G5 Adventures in Scooby-Doo! Moon Monster Madness

Our heroes had successfully gotten off the dark side of the moon just as Sly Moon Prime exploded, leaving nothing behind... well, all except for Alterro, who had been frozen in ice by Umbra just before the Mane 6 and their friends ran toward the ship.

And with Umbra making a shield to protect her friends and with Daphne piloting the ship (when everyone else who could be capable of flying the ship got knocked out) they were now barreling through the atmosphere in an attempt to stop Shannon and Aruna's plan.

But the real question that stuck in everyone's minds was... could they do it in time?

Well, let's pull up a seat and find out in the final, hair-raising chapter of our story.

XXXXXXXX

Upon returning to Earth, Shannon and Aruna put on their best sad faces when they were swarmed by reporters, and Aruna shed some crocodile tears during her statement. “And it was this terrible alien that destroyed the station, my sister and… my friends…!!”

“Space is no place for the average person,” Shannon said, pretending to comfort Aruna. “It’s for trained astronauts, like me.”

That was when a rather familiar voice, Fred’s voice, spoke up, causing Shannon and Aruna to gasp in shock. “That's a great story…”

Everyone quickly turned to see the Mane 6, the gang and all of their friends walking out of the smoke from where the ship had landed just a little while before now, and Fred held a tape from Shutter Snap’s camera in his hand. “...if it were true.”

“What?!” Aruna looked stunned. “But… but how…?”

“You’ll wanna play this tape, boys,” Shutter Snap called out to a nearby camera crew, who were in the van at the time. “Its evidence will be very… enlightening.”

Fred tossed the tape to the man inside the news van, who put the tape on a player inside the reporter van and a recording of Shannon and Aruna revealing their plan began to play for the entire city to see for themselves.

“And just to be certain you never leave, I've planted thermal charges like this one throughout the complex.”

“The glass is also indestructible to magic, so your little defenses won’t work on it. And thanks to Alterro’s magic, they’ll be set to go off in exactly ONE hour, so you don’t have very long to live.”

“You can't put a price on this sort of fame. Besides, returning as a hero will bring me all the money Aruna and I could ever want.”

All of the reporters and bystanders gasped as Shannon and Aruna glared at the heroes, just as Zipp lifted the head of the alien disguise for all to see. “Shannon and Aruna were the alien-- a fake alien, might I add!”

And with that, Hitch kicked the alien head in front of Shannon and Aruna, but while Aruna growled at her sister and her friends, Velma stepped forward to make her OWN statement. “Sly was right, space travel is for everyone. Sure it takes training, but maybe it all starts with an adventurous spirit, an imaginative mind, a brave heart, and good old-fashioned…”

“Money,” Sly added, sticking his head in. “Tons of the stuff.”

“Sly, please,” Sunny sighed. “We’re kind of in the middle of a moment here.”

“Sorry,” Sly apologized to the earth pony/alicorn mare before backing away. “...and good old-fashioned curiosity,” Velma then began to conclude her speech. “Who knows what's out there, but isn't that the very reason to go?”

Everyone began to applaud and cheer at these words, and within a few moments, the crowd began to boo at Shannon and Aruna as they were led away by the police.

But before they could reach the police car, Aruna spotted her sister and called over to her. “When I get out of prison, you’re going to be sorry for what you’ve…”

“No. You’re not going to get out of prison anytime soon, Aruna, and I’m not sorry for anything I’ve done. I’m actually proud of myself,” Umbra said, standing up to her sister for what felt like the first time in ages. “I have friends here who I consider my true family… unlike you.”

Aruna snarled at this, but as she was about to slap Umbra again, Scooby snarled at her from behind, causing her to yowl in surprise to find the other members of the gang and the Mane 6, including Sparky, standing behind them. “Don’t even think about it,” Hitch threatened. “Take them away, officers.”

“RAGH!!!” Aruna screamed in anguish. “And we would’ve gotten away with this, too, if it weren’t for you ANNOYING mortals, my so-called sister and that comet-crazy mutt of yours!!”

And with that, Aruna and Shannon were stuffed into a police car before being led away from the scene. “Umbra… are you okay?” Izzy asked. “Yes… I’m better than okay, now that my sister is finally out of my paws, and… I’m free to see the sunshine again,” Umbra smiled. “Thanks to all of you.”

Zipp sighed and looked up toward the sky, a bit sad upon remembering something. “I just wish Alterro hadn’t gotten that piece of the map. Now, he’s one step closer to finding Skyros.”

Umbra cleared her throat at this, a hidden smile playing across her face. “About that…”

And with a grand flourish, she revealed another piece of paper from out of nowhere, handing it to Sunny, who inspected it with a gasp, eyes wide in shock. “This… this is the map piece! How did you get it away from Alterro?!”

“To be honest, I didn’t,” Umbra shrugged. “I gave him a fake.”

“A fake? But… how…?” Hitch stammered. “Look, I knew he wasn’t going to let Sparky go until you ponies surrendered to him, and after finding the REAL map piece in one of my books, I knew it had to be something important,” Umbra admitted. “So, I made another copy of it using some old paper, and I gave THAT to Alterro for Sparky while I kept the real piece of the map hidden. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you what I planned, but it was to save Sparky’s life.”

“Are you kidding? That was the most genius thing any of us could’ve done!” Fred smiled. “You not only saved us AND Sparky… you saved the ponies’ chances of finding Skyros and Sunny’s mom.”

“So… what are you gonna do now?” Izzy asked Umbra curiously as Starshine, Tidal, Cassiopeia and Morpho approached. “Well,” Umbra said with a smile, “me and a few of my new friends talked it over, and… we’re all going to go sight-seeing for the first few weeks, to get my accustomed to being back on Earth.”

“That sounds like a great plan to me,” Zipp said with a warm expression on her face. “Come on… we’ll help you guys plan a route so you can see the best of everything.”

XXXXXXXX

At the same time, Shaggy and Scooby were approaching U-Boat and Cloudy Dash to say their final goodbyes. “Like, dude, it was real swell meeting you, U-Boat,” Shaggy said. “And you too, Cloudy.”

“Yeah, yeah, swell,” Scooby nodded enthusiastically. “Shaggy, Scooby, it was a real blast,” Cloudy smiled. “And you guys are gonna get front row seats to our next game, count on it.”

“Come here,” U-Boat said before pulling all three of them into a tight hug, which squeezed them a bit, but surprisingly… Shaggy and Scooby didn’t mind at all.

XXXXXXXX

Not too far away, Daphne approached Velma with a guilty expression on her face. “Velma, I'm sorry. I should have seen that Shannon wasn't really a true friend and that you were always my best friend.”

“Aww… thanks, Daphne. And I’m sorry too… I should’ve never believed Aruna’s manipulation to begin with,” Velma said with a smile. “But you never know. Maybe you and…”

Suddenly, a bunch of cameras flashed in order to get a good picture of Daphne, and several reporters spoke up to her.

“Tell us about your trip, Daphne.”

“How do you keep your hair looking so good in zero gravity?”

“Over here. I need some shots of the hair-- it’s beautiful!”

Daphne scoffed with a light smile. “My hair? There are far more important things to talk about than hair,” she said, turning back to Velma. “Like friendship and support. Now, that's worth a story.”

The Mane 6 watched this from afar, just before they saw the portal opening up not too far away to take them back to Equestria, causing Misty to sigh. “It always has to take us at the worst moment… but I guess we do need to get back to the Trail Trotters and fill them in on everything that happened.”

“You guys go on ahead,” Fred reassured the ponies. “Shag, Scoob and I will join the girls and tell them that you had to leave.”

“Thanks, Freddy,” Hitch smiled. “Hope to see you guys soon.”

“We do too,” Shaggy said, and once exchanging another batch of farewells, the Mane 6 leapt through the portal just before it closed.

XXXXXXXX

However, as the Mane 6 disappeared into the portal, Ridley sat down on the curb of the sidewalk, feeling a bit down and out about one revelation she never got to solve while in space. “So, I guess there are no aliens after all.”

“Ohh… I wouldn’t say that, Ridley,” Hudson said gently, sitting beside her and looking up at the stars. “Space is too big, who knows what's out there.”

Ridley glanced up at the sky before noticing a shooting star streaking across the dark night. “You must’ve been lonely up there.”

“No less lonely,” Hudson said, turning to face her, “than someone who believes in something when nobody else does.”

However, their peaceful moment was interrupted when Ridley looked over at the destroyed ship they had used to get back to Earth. “Uh, it looks like your ship is ruined.”

“Yes…” Hudson nodded. “But, it wouldn't take me long to have her back in shape, and maybe if, uh, somebody were to come with me, I wouldn't mind going back up there. See what we might find.”

Ridley looked over at him with a grateful smile. “You mean, a copacetic prime directive involving a dual-core system drive with a high probability of some elementary binary codex and interface time?”

“...I couldn’t have said it better myself.”

XXXXXXXX

A little while later, Fred was giving Daphne another driving lesson in the Mystery Machine, but Daphne, needless to say... was struggling a bit. “Easy,” Fred coaxed, “just let the clutch out easy…!!”

“Jeepers!” Daphne yelped as the Mystery Machine screeched to a halt. “I'm trying, Fred. Something must be wrong with the pedal.”

“Okay,” Fred said gently, “calm down…”

“I am calm!”

“Daph,” Velma tried to speak up, “why don’t you try…?”

“Velma, why don't you try not being a back-seat driver?” Daphne asked with a serious look, wanting to do this on her own. “I flew a spaceship for goodness sake. I think I can handle the Mystery Machine.”

“Okay, okay,” Velma said, holding her hands up in a peaceful gesture. “Just trying to help.”

“Go ahead,” Fred urged, and Daphne put the Mystery Machine into gear… only to speed forward very quickly. “Easy, easy, easy…!!!”

Everyone screamed as the Mystery Machine flew out of the parking garage, giving Scooby time to howl one last phrase to the moon and stars above. “Scooby-Dooby-Doo….!!!!!!”

Another Unity Quest was over, but like we all know, this wouldn’t be the last time our heroes would encounter their friends.

There were still more map pieces to go until the Mane 6 found Skyros and Sunny’s mother… but until then, they would be quite content back home with their friends and families.