Author's Notes:

Theme for this chapter:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd3Iht5u2Dk

Rainbow Dash sped ahead, leaving the other two in the dust as she raced after the object that had fallen from the sky, its vapor trail still causing atmospheric distortion to make tracking its descent hardly a challenge. The calls for her to slow down faded behind her, until the only sound she could hear was the crackling of the singed, electric air above her- it had been that way since the, whatever it was, had fallen-and the rush of the wind as it ripped through her mane and past her ears.

She flew through forest and meadow, not letting vegetation stop her as she weaved and rolled to keep her course as near to unblocked as she could; tree trunks and limbs made it so she was constantly altering her direction, her wings denied a simple maneuvering scheme and forced into an impressive acrobatic display.

Following the discoloration of the air above her, she came to a large glen, and settled to the ground at the edge of a massive rift torn between the trees. Where it started, only the tops of the trees were affected, but as it grew, the rift extended down into the forest floor, where a scar several meters deep and across was cut into the soil. The earth at the bottom of the small canyon was nearly molten, steam rising up to burn her nostrils even with her altitude over the rift's base. It was obvious that whatever had fallen had made this formation, and the pegasus meant to find its creator.

Magenta eyes traced the path the scar followed, an imperfect and staggered line with trees, split as if they were toothpicks, on either side. She could not see the end of it; as far as she could tell, the path continued over the nearest knoll. Just as she was finishing her analysis, she heard heavy steps behind her, and heavier panting.

"Did you see where it went?!" asked Twilight excitedly between heaving breaths before she saw the ditch cut in the glen's floor.

"Can we just stop for a second," began Spike as he doubled over, bracing himself with his hands against his knees, "and think? I mean just look at that?"

The dragon pointed to the massive scar in the ground, the other two paying heed to what he had to say.

"Like a big plow," he said, still panting as he gestured to the formation in question, "If it was falling like it should have been, like something natural, it should have just been another crater, like the one we just saw."

"Spike's right," admitted Twilight as she straightened up, slowing her breathing, "This looks like..."

"Like after I bail from a crash," admitted Dash, turning a concerned pair of eyes back to Twilight.

"Intelligent flight?" asked Twilight aloud, that old spark lighting in Rainbow's eye once the words registered in her ears.

"Intelligent," Spike groaned, "like, controlled? Like, not a space rock?"

Rainbow Dash's wings twitched, and she turned around with braced legs as she prepared to take to the sky once again.

"Rainbow wait," Twilight hissed to stop her friend mid-motion, "Don't you think this might be a really bad idea?"

"Probably," she admitted, not changing her stance, "but so was messing with that thing in the crater. Something big is happening Twilight, and I want to know what."

"That doesn't mean you go running up to whatever just fell out of the sky and poke it," said Spike as he unsuccessfully went to grab Dash's wing so as to prevent her from flying anytime soon; a simple flick of the feathers kept them well out of the drake's reach, "Look, I know you probably know this already, but I'm freaking out right now, and I'm not too eager to give myself a heart attack by running after you when I'm already terrified. Is it too much to just sit this one out?"

"Spike, you can go," Twilight admitted as she stepped to Rainbow's side, "but Dash and I are Elements of Harmony. We're obliged to take action here, just like we were with Discord, and the Crystal Empire."

Twilight turned to Rainbow suddenly, her tone nearly maternal.

"But, we are going to take this slowly and cautiously when we finally get to a point where we can observe what is going on. We'll be careful, and not rush anything once we find what we're looking for."

The pegasus nodded, and Spike's left eyelid twitched slightly as he took a final deep breath, Twilight and Dash exchanging a nod before trotting off along the lip of the smoldering ditch. The dragon turned back in the direction of home, but looked over his shoulder at his disappearing friends. He hesitantly looked back to the East, then over his shoulder once more, biting a talon as his mind raced between what he wanted and what he thought he wanted.

"Oh, fine," he finally groaned to himself, and he began jogging after the vanishing equines.

Meanwhile...

Slowly, the world filtered back into focus. Blackness was replaced by simpler darkness, which was then replaced with subtle color and faintest light. Everything seemed tinted a hazy shade of blue as the Arbiter once again grasped consciousness, and struggled to look about the smoldering world around him. The smell of stagnant blood and smoke was overwhelming, yet almost comfortingly familiar.

As the Arbiter slowly regained consciousness, he became aware of his place among his surroundings. He was lying on his back, devoid of pain except for a very dull throb in the back of his skull. He tried to move, feeling the shift of dry soil beneath him as he rolled slightly. He looked around, tilting his head back and forward to see what could be seen; he was at the bottom of a small crevice, the ground sloped up and away from him until it leveled off into some sort of unseen plateau on both sides. He looked to his left, to see a blurred outline of what he thought was the Phantom he'd previously occupied, spewing a column of smoke from blue fires near its engines and cockpit. He looked to his right, and saw black armored bodies a small distance away and arranged in the same fashion he was, on their backs with their heads pointed up slope. Some of the bodies were complete; others were missing pieces. They all lacked weapons.

"Finally, you are awake," said the familiar voice of the Shipmaster from somewhere above him.

The Arbiter shifted his body around, craning his neck to look back and see the white armored silhouette of Rtas 'Vadum walking downhill towards him, a recently adorned Carbine on his back to add to his other weapons.

"You are the last of the wounded to rise," admitted the Shipmaster, kneeling at the Arbiter's side.

"Wounded?" asked the Arbiter, feeling the back of his skull where he'd previously felt a trace of pain.

"Were it not for your thick head, you would be among that lot," the Commander said grimly, pointing to the arranged bodies to the Arbiter's right.

"How many?" the Arbiter groaned as he sat up, leaning back on his elbows braced in the dirt.

"Eight, along with the pilots and crew, were killed in the crash," 'Vadum admitted looking down slightly, "Two more have since bled out due to their wounds. The Hunters are fine, as are five of our Elites. The wounds of the remaining three are grave, but far from life threatening."

The Arbiter growled deep in his throat, and shifted his weight forward to stand.

"Luckily, the atmosphere is breathable," said the Shipmaster as he trailed behind the Arbiter, who was now striding in the direction of the downed Phantom, his heavy boots leaving deep prints in the soft dirt of the trench dug by the crash, "lest we'd all have perished."

"What happened to put us here?" asked the Arbiter as they reached the mangled corpse of the Phantom, its hull shredded and one of its ventral doors ripped clear; there was still indigo blood visible in the smoldering hold of the vessel, as well as a trail of it amidst a drag mark in the dirt, leading back to where the bodies of the dead were sorted.

"It would seem that the cockpit took an angled hit from a plasma torpedo," said the Shipmaster, pointing to a massive, blackened hole near the bow of the crumpled vessel, "The pilot's quarters depressurized, pulverizing the crew and crippling the Phantom. We lost the bomb while we were still above the planet's sphere of influence. The autopilot engaged after we entered the atmosphere, and was able to navigate a less than catastrophic landing."

The Arbiter looked back at the massive rut the ship had torn, and snorted. He turned his eyes from the Phantom, which was still showering sparks from its pierced hull, and billowing smoke into the atmosphere from its corrupted engines and generators. The Mgalekgolo were standing watch on the ground behind the Phantom's smoldering aft rudder, but there were no living Sangheili in sight.

"Where are the others?" asked the Arbiter, noticing a lack of the survivors he was assured of earlier.

"I sent out a scouting party for the purposes of reconnaissance and gathering local vegetation for the cremation. We plan to burn our dead and set charges on the Phantom. The ship is damaged beyond repair, and we have salvaged what we could. We will destroy it, and move on."

"Move on?" the Arbiter asked, looking back at the Shipmaster, "If we were to leave this place, how would our brothers find us? Surely they will not leave us on this world. They will know of our place here from the Phantom's distress beacon, and come to our aide."

"The distress beacon may prove to be a curse rather than a blessing," the Commander said slowly, "We were unable to deactivate it."

"Deactivate it?"

The Shipmaster avoided the Arbiter's gaze, looking down and to his left. The Arbiter locked his amber stare onto the Shipmaster's downturned helmet, not taking note of the voltaic shocks and roaring blaze of the Phantom behind him.

"What are you not telling me?" he asked, his voice lowering sternly.

"We were able to salvage the communications log from the cockpit, though the ship's battle-net has since short circuited," 'Vadum began, his annunciation slow and deliberate, "It seems that, shortly after the battle began, the Testament of Zeal was boarded."

The Arbiter's eyes widened and his breath faltered as his counterpart continued.

"She was destroyed, along with the fleet's jammers. The Remnant's battle group called to 'Mdama for help... Their call was answered."

"What of our fleet?" the Arbiter asked, his breath bated.

"The Shadow of Intent and two cruisers were all that escaped. They fled to the Lambda Serpentis System, to regroup with the remainder of the Combined Fleet of Righteous Purpose. We believe 'Mdama's ships pursued them. The last transmission we received was some time ago and of a distressed nature, though none of us were yet conscious to hear it."

The Arbiter's solemn eyes spoke for him in his silence.

"There are no allies of ours on this world that we know of," the Shipmaster continued, "which is why we must leave this place. The scouting party reported finding a sustainable place to survive in these hills. Until we can find a way off this world, we will stay there."

"Very well," the Arbiter growled, "Have you taken the weapons off the dead?"

"Yes. As I said, we have salvaged all we could."

Just then, one of the Mgalekgolo growled from behind the Phantom, and the two turned to see the pair of armored giants in a defensive stance, facing the edge of the depression they occupied.

"The scouting party?" The Arbiter asked over his shoulder, his hand drifting towards his sword hilt as the Mgalekgolo growled again, leveling their cannons at the slope's summit from behind their massive, verdant shields.

"No," the Shipmaster answered, his fists balled tensely, "The Hunters know their scent. If it was them, they would not be acting so."

The two were quiet as they looked and listened, until the sound of a feral cry, and a loud, ringing metallic crash came down from the far summit of the trench torn by their landing. The pair immediately darted in the direction of the sound while the Mgalekgolo stayed put, clambering up the slope with driving legs as they hurried to investigate.

Earlier...

"I think I see where it ends," announced Rainbow Dash, her voice scratchy and hesitant as she squinted through the alpine trees she hovered amidst.

The unicorn at her side paused, breathing heavily after covering a substantial amount of distance in pursuit of the fallen object. The depression seemed to go on for miles, as Twilight and Rainbow Dash had persistently followed its trail across meadows and over knolls. They must have spent over forty-five minutes following this trench dug in the ground, presumably by a high speed, angled impact, but now, the terminus was in sight.

"More smoke," observed Twilight between breaths, "I think we should go slowly from now on."

"Agreed," said Dash softly, and she alighted to the forest floor on soft hooves.

They walked now, their ears erect and twitching as, not knowing what to expect, they combed the air for any clues or warnings of possible danger. The birds were silent. The smell of smoke grew stronger, yet, it was somehow unique, more pungent than normal wood smoke and the smoke of the crater they'd found earlier. They reached a clearing, the edge of the copse they'd taken their time navigating, and peered out from the tree line.

What they saw was the trench's end, its creator buried in the ground and vigorously emitting the smoke they smelled. Even from a distance, the two could tell that it resembled the object they'd found earlier: contoured surface, purple color scheme, only this object was ablaze in patches of blue flame, and its exterior was blackened and torn, far from unblemished.

"This is unlike anything I've ever seen," Twilight admitted, her breathing heavy as she tried to slow her racing heart, the sheer weight of what she was looking at hitting her like a wave as her lust for discovery shifted to a form of panic.

"We need to get a closer look," Dash said as she began to forsake the protection of the silent trees, only to have Twilight latch onto her tail and pull her back.

"We need to be careful," Twilight reiterated, concern permeating her gaze as she locked eyes with the brazen pegasus.

"Careful?" Dash responded, raising one eyebrow as she returned her friend's gaze, "Come on Twilight, it's me."

"That's what I'm worried about," replied the unicorn, her voice hushed as if the forest itself has ears.

"We'll be fine," Dash reassured, and turning back around, she assumed a position like that of a prowling jaguar, her belly low and her knees bent, and began sneaking towards the edge of the smoldering crevice torn by the smoking, lavender object in the near distance; Twilight sighed again, but reminded herself of their reasons for being there, and followed her winged companion.

Slinking through the tall, hardy grass of the clearing, they reached the edge of the trench, and staying low, peered out through the parted stalks of vegetation. The object was much clearer now, but the majority of the details they saw now were obvious even from a distance. What surprised them was what they saw around the object. Four figures, two of them tall and slender, the other two large and bulky, were undoubtedly moving about near the smoky wreck below.

"Are those minotaurs?" asked Rainbow as she observed the lustrous, bright metallic outlines of the figures against the dark brown background of the gulley.

"The smaller two are about the right size," admitted Twilight as she squinted, "but I'm not seeing any horns."

"So, females?" suggested Dash.

"Since when have you known minotaurs to have flying machines, or any noteworthy technology for that matter?" Twilight responded hotly.

"How am I supposed to know?" the pegasus hissed back, "You're the egghead here. It's your job to know stuff. Besides, aren't flying machines supposed to have wings and... ya know?"

Twilight didn't see anything that could count as wings on the massive heap of metal in the trough of the depression, or anything to generate lift for that matter. It certainly didn't look aerodynamic at all from this angle, and she realized her friend's words had merit.

"So, Twilight, what are they?" asked Dash, her voice noticeably climbing.

"I don't know," the unicorn admitted, "This is as weird for me as it is for you, so forgive me for not having the answers right now."

"Great," Rainbow Dash groaned beneath the breeze, "we're stuck out here in the sticks with Celestia knows what just down the hill, and we don't even know where they're from or if they'll eat us if we try to say hello."

"Well what would you have us do?" Twilight responded, trying to keep her voice down as the two took measures to conceal themselves further by retreating a few meters back from the edge of the gulley.

Rainbow Dash sighed as she shook her head slightly, and as she went to steal another look at the source of their distress below, her ears twitched. Her head instinctively whipped back to the source of the ever so subtle sound she'd detected, her ears erect and her eyes wide.

"I heard it too," whispered Twilight from her side, her eyes and ears searching for the source as well.

"What was it?"

"Shh."

Another sound came from the trees, a twig's snapping, followed by a rustling of leaves as something no doubt darted through the underbrush. Their eyes suddenly snapped to a small shrub, its branches shaking amidst a crunching in the foliage, but the source of the sound once again escaped detection. It seemed to be playing with them, snapping a twig then causing a tree to sway as it was here, then there, then nowhere.

Just then, the grass of the tree line began to be displaced, though there was nothing visible to cause its sudden movement. The pair drew back slightly, gritting their teeth as they prepared to face whatever monstrosity was stalking unseen from the shadows. The parting grass came closer and closer, until from the shadows, a familiar dragon strolled into sight.

"Finally," he grumbled, picking a twig out from his spines, "I've been looking everywhere for you."

"Scaredy-cat," Rainbow Dash said as she elbowed her friend, hiding her own sigh of relief.

"I wasn't scared," argued Twilight, nearly laughing as she calmed herself down.

Suddenly, a felled log in the forest split in two like a twig beneath the weight of a bull, causing the good-natured banter to come to a frightened halt, and with a savage roar, something burst from the forest in their direction. The three froze in shock as a massive bipedal figure, clad in a dark red metal, darted for them, a long, double pronged, glowing object in its hand. It covered the distance between them and the tree line in moments, accelerating furiously with its long, driving legs. Its intentions were made clear, when upon reaching the trio, it swung the searing blue weapon at Twilight in a quick, fluid motion. The unicorn instinctively ducked, losing a few strands of hair on her mane as the scalding blade hissed through the air mere inches from her skin.

Its first blow failing to strike true, the creature reared back, stepping downwards as it prepared to swing the weapon through the equine's aligned midsections, but they proved slightly quicker once more. Rainbow Dash darted to the sky in a flash, Spike scurried off into the grass, and Twilight dove through the creature's sleek legs, the weapon piercing the dirt she'd quickly vacated.

Slowly now, as if relishing in the act, the creature turned to face Twilight, and for the first time, she was allowed a good look at her assailant. Its outline matched those of the creatures she'd just seen adjacent the wreckage in the gulley, only it seemed much more imposing close up. At least two meters tall and wide in the shoulders, its muscled bulk protected thoroughly in what she could assume was some form of very ornate red armor. Its legs had two knees each, one bending forward, another bending backwards, both of them tensed and athletic in its current stature. Its face was entirely covered by its contoured helmet, and its forehead was adorned with four glowing blue circles arranged in the shape of a diamond.

It reached down to grab her as she lay on her back, but as Twilight crawled away, it prowled after her. She quickly turned, scampering to her hooves as she tried to make her escape, but she felt a strong grip close on her mane from behind. The unicorn winced through clenched teeth as the foreigner hoisted her up by her hair, and held her eye to eye with its own unfeeling gaze. It pulled the sword back, aiming it at her throat, but before it lined up its thrust, a soft metallic ding, like that of a bell, drifted up from the creature's feet.

It looked down, the equine and radiant blue blade still in its unmoving grip, to see Spike wrapped around its lower leg, his reptilian fangs pressed into the unscathed surface of its crimson shin armor. With a halfhearted growl and a meager kick, the attacker dislodged the dragon from its leg, sending him sailing into the center of the grassy clearing, and turned its attention back to Twilight once more.

However, the unicorn never gave it the chance to line up a second time, and she let loose with the most potent defensive spell in her arsenal. The lavender beam traced a line from Twilight's horn to the alien's breast plate, and an effect like shattering glass resonated over the surface of its scarlet shell. Voltaic strands of blue light danced over the creature's entire exterior, and it staggered back as its grip loosened, the unicorn falling to the grass below.

The alien looked down at its singed breast plate, a circular scorch mark showing the point where her magic's beam had found its mark, and as it looked back to her, a slow, wrathful growl emanated from deep within its cavernous chest. It lifted its leg to advance upon her once again, and Twilight hit the ground, not because she feared what was to come, but because she saw an arcing prism of light tracing a path straight for her assailant in the distant sky.

Rainbow Dash struck the alien from behind with a tremendous force, its limbs flailing behind its torso as the pegasus embedded her outstretched hooves into the middle of its back, the crushing blow echoing into the alpine air. The force carried the two a considerable distance away from their point of impact, resulting in a pile up with Rainbow Dash perched atop the immobilized creature's back.

"You okay Twilight?!" Rainbow shouted as she bent down to inspect her foe, who was face-down in the dirt and not moving.

Spike came running up from behind as Twilight was about to respond, but the words froze in her throat as she swore her eyes betrayed her; the light behind Rainbow Dash seemed inexplicably distorted, and as she watched, another of the creatures, identical in attire and armament, emerged from the air itself only feet from her friend.

The unicorn barely managed to shout out a warning before the second alien landed a merciless kick into Dash's ribs, sending her skidding through the dirt until she came to a stop, unconscious, at Twilight's side. The figure strode towards them, its glacier blue blade held firmly in its swinging, muscular arms. Its demeanor was different from that of the first, which was now struggling to its feet in the background; the second creature breathed heavily, each exhale coming forth in an aggressive snort, the way it wielded its weapon was less elegant and more deliberate, and its strides landed with heavy, intimidating foot falls as it covered the distance to its prey in haste. Where the first's purpose had been to berate, the second's purpose was to kill.

It reached them in moments, and as Twilight prepared another spell, it raised its sword. There was a sinking feeling in the unicorn's stomach when she felt Spike cowering and Rainbow unmoving at her side, and as she saw the incandescent blade begin to descend towards her, she knew her defensive measures would not be charged and ready in time; they were utterly defenseless. She stole one last breath and cringed, but before she blinked, she saw another lambent distortion behind her attacker.

Suddenly, two prongs, like those of the attackers' blades, erupted from her assailant's chest as its weapon dropped harmlessly to its side, and as its head drooped limply with a sputtering, wet cough, a third of the creatures phased into sight at its back. The third pulled his sword free and loosened his grip on the assailant's throat, allowing the limp body to crumple into a heap at the equine's hooves. Twilight's eyes were wide in shock and horror as she locked her gaze onto the motionless maroon body before her as it softly gurgled into silence.

She blinked away her hysteria as she looked up to her savior; he was undoubtedly the same species as the others, but his attire and presence were both very different. He wore a lustrous set of engraved sterling armor, his face left bare save a contour of metal over his forehead. He looked down at the unicorn as his impassioned amber eyes strayed from the dying body of their mutual quarry, allowing her a look at his face. His skin was reptilian, dark grey and coarse, and where she'd expected a mouth was a set of four toothy mandibles instead.

As she looked to the figure above her, another of the foreign race stepped forth from invisibility, and took a place at her rescuer's side. This one, the fourth, was unlike the others in many ways; he was not as tall, his armor was smooth, perfect in curvature and an unstained shade of white, and in place of a blade he held a single long, lavender weapon of sorts in both of his four-fingered hands. His face was scarred, and he was missing mandibles. The fourth, as the first, looked down at the dead body of the slain creature before looking briefly to Twilight, his green eyes peering right through her.

The equine suddenly jumped as she heard a very angry, very deep affront in a guttural language she did not understand, and to see that she would understand in the future, alighted her horn with the signature yellow glow of a linguistic spell. The two standing over her turned, and Twilight followed their gaze to see the alien tackled by Rainbow earlier staggering to its feet, its sword held tightly in one hand and its knees bent in a robust stance. The sterling warrior stepped forward, his blade held in his left hand and raised in front of his face as he slowly advanced on his crimson foe as the fourth in white armor began circling around to the side with his weapon leveled.

The fight started and finished in a matter of seconds. The maroon alien lounged first, only to have its thrust sidestepped by its silver opponent. In an attempt to counter, the crimson combatant reverted to a backhanded slash, which was also ducked. In a fluid, almost dance-like fashion, the argentate warrior pivoted and spun as he passed under his opponent's blade, and opened a white hot gash in his quarry's midsection. With an anguished and surprised yelp, the wounded creature brought its sword down diagonally in a rushed slash, but its arm was met with a rival blade. The sword, still held by a red clad hand, fell harmlessly to the ground, and the silver warrior redirected his foe's weight, sending it stumbling towards his alabaster accomplice.

The crimson alien's head was met with a vicious impact as the smaller warrior struck it with the lavender stock of his weapon, the force of the blow lifting its feet from the ground and planting it on its back. It tried to sit up, only to be pressed back down as an ivory boot met its breast. The smaller warrior raised his weapon, and fired a trio of shots into his foe's helmet, promptly ending the hostilities.

"Zealots," growled the white fighter as he placed his weapon on his back and stepped off the motionless body beneath his foot, the circular holes in its forehead steaming.

"Gather the others to our position, and see that we find the third," said the larger of the two as he retracted his blade into its handle and placed it on his left hip, "We will see to our shelter later."

With that, the pearly combatant turned away and began to walk back towards the tree line, raising his hand to the side of his helmet as he said something unheard. The other turned to join him after a last look at the two corpses, but before he turned away, his amber gaze met the lavender eyes of Twilight again.

Suddenly, a white flash of light and heat struck the earth between Twilight and the creature, like a blinding strike of solar lightning, and in the wake of the surge, the royal sisters stood defensively before Twilight, Spike, and the now stirring Rainbow Dash; the silver and gold armor of the siblings glinted with sunlight, and their horns glowed red hot with charged combative magic.

"You will not harm them!" declared Celestia defiantly as her wings flared and her eyes went white, her armored exterior oriented like a golden shield between her subjects and the stranger.

The creature seemed surprised at first, likely at having understood what the princess had said, but he quickly locked eyes with the alicorns, turning to face them as his superior height caused him to look down on them. However, where the alicorns' demeanor was nothing less than defensive, he did not even reach for his weapons. Regardless, a different growl resonated through the air as his white armored companion strode up to his side from behind.

"Mind your tongue, creature," he said from the sterling warrior's side, "You speak to the Arbiter, the champion of The Swords of Sanghelios."

"Princess?" said Rainbow Dash weakly, finally opening her eyes as she struggled through her recent injuries, "You two missed all the fun."

Princess Celestia looked back concernedly at Rainbow Dash as Spike cradled her weary head and Twilight enveloped her body in a meager healing spell, while Princess Luna remained on guard. Upon seeing the frightened, battered bodies of the three, the princess took a protective step forward, her voice threatening as she defended what she knew to be vulnerable from what she believed to be malevolent.

"I care not who you are, nor what darkness would compel you to attack an innocent. You will not harm them!"

The princess' stance became more menacing, and the white alien reached for the sword hilt on his hip. However, the hand of the Arbiter caught him, and without a word, calmed him before responding to the strangers in a deep, smooth, masculine voice that seized the attention of those that heard it.

"To whom do I speak?" he asked forcefully.

"The sworn protectors of this peaceful land," Princess Luna responded, "a land which you have brought violence to."

"I assure you, I meant your subjects no harm," reasoned the Arbiter as he looked down to the limp bodies at his feet, "It was these few who acted in violence, a violence my comrade and I put an end to."

"It's true, princess," Twilight said as she tended to her friend, "The red ones attacked us."

The princesses looked confused, but remained convicted in their defense of their subjects and their suspicion of the outlanders.

"You are of the same race, are you not?" Luna asked, loosening her stance slightly as she gestured towards the corpses in the grass.

"Our blood does not define us, and these fanatics are no allies of mine," the Arbiter assured as he looked down.

"Princess," Twilight said in an attempt to make peace between her mentors and her unknowing, albeit successful, saviors, "trust me."

The sisters' demeanor eased, as did the posture of the strangers before them.

"I apologize for these brash actions of mine," Celestia said slowly as she looked back and forth between Twilight and the Arbiter, "I have treated you as an enemy, where I should have thanked you."

"It would appear that we are in your debt," added Luna as she stooped to scoop Rainbow Dash's injured body onto her back.

"A debt?" the ivory foreigner said to the Arbiter, "What compensation could these beings offer us?"

"Would you insult their pride, Rtas, by denying whatever they have to offer?" the Arbiter said quietly in response, "I advise you embrace humility. We are not in a position to pass judgment on them, nor forsake their gifts of sustenance."

"Did I hear you say you needed shelter?" Twilight interjected as the equines waited commutatively for a response.

The Arbiter unsurely looked to 'Vadum, and he back at him. The forest behind them gave way to sound, and the two turned to see their eight surviving, black armored Sangheili entering the clearing, looking to them for leadership and guidance. They watched as, out of the crevice, the Mgalekgolo ascended into the meadow, also waiting for the orders of their superiors. And as they looked back to the waiting eyes of the equines, they knew what their response had to be.