Pinkamena expressed her concerns over having her marefriend, Moondancer, handle the takeover of the largest district in New Hades. Among all of the districts in the city, she was certain that the Downtown area would take the longest to conquer.

Moondancer only had about a year of experience of urban life to draw upon. She might have lived her life in Canterlot, but spending most of that time going between her house and the library didn’t help much. However, she was determined to help in any way she could.

Plus, she would rather not be the one hanging out with Vlad the Impaler.

Moondancer and Maud watched the others spread their wings and fly off to their respective districts.

Before the unicorn left with Maud, she took one last glance at Marble, who was huddled in a corner unresponsive. Looking at her reminded Moondancer of the way she once behaved after her first kill. She could only trust that she would overcome the ordeal soon. She was paired up with Treehugger so Moondancer had a feeling her friend had something to help the traumatized mare relax.

Moondancer pushed the matter to the back of her mind and flew westward with Maud to meet up with Viola and Kiki.

As they flew into the Downtown district, the pair were assaulted by a pair of glowing red missiles that homed in on them. Moondancer destroyed each shot with a blast of her magic. More shots were fired in their direction which met a similar fate. When a third round was fired at them, the duo had enough of the turrets firing at them and looked around for the Spires that Dane was talking about.

It didn’t take long for them to find the offending spires. Maud unleashed a Blast that turned the defenders into gemstones before she unleashed a stomp that shattered them to pieces. She then stuck a hoof into the vulnerable sac at the base of the spire where she wrapped a hoof around something that felt like an organ and ripped it out. The Spire quickly submerged where it would no longer cause harm.

Moondancer handled the second Spire herself by unleashing a blast of holy magic to burn away the demons before using her telekinesis to feel inside the Spire until she picked up on the heart then ripped it out the soft sac of flesh that housed it.

Ignoring a third Spire that fired at them, the missile being blasted by Moondancer, they reached the parking garage that housed the DeWynter sisters who were hard at work planning their next moves against Satan’s police force, Sinterpol.

The twins noticed the two and Viola groaned, “Pinkamena sent you of all ponies to help us? Does she not understand how important this section of Hell is?”

“I thought you two were supposed to be a pair of business managers, not a pair of bitches,” Moondancer snarked.

“What was that?” Kiki snapped.

“Maybe instead of complaining about the cards you’ve been dealt, you make do with what you get and make the most of it like the strategists you’re supposed to be.”

“Okay then,” Viola took a deep breath. “Let’s find out what we have first, what can you two do?”

Moondancer gave a small smile, glad to be down to business. “Among Pinkamena’s crew, my magic is the most versatile. I know the most spells and some holy magic that can kill demons. In terms of strength, Maud here is as strong as, if not stronger than, Pinkamena. I’m not sure about that right now as their abilities have not been tested against one another recently.”

Viola and Kiki remembered the reports about how Pinkamena broke down an armored door at a bank with her bare hooves and how those same hooves have easily broken bones. If Maud was anything like Pinkamena in that category, they really didn’t want to piss off the expressionless mare.

Kiki had an idea, “How about a test of your destructive abilities first. One of our tanks in Goldenyard…” She pointed to the area on her map. “...is parked there. Make use of it and blow up as much shit as you can. Sinterpol will come running and try to stop you. Destroy as many of their agents and as much of their property as you can.”

Moondancer and Maud found the tank in Goldenyard. It was a large and spikey model as expected of where they were. However, they had a slight problem.

“Do you know how to drive this?” Maud asked.

Moondancer shook her head, “No, I know Pinkie and Vinyl would likely know how to drive one since they have done so before.” she put a hoof to her chin for a moment then shrugged. “Plan B?”

Maud gave a small smile.

Demons ran in terror through the streets as they tried to flee from what should have been impossible to witness in reality.

“That can’t be real!” one demon shouted in disbelief. A pair of Sinterpol trucks sailed over his head.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s real or not, what matters is not being paste on the road. Now run!” another demon shouted.

Moondancer frowned as the demons fled in terror. If they kept running then they wouldn’t be able to cause enough havoc.

The unicorn had an idea. She grabbed one of Satan’s orientation guides that was lying around and cast a “Want it, Need it” spell on it and threw it at a street intersection. She kept a hoof over Maud’s eyes to make sure her partner didn’t become affected.

The spell worked like a charm as demons and husks from all over the area, including a certain husk with a purple visor, were drawn to the tome and began fighting over it like a pack of wild beasts. The demons and husks tore at each other to get their hands on the tome.

It was then that Moondancer removed her hoof from Maud’s eyes. The earth pony looked at her partner who nodded. She then placed both of her forehooves around the barrel of the massive tank that she was holding above herself like an oversized club and slammed it down on the mass in the intersection, splattering the entire area in a wave of blood, including on themselves.

Moondancer was glad that she wasn’t wearing her sweater when they landed in Hell because it would have been completely ruined by now. Maud’s smock however, was not so lucky.

Both ponies did the best they could to wipe the blood off of their faces since they didn’t have any water or rags to do so. Still, Moondancer smirked triumphantly as she thought back to the other mare who cast the “Want it, Need it” spell years ago. “Looks like I found a better use for that spell than you did, Twilight,” she mumbled.

Moondancer removed the enchantment from the book once she rummaged for it through the pile of blood and viscera on the road.

“I think that’s enough of a demonstration,” Moondancer decided. This prompted Maud to throw the tank away and head back to the garage with her partner.

The tank landed on an a certain, unfortunate and purple visor-wearing ghoul who was at the wrong place at the wrong time when he respawned.

Viola and Kiki were stunned when they heard about what happened. They had counted on the likelihood that Moondancer and Maud had no idea how to drive a tank and figured that they would try which would have amused them. They could have also left the tank where it was and blow things up the old fashioned way.

They didn’t count on Maud actually being able to lift the tank and carry it around like a melee weapon.

The twins were warned that the earth pony was strong but the words did not do justice for the pony whose strength would have given the likes of Hercules a run for his money.

Moondancer and Maud helped to reset their dropped jaws which helped them recover from their shocked state.

“I...Wha-...How…?” they said in unison.

Well...sort of recover.

“Don’t lose your heads over this,” Moondancer advised. “Let’s just get to the next part.”

Once the twins regained their composure, they had the two perform an aerial reconnaissance of the north part of the city. While they would have asked them to inspect one of the altars in the district, Johnny inspected it earlier so there was no point in doing that anymore.

“Before we go, could you tell us how you ended up being hunted by Sinterpol?” Moondancer asked.

Kiki started, “After Killbane snapped my neck for defying him after Phillipe was killed, I ended up in Hell. Seeing the state of the place, I decided to open up my own security firm called Cerberus Securities.”

Viola continued, “The firm didn’t really get off the ground until I arrived when the Earth was destroyed. Still not sure how that happened.

“Evil alien overlord with too much time on his hands,” Moondancer interrupted.

Viola rolled her eyes then continued, “With me and Kiki running the market, we topped Sinterpol in no time.”

Kiki continued, “That was until someone at Sinterpol got wise to us and forced us into hiding in this parking garage. We need to find out who sold us out and make them regret fucking with us.”

Moondancer nodded in understanding while Maud continued to watch the conversation unfold. “So you want us to help you uncover the rat or rats who sold you out?”

“That would be a good start, then we can find a way to effectively deal with them,” Viola said.

With their objective clear, Maud and Moondancer flew away from the garage to scout the area while struggling to fly through narrow spaces and climb tall buildings by running up them.

While Gilda gave her friends a crash course in flying, that was all of the experience Moondancer and Maud have gained so flying was a challenge for both of them. They also had to deal with two more Spires that were harassing them as they explored the northern part of Downtown..

However, Maud was able to make out something from her limited vision of the ground. She moved as close as she dared and saw an elderly man in a black suit talking to a few Sinterpol demons in an alley. Upon closer inspection, the man appeared waterlogged despite being in a place where water didn’t exist. Maud stayed hidden while she listened in.

“So explain to me how an entire squadron of demons were unable to capture a pair of women who should not have been able to defend themselves well enough to thwart your efforts,” the man inquired with a calm tone.

“Well, you see, we ran into some trouble from a couple of ponies.”

The waterlogged figure stayed silent for a minute before speaking again, “Are you listening in on some sort of telepathic communication? Because I am still waiting for the reason why you were unable to stop a couple of horses and capture the twins.”

“You don’t understand, one of these ponies fired spells like she was some sort of wizard and the other was much stronger than anything her size should have been capable of.”

“I tire of your incompetence, I expected more from Satan’s elite police force. I am surrounded by idiots, my nephew was just as useless as you. In the least he’s in Heaven so I don’t have to look at him anymore. Get out of my sight.”

Nothing more was said so Maud returned to Moondancer to finish the aerial patrol. She relayed the information to Moondancer. When they returned to the twins, they asked about the waterlogged man in a black suit.

“That sounds like William Sharp. He’s the only man in Hell who always looks like he’s soaked,” Kiki noted.

“Who is that?” Moondancer asked.

Viola answered, “Back when the Saints were formed by Julius Little, three gangs had control over Stilwater: The Vice Kings, Los Carnales and The Westside Rollerz. Sharp used to be the mastermind behind the Rollerz, acting behind his nephew, Joseph Price. When the Saints started moving against the Rollerz, they planted a mole among them which allowed the Saints to sabotage their rackets. When Sharp caught on, he attempted to kill the mole by stuffing her in the trunk of her own car and sink it into the sea.”

Kiki continued, “However, that attempt was thwarted when Pinkamena turned the tables and sent him into the sea instead.”

“She then went for overkill by having him reanimated as a zombie where he was repeatedly subjected to lethal abuse.”

Moondancer failed to hold back a giggle while Maud frowned a little. “My sister is not known for being merciful.”

“Wait, Pinkamena is your sister?!” Viola asked. Maud nodded. “I should have guessed from the freakish strength.”

Maud didn’t mind the ‘freakish’ comment, she had heard it all before and she knew that her family was strange. It didn’t take a genius to know that her difficulty in expressing herself made her difficult to understand and Pinkie’s overly cheerful nature made up for the gloomy atmosphere the rest of the family put out.

Kiki decided to get back to business, “The next thing we need you to do is to clear the demons out of Azazel’s Court. We need to put pressure on Sinterpol and the more areas we take from them, the easier it will be to out our enemies.”

Maud and Moondancer proceeded to Azazel’s Court and drew the attention of the Sinterpol agents to them. Maud grabbed monster trucks and hurled them into other trucks or groups of demons who were trying to eliminate the ponies. Moondancer used holy magic to incinerate the demons while using her telekinesis to use trucks like weapons.

It didn’t take much to force the demons to abandon the area, leaving Cerberus Securities to move in.

The duo returned to the twins to receive their next objective. Viola briefed them, “Taking Downtown from Sinterpol is already a difficult endeavor, we don’t need them receiving assistance from Satan’s forces. We need you to shut down the Marshalling Grounds in The Pride and take out the Archduke controlling the area.”

Kiki continued, “While you were out, Johnny came by and brought us one of Blackbeard’s chests. When we opened it we found something that might be useful to you.”

Kiki pulled out the item from where she stored it. Moondancer was presented with a strange looking shotgun. The stock and fore-end was wrapped up in soft pink padding with fur at the ends while the ammo clip had a crochet lace trim wrapped around it. There was also what appeared to be a potion atop the weapon. A few sniffs told the scholarly mare that it was a powerful love potion.

It was as she was smelling the potion that a pink light enveloped the weapon. Moondancer quickly backed away but it didn’t help as the light shot a beam at her horn which enveloped it in a bright pink aura. Her eyes also glowed the same color and she was left in an unresponsive state for a minute.

Maud poked at Moondancer’s barrel with a hoof. “Hey.” After a few pokes, Moondancer shook her head to break her trance. Maud poked her a few more times to be sure she was aware of her surroundings again which earned her a deadpan stare from the unicorn that said “Really?” Maud smiled a little once she was satisfied.

“Are you alright?” Viola asked.

Moondancer took a deep breath then let it out before responding, “Yeah, I’m alright. What was that?”

“No idea. That’s never happened before.”

As Moondancer thought about what happened, her thoughts were turned to a number of spell matrices that she had never learned before. Many of them seemed like her attack spells but there were added effects to them. She wasn’t sure what the added effects would do so she would have to test them out in battle.

The shotgun suddenly glowed again and transformed itself into a smaller, shapeless form and darted for Moondancer. Before she could react, the mass wrapped itself around her horn and hardened into a pure silver ring with demonic runes etched into it. Moondancer gasped at the sudden attack on her horn. Her surprise turned into confusion as she felt no pain around her horn. On the contrary, she felt as if her magical power had greatly increased.

The ring vanished but the feeling of empowerment was still present. Moondancer couldn’t tell whether the ring was there or not because she didn’t feel a thing on her appendage.

The DeWynter Sisters stared at the ponies as the events transpired before they looked at each other. “We really need to have a talk with Blackbeard about keeping strange items in his chests…” Viola commented.

“Agreed,” Kiki said.

Moondancer and Maud decided to leave the garage before more weird events happened and headed for the pit at The Pride, shooting down any Spire-launched missiles along the way. Moondancer mentally noted to deal with the rest of the Spires in the district after they cleared out the Marshalling Grounds.

Maud used her new gem magic to turn the demons in the pit into gemstones which shattered and turned into currency. The rocktologist sighed in disappointment because while the currency gained from the demons would have funded her studies, she was pretty sure the currency was not convertible to bits.

It was while Moondancer tested her new spells that she saw the effects of the added matrices. The spells that didn’t kill them outright ended up changing the behavior of the demons in an interesting way.

“Please! Burn me again! Let me feel your love!” one demon begged.

“Zap me again! I’ve been a really bad demon! I need to be punished!” Another begged.

Based on the demons begging for pain, Moondancer quickly deduced that the matrices turned those she inflicted pain upon into complete masochists. Either that or they were masochists in the first place.

Once the control stones were converted, the area’s Archduke arrived and was ready for a fight.

What the Archduke wasn’t expecting was facing off against an army of enamored demons who were charmed into doing anything that Moondancer commanded them to. Between the two mares and the growing army of charmed demons as more came in to be affected by Moondancer’s magic, the Archduke soon found himself greatly outnumbered.

While he was able to resist the effects of Moondancer’s lust magic, that didn’t matter as he was getting attacked from every angle by his own former allies. Unable to withstand the demon horde, he collapsed on the ground and exploded into flames.

With the Archduke dead and not wanting to find out how long the charm spell lasted, Moondancer had the demons fight each other to the death while she and Maud finished taking control of the Marshalling Grounds.

One demon remained after the massacre who didn’t last long before he was finished by Maud who shattered his skull between her forehooves.

With the Marshalling Grounds taken, Maud and Moondancer returned to the twins to find out what else they needed to do to take control of Downtown.

Viola and Kiki were mildly surprised that Moondancer learned some lust-based spells, only because it made sense since the weapon that infused itself with her was one of the Seven Deadly Weapons; particularly the Lust weapon, Boom Chicka.

The twins quickly returned to more important matters as they needed the rest of Downtown scouted from the air to locate any other conspirators like Sharp.

Before they proceeded with the investigation, Moondancer and Maud took care to eliminate the last four Spires in the district. Moondancer charmed the guards to perform the task for her.

“You are really getting into that new magic,” Maud commented.

“Yeah, it’s really tempting to use, especially given my proclivity toward BDSM,” Moondancer agreed.

“You aren’t planning on using that magic against your friends at some point, right?”

Moondancer chuckled, “I know that cliche from novels. I know that magic like this is a good way to lose friends if abused and I don’t want to lose my friends. I’ll use thoughts like that to keep me from going too far with it.”

Maud nodded before the two separated to scout the central and southern parts of the Downtown district. While little things of note were seen during their route, each mare did spot an interesting meeting between demons and more souls who were not turned into husks.

Maud spotted what looked like an amalgamation of two people next to a man wearing a yellow and black suit while carrying a pair of katanas. Maud had been to Neighpon before during her travels and she recognized Neighponese craftsponyship.

Maud had no idea how the amalgamation came to be but noted that she would ask Viola and Kiki later.

Moondancer had similar results, spotting a meeting between some demons and a man who she recognized as Killbane. The interesting thing she noticed about him was not the fact that he had his mask on despite it being incinerated by Treehugger, but the fact that he looked like he was stitched together down the middle was more interesting. There was no mistaking it, that stitched wound was where Pinkamena cut him down the middle with a chainsaw.

It made sense to the scholarly unicorn, the souls who have likely conspired against the DeWynter sisters were brought to Hell in a form that was reminiscent of the way they died, or at the least when they died at the hooves of Pinkamena.

Moondancer regrouped with Maud who told her about the meeting she saw. While Moondancer had to wonder how someone could become a fusion of two people when they died, she had a feeling that they now knew who sold the DeWynters out.

The duo returned to the garage to relay the news. The identity of Killbane shocked the pair but quickly regained their composure to explain the other two.

Kiki explained, “The fused person you saw was likely Kazuo and Shogo Akuji. After the Saints fell apart when Playa fell into a coma and the Saints disbanded, three new gangs took over years later. Among them were the Ronin, an offshoot of the Japanese Yakuza that wanted to make a name for themselves in America. The gang was originally led by Shogo but when the Saints were reformed by Playa and Pinkamena, it was when the Saints started moving in on their turf that Shogo’s father, Kazuo, decided to take the reins from his son out of disappointment. Neither expected Pinkamena to be clever enough to outwit them.”

Viola continued, “The other person who was with them was likely their enforcer, Jyunichi. He’s a skilled user of those weapons. Pinkamena captured Jyunichi and killed him in a reenactment of the last scene of a movie that ended with a number of renegade swordsmen committing ritual sacrifice called seppuku. Jyunichi probably has a large wound in his gut where Pinkamena made him commit suicide.”

Kiki continued, “As for the Akujis, Pinkamena buried them alive together. The fact that their bodies were buried in the same casket may have led to their souls fusing together, resulting in what you saw.”

“Killbane?” Maud asked.

Moondancer fielded that question, “Pinkamena and a chainsaw.”

“It would explain why and how Sinterpol got the drop on us,” Viola mused. “Killbane was part of the Syndicate with us, Matt and Phillipe. He would have info on us and could use it against us.”

“He knows how cunning we can be and knows how to counter that,” Kiki continued. “The best plan we can use right now is to simply take the territories through brute force. If we storm the remaining areas then we can force them into the district’s Extraction Facility and finish them there.”

Viola continued, “Our Cerberus agents will make sure the Akujis and Sharp don’t try anything clever to sneak out of our net.”

With a plan in place, Maud and Moondancer began taking the remaining territories in Downtown by forcing the demons out.

Taking Angel’s Tears was a different matter as Legal Lee signaled the mares to him so they could assist him with a client. He explained the purpose of the orb and the necessity to subject them to abuse.

Ever the fan of torturing masochists, Moondancer volunteered for the task.

The client was Luz, Lee explained that she was an unfortunate soul who went from the girlfriend of one of the Carnales leaders to the girlfriend of an older man who represented the Colombian Cartel to being left behind as a Colombian drug mule. She was still paying off an immense debt to the Colombians, most of that payment went to clothes shopping, when the Earth blew up. The woman was nothing but a pitiable parasite who had no idea how the real world worked because she chose to remain ignorant.

Moondancer took control over Luz’s body and subjected her to millennia worth of torment by making her play in traffic and setting her on fire.

Moondancer was disappointed when the orb ran out of power and her fun ended. Still, it was a fun diversion and the destruction still landed the area in their hooves.

In the heart of Downtown, Rebellion Square, the demon fraternity was hosting another pledge run to recruit more frat demons. That meeting turned into a massacre as the demons were assaulted by a mare who used a spiked paddle to send them flying miles away while others were fleeing from what looked like a haunted floating paddle that was swatting more of their number away with similar results. Some of the frat demons were charmed into assisting the mares by batting their own people far away.

Moondancer had Maud close her eyes as she placed a “Want it, Need it” spell on her own paddle which drew the frat demons to it which resulted in more demons hit per swipe. Maud resisted the effects as best as she could so she could bash the last of the frat demons in the area in one strike.

Once the demons were gone, Moondancer removed the enchantment and they moved on to other areas.

Three of the remaining four remaining areas of Downtown were forcefully taken over by the mares as they used their weapons and Lust magic to kill or make demons kill each other.

Once only the Extraction Facility remained, Maud and Moondancer returned to the twins to confirm if their plan worked. Viola and Kiki confirmed that Sharp, Akuji, Jyunichi and Killbane have been forced into the Extraction Facility.

With that part of the plan successful and the enemy cornered, Moondancer used one of the Cerberus computers to create a set of programs which she saved onto a small storage device. Using the info about them from the Cerberus network, she was able to tailor the programs to each of the conspirators. Since it worked for Zinyak, it should work for a few old enemies.

With Cerberus agents surrounding the Extraction Facility, Maud and Moondancer entered the building. The conspirators were spotted in the central chamber, looking at the entrance and ready for their last stand.

Killbane was surprised to see Moondancer of all ponies invading their last bastion. “Wait, isn’t that Pinkamena’s girl?”

“It would be best to capture her then make an example of her to Pinkamena,” Kazuo suggested.

“Why? We should just kill them now so we have less ponies to deal with,” Shogo suggested which was met with a slap from the hand that his father controlled.

Jyunichi drew his katanas and prepared to kill one of the mares. Maud charged forward to engage the enforcer. Maud dodged a vertical slash by rolling to the side. Before Jyunichi could raise that sword again, Maud placed a hoof on it before using her other forehoof to punch the side of the blade, shattering it.

The enforcer was surprised by the mare’s strength, Maud capitalized on the surprise and punched him to the other side of the room where he was planted into the wall. The enforcer quickly fell unconscious.

“That pony’s surprisingly strong,” Killbane noted. “Let’s see how she handles this.” Killbane whistled and a large number of demons entered the room to engage the ponies. The ambush was short-lived as Moondancer zapped the demons with arcing electricity infused with Lust. The Dark Inciters avoided the spell but lost their shields which left them open to a few Lust-infused fireballs. In a short time, the conspirators’ minions turned against them.

The demons were nice enough to take over the facility for the ponies before beating Sharp, Akuji and Killbane until they fell unconscious.

Moondancer then used the storage device to pull the souls of the conspirators into it and into the special nightmare programs made just for them.

William Sharp ended up in a cheap retirement home where he was visited daily by Joseph Price as well as Donnie and Lin, who was married to Donnie in that simulation.

Jyunichi was placed in a simulation where he would endlessly relive his failures before being forced to commit suicide repeatedly before a disappointed Kazuo Akuji.

Kazuo himself was placed in a simulation where he lived with Shogo who was not only dressed in a woman’s kimono, but he was also married to Jyunichi.

Shogo’s simulation was a simple one. His entire simulation was him trapped in a casket buried six feet beneath the surface and he couldn’t even die of asphyxiation.

Killbane’s simulation was one where he would spend his eternity as a pet gimp to Viola and Kiki.

Back in the real world, Viola and Kiki thanked the two mares for their assistance and swore to make Cerberus Securities the policing agency that Hell needed.

Maud and Moondancer headed back to Ultor, their task complete and ready to rest after such an ordeal.

Author's Note

When you can't kill what's already dead, you subject them to eternal psychological torture.

While Sharp's torment might seem minor, I based it on my thoughts about him being an ambitious man who would want to retire in luxury, so being in a cheap retirement home with his family showing up every day as a reminder of his failures was the best I could come up with.

The appearances of the conspirators(e.g. Sharp's drenched state or the fused Akujis) was my own personal touch. I wanted them to look as they died.