Learning spells was not as fun as I imagined. And after flying over it in the library, I didn't imagine it to be much fun in the first place. After sitting down in the Whitetail Woods park on one of the available benches and reading about two chapters, I made the choice to only learn metaspells and not even bother with specific single-purpose spells.
Now you are probably wondering: What the hell are metaspells?
Metaspells are not actually spells, but rather spell templates. A metaspell doesn't create any sort of actual result on its own, given that it lacks the variables to produce any sort of actual result. Wouldn't recommend trying to cast them as they are. To anyone ever. Gives you what is described, in Star Swirl's words, a cerebral pseudoaneurysm. Now, I'm not a doctor, but that sounds like it hurts, so I'm just gonna refrain from doing that, since Star Swirl seems to be one of the few Unicorns in pony-history who knows what he's doing. Makes you wonder how he knew what exactly the consequences were. I mean, sure, you could always say that he used a scanning spell, but how did he knew that his scanning spell was correct? Wouldn't he need to know how ponies look from the inside for this?
... Would explain the few hundred recorded ponies missing during his lifetime, wouldn't it?
Where was I? Oh yes, metaspells. You know how the royal guards all look the same? That's an illusion-enchantment on their armor. Now imagine Celestia goes goth during a midlife-crisis and now wants all guards to be black. How would she go about this? That's were the fact that the illusion was made via a metaspell comes in: She makes a mental note of how she wants her guards to look like and then creates an instance of the metaspell with these variables, making it a full-blown spell.
So I focused on learning those before I went into the more specific and complex spells.
Which, in the long run, didn't even matter because I found a spell that grants photographic memory after trying, and failing, to learn about two books of spells. Way to waste my time on something, really. And I mean actual photographic memory, not just a little enhancer that makes sure you remember a few more details. That was a different spell, and by that I mean an entirely different spell, since it only enhances the way the brain works normally instead of physically modifying it. The only problem with the 'True photographic memory'-spell was that the transmutation only lasts a few hours before it expires, reason being that 'harmonious' magic was total crap at transmutation, which covers about anything Discord does, for example. No wonder he turned to chaos magic. That is, if he had a say in the matter...
The... the only thing I can try to do is to make it permanent via...
I wasn't a fan of this idea, if I'm gonna be perfectly honest here. I'd rather not have magic that near my brain if I could help it, especially if it was going to be something permanent.
It's this or having to actually learn spells...
Ok, nope, screw that. After thirteen years in a system that relies on nothing but memorizing things, I've had about enough of that! I'd rather become a vegetable than going through that cycle of learning and forgetting again! Now, with my mind-set on the goal of having memory beyond a goldfish's capabilities (I've never had a good memory to begin with... so yeah, you can see why it sucked for me to have been stuck in a system relying solely on that), I prepared for my first time consciously and permanently modifying my Changeling body. How bad can it be?
It hurt, and it hurt badly. It felt like a tiny shrapnel exploded in my brain, the metal balls ripping through my head and blood filling the holes they left. Or, you know, I imagined that what it felt like. 'Cause if I actually knew how it would feel like, there's a good chance I wouldn't be alive and kicking. Of course, I'd really like to say that I soldiered through this like a man, not a single tear falling from my eyes, but I think we all know that I bawled my eyes out at the pain like the little bitch I am. Now I could say that it was alright for me to cry at the immense pain, but if I'm given the choice between not being tough or dragging the definition of being tough down to this level, I'd rather not be tough and leave that word for people who deserve it.
From the transformations start until the transformations end, I wished I'd never have gotten this idea. However, the second it was over, I wouldn't ever give it back. It was, by far, the best long-term investment I've ever made. To read the books would have taken me days, and now I was done within a few hours! Knowledge was power, after all, and now I obtained a good way, no, THE way of obtaining it.
MWAHAHAHA!
With thoughts like these in mind, whose existence probably meant nothing good for the health of me or those around me, I drift off into sleep. Sleep... I wonder how Changelings managed to stay hidden from Luna for nearly two seasons. Maybe they had some sort of mental protection, if they dreamed at all. I would know in a few seconds, wouldn't I?
And wouldn't you know it, I got a front row seat to experience a Changeling's dream. That is, if there were a dream to experience. There wasn't. My subconsciousness was nothing but pure, black emptiness. Not that I should have assumed there to be much, I suppose.
This is gonna be boring...
Waking up the next morning was amazing. Why, you ask? I... I couldn't really describe it. It was just... the feeling to be fully in control of your memories was simply astounding! Do you have any idea how much you forget during you average day? Can you really remember every single step you take during the day? No, you probably can't. Wouldn't you consider this frightening? Your experiences, gone from your mind without a trace? I sure did, at least now that this wasn't the case for me anymore. I never noticed how much of our life get's lost on a daily basis that way until I woke up this morning.
Talking about waking up this morning, today was the day I would finally go meet Applejack. Whether I liked it or not.
It's not that I didn't like Applejack, quite the opposite in fact. She was one of the few ponies whose demise I wouldn't cherish. Rarity on the other hoof should count her lucky stars that her continued existence is an unfortunate necessity... What? Am I not allowed to have favorites?
After I finished my 10 minutes of internal ranting to get my dislike of a certain white pony out of my system, I left Whitetail Woods... leaving all the books out in the open...
I really should have thought this through, shouldn't I? Not like it really mattered to me anyway, given I knew everything contained in them. So for all I cared, they could rot away.
It was incredibly beautiful outside the woods. Last time I was out of the woods I was either in a building or it was already dark outside, which made it kinda hard for me to appreciate the colorful world around me, given that I couldn't see said colors. Coming out of the woods during daytime was an entirely different experience, with colors basically assaulting you from every direction. It nearly stunned me that I currently existed here, my mind trying to wrap around the colorful sight all around me. Equestria was as far away from the grey dystopia I was used to. While walking, I gave my best to drink everything in. The bright blue sky, untainted by the familiar black smoke of heavy industry. The green grass that likely thrived on clean water instead of the acidic rain I knew from back home. It was a nice sight. And that was disturbing. Now you probably wonder why I thought that. The answer is fairly simple: Back home, if you are in the few places that had untainted nature, you don't get to look at the colorful animals and flowers from any angle except for one, and that one is inside, because they'll gobble you up. There is a reason the animals in the zoo are behind bars.
But I'm getting distracted. This wasn't about the way things back home worked, this was about how things here were. And here we had a shining sun, here we had clean air to breathe and here we had rainbows! ...Weirdly enough without any rain in the last few hours... Aiming straight for me.
This is gonna hurt, isn't it?
Sometimes, I hate being right. This was one of those moments. Once more I obtained a very painful experience, this time thanks to a well-known rainbow pony crashing straight into me. It hurt like hell when I lied on the ground after the impact, my limbs bent in unnatural angles and I was leaking a lot of blood. I would have screamed if I weren't paralyzed, shivering as the pain took over any control I had over my body. And I let it. I knew I would die here. Oh, if I only had a means to mend my wounds. You know, a way to change my physical bo-
...
...
*FWOSH*
Well, that solved that problem rather nicely. I had to admit to myself, not immediately thinking of what amounts to a Changelings primary ability was probably the most stupid thing I ever did. Well, after shielding her instead of me thanks to the same instinct that had me scare away Scootaloo. Now, let's see how Dash was faring. Probably far worse than the now fully healed me, protection or not, given that she couldn't just mend her body...
Or she was totally unharmed, save for a few bruises. Like she was right now. Just... how? I mean, yeah, sure, me shielding her was a factor, then there's the Pegasi's inherit resistance to impacts. Still, if a Pegasus had that high of a physical resistance, then what kind of natural predator would it have? I mean, if cleaning a dirt road with your nose for a good hundred feet at breathtaking speeds can barely rupture your skin, why would a manticore's claws fare any better?
I shook my head. Why was I trying to make sense of this anyway? It's a cartoon world dammit! What I should've tried to do was thinking about my current situation! Why did she crash into me like this? What was I going to do now? Should I take her to the hospital? Should I just run off and change my disguise? Or should...
Rainbow pone...
Alternatively, I did nothing of the above, reason being that my brain decided to turn back into the one of a five-year old under influence of the adorableness that was Rainbow Dash. She was a rainbow pony! It just doesn't get more adorable than that! Except if it were filly Rainbow Dash, but I'm not sure I would survive an encounter with something that adorable, so... Let us just say that it doesn't get more adorable below the level of lethality. Granted, she was a bit bruised right now, but she looked really peaceful. I would be far more concerned about her having seemingly lost consciousness, but she was just too cute!
After a little bit of shifting around, I had wittle Wainwow's head lying in my lap. Part of me knew I was probably going to regret it. Hard. However, I really couldn't have cared less at that moment. With another tiny burst of flame, I transformed my hoof into a hand for a while. Why, you ask? For some expert-level scratching, of course!
You wouldn't believe how adorable she can be! When I scratched her under the chin and behind the ears, she, still with closed eyes of course, really started to lean into the scratches. I didn't want to wear the word out, but... it was so adorable! Her hind legs even started kicking uncontrolably! I didn't know why, but her smiling kinda made me happy. I would have continued with this, but sadly, Rainbow put a stop to this. Namely by kicking me in the face!
Reflexively, I sent out another tiny burst of flame, shifting my hand back into a hoof while the impact made me fall backwards. You could really feel that she was an athlete. Seriously, that kick would have sent me flying if it weren't for her oversized head on my lap. Getting myself back into sitting position and rubbing my poor, bleeding muzzle, I saw Rainbow's eyes were still closed, but she was frowning, turning her head around, probably realizing that the scratching is gone now. Maybe I could just leave? Just get my hind legs out under her head while she's in a state of confusion?
It was at that moment she opened her eyes. First, they had a rather dreamy look, then it became realization, and when they focused on my face, anger.
Ok, I have to be smooth with this!
I gave a warm smile. "Morning, sleepy-head."
...I'm so dead...