Applebloom had spoken to Twilight and was told about everything they knew so far, as reluctant as the ponies were to worry her with bad news, Applejack in particular didn't want anything held back from her little sister. It was a scary harsh reality, but it was something that Applebloom was better off coming to terms with then being sheltered from it and it may even allow her to get the determination to work hard to help them find the missing ponies.

Nothing anypony said could keep Applebloom from marching of to the Cutie Mark Crusader treehouse to meet her friends. Reluctantly she let Big Macintosh follow her. She didn't like being treated like a baby that can't take care of herself. She will never find her cutie mark if she can never take risks.

Applebloom trotted up the steps to the Cutiemark Crusader treehouse. Her two friends were already there waiting for her. Scootaloo was a orange coated pegasus with a purple mane and she always kept her scooter with her and Sweetie Belle was a cute little filly with a white coat and apale pink and purple curly mane and tail.

"Howdy, girls!" she beamed happily.

"Hi, Apple Bloom!" replied Sweetiebelle and Scootaloo together.

"What are we gonna do today to earn our cutie marks?" Scootaloo asked eagerly. It wasn't long before Big Macintosh appeared towering behind Applebloom.

Sweetiebelle facehoofed. "What did you bring him for? this was supposed to be Cutiemark Crusaders only."

"Oh ahm’ sorry girls, but there is a dangerous pony in Ponyville, he's the one responsible for Fluttershy being missing. My brother is here ta’ protect us while we become..." Applebloom excitedly shouted. "Cutie Mark Crusader Investigators!"

"Or missing pony finders," Scootaloo nodded in agreement.

"Or lion tamers!" Sweetiebelle continued.

The other fillies looked at her with a frown.

"We tried that remember, an’ somepony nearly got eaten!" Applebloom replied pointing at herself.

"But what if your special talent is being eaten?" Scootaloo joked and laughed. Sweetie Belle joined in the laughter.

"Girls this is serious! Fluttershy is in trouble and,” she turned to Sweetie Belle, “so is Rarity, most likely." Applebloom said with a direct and serious tone.

"But my sister told me she was just going to Canterlot for a few weeks," Sweetie Belle said starting to get worried.

Applebloom shook her head. "Ahm sorry Sweetiebelle but she's not in Canterlot, at least we cain't find her there."

"But she said she was just going to the Royal Canterlot fashion show, She said she would be back soon, salty water started to form in the little filly’s eyes." Applebloom trotted up to Sweetie Belle and stroked her mane.

"Ahm so sorry Sweetie Belle, but ah think she may have lied to ya". Apple Bloom said as she let Sweetie Belle rest her head on her shoulder.

"No... my sister would never lie to me, would she...?" The white unicorn objected.

"Ah don't think she would ever lie to ya either," Applebloom agreed, "Somepony must have forced her to tell ya that, cause tha’ fashion show isn't for two months."

Sweetie Belle was sobbing. "Well then.... what are we waiting for.... we need to find her!"

Scootaloo was watching and she started to develop her own concerns. "What about Rainbow Dash, she went to Canterlot several days ago, she should be back by now?"

"Ahm sorry Scootaloo I dun know why she isn't back. Applejack, Pinkie Pie an Twilight are very worried about her too, none of their letters have been answered for several days.

"What if Rainbow Dash got ponynapped too!" Scootaloo shouted. "We have to go to Canterlot we have to find her".

"Nah please stay with us Scootaloo, Twilight knows that the ponynapper is here in Ponyville an if we find im' we will probably find all our friends. We could use ya scooter to help us get aroun' too."

Scootaloo thought about it for a moment and then stepped on her scooter. "Well then let get going, I'm gonna give that ponynapper a piece of my mind!"

The three little fillies got on the scooter and began to speed off towards Ponyville.

As they were going at full speed Scootaloo failed to notice a rock that didn't agree with her wheels and sent them tumbling over. It launched Applebloom and Sweetiebelle several feet into the air and forward. They prepared themselves to impact the ground, but instead they impacted an invisible wall. The two fillies hit the invisible barrier and then slumped to the ground still leaning on it.

Scootaloo looked at the invisible force behind them in surprise. It was rippling like water while their backs were leaning on it. "Um... girls look behind you" She suggested.

The two fillies looked behind them and noticed the remains of ripples in the middle of what seemed to be thin air.

Curiously SweetieBelle touched the ripples and found that she made more and that her hoof was unable to penetrate the air beyond it.

"What in Equestria is this?" Applebloom asked.

Sweetie Belle curious as ever body slammed into it and it felt like she hit a brick wall.

"Ah think this is worthy of investigatin'" Applebloom replied.

Big Macintosh had finally caught up to them. Scootaloo was fast on her scooter.

"Nope" He called out desperately.

"Awww but Big Mac, Fluttershy an Rarity could be right behind here."

"Nope" He shook his head.

Scootaloo nodded in agreement. "He's right, I think we have found a vital clue and we need to get the adults to investigate!" She commanded confidently.

Applebloom was too determined, "But what if our cutie marks are rescuin’ ponies, ya'll could miss your chance. I reckon we should all investigate, cuz we are Cutie Mark Crusade Private Investigators!"

"I agree with Scootaloo" Sweetie Belle commented. "We need to get somepony to help us."

"Fine!" Applebloom rolled her eyes, "Scootaloo you are the fastest, you go an find a pony, like mah sis or Twilight Sparkle. We will wait here and stand guard an help ya find ya way back".

"Yes, I will be back soon, never fear!" Scootaloo replied. Scootaloo sped off in the direction of Ponyville.

"Nope" Big Mac tried to object but scootaloo was too fast and he had to return to the other two fillies because Applebloom was the most important to him.

"Ah rigth, now that that chicken is gone let's break down this force field Sweetie Belle." She looked expectantly at her unicorn friend.

"Um... I can't even do telekinesis yet". Sweetiebelle looked down in shame.

"Wha still, most fillies your age or even younger can use magic." Applebloom stated.

"I know it's really embarr’tassing, and Scootaloo can't fly, Maybe we are going to be blank franks forever because we can do anything." The unicorn complained.

"Now ah ain't never even see ya try ta use magic, give it a try, see wha happens if ya touch the invisible wall with ya horn." The farm pony encouraged.

Big Macintosh tried to voice his objections. and shook his head, but there was nothing he could do to stop the determined fillies. So he stood guard and made sure that if they got hurt he would be ready.

Sweetie nodded and shrugged and didn't expect to be able to do anything. She touched the wall with her horn and it rippled outwards from the point. She then gritted her teeth, closed her eyes and focused hard. She imagined getting past the forcefield. She wish hard for it. Applebloom cheered when her horn began to glow.

Opening her eyes, she saw the light from her horn. She had never made it glow so brightly before. After a few minutes she was able to put her horn past the field. Sweetie Belle smiled at her accomplishment. Applebloom then started clopping her hooves in excitement. The white filly tried to push herself further in but she couldn't, soon the glow faded and she became stuck there with her horn still in the wall. Applebloom couldn't see her horn, it had disappeared along with the barrier.

Latex pony had just arrived on the scene, when she saw the two fillies and the stallion she hid behind a bush. 'Dammit, how did they find it’ she thought. This is really bad she had to do something. She pulled a syringe out of a zipped pocket in her latex outfit. She then carefully snuck up behind Big Macintosh and she injected him and all he managed to say before collasping was "Nope!" The fillies ignored him, thinking he was just continuing his nagging. Then the pony snuck up behind Applebloom who was busy trying to encourage her friend to get her magic going so that could get her horn back out. Sweetie Belle saw a pony behind her friend in the corner of her eye.

"Behind you Applebloom" Sweetie Belle screeched. But it was too late, latex pony had injected her with the horse tranquillizer and before Applebloom could even turn around she slumped to the ground. Sweetiebelle started panicking and yanked at her horn hard as the pony in strange black material approached her.

"Help! ponnynapper" she screamed. Latex pony put her hoof on her mouth to muffle her cries and then injected her too with horse tranquillizer, she only need to inject the rest of the second needle, since they were only little. Sweetie Belle fell asleep and hung in an awkward position by her horn still stuck.

[hr[

The two fillies woke up in a dark room and they were inside a cage designed to imprison a full grown stallion, with the two of them in there it was very cramped. The Latex pony approached them, her expression unreadable with her face completely masked. The fillies started shaking in fear.

"Please, let us go" Sweetiebelle cried.

"When mah sister finds out about this she is gonna give ya the buckin' of yer life".

"I highly doubt that" the intimidating pony said in a scary deep and masculine artificial voice. "You girls have stumbled on a secret I need to keep, I'm afraid I have to make sure you never talk about the barrier that you found."

"What will you do to us?" Sweetie Belle asked crying her eyes out in fear.

"I will just keep you imprisoned for as long as it takes, you have nothing to fear from me."

"Are you tha Ponynapper?" Applebloom asked.

"No", the pony replied. "But he is going to know about you two." Observing closely the pony asked them a question that surprised the fillies.

"Where is Scootaloo?" the pony demanded to know.

They looked at her confused. "How do you know we hang out with Scootaloo?" They both asked together.

They were glared at, but with what emotion was unknown.

"I just do" she replied. "Does she know what you found?"

"Nah, she wasn't with us" She lied.

The Latex pony believed her but not completely, she had to take that possibility into account, whether a waste of time or not.

"I want you girls to eat something." The latex pony started preparing them some food in the next room. She was in a hurry and quickly just made them some cereal. She put it in front of them and rushed out of the room. If she didn't hurry her client would be discovered.

The fillies saw their brother in another cage, still sound asleep.

"Brother!" Applebloom yelled, "Brother, wake up, help us!"

Big Macintosh was out like a light and her voice just sounded like part of his dream, but their meanings were distorted.

"Nope" He protested to the phantoms..

Scootaloo flapped her little wings hard to give more momentum to her scooter as she rode into the centre of Ponyville. To her surprise every unicorn seemed to be out of their houses and their horns were glowing. Scootaloo kept looking around until she saw Twilight Sparkle accompanied side by side, by her friends Applejack and Pinkie Pie. She rode up to them quickly and put the brakes on in front of them.

"Scootaloo, I'm sorry but we don't have time for games" Twilight said annoyed as she tried to concentrate her magic.

"I'm not playing games either, we found them, we think. The ponynapper!" Scootaloo said to them frantically. All their ears perked up. "We found some sort of invisible wall, we can't get in, but if somepony is hiding there it would make sense it would be the ponynapper" she continued.

"An invisible barrier spell, of course!" Twilight hoofed herself in the face. "But what pony would be powerful enough to do a spell like that, for so long?"

"How powerful are we talkin?" Applejack asked.

"The only ponies powerful enough are alicorns and maybe a few rare particularly gifted unicorns". Twilight reasoned, "Something really strange is going on here".

"Would ya consider yerself powerful enough to do it?" Applejack asked.

"Maybe but not without a lot of hard practice and I doubt I could ever do it for more than an hour." Twilight puzzled, she couldn't make sense of it. The three of them started moving and Pinkie Pie called out to the rest of the unicorns like a drill sergeant.

"Okay everypony, we have found a really humongously huge hugey hugeously...." Pinkie had no idea where she was going with that, so she just hurried up and made it simple. "Let's follow Scootaloo everypony! Yay, I love follow the leader."

Soon an army of unicorns was marching towards the edge of Ponyville with determined looks on their face. Twilight most of all. She was angry, she was ready to tear somepony's heart out with her magic. She had never had such a dark thought before.

As they marched Twilight turned to Applejack. "Where in Equestria is Rainbow Dash, she should have been back by now, no she should have been back two days ago?"

"Ah have no idea Twi" Applejack frowned. "Spike ain't even heard from her."

Twilight was annoyed. "Urgh! Element of Loyalty indeed.”

"Ahm sure she mus have a good reason, I just hope she ain't been ponynapped too" Applejack consoled.

Pinkie just kept quiet, no matter how she rationalised it, she could not make any light of the situation and she didn't want to be a downer in front of her friends.

"I'm going to kill this Redblood when I see him." Twilight yelled.

"Calm yerself Twi, he will get what he deserves, but killin' ain't ever the answer".

"Just try and stop me." Twilight challenged, her eye was twitching and she looked even crazier then she did when she was late on a friendship report for the princess that one time. When she made a dangerously desirable doll.

"Ah just want ya, to keep thinkin' rational" Applejack warned. "Ya know what happens when ya get like this".

"Eeeheehee" Twilight Laughed menacingly.