The Redemption of a Never Ending Ambition

by Time Reaper

The Gaze of the Sun Which Everything Sees

A young orange pegasus is flying towards Canterlot Castle as fast as possible.

He carries a series of letters with him.

As he manages to reach the Canterlot gardens, he's stopped by a group of Royal Guards.

"Stop!" - Order one of them. - "Soldier, name your business flying towards the castle!"

The young flyer takes out the first letter, and shows it to the Royal Guard.

"I am the Private Flash Sentry, I'm coming here under orders from the Eastern Command, to deliver a report to Princess Celestia, Princess Luna and Princess Mi Amore Cadenza regarding suspicious activities on the region."

Flash Sentry gave the guard a letter explaining his directives, once the guard read the letter, he nods and allows Flash Sentry inside the Castle.

As he enters, Flash Sentry notices an unusual amount of soldiers and officials moving around the castle. He wanted to ask about it, but he knew what was his task and focused on it, looking for directions on Princess Celestia's whereabouts, at which he was given the direction of the audience chamber.

As he reached the chamber, he saw Princess Celestia hearing from an unicorn a demand that piqued his interest.

"Which is why I ask for your council, Princess. It's true that we shouldn't misjudge other ponies, and it's true that the paperwork was done correctly, but I've sought for more information on them and I've found no trail of their origins. At best, that they come from the cities bordering Equestria, but the response from the officials from all those cities I've inquired from hasn't shown up in all these weeks of waiting, I can find no trace of where they got their money from and it's worrying me how they are buying so many places in one swift stroke."

Celestia remained impassive as she pondered on the unicorn's plight, before giving the answer he deserved.

"I understand your fear, my little pony, but I think you must try to find more evidence for your suspicions than just the mysterious nature of this ponies. From what I understand, there doesn't seem to be a connection between this ponies beyond their lack of background and, from what I understand, they haven't done anything wrong yet, is that correct?"

The unicorn looked deflated as he heard Celestia's response, at which he nodded, but not wanting him to leave the court disappointed, Celestia decided to give him some comfort.

"What I can recommend is to keep a watch on them, to ensure they keep on behaving correctly, as you wait for more responses on their background. If the worst comes to be, I'll be there to help you."

Hearing that he princess was still looking out for him, he smiled, he then nodded, thanking Celestia for listening to him, and left the place. Once the pony was gone, Flash Sentry approached Princess Celestia, presented himself to her, gave the letter sent by the Eastern Command, and waited for her response. At first, Celestia seemed impassively happy but, as she progressed on reading, her face turned more serious. After reading the letter, she took another report in the folder and gave it a quick read, widening her eyes, and making her step up from her position, called off any new hearing, and asked a guard to call up her sister, Princess Cadence and Shining Armor into the war room, with the express mention for both Luna and Shining Armor to bring up their most trusted commanders. She then glanced at Flash Sentry and ordered him to follow her.

As they reached the war room, Flash Sentry started to wonder why was the castle in such a hurry and, thankfully, he was with the one Alicorn that could answer that.

"My apologies, princess." - The guard said as Princess Celestia turned towards him. - "But, if I may, why are the staff so active lately? Last time I came it wasn't this active."

Princess Celestia looked at the guard for a brief moment before smiling and answering with a kind voice.

"Well, Flash Sentry, ever since the changelings invaded us, we had to make arrangements on the staff to ensure who were changelings and who were real ponies" -. Her smile then turned into a small frown, with her voice turning slightly sad. - "and between that and my faithful apprentice's assistant getting foalnapped, we've been moving a lot on the administration to gather as much intelligence as possible. The School of Wizardry has also been quite active since Twilight Sparkle sent them the results of a recent investigation she's been doing the past few weeks."

Flash Sentry nodded, now understanding what was going. Not too soon after that, Princess Luna, Princess Cadence and Captain Shining Armor came into the room followed by a white earth pony in golden armor, a black bat-like winged pony with deep red eyes and fangs that stood out just enough; a pearly white unicorn with gray mane and yellow eyes wearing a violet robe, and a flame-maned pegasus, with yellow coat, wearing a military suit.

"Princess Luna, Princess Cadence, I'm glad to see you here."

"Same here, Tia" -. Said Princess Luna, followed by Princess Cadence. - "It's great to see you Celestia."

"Captain Shining Armor, I'm glad to have you here."

"It's an honor to keep serving you, Princess."

Princess Celestia then looked at the white earth pony and addressed him.

"Captain Stronghold, I hope I haven't interrupted anything."

"Worry not, princess" -, he said with a calm but disciplined voice, - "I trust you called me for a vital task."

"Arch Mage Star Bright, I'm certain you must have found something interesting to report as of now."

The pearly white unicorn, grayish mane, deep yellow eyes and confident smile, answered to Princess Celestia with the most humble tone of voice.

"Indeed I do, my princess, but that will have to wait, I infer that my calling here wasn't for the mages most recent investigations, is that correct?"

Princess Celestia made a modest smile as she nodded.

"That is correct, Arch Mage, but I'm certain you will find this calling to be of the most relevant for your investigations."

Star Bright raised an eyebrow as Celestia looked at the pegasus.

"Commander Spitfire, I hope I didn't interrupt the training of the new cadets."

The Wonder Bolts commander made a smug smile as she responded to her princess.

"Worry not, princess, they'll wish I was out for a longer time once I'm done with them for today's training."

Celestia then looked at the dark guard with bat wings and deep red eyes.

"Nice to see the commander of the Lunar Guard here as well."

The Guard saluted Princess Celestia as he presented himself.

"Captain Rópalo of the night guard, I'm here under Princess Luna's orders to help as much as we can."

Celestia smiled as she looked at Flash Sentry and, with a kind voice, made the order.

"Private Flash Sentry, could you please wait for us outside of the room? Once we are done, we'll give you the letter with the next orders for your command to follow."

Flash Sentry nodded and left the room as all the relevant ponies started to talk, starting with Princess Luna.

"Alright sister, why did thee call for us? What has thou found out that required for us to be here?"

Celestia then brought the letter Flash Sentry gave her and started to read.

"As ordered by Your Majesty, we have been investigating on the whereabouts of your apprentice's dragon partner. We have been informed about his foalnapping by a dangerous creature of unknown origins, we have also been informed about his dangerous powers, but it has managed to remain elusive, even after getting help from the other commands across Equestria. But a recent series of events has given us the breakthrough needed to make you the following report.

After close to two months of investigations, we started to see a series of strange patterns on multiple cities. In the city of Vanhoover, in example, a fairly small bank was recently bought by a pony that, allegedly, comes from the south; in the city of Maretroit, meanwhile, a small hotel, which was near bankruptcy, was bought by another pony, this time alleging to come from the north, and so on and so forth. Most cities under our notice has a pony coming from another side of Equestria making an acquisition of a very small businesses that were either financially unstable or too small to even be seen as relevant. None of this would be seen as a pattern with one exception:

In all the cities this trades and acquisitions were made, a dragon with a description too close to belong to Spike was seen not too long before and/or after the acquisition was made. The color of the scales fitted but this dragon was much taller and bulkier than Miss Twilight's dragon partner, he was wearing a jacket, open gloves and shades that attempted to disguise his appearance but we are certain it must be related to the dragon we are looking for in some manner.

After looking for leads on the dragon, we managed to find both him and another dragon, this one resembling much closer to Spike's appearance, even in size, in the city of Vanhoover. They usually go to a bar called "The Chimera's Den" which started to run not too long ago and has a good amount of ponies going in and out of it. So far, we have found no illicit activities going on there, but our whistleblowers have informed us that many of the ponies in there don't behave in a way that seems to be normal from other ponies. We would've suspected changeling activity, but we are aware that the creature known as Greed had a fight with Chrysalis so we're only working on assumptions right now.

All the relevant information, from trade deals, to tax payment, photos, notes from other commands investigating this mysterious ponies, among many others, are annexed in the full report presented to you.

Greetings:

Watchful Eye, Commander of Equestria's Eastern Command of the Royal Guard."

As Celestia finished reading the report, she looked at the ponies in the room and tried to read their faces. Many of them were stoic and showing no emotion, with Princess Cadence being the first to break the silence.

"Is there more? I would like to read anything regarding potential changeling activity."

Celestia passed Cadence the full report, also gaining the interest of Captain Rópalo, Shining Armor, Stronghold and Spitfire, who wanted to know more about the activities in the western side of Equestria.

"Now" -, Celestia continued, - "while, you are reading the report, you have probably guessed already why I summoned you here."

"Is it to assess the situation and prepare a plan to seize Spike and liberate him from Greed's clutches? Is that correct sister?"

"Yes, Luna, after reading what he is capable off, and witnessing how he defeated Chrysalis, to try and take him on without a plan would be foolish."

"My apologies" -, interrupted Star Bright, - "but I'm not familiarized with the creature, not much has been said about the changeling invasion and this is the first time I've heard of it. What are we dealing with exactly?"

Celestia looked at the arc mage, and decided to explain.

"I assume you know about how Princess Cadence and Captain Shining Armor defeated Queen Chrysalis, correct?" - Seeing Star Bright nodding, Celestia decided to explain her more details. - "What you, and the other captains, may not know is that there was someone else in there who helped on the fight, a creature known as Greed."

Hearing this, Star Bright raised an eyebrow, interested on this new development.

"And why we weren't informed of him? If he helped, he should've been given a medal and been awarded for his contributions."

"It is true that, under normal circumstances" -, responded Princess Luna, - "this creature would've been rewarded but, there were serious complications on the matter, starting for what he is."

"What he is?" - Asked Star Bright.

"This is Greed?"

Star Bright turned towards Captain Rópalo, showing a picture of a muscular dragon, wearing a jacket covering part of his body, a pair of shades covering his eyes and some gloves covering the palm of his claws. All the while wearing a smug smile on his face that boasted a big level of confidence that, just barely, didn't cross the line with egocentrism.

"Yes, captain" -, responded Celestia, - "although the clothes are new, that was how he looked like when he fought Chrysalis."

"Well, he doesn't look like that big of a threat" -, added Commander Spitfire, - "if anything, he looks like a normal dragon."

"I'm afraid to say" -, responded Celestia, - "this is where you are wrong, commander, because Greed isn't exactly the dragon."

Spitfire, Rópalo, Stronghold and Star Bright became confused as Celestia explained.

"What he revealed to us is that he is actually inhabiting the dragon, the true nature of Greed's species hasn't been discovered as of now."

Spitfire gave the dragon possessed by Greed a more through look and made a simple guess.

"I suppose, then, that the dragon being controlled by Greed is Twilight Sparkle's dragon, is that correct?"

The princesses nodded as Shining Armor gave more information.

"He told us how Spike accepted a deal with him: the body in exchange of Him defeating Chrysalis. Greed fulfilled his part of the deal so he decided to keep Spike's body for himself."

"That makes sense, I guess" -, responded Spitfire with a certain level of skepticism, - "So why are we going after him again? Nothing wrong with him so far, putting aside the abduction of a body."

"Well" -, continued Princess Celestia, - "when he decided to run away with Spike's body, he was chased by Rainbow Dash but Greed decided to knock her unconscious; the very next day, he went to Ponyville and stole practically all of Spike's belongings, as well some other goods from residents of Ponyville, while leaving another element, Applejack, heavily harmed with her hindlegs broken."

The captains quickly reacted to this, now seeing the dragon in the picture with more contempt. Captain Rópalo himself starting to see the reasons of arrest.

"So burglary, assault and injury? That does sound like a reason to go after him" -. He then remembered what the report was saying about potential changelings with him. - "And he may be working alongside enemies of Equestria. But I take it we're going after him for more than just recovering the drake, is that correct?"

"You are, indeed, correct captain" -. Responded Luna on a neutral and even tone of voice. - "We are concerned he may have more knowledge than he lets on, since he was the one revealing, if by mere accident, that the only way to remove him from Spike is through the use of alchemy."

Star Bright gasped as she saw at Princess Celestia with shock.

"Is that why your student suddenly started to investigate alchemy so much? To see what could help her to save Spike?"

Princess Celestia nodded as her eyes gave a grim look.

"Yes, after seeing Spike being taken away, Twilight decided to research alchemy as much as possible. I hope her notes has been useful to you and the other magical scholars."

Star Bright nodded as she started to realize something.

"So the reason why we are also going after him is for his potential knowledge on alchemy?"

Princess Celestia nodded and answered.

"Quite, if he knows enough of alchemy to separate himself from Spike, then he probably knows more which makes it imperative to capture him before whatever secrets he has becomes known by any potential enemy trying to take over Equestria."

All the equestrian commanders gave the princesses an understanding look, knowing exactly what she meant and hoping Greed hadn't revealed much so far.

"Alright" -, responded Commander Spitfire, - "before we can start any kind of operation on the thing, what kind of powers it has? We must be prepared for any type of counter attacks he might prepare to avoid capture."

"Well" -, starts Princess Celestia as she brings up a piece of document separate from the report, - "when he was fighting Chrysalis and her changelings, we noticed that he was capable of turning his scales black."

Commander Spitfire scoffed at this while answering in a mocking tone.

"So he can change the color of his scales? Doesn't sound too threatening."

Princess Celestia continued, ignoring Spitfire's comment.

"The scales turned black, somehow, were strong enough to break rocks and, according to Twilight Sparkle, it could get hit by a buck strong enough to tear down a tree and rise up as if he never got hurt at all. His scales also showed strong resistance to spells designed to directly attack him."

Spitfire whistled in surprise as Captain Rópalo analyzed the situation.

"So he can become immune to all kind of physical aggression aimed at his body..." - an idea then came to his mind, - "and what about a telekinesis spell to hold him up?"

Celestia continued reading the document.

"According to Twilight, she managed to hold him up with a telekinesis spell, which means he cannot resist all types of spells."

"It's something" -. Captain Stronghold noted. - "But that still doesn't help much, if it was capable of defeating Chrysalis, a changeling army, and it has an armor capable of resisting most attacks, then we need a better plan than just swarm him with multiple royal guards hoping to succeed."

"Especially if he has changelings helping him" -, added Captain Rópalo, - "we may have to prepare for heavy resistance, even prepare for a new confrontation against Chrysalis."

The sole idea of confronting the changelings, and their queen, so soon, when they were still recovering from the invasion, was a dreadful idea for all the ponies in the room, even more if they had to fight the one creature that managed to fend them off.

"Well" -, started Captain Rópalo, - "our duty is to defend Equestria and if Greed decided to side with the ones who attacked us, then he might as well has become an enemy of Equestria."

"Hold on" -, responded Princess Cadence, - "don't you think that's strange that Greed is working with the changelings?" - All the ponies in the room decided to listen to Cadence, understanding where she wanted to go. - "Just think about it, he stopped Chrysalis from having an unlimited love farm and now she is working with him? Just... what happened between those two?"

Everypony started to think about, it made sense. Something must have happened for Chrysalis to suddenly start working with the creature that stopped her plans, but there was no indication of what was that something.

"I think we may have an idea" -, responded Shining Armor, - "or, at least, a way to find an answer to said question. How has the Eastern Command given us all this information?"

All the ponies reading the reports started to search for the answer until Captain Rópalo found the answer they were looking for.

"Here it is, apparently, one of the sources of information is a whistleblower working within Greed's bar. A griffon, apparently, looking for some quick bits before going back home."

Princess Cadence, along Shining Armor, Princess Luna, Princess Celestia and Captain Rópalo, quickly reached the same conclusion, as Cadence started to write in a fresh parchment.

"Alright, we must then ask the command to see if this whistleblower can discover more from this business. It must find out if there are changelings working in there, and, if so, it must find out if there's a connection between Greed and Chrysalis."

As Cadence stopped writing, she looked around, asking if there were any more ideas worth asking the command while they were preparing to go after Greed.

"Well" -, started Shining Armor, - "we should first be aware of the logistics the Eastern Command has at its disposal. That way, we can help them prepare to fight Greed and anypony who might be helping him."

"I agree" -. Concluded Princess Celestia. - "I will add that, while we are preparing for this, we must also coordinate with the other commands to investigate all this strange ponies acquiring businesses. If this are changelings, we must put a stop to them before they get to do any harm on us."

All the ponies on the room nodded, as Celestia continued.

"I also think that the Eastern Command should be in charge of the operation, regarding capturing Greed, since they are the ones who know the location best. Any objection to this?"

Shining Armor quickly raised his hoof, at Celestia's surprise.

"Captain Shining Armor, you are the last one I was expecting to object."

"Do not misinterpret me, Your Majesty" -. Responded Shining Armor. - "I do believe it would be best to leave it to the Eastern Command to deal with Greed himself, but what I wanted to request was for me to go there and help directly."

"What is this Shining Armor?" - Teased Spitfire. - "Wanting to meet the hero that saved both you and Princess Cadence?"

Shining Armor ignored the tease and, keeping a straight face, continued his request.

"Not quite, I don't think I can see someone who foalnapped Spike, harmed Twilight's friends and is in some potential shady businesses as a hero. What I want is to help in the capture of him, as an unicorn, I'm confident enough to be of help for this operation."

Princess Celestia gave both Luna and Cadence a look implying they would discuss it later before Celestia responded.

"It will be taken into consideration, something else Captain?"

"Yes" -, responded Shining Armor, showing no overconfidence but also no feeling of overstepping with the request, - "I would like to have my sister and, should they want, involved in the operation."

All the other commanders gasped as Shining Armor continued his request.

"We're speaking of someone very important to Twily, if she finds out we did this operation without asking her to be part of it, even more if she is never told of this. At the very least, she must be asked if she wants to be part of this."

Celestia gave it some thought before nodding, knowing very well what will Twilight answer, if asked about helping capturing Greed.

"Alright then, I'll ask her. Perhaps she'll show us the results from her investigations on alchemy."

"Oh!" - Interrupted Star Bright. - "That would be so useful, perhaps we might even share some notes on what the mages and her has been discovering."

The rest of the meeting was reduced to a debate about what would be the new orders for the Eastern Command, along with a bone structure of how the operation would go. Once the ideas were set, a new letter was written and given to the private Flash Sentry, for him to go and deliver to the Eastern Command, who wouldn't be so thrilled with the idea of civilian ponies, even if they are the bearers of the Elements of Harmony, being involved in a military operation.

Meanwhile, in Ponyville, a scholarly unicorn would receive the letter that would put to the test her resolve to have her number one assistant back.

Author's Note:

Sorry for the heavy delay, it took me a while to focus on this chapter. I hope you like it, next year will have some very interesting chapters for you to read.

If you like this and you want to support me, you can do it through my Ko-Fi. Feel free to check it out.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

9362195
What about Father?

[Time Reaper]

10586117

He's not on this story.

[Dark reaper]

10586122
Yeah... only here I feel there may be other psychos similar to him
What are the chances that an earth pony will soon get out, which with the help of the Philosopher's Stone and huge sacrifices has become an Alicorn?