> The final assignment > by BirdsAreTheShit > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Chapter 1 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1 The sound of waterdrops hitting the roof above was almost hypnotizing to Hornet. He could not get his thoughts off of yesterday`s events. He had been told that Queen Chrysalis had an important assignment for him. The other changelings had frowned at him, most likely offended because of him being picked instead of themselves. He had no special talents, nor had he ever done anything impressive. The other changelings had picked on him for as long as he could remember, and he never had any real friends. The cold presence of the room he was in, made him shudder. His frosty hooves kept shivering. As he stretched out his hoof to get a blanket from the couch, a tingly sensation struck him. Suddenly, a faint voice could be heard from inside his head: "It is time Hornet, meet me in the gardens." He shook his head, and the voice was gone. Hornet slowly made his way down trough the corridors of Chrysalis` castle. The hallways were filled with large paintings and artifacts. He began thinking about what kind of assignment it was he was being given. Perhaps she wanted him to defeat a dragon? Or even worse; she wanted him to join in on her 15 hour long tea party. As much as he respected the queen, he would not like to take part in any of those things. As he passed by other changelings, they either gave him a strange look, or ignored him completely. Luckily, he was not far from the gardens now; he began recognizing the path he had followed yesterday. As he stepped out into the gardens, he could feel a mild breeze hitting him. He looked around, but could not find the Queen. The bushes and flowers that surrounded him were fantastic to look at. He took in the view as he stood there waiting for the queen to make her arrival. It was still raining, and all the changelings had gone inside. All the changelings except for Hornet. This was his big day after all, and he had no problem with standing in the downpour. The rain had been going on for hours, and there was still no sign of Chrysalis. Even though hornet had promised himself to wait, he was starting to get a little anxious that she would not show up at all. Or so he thought. A faint green light could be seen through the rain. It was coming closer. Hornet`s eyes widened as Chrysalis came into view. His entire body was shaking; he was now in the presence of the queen. "welcome, Hornet. As you may have been told, I have a task for you." Hornet cleared his throat as he said: "Yes your highness, I was told yesterday. What is it you want me to do?" Hornet was so excited to finally know what his assignment was. The queen chuckled a little at the way Hornet was speaking, before she said: " Your assignment, dear changeling of mine, is to pay a visit to a small village named Ponyville. There you will find six ponies that..." "What`s a pony?" he interrupted. The queen, looking a bit annoyed, answered calmly, saying: "They are the most vicious and evil beings in all of Equestria. They need to be eliminated, but I have to find out how. That is where you come in." "What am I supposed to do?" Hornet answered. "It`s quite simple actually, the only thing you need to do, is to disguise yourself as a pony, and infiltrate their town. Once you have done that, you will have to befriend six ponies named Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy and Applejack." Hornet nodded slowly, just to show that he understood. "Oh, and you should take this with you." The queen handed him a small, glowing gem. Hornet took it and attached the gem to his chest armour. "Thanks, but what does it do?" he asked. "I can`t tell you." the Queen replied. Hornet looked a bit disappointed, but thought no more of it. To get to Ponyville, Hornet had to travel by train. He had never traveled anywhere before, and was therefore way to excited about a plain trainride. But to be able to even get on the train, he had to disguise himself. He looked around to see if he could spot any ponies. As you can imagine, searching for something you don`t even know what looks like, is not easy. Oddly enough, he was the only one at the platform. The train was almost there now too, so he had to improvise. Suddenly, an extremely high-pitched screech could be heard from behind him. He quickly turned around and noticed a strange looking creature staring back at him with it`s mouth wide open. "Somebody please help me! There is a changeling here!" the creature yelled. He put his hoof to the creatures lips, as to tell it that it should keep quiet. "Are you a pony?" Hornet asked the creature. The creature slowly nodded. It looked absolutely terrified. Polite as he was, Hornet asked: "Would it be alright if I turned into to you? I promise that it won`t hurt." Just as he had completed his sentence, the pony fainted, and the train arrived. > Chapter 2 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 2 The rain had stopped. Train noises could be heard. The unconscious pony now lying in Hornet`s arms, filled his mind with sorrow. It was quite peculiar actually, the thought of a changeling having feelings towards another living creature. He realized that he had no choice but to hide the body, and quickly hid it behind a pile of barrels. His appearance changed to that of the pony he had knocked out, and he started making his way towards the pink, weathered train that just now had arrived. As he stepped inside the train, a conductor stopped him, and asked for his ticket. Hornet gladly handed over the ticket Chrysalis had given him. The brown-coated conductor studied it for about three seconds before he gave it back to Hornet. "Have a nice trip," he said. Hornet smiled at him and took a seat. He studied the other passengers as he sat there. They were all ponies. Hornet quickly found out that he did not like these creatures, and was not looking forward to meeting the ones he was to befriend. The whole concept of friendship made him shudder. He could not even remember their names. As the train chugged it`s way through the land of Equestria, he decided to do something to make the time go faster. The pony sitting next to him, was a grey-coated mare, seemingly bored out of her mind. He did not intend to socialize with a lot of these unknown creatures, but he thought he might as well say hi. "Hello there," Hornet said, putting on a fake smile. The grey pony quickly turned around and let her yellow eyes come into view. Her eyes looked strange; they were not symmetrical. "Hello!" The grey pony answered. The clumsy presence of this particular mare annoyed Hornet slightly. As he studied the pony, he came notice something about it: "You do realize that you have a bunch of bubbles on your bum, right?" The pony blushed and looked away. "No but seriously, look at it! I have never seen anything like that before, you should think about consulting a doctor." The grey pony raised her hoof and slapped Hornet across the face. She stood up and said: "That`s my cutie mark, you meanie!" Hornet looked at her in confusion and asked: "What`s a cutie mark?" The grey mare looked at him suspiciously. "You don`t know what a... a... uhm... What were we talking about again?" Hornet widened his eyes: "Are you serious? We just now talked about it!" The mare desperately scratched her blonde hair, trying to figure out what it was they were talking about. She finally raised her head and said: "I`m sorry, I just don`t know what went wrong." The trip was coming to an end now; next stop was Ponyville. Hornet fingered with the gem Chrysalis had given him earlier, trying to figure out what it was for. He sighed and was relieved that the train ride was finally coming to an end. As he looked down at his white coated body, he realized that he was still in disguise. He had almost forgot. The train started slowing down, and approached the platform at a comforting pace. As the train completely stopped, he stood up and left the carriage. The grey pony that had sat next to him was nowhere to be seen. He pulled out a tiny note that the queen had given him. It said: "Ask for the location of twilight sparkle`s home. Once you get there, try to befriend her. Once she feels she can trust you, ask her to introduce you to her friends. Once you have befriended all of them, I will give you further instructions. In case you forgot, here are the names of all the ponies: Twilight Sparkle Rainbow dash Fluttershy Rarity Applejack Pinkie Pie -Queen Chrysalis." > Chapter 3 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 3 The immense amount of ponies now crowding the platform of Ponyville made Hornet slightly uncomfortable. He was not used to being around ponies, and the hatred he had for them made it even worse. The only possible thing he could find positive in a situation like this, would be all the love he could feed off of. Remembering that, he suddenly realized he had not fed in a long while. If he ran out of energy, it would mean his disguise would wear off too. He looked down at his hooves. Luckily, he was still a pony. He had this feeling though, that it would not last long. His hunger was building up, and he felt powerless. His mouth was dry, and he shivered. When he looked back down at his hooves, he could see them slowly changing back to their original state. "How could this have happened so fast?" He thought to himself. He panicked, and desperately looked around for a suitable pony to suck some love from. As he looked back at the train station, he was baffled to see that all the ponies had left. He could swear that they were all there just minutes ago. His fur was slowly changing color. The holes that were previously in his hooves was returning too. He quickly hid in a nearby alley, just next to an overly pink candy shop. The transformation was almost complete now. The only thing that was yet to change back was his wings. A few trash cans stood next to place he was hiding. "If there is anything that I can use to hide my face in those cans, it would be worth it to get my hooves dirty," he mumbled silently. He checked that no one was watching. Once he was confident that the coast was clear, he started raiding the trash cans for loot. As he was emptying the trash cans, he was disappointed to find nothing of interest. Luckily, there was still one left. At the bottom of the last can, he finally found something he could use; a dark brown cloak. "This is perfect!" He screamed out in excitement, forgetting that others could hear him. He put the cloak on, and dragged over his head, creating a hood. There were a lot of ponies in the streets, so he had to keep a low profile. He silently sneaked out of his cover, and started searching for somepony to feed off of. The first thing he found was a restaurant, something of which he thought was a good target. He grinned slightly as he made his way towards the restaurant seemingly full of ponies. He stepped inside and sneaked his way past the butlers. As he went upstairs he was excited to find that there were a lot of ponies that looked to be couples. This was the perfect opportunity for Hornet. He closed his eyes and started feeding. The ponies in the restaurant did not seem to notice, which made it even easier for him. As he was sucking the love out of the bodies of the ponies, he started feeling empowered and energetic. When he was finished, he slowly licked his lips and started moving towards the exit. As he stepped outside, he remembered that he had to disguise himself again. He tried transforming into the one he had copied earlier, but was not able to. He was slightly annoyed, but thought no more of it, since he knew that he could just find another one to copy. Hornet had always been very picky when it came to choosing who to copy. A black coated pegasus caught his attention, and so he flew after it. He had to be sure that no one was watching while he copied the pony, so he kept following it until he was sure that they were alone. The black pegasus flew into the woods; the perfect place for Hornet to do his stuff. As soon as the pegasus landed, Hornet jumped down from a tree and knocked it out. He quickly copied it`s form and hid the body beneath a tree. He also ensured that the body was covered up by placing some branches and moss over it. A tiny river was flowing down trough the woods, right next to Hornet. He went over to it and looked at his reflection. Apparently the black pegasus he had copied had yellow eyes and a grey mane. The appearance was nothing impressive to Hornet, but it was not something he could not live with. The only thing he admired was the wings. He took some water from the river and drank it. As he finished drinking it, he took off and flew back to Ponyville. He had focused so much on finding something to feed on that he had almost forgot the task he had been given. "I guess I will have to ask somepony in town if they know the location of Twilight Sparkle`s house." He said to himself as he soared above the big forest. As Ponyville began coming into view, some clouds were collecting above hornet. A few raindrops started hitting him. He did not want to get his fur wet, so he sped up. As his hooves hit the ground, he was relieved to find that the clouds were moving away. He looked around to see if there was anypony who could tell him the location of Twilight Sparkle. A yellow coated mare was moving his way, so he thought that he might as well ask her. "Hello there," he said. The pony just stood there. It looked down in embarrassment, and hid it`s face behind it`s long, pink mane. "Uhm... hello?" He said again, trying to communicate. "Oh, uhm, hello." The light yellow pony answered. "Tell me, do you know the location of Twilight Sparkle`s home?" Hornet asked. "Well, uhm, it`s right over there." she replied. Hornet looked over in the direction the mare pointed, and thanked her for the help. He made his way towards the house. As he pushed in the doorbell, loud noises could be heard from inside the building. A few seconds later, the wooden door swung up, and out came a lavender-coated unicorn, magically making a book float in the air in front of her. She smiled at him and said: "Was there anything you wanted?" "Well, can we be friends, please?" He answered, smiling sheepishly. The pony looked at him, slightly confused by the looks of it. Hornet remembered that he was horrible at making friends. "I mean... uh... Can I come in?" He said, trying to convince her. She gave him an ugly look, and slowly closed the door.