G5 Adventures in Scooby-Doo! Music of the Vampire

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.”