G5 Adventures in Air Buddies

by ponydog127

Deciding on Potential Families/Bad Guys in Position

It was the next morning after Selkirk sent his nephew and henchman Denning to out and kidnap Air Bud for Mr. Livingstone’s son, and no one was aware of their plans… at least, for now.

It was rather early that morning when the Buddies woke up, cause it was almost time for them to do what they loved best-- going out to get the paper for Patrick.

The second they heard the newspaper plop against the pavement, the Buddies were sitting up in bed, despite Violette still being asleep next to them. “You’re about to get a lesson in girl power,” Rosebud told her four brothers. “Girl power, schmirl power,” B-Dawg scoffed. “If you'll excuse me while I represent.”

“Wait for the whistle…”

At that moment, the paper boy whistled, and the puppies burst from their bed and out the door, causing Violette to wake up immediately. “Huh?! Who’s there?!”

She immediately saw the Buddies racing out the door, and kicked the covers off the bed before following them. “Hey, guys! Wait for me!”

The Mane 6 heard this commotion from their room down the hall and looked out of it, confused beyond measure. “What’s up with the Buddies and Violette?” Zipp asked in confusion. “You’d think they caught a whiff of something.”

“Well, Rosebud told me Budderball’s farts are pretty bad,” Izzy shrugged, “so that might be it.”

“I don’t think it is,” Sunny shook her head before gesturing for her friends to follow her. “Come on!”

The ponies galloped down the hall after their friends, unaware that Buddy was wide awake too, and followed right behind the Mane 6 to go after the puppies and the young unicorn.

XXXXXXXX

The Buddies and Violette raced out the back door and around the house, where B-Dawg immediately took the lead. “If I was any faster, I'd get tomorrow's paper!”

The hip-hoppin’ pup immediately grabbed the paper in his mouth, but he had no idea that the other Buddies each had one idea on their minds. “Puppy pile B-Dawg!!”

“Hey!” B-Dawg shouted to his siblings in frustration. “Give me my paper!”

“Guys!” Violette shouted over the barking. “Stop fighting! You can all get the paper if you just calm down a minute!”

Not too far away, Buddy and the Mane 6 finally caught up to the pups (who were STILL fighting over the newspaper) and Violette, and Buddy sighed and looked at his pups with slight disappointment. “Now, what did I teach you pups about teamwork?”

“Come on, guys, knock it off,” Zipp said, nudging the puppies away so she could grab the badly torn newspaper. “Let’s take… well, what’s left of the paper to Patrick. Maybe there’s still some of it that he can salvage.”

XXXXXXXX

“And I tried to pull them apart,” Violette finished her explaination to Patrick as the entire Sullivan family waited for them on the front porch, “but… they kinda demolished most of it before I could get my hooves away from their teeth and paws of fury.”

“We can totally vouch for it,” Pipp nodded. “We’re lucky Zipp was able to get the newspaper away from them before the Buddies accidentally hurt one another.”

Patrick believed their story, of course, but sighed and turned to Buddy with an exasperated look. “I know you're trying to train them, but couldn't you bring me the Sunday paper?”

Jackie shook her head sadly. “Sure are gonna miss 'em.”

“That’s the understatement of the year,” Hitch sighed as they watched the puppies and Violette play together on the driveway. “We all will. But don’t worry… we’re getting together with Molly, Henry and Henry’s parents later on this week. We’ll find them all good homes.”

Misty sighed as she watched the down expression on Violette’s face when she heard this. “I just hope Violette takes it okay… not JUST the Buddies.”

XXXXXXXX

During lunch on Monday morning, Noah and Henry got all of their classmates that wanted to adopt one of the Buddies together, and they all filled out applications to make them feel like the perfect fit.

Even Sunny and the rest of the Mane 6 showed up to help and to make sure the applications were being filled out properly.

About five minutes before lunch ended, Henry called out to the other students, “That’s time!”

One by one, the students filed up and gave the ponies their applications before heading out. “We'll contact you for an interview,” Noah told the other kids, “if you have what the puppies are looking for.”

XXXXXXXX

Later on that night, the two families decided to get together with Buddy and Molly, along with the Mane 6 to discuss the applications when Patrick found one that deemed pretty interesting. “He's a math teacher, and he loves doing math equations for fun.”

“Oh…” Jackie looked to Noah and Henry, who violently shook their heads at this until Sunny pulled another one out of the pile. “What about this one, Patrick?”

“Let me see…” Patrick looked over the application. “Well, these guys have a son who's five... and he loves baseball. These guys look great!”

Sunny looked over at Buddy and shot him a little wink-- she and him, along with Izzy would take Buddha out to check on this boy tomorrow.

XXXXXXXX

The next morning, Buddy and Izzy and Sunny took Buddha out to observe the boy, Sam, at his t-ball game at Fernfield Park. However, poor Sam kept missing the ball, and the umpire was forced to keep calling out to him. “Strike two! Strike three! You’re out!”

However, Sam was so frustrated, he ended up gripping his bat and chasing the umpire around and around the ball field. “Whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa! Whoa, whoa! Wait, buddy!”

“Ooof… if he gets hit,” Izzy whispered, “it’s not gonna look pretty.”

“Chasing someone with a stick. That's not baseball. That's hockey,” Buddha said rhetorically. “Just think of the positive influence you'd be on that boy, Buddha,” Buddy told his son as they watched, but on the other paw… Buddha wasn’t exactly on board.

On the next night, the two groups sat around while Patrick read off another application they had gotten in the mail. “All right, well, the father is an artist, they have a four-year-old daughter and they love having picnics in the park!”

“Sounds perfect for Budderball, all right,” Hitch whispered to the Mane 6. “Buddy and I will take him to the park to meet this family in the morning.”

XXXXXXXX

And that’s just what they did-- Hitch seemed satisfied that the family was so into the outdoors, and Budderball seemed pretty willing to give this family a chance… until he saw what they were serving on the grill. “They're barbecuing zucchini? Yuck! Where’s the beef?!”

The family gathered around the picnic table for lunch, causing Hitch to sigh and take Budderball onto his back to head home. “We better keep looking.”

XXXXXXXX

That same night, the families and the Mane 6 joined up once again to discuss where Rosebud was going to go, and Zipp soon found the perfect human that she was sure that Rosebud would love. “Here are the Finches!” she said. “They have a little girl, and she loves soccer.”

Molly barked and Noah and Henry nodded in agreement alongside Pipp-- now it was her turn to accompany Rosebud and Molly on their own search.

XXXXXXXX

Luckily for them, Alice had a soccer game in Fernfield Park the next day, and it was revealed that she was the only girl on the soccer team, reminding Pipp that she was a lot like Rosebud in a variety of aspects.

Alice quickly shot a goal into the other team's net and went sliding across the grass in happiness. “Gooooooooall!!!!!!”

“She's a bit of a showoff,” Rosebud said, not all that impressed. “Well, Rosebud, as an artist, I know that she’s just trying to prove herself,” Pipp said, and Molly nodded in agreement. “It's hard when you're the only girl.”

But… Rosebud still seemed pretty unconvinced.

XXXXXXXX

That same Thursday night, it was time to discuss where Mudbud would go when Patrick seemed to find another promising application. “These guys have an 11-year-old son. His favorite activity is playing video games.”

“Hmm… not sure what Mudbud will think about that,” Misty whispered, “but Buddy and I can take him to find this boy tomorrow-- just to see how they might fit.”

XXXXXXXX

Buddy and Misty took Mudbud out the next morning to find the 11 year old named Pete, who seemed to be too much into his video games and hated getting dirty…

…which was something Mudbud enjoyed, and Mudbud seemed really unsure of where this was going. “The dude's gotta loosen up a bit.”

“He needs to learn that playing and actually getting dirty is a lot of fun,” Buddy told his son, causing Misty to nod. “And you’re so laid back,” she added, “this kid would be perfect for you! Trust me on that.”

However, Mudbud still remained unsure as he watched Pete brush the dirt off himself and off of his console.

That meant it was back to the convincing board.

XXXXXXXX

Finally, later that night, Noah and Henry happily slurped on lollipops while Patrick read one of the standout applications to the groups. “Well, these guys look perfect. They have two kids. Parents are both dentists.”

Noah and Henry immediately stopped, and even the ponies shook their heads at that.

Luckily… Zipp had another boy in mind that B-Dawg would fall in love with.

XXXXXXXX

That next afternoon, Buddy and Zipp took B-Dawg out to the basketball courts to observe a boy named Billy playing basketball with his friends.

However, Billy was the shortest and youngest of the group, and he couldn't make a single basket, discouraging him.

Unfortunately, B-Dawg was unmoved from witnessing this. “You gots to be in it to win it,” B-Dawg told his father and pegasus friend. “His coach should tell him that.”

“Well, in my experience,” Zipp said with a shrug, “I think he'd be more confident if he had a best friend to help him out.”

B-Dawg tried to consider this, but… like his siblings, he wasn’t all that sure about these decisions… especially with the boy that couldn’t shoot a single basket.

XXXXXXXX

Later on that evening, the parents sent out calls to the adopters, who would gladly take the puppies, and Patrick finally turned to the others, satisfied with what they had done. “Well, that's it, then. It's unanimous, finally. We'll call the families tomorrow.”

Noah’s heart seemed to sink at this. “Tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow,” Jackie nodded, causing Noah and Henry to sigh. “Hey, guys… it’ll be okay. The Buddies will be just fine, trust me,” Sunny tried to reassure... even though she and her friends seemed a little worried about how the Buddies, and Violette, no less, would take this bit of news.

Unfortunately, Mudbud was listening to the entire thing, but as soon as Molly spotted him, he gasped and ran back toward his room to alert his siblings and Violette.

XXXXXXXX

Rosebud was happily lounging on her soccer ball chair while Budderball and Violette played tug-of-war, B-Dawg played with his basketball, and Buddha laid on his back on the floor… at least, they were all doing this until Mudbud ran in. “Dudes, Mom saw me, so I had to hightail it out of there.”

“What's the 4-1-1?” B-Dawg asked as they approached the panicked pup, who finally worked up the nerve to say what he had learned. “They finished drafting us to different families!”

“Already?!” Violette asked in surprise. “Man… I had no idea that it would take them this short amount of time…”

“I bet there was a bidding war for me,” B-Dawg voiced his opinions before Buddha spoke up. “Did they consider astrological compatibilities?”

“Okay,” Rosebud said, already thinking up a plan, “we'll totally behave, and then we'll look super cute, and then, um... Well, then... then they'll change their minds.”

“It’s too late, dudes,” Mudbud hated to tell them this. “They're taking us to our new homes tomorrow!”

“TOMORROW?!” Violette and the rest of the Buddies shrieked. “But tomorrow is taco night!” Budderball argued, getting looks from Violette and the other pups.

Violette realized then how serious the situation was… she had to figure out a way to keep the Buddies together…

…and she had to do it fast.

XXXXXXXX

Denning drove the huge black hummer that belonged to Selkirk down the road and right past the Fernfield welcome sign, a pleasant grin coming on his face. “Fernfield... right on schedule.”

Denning turned to see if Grim was awake or not, but instead, he found Grim panting, with his head outside the window and his tongue sticking out, causing Denning to groan and pull Grim back in. “Do you mind not violating Highway Code 401?!”

Grim winced from all the yelling before shrugging to give an answer. “Just wanna see why dogs like it.”

Now all they had to do was get into town, find Air Bud, bag him and get him back to Selkirk before it was too late.

XXXXXXXX

Later on that night, Jackie was tucking Noah into bed and Misty, being the sympathetic one, wanted to come in and see how Noah was handling all these changes. “You okay?”

Noah only gave a slight shrug as a response, causing Jackie to smile gently. “We found them all really good families.”

“I know,” Noah sighed, “but do they have to go tomorrow?”

“It's not gonna get any easier if we wait,” Jackie shook her head gently. “Try to get a good night's sleep now, okay?”

And with that, she kissed Noah gently on the head before she and Misty left the room.

XXXXXXXX

Sunny stood with Buddy and Molly, watching over Violette and the Buddies as they slept, with Buddy sighing with a frown. “Letting go of the Buddies is gonna be harder than we thought.”

“Do you think they're ready?” Molly asked in a whisper. “And is Violette ready to see them go off to different homes?”

“...I'm not sure myself, Molly,” sighed Sunny with the shake of her head. “They're taking it pretty hard. But... if I know Violette, she'll find a way to work her way through it.”

Buddy and Molly nodded, enjoying watching their pups sleep cozily in their bed...

...unaware that Violette was laying in her bed, listening to everything with tears in her eyes.

Then, in that moment... she knew what had to he done.

XXXXXXXX

At the same time, Denning pulled up to that same street that our heroes were on, turning off the car and sitting there patiently. “This is the location.”

“What do we do now?” Grim wondered curiously. “We wait,” Denning explained, getting ready to doze off to sleep. “We work surveillance until an opportunity to strike arises. You're on first watch.”

Grim continued to watch and wait for a few moments... that is, until he saw Molly running across the street, but he mistook her for Buddy by mistake. “There he is, there he is!”

Denning immediately woke up as he saw Molly scale the side of her house. “You better not be dreaming...”

“I spy with my little eye something that is furry.”

Suddenly, with his binoculars, Grim spotted Molly barking to Buddy from Henry’s bedroom window... and Buddy barking to Molly from the Buddies' room. “There's two! Which one's Air Bud?”

Denning immediately pulled out the newspaper clipping he had found and inspected it before looking at the two dogs barking to one another. “They both resemble the dog in the photo...”

But as they looked at the two dogs, Grim and Denning both realized the same thing...

...this job was gonna be a lot harder than they thought.