The Legend of Friendship - Outcasts

by Danieru

9. No turning back

When non-ponies think about Equestria, then they often associate it with towns filled with ponies. So far, Tagma only knew Equestria as an empty grass field with occasionally a forest or a mountain nearby. He never came across any town or a city in all his time in Equestria. Considering that he could not return to the Changeling Kingdom without getting imprisoned again, Equestrian towns or cities were his only other options to find a place to live. But he had no idea if other ponies would even allow a Changeling to stay in their towns.

However, he did come across Sole and his farm. This encounter proved that there were ponies out there who would not judge him for being a Changeling at all. But at the same time, he knew that there were many ponies out there who would be the complete opposite. The pony that he came across a few hours ago, for some reason made not that impression on him. That Pony might not be the friendliest one Tagma came across, which is not saying much because he only came across two ponies so far. Something inside of Tagma just told him that this Pony was not caring too much about him being a Changeling. This was reason enough to stay close to him since the chance of coming across somepony like that was still rare.

However, the Purple coated Unicorn stallion was not too amused by Tagma following him. Mainly because Tagma kept coming closer to him each minute without realizing it. Once the Pony felt how his personal space was taken away too much, he stopped in his track and turned around, looking at Tagma with a serious expression on his face. "Why...are you...still...following me!?" The Pony asked annoyed.

Tagma should have felt a little intimidated by this but instead, he answered with another question. "What's your name?" He asked, unable to read the mood at all. The Pony just got more annoyed by this question and sighed. "It's just...if I am following you, then I at least should know your name, right?" He added with a smile on his face.

The Pony could have replied that Tagma would not have to worry about that if he would stop following him at all but instead he actually introduced himself, even if it was really forced. "It's Mystic,"

"Cool! I'm Tagma!" The Changeling replied cheerfully.

"I don't care," Mystic said before he turned around again, continuing his way as if this conversation didn't happen at all.

Tagma, however, felt like as if this "conversation" was a great progress. He proceeded to follow Mystic, slowly closing his distance to him even further.

Mystic just gave up making Tagma go away and just ignored him but because he was followed by a very cheerful and carefree Changeling, it was not the easiest thing since Tagma always found something to ask. Only a minute later, the next question showed up.

"Where exactly are you going to?" Tagma asked, trying to get closer to Mystic again.

"That doesn't concern you," Mystic replied, clearly showing no interest to tell anything about himself. "I still don't trust you, you know. Changelings consume love, that much I know. Maybe that is the reason why you are following me? So that you can find out more about me to suck out my love?" Mystic figured as he continued his walk.

Tagma got nervous. What Mystic said was not true of course but just the fact that Mystic came up with something like that made him worry a little. "No don't worry! I didn't plan anything like that at all!" He assured with a slightly nervous expression on his face.

"Good..." Mystic replied before he stopped and turned around to face Tagma, causing him to stop on his way as well. "...Because if you do...you will regret it," Mystic then added with a dead serious expression on his face that not even Tagma could ignore. One mistake, and Mystic would not be as "nice" as he was now. With that in mind, he kept continuing to follow Mystic, this time a little further away than before.

There was no indication for Tagma to where Mystic was going to, mainly because Tagma had no idea about Equestria in the first place. Mystic just proceeded to walk straight in one direction. It didn't look like as if he was keeping his eye out for something special. But even knowing that Mystic was wandering off into some random direction, Tagma followed him. It was either that or being all alone again. The choice of what to do was easy for him.

After another hour of walking with some random talking in between from Tagma's site, Mystic spotted something in the distance, that walked towards him and his follower. He peeled his eyes and soon figured what it was. Two Ponies. He could not care less about Tagma but he put in the effort to warn him that there are ponies approaching. "You better want to keep your pony form if you don't want to get in trouble..." Mystic advised, looking back at Tagma for a moment before he looked back at the two ponies and figured out something about one of them after taking a closer look. "Especially while being around this one stallion," he added as he kept a straight face.

"R-right!" Tagma said nervously before he straightened his shoulders to not cause any suspicion.

Mystic tried his best to avoid eye contact but one of the two ponies kept him from exactly that. It was a Unicorn stallion with a light blue coat and a purple armor who was accompanied by a blonde coated Earth Pony mare with a light red colored mane.

"See this armor?" Mystic then asked as he looked back at Tagma for a moment. "It looks awfully familiar to those that Celestia's Royal Guards wear...Though I don't remember them being purple..."

The name Celestia quickly raised Tagma's attention. "Celestia? You mean like...Princess Celestia? The ruler of Equestria?"

"I'm afraid so..." Mystic replied as he kept his eye mostly on the stallion.

At first, Tagma considered talking with those two so that he might swap out Mystic for those two as companions but knowing that one of them was a member of Princess Celestia's Royal Guard quickly made him scrap this idea for obvious reasons.

The mare seemed to look at Mystic from time to time and the stallion did his best to avoid eye contact as they walked towards the two. They didn't seem to be interested in any kind of talk just like Tagma and Mystic. Soon the two groups were close enough to each other but none of them bothered to say anything. Tagma was still nervous which was actually painfully obvious for anyone to see but nopony seemed to think anything about this. Mystic kept his eyes forward and only turned his eyes once the stallion with the purple armor walked past him without any words.

As soon as the two ponies were behind him, Tagma took a deep breath out of relief and was happy that this was over now. However, Mystic suddenly stopped. "You are a member of the Royal Guard. Am I right?" He said out of the blue, causing Tagma to react in shock, knowing that he was still in danger of being exposed to be a Changeling.

An even worse thought began to cross Tagma's mind. And that was the thought that Mystic might tell them that he was a Changeling. It was obvious that Mystic didn't like Tagma in the first place and he was also bothered how Tagma followed him all this time. This would be the perfect opportunity to get rid of him.

Both the stallion and the mare stopped. The stallion in the purple armor turned his head around. "What if I am?" He asked.

Mystic turned around looked at the stallion with a serious expression on his face. "Must be nice to blindly follow orders from somepony. Doesn't matter what it is, right?"

"What is your problem!?" The mare then said, feeling offended by the way how Mystic talked.

"I am not talking with you," Mystic directly replied, clearly showing no interest to talk with her.

"Why you-" the mare said as she attempted to walk closer to Mystic, determined to get a little rough now.

"Rosa!" The stallion then interrupted, stopping her from doing something stupid.

Rosa clenched her teeth and still looked at Mystic angrily but she stopped going after him. "Whatever!" She then said annoyed before she turned around as if she wanted to ignore this whole situation.

The stallion then spoke up and answered Mystic pretty calmly, despite how obvious he was mocking him. "I'm sorry to hear that you don't seem to be so fond of our Princess but still, it is not advised to speak like that in front of another member of the Royal Guard. You should think about that before you do that again," he advised before he turned around again, ending the conversation and leaving the two alone. Rosa followed him again, even though she wished that her companion would have gotten a little more aggressive.

Tagma was not sure what just happened or why Mystic felt the need to say something to anger a Royal Guard member but he was, once again, happy that this situation was over. "How about we keep walking as well? You know...in the other direction?" He asked, obviously trying to get Mystic away from the stallion before it came to a fight or worse.

But it was already too late for that. Mystic didn't even seem to listen to Tagma and his horn began to glow. He was preparing a spell and from the looks of it, it would be directed towards the stallion who's back was now turned to them. Tagma had a really bad feeling what was about to happen next and wanted to stop Mystic but knowing how easily he dealt with the Changelings a few hours ago, he decided to step a few steps back to avoid this upcoming fight.

Mystic was about to shot at the stallion but he stopped once he noticed some shadows above him. The other two ponies and Tagma quickly noticed how something was landing nearby. Before they know what was happening, the four were surrounded by maybe around twenty members of the Royal Guards. Soon Tagma got closer to Mystic again and Rosa was also getting closer to her companion with a worried expression on her face.

The Royal Guards slowly stepped closer to the four, causing them to get closer to each other. Soon, Rosa and the stallion and Mystic and Tagma stood back to back to each other, all of them keeping their eyes open for whatever was about to happen.

One of the guards walked out of the mass and directed his words toward the stallion in the purple armor. His facial expression alone indicated that he was not about to say something good.
"Captain..." he began before he stopped to correct himself immediately. "Former Captain Fade...On behalf of her majesty, Princess Celestia herself, we are ordered to capture you and bring you back to Canterlot," he said calm yet strict, getting his message out as soon as possible. "If you don't cooperate with us, we will use force if necessary," he further warned. He was clearly looking for a more peaceful solution and tried to avoid a fight.

But before, everypony could even think about that, Rosa for example, just realized that she was not traveling with some "little member" of the Royal Guard. "Captain? Does he mean, Captain of the Royal Guard?" Rosa asked towards Fade.

"Former Captain..." Fade corrected with a heavy frown on his face.

Mystic also seemed surprised. "That would explain the color of his armor..." he figured as he stood a little more distant away from Fade and Rosa.

Tagma was the only one who didn't say anything and was just shaking after he got surrounded by these many guards who could get him into problems in any second.

There was no pressure from the site of the Royal Guards. It even looked like as if they were wishing for Fade to not resist at all so that they don't have to fight him. It may be because they probably heard of what happened to him on his last mission.

After Fade didn't respond for a while, the same Royal Guard member spoke up again after he took a closer look the other three ponies next to him. "Are those accomplices of you? I think it would be better if we take them with us as well..."

As soon as those words were said, all four of the ponies reacted in surprise or in Tagma's case, pure shock. Fade put it on himself to explain the situation. "No! Wait! They are not. I don't even know those ponies!" He then looked down on the ground and began to think before he gave his response to the guards. "I'll come with you but leave them out of this," he demanded as he

This sentence actually got Rosa's attention who knew that Fade was saying this so that she won't get in trouble. She put a hoof on Fade's shoulder and looked at him with worried eyes. "Are you sure?"

Fade couldn't help but chuckle a little because of this. "Are you actually showing concern for me?" He asked with a thankful smile on his face.

Rosa looked away and narrowed her eyes. "I am actually concerned about your daughter...I thought you didn't want to put her in danger," she reminded him.

Fade was thankful for Rosa's concern. "I am," he assured with a smile on his face. "But the truth is since I left Canterlot, all this time I was just hiding. I knew that one day it will come to this. I just wished that it would be a little later. The only way to get out of this situation would be if I fight but then I would even hurt more ponies," he explained to Rosa. The was some kind of regret in his manner of speech but he seemed to have decided to do what he believed was the right thing. He looked over at the guards in front of him and gave some last words to Rosa. "Maybe it's better if I just let myself get captured..." he said before he walked over to the guard slowly.

Rosa, of course, didn't know the whole story and wondered what he did to even deserve to be attacked by those guards but she could feel how serious he was about his decision and how hard it was for him. Mystic and Tagma were also close enough to overhear all this. While Tagma felt sorry for Fade, even without knowing what this was all about, Mystic did not seem to care about it at all and remained quiet.

The guards seemed to be pretty relieved about this outcome. If they were all filled in about what Fade did on his last mission, then the last thing what they wanted was to fight him. Fade made sure that he was making the most less threatening impression on the guards so that they would not come to any conclusion. He avoided any eye contact with any of them and just thought about if this was really the best that he could do now. If he returned to Canterlot, then his magic would be taken away and he would not be allowed to see his daughter again because there could be a chance for her being affected by his Dark Magic. Thinking about that made him realize that he had no idea what would happen to him after that. With his trust lost within the Royal Guard and his daughter gone, what was he supposed to do after that? This thought was the only thing that made him regret his decision.

He could still turn around and try to fight of those guards. He could try to escape. In the eyes of the Royal Guards, he was already a traitor and probably a criminal. It was not like as if it would change anything about his current situation. There was still time to change his mind. All he had to do was attack the guards.

But...

His decision no longer mattered...

In an instant, he noticed a flash of light flying past next to him. It felt like as if time was slowing down in this moment. Fade looked at the guard who spoke to him a minute ago and was shocked and surprised what happened just now. He saw how he was directly hit by a magic beam and fell down to the ground, knocked out by it. The guards next to him slowly turned their heads towards Fade's direction and clenched their teethes angrily. Fade then turned his head around and looked behind himself. He instantly found out what happened. Rosa turned around as well and looked behind her in shock and Tagma only looked next to him to the pony who was responsible for the attack.

Mystic...

Mystic stood there with his horn still glowing and his face filled with a battle-ready expression. Of course, Fade was just thinking what exactly this was about and attempted to shout at him in anger but before he could even get a single word out of his mouth the guards in front of Fade already launched their attack and Fade walked back to Rosa who began to panic after she realized that a battle was about to go off.

From all sites now, the Royal Guards began to charge at the four ponies. While Fade and Mystic were ready to defend themselves, Rosa and Tagma both ironically cling to each other. "You! Protect me!" Rosa ordered as she stood close to Tagma.

"I actually thought that you could protect me..." Tagma replied nervously as he looked around and kept an eye on the Royal Guards.

"Me protecting you!?" Rosa replied offended. "You are a stallion and I am a fragile little mare!"

"Well, about that..." Tagma replied, almost telling her he was a Changeling and not a stallion but the Royal Guards soon approached the two and made them run away so that this conversation was put on a hold.

Meanwhile, Mystic and Fade both did really well fighting off all the Royal Guards that attacked them. For Fade, this situation felt a lot different than before. The last time he attacked his own guards, he was not aware of it which made this situation even worse. But there was no other choice now since the situation already escalated this much. It was unlikely that the other guards would listen to him now after one of them was attacked. they must think that Mystic was filled in with some kind of plan that Fade set up to get them off guard and now every bit of trust that was left for Fade was gone.

Fade had no time to worry about this anymore since now he had to deal with the guards that attacked him. As the Captain of the Royal Guards, his fighting skills were, of course, superior to those of the guards he was fighting against and made it easy to defend himself but because it was so many of them, it quickly became a challenge to take all of them on. What worried Fade, even more, was how aggressively and without mercy, Mystic was dealing with all of them. He made the situation even worse for Fade.

As the battle went on, the guards who charged after the four ponies became less. Still, there was a good amount of ponies left who went after them. Fade and Mystic began to get exhausted as the battle continued but they had enough energy to deal with the rest of them.

"This is getting a little boring..." Mystic then said, causing Fade to react a little surprised despite them being outnumbered by a good few of guards. "I guess being in the Royal Guard doesn't necessarily mean that you are good at your job, huh?"

The Royal Guards were of course, not too happy with Mystic's mocking and got even more angry at him. Fade could feel that Mystic was clearly not too fond of the Royal Guards for whatever reason. Whatever that reason was, it caused him to get into this mess now.

But instead of Fade being the one to talk to him about that, Rosa spoke up and got annoyed by Mystic's behavior. "Hey! If you got some personal problem with those guys then do us a favor and leave us out of it!"

Fade couldn't have said it in any other way but Mystic didn't seem to be too interested in Rosa's words. "Do I look like I care what happens to you?"

"Clearly not!" Rosa bickered back.

Mystic was either not aware of the situation in which they were in or he didn't seem to care about it at all. Whatever it was, his confidence was unshaken. "Just watch how I'll deal with the rest of them," he then announced before his horn began to glow in a dark blue light. There didn't seem to be happening anything at first but soon everypony noticed how a cloud of mist seemed to appear out of nowhere. It must have been Mystic who was responsible for this.

Fade, Rosa and Tagma were unable to see inside of it and just kept their guard up for any incoming attack. After a while, fighting sounds could be heard. Neither of the three ponies knew what was going on and expected Royal Guards to pop out of nowhere anytime soon. But much to their surprise, there was not a single attack coming at them. In fact, after a while, it became awfully quiet.

The mist began to vanish after a few minutes and Fade, Rosa and Tagma soon saw each other again. Mystic was missing but soon they noticed him a few steps away in front of them. He was standing where most of the last Royal Guard members stood a minute ago, making Fade wonder how he was not being attacked by them. But after the mist began to vanish completely, he realized what happened. The remaining Royal Guard members all laid on the ground, defeated with Mystic standing in front of them with a confident smile.

Tagma and Rosa were able to see again as well and were stunned by how Mystic had dealt with the situation. However, Tagma was actually pretty impressed and rushed towards the Unicorn. "You defeated the all? That was amazing!" He said cheerfully as he jumped up and down excited in front of him.

"Amazing!?" Rosa exclaimed angrily before she walked up to the two. "It was his fault that they attacked us in the first place!"

"Yes. This didn't have to end like this," Fade agreed as he walked up to the two as well, still being a little angry of how Mystic handled the situation.

Tagma seemed to be the only one who got a little confused by this reaction. "But didn't they want to capture you? Shouldn't you be happy?" He asked confused.

"Still..." was the only reply that Fade gave before he looked over to the knocked out Royal Guard members around him.

Mystic walked up closer to Fade. "You know, you can still wait for them to wake up again so that they can carry you all the way to Canterlot," he said in order to provoke Fade even further.

Fade knew that right now, he was in even more trouble. Princess Celestia would find out that he was now resisting to get back to Canterlot and that he would even use force to archive that. Things just kept getting worse on a daily basis. as for now, Fade came only to one conclusion. "I'm done running away aimlessly. I need a place to stay for a while so that I can rethink everything," he said before he walked away. from the group.

Rosa, of course, was right behind him. "And where would that be?" She obviously asked.

"A place where I know that Princess Celestia or the Royal Guards were probably not looking after..." he simply replied with his sight focused in front of him.

"And what about those two?" Rosa asked, hinting at Mystic and Tagma. "Don't you think that it is a little unfair that they caused us problems? Maybe if you explain everything to the next guards that we come across, they'll understand?" She suggested.

But Fade declined. "I'm afraid it won't be that easy...besides...I think I want to stay away from any Royal Guards for a while..." he replied. Rosa did still not know the whole story about Fade so it was a little more complicated than she first thought. A few minutes ago she didn't even know that she was traveling with the Captain of the Royal Guards. Still, Rosa did not want to leave him alone yet and offered her company, something that Fade gladly accepted.

Mystic and Tagma were left behind. It was obvious that the two groups were not getting along all too well so there was no reason to spent any more time with each other. Still, Mystic did not seem to have lost his interest in Fade and looked at him as he was walking away.

"The Captain of the Royal Guard..." Mystic mumbled to himself.

"Is that someone important?" Tagma asked confused.

"Yes, he is," Mystic replied, narrowing his eyes in the process before he walked in the same direction to where Fade and Rosa went to.

Tagma noticed that and only got confused. "You want to follow them? Why?" He asked. Mystic did not make the impression that he even likes to talk with Fade or Rosa so the fact that he was about to follow them was just confusing to him.

"If he was the Captain of the Royal Guards, then he must know something that I want to know..."

Mystic then walked off and followed Fade and Rosa in a wide distance. Tagma, of course, followed as well. They both didn't know if Fade and Rosa noticed them but that would probably not stop them. All of the sudden, it was a group of four who traveled seemingly aimlessly through Equestria.

The question was...what had destiny in plan for those four?

To be continued...

Author's Note:

What a very lovely team so far, am I right?
What will happen once the group is complete and what will they do?
You should have an idea if you read the main story...

I hope you enjoyed the chapter and that you will leave some kind of review to let me know.
Till 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