Shade quickly crouched down, covering his head as he did so, while Princess Celestia dodged to the right. The powerful beam of energy shot past both of them, hitting the metal bars behind the group. The bars were blown to pieces by the raw amount of energy. Undoubtedly, Chrysalis had aimed to kill.

Meanwhile the 5 Changeling guards that had joined Celestia held their ground against the enemy as best as they could. They were heavily outnumbered, though they managed to fend off the attackers. For the moment at least. Shade and the Princesses knew they wouldn't be able to hold them for long. They had to act and they had to act fast.

That was exactly what Celestia had in mind. Turning towards Shade, who had just managed to stand up again, she ordered: "Quickly, before it is too late!"

Shade looked at her with a doubtful look but knew it was the only way to survive. His horn lit up, a black shimmer emminating from it as usual. He closed his eyes, focusing on casting the spell, speaking to Celestia for one last time. "I'll need time to cast the spell, you need to hold them off until I'm ready!"

Without a reply, Celestia nodded. She knew what she had to do. She turned to her younger sister who was clearly scarred from Chrysalis' previous attacks. Luna noticed her sister was watching her and she too now looked into her sister's eyes. Luna's eyes were doubtful, hopeless even, while Celestia's were determined.

"Do not worry, sister. No matter what may happen, I'll be there to protect you. Together we can overcome all obstacles." Celestia's attempt on cheering her sister up worked and Luna quickly regained her confidence, although still afraid of what may happen.

"Together." Luna replied, nodding to her sister.

A sudden scream of agony interrupted their conversation. The source of the scream was one of the allied guards who had a spear stuck inside his ribcage. The Princesses watched as he dropped to the ground, struggling, trying to get the spear out. Everyone watching knew that it was already too late to help him, even the Changeling that had made the killing blow. The enemy Changeling took a few steps towards the injured Changeling and grabbed his spear that was still stuck inside his victim. He moved the spear around, causing even more internal wounds than before together with a new wave of intense screams of pain.

Then the screaming stopped. The friendly Changeling's head stopped moving as green blood spilled out of his mouth. His hooves stopped moving as his struggle for life found an end. He had given all he could for the Princesses, he had sided against his very own kind in order to protect what he believed to be right.

Realizing that the enemy had broken through their defense line, Cadance ran up to the Changeling that had killed her ally. With enormous speed she charged towards him, catching the Changeling completely off guard. The Changeling now tried pulling his spear out of the dead changeling's body, though he had big difficulties in doing so as it appeared to be stuck. He quickly let go of his spear as he saw the charging Princess. He walked backwards in panic, shaking his head as he realized what was about to happen. He heard Cadance scream as she got close to him. He himself shouted back with "No! Please, no!" but it was too late for apologies.

He screamed out loud as he was struck by Cadance. Her horn had stabbed right through his throat. His screaming quickly turned into a coughing and groaning as he grasped for air. Cadance kept her eyes forward, watching as green blood dripped out of his throat, onto her horn. She breathed heavily, the charge had cost her a lot of energy, energy that she previously didn't even believe to have in her current state. The hind legs of the Changeling gave in as his life slowly came to an end. During his last breaths he grabbed onto Cadance with both of his front hooves, looking into her eyes. Cadance saw he wanted to tell her something, though he was unable to get anything out other than coughs.

Then his eyes slowly closed as his last bit of life ran out. He fell onto his back, freeing Cadance's horn from his body as he fell. Cadance was speechless as she watched her victim. Never before had she killed, never had she dared to do such a thing. Though, for some reason, it was suddenly such an easy task. That moment where she began her charge...it was all so easy. She was the Princess of Love, a symbol for peace and friendliness and suddenly she had turned into a murderer. True, the one she had killed was a murderer himself but...murdering a murderer makes you a murderer, does it not?

Cadance was interrupted as her eyes were suddenly drawn towards her horn. The light green Changeling blood dripped down from it, causing a silent 'plop' noise whenever it hit the ground.

Somehow, although the intense fighting between the remaining Changelings carried on around her, Cadance completely blanked them out. She was completely focused on herself, the dead Changeling in front of her and the deed she had just done.

Luna noticed this and became increasingly worried for her safety and well-being. Cadance was, after all, standing in the midst of a fight. Luna decided to approach Cadance who was once again stuck in her own thoughts.

"Cadance, are you-"

"Dead..." Cadance interrupted. Luna cocked her head in surprise. "He's...dead..."

Luna, wearing a worried look, walked up to Cadance who continued her stare towards the changeling's corpse. Luna, who quickly looked over to her left, towards the main fight, in order to see if they were still safe, laid a hoof onto Cadance's shoulder. Cadance paid this no special attention and remained unmoved, sitting down in front of the corpse.

"Cadance," Luna began, speaking in a more quiet voice than usual, "You know you had no choice."

Cadance spoke up with a sour voice, filled with disgust and sorrow. "No choice...maybe it would be better I receive the same punishment as this Changeling then..."

Luna was about to speak up as Cadance interrupted her. "One always has a choice, Luna. No matter how determined you are or how dire the circumstances, there is always another way. Or...so I thought." Cadance's head sunk as tears formed in her eyes.

"Cadance, you should not lose yourself over this, you protected yourself and our group with what you did. It was for the best." Luna replied, though her attempts on cheering Cadance up proved futile once again.

"Killing is never for the best, but for the worst. You saw what Celestia did, Luna!" Cadance suddenly became louder and more aggressive, "She managed to convince our enemies to join us, she changed their hearts for the better! That is the way, not killing each other!"

Luna saw Cadance was visibly disapointed in herself. She was the Princess of Love yet Celestia had managed to convince their enemies while she stood idle, doing nothing. When Cadance decided to intervene and help the group she suddenly found herself in front of a dead Changeling. This was, at least, how Luna figured Cadance's current state. Luna herself was opposed to violence so she could only imagine how much Cadance must have hated violence herself. And now Cadance found herself with a bloody horn and a dead Changeling.

Luna knew Cadance was right, however. The points she made were right, that they as Princesses should not be killing and destroying, but instead bring ponies together, even Changelings. Luna had to somehow get Cadance out of her trance, though she knew it would be a rather tough task.

"You should not be upset. She let the Changelings decide whether or not to join us or Chrysalis and those who saw reason joined us."

Cadance shook her head as tears ran down her cheeks. "That still doesn't justify killing others."

Luna sighed as she tried turning Cadance's mood for the better. "It does not, no. Though you have seen how Chrysalis acts. She simply can not be argued with, not at the moment at least."

Cadance looked over to Luna who still had her hoof on Cadance's shoulder. Luna looked into Cadance's eyes and continued: "Killing is not pleasant, nor good or necessary, Cadance. Sometimes though, you are not left with any other choice than to fight."

Cadance thought hard about the situation and topic at hand. It seemed Luna had a good point, it made sense to Cadance at least. Though she still felt a big sense of guilt.

"I guess you're right, Luna." She replied, turning her head towards the Changeling corpse once more. He had stopped bleeding by now and a green puddle of blood had formed next to his wound. "Though I fear what conflict can do with us..." She continued.

Celestia had been watching over the fight while her sister and Cadance were busy talking. She knew they would have been in danger if there was nopony watching their backs. Luckily no Changeling ever turned around to attack them though and they were left in relative peace. As much as one could get on a battlefield anyway.

Celestia had repeatedly called for Shade in order to get a status on his spell preparations. Until now her calls had all been answered with 'No', Shade's voice had become more and more annoyed by the minute. Now though, it was Shade who called up to Celestia as his spell was finally ready.

"It's ready!" He yelled. Celestia replied with a smirk and nod as she ran up to Luna and Cadance who still seemed to be talking.

Clearly Celestia was interrupting the two in their conversation but Celestia knew that they would not get the chance to talk again if they did not use the spell now.

"Sister, Cadance, you must come quickly!" She said, almost in a commanding voice, even though she faced Princesses.

Luna and Cadance, to no surprise of Celestia, were clueless as to why Celestia was in such a hurry all of the sudden.

"What is it, Celestia?" Cadance asked, she had already wiped away her tears prior to Celestia's arrival, "Did something happen?"

"We have no time, I will explain later. For now you must join the Changeling Shade, I will join you in a minute!"

As Celestia had hoped, the two didn't offer much resistance against her plan and they both ran up to Shade whose horn now glowed in a brighter dark than usual, sparkling with white shimmer while doing so.

Celestia sighed in relief as her sisters were in relative safety. Now all she had to do was get the rest of her group to safety. Namely, the Changelings.

Unfortunatly it seemed that their allied Changelings were fighting on their last hooves, barely able to contain the superior enemy forces for much longer. Celestia realized she couldn't bring them all to safety, to rescue them. No, that was impossible, as horrible as it seemed. It was a fact which Celestia had to face and plan to accordingly. She watched the fight for a brief moment, how the Changelings clashed their spears and axes together, how some of them struggled for bare survival. She knew that one way or another these poor souls would not survive if they stayed here, fighting them. Chrysalis and her army would never show mercy towards traitors as she called them. Celestia knew Changelings would die in their escape, no matter what, but she would try to save as many lives as possible, whatever the cost or risk.

She spoke up in a loud, commanding voice from behind her allied Changeling line, saying: "Changelings, It is time for us to retreat!" She then pointed at 2 of the 4 Changelings, continuing: "You two, come with me, the other two will stay here and cover our retreat!"

She almost felt bad for how heartless and emotionless she sounded when in reality she had just told those 2 Changelings to die. One way or another, there was no time left to think and she had to meet up with Shade and the others herself. She waved over the 2 selected Changeling Guards and made her way to the others of the group, the Changelings following closely behind her.

Her eyes closed briefly as she heard the enemy forces overwhelming the remaining 2 friendly Changelings. There was screaming, sounds of stabbing and cracking noises. Celestia didn't dare looking back, it was a choice she had to make, she could only hope their sacrifice wasn't for nothing.

"We're ready, quickly now!" Celestia said to Shade as she and her 2 Changelings arrived.

Shade breathed in deeply and said "Hold on everypony!"

The group got close to Shade, forming a ring of sorts around him while he was casting his spell. Shade closed his eyes as he focused. His horn started glowing white, glowing brighter and brighter by the second. The others watched in horror as the enemy Changeling forces charged towards them, weapons at the ready. Cadance could be seen covering her eyes with her wings as they got closer while the friendly guards together with Luna and Celestia faced them without a bit of fear in their eyes. The Changeling horde hissed furiously as they got closer, ever closer. Until...

BOOM!

A sudden explosion set an end to the Changeling's charge as they were either hit by the shockwave and thrown back or were simply shocked for a brief moment as smoke covered the immediate area. The Changelings could be heard coughing lightly until the smoke receded after a few seconds.

Their eyes grew in shock as they had to realize that the group of ponies and traitors had disappeared into thin air. They were gone.

A brief moment of silence set in in which the Changelings observed what they did not think was real. They had been close, so very close, yet the traitors won. Most of them began stomping in fury, some hissed as well.

Then the Queen marched past the furious crowd. She did not look around, towards her subjects, but she knew what they felt either way for she felt the same way. No, she felt it more intense than them, she was more furious, bloodthirty and eager for revenge than ever before. Her plan, the plan to finally, after all this time and all her defeats, get her precious revenge on the ponies...had failed.

Chrysalis' eyes burned as she got closer to where had previously been Princess Celestia and her allies. She marched forth, her pace speeding up as her rage grew even more.

Then, when she finally arrived, she stood. She looked around, watched the ground that now had a slight black tone to it from the explosion and thought for a brief moment. Her breathing became louder by the second, her movement more hectic and her eyes were starting to twitch.

Then she cut loose and unleashed her rage. She reared up, her horn glowing in her typical green and stomped at the ground, a big, fiery ring of fire surrounding her, as she all the while screamed out loud in her loudest, most furious voice. Some of the Changelings present backed off a bit as they saw their Queen like this. They too were angry at the escape of the traitors and ponies, but never had they seen their Queen like that.

The green fire surrounding Chrysalis grew in height as Chrysalis began a speech to her subjects, ever so furious and loud as before. "Changelings! We shall not let our enemies escape! We shall find them, wherever they may flee and we will fight them until our last breath!

Chrysalis' speech was met with a wave of fanatic hisses. She left her ring of fire, walking through the flames as if they were nothing, and walked towards one of the Changeling traitors that laid dead in front of her. Her horn glowed, her magic pulling at the head of the Changeling. Her grasp intensified until a loud crack echoed through the room.

Chrysalis held up the traitor's head, levitating it high into the air for all the guards to see. She was determined, determined to give all she had in order to get her revenge.

"We will get our revenge, my children! We will make them pay! We will make them ALL pay! For the Hive!