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920 5.02 KB 28
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>(You) flip ponies for a quick buck.
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>Back before ponybots were a thing, you would often deal with the plastic toys, buying cheap lots of dirty, well-played pony figures to clean and resell. It wasn't your fulltime job obviously, but it was a good source of side income.
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>You got into it as a teen because your sister is a collector, and you turned out to be surprisingly good at helping her with restoration once you learned the basics. You like the show, but you're not super into the merch, so you don't have a proper collection of your own.
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>When Hasbro partnered with a robotics company to sell robotic ponies with built-in AI, you figured it'd be neat to branch out into those as well. You already knew a bit of basic robotics from the electives you took in high school, after all.
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>Luckily enough, after a couple of years second-hand ponebots became common in electronics stores and on Ebay. Seems like a lot of snot nosed kids would lose interest in the things as soon as they became 'too old' for them, so their parents would just sell them.
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>You still don't have an actual ponebot of your own, and you tend to leave them turned off while you own them so that you don't get emotionally attached to your own wares. You just clean and repair them, then pass them on for a higher price.
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>You're at the local flea market, scanning for pony stuff, and... bingo. There's a trio of ladies with a few ponybots in varying raggedy conditions at one stand.
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>As you approach closer, you realize that a few of the machines look visibly bootleggy. The proportions are slightly off, along with other design variations. Most of them look legit though, just worn out. You speak up to one of the women.
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"Are you selling these ponybots?"
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>"Oh, yes! Me and my friends here all had our daughters lose interest in ponies recently, so we partnered together to sell them and split the money evenly!" she says.
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>Everything about her appearance screams "white suburban mother". These kids are probably spoiled as shit if they can each have their own bots and then throw them away like this. You eye three of them in particular, a pair of Twilight Sparkles and some slightly obscure background pony that you can never remember the name of. They're all tagged with simple string and paper labels that value them at slightly below average prices. Likely due to their frizzy ended manes, with braids that look like they haven't been undone in a year.
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>Eh, you haven't made any major purchases in a while, and you have enough money to throw at this and still have a good amount leftover, so why not?
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"Could I have those three over there?"
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>"Of course! Got a daughter who likes ponies?"
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>God, you find it annoying as hell when people selling shit try to be 'chatty'. You try to push away this feeling and respond politely though.
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"Nah, I work with restoring pony stuff. One of them might end up in the hands of some little girl after I fix them up though."
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>"Well, I'm not sure if you'd be interested, but we have a little deal going on. We've been having trouble selling two of the other robots, and since you're already buying these three I could give you a big discount on the other pair."
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>She tells you more about the deal, then goes on some ramble about how 'these ponies used to belong to Cherith's twins, and she's been worried that she'll never get rid of them'. You zone out for a minute to think it over (and to avoid listening to this lady describe her pal's life story), then snap back to reality to give her your answer.
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"Sounds like a good discount, I'd be willing to take them off your hands."
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>"Oh, thank you! I'll bring them right out."
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>She does so, and yep, they're a pair of the bootlegs. Based on her facial expression, she's either an experienced scammer or genuinely thinks these things are legit. Then again, if she were a scammer would she really be giving you such a huge discount?
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>The prices are still really good when taking into account the fact that these are fakies. You figure you can probably use them for parts or sell them to a family who doesn't care about authenticity.
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>Pretty soon you're pulling up in your driveway with five ponies in your car, and carrying them to your garage.
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>As you're carrying one of the two bootlegs, you notice something a bit odd about her. Across her back is a dark glossy surface that almost resembles those solar panels on some electronics.
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>Overall, she doesn't look ugly at all, but she's obviously not official. She's a purple unicorn with a yellow mane and a sun cutiemark. Her mane seems kind of thin and cheap though. When you try lifting up her mechanical eyelids, you can see that there appears to be some of that glitter that's cut into shapes pasted onto her eyes. Mostly heart shaped bits, but a few circular ones as well.
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>You examine the other bootleg. She's a pale blue, with a brighter blue mane and eyes. She has more horse-like proportions than most ponybots you see, but she's still relatively small and cartoonish. Her cutiemark is a pair of blue and yellow flowers.
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still working on this shit, will write moar later