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The door to the student council room at Tracen Academy used to be an ornate and well wrought work of art. It was an imposing thing of oak, representing the authority and the prestige of Japan’s central school for horse girls.
And it was completely useless at its given role of blocking entry as one Tokai Teio barreled through the door. Thankfully, Tazuna had already installed custom hinges on the door to have it swing inside and not have their hundred thousand yen historical heirloom take the full impact of a Japan Cup winning horse girl. “PRESIDENT!” the young girl shouted excitedly as she audibly skidded to a halt in front of the desk. “You asked for me?!!”
Symboli Rudolf chuckled good naturedly at Teio’s enthusiasm, although she surreptitiously checked the condition of the rest of the office. Seeing that nothing had been knocked over by the force, she turned her attention back to her energetic junior. “I did, yes. Thank you very much for coming with such short notice.”
“What are we doing?!” Teio nearly shouted, causing the nearby Air Groove to wince slightly. “Er, sorry Vice Pres!”
“Control your volume,” Air Groove replied, to which Teio nodded, still chipper as ever. “But do continue.”
“Thank you, Teio. Anyways, I actually had something to give to you,” Rudolf continued.
“Oh goddesses!” Teio said, eyes practically gleaming. “I’ll treasure it forever! What is it?”
“Tickets for a newly released film,” the president explained. “Maruzensky had told me that this had attained a large amount of fans, and suggested that I watch it to keep up. What was it called… Ah, yes, ‘A Minecraft Movie’, I believe. I had initially purchased those tickets for myself and the vice president, but something unavoidable came up, so I would have you go in our stead.”
“Woah! The Minecraft movie?! I love that game! Haven’t played it in so long … But how did they make it into a movie?”
“Oh, is it a video game?” Rudolf said. “Interesting… Well, please enjoy yourself, but don’t let this get in the way of your training.”
“Of course!” Teio said. “And once I do, I’ll laminate the stubs, then brag to everyone that the great Symboli Rudolf gave me a present! Anyways, thank you so much!”
“The pleasure is all mine. I hope you will appreciate their craft.”
“Alright, Pres! Seeya later!” Teio always had the ability to selectively ignore what other people said, but being a big Rudolf fan certainly had accelerated that development.
Before Teio could bash open the door again, Air Groove propped it open, letting the over energetic girl dash off unimpeded. The vice president looked at how Teio artfully passed a gaggle of freshmen on her way while running at near race level speed, then sighed. “You spoil her a little much,” the vice president said. “She really shouldn’t be in here so often. Ogasawara-sensei has already reprimanded her several times.”
“After all of the setbacks she’s suffered through, I think a little spoiling in order,” Rudolf said. “And that cheeky, impetuous nature serves her well on the race track. I would hate to squash it.”
“And she reminds you of yourself in your younger days.” Air Groove said.
“Another important consideration, yes.” Rudolf picked up her massive stack of paperwork, then focused again on the contents. “Anyways, I have bought myself an afternoon without Teio at last.”
“And what are you going to do with that time?”
Rudolf thought for a second. “Smooch a bunch of girls, probably.”
Air Groove blinked. “I see… Can I be one of them?”
“Sure.”
“Alright, I’ll put it in my calendar.”
“…Groovy.”
It was actually surprisingly difficult for Teio to find someone to go with her to the movies. She had only played Minecraft before her debut, so she wasn’t sure if anyone at Tracen played it. Well, it was Minecraft, obviously someone was playing it, but she just didn’t know who. Teio had already asked most of team Spica, and either they were clueless about Minecraft, had races coming up, or were Gold Ship. Helios was her next pick because she definitely was the type to play the game, but she had said… something when Teio had asked, and while Teio wasn’t exactly sure it was clear that she had already seen it.” “Oh yeah I peeped it with the Tracencord oomfie! Kinda fire fr!”
So with that, Teio moved to the last name on her list. Truth be told, if it was just about her preference, she would have asked her first, maybe second. But Teio just didn’t know if she would think it was a little childish to watch a video game movie… which is why she had already set aside some money to bribe her with movie theater sweets. “McQueen!” she called out.
“Oh, Teio!” McQueen replied, a happy smile on her face despite her obvious exhaustion. Teio handed McQueen her water bottle, waiting for her to cooldown from her intense workout. “If you wanted to run with me, I’m afraid I’m wrapping for tonight.”
“No, no, that’s perfect! I actually wanted to see if you were free next Saturday.” Teio already knew that McQueen was supposed to be free since Ryan had told her, but she didn’t want to seem like a tryhard.
“I should be. Why do you ask?”
“Well…” Teio paused to gather herself a bit, then brought out the tickets. “I got these two tickets for a movie. Do you want to see it?”
“Oh?” McQueen raised an eyebrow. “Did you… Did you mean to invite me specifically?” Her cheeks flushed red slightly.
“Eh? Ah, uh, no!” Teio said, shaking both her head and her arms back and forth. “The president gave me the tickets, and I was asking around. The thing is, it’s a bit of … hmm… it might be a little niche?” Teio said, fumbling over her words. Come to think of it, how was she going to pitch the dang Minecraft Movie to a heiress who grew up in a giant mansion? Teio knew McQueen liked movies, but all she had seen her read about was movies from the 20th century with titles that sounded like T M Opera.
“Ah, I see… Uh, of course I can appreciate cinema even if I am not the intended audience,” McQueen said, regaining her composure. “What is the movie?”
Teio decided to stop beating around the bush. “It’s the Minecraft Movie.”
“Oh! I had actually been planning to see that movie,” McQueen said. Teio’s brain stops dead as she struggles to comprehend. Yes, sure, McQueen is more childish than she likes to pretend (just like Teio is more mature than she likes to pretend), but the Minecraft movie? “It’s been gathering quite the buzz amongst filmgoers. I’ve been wanting to see it to see what the future of movies may look like.”
“It has been really really popular,” Teio said, although she’s mostly still dumbfounded. “So, um, you’ll go with me?”
“Yes! I mean, of course,” McQueen tripped over her words, having to recover and say it with less obvious emotion. Teio recognized that her rival was trying to hide her excitement, of course, so she let it go. After all, she was going out with McQueen! Whatever reason the heiress was wrangling in her brain to justify herself was good enough for Teio!
“Alright! I’m, uh, yeah! Let’s, yknow, do it! I’m gonna… train! Yeah!” McQueen nodded at Teio and flashed her another smile, then returned to her water bottle. Before she could make any other weird and stupid noises, Teio zoomed off onto the track, running with far too much energy. Her training schedule ended up being awfully out of whack, but she did break a personal best on the sprints.
The theater lobby was packed . Mostly it looked like parents and children, but there were a surprising amount of young adults there too. It was honestly like a winning concert more than anything. McQueen didn’t realize that this Minecraft thing was almost as popular as their races, but thinking back on it the little green face was popular with the kids at the baseball games.
Going to this theater did have its risks, of course - she had been so careful to avoid letting people know that she had all of these undignified hobbies, and Teio was the person she least wanted to know. Well, Gold Ship was the real least, but that was because if Gold Ship knew then she would tell everyone at the least opportune time for McQueen. But Gold Ship didn’t count in any list, so Teio took the top by default. Teio was her rival, damnit! She absolutely refused to look anything but her best in front of anyone, but it went doubly for Teio. She had to properly represent the Mejiro family! And a proper Mejiro scion absolutely did not have a subscription pass at the local movie theater… which is why she usually went there with a baseball shirt and glasses. Proper Mejiro scions didn’t watch baseball games either, so it was a foolproof disguise! Thankfully, Teio had said she was handling the refreshments, so McQueen didn’t need to worry about the attendants recognizing her from her voice.
“McQueen!” Teio said with her ever present chipper tone. “I got the stuff!”
McQueen looked at the massive stack of candies and snacks and sweets that Teio had picked up and shuddered involuntarily. “I see…” she said, already dreading the work and dieting that would be needed to keep herself in shape. But there was no way she could just say no to Teio’s smile (or to the 3 bags of honey drops that she had bought), so she decided to ignore that for now. “Thank you very much.”
“Of course!” Teio bragged. “You can leave everything to me!”
“Perhaps I shall,” McQueen said with an unavoidable smile. “Let’s find our seats, shall we?”
The inside of Theater 5 was even more crowded than the rest of the place. Thankfully, this also kind of worked to their advantage, since they were more likely to just blend into the crowds. The tickets that Teio had gotten were in a pretty good spot, too, two seats in the umamusume section that were still closer to the front while not blowing out their ears.
“Do you recognize any of the actors?” Teio asked. “I’m not familiar with foreign films.”
“Mmm…” McQueen demurred. “Not particularly…”
“The president told me that the main actor was the guy from the Kung Fu Panda movies,” the shorter horse girl continued. “And the other guy… ummm… I think he was a superhero?”
“Momoa-san? He was, but I liked him a lot better in the latest Fast and the Furious movie. I don’t think he has enough range to be a compelling lead for such a storyline - I would prefer that he stick with characters closer to his range… Erhem! Y-yes, he was.” McQueen caught herself before she could reveal too much more.
“Oh, okay!” Teio said. McQueen breathed a sigh of relief… but then she giggled. “Wow, you really do know your movies, huh?”
“I was just interested in the racing aspect, that’s all! It was a good look into the psychology of racers who don’t need such a rigorous structure…” McQueen said, although she then realized that this didn’t really hold up when she was talking about the tenth movie in a series. “Um, uhh … who told you! Was it Gold Ship?”
“No, no, Golshi only told me about your love for baseball. I just saw you reading a bunch of movie reviews at the library, that’s all.” Teio said, still grinning cheekily.
“I see… Yes, I do have an interest in cinema,” McQueen admitted eventually. She couldn’t even blame anyone else for this, she just wasn’t careful enough. Dang it!
“Hehe~” Teio said with a teasing lilt in her voice, clearly enjoying getting one up on McQueen. “No, but that’s cool, really! It makes you seem like, all cultured!” Teio’s voice shifted to a tone of genuine admiration, and somehow McQueen just got even more embarrassed. She sipped at the honey drink that Teio got her, hoping for the trailers to start and distract her.
Of course, Teio wasn’t paying any attention to the incredibly generic trailers, though, so McQueen eventually felt the need to talk more. “… Really?” McQueen asked.
“Yeah! Like, you seem like the type to be able to talk about old and fancy movies that are all about like, two men that argue about the meaning of life! If that’s not cultured, nothing is!”
“It’s not really part of my training, though.” McQueen said, protesting.
“We can’t be training all the time! Even Suzuka spends some time not running. And keeping up your spirits is important to maintain the same focus. I make sure to spend at least an hour with the President every week, after all.”
“You really admire her, don’t you…” McQueen said softly.
“I do! And I also make sure to come train with you, because I admire you too!” Teio grinned again, and this time her smile was much too bright for McQueen to handle. Normally something like that would merely inspire McQueen to strive even harder, but in a situation like this…
McQueen turned her face away from Teio, unable to hide her blush. But as she did, she noticed a certain face in the crowd and her blood ran cold. What was she doing here? And of course the Three Goddesses must be laughing at her, because of course Gold Ship turned back at that exact moment to meet eyes with McQueen. She braced herself for her outing with Teio to get completely derailed by Gold Ship butting into everything… but amazingly, Gold Ship broke eye contact first, taking another sip from her garish square green cup and returning to watch the trailers. Somehow, McQueen had dodged out on the biggest bullet she could possibly have faced, and now she was even more determined to… uh… Why was she so determined to succeed here? What was even defined as success?
But before she could untangle her emotions, Teio piped in. “Yo, McQueen. Are you okay? Do you need some candy?” she said, holding up a Nerds rope.
“No, I shouldn’t -“ McQueen said, but then she caught herself. “Actually… I suppose it couldn’t hurt, just this once. I’ll just have to train even more.”
“Exactly… but, this one’s mine!” Teio said with another cheeky grin, dropping the rope of candy into her mouth. And for some unknowable reason, McQueen got the urge to grab the other end and start eating from that end. McQueen blinked, shaking her head in bewilderment. What was wrong with her? She grabbed a honey drop from the pile and sucked on it contemplatively. She was probably overthinking things. No, she was definitely over thinking things. Thankfully, there was once again something to distract her from her own bubbling emotions. As the theater dimmed and the movie started playing, McQueen and Teio settled into their seats alongside the rest of the crowd. Given that this was their first movie outing together, McQueen hoped that this “A Minecraft Movie” would be a worthwhile watch.
Teio walked out of the movie theater, more than a little shell shocked. “Wow, that was really something.”
“Indeed, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a theater that rowdy,” McQueen said. “It was almost like a G1 race at times. I suppose that’s the draw of mass market films.”
“Yeah! My running instincts almost kicked in when they said ‘Chicken Jockey’ and everyone started cheering.” Teio admitted. “So, uh… what did you think of it?”
“I thought that they made some pretty interesting artistic decisions,” McQueen said. “The scenery was truly magnificent in many of the wide angle shots, and it was really able to sell the idea of a world made out of cubes in many of the scenes. I was also fairly interested in the relationship between the two male leads, all things considered. For such an irreverent movie, it did touch on some potent motifs of male loneliness and of being past one’s prime.”
“It did look pretty cool, yeah.”Teio said. She paused, trying to find the next words to describe her feelings. “But, uh, the movie kinda sucked, didn’t it?”
“Oh, yes, very much so.” Mcqueen said with a laugh. “It was a poorly written and vapid film on the whole.”
“Yeah! It was terrible!” Teio whined. “It had basically nothing to do with Minecraft outside of what it looked like! They only put down blocks the one time, and they never actually mine anything, and the piglins aren’t supposed to be aggressive like that! And why were there so many characters when they each got like ten minutes each?”
“Indeed. It feels like it was a generic movie originally that was remade once they had the rights to make a Minecraft movie. Er, pun not intended.”
“I’m kinda surprised, though. You looked like you were really engaged with the movie,” Teio said, thinking back to McQueen’s focused face while watching. For her own part, Teio hadn’t paid much attention to the movie while it was doing all the stupid stuff about the people no one cared about, so she had just looked at McQueen instead.
“I try to give all films my full attention so I can develop a full and accurate opinion,” McQueen explained. “It’s a skill I developed from reviewing racing film, and it stuck for me when I watch regular movies as well.”
“That’s kinda cool, but I don’t know if this is gonna help with our races. I’m not gonna say, ‘Oh, yeah, I saw Steve and Garrett fly on the Elytra and squeeze really close together, this is going to help me with my running form on crowded straightaways’.” Teio joked, and then she sighed again. “Man… I was really hoping that this would have been an actually good movie. This sucks!”
“I had a good time, at least,” McQueen said with a smile. “Quality of the movie aside, there’s definitely something to be said about watching something together. It’s nice to do something outside of the bounds of competition too - and now we can bond in our shared suffering.”
“Well, if we just wanted to suffer there’s way more productive ways,” Teio grumbled, but she couldn’t help but smile a bit. Something about Teio’s face must have been really funny, because McQueen started laughing. Well, Teio was sure that her mix of annoyance, amusement, and some other third thing was probably weird looking on her face, and plus McQueen looked really great when she was laughing, so Teio started giggling too.
“Ahh… I don’t even know what was so funny. I’m sure it wasn’t the movie,” McQueen said after a moment to recover, although she still had a satisfied smile on her face.
“I don’t know, like eight hundred teenagers would probably disagree with you,” Teio said. “And Helios.”
“And Helios,” McQueen agreed. “But I think she’s got an indecipherable sense of taste. Anyways, I was nervous initially, but… I had quite a good time, actually. You’re a much better movie watching partner than Gold Ship.”
“You watch movies with Golshi?”
“More accurately, I go to watch a movie and Gold Ship shows up uninvited.” McQueen said, sighing. “Eighty percent of the time, she’s completely uninterested in the movie and quips the entire time, and the other twenty percent of the time she incorporates the movie into her personality for weeks.”
“Holy… I’m glad you’re the one dealing with that, not me,” Teio said. “Also, of course I’m the best partner to watch movies with! I’m the invincible Teio, after all!” Teio said cheekily.
“Is that right?” McQueen asked, smiling back at Teio. “Alright, so I’m sure you’ll come with me to see Beau Travail, then?”
The younger horse girl blinked. “Boo Travel?”
“It’s a French movie directed by the acclaimed director Clair Denis, but it’s actually based off of a book written by Herman Melville, the author of Moby Dick,” McQueen began explaining, her smile growing wider. “It’s been highly recommended to me as … hmm, what did you say? Two men arguing about the meaning of life? From what I understand the film is much like that, but all the arguing is subtextual and told via shots of the desert.”
Teio gulped. “Um…”
“Or maybe we could watch Attack of the Space Baseball Zombies 2 instead.”
“That sounds like more my speed,” Teio said, although internally she did resolve to at least, like, do a little bit of homework about movies. Sure, she probably wouldn’t be able to talk about French cinema, but at least she should be able to say something about the movie that McQueen wouldn’t think was lame!
“Great,” McQueen said, and her teasing smile turned into a more genuine one. “The next showing is in two weeks on Thursday night. Does that work for you?”
“Um… Yeah! Let’s do it!” Teio said with a wide smile.
“Great! I will see you then for another movie,” McQueen said. “Now, someone gave me far too many chocolate bars and candies for one sitting, so I will need to get back to my training. If you would excuse me.”
Teio grinned at McQueen. “I only gave it to you because I know you work hard enough to burn off all the calories! Alright, get outta here, I don’t want to hear any excuses when I beat you.”
“Same to you. You should only be crying because the movies are so good,” McQueen replied, giving a satisfied hair flip for good measure. And with that little bit of showing off, she headed off.
As soon as McQueen left her sight, Teio pumped a fist in triumph. “Yeah!” she cried out. For some reason, this movie trip felt like it was a real accomplishment, on the same level of doing a great training run or something. Her heart was racing and her adrenaline was pumping!”
“Hey, hey, what’s up!” And then there was suddenly Gold Ship in front of her, complete with a novelty square Creeper drink cup.
Teio nearly jumped a foot in the air in surprise. “Holy crap!” she said. “Golshi! Were you here this whole time?”
“Oh yeah,” Gold Ship said. “Gotta say, I didn’t think you’d be able to get McQueen to see this kinda thing. I asked her if she wanted to see the latest Marvel movie and she put me into a Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex.”
“First of all, McQueen probably beat you up for something else,” Teio pointed out. “But, uh… it didn’t take her that much convincing, really. She even said she already wanted to see it.”
“Usually she just likes granny movies and then also things shot by two drunk dudes in a grain silo,” Gold Ship said cheerily, and quite possibly from experience. “But you’re right, she did look happy. I saw her practically skipping as she left with the GolshiDar.”
“… Huh… what does that even mean?”
“Oh, it means you took a girl on a date to the Minecraft movie and it worked.” Gold Ship flashed a thumbs up to Teio. “Master of seduction right here!”
“It wasn’t a date - Wait. Was that a date?” Teio started to say something, then had to interrupt herself. Then she paused to think about that. And then she thought about it even more. And then she suddenly had to recontextualize, like, the last six months of rivalry at least. “Oh. I just took McQueen on a date,” Teio said, her head spinning.
“You sure did!” Gold Ship said, heedless of the chaos going inside of Teio’s brain right now. “Congrats!”
“I, uh… yeah, thank you,” Teio replied, paying more attention to her own thoughts. Had they been dating for a while, actually? They had gotten awfully close recently…
“Anyways, Teio, you play Minecraft?”
“Oh!” Teio grabbed onto the lifeline out of that awkward train of thought as hard as she could. “Yeah! I used to play it back in the day. How about you?”
“Oh yeah, I’m actually pretty big in the Minecraft world.” Was Gold Ship a Minecraft youtuber? It wouldn’t surprise Teio.
“Then… you want to play, right? That sounds fun,” Teio said, running away from the gay thoughts like it was the final straight.
“Alright!” Gold Ship yelled with a grin. “Then let’s head out!” And with that declaration, Gold Ship pulled out a very familiar brightly glowing blue cube-orb from her pocket.
“What the fu-“