> Vanish
>  by Mr Mlp
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> The Plan
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

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...
> The Chores
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Granny Smith woke up to the sound of three little fillies laughing in the hall. With sleep in her eyes and she slowly trudged out of bed and shuffled out of the room preparing to get ready for the inevitable struggles of the day. Big Mac did the exact same, dreading the pile of work need to be completed. Of course the younger ponies were just as chipper and energetic as the day before. They to made sure they were properly equipped with the mental and physical abilities to help out on the farm.

When they all were fixed up to begin they met up together just outside the door of the barn. "Now scoots and sweetie this is your first day out on the farm, so I want ya'll to be careful out there." 

"Yes granny smith!" The two called out. "Alright now applebloom you know what to do. Scoots I want you to help Big Mac with bucking down some of dose apples." 

"Oh sweet!" Scootaloo then quickly sped up to Big Mac as they went to their designated area. "And sweetie I want you to help me with squashing apples into apple cider." 

"Do I get to try some?" "Heh, sorry kid but no." In the distance applebloom could hear sweetie sighing deeply. She went down to the animals, grabbed her basket, and feed the chickens. She knelt down to feed her favorite chicken who was affectionately named Gloria. "Isn't this going to be such a great week Gloria?" The chicken just tilted its head in confusion. "Oh don't look at me like that, with the amount of time we have together is basically doubled even tripled we can do so many things!" Gloria gazed blankly and then returned to her own food. 

Applebloom ignored that and continued to feed the other animals. Second was the pigs, then the cows, and after many different species she was finally done and moved on to the toughest job on the entire apple family farm. The sheep. What made it ever so difficult was one specific sheep that hated her with all of its guts. Somehow every time she would enter the pen it would conspire with the others and get every sheep to purposefully avoid her like the plague. This compared with the fact that she had to shave the coats on every single one of them made it a living nightmare.

She told Granny how much she despised this part of the job, but Granny would always make her endure the hardship. With her usual determination she tussled with them, barely one by one shaving the white fur. Then came the final showdown against the devious sheep named Jester. With all her effort she tackled it and got the soft fluffy fur off the diabolic and frankly mean sheep. While it was one of the most painful things she would have to get through the pure euphoria knowing she had completed the task was unmatched. 

At the end of the day she still knew Granny would have given her the task if she knew she couldn't do it. She loved Granny for the amount of trust and belief she put into her. Remembering this allowed her to get back to her work with twice the energy she had before.



Meanwhile scootaloo was learning the delicate art of bucking down apples. "How hard do I get to buck Big Mac! Just point to the nearest tree and I'll get all the apples down in no time flat!" "Eeyeah, nope."

"What?!" 

"You will be catching the apples as they fall from the trees." 

"You gotta be kidding me right?"

"Nope."

With severe dissapointment she slid a basket next to the tree and watched the apples bounced on the ground as she tried to catch as many as she could. Afterward they placed the rest into the basket. "Can't you at least let me buck down a few?" 

"Nope." 

"Come on! Just a few. It'll make me a stronger pony anyway." 

"Nope" 

"Can I pay you?"

"Nope."

"Will you say anything besides nope?"

Big Mac paused for a second, but then recovered and replied with a simple "Nope." 

About an hour of awkward silence and the noises of fresh fruit landing on the ground had passed. This truly sucked. Rather than spending the whole day with her friends she was forced to work with one of the least talkative ponies in exisitance. Big Mac was simply in his own mind and going through the motions like any old day. Scootaloo sighed heavily and when the sound had reached his ears he had realized the boredom that she must be going through. Having sympathy he attempted to strike up a conversation. 

"Say scoots, what do you normally do during the day." Scootaloo immediately perked up. "I love to ride my scooter around town, hang out with Rainbow Dash, and practice my flying skills." 

"That's nice." They fell back into uncomfortable silence again. Big Mac expected the conversation to last longer. Feeling bad for a second time he gave it another shot. "How may scooter tricks do you know?" 

"Oh I know a lot, like a whole lot! I started to use my scooter about two years ago and I've already learned so much from it. I think I've learned over 50 tricks by now. I even ride it often through ponyville. Most of my tricks have come just from riding through the town during the day, but I've also gotten to know quite a fair few from different ponies. Believe it or not I learned a trick from derpy!" 

"Woah."

"I know right. The other ones you may or may not know. My absolute favorite tricks have come from my..." Scootaloo came to a hault in her speech cutting off the rest of the sentence from escaping. "You okay scootaloo?" 

"Yeah... I'm fine, just thought of something that's all."

"It's about your parents isn't it?"

Scootaloo took in a deep breath. "Yeah." She didn't want to continue on with the subject, but Big Mac felt the need to pry. "Are they gone?"

"Well... yeah. They've been gone for a little while. My dad used to ride on his scooter all the time when he was young until he got into nature and stuff. Once my father and mother got married since they both were passionate about nature my dad abandoned his scooter. Before he passed he taught me a few tricks. I do miss him a lot, but I've cried enough tears over them. I had to move on eventually."

They stood still for a bit letting the gentle wind blow through their manes. Big Mac breathed in and spoke. "Do you want to buck down a few trees?" Scootaloo's face exploded with interest. "Really?!" 

"Eeyup!" Scootaloo raced to her first tree turned back, lined it up and shot her hooves backward with all of her might. The tree shook, but nothing was coming down. "That's okay, eventually you'll get it." She bounced over to the next one with just as much enthusiasm. "Hey scoots."

"Yeah?"

"I know what it's like to not have your parents around, keep fighting Scootaloo." Scootaloo gave a soft smile and struck another tree hearing a tiny little apple find its way to the ground. 



Sweetie Belle walked into the kitchen with Granny Smith. They each had their own equipment for squeezing apples into cider. "Alright sweetie first we're gonna peel the skin."

"Alright, then we squeeze then right?" 

"Excatly. Lemme know if you need any help." Sweetie got to peeling and squeezing and it actually was quite satisfying. Knowing that your effort was contributing to something lots of ponies loved was a great feeling. She was actually having fun getting the juice from the fruit. She was getting into the groove. She got so much into the groove she was humming a little tune while she worked. 

Then her little tune progress into a soft singing and then full on jamming out. "Woah! Settle down there youngster!" 

"I can't help it, im enjoying this to much." 

"Well it's a lovely singing voice that you have."

"Thank you granny!" 

"You ever think about showing that talent of yours with the world?"

"Not really, I just kinda do it. I do find it fun, but not really something to show off."

"You might find it very fulfilling to get yourself outhere like that dear. If I had a voice like that, heck I'd be halfway across Equestira singing my heart out to a huge crowd."

"Yeah..."

"If you like to do it sweetie don't be afraid to do more with it." 

"I'll think about it."

"Good."

They individually went back to their squeezing until sweetie Belle decided to strike up another chat. "What do you think applebloom is doing right now?"

"If I know that youngling she's working very hard right about now. She probably moved on to her most dreaded chore of the day."

"What is it?"

"Feeding the sheep. She hates it so much." Granny let out a small chuckle. 

"Why do you keep letting her doing it then, it sounds terrible."

"Because she can handle it fine. I'm proud of her you know. She's done more work than her own sister when she was this age."

"Wow."

"Yeah I know. I'm tuff but fair on her. And I got many more years with her to be even tougher. It's for the best, and I love her dearly for what she does. Even for your crusaders thing. I've noticed she's been kind of a leader for you two. Just don't tell scootaloo that."

"Your funny Granny Smith."

"Why thank you! Now this apple cider ain't gonna make itself."



Each one of them sluggishly came into the living room after the success of the long day... well except for Sweetie Belle. They each plopped down on the couch, while granny sat in her chair. They then breathed out fully understanding they could really relax. However, the sweet sweet tranquility of it all was shattered by a loud knock on the door. 

Granny instructed the crusaders and Big Mac to stay on the couch. Upon opening the door the image of Lyra was seen. "Hey um, I woke up this morning today and I found that Bon Bon had gone missing, so please if you find her please contact me." Lyra and Bon Bon had been dating for at least 5 years and were known as ponyville's cutest couple. To find out that Bon Bon had gone out and dissapeared was a kick in the stomach. They could not have compared to the amount of pain Lyra would be feeling at that moment. "I've been searching since the morning. Me and Carrot Top have been hanging up missing posters as well... but I've searched everywhere... I was hoping she was just out or something and didn't leave a note, but no... its only been a day, but I already miss her so much..."

The tone of her voice was broken. She was broken. Her body language, eyes, voice, and dimmenished color all told the same story. In a delicate soothing sound granny spoke. "I'm so sorry to hear that Lyra. We will be searching. Don't worry. Do you need to come inside and chat for a bit?"

"No, I have more missing posters to hang up. Thank you for the help though." She waved goodbye and drifted off the apple family property. Granny returned to the 4 still awaiting on the couch. "Did ya'll hear any of that?" They all nodded. "Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, and Scootaloo, go to your room. Me and Big Mac are gonna discuss plans for tommorrow. We'll see you in the morning."

The crusaders silently walked up the stairs and into the room. "I feel bad for Lyra..." Sweetie said in a soft tone. "Yeah," applebloom agreed. "Do you think we should do something to help?" Scootaloo asked. They pondered this question for some time and came to one conclusion. "Yes." 

"How are we going to do that though?" Sweetie questioned hoping for a quick answer. "Well I suppose we should start with asking around if anypony had seen her." Scootaloo and sweetie both liked that decision. First thing in the morning they would go out into ponyville. 

Nopony said a word. 

"Well now that we've got that settled, what do you girls wanna do tonight?" Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle both looked at eachother and smiled. "Scary stories!" Applebloom rolled her eyes. "That's way to cliche!" And so they laughed, talked, and played whatever they want for the rest of the night. They were so into it that none of them could hear the screams that lied awake in the night...
> 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?
> The Town Meeting
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next morning had come again and the feared outcome of more disappearances at this point was inevitable. Luckily for the three little fillies none of them or the apple family had been touched by the looming evil presence in the night snatching ponies. Before any of this happened Mayor Mare the humble mayor of ponyville did her daily job in keeping the town safe and up and running. Although she worked often she still made time to take a stroll through her town. Lately the Mayor had locked herself in the hall do all sorts of stuff, even if the crusaders didn't realize it sooner. She clearly put a huge amount of effort and stopping whatever plague had corrupted the town. 

In hopes of obtaining new ideas to stop the disappearances, a town meeting was called for every resident in ponyville. Loopy and absolutely crazy as you would call Dr. Whooves, but there was no exception for anypony. Granny and Big Mac got up early preparing to attend the meeting. After a healthy amount to rest they got ready quickly and effectively. The crusaders were the complete opposite. Once again they had gone through a sleepless night. They stepped out of their room at a snails pace making them look like time slowed more than just once. 

"Are you three ready yet! Come on times a wastin!" Granny yellowed from downstairs allowing the sound to travel to the crusaders who were brushing their teeth. "Ugh, are you girls also tired?" Sweetie gave a response in the way of a slight head nod while scoots softly said, "heck yeah." 

"We still gotta keep going, we have to figure this stuff out." 

"I don't know... I'm really tired applebloom."

"I second that sweetie." 

"Look, let's just give it at least one more night, besides we have a town meeting to get going to. Maybe the mayor has some answers."

They put their toothbrushes down and rolled down the stairs. "Took ya'll long enough. Let's get going, this is mighty important." And just like that Granny, Big Mac, and the crusaders made the journey to the town hall. "Now girls there is something I wanna tell you." Granny started to say. "I want to say that there night be some pretty darn heavy subjects spoken about during this meeting, but it is crucial that ya'll hear about this. Sooner or later your gonna have to learn about possible death and loss. Just please tell me you girls will be alright." 

They each gave a nod. "Alright, we're here." Exclaimed Big Mac with a worried expression plastered on his face. It wasn't hard to see why. Upon arriving at the town hall only maybe 25-30 ponies were visible, and yet they were late. Ponies like Dr. Whooves and Carrot Top were able to be seen, but ponies like Octavia and vinyl scratch, were missing from the scene. At a glance of the crowd anypony near the doctor had a resenting look at the pony. The atmosphere was not only tense, but dense feeling. The normal everyday light hearted, kind, and welcoming aura of the town seemed to be a long shot away from now. The once colorful and bright ponys of ponyville had lost themselves. 

"Alright let's get this over with." The words left Granny in a dull tone and the crusaders went to go check on Carrot Top before the meeting would start. Before any one of them would speak they could see the dead expression on her face combined with a defeated poster. Scoots was the first one to speak up. "Hey Carrot Top, um, how's it going?" Scoots received a small punch from applebloom.

"Well it could be going better... I'm just hoping for some answers."

"Yeah..." Sweetie chimed in with.

"Are you girls doing okay with the sudden loss of so many ponies in ponyville."

"I'm doing pretty well." Scoots uttered form her lips causing her to receive another small punch from applebloom. "

"We're doing just fine Carrot Top." 

Carrot Top couldn't help but crack a little smile at that. "May I ask though Carrot Top... you look very sad and we wanna know what's wrong." 

"That's very sweet of you Sweetie Belle, but it's nothing. Besides it's not really the best time to be talking about it."

"Well with the way you been speaking it sounds like you just lost a friend." Applebloom said in a joking tone trying to lift the mood, granted it was a terrible way of going about it.

Carrot Top said nothing. Scootaloo filled the silence with her own words. "Say where is Lyra anywa-" 

"Ladies and gentlecolts! Please quiet down the meeting is about to start!" At the words spoken by the mayor the crusaders huddled back to the two member of the apple family. Mayor mare then organized her papers, corrected her microphone, and spoke. 

"As you can see, ponyville has been going through a sort of a rough patch, if you will call it. Ponies have been going missing left and right and I'm going to be frank with you... I don't know why. Even after all my research I can't find a reason why this is happening to all you good pony folk. I've gathered you today, because I am lost and I need your help. This problem is moving at a hasty pace and I'm scared. So please we need ideas on what this threat is and how to get rid of it." 

With the short speech concluded the dwindling population of ponyville sat in thought. A random pony from the crowd soon spoke up. "Maybe it's the town itself? Could it be a possibility that the town is cursed?" Ponies considered it for a second, but it was quickly debunked when they remember when Twilight Sparkle had proven curses weren't real. "Are we sure this phenomenon is exclusive to our little community?" Questioned another random pony. "That is certainly something that could occur, but that does not help us." Replied Mayor Mare. 

"Quite possibly are we looking at a double digit conspiracy conundrum?" Everypony in the crowd averted their eyes to glance at the doctor. "Will you shut up you nut, we need good ideas!" One pony in the crowd bellowed. "Well yes, doctor... um anypony else?" Mayor Mare commented. The crusaders throughout the time spent at the town hall had their minds blank. None of them a single clue as to what truly was to be blamed as the culprit of this disaster. Until applebloom had the sight of blood pop into her mind of the day before. "Maybe there is a murderer on the loose?"

Nopony said anything. The crowd could be read as a mixture of doubt, skepticism, but also fear of the possibility. "Applebloom, sure there has been evil villains bent on controlling Equestria, but never has there been anypony diabolic enough to truly kill somepony." 

"Well, actually Mayor Mare me and the police crew yesterday found quite a bit of blood at the homes of the vanished..." The police pony clamored out. Probably the last police pony left in ponyville. "Well... still! How can somepony kill this many ponies and still not have been caught!" The mayor rebutted. "Maybe it's a group of murderers." Everypony shifted their eyes to look at Carrot Top. 

"There are very few of us left and a group of murderers would be very effective in taking out many ponies at once. It's most likely the murderers are in this crowd right now." There was a pause like Carrot Top was preparing to say something. "I have a message for you traitorous beasts... Give me back my friends! You took so much away..." With every word her voice cracked and stammered until there were tears in her eyes. Shortly afterward she bolted. 

Mayor Mare reacted in an instant. "Can somepony go and check on her?" The cluster of ponies stood still. After a bit a red apple themed pony named Big Mac stepped from the group and walked away. Most of the ponies retreated into their thoughts afraid to say anything, but there was a single voice that teared through the absence of sound. "If there truly is a group of murderers out there who would be their leader?" 

In just a single moment with absolute confidence a pony shouted "It's gotta be Dr. Whooves!" And with that a wave of consideration can be seen racing throughout the crowd. "He does always have those weird machines and acts crazy all the time. He would be the perfect culprit." The doctor stammered and gasped in horror. "What ever do you mean! I'm not crazy! You know what's crazy? This whole disaster! I refuse to believe anypony could do any of this. This is the work of a paranormal force." This did not help the doctor's case. Soon the crowd began to become a mob ready to strike. Mayor Mare had visible panic on her face.

"Now listen up!" The rapidly angered crowd froze at the sound of Granny Smith's voice. "We've never been the type of ponies who would go up and judge somepony for the way they just so happen to speak and act." The crusaders sat in surprise in the sudden raise of volume of Granny Smith. One pony refuted the comment. "Well, I think we could judge a pony for leading an entire group of murderers and killing ponies!" 

"Now you shut it! Now what would Twilight and the others say?"

"We don't even know what they would think! Celestia knows if they are experiencing the same problem we are!"

"Listen to yer self! You should be ashamed, look at the rapid decent you all have taken." 

"If I may interject... I did nothing at all except find out how to track how many ponies have been disappearing every night!" The doctor bellowed. 

In a collective fashion the crowd stormed towards the fearful doctor, but in his saving grace the confused mumbles of Mayor Mare being scooted away from her mic became replaced with the determined words of applebloom. "Chill out!" Sweetie and Scootaloo joined up on the mic. "Listen, granny is right. We can't go turning on each other like this." The two girls standing next to her agreed in a simple "yeah!" In the crowd Granny had a wide smile on her face seeing her sweet Applebloom taking stand infront of all these ponies. 

"This is not what Twilight taught us in the ways of friendship in her time here." Applebloom passed the mic to scoots noticing sweetie having a disappointed expression that she didn't get the mic. Scootaloo was a bit taken back but she still came up with her own little speech as well. 

"Murderer or not we need to stand up and fix this problem! No matter the cost! Well... maybe some exceptions... But this is not the way to go about it." Sweetie could here whispers in her ears from Sweetie asking her eagerly to pass the mic. 

It seemed like she had a grand idea. Sweetie cleared her throat and there was no telling what she planned to do. She breathed in, then out and slowly introduced a melodic tune in her words as she spoke. The harmonies fluttered seamlessly through the ears of the ponies she aimed to persuade. Sweetie was singing. It was no doubt some of the most memorable, somber, and stunning performance they had ever heard from a little filly. And when her short song was over she put on a smile in hopes that her plan worked. 

Mayor Mare was the one who spoke. "Sweetie that was beautiful... I think we can now all agree that we should not have jumped to conclusions everypony." Most of the crowd looked ok with the idea with a select few still grumbling at the thought of a potential murderer getting off scot-free. "Well, I think we can end this meeting. If we all think there are murderers in this town then we will find these murderers. That will be all."

At the final words spoken by the mayor the crowd of ponies disbanded back to their homes a little doubtful and a little fearful. Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo all returned to Granny Smith who gave them a gentle smile. They all went back to the apple family farm and sat on the couch no words uttered as they waited for Big Mac to return.

Almost dusk, Big Mac walked through the door. Everyone in the room looked eagerly at the stallion that walked through the door. Granny in a flash asked Big Mac, "Is Carrot Top doing alright? What happened?" With a heavy sigh Big Mac explained the events that occurred when he gone to go cheer up Carrot Top. 



Big Mac hurriedly caught up to emotion filled mare storming off to wherever she planned to go. "Look Big Mac this isn't the best time to go chasing after me." 

"I want to at least try to help."

"No, I'm just going home. I suggest you go back to the meeting."

"Nope." 

It was clear to Carrot Top that Big Mac would not leave her alone until she willingly opened up and spoke her hurts. "Listen, I know what you've been going through some heavy stuff right now with Bon Bon." Carrot Top just had her eyes staring towards the ground. "It's not just that..." She whispered in a barely audible voice.

"I also noticed Lyra was missing from the meeting." 

"Yeah... she was my last friend in this town."

She took a moment to herself thinking about the inevitable end of the rest of the town. She stopped dead in her tracks. "Part of me feared this would happen, and I was right to do so. It's all over."

"We still don't know exactly what's going on. There's still a chance."

"Big Mac... I'm never going to get those times back."

"Don't think about the possible end of a friendship, remember the the fact that it existed."

"But how can I remember those good times, when the fact that she's gone looms over me so often?"

"Hmm..."

"There were so many things I wanted to do... to say... it's just all gone now. Do you know what it's like to have a plan and have it crushed. I had so many adventures and mishaps I wanted to do."

"There's still time. We can still fix this."

"No, you don't understand. I felt like I had a chance. A possibility just begging to be grasped and taken, but in reality I wasn't the one who took it."

"Well what did you want to do? Maybe we can still accomplish it."

"I... I wanted... I wanted to do more. Spend some bits and go places! Actually accomplish something I knew I could never do... I wanted to do it..."

"Well why don't we-"

"... for her."

"Her?"

"It's nothing. Maybe I do need to just move on."

"I'm sorry this all is happening to you. I promise we'll do all that we can to get them back."

"Maybe your right. Maybe your wrong, but it doesn't matter. I'm going to go Big Mac, but thank you for listening to me and not giving up on me."

Before she left she gave Big Mac a friendly hug and walked away back to her own home of solitude. A home filled with tears and sorrow. A home that joy had disappeared just like the ponies. A home that had a spark. A little insignificant spark of hope left in her life.



Everypony in the room just stared in shock not knowing what to think. Whether it was sadness for the pain Carrot Top was experiencing or a little bit of joy having the knowledge that maybe she would be ok, the constant reminder of the unknown still lingered through everyponys thoughts. Granny Smith decided to be the one who spoke. "Well Big Mac, I'm mighty proud of you for helping out our friend like that."

"Thank you Granny." 

"How about we play some cards before we go to bed?" Granny said in attempts to shift the mood of the room. In a instant the mouth of every single pony lifted up into a smile. BIg Mac began setting up the table, while the crusaders passed out the cards throughout the table. In a rush they were in their own chairs excited for whatever game of cards they would play. 

"What game we thinking ya'll? I was thinking gin rummy!" Granny exclaimed feeling ecstatic. 

"Granny! Nopony here knows how to play that game!" Applebloom refuted.

"Then learn it! It's not that hard to do! Look you have the cards and you-"

Big Mac interrupted with his own game suggestion. "Blackjack."

"Oh hit me. That's all you do! It's either hit or pass! How about something with a little more excitement..." Scootaloo went into the kitchen only to bring up a jar with a whole bunch of bits in it. "...Gambling."

"Do you even play with cards when you gamble scoots?" Sweetie asked innocently. 

"Yeah we ain't doing that Scootaloo." Granny said quickly shooting the idea down. Sweetie then shot her hoof up joyfully with energy claiming she had the perfect game.

"I got it." She said having the smuggest smile plastered on her face. "Gold fish." For some unexplained reason she spoke this in the voice imitation of a dark voice. 

"You know it's go fish right sweetie?"

"I know that scoots!"

'Well what's your idea Applebloom." Granny said with interest. 

"What if we do uno." She then pulled out her own deck of uno cards.

Big Mac eyes widened in confusion and with a louder voice than usual said "What the fu-" Before he could finish his sentence Granny Smith slapped him on his cheek yelling "Language!"

"I was going to say funsicle." Big Mac explaining under his breath pouting. "Applebloom... what is a uno?" Granny asked inquisitively. 

"Oh it was an invention the doctor created. I thought we could play it." The whole room was silent except for the low volume groan coming from scoots. "Wait I didn't see that anywhere in the doc's house!" Scoots screamed questioningly. 

"Well no duh. The doc gave it to me before we left."

"Why don't we try it?" Sweetie said. 

"Eeyup!" Big Mac said with agreeableness.

"Well I an't getting any younger here. Let's play uno!" 

Each one of them played uno after Applebloom explained the rules from the back of the box and had a blast. Packaged in this deal of fun was a whole lot of screaming and laughter, espically when Scootaloo had zero blues and had to pick up 10 cards from the deck right when she was on her last card. Applebloom won most of the games leaving Granny and Big Mac stunned, while Big Mac and Scoots came in a close second being tied in the amount of games they won. Granny ans Sweetie Belle also tied, but all it left them was a sad third place. After what felt like hours the fun and games ended. Big Mac, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo all went upstairs to sleep the night away... well at least Big Mac would be. 

Granny Smith and Applebloom stayed downstairs for a little bit longer. "Hey Applebloom?"

"Yeah Granny?"

"I wanted to tell you something." Applebloom said nothing letting fill the moment with her words instead of her own.

"I wanna say that I'm really proud of you. I would have never thought that a filly your age would go ahead and give some sort of speech right there in front of all of Ponyville with her friends like that. With times like these I want to thank you for being so strong. Your becoming more and more like your sister everyday and I don't know if I should be scared or happy. Keep being strong Applebloom and to let nothing separate you and your friends there."

Applebloom just smiled and gave Granny a hug. "I love you Applebloom. No matter what happens know I love you. Now go get to bed. You really need to sleep."

"Pfft, I'm fine Granny." Granny gave Applebloom a "seriously?" look. "Your eyes looked like they were drenched in cranberry juice." Applebloom let out a chuckle giving Granny another hug and saying "I love you" before climbing up the stairs to join back up with her friends grinning from ear to ear.

Upon entering the room the girls did what they set out to do and once again were determined to stay up all night trying to figure out something during the night that would give a clue to stop the disappearances. They chatted and chatted to pass the time. 

"You know I'm really glad I got to spend all this time with you girls." Applebloom said with joy. Scoots and Sweetie nodded in agreement. "I mean none of this would have happened if all of Twilight and her friends had to go down to Canterlot. What are the chances!" Applebloom shouted in the lowest possible voice she could muster. 

"I still hope their doing alright." 

"They'll be fine Sweetie Belle." Scootaloo said dismissively. "With Rainbow Dash there, there's no way they'll fail whatever mission they're doing over there. As Scootaloo made this comment a thought popped into the mind of Applebloom. "Hey Scoots... What's up with you and your parents?" 

"Uh... where did this come from?"

"Well you mentioned Rainbow Dash and you guys are practically family. We just... don't really know much about your own family."

"Oh yeah... shouldn't we be focusing on scouting any suspicious activity during the night."

"Scoots you've been goofing off and chatting with us as much as we have." Sweetie said with a raised eyebrow. 

"Well I-" In a single instance the calm feel of the barn was suddenly filled with pent up anxiety as Scootaloo sentence was cut off due to a large thud heard from outside the room. Silence was the only thing heard. Nothing made a singular move. Everything in that moment stood still in time waiting for something to occur. And just when it seemed the intense anxiety filled moment was about to leave the screaming took place instead. 

The worst part of it all was where the screaming was coming from. All three of the fillies raced to Big Mac's room then Granny's in a desperate panic. And as a singe tear hit the ground the soft words of Applebloom were spoken... 

"They're gone..."
> 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.
> The Night
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

With a knock on the door and a twist of the knob the doctor gazed outward from inside. His eyes widened at the mob of ponies, ten to be exact all wielding knives. None of these ponies were neither pegasi nor unicorns, but these ponies were here for one reason and one reason only... to put a stop to this madness any way possible.

"For to long you have terrorized this town! We are the last residents in Ponyville! There used to be hundreds of us here, and now look at us!" The cmcs ran up to the door at the sound of the commotion. At closer inspection nine of the ten did not look familiar at all, but at the very back stood a mare with an orange mane and a yellow coat. They looked up at the doctor who in turned chuckled a bit. "You guys really don't think it's me do you?"

"We wouldn't put it past you with your weird inventions and your past actions." 

Applebloom stepped forward gaining attention from the group of furious stallions and mares. "Where's the mayor!" 

"She's dead, and seriously doctor you kidnapped three little fillies!"

"Hey! They came to me! I-"

In a quick swift motion the pony in front took a stab at the doctor barely missing as the doctor lunged back. Another pony threw their knife causing the doctor to leap to the side out of sight from the door. One by one the mob poured into the home pushing aside the three little fillies. "Step back!" The doctor said now wielding a weapon of his own. The weapon was one of his inventions that nopony even dared to ask what it did. It had a large oval shaped opening on the front while the rest of its appearance reminisced of a rifle. 

"I said step back! I will shoot!" A pony from the crowd took their chances and took a thrust closing their eyes in the process.. In a rapid movement the trigger was pulled.

The pony released their eyelids releasing that they had been encased in a gigantic bubble floating above the ground. The bubble popped and realizing the weapon in the doctors hooves wasn't harmless they charged again. In a rush the doctor scooped up the three little fillies and bolted for the back door creating a bubbly mass from the weapon he carried. Unfortunately for them the bubble gun slipped out of the doctor's hooves and left at the back door. In the midst of the rush from the corner of their eyes the cmcs could see the mare with the orange mane and yellow coat... it was Carrot Top.

Outside the house the sun was dwindling from the sky and the moon rose. The moon was tinted red and created a red hue across the land of Ponyville.

"This isn't happening," Sweetie whispered under her breath beginning to panic. 

"It's gonna be alright kid, we just gotta make it to the northern exit."

Applebloom put her hoof on Sweetie and Scootaloo, pulling them close into a huddle. "Did you just see what I just saw?"

"Are we even sure she even wants to be a part of this? She doesn't really act like a killer." Sweetie pointed out in hope.

"Well whatever she is doing we gotta keep moving," Scoots said with confidence before shouting, "Can we please slow down just a bit though! I feel like I'm about to fall off!"

"There's no time!"

"Can you at least explain what they meant by your past actions?" Scoots asked suspiciously. 

"I don't think now is the best time to be asking about this scoots." Applebloom said.

"FIne."

All three of the cmcs sat bumpily on the doctor's back as he galloped across the eastern side of Ponyville making his way to central Ponyville at the town center. While he ran and ran he got lost in thought. Here he was sprinting for his life with three children riding on his back. Was he now the protector of these fillies? Even if he was he was filled with fear. The only protection he had himself was his wits. Now only one thought ran through his mind and that was get out.



Back at the doctor's home the mob of ponies talked in confusion on where the doctor and three little fillies had gone. Carrot Top stepped up standing on a table to gather the attention of everypony in the room. "I have an idea!" Everypony looked up in confusion. "I don't think the doctor will survive unless he leaves the town and I believe he understands that. If we block the four exits then we should be able to prevent him from escaping! All we have to do is split up and guard those four spots!" 

"What about the three little fillies?" One of the ponies asked.

"Yeah, we need to protect them! There's no telling what the doctor will do!" Another pony added.

"I say we use the doctor's inventions against him!" A blue stallion called out.

The mob roared in agreement. One particular pony tripped over one of the backpacks left from the cmcs and the doctor. He opened it up glancing inside realizing it held lots of materials and food. "Well if they don't have anything they can't leave just yet can they? It's a shot in the dark, but I got an idea."

Carrot Top did nothing but stare at the now bustling mob of ponies scouring for anything they could use. Whispering under her breath she said, "I sure hope their doing okay."



The doctor began to slow down and feel the pain in his hooves from running for a longer period of time then what he was used to. "Doctor?"

"Yes, Sweetie?"

"One, I have to go to the bathroom and two, if we're leaving for Canterlot like right now, we left our belongings for the trip back at your house." 

The doctor skidded down to a halt. "Oh crap-o-crackers your right. Surely there's a store around here somewhere. There we can get snacks, food, and supplies."

"Wouldn't that be stealing?"

"Oh ho ho scoots! In a situation like this anything is legal!"

In a hurry the doctor glanced ever which way for some sort of small building that would provide them with necessary materials for the trip. In about 5 minuets the mission had been a success. They entered the cold, dark, and unused store feeling a rush of chills wash over them. The store was humongous and carried a large variety of things for any need.  "Alright I say we split up! We can cover more ground and gain more supplies if we do!" 

"No!" Sweetie shouted. "We should never split up! You know what happens in the movies!" 

"Sweetie... not every single piece of horror media has to have a reference to splitting up being the worst thing you can do in a horror situation," Scoots responded with.

"You make a great case Scootaloo! I shall go with Applebloom, while you and Sweetie go with each other."

"Alright sweetie looks like it's you and me-" Scoots began to say only to find Sweetie had disappeared from anywhere in sight. At first she was worried until she remembered she still had to go to the bathroom. With a grunt she roamed around the shelves looking for anything tasty or helpful for their journey. Walking down the food aisles she found not much, but still managed to find some chocolate lying around. She then made her way to the toy aisle. "Surely we'll need some entertainment right?"

Bursting up and down the racks of wonderful toys she found out that there weren't actually that many toys to begin with. Most of the toys left in the store were plushies or just toys she did not want. Taking one last look around she gasped as she laid her pupils on the perfect baseball bat. "Oh yeah, I can knock some heads with this." It wasn't perhaps the most entertaining item, but it could prove to be very useful. 

After a bit more wandering around and finding nothing the bit of anger building up made her feel she had an opportune moment to rant to herself. "If it wasn't for Sweetie and Applebloom I would've ditched this nutcase as soon as I crossed paths with him once. I don't understand why they still trust him." 

She continued her walk though the toy section. She stopped when a particular item caught her eye. It was a scooter. She didn't know why, but something about the situation reminded her about her parents, specifically her father when he would show off his own tricks with his own scooter. "At least the doctor helped Applebloom with her own family struggles..." 

"Hey scoots!"

"AGH!"

It was only Sweetie Belle who came to greet her. "That was a long bathroom break Sweetie," she said letting out a yawn.

"Well I couldn't find you, so I went searching for some stuff on my own and found some backpacks for the trip. What did you find?" She said also giving out a yawn.

"I got some chocolate... and a baseball bat."

"What are we going to need a baseball bat for?"

"For protection duh!"

"Jeez... ok Scoots. Can I at least carry it with me?"

"Eh, sure. Doesn't really matter who carries it. Did you find anything besides those backpacks?"

"Not really, this place is so creepy and empty. Wanna catch back up with Applebloom and the doc?"

"Sure."

Applebloom and the doctor were strolling down the frozen food aisles. They had already collected a good portion of non frozen foods and water for the trip and now they were opening every fridge that held any sort of frozen foods. "Tell me again why we're grabbing cold food that will melt and become bad before we even get close to Canterlot?"

"Well if you think about it Applebloom, this food can be used in self defense. It's a hard object and if it melts then you can just force your opponent to eat it and bam! They're poisoned"

"There might be a couple of flaws in your logic doc..."

"The point is we should stock up on anything and everything!" 

Applebloom let out a hearty yawn. The doctor immediately noticed and sternly looked at Applebloom in the eyes. "Remember what we said... do not fall asleep..."

"Right, I won't!" 

When the doctor was satisfied he led him and Applebloom to the clothing section of the store. "We're gonna need lots of this stuff. For defense and warmth..." For some strange reason the doctor had his eyes squinted when he said this. 

"Say doc? What did they mean when they said past actions?"

"Well like I said there's a reason I'm known as a crazy pony."

"Well what happened?"

"Look kid, I can't blame you for being curious, but it wasn't pretty. A lot of ponies say it's my fault."

"Well is it?"

"Well yeah... it was never part of my intention... but yes."

She wanted to pry, but noticed the slight twinge in his smile and the shifted tone in his voice and backed off. They spent a little bit more time searching for clothing, which fortunately for them there were lots, due to not many ponies wearing clothing. "How bout we meet back up with Scoots and Sweetie-"

There was a loud noise from across the store that echoed from the other side. It sounded like glass. "That must be them!" Slowly they made their way to investigate the sound. When they got there the only thing that laid there was a knocked over glass of jelly, cracked and broken. "Scoots! Sweetie! You guys okay?" 

No sight or response was heard from the two fillies. "Maybe they just ain't here?" From behind them came another crack. They both turned their head around in a instant. "Dang it... blew my cover." Standing in front of them now was a black and blue stallion carrying not anything resembling a gun, but a mechanical mess of wires and metal in the shape of a long tree branch. 

"Give me the filly doc!" 

"Doctor, what does he have in his hooves?"

"It's one of my inventions... and not one of the more safe ones..."

"You know what's going to happen anyway doc! You can't escape this."

"Hand me the frozen corn bag Applebloom." She reluctantly handed the doctor one of the frozen food items they had collected.

"We need to run doc... I don't think you can take him."

"Wrong Applebloom, we still don't know where Scootaloo and Sweetie are, plus we have an added risk of bringing them into this brawl."

The doctor lifted up the frozen corn bag in went into battle stance, while his opponent charged up his own weapon. The wires shifted and scurried around until little holes from inside the invention oozed out poison gas. Instead of the gas spreading it stuck tightly to each wire and piece of metal on the invention. 

The stallion charged towards the doctor taking a full on front swing aiming for his head. The doctor bounced to the right nailing him in the back with the corn. With a hunch the doctor's opponent took another swing this time to the side. Ducking just in time the doctor yelled to Applebloom, "Slide me some of that glass!" 

She did so, allowing the doctor to quickly scoop it into his hoof and shove it into the body of the stallion. He winced in pain, having a bit of blood leak out. Applebloom could not keep the fact that she was scared not only for the doctor, but now the his opponent. 

The stallion leaped at him pinning him down to the ground lifting up the poison filled invention. Just when he was about to pierce the invention into his chest a loud crack reached his ears. The stallion fell to the ground unconscious and just behind them stood Scootaloo and Sweetie. "I told you the baseball bat would be useful," Scoots said giving a smug look at Sweetie who was wielding the baseball bat.

"And that is why we have to hurry and get the heck outta here! We did you guys gather up?"

"I got backpacks!"

"I got chocolate and of course the baseball bat."

"Well that'll have to do. Let's place the materials in the backpacks and let's get moving! Also my invention, grab that!"

Scoots walked over to the body to retrieve the weapon, then at the sight of it one thing caught the eye of her. "Is that blood?" The doctor turned around to see Scootaloo examining the knocked out pony.

"Yes, but let's not pay attention to that." Scootaloo and Sweetie both looked horrified as the doctor scooped him up on his back once again bursting out the store with speed before they could respond. In the moment they neglected to glance up at the sky and find a blood colored moon, slowly making its way to the other side of the sky still giving off its red hue.

Scurrying through the town only two thoughts stuck in the doctor's head. Escape and protection. He checked all around him making sure nopony was around to attack them. They were approaching the halfway mark: Central Ponyville. The tall stature of the building was in sight and a slight bit of relaxation washed over the doctor knowing they were getting closer. His rushed demeanor came to a screeching halt when they came across two more of the last residents of Ponyville. 

"Oh just great." The doctor groaned.

In a full sprint he attempted to avoid any sort of contact with the two. As he shifted to the side trying to get to the path leading to their destination one of the two bolted as well cutting off his path. The weapon he carried was familiar sporting the same shape and physique as the bubble gun the doctor had used back at his house. The doctor caught eye of this and lunged back preparing for any sort of attack they might throw at them. 

"Applebloom I want you to step back, and Sweetie and Scoots since you two have your own ways of self defense I want you to help." Sweetie put on her most determined face, still having cracks showing a very well present state of fear preparing to defend the doctor, while Scootaloo grinned a toothy smile ready to defend herself. Applebloom did as the doctor said and let the three take charge. 

The second pony whipped out a tiny fanny pack. When opened only one ninja star would be seen to the pony. In sheer disappointment he threw the star in hopes of at least managing to hit the doctor. Upon finishing this action he came to realize that glaring so abruptly in the fanny pack was another ninja star created from the mechanical whirring from inside the pack itself.

Just gazing at the two ponies made Sweetie shiver and in a few short and simple seconds she handed the invention previously used in the store to the doctor and walked back to where Applebloom stood. "You guys got this!" 

"We don't want to hurt the child doctor, just please give it up."

The doctor bolted towards the pony with the fanny pack. Getting closer the pony panicked and gave an onslaught of sharp ninja stars all in the general direction of the oncoming opponent, while Scootaloo stood away from the action wondering when the opportune moment would be to come in and strike. 

The doctor attempted to dodge the oncoming attacks, but in the end was grazed quite a few times by the ninja stars thrown at him. Meanwhile, the pony with the gun resembling the past bubble gun was aiming carefully, making sure to not hit his own comrade. 

The doctor made it up to where the ninja star wielding pony was and sucker punched him right in the gut. Kneeling down the pony snatched another star almost forcing it into the doctor's leg, before the doctor rolled back. In a moment of stalemate between the two the other pony with the gun found to what he thought to be the perfect opportunity to strike. Commanding the weapon to shoot out came only a sharp blade. 

"Dang it." He threw the gun away in favor of the blade that had spit out from it. 

Scootaloo saw this as the perfect moment to make her own strike, running up to the stallion as fast as she could ready to get past this obstacle and make it to the northern exit. She swung but missed as her target jumped back in confusion as to why this child was attacking him. 

He ignored the filly and continued his way over to the doctor who was struggling against the other stallion switching from projectiles to melee, occasionally propelling more stars at his target. The stallion with the blade ran up to the fray ready to swing and distracted from the fight was knocked in the head once again unconscious by Scootaloo and her baseball bat. 

Finishing it off the doctor sacked the other stallion in the face pushing him back into the second hard strike made by Scootaloo knocking him to, unconscious. Both breathing heavily the stood silent and frozen for a few seconds processing the battle they just took part in.

"Marvelous work Scootaloo!" He laughed at the enormous bravery Scootaloo had shown throughout the situation so far. Scootaloo smiled slightly at the comment turning back to witness Sweetie and Applebloom racing towards them at lighting speed. "Thank goodness you guys are okay!" 

"Well thanks to Scoots here, we are the supreme winners! With now just a straight shot, I don't think we have anything left to worry about." After a couple brief moments of rest the doctor placed the three fillies on his back and continued his sprint to the northern exit. With each step however, the injuries he had sustained made it more difficult to carry on. With the end to this madness practically in sight, it made it so very easy for any of them to just rest and fall asleep.



Many ponies across the events of the week have either lost dear friends, or family, or even themselves. And as Carrot Top stood in front of the northern exit that was all she could think about. Every last resident left in Ponyville besides the three fillies and the doctor himself had believed the deaths and disappearances of everypony else was caused by the madness that was the doctor.

They all had some sort of friends of family lost from what they believed was the hooves of the doctor. They all believed in how crazy and untrustworthy the doctor was. 

They all were there on that faithful day. 

Standing there at the exit she knew she was no different from any of the other ponies left in the town, but part of her believed that she should get the chance to see the end of the doctor herself. In fact she wanted to be the one to end it all. And in the action of standing there and waiting for the slim opportunity for it to become a reality she knew this is what everypony else in the town desired as well.

With a heavy sigh she stared uninterested in the empty road leading to outside of the town all tinged with the red hue from the moon hanging high above. The pony beside her however stared intently and focused down the pathway. In the blink of an eye the blank stare turned into widened eyes as the pony beside her shook the mare to be alert. 

Down the pathway were four ponies raring to make their way out and escape the danger resided in the small and quaint little town. Gasping Carrot Top shifted into her battle stance examining the movement of the so called crazed stallion.

He stopped. There was no doubt in her mind that he could now see the two of them guarding the exit. With her carrying a single knife and the other gripping onto a mechanical mess of metal with no hesitation they galloped at them, hoping to themselves that this would finally be the end.

"Sweetie Belle! Give me my invention, quick!" Sweetie tossed the poison filled creation to the doctor stepping back in horror once again. Scootaloo readied herself for another fight hesitating at the sight of Carrot Top, while Applebloom stood frozen behind the back of the doctor. 

Bolting at top speed both Carrot Top and the pony beside her prepared themselves to strike down the stallion, while the doctor prepared himself as well still in the same spot...

However both charging ponies came to a screeching halt when they saw the yellow and red apple themed filly stand strong in front of the sole enemy they desperately yearned to kill.  

"Stop it now!" 

Carrot Top shifted back in surprise. 

"Why are you doing all of this!"

"Applebloom please, we're trying to help..." 

"Yeah kid, get out of the way." The pony beside Carrot Top said.

"No... you ain't about to do this. It ain't right."

"Listen Applebloom... he's the one who has been committing all of these murders. He's done stuff like this before-"

"Move out of the way!"

"Yeah!" Sweetie bellowed coming up to Applebloom's side. 

"Look I know you all want to kill me and all, but I'm trying to do right. I've been protecting these fillies-"

"If you've been truly protecting these fillies, you would have let them come to us! Your only putting them in more danger having them stay with you." The pony beside Carrot top screamed.

"We choose to stay with him!" Applebloom refuted.

"Girls please... just let us put an end to this." 

"What happened to you Carrot Top? I thought you would be on our side!"

"I care about you, but this... how can you expect me to be on your side for this!"

"If I may interject, Applebloom has been through a lot. I mean her family-"

"Her family? Her family... the family you killed!" His voice shaking the pony beside Carrot Top pushed Applebloom and Sweetie Belle to the ground knocking down the doctor furiously hitting him with the object he had in his hooves. Everypony stood back letting the interaction happen. Applebloom gazed in horror.

The doctor was barely able to escape his grasp lunging backwards getting ready with his weapon again. "Please don't do this!" Sweetie yelled. 

His vision dazed, he wobbled forward just a bit. All he could see was colors and a moving blob coming straight at him. Out of pure instinct he pointed his weapon sharp point first just as the pony jumped once again at him. 

But instead of his strike landing, the sharp ended point pierced directly through his chest.   

Immediately he let go of the weapon, his own invention. His vision slowly returning back to him, he stared in shock a pained look in his eyes. 

Everypony stared in shock of the unspeakable act they had just witnessed. The murderer had just done what he always did best... which was to kill.

"You heartless beast!"

"I- I'm sorry-"

His voice was cut short from the slit on the throat applied by Carrot Top herself. Desperate for air but receiving no oxygen all he could do was collapse to the ground. 

Not one sound made its way out of anyone's mouths. 

"You... killed him." Applebloom eyes started to fill with tears.

"Applebloom he-"

"He was just trying to help everypony here and you killed him! He didn't do nothing wrong!" Her eyes and cheeks were now covered in tears.

"Please... he wasn't-"

"He was kind and was helping us as well!" Sweetie added.

Carrot Top wanted to speak again. Then an orange coated purple maned filly named Scootaloo walked to her side. 

"Girls... we should listen to Carrot Top."

"What? Are you crazy Scootaloo?!"

"Think about it Sweetie Belle. The ponies in this town have known him longer than we have. They've seen stuff we didn't see. He just killed a pony right in front of us!" 

"It was an accident!"

"Was it really? He was never trustworthy!"

"Scootaloo... please! He was our friend. He did everything he could to help us... he might have been able to fix all of this."

"I'm sorry Applebloom, but that's not how it works. Trust me I want this to all be over! I want everypony to come back! I want your family back... but he just could not provide that..."


"No! Just because he can't bring your family back doesn't mean he can't bring mine back!"

Silence returned as a gentle gust of wind flowed through their manes.

"I never told you my parents were-"

"It's not hard to connect the dots Scoots. How we never see them, how you barely even talk about them."

"I just... don't want you girls hurt..."

In a sudden shift the speakers all around Ponyville turned on unexpectedly. A new voice now filled the dead silent air in the town that all four of them there recognized. The princess of Equestria. Princess Celestia. One of the two sisters that ruled over the land. The one who controlled the status of the sun. 

"I congratulate you all my dear subjects. Good job on finding the murderer that had plagued your town for so long!"

All four shared confused looks of the appearance of princess Celestia's voice. 

"How did she even know about the murderer in Ponyville?" Carrot Top asked having a slight tinge of worry creep into her voice. Celestia continued.

"I would also love to thank you all for participating! Except for maybe a few ponies, each one of you are willing enough to join me. So as my final words follow... see you soon."

"What does she mean by that?" Sweetie said beginning to panic. Carrot Top walked up to Sweetie wanted to calm her down.

"I'm sure we're going to be fine." Carrot Top's breath began to quicken and her heart pick up in speed. In mere moments she collapsed to the floor her muscles tensing up. The pain enormous she let out a blood curdling scream the likes that nopony had heard before. All three fillies raced to gather around Carrot Top.

"What's going on!" Sweetie bellowed.

"Carrot Top what's happening?!" Applebloom bellowed as well.

Scootaloo began to say something as well before her voice cut off and her muscles tensing up like Carrot Top's. Soon she also collapsed to the floor. "Scootaloo!" They shrieked in unison. 

Both shouting immensely their skin began to peel off revealing tissue, nerves, bones, and flesh to gawk at. Their bones evaporating from their bodies, nerves exploding into nothing, tissue crumpling up into paper balls, and every last piece of their flesh boiling to a crisp. 

One second was a sight so very horrible accompanied by hollers so ear piercing that you were willing to do anything to stop it and the next shown only the grass and the two fillies left alone with just themselves and their thoughts. Feeling the overwhelming amount of rest they missed and the disgusting scene of blood and guts, they both fainted.

And with the moon still glowing blood red, a uncountable number of ponies disappeared during the night...