//------------------------------// // A Mystery Comes to a Close...? // Story: G5 Adventures in Chill Out, Scooby-Doo! // by ponydog127 //------------------------------// Fred had given everyone their instructions to take down Professor Jeffries and Ember’s scheme, and now all they had to do was wait for the right moment to strike.  Down below, Ember and the professor were loading crystals onto the sled, and Professor Jeffries laughed triumphantly. “Once I get down this desolate mountain, it'll be nothing but room service and warm, sunny beaches. And you, my dear, Ember, will get your reward.” “Yes…” Ember chuckled wickedly. “So I will.” But when they turned again, the crystal on the sled was gone! That’s when they looked over and saw that Shaggy, Scooby, Sunny, Misty, Pipp and Zipp had the sled near them. “Looking for this?” Zipp smirked. “Sorry, professor,” said Sunny with a sneer. “This crystal stays in the cavern where it belongs.” “Not while we have anything to say about it!” Ember snarled, and dove for the crystal, but Sunny and Pipp bumped it aside, letting her crash. And when she dove again, this time for Misty and Zipp, they merely ducked, letting her crash again. Seeing as his partner was no longer getting anywhere, Professor Jeffries picked up a pickaxe. “Come back here with that crystal!” he said, charging. “Finders keepers!” “Zoinks! And like, losers snoozers!” Shaggy said, and the ponies grabbed ropes and pulled them away. “Mush, girls! Mush! Mush!” Once they reached a certain point, Fred immediately gave the signal. “Hit it!” Pemba, Dell, Aurora and Snow Spell pushed down a huge boulder, which held a net in place, and caught Professor Jeffries in the trap. Daphne put her hands on her hips with a huff. “A textbook example of how to catch a would-be snow monster.” “What?” Professor Jeffries was confused. “No, you’ve got it all wrong! I’m not the snowman!” “It makes perfect sense, though,” Hitch growled. “Professor Jeffries used the legend of the abominable snowman to scare everyone off the mountain!” “And once everyone was gone and out of harms way,” Zipp agreed, “he and Ember were free to collect the crystals for their own gain. Speaking of Ember, where is she, Jeffries?” The professor looked around for any sign of the pegasus, but she was nowhere to be seen. “She must have retreated once she saw you had bested her.” “We’ll look for her later,” Sunny said. “Right now, what should we do with the professor?” Shaggy gulped nervously as he approached the discussive trio. “I hate to interrupt, but it looks like there's still a few scares left to this snow-monster mystery!” That’s when everyone finally looked up again to see that the snow monster was above them, roaring at the top of its lungs. “Come on, gang!” Shaggy shouted as he and Scooby were joined by the Mane 6. “We gotta skedaddle!” “In other words,” Izzy said urgently, “get the hay out of here!” “Daphne, keep an eye on Sparky!” Hitch shouted as they ran from the monster down another tunnel. “All aboard the Snowman Express!” Del shouted, and everyone else boarded a minecart train before setting off down the tunnel, leaving the professor alone. “You're not out of this race you Jeffries old boy,” he said, cutting the net. “Ember will have her reward… count on it.” XXXXXXXXX The chase took our treasured heroes through the mountain caverns at a rapid speed-- even Professor Jeffries got in on the chase after escaping from the net. They tried to stop him, of course, when the snowman got involved, but he did escape with the crystal Eventually, after losing Professor Jeffries, the Mane 6, Shaggy and Scooby lost the snowman, but their friends in the process, in the dark tunnels. As for the others, they came out of the tunnel, with Del screaming, 'This is gonna hurt', and landed in a fresh pile of snow. “Ooh... Del was right,” groaned Snow Spell. “That really did hurt.” “But what about the others?” Daphne asked worriedly. “They must still be inside the mountain somewhere!” Aurora said worriedly, but Fred began to formulate a plan in his mind. “Okay, gang. I've got a plan to catch this freezer-burned bogeyman. But we'll have to work fast. Come on. Del, you are driving.” “Right on!” XXXXXXXXX At the same time, the remaining group traveled down the dark tunnels of the mountain in the pitch black. “I can't see a thing...” Zipp strained with a blink. “Can somebody light one of those candles?” Scooby managed to stumble and find a match, flicking it and lighting the candle... which was definitely not what they all expected it to be. “Zoinks, like, that's no candle! It's a stick of dynamite!” “DYNAMITE!!” Scooby and the ponies wailed, and everyone managed to jump off the sled, just before it exploded, sending the group face first into the snowbank. After they managed to recover, Shaggy laughed joyously. “We made it, guys! We're alive!!” “I'm free to parent Sparky another day!” Hitch said at the top of his lungs. But what they didn't realize, until it was too late, that the explosion from the dynamite caused the snow above them to crumble and collapse, heading down the mountain at a rapid pace. Everyone screamed upon seeing the snow heading their way-- this wasn't just a bunch of snow coming at them... it was an avalanche! “Nopony panic!” Sunny quickly shouted. “We just need to figure out a safe but fast way down the mountain. Any ideas?” “Oh oh oh! I know!” Izzy immediately raised a hoof. “Scooby, hand me those materials over there!” Scooby tossed the remaining fragments of the sled to the lavender unicorn, and she immediately got to work constructing things as the avalanche got closer. “Uh, whatever you're working on, Izzy,” Zipp said, a tad bit panicked, “do you mind working on our way out of this alive FASTER?!” Finally, Izzy's unicycling project was finally complete-- hoof-made snowboards! “Like, far out!” Shaggy cried, and they all raced to get on the snowboards. “Come on, guys!” Misty said. “Let's shred this mountain before it shreds us!” Then, with one push from everyone, they sped down the mountain at an alarming pace, the wind and some snow flying into their faces and the avalanche just mere meters behind them. But on one hoof, the snowboarding was actually a fun experience, and the avalanche heightened the thrill. “Way to go, Scoob! Way to go!” Shaggy shouted. “Like, who knew you were such a hot dog?” “Scooby-Dooby-Doooooo!!!!” Scooby howled before yodeling. But as they continued to snowboard down the mountainside, Pipp suddenly had a startling thought. “Um, I don't wanna be a backseat snowboarder, but... I had a question. What happens when we run out of mountain?” Scooby and the others looked down the mountain with wide eyes-- that was the one thing that they hadn't thought of! XXXXXXXXX At the bottom of the mountain, Velma and Del finally finished shaping the snow around them into a ramp and slope for Fred's trap. “Okay, I think that should do it,” Velma said, and Del responded with excitement. “Man, when they hit this baby, it's gonna be sweet!” “Way to go, guys. The slope looks perfect,” Fred told them over the radio from the monastery, where he, Snow Spell, Aurora, Daphne and Pemba were waiting. “Once they hit this last ramp, they'll catch air over the monastery wall boosting right into the trap we made from the climbing ropes.” “And not a minute too soon!” Daphne pointed at several figures making their way down the mountain. “Here they come!” “Guys, it isn't the monster or Professor Jeffries! It's Shaggy, Scooby and the ponies!” Aurora said urgently as Snow Spell tended to Sparky. “And they're snowboarding right for the traps!” They continued to snowboard down the mountain at a rapid speed, and then, they reached the slope, flying over the monastery walls. The ponies managed to stop themselves on the monastery roof, but Shaggy and Scooby went flying into the trap Fred set up. But the thing was, they had so much fun, they weren't even scared! “Like, that was wild!” “Yeah! Wild!” Meanwhile, the professor himself was sliding down the mountain with the snowman hanging on before he got a pickaxe and wickedly laughed. “Sorry, old chum, but this mountain is just not big enough for the both of us!” He slammed the pickaxe onto the rope, cutting the snowman loose… just before he realized he was heading into the trap, flying over the walls and allowing the ponies to grab the crystal from his sled before he landed within the ropes. The High Lama watched this, an impressed look on his face. “Extraordinary.” “Ha ha ha! Yeah, man! It worked!” Del cheered from the snowplow, but that was when Velma turned and saw the avalanche. “Uh… Del?” When Del finally saw the avalanche, he turned and pushed the snowplow into high gear. “Hang on, Velma!!” “Oh, I’m hanging.” Everyone else watched from the monastery grounds with wide eyes, Hitch whimpering loudly. “They’re not gonna make it!” “Not if I don’t slow down the avalanche first!” Snow Spell said in a determined tone, letting her eyes close and her horn fire up. She started to slow down the avalanche, but it was becoming a lot for her to handle, and it was making her really tired. “I… I can’t hold it for… much longer!” “Just a few more seconds, Snow Spell! I think they can outrun it!” Sunny encouraged. But as Snow Spell tried to keep the avalanche from reaching them, the snowman leapt toward the snowplow and grabbed Del, who yelled out in horror. “Del!!” Velma cried before she was grabbed. “Jinkies!!” Once the snowman had both of them in his grasp, he took a deep, inflating breath and jumped, letting the avalanche push the snowplow off the cliff. Everyone watched as they slowly descended, and Del couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “A flying abominable snowman? My mind is blown!” “That’s no snowman,” Velma said, pulling off the snowman’s face, letting him deflate and sending them into the snow, as well as the mechanical suit used to work the snowman. “Try snow-woman!” Everyone looked to see who was behind the mask… and it was none other than Minga herself! XXXXXXXXX Once everyone was back together, Velma decided to explain everything while Minga sat, completely defeated by her brother’s side. “Minga Sherpa has been behind this monster mystery from the very beginning.” “She used the helium tanks from the weather station to fill her monster costume,” Fred added. “Ohh…” Hitch nodded. “So that’s why the monster was able to climb so easily!” “And that's also why the monster's footprints didn't sink very deeply into the snow!” Pipp realized. “I’m very sorry,” Minga said, lowering her head. “I never meant to hurt anyone.” “But, Minga… I don’t understand,” Snow Spell shook her head. “Why did you do all this?” “All I really wanted was to listen to Del Chillman on the radio,” Minga said, a bit embarrassed. “You see, I am your number one fan.” Del seemed a bit surprised, but smiled nonetheless. “Really?” “When I learned that you were going to be leaving the mountain,” Minga went on, “I brought the yeti to life as a way of keeping you here.” “So, like, that's why she's trying so hard to scare us all. She just wanted to convince Del to stick around,” Shaggy said. “Wow! That's so... I mean, it's real cool, mama,” Del said in his radio voice, making Minga giggle. “As for Professor Jeffries,” Velma said, turning to their captive, “he was using the legend to cover up his scheme.” “And I would’ve gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for you meddling kids,” sneered the professor, “those ponies and that mountain climbing mutt, Scooby-Doo.” “Who?” Scooby blinked. “Me?” “NO NO NO NO!!!” Everyone turned to see Ember standing at the gates, completely angered. “This is impossible!! None of you were meant to survive! Then I would have reigned supreme over ALL PONIES!!” “What got caught up in her mane?” Aurora asked Pipp, who merely shrugged. Misty, however, knew that something wasn’t right, and what Ember just said solidified it. “She’s not really Ember… are you?” Misty asked. “You were just hoping to get close to us and finish us all off. So why don’t you show us who you REALLY are?” For the first time, Ember let her smile widen and her wings unfolded. “With great pleasure, Misty.” Suddenly, her wings began to flame up, and everyone watched as she was lifted up into the air in a ball of flames as she began to change; a horn began to grow, she became darker colored, her hair became white, and her eye color changed to dark blue.  When the flames finally cleared, Sunny and her friends cried out in disgust at the monster standing before them. “OPALINE ARCANA!!!”