The first thing Pinkamena did when she woke up the next morning was check her phone to see how much return on investment she received from the few businesses she invested in the other day. She was surprised to see that the amount was decent for how many businesses she owned at this point.

She decided that the Saints needed to claim more of the Downtown area and she was going to start by purchasing ownership of more businesses in Loren Square and Sunset Park. She also knew that she needed to send a message to the Syndicate that the Saints planned to drive them out of the Downtown area.

For that message, she assigned Gilda and Treehugger to work together to hunt down and wipe out any remaining Syndicate activity in Loren Square and Sunset Park.

That day, Pinkamena spent all of her income she received that morning and some of her still substantial savings for purchasing the remaining five businesses in Sunset Park and Loren Square as well as the Joe Cola Factory and Rondini’s Boat Dock. It was not an insignificant expense, but she figured that she would make it all back soon enough.

Gilda and Treehugger reported back from their recon and destroy mission and reported that they had sighted three large groupings of Morningstar in the assigned neighborhoods before Gilda blew up most of the groups with some death from above while Treehugger torched the rest.

Pierce called Pinkamena suddenly and asked her to see him at the Broken Shillelagh. He didn’t give any details over the phone except that he mentioned that he saw something weird. Pinkamena figured it might be a delicate matter so she simply ended the call and headed to the Irish pub.

She saw the lieutenant not far from the entrance inside the pub, playing darts. She approached the Saint, “Alright Pierce, what did you want to tell me?”

Pierce motioned for her to keep her voice down before having her sit at a table with her. Once situated, Pierce spoke to her softly, “Is it normal for you ponies to have horns on your foreheads?”

Pinkamena wasn’t sure why Pierce was being discreet, but she decided to humor him. “Only if they’re unicorns, why?”

“Because there’s a pony with a horn on their head at the back of the pub asking strangers for information about the city.”

That got Pinkamena’s full attention. The only other pony she knew in this world was Treehugger and she was an earth pony. “Aside from the horn, what did they look like?”

“Well, the pony’s white with blue hair and they’re wearing sunglasses.”

“I see, I’ll go talk to them. Anything else?”

“Not much. The boss was in here earlier and he wanted to go after Loren. I still think he’s holed up in that big ass skyscraper in Henry Steel Mills but he’s thinkin’ about hittin’ up that designer gun store downtown called Powder. The Morningstar have been talking to the owner so there’s gotta be something there. Still, the boss might think Loren would be too smart to hole up in a cliche but I think he might be overestimating Loren.”

“We’ll check the skyscraper after we clear out Powder. For now, I have a pony to meet.”

Pinkamena left the table and headed deeper into the bar to find the pony that Pierce was talking about. After a few minutes of searching the crowded bar, she found the pony in question.

“Hey, isn’t that…” Pinkie started.

“I can’t help but wonder what goes through that chimaera’s head by sending all these ponies to this world,” Pinkamena mused.

The patron who was sitting with the unicorn left the table quickly when she sat with them. In fact, the patrons had been giving the mare a wide berth. At the same time, the patrons who saw Pinkamena stared at her with mixed expressions ranging from wariness to starstruck.

The madmare made her way through the crowd and sat at the table where the unicorn sat.

Vinyl looked at the mare for a moment and narrowed her eyes, “You look familiar; you look like Pinkie but you remind me of somepony I met a long time ago.”

Pinkamena smirked, “Vinyl Scratch, it’s been a long time. I’d say nearly twenty, taking into account my time here and the time my presence was lost to the Equestrian nightclubs.”

Vinyl’s eyes widened as the memories came flooding back, “No way, you’re my very first fan from when I was just starting out as a DJ. I never did get your name. I just thought you up and disappeared when you stopped coming to my gigs.”

Pinkamena giggled, “You always did have great taste in music. Truth be told, I ended up spending ten years locked up in Pinkie’s head. Name’s Pinkamena by the way.”

“So that was you going around planning parties throughout Ponyville. Hard to recognize you with the curled mane.”

“Well, that kinda was but kinda wasn’t me. So what are you doing in this world?”

“Take a wild guess.”

“I knew, though I can’t help but wonder why.”

“No idea, might have something to do with my ability to adapt to a high tech society and Tavi’s history.”

Pinkamena blinked. “Wait, what? Octavia’s here too?”

“Yeah, she and I got separated while we’ve been looking for info. Since you’re here, I’m hoping I hit the jackpot.”

Pinkamena giggled again before giving her the summary of the situation as well as information about where they were.

“So basically, you’re working with some criminal group called the Saints and you’re working to take down an organized criminal organization that owns this city?” Vinyl asked, trying to sum up what she was told.

“Pretty much, so you know where Octavia is?”

“No clue.”

“I guess she’ll turn up eventually. So what are you gonna do?”

“Guess I’ll help the Saints out. Since they know you, they gotta be pretty cool.”

Pinkamena knew enough about the DJ to know that she often went with the flow in an uncertain situation. Plus, a familiar face probably helped influence her decision.

With the DJ’s decision made, Pinkamena introduced Vinyl to Pierce who took her back to the hideout to get her situated before Playa, Pierce, Shaundi, Johnny, Pinkamena, Treehugger and Gilda headed to Powder to find information on Loren’s whereabouts, even though Pierce and Pinkamena were pretty sure the Syndicate leader was in the tower in Henry Steel Mills.

At the designer gun store, Pierce figured that the front entrance would be a bad idea since a gun store owned by the Morningstar would be loaded with many well armed guards so they decided to head into the back.

While they only saw two guards in the back, Pierce was more concerned with the people inside the back entrance.

Johnny made the decision for the group as he shot the two guards and set the whole place on high alert. “It was gonna happen anyway, so let’s get in there,”

The entire group charged in and started shooting up the place, killing every Morningstar in sight. Treehugger had to stick to her pistol for self defense since there was too much risk of setting the whole place on fire if they weren’t careful. Gilda had to fight in limited space so she mainly used her SMGs and her nanite claws when enemies got close.

Things became slightly troublesome when an armored brute entered the besieged storeroom carrying a large mini-gun. However, before the large enemy could start shooting, a sniper round pierced his skull and sent him collapsing to the floor.

“Nice shot, Pinkamena,” Playa said.

Pinkamena blinked, “That wasn’t me, that came from the upper floor near the manager’s office.”

Pinkamena ran ahead of the group and up the stairs and onto the catwalk while hacking and slashing her way through more Morningstar with her Vorpal Blade. Upon reaching the office, she found herself staring down the barrel of a sniper rifle held by the pony she recognized as Octavia.

“We meet at last, Pinkamena Diane Pie,” Octavia said.

“How do you know about me?” Pinkamena asked.

“The agency I used to work for has files on all ponies, including you.”

Pinkamena raised an eyebrow, “Agency?”

Octavia pulled her rifle away from Pinkamena before turning to the computer on the manager’s desk. “If you don’t plan to kill me then I can explain later. If you’re not with those in the red and black, then can you assist me in this task? I’ve nearly finished downloading the information from this terminal but I’m out of ammunition. If you have some in your mane somewhere, it would be greatly appreciated.”

Pinkamena didn’t have time to chat with Morningstar snipers entering the storage so she reached into her mane and tossed Octavia a few magazines of sniper rifle ammunition. The assassin mare skillfully collected one and slammed it into her rifle and pulled the lever on the rifle. Now fully loaded, Octavia began delivering headshots to the Morningstar snipers in quick succession.

A signal from the terminal informed Octavia that the information was collected. Pinkamena yelled for the other Saints to retreat since they had the information they came for. The Saints returned to the headquarters with Octavia in tow.

“You wanna tell me what you were doing there of all places?” Pinkamena asked the former agent.

“What anypony would do when they are in a new world and lacking information, I simply used my skills to gain information that I could not obtain from the streets,” Octavia said calmly.

“Okay, you have your info now. What’s next for you?”

“Originally, I was going to find someone who might have the best chance of sending me and Vinyl home, though it would appear from the data that the natives of this world have not discovered the concept of dimensional travel. Discord mentioned that there was a way back to Equus without his intervention.”

Pinkamena snorted, “Well, good luck finding the way back then.”

Octavia tilted her head in confusion, “You do not want to go back?”

“Why should I? Nothing but a life imprisonment awaits me there. Celestia would never allow somepony like me to run free. I wish I could send Pinkie back without me, she deserves to be with her friends. Unfortunately, there’s no way to separate our minds from this body.”

“I see. That is truly unfortunate. However, there might be a way to earn favor from Celestia.” Octavia began explaining the growing crisis in Equestria with the threat of a street gang from Detrot sending the city into a state of anarchy. “Perhaps if you were to find some way to bring this gang under control, Princess Celestia would have to grant you a favor for the sake of her public image.”

“It might work, but that’s a concern for the distant future. For now, the Saints have a criminal organization to topple. You’re free to join in. If you want, I can take you to a Friendly Fire store and get you stocked up on weapons and ammo.”

Octavia smiled and nodded, “Thank you for your assistance. Maybe we can pick something up for Vinyl as well, I doubt that the hammer she stole from the...Deckers, you call them...will be enough.”

Pinkamena drove Vinyl and Octavia to the nearest Friendly Fire. The musical duo each purchased a pistol while Octavia purchased an assault rifle as well. Vinyl took a look at the weapons storage at the headquarters and took an interest in the reaper drone controller.

Once the musical duo were properly armed and Pinkamena topped off her ammo, the trio returned to the Saints HQ for the final meeting before pushing against the Syndicate Tower.

The Saints armed themselves with as much as they could carry without encumbering themselves. Once ready, they took two cars to the Syndicate Tower in Henry Steel Mills. One car carried Playa, Pierce, Shaundi and Johnny while the other carried Pinkamena, Treehugger, Vinyl and Octavia.with Gilda flying not far behind.

The Saints entered the tower through a loading dock at the base of the tower. The group was quickly attacked from nearly every side by Morningstar guards. The Saints quickly dispatched the dock guards with Octavia picking off the distant guards.

A brute charged in to attack the Saints and caused the group to change their target. Pinkamena was too busy chopping up the remaining guards so she asked someone to deal with the brute.

“On it,” Vinyl called before she slammed her levitating shock hammer into the brute’s face and sent him flying out of the loading dock. The floating hammer finished the hulking human by splattering his face on the pavement. The hammer returned to Vinyl while bashing an unsuspecting guard on the way.

Vinyl frowned when she noticed the charge on the hammer had run out. She then shrugged and sent it flying at another guard before leaving the weapon to be someone else’s problem.

With the dock cleared, the Saints in charge of delivering the bomb they stole from the military base earlier had arrived. Playa moved to arm the bomb but Octavia moved in his way while holding out a hoof to stop him. “Let us decide the fate of this building after we deal with Loren.”

Playa suddenly realized that he was about to unnecessarily complicate the mission and blushed in embarrassment, “Oh, uh, yeah. Good point.”

Octavia sighed and rolled her eyes before whispering to Pinkamena, “Is he always this reckless?”

“You’d have your answer if you saw him driving down a street filled with traffic. He often draws unnecessary attention with his reckless driving. That should give you an idea about how he is.”

Octavia looked at Playa again and imagined him in such a scenario and cringed.

The elevator ahead of them was too small to fit all of them so Pinkamena had Treehugger and Gilda stay behind to guard the elevator while the rest went to an upper floor of the building.

The elevator ride was cut short as Loren had the elevator stop on a different floor. While killing the Morningstar on that floor, the Saints noticed that the facility was being used to manufacture the brutes they had been seeing. Based on the machinery in the room, the brutes were being bred through cloning which made sense since the brutes looked almost exactly like each other.

Exploring deeper while killing more Morningstar and a brute with a flamethrower whose tanks exploded with a well placed shot by Octavia, they eventually discovered one of the brutes was attached to an odd looking device. The brute was completely naked but Pinkamena and Octavia noticed some actual intelligence in the brute’s eyes unlike the others.

“What the hell is all this?” Playa asked.

“Phillipe likes his thing custom-made--and for his brutes, I am the master pattern, you see,” the brute explained.

“A Stalliongrad accent?” Pinkamena and Octavia thought in unison.

“Why you still strung up if they already cloned your ass?” Pierce asked.

“The copies are flawed. They have my brawn but not my brain. I can help you.”

“The last time a big naked dude said he could help me, it did not end well.”

“How do we know that we can trust you?” Octavia asked.

“You do have a point. I have nothing to prove that I am trustworthy. I do wish to kill Phillipe. I can take you to his office.

“Works for me,” Vinyl said before she started firing her pistol at the equipment. Pinkamena and the other Saints, except Octavia, followed suit.

“Vinyl…” Octavia growled.

“We can argue about it all we want later but we don’t have time for it right now,” Vinyl countered.

When the equipment was destroyed, the brute was released from his bindings, landing with a kneel before he stood upright and walked past the group.

“You want some clothes, man?” Pierce asked.

“No time,” the brute responded. Pierce could only complain about following a big naked man around.

On the way to Loren’s office, the brute finally introduced himself as Oleg Kirrlov. He didn’t elaborate on his career before he was used as cloning material.

The group finally made it to Loren’s office only to find the Syndicate leader fleeing through an elevator that would quickly take him to the ground floor. Playa cursed that he let Loren get away but Pinkamena smirked as she pulled out her phone. “He’s headed your way. Meet me at the appointed location like we planned.”

Pinkamena hung up her phone before moving away from the group and retreating from where the group came from. Octavia, curious about the call, motioned for Vinyl to follow her as they went after Pinkamena.

Pinkamena noticed the two following her before turning her head to look at them. “You two can come watch if you want, but if you do you will see why Discord finds me dangerous.”

Her followers raised an eyebrow at Pinkamena’s cryptic statement. “What do you mean?” Octavia asked.

Pinkamena smirked, “I had Gilda hang back just in case Loren made his escape. She’s good at abducting people who try to be elusive.”

“So this means that she has captured Loren?”

“If everything went according to plan, then yes. If not, she would have either called me by now to tell me she failed or she’d be dead. Guess we’ll find out when we get there.”

Pinkamena, Octavia and Vinyl left Syndicate Tower and drove to a nearby factory. They entered the factory and found who they were hoping to find.

Phillipe Loren was struggling while hung over an industrial sized vat of bubbling chocolate and naked. Treehugger was busy keeping the vat heated while Gilda observed Loren’s struggling from the catwalk. The griffon noticed the trio enter and flew down to greet them.

“Okay, I brought him here like you asked, now what?” Gilda asked.

“Now I deliver my villain gloat before we end him.”

Octavia looked around the area but felt curious about something, “I did not think Steelport had a sweets manufacturing plant.”

“They don’t, I’m just borrowing this vat for my latest project. It took a lot of doing to get all this chocolate made.”

Pinkamena reached the catwalk above the chocolate vat. Loren glared at the madmare before he realized the irony of his fate and gave her a deadpan stare. “Oh I get it, ‘Belgian Chocolate’, very funny.”

“It’s a more delicious way to go than the canon where you become a Belgian Waffle after a hanging fixture drops on you as you exit the elevator.”

“In the end, I still become some Belgian pun.”

“Pretty much.” Pinkamena pulled a lever and lowered Loren into the vat. A few seconds after he began being immersed into the vat was all it took for the molten sweets to reach his skin. Loren screamed in agony as the chocolate seared his flesh. His body continued being lowered into the vat and more of his skin was seared while his screams continued until he was fully immersed into the vat.

Pinkamena waited about ten minutes to make sure the chocolate covered every inch of his body and to be sure Loren drowned in the substance if he didn’t die to the burns. When the ten minutes were up, she raised the winch and adjusted it so that the winch would lower Loren’s chocolate body to the factory floor.

Treehugger hosed Loren down in liquid nitrogen, hardening his body and leaving him ready for the final part of Pinkamena’s execution of Phillipe Loren. She turned to Gilda who was looking at her with curiosity. “Go ahead, try it,” Pinkamena said.

Gilda shrugged before walking over to the frozen hunk of Belgian Chocolate. She started by biting down on the head. One bite from her powerful beak was all it took to shatter Loren’s skull. Gilda’s expression brightened as she began devouring the chocolate person in earnest. “Wow, this chocolate tastes awesome. And the meaty filling is nothing like I’ve tasted before.”

Octavia and Vinyl watched the scene in horror, Vinyl took it better than Octavia did. While Octavia’s face turned green and she looked away with a hoof covering her mouth, Vinyl continued staring. “Whoa, that’s hardcore,” she said.

Gilda couldn’t finish the chocolate statue so she brought it with her back to the hideout where she placed it into a large freezer for later.

At least one pony was going to have nightmares tonight.

Back at the tower, Oleg convinced Playa to save the bomb for another place at another time while the Saints profited from Loren’s assets.

Author's Note

We have reached the end of act 1. Unfortunately, due to the low number of significant antagonists compared to the previous game, there will also likely be fewer creative executions in this story going forward, especially given what is known about the canon.

As a heads up, I may be slowing my updates a bit because of Shadowlands so I may not be able to deliver the usual update every 2 days.