The Hacker Pwny

by Chetzi


Chapter 44: Just what are you?

"Games!? You want to kill me and you call this a game!? You're a sick twisted..." I yelled at the pony trying to kill me. "What have you done with the princesses and Twilight?"

"Nothing. Chrysalis on the hand, I don't know what she did to them," Scavell said. My jaw tightened from anger. That's why Chrysalis wanted me the other day. She was part of his plan. I think I'm starting to understand what's going on. Chrysalis defeated the princesses before, but then she had love. I don't know if she has as much power as before, so it's a total gamble on wether or not she can stop the ponies from helping me. I feel like I should already have a plan on how to win in place, but I just can't think of any possible paths to that goal. I need to acquire more data.

The only problem with that, is that he's managing to keep me guessing. And I can't risk it. I need to infer to create new data and form more options. He's attacks are shadow based, and seem to relay on a sight. His personality is unpredictable, suicidal almost. There's a stark contrast between his mannerisms and attacks. He talks like someone who's mentally unstable, yet the way he attacks sugeests grace and discipline. Almost like... he has a split personality, each coming out when he does certain things.

"I have to wonder, why not just kill me in my sleep?" I said, in an attempt to gather more evidence on his split personality.

"Ha, I tried, but I thought it would be unfair."

"You? Which you?"

"What do you mean?"

"You fight strictly, honor-bound. But you talk like you would try to kill me at anytime. I almost wonder if you have tried, but you could just never do it becuase you stopped yourself when you started an attack."

"What are you getting at?"

"You have two minds. Two very different consciences. One comes out when your talking, the other when your fighting. It almost seems like it was engineered into you. Like it's native for you to act like this. I should've detected this sooner, but you kept throwing me off track. I understand you." He growled at me once I said that. He then charged at me.

"You don't know anything!" He yelled as he brought a hoof covered in black flames to my chest. The hut connected, and I was sent flying into the wall. That fighting style surprised me, it was very unlike him. It was like his suicidal conscience made the attack. So, if I provoke him, the unruly side of him will come out. I can use this. I can turn this against him. I will play with his emotions, and force him to change personalities when I want it to.

And that's my live-saving plan. I knew I would come up with something. I looked back at him, and he appeared to be conjuring some weapon. Black swords with green flames manifested around each of his hooves. This is so unfair. Why can't I ever do anything cool? Scavell jumped into the air, and started spinning. A black aura formed around him, and he shot himself at me. He was like a helicopter with the swords. Anything at that speed would chop my head off in one swing. I had a split-second to react. I picked up a broken piece of wood off the ground with my magic. The wood was from when I crashed into the wall. I then shot the wood at Scavell, but his swords shred it to bits.

He dashed right at me, little time was left to escape. Everytime I moved, he shifted his path to hit me again. It was clear I couldn't escape. But maybe I didn't need to. I'm not going to just sit here and die, and I've been analyzing his attacks. I couldn't figure out how to turn into a shadow, but with my knowledge of optics and wavelengths, I might be able to create an illusion of myself, and that way I ca- wait, what didn't think of this earlier? Fuck that advanced magic shit I was trying to do, I have technology. I used levitation and pressed the on button to the hologram generator in the ceiling. Four holograms of appeared around me. They folowed my every move. Scavell, surprised at this, stopped spinning and jumped away from me.

"This is what I call Magic: Human Style," I told Scavell.

"I've never seen this type of magic before. What branch is this on?"

"It isn't on a branch. It's the product of seventy years of human innovation." Scavell shifted his head, examining every single hologram. "Don't bother trying to find out which is real."

"If you're doing it, there must be something wrong. Magic isn't perfect, and neither are you."

"True, but I'm not doing this. Nopony may be perfect, but that's exactly why humans have computers. They don't make mistakes. And you won't be able to tell which one is me." It seems my luck is beginning to change. Scavell then began to laugh maniacally.

"You can't beat me! I'm the master at illusions! This is nothing more than a petty magic trick!" A pulse of dark energy shot out of him, causing me to shoot backwards. All the holograms did also, but I crashed into a mirror, the rest slammed into other objects, but they didn't damage them and they looked fake. A piece of glass slashed my back left leg. "So, you're the real one. I told you these simple tricks won't stop me." I wiped a spot of blood of my face. Scavell closed his eyes, a dark aura emitting around him. The rest of the environment changed also, to some kind of hospital hallway. Like the one you would find in a horror movie. Another illusion. I got up and did what I did before, trying to disrupt his spell with an excess amount of magic from me.

But nothing happened. I asked him,

“How do you know about this place? It’s a hospital, but it’s human design.”

“We’re not in Equestria anymore,” Scavell told me. He then chraged up his magic, and shot a bolt at me. A dark blue shield formed around me, protecting me from the attack.

“Get thou hooves off sir Blaze!” Luna yelled as she appeared next to me.

“How did you get here?!” I asked Luna.

“My sister and Twilight were busy with Chrysalis, but I detect the magic trail used for a teleport this large. So, I teleported where the trail lede me. I knew it came from where you were, and there’s no barricades blocking me from getting in here. Who is the evil one attacking you?”

“You can call me Scavell,” he said, with a light chuckle. Luna’s eyes went wide at the mention of the name.

“You. I know who you are. Why the pseudonym? When you visited me on the moon, you called yourself Mehdoff,” Luna told Scavell. I had no clue what was going on.

“That... was a long time ago. Things have changed.”

“I can tell. Your eyes are different. You’re filled with pain. What is your business with Neon?”

“That has nothing to do with you. You’re nothing but an inconvenience.”

“Ah, I understand now. You accepted another soul into your body. I remember, all that time ago when I was banished to the moon. You had a horn, and it wasn’t broken. Back then, you had one soul. The one you were born with. His name was Mehdoff. You were on a quest for power, to protect the innocent. And one day, you found another soul, but the soul lied. He said he’d give you power, but what he didn’t tell you is that he was evil. The soul’s name was Scavell. He took over your body, you tried to stop him, but your horn broke off from all the magic flowing through your combined souls. It was too late, and now you keep Mehdoff around, because he’s a better fighter than you. Or maybe you just can’t get rid of him.” Scavell screamed, and thrashed about.

“No no no! Get out! The past! It stings!”

“Luna,” I asked, “how do you know this?”

“It was in the legend. An ancient drawing in one of the moon caves. I had a thousand years to make sense of it. Only I knew about up until now. There are many different planets out there, each very different to the last. But Scavell is nothing more than a pawn. For what, I don’t know. I also don’t know why he needs you gone. Something you should, Mehdoff isn’t bad. Scavell is. If we can separate them, Mehdoff will be freed,” Luna said.

“How? Is that even possible?”

“It should be, but I can’t do it. His soul may already be far too corrupted to be saved.”

“NO,” Scavell yelled. “I WILL NOT LISTEN TO YOUR LIES. YOU MUST DIE.” He then started to gather magic around him. A black ball of energy formed in front of him. He talked again, but in a much different tone of voice. Almost like, he was scared. Regretful. It was like a different person altogether. “S-save me. He... has too much control over me.”

“And that’s Mehdoff’s soul. You look injured, Neon. Stay back, I’ll handle this for now.” Luna lowered the shield and walked toward Scavell. Her horn glowed a deep blue. Scavell was mentally fighting himself, he couldn't see Luna approaching. She touched her horn to Scavell, and his eyes turned all black, then he slumped to the floor. “Don’t worry,” Luna said as she turned to me. “He’s fine. I did a powerful mind trap spell. Thought it won’t hold him for long, it will be good enough until we can free him. Now, let’s return to Equestria.” I was teleported in a flash of light. Once the flash subsided, I found Twilight trying to protect Celestia with a shield. Celestia was knocked out, and Twilight didn’t look like she could hold the shield much longer. Chrysalis had a black beam of magic focused on the shield.

“She’s mine,” I told Luna. I ran up to Chrysalis, while yelling, “I call this human style!” And then I uppercutted her before she could escape. She didn’t have enough time to react because she was busy trying to take down Twilight’s shield. “The plan’s failed, Chrysalis. Return back to your cave, and never crawl out. Scavell is done for.” She hissed at me, and vanished. “Everypony okay?” I asked Twilight as she lowered the shield.

“I’ll be fine, I’m just tired,” Twilight responded. “Celestia didn’t take too bad of a hit, she’ll be fine also. But, you’re going to have to tell me what happened in there.”