The Redemption of a Never Ending Ambition

by Time Reaper

Desperate Needs

There was tension on the train moving to Ponyville from Canterlot and it wasn’t a coincidence that the source of said tension was none other than Twilight Sparkle, who was trying to gather her thoughts once again as she saw the landscape on the train’s window. She was glad to be right about how Chrysalis was impersonating Cadence, she was glad for her friends to recognize it and apologize for not believing her and she was especially glad for the usurper queen to be defeated and expelled from Equestria, but none of that mattered for she lost something far more precious to her than the meaningless and egotistical pride of being right: she lost one of the most valuable friends she had since she could remember.

While it is true that Shining Armor was her BBBFF since she had any semblance of memory, the reality was that Spike was the closest thing to a friend she remembered ever making, both figuratively and literally, and the idea of Spike, her number one assistant, being possibly lost to some strange creature of dubious origins was, to say the least, heartbreaking.

By this point she was beyond refusing the idea of Spike being gone and she was no longer enraged at her friends for continuing the wedding while one of the guest was still missing (and she has already apologized for her behavior after that night) but she still wanted to think of a way to find him. Maybe there was a tracking spell in her library that could help her to find Spike?

She had to try; it was the minimum she had to do. Celestia herself said that she would try to search for Spike and Luna would try to search for him on the dream realm. She couldn’t stay behind on this search; she had to do something to find him.

“Twilight.”

The purple scholar turned around and saw her friends, looking at her with worry in their eyes.

“Yeah?”

The ponies looked between themselves as they tried to gain enough bravery to tell Twilight their worries. In the end, the first one to talk was Rarity, worry and doubt filling her face.

“Do you feel… better now?”

Twilight moved her head sideways as she tried to understand her query.

“What do you mean?”

“Well… is just that…” - Rarity looked at her friends before continuing, hoping to not enrage Twilight again. – “You haven’t said anything to us since last night and, my apologies for the intrusion but, I was hoping that, by this point, you would have some plan already made by now.”

“Plan?” – Twilight tried to remember the conversation she had with her friends last night, in how she had to apologize to them for shouting and accusing them of abandoning Spike and how she promised that she would try to find a way to bring him back even if she had to do it by herself. She then looked back at her friends and continued. – “You mean, a plan to bring back Spike?”

Rarity nodded.

- “Indeed. We know that you weren’t in your best last night and we are thankful for the apology but, I hope neither I nor any of us need to remind you of how you are not obliged to do this on your own. We are here to help you to recover our little Spike.”

After hearing this, Twilight’s inner storm calmed, emotion reflected in her smile as she remembered how her friends were still there and how glad she felt for knowing that they were going to help her on this.

“Thank you for being the best friends I could ever ask for.”

“Aw, shucks, sugarcube, there’s no need fer that. You know that we’re gonna help ya’ to find Spike and save him from that blasted Greed.”

Applejack’s confidence was quickly followed by Rainbow Dash, who was still wearing those bandages on her head, caused during her encounter with Greed in the streets of Canterlot.

“Darn right, and you can count me in. That Greed made me look uncool, I have to meet him once again and show him how awesome I truly am.”

“Yeah” -, continued Fluttershy, - “while I am thankful for him on fighting Chrysalis, I don’t think it was very nice of him to take Spike’s body. Hopefully we can talk him out of it and give it back?”

As she tried to build confidence on the idea of telling a being strong enough to fight off Chrysalis that he should give up on the one thing he likes the most, Pinkie Pie decided to give her piece on the subject matter.

- “Yeah, we can make him give up Spike’s body and then probably make a new body for him, and then we can make a party to him for both helping on defeating that meany Chrysalis and for having a new body. It will be great, especially because if we make him a body then who knows what else can we do and-“

“Wait!” – Twilight interrupted. – “Pinkie, what do you mean by ‘making him a new body’?”

Pinkie looked at them as if she said the most basic of things and they were the ones who had no idea of what they were dealing with.

“Well, he said that he wasn’t giving up on Spike’s body and if he originally was a jewel then probably the reason why he doesn’t want to go back is because he would then be turned again into a jewel and while there is nothing wrong with being a rock, I’m very sure that if my rocky friends turned into pony, griffon, dragon, changeling or any other creature then they probably wouldn’t like to go back to be a rock unless they actually turned into something worse than a rock which is very hard to find because-“

“Alright, Pinkie, we get it” -. Interrupted Rainbow Dash. – “He probably won’t give up on Spike’s body if that means going back to be a jewel” -. She then looked at Twilight with a thoughtful look. – “Any plan for that egghead?”

Twilight’s mind quickly started to think of a way to solve this new problem. While it wasn’t something she was actually thinking about, she was very sure that this problem was going to hit her soon enough and it was clear that she not only needed to find a tracking spell for Spike, but she also needed to find a way to give Greed a proper body if the idea of negotiating was ever going to be made. Still, that brought her another question, one even more troubling and worrisome.

Was it possible to create a body? And, if so, was that even ethical to do?

As her mind tried to bring an answer for that, the train started to stop, signaling them the end of their journey and the return back into their homes. Not being sure of when she would be able to talk back to her friends, Twilight decided to answer them the best she could before getting back to her library and started to research on this subject. And it is worth mentioning that she would take the following words to her heart to a level beyond what many couldn’t even fathom was possible to do so.

“I don’t know, girls, but I can assure you this: I’ll find Spike and I’ll bring him back, no matter what I have to do and no matter the cost.”

Only two of her friends wouldn’t worry about what she just said, either because they didn’t think of how bad things could get or because they underestimated the danger of the following events that were coming in their way.

And so, The Elements of Harmony dropped from the train station, with some very silent, and quite shocked, Cutie Mark Crusaders following them, and each of them went back to their houses, hoping to calm down a bit, think a little bit and wait for the best moment to act. At least, it would have been that way were not for the inconspicuous signs that something happened in Ponyville not too long ago.

The first sign for Twilight Sparkle was seen when she moved the way to the library and many ponies started to look at her as if she already met them early. She, at first, wasn’t aware of those looks but she started to notice them halfway through her way to the library as she saluted Bon Bon and, instead of asking her about the wedding or about where was Spike, she looked at her weirdly and asked her why was she saluting her again as well as if she was now on the mood to respond to her original question of where was Spike.

“What?” – Asked a very confused Twilight Sparkle as she tried to make sense of what she was just told. – “What do you mean by that Bon Bon?”

The earth pony looked at her with an annoyed expression and continued with her comment.

“Are you playing or did you really forget? You just passed by this morning and said that you were too tired to remember what happened at the wedding.”

She was about to brush off this comment until she remembered that she just came back from fighting a species capable of shape shifting, making her worry on the idea of a changeling taking up her appearance, which was quickly followed by asking where did the faker go.

“Bon Bon” -. Quickly said a very worried Twilight. – “Do you remember where you saw me going to this morning.”

The sweet maker stared at Twilight with a very confusing look, unable to make sense of what she just said, and simply answered.

“Well, you said that you were going to the library to get more comfortable and you would later go out… by the way, when did you leave?”

Under other circumstances, she would have probably freaked out once she was told that ‘she’ went to the library but, after all the events she went through yesterday, she was emotionally spent right now and all she wanted was to get the impostor before it was too late, so she quickly moved, leaving a very confused mare wondering what just happened and why were everypony acting so crazy that day.

When Twilight finally got to the library, her mind started to formulate all the immobilizing spells she could remember, especially after noticing that the door was still open. She entered into the library with extreme carefulness only to see, to her shame that it was empty and how many of the library’s books were on the floor. She quickly moved around to see how was her room, only to find (to her shock) that none of her belongings were taken and (to her greater shock) that many of Spike’s belongings were robbed while Owloiscious was trapped on the wall by green goo, one that she was already too familiar with.

“Owlowiscious!” – Twilight shouted as she removed her pet owl from her gooey prison. – “Do you know who did this!?”

“Who?”

“Yes! Whoever did this!”

The owl quickly nodded, at which Twilight added.

“Alright, go and search for Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie and bring them back here at the library, I’ll try to search for Applejack.”

“Who?”

“This isn’t the time for games, now go!”

The owl quickly listened and moved, giving Twilight the opening to go to her farmer friend. As she moved, though, she passed by Big Mac who she quickly decided to salute.

“Hi Big Mac! Tell me, is Applejack on the farm?”

The staunch and calm Macintosh answered with his all too calm ‘eeyup’, which would have been enough for Twilight were not for what he said next.

“Say ‘hi’ to Spike on my stead since you are going there.”

Twilight froze when she heard that, her mind quickly trying to make sense of what he just said.

“Wait, what did you just said?”

Big Mac looked at her questioningly and answered as if it were a matter of fact.

“While I was heading to Ponyville, Ah’ saw Spike heading to Sweet Apple Acres but he was in such a hurry that Ah’ didn’t have the time to say ‘hi’.”

Twilight was now worrying over what he just said, she needed to confirm.

“And, as he passed by, did he look bigger than usual?”

She didn't ask from where he was seen or how was he moving or even if he looked mean intended, all Twilight needed to know was his appearance, at which Big Macintosh only had one answer:

“Eeyup!”

There was no time to waste. All Twilight could do was to head towards Applejack and, hopefully, subdue Greed before it was too late. By the time Twilight Sparkle got there, while it wasn’t late yet, it was very close to, as she found many apple cores on the ground, multiple apples plucked out from their trees and her friend Applejack knocked unconscious on the ground as a familiar dragon was entering into the Everfree Forest while holding a huge bag on his back.

Under other circumstances, Twilight would have first checked Applejack and see if she wasn’t badly wounded but, as of right now, all she could see is that Spike’s body was leaving her again and she couldn’t waste this chance presenting to her at this moment, so she almost ignored Applejack’s body (she did see if there was any blood or if she was breathing with no problem, although her legs didn’t look too well at first glance) and chased after Greed.

Thankfully, it wasn’t a long run, for the thing holding Spike’s body was waiting on a tree, while using a fancy suit with its sleeves being cut out from the torso and a pair of shades covering his eyes, not too far from the Everfree’s main road, and he didn’t look too bothered to find Twilight Sparkle looking at him with a serious look.

“Well, what do we have here? If it is Spike’s mom.”

Twilight remained unaffected by the comment, not that it stopped Greed from commenting more, although he looked worried for something.

“Why the icy glare? Is it because of your friends I left unconscious?” – He then started to look up as he scratched his head with his right claw, not noticing how Twilight was now looking at him with increasing anger. – “Look, I’m sorry for that, in fact, I really don’t like hitting girls but the blue pegasus didn’t stop from following me and your farm friend decided to pick up a fight with me” -. He then looked back at Twilight, who appeared to be even angrier now, and quickly tried to calm her. – “Ok, I’ll admit that I challenged her to stop me but, when I saw how much hurting she was going through for her legs, I had to knock her down so she stopped feeling the pain, I swear it was done with the best intentions!”

Twilight couldn’t stop from feeling anger at him, of how he was justifying his violence towards her friends and, even worse, how he was ignoring the main reason why she was chasing him.

“Really?” – She started responding with a tone of voice that showed how much she was trying to remain calm. – “You really think saying sorry will fix up everything?”

Greed kept looking at her, his eyes, now covered by his shades (which seemed quite familiar, same with the suit) making it hard to tell what he was feeling but his tone of voice at least gave Twilight an idea of what he was trying to convey.

“Well” -. He began, with an apologetic tone of voice. – “No, actually, I don’t think that saying sorry will be enough, but I do promise to pay back all the expenses they may go through.”

Now he was picking Twilight’s interest.

“Pay back all the expenses?”

Greed just looked confident as he said this.

“All of them. From the medical expenses to everything I just took from your friends and with interest. I promise.”

It was then that Twilight noticed how those shades belonged to Rainbow Dash and the suit belonged to Rarity (she was definitely going to rage once she figured out that Greed was cutting the sleeves she designed with so much care) and angered even more, after all, there was something that Greed was forgetting.

“Really!?” – Twilight started yelling with complete anger at the perpetrator she was now facing. – “You really think that we are all going to forgive you for stealing from us just because you have just promised to pay us back!? Not only that but you have even done it by using Spike’s body. Do you really think nobody will ignore how Spike has been stealing from others? You are ruining Spike’s life and all you can say about it is an apology and promise that you’ll pay us back!? How do you even plan to pay back Spike for ruining his life!?”

Greed gave Twilight a hard stare before sitting back and started to give the situation a bigger thought, at which, he simply answered.

“I know that an apology isn’t enough, but it was hard to make up a plan on the short term. I need stuff to start my true plans and, to make it a reality, I had to do something that could create the platform needed to start it all. Again, sorry, but this was the best I could come up with.”

Twilight was about to shout once more when Greed decided to cut her once more.

“Besides, what makes you think that I’m ruining Spike’s image?” – He then started to smile, showing his sharp teeth while he started to show his right hand, the one containing the symbol Twilight couldn't make up back in Canterlot. Now that she could look at it with a better eye view, it was a snake eating itself up. – “For all they’ll know soon, Spike helped defeating Chrysalis and the changeling invasion and, very soon, they’ll start to hear about Greed and how great he is.”

Twilight was starting to wonder what he was trying to say but Greed continued talking, stopping her from forming a cohesive thought about what he was saying.

“Besides, it wasn’t an actual theft. Let’s call it an ‘unilateral loan with a promise to pay back the interest’ at a monthly 1% interest rate. It’s not a bad deal” -. He then looked with a smug smile as he simply stated. – “And, even still, if you really want to call it theft, well, it wasn’t me who stole it. I have done nothing wrong so far accusations go.”

And it was this the moment Twilight was waiting for.

“Really? What about Spike? You stole his body!”

Greed simply looked at her in a boring way and answered back.

“This again? Look, I already said it back in Canterlot, so I’ll say it again. It was a deal between Spike and me, he gave me the body and, in exchange, I would help on getting rid of the changelings. I did my part and now I own the body, this is legitimately mine and I’m not giving it back.”

Twilight knew this and she knew Spike enough to be certain that he would do a deal like that to help them, but she needed to know.

“If that’s so, then why he didn’t tell me anything?” – As she said this, and involuntarily, she started to tear. – “Why he didn’t tell me that you were there? Why acted as if everything was fine…? I need to hear it from him…. Please.”

Greed looked at Twilight and started to look at the air again as he simply responded with ‘hold on’. As time passed, he then decided to turn around, probably to think, at which he started to say.

“Are you sure?”

Twilight wondered what he meant by that but he just continued talking.

“Look, I was there when she was reprimanding you and the way you acted doesn’t, exactly, fit with what you just said right now.”

It didn’t take too much for Twilight to understand who Greed was talking to.

“Spike? Is that you?”

The body turned and, for a brief moment, Twilight wondered who was looking at her.

“Please” -. She begged as she tried to stop herself from tearing again. – “Tell me what happened.”

For a brief moment, she felt that she was looking at Spike and not Greed. For a brief moment, she felt as if she was talking to her number one assistant and not a mysterious creature of dubious origins. For a brief moment, she felt as if she could finally talk back to the young drake she hatched years ago and with who the best moments she wanted to share with were of the two of them being together on the library and not grounding him for disobeying her.

“Twilight…” – it was his voice. – “I…”

Twilight’s heart started to increase its beatings as she tried to control herself from doing something dangerous, she wanted this moment.

“Spike, talk to me” -. She said in a hopeful voice. – “Is there something I did wrong for you to stay away from me? Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?”

The silence was deafening, not even the Everfree looked like daring to break this silence that was broken, once again, by Spike.

“No, Twilight, you didn’t do anything wrong” -. He grabbed his left arm with his right hand and moved as if he regretted something. – “It was me who…” -. Then his eyes increased and shouted. – “Twilight! Quick! He told me once that, in order to separate us, you need to know alchemy!”

Twilight quickly took note of this and wanted to know more but, to her utter sadness, Greed’s voice took over with a cheery tone and made sure to shut Spike up.

“Sorry, but it looks like your number one assistant needs to gather his thoughts better. You can make an appointment for a next time and he, hopefully, will have something to actually say to you that is actually related to what you asked him.”

This was a moment where it’s hard to tell what one would do. One, for certain, would have started to weep on the ground at the idea that one of the beings you love the most being taken away from you. Others would have begged for another chance right there and then to talk again or to know what he meant by alchemy.

But for Twilight, who still wasn’t accepting the idea of Spike gone, decided to take matters on a more direct way as her horn started to shine, involving Greed with Twilight’s magic and, much to his worry, started to get him closer to her.

“No” -. Quickly said a defiant Twilight. – “I will not give up Spike yet and certainly not when I know there is a way to get him back.”

Greed was moving his whole body, trying to be released, only to realize that he was now captured by Twilight (much to her satisfaction) and she was going to take him back to the library.

“Look, I understand that you may not like this, but that body doesn’t belong to you, it belongs to Spike and I am going to recover him, no matter what” -. She then remembered what Pinkie said about Greed being more lenient towards the idea of giving the body back if there was a way for him to get his own body and continued. – “And, if you are so worried about having a body, well, I-“

She was quickly interrupted by a spell that brought a lot of pain to her body for a brief instant, quickly paralyzing her as she saw a mint green unicorn getting close to Greed, who was back to the ground and cleaning his suit.

“Sorry for taking so long” -. Responded the mare with a serious tone of voice. – “But I ran into a few troubles in Ponyville and was forced to lose the Elements of Harmony from tracking me as well as searching for a moment to get all the stuff you asked me for.”

She then moved her head back towards her saddlebags and brought out a book.

“I also decided to stop by the library once more and picked another book that’s related to the things we may find in the Everfree Forest, since you seemed too keen on the flora and fauna surrounding this place.”

Greed looked at her with a certain hint of anger but that was quickly replaced with a smile.

“Alright then, I suppose that I can forgive you if that is why it took you so long” -. He then looked back at Twilight, who was starting to lose her consciousness as she looked at what was happening to her. – “And what will happen to her?”

The unicorn simply shrugged and continued as if nothing wrong happened.

“I used a special spell on her that’ll first paralyze her body and then start to knock her down. The pain and speed of the process depends on the will of the spell’s victim” – She noticed how Greed was looking at Twilight and the scholar unicorn could notice how there was some doubt being drawn on his face, at which, the minty unicorn continued. – “She won’t die, if that is what worries you, but it’s more likely that the creatures of the Everfree will kill her if we leave her alone.”

It was then that Twilight, Greed and the mint green unicorn heard Rainbow Dash’s voice not too long from where they were located.

“Well” -. Said a calm Greed. – “I suppose that means she won’t be alone very soon. Shoot a flare to indicate that cocky pegasus where we are so she can find her friend.”

Twilight saw how the unicorn nodded and shot something to the air, quickly followed by both Greed and the unicorn leaving her as she was losing the rest of her consciousness. She tried her best to focus on where they were going but whatever hit her was doing a good job on knocking her out and what was remaining awaken in her mind couldn’t feel but frustrated at the sight of Spike being so close to her and so far away at the same time and he was getting farther and farther. She was about to lose her consciousness but not before hearing some final words from Greed.

“Also, why are you keeping up that appearance? You do know that you don’t need to look like that anymore right?”

Next time she would wake up, Twilight would find herself on her library, surrounded by her friends minus Applejack, discussing about what happened while she was giving chase to Greed and the one thing she would remember the most is what Spike told her.

If she wanted to rescue him, she would have to research alchemy and she was going to find the answers she needed very soon.

Author's Note:

EDIT June 18th 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

[EpicJay]

Ohh update. This chapter is pretty nice, I'm interested to see what Greed is doing.
Also, Envy? or maybe early Thorax? or ThoraxEnvy.
Writing this before reading the next chapter

[Dark reaper]

Elements of Harmony vs The Philosopher's Stone
I wonder how harmony magic will work with alchemy?

[Pondalek_9]

11242491 well alchemy is literally Equivalent exchange, No amount of friendship is going to stop a philosophers stone.