//------------------------------// // Operation Rescue, Phase One: The Drive-In Theater // Story: G5 Adventures in Air Buddies // by ponydog127 //------------------------------// The plan was currently in motion-- while Buddy and Molly were going to try and dig themselves out of the wine cellar, using the dirt walls around them, the Buddies, Violette Rainbow and the rest of the Mane 6 were on their way to Innsfield to rescue them by themselves. It was risky, for sure, but they had to at least try-- what else did they have to lose from this experience? However, back in the main part of town, Noah’s family and Henry’s family were splitting up all over town calling for the lost dogs and the missing ponies. However, while he and Henry were searching around the park, Noah suddenly found something to be rather suspicious. “I've been thinking about it. Sunny, all the ponies, Buddy and Molly helped us choose the right families, right?” Henry nodded at this. “Right.” “So why would they run away with the Buddies?” Henry shrugged at this while Noah let out a worried sigh. “Something's up, Henry. Something's up.” But what they had no idea about was how right they actually were... and how a bigger plot was coming into play. XXXXXXXX “Mom and Dad,” Rosebud declared happily into the wild blue yonder, “here we come!” Currently, the Mane 6, Violette Rainbow and the Buddies were racing across a meadow just as the sun began to go down, the sounds of thundering hooves and paws making sure that they all stayed together on their long journey. “One thing’s for sure,” Violette told her friends, new and old, “these dognappers picked the wrong ponies and pups to mess with!” “And,” Budderball agreed, “the sooner we rescue Mom and Dad, the sooner we get lunch, right, Sunny?” “Right,” Sunny couldn’t help but giggle. “Now, come on-- I don’t think the drive-in is too far off now.” “And after we get past the drive-in, whatever that is,” Izzy said, “we just have to get through the farm to get to Buddy and Molly! Oh, I know a song about a farm! Anypony wanna hear it?” “Nope!” “Not now, Iz!” “Sort of in the middle of something here!” Izzy shrugged at these immediate answers. “All right then… suit yourselves!” XXXXXXXX At the same time, Denning and Grim had snuck back to the Buddies' house while their family was not home, and while Grim stayed behind to watch the car, Denning snuck all the way around the house to see if the puppies were there. However, stumbling through the darkness looking for them was not easy, especially when he couldn't find a safe way inside and he couldn't see a thing, causing him to accidentally trip over a cat. Upon realizing that the puppies weren't there, he returned to the truck. “What took you so long?” Grim asked, scared to death by all the noises in the darkness. “They're not here,” Denning sighed, “and I looked everywhere.” That left the two dognappers with only one question left to answer… what to do next? XXXXXXXX A little while later, the sun had finally set, letting the moon and stars rise fully into the sky... and Violette, the Mane 6 and the Buddies were still walking, trying to find either Innsfield, the drive-in theater or the old McRoberts farm. However, they weren't having much luck, and they were getting pretty tired. “Dudes,” Mudbud groaned, “we've been walking all day. I don't see any wine country.” “This pup's run out of pep,” Rosebud groaned tiredly. “And, it isn’t getting much lighter out,” Hitch pointed out. “Even our cutie mark light can only do so much. I say we find some place to rest and keep going in the morning.” “But, Hitch, if we don’t get there soon,” Violette tried to reason, “something bad could happen to Buddy and Molly! And… I don’t wanna feel anymore guilt than I already do…” Just before he could comfort the downtrodden unicorn, a familiar smell hit Budderball's nose dead on. “Wait. Do you guys smell that? I must be smellucinating.” Suddenly, Zipp sniffed the air, suddenly smelling the same thing Budderball was. “He’s not wrong!” she said as they broke through the bushes and trees. “I smell that too!” Once they had gotten out of the forest line, the pups and ponies saw the drive-in theater down below, and they appeared to be hosting a movie called 101 Dalmatians. Once they saw that they were at the drive in, Izzy sniffed the air and hummed in thought. “I'm no Sniffer, but I'm pretty sure it's coming from over there.” “Where there's popcorn, there's Budderball,” Budderball said, and the group discreetly walked down the hill toward the theater, hoping to sneak past without much notice. XXXXXXXX As it turns out, Grim and Denning were here as well, watching the movie. Well... Grim was the only one really watching the movie, and when he saw Denning's worried and upset face, he decided to explain his reasoning. “My uncle always says know your animal, do your research. 99 puppies. Ha! How's that for research?” “The more time we waste sitting here,” Denning growled, “the more hungry that tiger's gonna get!” And Denning wasn’t sure about Grim’s line of thinking, but he for one did NOT want to be tiger food. XXXXXXXX “Dude!” Mudbud exclaimed as they entered the theater, sparing a look at the screen. “This is totally my favorite movie!” “Mine too!” Pipp said as she stopped to look at the screen. “Can we stop and watch for a minute?” “No time, Pipp,” Sunny said while pulling her away, much to Pipp's disappointment. “We’re on a deadline!” XXXXXXXX As the movie’s villain, Cruella de Vil, appeared on the screen, Grim let out a scream and jumped straight into Denning’s arms, causing Denning to immediately try and push him off. “Get off me!” XXXXXXXX “Oh, sweet mama,” Budderball said in anticipation as the group continued to work their way around the theater. “I can almost taste it.” “Budderball, in my personal opinion,” said Zipp in a quiet tone of voice, “I think we should be more concerned with finding our way around this place so we’re out of sight, and not attracting more attention to ourselves by finding the snack bar.” “But we are getting kind of hungry, Zipp,” Misty pointed out. “We never had the chance to eat anything before we left town, so maybe we can find the snack bar, stay there for a few minutes and then we can get moving again.” “Well, okay,” Zipp relented after a few moments, “but we can’t stay long, so we just get snacks and get out of here without another moment of hesitation.” “That’s the spirit, sis!” Pipp nudged her sister with a smile before Violette pointed toward a door nearby. “Come on!” the vitiligo-colored unicorn said. “It’s through here!” Everyone discreetly followed her right through the projection booth at the very back of the theater, and when they finally got there, the man in charge of the projection was fast asleep. Luckily, Budderball had a plan-- more or less, his nose had a plan. “Follow me. My nose knows the way.” “We’ll sneak around behind him and meet you guys on the other side,” Sunny told the Buddies before she and the ponies got on their knees and crawled past the sleeping man… while the Buddies got in front of the projector and walked behind the screen… unaware that the Buddies’ shadows were shining right through it during the middle of the movie. XXXXXXXX As B-Dawg and Mudbud began to tussle behind the screen during one of the climactic scenes of the movie, Grim stopped being so afraid as he pointed this out to Denning. “I don't remember this part-- giant puppies attack Cruela De Vil? Oh, my goodness… go, giant puppies!!” “Those puppies aren't in the movie!” Denning yelled. “Those are our puppies!!” And that being said, he and Grim immediately got out of their truck and began to run toward the projection booth to nab the Buddies and bring them back to Selkirk. XXXXXXXX “Mudbud, B-Dawg, stop fighting already!” Misty said quietly to avoid waking the man sleeping nearby and used her magic to pull the two pups down to the ground. “Come on, we’re almost there-- we can sneak in, get you guys something to eat and then we can get going. Now stay close.” “You’re right! Come on, dudes!” Mudbud said urgingly. “If we don't hurry, Budderball's gonna eat all the popcorn!” The two pups followed Misty back to the others, and it was revealed that they had stopped at the entrance to the snack bar, which was full of hot dogs, popcorn, nachos, cotton candy… every kind of food that the Buddies could imagine.  And unfortunately, Budderball couldn’t help his stomach and barged forward. “Jackpot!!” With the attendant distracted, the Buddies snuck by her and began to snack relentlessly on different varieties of food, all while the ponies watched on in worry. “Sunny, what do we do?!” Hitch asked. “They could get caught!” “I know, but we can’t go back there and get them, or else we’ll attract attention!” Sunny pointed out. “We’ll lay low here until they get done. Then, we’ll grab ‘em and get out of here. I just hope this situation doesn’t escalate into something worse…” XXXXXXXX At the same time, Denning and Grim burst into the projection booth in search of the puppies, waking the attendant in the process. “We’re lookin’ for five puppies,” Denning told the attendant and causing Grim to nod quickly. “They’re not real, pal,” the attendant told him, thinking Denning was talking about the puppies on the screen. “They're in the movie!” Suddenly, Grim pulled open the flap on the projector, causing a bright light to suddenly blind him and Denning. “Denning… I see a bright light,” Grim said, dazed and blinded. “Are we dead?” XXXXXXXX As the ponies waited for the Buddies to get done with their midnight feast, a woman came in to buy some popcorn for her family and turned to the girl behind the counter. “One superjumbo, family-size tub of popcorn, please.” “Sure,” the attendant nodded and grabbed a tub full of popcorn. However, before the woman could pay… Budderball burst out from the container, causing the woman to shriek in panic. “Oh! Puppy! Puppy!” The ponies’ heads snapped up at this, and their eyes widened in panic. “Uh-oh!” XXXXXXXX In the projection booth, Denning heard the woman's shrieks and immediately realized that the Buddies were somewhere close by. “Puppies!” he cried. “Over here!” Still blinded by the bright light, Denning and Grim staggered through the projection booth in the direction of the shrieks. XXXXXXXX The woman was still in disgust over a puppy being in the popcorn bucket, and couldn’t help but groan. “That is so unsanitary!” “I think he’s cute,” the attendant said lovingly, causing the woman to gag and run off, just before Zipp chuckled nervously and scooped Budderball up. “I’m so sorry about this, ma’am-- my dog just got away from us,” Zipp said nervously, taking Budderball back to the others before scolding him. “Budderball, what did you think you were doing?! You nearly gave us away!” “Hey, it’s no biggie, Zipp,” Budderball reassured her. “At least no one more dangerous saw us.” But at that moment, Denning and Grim staggered into the snack bar, but ended up slipping and sliding on the wet floor, falling onto their backs in a daze. “We’ve got company!” Pipp shrieked to the other Buddies. “9-1-1!” “Anybody got a doggie bag?” Budderball asked as Zipp set him down, and the Buddies and ponies immediately bolted before the bad guys could get back on their feet. “Hey, just a question,” said Izzy as they escaped. “Why don’t we use our magic on these creepies to make sure they don’t follow us?!” “They don’t have magic, and we do!” Sunny pointed out. “We would have a seriously unfair advantage and they could use that against us!” “So in other words,” Violette clarified, “all we have to do for right now is RUN!!!” The Buddies and their pony pals burst out of the snack bar in an attempt to keep as far away from the bad guys as they could, and eventually ran into a group of cheerful bikers watching the movie from the grass. “Hey. Check it out. Puppies!” “Just like in the movie!” “Aw, they're so cute. Hello, man!” “I love puppies almost as much as my wheels.” “Uh, sorry to steal these guys away from you, boys,” Misty said, taking Buddha from one of the bikers, “but we’ve kinda got trouble on our tails!” At that moment, Denning and Grim came out of the snack bar after the group, causing the ponies to scoop the Buddies up and take cover behind the bikes for now. “Denning,” Grim was saying, “just remember my uncle put me in charge.” “Watch out, Grim!” Grim, still dazed by the light, slammed right into the biker’s bikes, toppling them over and causing the ponies to move the Buddies backwards to safety.  However... the bikers appeared to be angry from the fact that their bikes got knocked over, even as Grim stumbled around to try and find Denning. “Denning, where are you? Denning, where are you? Denning. Denning. Denning?” He eventually grabbed one of the bikers’ beards, causing the biker to growl as Grim felt his face. “Denning, I don't remember authorizing you to grow a beard.” “I'm not taking orders from you,” Denning growled. “When I get my hands on them, I'm gonna wring their double-crossing necks.” But at that moment, Denning's vision returned, and he immediately saw the trouble that he and Grim landed themselves in. “Let me at those punks. Hold me back, hold me back!” B-Dawg growled, causing Zipp to grab the little pup in her hooves. At that moment, Grim's vision returned to, and he immediately saw that he had been messing with the wrong guy's face the whole time. “Hi, fella. You haven't seen some puppies, have you?” “Let’s go, Grim,” Denning advised quietly. “Now.” That’s when one of the bikers suddenly stopped them in their tracks. “Were you trying to hurt these puppies and their pony friends?” “N-No way!” Denning stammered. However... the bikers were not convinced of the statement. “GET EM!!!” In an instant, the bikers grabbed Denning and Grim and began to hoist them away while Violette saw an opening to escape. “Guys! Let’s get out of here!” “Right behind you, Violette! Ponies, let’s move!” Sunny cried out to the group, and they immediately ran after Violette and out of the theater. “I sure hope,” said Buddha, “we don't run into those guys in our next life.” “Wait for me!” Izzy cried out as she trailed behind the group to make sure no puppy was left behind.  And the last thing that Denning and Grim remembered from that point on that night was getting pummeled by drinks and snacks in front of the giant movie screen. Our heroes had lost the dognappers for now… but who knows for how long. XXXXXXXX Back at his house at the same time that this was happening, Noah was talking to Henry on his walkie talkie before bed. “Yours, too?” “Yeah,” Henry nodded, referring to their parents indirectly. “They think we're overreacting.” “Tomorrow,” Noah advised, “we go to Sheriff Bob.” “Okay.” But as he said this, Jackie passed by the door with laundry, and unexpectedly heard everything that had been said. “Rent incoming. Gotta go. Over and out,” Noah said quickly and disconnected the call just before Jackie came into the room. “Did I just hear something about Sheriff Bob?” “...you think I’m wrong,” Noah assumed with a heavy heart. “Well, no. No, honey,” Jackie said, sitting on her son’s bed. “I just don't want you to worry. We might as well cover all of our bases, and Sheriff Bob is one of them. I think it's a good plan.” “You do?” Jackie nodded and gently kissed her son on the forehead as a sign of comfort. “Good night, sweetie. And remember, no matter how far from home you may stray, the love we all share is here to stay.” Noah nodded to this as his mom left the room and turned out the light. Then, he hoped and prayed that wherever the ponies were… and wherever the Buddies were… …they would be able to stay safe until they could be returned home safe and sound.