On a quiet grass field somewhere in Equestria...
It was a nice day. The sun was shining and the sky was free from any clouds. It was the perfect day to spend outside. So that is what a three ponies did. They decided to set up a picnic, eating some sweets and having fun without worrying about anything right now.
They were setting up the picnic blanket and began to place some sweets all over it, munching some of them in the process. They seemed to be close friends, judging how easily they broke out in laughter after almost every sentence. They clearly had a lot of fun.
However, they did not seem to notice how they were watched by a pair of blue eyes. “Three. Yeah, that should be doable,” A voice said, hidden inside a bush next to the three ponies.
The voice then revealed itself on the other side of the bush. It was a Changeling wearing a black armor and a black helmet. Once he walked out of the bush, his eyes were focused on three more Changelings who saluted once he was in plain sight again. He was clearly one or two ranks above those three.
He began to look at them sternly. “Okay. I hope you guys are ready for your first official love retrieving mission!” The three Changelings raised their heads and stood in attention. “Changelings need love to survive. But of course, you already know that. Now will be the time, where you stop getting your share of love from the hive and start to contribute to it by collecting,”
Two of the three Changelings didn't move due to the fear to disappoint their, what looks like their commander. However, one of them seemed a little confused and only looked around confused as if he missed something.
This, of course, was not unnoticed by the commander Changeling. “Is something the matter?” He asked.
“Yes! I mean...just in case some of us have some questions...” he said, poorly trying to hide that he was the only one who had some questions. “Uhh...how exactly do we do this...love retrieving thing?” He then asked wide-eyed. This caused the two Changelings next to him to look at each other due to the surprise of the possible ignorance or stupidity of their third comrade.
The commander did not seem to happy about this question but he surprisingly showed patience and answered calmly. “You three will transform into ponies, approach those three ponies that I spotted and use your magic to absorb their love,” he explained slowly so that even the stupidest Changeling would understand it. “Now transform,” he then ordered, clearly wanting this out of the way already.
The three Changelings looked at each other and nodded. Each of them surrounded themselves by light green colored flames. After the flames were gone, three ponies now stood there.
One of them turned into a Pegasus mare with a white slightly gray-blueish coat color and a long dark blue mane, long tail and orange eyes. On her flank was a Cutie Mark consisting of three red sevens right next to each other.
The second one turned into a Pegasus stallion with a white coat, a blonde mane with a red stripe on the side, a short blonde and red tail and light blue eyes. This pony also had a goatee. His Cutie Mark was a musical note with a brush and a pencil in front of it.
“Very good,” the Changeling Commander complimented after being satisfied to see two very good transformations in front of him. Unfortunately, the same thing couldn't be said about the third one.
The third Changeling, which was the one who asked questions before, transformed into a black coated Pegasus stallion with no mane, no tail, and light blue eyes. His Cutie Mark was just a gray silhouette of a pony. The Changeling seemed to be happy about his own result which can not be said about his commander.
The Changeling Commander got a little frustrated watching this and walked up to the pony. “You! What's your name?” He asked.
The to a pony-transformed-Changeling saluted happily and replied. “Tagma!” He said with a smile on his face, not being aware how the Changeling in front of him was angry at him.
“You forgot the mane, Tagma,” he said straightly pointing at Tagma's head.
Tagma looked up and seemed confused. “Is that important?”
The Changeling commander slapped his face in frustration. “What is it with this transformation? A black coat, blue eyes? You are supposed to blend in as a pony! You look exactly the same, color-wise! If some pony would walk up to you from a distance, then they would mistake you for a Changeling just by how you look now!” He explained angrily, trying to be as quiet as possible to not blow their cover.
Tagma scratched his head a little. “Sorry, this is the best I could come up within such a short time,” he apologized, sticking out his tongue, out of embarrassment.
The Commander figured that it would be difficult to deal with this one if he continued and just gave up. “Whatever, we need to do this quick. You three will go to those ponies, absorb their love and then return to me. Got it?”
“Yes, sir!” All three of the transformed Changeling's replied in unison before they walked up to the pony group in front of them.
The three ponies then walked around the bush and approached the three ponies, having a picnic. They all put on a fake smile, trying to deceive the three, except for Tagma who was genuinely smiling.
“Isn't this exciting? The first time that we are gathering some love!” Tagma said happily before he realized something that he might have thought of before. “But how exactly do we get their love? The commander said we should use our magic but wouldn't those ponies get mad if we just use it on them?” He asked towards his two companions.
The two looked at each other confused one more time. One of them advised that Tagma should just watch and let one of them do the talking. They also agreed to deal with one pony each. But before that, they had to make sure that they could approach the group without causing any suspicion.
One of the Changelings coughed into his hoof and began introducing himself and the group. “Hey, that sure looks tasty! We smelled the scent of those sweets from a mile away and just had to look where it came from,” he said, complimenting the sweets which caused one of the ponies to giggle. It was a mare, she was most likely the one who baked them, judging from her reaction.
“That's so nice of you,” the mare replied. “We made a little too much, if you want, you can have some,” she then offered, obviously being generous because of the compliments she got.
Before they knew it, the three Changelings were invited to join the picnic. The plan went really well, even Tagma was doing good, what the other two really didn't expect. It might be because he was not faking to have fun and actually enjoyed himself.
The three each started conversations with one of the ponies. The two other Changelings made sure that each of them could start absorbing their love any second and began to give each other signals. Even Tagma got this but he decided to wait what exactly the other two were doing so that he could understand what to do.
The two Changelings then suddenly, began their move. As soon as one of the ponies looked away, they began to use their magic to literally suck out their love. It kinda looked like as if magic was coming out of them which the Changelings absorbed into their own body, only that it was love of course. As soon as the two Changelings were done absorbing the love from the two ponies, Tagma began to look over to the pony that he was responsible for.
It was a mare. She was crawling on the ground in fear after witnessing what happened to her two friends. She couldn't move. It was the perfect opportunity for Tagma to absorb her love but all that he did, was staring at her confused. Of course, the other two Changeling prompted him to do his part of the plan but Tagma refused and even backed away from the pony.
The pony saw this as an opportunity to run away and Tagma didn't even attempt to stop her. But soon she was still captured by someone else. The commander of the three Changelings popped up in front of the pony and absorbed her love himself, causing her to fall to the ground unconscious.
Tagma could only look saddened at her but his eyes then met with the very angry and disappointed eyes of his commander who slowly walked up to him. This caused Tagma to prepare himself for a big scolding.
“Mind telling me what that was all about?” The commander asked. He was clearly not amused by Tagma's actions at all. But the Changeling didn't know how to reply and stood there ashamed and intimidated by his commander. “She was scared and didn't even attempt to defend herself! It was the perfect opportunity to absorb her love so why didn't you do it!?” He continued to ask Tagma, putting him more and more in a frightened mood.
Eventually, Tagma found the courage to speak up again, even knowing that it wouldn't exactly make things better. “I don't know...it just didn't felt...right...”
“What?” The commander replied confused. “What did?”
“They looked like as if they were in pain. I didn't want to hurt them,” Tagma explained.
The commander got more and more angry at this behavior. “Changelings need love! And the ponies in Equestria have more than enough of it so we just take it from them. It's as easy as that!” He explained with an angry tone in his voice.
“But I don't want to hurt those ponies!” Tagma then replied, this time showing a little more determination, although it quickly vanished once he looked into the angry eyes of his commander.
The commander was quiet for a moment. Talking with this Changeling was probably not enough so he came up with something more efficient. “Let's see if you keep thinking like this after I put you in...the chamber,”
The other two Changelings shrugged after hearing that and Tagma also knew what his commander was talking about but he didn't show that much fear. But he was also not looking forward to it either.
One week later...
The Changeling Kingdom...
Home of the Changelings, obviously, it was the place where the Changelings who were traveling around in Equestria, would return and call their home. Tagma lived in this place as well for his whole life. Normally, if a Changeling is old enough, then they would be sent outside to gather love for the hive but for the last week, Tagma was forced to stay because he disobeyed orders from his commander.
In the chamber to be exact...
Two Changelings were aware of that and couldn't help but to worry about him.
“Hey, remember that one Changeling that caused some trouble on our first mission?” One of them began to ask.
“Yeah, Tagma, right?” The other one replied.
“I haven't seen him for a week now. Do you think he is alright?”
“Wasn't he supposed to be sent to the chamber?” The Changeling replied shrugging for a moment.
“Yeah. A Changeling who hasn't consumed love for that long is bound to go crazy. I bet he is now regretting messing up the last mission,” The other Changeling said, almost a little amused just thinking about Tagma's misery.
“Well, that's what he gets for disobeying. I don't want to end in the chamber so I definitely won't question my orders anytime soon,”
The two walked away and forgot to worry about Tagma. It's not like that they knew each other that much, to begin with, in order to really worry about him. They had their own work waiting for them now.
But little did the two Changeling's know that the commander, who accompanied them on their first mission, was overhearing that conversation. However, he did not say anything and kept a serious expression on his face before he was on his way again.
Ironically, he was on his way to Tagma's cell to see how he was doing, despite already knowing that from keeping an eye on him all these days. He stood in front of a closed door and opened some kind of small window from which he could look through into the room. He thought about the conversation of those two Changelings from before. About how Tagma probably lost his mind by now.
Shortly after, Tagma noticed how he was being looked at. “What's up!” He said cheerfully, sitting in the middle of the room and waving towards the Changeling that looked at him with a serious expression on his face.
The commander closed the window in the door again. Meanwhile, another Changeling approached him. He was the one responsible for the prisoners. “Still no change...” he said, in a really confused and depressed voice.
“I don't understand...” the commander replied confused as well. “Normally, we just wanted him to be in this cell for a few days but after seeing how that was not enough to make him weaker, we extended the sentence to a week. But there is still no difference. What is going on here?”
The other Changeling rubbed his chin in order to think. “It sure is strange that he doesn't seem to be affected by the lack of love,”
“Yeah,” the commander agreed. “Changelings need love to survive. A Changeling that hasn't consumed any love for a few days usually starts to lose his mind. We would trap them in this chamber and cut them off from any love that the Queen would usually provide and break them so that they would obey the next time,” he further explained, still trying to understand what was happening with Tagma.
The commander opened up the little window to peek at Tagma again. This time, Tagma's face was right in front of the window where he looked through. “Are you talking about me?” He asked a little excited but he didn't get an answer because the commander closed the window again.
“I'm taking him with me,” the commander said, already opening the locks on the door.
The other Changeling didn't reply and just let the commander do, what he thought was right. He must have had something prepared for a situation like this. Whatever it was, Tagma would be freed so of course, he was one who should be happy now.
A little later...
Tagma and his commander walked through the hallway of their kingdom. One of them, clearly being relieved that he was now free again. “I have to admit, it was getting pretty boring in this cell. Glad that you decided to let me out,” Tagma said, stretching some of his legs while he was following his commander.
“Boring?” The commander replied confused. “Not hungry?” He added.
“Nope,” Tagma replied briefly.
It didn't seem like a tough-Changeling act. There was literally nothing wrong, physically or mentally with Tagma. He acted exactly like one week ago. It was almost scary. Still, the commander couldn't worry about that and continued to lead Tagma to where they wanted to go.
“Where are we going anyway? You didn't tell me,” Tagma the asked, once he was done stretching his muscles.
“There is someone who wants to see you...” The commander simply replied, not even bothering to look at Tagma by doing so.
Tagma asked who it was but the commander didn't answer this time so he just waited until they would meet this Changeling. Tagma had to admit, that he liked a good surprise but he was also a little nervous after noticing how serious his commander was. But then again, he was always serious.
The two arrived at a really big room. A room in which Tagma never was before. He instantly noticed that it was much bigger than any other room in the kingdom. His commander stopped walking after he reached the middle of the room but Tagma walked further, looking up at the high ceiling in awe.
Slowly, he moved his eyes down in front of him and looked forward. Realization struck him after he saw something at the end of the room. Something that he only heard of from before.
A throne...
Tagma's eyes widened in a mix of shock and fear after seeing it. He knew exactly where he was now and who's “room” this was.
“Thanks for bringing him here,” a female voice then said from Tagma's right side.
He instantly turned his head to the right and spotted a big figure that stepped out of the shadows. Only two words managed to come out of his mouth at this very moment.
“Queen Chrysalis!” Tagma said in shock, once he realized that the queen herself walked right towards him with a mischievous smile on her face.
In all his time in the Changeling Kingdom, he never stood that close next to the queen herself. Not only that but he was also never alone with her, not counting the commander, standing behind him a few steps. Usually, he would only see her when she was talking to all of her Changelings and not to him personally. It was quite a shocking situation.
Queen Chrysalis had a black colored body, like every other Changeling and long cerulean colored hair and light green eyes. On her head was a little crown and on her forehead a horn. She also had big wings sprouting from her back. She was also much bigger than any other Changeling. Seeing her made Tagma feel really nervous, especially since she was much bigger now that she stood right in front of him. And of course, he feared what she wanted from him.
The queen quickly cut to the case and said what she wanted to say. “I heard you were a...special case...” she started.
Tagma instantly realized how a punishment was approaching. It has been a week since he was stuck in the Chamber but he thought that after spending all this time there, that he would be forgiven. Apparently, that wasn't the case.
Tagma didn't reply. He wasn't even sure if he was supposed to say anything in this situation. Thankfully, Queen Chrysalis continued. “Answer me...when was the last time when you were hungry for love?” She asked.
She patiently waited for an answer from Tagma. He still hesitated to answer but eventually, he replied after realizing that it probably was pretty important for his queen.
“I...can't remember,” he replied a little nervously since he felt like it wasn't a clear enough answer for his queen.
But that seemed to be enough for Queen Chrysalis to understand. “Do you ever felt...weak or drained after not consuming any love from the hive?” She asked.
“Um...no. Not really...” Tagma replied after putting some thought into it.
The Changeling Commander made a confused expression on his face. He figured that one week was clearly not affecting Tagma but from what it looks like, he could have put him in the Chamber for several more weeks and it wouldn't make a difference. Queen Chrysalis, however, seemed to know what was going on, judging from the smile on her face.
“I see...” Queen Chrysalis said before her horn began to glow in light green light that engulfed Tagma. Soon something was drawn out of Tagma's body something that Queen Chrysalis absorbed into her own body. After a few seconds of absorbing, Tagma dropped to the ground, clearly weakened by this.
Queen Chrysalis, however, was grinning widely and laughed after her realization. “I knew it!” Queen Chrysalis said victoriously. The Changeling Commander was not sure what he just witnessed. What Queen Chrysalis did just now, was absorbing love. But why would a Changeling absorb love from another Changeling? There was no love to be found in one. But eventually, the answer was clear after Chrysalis explained. “That is why you don't need love to survive! Why you don't hunger for it or why you don't feel a lack of strength after not getting any,”
Tagma got up on his legs again and looked up to his Queen. She was smiling sinisterly at him. Queen Chrysalis was never known to be kind or merciful but in this moment, Tagma only felt fear after looking at her even though he was supposed to be one of her children.
Because of the lack of strength in is body, Tagma was about to fell unconscious. The last thing he saw was Queen Chrysalis, looking at him with an evil smile. There were also a few words that he could hear before he passed out. Words that he couldn't even put thoughts into, in this very situation.
“You can create love!”
Several months later...
After that encounter, Tagma's life changed. He was no longer allowed to leave the Changeling Kingdom. He was considered too valuable for the queen to be sent out to the outside world. He constantly had to stay home so that he could create love for the Changelings. He didn't have to work like all the other Changelings and just had to wait until he “stored” more of it inside of his body but it was still really hard, having your love drained over and over again.
Tagma was always a simple Changeling. He would usually spend his time in the kingdom somehow with others. He was never really aware how he was different from other Changelings. That he was more upbeat and cheerful than others. That much, he was aware of but being some kind of special Changeling, that was something that he didn't expect.
After Queen Chrysalis figured out how Tagma could create love, he was instantly put in a room to secure him. He was just supposed to stay there and only allowed to leave it when he had enough love inside of him. Then Queen Chrysalis would always drain his love out of his body and stored it inside of the hive, providing it to every other Changeling. It was free love, that could be accessed quickly and without much work. It was perfect to strengthen the hive easily. It was a really boring and exhausting live, from this point on but Tagma learned to deal with it. Somehow...he learned to deal with it...
One Changeling walked up to the room where Tagma was inside. He tried to not cause any attention and sneaked up to the door, moving the little window to the site to take a look at Tagma who was sitting in the middle of the room, exhausted and a little sad. It took him a little to notice how he was looked at but as soon as he did, he smiled and waved to the Changeling. “What's up?” Tagma greeted happily.
The Changeling who looked through the door moved his head away instantly out of fear or maybe nervousness. It was not often that someone would look at Tagma so he tried to make sure that this visitor would not leave. “Wait! Please! I am so bored in here! Can't you at least talk to me for a minute?” He said across the empty room to get the Changeling's attention again.
There was no response immediately, but after a while, the Changeling peeked his head towards the window again, even if it was just a little. The Changeling seemed really nervous to even look at Tagma but he was noticed by him now so he might as well stay.
“Umm...hey,” he said hesitantly. “You are Tagma, right?”
“Yeah!” Tagma replied proudly. “Wait, how do you know my name?” He then added confused.
“Well, everybody knows who you are. The Changeling who is able to produce love without absorbing it from someone else and can share it with the whole hive,” the Changeling explained.
“Wow! Does that mean, I am popular?” Tagma replied a little shocked but also with a happy tone in his voice.
“Actually,” the Changeling interrupted. “Most of us see you as some kind of freak who is treated by Queen Chrysalis with special care,”
“Oh...” Tagma replied with a frown on his face.
The other Changeling then looked around Tagma's room to inspect it a little further. “Is there nothing in this room what you can spend time with? Are you just sitting here all day?” He then asked out of curiosity.
“I usually have to wait until someone comes to take me to the Queen so that she can absorb my love,” Tagma replied.
“That's sound horrible,” the Changeling replied.
“Nah, it could be worse...” Tagma replied with a smile on his face.
“Really?” The Changeling replied confused.
“Yeah. I mean, every day I spend here, means that there are a few more ponies every day that I don't have to rob off their love. So in a way, that's a good thing,” he explained happily.
This confused the Changeling a little. “You don't want to rob others of their love?”
“No. the first time, when I was supposed to do that, I saw how much others suffer when we do that and now that I got my love sucked out constantly, it just feels good that I don't have to do that to others,” Tagma said widely relieved with a smile on his face.
For some reason, the Changeling on the other side of the door didn't expect an answer like that. “You are a lot more different than I thought. I never thought that there was another Changeling who thought that what were are doing to others was...”
“Wrong?” Tagma finished.
The two looked at each other in mutual understanding. Both of them seemed to agree that robbing others of their magic was not right. Tagma never expected anyone else to see this kind of way of thinking.
Unfortunately, the conversation could not last any longer since the Changeling noticed how someone was getting closer to the room. “Oh no! I have to get out of here before someone catches me! I'll come back later!” The Changeling then said before he closed the window and vanished again.
It became quiet again. There must have been some kind of patrol out there so that the other Changeling had to get out of there. It made Tagma a little sad that the other Changeling had to leave but at the same time, he could not wait until he would return like he said. That is if he wasn't captured.
Later that night...
The rest of the day was really quiet like usual. The other Changeling didn't come back like he said. Tagma could not say that he was happy about that but at the same time, he realized that it was probably a little dangerous to visit him. He didn't want anyone else to get into trouble because of him after all.
However, as soon as he completely gave up hope, he could hear some steps getting closer to his room. He expected that the little window would open up again but much to his surprise, the whole door opened. This would only mean that his love was about to be absorbed by the queen, leaving Tagma in a really sad mood again.
However, it was not one of Queen Chrysalis's guards that showed up but instead, it was the Changeling from before who looked in the room nervously. “You!? You opened the door?” Tagma said in shock by this sudden revelation.
“Yes. But you have to be quiet if you want to escape,” the Changeling replied as he made sure to look around that no one would hear or see them.
“Escape!?” Tagma replied shocked. “I can't escape from here!” He added before he thought about this a little. “Or...can I?”
The Changeling explained. “Listen. You can easily survive out there without love. On top of that, you don't seem like as if you agree with Queen Chrysalis when it comes to her plans. So you should leave and find another place to live,”
Tagma began to think about this idea and even considered it right now. He had to admit, that living like this was not what he wanted. He didn't have to go out and steal other ponies love but in return, he had to live completely on his own without freedom. Of course, that is not the way he wanted to spend his life. But what could he do outside? He would be alone there as well. Still, if it meant not getting used by Queen Chrysalis as some sort of love-produce-machine, there was probably nothing else as an option.
“Alright! I will! But why are you even helping me to begin with?” Tagma then asked.
“I...don't know. It just feels like...the right thing to do...” The Changeling explained rather hesitant as if he was not sure if he believed in those words himself. “Just get out of here before someone finds you, or we both get in trouble,” he then advised.
“Alright, thank you! I won't forget that!” He said before he hugged the Changeling out of gratitude before he ran away to find the exit.
“Wait!” The Changeling then suddenly said, causing Tagma to turn around again. There seemed to be something important that he wanted to say which is why he hesitated at first. “Do you believe that one day...we Changelings can find a better way to live, then just stealing love?” He asked with a slight frown on his face.
Tagma began to think about this question for a moment. “I have no idea,” he replied as he closed his eyes while being in deep thoughts. “But I have the feeling that with Queen Chrysalis in charge, that is not going to happen anytime soon,” Tagma said with an unusually serious tone in his voice. “You seem like a nice person so maybe you should try to get in charge,” he then said spontaneously.
“What!? No way! I could never...” The Changeling responded nervously before he remembered that time is probably running short until someone notices them. “You should go now!”
This didn't need to be told to Tagma twice. He ran off to escape from the Kingdom and to escape from Queen Chrysalis. “Wait! I completely asked this guys name!” Tagma then realized as he ran away. However, he was way too far away now to turn back. He would have to get caught if he did. All he could do was being thankful for this one Changeling helping him out. Maybe one day, he somehow was able to return this favor.
It took a while but soon Tagma found himself outside, far away from the Changeling Kingdom. No one was following him so far, but they soon would come after him so he could not stop walking away from it. However, he was already far away from it.
He could only look back to where the Changeling Kingdom was but then decided to look forward to what was ahead of him.
“Now what?” Tagma said as he looked over the vast land of Equestria, figuring out where he should go next.
But as a Changeling in a land full of ponies, that was probably easier said then done...
To be continued...