The Descendants

by Gherkin

Chapter 2: Exodus in Equestria

It felt like forever since Nathan Drake had eaten a proper breakfast. The chefs at the castle had whipped up what, to him at least, was an English fry-up. It was completely devoid of meat, but he supposed that was because he was stuffing his face at a table surrounded by colourful, talking horses.

He didn't really understand what was going on or where he was. Princess Celestia had tried to bring him up to speed with her world, but it was all still hazy. All he knew is that her world was in danger and he was part of a select few that could help them. It seemed Celestia had saved his life, so he guessed he owed her something. Hell, she’d even give him wings! He had to admit, that was pretty cool.

"Wait a minute!" The mare with the rainbow coloured mane was talking. "You're saying these stallions aren't really stallions at all? They're not even really ponies?!"

The lavender unicorn next to her sighed. "Yes, Rainbow, that's what the princess has been trying to explain." A rainbow coloured pony called Rainbow? Yeah, that's real imaginative.

"What, so what are they, spies or something?" Rainbow clearly hadn't taken a grasp on the sudden turn of events. Drake smiled. Well, this is gonna be just swell.

Princess Celestia cleared her throat. "I will explain everything properly after we have eaten, but for now, gentlecolts, why don't you introduce yourselves?" She nodded at the stallion with the shaven head who seemed to be more interested in making lightning arc between his hooves than eating the food in front of him.

"Oh, uh, hey," he said, rather sheepishly. Nate didn't blame him, this was all too weird for him as well. "I'm Cole. Cole McGrath."

Celestia nodded and waved her hoof, silently asking him to continue. Everyone else on the table was listening intently.

"Well, I'm twenty six years old, I come from Empire City, USA, and I'm a walking, talking electrical conductor." He turned to the princess. "Wait, how should I handle this? Was that okay?"

"A bit too formal. This is breakfast, not a job interview," she whispered.

He nodded, and turned back to the rest of them. "Oh, and I should be dead, but thanks to your princess here, it looks like I've been given a second chance." He turned back to his eggs and picked a piece up with his fork, gazing at it for a second before popping it in his mouth.

Fluttershy, you had been quiet throughout the whole conversation, suddenly piped up. "Um, excuse me, but what do you mean you should be dead?"

Cole sighed and reluctantly started to tell the tale of the events leading to his arrival. New Marais, the Beast, the RFI. Sacrificing every conduit in the world, including himself, to save humanity. By the time he'd finished talking, everyone had been put off their food slightly.

"That's so... sad," Twilight said, solemnly. "How could anypony expect you to make a decision like that?"

"I don't know," Cole replied, staring at the table, "But I'd rather not talk about it, thanks."

The table fell quiet for a few moments, before everyone turned expectantly to Nate.

"Why is it always me who has to break the silence?" he groaned, "I guess explosions, bullets and angry mercenaries aren't the only things to follow me wherever I go. No, awkward conversations have to as well."

Rainbow Dash suppressed a giggle, despite his little outburst. "You haven't even been in an awkward conversation until you've talked with this mare." She motioned to Twilight, who scowled at her. "Believe me, I've had experience."

"Hey, I'm not awkward!"

"You were pretty awkward that one time I took you to a bar with Pinkie and Applejack, and that one stallion tried to chat you up." She snorted and giggled. "You thought he was actually talking about studying!"

Twilight blushed and cleared her throat, whispering to the cyan pegasus, "I thought were agreed to never mention that again."

Drake smiled and chuckled. "Trust me, I've seen worse." He held out a hoof towards Dash from across the table. "I'm Nate. Nathan Drake."

Dash smirked and slapped her hoof against his. "Rainbow Dash. Nice to meet ya."

"The pleasure was all mine."

Shining Armor, having just finished his breakfast, suddenly cleared his throat and spoke up. "What about you, Mr. Mysterious Hooded Stallion?" He glared at Ezio, who, like the other three, didn't have much of an appetite. "Y'know, I don't think I caught your name while you were holding a sword to my throat." He made sure to add extra emphasis on the last few words.

"Wait, he what?" For the second time in one morning, Twilight nearly choked on her breakfast. Swallowing quickly, she proceeded to stare daggers at the Auditore. "Okay, mister, I think you've got some explaining to do!"

Ezio sighed. "For the record, I never held my sword to your throat. I never planned to harm any of you. I was panicked and confused. Call it a side effect of waking up in a strange new world with a completely different body."

"Be that as it may," Twilight told him, "but let me make one thing clear. Nopony, and I mean nopony, hurts my big brother. Got it?"

"Sí, you have my word."

Twilight leaned back slightly, reclining in her chair. "Just who are you, anyway?" Her voice still carried an air of distrust.

The assassin smiled warmly. "Ezio Auditore da Firenze. And if you're wondering about the hood, I am an assassino." There was no reason to hide his past from any of them. "I protect the innocent from those that would seek to harm and manipulate them. It is part of my creed, and is something I am sworn to live by."

Applejack, listening intently, turned to the princesses. "Hold up a sec. How come some foreign soundin' words are poppin' up when he's speaking? It sounds like he comes from Prance, or somewhere like that."

"I can answer that," Luna cut in, "You see, Mr. Auditore here is from a country in his world that speaks a different language to the Equestrian we're all used to. So, my sister and I took the liberty of casting a translator spell, so that whenever he speaks the minds of anypony within earshot automatically translates whatever he said into Equestrian, and vice versa. However, as you can see, it's not perfect, and some words still slip through."

“Wait a minute, are you saying you kill for a living?” Twilight asked him.

Ezio sighed. It wasn’t going to be easy, trying to justify his lifestyle to them. “Yes, but only those who deserve it.”

“How can you say that?” Everyone in the room turned to stare at Fluttershy, who seemed to be getting angry. “That’s horrible! What gives you the right to decide whether somepony lives or dies?”

“The people I kill are wretches. Mostly politicians who abuse their position to gain wealth and oppress the people in order to do so. Besides, the bastardi killed most of my family, just to prove a point.” Everyone looked away awkwardly, as if they were silently paying their condolences for the troubled stallion’s loss.

“Killin’ ain’t a lifestyle you want to choose.” A unicorn, his face hidden beneath the brim of a cowboy hat, spoke up from the far end of the table. “Sometimes, you just have to do it, to survive.” He looked away again. “Or to save the people you love.” He looked back up, his hazelnut eyes scanning the ponies around the table. “I ain’t sayin’ it’s justified, but sometimes, you just don’t have a choice.”

John Marston smiled slightly. It was all a bit ironic. I’ve been riding horses nearly all my life, and now I am one. Kinda funny, from a certain perspective. Still, I’m here now, with these three other guys, so I guess there’s no point in getting on bad terms with the ponies who saved my life.

The rest of the breakfast went along relatively smoothly. The four men finished their introductions and got into conversations, mostly about their world, with the different ponies around the table. Rarity positively swooned at the thought of the flamboyant fashion style that Ezio was accustomed to living in Renaissance Italy, while Rainbow Dash listened in awe as Nate boastfully told stories of his globe-trotting adventures.

Applejack and Fluttershy had started talking with the ex-gunslinger, Marston. The cowpony found him easily relatable, with them both being farm folk, while Fluttershy was interested in the animals that John had come across during his travels, of which there were many.

Twilight, however, just sat there, talking idly with her brother and her sister-in-law. She should have been excited; living proof of alternate dimensions and alien worlds, she should have been asking them all sorts of questions. But, for reasons she just couldn't put her hoof on, she didn't quite trust them. There was just something a little strange about them. Well, aside from the obvious.

"Hey." A gruff voice slapped Twilight out of her thoughts. She looked up and saw the earth pony with the shaven head. He had a backpack slung around one shoulder with a strange metal rod strapped to it.

"Oh, um, hi," she replied, forcing a weak smile, "Can I help you?"

He chuckled and sat down. "No, I just came over here to get away from Pinks over there." He pointed to Pinkie Pie, who was amusing herself by staring at Drake's ring, seemingly in awe of the ancient artifact. "She started to call me 'Cole-y Woley'. She give everyone pet names?"

Twilight laughed a little. "Sometimes. Just a little word from the wise, don't try to understand her, you'll go mad trying. And when she starts speaking at a million miles per hour, just nod when she pauses for breath."

Cole nodded. "So, what's the plan? I assume us four weren't brought from a different dimension just to share breakfast with you guys."

"I'm not sure," she told him, "I know about as much as you do. All I know is that the princesses are going to talk to your four and my friends privately once the breakfast is over."

“Okay.” He sighed and looked back at the lavender mare. “I still don’t get it. Why did your princess drag us here to deal with your problem?” She glared at him slightly. “Sorry, I didn’t want to seem insensitive.”

“I’m not sure, Mr. MacGrath. She mentioned something about you four being ‘special’, but I’m not sure what she meant.”

He groaned. “Sure. Oh, and call me Cole.”

They stayed silent for a few moments as everyone else chatted around them, before Twilight spoke up again.

“Hey, Cole?”

“Yeah?”

“What’s it like?” she asked. “I mean, where you’re from?”

He chuckled. “Nowhere near as friendly, for a start. I heard about that little stunt that Mr. Auditore pulled off last night. Let me tell you, if he’d have tried something like that in the time period I’m from, he’d have been killed before he had time to react.”

There was silence again.

“Have you ever killed somepony, Cole?” Twilight asked, stuttering slightly.

“Yeah,” he admitted, “I think all four of us have killed at some point. But never in cold blood.”

Twilight took a moment to think about what he said, before asking another question.

“How did you get those special powers?”

Cole smirked. I guess the legend of ‘The Electric Man’ still lives on.

“An armory?”

Marston didn’t quite understand. After the breakfast, Celestia and Luna had taken them all to a basement in the castle, where according to her they were going to be learning about Equestrian weapons. John wasn’t so sure. The ponies didn’t look like the type to carry any serious firepower, aside from the average sword or spear. The concept of a room full of firearms seemed ludicrous.

“We don’t even know what we’re fighting,” Drake spoke up, having broken away from his private conversation with Rainbow Dash. The two seemed to have taken a liking to one another. John wasn’t surprised; from what he’d heard, they both shared a similar love of living on the edge.

“You need to know how to operate a weapon before you point it at somepony, correct?” Princess Luna shot back wryly, a smug expression on her face.

“Geez, I know how to shoot a gun, it’s not too hard,” he grumbled.

“I think you’ll find it’s a very different experience when you don’t have any fingers, Mr. Drake,” Luna told him, her smile still bearing the same mischievous edge. “However, I’m sure you’ll figure it out just fine.”

They had reached a large iron door that read “Warning: Keep Out. Trespassers will be prosecuted.” John smirked slightly at the redundancy of it. It’s wasn’t like anyone else was going to be allowed this deep into the castle anyway.

Princess Celestia leaned over, as gracefully as ever, and slotted her horn into a small hole next to the door. With a small click, the door swung open.

“Horn recognition spell,” she explained, “Anypony who is granted clearance has it cast upon them. Only works for unicorns though.” Well, obviously.

He stepped inside behind the others, and marveled at the sight before him. Rows upon rows of various weapons were stacked neatly. Everything from swords and spears to high caliber handguns adorned the walls. John noticed that there was a lack of rifles or the sort, as there was only one rack dedicated to the long guns. It made sense. Ponies didn’t exactly have the right anatomy to operate them, unless they could reliably stand on their rear legs.

Meanwhile, Drake was the happiest he’d been in quite a while. “Oh yeah!” he exclaimed excitedly, “Candy store for adults!”

The six girls were looking around the room in a combination of confusion and shock. “Princess Celestia...” Twilight stammered, “What are these things?”

“Ancient technology,” she explained, “They left it behind when they fled the first time. Now we can use it to fight them now they’re returning.”

“What do you mean, who?”

Guess they haven’t been filled in yet, John thought, eyeing a rather powerful looking revolver hanging on the wall nearby.

Princess Celestia laughed slightly and blushed. “Oh yes, I forgot to tell you.” She explained to them what she had told the four men before they had come to her world. She did it briefly, and left more questions than answers.

Suddenly, a dark grey unicorn in a white labcoat came galloping through the door, gasping for breath. “Sorry I’m late, princess,” he stammered, hastily pushing his glasses up the bridge of his snout. “I got caught up in paperwork and lost track of the time.”

Celestia smirked mischievously. “Don’t worry, Doctor Load, you’re just in time to demonstrate the correct usage of our weapons to our guests here.”

“Not me,” Cole piped up, “It’s probably a good idea that I don’t get too close to those things.”

The sun goddess nodded as the unicorn levitated a simple nine millimeter handgun over towards him. “Well, I assume you’re all familiar with basic firearms, yes?”

All of them nodded except for Ezio, who tapped the hidden-blade hoof brace on his left foreleg. “Not really, but I suppose I have my own variant. Besides, I find it’s quieter to get up close.”

“Well,” the doctor continued, “Unlike your previous, um, ‘human’ firearms, First Civilization firearms can be operated in three ways, only two of which are available to non-unicorns.” He levitated the gun for them to inspect closer. It mostly resembled any old firearms that they’d been accustomed to, however the trigger ran down the whole handle of the gun, so that a pony’s hoof could easily slip inside and squeeze it.

“Number one: simply take the firearm in one of your front hooves, aim it and pull the trigger.” He did so. The girls recoiled quickly, but all the emanated from the gun was a small click. “Don’t worry, it’s not loaded.” He chuckled.

“The second is to do the same, but to put the firearm in your mouth and pull with your tongue. There are no benefits either way, so it all comes down to personal preference.”

The group nodded, listening intently. Even the group of six friends was vaguely interested; they’d never seen something like this before. Doctor Load beamed. He enjoyed having his ‘audience’ hanging on every word.

“And finally, a unicorn may use a simple levitation spell to aim and fire.” He demonstrated by floating the weapon around the room. “An obvious tactical advantage, as it allows the owner to protect themselves without exposing themselves to return fire.”

John wasn’t amazed by the technology, but it interested him all the same. Whatever they were going to be up against obviously left behind all their equipment for the ponies to scavenge and re-create. They must have been in a real quick hurry to leave. Ezio, meanwhile, looked slightly bored, as if he considered the whole concept of indiscreet ranged firepower to be foolish and silly. Typical of all them cloak n’ dagger types, I suppose.

Doctor Lock n’ Load ended the demonstration by showing off the assortment of rifles and shotguns on the far wall. Apparently, they were only operable by unicorns. However, according to Princess Celestia, ponies during the war developed a type of ‘battle saddle’ that meant that the long range arms could be operated by earth ponies and pegasi as well. Unfortunately, the plans and schematics were lost, buried beneath tonnes of rubble and debris in an old wartime shelter.

Now it was their turn to try the weapons for themselves. Nate seemed excited. John, admittedly, was intrigued as to the finer details of the weapons he would be using, and wasted no time in stepping up to the shooting range to try out his newfound magic. He glanced over at Nate, who had a handgun in his right front hoof. Much to his surprise, the cocky young man was a crack shot. Every single target went down with one or two bullets.

John smiled. Two gunmen, a sixteenth century assassin, and a guy that shoots electricity outta his hooves? Whoever we’re going up against, they ain’t got a chance in hell.