//------------------------------//
// Cake and Blood Rage 
// Story: Steely Hearts 
// by nothing_to_see_here 
//------------------------------//

Iron Warriors Recruiting Station-Downtown Canterlot
The recruiting station waiting room wasn’t quite what Steely was expecting. She had been expecting something…. futuristic. Really it just sort of looked like every other waiting room she’d been in, whether it was a dentist’s or a doctor’s, really you could have replaced it with this one and nopony would have been able to tell the difference… Except maybe the presence of armed guards at every doorway and the cameras in every corner. That may give away that it wasn’t the average waiting room. Maybe.

‘41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, and 55. Welp, that’s the third time I’ve counted the ceiling tiles. Let’s see if I can win a staring contest with the guard’s visor again. If nothing else it’s better than reading the usual old magazines. Oh! Maybe I’ll make faces at the camera next!’ Steely thought, bored out of her mind at how long it was taking to get in and see the recruiter.

‘How long does it take to fill out some forms and sign a piece of paper? When I got hired making magnets, it was a quick glance over my resume, sign a paper, then ‘bam’! You’re hired. Can’t be that different for signing up to be a mercenary right? I’ll ask the guard, maybe he’ll know.’

“‘Scuse me? Sir?” Steely asked the guard standing by the door leading to the recruiter’s office.
“Yes?”
“Does it usually take this long to sign up for a position?”
“Wouldn’t know. I had the choice of ‘join or we space you’.”
“Same”, another guard chimed in.
“I got ‘join or you get fed to the daemon engines’”, said another
“Am I really the only one that joined up willingly?”, asked the last guard.
“Yes”, the other three said simultaneously.
Then the door open and all conversation stopped. The recruiter, dressed in similar garb to the guards, stood in the door.
“Next, Ms…. Lathe?”, the recruiter said, glancing down at a clipboard in his hand.
“Yes, that’s me.” Steely responded.
“Alright, just step in and we’ll get started.”, the recruiter said, stepping back and motioning for Steely to come into the office.

She hadn’t really known what to expect when walking into the recruiting office of a group of space pirates, but she hadn’t been expecting something so.... mundane. It could have been mistaken for the office of a high school principal, or the office of a small store manager. It was just kinda… boring. No big banners hanging from the walls, no skulls mounted on plaques, nothing really put it apart from any other office.
Save for the lasgun hanging on the wall. And the giant chaos star above it. And the pistol lying on the desk next to the inkwell.
And the servitor that was filing papers in the corner.

“Sorry about the wait out there,” the recruiter said cheerfully, taking his seat at the desk, “had to request your medical file from the hospital. “Took a bit but once I got in touch of the cogboy there, it was easy as gutting a PDF trooper.”
Ignoring the somewhat disturbing metaphor, Steely took a seat in one of the chairs in front of the desk
“Oh it was no trouble” I wanted to bash my head against the wall I was so bored “So, how does this whole process work anyway? Do I sign some papers and we’re done? Need to go through a waiting period? Get some bloodwork done?”
“Oh no, nothing like that. You just have to sign once after we decide what you’ll be doing in the 38th Company.” 
“Oh, uh, okay, sounds easy enough.”
“Now then let’s start off with why you want to join the 38th Company.”
“Alright, well, uh, I’m out of a job-”
“Looking for work, alright, well we offer a lot of-”
“-because your Techpriest gave me heart that made my job impossible to do.”
“Um… that’s….. uh…” the recruiter stalled for a minute, then continued, “Well, uh, Ms. Lathe, what was that job, exactly?”
“I worked in a magnet factory, I worked on the factory floor, shaping magnets. I now cannot even go on the floor because my heart stops working.”
The recruiter coughed awkwardly before continuing., “The cogboy mentioned something along those lines…. So I imagine that that knocks anything in our industrial and labor section right off of the list. So let me just tell you what I’m thinking.”
“Shoot.”
“Infantry. Just like almost every other pony that has come in to join up.”
“Right. So what’s that entail? Do I get to shoot the blue bastards who are responsible for destroying my house?”
There was an awkward silence as the recruiter considered the choice between the hard truth or an easy lie with pony whose medical record featured edits from a Techpriest that said things like ‘Do Not Provoke’ and ‘Mean Right Hook’.
“Um… Yeeesssss?”
“Alright, I’m in.”
“Excellent!” the recruiter said quickly, the sooner he got this potential incident out of his office, the better. “Just sign here and you’ll belong the 38th, mind, body and soul.” the recruiter pushed a very official looking document with a fancy border toward her.
“What was that last part?”
“Nothing.”
 With a shrug, Steely took the pen from the inkwell with her wing and signed it.
‘Well, so begins a new chapter of my life. I’m sure I’ll have a great time.’

Ferrous Dominus Mustering/Training Yard Sector 23 1500 hours 2 days later
‘I am not having a great time.’
Steely thought as she crawled forward under the barbed wire, while rounds, both solid slugs and lasers, flew mere inches away from her head, and the instructors yelling at certain individuals to keep moving or to move faster, intermixed with curses and invoking of god’s names.
The last two days had been an… experience. As soon as her and the other hundred and nineteen recruits had stepped off of the train they had been corralled into this yard and been told to form ranks (which had taken a lot longer than even she would have expected) and from there their instructors had introduced themselves by yelling their names and then insulting the recruits with language that would have made a griffon sailor blush. Then had come the physical training to make sure that they had all been up to snuff physically. That hadn’t actually been too bad. For her. For the few unicorns that had decided infantry was right for them, well… she just hoped the infirmary was treating them alright. And not sticking new organs in them.

Steely reached the end of the barbed wire and proceed full gallop to the finish of the course, from there she continued to gallop to where everypony was supposed to muster after they had run the course. She arrived to see another five or six ponies standing in formation, breathing heavily. She took up a place alongside them. She didn’t know their names that well, there hadn’t been a lot of time for all the recruits to socialize since they had gotten off. Every day consisted of getting run ragged with courses, physical training, and drills, then a quick tasteless meal of nutrition paste and off to sleep. 

After another ten minutes the rest of the recruits finished the drill and got into formation, then the head instructor proceeded to get in front of them and speak.
“RIGHT YOU MISERABLE SACKS OF DUNG, YOU HAVE NOW GOTTEN PAST MOST OF THE PHYSICAL PORTION OF YOUR TRAINING! NOW WE WILL BE MOVING ON TO THE EQUIPMENT SECTION”
Okay, not speak, yell. They never talked at normal volume. Ever.
“YES SIR INSTRUCTOR SUR SIR!”
Another weird thing, the head instructors name was Sur. So whenever you responded to him, you had to say ‘yes sir Sur’.  And he could somehow tell when you just said ‘sir’ twice times and not ‘sur’.

“AND AFTER THIS PORTION OF YOUR TRAINING, YOU WILL BE ALLOWED TWO DAYS OFF WHILE YOUR GEAR IS READIED BY THE DARK MECHANICUS. NOW THE FIRST THING YOU’LL BE DOING IS CLEANING OUR- I MEAN LEARNING HOW TO CLEAN YOUR LASGUN IN THE FIELD. IF YOU SEE ONE THAT HAS MY NAME ON IT, BE SURE TO CLEAN THE TRIGGER MECHANISM CAREFULLY, IT IS ESPECIALLY FINICKY.”

The other instructors came onto the field with wheelbarrows of dirt and grime encrusted lasguns, dumping one in front of every single recruit on the field, along with a cleaning kit.
“RIGHT THEN, YOU HAVE HALF AN HOUR TO CLEAN OU-YOUR LASGUNS, AND DARK GODS HELP ME, IF WE FIND SO MUCH AS A SCRATCH ON ONE OF THOSE LASGUNS, YOU’LL DO DRILLS TILL YOU DIE! DO YOU GET ME MAGGOTS?!”
“YES SIR SUR!” Steely shouted, echoed by all the other recruits
“GOOD! NOW GET TO WORK!”

‘Right so let’s give this puppy a once over see what the damage is’ 
Steely thought as she gave the filthy lasgun a once over, seeing all the hardened mud and grime that caked the old weapon. Then she picked up a screwdriver that had come with the cleaning kit and proceeded to open up the gun’s inner workings to the world. Steely was immediately hit with a wave of nostalgia as the smell of machine oil hit her nostrils, taking her back to memories of her old lathe that had been at her workstation in the factory, the late nights she had spent shaping the material, grazing it off in flakes or long coils to the shape that was needed. She then stepped out of the memory as she truly began to survey the inner workings of the lasgun and saw the grime and that had caked a majority of the parts. She didn’t recognize a lot of them, or how they worked, but she did notice how they all fit together and what mucky parts were interfering with what.
‘just like cleaning up the lathe during maintenance week’ she thought as she applied a bit of oil to a rag after taking out a part, ‘just get the gunk off the important bits first, then take care of everything else’. 

Having worked with lathes and machining equipment for a better part of her life, Steely was actually rather at home with cleaning the weapon, it felt familiar taking the thing apart and cleaning each piece individually, it felt calming and put her in a sort of familiar trance that she went into when working on things like this.

‘Oil, wipe gunk, oil, next part. Oil, wipe gunk, oil, next. Oil, gunk, oil, next.’ a mantra began in her head as she moved from part to part, cleaning each one methodically and thoroughly before moving to the next. Before she knew it, every part in the gun was clean, and she proceeded to put them all back into place before sealing the cover of the lasgun back on with the screws, then, she proceeded to wipe down the whole outer casing lovingly before setting it back down and raising her hoof to signal to one of the instructors that she had finished.
“RECRUIT LATHE! WHY ARE YOU RAISING YOUR HOOF?!” yelled a nearby instructor
“TO SIGNAL THAT I FINISHED CLEANING THE LASGUN SIR!”
“WHAT? YOU HAVE ONLY BEEN CLEANING THAT LASGUN FOR THE LAST SEVEN MINUTES, AND YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THAT YOU’RE FINISHED? I CALL BULLSHIT RECRUIT LATHE!” the recruiter stormed over “YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THAT YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY CLEANED THIS LASGUN, A WEAPON THAT YOU HAVE NEVER ENCOUNTERED BEFORE, IN SEVEN MINUTES, WHEN EVERY OTHER RECRUIT HAS BARELY EVEN FINISHED FIGURING OUT WHAT GOES WHERE?!”
“YES SIR INSTRUCTOR!”
“WELL LOOKS LIKE WE HAVE AN OVER ACHIEVER”
‘Oh no’ Steely thought, ‘this sort of thing never goes well’
“ATTENTION RECRUITS, AS IT SEEMS RECRUIT LATHE IS A MASTER MANUFACTORY WORKER IN DISGUISE, SHE WILL FINISH CLEANING ALL OF YOUR LASGUNS WHILE YOU ALL GET TO ENJOY YOUR LEAVE EARLY. NOW PLEASE REASSEMBLE AND PILE YOUR LASGUNS NEXT TO HER ON THE WAY OUT, AND SAY THANK YOU TO THE MASTER MACHINIST.”
‘Oh Celestia why...’ Steely had a look of despair on her face as the other hundred and nineteen recruits shuffled past her, throwing their lasguns in a pile beside her saying “thanks” and “good luck” to her as they passed. By the end of the line, a pile of a hundred and nineteen lasguns sat next to her, each in varying degrees of cleanliness.
“RIGHT THEN”, the recruiter shouted, “YOU GET ALL OF THESE CLEAN, AND THEN YOU CAN GET YOUR LEAVE. UNDERSTOOD?!”
“Yes sir instructor.” Steely said with little enthusiasm. For once the recruiter didn’t yell that he didn’t hear her, instead he smiled smugly and walked off from the field, the other instructors following him.

Steely sighed as the last one left. She liked cleaning machinery, yes. It was familiar and comforting to do, reminded her of her old job and the hobby that was machining. But this? This was ridiculous. She sighed once again as she picked a lasgun from the pile and proceeded to repeat the same process she had with the first one, pop it open, clean the parts, pop it closed, clean the body, rinse and repeat.
After the tenth lasgun however, she got a feeling someone was watching her. She stopped cleaning the part she was currently holding with her wing and looked around. Nothing.
“Huh.” Steely said aloud, turning her head around once more, “Felt like someone was- GAH!” Steely jumped as she turned her head back towards the part only to be met with the face of a batpony mere inches from hers.
“Why hello there” The batpony said in a friendly voice, the kind of friendly that most people generally found annoying.
“Uh, hi?”
“This your pile of lasguns?” the batpony asked
“Yeeesssss?”
“Why are you cleaning a pile of lasguns? Wait. Let me guess. You cleaned yours quickly?”
“Yeah, how’d you know?”
“Oh they pull the same trick when training the night guard, first person to clean their kit has to clean everyone else’s kit too.”
“Oh well that makes-”
“That and I’ve been watching you all train for the past hour.”
‘well that’s not weird at all’ Steely thought ‘wait…’
“....Can I ask why?”
“I was bored really, not much to do right now. And I’ve already spied on Twilight enough for today.” the baypony muttered something at the end.
“What?”
“Nothing. Did I forget to introduce myself? How rude! I’m lieutenants Dusk Blade!” Dusk said, eager to change the subject away from his ‘non stalker’ behavior.
“Right well, my name’s Steely Lathe, and if you were watching you’ll know that I have a lot of lasguns to go through and-”
“Well how about I keep you company?”
‘Can I finish a single bucking sentence around this stallion? If he keeps this up, I’m gonna knock him flat, lieutenant or not’
“Right, sure, I’ll just keep cleaning and you can… I don’t know, take a seat?”
“Alright. So where you from Lathe?”
“I prefer Steely, but I’m from Canterlot”
“Oh that’s nice; used to be stationed there all the time, before well, this whole… situation. What with the aliens and such.”
Steely continued to clean the lasguns as Dusk went on talking, oblivious to the fact that Steely had once again fallen into cleaning. Steely was nearly done with her eleventh lasgun when she dropped a piece. Leaning her head down to grab it with her mouth rather than put down the rag and oil container.
This action ended up saving her life, as a bright crimson beam scorched the air where her head had been a few moments ago.
Steely shot up and looked where the shot had come from, finding the source with the lieutenant holding one of the recently cleaned lasguns, one marked ‘Sur’, in her direction, surprise evident on his face.
“Wow! Trigger is sensitive on this one, I just jostled it and zap! I don’t think this is really-”
Dusk flinched back as the lasgun fired again, pointing up this time, and then fired a third time as he dropped it into the mud.
“Yeah, I think the drill instructor needs to get his gun checked.” Dusk said, looking at the gun as though it were possessed. Which knowing what he did about chaos, it may very well be.
“You nearly blew off my head! And now I’m going to have to clean that gun again!” Steely yelled, abandoning rag and oil, as well as spitting out the part she’d picked up.
“It was an accident, I didn’t think it was that touchy!”
“It was still your fault!”
“Well, I think it’s kind of the dark mechanicus’s fault for providing sub par gear to the common soldiers? Don’t you think? I mean I get the best in weapons and armor and equipment and I don’t think that it’s-” Dusk started to attempt to go off on a tangent of laying the blame for nearly killing somepony elsewhere, but was cut off by Steely.
 “Listen, Dusk. If you do not stop talking and go away right now. I will hurt you.”
He then chuckled at that. Chuckled. At her threat. Chuckled.
“Listen, I know that you just got through your physical stuff and you think you’re hot stuff, which, you are, don’t get me wrong, but I’m Night Guard, I’m Elite. So I don’t want to insult you but the chances of you laying a hoof on me ar- Oh Sweet Luna!” Dusk was cut off as Steely tackled him to the ground and began to beat him senseless. She positioned herself so that she was sitting on his chest and beating his face with her hooves.
“Oh! Sweet! Luna! Why! Ow ow ow ow! Ow!”
Steely hit Dusk, his voice punctuating each blow, then just silently taking each hit with the occasional grunt, this went on for about three minutes, until one of his fangs actually popped out and skittered across the training field. At this point she got off of him and went back to sitting next to the pile of lasguns. But not before she turned back and said to the brutalized batpony
“I know a dentist in Ponyville who can actually put that tooth back in if you want, her name’s Colgate.” With that she went back to cleaning the part she had been working on and fell back into her maintenance trance, she registered the lieutenant getting up after a few minutes and collecting his tooth, muttering something about ‘every mare in this fortress being crazy’ before taking off, presumably to schedule an appointment with the dentist she mentioned.
‘eleven lasguns down, a lot more to go’ Steely thought as she completed another lasgun, adding it to the ‘clean’ pile. Then going over to the dropped lasgun to clean the outer casing again.

Sector 6 bakery-three hours later
 
Steely, her wings covered in machine oil, walked into the bakery, closing the door behind her and taking off the rebreather she had been wearing for nearly two days.
‘This thing stinks so bad they can probably smell it in Cloudsdale.’ Steely thought as she hung it on the rack placed near the door. Steely walked up to the counter, noting how busy the bakery seemed to be despite it being rather late in the day. She was greeted by a mare with a big smile on her face behind the counter.
“Hello there! I’m Cinnamon! Welcome to the Sector Six bakery!” Cinnamon said cheerily.
“Is that really it’s name?” Steely asked.
“Well we’re waiting on the Dark Mechanicus to make us a sign with the real name on it so until then we’re just calling it that. So what can I get you today? We have a special on the carrot cake.”
“Thanks. Sorry if I’m not too chatty right now. Just had a really stressful day, had to run drills since dawn and I’ve been cleaning lasguns for the past three hours. I really just want to get some cake, take a seat, and eat it.” Steely said exasperated. Really at this point she’d pay whatever price they asked for, she just wanted some cake so she could unwind and forget about the whole day.
“Well, alright, no harm in wanting to relax. So what  can I get for you? We have an extensive collection, there’s a menu on the counter here of some of the favorites everyone seems to love, we’ve even had some kroot drop in for a slice of the Death by Chocolate”
“I’ll take that then”
“Alright be right back with a slice”
Steely was feeling better already, when she got that cake she was going to take a seat and-
Something clicked in her brain. 
‘Kroot. Wasn’t Kroot the name of some species the tau use as meatshields? Why would there be Kroot in the 38th Company’s home base?’ Steely thought ‘I’ll ask her once she comes back’
Cinnamon came back from the kitchen with a small frown on her face
“Sorry, but we just sold out the last of the death by chocolate to a little dragon for some birthday party in motor pool.”
“That’s fine, but you mentioned something about Kroot earlier? Why would there be Kroot in Ferrous Dominus?”
Cinnamon looked at the mare oddly, like she had just asked what two plus two equals.
“Because they’re our allies now? I mean I’m not a huge fan of them, but they spend money here just like anyone else so-”
Steely’s vision turned half red. and she began to twitch
“Um…. Are you okay? Because it looks like a blood vessel just burst in your eye-”
Steely’s vision turned completely red. She felt something rush through her blood. Something needed to get hit. Now.
“-s.” Cinnamon finished weakly, looking worried at the twitching mare with two bloodshot eyes standing in front of the counter.
“Listen. Very. Carefully.” Steely growled, each word coming out restrained, like a dog on a short chain, ready to be unleashed. “I. NEED. To. Know. Where. I. Can. Find. Records.”
“Um…. I’m not sure I should tell you….”
“Now.”
“S-Sector 1 administration building, big square building with no windows and steel door in the front, can’t miss it.” Cinnamon said as fast as she could without stuttering.
“Thank You.”
RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-
Steely yelled as only someone out for blood could as she took off, flying through one of the bakery’s windows, startling and causing all but the most jaded of the bakery’s occupants (mostly human mercenaries who had gone into battle with World Eaters) to duck for cover. Flying down the road towards Sector 1, the occupants of the bakery could still hear her as she went.
“Someone want to go ask the Mechanicus for a new window?” Asked Cinnamon as she donned the rebreather she kept behind the counter. “Free cupcakes for the ones to install it.”


Ponyville-Cutie Mark Crusaders Club house
“Check” Scootaloo said as she moved the rook into an open space, putting the opposing king in danger.
“Hmm.” Tellis grunted in an annoyed manner as he moved the king, sacrificing a turn.
“Ah’m really surprised she’s beatin’ you, Tellis” said Applebloom
“Yeah, aren’t you like, a thousand years old? How are you losing to a filly at chess?” Asked Sweetie Belle.
“I”m a Khornate Berserker, not a nerd wizard who plays this game all day, that’s for Tzeentch followers.” Tellis said as he moved his knight into position to take Scootaloo’s bishop.
“Oh yeah, Well,” Sweetie Belle looked up to the sky for a moment, “Why does Khorne sit on a throne all day then?”
“Because he’s tired from beating up nerd wizards. Damnnit! WHERE DID THAT PAWN COME FROM!?” Tellis yelled as Scootaloo took his queen.
“You weren’t paying enough attention” Scootaloo said as she placed the queen alongside of the many other pieces that she’d taken from Tellis over the course of the game.
“Well Ah think it’s nice for yah to come and play a game with us mister Tellis” Applebloom said “Ah thought you’d be getting ready to fight the Orks, or doing stunts with Rainbow Dash like you usually do”
“Eh I thought I’d take it easy for a bit, ya know? When the Orks get here, I’m going to be plenty busy, blood for the Blood God and all that, right kid?”
“You bet! Skulls for the Skull throne”
RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
The three fillies and one chaos lord looked up from the game to the sound of a rage filled yell from very far off.
“Huh, wonder who that could be.” Applebloom said aloud
Tellis tapped his lightning claws on his helmet’s chin for a moment before snapping his fingers.
“I know that sound! That right there is the sound of someone snapping and going on a blood and chemical fueled rampage! Those are always fun.”
“Where?” Sweetie Belle asked
“Ferrous Dominus”
“You can tell from here?”
“I’m a Blood Cultist, remember? We get an ear for these sort of things, right kid?”
“You bet!” Scootaloo shouted in agreement.
“Right well I’m gonna go check on this and see if I can get in on any of the fun before whoever’s doing it gets pumped full of either tranquilizers or bullets. Or both. Both is fun too.”

Ferrous Dominus Sector 1 Administration/record building
All was quiet in the building that housed a large portion of the 38th Company’s records on personnel. No one ever really came in here because no one ever really cared to know when a certain mercenary had joined or where they were from. Even when the 38th did have records on when someone was born, it was usually to rule out whether or not the could be considered young or old enough for certain duties or if they were to be placed up front or in the rear when being used as cannon fodder for the enemy guns.
The main lobby where most people would access the information stored in the databanks behind thick blast doors, was occupied by a Techpriest who was fixing a light, a servitor that was cleaning the floor, and a bored clerk who had at one point worked for Imperial Administratum, his job was to man the terminal and get anyone the information they asked for. Currently the clerk was constructing a Baneblade replica out of toothpicks, he’d been working on it for months, and he was very nearly done with it. One last toothpick was all he needed to add, he carefully and slowly applied the adhesive to the toothpick, and then slowly lowered it onto the turret of the replica. He sighed, another project done. Maybe he’d make a titan ne-
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! BANG
The clerk jumped and looked at the source of the noise, even the Techpriest stopped rewiring the light to look. The servitor just kept cleaning.
It had come from the solid steel door that was the entrance and exit to the building.
It had two small circular dents in it just above mid level.
BANG BANG BANG BANG
The door acquired a few more dents as who or whatever was trying to gain entrance continued to pound on it. Each time the door seemed to give in a little more.
BANG
The door came out of it’s frame with one final pound and fell inwards, revealing a…. pony?
Oh this pony looks very angry.

Steely hovered in the door for a moment before proceeding inwards. The Techpriest moved towards her, either in an effort to try and fix the door or berate her for the damage, she didn’t care. She grabbed the Techpriest’s head when he got close, and then twisted and pulled on it as hard as she could. Which was very hard considering she was fueled by rage and a chemical cocktail that eliminated the usual limits the brain placed on muscles.

The Techpriest’s head came off with a sickening crunch and groan of metal and bone breaking, the body stood there for a moment as though the head was still there, then the neck stump which the head had once sat on began spurting oil and other mechanical replacements for blood around the room, undoing the servitor’s work on cleaning the floors.

Steely approached the desk, oil soaked trophy in hoof, slamming it on the desk, crushing the model Baneblade in the process.
“C-c-c-can I h-h-help you?” the terrified clerk asked
“Yes. I need two things from you. You cooperate and you don’t end up like scraphead here” Steely tapped the severed head twice.
“O-o-of course! Of course! Whatever you need!”
“Right. I need to know who is having a birthday today so I can kill them. And then I need to know the location of somepony named Gear Works.”
“Why?”
Steely tapped the head again.
The clerk got to work as Steely began to talk aloud, he desperately avoided making eye contact with her blood red eyes.
“All I wanted was a slice of cake, but no, the Tau had to ruin that too, I’ll show them, I’ll kill every person whose birthday is today, that’ll show those blue skinned mules! I’ll kill everyone with birthday, then I’ll eat the cake, then I’ll kill the Tau, then I’ll kill everypony at my old job, then I’ll kill everypony at my new job. Then I’ll kill…. everypony in saddle arabia. Maybe. That’s pretty far after all….”
Steely continued to insanely rant to herself as the clerk continued to work, faster than he had ever worked before, his head was on the line here.
After about a minute a sheet began to print out from the terminal, containing the information the insane mare had wanted. It had around fifteen names on it.
“H-here you are. Do you need anything else?”
“Nope. Thank you.”
Steely snatched the list from the clerk’s hands and turned around to fly out, tearing the head off the servitor on the way out, and throwing it with such force that it embedded itself in the wall next to the clerk.
“Have a nice day?” The clerk said to thin air.

Ferrous Dominus-Sector 9-Motor Pool
Steely ran her now blood covered hoof over another name as she moved towards the last few names on the list, none of the others had had cake. Or a party. But she had killed them anyway. ‘So this last guy has to be the one with the cake. After I kill the party and eat the cake, I’ll be paying the little lying mule who told me I’d get to kill Tau a visit. Yeah.’

‘Now then, I just to find the par- oh. There it is. The balloons really stick out don’t they?’
Surely enough, she was flying nearly directly over a gathering of mercenaries, they had balloons tied to the ends of nearby tanks guns, and were all sitting at a small fold out table with six mercenaries and a baby dragon sitting at it. At the head of the table was a mercenary with multiple scars wearing a party hat the cake in front of him had the candles still smoking from being blown out. He was going at the cake with a knife.
‘No. No. No. No. THAT IS MINE. MY CAKE!’
RRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! 
Steely yelled as she fell into a steep dive towards the party. Everyone at the table immediately looked up to see the angry mare dive bombing them.
“What the-” One of the mercs began to say as Steely slammed into the mercenary with the knife. Unfortunately for Steely, you don’t get to be thirty in the 38th Company without developing some good reflexes, and as she slammed into the man, the knife he was holding was thrust out and up, cutting her across her left eye, leaving a nasty cut there, but otherwise doing no damage.
The older mercenary was thrown back into one of the nearby vehicles, knocking the wind out of him as he impacted the tracks, as he caught his breath the other mercenaries moved to support him, while the baby dragon ran for help.
Steely moved between the mercenaries as they tried to hit her, showering them with blows to the chest and head, cracking ribs and skulls. Not to say that she didn’t get out scot free, she did take quite a few kicks and punches here and there, even another knife wound on her body; but she didn’t feel them, the mixture of adrenaline, rage, and chemical cocktail kept her from feeling much of anything save the sweet crunch of impacts and the pulsing of blood in her ears. Her vision had gone a deep red again, as it did when she had killed the other people on the list.
One by one the mercenaries began to fall victim to the raging mare, either their necks were snapped, their chests caved, or their windpipes crushed, they fell. The last one was especially satisfying for her as she drove her hoof all the way through him. What a rush.
As the blood began to settle in her body and she began to calm, she took stock of her surroundings. Six mercenaries lay dead at her hooves. Slaughtered by her. Blood was sprayed here and there, painting the surrounding vehicles in haphazard fashion. And there, in the center of it all, untouched, was a whole Death by Chocolate cake. A perfectly sized slice was already cut out of it. Taking up the plate with one wing, she leaned in and took a bit out of it. It tasted like…. like….
Blood. ‘What? Why does it taste like… oh, wait…. I tore out that one person’s throat with my…. Oh yeah… Well I suppose that ruins this whole venture.’
Steely then unceremoniously dropped the piece on the floor and took off to Sector 18 to find a certain earth pony who had lied to her.

Spike ran away as fast as he could from the psychotic mare that had interrupted the party he’d been attending, occasionally glancing over his shoulder to make sure she wasn’t following him. He needed to find Twilight, or Gaela or someone who would be capable of stopping that psyc-
Spikes train of thought abruptly ended as he ran into a large, deep crimson leg attached to a chaos lord.
“Hey, what’s up Spike?” Tellis asked.
Spike sat up and rubbed his head. Tellis. Not the first person he’d wanted to have run into in this situation, but probably the best match for what needed to be done.
‘Heck, he’ll probably be happy to lend a hand with this.’ Spike thought.
“Well I was just at a birthday party for this older mercenary that I’d help organized and then-”
“Blood raging psychotic mare comes out of nowhere and starts killing people?”
Spike blinked “Yeah… How’d you know?”
“Been the same story at the last like. fourteen places I’ve been to where there were survivors. She is really dedicated to this too, I mean I haven’t seen this kind of bare handed carnage-or would it be hoofed? Do you know what the right word is here?”
“Look, that doesn’t matter! This psycho is a few rows away and I want to get as far as possible from her before she decides that I’m next!”
“Aw, c’mon, don’t be like that, we’ll go to her together!”
“I’m not sure that’s a good-”
Tellis grabbed Spike by the head and started his jets
“Together!”
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” Spike yelled as Tellis took off, his head firmly in the Raptor’s grip.

Ferrous Dominus-Sector 18-Dormitory 611
Gear Works hummed happily to himself as he packed the few belongings he had brought to the fortress into a bag to take to his new accommodations with the Dark Mechanicus. He was overjoyed that he’d been accepted just a few days before. Now he just had to pack his things and he could get to work on all sorts of exciting things within the Mechanicus. Then he heard a knock at the door.
“Who is it?”
The door then caved inwards and fell to the floor revealing a grey mare with blood red eyes, blood soaked and somewhat odd looking hooves and a snarl on her face. Which also looked a bit bloody. Somehow.
“Room Service.” Steely growled.
“Oh dear. Um. Who are you?”
“I’m from Canterlot.”
“Going to have to be a bit more specific there, miss.”
“Lathe, Steely Lathe, you handed me pamphlet for joining the 38th Company, telling me I’d get to kill Tau. Now I get here and it turns out I’m not allowed to kill Tau, now I have to work with them. Mind explaining?”
“Oh! You mean those pamphlets I handed out in the refugee camps! Oh yeah, it really raked in the recruits. I mean, I sort of knew I was lying but I figured that- this isn’t helping my case with you, is it?”
“Not particularly, no.” Steely said as she advanced on the augmented stallion.
“N-now just hold on! I’m heavily augmented, there’s no way that you can-” Gear Works was stopped as Steely hit him with her left hoof, actually managing to knock one of the tubes attached to his head loose and cracking his mechanical eye a bit more.
“Okay, maybe you can-” Gear Works was once again cut off as Steely picked him up by his servo arm and threw him against the wall, leaving an impression there.
“Now ew mabye coudl-” Gear Works speech was slightly off this time, disoriented from the previous two blows, he got up and was immediately knocked down by Steely who proceeded to get on top of him and began to rain blows on his face.
‘Left. Right. Left. Right. Left. Right. Left. Right. Left. Right. Left. Right.’ Steely thought as she pounded the aspirant Techpriest senseless, actually managing to knock a few teeth out in the process, sending them skittering across the floor. After five minutes of blows to the face Steely got up off the the stallion and moved towards the door.
She paused in the doorway and turned to address Gear Works, who lay on the floor with a few teeth missing, a fat lip, quite a few bruises, the non mechanical eye badly swollen, and the mechanical one sporting a few dents.
“Be seeing you around then Gears. Maybe we’ll get cake or something.” Steely then spat in his general direction and left the room.
“Bye.” Gear Works said weakly from his position on the floor.