The weather was not how anyone would suspect it would when the Mane 5 and Misty crash landed onto a cold stone road overlooking a large castle. Lightning cracked through the sky sending heaven's light through the storms, thunder following it shortly. “Eeeeeeewwwwwww!!!” Pipp groaned as the rain poured down from the heavens above. “Now I’m gonna need 40 mane-dos from Rocky in order to unflatten my mane!”
“Let’s get into the castle over there before we’re washed away!” Sunny called to her friends, and they broke out in a fast gallop toward the castle doors. Once they were inside, they panted and shook the water out of their fur. “Phew… that was too close for comfort,” Hitch said. “Where do you think we ended up?” Misty wondered as Zipp put on her visor and sent her pony drone out to survey the area. “I don’t know… but it looks like wherever we are has a castle that’s over 100 years old. And-- wait… are those… dog tracks?”
True to her word, large dog pawprints were on the floor nearby, and Hitch and Zipp looked over them carefully. “They’re fresh,” Zipp observed. “Then we’re not alone in here. Some dog must be here too… and he isn’t alone-- human footprints too!”
Hitch walked to the other shapes on the ground beside the paw prints. “I say we should follow them, get the information we need and see if any of them need any problems that need solving. Misty, you better stay with us, in case they're--"
But when they looked again, Misty was trotting down the hallway, following the tracks. “Misty! Come back here!” Sunny whisper-called. “You don’t know what could be down that way!”
But Misty, in her curious nature, was too in her own mind to listen, and continued to follow the tracks, her head to the ground and eyes narrowed until… she bumped into something furry.
When she looked up, she saw she was right in the face of a giant brown dog (a Great Dane, to those who wants specifics) with black spots on his shoulders and back, goofy eyes, his tongue sticking outside of his mouth and a blue collar with a gold and blue tag with the letters ‘SD’ on it.
After staring at him for a second, Misty let out a startled scream, and so did the dog, backing up a few feet from her. Misty did a double take… was the dog… afraid of her? “It’s okay,” she said gently. “I’m sorry I scared you. My name is Misty… what’s yours?”
“Scooby-Doo…” the dog said timidly, and while Misty was surprised that he could speak, she decided to leave that aside for now. “It’s nice to meet you, Scooby. Are you all by yourself? We saw some human footprints along with what I’m assuming are your pawprints, but I don’t see them around.”
“Scooby!” some voices called, overlapping one another at times. "Scooby-Doo, where are you?"
Scooby instantly ran toward the source of the voices, and Misty followed him to reveal that he had found his human friends:
Misty was happy that Scooby had found his friends… he needed to be happy. “Like, where you been, Scoob? We were just about to start the monster search without ya!” the teen in the green shirt told the dog. “Over with her!” Scooby pointed to Misty close by, causing her to gulp nervously and the gang to gasp in shock. “Jeepers…” the red-head gasped. “A real unicorn!”
“Misty!” Sunny called as the rest of the ponies rounded the corner, but immediately stopped at the sight of the dog and humans. “There you are, Misty,” Zipp sighed in relief before turning to the beings before them. “Sorry about that-- we kinda got rained on and ducked in here for cover. I hope we weren’t disturbing something.”
The blonde-haired boy, by the name of Fred Jones, looked suspiciously at the group, pulling on their manes and tails, causing them to yelp. “Hmm… I don’t see any wires… the hair and fur looks surprisingly lifelike…” he muttered. “Agh, hey!” Pipp snapped. “I worked hard on this mane!”
“Freddy, leave them alone!” the red-headed girl, named Daphne Blake, stopped his up-close investigating and smoothed down Pipp’s mane so it wasn’t so frizzy. “Sorry about that. We’re just… not used to seeing cute ponies around. I’m Daphne, and this is Velma, Fred and Shaggy. And… well, I guess Misty already knows Scooby-Doo.”
“Oh… pleased to meet you,” Sunny smiled back. “I’m Sunny Starscout, and these are my friends-- Misty Brightdawn, Zipp Storm, Izzy Moonbow and Hitch Trailblazer. So… what are you doing out in an abandoned castle in the middle of nowhere?”
“Trying to solve the mystery of the Moat Monster that’s supposed to live in the moat of this castle,” Velma explained. “We’re getting close to solving the case-- all we have to do is find the monster itself.”
Misty felt her blood run cold once she heard the term ‘monster’ being spoken, and shivered slightly. “Monster…?”
“Don’t worry too much about it,” Fred reassured the ponies. “It’s usually a guy in a Halloween mask trying to get rich or revenge.”
“Hmmm… there should be some serious violations about that-- I should know, I’m a sheriff where we come from,” Hitch said. “Maybe we should try and help catch this thing. I mean… safety in numbers-- not like I’m scared or anything.”
The other ponies, even a reluctant-to-face-monsters Misty wanted to offer their assistance. But the gang looked rather unsure at this decision. “Like, I don’t know how you guys do it where you come from,” Shaggy frowned, “but here, it’s a whole other pot of soup. Monsters comin’ at ya every time you think you get away, not being able to eat, bein’ the bait for traps, not being able to eat!”
“Yeah, yeah!” Scooby nodded, but Sunny was able to rub the top of his head with her hoof. “Ah, we’ll be able to take care of ourselves,” she reassured the gang. “We’ve got ourselves a secret weapon. Come on-- we have a monster to track down!”
Shaggy shuddered to Scooby as they followed the apricot-colored earth pony through the deserted hallways. “Like, why does she sound so much like Fred when she says that?”
The only answer Scooby could provide was a whimper and a shake of his head, but looking toward Misty, who bore a kind and friendly smile, caused him and Shaggy to smile in return. Maybe having these ponies with them would be a good chance to not be so scared.
Throughout the hallways the group ventured on, quietly in case the monster lurked nearby. Sunny and her friends decided to trust the gang’s strategies, since they seemed to know what they were doing. Suddenly, there came a slight growling noise, but then it disappeared a few seconds later. That kept the group wary of their surroundings.
This repeated a couple more times, but then after a while… it stopped, just as the group was passing a large set of doors... when something caused the hairs and fur on their necks to stand.
A monstrous roar echoed throughout the castle, and after that, a set of two clawed hands tore through the doorway, revealing a sickening green monster that bore two glistening red eyes.
Fred, Daphne, Velma and the ponies screamed, running in separate directions, and so did Shaggy and Scooby once Scooby hopped out of Shaggy’s arms. “Split up and keep track of the gang!” Zipp told her friends over a video call on her FlyPad. “We have to make sure they’re safe!”
"Right!" the ponies nodded, and Hitch, Zipp and Izzy went to go help Fred and the girls while Misty darted after Scooby and Pipp and Sunny went to assist Shaggy. "Yiiiii!!!" Shaggy screamed, and Sunny and Pipp followed him quicker as the monster seemed to be approaching them. Once running into another room, Shaggy went to shut the door with a huge SLAM, and then locked all three of the locks. They quickly darted to the other door, but as they opened it, the monster was revealed to be behind it the entire time! “YIKES!!” Shaggy shrieked as they darted toward the other door. But, Shaggy being Shaggy, he forgot the door was locked, so when he tried to open the door, the doorknob came off completely. "UGH!!!" Pipp groaned. "You have to be hoofing me!"
"Forget it, Pipp! Just run!" Sunny said, leading the two out the same door that the monster came through. “Scooby-Doo!” Shaggy wailed loudly. “Where are you?!”
Just as he called out to the Great Dane, the three of them literally ran into Misty and Scooby when they came round the corner, so the group decided to escape together, darting through halls and through doors.
Unfortunately, during their chase with the monster, the other ponies, Fred and the girls ran into it, with the monster trying to kill them by throwing a shield in their direction, and Daphne and Velma were sent almost falling off a balcony, with Fred and Hitch trying to hoist them up the old fashioned way while Izzy tried to use her magic and Zipp tried to push them up from below.
Luckily (and by a sheer stroke of luck), Scooby was able to distract the monster long enough to get it away, and his accident sliding down the stairs and colliding with the chandelier and the suits of armor lining the walls of the castle trapped it!
Misty and Sunny helped Scooby out of the chandelier, and Zipp and Pipp helped Daphne and Velma back onto solid ground. And as soon as everyone was safe and sound, Velma approached the phony beast and pulled off it’s mask, revealing a familiar face that made Shaggy gasp in shock. “Like, it's Mr. Beeman! The real estate agent!"
“Mr. Beeman?” Scooby questioned with a raised eyebrow and a voice that spelled total confusion. Velma nodded sternly. “Yeah, he was printing millions of counterfeit dollars in the basement with his printing press. What we originally thought was mold, was really green ink. See?”
As Velma pulled off his monster hands, the gang saw she was right-- there was green ink on Mr. Beeman’s hands. Seeing his plan was spoiled, Mr. Beeman growled in annoyance. “And I would've gotten away with it too if it wasn't for those big dogs and you meddling kids! And... w-whatever those things are!”
“Um, we’re called ponies, mister,” Izzy said with a huff. “Do it right next time!”
XXXXXXXXXXXX
After Mr. Beeman was taken away by local authorities, Daphne invited everyone to her house for a while, with the gang trying to answer the questions that the ponies had. “Yeah, we’ve been solving mysteries ever since we were kids,” Velma explained. “And when Scooby was a pup.”
“I bet you were one of the cutest puppies ever!” Misty scratched the Great Dane underneath his chin, making him giggle. But during all this, Daphne had kept quiet, and Fred was beginning to notice that something seemed off. “Daph? Everything all right?” he asked. “No, everything’s fine,” Daphne tried to brush it off. “Don’t worry about it.”
“...just so you know, I don’t like admitting things either. But, I have good friends who will listen,” Zipp told her gently. “Maybe your friends will be the same way.”
Daphne considered the pegasus’ words for a few moments before deciding that Zipp was right… she should tell her friends what had been bothering her lately. “Okay… here’s the thing. I was hoping for a supernatural case-- like, a real one. A mystery other than trying to get our pony friends back to their world. One with a real ghost. All we keep getting are bad guys in masks,” she admitted. “So… I was thinking… what if we take a year or two to do our own thing, and then regroup after a year or sooner if we need to?”
To be quite honest, the ponies weren’t sure how they were liking the gang splitting up like this. They worried that something would cause them to fight, making their problem-finding mission that much harder.
But after a few minutes of silence, the gang looked at one another and nodded. “If that’s what you wanna do, Daph… then we wanna support you,” Fred told her. “Yeah,” Shaggy nodded. “Scoob and I could deal with some time off-- right?”
“I think so,” Scooby nodded. Daphne smiled softly, and pulled her best friends into a hug. “We’ll keep in touch, I promise,” she vowed. But while the gang was having their moment, Sunny and her friends turned to look at each other. “What do we do?” Hitch asked. “We can’t let them seperate themselves from each other like this! What about us? Where will we go?”
“We’ll all stick with a couple members of the gang to keep an eye on them,” Sunny said firmly. “Misty, since you seem to like Scooby and Shaggy so much, you and I can stay with them. Pipp and Hitch, why don’t you stick around with Daphne and Fred for a while?”
“We can do that,” Pipp tossed her mane. “And Izzy and I can stay with Velma, and maybe figure out some minor mysteries without making such a fuss for our existence,” Zipp added. The ponies nodded at this and took one long gaze at one another. It seemed like only yesterday they were bringing magic back… and now they were gonna be away for another year.
It caused the group to hug and nuzzle one another sadly, but they knew that if they wanted to keep connected, all they had to do was call. When no one was looking, Misty gazed out into the pitch black night and prayed to herself that Opaline would not take her friends’ seperation to her advantage.