As a reminder: this chapter is one of five that take place at roughly the same time as each other.

As the Equestrians exited the Ultor building, Octavia noticed that Marble was huddled in a corner in a catatonic state. However, she had no time to deal with the mare’s hang ups since she had a job to do. She hoped that Treehugger would be able to help her get past her problems.

Vinyl looked concerned for Marble. She knew that taking lives was a serious matter and those who were unprepared to do so but did anyway would be in for a major shock. “Hey Tavi, shouldn’t we try to help her?”

Octavia looked at Vinyl and shook her head, “We do not have time to deal with this I am afraid. We now have Satan’s attention so we must strike at the city in every district simultaneously in order to make sure he spreads his army thin in case he attempts to retaliate.”

“Yeah...I usually leave the strategy to you for a reason. I still feel bad about leaving her like that though.”

“Hopefully Treehugger will be able to help her, likely by introducing her to narcotics. I only hope that Marble does not do anything rash like earlier in the street.”

Using their artifact-granted wings, Octavia and Vinyl took to the air and headed north toward The Den to help Shakespeare take over the district.

On the way to the bard’s nightclub, a missile of red light launched into the air nearby and headed directly toward them.

Acting quickly, Octavia pulled out her sniper rifle and shot the projectile, causing it to explode in midair.

When the offending turret fired another shot which was also countered by the sniper, Octavia activated her Aura to speed up her time before landing hard enough near the turret to activate her Stomp to slow the demons defending it. This left the demons vulnerable to an electrocution by Vinyl.

With the turret defenseless, Octavia performed some precision shooting to shoot the sac and destroy the heart within it. The Spire receded into the ground.

The cellist decided that the remaining Spires in the district needed to be dealt with to make sure their progress was not hindered in the future. To that end, the duo flew all around the district and hunted down their targets. Over the course of their exploration, they found three more Spires which were handled from afar thanks to Octavia shooting the sacs with her sniper rifle.

The demons had no idea what happened when they saw the targets they were supposed to be guarding sink into the ground.

With that nuisance taken care of, Octavia and Vinyl headed for Bard’s Bastille to finally provide assistance to the playwright.

As they landed near the door, the duo saw something that seemed to be in an odd place. A recliner chair with vertical stripes of brown, white and sand colors was placed near the door. Given that it was Hell, they figured that objects mysteriously appearing in strange places was normal for the realm.

Vinyl didn’t mention it but for some reason she had the strange urge to sit on it. She put the thought away for the time being and headed into the club.

The playwright was observing the scene as usual before he spotted the duo and walked over to them before announcing his next task in dramatic fashion, “Lights up, the second act begins. It begins with a destructive storm of chaos in the streets as our music-loving heroines unleash armageddon in the entertainment district using a special weapon that launches explosive frogs.” He gave the duo a pair of frog launchers for their task.

“Uh, what did he want again?” Vinyl asked Octavia in confusion.

“He wants us to cause mayhem in the streets,” Octavia answered with an eye roll.

“Really? Isn’t that more Mena’s thing?”

“We were assigned to take over this district and we shall.”

The duo exited the club and sought out a good place to begin a spree of mindless violence. It wasn’t long before an agent of Sinterpol located them and called in reinforcements. In almost no time, the area was being invaded by monster trucks that were two to three times Celestia’s size. However, they were about as armored as normal cars and they exploded just as easily.

Using the launchers, Vinyl and Octavia blew up a lot of vehicles while causing property damage all over the entertainment district.

For some strange reason, the chair from earlier appeared in the middle of the road behind the duo. Since they were busy with destroying things, Vinyl turned around and tried to blow up the chair...only to find that it disappeared. She shrugged and continued blowing things up.

Vinyl quickly got bored of the frog launcher and pulled out her Wubstep Gun to cause some real damage. That was when the chair appeared again and attacked by lashing out at Vinyl when both mares’ backs were turned and wrapped a length of fabric around her Wubstep Gun and ripped the weapon out of her magic.

Vinyl is surprised by the sudden attack and ground her teeth in anger at the evil piece of furniture. “Hey, give that back! It’s mine!” Vinyl saw her weapon go under the cushion. The DJ leapt at the chair and tried to pry the cushion open only for the fabric tongue of the chair to wrap around her and lift her into the air for a moment before placing her on the cushion.

Confused by the chair’s actions, she looked around to see what it might do next only to find the chair begin to transform. The furniture itself became a cushy black throne decorated with neon lights. The chair then expanded itself in front of her and created a table that developed into one of the most advanced turntables that she had ever seen. The chair developed every piece of equipment that the DJ could ever need or want for her gigs. There was also a place for a snack bar which was empty at the moment which told her that the chair couldn’t produce food and drinks. That wouldn’t be a problem for her in the future anyway if she decided to keep it.

More importantly, she realized that the table could act on her thoughts after she thought about going to help Octavia and it moved toward her marefriend. She put a hoof to her chin as she thought about what the chair could do. With an aggressive thought in her mind, she scratched one of the turntables before her and the device unleashed a powerful sonic blast that sent a monster truck flying far away and into the lava.

With a wicked grin on her face, Vinyl let loose a cacophony of destructive wubs that caused a large number of explosions in a short amount of time.

Octavia noticed her marefriend’s new toy and facehooved. Just when she thought the DJ couldn’t get any lazier, she now had a way to get around while still being lazy. She rolled her eyes as she walked up to Vinyl and groaned. “If that thing comes home with us, you are not riding around that thing while you are indoors, got it?”

“What about the clubs?”

Another eye roll, “Well of course you can ride that thing in a club, but I do not want to hear that you caused injuries with that thing. Am I clear?”

Vinyl nodded, she knew the consequences of pushing Tavi too far and she would rather not end up doing all of the chores for a week if she could help it.

With the area satisfactorily leveled, Vinyl thought about getting out of the chair and it deposited her on the floor before disappearing. She still felt a link between her and the chair so she had a feeling that it would come back if she wanted it to.

The duo returned to Shakespeare who mentioned that the next scene of his second act involved them using their wings to demonstrate their air superiority by flying through a series of narrow spaces.

The task was simple, though Octavia was the one paying more attention when Gilda taught her how to use her wings. Because of this, she had little problems with her flight path while Vinyl ended up crashing into walls and metal beams. Thankfully only one of them needed to have sufficient flying skill to get through the activity.

Shakespeare’s third scene involved fighting off a small army of demons at Satan’s Brilliance in order to claim control over the area. Vinyl’s new Wub Chair was more than enough to make the demons think twice before returning to the area.

The playwright next directed the duo to the district’s Extraction Facility at Seven Gates International. Dane had told them about the facilities that were used to extract the sins from the tormented souls and use those sins to fill Satan’s coffers. To that end, Octavia expected the facility to be heavily guarded.

Once they arrived, Octavia noted the distinct lack of guards at the entrance and had to wonder why Satan would allow anyone to enter the place. Even expecting heavy resistance inside, the assassin would have expected guards at the entrance to warn any guards inside of possible intruders. With his city under attack as it was, Satan was either really overconfident in his guards to keep the important facilities working or he just didn’t care.

Whatever the case, Octavia and Vinyl easily entered the facility and began blasting the defenders who were caught off guard as the assassin expected. Vinyl’s destructive wubs quickly cleared the central room before she entered the west wing and did the same there. Octavia systematically eliminated the demons of the east wing starting with the flyers before moving to the ground forces. Once Dark Inciters entered the facility to quell the disturbance, they were easily overwhelmed by Vinyl’s wubs while Octavia used a temporal blast to destroy their shields before summoning time imps to cling to the Inciters which froze them in time long enough for her to shoot the easy targets in the head.

Taking the nodes in the facility was effortless with the guards cleared out.

Shakespeare wished to see the closing of his second act in the form of the duo heading to Debtor’s Den and saving tormented souls who were being pulled skyward or plummeting to their deaths. Compared to the Extraction Facility, this task was trivial as Vinyl zapped the shielded souls to break the shields and save them while Octavia used her Aura to save the plummeting souls at speeds that would have rivaled Rainbow Dash’s speed.

Back at the club, Shakespeare congratulated the two of them for completing the second act of his live action play about taking over The Den. “As the curtain closes on the second act, so shall the interlude between acts begin. In which the heroic assassin discovers a portal in one of Satan’s Marshalling Grounds. Daring to enter it, she seeks to uncover the secrets of the hidden cavern and emerge from it with the plunder that may help her in the war against Satan.” He then returned to his turntable on the second floor.

Once he was away, Vinyl gave Octavia a confused look, “Why does that guy talk so weird? I got ‘Marshalling Grounds’ but that’s about it.”

Octavia sighed, “Really Vinyl, would it really hurt to learn about theater? He informed us that the portals at the Marshalling Grounds can lead to a hidden cavern and there is something there that might prove useful.”

“Why didn’t he just say that instead of that theater stuff?”

“Same reason that Trixie speaks in the third pony, she just likes doing that.”

Outside of the club, Vinyl and Octavia caught sight of a pair of Tragedy Demons, demons that wore comedy masks, handing a large chest to a pair of flying demons who flew toward Ultor with the chest. The demons saw the pair and gave a casual greeting. Octavia figured that the demons belonged to Shakespeare’s group.

While she was looking up, Octavia spotted Kinzie flying northeast and beyond the coastline. If her knowledge of the map was accurate, there was supposed to be a small island a fair distance away. Whatever was over there, Octavia was certain that an ex-FBI agent like Kinzie could handle it.

Vinyl and Octavia headed for Murmur’s Tomb to assault the Marshalling Grounds there. Once they were overhead, Octavia instructed her partner, “I will head inside and access the portal. I need you to deal with the guards inside and convert the control stones. I hope I will not take long to explore the hidden cavern. I would rather you not take on the Archduke alone if you can help it.”

“Hey, no worries, I can handle myself. These losers don’t stand a chance,” Vinyl said with a cocky smile.

Octavia rolled her eyes, “Fine, but you are going to be in real trouble with me if you find yourself in over your head.

Vinyl and Octavia flew into the pit to face the challenge within. Vinyl engaged the demons stationed in the pit while Octavia figured how the portal worked. Unfortunately, she couldn’t find a way to use the portal without taking control of the place. Since she was unable to access the portal at this point, she assisted Vinyl with taking control of the Marshalling Grounds. The guards didn’t stand a chance between Vinyl’s destructive wubs and Octavia’s precise shooting.

Once the guards were thinned out, The duo proceeded to convert the control stones in the area. The Archduke arrived soon after to try and retake control of the place.

Vinyl knew that her partner would try to convert the Marshalling Grounds to use the portal so she made sure to get the Archduke’s attention by unleashing some painful wubs to distract him and get him to attack her while Octavia made a move on the portal.

Octavia was glad that the tactic worked as she had a feeling that the Archduke was deciding who was the bigger threat; the one who was attempting to take the grounds or the one who was really hurting him. Luck was on her side as he chose to attack Vinyl and retake the grounds later.

Vinyl distracted the Archduke long enough for Octavia to channel her magic into the grounds and claimed them. Once taken, she mentally searched through the active areas that she could teleport to and found that some of the portals were available as well as one other that was near Satan’s castle. Since that portal was the only one not among the other districts, she used the portal to teleport there.

Meanwhile, Vinyl was using all of her effort to dodge the fiery and explosive attacks of the Archduke and his flaming sword. She dodged to the side to avoid a charge which sent him crashing into a wall. He was unaffected because he had his shield in front of him to absorb the impact.

Vinyl dared not bring out her Wub Chair as she was able to move faster without it. She sent Electric Blasts to stun and electrocute him along with her Discharge Stomp and her Electric Aura. She also summoned electric imps to distract the Archduke so she could get some more distance from him.

“Hurry, Tavi…” Vinyl thought.

With her evading his strikes most of the time and her magic proving less effective than she hoped, Vinyl was on the defensive and the Archduke was wearing her down. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could hold out.

Thankfully she didn’t have to wait much longer as the Archduke was preparing another charge. She dodged to the side again and he crashed into the wall again. The last thing he heard was from the pony who disappeared into the portal earlier, “This thing had better be worth it.” That was when he felt a heavy impact. Feeling himself, he discovered a huge hole in his chest. The Archduke collapsed on his knees before he exploded into flames.

The two mares’ eyes widened as they saw a massive crater that formed behind where the Archduke was killed. After Vinyl had mustered the nerve to return her dropped jaw back into place, she shouted at her partner, “Celestia Tavi, what the Tartarus kind of weapon did you get your hooves on!?”

Octavia was at a loss about what just happened. She fumbled with her words to give some kind of explanation, “I...I don’t know, when I entered that cavern, I found a few demons in the area but the thing that stood out was a flaming sword that reminded me of Celestia’s magic. When I got near it, it started moving on its own and floated toward me. I attempted to shoot it out of reflex only for it to melt my sniper rifle and consume the molten material. It did the same to my AT rifle. When I thought it was going to attack, it transformed into this thing instead.”

Octavia was holding a long rifle that appeared to be completely silver colored. The muzzle was emitting a golden flame that showed no sign of going out.

Octavia continued, “When I decided to test this thing out, I had no idea how devastating this thing was. This will take some practice to get used to.”

Vinyl’s cheeky grin returned, “Well, we still have a few more places to visit before we take the place over. Let’s have some fun with our new toys.” Octavia responded to Vinyl’s grin with one of her own.

As the duo left the pit, Vinyl asked Octavia what she would name her new weapon since something like that deserved a name. The assassin settled on Retribution. It was only right since the original form of the weapon was an Archangel’s sword.

Of the three remaining areas left unconquered by the ponies, two of them provided them with the opportunity to practice with their new weapons. Between Vinyl’s widespread destructive wubs and Octavia’s rifle, which she discovered could explosively pierce through numerous enemies in a line before impacting on harder surfaces, the demons easily surrendered the territories to the destructive mares.

During the course of attacking the demons, Octavia also discovered that her rifle could blast through vehicles.

Having the weapons proved to be very beneficial when they attacked a black cathedral on an island east of The Den which was guarded by an Archduke that wasn’t assigned to guard a Marshalling Ground which left Octavia to suspect that there were at least six Archdukes instead of five.

Despite the heavy defense, the Archduke stood no chance against Octavia’s Retribution.

With the more violent aspects of taking the district takeover complete, all that remained was another flight through the district before the takeover of the area was complete.

Shakespeare was pleased with the ending of the third act of the play he was writing about the Saints’ takeover of New Hades and eagerly awaited the beginning of the fourth and final act when the Saints and Equestrians would take the fight to Satan himself and make The Devil pay for banishing him after all that the playwright had done for him as his spymaster.