“So this is it?”

Red and his team were out in what was basically the middle of nowhere. Far from any semblance of civilisation. It was a portion of the colony that had like the rest, been terraformed but ponies hadn’t made their way out here yet to cover it with their heaving, bloated bodies. He was sure they would one day. It was him, the team he worked with and Foundy. For the first build and testing his boss had decided to be there.

“Indeed, built on Equestria but obviously not tested there. That’s our job.” Foundy said, watching with Red as his team started to open up and unpack the parts from the box, laying them out neatly on the flat ground. The surrounding area could almost be described as a salt flats with nothing visible for miles, Red wondered if by scooping up some of the floor he could nicely salt some fries.

“I assume there is some instructions?” he asked.

“On your pad dummy, I already transferred them to you.” Foundy drily replied.

“Oh I see…” Red said, starting to scroll through the menu and seeing a file that was new. Foundy glanced over as he did so, taking note that the background image was that of his marefriend.

“Going okay with you two?” she asked.

“Well I’m not exactly short of meals.” Red replied, opening up the file and looking it over. “I think at this rate we’ll be moving into one of these new builds, should the tests and everything else be successful.” he said with a slight reddening on his cheeks. He always seemed to blush slightly when discussing her, even though the two were now more than comfortable in each others company. His boss decided to back off and get back on track.

“Well it looks simple enough. I don’t think any of us understand the technology but we can certainly put it together following the instructions.” Foundy said. “Well, you and your team can but I’ll be here to oversee it all.”

The team members had finished unpacking and laying out the parts. There wasn’t actually that many of them. “Seems rather small for such a powerful device.” Red commented.

“It’s a prototype remember? The real deal will be much bigger, scaled up to be able to control the weather over hundreds of miles rather than just one. At least if this is a total disaster we’re only going to kill ourselves.” Foundy replied without any hint of irony in her voice, Red frowned.

“I mean, the chances of that are slim right?” he asked, now slightly fearful.

“Chances are nothing if you assemble it right. It’s all on you Red.” Foundy said with a smile, giving the large stallion a playful slap on that amazingly huge rump of his that caused it to jiggle and sway for a few moments as Red collected himself, usually that sort of contact made him retreat into a timid and shy behaviour, but with Foundy’s words of responsibility he was now just nervous. He piloted himself over to his team.

“I assume you all have copies of the instructions?” he asked.

The ponies, four of them, nodded at him through chubby cheeks and jiggling neck rolls. Red lead the way, making sure that they all worked as a team to get the device assembled properly. They made sure they were careful, two of the team being Unicorns made it extremely easy to properly fit parts together with levitation magic but Red made sure to double check their work. All in all with breaks for meals, the ponies spent four hours assembling the prototype before Red and Foundy were satisfied that it was ready for a test. They all crowded around a small screen that was attached to the front. The device itself was firmly fixed to the ground, it looked like a small antenna array. The mast rose only about ten feet above the ground but pointed directly up into the sky. This was then anchored to the floor with extremely strong locking bolts and the mast itself was dotted and messily covered in wiring and circuitry control. Apparently the final device would be much neater and not contain a control screen as it would be wirelessly connected to a central network that controlled each device from afar. The screen that Red, Foundy and the team were looking at was only necessary because this was the standalone prototype.

“The instructions say to active we just input the provided pass code and then we’ll be able to choose the weather.” Red said. “One of you slimmer ponies will need to do it, I can’t reach the screen.” Red said, his fat hooves too embedded in his blubber to even attempt to type in the digits for the pass code. One of his team pressed the screen and a password screen greeted him.

“Okay, input… 1-2-3-4. Really?” Red said. Foundy just rolled her eyes. The team pony did as he was told, the screen then showing a green tick as it advanced to the control options. Red went back to the instructions.

“It says choose the weather you want and a countdown timer for five minutes will appear on the screen as the system charges and actives the chosen weather. More complicated weather patterns may take longer.” Red mused. “What options have we got?”

“Sunny, rain, storm, hurricane, typhoon, fog, lightning, snow, windy…” his employee started to rattle off. Red stopped him.

“I think sunny for the test.” Red said. He was then asked “What temperature?” by the employee as once he had picked the weather type, the device asked for that next.

“Oh, a nice 20 degrees celsius I think to start.” Red said. His employee obliged and a countdown timer appeared on the screen. Five minutes.

The ponies stood back and watched. For some reason all of them seemed to be expecting something more impressive and sensational but it was a rather dull affair. As the countdown timer ticked downwards the weather in the sky started to change. When they had arrived it was slightly cloudy, it looked like it was going to rain but didn’t - large grey clouds hanging low in the sky. As the device worked the top of the antenna simply glowed a rather dull blue colour and the clouds began to part to let the sun shine through. In a one mile radius around them it was suddenly warm and bright, all of this happening in five minutes. When the device finished, it simply asked on screen ‘Length of weather pattern?’ with an option for indefinite or the ability to specify a time. For the moment Red told the team member to set it for ten minutes so they could test it letting the planet go back to what it dictated was the right weather.

The most impressive thing was looking up there was a large circle of clear clouds that looked as if somepony had punched a hoof through the grey covering above them to give them a sunny day. Red checked his in-built pad temperate device. It read exactly 10 degrees.

“Success?” he asked his boss.

“Looks like it. Looks like it…” she said, writing down notes onto her pad with a distracted look on her face. “I want to see it power down before we confirm.” she said. The team waited ten minutes, at which point another five minute countdown timer appeared on the screen. The top of the antenna glowed blue once more and as if by magic the cloud covering returned. They were back to slightly cold, miserable weather.

“I’d say success. I’ll report back to my boss and let them know I think that Sleipnir is ready for a weather control network. At least judging by the test. We need to disassemble this one though. I’m going to recommend they don’t password a larger network with something a foal could guess…” she said, Red and his team already getting to work following the disassembly instructions. Motivated by hunger and the desire to get home they had the device packed up and back in its shipping box in under two hours. Ready to be transported back to the site and kept under lock and key Red asked what the next move was to Foundy as they made their way back to the main city.

“So now what?”

“Now? Well it will be other ponies building the network - we build houses Red, or as the case may be we used to build houses. Next thing is we need to start looking at building and designing our new plots for ponies to buy. They’ll be pleased though this was a success.” she said.

“Indeed. Well I assume for us as well the prison complex is next?” Red asked.

“Once they decide on what they want to do yes.” Foundy replied. “For now let's get back to what we do best. Agreed?”

“Agreed. I’m famished as well, I think Ivory will have been cooking all day, gaining a few hundred pounds seems like just what I need after this. I think I lost that much through worry.” Red confessed, the whole thing had put him on edge despite being as calm and collected as he could be. He hated responsibility, ironic he was in a position of one. But he liked gaining more, he needed the money.

“Enjoy yourself, I think a meal at Blubber King for me. They’ve been doing some great stuff lately.” Foundy quipped. The group were near the outskirts now and went their separate ways, no point returning to work this late apart from Foundy who went to seal the device away in her office. Red had a wonderful blubber ball of a marefriend to get home to. His lips were already salivating at the thought of what his cutie pie might have cooked up for him.