While Shaggy was getting himself into the mess of a lifetime (challenging a total and scary motorcyclist by the name of Tex to a motorcycle race), Fred and Daphne, along with the rest of the Mane 6, were watching Velma interact with Winsor from behind some large boulders.
And needless to say, the two seemed infatuated with one another, but had no idea how to start their conversations.
Winsor finally took a deep breath and started speaking first. “So…”
“Yeah…” Velma nodded, keeping her eyes on Winsor. “So…”
“Uh, so…”
“Yeah…”
“Anyway, uh, I was maybe wondering,” Winsor began talking rather quickly, “if you'd wanna, like, I don't know, uh… go have dinner with me sometime…”
“Yes…”
“Or that kind of thing, maybe?”
“Yes!”
Pipp couldn't help but coo in the ponies' hiding place with their friends, her smile nice and wide. “Velma’s going on a real date! I knew this day would come!”
“Pipp, we don’t have time for that right now! Even though it is cute,” Misty smiled fondly before turning serious. “We have to find clues about the Phantosaur before it strikes again and somepony gets hurt!”
“Misty’s right. So, we’re on our own for the clue search then,” Fred told the others, who nodded and followed him away to start their search for clues.
XXXXXXXXX
Zipp used her magnifying glass and her drone to look around the desert for clues, but ended up having nothing else to go on.
And it seemed like the others weren't having much luck either...
...that is, until Daphne gestured them all into hiding, just as a man and woman in professional clothing came along, seeming like they were looking for something. “We got another geo report today,” the brown-haired woman told the blonde-haired guy, who was inspecting the ground next to her. “Ninety-eight percent sure there's silver down in that old mine.”
“Too bad the land isn't for sale,” the man said, tossing away a pebble while looking up at his co-worker. “Yes… too bad,” the woman smirked. “But maybe we’ll get lucky.”
“Right,” the man nodded sinisterly. “Maybe this ‘mysterious’ Phantosaur will scare people so much, they'll decide to sell us their land.”
“There it is,” the woman suddenly spoke, walking over to the pushcart the gang used the night before and grabbing the giant dinosaur tooth stuck inside of it. “Don't wanna leave evidence lying around.”
And with that, the couple got into a van marked ‘Thaumatrope Mining Company’ and drove off, leading the others to come out of hiding. “You know, guys,” Zipp said with a narrowed gaze, “I think we may have this one wrapped up.”
“Not quite, Zipp,” Daphne said with a slight smirk. “You and Freddy still haven't caught anyone in a net.”
“True,” Fred nodded, “but we still need to do more research before that stage.”
“We’ll grab Velma and head to our guest room,” Hitch said. “Then, we can really buckle down and make sure this Phantosaur goes down too.”
XXXXXXXX
A little while after gathering Velma from Winsor, the remaining gang members headed back to their guest room at the spa, doing research about the van they saw leaving the mine earlier. “Okay, guys, think,” Fred told the others. “The side of the van was marked Thaumatrope Mining Company.”
“If only there was some way we could learn more about Thaumatrope Mining,” Daphne said, looking at her laptop helplessly. “Uh… Daph?” Pipp got to work, typing as fast as she could before the website for the mining company popped up. “Oh yeah,” Daphne said with a slight blush. “Thanks, Pipp.”
“Anytime, girlfriend!”
“According to the website Pipp pulled up,” said Fred, “the mining company closed down the mine when Svankmajer found the dinosaur bones. Those mining company guys have gotta be behind the Phantosaur. What do you think, Velma?”
“Italian.”
The ponies turned to her in confusion at this. “Huh?”
“Or maybe French. I don't know,” Velma said as she finished putting on her makeup. “Velma, I can’t believe I’m saying this to YOU of all people,” said Misty, “but what’re you talking about?”
“What kind of restaurant to go to with Winsor,” Velma answered the blue unicorn as if it were obvious. “Is there anything else to talk about? In the world? Answer, no.”
“Oooh, some good date drama to get the blood pumping! Good idea!” Pipp said enthusiastically. “Well, speaking as a princess, Italian always seems to be great for a first date.”
“Or possibly sushi!” Velma said as she applied her blush. “It's a good date food. You know, small pieces that don't interrupt conversation too much. But I won't eat the salmon eggs. Ew.”
“Boy, Velmster, I hear you,” Izzy said with a chuckle. “Who in their right mind would eat salmon eggs? And one more thing… what’s salmon?”
“...anyway,” Fred sighed, shaking his head before turning to the others, “as soon as Sunny, Shaggy, Scooby and Queen Silhouette get back, we'll investigate this mining company for clues.”
“Well, according to the GPS I put on Sunny’s phone,” Zipp said, “she and the others should be getting close.”
Shaggy’s yelling confirmed this as he, Scooby, Sunny and the dragon queen raced through the door, pinning it shut as Shaggy sobbed in despair. “Don't wanna go down Dead Man's Avenue-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo…!!”
“Dead Man’s Ave-what-now?” Pipp blinked in surprise. “Shaggy, Shaggy, slow down!” Misty said, trying to comfort her frightened friend. “What’s going on?”
“Well, we found out Mr. Hubley’s thing actually worked!” Sunny told her friends. “And Shaggy wasn’t scared one bit!”
“And then I fought some guys and saved the lacrosse trophy,” Shaggy continued in panic, “and a big scary man challenged me to a motorcycle race!!”
“And it’s on one of the most challenging roads in all of La Serena,” Silhouette finished, “at midnight tonight!”
“Yikes… you really got yourself into that one, huh, Shag?” Hitch tried to be comforting, but this only lead to Zipp elbowing him and Pipp shushing him. “A motorcycle race? That’s not so terrible,” Fred tried consoling. “Do you know how to ride a motorcycle?”
“No idea.”
“...it’s terrible,” Fred deadpanned. “It’s okay, Shaggy,” Daphne reassured gently. “I can teach you. I've been riding since I was 5.”
“Um, forgive me for being so blunt, Daphne,” Silhouette spoke up in concern, “but isn’t it illegal for a 5-year-old to ride a motorcycle?”
“Yeah, but how was I supposed to know?” Daphne shrugged to the dragon queen. “I was only 5.”
“I… you know, I actually don’t have any form of rebuttal to that,” Zipp deadpanned. “Ooh, and I can make us ponies some seriously cool motorcycle outfits so we blend into the crowd!” Pipp exclaimed. “Man, my fashion senses are really coming in handy on this adventure! Three new outfits all within the last few days!”
“Great…” Zipp said sarcastically. “So many outfits, so little time.”
“This one?” Velma held up two identical sweaters. “Or… this one?”
“Man,” Fred whispered, “she’s got it bad for Winsor.”
At hearing the word ‘bad’, Shaggy shot up, back in his brave state, and Scooby tried to once again guess the keyword used. “Winsor?”
“Yeah,” Daphne nodded. “This could be bad for our investigation.”
But then, hearing bad a second time made Shaggy go nervous again, making Izzy take a stab at trying to figure the keyword out. “Investigation?”
“Or maybe it's our investigation,” Fred said, making Shaggy go brave again, “that's bad for her relationship with Winsor.”
“Relationship?!” Hitch asked but got no kind of response. Unless it's a bad match. If they have a bad date, then maybe it's a bad idea… to worry about how bad the investigation is going,” Daphne said, unknowingly making Shaggy go from brave to scared repeatedly. “Or how bad we wanna solve this mystery.”
Now Izzy, Hitch, Pipp, Misty and Scooby were each trying to figure out the keyword.
“Match?”
“Date?”
“Idea?”
“Going?!”
“Mystery?!”
Shaggy, however, approached Daphne with a hopeful look on his face. “Can you really teach me to ride?”
“Sure,” Daphne nodded. “And I can help give you some tips from skating experience,” Sunny smiled. “Daph and I will give you the crash course!”
“Like, that's what I'm afraid of,” Shaggy whimpered as they all headed out the door. “Pipp, you get to work on those outfits,” Zipp told her sister. “We’ll take care of the whole Shaggy situation while you keep an eye on Velma until Winsor comes to pick her up.”
Pipp nodded as they all headed out the door, where Scooby was STILL trying to figure out the keyword to Shaggy’s trance.
“Uh… afternoon?”
Shaggy shook his head. “No.”
“Alphabet.”
“No.”
“Ambulance? Apple? Attitude? Avocado?”
“I don’t wanna race motorcycles!!”
Pipp sighed as she watched Velma dance around the room while she sketched out the ponies’ new outfit designs. “One thing is definitely for sure... this is going to be one long night…”
XXXXXXXX
Winsor picked Velma up at the spa about a half an hour later, and with Pipp giving Velma some last minute date tips, Winsor drove Velma to the popular sushi restaurant in town, where they got a table to themselves and began looking at the menu. “I can’t decide what to start with,” Velma admitted. “Neither can I,” Winsor shook his head. “I like everything except for salmon eggs.”
“Ugh!”
“Ew!”
Winsor blinked in surprise when Velma had the same reaction as him, but smiled sheepishly afterwards. “Wow, you are like my clone, except you're a girl and you're cute.”
“You too,” Velma nodded. “I mean, the cute part and the clone part. That was really brave of you, saving Svankmajer from the Phantosaur.”
Winsor seemed to sink lower behind his menu, and as the waiter brought them some water that they had ordered a few minutes before, Winsor took a sip before Velma brought up another topic of conversation. “So you think that Phantosaur was...?”
“Phantosaur, Phantosaur,” Winsor sighed irritably. “Is that all you ever wanna talk about? Can we just please change the subject? Sheesh.”
As Winsor went back to looking at his menu, Velma couldn't help but wonder what about the Phantosaur that Winsor didn't want to talk about...
...and if she had made a big mistake in mentioning it.
XXXXXXXX
At the same time, the ponies had gotten settled into the new motorcyclist outfits that Pipp had made, just in time to watch Shaggy's motorcycle lesson with Daphne.
The ponies sat with Fred, Queen Silhouette and Scooby on the side while Daphne and Shaggy each sat on their individual bikes. Shaggy was currently (and nervously) revving the engine, having gotten the basics down. “Good, very good,” Daphne praised. “You can go a little heavier on the throttle. You don't wanna stall. Now, let's get moving, okay?”
“Do we have to…?” Shaggy asked nervously. “Shaggy, relax,” Zipp smiled. “With Daphne as your teacher, you’ll be just fine.”
“It’s just like riding a bike!” Izzy agreed. “Except this bike has a motor and can go much faster and can kill you if you aren’t careful.”
“Izzy! Not helping!” Hitch said in a scolding tone, trying not to be nervous himself and frighten Shaggy… despite Shaggy already being nervous. “Like Zipp said, you’ll be fine,” Daphne said before moving forward slowly. “Now, just ease forward a little…”
Shaggy nervously mimicked her movements and ended up moving forward a bit more quickly than he expected, causing Hitch to yelp before silencing himself while Daphne continued with the lesson. “And give it a little more gas.”
However, Shaggy gave it a little TOO much gas, and came out of the parking lot screaming and racing at top speed. “Okay,” Daphne called out, “a little less!”
“This is just my opinion, Daphne,” Silhouette said gently as they stared off in the direction Shaggy was riding, “but I think you should have started with how to work the brakes.”
“We better get something rigged up to catch Shaggy,” Zipp said, “otherwise he’ll be speeding all over town and we can’t stop him!”
XXXXXXXX
Shaggy rode on that motorcycle all throughout La Serena, unsure of how to stop himself. But honestly... the ride was actually a lot more fun than even he thought it would be.
Eventually, as he made a lap through the town and past the parking lot, Fred put his new plan into action. “Now!”
Sunny, in her alicorn form, Queen Silhouette, Pipp and Zipp then took off into a gallop, pulling Scooby on a hang glider behind them before they all lifted off into the sky after Shaggy.
Once they were close enough, Scooby tried to pull Shaggy off the motorcycle, but he accidentally got hung on the motorcycle as well, causing Sunny, Pipp and Zipp to break free of the hang glider and zoom after their friends.
XXXXXXXX
While this was going on, Winsor and Velma were leaving their date and smiling, obviously very happy and content with one another. Suddenly, Winsor pushed Velma to safety on the other side of the road when Shaggy and Scooby came barreling through, with Silhouette, Sunny, Pipp and Zipp flying overhead.
Not even a few seconds later, Fred and Daphne came hightailing it down the street on the other motorcycle. “Carry on with your date!” Fred called to the couple before they zipped around the corner, leaving Izzy, Hitch and Misty to stop behind Velma and Winsor. “Guys… need help!” Misty panted. “Can’t… stop it… by ourselves!”
That’s when Velma got an idea and turned to Winsor. “Can I have your keys?”
“What?”
“Just for a minute. Your key ring.”
Winsor saw it on his belt loop and gave it to Velma, who used the retractable line as a lasso and flung the keys over a nearby wire. “Everyone, help me pull!”
“We can do that!” Hitch said, and he, Izzy and Misty began to pull the line downwards toward them just enough that when Shaggy and Scooby passed through…
…they got hung on the line, finally stopping their wild ride!
The ponies sighed in relief… that was too close. “All right! Great practice run!” Daphne said to Shaggy. “Now, let’s just try it one more time.”
This caused everyone, including Shaggy and Scooby, to glance at her with wide eyes. “What?” Daphne asked. “I’m trying to be encouraging.”
“I hate to say it, but that’s too soon, even for me,” Zipp said with a frown. “Yeah, too soon, Daphers,” Izzy shook her head scoldingly. “Too soon.”