//------------------------------//
// Rift 
// Story: Equestria's Strife Online 
// by Crystalis McCloud 
//------------------------------//

Everyone went back to their homes as Animus had ordered, and though reluctant, many provided a place to sleep for their human guests. Thankfully, even in the dark of night, with only the glow of the stars and moon to go by, it seemed that all of them had enhanced night vision thanks to the workings of the game. It wasn’t crisp and clear as daytime, but it was definitely better than normal, and everyone found their ways home easily.

Animus didn't take his own advice, as Twilight soon found out. In the chaos of everyone going home to rest, she lost sight of him before she knew it. She didn't expect to find him where she did. She walked into the library just a half hour later to see him standing at the center table. Across from him was Agil, and standing beside the hulking man was the same blonde mare that Twilight had seen him with before. If memory served, her name was Applejack.

"Animus was right, you two really can't seem to get rid of each other," Spike noted as he walked in behind her. "You even picked the same place to rest."

"Why are you all here?" Twilight asked sincerely, ignoring Spike for a moment.

"Ah, good," Animus smiled, "I was hoping that this was where you'd come to first. Agil, Applejack and I were just about to discuss how we're going to start building the new local economy. Really though, money and business aren't my strong suit. I'll mostly just be enacting and enforcing what they agree on."

"I thought you told everyone to get some sleep?" Spike asked pointedly.

Yeah, what was up with that? Twilight was starting to feel a bit drowsy herself. Why was he pushing himself himself to stay up right now?

"I can keep myself awake until tonight... er, you know what I mean," he pointed a finger up to indicate the now eternally dark sky. "Before then, we need to be prepared. Economy; training; patrols; resources; we need to get as much of these things and others put in place as soon as possible. We need organization."

That did make sense. A strong start was important in just about anything. Good momentum at the beginning would carry over.

"I'll help too," Twilight offered. "I can create a checklist of the things we need to cover before the training session starts this afternoon."

If Animus was going to be working, then she had an obligation to as well. They were both commanders now, and they had to lead their alliance to victory. 

"We really 'preciate the help there, Twi," Applejack tipped her hat graciously. "Ah'll be representing the businesses of Ponyville while my giant friend here will be helping us adapt it all to how this here game works. Think you can keep all the info straight?"

Spike sputtered out a laugh, "You'll never find a bigger organization freak than Twilight in all of Equestria."

Twilight shot a cold glare at the little dragon, making his laugh quickly turn into a nervous chuckle.

"Ya know what? A nap really sounds good. I think I'm gonna turn in for the night," he announced before bolting up the nearby flight of stairs and disappearing behind the first door he reached.

Clearing her throat, Twilight said, "Spike's snark aside, organization really is my strong suit. As a commander, I really can't afford to rest yet."

"Glad to hear it," Agil nodded. "Well then, first thing's first. When the town meets this afternoon we need to pick out everyone that has a preference for mercantile and crafting skills. Then we need to establish a network of freelance info brokers that will discover new and important facts with cash as the incentive."

"Right, the economy shouldn't be too different from SAO's. The only things that come to mind right away that will be different are the weapon crafts and the fact that we will be competing for resources with Nightmare's forces. Control of spawning grounds and other gathering areas will be important too," Animus added. "These issues need to be handled as fast as possible so that we don't fall behind Nightmare Moon."

"Right, ah can tell y'all about the local businesses so we can figure out how they'll fit into all of this here game stuff too," Applejack chimed in.

A quill and parchment were quickly pulled from Twilight's inventory and she began scribbling away diligently. She listened intently as menus were browsed a significant discovery was made. Apparently, most of the games back where they came from followed a pattern like that SAO game they always talked about, with multiple skills being equipped at once for customizable builds. In this game, however, everyone had the ability to equip a single sub-class at a time. These sub-classes were much broader in benefits and actually made things wonderfully simpler.

With this difference in mind, they proceeded with browsing the list of available sub-classes, focusing on the crafting and gathering types, then figured ways to apply them. There was a lot to pick from, like «Alchemist», «Crystal Enchanter», or even simple creature comforts like «Chef». Many of the possibilities were pretty easy to flesh out between the four of them, but some some sub-classes only appeared in certain menus. «Crystal Enchanter», for example, only appeared in Twilight's list, which meant that some professions were exclusive to specific races. From all indications, humans shared their entire list with earth ponies, and pegasi were sure to have their own unique roles. With some sub-classes unique to unicorns and pegasus, that brought up a new issue.

"Well now just wait a moment there," Applejack was the first to notice. "Ponyville and some o'the places like Manehattan and the bigger cities have every kind of pony livin' there, but other places aren't so lucky. Cloudsdale and other sky cities have only pegasi up there. Canterlot is mostly unicorns. Then Appleoosa and other such farmin' towns you'd have a hard time findin' anything but earth ponies at."

That little nugget of information got a silent nod from both Animus and Agil as they mulled it over.

"That's very true, but won't Nightmare Moon have that problem even worse?" Twilight pointed out.

"Yeah, that's right," Animus agreed, "She is the only one on her side that's able to access those sub-classes. Her soldiers would be lacking those resources."

Agil held a hand up to stop that thought. "I understand why that makes sense, but I don't think we should assume anything here. She could very well have workers with those crafting jobs."

That didn't make any sense though. How could Nightmare's forces have any of the pegasus and unicorn exclusives? The only one that should have them would be Nightmare herself. Could he be insinuating what Twilight thought he was?

"Hey," Twilight felt a defensive tone slipping into her voice, "are you saying that you think there might be ponies on Nightmare Moon's side? There's no way that would happen. We're all faithful to Celestia!"

"Yer just talkin' crazy, Agil," Applejack adjusted the brim of her hat. "There's no reason for a pony to take her side."

That was right. There was absolutely no reason. It was a completely ridiculous idea.

Agil shook his head slowly, "I admire your optimism, and that definitely seems to be the case here in Ponyville. Not a single pony here joined her, but I don't think ponies and humans are different at all. There are good and bad among all of us."

Twilight tried disagree, but no counter-argument came to mind. He was right. There were less than moral ponies in Equestria. All that she could ask was, "Why though? Why would anypony take her side?" She couldn't even begin to comprehend why anypony would.

"If I had to guess? Fear," Animus said bluntly. "Nightmare made it quite clear that she would have everyone that fought against her killed. Death is a terrifying prospect, and fear can change anyone for the worse or better. I saw it a lot back when I was trapped in Sword Art Online. That game was even worse, in some ways. Mostly because no matter what, if you died even once in the game, your brain would be fried with an electric surge in the real world. Before the game was beaten, over three thousand of the ten thousand players had died, and a lot of them were suicide and murder."

Both Applejack and Twilight gave a shudder at that statement. Things like that were extremely rare in Equestria, but they did exist. It was no less unpleasant hearing about it happening with different creatures in a different world. It must have been a truly horrid experience to drive them to such extremes.

"So you really were in SAO," Agil stroked his scruffy chin with a small smile. "I had a feeling you were since you knew Kibau and started yelling about Yui."

Animus looked up at Agil, surprised, "You too? Man, it really seems like a lot of SAO survivors have been brought into this game. And you know Kibau and Yui too?"

Agil nodded, "Yeah, I was a part of the Assault Team since we fought the first Floor Boss of Aincrad, and Kibau was in that fight. I'm also a close friend of Kirito, Yui's father."

Applejack and Twilight shared a look, with AJ shrugging in confusion. Twilight only understood a bit of it herself, most of what they said matching up with the secondhoof information she'd already learned through observation. What really caught her attention, however, was how Animus's eyes widened and his hands clenched tight. That reaction was unmistakable. It was the same sort of reaction he had when the subject of his trauma came up.

Did something Agil said have a connection to Animus' terrible experience?

"Hello? Earth ta' humans, ponies out of the loop are present," Applejack waved a hoof to get their attention.

"Right, sorry AJ," Animus sighed, but added quickly to Agil, "If you don't mind, I have some questions I want to ask you once things are settled down. Is that alright?"

Agil nodded firmly, turning back to the table, "Alright, as I was saying before, we don't know for sure that any ponies joined Nightmare, but it would be foolish to assume they haven't either. I think we should tackle the issue of crafting distribution twofold." He pulled out a quill and paper of his own from his inventory and began scribbling down three dots and two circles. One circle was drawn around two of the dots, while another was set around the singular dot above the first two. "First, we should get in contact with the commanders of all of the other towns. This is a crude representation of our territory on the map."

He pointed farthest dot, then to the two set away from it right next to each other. "This is Canterlot to the north, and these two are Ponyville and Nightmare's castle." He then drew an arching line between Ponyville and Canterlot, saying, "We need to distribute production units so that all of our towns have access to those crafts in town. Some areas will still produce way more of certain things though, since we won't be achieving a perfect balance." He then drew a straighter line between the two locations. "Then we need to maintain lines of trade and communication. There's gonna be surplus of some product or materials in one location, but scarcity in another, so we'll need open trade for every area to maintain balance. One of the most important parts of that will be securing the train stations in as many towns as possible."

Twilight's quill was a mad blur as she took down all of this information. Agil really knew his stuff, using the crude drawing to get across the idea of what needed to be accomplished on a nationwide scale. Applejack was quick to point out, however, that with trade like that, Nightmare was bound to order raids on shipments. If they wanted it to work, they needed to have escorts with every shipment, and that would cut into their main combat forces. Twilight herself pointed out that Nightmare making such raids would do the same thing, and they could always scale their escort numbers to match the severity of the raid parties.

All in all everyone provided good input, and they had a solid base structure for their plans by the time they were wrapping up. It would be enough info for them to share with the other commanders and refine it further.

When they felt they'd covered as much as they could at this early point, both Applejack and Agil stood to leave.

"Alright then, that should just 'bout do it for the next little while," Applejack beamed, content with their work. "We can't do nothing else til we wait and see just how this all starts playing out."

"Right, I think I'll hit the hay until the town meeting," Agil yawned, stretching his arms wide. "What are you two going to do?"

Yeah, what were they going to do? Animus seemed to already have the rest of the day planned out, so she turned to him for the next step.

He took her cue and answered, "Only two things on the agenda, really. First we need to get in contact with Asuna and Shining Armor in Canterlot. After that I have Mia and Rainbow Dash coming by, since they volunteered as combat instructors." A chime sounded as he spoke and a blinking icon appeared before him. He pressed it right away, opening a window in its place. "Ah, speak of the devil, this is Asuna's reply," he murmured as he began reading.

"Jeez, I didn't think you could be so prepared, Animus," Twilight muttered, feeling both impressed and exasperated at the same time.

Was this really the same guy that had been so gruff and distant before? It seemed like a complete reversal since Nightmare appeared. Now he was setting up meetings and formulating preparations, and she felt like she was just getting dragged along for the ride.

"I want to win. I want to live. It's as simple as that," he replied without looking up from his message. "Now that I've decided where I stand, I'm throwing everything into it."

That was it? Just knowing what side he was on was enough to make him act this differently? Now she was almost afraid of what it would have been like if he had joined Nightmare. She could sympathize with his desire to return to his old life though. She wanted her world back the way it was too.

"Alright then," Agil nodded, heading for the door. "Tell Asuna I said hi, we go way back too." He stopped at the door and added, "And Twilight, don't worry, you're doing a fine job as a commander right now. Just keep at it."

Was she that transparent? She was wondering exactly what she was doing here when Animus seemed to be handling everything just fine on his own. She managed a small grateful nod for Agil's words though.

"Heya, Agil, why don't ya come stay at mah farm for the time bein'? Not many places here could fit a guy your size, and we've got a real cozy barn. 'Long as ya don't mind my little sis. She's a real hoofful," Applejack offered as the pair left the building.

"Oh don't you worry, I have a daughter back in my world," Agil laughed, "I know how to handle rowdy little tykes."

The door shut behind them and all noise from the outside world was cut off completely. Now Twilight and Animus were left alone in the main room of the library. The ticking of a clock on the wall punctuated every silent second as Animus read and Twilight waited. Finally, the message was closed and Animus rose to stretch his limbs.

"So?" Twilight asked when he said nothing. "How exactly are we going to have a meeting with Asuna and my brother when they're all the way in Canterlot?" Was he thinking they should take a train there again? There wouldn't be enough time to go all the way out there and back before the time of the town meeting he'd arranged.

"Your brother just confirmed something for me that I had Asuna ask him," he answered mid-stretch. "Your talent. I'd been wondering about it for a little while now, and at first I thought you had a knack for some sort of astral magic since your mark is a bunch of stars."

"What does my Cutie Mark have to do with anything?" she tilted her head.

"Well, for one, I was surprised to find out that your talent is magic. Not any one branch of magic, but all magic. I guess it makes sense though that the princess' personal pupil is a prodigy," he grinned.

This wasn't exactly new information to her. It was her talent after all. She knew her gift well. "What's your point, Animus? Quit beating around the bush with all the little details I already know," she groaned.

"Simple, you're going to cast an Astral Conference Array of your own. Right here. Right now," Animus said, as though it really were the simplest and most obvious thing in the world.

"What?!" Twilight blurted out. "Are you crazy? That was a highly advanced spell, and you want me to cast it just like that?"

Animus threw his hands up defensively at her outburst, "Calm down, I'm not asking you to create a conference between every town and city in Equestria like Nightmare Moon did. We'll start small with a circle here and in Canterlot for now, and as you get better at it, we can add more."

Oh, of course. It was so simple. Not! "Don't talk like it's easy," she trotted over and gave him a couple hard pokes on his chest. "You have no idea how complex of a spell it is, and you expect me to copy it right after seeing it? You're nuts!"

Faster than she could even blink, Animus' hand grasped her by her fetlock. He held her arm like a vice, but his expression was somehow completely calm. "Twilight, we are not in a position where we have the luxury of self-doubt or the words 'I can't'," he told her. "It shouldn't bear repeating that we are leaders now, whether we like it or not, and this is going to be an ugly war. So if something needs to be done that we never would think we could do before, we just do it, and that will inspire our soldiers to do the same."

His words hammered home one after another. The absolute conviction in his eyes was almost mesmerizing, and she couldn't find any flaw in his reasoning. Again she was struck with what a change Animus' behavior had taken, and she couldn't help but wonder where all this came from. She could scarcely see the resemblance between the grumpy guy she'd known yesterday and the resolved leader she was seeing now.

As much as the logical part of her brain told her that the spell was beyond her ability, she couldn't deny what he said. If it was impossible, then it was better for her to actually try. If she just said she couldn't, then she really never would.

Pulling her arm free from his grasp, Twilight nodded in understanding, "Alright, I'll do it. But don't blame me if it fails spectacularly."

"Don't think like that," he encouraged her. "You'll do fine. Just give it your best try. Oh yeah, I was told to tell you that they're waiting in the throne room for the circle to appear."

With another nod, Twilight turned to the center table of the room and pushed it aside with her magic. A space now cleared, she closed her eyes and focused. She thought of the spell she wanted to cast, and of the circle. Her horn lit up, and a beep sounded in her ear. Cracking her eye open, she spotted a new menu window that read: 



Destiny «Spellweaver» Activated. 
All magic sub-classes merged.
Overcast active.
Mana regen bonus active.



What was this? Destiny? Bonuses? There was no level shown for it on the display either.

"What's that all about, Twilight?" Animus asked when he noticed the new window.

Thinking for a moment, Twilight soon realized what this must mean. "I think I just got a special bonus for my cutie mark," she announced. "It says here that with this «Spellweaver» Destiny, my Mp will recover by an extra six percent of the max every minute. On top of that, all of the magic sub-classes in my menu have been merged into one, and spells up to ten levels above what I have can be cast for twice the mp cost."

A self-satisfied smile spread across Animus' face. "I guess my gut instinct was right. The system does include a pony's cutie mark as a factor. That must be why Nightmare had such powerful magic; she must have bonuses like this for her own magic."

That would make sense. Everything about the game seemed fair and square until Nightmare had entered the picture, but if all of Nightmare’s magic was at level one too, then she had just been taking advantage of her Destiny to cast spells above her level. If that was true, then things were still balanced. That did raise a question in her mind though.

"If this is tied into cutie marks, then doesn't that mean that humans don't have these Destinies?" she asked.

Animus shook his head, "Unless we see otherwise, I think it's safe to assume that it's for ponies only. To be honest, from all indications, you ponies aren't as predisposed to combat as we are. Your society is far more peaceful than ours. An extra edge is understandable in that sense."

So that was how it was? "Oh? So you're saying that I need a crutch to do well in this game? You think I need a handicap?" Twilight turned on Animus. His words had struck a raw chord with her steadily building insecurity. She jammed her hoof in his chest, saying, "I can fight just as well as you can!"

Animus took a step back. With a sigh, he rubbed the bridge of his nose, "That's not what I'm saying. Don't twist my words around on me."

A part of her told her to stop there, but she'd already gotten a steam going, and she couldn't stop herself. "Oh sure, the ponies need all the help they can get against the mighty army of humans, right? You gonna cut up all the bad guys and save the day while ponies try to keep up?" she mocked him, "Well I wouldn't even need this Destiny to kick your flank up and down this town!" Her Casts reformed around her hooves for emphasis. "I'm not some helpless little filly that needs protecting."

Animus groaned, raking a hand through his hair. "This is a stupid and pointless argument, Twilight. I'm not going to fight you over something like this when we should be working together to protect our people," he growled in mounting frustration.

His tone only set her off even more. He was giving her attitude now? "Working together?" Twilight laughed the fakest laugh she could. "From the moment Nightmare left you've been running the show all on your own. Setting up meetings and such without even talking with me about it first or anything? Yeah, I'm really feeling the teamwork here."

Animus slammed his fist hard against the wall, his eyes turning from frustration to livid anger. The blow was so strong that it even triggered the «Immortal Object» icon. "Well excuse me for trying to take the initiative!" he shouted at her. "This is only the first day, so why the hell are you getting so pissed off when I'm just trying to do my job?"

"So why am I even here? You're handling everything on your own and I'm being left to the wayside trying to keep up? Right now it feels like the only reason I'm here is to cast the array," Twilight huffed.

"You're not here just for that. You're a commander! You were chosen by the system just the same as I was," Animus tried to explain.

"The system? You're putting an awful lot of faith in something that was created by the ones that stuck us in this mess," Twilight dismissed it right away. "Trusting the system is like trusting Discord. Tell me why that sounds like a good idea?"

"I've got to have faith in something, damn it!" he said, but stopped his tirade with a deep breath. After it seemed he was calm, he continued, "Look, can we discuss this later? Right now Shining Armor and Asuna are waiting on us."

Twilight could still feel her anger boiling, but agreed to stop for now. Really, the last thing she wanted was to let him end it at that, but she also didn’t want to keep the others waiting. Pushing her emotions aside, she concentrated on the spell she wanted to cast and let her eyes flutter shut. The circle appeared in her mind's eye, recreated in vivid detail. After that she thought of her targets, the first being the library she stood in, and next was the throne room in Canterlot. Once she had the spell and location in her mind, she willed her magic through her horn, and out into the ambient magic all around.

With all of the changes that her world had been put through, Twilight found comfort in the fact that her magic worked the exact way it was supposed to. Something familiar and unchanged was a breath of fresh air with all these menus, Casts, and sub-classes.

Snapping her eyes open, Twilight released the spell from her horn in a burst of magenta light. Twin radiant beams shot straight up. One of the rays hit the ceiling and vanished with a ripple while the other turned back down and hit the floor. From that center point, luminous lines emerged, tracing winding paths that spun all around the room until they connected in another bright flash. When it had finished, Twilight and Animus were then standing in a circle identical to the one Nightmare had cast, but this one glowed with the distinct pinkish-purple hue of Twilight's aura.

The two of them waited in uncomfortable, anxious silence for the spell to link up in Canterlot. Both of them refused to make eye contact with the other, instead watching the small star-like motes of light that dotted the inside of the array. Much to their relief, it was only a minute before the translucent images of their fellow commanders emerged from the edges of the circle.

Shining Armor no sooner glanced at Twilight than he asked, "Alright, what happened? What's got you so upset Twily?"

Startled at his bluntness, Twilight stammered, "W-what do you mean? Nothing going on here, no siree. Why do you ask?"

"Twilight and I just have a small personal disagreement. It's not really important, so there's no need to worry," was Animus' nonchalant answer.

Just a simple disagreement? Not important? That was how he saw it? How could he just say that like it was nothing?

The glare that Twilight shot at Animus was so cold that Shining flinched when he saw it. Asuna grimaced slightly, but gave a sharp clap of her hands, snapping Twilight out of it.

"Alright, so let's get down to business," she announced, successfully diffusing the tension. "We need to figure out what our objectives are moving forward."

Right, their objectives. What were they going to be? Obviously rescuing Celestia should be top priority. They knew she was in the dungeon of Nightmare's castle in the Everfree, so that just made things simpler.

"We-"

"Our economic advisors think that the first goal should be claiming as many of the train stations as we can. Having a solid supply chain across Equestria will be important, and it will also allow us to distribute soldiers as needed," Animus interrupted her before she could say a word more.

Okay, that made sense. He may have interrupted her, but there was really no need to yell at him for it. At least not in front of the others. She'd have words for him once this was over.

"Right, so we need to establish an information network as soon as we can too," Twilight built off of his statement. She pulled out one of her scrolls of notes to reference, and she started summarizing all of the things that they had just covered with Agil and Applejack.

With each summarized point, Animus would give a small explanation of what it would accomplish as a whole. He emphasized things such as how an information economy would encourage player growth and exploration. The economics were glossed over for the most part, since they weren't the focus of this meeting, merely a point of preparation.

With those little details squared away, they could get to the real mission. "Alright," Twilight said, placing her notes back into her inventory, "so I think we can all agree that our primary objective should be to rescue Celestia from Nightmare Moon. With her safe, that will be a huge boost to morale, and a blow to Nightmare."

Shining nodded, "Yeah, I think that's a-"

"I'm sorry, Twilight, but that's not a good idea," Animus interrupted.

"What?!" Twilight bristled with anger. "What are you talking about? From everything I had you read about Equestria, you of all people should know how important Celestia is to us!"

Asuna and Shining looked to each other with nervous expressions as the tension exploded between their allies.

Animus shook his head, "That's exactly what I mean. Nightmare knows how important she is too. Why the heck do you think Nightmare openly declared she was holding Celestia captive?"

"And now we know exactly where to look to find Celestia because of that!" Twilight declared. He'd just made her point for her!

"Exactly!" he countered. "You made it incredibly clear how much Celestia means to you in particular too! Nightmare let that information slip so she could coax you into making stupid decisions like this!"

Stupid? Stupid?! "So now I'm stupid?!" she started screaming back at him. She was well over the edge and into the deep end now. "That's what you really think of me, huh? I guess there's no reason for me to be here then is there? You've got everything under control and you're apparently soooooo much smarter than me too!"

"What is wrong with you?!" he yelled back at her. "You can't leave. I need you here!"

Yeah right. What could he possibly need her around for? To take notes? To connect him with the other commanders through the Astral Conference?

Turning her back on him with an indignant huff, she declared, "I'm not your secretary! If you're not going to try to help Celestia, then I have no reason to listen to you!"

If this was how it was going to be, then Animus could just play his little game as commander all he wanted by himself. If he wasn't going to keep his motivation where it needed to be, then she would just have to rescue Celestia on her own.

Why did it have to be them chosen? Why him and her specifically? Why not her and someone else, or better yet, him and somepony else? Twilight wasn't a leader, and it was more than clear to her now that Animus didn't respect her as one either. In that case, it was better for her to just go it alone.

She stormed towards the front door, her face red with anger and frustration. She didn't even stop as Animus tried to call after her. Nothing he could say would change her mind. With a glow of her horn she swung the door wide open and stomped out.

"Stop it, Twilight!" he called for her, trying to follow. "You're-"

She slammed the door in his face without a bit of hesitation. She didn't even look back before teleporting as deep into town as she could. She didn't want to look Animus in the face. There was no way she could consider someone like him an ally, even if he wasn't her enemy.


~*~*~*~*~*~


"Stop it, Twilight! You're-"

The door slammed in Animus' face before he could finish speaking. He clutched his poor, battered nose, which glowed red with the damage marking. She was gone.

With a defeated sigh, he finished his interrupted words to no one in particular, "You're better than this, you stubborn mare."

He... really could have handled that better, couldn't he? Right after Twilight had gone, he felt a familiar bit of shame sprout up in him. The sort of shame he felt when deep down he knew he'd acted out of line in some way. But how? He knew he was right about not rushing in to save Celestia. It had to be how he went about saying it. Now because of whatever he said wrong, she was going to be trying to face a deadly enemy without him. Leaving him behind, just like…

An equally deep sigh came from behind Animus. He was reminded, all too embarrassingly, that Asuna and Shining had just seen that entire screaming match.

"Maybe you should have started with that last part, minus calling her stubborn," Shining said with a shallow chuckle. "Dang, you two weren't exactly best friends when you left here, but I didn't think it was this bad with how you two stood together against Nightmare Moon."

"That was easy compared to this," Animus admitted, staring at the door. He was hesitant to turn back and face the others. "Our enemy was right in front of us. It was simple and straightforward. I know I'm not wrong about one thing though; going after Celestia at this point would only end in disaster."

"Shouldn't you go after her? She could be about to do just that," Asuna asked, folding her arms over her chest.

No. No, she wouldn't. Not yet anyway. As ridiculously as Twilight was acting right now, Animus still knew she wouldn't be going yet. He shook his head, "She may be letting her emotions get the best of her, but she's smart. She's gone a whole day now without sleeping, and will need rest before she goes anywhere." With a deep breath, he turned back to face Asuna. "After everything that's happened in the last day, Twilight will need her sleep. She's no idiot. She's a hell of a lot smarter than that."

His answer got a smile and a small giggle from Asuna. Just behind her, Animus saw a rippling at the edge of the magic circle as someone else entered. This new arrival stepped in, revealing a slender figure of a mare, taller and leaner than most. She had a long horn, and a pair of wings folded across her back, clearly another alicorn. He couldn't make out her coloring, since she was projected with a magenta glow from head to hoof, but he did spot a mark of a heart wreathed in elegant splashes on her flank. What was the name of this other princess the guards from yesterday had mentioned again? Ah, Cadenza Mi Amore. That was it.

The princess looked straight at him with a warm smile and said, "You think quite highly of Twily, don't you?"

A slight flush tinted Animus' cheeks at her words. Sure he did, but what did that matter? "Well yeah, why wouldn't I?" he muttered, scratching the tip of his nose with a finger. "She's intelligent, brave, determined, and strong. She may be able to piss me off more than anyone I've ever met, but..."

A knowing grin spread across the princess' face, her eyes narrowing, boring into him in a strangely gentle way. "You care about her."

The faint warmth and flush in Animus' cheeks flared to a burning red. It didn't help that similarly smug grins spread across Shining and Asuna's faces as they watched him go scarlet. "Princess! N-no- I mean, y-yes, but it's not like that!"

"Please, just call of Cadance," she chuckled softly. "I'm the Princess of Love, so I can recognize any form of love or caring when I see it. I can see that you really meant what you said when you told Kibau that you saw all of us ponies as real. As real as any of your own kind. You wouldn’t say that if you didn’t care a lot."

Cheeks still burning, he scratched the back of his head nervously, "Well, yeah. I meant it. Every last word. There's no way I could be happy going home at the expense of this world."

"Well said," Asuna agreed, resting her hands on her hips. "You might be surprised how many of our kind were convinced by your words and conviction."

Shining nodded, looking towards where Twilight left, "Animus, you may think she's very strong, and you're right, but Twilight's very fragile too. In fact, the one thing that can hurt her the most is how those she cares most about think of her. Me. Mom and Dad. Celestia. Cadance. Spike... And now you. Our view of her, or what she assumes we think of her... She can be pretty sensitive to that, and it's that sensitivity that makes her hesitant to befriend anyone. The more she cares about someone, the more she worries about these things."

His opinion of her mattered that much? Animus didn't know what to say to that, but he was starting to understand why she'd gotten so upset. "I told her that she was being stupid," he realized. "To a bookworm like Twilight, that's got to be a hard thing to hear... Damn, I'm such an idiot. I only said that because I know she's smarter than this. She should know exactly what Nightmare's trying to do."

The magic circle began to flicker and blur around them, the projected images of Shining, Asuna, and Cadance started to grow dimmer as well. If he had to guess, either the spell could only last so long without Twilight around to power it, or she was cutting her connection with the spell as they spoke. Either way, their conversation was about to be cut short.

Animus looked to each of them. He was the one that had called for this little meeting, so they were expecting him to say something. Honestly, after what had just happened, he wasn't so sure.

After a few seconds, Shining said, "Look, for the time being, let's play a prevent defence. We'll just explore, get stronger, and deal with anything Nightmare sends our way. We can worry about making our own moves once we've built up some strength."

Asuna nodded in agreement and walked up to Animus. With a warm smile, she placed a hand on his shoulder, the holographic image of her disrupting where it made contact, giving no sensation. "Ani, for now, you just worry about doing that, and try to fix things on your end," she suggested, "We'll keep in contact via messaging if anything comes up."

Yeah... He'd already mucked up big time though. How was he supposed to change things without just making it worse?

Lastly, Cadance added, "You just worry about protecting those you care about and those you are responsible for. I think you know what you have to do."

He did know. He just didn't know if he could do it. He wasn't the best person when it came to the complexities of social interactions. Being a leader was different. That was straightforward to him. He'd had the best role model for it too. His big brother had been an amazing leader. Animus had learned everything he knew about being a leader from his big brother, but he could never quite capture his brother's magnetic pull that made it so easy for him to make friends. So how could he manage to do what he needed to?

No. He couldn't think like that. He needed to take his own words to heart. There was no room for doubt in this world. No room for thinking that he couldn't do something. He needed to believe he could and just do it.

A confident grin returned to Animus' face, his drive restored. "Don't worry, I'll do everything I can. I don't know how long it will take, but I'll fix things with Twilight. Until then, I'll do everything I can to keep her safe."

The three of them smiled and nodded before the circle finally faded and their luminous forms vanished. With a long, deep sigh, all of the tension that had built up just melted out of Animus' body. His shoulders slumped, and he moved over so he could slump down onto a nearby chair. There was still so much to do.

Was this how his brother had felt back then? It was so stressful, but strangely fulfilling at the same time. He felt like crap for his mistakes with Twilight, but at the same time he felt more alive than he had in years. He had to stay confident though. If a leader showed a lack of confidence, then the ones they led would see it and fall apart.

"I guess I had you all wrong," the familiar voice of Spike came from above.

Looking up, Animus spotted the young dragon leaning on the banister at the top landing of the stairs, looking down at him.

"What do you mean by that, half pint?" he shot a playful smirk up at Spike.

At that verbal jab, Spike sent a matching smirk down his way and replied, "I thought that all you cared about was getting home. You sure made it seem like it for a while, but it turns out you're a huge softy on the inside." He lasered in a precision tease, "I mean, you and Twilight are like a married couple with how you argue."

The burning in Animus' cheeks returned in an instant, and he broke eye contact reflexively. "So what did you want, Spike? Teasing me can't be the only reason you haven't run off to catch up with Twilight," he muttered, scratching his nose.

With a hop onto the banister, Spike slid down the stairway into a surprisingly graceful landing in front of Animus. The little dragon's emerald eyes flashed with a serious light as he said, "Twilight would never let me, so I want you to teach me how to fight. Once I'm strong enough, I want to help you protect Twilight and everyone else." His small claws flashed with the manifesting light of his Casts, and twin longswords formed from the enchanted metal, scaled down to his diminutive size. Along with the weapons, small, thin metal plates wrapped around his body, covering his arms, legs, torso, and the crest of his spines.

To be perfectly honest, Animus wasn't at all surprised by Spike's desire to fight. Even if they were just myths and fictional creatures back home, dragons were near universally portrayed with the hearts of warriors. Creatures that fought to protect with a ferocity that was unmatched, whether what they protected was land, treasure, kin, or loved ones. It would be wrong to deny Spike something that was so deeply ingrained in him. That nearly-feral glint in his eyes also helped make this an easy decision.

Besides, Animus had only been ten years old when he'd first gotten trapped in SAO. Who was he to say that a child couldn't have a warrior buried inside of them?

What really interested him though, was Spike's weapons, twin longswords. Dual swordsmanship wasn't a simple thing to master, and yet that was the very thing that this child had been given to best suit his abilities. It was as interesting of an option as his equally technical battle scythe weapon. The fact that he had such an advanced setup told Animus that despite the small, cute appearance before him, Spike could end up as a powerhouse fighter down the line. Only time would tell if that gut feeling panned out though.

There was just one question that needed to be asked. "Spike, are you ready to die to protect everyone if you have to? To protect Twilight?" Animus asked, leaning in close so they were nearly face to face.

"Yes, sir! I can and will- OUCH!" Spike yelped when Animus flicked his topmost spine. "What was that for?!"

It was a good answer. It really was. Animus could feel the conviction, especially when the snarky dragon called him 'sir' of all things. It had been a trick question though.

"No, you should never willingly sacrifice your life for someone you care about," he shook his head. He knew how what he said had sounded, but that wasn’t all of it. Just as a look of confused indignation started to spread across Spike's face, Animus said the rest of it, "You always fight to live. Never even accept the fact that you could die, and never just let it happen. Fight for everyone to live, for no one you love to die. There are very few ways that you can hurt the ones you love more than by dying to protect them. Leaving them to think that you died because of them is one of the cruellest things in the world." His own words brought up painful memories, but he stomached through it. "Do you understand, Spike?"

The little dragon's eyes were wide with what could only be described as awed realization. It was such a simple fact, but the seemingly noble sacrificing of one's self for another was such a romanticized concept that few ever considered the implications of it.

"I understand, Animus," Spike nodded soberly.

"Alright then, I'll help you train to get stronger, and I'll keep it secret from Twilight. All I ask is that you not tell Twilight about anything that happened after she left. Deal?" Animus offered his hand.

"Deal," Spike agreed. He dispersed his Casts and shook Animus' hand vigorously, sealing their little pact.