//------------------------------//
// 4. The Shapeshifter - Part 2 
// Story: The Legend of Friendship - Outcasts 
// by Danieru 
//------------------------------//

It has been a few days since Tagma successfully escaped from the Changeling Kingdom. So far, he didn't encounter any Changelings who tried to take him back home. But he knew that they were out there, looking for him all over Equestria. He just couldn't stop walking further and further away from it in order to find someplace to hide.

But even that had to wait because Tagma had other things to worry about. “Hungry...” he said in a zombie-like state as he slowly walked through the land.

Changelings normally “eat” love in order to feel fit and strong. Real food is often consumed if Changelings were away from the Kingdom for a long time and didn't happen to come across any love to consume. Tagma, however, could create love himself so he didn't need to worry about the love part but he seemed to have noticed that this caused him to get hungry faster than any other Changeling when it came to real food. They did feed him real food when he was imprisoned in the Kingdom which is why he did not seem to notice that right away. Figuring this out right after he was considered to be some kind of special Changeling by Queen Chrysalis herself was actually kind of upsetting.

He needed food badly. To think that he didn't come across a single apple tree or a bush filled with berries just proved how bad he was prepared to live in Equestria. Certainly not a good start in his new life, whatever it might end up being.

Tagma continued to crawl through the land. Starting to feel weak after all the way he has traveled so far. He couldn't even fly anymore and even if he could, staying on the ground was probably a lot safer in order to not get caught. What would be smart, however, was if he could transform. But he was even too weak for that.

Fortunately, his luck seemed to have changed for the better. He spotted a small cottage on top of a little hill surrounded by a fence. Of course, he approached it to see if there was something edible to find. As soon as he approached the fence, he felt like as if he stumbled upon heaven. There was a field, filled with vegetables. Cabbages, melons, carrots, pumpkins and much more stuff inside of this field, ready for Tagma to get his grip on. The only problem: there was somepony working on the field at the moment.

It was a Pegasus stallion with a leaf green colored coat and a yellow mane, wearing a yellow headband. His Cutie Mark consisted of a yellow lightning bolt inside of a black circle. However, he was turned around and didn't see Tagma, making this the perfect opportunity to get to some of the vegetables. 

Tagma began to sneak up to the field. He climbed over the fence and made his way to the first thing he came across, which happened to be the carrot field. One step after another, he came close to it without alerting the pony. The pony seemed to be too occupied with his work to notice the Changeling at all. Of course, that was only good for Tagma.

He was only centimeters away from one carrot and began reaching out his leg to grab it. “Almost there,” Tagma thought, thinking that he was already victorious.

The pony then suddenly stopped moving and raised his head a little. “If I wouldn't know it any better, then I would say that someone is trying to steal food from my field...”

Tagma stopped his movements as soon as he heard this ponies voice. He turned his head towards him and noticed how the pony was still looking in the completely opposite direction. “How did he see me? He didn't even turn around,” he wondered confused.

The pony then turned around. “I guess you are trying to reach out to...let's see...my carrots?” The pony guessed with a serious tone in his voice.

It was only now that Tagma realized that the ponies headband was not around his forehead but rather around his eyes. This, of course, raised the question how that pony was even seeing Tagma at all, let alone knowing that he was right next to the carrots. Tagma simply didn't move in response.

“I know someone is there. Not moving will not save you. If you don't speak now, then I'll just assume that you are a danger that I have to get rid of,” the pony explained, probably narrowing his eyes under his yellow blindfold.

The last thing that Tagma wanted right now, was to get into a fight. He always tried to avoid trouble and now that he was starving, it was not like as if he even had the strength to fight someone so the only logical thing was to explain the situation.  

“Wait! Don't hurt me! I was just looking for something to-”

But his words got interrupted by a pretty big rumble that came from his belly. This led to a rather awkward silence that both of them didn't know how to break. Tagma was a little embarrassed and the farmer pony stood there a little confused, eventually, breaking the silence.

“Wow,” the pony then said. “That was a pretty loud growl...” he simply said, almost impressed before he loosened up again.
“Should have told me that you were starving. Let's go inside. I hate to see someone starving in my field. Even though I can't really see anything,” he said jokingly before he walked inside, waiting for Tagma to follow him.

Since the pony offered some food, there was no way that Tagma would refuse. Ponies are not in good terms with Changelings, that much did he know. Of course, knowing what Changeling do to them in order to gain love that was actually understandable for him. Any other Changeling would have got suspicious and thought that this could have been a trap. It may have been Tagma's empty stomach that made him not think about that and made him follow the pony inside.

Once inside the cottage, Tagma was offered to take a seat at the table in the middle of one of the rooms of the cottage. There was not much inside of this cottage, a little kitchen at the end of the room, a wooden table with two wooden chairs next to it, some closets, a door that lead to the bathroom. There were also a few windows on the walls, from which you could see the farm outside. It seemed a little provisionally. There was no way that this pony was living in a little cottage like that. His home must have been somewhere else. But then again, Tagma was not really sure how ponies lived.

The Changeling sat on one of the two chairs and patiently waited for the pony to get some food. The pony walked towards his fridge and opened the door. “Thank goodness that I bake this one today,” the pony said relieved, grabbing a pie out of the fridge, closing the door with his hind leg, walking towards the table and placing it on it. “Here you go,” he said before he sat down on the other chair with a smile on his face.

It was worth mentioning that the pony was blindfolded the whole time, leading for Tagma to react more than impressed. “How did you do all this without looking?” He asked confused, forgetting his rumbling stomach for a second.

The pony seemed confused about this question. “Oh, that? I just memorized everything in here. This makes it pretty easy to not walk into things,”

“You know you could just take off that blindfold...” Tagma then advised. However, as soon as he said those words, he realized that this was something really stupid to say. If that pony took off his blindfold, then he would find out that Tagma was a Changeling and Tagma was way too weak to even transform right now.

“I'm afraid that even if I would do that, it wouldn't change much,” the pony replied. “I'm blind,”

Tagma reacted in surprise but also was a little relieved that this was the case. At least now, he wouldn't get in too much trouble. Still, he felt like as if he should apologize. “I'm sorry to hear that.”

The pony, however, replied rather cheerful. “You don't have to. It happened a long time ago and I'm not feeling like as if I lost much. My other senses, like hearing, smelling or my memory are now way more advanced, as you probably noticed. That's how I noticed how you were approaching my field, by the way,” he explained.

Tagma was impressed, to say the least. Considering, how hard Tagma tried to not get caught, and how far away he was from him, that was pretty impressive. The pony remembered Tagma that his stomach was still empty and that he better start to eat soon, or else he would pass out or worse. “Right!” The Changeling said nervously before he started to stuff a piece of the pie in his mouth. It was pumpkin pie, according to the pony. Not that Tagma would care what kind of flavor it was at this moment but he had to admit that it was quite tasty.

“What's your name, by the way?” The pony asked.

“Tagma!” The Changeling replied while he happily munched the pie away. He probably didn't realize that he should have come up with another name to not cause any suspicion.

But the pony didn't seem to wonder and introduced himself as well. “My name is Sole Light. Or just Sole. Nice to meet you,” he said happily as he waited for Tagma to finish his pie.

Not much conversation was going on while Tagma was eating but it didn't feel uncomfortable or strange. It was rather the complete opposite. The time inside of the Changeling Kingdom was not really what someone would call “nice”. Every Changeling was either serious, gloom or even unhappy which was a huge contrast to who Tagma was. There was never someone who would smile or laugh with him, making him feel a little left out. Sole was probably the only one, so far, who was enjoying to spend time with Tagma, not counting those three ponies that he had to deceive on his first mission, back then. 

It felt...nice.

But no matter how happy he was at this moment, as soon as Sole would find out that Tagma was a Changeling, all this would end. So Tagma had to make sure to not cause any suspicion. At the same time, however, Tagma regretted that he had to lie to Sole. No matter how special of a Changeling he was or how much he didn't want to be one right now, deceiving others seemed to be something that he could not escape.

Tagma finally finished the pie and felt how his strength returned to him. “That was delicious! Thank you!” He said happily, finally feeling like as if he was alive again. “Sorry that I tried to steal some of your food. I was just so hungry...” Tagma apologized a little ashamed, rubbing his neck in the process.

“Don't worry about it. Nothing happened. I could also tell that you didn't try anything bad so there is nothing to worry about,” Sole assured, though it was unknown how he came to that conclusion.

Now Tagma was back where he was before. He had no idea where to go to and what to do now. But he knew one thing for sure. He could not just leave without repaying Sole for giving him something to eat.

But Sole didn't seem to fond of this idea. “There really is no need for-” Sole said before he was interrupted by Tagma again.

“Come on! You saved me! There has to be something that I can do to repay that!” Tagma said determined as he jumped up from his chair.

Of course, Tagma came off as a little clingy but at the same time, he tried to stay at this place as long as he could. There was probably no second chance that he would meet another pony that he could talk to normally. Besides, he didn't know where to go in the first place.

“I don't think this is a good idea...” Sole said a little worried.

Soon, Tagma was practically begging on the ground to show his gratitude, putting Sole in a pretty uncomfortable situation. “Oh, boy...” Sole said a little bothered.


Later...


Eventually, Sole gave in and allowed Tagma to let him help on the farm for today. Except, that Sole was not allowed to lift a hoof and was supposed to sit on a bench, letting Tagma do the work. However, that did not change the fact that Sole was a little worried. “Have you ever done something like this?” Sole asked worried which was actually saying a lot considering that it came from a blind pony. “I can still help you, you know...”

But Tagma was determined to do this on his own. “No, no! You rest over there! You do this every day so you deserve some rest. I'll do your work for today!” He insisted.

But that was easier said than done. There was a whole wagon full of tools to work with or bags, filled with seeds. He had no idea what kind of seeds were inside of the bags because there was something wrong. “Hey! Your seed bags are not labeled! How am I supposed to know which is which?” He asked.

“Well...I am blind so I don't really need labels...” Sole replied casually, causing Tagma to react a little embarrassed.

Sole explained that he filled every seed in bags, made out of different material so that he could remember. He explained which seeds where in which bag but then he realized that there was no need for that since he only had to plant some cucumbers.

Tagma picked the right bag out of the wagon and began his work. He looked for an empty spot to plant them in and quickly found one. It was most likely already prepared from Sole one day earlier. He tried to open the bag but he accidentally, ripped it open and let the seeds fall out of the bag.

“Ah!” Tagma screamed in frustration and shock as he watched how the seeds were scattered all over the place.

“Is something wrong?” Sole asked confused, after hearing this shocked scream from Tagma.

“Everything is fine!” Tagma straight out lied as he began to collect the seeds from the ground hastily.

To make up for this, Tagma began to quickly stomp the seeds on the ground. The seeds were supposed to lie on the ground in a straight line but Tagma's line was all over the place and once the cucumbers would grow, everyone could see that.

But Tagma had no time to take care of that and continued his work. The next thing he was supposed to do was watering the seeds and the other vegetables. He grabbed a watering can and proceeded to swing it around the whole place. Sole could feel some water drops hitting him but he didn't say anything and proceeded to stay still on the bench.

The next step was to harvest some vegetables. Tagma was not sure which ones exactly he had to pull out so he just decided to rip everything out of the ground what he could see. Pumpkins, melons, cabbages, everything was flying around on the field and only in a matter of seconds. All the work that Sole put into this field was ruined.

Tagma just wished that by some miracle, Sole was not aware of all this. But as soon as he saw how a pumpkin was literally on Sole's head, making him look like as if his head was replaced by it, he feared the worst.

Sole's body was stiffening before he removed the pumpkin from his head. Soon he began to shake. Tagma noticed that and figured that Sole was probably getting angry at him for messing up all this time and causing him to fix all the mistakes that he made on the field. However, instead of shouting at him, Sole began to laugh uncontrollably.

Soon, he calmed down again but his voice was still filled with laughter and some giggles. “You have no idea what you are doing, huh?” He asked.

“Sorry...” Tagma apologized with a frown on his face, lowering his head in shame.

Sole began to walk up to the Changeling, not showing any anger or disappointment towards him. “It's okay, really. I have enough food stored in my cottage. It's not like you ruined anything,” Sole assured, calming Tagma down again.

The two then cleaned the mess that Tagma created together. Sole had no idea how the field looked right now so Tagma had to do most of the cleaning of course. Sole was taking all this way better then Tagma expected. He was not mad at all and forgave Tagma for all this.

As they continued to clean all this mess, Tagma started poking around if Sole was maybe letting him stay for a while. Of course, he didn't want to bother him anymore but the harsh truth was, that he had nowhere to go and Sole seemed like an okay guy so asking him was worth a shot.

But as soon as this was mentioned, Sole became a little more serious. “I don't think that's a good idea. I prefer to be alone. It's better that way,” he briefly explained.

Sole's mood changed a lot after that was brought up but he tried to change the subject. “What about your home? Your family? Don't you have a place to live to go back to?” Sole began to ask.

Tagma stopped his work for a moment and began to think. He couldn't explain where he was coming from. He would reveal that he was a Changeling. The moment where Sole would find out, he would either be scared or worse, he would try to scare him off.

The only thing Tagma could do, was replying briefly. “I have a home...but...I can't go back...” Tagma said a little hesitantly.

“Why?” Sole obviously questioned.

Of course, Tagma couldn't hide the truth forever. It felt wrong standing in front of Sole in his Changeling form and not telling him that he was one. If he would find out later, it would only get worse after all. It was no or never.

“Because...” Tagma started.

“Wait!” Sole then interrupted, scaring Tagma for a second. He walked up to Tagma and smiled at him. “It's not important. I can hear that things are a little more complicated. I don't want to open up some wounds just for the sake of curiosity. We all have a past. And the good thing about it is that we can choose to forget it if something happened that we are not proud of or something that we didn't want to remember,”

Tagma was thinking about those words but had some trouble to understand them perfectly. Forgetting that he was born a Changeling and that he was used by his own queen is not that easy. But he surely wanted to forget some of the bad times that he had there.

Sole could feel, the sudden mood change in Tagma and let out a little sigh before he said something that surprised the Changeling. “ You know...you created quite a mess...” he said, causing Tagma to feel embarrassed again. “I don't know exactly what you did to the field so I will need some help to fix all this...”

Tagma figured where this was going to and widened his eyes.

“I guess, it would be a nice change if you could live here for a while...” Sole then said as he rubbed his neck.

Tagma then jumped at the Pegasus happily, hugging him in the process but he let go after a second so that Sole would not realize that he was a Changeling. “Sorry...” he apologized because of this sudden hug.

“No problem...” Sole replied happily. “However, if you stay here, then you better do some proper work, instead of creating a mess,” he advised.

“O-of course!” Tagma saluted, taking this advice to his heart.

Times would change a little around the farm. It was not clear though if it was for the better or the worse. But at least, Tagma was not alone. And hopefully, nothing would come in his way to change that.

Unless...if someone would find him. One of the Changelings. Or another pony. He didn't like that he had to lie when it came to being a Changeling to Sole, especially since he showed so much kindness towards him. But at the moment, he just had to keep it hidden from him...


Meanwhile...


Three Changelings flew over Equestria. One of them was wearing a black armor and helmet. He was the commander of the two that followed him. In fact, it was the exact same Changeling that overlooked Tagma's first mission. The two Changelings behind him were the two that were on this mission as well.

All of them were sent to look for a traitor that escaped from the Changeling Kingdom. Tagma.

Equestria was big and filled with a lot of ponies. On top of that, no one really knew where he escaped to. But no matter how long it will take, the order came right from Queen Chrysalis herself. They could not return until they brought Tagma back or else they would get punished.

Still, the two Changelings seemed to have some concerns to deal with Tagma since they know how Tagma would end up again once he returned. Unlike most Changelings, those two actually knew exactly what was going on. Other Changelings were only barely filled in of what Tagma was exactly and why he was so important for the queen. That was most likely the reason why those three were assigned to this mission.

The Changeling Commander noticed the worry of the other two and remembered them that their behavior was wrong at this moment. "You better not think about holding back or anything," he started, making the two widen their eyes in fear for a moment.

“The mission is to bring back Tagma! Wherever he is or where he hides, we will find him and bring him back to the Kingdom. No matter what it costs, we will bring back this traitor!” The Changeling captain said determined, boosting the morale of the other two Changelings with fear.

However, despite saying those words, he also had to admit that he had one or two things that he was worried about. "You just couldn't obey your queen, huh? You were in a position to support all of the Changelings but instead, you ran away and abandoned us. For that, I will personally drag you back in front of the queen!" The commander said to himself to get himself pumped as well.

It didn't look like as if Tagma could enjoy his stay with Sole for much longer if those three would find him. The best thing would be of course if they would never find him at all.

But those chances were very slim...


To be continued...