After a while of running, the two ponies and two men arrived at Sweet Apple Acres, each with varying amounts of exhaustion.

“Are you really that out of shape Sam?” John asked with a smirk.

“I wish I could say the same for you, but you aren’t the stereotypical officer that eats donuts for breakfast, lunch, and dinner,” Sam wheezed.

“In his defense, he was carrying more than you,” Applejack stated.

“And you're no longer the lazy writer, so we’re on a level playing field,” John retorted.

“Go jump in a lake.”

“Anyway, it's almost suppertime, and I would feel bad if I didn't invite y’all in for some grub,” Applejack said.

“We wouldn’t want to intrude… well I wouldn’t.” John replied as he rubbed the back of his head.

“John,” Sam began. “I should really tell you that Applejack’s mentality is much like what we Americans call ‘Southern.’ Basically, when an invitation is made, refusing said invite can be an insult from either minor to major. Am I close?”

She nodded. “Close enough, but the insult part was a bit too much.”

“Well I’m sorry for turning you down, most people are hesitant to let a cop into their homes where I’m from.”

“I can see where they're coming from,” Fluttershy said.

“Well shoot, that don't change a thing for me,” Applejack said. “Cop or no cop, you're free to come eat with us.”

“Okay then, I guess I’ll take you up on your offer,” John replied calmly.

“Sounds good to me,” Sam said happily. “What have you got to eat?”

“Well, today was exhausting for a lot of ponies today, so a simple meal with chicken, corn, potatoes…”

“Wait a minute! Did you just say chicken?”

“Yeah, why do you seem so shocked?”

“Ponies from where we are from are herbivores for one,” John pointed out.

“And the show depicted you to dislike the usage of meat PERIOD!”

“Well, whoever made the show is only half right,” Applejack explained. “Many ponies don't like to use meat, but that doesn't mean they don't use it.”

“Rainbow Dash likes bacon more than anything except cider,” Fluttershy contributed.

“That’s a surprise.”

“You’re free to join us, Fluttershy,” Applejack said.

“I do want to, but I’ve gotta go check on my animals after what happened,” she said. “Sorry that I can’t.”

“That's understandable,” John replied in agreement.

Fluttershy blushed and hid behind her hair before starting to walk home. Once she was down the road a good distance, Sam clapped his hands together and exclaimed, “So, soup’s on?”

“Eeyup,” a deep male voice said from the porch. Everyone looked and saw Big Macintosh standing on the porch. He was about 6’2”, and wore very durable looking overalls with a white t-shirt. “About time you got here, sis.”

“Oh hush, you,” she said to him. “I ain’t in need of an adult.”

“She is a grown women… or mare. How do you choose to Identify yourselves here?”John said looking at Big Mac with his arms crossed.

“It’s mare,” Applejack answered. “Anyway, let’s get some food.”

“Agreed,” John replied. Big Mac held the door open for all of them as they entered. Once inside, they were greeted by a rustic farmhouse interior. In a rocking chair near the fire was an extremely old mare, Granny Smith. She was probably just barely shorter than Applejack. She wore what looked like the clothing that early American settlers wore. On the couch with a somewhat bored expression was a young filly, Applebloom. She was about 4’8” and wore denim shorts, a white t-shirt, and her trademarked pink bow was in her hair.

Once she noticed that Applejack was home, Applebloom ran to her sister and gave her as big of a hug as she could. “I’m glad you’re okay, Big Sis!” She said, but she then noticed that John and Sam were standing in the room. She pushed herself closer to her sister with wide eyes. “Applejack, who are they?”

“I’m John and this is my friend Sam we’re new around these parts.”

Sam gave him a deadpan look. “You really had to do that cheesy Western phrase?”

“Like you wouldn’t have.”

“Oh my...just because nine times out of ten, I’m doing something stupid, that doesn’t mean that last one time isn’t intelligent or appropriate.”

“And I doubt this would have been one of those times you would have been serious.”

“Okay, I won’t argue with that,” Sam admitted.

“Why’re you two arguing?” Applebloom asked. “Is it your special talent or..”

“Hush, Applebloom,” Applejack scolded. “That was rude.”

“Trust me, if that was our special talent we’d be on stage as a comedic duo.” John said with a smile.

“Okay, now you’re making fun of me.”

“No, no I’m not.”

“I just...urgh,” Sam huffed. “No more about my intelligence until I do something actually stupid. Okay?”

“No promises.”

“Alright, and Applebloom,” Sam said, turning his attention on the filly. “To answer the hidden question you were asking, no, John and I don’t have cutie marks, neither can we get one, unless they are actual tattoos that are glued to our rear ends.”

“Huh, okay,” Applebloom said in semi-content satisfaction.

“So, it’s food time or…” Sam started.

“Eeyup!” Big Mac said. “However, you two ain’t the only guests for dinner though.”

“May I ask who the other guests are?”

“It’s guest,” they heard somepony correct. Twilight then walked out of the kitchen. As soon as Sam saw her, he screamed and vanished in a puff of smoke only to reappear behind John in another puff of smoke.

“What’re you doing here!?” Sam shouted, before thinking out loud, “And how did I just do that?”

“I’m not sure about the second question, but to answer your first question, I managed to teleport here before you got here so I could apologize,” she said. “It’s too frequent that I get overexcited about learning about new things, and for that, I’m sorry.”

“So you're not going to go mad scientist on us then?” John asked.

“That may have been my first thoughts, but no, I won’t go ‘mad scientist’ in any way,” she said. “At the most, just a few scans for internal biology, some blood and urine samples…”

“TMI, Twilight!” Sam blurted. “We need to eat, and I’d rather not talk about bodily functions, aside from embarrassing moments during or after a surgery.”

“I swear that some people would think of you as a stalker,” John moaned.

“I’m talking about the times like when I was getting a surgery to take out my wisdom teeth, shortly befor I woke up, my dad said that I was muttering something about orange grapes, and grape oranges.”

“I’m not going to ask.”

“I don’t even want to,” Applejack agreed

“Then don’t ask,” Sam said.

“I do have one question though,” Twilight said. “Do you remember how the surgery procedure was performed?”

The meal was underway as Twilight seemed to have an almost endless amount of question. The two men were barely able to eat anything around the many questions that were asked about their English and American cultures.

“So this “Idaho” is famous for it’s potatoes, much like how this “Ireland” is,” she said after they answered one of her questions.

“Yes,” Sam said. “Now, I must ask for only two more questions. More answers are leaving my mouth than food going in.”

“Okay,” she said, somewhat disappointed. “What did you two do for a living and what are you two dressed as?”

“Well I was a policeman, of multiple kinds,” John admitted.

“I worked with a mail service,” Sam said.

“And now… well we’re two renditions of game characters.”

“I'm a mix between an Orochi samurai and a Shinobi from For Honor,” Sam explained.

“And well… I’m an Assassin from a Series called Assassin’s Creed.” John added.

“What were those games like?” Applebloom asked.

“You want to start with Assassin’s Creed, John?” Sam asked.

“I guess I should since it’s the oldest of the two,” John agreed. “But i’ll admit it’s not the best game for kids to hear about.”

“Why so?” Applejack asked.

“Isn’t the first word in the games name a indication?”

“Oh, right,” she mumbled. “Maybe you can give us the bare bone story and leave out the questionable details?”

“So pretty much all the details then,” John chuckled before he added “the only bit that would be safe to tell you is that it’s focused around two groups of people with different views of the world fighting for their own beliefs, one side who wants to control everyone's lives and the other who believe in giving everyone free will. The main section of the game is based around people being able to see their ancestors lives which is used for the two opposing groups to find objects of incredible power, to reach their aims.”

“In For Honor, the land is hit with a massive scale disaster that causes resources to become scarce. The three big powers, Knights, Vikings, and Samurai, fought over what's left until a relative peace settled over the land. A woman named Apollyon then manipulated the three powers back into conflict with each other, but more furiously than before.”

“Land sakes!” Applejack exclaimed. “That's interesting, to be honest.”

“Well I guess you do represent honesty,” John admitted as he shrugged his shoulders.

“While we're on the subject of honesty,” Sam said, turning his attention to Twilight. “Do you have any guesses or theories on how I did that smoke puff teleportation, because in all honesty, I'm confused.”

“Is that not in your game?” John asked.

“Yeah, but that can be chalked up to illusions,” Sam said. “Just small smoke grenades and quick movements. Magic wasn't a thing in that game.”

“Could be something to do with being here maybe?”

“That could be a possibility,” Twilight speculated. “Does your character have any special abilities John?”

“Not really they were almost completely human… well apart from Eagle Vision that is.”

“Eagle vision?” Big Mac asked.

“Basically it allowed to player to locate one target or a group of enemies from a crowd of people and keep track of them for a while, in other cases even track their movements for a while if they were searching for them,” John explained.

“Do you think you can try it while I watch to see if your magic theory is correct?” Twilight asked.

“As in Eagle Vision I don’t even know if I have that skill or how to do it.”

“Never hurts to try and learn,” Sam encouraged.

“Well do you know how I could do it?”

“Maybe your first try can help you access your inner magic so that the process can be easier in the future,” Twilight suggested. “Just relax, clear your mind, breathe deeply, and envision what you described about Eagle Vision.”

“...our kind doesn’t have any magic at all? There is no inner magic in humans.”

“What happened to, ‘Could be something to do with being here maybe?’ thing?” Sam asked.

John just pinched the bridge of his nose before he said “Who would I even track, it’s not like I’d even know if it’s working.”

“See if you can locate Winona,” Applejack suggested. “I haven't seen him all day.”

“Well I’ll try but no promises,” John agreed reluctantly. He then shut his eyes before opening them again before the symbol of the Assassins appeared in black as the rest of his eye turned completely white. He then turned his head around as he saw a lot of red markers around him surrounding one small gold figure near them.

“Do you see him?” Sam asked.

“I think so, he’s about 500 metres south of us and is surrounded by something, whatever it is looks almost human in shape from what I can see,” John admitted.

“What?” Sam stood up and opened the door to look outside and saw what he thought were spriggans from the Elder Scrolls series. “Hey Applejack? Are there supposed to be wooden bipedal things in your orchard?”

“Wood sprites!” She exclaimed, jumping up from her seat. She ran to what looked like a gun safe and pulled two one-handed axes, resembling the tomahawk of Connor Kenway, and a two-handed axe out of it. “Those goldarn things are always trying to expand their territory into our orchard!” She added while tossing the two-handed axe to Big Mac.

“Eeyup!” The two siblings then ran out of the house.

John then looked to Sam before walking over to him and Whispering “Did those look familiar to you?”

Sam nodded. “The hatchets looked like Native American Assassin tomahawks that a Viking Berserker could use, while the larger axe makes me think of a Viking Raider.”

“You don’t think that they could be or could have been Assassins?”

“If they are or have been, they haven't acknowledged it,” Sam shrugged. “It could also be possible that their parents were Assassins and they weren't told.”

“Should we ask them later?”

“Yeah, but in the meantime, I'm going to go help them.” Sam walked to the door.

John only nodded before he walked out of the house with Sam. Once they were outside, they saw Applejack and Big Mac fighting quite furiously against the sprites, despite being heavily outnumbered. Sam noticed that one of them was about to attack Big Mac from behind. Reacting quickly, he ran and then slid through its legs, tripping it up in the process.

With the sprite’s attention on him, Sam shouted out, “I'll help Mac, you help Jack!”

John only nodded before quickly reaching for his sword before running towards Applejack as he sliced two of the Sprites as he quickly span around his hidden blade hitting a third as he stopped next to Applejack.

“I had a feeling you'd come out and help, not that I could stop you,” she said.

“Would you have tried to?” John asked back as he decapitated another Sprite.

“I ain’t gonna hold you back, if that's what you mean.”

“Like you could,” John replied before saying “Applejack down now,” as he reached to his side grabbing his pistol.

Applejack ducked just as he pulled the trigger as the bullet fired careening through multiple Sprites.

“Hoowee! I need to get me one of those!” She exclaimed in amazement.

John just stopped before he said “Wasn’t this empty before we came here?” before he shrugged and fired two more times each getting a similar outcome.

A small explosion was heard behind them and a Sprite fell in front of them, somewhat charred and covered in nails, but definitely dead.

“What in God's name was that?” John asked in shock as his hidden blade was thrust into the neck of another Spirit. As if in answer to his question, a Sprite stumbled backwards past him before it was snagged by a sickle and pulled back the way it stumbled from.

“Umm… did you do that Applejack?” John asked.

“No,” she said as she pulled a sprite’s head off with her axes. “I think it might have been your friend.”

“Really?” John replied as he looked towards Sam to see him slashing furiously at the last sprite before he landed four piercing strikes and then slashed its head clean off.

“Since when could he do that?” John muttered under his breath.

“Wow, you both seem to know what you're doing,” Big Mac complimented as he walked closer to the group, wiping green sap off of his axe.

“Not really,” John replied “I’ve never used a sword before today, I’m more used to using my pistol.”

“Similar case with my sickles, but imitation can get you far in some ways,” Sam bragged.

“Anyway, I need to ask you something,” John said to Applejack.

“Well, go ahead. I'm all ears.”

“Those axes you were using,” John said gesturing to them. “What do you know about the symbol that the actual head is shaped like?” John asked

“Well, my parents told me it it was the symbol for the Apple family,” she answered. “But I don't know if that was true. I haven’t seen it anywhere except when you did your Eagle Vision thing.”

John then looked to Sam before he said “Sam… should we tell them?”

“If you want to. I'm not gonna hold you back.”

“Being your sister isn’t here, I think you have a right to know more about what I’m based off and what that symbol actually is,” John said as he lowered the hood covering his face.

“Know what?” Big Mac asked.

“The symbol that was in my eye and the blade are the same, remember when I said that I was an Assassin, the symbol is that of the Assassin Brotherhood. If they belonged to you parents what do you think it means about them?”

“Are you saying that they were these Assassins?”

“It’s possible that was the case,” John admitted before he added “I hope I’m wrong with this next thought but… where are your parents now?”

Applejack and Big Mac seemed to wilt in sadness when that was said. “They're dead,” she said solemnly. “Multiple stab wounds and a cross-like brand over their cutie marks.”

“I think I know who did it… well what group did it anyway,” John said his fists clenched.

“Well, who?” Big Mac asked.

“The second of the two groups I mentioned before, the Templars… if they use that name, the cross is their symbol.”

“So their murder wasn’t just random!?”

“Like hell it was, they were likely killed for being part of the brotherhood… and if the Templars know who they were… how long ago was they killed,” John said quickly as he realised just what could be happening next.

“They were killed shortly after Applebloom was born.”

“Then they aren’t hunting you down anymore, so it’s likely that your family’s safe.” John replied

“Or being watched,” Sam muttered loud enough for everyone to hear.

Suddenly, there was a flash of lavender light and Twilight appeared. However, she was on her knees and there was a bit of blood on her arm from a nasty gash.

Johns eyes went wide before he said “Oh god,” knowing what was transpiring, “Twilight, what happened?”

“House...under...attack,” she answered before fainting.

John just looked to Sam before he said, “It couldn’t be the Templars could it?” as he ran off back towards the house.

With Sam following along, he added, “Speak of the Oni and it shall appear.”

Author's Notes:

This took me a bit to get published.

Again, Dark has nothing to say...yet.