//------------------------------//
// Prologue: Abmarego and the Animus 
// Story: Assassin's Creed: The Equestrian Brotherhood 
// by Erisia 
//------------------------------//


Prologue
Abmarego and the Animus


If you really want to know about my adventure, or rather, my ancestors adventure, and tell you how I managed to save the world from an ancient Pseudo-God and an old order of murderers and really, really bad guys, I’m going to need to explain a few things to you- Starting with the Animus and Abmarego.

What is the Animus? The Animus, or Animi, are virtual reality machines discovered, developed, and sold by Abmarego industries. It allows the user to delve into ‘genetic memories’ and project them onto an external screen in three dimensions. It works through a mix of archaic, forbidden, dark magic and modern technological advances.  The Animus was created by Abmarego Industries in the latter half of the 20th century under the guidance of Dr. Wishful Vitality. Due to his leading authority on genetic memory, the machine's development and technology rapidly advanced, pushing him to become the overseer of the Animus Project. The earliest known use of an Animus was in the year 1980, when Dr. Vitality began his experiments on an unknown stallion codenamed ‘Subject 1’. Thanks to these sessions, Abmarego was able to extract the memories of Starswirl of Canterlot. Regretfully, the Animus was very unstable in its earliest designs, causing ‘Subject 1’ to suffer a fatal seizure. So, yes. The early Animi had their setbacks, but the ability to gather information about almost any period in time from anypony who volunteered was worth the risk.

In the thirty years that have passed since the first Animus, they have remodeled the device into a chair- that can fit in any room, in any building, anywhere in the world.

So yes, the Animus is a truly advanced piece of machinery that owes its success to years of scientific research and forbidden magic. To be fair, it’s extremely useful. As remarkable as this may seem to you, for us it’s just another thing. At first, sure. It was fantastically amazing and new, but after four years of working for Abmarego, you get used to the numerous amounts of the device littered throughout the offices. However, you can be sure that when my cutie mark made itself known in the visage of a double helix strand, I was overjoyed- Due to the fact that my colthood dream was to work at Abmarego.

Of course, working at Abmarego came after the internship at Abmarego. As per most internships, I was forced to get coffee and do morally degrading acts- Unpaid, of course. However, in the end it was worth it. I had my dream job, all I had to do to get it was forget that I was a living being with rights and standards. All I had to do now was take a career aptitude test to be ‘placed in the correct division of Abmarego’. The test consisted of four parts:

1.	A multiple choice exam, thirty questions.
2.	An oral interrogation of my past.
3.	A short tour of the offices, all sixty of them.
4.	A blood sample.

After all of this, my results came back with a… Not wanted result. They were placing me on the janitorial crew. The lowest paying, lowest quality, worst job Abmarego could offer. It turns out that my Bachelor’s Degree in Biogenetics was quite common at Abmarego, so landing my true dream job of Animi and Memory research would take however long it takes to get promoted from janitor to that. 

Every pony who worked at Abmarego had their own ‘office’, most consisted of a six by six cubicle fully stocked with a computer, chair, desk, and its own water cooler. Pretty basic for the lower level jobs- The desk jockeys and whatnot. The higher-ups get a bigger office, around ten by ten, big enough for their own Animus. The ones who get that job are the ones who have my dream job: Memory collectors. They’re the ones who research, watch, collect, and review memories of selected Subjects and, if they’re lucky, their own ancestors. However, unlike the Desk Jockeys and the Memory Collectors, the janitors had one office to share. It was about the size of a public bathroom, most of the space was taken up by filing cabinets in the back and a single desk with two chairs. Oh, and the buckets and mops. 

This is where a year of interning for Abmarego Industries got me. Cleaning toilets and picking up after the messes left by the Memory Collectors. To be fair, it could be worse. I could have been the lowest of the low in the janitorial rank, the guy who has to clean up the janitor’s offices. So, at least I have that going for me.

It didn’t help that I was also the newest employee at Abmarego, besides the interns who don’t classify as employees. It’s kind of tough to make a name for yourself in a company full of ponies who have never met you and only think of you as the colt who cleans the crap out of the clogged toilets. It’s even worse when you think about the fact that, as a Pegasus, I have to clean using my hooves- Unlike most of the janitors, who have magic. Needless to say, a large part of my day became about washing my hooves and sanitizing myself. There are only a few other Pegasi who work here and they mostly work on the fifth floor, I have no idea what they do on the fifth floor. I’m not allowed there, so I don’t go there. Nopony besides the ones who work there go there, besides that the fifth floor is completely avoided. Typically the Pegasi community are held at high regards in Abmarego, something about our genetics and the First Civilization of ponies. I guess my DNA wasn’t impressive enough to land me one of those jobs. 

Janitorial staff is better than nothing, I could have been one of the other sixteen interns who got relieved of duty and nothing more than a ‘Thanks for trying’ sticker. 

Kind if a waste, isn’t it? A cutie mark for genetics and biology, but forced to clean up after other pony’s… genetics. 

Oh well, if I hadn’t of gotten the janitorial job, none of this may have ever happened. The world, as we knew it, might have ended. The evil organization I mention before may have taken it over, and I may have never learned about my ancestor’s adventures and how he managed to do what he did.

I owe it all to my blood sample, and the world has it to thank for its continued existence. After all, if I hadn’t been a janitor I wouldn’t have had access to— Well, I’ll wait to tell that part of the story. 

In a few short months my life, and the lives of my friends, changed forever. I know my easiest days are behind me, but I don’t want them back- Not now, not ever. No matter what difficulties lie ahead of me in my future, or my ancestor’s past… I don’t want my easy life back. 

My name is Fallow Heart, and this is my story.