Not far away from the dungeons, in a big room deep within the hive, a white bubble appeared. It disappeared as quickly as it had come, revealing the group of changelings and ponies.

"Where are we? What happened?" Asked a confused Cadance as she looked around the room. She, like Luna and the 2 changeling guards, was not told of the "plan" to escape. It was only Celestia and Shade who knew of it until now.

"Deep within the hive." Shade stated factfully as he stepped forwards, inspecting the area. There were no changeling in sight. They were lucky. Very lucky.

"Deep within the Hive?" She wondered, "Why would you bring us here?" Cadance asked back.

Shade sighed in annoyance. "Unfortunately pony magic doesn't work here so this is all I could manage."

"Is this why our magic doesn't work then?" Luna asked as she took a step towards him.

Shade, after making sure they really were alone for the moment, turned back towards the group. "Indeed it is. No changeling really knows what causes it but there are several rumors and legends of it. Some say it's a special gem or stone which the queens hide within the hive, somewhere where nopony else can get to. Others say the hivemind acts as some kind of shield against pony magic or that the queens themselves absorb pony magic. One way or another, it is a thing and pony magic is almost impossible to use here."

The Princesses looked at each other in confusion. They looked back at him and asked: "Then how did you manage a teleportation spell?"

Shade scratched his head at the question. He realized he should have seen such a question coming. "Well...I was honestly just hoping it would work, really." An awkward smile appeared on his face as the princesses raised their eyebrows respectively.

"So you never knew whether it would work or not? And you still chose to try?" Cadance asked him.

Shade shrugged. "It's not like we had another way out, right?" He paused, looking at the ponies in front of him. After a few seconds, they all nodded silently. "Right. So as I said, it was more of a gamble than anything else. Even then, you should thank Celestia for even giving me the idea of teleporting. She proposed to do so in the first place."

Luna and Cadance looked at Celestia who stood between them. "Is that so, sister?" asked Luna.

Celestia nodded affirmatively. "He's right. But the pride does not belong to me. He is the one who rightfully chose to stand with us after all. He stood against the one that raised him in this very place amongst his kind and now chose to defy her lies." Celestia walked up to Shade and lowered herself so that their heads were even. "And for that I am very, very thankful."

Shade felt a sense of pride inside of him. He felt happiness, for a change, as a smile formed on his face.

Celestia stood up again, smiling herself, as she spoke down to Shade. "Now. How do we get out of here?"

Shade thought about a possible escape route. He quickly reminded himself that it was the Changeling Hive they were in, a simple escape was near impossible. There was no way they would manage to slip past all the guards that were now looking for them.

Shade tried coming up with a proper plan as quickly as he could. "I believe we are close to the Throne room so it should be a 5 minute walk or so until we get to the nearest exit." Shade stated. "Though we are sure to face resistance on our way out."

Celestia sighed and nodded. "I suppose we have no other choice. We will have to fend off the changelings we encounter." She replied. "Can you lead the way for us?"

Shade nodded affirmatively. "Of course, just stay low and quiet. Maybe that will lower our chances of getting slaughtered." Shade's words weren't exactly a morale boost to the rest of the group, yet Shade couldn't hide the fact that their escape was highly dangerous.

The Princesses looked at each other for a brief moment, nodding affirmatively afterwards.

"Very well then." Shade looked towards a tunnel to his right. He shuddered a bit as he stared into the darkness of the tunnel, knowing their escape would most likely be a bloody one. The only question was: Whose blood would be spilled?

"Follow me, and watch for my signal." Shade whispered as he entered the tunnel. The Princesses followed close behind, Celestia entering first, then Luna and then Cadance. The 2 changeling guards were last to enter the tunnel. Shade's horn lit up in order to light the way for the ponies behind him.

They wandered through the tunnel, stopping from time to time when Shade believed to have heard something, yet it had been a false alarm up until that point. He looked back a few times to check up on his fellow escapists. He figured it must have been horrible to roam around in the darkness like that. The only light they had was Shade's horn, and that certainly wasn't a big or bright source of light.

Shade chuckled quietly as he thought of the last time he had to light the way for someone. He remembered how Thunder moaned and complained constantly. Looking back, Shade found himself enjoying the thought of dealing with Thunder's complaints and problems. He had always been very annoyed by it up until this point, found him to be a nuisance even, yet in hindsight it seemed more fun and enjoyable than anything. Then again, Thunder was Shade's only real friend, his best friend. He would enjoy anything as long as he was there.

Shade then froze in place. Celestia managed to stop just in time to not bump into him. "What's wrong?" She whispered from behind Shade, "Why have we stopped?"

She didn't get an answer. All she heard was how Shade's breathing becoming heavier.

"Thunder..." Shade gave out. Celestia, Luna and Cadance looked at eachother in confusion. "No..."

Celestia gave Shade a gentle nip on the back to attract his attention. "Shade, what is wrong?"

Shade turned around to them, still breathing heavily and trying to hold back potential tears. "Nothing." He said in a weak voice. He gulped. He had left his best friend alone with a stranger in the hive, against his will. And now he was going to just...leave? Shade felt guilt well up inside him at the thought of Thunder.

No. He couldn't just leave now. If he left now, without him, it would mean all he did to him, his life, his family...his everything, was for nothing. He would have robbed Thunder of his pony life just so that he himself would leave a few days later? No, that was not the way. Shade knew it wasn't. He had to do something, he had to take him with them. The only question was...

How? Shade turned away from the others once more, taking a few steps away from them while stuck in deep thought. He then came up with a plan. Well, more of a one way ticket to death, really. His plan was as simple as finding Thunder, convincing him that he made a mistake and grouping up with the others outside the hive. How likely he was to succeed?

Unlikely, to say the least. However, they had not much time and it was the only way to get both the others and Thunder out.

With a heavy heart he turned back around to the others. He closed his eyes and sighed deeply. "Alright, listen." He said, focused on the task at hand. "You will go as I have told you. Guards, you know the way. Lead them out of here."

"What about you then?" Celestia interrupted.

"I will move back into the hive. There is someone I need to...talk to." He paused, looking at the others. He saw the Princesses eyeing him with a worried look. "Don't worry." He assured, "I'll meet up with you outside the hive."

Once more, he looked into the the group. One of the guards moved past the Princesses and positioned itself at the head of the group. Luna and Cadance seemed less worried now, though Celestia still wore the same worried look as before. Shade looked away from her, to the guard at the front.

"You know where to go and what to do." He said to the armored changeling.

"We'll do whatever we can to protect them." The guard said as they saluted Shade. Shade nodded slightly as he took a first step forward.

When he stood next to Celestia, now closer than ever, he quietly said: "Good luck everyone."

Shade's steps were silent as he sneaked throught the darkness of the hive. The search for his friend had endured for about 5 minutes when he heard a group of voices ahead. Shade knew they would have to be guards. He panicked at first, yet figured it was best not to fight them head on. Or, even better, not to fight them at all.

He walked out of the tunnel, into the room the group of guards were in. He tried being as inconspicuous as possible, hoping the other changeling would not recognize him as one of the traitors.

He quickly spotted the next tunnel which was located straight ahead of him across the room. He sped up while trying to still keep a low profile. His head turned to his right for a moment. He saw the group of guards talk to each other, presumably about their mission to find and kill the traitors. Or, in other words, to murder Shade and his friends. He noticed how one of the guards looked up and eyed him. Shade immediately faced the front again, breaking eye contact right away. He unintentionally became faster and quickly reached the tunnel entrance. He gave a quiet sight of relief as he walked off into the dark once more, continuing his search after this first, seemingly avoided obstacle.

"Did you see that?" Said the changeling that had spotted him.

The other guards looked towards him, then to where Shade had been a few moments before. "What do you mean?"

The guard took a walk towards the tunnel which Shade had taken just a few seconds ago. He kneeled down to the ground, seeing the hoofprints of him leading right into the tunnel. He gave a quick chuckle as he looked into the darkness of the tunnel. "I believe me might have a hint on where they might be."