Traitor
December 1st, 2480
12:44 a.m.
Dylar IV Space Station, Personal Wing A, Corridor C, Room Number 73.
The light from her screen shone bright, casting a grotesque shadow on the wall behind her. That screen gave off the only light in the room for the rest of the lights were out, the door was barred, everything was as it should be, everything was perfect for what Twilight was about to do.
‘Traitor’ Twilight thought. ‘If I do this, then I'm a traitor. But… But they have to know.’
*Click… Whiiir*
Shrouding: Enabled
Encryption: Enabled
Scrambling…
Done.
Signal strength: Excellent.
Run cryptx.exe
Security Systems Disabled.
Establishing IP
IP Established
Signal Strength: Excellent.
Routing connection.
Connection established.
Signal strength: Poor.
Twilight sighed as she saw the last line blink at her from the computer screen. Silently she asked,
‘Am I really doing the right thing? Betraying the Dominion? Turning Traitor? I mean, even if she could stop those experiments I’d be dead by then. Heh, the wonderful life of Twilight the Revolutionary, Founder of the Revolution; Martyr…’
Before her, the cursor hovered over the ‘send’ icon, one click away from the certain destruction of her life.
‘Okay. On three, I’ll send it on three… One… Two… Three.’
*Click*
Message Sending…
...
...
… Message Sent.
Undo/Dismiss.
Twilight stared at the one word on her screen that could ‘Undo’ everything she had just sent, everything she had just done. She moved the cursor to hover over- and the prompt disappeared. She lost her chance. But she could make up for it by giving her family one last message. Opening a new prompt Twilight attached the only remaining file on her computer, an audio file. It was quick work to attach it then send it off to her family, at least they would remember her as she was supposed to be. A quick click of the mouse and she got a familiar set of text.
Message Sending…
...
...
… Message Sent.
Undo/Dismiss.
She clicked dismiss. Twilight smiled sadly as she closed out of her program then restarted the computer. Leaning back in her chair she sighed, blowing a strand of hair out of her sight.
‘Who knew that a bunch of ones and zeros would be the way I’d go. Ha!’
*Beep*
The computer had restarted. Twilight glanced at her watch, 12:54 a.m. Enough time for a final goodbye. Righting herself she settled her elbows on the edge of the desk, the startup password prompt greeting her. Twilight typed the password in then stared at it.
‘Cadance… Shining… I’ll miss you. But you two will understand. Won’t you?
*Click*
After she pressed enter the computer screen blinked out leaving her shrouded in darkness.
‘I wonder if this is what death will look li-’
“-Ah!” Twilight yelped as her computer screen abruptly blinded her with light from the login screen. Her mood banished for the moment Twilight quickly keyed in her user password. In no time at all her account had loaded up and the time at the bottom right corner caught her eye.
12:57 a.m.
Three minutes. And just like that her tarnished mood came back. Twilight sighed,
Her work was done, now all she had to do was destroy all evidence of her activities. First, she ran a program that had been made to wipe as much information from a computer as possible.
Erse.exe
The program finished very quickly as it should because of the lack of information on Twilight's computer. Next, she unplugged all of her electronic devices and destroyed them. Hard drives: crushed; Motherboard: broken; RAM: snapped and crushed; router: shattered; PDA: overloaded; cameras: destroyed; paperwork: burned then turned to dust. Every bit of physical information that could incriminate her was gone, everything else was out of her hands.
The only thing left to do was to vanish.
It was 13:21 a.m.
December 1st, 2480
14:10 a.m.
Dylar IV Space Station, Personal Wing A, Corridor C, Room Number 73.
The mares and stallions of Dylar IV Security were all very good at their jobs. They didn’t join Security to be loved, they joined Security because they loved their job. The adrenaline rush that was brought on by knowing that they were going into high risk situations; the feelings that were brought up when they finally got to lock criminal scum behind bars; those were the reasons why they joined.
*Bang! Bang! Bang!*
“Security! Search warrant!”
*Bang! Bang! Bang!*
“Security! Search warrant!”
No response.
“Breach!”
The hydraulic ram carried by Private First Class Gleaming Shield made short work of the door to Twilight Sparkle’s demesne, the armoured security agents that poured in afterward would make short work of any living threat. But there were no living threats to be found, the only thing linking Twilight Sparkle to anything was a written letter addressed to the Security Forces.
‘To Security,
‘If you’re reading this letter then that means that my front door has been busted down and my apartment is trashed. Undoubtedly you will also find the piles of broken and scraped computer parts in the next room, I made sure that you guys will never get anything from those pieces of trash.
‘Sincerely,
‘Twilight Sparkle’
‘P.S. I left a present for you guys somewhere in the system mainframe. Try to find it.’
*Beep*
The high pitched sound brought Cadance out of her drowsy state; the voice that she heard made her jump in excitement. It was Twily! Turning around she yelled,
“Hey everypony! Twilight just sent us a message!”
That got everyone's attention and pretty soon, Cadance was squashed between Night Light and Twilight Velvet plus Spike was sitting on her lap. Eagerly looking around she saw that everyone was there except for Shining Armor. Of course, Twilight Velvet noticed Cadance looking for her fiance.
“Don’t worry Cady dear, we can send it to him at work.”
That placated the pink mare. Under the urging of her future father and mother- in-law Cadance opened the audio recording.
*-ep*
“Begin recording.”
“The following recording is for familial eyes only. If you are not the designated recipient please disregard and delete this message. Thank you and have a good day.
“Hey Mom, Dad, Spike... OH, and Shiny or Cadance if they're there too. I know it’s been awhile since you guys heard from me, and um... I’m sorry about that, but my schedule is jam packed so I haven't a lot of time to do much. Although, with the addition of that Intern, Trixie Lulamoon, I’ve managed to get my hooves on a lot of time, so I am able to fire off this quick message to you guys. We’re preparing to do a bunch of stuff, though I can’t really say what it is, because of security concerns. You guys know what I’m talking about, especially with your jobs being what they are. But enough about work.
“I gotta show- well, I gotta tell you guys about this awesome relic I found seeing as I can't record video right now. That is future me’s problem. Anyway, I got something from this settlement we stopped at the other day. Let me get it,” - There is the sound of objects and papers being shuffled and moved and then a rather heavy metal sounding ‘thunk’- “Yeah, so I got this old relic, it doesn’t work. I mean, I tried to make it work but apparently it doesn’t respond all that well to regular magic. Or Runes. Or Enchantments... or-or anything really. Just so long as nopony- No one asks about the broken coffee machine I should be in the clear.
“Speaking of coffee sweet sweet coffee, that leads me to my next problem. The Intern. I mentioned her before, Trixie, or as she calls herself, The Great and Powerful Trixie; Is a pain in my flank. Seriously! Whenever she walks into a room she sets off fireworks, FIREWORKS!!! She did that yesterday. In a room full of soldiers. IN A ROOM FULL OF SOLDIERS! You know, ponies with guns, and combat magic. Ones that could blow her to bits without even trying. She is so, so lucky I was right behind her or else she would be called cheeselegs from now on. But you know what was wonderful about that? When I threw up my shield and everyone shot at us she dropped the coffee. I'll repeat that for you. She. Dropped. The coffee. And it was not my coffee. Ohhhh noo, if it had been my coffee she would’ve gotten a slap on the back of her head.
“It was the Marines coffee.
“And do you know one of the first rules I was told when I was at the academy?
‘Never mess with a marine's coffee if you want to live.’
“Needless to say, everyone hates her. Especially after they heard she broke the coffee machine...We’re still waiting for her to buy a new one. But I really have to stop going on these tangents; it takes up too much room.
“I hope I’ll see you guys soon.”
*Beep*
December 1st, 2480
24:12 a.m. Local Tarsonis Time, 12:50 a.m. Dylar IV
Tarsonis Royal Palace, Regent Luna's Quarters.
*BEEP*
The short sound quickly drew the regal mare’s attention. A notification had popped up on her PDA. Opening it revealed a host of information. Classified information. Scrolling down revealed the name of the sender.
“Poor naive Twilight Sparkle,” Luna chuckled. “You have yet to learn a most important lesson: Don’t trust your friends.”