Prologue: It's Never Easy
The Creed
Written by Thunderhawk
Art by Robsa990
Edited by Zimprus Nalune w/ Contributions from Henry Anthony Courtler
DISCLAIMER
The author does not own, nor is affiliated with, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic or the Assassin’s Creed series. This is a story based on these things that is of the author’s creation and should be treated as a work of fiction.
Prologue: It’s Never Easy
It’s never easy, you know. Pretending to be something you’re not.
But it’s part of the job.
I’m sorry, did I say job?
I meant to say life.
Life as a member of the Creed; the same one that Princess Celestia formed a millennium ago, shortly before she banished her sister. The same Creed that started to quietly train pony assassins to kill the zebra Templar spies that had infiltrated Equestria and keep their attempts at espionage a secret.
If you thought it was the Royal Guard, or even the Red Hooves that handled most of the threats, you, my friend, are very wrong. They are just there for the threats too big to be kept secret, like entire armies. The stuff they handle is foals-play compared to what we take care of on a daily basis on most occasions.
Nopony knows of the existence of the Creed; except those in it and the Princesses themselves, which is why Guards and Red Hooves get hurt or even killed when we work. We move like the wind, and we kill before anypony even knows we’re there. It’s safe to say that everypony is thoroughly confused upon finding the bodies, if we can’t hide them first.
That’s the worst part of the job for most. The killing.
The death.
I’ve seen too many ponies die horrible deaths, more than half of them by my own hooves. One would think it would be difficult; perhaps keep one up at night.
But I find solace in the killing.
Why, you ask?
Because the evil ponies and creatures I kill can never again terrorize the innocent creatures and ponies that make up our fair land.
Have you ever wondered why there is hardly ever any killing or death in our land? Because we take care of it before it reaches public ear.
Trust me, my friend. It happens. You just don’t know it.
But I feel I have said too much already, however, so I will get down to the point.
There was a time not-so-long ago, about the time the Champion of Ponyville, Ace, came to town. A subtle threat was made against Equestria and the Champion himself. Celestia had made it very clear Ace was not to find out, or it could put his family in danger.
A subtle threat that turned out to be much larger than any of us anticipated.
Thus, it fell to the Creed, namely the closest two active assassins in the area, to deal with the matter as subtly as possible.
This is their story.
Well...
My story.
My name is Octavia.
And like my father before me...
I...
I am an Assassin.
Ponyville, the Summer Sun Celebration...
2 years ago...
Luna’s moon shone dimly over the night-sky as I perched high on the rooftop Ponyville Town Hall, one forehoof gripping the flag-pole on top, looking down at a bunch of festive, colorful lights down in the square below. My white and red hood billowed in the wind as I watched some fireworks go up into the sky and explode, raining down a shower of sparks and debris. Down below, the oblivious ponies cheered wildly at the sight.
I smiled and reached a hoof up, brushing a strand of my black mane out of my face and back into my hood.
Sometimes, I wished that could be down there with them, living a normal life outside the Creed, but that was just a little filly’s dream from long ago.
I watched as a white Unicorn, Vinyl Scratch, I thought her name was, start spinning some of that awful dubstep on her turntable. I shuddered. I didn’t know why I hated that music so much. It just didn’t sit right with me at all.
But it wasn’t the first time I’d been ordered to sit and listen to it. I’d often be asked by the master and my father to provide shadow security at these parties the Ponyvillians so loved to throw. The one called Pinkie Pie threw too many of these confounded parties for her own good.
But that night was to be different.
That night, I was not only providing security; it was my test to become a real assassin. Why Celestia chose this as my final task in my training, I did not know.
“All alone up here, Octavia?” I heard a male Pony say after the flapping of wings sounded behind me. The voice that spoke was foreign and had an thick Trotalian accent. I didn’t bother turning around, as I knew who the speaker was.
“Whirlwind...” I spoke softly as I continued to look down at the festivities. I watched intently as another bunch of fireworks were launched into the air. As they exploded and the crowd cheered, I caught the white and red of another assassin standing next to me, looking down at the festivities as well. He was a Pegasus with a dark green wingspan and several small blue dreadlocks hung out from under his hood. “Did Celestia ask you to stand watch as well?”
“Indeed...” Whirlwind said, blinking as he stared up at the night sky, “You, your father, and I are the only ones here tonight...”
“I am not surprised...” I let go of the pole I was grasping and sat down on my haunches, holding a forehoof up to my face and, with a quick bending of my hoof, a knife extended out of my bracer. The trademark weapon of The Creed.
The hidden blade.
“It’s just security...” I sighed, holding it up to the moonlight and letting the light bounce off the gleaming blade, “I don’t understand her intentions at all...the need for three assassins for a party just seems like...” I shrugged, “Overkill...”
Whirlwind turned his head towards me and shook his head, “Octavia, Celestia obviously knows something we don’t...”
I sheathed the hidden blade by flicking my forehoof again and I put my hoof down, “You’d think she’d tell us...”
Whirlwind extended his wings and took to the air and hovered next to Octavia, “I’d best get back to my post...” He turned to fly away, but stopped himself and turned around. “Be wary, Octavia...something about tonight doesn’t feel right...”
I turned to him and smiled, brushing a strand of my mane out of my face again, “Don’t worry about me...I’ve got things covered here...”
I could’ve sworn I saw Whirlwind blush a little as he silently turned around and flew off into the night, low above rooftops so that no pony could see him.
I sighed, stood up, and resumed my last stance with one forehoof grasping the pole of Town Hall.
“I hate to admit it, but...” I gulped, “But Whirlwind is right...something does feel wrong...”
Down in the streets below, the festivities were in full swing. Ponies alike were eating delicious food, playing all manner of games, and just having fun. Little did they know the hooded “pony” that was walking through the streets meant harm upon their leader.
The “pony” wore a black cloak and hood and it glided through the crowds. Anypony watching this mysterious “pony” could have sworn that he was glancing up at the rooftops every now and again.
“What the...?” I uttered as I stood up from my bored sitting position.
The figure caught my eye up on top of the Town Hall just a few moments after Whirlwind left. I narrowed my eyes as I watched him move. Suddenly he stopped as he entered the square below. In an instant, the figure snapped his neck upward and looked at me, eye to eye.
I gasped and fell backward as I saw underneath the figure’s hood. He had the black and white face and glowing red eyes of...
“A zebra...” I muttered to myself as I stumbled to my hooves and peered back over the edge of the building.
I gasped.
The hooded figure was gone.
“Attention, everypony!” The Mayor called from the front steps of the Town Hall, “It is time for the raising of the sun!” This was met by the thunderous stomping of hooves, “If everypony could enter Town Hall, we can get under way!”
I was not sure what to do at all. Part of me wanted to go warn my father on the other side of town, but the other part of me wanted to enter the Town Hall undeen and make sure that zebra wasn’t up to no good.
Finally, I made up my mind.
I scowled and stood up, running to the skylight above the Town Hall, “I must make sure everypony remains safe in here...” I carefully and quietly opened the skylight and grasped the ledge with my forehooves, swinging down inside. I grasped the ledges beneath the skylight and glued myself to the wall. I was too high up for any Pegasi to see me, as they were all hovering down below, awaiting the arrival of the princess.
Then, it hit me.
“That zebra...” I muttered to myself, “He’s either after the Princess or the Mayor...they are the two most important ponies here...”
I watched carefully as the ceremony started. A chorus of birds started singing and the mayor announced the arrival of Celestia.
Down below and unbenounced to me, on a balcony opposite the one the Princess was supposed to be standing on, the zebra stood, his cloak billowing out behind him. Slowly, he pulled out a crossbow from under his cloak. Equally as slowly, he pulled out a crossbow bolt and loaded it into the shaft of the crossbow, priming the weapon. Slowly, he took aim at the curtain and waited for the opportune moment to strike.
“I give you, Princess Celestia!” The Mayor shouted from her podium beneath Celestia’s balcony.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something odd happen outside. I looked up and gasped, “What the...?!” The Mare in the Moon was gone, the moon white as snow.
The Unicorn known as Rarity pulled the curtain open and everypony gasped.
Celestia was gone.
“She’s not here!” Rarity called out, making all in attendance gasp again.
“This isn’t good...” I muttered to myself as i frantically looked around. “First, the moon, then the Princess turns up mi—!”
That’s when I saw him.
Clearly frustrated by the fact that his target was nowhere to be found, he threw down his hood, revealing a stripy, long, unkempt mane. The zebra growled, and changed targets from the curtain to...
“The Mayor!” I said aloud, letting go of my hoof-holds in the wall and sailing down through the air.
I landed softly on the balcony behind the zebra and lunged forward, slamming a forehoof into his neck. He yelped in pain and accidentally fired the crossbow away from the Mayor, the bolt embedding itself in the wall high above the Mayor.
The zebra whirled around and snarled, “Assassin!”
“Indeed...” I said suavely, reaching back and drawing my dagger, holding it in my mouth. “Splendid job of revealing yourself to me earlier, by the way...” I smirked, “Saved me the trouble of flinging that hood off of your ugly head myself...
The zebra snarled, drawing not one, but two knives from under his cloak and standing bipedal style, “You shall not live to see the sunrise, assassin!”
“I sincerely doubt that...” I smirked and readied my first attack.
“You’re Nightmare Moon!” A female voice rang out from the crowd of ponies below.
“What?!” I looked over at the balcony and was shocked into seeing that the Nightmare Moon from legend was standing on Celestia’s balcony, laughing evilly.
I shouldn’t have dropped my guard there.
Next thing I knew, I was seeing stars and feeling a sharp pain on the back of my head as the zebra sprinted by me and slammed the pommel of one of his knives onto the back of my head in the process.
I quickly recovered and winced in pain, rubbing my head. I glanced over at Nightmare Moon, then at the zebra who was climbing out of the skylight I had used to descend into the Town Hall. He smirked, pulled up his hood, and closed and locked the skylight behind him.
“Cud...” I swore. I looked down at the crowd. They were now screaming and running around in panic, as Nightmare Moon had just summoned dark, ominous clouds that were producing an alarming amount of lightning. I narrowed my eyes.
Chaos. The perfect cover to escape undetected.
(Listening to this music is highly recommend on Youtube, for dramatic effect: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2K0lpLN-h24)
As swiftly as I could, I picked up my dagger and sheathed it, and then leaped over the railing and landed in the middle of the ponies running around, screaming for safety.
As expected, everypony was too busy running around frantically to notice the assassin (namely me) drop down in the midst of them and gallop outside, ramming down the doors to the town hall.
Once outside, I looked around for the zebra. I growled and narrowed my eyes when I saw the ruffian running across the rooftops of a series of houses nearby.
“Oh NO, you don’t!” I barked, pushing past several ponies that were still filing out of Town Hall in a panic. I galloped into a nearby alleyway once I was free of the crowd and started climbing the side of the building using and nook and cranny in the side of the structure that I could.
I leaped up onto the rooftop and spread my legs apart. I snorted, rose up on my hind legs, then sprinted as fast as I could after the zebra assassin.
I skillfully avoided obstacles such as stray bricks and loose thatching as I gave chase to the zebra, easily clearing the gaps between houses with a well-executed jump. I was gaining steady ground on the zebra, who began to realize I was faster than him.
I was one of the only Earth pony assassins that could run as fast as I could, along with my father.
So he decided to cheat.
Pulling the crossbow from earlier out from under his robe, he turned and loaded three bolts into the shaft at one time. I snarled, but kept running at him.
“Adios, assassin!” The zebra said with a thick accent, firing off all three bolts in my direction just as I was jumping over a gap from building to building.
I took in a deep breath and expertly twirled around in the air, the first bolt passing over my head, the second passing just beneath one of my legs.
The third, however, scratched the right side of my torso, drawing blood.
I yelped in pain and stuck my landing, gripping my side with a forehoof. I looked up with a closed eye and gritted teeth and watched as the zebra cleared another gap and started sprinting away towards the Everfree Forest border of the town.
“Damn...” I swore, tearing a piece of my robe off to stop the bleeding.
“Octavia!” Came that familiar Trotalian accent from above. There was the beating of wings, and then whirlwind landed on the roof next to me. he galloped up to me and put a hoof on my shoulder, “Octavia, it’s chaos! Nightmare Moon is back and...dear Celestia! What happened to you!?”
“Whirlwind...” I whirled around and grabbed him by the shoulders, “There was a zebra assassin that almost took out the mayor...”
“What?!”
“Yes. He went that way! You must give chase and meet up with my father to stop him! We have to catch him!” I said desperately.
“Merde...” He swore in his language. “I go! Are you sure you’ll be al—”
“GO, WHIRLWIND!” I shouted at him, gritting my teeth in pain from the wound.
“Right!” He spread his wings, and in a flash, he was gone in the direction of the zebra.
“Okay, come now, Octavia...” I thought to myself before standing upright. “It’s just a scratch...you’ll be fine...”
I snorted and, despite the immense pain and bleeding from my side, I continued to gallop after the zebra bowman and Whirlwind.
As I approached my next gap, I leaped over it with ease before running up a steep incline on a roof and, not caring and closing my eyes, leaping off the roof, spreading my forehooves out like an eagle and soaring through the air.
One would think I would hit the ground three stories below and perish.
But I knew the area.
I knew that a wagon of hay was parked every night just outside Carrot Top’s house for delivery to her farm the next morning.
With a soft thump, I landed safely in the bale of hay. I flung myself out of the wagon and sprinted as fast as I could down the street towards the border of the Everfree Forest. In the air, I could see Whirlwind attempting to catch up to the zebra, who was now on the grass and headed towards the forest.
Then, I saw my father. Treble, was his name. He wore the robes of the master assassin with the steel pauldrons, upon which Celestia’s sun was engraved, and his long black mane was flowing out past his hood. Truly, he was a sight to behold.
If you could spot him before he killed you, that is.
I skidded to a halt when I saw him leap off of the roof of the cottage on the outskirts of the forest, hidden blades on each forehoof extended. The zebra cried out in surprise, but it was too late. My father was upon him, landing on the zebra and lunging one of his hidden blades into the zebra’s side.
I skidded to a halt on the outskirts and Whirlwind landed next to me with a smile on his face, “Oh, that zebra merde is going to suffer now...”
As much damage as my father’s attack did, the zebra still lived. Realizing he was still alive, the zebra kicked my father off of him. My father landed on his hooves and drew his sword with his mouth, lunging at the zebra, who had drawn his knives.
“We should help him!” I shouted, and I started to step forward, but I felt Whirlwind's hoof on my shoulder.
“No...this is his fight, Octavia...” He looked down at me from the spot where he was hovering, “He is a Master Assassin. He’ll be fine.”
I slowly looked back to the fight, where the zebra and my father had clashed weapons. They dueled expertly, leaping back and forth as if dancing. Finally, my father headbutted the ruffian on the head, knocking the knives out of the zebra’s hooves. The zebra fell to the ground, grunted in pain from his wound, and started stumbling backwards against a tree.
(You can end the music now. :3 )
My father advanced on him, holding the sword in his mouth. “You should not have come here, templar scum...”
“Templar?!” Whirlwind and I shouted together after exchanging looks.
“Assassin puta...” The zebra spit in my father’s direction.
“Why are you here?” My father pressed, pressing the sword up against the zebra’s neck. “Who sent you!?” My father yelled this time. “ANSWER ME!”
“Never...” The zebra smirked before reaching under his cloak and pulling out a strange glowing orb.
“What is that!?” I shouted.
Whirlwind was already flying at the zebra assassin, sword drawn.
I growled, drew my dagger and galloped after him.
My father suddenly looked as if he wasn’t in control of his actions. The glow of the orb enveloped my father and he started stepping away from the zebra, who cackled and slowly got up.
“You cannot resist the temptation of the Apple, can you, assassin? Hmhmhm...” The zebra cackled.
“You...ugh...bastard...” My father dropped his sword and kneeled down in front of the zebra, who was now advancing towards my father, still holding the glowing orb in a forehoof.
“Father!” I yelled, galloped as fast as I could.
The zebra looked at me, smirked, then back at my father, “A daughter, assassin? No doubt following in your hoofsteps...”
Just as Whirlwind and I were upon the zebra, he extended the orb towards us, it glowed, and it sent us flying backwards. I slammed up against a tree, and Whirlwind sailed into a nearby fence, shattering it.
“Hmhmhm...pathetic...” The zebra drew his daggers and advanced towards my father, who still could not move. “Now, assassin...time to die...”
I groggily sat up, rubbed my head, then gasped. I saw my father look back at me as the zebra crossed his daggers in front of his neck. With tears in his eyes, he mouthed the words, “I’m sorry...”
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!” I extended a forehoof.
But...
It was too late.
That evil, flea-bitten zebra slit my father’s throat. Blood spilled out of his neck as he fell over with open eyes and tears streaming down his face.
I...
I couldn’t take it.
I got up and charged with all my energy at the bastard who killed him. But my wounds prevented me from running at my fullest. By the time I got there, the zebra threw up his hood, put away the strange orb, and galloped into the forest, cackling as he went.
I stopped and kneeled down next to my father.
I...
I buried my face in his chest and...
Cried...
I cried like I had never cried before....
I didn’t care that his blood was getting all over my hood and mane...
...My father was gone...
I...
I had failed to stop the Templar and save my father. Whirlwind was the only other pony there to see him die.
He had a simple funeral, in the caves beneath Canterlot; where we bury all fallen assassins.
Then...in an instant...I was an orphan.
That...that was two years ago.
And that was when I swore I would never take up being an assassin again.
I moved to Ponyville and used my cello to make a living.
Well, an honest living.
I had moved in with that DJ from earlier, much to my dismay. We became good friends, despite our different taste in music.
But I swore I would never tell her my secret or kill for The Creed ever again.
Until that one fateful day when Blue Bass mysteriously arrived in Ponyville and Celestia received an unsettling letter.
A/N: Oh wow! What a heart-pounding prologue to crossover fic, huh?
None of would ever suspect Octavia as an assassin, would you? Bwahahaha... Just kidding. It's actually quite predictable.
Stay tuned for more soon...
-Thunderhawk
