Vanish

by Mr Mlp

The Machine

It had been two night without a single ounce of sleep. The three once wide awake fillies were really beginning to feel the after effects. Still they exited the apple family property determined to make some sort of progress. Granny had told them she and Big Mac would be searching for Lyra's marefriend, Bon Bon. The crusaders had already thought that to be the case. The second thing they told them was that it was a free day without any chores and to explore ponyville or go crusading for their cutie marks.

Sure, the usual crusading or a chill day of doing nothing would have been great and had the ability to rest without actually resting, but this would be more important. Their first plan of action was to knock on ponies' doors and ask if they had any idea where she could have went. However upon knocking on the first one nopony even answered. "Maybe they're just not home." Sweetie said with confidence.

The next house had no more luck than the first house did. "Well that's a bit unlucky, but hey there are still many houses in ponyville we haven't checked." Applebloom commented. The follow up 5 still had nopony even walk up to the door. Were ponies scared of checking the outside or something?

Walking down the west side of ponyville they passed a multitude of shops that were closed, thankfully there had still been quite a few that were still open. There were barely even any ponies strolling down the town. "This is getting ridiculous!" Scootaloo yelled. "We should try central ponyville. Ponies at this time are selling fruits, flowers, are other stuff with their stands." Scootaloo and Sweetie both agreed. They all breathed a breath of relief when they found there to be a fair number of ponies roaming.

"Alright who should we question first, girls?"

"How about that random sales pony right there? He seems smart."

Sweetie and Applebloom rushed as fast as they could still watching Scootaloo pull far ahead of them. Scoots was the initial one to speak. "Yo."

"Hello? Are you here to buy something? I got some pretty mean pastries I'm selling here."

"I got some questions for you sir." Scootaloo leaned in closer squinting towards his eyes.

"Well then hit me. I can answer any concerns or problems you got with my food."

"Do you know anything about the disappearance of a pony named... Bon Bon?"

"Bon Bon? Haven't heard of her."

"LIES! SPILL THE BEAN MISTER!" Applebloom quickly scooped her hoof around her and pulled her away. "Have you ever interrogated anypony before?!" She said in a hard whisper tone. "Oh give me a break! He is totally lying." Sweetie then spoke up. "Let's just move on to the next sales pony, alright?" They both nodded. The crusaders the found themselves standing with another random pony.

"Can I do the talking this time?"

"Sure." Sweetie stepped forward with a cute smile on her face and an adorable gleam in her eyes. This pony seemed to be more tough and carried a demeanor like a pirate. "What can I do for ya?"

"Wouldn't you happen to know anything about a Lyra Heartstrings?"

"Listen filly I ain't got nothing you want to know. Now beat it."

"Pleaseeeee." Sweetie then attempted to look even more cute and adorable. Her glowing eyes became like shimmering sun beams. In her mind she could picture the stallion shielding his eyes from the overload of cuteness.

"Listen kid I don't got time for you, now beat it."

Sweetie sadly made her way back to her friends. "Guess he doesn't care about cute little ponies does he?"
"That sounds a bit wrong sweetie, but I don't know how..." scoots replied with. Applebloom scoffed at them. "We just need the right pony. Do we actually know anypony besides Bon Bon that knows Lyra and speaks to her often?" They just looked at each other in silence. Minuets passed until finally... "I got it!"

"Really?" They asked intrigued. "Wait... no I lost it."

"Seriously scoots!"

"What are you girls up to?" The three of them turned their heads to find themselves gazing at the mare named Carrot Top. Excitement filled their small bodies in an instant. Surely one of Bon Bon's most well known friends would know something about the situation. "Carrot top!" They screamed in unison. "Oh my, uh, what can I do for you girls?"

"Your Bon Bon's and Lyra's friend right? Can you tell us anything on the disappearance of her?" Carrot Top began to stutter.

"Lyra and Bon Bon? Oh. Well... yeah."

Carrot Top did not have the most amount of friends, but certainty the friends she did have where some of the best friends anypony could ever have. Bon Bon and Lyra where her two best friends in all of Equestria. In one way or another they were always not far from each other. Anything fun or current event active in ponyville you could see the three of them out and about. Espically with Lyra. For most ponies they would normally see Carrot Top and Lyra being nut balls and goofing around town.

Strangely after the announcement of Lyra and Bon Bon becoming marefriends the time spent between Lyra and Carrot Top lessened and lessened. The trio still remained best friends, but with each day Carrot Top found herself having more free time.

The crusaders perked up from the answer believing this might be the way to understand the situation a bit better. "What can you tells us about them?" Applebloom asked rapidly.

"Well, you girls probably shouldn't be asking about other ponies businesses." Carrot Top had the exact expression of a pony who did not want to discuss events that transpired in the past. Sweetie was the only one to pick up on this.

"Please! It's for the greater good!" Carrot Top did not believe Applebloom. Part of her wanted to get angry at the fact that they did not seem to understand what she was going through, while the other part of her remembered that they were just fillies.

"I'm sorry girls, but I really we shouldn't be talking about this. And what do you even mean by the greater good?"

"We are trying to find clues to figure out where she went." This surprised Carrot Top. For three little fillies this piece of speech showed remarkable maturity. This made her question if she should tell them what happened last night.

"Wow, well I'm glad you girls want to help, but please I got to go-" Before she was about to leave Sweetie had grabbed onto her leg and wrapped her hooves around it in a nice hug. "Your going through a lot of pain aren't you?"

Carrot Top had visible tears ready to fall down, but she remained strong and prevented that from occurring. Scoots and Applebloom watched with worry for Carrot Top.

"Sweet Celestia I can't believe I'm about to tell you this." Sweetie Belle took a step back and the three sat in silence ready to listen to her tale.

"Well... me and Lyra were out during the night doing what we do best, which is goofing off. We went down to a bar. Of course whenever we go... the drinks there causes Lyra to be able to sleep through anything. We got back home and I waved her goodbye knowing she would immediately start going to bed as soon as she entered the door, as usual."

"I started to walk back home, until I saw Bon Bon outside in the backyard. She looked extremely tired and I thought she was going to fall asleep right there in the garden... She did weird stuff like that, watering her garden at night..."

There was a long pause after those words were spoke. "I said hello, but she didn't pay attention to me. I came closer and said it again. She didn't respond again. She looked like she was about to pass out. I didn't want to disturb her anymore so I decided to leave her... I barely got 30 feet away when... when I heard a ear shattering scream coming from the garden. That scream... it was the stuff out of nightmares. The worst part is that... it kept going..."

"I froze for a full minute. I couldn't bring myself to check... then the screaming stopped. I ran over to see if everything was alright, but she was... gone. Against my better judgement I just... ran away. I- I should have done something more I-... Lyra was heartbroken."

Carrot Top was jittering a bit and looked visibly shaken. "I'm so sorry to hear that Carrot Top," Sweetie said giving her leg another hug. "Thank you, but I really need to be going." The crusaders watched her slowly walk away feeling sorry for the anguish she was going through at that moment. It only made them more determined to find some sort of answer to all this.

"Let's go get lunch and think this over." Applebloom said to the two other girls. They then went to go get lunch at the popular eatery Hooves and Snacks. The special for the day was a regular hayburger with potato fries, so that's what they got. "You know this though just crossed my mind, but how did we even pay for this Applebloom?" Scoots said in confusion. "Oh, Granny left me some bits to go get lunch if we stayed out for a while."

"Aww Granny is so thoughtful."

"Yeah... she is pretty darn great." Scootaloo glued her eyes to both of them. "Are we not going to talk about that story we just heard from Carrot Top?!"

"We're getting there scoots. Chill. We don't really even know what to really think of it anyway."

"Well I do! This is crazy! Who knows what could have happen to Bon Bon!"

"Maybe she got scared of something and ran into the forest and got lost."

"Sweetie I don't think that's what happened."

"How do you know?"

"We need to think about this rationally girls. We could have a murder on our hooves."

"Oh please don't say that Applebloom."

"It's always a possiblity Sweetie. The way she talked about that scream Bon Bon let out, what else could have caused a scream so horrible it was causing Carrot Top to be shaken up about it?"

"She could have just been shaken up by the loss of Bon Bon." Scootaloo chimed in.

"I think we still need more information girls. I say after we eat we go knocking on some more doors."

The crusaders finished up their food and set out for east ponyville. When they got there it seemed even more deserted than west ponyville, nevertheless the kept their wish and began knocking. The first 10 had been unsuccessful, on the eleventh they at least got a "Go away!" that sounded like it was coming from the living room. It wouldn't be till door number 32 when they got somepony to open up the door.

"Oh wow, im outta here."

"Scootaloo!"

The pony at the door was none other than time turner or as most ponies called him "Dr. Whooves." The doctor was known to be the town nutcase. He spent most of his time locked up in his house tinkering or experimenting with whatever he was making in there. He only came out for material that he needed. His pupils lit up as he saw the three fillies on his doorstep. "Oh goodness! I've been expecting you three for a bit of time now! Well actually not really as I don't expect anypony at my doorstep ever... Come in quickly!"

"You know this guys could be the possible murderer right?" Scootaloo whispered to applebloom. "Shush, he might know something. We're desperate here." Despite the previous suspicious knowledge of Dr. Whooves they reluctantly followed him through the main entrance. "Would you like a tour of my grand palace? I have many inventions to show." Sweetie nervously spoke up. "Um, no thank you... we just wanna know if you have any information of the disappearance of Bon Bon."

"Ah the disappearance of Bon Bon! Ah yes, I know lots about that! Come here-ther I'll show you some things." The house was filled with all sorts of strange and peculiar gadgets either hanging from the ceiling or place on the some sort of solid ground. Soon they were staring straight at a pencil sharpener. "GAZE AT THE GLORIOUS AND JAW DROPPING SHARPENER!" All three of them were to scared to say what they were all thinking. It's just a normal pencil sharpener? "What exactly are we looking for here?" Scoots asked.

"You don't see the thing? Oh fine we'll move onto the next one. You'll get a kick outta this one!" The next thought provoking invention certainly looked a little more advanced, but the mechanical thingy ma bob was just a mess of metal and pipes. "Now this is one of my favorites. I've created my very own instrument!"

"That's an instrument?" Applebloom gave Scootaloo a small punch and they all just gave a innocent smile. "Not doing it for ya hm? I've got just the remedy!"

"Why are you showing us all this stuff doctor?" Sweetie asked.

"Its fun thing to do little one. Now look at this small object that has a cool spinny thing on it!" Blank stares were given towards the doctor. This was just plain insane. "Alright doctor... listen we gotta get back to the farm before dark... so um... yeah."

"No don't leave please! I really do actually have something majorly important to show you!"

"We're leaving nutcase."

"Was that really necessary scoots?"

Applebloom and scootaloo were heading towards the exit, when they noticed Sweetie was behind them having her head turned back at the doctor. He had an understanding, but disappointed look upon his face. "Come on sweetie let's go." Sweetie ignored the order and walked to the doctor. "Why go through all that effort to show us all those things?"

"Don't you get it? I need you to all to get it!" Sweetie stepped back and grabbed the believed to be pencil sharpener. She squinted her eyes and realized that there was very tiny label on it that read "pen sharpener." Sweetie wondered how you could even sharpen a pen, but it didn't matter. "Wait it's not a pencil sharpener?" Both scoots and Applebloom shared confused glances.

"Well of course not. I'm a genius!"

Sweetie then picked up the mass of metal and blew into the only hole that was able to recieve air. Out came a beautiful melodic tune. Then for the last one she spun the tiny wheel on the small object. Her hooves detached from the ground for just a bit, then landed back down when she stopped the tiny wheel. "Why didn't you just tell use what these inventions did in the first place?"

"I always try and see if ponies will see what the invention is about before I explain it. Problem is everypony leaves before I explain it."

"But when ponies give you weird looks and confused stares like your crazy why not just explain it then?" Scoots added to this with her comment of "Yeah! Just spill the beans when you whip out your machines!"

"That aspect is... complicated. We have important matters to deal with anyway!" Each one of the crusaders looked at one another and all collectively decided that maybe whatever the doctor was so keen on showing could be important after all.

"Right this way!"

The crusaders trotted with him into a big room. The walls were covered with moss, more pipes and metal, along with many different colors some representing pictures. Along the walls were several small machines that seemed broken or scrap. In the middle of the room made all the surrounding stuff basically nothing. In the center laid a giant round machine that resembled the shape of a brain.

"Woah did you make this?!" Scootaloo asked in extreme intrest. "Er- I mean who made the big metal round bucket?" Scootaloo said taking back her excitement. "Well I can't say I've created this mystery, but I've been working on it for quite a while now. It was broken when I moved into this house and I've been trying to fix it ever since. A few night ago I finally got somewhere. I must have hit some sort of correct bolt or wire, but this huge screen suddenly displayed itself right in front of my eyes. It took a lot of trial and error with some more tinkering, but I found out one of it's features was to pin point the exact date and time a pony has either died or vanished!" Each of the crusaders did not like the idea of such a machine carrying that purpose. "For some reason all the ponies who have vanished have been during the night..."

"There's more than one missing pony?!" Sweetie blurted out.

"Yep and I've been using this machine here to try and find a way to fix it. I'm hoping this machine holds some sort of answer. It has something to do with the night I swear. That's all I have so far though. You'll have to come visit me sometime again. My door is always open."

"Well I can't believe I'm saying this doctor, but thank you for the help! Applebloom exclaimed with happiness.

The doctor ran up to Applebloom till they were face to face. "It was no problem Applebloom! Besides you all gotta get home." He then whispered to Applebloom, "By they way have this. Play it whenever you get the chance."

The crusaders waved goodbye. "I still think he's a nutcase." Scootaloo voiced out. "Well I like him." Sweetie refuted with.

The mood certainly was a bit more lighter knowing that they at least had some sort of lead. If they kept up this week of no sleep maybe they could spot out something suspicious enough to help them out during the night. On the way back in the line of sight made them stop in their tracks. It was the police. It wasn't the fact that there was police there in the first place, it was the fact that there were several of them. Police tape was surrounding Lyra's home. They could see her talking with the cops. But then they looked past Lyra's home and in that small section of ponyville 10 more homes each had the same scene occurring.

The scene sent a shiver down the spine of applebloom, but it paled in comparison to the small moment of time where the faint sight of blood was seen inside one of the many homes. It felt like a stab in the heart and whoever was doing this clearly was not meant to be trusted.

They slow paced walked picked up as they each desired to leave the section as quickly as possible. They arrived at the apple family farm about 30 minutes later. "How was your day?" Granny sweetfully said. "Um fine, we're going upstairs ok granny?"

"Alright, please do try and get some rest though. You probably need it at this point." Granny spoke feeling worry for Applebloom. Applebloom thought about it for a moment, but now it felt like there was a need to keep going. A feeling deep down that won't let you give up even if you tried.

The night had started and just like all the other nights while still on edge, they had fun. Fun that not many ponies would be experiencing at this particular moment in time. Lucky for the crusaders their long winded talks drowned out the noise of whispers in the night. The morning would come and who would ever know how many ponies would be left to sleep another tranquil night?