>it was a nice and warm sunny day
>maybe a little more than usual, but it was still nice
>living as a wheat farmer has more benefits than you initially thought
>great and vast open spaces, fresh air, you grow your own food in your orchard pretty much for free
>One would have never expect for an old and busted hut like yours to actually have a working computer, with internet none the less
>it was pretty small at the beginning, the owner of the farm gave it to you when you took the job, since traveling all the way from the city to the fields it’s kind of difficult
>the entire thing was just one big room, made out of wood and galvanized steel sheets
>you kitchen, living room, and bedroom had nothing to separate them from each other
>the bathroom was the exception...since it was outside
>with the passing of time you customized it at your liking, first, you added some extra rooms to make a proper kitchen, living room and bedroom
>your orchard, a porch came next
>you were young when you took this job, and your, now proper house, grew up along with you
>it may not be perfect, and it may be somewhat isolated from the other huts where the rest of your farming partners live, but its home, sweet, sweet, lonely home
>you were never much of a “people” person, so it never really bothered you to be alone most of the time
>you have your co-workers but you don’t really consider them as friends, they offer a small chit-chat from time to time, but that’s only when you cross paths when harvesting the wheat
>so, as a result you spent pretty much your free time doing two things
>improving your house
>and watching cartoons and browsing some forums here and there on your PC
>eventually, you found out about MLP and quickly grew fond to it
>the cute episodes and colorful scenarios always cheered you up
>and it had colorful horses, you are always surrounded by horses, so it felt natural for you to like it
>every time a new episode came out you were always the first one to finish the wheat quota and ran straight to home to watch it
>it was always sad that the Applejack episodes were “ok” at best most of the time, after all, she was your favorite of the gang
>you even had a small plastic toy that you always carried with you as your keychain
>…it’s pretty hard to get stuff delivered this far away from the city, so this is the only show related thing that you owned
>at least for the next week
>a couple of days ago, you somehow managed to get your hands on a “limited edition applejack-bot”
>it was pretty expensive, but the thought of having your own applejack, living with you and actually talking to her was pretty exciting
>they also told you that she will learn from you and even adapt herself to your needs, that sounds pretty much like the applejack from the show, and you love it
>she will be arriving in the next couple of days according to the store´s page
>it’s amazing that such prestigious store got such a shady looking internet page, but they deliver all around the world, so you know a store with this amount of coverage gotta be legit
>but as excited as you are, you have to sleep, you are the “waking rooster” next morning, so you have to wake up early to start your daily routine.
>its around 04:00 AM
>the sun is not even out, but since you went to bed pretty early yesterday you feel like you had enough rest
>you already had a quick breakfast consisting mostly of eggs and bacon with an apple and milk
>the breakfast of champs
>now the only thing left to do is to go and wake everyone up so you can start with your day
>you stretch as you open the main door of your cozy house
>as soon as you take a step out of your house you are greeted with a bump
>it’s a plain brown box covered almost in its entirety with grey tape
>it’s a big one, slightly lower than the height of your hip
Oh no way…
>you rub your hands in excitement
>you grab the box and do your best to get it inside your house, but box its just slightly larger than the door frame, so you can’t actually get it inside
Fuck, I wasn’t expecting it to be this big…is it real-live-sized? I don’t remember them mentioning the size of it…guess i´ll have to unpack it here
>you run inside your house for a knife and come back to slice the box open
>it’s the thick kind of cardboard, so you struggled a little to get your applejack out
>after a couple of minutes of slashing, the box just fell into pieces, a small torrent of foam peanuts came out of it first, followed by a couple of disks and instruction manuals
>and at the very end, what you were expecting since you made your order
>your very own…tiny applejack
>it was around the height of your shin
Hmm, maybe all this foam it’s to keep it safe, makes sense, after all, this bot was really expensive
>she is inside a plastic box, like one of those amibos that you have seen in the internet
>as you crouched to pick the box up, you noticed that something wasn’t completely right with her
>Why is she mustard yellow?
>why is the joint from her front right leg exposed?
…Is that woody´s hat from toy story?
>Oh son of a bitch!
Oh son of a bitch!
>you say as you see that the page for the store its now gone
>you tried refreshing it and even accessing in from different browsers, but all you get it’s a 404 error
Twelve thousand dollars! God Fucking Dammit!
>you let your arms fall to your sides as you slump into your armchair
I knew it, I fucking knew it! What internet page ends with “.fcku”? ...FUCK!
>you sigh as your view lands on the manual sheet on top of your old wooden table next to you
“to start your new applejack™ simply connect it to your computer and run disc one, after the installation process its completed, run disc two, make sure to let your applejack get enough charge after the installation process is completed”…
>you flip the manual sheet only to find a blank page
…
Is that it? …Jesus fucking-fine, let’s just hope they only fucked up the exterior model…
>you go to your computer and open the disk tray
>you just noticed it also has a floppy disk reader bellow the disk one…you have to get a new computer
>you put disk one in and run the installation program
>after a couple of minutes, the installation program is done configurating itself
Ok, now I just take this cable and plug it…where do i plu-Aha! There you are.
>you take her stupid woody hat away and plug the usb cable to the back of her head
>even touching the hat feels like a rip-off, it’s made of some kind of cheap smooth plastic, you are sure that thing wasn’t made to last for long
>applejack herself feels a pretty light, almost like she were empty inside, even though you can see the exo-skeleton exposed in her right front leg, you can even feel it moving from side to side every time you move applejack to any angle that is not her standing position
>her “skin” feels rough like a sack and her mane and tail feel like the plushies that you win on those claw games
>you run disk two and see a window pop-up in your screen
“This process might take several hours, please be patient”
>you sigh as you see the clock on the corner of your screen
>04:30 AM
Shit, im gonna be late
>you take your jacket and go on your way, leaving your applejack next to the computer, hoping for the best to happen while you are gone for the day.
 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
>you exit your house and run to the opposite side of the horse stables between your house and those of your partners
>the first rays of sun are starting to shine out of the mountains back, so whatever its not getting a direct hit of light its covered in total darkness
>you stumble your way to the “rooster bell”, that’s the name you and your partners gave to the bell next to the huts, everyday somebody has to wake up earlier than everybody else and ring the bell so everybody wakes up, today it was your turn and you are late
Shit! shit! shit! shit!
>you take the small hammer and hit the bell several times, sounding the waking signal that everybody is so used to
RISE AND SHINE PEOPLE! WE GOT WORK TO DO!
>you leave the hammer and run back to the stables, hitting your head in the way back with a hook hanging in front of the main door
AAH! SONOVA!
>you shake the pain away as you release and lace 5 horses, one for each including yours
>a voice can be heard from the other side of the stable
>”hey! Anon! What gives? You are late today!”
>”dan git, now ah don´ave tahm ta eet muh breakfust!”
>”uuughhhh…”
>fuckin-are you serious, anon?!”
>shit, today is gonna be one of those days
Sorry fellas! Got tangled in my sheets today!
>you walk the horses behind you as you walk to the edge of the main fence
>there is not much in the near vicinity, just the path of dirt that you and you co-workers take every day to collect the daily wheat
>”yeah roight, Ah bet yeu stood woke wotchin´ them cartun pawnis ahgain! BAHAH!”
Could you not, please? At least not today?
>your co-workers mock you as they mount their horses and ride to the wheat fields
>a sigh escapes you as you mount your horse
C´mon girl, the faster we get that wheat, the faster we can get home, eyaah!.
>it’s around midday, the sun shines brightly as you collect the wheat with your sickle
>you wear a ten-gallon hat and a bandanna to protect you from the sun
>a big backpack almost filled to the brim slightly drags you down with every step you take, that thing gets really heavy really fast
>your breath gets heavier and drier with every minute that passes as you watch the rest of your co-workers collecting their respective wheat at the distance
I swear to god, if that bot it’s not working by the time im back…
>you take a sip out of your canteen, drinking the last drop of water that was left
Why did it have to be so hot today?
>you hear your name at the distance
>”oi! Anon! we leaving early today! Take care of whats left from our bags, will ya?”
What the fuck? Why would I do that?
>you scream back
>”maybe because you woke us later than usual and we haven’t eaten since morning, so this is all your fault, now shut up and fill what’s left of our bags”
What? No! im not-
>you want to finish your sentence, but you are rudely interrupted by several horses running pass your side
…doing your…
>you see four backpacks filled at 3/4s of their maximum capacity just sitting on the ground not too far away from where you are currently kneeling
>”NEKTS TOIM FUGGEDABOUT THEM CARTUN DONKYS! HAH!” you hear that toothless bastard scream as he rides away
>you hear a coyote´s howl echoing through the night as you make your way back to the stables to get your horse back to where it belongs
>all 5 backpacks are filled and resting at their usual place
>and you, are pretty much dragging yourself back to your house
>right now, you are tired, hungry, dirty and angry
>the last thing you want it’s to be bothered, you just want a quick meal and your armchair, you are way too dirty to sleep in your bed but are too tired to take a bath
>you kick the door open and go straight to your kitchen, maybe a piece of ham will calm you down
>there is not much in your fridge, just some milk in a glass bottle, a piece of cheese, sex eggs and a big, cartoony looking ham with a big bone coming out of one side
>you took a big bite from it yesterday, but you take it anyway, you also take the bottle of milk and walk your way back to the armchair
>you take a big bite and gulp it down with milk
>the stress of the day slowly going away as your stomach gets filled
>”Hola compañero!”
>you choke on your food as milk comes out of your nostrils
WHO´S THERE!?
>you look around as you do your best attempt to look intimidating while holding a piece of ham and a bottle of milk
>”down here, amigo”
>you look down and are greeted with a smiling applejack looking up to you
>her left eye is flickering
>”the name´s apuljyak, nice to conocerte!”
>what little piece of ham that was left inside your mouth falls to the ground
 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
>you are sitting at the edge of your bed, resting your head on your hands while looking down to that little bot that calls itself “applejack” …but it sounded weird when “she” says it…
What was your name again?
>”the name´s apuljyak, un gusto to meet ya!”
>she keeps switching languages midsentence
Why are you talking like that?
>”what do you mean, compadre?”
That! that right there, you keep talking in Spanish midsentence
>”oh, eso, I think your computer wasn’t powerful enough to run my program at maxima capacidad, maybe something got mixed up while I was booting up”
>her left eye flickers again
And what’s wrong with your eye?
>Apuljyak goes cross-eyed for a second
>”Production error?”
>You sigh heavily while rubbing your nose bridge
>you pick her up and place her on top of your night stand, next to your lamp
And how can I fix that?
>Apuljyak sits on her hinds while tapping her chin with her hoof
>”I think running the program again might fix that, but it won’t do any good with your current equipment, you need a more powerful computer”
So you are saying that im stuck with you until I get a new, more powerful computer?
>”S-stuck with me?
>her left eye completely shut´s down
>”is it that bad?”
>she covers her left eye with her hoof and turns around
>hold on a second
>this doesn’t feel right
>does she have actual feelings?
>has technology come this far?
>shit, you didn’t think of that, no regular AI should be able to do that, at least not that you know
>and you hurted her feelings
>maybe it would be best if you apologized
…shit, I ammm, look im sorry, I didn’t mean it like that, its just-
>”no, that’s ok, im defectuosa, I knew it as soon as I woke up”
>woke up?
>she jumps out of the night stand and falls flat on the ground
>you see her eye flicker on again as she stand up and limps out of your bedroom
Wait, applejack, hold on
>you catch up to her and lift her up
>she does her best to hide her flickering eye from you
>shit, she is fully conscious about her state, this is pulling your heart strings
>you sigh as you walk back to your bed and let her walk out of your arms
>she is keeping her head down, you have to cheer her up
Here
>you comb her mane a bit, it’s a bit stiff but otherwise it moves smoothly
It’s not that bad, maybe we can...fix it later, yeah, we can do it
>”You, you think you can hacer eso?”
…of course, how hard can it be? Besides, you are Applejack, the toughest and handiest pony of them all, and im…me! We got this!
>”Yeah…Yeah!, you are right! Im Apuljyak! Aint no handywork I can’t hacer!
That’s the AJ I know! Now…
>you yawn
…lets go to sleep, its late, we´ll start with your repairing tomorrow
>”Excelente!”
>you take off some of your clothes and lie on your bed, you may be a bit dirty, but honestly, you don’t even care anymore
>besides, having a new project with your soon to be perfect Applejack- bot might be fun, it’s been a long time since the last time you had a project to work on and you are definitely going to need the energy
>”ooh, I almost forgot”
Hmm?
>you see her spin in circles a couple of times and then lie on top of your second pillow next to your head
>”what´s your nombre?”
My nombre?...oh, my name!, the name is Anon, nice to meet ya.
>”Anon, that’s a fine name”
>she smiles at you
Thanks
>”Anon?”
Yeah?
>”Thanks for giving me a chance”
>you are about to reply but you see her eyes flicker off and her eyelids close
>you smile as you close your eyes.