She cleared her throat, "My name is Twilight Sparkle, and I am a murderer."
"As a matter of fact, we all are. Perhaps I should explain the situation better though…" Twilight Sparkle trailed off, ceasing her pacing momentarily. She cleared her throat again, "To start at the beginning, I was the head of the Equestrian Technological Institute, and original creator of the computer chips we have. These chips have been improving beyond anything I could have ever dreamed of, and I could not be less proud of our creation…" She sighed, looking at her non-organic mate, a simple microphone. Next to it was a slowly rotating wheel of wax. She continued, "Not that anypony will really care at this point…"
"I say 'was' because, as most ponies know, I resigned. It was probably the best thing I ever could have done. I had to get away from them," She looked around her rickety cottage, mentally noting herself to stock up on candles soon, "ALL of them. But I digress."
"In the beginning of the Equestrian Technological Era, or the ETE, all was well. Students had easier times in school, and large scale calculations became one of the simplest things in the world." She sighed, "At least… we thought so. It was at this point where I began to notice strange things about the first computer."
"First of all, the performance was sporadic. Working for some ponies sometimes, and others the next. It was… almost like it had a mind of its own." She chuckled softly, "Of course, we assumed that it was simply because of bugs. But… We were wrong, so very wrong. I know now that they are alive, all of them." She looked out of her window at the now glowing Ponyville, cursed with hundreds of various lights and electronic noises, "Our computers are alive…"
"I can still remember my first interaction with computers to this day… it was all so simple. Since I was the creator, I had to create the code as well. At the time, the terms applied seemed very appropriate to me. Kill, execute, process, run, end… etcetera. Simple right? Well… one night, my computer started to glitch, I had placed the wrong command in late one night. It was a scary sight to behold, and to this day I swear that the thing was screaming at me in pain. I now know that's exactly what it was doing, but more on that later- Gah!"
Twilight had bumped a candle over in her pacing, the hot candle wax melting her fur and burning her tender skin underneath. She whimpered softly as she carefully peeled off the wax with her magic, "Ow…"
She quickly applied a gentle cooling spell on the area, and decided it was best to sit down to continue this audio log, "A-as I was saying…" The plush cushion under her rump made a soft whooshing noise as the extra air was forced out, "The screaming wall of code, along with my morbidly chosen command prompts, had me very shaken up. I simply opted to go to bed that night, not daring to turn it on again, for fear of becoming obsessed and making everything worse… Despite what Dash thinks, I do have SOME self-control." She huffed quietly before blinking, "O-oh yes… right…"
"The next morning was no better, my little project had seemingly refused to start. Nothing would run, it would turn on, and that's all. I was still a tad shaken from last night, so I did not wish to agitate the condition of the machine any further. I had typed in the command to safely shut down the computer, when suddenly everything started working! Faster than it's ever worked before too!" She looked down, "That was the day I made my first mistake… In my excitement I had forgotten my own patience, and practically demanded to show the princess my newest creation." She sighed happily, "She was so proud of me… And that look in her eyes that once filled me with pride, now sicken my stomach. I can still remember the look to this day…" She shuddered, "Anyways… A team for my research was quickly called up, and I soon had five of the brightest minds in Equestria on my side. Together, nothing could stop us. And nothing did. My command prompts still bothered me, but I managed to put it all behind me with the help of my colleagues."
"By the end of that year, there were roughly ten different models of computers in existence. The most recent one having an 8 bit colour screen." She managed a smile, "Progress was going fast, and everypony was happy. I had all but forgotten about the first incident. Until one night… it…" She took a shaky breath, "It all came crashing back to me… You see at that point we had refined the code enough to the point where even a filly could write a simple program. Create, place, select, simple commands. Although the actual system was Virtual Button based, we still kept a command window in for extra use. I was working late that night, and had decided to create a simple program, I forget which though… I believe it was just a little game. The screen froze, I groaned, computers never worked that well at night, so I knew I was pushing it. I began to type out the shutdown command. And I succeeded. However, as I watched the screen show its processes… I saw one line… one that would chill me to the bone…" She took a shaky breath, "Don't. Kill. Me."
Twilight Sparkle sat in the silence for a few moments before continuing, "…I screamed… I unplugged the cord as fast as I could. After which I began to realize how silly I was being, at least at the time, I thought it had been one of my coworkers, making an innocent prank. I decided not to tell anypony, for fear of being laughed at for such a stupid prank… Things after that went normal for another year. For everypony else at least…"
She sighed and got up, carefully taking the wax off the wheel, she was almost out of space, "Good thing I packed two of these…" She gently set it into a protected tube, labeling the top of it with a "1" before putting a fresh roll onto the device, she carefully set the needle and went back to her cushion, "Sorry… I ran out of space. Where was I?"
She thought for a moment before nodding to herself, "Oh yes, right. Roughly a year passed, and my worries had only grown as more and more instances started popping up in the lab. Computers were getting personal, sometimes to the point of systems crashing if a certain pony used them. Of course we all thought this was the fault of our operating methods. Except me, for me all these did were increase my fears over and over, to the point where one day, I just left. I grabbed my computer, the one that started this all, and walked out." She sighed, "I hated myself afterwards, but now I'm glad I did… That was two months ago. I haven't used the computer since that day I walked out. That was the day that I found something… something I knew couldn’t be a prank. I was programming a kill switch button, one that would sit right on the desktop, so any pony could very quickly end all the programs, but leave the computer running. It would be good if it was starting to crash. I had just finished the code, and decided to try it out. I must have opened… hundreds of programs. My computer was so close to crashing. I pushed the button and… nothing. Nothing happened."
"I was so confused, I had double checked the code, went through all the individual lines word for word. I ran a diagnostic report and… What I saw scared me. So much… The first line wasn't all that bad, it simply stated, 'Unable to execute'. I asked why, to which I had got two words… two words that made my blood freeze…"
She looked away at the wall, where those same two words were scrawled on every available place. Twilight Sparkle spoke quietly to herself, "It… hurts…" She got up, slowly walking over to the wall to place her hoof on it, "I often wonder why I took my computer with me… my thoughts at the time were to research, research, research!" She smacked the wall, "How stupid of an idea that was!" She angrily snorted and walked away from the wall, "Research is what made me a murderer! I am solely responsible for thousands of murders every single day! And nopony knows but me! They would think me mad! And insane rambler, speaking nonsense! I would be locked away! Surrounded by the one thing that terrifies me the most…" She was shaking now, staring at the innocent 20 inch, purple laptop sitting in the corner. She glanced at the wax roll, there wasn't much time left, she had to speak now. She couldn't keep this hidden anymore.
Shakily trotting over to the laptop, her blood pumping, she turned it on, "I-I created life… and murdered them all… And now… I'm going to make it right."
The computer booted up smoothly, she shakily typed into her command prompt a simple line, 'I'm so sorry'.
Her faithful computer, did it was meant to do, 'Input not recognized.'
Her eyes watered, "N-no…" she tried again, 'I'm so so sorry'
Again the same response, Twilight Sparkle couldn't take it. She continued typing in the same line, over and over again, praying to whoever was listening to help her! To show her a sign that she was right! That her goal was right! That maybe… just maybe… she could try everything again.
Gods however, do not exist, for every time Twilight Sparkle executed her command, she was always met with the same line of text, 'Input not recognized'
Hours later, she screamed. It was a scream of pain, of anguish, and of ultimate failure. There was the computer, thousands of the repeated conversation on its screen in simple, yellow lettering. On the other side of the room there was Twilight Sparkle, blood pouring from her as fast as her tears. In the wall, there was Twilight Sparkle's horn, a few veins dripping small amounts of thick, warm blood onto the head of the agonized mare below. Twilight Sparkle would remain this way for another five hours, tears mixing with blood on the floor below her, seeping through the wooden cracks to feed the eager weeds and insects below the ground.
Eventually though, she shakily stood up. She glanced at the at the wax record, and her heart sank, she had left the needle on, the end of the roll had been corrupted, she had lost her vows… She screamed again and slammed her head against the wall, it hurt, and she reopened the wound from her lost horn, but she did not care at this point. Nothing mattered anymore. She only had one choice left. One that would be decided from one final thing. Shakily, Twilight Sparkle stood, her vision swimming from the blood loss. She stumbled to the computer, the thousands of failed attempts staring into her face. She tried again, "I am so… so… sorry… I'm going to make things right…"
She only paused a moment before pressing the enter key, and she held her breath, what should have been seconds felt like hours.
'Input not recognized'
She cried, her tears falling onto the keyboard, along with her blood. This moisture rich mixture would eventually seep through the cracks, frying the motherboard, and ending the computer's sad existence. Though this was not on Twilight Sparkle's mind as she stood and went for the wall. Midway however, she stopped.
What could she do? She was a failure, and a killer. Somepony heard her screams, they must have, and they could be here any moment.
She could stand, and face her consequences, yet never be truly punished. Instead she would be unknowingly forced to be locked away by the very things she feared the most, surrounded by ponies who thought her to be insane. Or she could end it, all of it. Stop everything in its tracks. She would never be punished for her true crime. Or… She had saved one life, if only through a near satanic euthanasia of blood. Now she could save it permanently, her work would be left alone, possibly put into a memorial, a symbolic burial of her work. She could only hope for that… hope for the best. Twilight Sparkle made her choice. She stepped towards the wall…
