“Hey… Ezio? Is this thing on?” A white-robed Assassin member paused as he strolled down the main thoroughfare of Rome. “Ezio? I know you can hear me. Pick up the Apple.”
Giving a deep sigh that possibly could have been misconstrued for a muted scream, Ezio took a detour down a side alley as he tried not to arouse suspicion from the device that he carried on his person. Reaching into a pocket, he pulled out a golden sphere indented with grooves that ended in small round notches. An arched lens sat in a recessed dias on the front of the device.
Resting the sphere flat against his palm, the lens crackled to life as a second figure appeared in a hazed blue light. “About damn time you answered, Ezio. Had me worried there for a second. I know you’re currently en route to your destination, and yes… I realize that you probably were in a group of people when I called you. However… This isn’t a sightseeing tour. Your job here is important.”
The image panned out slightly to allow a map to flicker into focus. A bright red dot was stationed over what appeared to be a castle of some description. “You remember our friends the Borgias, right?”
A shudder ran down Ezio's spine as he remembered the day his family was executed in front of his eyes by a member of the Borgia family. As they spoke, Ezio's free hand balled into a tight fist. “I’m sure you do. I said it once, and I'll say it again; my condolences for your loss. Anyway… Our ‘little friend’ is at it again. Him and his band of Templar goons have gathered in his Castel to… discuss things.”
The display flickered and showed a few still-images of the interior of Castel San'Angelo. “You see… Rodrigo never learned his lesson from the last time you visited him. I’ll spare you the details. Just know that he’s up to his old ways again. You know what you gotta do now, right?"
The informant paused for a moment to collect his thoughts. "Hopefully you won’t have to use it… J-just be careful if you do, alright? Apples are never predictable. Don’t want you getting hurt out there. Ha… Here I am telling one of our best Assassins to be careful. Old habits really do die hard, don’t they, Ezio?”
As the feed cut off and the Apple returned to a dormant state, Ezio recalled his previous encounter with the fanatical leader of the Templars. "Heh. When I get my hands on that slimy snake, habits aren't the only thing that's going to 'die hard'." he remarked as he stuffed the Apple back into his pocket.
Climbing up a nearby gutter, Ezio flipped up and onto the rooftop. Leaping from roof to roof, he used them as a shortcut to the Castel.
Several moments later, Ezio landed on a rooftop right across from his destination. He reached into his cloak and pulled out a small crossbow he had tucked away inside.
Grabbing a bolt from a pouch, he tied the end of a thin coil of hemp rope just beneath the arrowhead. Quickly loading the bolt, he aimed the crossbow at a post on the ramparts of the castel and fired.
The bolt pierced the air, embedding itself in a wooden post as his aim held true. He then started shimmying along the rope hand-over-hand, with his legs wrapped around it for balance. Once he got to the edge, he quickly pulled the arrow out and wound the bolt back into his pack.
Ezio was about to vault over the low wall when footsteps brought him pause. A pair of Templars paced past his spot, glancing out to the cityscape below. Luckily for Ezio, they continued on and disappeared behind one of the walls. He took this moment to vault over the rampart and scuttled into a door just across the way. Once inside, he crouched low and peeked over the side of a railing.
Just below, Rodrigo had settled in the antechamber when Cesare, his brother and co-leader of the Templars, entered the room. “Ah, brother! So glad to see that you could make it on such short notice. We have much to discuss, you and I.”
“Indeed. Let me start off with this!” Ezio glanced over the railing just in time to see Cesare pull a dagger and stab Rodrigo in the throat, leaving him to bleed out on the floor. Ezio was gawking a bit too long; Cesare glanced up and noticed him. “Intruder! Seize him!” he barked as he ran further into the Castel.
Ezio leapt over the banister to pursue the retreating form of Cesare. However, to his dismay, a large amount of Templars were flooding the antechamber. With no options left, Ezio quickly took the Apple out of his pocket. He didn’t use it on this amount of people in one sitting before, however the situation left him little room for improv. He gripped it firmly in one hand and activated it.
As the power began to build inside of the Apple, it began to glow brighter and brighter. Ezio noticed this, but it was already too late; the heat emanating from the Apple was so great it forced him to drop it.
Upon hitting the ground, the Apple exploded. Ezio’s vision became flooded with a bright, searing white light. Screams echoed around him as the many Templars that were caught in the resulting blast sounded as if they were suffering the same fate.
Little did Ezio know of the extent of the blast. Nor did he realize how much power was expelled. He lost consciousness as the entire city of Rome vanished off of the face of the Earth.
After an indeterminate amount of time, Ezio’s mind began to catch up with the rest of his body. Slowly, he managed to open his eyes and immediately had to shield them with his arm. The first thoughts that ran through his mind was that he was dead.
The light was harsh and obstructed his vision. Birdsong filtered in through the angry buzzing in his ears. Leaves rustled in a warm breeze that lapped against his face. Eventually, his eyes acclimated to the light allowing Ezio to take in his surroundings.
The first thing he noticed was that he was in the middle of what appeared to be a meadow in a dense woodland area. Trees surrounded him on all sides, allowing a modest amount of light to filter down through the canopy. Birds flew overhead and animals frolicked on both sides of him. The next thing he noticed was that he was a lot closer to the ground than he was before.
“Well, shit. If I’m dead, then this is a stark contrast from where I figured I was heading…” he half-joked as he dusted himself off. Or, at least he would have if he could feel his hands.
“Huh. That’s strange. Did I lose my hands or some–” He stopped speaking when he looked down at his arms. He instantly noticed they had become rounded peach-colored limbs. At the tips where his hands were was replaced by a hoof.
He raised his arms to his face and rubbed them against it. “Oh thank god I can still feel these… Whatever these are.” he stated as he went to stand up. When he rose to his hooves, he instantly fell forward, burying his face in the grass, Eyes crossed, he noticed at that moment his enhanced range of vision.
From where he laid, he didn’t have to move his head to see behind him. That caused him to panic slightly; such a thing wouldn’t have been possible a few hours ago. It was at this time that he noticed his nose was broader and more rounded at the tip and his hair flipped over and into his eyes.
It took him a moment to acclimate, but he eventually managed to stand on all four limbs. He tried to stand straight up, but found that holding this stance was impossible for any length of time. “W-well… Now I can confirm this is more than likely a hallucination. Where am I exactly? This doesn’t look familiar at all to me… and now that I realized that I’m… whatever this is, I have two options. One, the Apple backfired and affected me as well. This is the most likely scenario, seeing as I turned into–”
He looked between his legs and saw a tail that draped behind him, as well as exactly what he expected. “–if my hunch is correct, it looks like a pony. Great. The boys will never let me live this one down. Anyway… Two, I… W-well, best not to dwell on the fact that I could be dead right now. Those kinds of thoughts wouldn’t really help me cope with my current situation...” Ezio mused as he drove the thought from his mind for the time being.
After regaining his bearings, Ezio started trotting. His motions were stiff and rigid, which ended up causing him to stumble and wobble from the abrupt change to his center of mass. As he made his way down the path, a deep growl could be heard from behind him along with the snapping of twigs. Pausing, he turned around just in time for a pair of timberwolves to leap out of the brush and onto the path. Silence hung heavy in the air before the timberwolves charged for Ezio, mouths slavering.
Quickly reaching into his robe, he tried to pull out his throwing knives from his pockets. However, due to the fact that his hands were now hooves, any attempts to get a good hold on them proved to be nearly impossible. It was at this time that what just happened dawned on him. He wasn’t able to grip any of his weapons, which rendered him basically defenseless.
Realizing this made Ezio’s eyes widen slightly. He decided at this point to reflexively reach for his Apple. When the Assassin started to fish in his pocket, he recalled his Apple hitting the stone floor of the Castel San'Angelo and mentally cursed himself for using it.
He did the next best thing he could think of at that moment: Run.
Galloping down the path, he ducked around trees and leapt over downed tree trunks. The timberwolves charged through the trees as they pursued him. Up ahead, he saw the path became blocked with rocks, yet a small hole was present; it looked big enough for him to crawl through.
Thinking quickly, he made a beeline for the hole as the timberwolves leapt at him from behind. Ezio managed to scramble into the opening as the sound of wood splintering could be heard not even a moment later.
Crawling out of the other side, Ezio could barely stand as his legs involuntarily shook from the encounter. They threatened to buckle under him at a moment’s notice. “H-hopefully that wasn’t meant to be the w-welcoming party...” he stammered as he continued down the path.
As Ezio arrived at the end of the path, the treeline opened up into rolling plains with copses of trees dotting the landscape. He noticed a cottage sitting alone on a small hill, with a quaint little arched bridge built over a river stream. Hearing growling from behind him, he quickly made a beeline for the cottage. In his haste, he nearly tripped over his hooves several times.
Two more timberwolves skulked out from the forest, apparently following his scent.
As he made it up to the door, he started banging on it in desperation, hoping that someone was home at the time.
After frantically hammering at the door for what seemed like an eternity but was probably about five seconds, the door opened from the inside to reveal a butter yellow pony with a soft, pink mane and wings. She seemed to shrink back in fear when she saw him, but her stare hardened and she, after seeing his robe, motioned for him to come inside.
"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!" He parroted as he hurried inside. The butter yellow pegasus quietly closed the door behind him. "I thought that I was a goner for sure!"
"What happened? Are you okay?" She asked in a voice that barely registered over a whisper.
Ezio was about to explain when a low growl could be heard from outside. Ezio leapt a few inches into the air as he scrambled for the archway behind him. The sound of something scratching against the door soon followed. Fluttershy was about to look out of the window to see what was at her door, but a few moments later, the sounds stopped and everything fell silent again.
“I-i-is it gone?” Ezio poked his head out from the archway that led to Fluttershy’s kitchen as she nodded and gently gestured him over with a hoof. When he got closer, he expelled a breath he wasn’t aware he was holding. “Oh thank god.” he muttered as he stood in her foyer. Only now did he realize the numerous birdhouses and animal trees in the room, along with a few holes in the side paneling.
“Oh, I see you noticed all of the homes I put up for my animal friends!” She quietly clopped her forehooves together in delight. “You see, I’m a–”
Oh great… I had to stumble across this hallucination’s equivalent of a crazy cat lady. He toned out the pegasus in favor of his own thoughts as his mind drifted back to the animals that chased him in the woods. They looked like wolves, but when they hit the rocks he crawled under he could have sworn he heard the sound of wood splintering. He was about to continue this line of questioning when he realized the pegasus in front of him was still speaking.
“... and that’s why there’s so many birdhouses and animal decorations in here. Excuse me? Are you… okay?” Before she could reach out and touch him, Ezio simply nodded. “Y-yeah, I’m fine. The past half hour has been a… lot to take in, is all.” he remarked as he turned his head to give the room a cursory glance.
“Oh, I bet it has.” she mentioned idly. An awkward silence hung in the air for a few moments before she cleared her throat and spoke up. “Oh, I’m sorry! Here we are making casual conversation and I never asked you for your name! That wasn’t very nice of me…” she stated as she rubbed her forelegs together. “My name’s Fluttershy. What’s yours?”
“I’m…” Ezio paused as he mentally flailed in an attempt to come up with a name for himself.
Fluttershy smiled good-naturedly. “Oh, it’s okay if you don’t want to tell me your real name. I understand that the Brotherhood has to be very cloak-and-dagger at times, even literally, too,” she stage-whispered, as though they were being watched.
Ezio breathed a sigh of relief, then he let what she had said sink in. “Wait, you’re in the Brotherhood?!?”
Fluttershy just smiled again, and motioned with her hoof towards herself. “Follow me. We have a lot to discuss with the others.”
Ezio raised an eyebrow, but followed after Fluttershy towards a section of hallway that ended in a dead end. Pressing a hoof against a section of the wall, it slid away to reveal a staircase that she trotted down. Following after her, he was relieved to hear that he wasn’t the only Brotherhood member here. Maybe he’ll survive this hallucination with a sane mind after all.