//------------------------------// // Operation // Story: Gratification // by KorenCZ11 //------------------------------// Ponyville mall, also known as Neon Dream, was located in District 7, northeast of Ponyville Castle, two districts directly north of our house. As the school was located in district 1 with the castle, the drive from school to the mall was almost more inconvenient than walking. It took about fifteen minutes either way, and since this trip would not end until after we visited the Hobby Max to see if they had any of the new kits in, we figured it was best to just bring the car. “Ro-bo-knights! Ro-bo-knights!” Dash and Prism chanted, like, the whole way there. When we finally made it through all the traffic, I’d had just about enough of the chanting and the Umanese songs. I turned to the two of them and said, “You guys know that the movie doesn’t start until five, right? We’ve got an hour to kill.” Mother and son looked at each other, then came back with a new chant in the same rhythm. “Hob-by-Max! Hob-by-Max!” Haze put a hoof on my shoulder. “It’s no use, Dad. They’ve been like this all day.” “I know, Haze, I—” On the screen of the phone in Haze’s hoof, there was none-other than yet another Roboknight from this same series in black and white pantone. “Et tu, Brutae?” Realizing he’d been caught, he quickly locked the phone and put it in his pocket. “No, wait! It’s not what it looks like!” As if she were drawing the dagger herself, his mother shot a hoof at him. “You’d better bet it is! He started reading that manga during class this week!” Haze covered his face with his hooves. “I thought we were over this! Why are you still spying on my classes?” Dash smiled like this was some kind of achievement. “Please. Just because we talked doesn’t mean I’m gonna stop being your mom, dude.” “You don’t spy on Prism’s classes!” Despair overtook Dash’s face. “I don’t have to spy on Prism’s classes to be told about his grades…” Thus the twelfth dagger fell. With the air of despair that had now filled the car, I decided it was time we got out. “We are gonna miss our chance to go to Hobby Max if we don’t go do that now.” “Y-yeah, H-hobby Max…” Prism said with as much enthusiasm as he could muster. “Why does this feel like it’s my fault?” Haze asked. “It’s not my fault, is it?” I lovingly patted my youngest’s shoulder. “Shut up and get out of the car.” “Okay.” Our little unit out of the vehicle and moving into the building from the parking garage, the mall was bustling with life. Living up to the name, we entered on the first floor where neon signs illuminated every inch of hanging space there was, advertising everything from groceries to arcade games, clothes to sports gear, photography to cars, and even a rock wall and a bungee trampoline. And that was just the first floor. This mall had go-karts and laser tag, an entire floor and a half dedicated to the food court, and finally, the top floor, which was just the theater. Like every Friday afternoon, there were ponies, of all shapes and sizes, with a hoofful of other species here and there filling every corner of the mall. It wasn’t quite prime time though, so it was busy but not crowded. Hobby Max was a little cut out on the third floor with all the toy shops, card dens, board game houses, and bars one could find in Neon Dream. There was about one for every major game and a bar for at least six different nationalities and five or so sports teams on either side of the small city that was this building. Capacity here was something like two thousand ponies per floor, it was insane. While Hobby Max mostly served its board game and tabletop game customers, there was a quarter of the store devoted to Prism’s expensive hobby. The nice thing about the miniature figure games is that they shared paints in common with Prism’s model company and he could get whatever he needed for color correction or outright custom paint jobs for his little toys. He got really out there with them sometimes, especially after Mom took him under her ‘wing’ to teach him how to work a chisel. He wants to enter a building competition this year, and to really up his game, he’s been getting the really cheap ones to practice highly detailed paint jobs on. Between that and his architecture talent, he’s come a long way into recreating scenes from the shows. I know Seed isn’t his favorite Roboknights series, but as he’s told me whenever he gets a chance, the newest kits always place the highest. Not exactly a big surprise when a big toy company is holding the competition. “Sup, Rainbowmanes,” said the owner, a bespectacled stallion by the name, Injection Mold. “You going to see the new movie today?” “Absolutely!” Dash shouted, checking the back wall for the more expensive figures. She wasn’t the architect nor a ‘Snow’ like me and the boys, but she was pretty good with her hooves all the same, and was the most easily sucked into whatever hobby the boys had picked up. From playing blocks with Prism in his foalhood to acting out parts for Haze, she was Wonderbolt Mom extraordinaire. Her obsession was Roboknights: Wing, and she liked the one with feathers. She owned every model of the thing, save the very elusive, recent-ish Master Grade, or, medium-sized kit, from four years ago. That said, she only started building them when both the boys found it was a good way to bond with Mom. At this point, she’s developed it into her own hobby and our room looks less like where we sleep, and more like a shrine to the Wing Zero. “You uh… get one in yet?” Injection sighed. “You know I don’t know when they actually reprint these things, right? I get whatever they send me, whether I order it specifically or not.” He pointed to a big black box with the title Roboknight from Seed on the front. “You see that Freedom EX? I ordered that thing when they were announced last year in May. I didn’t get the thing until the beginning of December and they released overseas in September!” Prism put a wing on her. “You really should just order online if you want it so badly.” Dash stamped her hoof. “I’m not gonna overpay a scalper for this! I’ll get it here, or we’ll go visit Uma as, like, a family vacation some day, and I’ll get it there.” “It’ll probably resold over there too.” Haze mumbled. “Oh!” Prism got up on two hooves to meet Injection over the counter. “Speaking of the Freedom, did you get the new one yet?” Injection smiled. “You mean this one?” On the counter, he set out a brand new box for the latest version of the Seed title suit, the Freedom Roboknight. Prism’s eyes went wide and he immediately inspected the box from every angle. He turned it this way and that, then settled on the side with all the pictures of the model kit after it had been assembled. The pony robot was blue and white for the most part, sacrificing the once prominent gold for a more bright orange-red and light gray. He didn’t smile which put my wallet at ease. “That’s it?” Injection nodded. “That’s it.” The unicorn stallion lit his horn and floated a completed but unstickered model out from under the counter and onto the top for Prism to see. “Look, I’m gonna be honest with you, this has the recent awesome build quality from all the latest kits, but I’ve seen the movie already and… well, let’s just say that there’s more coming. A lot more.” Once again, my wallet shivered. Prism inspected the completed model, moving it around, putting it in silly poses, standing it up on two hooves, spreading out the wings. “Man, sometimes, it sucks being a mainline fan. The last anime was… meh, but the kits were so good! Ugh, why hadn’t they figured this crap out during the orphans era?” “I know, it’s terrible.” Injection then brought up some older kits that I had never seen before. “But, I did get in some older stuff from Seed since they’re reprinting like, everything because of the movie.” And then, something terrible happened. Haze focused like a laser on a pair of kits toward the end of the pile. “That’s… that’s the one!” The kit he’d singled out was an unusual one with a big red ‘V’ on the top of its head like an ornament and similar to the Freedom, the entire inner frame was a not gray color, this one being bright red. Of course, it was aptly named ‘Red Frame.’ Funny how that works. He moved to the box and picked it up. “Just like in the comic…”  A magenta eye drifted my way. I’d already seen the prices, and to be honest, I expected to come in here and spend a whole lot more, so this was within my expectations. “One each, under 30 bits.” Haze smiled, Prism frowned, and Dash raised a brow, making a face a lot like Applejack. “What?” My wife put a wing on my shoulder. “Look, Imma need you to go up. Like, a lot.” I narrowed my eyes. “Why? We haven’t finished doing taxes yet, we don’t know if we’re gonna owe money or not!” “I’m just gonna send our shit to Twilight and make her do it.” “Dash, that’s awful.” She wagged her hoof at me. “Oh, it is, but this is her fault, and she knows it. She’ll help a friend out. And besides, she’ll get it done quicker too since, ya know, she already has all our tax information.” I shook my head. “It is really annoying that she won’t just send that out.” “Right.” I saw her eyes flick left, then back to me. “So, I know we’ll get some of our taxes back after we file. And I want something.” “Did we not come here because Prism wanted to see this movie?” “No, we came because I wanted to see this movie, mister, ‘I need to talk to your mom first.’” Damn punk ratted me out. “What do you want?” “The EX.” I turned my head to look at the piles of kits with the big black Freedom EX box sitting on top. Just below it was a price tag. “Dude.” “Don’t dude me! It’s totally gold on the inside, and it has wings that fly off on their own to shoot lasers!” I looked at my disappointed rainbow headed son and found my resolve. “No. It’s not fair.” Dash glared at me and pulled me aside. It was all the same, we still had half an hour to kill, and Prism as paralyzed by all his options while Haze was about ready to tear into his new kit. Once we were away enough to be by all the miniatures and paints, she sat down. “Come on.” “No! It’s a hundred and seventy bits! We’re here for Prism, you can’t get that now!” “We are here for Prism, and he’s passing Equestrian now that he finished that book of plays you gave him!” She scratched at her rainbow mane. “So I don’t actually want that for me.” It made my heart sing to know how much she’d go through for our boy. “Aww, sweetie.” “Don’t you aww sweetie me!” She turned the other way. “I’ve got an image to keep up and I’m…” but she could barely contain it. “Just so proud!” She fell into me and leaned her head against my neck. “But like, I don’t want to be weird about this. We just went through all that drama with Haze and your mom, and my parents would’ve gone super hard if I’d managed a passing grade in Equestrian on my own, but like, I don’t want them to feel like I'm playing favorites again after all the crap, ya know?” I put a foreleg around her shoulders. “So you want me to look like I’m playing favorites just so you can get the credit for rewarding Prism?” Dash smiled bright as a rainbow. “Absolutely!” I leaned down and kissed my wife. “Well, you are my favorite…” She kissed me back, now practically hanging off me. “So, buy me an expensive toy?” “No.” “What!?” “Dude, we’re about to go see a movie! Do you want to be holding that thing, or worse, let it sit on a sticky theater floor for two hours?” She rubbed her chin. “That… I hadn’t considered that.” “I know. I’m gonna ask Injection to hold this stuff for us and we can pick it up after the movie.” Dash sighed. “Alright, Dad, you win.” “I mean, sure, but if I’m going to commit to spending almost two hundred bits on Prism, we’ve got to do something for Haze too. His birthday is in eleven days, after all. Give me something satisfying, and I’ll blow the cash.” She narrowed her eyes at me. “Oh, I’ll give you something satisfying, you handsome, even-hooved, former wonderbolt!” That was a promise, not a threat. “Come on, Dash, we’re in public…” “Oh, I don’t care. You’re gonna regret having to be a coach tomorrow. Telling me no, giving me conditions…” Then she really gave me a kiss, and if the kids weren’t here… they’d have to change the rating in the theater. “Goddess, I love you.” Before this got too out of hoof, I pulled her off me and wiped the spit off my mouth. “I love you too. But we should go get our tickets.” She gave me a swat on the flank, never losing eye contact until she got to the counter. “Hey, so, since we are about to go see the movie, could you hold onto these for us until we get out?” “Yeah, sure Mrs. Soarin.” I joined Dash at the counter. “Alright kids, release the plastic crack for a bit.” Haze let go of his red robot with difficulty, and Prism had been picking out paints to stand next to the completed model. “Oh, what?” Prism asked. “Buddy, did you pick one out?” I asked. He shook his head. “Nah, I’m gonna wait til after the movie. For as much as I like the Strike and all of its upgrades, this one is kinda… lame. I thought, if I could paint it, then maybe, but… I just can’t think of a color scheme or what else I’d do with this.” Dash and I looked at each other. “If you could get anything in the store, what would you want?” Prism looked behind us to Injection Mold. “You still got that Pehenex?” He shrugged. “I told ya, they go fast.” “Damn. Then, maybe the SFEX or the PG Unicorn.” “Unicorn?” I looked around the store until I spotted a huge box on the very top shelf behind the counter. White armor segmented by glowing red inner parts with a bright gold V-fin like most of the rest of the Roboknights. He has like four of these things already, but none of them came in a box that big. Or were that expensive, holy crap. 1/60 scale? I had to ask. “Injection, how big is that thing?” “The PG?” he asked. “I’d say it’s like, a foot and a half or so, to a foot, to half a foot. It is not small.” I turned back to Prism. “Dude, would you even have a place to put this thing?” Totally stoic, he said. “I would make a place for it.” This is not what I’d signed up for. That thing is almost fifty bits more than the other kit. “Cool. It’s 4:45. We’ll be back, and the movie starts in fifteen. Let’s go.”