Pinkie returned to the church shortly after turning over the La Fuerza she stole to Miguel. For some reason, Julius was waiting outside for her looking impatient from waiting for her. Once he saw her, the two moved to meet in the middle of their paths.

“Sorry to dump this on you when you just got back but there’s a matter that’s come up suddenly and I need your help. The Carnales have started to move to gun running since we hurt their drug ring. They set up a weapons plant in an old steel factory on Fox Drive. Don’t let their business get off the ground.”

“I’ll agree to this if I get to keep whatever they made,” Pinkie said, voicing the demand from Pinkamena. “What about Playa?”

“Playa’s workin’ with Dex to get a crew together for whatever he’s got planned. You use whatever means necessary to wipe out that weapons plant.” Julius gives Pinkie a few bombs. “Use these to blow up anything that looks important.” Pinkie stored the bombs in her mane.

The drive to Fox Drive was uneventful. It was when she saw what she was up against that showed that the plant wouldn’t be taken so easily. Many of the defenders were well equipped and two were carrying McManus sniper rifles.

This mission required stealth so Pinkie decided to wait until the sun had fully set before beginning the mission.

Since she had plenty of time to kill, Pinkie pulled out her map and noticed an icon on the map that indicated someone in need of assistance with some drug deals so she made her way there.

When she got there, Pinkie’s eyes widened and she curled up when she saw the contact in question screaming at some person from the top of his lungs while firing a bullet into his corpse at every punctuation, “YOU THINK YOU CAN STEAL FROM ME?! YOU THINK YOU CAN FUCKING ROB ME?! YOU STUPID. FUCKING. BACKSTABBING. PIECE OF SHIT!”

The man turned and noticed the terrified pony. “Sorry ‘bout that, Billy here thought it would be a good idea to skim off the top...and, well…” He shot the corpse again. “...let’s just say he was wrong.” He continued staring at the terrified pony, “Uhh...are you alright?”

It was then that Pinkamena took over both her body and the conversation. She looked at the shirtless man with colorful pants and long brown hair braided in dreadlocks with a wary look. “I am, though you scared the shit out of my other self. Since you can be of help to the Saints, I’ll let it slide. But, if you scare my other self again, Billy won’t be the only one having a ‘retirement party’,” she threatened.

“Fair enough. Name’s Tobias, can you watch my back on deliveries? You make sure my deals go smoothly, I cut you in on the action...whaddya say?”

What surprised Pinkamena was the fact that he didn’t question the whole “other self” thing. She suspected that he might be a little stoned but that didn’t matter. “Alright, my other self will drive you to each buyer; don’t ask questions just go with it. You make the deals and I’ll make sure the Carnales regret trying to fuck with you.”

“Deal.”

With that, Pinkie drove from client to client in Tobias’ van that looked painted with a 70s theme. The resistance with each delivery was surprisingly less compared to when she was helping Marvin peddle his products. Police presence was consistently minimal despite being closer to police headquarters than before. Carnales activity, however, worsened with each delivery. It made sense though since the gang that specialized in drug dealing would want to snuff out competition.

Of course, Pinkie’s driving skills and Pinkamena’s violent tendencies easily kept the red-themed gang from being too bothersome.

Occasionally, one of Tobias’ buyers would try to fuck with him and run away with the drugs and cash but Pinkamena would shoot them in the leg before Tobias caught up and emptied a magazine on him before looting him.

Once the deals were all complete, Tobias rewarded Pinkie with a trinket that made the Carnales back off from her a little faster after angering them.

The sun was nearly fully set and Pinkie bid Tobias goodbye before returning to the Fox Drive weapons plant.

Once there, Pinkamena put on a black stealth suit to blend in with the night and shadows. Since stealth was an easy way to avoid the heavily armed thugs, she decided on silent weaponry. She equipped the hidden blades she kept from Sunnyvale to her forelegs and kept her kitchen knife in her mouth.

Once night had fully enveloped the city, Pinkamena made her move. Once more treating the mission like a stealth game, the sneaky mare went from thug to thug silently killing each one with her knife or her hidden blades. She silently climbed the structure and took out the biggest threats when nobody was looking and made sure not to move too much as the Carnales thugs weren’t so stupid to follow unrealistic stealth mechanics.

Eventually the Carnales got wise to what was going on but this only left them in a panicked state. While they knew there was someone prowling the grounds taking them out, they couldn’t find her.

Unfortunately for Pinkamena, her phone rang at the worst time. She still had a few more to kill and they had just gathered together to cover all angles. Pinkamena let out a sigh, “Figures.”

Knowing that her cover was blown, the ninja mare threw all stealth aside and charged the remaining defenders using a serpentine maneuver. The thugs weren’t trained to handle such a tactic so she easily made it to their location and started dismembering them with her knife to disarm them before leaving large gashes in their flesh until the thugs stopped moving.

Her suit ruined by bloodstains, Pinkamena took it off and wiped her bloodstained face with it before discarding it. Once done, she pulled out her phone to answer, “This better be important.”

“I’ll say it is, the Carnales are attackin’ the Row,” the caller, Dex, said. “You wanna get over here and help us out?” he asked in a rhetorical manner.

“I’m in the middle of something important too. Besides, between you, Troy, Playa, Johnny and Julius, I highly doubt a few Carnales will be much trouble for you guys.” Pinkamena hung up before Dex could respond.

Once the defenders were gone, a door opened into the factory and a few Carnales exited the building to investigate the commotion. Since the new defenders weren’t as well armed as the initial defenders, Pinkamena easily dispatched them as she fought her way into the factory. Since Pinkamena was better at close quarters combat than they were, the inside of the mill quickly turned into a bloodbath.

Once the place was clear, Pinkamena stored whatever weapons and ammunition that was lying around in her mane before planting the bombs Julius gave her. Once she planted the last one at the top of the plant, she pulled out her party cannon and a helmet. She put on the helmet and placed herself inside her cannon. The party tool fired a second later, launching the mare into the distance. The steel plant exploded mere seconds after that.

By some stroke of dumb luck she landed in the back seat of a Carnales-owned Cavallaro. She quickly disposed of the driver and rider with her SMG before letting Pinkie drive the rest of the way back to the Row.

By the time she got back, the Carnales had already retreated and Dex was making final preparations for his plan. She noticed that a crew of Saints were entering the back of the shipping truck that Troy stole earlier.

Troy continued to complain about Dex keeping his plan a secret while Dex was acting like a smart ass to Troy. Dex’s plan involved driving the truck into the main drug production plant of the Carnales and taking out everyone there using a whole crew of Saints. Dex also mentioned that he didn’t want the equipment damaged during the raid.

Before Playa could get into the truck to drive, Pinkie stepped in between Playa and the truck, giving him a look he was all too familiar with and forcing him to join his fellow Saints in the back of the truck.

Thanks to Pinkie’s driving, the drive into the drug factory was smooth. Once the truck came to a complete stop, the Saints jumped out of the truck ready for a fight.

Meanwhile, Pinkamena had other plans. Using a grapple gun, she pulled herself up to the roof of the main factory building. Then she pulled out a McManus sniper rifle and started shooting the barrels that had Carnales near them. She didn’t care about preserving the equipment because while Dex may want to process and sell drugs, the market was not particularly vital to the Saints.

That and she had no respect for him.

Pinkamena sniped the Carnales that weren’t near barrels while focusing on the Carnales on the other end of Playa’s path through the factory. Once the back was cleared, the mostly mute Saint had an easier time clearing the remaining Carnales inside the factory. Pinkamena tossed a grenade at the last defender which blew her up along with some nearby equipment which she destroyed on purpose for the sake of irritating Dex a little.

Claiming Fox Drive and Pilson, which were connected to Athos Bay by the highway, as well as repelling a Carnales attack, marked the end to a productive day against the Lopez brothers.

Author's Note

I let the Homeland Security mission play out as originally intended because I was never fond of defense missions.