With the loss of the latest shipment of Loa Dust, the Sons of Samedi were officially crippled in the drug market. With the Saints able to produce the drug themselves and the Samedi presence dwindling in Stilwater, the Haitian drug cartel wasn’t going to last much longer.

Even after recovering from his intoxicated state, Playa was still able to identify the leadership of the Sons of Samedi. The leader called himself The General. Apparently, nobody knew his real name. All Playa really knew was that The General didn’t have a headquarters, choosing to conduct his dealings and observe his gang from a constantly mobile limousine.

Playa also learned about The General’s lieutenant, Mr. Sunshine. Once again, there was no known name for the enforcer of the Samedi. All that was known was that he was the one coordinating the gang’s actions. Losing him, the Sons of Samedi would not be able to remain in Stilwater for much longer.

Before making any further move against The General, Pinkamena decided to convince Playa to come with her to The Mills and assist her with a familiar activity. Playa had a feeling that she was referring to something they sometimes did five years ago and decided to just go along with her request.

At a clinic in The Mills, Playa and Pinkamena met with Dr. Sheldon. “How ya doin’, Doctor Raymond Gonzales says you’re highly recommended,” he said.

“How is the doc?” Playa asked.

“Oh that stunt you pulled with him landed him in jail.”

“Oh...sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it, he was a dick. Anyway I was wondering if you could run the same insurance scam with me…”

“I hope you have a plan to avoid Raymond’s fate doc,” Pinkamena remarked.

“You let me worry about that. You two worry about playing in traffic and breaking bones.”

Just like what happened five years ago, the activity was much the same: Pinkamena was finding new and exciting ways to horribly maim a person and Playa was ragdolling his way into a massive insurance claim.

After that day, anti-violence groups had a lot more objects to protest about, especially after Pinkamena’s creative use of a fire hose, a pillow and a rubber chicken.

Thankfully, Playa managed to avoid being hurt too badly to warrant a hospital visit and the two each received a set of magical shoes that allowed them to sprint indefinitely. Sheldon had Pinkamena’s set customized for her hooves.

Pinkamena let Pinkie try out the new shoes for a few hours. During this time, the party mare demonstrated some parkour by jumping between buildings to reach the top of one, landing on people’s heads without her weight crushing them, using people’s heads as stepping stones while pretending the roads and sidewalks were lava, jumping from car to car to cross a street, running along the side of buildings, and many other stunts that ranged from difficult to impossible.

After Pinkie had her fun with the shoes, the mare returned to the hideout to rest before the next operation.

The next day, Playa had Pierce, Shaundi and Pinkamena accompany him to the old drug factory at Black Bottom, formerly Pilsen. The Saints had stored all of the stolen Loa Dust in the abandoned warehouse until they were able to transport it to the hideout.

Pinkamena brought Treehugger along to provide additional assistance to the Saints.

While they were inspecting the crates of drugs and preparing them for transport, Pierce decided to complain again, “I hate this standing around shit, why can’t somethin’ exciting happen?”

“Would you shut up Pierce?” Pinkamena demanded. “Are you trying to invoke Murpo-- Murphy’s Law?”

“Whachu talkin’ ‘bout? That shit don’t happen in real life, only in movies, manga, video games, fanfiction and other shit written by people.”

Just then, a group of drug junkies entered the warehouse, guns blazing.

While Pinkamena and Playa worked to repel the invasion of drug-starved homeless bums, the madmare took the time to comment on Pierce’s comment, “So how does that crow taste, Pierce?”

“I’ll get the truck…” he said with a defeated tone and a sigh.

“If I were to guess, I’d say bitter,” Shaundi commented.

Playa, Pinkamena, Shaundi and Treehugger spent the next few minutes defending the warehouse from waves of desperate junkies. Shaundi was clearly getting impatient waiting for Pierce but Pinkamena couldn’t care less about the wait since she was enjoying herself with the slaughter of the bums.

Eventually, Pierce finally arrived with the delivery truck. Playa ordered Pierce and Shaundi to work together to load the truck while he, Pinkamena and Treehugger covered every entrance to defend the warehouse.

Once the truck was loaded, Playa ordered Pierce and Shaundi to get in the truck while Treehugger was to make sure the cargo didn’t fall out of the truck since they didn’t have time to secure the crates.

Playa and Pinkamena followed the truck in an abandoned car and made sure the junkies didn’t cause too much trouble. Pinkamena increased the protection coverage by jumping into a junkie’s car, shooting the driver, tossing the corpse into another pursuing junkie’s windshield and driving the car alongside the truck.

The group had little trouble getting back to the hideout. Once they arrived, the Saints started unloading the cargo and bringing it to a more secure location in the hideout.

A couple of junkies tried to escape with a couple of crates but one got run over by a car and Playa shot the other in the back. He chased after the junkie hoping to find some information on Mr. Sunshine’s whereabouts.

During the transport, one of the crates was smashed over Treehugger’s head and the stoner mare ended up getting a heavy dose of Loa Dust into her system. When Pinkamena removed the crate, she was very surprised by what she saw. She could only guess that the dust had interacted with her magic somehow as that would be the best explanation by what she was seeing. Treehugger’s coat had turned pitch black while her red and orange mane and tail had turned to a brilliant scarlet, the color of blood. The sclera of her eyes had turned the same color as her mane. The bandanna that she usually wore had fallen off during the transformation. Pinkamena would look for it later.

Treehugger’s next words filled the madmare with anticipation for what was soon to come, “The time has come. The blood debt must be paid. The Priest of the Baron and the Champion of the Baron shall burn this day. So declares Marinette.”

Playa returned a few minutes later with good news, “Well, I found out where Sunshine is hiding out.” His glance turned to Treehugger’s altered form. “What happened to her?”

“I get the feeling that if you don’t take her with you to kill Sunshine, she’ll make you regret it,” Pinkamena stated.

“I’ll take your word for it,” Playa said after a few moments of staring at the Avatar of Marinette. “Alright, you and you in the car with me.” He pointed to Pinkamena and Treehugger.

“I’m coming too.” Shaundi stated.

“No.” Playa denied.

“But-”

“Playa’s right Shaundi,” Pinkamena said. “You have been useful in information gathering with your many contacts but when it comes to a fight you always need someone to come rescue you. Treehugger is usually a very gentle pony and even she can hold her own with or without the dust. Letting yourself get kidnapped by that loser Veteran Child didn’t do you any favors either.”

Shaundi fumed over what the mare said then complained to Playa, “Boss, are you gonna just-”

“She’s right Shaundi, stick to tactics.” Playa ended the conversation and the Saints leader and two mares got into his car and headed for the meat packing plant.

Once they arrived, Playa and Pinkamena slaughtered the defenders outside the building while Treehugger walked inside on her own to clear a path to Sunshine.

From her ebon hoof, manifested a spectral blood red machete. While the Sons of Samedi do not normally believe in ghosts despite how crazy the gang was, they couldn’t deny the evidence heading for them faster than thought possible. By the time they noticed that she was already upon them, they were already dead.

Treehugger used the blood of her victims to paint symbols on herself while using her own magic to fuel the enchants.

Once Playa and Pinkamena caught up, the madmare smiled at Treehugger with pride as she saw the bloody path she walked.

Playa headed into the main production room where Sunshine was sitting in a chair with a number of candles around him and a red circle with a red triangle and red symbols painted on the wall behind him. Sunshine got out of his chair and held a machete in his left hand and a doll in his right.

“Kneel before the Son of Samedi…” Sunshine shouted. With a simple motion of his right arm, Sunshine shifted the doll while Playa mimicked the doll’s movements. He then used Playa to aim his pistol at Treehugger but Pinkamena slammed into him to prevent his weapon from hurting the dark mare.

“Take him out!” Pinkamena shouted to Treehugger while holding Playa back. “And make it brutal.”

Treehugger nodded before jumping on the railing and over to the platform where Sunshine was. The voodoo priest reacted with a downward slash from his machete but Treehugger rolled out of the way. She manifested her spectral machete and evaded another strike from Sunshine while she sliced into his left thigh. She collected the blood that spilled using the spiritual magic granted to her by Marinette.

She traded her spectral machete for a spectral doll and infused Sunshine’s blood into it. In a quick motion, Treehugger slammed the doll into the wall and Sunshine followed. The impact made him drop his doll and his machete. She manifested her machete again and quickly sliced off his remaining ear where one was missing.

Without his ears, the voices of the loa were silent to Sunshine. For the first time in a long time, he felt vulnerable.

In desperation, Sunshine picked up his machete and tried to cut up Treehugger but the mare dodged the first strike and countered by cutting his hand off. Sunshine grasped the stub where his hand was with his other hand but Treehugger cut that hand off too before cutting his feet at the ankles.

With Sunshine's extremities rendered to stubs, Treehugger used Sunshine’s spilled blood to draw a ritual circle around her and placed his candles around it and one in the center where she would make the offering to Marinette. Once the circle was complete, she placed the spectral doll over the flame and watched the doll burst into flames.

At the same time, Sunshine howled in pain as he burst into flames as the wrath of Marinette engulfed him. Deprived of Baron Samedi’s protection, Sunshine felt every ounce of pain that the flames wrought upon him. He instinctively tried to roll to put out the flames but they wouldn’t be snuffed out so easily. He watched in horror as his skin turned black as charcoal and yet the sweet embrace of unconsciousness would not take him, likely a part of the wrathful voodoo spell.

Once his mortal shell could no longer sustain his soul, he was pulled free from the mortal coil only to realize that the pain of the flames would not cease as his soul was claimed by the vengeful Loa of Violence.

Pinkamena looked on at the scene with sadistic glee and couldn’t hide the wicked smile on her face as she watched the magical brutality take place. Sunshine would not find peace in death, only an eternity of flames awaited him.

Once the ritual was finished, Treehugger returned to her companions and out the way she came. “The day is not yet finished, we must find the Champion of the Baron and end him. Only then will my Loa’s vengeance be complete.”

After what she saw, Pinkamena was more than happy to let Treehugger finish off the Sons of Samedi if only to witness the mare’s violent nature one last time before moving on to other, non-drug related gangs.

Author's Note

The change in Treehugger's colors is due to the fact that Marinette's favored colors are black and red.