The tunnels in the La Serena mine were collapsing fast, and Shaggy (thanks to his new hypnosis caused bravery) was leading everyone in the mines down into the tunnels to find the other exit.
The Mane 6 had never seen Shaggy volunteer to lead the group into danger before, so it was a bit of a shock. But, it was incredibly brave, and if they didn't want to die, they had to trust Shaggy's newfound instincts.
Even Zipp, who remained a little bit hesitant about the hypnosis to begin with.
Shaggy had tucked a broken stalagmite into his belt, almost like a sword, before confidently leading the group to a large pit within the caverns... a pit filled with something Velma and Pipp despised, to say the least. “Snakes!!” Velma cried in disgust. “Ew ew ew… do not like!”
“I think the snakes will stay down there,” Misty said, getting a good look at how many of them there were, “but we need to find someway to get across.”
“No problem,” Zipp said, unfolding her wings and preparing to take someone across the pit. “We can just fly everypony out of here, and--”
But as she prepared to fly, she suddenly found her wings were useless. “Guys, my magic! It isn’t working!”
“UGH!! Mine either!” Silhouette said as she tried to fly as well. “We must be so far down in the caves,” Sunny figured, “our magic is useless from down here!”
“Then, I guess we’re gonna have to do this the old-fashioned way,” Fred spoke, using his flashlight to glance around the cave. But as he shined the light up toward the ceiling, it awoke hundreds upon hundreds of bats, to shrieked and flew toward the group, prompting them to duck and shield themselves from the little flying beasts.
However, Shaggy was the only one not afraid. Instead, he hopped to the top of the cave, using several rocks to get there once the bats had left. “Shaggy!” Fred exclaimed out of shock. “What are you doing?!”
“Saving your butt, Jones!” Shaggy responded with a stern voice. “Get used to it!”
That’s when he kicked one of the stalactites down from the ceiling, creating a stepping-stone for the others to hop onto. “Come on, guys!”
“I guess we have no other choice,” Silhouette told the others, taking the lead. “Let’s go! And stay close! Who knows what else might be lurking down here!”
So, one by one, the group hopped across the stalactites as Shaggy kicked them down from the ceiling above. But as they were crossing the rocks, Fred noticed that they seemed to be getting closer and closer to the snakes right underneath them. “The stalactites are sinking! We’ve gotta hurry!”
“Really trying here, Freddy!” Pipp shrieked as she hopped from one stalactite to the others. “Man, it would be SO much easier to fly right now!”
Shaggy eventually reached the other side and helped the others onto solid ground one by one. But as Misty was being helped onto solid ground, she heard Velma shriek, so she turned back and saw the stalactites in front of Velma already sunk, leaving Velma stranded in the sea of snakes. “Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew! Ooh! I can't get across now!”
“Hold on, Velma!” Hitch cried out. “We’ll get you out of there!”
“But how, Hitch?” Misty asked as she tried to ignite her horn again, but it didn't work. “We still can’t use our pony powers down here!”
That's when Shaggy looked around on the ceiling and noticed that there was one stalactite that he hadn't knocked down, giving him an idea just as the snakes began to crawl on top of the stalactite Velma was standing on. “Hurry! Agh!!”
Shaggy tossed the stalagmite he was holding toward the stalactite, chopping it off and allowing it to fall into the pit of snakes. “Now's your chance, Velma!” Shaggy shouted. “Hurry!”
Velma took a breath and then leapt onto the remaining stalactite, and then Shaggy reached down to her while Zipp and Hitch grabbed onto his waist to keep him stable. “Quick,” Shaggy said, “grab my hand!”
Velma shrieked as the stalactite began to break underneath her, and jumped up and grabbed Shaggy’s hand, letting Shaggy, Zipp and Hitch pull her up to safety. “Phew...” Velma sighed in relief. “That was too close.”
Suddenly, another explosion caused the entire cavern to rumble, and many members of the group gasped. “Hurry!” Pipp cried out. “We have to get out of here before we crumble like these rocks are!”
XXXXXXXX
After escaping the pit of snakes in the last cavern, Shaggy led the group down the tunnels once again. And during this walk, Winsor was trying to make it up to Velma after the way he treated her before. “Okay, yes, I did try to get you to drop the investigation. But... I really do like you.”
“...I believe you, Winsor,” Velma said with a straight face. “But maybe you could have told me the truth back when we weren't about to die!”
With a huff, she walked ahead, leaving Winsor to sigh and look over at Izzy and Zipp. “What am I gonna have do to fix all this?”
“That's sort of a blank question,” Zipp said, “but I'm gonna go out on a limb and say... you're gonna have to do a whole heck of a lot in order to win this girl back.”
Finally, they reached a part of the cavern where a rushing river laid under their feet, and over in the distance, Professor Svankmajer spotted a sliver of light coming from the other side. “Up there!”
“Where's the light coming from?” Fred asked. “It's moonlight!” Silhouette exclaimed. “That must be the other exit!”
“Now all we have to do is figure out how to get over there without magic,” Pipp said before gulping nervously. “And... without the fear of dying.”
“All right, anyone who has a belt, strip it off,” Shaggy instructed before he explained his plan, pointing to several different rocks in the cavern. “I'm gonna use them to swing across to there. From there, I can jump to there. Then I can climb up and out... find some rope, lower it down and haul you bums out. Done.”
“Not exactly comfortable with the bum talk,” Zipp deadpanned, “but that's a pretty solid plan there, Shag. Good thinking!”
“And I have a jump rope you can use too!” Izzy said, getting one out of her shirt pocket. “I hope it'll work.”
“Thanks, Iz,” Shaggy patted her head as he tied the jump rope and the belts together, making one long rope as he put his flashlight away and prepared to swing. However, more rumbling caused the group to try and maintain their balance for a few moments. “What was that?!” Daphne asked. “I think another section of caverns collapsed!” Professor Svankmajer realized. “This whole area is becoming unstable. Shaggy, you'd better hurry.”
“...I was born hurried,” Shaggy said with a confident smirk... just before Fred spoke up with a question in mind. “Is that part of the brave thing where you say weird stuff that sounds like movie lines?”
“Yes,” Shaggy nodded with a smile. “Yes it is, big guy.”
“Alrighty then!”
“Go for it, Shaggy, but... be careful,” Sunny said to her friend, clearly worried. “We don't know what we would do if you... you know...”
Shaggy smiled and fist-bumped Sunny before whirling the rope around a nearby stalactite. Then, taking one deep breath, he swung across the water, even scaling the cave walls before taking a daring flip to the rock where he had originally pointed to the group.
Everyone seemed stunned and impressed with the feat, but Daphne was the first to comment on it, hands on her hips. “Not bad.”
And just like that, the hypnosis wore off, causing Shaggy to return to his fearful self again. “Like, oh no! I'm me again!”
Suddenly, Scooby immediately thought of what the keyword might have been. “Bad!”
“What was that?” Silhouette turned to the Great Dane. “That's the keyword,” Scooby told the dragon queen. “Bad.”
“Rad?” Velma repeated what she thought she heard. “No,” Scooby shook his head. “Bad.”
That's when a few more members of the group began to try and guess what the keyword was.
“Sad?”
“Dad?”
“Bad! Bad! Bad!” Scooby tried to repeat, but the others just kept on trying to guess.
“Cad?”
“Tad?”
“Pad?”
“Chad?”
“Ooh! Amistad!”
“Bad!” Scooby eventually groaned, putting a paw over his face. “Guys, stop with the guessing games for now!” Sunny told her friends. “Shaggy looks really scared and we have to help him!”
The ponies immediately realized that Sunny was right... they had to do whatever they could. “Shaggy!” Fred called out. “You okay there?!”
“I can't do it!” Shaggy shouted back. “I'm supposed to jump to that ledge? Maybe when I was brave, but now?! No way!”
“If you don't do it,” Fred called, “we're all gonna die!”
“Yeah!” Pipp spoke with a nodded. “No pressure!”
“Look how far it is, guys!!” Shaggy shrieked, clinging to that small rock. “I'm not gonna make it!!”
Suddenly, the entire cavern began to rumble again, causing Professor Svankmajer to realize that more and more caverns were collapsing due to the explosive charges. “We don't have much time!”
“Shaggy, you can do it!” Fred tried to be encouraging. “You made a bigger jump than that a few minutes ago!”
“Whatever!” Shaggy said in disbelief. “That's when I was the other guy! You know, the brave one!”
That’s when Zipp decided to speak her mind, and tell Shaggy exactly what she thought that he needed to hear… whether he wanted to hear it or not. “I don't know much about hypnosis, Shaggy, but I know one thing. It cannot make you do things you couldn't do without it!” she said confidently. “All that stuff you did when you were brave, that was you! It's inside you! You just have to let it out!”
“Zipp’s right, Shaggy!” Pipp told her friend. “You have to have confidence in yourself!”
“And,” Sunny added, “you have to have hope that you CAN make it!”
“Not to mention,” Izzy agreed, “you have to have creativity to help you come up with a plan!”
“...not sure where kindness and empathy come into play here,” Hitch then called, “but it helps to have those things too!”
“You have all the elements you need right there inside you, Shaggy!” Misty cried. “And if anyone can get us out of this place alive, it’s you!”
Shaggy, upon listening to the end of the ponies' speech, realized that his Equestrian friends were right-- all he needed was right there within him all along... he just had to find a way to let it out in his own time.
So, he shakingly stood up, trembling a bit, but still stood, ready to get this over with. “Like… give me a movie line!”
“What?!” Fred asked in confusion. “Okay…” Shaggy sighed to himself. “ Um… I need one of those movie line thingies to say before I jump!”
“Uh, okay…” Fred tried to think. “How about… ‘When you say jump, I say how high’?”
“Fred,” Shaggy sighed, “that doesn’t make any sense!”
“DOES IT MATTER?!” Zipp cried. “We’re all gonna be dead meat if you don’t get moving!”
“All right, all right…” Shaggy said, turning toward the nearby ledge before becoming determined and ready. “When you say jump, I say… how high!”
And just like that, he jumped right onto the other side, barely hanging on. Then, with his friends watching his every movement, he began to scale the cliff when suddenly, rocks began to break off and fall! Luckily, Shaggy was able to use those rocks as stairs, climbing all the way to the top, close to where the moonlight was coming through.
But as he prepared to climb out, the ledge beneath him gave way, and he would have fallen to his doom… that is, if Tex hadn’t reached down and grabbed him first. “Gotcha!”
“Ho ho! Tex!” Shaggy cried out in relief as Tex pulled him out of the cavern and onto solid ground, letting the rest of the bikers cheer. “They told me you got trapped in those caves and this was the only other exit,” Tex told Shaggy. “Well, I figured if anyone could find their way out, it'd be you. We been camped out here all night.”
“I made beans, if you want some,” said one of the bikers, but Shaggy knew there wasn’t enough time for that. “Hey, you guys have any rope?”
XXXXXXXX
After the rope had been retrieved, Shaggy and the bikers worked together to get everyone out of the hole safe and sound, with Winsor being the last one.
The ponies sighed, now being able to use their magic freely again, and everyone was safe and sound.
Well... they wouldn't be for long.
The final section of caverns was finally collapsing thanks to the charges, and this was causing the ground to heavily give way, and Sunny knew that they had to get away from there before the entire town caved in. “Everypony! RUN!!”
This caused everyone to run off in different directions, all to get away from the cave-in, and the ponies, Silhouette, Mystery Inc, Winsor and Professor Svankmajer all hid behind some gigantic boulders at the end of the street.
When the collapsing finally ended, there in the giant pit lay the giant allosaurus crystal as the sun began to rise. Then, combined with the sunlight, the crystal released beams of light that created a cascade of colors that flew across the sky. “Well, now,” Tex smiled. “That’s right purty.”
“Like, it sure is, Tex,” Shaggy said with a nod.
And somehow… their whole adventure had made this one moment entirely worth it.