Spike was hurting right now, he could feel how his body was trying to fix itself as fast as possible, rage and frustration fueling him in order to ignore the pain caused by his right arm being removed, and his throat being pierced. He could barely focus on where he was, it was a sewer, probably, but he had a hard time trying to figure out where exactly.
As he lifted his head, he could see two of his best henchmen preparing to attack the one who had just cut him down and destroyed 15 of his lives. He tried to rise up with all his strength but it was for naught, by the time he was up, his two most loyal henchmen were already dead and the man guilty of that, as well as the murderer of all his gang, was standing up and looking down as if none of this was worth his time.
"Hey, hey, Mister Bradley" - Spike said with his voice hiding his anger. - "You really think you'll get away with doing this to my men?"
The man, Bradley, didn't turn around, a serious aura emanating from him, as he responded at Spike in a condescending manner.
"You're feeling sympathetic now? How silly."
"Sympathy?" - Spike said with a sarcastic tone of voice. - "Who do you think I am?" - He then started to flex his arm as his body was ending the regeneration. - "I'm Greed. Money, women subordinates..." - he was really hoping the talk would give him time to regenerate and recreate his shield. - "...everything belongs to me!" - Still, he was ready to fight until the very end. - "Which is why I won't abandon what's mine. I'm a greedy guy, after all!!!"
Bradley then turned around, blades ready for another combat, as he mocked Greed once more.
"Greedy? This is beyond silly."
Bradley then moved at a speed Spike never witnessed in his life, forcing him to raise his protected arms in an act of self defense, but Bradley jumped to the air before he could even realize it, and making Spike lose his balance in the process but still managing to deflect Bradley's mid-air strike. Still, it was for naught, as Bradley still managed to stab the joint on his shoulders, followed by two quick strikes on the lower sides of his torso, causing so much damage and pain on Spike that he was forced to fall to the ground while Bradley, still standing, said the words he would remember the most from his encounter in the sewers.
"How about you lie there for a while."
His mind was now fuzzy as the last thing he could remember was the shouts of Martel trying to fight Bradley, while being stopped by a little boy and how all, suddenly, went silent...
He then heard a very annoying voice shouting in a tone that was destroying Spike's ears.
"...dark, icky cave with no way out! Why must Trixie be here!? All Trixie wanted was to show Sparkle who's best not to...!"
Spike quickly tried to cover his ears as he was starting to wake up, only to notice his body being completely tied. As he opened up his eyes, he noticed his body being completely covered by chains and the jacket his body was wearing, as Greed, was gone, along with the shades. He then looked up and saw both Thorax and Trixie, who weren’t chained but did have nullifier rings on their horns, looking at him with expecting eyes. Spike had an idea of what could, possibly, be going in their minds but he first had to do what he had to do.
"Hi... uhm..." - he tried to come up with some kind of phrase to greet them, but nothing came to his mind, - "how are you?"
"Greed!"
The two of them shouted at the same time, with Trixie being the first one to talk.
"Thank Celestia you've awaken. Please, be good and help Trixie to get out of this! All Trixie needs is for you to remove this nullifier from Trixie's horn and Trixie will get the two of us from here."
"Wait" -, interrupted Thorax, with some air of anguish on his voice, - "two of us? Are you going to leave me here?"
Trixie looked at Thorax with disgust and answered nonchalantly.
"Of course we are. You are just a changeling who took Weight Lifter's place and tried to steal our love."
Thorax suppressed his urge to groan and shout in order to give a proper response to Trixie.
"Look, there was never a Weight Lifter, it was me all along."
"Yeah, right, as if The Great and Powerful Trixie were dumb enough to fall for your tricks."
Thorax started to groan as Trixie refused to believe him; he then looked at Spike with begging eyes, hoping he would be able to tell Trixie the truth. Spike, meanwhile, was trying his best to stop a potential headache from taking over as he tried to figure out why he was in charge of the body and not Greed.
He closed his eyes and focused on the inside, trying to see if he could hear Greed's voice but all he heard were the wails and screams of the things Greed brought along with him, when Spike swallowed him, but nothing on the greedy thing itself. After confirming that Greed was indisposed, Spike decided to focus once more on the couple in front of him; their bickering wasn't making anything easier for him.
"Alright, enough" -. Almost shouts Spike. - "Could you, please calm down? I'm trying to see how bad our situation is right now."
"Our situation?" - Said Trixie in a very agitated tone of voice. - "We've been captured by changelings, we don't know where Weight Lifter is, you lost your muscles, there's no clear way to escape and, worst of all, Trixie has her magic nullified. How could this possibly be worse?"
"First off" -, responded Spike while trying his best to not lose his temper, - "that changeling over there" -, he said as his head was moving towards Thorax, - "is Weight Lifter, I met him as a changeling and, after telling me how he wasn't like the other changelings, it was agreed to let him come with us. Secondly, just because I lost contact with Greed doesn't mean I lost him at all."
This made both Trixie and Thorax's minds stop in their tracks.
"Wait" -, interrupted Trixie, - "what do you mean with 'lost contact with Greed'?"
Spike took a deep breath before making his explanation.
"Greed and I are different... individuals... I am the original owner of the body but, during Chrysalis' invasion of Canterlot, I allowed Greed to take it over in exchange of him helping my friends."
Both Trixie and Thorax remained silent for a while before Thorax commented.
"That explains why Greed was talking to himself when I found you... he was talking to you, right?"
Spike simply nodded before continuing.
"Moving on, in the third place, we still has a mean to escape, after all" -, he said as he started to look back at Trixie, - "you can still do alchemy, right?"
Trixie's eyes widened as she remembered that small fact but she then faltered as she remembered another problem.
"Yeah, but Trixie needs chalk to draw a circle, Trixie cannot make alchemy as of now."
Spike then snickered as an idea was forming on his head.
"Don't worry, I know what to do."
While all of this was going on, Queen Chrysalis was preparing herself for all the potential outcomes that could be produced from capturing her foes. She had right now a dragon with never before seen powers, an unicorn that was capable of performing magic without her horn and a traitor that, probably, knew how they did it and more intelligence on Equestria as a whole. If she managed to play well her cards, she would be able to earn enough power to control all of Equestria and beyond.
She moved with a firm pace as her mind sought for ways to take the information away from those pesky creatures. The traitor would be easy and she spent enough time among the ponies to think of a trick or two to fool the annoying mare, still, she needed to find a way to convince the dragon of telling her what she wanted to know. There were some ideas coming to her mind but she would rather talk first to determine which methods were more certain to make him talk.
As she moved to the jail cell, she noticed her guard's horn and how it was using its magic on his own ears. She tried to pick his attention with a small harrumph but the guard didn’t notice it. Realizing how the guard just blocked his own ears, she stood in front of him, making the guard realize that his queen has been trying to pick his attention, scaring him out and making him turn off his magic.
“So” -, started Queen Chrysalis on a cold, but angry, tone of voice, making the guard shake out of fear, - “I leave you guarding this dangerous prisoners and, instead of paying attention to whatever they might be planning, you decide to block your own ears from listening?”
She then got closer to the guard, sending new waves of terror on him as he wished his queen didn’t punish him too badly, and kept her reprimand.
“These are some of the most dangerous creatures we have encountered, and a traitor, and by ignoring them, you have just given them time to plan an escape plan.”
“Bu-but…”
The guard’s mouth started to wimp as he realized the mistake of trying to retort to Queen Chrysalis. She then started to look at him with venom on her eyes, while silently challenging him to keep talking. The guard wasn’t sure why, but his mouth kept blabbering.
“Both the unicorn and the traitor are wearing rings and the dragon is chained, how could they possibly escape?”
By this point, Chrysalis was too anxious on the issue, so she made it quick.
“That unicorn, somehow, managed to do magic without using her horn and, I’ll remind you, that dragon can change his size. Now open this cell before I start to think in new ways to punish undisciplined actions.”
The guard quickly obeyed and opened the cell with his magic, letting Chrysalis in and see how her prisoners were still in there, chained and nullified, with the traitor on the right and both unicorn and dragon together on the left.
As they noticed Chrysalis entering the jail cell, Trixie quickly moved in front of Chrysalis, kneeled to her and started to beg for mercy.
“Please” -, the incredibly annoying Trixie began, - “let Trixie go, she promises to not tell where you are as well to say anything you need, just let Trixie go, please.”
At this, Chrysalis resisted the urge of laughing in front of them but she decided to indulge on this, though, to see how desperate could this unicorn be.
“Alright then, tell me, how did you manage to do magic with your horn blocked?”
“It’s not magic, it’s alchemy.”
This piece of information actually surprised Chrysalis.
“Alchemy? What is that?”
“Don’t tell her!” – Spike shouted, with some desperation and betrayal on his voice. – “She could conquer Equestria with that knowledge.”
“Silence you fiend!” – Chrysalis shouted at Spike with as much venom as she could possibly muster. – “I’ll take care of you after I’m done with the interrogation.” – She then looked at Trixie and talked to her, in the same tone of voice a mother would tell her children to tell her how well it was behaving. – “Now do go on.”
“It’s a more ordered method of magic that can manipulate matter and reshape it in ways that common unicorn magic can’t.”
“Oh, really?” – Asked Chrysalis as her mind started to think on all the possibilities something like this could bring her. – “And what do I need in order to attain such magic?”
“Trixie! Don’t tell her!”
Chrysalis looked up and saw the annoying dragon which she spited so much. She quickly shot a stun spell at him, of the most painful kind, as she demanded his silence.
"Don't you dare to speak, monster, if it weren't for you, Canterlot would've fallen into my grasp long ago."
Spike tried to hold the pain as he tried to move his head towards Trixie, pledging with his eyes to her to not divulge the information, but Trixie's eyes, filled with anguish, showed little to no care for even Spike. Meanwhile, Chrysalis turned back towards Trixie and kept asking with a devilish sweet tone of voice.
"You were saying?"
"Yes" -, Trixie said, - "alchemy is a form of magic, which you can use in order to reshape everything around you, the difference between using alchemy and your typical unicorn spell, is on the basis of alchemy not requiring the same principles. So even a weak unicorn can use it, if it knows how to do it."
Chrysalis looked at Trixie with doubt in her eyes, it was starting to sound too good to be true. In particular because she remembered the trick consisted in not using the horn and Trixie was being forced to use the inhibitor from her act.
“And how do I know that you’re not trying to fool me? Explain, how did you do it with your horn inhibited?”
Trixie looked around while her mouth failed to form a coherent answer. After some quick thinking, she made a simple “AHA” and responded with enough confidence to make it look like she wasn’t a crumbling mess of nerves.
“Well, your highness” -, responded Trixie, - “Trixie was simply using a special inhibitor that can be stopped from working with a very special trick. To show you, and if you’re willing to spare Trixie for something to make alchemy, you can be surprised of how The Great and Powerful Trixie can do-“
“Silence!” - Shouted Chrysalis with enough strength to be heard beyond the jail cells. – “Do you think I’m dumb enough to spare you of something that could put me on danger!?”
Trixie started to shake as her eyes were starting to look again around the cave toward Spike and Thorax as her mind was trying to find a solution. Thankfully for her, she found the solution quickly.
“Well, your majesty, it’s not much what Trixie needs, just some iron, like a spoon or two and Trixie will show you what Alchemy is all about.”
Chrysalis gave this a thought before deciding that just that small amount of iron wouldn’t be so harmful. After all, what Trixie has shown so far is that it can repair broken vases but she was really curious about ‘reshaping’ things.
“Alright then” -, she complied, - “I’ll tell the guards to bring some iron in here.”
Trixie smiled as she saw how the changelings brought small utensils made out of iron, which she promptly used to carve out a small circle (much to Chrysalis’ curiosity) with a triangle in it. As the materials were dropped into the circle, Trixie quickly a small gesture with her hooves as she said:
“Usually, a magician doesn’t reveal its secrets, but just for you, your majesty, The Great and Powerful Trixie will make an exception” -. She then pointed at her inhibitor and explained. – “This inhibitor ring has a special enchantment to stop working when I make a very specific pose, more specifically, this.”
As she said that, she quickly clapped her hooves and put them on the ground, surrounding the small circle, causing it to glow in a bluish light. In that moment, the pieces of iron started to reshape itself into a weird state of being dust but also being semi liquid, when it all ended, the iron was transformed into a small statuette shaped like Trixie. To say that Chrysalis was surprised would be an understatement.
“Fascinating” -, she said with the most pleasure her voice could ever say, as she looked back at Trixie with more questions, - “with this, we could easily turn simple tools into weapons, we could be unbeatable!”
Trixie coughed at that statement, making Chrysalis turn at her with a questioning look.
“There’s a slight problem, your majesty, there are certain rules regarding alchemy that must be followed before trying.”
Chrysalis looked at Trixie with scorn as she asked for the details.
“Well” -, Trixie began, - “to begin with, we need something of equal value to make the transmutation.”
“Transmutation?”
“The process of alchemy, your majesty” -, Trixie continued, - “in example, if you pick a pile of gold, you can only turn it into another object made of gold. You cannot take something of one material and turn it into another type of material.”
Chrysalis huffed at that, but it wasn’t enough to shock her or be an actual obstacle for her plans.
“The other part is that the process requires a lot of magic to perform, so unless you learn how use an alternative source of energy, you would probably end too exhausted after some transmutations.”
Chrysalis pondered at that, wondering if there was a way to bypass the need of magic. Then she remembered Trixie’s magic arts and something was off from what she said.
“If alchemy is so exhausting, that means you had to find an alternative, what is it?”
Trixie started to stammer but, before she could even think of a response, Chrysalis quickly realized something.
“Not only that, there’s no way for you to suddenly realize any of this” -, she then turned to Spike and aimed at him, - “he had something to do with this, it would also explain how he managed to regenerate his injuries so quickly but, if it’s true that something must be given in order to obtain that something…”
Chrysalis’ eyes widen as she started to connect the dots.
“What did you use as a source to regenerate from your injuries?”
Her voice was cold, with a slight hint of disgust, as Spike was trying to form a response that was impossible to find. The only one who could answer that was Greed and he was indisposed at the time being.
“I…” – Spike stammered, trying to find an answer. - “I don’t know, he never told me.”
Chrysalis had to arch her eyebrow at that comment.
“He? You mean the one living in you?” - Spike quickly turned towards Chrysalis in shock, never thinking she could have known about him. Seeing his reaction, Chrysalis also realizes this and keeps talking. – “Yes, I was aware of that thing living in you for a long time, so I would like you start explaining your relation with that thing, starting with its name.”
Spike looked around as much as the chains would allow him, seeing how even Thorax and Trixie were curious as well. With a deep and resigning sigh, he decided to explain.
“Greed, he has been inside of me since a few days back, before the wedding at Canterlot. Twilight found a strange gem that day and I ate it when she wasn’t looking. Before I realized, he was already inside of me, talking about everything we came across” -, Spike then looked at Chrysalis and smirked before adding, - “he even noticed there was something wrong with your transformation.”
If this piece of information affected her, she didn’t show it.
“He later convinced me of giving up my body to him in order to stop you.”
Trixie gasped as she heard this while Thorax’s and Chrysalis’ eyes widen at this revelation.
“And you agreed to this?” – Seeing Chrysalis’ shocked face made Spike wonder what was going on through his mind. In the end, he nodded, thinking that Chrysalis may see some sense to this, but all hopes were lost as she started to laugh at him. – “You are one of the most foolish dragons I’ve ever met” -. Her laughs could be heard far through her hive, as the many servants wondered what was bringing her so much joy. – “Who would give up the control over its own body just to save some useless ponies?”
As Chrysalis’ laughter resonated through the prison cell, both Trixie and Thorax started to frown at the changeling queen but, before any of them could respond, Spike’s voice quickly responded in a high volume.
“Because they are not useless!”
The response quickly silenced Chrysalis as she decided to look down on Spike, whose face now looked determined and prepared.
“Twilight and her friends are not useless; they are one of the most dependable ponies I’ve ever met! They’re always there to help you and never give up on you!” – As he said this, Chrysalis’ face started to contort in anger, this would usually drive away in fear other changelings, but Spike felt no fear to her in that moment. – “I wouldn’t be surprised if at this very moment, Twilight is trying to find a way to help me get my body back and, the same way they would never give up on me, I’ll never give up on her or her friends!”
Rage wasn’t enough to describe the face Chrysalis was making, it would be impossible to describe in written text the amount of anger and hatred erupting from her as she heard the preposterous words coming from this petulant drake who didn’t know best. She started to get closer to a still chained Spike, as she responded to him on a daring tone, challenging him to respond as she started to charge a spell once again.
“Really?” – She said in a cold voice that didn’t even try to hide her desire to strike Spike down. – “You would never give up on her?” – Her face then started to make a sadistic smile as her horn started to aim at Thorax. – “Even If that means giving up on him?” – She then aimed at a very scared Trixie, now shivering and covering her face with her hooves. – “Or her?” – She then aimed at Spike, as her spell was now pulsating with energy that looked like it was wishing to be released once and for all. – “Or are you willing to be destroyed to protect these inferior creatures as well?”
Spike hesitated for a brief moment, he wasn’t sure if he could use Greed’s regenerative skills without the mysterious entity, especially when he didn’t know from where he was getting the energy to do so. But he then realized that both Thorax’s and Trixie’s lives were on him and one thing was certain, there was no way he could look at Twilight’s face if he ever abandoned them to someone like Chrysalis.
He then decided to do the one thing that would anger Chrysalis the most: smirk.
“I choose… neither” -. And, before Chrysalis could even say anything, he then shouted with all his strength. – “Now!”
In that moment, a huge light came from the circle made by Trixie as the iron once again was reshaped while another bluish light came from behind Thorax, creating a small earthquake that broke the ground, making them all fall to the next floor.
As they were falling, Thorax started to fly, quickly picking both Trixie and Spike, much to his pain, and started to fly down in a pace that would allow them to properly land. Meanwhile, Chrysalis got into a state of shock before she could realize what was going on, her wings quickly started to flutter, keeping her on the air as she realized what just happened.
“That was alchemy" -. She said in shock. - "That traitor did alchemy" -, she tried to process the information, but it didn't make sense, - "he had an inhibitor ring, he couldn’t have used magic…" - It was then when she remembered something very important about her throne, something that made Trixie's story fall apart. And to realize that only made her rage. - "That means…”
A large shriek told all the changelings that their queen had just lost her temper and it was for the best of the collective to remove the one thing that was causing her anger.
Meanwhile, as the dragon, pony and changeling landed, Trixie quickly revealed a set of keys she made through alchemy to look, and work, just like the ones the guard held back at their prison cell. Quickly using them to liberate themselves from their chains and inhibitors, followed quickly by a small cheer.
“Oh boy” -. Started Spike on a very happy tone of voice. – “I can’t believe that worked.”
“Yeah!” – Responded an equally enthusiast Thorax. – “After so much theorizing, I finally managed to test it. I think this way of making alchemy will help changelings so much.”
“Yeah, now all we need to do is getting out of here, right?”
Thorax quickly nodded but they then noticed Trixie’s silent, making them turn towards her and notice how she was in a state of mild sadness.
“So you’re Sparkle’s dragon?”
Spike’s smile got removed, knowing what it meant.
“Yeah, you want to talk about it now or after we get out of here?”
Trixie didn’t move her head, she just asked.
“And is true all you said? That you would never give up on her?”
Spike simply nodded, waiting for her to make the next question.
“And would you give up on Trixie?”
Spike simply got close to her, looked her directly into her eyes, and said with as much maturity as his voice could muster.
“I’ll never give up on you. You may not know me well enough, but I do know you and that’s enough to consider you my friend, even if you don’t and I don’t plan to abandon any of my friends, you hear me?”
Trixie’s eyes held themselves from tearing up as the Emotional and Sentimental Trixie nodded. Spike them smiled and quickly felt his motor functions fail him as a familiar voice resounded on his voice.
“Hey! Not bad, are you sure you’re a kid? Because that sounded very mature from your part.”
“Greed?” – Asked a surprised Spike as his body started to grow in size. – “When did you wake up?”
Greed’s laugh was heard as he confidently responded with the tone of voice of an old friend who peeped on his best pal practicing a confession.
“I woke up a while ago, that was a very nice speech by the way. I would’ve liked to take over and get rid of that old insect, but it would have been rude. But time is up, you’ll need me if you want to get them out of here.”
Spike puffed, knowing Greed was right but not before responding.
“Alright, but we’ll have to talk about this later.”
Greed didn’t respond, but Spike felt he acknowledged him before fully taking over.
As both Trixie and Thorax looked in shock how Spike grew up, his arms getting more muscle tone, his chin getting more jagged and his eyes changing in color to the ones they were familiar the most, Greed smiled as he pointed at himself with his thumb.
“Hey, how are you? Did you miss me?”
His response was a quick slap coming from Trixie, leaving him in shock.
“How dare you taking over a foal’s life as It belonged to you! We’ll have to talk about this later, understood!?”
Greed simply smiled.
“Sounds fair, but we’ll have to wait before we have the talk.”
He then looked up as a resounding buzzing started to vibrate through the whole building, making it shake. As the trio looked around them, myriads of changelings surrounded them from all sides, with one single imposing queen coming down, looking at them with cruelty on her eyes. Both Trixie and Thorax were shaking, not sure if they could get of this one, but not Greed, he looked confident, prepared, ready to take over the whole place, as he responded to the pony and changeling.
“Because, right now, I have to take out the thrash.”