Chapter 4

Family Issues

"UGH! I can't believe you would sing such trash!" Aria grumbled with her arms folded.

"You said it, Aria," grumbled Sonata. "YOU THREE ARE THE WORST!"

"Oh, come off it, you three!" retorted Thorn. "At least I don't have an overbearing father that pressures me into being the best!"

"SHUT UP, COUS!" roared Adagio.

"Cous?!" gasped Pinkie and Applejack. Hearing Adagio say those words shocked them. They had no idea that the Dazzlings were cousins to the lead singer of the Hex Girls, Thorn.

"Why don't you three little delinquents save it for the concert tomorrow?" snarked Dusk.

Sonata just stuck out her tongue and blew raspberry at them.

"Anyone else here picking up some huge family tension?" asked Sunset.

"Eh… A little," Pinkie responded nervously.

"Hey, wait a minute. Aren't you Ben Ravencroft?" asked Luna as Thorn removed her guitar strap.

"Why? You're not going to bite me, are you?" chuckled Ben.

"Cool. I've always wanted to meet you," said Thorn as she hopped down from the stage. "You're like one of us."

"Yeah. You understand what we're into," Luna added cryptically.

Hearing that made Rainbow feel a bit uneasy. It wasn't what she said, but rather, how she said that managed to creep her out. Dusk slowly turned her head towards Scooby and Shaggy.

"Hiiiiii," she whispered in a near-eerie voice.

"Hello," shivered Shaggy and Scooby.

"I don't mean to pry, but WOULD SOMEBODY PLEASE TELL ME WHAT THE DAZZLINGS ARE DOING HERE?!" Twilight bellowed.

"Can it, Sci-Twi! This doesn't concern you!" barked Adagio.

The words Sci-Twi caused Twilight to shake like a volcano that was about to erupt. She hated being called that. It sounded so degrading.

"Knock it off, Dagi!" Thorn snarled. "It's that kind of attitude that's the main reason why you three took twelve whole years to become famous while Dusk, Luna and I managed to become overnight sensations when we were in the third grade."

"Don't remind me!" Adagio then turned her back on the Hex Girls and walked off with her two sisters, Aria and Sonata. "Come on, girls. Let's go."

"Sorry about that. You kids appear to know the Dazzlings very well."

"Don't remind us. They used to do a lot of mean things to us back when we were in high school," said Rainbow.

"Tell me about it. One time, they made the parade dragon for our Fall Formal have a neon pink and yellow tail! NEON PINK AND YELLOW!" Rarity added. "Had it not been for Daphne, the whole parade float would've been a complete eyesore!"

"Woah, now. Take it easy, sugarcube," said Applejack.

Thorn then turned to Fluttershy and noticed that she was smiling awkwardly.

"Hey, aren't you those girls we saw at one of our previous concerts?" asked Thorn.

"Yes," squeaked Fluttershy.

"If I may ask, what kind of music was that?" Twilight asked, clearing her throat.

"That was our special kind of music," Thorn replied. "We're eco-goths."

"Eco-goths?" repeated Shaggy and Scooby.

"And we don't need your approval!" snarled Dusk.

"Gee, all those explosions at the end were pretty mystifying. Eh, Velma?" said Fred.

"Yeah. VERY mystifying," Velma replied slyly, knowing that Fred was trying to make an excuse about Thorn.

"So, where are you girls from?" asked Ben.

"Oakhaven. But we won't be here for long. We're close to cutting our first album," explained Thorn. "Well, it's been killer meeting you."

"Same here."

"But we got to get back to our rehearsal."

The gang walked away from the stage as the Hex Girls walked back to continue their rehearsal.

"That was kind of odd," said Sunset.

"Odd as in how?" asked Rainbow.

"Did you guys notice the way the Dazzlings were acting towards Thorn?"

"It's obviously some kind of family feud, Sunset."

"Still, they do seem to be rather suspicious."

"I'll say," agreed Velma.

"I agree with that," said Fred. "I think Daph and I should keep an eye on them."

"Gee, why is it that you always pair off with Daphne, Fred?"

"I think I know," Pinkie said in a singsong voice.

"Oh, brother," Twilight groaned as she facepalmed.

"I think Rarity, Dash and I should tag along with you," said Applejack.

"That sounds like a good idea, Applejack, because I want to take another look at where the guys and Sunset saw that ghost," said Velma.

Hearing those words made Shaggy and Scooby tremble in fear, as they did not want to go back down the street again.

"I guess that means the rest of us are going with you, right Velma?" asked Twilight.

"Exactly. Come on."

Twilight, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Sunset, Velma, Ben, Shaggy, and Scooby walked in the opposite direction towards the street where the ghost was last seen. As soon as they left, Fred and Daphne gave each other sly looks.

"Someone is quite the smitten kitten," chuckled Rarity.

Daphne just ended up glaring at Rarity for recognizing the facial cues.

"Right. I'll shut up, now."

Back at the street where the ghost first made her appearance, Velma decided to search behind the trees to hopefully find some more clues. She led her group into the trees and found tire track impressions in the dirt.

"That's strange. Who would drive a vehicle back here? The road's right behind us," said Twilight.

"Right. Let's see where these tracks lead," said Velma.

"Like, can't we follow them tomorrow?" Shaggy asked fearfully. "Like after breakfast?"

As Fluttershy nervously followed Velma and the others, she suddenly stopped dead in her tracks and gave Shaggy an angry glare.

"What do you think, Norville?" she hissed.

"I guess not."

Shaggy and Scooby followed them until Velma came to an abrupt stop. In fact, the stop was so sudden, that everyone else ended up bumping into each other's backs.

"Shhhh!" Velma whispered sharply. She then pointed towards an old barn that was nearby. And from out of the barn, walked none other than Mayor Corey, who immediately locked it up for safety reasons. "Jinkies! It's the mayor!"

"What's he doing here?" whispered Ben.

The mayor then walked away, causing the others to become extremely suspicious of him.

"I don't know, but we're going to find out what's in that barn. Sunset, Pinkie, Scooby, and Shaggy will follow the mayor."

"We will?" gulped Shaggy.

"Isn't that considered rude, Velma?" whispered Pinkie.

"Fine. Then you search the barn and we'll follow the mayor," Velma sighed.

"On second thought, we'll take the mayor," said Shaggy, fearful of what could be lurking inside the barn. "He'll never know we're on his tail, eh, Scoob?"

"Reah," Scooby nodded. As if by coincidence, no one even realized that Shaggy was stepping on Scooby's tail. After seeing that Shaggy was indeed, on his tail, Scooby pulled it out from under Shaggy's foot.

"Oops. Sorry, Scoob."

"Okay. I'll admit it. That was both funny and pretty cringeworthy," said Pinkie.

Once everyone went their own separate ways, Shaggy, Scooby, Sunset, and Pinkie stealthily followed the mayor. Mayor Corey checked behind him at least twice to see if he was being followed. Each time he looked, however, there was no one to be found. If there's one thing that Pinkie was good at, it was being extremely sneaky, despite her normally loud voice.

Back at the barn, Twilight jiggled the lock to try to get in, but it was on really tight.

"Shoot!" she groaned. "I really thought this would just fall off."

"There's got to be another way in here," whispered Velma. She then motioned for the others to follow her around the barn.

Back at the stage, Daphne decided to ask Fred a very interesting question.

"So, Freddy, why DO you always pair us up?" she asked.

Fred struggled to find the words and was son interrupted by the sound of the Hex Girls' footsteps approaching. Surprisingly, the Dazzlings were also with them, as well.

"Why do we have to participate in this stupid ritual?" groaned Aria.

Adagio jabbed her sister in the stomach to get her to stop talking.

"Shut it, Aria! She's being nice by letting us perform with them at tomorrow's concert!" she hissed. "Even though I really don't want to."

Thorn tried to convince the other members to perform the ritual with her, but they turned down the offer.

"Not tonight, Thorn. My powers are weak form rehearsing," sighed Dusk.

"Mine too," added Luna. "How about tomorrow just before the concert?"

"Never mind. I'll just do it with my stuck-up cousins, then," scoffed Thorn.

"STUCK-UP?!" exclaimed Sonata. "If I wasn't related to you, I'd destroy that guitar of yours!"

"Save it, Sonata!" Aria fulminated as she grabbed Sonata's wrist. "As much as we despise them being more popular than us, Thorn is STILL family. Remember?!"

"Whatever," groaned Sonata as she pulled her arm away. She then folded them in a huff. "You always have to chastise me for everything."

"Well, SOMEONE has to keep you on your toes! If it wasn't for me, you'd be out eating tacos for the rest of your life, you klutz!"

"I AM NOT A KLUTZ!"

"SHUT UP! BOTH OF YOU!" Adagio thundered as she pushed her sisters away from each other. "Let's just get this stupid ritual over with so we can get some sleep!"

"Some things never change with you three," chuckled Thorn. She then turned towards her fellow band members and did a spooky finger wave goodbye. "See you two in the morning. Bad dreams, sisters."

"Bad dreams, Sister Thorn," they chuckled in response before walking away.

"Wow. That's some family tension," said Rainbow.

"You're telling me," Rarity said in response.

"Dagnabbit, Freddy! Why didn't you tell her?" hissed Applejack.

"Tell who?" whispered Fred.

"Tell Daphne that you, well, you know… That you L-O-V-E her."

"I was trying to, but then the Hex Girls showed up."

"Ugh! Fair enough. Look, let's just follow Thorn and the Dazzlings and see if they might have anything to do with this so-called ghost."

And so that's exactly what they did. Daphne, Fred, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity all followed Thorn and her cousins towards what looked like Thorn's house nearby.

Back at the barn, Ben was helping Velma up to a high window. Twilight was also doing the same thing with Fluttershy.

"Oh dear. Can you go just a bit higher, Twilight?" asked Fluttershy.

"I don't know if I can, Fluttershy," Twilight strained.

As a last ditch effort, both Velma and Fluttershy used the head of the person below them as stepping stools to get up to the window.

"Sorry, Twilight."

"I've experienced worse. You in, Velma?"

"Thankfully, yes," said Velma.

All of a sudden, Fluttershy slipped and tumbled into Velma. By doing so, both girls crashed into the barn until they were at the bottom.

"Sorry, Velma," Fluttershy apologized.

"Velma, are you okay?" Ben asked.

"Fine," Velma groaned.

She opened the door nearby and told the others to follow her inside.

Meanwhile, Mayor Corey headed inside a hardware store to pick a very mysterious package.

"Wow. I have to say, the mayor's really got his work cut out for him," said Sunset.

"Reah," Scooby said in agreement.

"Okay, Willard, you take it easy, now," said Mayor Corey as he left the store.

Before they could even be spotted, the four friends quickly ducked into an alley. Mayor Corey walked into the alley that they went into. He then saw Shaggy disguised as a 1960's teenager while holding Sunset around his arms on a park bench. Sunset was taken aback by this at first, but decided to play along in order to avoid suspicion. Scooby-Doo, on the other hand, was curled up next to the bench and pretended to be sleeping. Pinkie, however, decided to hide in a tree as the mayor passed by.

"Ah, young love," Mayor Corey sighed as he smiled at Shaggy and Sunset. Sunset opened her eyes after he had passed by and slowly shifted her gaze towards him. Shaggy and Scooby did the same thing, while Pinkie poked her head out of the tree while hanging upside-down.

"Like, that was close," whimpered Shaggy.

"True. But it was also amazing," sighed Sunset. "You're quite the kisser, Norvie."

Scooby giggled at Sunset's compliment, knowing very well that while he didn't show it, Shaggy actually did appreciate it. They eventually went back to following the mayor and saw him hand off the package to one of the local residents while hiding in a couple of bushes.

Back at the barn, Velma shined her flashlight on a suspicious-looking cherry picker.

"A cherry picker? Why would the mayor want to close up the barn with a cherry picker inside?" Twilight pondered. She then walked up to it with Velma following close behind with her flashlight. She put her right hand on the hood and realized that it had recently been used. "That's odd. It's still warm."

"That means that someone's been using it recently," said Velma.

"But who would want to operate a cherry picker this late at night?" asked Fluttershy.

"THAT'S the mystery," said Velma.

Back at Thorn's house, Thorn and her cousins, the Dazzlings, made their way towards the front gate, unaware that they were being followed by Fred, Daphne, Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash. They walked around the back of the house until they came to an old shed in the backyard. Fred and the others made sure that Thorn and her cousins were inside the shed before they headed towards it. They all peered into the windows to see what they were doing.

Thorn was at a table that had several bottles on the shelves in front of her. The shed was lit by a few wax candles on the table and to her left were a couple of pieces of paper, along with some of the local herbs found in Oakhaven. Directly in front of her was a mortar bowl that had a pestle grinder in it.

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Sonata asked worriedly as she watched.

"Of course. Now, please be quiet. I need to concentrate," Thorn said in reply.

She then picked up a glass jar, about the size of a medium-sized measuring cup, that was filled with a strange green liquid and poured it into the mortar. Once the jar was nearly empty, she placed it beside the mortar and grabbed a small brown bottle, about the size of her index finger, and poured its contents into the mortar. Finally, she grabbed some of the herbs and placed them into the mortar. After doing so, steam emerged from the mortar as if it was a magic spell or something.

"What the?!" Rainbow gasped.

"Uh, girls?" Rarity asked nervously. "Is Thorn actually a…?"

"I don't know, Rarity," said Applejack. "She might very well be."

Is Thorn really a witch? That was one of the questions going through everyone's minds right now. The other question was them wondering what the Dazzlings had to do with any of this. They were about to find out and it would also lead to a dark secret that would be better off forgotten.