The D.S.P.I.

by DungeonMiner

Operation Vengeful King

The DASH-1 pulled over the rolling hills in the south of Equestria, purring like a great jungle cat. They were making excellent time, and Tinker smiled as the airship rumbled beneath her. Behind her, Alpha team sat in the cargo hold, along with Manticore’s coffin, waiting for the word to move.

They checked and re-checked their weapons, making sure their ammo was secure, yet easy to reach on their bodies.

Commander Spike had given them a very rapid briefing. A group named Followers of Shadow were closing in on the tomb of a powerful vampire. One they happened to worshiped, and perhaps wanted to raise.

Their job was to make sure that the vampire, or worse, didn’t get raised.

“Alright!” Tinker said as they began to slow the DASH-1. “Any closer, and they’ll see us.”

Spike nodded. “You heard the mare. We move out and hoof it from here.”

There was a groan.

“Come on, let’s go!” Spike ordered as Alpha Team gathered towards the cargo door, which opened slowly before them.

“You heard the dragon, let’s go!” Silver said, standing, holding his crossbow up.

Sparky growled. “Yes, sir, captain kiss up,” he muttered.

As the ponies stirred to their hooves, Spike knocked on the coffin lid.

Manticore opened it from inside. “Are we there?”

“Almost. We have to move on hoof for the rest of the way.”

She groaned, but moved, stepping out of her coffin.

“Alright, let’s move,” Silver order. “Go, go, go!”

The ponies repelled out of the DASH-1, landing on the ground and quickly setting up a perimeter. With their weapons pointing outward, they secured a small landing zone, just big enough for Spike and Manticore to land in between them.

The Macintosh hills were silent.

“Alright,” Spike whispered to the team. “We move forward, and keep silent. Once we locate the Followers, we determine their goal. If it’s trouble, we stop them. Try to arrest them first, if they gives more trouble, then we deal with them as necessary. Understood?”

“Yes, sir,” Silver said, nodding. “Scout, up ahead, Agent, with him, try and get close enough for some answers. Sniper keep an eye out for high ground.”

“Sir, yes, sir!” they answered, before both Sparky and Mandible broke from the group, heading up towards the east.

“Thundercloud,” Spike called into his headset, “do you read?”

“Sir, yes sir, Thundercloud reading you loud and clear,” Tinker answered.

“Be ready to move in at my word.”

“Roger that.”

“Let’s move,” Silver said, leading the team forward.

And the Macintosh Hills were still silent.

===ᐁ===

Mandible hovered just outside the band of cultists, listening to them as they chanted in a language that made his brain hurt.

The bright yellow runes burned his eyes, and the giant eyes painted on the rough, stone altars made him nauseous.

The lead pony, a unicorn with a crazed gleam in his eye led the chanting, and spun a wicked looking dagger that was both there and not there in his magical grasp. It also had a large jeweled pommel, shaped like an eye, of course, that may or may not have winked.

They were definitely up to no good. Mandible just didn’t know what kind.

Admittedly, this wasn’t what he was expecting when he had heard “Necromantic, Vampire-worshiping cult.” He imagined blood runes, fresh zombie hordes, and suicide pacts at worst. This...this looked like something else completely.

Still, he had a job to do.

Keeping still, and under the protection of his mirror cloak, Mandible crouched beside a large stone, keeping his ears peeled for any sign of information he could use. That alone was much harder to do with the chanting that droned in his head with the same force of a jackhammer against his chitin.

At this rate he’d go mad…

===ᐁ===

Sparky ran back to team, making double time on his enchanted horseshoes. “We’ve found them,” he said, dipping into his place in the team. “Up ahead, 156° south from our location.”

“Roger, what do you have to report?” Silver asked, keeping low so that he would not be so easily seen against the red clay, rocks, and tufts of tall, brown grass.

“They have some weird runes and eyes painted everywhere,” Sparky said, “they’re doing some weird chanting too.”

Both Spike and Manticore looked at each other. “Runes and eyes?” Spike asked. “Are you sure?”

“That’s what I saw,” Sparky answered.

Manticore sighed. “Idiots, can’t even keep their cult straight.”

“New orders, soldiers,” Spike whispered. “Move in fast, hit hard. Any chanters are to be taken down immediately. If you can take them out without killing them, fine, but top priority is stopping that chanting at all cost. Am I understood?”

“Sir, yes sir!” Alpha team answered.

“Let’s move.”

===ᐁ===

Mandible only knew agony.

The chanting roared and droned in his head, as though it were trying to turn his brain to goo.

The constant, impossible syllables were trying to rip his sanity apart, and he could feel every tear and gash.

Everywhere he looked, an eye stared back at him, glaring into his soul with a stare that burned his psyche. Behind the eyes was that mark. That mark that spoke of things that could not be spoken of, that whispered things that should not be whispered.

The chanting filled his ears, surrounded him on all sides, dug into his mind with hooked claws and barbed teeth.

The eye watched, never-blinking, witnessing his suffering as Mandible bit his tongue and tried to stay silent.

“It hurts!” he cried.

Mandible looked up at himself and watched as himself who was not himself burn in yellow fire. “It burns! Can’t you see it burns? Don’t you feel it?”

He felt it. The fire was alive as it crawled along his skin, leaving a warm cold that left a burning frost on his body. It ate his body like acid, and kissed it like a summer breeze. It twisted his stomach, and emptied his lungs.

It was wonderful.

He knew it was wrong, but it was too lovely to ignore. He wanted it so bad, but dared not take it. He grabbed it with both hooves, but cursed himself in the same breath.

And then, to his horror, he discovered he was screaming.

A hoof pressed into his back, and he hit the clay so hard, it knocked the wind from him.

The jeweled eye, the pommel in the dagger stared at him as it was lowered into his field of view. “Well, well, well,” the leader said, staring down at changeling, whose mind suddenly cleared. “You see this, brothers? Our lord provides! We have a sacrifice!”

Mandible cursed as hooves grabbed him, and a blow to the head turned everything black.

===ᐁ===

They found the cultists.

Their altar stood on the highest hill, with pillars of stone, painted with yellow runes.

They hurt to look at.

Silver looked around at the other hilltops, trying to find the best place to begin an assault.

Spike, meanwhile, had his eyes on the altar itself. “They are…They’re actually going to do it…”

Silver whispered. “Sniper, see that tree?”

“The only tree around for miles?” she asked, pointing to the lone tree that stood on a hillside to the left.

“I think that’s your best vantage point,” Silver said.

“Unfortunately, I think you’re right,” she agreed, before she spread her wings, and flew, gliding close to the ground until she made it to the tree.

“Heavy, Scout, Support, I’m going to need you to stay close, we’re going to head into the valley, and charge from there. Demo, can you arc some grenades from here?”

Lemon smiled. “You better bet I can.”

Silver nodded. “Medic, stay with Manticore and the Commander, and back us up as you see fit.”

“Uh...Assault…we have a situation.” Silk’s voice crackled in over the headset.

“Go ahead, Sniper.”

“Our Agent’s on the altar.”

“What?”

“I repeat, Agent is on the altar.”

===ᐁ===

Mandible swallowed hard.

He tried, tried so desperately hard to keep his composure as the Followers of Shadow chanted around him. The eyes stared on, and the runes continued to burn, and while the changeling was doing his best to avoid looking at them, he spinning dagger in the magical grip of the leader held enough threat in its edge to make him worry.

The surprising thing about it was that Mandible didn’t even mind the dying part.

I mean, it was going to suck, don’t get me wrong, but the blood he was going to provide promised a much worse fate for everyone else.

He didn’t even understand what it meant, just that it was going to be bad.

Very, very bad.

Death was going to be a much better alternative.

The cult leader came up to him, smiling manically. “Well my little Lamb, it’s almost time.”

That’s another thing. If this guy could cut it out with all the “lambs to the slaughter” or the “sacrificial lamb” analogies, that would make this entire thing so much more bearable.

“Soon, my Lord shall return, and the tyrannies of the Sun and Moon shall be brought low to nothing,” the cult leader whispered. “Every eye across the world will see the power of Rno'chotsa, and they will know the truth. The truth that all of the other gods, the laws and morality of life, our very lives themselves are but lies, and it will all be thanks to you, my little Lamb.”

So much more bearable.

“It’s almost time...almost time...the world will see. They’ll see because of you. All because of you, my little Lamb.”

Oh gosh…when will it end?

The moon was high, and the chanting was coming up to a crescendo that reverberated in Mandible’s chest.

The leader smiled, and up came the dagger, with it’s awful, all-seeing eye.

A sudden ray of scorching heat tore into the dagger, and the leader leapt back in shock. The ray super heated the metal, and the air exploded. Mandible’s ears rang and his sight went white for a moment or two.

The ringing quickly faded, as did the field of white just in time to hear a cry from just over the edge of the hillside.”We are the D.S.P.I. We have you surrounded. Keep your hooves, horns, and wings where we can see them.”

The leader cursed. “The Department’s here. Do not stop the summoning!”

The ponies around him continued to chant, and the the leader stood over Mandible and sneered. “I haven’t forgotten you, Lamb. You are too important now.”

He went for his knife.

But nothing met his grip. He cursed again, and ducked beneath the altar, searching for his dagger.

Mandible blinked, and realized that he had just one chance to save himself.

So he did the only thing he could do. He began to gnaw through the zip ties that kept him bound.

===ᐁ===

“Hit ‘em hard!” Silver roared.

The chanting ponies did not stop, repeating their eldritch mantra with a zealous fervor that Silver wasn't prepared for. They didn't even fight back, they just redoubled their efforts even as bolts struck their sides.

Not that they needed to fight back. The evil yellow eyes painted on the stones had almost reacted to the sight of them, bubbling and boiling on the stone before they erupted into great, groping masses of slimy tentacles.

The tentacles, bathed in a light that was a color that should not be, and struck, whipping out against the incoming ponies, and stretching to lengths they couldn’t possibly reach.

But they did, of course.

Sparky, Chestnut, Amber, and Neon were all firing into the monsters, doing their best to keep them at bay, and pin the chanters to the ground so that they would finally stop that awful sound that escaped their lips.

“Sniper, do you have a shot on the chanters?” Silver yelled into his com.

“Still charging,” Silk answered. “There’s a reason I don’t like hotshots.”

“We need the leader alive,” Silver said, “any other time I’d let you take the shot.”

“Yeah, yeah. Still charging. You’ll know when I’m ready to shoot.”

“Good to hear!” Silver said, before looking back on the hill they were just on.

Manticore was there, stretching her legs, like an athlete preparing for a workout.

Commander Spike, on the other hand, was in the thick of it. He fired his powerful needle pistol, and his claws cut through flesh with ease. The little dragon cut the tentacles down as they appeared, and disappeared before they could get close.

It almost wasn’t fair.

Spike far outclassed the tentacles, moving faster than they ever could.

The only thing that was in their favor was their numbers, which seemed to be endless. Yet even still, Spike was cutting through them. He would be free to strike at the chanter before long.

Of course, if Manticore actually got to work it would be better.

“Heavy, keep pushing forward!”

“You got it, boss!”

“Scout, how’s the flank?”

“No better,” Sparky replied.

“Demo?”

“Last calculations are being made...alright! I have an angle! Danger close artillery in coming!”

A flash of light burst from the eastern hill, and a grenade smashed onto one of the stone, splattering acid that began to eat the rock beneath it.

The tentacles that grew from the stone began to hiss and writhe, trembling as their anchor into reality was being eaten away.

“Good hit!” Silver yelled. “Keep it up!”

===ᐁ===

Plastic tasted horrible.

Especially the plastic used for this zip tie.

It would not have been accurate to say that he didn’t care about the taste of this particular of the zip tie he was gnawing through, but it certainly wasn’t the most important thing on his mind.

No, the most important thing was living through this whole ordeal.

His fangs suddenly snapped through the first zip tie, and he pushed himself up to stare at his hind legs.

The idiots had fastened the zip tie through the holes in his leg.

He tried to lean forward enough to snap at them, but he was short by a foot. He sat back up, and began looking for his kit and the small obsidian knife that every pack came with. His eyes glanced around frantically, before the cult leader appeared back over the altar. “Where are you going, little lamb?”

He smiled, his eyes glinting with that evil insanity that threatened the whole world. The dagger came up, and stared into Mandible’s soul with it’s awful, topaz eye.

Mandible answered with a punch across the cultist’s mouth, leaving the dagger to spin, end-over-end into the air, before digging into the stone of the altar beside him.

Mandible didn’t even think as he grabbed it.

He moved forward, ready to cut the zip tie open with the eerily sharp blade.

“Yes. Now plunge me into his heart.”

Mandible paused, and stared into eye of the dagger.

“He tried to kill you. It’s only fair you return the favor, no?”

That...well...that sounded pretty good, actually, but…

“But what?” the dagger asked him. “The only thing you need to worry about are the fools around you, and what do you owe them? What obligation do you owe them? You are above them. You hunt them. You consume and wither them. You are more important than them, and if you complete the ritual, you will be more important than any other being in the world. Rno'chotsa always rewards those who serve him. Far better than what you receive now.”

It...well...the dagger wasn’t wrong.

He was a hunter of ponies.

He owed these ponies nothing.

He was being offered only his life, and anything more than that would be a better deal.

He looked down at the cult leader who was still recovering from the blow.

And...of course….there is always the promise of revenge.

“Do it. Complete the Ritual. Be worshiped as you deserve.”

It wouldn’t be hard.

Just a quick slash downward, and it would be over. The fool would be dead, and Lord Rno'chotsa would rule over the quivering masses form his topaz throne. His voice would speak in the Ancient tongue and how do I even know about that?

Mandible blinked, trying to shake thoughts from his head, but his gaze wandered back to the unprotected back of the cultist.

Just one strike.

He brought the dagger up, and it sliced through the plastic zip ties like air.

Now free, Mandible leapt to his feet, and off the altar.

And the dagger continued to stare.

===ᐁ===

A scorching shot tore into the air, catching a tentacle with full force, and knocking it aside for Silver to bring his blade up and around the base, removing it completely.

Manticore had finally joined in, ripping the tentacles in half as she waltzed into the fray.

With the vampire’s strength and speed aiding the battle, the tentacles posed no threat for Spike. Now able to move freely, Spike had leapt in, throwing powerful punches to the temples of the chanting cultists, to hopefully silence them for a while.

As the chanting died, and stones were being dissolved by Lemon’s bombardment, the tentacles began to fall back, losing numbers fast as the spell keeping the ritual active slowly died and the eyes that were their portals began to disappear.

Before long, the only thing left were the ponies and the stones.

Mandible stared down at the dagger in his hoof, and the leader of Followers of Shadow, who simply stared at the sky.

It was obvious that whatever was left of his mind had finally left him.

“Well, we won’t need to execute him,” Spike said, “but he is worthless to us.”

“No snacks, I imagine,” Manticore muttered.

Spike sent her a glare. “Funny,” he said, before turning back to Alpha Team. “Alright, round ‘em up. Thundercloud is incoming and will be ready to receive prisoners.”

“Yes, sir!” Silver said, before he began directing everyone. “Let’s move people.”

Mandible still stared at the dagger.

“Agent?” Spike called, walking up beside the changeling.

He looked over at the dragon, tearing his gaze away from the dagger.

“Hand it to me,” Spike ordered.

Mandible blinked, before he slowly extended his hoof with the dagger and its evil eye.

Spike took it, and did not look at the jeweled pommel. “Thank you, Agent. You did good.”

The changeling nodded.

Spike walked away, keeping the dagger out of everyone’s sight as they began to move the cultists into the newly-arrived DASH-1.

“Hey, Agent,” Silver said, approaching the still stunned Changeling. “Are you alright?”

“Y-yeah...I’m okay.”

“You sure?”

Mandible shrugged. “I guess. I mean, I didn’t end the world.”

Silver blinked. “Um...that’s good.”

“Yeah,” Mandible admitted. “It’s just…”

“What?”

The changeling hesitated.

Silver waited.

“Hey, you two, it’s time to move out!” Spike said from the open cargo bay of the DASH-1.

Mandible nodded, and turned, heading for the airship. “Just...nevermind.”

Silver slowly nodded, and the rest of Alpha team piled into the ship.

But Mandible sat silent.

Because, the truth was, even through the didn’t end the world, he was left with a singular, haunting question.

Why didn’t he end the world?

Comments

[Delta-118]

I wish i could upvote this twice.

[djthomp]

Good job Mandible, now you just need to figure out why.