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

Chapter Twenty-Five

Spartan-A196, outskirts of Ponyville. 1100 Hours, March 15, 2553 (Military Calendar/Local Time)

The trebuchet remained immobile, its arm locked in the firing position with a one hundred kilo boulder nestled in the sling, and the operators of this war machine awaited the order to fire, to pull the trigger and let gravity take over.

It was given and they quickly pulled the firing lever, turning the massive counterweight over to gravity. As it descended, the other end of the arm shot up quickly as gravitational energy was efficiently converted into kinetic by the length of the wooden beam, hurling the slung boulder into the air.

When the arm reached the peak of its swing, where the energy potential was at its greatest, the sling was undone and rock and trebuchet parted ways, the heavy stone lump now a rough unguided missile that sailed through the still air and landed a few hundred metres away, rolling through a hastily built shack before coming to an eventual stop before a tree.

Lisa tracked its trajectory and landing, noted how far away it was from the intended target, and walked slowly to the trebuchet and its pony crew.

'You missed,' she said. 'Aim was off by more than ten metres. Reset and correctly calculate the angle you need to set this thing to.'

She gestured at the trebuchet as it towered over them all, the first such weapon in the newly formed Equestrian Militia.

They were being produced from the fallen trees at Sweet Apple Acres, neither Applejack or Big Macintosh objecting to their usage , and with trees taken from the nearby Everfree Forest as well. So far they had twelve of the counter-weight catapults built with another fifteen nearing completion.

A workforce composed of builders, carpenters, and engineers from Manehatten, Baltimare, and Fillydelphia had worked tireless since arriving to design the weapons, aided by what little information Lisa could pass on.

The trebuchet had fallen out of use in warfare sometime around the sixteen century, during the Spanish attacks on Aztec capital, though she did recall it had been used in riots at one point in Earth's past, in the Ukraine.

Still, the engineers and carpenters were skilled, quickly coming up with a basic design and continuing to improve on it. Already they were talking about replacing the axle with something called a floating arm design that used wheels instead to allow an even greater transfer of energy to the projectile from the counter weight.

The pony in charge of this trebuchet's team, a unicorn mare, made an unhappy face. They'd been training for the past hour, working on their accuracy, and the twelve ponies assigned to Pebble Dash, the trebuchet's name, were starting to grow annoyed at the constant drills.

Lisa stood her ground as the unicorn walked over, an objection on her lips.

'Do we have to?' she said. 'We've gotten the range right, why do we have to be accurate as well? It's a hundred kilo lump of stone we're hurling downrange. They'll scatter when it comes down, won't they?'

'The foot soldiers will,' Lisa said, nodding. 'But their war machines won't. They'll stay right where they are, waiting for one of two things: for their operators to prime and fire them, or for you to take them out.'

The unicorn opened her mouth and pointed at the distant shack, one wall ripped clean off. 'We hit that, didn't we?'

'Yes,' Lisa said before pointing to something to its left, a mock up of a griffin catapult. 'But, you were supposed to hit that. And because you missed, that catapult can continue to hurl hundred kilo rocks of its own towards you. And who's to say their aim is going to be as bad as yours?' She crossed her arms and looked down at the pony. 'You want to always try and get a kill with your first shot because you might not get another.'

The mention of killing made the mare recoil a little.

Lisa had made it very plain when addressing the first batch of militia recruits that to serve on the front lines, to defend their country, they had to be willing to take a life. It was non-negotiable. They had to say with absolute certainty that if it came down to it, they could willingly and knowingly kill another sentient being.

Any who had objections could then either keep going west, or try their hooves at the logistical side of the militia, helping to move the trebuchets and any other supplies that couldn't be carried by just one pony.

'So reset and try again,' Lisa said. 'Hit that catapult with only one shot, then finish the job on that shack, and you and your team can break for lunch.'

'Yes, ma'am,' the pony said, scurrying back to Pebble Dash where her team had brought the arm back and locked it in place, and were now placing another misshapen rock in the sling.

Lisa saw what looked like graffiti on the rock's side, a crude image of a unicorn with hearts surround it while underneath in Equestrian script that, after the magically infused translation matrix lodged inside the Spartan's head had done its work, read Tom.

It looked like a young filly or colt had done it, roughly carving the picture and inscription, years ago, and below that were three more letters. CMC.

The Spartan guessed that meant Cutie Mark Crusaders, now down to two members with the death of Sweetie Belle. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo had taken the news hard, just like Rarity, and they had placed the filly's crusader cape in her coffin at the funeral, barely holding it together long enough to do so and walk back, collapsing into inconsolable sobs as the lid was closed and the coffin lowered.

Lisa shook her head clear of the memories as Pebble Dash was moved ever so slightly, hopefully bringing it to bear on the catapult two hundred metres away, and its counterweight unleashed.

She watched the rock sail through the air as straight as it possible could, the uneven surface causing it to tumble and roll, then come crashing down on the wooden catapult and rendering it useless.

The crew let out a small cheer at successfully eliminating the target then quickly turned their attention to reloading and re-aiming.

Pebble Dash fired again and scored another hit, obliterating the shack, generating a much louder cheer.

'Good work,' Lisa said. 'Break for lunch. You've got an hour, then I want you to work on reloading the trebuchet. Accuracy and rate of fire can be the deciding factor in battle, and I want the Equestrian Militia's artillery to be the ones that get us that factor.'

'Yes, ma'am,' the unicorn mare said as her team began walking towards Ponyville, laughing and joking.

It was good to see morale high again, even if it was coming from the recent arrivals from Equestria's coastal cities. Ponyville's original inhabitants were still sombre and subdued, having only just finished burying all the dead from the attacks.

The cemetery had needed expanding to accommodate all the coffins and gravestones, now three times its original size, and a memorial had been erected in memory of all those who had died in Canterlot, as well as one for the ponies of the Equestrian Trader.

There had been a private ceremony for Spike, attended only by Twilight Sparkle and her friends and immediate family.

All of their wounds had long ago healed, in most cases leaving behind only minimal scarring, but Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Night Light and Luna were still blinded, Rainbow Dash's wing felt stiff and her scars would flare up when exerted too much, hampering her flying ability and possibly putting an end to her hopes of joining the Wonderbolts, and Twilight Sparkle was still distant despite six weeks of therapy with Doctor Stable and a Baltimare psychologist by the name of Ink Blot whose cutie mark was an ink blot from a Rorschach test.

To Lisa, it looked like either a butterfly or a highly symmetrical splatter of blood.

Whatever it was, Ink Blot and Stable were still trying to find a way of breaking through to Twilight, and had asked Lisa to keep an eye of the Alicorn whenever she could, hoping she'd see something they didn't and could work with.

So far, there hadn't been anything but Lisa would continue to be on the lookout.

She passed by a stone dome that was being constructed on the outskirts of town, built around Celestia as a way of keeping her from irradiating anyone by accident. It was half built, the progress hampered by the fact they had to find rocks dense enough to block most of the radiation given off, and because the Pegasi placing the rocks were struggling to hold the heavy objects in place and get them set correctly.

Had they been able use unicorns, the work would have gone much faster but any external source of magic that entered the radiation field around Celestia aggravated it and caused the levels to spike.

This left the winged ponies as the only ones capable of building the stone dome as Earth ponies would get too close for it to be considered safe.

Lisa stopped briefly to watch as a group of them, around ten, struggled to lift a prepared block of stone off the ground and into the air and fly it to where it was needed.

The whole process took close to ten minutes as a steady breeze kept blowing the rock the wrong way at just the wrong moment, causing the team to have to line it up again, and they had to follow up with a thirty minute rest while another team placed the next block. All in all, there were thirty Pegasi working on the dome.

They all hated it. Not because of the exertion, but because they were the only ones who could see Celestia and the look of forlornness and resignation on her face as her stone tomb was built around her, as if sensing that it would become her final resting place.

Soon, she would be covered completely, the only point of access being a small hatch in the dome's roof through which food and drink could be passed, along with parchment and quills for the princess to communicate with the outside world.

Lisa swallowed hard at the thought of being trapped inside a stone prison, slowly dying, unable to alleviate the pain, only seeing the light of day for a few brief moments at the beginning and end of each day.

How long would it be before the radiation took too much of a toll on Celestia, leaving her too weak to eat properly or keep food down, each mouthful rejected by her stomach and sent back out with bile and blood?

There were no amenities in the dome. No toilets, no plumbing, nothing. Anything she threw up, every time she relieved herself, it would remain in there with her. It had nowhere to go. Inside that dome would become extremely filthy, a breeding ground for viruses and bacteria, any one of which could potentially kill the princess as she lay among her own waste and bodily fluids before the radiation did.

It would be just as hard on the ponies outside, not knowing if their beloved princess was alive or dead, if she was simply rejecting the food they gave her because she couldn't keep it down or because she was no longer alive to receive it.

They wouldn't know.

How long would they wait before looking, Lisa wondered, after the food they sent down came back up, untouched, with not even a note telling them to stop? A few weeks? A few months? Years?

Or would the prospect of seeing a princess they had looked to for guidance and prospect, a near mythical figure in their eyes, reduced to a withered body lying amid old faeces and half eaten food be too much for them to bear and force them to leave the stone dome untouched, never to be opened again in their lifetimes?

Or worse, seeing all that, only to find out that Celestia was still alive, somehow clinging to life despite everything, eyes begging for release from her torment?

Lisa swallowed again and banished the thought from her mind as best she could, quickly moving away from the tomb as construction continued and towards the life and sounds of Ponyville.

She spotted Twilight Sparkle sat by herself underneath a tree. The leaves were only just starting to grow back after the Shiva nuke had stripped them all off, but Equestria was now in winter and the little green shoots weren't going to get much bigger.

One fell off and spiralled to the ground as Lisa approached, joining dozens more on the ground.

'Ma'am,' Lisa said when she came within earshot, seeing Twilight was staring at a far off group of ponies. She expected to see Big Macintosh amongst them but failed to see the hulking red stallion. He was most likely with Fluttershy in their tent, or helping move the trees on the farm to the construction area, ready to be processed and turned into trebuchets or carts.

'Chief,' Twilight said sullenly.

'How are you?' Lisa asked.

Twilight didn't answer, looking away from the Spartan and the ponies.

Lisa grimaced.

The Alicorn sighed and lay down, head resting on her hooves.

'What's the point?' she murmured, eyes flicking to Lisa. 'What's the point in going after... after everything that's happened?'

'Ma'am?' Lisa said.

'Why should I keep going, Chief?' Twilight said. 'Everything that's happened to me since we went to the Griffin Kingdom has caused me nothing but misery. I lost somepony I cared for like family, the stallion I love is married to somepony else, my brother and father were both badly wounded and nearly died, my mother is almost at the end of her rope trying to cope with it all, and I lost my bucking horn!

'How am I supposed to find the motivation to go on after all that?'

'You find something, ma'am,' Lisa said. 'There has to be something good in your life that you can cling to.'

Twilight sat up and pointed at herself. 'Look at me, Chief. Nothing has gone my way in nearly three months. Ponies I knew for years are dead. My home was attacked, the city I grew up in was destroyed. There is nothing good in my life.'

She sighed and got up to leave, walking away from both Lisa and the town.

The Spartan watched her walk away for a moment, thinking back to Doctor Stable and Ink Blot's requests to get the Alicorn to open up, and decided that the softly-softly approach wasn't working as well as they'd hoped.

'Don't you dare walk away from me before we're finished talking,' Lisa said to the retreating pony. 'Get back here now.'

Twilight paused and looked back at the Spartan, mouth slightly agape. 'Wha-?'

'I said get back here now,' Lisa barked, making the Alicorn flinch. 'You and I are not done talking.'

The pony didn't move, frozen in place.

'Did I stu-stu-stutter?' Lisa said. 'Come back here and stand at attention, dammit.'

'Chief, what-'

Lisa pointed at the ground in front of her. 'I said move, dammit, or I will move you myself. And you do not want me to do that.'

Twilight hesitated then slowly walked towards Lisa, meekly standing before her.

'Stand at attention,' Lisa said. 'When a superior is addressing you, you do not slouch.'

'Chief, what?' Twilight whispered. 'What are you doing?'

'Stand. At. Attention,' Lisa said, folding her arms across her chest. 'I gave you an order now carry it out.'

She hesitated again then firmed up her posture, raising her head to meet Lisa's.

'Better,' she said. 'Now then, you think yourself worthless? You think that recent events have taken away your reason to live, do you?'

Twilight's head jerked downwards, a vague nod.

'Well, you're damn right,' Lisa said. 'You are worthless. No, you're beyond worthless. You're a pile of unorganised grabastic piece of amphibian shit. You're not even a fucking pony, let alone a princess. I thought you were strong, someone the citizens of Equestria could look up to. Now I see you're the opposite. You're weak, a coward. You're not even worth my goddamn time.'

She glared at the pony, seeing her face flicker between confusion, hurt, and shock, as tears began forming.

'Don't you dare cry on me, Sparkle,' Lisa said. 'Only the weak cry. Are you weak?' Twilight didn't answer? 'Are you weak, dammit?'

'N-no,' Twilight whispered, swallowing.

'Bullshit, I can't hear you,' Lisa said. 'Sound off like you mean it.'

'No,' Twilight said. She sniffed and raised her head. 'No.'

'Then why are you acting like it?' Lisa leaned forward, Twilight leaning backwards. Neither one moved their feet. 'If you're not weak, you wouldn't be crying. You'd be staring me in the face with dry eyes, shouting you're not weak, and we wouldn't be having this conversation.'

'What conversation?' Twilight said. 'You're just-'

'I didn't give you permission to speak, maggot,' Lisa half shouted, cutting the pony off. 'Face it, you're weak. You're not cut out to be a princess, you never were. If you were, you wouldn't let a few months of hardship get you this goddamn down!'

'I lost Spike!' Twilight shouted back, her tears flowing freely. 'I lost him, I lost Big Macintosh, the city I grew up in was destroyed and my home was attacked! There's nothing left for me.'

'Bullshit,' Lisa said. 'You've got plenty left. You family is still alive, same for your friends, and you've got a team of doctors trying to help you. And you know what?' She leaned down closer and whispered, 'That's a hell of a lot more than I had, and do you see me crying under a tree?'

'But I'm not you,' Twilight said. 'I'm not a... a Spartan, a heartless killing machine that can justify each being she kills.'

'Damn right, you're not,' Lisa said, catching the princess off guard. 'You're not me, you're the four year old me, the little girl who just had her whole life brought down around her. You're angry, confused, hurt, and you don't know what to do with those feelings. You think that there's nothing going for you. I know I felt that way but look at me. I got over it. So yeah, you're not me. I'm what you can turn yourself into.'

'I don't want to be an emotionless killer, Chief,' Twilight said. 'I-I don't know what I want to be right now, if ever.' She sighed. 'You don't under-

'-stand?' Lisa finished before the Alicorn could, abruptly cutting in a little harsher than she intended to. 'Oh, believe me, princess, I understand plenty. I lost my parents, my unborn brother, my friends, my home, and that was just within a few short hours. After that, I then lost three hundred more brothers and sisters, my fellow Spartans sent to die on a suicide mission. You think that just because you lost Spike, a single person you were close to, and missed out on your chance with a single stallion, you're beyond everyone else?'

She snorted derisively. 'And here I thought princesses were supposed to be wise, to be able to look at the bigger picture. You're worse than I thought.'

'I don't think beyond everypo-' Twilight began to say but Lisa cut in again. Hard.

'Bullshit,' she snarled. 'You're not talking to your friends, you tried to hurt Fluttershy for asking Big Macintosh out first, you're not even making an effort to let Doctor Stable or Ink Blot help you. You're not a princess, you're a liability.' Lisa drew her pistol but kept it aimed at the floor. 'And there are two ways to deal with princesses who turn into liabilities.'

Twilight's eyes locked onto the gun. 'Wha... Chief, what are you doing?'

'You can't lead, you tried to hurt innocent civilians, you're weak,' Lisa said. 'That means you're a problem and I promised Celestia, a princess who took the demise of her home, and the deaths of everyone she knew closely, better than you took the death of a single person, that I would protect everyone. And if that means removing an ineffective princess from the equation, so be it. The only question is, do you skip town and never look back?

'Or do I put a bullet between your eyes and make sure you can't inflict your weakness anywhere ever again?'

The flinch that went through Twilight was enough to knock her back a step while fear kept her other three hooves locked in place, eyes fixated on the barrel of Lisa's pistol.

'I'm thinking that because you feel like the world is out to get you, I should put an end to that misery,' the Spartan said. 'Unless, of course, you can give me a solid reason as to why I shouldn't.'

'I'm unarmed,' Twilight whispered as fresh tears, ones of fear rather than pain, began falling. 'I'm not threatening you in any way. Y-you just can't kill me in cold blood.'

Lisa shrugged. 'I've had plenty of practise killing unarmed and non-threatening aliens before, especially in cold blood. Just because I know you a little better than them won't make it any harder. Hell, I'll probably mourn the loss of the bullet more. Maybe I should use a knife, conserve my ammo, or use my hands.'

Twilight's eyes shrank at the thought of the Spartan's hands wrapping themselves around her neck, or to have a knife slit her throat, leaving her to choke on her own blood, provided Lisa went for a quick kill.

Her mouth began opening and closing in rapid succession, Twilight suddenly forgetting to breathe, and Lisa cocked her head to one side, regarding the pony.

'So despite acting like you want to die, when faced with the possibility that it might happen you suddenly decide you very much want to keep living, do you?' she said. 'Why is that then, I wonder? Is there something you're not telling us, or are you too much of a coward to embrace death?'

Lisa stepped forward and placed the tip of her pistol just below the stump that had been Twilight's horn.

'Tell me just one thing that you have going for you, or I'll pull the trigger,' she said. 'Name one single thing or I will splatter your brains all over the place.'

She waited a full minute, her faceless helmet boring into Twilight's terrified eyes, but the princess said nothing.

'No?' Lisa said, sounding somewhat disappointed. 'A pity. I was hoping to use this bullet on a worthwhile enemy, not a cowardly and weak princess.'

It was only now that Twilight began making noises, faint and garbled articulations that increased in pitch as Lisa's finger tightened around the trigger, before turning into broken sobs.

It did little to faze Lisa and she pulled the trigger.