moved with the breeze.

Carefully stepping around collections of dry leaves and branches, the Arbiter silently stalked forward to where the deer had disappeared. Inspecting the ground, he found a collection of tracks, shallow in the soft, dark dirt. He followed the direction they pointed, the distance between visible prints growing as he used more subtle signs to trail his prey. Grass trodden the wrong way, a broken branch about hip high, a small patch of hair snagged on a blackberry bush.

A twitch of movement ahead signaled him, and he crouched low again. Stalking forward carefully, noting the breeze as a persistent crosswind and stepping only where the grass and moss was wet, he closed on his quarry. As he crept forward from the bosom of the trees to the clearing ahead, he saw what he was hunting. He knelt, and his crosshair found the base of the deer's skull; she was unaware of his presence.

As his fingers coiled around the trigger mechanism, the deer turned, and gave a soft bleat into the forest, and excitedly, two smaller deer, speckled with white spots over their coats, bounded into the grass of the meadow on clumsy legs. They circled their mother, practically bouncing along the soft forest floor, and she bent her head to take a mouthful of the grass at her hooves.

The Arbiter felt a pang go through his chest, and with a soft groan, he lowered his Carbine.

With a longing look to the animals in the clearing, he slowly turned to go, but as he did, the family of deer, in unison, shot up again, tense.

The Arbiter froze; he was sure he hadn't made any noise, and the wind was still right. They couldn't have scented him.

Off to his left, suddenly, he heard a twig snap, and the deer bolted. The Arbiter's Carbine followed the sound as it bounced through the branches all around him, and his pupils tightened as he scoured the undergrowth for whatever predator had turned the hunt on him. His back found a tree, and he felt his breathing growing faster.

"What are you doing out here?!"

He whirled with a surprised snarl, and found yellow fur blending in with the amber grass, and a very angry pair of blue eyes glaring up at him. The Arbiter blinked confusion, but Fluttershy just slinked closer to him, surprisingly at home in the deciduous environment.

"What were you going to do to that mama deer?!" she asked again, almost scolding.

The Elite's shoulders drooped, his Carbine hanging limply from one hand, and a bit deviously, he smiled down at her.

"And so the meek inherits ferocity at the defense of nature," he mused before his brow set, and he stooped to return her glare.

"You know the answer already, nymph. Or is your kindness swayed only towards those with dull teeth?"

She shook her head at him, and the muscles in her face relaxed, her expression returning to its normal diffidence. It took the birds to begin singing again for the Arbiter to realize their tension was palpable, and here he was, guilty of her most egregious sin. He sighed, and looked down as he locked the Carbine back into its slot between his shoulder blades. The weapon clicked into place, and beneath his silver shell, the Sangheilli's stomach very audibly growled.

"I'm trying to heal faster, but I will not, as I have not eaten properly in weeks."

Fluttershy looked uncomfortable, and she almost ducked behind her flowing hair, retreating.

"Shouldn't you be at Twilight's?" she asked softly.

"I left this morning," came the Arbiter's dry reply, callously reminding her of the planned move.

Fluttershy's ear twitched towards something deeper into the tree-line, and much like the deer, her eyes snapped onto something unseen. The Arbiter's sharp senses caught nothing, and he curiously regarded her, as well as the boreal shadows she seemed to be trying to sneak away from.

"Come on," the pegasus whispered as she silently walked away, so familiar with every stick's place on the ground, "We shouldn't be out here."

"Why not," the Arbiter asked, slow to follow, "You favor the forest."

"Yeah... most forests."

The Arbiter turned slowly, and looked into the darker woods that were driving his companion away. His eyes found where the trees changed, their trunks growing as if writhing, twisting. There, the soil changed, the grass went away in favor of mushrooms and moss.

He felt as though he was being sucked into a tunnel of darkness, a black hole bracketed by twisting redwood and carpeted with moss. His snaking thoughts brought a name to the shadows.

Everfree

At the same time, he felt tense and relaxed. His leg dared to swing, taking a step deeper into the woods. The shadows whispered his name.

"Hey."

He was shaken out of his trance in an instant, and the Arbiter slowly turned back towards the light.

"We should go," Fluttershy said as she turned, and with a buzz of her wings, vaulted a downed log, and went on down the trail back to her cottage.

Thel shook a chill from his spine, and followed.

"Oh look," Fluttershy said suddenly, once they'd gone down the trail a way, the roof of her cottage just coming into view, "Ginseng."

The Arbiter looked over her shoulder as she stooped to pick the red flowered plant all around her, and by her nod and smile, he knew it was some kind of medicinal plant. A gangly finger found the most painful of his wounds, and traced a line across his abdomen.

The mare made it clear she wasn't going to be done foraging for a while when she made her way over gingerly to another plant, and carefully picked it as well. The Arbiter sighed, and his eyes wandered between the tree trunks when he unexpectedly found a familiar sight.

"You have a Gods Tree!" he said, astounded.

By the time Fluttershy had looked up, the alien had already begun hurrying over to the brook in front of her cottage, a medium-sized tree with pink leaves and a gnarled, dark trunk fixed in his gaze. She slowly meandered over to him the same way ponies would sneak into temples late, after the ceremonies had begun. With quiet curiosity, she watched as the Arbiter stared up in bliss at the tree's limbs, most of which were at eye level for him. He drank in the smell of the blossoms, and spread his arms in the tree's shade.

"We call it a Cherry Blossom," she said with a peaceful smile from behind him.

Carefully, the Arbiter ducked under the branches, and on a knee, he placed his open hand over the tree's trunk.

"We had trees much like this on Sanghelios," he said reverently, his voice no longer that determined growl, "My family kept one for generations in our Keep at Vadam."

The brook at the roots of the tree widened into a slow moving pool, and like the first snowflakes of winter, occasional blossoms fell from their roosts to gracefully float down into the dark water below. The stream lazily carried them away on water like mirror-glass, until they disappeared under a bridge and around the bend.

"They must have been very important to you," Fluttershy said with a comforting smile.

"You cannot imagine how much so."

The Arbiter leaned forward, and his head rested against the tree's heartwood.

As he bent forward, the plates of his armor flexed with him, and a gap on his shoulder opened up to expose a stitched cut that had all but scabbed over.

"You heal fast," Fluttershy admired as the Arbiter stepped back from the tree.

"My people are resilient," he said quietly, his eyes still cast upwards.

"I think I have enough ginseng to make some tea that might help a bit more," she said as she shifted the weight in her saddlebags to feel the day's haul, "You'll be back at it in no time."

The Arbiter looked gratefully back at her, a serene smile forming at the corner of his mouth. Behind him, in the pool, he heard a small splash, and turned his head to see a trout disappearing back below the dark water's surface.

Fluttershy turned to go back inside, and over her shoulder, called, "There are fish in the brook."

With a growl in his stomach, the Arbiter knelt at the river's bank, and there, he lay in wait.

Meanwhile...

The ashen air burned Shining Armor's throat as he ran, but with each determined snort, each pounding gallop, he was farther away from the Remnant and closer to the nesting grounds. At his side, Rtas kept pace. Their ivory exteriors were stained black by the volcanic soil, and their hot breath mixed with the noxious fumes of the volcanic plane. Out of the corner of his eye, Shining saw the Shipmaster's talon click away at a hologram on his gauntlet, and over the next ridge, he heard their stashed Phantom's engines roar to life.

Swiftly, they jumped into the dropship, and sped off along the barren earth, the downward blast of the turbines throwing back a heart shaped cloud of ash in their wake.

Exhausted, Shining felt the cold metal of the craft's hold embrace him. Briefly, the thought of the grueling past days' operations teased his mind, and he stole a few moments' rest.

He awoke at the now familiar sound of the dropship's engine pitch changing, and his eyes opened to greet the hellish red light of the Badlands pouring into the dark hold.

Steelhide was there as soon as the Phantom's engines stopped, barking questions before their boots had even settled into the dust.

"Did you find them? Where are they? Did you notify the others?"

Shining, out of breath, stooped, all but gasping.

"They're... at the base... of the volcano. Thousands..."

"Tens of thousands," corrected the Shipmaster, "They've staged for an assault. We left as they were lining up their corvettes."

Shining looked up at the gaping crocodile-like maw of the Emperor, his entourage of bodyguards and scouts arrayed behind him. They were heralds of doom on the edge of the nesting grounds, and Shining, to the tune of thousands of dragons protecting their offspring, watched the light begin to flee from Steelhide's proud eyes.

"Is the Army of Hope coming?" he crowed hoarsely.

"As fast as they can," assured Shining Armor, "I know Celestia. I know Luna. They're on their way here with all of Tauren and Griffonstone now, and all the others won't be far behind."

"We should move East and join them," urged the Shipmaster, only to be answered by a chorus of hisses.

"How many thousands of dragon children lay defenseless in these nests?!" Steelhide roared back, "I will not leave them to a fate of chance!"

"You can't take on the Covenant alone."

"I'm not alone," Steelhide growled as his talon pointed towards a plain and sky full of every species of dragon imaginable, "I have the most powerful force in the world."

As he finished, all the squawking vocalizations in the shadow of the volcano went silent in a very animalistic way, and slowly, as if creeping up from the bones of the earth, a resounding bass note that shook the gravel and bone grew. Shining's and Steelhide's eyes met. They knew.

They looked to the volcano, and as if peeking through a curtain of smoke, the bow of a Covenant Battle-Cruiser slowly came into view. The glow of its purple engines turned the red haze to pink, and Banshees, like bees from their hives, poured forth from the hangars, and streaked for the nesting grounds with a climbing wail.

They'd done all they could. Help was on its way, but the Covenant was going to get to them first. They were all that stood between a new generation of dragons the world over and annihilation.

Steelhide looked at Shining, and they shared a doomed nod. The stallion jumped into the hold of the Phantom as Rtas began powering it up, and Steelhide drew his gladius. The Tarragon thrust it into the air as he belched out a roar and a column of flame, and all the dragons of the Badlands followed the Phantom into the air.

Through the ventral doors, Shining watched as the horde took wing, blotting out the sun as they went airborne. Like a wave, they climbed into the red sky, the gargantuan hen at their center, and Steelhide at the front, wings pumping.

"Keep them off my tail," growled Rtas in Shining's ear, and the Phantom rolled into a banking climb, gaining altitude on the Banshees coursing towards them.

Shining's horn glowed hot, and he breathed quickly in anticipation. For the smallest moment, he thought of Cadence.

The sound all seemed to drift away as the cloud of dragons crashed into the cloud of Banshees, their meeting announced by the bright flashes of blue plasma and jets of orange flame shooting across the sky. As if hypnotized, Shining watched as Banshees, trialing smoke, and dragons, limp or struggling and writhing frantically, began falling to the black earth below.

Covenant fighters dashed past them, dragons ripping into their hulls to get at the pilots, or melting through their colorful exteriors with their searing fire. The Banshees dove and rolled on the dragons, working in pairs to separate individuals from the flock and then hit home with long bursts of plasma. Mid-air collisions rent metal and smashed bone, purple and green explosions carved out chunks of the frenzy, and in great sweeping motions, the largest dragons cleared the sky with swipes of tail, talon and flame.

Shining felt as though he were trapped in the heart of a thunderstorm.

Then the first Banshee dove on them.

The Phantom rolled, and Shining held on while he tried to drive the craft away with rays of magic. He connected a few shots, only for the Banshee to roll away and then come on again at a different angle. Through the walls of the hold, he felt the Phantom's cannon blasting away with heavy plasma shells.

Timing a roll perfectly, Shining connected with their trailing Banshee's engine, sending it sputtering towards the ground. Looking around, he saw dozens of Covenant craft joining it, and he couldn't believe it.

"We're winning..."

His eyes lit up with hope, but then his face lit up with purple. The air began to feel electric, and he felt a resounding vibration in his ears. His hair stood on end.

Confused, Shining followed the noise to the belly of the Battle-Cruiser, and a growing purple light. Then, as if on cue, every Covenant Banshee darted like moths away from the fight towards their mothership's eminence. Mesmerized, Shining watched, until he felt the Phantom roll away, and the engines scream back to the North.

"Shipmaster!" called the stallion.

But there was no reply; there was only the sound of the Phantom's engines at maximum exertion, and the most terribly brilliant flash of light he had ever seen.

Earlier

With a stomach full of fish and tea, and a face full of sun, the Arbiter dozed comfortably on the banks of the stream in a bed of cherry blossoms. Far from being absent-minded, he meditated, letting his sub-consciousness flow towards healing. He was acutely aware of each cut in his skin, and tried to focus on visualizing mending them.

He could almost feel it working, and with each passing hour, he could feel his strength seeping back into him.

When he heard the front door of Fluttershy's cottage swing shut he looked up, and saw her cheerfully trotting towards him.

"Come on," she said jovially, "I'm going into town. You should come with me."

Without a question, the Arbiter stood, put his helmet back on, and followed her down the winding cobblestone path.

Before long they reached the outskirts of town, but even despite the languid day, there was not a soul in sight. The streets were barren, and storefront signs swung in the breeze with no one around to read them. The Arbiter regarded each sidestreet with a suspicious eye, but before long, it was his guide he began to harbor suspicions about.

They passed Main Street and the empty Market into the Town Square, towards a cityhall much larger than the one at Trottingham. The Arbiter slowed but when Fluttershy beckoned him further, he followed her again. Gingerly shepushed open the town hall's front door for him, and held it open while he ducked through the threshold.

A loud pop greeted him, and his hand instinctively went for his sword. But before he could spark the blades, he heard a congregation of voices sing out, heralding him in jubilation.

"SURPRISE!"

dumbstruck, the Arbiter stood in the doorway, armor clad and sword hilt in hand as confetti rained down on him, speckling his sterling armor all the colors of the rainbow and more. Streamers hung from the ceiling. Banners adorned the window frames. All around him, foals, fillies and Pinkie Pie bounced, blowing little horns and kazoos in celebration.

His eyes found the other Elements, and shaking their heads in amusement, they made their way up to him.

"We wanted to welcome you," Twilight explained, craning up at him with a smile from ear to ear, "And we don't know any better ways."

"The whole town came out!" exclaimed Applejack; much of the town bore her family likeness.

"So Pinkie put all this together," Rainbow Dash added, throwing her forelimbs up at the festively decorated town hall as she came to alight on the Arbiter's shoulder.

Pinkie, all but vibrating in excitement, began jumping all around the room, announcing the fruits of her labor as myriad ponies began enjoying her talents.

"We have CAKE, PARTY GAMES, CONFETTI!!!"

Another pop and another rain of confetti, and all the foals and fillies giggled, chasing each other around. And in the middle of all of it, the Arbiter stood bewildered.

"Oh here darling," Rarity suddenly said, and she gracefully placed a large package in his hands, "You've got to open this! I want to see your face!"

In an instant, the party stopped what they were doing and watched with eager anticipation to see what the gift was. With a sort of reverence, they regarded his slender fingers pulling at the ribbons' knots, and the wrapping paper fell away.

From inside of a small brown box, the Arbiter lifted out a beautiful, flowing, expertly stitched and perfectly sized lavender cloak.

With shocked eyes, he looked at Twilight and Rarity, and knew it was Twilight who told the seamstress about his reminisces, and what this garment meant.

Solemnly, he removed his helmet and threw the cloak around his shoulders and fastened the clasps under his collarbones. It was a perfect fit, a near replica of the one his crew had gifted him so many years ago. He felt something welling inside of him, and he looked up at the Elements.

"We just... wanted to say thank you, for everything," explained Rarity, "We are so grateful."

In an instant, the atmosphere was shattered by Pinkie's demand for a return to festivity.

"Lets PARTYYYYY!"

Hours passed. The Arbiter tried the food, and found it very sweet. He tried to talk to the guests, but found each conversation awkward. He tried to keep from stepping on the foals that were constantly trying to touch him.

By nightfall, he was sitting near a windowsill on the party's rim, simply watching everything quietly.

"Everything okay?" came Twilight's voice.

"Yes," he responded slowly, not looking up from his new cloak. He felt it in his fingers, admired its color; it was just like he remembered.

"I feel," he began slowly, "...I feel like... Thel 'Vadam... once again."

There was a long silence before Twilight sat with him.

"I don't belong here," Thel said suddenly, and he looked away.

"This is your home too," Twilight corrected him, but the Arbiter's expression conveyed its doubts.

After a long while, he nodded.

"Our people are very different," he began slowly, "But what you have here is... good. Truly. I hope you know what you have..."

There was another long silence.

"This is what I want one day... for my people."

Twilight laughed.

"Crazy Parties?" she said as Pinkie Pie, in a craze, lit off another shot of her confetti cannon, sending Rainbow Dash reeling.

"No," the Arbiter said with a chuckle, "Happiness. Community. Family..."

His eyes looked up in admiration once more at the entire town, gathered together without animosity or jealousy, enjoying one another in all their glories and faults.

"Peace."

He looked at Twilight, and for the first time since she'd known him, she saw him truly smile.

"Whoa!" came the sudden enamored call of a foal, who was reared up against the window, his hooves pressed against the glass and his eyes glittering with wonder at what was falling outside.

"Snow!"

The other foals at the party dashed to the windows, clambering over each other to get a glimpse of the falling white flakes. It took a few moments for them to realize that they could go outside and play amidst the lazily drifting snow.

"Snow?" asked Twilight aloud, laughing a bit as she watched the colts and fillies antics of bucking and romping outside, white dots floating about them on a light breeze.

"How could it be snowing?" Rarity asked, her sapphire eyes awestruck as she peered out the window skyward, "It's the middle of May."

The Arbiter said nothing as the speculations of the older ponies around him began to drone out the sounds of the children playing outside. Some blamed climate change, others, a mistake at Cloudsdale. But, the Arbiter didn't listen to them. Instead, he walked outside, his cloak waving with his movement, as if to play with the foals.

He stepped outside, and found the sun was obscured by what seemed to be clouds; such was expected, as grey skies were signature of a snowstorm. But as he squinted at the dim solar outline through the haze, his skin felt awry. It was still warm, perhaps warmer than it was earlier in the day. He breathed in the air, expecting a crisp chill on the insides of his nostrils, but felt no such thing. His mandibles parted to greet a snowflake that fell into his maw, but he felt no water on his tongue, only a dry hot dust.

Slowly, he put out his hand, and watched a trio of foals bucking with joy and youthful energy as the white flakes began to cover their hides, but their fur was not becoming glossy with melted snow, it was becoming tainted as if with dirt. The Arbiter looked down at his own hand, white specks in his palm, and he ran a finger through them; they turned to grey and black cinders. It was then that he realized what was falling.

He turned slowly around, many of the stallions and mares now outside to admire the meteorological oddity; they were all smiles, but the Arbiter's face was grimmer than usual.

"Get them back inside," he growled to receive confused stares from all that heard him, especially the Elements.

"What's wrong if they play in the snow?" asked Rainbow Dash, her fluttering wings causing the drifting flakes to tempestuously fly around her to catch in her mane, "This is really cool, and it probably won't happen again for a re..."

"It isn't snow," interrupted the Arbiter as he looked at his cloak, now turning grey because of what had fallen on it, "It's ash."

Immediately, the face of every stallion and mare within earshot went from amazed to afraid, and parents quickly darted into the lawns and streets to gather their children. The foals complained and asked why they could not enjoy the weather, and the parents only tugged them towards home. The Arbiter looked skyward, upwind, and the Elements at his side followed his gaze after seeking each other first.

"Something massive is ablaze," he growled, and he began to brush off his shoulders of their ashen accumulation.

"What could be on fire?"

The Arbiter looked back.

"What lies to our south?"

"Appaloosa, Dodge Junction. Farther than that..."

"Where are the princesses now?"

Twilight answered both questions at once.

"The Badlands."

"And what's in the Badlands?"

"Dragons," she answered slowly, "and their nesting grounds."

The Arbiter looked as far south as he could see, where the clouds began to turn darker. He squinted at the clouds, the expansive overcast of dark blue and grey, and saw purple lightning leaping in the sky.

"No," he growled, a combination of fear, anger and despair in his voice.

"What's wrong?" asked Fluttershy, who was in tune to his distraught demeanor.

He turned back to face her, his pupils all but pinpricks, and his voice low, he answered.

"They're glassing the Badlands."