//------------------------------//
// A Better Way 
// Story: House of Sun 
// by Riossumari 
//------------------------------//

Cadence slowly woke up her head pounding from using too much magic before, she struggled to stand her body feeling heavy with exhaustion. She’d gotten a good amount of magic back from passing out but she knew she wasn’t at her best right now either. Her eyes suddenly shot open though as she remembered Sweetie Belle was with her, Cadence stood on all four hooves and looked around the hut for the little filly. 
“Sweetie Belle? Sweetie? Where are you?” She said in a loud whisper, Cadence wanted to get her attention if she was there but she also knew she had to keep her voice down in case any changelings were nearby. Cadence searched the hut and after a few minutes she found no sign of the filly save for the furniture against the door to the outside. Cadence was about to open the door when suddenly she heard the clamoring of hooves on the roof of the hut, she looked up and then turned at the sound of a window shattering a group of changelings bursting into the hut. Cadence stood her ground and blasted the three changelings away with her magic, another moment later and she heard another group breaking in through the front door behind her. They knew where she was now and had begun to swarm the hut, she needed to escape quick and so Cadence tensed her legs up and sprang upwards and crashed through the roof of the hut with her full strength. As she flew into the sky she looked back to see the changelings flying after her like a swarm of bees. Cadence was still scared and worried about Sweetie Belle but she knew she had to get help first and focused on flying away. A massive burst of magic then struck her in the chest and knocked her back though, before she could recover and see what had hit her the changelings piled on top of her and dragged her towards the ground. Cadence tried to focus her magic to make a barrier to get them off her but then she was struck by another magic blast and finally brought to the ground where the Changelings quickly held her down. Cadence tried to break free but her magic was too depleted and her body aching too much to fight back. 
“Ah ha ha ha, there you are princess. We wondered where you had run off to, your family misses you so much. And we’ve been dying to reunite you all…” a voice taunted. Cadence looked up to see Chrysalis approaching surrounded by more changelings, 
“Take her and put her with the others at once!” she ordered, the changelings immediately began to cocoon Cadence who let out a muffled scream as they worked. Chrysalis looked about the area and then looked at her minions angrily snapping at them, 
“What about the last one? The little unicorn they brought with them? Where is she!?!” The changelings looked about, two looking inside the hut but Chrysalis could tell they had no answer for her. 
“FIND HER YOU FOOLS!!! If she gets away then our plan is ruined! She could tell every creature my plans!” she shouted again. The changelings quickly scattered save for the ones finishing putting Cadence in her cocoon who instead followed Chrysalis as she marched towards the cavern where the rest of her captives were being held. 
“Equestria will be mine…”




Sweetie Belle poked her head out the cavern looking around for any changelings in the area, she wasn’t worried about Thorax at the moment but she knew there had to be other guards as well. She made her way out from behind the waterfall and tried to get to the brush again before she was spotted. Suddenly Sweetie felt a body come crashing down on top of her pinning her to the ground, 
“I’ve got you now! You’re not getting away pony!” the changeling shouted. 
Sweetie panicked and covered her head shouting back, “Please don’t hurt me! Please!!!” The changeling took a step back in surprise though, 
“I’m sorry! I wasn’t trying to hurt you, I was just…” she replied. Sweetie was dumbfounded and looked back to see a changeling a little bigger than she was standing confused, she shook her head though and stood upright. 
“No, wait that’s not right! I meant, uh…” she stuttered before suddenly hissing at Sweetie Belle. But Sweetie wasn’t scared anymore in fact she sat up and look at the small changeling confused, 
“Your not very good at this are you?” she asked. The changeling just hissed again trying to sound angrier but it still didn’t scare the filly. After a moment the changeling sat down her face turning to an annoyed and angry grin. 
“Arrgghhh!! I’m terrible at this! I should’ve just stayed at the hive...I was never gonna be cut out for the invasion force…” the changeling sobbed. 
“Invasion force? Is that why your putting every pony in those green bubble things?” Sweetie asked, the changeling nodded silently looking sad as she did. 
“Umm, my name’s Sweetie Belle. What’s your name? Do changelings have names?” Sweetie asked. 
The changeling looked up and wiped her nose clearing her throat, “Oh, I’m Ocellus.” she replied, then almost instinctively she hissed at Sweetie Belle again but then recoiled covering her mouth. “Sorry, sorry, that wasn’t on purpose its just a reflex sometimes.” Ocellus said. Sweetie couldn’t help but giggle at her hissing now, being it was more funny than scary now, 
“So how come your doing this? Foalnapping every pony and putting them in this cave?” Sweetie asked. Ocellus looked around making sure they were alone before answering, 
“Its...just what we do, we need love to feed on so we sneak into places like this take creatures and keep them locked up so we can feed. Queen Chrysalis has us doing this all the time, I’m not sure why were here though. Just a few weeks ago she suddenly got really happy and demanded we all come here and grab every pony. We’ve been waiting for Princess Celestia for a few days now, but...I messed up the whole plan. Now I’m sitting here talking to you instead of helping the invasion force like I was supposed to.” Sweetie looked at her puzzled though, 
“But why? Love isn’t something your supposed to steal or take from other ponies, its something that some pony else gives to you!” Sweetie explained, Ocellus looked at Sweetie confused by her words, she’d never heard of something like that and was a little curious to hear more. “I mean, have you ever tried to talk to other creatures? Make friends with them, I bet you could get a lot more love out of them that way and you wouldn’t have to hide that way either! I mean, you look a little scary sure, but that doesn't mean you are though.” Sweetie added, the filly standing up excited by her words. 
Ocellus sat thinking for a moment, and then looked up at her, “Do you think so? Maybe, we could try talking to Queen Chrysalis about it.” Ocellus said. Sweetie smiled back at Ocellus happily now, 
“Yeah! But, we need to get Princess Celestia first, or Twilight! Twilight’s right in the cave here in fact!” Sweetie announced. Ocellus knew every creature they’d captured was in there but she didn’t tell sweetie that instead thinking about what she said and nodding wanting to at least give her idea a try. 
“Okay, let’s go get Twilight then we can go talk to Queen Chrysalis.” Ocellus answered, the two trotting into the cavern eagerly. The two made it to the main chamber where all the captives were cocooned Ocellus looking around before approaching Twilight’s cocoon, as Sweetie Belle followed her she noticed that Sunset, and Shining were there with Spike and Twilight too which made her smile. 
“Come on, let’s get her down and we can go talk to the Queen!” Ocellus said flying up to try and get the cocoon down, 
“OCELLUS What do you think your doing!?” a voice shouted, a group of changeling suddenly surrounded them angrily staring at what seemed to be a deliberate act of rebellion against the hive. Ocellus looked around the fear growing in her eyes and the way she was standing showed it as well, Sweetie knew the others were about to turn on her and quickly she stepped forward shouting, 
“Wait! This was my idea, I just wanted Twilight to talk to your Queen! That’s all. Ocellus told me about how you all live, you hide and sneak into places and do this. Its how you live, aren’t you tired of it? Don’t you want to make friends? To not scare ponies all the time?” The changelings in the room looked around at one another a few muttering to each other as they did, one of the bigger changelings stepped forward though snapping at Sweetie Belle. 
“Were the drones, we do as the Queen orders! We don’t dare defy her!” 
Ocellus took a deep breath and spoke up again, “But what if we didn’t have to? What if Sweetie Belle is right and we can live out in the open, think about it? We wouldn’t have to scavenge all the time anymore! Sweetie Belle says love is something that’s supposed to be given, not stolen, we’d wouldn’t have to worry about starving or looking for more food sources anymore!” All the changelings continued to converse with one another a few seeming like they were taking Ocellus’ side as well, but the lead changeling spoke up again however. 
“I won’t have you turning the hive against one another Ocellus! Now put that pony in a cocoon before…” suddenly he was cut off by another changeling speaking up. 
“NO! Ocellus is right! So is Sweetie Belle! We shouldn’t live like this, aren’t you all tired of this? Sure we can look like any creature we want to, but we shouldn't have to!” he said aloud. The big changeling in front of Sweetie turned glared at the one who spoke up storming towards him, 
“Shut up Thorax! Your opinion doesn’t mean anything here, your the biggest failure in the hive.” he snapped. Thorax recoiled at first but then he took a step forward standing his ground, 
“That’s what I’m talking about! Look how the ponies live compared to us! They help each other, they take care of one another! But we’re constantly at one another's throats! Everything we do is supposed to be for the hive, but we don’t mean it we’re constantly competing to see who’s at the top. And Queen Chrysalis practically encourages this in us!” Thorax shouted back. Ocellus trot over and stood next to Thorax, 
“We can make things better! I know we can, what about the rest of you? Don’t you want things to be better?” she asked. Sweetie Belle looked around the room and watched all the changelings in the cavern, to her surprise most of them moved to Ocellus and Thorax which made her smile. But then a voice spoke up quickly dashing the levity in the chamber, 
“Well...isn’t this nice? A mutiny within my own hive…” Every creature in the chamber turned and standing at the entrance was Queen Chrysalis the remainder of her hive standing around her glaring back.