The Legend of Friendship - Outcasts

3. The Shapeshifter - Part 1

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 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 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 too 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 of how the Changeling in front of him was angry at him.