AN: I don't own My Little Pony or Halo. They belong to Hasbro and Bungie/Microsoft/343 Industries respectively.

Loyal to the End

Spartan-B312, fringes of Ponyville. 2113 Hours, April 19, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Three targets down, three to go.

Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity are now little more than memories, with only Fluttershy being the recipient of a proper funeral with an open casket. There weren't enough recoverable body parts of Pinkie Pie to warrant a coffin, and Rarity was reduced to little more than a charred skeleton.

Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Twilight Sparkle are all that remain of your original six targets.

You'll be spending the next week planning how to take out the first of the three, Rainbow Dash, but have trouble, initially, devising a suitable way of killing her and making it look like an accident, or killing her in a way that doesn't cast suspicion on Luna.

To begin with, you think about using one of the Tempest's thermo baric bombs to eliminate all traces of the Pegasus as you are unable to engineer a training accident for several reasons, your lack of natural flight being chief among them, but discard the idea as the massive fireball with just attract too much attention and be impossible to explain away.

Next, you toy with the idea of doing to Rainbow Dash what you did to Sweetie Belle, luring her into the Everfree Forest and snapping her neck before disposing of the body, which is the most logical method in your mind, but Luna vetoes the idea, stating she wants Rainbow Dash's body to be found.

You voiced your objections at the limitation, as does Fontaine, but you both unhappily accept the terms and a new method of death is thought up.

Fire and suffocation are immediately ruled out as you can't get up to Rainbow Dash's house to light a fire, nor would you be able to as it is made entirely out of clouds, and you can't get up to smother her.

An explosion is ruled out as well because her house has uses no gas, or electricity, so another brick of C12 is out of the question.

Shooting briefly crosses your mind but the idea is gone before it can fully take form, dismissed because it is outside the rules set forth by Luna.

No, something new is required, so you return to the dossier Luna prepared on Rainbow Dash, hoping to gain some new insight into killing her.

The only thing that catches your eye, though, is the fact your target has a fascination with the Wonderbolts, an aerial display team composed of some of the finest fliers in Equestria, and that one of their member is sympathetic to Luna's plight, a stallion called Soarin according to the notes.

There's a brief paragraph detailing him, with a more complete bio in a separate file Luna prepared on all her spies within Ponyville and wider Equestria, but as you read over it again something new catches your attention.

In Soarin's profile picture, and in his anecdotal information, he seems to have some deep love of apple pie, which makes some vague connection to something said in Applejack's bio about her creating a bad batch of muffins and cakes during a period where she didn't sleep, the results of which hospitalised several ponies.

It makes you wonder about poisoning Rainbow Dash via a treat of some kind, but then you wonder about the delivery method.

Could it be simply mailed to her, labelled as coming from a secret admirer?

Plausible, if not perfectly doable and completely free of repercussions.

The fact it comes from a secret admirer will remove all concerns about you being identified, and can easily be pinned on an inexperienced baker using poisonous ingredients by mistake, and any attempts to determine who mailed the food in the first place could lead back to a non-descript pony wearing a hat and glasses to further conceal their identity.

But then, you wonder if such a description were to make it back to whoever was investigating the death, would it make them suspicious?

A pony taking care to avoid being identified mailing poisonous food to one of Celestia's trusted advisors would raise alarm bells, and likely cause the police to take a closer look at Fluttershy's death, and maybe even Pinkie Pie's.

Questions would be asked, evidence re-examined, bodies exhumed and autopsied, all of which you need to avoid.

So, back to the drawing board.

Your mind lingers on poison as the best bet but struggles over the delivery.

Ingestion via an innocuous source would be ideal, but how to get it to Rainbow Dash?

You look at the dossier on Luna's spies again, at Soarin's file, and see he is willing to do anything for the exiled princess, even giving his life up.

A quick look back over Rainbow Dash's file reveals she spent an extended amount of time around him at some point, forming something of a close bond which, mixed in with no small amount of hero worship, could mean there's something more at play.

Affection, maybe, which could open up certain possibilities.

You rough out your new plan in your head, run it through a couple of times, and decide it's the best course of action given your restrictions, both those imposed by Luna and by yourself.

Across from you, and a long way away, a shout goes up as a citizen of Ponyville finds the body of an Earth pony mare, Lyra's friend, Bon Bon, who had tragically slipped and bashed her head against a particularly nasty and sharp rock, killing her instantly.

You watch the scene unfold for a moment, noting with detached pride that your handiwork in her death has gone unnoticed, and gather up all the files you have.

A plan is in motion, and there are things you need to do.

Spartan-B312, fringes of Ponyville. 2049 Hours, April 25, 2552 (Military Calendar)

'You're sure you want to go through with this?' you ask your companion as the two of you make your way to Rainbow Dash's cloud home.

'Yes,' Soarin says. 'I'd do anything to help the princess, even give my life up.'

The two of you stop a few hundred metres away from the cloud, both of you looking up at the columns and walls crafted from condensed water vapour.

In your hand is a pie that contains a poison lethal to ponies, but not one manufactured by the UNSC.

No, the poison contained within it is natural and wholly native to Equestria, made from specially selected fruits that contain chemicals and minerals that react negatively with each other and whatever happened to consume it.

The trick was to use ingredients that have similar enough appearances with common foods used in baking that an inexperienced baker could have easily mistaken them for the correct ones, using the poisonous ingredients instead.

You came up with the idea after recalling an anecdotal story about surviving off the land during your training, of how a man had eaten a deadly mushroom by mistake after getting it confused with a similar looking mushroom, one that wouldn't have killed him.

The search was relatively quick, especially given how many spies Luna had and how widely they're dispersed across Equestria, their combined efforts resulting in the treat held in your hands.

To further throw any would be investigators off the trail, you had Soarin himself bake the pie in his home before coming here, and have a book on Equestria's local flora open in his kitchen alongside several unused fruits.

If anyone were to investigate, they would come to the conclusion that Soarin had inadvertently picked the wrong fruits, and that both he and Rainbow Dash had suffered because of it.

You pause for a very brief moment, looking at Soarin as he looks back at you, then hand the pie to him.

'Good luck,' you say.

'Thanks,' he says back, tucking the pie back into his saddle bags.

You had examined the pie before hand, used a portable analyser to check that the contents are indeed toxic to equines.

Now you step back into the shadows to watch as Soarin takes to the skies on what will likely be his last ever flight, deploying a small drone no bigger than your thumb to keep an eye on what'll be happening many dozens of metres above your head.

A small window pops up in your HUD, a live feed from the drone, and you manoeuvre it to follow Soarin as he comes in for a landing in front of Rainbow Dash's door.

He knocks and she eventually answers, her complexion worn down and sad after losing so many friends over the past few weeks.

'Hi,' Soarin says.

'Hey,' Rainbow Dash says back, a little off put by the stallion's unannounced appearance. 'What are you doing here, Soarin?'

He rubs the back of his head and says, 'I, uh, I thought I'd stop by and, you know, see how things were. I heard about your friends. I can't imagine what you must be going through.'

He lets his hoof drop.

Rainbow Dash nods, saying, 'Yeah, it's been... it's been tough. I've known Fluttershy since forever, back when we were still living in Cloudsdale. She's kind of the reason why I got my cutie mark.'

She gestures to her leg, and the rainbow coloured lightning bolt adorning it.

'And I've known Pinkie Pie and Rarity ever since I came to Ponyville. Pinkie was like my second best friend after Fluttershy and she threw me this awesome welcome to Ponyville party.'

Rainbow Dash trails off and looks down, shame on her face.

'And I didn't spend nearly as much time with Rarity as I should have done,' she says, dejected. 'It was always Pinkie, or Fluttershy. We never just hung out.'

Her eyes tear up and she looks away, and Soarin moves forward to place a hoof on Rainbow Dash's shoulder but hesitates, as though he's struggling to think of what he can say.

'Sorry,' the stallion says, a little awkwardly sounding to your ear and once again, you find yourself marvelling at the calibre of Luna's spies and their ability to lie so convincingly.

'It's okay,' Rainbow Dash says, wiping some tears away. 'I'm the one who should be sorry.'

You see over the feed that she flashes Soarin a weak smile before her eyes settle on the saddle bags he's wearing.

'Are you... going somewhere?' she asks.

'Uh, no,' Soarin says as his hoof goes back to rubbing his head, as though embarrassed. 'I, uh, I actually made you, um, something. It-It's nothing special, just a pie, but I thought-'

He sighs and lets his eyes drift downwards.

'I thought about you, about what you must be going through, and I felt terrible, like I should, you know, try and help, somehow.'

'Help how?' Rainbow Dash says.

Soarin opens his mouth to say something but falters.

'I don't know,' he says quietly. 'Just, maybe you might need somepony to talk to. A shoulder to cry on.'

He sighs again and makes a move to turn away.

'But the more I think about it, what you've gone through, I don't know how I could possibly help.'

Soarin takes a step away from the Pegasus and starts to unfurl his wings, but Rainbow Dash moves closer to him and places her hoof on his side, saying, 'The fact that you came all the way from Cloudsdale just to see me, at this time of night, is good enough. Soarin, I don't what I need, but a shoulder to cry on sounds really good right about now.'

She gives him a weak smile that gets returned, and Rainbow Dash adds, 'Do you want to come in?'

'Sure,' Soarin says, following the mare inside.

You move the drone inside too, the small device easily passing through the cloud that makes up its construction, tailing Soarin and Rainbow Dash as they move into what passes for a kitchen.

'So, what flavour pie did you bake?' Rainbow Dash asks as they reach a table.

'I honestly have no idea,' Soarin says, which is more or less truthful.

He didn't pick the fruit and doesn't know its name.

All he did was bake it, and all he knows is that a single mouthful is enough to render any long term life plans irrelevant.

'Ah, mystery food,' Dash says. 'My favourite.'

Soarin flashes her a wan smile as he pulls the pie out and puts it on the table.

Rainbow Dash goes into a cupboard as he does, coming out with two plates that she places on either side of the baked treat, adding a sharp knife to the ensemble soon after.

You watch, patiently, as Rainbow Dash makes the first incision, cutting through the flaky top of the pie, and serves herself a portion of the poisoned pie, giving Soarin a similar sized slice.

'Bottoms up?' Soarin says, looking at his piece dubiously. 'I don't really trust my cooking, and I've no idea what this'll taste like, so this is going to be an experience to remember.'

Rainbow Dash laughs and picks up her piece, as does Soarin opposite her.

They take a bite at the same time, facial expressions shifting rapidly from hesitation to surprise to appreciation.

'It's sweet,' Rainbow Dash says. 'Got a bit of a tang to it but yeah, I like it.'

'Guess I lucked out,' Soarin says. 'Not bad for my first time, eh?'

The mare laughs as you recall the drone.

You know from the sample taken that the various toxins and poisons in the pie that death for both equines is all but assured, and that the time taken for them to take effect is roughly four hours, and you wonder how Soarin will spend them, knowing the end is rapidly approaching.

The drone descends from above and you pluck it gingerly from the sky, stowing it in a special case ready for whenever its next deployment may be, then set out for the nearest patch of dense woodlands where a sniper rifle is lying, waiting for you to return.

It'll be a while before concerns are raised over Rainbow Dash's absence, and when they are raised you need to know if your masquerade is a success or not, which it will be.

The time between Rainbow Dash's disappearance and someone coming to her house is two days, and they find her and Soarin lying together in her bed, and the remains of an erroneously baked pie on her table, and the investigators come to a fairly logical assumption that their deaths were the result of an inexperienced baker using deadly ingredients.

No suspicion is raised, nor is a closer look taken.

You are currently two-thirds of the way through your list, and two or so weeks away from dealing with Applejack.

And as you watch her through your scope as she rushes to Rainbow Dash's house, you begin planning her death, lamenting the fact you can't just shoot her right here and now.

It would be just so much quicker.