Steely Hearts

by nothing_to_see_here

Body mods and Blood cults

Ferrous Dominus-Outside Visitors Dormitory
Steely flew threw the door leading outside to Ferrous Dominus and took a deep breath of smog in satisfaction of a job well done. Justice had been served. From her perspective anyway.
‘Reeeeally wish I’d brought my rebreather, the air here smells like a mix of burnt metal and burning rubber’
Steely wobbled slightly as she began to feel strange, becoming slightly lightheaded and tired. She felt like she needed to lay down. That pleasant rush and burning feeling that had been in her blood began to recede, her head became a bit clearer, and her vision began to clear of the red hue that had been present since the start of her totally justified rampage.
‘I think I’ve been flying too long, I’ll walk back to the barracks I’ll be-’
Her thoughts were cut off as pain surged through her forelegs when she landed. Like needles had been pushed through every part of them and then crushed. Her eyes began to water from the pain as she collapsed forward, her legs unable to hold her up.
“OW! OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! OH SWEET CELESTIA IT HURTS! WHY DOES THIS HURT SO BADLY!? OOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWW!”
No one in the vicinity immediately rushed to the aid of a mare who was covered in blood and cuts. A few ponies looked on with some hesitation, deciding whether or not to move forward and help the mare, but the sight of blood that was most likely not her own was definitively a reason they were in no rush to help.
Humans who were passing by had seen much worse on the battlefield, and simply ignored the crying mare. Steely’s cries continued for a few minutes before over her cries she heard a roar that sounded like the engines of the dropships the humans used, only smaller. And shouting with them, audible over the roar.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”
“FOUND HER!”
The roar of engines stopped and a moment later there was an impact in the ground behind her large enough to pick her up off the ground for a moment.
And then immediately back down onto her broken legs.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” Steely’s cries began with new strength after this horrifyingly painful impact.
“Wow she certainly has some lungs, right?” a voice with a metallic filter to it sounded from behind her.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” the other voice just kept shouting.
“Uh. You can stop. We’re on the ground, man.”
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA…. We are? Oh sweet celestia thank you thank you thank you.” The thank yous were peppered with what sounded like someone kissing the ground beneath them.
“May not want to do that unless you want to cut your lifespan by a few years.” the metallic voice said, “Anyway, this who crashed your party?”
“Oh, uh, yeah, I mean she’s covered in blood so…”
“Right let’s see what we’re dealing with.”
Steely felt a massive hand wrap around her body and pick her up, bringing her face to face with a giant crimson space marine.
“P-please, help me….” Steely begged “Legs hurt. So. Badly. Need doctor.”
Tellis looked at the pleading mare’s legs and back to her face.
“Yeah, I’ve seen enough people on a Slaught combat cocktail to know that those things are probably jelly on the inside, ‘specially with all the doors you’ve banging down. By the way, really just want to say nice job on the one with the ripped out throat, that was a beautiful blood spray onto those slave’s faces. I mean from one professional serial murderer to another, I gotta give credit where it’s due there. That one you tossed down a smoke-”
“Uh, Tellis? I think we should probably get her some help.” Spike interjected concerned for the mare even though she’d just murdered the attendants of the party he was just at.
“Hm? Oh yeah, probably should…. Hmmmmm…..Well those legs probably need to come off. Probably could get some nerd to do it.”
“You mean a techpriest? Maybe Gaela could do it.”
At the mention of techpriests Steely began shaking her head.
“No. No. Techpriests. Hate. Techpriests.”
“Well I think I know one other person who could hook you up with some sweet prosthetics. And he’s not a dark nerd so thats a win-win”
“You mean Solon? I don’t know if he’d be okay with us just barging in and demanding some surgery. I mean won’t he be mad about her killing those guys?”
“Not if she’s a follower of Khorne. See, we get leeway on killing guys cause you never know when we’ll snap.”
“But she’s not a follower of Khorne, is she?”
“Lets ask. Hey? You wanna follow Khorne?”
Steely by this point had passed out from the throbbing pain in her legs and hung limply in the chaos lord’s hand.
“I think that’s a yes, you think that’s a yes?”
“I think she’s passed out.”
“Pefect! Boss nerd won’t even have to waste time knocking her out.”
“I’m still not sure about this”
“Then you can wait here. See ya later Spike, tell your geek owner I said high!”
“She’s not my-”
Before Spike could correct him, Tellis took off with Steely in hand, leaving spike standing in front of the building next to the pool of blood Steely had had drip off her in her time on the ground.
Spike sighed, and began walking back towards the psyker dorms.

Ferrous Dominus - Solon’s Forge
Warsmith Solon finished the final details on a large blueprint he’d been laboring over for the past few days between meetings with the command staff and Princess Luna. The blueprint was for a teleporter signal interceptor, now that it was done all that would be needed were a few trials and prototypes before he had the final version installed into his forge to catch unwanted ‘guests’.
“Perhapsh now I can get shome work done without being interrupt-” Solon began to say as there was a crash behind him and the roof caved in.
“Hey! Boss Nerd! I need you to hook this pony up with some new legs!” Tellis shouted to Solon, holding the still passed out Steely to him.
Solon sighed inwardly and made a mental note to have the roof reinforced with a few inches of plasteel before answering.
“And why would I do that when you’ve broken my roof? There ish a door and that ish much eashier to repair than a roof.”
“Too slow. And way more fun to come in through the roof”
“Fine, moving on, why ish thish pony sho important that you want her to get augmentationsh?” Solon said as he began to scan Steely
“She already hash an augmetic heart, odd, it appearsh that the Shlaught injectorsh have been emptied, and it looks like the forelegs are as close to pulped as they can get”
“See that’s part of why I want her fixed up, she went on a awesome rampage and killed like, fifteen people, I think she’d make a great khornate!”
“That would explain the blood…”
“So can you fix her up? Maybe give her some armor like the other ones?”
“Hmmmm….” Solon reviewed the data the scan had given him and gave the idea some thought.
“Very well I’ll give her some legs, but no power armor, power armor ish for people who ushe doorsh.”
“Sweet. Where do I put her?”
“Jusht hand her to me and get out of here, go fly around with the blue idiot or shomething”
“Cool. See ya Boss Nerd!” Tellis shouted as he took off, creating another hole in the ceiling next to the one he’d entered from as he left.
Solon sighed, and doubled the amount of plasteel he was going to add to the roof, with some adamantium for good measure.

Ferrous Dominus - Solon’s Forge - 1 day later
“Bwuh?” Steely said groggily as she lifted her head off the cold metal table she was on.
“Where am I?” she asked as she shifted her view around and blinked her eyes a few times
“Oh, you’re awake, hopefully I can orient you to the new partsh and move onto more productive projectsh”
“What are you talking about? Wait. Why can’t I feel my forelegs? Why does my chest feel weird? What’s….. I got more bits of metal shoved in me, didn’t I?”
“Well the mosht major of the augmentationsh ish more on you than in you, really”
Steely’s head reared back as far as it could go when the owner of the strangely accented voice revealed himself from behind a large console.
“I am Warshmith Sholon of the Iron Warriors 38th Grand Company, and to you missh Shteely Lathe, I am your shuperior”
Steely could do nothing but stare at Solon with her eyes as wide as they get, silence dominated the forge for a few moments as before Steely finally worked up the ability to respond.
“Ok.”
“‘Ok’? That’sh all you have to shay? I’ve just operated on you and replaced two of your limbsh and some of your organsh with augmeticsh and all you have to shay ish ‘ok’?” Solon didn’t sound upset by her apparent lack of awe or fear for him, but he didn’t sound like he completely believed her neutral response.
“Well to be fair, this is the third time I’ve woken up with new organs.”
Solon stared at her for a few moments.
“Fair enough. Sho do you want a full technical analyshish of your new partsh, or a shimple overview of what they are and what they do?”
“Well I don’t speak tech, I can work metal pretty well but I don’t know circuits and junk, soooo…..”
“Huhhh.” Solon Sighed, “Fine. I’ve replaced your forelegsh with fully functioning mechanical onesh which alsho can act as power fishtsh-”
“What’s a power fist?”
Solon sighed once more, bringing his gauntleted hand up to where his nose would be without a helmet on, rubbing the area.
“A power fisht ish a weapon that hash a field which tearsh’ apart foesh on a molecular level, moving on, I did get perhapsh a bit carried away with the augmentationsh, sheeing ash the wiring for mosht of the organsh and nervesh to be replaced with shynethic counterpartsh was already present. The work of Carmed, if I had to guessh, hish proposhalsh to turn you equinesh into shervitorsh wash a curioushity, but utterly futile; I can shee that didn’t shtop him from trying, however. Getting back on track, I replaced the equivalent of your adrenal glandsh with a series of chemical injectorsh, shome to shlow bleeding and dull pain, that short of thing. Finally, while brain augmentationsh aren’t my area of expertishe, I did some poking around in your head and either heightened your pain threshold or made it sho you can’t shee the color green any more. Posshibly both.”
“Uh…. Thanks?” Steely said, standing up and looking down at her new legs, “So that power field thing, how do I, uh, turn that on?”
“Currently it ish dishabled to prevent you from making a mess of my forge. But it can be activated and deactivated by shufficient concusshive force againsht the opposhing limb.”
“What?”
Solon covered his helmet’s face with a hand and shook his head.
“Hit. The hoovesh. Together. To turn them on and off.”
“Ohhhh. Alright. What about all that other stuff with the drugs?”
“That just reliesh on the shignalsh from the nervoush shyshtem ordering the body to work harder to enshure shurvival.”
“Um…”
“When your body thinksh you’re about to die. The drugsh will kick in.”
“Alright, alright sounds good so far. Anything else I should know?”
“I’ve got a set of carapace armour modified for equine use. Should be relatively easy to put on alone.”
“Sweet, so do I need to pay for this or?” Steely said taking her eyes off her new leg to look at Solon with an eyebrow raised.
“No, Tellis is the only reason you’re getting all of this, he apparently thinks you’ll be of great use for the blood cult.”
“Oh alright then….” Steely smiled and nodded before the last part of sentence was processed, “Wait. Blood Cult?”
“Yesh, it wash my undershtaning that after you were to join the blood cult that company maintains, I actually sent Tellis a message a few minutes ago informing him of your awakening so he can take you there and you can get out of my forge.”
“Um, I’m not too sure about this, I mean, joining a band of space pirates is one thing, but joining something call a ‘blood cult’ is something else enti-”
Steely was cut off as a loud metallic bang came from above them, followed by some muffled curses and the sound of activating lighting claws. Another moment passed before the roof caved in and the crimson space marine Steely remembered before passing out came through.
“Yo Boss Nerd! You said the newest Khornate on the block was ready for joining?”
“Yesh, get her armour on and get out pleashe, I have work that needsh doing.”
“Got it. Come on… uh… I don’t know your name.”
“Steely Lathe, and I’m not sure I want any real part of this blood cult thing. I mean I know I may have gone overboard but I’m sure that I’ll be-”
“If you’re not going to join the blood cult, I’m afraid we’ll have to charge you for the death of the fifteen men you killed. As well ash for the damage caused.”, Solon added helpfully.
“Well maybe-”
“And if you join you get to kill pretty much anybody and blame it on Khorne telling you to.” Tellis remarked, putting an arm around the mare’s neck.
“Within reashon.”
“...I could give it a shot.”
“That’s the spirit! Now get that armour on and let’s go get you inducted”
“What does that involve?”
“Beatings, for humans, or just generally being pissed off.”
“What about ponies?”
Sector 5 Ferrous Dominus - Temple District - Temple of Khorne waiting room - 2 hours later
Once again Steely found herself in a waiting room that didn’t look that different from any other waiting room in existence.
Well, actually this one was probably pretty different from any other waiting room.
For starters every wall was red, all the lights were red, the chairs were red and actually very uncomfortable to sit in, the few magazines and books that were available had bloodstains on all but a few pages, and most of them were from around five years ago on top of that.
And then there was a body being suspended from the ceiling by meat hooks which was so fresh it was still dripping blood onto the already bloodstained floor below.
But really it was the chairs that stood out the most.
‘What kind of waiting room has uncomfortable chairs? Isn’t the purpose of a waiting room to make it so people are comfortable while they wait?’
These thoughts passed through Steely’s mind as she absentmindedly stared at one of the less bloodstained books she had found, having not turned the page in a the last five minutes and simply spacing out.
The book itself was titled:

Kharn the Betrayer: Post-Human, Folk Tale, Urban Myth

By Kharn the Betrayer.

In the back of the book was what you usually find in the back of a novel, a small biography of the author and a picture of them in a large backed armchair wearing glasses and holding a pipe.

This was mostly strange because the space marine was still in full armor, he had a commissar’s hat on top of his helmet along with some glasses, and he had a chainaxe in his other hand.

In reality Steely had stopped reading after the fifteenth page, as up to that point it had simply been a recipe book for banana bread, and then it began to tell stories that weren’t even from the author’s perspective. Steely simply kept the facade of reading up to distract herself from the hellish decoration of the room, or the uncomfortable chairs. Or to do anything but talk to the large raptor guard who had been staring at her since she and Tellis entered the room.

Tellis had already left around twenty minutes ago, exclaiming “Bored now!” and then flying through the door they had entered through. This left Steely alone with a silent chaos raptor who did nothing but stare at her and occasionally tap his foot talons on the floor in a slight pattern before stopping, and eventually a familiar if slightly beaten pony acolyte of the Dark Mechanicus.

Suffice to say the room was a bit tense.

‘Okay I should probably say something to him, to ease the tension if nothing else’

“Soooo…. How long have you been with the blood cult?”

The raptor continued to stare but began to tap on the floor again.

“Um... “ Steely began to go back to her book, but then the raptor began to tap a new pattern.

“So do you, uh, tapdance or something? Is that why you keep tapping your talons?” Steely asked, trying to get some kind of response.

Gear Works finally decided to prevent this conversation from being completely one sided and turned to Steely as his mechadendrite continued to repair the door.

“He’s obviously mute you idiot, he’s been trying to communicate via morse code for the past ten minutes.”
Steely turned her head to argue, already a look of anger on her face which Gear Works flinched away from slightly.
“Well I don’t speak morse code, so if you can, translate, you tin can.”

“Well I’m a bit rusty, but I think I can give it a shot.”

The raptor turned his gaze to Gear Works and began tapping rapid succession.

“Uh… Okay…. Mhmmm….Alright….Got it.”

“Well?”

“He said, ‘To answer your questions in order, two hundred and sixty years, and once when under the spell of a witch of the whore god.”

“Okay well, tell him-”

“He’s mute, not deaf you idiot, you can ask him, I’ll just translate while I fix this.” Gear Works cut her off as he turned back to his work.

“Want me to make another impression on the wall with you scrap head?”

Gear Works seized up like a rusty techpriest at the thought of another beating from the psychotic mare.

“No.”
“Then don’t call me an idiot.”

“Ok.”

“So anyway,” Steely said turning her head back towards the raptor, “Why are you mute? I figured they’d just cut you open and shove a new voice box in or something.”

The raptor tapped out another series of words

“He says ‘the silence is voluntary, I had my vocal chords cut as a penance recommended by Virgil after killing an unworthy combatant in a fit of rage at the battle of Torinthis.’.”

“An unworthy combatant? I thought you guys were all about slaughter a murder.”

Another flurry of taps

“ ‘That is the feeling of many who bend knee to the blood god, but many more among us find such an attitude unworthy of a true servant of Khorne, Khorne wishes his throne to be made of the skulls of great warriors and worthy foes, not women and children. To assume he wants a throne made of unworthy skulls is an insult.’.”

“Well that’s nice to know going in mister, um… I never caught your name.”

A quick series of taps

“ ‘Champion of Khorne Tharix, originally of the Iron Warriors 2nd Grand Company, now of the 38th.’. Well that’s quite the demotion.” Gear works muttered under his breath

Tharix drew his chainsword and activated it, pointing the whirring blade at GearWorks and practically slamming his foot into the ground to make his message heard above the chainsword’s roar

“Whow! Okay! Yes! I’m a worm and I’ll shut my mouth!”

Tharix nodded and deactivated his chainsword, placing it once again at his side before turning his attention to Steely and letting fly another storm of taps.

“He says he likes your hooves and wants to know where you got augmetic work that fine.”

“Warsmith Solon made them for me because Tellis asked him to”

“Wait what?!” Gear Works ceased working on the door and rushed over to Steely as quickly as he could and seized one her hooves with his servo arm, holding it up to his face to be examined in detail.

“What the buck do you think your doing?!” Steely shouted at Gear Works, cocking her free hoof to hit his face

“I’ve heard stories about Warsmith Solon’s quality of craftsmanship, but I never really thought I’d see it up close, oh! The joint work on this is amazing! It provides full free motion! And the materials look to be some kind of alloy. I don’t even recognize this alloy and I’ve got access to Mechanicus databanks! I hope you don’t mind if maybe I take some shavings and-”

“Gear Works. Look at me. Now.”

Gear Works stopped rambling for a moment to look over at Steely.

She had murder in her eyes.

“Well *cough* I’m sure I can take a closer look later, maybe?” Gear Works released her leg and backed off slightly

“If you let go now and ask politely next time, yes, maybe.”

“Can I at least have a few shavings?”
Steely slammed the hooves together and the power field crackled to life.

“Right then! That is a no on those shavings! I’m just going to go finish fixing this door and get out of here! Okay? Okay!” Gear Works quickly turned back around and got to work at a pace much faster than before and didn’t even translate when Tharix attempted to continue the conversation.

Before Steely knew it he was done and out of the room like his tail was on fire.

And so silence once again dominated the room as Tharix and Steely lost their one effective means of communication.

The silence was broken by the sound of a door opening and a hooded figure walking out. Tharix proceeded to fall to his knee in respect for the figure who turned to the raptor before speaking.

“Rise Champion Tharix, you need not bend knee to me.” Tharix obeyed the figure and rose to his feet before gesturing at Steely and making some quick taps.

“A new convert, eh? And another pony no less. Tell me, what is your name my child?”

“Steely Lathe, mister...?”

“I am simply known as Father Virgil to the mercenaries in this fortress. But most call me Virgil for expediency.”

“Well then Virgil, I suppose I’m here to join the blood cult.”
“And why do you want to join? What makes you consider the blood cult to be your place on the eightfold path?”

Tharix tapped a few words to Virgil

“Oh you mean the one we found impaled on the Chaos star out front was her work?”

Tharix tapped what could be assumed as an affirmative

“Well then I suppose the blood cult is for you, come, my child, follow me into my office. I and one other shall help induct you into the ways of khorne.”

____________________________________________________________________________

Virgil’s office was disturbingly tidy and normal looking for the priest of an evil religion.

There wasn’t a single chaos star in the room at all, hardly any black and no marks or shrines to a god or anything. Compared to every office and waiting room Steely had been in, this one was by far the most frightening and disturbing solely because it was so normal. There was absolutely nothing odd about this office at all.

There was a piece of art on the wall behind the desk depicting some scene of a showdown between a golden figure and a black figure. There was a wall of bookshelves on the left side with many large tomes that looked ancient if their condition was anything to go by. on the right you had a water cooler and some tables with various knick knacks on them. None of those knick knacks being of the evil sort either, simply small things like snow globes or small replicas of vehicles.

On the desk in the center of the room there was nothing save for an inkwell with its pen and a metronome.

All in all, it was the most normal thing Steely had scene since coming to Ferrous Dominus.

And that’s why she was shaking like a leaf in the wind while facing the priest. It was too normal, too regular and plain, it looked right, but it just didn’t feel right.

“Now then Miss Lathe, you’ve already proven yourself to be of the right mindset for joining the Blood Cult, and with your augmentations you’ll be fine physically, but we now must test your mental and spiritual readiness for serving the blood god.” Virgil said as he withdrew something from a drawer in the desk, and then walked around to stand in front of Steely, who had yet to take a seat. Steely saw that the object in his hand was some kind of writing utensil, which Virgil began to draw on Steely’s face with.

“What are you doing?!”
“Hold still a moment, one wrong symbol and your soul may be sucked from your body.”

Steely decided to stand still.

After a few more seconds of marking her face, Virgil backed off from Steely and nodded in satisfaction at his work.

“Now then, with these markings, your soul and your memories will be laid bare for us to judge whether or not you are fit to serve the blood god.”
“So how does this thing work exactly?”

“One moment.”

Virgil pressed a thumb onto Steely’s forehead and began chanting in languages that turned Steely’s blood to ice.

After a few moments of chanting, Virgil drew back his hand as the room darkened and, flashes of Steely’s life began to appear before the two. The first being from Steely’s childhood, images of her chasing another pegasus filly down the street with anger clear on her face.

“Now I want you to tell me of these memories as they come, start with this one.”

“Oh, uh, Speedy Cross always made fun of my family for not working in weather, so eventually I just got fed up with her teasing and chased her down.”

“What did you do then?”

“Nothing too serious if my memory is right, just usual kid stuff, pulled her hair, pushed her in the mud…. I think I may have hit her with a stick I’d managed to pick up and gave her a concussion.”

“With a stick?”

“It was a big stick.”

Then another memory of Steely flashed before them, this one showing Steely covering her ears as all the other ponies around her were singing in the oddly common public sing alongs that occur in equestria.

“Do most ponies not enjoy singing in public? Discord informs me that every few weeks there is at least some kind of public singing.”
“Never had the voice for it. Plus it’s really weird when you think about it. I mean, I don’t know why we need to sing while we’re changing the season, wouldn’t the work go faster if we weren’t out of breath from singing?”

“Pragmatic.”

Next showed a slightly drunk Steely fighting off three bouncers in a bar with a broken bottle.

“I don’t remember that one actually. That might be from my weekend in Las Pegasus. I got kicked out of a casino but I don’t remember which.”

“How did this start, exactly?”

“Eh, some stallion trying to get lucky pushed his luck a bit too far, so I bashed a stool over his head.”
“That seems like something of an overreaction given the situation.”

“I may have been a little tipsy. Anyway, so I hit him with the stool and he goes down, it all becomes sort of hazy. Like, red hazy. I woke up leaning against my hotel room door with some scratches and a bit of blood on me, may have been mine.”

“So it appears you have a history of violence.”

“I don’t know where you get that from.”

Virgil held up a hand and began chanting, causing the light in the room to return to normal and the memories to disappear. He then gestured for Steely to take a seat in one of the chairs before moving back behind the desk and sitting down.

“It is my opinion that you are worthy of serving the Blood God, however, I require the power of a higher authority before I induct a xenos such as yourself into the cult.”
“ ‘Higher Authority’? I thought you were the high authority?”
“ I am merely a shepherd of another’s flock, I tend to them and care for them, but in the end it is not my flock.”
“Um… okay?”

“Please follow me” Virgil said as he got up from his chair and proceeded over to a miniature bust of some no doubt notable historical importance, and tilted the head slightly to the left, moving one of the bookshelves on the left side of the room, revealing a sizable room with summoning circle in the middle.

“Alright, I’m sort of impressed by the quality of this secret passage. I mean I didn’t really expect this to be here at all.”

“Please hold still a moment.” Virgil said as he withdrew a small knife and proceeded to give Steely a light and quick slice on the rear leg, spilling Steely’s blood onto the summoning circle and causing it to begin to glow with a warm red.

“OW! What’d you do that for?! You mule!”

“I required fresh blood to correctly perform the summoning.”
“And your own wouldn’t have done trick?”

“Probably, yes, but this test isn’t for I, the blood of the aspirant must be used for the ritual to be done properly.”

“What?”
“Don’t worry about the bleeding either, you will likely be bleeding bit more before this day is over.” Virgil said as he turned around and walked back towards the entrance of the room. “Now stay here, I’ll be back for you in a about… five hours? I believe that will be enough time.”

“Enough time for what?”

The seal beneath Steely’s hooves was now glowing with a harsh, hellish red and it began to feel warm to the touch. Like blood.

“Goodbye aspirant Lathe, should you survive, you will be welcomed as a servant of Khorne.”

“Survive what?! What am I surviving?!” Steely shouted at the man, anger rising along with the volume of her voice.

“That.” Virgil pointed to something behind her as the entrance to the room slammed shut and locked in place.

Steely heard a snarling sound behind her turned to face a horrifying red creature with an overly long tongue, oddly shaped head with massive horns, digigrade legs, claws that looked very pointy, teeth that probably would hurt to be bit by, and a giant glowing spikey sword that dripped blood.

“.....Well... this isn’t good.”

The bloodletter charged forward with a howl, swinging its blade in attempt to behead the mare. Steely took off quickly to avoid the swing, activating the power field on her legs once in the air and attempted to dive bomb the bloodletter.

The daemon, which had existed for millennia and fought hundreds of thousands of opponents, masterfully dodged out of the way. As Steely impacted the ground with enough force to crack and pulverize the stone beneath her hooves, she ducked under the daemonic blade as it came at her head, then jumped back into the air as the blade drove forward.

‘Alright, so I’m probably safe in the air.’ Steely thought as she hovered just out of the daemons reach ‘Now I just have to-’ “Gah!” Steely shouted as the daemon jumped, closing the small distance that separated her and it. Steely was just able to avoid the daemons blade, but not before it took a small chunk out of her mane.

‘Oooohhkay, so just waiting it out isn’t an option… maybe if I-’ “Damnit!” Steely once again just barely avoided become a skewer as the daemon jumped at her.

‘Not giving me a second are you freak? Well let’s see how you handle this.’

The daemon once again jumped up to take a swing at Steely, but this time, she was ready. Steely ducked under the swing, and, before the daemon could begin to fall, flew below the daemon and then upwards to deliver a swift and powerful uppercut, causing the daemon to be propelled upwards and impact it’s head on the ceiling before falling back to the floor. The bloodletter lay there for a few moments, dazed by the blow and the following impacts. This was just enough time for Steely to dive bomb the daemon with as much speed as she could gather, both of her mechanical hooves impacting the daemon’s midsection.

Hearing bones crunch from the blow, Steely assumed the fight was finished, bringing her hooves together to turn off the power field and began walking towards the door.

The sound of stirring behind her made her turn around to see the daemon up and on it’s feet like nothing had happened to it.

“This is gonna be a looong few hours, isn’t it?” Steely said to the daemon as she began hovering and turned her hooves power field back on.

The bloodletter answered with another howl as they both charged.

4 hours and 59 minutes later

Steely lay on her back with wings spread wide as she held back the infernal blade the daemon was attempting to bring down on her head. Her mechanical legs and the field they produced strained with every ounce of artificial strength they had been designed to have as the blade was held between them, inching ever closer to Steely’s face as the hooves grip began to falter.

‘Not gonna die. Must. Kill. This. Thing.’ then Steely heard a voice, in the back of her mind.

‘If it is power that you seek, the ability to defeat any foe, no matter how great, I can give it to you. I can help you… all you must do is swear to serve in life by fighting great foes and dedicating their skulls to me, by baptising them with their own blood, by giving into the rage I know you feel inside of you.’

‘So I do this and I don’t die?’ Steely didn’t question where the voice was coming from as the blade inched ever closer to her face, the razor edge that had nicked and cut her, missing her by mere inches each time came so close it was practically touching her nose.

‘Everyone dies, I can merely promise that you won’t die here, to this simple wretch. Swear now to serve, and you shall be spared and know the glory of Khorne.’

‘Deal.’

Then in a cloud of red smoke, the daemon vanished and the door that she had come through at the start of this ordeal opened.

“Ah, aspirant Lathe, good to see you are still in once piece. I trust the daemon did not do too much damage to you, did it.?”

“You could have bucking warned me you were just leaving me to fight that thing! I nearly died! And now I’ve got cuts all over my body, my armor is probably gonna need a patch job, and I think my legs need to get looked at!” To emphasize the point, Steely held out one of her hooves which then began sparking and sputtering smoke from near the joint.

“I am surprised something of Warsmith Solon’s making is malfunctioning at all, even after fighting a daemon, they should be in working order.”

“I… may have had to use them to block that thing’s sword once or twice…”
“Once or twice?”

“Alright so maybe it was a few dozen times. Honestly I’m surprised they held up this long, my armor got cut up pretty bad.” The carapace armor Steely was wearing was covered in scratches that went alarmingly far into the heavy body armor, some scratches even had blood slowly leaking from them where the blade had gone all the way through and scored a hit.

“Regardless of the state of your wargear, you have passed the test and may now officially join this sanctified cult as a servant of the great Khorne.”

“That’s it? I just fight a daemon and I’m all set to serve a god?”
“Do you not feel it? Do you not feel the anger? Did you not commune with the Blood God himself? Swear to serve him?”

“Was that what that voice was?”

“Yes.”

Steely put her non smoking hoof to her chest and felt around. “I don’t feel that different.”

“Give it a moment.”

Then she heard it. In the back of her mind but quickly come to the fore of her thoughts were thoughts and words that were not her own. And actually it was getting pretty damn irritating.

‘kill, kill, kill, kill, blood, skulls, murder, slaughter, kill, slaughter, kill, kill, BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD, murder, kill, kill’

“Yeah there it is, so is this just going to be in my head forever now?”

“Yes.”

“Damn.”

Comments

[Nightweaver]

You accidentally left in the note at the top

[ayh]

Completely agree with the 'How to write Solon Speech' guide you suggest.

[SFaccountant]

I'll bet Tellis has known Tharix for centuries without realizing that he communicates in Morse.
Or that he's mute, and not just better at containing his exasperated mumbling.
He probably only knows his name because his visor tells him. Unless he turned that function off. He probably turned that function off.

Well, congrats, Steely! You're a Reaver now! You have a proper unit profile and everything! And your Initiative is AWESOME :D

[Marenteius]

So you changed the daemon once or twice, started as a bloodletter, (which I can believe), but got called a bloodTHIRSTER a few times... I'm pretty sure one of those.could have killed steely, main character status or no.

[nothing_to_see_here]

6859430
Tharix was actually just a spontaneous addition, believe it or not, was originally just going to be a raptor that didn't talk at all and stood there being menacing as they do, then I figured I could give him something sort of unique and make him recurring.

6859554
Thank you for pointing that out, I get those two mixed in my head all the time for some reason.

[Liqwidice]

Really like where you are taking this. Keep up the great writing.

[Nightweaver]

6858860 You mean... we left that in too?
*the distant screaming of a frustrated Weaver can be heard*
...
10/10 best editor in the world.

[Hey its that Pony]

Heh, great new chapter.

I like Tharix. I think he's a fun new addition to the character roster.

Making her fight a Bloodletter seems a bit extreme. I doubt most human initiates would survive that. Though maybe the ritual summons something that it can sense would be a 'fair' challenge to the subject considering that she was armed well enough for the encounter.

[GBscientist]

6862026
I wouldn't be surprised if Ponies had to fight something tougher than baseline humans just because Khorne doesn't like Ponies all that much.

Even if it was an accident to include it, I'd still love to read a guide to Solon Speak.

[Bugsydor]

Blood for the Blood God!
Skulls for the Skull Throne!
Milk for the Khorne Flakes!

All hail the veggie god!

And now she's got that annoying chanting stuck in her head.aybe that's why Khorne worshippers are so angry all the time?

[Nightweaver]

6863115
As would I. I honestly understand SFAccountant's frustration when it comes to writing his speech. It seems to be a very fine balance to maintain.
Still kicking myself over not removing that note before clearing the chapter, though