Murder Time, Fun Time

While the Saints were busy preparing themselves to face the three factions of the Syndicate, Pinkamena finally took some time to analyze the new faces, human and pony.

Starting with the humans, her thoughts first turned to Zimos. From what she gathered, the dark skinned man with the autotune voice was a major player in Steelport’s prostitution racket. With the DeWynter sisters competing against him, they decided to make an example of him through humiliation by turning him into a gimp horse. Even in Equestrian terms, that was still a fairly accurate representation since she had known ponies to dress like that.

Kinzie, from seeing her at Playa’s speech, was socially awkward. From what information she could gather, the former FBI agent was a genius with computers and was able to track anyone as long as they had a phone. Thankfully, she couldn’t track Pinkamena’s phone as long as it was in her mane or could if she wanted to be tracked. Kinzie had been through a lot with getting fired then captured by the Deckers and held captive on a barge. The madmare didn’t expect to find another pony with her though.

Then there was Angel De LaMuerte, a former masked wrestler who had his mask taken by Killbane and made to live his life in shame. Apparently, masked wrestlers had some sort of code that placed their own mask on a tall pedestal, metaphorically. Killbane likely had Angel’s mask stowed away somewhere and she was likely going to have to help retrieve it at some point.

Oleg had a surprising balance of brawn and brains, a combination one does not find often. Pinkamena managed to pry a little of Oleg’s past from him and discovered that he was a former KGB agent, the agency which was associated with some country called Russia. Given the accent, Pinkamena figured that the Equestrian parallel to Russia was Stalliongrad.

Moving to the ponies, Pinkamena’s thoughts turned to Vinyl Scratch. She and Vinyl had a bit of a history with each other. Back when she started rebelling against her parents, Pinkamena had the pleasure to visit a nightclub and meet a DJ who was just starting out. Pinkamena had the honor of attending Vinyl’s very first performance. Since then, she had become a fan of Vinyl’s music; the DJ’s very first fan.

From what Pinkamena got to know from the DJ, she was very laid back but wasn’t against having some fun, sometimes at the expense of others. She was also good with electronics. She had a knack for gadgets and that was how she had some of the most advanced DJ equipment in Equestria. If given the chance, Vinyl could probably build some interesting cybernetic weapons.

Octavia Melody was, on the surface, a classical musician who favored the cello. Her concerts were favored by the upper class ponies. What the public didn’t know was her other line of work that she got fired from after one of her coworkers sabotaged her career. In addition to being a gifted musician, Octavia was also a skilled markspony. She mentioned that she had some pegasus in her family and she ended up inheriting eyes that were as sharp as a pegasus sharpshooter. This skill allowed her to be very proficient with a sniper rifle. She racked up quite the kill count during her career.

Moondancer, however, was still an enigma to Pinkamena. All she knew about her was that she was socially awkward and had some bitter feelings toward Twilight for blowing her off during the last birthday party she had years ago. Twilight never even took the time to remember and apologize to her. She was also a graduate student from Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns but never chose a career path for herself since she holed herself in her house for years while studying magic without applying it.

Pinkamena was not about to let the nerdy pony do the same thing here as she did back in Equestria. She preferred to have ponies who were useful to her and she would find a use for Moondancer.

She would start by having Moondancer spend some time with Kinzie, maybe teach the studious mare how to work a computer.

Now, it was time to get back to work. Pinkamena wanted to focus on getting more of Downtown Steelport under Saints control.

Pierce asked Pinkamena if he could borrow Gilda for a time since he got a new shipment of Saints merchandise and he wanted an aerial escort this time. The griffon prepared herself for a long haul of deliveries through all three neighborhoods of the district.

Angel intended to toughen up Playa in preparation for the eventual battle with Killbane but needed to have his toughness tested before he could come up with a training regimen for the Saints leader. He managed to convince Playa to play in traffic all over the Downtown district.

Pinkamena decided to boost her periodic income further by buying ownership of the stores in Henry Steel Mills as well as the Henry Steel Wharf and Pickpocket Pawn Shop.

Once Gilda and Playa were finished with their activities, the Saints would have nearly total control of Downtown Steelport, with Sunset Park already under their full control.

It was now time to focus on the other districts. Pinkamena decided to keep the pressure on the Morningstar by targeting New Colvin and decided that assisting the pimp, Zimos, would come first.

Since Playa was still testing the limits of his pain tolerance, she would need to handle Zimos’ requests herself.

What she wasn’t expecting was Vinyl stopping her from leaving the hideout because she wanted to help her with whatever Zimos needed. Pinkamena shrugged and let her come along.

On the way, Pinkamena asked her some questions to make sure the DJ knew what she was getting into. “First of all, do you even know what a pimp is?”

“Sure, I’ve seen mares pimping their stallions for bits.”

“Around here, think reverse gender role.”

“Really? That doesn’t make sense.”

“It is when the gender ratio is more even.”

“Huh. So we’re helping Zimos with his prostitution operations?”

“Yup. Keep in mind that the prostitutes have no self respect and believe that the only way to get by is to sell their bodies for sex.”

“Yeah I get it, stallions except female.”

“As long as you understand what we have to do, you can think what you want.”

Pinkamena and Vinyl arrived at a car wash in Espina in New Colvin where Zimos lived. The two enter the building to find the pimp resting with a bunch of scantily clad women sleeping around him.

“I see what you mean about reverse gender role,” Vinyl commented.

“I have no idea what you’re talkin’ about,” Zimos said. “What brings you two here?”

“We’re hoping you have a plan to deal with the Morningstar,” Pinkamena explained.

“Of course I do. I know every track the Morningstar are working. We can build up our stable and hurt the DeWynter sisters at the same time.” He pointed out the locations on Pinkamena’s GPS. “Now please go. No offense, but lookin’ at you two reminds me of things I wanna forget.”

The two mares turned around and left. On the way out, Pinkamena smirked as she swished her tail around just to mess with Zimos. The brief expression of discomfort gave the madmare a bit of satisfaction.

“So what now?” Vinyl asked as the two left the building.

“Hijack a vehicle, kill Morningstar and steal their prostitutes.”

The two did just that. Vinyl and Pinkamena gunned down the Morningstar with their SMGs, Pinkamena threatened the prostitutes to get into the car and delivered them to Zimos. This continued as they snagged prostitutes in Camano Place and Rosen Oaks as well.

Zimos exited the building as the last group of hos were dropped off. He quickly jumped into the mares’ car.

“Hey baby, maybe you can help me out,” Zimos said.

“Call me ‘baby’ again and you’ll be eating a dildo made from you,” Pinkamena warned.

“Touchy. Someone needs to get laid. Anyway, I need some help gettin’ my trade going, you know? Gettin’ the word out.”

“What are you suggesting?”

“I got a bunch of advertisements that I need to hand to my distributors. I need you to help me get to them.”

While they were driving Zimos around and killing Morningstar who got in the way, Vinyl didn’t look like she was enjoying the activity. “Please tell me this isn’t what you guys normally do. This is so boring.”

“Usually Playa’s the one who delivers prostitutes while I get Treehugger to drive people around. We got stuck with this because Playa was busy playing in traffic.”

“Well, if we’re stuck doing this, I might as well have some fun.” Vinyl pulled out a device before pointing it at one of the pursuing Morningstar cars. With a single motion, she made one of the cars crash into the other and both to crash into a nearby building.

It didn’t take long for Zimos to distribute his flyers to his distributors as a few were around Rosen Oaks while most were around Espina. While the Morningstar resistance was intense, it was nothing the duo couldn’t handle with Vinyl using her RC device to play bumper cars with the Morningstar.

The last thing on Zimos’ list was that he needed a driver so that his prostitutes could make him money. Just like old times, Pinkamena let Pinkie handle the matter, which confused Vinyl for a moment because she wasn’t used to a pony having two personalities, while the DJ kept the media off their tail. Since Pinkie’s driving had not lost its edge, the pursuing vehicles couldn’t keep up with the party pony. Pinkie kept up the pace while she escorted several of Zimos’ entertainers. Whenever a client wanted someone dead, Vinyl helped by controlling a car and running the target over.

Once the entertainers were finished for the day, Zimos called the duo back to his place to see something.

What they saw when they got there hardly impressed either mare as they stared at the piece of modern art while wondering if there was more to it than seeing Zimos' face in nine different color variations.

"Is there something I'm not seeing?" Pinkamena asked.

"It's a DeWynter original. They made it for me back when our relationship was 'live and let live'."

"I guess the Syndicate put an end to that?"

Zimos silently contemplated the past for a moment. "Take some time to relax and celebrate. Now that I'm back in business, the Morningstar will soon be a memory."

"I'd rather not give them the chance to counterattack, but I have no idea what they're planning. For now, all we can do is take over New Colvin and deal with whatever the DeWynters throw at us."

"You're not afraid that the Deckers or Luchadores might move in while we're finishing off the Morningstar?"

"Without Loren, their teamwork will likely be in shambles. If Killbane has taken control of the Syndicate like I think he has, I doubt the others will be as cooperative as he would like."

"Then we had best take out the sisters before they get their shit together."

"Agreed."

On the way out, Vinyl asked Zimos the question that she had really wanted to ask the pimp since they met.

“Can I get one of those autotune microphones?”

Zimos had one of his bitches pick one out from his collection and gave it to Vinyl who took it in her magic. “Knock yourself out,” he said.

“Sweet!”

Pinkamena rolled her eyes as the two mares left the car wash to continue their campaign against the Morningstar.