Leap of Faith

by A bag of plums

Will of the Mentors

Velvet Breeze sat up from the floor, rubbing at her head, feeling like an entire building had collapsed on her. It wasn’t until she got her bearings did she feel something sticky on her hair.

“Ugh… What happened…?” she cracked open an eye.

Velvet immediately regretted opening her eye, as light streamed in and struck her retina, causing fireworks to go off in her head. For a while the only thing the girl could do was sit there, eyes shut until she felt brave enough to try again.

The Assassin sat up and rubbed at her head again, once again her hair felt sticky and there was also something squishy near the top.

“What’s all this…?” Velvet patted at it, feeling disgusted by how squishy and slimy it was.

Picking it up, Velvet brought it down before her face, wanting to know what it was. It was a red flappy thing, wiggling in the light as Velvet shook it. There was something yellowish white sticking out of it and it looked like a tooth.

Then Velvet realized what it was as tossed it aside, yelling disgustedly as she scooted away until her back hit the couch.

It was definitely part of someone’s mouth. The worst part was that she didn’t remember doing something like that.

Deciding to investigate herself further, the young Assassin got up and walked to the bathroom, noticing that her hands were covered up to her elbows in dried blood, staining her coat sleeves when she looked in the mirror.

“What happened…?” she asked aloud. The looked down at her palms, noticing the shard was still on her palm, gleaming golden through all the gore. “Did I… do all this?”

She wanted to pick it up and examine it, but when she pulled on it, it felt like if was glued to her skin; it didn’t budge.

What in the world?

Almost as soon as she gave up trying to move it, it started glowing, filling her head with visions. She saw herself, tearing her way through hordes of Templars, then she saw herself standing before Wolfgang, golden talons over her fingers, tearing into him like a crazed beast, prying open his ribs, pulling out his innards and throwing his dismembered and gutted body all around the room until the walls were painted red..

Velvet fell back, placing her hands over her ears and shutting her eyes, trying to cancel out the visions. Now she remembered what had happened. She remembered it all. She had done this. She was responsible for all the blood and bits over her clothes, skin and hair.

“What have I done?” she mumbled to herself as tears fell down her face, mixing with the dried blood.

“Why are you crying?” a voice said in her head. “He deserved to die. You were right in carrying out the assassination.”

“What?” Velvet looked around, but no one was in the bathroom. “W-Who said that? Where are you?”

“We did, Velvet Breeze,” another voice, also female, said. “We are the Mentors of the Assassin’s Brotherhood. While our bodies have passed, our memories live on in the sword’s power.”

“B-But… You made me do all this? You made me butcher all those people.”

“Yes,” many voices echoed. “Their assassinations were necessary.”

“But why to that extent? I hated Wolfgang, yes, but you made me tear him apart. That makes me no better than he is! I’m-I’m a monster now.”

“Justice!” one of the voices hissed.

“Death to the Templars!” another howled in agreement.

“After what he’s done to the Brotherhood, he deserves more!”

Velvet pressed against her ears harder and winced. “Yes, I agree, but not like this, please…”

“You are our hand, Velvet Breeze,” a different voice commanded. “You will act as we see fit. It is for the best of the Brotherhood.”

And then almost at once, the voices stopped, leaving Velvet alone again. She slowly lowered her hands and looked up, pushing off the tiled floor as she looked down the corridor.

When she felt safe again, the young Assassin shuffled out, heading for the table her laptop was resting on. She figured Frigid Night and the others needed to know about her assassination of Wolfgang.

She sat down after opening her laptop screen, watching as it booted on, her messy reflection disappearing as the screen lit up.

She was about to click on the video call when something in the corner caught her eye. It was a notification of an unread email.

“Oh, did I get more instructions?”

Velvet clicked on it, reading the words as soon as they came up.

“Vice… principal Luna… a Templar?” she said in disbelief as she read the mail.

“Yes!” a voice came back in her head. “She supplies the Templars with information. She must be eliminated.”

“You must do it, Velvet Breeze,” another beckoned. “For the safety of the Brotherhood, you must eliminate her!”

“I-I can’t.” Velvet remembered the woman when she was at Canterlot High. It wasn’t long, but she knew enough to know that Vice Principal Luna couldn’t have possibly been a Templar.

“She is a Templar! Do not be deceived by your connection to her. She hides well, playing on your emotional ties.”

“Do our bidding, Velvet Breeze! Assassinate her!”

“Strike her down in the name of the Assassins! Your Mentor has spoken.”

“No, I shouldn’t!” Velvet shook her head. “She can’t be.”

“If you will not do it, then we will do it for you,” another Mentor said. “We will make you see the light. You are an Assassin. You work in the dark to serve the light.”

Suddenly, Velvet’s arms grew heavy, forcing her to drop them at her sides. Then her eyes flashed gold, filling her mind with images of the Assassins and Templars through history. She saw people fighting, Assassins leaping off tall wooden structures with their hidden blades out, Templars firing crossbow bolts at them, people, Assassin and Templar alike, falling to the ground.

Then one image seemed to linger longer in her eyes. A Templar picking up the Apple from a dead Assassin, a grin on his face.

The Apple was never meant to fall into Templar hands and since then, because of that artifact, many more Assassins had fallen to Templar blades. Velvet realized there were still lives she could save. The Mentors were right. As an Assassin, she had duties to uphold, no matter what she thought.

“The Templars must be punished,” Velvet said at last, her eyes glowing ever brighter.

---

Sunset Shimmer had thought she wouldn’t be able to sleep with so much on her mind, but when she awoke in an old stony building with a checkered floor beside Emerald Edge, she knew she had definitely fallen asleep. The place was large, like she was in some kind of hotel lobby, only, she doubted they had hotels like this back then.

This time, the Assassin was old. Like, really old. She had dozens of wrinkles all over her green face and her shimmering turquoise hair had dulled over the years she’d been here. Her back was slightly hunched and she no longer wore the armor that Sunset had seen her in before she left Equestria, but she had something familiar strapped to her side.

“The Mentor’s sword…” Sunset said.

“There you are, Emerald,” a voice said behind Sunset. She turned to see who it was, recognizing the woman she had seen resting in bed in the previous dream.

“Moon Tide,” Emerald’s voice was somewhat frailer than before, but it still carried the strong tones that the First Assassin had used in her youth.

“You wanted to see me, Emerald?” Somehow, Moon Tide looked like she almost hadn’t aged at all since the last dream.

“My time is almost here,” Emerald Edge looked out at the setting sun through a high window. “I think it’s time we go down to the vault. Do you have them, Moon Tide?”

The blue robed woman pulled a long clothed pack from behind her back and held it out for the Assassin to take.

“Ah, the artifacts I came to this world to find,” she made a smile on her old face. “If only I could’ve found a way home, Moon Tide. With these, I could have vanquished Sombra forever. But alas, it is too late now.”

“It is never too late, Emerald,” her companion told her soothingly. “Your children will carry out your work for you. Who knows? One day, they might find a way back to your world and finish what you started.”

“That would please me greatly, Moon Tide, but I fear it might not be as simple as that,” the old Assassin chuckled and proceeded carefully down a set of steps, carved into a small alcove under a second floor balcony. “I’ll explain below.”

Sunset followed them down, the stairs leading into a rounded chamber with different paths. Emerald, however, didn’t take any of them. Instead, she rounded the central pillar and took a second flight of stairs down.

The next area was a simple straight hallway, deep underground, carved from rock, by the looks of it. Several flame sconces lit her path ahead, bringing the women into a large circular room with a single chair in the middle.

“What is this place?” Sunset wondered out loud as she took in the surroundings.

There were statues of the First Assassin herself, carved into the stone walls around the room, her features forever immortalized in stone.

“Thank you, Moon Tide,” the Assassin spoke again as she placed a hand on the chair’s armrest.

“Whatever for, old friend?” the other woman asked.

“For helping me plan out this place. Both you and Nightfall. Ah… I wish she could be here to see it today when we seal it all…”

“We’re all that’s left, are we not?” Moon Tide leaned against her staff. “The others were good friends, but none will ever be a friend like you, Emerald.”

“Who knows, Moon Tide?” Emerald sat down and leaned back with a smile. “Destiny has an interesting way of changing and proving you wrong.”

As Sunset watched, Emerald unraveled the cloth-wrapped objects, bringing out a long staff and a large shield, both of which shone gold and silver in the cavern’s dim lighting, radiating off their own light.

“But now I see it. A prophecy, if you will, from what these artifacts have shown me,” Emerald held the golden items and sighed. “Somepony from Equestria will come… and they will be the one to wield my artifacts and vanquish the dark king, Sombra, once and for all. I’m afraid this heir may very well not be one of my children, but when the time comes, may one of them, and you, Moon Tide, help the heir in their time of need.”

“Of course, Emerald,” Moon Tide nodded. “I will watch over your children and I’ll keep a good lookout for this heir of yours. I promise.”

“Thank you. I’ve lived a good long life, Moon Tide, having all of you beside me on my journey in this world. I shall never forget all the times we spent and I shall never forget any of you…

“Posey, Nightfall, Jewel Pin, Spectrum, Honeygold, Parisa, Speckle… You all mean so much to me now. But it is time. Time for me to leave.” Emerald unclasped her golden sword from her side and held it up to Moon Tide. “Now it is time to pass this on. Please, Moon Tide, give this to Emerald Dusk for me.”

“I will, my friend...” Moon Tide took the weapon and held it in both hands. Sunset watched as tears fell from her eyes as she grasped the sword tightly. “Must you really go? I will never have another friend like you, Emerald…”

The Assassin rested the staff on her shoulder and reached up to pat the blue haired woman on the arm.

“No, don’t say that… Whether it is my descendants or another from Equestria, I’m sure you and my heir will become the best of friends. My line shall never lay a hand on you as long as you remain a friend to them.”

“I’ll miss you, Emerald,” Moon Tide leaned in for a hug.

Sunset wiped her watering eyes at the sight of the two friends, saying their final goodbyes. It was never nice to see a friend for the last time.

“Moon Tide, before you go, I have a request…”

Moon Tide looked at her friend and smiled. “Anything for you, Emerald. It’s the least I can do.”

The First Assassin nodded and looked up at her. “May I see you as you truly are once more?”

Sunset played that question back in her head again, but she didn’t know what Emerald Edge could’ve meant.

Moon Tide drew back a step, looking confused, but then she straightened herself and dug around her pack for something.

Sunset watched as the woman’s hand returned with a vial of greenish liquid, or at least she thought it was green; it was hard to tell in their current lighting.

Unstoppering the bottle, Moon Tide poured the substance on a hand before lifting it up, rubbing it all over her face and hair. Then she removed a waterskin from her side and poured out water over the top of her head, sending the drinkable liquid down her head, droplets dripping down her robes as well.

Then Sunset looked at her, shock on her face. Moon Tide’s blue skin and hair seemed to begin melting off her face, almost like this was some story about a witch, dripping into a forming puddle around her feet.

Under Moon Tide’s blue skin was now one of charcoal color, and her hair had turned royal purple. What surprised Sunset the most were the woman’s eyes, which now shone back at Emerald and Sunset with familiar acid green, along with slitted pupils.

The fiery haired girl had never seen a changeling up close, but she knew one when she saw one. This Moon Tide was certainly a human world variant of one.

“Well, here I am. This is me, Emerald,” she said in a different voice, no longer an old Canterlotian accent. Sunset felt that it sounded familiar, but she couldn’t quite place her finger on it.

To her credit, Emerald wasn’t surprised like Sunset was. “It is nice to see your true self again, even if it’s just to say goodbye. You haven’t aged a day. I know you don’t trust the humans of this world as much, but I know that there will be a day where you can once again roam around, free of your disguises. Maybe my heir can help you with that.”

“Maybe, my friend,” Moon Tide tied her purple hair up into a ponytail. “But I fear it will not be anytime soon. You’re the only one I trust with this secret.”

“And I shall be taking it with me when you seal me in,” Emerald placed a hand over her heart. “Thank you for granting me my request. I think it is time.”

The two women shared one more embrace before Moon Tide began shuffling away, unwilling to leave.

Emerald looked as confident as ever, looking back to her friend with teary eyes as Moon Tide flipped a lever near the doors.

“Goodbye Emerald…” she said one last time as the place began to shake.

As Moon Tide left down the hallway, three huge and heavy walls began moving together, sealing up the hallway they had come from before.

Emerald tilted her head down as a single tear drop pattered down on her tunic.

“Goodbye, Psithyra…”

So this is where the First Assassin was sealed… Sunset remembered bits of information Morning and the other Assassins had told her. This was the place of the Saddle Arabian explosion two years ago.

“Sunset Shimmer…”

Sunset looked around the room, but then she realized it was Emerald that was talking to her, her purple eyes now focused on the girl.

“I didn’t imagine it,” she said out loud. “You did talk to me in the last dream.”

“Yes, that is right,” Emerald nodded her head. “I showed you all this to help you understand. You are the heir, Sunset Shimmer. I believe that to be.”

“But you want me to beat Sombra?” Sunset questioned the Assassin. “How can I do something like that?”

“It is why I showed you the last two dreams, Sunset Shimmer. I have given you the skills you need to challenge him. All that is left is to accept your destiny and do what must be done.

“These artifacts,” Emerald sighed. “I came here to find them, to use them against the dark king. I never expected him to come over and use them himself. That is why I sealed myself here, you know. These artifacts are too great of a power to be found by just anyone or anypony. The sword was to be carried by my daughter, Emerald Dusk, and the Apple to my son, Shadow Steel, as gifts to be passed down my line, but you see how history has changed that…”

“But the sword is gone,” Sunset reminded her. “How can I beat him without it?”

“You are resourceful, Sunset Shimmer,” Emerald Edge smiled kindly. “What the time is right, I am sure you will know exactly what you have to do.”

Then the world around Sunset began to swirl, like it was being sucked into a vortex. The next thing she knew, she was sitting up in her bed, panting.

---

Author's Note:

Voice actors for the OCs in Leap of Faith. Because you guys asked!

Comments

[Jaxxon Markus Citadel]

Oh shit. Now Velvet's after Luna? Please tell me that Sunset and the gang manage to stop her in time This is probably Frigid's fault, since he's the one sending out instructions. Damn him.

And this is the second mention of the name 'Psithyra' (Her real name?). I'm going to guess that Moon Tide and Mirror Match are indeed the same person. This would place Mirror Match at how old exactly? I don't even know anymore.
Where is she anyway? I refuse to believe she's dead.

[badninja]

Why do I feel that the human mane 6 can trace their decendents to one of Emerald Edge's kids?

[Maxemilien]

7793839 Mirror match is not dead, because, drama!
WElp, Velvet better not touch a hair on Luna's head!

[Sonata Eternal]

Velvet kindof has a creepy thing going on right now. Like she's being possessed and stuff. As for what happens next, kick his butt Sunset!!! Sombra's butt.

[Jaxxon Markus Citadel]

Also a thing to note. It seems that the changelings of the human world seem to rely on dyes and paints to keep up their disguises (at least that's the impression I got from Psithyra's interaction with Emerald), rather than shapeshifting magic. Just thought that was an interesting thing to point out.