Hard Road took Pinkamena to his office where he opened a wall safe and pulled out a key. He then moved his desk that was in the middle of the room aside to reveal a secret trapdoor with a lock on it. He inserted the key into the lock and turned the key to unlock the door and opened it to reveal a number of documents.

The documents detailed his secret meetings with Snake Eye and the dealings that they made. Hard was counting on his sister to secretly document the meetings in case they needed to blackmail the agency leader if he decided to endanger his crew. There were photographs too which told the madmare that Side Street was smart enough to use a camera that didn’t flash or make too much noise.

“So, I guess you intend to blackmail our former benefactor?” Hard Road asked.

Pinkamena smirked, “Nope, a friend of mine wants him taken down after what he did to her.”

“Do what you want then, as long as you can help my crew, then I don’t care what happens to him.”

Snake Eye was bewildered about what happened as it all felt like it went by in a flash. What he did remember was him working at his desk preparing for his next meeting with the leader of the Eclipse and the next was the guards busting into his office to arrest him.

He had no idea that a few ponies and a griffon were bringing the gang that he manipulated for years to their knees since that happened faster than it took for the agents under his command to deliver the report. He did receive the report but he failed to read it. If he had, then he would have tried hastily to get out of the country. He knew about the documents but felt assured that even if they were used against him he would be able to spin the accusations in his favor.

He didn’t count on the Eclipse getting the new alicorn to help them.

As he was being carried away, he saw Octavia and Vinyl wave at him. The former gave a victorious smirk.

His plans for getting rich by exploiting the vice-addicted ponies of Detrot of their bits through the Eclipse had gone up in flames thanks to one meddling alicorn and her gang.

Time passed and Pinkamena’s friends began to move on with their lives. The bonds they shared will live on for years to come.

After the incident with Snake Eye, Octavia was admitted back into the agency with Vinyl as her operator. While off duty, they continued with their concerts and gigs. The bits they received from the intelligence agency came from commissions while their main income still came from their concerts. Vinyl’s Wub Chair made her the envy of every DJ in Equestria.

After being acquitted of any charges brought against her by Snake Eye, who confessed to framing her, Octavia’s reputation was restored. She put in a good word to Celestia and had Kinzie, Oleg, Asha and Matt hired as agents and operators. While their adventures were not as intense as they were back on Earth or among the Zin Empire, they had their fun moments.

Dane scouted around Detrot and decided on a location where he would establish his office. He worked his way into the legal markets one by one and slowly established the Ultor brand throughout Equestria. The Ultor symbol was coincidentally favored by ponykind since it was similar to Celestia’s cutie mark so ponies were convinced that their princess had a hoof in the company’s founding. Pinkamena spread that rumor as a way of messing with Celestia.

Kiki became Dane’s secretary. She didn’t mind the position since the two were quite fond of each other. What sold Kiki on starting a relationship with Dane was that he was surprisingly good at making mimosas.

It would be a few months before they discussed plans for marriage.

Pierce became Ultor’s marketing manager. His ideas did lead to some uncertainty among the ponies but his optimism and the energy he put out helped the ponies warm up to him. Ultor’s customer diversity increased as Pierce’s marketing strategies extended to other races on Equus.

Viola was put in charge of sales and pony resources. She wanted to be sure that the right ponies were put in the correct positions and to see Ultor grow efficiently as a business.

Every now and then, there have been secret meetings between Viola and Pierce but those meetings were never recorded.

Lin and Donnie were happily married and moved to Cloudsdale where they opened their own chariot repair shop.

Shakespeare accepted the invitation to the palace in Canterlot. Since then, Luna has been entertained by the playwright’s passionate acting of his own plays. She soon funded a theater for the playwright with a budget that was personally approved by both royal sisters.

Ponies like Trixie Lulamoon and other ponies who specialized in entertainment volunteered to take part in plays. Trixie knew how to put on a different facade to entertain the crowds and Shakespeare’s guidance helped her to improve her skills at entertainment by convincing her to play parts large and small.

Marble decided to travel the countryside with Treehugger. Together, they managed to grow the cannabis plants and sell the product to ponies in small towns. When the nearest zebra drug cartel caught on to them, they tried to intervene. However, it was painfully learned that Treehugger was the avatar of Zarinette, the one Loa that zebras knew better than to mess with. Added to the fact that she was also a close friend to the Alicorn of Tartarus, the cartel changed tactics and decided to negotiate with Treehugger and Marble. The cartel learned to grow the plants and sell them on their markets while the two received an agreed upon share of the profits.

Limestone earned her certification to become a bartender. She started out her career in Appleloosa, serving cider to thirsty ponies.

Gilda decided to help Pinkamena set up her gang for a while before she would head back to Griffonstone to help where she could. She intended to use the Grimfeather name to compete against the other fallen nobles of Griffonstone. With her powers and the gauntlets, her people would soon acknowledge her as queen.

Moondancer stayed committed to assisting Pinkamena with the gang while the madmare used her alicorn status as a means of getting her marefriend more books to read from the Canterlot library. While she wasn’t helping Pinkamena, Moondancer was either reading books or running a BDSM club in Detrot.

Pinkie had adventures with her old friends again and was able to witness Twilight’s long overdue ascension to become an alicorn after an incident involving her cutie mark getting switched for Applejack’s.

Under Pinkamena’s leadership, the Eclipse was able to make amends with the ponies of Detrot and offered protection services for the less-than-legal businesses in the city in exchange for a fair percentage of what they made. For businesses that were not doing so well, she offered to have the crew advertise for them in order to help them turn a profit.

The Detrot police department agreed to a deal to not persecute the gang members too hard as long as their activities did not get out of hoof. The deal was maintained by payments made under the table since the police department was mostly crooked. None of the smart officers dared to become greedy or foolish because ponies like that would wind up in an alley eviscerated, splattered, or decapitated.

With the crime in Detrot now under Pinkamena’s control, it was time to expand her influence and locate any hidden criminals and bring them into the fold. One among them was based in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere.

When the reports about the town’s odd behavior were read, Pinkamena decided to personally investigate.

As it turned out, the town was run by a powerful unicorn named Starlight Glimmer and she wanted to create a society without cutie marks as her way of promoting friendship.

Once Pinkamena learned about this, she requested info on the mare from the intelligence agency who received permission from Celestia to divulge. The madmare had an idea about what Starlight’s motivations were after she read the report.

She knew how she was going to deal with her.

Pinkamena walked into the tiny town of two rows of buildings. The ponies wandering around had the most strained looking smiles she had ever seen. They weren’t happy smiles nor were they anything like her psychotic smile. The ponies around her were faking their smiles and pretending to be happy while welcoming her. Their flanks were all adorned with equal signs.

Pinkamena decided to return the smiles with one of her own, one that terrified the townsponies and made them flee back into their houses. Satisfied that she now had an open path to her target’s house, she walked to the end of the two rows of housing where a single house stood.

On the way, she requested some cupcakes from a mare named Sugar Belle and took one of the poorly made cloaks from a rack outside.

Starlight’s house was reached a minute later. Pinkamena knocked on the door. The resident answered the door a moment later. “Oh, hello. Welcome to Our Town, a town where true friendship exists. I’m Starlight Glimmer, how may I help you?”

“Yeah, what’s with your townsponies acting like they killed somepony and are trying to hide the body from the authorities?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Everypony here is innocent and are the epitome of friendship.”

Pinkamena deadpanned, “Spare me the salespony spiel. How about you show me where you keep everypony’s cutie marks.”

“You wish to join us? That’s great! Right this way.”

Starlight led Pinkamena to the vault where she kept the cutie marks of everypony in town. The unicorn picked up what looked like a stick that branched at the end.

Pinkamena’s Pinkie Sense went off just as Starlight fired a beam at her. The beam was deflected when the madmare pulled out her Vorpal Blade and used it to deflect the beam back at Starlight.

What happened next was no surprise to the madmare as Starlight’s cutie mark, which looked like the same equal sign like the others, was ripped off in the form of her real mark, an eight-pointed star of purple and white giving off a trail of turquoise vapors.

Pinkamena pulled out a vacuum from her mane and sucked Starlight’s mark into it before the device was stuck back in her mane. Starlight’s flank became a real equal sign as a result.

“Now, are you ready to talk for real?” Pinkamena asked.

Starlight glared at Pinkamena. “What do you want?” she growled.

“I want to tell you that you are handling your real problems the wrong way.”

“What are you talking about?” Starlight asked with a raised brow.

“I know about the issues you are having as a result of your only friend leaving you to attend Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns which happened because of his hovering mother wanting the best for his son without consideration for the friends he made.”

“You know about Sunburst?”

“Yep. Also, him getting his cutie mark and being sent away was likely a convenient excuse for you to not blame the one thing that you should be blaming so you can hold on to hope that you still have a friend. Am I right so far?”

“No, you’re wrong! Cutie marks divide us. They ruin friendships. I--”

“Are tampering with the foundation of Equestria’s civilized society: talent.”

“What? That’s ridiculous!”

“Is it?” She pulled out one of the rock hard cupcakes from her mane. “This cupcake was made by a pony who I suspect was a skilled baker. I mean, you shouldn’t be baking as a career if you don’t have the talent for it because ponies won’t stand for terrible products. I want you to eat this cupcake.”

Starlight winced. She knew that most of the foods that Sugar Belle made were awful. She secretly snuck away to the nearest town at night for her meals. She didn’t want to be seen as a hypocrite but she kept telling herself that it was still for the good of ponykind.

The concrete cupcake drew closer to her and Starlight backed away slowly from it. Pinkamena smirked, “Something you want to admit to yourself? Maybe you would like to wear one of these cloaks?” She pulled out a shabby cloak and walked closer to Starlight.

It was then that Starlight broke, “Alright, alright, so they need their talent to make something good.”

“You see Starlight, civilization is built on talent. You need talent to design a proper house. Without design, the best a pony could build that would be stable would be a mud hut or a shabby house that barely holds up. Either of these can be knocked down by a strong enough wind. Ponies need sturdy homes to keep the predators out. Bakers need talent to make baked goods that act as an alternative to our most primal food, grass.” Starlight winced at the thought of herself grazing.” Farmers need talent to grow crops. Ponies can’t make their food products without a supply from the farmers and bad crops make for poor supply.

“It’s surprising that your town had lasted for as long as it had with the poor quality products it makes.”

Starlight’s glare returned, “So you have my cutie mark, you have me cornered and you have me where you want me. You haven’t told me what you want from me.”

“I want you to join the Eclipse, my gang.”

Starlight’s expression turned to confusion. “You want me to join a street gang?”

“They may be a street gang now, but I have big plans for them. In some ways, you and I are alike. We both have ambitions to create something that will change the face of Equestria. I want you to work with me. You are a clever mare, I bet you have some plan thought up on how to get out of the mess you’re in.”

“What? How did you--?”

“Not only will I show you what a real friend is like, but I’ll even throw in getting you closure with Sunburst.” Seeing Starlight confused again, Pinkamena elaborated. “I know the reason he hasn’t made contact with you. I saw the results of his entrance exam. He barely passed because he got a perfect score on his written exam but the practical results were barely passable. Seems his ability with magic was not up to snuff with the other students and he ultimately ended up flunking out of school because of his subpar ability. His knowledge of magic rivals with some of the best of his peers though.”

“What? Why wouldn’t he tell me what happened?”

“Shame probably. Too ashamed to even write you a simple letter to tell you that he was doing alright, not even to say that he was thinking about you.”

Starlight thought hard about what the pink madmare said before she growled then took a deep breath. “Take me to him,” she said with barely contained fury.

“So you accept?”

Starlight nodded.

“Good, now first things first.”

Once the discussions ended, Starlight called all of the townsponies to the vault where she announced the end of her friendship experiment, declaring it a failure. The ponies were disappointed, but then Starlight turned to Pinkamena and nodded. Pinkamena brought out her Knightmare, the object caused many of the ponies to cringe at the sight of it. She took the hobby horse and smashed the vault, freeing the cutie marks and allowing them to return to their owners. The ponies cheered in celebration.

Starlight soon announced that she was leaving the village. When the town asked why, she said that Princess Pinkamena had offered her a job in Detrot that she planned on accepting. The town was sad to hear that she was going away but understood that they had no right to keep her in their town.

Starlight packed up her things and went with Pinkamena to take the next set of trains to Detrot. During the ride, Pinkamena remembered to return Starlight’s cutie mark.

It was a few days later that Pinkamena brought Starlight to the Crystal Empire where Sunburst’s last known whereabouts were located.

After asking around, Pinkamena and Starlight soon found Sunburst’s house. Pinkamena stood to the side while Starlight walked up to the door and knocked on it.

A disheveled-looking unicorn stallion, with a golden coat with white on his muzzle and hooves along with a mane, tail and beard of varying shades of orange and wearing glasses, answered the door. Sunburst rubbed his eyes with his hooves to make sure he wasn’t seeing things. When he realized that his eyes didn’t deceive him, his jaw opened as his eyes widened. “Starlight? What are you doing here?”

“May I come in? We need to talk.”

“Uh sure, come in.”

Pinkamena stayed outside while Starlight walked in and closed the door. After a few minutes, the sounds of impacts and shouting could be heard. Among the impacts came the sound of a lot of books falling and a stallion howling in pain. The cacophony could be heard for five minutes before the sounds died down.

Starlight emerged from the house with a look of satisfaction on her face. “We worked things out. Sunburst and I are still friends, but I’m gonna be mad at him for a while until he makes it up to me. Let’s get back to Detrot.”

The days passed and the Eclipse soon proved that they could be a gang of good samaritans by doing their part for the community and improve Detrot’s image.

With Starlight leading the gang during Pinkamena’s times of absence, the madmare had time to fulfill her other duties. While she was the leader of a gang that was on its way to becoming a syndicate in the mortal plane, she still had her duties as the Alicorn of Tartarus.

Today was different.

While Pinkamena was giving her orders for the day to her lieutenants, Celestia and Luna appeared before her.

“Pinkamena, the time has come for the summit meeting,” Celestia declared.

Pinkamena rolled her eyes, “Fine, let’s get this over with.”

“I can tell that this will be the best meeting ever!” Luna said cheerfully, failing to hide her excitement.

Pinkamena lit her horn and her door appeared to open the way to the summit. Until now, Celestia and Luna had to use another Underworld God’s door to get to the summit. The sisters were glad to finally have control over their own door.

As they walked through the door, Celestia and Luna felt optimistic that they would finally be respected by the other gods as they fully expected Pinkamena to put her audacity on full display. Some of the gods would respect that while others would be enraged.

Celestia and Luna put on their armors while Pinkamena donned the power armor that she kept as a memento from the Zin Empire. Celestia made sure to have her lance ready while Luna had her broadsword. The sisters watched their fellow goddess sheathe her Vorpal Blade while having her Knightmare and Executioner’s Scythe at the ready.

The three alicorns slowly walked into the conference room to begin the most intense battle of their lives for the respect they deserve.

Author's Note

Hope you enjoyed the story.

I know that I ended the story on a bit of a cliffhanger but I had no intention of writing out Pinkamena, Celestia and Luna battling a bunch of deities. I might change my mind one day and come back to write the fight out in a bonus chapter.