WIth Greed He's Lost, With Kindness He'll Gain

Chapters

1: In Theory, He's the Villain
2: But The Villain is Never
3: As Lucky

1: In Theory, He's the Villain

The pouring rain pounded against the leaves and branches of the tree he’d used to shelter himself for the time being. Normally, at this hour, with this type of rain, he’d be out like a light. The fact that Golden Oaks library was a giant tree in of itself meant that he’d always be able to hear the rain, but it was always dulled, dampened by the leaves of the tree. But now, he wasn’t sure he’d get a peaceful rest for a long while. The evidence that he hadn’t gone very far were the lights of Ponyville in the distance. Without a doubt, the ponies in town were still working to clean up his mess. His greed-fueled rampage had done a number on the poor town. He could even still remember that giant footprint, right in the center of town. His spines were still short from how they’d been sheared off in his giant form. He wasn’t even sure he’d had nerves in those until he felt the sting from the rain hitting their bases, irritating the wounds. He was still crying, but now it wasn’t loud sobs, or choked blubbering, just tears streaming steadily down his face, as he attempted to shelter himself from the rain to hopefully get some sleep.

It was his fault really. He was the one who destroyed so much. He was the one who let his instincts get the better of him. Sure they might have been able to take some precautions, but overall, he should have realized what he was doing was wrong. It was all his fault.

All his fault…

“I can’t believe you, Spike. I understand wanting a few nice things for your birthday, but this is ridiculous. I thought you would be better than this.” Spike stared at the ground, nervously shifting the dirt around with his foot. His arms folded behind his back.

“I’m really sorry, Twilight. I’m not even sure what happened.” It was an honest statement. He didn’t know what happened. Up until he’d turned back his memory was a foggy mess. Twilight didn’t seem like she was having any of it though.

“Can you even comprehend the magnitude of what you’ve done here?! Half the town is a mess, the water tower was destroyed, homes have been broken, and the Marketplace is in ruins! I don’t know how we’re going to rebuild any part of that in a timely manner, much less all of it. I can’t believe you. And worst of all, you almost hurt my friends, your friends.”

“I-” He trailed off shifting back and forth on the balls of his heels. He really couldn’t think of anything to say. He instead decided to focus on the sunset in the background. When he turned back to Twilight she had her face in her hoof.

“Now I have to explain to Princess Celestia how you destroyed a town, and how we need her help to fix it.” He curled in on himself, little by little. She eventually turned and left him to be. But not without some words that would haunt him until he died. “After all I’ve done to teach you, you’ve turned out just as bad as those other dragons.” Seventeen. Seventeen simple words, and his whole world came crashing down. For the rest of the day he tried his hardest to stay out of the way, but failed at every step of the way. Most ponies failed to even acknowledge his existence, Twilight included. When he finally got home, he never slept. Eventually he gave up. He grabbed a few things, and made his way out the door. He turned around to get one last look at where he’d spent the better part of his life, and saw Twilight standing in the doorway. He waved goodbye, not expecting a response, turned tail and ran.

What hurt most was that she didn’t try to stop him.

He woke to a decently sunny day, and what at first glance appeared to be a goat standing above him, holding some sort of blanket in his hands. Wait, hands?

“Ah, you're up, you’re up! I was starting to get worried you’d sleep the whole day away. I had just gotten you a blanket when you finally started to stir.” The creature was standing upright on two hooves, and rather than having front hooves like a pony, he had hands like Spike. If not completely covered in fur, with pads on his fingers like most animals. His upper half was mostly hairless with dark brown skin, except for a regular goat head with what was essentially a mane pulled into individual braids on top of his head. He had curved horns around his goat-like ears and the weird horizontal pupils that goats have, but his face was weird. He had the scruffy, curly tufts of hair on his chin, like most goats have. but his face seemed slightly smaller than a goat’s. Not completely flattened, but still slightly flatter. The creature was wearing a scarf for whatever reason, but based on the brisk spring they were having, it would make sense. He was still wearing a coat though, so it was kind of odd. He had a toothy smile, the kind you give to a long time friend. It seemed… comforting. If a little weird since he didn’t really know the guy.

“Thanks… Who are you exactly?” The stranger held out his hand for a handshake.

“I’m Rhel, nice to meet you.” He gave a characteristic wink. He pulled the small dragon up. “I’m a bit surprised to see a dragon so far from the dragon lands. Mind telling me your story over some food? I’ve heard that even at your size, dragons need a lot of food.” Spike’s stomach gurgled, and he nodded.

“Sure… Do you live nearby?” The creature smiled.

“By technicality. Ya see, I’m a satyr, we have powerful magic of our own, if a little strange to those who’ve never seen it. Some of the more advanced users, such as myself, can do things-” He put his hands on a nearby tree, and a crack in the bark began glowing. “-like this. We can travel through the natural world, for nature itself is our ally. All you have to do is stare into the crack and lean forward.” Didn’t sound too hard. “Also stand really close. Otherwise, you’ll end up slamming your head into a tree.” Useful information to have.

Spike walked up to the tree and stared at the light emanating from the crack. Immediately, he felt the world around him shift and he began to see a room. He took a couple steps forward, and the rest of the trees cleared away from his vision as the room he was seeing became clearer. He leaned forward, and plunged himself through. He came through standing upright, even though he logically should have been on the ground. Guess he technically didn’t fall. Rhel followed behind him.

“Welcome to my home! It’s not much but I make do.”

As Spike looked around his eyes were the size of dinner plates. New crystals, new types of wood he’s never seen. He had only one thought as he looked around the room.

Twilight would have a frickin field day in here.

There was a stairway downward and upwards, with a kitchen, and a bunch of beakers and barrels labeled in a language he didn’t understand. There was a tall staff capped with gold at both ends next to a bucket of horns labeled ‘Old Horns’. What was that about?! He was a goat, not a deer. Weird energy thrummed through his entire body, giving him the same feeling like he’d crawled under his blankets at home. He noticed that Rhel’s horns were glowing slightly and looked down to see that he was glowing the same color.

“You were shaking pretty bad there. I used a simple old comfort spell… I think I’m acting too fast. Mind telling me what day it is? Month and year too if preferable.” When Spike shook his head he sighed, before bouncing back. “Oh well. What can you do. Let’s see if I can’t cook something, okay?” He opened the fridge and gathered a number of ingredients before dropping them on his counter and getting started.

He cooked with scary speed, shooting around the countertops and stove like a hyped up Pinkie Pie. He winced for a second at the memory of his… former friend. She probably hated him just like everyone else. When he finally poured the pancakes, all finesse and dexterity went right out the window, and he poured a slightly lopsided mess of batter. Then he spilled a good bit of it on the stove, and had to scrape it off. He made a couple more, and repeated his mistakes the next two times, losing varying amounts of batter each time. The third time, he didn’t spill the batter, because there wasn’t enough left. He offered to take the smallest pancake.

Spike accepted his offer.

The pancakes were pretty okay, but considering he woke up at like 12 after not having dinner the day before, god dang it if he didn’t eat like it was his last meal.

“Alright!” Rhel stood up and dusted himself off. He was still pretty messy from the pancake batter, which was sticking to his coat in a couple of places, but he didn’t seem to mind much. “Now, you want to look around? You looked pretty interested in the place when you first came in” Spike shrugged.

Eh, why not. But first,

“Mind telling me why there’s a box of horns over there? Goat horns don’t normally fall off do they?”

“There’s different kinds of satyrs. DNA is weird. My mom was a deer type, so my horns fall off like a deer’s. It’s just not seasonal, and mine grow back quicker. I’m not sure what to do with them, so I just throw them in that box over there.” Oh that made enough sense.

“Glad to know you're not like… stealing other people’s horns or something.”

“...What?”

“... Let’s just go look around.”

Author's Note

Rhel is an interesting character to write. He's like Discord, but less malicious about it. He understands what's happening around him, and he knows a good bit of what's going to happen, but he doesn't interfere unless he's needed. Overall, he's pretty passive. He comes off a little creepy because he treats everyone through the future lens, because in his mind, they've already met. He just doesn't acknowledge that it hasn't actually happened yet, his mind is too far ahead.

I'm gonna try some advice I was given, and prewrite like 10 chapters of this story before I start uploading the actual thing, so I'm gonna write the date each chapter was actually finished.

1-19-2020

2: But The Villain is Never

The technically treehouse was large and complicated in theory, but when he was actually given a tour, it was a pretty simple layout.

The house was constructed on three layers, the top layer, with an enchanted ceiling designed to always show the sky, which was mainly the living quarters. With the main bedroom, two smaller bedrooms, and a large main room, with an enchanted rock that showed a number of programs.

Wow, that’s smart. He said that Spike could have one of the other two bedrooms, which Spike graciously accepted. Still though, the idea of staying here was grating at him. Staying for a couple of days was fine, but for any longer, and he was pushing it. He didn’t dare voice these opinions to Rhel, who had taken the time to get rid of his coat and scarf, and switched into a long sleeve shirt, which he pulled the sleeves up to his elbows Considering the fur on his arms ended right about there, he assumed it was just to prevent the fur from getting stuck in the cloth and getting ripped off. All of his fur seemed extra curly, almost closer to sheep wool than goat fur. Except for the extremely short fur on his face.

The next floor was the kitchen and work area. Nothing too special there, a kitchen is a kitchen after all. There was a table in front of a window, which switched between scenery every couple of minutes. The only thing that really stood out was the entire potions lab crammed in the corner. Efficiency first I suppose. There was a ring of glowing crystals above the small area, softly giving that area a permanent light source. Probably for some sort of work in the dark. He seemed to be going for an absolute efficiency setup. That at least seemed to be Rhel’s mindset, or maybe just a satyr thing in general. But there were a couple of times when Spike got some mixed messages. Like with the bathroom.

“And here’s the bath.” Wow. It was… Wow. Rather than what Spike was expecting, something simple designed just to get clean, he was greeted with a giant basin, covered in heavily smoothed granite, with a number of pipes on each side, designed for water to flow in from some unseen source. There were a number of vents at the bottom that acted like a hot tub, sending bubbling jets into the pool. “Showers are pretty ineffective on my… let's say scruffy fur. It just leaves soap stuck in too often, and that dries it out. I’d rather just get a big bathtub designed to jet stream it.” So somewhere in between efficiency and comfort. That makes sense. There was also a room full of plants, similar to Venus fly traps, but with lots of variations, which Rhel dodged when the topic was addressed.

“It’s nothing. Just some potion ingredients.” He made an effort to drag the topic somewhere else, even resorting to just moving on to the next floor. When Spike pressed the issue, he led him back to the room, and threw a stick in.

Imagine Spike’s surprise when one of the plants jumped in their pot to grab it and stretched to return it.

“What are those things?” Rhel sighed.

“An experiment that I’m working on. Pet plants. You don’t have to feed them, just give them water and sunlight. Y’know like a plant. The problem is their pretty frickin hostile, and grossly territorial, and I don’t want any problems. It took six days just to get them not to attack each other.” Ah.

“If and when you manage to get it right, can I have a fireproof one? I think they’re pretty cool.” Rhel’s face was unreadable for a moment, before it spread to a full fledged smile.

“Sure! I never even thought about making them fireproof. I’ll get to work on it once I get the chance.” Now, with less urgency, Rhel led Spike to the stairwell to the third floor. It was quite a bit longer than the last two, and Spike didn’t understand why until the stone walls surrounding the staircase gave way to open air. Holy Celestia this place was huge.

High ceilings, and a room large enough to host the Equestria Games in, covered in dense foliage with a river, a rushing waterfall off to one side, and a large altar in the middle of the room. The stairwell was severely offset to one side, almost against the wall of the large cavern, leaving the vast majority of the room open. When they finally made it down, Rhel took a deep breath, and straightened himself out.

“Satyrs all serve their own patron gods and goddesses, ranging from the living embodiments of the sun and moon, to the King of the Underworld, and Ruler of Tartarus. I personally serve two, the goddess Demeter, who allows for growth and prosperity, and the lost god Pan, who protects the wild areas of the world. My job is to defend the natural world, from the smallest of insects, to the greatest of forests. This room is my true sanctuary, and where my power is greatest.” He turned to Spike, projecting a powerful aura that outclassed just about anybody he’d ever met, besides that brief second where he’d felt the impact of Discord’s power. “How’d you like to meet your own patron god, Spike?”

He nodded dumbly, following Rhel through the thick underbrush, all the way to the stone altar he’d seen when he initially descended the stairs. Surrounding the altar was a circular arrangement of stones, with the obelisk on a raised podium in the center. With every step Spike took towards the obelisk another wave of energy crashed over him. When he was finally close enough to touch it, he reached out…

And the world went white.

He woke up in the middle of a circular room, surrounded by several figures. Various assortments of bipedal and quadrupedal beings of different heights and builds, shapes and sizes, and… even tangibility. Each one radiated a new, unfamiliar energy, he scrambled to his feet and stood, waiting. He could hear voices, murmuring, blending into each other. One of the figures stepped forward, and the smell of ozone filled the air. The smell just before a thunderstorm. Ancient and powerful, the god’s aura overwhelmed his senses. The silhouette became clearer, and a crackle of raw energy shot through Spike’s entire body.

“Well this is a surprise… A fellow dragon, worshiping the old gods.” The dragon in front of him was built different from the dragons he’d encountered during his brief stay. Rather than the top heavy build that the dragons he’d met before had, this one was pretty evenly distributed in terms of weight. He was built like a slim oval, with large wings, and bad posture, like, seriously awful posture, but he absolutely radiated confidence, like a high school bully, yet still there was an underlying air of fatherly kindness. The god shifted his weight into a position that seemed less likely to destroy his spine, and Spike saw his eyes.

They were a violent electric blue, that ebbed into a bright yellow as it reached his pupils. It somehow complemented his gray scales and white spines.

“Tell me, who do I have the pleasure of meeting.” Spike stepped back, but stood rigid.

“I’m Spike the dragon. Well, I guess you can already see that I’m a dragon… I’m sorry, I don’t have any other way to introduce myself.” The god hummed.

“Have you no clan, no family?” Spike shook his head. The god sighed and clicked his tongue. “So many dragons abandoned in the modern age. If the same had been done in my time…”

“I’ve come here to find my patron.” That drove the god away from his thoughts.

“... So very few of us dragons serve the gods. They’d rather serve their ‘Dragon Lord’. What makes you different?”

“... I grew up outside the dragon lands. I was hatched and raised by ponies, right up until an… incident occurred. Now I don’t really live anywhere. I’m staying with a friendly satyr that I met, but I can’t stay with him forever.” The god’s face morphed into a curious expression.

“I see. I’m guessing that he’s teaching you the way of the gods. Very well. The few of our kind that follow the path of the gods end up following Vulcan, or Notus. It is simply their nature. However, you seem to be different. So considering that, and our similar backstories, you might be suited to a different god. Myself.” Spike’s eyes widened as clouds swirled overhead and lightning arced. The dragon in front of him was struck, and a javelin of pure electricity appeared in his hand. He flipped it to the opposite end, though to Spike it looked exactly the same. “I am Jupiter. Lord of the Sky, God of Thunder. I am requesting to be your patron god. You will follow my path of magic, and bring about your own ascension. Do you accept?” The answer was instantaneous.

“Yes! I- I mean, I accept your offer.” The handle of the electric javelin became clearer, and Jupiter offered it to Spike. He grabbed hold, and took it.

When he returned to the mortal realm, he took notice of a few things.

Number 1, his claws looked like they’d been painted blue. Number 2, he felt the crackling of electricity running up and down his body, as though it were running though his very veins. And number 3, he was a lot taller. Like tall enough to be eye level with Rhel. Which he currently was, since the satyr seemed to be examining his eyes.

“Your eyes have gotten darker. More blueish. That, combined with the fact that you now have wings, means you’ve been claimed by one of the wind gods. Or…”

Rhel smiled, wider than Spike had ever seen him smile so far.

“You’ve been claimed by Jupiter himself.”

3: As Lucky

“Jupiter, king of the gods, offered to be your patron of his own free will?” Rhel sounded absolutely flabbergasted by the whole idea. “He never picks protégés. Something about you must’ve stuck out to him. Well, either way, I think you might have to get yourself acquainted with your new powers. And your new wings. And your new height, honestly just new everything at this point.” Rhel took a sip from the water cup he’d grabbed from the river in the middle of the giant, still really weird, giant valley that Rhel had underneath his house at any given moment. Of course, according to the satyr himself, it was basically its own dimension, completely separate from the outside world, but it was still weird to think about. “I’ve got that spare room for as long as you want to stay here. I’m guessing you won’t want to stay for long though.” Spike looked up from his own food at that.

“How did you…” Rhel shrugged.

“I can somewhat see the future. It’s a useful enough ability, but it has one major drawback.” Rhel downed the rest of his water, before chucking the cup backwards. Onto the table behind him. Just as a drop of water leaked from the ceiling above. “I really need to fix that pipe. Anyway, any time that I do look into the future, I get a little more scrambled. My brain has a hard time processing the time change until I reach the point in time that I reached ahead to. It’s the result of me not having Apollo as a patron, but still studying divination. I sometimes get mixed up with how to behave around people if I’m not careful since I’m both half-used to the way I act in the future, and half-used to the way I should be acting right now.” he scratched at his long ears before continuing on. “Back to the matter at hand, beyond staying here I can’t tell you too much. You have to figure most things out by yourself. All I can tell you, is that when you’re done here, leave for the Badlands. An old friend of mine will find you there. Tell her I sent you.” Rhel jumped up suddenly, and made his way towards the stairwell. “Until then, I’ll get a bed set up for you. The guest room has mostly decorative sheets. I’ll get some that are at least comfortable.”

And so, there Spike sat. Little did he know the predicament that Twilight Sparkle was in, however far away she was. Distance is difficult with pocket dimensions.

Stepping back a day or two.

Holy Celestia she’d messed up big time. She should have listened to her instincts when something told her to go after what she’d thought was a figment of her imagination. Now, upon waking up after sleeping for exactly 6 and a half hours than she normally would, she realized that, no, that wasn’t just her imagining her dragon assistant whose feelings she’d probably hurt horrifically during her rage-induced rant running away, never to be seen again. Now she not only had to ask for Celestia’s help in repairing the town, but also needed help looking for Spike.

No, she couldn’t let the princess know she’d failed this bad. She’d send for help in repairing the town’s destruction, she wouldn’t even let the princess know it was Spike who’d done it. But she had to go after him alone.

She said goodbye to her friends, and though they protested her going by herself with fervor, she kept them in place by saying that Ponyville would need them to help clean up the mess.

“I need you all to promise me you won’t tell Princess Celestia that it was Spike who caused all this damage. It wasn’t his fault, I should’ve kept an eye on him when this first started, and I shouldn’t have been so mean. Tell her it was a random dragon, tell her that it was a spell gone wrong, anything. Just don’t tell her it was Spike.” The others agreed, however reluctantly, and she was off.

She just hoped she would find him before something goes horribly wrong.

There was a thunderstorm brewing.

He could hear it, he could see it outside. That answered one question though, the treehouse stayed in the same place technically. It’s just where you left or came in that changed.

He wanted to go outside. Something was calling him, or maybe someone. Rhel had given him full access, so as long as he didn’t go too far from some trees, he’d be able to get back inside before it really started pouring.

Outside, the rain was pouring down in what felt like uniform sheets of water. He remembered Twilight talking about how that’s what would happen if there was no air resistance. His heart twinged at the thought of her. Hopefully she wasn’t in any trouble with the princess because of him.

Lightning arced across the sky constantly, casting dark silhouettes across everything.

Maybe it was his newfound connection to lightning talking, but Spike thought it looked incredible. Then he noticed something. The lightning was following a path. Leading to somewhere unknown. He followed the path along the way, barely taking note of when he entered a clearing rather than the thicket of forest he’d stayed near so far. A lone tree stood in the middle of the clearing, the arcs of lightning seemed to center around it, and struck the ground around it often. Blue energy trailed along the cracks in the bark, shining bright even through the darkness of the clouds. Spike made his way towards the tree, and the familiar power of Jupiter washed over him once more. Half-buried in the dirt in front of the tree, was a branch.

It was made of the same wood as the tree, but it was different somehow. A more concentrated source of energy. He picked it up, and the voice of his patron echoed through the clearing.

“Normally, I’d pick a sword, or a spear for one of my proteges, but you don’t seem like the violent type. The staff is yours. It will always find its way back to your hands eventually. You are the first of my tutelage in a long time. Many cosmic forces have their eyes on you. Be aware, Spike.”

Spike gripped the staff with both hands, and channeled the power he’d been feeling. Lightning struck the end of the staff and cracked through his body. He flapped his wings, and found himself in the air. He smiled, a goofy, childlike smile that didn’t fit his new features, but definitely fit the emotions of a first time flier. He took off in the direction he’d come from, heading towards the badlands, with the storm and lightning as his guide.

Author's Note

It's been a while. Hey, to SpikeSmolder fan, remember when I said a week? I hope so, because I said that yesterday. So, let this be a lesson. Squeaky wheel gets the grease.