The D.S.P.I.

by DungeonMiner

Operation Patient Thorn

The remainder of Alpha team listened intently, eyes wide to Silver and Neon’s story. They absorbed every word of Spike’s tale, and stared as two unicorns revealed what they saw in the room behind The Door.

They had even drawn a crowd, ponies from Gamma Team and Phi both listening as they revealed the Commander's biggest secret.

They had no sooner finished before every pony around them flooded them with questions.

“What about Princess Flurry?”

“What happened to Princess Twilight?”

“Does Rarity feel anything? Is she asleep?”

“Guys, guys,” Neon said, speaking over the crowd. “We don't know, the Commander didn't tell us.”

“He didn't tell us what happened to Princess Twilight. All we know is what the history books tell us,” Silver answered. “Old age with no heirs to her throne.”

“Yeah, but she could have been poisoned!” A pony from Phi said.

“She could have been, but he didn't tell us.”

“She was totally poisoned,” another pony agreed.

“If you want to theorize, you go on ahead,” Silver said before a smile crept onto his face. “Just don't let the Commander catch you.”

As though the warning had been a set of magic words, the entire room went quiet, and the teams quickly went mute.

Silver smiled. “By the way, I feel like I should mention that fact that the Commander has released Chestnut’s location.”

“Where!?” Amber asked, hooves slamming into the table.

“It’s hard to explain, but he can have visitors now,” Silver said. “I can take you there if you want.”

“Just go!” she said, before she leapt into the air over the table.

Silk giggled. “Don’t hold Silver hostage too long, a new movie came out that I want to see with him.”

“No promises!” she yelled back, before dragging Silver from out of the cafeteria.

Silk shook her head, taking another bite of her ice cream as she smiled, the teams slowly dispersing now that the news of what happened in the Commander's room had been revealed.

And then, once she was sure she was alone, Silk finally let herself cry.

That had been too close. Far, far too close.

===ᐁ===

Chestnut had been sequestered away into the most obscure corner of engineering. A single medical room, armed with the best equipment that the Department had. Of course, this hardly mattered to Amber, who was more concerned to see that Chestnut had no legs at all.

“What did they do to you?” she asked, nearly screaming.

“It’s fine,” Chestnut said.

“Fine? You had two less legs than when you came in!” she responded.

“It’s all part of the procedure, Amber.”

“Procedure? They cut your legs off!”

“And they’re going to get me new ones,” he said.

“New legs! You had two perfectly good ones last time I saw you.”

“You’re too upset about this,” Chestnut said. “Calm down.”

“I’m too upset?” she asked. “You’re not upset enough! You look like a kidney bean, for Celestia’s sake!”

“Thanks, dear. Thanks for that.”

Silver stepped forward. “How are you doing Chestnut?”

“Could be better, all things considering. My nose itches.”

Honestly, that was better than what Silver was expecting. He had expected Chestnut to at least be shaken by the loss of his legs, but the heavy weapons expert seemed to take the whole thing in stride. It was as if losing them had been no more traumatic than losing his keys.

Silver’s magic quickly enveloped Chesnut’s nose, and he sighed in relief. “Thanks, Boss. You’re a good pony.”

“Well, I wouldn’t go that far, but it’s appreciated,” Silver replied before a took a good look at his heavy weapons pony.

At his withers and flanks, his legs had been completely removed, leaving only a metal plate in each place. Each plate shimmered, with a single yellow gem that almost seemed to crackle with energy.

“So what are they doing about your cutie mark?” Silver asked.

“The Commander said I’d keep it, not sure how, though,” he said.

“They took your cuite mark too? How are you so calm!” Amber asked.

“The Commander said it’ll be fine,” Chestnut told her.

“The Commander got you to sign up for this dumb thing while you were under the influence of painkillers! He manipulated you into this!” she yelled.

“No, he didn’t. The Commander’s just trying to help.”

“He nearly killed Silver and Neon just a few hours ago.”

“What?” Chestnut asked, before turning to the assault. “That’s not true, is it?”

“It’s complicated,” Silver admitted. “But, as someone who’s gone through a different program, I can tell you it’s probably going to work out.”

Chestnut frowned. “If you say so, Boss.”

“I’ll look out for you, Chestnut,” he said. “I’ve got your back.”

Chestnut smiled again. “Thanks, Boss.”

“You’re not going to get him out of this program?” Amber asked.

Silver looked at her. “It’s kind of late for that, considering. If I was going to pull him out, I would have done it back when he still had legs.”

She glared at him, while Chestnut laughed.

“Glad to know you’re doing okay, Chestnut,” Silver said.

“Glad to know you care, Boss,” Chestnut replied warmly as the unicorn left the two alone.

===ᐁ===

The Commander said it would still be awhile before Chestnut would be ready for combat, and with the Department still down to three teams, Alpha would need to move soon. However, given all of the issues Alpha team had to deal with in the past few days, Spike allowed them an opportunity.

They had to make a decision. They could go out a man down, or they could split up and join the other teams as further support.

The decision was easy enough to come to, and the vote went through in a few seconds. Silver agreed to it for his own reason. Personally, he thought that some inter-team relations building would be good for everyone.

And, of course, as the leader of the team, he’d have to go first.

“How ya’ doing, Silver?” Chrome asked as Silver walked into hanger of the DASH-1, ready to take Gamma team to their next mission.

“Better now that I’m not the one in charge,” Silver admitted with Silk standing at his side.

“Yeah, lucky dog, you,” the demolitions pony muttered, before smiling wide. “Well it’ll be nice having a few more ponies to shoot vampires.”

“Vampires?” Silk asked.

“I don't brief my ponies until we’re on the way. I find my assault remembers better when I told him five minutes ago.”

“Doesn't leave much time for questions, does it?” Silver asked.

Chrome shrugged. “It works for me.”

“If you two are done,” a voice said behind them, and both ponies turned to see Spike joining them in the hangar, “we have a job to do.”

“Sir. Yes, sir,” they answered in unison, before falling in step behind the dragon.

“Silver, Silk,” Spike called as he walked. “You’ll be functioning under new callsigns for the duration. You will be known as A2 and S2 for Secondary Assault and Secondary Sniper respectively. Chrome is still the leader of this team, and you will answer to his authority while you work with him. Am I understood in all points?”

“Sir. Yes, sir,” they answered.

Spike simply nodded, before climbing up the loading ramp of the DASH-1. “Gamma Team, we’re moving out!”

The team gathered and quickly piled inside the massive airship while the pilot went through her final checks.

“Take it away, Demo,” Spike ordered.

Chrome nodded before he stood in front of his team. “Alright, team, here’s the lowdown after Alpha’s sting operation not that long ago, we have the Covenant on the run. We’re going in to finish the job.

“The Commander’s picked up news about a Covenant cell fleeing, and we’re going to wipe it out. Initial reports indicate at least twenty members, but we're not sure how many of them, if any, are vampires, so be warned that any of these idiots may be able to rip your arms off, and Chestnut does not need the company.”

Silver frowned at that one.

“Speaking of Alpha team, we have ourselves some guests. Silk and Silver will both be joining with us today, so don't make me look bad.”

Gamma team chuckled.

Chrome waited a second before continuing. “Silver’s call sign will be A2 if you need his help, and Miss Silk will answer to S2. Just play nice, alright?”

“ETA is 4 minutes,” Tinker said over the comms relay.

“You heard the lady, ponies,” Spike said. “Get ready for a landing.”

===ᐁ===

The purring engines of the DASH-1 squealed as it landed. The landing ramp opened wide and Gamma Team and their guests flooded out of the ship’s belly, hooves hitting concrete hard.

Thunder rumbled above them, and the downpour splashed against the concrete and threatened to sweep them away in a flash flood.

They quickly fanned out, weapons up and ready as they found themselves facing a large storage compound. The corporately owned warehouses, out in the middle of nowhere, stood like squat giants, staring down with glowing, window eyes into the shadows between them.

“S2, do you see anything?” Silver asked.

“No thermal signatures that I can see. Might be the rain,” Silk said.

“Alright, ponies, spread out,” Chrome ordered, “keep your eyes open. We don’t know what’s out there. Scout, get ahead and clear a path for Agent.”

The scout, a unicorn named Ivory Jet began to run forward, his enchanted horseshoes sending the once track-runner flying down the concrete.

The infiltration specialist, an earth pony mare named Moonlight, smiled as her gene-enhanced skin began to shift and shimmer before her internal camouflage went to work to blend her into her surroundings.

“Assault, A2!” Chrome yelled, and Silver took a moment to get used to being ordered so suddenly, “you’re the vanguard, Support, on the left, Medic, Sniper, S2, in the middle, Heavy at the back, I’ll take the right side. Move out.”

They began to march, forming a vaguely-militaristic formation before they began to move forward. Silver kept his crossbow leveled, searching the area around them as they began to move closer and closer to the large warehouses.

Ivory spoke up over the comms. “Contacts in building 3B. I repeat, 3B.”

“Roger, preparing to infiltrate,” Moonlight said.

“Pulling back to the squad,” Ivory said.

“Roger.”

Spike moved through the formation, watching with his handgun drawn as the ponies began to zero in on the warehouse labeled 3B. He moved quickly, offering a gentle touch to the shoulders to tell them he was moving past.

Another few seconds went by, and Ivory came back, taking the right side while Chrome shifted into the middle.

“I have four contacts,” Moonlight whispered into her com. “Two offer thermal signatures.”

“Two vampires, two mortals,” Spike muttered.

The team made a mental note, but continued, pushing forward towards the warehouse. Chrome pointed, directing his ponies to various points, while Silver and the other Assault, a pegasus named Onyx prepared to breach the door.

“Update,” Moonlight said. “Two more contacts above. Mention of one more.”

Chrome nodded, setting a charge, before pulling back. “Prepare to breach, in 3. 2. 1.”

An explosion ripped open the warehouse doors, and the assaults rushed in, firing into the red-clad ponies that stood in the open. Through the smoke, two thermal shots shot upward, slamming into the ponies that walked on a catwalk above.

A rain of pneumatic crossbow bolts fanned into the warehouse, even as the two remaining visible ponies cursed. “It’s the Department!”

“Pin those vampires down!” Spike ordered, before Chrome answered with a sun-blessed molotov.

The magically-white flames erupted, consuming the vampires and burning them to ashes within seconds.

“Put that out!” Spike roared, before the flames exploded again, burning bigger and brighter.

They consumed the vampires utterly, burning like magnesium in the presence of undead flesh.

Ivory ran through warehouse, almost a blur with the aid of his magic horseshoes, grabbing three different fire extinguishers before running off to grab more. Gamma team ponies grabbed the extinguishers, and began to spray the foam into the flames.

The flames tried, but with the growing number of extinguishers that were suffocating it, it could not burn forever, and eventually went out.

Spike sighed before turning back to Chrome. “How many times have I said, not to use that one indoors.”

“Sorry Commander, must be my inner arson,” Chrome said with a grin.

Spike glared, and sighed. “Just don’t do that again.”

“Oh, come now, Commander,” a voice said from the darkness, “there’s no need to act like that.”

Spike spun, hitting the ground on all fours, eyes wide and searching for its source.

The team raised weapons, taking a cue from the feral, searching stance of the commander.

A deep, velvety laugh echoed in the room.

“Where are you?” Spike growled. “Where are you, you son of a—”

“Oh you don’t need to worry about that, Commander. I’m not going to hide forever,” the deep, rumbling voice told him, before a figure appeared on the catwalk above. A tall unicorn with a grey coat and a brilliant, red, heart-shaped ruby on his flanks. A faint smile played at his lips, and his eyes were a deep, engulfing red that threatened to swallow them all whole. “Hello, Commander.”

In that second, Silver knew exactly who that was. There was an undeniable air of power that radiated from every single pore of his body. He was stronger than any vampire Silver had ever met, to the point where he could physically feel the vampire’s power. He was a hunter, a noble, a king that was beyond what mere mortals can achieve.

Of course, barely a second later, it was confirmed by a furious, enraged roar.

“Valentine!”

The floor rocked as Spike leapt into the air, trailing green flame, as he cleared that catwalk’s hand guards. Spike moved, wreathed in emerald flame, and swung with everything he had, moving too fast for any of the department pony’s eyes to see. Flashes of green that could only be Spike fire-engulfed claws swung like a tornado of light, but wherever they struck, Valentine was gone.

Always one step ahead, always a fraction of an inch away, Valentine simply slid out of way of every blow, moving so fast that Silver could swear he was merely teleporting out of the way.

For the gathered ponies below, the fight was impossible to see. There was only a pony that was sliding down the catwalk, and a brilliant green fire.

“I have to say, little Commander,” Valentine said, staring into the flame with his blood red eyes, “I’m surprised you brought your kids along, I thought it would be too dangerous for them.”

“Shut up and die!” Spike answered back in a roar.

“Now, now, calm down, Commander,” Valentine warned, “-losing your temper isn’t befitting a dragon of your stature.”

“Just die!”

“Then grow a pair a kill me!” Valentine laughed. “Come on, you little monster, kill me!”

This time Valentine moved, swinging his own hooves to meet Spike’s flaming claws. Thunder sounded with each blow, yet neither of them slowed.

“Come on! Hit me, you little monster! Hit me!” Valentine yelled.

The thunder rolled as the blows came faster, crashing into each other in a crescendo of sound as each tried to land a single blow. A second passed, and then another, until the entire warehouse shook with the sound.

Then finally, finally, it ended. With the sound of a lightning strike, the flaming ball of green fire was sent flying across the warehouse, the flame shedding off the young dragon as he slammed into the far wall at breakneck speeds.

“Tsk, tsk, Commander.” Valentine admonished. “Tsk, tsk.”

Spike was pulling himself from the wall. Trying to free himself from being buried in the concrete.

“First blood goes to me again, and you know what that means, don't you, Commander?”

“Leave them out of this!” Spike roared.

“It means I get to kill one of your little kids,” the vampire said, turning his gaze down on the team of ponies on the warehouse floor below.

When his eyes passed over them, Silver felt his body freeze. Terror locked his joints in place. The power in his gaze alone felt on par with the horrid, bloody monstrosities that he had seen cultist try to summon from beyond, and Silver felt honestly, truly afraid.

His body screamed at him, roared for him to move, but his legs were far to terrified to move. His hooves were carved marble, his body was solid lead. He would not move.

He was alone in the gaze of Valentine Ebonbite.

A flaming claw slammed into the vampire’s face, breaking his gaze, before Spike yelled “Get to the ship!”

Back in control of his body, Silver turned to see the cowering mass of Gamma team clinging to the far wall. “Move, ponies! Move!”

The tore off, rushing out of the warehouse, before Spike leapt down, spewing flame. Green fire caught the crates, boxes and tarps that stood by the walls, before burning red.

“Where are you off to, Commander?” Valentine asked, half his face burned down to the skull. “We have business.”

“Burn in Tartarus, monster!” Spike yelled, before unleashing his breath once more.

The fire engulfed Valentine, burning brighter in the presence of undead flesh. Valentine’s skin cracked and peeled, his fangs and exposed bone blacked, but he walked, as calm as though it were a Sunday evening.

Spike breathed again, his fire spewing across the warehouse until there was not a foot that was not covered in flame.

“Is that it, Commander?” Valentine asked, slowly burning away to a black skeleton with a brilliant, pumping red heart. “Is this all you have for me? Because Tartarus is far warmer, I assure you.”

Spike turned, and ran, leaving the warehouse to burn as he ran to catch up with team. “Thundercloud! That ship better be off the ground by the time I get there!”

“Yes, sir!” came Tinker’s reply.

His claws raked the dirt as Spike ran, his lithe, reptilian body slithering through the air as he closed the distance between him and the DASH-1. It hovered a foot off the ground, the loading ramp open and waiting as Silver and Chrome stood, hooves outstretched.

Spike leapt up, into the waiting hooves, and the ramp closed behind them, locking them in.

The DASH-1 pulled away, floating into the sky while its engines began to whine.

“You did it, Commander! You got him!”

Spike shook his head. “I bought us time. Not much more than that.”

“You bought us time? He can’t burn?” Silver asked.

“If it was that easy, this would have been over a long time ago.”

===ᐁ===

From the center of the still burning warehouse, the blackened skeleton of Valentine watched as the form of the airship flew through the air, disappearing like a shooting star.

His lipless fangs smiled as he watched his enemy escape, with a debt between them, nonetheless.

Well, that would have to be settled another time then.

But soon, very soon.

And all the while, the glowing, ruby heart of the vampire known as Valentine was beating, always beating, even with no blood to pump.

Comments

[Doood]

GOOD OL' NICHOLAS VALENTINE.

Amazing chapter as always. I'm quite interested about this immortal vampire now, considering he affected the mane six in different ways.

[djthomp]

A kidney bean with a head, important caveat.

The big bad at long last, and he is quite the challenge. They're really going to have to step up if any of the team other than Spike is going to be able to fight him. Probably more than anything they need to figure out the secret to his immortality.