An Unlikely Solution to a Drought
Things had not been going so well for Sweet Apple Acres lately, nor for Equestria in general. The pegasi had gone on strike because they felt that they are underpaid, underappreciated and that they didn't get enough benefits for the job they do to keep the weather stable in Equestria. Instead of the soil being fertile across the land, it was cracked and dry because of the lack of moisture.
At Sweet Apple Acres, the crops were not doing so well. The corn was not growing, the carrots were not growing and because of the lack of moisture, even the apple trees were not growing that many apples and out of the ones that were growing, they were small and dry on the inside.
On a hot day Applejack was out Applebucking and was not thrilled with what was falling out of the trees. She picked up one of the apples and took a bite out of it. "Yuck!" she yelled, "These apples are dry." Her voice became more angry as she continued, "Curse those lazy, greedy pegasi! Do they not know that without any moisture that nothing will grow?"
She yelled this hoping that Rainbow Dash was in the area and that maybe she could at least create a bit of rain for the farm. Her yell would not be unheard as a rooster that she had never been seen before approached her and asked, "Are you saying you need it to rain?"
Applejack looked at the rooster with suspicion, "Who are you and why would a lack of rain be of your concern?"
The rooster replied, "My name is Roy and I have the solution to all your problems." Roy had a crate with him and when he opened it, a robot that seemed to be self-aware rolled out.
Applejack took a look at the robot with suspicion, "Well I've never seen anything like it before but I highly doubt that thing could help us any."
Roy replied, "Well then, how about we do a quick demonstration." He then turned to the robot and ordered, "Robot, rain."
*RAIN*
The robot did a dance and immediately it began to rain. When Applejack saw this, she was amazed, "Wow, I've never seen anything like it! I didn't think a robot could make it rain."
"Oh you haven't seen anything yet." Roy then ordered, "Robot, snow."
*SNOW*
The robot did another dance and temperatures dropped and the rain changed to snow. Applejack could hardly believe her eyes. She found it amazing that a simple robot could change things much quicker than the pegasi could ever dream of. She said, "So, is this thing for sale or what?"
Roy replied, "Of course it is for sale. This week only I'm having a sale for the low, low, low price of 999 bits and 99 cents!"
Applejack asked, "Seriously, nearly a thousand bits?"
Roy sighed, "Well this is a rather unique product. How many other robots do you know of that can end this drought you seem to be having for such a low price?"
Applejack sighed, "Well this will take almost all my money I have but very well, I'll take it."
She began to head to her house to get the payment Roy was demanding. Once she was out of earshot, Roy leaned down to the robot and snickered, "Now once I'm gone, I want you to play pranks on her. Don't give her rain but whenever she brings up various things, cause those to drop on her instead!"
The robot gave him a nodding motion indicating that it understood the order. Once Applejack returned she handed Roy a thousand bits. He was counting through it all and once he knew it was all there, he handed Applejack her change and said, "Congratulations on your purchase!" He then began to laugh, "Good luck ending the drought!"
Applejack was unsure as to why the rooster would laugh but decided the time had come for the robot to do what the pegasi refused to do, bring rain to Sweet Apple Acres. She turned to the robot and said, "Robot, rain."
Nothing. The robot appeared to have gone into sleep mode. In a much louder voice, Applejack yelled, "Robot, rain." Still nothing happened and this angered her. She kicked the robot and yelled, "Rain you overgrown bucket of bolts!"
*OVERGROWN BUCKET OF BOLTS*
The robot began a dance and then a large bucket of bolts fell on Applejack. This temporarily disoriented her but once she finally got her bearings straight, she was furious. She glared at the robot and yelled "I said rain you lousy weather factory!
*LOUSY WEATHER FACTORY*
The robot again did a dance and a replica of the Cloudsdale weather factory fell from the sky, narrowly missing Applejack. She then heard someone laughing hilariously off in the distance. It was Roy and Applejack was not one bit happy with him. She stormed over to him and yelled, "That weather robot is defective, I demand a refund!"
Unfortunately for Applejack, the robot had followed her and heard what she said.
*REFUND*
The robot did another dance and a bag of what appeared to be bits fell on her. She was fuming at this point and would become angrier when she discovered that what fell on her was not bits, but slugs. Roy was laughing so hard that he was on the ground pounding his fists on the ground. Applejack knew that to take care of the problem and get the robot to stop causing things to fall on her, she would have to outsmart the robot. She turned to Roy and yelled, "Why I ought to pluck you and throw you in an oven!"
*OVEN*
The robot again did another dance but Applejack watched for the shadow that would accompany what was about to fall. Right as the oven was about to hit the ground, Applejack shoved the robot into the shadow and when the oven made impact, it landed on the robot and likely crushed it. Applejack then demanded, "I want a refund, now!"
"Sorry but all sales are final!" laughed the rooster.
Roy then ran away hoping that Applejack would not go chasing after him. Luckily for Roy, Rainbow Dash was napping on a cloud above the farm so Applejack decided to take care of the problem in a much better way. She yelled, "Rainbow Dash, get down here!"
Rainbow woke up and snapped, "You woke me up from my nap Applejack." She became angrier and yelled, "What has you worked up so much anyway."
Applejack knew she had to calm down if she was to talk any sense into Rainbow. She pointed to the various objects that had fallen and said, "Thanks to you greedy pegasi, I had to spend all my savings to buy a weather robot and it turned out to be defective! Instead of making it rain, it caused all sorts of things to fall from the sky."
Rainbow couldn't help but laugh over the comment, "Weather robot? Yeah right AJ, that's a good one."
The moment she said weather robot, the oven went flying and out came the weather robot,
*WEATHER ROBOT*
It did another dance and one just like it dropped from the sky and this gave Applejack an idea. She thought that perhaps the new one would work and show Rainbow that perhaps the weather ponies were unnecessary. She ordered, "Robot, rain."
*RAIN*
Both robots did a dance and a downpour immediately struck Sweet Apple Acres, providing it with much needed moisture. As the rain was pouring, Applejack gave Rainbow a smirk and said, "Now that these are working, perhaps they could replace you." She raised her voice and added, "And at least they won't go on strike demanding more money!"
Rainbow countered, "Those things may make it rain but I bet they can't make clear the sky!"
*CLEAR SKY*
The robots again did a dance and just as quickly as it started raining, it stopped and the clouds cleared. Applejack laughed, "Ha, they can make the skies clear out too so if you want to keep your job, take care of the weather because if you won't these things will!"
Rainbow gave the robots a scowl and grunted, "Oh fine, I'll tell the weather ponies to get back to work."
Rainbow Dash flew back towards Cloudsdale in a foul mood. She was not one bit thrilled that Applejack had two devices that could easily cause more of them to arrive and put plenty of pegasi out of work. Applejack however was thrilled because now she could easily bring precipitation to the farm in the event of another strike in the future.
Applejack noticed that the robots had followed her and given the behavior of one of them, she turned to them and began to look for an off/on switch. She made sure to be very quiet while she was doing so because even one little slip up could cause something to drop from the sky on her. Once she got both of them turned off, she pushed them into the barn and said, "Thank goodness, now I'm safe!"
