//------------------------------//
// Chp. 6: Lance Corporal Allezeite Flashfire: "The Frozen Death" 
// Story: Canterlot: The First Days 
// by AZFlashfire 
//------------------------------//

	The changeling's breathing slowed again, as Flashfire bought her knife over its midsection. It would be dead soon, and she'd keep to her word: She'd toss it out in the snow when it did. The surgery was sloppy in her opinion, only having the most basic tools. The chitin came off nicely, however, in square curved pieces. It could be useful some time.
And there went a life. She didn't feel much different as the breathing stopped completely. Maybe she had to kill something violently to feel the full effects, or maybe she was desensitized now. She tossed the limp body out of the window, where it impacted the ground lightly, making a crunchy noise on the snow. Looking back across the near-empty room, Orgullo and Divine Intervention were asleep, huddling into eachother for whatever warmth they could manage to get that way. There was also a green bloodstain where the changeling had lay, and her backpack of medical tools next to it. She leaned out the window, eyes fixated on nothing in particular.
"Snow, snow and more snow..it's absolutely repetitive, isn't it?" Flashfire said to nopony, talking out the window as if there was a pony there.
"It snows every other day, we have to fight these disgusting...things in it," She gestured down at the dead changeling she'd just thrown in the snow. "Can we get a break, Princess? I haven't seen the ground in weeks."

The rumbling interrupted her pathetic monologue, and she craned her head to see a single tank- no, an APC, coming up the road. She called out, and got no response, going so far as to tossing a rock at it.
The machine-gun atop the APC swung around at the source. Flashfire ducked and jumped to the side, just as gunfire ripped through the window and hit the ceiling. That would've woken both Orgullo and Divine up. She waved her grayish-blue hoof in the window and dared to look through it.
"Please, don't shoot me!"
The APC lurched forward, and she thought it was just going to leave her, but a familiar pony got out of the rear:
Qimayat.

He smiled up at her, and she did her best to fake a smile back. She was, in reality, beyond pissed off, having almost been killed. She motioned for him to come upstairs, just as Divine Intervention got up and walked to the window, with Orgullo in tow. Flashfire went to the door to greet Qimayat, with his little automatic shotgun on his back. She pulled him inside.
"What the hell's wrong with you?" she interrogated him as they walked up into the main floor.
"I didn't..tell them to shoot.." he stammered his way through an explanation.
"You're lucky I wasn't killed..you're lucky your APC's gunner has shit aim."
"Sorry..but-"
"What now?"
"W-we were coming to look for you, we have to leave the city.."
"We're abandoning Canterlot.."
"Yes, ma'am..they said they'll try to retake it at a later point, but..we have to get as far as this APC will take us."
"And after that, I assume you want us to hoof it in the swirl out there? And this is the entire surviving population of Canterlot?" Divine Intervention interrupted.
"Uh..yes, miss Divine, ma'am..I don't know how much that is..but probably not a lot."
"Give me a moment to get my things, dear."
"Me too."
Divine and Flashfire went off to gather up their belongings, Flashfire stopping to attempt at wiping up the changeling's blood, to no real avail. Nevermind now, it was time to get out of this terrible place. 

All her things were packed, and she went downstairs to wait in the APC. There was a mare with a yellow coat, and a dark colored main indiscernible in the dim light. She sat right next to her, and without saying a word they huddled for warmth, then exchanged names. Not freezing to death comes before having someone's acquaintance nowadays. The mare's name was Clandestine, and at a closer distance Flashfire could see her mane was a mixture of mint and forest green. She personally thought she was lovely, her natural color scheme and her accent, being full High Equestrian, somewhat like hers, a Trans-Equestrian. 
"Hate to bother you..but do you know why we have to go?" Flashfire asked, pulling away.
"Not really, would you just like the whole story?" Clandestine asked, opening the door for Orgullo, Qimayat and Divine, and then closing it, and sitting down as the APC started up and moved again.
"Well..I know way back, my business failed and I had to live on the streets.."
"It was like that for a lot of business owners, and a lot of other ponies as well, you weren't alone."
"Yes, I know, I had some very nice ponies to stay with."
"It all started...five months ago, I believe. The economy hadn't been doing as well as expected, and the Winter Wrap Up was coming up. That one was going to be the biggest out of any in the last forty years. Costs skyrocketed. Meanwhile, Changelings began to attack trading convoys in the countryside, but little concern was taken. A few nervous businessponies took their money out of the stock market, fearing it would lose them money. It was a ripple effect, everyone started taking their stock out as well, and the stock was eventually worthless. Nopony would buy it. This is when businesses begin to fail left and right. A business owner may think he or she's doing fine, but the next day the government's repossessed their business or home, or both. The changeling's attacks continued to get more frequent and deadly, they actually started to kill the ponies they robbed instead of just taking their things. They sent some National Guard to take them out, but they got wiped out by a paramilitary leader and his troops. This is when the name Chitin frequently floated around in ponies' mouths. If you didn't know, Chitin is the self-proclaimed true leader of the changelings. He even has his own terrorist faction within the Changeling nation. His attacks were one of the few things preventing the Changelings from actually being recognized as a nation of their own.

In an effort to force it, they hit Baltimare, and starved their denizens to the point of death, which only made tensions much tighter, and sent multiple platoons against them. Didn't work, a lot of them got captured, killed or tortured to death. They hit Manehattan, doing the same thing to their population. Of course our military thinks bigger is better, and sends an even larger force. I kid you not, not a single one returned or reported to base. That's four-hundred soldiers captured or killed. There wasn't anything we could do for them...it was kept hidden from citizens, but then the draft kicked in. Probably when you three got drafted, I wouldn't be surprised. A time lapse, and they hit Canterlot. This is what we get for doing nothing, absolutely nothing."
"Divine, how do you know all that?" Flashfire asked, mostly in awe.
"Her Majesty's Secret Service, Flashfire." she replied, turning her body to show a patch on her sleeve.
"Yes, we have to go...we'll come back later for Canterlot."