The Legend of Friendship - Outcasts

by Danieru

7. Escaping Destiny

The sun was about to go down in the distance, covering Sole's farm in shadows. Even though Sole was not able to see, his inner clock was telling him that it was getting late so he put away his tools and end work for today. Still, he peeled his ears after he heard noises coming from the farm. The noises came from Tagma who was still watering some vegetables and planting some seeds into the ground. Some of the noises also included some heavy panting noises which only got more of Sole's attention.

"I think we did enough for today," Sole said while he walked towards Tagma with a thankful smile on his face.

Tagma reacted to those words and placed his tools away as well. He still wanted to do some more work but at the same time, he was relieved that he could call it a day now since he was very exhausted and after looking up to the sky, he realized that it would probably a bad idea to work in the dark.

The two walked over to a bench and rested for a moment. Tagma looked up at the sky and watched the stars casting a light down at them. "I'm so done!" Tagma said as he stretched his legs a little.

"Well, you shouldn't have done more work than you can handle," Sole advised a little concerned but hidden under a smile. "I know I said that you have to work here if you want to stay but doesn't mean that you have to work yourself down to the bone,"

Tagma rubbed his neck out in embarrassment and just smiled like a colt that was just mildly scolded by one of his parents.

The two sat on the bench that was in front of Sole's little house and just relaxed. Of course, they did talk about some minor stuff but mostly, they just kept quiet and listened to the noises around them. The wind was blowing through the vegetables. Both of them could hear that and it helped them to relax even more.

Tagma closed his eyes so that he could listen closely to the noises around him. "I bet the sky looks really nice right now," Sole then said, finally breaking the silence between the two and causing Tagma to look at the pony next to him who looked up to the sky, unfortunately, unable to see the sky.

Tagma almost wanted to say that it wasn't anything special so that Sole would not feel too bad about not seeing it but Sole continued before Tagma could reply. "The sound of the wind is so relaxing. Hard to think that the night with all its darkness can be so calm. But darkness has some hidden beauty in it that most probably don't understand.
But for me...It's the true face of this world..."

Tagma didn't know how to reply to those words. They were surprisingly deep words coming from Sole. He only looked over at him with a confused expression on his face and was kinda afraid to reply to add something to this.

"Hey, how about we take it a little slow tomorrow? Normally, it takes me longer to get my work down but with you helping me, I and you, of course, can actually afford to take a break every once in a while. We could have some fun tomorrow," Sole suggested with a smile on his face.

Of course, Tagma would like that so he agreed to that idea. Still, he had the feeling that for this kind of kindness that Sole showed him, he should even do more to repay him. This made him think about something that was bothering him since he was allowed to stay, one week ago.

One week. One week and he still didn't tell him that a Changeling was living with him this whole time. The longer he would stay with Sole, the harder it would get to bring out the truth. But that was exactly what Tagma was afraid of. Ponies and Changelings can't get along just like that. Changelings steal love from ponies and hurt them. This made Changelings enemies of Equestria. Sole most likely was aware that Changelings exist and what they do. At least that's what Tagma thinks. They never came across talking about this so far.

"You're awfully quiet...is something the matter?" Sole asked, concerned, noticing that Tagma was a lot quieter than usual.

Tomorrow, the two agreed to have a day off and spend some time to have fun. But how can he have fun with someone who didn't know the truth about Tagma? Someday it will come out. Maybe even tomorrow. Sole was generous enough to let Tagma stay but all he did was keeping a secret that he was a Changeling. Sole would have never agreed to let him stay if he knew the truth. As far as being a Changeling goes, Tagma was really far away when it comes to that. He doesn't want to deceive ponies to rob them off of their love. But it looks like he couldn't even get that exactly right.

What if somepony else decided to drop by the farm?
What if somepony somehow tells Sole the truth?
No matter how short the time he spent with this pony was, he still saw Sole as a friend.
A friend that he didn't want to hurt.
The truth had to come out.
Now.

"Sole..." Tagma started, causing Sole listen closely since he noticed how shaky Tagma's voice was. "There is something I need to tell you. You have been so good to me...but I was not completely honest with you all this time. I don't think you want to have fun with someone like me... "

"Someone like you?" Sole asked confused, not sure what Tagma was getting at. "Why would I not have fun with you?"

There was a silence. It was still hard to get those words out and Tagma even considered to change the subject but he couldn't get back now. No matter what happens next, no matter what Sole would do after that, Tagma only wanted to be honest with the only pony that offered his friendship to him.

"Because...I'm a Changeling..."

There was a piercing silence after those words. Tagma didn't say anything after that and clenched his eyes shut, waiting how Sole would react to that big of an information. Tagma could only imagine what his friend would think about him now or what he would do to him. Fear, uncertainty and a whole more of other emotions raised up inside of Tagma who was still waiting for a response.

The Changeling looked over to Sole who was looking at him directly with a blank expression under his blindfold. Finally, Sole spoke up in a rather surprising casual way. "Yeah, I know..." he simply said.

"Huh!?" Tagma replied heavily confused, widening his eyes in the process. "You mean, you know that I was a Changeling!?" He asked more confused than he was ever before in his life.

"Uh...yeah....that's what I meant with, I know," Sole replied, again very casually as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

Tagma was still not sure how to react to this, even though it should have been the other way around. "Since when? And how?" He then asked.

"Since the first time I met you," Sole replied, making Tagma drop his jaw in confusion. "As for how...well, Tagma is not a very pony-like name so I was already playing with the thought that you would be something else. Sooner or later it just became really obvious," he explained, again very casual as if it was completely normal.

Tagma could only think about his commander who was scolding him for not being very good at deceiving ponies. Not to insult Sole, but it made it even worse that he couldn't even deceive a blind pony. This made Tagma actually a little sad.

"So you...don't mind that I am a Changeling?" Tagma then asked as he tried to process all this.

Sole pointed to his yellow blindfold "I'm blind. I couldn't care less how you look like, to be honest," he said with a smile on his face.

"But Changelings suck out the love of other ponies! Ponies are afraid of us!" Tagma explained.

"You didn't try to steal any love from me so there is no reason for me to be afraid, right?" Sole simply replied.

What Sole said left Tagma completely stunned. He didn't know what else to say and dropped to his knees in defeat. "And all this time I felt bad for not telling you this. I thought that as soon as you find out, you will send me away or worse," suddenly, Tagma realized something. "Wait. At first, you didn't want me to stay! but at this point, you already knew that I was a Changeling. Is that why you didn't want me to stay?" Tagma then asked.

Sole seemed to be caught off guard by this question. "No. That really wasn't the reason for that..." he replied before he turned his head away from Tagma. There was a short silence after that. Of course, Tagma wanted to find out the reason but after Sole so casually accepted the fact that he was a Changeling, he felt like that it was asking a little too much. Still, Sole continued.
"Well, since you were so honest with me, I guess I can tell you something about me as well," he said before he stood up from the bench.

Sole walked over in front of Tagma as if he wanted to present himself to him. "I'm not sure how familiar Changelings are with Cutie Marks. Every pony has a different one and it appears as soon as we find out our special talent or our destiny..."

Tagma immediately looked at Sole's flank. There was a yellow lightning bolt surrounded by a black circle. Tagma had no idea what this could even remotely mean so he waited for Sole to explain it.

And that's exactly what he did. "I haven't seen my Cutie Mark for a long time but it should be a black circle, trapping a lightning bolt, right?"

For some reason, the way how Sole described his Cutie Mark got Tagma thinking.
A lightning bolt surrounded by a black circle.
A lightning bolt trapped by a black circle.
Maybe Tagma put too much thought into that but he had the feeling that Cutie Marks were probably slightly more complicated than he initially thought.

Sole continued. "Ponies are bound to the destiny represented by their Cutie Marks. Normally," Sole paused. He actually found it quite difficult to explain this. "I don't really feel too comfortable with this thing on my flank," he said a little more bitter this time.

Tagma was confused. "Why? What is your destiny supposed to be?" He asked.

Sole took his time to answer. Tagma could feel that it was hard for Sole to share this with him. And after he continued, he knew why.

"I got this Cutie Mark after I betrayed my best friend..."

After hearing that, Tagma's eyes widened in shock. Sole didn't continue and Tagma had the feeling that he didn't want to know much more details but Sole continued anyway.

"I did a lot of things that I am not proud of...the thing that caused me to get this Cutie Mark is one of them. My Cutie Mark even reminds me that it is what I am destined to do. Betraying others," he explained before he turned his head towards Tagma. "Do you get what I am saying? I live here on my own so that I can prevent that. That is why I don't think...think that it is a good idea for you to stay here for too long. Because it will only be a matter of time until I betray you as well..."

Tagma didn't know how to react to this. And here he thought that he was hiding something really big from him. But the way how things are now, some would suspect that Tagma would be the one to run away now.
But how could he? He was in absolutely no position to judge Sole after keeping secrets as well. Especially, since Sole did accept him the way he is now and not the way he is supposed to be.

Tagma got up from the bench and walked next to Sole. There was only one thing for Tagma to say."As a Changeling, I don't really get this Cutie Mark thing completely. But I do know one thing!" He said almost excited while grabbing Sole's shoulder. "You are my friend and you didn't judge me because I was a Changeling. It would be kinda mean if I judge you for something that you did long ago, right?" He explained with a smile on his face which Sole, unfortunately, didn't saw.

"But my destiny..." Sole started before he was quickly interrupted by Tagma.

"I'm a Changeling. I don't think those Cutie Mark things don't really apply to me," he said, again with a smile on his face.

Sole felt a lot better after those words and smiled as well. He may even be tearing up under his blindfold. "Thanks, Tagma. And...you are my friend too," he replied happily before the two hugged each other.

The next day...

It was still early in the morning. The sun was barely up at this moment. Still, both Tagma and Sole were already up. As planned, the two were not going to work today but decided to spend the day by having some fun. However, neither Tagma or Sole knew what to do.

Tagma was outside and looked over the farm, in case if there was still something to do. Sole was still inside but soon walked outside as well with something that Tagma didn't really want to hear.
"It looks like there is still something to do," he said with a frown on his face.

Tagma looked disappointed. "What?" He quickly asked so that it could quickly be taking care of.

"We are lacking some firewood. There is barely enough for today if it gets colder at night. I need to go to a nearby forest to get some," Sole explained before he walked over to a small wooden, where he planned to place the firewood inside.

"Wait!" Tagma then said hastily as he ran over to Sole. "I'm going!"

"Are you sure?" Sole asked a little worried.

"I have no idea what we should do today so you can take care of that while I take care of the firewood! We should have plenty of time left after that!" Tagma explained determined to take care of this task.

Sole first wanted to talk him out of that but if there was one thing that he learned, then that Tagma could work really hard and quick if he wanted to. There was probably no way to talk him out of that either. "Alright," Sole then agreed.

Tagma pulled the cart behind him and walked down to where Sole told him to. He could actually see the forest already. It was not too far away and with this many trees, it shouldn't take too long until he was finished collecting some firewood.

As Tagma was walking away from Sole, the Pegasus Pony looked up to the sky which was ironic since he couldn't see and his eyes covered by a blindfold. Something seemed to grab his attention. As if there was something bad in the air, not a smell but rather...a feeling.

"Tagma..." Sole said, grabbing the Changeling's attention who was not too far away. Tagma turned around and wondered what Sole wanted from him. But Sole only said one thing.
"Be careful..."

"Uh...yeah...I will..." Tagma didn't know what to say to that and continued walking towards the forest.

Sole walked inside of his house and prepared something to eat for Tagma's return. Still, there was this feeling that something bad was about to happen. Or something bad already did. It caused Sole to get a little more cautious.

Of course, Tagma would not return right away, the forest was not that close after all but Sole walked outside for a moment. That is when the bad feeling grew stronger and took form of three Pegasus Ponies landing right in front of Sole.

One of them was a Pegasus mare with a white slightly gray-blueish coat color, a long dark blue mane, a long tail, orange eyes and a Cutie Mark consisting of three red sevens right next to each other.

The second was a Pegasus stallion with a white coat, a blonde mane with a red stripe on the side, a short blonde, a red tail, light blue eyes and a goatee. His Cutie Mark was a musical note with a brush and a pencil in front of it.

The third was a Pegasus mare and stepped towards Sole. She had an emerald-colored coat, an orange and yellow colored mane, light blue eyes and a rain cloud with a yellow lightning bolt coming out of it as a Cutie Mark. This pony was the only one to approach Sole. "Hello," she simply said with a cheerful attitude.

Sole was aware that she was not the only one around. He guessed that there were at least three ponies around. "What can I do for you?" He asked slightly suspicious.

The green coated mare was a little surprised by Sole's blindfold and raised her eyebrows but she still cut to the case real quick. "You may not see us right now but there are three of us. And we want to know if you saw anything or anyone suspicious around here when you were not wearing this thing around your eyes. For example...a Changeling?" she asked a little smugly.

Sole replied casually. "I never take my blindfold off. And even if I would, I'm blind so it wouldn't make a difference," he explained. "But..." he then said in more serious tone. "If it's a Changeling you are looking for..." he then said before he paused for a moment, grabbing the three ponies attention.

Meanwhile...

"Alright! That should be enough!" Tagma said as he looked over a huge pile of firewood that was inside of the wooden cart that was completely empty a while ago. The only thing that was a little off that all the wood pieces were very clumsily cut, obviously because they were cut very hastily so that Tagma cold spent time with Sole soon. "It's gonna burn anyway so there is no need for it to look pretty," he figured before he was about to return to the farm, dragging the cart behind him.

While being on his way, Tagma was thinking about how to spend the day with Sole. He didn't have much time thinking about it while chopping the wood. But it looks like as if he wouldn't have too much time now either.

"Found you!" A female voice shouted from above his head, which soon revealed herself as the green coated female Pegasus pony that confronted Sole earlier. Soon, the two other ponies, who were with her, landed right behind Tagma.

Since Tagma was not transformed, he felt like as if he was in some trouble now. Still, it was weird that three ponies ambushed a Changeling. Normally it would be the other way around.

After paying some more attention towards the two ponies behind him, he soon understood who he was dealing with. The two ponies behind him were the same ones that the two Changelings on his first mission turned into. "Wait. Are you?" Tagma then guessed as he looked at the mare in front of him.

The mare smiled. Shortly after, she was surrounded by green flames. The two ponies behind Tagma did the same and all three of them revealed themselves to be Changelings. In fact, it was the three Changelings that Tagma spent his first mission with. The mare in front of him turned into the Changeling commander who had him thrown into the chamber back then in the Changeling Kingdom. He was also indirectly responsible for Tagma being imprisoned by Queen Chrysalis.
Maybe anyone else would have a hate towards him for that but Tagma was only thinking about how to escape right now.

"So you were living on this farm the whole time, instead of coming back to the Kingdom? Just come with us to the Kingdom so that you can continue with what you were destined to do!" The Changeling Commander threatened, reminding Tagma that chances are not in his favor right now.
Hearing the Changeling speaking of the farm got Tagma's full attention and he became worried about Sole. "Still, I'm a little surprised that you managed to live there on your own or did you deal with the pony who used to live there? That would actually be some good news," the Changeling Commander complimented.

Tagma got confused by those words. "You were at the farm? Did you do something to Sole?" He asked worriedly.

This time it was the commander who got confused. "What are you talking about? I just asked you if you dealt with the pony that lived there because there was no pony there!"

Tagma was not sure if the commander was messing around with him or not. Maybe Sole was hiding before those three could catch him? Whatever it was, Tagma had his own problem to deal with right now. The two Changelings behind him actually tried to sneak up on him but Tagma noticed and already prepared his escape.

He knocked over the wooden cart and the two Changelings behind him got caught by the firewood that dropped down to them, creating the perfect opportunity for Tagma to run past them and flee.

The two Changelings only got away with some bruises and their getting spun around a little. "What are you doing!? Get him!" The Changeling Commander ordered, getting the two Changelings back on their legs. Soon the three were right on Tagma's tail who was doing his best to run away or at least hide away in this forest. Tagma soon found his opportunity to jump into a bush to confuse his followers. Unfortunately, the three Changelings saw that and jumped after him. After fighting their way through some bushes they found themselves on an open field in the middle of the forest with no sight of Tagma.

Of course, the Changeling Commander was not happy at all. "We lost him!" He exclaimed, mainly focused towards the other two Changelings who felt a little bad for that. "Maybe he returned back to the farm...we might still have a chance to get him back to the queen!" He said determined to still get Tagma back to the kingdom.

However, before he could spread his wings, he heard some noises coming from the bushes next to him. He instantly figured that it would be Tagma and waited for him to come out. But to his surprise, it wasn't Tagma. It was a pony.

The Changeling Commander, however, still looked through this. "You think I will fall for that!?" He said angrily. It was not the form that Tagma usually took when he was turning into a pony but there was no pony in this forest before so the Commander figured that this would be a trick from Tagma to confuse them, even if it strange that he would come back after they lost sight of him.

"I wasn't planning to go nicely on you in the first place but now I am seriously planning to lose my patience so you better..."

But his words were interrupted by some more noises that came from all sides. There were more ponies coming out of the bushes to his left and right. This proved that Tagma was most likely not among them.

"Where did they come from?" One of the Changelings said confused.

"Does that matter? They are in our way so we deal with them too!" The Changeling Commander replied annoyed that they only delayed his chase after Tagma.

The Commander was about to attack those ponies on his own to get this over with fast but he stood still once he figured that there was something strange about those ponies. They seemed emotionless and had some creepy smiles on their faces. Not only that but their coats and manes looked a lot less colorful what the Changelings were used to. But by far, the strangest thing was those white eyes which sometimes would even start to glow.

Those were not ponies that they have encountered before. For some reason, everything about them was telling the commander that they were anything but ponies.
So the biggest question was...what were they?

Just in the moment where the commander started to feel a little unease, the ponies all surrounded themselves in a dark aura while laughing maniacally.

Soon...all that could be heard was a scream of pain coming from inside the forest. After that...there was only silence...

Later at Sole's farm...

He shouldn't have come back to this place. Not after he was attacked by those three Changelings. But Tagma had to know what was going on. He waited at the farm for a while and looked for Sole but he couldn't find him. Not that there were too many places to hide in his house or his farm.

If what the Changelings said was true, then Sole must have already fled from them before they arrived.

But why would he?
Did he know that he was about to be attacked by them?
And where would he go?
Those questions circled around Tagma's head as he tried to come up with an answer.
Multiple things came back to him. Sole's Cutie Mark for example.
His special talent or his destiny was to betray others?
Is that why he ran away?
Why didn't he return here?

While he looked around the farm a little more, he eventually found something on the ground, right in front of the house. It was something that belonged to Sole. It was just another reason that spoke against Sole leaving this place.

His yellow blindfold.

Tagma picked it up and looked at it. It didn't have a scratch on it. But why would Sole leave it on the ground? Tagma was living on this farm for a whole week now and never saw Sole take it off once. It only adds even more confusion.

Sole did say that he preferred to be alone so that he couldn't put anyone in danger because of his special talent.
Sending Tagma away to get some firewood was probably the perfect chance to get away from Tagma?

"Maybe...I am really better off on my own?" Tagma said confused as he looked up to the sky.

The Changeling walked away from the farm and took one last look at it with a frown on his face. when he turned his head away from it he took the blindfold gave it a frown as well. "Maybe I'll find you out there so that you can give me some answers," he said before he took the blindfold and strapped it around his forehead, wearing it as a bandanna. "You said you were my friend after all,"

After that, Tagma walked away from the farm and was on his own again. Maybe putting trust into others was not the best idea after this experience but Tagma would not allow to give up and find this one place or pony that would accept him.

It may be not too long until he would find those...

Author's Note:

Happy New Year!

I'll start to get this story over a little quicker so that the main story can continue but there is still some potion left for this one. Still, I hope you don't see it as some kind of "Urgh, have to wait for this stupid story to end until I can go back to the main one" story and actually enjoy it.
If you did, please consider leaving some kind of feedback.
Also, make sure to follow me or this story if you want to keep track of all of my stories.

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Warning! My commentary still needs some work because I am not used talking in English that much so don't except some Pewdiepie or Markiplier quality. It actually is pretty awkward XD.

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See you all in the next chapter.
Bye!

Reading Order:

My Little Pony - The Legend of Friendship Season 1 + 2(Chapter 1 - 53)

My Little Pony - The Legend of Friendship - Diary of The Storm Wings

My Little Pony - The Legend of Friendship Season 3(Chapter 54 - 65)

Equestria Girls - The Legend of Friendship

My Little Pony - The Legend of Friendship - Outcasts