Chapter 3
The Dazzlings & The Hex Girls
While Shaggy, Scooby and Pinkie were enjoying their meals, the others were visiting Ben's studio, which was an old plantation home.
"Wow! So this is where it all started," Velma gasped in amazement.
The room that everyone was in had a bunch of medieval artifacts that appeared to have come straight from Europe.
"I wrote all of my early novels, here," Ben confirmed. "Now I spend most of my time Europe, but I come back once a year to recharge my batteries."
Twilight was amazed at the vintage computer that Ben had at his desk. It even had a slot for a floppy disk on the actual CPU, which was underneath the old monitor.
"I can't believe you still have this old dinosaur, Ben," said Twilight. "They stopped making these types of computers over two decades ago!"
"Well, you could say I have a fondness for items that are considered vintage."
As they were talking, Daphne, Fred and the others were looking at all of things that Ben had in the room.
"You have some cool things here, Ben," said Daphne.
"I'll say," Fred concurred. Just then, a certain portrait that hung over Ben's fireplace caught his eye. It was of a young woman from the 1650's. The beauty of the painting even managed to catch Rarity's eye, as well.
"She's absolutely lovely. Ben, darling, whose portrait is this, exactly?" she inquired.
"This is Sarah Ravencroft," said Ben. "I think it was painted by a graceful patient. Of course, she wasn't very popular with the town's doctors. Sarah was untraditional in her approach to medicine. She was a wiccan."
"A what, now? What the hay's a wiccan?" asked Applejack.
"Wiccans were people who were in tune with the forces of nature and used them for healing purposes," Velma explained.
"Exactly," Ben confirmed. "She believed in using herbs and other natural elements to draw from the Earth's powers to heal the sick. Sarah helped many people who could not afford medical treatment. She treated her patients under a large oak tree, which she believed to have healing powers."
"You know something? I think we saw a huge oak tree like that back in the town square," said Twilight.
"I've already searched the area around that tree, but never found anything. That book could finally prove Sarah's innocence and that she was a wiccan, not an evil witch."
"Wiccans have been misunderstood, accused of sorcery," added Velma. "In fact, the word witch comes from wicca."
"I'm impressed, Velma."
"Egghead," said Rainbow. Sunset immediately hit Rainbow's arm with her elbow. "Ow! What was that for?!"
"Be nice!" she hissed. "Terribly sorry about that, Ben."
"Oh, that's quite alright," said Ben. "You know, doing research on Sarah and the wiccans led me to read almost everything about the world of superstition. That's how I started writing stories to frighten people."
Speaking of someone frightening people, back at the restaurant, most of the patrons were horrified at Scooby and Shaggy's eating habits. It was shocking, disgusting and horrifying at the same time. Even Pinkie Pie, who finishing her apple cinnamon pie was concerned by their behavior.
"Boys, for crying out loud, slow down a bit. People are starting to stare," she said worriedly. Just then, Jack came out with two more dishes of food, much to the delight of the boys. "Terribly sorry to have to put you through so much, Jack." She could definitely tell that Jack was getting more and more stressed due to Scooby and Shaggy's big appetites.
"I've never seen anything like this. Are you at least tasting my food?" he asked the boys. The two of them nodded and swallowed their bites.
"Like, it's the best food we've ever had," Shaggy said dreamily.
"Rericious," added Scooby, licking his lips. He then noticed a bowl of cranberry sauce nearby. Pinkie ended up facepalming after she swallowed her bite of apple cinnamon pie. Naturally, due to being a dog, he picked up the bowl and licked it clean.
"I don't know what's worse. The fact that you two have the weirdest taste in food, or that your table manners are sometimes just downright disgusting."
Just then, Fred and the rest of the girls walked over to their table to check up on them.
"So, how's the food, Norvie?" asked Sunset.
"Pretty darn good," said Shaggy.
"Is there anything left in the kitchen?" Velma chuckled.
"I'll be right back, kids! I've got to make a run to the market!" said Jack as he left.
Pinkie slammed her head on the table in disbelief. She could not believe how much Scooby and Shaggy had ate in the time that they were at the restaurant.
"This is worse than the time you guys ate all the food I prepared for Maud's graduation," sighed Pinkie.
"It's getting dark, guys," said Fred. "Let's go see if that ghost is going to make an appearance."
"Like, we'd love to, but we haven't had our dessert yet," said Shaggy.
"I'm stuffed. I think I'll head on out with the rest of you guys," said Pinkie as she got up from the table. "And when you two buffoons are done eating, meet us at the Puritan village."
"Sounds good to me, Pinkie. Ben's already gone ahead of us," said Twilight.
"Great. Like, if the ghost gets there first, just start screaming without us," said Shaggy.
Scooby then tried biting into Shaggy's chicken leg, but Shaggy was quick to pull it away. Fluttershy rolled her eyes and smiled at Scooby's antics.
"You are such a ham, Scooby-Doo," she said.
Later that night, several people were standing at the Puritan village waiting on the ghost to show up. After about an hour, most of the townsfolk had given up and left for him, thinking that the Witch's Ghost was a no-show. No one was more disappointed than Ben, who was extremely determined to find Sarah's journal for some odd reason.
Back at the restaurant, both Scooby and Shaggy walked out of the establishment feeling stuffed, while Jack was sitting down feeling extremely stressed. He had never cooked so much food in his life before, let alone all in one day.
"Boy, was that good eating, or what, Scoob?" sighed Shaggy as he and Scooby slowly walked towards the Puritan village.
"Reah," replied Scooby before letting out a satisfied burp. "Excuse me."
"Gee, looks like everybody's leaving. Wonder if the ghost showed up."
Just then, the two of them heard laughter. Laughter that could only belong to three girls that they knew.
"Like, did you hear that, Scoob?"
"Uh-huh. Rit's them."
Scooby pointed at the silhouettes of what appeared to be three girls approaching them. The girl approaching them from the left had pale, light grayish fuchsia-colored skin, moderate mulberry colored eyes, and moderate purple hair with light brilliant aquamarine streaks tied in pigtails.
She wore a pinkish red long-sleeved shirt with white polka dots, long grayish red pants with light blue spots, a purple scarf, a light green fur jacket, magenta colored boots, and star-like hair clips that held her hair in pigtails. Her name was Aria Blaze.
The girl in the middle had pale apple green colored skin, brilliant raspberry-colored eyes, and luminous vivid orange hair with brilliant yellow streaks that flowed down to her waist in a puffy-like style, which was held by a spiked hairband.
She wore a light purple shirt with a darker purple triangle pattern on it, purple shorts, spiked black boots with purple showing just below the knee down towards the toe of the boots, a black vest, golden arm bands, and black spiked wristbands. The girl's name was Adagio Dazzle.
The last girl had arctic bluish white skin, moderate raspberry eyes, and light arctic blue colored hair with moderate Persian blue stripes tied in a ponytail. She was wearing a fuchsia-colored dress with pictures of tacos on them, knee-high pink-striped socks, purple-and-magenta colored sneakers, and two gold arms band that were close to her shoulders. Her name was Sonata Dusk. These three girls were collectively known as the Dazzlings.
"Well, well, look who it is. Coolsville's number one village idiot and his equally stupid dog," Adagio snarked.
"Dog? Where?" asked Scooby, looking around like an idiot.
Just then, Aria walked up Shaggy and lovingly tickled his chin.
"Hi Shaggy," she cooed.
"Like, sorry, Ms. Sarcasm, but I already got a girlfriend," Shaggy gulped.
Scooby then tapped Shaggy's shoulder as he worriedly pointed behind him.
"Like, what is it, Scoob?"
"R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-Runset!" shivered Scooby.
"Sunset? ZOINKS! Sunset!"
Sure enough, Sunset Shimmer was right behind them and she was livid.
"What are you three jerks doing here?" she snarled.
"Yeah, right. As if we'd tell you, Bacon Hair," mocked Aria.
"Enough with the Bacon Hair!"
"Bacon Hair!" Sonata mocked, making Sunset even angrier. "Bacon Hair! Bacon Hair! Bacon Hair! Bacon Hair!"
"ENOUGH! Don't you three have something better to do? Like pulling a prank, or something?"
And with that, she dragged Shaggy away from the Dazzlings, only to be met by the silhouettes of three other girls. The one on the left had a pale complexion, black eyes, a beauty mark on her left cheek, black eye shadow, green and black lipstick, and blonde hair that was tied into pigtails with green bauble-like hair ties. She wore a long sleeved dark green top with a matching colored green skirt that had a slit in it, along with purple ankle-high boots. She also wore a black choker around her neck, an X-shaped necklace, and green triangle earrings.
The one on the right had a dark complexion, black eyes, dark red hair, and purple eye shadow and lipstick. She wore a dark purple coat with a black shirt underneath, a long purple skirt with a slit at the hem, dark purple-black boots, gold hoop earrings, a gold necklace with a purple stone, and purple fingerless gloves.
The one in the middle had pale skin, green eyes, red nails, red and black lipstick, and long black hair with red highlights at the roots and ends. She wore a black and red dress with red sleeves that draped down her shoulders, a red sash at the waist, black ankle-strapped high heels with red tints, red and black elbow-length fingerless gloves, and a red bat necklace.
Sunset immediately recognized the three as the one and only Hex Girls. She walked up to them to say hello and possibly get an autograph for Fluttershy.
"Uh, hello, girls."
"Hiiiiiiiiiiiii," they responded in a vampire-like hiss, showing their teeth.
Naturally, Scooby and Shaggy were absolutely terrified by their appearance. They even thought that they were witches and ran off. Sunset immediately ran after the boys as the Hex Girls laughed at their cowardly nature.
"Shaggy! Scooby! Stop!"
She eventually caught up with them as they ran out of breath. In fact, they ran so fast that they were able to work off the big meal that they had at the restaurant.
"And I thought there was only one ghost witch," said Shaggy.
"Reah," Scooby panted, nearly out of breath.
Before Sunset could correct them, however, the wind started blowing and from above the trees appeared a cackling greenish-white ghost witch. Her appearance alone not only frightened Shaggy and Scooby, but Sunset, as well.
"This town shall pay for what it did to me!" the ghost wailed as it chased after them. The witch's ghost then starting shooting fireballs from her hand towards the trio as they ran.
"Fireballs? Who does she think she is? The Wicked Witch of the West?" Sunset screamed as they continued running down the street.
As soon as they turned around a corner near a building, the three of them literally bumped into the rest of their friends, knocking them down like a bunch of bowling pins. In fact, the impact was so hard, that it knocked Twilight's glasses clean off of her face.
"Nice going, you guys! Now I've lost my glasses!" Twilight fumed.
"Rorry," said Scooby. He then picked up Twilight's glasses off the ground and put them back on her face.
"Thank you. Now would someone please tell me why you guys were running so fast?"
"A rhost."
"A roast?" Ben asked, confused.
"A witch's rhost."
"You saw the witch's ghost?" asked Velma.
"Reah."
Scooby then pulled his face to make it look similar to the witch's ghost that they saw earlier.
"Can you show us where?" asked Fred.
"Like, do we have to? She throws fireballs, man!" Shaggy said, trembling.
"Can you at least get off me first, Freddy?" Daphne groaned.
"Gee. Sorry, Daph."
He helped her up, but instead of being thankful, Daphne was instead a little bit cross with Freddy.
"Real smooth, Fred," Rainbow snarked.
"Oh, ha, ha! Very funny!" Daphne retorted.
"That ghost wasn't the only thing we saw!" growled Sunset as she grit her teeth.
"Oh, dear," gulped Fluttershy. "Did you run into…?"
"Yes. The Dazzlings. And they're still as mean as ever."
"Is it the same area where ya saw the witch's ghost?" asked Applejack.
Scooby nodded his head in confirmation. Shaggy then fearfully pointed around the corner where they saw the witch's ghost. Everyone except for him peeked out from behind the building.
"Like, down this street," he trembled.
"There's no one here, now," said Daphne.
"We thought we'd gotten away from the first three witches, when this ghost chased us from down there."
Sunset rolled her eyes as Shaggy described the Hex Girls as witches.
"Three witches?" Twilight asked in confusion.
"You said she threw fireballs, right?" asked Velma as she observed some burnt-up charcoal on the ground.
"It was like THIS, Velma," said Shaggy, pointing to one of the t-shirts in the display window. "But 1,000 times worse!"
"Is this the street she chased you down?" asked Fred.
"Like, don't remind us."
Fred then noticed that there were a bunch of branches on the ground that were broken off from the tops of the trees.
"And in a perfectly straight line," Daphne added.
"Hmm… This is strange. Branches broken off from the trees in a perfectly straight line, a witch that throws fireballs and leaves charcoal behind… Something doesn't add up," Twilight hypothesized.
Just then, everyone heard electronic noises nearby and saw strange lights in the sky.
"W-W-W-W-W-W-W-W-W-W-W-W-W-W-What's that?" whimpered Fluttershy.
"Let's go see," said Velma as she turned on her flashlight.
Everyone walked towards the source of the sound and eventually found the source as they parted a few bushes in the forest. The source of the sound was in fact, the Hex Girls on a stage with instruments. The black-haired member, whose name was Thorn, was holding a red bat-shaped guitar. The redhead, whose name was Luna, was playing a keyboard instrument. The blonde member with pigtails, whose name was Dusk, was playing a drum set with bat symbols on the drums.
"Hit it, sisters!" Thorn exclaimed as she turned around to imitate the hiss of a vampire.
"Zoinks! It's the witches!" exclaimed Shaggy as the Hex Girls started playing their titular song, I'm a Hex Girl. It was a song that managed to make them famous in Oakhaven.
"Easy, guys. It's just the Hex Girls," Fred said reassuringly.
The very sight of the Hex Girls made Fluttershy squeal with excitement.
"I LOVE YOU, HEX GIRLS!" she shouted as she banged her head to their song.
As they sang, Pinkie noticed a certain trio of girls watching the Hex Girls as they sang their song. It was the Dazzlings and they did not look happy. Pinkie tapped Applejack on the shoulder and pointed to her right, where the Dazzlings were. Adagio shook her head in disgust as Thorn continued to sing.
"What's wrong with her?" asked Pinkie.
"Ya got me, Pinkie. What I want to know is what they're doing here in the first place," said Applejack.
"Who knows," said Rarity. "But what I do know is that this song absolutely rocks!"
Fluttershy started twirling her head around, which also flipped her hair around like the blades of a fan. As she did, she also made a devil horns sign with her right hand. It wasn't only her who was enjoying the music. Ben and the rest of her friends even started dancing along to the song.
"UGH! Are you kidding me?!" Adagio fumed as the Hex Girls continued playing.
Of course, their voices weren't the only thing that was loved by the friends. Fred was also enamored by Thorn's physical beauty, as well. This didn't go unnoticed by Daphne, however, who instantly elbowed him out of jealousy.
"Freddy! Honestly! Show some restraint when you're around other women whenever Daphne's with you!" reprimanded Rarity.
As the Hex Girls continued playing, Adagio was getting more and more angry as they sang. Then, just as the Hex Girls finished their song, a pyrotechnical effect covered the stage, creating different colors of smoke. Ben and the others applauded their performance while the Dazzlings were livid.
"SELL-OUT!" hollered Adagio.
Everyone looked at each other wondering why Adagio and her sisters, the Dazzlings, were angry with the Hex Girls. Little did they realize that things between both the Dazzlings and the Hex Girls were about to get a lot more personal between the two groups.