A Boy's Dazzling Girls

The Cryptid Club's path to where they entered the cave was blocked off by an army of that one monstrosity they thought they dealt with.

“There just had to be more of it!” Aria shouted in sarcasm.

“How're we going to get the treasure out of here now?” Spike asked.

Moonlight and Sunshine stepped forward, “We'll deal with them.” Sunshine answered.

“You guys find another way out and get to the boat. We'll catch up.” Moonlight added.

“Wait!” Adagio said, as she, her sisters, and Post Crush approached, “We'll help too.”

Aria took the keys to the boat and tossed them to Spike, “If anything happens get yourselves out.”

“But, girls...” Spike tried to stop them.

“Don't worry, we can handle this.” Sonata assured him.

“Hurry!” Kiwi called, as the monsters attacked.

The succubi twins like before flew around using their nails to cut several of the monsters to pieces, but they kept restoring themselves. The five mermaids used their siren song to distort the creatures, but they recovered and their limbs morphed into swords and axes while trying to chop at the girls.

“Come on, we have to move!” Spike ordered the others, who all picked up the chest and started moving together further down the tunnel.

As the seven supernatural creatures held back the monsters three of them managed to sneak their way past them. Supernova after dodging an ax chop from one of them noticed this.

“They've gone after the others!” she cried.

“We got to help them!” Sonata gasped.

“Well, these guys sure aren't giving us a chance!” Aria reminded them, as the monsters continued to keep the girls preoccupied.

Meanwhile further down the tunnel, Spike and the others continued to carry the chest, while hoping to find an exit.

“There's gotta be some other way to get out of here.” Moondancer said, as they looked around.

“Wait look there!” Ocellus pointed to a tunnel where they saw light.

“Daylight!” Silverstream cheered.

“Let's go!” Sandbar ordered, as they carried the chest.

Spike looked back and suddenly saw the three monsters that snuck ahead of the others were catching up to them, “Might wanna double time it!” he called.

The others seeing what he meant, picked up the pace, but the creatures were moving faster. As they got closer, Spike drew his sword and spoke, “You guys go on ahead!”

“We can't leave you too!” Bonbon cried.

“I'll catch up!” Spike answered, as the group pressed on leaving Spike to deal with the three.

The three monsters attacked Spike who like before used his sword to slice at them, but no matter what limb he severed from them, they just reattached.

'I got to slow them down.' Spike thought to himself before looking up at the ceiling seeing a crevice in it. He smirked, and tossed his sword up into the crevice making it spread further, before the rocks cam tumbling down from the ceiling and landed on top of the monsters burying them. Spike quickly ran down the tunnel to catch up to the others.

When they saw him return, Lyra asked, “What happened?”

“I 'rocked' them to sleep.” Spike joked.

“Look, we're almost there.” Smolder said, as they reached the end of the tunnel.

As they exited they saw they had reached a hillside and could see the island from where they stood, “What a view!” Yona gasped.

“Look, there's the beach!” Bonbon motioned to the beach area where their boat was still parked.

“We got to get down there.” Sandbar said.

“And how, since we're carrying a chest with us.” Gallus inquired.

“There must be some way,” Moondancer looked around trying to get inspired. She suddenly spotted an old wagon where some skeletons looked like they have commandeered before they died, “That may work.”

The quickly loaded the chest onto the wagon before pushing it closer to the hill, “Ok, guys be ready to jump in.” Moondancer said, as they got the wagon closer to the edge.

“Now!” Lyra ordered, as they piled in before it started sliding downhill.

They screamed while holding onto the wagon and the chest while praying they didn't crash into anything.

“I think I'm gonna be sick!” Gallus covered his mouth.

“Me first!” Yona covered her mouth.

Spike looked ahead, “I can see the beach, we're almost there!” the group cheered, until several of the monsters jumped in front of the wagon scaring them.

The creatures jumped onto the wagon, as Spike, Lyra, Bonbon, Gallus, and Smolder used their swords to swat at them and push them off.

“No free rides!” Smolder told one of the creatures before knocking it off the wagon and it rolled down the hill.

As the group kept the creatures off, Ocellus looked ahead and screamed. Everyone looked ahead seeing a boulder up ahead that looked like it could be used as a ramp.

“Everyone hang on!” Bonbon shouted, as they hung on.

The wagon rolled off the boulder ramp and was suddenly airborne, “Geronimo!” Spike shouted, as the other creatures were knocked off.

As they started coming down they were dropping right down at the beach, “Everyone, jump out!” Sandbar called, as they started bailing out with Spike and Gallus grabbing the chest and made it out together.

The wagon landed on the beach with a crash putting it to pieces, while everyone landed on the sand looking unharmed.

“Everyone all right?” Lyra asked, as they got up.

“I'm ok.” Bonbon answered.

Everyone else voiced their confirmation of being ok, as Gallus saw the boat, “Come on, we need to get the chest on board.”

“Oh, we can't leave the girls here.” Spike said in worry.

“Well, it'll take forever to try and go back to them.” Moondancer reminded him.

“Not if we follow the marks.” Spike reminded her.

“The marks the twins left, of course.” Lyra recalled, as they were prepared to follow the same marks on the trees.

Unfortunately they didn't get far, as the monsters appeared before them and surrounded them, “Oh, no.” Ocellus gasped.

What made it worst was, they saw seven of them were dragging Adagio, her sisters, the succubi sisters, and Post Crush all tied up.

“Girls!” Spike cried.

“We tried holding them off, but they wouldn't stop.” Adagio voiced her guilt.

“We're sorry.” Sunshine cried.

“So this is it, huh?” Silverstream asked the club as the monsters surrounded them.

“I never thought I'd go out like this.” Sandbar sighed.

“Hey, no one gets to choose how it happens.” Moondancer replied.

“At least we'll go together.” Lyra sighed, as the monsters were closing in around them.

“And to think we only wanted to help the Cakes save Sugarcube Corner from being closed down!” Spike cried in frustration, “And we failed!”.

Suddenly Ocellus noticed the monsters who were closing in stopped in place, “Um, why aren't they moving?”

Everyone looked and saw they had indeed stopped in their tracks, “They stopped?” Bonbon asked.

“But why?” Moondancer asked.

“You've passed the test.” a voice spoke up from around them.

The group looked around feeling frightened enough, as they saw appearing before them was a ghost that looked like a familiar pirate captain.

“No way!” Gallus gasped.

“Captain Hoofbeard?” Yona asked.

“Aye, the very same, lass.” the ghost pirate confirmed.

“What's going on here?” Spike asked.

“Well, me lad, allow me to tell ya,” the captain began, before motioning to the seven monsters who released the captive girls who got up and went to the rest of their club mates, “I wanted to make sure if someone went looking for my treasure be it accident or discovery I wanted to make sure they wanted it for a noble selfless cause. All the bones you saw on this island were those driven mad with greed. I may be a pirate, but I had my honor unlike a lot of those scalawags back then. These monsters you see here were actually my guardians whom I left to protect the treasure from other greedy folk. But when you confessed you wanted to save someone's shop from going out of business, you proved yourselves worthy of taking it. And for that I commend you all for being selfless.”

“Suagrcube Corner means a lot to us.” Moondancer said.

“And a lot of others we know back home.” Spike added.

“If there was any chance to help it we had to take it.” Lyra put in.

Hoofbeard nodded, “Then you may take my treasure and return home. And as for me, I can finally rest in peace.” he glowed before vanishing.

When he did, all the guardians fell limp and collapsed to the ground, “What happened to them?” Sandbar asked.

“They served their purpose.” Adagio answered.

“Now they are no longer needed.” Kiwi added.

Spike looked at everyone, “Hey, what's say we get off this island and head home?” he asked.

“Best thing I've heard all day.” Moonlight agreed, as they all nodded, and headed for the boat.

Once they refueled they were off on the water and sailing away. Spike looked back at the island, while thinking about all that's happened, “You know, I'm actually gonna miss the island.”

“What?” Gallus asked in disbelief.

“You can't be serious.” Smolder said.

“Aside from almost getting killed, it really wasn't such a bad adventure.” Spike explained.

“It did put our survival skills to the test.” Moondancer agreed.

“And we succeeded.” Sonata added.

“And now that there are no scary guardians there, we could use it as sort of a safe house or something if we need to lay low for anything.” Lyra noted. Everyone couldn't help but look at the positive now and decided one day they would return depending on the reasons.

Later on back in the city, Twilight and her friends were at Sugarcube Corner pooling together what little money they could. Unfortunately it wasn't even close to being enough.

“Man, this alone could only get us a single sundae.” Rainbow sighed.

“So it's over?” Fluttershy asked in worry.

“Ah can't believe it.” Applejack sighed.

“Oh, thanks for trying, girls,” Mrs. Cake thanked them despite knowing it was hopeless, “At least we'll always remember how loyal and dedicated you all were to our place no matter what.”

Mr. Cake sighed, “Guess we'll have to start from scratch all over again.” The Cakes looked dismal, until they heard the door bell ring, and they all saw Spike and the club dragging a chest inside.

“Don't lose hope just yet you two.” Spike told them.

“Spike, you're all back.” Twilight gasped.

“Where were you all?” Rarity asked.

“Like I told Twilight, we were out looking to save Sugarcube Corner.” Spike answered.

“And we found the way.” Lyra added.

They opened the chest to reveal the treasure. The sight of the gold, jewels, diamonds, and rubies surprised everyone, especially Rarity.

“Oh, my goodness!” Rarity looked down, “Is this all real?!”

“It is.” Aria confirmed.

“We fought tooth and nail just to bring it here.” Moonlight said.

“But how?” Fluttershy asked.

“We'll explain, later.” Bonbon said.

“But for now, it looks like the Cake's shop is here to stay, and Pinkie can keep her job.” Spike said, as a grin grew on Pinkie's face.

“Yes!” she cheered happily.

The Cakes looked at the treasure, and then at each other before smiling with joy. They embraced and laughed, while dancing around.

Some time later, a whole news crew was out in front of Sugarcube Corner, with the Cakes and the Cryptid Club out front being interviewed, and several pedestrians from around town were gathered around while being kept back so not to get in the news crew way.

“I'm reporter Media Scoop coming at you live from Sugarcube Corner, where once this favorite teen hot spot that served the best sugary treats in the city was merely days away from shutting down. But with the help of this ragtag group of teens, they were able to provide the Cake's with what they claim to be treasure belonging to legendary Pirate Captain Hoofbeard. And here we have one of the teens now, Mr. Spike Sparkle.”

Spike stood beside Media Scoop with the rest of his club waving from the background, “Mr. Sparkle, is it true you and your friends ventured to an island where you found Captain Hoofbeard's treasure?”

“That's the truth, Ms. Scoop,” Spike claimed before pulling out the map, “It all started when I found this authentic treasure map in my attic. At first my friends and I were planning to go and take the treasure for ourselves. But when we learned Sugarcube Corner was going to be shut down, we changed our plan and decided to look for it to save the shop, and we succeeded.”

“Just what are you all anyway?” Media Scoop asked.

“Uh?” Spike asked, before looking at the group who nodded to him, “We're Canterlot High's Cryptid Club. Looking to study anything supernatural related and prove their existence, regardless of how many don't believe.”

“And there you have it, folks.” Media Scoop told the viewers.

“Spike, get over here, they're going to take our picture!” Sandbar called him over.

Spike went over to the club who stood before Sugarcube Corner with the Cakes, before a photographer took their picture.

The next day, at Sugarcube Corner, the whole place was packed with customers thanks to the publicity from the interview yesterday. Mr. Cake had just hung up the front page article that had the picture of the club and them in front of the shop that was now in a frame.

As Spike and the girls shared one booth, Gallus, Sandbar, Silverstream, Ocellus, Smolder, and Yona shared another. Pinkie came skating by carrying two trays that had several milkshakes on them.

“Milkshakes on the house for Sugarcube Corner's saviors.” Pinkie told them.

“Thanks, Pinkie.” Spike smiled.

“Thank you. For saving my favorite place and my job.” Pinkie hugged Spike happily, as he returned it.

Spike and the whole group raised their milkshake glasses high, “A toast,” Lyra began, “To the Cryptid Club.”

“The Cryptid Club!” they all announced, before enjoying their milkshakes on a successful treasure hunt.