Chrysalis and Celestia were sitting in a meeting room around a round table. It was such an awkward sight for any to see. Especially with them sitting right next to each other as if they were old friends.

The changeling queen fidgeted about, glancing nervously around, waiting for the rest of their group to arrive.

After all, they were going to plan this out with all necessary parties involved...including Shining Armor and...Cadance.

Oh yeah, this wasn’t going to end well. She still remembered that pink maniac screaming bloody murder as she was imprisoned in the crystal caverns, plus...it probably didn’t help that Shining lost his virginity to her.

Shining Armor…

It was a strange thing. She was so eager to follow along with her plan when it started, when she replaced Cadance.

Worse of all, her mind control wasn’t working perfectly either, as if something was already meddling in his mind, or maybe with her magic.

Still, as a proud queen she pushed through it, but it required her to play her role even more convincingly. It was hard, and Shining noticed her behavior too, encouraging her to be her ‘true self’. Quite ironic as that statement was, seeing as she was actually hiding her race and identity from him, and not some character flaw.

How laughable that was. He would surely flee in terror if she showed it to him. Despite that she actually followed along with it partly, letting out her more demanding side. Her more haughty side. Shining poked a bit of fun at her, trying to get her to relax more back then. And while she grumbled about it, he still seemed to somewhat like her sassy ways. He wasn’t annoyed when she gave a sarcastic reply, or yelled back at her when she was yelling at him for his terrible fashion sense when it came to what he wanted to wear at the wedding.

They somehow...worked. Strange as it was. She soon found herself enjoying his presence, just letting out all her frustration but also everything else. She showed her innermost self to him and he wasn’t pushing her away.

She had to have him. So she did something reckless. She dragged him into the bedroom and rode him so long until her hips went sore.

Her excuse for it was that this would be the best way of mind control, seeing as her usual one wasn’t working fast enough on him. Sure, she was making progress, but he was hardly in a zombie like state, like a good willing drone...though she also at this point didn’t exactly wanted him to be like that.

And then, one night everything went wrong.

She had dropped her disguise and was down in the large living room of her suite, to talk with one of her drones to make the last preparations before the big day.

But Shining had woken up.

A dumb thing to happen really, but she got cocky. After having worn him out with sex, she thought he would just lay still and snore loudly like he usually did. But judging from that boner he donned after finding her in her true form, he seemed to have had a wet dream that had awoken him.

Not to mention that he had heard everything. All of her plans.

It made her feel dumb, though she wasn’t about to admit that out loud.

At this moment she expected him to yell at her, curse her, attack her, but...he just wanted to talk to her. Heck, he even tried to convince her to stop her plans and to talk it all over with Celestia.

She couldn’t. She refused.

There was a responsibility as a leader. Not to mention that she wasn’t about to trust Princess Celestia just like that. It was a nice thought still and she had almost agreed too. But her priorities were straight.

So she fired a spell and knocked him out, but not before he fired a flare out of the window.

She could feel the regret of doing that even now. The regret of not taking up the offer as she ordered the invasion in the middle of the night, before Celestia found her and challenged her to a duel.

Not that it went well for her as she had to flee. Still, she got some pretty decent shots in despite that, making her swell with pride. Or would have if Shining’s face wasn’t flashing in front of her mind's eye.

It was a ridiculous little thing. To feel nervous and having a light aching in her chest, thinking on their reunion that would happen today.

Would he finally hate her today? Would he act polite for the sake of his Princess?

What was she even hoping for?

She wanted to groan and hammer her head on the table, but for the sake of keeping up appearances she couldn’t. That fat-flanked princess next to her would probably just poke fun at her. And she really didn’t need any of that.

So she tried to distract herself instead.

Her head turned over to the pristine white mare. She was still as a statue, showing that she was quite skilled in keeping up appearances, despite clearly having flipped with Nightmare, considering the Nightmare Night order she had put out.

“Any name you are giving this little group you are building? Not that it really matters, but it would be an important bit of information to have.”

The princess looked at her partner in crime, mulling her answer over for a moment.

“Well, the name of it is The Society.”

“Wait, hold up. You are telling me that the name of the society we are founding here is...The Society? You have a terrible naming sense, Celestia,” Chrysalis pointed out as Celestia huffed indignantly.

“...It’s a work-in-progress.”

“Uh-huh,” the changeling queen said, clearly not convinced as she raised a brow, before shaking her head. “Well, as long as you don’t break into song about it.”

It was in that moment that the door to the meeting room opened, as both Shining Armor and Princess Cadance entered.

“Alright, Auntie, just what is that important at this time of-” Princess Cadance said casually. At least before she noticed the big changeling in the room.

“CHRYSALIS!” she screamed, lighting up her horn, but Celestia expected that and flashed in front of the mare in an instant. Her hoof reached out, flicking Cadence’s horn, and making her gasp in pain as she held her head.

“A-Auntie? W-What are you doing! C-Chrysalis is-”

“Actually our ally, for now,” Celestia replied. She wanted to say friend, albeit after the disaster with Nightmare she didn’t feel like the word held as much meaning as it used to.

The Princess then continued. “Which is what this meeting is for. At least one part of it. So I won’t tolerate any of your foalish tantrums today.”

“Tantrum?! She imprisoned me and invaded Canterlot!”

“Yes. And while I do understand the weight of that crime, nothing is earned by exacting revenge on her. Besides that, there were no deaths on that day either way.”

Cadance’s eyes narrowed, “What are we earning exactly, aunt?” she asked, the last word now spit like venom.

Celestia gave her niece a fierce glare, “That is what we are discussing right now. So sit down and listen as we explain the situation.”

Both alicorns held their glares for a moment before Cadance avoided her eyes. She hesitated for a moment but sat on the opposite side of the table, as far away from the changeling queen as she could.

Shining looked at this situation unsurely as his eyes roamed from his soon-to-be wife to Chrysalis and then to Celestia, before he followed along, choosing a seat next to Cadance.

His look stayed uncertain, as if he had an inner turmoil, not sure how to quite react, which was a fair enough thing to feel for him.

The pristinely white alicorn nodded to herself in satisfaction as she got back to her seat. Once all were seated Shining Armor cleared his throat.

“So, I am curious. What deal have you two agreed on?”

“It is less of a deal and more of a contract. We are building a society with a certain goal in mind that will benefit both parties equally.”

Chrysalis then jumped in, “The overarching goal is ‘Peace’. Though one could also argue that ‘Integration into Society’ works just as well, seeing how that holds true for both parts of the deal.”

“Integration into society?” Shining Armor wonders, “I understand the changelings, but who would it be on our...Nightmare Moon.”

Princess Cadance slammed her hooves loudly on the table. “So you are telling me that you will integrate those...bugs into Equestria, just so you have a chance at getting your sister back. And that somehow only these things can help with that?”

“Exactly, my dear niece. It is a simple exchange on both sides. The changelings will be fed and introduced to Equestria as citizens and allies, while they are providing a shapeshifting potion and the necessary…mental adjustion that Nightmare needs.”

Silence encompassed the room for about half a minute as the implications were slowly sinking in. Shining Armor hereby was the first one to express his thoughts.

“Mind Magic…” he muttered.

A forbidden magic. A magic that wasn’t supposed to be cast by any pony in Equestria. At least the one they were talking about now.

Contrary to popular belief, there were a few exceptions of ‘forbidden magic’ that were deemed by Princess Celestia herself to be mostly harmless. Cadance’s love magic as one example. Celestia after all couldn’t lock up her own niece.

But this. This was far into forbidden territory as the goal was to rewrite the mind of a living being completely. To bury her old self and use it as a foundation for a delusion. A fake persona.

Under normal circumstances there was no justification for this, and yet Shining Armor tried not to be too judgemental on the matter. He had seen Celestia’s deteriorating mental strength over the months. He knew she just wanted her sister back, which was understandable. He would go to extreme lengths as well for Twilight. And loathe as he was to admit it, there didn’t seem to be any way to purge the Nightmare from her sister’s body.

Of course his fiance had a slightly different stance.

“Are you bucking kidding me! What you are doing is despicable! Just as despicable as the race who is capable of it and who gave you this idea in the first place!”

“Hey! I will let you know that it was her idea to begin with! Just as well as the integration of the changelings!” Chrysalis defended, as Cadance looked incredulously to her aunt.

“She is joking, right?” the pink alicorn asked her aunt in a serious tone of voice, however, much to her shock the latter nodded.

“It was my idea. And it is an idea that we won’t overturn.”

“Well, I won’t agree to any of this madness! Changelings need to be taken care off! And to use their vile magic for something as despicable as this is something I won’t allo-”

“ENOUGH!” Celestia finally bellowed, standing up. “I didn’t request you here to ask for your permission! I requested you here to inform you of what will happen and to have you join in on the efforts!”

Cadance shook from the volume of the Royal Canterlot Voice, and maybe also a bit because of fear. Though that quickly vanished as her face turned defiant and she stood up to face her aunt.

“Then you can do it without me!” she bellowed back, albeit in a normal shouting voice before quickly turning tail and storming outside.

Shining was about to stand up, but Celestia’s voice halted him.

“Leave her be. We still have more to talk about. You can convince her to join still later. You aren’t as averse to the plan as her after all, are you?”

“I...I understand your intention and accept your decision,” he stated, bowing his head.

Celestia nodded to herself, “Good. Now let’s continue.”

With that, plans were refined, ideas swapped and approvals given as The Society was formed. An unlikely alliance forged for the most unlikely of causes. And yet they felt hopeful enough. Hopeful that maybe this would turn their life around. To turn it into a different direction that fate had in store for them.

Author's Note

Some smaller adjustments were made to Chapter 3 and 6. Chapter 3 the mention of the Gala. Chapter 6, the mention of a school trip being cancelled and the Changeling Invasion.

In case any of you wondered.