After being rescued by the Saints, Gilda was complaining nonstop about the goop that coated her coat and feathers. Getting around the Zin mothership became a difficult task for the griffon with her feathers drenched in the slime that she was immersed in for who knew how long.

Pierce was also picked up and he complained about being lower on the list of people to be saved than Shaundi. Everyone just let him blow off steam until he tired himself out and moved on like he always did.

Once Pierce finally calmed down, he regaled the Equestrians about the adventure he, Playa and Johnny just had while trying to get him out of the simulation which involved fighting a Kaiju-sized Saints Flow mascot named Paul and how Kinzie evened the odds by having a similar-sized statue of Joe Magarac, a name Playa failed to recognize despite hearing about it plenty of times in the past, fight the aluminum mascot. That fight ended when the statue impaled the mascot on a giant girder.

Gilda wasn’t willing to share her story because her simulation was a huge blow to her pride. The griffon vowed to return the favor at some point. Pinkamena and Vinyl made a Pinkie Promise to never mention what happened in Gilda’s simulation.

After Pinkamena told the griffon that Zinyak blew up the Earth, Gilda was saddened that so many innocent people died to the egomaniacal alien overlord.

Gilda knew that this was going to be their toughest fight yet so in order to be prepared for the final battle, she needed to embrace an old family tradition that was long discarded since the fall of the Griffon Empire.

The Grimfeather Hunt.

During wartime, this tradition was used as a family ritual of empowerment that taught young griffons who came of age who their enemies would be by capturing a representative of the enemy and having the participants hunt down and kill the prey. By completing the rite, the new hunter would be given the hunting secrets of their ancestors.

Outside of wartime, the rite was more barbaric as a hunter who was burdened by emotional turmoil as a result of another living creature would be made to hunt down and kill that creature in order to free themselves of that burden. This often involved ponies that they had befriended.

The tradition ended with the fall of the Empire when the young hunters continued to fail the rite as Equestrian influence took root in their hearts.

Gilda would be invoking that rite. While she wouldn’t be killing the real thing, this was meant to emotionally separate her from her personal issues so that she could focus her entire being on hunting down Zinyak.

With her newfound resolve to take part in the hunt, the griffon approached her friends and told them about her intentions. After she finished her explanation, Vinyl got to work on setting things up for her ritual.

Some time later, the time had come for another set of tasks to be completed in the Saints bid to hijack the simulation from Zinyak.

Kinzie wanted to open another gateway into the central Downtown district.

Matt had one last set of tasks he needed done before he felt fully confident in his ability to manipulate the simulation. He also had a more personal matter he wanted to discuss with Playa.

Present Shaundi and Past Shaundi each had their own additional sets of tasks that needed to be done.

Pierce felt like Playa was stressed out, though with Pinkamena around he could understand why. In order to help the Saints leader, “Doctor” Pierce prescribed him with a list of fun things to do in the simulation.

Vinyl was still working on Gilda’s project but Treehugger was willing to go into the simulation, mainly because she wanted to give her new powers a test run.

Playa, Johnny, Pinkamena and Treehugger each stepped onto one of the platforms around the simulation terminal before their minds were projected into the digital realm once again.

Inside the simulation, Johnny immediately ran off to be a badass again while the five lists were divided between the remaining three. Since Pierce’s tasks were meant for Playa, he was only given Pierce’s list to complete while Pinkamena agreed to handle Kinzie’s list and Matt’s list and Treehugger was given the lists from both Shaundis to complete.

Playa was about to complain again about being given so little to do but the ponies were long gone before he could get a word out. Sighing in defeat, Playa headed off to complete his list.

Kinzie’s list focused on the shops in southern and central Downtown Steelport. In Loren Square, Pinkie hacked a Friendly Fire and an Image As Designed while in Sunset Park, she hacked a Rim Jobs, Rusty’s Needle and a Planet Zin which transformed into a Planet Cyber because Vinyl was a bit obsessed with cyberpunk.

Just like Kinzie’s previous list, the series ended with another virus injection in order to get the next gateway open. Pinkamena didn’t mind killing whatever Zin or wacky programs came after her but Kinzie’s lists were very tedious and repetitive which translated to boring in the madmare’s mind.

In the least, Matt’s list was not boring.

Pinkamena finally had a chance to shut down one of the remaining Hotspots in the simulation, this time in Yearwood. Unlike Playa’s method, Pinkamena’s method had a lot more impact as she went from generator to generator where she stomped and sent the guards floating in the air before she grabbed each of them in her telekinesis and sent them all flying. The generators were smashed into scrap metal by her Knightmare.

At the main controller, Pinkamena ignored the guards as she simply smashed the device. Once the device deactivated, the Zin played it smart and retreated instead of wasting their efforts over a lost objective.

Pinkamena had another area to defend while Matt uploaded a virus before she hacked another Rim Jobs in the same neighborhood and concluded Matt’s list by clearing out another Zin patrol.

Once her tasks were finished, she headed back to the ship while the others finished their tasks.

Present Shaundi wanted to see CID assisted with the stabilization of one of her rifts.

Inside the rift, Treehugger was challenged with an activity similar to the one that taxed Pinkamena’s mind where she had to telekinetically throw bombs at towers and destroy them.

The activity proved a challenge for the voodoo mare as she lacked the level of skill that Pinkamena possessed but the challenge itself was not as difficult as the madmare’s challenge either.

Treehugger still managed to finish the activity with a gold rating though she also hoped to not do something like that again.

At the same time, she felt as though her mind had been enhanced as a result of her success.

The remaining tasks were not a problem for the voodoo pony. She cleared out a Zin patrol in Espina by hurling a large fireball that exploded upon the device the Zin were guarding and the guards caught fire and succumbed to their burns.

Treehugger had an encounter with the weird glitches in the simulation when she was tasked with eliminating a rogue program named Render CPU. The target was literally a giant question mark.

Treehugger stared at the living punctuation for a few moments before it tried attacking her. The voodoo mare shrugged before she conjured a spectral machete and slashed through the program multiple times.

Her last task on the list was to steal a data-infused car. Thankfully, she hadn’t forgotten her driving lessons when she was helping people sell drugs on the streets and managed to drive it to the designated spot while protecting it with fiery enchantments that caused any vehicle that hit it to catch fire and explode or any enemy to catch fire.

Past Shaundi’s list was smaller than Present Shaundi’s. The first task was another Zin patrol to roast in Camano Place followed by another car to steal where she repeated the same strategy as the previous car she stole.

Treehugger needed a little assistance with the last task as she struggled a little with puzzles and Past Shaundi wanted her to hack an Image as Designed in Rosen Oaks. Thankfully, Vinyl was able to guide her through the task and the voodoo mare was able to complete hacking the store with plenty of time to spare.

Treehugger returned to the ship and waited for the others to finish.

Back on the ship, Pinkamena and Treehugger waited a few minutes while Playa and Johnny returned from their latest adventures in cyberspace.

When Playa returned, he was slightly irked that Pierce suggested getting hit by cars was a means of relaxation. While he did take out two Zin patrols, which was fun, getting hit by cars was not.

Johnny soon returned feeling proud of himself as he caused more death and destruction in Zinyak’s simulation. He started out by trashing a neighborhood in a Mech Suit before tearing into another Zin patrol.

While he was also proud of killing a number of programs and glitches while a virus was being uploaded and he got to trash another neighborhood in a Zin ship, his most satisfying moment was when he murdered a rogue program that looked and acted like his old boss, Julius Little. Johnny had some lingering issues with his old boss’s betrayal.

The benefits the Saints gained from this venture was another gateway, an option of the Blast ability that made enemies to glitch out and fight for the Saints, a couple of new vehicles, a set of Past Shaundi’s clothes, a ray gun that comically inflated people’s heads until they exploded, and an upgrade to the Singularity Gun.

Some time later, Pinkamena noticed that Playa was in the simulation with Matt. Seeing Kinzie at the console, she asked, “What are those two doing in the Simulation?”

“Miller wanted to show the boss some dumb little training simulation he made but in reality he just wanted the boss to roleplay with him in his silly little simulated NyteBlayde fanfic.”

“Hopefully it’ll be better than that crackfic me and Octavia had to live through a while back.”

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Miller is a much better writer than anyone gives him credit. Not Benjamin King good, but good.”

Pinkamena reached into her mane and pulled out a bottle of mouthwash and gave it to Kinzie who eagerly accepted the bottle, opened it and poured some of the contents into her mouth before swirling it in her mouth then spitting it out onto the floor, not caring that she was making a mass. “Thanks,” Kinzie said.

It was then that Gilda entered the room with Vinyl. The griffon with a determined look on her face while the unicorn looked carefree as she took her spot at one of the simulation terminals and began starting up the program she had made for her griffon companion.

In the meantime, Gilda turned to Pinkamena to address her, “Boss, I’d like to ask a personal favor. I want you to be my tracking assistant in my hunt. Tradition dictates that I may request the aid of another griffon to help track my quarry but the trapping and execution of my prey is all on me. Since we don’t have any other griffons, I’d like for you to be my tracker.”

“Why me?”

“Because of all who know the quarry the most, it’s me and your sister, Pinkie.”

“Is she asking us to help her hunt and kill Dashie? I can’t do that,” Pinkie fretted.

“Relax Pinkie, it’s only a simulation. We’re not killing the real Rainbow Dash, just some digital copy of her, Probably that mean Duchess version of her that turned Gilda into…”

“Don’t say it!”

“Why? You already know about the incident.”

“It doesn’t matter, you made a Pinkie Promise to never mention it. Talking to me about it still counts.”

“Fine, but you still understand what I’m talking about. This is Gilda’s chance to vent some lingering personal frustrations from her past without there being any real consequences to the real thing.”

“Well, okay,” Pinkie said hesitantly.

With that, Pinkamena and Gilda entered the simulation to begin their hunt.

Once the duo was back in Virtual Steelport, Gilda turned to Pinkamena. “Alright, I’ll check the skies. If you find any sign of the quarry, let me know.”

Gilda took off into the air while Pinkamena rushed through the city on hoof using her Super Sprint.

“I know she’s a competitive speedster who likes to sleep lazily on the clouds, but where do we begin looking for her since there are no clouds she could reach in the simulation?” Pinkamena asked.

Pinkie hummed. She thought back on Rainbow Dash’s folder that she kept in her party cave back in Ponyville when she suddenly realized something. “Dashie’s birthday is today!” she gasped.

“How do you know that? We have no way of telling time out here.”

“Because you let me play with the Saints Row timeline.”

“Oh right, I did let you do that.”

Using her special sense that Pinkie uses when someone or somepony is in need of a birthday party, she was able to pick up on Rainbow Dash’s location. Her sense picked up the prismatic mare’s location at Port Pryor on Carver Island. Pinkamena immediately relayed the location to Gilda. The griffon flew at full speed toward the location.

Gilda caught sight of the prismatic mare before she was able to leave the search area. Dash’s trajectory was cut off when a hail of bullets entered her path. She quickly halted her flight and looked around for whoever tried to attack her. She didn’t have to look for more than a second to see the griffon pointing her SMGs at her.

“Hey there, Crash,” Gilda mocked.

“Hey there, G. You look weird without the maid outfit.”

“And you look weird wearing froufrou,” Gilda countered.

“Gotta look good when taking over Steelport. My good buddy Z even gave me some awesome powers to kick your flank with.”

“Wait, what?” Gilda squawked in shock.

“Surprise! I hope you enjoy this little reunion with your old friend, Gilda,” said Zinyak from out of nowhere. “I found it to be a little unfair for your little friend to be at such a disadvantage against her hunter that I decided to give her a handicap.

“And now the classic trope of how the hunter becomes the hunted.”

That was when Rainbow Dash sucker punched Gilda in her face and sent her flying into a skyscraper. The blow knocked the wind out of the griffon.

Gilda managed to recover from her attack but was now on the defensive as she was facing an empowered Rainbow Dash who was now stronger and faster than she was. Gilda was barely dodging most of Dash’s attacks because she knew how her former friend fought. The griffon counted herself lucky that Zinyak didn’t improve her thinking.

While Gilda was struggling, Pinkamena noticed what was going on and called Vinyl for assistance. “Vinyl, Gilda’s going up against a powered up Rainbow Dash. Can you even the playing field for her?”

“I’m trying but Zinyak isn’t making this easy.”

Gilda knew she was at a disadvantage against Rainbow, but there was one weakness that she could still exploit: she was predictable.

As Rainbow Dash charged forward to slam both hooves into the griffon, Gilda shifted her position slightly and grabbed her left wing before raking the left side of her face with her free talon. While Dash was still in motion, Gilda used that momentum to yank her wing and rip it off.

Dash crashed into a skyscraper while the area of her missing wing was bleeding.

Gilda took advantage of Dash’s stunned state to slash into the mare’s digital flesh but the pegasus recovered quickly and pulled off the wall in time before Gilda’s attack struck. However, without her other wing, she couldn’t stay in the air. While she couldn’t fly anymore, she could still glide with her powers.

Gilda took advantage of the mare’s gliding by intercepting her and slamming a fist into Dash’s back which sent her plummeting toward the street.

While landing in the street didn’t hurt Dash, Gilda quickly flew into a nosedive and fired her SMGs at her. The hail of bullets mostly missed the prismatic mare, but a few managed to hit her. Wounded, Dash attempted to sprint away. Gilda saw this coming and aimed a rocket ahead of Dash’s path and like the predictable mare she was, Rainbow ran into the impact point.

Now wounded and badly burnt, Rainbow Dash could barely move as Gilda landed next to her. The griffon placed a talon on Dash’s body before she smirked. “I’ll take those,” she said.

That was when Gilda took the powers bestowed upon Rainbow Dash. This transfer also altered Gilda’s appearance as she now wore what she remembered as the ancient armor of her clan. The barding was obsidian colored with an outline matching the purple on Gilda’s crest and around her eyes. Around her face but without covering her eyes was a long purple scarf with Griffish runes sewn into the fabric.

As Rainbow Dash lay dying, she gave one last glare to the empowered griffon. “Zinyak will win...in the end,” she croaked weakly.

Gilda ended things by pointing an SMG at Dash’s face and fired, ending the digital pegasus.

Her hunt concluded and her inner turmoil cleansed, Gilda returned with Pinkamena back to the ship.

Kinzie and Matt worked hard to locate the simulations of their remaining friends. With the Steelport simulation over halfway hacked, finding the other simulations was proving easier.

It wasn’t long until she located two more prisons. One belonged to Benjamin King and the other belonged to Octavia. With no sign of Moondancer yet, Kinzie sighed as she paused her search to focus on rescuing the musical assassin and the President’s Chief of Staff.

With the proper cyphers ready, Playa, Johnny, Pinkamena and Vinyl, who was very insistent on coming along, met at The Broken Shillelagh for the next breakout. CID opened the gateways.

Kinzie mentioned that King’s simulation involved a version of Stilwater from before the Saints while Johnny was eager to go back to his old stomping grounds.

Pinkamena and Vinyl headed into their gateway to save Vinyl’s marefriend.

Pinkamena and Vinyl arrived in Canterlot. While the streets seemed normal as well as everything else, there was one major difference.

There were wanted posters for Octavia all over the place.

Pinkamena tore one poster off to look at it. The crimes listed for their friend listed as treason, theft of government property, resisting arrest, and murder. The surprising thing about the poster though was that the one who wrote it wanted Octavia killed on sight. Normally, Princess Celestia would never allow such a demand but this was still one of Zinyak’s simulations so there was no surprise there.

Vinyl bit her lip in worry as she became increasingly concerned for Octavia.

Two pegasi guards landed near the two mares and demanded to know why they tore down a wanted poster.

Pinkamena put on a cheerful smile as she approached the two guards who became wary of the mare. “Hi, I’m Pinkamena and I’m a serial killer. Time for me to get to work.”

The two guards were thrown for a loop from what the madmare just said but that didn’t stop her from slashing the throats of the two guards. Pinkamena was sprayed with blood before the two guards collapsed.

Vinyl looked at the scene with curiosity. “Huh, I would have thought their enchanted armor would have given them some protection from your attack.”

“Zinyak still has no idea how Equestrian magic works so programming that into his simulations is still not possible at this time.”

“Huh, sucks for him. Anyway, let’s find Tavi.”

Meanwhile…

The Saints were watching Playa’s and Johnny’s and King’s fight in King’s simulation and saw that Anthony was fighting the three of them. That was when Kinzie had a cruel idea.

“I know this is going to seem cruel of me, but I think Anthony deserves an instant replay.”

After a few more minutes of fighting, Anthony stopped and screamed at a high pitch as a knife was embedded into his groin. He keeled over grasping his mutilated genitalia, revealing a pink pony with a wide cheshire smile. The mare immediately disappeared.

“So that’s how it happened,” the three men in the simulation said in unison.

King added, “I could have gone my whole life without knowing how Tony went down. Now that I have, I can’t blame Tanya for being scared of her.”

After half an hour of searching Canterlot for clues on Octavia’s whereabouts, Pinkamena and Vinyl found their lead when a number of guards converged at a location. The two ran toward the commotion.

As they were hoping to find, The two mares spotted Octavia fighting for her life against a number of guards that were trying to kill her.

With no time to spare, Pinkamena pulled out her Singularity Gun and Vinyl her Dubstep Gun.

The guards were pulled into a black hole before a blast of dubstep music shredded them from the inside out.

Octavia looked ragged from her encounter and was breathing heavily. She eyed the duo with wariness and prepared to attack her would be saviors.

Pinkamena noticed this and put away her weapon before waving her hooves disarmingly. “Hang on Tavi, it’s me and Vinyl. You watched me cut Killbane in two with a chainsaw, remember?”

Octavia flinched for a moment as her memories came back to her. “Oh yes, I remember now. My apologies, but I have lost count on how many times I have been killed by guards sent by that treacherous agent, Snake Eye. He sometimes sent copies of both of you against me as well.”

“Well, you have two choices: we get back to the portal and get you out of this nightmare, or we go kill Snake Eye then we get you out of here.”

Octavia chuckled, “I would prefer the second option.”

“Fun way it is. Hey Matt, where’s the pony leading the hunt?”

“You mean the pony whose name sounds like a G.I. Joe character? He appears to be nearby. In fact, he appears to be approaching your position.”

“Perfect, we’ll be out in a few minutes.”

It was then that chuckling of a male voice was heard nearby. “Well well, what do we have…”

The stallion was interrupted when a smiling madmare suddenly appeared in his face which was the last thing he ever saw as a knife slashed through his eyes, permanently blinding him. Before he could appreciate his situation, the knife passed through his neck and was decapitated.

“There, I cut the head off the snake and avoided a boring monologue.”

Pinkamena offered the stallion’s head to Octavia who politely declined. While she would have liked to have ended his life herself, she had better things to do than fret over one treacherous stallion.

Satisfied with the outcome, Octavia left the simulation with Pinkamena and Vinyl.

Super Gilda:
Superpower element: Shadow
Blast: Creates a singularity at the impact point.
Telekinesis: Pulls nearby enemies into telekinetically held person or object.
Stomp: Intensifies gravity around her, crushes regular enemies.
Buff(locked): Shadows envelop her, allows movement through darkness and talons empowered to cut through nearly anything.