Engineer Part 6

>You tighten the final bolt on your vat, then wipe your brow.
>It's a slapdash thing, just temporary, but it should work.
>You look over to the saucepan on your handmade stove, and see that it's boiling over.
>Just in time, too.
>You pick it up with your gauntleted hand and pour the contents into your vat.
>Perfect, just the right amount!
>You seal the vat's lid on, and look through the thick glass viewing window.
>Bubbles occasionally rise from the depths, and lightning sometimes arcs through the green liquid.
>The cloning vat is complete!
>It's not nearly big enough to clone you, nor a pony for that matter, but it should suffice for what you have in mind.
>Now you just need something to clone with.
>Better go see the local animals expert.
>You pick up a rod of rebar, then step outside.
>You close the door behind you, and keep it shut by tying the door to the rest of the shed with the rebar.
>Should keep any meddling ponies out.
>Now, which way to Fluttershy's?
>You head off in the direction of the still-rising sun, and towards Ponyville proper.
>You're pretty sure Fluttershy lives somewhere near the Everfree forest, and if you meet anypony in town that can tell where she lives, that's even better!
>You aimlessly wander through town for a while, before tripping over a pony.
>A yellow pony.
>With pink hair.
>And wings.
>You have the sneaking suspicion that this is Fluttershy.
"Hey, Fluttershy! I was just looking for you!"
>"Really? Well, uh, how can I help, Anonymous?"
"I need some blood."
>Fluttershy visibly blanches.
>"Oh, umm. I'd really rather not give you any of mine."
"Don't worry, I don't need any of yours in particular. In fact, I'd rather some pig's blood, or cow's blood."
>A bit of color seems to return to her face.
>"I'm sure one of the pigs wouldn't mind giving you some blood, but you'd have to ask one of the cows yourself."
"Well then, do you know where I could find a pig, then?"
>"I think Applejack has some on her farm."
>Well bugger. Have to go all the way back there.
"Thanks, Fluttershy. Later."
>You pick yourself up off the ground, help Fluttershy up off the ground, and head back the way you came.
>You walk back to the farm, and start looking for Applejack.
>Problem is, a farm's a pretty big place, so she could be anywhere.
>You gaze out over a nearby orchard, and-
>No, wait. There she is. Enjoying lunch under the shade of a tree.
>You jog over to her, taking a quick breather halfway there.
>Need to build a golf buggy or something.
>You reach the tree you saw Applejack under, and find her resting, hat over eyes.
"Oi. Wake up."
>A hoof lifts the hat up, allowing an eye to peek out at you.
>"What."
"I need some pig blood, and if you don't help me get any, I'm going to get some myself."
>She seems to think it over for a second.
"And if I do it, it's not going to be nearly as clean as if you do it."
>She rolls over and stands up, stretching as she does so.
>"Well, you've convinced me. Let's go."
>The two of you wander over to a particularly sizeable barn, and enter it.
>Turns out that on the inside, this barn is a house.
>It's probably rude to enter uninvited, so you stick by the door.
>Applejack clip clops her way through a door, and a little bit later returns with a small, empty syringe.
>Wordlessly, you both walk over to a line of small kennels of some sort.
>Applejack walks into one, and a short squeal later, returns with a syringe of blood.
"Thanks, AJ."
>"Don't mention it. Now leave me alone."
>She gives you the syringe, and you walk back to your shed.
>You claw the makeshift lock off, and open the door.
>Nothing seems to have been disturbed, though with the squalor of this place it's hard to tell.
>The cloning vat is still here, at least.
>You step over to it and pry the lid off.
>A few drops of blood in the nutrient slurry, and there we go.
>Lid, back on.
>You once again gaze through the viewing window.
>Nothing.
>The blood just isn't congealing.
>You sit down on your mattress and think.
>Maybe, just maybe, it needs a massive shock or something to kick off the cloning process.
>You crunch numbers for a bit, and figure out that you'd need a bit more than a gigawatt of electricity to surge through the vat to make this work.
>Now where are you going to get that much power? And how are you going to get it to hit the thing all at once?
>A bit more thinking.
>Oh. Right. Lightning. Lightning would work.
>And it's exceedingly easy to get lightning to strike what you want it to here, as well.
>You drag the vat outside, and scan the skies.
>There's a pegasus not too far off, towing a dark cloud off to elsewhere.
>You wave your arms in the air to try and get it's attention.
"Hey! Hey, you pegasus! Yeah, you! Bring that cloud over here!"
>It brings the cloud over to you, and as it gets closer you can see that it is, in fact, a female.
>She soon hovers over you, cloud by her side.
>"You wanted something?"
"Yeah, could you zap this thing with a bolt of lightning?"
>You tap the cloning vat with your foot to illustrate.
>"Uhh. Sure, I guess."
>It brings the cloud down, and you step back from the apparatus.
>She kicks the cloud, and lightning strikes the thing.
>You walk back over to the pegasus, and shake her hoof vigorously.
"Thank you, very much. I swear, next time I see you, I'll repay you for this."
>She looks at you with a smile.
>"You're welcome. See ya later."
>The grey horse takes it's cloud and flies off.
>What a lovely fellow.
>But enough about her, what about the vat?
>You wipe some soot off the view port, and look inside.
>There we go, the blood has congealed. Now you just have to wait.
>You sit down, seeing what's going on.
>The blood starts to change form, becoming more meaty-looking.
>Then, it starts to lighten, becoming more of a pink color than a red.
>Almost done, the pink thing gets a white band in it, and lengthens considerably.
>Finally, the blob splits itself up into several perfectly cut rashers of bacon.
>Fantastic!
>You drag the vat back into the shed, and put it on the table.
>You fold a flat sheet of scrap metal into a makeshift skillet, and put it on your still-lit handmade stove.
>Huh. Didn't turn that off when you left. Oh well.
>At any rate, you pop the top on the cloning vat, and use a bent piece of metal as tongs to fish a strip of bacon out.
>It goes on the frypan, and starts sizzling.
>You fish out some more strips of bacon, making sure to leave one in there for further cloning, and put them in the skillet as well.
>A bit of cooking later, and you serve the strips of bacon up on another flat sheet of metal.
>You turn the stove off, pick up a piece of bacon, and eat it.
>It's delicious! Can't even tell that it was cloned.
>You sit down and eat the rest of the fruits of your labors.
>Good work, Anon.