Canterlot: The First Days

by AZFlashfire

Chp. 10: Allezeite Flashfire: (Duality Pt. 2/2) "Clean Poison"

It must have been the hardest thing to keep quiet. They had been told to eat their stew and not talk with their mouths full. Easy enough for Flashfire, but it wasn't the same for any of her other squadmates. Any time somepony would do it, Chitin would give them a look, which quickly shut them up. She herself hadn't said anything except "Pass the salt, please" and "Is there any butter?" Of course they didn't have any, but she asked anyway. Changelings couldn't keep livestock. Either animals didn't like them, or they were much too harsh to care for anything. She ate her stew, which mostly consisted of turnips, beets and onions. It wasn't especially good, and she was pretty sure it wasn't supposed to be, but Chitin had offered them a hot meal, and they had little other choice. A mare's got to eat.

Using her magic, she stabbed her fork into a myriad of vegetables and took a bite, taking her time to chew. She had been looking down the entire time, not wanting to have to look at Chitin, or talk to him. She didn't even know why he didn't just kill them, but she hoped they could leave when they were done. Chitin had taken a special interest in Flashfire however, and had made her sit to the right of him, while he sat at the head of the table.
"Why doesn't anypony talk?" he said suddenly. Flashfire was forced to swallow half-chewed food to respond, and replied.
"I don't talk at the dinner table," she began to say. "My mother told me that's impolite and-"
"I'm not your mother!" he responded, almost angrily. Her fork dropped out of her magical grasp and clanged against the bowl.
"Listen, Flash, come here." Chitin's voice went from near-rage to a very calm voice, and Flashfire obeyed, getting out of her seat and standing next to Chitin. He got up and went into the room directly behind his seat at the head of the table, and she followed. He sat down on his bed and she shuddered, hesitating to sit next to him.
"Flash, I know you and your friends want to leave, but...the truth is, I can't do that right now. I'm going to need you to do something I was going to send some of my soldiers out to do." She was intrigued but she kept her distance, not giving in to her habit of slowly moving toward whatever she was paying attention to. He said the next bit clearly so there would be no mistakes:
"I need you to kill some ponies for me."
Really she didn't have a choice, and she wanted to say no, but she felt her head nod, yes. It was terrible...killing ponies? How would she get away with that?
"B-but, um...why?" she asked, hoping she wouldn't be killing innocents.
Chitin sighed, and spoke. "They're too close, they have a camp somewhere off in the forests...they also have guns, and I'm not sure what they're planning to do. And, they shoot them at only Cara knows where." Flashfire nodded and began to slide off of Chitin's bed, but he stopped her.
"We'll let go of your friends if you can do that for me. Get your weapons from the armorer; tell him what you have to do."
She affirmed this with an "Okay" and got off the bed, trotting down to the armory, having to go past the dining hall to do so. She took what could be her last look at her friends, as the doors shut behind her. The armory, instead of being an open counter like in an Equestrian base, was gated with an about eight inch hole at the bottom that ran all the way across the counter, so guns and the like could be slid through. She rapped gently on the counter-top, and a mean-looking changeling came to her call.

She didn't say anything at first, glancing around at the wallful of guns behind the counter. She found her OOAR-8, with a small tag on the stock and the magazine removed. But then she remembered what she was doing, so she spoke up.
"U-um...Chitin sent me down here, he wants me to...'take care' of some nuisance ponies in the forest. I need my rifle..that one that looks like a fish a little." she said nervously and jumbled-up, pointing up at her weapon. The changeling armorer grumbled a bit and retrieved her weapon, along with her magazines, and a few extra. She slid one into her rifle and chambered a round, loving the sound as she did so. The armorer asked, "Are you sure you know what you're doing there, pony? You look too dainty for an assault rifle." She nodded at him, saying, "I know exactly what I'm doing, I've trained with this for the better part of a month.." she boasted, then looked around at her side. "I need my MM-57 and a knife.."
She got what she asked for on the pistol, but for a knife, she didn't get her own, and instead she got this weird curved tribal knife and holster. She only accepted it because she liked the markings all over it, and it seemed a bit easier to use across more situations than her combat knife.

She got herself together and left the city, staring straight ahead until she left the town gates. Her rifle's familiar weight made her remember when she was still a real soldier, having to follow orders. Now look at her, she was off to kill some ponies. But it was for her friends...and maybe these ponies really were bad.
As soon as she hit the treeline she ducked behind a trunk. It was getting dark, and she heard a rhythmic tap-tap-tap in the distance. Her ears perked up, and she listened, not making a sound. It happened at random intervals almost, but eventually it was constant. She moved toward where she thought the sound was coming from, turning her head back and forth to keep herself pointed straight in the thick of the woods. She knew all too well how easy it was to get lost or even turned completely around. Training had taught her that. Within a few minutes it was loud, and she saw the orange flicker glow of a fire up ahead. She moved from tree to tree, the tapping she realized was purposely rhythmic. She heard laughing, talking. Knowing she was close, Flashfire rolled over to another tree, ending up on her stomach, failing in her attempt and ending up halfway between her target and her starting point. She got the wind pushed out of her and she scrambled to the other tree, sending up leaves. She doubted they noticed though, but she really hoped this was the right group. A quick peek around showed that yes, they did indeed have guns, and by the looks and sounds of it they were pretty annoying. As quietly as possible she unhooked her rifle and clicked the safety off, taking aim a few times. She was almost excited: Someone had put new batteries in her sight. The red circle with the dot in it was there again, and the gentle hum of it being on was only audible to her because she had her face close to it. Two clicks put her on fully-automatic fire and she hesitated. These ponies needed to die, right now. Their bongo music was annoying, they shouldn't be here, and most of all, she needed to get her friends out. A squeeze of the trigger and there was no going back: She gunned down the pony with the bongos almost immediately, and barely taking time to stop her shooting she turned to others of the group. A grey pegasus disappeared into the thicket, and she continued firing, not taking into account their screams. By the time she was done with all thirty-five of her rounds she counted three on the ground, not moving. There was a fourth who limped, screaming out for her mother or something. Flash got up from behind her tree, and without question she shot her. It was a filly, no older than fourteen. She sighed, knowing how terrible of a pony she was.

Flashfire held her rifle and ejected the magazine, putting in a new one and firing off two bursts in the direction she thought the grey pegasus had gone, putting her rifle away and taking a few steps, before uncontrollably vomiting. She had just killed four ponies, and they probably all weren't 18 yet. Well, four kills four all four of her friends? That wasn't even a good trade..oh why, why did she do this...

The trek home was arduous, and she vomited twice more just thinking about it. She imagined she was covered in blood, and arrived at the gates. She collapsed and let out a heavy breath, as sleep overtook her.
But she knew she'd remember in the morning.

Author's Note:

Cara is short for Carapace, the changeling Goddess.
The OOAR-8 is an XM8 model with a 35-round standard magazine and a Magpul.
The MM-57 is an FN Five-Seven with a 20-round magazine and a easier-to-pull trigger.