//------------------------------// // The Cover Up // Story: Assassin’s Creed: Friendship is Magic // by MyLittleBronyDude //------------------------------// To say that Twilight Sparkle was unamused would have been putting it lightly. She just received word that the Templars figured out what Ezio and Fluttershy had done. Now, she’s going to get to the bottom of this and get some answers. Even if she has to seriously injure one of them in the process. Locating the correct door, she threw it open with her magic and strode down the open passage. Meanwhile, Ezio and Fluttershy were just finishing with breakfast and getting prepared to go and meet Twilight. Ezio raised a hoof to his chin and allowed his chin to rest upon it. “You know, I have a feeling that we forgot something…” His free pastern spun in a circle listlessly as he pondered, “... However, I’m not exactly sure what that might be...” “Oh, I’m sure it’s nothing important,” Fluttershy decided as she finished washing the dishes, “Besides, what are the odds that we actually did anything wrong at all?” Ezio was about to respond when they heard the sound of the secret entrance opening. The duo barely had time to turn their heads to the sound when Twilight stomped into the kitchen. Her forehead and chin became a united front, attempting to meet in the center of her face for what appeared to be a rather tense diplomatic meeting.  “Oh, you two are in so much bucking trouble!” Twilight snapped as she came to a stop beside the table.  “Why? What hap–” Ezio attempted to speak, but his mouth was firmly clamped shut by a lavender aura. “If you know what’s good for you, you won’t finish that sentence. Capiche?” Twilight asked, her words dripping with venom. “Capiche!” He hastily replied, which seemed to calm Twilight down; if only just enough to keep her from wanting to smash his head into the table. “Now, you two bumbling buffoons have some explaining to do.” Twilight stated matter-of-factly as she opened a saddlebag and floated out a tuft of rainbow mane with some mud still caked onto several follicles. “Can either of you two imbeciles tell me what this is?” She asked as she began to slowly pace back and forth. Fluttershy was the first to speak up, “U-um, well… t-that looks like a muddy t-tuft of… r-rainbow mane?” She squeaked out, sinking a little in her seat as the implication slowly dawned on her. “Good. Any idea why it’s muddy?” Twilight followed up. “B-because it was… o-on the ground?” Fluttershy offered. A gesture of Twilight’s hoof told her that she needed more information, “A...and it was… left there for some time?” “Bingo.” Came Twilight’s reply. “Guess where this was found. Anyone? Any educated guesses?” “Um… in the mud?” Ezio chimed in, to which Twilight simply facehooved and looked over at Fluttershy. “In… oh, by Luna! We forgot to clean up after ourselves!” Fluttershy said, a single hoof running down her face. “Fluttershy.” Twilight’s tone was heavy enough to pull a transport balloon out of the sky, “We are supposed to always clean up the scene after we finish a hit. You, of all members, should know that!” She said exasperatedly. “I can cut Ezio some slack due to his unfortunate circumstance… but you have no excuse to go and pull such a rookie mistake! We need to fix this right now, or else we are going to have the templars beating down our front door! This is not a drill! You two imbeciles have to come up with a plan right now!” Ezio felt shocked, to say the least, as he hadn’t made this kind of mistake in a long time, not since he first joined the Brotherhood. However, because he made this mistake before, he also knew exactly how to clean it up. He slammed his front hoof onto the table so hard it cracked. He began to speak, and then stopped, as the crack began to spiderweb throughout the table. After that, several things happened at once. One, Twilight started smouldering, as this table was an antique, dating back to the times of the original Brotherhood of Assassins. Two, Fluttershy managed to get out a small squeak before diving under the table with the speed of a cheetah. Three, the crack had moved down the table leg closest to where Ezio was, and began to splinter the wood. Add these things together, and you get chaos. The table leg shattered into wood chips as Ezio’s hoofiwork got to work on the rest of the table, while the table leaned dangerously to one side, with Fluttershy cowering under the table out of fear. After seeing the state of the antique table, Twilight let out a primal scream and burst into flame, setting the table ablaze, with Fluttershy still underneath. Almost immediately, she screeched like a banshee getting vacuumed into a portal and shot out from under the table with her cloak on fire. Ezio, for the most part, tried to help Fluttershy by getting her cloak off of her, but it didn’t work, and all that happened was him accidentally flipping Fluttershy into a perpetual state of backflips. So Ezio did what any logical person/pony would do, and dove into Fluttershy, arresting all of her momentum and sending the both of them crashing into the wall, while Twilight still smouldered moodily at her favourite table being reduced to a heap of ashes. Ezio piped up from his upside-down position on the wall. “If it helps, I know what we should do regarding the Rainbow Dash situation.” All that Twilight did was give him a glare so brutal that it could cut through steel. He decided to stay quiet and try to get off of the wall without crushing Fluttershy. Several hours later, after Ezio and Fluttershy decided to make a swift exit to allow Twilight to cool off, they were on route to Ponyville to see if they could get some more information about what the Templars were planning. Coming up to the city limits, they heard a voice coming from a nearby alleyway. It sounded distorted, almost as if someone was using a cheap, novelty voice changer. “Psst. Hey, you.” Ezio and Fluttershy both looked around before a small pebble hit Ezio on the side of his face. Grumbling, he looked over in the direction he thought it came from to see a figure in an inconspicuous looking fedora and long, shaggy coat, like the coats you would see on watch peddlers.  Looking both ways, he waved the duo over. At first, Fluttershy wanted to pass right on by, but Ezio knew an opportunity when he saw one and hesitantly made his way over. Knowing that she couldn’t continue on without him, Fluttershy found herself following Ezio into the alleyway.  “I heard that you two ran into some… trouble earlier…” He mentioned as they appeared to be going rather deep into the alley for whatever this figure wanted them for. Before Ezio could speak, a black colored hoof was raised to forestall any objections. “I know what you’re thinking. ‘How could I know about that?’ Right?” Ezio raised an eyebrow at this, but nodded. “Simple. I have eyes everywhere. I know everything there is to know about the whole ordeal.” “You’re bluffing.” Ezio shot back, however the figure was undeterred. “Am I, pony?” Came a rather snide remark from the one who was leading them down the alley. “Or should I tell the Templars that you’re the one who kidnapped Major Rainbow Dash?” Ezio’s mouth opened to retort, but his words took a side trip to Hesitant Valley before taking a cross train to Nopeville. “That’s what I thought…” They said as they turned a corner into a dark part of the alley. “Hey, uh, you never told us where you’re taking us?” Fluttershy mentioned as they suddenly feel the cobblestone path dipping gradually downward. “Also, I don’t remember this part of the alley being so… steep.”  “If you would just shut up, you’d get your answer long before I had time to explain myself.” As the path leveled out, cobblestone quickly gave way to a simple dirt path. The open air of the alleyway was replaced with what appeared to be a crude tunnel carved out of the surrounding dirt. Before Ezio could voice his confusion, he found himself passing through a simple wooden door and into what appeared to be a makeshift office. A cracked office desk and three pairs of worn office chairs were settled in the middle of a room no bigger than Fluttershy’s kitchen. “Where are we?” Ezio and Fluttershy asked almost in unison as they were directed to the open chairs in front of them. “You are in my domain now, you filthy ponies.” The figure sat down across from them and removed their fedora. When Fluttershy saw who it was, she let out a terrified squeak; Queen Chrysalis leaned forward over the desk, a smug grin plastered on her face. “And I’m about to make you an offer you can’t refuse.” “W-what are you talking about?” Fluttershy squeaked out as she curled into a tight ball on the small chair.  “As you know…” Chrysalis said as she rose from her chair and began pacing in a circle around the duo, “...I have eyes everywhere in Equestria. I know everything. I see everything. I also know that you and your pathetic excuse of Assassins are in a bind.” She paused to bring a holed hoof to her chest before speaking again, “Fortunately for you two, I am an expert at making problems… disappear, if you catch my drift.”  “So, let me guess. You’re going to force us to enlist your services because we have no other choice, is that it?” Ezio intoned as Chrysalis simply rolled her eyes. “Oh, I would love to just capture you right now. Maybe I would sell you to the Templars in exchange for diplomatic immunity. Or, if I was feeling generous, back to your precious Assassins that you seem to care for so deeply.” She began pacing again. Ezio didn’t need to see her face to feel the smugness radiating off of her. She stopped at the desk and pulled out the chair to sit back down again. “However, I am not here to plan a petty kidnapping ponzi scheme. I care too much about my future endeavors to let that be a black mark on my reputation. Instead, I led you here to make you an offer, as I said earlier. No more, no less.” “Alright, I’ll bite. What’s your deal?” Ezio asked as Fluttershy cowered behind a chair unable to speak out of pure terror. “For a measly five hundred bits, all of your troubles will be a thing of the past. I can assure you that you will have plenty of time to get the information out of that blowhard Rainbow Dash.” She shuddered at the mention of her name, “Five hundred bits for one of my best Infiltrators to sneak in and seize the means of produc--uh, I mean, wipe out this little issue of yours.” “Wait, what was that?” Ezio scratched his head. “Nothing. You heard nothing, got it?” Suddenly, a changeling that wasn’t there before appeared behind Chrysalis, slapping a club against one hoof for emphasis. “R-right. Heard nothing, Got it.” He said as she straightened up and rubbed her pasterns together.  “Excellent. Now, let’s talk turkey.” She said with a grin that wouldn’t look out of place on the Grinch. Half an hour, and a payment of five hundred bits later, the duo exited the small room under the alleyway and exchanged unsure glances. “Are we sure this is going to work?” Fluttershy asked at last, figuring they were well out of earshot. “It has to. Otherwise we’re screwed either way.” Ezio stated matter of factly as they left the alleyway for the return trip back to Fluttershy’s cottage.