Author's Note

So...being the curious individual that I am, I've seen a lot of videos of famous times when television signals were interrupted by the strange and the bizarre. The Captain Midnight Incident, The Max Headroom Incident, The Vrillon Incident. You name it, I've seen it. So, I thought it would make an interesting facet within my story. Keep reading and find out just what I mean. Enjoy!

A Broadcast Interruption

I felt the rustling next to me, and silently rolled over to find a pair of wide purple eyes staring back. They betrayed the fear that my beloved mate was feeling, so I wrapped my hooves around her and pulled her close. Her soft coat brushed against mine, but I didn’t feel the loving warmth that normally abounded within those brushes. Instead, I found a chilling fright and an anxiety unmatched by anything. Sweat poured down her brow, and I knew something was terribly wrong.

“Twilight, love,” I whispered as I cuddled her closer, “please calm down! You’re scaring me!”

“She…she’s here…” Twilight’s voice was at my level, but it seemed so much louder due to the rasp that infected it, “…this…Dystopia…is here…and we can’t do anything about it!”

“Twilight,” I said, “I know that it’s frightening, but you aren’t an overanxious, scared pony. You’re Princess Twilight Sparkle, Daughter of the Sun and Ruler of Equestria! I mean, for Celestia’s sake, songs are written about how brave you are! Ponies speak of your friendship from Canterlot to Applewood and back! You cannot let somepony you haven’t even met spark such fright. We have to be brave, for the ponies we all care so much about, and especially for little Diamond. We have to show her that it’s okay to be scared, but it’s not okay to back yourself into a corner and squeal like a small animal!”

Twilight’s look turned angry. “You sit there, spouting that nonsense, when I’ve had the most terrifying dream ever! Do you not care for me anymore?”

“Of course I care for you!”

“If you did, then you’d agree that this is the most unnerving thing to happen in Equestrian history! You’re playing it off like ‘oh, it’s just another villain, and the magic of friendship will defeat them in the end.’ But what if it doesn’t? Hm? She’s already managed to kill two of my best friends! The other three might be next on her hit list! Did you think of that?!”

“Twilight, you’re being unreasonable…and for you, that’s incredibly difficult!” I whispered desperately, “it was just a dream, my love. My care and affection for you will never die, you know that. But I believe this Dystopia character has gotten to you. I thought you were gonna stop the mental breakdowns.”

“You know I still…have them periodically.”

I looked back at Twilight as I realized that she was right. Her frazzled, grief stricken mind couldn’t bear the thought of her other friends being forcibly taken from her. The dream world had given her an awful scenario, and I was not prepared to ask her to relive it. I recognized that my small speech about bravery had fallen on ears that needed to hear something completely different, so I pulled her in even closer and lovingly nuzzled her cheek.

“I’m sorry, darling,” I told her honestly, “I should have been more comforting.”

“No,” she said softly, “you’re right. I’m nothing but a coward. Even Fluttershy is braver than me.”

“You know damn well that isn’t true,” I said as I kissed her face, “you’re the bravest pony in Equestria. But even the bravest can get startled. Hell, I’m startled. This is somepony who could very well bring our way of life and our nation to a grinding halt. She could kill everypony, and it feels like she could do it with one flick of her horn. It’s only natural to be scared of something so deadly.”

She smiled at me and returned my nuzzle. She pulled me into a kiss and, once again, the whole world felt in order. Her mouth opened to me, and I was able to explore it properly. The love I felt while engaging in such an interaction was absolute, and when we broke apart, our very bed felt like it was floating. “It feels like we just made love” Twilight said bluntly.

“I think we did, in a way. Any time I’m able to commune with you, it’s a form of lovemaking. We don’t need to actually mate in order to make love, and I believe that firmly. Just one kiss is all it takes for our love to flow…”

The rest of the night was so peaceful that you could have heard a pin drop. We slept in each other’s warm embrace, dreaming sweet dreams of our love and what we wanted for the future. When we awoke, Twilight told me that her nightly thoughts had taken an amazing turn for the better. She said that her dream had gone from a nightmare of Dystopia to a beautiful field where the ponies of Equestria were happy and thrived. Dystopia had been erased, and everypony was satisfied with life. But most of all, our small family was there as well, and Diamond was growing in both knowledge and beauty.

We trotted down to where Celestia and Luna had breakfast stirring on the stove. I had refused to give up my meat eating humanness, and had brought a lot of carnivorous leanings into Equestria. Thus, I became the first meat eating pony in its history, although I tried not to do it in public. But Celestia and Luna were very accommodating, and had cooked up some of the frozen turkey sausage I had brought along for the trip. It was easy to keep it frozen on the way there. Magic can do wonders, my friends, and one of those wonders is keeping frozen food from spoiling.

The rest of breakfast looked scrumptious. Fluffy eggs sat next to a bowl of nicely colored gravy. Celestia was pulling some biscuits out of their oven, and she gently laid the tray next to the bowl. There were apples and oranges for the fruit lovers in the home, and some small granola bars were laid out next to them. Luna poured each of us a glass of orange juice, and then she poured some tea for herself and her sister.

They had the television channel E1 playing, and the national morning news reports were blaring. Their lead story was the continuing investigation of the Ponyville fire. We noted that the knowledge of Dystopia’s letter had not been made public just yet, and we were very thankful for it. I certainly didn’t want to start any type of mass panic, and it seemed that things were going just fine. The ponies went about their daily business, and nothing was out of the ordinary.

“Now, for our ‘Feel Good Story of the Day,’” the anchor pony said as she smiled, “two foals have started a small charity to help the poorest ponies among us, and three wealthy philanthropists have gotten involved. Bright Sparks and Aurora Beams, two fillies from Manehattan, began helping the less fortunate when they were very small. Now Rarity, the official Royal Fashion Designer, Fancy Pants, the pony known as the richest outside of the royal family, and Carneighgie Rockhoofeller, the savvy business pony, have all agreed to contribute to their charity.”

“Aw, that’s so wonderful!” Celestia exclaimed, “it certainly does one a great deal of good to see their fellow ponies helping each other, no matter what kind of life they’re living. That’s a great tenet of true friendship.”

“Indeed it is, Celestia,” Twilight said approvingly.

“Sources say,” the anchor went on, “that Bright Sparks and Aurora Beams are-“

Suddenly, the screen went black and static met our eyes and ears. Little Diamond became frightened and leapt into Twilight’s embrace, quaking. “Mommy, what happened to the nice anchor pony?”

“I…don’t know, sweetie,” Twilight said, “we’ll just have to wait and see.”

The static persisted for a few more seconds before a new broadcast cut in. This one was grainy and looked as if it had been filmed by amateurs. But the message was clear. The pony on screen wore black and a blood red cape. You could tell that it was a mare, and that she was very angry. Her scowl reached through the graininess and slapped us all square in the jaw. Diamond quaked even more and hid her face under Twilight’s wing.

“PONIES,” the dark figure said through a bit of a garbled, manufactured voice, “THIS IS YOUR WARNING. I AM DYSTOPIA…AND I AM COMING FOR YOU. FOR TOO LONG, YOU HAVE BEEN HIDING UNDER THE ROCKS OF THE MONARCHY. I AM HERE TO BRING TRUTH TO YOU, AND REMOVE THE DEBRIS OF YOUR PETULENT, MISERABLE LIVES. I SET PONYVILLE ABLAZE, AND YOUR SO-CALLED LEADERSHIP IS TOO SCARED TO TELL YOU. I SPREAD TRUTH, AND TRUTH ALONE. YOU CAN CALL IT OPINION ALL YOU WANT, BUT KNOW THAT IT IS THE UNABASHED, UNASHAMED TRUTH. SOON, CANTERLOT ITSELF WILL FALL AND EVERYPONY WILL KNOW TO FEAR AND TREMBLE AT MY NAME. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU WILL EITHER BE ENSLAVED OR DESTROYED, AND BLOOD WILL RUN IN RIVERS! I AM THE EMPRESS OF DEATH ITSELF, AND MY REIGN WILL LAST FOREVER! NOPONY CAN STOP ME, AND IF YOU EVEN THINK FOR ONE SECOND THAT YOUR FRIENDSHIPS CAN CRUSH MY PLANS…THINK AGAIN. I AM DYSTOPIA…AND I’M BRINGING HELL.”

The screen went black again and returned to the news anchor, who had an absolutely shocked look on her face. She gulped a bit and tried to smooth things over. “Um…uh…we here at the E1 television network do apologize for that interruption. We do, however, wish to state that this was not our doing. We have been hacked by somepony. If you know who this pony is, please contact our main office or your local police department. I am being told that, because of this, we are going to cut our news show short and end our broadcast day very early so we can investigate. As always, thank you for tuning in and continuing to make E1 your number one source for news, weather, and sports. Good day, everypony.”

With that, the screen turned blue and the message “E1 will no longer be broadcasting at this time” was displayed. I turned to Twilight with a devastated look on my face. Not only was Dystopia sending written threats, but now she had managed to hack into the biggest television network in the country. “We have a situation on our hooves,” I managed to get out.

“Yes, we do,” my bride replied, “yes, we do.”