//------------------------------// // Chapter 55: Are three enough? // Story: The Hacker Pwny // by Chetzi //------------------------------// “You’re not going to make me fight myself, are you?” I asked him. “Yourself? What, do you think I can clone you?” “Look at you. Now back at me. Now back at you. You could be me, but you’re not.” He glanced over me again, and saw we looked the same, with the exception of a color swap. From this sudden realization, he pushed me harder into the wall and higher up. “You have a lot to explain before I cut your head off.” “I’ll give you the short version. I’m from an alternate universe, and in mine, Luna has turned into an upgraded Nightmare moon. This time, it’s just pure hatred she’s running on. The Elements of Harmony won’t stop her. I need help, so I’ve been going through other universe to find my counterparts.” “That’s stupid enough to work.” “Exactly.” “And you expect me to just drop everything and go with you?” “By my calculations, this is the universe that my counterpart leaves with me.” Actaully, I have no idea. But I think he'll go with me if I can convince him it's hopeless. “Because otherwise you could spend years going through universers. I guess I don’t have much choice then. I’ll go with you, it’s been too long since I’ve had a good fight anyway.” He retracted the blade ring around his hoof, and released me from the wall. As the light subsided, Radon and I noticed Argon boredly trapping his hoof on the wall that he leaned against. The musky smell of the dark, enclosed room that housed the MTSC filled my nostrils as I gained smell in this world. “Finally, and I thought I was going to wait here all frickin’ century,” Argon greeted us with. “So there’s three of us. Each a different race,” Radon said. “Yes, now I need to know what both of you can do, such as skills and talents,” I said, eager to stop Luna’s rampage. “I’m unpredictable, and can confuse people easily. I used to work for the Solar Empire, but left after a few years and became a mercenary.” So it seems this version of me came to Equestria at a much younger age. And more so, there was a civil war there also. “Skilled in following orders, and create own when needed, I assign you to distraction and scouting tasks.” “Without magic or flight, I’ve had to make my own weapons. As you can see, I’m covered in advanced tech, such as magnetic-launched blades, spring activated steel armor, and a few other surprises,” Radon said. “Steel? That crap must weigh a ton,” Argon commented. “Only the strength of an Earth pony can wear something like this, there’s no holes for wings or horns.” “I can imagine, you held me to the wall without much trouble.” “How about you, the genius who brought us here?” Argon asked. “Let me make a plan for stopping her, you’ll learn what I can do soon enough.” Twilight cowered into a corner, Luna taking slow steps toward here. Twilight couldn't fight her anymore, any attempt at attacking her had no affect. It seemed like the end for her. Her tree was a mess, books thrown everywhere in the hopeless fight, spots of the ground burned into ash, tables overturned and desks knocked over. Luna couldn't think straight, her only thoughts involving revenge and hatred. A small voice in Luna'a mind cried out that Twilight had nothing to do with it, but it was overshadowed by the rampaging anger that thrashed around in her mind. "Why princess? Why...?" Twilight said as tears streamed down her face. The only thing that could save her now is a deus ex machina. Luckily, she would get a deus ex machina. "Where'a your deus ex machina, now Twilight?" Luna asked. "The deus ex machina is here!" I yelled as I ran into the large tree. "Well, that was redundant," Argon said. "YOU!" Luna screamed. She used magic to slam me into the wall. She choked me with her magic and slowly stepped toward me. Her eyes glowed the same red aura from before, and small strikes of lighting shot out around her. "You just come in here, and then what? Expect me to just give up? No, Twilight needs to die. Celestia has brainwashed her. She is a danger to Equestria." "And you aren't?" I managed to spit out. I spun my body around and dispelled her hold on me. "You can stop now, before you kill anyone!" Luna looked down for a brief second, then glared at me with ferocity unrivaled by anyone else. "I never should have brought you here. It's all your fault! I'm going to kill your beloved Vinyl, then Twilight, and all of her friends, and leave you alive to wallow in the painful memories of their deaths forever in your jail cell. IT'S OVER!" Luna charged at me, her horn pointed at my chest. She was too quick for me to move out of the way. A flash of metal was seen in the air, and the clang of bone hitting steel was heard. Radon jumped in the way, covered in his heavy steel armor. Luna's horn got stuck in one of the joints, but Radon looked unharmed. Then Argon smashed into her from out of nowhere, making them both crash through the wall. Twilight looked at me with a mixture of fear and confusion. I'll have to explain later. I ran out of the newly created hole along with Radon. Dust cleared from the impact, and Argon was thrown into us. I managed to dive out of the way in time, but Argon slammed into Radon, who didn't even move. Argon picked his self back up, getting ready to fight Luna. We all held our ground, waiting for the moment to strike. I just hope Luna didn't attack anyone before Twilight. "Foals! Don't you see the evil of Celestia?" Luna asked us. "So she may or may not have taken power by sabotaging you. But killing Twilight won't do anything! Just calm down and talk to her!" I demanded Luna. "The time for talking has past. The only way I can send a message is if I eliminate her most faithful student. Why do you think sister put the title 'most faithful' into Twilight's job? It's because she wanted Twilight to do something for her that nopony else would. Maybe it's to go around and kill those who oppose her rule. Maybe it's to start her religion. You know what I mean, you've heard others say 'mother of Celestia,' and 'oh Celestia, why me?' and you know she's trying to make herself a goddess. Herself, not both of us. And even then I don't want to be goddess, but she didn't even ask." "You stand there and say the time for talking is over, yet you spend the next two minutes talking." "SHUT UP!" She screamed and charged at us with a shadowy ball of magic around her horn. We all jumped out of the, but Luna changed direction and went after me. I propped up a quick shield in front of me, but Luna smashed through it without trouble. Out of nowhere, Argon grabbed me from above and flew off. Luna harmlessly missed me as I went up. She then shot multiple blasts of burning energy, each missing as Argon swiftly dashed across the sky. A stray shot charred the middle of his right wing, and we tumbled into the ground a few yards away from Luna. "Gringo! You gotta protect my wings when she's shooting that stuff," Argon said. "Gringo? Really? Who do I look like? John Marston?" I asked. "Green guy! I meant green guy!" Argon flapped his wings and tested if they worked. He then jumped forward, grabbed onto me, and took off again. I focused an anti-magic shield around us, but I couldn't make something that big and powerful enough to block off Luna. The only choice I bad was to protect Argon's wings, which now glowed with a bright green. Flying around like that doesn't exactly make it easy to focus, and my mild fear of not being on the ground makes it even harder. But I tried regardless. My back legs dangled in the air as Argon dodged Luna's attacks. There was a delay in her attack, that must be Radon's distraction. I looked down to find Luna locked in a power struggle with Radon, their heads colliding like rams. "Now or never, Argon!" I said, as I made a pointed cone of magic around us, pointed at Luna. He knew what to do. We swooped down to her, the pointed magic cone around us getting a fiery aura as we speeded closer. The surprise attack did nothing, Luna saw us and spawned a magic shield that we bounced off of. Argon and I tumbled in the grass, with dirt being kicked up. A few scratches showed up on my legs and on Argon's body. I felt the sting of the crash, but it was nowhere near the pain of having to fight a friend. Ha, friend. Mere months ago I would've not cared about who she was. I would've just killed her using cheap tricks. I never wanted friends, and now one of them is trying to kill me. I guess that's what I get... And I don't regret it. And I'm not going to lose her as a friend. Luna took a step forward, and hit Radon. He got launched back a few feet, landing on his side. Luna's horn grew a bright black magic sphere, almost like if it was a black sun. I tried to create a shield around Radon, but I doubt I can make one strong enough. A weak green shield grew out of the ground, and blocked the pathway between Radon and Luna. Luna fired the projectile, making it smash through my shield like it was paper. But a purple magic wall appeared in front of the attack, and the ball stopped. It kept pushing against it, the wall getting more and more cracked, but the ball getting smaller. The magic sphere broke through the wall, only to dissipate right before hitting Radon. Whew, that was close. But who made that wall? Twilight took slow steps toward Luna. Twilight looked hurt, but the time we gave her to recover must have been enough. Or maybe it's new determination. Twilight faced off against Luna, but Luna wasn't one to wait, she blasted Twilight with more of her dark magic. Twilight teleported next to me instead of blocking Luna's attacks. "You okay?" She asked. "Never been better, maybe we can have tea later," I said with a sarcastic tone. "Okaaay, now are you going to lay there or help me?" I pushed myself up. "I thought the grass made a rather nice bed." "We aren't even scratching Luna. Let's combine our attacks and-" "And what! You know I can't do much magic, and not what you can do. We can't combine anything! You're her target, you need to leave." "I'm not abandoning a friend." "And I won't let one die. Just go! I can hold her off." "ENOUGH TALKING! YOU ALL DESERVE NOTHING LESS THAN DEATH!" Luna screamed. Her voice shook the ground, and the ground faded to black. Not just the ground. The day turned into night, the moon was enormous, and a large clock with the moon phases was floating in the sky. "Judgement of the Moon! This is the Goddess of Night, Luna. I call upon thee to determine the fate of these betrayers!" The large dark clock spun it's hands at a rapid rate. "The fuller the moon, the more power I have." I nudged Twilight, and she got the idea. We both used levitation, and attempted to stop the hands. They didn't even slow down, no matter how hard I tried. The hands found themselves on Waxing Gibbous. The clock glowed a dark aura, that then transferred itself into Luna. She grew a few feet as the black aura around her whipped around like waves. The lightning that sparked out of her turned bright red, and increased in size and number. When she spoke, Luna had an echo. "You're all dead!" She yelled, then charged at us. Here we go again.