Morals

Selene Moon practically skipped into school that day. But, it wasn't because she was excited to learn, no, this time she was most excited for lunch. Sapphire Wings would surely sit next to her and Jasmine at lunch, and, with luck, so would Speck. Then she would make her move. Nopony would suspect her, being such a good student and friend. If they did decide to search her house, Selene would simply burn the papers in the sink with her lighter and wash them down. Filling up her lock box with useless jewelry and maybe a false diary and leaving it out in the open should do the trick.

They would never know.

When lunchtime finally arrived, the mad euphoria burning inside her threatened to explode. Fortuitously, Selene Moon was an impeccable actor and acted completely regular as she made her way to the lunch room, the bottle of powdered foxglove sitting in the pocket of her bronze leather jacket.

Hopping into the lunchroom, she grabbed a black plastic tray and some silverware. After selecting her meal, which consisted of an apple, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a container of grapes, and some chocolate milk. She purchased it and almost galloped over to the blue lunch table where her friends were sitting.

"Hi friends!" she squealed, drawing out the last word for a lot longer than a normal person would have. A sky blue pegasus perched on the bench of the lunch table burst into uncontrollable laughter.

"Hi!" drawled Jasmine, drawing out the word in the same way Selene had.

In the moment she had before sitting down to join the rest of her companions, Selene Moon scanned the table with her sharp green eyes. The ponies that were sitting there included Striped Sweater, Sapphire Wings, Pawprints, and, of course, Jasmine. There was no sign of Speckled Leaves. Selene Moon's smile lost a bit of its shine and vigor as she sat down, right next to the blue pegasus and a blonde pegasus with blue feathers. The dominating race at the table was pegasi- Selene was the only Earth Pony.

"Hey!" smiled Pawprints, the blue pegasus, as Selene sat down. Just as her name suggested, her cutie mark was a pawprint. Though Pawprints did enjoy drawing, her special talent was actually being a zoologist.

"Hey!" mimed Selene in the same joyous manner. "How would you describe your day today? Good, bad, meh... squishy pie geckos..."

"Squishy pie geckos!" said Pawprints, and she burst into a fit of giggling. Pawprints was almost always amused by the things Selene said or did. One day, Pawprints warned, she would pee herself from laughing too hard.

All of Selene Moon's friends were weird in one way or another. She fit in with them well.

Eventually, though, she was presented with a chance. Sapphire Wings had turned away from her food, and was talking to Jasmine Bloom about something that was obviously amusing. Pawprints had gone to dump her tray. This would be quite easy, thought Selene. She had imagined that it would take a few failed attempts at poisoning Sapphire before she actually succeeded. Even if she got caught, stealing food was a game of their's that they would probably never stop playing. Quickly, Selene Moon took the foxglove out of her pocket and snatched Sapphire's milk carton.

Sprinkling in the whole bottle of foxglove, Selene briskly placed the milk back in its place. Lunch would soon be over, but if Sapphire Wings could just take one more drink...

And one more drink she did take. This was quite irregular for most of her other friends, but Selene Moon had been studying Sapphire Wings since she had joined their group in 7th grade. She always drank all of her milk, even if it was on the way to the trashcan.

Coughing, Sapphire Wings about spit out the last bit of her milk. Picking up a cup of grape juice, she swished some of the liquid around in her mouth then swallowed hastily.

"That was awfully bitter," she muttered. "Kinda like my salad, but like, times ten! Milk is not supposed to taste like that."

Selene Moon's grin got wider and wider. It was a disturbing sight.

"Eh, the school food sucks. Its probably bad milk or something," Jasmine suggested, shrugging. "Maybe you should just bring your lunch next time."

"That's what I would do," Selene added, nodding. "The cafeteria mares are all trying to poison us with awful processed crap. Best not to even buy it, ya know?" she gestured towards her own tray. She had scraped off the peanut butter from her sandwich, and only a few of the grapes were missing. Selene Moon tended not to eat very much, unless it was super nachos day. She loved super nachos.

But inside, Selene Moon was screaming with vexation.

Get on with it already! she yelped at the foxglove. She had given Sapphire precisely 0.2 grams of dried leaves, which was much more than enough to kill her as long as she didn't get to a hospital in the next 24 hours. Thankfully, nopony would even consider it to be foxglove poisoning, as Sapphire Wings hadn't been near foxgloves all day nor did many ponies realize how lethal foxglove really was.

The symptoms would start any moment now... Selene was glad she didn't give Sapphire any more foxglove than she had, because she was already looking green. Sweat beaded on her temples, and the blonde was starting to slow down. Her movements became lethargic, and her breathing more irregular to match her heartbeat.

Finally, while they were walking back from lunch, Sapphire Wings moaned to Jasmine that she didn't feel good. They had an ephemeral conversation before Sapphire approached the teacher with a sickly expression.

"Mrs. Yew, I don't feel so well..." the rest of the conversation was too quiet for Selene Moon to hear, but she didn't care. Just as long as Sapphire didn't throw up, she would most likely die. The amount of Digitoxin and cardiac glycosides in her blood would surely cause a heart attack. Selene had studied this very thoroughly, and knew all the details. She also knew that is was very unlikely for Sapphire to make it through the night, as only 0.02 grams of foxglove was needed to kill a 40 pound pony. As far as Selene knew, Sapphire couldn't possibly weigh more than that, as the average for a full-grown pegasus was 35 and Sapphire Wings was quiet skinny.

The blonde pegasus finally stumbled out of the classroom, blue nurse's pass in hoof. For a few more moments, Selene ran equations through her brain to calm herself down, finally coming to the conclusion that her enemy's survival rate was low and that she should stop worrying about it.

That night, Selene Moon burned all her papers on the comings and goings of her classmates. She also shattered the glass bottle that had once held the powdered foxglove leaves in the sink with a rock. Her tan hoof brought the rock down harder and harder until she was starting to crack the sink. Then Selene Moon stopped, her breathing heavy. If the police did come to investigate her house, large cracks in the bathroom sink would look quite suspicious.

Picking up a plastic spoon, Selene scooped up the pulverized glass bottle and dumped the powder into a sandwich bag. After she was finished, she dumped into the spoon into the bag as well. Latex gloves covered her hooves. Being an Earth Pony, she couldn't just use telekinesis to levitate the items, so she had to wear gloves to keep from poisoning herself in case some loose dust was left behind in the shards of the bottle. She held her face away from the glass to keep from inhaling anything.

Then again, it was best to do things the old-fashioned way. Selene had heard that Princess Twilight Sparkle had been working on a device that could trace and identify different unicorns's magic. The rising crime count in the major cites like Manehatten and Phillydelphia had provoked this, but crime was still pretty uncommon in the town in which Selene Moon lived. Even so, it was best not to try anything with magic.

Things in Equestria were developing so fast.

Closing up the bag with the shards, Selene made her way to the back of her house. Her backyard was a giant hill, and almost went straight down. If she were to dig a hole in it, it would almost immediately be noticed. Trotting down the hill, she reached the back patio. In the broken down green wheelbarrow sat an old rusted shovel. Selene Moon had used this for years, going back to when she was just a filly, burying "dead" dolls and various other things in a fake graveyard for sport.

This time she would be using it for something a lot more sinister.

Her parents wouldn't be coming home for at least another hour, but Selene Moon still had to work speedily. She lived at the edge of town; so close that a couple more steps would land her in the country. This also landed her very close to the freeway wrapping around the side of her neighborhood, like blanket that only covers half of your body.

When she had first moved into the neighborhood, Selene and the other children had gone down to the still-developing highway to walk their dogs. Back then, not many cars had traveled on it, them being a recent invention and all. But now it was buzzing with vehicles in all colors, shapes, and sizes. They whipped up a wild, smelly wind that blew back Selene's mane forcefully and made her close her bright green eyes for a moment.

But she had already wasted enough time.

She waited until the cars stopped and then approached the road cautiously. It would have looked quite strange to anypony watching right then- a light brown mare standing on the edge of the freeway, mind in another world. Selene Moon was still wearing the latex gloves when she ripped open the plastic bag filled with glass shards and discarded its contents all over the road.

Ducking behind a bush lining the thruway, Selene Moon waited for a car to pass by. She didn't need to wait long. Soon a flashing yellow car came barreling down the road, almost blinding Selene's sensitive green eyes with its brilliance. A loud popping noise filled the air.

Pop pop pop pop.

Selene let loose a smile from behind the bracken. The evidence would soon be collected in the tires of many cars, racing away from the town as speedily as they came. Selene Moon's town was just a small blot on the map; travelers coming and going everyday but never staying long. Nopony would ever find those glass shards again.