//------------------------------// // The Plan // Story: Vanish // by Mr Mlp //------------------------------// Darkness can often be a thing that is sought for. Wither it's for a reason outside of your control or something nagging from the back of your head drawing you closer to the darkness, it can be a comfort for certain ponies. With the dampened light in the night, darkness is a requirement, allowing for sleep to take grasp. And in that peaceful night the light was gone as usual and ponies took usual tranquility in the almost isolation of the ink flowing freely around them. But in that quiet night, somepony disappeared in the darkness... The sun rose in the morning and during that rare time all of ponyville had been preparing to go outside for one big gathering. Ponyville had always been a nice quaint little place, but when Twilight Sparkle showed up and made those 5 wonderful friends of hers' they soon found themselves protecting not just ponyville, but the land of Equestria itself. For the residents of Ponyville the cheerful aura of pinkie always making ponies happy, or the beautiful fashion designs from rarity, the plentiful apples provided by Applejack and the apple family, the cocky attitude of Rainbow Dash, and the shy, but kind Fluttershy who would never pass an opportunity to help somepony, the six of them were more than just local residents. And of course there was Twilight. Twilight was the princess of friendship and carried a massive role for Equestria. So when they had to leave for a whole week for some huge task in Canterlot, it was essential for the small and grateful town of Ponyville to gather up and wave goodbye at the train station. "We'll see you guys soon!" exclaimed Twilight. "Yeah! When we get back I'll throw a humongous party for all of you!" Pinkie shouted in her normal excited tone. "Get back in the train car Pinkie, it's not like this is the last time we're going to see them." Applejack said in a joking tone. Pinkie was about to say another word, but the train door cut her off before she could squeak out another phrase. While everypony at the station was waving tearful goodbyes looking forward to the time they would return the three small fillies were ecstatic as all could be. The three were known as the cutie mark crusaders. They always were on some sort of quest to discover what their special talents were in life and those three were absolutely inseparable. Sweetie Belle was an optimistic unicorn who was the sister of Rarity, who also loved to sing. Rarity and Sweetie had a love-hate relationship, but they were generally on good terms. Scootaloo was a more daring and confident pegasus who was like-minded to Rainbow Dash. While they were not sisters they had created a relationship to where it felt like they were sisters all along. And then there was Applebloom who was the sister of Applejack and a resident of the apple family. She was an earth pony just like the rest of her family. She worked hard like her sister and was the pony who commonly called the meetings and set up the stunts they were gonna do to obtain their cutie marks. Although they each had a special connection to at least one of the mare leaving Ponyville, they could not be more happier. The three of them trotted close to Granny Smith and Big mac. They were the other two members of the Apple family and since Rarity was the main caretaker of Sweetie Belle and nopony really saw the parents of Scootaloo the apple family agreed to let the three of them stay with them for the whole week. "Now girls I expect you to work with Applebloom here on the farm while you stay here," Granny Smith said to the three. "Eeyup," Big Mac added with his usual few little words. The Cutie mark crusaders all nodded in response. Soon all of them arrived at the farm. The air was fresh and the environment beautiful. The trees were blooming with fruit and the animals all playing around in their respective pens. The group of ponies entered the front door into the living room. "Ok you three go on and get unpacked. You'll be sleeping with Applebloom. "The room is upstairs and the first one on the left. And don't go and ask me where the bathroom is." "Ok, Granny Smith," they all said in unison. They quickly galloped up the stairs and burst through the door. "Well girls are you ready?" Applebloom questioned the other two. "Oh this is going to be an awesome week-" "But do you really think your granny will go for it?" Sweetie asked while interrupting scootaloo. "With the presentation we'll give there is no way she won't go for it," Applebloom claimed confidently. Sweeite Belle shot Applebloom a doubtful look. "Come on Sweetie, if we pull this off we have ourselves the best week any filly like us could ask for." "But scootaloo no adult in their right mind is going to accept this." Sweetie responded with. "Well you two get unpacked, then we'll rehearse and make sure we can really sell this idea!" Applebloom told the two. "Fine," Sweetie said glancing over at Scootaloo who was eagerly taking the stuff out of her bag. About an hour passed of them constantly practicing over and over again. Granny Smith and Big Mac were busying enjoying their little time off from working on the farm to sit down on the couch and relax. "Let's hope they don't burn the house down ay Big Mac?" "Eeyup," Big Mac said in return. "What do you think they're up to up there Mac?" "I don't know, probably scheming." Granny was about to let out another word, but the crusaders began rolling down the stairs shouting loudly that they had some sort of proposal for them. "Will you keep it down youngsters!" "Sorry Granny, but we have a proposal for you!" Applebloom said. "Yeah we heard, get on with it. I ain't getting any younger." Applebloom was the one to start speaking. "So of course you know that Applejack and Rarity are out of town for the whole week, causing Sweetie and Scootaloo to stay here for the whole week. I was thinking we should do something special for this wonderful occasion. It won't interrupt work on the farm and we would be creating very close and dearing memories together if we did this." "Go on..." Granny said with interest. This time Sweetie was the one to speak. "If we do this we would be able to practice important interests of ours way more, like my singing!" "Or my scootering!" Scootaloo chipped in. Applebloom began speaking again. "Now what we are proposing is that..." She looked at each of her two friends signing them to join in. "A no sleep marathon!" Granny and Big Mac just stared at them blankly with disbelief. "No I know what you are saying, no sleep for an entire week?! You couldn't handle that and besides you got work to do on the farm!" Applebloom chimed in a impersonation of Granny's voice. "But think of it this way... we to can handle it! Plus if we never go to sleep, we shouldn't get tired. When you wake up from sleeping aren't you already tired? So if we never go to sleep we will never get tired!" Big Mac did a face hoof and prepared himself to tell them no. "Applebloom..." "Alright you can do your no sleep week thing or whatever it's called." Granny butted in to say. "See I told you she wasn't going to go for it." Sweetie said with a smirk, but then it vanished when she realized what Granny had just told them. "What?!" They shouted. "That's right you can have your thing." "Thank you so much Granny!" Applebloom spoke as she and her friends raced up the stairs to start the wonderful week. "Uhhh Granny? Why'd you let Applebloom and her friends do that?" "Because Big Macintosh, once they get so tired that they can't lift their feet no more. They'll learn their lesson." "This is a terrible idea." "Oh relax! Sometimes you just gotta enjoy the ride." Right after the crusaders rushed up the stairs they slammed the door to their room and immediately launched into a brainstorm session of ideas of what they would do over the week. After some time they thought of ways to earn their cutie mark, then played the acient game of tag around the barn. Feeling exhausted from running, but not tired they went back into the room and chated for a while. Pretty soon the sun was setting and letting the moon softly make its presence. Granny Smith bid them good night and the first night of the no sleep marathon had officially set into motion. Unfortunately they had been talking with each other for a very long time, so they got bored and needed something to break up the munaunity. Eventually they came up with the idea to play a bored game. "Ha! That's my property sweetie, pay up!" Scootaloo excitedly screeched. "It's not fair! Why do I keep landing on your properties?" "Because I'm that good Sweetie Belle." "Yeah sure... are you cheating?" "No..." Scootaloo replied as she placed a 100 fake dollar bill behind her back. "You know sweetie, at least your not broke like me. I'm completely bankrupt!" Applebloom complained. "Your right. Besides I have 3 of the four railroads." Sweetie gave scootaloo a smug grin. "Well yeah, but you have only 200 dollars left and if you land a 4 on the dice you lose. I still have over 2000 bucks! You'll never win." Scootaloo gave sweetie an even stronger smug look. Sweetie picked up the dice in her hooves and shook. She put all of her physical and mental capabilities into this one roll just to make sure she would make it past the bankrupt spot. She threw it and for a split second the whole room became silent. "Ha four!" Scootaloo chuckled. Sweetie just sat there dumbfounded. "It's ok sweetie someday you'll be as good as me." "Alright relax with the cockeness scoots. Your gonna drive everyone crazy," Applebloom said. "Yeah, true." "Besides you cheated anyway scoots." "What! I did no such thing!" "Yeah huh!" "Nu uh!" "Yeah huh!" "Nu uh!" Scootaloo and Applebloom would be at it for quite some time and Sweetie knew this, so she sat back and watched it all unfold. Eventually it got boring though so she resorted to resting her head on the window hoping to find anything interesting outside. There were nothing but trees, grass, sky, moon, and darkness outside the comfy quarters of their room. She didn't know why but the air in the room began to feel a little more dense, almost heavy. She thought nothing of it and continued to gaze at the trees. Every so often there would be some slight movement in the leaves or the grass, but there was one particular motion that grabbed sweetie's eyes. It appeared for just a second luring her eyes to gravitate at that one specific spot. She just blindly kept her eyes locked to the spot. The longer she looked the more unsafe she felt. Finally she was able to break away. Her ears were ringing and soon enough they stopped allowing her to tune back into the argument still going strong. Sweetie had to do something about it and thankfully she stopped the argument from progressing to far. "Who wants to play truth or dare?" They both turned and with a rapid response simply said "Me!" For it was very comforting to just sit in a isolated room. The morning would soon enough be upon them and the lingering night over. The events of the darkness didn't matter once it was over. For the night, just like anypony, would dissapear eventually...