Vanish

by Mr Mlp

The Doctor

The night had passed and all of Ponyville had awaken from a healthy amount of rest. The fear of not awakening the next day still held its grip on the town, but it still did not stop them from their usual sleep. Nopony had nightmares nor dreams apart for three little fillies, who trudged through the town fully aware of the nightmare that had become a reality. A nightmare that rendered them unable to rest themselves.

Scootaloo was the one who walked the quickest of all of them, still wearing an emotionless expression. Sweetie still had dried up tears visible on her cheeks. And it felt like Applebloom could barely put one foot in front of the other. How would she be able to discuss this with her sister? They traversed through the town with non spoken words filling the environment. Each one of them spent their time in their own thoughts.

As they traveled through the barren wasteland of its former loved filled land there were no stores open, no stands selling items, and certainty no ponies roaming the streets. How many were even left? One question was one step forward for the three little fillies as the got closer to their destination. House after house the feeling of dread became ever more apparent.

There was a knock at the door. The doctor stepped away from preparing breakfast and opened the door. A mixture of joy and excitement filled him when he saw the three little fillies he had been patiently waiting for. However, it was shortly washed away as he saw the silent emotion of the girls. Now there was only one priority and that was to cheer up the three little fillies who had arrived once again on his doorstep.

"Come in girls. I got a lot to show you." The doctor smiled at them and all he got back was a half effort grin back from Sweetie Belle. "Do you girls want any pancakes or something? I'm making some with extra cheese and chocolate!" One by one they gave a low volume grunt sitting down at the nearest chair they could find. "This ain't good" was all the doctor could think. He went back to cooking breakfast. "Why did we come here? Like specifically here." Scoots questioned.

"It's the only place we have left scoots..." Sweetie answered with.

"I'm sure anypony would have taken us off the streets sweetie."

"How do you know? How would we even find them? A week ago there were at least 500 of us occupying the town. Now look at it!"

"You do realize we still don't know who the murderer is right?"

"Your the one who said we should let anypony let us into their home!"

"Well..." Scoots groaned. The doctor walked back into the room. "The cheesy pancakes are finished! Also we are out of syrup, but hey we got pepper!" All three of them winced at the thought of putting pepper on a pancake. The doctor led them to the dinner table. "So what brings you here so early in the morning? Couldn't resist my unnatural scientist charm?"

Nopony decided to answer the question given. "Good answer." The doctor said in a sarcastic tone. "I got a lot to show you all today so make sure you hang on to your brains... they might run away from surprise." All the cmcs said was "sure" each in their own tone of voice. The doctor felt as if he was not doing a good job of cheering the three little fillies up. It was time to up the ante. He grabbed a wrench he used on the daily and placed a simple mustache and googly eyes on it. He brought out his best silly voice and spoke.

"Look, I know something is wrong here. That's why we're going to take your mind off all this stupid scary stuff and play a game!" Applebloom looked the doctor straight in the eye and slapped the wrench right out of the doctor's hands and onto the floor. "Alright fine, I won't do that." Not even a single giggle had escaped from their mouths. "It must be really serious," the doctor claimed in his mind. "I got just the thing for you girls! Just hang on!" The doctor left the room leaving the three fillies alone once again.

"This is stupid. You guys know this right?" Scoots said sparking another debate.

"He's trying his best ok?"

"Is he really Sweetie? He should be trying to stop this mess from continuing instead of making a fool out of himself!"

"Well he did say he has more stuff to show us. Maybe he has been working on a solution."

"What if he isn't? What then-" Scoots sentence was cut off by Applebloom's own comment. "Do you girls think... he can bring all the missing ponies back?" Her voice was audibly a bit shaken. "Well we have to see. Right Scoots?"

"Yeah whatever."

"I'm back! And I brought a screwdriver this time!" This time it was Scootaloo who slapped the object out from his hands.

---

Some time had passed and after numerous efforts the doctor could not even get one of them to crack a small smile. "Let's just move on shall we?" The doctor said. "Follow me!" Scootaloo and Sweetie got up from their seats while Applebloom stayed in her spot. "Are you coming Applebloom?" She shook her head no and the two fillies left her understandingly.

The doctor led them back into the room with the giant round machine. "I've been tinkering with this technological beast for a while now and I think I've discovered something new. I was playing around with the settings just for fun when I found this one specific setting. Strangely it had a camera option. Now I just want to say that I turned this on purely for scientific purposes!"

"It turns out that with it on I'm able to survey every single pony in the town! And the best part is... it records everything! Ahem well maybe not the best thing, but nonetheless I was able to go back through the history of these recordings and find that every single one of these disappearances occurred precisely when they were sleeping!"

"It is during the night. It would make sense for a murderer to strike when ponies are asleep." Scootaloo pointed out.

"Exactly! But if you look at the footage you will find that there is no murderer in sight!"

"Can we see the camera footage?" Sweetie asked innocently.

"No. Your to young." Scootaloo raised an eyebrow at the comment. "Moving on! Since we now know this information I propose we start to come up with a plan to finally put a stop to this terror!"

Sweetie gasped in surprise and joy. "You really think we could put a stop to this?"

"Absolutely Sweetie! I'm an inventor, nothing is impossible."

Sweetie Belle looked at Scootaloo bursting with hope and a wide smile in an expression that said "could you please trust him for at least a little bit? At least do it for Applebloom." Scootaloo rolled her eyes, but answered with "Alright fine. But only for you guys."

"Why don't you go tell the news to Applebloom Scoots, While me and Sweetie start conjuring up some ideas!" Scootaloo said nothing in response and left the two to their scheming. When she got to Applebloom she was still slouching in the same spot that she was left in. "Hey Applebloom? The doctor has some news." She immediately perked up at the mention of possible good news ready to reach her ears. "Does he know how to bring everypony back?" She said squeaking every word.

"Not exactly. He says there might be a way to put a end to everything that is going on." Applebloom's sudden lifted spirit crumpled at the words she had said. Sure, a way to end this madness is great, but it's not like the pain would lessen. Only the stress. "Oh... that's good." She gave a slight grin to ease Scoots emotions. It didn't work. "We are going to find a way to reunite you with your family okay? Not matter what it takes and not matter how much I don't wanna say this... I will work with this nut job bozo if it means making you feel better about this whole situation!"

"Thank you Scoots."

"Now Sweetie and the doc are in the room with the machine brainstorming ideas. You should probably come down there this time"

"Yeah, your probably right about that. Give me a minuet though." Scootaloo made her way back down to Sweetie and the doctor. They stood right next to a table about the size of a king sized mattress with a paper laid upon it about the same size. She could see about 10% of the paper had been filled with notes and ideas. "This might take a while."

---

When Applebloom came down to join the three ponies cooking a plan they all already seemed tired and about to tear their manes out. She had only been in the other room for about 30 minuets and she could see lots of ripped, crumpled, and filled up pieces of paper scattered throughout the ground. Any idea had one of three colors. Each color represented which pony wrote down the idea. Scoots had orange, Sweetie had purple, and the doctor had black.

The ideas written and black often had things like giant cage to supposedly keep monsters out? Or stuff like immunity serums or liquids that would keep you awake forever. His ideas often had little illustrations to go with it. Sweetie's ideas were more lighthearted and sweet. Most of them were drawings of a big hug that kept everypony safe or keeping everypony together at all times. Scootaloo's ideas most of the time including weapon plans to protect ponies from whatever could come up. Some even included explosives.

"Are ya'll gettin anywhere?"

"We would if Sweetie would provide more practical ideas!"

"Well what are guns and explosives going to do? If it's not a murderer how is it going to be effective against a nonexistent pony?"

"Well just because it's not a murderer doesn't mean we can't blow it up." Scootaloo stuck out her tongue after making that comment.

"Girls we gotta focus here! Applebloom if you got any ideas write it down with this colored marker." She grabbed the yellow marker and picked up a sheet of paper. Her mind however was completely blank. How was anypony supposed to defend themselves against something they had no clue of what exactly they were up against?

Some more time passed and it felt like they were truly getting nowhere. Applebloom looked at the 3 ideas she had wrote down. It was nothing compared to the 50-100 scrapped sheets the others carried, but to her they felt the most developed. All them contained use of the doctor's inventions and a gathering of all the ponies in the town. The only difference of them all was the fact that each one of them carried a different outcome. One ended in failure, another in success, but without the reappearance of the missing ponies, and the final one having Ponyville with all of its residents returned and forever safe.

She sighed and tore the three sheets of paper she had used. "I really think we should focus on the sleeping aspect of this girls. We could use some sort of scientific liquid to keep everypony awake forever therefore eliminating the problem of going missing during the night. Think of the efficiency to!"

"I don't think everypony is going to want to stay awake forever, doctor. Not a terrible thought though." Sweetie said giving the doctor a reassuring smile. "Are we sure it has to do with sleep though?" Scoots questioned.

"Absolutely!" The doctor bellowed.

"Well what do we know so far?" Applebloom asked.

"What makes you ask that?" Sweetie asked.

"Maybe if we look at everything we understand about the situation we could come up with a more effective plan."

"We have an inventor here!" Sweetie exclaimed.

"There's a giant round machine in the middle of the room." Scoots added.

"Sleeping sucks!" The doctor shouted.

"So if the your an inventor and you got the machine working again, and it shows you footage of everypony in Ponyville... maybe there's something in the machine that'll help." Applebloom suggested.

"Alas tis but a sad tale... I've already seen everything in and out from the machine. Nothing there but metal and wires."

"She means on the screen diztel cracker." Scoots said insulting the doctor.

"Ah yes good point!"

They searched and scoured through all the messages, settings, and modes plastered throughout the screen and still nothing had caught the eye of anypony that sparked some sort of idea in their minds. With frustration scoots punched the outer shell of the machine and out popped a keyboard and a second smaller screen displaying the words "enter code."

"Enter code?" They all said in unison. There was only room for four spaces. Both letters and numbers were allowed. The doctor quickly rushed over to the screen and typed in the numbers "1234." The screen soon let out an obnoxious sound and flashed a red x clearing stating that it was the wrong code. "Darn it I thought that would work." The doctor responded in disappointment.

As much as they would love to keep guessing codes until they found the correct one they did not have time to do so. They quickly forgot about it and returned back to the first screen. "Well... that's everything." Sweetie softly said with a worrying tone.

"You know maybe we just can't solve this one."

"There has to be a way scoots."

"I don't know Applebloom, even I'm starting to doubt."

"We've thought about it from every angle. And so far it doesn't seem like any one of these ideas are going to help!" The doctor then walked up to Applebloom and placed a hoof on her shoulder. "I think the only option we have left is to leave Ponyville. If we can't sleep here, then theoretically we could sleep anywhere else!"

The doctor walked away from Applebloom then up to sweetie where he once again placed his hoof on her shoulder. "If we make it to Canterlot then we could alert Princess Celestia of this craziness and she could put an end to all of this!"

And for the final sentence he spoke he placed his hoof on scootaloo's shoulder saying, "We just got to waltz on over to the southern exit of Ponyville! It's that simple. And since I don't think the train stations in ponyville will be working account of nopony here doing the job... we'll have to walk to Canterlot."

Scoots and Sweetie looked at each other in agreeance. Applebloom was a little hesitant but still agreed nonetheless. "Well now that that is settled we shall leave during the night to make sure not one of us falls asleep during the night. I want you girls to go home and tell your families the plan and take them with you. I'm sure you will want them with us. It's getting close to dark anyway so hurry and I will see you in a bit!"

The three little fillies just froze. Scoots and Sweetie both turned their head to Applebloom who was starting to breathe heavily. "Um, Applebloom?" Before anything else could be said Applebloom bolted into the other room. "What's wrong with her?"

"We should have probably told you this earlier, but it has to do with the reason why we came here in the first place." Scootaloo then continued in saying, "The reason we came here is not because we wanted your help or anything... we just needed a place to go. Last night wasn't the best of nights for us and Applebloom is the one who is struggling with it the most. You see-"

"They're gone..." The doctor interrupted with.

"Yeah..." For a brief moment they stood in silence. Scootaloo was then the one to continue the conversation. "We need to go and check up on her-"

"No." Both Sweetie and Scootaloo stared in shock. "I will go check up on her." The doctor walked out from the room closing the door and locking it with a key after leaving. It wasn't long before Scootaloo went to open the door to find it unable to open it. She panicked and started to scream and shout wanting out of the musty room they had already spent so much time in. Where Applebloom resided no such screams or shouts could be heard.

The doctor entered the spot where Applebloom had ended up after their conversation. "There isn't a way to save them is there doctor?"

"Well, I wouldn't say that, but at the point right now... it is highly improbable." A faint sniff could be heard from the melancholy filly.

"I don't want to leave sweet apple acres."

"I know you don't, but think about it this way. If we leave we'll be helping out all of Ponyville."

"Yeah the probably 20 ponies who are here right now."

"Well yes, but would you rather have 20 ponies die? Or have 20 ponies live out the rest of their lives? I'm sure if we make it to Canterlot whatever this thing is can be prevented." She said nothing in response.

"Believe it or not kid, but I know what it's like to have someone close to you die. You wouldn't know her, but she was very dear to me just like I'm sure you were close to your family. It could have been so much more. Her and I were just plain different. Me and my inventions and her with her bad flying skills. Sadly, I may have been a bit to much different for her to exist with me."

Another faint sniff was heard from Applebloom. "Of course like anypony would, I blamed myself and besides witnessing death other consequences showed up to. The point is though, yes it's never easy... but you can't experience the happy times without getting through the unhappy times. Keep fighting. Pain is never permanent. It is always temporary. If something is getting you down, don't let it keep you down. Strike back! I learned that the hard way and honestly I still truly haven't kept that lesson in mind for the past years, but I have regretted every day that I don't use that nugget of wisdom."

Dr. Whooves held out his hoof in front of Applebloom. "Come on... let's go and remove this curse on the town alright?"

She wiped away her tears and gave the doctor a hug. "That's what I like to hear. Guess we better start packing then! We got some time to go!" Applebloom got up from the spot she was in and rushed to the kitchen grabbing any snack or sweet should could find. The doctor went back to the door he had locked just moments ago and unlocked it. Scoots came bursting out the door screaming her head off angry she had been trapped in that room for some time. "Why would you do that!" Scoots shouted and bellowed.

"Relax Scoots I was always going to unlock the door when I was done cheering up Applebloom. I just needed us to be alone."

"You don't just do that though-"

"Scoots it wasn't the best thing he could've done, but we don't have time to argue about this!" Sweetie refuted with.

"Fine." Scoots groaned.

"Pack anything you want you two we are leaving right at this moment!"

"How do we get there doc?" Sweetie asked.

"Well we are going to have to cut through central Ponyville and go down the path to the northern exit. After that it's just a hop skip and a 42 mile trip to Canterlot!" As the three little fillies were picking and choosing items to take on the trip the doctor gathered up four backpacks for the four of them. In the matter of 30 minuets they were all packed and ready to go. They each scooped up their backpacks and headed towards the door, when a bang was heard from the door.

Despite the loud noise the doctor still went up to the front door and opened it. Outside stood 10 ponies all grouped together. The pony in the front of the crowd spoke. "You have terrorized us for way to long Dr. Whooves! Look at us! There are only ten of us ponyville residents left! And it's time we do something about it." The doctor laughed and played it off as some sort of silly joke, until the one key component that was missing struck him.

All these ponies were wielding... knives.