The televised broadcast said it all: STAG was to be deployed to Steelport. Pinkamena knew that the situation was about to become extremely complicated. The presence of the paramilitary organization was going to put a lot of pressure on the Saints and the Syndicate. Unfortunately, she didn’t know what STAG was capable of and would have to endure their initial assault before she could come up with a plan on how to deal with them.

For now, there was still time to take more of the city from the Syndicate. With STAG coming to Steelport soon, she would have to step up her efforts to take New Colvin from the Syndicate. If Viola DeWynter was planning to defect to the Saints in the near future, then removing the now leaderless Morningstar from Steelport could be seen as a mercy from the madmare.

Gilda was tasked with searching the entire island of New Colvin for collectibles, a task that was boring the griffon as much as the task of buying stores and properties was boring Pinkamena, who was going to be busy doing just that. Octavia and Treehugger were tasked with hunting down the remaining Morningstar operations while Vinyl got to hijack a tank from the city armory and drive it around while nearly razing all of New Colvin in the process, a task that made the madmare envious. At the same time, she smiled, knowing that the DJ was still the same easygoing filly who went with the flow that she remembered from over ten years ago. At least Octavia hadn’t had much influence on her.

While Vinyl raided the armory, Gilda marked a money pallet in the base to be collected later.

It took several hours along with several instances of Octavia yelling at Vinyl for her recklessness with the tank as she or Treehugger nearly got run over or blasted by the tank more than once. After buying every property and store in New Colvin, including the airport which was very expensive, the Saints had taken over New Colvin.

Pinkamena figured that STAG was already in town and setting up. While she had little time left before the paramilitary organization made their move, she decided to head to Kinzie’s place and see how Moondancer was doing. If the Saints were going to deal with the Deckers, Luchadores and STAG, she was going to be sure that every Equestrian was carrying their weight.

When she entered the ex-FBI’s house, she found Kinzie and Moondancer with their own laptops and each doing their own thing. Kinzie was playing video games while Moondancer was looking up general information on the internet.

While Pinkamena was being nice enough to Moondancer to give her time to recover from her ordeal, it was time to put her to work. “Hey Moondancer, it’s time to go.”

“Uh-huh…” she said blankly.

Pinkamena frowned. She walked over to see what had caught the nerdy mare’s interest. Her eyes widened by what she saw. “Is that…?”

Moondancer reacted quickly by closing the laptop. “D-don’t look over other ponies shoulders.”

Pinkamena rolled her eyes, “Whatever, get up, we need to see if you can be useful to me.”

“W-what? Why? Can’t I be useful as a source of information?”

“Kinzie’s got that handled. We don’t need two hackers.”

“Why do you even need my help? Shouldn’t you already have that covered with the others?”

“Because I’m not going to allow you to become dead weight for us. I’ll find a way to make you earn your place on my team even if I have to pull you out of your comfort zone.”

At that moment, Moondancer began to panic. She began hyperventilating while Pinkamena gave her a paper bag to use.

“Kinziiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeee,” Moondancer howled while Pinkamena dragged her by the tail back to her car.

The computer expert really didn’t care about what was going on but still spent the energy to wave at them without looking in their direction. “Have fun you two.”

Most of the ride to the HQ had been spent in awkward silence. Moondancer didn’t bother looking in Pinkamena’s direction. They were a few minutes away from the HQ when the mare finally spoke, “What could you possibly think that I could contribute to your group? Don’t you guys have a unicorn already?”

“Dunno, how you express your own frustration and bitterness is up to you. Treehugger took what she learned in Zebrica and became a bit of a pyromaniac, Gilda will either blow stuff up with an RPG or tear flesh and metal alike with those nanite claws of hers, Vinyl seems to have taken an interest in gadgets and using technology in destructive ways, Octavia is a sniper with amazing eyesight that would make most pegasi jealous, and I will move in to slice and dice with my knife or smash things with my hobby horse or simply shoot them in the head.”

“How does that help me? I’m not a killer.”

“Then you’re prey. If you wanted to live a normal life, this is the worst place for that. If you know the way back to Equus, you should take it. If not, then you’re stuck with me. Every Equestrian who has come into this world has set a bad example with the humans here. They’ll likely see you as another killer even if you aren’t one.”

Their conversation was cut short as a military vehicle drove up to the madmare’s vehicle and started shooting lasers at them.

“What the fuck?!” Pinkamena exclaimed. “Moondancer, get a shield around us while I get us away from these guys.”

Moondancer did as told and made a shield around the car to protect them from the laser fire. Pinkamena switched out for Pinkie who pushed her curly mane forward as if she were tipping a hat and began driving in ways that would seem impossible to pull off which not only shocked their pursuers but Moondancer as well.

The duo soon arrived at Saints HQ. Moondancer ran for the elevator to the penthouse while Pinkamena took over again and demolished her pursuers with her party cannon before following Moondancer.

Pinkamena saw all of her friends in the penthouse. Each one had their own stories about being attacked by the group that the madmare had warned them about.

Pinkamena called Playa to ask about his status. Apparently, he and Oleg went to meet with Viola DeWynter to discuss her wish to defect to the Saints for the sake of revenge for her sister. During that meeting, STAG paid them a visit and they holed up in a nearby Technically Legal until they managed to slip out. Oleg would be getting back on his own while he was on his way back to HQ with Viola.

Once everyone made it back to the hideout safe, the Saints got together for a meeting. “Pinkamena, you said these guys were coming. Can you elaborate on that? Who the fuck are these guys?” Playa asked.

“If you paid attention to the news, you’d know that the US government sent them. Or does Senator Monica Hughes not mean ‘US government’ anymore? We’re obviously dealing with a paramilitary organization.”

“Since when did the military carry space age weapons?”

“Do I look like a fount of knowledge on human history?” Pinkamena shook her head. “Nevermind, the fact is that we have to deal with these guys now in addition to the remaining Syndicate members.” She then mumbles under her breath, “If she was going to be this problematic, I should have killed Hughes when I had the chance.”

“At any rate, this place might be compromised. We need to clear this place out fast. Pierce, Oleg, get the trucks loaded. Johnny will be with me providing a distraction in order to spread STAG’s forces thin. Everyone else will make sure to protect the convoy.”

While the trucks were getting loaded with the necessary equipment, Playa and Johnny infiltrated one of the STAG bases and hijacked a pair of Vertical Take-Off and Landing jets and proceeded to cause havoc at the various STAG bases.

Meanwhile, STAG did attempt to set up roadblocks to prevent the Saints from escaping, but were unable to withstand the firepower of the Equestrians. Gilda used her aerial agility to avoid retaliation while blowing up STAG vehicles. Vinyl tore through enemies from above with the reaper drones. Octavia took Treehugger’s grenade launcher to deal with groups of enemies; if the stoner wasn’t going to use it, she would. All other enemies were dealt with by Pinkamena’s party cannon.

After the convoy had reached safety and Playa and Johnny had shot down a surveillance aircraft, the Saints unloaded their equipment to the new hideout before returning to the penthouse in order to keep STAG from finding out where the real hideout was.

Pinkamena was bored with keeping an eye on the bread and butter of STAG. Josh Birk was as obnoxious as when he first asked the Saints to help him with his role in his vampire franchise.

Earlier, Pierce informed Playa and Viola about Birk being the face of STAG and suggested kidnapping him. Using costumes from the franchise, Playa and Viola were able to get near the kid and kidnap him. While STAG didn’t like that, the two of them managed to force their way past the soldiers and into a car bound for the HQ.

None of the Equestrians could be involved in the kidnapping because they would have been recognized right away no matter what they were disguised as.

Now, the Equestrians were waiting in the old hideout while waiting for the Saints next move.

Birk was upset that Shaundi was interested in Johnny and not him but got over it and decided to try his luck with Viola who punched his face each time he tried his one liners on her. Pinkamena figured it was better for Viola to have his attention and not her since she might not be able to stop herself from slicing his face off.

Pierce had a plan to lure STAG to their old HQ and decimate their numbers enough to reduce the pressure on the Saints enough that they could resume their efforts against the Syndicate.

Pinkamena, Treehugger, Gilda, Vinyl, Octavia and Moondancer were on the observation deck of the building, preparing for STAG’s assault. Oleg and Pierce had set up a number of car bombs along the streets as a trap for the military forces. A decent arsenal was laid out before the group in the form of rocket launchers and sniper rifles. Octavia made sure to carry as much ammo of the latter as she could. Gilda did the same with the former.

Pierce had run off to get a toy that he felt would be useful while Shaundi aided in the preparations. Johnny, Oleg and Viola joined the Equestrians on the observation deck. Playa had left for the STAG PR Center to get the attention of the paramilitary.

It wasn’t long before Playa was driving back to the building with a paramilitary organization on his tail.

All hell broke loose once Playa arrived as STAG and the Saints unleashed their arsenal on one another, STAG suffering the most casualties because of the traps set for them. Octavia quickly disposed of rooftop snipers while Gilda tore apart the tanks that were causing problems in the streets.

Eventually, Pierce arrived with a device that would really decimate STAG. Gilda carried the lieutenant back to the observation deck where he would give the device to Playa…

Except that Vinyl took it instead because she wanted another gadget to play with. Making some modifications, she was able to rapidly deploy air strikes against the STAG forces in the streets.

The wing of VTOLs that flew in were cut apart by Gilda’s claws.

STAG troops started entering the deck in large numbers which prompted Playa to order everyone to the roof.

Everyone had made it to the elevator except for Pinkamena and Moondancer who became cornered by STAG troops. The unicorn was terrified as the troops aimed their weapons at her before making a move to capture her. Pinkamena was about to interfere when something interesting happened.

“GET AWAY!” Moondancer screamed as she blasted one of the STAG soldiers with a shot from her horn. Before the soldiers could comprehend what happened, Moondancer produced a mana blade from her horn and charged past them, using the blade to cut through their torsos, slicing through armor, flesh and bone. She then picked up numerous weapons and fired them simultaneously at every human she could see.

Moondancer was breathing heavily while her horn was glowing intensely. She looked around frantically for anyone else who wanted to come after her before she was able to calm down.

Her ears soon picked up the sound of hooves clopping nearby. She looked in the direction of the sound to see Pinkamena approaching her while up on her rear hooves while performing a slow clop with her forehooves before they returned to the floor. “Congratulations! You just purged.”

“W-what? I did...I just...I…”

“Save the nervous breakdown for later.” She reached into her mane and pulled out two parachutes before putting one on Moondancer and one on herself. “STAG’s about to fire on the building and we need to get out of here fast.”

Pinkamena dragged Moondancer to an open window before jumping out with her. In a panic, Moondancer pulled on whatever she could on her parachute before the cloth deployed and allowed the two to land safely in the now deserted streets.

With any luck, STAG will back off for a while because it was time to take out the Deckers, saving the Luchadores for last because Killbane pissed her off for ruining her plans for killing Viola and Kiki.

Author's Note

You didn't think I was going to let Moondancer stay behind a computer, did you? I have plans for her.

Next Chapter: A long awaited magical event happens.