Assassin's Creed: Afterlife

It is a good school day for Sunset Shimmer at Canterlot High. She comes out of her classroom along with many students after a long subject of Math. Sunset is different from what she was before. Instead of bullying others for pleasure, she now helps them and make friends of them, learning true friendship from her first encounter with Twilight Sparkle just a few years ago. She makes her way through the hallway filled with students to the school cafeteria, ready to fill her hungry stomach. On her arm is a book that she recieved from a long time ago when she was still Princess Celestia's student. She holds on to it firmly, not wanting it to get lost.

Sunset keeps a happy face as she walks past all the students who began appreciating her after that incident with the Dazzlings, waving back at them if they do so as well. After walking through a long hallway surrounded by lockers and students, she makes it to the entrance of the cafeteria, pushing the glass doors open to reveal other students conversing on dining tables as they eat while others fall on line for their food. She scans her head back and forth, looking for her friends. It is too difficult for her to see through all these students who are cheerfully communicating with each other.

"SUNSET SHIIIMMMEEEERRRR!" A loud high pitched voice shouted from somewhere among the crowded cafeteria.

Hearing this voice, Sunset rotates her head to her left to see the human counterpart of Pinkie waving at her erratically. At the same table sits Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, all eating vegetables. Sunset smiles as soon as she finds her friends, walking fast towards them with the book still on her arms. Sunset pulls blue the chair next to Applejack so she could sit on it, putting the book on the table in front of her.

"So... How was the Math class?" Applejack asked, taking a sip from her apple juice.

"It was great. It's actually kinda difficult." Sunset giggled.

"Ya wrote a letter to Twilight yet?"

"Yup!" Sunset answered happily. "She must be real busy right now. I still haven't gotten any replies from her for days."

Applejack takes another sip from her apple juice before reaching it towards Sunset. "Ya want some?"

"Nah. I'm not thirsty." Sunset giggled.

"I wonder where the Dazzlings are now." Rainbow Dash wondered, her hand carrying her head from boredom, playing with her food. "They never showed their faces after we kicked their butts."

"It doesn't matter, Rainbow. They learned their lesson." Sunset said, opening her book from the first page. "...It's been a long time since I've wrote these letters to the Princess."

"I hope you don't mind if I ask, darling, but where is..." Rarity thinks about her words for a moment. "The YOU of this... world?"

"What do you mean?"

"Everyone in Equestria has their counterparts here, right? You must have one too! Where is she?"

"I... I..."

Sunset's answer is then suddenly interrupted by the book which started to flick through the pages by itself. Startled, they lean backwards a bit from the desk as the book levitates and shines. It stops on a blank page and slowly, writings starts appearing on that page.

"Outside. Search for something nearby the mirror. Urgent."

These words appear with a glow of gold instead of rainbow. Symbols appear around their table, surrounding the book for a split-second.

It isn't Twilight's hand writing nor is it Celestia's. The writing is a very elegant cursive with an ink blot on the end.

"Outside...? As in... Outside this school?" Sunset asked.

"M-Maybe..." Fluttershy said.

"Well... It's urgent, so maybe we really need to go." Sunset Shimmer stands up, closing the book and carrying it on her arms. "Come along, girls."

The other girls stand up from their seats, pushing the chair back to its place as they leave. The other students didn't pay much attention to them as they near the exit of the cafeteria, but one student gets on their way by standing in front of them. This student wears a white t-shirt, black jacket with a red and white stripe, and a blue spikey hair.

"Hey. I saw that book open up. Is it a message from Twilight?"

"No, Flash. It's from someone else we don't know yet." Sunset answered, scratching her hair.

"Oh! I thought she'd come back and visit... Tell her she could do that anytime she wants." Flash Sentry smiled awkwardly, walking out of the girls' way. From that, the girls continue on their way.

"Don't you think that having a relationship with someone who isn't human is kinda... not right?" Rainbow Dash asked. "... Right?"

"Anything doesn't matter when it comes to love, Darling!" Rarity said to Rainbow Dash.

"And what if Twilight settled down with the OTHER Flash Sentry?"

"I... I guess Flash Sentry would settle down with the Twilight of our world?"

"So... Where is the Twilight of our world?"

"Ooooohhh... I've met our Twilight before!" Pinkie giggled. "She lives in the city!"

"Girls." Sunset Shimmer opens the main entrance of Canterlot High, the same entrance she destroyed a few years ago. "We're outside. Now, we have to look for it. It should be close to the portal."

The girls scatter around the front lawn of the school, over the huge horse statue that serves as a portal that opens originally every 30 moons. Sunset Shimmer looks under the bushes, Rarity searches next to the statue, Rainbow Dash looks by the street, Pinkie Pie searches by removing another student's hat, and Fluttershy asking other students about it.

They seem to can't find anything at all.

"What are we looking for exactly?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"I don't know!" Sunset Shimmer said. "The message never said anything else."

A few minutes of searching later, they take a rest. Sitting on the portal on their backs. Fluttershy tames a few ladybugs, while the rest just enjoy resting their bodies. Pinkie turns her head to the Canterlot High horseshoe sign, something getting her attention.

"Oh! Is that it right there?!" Pinkie Pie shouted excitedly, pointing at the horseshoe statue with what appears to be a strange glowing white orb just below it. "I think it is! Whoa! Look at it! It's so pretty! How can we not notice that?!"

Pinkie Pie runs towards it, picking it up and holding it high up the air. The glow starts to fade away and takes the form of a transparent crystal ball.

"What is it?" Sunset asked her friends and even herself as they walk closer to Pinkie, who is holding the crystal ball.

"Is it Equestrian?" Applejack asked.

"No. I don't think so. I've never seen anything like it."

"No, silly! It's clearly a crystal ball that allows us to talk to some kind of inter-galatic beings and see people from the past or future!"

"H-How..."

"Just... Just a hunch?" Pinkie smiled with a squee.

"So... H-How does it work?" Fluttershy asked, clearly nervous.

"I... I don't know" Sunset Shimmer said, grabbing the Crystal Ball from Pinkie's hands. "It's... so strange. It's covered in lining and... It's... is that BLOOD?!"

The taint of blood causes Sunset Shimmer to drop the Crystal Ball towards grassy grounds below their feet. And, with a huge bang of light as it made hard impact with the ground, they find the environment has darkened with golden lines floating around, emitting from the Crystal Ball. All the other students other than theirselves have disappeared into thin air.

"Wh-What's happening?!" Fluttershy asked.

They stumble around, confused and wondering and scared, not knowing what happened. This is then interrupted by the sudden appearance of a woman with a long white dress who materialises just in front of them with a godly glow. The woman looks nothing like them. She's not pink nor white. Her skin is tan and her hair is brown. Sunset and her friends stare at her, dumb-founded, yet afraid.

"I-Is that P-Princess C-Celestia?" Fluttershy asked.

"No!" Sunset Shimmer answered. "Can you tell us where we are, lady?"

"You have never left your location." The woman said. "If you meant what this is you are now seeing with your eyes, then it is called the Nexus."

"Are we the first ones here?" Rainbow Dash said just before Sunset opens her mouth to release another question.

"Indeed not. You are not the first one to see the Nexus." An illusion of a young man who also looks different from Sunset and her friends appears right next to the woman. "There are many others who have seen the Nexus. This man is the most notable one."

The young man is sitting on the floor, holding a similar Crystal Ball. The young man has a fair skin tone and a long black hair, wearing ragged native outfit.

"Who is he?" Sunset asked.

"Is he an alien?!" Pinkie gasped.

"He is not from this world. He is from another. A world that has a different laws of physics and time. Different from this one in every way."

The illusion starts to talk with an echo, asking questions to an unseen entity.

"Are you... a spirit?" The illusion asked, and then pausing for a moment. "...Where am I?"

"Is he talking to us?" Applejack asked, walking closer to the illusion, waving her hand in front of it.

"...What path?" The illusion seems to have responded to an unheard sentence.

"No. He is nothing more but a projection of the past." The woman said. "I have brought you here to help someone in need."

"Is it Twilight?" Sunset, clearly still afraid of this experience. "Is she in danger?"

"No." The woman answered. "She is actually one of the individuals who brings the danger."

"WHAT?!" Sunset Shimmer shouted, shocked. "You're lying! How can she be any danger to anyone or anypony?"

The woman summons yet another illusion. This time, that of Ezio Auditore's original human body. His face is showing the expression of pain and vengeance.

"I AM STILL HERE! ME! EZIO! EZIO AUDITORE!" The illusion shouted, echoing throughout the Nexus.

"This man is Ezio. His family was killed after being falsely accused for treason." The woman said. "He had lived a life filled with pain and blood."

The girls are speechless as they watch Ezio's past. From him screaming at Vieri's limp corpse, hanging Francesco's half naked corpse from the Signoria, killing countless of guards, pushing Cesare off the walls of the Viana Castle, and countless other moments of Ezio murdering someone. All in the span of minutes.

"He's... a terrible person..." Sunset Shimmer said.

Fluttershy couldn't handle it. She falls on her knees and cries as much as she could, not handling the gruesome lifestyle of Ezio. Pinkie's once puffy hair now reduced down to a straight long hair that goes down to her back. Her smile completely transformed to terror.

"Perhaps he is." The woman said. "But he does things for the right of peace."

The illusion changes to yet another moment in Ezio's life.

"Requiescat in Pace" The illusion whispered to a dead body.

The woman focuses her attention to Sunset.

"This man is not evil and right now he needs your assistance." The woman said, changing the illusion to when Ezio is now a stallion. "His death has sent him to your world and for now, he is stuck there. All if not most of your friends are againts him after he is falsely accused for the assassination of your Princess of the night."

The illusion shows the time when Ezio is examining Luna's body. This very sight almost made Sunset faint. Black mist appear around the edges of her sight, her legs wobbling.

"You need to get everyone in your world to trust this man, for if you fail to do so, your world will be taken over by something big. An organization bigger than your monarchy." The woman pauses. "This man is the only one that can save your world."

"I... I understand..." Sunset breathes heavily, gathering her courage. She turns around to her friends who are all terrified. "Girls, we have to do this. If not for him, then for my world and Twilight. You'll... help me with this, right?"

"That man's a murderer, Sunset!" Rarity shouted at her. "There is no possible way I'll lay my finger on that man!"

"Rarity... I..."

"Rarity's right. We don't wanna help him. He's too..." Rainbow Dash tries to hold back her tears and trauma. "...Murderous."

Applejack doesn't say a single word, nor did Fluttershy who continues to sob loudly.

"I don't know if I still want to live." Pinkie whispered, looking down.

"Pinkie... What are you saying?" Sunset asked.

"I don't know if I could do this!" Sunset turns her back to the woman. "I mean... Princess Luna... She's dead and..."

"I am afraid you will have to accept this quest if you wish to save your land. Deny it at its peril."

After a series of sad and painful words from the illusion that repeats random moments of Ezio's life, the illusion suddenly changes to the elderly Ezio and his family during their day together before his death. In the distance, a faint speech is heard. This sudden change of scenery caught Sunset and her friends' attention.

"When I was a young man, I had liberty, but I did not see it. I had time, but I did not know it. And I had love, but I did not feel it. Many decades would pass before I understood the meaning of all three. And now, the twilight of my life, this understanding has passed into contentment.

Love, liberty, and time: once so disposable, are the fuels that drive me forward. And love, most especially, mio caro. For you, our children, our brothers and sisters. And for the vast and wonderful world that gave us life, and keeps us guessing. Endless affection, mia Sofia.

Forever yours,

Ezio Auditore"

"He...He has a family..." Fluttershy whispered. "He actually cares for someone."

"Now, it is time for you to make your decision. Shall you help him?" The woman asked. "Those who accept shall be put to sleep and awaken on Sunset's world, those who deny shall be left here and have their memory of this encounter erased."

This is a tough choice. If not for Sunset, then for her friends.