Imago and Celestia stood for a few seconds, each sizing the other up.
For Celestia, what stood out was the sheer presence Imago seemed to exude. The queen was clearly and visibly much healthier than Chrysalis.
For Imago, it was the raw power. It was clear now how Chrysalis had beaten her: she had been holding back to avoid collateral damage. The power behind the emotions which she could detect indicated that even a small fraction of Celestia's power would be enough to raze the Canterhorn to the ground. How Chrysalis honestly thought she had defeated Celestia's full power she had no clue. It only served to demonstrate how delusional the crazy bitch was.
Celestia started things off. "I am Princess Celestia, Bringer of Dawn, Guide of the Sun, Guardian of the Day, and one of the ruling diarchs of Equestria. And you are?"
"Queen Imago, queen of the Everfree Hive, and mother of Princess Mirage, also known as Scootaloo. I believe we have a lot to discuss."
Celestia spoke carefully and formally as she replied. "Indeed. I have spoken to Princess Mirage, and I admit that my introduction to your race may have been a poor example. I would like to think that if it is truly a misunderstanding, that I would be able to form peaceful relations with at least some of your species.
"I should also warn you that I am extending you a level of trust, based on your daughter's actions. Should that trust be breached..."
"Understood," the queen smirked. "Given the power I sensed from your emotions alone, I can tell who would win in a fight, and it wouldn't be me. Especially since there is far less to break around here than in Canterlot."
Celestia matched the queen's smirk with one of her own. The queen's message was understood, loud and clear.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders sat on the balcony of the clubhouse, looking down at the two leaders talking.
"Hey, Scoots," Applebloom whispered. "How'd yer ma know to come here?"
"The sweets order," Mirage replied. "It's an emergency code. It means that something important is happening and the queen needs to hear about it."
Sweetie looked confused. "But how? The only one guaranteed to hear it is Bon Bon... Wait. Bon Bon's a changeling?"
"Er... Forget I said that."
"But-"
"Forget it. Trance would kill me if he found out about this, princess or not. Revealing myself is one thing, but revealing someling else? Big no no."
Lyra marched down the road towards Sweet Apple Acres. She had made her decision. Mirage had saved her, and she hadn't noticed anything bad happening. A part of her still suspected an ulterior motive, but if that was the case she could get Twilight Sparkle to check for mental influence. Hay, with what she was about to do, Twilight would probably check her anyway.
As she followed the side road around the back, next to the Everfree, she steeled herself. She was about to make a case for a changeling against six of the most powerful ponies in the world.
As the tree house came into view, she could clearly see an acid green sphere around it, along with several ponies surrounding it.
Despite her mental preparation, her mouth grew dry as she saw not only the Elements, but also the queen she had met last night and Princess Celestia.
Lyra was not usually one to mince her words, she said what she meant, but the idea of getting into a possible argument with those powerhouses around... Maybe she should just-
"Hi Lyra! What are you doing all this way out of town?"
She mentally slapped herself. Of course Pinkie would notice her.
"I just wanted to confirm my suspicions. I had a... situation involving changelings last night, and I think... I think Scootaloo was the one who saved me. Actually, forget that, if that queen's here, I know it was Scootaloo."
Pinkie gasped, hanging impossibly long in the air. "How did you know she was in trouble? Do you have a Pinkie sense too? Does it have a friend in trouble twitch? Tell me, tell me!"
"What? No. I just heard you telling Bon Bon."
Pinkie's bouncing calmed down slightly, and she looked a little (but not very) embarrassed. "Oh." She perked up again almost instantly. "Follow me, then. We don't bite."
Nervously, Lyra followed the bouncing mare.
"As I believe my daughter has already explained, feeding on love isn't inherently dangerous. It's only when love is forced that it becomes so. While I admit that Chrysalis is far from the only queen to use replacements, most do it temporarily, and most of the queens who do, train their drones to be good enough actors that magic is not necessary within the short time their act lasts.
"I, on the other hoof, consider myself an expert at love farming. My drones take on an invented form, and work hard to make sure that form becomes well liked in the town. Platonic love, while weaker than romantic, is still easily enough to feed the hive when coming from so many sources. Again, no damage done, and you get several extra productive citizens in the process."
Celestia nodded, "I see. And what of romantic attachments?"
"If any of my drones end up in relationships, that's their business. Likewise, if they wish to tell their partner the truth, that is their decision, although I can overrule that if I believe it would lead to too great a security risk. I generally insist they be together for at least a year before taking that step, but not always. I refuse to step in regarding my daughter, though. She needs to make her own mistakes and learn through them. Incidentally, I do not consider telling the Crusaders to be a mistake, despite its leading to this situation.
"Princess?!" Twilight's voice shouted. "Lyra has some information you need to know."
"Excuse me for a moment, Your Majesty, I doubt that this will take long."
"Of course." Imago smiled as Celestia walked away. It seemed that some good might have come from Chrysalis' drone's transgression after all.
After a couple of minutes, Celestia returned. "I understand that you have a member of Chrysalis' army in your custody."
"That is correct, he attempted to replace a young mare in town yesterday. Ponyville is considered by the queens to be my territory, so I cannot allow other hives to get away with such actions in an area that I claim."
"And what is his punishment to be?"
"I have not decided yet. I have to see this from as many points of view as possible, and I could see that he was starving. I am yet to get over my anger towards Chrysalis for putting my daughter in danger, and I received the message about my daughter being surrounded before I was able to come to a reasonable decision."
Celestia's head rose as she thought of an idea. "Would you consider giving him to me to deal with? I understand that you need to police your own kind, but since it was one of my citizens he put at risk, I could argue the greater claim."
The queen was silent for a moment. "I believe I can make that work, although some of the other queens may not be happy about it. Chrysalis in particular if it gets back to her. I believe we have a deal. Assuming, of course, that my daughter is free to go."
"I can agree to that." Celestia reached forward and shook Imago's hoof. "I will do what I can to change the order for the arrest of all changelings, although I cannot guarantee that this decision will be popular, and I fear that at least some of the guard will ignore it. I will certainly make sure that any arrested changelings are given as fair a trial as possible, even if I have to preside over them myself." A thought struck her. "Is there an easy way to tell between hives quickly?"
"The back plate," Imago answered immediately. "If a changeling with a dark blue one claims not to follow Chrysalis they're lying. All of my hive have the same bright orange as mine. It's one of the few limitations we have on our forms, that we can't appear as a different changeling."
Celestia thought for a moment. "Would it be possible for me to get a list of which colours match up with each hive?"
"It would. Should I just tell you now, or would you like it written down?"
"Written down, please. In fact," she raised her voice, "Twilight, could you and Spike come over here, please. Oh, and you may stand down, I am convinced for now that Mirage is no threat."
While Spike was taking down the list of queens and their colours, Twilight watched as Applejack and Rarity hugged their sisters, now out of the shield they had been helping to generate. Mirage, now back in her Scootaloo form, stood off to the side, seemingly unsure what she should be doing.
Seeing an opportunity, Twilight pounced. "So, Princess Mirage -" she started, only to be interrupted.
"Scootaloo. Rule one of dealing with changelings is that the name used should match the form they're in, at least with invented forms."
"Scootaloo, then. You said that if this worked out, you'd tell me how you got the sweets through the shield."
Scootaloo groaned. "Trust you to get all egghead about this as soon as the problem's solved. I suppose I can tell you."
"Great! So how does it work?"
"Changeling magic is pure love energy, forced into a specific shape. When it's not contained in our bodies, it slowly decays, which is what causes the green glow. In most cases, that means nothing, it works like unicorn magic. The difference comes when spells interact.
"Unicorn spells have hard interactions. Conflicting spells will continue to fight each other, meaning that you can't levitate something through a force field. For changelings, it's slightly different, depending on conditions.
"If two changeling spells powered by exactly the same love source interact, then the love energy gathered at the contact point doesn't know what it should be, so it tries to compromise. The result is that one or both of the spells in the area is significantly weakened. The only control we have is that we can alter which spell takes priority, and by what degree. I simply put the telekinetic spell at a much higher priority than the shield, allowing it to pass through without weakening the shield anywhere else."
Twilight had been steadily writing notes since she had started her explanation, but she now had a question. "You said the same love source, not the same changeling? What do you mean by that?"
Scootaloo smiled, "I think an example is best for that question.
"Say that there was a fourth member of the Crusaders, also a changeling, and also feeding off Applebloom and Sweetie Belle. The relationship that this changeling had with them would be slightly different to mine, so the love they received would also be different. If we then fought, our spells would behave like unicorn magic.
"On the other hoof, if this changeling and I were both playing the part of Scootaloo, and nopony could tell which of us was doing it at any time, both of us would be absorbing their love for Scootaloo, so it would be the same. If one of us was even slightly more powerful than the other, if we were to fight, then their offensive spells would take priority over their opponent's defensive spells, although they could still be severely weakened." She laughed. "Of course, as a royal, I would win such a fight easily unless it was against another royal."
Scootaloo looked away for a moment. "I think Celestia's done with mum for now, I'll need to head home to discuss recent events."
"Oh." Twilight looked like somepony had taken away her favourite toy. "We can talk about this again, right?"
A long sigh came from Scootaloo. "Fine."