It was on a lovely summer day, as Twilight Sparkle and her friends ran trough the Everfree Forest for consulting Zecora about an incident, hoping that the zebra's knowledge of ancient potions would solve the problem. As the incident at hand was rather problematic, they hurried, rushing trough patches of all kinds of flowers, except, of course, for Rainbow Dash, who flew, and Fluttershy, the pegasus made sure not to harm any forest creatures. Upon arrival at Zecora's hut, Twilight knocked rather aggressively against the wooden Door.
“Zecora! Are you in there? We need your help!” she screamed. But there was no answer to be heard, apparently, the mysterious resident of the Everfree Forest was out. Rainbow Dash peeked through one of the windows, not wanting to give up so fast. However, Zecora wasn't to be seen, but there was a cauldron on the fire in the round room's midpoint.
“This has to be some kind of joke,” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, “first Ponyville, and now Zecora too?” Sad and discouraged, she sank down to the ground. But Fluttershy hadn't the same opinion:
“Maybe... she's just out, searching some flowers for that brew over there?” she commented. But Twilight groaned.
“We don't have time for this! Let's go and search through the library's books!” she demanded and ran off.
“Again?!” Rarity cried. Her mane was already somewhat ruffled, as they had used the whole morning searching through the huge number of books in Ponyville's library. Nevertheless, as Twilight was already far ahead, they all had to trot back to Ponyville, often looking back to Zecora's hut in hope of the zebra's return. But she was still out. Having lost all hope, even the two pegasi literally grounded themselves, and Fluttershy nearly broke an ant trail while going through a wide field of flowers.
As the other five ponies had arrived in the town, Twilight was already in the library, having obviously blindly rushed through the streets, as she hadn't recognized an obvious problem, even bigger than the previous one. While the unicorn tried to wake up Spike, as the baby dragon had rested himself for a (well deserved) nap, Applejack carefully went to her and said:
“Twilight? The Problem... ya know, it have... kinda... solved itself?”
“That's impossible,” Twilight replied angry, “a problem that big can't just solve itself! Spike, wake up already,” the last sentence being, of course, directed to her little assistant. Then, however, she remembered the nature of Appleack's Element of Harmony and turned to her friend.
“What exactly do you mean, Applejack? How has it solved itself?”
“You better see it for yourself,” declared the other mare, “it's a bit... crazy?” Eventually believing Applejack, Twilight followed her outside and finally saw what had happened to Ponyville.
Doors were ripped off their hinges, windows were broken, and from one of the shards of glass, Twilight even believed to see a red drop falling down. But the most evident fact was, “Where is everypony?!” Indeed, there was nopony to be seen, which was really very odd, considering the vast amount of ponies living in the town under normal circumstances. But now, nopony except the six friends were here, surrounded by inauspicious property damage. After the first shock was finally over, all of them ran to different houses to nevertheless check whether some ponies were still here. The sad outcome of that search, however, was what they all already feared: Every stallion, mare, and even all the fillies were gone, leaving only them and, remarkably, every non-pony being.
Spike, finally awake, looked equally shocked upon seeing the destroyed Ponyville. As the six friends arrived, each with her respective pet, he ran towards them, especially Twilight, to ask exhausted, “What happened, Twilight? Where are the other ponies? And what happened to Ponyville? Were it... zombies?” Twilight looked at him, clearly thinking, “Not again!” before she explained him the situation, as far as they knew it. Unfortunately, he had slept trough the whole ponynapping, but also the others sentient animals, the cows and donkeys and mules, hadn't seen anything. However, Rainbow Dash had found a trail, consisting of a deep wheel track leading in and out of town, with many hoofprints at the turning point. That had to mean something!
“Strange,” noted Rarity, “there definitely aren't as many carriages with space for as much ponies as the hoofprints indicate to fit in!” However, Twilight doubted the accuracy of this evidence. It could very well be from a past normal event, with the ponies just having stood in front of it. Wasn't this the exact point where Trixie held her show? Or... weren't they at the exact same spot the Flim Flam Brothers used to demonstrate their machine? Actually, Twilight wasn't as sure at all, neither of the location of those events, nor of her own reasoning.
“The last time it rained here,” remembered Pinkie Pie, putting on a Deerstalker Hat out of nowhere, “was two days before today. No way those traces are from some meeting we don't know of! Besides,” she pointed at some of the hoofprints, “some of those are on top of each other! I definitely know that the ponies of this town don't move around that much while watching something... Except for the arrival, but, um...” she had to think a bit, “clearly, those ponies stood around there quite some time! ” Twilight sighed. She couldn't deny any of Pinkie's reasoning, but wondered where she had acquired such reasoning skills.
“Okay, Ponies,” she said, “let's go! We have to save Ponyville!”
“But...” Fluttershy raised her voice, “shouldn't we maybe... go to Canterlot to get some help?”
“Fluttershy! Celestia knows what whoever did this is now doing to our friends! We have to hurry!”, explained Twilight, before storming off. Not wanting to raise an argument, Fluttershy followed, as did the other remaining Ponies.
And so, Twilight, Rainbow, Pinkie, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity and Spike, as well as their pets, set out, hoping to save all the other ponies of Ponyville, from wherever they might be hidden. What had happened here?