The Ginger Changeling King

by TTV_KingPhoenixEmbers


Chapter Three: A Work in Progress

Chapter Three

Peace: A Work in Progress

“I have been meaning to ask, King Phoenix,” Celestia began, as she and her guests dined between discussions. She stopped when she noticed her guest raise a hoof.

“Please, drop the whole ‘king’ thing,” Phoenix Embers requested.

Celestia gave him a mildly bemused smile. “It’s only polite.”

“You aren’t one of my changelings, it’s not necessary,” he insisted.

“Very well. As I was saying, Phoenix, I have been meaning to ask: why do you appear so different from Queen Chrysalis?”

Phoenix raised an eyebrow. “How do you mean?”

“Well, my niece brought it up, but your chitin -- that is the correct word, isn’t it?” Celestia continued when her guest nodded as he sipped his drink. “Yours looks... healthier. Shinier.”

Phoenix paused in levitating his cup of tea, staring at its dark contents for a time. After several moments of silence, he sighed and set it down, looking his host in the eyes. Phoenix glanced at Princess Cadence and her husband for a moment.

“Well... the appearance of my chitin is directly related to the amount of love that my hive and I are able to sustain ourselves on. Just as a pony’s coat is healthier the better they eat.”

Celestia frowned. “Just how much love does your hive have to allow for your chitin, as well as Mirror Vanity’s, to look so healthy?”

Phoenix snorted as he took a sip of his tea. “A lot.”

Cadence wasn’t satisfied. “How much, specifically?”

Phoenix rolled his eyes. “Specifically? Fine. If this entire castle were to be made into a love-container, we would need to build another five or six castles.”

Mirror piped up from where she was snuggling her husband and cooing at her son, “I think it’d be more like ten.”

Phoenix chuckled, “That would be including the second layer of storage.”

Two entire layers of storage?!” Shining Armor roared. “Just what have you been -- I want an entire list of all your collectors!”

“No,” Phoenix replied calmly.

Shining growled, “I’m not going to let you keep fooling ponies like this! I want that list!”

Phoenix looked the captain in the eye, looking almost bored. “Alright, then I want an entire list of all your undercover agents.”

“What? No! That’s ridiculous! Why would I give you --”

“Exactly my point, Captain.” The king paused long enough to finish his tea. “To give you an entire list of my hive’s collectors is stupid and ridiculous, and won’t be happening. I refuse to allow you and your soldiers the ability to pick out and pick on my changelings just because you don’t like them.”

Shining grit his teeth. He could feel his blood beginning to boil from the way this bug was dismissing his fears.

“Besides,” Phoenix continued, smirking slightly. “The list is way too long. I don’t feel like writing that many names.”

Now that stopped Shining Armor in his tracks. “Wait, you don’t want to write a list of your collectors because you’re too lazy?!”

Mirror giggled. “Sounds like him!”

“Shush, Mirror,” Phoenix grinned to her.

“Make me!”

“Hmm... nah, that sounds like effort.”

Mirror giggled at the silly look her king made, shaking her head and turning her attention to the dumbfounded captain. “Cap, you’ll find that Ol’ King Nixxy here loves to do nothing.”

“But you came all this way to discuss peace,” Celestia pointed out.

“I mentioned why when I first got here: you had Mirror in custody. Not to mention peace is important to me. There are a few things that I’m willing to actually work for.”

Celestia nodded. “Working for peace is something that I can respect, and I can certainly understand not wishing to give up an entire list of all your hidden changelings.”

Steelfury snorted. He blushed when he noticed that he had everypony’s attention from that. “Well, they would have to actually be hidden first...”

Phoenix rolled his eyes. “That’s true.”  He began to explain when he saw everypony’s confused looks. “My collectors, once they’ve settled and found themselves a small group of friends that they can well and truly trust, they reveal their changeling nature.”

“What? Why?!” Cadence cried, leaping to her hooves.

“Because it’s tradition from a standing order I made a long time ago,” Phoenix explained. “It’s also why my hive has so much love in storage.”

Celestia leaned forward, “Please, explain.”

Phoenix took a few moments to straighten out his thoughts before he responded. “Well, the reason is because of how love collecting works. When a changeling is disguised, the love he or she collects is directed at the disguise. In my hive, there’s a strict policy and standing order to make an original design when integrating with your ponies, since we don’t do the whole kidnap and replacing thing. It’s just easier for both of our societies that way." Celestia nodded in agreement.

“Anyway, the love is directed at the disguise. While the disguise and the changeling are technically one and the same, the love they collect doesn’t distinguish it like that. It would be like... Mirror, help me out here.”

Mirror rolled her eyes, “Cap, it would be like you dressing as Captain Nighty and then trying to wear her armor. You might be able to convince everypony else that you’re Captain Nighty, but you can’t convince the armor, since it was made specifically for her.”

Shining Armor nodded slowly. “Okay, that kinda makes sense. So the love your changelings collect is directed toward the disguise, and since it accepts the disguise as somepony different, they’re basically ‘stealing’ it from themselves?”

Phoenix nodded. “More or less. So when they find a small group of ponies that they trust enough, they set up a private meeting with their pony friends, and reveal themselves. I’ve found that, considering how much you ponies admire the ideal of friendship, just about every single time the ponies accept my changeling.”

Celestia’s eyes lit up in understanding. “Which means that the love they collect from then on is being given freely.”

“Exactly.” Phoenix nodded, smiling and glad somepony understood. “Not only that, but the love they collect from then on is far more potent. Almost three times as much. Steelfury alone here can, in a single day, give Mirror enough love to last over a year. I’ve had to directly tell my collectors, on numerous occasions, to stop sending love back to the hive. We’re currently expanding our love storage.” He gave a sideways glance and smirk towards Mirror. “Unfortunately, giving that order sometimes --”

Mirror blushed as she realized where he was going with this. “Don’t. You. Dare.”

“-- has the side effect of making --”

"Don't you even think about finishing that --"

“--  some of my darling changelings --”

Mirror leapt to her hooves, her magic wrapping around her seat cushion. "I'm warning you!"

“-- a little...” Phoenix grinned to his subject smugly as he paused for dramatic effect, “...fat.”

Not a second later, Mirror Vanity’s seat cushion was smacking King Phoenix over the head, making him laugh as he allowed her to get away with it. Steelfury chuckled, their son giggling at the look on his mother’s face. He let his wife get away with it for a bit, before he gently wrapped a hoof around her, and held her close. Mirror stuck her tongue out one last time at Phoenix, before finally sitting down in her husband’s embrace.

Celestia found herself chuckling. The way they interacted reminded her of the way she and her sister used to, when they were much younger. She glanced over at Mirror, and grew curious.

"Phoenix, I have to ask," Celestia began. "How can you tell if a changeling has gained weight?"

Phoenix chuckled good-naturedly. "Well, like ponies, changelings gain a slight... paunch, if you will, right around the midsection. The most obvious one, especially among my hive, is that the holes in our legs start to close."

"Doesn't that make it difficult for you to fly? I mean, your chitin can't be very light."

"You'd be correct; most changelings' chitin is very similar to armor, and can be quite heavy. But, with the sheer amount of love my hive has and with how healthy our chitin is, it's lighter and more durable than, say, Chrysalis' hive. But the fat cell deposits can still weigh us down quite a bit."

“Kind of like how cake can create a lot of fat cell deposits, princess,” Mirror teased Celestia, smirking.

Celestia pouted. “I am not fat!”

Phoenix chuckled. “Well, that aside, Princess, it is getting late. Perhaps we could continue this discussion in the morning, after we have all had a good rest?” He glanced sideways towards Shining Armor and Cadence. “It may even help some of your ponies become more accustomed to our natural forms.”

Celestia took a moment to look around the room at her guards, and found that despite her guest’s polite behaviour, they were unable to look past the fact that he was a changeling, it seemed.

Before she could say anything, however, Phoenix smirked to Mirror and Steelfury. “Although I doubt those two will be getting much sleep.”

Mirror gave Phoenix a blank stare. “You try having a newborn and see how much sleep you get.”

Steelfury was staring off into the distance. “Oh precious sleep, come back to me.”

Celestia chuckled, standing. “Very well. Allow me to escort you to your guest room. Do you have any guards with you?”

Phoenix smirked, “Technically, yes. They’ll meet us at the room, Princess.”

Shining frowned, displeased with the fact that the king was still hiding information, but he bit back his comment, as did his wife. The guards in the room surrounded the group as they travelled through the open halls, giving a sense of security and comfort to the maids and other workers of the castle, as they spotted the changelings. They were mostly silent, with the exception of Steelfury and Mirror Vanity talking to their child as they walked. The little colt was very happy to once again be with his mother, cooing and nuzzling her from where she held him in the crook of her foreleg as they walked.

Despite her initial suspicion towards Mirror, Cadence found herself smiling at the way she treated her son. It was obvious how deeply and honestly she loved both her son and her husband, especially to her magical senses. Shining Armor noticed the expression on his wife’s face, and made a mental note to talk to her about it later. As the little entourage turned the corner, Shining Armor ran muzzle-first into Celestia’s backside when she stopped all of a sudden. Phoenix chuckled at the look on her face.

“Princess, what is it? Who’s --” Shining started to question his commander-in-chief, stepping around her to see who it was that the king had brought as part of his guards. He froze as well and felt his own jaw drop at who he saw.

Standing on either side of the guest room’s door were two earth ponies, both of whom looked rather old, and close to retiring. Despite their appearances, Shining Armor knew very well that they were actually quite powerful.

It took several moments of trying to gather her wits for Celestia to speak again. “Winter Day? Summer Nights?!” She turned to Phoenix. “They are your guards?!”

Phoenix chuckled good-naturedly, as he walked towards the two of them, both of whom bowed momentarily. The two, at a seemingly silent instruction from their king, moved away from the door. They stopped several feet from Princess Celestia, bowing politely before slowly revealing their changeling nature.

“Good evening, Princess,” the female said politely. “Reserve Guard Summer Nights at your service, ma’am.”

“Reserve Guard Winter Day reporting as well, ma’am.”

Captain Shining Armor stepped forward, clearly confused. “Wait, wait, you’re here as guards for your king? But you’re Solar Guards!”

Winter nodded. “We are reserve Solar Guards, Captain. This allows us the time to serve both our king, and our princess.”

Celestia frowned. “But how can you possibly be loyal to the both of us? What if you have to choose between either of us?”

Winter smiled gently. “Because we have pledged to be your Solar Guards. We are only my king’s guards for as long as he is visiting Canterlot.”

Phoenix smiled, “Which is pretty much just this once. If you’d like, you can assign other guards. They are yours to command, after all, princess.”

Celestia noted that the two changelings were still bowing to her, awaiting her command. “No, it’s alright, but I will be posting two others as guards.”

“Understood, ma’am.” Winter and Summer both stood and saluted at once, before returning to their posts.

Phoenix nodded to the two of them, before turning to Celestia. “Good night, Princess. I look forward to continuing our peace talks in the morning.”

Celestia inclined her head politely. “Good night, King Phoenix.”

The king stepped past the two elderly guards, shutting the door soon after. Celestia made a mental note to question Summer Nights and Winter Day in the morning, and to ensure that their loyalty was, as they claimed, to her. She would also have to make sure Captain Shining Armor was present then.

Celestia assigned two of the guards currently present to guard her guest’s quarters, and to report to her in the morning about their behaviour. Shortly after, she lowered her sun, wrote a checklist of what she was to do tomorrow, and sent a short letter to her sister about the day’s happenings. It would not do to have Lulu find out about the changelings and to attack them without provocation. As an after thought, Celestia attached a copy of the peace talk’s minutes for her sister to look over and for them to discuss in the morning.

As soon as that was finished, Celestia sighed tiredly, removed her regalia, and slowly laid down on her bed. It took very little time for her to enter the land of dreams...