I just learned to shapeshift! I could be anyone now! I was still reveling in my victory when I began to feel this gnawing hunger, the same one I felt in the forest. Knowing what this feeling meant, I went downstairs to meet up with Pathfinder again.

“Pathfinder, I hungry,” I called out, and the pony I requested came out to meet me.

“Oh? What do you want to eat? I can make-”

“Not that stuff. Need…” I point to his chest. He’s silent for a few seconds before realization hits

“Right, changelings need love. Well, it was gonna happen eventually,” he pushes his chest out a bit for me, “go ahead, just not too much, please.” I nodded, then opened up my fanged maw, starting to extract the pink essence from his chest and bring it to my mouth. He whined slightly as I fed and after a few seconds I shut my mouth, satisfied, and he collapsed to the floor, panting heavily. I panicked momentarily before he held up a hoof to show he was okay. I breathed a sigh of relief and sat down. A few awkward moments passed before I spoke up.

“So...I learn shape-shift,” I say, only managing to turn the awkward silence into awkward loudness. He did look up at me though, smiling proudly at hearing that.

“Lemme see,” he says, and I comply, making myself into a carbon copy of him, and he looks even more proud. “Why don’t we...work on your disguise,” he says a tad weakly, and I nod in response.

I make my first change, my carapace turning into a royal purple coat as I lose my wings and horn. A few moments of thought later another burst of fire flows over me and my horn returns, straight now instead of twisted. I make an attempt to pull my mane into view, but I’m unable to do so and realize I haven’t yet given myself a mane yet. I tap my hoof on my chin and think some more before another burst of fire finds myself with something curly, a lighter purple compared to my dark amethyst eyes. I look over at Pathfinder, who nods approvingly.

“You look cute...Mesmer Swirl.”

“Mesmer...Swirl?”

“You need a pony name, and I think that’ll do nicely.” I think on it for a few moments,

“I like,” I say as I strut around the room, admiring my new look. “So Mesmer Swirl go school?” I inquire, and he nods

“I’ll set you up for as soon as I can.”

———————————————————————————————————————

About a week later, I was being walked through the little town of Maregate over to the local school. It was interesting, seeing all the ponies milling about from an inside perspective. I could feel how happy the little town was, how calm and peaceful, how there was no way there could possibly be a love-eating shapeshifter about. I giggled at their ignorance.

When we finally arrived, we saw the school to be a small red building, enough for maybe four classrooms. It is a small town, so they could get away with that for an elementary school. When we come to the door, Pathfinder turns me to face him.

“Now Mesmer, you remembered what we talked about?”

“No hypnotizing ponies,” I grumble, irritated. Queen Mesmera should not be barred from the respect she deserves. She shall not be barred from it.

“That’s right,” He pats my head, “now get in there and do some learning.” He gives me a little nudge in the direction of the school, and I roll my eyes as I walk in the direction of the school.

Inside, I see other foals going about and heading to their classrooms. Mine is the second on the right. I make my way over and enter a room of about a dozen foals, a few more entering alongside me. I sit down at one of the unoccupied desks. Once everyone has settled in and the room is quiet, the teacher comes up to the front of the room.

“Good morning class! Today, we have a new student. Mesmer Swirl, would you like to come up to the front?” The yellow mare exclaimed, and I tensed up momentarily at having the focus of the entire class, then got out of my seat and up to the front of the room, where I faced the rest of the class. “Tell us a little bit about yourself, Mesmer.”

“I sure you all love me,” I say with unrivaled confidence, snout high in the air as I smile brightly.

“Well, I hope that we all do. Thank you, Mesmer. You may sit down again,” and so I do, plopping back down at the desk I began at. “Now then, it seems about right that we’re going right into writing.” I was introduced to pencil and paper for the first time and being taught how to spell different words. Well, they were being taught, while I was sitting there trying to understand what ‘T’ was.

“Psst,” the pony next to me, a white filly, leaned in towards me, “Need some help? I’m Brightstar.” I considered her proposal for a few moments, then proceeded to push my papers towards the edge of my desk in her direction. She leaned in a bit closer and realized that my paper was completely blank, "You haven't done any work?"

"Don't know how write. Or spell. Don't know all words or how say," I explained as best I could, and after a few moments of stunned silence, she raised her hoof.

"Ms. Marigold? Could you come here?" And thus, the yellow mare leading the class approached us.

"Yes, Brightstar?"

"I think that Mesmer Swirl might need to learn a bit more than just writing," she explained. I puffed my cheeks out at this, insulted.

"No need help! Can learn with rest ponies!" Nobody was convinced.

"Perhaps some private lessons might be of use. In fact, Brightstar here was having private math lessons with me to help her keep pace with the rest of the class, along with another foal, Light Stem and Night Stem," she gestures over to two foals, one with a bright yellow coat and a black mane and tail, and one with the exact opposite colors. "I'll tell you what, after class is over, why don't you stay with the other three for lessons, alright?" She had a warm, caring smile on her face, happy to help a struggling pony to learn. I nod in acceptance.

"Will stay. You help Mesmer," I state commandingly.

"Yes, of course I'll help you, it's why I offered," she tussles my mane, "In the meantime, Bright, please do help Mesmer here with her work." A small salute is given in response followed by the filly turning to me.

"So then, shall we teach you the alphabet?"

Author's Note

I now have an editor and as a result, the previous chapters have undergone some editing and reformatting. Only small changes have been made to previous chapters, not enough to change the course of the story, so rereading them isn’t necessary. Anyways, chapter 4, yay!