Gratification

by KorenCZ11

Pontification

There was chatter abound upon leaving the theater. However, from my little unit, there was none. Prism, Haze, and Dash were all deep in thought and I hadn’t quite sorted out my feelings on the movie either. Still, it was getting late and I was about ready to eat.

“How about food, guys?” I asked.

Brought from their trances, Haze was the first to recover. “Hobby Max first!”

He must be really into that manga. “Hobby Max first. But still, food?”

“Pizza?” Dash suggested.

Haze and I nodded, while Prism fell back into his trance. I clapped in his face. “Prism.”

“Huh? Oh, sure, whatever is good.” And right back he went.

“Oh-kay. Let’s hit up Hobby Max then.”

We went down the elevator with a few other ponies as the mall was full now, and we made our way to Hobby Max. Everybody was gathered around the tables and playing one of the miniature games, and there were even ponies on our side of the store looking at kits. Still no mares though. It boggles the mind.

“Injection Mold, we’re back!” Haze announced.

The bespectacled unicorn left his game, since I guess he was playing with the group, and came back to the counter. “So you are! How was the movie?”

Haze scratched at his cheeks. “I have… opinions, but it was fun, at least. You know, that part where After Burner used the horn was like, super dumb, but it was so funny. He felt almost like comic relief, from punching the crap out of Mountain Glow to the Crab stuff. When he was on screen, the movie was really fun. And when he wasn’t… well, then it was a poorly written romance, I think, with a hoofful of poorly written politics to go with. The not fun kind of stupid.”

Injection definitely wanted to say something, but just couldn’t in the end. “Yeah, no, I think you’ve summed it up pretty good.” he turned to Prism, “But you saw the last knight, right? The white one?”

Somepony finally speaking his language, Prism perked up. “Yeah! That was so cool!” but then he frowned. “But I worry about how they’ll do the gold. Worst case, they give me baked in parts with stickers. Another bad case, they give me the curry gold all over and it looks like shiny puke and I have to paint it a ton. In the best case, they’ll give me a plated sheet, but that’s gonna make it like, a 40 bit HG which I wonder if is worth the price. I like it and all, but I might just get the regular black knights and paint them. How about that new Freedom and Justice though? I really like the new freedom, the backpack matches the suit way, way better than the original one ever did.”

“But they took away all the blue!” Dash objected.

“Oh, well, yeah.” Prism agreed.

“I liked the blue!” she continued to complain, “That was my favorite part of the knight! The way it compliments the gold and makes what’s normally a pretty bland, standard design for this series stand out. With the wings all spread and it using lasers and stuff, that’s what made it cool. The new one is just like. Meh.”

Injection nodded. “I see. Well, even if you don’t care for the new Freedom, what did you think about the movie?”

Dash frowned. “The drama was kinda overblown. After Burner and Copper have my favorite romance… in Seed at least, and they were barely in the movie at all. Mountain Glow being perfect, except when he’s a bitch, and Lily being 100 percent faithful all the time made it kinda… boring I guess. Like, if the new girl even had a chance with Mountain Glow, or the blonde pony… who definitely wasn’t Rail Crescent from Seed 1 and 2, had a chance with Lilly, maybe it would’ve been better, but they gave so much time to setting up the conflict which was all bullshit anyways that it didn’t land at all. If they want me invested, then I need a spicy bad romance where everybody is a piece of shit and them actually being faithful is the payoff, ya know, like Seed 1. Dumb horn gimmick though? 10/10. I’d give the movie a solid 6.”

Oh, my Goddess, is that why Dash likes Wing so much? Because it’s literally that?

“Now hold on,” Prism argued, “A 6? Really Mom?”

She shrugged. “I mean, yeah. It was alright, it was kinda funny sometimes, but I wouldn’t watch it again. You saw the ballroom scene, that was where they failed hardest with the bad romance. If these characters weren’t so used to each other or didn’t have such established reputations, maybe it would’ve been better, but be real with me Prism; do you actually remember anything that was said during the politics parts that you always say you like so much?”

Damn, she got him good. Still, he fought for it anyways. “Well, no, but it’s Roboknights, that’s like, part of the checklist. The battle was so cool! And that was like, a solid hour and the whole last half of the movie. The lasers and the lights and the fighting and that weird scene where the blonde pony tried to… ya know. I wasn’t ready for that. It at least deserves a 7. Maybe even an 8.”

“No, no.” Haze refuted. “That wasn’t super necessary. He could’ve done his heel turn any other way and they still could have made him look like a bad guy; they chose to go this route because sex sells. There were a lot of scenes in this that were just horny for the sake of it, for that matter. Why did that mare have to take a shower? Why did at least an entire minute of screen time get devoted to Lilly’s tail after she put that skin tight suit on? Not that this is anything new for Seed, but they didn’t even try to justify some of these camera angles and some of it was just there for the sake of the checklist rather than using the checklist creatively to fill out the movie. I wouldn’t call it slapped together, but you can tell this movie was just fanservice; cool robot fights, and pretty mares.”

What a take from Haze. Little twelve-year-old has such a wide view on storytelling. Guess that’s what happens when you actually read books from an early age.

“Well?” Injection mold asked, “How would you rate it, mister expert?”

He sucked air in through his teeth. “Objectively? It doesn’t deserve more than a 4. The writing is mediocre to bad, the characters are bland, the drama is fake, and sometimes, the animation is bad. However, because I like pretty mares and cool robots, I’d bump it up to a 6 because the second half was just that much fun.”

Dash wrapped herself around her beloved baby. “Oh, don’t say that! I know you’re growing up, but I don’t want to hear about it!”

“Yeah, well, too bad, Mom.” He didn’t push her off immediately, which is a far improvement from a few months ago. “I’m about to be thirteen. You need to get over yourself.”

She squeezed tighter. “Ah! Where did my baby go?” She pressed her head to his, then sighed and let go. “I can’t believe he’s gone.”

Injection laughed. “It’s nice to see you guys on better terms. Still, we haven’t heard dad’s opinion yet. How about it?”

I stroked my little beard. “Honestly? I think I would’ve liked it better if I didn’t have to read the movie. I definitely missed some stuff, but hearing everything they had to say about it makes me think it wasn’t all that important to begin with. I’ll be boring and give it a 6 with the rest of them. There were some really dumb but really funny moments, and the second half of the movie was far, far more fun than the first half. I might be willing to rewatch it when it gets dubbed into English, but it would be background noise and not something to focus on.”

Injection Mold nodded. “I hate to say it, but I definitely agree with a lot of points you guys brought up. Still, because the robots were cool, we’ll be getting a shipment of the new stuff here in the next few weeks and I can set some stuff aside if you want me too. As always, they’re rereleasing some of the older kits from the series now too, so I might get some of that too. Anything you want to reserve?”

“Ooh, ooh, ooh!” Prism raised a hoof like he was in class. “Destinys, of the same grade! I wanna recreate that shadow clone scene with a bunch of them!”

Of course he does. Injection wrote that down and took out two boxes from under the counter, one HG and one MG, both the Destiny Roboknight. “I have these two in right now. I’m sure I’ll get more of each, but you know how the company has been with Master Grades lately, so probably the High Grades more than the MGs. Do you want one today?”

“Yes! The HG, please.”

Injection put that with the Red Frame by the till. “Cool. And what about the critic?”

He thought about that carefully, focusing on the kit he wanted so badly. “Maybe the other frame colors? Blue and Gold are a thing, and after looking online, I know there’s a black and green one out there too. I don’t know what kinda grades they were released in, but if I can get them in Real Grade, I’d like that.”

Injection frowned. “That’s a bit of an ask. Gold has one normal release, but it’s a variant and not the standard version. All the variants of red, blue, and gold were special limited releases, the black one only comes in MG, and the green and purple ones are super rare and were only released as gradeless 1/100s. I’ll look into getting the gold one, but for the rest, you’d be better off looking online.”

Haze sighed. “Sad, but I’m not my brother, so I doubt I’ll blow my allowance on obsessively collecting these things. I’ll come back for the common one if you can get it, but if you can’t, it’s cool.”

“I’ll keep ya posted, chief. Anything else, Rainbowmanes?”

Dash looked at me and flicked her head toward the expensive kit, and I shook my head. “Nope, that’ll be it.”

She clicked her tongue but didn’t argue further. She knows it wouldn’t be fair, and we came out to see this movie together for Prism in the first place, and he’s still getting a new toy out of it. Maybe close to his birthday I can find that thing he specifically asked for, or whatever new stuff has come out by then. Sure, it’s only January now, but May will be here faster than we know it. If Prism can keep a passing grade in his classes, then he’ll have really earned it.

“Cool.” Injection scanned the two boxes and put them in a bag for us. “That will be forty seven bits for the HG Destiny and the RG Red frame.”

I put my card on the counter and watched as the digital currency drained away. Add the pizza we’re about to eat and that will be a hundred twenty bit day and all we’ve done is go see a movie and get dinner. Ah, how simple life used to be.

Injection gave me my card back and passed the bag to Dash. “Thanks for coming to Hobby Max! See you next time!”