Ezio vs Harmony

Ezio woke up to the sound of the door opening. He knew it was Derpy, who was entering the room to check on him.

"All right, Ezio, I mixed a little potion together to help you feel better. Drink up."

She passed him a vial of red liquid. Ezio gulped it down, and his face cringed at the following aftertaste. The potion made his chest stop burning at the very least, enough for him to finally be able to sit up without extreme pain. Derpy had learned how to make these from another one of the Assassins: Zecora. Ezio could've stayed with her at her home back in the woods near Ponyville... if she didn't already have company from somepony in town.

"That should keep you going for the rest of the day. If you experience any pain after that or some strange side-effects, be sure to come back here and let me fix you up, okay?"

"Yeah, can't thank you enough."

"I have some recruit's clothes here for you... that's all we had left after most of the reserves were attacked. Sorry."

"That's fine, I can always buy some more at some point." he said, putting them on. There was only one hidden blade, but he could make due with it.

"Also, don't do anything too crazy out there. You may not feel pain, but that doesn't mean that you won't reopen that wound of yours."

"Gotcha."

"So what will you do now, Ezio?"

"I got a message from the Princess to go to the castle. I'll be going now."

"You're sure you don't want to stay a bit longer?" Derpy had a sad look on her face.

"Unless you'll tell me what was in those letters you sent, I think I'll take my leave."

Derpy blushed. "If that's the case, then you can just get out now." she joked.

"All right, all right, I'm going. You don't have to be so mean rejecting me like this, Derpy." countered Ezio.

"Why are you so good at that?" asked Derpy, in an attempt to steal away with the last word.

"It's my job." replied Ezio, going out the door.

That's when he realized it.

He had just had a friendly, natural conversation with Derpy Hooves.

No drama.

No emotion.

Nothing bad happened.

Huh.

He was so mesmerized by that fact that he almost fell down the stairs that lead down from the treehouse to the ground. Or was it the other way around? He could care less. He walked to Canterlot, which took about a grand total of 5 minutes, He noticed that the guards weren't about, just as Celestia had told Twilight to reduce the number. Well, not void of them, there was the occasional odd look at him from one standing on a street corner, but that was it.

He got through the security (still asking the same questions in both checkpoints) using his fake name and went up to the throne room.

Bad. Timing.

He quickly ducked away from the door. Princess Luna was standing behind it. What was she doing there?

He realized it was a throne room and that she was supposed to be there. He facehooved at the fact and decided to check the room he had stayed in previously. It was empty. Now he began to worry. Just where was this Princess?

Princess! Where are you?

No response. The telepathic communication was magic, after all. He always hated being an earth pony. There were just so many benefits from being a pegasi or unicorn, and in the Princess's case, both.

Now was not the time for self pity! He'd simply have to check the rest of the castle. It's the small things that go wrong that cause problems.

He knew she had to be in her chambers if she wasn't anywhere else. However, he didn't know where those chambers were. He knew it had to be one of these towers.

He searched the tallest one first. You can't just rule one out because of height because it didn't make sense to do so.

That's when he wished he hadn't.

Celestia, for whatever reason, had chosen Twilight as her favorite student.

And she built a creepy little shrine in the back of the room to indicate that. There were pictures of Princess Twilight as a unicorn flly all the way up to becoming an alicorn. The only thing that was wierd about these pictures is that they were all of her... ehem... flank.

Weird as hell. At least he knew this wasn't Twilight's room. Nopony makes a shrine for oneself. It'd just be wrong.

He turned around and hoped that Celestia wasn't going back to her chambers at this exact moment. She was not. He moved on to the next tower.

The room was dark, as if somepony liked having an artificial night. He thought it might be Luna's but one can never be too sure. He entered the room and saw... nothing. It was pitch black, so how was he supposed to tell what was in it? He stepped further in and felt his hooves step in something he could couldn't put his hoof on. Figuratively speaking, of course. He raised his hoof from the... he didn't even have a name for it... stuff and found out exactly what is was. Sticky, a sweet smell...

He had put his hoof into some jelly that had spilled on the floor. He had been in the place long enough for his night vision to kick in, and saw the jar nearby. How careless of Luna. He could tell it was her room now because of one thing: everything was old, and looked as if it had been untouched for some time, even though Luna used this room every day (besides the last one thousand years or so), just as anypony would assume.

He prepared to leave when he heard her coming up the stairs. Ezio scrambled to find a hiding place in the dark, and found only a potted plant to hide behind. Luna opened the door and stepped inside. Ezio cursed under his breath as he heard the door close again. He kept an eye on Luna, making sure he didn't get into her line of sight. He slowly inched over to the door.

"I can hear you, you know. You can't hide from me."

Ezio froze in his tracks. He was screwed now. As soon as Luna finds out why he is here, he'd be dead...

But that was before, right? When he was still marked as a killer and nothing else, that's when this would be troublesome, right?

"Found me again, sister."

That's when he realized Luna wasn't talking to him.

"What were you doing this time?"

"I was making sure your room had proper lighting. And as you can see, there no longer is any light. Just the way you like it."

"Well thank you, sister. That still doesn't explain what you're doing rummaging through my things."

"Well, I... uh... wanted to reacquaint myself with my sister's interests!"

Ezio saw his chance to leave and took it. Celestia, who had been in the room as well for some reason, was the center of attention right now, meaning he could slip away if he was quick. He heard the two raising their voices, and quickly slipped out the door. He didn't want to know what was going on in there, but he didn't really want to. Besides, he had to check Twilight's tower and find that last Princess, which was the whole point of doing this in the first place.

He checked the last tower. Twilight was there.

"Finally." he said. "I found you. What the hell is going on? Why weren't you at the regular meeting place?"

"Ezio... They know."

"What?"

"The Princesses know, Ezio. They know of the killing, the murder that has been happening. Yet they do nothing! It doesn't make sense! I mean, if I could find out you were behind it, then why couldn't they find out?"

"Princess, where is this all coming from?"

"I don't know! It's just making me so frustrated that I can't figure it out!"

"Don't we have some things to sort out with Tri--"

"Dammit, Ezio, listen to me!"

This rage she had... it was so sudden, unexpected. Where was it all coming from?

"Just listen." she said. "I find out Pinkie's dead. I send in the best investigator I know. The Princesses just ignore the situation. Then Applejack dies, and they just turn a blind eye to all this? I even had a whole court case for this! It doesn't make sense! It can't make sense! I mean, they have to know, right? They have to!"

Ezio was shocked. She was right in every way. He wondered why he hadn't been killed yet as well, as he should've  a long while back.

That's when the two alicorns entered the room.

"Finally she starts with the questions. Took her long enough." said Luna.

"I wouldn't be so rude about it, sister. I mean, she's still young, after all." replied Celestia.

Ezio was so confused, he couldn't even start to piece together the puzzle that had just been put in front of him.

"Luna? Celestia? What is going on?" asked Twilight.

"My dearest Twilight Sparkle. My faithful student. I know you're confused right now, but I can explain everything now."

"Why would you let them die? Why would you not do anything?"

"Because... we were fooled as well."

The room fell silent.

"Trixie served under Him for a long time. He is what kept us from getting involved."

"Who are you talking about?"

"Ezio, your town was destroyed. Many ponies died. If we get involved, He could do the same to us."

"Hold on." said Twilight. "You had no reason to fear Him until now. Why couldn't you do anything earlier?"

"Like I said, we were fooled. He told us something that made us worry. That He held the power to destroy all of Equestria."

"And you just believed him?"

"He showed us places full of death. We saw it as a reason to fear his power."

"What were these places?" said Ezio, finally entering the conversation.

"The places.. I think they were called Fillyenze, Venice, Rome--"

"Those... were the places that the Assassins attacked."

"What?"

"The death you saw there... It was caused by me and the other Assassins. We hoped to rid of Templar influence in Italia. He showed you the destruction we had caused. You are right, Princesses, he has played you for fools. And now he doesn't need to with the Apple he has acquired. Now he really is a threat." he explained.

"When we heard of the killings in Equestria, we were hesitant to respond to them. We feared that if we got in too far, we may have a war on our hands." said Luna.

"But what about me making Ezio go through the trouble of making that Apple?" inquired Twilight.

"I'm assuming that was part of their plans as well. they expected that you would find a way to bring them back, and you did." said Ezio. "It all makes sense. He planned this the whole time. He destroyed Monteriggioni. He kept everypony in check. Now the only question is..."

He paused for effect.

"Who is He?"