Assassin's Creed: Afterlife

Ezio looks down at the bottom of the tree to look for safe spot to land on. Scanning his eyes across the view, he locks his sight on a small bed of flowers. Without hesitation, Ezio dives off from the tree top as a nearby eagle screeches, performing a head-over-heels roll while falling, and lands on his back safely on the flowers. Ezio swiftly comes out of the flowers, petals falling off his clothing as he walks away unharmed. Ezio winces slightly as he feels sharp pain on his lip as it finally starts to bleed. He puts his hoof over the sliced wound and looks at it to see blood.

"I wonder if they have doctors here."

He follows the dirt road that leads directly to the town. Ezio turns his head left and right, admiring the different behaviour and intelligence of the animals. The sunshine is on him directly, but it isn't too hot. Leaves are falling off from the trees slowly as if it were spring. Ezio can finally see some parts of the town from the distance as he comes closer to it.

"I've never been in such a paradise before." Ezio said to himself.

As the trees are left behind him after half an hour of walking, views of tall oddly shaped snow-capped mountains come into view along with a strange formation of clouds. The houses looks strange as well, they are timber-framed with distinct thatched roofs and overhanging upper floors. Ezio crosses a small pink bridge, while beneath the bridge is a river that separates different areas of the town. Finally, he's able to see many of Fluttershy's kind, though, some of them has wings, some has horns, and some has neither. They have a startled expression as they saw Ezio due to his strange wardrobe. They can only see his bloody, wounded lip as his upper face is shrouded in shadows as he is wearing a hood.

Ezio pauses as he turns his head towards one of them, a mare. He starts to walk towards her as the mare shakingly take a few steps back.

"Excuse me, sconosciuto, but can you tell me where I could find a doctor?"

The mare gulps and raises her hoof and point it towards the larger area of the town, shaking.

"Grazie."

Some of them drop the items they were carrying as they rush back inside their houses, others simply stare at him unmovingly as Ezio continues to calmly walk past them towards the main area of the town.

Later on,  a lavender colored mare with both a horn and a pair of wings exits out of a train, accompanied by a lizard-like creature with big eyes. The train leaves, leaving them on the station.

"I could use some rest right now, Twilight." The lizard thing said.

"Me too, Spike. I'm glade that we're able to help Princess Cadance." The lavender mare answered.

"So... Any new letters from Sunset Shimmer?" Spike asked.

"Not yet."

The pair make their way back to the town. Twilight looks at the sky to admire the beautiful weather.

"Wow, what a gorgeous day!"

"Rainbow must have gotten up early for once... Huh, deja vu."

Twilight pauses as soon as she notices nopony is on the streets, it is completely deserted. Not a single sound of breathing other than their own is heard. It is completely silent. Spike raises an eyebrow, knowing this had already happened before.

"...Double deja vu..." Spike scratches his head.

"Where's everypony?"

"I certainly hope it's NOT zombies this time!" Spike gulps.

The two of them continue to search the deserted town, until one of their friends calls their attention, a pink mare who is hiding inside a bakery that looks like a gingerbread house. Twilight rolls her eyes as she comes closer to her friend. The pink one is clearly terrified of something.

"Twilight! Spike! Come here! Hurry! Get in here before HE gets you!"

Twilight calmly walks over to the pink mare, confusion on her face.

"Pinkie, what is this about? We already know who Zecora is..."

"It's not Zecora, silly! HIM!" Pinkie points at the mysterious hooded pony in the distance who is taking a moment to look around the area.

They see Ezio looking around, wondering himself where the others have gone off too. He looks at every windows he walks past by.

Twilight shrugs and walks after the hooded pony instead, but Pinkie pulls her and Spike inside the hiding place before she could get to him. Pinkie peeks outside for a few seconds before slamming the door shut. Ezio hears the loud banging, he then walks towards the source of the sound.

"He doesn't seem hostile, Pinkie. I mean, Zecora looked more sinister when we first saw her!" Twilight said.

3 more mares comes out of hiding, including a small filly wearing a ribbon. They're all terrified.

"Ya haven't seen what's so terrifying about him, Twilight!" The pony with the southern accent said. "He has blood on his mouth!"

"Blood? It's probably lipstick..." Twilight answered.

"Lipstick? C'mon, Twilight. He's a stallion! Stallions don't wear lipstick." The cyan colored pony said.

"What if he's a zombie?!" Spike looks around, noticing Fluttershy isn't present. "What if Fluttershy..."

"Spike, don't say that! Fluttershy's fine! I've told you many times already, there are no zombie ponies."

Suddenly, knocking from the other end of the door scares most of them. Pinkie pushes  a huge bookshelf unusually fast and uses it to block the door. Ezio's knocking starts to sound louder and violent that it seems like he's trying to break the door down. The books on the shelves starts to fall down from their place including a framed photo.

"He found us!" Pinkie said.

Outside, Ezio continues knocking on the door. He tries kicking it down, but to no avail.

"What's going on in there? Are you in trouble?" Ezio asks.

He then looks around the exterior of the house, searching for a way in. Ezio examines the pink glass window just right next to the main door, tapping it to see if he could break through it. The color of the window makes it difficult for him to see inside. Ezio nods and takes a few steps backwards for momentum.

"I'm coming in!" Ezio shouted.

Ezio gallops and leaps towards the window, the loud sound of the window crashing with the glass hitting the hard floor destroys the silence as Ezio makes his entrance. The mares scream in terror as they see Ezio break through the window, rolling on his back to break the fall. He lands on his front legs and walks towards the mares as if it was nothing. He simply adjusts his hood.

"What's scaring you?" Ezio asks.

"Do-Don't eat us M-Mr. Zombie sir..." Spike begs.

"Eat you?"

"Y-You have bl-blood on your mouth"

"This?" Ezio touches his wounded lip.

"Darling, this is the first time I've seen blood my entire life." The white pony said, she is too disgusted to even go near Ezio.

"I'm sorry for the misconceptions I have caused you, signora, but can you at least tell me where I can find a doctor?" Ezio asked, removing his hood.

Ezio finds a mirror on his left, moving his head to look at every angle of his new face as he walks closer to it to see his reflection up close. He raises a hoof and waves at his reflection with a sign of disbelief on his face. He looks nothing like his previous self, but at the same time, he does. This confuses Ezio as his new body somehow makes him think its been his own for a long time now.

"Is that how I look like now?"

The mares continue to look at his strange behaviour. Twilight gathers up her courage as she walks next to Ezio and take a look at his wound. She raises his chin upwards.

"Ouch. That... looks deep..." Twilight said.

"I've had something similar before."

A weak faint knock comes from outside. The visitor notices the broken window, so she instead flew inside gently and slowly. It is a familiar face to Ezio. Fluttershy looks around the glass on the ground, slowly walking through it while being cautious not to hurt herself.

"O-Oh dear... What happened to the window?"

"Fluttershy!" The cyan colored pony exclaimed. "Where have you been? We thought that stallion ate you or something!"

Fluttershy's eyes widen as soon as she heard those words "A m-mare eating s-stallion?!"

"Rainbow means this stallion, Fluttershy." Twilight said, referring to Ezio.

Fluttershy quickly calms down as soon as she sees her new friend again, she comes closer to Ezio to see how he is doing.

"What did this to you?" Fluttershy asked, looking at Ezio's lip.

"Your door."

Rainbow flies between Ezio and Fluttershy, tilting her head with curiousity. "You know him?" Rainbow asked.

"I just met him. He... He never told me his name..."

"Scusate, Fluttershy. My name is Ezio." Ezio pauses. "Ezio Auditore da Firenze."

"Eshio Autori da...?" Rainbow attempted to pronounce his name, but failed.

"Just call me Ezio."

"Ettsio?"

"Close enough."

"So... Uhhh... Ezio, where are you from?" Twilight asked.

"I'm from Firenze. I remember dying peacefully when my family went out to go get groceries. I also never looked like this before." Ezio explained.

"You never looked like that? Then how did you use to like?"

"I'm a human... or perhaps, WAS  a human. I used to to stand on two legs and have 10 fingers on my hands."

"No... You don't mean you came from..." Twilight gasped.

"Came from what?! You know where I live?"

"Pr-Probably! You may be in luck, Ezio. I might be able to bring you home!" Twilight smiled. "But first, let's take you to a doctor first to get your lip stitched up."

"Va bene. I like that."

A few hours later, Ezio comes out of the hospital and finds Twilight waiting for him with Spike. Twilight smiles as soon as she sees her new friend come out with stitches on his lip. Twilight walks next to Ezio and they start walking through the town. The ponies are more comfortable around Ezio, seeing one of their own walking with him and that he has his hood down.

"You feeling better, Ezio?" Twilight asked.

"I'm fine." Ezio looks at Spike. "What's that thing?"

"I'm not a thing! I'm a baby dragon!" Spike answered. "I'm Spike!"

"Do you want me to give you a tour around Ponyville?" Twilight offered.

"No, let's focus on getting me home."

"Okay, then." Twilight answered.

"Your friends. They don't seem to be interested in introducing themselves to me."

"The sight of blood up close probably just shocked them. They didn't mean that" Twilight explained.

"How come you're not shocked?"

"I was, but I realized everypony has blood inside their bodies, so there's no reason to be afraid of it."

"And I thought you were a zombie!" Spike added.

Ponyville reminds Ezio of Florence in a way. The houses look like they were from the renaissance era. They were similar to his own homeworld with all of its market stalls, community, laws, and guards standing on various spots of the town. There are some stuff he never saw before, though. He can already imagine himself freerunning across the rooftops, and climbing the building on the town hall. However, there are no conveniently placed haystacks to be seen.

"This is a very nice place. Reminds me very much of home." Ezio praised the renaissance-esque design of the town.

"That's right. Earth ponies founded Ponyville when it was simply an empty land. Since Earth ponies doesn't have magic, they would climb up the roof to get the snow off." Twilight said.

"That's sounds like my thing." Ezio said. "Do they still do it? I see lots of flying ones all over the place."

"Yup. We call it Winter Wrap-Up."

After a few minutes of walking, they eventually arrive on a landmark that resembles both a tree and a castle. It is made out of crystal that seem to be holding a few structures of the building like a root. It has a few branches, which includes a great balcony, two spires, and a tower along with a banner with Twilight's cutie mark on it. Five string-like objects are seen hanging on the sides of the structures. At the bottom is a great golden stair for the two-leaved golden entrance into the tree's body. Two open lancet windows flank the door. This is Twilight's Kingdom.

"What is this place?" Ezio asked as they enter the tree-like crystal kingdom.

"Oh, it's my home after my previous one got destroyed by Lord Tirek..." Twilight answered.

"No doubt he is a Templar."

"A what?"

"Nevermind..."

They walk through one of the kingdom's hallways. On the floor is a really long carpet. They walk past many doors leading to different rooms. Crystals that seems to have emerged from the ground are all over the place as well, near the walls. It is a new interesting sight for Ezio.

"This is a nice castello you have here." Ezio said.

"Thanks... But what's a castello?"

"Castle."

"Oh."

They reach a room where a mirror is on the middle, surrounded by shelves filled with books. The mirror is attached to what seems to be advanced technology powered by magic.

"Is that suppose to take me home? Like a portal?" Ezio asked.

"Exactly!"

Twilight walks to the magic mirror to turn it on, however, she notices something missing as her expression changes to shock...

"Oh no..." Twilight said.

"What's wrong?"

"The book! The book's gone!" Twilight stands up, looking at every corner. "Without the book, we can't open the portal and send you home!"

Ezio looks around the room. "There are plenty of books in here."

"No, Ezio! That one book is special! It acts like a battery to the portal to make it work!"

"There must be somekind of alternative." Ezio said.

"Well, we have to wait every thirty moons for it to open automatically..." Twilight said sadly.

"Thirty moons... That would mean two years, am I correct?"

"Yeah..." Twilight looks at Ezio apologitically. "Sorry."

Spike looks around the room, but a curious sight took his attention very quickly.

"Uhhh... Guys...?" Spike nudges Twilight while looking at a cloaked figure stealthily making an escape through the door.

"What is it, Spike?" Twilight's eyes widen as soon as she sees the cloaked figure. It is carrying the book as it ran off.

"Hey! Stop!" Twilight yelled. "That pony stole the book!"

Without a word, Ezio puts on his hood and gallops after the cloaked figure. The cloak-clad pony is as fast as Ezio, jumping over obstacles in his way with barely any effort. The mysterious pony busts down a door leading to the balcony with Ezio close behind him. The thief jumps off the balcony and lands on top of a roof, followed by Ezio who also did the same. Ponies, all dumbfounded, look up the houses as they see two hooded individuals jumping from rooftops to rooftops and perform acrobatics.

"Get back here!" Ezio yelled as the chase goes on.

The thief is able to break Ezio's line of sight by holding on to a lantern and swinging through a corner of the house. The lantern breaks as soon as the thief lets go of it, unabling Ezio to follow him further as neighboring houses are blocking the view of the thief's escape route.

"Cazzo..." Ezio groaned as he looks around.

Luckily, Ezio saw a series of cross beams and a wooden wall. Behind that wall could be a path of the thief's escape route.

"This will do." Ezio said as he listens to the thief's hoofsteps, measuring the perfect timing to execute his plan.

After 3 seconds of listening, Ezio hops on all the cross beams with incredible speed and stamina, going towards the weak wooden wall. Ezio is able to break through the wall like a cannonball, tackling the thief who is just running past that particular wall. Both the ponies fall off the rooftops and down the streets below, landing on a cart filled with soft hay that is being pulled by a red male pony. The force of the landing causes the cart to lose its wheels.

"Nope!" The red pony angrily said.

Ezio comes out of the stack of hay, pulling out the thief afterwards. Holding him by the neck.

"Give me the book before I regret sparing your life." Ezio grimly said.

Guards armed with spears surrounds Ezio and his captive, pointing their weapons at them both.

"Both of you are coming with us." Said the captain.

"I'm not the one you want. This man is a thief!" Ezio declared.

The cloaked thief smirks and tosses something onto the ground. That object upon impact causes smoke to burst out of it, blinding Ezio, the guards, and everypony else nearby.

"Cazzo!" Ezio shouted.

Ezio uses his Eagle Sense to see through the smoke bomb, but even so, he lost track of the thief. This frustrates Ezio very much. Ezio notices something else: the guards are highlighted in red. One of the guards hits Ezio's hindleg, forcing him to kneel down. They put his front legs behind him and binded them together with a strong rope, tight enough until his circulation stops.

"Argh..." Ezio groaned.

Twilight pushes her way through the huge crowd of ponies, all are watching the event as if it were a scene in a play.

"Excuse me... Pardon me..."

Twilight eventually made it out of the crowd only to see Ezio forcibly put inside a carriage.

"No! Wait! He's innocent!" Twilight shouted.

However, Twilight is too late as the carriage containing Ezio leaves with fast speed.