“Would you stop that?”
Kuno grimaced, pausing in her pacing, her wings giving an anxious buzz. “Why hasn’t the messenger arrived yet? What’s taking so long? Are they doing this deliberately?”
Warden gave a long, long sigh, resting his chin on the table again. “I don’t know. But pacing a furrow into the floor isn’t going to help.”
Kuno growled, stamping a hoof against the ground and then resuming her pacing.
“You were so confident yesterday,” Warden said with a resigned sigh.
“That was yesterday!” Kuno hissed, stamping her hoof again. “And now they’re late!”
There was a curt knock at the door, and Kuno started, dancing anxiously in place.
Warden sighed, sliding his chin off the table and moving towards the door, tugging it open. A royal guard stood at the door, holding a spear.
“The princesses require your presence,” the guard said, bowing his head respectfully.
Kuno danced in place a little more intently. “O-okay!” she turned to Warden, ears pinning back. “Are you coming with me?”
“Of course,” Warden said with a faint smile and a shake of his head.
“Should we bring Swarm this time?” Kuno asked awkwardly. “We kind of just… let her in her room last time.”
“She didn’t even know we were gone,” Warden said with a slight shrug. “There are guards outside at the aurora if she misses us.”
Kuno frowned, biting her bottom lip. “Okay... Well…”
“There’s no point putting it off, they chose what they chose, and having a panic attack about it won’t change that. Let’s just go find out,” Warden stated.
Kuno gave a long sigh. “Yes, yes.” She lifted her head, making a whistling noise. Her praetorian guards appeared beside her almost instantly, with a pair of vine-scythes strapped to their chests. Gardening weapons turned into wicked tools of warfare.
“Maybe they should uhh... leave those at home?” Warden asked carefully.
“The scythes? They’ll be fine. My guards can’t guard me very well if they’re unarmed,” Kuno explained bluntly.
“You’re not going to get attacked in Canterlot, Kuno, and preparing as though you’re going to be seems… confrontational,” Warden countered, frowning deeply. “Is it really wise to antagonize the princesses when it might be literally the very first few moments of being officially residents of Equestria?”
Kuno grimaced, but nodded. “I… I guess you’re right. Guards?”
The two guards stepped forwards, removing their scythes and laying them on the table.
“Hey, if you all get residency, you can get actual spears!” Warden said with a smile.
Kuno wrinkled her nose. “The royal guard have spears. The batponies have claws. I’d rather we not compete with another species for weaponry.”
“Swords?” Warden suggested, giving a slow stretch in preparation of the flight to the palace.
Kuno pondered a moment. “We can discuss that later. After Celestia tells us we’re allowed to stay.”
“Atta girl,” Warden said with a smile.
Swarm peeked out through the slit in the curtains, watching her parents walk down the path. With a smirk and an anxious quiver of her wings, she turned back to Wrought Iron. “So… they’re gone. Wanna make out?”
Wrought Iron gave a slightly nervous smile at that, ears pinning back. “I-isn’t that what we were doing before, anyway?”
Swarm gave a wide smile, her eyes flashing green for an instant. “Good boy.”
For the second time in as many days, Kuno sat in front of the Princesses of Equestria.
This time, Kuno had not brought along her entire army, and instead sat, with only her two praetorian guards, and Warden close at hoof.
“We have conversed,” Celestia said simply, inclining her head.
Kuno swallowed loud enough for Warden to hear. “I hope you see reason and allow us to stay.”
“We have misgivings,” Twilight Sparkle said, speaking to Kuno directly for the first time. “While we know that you are… on the whole, impartially ‘good’, we cannot say the same for all changelings.”
Kuno’s eyes narrowed.
Luna spoke next.
“I know, better than any, the wicked ways of temptation and jealousy. How darkness can take root in the hearts of us all. And there is already much darkness in your own heart. How can we trust you to lead a group of creatures who were, and could still be, our sworn enemies?”
“I can see the good in ponies,” Cadance said carefully, obviously thinking on her words before speaking. “I am not willing to judge an entire species on the actions of a few. I am not comfortable judging you and your kind without first knowing all of you.”
Celestia inclined her head, eyes closing. After a few moments, her eyes opened, and the one not hidden behind her mane stared deep into Kuno’s soul. “I, too, am not willing to judge your species without knowing them. But… I have my misgivings. I am troubled by your species’ proclivity towards violence.”
Kuno frowned further, fidgeting slightly.
“Do you have anything to say in response?” Celestia asked simply.
Kuno took a deep breath, shooting Warden a look, before rising to her hooves, starting to pace back and forth slowly. “You all said that you’re worried about my species’ tendencies for violence and darkness. But you are all the enablers!” Kuno pointed an accusing hoof at the four princesses.
All four princesses gave various looks of affront.
“You heard me!” Kuno challenged, stamping her hoof and resuming her pacing, wings buzzing nervously. “If you banish us to the badlands again, then you have guaranteed us as an enemy. You have guaranteed that we will need to turn to dark acts to sustain ourselves. I put forth a way for us to live in harmony. Not perfectly. Both of our species will need to make concessions, but we could make it work. For the first time ever, our species could work together instead of skirting around each other as enemies. But if you banish us, you force us to become your enemy.”
Celestia inclined her head. “We came to the same conclusion.”
Kuno sat down heavily on her rump, blinking once. “You did?”
“We did,” Celestia said simply. “But there is always the problem of rogue changelings. We cannot have your kind impersonating our kind. We have to keep that within boundaries.”
“We will do anything you need us to, within reason,” Kuno said, lifting her head proudly.
Celestia looked Kuno up and down. “I remember… you used to wear a collar.”
“I broke it… when I transformed,” Kuno said awkwardly, making a motion at her throat.
“If you could find the collar again, we could enchant the bell with a location spell,” Celestia said carefully.
“You intend for all of us to wear an enchanted collar?” Kuno asked, cringing.
Celestia nodded. “Yes. So that we could locate you all at any time.”
“That won’t work,” Kuno said, frowning deeply. “A changeling could just remove their collar.”
“I am fully aware of this flaw,” Celestia explained, her expression blank.
“And… collars? I, personally, love my collar. It’s part of who I am… but some of my subjects might find it… demeaning,” Kuno explained awkwardly.
“It can be any small object. Metallic. Anything that can be held on a pony,” Celestia conceded.
“That’s… better,” Kuno said, nodding to herself. “Does this mean that… that we’re allowed to stay?”
Luno straightened up slightly. “We have decided unanimously that it would be folly to throw away a resource such as the changelings and risk returning them to being our enemies.”
“We will hold talks in the coming days,” Celestia decreed. “And we will jointly create a set of rules for all changelings to follow. I will guess that there are many things you have to take care of at your embassy.”
“A-at my embassy,” Kuno said weakly, her eyes widening slightly, wings giving an anxious buzz.
“At your embassy,” Celestia said with a slow smile spreading across her muzzle. “Welcome to interspecies politics, Kuno.”
“This is… this is the embassy,” Kuno breathed, staring up at the front of the mansion.
Warden nodded slowly. “The Changeling Consortium, actually.”
“I… I don’t believe this is going to work,” Kuno murmured, eyes wide.
“C’mon now, you’ll make it work,” Warden said with a faint smile. “Death came for me and you scared it away. This is a lay-up!”
Kuno gave a long, low sigh. “No, no it’s really not. I have to lead all the changelings now. I have to help them all discover their sense of self… and help come up with laws to govern them!”
“Take it all one step at a time,” Warden said simply, waving a hoof. “First, come up with a main law. Like ‘don’t kill’. Or ‘try not to rape’. Or ‘drugs are bad’. You know, the classics.”
“Like… an oath?” Kuno asked blankly.
Warden pondered on that for a moment, before nodding once. “Yeah, an oath. The Changeling Oath. But make it a good one. Make it like… a motto!”
“A motto,” Kuno repeated, arching an eyebrow. “Are you treating my species like a sports’ team, Warden?”
Warden gave his wife the most innocent look he could. “Who, me?”
Kuno rolled her eyes. “I don’t mind the idea of an oath, though… Like... “ her eyes lit up, and she gave a toothy grin. “I’ll steal a little from an oath I already know!”
“I hope it has to do with peace being the best option and violence being a last resort,” Warden said carefully. “You’re creating a system of laws, Kuno. You can’t screw this up.”
“But it’s a good part of an oath! And it’s old! Old old old!” Kuno said with a faint huff, scratching at the ground with her hooves. “You’ll approve.”
Warden gave a long sigh. “Fine, fine, run it by me first.”
Kuno stood in front of the entire changeling army, gathered in the garden. It was sundown, and the last rays of sunlight were fading, while fireflies started to flit and buzz around the hedges.
Warden shifted his weight awkwardly from hoof to hoof, looking from one changeling, to the other, observing them. They were eerily quiet except for the occasional scuff of a chitinous hoof against the grass or the buzz of translucent wings.
“My subjects!” Kuno said, raising a hoof. “I have wonderful news!”
The changelings watched her intently, unwaveringly.
“The princesses have granted us citizenship to Equestria! You are all, as of this moment, citizens of Equestria!”
A ringing silence answered her decree.
Kuno deflated, giving a long sigh. “You don’t understand, do you?”
More silence greeted her
Kuno frowned deeply, her wings giving an irritated buzz. “Speaker, step forwards.”
One changeling parted from the group, sitting in front of Kuno. “Yes, my Queen?”
“What does being a citizen of Equestria mean to you?” Kuno asked simply.
“It means that I am a citizen of Equestria. I am a… pony of sorts?” the speaker offered uncertainly. “What should it mean to me?”
A low growl bubbled up out of Kuno’s throat. “It means that we don’t need to sulk in the shadows any more! We’re all citizens! You’re free to earn a living!”
“Excuse me, my Queen, but wouldn’t Chrysalis’ way have been better?” the changeling asked innocently enough.
Kuno’s eyes narrowed slowly. “No. Because it conflicts with the new laws that I will be handing down!”
The changelings all stared at her intently.
“My subjects, my last act as Queen, will be to pass down your new law. I will no longer be your Queen as of tomorrow, am I understood?”
An agitated buzzing of wings answered her.
“I will be your advisor, your leader, your spokespony, but I will not be your Queen. My word will not be law, but merely suggestion. I will lead you, but you can disagree. We are no longer a hive, or an army. We are a group of changelings united in what we share in common. But for us to be united, each and every changeling must have a voice, and their own opinion. Do you all understand?”
The speaker looked back at the changelings, and then back to Kuno, hooves scuffing the grass nervously. “We… understand, my Queen.”
“You may call me ‘Kuno’, it is my name. And you will all have names by the end of this day,” Kuno said with a sweeping motion of a hoof. “Tonight is your birth, this is our night! This is our…”
“Independence Day is taken,” Warden warned quietly.
“This is the night where we first spread our wings as members of Equestria! This is our First Flight Night!” Kuno said, stamping her hoof victoriously.
Warden winced. “That’s… a mouthful.”
Kuno stepped on Warden’s hoof rather powerfully, making the pegasus wince in pain. He got the message.
The speaker bowed her head in understanding. “We understand, Kuno.”
“And as my last act as Queen, I will pass down the first line of our oath. It may be… familiar to some of you,” Kuno said, looking from face to face. “But it is the most fitting that I could think of. It is our law, our rule. It is something that I request you all internalize. We will add to the oath in future, with your input! But this first law is paramount.”
Kuno looked back at Warden, giving him an awkward glance. “You sure about this?” she murmured.
“It works,” Warden said with a helpless shrug.
Kuno took a deep breath, licking her lips. “The most important of all vows you will ever follow, especially if we are to be members of the Equestrian society, is… well.”
Kuno trailed off, chewing on her bottom lip anxiously.
“First: Do no harm.”