G5 Adventures in Scooby-Doo! Music of the Vampire

Chapters

Bridlewoodstock, Year Two
Done with Monsters/Arriving at Vampire-Palooza
A Meeting and a Reunion During a Mystery
Exploring the Vampire Museum and a Vampire Ressurection
A Second Vampire Encounter/The Investigations Begin (Part 1)
The Investigations Begin (Part 2)/Attacked by a Vampire!
Splitting Up/Scooby and Me
More Investigating and Kidnapped by the Actors
The Dreamlands, Shaggy and Scooby meet Tulie
A Rescue Mission Begins
The Rescue and Lord Valdronya's Defeat
The Unmasking of Lord Valdronya/A Musical Finale

Bridlewoodstock, Year Two

It was a week or two after the Mane 6 got back from their latest Unity Quests, defeating Allura once again and helping a few old friends, plus some new friends, find a pirate treasure that unfortunately, was lost to the bottom of the ocean.

Thankfully, it was the adventure that mattered more to our heroes than anything else... and the fact they received the fourth shard of the star that Allura so desperately craved.

Four shards down... and only two more shards to go-- one to find somewhere in the mortal world, and one to get back from Allura's clutches.

But until they found another shard, Pipp only had one thing on her mind-- the Bridlewoodstock Festival, coming back for its second year.

The year before, Izzy showed her friends (except Misty, who wasn't part of the main group yet) a beautiful and magical natural phenomenon, called the "Lumi-Bloom", which occurs once every year around the same time, and lasted for an entire week. Pipp was so inspired by the sight, she decided to try and create a music festival right there in Bridlewood, gathering together some of the best musical acts in Equestria to perform-- including the pegasus rock band Electric Blue, the earth pony classic pop trio, the Dreamlands (Snuzzle, Blue Belle and Minty), and up-and-coming pegasus pop artist Ruby Jubilee.

However, the festival was just beginning when Troggles, magical spirit creatures that emerge at night during the Lumi-Bloom and steal the voices of ponies if the Troggles hear any singing or noise. Pipp had been previously warned of the Troggles by the unicorns of Bridlewood, Izzy and the rest of her friends, but she was far too busy planning the festival and making it perfect to listen.

And then, it seemed that the whole festival would be ruined.

Suddenly, Izzy remembered an old unicorn rhyme related to the Troggles, it gives Zipp the idea to banish them by giving them rubies. And using the rubies that Pipp lined the festival stage with, the Mane 5 give the Troggles rubies, appeasing their desire to steal voices, causing them to disappear and for the stolen voices to be returned. With the festival saved, Pipp goes on stage and apologized to everyone present, especially the unicorns of Bridlewood for not heeding their warnings about the Troggles before.

At first, Pipp declared that the festival was over, but the unicorns, to her surprise, didn't want the festival to stop-- now that the Troggles were gone, they weren't afraid anymore. So, all the musical acts and Pipp combined forces to perform the song 'Hooves Together', ending with a lavish fireworks show.

Now, all three of those acts were back for another successful festival... but none of them realized that the approaching festival would give Ruby Jubilee, Minty, Snuzzle and Blue Belle a longing for adventure that even they didn't know they wanted.

XXXXXXXX

Misty couldn't help but giggle as Izzy, Jazz and Rocky worked hard to give her the perfect 'music festival' look, complete with headphones with pony ears on them, leg wraps for her front hooves, makeup that changed colors, and pink flowers in her mane.

And when they were finally done, Misty gasped as she looked at herself in the mirror. “Izzy, this is incredible!” the blue unicorn beamed. “You, Jazz and Rocky sure know how to glam ponies up for a big occasion!”

“Anything for you, Misty-Twisty!” Izzy chirped. “Now, you’ve got a special festival look like the rest of us!”

It was true-- the rest of the Mane 6 and even Sparky were all dressed in their own unique festival looks, complete with glasses, highlights in their manes, glowing necklaces, flowers… Pipp even got a rainbow butterfly design on her wings.

Pipp sighed as she admired her festival look. “It feels so good to get dressed up like this again!”

“And we can’t wait for you to meet the rest of the bands!” Sunny told Misty before turning to Zipp. “Are Electric Blue here yet?”

“Yeah, but they’re with Posey and Windy running a sound check,” Zipp said with a slight frown on her face. “They won’t be done for another good while.”

“We can take you to meet Ruby Jubilee and the Dreamlands before we head over in that direction,” offered Hitch. “You’re gonna love ‘em!”

“I’d love to!” Misty said. “Just lead the way!”

XXXXXXXX

And so, the Mane 6 trotted to the VIP tent of Ruby Jubilee, one of Equestria’s most recent pop artists.

Ruby was a pink pegasus with purple hooves, purple kinky hair in twist locks with magenta tips, brown eyes, purple eyebrows, wings with purple and white feathers, anklets with hearts on them, a choker necklace around her neck with a heart on it and a cutie mark of a microphone.

Ruby was just running through some vocal exercises when she saw the group enter, causing her to gasp. “Princess Pipp! It’s so great to see you and your friends again!” Ruby beamed before looking over at Misty. “Oh, who’s this?”

“Misty Brightdawn, meet Ruby Jubilee!” Pipp introduced with a smile. “Misty joined our group after Bridlewoodstock, so you guys hadn’t really had the chance to meet.”

“It’s so nice to meet you, Ruby,” Misty said as she shook Ruby’s hoof. “Pipp’s been telling me so much about you.”

“Aww, it’s nice to meet you too!” Ruby smiled. “Oh, I hope you don’t mind, but I actually asked Minty, Snuzzle and Blue Belle to meet me in here for us to have dinner before the show starts later tonight.”

“Oh, that’s so perfect!” Sunny sad before turning to Misty. “You see, Misty, the three mares Ruby mentioned are this really famous Earth pony trio that I loved when I was younger, and I still love them today! They practically invented the genre of "girl group" music.”

“And thanks to Sunny and the rest of her friends,” said a voice coming into the tent behind them, “we got back together for our reunion tour across Equestria!”

Sunny gasped as three earth pony mares entered the tent in their own unique Bridlewoodstock outfits.

The first mare, known as Minty, was a green earth pony with blue eyes, blue eyeshadow, a gray-white mane and tail with pistachio green tips, a cutie mark of a field of clovers, a purple and blue headband around her neck, purple and pink flowers in her mane, a pink and purple outfit and matching leg-socks that went around her darker green hooves.
The second mare, known as Snuzzle, was a white grayish pony with pink mane, blue eyes, pink, yellow and blue eyeshadow, a cutie mark of pink hearts, flowers in her mane, a purple headband, white hooves painted yellow to stand out, a blue and purple outfit and purple leg-socks with four leaf clovers on them going around her hooves.
And finally, the third and final mare, known as Blue Belle, was a light blue earth pony with dark purple eyes, a purple mane and tail, pink eyeshadow, a cutie mark of a bunch of blue stars, a pink outfit and pink leg-socks that went around her blue hooves, painted orange to stand out.

“Nice to see you and your friends again, Sunny,” Snuzzle smiled. “And it’s nice to meet you too, Misty.”

“We heard your introduction before we came in,” Blue Belle said as she shrugged casually. “That’s how we know.”

“Hey, you guys wouldn’t wanna stay for our little meal, would you?” Ruby asked the Mane 6. “There’s plenty of Figgy’s key-lime pie to go around.”

“We’d love to!” Sunny responded quickly, getting smirks from the others, causing her to quickly blush. “I mean, you know… if you insist.”

XXXXXXXX

And so, as they sat and dined over pie, the Mane 6 told the Dreamlands and Ruby all about their Unity Quests over the past few months… at least, the ones after Misty’s mother Paradise Moonray was defeated.

Just to catch them up on recent events.

Snuzzle let out a shudder after Zipp recounted their fight with the pirates on their last adventure. “I admit, going on adventures like you guys do sounds like a blast, but… sword fights and pirates? Not exactly my cup of tea.”

“But a treasure hunt is something I wouldn’t mind doing,” Blue Belle added before sighing. “If only we could…”

This caught Hitch’s attention rather quickly. “What do you mean?”

“We love being back together and performing, we really do,” Minty said as she, Snuzzle and Blue Belle looked a bit down. “But, after hearing about all your adventures and the work you’re doing to protect Equestria from Allura and Twitch… well… I guess we wish that we could do stuff like that too.”

“You know what? Me too!” Ruby said, agreeing with the trio of earth ponies. “Believe me, the life of a pop star is beyond my wildest dreams, but… sometimes, I wanna see the worlds that the Unity Crystals send you all to.”

“Wow… I never knew you girls felt that way,” Pipp said in concern. “Maybe one day, you’ll get the chance to come with us on our next big adventure.”

Zipp suddenly gasped upon realizing something. “Or maybe it’s today! Look! All of our cutie marks are glowing!”

Truth be told, Zipp was right-- not only were the Mane 6's cutie marks lighting up, but the Dreamlands' cutie marks and Ruby's cutie marks were glowing as well, the magic from all of them creating a portal not too far away. “I guess we have a new mission for all of us to go on together!” Sunny said with a delighted squeal. “Let’s go!”

“Hang on,” Hitch said. “Shouldn’t we take all this stuff off first?”

“Ugh, neigh way!” Pipp scoffed in denial. “The looks stay on us until we get back-- we don’t want to have to cause another wardrobe change right before our big performances tonight!”

Ruby Jubilee turned to the Dreamlands, an excited smile on her face. “Are we ready to go with them, Dreamlands?”

The three mares nodded confidently at this, each giving their own answers.

“You bet we are!”

“Can’t wait!”

“Let’s go!”

“This way, everypony!” Izzy cheered as she leapt into the portal, and after Hitch reassured Sparky that they would be back in just a bit, the others followed right behind Izzy into the portal before it closed, sending our Equestrian heroes and their music-loving friends on their next big adventure.

Done with Monsters/Arriving at Vampire-Palooza

The decision had been made-- our heroes (the Mane 6 and Mystery Incorporated, including Ruby Jubilee and the Dreamlands) were going to be going on a vacation to get away from mystery solving for a while.

However, the only thing was that Velma wasn’t going to reveal their destination right off the bat. The only time that she would reveal their destination was… well, when they got to their destination.

Luckily, the Equestrians didn’t seem to mind-- they loved surprises, as long as they weren’t surprises involving a foe.

To kick the vacation off right, Shaggy and Scooby invited all of the Equestrians to stay at their house for a sleepover, to which our heroes happily agreed...

...as long as Shaggy was not going to be turned into a werewolf like the last time that the Mane 6 saw him.

XXXXXXXX

“So, Shaggy, I wanted to ask,” Zipp said as she grabbed another slice of pizza, “how are Googie and those flying leopards doing? Did you find ‘em all good homes?”

“Sure did!” Shaggy said, swallowing his piece of pizza. “Googie and I still talk all the time, and the leopards found great new families to live with that are all on the same street, so they get to see each other whenever they want.”

“That’s so good to hear,” Sunny smiled. “After all Indigo and her friends have went through, they deserve to have a little peace and quiet.”

“Have you had any hiccups that turned you back into a werewolf?” Misty asked nervously. “Uh-uh,” Scooby shook his head. “No hiccups whatsoever.”

“The magic that affected you must have worked your way out of your system,” Zipp deduced. “At least we don’t have to worry about that.”

“Like, Scoob and I know all about our other pony pals here,” Shaggy said, turning to the Dreamlands and Ruby, “but not a lot about you guys.”

“He’s got you there,” Pipp said as she winked over at their singing companions. “Why don’t you tell us all one fact that we would never have guessed to be true?”

“Okay-- me first,” Blue Belle said with a smile. “Not many know this about me, but I am a TOTAL horror movie junkie. I can watch all sorts of horror movies and not get a single jump-scare from them! Pretty neat, huh?”

“Oh, definitely!” Pipp said with a smile. “That’s definitely something you and I have in common! Wanna have a horror movie marathon at the Brighthouse after Bridlewoodstock's over?”

“Oh-ho, definitely!”

“Okay... moving on,” Hitch said before clearing his throat. “Ruby? Why don't you go next?”

“Sure,” Ruby nodded. “When I was a filly, my mom worked as a costume designer for some of the biggest shows for the biggest theaters Zephyr Heights had to offer. I guess that's where my love of performing began-- watching the ponies on that stage sing and dance their hearts out... it just inspired something in me. Next thing I knew, I performed at and actually won my school talent show with my favorite song and I got my cutie mark!”

“Oh-ho, wow!” Zipp beamed, impressed. “Even I didn't know that!”

“What about you, Minty?” Izzy asked curiously. “What’s your deepest, darkest secret that nopony else knows?”

“Well, I wouldn’t exactly call it a deep dark secret, but... ever since I was a little filly, I've been able to learn about and identify every ice cream flavor in Maretime Bay just by taste,” Minty explained with a chuckle. “Even the really weird flavors.”

“Ooh, is that how you got your name?” Sunny asked. “After the mint-flavored ice cream that was all the rage when you were born?”

“Yes! A lot of ponies don't know that about me,” Minty said, rather impressed. “I'm impressed with your Dreamland fan knowledge, Sunny.”

Sunny blushed nervously at this. “Heh heh... thanks. That means a lot.”

“I guess that leaves you to spill the tea, Snuzzle,” Misty said to the remaining earth pony mare. “Is there anything you wanna say?”

Snuzzle bounced this decision back and forth in her mind, unsure of what to say. Eventually, she decided on something she knew that the others could keep quiet about. “Well... there is one thing,” she said softly. “I, uh... I-I'm actually afraid of water.”

Minty looked at Snuzzle in surprise. “You are? Blue Belle, did you know that?”

“No, I didn't,” Blue Belle denied as she shook her head. “When did you develop that fear, Snuzz?”

“It happened when I was 10, before I met you and Minty, and I was on a field trip to the beach with my classmates,” Snuzzle said. “I was out swimming when I got pulled into a rip current. The lifeguard pony saved me before I was swept out too far, but... ever since then, me and water just... haven't gotten along too well.”

“Oh, Snuzzle... we understand,” Minty said comfortingly. “Anypony would understand, especially after going through a situation like that. You never have to be afraid to talk to is... trust me.”

Snuzzle seemed to feel a bit better after this was said. “Thanks, girls. It means a lot to hear that.”

“Well, I don’t wanna put a damper on anypony’s party mood,” said Hitch, looking at the nearby clock, “but if we wanna get a good night’s rest, we better get into bed. We don’t wanna be too tired when we get to Velma’s surprise destination tomorrow.”

“You’re right, Hitch,” Misty smiled as Sunny got up. “All right, everypony, let’s get some sleep,” the earth pony mare said. “Tomorrow, we have a whole new adventure ahead of us!”

XXXXXXXX

The night seemed to flow smoothly for the group, having pleasant dreams of a peaceful Equestria and performing for all sorts of fans, no matter what the species was.

Early the next morning, Fred drove the Mystery Machine up to Shaggy and Scooby’s house with Daphne and Velma, and everyone finally got in, with Velma taking Fred’s place as the driver until they got to their surprise destination.

But not even a few hours down the road, filled with nothing but peaceful conversation, a few of the others (namely Fred, Shaggy, Scooby and Zipp) were horrified when they discovered that Daphne and Ruby wanted to put in another Show Tunes CD to pass the time.

Fred was the very first to protest. “No, Daphne!”

“Don’t do it!” Shaggy sobbed. “We’re begging you!”

“Sorry, guys,” Daphne said to her friends regretfully, “but I have to do this.”

“NOOO!!!”

“Noooo!!!”

And with that, she put the CD in, and cheerful music began to play throughout the Mystery Machine. And with the CD in, Daphne then sat back to relax. “Show Tunes make road trips so much better.”

“I do gotta admit it,” Hitch said as he and Sunny sat together, “the songs DO get stuck in your head.”

“Tell us about it!” Zipp groaned, putting her hooves over her ears as Shaggy and Scooby did the same with their hands and paws. “Come on, Zipp!” Pipp frowned. “Learn to live and sing a little!”

“Besides,” Daphne said, “we don’t hear Velma complaining.”

“Did you say something?” Velma took out her earbud, but then immediately regretted it. “Oh, are we still listening to Show Tunes?”

“Well, you guys complain about this now,” Ruby said before sitting back with a smile, “but Daphne and I already know you’ll be singing along in no time.”

Shaggy scoffed in disbelief. “You hear that, Scoob?”

“Yeah,” Scooby said with a giggle. “We’re just glad to be coming along,” Minty smiled. “We’ve never gone a vacation as a musical group before… especially not in another world.”

“We’re glad you could come too!” Izzy said. “And I’m surprised Velma’s stayed so zip-lipped about where we’re going!”

“Izzy’s got a point, Velma,” Fred pointed out. “You ever gonna reveal our secret vacation destination?”

“Not until we get there,” Velma reminded. “You guys are gonna love it!”

“I don’t care where we’re going,” Snuzzle said with a smile. “Just as long as they've got plenty of sunshine!”

“I’ll tell you one thing, Snuzz,” Shaggy said to the white earth pony mare, as well as the rest of the gang. “There is only one thing Scooby-Doo and I are hoping for this vacation.”

That’s when an upbeat song began to come from not just the speakers in the Mystery Machine, but the Mystery Inc gang and their pony pals themselves.

Shaggy: I don't want no more ghouls
Or nothing scary
No apparitions giving me a fright

Misty: Don’t want nothing that I need to bury

Sunny: Or creatures that go bumping in the night

Daphne: No poltergeists and nothing supernatural

Ruby Jubilee: No giant beast that sneaks up from behind

Shaggy: No ghosts that rattle chains

Daphne: Or things that eat your brains

Dreamlands: No banshee witch that scares me out of my mind!

All: We're finally on vacation
And going someplace new

Scooby: Rest and relaxation!

Mane 6: It’s all we’re gonna do

Fred: I don't want no zombies or kooks!
My friends we're finally done
With all them goblins and spooks
That kept us on the run!

Velma: We're gonna be cool as cukes

Zipp: Our monster days are through!

Hitch: No demonic beast and nothin' deceased

Scooby: It's time to relax!

Shaggy: And that's what we're gonna do!

All: Doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doobie doop doop doop doop doop doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doobie doop doop doo doo

Velma: No more frown
We're moving down the road now

Sunny: Keep that metal pedal to the floor

Shaggy and Misty: We haven't got a clue
Where we're headed to

All: (except Shaggy and Misty) But it's somewhere that we've never been before!

Dreamlands: Cruising down the highway
Free without a care!

Minty: It feels bizarre because there are
No werewolves anywhere!

Fred: Don't want no dragons or freaks
And no crazy evil sprites

Snuzzle: I don't want no phantom that shrieks!

Blue Belle: Hauntin' us every night!

Daphne: I don't want no Comic-Con geeks
Walkin' up out of the blue

Velma and Daphne: Dressed like bats and seven foots rats
Chasing me down and saying, "How do you do?"

All: Doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doobie doop doop doop doop doop doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doobie doop doop doo doo

Shaggy: Lift your hand up high!
Let it wave goodbye
To them gremlins and monsters galore!

Ruby, Daphne and Shaggy: Tell them all we're gone
Cause we're movin' on
And we ain't comin' back anymore!

All: Doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doobie doop doop doop doop doop doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doobie doop doop doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo…

After a while, the song, plus the Show Tunes CD ended as they drove down a quiet road in the middle of nowhere. However, only Velma seemed to know where this road led. “Hey, look, our destination!”

“We’re here already?” Hitch asked in surprise. “Wow, that was fast!”

“See?” Daphne smirked. “Show Tunes really do help pass the time!”

That’s when they passed a sign that read some sort of French language, to which Daphne read off. “Petit Chauve Sourie Ville? Ooh… tres romantic!”

“Like, it sounds monster-free to me!” Shaggy cheered before high-fiving Misty, Snuzzle and Scooby. “Yeah!” Scooby barked. “Up top!”

“I don’t think I’m familiar with other languages from this world,” Ruby frowned. “What does that translate to?”

“According to my translation app,” Zipp said, looking it up on her FlyPad, “the French translates to… ‘Little Bat Town’.”

However, this bit of information caused Scooby to become nervous. “Ruh-roh.”

“Oh, don’t worry, Scooby,” Minty assured the Great Dane. “Velma promised us this place would be ghost, ghoul and goblin-free.”

Suddenly, Fred spotted a kid in a vampire costume crossing the road, causing Velma to hit the brakes in order to keep from crashing into him. However, that didn’t stop the kid from scaring the group out of their wits (Shaggy and Scooby even more so.) “Hey, I'm stalking here! I'm stalking here!” the kid huffed before walking off. And after he had left, Pipp looked over at Velma with a frown. “She clearly didn’t say anything about vampires.”

“Didn’t I?” Velma chuckled as many of them began to climb out of the Mystery Machine. “Must’ve slipped my mind.”

However, Shaggy and Scooby were still shivering from the experience, clinging to each other as Sunny and the Dreamlands came back to reassure them. “Shaggy, Scooby, you can come out,” Sunny said gently. “It was just a kid in a costume.”

“Like… you sure?” Shaggy asked. “Positive,” Blue Belle smiled. “You know you can take our word for it.”

“Besides,” Velma added, “he's probably just here for the vampire festival.”

“Oh…” Shaggy began to nod before he and all the ponies present realized what she had said. “Vampire festival?!”

Upon looking around, they found a nearby park being decorated with all things vampire-- vampire merchandise, vampire-themed food, vampire-themed… well, everything. “Yep!” Velma nodded. “Vampire-Palooza!”

“Hold on, hold on, hold on,” Hitch said quickly. “Let me get this straight. You brought us to a vampire convention?”

“To relax?!” Scooby blurt out, just as shocked as Shaggy, Hitch and the other ponies were. “Not a vampire convention,” Velma shook her head. “It's a celebration of all things vampiric.”

“Cool!” Fred said with a smile. “And what better place to experience it than Little Bat Town?”

“Oooh!” Daphne couldn’t help but swoon. “Vampires are so romantic. Have you read Silverlight?”

“Twelve times,” Velma said, bringing out the book in question. “I'm hoping the author will be here to sign it.”

“I’m definitely all for it,” Ruby added on. “A lot of those vampire books and movies always leave the hairs on your neck standing up, wondering who’s gonna be the next victim!”

“Are we missing something here?” Shaggy asked, wondering why a few of their friends were so cool about this. “Like, what's so romantic about undead creatures who sleep in coffins… prowl the night in search of victims, steal their blood… and turn them into their zombie servants?!!”

“Oh, those are old-school vampires,” Daphne said as they began to walk. “Modern vampires are fun and super cool.”

“Vampires don't sleep in coffins anymore,” Velma added. “They sleep in Seattle.”

“Okay, Velma, seriously!” Misty said as she, Izzy, Shaggy and Scooby clung to each other. “You’re not making us feel better about this!”

At the same time, Zipp, Pipp and Fred approached a nearby statue, and Fred read the plaque at the bottom. “Says here this place was founded in the 19th century,” Fred explained, “by Abraham Van Helsing, the famous vampire hunter of Dracula fame.”

“And according to what I found online,” Zipp said, “it's still owned by one of the Van Helsings' descendants.”

“So, if I’m understanding this right,” Snuzzle said with a hint of fear in her voice, “this place is like a ghost town.”

“No,” Velma answered with a simple smile. “A vampire ghost town.”

However, like before, this refused to make Shaggy feel any better. “This is the last time we let you pick the vacation spot!”

“Yeah!” Scooby huffed in agreement. “Relax, guys,” Fred reassured. “There’s absolutely nothing to fear.”

“Hey, Scoob,” Shaggy said as the Great Dane hopped down from his arms. “When have we heard that before?”

Scooby picked up a book, presumably a schedule of some kind, and flipped through it before answering. “Every day of our lives.”

“Oh, come on you guys,” Blue Belle brushed off. “This could be the chance to get some good scary fun in before we have to go back to Equestria and perform in Bridlewoodstock! Besides, maybe we could give a performance right here for Vampire-Palooza! We’ve never done anything like that before.”

“Besides, if Velma brought us here, it’s probably safe and free of real vampires,” Misty added. “Could you at least give it a chance?”

At first, Shaggy and Scooby seemed a bit reluctant to try it, but as the ponies looked at them with wide, sad eyes, they found it harder and harder to resist. “Well… I guess we could try it,” Shaggy sighed. “But if we get bit, don’t say we didn’t warn you.”

“You guys worry too much,” Velma brushed off their concerns. “Well, we're not the only ones,” Shaggy pointed at a nearby protest group, led by an extremely short, middle-aged man, with wavy brown hair with a deep Southern accent. “This fair is an abomination!” he kept saying. “An affront to all that is good and decent!”

“Sign the petition to ban vampires?” one of the protestors asked as Shaggy, Scooby and Misty approached, and Shaggy smiled over at Scooby. “Like, that's a cause we can support.”

Scooby nodded at this, and as Shaggy signed the petition, the protestors’ leader began speaking again. “Here there be demons!”

“Here,” said Izzy, holding some corn dogs up in her magic as she walked past with Fred, “there also be corn dogs! And they're all fresh and hot…”

And instantly, Shaggy and Scooby forgot about the petition and stared at the corn dogs as if they were the most precious thing in the world. “Fools!” the lead protestor cried out scoldingly. “Fools, I say! Will you allow temptation to lure you into the fangy den of the bloodsucker?”

“Pretty much. CORN DOGS!!!” Shaggy cried out before racing over. “Corn dogs! Yum!” Scooby howled excitedly before running after Shaggy, both of them diving into the corn dogs without a second thought. “That was a lot easier than I expected,” Zipp whispered to Ruby, who merely laughed and high-hoofed her. “Hey, Scoob,” Shaggy then spoke to his best friend. “If the food's this good outside the festival, I can't wait to see what they've got inside!”

That's when the group began to move toward the entrance of the festival, stopping at a stern, blonde-haired woman to get stamped for them to have festival access. “Guys,” Velma said as she stepped up to get stamped, “here's no such thing as real vampires.”

“No such thing as paying customers either,” the blonde-haired woman said as she finished stamping everyone. “Fifteen more complimentary passes. I'll be lucky to break even this year.”

Once Shaggy got his wrist stamped with a marking that looked like vampire fang marks, he looked at it curiously. “Like, not exactly the kind of bite I'm looking for.”

“As long as no real vampire bites me,” Snuzzle shuddered, “I’m game for just about anything.”

This caused Scooby to giggle slightly. “We’re guests of Vincent Van Helsing,” Velma told the blonde-haired woman. “He owns…”

“Yes, yes. I'm Lita Rutland, owner of the festival,” the woman interrupted before glancing at a table where an older man with glasses started nodding off waiting for people at his table. “I know who Van Helsing is. Unfortunately no one else does. Imagine a vampire author in these vampire-crazed times who doesn't sell any books.”

“Well,” Misty said, “maybe he’s just having an off day.”

“Yeah,” Lita scoffed, “maybe.”

“He's still one of the foremost authorities on vampire history,” Velma answered back. “Perhaps,” said Lita, “but the world's moved on from his old-school vampire tales.”

“Well,” Velma responded back with a frown, “I’ve read all his books. I think.”

“Well, you kids enjoy your free lunch-- I mean, your time here at Vampire-Palooza,” LIta said before she walked away, leaving Blue Belle to huff. “She sure is friendly.”

“Come on, Blue Belle, don’t be so harsh,” Minty told her fellow Dreamland. “It sounds like the festival is struggling… that would be hard on anypony.”

“Come on, guys. Let’s go say hi to Mr. Van Helsing,” Sunny said. “He sounds like he’s been expecting us.”

And so, that's what they did-- they all approached the table, where Mr. Van Helsing smiled upon seeing Velma and her friends, old and new. “Velma! It's good to see a familiar face,” he smiled. “And this must be the Equestrian heroes you told me of, and the rest of your famous mystery-hunting crew.”

“Guys, 'd like you to meet our host,” Velma introduced the group. “The world's foremost expert on vampires… Vincent Van Helsing.”

“The pleasure is ours, sir,” Zipp smiled politely. “Oh, no, meeting you is the real pleasure,” Mr. Van Helsing to;d her before picking up his book, entitled 'The Lord's Return'. “You know, I'm also an author. Perhaps you've read my books? My vampire tales are fact-based. And not that lusty teen tripe that's all the rage these days.”

“Yeah… that modern stuff is way lame,” Velma said, smiling as she tossed her Silverlight book to the ground, which Pipp picked up, showed to Shaggy and tucked it underneath her wing. “Hey,” Velma changed the subject, “did you guys know Mr. Van Helsing is the great-great-great-grandson of Abraham Van Helsing?”

“Really? Wow!” Hitch commented with a smile. “A direct descendant of a famous vampire hunter?”

“For real?” Izzy asked in awe. “It’s true,” Mr. Van Helsing confirmed. “My family has been in the vampire business for a long time. That's why I became a vampirologist.”

However… Shaggy became confused when this was brought up. “A vampire-what-igist?”

“Uh, vampirology is the academic study of the vampire from A to Z,” Mr. Van Helsing explained before stepping away from his table to lead the group somewhere. “Come. I’ll show you.”

But as our heroes stepped away from the table to follow him, they had no idea that being at this festival was going to spark one of their most intense and musical mysteries to date.

A Meeting and a Reunion During a Mystery

It was settled-- Ruby Jubilee and the Dreamlands (Minty, Snuzzle and Blue Belle) would be accompanying the Mane 6 and Sparky on their latest Unity Quest mission.

To where? Even they weren't sure of that yet.

But what the Mane 6 did know was that the confident pegasus pop star and the earth pony girl group would have a lot to learn from them by seeing their Unity Quest skills in action.

And now, let's get back to our story, so we can see how the events will unfold from this point on.

XXXXXXXX

A strong wind blew through the air as the multi-colored portal appeared in front of a creepy factory within a very busy city landscape. Out of that portal emerged the Mane 6, Ruby Jubilee, Snuzzle, Blue Belle and Minty, and the moment they all stepped out, the portal closed up behind them leaving them all in this new area that they had stepped into. “This definitely doesn't look like a music venue,” Snuzzle said nervously. “Where do you think we ended up?”

“With these Unity Quests, we never really know,” Hitch answered. “Pipp? What can you dig up on your social media?”

Pipp pulled out her phone, and after some quick typing, she managed to find something rather interesting. “Looks like this factory has been up and running for the past 20 years now, and it's got a direct access to the town sewers.”

“But why in the world would the Unity Crystals bring us here of all places?” Ruby asked out of confusion. That’s when Blue Belle saw a multi-colored van coming in through the gates to the factory, pointing her hoof to it out of curiosity. “Do you think that van has anything to do with our mission?”

“It sure does!” Sunny beamed. “That’s the Mystery Machine-- the van that Mystery Incorporated travels in! Come on! We'll introduce you to our friends!”

The Mane 6 immediately galloped forward as Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby got out of the van, the humans of the group wearing matching exterminator outfits. “Sunny! We were wondering when we would get to see you all again!” Daphne said, hugging Sunny as the two groups reunited. “Have you guys had any other interesting adventures since we last saw you?”

“A bunch!” Izzy chirped. “We'll have to tell you about all those escapades later!”

“But first things first... we need to introduce you to some friends of ours,” Pipp said as she fluttered over to Ruby Jubilee and the Dreamlands. “Mystery Incorporated, meet pop sensation Ruby Jubilee and the girl group known as the Dreamlands-- Minty, Snuzzle and Blue Belle! Girls, I'd like you to meet Fred Jones, Daphne Blake, Velma Dinkley, Shaggy Rogers and the one and only...”

“Scooby-Doo!” Scooby then barked, eliciting a giggle from Ruby and the Dreamlands. “Aww, aren't you just the cutest thing?” Minty cooed, rubbing Scooby on the head. “It's so nice to meet all of you.”

“Pipp told us a lot about the mysteries that you all have solved together,” Ruby added with a grin. “Speaking of which... are you solving a mystery right now?”

“Actually, we are,” Fred confirmed. “A cockroach monster has been roaming around the city for the past few days, and we're really close to catching that thing and alleviating some stress. The only thing we we have to do is lure him out of the sewers.”

Pipp shuddered at the sound of that. “The sewers... why does it always have to be the sewers...?”

“Ugh... tell me about it,” Blue Belle added. “But, it would be cool to see Mystery Incorporated in action, along with the heroes of Equestria.”

“Maybe you guys can help too!” Misty suggested with a wide grin. “What do you say, everypony?”

“Of course!” Daphne was the first to respond. “Why don't you stick with Shaggy and Scooby when we all split up in the sewers? They can show you the ropes and you can help us find the cockroach monster in the process.”

“Ugh... I'm all for a new adventure, but monsters and cockroaches mixed together?” Snuzzle spoke with a shiver. “Not a good combination.”

“Like, don't worry, Snuzzle,” Shaggy reassured the white earth pony mare, wrapping an arm around her neck. “Just stick with the cowards of the group and you’ll be just fine!”

“Yeah, I guess you're... wait. What does that mean exactly?”

“All right, gang,” Fred interrupted with a smile. “Operation: 'Find the Cockroach Monster' is officially a go!”

XXXXXXXX

Our heroes set off into the sewers, splitting up into three groups to cover more ground.

The Dreamlands and Ruby Jubilee went with Shaggy and Scooby.
Izzy, Misty and Pipp went along with Velma and Daphne.
Sunny, Hitch and Zipp stuck close to Fred.

But even after splitting away from their friends, old and new, the Dreamlands, Ruby Jubilee, Shaggy and Scooby didn't find anything pointing to the location of the cockroach monster.

In fact, the sewers under the city seemed more like a maze than anything else.

Eventually, a voice crackled over their headsets and walkie-talkies... more specifically, Velma's voice. “Girls, Scooby, Shaggy, you guys spot anything yet?”

Scooby shook his head in response. “Uh-uh.”

“Call me crazy, guys,” Shaggy said, pointing his flashlight down the next tunnel, “but don't these pipes look familiar?”

“Kind of,” Snuzzle muttered. “Do you think we've been down this tunnel before?”

“No, that's not what I meant,” Shaggy shook his head. “Didn't we run into that big rat creature down here?”

XXXXXXXX

“That was two weeks ago, Shaggy, in the New York sewers,” Velma responded as she, Izzy, Misty, Daphne and Pipp crawled through their own tunnel, just before Daphne spoke up out of confusion. “How could you forget something like that?”

XXXXXXXX

However, Shaggy still felt that these tunnels felt familiar... and that the rat creature wasn't the monster they faced two weeks prior. “Wasn't that the glop monster?”

XXXXXXXX

“The glop monster was on Saturday,” Velma reminded him. “Remember?”

“If I remember correctly,” Pipp said, “it was the rat creature, then the glow monster... oh! And then, there was the snake-a-saurus!”

XXXXXXXX

Shaggy grabbed Blue Belle by the shoulders, shaking her rather slightly. “They're all starting to merge!!”

XXXXXXXX

Zipp paid close attention to the screen Fred was holding, and that screen detected that something was steadily moving in their direction. “Better get ready for this one, Shaggy,” the white pegasus said with a serious look on her face, “because it's coming!”

XXXXXXXX

“I know!” Shaggy cried out in despair. “It's coming our way! That was on Saturday too!”

Scooby looked nervous at this before hunkering down and putting his paws over his head, leading Ruby to stroke his back to reassure him.

The Dreamlands cautiously glanced around the dark sewers, trying to spot anything out of the ordinary that might be coming their way. Shaggy began to back up nervously, but slipped on a patch of water on the floor, causing him to yell and stumble back, causing him to drop his flashlight. Snuzzle went to help Shaggy up, but as the flashlight stopped rolling, a large shadow, imitating a huge cockroach, appeared on the wall, waving its legs menacingly before them.

Scooby and Ruby each let out a gasp of terror at this, and suddenly... the group of six let out a terrified scream.

XXXXXXXX

Daphne, Velma and their group heard their friends screaming from all the way on the other side of the sewers, and Misty kicked a grate down so they could climb through. “Hang on!”

“It’s huge!!” Shaggy then wailed. “We’re coming!” Daphne cried out as the group began running down the hall.

XXXXXXXX

“Whatever you do,” Fred told Shaggy and Scooby as Fred’s group ran through the pipes, “don't let it eat you before we get there!”

“Fred, seriously?!” Hitch looked at him, appalled and surprised all at once as they continued running. “Ruby and the Dreamlands did not need to hear that on their first time out!”

XXXXXXXX

Shaggy and Scooby continued to tremble before the sight of the large shadow on the wall, and Ruby and the Dreamlands gathered around their friends to protect them just as Pipp, the unicorns, Daphne and Velma arrived.

Pipp turned on her flashlight and aimed it at whatever was making the shadow, suddenly making the shadow shrink to regular bug size. This seemed to make Velma smile in reassurance. “Oh, it’s just a common cockroach.”

“JUST a cockroach?!!!” Snuzzle gagged, backing away from the small bug. “I know earth ponies have a special connection to earth and the creatures who live on it, but that is just too gross!!!”

“I’m with you there, Snuzzle,” Daphne shuddered. “There is nothing common about a cockroach!”

However, as she listened, Minty noticed that the cockroach was making all sorts of different sounds… sounds that didn’t seem natural to her. “Hold on a second. Is it… singing?”

“Not singing,” Velma answered with the shake of her head. “Signaling.”

“Signaling to what?” Scooby wondered. That’s when Izzy suddenly caught sight of something behind them, her eyes widening in fear as she pointed up to it. “To that big cockroach right behind us!”

As the group turned around, the gigantic cockroach monster let out a fearsome roar, terrifying Shaggy and Scooby so much, they passed out right on the ground. “Gross!” Daphne cried in disgust. “Pipp, Zipp, Ruby! Make sure that thing doesn’t get closer!” Misty cried out. “We’ll protect the others!”

“Right!” the three pegasi nodded and began to fly around the cockroach monster, trying to disorient it. At that moment, Sunny, Hitch, Zipp and Fred arrived, Fred holding a gigantic roll of flypaper to trap the monster with. “Glad I brought a giant roll of flypaper!”

“How you just made that appear I will never know,” Sunny said to the leader of Mystery Incorporated, “but we gotta help our friends! Come on!”

Turning into an alicorn, Sunny led Zipp over to the other pegasi, where they began to disorient the monster even more as Misty and Izzy began to shoot magic blasts at it. But as Hitch and Fred ran toward the group, they got tangled up and stuck in the flypaper, being unable to help in the fight.

That's when Velma saw a large wheel nearby, instantly getting an idea. “Dreamlands, help me turn this!”

“We’re on it!” Blue Belle said confidently. “Let’s move out, ladies!”

The three earth pony mares moved over and helped Velma turn the wheel, letting pressure build up within the sewers... just as Hitch managed to help get Fred's face free from the flypaper. “Phew… that’s better,” Fred sighed before the cockroach monster advanced toward them, making Hitch gulp nervously. “Or maybe not!!”

At that moment, a huge blast of sewer water shot out of the pipes, right at the cockroach monster, knocking him into the nearby wall and leaving him disoriented.

The pegasi and Sunny allowed them to sigh as they returned to the ground-- that was a close call.

Velma approached the monster and pulled off the mask, revealing a guilty looking man underneath the disguise. “Mr. Clapper! Of course,” Velma said, having suspected him all along. “He was using the cockroach monster to drum up customers for his exterminator company. Just as I thought, guys.”

But upon realizing that none of the others questioned her deductions like they usually did, Velma became a bit... concerned. “Guys?”

“Uh… Velma? I hate to interrupt your little moment right there,” Ruby spoke up with a bit of hesitance, “but… I think the others are still a little… frazzled from the experience.”

Turns out, Ruby was not wrong-- Shaggy and Scooby were still trying to wake themselves up after passing out, with Izzy, Pipp, Minty and Sunny helping them sit up right.

Fred and Hitch were still trying to get out of the flypaper, even with Blue Belle and Zipp’s help.

And as for Snuzzle and Daphne, they were trying to get away from the small cockroach that had caused them such a fright before. “Ewww!!!” Daphne shrieked. “Get it away!”

Velma realized, in that moment, that maybe all the mysteries they had been solving had been affecting her friends quite a bit, even if they didn’t want to admit it. And after thinking of something that she had wanted to do for quite a while, she decided to make it a whole group experience-- maybe even bring the Equestrians along. “You know what, guys? I think we could all use a nice vacation.”

Scooby’s head snapped up instantly at this. “Vacation?!”

“Girl, I thought you would never ask me!” Pipp said with an optimistic giggle. “So, what are we thinking? Ski trip? Going to the beach…?”

“To be honest, after this experience,” Snuzzle said with her heart still racing, “I would be game for just about anything.”

“Trust me, I’ve got the perfect destination in mind,” Velma said with a sly smile on her face, “but you’ll have to leave the driving to me, Freddy. Everyone, let’s head back to our houses and pack-- we leave for our monster-free vacation first thing in the morning!”

The others agreed to her demands, but they couldn't help but wonder a few things.

For one thing, where would they be going on this vacation?

And on another note... would this vacation really be as monster-free as Velma described?

Exploring the Vampire Museum and a Vampire Ressurection

Our heroes had finally arrived at Vampire-Palooza, a vampire-themed festival right in the heart of Petit Chauve Sourie Ville, Louisiana, and had met their host, Vincent Van Helsing, who was an author and an expert on all things vampiric.

Now, our heroes were currently following Mr. Van Helsing to his family’s vampire museum, which sat not too far away from the festival grounds, and Mystery Incorporated, the Mane 6, Ruby Jubilee and the Dreamlands got a look at all the amazing exhibits the museum had to offer. “My collection of vampire artifacts go back to the very dawn of the vampire.”

“This stuff is fang-tastic!” Fred spoke before turning to Daphne, hoping that she had got what he thought was a funny pun. “Get it? I used the word ‘fang’ instead of ‘fan’.”

“We get it,” Daphne dismissed. “According to all the stuff I’ve found online,” Sunny said, looking through her phone, “the history of vampire history goes back almost 1000 moons ago, in an old Russian text where the term ‘upir’ was used.”

Scooby looked confused at this. “Upir?”

“According to this,” said Zipp, looking at the same page as Sunny, “the term’s origins remain unclear, but it may have something to do with a euphemism for… ‘the thing at the feast or sacrifice’.”

Hitch shuddered at this. “Creepy…”

“But kinda cool,” Blue Belle said with a smile. “I can’t wait to figure out what the rest of these artifacts mean!”

“Wow!” Velma commented as she, Misty and Izzy looked at a large book on a nearby pedestal. “The ancient book of vampire! I thought only one copy of this existed in the world.”

“You’re looking at it,” Mr. Van Helsing told her. “It’s like a huge spellbook… but it's a lot bigger than the one I have at home,” Misty said as she looked at the vampire book. “And a lot creepier, too.”

“Whoa!” Zipp said as she looked at some large wooden stakes on display. “Check out these awesome stakes!”

“Stakes?!” Shaggy blurt out as he and Scooby rushed forward. “Where?!”

“Yummy!” Scooby licked his chops… but Zipp cleared her throat and showed them the stakes she was talking about-- the wooden kind. “Oh…” Shaggy’s face fell. “Those kind of stakes.”

At the same time, Ruby and Daphne were looking at some vampire jewels in another display case, and the sight of them caused Daphne to gasp. “Look at these vampire jewels! Gorgeous!”

“Oooh-hoo-hoo!” Pipp giggled before snapping a selfie with the jewels. “I would TOTALLY wear those if they weren’t part of the exhibit.”

“Those,” Mr. Van Helsing explained as he walked over, “belonged to an actual vampire's bride in ancient Walachia.”

“Looks like she scored a wealthy vampire husband,” Ruby commented, liking the looks of those jewels. “They're quite priceless. But those stones don't compare to the real jewel of my collection,” Mr. Van Helsing said, approaching a curtain at the back of the room. “A face to launch 100 million fears, I bring you the dreaded vampire… Lord Valdronya! Entombed in glass for nigh a thousand years!”

He pulled the rope, parting the curtains to reveal a glass coffin with something... almost humanoid inside. Lord Valdronya looked very bat-like with glowing, green eyes, pointed ears, long fangs, claws and a bat-like snout. He appeared to have what looks like black makeup underneath his glowing eyes and wore purple garments with a vampire talisman holding his cape. Valdronya's hair is dark gray in places while other places are light grey.

This sight caused Misty to gasp, her eyes growing wide. “Oh my gosh!”

“Wow!” Fred cried out. “Awesome!” Zipp, Velma and Sunny exclaimed, unsure of what to make of it… and unsure of how to feel. After a moment of staring, the Dreamlands, Shaggy and Scooby approached the coffin, trying to get a closer look at the vampire in question.

That's when Shaggy finally spoke up, looking quite unimpressed. “Looks fake to me.”

“Me too,” Scooby nodded. “To be honest… I’m not sure what to believe,” Minty admitted, shaking her head. “It looks real, but… whether he IS real is a different story all together.”

That's when the earth pony music trio, Shaggy and Scooby got a bit closer to inspect the vampire further, when all of a sudden... Lord Valdronya's eyes lit up bright green!

This caused the Dreamlands, Shaggy and Scooby to scream and run back to their friends, utterly terrified. “The vampire lives!!” Shaggy wailed. “Shaggy, I know this seems like a bad time to say this,” Zipp said, “but don’t be ridiculous.”

“But Zipp, it was true!” Snuzzle exclaimed. “His eyes were glowing!”

“Glowing?” Hitch asked in surprise. “Are you sure?”

“Wouldn’t be telling you that if it wasn’t!” Blue Belle said, causing Scooby to quickly nod in agreement. “You’ll have to excuse Shaggy and Scooby,” Fred told Mr. Van Hesling politely. “They tend to be slightly excitable… especially with Sunny and the other ponies around.”

“Perfectly understandable,” Mr. Van Helsing said in understanding. “Lord Valdronya was quite the fearsome fellow in his day. We're lucky he's sealed under glass now.”

“Sheesh-a-roo!” Izzy said as she put her hoof on the glass. “This glass needs a good clean-up, if you know what I mean.”

“You’re right, Izzy,” Velma nodded as she inspected the glass as well. “This glass is so murky.”

“Ah, Velma,” Mr. Van Helsing spoke. “Always the skeptic.”

“Eh,” Velma shrugged. “It’s my thing.”

“But, even if the vampire were alive, he wouldn't get anywhere,” Ruby said as she tapped her hoof on the glass. “This glass is 6 inches thick!”

“So… we’re safe?” Hitch asked nervously. “Yes, Hitch,” Zipp nodded. “As far as we know, we’re safe for now.”

“If only Valdronya would wake…” Mr. Van Helsing then sighed. “I'd have tourists filling this place like back in the day. And I wouldn't have to rent my property to Lita Rutland's traveling vampire festival just to get by.”

Misty frowned sympathetically at this, turning to Mr. Van Helsing with a frown on her face. “That sounds really hard.”

“Lita's threatened to pull out next year if things don't pick up,” Mr. Van Helsing continued, causing the others to face him as well. “I'm afraid I may not be able to save my family's legacy. Then again, you never know what will happen. Maybe my latest book will become a best-seller.”

“You write books? That's fu… ow!” Shaggy yelped as Pipp elbowed him roughly with her wing to silence him. “Don’t we have a show to go see?” Velma then asked, causing Pipp to gasp. “Show?”

“Ah, yes,” Mr. Van Helsing realized she was right, pulling out his pocket watch. “We'd better get going. The vampires await!”

“Come on, guys!” Ruby encouraged Shaggy, Misty and Scooby, who were falling behind. “We gotta go!”

But, it only took one look back at the vampire, along with the glowing eyes that Snuzzle mentioned before, to send the three of them running after the rest of the group.

XXXXXXXX

After a brief 10-minute walk through town, Mr. Van Helsing and the rest of our heroes arrived at a grand theater on the side of the street. “Our tickets are being held in the box office,” said Mr. Van Helsing as he walked closer to the theater's box office. “Wait here. I’ll be right back.”

As soon as Mr. Van Helsing walked away, Velma noticed the name of the act they were going to see in bright neon lights. “Fangenschanz.”

“Fangenschanz?” Zipp looked at the sign, confused. “What kind of name is that?”

“I've heard of them,” Daphne said, approaching a nearby poster of the act in question. “They're supposed to be the most amazing vampire-themed theater troupe ever!”

“Sounds about right for a vampire-worthy festival act,” Ruby said, taking out a pad of paper and a pencil. “Maybe I can get some inspiration for a new Nightmare Night song, since it is coming up in a few weeks.”

At the same time, Shaggy was putting strings of garlic around Scooby and the Mane 6's necks. “Here, you guys,” Shaggy insisted. “Wear this garlic for protection. Vampires hate it.”

“Uh... thanks, but no thanks, Shaggy,” Zipp said, taking the garlic necklace off and giving it back to Shaggy. “I really don't wanna go in there smelling like a loaf of garlic bread.”

The others had to agree with this and went inside, leaving Shaggy to shrug and give himself and Scooby the garlic necklaces instead.

But as soon as they stepped inside the theater, the kid they almost hit that morning stopped them in their tracks. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, you can't bring garlic in here.”

That's when Shaggy saw a nearby sign. “No wooden stakes, garlic or flash photography. Oh, well,” Shaggy said, taking the garlic off his neck. “I hate to let perfectly good food go to waste.”

Shaggy and Scooby then proceeded to eat all the garlic hanging on those necklaces, and Scooby turned to the boy with a smile, garlic heavy on his breath. “No garlic on us.”

“Blech! Gross!” the boy gagged before pointing inside the theater. “Just go inside already!”

Shrugging, Shaggy and Scooby proceeded after their friends inside the theater, where they found the seats at the very front row waiting for them. That's when Scooby noticed the woman next to him and decided to start up a nice and friendly conversation. “Hello.”

However, the dog’s breath was so bad, the woman coughed and had to move a few rows back. And unfortunately, all the others could smell the bad stench too. “Eww!!!” Fred gagged. “Someone’s wearing some stanky perfume.”

As the others moved down a couple seats, or moved back a row, Shaggy sniffed the air alongside Scooby, but didn’t really notice much change. “I don’t smell it. Do you, Scoob?”

Scooby shook his head innocently. “Nope.”

“Here, guys, try a Merry Mint smoothie,” Minty said as she handed them a cup filled with green liquid. “Sunny made it for me and I think it might help.”

Shrugging and not knowing what she meant, Shaggy and Scooby took the smoothie and started slurping on it. “According to the program,” Velma said to the others, “the members of Fangenschanz are so dedicated to the vampire lifestyle… they perform only at night!”

“Method actors,” Mr. Van Helsing sighed. “I kinda think it sounds cool,” Zipp admitted with a grin. “I can’t wait to see what they have up their sleeves.”

Suddenly, the lights of the theater dimmed, and a spotlight shone on the stage. And in that spotlight, one of the actors, a rather handsome fellow by the name of Bram, hung from the rafters and opened his cape as if they were wings. “Ladies and gentle-mortals,” he began, flying off of his perch to face the audience, “it’s feeding time!”

And that's when all the vampire actors began to appear, frightening some of the ponies, Shaggy and Scooby out of their wits in the process.

Bram: What's that you hear?
The sound of fear
Because they're here
Vampires roaming the night

What's that you say?
Can't be, no way
They're fake? Okay…
Believe whatever you might

But when the moon is full on a starlit night
You best all lock your doors up light

Because, my friend
The vampires start to dance

Fangenschanz: They’re all around you
Everybody's coming to play
Oh, yes, they found you
And now they're gonna take you away-ay-ay

Bram: So watch out, lake care
Be smart, beware
Because out there
Something's waiting for you

When midnight comes, it's time to hide
Say good night and run inside
Because that, my friend, is when
They all come out again

Oh, yes, right now is when
The vampires dance

Fangenschanz: The vampires dance
BOO!!!

And as quickly as the actors appeared, they disappeared, just as the song ended.

This caused everyone in the theater to applaud with delight... but Daphne went a little bit overboard with her wild whistling and cheering, causing strange looks from her friends. “What? I'm just showing my appreciation.”

“Okay, you need to sit down, girlfriend,” Pipp said, pulling her back down into her seat, “and let the shadow go on, as the critics say now-a-days.”

That’s when the curtains parted, revealing Bram and the other members of Fangenschanz on a weird part of the stage. “We welcome you, friends and potential blood donors,” Bram said welcomingly. “And while we are mere performers, be warned. If you fear the sight of a real living vampire, please, leave now.”

Shaggy, who had been hiding under the theater chairs with Scooby and Misty, let out a frightened whimper. “That’s our cue!”

“I’ll help you guys outta here, come on!” Sunny said as the four of them made a race for the door, but before they could get through either of them, they slammed shut, causing Bram to cackle from the stage. “Too late!” he taunted. “And now for the first time on any stage, we shall attempt the unheard of; the vampire's return from the grave! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!”

However, the only one not frightened was Daphne, who seemed more entranced with Bram than anything. “Wow, he's very good. Don't you guys think he's good? Like, good?”

“If you mean ‘good’ as in ‘creepy’, then yes,” Hitch spoke up uneasily. “He’s very good.”

Zipp hummed and decided to record the so-called ritual, but kept her phone hidden so no one else would see.

That’s when Bram pointed out a large symbol that was on the stage. “Behold the ancient talisman of the immortal blood-drinkers. Take heed, for the mortal world shall soon be invaded!”

That’s when many of the members of Fangenschanz began to chant in a strange language, putting all sorts of strange things into a pool of water they had onstage.

Blackest rose, wolf and bane
Bats and crows…

Unfortunately, Mr. Van Helsing knew what this ritual was-- he had seen it before, and it could be extremely dangerous! “That spell is from the ancient book of vampire. These jokers are playing with supernatural fire!”

“Wait, so you’re saying this could actually bring a vampire back from the dead?” Pipp asked before shuddering, frightened. “As much as I love spooky things, I don’t know how I feel about that.”

“We have to stop them!” Snuzzle cried out. “Hold on… maybe they’re just pretending. and have got another plan up their sleeves,” Minty tried to defuse the situation. “Let’s just… watch and see what happens next.”

XXXXXXXX

Unbeknownst to them all, something was happening in the vampire museum. Within his glass coffin, Lord Valdronya's eyes began to glow green. A security guard was patrolling the museum, was completely unaware of what was transpiring behind him. As he shined his light around the room, a bright emerald light began radiating from the vampire's coffin. The pages of the ancient book began flipping rapidly and a stand holding a bunch of wooden stakes clattered to the ground. The security officer turned around and was horrified by the sight. “What the…?”

He pulled out a taser gun and bravely headed toward the light. However, he didn't say the wooden stakes lying on the floor, and as soon as he stepped on them, he slipped and fell to the floor, his taser electrocuting him as the light grew brighter and brighter.

XXXXXXXX

Back inside the theater, things were about to take an even scarier turn. As Fangenschanz continued their chant, a giant pillar of emerald fire shot out from the pool.

This caused Bram to reel back in surprise. “It’s… working?”

That's when the platform holding the rest of the performers collapsed, and all four of them fell to the ground. Bram struggled to stay balanced before looked up and saw a spotlight dislodge and plunged straight for him. Luckily, he was able to jump out of the way just as the light fixture crashed atop the platform.

In the audience, the ponies, Mystery Inc and Mr. Van Helsing could only watch in total terror. “This is bad…” Hitch said, beginning to panic. “This is REALLY bad!”

The torch lights were suck into the green pillar, which then spiraled into a dark vortex, just as Bram approached it. “That’s not Henry…” he muttered before he noticed a hand sticking out from underneath the stage curtain. He raced to it and pulled it up, where he found, to his shock, Henry's unconscious body lying on the wood floor. “Oh no!”

Suddenly, the vortex congealed and revealed the one and only Lord Valdronya, causing the Dreamland and Ruby to shriek and dive down in terror, just as a green mist covered the stage. Each member of the Fangenschanz group grew dreary, then dropped to the floor, unconscious, causing the ponies to gasp in terror. “Pipp, are you recording this?” Zipp asked. “I might need it later for observation!”

“You know me, girl,” Pipp told her sister. “I’ve always got the record button in hoof’s reach. And right now, I've got every second of this vampire madness on video!”

Lord Valdronya's soulless, green eyes seemed to bore down on the group. Then, he let out a monstrous roar, and with a screech, he transformed into a giant, green bat, with laughed callously and flew off, seemingly vanishing into the wall of the theater. The gang all sat there, mouths agape. Meanwhile, the rest of the crowd began to clap and laugh, thinking this was all a part of the act. “Uh… you guys?” Minty gulped as she, Ruby and the other Dreamlands looked at their friends, still a little shaken up. “Please tell me that was some sort of horrible dream.”

“Unless it somehow happened to all of us,” Daphne said, helping a shaking Izzy to her hooves, “I don’t think it was.”

All the while, the other visitors made their way out of the theater, having enjoyed the performance and thinking it was just that. At the same time, Scooby, Shaggy, and Misty were still clutching the drapes, shaking and shivering in fear while Sunny hid beneath the drapes. “Next year,” Shaggy said, “we’re going to Miami!”

“Yeah!” Scooby trembled in fear. “Come on, guys, let’s get you down,” Sunny said as she, Pipp, Zipp and Ruby approached to help get Misty, Shaggy and Scooby down from the drapes. “Then, we’ve gotta question those performers about what just happened… and then figure out what we need to do to stop this from happening again.”

Author's Note

I had Indywriter's help with some of this scene-- please give them your love.

A Second Vampire Encounter/The Investigations Begin (Part 1)

The most unusual event had just occurred-- while our heroes were watching a vampire theater troupe before a sacred vampire resurrection ritual, which actually worked and brought Lord Valdronya back from the grave!

Needless to say, it was one of the most frightening experiences that Ruby Jubilee and the Dreamlands ever had... and speaking from their stage careers, that was saying something.

After Sunny, Pipp, Zipp and Ruby helped Shaggy, Scooby and Misty down from the drapes, the others decided to talk to Henry, another one of the performers knocked unconscious, to get his side of the story. “I was getting ready before the show when I was attacked by that vampire.”

Snuzzle shuddered at this. “Creepy…”

“Are you sure it was an actual vampire, though?” Sunny asked. “Unless you know someone else with massive fangs and glowing green eyes,” Henry responded. “I guess he put me under some sort of spell and I passed out.”

“No one but Opaline or Allura can cast a spell that strong that it can knock somepony out like that,” Zipp hummed. “We have to be dealing with someone with a lot of power.”

“That resurrection chant was from the ancient book of vampire,” Mr. Van Helsing then interrupted, approaching the rest of the performers. “Where on Earth did you learn it?”

“Uh… internet?” Bram answered rather innocently. “Well,” Mr. Van Helsing responded back, “I am afraid you may have unleashed an unholy terror upon us all.”

“Unholy?” Ruby looked nervous. “That really doesn’t sound good.”

“Maybe we shouldn't jump to conclusions just yet,” Velma told the pegasus pop star as Daphne looked in Bram’s direction. “Yeah, I'm sure this nice young man… uh, I didn't get your name,” Daphne said politely before Bram kissed her hand. “Oh!”

“Bram,” the heartthrob performer introduced himself. “And you are?”

“Bram… I mean, Daphne. I'm not Bram, you are,” Daphne said with an awkward chuckle. “Oh. What were we talking about?”

“We were saying we don't know for sure that Valdronya escaped from his tomb,” Fred reminded, eyeing Daphne and Bram rather suspiciously. “Oh. Uh, we should check that out,” Daphne said, trying to regain her composure. “You kids go ahead,” said Mr. Van Helsing, eyeing the performers rather suspiciously. “I'll stick around here to have a word with the actors.”

“Come on, let’s go!” Minty encouraged, and the group raced out the door in order to get to the museum and investigate the vampire's supposed escape from his tomb.

XXXXXXXX

But the second our heroes got to the museum, they found the security guard laying on the ground, unconscious from being tazed a few moments earlier.

Then, as Izzy came forward to see if he was okay, Shaggy immediately stopped her. “Careful!” he said as the security guard groaned, seeing the supposed bite marks on his neck. “He’s been bitten!”

Izzy whimpered and backed up a bit, not wanting to get bit as well. “Hmm… maybe…” Fred muttered as he inspected the wounds himself. “Or…”

“Uh, guys? I think we’ve got bigger problems,” Misty said, just as Pipp and Daphne strained to pull the glass off the coffin. “I’ll say!” Pipp panted. “This lid is still sealed tight.”

“Well,” Fred interjected, “that vampire couldn't have just walked through the glass.”

“Yeah. Magic is pretty powerful,” Hitch said, “but it can’t be THAT powerful… can it?”

“It can when it’s used by the wrong creature,” Zipp frowned. “We have to be extremely cautious going forward.”

Suddenly, the sound of shattering glass and Lord Valdronya’s cackling caught their attention, and everyone whipped around to see that the display case holding the vampire queen’s jewels had been destroyed, and the jewels had vanished, causing Blue Belle to gasp. “The vampire queen’s jewels are gone!”

“Jinkies!” Velma cried. “But how can that be possible?” Ruby asked, alarmed by such a theft. “The jewels were there just a few seconds ago!”

“Everypony, get ready,” Sunny said as she activated her alicorn form. “Lord Valdronya could be ANYWHERE around here, and we need to be ready.”

Then, Lord Valdronya was heard cackling again, and they all looked up to see him entering the building in his bat form. “Duck!” Misty said as she, the Mane 6 and the Dreamlands ducked down for cover. “No!” Shaggy shouted. “Bat!”

Then, Shaggy ducked just as Lord Valdronya sailed over them, transforming back to his vampire form in front of Daphne, letting the green mist around her suddenly make her dizzy. “Such beauty and innocence… with the countenance of a queen,” Lord Valdryonya said, inspecting her intently while holding the stolen vampire jewels. “My queen!”

“Your queen…?” Daphne muttered quietly, still dizzy from the green mist. That’s when Sunny knew that they had to step in. “I don’t think so!”

When Lord Valdronya turned to face them, he was certainly surprised to see the other members of Mystery Inc and all the ponies advancing toward him, holding stakes and getting ready to stop him once and for all.

But before they could do anything, Lord Valdronya flew out of the sky-light, shattering the glass before flying away. “Well… that just happened,” Snuzzle said rather nervously. “Yeah,” Shaggy agreed with one of the three earth pony singers fearfully. “There’s no such thing as real vampires… until now…”

“What are we gonna do now, Sunny?” Minty asked. “...I’m not sure yet,” Sunny said, shaking her head. “But I do know that as long as we’re all together, he can’t do us any harm. My best bet is to get some sleep, and we can work all this out tomorrow morning… for better or for worse.”

XXXXXXXX

The next night seemed to be restless, with everyone thinking about the supposed vampire resurrection, the theft of the vampire queen's jewels... almost everything that had went on that day.

Now suddenly... performing at Bridlewoodstock seemed a lot less nerve-wracking.

By the time the festival opened that morning, the protestors were already at it, with the same lead protestor from the day before speaking out to the crowd. “There's a beast on the loose-- a spawn of the netherworld!” he kept saying. “I say it's time we shut this foul fair down for the good of the community.”

That’s when a local TV news crew arrived, with the reporter, Kelly Smith, setting up her crew and camera right near the protestors. “Hello, Kelly Smith from KDTV Action 10 News.”

XXXXXXXXXX

Little did anyone realize it, but Bram and Lita Rutland were watching the entire thing from nearby. “Looks like someone spilled the beans about our escaped vampire,” Lita said seriously. “But the audience thought it was all part of the show,” Bram said, taking off his sunglasses. “I hope you're not implying my performers--”

Then, Lita smirked. “I leaked it.”

“You?” Bram repeated, shocked. “But…”

“This could be just the thing we need to boost attendance,” Lita argued. And after considering this for a moment, Bram nodded and put his sunglasses back on. “They do say there's no such thing as bad publicity.”

“That’s the spirit!” Lita encouraged with a smile. “Now, which would you say is my good side?”

XXXXXXXX

Mr. Van Helsing heard about the gang's interaction with Lord Valdronya the previous night, and when they all gathered in the library to discuss things about the case, the vampire book author couldn’t help but express his concern. “I am so relieved that none of you kids were hurt last night.”

“Not physically,” Shaggy stated, “but the mental wounds run deep.”

“Yeah...” Scooby whimpered. “Run deep...”

“At least we're all together, that's what really matters,” Minty said, rubbing Scooby on the back. “But we need to figure out this vampire problem before things get too out of hand.”

That's when Mr. Van Helsing let out a growl of frustration. “Those foolish actors have no idea the monster they've set loose.”

“We can't be certain this is their doing,” Daphne tried to reason. “Or,” Velma interjected, “that we've got a real vampire on our hands.”

That's when Zipp turned to Velma with a serious expression. “Did you check the museum's security system?”

“Yeah,” Velma nodded, “but the cameras recorded nothing.”

“System's on the fritz, but I just can't afford to fix it right now,” Mr. Van Helsing said. “Let's say it is a real vampire,” Misty quickly spoke up with a question of her own. “How did he escape that sealed tomb?”

“According to one of my favorite vampire books,” Ruby recalled, “a living vampire can transform into mist. All it would need is a tiny gap in the glass.”

“Oh, creepy!” Hitch shuddered before Daphne crossed her arms, a frown on her face. “This could all be a diversion to steal those jewels. Just saying.”

“Maybe, Daphne, but let's not jump to conclusions just yet,” Blue Belle stated. “There’s still a lot we have to consider with this whole vampire situation.”

“Oh, what a night...” groaned a voice, and the security guard from the night before appeared in the doorway, rubbing his neck. “Thanks for letting me sleep here, boss.”

“Oh, no problem, Daniel,” Mr. Van Helsing responded. “I hope you're feeling better.”

“Neck's a little sore,” Daniel said, feeling the sore marks that were still on his neck, “but other than that...”

Upon seeing the marks on Daniel's neck, Shaggy and Scooby screamed in terror and hid behind the couch. “The bite of the beast,” Shaggy shuddered. “He could turn batty at any second!”

“Doubtful,” Velma said as she walked over to the window nearby. “If he had been bitten by a vampire, could he survive this?”

She pulled open the curtains, letting bright sunlight into the room for all to see. “I've read about this!” Pipp spoke up with wide eyes. “Sunlight can make a vampire explode!”

But what surprised all of them was Daniel walking right over to the window and glancing outside. “Wow, gorgeous day outside.”

Scooby blinked in surprise at this. “Huh?”

“He didn't crumble to dust!” Hitch realized as he and Pipp guided Shaggy and Scooby out of hiding. “He could be one of the rare few with an antibody resistant to vampire venom,” Blue Belle pointed out. “I think I read about that somewhere.”

“Or he wasn't bitten at all,” Velma said, looking at Daniel's bite marks a bit more closely. “Those look more like blisters than bites.”

“That does explain why those marks look familiar,” Sunny said, “but where in the world could he have gotten blisters that look like that?”

That's when Fred decided to propose a theory that he had developed from the night before. “When you were attacked, did it feel like... oh, I don't know... a thousand volts of electricity?”

“Uh, actually, yeah,” Daniel nodded. “How did you know.”

“Yeah,” Snuzzle said in surprise. “How did you know about that, Freddy?”

“I volunteer at the police academy on weekends,” Fred explained with a smile. “If there's one thing I know, it's taser burns.”

“Also,” Daphne said, handing Daniel his taser, “we found your Taser lying on the ground next to you.”

“Oh, I think I get it now!” Izzy said with a smile. “You must have tripped on these wooden stake things and zapped yourself on accident!”

“Huh... nice detective work, Iz!” Zipp said, impressed. “Yeah... but weird. I better go put that in my report,” Daniel said before leaving the room and the others alone. “That explains the bite marks,” Shaggy spoke up, “but how do you explain the vampire?”

“Oh... there are so many questions that we need to answer but we don't have the answer to!” groaned Hitch. “It's a conundrum AND a catastrophe!”

Daphne nodded in response to this. “A real who done it.”

“We'll need to put our heads together on this one,” Fred agreed, causing Scooby to gulp nervously. “Uh-oh...”

“I think we all know where this is going,” Misty sighed, but Fred ignored this and turned to the entire group again. “Yep, I'd say we've got a real live boney-fide mystery on our hands.”

“You’ll hear him say that a lot while we're on this case,” Hitch whispered to Ruby and the Dreamlands. “Just to let you know.”

“So what do we do next?” Daphne asked. “I think our best bet,” said Zipp, “is to go back to the festival and see if we can dig up anything from anyone who works there. If they know how to bring a vampire back to life, then maybe they know a way we can stop this guy before anyone gets hurt.”

“I'll stay here and wait for you all to come back,” Mr. Van Helsing volunteered. “Good luck.”

With that, the ponies and Mystery Incorporated took their leave from the museum, with Ruby Jubilee and the Dreamlands trailing the group, every one of them in silence... that is, until Ruby spoke to the three earth ponies quietly. “Does anypony else feel totally out of place here or is it just me?”

“No... it's not just you,” Snuzzle said. “They all act so confident, so sure of themselves and in each other! I mean... all we know how to do is sing and perform on a stage.”

“They have been doing this for a long time, Snuzz,” Minty tried to reason. “This is our first quest with Sunny and the others. It may take us some time to get the hang of things.”

“Wel, I hope it doesn't take too much time,” Blue Belle frowned. “Our friends seriously need our help with this case!”

“...you guys are right,” Snuzzle nodded, realizing that her friends had a valid point. “...come on, we better catch up to the others before they get too far off.”

The Investigations Begin (Part 2)/Attacked by a Vampire!

Ruby Jubilee and the Dreamlands were starting to feel a bit out of place while the four of them and their friends were solving the mystery of the vampire who supposedly had been brought back to life by an ancient resurrection ritual.

I mean, this was their first quest, and the Mane 6 and Mystery Incorporated had been solving mysteries together for quite a long time.

Who wouldn’t feel a bit out of place when you're trying to solve a mystery, but only had performing experience?

Fortunately, the Dreamlands and Ruby will get their chance to be real heroes like their friends... even if they themselves don't know when that opportunity will arrive.

XXXXXXXX

After Zipp suggested that they head back to the festival and talk to some of the people there, the group hightailed it back to the park and got inside the festival without much hassle.

But as they began looking for potential clues, Kelly Smith was giving her news report in front of her camera crew and all the people watching at home. “Eyewitness accounts aside... we've had no confirmation of the supposed vampires' existence from anyone associated with the fair.”

“You want confirmation?”

Everyone looked over at the large crowd of reporters surrounding Lita Rutland, who was showing the reporters a supposed bite mark that she had on her neck. “No one is safe. I'm here to tell you from firsthand experience... that vampires bite.”

Sunny sighed and looked at her friends when they saw this. “So much for keeping this on the down-low...”

That's when Lita began to sing her own song to ensure as many people came to the festival as possible... even going as far as stretching the truth a bit.

Lita Rutland: Gather round, hear me now
Listen up, 'cause I vow
There's a vampire roaming the night

He had wings and a snout
With these fangs hanging out
That can rip and can tear when they bite

He flew down from the skies
With those red glowing eyes
And he smiled and I knew in a sec

He had come there for me
Cause he leaped up in glee
Then he pounced and he bit me on the neck

This led several people around Lita to vasp, believing every word of Lita's story.

Lita Rutland: Yes, I screamed and cried out, "It's a vampire!"
I escaped and ran into the light

That's when she picked up a cross that was on display and held it out for other people to see.

Lita Rutland: I held up one of these
And we all saw him freeze
Then he shrieked in the night

Be advised and be scared
Be alert, be prepared
Buy this garlic we have here on sale

Gel a charm for your neck
We rake cash, we take check
And ship free, COD through the mail

How 'bout this vampire spray?
It keeps dandruff away
Sold in tonic and lotion or mist

Here, these potions we make
And this big wooden stake
At a price that you just can't resist

We lake MasterCard, Visa and Chase
Not Discover
We're open till 9 every night
Not on Sunday

In bulk, any size
Then our discount applies
So invest in the best
Bring ID or a check

And buy one of each
Maybe two, what the heck
You can't be loo safe
When protecting your neck

From the vamp...
The vampire's bite!

Ha ha ha ha ha ha!!

XXXXXXXX

Needless to say, our heroes couldn't find out anything at the festival that night, so they decided to head back to the festival the next morning in order to get a fresh start.

But by the time that they arrived the next morning, the festival was already a lot more crowded. The Mane 6 (except Misty) stuck near Daphne and Velma while the Dreamlands went for a walk with Fred to get a snack and Ruby wanted to sign some autographs for some fans that heard about her thanks to Pipp’s livestreams.

Daphne looked at the large crowd with a mixed expression on her face. “Looks like Lita's little press conference was good for business.”

“And I have a bunch of feelings that I just can’t explain,” Zipp said. “Is that weird?”

“It sounds perfectly understandable to me,” Sunny said. “It makes me think that Lita knows more about this vampire than she’s letting on.”

“AHH!!!” some tourists shrieked and ran as Fred and the Dreamlands approached their friends again. “VAMPIRE!!!”

Fred spit out his pizza at this. “Where? Where?!”

But as it turns out, it was only the kid in the vampire costume from before pretending to scare everybody, causing a sense of relief… and a bit of annoyance. “Fred,” Minty scolded, “don't tell me you're buying into the hype.”

“Of course not,” Fred said before holding his pizza out to her. “Want a bite of this garlic pizza? It has magical protective powers.”

“Oh brother…” Hitch sighed irritably under his breath. “I just hope Ruby, Misty, Shaggy and Scooby are having better luck than we are.”

XXXXXXXX

At the same time, Lita was admiring the scene she created with her press conference the night before. “Having a vampire on the loose is the best thing that's ever happened to this festival!”

However, as he sat at his table with Ruby Jubilee, trying to get more people to buy his book, Mr. Van Helsing sighed. “Hasn't boosted my book sales.”

Lita, seemingly having a change of heart, walked over to the table and picked up one of the books, placing some money down on the table. “It just did.”

Ruby gasped in shock and amazement at this, a wide smile beginning to form. “Thank you, Lita!”

“You want it signed?” Mr. Van Helsing asked. “Sure. Make it out to ‘receptacle’,” Lita said with her own smirk. “Trash receptacle!”

And with a mean laugh, she snatched the book away from Mr. Van Helsing before throwing it in the trash can… the same trash can Misty was hiding behind and the same trash can Shaggy and Scooby were hiding in. “Hey!” Shaggy yelped as the book hit him on the head, prompting him and Scooby to peek out of hiding. “It's getting so you can't find a safe place to hide anywhere.”

“Why did you guys choose to hide in a trash can anyway?” asked Misty curiously. “Well,” Shaggy said, “it’s the least likely place that anyone would think to look, right, Scoob?”

“Yeah,” Scooby said with a firm nod. “We’re safe in here.”

But at that moment, the protestors, led by one Jasper Poubelle, walked past them, but Jasper didn't take any notice as he led the protestors through the park. “Vampires are all around us, people. Now, keep alert.”

And just like that, the protestors continued their search for the dreaded vampire. “Did you hear that, fellas?” Misty asked with urgency in her voice. “Let's move, move, move!”

And so, Shaggy and Scooby climbed out of the trash can and immediately followed after Misty... just as Lita marched after the protestors, irritated by their actions. “Hey, Poubelle! I told you to get off the property. You're scaring away the customers!”

XXXXXXXX

After a spending a little time at the festival, the group went back to Mr. Van Helsing's museum to get themselves and the clues they had so far put together.

On the news was Jesper Poubelle and Kelly Smith, the latter doing a story on the supposed vampire and was interviewing the former. “I'm here with Jesper Poubelle from the Society for Moral and Wholesome Living. Jesper, how can people stay safe from vampire attacks?”

“They can join in our crusade of moral righteousness against supernatural evil,” Jesper told Kelly and the people watching the broadcast. “Together we can stamp out the vampire scourge.”

“Okay, I don’t know about the rest of you,” Zipp said as she muted the TV, “but I’ve heard enough crazy talk from that guy.”

“That guy is becoming quite the media star,” Daphne noted. “Which, in other circumstances, would be good,” said Pipp, “but in this circumstance… it just feels wrong.”

“Yeah,” Snuzzle nodded with a suspicious look on her face. “Like he’s milking the situation for everything it's worth.”

“So, what do you think we should do?” Scooby asked worriedly. “I don’t know about the rest of you,” Ruby said with a bold look, “but I think it’s time we pay Mr. Poubelle a visit.”

“Me and the rest of the Dreamlands can stay here,” Minty offered, “in case old Lord Creepy decides to show up again.”

“Good thinking, Minty,” Sunny nodded. “The rest of us are gonna head to Mr. Poubelle’s trailer and see what we can figure out.”

XXXXXXXX

Within just a few minutes, the Mystery Machine with Mystery Inc, the Mane 6 and Ruby Jubilee inside it, parked not too far away from the trailer where Jesper Poubelle was having yet another press conference. “That’s right,” Jesper told the reporters and photographers gathered around him. “This is a certifiable, undeniable crisis, people. It is high time we institute a dusk-to-dawn curfew.”

Little did he know it, but Jesper was being watched by Mystery Incorporated and their pony pals, at least Zipp gave some orders out so they could investigate further. “Sunny, Hitch, Velma and I will keep Poubelle occupied,” the white pegasus said to her friends. “You guys see what you can dig up.”

“If you need us, just send up a cutie mark flare,” Misty told her friends before she, Ruby, Pipp and Izzy joined the rest of Mystery Inc, running behind the trailer, where Daphne began to use a bobby pin to pick the door lock. “Shaggy, you, Ruby and Scooby stand watch,” Fred instructed. “If anyone comes, tap on the door.”

That’s when Daphne heard the door click, realizing that it was now open for them to access. “We’re in!”

Izzy pushed the door open with her hoof, only to reveal the inside of the trailer was completely overrun with trash, rats and even more disgusting stuff. “Yuck!” Izzy groaned. “What a wreck!”

“Those guys may be moral and wholesome,” Pipp shuddered, “but they're not very clean.”

“We gotta start looking,” Misty said. “Who knows? Maybe something in here can prove Mr. Poubelle is behind these vampire attacks.”

XXXXXXXX

At the same time, Velma and the other ponies were listening in on the press conference, sneaking up from the back of the crowd to talk to Poubelle. “We've got hundreds of reports of vampire sightings,” he kept saying to the crowd. That’s when Sunny decided to speak up, causing many to turn toward her and her friends. “Couldn't people be imagining these things because you're causing them to panic? Fear is something that shouldn’t be messed with.”

“I didn’t create the evil,” Jesper responded back, approaching the group. “Maybe not,” Velma added, “but Sunny has a point. You sure seem to be eager to take advantage of it.”

“Young lady,” Jesper spoke, “you and your friends’ questions were not cleared with my staff. Someone check their credentials!”

“Uh, I think we left them in the car!” Hitch said quickly. “Let us go get them real quick.”

And so, he quickly nudged the girls away, not wanting them to get in trouble and potentially blow their cover.

XXXXXXXX

Daphne pushed open a door in the trailer and looked inside, immediately finding something worth investigating. “Girls, Fred, I found something!”

“Ugh!” Pipp groaned in disgust as she brushed herself off for what felt like the 100th time. “I hope it's not more spiders.”

That's when Daphne pointed out what she had seen-- signs, posters, banners... all of them reading one thing and one thing only: 'Poubelle for Mayor'.

This immediately got the others' interest. “Poubelle for mayor?” Daphne questioned. “What is all this?”

“It’s definitely something worth telling the others about,” Misty said. “This might be a good motive for him to be involved with these vampire attacks, even if he isn’t the vampire himself.”

“Ooh! You gotta admire his unicycling skills though,” Izzy said. “These paint colors are amazing!”

“We can admire the paint job later, Iz,” Fred told her. “We gotta keep looking for more evidence.”

XXXXXXXX

Ruby, Shaggy and Scooby were sitting on the back steps of the trailer, waiting for their friends to return with the evidence inside, when suddenly, one of the security guards for the press conference walked around the corner and spotted them, becoming suspicious immediately. “What are you three doing back here?”

“Uh… um…” Scooby gulped nervously as he, Shaggy and Ruby stood up to try and alert the others. “We’re, uh… door inspectors!” Shaggy said as they began to repeatedly tap on the door. “Yeah, uh… you might wanna stand back!” Ruby went along with the act. “This thing could be set to blow!”

However, the security guard merely approached the door, shoving the three aside and letting Ruby scream as she fell onto the ground. “Doors don’t explode--”

But as soon as the guard started speaking, the door burst open, and the others ran out to their friends. “Why’d you signal?” Fred asked, just before the guard pushed the door away. “Stay right where you are!”

“Run away!!” Izzy and Shaggy shrieked as the eight of them began to run as fast as their feet and hooves could take them, with another security guard joining the chase after a few moments.

After a few seconds, the Mystery Machine screeched to a halt in front of them, and Hitch opened the back doors for the others to get inside before they were caught. “Quick! Get in!”

The others did as they were told, and they immediately left the scene, sighing in relief as they sped out of the security guards’ sight.

XXXXXXXX

As they drove down the road back toward the museum, Daphne was telling the others about what she, Fred, Pipp and the unicorns had uncovered. “Poubelle is running for office!”

“It’s true!” Misty said with a nod. “He had signs and banners and everything!”

“That explains a lot,” Zipp pointed out with a frown. “He's using the vampire to get attention for his movement… and in order to boost his upcoming campaign!”

“Still,” Velma countered, “it isn't proof he's behind the vampire attacks. He's just using them to his advantage.”

“Velma, be careful,” Sunny warned as she looked into the fog ahead. “This fog is like pea soup-- maybe Freddy should drive for a little bit.”

“That’s okay, Sunny,” Velma reassured with a smile. “I'm good. Sort of enjoying it.”

All of a sudden, Lord Valdronya leapt from the fog and clung to the front of the Mystery Machine, causing the group to scream as they tried to find a way to get him off. But no matter how much Velma swerved, he wouldn’t let go.

Eventually, after Velma kicked the Mystery Machine into high gear, Lord Valdronya did let go, but immediately resumed the chase, immediately grabbing Daphne by the arm. Luckily, Izzy was able to slap him off of her, much to everyone’s relief.

However, the chase wouldn’t be over so easily.

Lord Valdronya ripped off the hatch on top of the Mystery Machine, reaching down and trying to grab Daphne from the top of the van. “Daphne!” Fred cried. “Look out!”

Daphne strained and tried to pull away from the vampire, but only managed to tear off a piece of his cloak. “Brace yourselves!” Velma said as she swerved off the road and into a dry riverbed, causing the group to scream once more. After a few moments, Fred noticed a bridge not too far away, and it was so low, the Mystery Machine wouldn’t fit through there with Valdronya on top of it. “That opening is too tight! We won't make it!”

“Oh yes we will!” Ruby cried. “Velma, floor it!”

Velma slammed her foot on the gas and sped toward the bridge, and upon noticing it was coming, Valdronya let go of Daphne just as Izzy and Misty pulled her back into the Mystery Machine… and just as they went under the bridge.

As they continued to drive down the road, the group took a few moments to catch their breath. “Phew… that was way too close,” Sunny sighed. “Ruby, how did you know Valdronya wouldn’t try to follow us under the bridge?”

“Honestly? I didn’t,” Ruby shook her head. “I guess it was just severe luck.”

“Severe luck that totally saved us, you mean,” Fred spoke with relief. “Good thinking on your hooves.”

“So… what happens now?” Misty asked. “We need to stop by the museum and check on the Dreamlands,” Sunny said firmly. “Then, we need to head to the festival and double our clue search. If Valdronya really is after Daphne… then we ALL could be in danger if he isn't stopped soon.”

“So, with that being said,” said Zipp, “we need to hurry and get this mystery solved-- fast.”

Splitting Up/Scooby and Me

After narrowly escaping the clutches of Lord Valdronya, Mystery Incorporated, the Mane 6 and Ruby Jubilee headed back to the museum to pick up Minty, Snuzzle and Blue Belle, who had been on high alert since there had already been several vampire attacks at the museum so far.

Once the Mystery Machine pulled up, the three earth ponies galloped out to meet their friends. “Oh my clover, where were you guys?” Minty asked as she and Daphne hugged. “The press conference was over hours ago!”

“Are you okay?” Snuzzle asked in concern. “We’re fine,” Misty reassured, “but we had another close encounter with the fanged kind while we were on our way back here. Where’s Mr. Van Helsing?”

“He’s inside-- said he was really tired and wanted to get to bed early tonight,” Blue Belle spoke. “But, we wanted to wait for you to come back, just to make sure you were safe.”

“Well, you girls are in luck,” Fred spoke. “We’re heading back to Vampire-Palooza, and we’re gonna need all hooves on deck for this one.”

XXXXXXXX

After the group arrived back at the festival, Jesper Poubelle and several other townsfolk approached the gates with flaming torches in their grasp... much to Lita Rutland's irritation. “I'm telling you, Poubelle, you can't come in here!” she barked. “You're scaring off my customers!”

But luckily, Jesper had a rebuttal for that. “And I’m telling you,” he said, “I've got a special dispensation from the sheriff himself.”

“That’s right, Ms. Rutland,” the sheriff said as he stood next to Jesper. “By order of the court, I have recruited these gentlemen.”

“That’s right,” Jesper smirked. “We are hereby deputized vampire hunters.”

Lita scowled at this, but seeing as there was nothing she could do, she let them pass. “Vampire hunters, ho!” Jesper shouted, and the vampire hunters moved into the festival to begin their search.

XXXXXXXX

But little did Jesper Poubelle and the sheriff realize that Daphne, Velma, Ruby, Sunny and Pipp were standing nearby, watching. “Who would actually fall for that scaremonger's rantings?” Daphne asked with crossed arms. “They say there's a fraidycat born every minute,” Velma said, just as Fred approached with the rest of the Mane 6. “Ah, there you guys are,” Fred smiled, wearing a neck protector around his neck and holding a shopping bag full of spplies. “I got us all neck protectors, just to be safe.”

“...we see your point, Velma,” Ruby said before looking around. “Hey, where are Shaggy, Scooby and the Dreamlands?”

“The boys went to the food court to calm their nerves,” Misty explained, “and Minty, Snuzzle and Blue Belle decided to go with them to make sure they were okay.”

“Heh,” Fred chuckled. “Those guys are so jumpy.”

Suddenly, a rattling noise caused Fred to shriek and immediately run away. “A VAMPIRE!!”

But all that noise came from was the kid in the vampire costume playing a trick on them, causing the Mane 6 to sigh.

Now all they had to do was figure out the rest of this case before it got out of hoof.

XXXXXXXX

At the same time, Shaggy and Scooby led the Dreamlands down an alley in search of the food court. “The food court should be right here,” Shaggy told the others. “Behind the theater.”

Blue Belle got a closer look at the map, but then sighed and flipped it around so it faced the right way, much to Shaggy’s embarrassment. “Unless the map is upside down.”

“Oh, great,” Snuzzle sighed irritably. “Now we’ve gotta walk halfway across town to get there!”

“Hey, don’t get so irritable, Snuzzle,” Minty said as she tried to cheer her friend up. “We’ll find our way eventually.”

The group continued to walk down the alley, when they stumbled upon the vampire theater troupe from before, Fangenshanz, carrying some heavy equipment onto the back of a truck. “Careful!” Bram warned the others. “Damage anything and we're as good as dead.”

That's when the group took the initiative to approach, much to Bram’s disliking. “What are you doing back here? This is a restricted area.”

“Sorry to interrupt… all this,” said Minty, “but we were just looking for the food court.”

However, the performers approached and surrounded them quickly, causing Scooby to gulp nervously. “Uh-oh.”

“We can’t let them go,” the female performer told Bram. “What if they tell someone what they’ve seen?” another performer agreed. “You’re right,” Bram realized… much to Scooby’s confusion. “Uh, what have we seen?”

“Whatever it is,” Snuzzle whispered, “they obviously don’t want us to know about it.”

“Scooby? Girls… I think we’re in…” Shaggy began to say to his friends before pointing in another direction. “Hey, look, a Hollywood talent scout!”

And as soon as the performers turned to look the other way, the Dreamlands, Shaggy and Scooby immediately bolted through the fairgrounds, stopping when they were sure that they were safe. “I think we lost ‘em,” Shaggy said. “Everybody okay?”

“We’re fine for now,” Blue Belle said, “but I think we better get back to the others before it’s too late for any of us.”

Suddenly… a low growl caught their attention, causing them to immediately freeze. “We better find that food court soon, Scoob,” Snuzzle pointed out. “Your tummy’s growling a lot here lately.”

However, Scooby shook his head at this. “Not mine.”

“Well, it wasn't Shaggy’s stomach,” Minty said, “and it wasn't any of our stomachs, so who's...?”

Immediately, the realization of who it could have been finally sunk into the group’s brains. Slowly, they turned around to see Lord Valdronya rising up from the shadows behind them with a menacing roar. However, as the Dreamlands remained frozen in fear, Shaggy held up a stake that he had gotten a little while earlier and held it out, trembling slightly. “Stay back or I'll be forced to use this!”

But one roar from Lord Valdronya caused Shaggy to abandon all courage he had in his body, and he, Scooby and the Dreamlands broke into a fast run in order to get away. “Maybe later!!”

“Everypony, split up!” Minty told her friends. “He can’t chase all of us at once!”

So, with each of the Dreamlands taking a different direction, they all split up, but Lord Valdronya continued to chase Shaggy and Scooby. He grabbed the stake that Shaggy had left behind and threw it, cutting off a piece of Shaggy’s shirt and grazing his neck slightly, making Shaggy panic. “I've been bitten by a vampire!!!”

“Look, Mama!” a little girl cried as Shaggy, Scooby and Lord Valdronya went past them. “A real vampire!”

Needless to say, a lot of people got out of their way once they realized the danger they were putting themselves in. Shaggy and Scooby continued to get chased all throughout the festival grounds, not wanting Lord Valdronya to make them his vampire servants.

Around the same time, a man was putting ketchup on his hot dog when he heard Shaggy's voice coming out of nowhere. “INCOMING!!!”

When the man turned and saw the vampire chasing Shaggy and Scooby, he screamed and fled with his hot dog, letting Shaggy and Scooby dive into a nearby trash can and letting the ketchup jug spill its contents all over them.

After a moment, Shaggy and Scooby peeked out of hiding to see that Lord Valdronya was no longer around. “Phew. He's gone, Scoob. And I'm a goner,” Shaggy whimpered fearfully as they climbed out of the trash can. “I've been bitten by a vampire! I'll probably sprout fangs any second and… is this ketchup?”

Upon noticing what they were covered in, Shaggy and Scooby began to lick the ketchup off of themselves… just before the vampire hunters, led by Jesper Poubelle, showed up and saw them. “Bloodsuckers!” Jesper shouted, catching their attention. “That one shape-shifted into a dog!”

“Huh?” Scooby looked confused, but then, Shaggy realized what was going on. “I think they mean us!”

“Get ‘em!” Jesper shouted, sending Shaggy and Scooby on the run from the vampire hunters.

XXXXXXXX

“Shaggy!! Scooby!!” Snuzzle cried as she, Minty and Blue Belle searched for their friends. “Where are you?!”

“It’s the vampire hunters!” Blue Belle cried as she heard voices getting closer. “Hide!”

The three earth ponies dove off to the side, just as Shaggy and Scooby screamed and ran past them with the vampire hunters in pursuit. “Oh no!” Snuzzle cried. “They’re in serious trouble!”

“Come on!” Minty encouraged as she and her friends climbed out of hiding. “We’ve got to help them!”

“But Minty… what if they think we’re vampires too?” Snuzzle asked. “What if they hurt us?”

“We don’t really have a choice, Snuzz!” Blue Belle said. “We’re obviously no help investigating the vampire, so we at least have to help Shaggy and Scooby stay out of trouble!”

“...well… I guess you do have a point there,” Snuzzle muttered. “Okay, but we need to be back soon-- our friends will get worried if we’re not back in a few hours.”

And so, the three earth ponies galloped in the direction their friends and the vampire hunters fled in... unaware that they themselves would become lost in the swampy environment.

XXXXXXXX

The vampire hunters chased Shaggy and Scooby further into the Louisiana bayou, but as they got further from town, they could find the duo anymore. “Appears we lost them crafty shape-shifters,” Jesper told the crowd. “I guess we best head back before our torches burn out.”

The other vampire hunters agreed with this and headed back in the direction of town… unaware that Shaggy and Scooby were hiding up in the treetops where the crowd couldn't see them. “Phew. We're safe, Scoob,” Shaggy sighed as they climbed down to safety. “Except for the fact we're lost in a swamp. And I could turn into a vampire at any moment!”

As he hung on a branch, trying to fight the urge to bite into Scooby’s neck, Shaggy lowered his shirt for Scooby to look at the injury. “Check out my bite. Is it bad?”

Scooby inspected it for a moment, but before he could say anything, Shaggy spoke up, completely in despair. “Don't sugarcoat it. I know I'm done for,” he said. “You should get out of here before I turn all bat-ified.”

“Uh-uh. I’m not going,” Scooby shook his head before helping Shaggy down to the ground. “Once the vampire venom takes hold of my system… there's no guarantee I won't sink my fangs into you,” Shaggy told the Great Dane, pushing him away slightly. “We have to split up, Scoob.”

“No, Shaggy!” Scooby clung to his best friend tightly. “No!”

However, Shaggy remained persistent. “It's the only way to save yourself,” he said, pushing Scooby away again. “Just turn away from me and don't look back.”

Scooby whimpered, tears filling his eyes as he thought of Shaggy becoming a vampire, and worse, having to separate from him. “I can’t…”

Sunny and the other ponies had taught Shaggy and Scooby so much about friendship and family... and Scooby knew that this couldn't be the way to solve this.

He couldn't lose Shaggy as his best friend... he couldn't!

Scooby nuzzled Shaggy with the saddest eyes Shaggy had ever seen, and as much as it pained him, he knew this was the way it had to be… for both their sakes. “I guess I'll have to do this myself.”

“Huh?!” Scooby looked shocked as Shaggy began to walk away, his head held low. “Goodbye, old friend,” Shaggy bid farewell. “I hope one day you'll see that this is best for both of us.”

“...Shaggy…?” Scooby let out a whimper, but instead of responding, Shaggy just continued to walk away, much to Scooby’s dismay. Tears flowed down the Great Dane’s face…

…and Shaggy fought the urge to cry himself. “One foot in front of the other,” he kept repeating. “Don't look back. Don't ever look…”

But out of the corner of his eye, Shaggy could see Scooby trying to fight back tears, just like he was.

What was he doing?

He couldn't leave Scooby after everything they had been through.

Sunny and her friends would tell Shaggy the same thing... and he couldn't let them down. “I looked back!”

Scooby became overjoyed at the fact that Shaggy was turning back to him, and ran toward him before Shaggy leapt in the Great Dane’s paws. “Shaggy!”

Shaggy sighed in relief as he gazed at his best friend. “Promise you'll never leave me, Scoob.”

“Never,” Scooby said, licking Shaggy’s face with a laugh. Now that Shaggy was back, Scooby set him down and brushed him off before using a tongue depressor to check the inside of Shaggy's mouth, much to Shaggy's confusion. “What are you doing?”

“Checking for vampire symptoms,” Scooby responded. “Say ‘ahh’.”

Shaggy did as told, a sense of relief washing over him. “Scoob, you're the best pal a guy could have,” he said as the tongue depressor was removed, and he smiled at the Great Dane, putting an arm around Scooby's neck. “A real friend to the end.”

And what better way to tell Scooby about how he truly felt than to express it through song… just as Pipp had taught them to do.

Shaggy: Whenever I'm down
Right there on the ground
Lying out flat on my face

Who is the pup
Picking me up
And getting me back in the race?

Who'll be around watching my back
Guide me along and keep me on track?
Forever he’s there, we’re a pair
Scooby and me!

When the going gets tough
And things getting

Scooby: Rough

Shaggy: You're the one whom I depend

Scooby: Who, me?

Shaggy: I give you the proof
I'll climb up on the...

Scooby: Roof!

Shaggy: And shout to the world, you're my friend!

Scooby: Awoo!

Shaggy: And when I'm a vampire
Roaming the night
Because you're my pal, I'll just take a small bite
We're one of the greats and we're mates
Scooby and me!

Oh Scooby and me
We're gonna be together for good
That buddy of mine

If you're ever in doubt
Need me helping you out
You know that I would if I got time

If you're ever in jail, and you're needing some bail
Or a friend to set you free
You can always count on me
Cause tell me where would I be

Without you by my side
My friend and my guide
Helping to carry me through

Some people go by, I live or I die
They wouldn't care, but not you
You're the one who keeps me at ease
Giving me love and occasional fleas

Scooby: Sorry

Shaggy: No matter comes
We are chums
Scooby and me

Scooby: Yep! Hee hee hee hee!

XXXXXXXX

Little did the duo know it, but Kelly Smith was reporting live back at the festival, keeping people updated on the vampire crisis... exactly what Jesper Poubelle wanted. “In the interest of public safety, I am hereby issuing a dusk-to-dawn curfew. - No one is to be out past dark.”

“This extreme measure is seen as a victory,” Kelly Smith told her viewers, “for local anti-vampire crusader and now mayoral candidate, Jesper Poubelle.”

That's when many people around town began to sing their own verses to the same tune... and not all of them were happy tunes.

Lita Rutland: Closing us down
But that isn't fair
I'm warning you all
You better beware

You're messing me
And you'll see
You're all going to pay

Vincent Van Helsing: Oh, I'm broke, I'm through
What will I do?
Oh, what happens when the rent is due?

Jesper Poubelle: Oh, watch out, my friends
There's vampires on the loose

Sheriff: And that's why I brought the noose

Lita Rutland: You just killed the golden goose

Fangenschanz: Oh, got a show to do

Crowd: Vampires here

Fangenschanz: Curtains up

Shaggy: Hey, Scooby-Doo

Fangenschanz: Opening night revenue

Crowd: Bad show, it's time to shut them out of town

Shaggy: What would I do?

Crowd: They're to blame, it's true

Fangenschanz: Poubelle, shame on you

Crowd and Fangenschanz: We're not the same as you

Shaggy: Where would I be without you?
Scooby and me
We always will be
Together forever as friends

Crowd: Vampires, don't want vampires

Shaggy: You are the one, second to none
The power on which a buddy depends

Scooby: (howls)

Crowd: They are the ones
They're evil and bad

Fangenschanz: Watch out for them
They're crazy and mad

All: What do you when they're vampires
Where there shouldn't be

Jesper Poubelle: Listen to me

Lita Rutland: Can't do this to me

Vincent Van Helsing: Doesn't anyone see?

All: Why'd this happen to me?

Shaggy: It's always going to be
Scooby and me!

And as Shaggy and Scooby embraced one final time, the song ended...

...but not too long after, the sounds of wild animals caused Shaggy and Scooby to glance around nervously, seeing the eyes of many different animals peering out at them in the darkness. “Scooby,” Shaggy whispered, “I think we’ve got company!”

Scooby whimpered nervously at this, but as the duo prepared themselves for an attack...

“Shaggy! Scooby!”

“There you are!”

Shaggy and Scooby’s eyes snapped open to see the Dreamlands running over to them, much to their relief. “Dreamlands!” Shaggy cried as the five hugged. “Like, man, are we ever glad to see you!”

“We’ve been looking all over for you!” Minty said. “Are you both okay?”

“And did we just hear you singing five seconds ago?” Blue Belle asked. “If so… you’ve got some serious pipes, Shag.”

“Oh, thanks,” Shaggy chuckled nervously. “It was a whole thing.”

“Have you come to take us home?” Scooby asked. “Uh… that’s just the thing, Scooby,” Snuzzle said hesitantly. “We’ve been looking for you for so long… we don’t really know how to get back.”

“We’re sorry,” Blue Belle said with her ears pinned. “We didn’t mean to let you down like this.”

“Like, hey… at least we’re together,” Shaggy said. “Sunny told me and Scoob once that being together is sometimes the best thing in a scary situation.”

“...but we’ve been letting the entire gang down on this case,” Snuzzle admitted hesitantly. “Us and Ruby… we have ZERO mystery solving experience and we’re only slowing you guys down.”

Scooby shook his head. “No way… you’re not slowing us down.”

“Scoob’s right,” Shaggy nodded. “If anything, you’ve made this mystery a little more enjoyable.”

Minty looked surprised at this. “We have?”

“You really mean that?” Snuzzle asked, leading Shaggy and Scooby to nod… and this caused the Dreamlands to smile. “Thanks, fellas,” Minty said, rubbing Scooby on the top of his head. “Now, come on. We need to find someplace to rest for the night before we try and find our way out of here tomorrow morning.”

“Sounds good to me,” Snuzzle said. “Anyplace that’s warm and dry.”

But as the five friends navigated through the Louisiana bayou, looking for a safe place to spend the night, they had no idea that the mystery they were on was going to take a desperate turn by the time the next day arrived.

More Investigating and Kidnapped by the Actors

The Dreamlands, Shaggy and Scooby had gotten severely lost in the swamp after the vampire hunters chased Shaggy and Scooby out of town, believing them to be shape-shifting vampires. Luckily, the Dreamlands were able to find their friends, but they were unsure of how to get back to the others.

Now all they could do was find a safe place to rest for the night, and hope that they could find their friends the next morning... before Lord Valdronya could find them again.

XXXXXXXX

After the Dreamlands, Shaggy and Scooby never returned the previous night, the Mane 6, the rest of Mystery Inc and Ruby Jubilee became incredibly worried for the safety of their friends.

But what was even worse was Kelly Smith’s news report that next morning. “But critics call the move shortsighted and a slinging blow to the local economy.”

“It’s an attack on capitalism,” Lita told the reporter as they discussed the dusk to dawn curfew and its effect on the festival. “Disgusting. This is the last time I bring my fair to this Podunk town.”

“Podunk?! Why I oughta…” Pipp began to say before she paused. “What does that even mean?”

“No idea, but… right now, it really doesn’t seem to matter,” Sunny said. “I mean… look at how upset Mr. Van Helsing is.”

Pipp turned and realized Sunny was right-- Mr. Van Helsing was upset, and for good reason. “Without the income from Lita's festival, there's no way I can keep this place afloat,” he said. “I’m ruined!”

“We'll try to solve this mystery before Lita packs up for good,” Velma promised. “Thank you, Velma,” Mr. Van Helsing said gratefully. “I'm really lucky to have you kids here.”

“Hey, guys,” Fred spoke up as he entered the room. “I'm worried about Shaggy, Scooby and the Dreamlands. I haven't seen them since last night.”

“Come to think of it, neither have I,” Ruby said. “And I have the Dreamlands on speed dial… it’s weird that they didn’t call.”

“Shag and Scoob got spooked by their own shadows and hid out all night,” Zipp said. “And the Dreamlands are probably out trying to find them.”

Misty shuddered nervously. “I just hope the vampire didn’t get them.”

“I highly doubt we're dealing with a real vampire,” Velma told the blue unicorn. “Show them, Daphne.”

That’s when Daphne pulled out the piece of fabric she had torn off of Valdronya the night before. “I found this in the Mystery Machine. It's a piece of the vampire's cloak. I must've torn it loose when he attacked us.”

Fred inspected the fabric, but after a moment, frowned. “What's an old piece of fabric gonna prove?”

“That’s the thing-- it’s NOT as old as we think,” Ruby said. “Remember how I said my mom was a costume designer? Well, she taught me to recognize different kinds of fabric.”

“And from what Ruby said, and with my own fashion knowledge,” Daphne said, “it’s clearly poly-krillion, a synthetic material first produced in 1997.”

“Ooh!” Izzy said, impressed. “Those girls know their fabric!”

“So the vampire, or whatever it was,” Hitch assumed, “probably isn't a thousand years old!”

“Oh, what a relief,” Fred sighed, causing the others to look at him strangely. “I mean, not that I thought we were dealing with a real vampire. That would be dumb to think that.”

“Actually, I must confess…” Mr. Van Helsing admitted as he walked over to a nearby cabinet. “...the outfit Valdronya was wearing in his tomb was new.”

“How?” Velma asked in confusion. “You said he was sealed in his tomb for a thousand years.”

“Yes, but his clothing had disintegrated overtime,” Mr. Van Helsing said as he opened the cabinet and pulled out a box. “We unsealed him briefly for authentication and in the name of modesty.”

However, something in that statement didn’t seem right with Sunny. “Valdronya's clothing had disintegrated, but he didn't? That’s weird…”

“A vampire is a living being, even in a state of slumber,” Mr. Van Helsing explained to the earth pony mare before opening the box, revealing a beautiful cape inside it. “This is what's left of his original garments.”

Daphne inspected the fabric more closely than before, and Pipp ran her hooves over the fabric, stunned at how smooth and silky they were. “Antique Asian silk… spun gold markings… the thick hand weave…” Daphne muttered in realization. “Fabric like this hasn't been made for 500 years!”

“Well, whatever this fabric has to do with it,” said Sunny, “Valdronya is still out there… somewhere.”

“Yes,” Mr. Van Helsing nodded gravely. “I'm afraid those actors unleashed an unholy terror upon us all.”

Velma gasped in realization. “Yes! The actors!”

“Ooh. I'll go check them out!” Daphne immediately volunteered, causing Fred to cross his arms crossly. “I bet you will…”

“Fred,” said Daphne, “do I detect a little twinge of jealousy?”

“Me?” Fred repeated. “Jealous of some vitamin D-deprived, historical vampire reenactment nuts? …maybe I should go with you.”

“No thanks,” Daphne declined as she looked at her hair in the mirror. “I'm well prepared to handle Bram. Uh... I mean, the actors. Bye!”

And just like that, Daphne ran out of the room. Ruby, seeing Fred's apparent jealousy, approached him with a comforting smile on her face. “Freddy, if it makes you feel better, I could always follow Daphne and see that she and Bram don’t get into any funny business.”

Fred smiled in relief at this. “Thanks, Ruby. I guess that would make me feel some better.”

“Just… be careful,” Pipp told Ruby cautiously. “The Dreamlands, Shaggy and Scooby have already gone missing, and we don’t want anypony else going missing too.”

“Hoof to heart,” Ruby promised her friends sincerely before setting off after Daphne.

XXXXXXXX

Ruby discreetly flew after Daphne all the way to the theater where the actors were supposed to be performing their show, and decided to stay out of sight, so Daphne wouldn't suspect that she had been followed.

Speaking of Daphne, she began to enter the theater, but there didn't seem to be anyone else in there... except Ruby, who was still hiding. “Hello? Anyone in here?”

And like Daphne expected, no one answered. But as she explored the theater and entered one of the box seats, she stumbled upon something strange-- a laser projector, laying on the ground between the chairs. “Strange place for a laser projector…”

So, she decided to set the projector back up, in case whoever put it there came back. But as she was adjusting the position of the projector, Bram appeared out of nowhere, causing Daphne to shriek before she realized who it was. “Bram!” she sighed. “ Don't sneak up on a girl like that.”

“I wasn't the one sneaking,” Bram said as he displayed several moves on a long rope… impressive in Ruby’s opinion. “You looking for something or someone?”

“Actually,” Daphne stammered before looking toward the rafters, thankfully not noticing Ruby in the corner, “I… do you… sleep up there?”

“To know the vampire, you must become the vampire,” Bram told her, impressing Daphne slightly more than he had been. “You’re really committed.”

“It's the role I was meant for,” Bram answered. “So do you lurk around darkened theaters often?”

“More than you know.”

“Well, there's something we have in common,” Bram stated. “Right off the… bat.”

Daphne smirked at this. “Cute.”

Ruby rolled her eyes from her hiding place in the rafters. “Come on, Daphne…” she whispered. “This guy is as cheesy as they come… and I’m in the music business.”

However, before she could make any movements, Bram held his hand out to Daphne. “Grab on. I'll teach you to fly.”

“I-I don’t know,” Daphne said unsuredly, taking his hand. “Promise not to drop me?”

Bram only gave her a sincere smile. “Only a fool would drop a girl like you.”

“Smooth…” Daphne said before Bram took her in his arms before swinging her down to the stage. “Wow! This is amazing!”

“It's fate that brought you here,” Bram said as he and Daphne lowered onto the stage. “Destiny. A cosmic occurrence. A vision foretold.”

Thankfully, Daphne was able to recognize that this was moving a little too quickly, and decided to pause things right then and there. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Look, Bram, I think you're very interesting, but you're one clich from my limit.”

“Daphne…” Bram began to say before tango-like music filled the halls of the theater, and another song began… much to Ruby’s surprise.

Bram: From the moment you'd first seen us
Did you ever in your life think
You'd be standing here with me?

With this thing we have between us
I could tell that it was fate
And it was always meant to be

Yes, you and I were meant for glory
And something greater
Than this drab little world that we see

And who'd have thought that later
You and I would have this date
A date with destiny

However, Daphne seemed a little intimidated by the move on her, and immediately drew back, much to Ruby’s relief.

Daphne: I can't believe you think I'd buy that
Come on, I've heard this all before
It's just a line, I'm not naive

I really can't believe you'd try that
I've gotta say you must be nuts
To think that's something I'd believe

You lay it on there kind of heavy
With all this talk of something special
So, what could it be?

Bram: What if I say that I know a way
To immortality

This caused both Ruby and Daphne to pause in surprise, the former from the rafters and out of sight. “Really?”

Bram: You and I would live forever

Daphne: You mean our lives would never end?

Bram: That’s right

Daphne: And we won't be aging ever?

Bram: You’d be Bram’s immortal friend

Daphne: For real?

Bram: That’s the deal
Can't you feel, it's so exciting?

Daphne: (Everlasting life eternal)

Bram: You've been chosen for this honor
You'll have wealth and you'll have fame

Daphne: I gotta write this in my journal

Bram: Just wait and see
Everyone will know your name

Daphne: Will I stay cute?

Bram: Absolute!

Daphne and Bram: We'll be going down in history
We'll be known throughout the world
Eternity for you and me

Let's live forever and ever
Yes, never to sever
Together forever, we'll be

You and me

In other circumstances, Ruby would find the song romantic and enjoyable... but... something about this didn't seem right.

As Bram kneeled next to her, Daphne felt the need to make the decision of a lifetime. “I'm gonna have to say thanks... but no. Points for trying though.”

However, Bram’s next phrase caught Daphne offguard. “This makes us very unhappy.”

“Well, I’m sorry,” Daphne said, “but… us?”

Bram pointed up to the ceiling, and Daphne shined her light just enough to reveal the rest of the vampire actors leaping down onto the stage, surrounding her. “Seize the vampire’s bride!” Bram shouted, much to Daphne’s shock. “The what?!”

Ruby gasped as the vampires closed in on Daphne-- she had to make her move now, and save her friend before it was too late. “Hang on, Daph!” she cried. “I’m coming!”

Ruby swooped down and knocked several of the vampire actors down, including Bram, kicking and swatting her wings at them to keep them back.

However… this defense was not going to work for long, and before they knew it, Daphne and Ruby had BOTH been captured.

For what reason… we will soon find out.

The Dreamlands, Shaggy and Scooby meet Tulie

Daphne and Ruby Jubilee had been captured by Bram and the rest of Fangenshanz, so Daphne could be taken as the vampire’s bride… and of course, the rest of our heroes had no idea of these disastrous events.

While all this was going on, the Dreamlands, Shaggy and Scooby were still lost in the swamp, having slept in the insides of a hollow tree for temporary shelter against the cold.

The sun was just beginning to go down, which meant that the vampires would be coming out again soon if they didn't move fast. Scooby looked around as the group emerged from the tree, not recognizing the area. “Where are we?”

“No clue, Scooby,” Minty responded as she shook her head. “We’ve got no service out here.”

“Not that it matters,” Shaggy said, scratching his back. “This swamp is as good a home as any for a vampire and his canine and pony pals.”

Blue Belle grimaced out of disgust as soon as she saw Shaggy and Scooby’s backs. “Well… all except for the leeches slithering all over your backs.”

“Leeches?!” Shaggy said, realizing that Blue Belle was right-- there were leeches all over Shaggy and Scooby’s backs, causing Snuzzle and Minty to quickly brush them off so the boys wouldn’t panic any more than they already were.

After the leeches were gone, Shaggy let out a sigh. “But, hey, we won't let a few little leeches spoil things, will we, Scoob?”

“No way!” Scooby responded. But as they continued walking again, that's when they encountered a huge snake on a nearby branch, causing Minty to shriek. “SNAKE!!!”

The group immediately bolted, running across the backs of alligators across the bayou. “GATORS!!” Shaggy wailed before he and Scooby dove into the murky water, only to rise a few seconds later, covered in crawdads. “CRAWDADS!!”

Shaggy and Scooby were able to remove the crawdads, thankfully, but Scooby was still a bit shaken up. “Snakes and gators and crawdads. Oh, my!”

“I think you and Shaggy might need a new life plan, Scooby,” Snuzzle said with a shudder. “If we could find some sort of shelter out here, we can plan our next move.”

“Hey… look over there!” Blue Belle pointed her hoof across the swamp, revealing a tin shack with a dock not too far away. “A tin shack!” Shaggy cried out in relief. “It's a dream come true!”

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Minty asked. “Let’s get over there and get you boys dried off.”

“But… look at all that water…” Snuzzle shuddered, looking at the water around them. “Y-You guys know about how I’m scared of water, right?”

“Don’t worry, Snuzz,” Shaggy said with a smile. “I can carry you, so you don’t have to swim.”

Needless to say, Snuzzle quickly took Shaggy up on his offer, and Shaggy, Scooby, Misty and Blue Belle began crossing the bayou until they climbed out of the water and approached the front door of the shack. It wasn't much, and it looked like it was falling apart... but it was better than nothing. “Remember, guys,” Blue Belle told her friends, “don’t say anything about Shaggy potentially being a vampire.”

“Okay,” Scooby nodded to Blue Belle's statement. But before Shaggy could knock, the door flew open, and in the doorway stood an older man with no hair and very bushy eyebrows. “Company? Come on in, cher. Hoo-hoo!” he cried, pulling the group inside the shack, to their surprise and sitting them down at the table. “Sit you down a spell while I put on that gumbo.”

“Gumbo?” Scooby repeated excitedly. “Heh… must be our lucky day,” Minty smiled. “I’m Minty, by the way, and this is Snuzzle, Blue Belle, Scooby and Shaggy. Thanks for letting us come in, Mr… um…”

“My name's Tulie,” the man responded as he put on some goggles and used a blow torch to warm up the gumbo on the stove. “That's not my real name, no. But that's what it say on the shack, so I go with that. Hoo-hoo! Look at that right there. Now we cooking some kind of yeah.”

“How come you live way out here in the middle of nowhere?” Shaggy asked curiously. “Well, if you must know, I'm on the run,” Tulie answered, causing Snuzzle to become confused. “From what?”

“Vampires!” Tulie said quickly. “Ooh, I hate them, me. And if I ever catch me one, I'm going to grind his bones for stew.”

However, this was enough to get Shaggy a bit nervous. “Maybe we should be going.”

“Stay right there,” Tulie told him, pouring some gumbo into some bowls in front of them. “It’s gumbo time!”

Minty sniffed the air, and the scent made her taste buds water. “Well… I guess we could stay for just a few minutes. At least get some good food in our stomachs.”

Needless to say, the others dove right into the gumbo at this, finding it surprisingly delicious. “Well, I wasn't always a crazy old hermit,” Tulie went on. “I used to be a handsome inventor of fantastical devices.”

“Really?” Blue Belle wiped her mouth. “What'd you invent?”

“Gadgets, whatchamacallits, thingamajigs. Stuff that go ‘buzz, buzz, hoppity-hoppity, hoop’!” Tulie said, adding in the sound effects. “I had me a little shop over there at Petit Chauve Sourie Ville… where I sold things. The most popular item being a hat with two cup holders and a long straw… so you could have two soda pops while you're watching that ball game.”

“Like, wow!” Shaggy chuckled. “You invented the drinky hat?”

“No, but I sold them in the store,” Tulie answered, causing the Dreamlands to shrug at each other. “Ain't nobody ever bought my inventions because, like I said, they mostly just went… bleep, bleep, bloop, bloop, hoop, hoop. But then I created the greatest invention ever; flying shoes!”

That’s when Tulie showed the five of them a very complex set of blueprints. “They're based on the same principle as a hovercraft. But the fans be pointed down to lift you off the ground,” Tulie explained. “Whoo-whoo-whoo! There you go. And I was all set to show them to a big shoe company… when a vampire attacked me and stole the prototypes! Well, I filed me an insurance claim. But it turns out they don't cover vampire attacks. Hoo-hoo.”

“That’s awful,” Shaggy frowned before lifting his bowl. “More please!”

Scooby nodded and did the same. “Me too.”

“Boys!” Snuzzle scolded. “Don’t be rude!”

“No, they’re probably right, cher,” Tulie said in response, a frown on his face as he poured some more gumbo into Shaggy and Scooby's bowls. “I was ruined, y'all! I've been living out here in the swamp ever since. And that is why I hates me them vampires.”

Minty pulled out her phone and took notes, as well as took pictures of the blueprints before asking another question. “Mr. Tulie, how long ago did this happen?”

“I dunno,” Tulie shook his head. “As long as I've been growing these here whiskers. Maybe two, three weeks now.”

The Dreamlands hummed and glanced at each other, finding that strangely convenient… but Tulie didn’t seem to pay their glances any mind. “Oh, well, that's life. You know, sometime you lose everything on account of vampires… sometime you don't. Ha, ha. How y'all like the gumbo?”

“It’s pretty good,” Blue Belle said. “I’ve never had anything like it before.”

“That's because of my special ingredient,” Tulie told them with a proud smile. “Leeches. I likes to put them leeches in the gumbo. Leech gumbo. Yum. That's good, yeah.”

However… this was not the reaction that Shaggy, Scooby and the Dreamlands had. In fact, they looked like they were about to puke, and they ran out the door and the window, landing in a rowboat parked next to the dock. “Bye!” the Dreamlands said as they rowed away. “Thanks for everything!”

“Y'all come back anytime!” Tulie called back as the group vanished from sight.

But leech gumbo aside… now the Dreamlands had a sneaking suspicion that whoever was behind this vampire was also responsible for stealing Tulie’s shoe prototypes.

Now all they had to do was get back to their friends to prove it.

A Rescue Mission Begins

The Dreamlands, Shaggy and Scooby had just met a hermit named Tulie, whose flying shoe prototypes were stolen by a vampire a few weeks prior, and now the Dreamlands had a sneaking suspicion that the vampire and the shoe prototypes being stolen were connected somehow...

...but they were unsure of what to do about it.

All they had to do was get back to their friends and report their findings...

...however long that might take.

XXXXXXXX

Hitch strained as he helped prep Fred's new stake launcher, out of breath and tired already. “Freddy, you know that I'm you're my friend and everything, but... do you mind explaining to me why you got a stake launcher at such a high price if we're not dealing with a real vampire?”

“You never know when you might need one, Hitch,” Fred told the earth pony stallion. “Besides, it looks pretty cool, doesn't it?”

Hitch sighed, shaking his head. “Whatever you say, Freddy boy.”

“Look at this,” Velma then told the others, holding the ancient book of vampire in her lap. “The stolen jewels are part of some sort of vampire wedding ceremony.”

“Yes, the vampire bonding ritual,” Mr. Van Helsing nodded, realizing what Velma was talking about. “According to legend, if the vampire takes the soul of his mortal bride... he'll gain unbridled power.”

“U-Unbridled?” Misty asked with a nervous gulp. “That really doesn't sound good.”

“And based off of what I read,” Velma added, “the ceremony must take place upon the third moon... following the vampire's release from captivity.”

Izzy muttered to herself for a few moments before gasping in realization. “Sweet sauce horseshoe toss! That's tonight!”

“And if Lord Valdronya succeeds,” Sunny said in panic, “he'll be virtually unstoppable!”

“Unstoppable? Not if I can help it,” Fred spoke, lifting his state launcher for everyone to see he was serious about this. “Maybe vampires were tough to catch back in the day, but times have changed. There's a new breed of vampire hunter-- me!”

“Vampire hunting is serious business, Fred,” Mr. Van Helsing told Fred sternly. “You must be prepared for anything.”

“Oh, I’m prepared, all right,” Fred spoke confidently before accidentally firing the launcher, causing a stake to ricochet off the walls and off various other objects before impaling the large, flat-screen TV on the wall. Fred took a deep breath to calm himself after such an experience. “Gotta watch that hair trigger.”

“Hold on, guys… I just realized something,” Velma pointed out. “The vampire has the jewels, but he still needs one thing for the wedding-- a bride.”

“But according to the book,” Sunny said, “it can’t be ANY bride. It needs to be a bride of immortal beauty, and pure of heart.”

“That could take a while to find,” Fred voiced his opinion before Pipp’s phone buzzed, causing her to answer it. “Hey, it’s a text from Daphne,” Pipp said, getting looks from the rest of her friends. “What? I got Daphne’s number when we first met. Anyway, it says… ‘Me and Ruby have been kidnapped by vampire actors. Help!’.”

“Immortal beauty,” Mr. Van Helsing muttered. “Pure of heart…”

Suddenly, the realization hit Fred like a speeding train. “Daphne!”

“Jinkies!” Velma gasped, causing Zipp to growl. “I knew those actors were involved somehow! But… why would they kidnap Daphne if it's the vampire who wants a bride to gain power?”

“According to the book,” said Mr. Van Helsing, “those who offer up the Vampire's bride will be rewarded with immortality.”

“That’s a heck of a finder’s fee,” Hitch shuddered. “But what about Ruby? What's her place in all this?”

“There's not a doubt in my mind that tells me she’ll be the first one to suffer under Lord Valdronya’s power if he steals Daphne’s soul,” Misty said with worry. “We have to help them!”

“You’re right,” Sunny nodded before turning to Velma. “Velma, do you or Mr. Van Helsing have any idea where they would take Daph and Ruby?”

“I saw a star chart in here pointing out the precise coordinates of the ceremony,” Velma answered quickly. “We could make a copy…”

But then, Mr. Van Helsing ripped the page up and put it in his jacket pocket. “Or that,” Izzy said in surprise. “Let’s move out, guys,” Zipp said, determined. “If the wedding takes place, Daphne will become the bride of the vampire, and Ruby will be first on the target list!”

But as the group began to leave the room, Velma found herself talking to no one in particular, personally miffed. “You know, I'm pure of heart. Does anyone ever think of kidnapping me? No.”

“Uh, Velma? Focus!” Pipp said. “Friends of ours are at risk here!”

This caused Velma to smile nervously before following the group out of the room.

XXXXXXXX

The actors had taken Daphne and Ruby to a secluded spot in the bayou and tied them up where they couldn’t escape. And after they were successfully tied, Bram spoke to his colleagues with malicious intent. “Tonight we give Valdronya the king his queen,” he said. “And we shall be rewarded with eternal life as real vampires!”

“All hail Valdronya!” the other actors cheered in unison, just as Daphne and Ruby began to strain in their binds once more. “Relax, Daphne,” Bram said calmly. “It's just your souls that you and your friend there are giving up.”

“Easy for you to say,” Ruby spat. “You obviously never had one.”

“Why did you have to take Ruby prisoner too?” Daphne asked. “She has no part in all this!”

“Easy… we need someone to be your maid of honor,” Bram smirked. “And she will be the first pony of this day and age to go the transformation into a vampire herself! It will go down in history!”

“...not if our friends can get here in time,” Ruby muttered. “I just hope they got your text, Daphne.”

“They got it, I’m sure of it,” Daphne reassured quietly. “We just have to wait.”

XXXXXXXX

Mr. Van Helsing got everyone present at the museum onto a fan boat and set out into the bayou, with Velma using the star chart and the stars above them, several of them making the constellation of a bat, to guide them to the location of the ceremony. “We’re close,” Velma said to the others. “It should be just up ahead.”

“Ugh, I hope so,” Sunny said as she continued to light their path. “It’s getting dark, and using my alicorn magic this much at once is giving me a major headache.”

But as they continued to float down the bayou, Mr. Van Helsing could have swore he heard something in the trees not too far away. “Stop. Did you hear that? In the trees.”

Misty let her ears twitch, but ultimately shook her head. “Sorry, Mr. Van Helsing, I didn’t hear anything.”

Mr. Van Helsing sighed at this. “Must have been my imagination.”

But it was only two seconds later that a pair of hands grabbed Mr. Van Helsing by the ankles and drug him off the side of the boat, causing Zipp and Sunny to grab hold of him. “Hang on!” Zipp cried. “We’ve got you!”

“Save yourselves!” Mr. Van Helsing cried out before he was drug into the marsh, with Fred trying to fire stakes at whatever was dragging him away to stop it. Eventually, a shriek pierced the air, causing Fred to smile. “I got something!”

“Come on!” Hitch encouraged the others, causing Pipp to shudder before she and the others followed Hitch and Fred through the mucky water toward the shore.

But what they expected to find and what they found were two totally different things.

What they actually found was Shaggy, stuck to the tree with the stakes Fred fired, and Scooby and the Dreamlands in the branches with him. “Shaggy?” Fred blinked. “Dreamlands?”

“Ugh… nice shooting, Fred,” Blue Belle said. “And great job scaring us to death!”

“Guys, there you are!” Sunny said in relief. “What are you doing out here?”

“Yeah,” Izzy said. “It’s dangerous out here with Lord Valdronya around!”

“Clearly,” Shaggy rolled his eyes, causing Scooby to nod. “Yeah.”

“The callibration is still off…” Fred muttered before tinkering with the launcher a bit. That’s when Velma began to climb the tree to help Shaggy free from his binds. “Let's get you down from there.”

“Don’t get too close, Velma,” Shaggy warned as Zipp flew up to help. “I've been bitten by a vampire. I could turn bloodsucker any second.”

Velma got a closer look at the injury before sighing and removing the stake. “Shaggy, that’s no bite. It's a splinter.”

As soon as the stake was removed from Shaggy’s shirt, he came crashing to the ground with the Dreamlands leaping down after him. But what Velma said surprised Shaggy entirely. “So I'm not gonna turn into a bloodsucking weirdo?”

“Bloodsucker? No,” Zipp shook her head. “Weirdo? We're too late for that.”

Everyone else climbed down from the tree at that moment, and Sunny, Izzy and Misty hugged the Dreamlands, Shaggy and Scooby in relief. “Are you guys okay?” Sunny asked Minty and Scooby. “What happened out here?”

“It’s a long story,” Minty said, “but we can tell you everything later-- promise.”

At that moment, Fred stopped tinkering with his launcher and got it prepped for firing. “Fire in the hole!”

But instead of just one stake firing, many stakes shot out repeatedly, causing the group to scream and dive for cover to avoid getting impaled. Eventually, the launcher ran out of stakes, causing Fred to sigh in exasperation. “Still off…”

“Maybe it's best if you set that thing to net mode from now on,” Hitch advised gently. “So, you know… we don’t get killed!!”

That’s when Snuzzle realized several members of the group were missing. “Hey… where are Ruby and Daphne? Weren’t they with you guys yesterday?”

“They were, but they’ve been captured by Fangenshanz and taken to a ceremonial ground somewhere in the bayou,” Zipp said. “And,” Pipp said, “we gotta save them before their souls are given to Lord Valdronya! Which, in another circumstance, would be cool, but… now is NOT the time.”

“Wait… Ruby and Daphne are in trouble?!” Scooby barked. “Well, what are we waiting for?” Blue Belle asked. “Lead the way!”

“Come on, everypony!” Sunny exclaimed, shifting into her alicorn form. “Time to formulate a plan and stop Lord Valdronya once and for all!”

The Rescue and Lord Valdronya's Defeat

Nearly all of our heroes had been reunited in the bayou, shortly after Mr. Van Helsing was drug away into the marsh. Now, with nearly all of them together, there was one thing that they had to do-- save Ruby and Daphne before the wedding could advance.

And luckily, Fred and the Mane 6 were already formulating a plan in their minds.

XXXXXXXX

At the ceremonial wedding grounds, torches were being lit as the time for the wedding drew closer and closer, much to Ruby's fear and worry. “The appointed hour is near, my friends. And soon our efforts will be repaid with immortality,” Bram told the other actors before placing the necklace of the vampire queen around Daphne’s neck. “A jewel for a jewel.”

Daphne groaned in irritation and anger. “You’re such the charmer.”

“Yeah… just peachy!” Ruby said as the ropes around her wings were being tightened. That’s when the female member of Fangenshanz put the jeweled crown on Daphne’s head. “You’re so lucky to be chosen.”

“I'm sure you'll find an evil vampire king of your own one day,” Daphne said sarcastically. But not even two seconds later, Bram climbed down the stairs with a confident smile. “Let the wedding ceremony begin!”

Ruby gasped in terror as the actors began to vocalize and bow to Lord Valdronya, who Bram was sure would soon answer their call by the time the song was done.

Fangenshanz: Ah, ah, ah, ah
Ah, ah, ah, ah

Dearly beloved
We're gathered today
To praise the one called Daphne
And give her away

Linked and joined forever
She'll be by your side
Valdronya, we present you
Your vampire bride!

As Daphne and Ruby struggled in their binds, they had no idea that their friends were watching the scene, and Misty was the first to speak up, worried for their friends. “Looks like we're in time for the wedding.”

Scooby looked confused at this. “Wedding?”

“I wish someone had told us,” Shaggy said. “We don't even have a gift.”

“I’ve got a gift,” Fred lifted the launcher up. “Right here.”

“Huh?” Izzy and Scooby exchanged glances while Shaggy shrugged. “I don’t get it.”

“He means,” said Velma, “we’re going to stop the wedding from happening.”

“Yeah, but Fred’s way kinda sounded cooler,” Pipp spoke up with a shrug. “Okay, guys, you know what to do,” Zipp said to her friends with a confident smile on her face. “Operation: ‘Stop the Wedding’ is a go!”

XXXXXXXX

At the same time, Fangenshanz continued their call for Lord Valdronya, the haunting melody echoing throughout the marsh.

Fangenshanz: Hear us now, Valdronya
And come to our side
The time has come for claiming
Your vampire bride

Ah, ah, ah, ah
Ah, ah, ah, ah

Suddenly, the water before them began to bubble, and green mist soon emerged from the water, causing Bram to realize that the call had worked like a charm. “Behold-- the king has heard our call!”

The other vampire actors murmured in excitement, hoping and praying for immortality before Lord Valdronya rose from the water in front of them, menacing and terrifying all at once. “Bow down before your king!”

Of course, the members of Fangenshanz did as told immediately, and even Ruby, in her fear, bowed for mercy, causing Daphne to shock at how real this all seemed. At the same time, Lord Valdronya smirked. “Excellent work, my little vampire-lings.”

Then, Lord Valdronya released his eerie green mist toward the actors, singing his own verse as they began to nod off to sleep.

Lord Valdronya: Close your eyes and come to me
When you wake, then you shall be
Alive for all eternity
With me…

Soon, all the actors had passed out unconscious, and Lord Valdronya approached Daphne, causing Ruby and Daphne to once again struggle in their binds.

Lord Valdronya: Dark of the moon and beauty so bright
Spirits arise and call to the night
From Earth to the stars
And all that's between
Beware and behold the vampire queen!

Ruby strained and tried to get to Daphne, but the ropes holding her were far too tight, and before she knew it, Lord Valdronya had gotten much closer. “Immortal beauty,” he said, cupping Daphne’s face and exposing her to the mist. “Your queen…” Daphne sighed before falling unconscious. “Daphne! NO!!” Ruby cried before her fear turned to anger. “You monster! Let her go right now!”

“Hush now, my little pegasus pony,” Lord Valdronya said gently, but errily. “It will all be over soon.”

Ruby whimpered as Lord Valdronya got even closer to her, but before she could try anything…

“HOLD IT!!”

A bright flash caught the vampire offguard, and he swiftly turned to see Pipp, Shaggy, Izzy and Misty standing behind him, each of them holding a newspaper camera or a phone camera. “Hi,” Shaggy greeted calmly. “Uh, mind if we get a picture of the happy couple?”

“Or two, or 50?” Izzy asked. “There’s really no preferred amount for your big day!”

Lord Valdronya let out another roar, causing Pipp to turn her flash on extra bright to disorient him. “That one’s for the memory book!” she cried before turning to her friends. “RUN!!”

“No need to tell us twice!” Misty shrieked before running after her friends, with Lord Valdronya hot on their tails. They ran through the trees and through the bayou as fast as they could, dodging Lord Valdronya's fire balls along the way. Then, halfway through their run, Scooby and the Dreamlands arrived on the boat and came to their rescue, giving them a much better chance to escape the vampire king's clutches.

XXXXXXXX

And as soon as the others had led Lord Valdronya away, Sunny, Hitch, Zipp and Velma quickly approached Ruby and Daphne to check on them. “Are you girls okay?” Hitch asked as Zipp began to untie Ruby, and Daphne slowly began to awaken. “Ha, ha. Velma, you came to my wedding,” she said, clearly still dazed as she watched Velma wipe her watery eyes. “Oh, don't cry, Velma. You won't always be a bridesmaid.”

“I’m not crying,” Velma informed. “Valdronya's using gas to hypnotize everyone.”

“Whatever you’ve gotta tell yourself,” Daphne said dileriously as Zipp began to fan the fog away, just as soon as Ruby got the ropes off her wings. “Thanks, guys,” Ruby smiled before it immediately faded, relief being replaced by embarrassment. “I guess my plan to save Daphne kinda went awry.”

“It’s not your fault,” Sunny said to the pop star pegasus gently. “We should have come with you to ensure the maximum amount of protection.”

“Speaking of protection,” said Zipp, “we gotta get Daphne untied pronto, and then deal with Valdronya once and for all!”

XXXXXXXX

“Okay, I finally admit it now!” Snuzzle said as Scooby did his best to pilot the boat away from Valdronya, who was still hot on their tails. “He is one VERY unhappy groom!”

“Gee, ya think?!” Blue Belle asked sarcastically and out of fear. Lord Valdronya fired another fire ball, but this one hit a tree, and not the group (thank goodness). Back on shore, Fred was getting the launcher ready to go, successfully finding and aiming at Lord Valdronya. But as he was about to fire, the whole thing shut down. “Come on. I must have gotten water in the compressor…” he muttered before calling out to the others. “Keep him busy while I fix this thing!”

“We've got it covered, Fred! Do what you have to do!” Misty shouted as she and Izzy tried to fire magic blasts at Valdronya, but they kept missing every time. But as they sailed along, Scooby screamed upon noticing something ahead, and Izzy immediately realized what it was. “It’s a dead end!”

Truth be told, she was right-- a huge tree was in front of them, cutting them off from any escape. Thinking fast, Scooby was able to make the fan boat sail up the tree and down the branches, turning around… but Minty fell out of the boat and fell into the water with a huge splash, causing the others to gasp. “MINTY!!!”

“HELP!!” Minty cried as she tried to paddle back to them. “The water… it’s too deep!”

“We have to find a way to get to her!” Misty cried. “But earth pony powers don’t work on boats!”

“Come on, guys, think!” Blue Belle cried. “There has to be a--”

“Hang on, Minty!” Snuzzle said all of a sudden. “I’m coming!”

Then, to the shock of the others, Snuzzle dove right into the water, facing her fear of the water entirely, and swam over to Minty, helping her keep her head up above the water.

Minty was stunned at this act of bravery. “Snuzzle? Y-You saved me! But… you’re terrified of water!”

“...well… I was more terrified of losing you,” Snuzzle admitted. “I had to at least try.”

“Snuzzle, you and Blue Belle get Minty to shore!” Pipp shouted as Blue Belle leapt into the water with the other Dreamlands. “We’ll take care of Valdronya… or at least, attempt to take care of him!”

Snuzzle and Blue Belle nodded to this, and swam with Minty over to the shoreline. But no sooner than they did this, Misty let out another shriek. “But we’re still trapped! In more ways than one!”

Lord Valdronya was coming at them fast, cackling as he let fireballs envelope his hands. The unicorns and Pipp easily took fighting positions to see if they could drive him off, but they only managed to deflect the fireballs, not get rid of them entirely.

But as Lord Valdronya was about to throw more fireballs in their direction, Daphne threw the amulet at Lord Valdronya's face. “Here’s your stupid amulet!” she shouted, causing Zipp to smile, impressed. “Nice shot, Daph! I gotta admit, that was pretty impressive.”

“Hyah!” Velma shouted as she tossed the tiara, hitting Lord Valdronya straight in the chin. “Actually, Velma,” Daphne frowned, “I kinda wanted to keep that.”

“...sorry…” Velma apologized bashfully. However, Lord Valdronya wasn’t done with his schemes just yet. “I'll make you all my vampire servants!”

The green hypnotic gas was released again, causing the group to cough and try and fan the gas away before they got infected. After a moment of coughing, Shaggy was able to push the lever on the fan boat, causing the fan to blow the fog away… as well as blow away some of Lord Valdronya’s garments, revealing that whoever Lord Valdronya really was HAD stolen Tulie’s flying boot prototypes!

Upon realizing what had happened, Lord Valdronya attempted to make a break for it, but Fred was fully anticipated for such a reaction. “I'd say you're looking at a net loss.”

“Blue Belle, Snuzzle! NOW!!” Minty shouted to the Dreamlands, and they used their earth pony powers to create a huge, vine-made net that shot toward Valdronya, trapping him as Fred adjusted the settings on the launcher again. “I think I'll raise the stakes!”

Several stakes shot out of the launcher, trapping Lord Valdronya against the side of the tree, weakened by the fight.

And upon seeing this sight, there was one thing our heroes knew for certain…

…Lord Valdronya was finally defeated, and the mystery was nearly over.

The Unmasking of Lord Valdronya/A Musical Finale

It was finally over.

Lord Valdronya had finally been captured and defeated in one go, and Ruby and Daphne were finally safe from the clutches of him and the Fangenshanz members.

And upon realizing this, the group burst into cheers and hugs of excitement, not believing that it was FINALLY over, after so many days of investigating and running for their lives.

Ruby sighed in relief. “I’ve never been so happy to say that I’m glad this mystery is finally over!”

“Tell us about it,” Snuzzle said. “I never thought that I’d conquer my fear of water, but… I guess I had to do it, in order to save Minty.”

“Hey, we have to stick together, remember?” Minty said. “We’re forever friends, making our mark.”

On the other hand, Daphne approached Lord Valdronya and began to take off the top part of his mask to begin the reveal. “Let's see who's under that mask.”

When the mask was pulled off, a second mask was revealed underneath… sort of similar to a gas mask. “Like I've been saying all along,” Velma said as she approached, “there's no such thing as real vampires. Right… Mr. Van Helsing?”

And as she pulled the mask off, it was revealed to be Vincent Van Helsing underneath the mask, much to the shock of the others. “VAN HELSING?!”

Misty was the most stunned at this. “But… why? I thought he was our friend!”

“He was, but he was also trying to save Petit Chauve Souris Ville by staging a series of real live vampire events,” Velma explained. “Events tied to his latest book, The Bride of the Vampire… which I actually read. It's not bad.”

Mr. Van Helsing, although upside-down, looked at her in surprise. “You really liked it?”

“She said it’s not bad,” Zipp said with a narrowed gaze. “Don’t push it.”

“So by creating a real vampire legend,” realized Pipp, “he’d get tourists year round!”

“And sell books,” Fred added. “It’s true,” Mr. Van Helsing admitted with a sigh. “I wanted to put the Van Helsing name back on the map. I thought once word spread of the ceremony… tourists would flock here to see the place where a real live vampire wedding ritual had happened. Then I would no longer need Lita Rutland… and her schlocky Vampire-Palooza to make ends meet.”

“But what about the actors?” Hitch remained confused. “What was their part in all this madness?”

“Merely pawns in his game,” Velma said as the actors began to gain consciousness. “They were so devoted to the vampire way of life, they were easily duped. When Valdronya first appeared, they really thought their ritual had conjured him up. Van Helsing used their intense belief in vampires against them.”

“But Van Helsing was in the audience when Valdronya materialized in the theater,” Fred pointed out. “He used a laser projector for that,” Ruby added. “And I’d wager that he planted similar projectors in the museum, so it would give the illusion that Valdronya was still in that coffin.”

“Security cameras rewired for special effects would explain a lot,” Velma added, “including why there was no surveillance footage of Valdronya's supposed escape. When Daphne tore off a piece of modern fabric from Valdronya's cloak… Mr. Van Helsing must've feared the threads of his plot were unraveling… so to speak. Looking at it now… I suspect he passed off ancient fabric from his museum as a cover-up.”

“But, we all saw him get drug away by those freaky-deaky hands,” Izzy pointed out. “How did that happen?”

Velma had the answer for that too. “He staged his own demise in the swamp using this.”

With the simple stomp of her foot, two hands appeared from the tall grass and grabbed her shoulders, causing Shaggy and Scooby to shriek in terror. “VAMPIRES!!!”

“No,” Velma said as she moved the grass to reveal a device composed of train-like tracks and other mechanisms. “A simple mechanical device he planted in the marsh.”

“Probably a prop from the theater,” Daphne realized, and Fred immediately caught on. “So when he was kicking and flailing…”

“He was actually triggering it!” Sunny realized. “Kind of ingenius if you ask me.”

“But, like, how did he hypnotize everyone?” Shaggy asked, and that’s when Fred revealed the gas dispensers on Mr. Van Helsing’s wrists. “Knockout gas,” he clarified with a smile. “No one knew what hit ‘em. But when they awoke, they remembered seeing Valdronya… and thought he'd mesmerized them.”

Within a few minutes, the sheriff and many other officers were called to the scene, where they placed Mr. Van Helsing and Fangenshanz under arrest for their crimes over the past few days. “By gassing everyone at the wedding,” Fred continued, “he'd slip away… but leave eyewitnesses like Ruby Jubilee to tell the tale of Valdronya and his bride.”

“The actors already lived like vampires,” Velma added on, “so they could just go on like that thinking they were actually immortal.”

“Wow,” Minty commented. “You guys really thought of everything.”

“It’s what the gang does best,” Sunny smiled. “Just like we all have our unique talents that make us special.”

But as he was being led away by the officers, Bram stopped to talk to Daphne and Ruby personally. “Daphne, I… I'm sorry for putting you and Ruby through all this.”

“...you WERE being pawns in Van Helsing’s scheme, so… it wasn’t ENTIRELY your fault,” Ruby said, trying to be comforting. “So… I forgive you. What about you, Daph?”

“Well,” Daphne said with a smile, “it's not every day a girl is kidnapped to be an ancient Vampire's bride. In a strange way, I'm flattered.”

“Really?” Bram asked with a smile. “Maybe after I get out of prison, we could grab a coffee and…”

However, Daphne was quick to reject the offer. “Not on your life, bat boy. I don't date actors.”

“Move along, fella,” said the officer with Bram, and Bram continued walking toward the police van. “Like, there's one thing about this whole plan I don't get,” Shaggy said, causing Sunny to look at him, confused. “What’s that, Shaggy?”

“Why’d Van Helsing need us?”

The ponies tried to come up with an answer to such a claim, but even they were clueless as to what the answer could have been. “You were my credible witnesses,” Van Helsing clarified. “It's one thing to have a bunch of weirdo vampire-reenactment nuts spreading my tale. Quite another when the story is recounted by respected monster hunters such as yourselves.”

“...we’re respected?” Shaggy questioned, leaving Pipp to elbow him slightly with her wing.

“My family's legacy would have been restored,” Mr. Van Helsing continued. “Not to mention,” said Blue Belle, “you would have sold books.”

“Oh, yeah,” Izzy nodded. “That too.”

“Wow, like, that is one elaborate plan,” Shaggy said, just as Mr. Van Helsing let out another sigh. “And I would have gotten away with it, if not for you meddling…”

“Let’s go, Van Helsing,” said the sheriff before leading him away. But no sooner did this happen that the portal to Equestria opened back up. “Aw, man! Do you guys have to leave so soon?” Shaggy asked. “We were gonna head to Miami next!”

“I wish we could stay, but we have a show to get back to at Bridlewoodstock that we can’t miss,” Ruby said. “Thank you guys for such an incredible adventure. We’ll never forget it.”

“Just like we’ll never forget you,” Minty agreed, and the group exchanged warm farewells with their friends before they galloped into the portal before it closed. And after it closed, Fred turned back toward the rest of the gang. “Well, gang, it looks like another mystery is solved.”

And upon picking up Van Helsing’s mask, a reprise of the song they sang earlier began to play as the criminals were shipped away.

Fred: I don’t want no more ghouls
Or nothing scary

Daphne: No vampire creatures giving me a fright

Velma: No ghosts that rattle chains

Shaggy: Or things that eat your brains

Fred: Or monsters that go
Flying through the night

Velma: We’re going on vacation

Daphne: And heading somewhere new

Scooby: Rest and relaxation

Mystery Inc: Is all we're gonna do
Want no more actors or kooks

Velma: Van Helsing's scheme is done
With all his vampire spooks

Shaggy: And now, it’s time to run!

Daphne: We're gonna be cool as cukes
Our monster days are through

Velma and Daphne: No demonic beasts

Fred and Shaggy: And nothin’ deceased

Mystery Inc: It's time to relax
And that's what we're gonna do!

Doo doo doo doo doo doo
Scooby doop doop doop doop doop doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo
Scooby doop doop doo doo

And just like that, during the impromptu scatting break, the Mystery Machine set off down the road, looking for a new vacation spot… and potentially, a new mystery to solve.

XXXXXXXX

At the same time, the Mane 6, Ruby Jubilee and the Dreamlands arrived back in Equestria, with Sunny sighing in relief. “It sure is good to be home.”

“I’ll say it is,” Hitch agreed as he cuddled with Sparky. “Solving mysteries is fun and everything, but there can be times where things can get a little… hectic.”

“I’m just glad we’re gonna be performing in a little bit,” Snuzzle said, “just like we were meant to.”

“Really?” Zipp looked surprised. “What happened to wanting to be heroes like us?”

“Well… we actually did some thinking,” Ruby said. “You guys protect Equestria in your own way, but we can help in our own way too. By using our music to keep everypony’s spirits up.”

“Yeah,” Blue Belle nodded. “So in a way, we can be heroes too!”

“That’s great!” Misty smiled. “We’re so happy to hear you say that.”

Pipp then checked the time with an excited smile. “Girls, we go onstage in 20 minutes! Is everypony ready for the best Bridlewoodstock opening performance ever?”

“With the adventure we’ve just been on?” Minty asked with a smile. “You know we are!”

And that's exactly what it was-- the best opening performance Bridlewoodstock had ever had. The song "Hooves Together" was just as memorable, and the Dreamlands and Ruby couldn't think of a better way to welcome themselves home than performing as one big musical family.

Another mystery was solved, and another Unity Quest completed. But don't worry... more missions are still to come, and they could be just as wild as this one was... maybe even more.

But that won't matter, for our heroes know that as long as they have each other, they can work together and solve any problem that comes their way.

Author's Note

Sorry if this felt a little rushed, guys... I've been working on this story for a while now, and I guess I just wanted to get it over with so I could get the rest of the season underway.

See you in the next story, everypony!