This is a changing perspective story detailing changeling invasion of Canterlot.
The first of a four-part series. Four years after Harmony, a rogue Changeling force, not led by Chrysalis but by a mysterious terrorist known as Chitin, begins to attack several cities. The Military of Equestria does not take it seriously until it's too late, instead leaving citizens of outlying cities to defend themselves, or organize militias. By the time they have hit Canterlot, they also have Manehattan's population either dead, exiled or imprisoned. Baltimare has organized a resistance, but most of them are imprisoned or dead as well. The operators are unprepared for invasion, the military base being one of the first places hit by artillery, so a lot are left with what they can find off of dead soldiers. This specifically follows the exploits of Lance Corporal Allezeite Flashfire, Lance Corporal Divine Intervention, Private Orgullo, Private Qimayat and Private First Class Honeybee. They are all..to put it nicely, adequate soldiers, and as the story progresses, a lot of them start showing symptoms of PTSD. The story also goes to the point of ponies outside their fireteam, to show different aspects of the war.
Thud. Thud. The sounds of a full-on assault rocked Flashfire's body. She assumed each thud was an explosion. The artillery must have been heavy. Thud, and there went a house's roof. Clean off. She knew she had to get somewhere, as literal blood ran in the street. That of dead civilians, and dead soldiers, their weapons stripped from them. She didn't know any of them, or at least couldn't tell. The bodies were half-burnt and covered in green goop. She suddenly remembered why she was here, in this uniform, with her weapons. The draft, which landed her in boot camp as a Private First Class.
That was a month and a half with no wine. They never had any on the base, and she made a point to the officers that it would be nice to have some and maybe some other mares would- No, Private! Drink what everyone else is drinking! Fuck, she felt like stabbing them. She was told when to wake up, and spent her day mostly training. She considered herself adequate, and passed most of the tests, but felt as if her entire boot camp period was shrouded in mediocrity. She pushed that out of her mind as she ran, and thought about the good things. Divine Intervention. A mare she met at boot camp. Something reminded her of Divine. She had been born into a family very connected with Celestianism, as they owned a church. She suddenly snapped out of it, hearing her voice on the radio. Maybe that's what it was.
"Flashfire, you're still alive, aren't you?" She paused in a building so she could concentrate on talking, unhooking her rifle and sweeping the first floor. All clear. "I'm here..and doing fine..I'm in somepony's house for now..how are you faring, dear?"
There was a pause, and she heard Divine rack a round in her rifle. "So far..doing well- Repent, beast!" Automatic gunfire ripped across the comfeed, and Flashfire flinched a little, radio quality so good and so loud that she thought it was nearby. Wait, was it? She slipped off her radio for a second, and determined it came from the left. Putting it back on she scrambled up the stairs, simply staring out the window. Something green illuminated in the next house. Another burst of gunfire illuminated it to be a changeling. Changelings, just in the next building, and she was just watching? She leveled out her rifle on the windowsill, sighted into her electric mounted scope, and fired, the recoil pushing the scope back just a centimeter from her eye. She dared herself not to close her eyes, or Divine could be dead. She fired again and again until the illuminations stopped moving around. She sighed, and retracted her aim, hooking her rifle back to her right side as she heard an off-rhythm bounding up the stairs that reminded her of Roamer for just a split-second, before she heard a terrible screech. It was not Roamer. Anything but.
She spun around, and tried to pull her pistol, but as she spun her tail was grabbed, she lost her footing and dropped the gun, leaving it on the floor. She stretched out her forelegs, and tried to use her magic, but being dragged down several stairs broke her magic every time she hit the next step. Reflexively, while thinking about her own survival, she kicked behind her about five times, each time arousing another terrible screech. The thing finally released her, and she turned around, picking up her pistol and firing where she thought it was, fifteen times. Wet fluid covered her back legs. The thing's blood, it must have been.
Flashfire let out a faint gasp, and tried to search for it in the dark, but saw nothing. She sighed, and put away the empty pistol, the slide sticking out backwards to alert her to this. She then looked over the windowsill: The gap between the next house was maybe three feet..but the drop if she missed was over fifteen. Was that enough to break limbs? She tried to push that from her mind, and then looked to the sides. The shutters were grey and steely, seemed like they'd hold her weight. They were also long enough for the window. She laid them out between the two house's windows, and climbed on, hearing a hiss and something coming toward her with a great limping gait. The shutters were pulled back, and she jumped, hanging onto the windowsill of the other house as tight as possible, but her forelegs weren't strong enough to pull her up and over. Something wet splattered across her back, and she heard another hiss, as whatever was chasing her tumbled down the stairs trying to go outside to reach her. She struggled more, but could only make it worse, and called out for assistance. But nopony came to her. Just as she lost her grip, a golden aura surrounded her, and she blacked out.
Coughing a little, Flashfire opened her eyes, vision very blurry. She must have fallen. A golden mare stood nearby. Great, I'm dead, she thought, this must be heaven then. "Flashfire?" she looked up directly at the mare, who had Divine's voice. She blinked a few times, her vision getting better as she realized that her flank was, once again, up in the air, and must have been while she 'slept', if passing out can be called sleep. There wasn't time or energy to curse herself.
"I-I'm alive," Flashfire announced, checking over herself. "And I'm not hurt.." "I grabbed you with my magic. You didn't think to just lift yourself up with that?" "Crisis situation..I forgot everything just then.." "Well, Flashfire, you can't leave me or the war just yet." She nodded, and stood slowly. By now Canterlot was silent. The first wave of changelings in their Step Three must be done. Step One must have been two weeks ago, while Step Two was a failure. They succeeded in first taking over Canterlot, but could not capture either princess, so they simply tried to kill anypony left alive. They probably had other steps in this outright attack.
Flashfire unhooked her canteen, and took a swig from it, drinking a good amount. It burned all the way down, and then she remembered she'd filled it with her red wine. She replaced it and cursed, grabbing Divine's without asking, and drinking half. Water, clean water. It was delicious, better that wine-- No. Lies.
She shivered. Asking Divine wouldn't have effect anyway, she was asleep. She suddenly felt cold. What was happening to her? Removing her jacket, feeling thirty pounds lighter, Flashfire looked over her things. The spit or whatever had been wiped off her back, but traces of green remained. She almost smacked herself for being so stupid. The spit was from a changeling. Then she wanted to celebrate: She survived a changeling attacking her. Whatever the spit was meant to do was unclear: It couldn't be acid. No damage was visible. It wasn't alive, either. It was slimy and sticky. Maybe poison. It contained a strong scent of changeling, so maybe it was some kind of tracking fluid. But no changeling was around, prowling, hissing and marauding. She unzipped the attached backpack, and saw she had maybe 4 days of full MRE's. That should be enough. On the outside she had her OOAR-8, Optimized Operations Assault Rifle. Then she had a pistol she forgot the name of. She had four magazines for both weapons, which should maybe last her four days as well. No grenades whatsoever. Grenade training was the part she'd failed abysmally, and almost got held back for. But eventually they decided to not give her any grenades, and to not use them unless completely necessary.
Flashfire compared herself to her other teammates. Orgullo was excellent with Battle Rifles, while Divine Intervention excelled as an infiltrator. Qimayat was brave and gave changelings a quick death with his shotgun, while Honeybee, with her nearly eight-foot wingspan, was quick, balanced and steady with her sniper rifle. She was the team scientist. She had no medical supplies, but had training in that field. She carried with her in an impact box a science set, complete with vials and things. She could take notes in the battlefield, and collect samples. Nonetheless she was the runt of the litter, and even a full ten years older than Qimayat, he was still surpassing her.
A lot of ponies she knew had to have been dead. She hadn't noticed anyone, to scared to notice one pony she knew among the piles of dead changelings and dead ponies. The two different species registered no different when set to flame. A gentle whirring suddenly stopped, and after some checking Flashfire determined her sight had gone out. Great, how was she supposed to aim? She had no extra batteries. She should've changed it before leaving, or at least turned her sight off. It was much too late now; without batteries a 250-bit sight was worthless.
The only thing that she could do now was sleep, but even that seemed difficult. Why did being a soldier have to be so hard?
Belleza, his sister, was the only thing on Orgullo's mind. Not the status of his weapons, (he could have no ammunition and a broken barrel for all he cared) enemy position, or his own safety. Two years older than her, he made it his mission to protect her. Then, the changelings moved ever closer to Canterlot, taking city after city like it was their job to. Now, it must have been. He was nearly a kilometer away from his fire team mates, and a few blocks away from the nearest military anything- a destroyed and spray-painted tank. Carrying along he tried to picture where his sister could have been as he wandered. Military did their best to clean the streets where heavy fighting was, but blood still slicked the ground, changeling blood luminescent on the ground. Flashfire had asked him to either bring back a changeling alive, or kill one and vial its blood.
But Orgullo didn't want to shoot anything, let alone kill. He tried to remind himself changelings were monsters, not ponies. But...they were still living, weren't they? He'd killed a lot of coyote in the Badlands growing up, but usually in self-defense. However, the coats of coyotes could be fashioned into trophies at a high price. Ponies would buy the coats for a decent amount of bits, but they could be sold as some sort of coat or wallmount for a lot more. There was too much thinking required in being a soldier..he pretended he was not one. Decisions that could affect lives were too much for him.
If he chose to kill, which could be better from a distance, he would use his battle rifle. It used full-cartridges, and was semi-automatic. It was able to get off successive shots on the target, when wielded by somepony who could withstand the recoil. It had been able to stagger or knock down a changeling at range, and penetrate directly in and out of their exoskeleton at a closer distance. He didn't know its damage on a pony, and he didn't really want to find out.
Movement, just ahead. He froze for a little, and was able to confirm some wavering, and even a glimpse of color in the barely working street. Hot pink flank, and at that big it had to be a mare. He fast stepped to her side, but in the dark of the streetlights. She noticed him, but just barely, and Orgullo saw that she limped slightly. She let out a small grunt every few steps. "Miss," he said, trying to stand in front of her, but she just went around him, hissing as she passed him, continuing to walk. Hissing..that was a first, he'd never heard a mare hiss, but he'd definitely heard it from- No, was he really this close to a- Changeling! Without thinking, he turned around and went for a tackle, but the mare must have saw it coming, simply sidestepping him. He tripped and fell on the ground, his rifle coming loose and sliding across the floor. He turned onto his back and looked up. The changeling by now was upon him. He yelled, but in the middle of it the changeling spat, uncloaking into its terrible form. The gooey, luminescent stuff hit him in the face. He swung his hoof blindly, hitting target and hearing a screech. The changeling's hot breath along with more spit hit him. Oh, why, this thing was going to kill him right here! Possibly shoot him with his own weapon!
Orgullo didn't know what to do. He'd taken down an elephant before but was never as scared as he was then. Swinging wildly and putting most of his weight into it, he punched the changeling hard enough to get on top, trying his best to escape, pushing himself upward. He was able to turn around and start to run, but felt a sharp slash across his back legs, and fell flat, just inches from his rifle. Turning around to fire back he saw nothing. The changeling was gone.
What the hell had just happened? He had this giant gash somewhere on the back of him- the pain was currently too wide-spread to see where it was- and the changeling was gone. He shakily got up and began to limp away. It was like he could feel the blood leaving him. With each step he became weaker, as he shambled into an alley and looked over himself, setting his rifle down. In his backpack he had nothing to fix what he had. A cut on his right back leg, changeling blood and spit around it, while his own blood oozed out. The most he could do there was wipe it off, maybe use his rag to try and clean the would and put pressure on it. Starting on it, the color rushed back to his face and he felt a lot better. He could die untreated...he needed Flashfire to fix him up, but where was she? How far would it be until he collapsed, bled out and died there on the street?
Where did that changeling just go?
He relaxed, the pain becoming less constant as his body took over with the healing process. Within minutes he was no longer bleeding, only if he squeezed the wound, which pained him so much to do he moaned out from it. He was almost asleep when he heard a screech, and was blindsided.
He screamed, and was pushed into the asphalt, his wound threatening to rip open. Orgullo turned on his back, glowing green eyes meeting him in the night. Kicking hard it was sent sailing off of him, and he got up, crawling toward his rifle. Feeling himself rack a round into the chamber. Taking aim, the stock pressing against his shoulder. Flashfire's voice was the only thing that stopped him from blowing a hole in its body. "I would really like if you managed to get me one that's still alive." Right...
The rifle turned sideways, and the stock slammed into the changeling's face. It stopped moving, as green blood leaked on both the weapon and the ground. Orgullo got out a length of rope and tied it to himself and the changeling, stretching his wings and beginning the long flight back.
All this trouble for a mare he didn't even care about.
The reticle of her rifle presently sat a few mils below Queen Chrysalis' chest. She really didn't like this effort, her Princess and Goddess just a few feet from a changeling. But, she seemed to not want this invasion to go on any longer. They seemed to be taking turns speaking, Chrysalis occasionally looking down at her pedastal, presumably at some papers. Understandable, the former changeling leader had gotten used to having the fear of ponies, not asking them for help. Eventually her radio got around to working, as someone below got a microphone. "...He is not part of the Changeling Nation, h-he is a terrorist. He is the furthest from what we w-wish to achieve now. I stress Chitin is not under my jurisdiction..n-nor are any of his followers." That had to have been Chrysalis, even though her voice lagged a few seconds behind. Absolutely terrible connection. Her words were cause for Honeybee to lower her rifle a little more. Even though against her judgement she began to trust a changeling.
Babysitting was boring, and she really didn't want to do it for Celestia. Leaving the city for months- Or rather, not appearing. Nopony had any idea as to where she went. Some bunker? Out of the country completely? Ponies said that what mattered was that she was back now, but she shouldn't abandon her city like that! Who did she think she was- Oh, right, the princess. Honeybee sighed, and listened: Her radio had shut off. Taking her eye off the scope for a second gave her no real advantage, but looking back in showed something black. Getting larger, closer. Green glowed from near the top. At full speed she had no choice. Whether it be a changeling or a black pony, it had to be neutralized. A little upward and to the left...There! She had to hurry before it did whatever it was meant to do. Bang.
She closed her eyes, able to feel the scope jab her in the eye. She cursed loudly, her rifle clattering to the floor within the building. Jumping back away from it, she remembered it was bolt action. Her eye was what concerned her. She fell to the floor, rolled over and pulled out her mirror, holding it to her face. It was hard to keep her eye open, and the scar around her eye was once again prominent. Bleeding a little. She reached around and grabbed a tissue from a table, and used it on her cheek and eyelid. It got rid of the blood..but now little bits of tissue were there. Honeybee simply wiped them off with her hoof, and, now able to hold her eye open a little, looked out the window. The stage where her princess and Chrysalis were was burning, nopony anywhere to be found.
I've killed the princess, she thought. Burned her right out of existence. Her eyes closed, and she entered a world of dreams. She didn't want to wake up.
But, inevitably, she did; she had to, she hadn't died. But not in the same place, nor position she fell asleep. She awoke in a warzone, a mare's iron-grey body and multicolored mane, like...what was it..., greeted her. The tag on the left side of her chest read "Ferra Rust." That's what her mane was. Rust. She was in the Air Corps.
"PFC Honeybee! This is the last time I'm going to try and wake you! We are in the middle of a firefight!" Honeybee's eyes widened, a hoof immediately tending to her right, in pain from the scope-bite. In Ferra's hooves she held Honeybee's rifle. She could see a little dried blood ringing the scope from her position, which she sat up from and snatched her weapon back and put it on the ground. "What's happened?" "From the looks of it...suicide bombing. Changelings have the advantage again." "T-the advantage? Is this some kind of game to you?" She rose a hoof and momentarily considered punching her. "No! I-I meant they've t-taken the square a few blocks down..A-and I think they have guns.."
Ferra was right so far; as Honeybee surveyed the area outside the building, gunfire was being exchanged. The return-fire was greenish, not only the bullets but the occasional rocket fired down the street. Most missed and flew past Honeybee's building. The ones that did hit exploded with a small delay. She saw a few ponies missing limbs, too far to hear their screaming. She rubbed her eye and sat against the wall next to Ferra, shivering.
There was only one thought in her mind: I caused this.
There was a knock at the door, and Divine opened her eyes. She had been lethargic for quite a while, laying there with her eyes closed. Behind her was Flashfire, snoring quietly, even drooling a little, with Divine's canteen in her hooves. She stretched, trotted over to the door and opened it. It was Orgullo, and he looked more than just a little beat up.
Tied to his torso was an unconscious changeling, and Orgullo himself looked like he was going to pass out. He flew past Divine without so much as a hello, and deposited the changeling on the floor before shaking Flashfire and calling her name desperately. She woke up and looked at him, and they talked lowly for a bit before she injected him with a small clear syringe. After a few minutes he relaxed, and she began to tend to his blood-loss. It had been two whole days since she had sent him off, and one day since they took shelter in this house, the occupants of which either displaced or dead. Nothing was left in the house, save things bolted into the walls.
"M-maybe..Flash, if you're going to be...vivisecting it..give it some?" Orgullo asked, turning his head slightly to the passed-out changeling. "Hm..I still have a good amount in this syringe, and no, you won't get it. You could become addicted, or overdose. Oh, that's the fate of many soldiers who are injured, both recently and for a long time. Opiates are highly addictive, I hear." Morphine, Divine deduced, carefully holding down the changeling as she untied it. Flashfire took the syringe and looked for a break in the exoskeleton, eventually settling on a foreleg joint. Divine held it there for her as she drew the syringe up a little, then injected the rest of the morphine, which had become a greenish color due to the blood. Holding a hoof on its chest, Divine felt its heartbeat gradually slow as the opiate anesthetic took hold of its body. Only a few more steps before they could start.
Looking over, Divine saw Flashfire remove her lockbox of supplies from her pack and open it. She didn't have much: A cauterizer powered by batteries, scalpel, a few rolls of bandages, sterile syringes wrapped in plastic. A partly empty bottle of morphine. The seal was broken on it. The scalpel, surrounded by a blue aura, floated out of the box and made a controlled arc that stopped at the changeling's chest. "Let's begin, shall we?"
The first incision was shallow, not deep enough to actually cut through the exoskeleton. Changelings had this thick skin because they didn't have any bones, so without it they were kind of like slugs. A few more cuts in the same spot and Flashfire was in, right between the lungs from what Divine could see. Instead of just two there were multiple segments. "They're nothing like us," Divine noted. "They're not equine, bovine, or anything. They're bugs, if anything, completely unrelated to us. I place them in..Animalia, the closest shared classification." Flashfire explained, cutting lower and revealing its stomach and more organs Divine couldn't place. "It's nasty too..nearly their entire insides are green..what are we doing with this one when we're done?" "You mean if it doesn't die? We'll kill it and toss it in the snow." "Seems a little unorthodox." "This whole war's unorthodox. I don't really care. What I'd like to do is be able to get lots of changelings. We could get some good marksponies to shoot them in places, you know, learn their weak spots. It'd be a lot easier to kill them, wouldn't it?" Nodding, Divine watched intently, pulling open the exoskeleton and throwing it to the side. Without it it looked almost normal. The exposed flesh was made to exactly fill the exoskeleton. Damn, this was nasty.
From his position in the bar, Qimayat had a nice view of the mare next to him. She was currently spun around in her stool, talking to the bartender, who was all the way down the counter, about martinis. He would start a conversation, but he didn't know what to say. Equestria was a lot different. No arranged marriages, like in Saddle Arabia, or Camelu, as it was called there. He racked his brain for something to say, and found it, but something completely different came from his mouth. "...flank.." He'd said what he was thinking..again. He had been looking down most of the time and noticed she had a round and rather large flank, which was quickly replaced by her left thigh as she spun around and looked at him intently. "What was that?" She had a foreign accent, nothing like his but somewhat like the standard Equestrian. "Uh..nothing..sorry.." he tried to deny it, but she knew better. "Did you say something about my flank?" "Yes..again, sorry.." "It's okay, don't be sad. I see I was...kind of enticing you?" Qimayat looked up after she said that. She was wearing the clothes of an operator, with pouches all across the front. There was also a small pistol strapped to her thigh. "Um...I guess.." "What's your name?" "Qimayat...yours?" "Clandestine." "I-I was going to talk to you b-but then I started looking at it." He sighed and looked up at her. Her yellow coat made her green and blue mane stand out, but not much. She was noticeable, but could blend in with other ponies as well. "It's fine. Listen, you seem okay, in an awkward sort of way. Did you just move?" "Yeah, a-and I got almost immediately drafted...is that how they treat immigrants here?" He sighed again, as his right hoof ran over left sleeve, over the rank insignia and the slightly raised and lowered surface which made up the camouflage. "No..it was just a bad time. That's why we're down here. To protect ourselves from the things going on up there." She pointed at the ceiling. They were in Canterlot's underground shelter, much safer than being above ground. They had made a few modifications to the blast door. Changeling-proof, they told him and almost everypony else. They were right so far.
They talked for a little more, and left the bar after a few drinks, walking down the hallway. The security wing was behind them and to the left, while the research, engineering and medical wings were down the hall. There was a small thud and a scream. Clandestine started to move forward, but Qimayat had already turned around and ran to the security, running through it, swiping his card quickly and banging on the door as he waited for it to open. The security officers gathered round, and he quickly spewed out what was happening, in one word he was able to sum it up. "Changelings!" The door opened promptly, and he took his weapon, a large automatic shotgun, then running back down the hall, straight into the fray, with several officers following him. He stopped, raised his rifle at them and was about to fire, when he heard a clink-clink. Grenade. Qimayat fell on his rear and backed away, looking at it. Not a fragmentation grenade, but some kind of flash. He was hit as it exploded, and blacked out, his eyes open long enough to see himself being dragged away.
The light above him was dim, and the expected rat-tat-tat of gunfire was not audible. He sat up, and felt his thigh being lightly impacted by a note as it fell off of him. It had fallen upright, enabling him to read it without picking it up. "Qimyat, went out to get water. Shall return shortly. Clandestine." Mm, how nice, she had thought about him, but had spelled his name wrong. No matter. He was alive, and not torn to pieces by changelings. A metallic clanging rung through him, and he tapped the floor. Metallic. Suddenly, the whole room began to move. His heart jumped and he backed against the wall, breathing fast. The light in the ceiling swung a little, and Clandestine came down with a large jug of water on her back. "What's wrong?" She asked him, as if the room wasn't moving. "What is this?" he asked, looking at her "You're in an APC, calm down." Oh, yes, an APC. Of course. "I thought I was dead.." he said, relaxing off the wall. "I left you a note..Qimayat, drink some water." She turned him around, and he let her. She filled his pack's water supply, and his canteen to the max, and he began to drink, getting another fill afterwards and looking back at her. "There's another soldier driving the APC. I think we should be fine." As she said this to him, she pulled back the slide on her pistol, ejecting a round. She did this repeatedly, six more times, then pressing a buttom, which made the magazine slide out onto the floor. "Got into a bit of a jam with a changeling coming back with the water. I should be fine." Without warning, Qimayat hugged Clandestine, making her drop her weapon. She resisted for less than a second, relaxing into the hug and hugging him back. "Thanks for saving me.." he said in almost a whisper. "I wanted to, you seemed like someone who would regret dying." He chuckled a little, and pulled away from the hug, trying to not be awkward. That could prove difficult, but he would definitely try.
Chp. 6: Lance Corporal Allezeite Flashfire: "The Frozen Death"
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."
Chp. 7: Airpony First Class Ferra Rust: "Circumstance"
Snow. So much of it. She had been traveling with Honeybee for a day now, and they were well outside the city's range. By her calculations they were going east through a light forest of coniferous trees. They were able to cover so much land because of snowshoes they "borrowed" from a sporting goods store, when in reality they tossed a brick through the storefront glass and stole them. The owner was long gone anyway. "Let's stop here," Honeybee suggested. "We've gone so far east we might cross into the Rising Sun Empire." Ferra almost fell down, so tired from walking. She righted herself and smiled a little. "That's not funny, you know they'll probably shoot at us, right? We have weapons." By now, Ferra had pulled out her map and GPS, and was busy doing inputs on their whereabouts. "We're actually not far from the border, but according to this the first town we'd go through is near a sea. It should be mostly civilian." Ferra wanted anything else than to go into the Rising Sun Empire's territory. Their soldiers, reportedly, were fiercely loyal, spoke a completely incompatible language- as in there was no guessing what they were saying- and because of this, most ponies who just wandered over the border were shot or imprisoned, as they couldn't explain what they were doing there, or what had happened.
"If it's okay I want to try something," Honeybee asked. "I saw it on television once."
"What is it?" Ferra questioned, turning to her. She was plucking pine needles off a nearby tree. "Honeybee, that doesn't work. During one of my survival classes somepony tried that. The water boils off any flavor or anything in the needle, they lose their color and the water only tastes like dirt." "...oh...I could always get some fresh snow and melt it." "Yes, please do something that you know will work." Ferra shook her head a little as Honeybee left. She thought that mare knew nothing other than what she was trained to do. She told her she was her fireteam's markspony at one point, and then she was put on detail looking over Celestia. She wasn't really sure what had happened to her fireteam anyway. They could all be dead. They most likely were. It was probably best to assume they were. That way, when or if they learned of their confirmed deaths it wouldn't affect her as much.
It seemed like forever since Honeybee had went to get snow. Just as she was going to go find her, she came back, dragging her pack behind her. "I had to find fresh snow..sorry." she was apologizing to her. Ferra opened her mouth, to say that it was okay, but it didn't come out. Instead she said, "Did you see anything?" "Some sort of small border town. One side's all modern Equestrian, the other side directly becomes an Oriental village, just like that. Do...you want to try and-" Honeybee began to explain. "Tomorrow." Ferra cut her off, then took her backpack and put some snow into both their canteens, filling both their water packs as well. This was an insulated pack inside their combat armor that was meant to be used for water drinking on the go. It had a straw on it. Even with the insulation Ferra could feel the water unfreezing due to her body heat, then freezing back over. Only the side touching a soldier's back was insulated, leaving the water to either become desert-hot or frozen. Frozen, in this case. She sighed and put on a fire, after a while using some nearby branches to keep it going. The snow made them wet as it melted, making it hard to keep a fire going. After a few tries the fire was healthy and self-sustaining, and she set her canteen in the snow near it, and took out two MREs. Because Honeybee was using her pack for mobile water storage, Ferra carried their things. It seemed like she carried a double-ration of MREs with her. Honeybee left her rifle at the camp as well, and took an SMG with her to expeditions. Even though it had been one day, the both of them had been very nomadic.
Honeybee sat down next to her, and Ferra handed her one of the MRE packs. After a few minutes of preparing it and heating it she opened it. Glancing over at Honeybee she saw that they both had the same entree, vegetable stir-fry. "Does the armed forces even care about variety?" Honeybee asked. "We're not even in the same branch and we got the same thing. What did you get for dessert?" She rifled through the packaging. "Cookies," she responded after a while. "Trade?" "Sure, I got a little cake." She handed it over, and Ferra looked over the small chocolate cake. After confirming its worth she gave up her cookies. "See, Ferra, this is what soldiers are meant to do. I doubt the armed forces care much about our tastes and preferences, but what little variety there is to be had is meant to be traded." Ferra nodded in agreement. She traded her cheese and crackers for snack bread with peanut butter and jelly, and her coffee mix for cocoa. She took Honeybee's corn in exchange for rice. When they had what they wanted, Ferra proposed a toast. "Toast to what?" Honeybee asked her as she emptied the coffee mix into her canteen and shook it. "A toast to not being dead," she raised her canteen up, and the two canteens made a light clunk when they touched.
After "dinner", both mares had retired to their one tent. They were to share a sleeping bag. Along with the snowshoes they had also stolen the sleeping bag, the tent, and some lighters. Ferra, personally, didn't mind. Honeybee's body was warm and it kept heat circulating through the bag. As far as she knew it didn't have any underlying sexual tones. She didn't go that way, although Honeybee possibly did. This late influx of mare-on-mare relationships had thrown their birthrate into a downward spiral. It was already messed up enough, with females being the majority sex in nearly all occurrences. She suspected that the only equal rate may have been pegasi. The unicorns were most likely nearly seventy-five percent female, while earth-ponies could have been mostly male. It was almost like the male was un-wanted. Recent studies showed that male-determining genes- the Y chromosome- was losing most of its function. Truthfully, Ferra had no idea why so many mares were hooking up with other mares. She ran a hoof down Honeybee's mane once, then, realizing what she was doing, pulled it away and willed herself into sleep.
Honeybee had woken up long before Ferra, whose crust-ridden eyes made it hard to see. She wiped them clean and slipped out of the sleeping bag, a scent hitting her reminiscent of frying. It almost carried her out of the tent, and sat her down next to Honeybee. "...What are you making?" she asked, staring at the pan. She was shifting it back and forth, paying close attention to her watch. "Well, I got pancakes in my MRE so I was going to try and make some hotcakes. This mare in my fireteam makes these delicious hotcakes..but we don't have any syrup. I got butter though; I'll make it work." she responded lengthily, and quickly, not even looking up. "Grab me some firewood really quick?" Ferra didn't want to get up, the smell was heavenly. Delicious. But she stood and retrieved some branches, flicking off most of the snow and sliding them onto the fire. She simply sat there watching her cook, and when she was done they ate them hot. Ferra could feel the heat going down her throat, warming her insides. The butter, partially melted, coated her tongue with flavor. She loved not only the heat but everything about it, the fluffy texture, the taste. She went back for more, several more in fact, and in a matter of minutes they were all gone. She burped noisily and thanked Honeybee, going back to the tent to gather her things. They were going to town today, to possibly get a hotel room, bathe, all that.
Through her thoughts, Ferra just hoped she wouldn't get shot at today.
She had just finished breakfast, and her father had gone off to work. Home alone, she thought, and the borders were now closed. Galena's best friend, Shengming, lived across the border of the town, and thus was a citizen of the Rising Sun Empire. No Equestrian citizen could be allowed over the border, because they could be a changeling disguising themselves. She understood why they had to close the border but wished terribly they hadn't. She felt so alone. Strange, maybe a sixteen-year old young mare should have more than one true friend, one that she didn't only see at school but talked to. In the small town she was certain others had friends across the border, friends they were now cut off from. She couldn't be the only one. No, that'd be crazy.
Breakfast, for some reason, wasn't enough today. It was a hearty working stallion's breakfast, since she ate with her father before he left to do his job, mining lead deep underground. Most miners had been earth ponies, but her father was a unicorn, and he passed that to her. She walked around the house, having heated up some soup and, holding it in her magical grasp, sipping it with a spoon. By now she would have been on the other side of town to get Shengming, exploring the town with her, talking with the not-so-serious soldiers who guarded the border. They laughed, joked with their opposite on the other side of the checkpoint. But now, the ones on the Rising Sun Empire's side were stern, pointing their guns at anyone who attempted crossing over, even for something as simple as going to get cake. Yes, the only bakery that made them was on the other side, so they were cut off. Nopony really knew how to bake, and those who tried did a terrible job.
It hit her why she was still hungry: Being in the house gave her nothing to do. It was boring inside, and a lot of ponies did the same thing, sitting around with nothing to do. Quickly finishing her soup, she deposited it in the sink, and thought for a bit: Maybe the border was open again, the guards were to their normal joking selves. The chances, in her mind, were good enough, so she scanned the room until she found her set of keys, unlocking the door and stepping out, closing it behind her. She put most of her weight on the door to be sure as she locked it. Immediately she turned to the left, and went into the shed beside the house, opening it to grab her set of snowshoes. There was always about eight inches of snow. If it melted, more fell; no more, no less.
The journey into the Equestrian side's center was lonely. Those she usually saw on the streets weren't there, and she felt as if she was in an abandoned city, like how she heard Trotterdam had become. Nopony whatsoever lived there now, it was part of the mass exodus in the west. She looked to her left, peering into the storefront of a bar. She saw a bit of movement in the dim place, so she stepped inside, closing the door behind her. Her cheeks lit up with feeling, both because of how cold it had been outside, and because she knew she wouldn't normally be allowed inside. "Hey, do you guys-" She was silenced suddenly, as the one behind the counter put his hoof up and shushed her. A few others turned to look at her and she saw through the solid wall of bodies that they were surrounding a radio. It was only then that she realized the radio was on, and they were all huddled around it. "-Canterlot has been evacuated, I repeat, Canterlot citizens are ordered to evacuate-" They all groaned, cutting off her ability to hear the radio. "Just like the Canterlot Defense to wuss out of a fight!" she heard one say. She turned and was ready to leave, then heard a panicked "No!" over the radio. The stallions spoke in hushed voices, and all grabbed their coats, rushing out of the bar. She had no choice but to follow after them, lagging behind as her snowshoes occasionally caught on things on top of the snow.
It seemed as if the entire town was standing in front of a very large shed on the outside of town. She saw somepony's tail, then their flank. They slowly backed out of the building, and about halfway she could tell it was a soldier. They weren't wearing snow camouflage but instead a forest one caked in places with snow and ice. And they weren't at all the soldiers who guarded the border. These were wearing body armor. A pony she recognized, Maple Tap, was tossed into the snow outside the shed, and then she remembered the shed was where he made his cider. It took this long to click, to realize they were arresting him.
"Stop!" She felt eyes on her. The soldiers, both mares, looked up at her, but she felt as if everyone in the crowd was now glaring at her. "What are you doing?" she asked them, stepping forward. Their weapons gleamed on them, hooked to their sides and backs. She shivered a bit, not from the cold but being this close to live weapons. "This stallion has an illegal cider still in this shed." The rust-maned one asked her, using her left foreleg to hold herself up, and her right to keep the Maple on the ground. "It doesn't have alcohol. H-how about you try it?" The one with the rusty mane lifted her hoof off of Maple and allowed him to fix them cups of cider. The soldiers, and Galena, came inside, and she was given one too. With her magic she lifted it to her lip and drank. The cup was freezing, the cider was even colder, but it was delicious nonetheless, as it always was. The apples were off-season though, able to last so long because they had been allowed to freeze. She drank the thing down in one go, and looking over she could see the two soldiers were doing the same. The black and yellow one exhaled a ragged breath, and looked down at her cup, stretching it out, but then stopping. "See? Completely- *burp* legitimate." Galena said, wiping her mouth and excusing herself for burping. "It would appear so. Fine, you're free to go," the rust-haired one said to Maple. He went outside and shooed everyone off. "Little filly, would you mind being our guide while we're here?" "I- Hey, wait! I'm not a filly, my mother says I'm a young mare now. I'm mature and- I-I mean...I wouldn't mind, even though you tried to arrest my friend." She tried her best to smile, and managed a small forced one. "Well, hard cider..it's only really legal if you have a license, and he didn't, so we had to try and arrest him. But, since there's no alcohol in the process, it's fine. Sorry." the black and yellow one said. She led them out of the shed, and took them to her home, where she learned their names: Honeybee and Ferra Rust.
She didn't know how her father would react to two fully-armed soldiers sitting in his house with his daughter. When her mother came home, her reaction may be even more adverse.
The thick plastic blurred her vision, just a bit. She felt like she was breathing through a straw anyway. This close to a Changeling stronghold the air was toxic. They didn't care, all their chemicals and poisons from their fires and processes floated in the air. They themselves were completely fine with it. She wondered if they'd done the same to Canterlot. She shifted her walking style as the snow deepened, but quickly went back as the cold side of her rifle's barrel rubbed against exposed skin. It was so cold she couldn't even feel that bit of her shoulder anymore. The warmers she stuffed up her sleeves were getting hot, but she didn't dare remove them. She longed for their warmth, even if they only heated up the exact area they were pressed against. A glance around reminded her she was currently on point. Flashfire was directly behind her, and had a while ago stopped complaining. Some distance back their APC had run out of gas. At first they'd tried to find some for it, but quickly abandoned it, stripping it down to bare bones and taking what they could. The air was getting thicker, and more toxic. Her senses told her to turn back. The black ahead showed the slight silhouette of a settlement, and without questioning it Divine motioned everyone to follow. They were in the thick of it now, snow up to the elbows, and choking smoke. The winds shifted and the clouds started to push away from them, but Divine didn't dare take off her mask. She instead got low, at the town wall, made of a thick layer of corrugated steel. She stared at it for a bit, and noticed a piece of wood near the bottom. She pushed, and it fell, revealing a large explosion-like hole at the bottom of the wall. They had tried to patch it up with simple wood, and it'd worked until she had simply knocked it over.
That's when she saw one: as soon as she knelt down to crawl through she spotted the black carapace. She froze in place, but it was looking the other way, more specifically to the left. Its fangs glinted slightly as it turned its head away, and left. She felt a hoof press her own leg up, and she was forced to crawl through. Divine waited a bit, and pressed her back against a wall nearby. She touched her hooves flat together, and uttered a silent prayer under her breath. She hoped so desperately they wouldn't shoot, that maybe they'd let them- "Divine, get up," she heard Flashfire's tone in a hushed voice. She looked around, then up at her. She didn't say anything but complied, trying to look as calm and in control as possible. With this posture she hesitatingly walked to the middle of the area, and opened her mouth. "Who's in charge here?" Divine announced. Nopony even turned. Her squadmates stood nearby, waiting for response. "Excuse me, who-" she was bumped from behind and stopped talking momentarily, and began to get frustrated. She looked around once more and slid a hoof back on her right side, unhooking her rifle, and firing a burst off into the air. Now that she had their attention she could start to talk. "Who's in charge here?" she asked, the rifle smoking off as she held it up, standing on her hind legs. A...stallion, she thought, stepped forward, and pointed off to the tallest building in the small settlement. Divine slid the rifle back on its hooks, and thanked him, calling for her squad, who were all already watching her from the steel wall. The changelings looked even more surprised at the four others. Qimayat took a second to fix the wooden panel blocking their entrance point, and followed.
As soon as they stepped inside the building there were armed guards on each side of a long hall. They kept walking until they came to an empty throne. Minor conversation among her squadmates provoked her curiosity, and she decided to listen in. "This guy's got heavy arms, Flash, who do you think it is?" she heard Qimayat ask. "I'm not sure...what if it's that terrorist?" she replied back. "Both of you, quiet, and look." Divine whispered at them, only slightly turning her head. A slightly larger-sized changeling sat in a throne, a rifle leaning on the side of it. Flash went forward and Divine was forced to follow, to keep them all close. "You are the ponies who requested me? You seem to have, as you say, caught me in a good mood; I just returned from noon prayer." Somepony behind her gasped sharply, and she knew before they even said it. "Chitin.."
They were all mere meters from the one who had orchestrated thousands of killings, but there was no time for thinking. Divine had to speak now, and make herself heard. "We-" "Chitin," she was immediately cut off by Clandestine, "we represent Equestria, and we have a question. Why?" Chitin chuckled lightly, and beckoned them closer. Without question, Divine moved forward, and she could see Flash did as well. "Good question, mare," he said, a smile on his face. "Why have I taken your cities, killed off your population? You mean, why have I instructed the changelings to rise up, taken hold of the true Changeling Nation that is rightfully mine, and gone on a bit of an expansion spree." "No, that's not true!" Clandestine protested. "You know the Nation belongs to Chrysalis!" Chitin suddenly sat up in his seat, and yelled. "Don't you EVER say her name in front of me again!" hitting his hoof against the armrest of his chair at the word 'ever'. He had gone from joking, to yelling at her. "We all know that worthless slut can't lead a revolution! So when I am recognized and placed as king, I will PERSONALLY behead her!" He was now leaning forward in his seat, his emotions nothing other than rage. Divine didn't even have words for it. Clandestine hadn't said anything helpful, but she doubted that she herself could do much better. "S-sorry.." Clandestine uttered. "What was that? I didn't hear you." Chitin responded, his voice having less rage in it, but it was still obvious he was ready to explode at any moment. "I said I'm sorry." she said louder. Chitin nodded and leaned back in his seat, saying something about how ponies have no respect.
Divine looked back, and saw tears streaming down Clandestine's face. He had managed to break her that easily, using his booming voice, with which he commanded respect. Even Divine had to admit: It worked.
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.
Counting it all it'd been a very short six hours since they cut their way across the border and escaped into the Rising Sun Empire. She looked around at Ferra's familiar face, and Galena. She'd gone along with them, running away from home when her mother told her to leave the soldiers home. According to her she was tired of being told what to do, but before that she'd also told her about Shengming. It was Galena's idea to cross the border to this strange country in the first place, so Honeybee suspected other motives. Here in this small hotel, they got to shower and eat, Galena going out and buying clothes for them(since she was the only one normally dressed). It was night when they had come in, so their camouflaged clothes weren't seen. The front desk allowed Galena to simply buy a room, and Honeybee and Ferra snuck under the desk following her. But now they needed real clothes so they'd at least blend in to an extent, seeing as how they didn't look Imperial. Ferra said that their story was they couldn't cross the border because of the blockade, if they were questioned. Simple enough. But now she just waited in bed, on the far side of it with Ferra on the other, who was still asleep. Deciding to doze off as well, she figured Galena would wake them both up when she was back.
When she opened her eyes, Ferra's rust-colored mane was inches from her face. Her hooves were partway around Ferra's body, and Galena was poking Honeybee's thigh, trying to wake her up. She rolled away from Ferra in a bit of disgust at herself...she wasn't attracted to her at all and yet they had to sleep together, and they ended up touching eachother all the time. Galena climbed onto the foot of the bed and sat down her shopping bags, which she was holding with her magic. Oh, she envied unicorns so much for that...their magical prowess and spells...sure, she could fly, but being a unicorn opened up so many more possibilities. It was yet another reason she disliked her body. Another was her black and yellow stripes, which she got from her father's side. He was a zebra, but the classic markings of one only were on the back half of her body. It really made her stand out un-necessarily in crowds, and sometimes her fur would mess up and people would ask if she was sick or infected. She snapped out of her self-hate and took one of the bags of clothes, pulling out a casual blue dress and some snow boots, in an Imperial styling. It looked beautiful to her. She went into the bathroom to undress, because she was a bit embarrassed of letting her mare parts be out in front of them, switching from her camouflage uniform into the more outside-friendly dress. She came out, did a small twirl, and let Ferra in the bathroom, as she sat on the bed and tried to start conversation with Galena. However it was a long pause before she actually said anything. "Hey," Honeybee asked suddenly, looking over at her. "Where does your friend live?" That should've been easy enough for her to answer. Galena only really had one friend. "Closer to the border..." she responded, looking down at the floor. The topic seemed to upset her a bit. "It-It's probably too dangerous to backtrack right now." "I know, but...we could go later, right?" "I guess, she'd be surprised to see me over here and she's kind of law-abiding...I'm not sure how she'll act." Ferra stepped out of the bathroom wearing her dress as well, in the same style but with purple and white swirls. These dresses were tacky by Equestrian standards, sure, but they'd look somewhat normal in a foreign land. "You guys wanna go eat?" Ferra asked. It'd been quite a while since Honeybee had food that wasn't from an MRE bag...she couldn't resist.
The hotel had its continental breakfast just like any decent place in Equestria, but the food they served was much different...even a few floors up from the ground floor, Honeybee could smell the many spices they put in their food. When the actually arrived at the bottom the smell was almost offensive to her nose...it was so spicy and she wasn't even eating anything. She had to fight to stay focused, as she walked to the counter and ordered three breakfasts. She reached into her wallet and pulled out the Empire's weird papery money. It had some plastic film over it, because it was somewhat shiny as well. They'd exchanged all their money into it, and had received quite a lot of them. They were much easier to carry around, and didn't jingle. Honeybee got back three paper bags with a dynamite label on them. The strong smell seemed to be emanating right from the bag, but she took it anyway, getting a few forks and sitting down, handing them out. Inside Honeybee's bag was a small white container. She took it out and opened it, finding the source of the strong spicy scent. From this distance it was actually somewhat pleasurable, and it did smell good. The vegetables inside were coated in the skin of peppers, which let out the intense heat. It actually seemed appetizing enough, so she let her fork sink down into the mix, and she put some in her mouth. She'd regret that soon. "This is really good, guys-" Honeybee stopped what she was saying, as her senses literally dulled from all the heat. She had to keep eating...it was so good, but every bite seemed like eating fire. It got to the point where she wasn't paying attention...she was in her own little world. But as soon as she looked away from her food, she simply said: "I need some milk..." seeing that both Galena and Ferra were in the same situation as her. The cook gave them three bottles of milk, and Honeybee downed hers without much thought; not caring what kind of milk it was, or what it came from. She was just glad that her tongue wasn't completely dead. She was able to switch between eating and drinking until she finished both. However, the natives around them thought them to be a little crazy, drinking milk with their meat. She could see their eyes occasionally looking over at her, and she did have to admit she looked kind of odd. When she was done she was only left with a small sting of spice in her mouth, which was actually somewhat appetizing to her.
With their stomachs full of severely over-spiced food, the three mares made their way outside. Of course it was snowy there too, but not as much...almost like an overflow of Equestria's situation. There sat about three inches of snow, easy to maneuver in, light enough for foals to play in and vehicles to move through with ease. Regardless, the streets were cleared out to the best of the town government's abilities, only to be snowed on again the following day.
Maybe they could start a new life here, get a job or something. They'd be away from the war. But as Galena pulled on Honeybee a little, ushering her back in the direction of the border, she tried to look as nonchalant as possible. She knew exactly what she wanted, and it wasn't souvenirs like the young mare was currently telling her. No. It was Shengming.
The familiarity of Shengming's house wasn't present in Galena's mind. She'd been there possibly hundreds of times within the two years they'd known each other, but under the newly tightened border laws, she hadn't been there in weeks. She seriously needed new friends, she knew that already, but Shengming was the only one she could talk to with no inhibitions. They were the closest two friends could be, short of sexually, but those thoughts tended to wander their way into Galena's teenage mind from time to time. Something kept her from simply banging on Shengming's door -- Whether it was the shiver down her spine due to risk of being deported at literally any time, or that possibly Shengming simply wouldn't like her anymore, or would think her a stalker. She stood still with a hoof in the air, contemplating over this simple decision, for a full five seconds she froze, and only was able to move when Ferra rapped on the door a few times. Able to relax, Galena knew neither of Shengming's parents were home, both off to work. She'd been able to deduce that her father was on border patrol for the Rising Sun side, and before the law ratcheted down on the border, she frequently saw him, and the next day after learning that he worked there, greeted him every day. But now she wasn't able to cross the border, occasionally drifting close to and around it, and from that she wasn't able to see Shengming's father anymore. The door opened with a small welcoming creak, one that made Galena reminisce of days past, before the border law, even before the Eternal Winter.
"G-Galena, what are you doing..?" Shengming opened the door slightly, visibly surprised at who was at the door.