Clover's Creed

Disclaimer: I don’t own My Little Pony, but I am hiding inside that meticulously placed hay-bale outside your window and I have three ‘assassin calls’ on stand by, fully charged. Go ahead, question my sanity...

Clover’s Creed

By: Your Antagonist (VegaKS03)

Sequence One

1025 Modern Day Equestria

Abstergo Enterprises

I stumbled unsteadily out of the bathroom feeling somewhat lightheaded.I don’t think I’ll be eating any Neighsian food again any time soon. “So, Doctor Irkin, how soon can we begin another Animus session?”

He raised an amused eyebrow and before responding with seven little words. “How soon would you like, Ms. Sparkle?”

A sudden rush of glee surged through my mind, and I could feel a goofy grin slowly overtake my face. Doctor Irkin chuckled to himself, and gestured for me to lie back down on the Animus. He gestured to Fluttershy and she began pressing buttons on some kind of apparatus that looked like a computer, only far more advanced than anything available on the market. I’d have to study it myself after all this was over, but for now there was an archaic Equestria just waiting to be explored.

“All right Ms. Sparkle, just keep your eyes open and stare at the screen, please.” A piece of the machine slowly slid over my eyes bearing the Abstergo Logo, and it transitioned to static before a mechanical, droning voice spoke to me.

“Sequence 1: Initializing---->”

“Test Subject: Twilight Sparkle---->”

“Sequence 1: Execute--->”

I watched as the screen transitioned from static to a black and gray swirling pattern that seemed to be pulling me into it with every rotation, and finally I felt my consciousness slip deeper into the spiral before it erupted in an explosion of white light.

Equestria 04 B.C (Before Celestia)

Assassin’s Library

I pushed open the door to the sanctuary, and slid in as quickly as possible so as not to attract any prying eyes. The building was obscure in appearance and seldom ever attracted the attention of many of the villagers nearby since they prized farm work over education. As a result the majority of the village’s inhabitants couldn’t read, nor did they care to learn how, and that suited the Assassins Guild just fine.

I trotted through the main foyer of the library, nodding and bowing to my fellow assassins and mentors as needed, when I finally spotted Master Starswirl who was browsing through the history section dedicated to our distant relatives: the Zebras.

 I opened my mouth to greet him, but the old stallion cut me off before a single word could escape my mouth. “Clover my student, you’ve done the brotherhood proud with your most recent success.” He levitated a nearby corn husk pipe into his mouth, his horn glowing as he ignited it with a quick spark spell, releasing the aroma of tobacco and grape-vines into the air. I wasn’t too fond of that scent, but I bore with it in hopes that I could have my curiosity sated.

“Thank you, Master Starswirl, but if you don’t mind my asking just—”

“What did the governor do to deserve his fate? Is that what you wanted to ask me, Clover?”

How did he know I was going to ask that? “Errr...”

“Your hesitation says everything, Clover.” Starswirl shook his head at me the way that a master shakes his head at a dog that continues to defecate indoors. “Clover, I’ve warned you before: if you start empathizing with your targets, you’ll—”

“Become benevolent and hesitate in the midst of a mission, thereby losing the autonomous and merciless edge afforded to me as an assassin, I know. But master, you misunderstand, I do not wish to understand his feelings. Neigh, I wish to understand his motives, it is just to sate a sociological curiosity. Besides, I’ve been so busy with the brotherhood lately that I’ve fallen behind with my civil affairs duties. Seeing as I’m a member of the New Equestrian Senate, it would be nice to know what public policies and laws Governor Mustang was working towards before his untimely murder.”

I watched my mentor as he chewed his pipe and stroked his beard half in contemplation and half out of irritation from being interrupted. The old stallion’s face transitioned from frustrated, to pensive, and lastly settled on accepting. “All right Clover, I’ll tell you.” Master Starswirl’s horn lit up for all of a moment, and with a sharp crack! followed by a puff of white smoke, my master had summoned a set of red scrolls and was levitating them over into my telekinetic control. “But this is a one time deal; don’t go making a habit out of this.”

“Of course not, master,” I replied with a spry grin creeping across my face as I levitated the scrolls into my saddlebags.

“Do not read them here Clover. There will plenty of time for you to do that while you are staking out your next target with a hoof-full of the new recruits.”

Of course, that would be the best time to go over these documents, since a stakeout— Did he say recruits!? “N-new recruits, master? What do you mean? Why me?”

“Ahem.” Master Starswirl glared at me for making such a fracas of the news.

“My Apologies, Master Starswirl, I did not mean to interrupt you,” I replied with a curt bow.

“You are forgiven, Clover. As I was saying: you have been charged with the honor of guiding new blades into the fraternity. You are the most qualified after all”

As he uttered those words, I could feel the corners of my mouth tugging into a frown. Gahh, why do I have to drag around some dead-weight virgin blades? I could do this better myself!

As I sank deeper and deeper into my misery-laden thoughts, Starswirl’s scrutinizing gaze bore deeper and deeper into my features. “Clover? Is something the matter?”

“Errrr, no, nothing at all Master.”

“Then you would be wise not to tarry. The young ones are waiting for their mentor on the roof.”

“I’ll leave at once, Master, but first...” I dug around in my saddlebags until my hoof found purchase on the parcel I received from the late Governor Mustang. I extended the package to Master Starswirl and he took hold of it with his telekinesis.

“What is it?”

“I do not know, but Mustang was treating it with the utmost discretion up until his death. I imagine it must be of great importance, so I shall leave it with you for now as I must take my leave.” I bowed my head to Starswirl and spoke only three words “Nothing is true.”

Starswirl bowed in acknowledgment to me and responded by saying, “Everything is permitted.”

I turned away from Starswirl and made my way to a nearby window, being sure to raise my hood and channel magic into my hooves before I leapt over the ledge and began the trek up the side of the building. I paused for a moment to glance at the bustling city below, and smiled as I took in the scenery. The city was still young in its construction and, thanks to cooperation between the three races, it was growing and expanding every day. There was one structure in particular that my attention was drawn to, seeing as it towered over half of the city: The Tower of Harmony. It was a truly remarkable feat that half a decade ago would have been unthinkable, but looking at it now it was a testament to how far we’d come as a nation and a symbol of racial unity. A unity that I had sworn to protect from the shadows, no matter what the cost.

Sighing, I resumed my climb up the side of the library, reaching the roof only a moment or two later. To my surprise, there was nopony in sight. Just myself, the view, and an eerie silence. This better not be another one of master’s tricks, or so help me I’ll— A rapidly approaching whistling from behind interrupted my thoughts. My instincts forced my magic to activate subconsciously, reaching out behind me to capture the source of the noise. I levitated the offender in question before myself, and I was surprised to find the familiar build of several of the throwing blades used by our fraternity. I shook my head in disappointment at the fact that  assailant had yet to follow up such a fantastically executed diversion, but I dropped that line of thought as I noticed that the area around me had begun to grow darker.

I looked up just in time to see a white-cloaked pegasus brandishing a short sword in their mouth, rapidly descending upon me. I released my hidden blade and whirled around to greet my new adversary properly. Whipping their head to the side, it became quickly apparent that my new attacker sought to cut my throat, but what this attacker failed to notice was how much of an opening such a sloppy and poorly-defended attack left for me to exploit. I drove the length of my hidden blade against the sword, successfully parrying the pegasus and knocking them off the balance of their flight path. I followed through with my attack by slamming my bare left hoof into my adversary’s throat, knocking them, coughing and gasping, to the ground.

My victory over the pegasus was short-lived however, as the long-ranged attacker from earlier charged recklessly forth, and due to the rather menacing claymore floating closely behind him I was able to deduce his species as unicorn and adjusted my plan of attack accordingly. His first swing of the massive sword drove me to leap back cautiously.  Ducking under the blade, I spun, drawing in my hind legs and exploding them outwards in a powerful buck that caught the unicorn in his exposed chest. The blow knocked him on his back, and within seconds I was on him, my hidden blade placed firmly along his neck. Beneath his hood, I could see the fear in his eyes as he waited for me to finish him. I smirked. In this line of work, fear shows ambition. Maybe training these two won’t be as bad as I thought.

“That was a pathetic assault,” I said, allowing my blade to slide back into its hiding place in the gauntlet, before helping the pair up. Just as quickly as they stood, I began to chastise them: “Poor coordination, sloppy execution, manure poor close combat techniques, and an inexcusable number of missed opportunities. Were you even trying to kill me?”

Neither recruit responded, instead they both chose to hang their heads in shame. “But, I suppose that can be attributed to lack of experience. Let’s rectify that, shall we?”  I smirked to myself as I watched them perk up from the corner of my eye, and decided this was as good a time as any to face them directly. "From my understanding the two of you have been staking out a target for several months now, correct?”

They nodded wordlessly, almost proudly, to confirm my question.

“I’m assuming that you have a wealth of information on the target then?”

Once again both nodded. This was starting to look more and more promising by the moment.

 “All right then, what’s your plan of attack?”

The two looked nervously at each other, then back at me before lowering their heads in shame. You have got to be kidding me I thought to myself as I massaged my temples in frustration. Then again, it never hurt to practice improvisation. Harmony knows that when a mission goes wrong, and they always do, improvisation is all one has. “Well, if nothing else, at least you’ve done your research on the target, and that’s half of the assassination.  Now, let’s take this time to get me up to speed, and we’ll plan our next move from there.”

The pair reached into their respective cloaks and began pulling out—KZZZT— several scrolls—KZZZT— containing detailed—KZZZZZZT! KRACK!— informa— KZZZZZZTTTTTTTT! KRACK! KRACK!

1025 Modern Day Equestria

Abstergo Enterprises

I watched as for the second time in a day, ancient canterlot was slowly deconstructed before my eyes, and in its place there was endless white as far as the eye could see. A moment later a familiar echoing whimper cut through the blank, quiet atmosphere. “Oh no, this isn’t good at all... Doctor Irkin! Doctor Irkin!”

“Calm down Ms. Shy, I’m well aware of what’s happening. It’s nothing too serious;in fact, the machine is programmed to do this.”

“Oh. So... what is it?”

“The machine has initiated a simple scan of Clover’s dormant memories, effectively allowing the animus to “skip” if you will, to the more relevant moments of Clover’s life, relative to Abstergo’s interest of course. Why if we were to allow every memory to pass through unfiltered, this process would take months, perhaps even years.”

“So when’s it going to go back to normal?”

“Oh, I’d say in about a moment or so. Ms. Sparkle, if you can hear me, it would behoove that you to use these opportunities to do a mental review of what you learned so that the data is more organized once the Animus extracts the information from your memories.”

As Doctor Irkin finished his explanation, a mechanical voice poured out through the speakers on the animus.“Data Extraction Complete. Preparing to initialize next memory sequence.”

“Ahh, hear that? It looks like you’re ready to go back to Ancient Equestria. See you in a few hours Ms. Sparkle. Ms. Shy, help me analyze this new data would you?”

“Of course Doctor.”

Once again, the screen before me flashed to white displaying the Abstergo Enterprise symbol. It would only be a matter of time before I’d find myself back in the treasure trove of history that was early Equestria.

--->Sequence One Concluded

---> Initializing Sequence Two

Author's Note: I'm so sorry I haven't updated this in such a long time! Please don't hate me! I've been busy editing, for some reason irresponsibly making more series than I can handle on my own and preparing myself to submit a bunch of stories to EQD. But like I said, I never break my promises. It make take me forever and a day, but I don't break my promises. Don't think this means this one will be getting regular frequent updates though.