• Published 23rd Sep 2016
  • 1,629 Views, 80 Comments

The D.S.P.I. - DungeonMiner



More than 200 years after the return of Princess Luna, Spike the Dragon runs the most powerful secret of Canterlot, The Department of Supernatural and Paranormal Investigation. And he will use it for one thing. Revenge.

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Operation Frozen Grave

Spike sighed. He always hated when he had to show up for Royal Court. While the opportunity to see Princess Celestia, his surrogate mother, was always welcome, dealing with the ponies that constantly surrounded her was not.

“Sir, please stay five feet away from the throne,” a guard said firmly, interrupting Spike as he gave his long list of budget items.

Spike looked over at the guard that spoke up and sent him a glare.

“He is aware of the rule, Brass,” the soft voice of the Princess said. “He is exempt.”

The Princess was as radiant as ever, in the two hundred and twenty years since his hatching, the Princess had not changed. She did not appear a day older, and no wrinkle blemished her face. Her coat, as white as driven snow almost sparkled in the light of her throne room, and her horn, long, and powerful, was enveloped in an aura of gold as she daintily held a tea cup aloft.

The guard nodded, and stepped back, allowing Spike to continue.

“New recruits, supplies, as well as all previous matters, brings the total expenses for the year to fifteen million bits.”

“Princess, if I may, this is outrageous!” a stallion said behind him. “That is far too much money for a...what do you do again?”

Spike sighed as the latest in a long line of bureaucrats tried to take money from him. “That’s classified,” Spike said.

“So you say, but this is the national budget we are talking about,” the bureaucrat said. “This is money that could be used to fix roads, build hospitals, create and distribute medicine! Don’t we, as representatives of the people to her majesty have a right to know where this money is going?”

Spike sighed. He had heard this argument a hundred times, and far more elegantly put. Every time it was the same. “Oh, we have a right to know!” “Oh we deserve the money more!” “Gimme gimme gimme!”

He really hated bureaucrats.

Spike looked up to the princess, who offered a sympathetic glance before speaking up. “I know what he does, and that is enough. Fifteen million bits is granted to the DSPI for the coming year.”

“Thank you, your Highness,” Spike said, bowing.

“B-but Princess Celestia,” the pony complained, “we could—!”

“If I deem your duties as crucial as his, then I will grant you the same funding,” the Princess replied coolly. “Of course, it would help if you were at least as trustworthy as him.”

The stallion went quiet, and the older, wiser politicians simply shook their heads.

Spike sighed once more, and excused himself from the throne room, and stepped outside, followed by Silver every step of the way.

The dragon looked back at the assault following him, before grunting. “Everything you dreamed it would be?”

“Yes, sir,” Silver replied.

“You were expecting that?” Spike asked. “You are just asking for pain, aren’t you?”

“I actually wanted to ask you a question, sir,” Silver said.

“Ah! Of course. That makes way more sense,” the dragon nodded, checking his belt.

“What happened to Miss Fluttershy?”

Spike stopped, and there was a long second of silence.

Finally, Spike spoke again. “So...what’s your question?”

Silver furrowed his brow. “I asked already.”

“No, no you did not,” Spike growled, before turning to face him. “You did not ask that, because you’re not stupid enough to ask that question. Try something else.”

“I was just curious, sir,” Silver said.

“And that will get you killed,” Spike grunted, before he began walking once more. “If you still haven’t learned any better by the time we get back, you can ask Fluttershy. Or Discord, if he ever comes back for tea. What’s your question?”

Silver sighed, before staring up at the ceiling. “Who’s our new Heavy?"

“Chestnut, from Gamma team. A little less than half of Gamma wound up annoying a Lycan we were trying to bring in for parole, and died because of it. Gamma is being broken up and repurposed, so you’re getting a new heavy, and he’s not going to be a rookie.”

Silver nodded. “Very good, sir.”

===ᐁ===

Chestnut was big. He was bigger than their last heavy by almost a foot, both height and width. He also constantly wore the biggest smile Silver had ever seen. “So you’re the new boss, huh?”

“Um...I guess you could say that,” Silver admitted.

“Good to meet you boss!”

“We’ve met before,” Silver noted.

“We have?” Chestnut asked, sheepishly. “I’m sorry, I’m bad with faces, and not so great at names either.”

Silver shook his head. “Don’t worry about it…”

“Yes, sir,” Chestnut said, smiling still. “So what are the orders today, sir?”

“Well,” Silver said. “Actually I was coming to get you for our next mission.”

Chestnut blinked. “Did...did I miss the announcement?”

“No, no announcement. It’s not an emergency, but we’re being called in,” Silver told.

“Oh, thank Celestia’s forehooves! I thought I was going deaf there a second! I’ll be at the situation room in a minute, sir.”

“Yeah…” Silver said, “good...you can...uh…lay off the sir stuff, though.”

“You got it!” Chestnut said, before he dipped back into his room to grab his equipment.

Silver shook his head. Maybe it was the giant earth pony’s smile, or his apparent slowness when it came to names and faces, but Silver was beginning to wonder if maybe they could get the heavy from a different team.

===ᐁ===

“This,” Spike said, as a magical holo-map hovered before them, “is Evenlight Manor, located on a hill just outside of the rural area of Manehatten. It’s famous for being ‘that old haunted house’ that everyone talks about. You know the kind. The one where colts throw rocks at the windows, and dare each other to touch the doorknobs. Just rumors right?”

The ponies of Alpha Team all stared at him from around the table, silent and waiting.

Spike grinned. “Of course not. We don’t deal in rumors.” He walked back around the table before sitting at it’s head, Sweetie Belle’s ghostly form floating beside him. “The house builder, a stallion by the name of Marble Moonlight, had some dealings with a cult. This is not a good sign, especially when he decided to sacrifice his young daughter to some crazed demon, and sealed his fate.

“Demons don’t actually want pure souls, they’re no good for them. The demon wasn’t happy, so he unleashed the daughter back on Marble. Now, that would be a nice enough story for us, but one of the things you learn here is that demons like to screw everyone over. So the daughter, a miss Primrose Gemlight, has been stuck haunting the the mansion ever since.”

Spike waited to make sure that everypony was on the same page. “Now, normally, Miss Primrose is rational and reasonable pony, but every now and then, the isolation and some residual magic of whatever curse has bound her to the house causes her to turn into a slightly manic, bloodthirsty ghost.

“One of our responsibilities, as the DSPI, is to care for the citizens of Equestria that have managed to resist the various urges of their transformations, and miss Primrose is one such citizen. Every six years, on the sixth day of June,the demon’s curse disturbs the remains of Miss Primrose’ body. Today, is the sixth of June, so your mission tonight is to enter the manor, find the crypt, and locate Primrose Gemlight’s remains, before returning her grave to it’s proper state.”

“What do you mean ‘find the crypt?’” Silk asked, staring at the holo map of the mansion. “Don’t we have a floor plan?”

“Of course we do,” Spike said. “It just doesn’t matter. Every time her body is disturbed, she changes the house. Not by any conscious effort on her part, mind you. She couldn’t even lead you through the house herself. That’s the bigger issue, here. Luckily, we have Siren,” he said, motioning to Sweetie Belle. “Her duty is to try and navigate the house and aid the scout in locating the crypt.”

“Of course that’s my job,” Sparky grunted.

“You’re a scout. That’s your only job,” Spike said.

“When do we leave?” Silver asked.

You leave as soon as possible,” Spike said. “I am needed down in Las Pegasus with Delta Team, investigating a murder that may involve another vampire.”

“Another one?” Neon asked. “How many vampires live here?”

“Enough,” Spike said. “You’ll take a subtrain to our Manehatten hub, in half an hour. Be ready. Siren will be leaving with you, and she’ll lead you to the manor. You are to leave with Primrose Gemlight as alive as a ghost can be. Any more questions?”

“No, Sir!” Chestnut said with a smirk.

“Good. Move out, Alpha Team.”

===ᐁ===

The rural area of Manehatten, a large stretch of farmland that provided the city that did not sleep with thousands of pounds of grain, roots, and fruit that fed the city, was silent. On the outside of one of these farms, was a single hill.

Time and weather had not been kind to the hill, one whole hillside had been eroded away, leaving a side that was so steep it could be called a cliff. At the top of this cliff, along with a single, withered oak tree, sat Evenlight Manor.

“Huh...is it just me,or is it creepier in real life?” Neon asked as Alpha Team hiked up the hillside.

“Happens all the time,” Sweetie Belle told him. “Magical ecto-energies tend to throw people once they arrive. It tends to produce an air of nervousness and anxiousness in anyone who gets too close.”

“So...it is just me?” Neon asked.

“Basically,” Sweetie said, floating ahead “but not without reason.”

“Lovely,” Neon said.

“Siren,” Silver said as they all tread the ancient gravel path that crunched beneath their feet. “Do you have some kind of ‘spirit sight?’”

“I do, in fact,” she answered. “Although, not by that name.”

“What do you see?”

“Pain,” she answered. “A lot of pain. Insanity, loneliness, fear. This is by no means a good place.”

“Lovely,” Spark muttered.

“Do you see miss Primrose?”

“Yes,” Sweetie Belle answered. “She’s on the top floor. It’s her room I believe.”

“Do you think she’ll take visitors?” Silk said with a smirk.

They quickly climbed up to the ancient house, and before long, they all found themselves before the large, heavy, dark oak doors with Silver at the lead.

Under most circumstances, the door would have been an imposing piece of carpentry. Here, in the soon-to-be open maw of Evenlight Manor, it was nerve-wracking. The doors were almost terrifying, and stood so tall that even Chestnut felt tiny in front of them.

Silver took a deep breath, before he slowly knocked on the great door, doing his best not to shake.

His knocks resounded against the dark oak like the rumbling of timpanis, and the sound echoed in their bones. Silver could almost feel the sound shake his legs and rumble his rib cage. The silence that followed, however was worse.

The silence was deafening. It somehow rang in their ears, tolling like a bell in their minds even though there was not a sound.

The silence was so encompassing, that when the door creaked open, the sound of the rusty hinges seemed to roar in their ears. The open door stood before them, yawning with darkness, eager to swallow them and the light whole.

“Is the fact that my hair standing on end more of that ecto-energy crap?” Sparky asked.

“Yup,” Sweetie answered.

“Great,” the scout said, raising his pneumatic crossbow, and stepping inside.

The team quickly stepped in, and the found themselves in a large, foyer. The room was perhaps fifteen feet wide, with a second floor balcony. To the left and right were two sets of two doors, all identical, all impossible to see beyond. Directly ahead of them, on the far side, was a set of double doors, both carved from the same dark oak that the front doors were made of. Two set of stairs, flanking the set of doors at the far end of the foyer, led upwards, into the foyer, where three doors sat, one on the left, one on the right, and one right above the double doors.

The room itself looked destitute. Cobwebs hung everywhere, and a thick layer of dirt covered every surface. A massive chandelier hung from the ceiling, but for the dust and webs, Silver could not be sure if it were made of crystal or simple stones.

He was willing to bet it was the former.

“Alright, everyone, stay close,” Silver said. “Scout, Support, up front with me. Heavy, demo, on the back. Sniper, Medic, Agent, in the middle.”

They all nodded, and got ready. Chestnut and Lemon were obediently in the back, both the mini-cannon and portable potion cannon pointing back at the space behind them. Mandible, Amber, and Silk took up positions in the middle while Spark and Neon fell in directly behind Silver. Sweetie Belle joined the formation last, floating above them.

The house groaned in response.

“So,” Sparky grunted. “Where do we start?”

Silver looked up at Sweetie Belle. “Well, Siren? Anything we should worry about?”

“Not that I can see,” she said.

The assault shrugged. “Then that first door is as good as any,” he said, pointing to the right.

No arguments arose as they began to move to the first door on the right. Their weapons were raised, searching for anything that might move against them. Silver kept ahead, both his crossbow and blade out and ready, before he opened the door.

Silver, Sparky, and Neon swept the room, checking it over for any sign of life or unlife.

Nothing but dust and cobwebs met them. “We’re clear!” Silver said, before stepping in.

The team moved in, entering what seemed to be a study. Bookshelves lined with ruined titles, all destroyed by time and a the grey-black mold that clung to them. Between a pair of shelves on the left wall was another door, leading, if logic still had dominion here, to the second room on the right from the foyer. A desk sat in the middle of the room, decorated with a lamp, an ancient, dry inkwell, and a open book. A pony skull sat opposite the lamp, and a rune was painted across its forehead in dark brown ink.

It could have been blood.

Every inch of the room, from the rotting curtains to the worn, green rugs, was covered in that same dust and cobwebs from the room before. “Siren, is everything normal?”

“So far,” she answered. “This room is where it is supposed to be,” she said, floating down to the ground, and staring at the skull.

“That’s some good news,” Silver answered, before he moved towards the other door in the room. He passed the great windows that looked over the distant cityscape of Manehatten, and moved to the door that lead deeper into the house, his team slowly forming behind him.

He grabbed the knob, weapons ready, as Neon and Sparky flanked him, ready to fire into the doorway.

With a twist, it was open.

And Silver blinked as he found himself staring into Chestnut’s eyes.

He spun back, toward the door they had just entered through, and could just barely see himself staring at the back of his own head.

Silver slammed the door shut, and the door they had come through slammed just as loud.

Sweetie Belle gave a short laugh. “That’s always a fun trick.”

“Siren, what’s going on?” Silver asked.

“Spatial manipulation. Any ghost can do it in their own territory.”

“Can we get out of it?”

“Yeah. When a ghost kills you it needs to be violent. Locking you in a loop like this is just to get you panicked.”

“Good to know,” Silver said, before opening the door again.

Once more, he was staring into the same room he was still in. “Is there any reason to not walk through?”

“No, it might speed up the release,” Sweetie Belle told him.

Silver shrugged, and walked through the door.

There was a sight shiver that ran down his spine as he passed over the threshold, but beyond that, nothing happened as he crossed back into the room.

“Should everyone else go through?” Silver asked.

Sweetie Belle shrugged. “No idea. Each spatial manipulation is a case-by-case thing. Probably wouldn’t hurt though.”

“I’m glad you’re so sure about this,” Sparky muttered before stepping through the door. He shivered as he stepped out on the other side. “That was weird.”

Chestnut volunteered for the next passage through, followed by Amber, and Silk. Lemon was the next one to go through, and took a single step towards the open portal that defied space-time, when the doors suddenly slammed shut.

She jumped, surprised by the sudden sound, but recovered just quick enough to keep the various potions on her belt from agitating. “Is that supposed to happen?” the demolitions pony asked.

“It’s a sign that we should be able to get through,” Sweetie explained.

“Great,” Silver said. “You heard the lady, let’s move, everypony.”

The team reformed their marching order, support, scout, and assault at the front, medic, infiltration, sniper in the middle, and heavy weapons and demolitions in the back. “Are we ready?” Silver asked.

“Yes, sir!” they answered back.

He nodded. “Let’s move,” he said, before opening the door.

Nothing.

An open, yawning darkness faced them.

Silver had just enough time to blink, before he felt an odd pull toward the door.

Another blink, and he was becoming aware that forward was becoming down as gravity pulled him through the door.

Another beat, and he began to scream. Neon was falling with him, tumbling into the darkness, while Sparky’s wings spread, throwing him backwards into the room.

Another second, and Silk’s own wings were spread. “Silver!” she cried, leaping after him into the darkness.

And then the door slammed shut behind her.

“Assault!” Chestnut cried, shoving his way forward, before he slammed into the door, throwing it open.

And then, they stood in a lounge.

And Neon, Silk, and Silver were nowhere to be found.