G5 Adventures in Scooby-Doo! in Where's My Mummy?

After our two groups of heroes reunited into one again, Fred began to tell them of a plan to get the necklace back, defeat the army of the undead, save Velma and Omar from their stony fate and solve this mystery once and for all.

But they needed all the help they could get.

Luckily, Sarona and her mother and aunts were willing to get their paws dirty and help however they could, since Taraji, Ovelia and Raheema owed Shaggy, Scooby, Pipp and the unicorns everything for saving Sarona's life during the encounter with the sand spirit.

Now that it was nighttime and it was much cooler now than during the day, it was the perfect time for their plan to be put into action.

But the question is... will it work the way Fred hoped that it would?

XXXXXXXX

It was only a half an hour long ride/gallop over from the Lost CIty of the Ancients to where the Sphinx was, so in no time, our heroes arrived and Fred turned to the others to ensure they knew the plan by heart. “Okay, gang, we're all set. Daphne, you and the others know what to do?”

“Yep,” Daphne nodded, looking over at Taraji, her sisters, Hazina and her friends waiting behind her. “We’re gonna head back to the Lost City of the Ancients to get some backup while you, the ponies, Shaggy, Scooby and Sarona do your part.”

“Right,” Fred nodded. “Ponies, Sarona, Scooby and Shaggy, you guys follow me, and stay close-- we don’t know what we’re gonna find down there, and we won’t have the ponies’ magic to protect us.”

“Scooby-Dooby-Dooooo!!” Scooby howled happily before racing down the stairs into the tomb. “Scooby, wait for me!” Sarona called after her friend and ran down the stairs after him. “Sarona, Scooby, wait!” Fred called. “I said follow me!”

“Don’t worry, Fred,” Izzy reassured fearfully. “The rest of us will be hiding right behind you the whole time.”

“Please, take good care of Sarona,” Taraji pleaded with the Mane 6. “I know she’s tough, but… she’s still just a cub.”

“Of course we’ll take care of her,” Sunny promised before taking a deep breath and turning to her friends. “All right, guys… we’re going in.”

XXXXXXXX

The Mane 6, Fred, Shaggy, Scooby and Sarona slowly navigated the dark hallways of Cleopatra’s tomb, with Scooby’s nose and the ponies’ flashlights doing only so much to guide them.

Sarona spent the most time with Scooby at the front of the group, wanting to help him find a way to break the curse and bring Velma and Omar back.

But as they traversed through the tomb, side by side, Sarona and Scooby stopped when they saw a stone statue of Rock Rivers (or more or less, the real Rock Rivers) in front of them, causing them to scream out of fright and retreat back to their friends. “It’s Rock Rivers!” Fred exclaimed in realization. “The curse has claimed another victim!”

“I’ll say!” Hitch said after approaching and tapping on Rock River’s stone body with his hoof. “Rock Rivers is solid… rock!”

“The curse is spreading really fast now,” Zipp muttered to herself. “We gotta solve this mystery, and fast!”

“Hold on a sec, guys. Listen!” Misty said, lifting her ear to hear the sound of footsteps coming from the next hallway over. “It sounds like those footsteps are coming through there!”

“It must be the undead army!” Sunny realized with wide eyes of fear. “They’re close by!”

“Oooh, not again!” Shaggy shuddered. “Like, for once in my life, I don't want my mummy!”

“Just keep quiet and let’s keep moving,” Zipp said, pushing Shaggy forward with her front hooves. “We don’t wanna give ourselves away, otherwise we may never see Velma and Omar as their regular selves again!”

It was at long last they finally reached a larger, more spacious part of the tomb, where a giant boat lay in waiting in front of a large lake, with giant human shaped statues holding up the earth above them and crocodiles in the water. “This definitely is picture-worthy,” Pipp muttered, taking a picture of the large space. “I might need to do an archeology segment of my vlogs when we get back to Equestria.”

“Come on,” Sarona whispered, and began guiding her friends down the stairs as quietly as they could. However, the sound of footsteps caused Misty to pull her back before she turned to her friends. “Keep out of sight!”

Shaggy and Scooby immediately ducked down at this, just as they saw a few of the undead soldiers marching through the large space, keeping a captive Amelia, Natasha and Campbell close by.

And needless to say, Amelia was not very happy about the circumstance. “Let me go!”

“They’ve got Dr. von Butch!” Shaggy gasped quietly. “And her gruesome twosome!”

“And,” Zipp said as she pulled out her visor to get a closer look, “she’s wearing the ankh necklace!”

“Dirty thief, taking it from under your noses…” Izzy grumbled. “But now what do we do?”

“I’d say it’s time for phase 2,” Hitch said with a stern look, but this caused Shaggy to look at Scooby before turning back to the earth pony stallion. “Uh, tell us again about phase 2?”

“Izzy knows this phase by heart, and so does Pipp-- they’ll guide you, Scooby and Sarona right through it,” Sunny said. “But, Misty? Go with them, just in case something goes wrong.”

Misty nodded, ready to take on the responsibility and ensure that her friends got through this part of the plan without a scratch... if was even possible.

XXXXXXXX

Within just a few minutes, Sarona, Scooby, Shaggy and their three pony companions were wrapped in toilet paper from head to hoof and wearing fancy Egyptian armor, dressed as mummies so they could sneak past the undead army and into the big gathering happening not too far away.

Some of Izzy and Pipp's best work, if they had to say so.

After getting themselves together, they stepped out into the open, groaning like mummies as they approached two guards, who Shaggy smiled at, trying to sound casual. “Hey, man. Like, we're here for the big Cleopatra party.”

“Yeah,” Scooby nodded enthusiastically. “Cleopatra.”

The undead warriors seemed to stare suspiciously at the group for a few moments before relenting, finally standing aside to let them inside. “Thank you, Mr. Undead Warrior, sir!” Sarona said cheerfully. “We owe you one in the afterlife!”

And with that, the group began to groan like mummies again and head inside, walking over the water where the crocodiles were lurking. But as they walked over the bridge, a piece of the toilet paper Scooby was wrapped in got caught on a large stone, revealing his tail to the guards, who had glanced behind them upon realizing something didn't feel right. “Uh, guys?!” Misty looked behind the group nervously. “I think the jig might be up!”

Sarona and Scooby each let out a scream as they saw the guards bolting toward them, causing the group to immediately bolt as Shaggy chuckled nervously. “Well, so much for monster-piece theater, Pipp!”

“Yeah, yeah, I get that!” Pipp snapped. “Just move your hooves so we don’t end up undead like those creeps!”

The group proceeded to run through the dark areas of the tomb before Shaggy pointed up to a high tower where they could hide and lose the soldiers. Fortunately for them, this worked, except for the fact that Scooby tumbled right into the group, causing most of them to lose their mummy disguises after they got done tumbling.

Shaggy soon removed his mummy wraps before letting out a sigh and sitting down. “Phew. That was a close one.”

But after sitting down for a few moments, Shaggy realized that his bottom was wet, causing him to sit up and see the sticky, goopy gray stuff all over the bottom of his pants. “Like, what's up with the soggy seating arrangements?”

“Huh… these look like bags of cement!” Sarona said as she looked at one of the bags next to Shaggy before feeling where Shaggy had set down. “And this batch of cement is still wet!”

Misty hummed in thought, tilting her head to the side. “I wonder what they’re doing down here.”

“Looks like they’ve been making something with these molds,” Izzy said, pointing to some molds nearby. “But why?”

“Uh… guys?” Pipp looked down from the nearby balcony. “I think you might wanna see this.”

Curious, the group followed Pipp out onto the balcony, where they were able to get a clear view of everything about to occur down below. “Holy cow, guys!” Sarona gasped, her eyes wide. “We made it!”

“Now,” said Shaggy with a smile, “all we gotta do is sit tight and wait for Fred to give us the signal.”

“Shaggy, guys!” Scooby pointed to the undead warriors down below, still forcing Amelia, Campbell and Natasha forward. “Look!”

After a moment, the undead warriors stopped the treasure hunters in their tracks before a giant staircase, and they all began to bow as a flume of purple mist swirled around at the top, revealing the ghost of Cleopatra in her glory, which caused Sarona to gasp in fear and hug onto Scooby, not wanting to see how this ended...

...even though the treasure hunters did kinda deserve a fair punishment for all they had done.

At the same time, the ghost of Cleopatra did not seem pleased with the fact that the treasure hunters were here. “Who dares disturb the tomb of the great Cleopatra?”

“In the name of Isis, goddess of Egypt,” Amelia got down on one knee and bowed, her hands tied behind her back, “be merciful to us, oh queen of the Nile!”

Campbell nodded nervously to this, doing the same thing as Amelia. “Yeah.”

“What she said,” Natasha added and bowed as well. However, the leader of the undead warriors coaxed his fellow warriors to put Campbell and Natasha in seperate sarcophaguses before the ghost of Cleopatra used some sort of ancient magic on the sarcophaguses, turning the victims inside into solid stone statues.

Pipp gasped in fear when she saw this, covering her eyes with her hooves. “Tell me when it’s over!”

At the same time, the ghost of Cleopatra looked down at Amelia, her expression unreadable underneath the mask she was wearing. “Your greed has brought you far and through many dangers to look upon my golden beauty. Now you shall receive what you came for!”

And with that, the golden mask broke away from her face, revealing Cleopatra’s ghost as a mummified queen with glowing white eyes and decaying teeth, hissing in anger. “No!” Amelia exclaimed and quickly tried to make a break for it, but the undead warriors blocked her path and held Amelia rather tight. “It can't end like this for me. If you let me go, I-I-I promise, I'll stop treasure hunting forever. I'll open an orphanage. I'll save the rainforest! I'll recycle!!!”

However, the ghost of Cleopatra approached and held up Amelia’s chin, looking dead at her and causing Amelia's stomach to sink. “It is too late for that now.”

Two more undead warriors were bringing forward another sarcophagus, just like the ones before, and suddenly, the other ponies, Shaggy and Scooby were filled with the same dread and horror as Pipp and Sarona were feeling, with Shaggy covering his eyes as well. “Oh! It's too horrible, Scoob. I can't bear to watch it anymore!”

Scooby nodded in agreement and immediately covered his eyes with his front paws. “Me too!”

Misty was about to do the same when she caught sight of Fred and Sunny across the nearby lake, trying to get their attention, which caused her to gasp. “Sunny and Freddy!”

“Huh?” Izzy looked up and saw that Misty was right, just before Fred began to make a series of movements that looked like a slashing rope and rowing oars, making Izzy blink in confusion. “Uh… what is he trying to say?”

“Okay, okay,” Pipp said, trying to read the movements. “It’s either Fred trying to say that he and Sunny have taken up some sort of ancient aerobics… or that’s the signal! Hit it, Scoob!”

Scooby immediately removed his mummy disguise before tossing the wraps like a lasso over a nearby rock, and after making sure it was secure, the others grabbed on, and the Great Dane swung them off of the balcony over to the large gong that hung nearby, Shaggy and Scooby each giving their own unique battle cries.

“Scooby-Dooby-Doooooo!!!”

“And, like, Shaggy too!!!”

The gong sounded immediately upon impact, and luckily for our heroes, they were able to land on their feet without much of a scratch. Well... all except Izzy, Shaggy and Scooby, who landed on their faces just the same.

Amelia and the ghost of Cleopatra spared glances at one another, wondering what that was all about, but little did they know that another army was going to be on their way within a matter of moments.

On the other side of the lake, Fred cut the ropes holding the giant boat in place with a sword, and once it got to moving, Sunny helped Fred onto the boat as it slid off its ramp and into the lake, with several citizens from the Lost City of the Ancients helping to row it.

Tofauti giggled and waved to Sunny and Fred from where Ulaghai was playing the drum to keep the rhythm. “Hey, guys! Took you long enough.”

“We got nearly all the citizens to help us in the fight!” Hazina said as she and Trail Grazer helped row the large boat across the wide lake. “And Zipp, Hitch and the other lionesses are getting our version of Cleopatra ready for her performance!”

“Great work, everypony!” Sunny congratulated. “Let’s just hope the real Cleopatra thinks our act is convincing enough to surrender over.”

“She’s ready!” Ovelia shouted to the others, and she, Taraji, Raheema, Sparky, Hitch and Zipp bowed before Daphne, who was dressed as Cleopatra herself, just before Daphne cleared her throat and stood up, walking to the front of the boat. “Behold. I am the great and powerful Cleopatra. All shall bow down before me!”

The ghost of Cleopatra growled in anger, all while Amelia von Butch raised an eyebrow when she saw this. “Two Cleopatras?”

The boat then rose up onto the landing on the other side of the lake, prompting several of the undead soldiers to move aside to prevent getting crushed. Then, once they were close enough, Anga and Kushinda kicked down several planks to let their own army off the boat and onto the land.

And after striking down a soldier of her own, Zipp offered her back to Fred with a smirk. “Feel like saving the day, Fred?”

“Always,” Zipp said before climbing onto her back, just before the two let out their own battle cry. “CHAAAAARGE!!!”

“FOR MILELE!!!” Taraji, Raheem and Ovelia roared before they all rushed into battle with the undead soldiers. But before the undead warriors could even move, Sparky activated a giant magnet to pull their weapons away, making them vulnerable to the attack.

XXXXXXXX

However, while the others were busy with the fight, no one was guarding Daphne, prompting several of the undead soldiers to climb aboard the ship, grab Daphne and bring her before Cleopatra, which Fred saw as he and Zipp did their best to fight off the soldiers. “Daphne!”

“They’ve got Daphne!” Sarona cried as she looked toward her small group of friends. “Come on, guys!”

“FOR EQUESTRIA!!!” Izzy hollered at the top of her lungs just before they charged off to protect their friend.

XXXXXXXX

Daphne was brought right before Cleopatra's ghost, who roared right in her face to scare Daphne, only for Daphne to smile sympathetically. “Oh! You poor girl. Two thousand years hasn't done a thing for your complexion,” she said before pulling out some blush and covering Cleopatra’s face with it, creating a small cloud to obsure Cleopatra's vision. “Here, try a little blush.”

“Don’t worry, Daph!” Pipp said as she and the others raced over. “We’ll take it from here!”

That was when Shaggy and Scooby, along with Pipp and Sarona, dragged Cleopatra's ghost into a full-on beauty treatment, including an avocado mask, cucumbers over her eyes, and a giant heat lamp, which Misty turned onto full power. However, this only seemed to make Cleopatra's ghost madder, causing Sarona, Shaggy and Scooby to run while Pipp, Izzy and Misty tried their best to protect Daphne.

However, on their way up the stairs, two of the undead soldiers tripped Sarona and the boys up before rolling them up into a carpet, which they rolled down toward some citizens of the Lost City. “Look out!” Shaggy shouted. “We’re on a roll!”

The carpet did crash into the citizens, but thankfully, they were all right. And as the carpet they were stuck in unrolled, Sarona and the boys were stunned to discover it was rising off the ground and into the air. “Holy smokes!” Zipp cried from the ground, her eyes wide with amazement. “Sarona, Shaggy and Scooby found a flying carpet!”

“Atta boy, Scoob!” Sarona squealed before they dove right toward the soldiers below. “CHAAAAARGE!!!”

The flying carpet slammed right into the undead soldiers, knocking them down and allowing Sarona's mother and aunts to quickly get the upper hand and pin a few of the soldiers to the ground.

Unfortunately, the flying carpet began to spin out of control after going through a crowd of soldiers, knocking straight into the ghost of Cleopatra and another warrior holding an axe, and the axe was flung up into the air... just before Amelia von Butch used the opportunity to use the axe to cut her hands free, fight off some soldiers herself and make a break for the tomb.

Sarona, Shaggy, Scooby and the ghost of Cleopatra hung on for dear life just before the flying carpet was ripped into two halves, with the leader of the undead army catching the ghost of Cleopatra before the flying carpet, stopped... well, flying. “Mayday! Mayday!” Shaggy shouted in panic. “Oh-ho-ho… we’re going down!”

Misty gasped as soon as she saw her friends begin to fall toward the ground without any sign of stopping. “Sunny, we gotta catch them!”

“Already on it!” Sunny said before she, Izzy and Misty jumped into the air, successfully catching their friends before they hit the ground. “Phew… thanks, Sunny,” Sarona said with a smile of relief. “That was too close.”

“Guys!” Hitch shouted as he and the others came forward. “Anga told us that she spotted Amelia von Butch heading into the last part of Cleopatra’s tomb! If we don’t go after her, she could get the crown and escape!”

“But what about the undead army?” Daphne asked. “We can’t just leave the citizens to fight them off themselves!”

“Don’t worry about us, guys!” Hazina shouted to her friends, kicking an undead warrior away. “Go save the crown! We’ll take care of the undead army while you’re gone!”

And ensuring their friends would be fine while they were gone, the Mane 6, Sarona and the rest of Mystery Inc bolted toward the last part of the tomb, hoping to stop Amelia and save the crown before it was too late.

XXXXXXXX

Amelia was so close to Cleopatra’s crown now, she could practically taste it.

Well… if you COULD taste a crown, anyway.

All she had to do was search for signs to confirm her theories.

At last, Amelia came to a large room with hieroglyphics all over the walls, along with a golden sarcophagus at the top of a flight of stairs.

On the floor was another set of hieroglyphics, which Amelia had to kneel down to in order to read. “Here lies Cleopatra, last of the Pharaohs, protector of the lost riches of ancient Egypt!”

Amelia quickly pulled the sarcophagus open to reveal a third Cleopatra mummy, this one with a slot where the ankh necklace should go in order to open the tomb’s most sacred chamber. “A third Cleopatra,” Amelia smirked, ripping the necklace off of her neck. “Let's hope three's a charm.”

Then, taking a deep breath, Amelia placed the ankh necklace into the slot, which prompted the mummy's eyes to open, and the mummy's eyes were filled with a soft white light. As Amelia stepped down from the stairs, a golden light began to fill the hieroglyphics on the walls, prompting Amelia to shield her eyes from the bright light. Then... after a few moments, the walls of the chamber began to rise, revealing an entire room filled with gold, jewels, coins... all sorts of Egyptian treasures for her to take and get rich off of.

Amelia cackled as soon as she began to take everything in. “Amelia von Butch, you are unstoppable!” she said victoriously, before she began to search for the one thing that she had been waiting her entire life to find.

And after a moment, she found it-- Cleopatra's golden crown, just waiting for her to take... which Amelia did, smiling victoriously. “At last, the crown of Cleopatra is MINE!!”

But after a moment of gloating about her self-imposed victory, Amelia turned when she heard a growling behind her, and came face to face with the glowing white eyes of Cleopatra's ghost. “WAAAAH!!!”

It was then that the Mane 6, Sarona and the rest of Mystery Inc entered the chamber behind the ghost, with Daphne’s eyes going wide in shock. “Jeepers!”

“Hey! Cleopatra!” Sarona snarled. “You get away from her!”

“Sarona!” Pipp admonished. “You’re defending the bad guy?!”

“Hey, she may be evil,” Sarona shrugged, “but she’s still a human being!”

The ghost of Cleopatra turned around to face them after the cub went silent again. “Leave this chamber,” she forewarned them, “or be doomed forever!”

“ZOINKS!!” Shaggy yelped as Scooby jumped right into his arms, and the Mane 6 stood up, ready for a fight. “Bring it on, the both of you!” Zipp declared. “As the guardians of Equestria, we’re not gonna let either of you get away with this!”

But as Zipp kept her eyes on the ghost of Cleopatra, no one saw that Amelia had swiped the crown off the pedestal and began to run off, much to the ghost’s horror as the entire tomb began to shake. “NO!!”

Water began to pour in from the collapsing ceiling above, causing our heroes to scream and run to the side of the tomb for temporary cover, and the ghost went after Amelia again, who used her grappling hook to grab the ceiling and be hoisted up out of the ghost’s reach.

As for our heroes, Fred found a canoe and urged the others into it, just as the water began to get closer and closer. “Hold on, gang!”

“Oh, now you tell UUUUUUUUSSSSS!!!!!” Hitch wailed as the water finally reached them, and a secret door began to open to let the water out, taking the Mane 6 and their friends out with it,

Sunny, Hitch, Izzy and Misty began to paddle as fast as they could to help Fred, Shaggy and Scooby, but when Shaggy looked behind him, he realized that the ghost of Cleopatra had gotten into their boat along with them, and his paddling speed immediately increased. “Keep paddling, guys!” he informed. “She’s right behind us!”

And with that, the swirling rapids carried our heroes further and further through the tunnels, and even the Mane 6 weren't sure about where they were going.

XXXXXXXX

Finally, after a bit of struggle, Amelia made it out of the tomb with Cleopatra's crown, causing her to laugh rather victoriously to herself. “Bear witness, mighty sphinx!” she said to the giant statue, holding the crown up. “The crown is mine!”

But the second Amelia put it on her head, Triple A’s hawk Horus immediately grabbed it in his talons and flew away with it. “NOOOOOO!!!!” Amelia shrieked with rage. “My crown!”

And upon seeing Horus flying away with the crown, Desert Rose this was time for her to make her move. “Here we go! HYAH!!”

Triple A’s camels followed her lead, and the ropes they were attached to began to activate a series of mechanisms that eventually caught Amelia von Butch in a giant tarp, causing her to scream as she was dangled in mid-air, trying to get free.

Triple A watched Amelia for a moment before speaking up, a bit impressed with the feat. “I wonder… do Fred's plans always work so well?”

“Let me go!” Amelia demanded, enraged. “I command you. The crown is rightfully mine. I am the sole survivor of Cleopatra's curse!”

“Ah, but I think you’re speaking too quickly,” Desert Rose said with a confident smirk, looking toward the river behind them. “The desert still holds many secrets.”

XXXXXXXX

At the same time, the side of a nearby mountain began to crack, releasing a bit of water before it finally burst open, releasing all the water, along with the contents of the tomb, the Mane 6, their friends and Cleopatra’s ghost, out with it. “WHOAAAAAA!!!”

As the boat our heroes were riding in crashed upon the riverbank, the Nile River began to flow with the riches of ancient Egypt once again, exciting the townspeople as they gathered to watch the amazing event.

Around the same time, Sunny groaned and held a hoof to her head as she finally got her bearings together. “Is everypony okay?”

“Ugh, aside from being carried through a tomb by thousands of gallons of raging water,” Pipp said, shaking herself to get rid of the excess water, “we’re fine. But uh… I feel like we’re forgetting something here.”

“Really?” Izzy asked the pink pegasus curiously. “Like what?”

It was then that Daphne saw Cleopatra’s ghost still in their boat with them, and immediately, she tensed up with fear. “It’s Cleopatra! Look out!”

Sarona gasped and hid behind Misty when she saw the ghost again, while Fred tilted his head while looking at the ghost in question. “I don't know, Daph. She looks pretty washed up to me.”

Suddenly... a familiar scent caught Scooby's nose, temporarily exciting him before confusion entered his mind. Could it really be?

Or was it just the desert heat getting to him like it did the last time?

He had to know for sure.

So carefully, he approached the ghost and began to lick her face, causing her mask to come right off and reveal who it really was underneath...

...and who it was caused the Mane 6, Fred, Daphne and Shaggy to gasp in shock. “VELMA?!!!”

Velma laughed as Scooby continued to lick her face in relief. “Okay, Scooby, okay!”

“Wait wait wait wait, WHAT?!” Zipp looked the most stunned out of any of them. “I… we… how did…?”

“Uh, Zipp… maybe you should let this sink in before trying to speak,” Misty said gently. “It might do your nerves a bit of good.”

“Velma!”

The group looked up on the nearby cliff to see the leader of the undead army remove his mask, revealing himself to be Prince Omar, in the flesh, with a smile on his face. “We did it, Velma. We did it!”

Daphne gasped in astonishment. “It’s Prince Omar! He’s okay!”

“Thank goodness!” said Sarona. “Hazina is gonna be so relieved! But… I’m still…”

But before she could finish, Horus screeched and swooped down toward Omar, releasing the crown and letting Omar catch it, causing him to gasp in wonder. “The golden crown of Cleopatra…”

Triple A bowed respectfully as he and Desert Rose approached. “It is in good hands now, my young prince.”

“That was great!” said another voice as Rock Rivers joined those on the riverbank. “But c-could we do it again? I'd like to get it from another angle.”

“It’s Rock Rivers!” Misty exclaimed. “He’s okay too!”

“Now, hold on!” Shaggy said, finally standing up. “Is there really a curse or, like, not?”

“Yeah, cause there is SO much info spinning in my head right now,” said Zipp, “and I can’t concentrate!”

“I'm sure it's very easy to explain. Let’s see…” Fred said before he tried to think for a few moments before eventually coming up with zilch, causing him to shrug. “Okay, maybe it isn't.”

“Come on,” Velma said as Scooby got her back onto her feet. “Let’s get back onto solid ground. Once we’re up there, me and Omar are gonna explain everything.”

“Good,” Sunny answered with a sigh of extreme and profound relief. “Cause after the past few days we’ve had… we definitely need some form of explanation.”