Chapter 5
The nightly pony walked his rounds though the poorer districts of Canterlot, as he did each night. The pitch black unicorn with amber eyes had been unlucky in today’s venture; nopony needed his help today, disappointing the unicorn stallion greatly.
Nightly’s eyes darted around the street, looking for any bit of litter he could pick up and turn in for scrap, already picked clean, as usual. He didn’t complain; there were other ponies that deserved it more than he. Nightly was essentially the poorer districts mascot, he was their helper, their confidant, and while the ponies weren’t well off, they made sure he was well looked after.
These weren’t handouts of course, Nightly wouldn’t take handouts. Ever. He insisted that he worked for whatever he could get; of course, there was plenty of work to be done.
There was something different about tonight, though. Some new figure that did not belong here. It was a doctor. Nightly knew he was a doctor by the white medical coat that he wore. He was walking down the street in the direction of the Royal Hospital... made sense, he was a doctor after all.
Though there was something odd about this doctor, for one thing, if not for the white coat, Nightly might not have even seen him at all, his coat and mane matched his own... and there was something familiar about him, but Nightly couldn’t place it. After a small debate, he decided to investigate, he followed the doctor pony, keeping back far enough, making it seem like he wasn’t following him. This was a rougher area of town, Nightly didn’t want to scare the doctor pony.
Sure enough, the doctor pony made his way to the Royal Hospital, and what was even odder was that there was another doctor pony standing just outside, almost identical to the first one, except this one had wings.
The Pegasus doctor wandered out of the Royal Hospital, looking extremely confused, as if he was being drawn to something. Nightly felt like he was being drawn to this spot as well, and if he had to guess, so had the earth pony doctor who he’d followed.
Against his better judgement, Nightly walked up to the other two. They all approached each other, looking the others gathering around. They were familiar, but they each had trouble placing it.
And then it hit them.
“I remember you,” they all said simultaneously.
Their memories flooded back to them. He was not Nightly, he was Nightshadow.
“My brothers!” Nightcaller cried out in relief. “We’ve been apart far too long, my brothers.”
“Indeed we have,” Nightshadow said. “We’ve got much to catch up on... and much to do.”
“I have excellent news for you my brothers. You would not believe who is lying in a hospital bed under my care?” Nightsinger said with a grin. “None other than our dear sister!”
“That is most fortunate!” Nightcaller said. “Come brothers, let’s pay her a visit!”
That night became the record for coldest for the season, and for good reason, The Siblings Nightmare had returned.
...
Twilight had located the third data reel, and inserted it for playback; the three mares sat down on the metal floor and readied themselves to listen to it.
“I should have made Popcorn!” Surprise called out.
Twilight and Vinyl did their best to ignore her, as she had decided to sit uncomfortably close to the two of them.
“Data tape reel three, this is Doctor Emerald Sparkle... oh you know who I am. Let’s get down to important business then. You know, or at least, should know, that the restructure of government into the Principality of Equestria mandated changes. Princess Celestia ordered that all electronic technologies be destroyed. Factories to be disassembled, things like that. Simple mechanical devices, like a clock, are fine. Anything with a thermionic valve has got to go... stupid bitch. Yes! Let’s completely undo every major technological advancement we’ve made in the last hundred years! That’s a wonderful Idea. Do I sound bitter? Good. I am bitter. Fortunately... I cheated! Rather than complying, I programmed a virus to delete every reference to EPMB on external networks. I cut the hard lines that connect us to the other installations, everypony doesn’t trust their own computers anymore, and we stopped keeping paper records nearly a thousand years ago, so they’re not going to bother coming out here to check. EPMB is safe... and even if somepony does. I’ve collapsed the tunnel to the front entrance to the base. Very few know about the back way in, so we’re fine. I’ll just finish up these tapes, and then pop out the back door and nopony will ever be wiser. ‘Oh Emerald Sparkle! You’re so brilliant!’ Thank you, thank you, I know! No, I’m only joking. Anyway, the missile! I’m sure you’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the missile. Don’t worry. It’s not going anywhere, I personally disassembled the thrust control modules for the missile’s boosters, it can’t take off without them... wasn’t able to disable the warhead though. It’s up too high and I could never reach it. Anypony who knows how would be able to turn it on... but I don’t think that’s something you, dear listeners, will ever have to worry about. After all, who knows how far ahead in the future you are? Everypony that knows how to arm a nuclear bomb will have been dead for hundreds, or maybe even thousands of years! Anyway, the missile is fine. Don’t worry about it. It’s no more dangerous than an immovable hunk of metal at this point... actually, that’s exactly what it is. Moving on! Now, here’s what you need to do. All our scientific data is on the mainframe. Use it. Make Equestria the place it was supposed to be... for me, for you. Please. I... hey? What’s that sound?”
On the recording, there was a loud banging noise, followed by a loud crash, a revving of a chainsaw, and a new voice on the recording.
“SURPRISE!”
“No! Wait... what are you doing? Stay back! Please! No! I’M PREGNANT!”
The last they heard of Emerald Sparkle was the chainsaw revving, along with the scientists screams of terror and pain. Twilight and Vinyl shuddered with horror as they listened.
And then silence.
“Let this be a lesson to you,” said the voice of Surprise on the recording. “Never disobey.”
Twilight and Vinyl looked back at Surprise in horror, she on the other hoof was grinning, quite pleased with herself.
“I totally remember that now! That was so much fun!” Surprise said. “Red is a very good colour for this room! It’s too bad the robots painted it back this ugly grey colour.”
Twilight and Vinyl swallowed hard. They were in a full on panic. They were locked in the mainframe room with a murderer, and what was worse, she saw it as if it was all a game.
“So...” Twilight asked nervously. “What do we do now?”
“Isn’t it obvious?!” Surprise asked, with a huge, sadistic looking smile on her face. “We’re going to set off the bomb!”