October 15,
"Sorry, I need to disappear soon." I can’t seem to put my hoof on it, but those words have been stuck in my head all day.
It all started with my lunch date with Lyra and her marefriend Bonbon. We'd gone to get hayburgers (my own guilty pleasure, I know), and it didn't take us long to strike up a textbook conversation between friends. We were telling Bonbon about our time in magic school as fillies. Lyra, in truly Lyra fashion, began going off on a tangent about the "recent discoveries" in the field of cryptozoology. To be honest, this is around the time Bonbon and I - Lyra always calls her "Bonnie", must be a Mareish thing - began to tune her out a bit. Once Lyra Heartstrings began one of her tirades about her crazy theories concerning a race of bipeds that used to roam Equus long before ponies, there was no stopping her. She was going on about how they possessed technology leagues beyond what ponies were capable of, despite not having any magic to speak of.
If there was such an ancient species with such advanced machines, I would likely be the first to hear about it.
But I digress.
Somewhere in the middle of the conversation, Lyra glanced at the restaurant’s clock. That was when the atmosphere of the afternoon seemed to shift.
"Sorry, I need to disappear soon."
Just like that, Lyra turned and walked out of the restaurant, not even looking back. Bonnie immediately chased after her, muttering apologies to both myself and the other customers as she ran after her marefriend. I just stayed in my seat and assumed Lyra had accidentally scheduled an appointment and forgotten about it, leaving in a hurry.
I can’t put my hoof on why those words stood out to me. Perhaps it was the wording? Hm, I'm sure there's a rational explanation for it. It's late and while I'd love to stay up, I'm feeling unusually drained tonight. There’ll be time to ponder at length tomorrow.
~Twilight Sparkle
October 17,
I couldn’t find her anywhere.
I hadn't seen or heard from Lyra in the past two days. You would think that after running out on our planned lunch date, she'd at least show up at some point with some form of explanation or apology! Ok. Deep breaths Twilight. In, hold, and out. Better.
I'd been spending the last day looking for Lyra to make sure everything was alright. I looked in all the usual places: the market, the park where she occasionally performs for spare bits, Berry Punch's, everywhere. She was nowhere to be found.
Maybe I’m overthinking this? Maybe her appointment had taken her out of town. Maybe she was back in Canterlot?
Today I began asking around Ponyville. I thought somepony might know what she was in such a hurry for.
That’s when things began to get strange.
Everypony I asked gave me funny looks. The kinder ones suggested I might be sick somehow (I’ve found that to be a bit harder to do since my ascension). I even had some offer take me to the hospital. The not-so-kind ones bluntly told me I was going mad. But everypony invariably told me that they’d never heard of Lyra Heartstrings. Even Applejack, the one mare who couldn’t hold a poker face to save her life said that I should just: “Get yerself some sleep before y’all burn out. Yer probably just stressed out from too much studyin’, sugarcube.”
Eventually I decided to skip the middlemare and go straight to the source: Lyra and Bonbon’s home.
I met with… similar results.
It now occurs to me that this might just be a giant prank. Probably orchestrated by Pinkie and/or Rainbow Dash, and the whole town is in on it. Fine, I’ll play along… for now. If anything, it will probably be as fun as the town-wide cookie prank we pulled on Rainbow the other week.
~Twilight Sparkle
October 18,
I’ve started to get a bad feeling that this isn’t a prank.
Bonbon disappeared today. Just up and vanished overnight. And nopony remembered she existed, just like Lyra.
One missing pony might pass as a prank, but two? And in the exact same fashion?
Calm down. This is why everypony thinks I sound like a madmare. Be calm, be collected, be rational, Twilight Sparkle.
Don’t be, well, crazy.
But I can’t help it. I’m sure I didn’t imagine it. It’s those words, those exact same words. Bonnie said them right before closing the door when I talked to her yesterday.
“Sorry, I need to disappear soon.”
I returned to Bonbon’s house this morning, or rather, where I thought her house was. I double, no, triple checked my location. I even backtracked several times. There’s absolutely no way I could have gotten lost.
Right?
But all the evidence suggested I had either lost my way or my mind. Where Bonbon’s house was meant to be, all I found was an empty plot of land. There were no signs that a home had ever been there. It’s as if the house and both ponies who had lived in it had simply ceased to exist.
I panicked. Of course I did. Who wouldn’t? I tore around town looking for something, anything. Halfway through my search I realized I wasn’t even looking for clues to what happened to them. I was looking for evidence that they had existed to begin with. But there was nothing.No birth certificates, property records, nothing. All of them had vanished overnight. Even Bonbon’s candy shop had been ‘replaced’ with a pizza joint.
At least I think it had been replaced by a pizza joint. Everypony else thinks I imagined Bonbon’s candy shop and the pony who used to run it. Could I simply be having a lapse of memory?
No. This journal is proof that I am not imagining things. Whatever is happening, this journal and I are immune to it. That is the only possible explanation. All alternatives are madness.
I have one clue, at least. I’ve had a bad feeling about that phrase, “Sorry, I need to-” No, wait, don’t say it, don’t spell it out, don’t even think it. For all I know it could be the trigger for whatever is causing these ponies to disappear. No, it must be. Lyra was acting normally right up until she said those words. The same was true for Bonbon.
I know I should be looking for them. But I have a bad feeling I won’t have much time to do that, not when I must solve the bigger mystery before it claims more ponies.
~Twilight Sparkle
October 20,
Three more ponies have gone missing in the last few days: Ditsy Doo, Berry Punch, and Thunderlane. Exact same circumstances. Nopony remembered them except for me. Why am I the only one to remember them? What makes me so special?
Whatever it is, it means I’m the only one who can solve this. I must stay safe. I’ve set up numerous wards around the castle, as Rainbow Dash found out when she tried to fly through an open window to get inside.
No, I’m not becoming paranoid, no matter what Rainbow told me. My friends can’t help me with this, They don’t believe me anyways.
Focus, Twilight. Focus on the facts. The latest five disappearances have given me enough data for another hypothesis. Whatever this is, it does not seem to discriminate between tribe or gender. Furthermore, the only two that shared a significant bond were the initial victims: Lyra and Bonbon.
Plan: I’m going to begin intensive magical analysis of where their homes were. And write to Princess Celestia about this. No, she’ll be just like Rainbow Dash. She won’t understand. She’ll think I’m crazy like everypony else.
This is something I must do myself.
~Twilight Sparkle
October 21,
Rarity believed me!
Of course she did. It isn’t as if I was going mad or anything.
But Rarity believed me!
She was the first pony to listen to me in days. She calmed me down, and invited me to tea. She had me tell her everything over the most lovely tea and biscuits ever.
As I spilled all my worries, I began to feel better. That was when I realized - Having that chat with Rarity was the most normal thing I had done in days.
And what’s more, she believed me. She believed everything.
She even helped me come up with a plan. We are going to go speak to Celestia and Luna tomorrow. I wasn’t so sure about telling the other princesses, but Rarity very quickly convinced me.
Oh, I’m so glad I have such a wonderful and sensible friend!
I’m a little worried though. I heard her mumble something as she looked up at the clock before we parted ways.
Could she have said those words?
No, no, she couldn’t have. She still saw me to the door after that.
I need to warn her tomorrow, warn her never to utter those words. I need to keep Rarity safe. She’s the only other pony who knows the truth.
~Twilight Sparkle
October 22,
They got Rarity.
How? When? Why? I don’t know. I just don’t know. She was just gone.
It was just like everypony else. Except it’s Rarity. Rarity.
Not even Spike or Sweetie Belle remember her.
I’m scared. I’m so scared.
Who’s next? Who will say those words, and be taken? WHY AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO REMEMBERS!?
No, deep breaths. I can’t lose now. I must, no, I need to find Rarity, find all of them. Whatever’s doing this must be leaving a trace somewhere, I just need to find it.
I swear I will get them all back.
~Twilight Sparkle
October 27,
More disappearances. I even witnessed some of them say You Know What. I think I’m beginning to lose it. I need to keep a list before I do.
Lyra Heartstrings, Bonbon “Bonnie” Sweet, Ditsy Doo, Berry Punch, Thunderlane, Rarity Belle, Pokey Pierce, Milano Mash, Cranky Doodle, Roseluck, Doctor Horse, Twilight Spa - NO!!! Focus!
Investigation of their “places of residence” has turned up nothing, not even the smallest thaumic pulse, nothing. There are no traces of whatever took them.
My friends are giving me weird looks. They all think I’m crazy. I can’t even leave the castle, not anymore.
Ponyville is so quiet now.
I’ll need to send Spike out for more ink, my stores are running low. I don’t need more quills, I just make them now.
~Twilight Sparkle
October 28,
Cheerilee is the new Element of Generosity now. At least, according to Applejack. Loyalty now belongs to one ‘Vapor Trail’.
That’s wrong. You’re lying, AJ.
I tried to tell her that, convince her, make her see the truth. But I ended up getting dragged away by the guards. Don’t they know? Can’t they see?
I can’t do this alone anymore. I can’t.
Rarity. If only she was here. She believed me. She’d know what to do. She- yes - She suggested I tell Celestia! Yes! That’s it! I’ll write a letter to Celestia. Who knows? Maybe alicorns are immune. Maybe she could help me find a solution to this.
There must be a way. There simply has to be an answer. Rarity believed me. I need to keep believing too.
~Twilight Sparkle
October 29,
Alicorns are not immune.
I don’t know why I thought as much, stupid! Stupid!
Celestia had no idea. She’s just like all the others. She wouldn’t even give me back the annotated copy of this journal I gave her. At least it was only the copy.
I am alone. So alone.
How many ponies are left? I’ve lost count. Maybe about half of Ponyville’s population is left now.
Sorry, I need to- NO!!! DON’T SAY YOU KNOW WHAT!!!
I need to rest.
~Twilight Sparkle
October 30,
They’re gone. They’re all gone. It’s silent, so silent.
I’ve failed.
They took everypony.
I’m the only one left.
Spike was the last. He said You Know What to me himself. I chased after him. I begged him not to go. I screamed for him to stay in sight.
He rounded a corner. And then he simply wasn’t.
Spike, where are you? Please, please, come back.
~Twilight Sparkle
October 31,
MUSTNOTSAYTHEWORDSMUSTNOTSAYTHEWORDSMUSTNOTSAYTHEWORDSMUSTNOTSAYTHEWORDSMUSTNOTSAYTHEWORDSMUSTNOTSAYTHEWORDSMUSTNOTSAYTHEWORDSMUSTNOTSAYTHEWORDSMUSTNOTSAYTHEWORDSMUSTNOTSAYTHEWORDSMUSTNOTSAYTHEWORDSMUSTNOTSAYTHEWORDSMUSTNOTSAYTHEWORDSMUSTNOTSAYTHEWORDSMUSTNOTSAYTHEWORDSMUSTNOTSAYTHEWORDSMUSTNOTSAYTHEWORDSMUSTNOTSAYTHEWORDSMUSTNOTSAYTHEWORDSMUSTNOTSAYTHEWORDSMUSTNOTSAYTHEWORDSMUSTNOTSAYTHEWORDSMUSTNOTSAYTHEWORDSMUSTNOTSAYTHEWORDSMUSTNOTSAYTHEWORDSMUSTNOTSAYTHEWORDSMUSTNOTSAYTHEWORDSMUSTNOTSAYTHEWORDSMUSTNOTSAYTHEWORDSMUSTNOTSAYTHEWORDSMUSTNOTSAYTHEWORDSMUSTNOTSAYTHEWORDSMUSTNOTSAYTHEWORDSMUSTNOTSAYTHEWORDSMUSTNOTSAYTHEWORDSMUSTNOTSAYTHEWORDSMUSTNOTSAYTHEWORDSMUSTNOTSAYTHE-