The Redemption of a Never Ending Ambition

by Time Reaper

Desperate Measures

As Twilight heard 'Spike's' word, something inside her started to break, she wasn't sure of what exactly but that didn't stop her from first trying to understand what did she hear him saying.

"What?" - She asked to her number 1 assistant. - "Spike, what are you talking about? Of course it's you, I mean, who else I could be talking to?"

'Spike' looked at her with his eyes, that Twilight was now starting to notice that they weren't their common emerald color, and responded with a voice that didn't drip in malice or even some sort of sarcasm but that it still hurt to hear.

"You don't get it? Look, to help you out, I made a deal with Spike, a simple one actually, I would help you out to defeat Chrysalis in exchange of this body. I helped you out and now I get to keep this body" -. He then started to raise both hands and just make a simple shrug while his face started make a content smile. - "Quite simple actually."

Just dealing with Chrysalis left Twilight both physically and mentally exhausted and she wasn't sure that she had the energies for this new twist on her life but, still, she would try to make sense of this.

"What? No, that doesn't make sense, what or where were you when Spike asked you for help and how did you even managed to take control of his body?"

"Me?" - He said with a calm tone of voice. - "I've been with him for a while now, not that you would've noticed of course, but I've always been quiet most of the time... hum?"

In that moment his eyes zoned out, as if his mind wasn't on Equestria any longer but, before Twilight and her friends could even react at what they were seeing, 'Spike' came back to his 'normal' self.

"I know that I've talked a bit kid but, trust me, I've been very quiet regarding what I've seen of your life."

Twilight wasn't sure of what exactly was that, but she got a hunch regarding at who was he talking to.

"Wait" -. She quickly commented. - "Was that Spike? Why don't you let him out?"

"I told you" -. Said the dragon with a still calm voice. - "The deal was that I would help him to defend you and, in exchange, I would keep the body. I understand if you miss your son but a deal is a deal. This body is mine now."

"Oh yeah!?"

Both Twilight and the dragon looked back at Rainbow Dash, who was looking too eager at what she was hearing.

"What if I have something to say about it?"

Her challenging tone was sending this conversation into a direction Twilight wanted to avoid. She wasn't sure of what exactly Spike agreed to (or, to be more precise, how he did it) but she was sure that this entity was still using Spike's body and Twilight wasn't too eager to the idea of hurting it in any way whatsoever, for the time being.

Sadly for her, the entity possessing Spike's body didn't seem very annoyed by Rainbow's eagerness to a fight.

"Well, what do you have to say about it? I'm all ears."

Rainbow started to get closer to him with an angry look while Twilight was trying to find a way to diffuse the situation.

"Well, I don't think it's nice of you to be possessing something that doesn't belong to you, so give Spike his body back or else-"

"Or else what?" - Asked a defiant Greed. - "Are you going to hurt this body? I'll remind you that Spike it's still here. And, besides, it would be quite unfair that, after helping you to defeat Chrysalis, the only thanks I get is a fight. I mean, I now I aren't the most popular neither the best speaker, but I was expecting a little thank you, you know?"

"What!?" - Asked the angry pegasus as she was getting inches close to the being possessing Spike's body. - "What on earth makes you think that you helped? We had it solved before you came in."

"Rainbow..."

"Oh really?" - Asked the possessed dragon in a sarcastic tone. - "So being captured were you fixing the situation, now I'm curious how the scenario would be when you finally defeated her."

"That's it!"

"Rainbow Dash! Refrain yourself!"

When Rainbow Dash turned around, she saw both Applejack and Rarity looking at the situation in a depressed mood as they were trying to get a hold of what was going on as Rarity was now talking.

"Look" -, she said as she was trying to stop the situation from escalating, - "I understand your concerns and frustrations right now, Rainbow dear, but fighting the one being that scared the changelings and gave Chrysalis a hard time isn't going to bring Spike back. That... and he is right..."

"Wait, what?" - Rainbow was started to get frustrated as she too, tried to make sense of what she was seeing. - "Rarity, come on, we cannot let Spike turn into this dude."

"Rainbow" -. Rarity quickly interjected. - "I never said my agreements with Spike's possession, what I said is that he is right on the part of him needing to be thanked. Who knows what would've happened shouldn't he be present."

"Thank you!" - Shouted the being possessing Spike. - "Now I see why Spike is so interested in you. Now, I think that it would help a lot if you let me keep this body."

"My apologies" -. Rarity responded with a solemn tone of voice. - "But I never agreed with the idea of you keeping my Spikie-wikie's body, which now begs the questions, who are you and how did you two meet?"

In that moment, the dragon started to move very slowly, his body language showed confidence as his eyes were slowly analyzing the mares, and stallion, present in the room, who were equally analyzing his very moves in an attempt to predict him on the case he decided to keep the body. The dragon quickly broke the tension by responding to Rarity's question.

"Well, I suppose I could answer those questions. First off, my name is Greed."

The ponies tried to assimilate the name, sure, they heard it already but they weren't expecting it to be his actual name. Regardless, they now had a way to address this entity invading Spike's body.

"And regarding how Spike and I met. I have to admit that it wasn't a conventional meeting, after all, not even I was expecting to meet the young drake, but I suppose I have to thank Twilight for that."

"Wait, what?" - Twilight quickly responded as Greed started to rest his body on the room's balcony with complete calm as the scholar unicorn tried to make sense of this new statement. - "I've never seen you before in my life. How did I help you meeting Spike?"

"Oh, Twilight, you hurt me" -. Said Greed as he raised his right claw towards his chest as he moved towards the balcony, giving Twilight another chance to look at the strange symbol in it. - "Don't you remember how we meet not too long ago on Ponyville? You saw me very close to a fence and thought that I was a very strange thing, so you asked Spike to watch over me while you were with your friends on a sleepover."

Twilight was about to retort and say that she never saw him but she then remembered that she did see something that day Greed was talking about. Yes, she saw something that day but it wasn't a pony or a dragon, in fact, in that moment, Twilight thought that it wasn't even a living organism and her epiphany saddened her as she also remembered Spike eating that strange gem she found that day.

As Twilight was putting her hooves on her mouth, realization dawning into her, Greed decided to quickly explain to the mares what was going on.

"You see, that little gem that you saw back then, and that Spike later ate, was me and it was then that the two of us met. Now, I admit, I wasn't expecting anything of what was happening but, I have to say, that learning from this world will be quite insightful now that I have a body again."

"Wait!"

Everybody turned to Princess Celestia who, for the first time since her fight with Chrysalis, was now trying to get involved in the situation at hand, catching Greed's interest.

"Perhaps we can make an exchange? Is there something you desire enough so we can give it to you in exchange of Spike regaining his body?"

Both pony and dragon exchanged glances as they tried to see and predict what kind of response they could get from the other one. All ponies were expecting for Greed to accept, after all, he helped to save Equestria, he could get riches beyond anyone's dream, he could even become a lord and be on a high position on Celestia's court, heck, Twilight would gladly help him on his search of either another host or see what was the deal with him. Nobody expected his actual answer.

"I don't know princess, I'm sure you could get me a great reward for helping, but I doubt you could give me what I truly want and for that, I need this body specifically."

He then moved his arms back, as he started to yawn, and so far back he moved his arms that his body went beyond the balcony and started to fall from the castle itself, much to the shock of everypony, unable to move as they didn't expect Greed to actually drop himself to the ground, from a castle, on a room that was too high to actually survive.

By the time the ponies finally were able to react, they were quickly rushing to the balcony trying to find the broken body that belonged to Spike but, much to their shock (as well as Twilight's relief) said body wasn't lying dead on the ground but, rather, was running away from the castle at a very acceptable speed and it wasn't slowing down.

"Rainbow!" - Shouted Twilight. - "Quick! Capture him before he run away with Spike's body."

Rainbow Dash quickly spread her wings as she decided to drop to the ground (gaining some speed in the process) and started to chase Greed down. Meanwhile, Twilight Sparkle and her friends decided to go first to where Greed supposedly landed in the hopes of finding a clue of how he managed to survive that fall.

It was now up to Rainbow Dash to finally capture Greed and, hopefully, get Spike back. He was running at a moderate speed, sure, but Rainbow was capable of surpassing that velocity easily and with little to no effort, which is why she was very close to capture Greed when he suddenly decided to make a quick turn in an alley, something that Rainbow Dash didn't find strange at all.

When Rainbow Dash finally got there, she saw that Greed was quite calm as he was analyzing the dead end he was caught on, when he turned back, and saw Rainbow Dash, he simply smiled as he decided to move on her direction, albeit slowly.

"Well, I was wondering how long it would take you to chase me down" -. His eyes then started to look around as if searching for something. - "So, where is Spike's mom and her friends. Are they coming or you decided to come here thinking that you alone would suffice to capture me?"

"Get real!" - Shouted Rainbow Dash. - "I'll take you down before my friends get here, besides, how do you know the princesses aren't coming either?"

"Well" -. Responded a very calm Greed as he kept his smile. - "The princesses have to fix the mess their military is into so they'll be too busy just seeing what happened to the country and trying to calm down the ponies and I know that only you would be fast enough to catch up to me, after all, that was a high fall and no normal being would be able to survive that. They had to go the long way to get down there."

Rainbow Dash started to feel some sort of nervousness when she heard him saying those words, they inherently admitted that he shouldn't have survived that fall but still did somehow and she wasn't sure if it was a good idea to fight someone who could avoid death that easily, not that she was starting to get scared or anything but it was better to be precocious.

"So?" - Responded the brash Rainbow Dash. - "It's not as if I couldn't stop you or anything. All I have to do is to keep you down while they are getting here, no problem."

"Sure, if you want to believe that."

"Hum? What do you mean with that!?"

Greed started to increase his smile as he stopped at just a few steps away from Rainbow Dash as his tone of voice started to sound mocking.

"I mean, I managed to keep Chrysalis at bay while you got captured by a bunch a drones. Suffice to say, if you tried to get to me, all you would do is failing at it, in fact, I doubt you would even be capable of capturing me at this short distance."

At hearing those words, Rainbow Dash decided to show him who's boss as she flew at the highest speed possible against Greed, only to then see black as she quickly crashed into his body and her head felt a huge hit before she could even realize what happened. By the time Twilight and her friends finally caught up with her, all they would find is a knocked down Rainbow Dash as there would be no sign of the Dragon they were searching for, much to Twilight's dismay.

It was during this time of running away that Greed would finally be able to leave Canterlot and have all of Equestria free for him to explore but, where to?

This was the dilemma Greed was having right now as night was finally on the equestrian sky and he was deep into some Equestrian forest, wondering where to go into.

"Let's see..." - He said to no one. - "I don't know enough of Equestria to move wildly but I certainly don't want to go back into that city, it would be a very bad idea. Now, where I could go where there is enough information for me to know this world but I run little to no risk of being captured?"

"Well" - Said Spike inside the body. - "You could go back, apologize for what you did and try to befriend them? I'm sure Twilight would gladly tell you all you want to know about this world."

Greed gave it a thought but quickly brushed it off.

"Maybe kid but you don't understand. If I just wanted to make friends or to know about of this world, I would have accepted that offer but I want more than that kid, and being with them or just giving up this body would mean abandoning all of that."

"Huh? And what do you want then?"

"Kid" -. Said Greed as he looked at the moon. - "Please remember, what is my name?"

"You name? Well, Greed. What does that have to do with your..."

As Spike remained in silence, Greed just kept on smiling.

"Exactly kid, I am Greed" -. As he said this, parts of his body started to grow. - "I want more than just riches. anything that princess could have offered me wouldn't have satisfied my ambitions. I want more kid and to get any of that, I need this body specifically."

"Wait" - Continued Spike. - "What do you want so much that not even friendship could satisfy you and why is my body your best bet?"

"Kid" -. Said Greed again, still smiling as he saw the moon as he raised his right claw to the air, as if trying to capture the moon. - "Remember my name, try to see the big picture, what is the greatest position that could be desired? What is the position that could ensure us the greatest riches? What it could be that grant us what we desire the most? Not a simple position of noble, not even ruling a single nation but rather, the whole world."

Spike didn't answered to that, but he was wondering if he made the mistake of accepting a deal with a potential villain and, perhaps, putting the whole world at risk of being controlled by someone like him. In the meantime, Greed finally realized what to do and decided to start moving.

"Well, at least now I know where I can go now."

"Huh? Really?"

"Yeah, Ponyville, after all, there's a library in there I can use to gather some intelligence about this world and, from there, I can tell where to go into."

As Greed started to move, his body quickly started to reduce in size into what was seen originally in the fight against Chrysalis, something that Spike wouldn't realize and that Greed would remain in silence since he was also interested to know about the other species in Equestria and he was hoping to know more about dragons.

It was during this journey that they would be seen by another being, without any of them realizing it, who did recognize Greed as the dragon who defeated Chrysalis and, suffice to say, he was very eager to follow someone as strong as him.

Meanwhile, in Canterlot, after hours of screenings and searches, the military was unable to find the dragon they were searching for and it was during the night that, after a very hot debate, that it was decided to finish the wedding before any other type of creature decided to make things more complicated. There was a small celebration to remember the equestrians that the Changeling threat was finally defeated but the common folk never realized the absence of a certain dragon although there would be rumors circulating of how some strange creature managed to defeat the queen herself before Cadence and Shining Armor gave the rest of the invader force the attack that would remove them from Canterlot.

From here on out, Twilight would use her library to determine who was Greed, what was Greed and see if there was some spell she could use to bring Spike back.

Author's Note:

EDIT June 17th of 2019: 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

[DragonPony]

This is interesting for sure. I do feel like now that Greed has control of the body we will see FAR less of Spike outside of a bit of dialog here and there and that is sad to lose a interesting character like that. Not to mention the blow back of that will be HUGE. Spike not thinking it all through at the time will now have to face all the pain and suffering he will makes his friends and family go through from his decision. Which to be honest Greed is WAY to cocky right now. Sure his armor can protect him against alot of blunt for damage and trauma. BUT he isn't dealing with HIS world anymore, he is dealing with a world of magic. The rules are less black and white than even in his world. So he think Twi or Celestia can't do anything to him he is foolish. Twilight at this time is the most powerful Unicorn around and knows a insane number of Spells, she might not be able to 'hurt' him but she sure as hell can bind hi or limit him where he wont be able to do anything. And if she can't Celestia can, she has far more years of experience and he is now underestimating her because of what just happen. That bug was supercharged at that moment and honestly took Celestia by surprise. In a REAL head to head fight I am sure she could have dusted her. And I know she has some tricks to stop one armored up teenage sized dragon.

[Starlight Nova]

Will the other six Homunculi appear, or at least get mentioned?

[Time Reaper]

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Mentioned.

[WindigogoGadget]

I wish we had more fics about greed on this site