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// End-of-Day Meeting 
// Story: A Meeting With A Changeling King 
// by origami 
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Princess Celestia and Luna both stood and watched the King and his entourage as they left.  Once the door had closed behind them, Celestia turned to the changeling the king left behind.

"Today has been most eventful for all of us," Celestia told Dionices, "but we still have a fair bit of business to attend to before we can all have a good night of rest."

Dionices nodded.  "Yes, we do.  I would think the best thing to start with would be to introduce me to whichever guards I'll need to work with to start the vetting process to find the spies in your ranks."

"Normally, I would agree, but I would first like to get to know you a little bit better.  To my understanding, you studied medicine here in Equestria?"

Dionices nodded again.  "Yes, I did.  I have a doctorate in general practice, as well as a nearly-finished doctorate in thoracic surgery."

"Nearly finished?" Luna asked with a raised brow.  "How much further do you need to go?"

"I have another semester of study, and then I would have to complete residency before I could become a full-fledged surgeon."

"Would your training be exclusive to pony medicine, or are there things you could apply to changelings as well?"

"I could technically do both, though I would have to adapt some techniques to apply them to changeling physiology."

"Well, we aren't going to go into technical details regarding your courses of study," Celestia interjected.  "The largest concern of my sister and I is whether or not you will adhere to the medical oaths."

Dionices looked at Celestia like she had been told something rather offensive.  "Your highness, after my pledge of loyalty to my kind, my medical oaths are the most important ones I have ever taken.  I would never dare go against them."

"My apologies," Celestia conceded, looking a tad bit ashamed.  "I did not mean to insinuate any kind of ill intent."

"If I may speak bluntly?" Dionices asked the princesses, who nodded their agreement.  "The two of you are still acting as though I will attempt to cocoon the both of you and take your place so as to subvert the rule of your kingdom."

Luna made to protest, but Dionices raised her hoof.

"I don't even have to use any of my abilities to sense your emotions to tell that your faith in our honesty is very limited.  Your attitude towards my king and my fellow advisors has spoken volumes as to your overall trust in our ability to keep our word."

Celestia and Luna both looked at each other and hung their heads.

"You are right," Celestia admitted.  "Our faith in the word of your king has been tenuous at best, but we do wish for peace.  It will just take us time to get over everything, and if our own trust is anything to go by, then our subjects will require even more time."

"Please forgive us," Luna chimed in.  "We wish to do better, and we apologize for the poor display we have shown you."

Dionices considers the two princesses for a moment before she lets out a breath.

"I shouldn't be so harsh or accusing.  There have been fowl-ups on both sides of the conversation, and we have a tentative peace treaty in place now, so I feel I must also apologize for the attitude that I displayed a moment ago.  I suppose we all have areas in which we can improve."

Celestia and Luna both nodded in agreement on that sentiment.

"Now," Celestia said in an effort to turn the conversation in a more positive direction, "I believe we should first discuss the 'plan of attack' for evaluating our guards and finding the proverbial 'snakes in the grass'."

"Of course.  First and foremost, I should be made aware of the ponies I shall be assisting, and vice versa."

"We will take care of that later.  They are here at the castle, but are busy with other important duties related to their position, and ones I cannot simply pull them away from at the moment.  My sister and I have an end-of-day briefing with them, and it will be at that time we will formally introduce you to them, and for the record, they were made aware of the king and your delegation being here today."

"Then I am glad that my introduction will not startle them too much."

"They may still be taken aback by your remaining behind to assist with the vetting of the royal guard.  We will do our best to prevent it, but neither my sister or myself can guarantee there will be no friction between you and they during this process."

Dionices gives a somber nod.  "Yes, I can understand that, but what I offer is genuine.  I shall do my best to convince them of that.  My only request is that the guards and medical personnel I'll be working with give me enough trust to demonstrate this fact."

"We will make it so," Celestia reassured Dionices.  "Now, may we please hear what your plans are?"

"My plans are dependent on the response of your military advisors.  I will need their cooperation as much as the ponies I will be working with directly."

Celestia didn't show it, but the postponement of the discussion was a tad irksome to her.  Nonetheless, she opted to change the topic of conversation.

"Perhaps you can enlighten us to some of your own opinions on the medical training that you've received?  We will be waiting for a little while until the advisors come for the end-of-day briefing."

"Very well," Dionices agreed, and the two princesses and changeling began a conversation on modern medical training.





The time between when the conversation between Dionices and the princess began to when the end-of-day meeting was to begin passed fairly quickly, with both Celestia and Luna learning a fair bit about the efforts of the changeling to learn and perfect all she could in relation to medicine.  Even after a half-hour of conversation, the solar diarch had to concede that King Apidae had made a very wise decision in naming her one of his advisors.

Soon enough, a guard entered the throne room to inform the princesses that the meeting was set, taken a bit off guard that one of the changeling delegation had remained behind.

"Dionices will be remaining with us for a little while longer," Luna informed the guard.  "My sister and I expect her to be treated with the exact same level of respect as any other delegate visiting on official business."

The guard bowed his head and agreed, then turned and left out the main doors.

"Dionices, I would like for you to remain outside the meeting room until I tell you to come in," Celestia told the changeling.  "I would like to 'soften the blow' a bit before formally introducing you."

"Are you afraid of one of your subordinates doing something rash?" the changeling questioned.

"The matter of the failed invasion a month or so back is a bit of a hot-button issue with the royal guard, as it demonstrates a clear failure to properly defend the nation and capital.  I fear one of them may elect to 'make an example of you'."

"I assure you, your highness, that if one of them were to try anything physical, I would be more than capable of handling it."

"I am sure that you can, but if we can avoid a confrontation such as that, it would be best.  Would you please grant my request?"

Dionices bowed her head.  "The king instructed me to follow your command as though it was coming straight from him.  I will do as you ask of me."

"I thank you.  It should only be for a few minutes.  You may have a seat if you wish."

Dionices gave a brief 'thank you' before finding a spot on an empty love seat.

"Shall we, sister?" Luna asked as her magic formed around the door handle.

"Yes, let us," Celestia agreed as Luna pulled the door open and the two rulers entered the meeting room.

In the center was an oval table, and seated around it were six ponies with varying styles of armor.

One had a shield emblem with a sun in the center, with a triangle immediately below it.

Another had an identical shield, but a wing underneath, and a third had a leaf below an identical shield.

The three ponies respectively were a unicorn, pegasus and earth pony.

The other three had shields with a moon in the center.  Their emblems were a teardrop, flame and star.  Each one was a thestral pony, complete with slit pupils, fangs, tufted ears, and bat-like wings.

The ponies were a mix of four stallions and two mares, with a mare each in the sun and moon armor.

"Good evening, and thank you for making it on time to this meeting," Celestia began.  "Now, before we begin our business for the day, my sister and I have some news to share with all of you."

"Would it have anything to do with the changeling waiting out in the hallway?"

The remark caused Celestia to go wide-eyed as she looked at the mare in the moon armor.

Said mare gave the princess a sheepish look.  "I may have used the old 'glass-against-the-door trick'."

Celestia let out a sigh.  "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.  After all, my sister has chosen you three for your prowess in spy-craft.  I just hope you will use it against our enemies in the future."

"If we could return to the topic of the changeling that has apparently been left behind?" a stallion in sun armor asked with a bit of edge to his voice.

Celestia gave him a look before she conceded to his point.

"Very well.  As Miss Night Glider has pointed out, there is a changeling out in the hallway that we would like you all to meet.  She is a member of the delegation who was here for the past two days, and she was left to us by the changeling king to help us perform a duty that will be beneficial to the guard as a whole."

"And what duty is this?" the unicorn in sun armor asked.

Princess Luna stepped forward to contribute to the meeting.  "We have been informed of infiltration of our guard ranks, even so soon after the attempted invasion of the city not so long ago."

The statement caused outcries among the group of guards, ranging from questions of how such a thing happened and accusations of incompetence levied at one another.

"Order!" Celestia called out, silencing the bickering.  "I understand that this news is not something that you all wish to hear, but hear it we must!  These changelings who have infiltrated the ranks of our guard have done so for a multitude of intentions.  For some, they're simply gauging our response, and are using that to determine when it will be safest for their respective hives to resume their normal activities."

"For others, they could very well be probing our defenses to determine if they themselves can carry out an invasion as brazen as the one that occurred at my niece's wedding."

"And how exactly is this changeling going to help us?" the thestral with the teardrop symbol inquired.

"The changelings can sense one another, and it is in this way that she will be of assistance.  Now, we would like to bring her in and introduce her now, so my sister and I ask all of you to keep your remarks and opinions to yourselves.  Our meeting with King Apidae has been very fruitful, and we do not wish to have the work accomplished undone by the bigoted actions of a few, such as yourselves."

The group of guards all looked at each other with a mixture of expressions.  Eventually, the sun guard with a wing answered for the group.

"We shall keep ourselves civil."

"Very good," Celestia said, then turned to Luna.  "Would you be so kind as to invite in our newest changeling?"

"Of course, sister," Luna replied as she moved to the door and opened it with her magic.

"You may come in now," she called to the changeling, who looked over at her upon seeing the door coming open.  Dionices proceeded to pop up in the air and flutter back down with her wings buzzing slightly, a small smirk on her muzzle as she was apparently dismounting the furniture like it was the edge of a cliff.

The action caused Luna to roll her eyes as she moved out of the way to allow the changeling in.  Once she entered and was an equal distance between both princesses, she stopped and looked at the guards, who were all staring at her as she entered.

"Mares and stallions," Celestia addressed the group, "this is one of the advisors for King Apidae.  Her name is Dionices, and she will be assisting us in the operation to find the infiltrators in our ranks and help us to remove them."

"What experience do you have with Equestria?" a guard suddenly asked.

"Please, questions are best saved for later," the sun princess interjected, but a sudden raising of a hoof caught her attention.

"Your highness," Dionices addressed the princess, "I believe it may be of more benefit to this meeting at the moment if I were to answer a question from each of these guardsponies."

Celestia thought on the suggestion for a moment, but her thoughts were interrupted by the same guard reiterating their question.  "How much experience do you have with Equestria?"

Dionices looked at the guard addressing her, who turned out to be the moon guard with a star on their armor.

"I'm afraid that question is a little bit vague.  Do you mean how many years have I spent in Equestria?"

"Yes, that's what I meant."

"Well, I've been in Equestria for more than two decades all told.  A good portion of the time was actually spent right here in Canterlot."

"Why so much time in Canterlot?" the sun guard with a leaf asked.

"I was a student here at the main university.  I majored in medicine."

"You came to study here in our schools?" The moon guard with flame said with surprise.  "How far did you get in your studies?"

"I hold a doctorate in medicine, and am also qualified as a thoracic surgeon."

"Have you done surgeries on ponies before?" came the question of the sun guard with a triangle.

"Yes, I have.  I performed an operation two years ago saved an older stallion's life.  His main arteries were blocked, and I performed a bypass on them.  From what I understand, he is doing well, with a wife that insists he cut down on his visits to Donut Joe's for a half-dozen donuts nearly every day."

"And that was all you did?" the last moon guard with a flame asked, his voice masking an accusatory tone.

Dionices picked up on this with little effort.  "If you're implying that I did something that would harm that stallion later, then I will reiterate to you what I had told your princesses earlier: After my oath to serve my king, the most important ones to me are the oaths related to my doctorate.  I would never violate something that I hold so dear, and in such a reckless way."

The last guard, the sun guard with a wing, asked the final, and perhaps most pointed question.  "Have you fed from our subjects."

This was a loaded question, and one that clearly was meant to portray Dionices in a negative light.  Before she could speak, Princess Celestia stepped in.

"I believe at this point it is an academic fact that changelings sustain themselves from the energy tied to the emotional states of sentient beings, with an affinity towards the more amorous feelings like love.  To answer the question that that one implied, the practice is done in such a way as to not cause harm to the individual creature being fed from,  and this practice is not something exclusive to Dionices; every changeling under King Apidae adheres to this practice."

The guard looked at Celestia with suspicion.  "Your highness, how is it that you seem to know so much about this?"

Celestia wanted to simply say that she had been subjected to the practice before, and to no ill affects, but knew it would likely spark an outrage that could result in a lot of negative consequences.

"King Apidae gave us an explanation of how it works, and even demonstrated with one of the advisors as a volunteer."

"And we're to trust the word of a king we've never met?"

"There will be a meeting in due time.  For now, he has his own affairs to attend to, as do my sister and I.  If you wish for some insight, then I shall simply say that his actions for the past few months are actually in violation of laws that the changelings impose upon themselves."

The remark took the guard by surprise.  "Really?"

"Yes, they do," Dionices interjected.  "A law amongst the changelings specifically states that we are not to reveal our existence to ponies or other sentient creatures.  The missives that the king sent to your princesses, which consisted of two film reels and a tapestry meant as a gift, violate that law.  In truth, he had intended to send these missives at a later date, but because of the rogue queen's attempted invasion, he had to advance his time table to try and reduce and repair the damage that 'first impression' created."

"Yes, the rogue queen known as Chrysails, if I'm not mistaken?"

Again, the princess of the sun was less than amused with the gift of espionage the thestrals seemed so adept at using.  "Yes, Queen Chrysalis, which brings me into another matter that I intended to discuss a bit later."

"King Apidae has agreed to a joint-effort to locate the changeling queen and bring her to justice for her actions."

The six once again brought their voices into a cacophony, with questions of how trustworthy the king was and if all of this wasn't some ploy to undermine the princesses and guard.  Luna effectively brought the jabbering to an end with a loud "SILENCE!"

All at once, the voices quieted down, and the lunar princess found herself the focus of every pair of eyes in the room.

"We have worked hard these past two days to create a peace treaty with King Apidae, and in that time, we have accomplished many things.  As said, we have received his cooperation in finding the queen and her hive and making sure that they pay for their crimes against us, but it does not stop there."

"At some point, Dionices and the other changelings will instruct our ponies on how to heal the damage caused by Chrysalis and her minions, and we shall return those who have been hurt so greatly to a much improved state, if not a full and outright recovery."

"Healing ponies?!" A guard asked, their tone of voice an obvious indication of their disbelief at the statement.

"Yes, healing ponies." Luna reiterated.  "In addition to this, King Apidae has expressed a desire for cultural exchange, and both my sister and I share this desire as well."

Celestia stepped in before any of the guards could voice their displeasure.  "The process will be long and arduous, and the citizens will not be as quick to embrace the idea of coexistence as we would like, but as a part of the peace agreement that we have made with the king, we will eventually be hosting an ambassador from King Apidae's changelings."

"That is all fine and well," the sun-triangle guard said, "but there is still a matter of trustworthiness that we need to see."

"I agree," the moon-flame guard chimed in.  "These ideas on paper all sound good, but to have them acted out will require a great deal of cooperation.  Now, it is true that you have written this treaty down, and I have no doubts that you and the king did indeed sign off on it, but honoring that treaty is something else altogether."

Celestia bowed her head and began speaking, but instead of hearing remorse, the guards were greeted by a tone of disappointment.

"I cannot believe that all of you have so little faith in my sister and myself.  We spent a great deal of time discussing things with King Apidae and his advisors.  That treaty was signed and approved by both parties, and it was signed with every intention of that deal being honored.  Yet, here all of you sit, assuming my sister and I shared none of the concerns that you do now."

"If that is the case, then I must tell you this: my sister and I... do still feel uneasy about everything that has transpired."

The guards began to admonish the princess for what sounded to them like hypocrisy for calling them out on being untrusting of the changelings when she shared the same doubts, but a hoof raised quickly to silence them.

"Yes, I know.  I sound like a hypocrite for telling you all that I still have qualms about this whole situation, but for the betterment of our kingdom and the peace of mind of our subjects, my sister and I are doing our best to give the necessary benefit of the doubt to allow the changelings we have made peace with to prove their intentions true and pure.  I only ask you do this as well, even if you do not find it to your liking."

"We cannot hold these changelings responsible for the actions of another of their kind," Luna chimed in.  "They have extended us this olive branch first, and it would behoove us to return it in kind."

The guards sat and thought over what the princesses have told them.  Nothing was said for a few minutes.  When the silence was broken, the question was for Dionices.

"You said that you can help us identify infiltrators in our ranks??" the sun-wing guard asked her.

Dionices nodded.

"Then I suppose we should begin by discussing that now."

The other guards, though initially hesitant, did come to agreement, nodding and voicing their approval.

"Very well," Dionices agreed, and from that point, the ponies and changeling discussed their plans for how to approach the changelings hiding in the royal guard.