We’ve all heard the stories. Tales of costumed convention attendees disappearing without a trace. I, like the majority always dismissed it as a modern urban legend. Just the newest in a series of tall stories created by those with more time than common sense. Even when those that knew the disappearing party made a fuss we blew them off. Things like that don’t just happen, knowing people these days they probably just wandered off and started a new life. People can be selfish and leave people behind like that. Little did I know at the time those stories were true and I was about to find out in the best and worst way.

It all started with an email...

“What are we doing guys? All we do is sit around the house, play magic:the gathering, video games and talk shit.” I said while looking over my small group of friends.

“What the hell else are we supposed to do? It’s not like any of us have work for the next few days and there’s shit all to do in this crappy town.” Answered Chris, his mouth filling every sentence with a range of expletives.

“Hey Shaun, check out the forums. Maybe there’s a new game coming out or something. Release days are always heaps of fun.” Added another of my friends. Erica was a short girl, barely standing over five feet tall and was the voice of reason in our little group.

“Yeah sure, give us a sec. I just want to check my emails.”

I switch the screen of my computer on and waited as it powered up, when it showed my desktop I quickly ran my fingers through my short black hair before lowering my hand to the mouse and opening up a browser. Clicking my way into gmail I looked through the usual spam, trying to find a golden ticket. Something that would give us something to do other than sit around and repeat the same actions ad neuseum.

Scrolling through the long list of crap I almost missed it, lodged between a fake email for overpriced sunglasses and a forum update was a newsletter from Supanova.

“Hey guys, I think I might have found something.” I said with excitement in my voice.

“What’s up dude?” Chris asked. “I haven’t seen you this bloody excited since your last pay rise.”

I looked at my friends and pointed at the screen before saying the only word I needed to. “Supanova.”

“Ohh hell yeah! It’s been ages since we’ve gone to a con! Oooh ooh we should all do matching costumes! That would be so cool.” Erica said in a verbal blur, her body almost vibrating as she climbed up from the comfy couch in the lounge and ran over to the computer.

“Huh, that actually sounds like a damn good idea Shaun. For once.” He added, poking his tongue out at me. “Nah but really this seems like a good idea. How long do we have?”

“We have two months to get ready if we all want to be in costume.” I told them, my mind already thinking over every possible costume I could prepare in that time.

There wasn’t much, but after rent, bills and everything else we at least still had a little bit to play with. Enough to get a bunch of fabric and make a few basic costumes. That was when an important question struck me. “Do any of us actually have any idea how to sew?” I asked my friends.

“Nah dude why would I know that? I mean we did a class on it back in bloody high school but did anyone ever actually pay attention to any of that shit?” Chris answered.

“I do! I do! I do!” Erica jumped up and down while crying out.

“Since when? I remember we had that class together and you slept through most of it.” I asked my hyperactive friend.

“Yeah but when you get into as many accidents as I do it’s cheaper to fix your clothes than to always buy new ones.” She explained with a sheepish look on her face.

Chris and I laughed at that. Whenever anyone did something stupid in our group it was usually Erica, her excitable mind often forgetting some safety measure and making a mess of herself.

“Hey stop laughing at me you guys! It’s mean to laugh at your friends!” She said, pouting.

“You know it’s all in good fun Erica.” I said smiling at her.

“Whatever, you guys are jerks. In fact I might not sew your costumes anymore.” She said, turning her back to us defiantly before turning back. “Nah! This is going to be way too much fun!”

“So what crappy characters are we going to be for this?” Chris asked. “I bet you guys want some boring shit like that pony show you guys are obsessed with.”

“Nah that would be way too hard. Let’s go with something we all like.”

“I know! We all loved those assassins creed games didn’t we?” Erica asked while looking at us.

“Yeah! Those games always kick ass, even if Unity happened.” Chris said.

“Unity never happened.” I said while completely deadpan. “But who should be be?”

“I could be Lucy! She was pretty badass in 2 and her costume looks super easy.” Erica practically bounced when she told us who she wanted to be. “Ohh and you should be Desmond, Shaun! You two look almost the same, even if you are way too thin and don’t have the scar on your face.”

“Ohh no no no, that leaves me with the english dick! There is no way I’m going to be him!” Chris almost spat while backing up.

“Dude chill. You don’t have to be a good guy. You could always be Cross, he was pretty badass.” I told my friend, trying to calm him down.

“Yeah true, he did look pretty cool.”

Erica jumped again, looking over us with a keen eye. “Well everybody, we’ve got two months to get ready and we’ll be needing every spare moment to get it done.”

As my friends and I finally climbed off the train at the Melbourne Showgrounds we all sighed with relief. Living in a small town out in the country meant that the journey had taken hours and even after getting up at 6 in the morning we still didn’t arrive at the showground until after 11. The biggest relief came when I remembered that we had booked a hotel back in the city so we wouldn’t have to do the massive journey for all three days.

We all checked over our costumes, making sure that every detail was right after how much time and effort -most of all Erica’s- went into making sure they were perfect. I looked over my white hoodie with its deep red lining and rim around the bottom. My black and red bag was still secured over my shoulder, my wrist blade was securely attached and silenced pistol was attached to the back of my pants. Yes I know that he didn’t have that for most of his parts of the game but I like it so had it.

Next came Erica, dressed up as Lucy Stillman. Every detail was perfect from the form fitting white top, black belt with a rectangular metal buckle that had a raised section in the centre to the lightly weathered denim jeans and black baton.

Last of all was Chris who looked perfect as Daniel Cross. A brown leather jacket over a slightly lighter brown hoodie with a mustard yellow lining, a padded vambrace over his right arm covering his hand and only leaving the fingers bare, brown cargo pants and military surplus boots. With his tall figure, lightly tanned skin and short brown hair he was an almost perfect replica of the assassin turned templar.

Knowing that our costumes were as perfect as they were ever going to be we looked up at each other with a massive amount of excitement. Erica linked arm with us and dragged us up to the entrance, the lanyards around our necks with our three day passes in them allowing us through without a fuss.

For hours we just had a heap of fun, running from exhibit to exhibit and enjoying the sights and sounds (not the smells though, anyone who has been to a con knows what I’m talking about) of the convention. At some point Erica and I broke away from Chris, who after hearing what we were going to do ducked out as quickly as possible. Honestly, who wouldn’t want to meet John De Lancie? After taking a few quick pictures with the man we rushed back out to look for Chris.

But as we moving from one overpriced stall to another something caught my eye. I dragged Erica to the booth I had found and showed her something special. It was a real metal replica of Desmond’s hidden blade. As I looked at the masterpiece Erica found something to peak her interest, a similar device to the one I was looking at but it had what looked like a miniature battery attached to it and a flat panel held between the holding straps.

“Ooh! This is like the shock blade from Syndicate! Her mister, how much as this?” Erica asked a tall man wearing a large hooded black jacket and a mottled purple piece of fabric covering his face.

“Twenty bucks” A voice growled out from behind the fabric.

“That’s so good! Here!” Erica practically threw the money at the man before snatching the shock blade up and attaching it to her wrist. “This is so cool!”

“You want that other one kid?” The man asked while turning to me. “That’ll be fifteen.”

Without a word I pulled the money out of my wallet. There was no way I was going to let a real metal replica pass me buy at that price. I mean even the plastic ones at EBGames were like fourty. Immediately I removed my plastic hidden blade and attached it to my right arm before pulling up the new metal one, attaching it to my dominant left arm.

I looked back over to Erica who was looking at me with a big smile on her face. She jumped forward and wrapped her arms around me, giving me a giant hug. One of the things I’ve had to get used to over the years of knowing this girl was her massively affectionate nature and being a bit of a loner it was quite the adjustment. But the kindness of this girl was not to be held at bay and I quickly found myself enjoying it.

“Hey Shaun, Erica.” A call broke through the crowds and we watched as Chris dragged his way between the people to get to us. “Did you guys find anything good? I was just abo-” Chris’ voice was cut off as a bright light surrounded Erica and I, still holding onto each other.

The world became nothing but Erica, me and the bright whiteness stretching in all directions. We stood there until the white changed, some of it solidified into colors that shifted, stretched and disappeared. When the colored came close by a sharp pain rolled through my body and probably Erica’s too from the screams I could hear next to me. In time there was nothing but shifting colors and the pain was constant. We could do nothing but scream as we held each other. All of a sudden the colors disappeared and we felt ourselves falling as a hole appeared below us.

A moment before we fell through the hole I could see… something. Something white and something else. Something blue. Then we hit the ground hard and everything went black.

“Well dear sister. What dost thou make of these strange beasts?” A blue alicorn asked the white one who stood beside her.

The white alicorn looked over the two beings that had crashed into their throne room through a portal in the sky before answering. “I’m not sure Lulu. Maybe we should wait for them to wake before making any judgements.”

“A prudent idea Tia. We agree wholeheartedly. It would do us no good to judge them too harshly if they didn’t not intend to appear in our throne room.” ‘Lulu’ agreed.

The two monarchs lifted one each of the strange bipedal creatures into an adjacent room before returning to the throne room and calling out to the masses of ponies that stood slack jawed after the spectacle they had just seen.

“Court is dismissed my little ponies. Please return tomorrow if you have matters that still need to be dealt with.” The alabaster alicorn called out to her subjects.

Grumbling that they had been sent away they all left the lavishly decorated room leaving the two rulers and a small contingent of guards behind.

“We guess we should go see if our guests are okay, their fall was a grand one.” The midnight blue alicorn spoke before leading her sister into the adjacent room.

To their surprise one of the creatures was already standing and in perfect Equish said. “Oh fuck no.”

I open my eyes while sucking in a massive breath as pain arched through my back. Swinging my feet to the side I throw my legs off a… couch. Okay now, I’m sitting on a dark blue couch and Erica is laying next to me. I hear a muffled voice coming from the room outside a door on the other side of the room before a chorus of other voices follow it and the sounds of people moving starts then stops. Another voice calls out from beyond the door and I can hear a few words as it gets closer. “.......guest…..fall…..grand one.”

The sound of footstep grew closer until a tall blue equine form comes through the door followed by and even taller white one. Wait… I know these forms…. I attempted to clear the fog in my brain keeping me from knowing who and what I was looking at, and then suddenly everything became very clear. Holy crap! That’s Celestia and Luna! What the fuck is going on here?

I sat there for several moments, my brain running at a million miles a minute but my body unable to move. Slowly I found myself able to move and said the first thing that came into my mind. “Oh fuck no.”

Before the impossible creatures in front of me could say anything in response I felt the body next to me shift.

“Ohh did anybody get the number of that bus?” Erica said while sitting up and rubbing her head. The moment she looked up however she froze like I did.

Celestia took the moment of silence to talk to us. “Hello. It seems as if we speak the same language. May I ask who you are and how you appeared in our throne room?

Erica and I just sat there in complete silence, shock removing our ability to function on even a basic level. Then Erica snapped and threw herself forward screaming. “PONY!” She wrapped her arms around Luna and gave her a big hug, unlike any she had ever given Chris or I.

“Unhand me at once!” Yelled the midnight blue alicorn.

Celestia turned to Erica, lighting her horn with a look of rage on her face. “Let go of her now or I will burn you to cinders creature.” The anger and power in her voice made Erica let out a loud “eep!” before she let go of Luna.

“Wait!” I cried. “She didn’t mean any harm princess. She is just excitable around cute things.” I explained as fast as I could.

“She-She thinks I’m cute?” The blue alicorn stammered.

“Of course!” You’re the cutest giant pony ever!” She said, looking up at the princess.

“I’m sorry for yelling at you. I was stunned by your sudden action.” Celestia said to Erica. “Please don’t take actions like that in the future. We have only recently come out of a large war and the nation as a whole is still on edge.

“It’s ok princess. I’ll try to calm down.” Erica said, struggling against her nature to bring herself back to sit next to me. When suddenly she turned to me. “Shaun, is it just me or do we sound different?”

The moment she said it I noticed, her voice was very different to how it had been until very recently. But that wasn’t the only thing I noticed, she was suddenly taller and had more muscle definition on her arms. Her face had remained the same but it was like all the rest of her had changed.

“You sound and look like Lucy, except for your face. You still look like you, but not you.” I told her.

“And you sound like Desmond! Wait wait wait wait, your face! You have a scar on your lip” She said, pointing to my face.

I raised my hand to my lips and ran my fingers over them gently, feeling a slight bump when my fingers reached the right side of my lip. Holy crap I got his scar! I started to hyperventilate but Erica wrapped her arms around me and slowly my heart and breathing started to slow.

“Sorry about that everyone. I guess the moment just got to me a bit there.” I half-explained to those around me.

“It’s okay, thou said two names before. Lucy and Desmond we think. Be that who you are?” Luna asked us.

Erica and I looked at each other, not sure how to answer until we both had the same thought.

Why not?

“Yes your majesties. I am Desmond Miles and this is my friend Lucy Stillman, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.” I said while giving them a small bow.

“It is lovely to meet you also Mr Miles and Ms Stillman. There is more than we would like to ask you but it is getting late. Would you mind staying here in our castle until another opportunity to speak comes?” Celestia asked. “I can assure you that you’ll have the greatest of comfort if you accept.”

“I think that sounds like a good idea.” I answered the diarch.

“Excellent. I’ll have a servant come to bring you to your rooms.” Celestia said before walking off, closing the door behind her.

Erica and I looked at each other, massive smiles on our faces. It didn’t take long before we both spewed forth words from our mouths.

“Holy crap we’re in Equestria!”

“I will miss you terribly friends. I wish you well on your travels.” Celestia said to Erica and I as she waved us away from the Castle of the two Sisters.

As much as we enjoyed living in the castle with the diarchs it was getting more and more difficult to hide our identities and our foreknowledge from having watched the show. Especially with how close we had gotten with the moon princess. Every day it seemed she would try to include us in some prank on her sister or just to go through a walk in the palace gardens and every night she would ask us to stargaze with her. As much as we enjoyed it though the more time we spent with the alicorn the harder it was to keep our secrets.

The situation became untenable when they started to ask about certain objects we had brought with us, namely our wrist blades and my pistol. With Equestria’s extreme dislike of violence we weren’t willing to reveal what these devices were. As we didn’t want to color the diarchs opinions of us with images of the death our possessions were capable of spreading.

And so we headed out, to explore Equestria in a time before our knowledge. Our first steps took us into a much younger and nicer version of the everfree forest we knew, it’s thin capony let in a lot of light which made the walk an extremely enjoyable one. We could see however that not all things had began over the fall of Luna. Bright blue patches of poison joke were visible off to the sides of the path and small manticores probably about the size of a cat were scampering through the trees.

After a few hours we made it to the edge of the forest and found that we were looking at the tall figure of an apple tree. When we looked past it we could see more, stretching long beyond the horizon. When I came to the base however I could see it was far too tall to just reach up and grab those extremely delicious looking fruits.

“Maybe we could look around and see if any survived falling onto the grass?” Erica asked me, looking at how tall the trees were.

“Yeah maybe… actually hold on. I want to try something.” I answered her before stopping in front of the tree.

I placed a hand on the tree and closed my eyes, before opening them wide. In a flash the world changed before my eyes, everything was blue and grey. Everything but the tree in front of me, the tree was a bright green and had missing points in the color. Placing my hands and feet in these points allowed me to climb up the tree easily, like it was second nature. In seconds I had reached the height of the apples and removed a few from the branches, storing them easily in my bag. Suddenly the world shifted back into the correct colors and I found myself sitting on a long branch above Erica’s head. With a final move I jumped, rolling on the ground before bringing myself to my feet right next to my friend.

“That was so cool. It was just like in the games!” Erica said while jumping up and down.

“Yeah, it was like my body just knew how to do it and all I had to do was let it. And not only that but I used Eagle Sense, how cool is that?”

“You have got to show me how to do-” Erica was cut off as a loud scream was heard in the distance.

In a moment we were moving, sprinting at full speed towards the source of the sound. We passed line after line of apple trees until we found ourselves staring at a situation we never thought we would be seeing. A group of five unicorns some of which were holding knives to the throats of two young earth ponies. A much larger unicorn than the rest stood directly in front of them, holding their hooves to the ground. From behind a tree nearby we could hear him as he threatened the young couple. “Now I expect you to pay me each and every week and we'll make sure nopony else messes with your business, how does that sound?” He growled at the frightened ponies.

Erica and I looked at each other for a moment and nodded. We knew what we had to do, and now we knew our bodies would be able to do it. We didn’t like it, we didn’t want to do it, but we had to. Creeping forward as quietly as we could we approached the group of unicorns from behind. I took the pistol out from the holster attached to my belt and handed it to Erica. She took it in one hand while readying the shock blade in her other.

Moving to one side each we lined up out targets. I was behind the two unicorns on the left and she was behind the two on the right. With another look we struck, my two blades sinking easily into the necks of my targets while Erica’s single blade sunk into the throat or one of her targets as a bullet exploded out of the chamber through the skull of the other. Within moments four bodies hit the floor.

The larger unicorn turned to see his men dead and Erica and I standing above them. His face contorted in rage as he drew a knife from the minimal barding he was wearing. He swung the blade clumsily towards me and I bat it away with my hidden blade before sinking the other through his eye. I pulled my weapon out and let the body drop.

With their attackers taken care of we turned to their victims. The look of absolute terror tore me apart even more than knowing what I have done to the bodies around me. A look at Erica told me she was feeling the same way. But I knew I had to be strong. Steeling my mind I smiled at the young earth pony couple.

“Hello. I’m sorry you had to see that but I just couldn’t possibly allow them to hurt you. Are you alright?” I asked in my calmest voice.

“Y-Yes. Tha-Thank you. They were tr-trying to make us pay them for protection or they would kill us and ta-take the farm.” The young mare explained while her partner was still staring wide eyed at the bodies.

“It’s alright. I’m happy I could help.” I said while the mare started to calm down further. “May I ask your names?”

“I-I’m Appleseed and this is my husband Pippin, thank you again for saving us and our farm.”

“It was no problem I’m Des- *cough.* Sorry, I’m Shaun and this is Erica. I’m glad we could help but we really have to be going.”

I walked off quickly holding Erica’s arm as she struggled.

“Hey what was that crap? They were nice.” She complained.

“Do you realise who they were? Who we saved?” I asked her quietly.

“No they were just a couple random ponies, right?”

“Those were Applejack’s ancestors! If it wasn’t for us then she won't ever be born!”

“Holy crap!” Erica cried out, suddenly noticing the importance of our actions.

“Okay. Let’s get out of here before we become a part of history again.”

“Your majesty, we have been getting reports all over the country of a pair of bipedal creatures taking the law into their own hands and killing violent ponies. They even appear to have been training a few ponies in their methods. A few ponies we questioned spoke of their ruthlessness but also their gentle nature to the rest of the population. They spoke of a creed, rules that were followed by the group. We are not sure what to think your majesty. How should we proceed?” The guard captain asked.

It’s them, I’m sure of it. How should I act? If they are killing then it’s bad, but if they are only killing to protect others can I really act against them?

“I have an idea princess.” A voice called out from the shadows.

“Who’s there? Show yourself” I yelled into the dark corner of the room.

“Just a friend. One who understands the other side to the Creed. One who understands Order.”

Author's Notes:

I've had this idea in my mind and just thinking about it all the time has been impacting how much work I can put into my other stories so I'm putting this chapter out there to see if anyone is interested in it and if it is recieved well I'll think about continuing the story.