Chapter 37: Already ready

Applebloom woke up and got out of her bed. It was a school morning and she didn't want to be late for school. Ms. Cheerilee was going to starting teaching marine life and she didn't want to be behind. She walked out of her room and went downstairs to get some breakfast. As she went down, she began to think to herself.

So Scootaloo got her cutie mark now? Does that mean she's outta the group? I mean we can still hang out though right? It's not like she's not Scootaloo anymore or anything. But enough of that silly talk, I'm gonna get myself some good old fashioned…

She got a glimpse of that same blue slimy pony that tried to kidnap her best friend. The stallion was sitting at the table eating apple cinnamon waffles, licking it first with his long tongue, and then devouring it whole. He looked towards the little filly, both ponies awkwardly staring at one another. He then waved his hoof to her to greet the startled filly.

"Bonjour."

"FISHPONY!" Applebloom ran away as fast as her little hooves could take her. But after ten feet of scurrying, she bumped into somepony's leg. When she looked up, she saw that it was her big sister.

"Sis! Ahm so glad you're here! Where've you been?" The frightened filly hid behind her sister. "Gettim AJ!" She pointed a shaky hoof at stallion.

But instead of rushing over to give the guest a beating, Applejack merely used her mouth to lift up her sister and placed her on a chair in front of the amphibipony.

"Don't ya'll worry." Applejack tried to reassure her sibling. "Me, Dash, and Blu here went to Berrybash Bottom to introduce the guy to his folks?" She began to space out as she remembered last night's party. "We had raspberry tarts, blackberry muffins, blueberry ice cream…"

"AJ!"

Applejack stopped her food fantasizing and got to the point. "He ain't gonna bite Sugar Cube. In fact, he's family. Uncle Bluebarry's kid in fact." Blubayou nodded in agreement with his mouth full.

Applebloom looked at her sister still unsure. "But how? He's a fishpony and we're earth ponies." The filly poured some "Outrageous O's" cereal and milk into her bowl. "And since when did uncle Bluebarry have a foal?"

"Amphibipony." The orange mare kindly corrected her. "And if you really need to know." She whispered into her ear about everything from his kidnapping to his unwilling transformation.

Applebloom started out as still suspicious but after a few minutes of hearing her sister's words, she slowly began to understand what her she was talking about, getting a lot less defensive about the unwanted guest. Blubayou just paid attention to the maze on the back of the Outrageous O's cereal box, trying to ignore the fact that the two were talking about him.

Applebloom finally nodded in agreement as Applejack stopped explaining. She then slowly began to speak up rather reluctantly. "I guess that makes sense." But then she made a glare a Blu. "But he tried to take Scootaloo to some monster prince bent on taking over the world." She waved her hooves in the air a little bit to emphasize about the dark prince. "And forgive me if ahm wrong, but some things take more time to forgive then other things." She quickly ate her breakfast and hopped out of her seat. "I'll be upstairs gettin' ready for school." She then walked away in a rather moody manner, but either Blubayou or Applejack could really blame her.

After breakfast, Applejack opened the the door to get to work. Yesterday's visit messed up her schedule a bit and she had to work a little extra. And she knew just the helping hooves.

"C'mon Blu!" She hollered to her cousin. "We got some bucking to do!" She then walked out of the house. She looked back and saw that Blubayou was a little reluctant to go outside. But given how the other ponies treated him not too long ago, she could hardly blame him. She decided speak a little more softly to the stallion. "Don't cha worry Blu. Ain't nopony's throwing things at you on my watch."

Blubayou looked at her, then back inside the house, and then to the ground unsure of what he should do. He shut his eyes as he took one step out of the house. He opened his eyes to take another step, then another step, until he finally jumped next to his second cousin, back to his more playful mood.

As they were about to walk to work, they saw that the mailbox's flag was up. Applejack passively opened it and saw a red letter. She knew that red was rarely a good thing when it came to mail, so she slowly opened the envelope. Both ponies then began to read the contents. By the end of the letter, both Applejack and Blubayou were in a panic, their eyes wide open. But as soon as they finished the letter, AJ snorted in anger.

"Blu." She said in a no nonsense manner.

"Yes?"

"Let's get back inside. We got packing to do."

Blubayou just nodded in agreement and quickly hopped inside, with Applejack following. Blubayou began to get thoughts in his head.

Oh Monterey mosquito munchkins! Screamy took that kind mare back ho…to Phobos! If only I didn't get that unicorn mare or took that prince!

Twilight Sparkle got out of her Treehouse, ready to save her friend. She, along with Rarity, Coocoodrill and Pinkie Pie left Canterlot early in the morning to pack for the upcoming adventure. Scones was to be personally brought to Fillydelphia due to most ponies being uncomfortable around it. She had the book on Phobos, camping gear and the elements of Harmony with her. She remembered first looking into the chest, seeing three new, more masculine necklaces, one for Coocoodrill, Paramail and Blubayou. As she was ready to go to the statue of Celestia to meet her friends, she saw a large bag her size get tossed out of the hole Coocoodrill liked to call his home. The green unicorn then ran out of his house, closing the door behind him. He then tossed the sack onto his back.

The stallion acknowledged her existence. "Oh hey Twi! What you got there?"

"Oh nothing too big." She admitted humbly. "Just some adventuring gear and the Elements. You?"

Coocoodrill made a wide, toothy grin. Twilight did not like it. "I've got rations, a sleeping bag, that evil creepy book Celesty gave me." He put his head in the bag. After some searching, he had a long, red, cylindrical item with a short fuse at the end of it in his mouth. "Owh yeah! Amf these!"

The purple pony gasped in horror. "Is…that an explosive?" She could already imagine all of them in a dark, cramped cave. They light a match to check their surroundings. Somepony drops said match, lighting a fuse going to Coocoo's bag of explosives. Before they can all scream, it explodes. Twilight shuddered at the thought of such an explosion.

Coocoodrill noticed her expression and spat out the dynamite stick, balancing it on his nose. "Aw c'mon! I'm a professional with these!" He tossed the stick straight into his bag. "I keep them safe next to the matches. What could possibly go wrong?"

Twilight could see many things wrong with his theory, but she decided to keep her mouth shut about it. She just let out a tired exhale. "Let's…just get to the statue."

The two unicorns walked through the town and got to the statue without a problem. Pinkie Pie and Rarity were already there with their large amount of supplies. Twilight knew two thirds of it probably were unnecessary, but she didn't even bother to argue.

If somepony can get away with bringing explosives, everypony can get away with bringing dresses and cake.

Both mares waved to them. "Hello dears? Do you have all you need?"

"Yeah! To rescue our beloved friend from dangerous danger that is dangerous?"

Coocoodrill quickly nodded and put down his bag. "Of course I do! I got the usual mundane stuff like toothbrushes and strawberry jam to dynamite!" He reached into his bag with a hoof, taking out the Book of the Malign. "Along with this book, which I hear is so evil, no normal pony can read it without going insane! It goes double for unicorns cause you know…they can actually use this stuff!" He flipped the pages to look for a spell. "Like instantly make somepony kick the bucket!"

Rarity gasped in horror how somepony can make such a book of black arts seem like an everyday conversation. She wondered what was going on in his mind to treat such disgusting spells as normal. She reminded herself never to take a look at one page of that book.

Pinkie Pie was still in her usual cheery mood. "Cool!"

"YEAAAAAAAH!"

Paramail let out a breath of relief as he shook the hoof of the insanely muscular white pegasus as they conversed on top of a cloud. "Thank you so much for offering to take care of Fluttershy's animals while me and the other elements are out saving the world on such short notice."

The giant stallion gave the pony a confused look, but then once again shouted. "YEAAAAH!"

"Yeah turn out a great evil is upon us and me and the other Elements of Harmony are going to save the world from eternal nightmare."

"YEAAAAH?"

"I'm surprised about the Elements being PC too. I always thought there were some kind of cool artifacts six stallions would get that represented courage, diligence, spirit and that kind of stuff while at the same time getting their own weapons and elemental powers. And we'd go off and slay dragons, stop evil armies, and rescue princesses. Then somehow we get paired up with the Elements of Harmony romantically, ranging from love-hate relationships to the token cute pairing. And then after hundreds of adventures together, we all get this huge, yet really unnecessarily big wedding, which is nice but really tacky. And for all this time, we are somehow never as useful as the Elements of Harmony, but we are always the ones getting beat up by the big bad. So all in all, we are just the designated love interest for the bigger picture. But at least we have this really cool and snarky guy on our team who's like the lone wolf and…"

"YEAH!"

"Sorry. Got distracted there." Paramail realized he was thinking about his own little fantasies. "But anyways, thanks for your help and brohoof."

"YEAAAAAAH!" The two stallions then brohoofed a good bit harder than Paramail expected, causing him to wince a bit. At least he didn't use his recently sprained hoof. He then politely waved as the super strong pony flew off on his tiny wings towards Fluttershy's cabin.

When the muscular stallion was finally of sight, the mailpony finally yelped in pain from the strength of the pegasus's brohoof. As he shook his hoof in an attempt to numb the pain, he saw a familiar rainbow streak quickly land onto the cloud.

"I got your letter Baldy!" Rainbow Dash told him surprisingly stoic. "Those freaks are gonna regret taking Fluttershy!"

From what Paramail can see, she was already prepared for adventure. She has a few saddlebags on her and was wearing some kind of light turquoise costume. She was traveling a good bit lighter than the stallion, but she wasn't the one that stayed up all night.

Rainbow Dash noticed that he was staring at her new Wonderbolt costume Uncle Chromewing. She showed it off with style. "Like my brand new last generations Wonderbolts costum? Uncle Chromewing gave it to me last night. And then me, AJ and Blu went to a party in Berrybottom Bash till it was super late."

Paramail looked at the costume indifferently, thinking about how it looks so similar to the current generation Wonderbolts. But if she was happy, it was fine. But then he realized what she said. "Wait a minute? Who's Blu?"

"Blubayou."

"Who?"

"You know. The frogpony that's all covered in goo."

"Ew." Paramail then remembered two days ago with a shocked expression. "Wait a minute? Isn't he with the bad guys?" He then recalled a little bit more about that day. "And didn't you kick him square in the face?"

Rainbow Dash looked away in shame. "Yeah. Yeah I did. And threw a tomato, a cupcake, and a wad of guacamole at him."

Paramail checked his old friend's expression and saw that she was genuinely remorseful for what she did to the poor pony. Paramail placed an understanding hoof on her back. "Don't beat yourself up RD. Ponies make mistakes. Besides, Blu's the Element of Tolerance from what I know. He'll forgive ya." He then gave her a weak smile. "Besides, there's only room for one mildly angsty pony."

Rainbow let out a sympathetic sigh as she noticed how tired he looked. She knew he didn't get any sleep at all to get ready to save his crush. She admired his devotion, which she found truly worthy of his element. She then spoke up in a less serious manner. "So anyways. This is going on during your work days. How many vacation days you got?" She used to love playing around with the workaholic this way

Paramail didn't really get the mild teasing. "five…"

"Alright that's not too bad. We're gonna make it by…"

"…hundred and seventy four." Paramail saw the mare's jaw drop in shock. He chuckled a little. After this is all over, I'm using a hundred more days.

He then looked down from the cloud and got a good view of Ponyville. He focused on the center of town and saw most the Elements of Harmony talking amongst themselves. Rainbow Dash looked towards the town too, trying to see what he was seeing. He pointed to the statue of Celestia and Rainbow Dash could see those familiar colors of pink, lavender, white, and the not too familiar color of green. She immediately took to the air full of zeal.

"C'mon Baldy! Let's ditch all this self doubt and troubled time stuff and get ready to save the world!"

The mailpony found relief in the changed subject. He flapped his wings and both ponies flew down towards the town. Both pegasi then landed in front of the four ponies.

"Hiya Dashie! Hiya Baldy!" Pinkie exclaimed with joy. "Are ready to save the world!" She then nudged Paramail while winking in a lighthearted manner. "And your new girlfriend?"

Paramail took pride in finally having a special somepony. "Why yes I am Pinkamena. Glad you asked." He then took out a large map of Equestria from one of his bags. He spread it onto the ground for everypony to see the cities and trails marked by red pen, leading to Fillydelphia's Buckston Bay. The teal stallion sat on the ground to discuss his strategy.

"Alright here's the plan. First, we go through the Everfree Forest as a shortcut to Trottingham. There's an open plain in the middle of the forest so we can find refuge there for the night. Then the next day, we'll get to Las Pegasus too resupply our rations. Then we get to Buckston Bay to rent a ship…"

Twilight interrupted in a deadpan manner. "Or we can just teleport to Fillydelphia and borrow one of the ships from Coocoo's parents."

Paramail looked at her, then the map, then the rest of the ponies, then the map again. Paramail then quickly took the map and crumpled it up, tossing it into a garbage can. "That's six hours of planning down the drain." He lamented how he could've used that precious time for sleep.

As Rarity and Coocoodrill were admiring Rainbow Dash's suit, Pinkie Pie began to bounce in the air. "Hooray! We're gonna be pirate adventurers!" She then began to point at individual ponies.

"I'm the Jack-of-all-trades!"

All of them began to look at her to see what she was talking about.

"Coocoo's the demolitions expert!"

"SWEET!"

"Twilight's the archmage!"

"Thanks…I guess."

"Dashie's the scout!"

"Alright!"

"Baldy's the secondary scout!"

"Secondary?"

"Rarity's the one who frequently whines throughout the whole trip but in the end proves her worth?"

"What?"

"And then we have the token non-pony, the muscle and the aquatic master!"

Rarity thought about what Pinkie said for a second. "Pinkie?"

"YES?"

"I understand that Applejack is the muscle and Scones is the non-pony. But who is this "aquatic master" you're talking about?"

Pinkie Pie just patted her head. "I mean Blu silly! Who did you think I meant? I heard from certain sources that AJ and Dashie helped him out."

Rarity was about to faint. They not only introduced a Mara into their team, but now they were going to get that slimy, monstrous fishpony on their team. She shuddered just thinking about all of his sickening mucus. But she tried to speak about the subject. "So I wonder where those two are."

Pinkie just pointed right behind the white mare. Rarity and the others turned around to see Applejack and Blubayou fully packed and ready to go. The amphibipony slowly offered to shake the fashionista's hoof, but she didn't really want to touch the disgusting being, but she did out of politeness.

As Rarity was shaking the slime off of her boot, Twilight began to speak in her leadership voice. "Alright Elements! Are you all ready to save Equestria from the vile clutches of Screameater, keep the peace, and BE HEROES?"

"I'M OKEY DOKEY LOKEY!"

"Ready as rain dear."

"Ready to kick some Mara flank!"

"I've been up all night! What do you think!"

"HOOOOO-WEEEEE! Let's get this started!"

Blubayou let out a triumphantly loud croak, inflating his throat sack.

"Yeah I'm ready Twi!" Coocoodrill told the Element of Magic. "But one question."

Twilight just rolled her eyes, expecting a pointless question with an equally pointless answer. "Go ahead."

"So do we get like… cool weapons for being Elements? I mean I know I'm not getting a wicked awesome sword or anything but…do I at least get like a quarterstaff?"

"Nopony gets weapons." Twilight told him a little annoyed. "It's just the necklaces and that's it! We're going now!"

Pinkie Pie, Coocoodrill, Paramail and Blubayou groaned in disappointment as Twilight teleported them to Fillydelphia.

Thanks for all the reviews and such. I know Philadelphia isn't a city by the shore, but I decided to mix it with Boston. MLP allows such creative liberties.