Gratification

by KorenCZ11

Invitation

“Dad, Dad! Did you see this!?” Prism called from upstairs.

I hadn’t seen whatever he was talking about because I was in the middle of doing our taxes for the previous year. It was January again, and in spite of everything Twilight says about Ponyville’s low taxes, that doesn’t mean the system she implemented to calculate them isn’t absurd. ‘This is the way the humans do it,’ she says, but as it turns out, the way they do it is insane too. The Government knows how much I spent and how much I owe, but they make me calculate it, and then they send agents to your door when you do the math wrong, no matter the direction.

Between royalties from the Wonderbolts, our income as teachers, and the bonuses we get for being flight instructors at the school, there’s a lot of taxable income to sort out, and there are taxes on literally everything. The car payment, the house payment, city taxes, federal taxes, income taxes, and who knows what else. It’s such a pain, but I don’t have practice today and Dash is working with the girls this evening, so I’m getting a head start on these.

However, with my motivation to work on these dropping, I attended Prism instead. “No. What is it?”

Prism flew into my study and held out his phone for me to see. “There’s a new Roboknights movie coming out!”

My eyes saw the ad for the movie, but my ears heard ‘there are new model kits I want you to buy me!’ Still, I humored my son. “Alright. When’s it coming out?”

He turned the ad to himself to read it. “Uh… this weekend? First showing is Friday.”

“We have a race on Saturday; are you sure you wanna do that to yourself?”

I could see the fight on his face. He hates to be unrested for his races. It’s never a question of whether or not he wins, he’s a college level flier at fifteen; but he’s a perfectionist, like his mother. He is also a Roboknights fanatic.

“Yes,” he said, slowly, as if he really didn’t want to say the word.

“Alright, sure. I’ll give you some money and—”

“No, we should all go!” He cut me off.

I blinked. “Huh?”

“Yeah! It’s a sequel movie, Dad! Roboknights: Seed - Freedom!”

There were so many Roboknights. It rang a bell, but this was his thing so I more or less let him do it. “A… sequel movie?”

At this point, I’d triggered the ‘I get to explain my obsession’ flag, and Prism followed accordingly. “Yeah! So, like, Seed originally came out back in 2002, and then Seed 2 came out in 2004, and now they’re releasing a movie set after Seed 2!”

Prism wasn’t even a glimmer in my eye back in 2004. I’d just gotten into the Wonderbolts back then. “The movies really are creatively bankrupt these days, huh? A new movie after twenty years?”

He scratched at his head, clearly not hearing what he wanted to. “Well, I mean, it could be worse. The last Roboknights movie was based on the first part of a novel from over thirty years ago, so…”

And now you’ve upset him. Just let him explain it. “Alright, sure. What’s this one about?”

“Oh, here’s the trailer!” His phone in his hoof again, he played a trailer for the movie… totally in Umanese. The characters and the robots were ringing in my memory, but the voices were all wrong and I didn’t have a clue as to what was going on.

I swallowed. “Prism, buddy, this is going to be in Equestrian when we watch it, right?”

“It has subtitles!”

Right. I took a deep breath. “Are you sure it has to be us? Can’t you take your friends?”

He rolled his eyes. “But none of my friends have seen Seed! And we all watched it together!”

I raised a brow. “Really? Even Fallacy?”

“Fal isn’t allowed in the theater anymore.”

Not surprising, but I still had to know why. “Because…?”

“Well, we went to go see that tokusatsu movie—” He says, like I know what ‘tokusatsu’ even means. “And prices for theater food is kind of a scam, so… you know.”

So Discord’s son used his powers to create some kind of extravagant meal in the middle of the theater and was caught by the staff. Encouraging him to sneak Fallacy in is probably not good dad behavior, so I’m going to be stuck listening to a foreign language and reading a movie for however long.

I sighed. “Yeah, I gotcha. How long is this?”

“Two hours, ten minutes.”

Goddess among us. “Okay, well, lemme talk to your mom about—”

“Oh, she’s already in. It’s Seed, Dad, it’s one of her favorites.”

Now I remember. This is the one with Mountain Glow and After Burner that we watched before I introduced Dash to Mom a few months ago. Which is why we’ve all seen it. Or, at least the first half of the first season, anyways. I don’t think I recognized a few of those characters. And the lips on those ponies! They made them look like they all had plastic surgery! That’s new animation?

“Ah. Right. And your little brother?”

“His favorite Roboknight is supposed to be in it, so he was down to go too.”

“Of course he was.” Haze’s next performance isn’t until March so the theater club has been off since school started back up a few weeks ago. Give in Soarin, you’re stuck. Wait, the last hope! “What about Cheesette? Wouldn’t you rather go with her?”

Now he just looked guilty. “So, Cheesette likes pies.”

I feel like I know where this is going. “Yeah, no, I know that. Pretty sure most of the city does.”

“And last time I took her to a movie, she managed to sneak one in that she made specifically to eat while watching the movie…”

“And someone complained and she is also no longer allowed into the theater.”

Prism rubbed his hooves together. “Yeah…”

Figures. Hmm. any more ways out of this? I did give him that homework assignment… I sat up straight and cleared my throat. “We are such stuff as dreams are made on…”

Prism took a breath in return. “... and our little life is rounded with a sleep.

“Sir, I am vexed.

“Bear with my weakness.

“My old brain is troubled.

“Be not disturbed with my infirmity.

“If you be pleased—”

I held a hoof up. “Alright, you pass.”

Prism threw his hooves up. “Yes! Finally! I swear, I read that stupid book for a whole damn month!”

I would like to be proud of my poor son, but he’s about to make me sit through this movie, and I just know there will be model kits either on the day or within the week. The hobby shop he likes to visit is right there in the mall too… “Good job, Prism. We’ll go see the movie Friday after school.”

My boy hugged me. “You’re the best, Dad!”

Ah, my little rainbow. I hugged him back.

“So, there’s this new Roboknight in the movie…”

One rainbow like another.