~*~*One Month Ago*~*~
He took a deep breath. In. Out. Still, his heart pounded in his ears, despite his best efforts to calm himself. Resting his fingers on the keyboard in front of him, a young man with messy, parted brown hair and icey blue eyes began typing.
{This is Kirito, right? I'm sorry to be messaging you out of nowhere like this. I won't blame you if you don't remember me. I went by the name Animus, and we met briefly seven years ago on the first floor of Aincrad, in the Town of Beginnings,} he began. After a brief pause, he continued, {I'm messaging you because there is something important that I want to talk to you about.}
With a click the instant message was sent. A sigh escaped his lips as he rolled himself back in his swivel chair.
Now for the wait.
Aincrad. That name stirred up so many memories. Most of them bad.
Nine years ago, when he was only ten years old, ten thousand gamers had been trapped in a Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game, or VRMMORPG. He was among those ten thousand. This game, called Sword Art Online, became a hellish deathtrap for all that played it. Unable to logout, the only way to escape had been to complete the game. That meant fighting dangerous monsters and powerful bosses to climb the one hundred floors of the enormous floating palace called Aincrad. The egg-shaped structure had practically been a continent in and of itself, with the bottom floor being nearly five miles from end to end.
He knew that floor like the back of his hand, even to this day. He’d rarely left it, and most of his time had been spent in the first city, the Town of Beginnings. He was just a kid back then, after all. What good could he have done on the frontlines if he had even tried? Especially when there was no respawning. A single death in the game killed the player, their virtual reality helmets, called NerveGear, frying their brains in the real world. So he just waited on the first floor… for two long years.
Talk about nerve wracking. The person he was contacting was practically a legend. Kirito was the very one that managed to beat the game Sword Art Online. The details were never made clear, but anyone that had once played SAO knew his name. The Black Swordsman. Dual Blade Kirito.
It was hard enough deciding to do this even before taking into account just who was the only person that could give him the answers he needed. Still, he was going to do this. He needed to be able to move forward.
Animus’ bright blue eyes drifted over to the space on his desk next to the keyboard. A sturdy gray helmet sat on the table with a cord plugged in the back, and a translucent visor in the front. The surface of the helmet was dusty, stained, and scratched up. Just above the visor were faded letters. They were hard to read, but the word NerveGear could still be made out.
A soft tone rang out much sooner than he had expected. Snapping out of his daze, he looked back to the monitor and scooted back in. He had actually gotten a response so soon? That was a pleasant surprise, and a lot better than the wait he had been anticipating.
{Little Animus? Well, I guess neither of us are that little anymore,} the message read. {So, what's eating you?}
"Here goes nothing," he muttered under his breath. {I really don't want to ask in messages like this. I'd much rather ask you face to face. Can we meet in Aincrad? I want to go to the boss room of the first floor.}
{Gotta say, that's a pretty odd request. What's this all about, Animus?}
He had a reason. What he felt was a really good reason. But it had to be face to face. In the game. In Aincrad. It was how he knew he would be satisfied.
Taking another deep breath, he answered, {Please, Kirito, this is very important to me. It's something only you can do for me.}
Much to the young man's relief, the pause on the other end was brief. {... Well, I guess it's alright. It should only take a few hours to fly to the dungeon from the Town of Beginnings,} Kirito answered. {I still have the map data too. So yeah, I'll take you there. Are you sure you don't want to tell me what this is about, though?}
He would?! Yes! Kirito had agreed to take him! He couldn't believe it was so easy. He had been worried about this part all for nothing.
{I'm sure. You'll understand why it had to wait when we get there,} he typed back. The conversation flowed smoothly from that point.
{So, when did you want to meet up?}
{Would right now work?}
{Well, I was going to try completing a few high ranking quests tonight, but I guess it can wait. I still have your information on my friend list, so it should be easy enough to find you once I get there.}
{Alright, but I may not be there right away. I need to register for Alfheim Online first.}
{Oh? Are you transferring over from another game world?}
His fingers stopped for a moment. The weight of this moment was starting to sink in. He was really going to put the NerveGear on again after seven years. He had avoided that world for so long because he hated that it had taken so much from him. Two years of his life. A piece of his childhood. His youthful innocence. He only had a few happy memories of the virtual world, but they hadn't been enough to bring him back. The reasons he had now were different, but he hoped that if he got what he wanted, he could learn to love the virtual world again.
{No, I haven't played a virtual game since you beat Sword Art Online all those years ago. My need to talk to you is what brought me back.}
{I see. You must have a good reason then. I can understand why some people didn't want to come back.}
{Thank you for understanding, Kirito.}
{It's no big deal. I'll see you there soon.}
{Okay.}
Pushing the keyboard back, he looked over at the NerveGear helmet again. This was it. Getting up from his chair and grabbing the helmet, he looked around his bedroom. The room was sparsely decorated. He had just moved in, after all. A pair of boxes sat at the foot of his bed, holding the few things he had left to unpack. Those things could wait, though. This was more important at the moment.
Sitting on the edge of his bed, he took a long moment to just stare at the helmet. He hadn’t updated his rig since back then, or replaced the helmet, which had major security issues if they were exploited right, but if he kept playing after today, he could always update his stuff later.
The toughest part was this final leap. His greatest fear was putting this helmet on and going into the game world. Virtual reality had taken a lot from him, but he had made a promise to someone very special seven years ago. He had promised that he wouldn’t let what happened back then beat him, and if he didn’t conquer this, he wouldn’t be able to keep that promise. The kind words that little girl had given him would amount to nothing if he let it rule him.
Clutching the NerveGear tightly in his hands, he pressed it down over his head, feeling it cover him and watching the glass visor slide over his eyes. On the surface of the glass, a few little displays were projected. In the upper left, a time; 8:16 AM. In the upper right corner, a battery symbol showing a full charge.
The display gave him a mixed feeling of nostalgia. Lots of bad memories mixed with a few good ones, but he pushed the bad aside to focus on all the things he had enjoyed. The rush of combat. Weapons clashing repeatedly. Those sorts of memories still prodded an itch deep inside of him. He really did miss it all, even if his life had been on the line before.
Laying himself down on the bed, Animus closed his eyes as he mustered up his nerve. He could hear the liquid in his inner ear with his head covered like this. It was just like listening for the 'ocean' inside a seashell. It was oddly relaxing, and he soon felt his pounding heart calm down a bit.
Opening his eyes to get one last look at the real world, he spoke the 'magic words', "Link Start."
In the very next instant, his vision was taken over. The sensors in the helmet began intercepting the signals his brain sent to his body and redirected them, stimulating his senses with artificial data as he was in a sense pulled from his body and placed in a virtual one. Several displays popped up, confirming the connection of all five of his senses, and after that, his login data was scanned from the NerveGear.
Just like that, he was logged in, and he was fully integrated into a virtual body, a digital replica of his real body. He wasn't in the game yet, though. Instead, he was deposited in a large, vacant room that stretched in a circle around him. Almost half of the wall was taken up by a huge image of a giant tree. And not just giant by normal tree standards, like say a red fir tree. No, this tree dwarfed mountains that could be seen around it. And floating up near the canopy of this legendary tree, the World Tree, Yggdrasil, was an enormous floating palace, shaped like an egg, and made up of one hundred floors. The floating castle of Aincrad, which was practically a whole world in its own right, and the World Tree, both dominated the landscape in the image of Alfheim.
Animus felt strangely glad to see Aincrad again. It had been destroyed when Sword Art Online was cleared, but players brought it back in the Land of Fairies, Alfheim. And it was the perfect setting for what he wanted to do.
His thoughts were interrupted as a pleasant voice of a woman spoke from all directions. "Welcome to Alfheim Online."
Taking a deep, artificial breath, Animus readied himself to pick his character details. The first would probably be which of the eight fairy races he wanted to play as.
"Please se-tnagktzz!" The pleasant voice cut short and glitched as the image of the World Tree began to flicker in front of him.
A knot formed immediately in the pit of his stomach. An error? A glitch? Neither of those options made him feel very good, and his paranoia started nagging at the back of his head. His mind kept flashing back to the two years he spent trapped in a game where death was real.
His fears only grew with what came next.
"Please allow me to congratulate you, Animus," a playful male voice called out with a high cackle. The room around him began to flicker and fade away bit by bit, leaving him floating in endless nothingness as the voice continued, "You are the very last human selected for the honor of this… What did you say it was called?” It seemed to speak to some other presence in aside, “An event? Yes! A special event."
Even in this virtual body, Animus felt a chill go down his spine. "Wh-what the hell? Why is the program speaking to me directly?"
"Program? Oh no, dear boy, I am no program," it tutted him. "I imagine you will find out soon exactly what I am. For right now, I am just collecting players for my delightful new game. So what do you say to being pulled into a world the likes of which you've never seen, along with thousands of other humans?"
What was this thing talking about? And why was it specifically calling him human? If whoever this was really wasn't a program, wouldn't it be a human too? No, none of that really mattered.
"Hell no!" Animus shouted at the disembodied voice. Something about its whimsical, almost condescending tone already had him pissed off, despite the fear he felt. "I don't want anything to do with this! I had important plans in Alfheim Online, so let me go!"
"Excellent! Excellent! Just the answer I was hoping for!" the voice declared joyously. "It wouldn't be any fun if you wanted to go, now would it?"
No. Not something like this again. Why him? Why did he have to get pulled into something like this after all he had already been through? He just wanted to enjoy the virtual world again, not get pulled into another incident like SAO!
"No! Let me go!" Animus screamed. "Nobody should have to be taken prisoner like this! I don't want to play your stupid game!"
His protests were met by a loud clicking noise, and his virtual limbs went rigid. He tried to move, but his body refused to respond. He couldn't even scream as he felt the sensation of falling take hold. He plummeted through the endless black until finally even his body faded.
His mind slipped away as he heard the voice speak, "Well, that's the last one with the flag you were looking for. Shall we get started then? I look forward to all the chaos we will create."
"Yes, let's."
~*~*~*~*~*~
Pain was the first sense to return to Animus, groaning in protest as he reached up to clutch at his aching head. It only took a moment for him to remember what had happened to him. He had tried to go to Alfheim, but someone had intercepted him somehow. The voice had said it was taking him to another game, and he couldn't help but feel that twist return to his stomach at the thought.
"Whoever that guy was," he mumbled to himself, "I swear I am going to beat the shit out of him."
Still groaning in pain, he tried to get up and open his eyes. He only made it up about halfway before he felt a jarring force press over his chest and slam him down on his back once more. Thankfully, instead of hard ground, his head hit something soft. His hands, however, were forced to his sides, and his legs were clamped together.
He looked down at his body and saw that several bands of glowing magenta were wound around his body. He struggled against them, but they didn't budge even an inch. The only part of his body he could move was his head, which he swivelled around to try to get his bearings.
His eyes immediately met another set. The intense gaze of the large purple eyes took him aback as a womanly voice demanded, "Beat up who? Who are you? What are you? Where are you from? And why did you suddenly appear in my home?" The strange bonds on his body tightened with each question that was fired off, until he couldn't even breathe.
He tried to gasp for breath instinctively, but his lungs didn't even start to burn. He didn't feel any of the usual things one should when deprived of oxygen. He remembered this sensation. A virtual body didn't need oxygen, after all. So he really was in a game. These strange bonds had to be some kind of in-game magic too.
Returning his attention to his captor, Animus looked at the rest of her. What he saw bewildered him completely, despite knowing he was in a game. Attached to the purple eyes was a small purple horse. It couldn't have been much more than four feet high on all fours as it glared at his prone form. Its mane and tail were odd too, with a dark purple hue and two stripes of a lighter purple and a near pink hue running side by side through them. And protruding from its mane was a horn glowing with the same magenta light that kept him bound. Horse plus horn equaled unicorn, right? Granted, it didn't look like any sort of horse he had ever seen, but it was the only thing that made sense.
Looking around, he surveyed this home the unicorn had mentioned, seeing bookshelves lining almost every wall, and several sets of stairs leading to other floors where still more bookshelves could be seen. A home? Looked more like a library to him. The vaulted ceiling and entire wall devoted to a window facing a large castle only lent to that assessment.
His look around was interrupted by another tight squeeze, this one causing him to yelp in pain before they began to loosen up.
"Answer my questions, intruder, or else I will hand you over to the Royal Guard and let them deal with you," the mare glowered at him, lowering her shining horn at him.
Why did it hurt? In a virtual game, pain was supposed to be absorbed by the system. He could think about that later. If he ignored this mare-unicorn-thing anymore he was liable to be snapped in two.
The knot in his stomach only got worse as he returned his attention to the strange pastel equine. A glance to the upper left corner of his vision confirmed the presence of a green HP bar with his old character name next to it. He really was Animus once more.
"My name is Animus. I am a human, and the rest would be very difficult to explain," he answered. He noticed a glowing yellow icon over the unicorn's head as he spoke, did that mean she was a non-player character, or npc? That was what that color represented in SAO, but she didn't act like any npc he had ever heard of. "Ugh, what am I doing? I'm talking to a pastel horse. I swear, this has to be crazier than SAO," he griped under his breath. "Why me? Why did I have to get pulled into this nonsense?"
"Pony," the mare said.
The glow on her horn faded, and the bonds disappeared as well. He sat up and gave her a quizzical look. "Huh?"
"I am a unicorn pony, not a horse," she replied with a huff. "Horses live in Saddle Arabia, not Equestria."
What the heck? What was with the names of places in this crazy game? The pun was strong with this place. Okay, so this little creature was a unicorn pony. That distinction had to mean there were other kinds of ponies too.
Now liberated, Animus sat up from the floor and watched as the pony used her magic to pull a book out of a shelf well out of reach.
"I’ve never heard of creatures called humans before," she answered quickly as the pages fluttered open in front of her. "Your body structure most closely resembles that of minotaurs and monkeys. Curious indeed, though it doesn't explain the other strange things that have been happening."
"Hey! Don't go off on a tangent! Why the heck did you hold me prisoner and threaten me for answers, then shrug me off just like that?" he demanded.
She glared at him over the top of her book for a moment before again combing over the pages one by one in rapid succession. "Animus, was it? Honestly, what did you expect me to do when a strange creature the likes of which I've never seen suddenly appears in my study in a flash of light? You interrupted important research I was conducting, and I dealt with you accordingly," she explained in a curt tone. "I was nice enough to give you a pillow too, rather than just slamming your head into the floor. From your answers, I assume you ended up in Equestria against your own will, and are confused. It is only logical that if you have any brains in that head of yours, you won't be any danger to me."
With another glow from her horn, a second book floated over and opened up in front of her. Looking over the covers, Animus saw that the first book she had opened was titled “A Guide to Primates”, while the other was a history book called, “The Early Celestian Era”.
“Darn it. What to do? What to do? I need to find out about the Elements of Harmony, but you’re such a fascinating creature! I really want to learn more about just what exactly a ‘human’ is,” Twilight muttered softly. It was hard to tell if he was even speaking to him specifically, but it sounded more like she was just rambling aloud.
Animus was starting to feel like this wasn't just some simple AI controlled character in a game. This mare was doing too good of a job at pissing him off to be that.
Snapping his fingers to bring her attention up from the books, he growled, "You're right, I'm not going to hurt anyone. I just want to leave the way I came. The last thing I want is to go through something like this again."
"Leave? Already? But there’s so much I need to learn! A bunch of strange things started appearing at the same time that you showed up, and if you go, they might too. You can’t leave before I figure this all out!" she demanded, a frantic look in her eyes. Her ears perked a moment later, as though realizing something. "Spike? Have you found my copy of Predictions and Prophecies yet? I need to find out more about the Elements of Harmony," she shouted up to a higher level of the building that, aside from still more bookcases was dominated by a large hourglass.
"Jeez, make up your mind," Animus grumbled quietly to himself. “Do you want to learn about humans or those Element things?” Getting up and walking over to a short table, he took a seat on the edge and lifted his right hand to flick it down in a practiced motion. When nothing happened he tried the left hand, and this time a faint ringing answered, and several little icons appeared in front of him in midair. He had a feeling it was useless, but he scrolled down to the bottom icon for system options and unsurprisingly found his fears confirmed. There was no button to log out. He was trapped again.
He really didn't know how to feel about this anymore. He wanted to leave, obviously. He was scared, angry, and everything, but most of all, he just felt numb. Staring at the menu in front of him, he just felt that deadening numbness. Why wasn't he freaking out more? He felt like he should feel more like he had all those years before, but none of those feelings came. He felt only a tiny bit of them compared to the terror back then.
"I found it, Twilight, but are you sure it's safe? That thing could be dangerous," a young voice called out from the higher level. Reaching the top of the small staircase between the two floors, a small reptilian creature began to descend, holding a book in its claws. The purple reptile also had the same golden icon over its head.
If Animus had to take a wild guess, it was probably a little dragon. Unicorns, dragons, heck there were probably more mythical creatures here, though the prospect really wasn't that surprising in a game.
Oh, and apparently the pony's name was Twilight. He should probably remember that.
Upon meeting Animus' eye, the childlike dragon, Spike, held the book over most of its face. He didn't take his eyes off of the human as he descended. "What kind of magic is that?" he asked when he saw the menu hovering in front of Animus.
This got the pony's attention. The word magic was like some sort of trigger word as her head spun around and her eyes darted between Animus and the menus.
"What the hay are those? Are they related to the strange crystal-like things floating over our heads?" she asked in stern inquisition.
Animus sighed. He was trapped, as far as he could tell, and he had no other option than to learn what he could about this place. That meant talking about what little he knew about what was going on too. Maybe he could put together enough information to figure out if there even was a way home at all.
A dreadfully familiar voice interrupted them, booming loudly from outside of the building, "Hello everypony! And every human too!"
Animus stood abruptly, anger evident on his face as he looked up towards the high ceiling. "That's the bastard that sent me here!" he hissed through clenched teeth. He found the door and bolted for it right away, swinging it open and scanning from the surprisingly high perch. Turns out the building he was in was a tower with a winding staircase along the outside that lead to the home he had just been inside. Outside, he saw the same elegant castle he had caught a glimpse of through the window. And above that, high in the sky, was the source of the voice.
The enormous image of a hodgepodge creature took up the sky. The translucent image slithered back and forth, its long serpentine body displaying parts of various different creatures, as though some deranged scientist had been playing around with an entire zoo in a frankenstein project.
"Allow me to introduce myself!" it declared with a grin somewhere between jubilant and devious. "My name is Discord, the embodiment of chaos and disharmony throughout this world!"
"Discord?! But he was trapped in stone by Princess Celestia over a thousand years ago!" Twilight blurted as she too came storming out of the doorway.
"As some of you ponies may have guessed, I have escaped my imprisonment by Celestia. How you may ask? Well, I owe it all to a new friend of mine. Allow me to introduce him!" With a sweep of a lion's paw, Discord moved to the side for a new figure to come into view. In a billow of scarlet fabric, a hooded figure of distinctly humanoid shape appeared. Nothing could be seen beneath the obscuring hood of the blood red coat.
If Animus had a heart in his virtual body, he felt like it would have skipped a beat in shock. That cloak was unmistakable. It was the same one that the creator of Sword Art Online had used to announce the start of the game where ten thousand players were trapped in Aincrad. But it couldn't be Akihiko Kayaba, could it? He was supposed to have died years ago when the game was cleared. If it wasn't Kayaba, then wouldn't that mean it was someone else that had been in Sword Art Online? No one else would know what that robe looked like.
The hooded figure motioned with its hand across the sky, and spoke out, "Welcome, human players, to the land of Equestria. My name is Yuto, and I have pulled thousands of you from around your world to take part in a new game of our design."
That voice definitely wasn't Kayaba. Even then, from everything that happened years ago, he wasn't the type of man to hide being behind something like this. Heck, he was dead. There was no way anyone that had died would ever come back, no matter who it was.
"What sort of game, you may ask?" Discord asked with a cackle. "Why, the most dangerous and chaotic kind, of course. A war game! All of Equestria has been turned into a war game where humans and ponies alike will fight monsters and each other to complete the game."
"Ponies," Yuto began explaining, "you may have noticed the objects resembling crystals over all of your heads. These icons are a part of the Grand Quest of the game. The color represents your allegiance, and gray represents those who have no allegiance. There are two factions that shall be prevalent in this game. Gold is those loyal to Celestia and everything she stands for. The other... well, you will all find out what the other is tomorrow morning, when the game truly begins."
"That being said? You may be wondering what this Grand Quest is and what the stakes are?" Discord interjected. "It is the main objective of the game, the mission that must be completed in order to win. The side that wins the game gets the greatest prize of all. The will of their leaders will be made real. Everything from power, to money, returning everything to exactly the way it was before, or even creating something entirely new!"
So it was like SAO, but with a twist. The only way out was to win the game, but if the wrong group were to win, then things could just end up getting worse. Things would have to be different for him this time. Staying put and waiting for someone else to win wouldn't cut it if victory for someone else could lead to an outcome he didn't like. He probably couldn't even trust these ponies. Sure, this Twilight was fairly kind to him, even if she had pissed him off a bit, but there was no telling how things would go from here.
"Human and Pony players across Equestria must fight on the side of a faction to achieve the end they want," Yuto declared, waving a hand out across the sky. "As of now, all of Equestria has been divided into territories, and for every allegiance that has a presence in those territories, there are two Commanders. One human, one Equestrian."
Commanders? For a brief moment, Twilight and Animus looked at each other, their thoughts in turmoil before looking back to the sky.
"These Commanders, with special icons over their heads, will have certain special game privileges, but at a price. Ordinary players, if killed in battle, will resurrect at the last town they visited. Commanders, chosen by the system, don't have that luxury. If they die, they will be gone forever. Furthermore, once a Commander has been chosen for an allegiance in a territory, and that Commander then is killed, all players of that commanders race within that allegiance, that reside in that territory, will not resurrect if they are killed."
"As such, your quest is that of Dominion. So long as a Commander remains for at least two factions in a region, that region will remain uncontrolled. If all commanders of enemy factions in a region are killed, or forced to retreat to another region, then the remaining faction will gain dominion over that region. When all regions are under one faction's control, then the game will be won, and the prize will be given."
Dominion. It really was a war game. Controlling territories and maneuvering factions. Animus was reminded of the old board game called Risk that he played when he was a little kid.
"Players must fight with their own power, and grow stronger in this new Equestria. There are even monsters that now reside outside of towns and cities that can be fought to get stronger," Yuto continued. "There are many other challenges that can be faced, and they will be generated by the system as this game progresses. Everything from mundane little quests to big adventures that supplement the Grand Quest of Dominion. In the end, though, Dominion will be achieved when the leaders of all opposing factions are toppled."
"Why?" Twilight wondered aloud. "Why would they create a war like this?" Her voice was choked with worry. The weight of the situation had to be hitting her pretty hard right now.
"I take it ponies don't really fight wars, do they, Twilight?" Animus asked, gauging her reaction.
"What does it matter to you?" she shot back with a hint of venom in her tone. "From the sounds of things, you're my enemy, aren't you? Your icon thing isn't gold. It's gray."
Animus turned to the pony beside him with a level stare. He was not being hostile. At least, not at this point. "I may be," he answered, to which a menacing glow around her horn was the immediate response, "but I may not be either. He did say that gray is neutral. Without allegiance."
The glow faded and she gave him a wary look, "True, at least for now. Just know that if you step out of line, I will tie you up and have you locked in the dungeon faster than you can say 'horseapples'!"
"She can do it easily too!" Spike added with a glare. "Twilight is a genius when it comes to magic!"
"Being locked up in a dungeon wouldn't be the worst experience I've ever had, but your threat is noted," Animus retorted flatly.
The announcement continued as Discord held up a talon arm and clicked the claw with an accompanying flash. "We wouldn't want things to be too easy, though. As such, my associate and I have taken two very important things out of the equation. Firstly, Princess Celestia shall be indisposed for the foreseeable future, and as such, she will not be the leader of those who ally with her."
"What?! No!" Twilight cried out, her head snapping back to the images covering the sky. "What are we supposed to do without Celestia?"
"And lastly," Discord continued, unperturbed and unaware of the cries, "a set of pesky magical MacGuffins called the Elements of Harmony have been hereby deleted from the world. Wouldn't want them ending the fun too early, now would we?"
"Yes, that wouldn't do at all," Yuto agreed. "And so, human players and pony players, we shall leave you all to this game. The war will truly begin tomorrow morning, so prepare yourselves, and welcome to Equestria's Strife Online!"
The enormous images wavered and faded until nothing but clear blue sky remained. No doubt ponies and humans alike would be starting to panic. The humans for being trapped in a strange world. The ponies for having strange new creatures pop up, having their good change around them, and for their ruler being abducted.
Animus didn't feel the panic anymore. For how scared he had been to put on the NerveGear, having his worst fears come true wasn't hitting him as hard as he had expected.
"You're scared too?" Twilight asked him.
Looking down, he saw that despite himself, his hand was trembling. "Not as much as I expected," he replied truthfully, "I would have to be insane not to be at least a little scared, but I made a promise a long time ago to never let a game like this beat me ever again."
"What do you mean by that?" she inquired further.
"What does it matter to you?" he shot her own words back at her.
"Ugh, fine! Be that way!" she groaned, rolling her eyes. Turning to face him on the stairway, her wary gaze continued to survey him. "So where does that leave us? Do we part ways here?"
Turning an equally critical eye to her, the young man thought for a moment, and somewhat reluctantly said, "I think it would be best that we stick together. At least for the time being. I need to learn everything I can about Equestria. Considering you live in what most would call a library rather than a study, I get the feeling that you might be the best person… er, I mean pony, to teach me. In exchange, I will teach you everything that I know about the kind of game we're in now."
The unicorn's expression lit up and a smug little grin spread over her face. "That sounds great. If Princess Celestia is gone, then as her protege, I need to do everything I can to get her back. Spike, please gather up several lengths of parchment and ink vials for a checklist and notes," she said in a sudden surge of confidence, turning to her little helper. "We'll make a list of topics to cover and go through them in order of importance. We will alternate back and forth with each check on the list between me teaching you teaching me, Animus. This way, we can cover as much detail as we can in a short amount of time."
Spike gave a short nod and hurried back inside. Twilight followed right after, and Animus stood there in bewilderment at the sudden shift in tone from the mare. Jeez Louise, this unicorn had academia, workaholic, and teacher's pet written all over her. He wondered with a touch of dread what he had just gotten himself into, but at the same time it gave him confidence that he had ended up with just the right pony out of any of them.
"Alright then," he called after her as he sauntered back in, "just don't expect me to have all the answers. There are bound to be features I have never seen before, and my experience is limited."
That confidence that flowed from the mare seemed to swell at the prospect of the learning challenge. Her smug grin only grew wider as she sat back at her table, where Spike promptly dumped an intimidating pile of papers and vials. "I am the prized pupil of the princess for a reason, Animus," she declared proudly. "I am sure that once I know enough, I can help you figure out more that can help both of us."
As Spike walked by, Animus said in passing, "She sure is handling all of this well."
The tiny dragon stopped and gave him a flat look. "Are you kidding? She's barely holding it together. This studying is her grasping at things to do to keep her mind off the fact that the pony she looks up to and depends on is gone."
Animus looked over to Twilight, watching as she pulled books off of shelves and down to where she sat comfortably. Worry seemed to be the last thing on her mind as she looked over the covers of the books. Some of them were quickly returned to their shelves while a few were set down on the table, only for still more books to be brought down under her partitions gaze.
"So as long as she has some idea of how to move forward, and doesn't have time to stop, the better off she'll be?"
"Probably," Spike mused.
"Spike, find as many history books as you can on the top level. I think I left a pre-Celestian record next to my copy of Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone," Twilight said as she sorted out the items on the table. Spike walked off with a soft grunt and she continued, "Animus, please come over here and help me make a checklist of topics. We really need to figure out what we should cover first."
Clasping his hands behind his head with a sigh, Animus joined her at the table and took a seat. "Well I think the most important thing right now is to figure out if there is anything special about tomorrow morning. That's when Yuto and Discord said the game would truly begin."
Twilight's ears perked up suddenly in realization. "Tomorrow is the Summer Sun Celebration. Its when we celebrate the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, and Celestia's defeat of Nightmare Moon!" she exclaimed, jotting a line down on a piece of parchment and rummaging through her pile of books. "Predictions and Prophecies. Predictions and Prophecies. Aha! Predictions and Prophecies! I was just about to research this legend before all the craziness started!"
"Okay," Animus nodded. With a flick of his wrist he called up the player menu once more. "After that, I will teach you about the menu and heads-up display."
"Right, let's get started," Twilight confirmed.
Human and pony poured over the books and papers as they both tried to get a grasp on the situation they had been thrust into together.