Assassin's Creed: Afterlife

Florence, 30 November, 1524

Ezio Auditore and his family walk through a busy street of Florence. Ezio clenches his chest as he coughs violently, his wife, Sofia, helps him sit down a bench.

"You should have stayed home." Sofia said, carefully putting the old man to sit on the bench.

"I am home." Ezio smiled as he looks forward to the cathedral where he and his brother climbed up as young men many years ago.

Sofia bends over his shoulder and gave him a passionate kiss on the cheek, "We will be right over here.", she then stands up as their daughter, Flavia, held her hand playfully as they walk towards the market stall.

Ezio smiles as he looks at Flavia waving at him. He waves back, but is interrupted by a smug young man with a scar on his left cheek. The young man took a sit next to Ezio and starts to complain about the women of Florence.

"Il diavolo! I hate this damn city! I wish I was in Roma, I hear the women there are like currants in wine, you know?" The young man smiles at him tauntingly "Not like here, Firenze... Blah!"

Ezio looks at him angrily, however, his chest started hurting again, causing him to wheeze, "I don't think... Firenze is your problem.", his wheezing got worse as he starts to lean away from the man in pain.

"...Prego?" The young man held Ezio's arm "Coraggio vecchio."

Ezio looks back at the young man, he realizes something about him. He seems to be like him when he was young and charismatic, always chasing women. The young man nodded to him as he puts his hand onto Ezio's shoulder. "Get some rest." The young man smiles, standing up to leave Ezio's company . Ezio looks at the man angrily as he walks away.

Ezio calms himself down and turns his attention back to his family who are gathering groceries. Ezio smiles as he realizes his time is now over, his vision starts to get very blurry as he carefully rest his head on the bench and close his eyes. Instead of happines, Flavia looks back at her father with shock, this happens to her mother as well. They ran to Ezio's aid as they drop their groceries down to the ground. Ezio's consciousness slowly fade away like a weakened fire on top of a candle being extinguised by calm wind. He starts to remember every single event in his life.

"We live a good life, brother."

"His face is his only asset!

"The Auditore are not dead!"

"Afraid to handle things yourself?"

"We don't need anyone to tell us what to do; not Savonarola, not the Medici."

"No books... No Wisdom... Just you..."

He hears many voices in his head, both from himself and friends. They all slowly disappear one by one, until he hears one final voice of himself saying "Requiescat in pace."

Ezio experiences peaceful nothingness for a few seconds until he is yet again able to open his eyes. As the black mist disappears from his vision, the first thing he sees is a ceiling. The first thing he hears are birds chirping. The first thing he smells is fresh air. The first thing he feels is a very soft, comfy bed.

"My hands are numb..." Ezio whispered. "Looks like my time hasn't come yet."

He tries to move his body and notice he is covered in bandages on top of open wounds. He looks around his environment for a while. He seems to be inside a cottage with a few bird houses hanging on the walls, the bed is decorated with hearts, and live birds freely entering in and out of the window. He tries to stand up and try to bear the pain as best as he could, hearing the sounds of squirting and crackling caused by his motion. He tries to reach for a nearby desk, only to fall off his bed as he seemingly isn't able to control his fingers at all. He yet again tries to do his balancing act, only this time what he saw suprised him.  He stares at the stumps on his arms with a mixture of shock and terror on his face.

"Quello che è successo?" He said. "My arms..."

He pauses for a moment, "Wait a minute...", Ezio notices his voice seems to sound young again. "What is going on?!" He also notices everything else doesn't seem so... realistic... Everything seems like it all came from a drawing of some sort.

"Is this what comes after death?" Ezio asked himself, looking at his strange new animal-like body. "What happened to me?"

He seems to have a light brown coat, black mane with similar hairstyle from his young adulthood complete with the ponytail, with a tattoo resembling the flag of Florence on his flank. The body seems young too, unlike his previous one.

Ezio grabs onto the bed and tries to push himself back on his feet. Yet again, he notices another thing: he seems to be lacking his legs. He made his way towards the stairs by attempting to walk on both of his stumped legs, stumbling all over the place, destroying all the breakable and glass objects on top of cabinets and tables, dropping lots of books from the bookshelves, and accidentally pulling down a bird house. He continues to spin around from lack of balance like a drunken ballerina, grabbing on anything he could get his 'arms' on to regain balance for a few more seconds until he eventually made it to the stairs.

"Merda..." Ezio grunted.

He wraps his 'arms' around the handrail as he reaches his stumped left 'foot' down to the first step. Very slowly, he tries again with his right 'foot.' With both of his 'legs' on the first step, it's time for the second step. Ezio once again does the same action, left 'foot' slowly comes first. However, he steps on a white ball of fur which moved upon contact, causing him to end his circus act-like balancing routine and fall down the stairs like a bouncy ball, destroying a few furnitures as he lands and roll across the wooden floor.

"Cazzo..." Ezio angrily groaned as he feel the pain worsen on his already soar body.

He once again attempt to slowly stand up, grabbing on the edge of the handrail. He looks back at what he had stepped on, and saw it is a white rabbit. It seems to be frowning at him before hopping upstairs as it shows disgust towards him. Ezio shakes his head, shrugging it off and made his way towards the door. Like a strong hurricane, Ezio made a real mess on his path across the living room, causing a few birds to fly away from their homes. After a few seconds of painful balancing, he reaches the couch and leans on it to take a breather and to gain some momentum for a few seconds. Ezio pushes himself from the couch with what's left of his strength to do a quick dash towards the door. He is able to hold on to the handle of the door before he could slip and fall down on his poor nose.

"Finally... Now if I could just-"

The door suddenly opens with great speed, hitting Ezio in the face, giving an open wound on the right side of his lips. Emerging from the door is a butter yellow horse-like creature with light pink mane covering her left eye, tattoo of what appears to be butterflies on her flank, and a basket on her back.

"O-Oh! I'm sorry... I didn't know you would be awake by now..." The creature said with a very timid and quite voice.

"I'm fine. Could you tell me where I am?" Ezio looks at the creature before him, he pauses every movement on his body in suprise.

"L-Looks like you've hurt your lip..." It said in a very low voice.

"What are you? Are you one of those who came before?" Ezio asked. He already encountered many strange things involving the pieces of Eden, but nothing like this. Ezio doesn't feel any danger coming from the creature, he knew she couldn't even hurt a fly.

"Uhhh...Those who came before...?" It responded in confusion.

Using what is dubbed "Eagle Sense", formely "Eagle Vision." The creature is highlighted as blue. This gave slight relief to Ezio.

"Looks like I still have my enhanced senses. Bene." Ezio said to himself.

Again, he grabs on to a furniture and attempts to stand on both his so-called 'legs'. It looks at him, her face wondering what she's seeing.

"Why are you standing like that?" It asked.

"Standing like what?"

"You're standing on your hind legs... I've never seen anypony do that other than Lyra..."

"Hind legs? And who is Lyra?" Ezio got more questions than answers from this creature. "What is THIS place? HOW did I get here?"

"You're in my cottage... I saw you were flying towards Cloudsdale until a stray Eagle crashed onto you... You fell down and got cut by tree branches." It explained.

"Flying?"

"Uh huh..."

"I believe the words you have said are not true. The last time I flew was with Leonardo's flying machine a few years ago, and an eagle certainly never hit me in the face during those times." Ezio declared, still confused of what really happened. "This is the very first time I have been on this place."

Ezio looks at the basket it is carrying. "What is that for?"

"Oh, these are for you." It uses its mouth to grasp on the basket's handle and set it on the ground. Inside it seems to be vegetables. "You can eat those if you're hungry."

"Va bene. I'm not hungry." Ezio looks around for a moment before turning his attention to his own body. "How do I deal with this?"

"Try putting both your front legs down on the ground?" It suggested.

"Okay...?" Ezio slowly put his body on all fours, suprisingly, he felt more comfortable. "So... Where are my clothes?"

"Clothes? We... normally don't wear clothes..." It said.

"Really? That makes sense. Any idea how to send me back home?"

"If you mean Cloudsdale, then you could just use your wings."

"Wings?"

"Oh... They're injured. You could ask Twilight Sparkle. She's a good friend of mine, she might be able to assist you... She has wings too, but she won't be able to carry you. I guess she'll be using her balloon. I wonder if she still has it..." It said. "Well... If you want clothing, you can find some on my closet just over there..."

"I don't live in 'Cloudsdale', I live in Firenze. Do you have somekind of map I could use to find my way back there?" Ezio asked.

"Firenze? Uhhh... What's that?"

"Non importa. I'll just find my way home by myself."

"Twilight can help you. She's a Princess and really good with magic..."

"Magic? Like the Apple?"

"I... I didn't know apples have magic... Well... I'm sure she might be able to bring you home."

"Grazie." Ezio tries to walk to the closet on all fours. Still not used to his new body, he keeps losing balance again. "I'm gonna pay this friend of yours a visit."

"Let me help you. It's not too hard, you know." It helps Ezio walk towards the closet, holding him over his shoulder. Reminding him of Sofia on his final moments back in Florence.

"I never did catch your name." Ezio said.

"I... I-I'm Fluttershy..." It said.

"Sounds very feminine, are you a girl?"

"Yeah... I... I thought that would be obvious from my voice..."

"I know. I only wanted to make sure." Ezio smiles "I appreciate your help, signora."

Fluttershy opens the closet for Ezio, letting him choose the clothing he wants. The closet contains Fluttershy's gala dress and a few other rarely used feminine clothing. Ezio sighs in disappointment.

"Found anything you like?" Fluttershy asked.

"No." Ezio continued looking.

Ezio's expression changes from disappointment to satisfaction as soon as he saw a pair of clothing that would fit him. It was a white Assassin-esque robe, two red lapels, a red-striped scarf, a few golden buttons on the chest, a hood, and the equestrian flag is imprinted on one of the pockets. It slightly resembles his Father's Assassin outfit, but of course, it lacks the Assassin insignia.

"You own this?" Ezio asked.

"No..."

"From who is this from, then?"

"I don't wanna talk about it..."

"Va bene. I'll have this one. Thank you, signora." Ezio bowed at Fluttershy.

"I'm not Sinora. I'm Fluttershy..."

"Thank you then, Fluttershy."

Ezio puts on the robes. He slips his hooves into the sleeves, bites and pulls on the straps to tighten them, and covered his flank with the robes' trims. He didn't bother to close the buttons. He stretches his body to adjust to the new clothing, finding it perfectly comfortable. It is a bit loose, but that isn't noticeable.

"Vi ringrazio di tutto quello che avete fatto per me." Ezio puts on the hood and clumsily makes his way towards the door. "Farewell, Fluttershy. I'll find a way to return the favor."

"Oh... Umm... Sure... Whatever that means..." Fluttershy responded. "Do you want me to take you to where Twilight lives?"

"No need. I'm sure I can find her by myself. Again, Grazie."

"What about your wounds?"

"I'll deal with it." Ezio headed out of the door.

Outside, he sees that Fluttershy's cottage is surrounded by friendly animals. Ezio is amazed of the beautiful scenery despite not it looking very realistic. The very clean air makes it easier for him to breath compared to when he was in Florence, Rome, and Constantinople. He carefully moves himself away from Fluttershy's door as he tries to get use to his new way of walking. The friendly animals surrounding Fluttershy's home seem to impress Ezio as well. They didn't run away from him or even attack him, just staring with a cheerful smile.

"I didn't expect heaven to be like this." Ezio whispered to himself.  "I need to familiarize myself with this land."

Ezio looks around the surrounding environment around him for a few moments, before eventually seeing the highest tree nearby. "Perfect."

He walks towards the tree's bark, looking up to its top. The tree branches seem stronge enough to support his weight. He lifts a hoof up and holds on to one, moving it a few times to test it. He smirks.

"I've never climbed up a tree before. I guess this is the perfect time for me to try."

Ezio lifts himself up the tree branch, grabbing on to another one. He then stands up on the bigger branch next to the other, he then looks up on the remaining tree branches he has to climb up.

"I think I can do this." Ezio made a jump towards the higher branch, grabbing onto it, causing a few leaves to fall down softly. Ezio smiles while he continues to climb the tall tree as he can finally do again what he can't for many years in retirement. His feeling of being young again also makes him remember his time with his brother as they climbed up a church in Florence.

He starts to hear his brother's words in his imagination.

"Baby brother still has much to learn! Come on, tartaruga!"

"I almost feel bad about this! No shame in failure, brother!"

"Heh. Federico, you imbecille..." Ezio jokingly said.

Ezio finally made it to the very top of the tree, seeing the amazing view of the strange new paradise he ended up in. The weather is beautiful, birds chirping happily, and in the distance, Ezio sees a lively and colorful town beneath the beautiful shine of the morning sun.