G5 Adventures in Scooby-Doo! Music of the Vampire

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.