Later that very same night, Shaggy Rogers, Scooby Doo, Pinkie Pie, Scrappy Doo, Spike, and Flurry Heart snuck under the cover of nightfall toward the Coolsville Docks. Shaggy hid himself behind a slab of wood so he wouldn’t be seen while both Pinkie and Scooby expertly maneuvered themselves James Bond style. Spike, Scrappy, and Flurry had no problems staying hidden given they were small enough to hide behind a great number of items along the docks.
Eventually, they found themselves near the ends of the docks where there stood a large wooden building with a new sign in front of a man being unmasked.
“That’s it you guys,” Shaggy pointed out. “The Faux Ghost.”
“Man… I was expecting a little more,” Spike moaned disappointed. “Looks kind of plain if you ask me.”
“What were you expecting?” Scrappy asked Spike. “A bunch of rampaging monsters running all over the place?”
“Don’t be silly Scrappers,” Pinkie giggled. “Besides, we’re still way ahead of the story before running from monsters just yet…”
Pinkie Pie!
Remember our talk about spoilers?!
“Oopsie, sorry guys!” Pinkie spoke to the sky.
Everyone looked at Pinkie for a moment before shaking their heads and faced the entrance to the club.
“Are some of these folks the people you guys unmasked?” Flurry asked.
“You bet…” Shaggy said, examining familiar faces. “Like, that’s C.L. Magnus. He used to dress up as Redbeard’s ghost. And that’s Aggie Wilkins a.k.a. the Ozark Witch.”
“Okay… we heard the story about C.L. Magnus. But what about this Wilkins and the Ozark thing?”
“Well the story of the ‘Ozark Witch’ actually involved Aggie’s ex-boyfriend, Zeke Harkins,” Scrappy Doo explained. “Zeke buried some money from a bank he robbed a while back, around a half of a million dollars.”
“Oh my!” Flurry gasped.
“Aggie found directions to the carving on the board of this cabin, which was a map that explained how to get the money, in Zeke’s old spell-book and like tried to take the money for herself,” Shaggy added. “Then like these Hatfield guys moved in and Aggie had to get rid of them by making up the witch legend.”
“And she even used her pet cat to make them think she could turn into a witch too!” Scrappy recalled.
“Rats! Grrr…” Scooby snarled.
“Eventually Zeke did break out of prison when he learned Aggie discovered the directions, and returned to the location of the money trying to retrieve it before Aggie could,” Scrappy continued.
“Yikes!” Spike said. “Talk about a toxic relationship.”
“Yeah… and if they spot us, we’ll be invited to a weenie roast, one where we’re the weenies!” Shaggy shugdded.
“Mmm… rot-dogs!” Scooby sighed hungrily.
“Which basically means… we’ll most likely get killed?” Spike asked nervously.
“Pretty much,” Scrappy nodded.
“Like there’s gotta be a way that we can use our awesome new skills to get us in there without being recognized,” Shaggy wondered.
Everyone thought over all the possibilities over how to get themselves into the club undetected. But this proved to be a rather difficult subject to think about. That’s when an invisible lightbulb went off in Flurry’s head.
“I got it guys!” She said.
“Whatcha got Flurry?” Scrappy asked.
“I’ve been practicing my magic with Uncle Starburst and Uncle Thorax a while back. I think I’ve fully mastered the art of Changeling disguise.”
“But I thought only changelings had the power to disguise themselves,” Spike responded.
“Well truth be told, all unicorns ‘do’ have that power. We just didn’t have the knowledge like the Changelings do… don’t tell my Dad I said that.”
Flurry lit her horn with her golden magic aura, which began to surround the entire group. With a quick flash of light, the entire team was disguised in a rather… ‘unique’ ensemble. Shaggy was decked out in a stylish green suit and fedora, while Scooby was dressed in a very colorful jumpsuit with a very large afro. Scrappy was dressed in a tiny pair of denim jeans and matching jacket with a black mullet stretching down his back. Spike resembled an 80s version of Kenny Logins, while Flurry was clearly dressed like Cindi Lauper. Everyone looked at themselves, then back at Flurry.
“This is the best you could do?” Spike asked. “What’re supposed to be anyway? What the 70’s and 80’s thought was cool?”
“Okay… I may need a little more work,” Flurry replied bashfully.
“I don’t know, I kinda like it!” Shaggy smiled at his new threads. “Come on gang, let’s do this!”
He and Scooby started towards the club while the three youngers watched after them with worry.
“We’re so dead…” Scrappy deadpanned.
“Yep,” Spike nodded.
“Completely,” Flurry sighed.
Nevertheless, they followed the two goofs and made their way toward the Faux Ghost.
<>
Inside the Faux Ghost, the patrons were enjoying one heck of a swinging time. With a live band livening up the place and people hanging out and eating, things were on fire. Then the two front doors of the bar burst open, and Shaggy and Scooby came in trying, and failing, to look cool.
“Hey, Hey, Hey!” Shaggy said loudly. “Everyone part like the Red Sea. It’s me, Shizzy McCreepy, and my brother, S.D. McCrawler! We are in the house and ready to part-ay!”
From behind the two came the three little ones looking around nervously.
“What are our alias names?” Scrappy whispered.
“Uh, I dunno…” Shaggy whispered back, with a shrug.
The group looked back at the bar, and everyone stared at them with mean mugs. Shaggy grew increasingly nervous.
“Uh, and these are our friends: Spudnick, Roady, and Piper!”
The three young members slowly turned their heads and looked at Shaggy with ‘Are you serious?!’ expressions.
“Well, it’s better than nothing,” Shaggy whispered.
“There’s no way this is going to work!” Spike responded.
Meanwhile, Aggie Wilkins walked by and noticed Scooby in his disguise. To her, he seemed like a handsome guy and walked right up to him.
“Hello, handsome…” She purred to Scooby.
“Rello, baby…” Scooby greeted back, trying to sound suave.
“Like not now Romeo,” Shaggy whispered, pulling him away. “We’ve got stuff to do.”
Just before they could walk away, their path was blocked by a rotund man wearing a dark undershirt and a Hawaiian overshirt. He pointed right at them, and they jumped back.
“This is a private club!” He spoke aggressively. “For those of us that got cred. And the only way you get cred is by dressing up as a terrifying creature and scaring the crud out of innocent people, obviously.”
Shaggy and Scooby both bumbled nervously, trying to think of something to say. But then suddenly, Pinkie burst from nowhere dressed as a rapper and placed her forehoof around the guy.
“Well obviously homeboy, you ain’t recognizing my peeps here!” She gestured to Shaggy and Scooby. “They’re the world famous Pickleaculas playa. Fifty percent pickle, fifty percent Dracula, but they be totally, one-hundred-percent terrifying my brother!”
The guy looked at Pinkie’s forehoof over his shoulder and gave a light glare. She chuckled nervously as she slowly pulled away and looked back toward Shaggy and Scooby before cracking a smile.
“Cool, I was the Cotton Candy Glob!” He said proudly.
He gestured to the drawing on the wall of a big pink cotton candy looking monster. Everyone looked at it and tilted their heads to the side in curiosity. Though Scrappy seemed a bit enthusiastic.
“Wait… you were the Cotton Candy Glob?” Scrappy asked.
“That’s right! Tried smuggling some stolen gold bars using ‘Mama’ Cass’s candy factory… didn’t go as well as I’d hoped.”
“Mama Cass?” Spike raised a brow.
“Oh! She used to be a member of the singing group, ‘The Mamas and the Papas’,” Scrappy explained. “Then she ran the ‘Sugar Plum’ Candy Company for a while.”
“Oh…”
“Huh, you seemed much fatter then,” Shaggy replied.
By the time he fully heard what he just said, his eyes widened along with everyone else. However, instead of getting punched in the face (As expected), the guy just patted him on the shoulder and walked away. Everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief when he was finally gone.
“Man, nice thinking on your part Pinkie,” Shaggy thanked Pinkie.
“I know, right?!” She said excitedly. “I came up with that one right on the button. I certainly didn’t expect them to believe it.”
“Wait! If you didn’t expect them to believe it, why do it?” Spike asked.
“I really wanted to wear the outfit, home dog,” Pinkie responded.
Next thing the entire group knew, they stood in the midst of a huge Mystery Inc bash-o-rama. Everywhere they looked, someone did something that involved bashing Mystery Inc. In fact, there was a man playing ‘Whack-A-Mole’ where the moles were in the shape of the Mystery Inc. gang. A couple other guys played darts, aiming at pictures of Mystery Inc. Two guys were then starting a fight over whether a Ghost clown was a better monster than the Cotton Candy Glob. It was so chaotic Shaggy didn’t even notice that he bumped into an old man at the bar.
“Watch out, idiot!” He scolded Shaggy.
Shaggy and the others all glanced toward the man, instantly recognizing him.
“Old Man Wickles…” He whispered.
“Leave me alone!” Wickles glared, like a grouchy old grump.
“I just, uh, I just wanted to say thank you,” Shaggy spoke to the old man. “Your portrayal of the Black Knight Ghost was, like, inspirational to my brother and me.”
“Not to mention me and our little friends here,” Pinkie added. “Right guys?”
“Oh yeah, totally inspirational!” Spike nodded.
“Couldn’t agree more!” Flurry agreed.
Wickles merely glared at them in firm, stoic silence. Hoping for more clues, Shaggy tried to spark some further conversation.
“Hey, have you done anything creepy and cool lately?” Shaggy asked.
Wickles glanced, but that got him to talk.
“Listen, I’m not normally one for giving advice, except for an old friend of mine, rest his soul, he died just before his younger daughter graduated from high school, she was like a niece to me… but I feel sorry for you because of your brother’s huge, hideous nose deformity.”
“Ruh?” Scooby glanced at his nose.
“There’s nothing wrong with your nose, Uncle Scooby,” Flurry whispered to him.
“Ranks Rurry!” He thanked her.
“Get out of this game while you got a chance,” Wickles quietly advised. “All of us here ain’t nuthin’ to admire.”
Shaggy and the others looked curiously at him.
“We needed people to believe we were different than they were,” Wickles continued, rather emotionally. “Maybe ‘cuz… we believed that there was something wrong with who we were in the first place.”
That truly got Shaggy to believe that ‘just’ maybe Mr. Wickles wasn’t so bad after all.
“I guess you’re sorta grateful to, um, Mystery Inc. for unmasking you…?” He asked, briefly removing his hat.
“Are you kidding?!” Wickles asked loudly. “If I see those twerps, I’ll tear their eyes out of their skulls! Make them eat the one eye while watching themselves eat it with the other eye! HA-HA-HA!!!”
This certainly caused everyone in the group to widen their eyes in fear. Shaggy and Scooby quickly walked off in the other direction with Pinkie, Scrappy, and Spike following close behind. Their movement stopped quickly when they noticed Flurry wasn’t following and turned back to find her still standing beside Mr. Wickles.
“Let’s go Flurry!” Spike whispered harshly.
“One minute!” Flurry whispered back.
The little filly then jumped onto the stool next to Mr. Wickles, looking toward the old man with a kind smile.
“I don’t think you mean what you said about Mystery Inc.” She said kindly.
“Like heck I don’t,” Wickles scoffed. “Because of them I ended up behind bars. I’d be sitting pretty if it weren’t for them.”
“So, you didn’t do the bad things the Black Knight did?”
This caused Wickles to instantly become lost for words. He merely groaned and turned away.
“Is it ‘really’ Mystery Inc. you’re angry with?” Flurry questioned. “Or someone else?”
“What do you want me to say kid?” Wickles responded. “That I was wrong? I know that! I took part in a smuggling-and-forgery ring, stealing and selling real paintings from a museum I worked for and replaced them with forgeries I painted myself! I knew a famous professor would instantly recognize the fake paintings and kidnapped him. And I even blamed all of it on the legend of the Black Knight, which I made up myself, just because I needed the money. So what if that meant being banned from every museum in the county? Nothing I do now changes anything.”
“I don’t think so,” Flurry smiled. “You still have your life, your freedom, and a chance to be a better person than you were before. I know you’ve had conflicted feelings towards Mystery Inc. for what happened, but I think if you reached out, they might help. Maybe what you really need is ‘someone’ to help you through it. Maybe what you really need… are some ‘friends’.”
For a moment, Wickles actually considered the little one’s words… then quickly shifted his head.
“Nah. As far as the world cares, I’m just an ex-con who put on a mask and became a monster.”
“You may have been a man in a mask,” Flurry said honestly. “But deep down, I don’t think you’re a monster.”
Flurry then leaned up and gave the old man a quick kiss on the cheek before walking away. Had she looked over her shoulder, she’d have seen Wickles place a hand where she kissed before giving a faint smile. Finally, the trio caught up with Shaggy, Scooby, and Pinkie.
“Here’s a clue for you guys,” Shaggy spoke frightened. “That dude’s wearing his freak hat twenty-four seven!”
“Reah!” Scooby nodded.
“Oh, he’s not such a bad old man,” Flurry assured. “I think he just needs some friends.”
“Sounds like something I’d say,” Pinkie smiled proudly, placing a hoof around Flurry.
“Either way, I gotta run to the bathroom,” Shaggy said quickly. “I’ll be back in a moment. Just don’t do anything to attract attention.”
“Rotcha!”
“You got it bud!” Spike gave a thumbs-up.
A 70’s song suddenly came on, as Aggie Wilkens invited Scooby to dance. Scooby had fun, despite barking along with the song. Pinkie bounced in and started doing some silly dance moves along with the Great Dane. Eventually, the two found themselves crowd surfing as Shaggy just returned.
“So like what did I miss?” Shaggy asked.
“We’ve got trouble,” Scrappy told him.
“Rahoo!” Scooby cheered, mid crowd-surfing.
“Like, I can see that…” Shaggy shivered.
Soon Scooby was back on his feet again and danced very wildly, except his wigs and glasses were coming loose. Shaggy, Scrappy, Spike, and Flurry tried to coarse him to stop shaking and that it was making his disguise come loose, but Scooby mistook it for dance moves which made the other party people copied.
“This cannot end well,” Scrappy face-palmed.
Scooby waved his head back which made his wig fly off and splash against a man’s food, which splashed in his face. The Great Dane kept singing along even when the music cut and everyone else stared at him realizing who he really was.
“Hey, it’s Scooby Doo!” One man called out sharply. “That meddling mutt what helped threw us in jail!”
“Who, me?” Scooby spoke nervously. “Ruh-ruh!”
Seeing his best friend was in trouble, Shaggy rushed over to save him.
“No, wait, that’s not Scooby Doo! That’s… um… S.D. McCrawley!”
“Yeah, that’s just his disguise!” Pinkie added in.
But it was plainly obvious to the three youngsters that it wasn’t the least bit convincing.
“It’s a mask!” Shaggy added, stretching Scooby’s face.
“Reah!” Scooby agreed.
The two drew apart and spread their arms out, which accidentally made Shaggy’s hat fly off.
“Oh, boy…” Flurry shook her head.
“What else can go wrong?” Spike groaned.
“And that’s Doo’s beatnik best pal, Shaggy Rogers!” Another man pointed out.
“RUN!!!” Shaggy yelled.
The whole group quickly raced through the bar, while a bunch of the patrons chased after them. Noticing a chut to the far side of the bar, the gang quickly ran and jumped down the chute sliding into the garbage outside the bar. Popping out of the top, Shaggy and Scooby both had looks of relief while the others shared looks of disgust.
“Like that wasn’t so bad right?” Shaggy asked.
“Says you!” Spike groaned. “This smells like Garble after he ate that extremely spicy enchilada.”
<>
Meanwhile…
In the Mystery Machine, the rest of the gang and the Equestrians rode along to their next location. To say the feeling inside was certainly awkward would be the biggest understatement ever. Velma and Patrick both sat next to each other, but just in complete silence. Velma was becoming increasingly uncomfortable in her new outfit and judging by Patrick’s face he seemed quite the same. Twilight and the rest of the ponies in the van spoke few words, they just looked at each other back and forth.
“This isn’t going well at all,” Twilight whispered to Shining Armor.
“No kidding,” Shining whispered back. “They’ve hardly spoken two words to each other since we got in the van.”
“I warned her to just be herself,” Cadance sighed quietly.
Daphne kept a smile, but even she could tell this wasn’t going as planned. Velma then squeaked slightly, before facing Patrick awkwardly.
“That was my outfit, I swear…”
“Let’s hope so,” Rainbow whispered to Applejack.
“Hush up you,” Applejack quietly scolded.
By now Velma felt stupid sitting next to Patrick in uncomfortable, awkward silence. By this point, she was immediately regretting not taking Cadance’s advice on just being herself.
“This is awkward,” Fluttershy spoke quietly to herself.
“You know Velma, you’re as beautiful as ever,” Patrick finally spoke. “You’re just so different than I expected.”
As Fred drove alone, he took a quick glance out the passenger side window and his eyes suddenly widened in fear. Daphne looked at her boyfriend and could instantly catch the fear in his eyes. Normally Fred Jones does not fear much, so seeing actual terror in his eyes made her nervous.
“Fred, are you okay?” She asked worriedly.
Fred’s eyes kept darting back and forth between the road ahead and the passenger side door.
“Whatever you do, don’t look out your window,” He warned.
Daphne stiffened at those words. Whatever it was that had Fred so spooked was right outside her window. Curiosity had entranced her as she slowly turned her head and peeked out the window. Her eyes too widened when she caught sight of two giant red glowing eyes staring right back at her. Those eyes belonged to the giant black winged creature that was flying at the same speed as them and somehow keeping up alongside them.
Daphne quickly blinked her eyes just to make sure it wasn’t just her imagination. When her eyes opened again… the creature was gone. Seeing this made her sigh in relief, as she just thought it had to be both her and Fred’s imagination.
*BANG!*
Her eyes shot forward, and Fred slammed on the breaks as the Mystery Machine came to a screeching halt sending everyone screaming. When the van finally stopped, they peeked out the front windshield and were all captivated, horrified even, by the darkly entity standing on the hood of the Mystery Machine. The beast looked toward all of them with glowing red eyes that burned like dragon’s fire. Fluttershy was especially frightened, having been the one to have experiences with this being.
The creature then gave out a piercing screen before ascending rapidly into the air and out of sight. For the longest time, everyone inside the Mystery Machine just sat there staring at each other in horror and confusion.
“What… was… that?” Fred finally asked.
Twilight looked over at Fluttershy, who cowered behind her mane.
“Fluttershy, was that…?”
Fluttershy gave no response but merely nodded her head ‘yes’.
“What the hay is it?” Rainbow asked.
“Ah don’t know hun,” Applejack responded. “But it sure was big.”
“It certainly had a look that would terrify even the bravest of souls,” Rarity shook.
It was then everyone looked out the side of the van and saw another sight that made them widen their eyes in shock. They were right next to the Coolsonium Criminology Museum, only it looked completely destroyed. The banners torn to shreds, and even more windows were shattered. An assortment of media and policemen were surrounding the area as the van pulled up.
“Oh my goodness!” Velma gasped.
“What’s going on?” Fred asked.
“This cannot be good,” Daphne said.
Stepping out of the van, everyone looked around in complete awe. Heather Jasper Howe was interviewing the people and turned toward Mystery Inc. arriving at the crime scene.
“Just ignore her,” Twilight informed the others. “Just ignore her…”
“Any comments on the museum robbery?” Heather asked Fred.
“Mystery Inc. is currently investigating the two stolen costumes,” Fred spoke.
“No, the one that just happened,” Heather rolled her eyes slightly. “Where The Black Knight and Pterodactyl Ghost stole the rest of the costumes?”
“The rest of the costumes?” Fred asked.
Hearing that made Patrick, Velma, Shining, and Cadance race inside the museum. When they got into the Mystery Inc. exhibit, Howe had been correct and every single one of the costumes that were there before were no longer there.
“They even took Chickenstein…” Shining murmured.
Patrick picked up the standee that held one of the skeleton men and tossed it aside. He just seemed so distraught his own museum had been ransacked again.
“Oh Patrick, I am so sorry,” Velma apologized. “This must be horrible for you.”
“Don’t worry buddy,” Shining assured. “We’ll find those costumes and figure this out one way or the other.”
“Look guys, I have to go okay?” Patrick said sadly.
“Well, I’ll go with you,” Velma suggested.
“NO!” Patrick yelled. “No… I just have to figure out what’s going on.”
And with that, Patrick walked off the other direction leaving Velma, Shining, and Cadance to watch him leave. Velma seemed sad by his leaving and looked down sadly. The feeling of a hoof on her side caused her to look over to see Cadance looking at her with a smile.
“Don’t worry Velma,” She assured her. “The whole thing has just been stressful for Patrick. Things will work itself out soon.”
Velma just looked back after Patrick before running back out the front of the museum with Cadance and Shining following close behind.
<>
Meanwhile, back outside, things were not going smoothly for Fred as Heather Jasper Howe constantly tried to turn every single one of his words against him.
“So, what you’re saying is it’s all downhill for Mystery Inc.?” Heather asked Fred.
“No!” Fred yelled. “You’re doing that thing again where you take everything I saw out of contest. You’re trying to make it sound like I think that Coolsville sucks!”
“FRED!!!!”
Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Rarity face-hoofed in response. Now Fred felt really stupid right now.
“No… wait… I mean…” Fred stammered. “Don’t record that!”
<>
Somehow, Heather’s interview with Fred was already on. Footage showed Fred talking about ‘Coolsville sucking’, which only made Fred feel worse.
“Open mouth… and in goes foot…” Twilight mumbled.
“Why would you put your foot in your mouth?” Fluttershy asked. “Can people actually do that?”
“No Fluttershy,” Applejack shook her head. “That just means when somepony says somethin’ stupid that they don’t mean to say.”
“And Fred just happens to suffer the worst case of it,” Rainbow groaned.
“Ugh… can this night get any worse?” Twilight groaned, covering her eyes.
“TWILIGHT!!!!” The group moaned.
Daphne frowned as she looked firmly towards the blonde woman and approached her. Soon she storming her way toward the ambitious reporter.
“I’ll be right back,” She called out.
“Wait for me darling!” Rarity called.
Daphne and Rarity both departed the Mystery Machine and hurriedly stormed over to Heather Jasper Howe as she finished her news report and signed off.
“What’s with the personal attacks?” Daphne demanded.
“You seem to be doing everything within your power to destroy the reputation of our friends,” Rarity pointed out angrily. “And simply for your own amusement too!”
“Look, I’m a huge fan,” Heather said. “It’s just my editor—”
“Who are you kidding?” Daphne interjected crudely.
“Do not play dumb with us!” Rarity added. “We know all about your little game!”
Heather than gave a smirk when she knew acting nice wouldn’t work.
“Who are you kidding?” She tried retorting.
Daphne just glanced sharply with a raised eyebrow.
“Don’t think I don’t know your game,” Heather told her. “What do you do for the gang, really? Velma’s the smart one, Fred’s the leader, all you are is a pretty little face.”
She then turned toward Rarity.
“Not like your much better,” She smirked. “I may not know much about you and your little friends. But from what I do know, sounds to me you’re just the spoiled little drama queen.”
This caused Rarity to reel back. Sure she heard ponies (And people) say that to her before. But usually they don’t mean to say it in a hurtful way… until tonight. A stray tear fell from her eye as she turned away trying to hide it.
“Why are you doing this?” Daphne frowned.
“Because it’s my job to unmask those who pretend to be who they’re not,” Heather coldly replied.
As she bent down to leave, somehow Daphne recognized what Heather said. And for whatever reason, it sounded rather suspicious to her.
“You sound like…” Daphne muttered.
“Sound like who?” Heather replied innocently.
“The evil masked guy,” Daphne glared. “But you know that, because just as you know I’m standing here, you know ‘I’ know who ‘you’ know you are, which is, who’s a ‘her’, which is you.”
“Oh, now I see what you do for the gang,” Heather told Daphne. “You’re in charge of incoherent babbling.”
“MYSTERY INCORPORATED!!!”
Everyone turned and spotted the Evil Masked Figure standing atop the museum.
“Once again, you are proven useless before my power. Because of you, soon Coolsville… will be mine!”
With a quick swish of his coat, the figure disappeared into a black mist as everyone started scramble about with cops racing in search of the figure and Heather Jasper Howe trying to get her stuff together.
“Oh, darn it!” Heather cursed. “Thanks a lot! The scoop of the night, gone. Can’t you do anything right? Ned, get your camera and follow me.”
“Guess not…” Daphne muttered, hurt.
“This really does feel worse…” Rarity sighed sadly.