Assassin's Creed: Afterlife

"Ezio... Ezio... Wake up..."

Hearing these words, Ezio opens his eyes. He finds himself laying down on a bed, back in his old regular human form. He looks to his right to see his wife and kids. Ezio scratches both of his eyes, reality not hitting him yet that he's back home. As he lowers his hand, they still see them there. Standing with expressions of relief on their faces. It is a peaceful night.

"You've passed out when we went to buy groceries. We were very worried, Ezio." Sofia said. "We had to carry you back here."

"I... Am I home...?" Ezio said looking at the familiar room.

Sofia puts her hand on Ezio's shoulder, giving him a compassionate and loving smile.  "Of course you are, il mio amore. The doctor said you should be fine."

Ezio pushes himself upwards and gave Sofia a warm embrace filled with love. Ezio breaks the hug and looks at Sofia closely on the eye.

"I thought I would never see you again, mio caro..." Ezio smiled.

"Well... Here we are." Sofia answered. "Please wait. I'm bringing your dinner up here."

Sofia goes downstairs, while at the same time, Flavia, who were just waiting for her turn, playfully sits on her father's side.

"I thought you were gone, Papa!" Flavia said.

"You, Marcello, and your mother is what keeps me going, il mio bambino."

"I know." Flavia giggled.

"Go downstairs and help your mother prepare dinner. I'll be fine." Ezio commanded.

Flavia giggles and runs out the door, waving at her father. Ezio waves back as he lay his back on the bed. He closes his eyes as he repositions himself to find some more comfort on the bed. He experiences silence for a few minutes, accompanied by sounds of crickets. His sickness wasn't cured as he continues to cough, clenching his painful chest, but it doesn't seem to be as worse as before.

"Good to be home..." Ezio whispered.

As Ezio goes deeper in his sleep, this gentle rest is then interrupted by a sudden noise of screaming. Ezio quickly opens his eyes, stand up as fast as he could, and run for the door. Ezio looks down the lower level of the house to see his wife being attacked by an imperial soldier, similiar to the one Ezio had encountered before with Shao Jun. The solider ruthlessly impales Sofia through the chest with a long sword, killing her instantly. After then, he turns his attention nonchalantly to a terrified, defenseless Flavia and Marcello.

"Bastardo!" Ezio furiously shouted.

Enraged, Ezio jumps off from the upper floor directly towards the imperial soldier. This however proved ineffective as the soldier simply elbows Ezio while in mid-air, causing the weak old man to crash through the wall and into the next room, leaving a huge gaping hole, also destroying Sofia's portrait. Ezio watches the imperial brute as he turns his head on him. A knife is sticking out of his right eye.

"Leave them alone!" Ezio shouted.

Ezio tries to stand up, but experiences intense horror as he notices his limbs are amputated. Nothing more but bleeding stumps. Helpless, Ezio watches his two kids murdered brutally. Another imperial soldier walks in front of Ezio's view, raising his axe high up, ready to drop the heavy blade down Ezio's head. This one imperial soldier is terrifying as he looks like a horse-like demon creature, the last thing Ezio will see. Ezio simply closes his eyes, not bothering to fight back.

"Agh!" Ezio yelled as something hard make impact with his head. He opens his eyes to see that a pony royal guard has hit his head with the wooden end of a spear.

"Wake up." One of the royal guards who have captured him after his chase with the thief said.

Ezio finds himself sitting down inside a carriage, back in his despised pony form.

"I wish you should've just killed me." Ezio said, frowning at the guard.

"We will, but not now."

The guards mercilessly pulls him out of the carriage. Ezio doesn't see anypony watching since it is in the middle of the night. Not a crowd, not a sound. He can only hear hoofsteps and his hind legs being dragged across the ground. They go inside a glamorous castle. It is white with strangely designed spires, while more are built in the mountainside. There is a nice tall waterfall next to it, below that waterfall is a river that runs in front of the castle, leading to another waterfall. Ezio and the guards cross that particular river with a drawbridge leading to the entrance of the castle. They walk past what appears to be a throne room. A carpet is on the throne's seat down to the floor and across the room towards the door where Ezio and the guards entered.

Ezio once again starts to lose his consciousness due to being tired. His sight once again dim into darkness...

A few hours passes as Ezio once again regains his consciousness. He finds himself imprisoned. However, he doesn't move as soon as he did as he could hear guards talking outside his cell. Ezio uses his skills to eavesdrop.

"Princess Celestia will be here soon. What should we do with him?" The guard said.

"As soon as the Princess arrives, we tell her this pony had murdered the father and the two brothers of a young colt." The other guard answered.

"Oh, I see. That pathetic Princess will then banish him." The guard smiles grimly. "That way, he couldn't interfer with our leader's plans."

"...And the Princess and her sister dies." The guard added.

Ezio frowns, moving his head slightly behind him to see the two guards' backs who are just right outside the bars of his cell.

"A pair of Hidden Blades would be a welcome sight right about now." Ezio whispered.

Ezio uses his Eagle Sense. The guard on the right is highlighted gold, meaning he has the keys on him that would free Ezio from his imprisonment, the other guard is red. Another guard, however, joins in the two. This guard is highlighted as blue, as opposed to the other guard who is highlighted red.

"Strange." Ezio said.

"What are you two saying?!" The guard highlighted in blue said.

"We were just talking about... Uhhh... How pretty the Princesses are!" The guard highlighted in gold answered.

"No! I heard you! You said you would kill Princess Celestia and Luna!" The blue guard argued.

The guard in blue looks at Ezio who quickly lowers his head.

"Who's he? Why is he here?! Princess Celestia has decommissioned the use of this dungeon!" The blue guard scolded. "The Princess will hear about this."

As soon as the blue guard turn his back on the two hostiles, they quickly draw their knife and slit his throat with a dagger. Ezio hears the blue guard's gurgles as he chokes in his own blood. The guard crawls away from his two murderers, holding the huge deep wound across his throat as it squirts blood all over the floor. The guard's life eventually dies out as he falls down on his back, his dead eyes staring blankly directly at Ezio's cell.

"Cazzo... Looks like this world isn't so perfect after all." Ezio whispered.

"What will we do with the body? I don't wanna be banished!" The hostile guard asked.

"I'll Hide it. We couldn't let him tell the Princess about our intentions. I'll go upstairs to take his place."

"Of course!"

The guard leaves as he carries the body, leaving the other guard with the keys alone. Ezio saw this as his opportunity to pickpocket. He slowly crawls behind the guard, reaching his hoof out of the cell. The keys just happens to be hanging down from the guard's belt.

"This would be easier with fingers..." Ezio said.

Ezio carefully put his hoof into the ring of the keys, slowly lifting it up from the guard's belt.

"Hey! Get over here. I need you to help me with this." The other guard said, away from Ezio's view.

"Coming!" The guard Ezio is pickpocketing on replied.

The guard carelessly trots towards the right, causing Ezio to drop the keys. The clanging sound it makes as soon as it makes impact with the ground is loud enough to get one of the guard's attention. Fortunately, the keys lands close to Ezio's reach.

"What was that?!" The guard said, startled.

"Probably just a rat. Come on, help me lift his hoof up so nopony can find him."

Ezio smirks, dragging the keys into the cell with ease. Carefully, he inserts the key into the keyhole, turning it slowly until he hears faint clicking sound. After this, Ezio very carefully opens his cell, making the noise of the rusty metal's rotation as it opens as quiet as possible. Free, Ezio sneaks his way behind the guards and up the stairs.

"Ventosa" Ezio whispered as he makes his way upstairs, putting his hood back up.

Upstairs of the castle, Ezio ends up in a hallway. He uses his Eagle Sense to find the perfect escape route. Ezio nods as he sees a gold path on the floor leading to the end of the hallway and into the right. He makes his steps subtle as much as possible as he follows the golden path. The hallways of the castle feels more natural in physical appearance than Twilight's, but its strange path design of the interior makes it difficult for Ezio to navigate. He spends half an hour turning left, right, twist, and turns. Eventually, he sees the open doors of the balcony, below it is a body of water. As Ezio prepares to jump off to escape, an elegant voice interrupts him.

"Greetings" A white tall pony with both wings and a horn calmly spoke behind him. This one's much larger than any pony Ezio had met.

Ezio remains silent as he saw the majestic horse's goddess-like appearance. Her rainbow-colored tail and mane flows as if it were being blown by a breeze of wind. She also has a sun tattoo on  her flank.

"Uhhh... Who are you?" Ezio asked, looking up as Celestia's height towers above him.

"I am Princess Celestia. I rule this land along with my sister, Luna."

"Principessa I must tell you this: one or more of your guards in this castello are planning to kill you." Ezio said. "Watch yourself during your sleep."

As Ezio is about to walk away from the Princess to escape, the Princess spoke to him one more time with a request.

"Walk with me." Princess Celestia said.

"Cosa?" Ezio didn't expect this from somepony he just met.

"We have much to discuss, Ezio."

"How did you know my name?!"

"I will explain along the way."

"Twilight Sparkle has reported to me that a stallion had stolen my book. She thinks you're very capable of finding that thief." Princess Celestia explained as she walks with Ezio through the long hallway.

Ezio stays silent, still looking at Celestia.

"Something the matter?" Princess Celestia asked.

"Sorry. It's just that I've never seen anyone like you." Ezio answered.

"That's funny. Twilight told me you didn't even seem to react much when you first came here." Princess Celestia responded. "You just quickly accepted that your body have changed and that you are in a completely different world."

"Everything just felt so... natural. I didn't even know why I wasn't that much suprised." Ezio said. "Strange..."

"Strange indeed." Princess Celestia added.

"Lo so. Now what was it you were trying to tell me." Ezio asked.

"Twilight had told me that you said you came from the other world. Yet, Fluttershy witnessed you crash into a stray eagle before you started acting unusually." Princess Celestia explained. "Can you explain to me which one is true?"

"The only evidence of me being from a different world are my memories." Ezio said. "The evidence for the other are my mysterious cuts and bruises."

The two enter Princess Celestia's room. On the center is a large cushion, fashioned for Princess Celestia's height. Next to it is a small fireplace. It contains a banner of what appears to be the nightsky. A pot of flowers next to the door, the walls are  dark blue in color with cloud designs.

Princess Celestia sits on her cushion, asking Ezio to sit right in front of her.

"Very well then, Ezio." Princess Celestia said. "Can you explain your life before you came to this world?"

"That is not important." Ezio said. "I only care about getting back."

"Telling me your story could give me clues of how you came to be here, Ezio..."

"That won't do us any progress, Principessa."

"We'll see."

Ezio's expression goes from sombre to sadness, closing his eyes. Ezio pulls down his hood, sitting down on the floor. He lowers his head for a few seconds before gathering up all his thoughts. His eyes slowly open, lifting his head up towards Princess Celestia. The former Assassin begins talking about his life back in Florence. He told Princess Celestia of the murder of his father and brothers and his quest for revenge, the time he spent in Rome to bring down the Borgia family, his travels to Masyaf to find out Altaïr's secret and how he held the Assassins together, his time with Shao Jun, and finally his death. Ezio takes half an hour telling the whole story to Princess Celestia.

"There. I have told you everything." Ezio said. "Did it tell anything to you?"

"Alright."

"...Just alright?"

"Star Swirl the Bearded told me that you somepony that matches your story shall one day come to Equestria."

"Who?"

"Now for the other claim. I have a theory for this one. You are possessing the body of your counterpart." Princess Celestia said.

"My counterpart?"

"You mentioned before that eagles play an important role in these so-called Assassins. The fact that an eagle crashed into yo-... I mean that other pony is too much to be a coincidence." Princess Celestia explained. "My theory is that you were sent here with a purpose."

"What kind of purpose?"

"I don't know"

Ezio scratches his head "...And what of the previous owner of this body?"

"You did not react much when you first came here, you were more amazed to see me rather than the other strange wonders of this world. That is because that body already got used to seeing ponies and living as one of them, however, it has not seen me nor my sister in person yet. If I'm correct, visiting various places and encountering ponies that is connected in any way to the previous owner of that body could give you access to his memories one by one, allowing you to know his story." Princess Celestia pauses for a moment. "That crash with the eagle probably represents your soul entering his body."

"Really?" Ezio asked.

"No... Maybe... It is just a theory, Ezio."

"Looks like you just gave me more questions than answers." Ezio said. "That's the opposite of the result I was expecting."

"Don't worry, Ezio. I believe you did make progress." Princess Celestia's stands up as her horn glow brightly with magic as she levitates her cushion up from the floor, revealing a hidden storage unit beneath it. She then cuts a hole on the cushion with her magic, causing feathers to come out as she pulls a key out of it. The Princess inserts the key into the hidden storage unit's lock, fitting into it smoothly. Turning the key, the lock makes a really loud clicking sound. Princess Celestia pulls out a small chest out of it, handing it over to Ezio as if it were a gift.

"What's this?" Ezio asked.

"Star Swirl had hidden that chest for centuries. I was told not to give it to anypony unless they match your story." Princess Celestia said.

The chest is very dusty. The design is very generic, however it is lacking a lock.

Ezio opens the dusty wooden chest, making a creaking sound. Inside it is what appears to be a dust-covered scroll with spider web all over it due to its age. Lacking fingers and still not knowing how to even grab things with hooves, Ezio turns the chest upside down to drop the item inside on to the floor to take a look on what's written on it. The dust blown away as it makes impact with the floor causes him to cough for a few times, but as soon as he opens his eyes as the dust clears away from the air, he is surprised to see that it isn't even a scroll at all. It is a page taken from a codex. Written on it is a blueprint for a Hidden Blade designed exclusively for hooves. The hand-writting matches neither Altaïr's nor Star Swirl's.

"It's a Hidden Blade! Where did it come from?!" Ezio asked.

"It is up to you to uncover the mysteries, Ezio."

They hear hoofsteps rushing towards the bedroom...

"I think they've noticed you escape. You should get out of here. That page is water-proof."

"What about you?"

"I am aware of their plans of killing me. Go. I can handle them myself."

Ezio puts his hood back on, opening the window, letting the cold breeze of the night get in the room.

"Grazie per la vostra gentilezza , la principessa" Ezio said.

"A voi pure" Princess Celestia smiled.

"You speak Italian?"

"Just go!"

Ezio takes the codex page with him and escapes the castle by jumping off the Princess' window, landing into the body of water below.