//------------------------------// // Avarice vs Jealousy // Story: The Redemption of a Never Ending Ambition // by Time Reaper //------------------------------// The undergrounds were filled with the haunting buzz from all the changelings surrounding Trixie, Thorax and Greed. They were completely surrounded and Chrysalis intimidating aura only made things worse. The Fearful and Trembling Trixie was unable to think of a solution, for her, it was the end of the ride and she wasn't prepared for this moment. Thorax was afraid of what Chrysalis would do to him. He was already in danger of being tortured but he hoped that Chrysalis wouldn't do anything against his brother, Pharynx, and his niece, Ocellus, but her sight indicated that Chrysalis was planning on being as ruthless as possible with her newest victims. Greed, meanwhile, looked confident enough to smile his lips at her. He positioned himself between the not-for-too-long changeling queen and his two followers; his pose remained calm and collected as he made two steps towards Chrysalis and revealed his sharp fangs in a threatening way. Seeing how Chrysalis showed more anger at his attitude only made Greed happier. "Do you really think it's a good idea to anger the one who will capture you, monster?" If that insult affected Greed, he did a good work not showing it. "You are correct, it's not a good idea, which is why you should tell your drones to get down and show some respect to me." "You!? Respect!?" - Chrysalis was now getting furious, even her drones were even insulted at the prospect of following the creature that stopped them from controlling Canterlot. - "How dare you even suggesting the idea of you capturing us when we have you surrounded. Who do you think you are, a king?" The changelings couldn't help themselves but laugh at the idea of a monster ruling over changelings and hearing her drones laughing made Chrysalis grin, hoping it would bother the creature. None of them noticed how Greed slightly grew before answering "Soon enough, yeah." All the changelings stopped laughing at that and started to look at Greed in shocked. His smile just remained as Chrysalis tried to make sense of his words. "And how do you plan to become the new ruler of the changelings? There is a ruler in place already and I don't plan to hand it over to you." Greed remained confident as he simple made a pose for combat. "Well, then it's just a matter of taking over the crown." Chrysalis gave Greed a second look and, after realizing that he was serious, she couldn't stop herself from laughing, whether it was for fear or at the absurdity of it, she wasn't sure. "Hehehe, please, hahaha, you can't be serious. Hahaha! You really think that you can just come a fight me? Or that just by defeating me, my changelings will accept you as their new king? Please, hahahaha, don't make me laugh." "Well, on the first place, I already defeated you once" -. Greed then knelt down, as his arms started to become black, and managed to pierce the ground with his arms, grabbing big chunks of rock, and then started to move towards Chrysalis once more. - "On the second place, I'm sure I would make a better king than you." Chrysalis' face showed the scorn she was feeling towards Greed, but her voice managed to give the impression of not being affected by him. "You? A better king? Please, you know nothing of my changelings, how would you even try to feed them when you have no way to provide love to them?" By this point, Greed's shoulders and his legs were already covered by his armor, but he was keeping his talk with Chrysalis as if nothing major was about to come. "You think I know nothing of them? Are you blind or did you just forget I've been with one of you for the last weeks?" All the changelings remembered the existence of Thorax and immediately started to scrutinize him, wondering what kind of secrets did he reveal. Naturally, Thorax only felt worse, wondering when would his own kind jump and destroy him; at the same time, Trixie, being besides Thorax, felt just as confident as the changeling besides her. Greed meanwhile, just turned at Thorax and smiled at him, while showing him a thumb up. "He told me how you feed and the struggles you've been going through." -. He then turned towards Chrysalis and eyed at her with a threatening glare, his smile now gone. - "And while he didn't give specifics, just by listening to him, I can easily tell that you are an awful ruler." His fist started to pressure the rocks, crushing them at a slow rate as he kept his combat pose. "You are unable to feed your own kind, you tried to take over the love of others and failed in a spectacular way and, your worst mistake, you failed to measure your opponents correctly, mistake you are doing once more." Chrysalis showed her fangs as her response started to resound through the chamber, strongly resonating on her drones. "How dare you to accuse me of failing, I'll inform you that the only reason why I failed was because of your meddling and nothing else. If it weren't for you, I would have the love from Equestria all for myself, and my changelings would've more than enough for themselves" -. She then tried to imagine once more that moment in Canterlot Palace, how she wasn't feeling hunger, how she felt satisfied, she was still wondering if said satisfaction would've lasted forever. - "No more hunger" -, for a brief moment, her voice sounded passive and elating, but looking at Greed once more reminded her of the one who stopped her from succeeding, - "but you ruined it." "Please, don't be so nice to me" -, said Greed as he showed no fear towards the changeling queen, - "there were others that could have stopped you hadn't I been there. You are so oblivious to your own mistakes that, to this day, you still fail to realize this." Chrysalis quickly started to charge a spell as her patience started to wear thin. "And, if so, why did you intervene and saved those ponies? Friendship?" "Please" -, said a sarcastic Greed, - "I don't believe in that kind of thing" -. He then looked at Chrysalis and, as his body slightly grew, something Chrysalis managed to take note of, Greed said in a determined tone of voice. - "I did it because I take care of what belongs to me." That took Chrysalis by surprise, almost making her lose concentration on her spell. "What belongs to you?" "Yes, as the owner of this body, anything belonging to this kid is also my responsibility. In other words, I have to protect the lives this kid wants to protect because, what belongs to this kid now belongs to me." "And why do you have to protect them?" - Said Chrysalis in defiance to Greed's thinking. - "Once it belongs to you, it's yours, you can let others take care of those annoyances. Besides, why to care at all? They weren't yours to begin with, it would be much better to not let them have anything, if you're not allowed to have what should be yours by birthright" -. Chrysalis then made a malicious smile as she continued. - "Although, maybe that's why you want to care so much. Since you are an abomination with no birthright, you want to care for what belongs to others, thinking that you can do a better job than them." Greed's smile faltered at Chrysalis's words, making her smile slightly, just to then see Greed smile once more and answer as if her words had no effect on him. "I may not be the most handsome of all, but at least I don't try to hide my actions under such pathetic excuse as birthright. When I want something, I just go and take it but, I'll admit, I do believe I can make a better job than others protecting what belongs to me, I'll give you that" -. He then started to run towards Chrysalis as his fanged smile remained in place. - "And I'll show you I can take care of this drones better than you." He then jumped directly at Chrysalis as she quickly reacted and shot her spell at Greed. He guarded himself by putting his two arms in front of him, blocking the spell and allowing him to be close enough to Chrysalis to try and punch her, but Chrysalis quickly evaded him, remaining in the air, as she tried to grab Greed with a telekinesis spell. Greed's body was surrounded by the sickly green of Chrysalis' magic, making him levitate, but Greed quickly threw one of the pebbles he had on his hands towards Chrysalis, forcing her to release Greed and create a shield to protect herself. Greed took the opportunity and jumped straight at Chrysalis, punching her shield, and sending her flying back. Seeing that the shield didn't break gave Chrysalis some relief but, after giving her shield a quick glance, she noticed a small crack on it. She then started to pour more magic into it, fixing the crack. When Greed came and punched the shield once more, launching Chrysalis backwards and making her lose her concentration which, in turn, made her shield disappear. Greed then jumped towards Chrysalis, ready to hit her once more, but he was captured once more by Chrysalis' telekinesis and this time the Changeling Queen made sure that Greed wouldn’t move by constraining his body with her magic. Greed tried to move, but it was no use, much to Chrysalis delight. Seeing his face getting frustrated only made her smile with sadistic joy. "Well, now that you're no longer a threat" -, she says as she starts to turn towards Trixie and Thorax, - "I suppose we could start our conversation anew." Trixie started to get scared while Thorax remained unable to move due to the terror he was having. "As far I can remember" -, Chrysalis continued, - "you two managed to do alchemy when you weren't supposed to." Hearing this, both unicorn and changeling wide their eyes. "You" -, she said at Thorax, - "used alchemy when your horn was inhibited and you" -, this time referring to Trixie, - "used alchemy when this place nullifies unicorn magic. That means you used something else as a mean to do alchemy." Chrysalis then got closer to the two figures filled with fear and said to them in the kindest and simplest tone of voice she could muster. "Now, could you explain what did you do to bypass my magic nullifiers, or else I'll show you what I do when I get in a bad mood." Trixie was in a crossroad, she wanted to live, but she didn't want to abandon her friend and see if Thorax could be a friend as well; the same way, she wasn't sure Chrysalis would follow her word if she promised to not harm her or Thorax. But, before she could even decide on what to do, Thorax stood in between her and Chrysalis, horn aimed at the changeling queen, as he tried to defend Trixie. "Stay away from my friend or else-" A kick from Chrysalis sent him away, as he landed, Thorax was held down by a group of changelings, he looked up and gasped as he recognized one of them. "Brother...?" The changeling spat at him and put his hoof over his skull. Trixie meanwhile, could only stand in fear as she felt Chrysalis' stare getting closer to her. She tried to muster once more a plan to free everyone but she was well aware that she didn't have the time to draw a circle or make a spell. "Hey, fake queen!" Trixie swore, and would always say, whenever asked about that day, Chrysalis' eyes flashed a malicious hatred as the queen herself turned back towards the creature known as Greed. “My apologies” -, Chrysalis said, - “but I think I misheard you, did you just called me a fake queen?” If it weren’t for his armor, Greed would have noticed how the spell was constricting him even more. Thankfully, Chrysalis was too angered to notice her spell failing the constriction and Greed’s smug grin only made things worse for her. “Yes” -, he said, - “because you are a fake queen.” “Hum, Greed” – Interrupted a terrified Spike on Greed’s mind, - “Are you sure it’s a good idea to make her angrier than she already is?” Greed seemingly ignored him as he continued to taunt Chrysalis. “You only use your title to take over but you are unable to protect your own subjects, you may have the title of queen, but you aren’t fit to bear it.” "Oh, really?" - Asked the Changeling Queen. - "And you think you could do a better job than me?" Greed snickered as Chrysalis was squeezing him with her telekinesis. "Of course I would, after all, I care for what I own." "Again with this!?" - Chrysalis shouted in anger at Greed, forgetting that Trixie and Thorax were besides her. - "I have you captured right now, how can you actually believe that you can still take my throne when you're not even capable of defeating me?!" In that moment Chrysalis felt a constraint in her magic as Greed started to get heavier. She took a look at Greed and him smiling back as he started to respond. "I will have your crown because I'm Greed." He then started to grow in a very noticeable way, making it very hard for Chrysalis to keep him on the air. "I take everything because it belongs to me." By this point everyone surrounding Greed started to become scared and tried to stay away from him, as he started to tower over Chrysalis herself, to the point that the changeling queen was no longer capable of holding him with her telekinesis. "There's nothing I don't want and there's nothing I can't get because my greed is too big to be controlled." Thorax took Trixie and flied away from the site as they noticed how Greed was going to reach the sealing, making the place crumble before him while Chrysalis was trying to defend herself, from the debris, with a shield. All the while, Greed's armor was growing with him, now covering his whole body, much to Chrysalis' horror. Greed's voice was by now booming and resounding through the whole site. "This palace is my palace, this land is my land, your crown is my crown, anything that doesn’t belong to me will belong to me and I will have everything until I feel satisfied.” Greed was, by this point, so gargantuan that the changeling palace was no longer capable of holding him, collapsing as all the changelings were flying away, except Chrysalis who, whether for terror or bravery, nobody could tell since they were all fleeing, decided to stay, watching Greed growing beyond what she could ever imagine. By the time Greed stopped growing, there was nothing left of the changeling palace, except for Greed’s monstrous figure, taller than a mountain, who watched Chrysalis and dared her. “Now, are you ready for round two?” Chrysalis noticed a giant, dark, draconic tail moving her way, which she quickly dodged with her flying skills. She then shot one of her best spells designed to kill, but it bounced off from Greed’s shoulders as if her was immune to magic, at which Greed simply chuckled. “Hehe, was that supposed to hurt? Now, let me show you how to attack!” He then opened his mouth and breathed a giant wave of fire at her with ease, forcing Chrysalis to avoid it with a teleportation spell. Greed quickly felt Chrysalis’ attack from her new location, at his back, which he turned around and, after seeing Chrysalis, he answered with a tail whip. The changeling queen had little time to react at the tail, only having enough to create a shield which broke at impact, but managed to save her, despite being thrown to the ground. Greed then turned and threw a fireball, as a tired and constrained Chrysalis barely had enough time to teleport. Once she appeared besides Greed, she tried to attack the giant dragon monster with a spell to the head, but it barely had any effect on him, as his size reduced the efficiency of any kind of spell thrown at him. Once more, Greed attacked Chrysalis with his paws, sending her to the ground, just to quickly pick her up with his gigantic claws. By the time Chrysalis managed to react, she was already at Greed’s grasp, noticing how he had her horn pressured with his own nails, just enough to not break it, while his other claw had the rest of her body captured. Seeing the amount of control Greed had over his titanic body sent a wave of terror at Chrysalis, now realizing that, whatever she was fighting, it wasn’t natural. Calling it a monster was more of an insult, but she was now thinking Greed could be something even worse. Even when the changelings were attacking at Greed, it was clear their attacks were useless, since Greed seemed far more interested on Chrysalis. “Tell them to stop!” Chrysalis knew it wasn’t an actual shout, just that it felt as one since she was a bug compared to him. Fearing the consequences of disobeying, she obliged. “Halt!!!” All the changelings stopped their attack, befuddled, and watched their queen terrified of this creature. Some of them were shocked, some of them were worried and some of them were hopeful, soon, they would know what would be their future. Greed got closer to Chrysalis, the changeling queen fearing for her life, as he started to chuckle. “Say that you resign your crown and now pass it to me. Do it, and you will live.” For a brief moment, Chrysalis refused to do it, her pride didn’t allowed it. But, after realizing the reality of Greed’s threat, she quickly made her mind. “I resign my right to the changeling crown!” – As her voiced resounded through the land, the changelings’ mind stopped working as they started to realize the incoming end of everything they knew. – “I hereby give it to Greed! Now he’s the king of the changelings!” Trixie and Thorax were shocked at what just happened, Greed actually managed to defeat Chrysalis and take over the changelings. Who knew what else was he capable off. Greed, meanwhile, started to laugh as he released his grip on Chrysalis and allowed her to fly as he got his face closer to her and made the threat. “Now leave my presence, you’re not even worth being close to me.” Chrysalis tried her best to remain collected and protested. “What? Why!? I have experience! I know how to rule over the subjects! How do you plan to rule over the changelings without me!?” Greed simply laughed at her protests. “You can’t fool me, I know for a fact that, as long as you’re near me, you’ll always try to take back the crown. You think of me foolish enough to give you that chance?” Chrysalis tried to respond, but she couldn’t deny the accusation and, before she could find an excuse, Greed quickly continued his response. “Now, to show my mercy” -, he then turned around to the changelings and told them, - “any of you who think she still can help you, you’re free to go but, I warn you, she is unable to defend her throne and she’ll never be able to keep you alive. Meanwhile, I’ll not only protect you, but I’ll make sure you never have to survive on love and I can guarantee this because I protect that which I own.” For some moments, the changelings remained static, not knowing what to do, but soon enough, a big part of the changelings quickly went with Greed while another part remained stationary, waiting for their exiled queen to go with them. Chrysalis quickly turned to Greed with a cold look, silently wishing for the moment of her revenge on him to come soon. She then took off with all the few loyal changelings she still held, leaving Greed with his new Changeling subjects. As Chrysalis and her loyalist left, Greed turned over to the changelings that decided to stay with him, grinning, and started to shrink as he felt part of his plans being satisfied. By the time he was shrunk back to his original size, he started to look over his subjects, Thorax and Trixie, and decided to talk. "Hello everyone, you're all welcome to be with me. Before we start to move, I would like to answer to any question you may have." Some changelings raised their hooves as they wanted to know more about their future, Greed, casually, just aimed at the first changeling he found and allowed it to ask. "Hum, yes." - the petit, female changeling said, which much fear in her voice, - "I would like to know what is your plan to help us get love?" Greed kept his smile as he decided to answer. "Good question... erm... what's your name?" The small changeling cringes before answering. "O-o-Ocellus... sir." "Don't worry about" -, calmly responded Greed, - "It's a bit simple, actually, while some infiltration tactics are going to remain the same for now, my long term plan is for you to be better accepted by the population." Many changelings gasped in shock, while one changeling in particular went directly towards Greed, anger on its face, as Ocellus tried to stop him. "What kind of answer is this!? There's no way the ponies will never accept you or any of us! What kind of plan do you have to make ponies accept us in the first place" Greed kept his grin as the angry changeling looked at him defiantly, prompting Ocellus to stand between the monster dragon and the angry drone. "P-please King Greed, spare my father! H-he's just worried about us!" Greed kept his smile as he waved his hand towards Ocellus. "Don't worry about it, but just call me Lord Greed from now on" -, as Ocellus nodded, Greed looked at Ocellus' father and answered, - "as for you, my plan may sound crazy to you but, remember, that I'm immortal, I can easily plan for the long term and get us all on the same level as ponies so I recommend you to watch, you'll soon realize that you're following the right one now" -, he then looked at the rest of the changelings and screamed, - "and this also comes with the rest of you! Understood!?" All the changelings nodded, making Greed smile once more as he aimed with his finger at Thorax. "And, if for some reason you need to ask for something and I'm not around, you can ask him" -, all the changelings gasped as they started to look at Thorax questioningly, - "He knows me quite well, so you can talk to him to clear any doubt about me or if you need to reach me. That way, even if I'm not close, I can know what is troubling you." Thorax remained shocked as he heard this, trying to comprehend the implications of what Greed just did and hoping no other changeling would try to reject it. Thankfully, nobody said anything and, seeing this, Greed clapped and continued. "Alright then, since nobody has anymore doubts, I think it's time to move somewhere else" -, he then looked around at the destroyed remains of the changeling palace and added, - "This isn't a good place to plan how to become king of the world." A voice then, hard to tell among the crowd, made the question. "And where should we move into, then?" Greed looked at his changelings, Thorax and Trixie, and smiled deviously as he had that answer ready for a while, with this new followers would fit just nicely. "Where else? A city."