Chapter 2
Welcome to Oakhaven
The gang and the girls were on the road for a quite a while, as it was a long drive from the museum in San Francisco to their eventual destination of Oakhaven. Velma and Twilight were riding in Ben's car talking about his novels, while the rest of the gang followed in the Mystery Machine. Rainbow Dash was at the wheel this time, since both she and Fred had to switch due to the long drive. They eventually made it to a small town in the countryside that was rich with beautiful fall colors. Daphne got out her camera and started taking a few pictures.
"Wow! This color is spectacular, eh guys?" she gasped.
"You said it, Daph," said Rainbow.
Scooby then proceeded to take a few photos himself with his yellow-and-black Kodak camera.
"Like, don't forget me, old buddy," said Shaggy.
"Don't worry, Shaggy. I got this," said Sunset, taking out her phone. Scooby went by Shaggy and wrapped his arm around him. Sunset did the same and immediately took a sideways selfie of the three of them.
Both cars eventually crossed an interior bridge and had reached their destination of Oakhaven, Massachusetts. Velma and Twilight were still talking to Ben about his horror novels and how well-written they were.
"And that scene at the end where the caretaker's face dissolved was so brilliant I nearly jumped out of my skin," said Twilight.
"Oh, look, we're here," said Ben, recognizing the landscape right away.
"Already?" exclaimed Velma.
"That's right, ladies. Welcome to Oakhaven."
Just then, everyone, including Ben, was in complete shock at what they saw. Cars were lined up along the road with horns honking like mad. There were a bunch of tourists around for some reason.
"I thought you said this was a quiet little town."
"It was."
"Wow. This is a pretty popular spot," said Fred as Rainbow parked the Mystery Machine.
Everyone got out of both of the vehicles and looked at the open field where they all saw a bunch of tourists.
"Sure, we always get a few leaf peepers, but never like this. This… is a… circus."
"Uh, Mr. Ravencroft? I hate to butt in, but wouldn't there be more people if it were a real circus? This looks more like an average early Thanksgiving festival to me," Pinkie interjected.
"Pinkie's right. Plus, it looks kind of fun," added Twilight.
"Oh, there's the mayor!" announced Ben. "He'll know what's going on."
The mayor he was referring to was a stout man with light puffy brown hair that looked to be at least in late-thirties or early-forties. He was wearing a blue suit over his light blue polo neck shirt. Everyone started walking towards him when Pinkie's stomach started growling. She hadn't eaten anything since breakfast, so she was naturally just as hungry as Shaggy and Scooby.
"Welcome to old Oakhaven," said mayor as he shook a guest's hand. "Have a wonderful time! Ha, ha, ha, ha! So glad you could come!"
"Mayor! Mayor Corey!" Ben called out.
"Ben, my boy! I'm glad you could come home to see this. And I see you brought some friends… and their dog."
"Rog? Rhere?" exclaimed Scooby, looking around cluelessly.
Fluttershy face-palmed in disbelief. She was getting really tired of Scooby making that joke.
"Scooby-Doo, you're a Great Dane, for a crying out loud," she groaned.
"Welcome. The more the merrier," Mayor Corey laughed.
"But what is all this?" asked Ben.
"It's great, isn't it? Business is booming. Not like a few months ago when it was slower than maple syrup on a cold day."
Just then, an older man with short grey hair walked up. He was wearing a white lab coat over a teal vest, a white shirt, and a dark blue necktie. He also had on teal pants and black shoes.
"Hey, Ben!" said the man as he carried a cardboard box.
"Hi, Mr. McKnight," greeted Ben.
"Welcome home." He then handed him a t-shirt that was part of an event that was going on. "Here. Have a t-shirt before my store sells out. You can wear it to the concert tomorrow."
Hearing the word concert made Rainbow's eyes light up.
"Concert?" she squealed. "Who's playing?"
"The Hex Girls," explained Fred.
"You've heard of the Hex Girls, Fred?" Fluttershy asked, as she was a huge fan of their music.
"Just now," he answered, pointing to the banner.
"OAKHAVEN AUTUMN FEST FEATURING THE HEX GIRLS," read Daphne.
"A local group. You'll like 'em. Kinda spooky," said Mayor Corey.
"I don't know, Mr. Mayor. We haven't been to a Hex Girls concert in years since the Dazzlings tried ruining the last one we were at," said Applejack.
"You've seen the Hex Girls?" asked Daphne.
"Fluttershy was practically begging us to go see them," Rainbow explained. "It was back when we first met you guys in high school."
"What shocked all of us was the make-up that she was wearing. I am not exaggerating. She had one deep purple eye shadow and deep purple lipstick! Plus, she had her hair in this weird punk style. And she… she… It's just too ghastly to describe!" said Rarity.
"You actually wore that kind of stuff, Fluttershy?" asked Daphne.
"Um… yes," Fluttershy said with a sheepish smile.
"Well, aside from that, the rest of us had a pretty good time. That is, until the Dazzlings showed up," said Applejack.
"Hold on. Like, do you mean cheesy-poof hair, Ms. Sarcasm and taco girl?" asked Shaggy.
Rainbow snickered upon hearing Shaggy say cheesy-poof hair.
"Cheesy-poof hair. That fits Adagio so well," she snickered.
Applejack just rolled her eyes and sighed.
"Unfortunately, Shaggy, we do. Whenever those three show up, you can expect trouble to happen at the most unexpected times," replied Applejack.
"Zoinks! Like, I still remember when Aria was forcing me to date her to like, make Sunset jealous."
"And since then I've hated her guts," growled Sunset.
"It would've gotten a lot worse if I hadn't stepped in," said Fred.
"No doubt about that, Freddy. You really broke it to her hard," said Daphne.
"Let's just hope they won't try anything stupid this time. The last thing we need is for those three to ruin everyone's time here," said Applejack.
As they were talking, Ben was more interested in the shirt that he was holding, rather than the group's conversation.
"I MET THE GHOST OF OAKHAVEN (AND LIVED)?" he questioned.
Hearing the word ghost snapped everyone out of their conversation and quickly set their eyes on Ben.
"Jinkies! Looks like there's a ghost in your own backyard, Ben," said Velma.
"Not only that, but it's his own ancestor," said Mayor Corey. "The ghost of Sarah Ravencroft."
"That's ridiculous!" Ben rebuked. "I thought we'd gotten past all this witch nonsense."
"What can I say, Ben? Ever since we built our Puritan village, her ghost has appeared many times."
"Don't tell me. You disturbed her spirit with the construction…" began Fred.
"And how she's haunting the town," Daphne concluded.
"But h-h-h-h-how did you know?" Mayor Corey stammered.
"Ghost hunting's our specialty," explained Velma.
"Unless you count the ghosts from Moonscar Island," Twilight whispered to Sunset.
"No doubt," Sunset whispered back.
"Did you say Puritan village?" asked Ben.
Sometime later, Mayor Corey showed everyone around the Puritan village recreation that was done for the upcoming festival.
"This is really beautiful," said Fluttershy.
"It most certainly is, Fluttershy. So much rich history here in Massachusetts," said Rarity.
"Well, what you're seeing is a perfect recreation of what life was like back in the 1600s, as reenacted by our locals," said Mayor Corey.
"Woowee! And I thought I had it rough back on the farm," said Applejack in amazement.
"When did all this go up?" asked Ben.
"About six months ago," said Mayor Corey.
"This is amazing, Mayor!" beamed Velma.
"Couldn't have said it better myself, Velma," said Twilight.
As they continued walking, Daphne eyed some cornhusk dolls. She picked one up and showed it to Fred.
"Aren't they cute, Fred?" she cooed.
"Yeah, charming," said Fred.
Scooby walked up to the pillory and saw that Shaggy was locked in it.
"Look, Scoob. I've been a ba-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-ad boy," he bleated.
Everyone around him laughed, as he looked incredibly silly. Even Sunset couldn't help but chuckle at her boyfriend's antics. Just then, Pinkie eyed something interesting. A butter churn. She walked up to it out of curiosity.
"Wouldst thou like to churn?" the woman churning the butter asked.
"Sure thing. I learned about this in school," Pinkie replied.
She started to churn the butter the old-fashioned way, much to a bunch of tourists' delight.
"Wow. I guess all of those years of helping out Applejack really helped," she said to herself.
Just then, Pinkie noticed that the churn had gotten stuck. She pulled as hard as she could to get it loose, but ended up doing a pratfall after letting go of the churn itself, causing the tourists to laugh at her misfortune. Pinkie just ended up grinning sheepishly.
"Well, Maud always told me I'd make a great clown someday."
Meanwhile, by the old sewing machine, Velma questioned the mayor about what was happening.
"So you say a ghost has been appearing here?" she asked.
"Eeyup, that's right, young lady," said Mayor Corey. "Apparently, we disturbed the spirit of Ben's ancestor, who was persecuted as a witch way back in 1657."
"Unjustly persecuted," corrected Ben. "Sarah Ravencroft was a medicine woman who practiced natural healing and was unfairly accused because of her eccentric ways!"
"Just like the Salem Witch Trials," said Velma, who immediately made the connection. "Many men and women who were a bit different or didn't conform to the codes of the colony suffered the same fate."
"That they did, Velma. It was a real dark chapter in American history," added Twilight.
"Sarah was healer," said Ben. "It was said she even kept a journal of all the patients she cured with her herbal remedies."
Back by the cornhusk dolls, Scooby took the hat off of one of the male dolls and flipped to on to his noggin.
"A perfect fit, Scoob," said Shaggy as Pinkie giggled at the Great Dane's silliness. Just then, the wind blew it off, causing it to land near a gopher hole. The gopher living in it, picked up the hat and took inside its domain. Scooby tried getting it back, but was instantly bitten by the gopher's teeth, causing him cry out in pain. Furious at the rodent, Scooby started digging until he eventually pulled up what appeared to be an old shoe buckle.
"Hey, Scooby, can I see that?" asked Sunset.
Scooby spat the buckle out of his mouth, causing it to land perfectly in Sunset's hands.
"Rokay," he said.
"Pretty odd thing to find buried in the ground. Wonder what it is?"
"Looks like you found an old shoe buckle, young lady," Mayor Corey said behind her. "Probably over 400 years old."
"Shoe buckle?"
Sunset looked down at Shaggy's right shoe and went along with what the mayor said and strapped it on to Shaggy's right shoe.
"There you are, Shaggy."
"Like, thanks," said Shaggy.
"Eyup, we found all sorts of items from the old colony when we cleared this area for construction," Mayor Corey explained. "Hand-made nails, horseshoes, farm equipment…"
"How about a book?" inquired Ben.
"Book?"
"You know how long I've been searching for Sarah's journal to officially clear our family name."
"Sorry, Ben. Nothing like that."
"So what makes you think it's Sarah's ghost haunting this place?" asked Fred.
"Because the ghost said so. Maybe you'll see her tonight."
"I'd rather not," Fluttershy whimpered.
"This guy just doesn't shut up, does he?" Rainbow whispered to Twilight.
"My thoughts exactly. It seems to me that he's just out to make a buck," Twilight whispered back.
Just then, everyone heard Scooby, Shaggy and Pinkie's stomachs growl.
"Like, we'd like to see a Puritan pizza joint," said Shaggy. "We're starved."
"Tell me about it. I haven't eaten since we left this morning," said Pinkie.
"Don't worry, kids, we got the best restaurant in all New England," laughed Mayor Corey. "It's back in town. I'll walk you there."
Mayor Corey then led Shaggy, Scooby and Pinkie towards the restaurant as the others looked on.
"Do you kids want to go, or would you like to see my studio?" asked Ben.
"Studio?!" squealed Twilight with a big, cheshire-like smile on her face.
"Would we ever!" beamed Velma.
"Shaggy! We'll meet up with the three of you guys later!" Sunset called out.
"Mayor, tell Jack that anything they order is on me!" added Ben.
"Zoinks! Like, what a great guy!" Shaggy beamed.
"You said it!" Pinkie added, licking her lips.
"You're going to regret THAT offer, Ben," Daphne chuckled as they walked towards Ben's studio.
Later, at the Oakhaven Restaurant, Shaggy, Scooby and Pinkie looked around in awe. The smell of the food was absolutely mouthwatering.
"Jack's going to take good care of you kids. You're going to love his cooking," said Mayor Corey.
Jack was the restaurant's owner, waiter, cashier, and chef. He was a stout middle-aged man with balding, dark gray hair. He was wearing a white waiter's uniform under a blue-green walker vest and a red bowtie.
"Like, I'm sure we will, your honor," said Shaggy.
"Enjoy your stay at Oakhaven."
And with that, Mayor Corey walked out of the restaurant for the three of them to enjoy themselves with a good meal. Right away, Scooby saw a customer having some meatloaf with a baked potato and some broccoli. Scooby was drooling all over him, causing the customer to get frustrated at him. Scooby kept following the plate whenever he would move it to the other side.
"Scooby, stop that! Let the man enjoy his meal!" Pinkie chastised. She then dragged him by the collar and it was clear that she was not happy at him.
"Rorry, Rinkie," said Scooby as Jack walked up to them.
"Well, kids, are you hungry?" Jack chuckled.
"Man, are we ever," replied Shaggy.
"Come on over here to the back. I always have a table open for V. ."
"Ooohh! Fancy!" said Pinkie as they followed Jack to the V.I.P. table. They then sat down and looked at their menus.
"I've got a nice juicy hambone for your dog. What do you think?"
"Rone? Ruck!" gagged Scooby.
"Scooby's not that kind of dog, sir. He's more of a, well, let's just say he pretty much eats like you and me," Pinkie explained. "By the way, what is that yummy smell?"
"Well, that's our Yankee pot roast, New England clam chowder, maple-baked ham and beans, roast turkey with chestnut stuffing, and apple cinnamon pie," said Jack.
Hearing all of this caused Pinkie to stick her tongue out in delight. Desserts are her favorite type of food. And desserts with cinnamon make her mouth water. Especially if it's pie.
"Sounds great. Like, give us three orders of everything," said Shaggy.
Jack laughed as he entered the kitchen to prepare the meals for the three of them. Little did he realize that by doing so, he would become more stressed than he would ever be in his life.