42

Chapter Seven

"Come on lucky 7!"

“Wake up little clone.” I hear a voice say. I opened my eyes and with blurry vision look around me and see, me. “Well look who is awake.” Prime Boo smiled down at me without mirth. She raised an eyebrow, “Someone was being naughty.” She said simply her pony face frowned as I sat up slowly feeling like my head was plugged into a light socket.
“What happened?” I asked wincing at sound of my own voice.
“You saved your friends.” She replied.
“Boo, are you alright?” Phoenix asked, standing behind Prime Boo.
“Yes.”
“Yes.”
We both say at the same time.

“So what are you doing here?” I asked Prime Boo, who turned to the deskeletoned ponies and began wiggling her nose at them sending them away.
“I got your distress signal and came as fast as I could. Can’t a mare be worried about herself?” She asked as she banished the last one away.
My mane went itchy at that, “I didn’t send out a distress signal.” I stated frowning.
She looked at me in exasperation, “Of course you did!” She stopped seeing Byte in the corridor on the ground his head still letting off a spark every now and then. “Well looks like you got the pony you were looking for then huh?” She trotted up and kicked him in the head with a front hoof.
“Finally got what you deserved eh you tin can?” She taunted the unmoving mound of robot.
I immediately felt sad at that, then rage at her.
“He was trying to save Flutterstay with me.” I growled at her. Where was this anger coming from? I asked myself.
“Oh,” she looked surprised. “Mortal enemy big bad robocat Byte wanted to save him?” She asked then looked at him again. “I don’t buy it 42, I think your broken. Maybe I should reasorb you and your memories and see what was really happening. Then decide if I’ll even go after Flutterstay. Assuming he can be saved or whatever.” She said flipping her left hoof to and fro mockingly.
I could feel the anger in me starting to boil again.
“On second thought, I’ll just absorb you then go and do some real Chaos. Change some roads to soap, mess with a few minds. Maybe, even go to the Vagabond and mess with Kaleb a little bit.” She said.
“No.” I said simply letting my anger build.
“No?” She asked raising an eyebrow and trotting toward me.
“What gives you the right to tell me now clone?” She asked dangerously.
“You did.” I said narrowing my eyes.
She looked back to me for a moment let out an annoyed breath and turned back to Byte. “So you need this pile of junk?” She changed the subject trotting back over to him.
“Yes, whatever plan Darling has to come back involves him. We…” I started explaining and she yawned at it.
“Boring!” She said simply, “You’re boring me. Why don’t you give up on him? Let him be?” She asked as she started floating in the air turning to me. “After all, Flutterstay wasn’t a good match for us, he wasn’t imaginative enough to be a Draconequus. I don’t honestly know what I was thinking turning a scientist into one.” She said flippantly. This caused my anger to boil over.
“Because we love him you idiot!” I snarled at her shifting form to my Draconequus body. She looked bored at that.
“Is that supposed to scare me 42?” She asked as I took a step toward her. She didn’t budge and I walked toward her. “No, this is.” I said taking a deep breath and focusing all my energy on Byte and pictured what I was going to do perfectly in my head. Then I snapped my claw.
A bright light filled the room as Byte’s body was engulfed in the light.
Everyone else in the room covered their eyes as the bright flash burned hot. The other Boo being so close to Byte when I snapped yelled out in surprise and popped out.
I continued to pour my attention into Byte as I maintained the spell. Cyberpony parts starting flying into the room from boxes and into the light.
Once the light faded I fell to the ground gasping for breath and as I braced my arms against the ground I noticed I was see through.
“That’s not good.” I moaned as I laid on the ground and looked up.
There standing in front of me was a flesh and blood cyberpony. He was a unicorn with dark almost charcoal blue fur. He opened his eyes and took a deep breath looking around. The green eyes slid over the room and looked at me.
"What happened?" He asked confused.
"Uh, Boo turned you in to flesh and blood pony?" Phoenix said looking Byte over.
Byte's green eyes popped wide as he examined àhimself. "I… what in Tartarus?!" He asked me, then took in my condition.
"What happened to you?" He asked.
I smiled, "I meant to fix you… looks like I went a bit too far and expended a lot of power. Also, Prime Boo made an entrance and I had to push her away."
He looked at me his jaw dropping open. "I didn't have any flesh left Boo. Where did you get the raw materials to make this body?"
Trisha walked into the room and answered the question. "The bodies that were in the cryopods are missing, I reason she got the raw materials from the bodies." She approached me leaning down and putting a hand on me.
"You have used a lot of your energy. You need rest." She said,
"Not sure this is a safe place to do so." Phoenix said, going over to Byte's side.
"You okay?"
Byte looked at Phoenix and tested his body by trotting around in a circle and doing some stretches.
"It appears this body is perfectly functional." He said, analyzing himself.
"Rest sounds good." I say as Trisha picked me up.
"Why don't you let me take her?" Phoenix asked as he trotted over to offer his back.
"That would be advisable due to her low power State you would not be able to interact with her physically. 42 has entered a Draconequus life-saving mode. Right now nothing can touch her in this physical world that is not imbued with some form of chaos energy. It is to protect her life essence." Trisha explained.
Phoenix looked at me, "I didn't know you had that."
I blinked, "yeah kinda a last resort measure. Keeps us safe until we recharge."
He raised an eyebrow in thought, "Huh, weird." He then tried to boop my snoot and it went right into my head.
"Hey it kind of tickles." Phoenix said with a chuckle.
"Can you please get your hoof out of my brain?" I asked politely with a bit of annoyance.
"Whoops sorry." Phoenix said withdrawing his hoof but then he looked closely at my head.
I started looking self-consciously at him, "what do I have a booger hanging out of my nose?"
"No but there's something weird on the back of your head that looks like a black square?" Phoenix said, examining my head closely.

"Affirmative it appears to be some kind of chip like a computer chip." Trisha said, examining the back of my head.

"There is writing on the chip it says number 42 MMOD." She said examining the chip.
Alarm bells went off in my mind. "Yeah when I was about to fry those ponies I felt something like a searing pain from the back of my head. I think it might be where it came from. Can you get it out?" I asked, trying to stay calm.

Trisha examined it closely and shook her head, "Negative. I am not a surgeon. We would need the proper healing ponies to take care of this. With you in low power mode I cannot even interact with it other than observe it visually. But from what I can tell it is directly wired into your brain."
This thought unsettled me that I had a computer chip on the back of my brain that I didn't know about. This isn't normal for clones to have that.

What exactly did Prime Boo do to me? Why do I get the idea that this is not going to be good?
"As fascinating as this all is," Byte began and then continued, "we really should find a safe place to hold up any ideas of anything close by?"
I screwed up my face in thought, “Nothing I can think of. Things around here are mostly Raider hideaways. Do you think we can just close the stable entrance here?”

Byte blinked rapidly. “Perhaps.”
He then looked thoughtful, “I… I will look into sealing the stable door. I need some time to… process this.” He looked down at his cyberhooves then back at me. With that he walked away toward the stable door.

I looked to Phoenix, "Why don't you see about getting more supplies?"
He nodded and I slumpped down exhaling.
"I'm so tired now." I said to Trisha who just petted my mane.
"Then you should rest 42." Her monotone femme voice said.
"Maybe." I said closing my eyes and started to drift off when the laughing began.
I opened my eyes and looked around. "I know that laugh." I said with a smile.
"Of course you do, my dear little chaos child." The voice said as a head popped through a wall wearing a big red head. "Hey kids wanna see a dead body?" Discord said smirking.

"Very nice Alucard. Though I think Fluttershy would be more appropriate for that role Papa." I said with a giggle.
He finished phasing through the wall and threw the hat off with a flourish. He took me in with his mismatched sized pupils and a look of surprise on his face.

"Only one of you Boos across the universe calls me Papa you know." He said thoughtfully.
I blinked, "Sorry Dad, it felt right." I shrugged still laying down in my pony form.
"No, my child, it is quite alright." He said dismissively as he examined me closely. "Looks like you could use a pick me up." He said and shook his right arm into a nozzle. He shoved it into my mouth like Applejack shoving her hoof into Rainbow Dash's mouth and I could feel chaos energy flow down my throat as his eyes started counting up bits.
After a few moments he pulled the nozzle out of my mouth spraying me with the fuild and I wiped my face with a leg.
"Gross." I noticed my body was now solid.
"Now tell me what are you doing down here?" He asked, shaking his arm back to normal.

I began to tell him the story so far. As Kansas's Carry on my wayward son started playing.