While STAG was busy licking their wounds after the ill-fated assault on the old Saints HQ, the Saints successfully snuck away from the military and made it to their new HQ without being tracked.

Once everyone was safe, Pinkamena had to take care of the one hassle that she hoped not to do often: help somepony overcome their trauma associated with their first kill.

Pinkamena saw Moondancer in a corner staring at a wall. When she moved to see the mare’s face, she saw a dead look in her eyes; typical behavior for a pony who had next to no real world experience and just killed someone for the first time.

At first Pinkamena poked Moondancer in the flank and when that didn’t get a response, she put a hoof to her chin and thought for a moment while looking around.

She saw that their new hideout had a liquor cabinet and it was fully stocked. She walked over to the cabinet and opened it to check out what was available. After a couple of minutes of searching, she decided on a bottle of bourbon and removed it from the cabinet. With a mischievous smirk on her face, she returned to Moondancer with the bottle and removed the cork from the bottle with her teeth. After taking a brief sip to reduce the tension she felt from the last battle, she pried Moondancer’s mouth open before pouring some of the alcohol down her throat.

Moondancer quickly sensed something was wrong when she felt a burning sensation flowing down her throat. She quickly regained her wits and started a fit of sputtering and coughing. While she was instinctively swallowing the liquid, some did go down the wrong way.

Once Moondancer was finished coughing and got her breathing under control, despite her lungs burning, she delivered the fiercest glare she could at the madmare. “What the hay is wrong with you?!” she yelled. “Were you trying to drown me with acid?”

Pinkamena maintained her smirk, “Relax, this stuff won’t kill you…as long as you don’t indulge,” she responded, keeping the last part to herself. “More importantly, do I have your attention now?”

“You did that just to get my attention? Could you not think about more pleasant ways of doing that?”

“Not while you were mentally shut down after what happened. You needed something to distract you from thinking about the STAG members you killed. Besides, it was hilarious to watch your reaction to being made to drink bourbon.”

“You are a sick pony,” Moondancer growled.

“Don’t forget twisted...” Pinkamena added with a singsong tone.

“You make it sound like you’re proud of being like that.”

“Because I am, I enjoy torturing and slaughtering everyone who tries to kill me. With the Saints, I can do as I wish and am encouraged by others for just being me.”

“How can you be fine with the taking of another life? Don’t you care about the lives of others?”

“Oh, I care, the problem is that my enemies don’t care about theirs or they would be staying out of my way. Since they don’t, then I don’t have to care about their lives either. Those STAG people would be trying to kill you or capture you for the purpose of being used in some invasive experiments. Either way, your life would be over if you didn’t fight back.”

“Perhaps, but that doesn’t justify me taking their lives.”

“Why not? They don’t care that you never fought against them. They don’t care that you never killed another living being before then. Humans are known to be xenophobic. Ponies have that trait too if you remember the time when the three tribes were separate. In a way, we live as part of a more complicated version of the food chain. In this world, you’re either predator or prey. The difference between here and Equestria is that you get to choose which one you want to be with regard to the humans. Neither STAG or the Syndicate are going to care about your circumstances. Remember Oleg? The Syndicate kept him bound to a machine against his will for years while they stuck him with needles to use his genetic material to make mindless clones of him. You think they wouldn’t do the same to you?”

At that point, Moondancer’s pupils shrank to pin pricks. The way Pinkamena described the humans made them seem like monsters.

A sigh was heard by both mares from behind them as Octavia approached them. “Pinkamena, you do not need to turn every pony that ends up in this world into a killer. We each have our own reasons for fighting and Miss Moondancer does not need to be a part of that.”

“We can’t afford to be foalsitting ponies in this world, Octavia,” Pinkamena countered. “Our enemies will use whatever means necessary to gain the advantage over us. One time, some pathetic DJ from another gang took Shaundi hostage. Because of that, Me and Treehugger were left in a potentially bad situation. If he had a clear head during the incident, there was no telling what could have happened. Treehugger ended up changing places with Shaundi and made the situation worse for me. If it wasn’t for her particular reaction to drugs, things could have been a lot worse.”

“So you feel concern for your fellow ponies. But that does not explain why you wish to push Miss Moondancer to a path of bloodshed.”

“I’m not taking any chances. If she wishes to fight, then that would be ideal for me. If not, then I would prefer to find the most secure bunker we can find and leave her in there until we deal with the Syndicate and STAG. I am not dealing with another potential hostage situation like the one involving Treehugger.”

“Girls?” Moondancer tried to interject.

Octavia ignored Moondancer’s interjection, “You still cannot force another pony to commit acts of murder. I am also against the idea of sealing her away in a bunker. There has to be another way we can protect her without resorting to more bloodshed or the equivalent to throwing her into a dungeon for her own safety.”

“Girls!” Moondancer tried again but was still ignored.

“So what do you propose? Have Gilda act as a bodyguard? Maybe you would prefer to keep watch on her day and night while the rest of us push the Syndicate and STAG out of Steelport?”

It was at this point that Moondancer’s patience had reached its limit and she abandoned any reservations she might have had, “Would you two shut the buck up and let me decide how the buck I want to live my life?”

Pinkamena and Octavia turned to finally acknowledge the nerdy mare. Pinkamena spoke in response, “Alright, so how do you want to go about this?”

Moondancer paused for a moment before taking a deep breath and began. “I’ll admit that I still don’t find the idea of killing to be the appropriate solution for any situation, but if what Pinkamena said about these humans is right then we don’t have much of a choice. I admit that I’ve lived a sheltered life, looking away from the dark reality that lurks beneath Princess Celestia’s utopia. In the short time that I’ve browsed an amazing human invention, the internet as they called it, I’ve learned about some deplorable things that these humans can do and it made me wonder if ponies can do those kinds of things too. If so, then are we any different from the humans? Would pony society be more like human society without Princess Celestia?

“My answer to that came when I looked up some old criminal cases that Kinzie showed me and compared them to the images on the Professor Genki website. The images were of some of Pinkamena’s victims.”

“What?” Pinkamena shouted in surprise. “How did those guys get their hands on the pictures of some of my old projects?”

Moondancer ignored Pinkamena’s outburst, “Pinkamena is right, if we’re going to survive long enough to make it home, we can’t afford to be passive when we’re in the middle of a city filled with humans who want to kill us. But at the same time, while I do appreciate you trying to motivate me to fight for my own survival, I need time to process what I did and find my own purpose if I’m going to be part of this team.”

Octavia looked at Moondancer with concern, “Moondancer, you do not have to be a part of this if you do not want to.”

“But I do want to be a part of the team. Back in Canterlot, I had Minuette, Lemon Hearts and Twinkleshine trying to get me to leave my house to hang out with them. But they never gave me what I needed. Ever since Twilight snubbed me at my own birthday party years ago, I gave up any hope of making a difference in any pony’s life. I tried hard to get Twilight to acknowledge me as her friend but all she cared about were her studies. It hurt worse when she left Canterlot and found some new friends while she forgot about the rest of us. Pinkamena’s failure to recognize me when we met was a confirmation of my fears.

“The reason I want to join your group is not for something like having a chance to kill people without severe consequence, not for the sake of survival, not for the whole predator and prey relationship to the humans or for any lofty reasons. I want to join for my own sake. I want my knowledge and magic to be useful to somepony. I want to regain my self respect; to be more like Pinkamena in that regard. She takes what she is given and makes it into something useful. She does whatever it takes to accomplish her goals and moves forward with her head held high. I actually admire her for that.”

It was at that point that Pinkamena completely hid her face in her mane to hide the blush on her face. She never thought at any point in her life that she would actually be somepony’s role model and it felt embarrassing. Octavia picked up on the madmare’s expression and failed to hide a wolfish grin on her face.

“Aww...Mena’s got a fan,” Pinkie cooed.

“Shut up, Pinkie! Just…” All she could do was groan in embarrassment.

“Yo, what’s up,” called Vinyl as she approached the scenes with Gilda and Treehugger. Octavia filled the others in on the situation. “Whoa! Awesome!”

A large burden had been placed upon Pinkamena. She had earned honest admiration from another pony and it was a feeling that she was not going to shrug off so easily. She would ensure to her first true fan that her faith was not misplaced.

She resolved to return to Equestria one day and become the leader of the nation’s underworld that it desperately needed. She would show everypony that even a psychopath like her has a place in Equestria.

Pinkamena was suddenly engulfed in a bright flash of light that caught the attention of everyone in the room. The flash lasted a few seconds before it faded. The ponies and griffon around her took a few seconds more to regain their vision. When they looked at the madmare again, their eyes widened by the change in her form.

The change reverted when Pinkie forced herself back in control of her body. “What happened? I saw a bright flash and my Pinkie Sense told me that somepony somewhere needed a cutecenera. Who’s the lucky filly?”

The others tilted their heads and raised their eyebrows in confusion. “That is odd…” Octavia commented.

“Maybe it has to do with the two being of separate minds,” Moondancer added. “Pinkie, can you bring Pinkamena out again?”

“Hmm…” Pinkie spent a minute trying to coax her sister back into control before she gave her report. “She’s feeling super embarrassed after Moondancer declared her admiration.”

Octavia let out an overly dramatic sigh, “Pinkamena, you are only embarrassing yourself further by hiding away from your embarrassment. Besides, we are far from finished with the war against the Syndicate and STAG. Let us see what has happened to you so that we may move forward from this and resume our efforts.”

When Pinkamena’s features returned to her body, everyone stared at her flank once more to confirm what they saw. What they saw was no longer the three balloons that adorned the party mare’s flanks before but a single silver colored fleur de lis sitting in a background of liquid purple, given that the edges gave off a liquid appearance. The only other pony they knew who had a cutie mark with a background was Princess Luna. Pinkamena would be the second.

However, before the Equestrians could celebrate Pinkamena’s new cutie mark, Playa came to them and informed them that Kinzie needed some help locating the Deckers. Though as they were leaving, Playa commented on Pinkamena’s new mark, “Nice mark, ‘bout time you got some purple on you.”

The drive to Kinzie’s warehouse gave Pinkamena the time she needed to clear her head of the recent events and focus on the task at hoof.

Pinkamena brought her whole crew with her to make sure they were prepared for every task that Kinzie would throw at them.

Kinzie and Playa had a conversation that made the antisocial behavior of the former FBI agent plainly obvious. She informed the group about the program she wrote that would allow her to pinpoint the Deckers in real life as long as they played the game.

Playa gave the game a try. Unfortunately, his skills with a game controller was rivaled by his driving skills. Kinzie facepalmed at Playa’s poor performance. “Have you ever played a video game before?” she asked.

“I played one where I was killing zombies.”

Kinzie sighed in exasperation, “Great, now I’m gonna have to make a whole new program because you drive like a noob.”

While Kinzie and Playa were having an argument about his skills behind any kind of a controller, Moondancer inspected the game and lifted the controller in her telekinesis. While she had never played video games before either, she had an idea to cheat the system. She put the controller back on the ground before staring at the gaming console. She lit her horn before her eyes dulled. The game then started again.

Pinkamena walked up to the mare and waved a hoof in her face. Seeing the game going made the madmare curious if Moondancer was using some sort of spell on the game but realized that the still glowing horn made it obvious. She decided to get the two humans to stop bickering and have Kinzie get to work.

The odd part was that Moondancer didn’t bother going around the firewalls but instead blasted through them without penalty with her magic while slamming her digital motorcycle into the blocky tanks or blasting them with the cycle’s blaster.

Moondancer continued through Kinzie’s program for all three of the levels she had prepared to breach the Deckers’ security. Kinzie managed to get what she needed and didn’t care that Moondancer practically cheated at the game due to the importance of the data.

Moondancer’s eyes lit up again as her consciousness returned to reality. “Nice work,” Pinkamena complimented. Moondancer smiled at the praise.

The next task Kinzie had for the Saints was to cause a disruption to a company that manufactured fences while she tried to be clear that she wasn’t referring to a buyer of stolen goods.

“What kind of disruption are we talking?” Pinkamena asked.

“The ‘senseless destruction of everything around you’ kind,” Kinzie responded.

With that, Pinkamena left the building at ludicrous speed. Kinzie blinked in disbelief at the impossible display of speed. “Why does she drive a car when she can move that fast?”

Gilda was the one to explain. “You basically just told her to wreak havoc across Steelport. I’ve known her long enough to know that she has gone out to take part in her favorite activity.”

“Three...two...one…” Treehugger counted.

Right on cue, numerous explosions could be heard in the distance.

“She’s gonna be at that for a while,” Gilda continued. “Let’s hope there will be some Stanfield left after all this.”

Kinzie got up and ran out of the warehouse. “She better not mess up my place, some of my equipment is very delicate.”

After running a few feet from her warehouse, Kinzie was spotted by a pair of Deckers. The ex-FBI pulled out her pistol and shot one of the gang members in the head. The other managed to broadcast her location before she was killed as well.

“Shit!” She returned to the warehouse and quickly told the group their next task. “I’ve just been spotted. I need your help to lure the deckers away. There’s a helicopter nearby, use it and keep me covered.”

Playa and Octavia boarded the helicopter with one of the Saints grunts piloting it. Gilda took flight to provide extra protection as Kinzie made a break for her car.

The helicopter landed on a nearby roof and Playa and Octavia hung themselves over the building to provide covering fire with their sniper rifles.

Kinzie had little trouble making it to her car thanks to Octavia’s excellent vision and reflexes while shooting Deckers inside and outside their cars. Gilda assisted by blowing up Decker cars.

Once Kinzie was at the wheel of her car, Playa and Octavia retracted their cables and used rocket launchers to blow up cars that pursued Kinzie. Octavia was not as good with a launcher as she was with a rifle due to not being trained to use one. However, Gilda was good enough with one to make up for the music mare’s lack of skill.

Once she was sure that the heat was off her for the time being, Kinzie decided to go one step further and request additional escort while she hacked into some local establishments and brought more of the Deckers into the open.

The helicopter landed near an attack helicopter that Playa boarded while Gilda continued her aerial protection of the introverted Saint.

While Playa and Gilda were protecting Kinzie, there were a few times where Kinzie risked getting her car totaled by driving into Pinkamena’s rampage area. Seeing the devastation not only made her feel a little scared of the madmare, but also a little guilty that she was the one who unleashed the mare upon the innocents of Steelport.

Thankfully, she managed to avoid coming into contact with Pinkamena as there was no guarantee that the madmare would recognize her while she was having her fun and that would have been fatal for her.

Kinzie managed to hack into every Decker establishment in Stanfield just after Pinkamena was finally sated.

Kinzie decided to return to her warehouse to unwind and disabled all communications to and from her warehouse for a while, but not before delivering one last message to Playa and Pinkamena:

“Throw out your phones.”

Author's Note

I hope you like the cutie mark I thought up for Pinkamena. I like to imagine its meaning as being the leader of a criminal enterprise that will spread its influence throughout a criminal underworld and control the system that Celestia cannot.

Some may interpret that as a spilled can of Saints Flow, but to each their own. Pinkamena's murderous tendencies do not have to be a part of her mark as ponies have their own hobbies that are not featured with their cutie marks.

Also, the cutie mark will change between Pinkie's and Pinkamena's depending on who is controlling the body.