//------------------------------// // Investigations Begin // Story: G5 Adventures in Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island // by ponydog127 //------------------------------// Sunny and her friends had never seen such an elegant place before… other than the Crystal Brighthouse or the palace of Zephyr Heights. Ms. Lenoir seemed so confident and proud, and Lena seemed to be happy working for her… but in Misty’s eyes, it somehow reminded her of Opaline back in Equestria. Could Opaline have had something to do with the laughter she heard on the way to Moonscar Island? She herself wasn’t sure… but she knew she’d have to keep an eye on things while they were in this new environment.  Currently, Pipp, Zipp and Hitch decided to stay with Fred, Velma and Daphne to look around the house, while Sunny and the unicorns stuck with Shaggy and Scooby to check out the kitchen. Upon entering the room, Scooby noticed three to four small bowls on the floor, filled with brown mush when he sniffed them. “Cat food… yuck!” “Forget the cat food, Scoob. There’s a lot better chow in this kitchen!” Shaggy gestured to the steaming hot pot on the stove, to which the ponies smelled-- they had never smelled anything so good before. “Mmm… it smells great!” Sunny said to Lena as the latter prepared lemonade for the others. “It’s gumbo, isn’t it?” “You do know your food,” Lena said with a smile. “Shag and Scooby may have traveled the world on their stomachs,” Izzy explained, “but Sunny is a food-whiz back where we come from. Is it okay if we have a little taste? I don't think I've ever had gumbo before.” “Of course not. Let me know how you like it!” Lena said before she walked out of the room. Shaggy found some small bowls to sample the gumbo, and the ponies and Scooby ate from them as Shaggy used the spoon to take a small taste test. “Like, not bad,” he smiled at the combination of flavors, “but it needs a little more spice. Don’t you think, Scoob?” “Uh-huh!” Scooby downed his gumbo, leaving some of it on his lips as he grinned. “Here, let me get that for you, you messy mongrel,” Sunny teased playfully, using a napkin to wipe Scooby’s face as Izzy opened the pantry door for Shaggy, who came out with a small jar of hot peppers. “These puppies oughta do the trick!” XXXXXXXX Meanwhile, Zipp and Pipp flew around the room, taking pictures while Lena served lemonade to everyone down below. “Mmm! Delicious lemonade, Lena!” Fred complimented. “Why, thank you,” Lena set the tray down. “So,” Daphne started, “how long have you worked for--” Suddenly, a scream a couple rooms over caught the group’s attention, which caused Velma to gasp. “The guys!” she cried, and they ran to the kitchen to see Misty and Izzy carefully handing the boys every drink they could find to cool down their mouths. “Ahh…” Shaggy sighed after finishing an entire jug of water. “Like, what was some hot pepper…” “Those are Moonscar Island peppers,” Lena giggled, and Shaggy then noticed the entire group glancing down at them with slight relief. “I was not exaggerating when I said they were the hottest peppers in Louisiana,” Ms. Lenoir said with a smile. “With all the screaming,” Zipp said, “we thought you may have seen a ghost!” “If we do, you’ll be the first to know,” Misty said as Lena began to sweep up some broken glass pieces from the pitcher Scooby accidentally broke. “Sorry about the interruption, Ms. Lenoir,” Pipp apologized. “Please,” Ms. Lenoir said, “call me Simone. Shall we continue our tour of the house?” “Great, Miss… uh, Simone!” Daphne grabbed Fred’s hand and dragged him out of the room, followed by Hitch and Pipp, and Zipp and Velma spared them a glance before following. “Maybe you guys should stay away from those peppers,” Velma said as they exited the room. “Right,” Shaggy nodded. “We’ll just stick with the gumbo. If you don’t mind, Lena.” “Of course not,” Lena said as she picked up the bag with the glass pieces and walked out of the room. “I’m glad you like it-- help yourselves!” Shaggy and Scooby just smiled before they noticed the group was completely gone. Then Shaggy brought out a pepper and held it towards Scooby, smirking playfully. “Come on, I dare ya.” “Ruh uh. You first,” Scooby challenged. "Not chicken, are you, old buddy, old pal?” Shaggy asked teasingly, nudging Scooby, who frowned and shook his head in reply. “Guys, remember what happened last time?" a confused Misty asked them. “You nearly burned your tongues off!” “Misty does have a point,” Sunny frowned. “Maybe you should... slow down a bit?” Before Shaggy and Scooby could answer them, an icy, mystical-feeling wind raced around them, causing them to shiver. “Like, that’s funny,” Shaggy shivered. “A second ago, I was on fire. And now it's freezing!” “Yeah… freezing!” Scooby’s teeth chattered as he spoke. “Here, we'll split this big one,” Shaggy gave Scooby half a pepper. “That'll warm us up.”  “And I have something that'll help too,” Izzy reached into her saddlebag and pulled out a quilt, putting it around Misty. “Auntie Buttons' hoof-sewn quilt.” “Thanks, Iz,” Misty smiled, inviting Scooby under the quilt with her. ”Uh… guys?” Sunny pointed over at the wall. The group turned to see what Sunny was pointing at-- a tiny bit of fog carving some letters on the wall. “What... in Equestria... is that?!” Misty stammered. XXXXXXXX Meanwhile, in the library, Simone was showing them the elegance of the room while Pipp and Zipp took some photos. “Now this is a great library, Simone,” Velma said, but just then, they all heard Shaggy, Scooby, Sunny, Izzy and Misty screaming. “Now what?” Daphne asked in annoyance. The group raced back to the kitchen, but didn't see Sunny or the others anywhere... that is until Daphne opened the door to reveal the group hiding inside. “Peppers?” Zipp questioned. “Again?” “Uh uh! Writing!” Scooby quivered. “Writing? What writing?” Velma asked. “L-Like, ghost writing!” Shaggy pointed to the wall, where the words 'GET OUT' were written on the wall. “See?” Misty gulped. “This place is haunted!” “Oh... my... hoofness, that's scary!” Pipp yelped. “Wow, Fred! Get a shot of that!” Daphne exclaimed with excitement. “Jinkies!” Velma exclaimed breathlessly. “Guys, how did that get there?” Hitch asked. “I-It was this foggy windy thingy!” Izzy said. “It wrote words on the wall while we were turned around!” “Ghost-fog, huh? Interesting…” Zipp wrote all of this down. “Simone, could you stand next to me please?” Daphne asked, running a brush through her hair before stepping in front of the camera. And within moments, the camera was rolling. “Here we are in Ms. Simone Lenoir's kitchen,” Daphne told her viewers, “where we've had our first encounter with the supernatural spirits of Moonscar mansion. You can feel the chill in the air.” Suddenly, there was a blast of wind that came out of nowhere. “CUT!!” Daphne cried, and Simone went to go check the windows. “Who opened a window?” “Nopony! Look!” Sunny pointed toward the wall, which now read ‘BEWARE’ just below the ‘GET OUT’ written earlier. “Wow!” Pipp giggled excitedly, taking a few selfies. “Is this great stuff or what?!” “Right… like, great!” Shaggy said sarcastically. “The haunting might just be starting. After sundown, the ghosts get more restless,” Simone said with a worried frown. Curious, Zipp and Velma approached the wall with the writing on it, tapping on it with Zipp’s hoof and Velma’s fist. “Hmmm…” the girl with the orange turtleneck said to herself. “This seems pretty solid.” “But what was that ghostly fog Izzy mentioned?” Zipp wondered, but Daphne didn’t pay any attention to the two, brushing her hair some more to keep it looking perfect. “Keep rolling, Fred-- maybe we’ll have another ghostly manifestation!” But then, Fred’s attention turned away from her with a shocked expression. “Freddy?” Daphne called. “I’m over here.” “It’s Velma!” Fred exclaimed, and everyone looked over to see Velma hovering from the ground! Misty and Izzy gasped and felt their horns-- they weren’t doing that! “We’ve been levitated before, and there’s always a magnet or wires somewhere,” Fred said, unsatisfied, but Zipp and Sunny felt all around Velma, not feeling anything out of the ordinary. “No wires here, Fred!” Sunny said worriedly. “Wow!” Daphne gasped. “A real case of levitation!” “Whoaaaaa!!!” Velma cried as she was lifted higher into the air. “This just keeps getting better and spookier!” Pipp pranced in place. “Maybe where you’re trotting,” Velma held her skirt down. “Anyone wanna try getting me down?” “Sure thing-- come on, Scoob!” Shaggy and Scooby rushed to help Velma, but soon, the levitation ended, and Velma crashed down onto Scooby’s back. “Nice catch, Scooby. Thanks,” she smiled. “You’re welcome,” Scooby groaned as Zipp helped Velma back onto her feet. “That was pretty wild,” Hitch frowned. “Maybe it isn’t a good idea to be here so close to haunting-time.” “Hitch, if we catch this ghost, it would get me so many more followers of Ponygram!” Pipp begged. “And it would do some good for others living around the bayou,” Zipp reminded. “We can’t leave now.” Hitch sighed reluctantly. “Okay… but we just need to be careful.” “We’re gonna do that-- promise,” Misty nodded. “Maybe we should start by going to the library and reviewing the footage Fred caught on camera. Maybe it can give us a clue as to what we’re dealing with.” XXXXXXX The group took Fred’s video camera back to the library at Misty’s suggestion, and they watched it again and again, replaying and replaying the small amount of Daphne’s footage. “You can feel the chill in the air,” Daphne had said just as the blast of wind cut her off. “CUT!! Who opened a window?” “Play it again, Fred-- I think I saw something!” Daphne said. “Sure,” Fred rewinded the tape. “Who opened a window?” Daphne’s recording asked, just before Daphne stopped it. “Can you enhance the shot?” Hitch asked. “Yeah,” Fred nodded. “Let me darken the image a little… bring up the sharpness a bit, and… hey!” Fred zoomed in on the lower left-hoof side of the screen, and there behind Daphne was an immortal-looking pirate ghost, scraping a sword that caused the words to be carved into the wall. “Is that… a ghost?” Misty asked with a tremble. “I think so,” Zipp nodded. “It is the ghost of Morgan Moonscar,” Simone recognized it immediately. “Here. Let me show you.” She went over to the bookshelf, pulling a book down and flipping to a certain page before showing it to the group. “This is a portrait of Morgan McReight. The moon-shaped scar is why he became better known as Morgan Moonscar.” “That’s him all right… and he sure wants us out,” Sunny couldn’t help but shudder. “Like, we’d be happy to get out,” Shaggy voiced his opinion. “A real pirate ghost! Fabulous!” Daphne exclaimed. “I can't thank you enough for opening your haunted house to us, Simone!” “So… you’re not going to heed Moonscar’s threat?” Simone asked her in surprise. “Are you kidding? We don’t scare that easily,” Daphne smiled. “Uh… Shaggy, Scooby and I kinda do,” Misty said quietly, but her response fell on deaf ears. “Besides, it's probably just a hologram or some guy in a pirate suit,” Fred brushed it off. “Then, why did it only show up on the tape?” Zipp asked. “That’s the mystery,” Velma said, but Fred only smirked and crossed his arms. “But there's always a logical explanation for these things.” Suddenly, there came a sinister growling that caught the group offguard. “What's that?” Simone questioned. “Like, there's a logical explanation for the growling in our stomachs,” Shaggy said with a grin. “We're hungry-- and we're gonna get some food… to go!” “Yeah!” Scooby nodded, and the two scurried away as the ponies looked on with knowing smirks. As the others began to talk amongst themselves, Misty began to hear that voice again, chuckling evilly, and she couldn't help but wonder… was Opaline among them? And was she behind this ghost business? “Come on, Misty!” Shaggy called, driving Misty from her trance. “You, Scoob and I are gonna, like, pack for a picnic!” “Coming!” Misty called, and sparing her friends one final glance, she followed her friends down the hall to pack for their day in the sun. XXXXXXXXX Misty grabbed things from the pantry to hand to Shaggy, who put them in the picnic basket to take outside, which contained some potato salad, some of Lena's gumbo, a few jars of Moonscar Island peppers, and a large sandwich. However, the sandwich was too big, so Shaggy and Scooby had to eat some of it to get it to fit. As they were about to leave, Velma and Sunny entered the kitchen and looked longingly at the wall. “What are you and Sunny doing back here, Velma?” Misty asked. “I wanna take another look at the wall,” Velma spoke. “What's there to look at?” Shaggy asked. “It's pretty clear that ghost wants us out. Come on, Scoob. Let's go.” With that, the three of them left as Sunny and Velma began to study the wall. “It isn’t hollow, but maybe…” Sunny began to pick at the wall with her hoof, revealing something underneath the coat of paint. “There’s something under here!” Velma looked around until her eyes settled on a spatula nearby, and began to scrape the paint off the wall, revealing the word ‘Maelstrom’ underneath… just as Lena came into the kitchen, and seeing the damage caused her to gasp. “What are you doing to my kitchen?!” “Jinkies,” Velma shrugged. “Guess we got carried away.” XXXXXXXX Soon, the entire group (except Misty, Shaggy and Scooby) were in the kitchen, trying to make sense of what Velma had done while she flipped through Simone’s book. “Bingo!” she exclaimed, settling on a certain page. “Would you mind telling me why you destroyed half my kitchen?” Simone asked, obviously displeased. “Yeah, Velm-- let us in on it,” Zipp urged. “Well,” Velma explained, “according to this book the Maelstrom was the name of Morgan Moonscar's pirate ship.” “I am not surprised,” Simone shrugged. “Parts of this house are quite old. “Pieces of the pirate ship could have been used in the construction. Morgan Moonscar was rumored to have buried treasure on the island. Though it was… never found.” “Treasure? Aha! I knew it!” Fred exclaimed. “It's some guy disguised as a pirate ghost trying to scare everyone off the island!” This remark caused the group to stare at Fred in annoyance, Zipp being the only one to let out a remark. “Fred… you’re an idiot.” Now they could only hope that they would really discover what was going on with this place.