//------------------------------// // The Profile // Story: You're Wanted: I'll Always Protect You // by SciWriter //------------------------------// I followed Twi to a small meeting room inside Luna’s… facility… in the base. Honestly I didn’t know what to call the three spires. It wasn’t a castle. I even asked Twilight, but she wasn’t sure what to call it either. “Command Center” was the best name we came up with. We headed to a small meeting room inside. The meeting room had many doors around it and was circular. In the center of the room was a large round table. The three princesses, their highest ranking officers and my five friends were all in the room around the table. And boy were we a sight to behold. Rarity seemed alright, but she had a guilty look on her face. I had asked about it on the way in and apparently Lightning and Dusk wouldn’t even let her apologize for what she had said about their father. I was sticking close to Twilight like a kid with her mother, Scootaloo peeking around my legs for danger. Pinkie was moving very slow, but doing her best to smile… she was not pleasant to look at. Twilight kept her wing over me, but otherwise I guess looked normal herself. AJ looked exhausted, Apple Bloom by her side and looking normal enough. Finally Fluttershy kept asking everyone if they were okay, even after some of us started to get annoyed with the question. The princesses looked worse for wear too now. Luna’s right wing was bandaged up and she had a cold compress on her head, Honor Guard insisting everyone keep their voices down for her. Celestia was physically alright, but she stuck very close to her sister, looking over her protectively. “You all know why we’re here,” Celestia started. “We cannot continue to let one stallion do this to the defenders of Equestria.” Twilight spoke up. “If I might offer a correction your majesty. Moonstone pointed it out a while ago, and now, to say the least, there is little doubt. Gray might be a leader, but he was never working alone. We’re not dealing with one stallion.” “Even so, the fact remains that we have to do something to stop this. All of Equestria is watching us,” Celestia continued. “Yes… all of Equestria IS watching us,” Rarity put in. “Um… excuse me Rarity, you should not interrupt your elders. Now as I was saying-“ Celestia tried to continue again, but Rarity actually interrupted this time. “But I have an important observation to make here and I’m… not sure… I’m afraid to forget it so I must speak it aloud. I’m sorry, I just sense that this is important.” Celestia sighed. “Proceed.” “I spoke with Moonstone before and offered to help him with the mystery of Gray, as some of you already know. Now I admit most of my interests in Moonstone were of the relationship blossoming variety, however I was being sincere.” A small fly buzzed around the room, most of us ignoring it. However Rarity quickly reached out and captured it with her magic, forcing it to the table. “I’ve just thought of something. One of Moonstone’s biggest questions was why, if Gray wanted to fight us, he didn’t just use stealth tactics to kill us easily. Clearly he has the skill to do it, so why not?” Rarity reared up as she released the fly. She then slammed her hooves on the table over and over, apparently attempting to kill the creature. Normally we might have laughed at this display, but in our current state, the loud noises and actions made Scoots and I shirk back a little. Finally she nailed the insect, slamming her right hoof into it several times. “Now, analyze what I just did. Anyone? Why did I do that?” “To make a point?” asked Twilight. “Ta get our attention,” Apple Jack said with an air of seriousness. “Now that ah think about it, it’s kinda obvious. He’s been makin’ a presentation out of our battles.” Pinkie smiled. “So I guess that’s some good news… kinda. He can’t just kill us right?” Rarity lifted her hoof with the squished insect and my stomach sank. “That all depends on whether the show is over.” “How does knowing that help us?” I asked. “Understanding the enemy helps fight him. Part of the art of war,” Rarity said. “Gray isn’t as random as fear makes us believe. He faked his death so he could force a scenario to occur where he could eliminate his greatest enemies by plotting them against each other. If he were dead you see, no one would suspect him in anything and he could walk right under our noses without fear, just as long as he kept up his illusions. That’s why he practically dragged the guards and Rainbow Dash to that place in the forest where he “died” in the first place.” Rarity put a hoof to her chin-the one without the dead bug-. “Come to think of it, the desire for attention explains a lot. Why attack us element bearers in the first place? He couldn’t do so completely in public, else he would risk outside interference, however he had to be somewhat public at least.” What Rarity was saying made sense. Thus I had to know. I practically screamed, slamming my hooves on the desk. “SO WHY!?” Everypony looked at me. “Why single me out? He attacked me in private, he made me see my worst nightmares. He used me to try to kill the princesses. He kidnapped my daughter and threw her to wolves. He made me a terrible offer and he manipulated me. He fucking broke my child’s leg! What the fuck was all that for!?” I started breathing hard, putting my hooves over my head. “He’s got to be dead. This has to be a fucking dream. He’s dead… he’s dead… he’s…” Twilight wrapped her wing around me again. I cried into her coat. Rarity swallowed, then continued. “I think the reason is fairly obvious from your behavior. Out of all of us Rainbow, you’re the one of us most prone to making a scene.” “Ummm…” Pinkie started. “Well… of the three of us with fairly obvious and easy to exploit weaknesses I should say,” Rarity pointed at Sweetie Belle. “Your panic is actually doing more to our nerves than Gray attacking us directly could… or at least could do with the same amount of effort. You’re his little fear monger.” “So he’s been using me this whole time?” I asked. Rarity nodded. I slowly pushed away from Twilight. “So what should I do?” “I don’t really know. I could tell you to resolve yourself not to be scared, but then he wouldn’t have a use for you now would he? And we all know what happened to that fly once I no longer had a use for it,” Rarity replied. “Well… even if I do die, if it means he leaves Scootaloo alone…” I sighed, holding myself up best I could. “I doubt that will matter one bit to how or if he targets your daughter. Killing her after you would attract more attention.” “You’re supposed to be helping me here Rarity,” I said, looking at her with lowered eyebrows. “I’m just being honest.” “C’mon then,” I said, starting to get angry. “All you’re doing is scaring me more. How do we fight this guy?!” “Rainbow wait,” Twilight said. “Think about it. If we understand Gray…” she looked around. “Dispel magic,” a purple field shot over the room. No eyes, no teeth. “Then we can bait him, maybe get him into a battle on our own terms for once. If we know what he wants…” “So only a few questions remain,” AJ put in. “First somethin’ none of us are thinkin’ bout too much these days. Why did he experiment on little Lightnin’ all that time ago anyway? What did he want from it? We all could just call ‘im a saddist, but assumin’ there’s more to it…” “He apparently wanted to achieve dark ascension,” said Twilight. “He’s not an alicorn yet last time I checked,” Pinkie pointed out. “But he does have an army of discount alicorns,” Celestia pointed out. “And to be honest, another scary thing is, none of us have any idea how long that has been growing.” Twilight tapped her chin. “Assuming Lightning Strike was the first “discount alicorn”, that does give us an idea of when he could have started giving them powers. Though I guess he could easily have been gathering followers long before that. The most obvious reason to experiment on Lightning was to create a discount alicorn in the first place.” “Fer what?” asked AJ. Luna tapped the desk. “Gray used to be loyal to us… or at least play loyal to us. There were a few reports from him to us about this project we think. He never called it “discount alicorns” back then. He called it… impulse magic… we think we remember! Yes, impulse magic!” Celestia looked at her sister with confusion. “You see sister, like many, particularly with creatures like ursas, hydras and most terrifyingly, sentient dragons, many ponies have pointed out that we ponies are at a disadvantage. Our magic can only protect us so well, and only those of us lucky enough to be unicorns or alicorns, and even then only if we’re particularly skilled. Imagine if there were war with dragon kind. They would win with nary a significant foreseeable loss and our kind would be subjugated or worse. All four races would be hopelessly defeated.” “Gray had a solution to that didn’t he?” Twilight asked. “Discount alicorns?” “Impulse magic, but essentially we suppose it would have been the same thing,” Luna responded. “The idea was to create a strong bond between a pony and a single form of magic. This would allow a pony to rapidly control a specific type of magic, basically on an instinctive level. Instead of a pony memorizing several different forms of magic, he is given a boost of magic and prolonged exposure and time with a certain type of magic, like illusion. The boost would allow any pony to use magic, and the exposure would eventually allow full command of whatever type they were associated with.” “Sounds like a complicated but decent idea,” Twilight said. “The exposure process essentially involved torture. Even before we found out about Lightning and her brother, we understood this much about Gray’s idea,” Luna said. “Oh. Guess not then.” Twilight said. “So he’s trying to create ponies with impulse magic anyway?” asked Celestia. “Hmm… so why go about it this way?” Twilight’s eyes went wide. “WAIT! Luna, when you punished Gray, what did you do again?” “I put him in an eternal nightmare. He would dream horrors until he died of dehydration, fear itself or starvation. Whichever came first, we cared not.” “Okay, that’s dark,” Twilight said. “But what did you do other than that?” “We destroyed his lab… but that wasn’t so much a punishment as iconoclasm,” Luna said. “That’s not how a researcher would see something like that. That would be seen as a very personal attack.” Twilight said. “Look, I’ve done years of research and study. It was all destroyed in an instant by Tirek. When that happened I lost it… Gray is furious. You destroyed all he worked for.” “You also possibly destroyed any chance of him being remembered by the public at large. That’s plenty of motive to be so public with his attacks,” Rarity pointed out. “He doesn’t just want attention, he wants to ensure he is remembered.” “We’re all forgettin’ somethin’ else,” AJ said. “Didn’t Lightning say he wanted to become immortal? Ya know, that dark ascension thing we all keep talkin’ bout? Why did he want to do that?” “He wants to live forever,” Rarity said. “Immortality seems a pretty good motivation in it of itself doesn’t it?” “On the surface,” Twilight said. “But what makes a pony take the extra step here? He mutilated himself for immortality. Even if we assume he’s freaking insane, which to be fair he probably is, why go that far? Why does he need to be immortal so badly?” Luna closed her eyes. “For the survival of oneself, one can justify many things. For the survival of one’s own species, a person can justify anything, without exception. Many of Gray’s letters to us sounded like he was quite scared of our kind being wiped off the map if something wasn’t done soon. We refused him. We and our sister are stopping him from making impulse magic common. We suppose he could kill us, but if he succeeded in doing that, nothing would ensure anything would work in his favor afterward. If he ascended and became an alicorn himself, through power and immortality, he could play for the throne himself.” She shook her head. “Perhaps we should have seen this. Especially after yesterday. These are not simply the actions of a mad stallion. What Gray is doing is attempting to userp us. Perhaps in his eyes, we were not willing to do what had to be done, so he moved forward with his projects anyway, preparing to do what needed to be done to force change himself.” “You all know you’re just assuming right?” I asked. “That has occurred to all of you right?” I sighed. “Look this guy could just be just as kookoo as he seems.” Rarity shook her head. “Actually Rainbow, I’ve studied a little psychology, and even a crazy pony needs reasons for his actions. If somepony is so far gone to not even have reason behind his actions, normally they aren’t a threat to anyone. Most ponies like that end up drooling in a chair in an asylum for the rest of their lives. Intelligent action requires intelligent motives. Especially something on this scale. I mean one has to give credit here. Gray did figure out how to create impulse magic and amass an army. I kinda doubt he’s just an ordinary psychopath.” “There could be other reasons for his actions,” I said. “Like?” Rarity asked. “I… I… well c’mon girls, I’ve never claimed to be the smartest pony in the room. Surely you can think of a few other possible motives though, right?” I asked back. “Possibly,” Rarity said. “What we’re doing is called profiling. In criminal investigation it has to be done. But it is subject to flaws. All the same, this gives us something actionable. We know what Gray wants. Right now he wants attention and a chance to destroy the established leaders of Equestria. That would mean Celestia, Luna and well… you Twilight.” I expected Twilight to be frightened by this, but instead she smiled. “Ya know what… he’s not actually more powerful than me is he?” she asked. “Probably not,” Rarity said. “If I forced him into a confrontation,” she said. “hmm… how did he beat me the first time… he used my friends. He stuck close to you guys to keep me from just shooting him at a distance. But if I fight him alone… I have an idea girls.” (***) How? Just how? How in the whole of Tartarus did Twilight talk me into this I wondered? It made sense I supposed. Scootaloo would stay back with the princesses to ensure she was safe. Twilight would then go with me a distance away from the base and basically try to get Gray to just come for us both. Gray would never attack her by himself openly. However if I was there he would likely think he could use me to gain an advantage. However I could easily get the heck out of there long before he even tried. Still… I was walking straight into his jaws right now. As we walked away from the safety of the base, my ears were stuck to the back of my head, my head down. My eyes darted everywhere, hoping against hope I could spot Gray before he had a chance to get me. I was long past thinking I could fight. “I’m really sorry about this Rainbow.” Twilight said. “You’re ready to fly right?” I gulped, nodding. “How… how do you know he won’t just walk up, slit your throat and leave, never letting us know he’s there at all? Don’t you have some kind of convenient magic that can see through illusion?” “There are spells that can do that,” Twilight said. “However, of all the spells I do know… look, illusion spells being cast that well, that often, that quickly is pretty much unheard of. Look, let’s just recognize the pattern of Gray’s attacks alright? He’s never just walked up, killed someone and left before, even if he could.” “It only takes one time. Can you dispel magic a few times? Ya know, just in case?” “Dispel magic.” A pulse went off from Twilight. No eyes, no teeth. We walked for several minutes, me continuing to get antsy. Twilight had a kind of confidence, but that was easy for her, Gray had never showed her her own daughter burning alive just for kicks. “How do I know you’re not Gray?” “You’re most ticklish under your right foreleg.” I raised an eyebrow at her. “Hey, I’m running out of things only a pony close to you would know.” I shrugged. Two more minutes passed. “We’re far enough. Rainbow, get ready.” I opened my wings. “Don’t be too obvious.” I held them closer to my body. “Now let’s give him something he can’t ignore. He won’t doubt a princess is here… hey, c’mon, this is gonna be awesome.” I tried, but I don’t think I looked more confident when she said this. Twilight closed her eyes, unfolding her wings. Her body slowly started to float into the air. Purple magic suddenly around her, pushing out from her and eventually pushing me away from her. A purple haze slowly went up from her form into the air and far up into the sky. “Doesn’t really seem all that awesome- no offense but-“ Twilight shot down and a giant purple six sided star appeared under her, myself being violently shoved away from her. At the end of each point on the star was a circle. In each one of those circles appeared one of the cutie marks of us element bearers. Her own mark was ahead of her, Pinkie’s behind, AJ’s just ahead of me, I couldn’t see the other two (they were on the other side and this spell was rather bright) and my own mark, of course, appeared down from her and to the right, next to me. Purple sheets of magic shot up from her, the marks and the star. Suddenly, as I looked up I saw the sky and clouds above me change, all of them now purple. Twilight spread her wings, the mass of magic disappearing with a loud clap that almost set my ears ringing. She looked over at me, my mouth hanging ajar. “You were saying?” she asked. “That actually felt kinda good, I should let go like that more often maybe… mmm… maybe not, might scare ponies too see my power ya know. Think he noticed?” “I think they noticed in Canterlot,” came a deep voice. A chill shot down my spine. “Rainbow go!” Twilight shouted. I opened my wings, but a series of chains wrapped around me, pulling me back to the ground. “Dispel magic!” The chains evaporated and I looked up, seeing Gray, Violet String and the red fire pegasus from the previous attack. “Pyromance, immolate!” Gray shouted. Twilight quickly projected a shield spell between us and our enemies, a mass of fire shooting out from the red pony. “Fly!” Twilight shouted at me. I zipped into the sky. As I shot up, I watched below as Twilight flapped her wings at the three evil ponies, a blast of energy shooting out from her, overwhelming the flames and scattering all three of her opponents. She then looked at Violet String as she was getting up. A purple blast shot out from Twilight’s horn, slamming into Violet and tossing the unicorn away, her body slamming into a distant tree. One down already. I looked back at the base. Twilight had ordered me to leave when the fight started and she was doing alright… I just… I couldn’t leave. It was like the very idea was impossible, my body only allowing me to stay flying over the fight. “The pegasus, get her!” I heard Gray shout. Pyromance stood up and looked at me, a ball of flame suddenly coming at me. I dodged right, a stream of fire just missing me as I dodged the first attack. “RAINBOW GET OUT OF HERE!” Twilight shouted. Another ball of fire came at me, three fire streams shooting past me. In that split second, I knew I couldn’t dodge. My life flashed before me- no that wasn’t my life flashing before me. That was a massive bolt of lightning. It struck with a deafening sound and forced the streams of fire to dissipate. Another bolt shot at the form of Pyromance, but passed through him. A small yellow streak shot by me in the air, Lightning Strike “appearing” on the ground. The second after she landed, she shot right, and then shot left in the next instant. Lightning Strike started shooting left and right, stopping at random intervals, being missed by several plumes of fire. She was moving so fast, she was almost a blur. I can personally move pretty fast, even faster than she was going, to be honest, but I need a bit of a running start, she was moving like a panicked rabbit, stopping and going with no warning at all. Several streams of fire just missed her as she kept moving. Suddenly she crashed into something, rolling over it. Lightning shot several bolts at the object. As I watched, the image of Pyromance I had been seeing suddenly vanished, him reappearing just a few feet away from Twilight. Fire shot from him and Twilight barely got her shield back up in time to stop the onslaught. Pyromance kept the flames up, this time looking far hotter than before. Gray appeared inches from Lightning Strike. Gray slowly got up unsteadily. His image blurred and he appeared to Lightning’s left, however a mass of electric energy shot forward from the filly, impacting something that suddenly revealed itself to be Gray again. “It all makes sense now Gray!” Lightning shouted. “Why everyone always eventually shuts me out, why I can’t get away from you, why I’m always so afraid- I’m not supposed to be here. I’m going now- I’m taking you with me!” A huge field of electric energy suddenly surrounded both Lightning and Gray. “No…” I whispered. That stupid filly! After all everyone had gone through to protect her, she couldn’t really be about to do this, could she? As I watched the electric field completely enveloped both of the ponies. Gray tried to fly at Lightning, but she moved at top speed again in an instant and stopped in another. “Goodbye Gray. Fuck you!” I was NOT about to just watch a little filly take her own life, especially not if it meant losing another pony to this freak. I knew of only one way to stop this. I closed my eyes and shot down to the massive electric field, just praying to Celestia I somehow would survive impact.