G5 Adventures in Scooby-Doo! and the Ghoul School

Comforting Words/A Promise Broken

It was a stone quiet drive as the group followed the spider-bats and the shack past the bog and into the open spooky forests that none of them were too familiar with. Everyone was worried about their friends... but one mare was feeling something other than worry.

Pain and potential anger.

Zipp knew that she was a pony who followed her instincts, but ever since the Unity Crystals have been sending them on those missions, her intuition has been thrown all out of whack. And there were so many questions that Zipp needed to have answered.

Why did Opaline need dragon fire to boost her magic?

How could somepony get a dragon's fire taken from the dragon anyway?

How long had Opaline been watching and waiting for their every move.

Then there came the bigger question... was Misty lying to them and still working for Opaline?

As Zipp struggled to comprehend this information, she felt a gentle paw on her shoulder, and looked to see Scrappy-Doo approaching her with a gentle look of comfort. "You doing okay, Zipp?"

"How can I be okay, Scrappy?" Zipp asked the small dog. "Misty worked for Opaline for months, maybe even moons without us knowing! She could know our weaknesses! Our strengths! She could use everything in her power to get the dragon fire from Sparky, and Misty helped her! I don't know whether to trust her or not!"

"But Misty wouldn't do that to us... would she?" Sparky asked, with some hesitancy in his voice. "I... I don't know," Zipp answered with some nervousness. "Usually my detective skills are on point, but... now... I'm not sure if I'm meant to be a detective or not."

Pipp and Sunny listened in concern at how Zipp was feeling as her cutie mark began to dim, but before they could say a word, Scrappy started to provide words of comfort. "No one is destined to know everything," he said. "I always get the idea that the monsters that Uncle Scooby and Shaggy caught were actually REAL monsters. The point is, Zipp, you're strong, brave and independent. And I'd be totally honored to be part of your detective agency."

"...thanks, Scrappy," Zipp said. "You're not a bad detective yourself."

"I know."

Both of them giggled as Zipp's cutie mark began to glow, and Sunny sighed at this... at least Zipp's worries were something that could be easily put to rest.

Soon enough, the group reached a high perch with a castle right on the very top, with dark clouds looming directly behind it. "Looks like the bats have come back to roost," Hitch observed with a shudder. "And that's the grusomest roost I've ever seen!"

"Yeah," Scooby nodded at the statement. "Gruesome roost!"

"Like, we'd need wings to get up there!" Shaggy exclaimed. "And, not everyone has those... except maybe Pipp and Zipp."

"Leave it to us, Shaggy!" Izzy chirped as she, Scrappy, Matches and Zipp lifted heavy equipment out of the van. "We'll have us to the tippy top of that mountain faster than you can say 'Sweet sauce horseshoe toss'!"

XXXXXXXXX

Soon enough, Scrappy, Zipp and Izzy had created a state of the art catapult, the Great Dane pup smiling proudly. "Ta ta ta ta ta ta!! Puppy... power!!"

But then, Matches growled in frustration, asking about him and making Scrappy recorrect himself. "Make that a Scrappy and Matches power!"

"Yeah!"

"Uh, heh..." Sunny looked rather unsure of how dangerous it looked. "Are you sure this'll work, Scrappy?"

"I'm puppy positive. Come on, guys. Hop aboard."