Opaline smirked as she flew over the group with fiery wings and horn, and no one else said anything until Shaggy did. “That’s Opaline? Is it just me, or is she more… frightening in person?”
“Yeah,” Scooby nodded. “And taller.”
“Ugh, I forgot how idiotic you two can be,” Opaline scoffed and lowered herself to the ground. “But that won’t be a problem for much longer.”
“You're not going to lay a hoof on any of my friends!” Misty snarled, leaping in front of Shaggy and Scooby. “I don't know how I didn't realize it was you, but we're going to stop you now and that's all that matters!”
“Misty...” Opaline's expression softened a bit as she landed, approaching her and placing a hoof under Misty's chin. “You know you're talking to the mare who raised you from a filly to the confident mare you are now... right?”
“You may have raised me, but you were NEVER my mother!” Misty slapped Opaline’s hoof away in anger. “I was lost as a filly, and I'm gonna find my mom and have her live in Maretime Bay with me and my friends! That is... if you hadn't done anything to her already.”
“I may be an alicorn, but I'm not a murderer-- you should know better,” Opaline scoffed. “Let me be quite clear; your mother... didn't... want you... anymore.”
Misty felt her entire world crumble at that… her mother abandoned her? Was this some sort of sick joke? The blue unicorn’s stomach dropped, and her ears pinned tightly against her head. “No… you’re lying… it can’t be true…”
“Of course it is. Your mother showed up at the grounds of my castle when you were a tiny filly; much too young for you to remember the truth,” Opaline said as she walked around Misty, making a complete circle before facing her again. “I saw her right through the castle window, kissing your head while you were asleep before running off. I watched for a few hours to see if she would return for you… but she never did. Even though I didn’t have my powers, I thought a servant would do me good, and that’s how you ended up with me as your moth-- AGH!!!!”
Opaline felt her stinging cheek in shock, and everyone tried not to gasp… Misty had just slapped Opaline right in the face. “You’re lying… my mother would never abandon me!” Misty said in angry tears. “And I have friends who believe me when I say it!”
“Oh… do you now…?”
Opaline merely had to look at Pemba, Professor Jeffries, Minga and Del, and suddenly, their eyes glowed purple before they took one knee before the evil alicorn. “All hail Opaline; rightful ruler of Equestria…”
“Del? What… what’s going on?!” Aurora demanded, waving a hoof in front of his face. “Pemba, Minga! Wake up! Please!” Snow Spell pleaded, but Opaline merely laughed. “Nice try, but I have convinced them to come to my side. And once I have what is rightfully mine, nopony can stand in my way!”
The alicorn slammed her hooves onto the ground, and her horn began to drain more dragon fire from Sparky, making him groan in pain. “Oh no you don’t!” Misty shouted, firing a beam at Opaline and making her shriek in pain. “Everypony! RUN!!”
No one that wasn't under Opaline's spell wasted a single second after that, and screamed and took off running, Hitch holding the baby dragon in his hooves. “ARGH!!! You pathetic foals!” Opaline snarled. “Servants, after them! And don’t stop until the dragon is back in my clutches!”
The brain-washed humans marched after the gang, and they began to desperately search for a place to hide. “What do we do?!” Pipp shrieked as they flew/ran along each other. “They’ll be after us in no time!”
Snow Spell desperately searched along the hallways for an escape route, until she saw an ancient symbol on the walls… the same one that belonged to a previously visited kingdom! “This way! Follow me!”
“Through the wall?!” Daphne asked. “Not just a wall!” Snow Spell put her hoof on the symbol, and the wall opened up with a slide going down. “But a wall with a secret escape slide! Hurry! I think I can hear them coming!”
Not wasting a single second, the group followed her down the slide, and when Scooby was the last to enter, the door shut just as Opaline and her servants wandered in. “No no NO!! How did you idiotic fools lose them?!” Opaline snarled before sighing. “No matter… I’ll find them. And they’ll pay for taking away that dragon.”
XXXXXXXXX
The gang, the Mane 6, Snow Spell and Aurora screamed as they plummeted down the slide at a speed of who-knows-how fast, until they finally landed on the ground in the warm, sunny kingdom of Shangri-la; a place that it would take Opaline many a time to find. “We should be safe here for a while,” Snow Spell said as she got up. “But for how long? That’s the bigger question.”
“Come on; let’s get to the palace library,” Sunny told her friends. “I think we need to see if they have any Equestrian files. Maybe something can tell us how to finally defeat this evil fire witch.”
Everyone quickly followed Sunny into the palace, but Misty lagged behind, wondering something to herself.
What if Opaline really was right about her mother… abandoning her?
XXXXXXXX
They entered the palace library a few minutes later, and as they wandered around, looking for any clues that might have pointed to how Opaline got their friends on her side or any clues that might point to her eventual defeat… they began to sing about their problems.
Velma: I can’t believe it
Pipp: What an end
Daphne, Velma and Pipp: They were supposed to be our friends
Fred: It makes no sense
Daphne: Such false pretends
Izzy: We followed them to the bitter ends
Misty: Wait, gang!
Before you jump to conclusions
Our friends were acting with a lot of confusion
Shaggy: Like, in a trance
They were acting weird in that alicorn’s dance
“Misty and Shaggy are right; we can’t give up on our friends so easily,” Sunny went on. “Split up and search all the records you can! Remember; you guys are Mystery Inc!”
Thinking Shaggy and Sunny were right, the group split up to cover individual sections on their own.
All: The name’s Mystery Inc, gang
The team who calls the shots
Each time we will connect the dots
If we get tied up, we won’t let up
The name’s Mystery Inc, gang
The team who calls the shots
Each time we will connect the dots
If we get tied up, start up, cause we’re fired up!
It's dark
Sunny and Izzy: When facts are unclear
All: So dark
Fred and Hitch: When phantoms are near
All: The dark
We move with no doubt or fear
Misty: A good old mystery is here
After a moment of searching through the books and info in front of her, Velma suddenly got an idea. “That’s it!”
Velma: I gotta use my watch
Access the lab computer on my watch
A holographic image displayed over the group, and Shaggy smiled encouragingly. “Enlighten us, Velm-Einstein!”
Zipp: It's in the chemical composition
All the sulfuristic disposition
“Mixed in with these agents of hallucination,” Velma continued, “points to mind control. Questions?”
Hitch gulped nervously at this. “Mind control?”
All: The name’s Mystery Inc, gang
The team who calls the shots
Each time we will connect the dots
If we get tied up, we won’t let up
The name’s Mystery Inc, gang
The team who calls the shots
Each time we will connect the dots
If we get tied up, start up, cause we’re fired up!
It's dark
Sunny and Izzy: When facts are unclear
All: So dark
Fred and Hitch: When phantoms are near
All: The dark
We move with no doubt or fear
Ponies: Our good pal Scooby is heeeeeeere…
All: The name’s Mystery Inc, gang
The team who calls the shots
Each time we will connect the dots
If we get tied up, we won’t let up
The name’s Mystery Inc, gang
The team who calls the shots
Each time we will connect the dots
If we get tied up, start up, cause we’re fired up! (Pipp and Daphne: Uuuuuup...)
All: Cause we’re fired up!
At the end of the song, Sunny found a book and flipped through it, eyes darting left and right before she stopped on a certain page. “Hey, gang! I found some hoof-written notes on here!”
“Hmmm… looks like an old form of ponish,” Velma said. “Zipp showed me some when we were together the last time.”
“Any idea what it says?” Fred asked as Zipp lowered her visor and scanned the notes. But when it showed her the results, her eyes widened. “Guys… these look like notes written by Twilight Sparkle herself!”
“Then… these texts must be over 1000 years old!” Aurora realized. “But how did they get to the Shangri-la kingdom to begin with?”
“Honestly, I don’t care; as long as it provides us with the information we need to defeat Opaline once and for all,” Sunny said. “What do you think, Misty? What can you tell us about Opaline that might help?”
But when she and the others turned, Misty had disappeared, the sound of hooves clopping being their alert system. “Where is she going?” Daphne wondered. “She can’t leave like that!”
“Like, I really think all this talk about Opaline is getting her upset,” Shaggy frowned. “Scoob and I better go talk to her while you guys analyze this.”
“Yeah,” Scooby nodded, and the two of them set out in search of their friend.
XXXXXXXX
Misty was off in a room of the castle all by herself, trying to keep herself calm as all these thoughts going through her head.
Why did Opaline never tell her about her mother before? Would she have not believed it? Did Opaline EVER care for her? Was she why it took the blue unicorn this long to find her cutie mark?
All of this was really confusing, and she wasn’t sure what to do. Suddenly, the door creaked open, and Shaggy and Scooby wandered inside. “Hey, Misty,” Shaggy said softly. “How are you holding up?”
“How do you think?” Misty muttered softly, climbing on one of the beds. “Opaline just spilled out the biggest truth of my life, and now she has our new friends under a mind-control spell that we don’t know if we’ll be able to break! …and it’s all my fault.”
“What?! How can you say that?” Scooby asked her. “It’s never been your fault!”
“But it is!” Misty said. “When magic returned, Opaline sent me out to spy on Sunny and the others. I could have said no! I could have left her sooner! But I was so crazed for this cutie mark that I let it blind side me from what I really wanted! I… I wanted a family. Somepony who didn’t gaslight me into doing whatever they wanted. Somepony who wanted to make sure I was safe… somepony that wasn’t like Opaline. But instead… I stayed, and I made everything worse. The second I met Sunny and the others, I should have told them the truth… so maybe none of this never have happened.”
She looked back at the mark on her flank and sighed. “What good is a cutie mark when I don’t even know how to shine?”
“...I never knew how to shine either.”
The three of them looked to see Sunny coming in through the door, looking a little down at Misty’s words. “I was never taken seriously back in Maretime Bay, and in a way, I guess I’m still not,” Sunny admitted. “My dad was my only other friend besides Hitch, and when he passed, I felt like I was losing a part of myself too. But… no matter what others thought of me, I perservered. And look; we have magic again, and we got to meet you, and Mystery Inc, and SpongeBob and his friends, and the Dennisons, and the Warners. Those are memories you should cherish.”
“...how can I cherish the memories when I was the one who brought Opaline into their lives?”
But then, Sunny suddenly thought of a solid reason Misty might be saying these things. “Misty… do you wish… you were never around?”
“...all the time,” Misty said, fresh tears flowing down her cheeks, not noticing the others were watching from the open doorway. “It’s clear my mom never wanted me, so… why would anypony else…?”
That was when Misty finally broke down; her eyes grew red and tear-filled, and her shoulders went up and down in countless sobs. Everyone grew stone silent, not knowing of anything else to do to comfort their fallen friend.
Well… everypony except one.
Zipp walked forward and sat next to Misty with Scooby and Sunny, and the others sat in the floor around them. “...we never told you how it was for each of us, did we?” Zipp asked. “When magic returned? And all the questions and confusion that came with it?”
Misty shook her head softly, and Zipp spoke again. “I loved having the thought of being able to fly just using my wings, but I was scared too. We pegasi hadn’t flown in a long time, and I was scared I was gonna crash. But when I took to the air, it’s like all my worries just… faded.”
“Me too,” Pipp nodded. “It was scary, but… it felt so natural, we just got the hang of it. Just like we got used to having unicorns and earth ponies as friends again.”
“And just like when earth ponies got their own magic, we all had to adjust to plants growing from the most unlikely places,” Hitch held up a glowing hoof. “But with my friends, I was able to find a way to harness my power for good.”
“Nopony could ever have all the answers,” Izzy added. “Not even Twilight Sparkle, from what all we’ve heard. But she had support… just like you do.”
“And you’re looking at your biggest supports right here,” Sunny finished the speech. “Because we’re not just your friends… we want to be like… your family.”
Misty felt her world slow down so she could think of everything, and finally, happy tears sparkled in her eyes. “Thank you… all of you. I want you to be my family too.”
“Your mom is out there, Misty. And whether she did abandon you or not, we’ll find out the truth… together,” Sunny said. “Hoof to heart.”
Everyone stacked their hooves, hands and paws on top of one another before shouting to the sky, “HOOF TO HEART!!!”
As they finished their cheer, the ponies’ cutie marks glowed brightly, filling the room with an aura the gang had never felt before, thanks to the colorful rainbow of sparkles, light and friendship that ignited above their heads… and the feeling lasted until it ended. “Whoa… that felt strange,” Fred commented. “But in a good way, almost. What happened?”
“I don’t know, exactly,” Zipp said, inspecting her wings before finding nothing different about them. “But maybe we can try it out together. I just hope we can do it before Opaline and her icy hot attitude burns the place to the ground.”
Misty felt the strong aura too, and looking at Snow Spell, then at the cutie marks, then at the gang, she began to get something. “Wait… you guys! I think I have a plan to defeat Opaline!”
“Really? You do?” Sunny asked. “Tell us, Misty!” Aurora begged. “I will, but first…” Misty said, getting up, “...I think we need to get back to the library. There’s something I wanna see.”