The fluctuating charge (FQ) model proposed by Rick et al. [(J. Chem. Phys. 101, 6141 (1994)] for molecular dynamics (MD) simulation of water is applied to a test case for polyatomic ionic systems. A system resembling alkali cyanide crystals, with two partial charges on the atomic sites of the polarizable anions, is considered. The need for charge fluctuation considerations in such a simple system is demonstrated by ab initio calculations of the partial charges in the cyanide ion with different orientations within a fixed octahedral environment of sodium ions. It is shown that the charge distributions in the crystal obtained with the FQ model are sensitive to changes in the environment in such a way that the anions become more polarizable as the lattice parameter increases. Conversely, the charge distributions shrink with increasing repulsive short-range interactions. Furthermore, a well-known polarization effect, that is, the reduction in the frequencies of longitudinal optic modes of the crystal, is also obtained with the FQ model.