I Can Change

It had been a year since Equality was named. True to what she told her son, Constance decided to enroll him in Cheerilee's school, even though he was somewhat young to be starting school. She knew that, despite his early age, his prodigious intellect and easygoing personality were enough for him to start receiving his education. A month later was his first day of school. Constance walked Equality to school, and told him exactly what to do on his first day.

"I know you're a little young, but you're ready for school, I can just feel it. Now remember, treat everypony--"

"With equal respect and kindness, I know. I think I got it, Mommy," Equality said abruptly. She didn't want to scold him for his smart remark in public, so she replied,

"Good, now you're ready. Go get 'em, my son." Equality nodded, as he trotted into the schoolhouse, while Constance could only smile as she walked back home.

Equality made it inside, and got exactly what he expected from the other school ponies: some locked stares and open mouths. Some were from amazement, some from confusion, and others from comic relief. He was different from everypony else, and it was obvious. Nopony expected someone of his young age to be starting school. He was only four years old, after all. His ears also appeared to be pointy, as one student pointed out. Plus, the fact that he already had his cutie mark was astonishing to some, even to Cheerilee, who had been at her desk watching everypony.

"You must be our new student, Equality," the teacher said.

"That would be me, ma'am," Equality nervously replied.

"This is quite amazing, really. You look younger than anypony in this room, and yet you already seem like you've grown up so much as a pony, even if you're still as small as your age would expect."

"Is that a... good thing?" Equality replied in confusion. But who could blame him? He had never seen other ponies his age before, or older for that matter, except for his mother. Cheerilee decided to make this announcement to the class.

"Alright class, let's all take our seats." The students all came to their respective desks, except for Equality, who just stood in front of the class. "I'd like to introduce you to our new student, Equality." The students all said hi to him, as he blushed. "Tell us something about yourself, Equality."

"Well, I've never really left my house without my mommy until recently, so I don't have much to say." Some of the class laughed at this, but Cheerilee made sure they didn't embarrass him.

"Alright, then. Anyway, go ahead and take one of the empty seats, and we can start your first day." Equality did just that.

Equality decided to go with one of the empty back seats, since only one other pony was seated in the back, and they weren't paying much attention as it is. One filly looked to him from the seat in front of him, and asked,

"So you're the new colt, right?" Equality nodded his head.

"Hi, I'm Geneva," she said, presenting her hoof for a hoofshake. "And I must say, you're really interesting." Equality had not yet learned how emotions worked, despite his prodigious intellect, so this was his first instance of flattery. He laid his hoof out as well, and he nervously smiled back.

"Th-thanks, you're pretty interesting, yourself, Geneva," Equality didn't understand it yet, but he had just experienced his first crush; he had just fallen in love with the cream-coated, black-and-blonde-maned pegasus filly.

"Alright class, it's time for today's lesson," the teacher announced. Equality listened to everything the teacher had to say, taking a lot of notes, and even reciting what he learned at the end of class perfectly. The students, as well as the teacher, were impressed. Equality's first day of school ended up going swimmingly.

A week had passed since Equality's first day at school. During this time, he and his mother found a new home in town, which had more room to allow for storage of Equality's school stuff. He came back to school one day, and went to his seat in the back, and looked straight to the front of the class, despite his temptations to stare at Geneva, for he knew today was going to be fun. It was show-and-tell day at school, and he wanted to show everypony his transformation ability. He had practiced all night the night before. Three colts went ahead of him. One could juggle five bits at once. Another could do a surprisingly good impression of all the Wonderbolts, especially Soarin, but then again, the fact that he loved pies as well made it too easy. The third brought his pet rabbit, Snowy, who was asleep the whole time, embarrassing the colt. Equality's turn came up next. He was feeling the strongest sense of pride he ever had felt. He walked to the front of the class, concentrated, and transformed into the teacher.

The class was shocked, to say the least, as nopony else could transform like that, not even the unicorn foals in the class. Everypony murmured to one another, some impressed, but most saying that he must be some sort of freak. Equality heard everypony's insults, and all his pride had turned into shame and sadness. He slowly walked back to his seat, and sat there, trying his hardest not to cry.

"O...K... that was interesting," Cheerilee said. "Well, onto the next student. You're up, Geneva." Geneva walked to the front of the class, and read her favorite book to everypony, a Daring Do spin-off titled "A.K. Yearling's Amazing Double-Life". The students gave a round of applause, except Equality, who was still sad from his performance. He still watched her read the whole thing, since he admired her so much. Geneva came back to her seat.

"That's an amazing story," Equality said her in a breaking voice.

"Save it. I don't know why I ever found you interesting. You're just... a freak." Equality now knew what it meant to be heartbroken, and started sobbing quietly. He spent the rest of the school day feeling depressed and ashamed, until the dismissal bell rang, and everypony went home. Cheerilee asked Equality to stay behind for a minute, which scared him, but he knew when she asked a student to stay behind, it was in their best interest to do so.

Cheerilee wasted no time breaking the ice. "Equality, I don't want to sound mean when I say this, but what you did for your show-and-tell presentation was, well, theoretically impossible. How did you learn how to do that?"

"I-I-I don't know, I've always been able to do that. Can't anypony else do that?" the colt said, still crying. The teacher replied,

"Only one species in Equestria is able to do that, Equality. They're called changelings, and they're known for bringing destruction throughout our land. You're young, and I know you probably wouldn't have been aware of this, but if any adult ponies saw you do that in public, you might be taken away by Princess Celestia for your changeling powers. Please, just do me a favor, and please don't transform like that in class again. Just stick to your own appearance, black coat, white mane, and everything." Still crying, but now also confused, Equality nodded his head and left.

Equality walked home, and found his mother reading a letter that had been sent from Cheerilee. Constance noticed her son walk in, consoled the sad colt, and calmly said,

"I know about what happened at school today."

"You have no idea. It was so embarrassing. Plus, the one filly in class that I like broke my heart." Constance had no idea that he was in love with one of the school fillies, but she didn't want to raise her voice.

"I know it must be rough, learning that you have abilities that nopony wants to see. I probably should have told you this sooner, but after what happened, it would be wrong of me not to let you know." Equality had a feeling that what he was about to hear would change his outlook on life forever. "You see, your father was a changeling." He was right, those seven words rocked his world, and he could do nothing but space out blankly, trying to digest what he had just heard.

"Like Ms. Cheerilee told you, changelings are known for the trouble they have caused Equestria. But don't be so upset, your father wasn't like other changelings. While others of his kind wanted to bring destruction, he wanted to treat everypony, no, everybody equally, meaning all species. He defied Queen Chrysalis, their leader, fled their hive, or castle as you'd call it, and disguised himself as a regular earth pony, which is when he met me. I was walking through town as usual, when I bumped into him. We had hit it off quite quickly, and quickly became best friends, and even sweethearts. In fact, we even got married about a year later." Equality finally started to smile. "It was a month after our marriage that I got pregnant with you. Sadly, it was shortly afterwards that Queen Chrysalis appeared in front of our home and ordered your father to either come along with her, and wreak havoc upon Equestria with the rest of her army, or die trying to resist. Your father knew where his heart was, and true to his beliefs, he chose the latter. The queen then used her magic to end his life, leaving me alone with the house, and you still unborn. Why she spared us, I have no idea, but I was lucky to escape with you and our home intact."

Equality was dazed. He had never expected such a story, nor had he ever planned to hear anything of the sort. At least now he had an explanation towards why he had never met his father, and why he appeared different from everypony else in school, with his black coat and green-blue eyes, plus his pointy ears.

"But, why, Mommy? Why didn't you tell me this earlier? Why didn't you tell me that I was half-changeling before?" Equality asked, raising his voice.

"I knew you would find out eventually, but I wasn't sure when the right time would be. In fact, I was going to wait until you were older, but I never expected this to happen." At this point, even Constance was in tears. Equality was now feeling emotionally heavy, with his legs caving in.

"But, if I knew about being half-changeling ahead of time, I wouldn't have done what I did in class. Plus, Geneva wouldn't have called me a freak and broken my heart."

"I know, son, but you can't blame yourself. Until you started school, I was the only pony you ever knew, so if anypony should take the blame for this, it's me."

Equality knew his mother meant these words when she spoke, but he still couldn't help feeling like it was his fault.

"Mommy, what will happen to me now? I know I'm descended from an evil being, but Princess Celestia won't try to take me away from you, will she?" Equality asked, now scared. "I wouldn't want to lose you."

"No son, she won't. She knows that you're still a pony at heart, and even if she does try to take you away from me, she'll have to go through me if she wants to get to you. You may have changeling blood, but you also have my love and a pony's spirit, so that's all that really matters." She reached out to give her emotional son a hug.

"Th-thanks, Mommy," he replied, crying into his mother's warm, loving embrace.

The next day, Constance asked Cheerilee if Equality could be excused from class for a while, since he would have a hard time adjusting to this realization of his origins. Cheerilee knew this would mean he'd miss out on a vital part of his education, but she didn't want to risk having the other students making him feel worse, so she accepted. She gave Constance some supplies to homeschool him for the next week, and said that if he needs more time alone, she could feel free to ask for more.