Steel Accord (Divided)

By Steel Accord

• October 15, 2013




Age: 22

Gender: Male

Species: Pegasus

Appearance: Steel is a grey pegasus with blue hooves, tail, and mane highlights. To compliment this, he often wears a blue vest. Recently, he's taken to growing a well trimmed beard and mustache. <br />

Cutie Mark: Steel Accord's cutie mark is a sword crossed with a pen. On the surface it's quite literal as narrative prose IS his craft and he is a renowned sword fighter. However, it also represents that he is a storyteller who yearns to create his own legend through his words and actions. "The pen and sword, in equal accord."<br />

Personality: Though he may appear more as a devilish rogue, Steel highly values honor, respect, dignity, and chivalry. More than all, sincerity.<br /><br />"I say what I mean, and I mean what I say." <br /> <br />This is a double edged sword however, while those who appreciate champions of high ideals find him admirable and trustworthy, he has little patience for the world of politics and intrigue. Where ponies wear false faces and lies are weapons. This is compounded by his greatest weaknesses gullibility, and emotional vulnerability. It is not difficult to fool Steel, especially with false kindness or better yet chances at romance; and he's never even heard of a "poker face." Everything he's feeling is usually clearly readable upon his countenance. For this, and other reasons, he particularly fears the Cult of Laughter; who promise happiness but offer only insanity.<br /><br />However Steel's view of the Cult may be, they also helped him come to a spiritual revelation. If something so evil and unholy exists, then it stands to reason that something holy and benevolent also must exist to oppose it. Be it a deity, an unthinking force, or a ritcheous organization; Steel has great faith that Harmony works in mysterious ways.

Backstory: Steel was born in Canterlot. His father, a pegasus, was a doctor and his unicorn mother was a painter. Growing up, his father always held his interest in the areas of science, history, and philosophy. At the same time, his mother taught him to appreciate art and culture. Both however, read and told him stories. From fairy-tales, to comic books, to epic poems, to radio shows. Steel loved to hear stories of great heroes battling evil. Particularly the tales of Red Pommel, the Master Swordpony of Ancient Equestria before Luna's banishment. He didn't know it at the time, but he was slowly growing into something of an expert at analyzing and understanding the nature of narrative art. Inspired by these tales, he picked up sword-fighting. Just a wooden toy he bought with his allowance, but he loved it.<br /><br />One day, he saw some bullies beating up a younger colt at school. Running to his locker, he retrieved his weapon and sent the bullies to the nurse's office. He got in a little trouble from one teacher, but the principal told him he did the right thing, as did his parents. Still, Steel felt confused by the whole affair. It all happened so fast his young mind didn't know how to handle it. So he organized his thoughts the only way they ever made sense to him; as a story. He wrote a dramatic retelling of the whole event. Trying his best no to inflate himself into a larger than life hero and merely just a pony who happened to be there at the right time.<br /><br />He brought it into school for show and tell and almost performed the presentation like it were a one-pony play. That's when his cutie-mark appeared; a sword crossed with a pen.<br /><br />That's when the Princesses disappeared.<br /> <br />Steel's father and mother faced a dangerously unsure future. They thought of living in the burgeoning power of the pegasi, but Easel Gloss didn't want her son growing up under martial law. Artery Accord suggested living with the "extended family" of the Apple clan, who welcomed him . . . but not his wife. They both even pondered retreating into the Everfree Forest; but when Artery tried to inspect an area safe enough for a base camp, the Wildlings saw his scientifically rooted medical knowledge as "a blight." Even young Steel tried to look for a new home . . . but in the worst of places.<br /><br />A wide-eyed stranger promised him and his family escape and bliss. When he brought his parents forth they said no, and quickly asked Steel to move away from the pony.<br /><br />"Why?" Steel asked right before the cultist snatched him up and ran into the shadows. Steel was brought to a hideout. It was there that he . . . saw things. Things too terrible to recall. He fainted; his young mind's only defense against the evil and madness pouring into his eyes and ears. When Steel roused himself, he was being carried by a different pony. To where and for what purpose he didn't want to imagine, but he saw that his captor was carrying a knife. Steel reached out with his mouth, drew the blade and stabbed the pony in the neck. He dropped Steel, who made a break for it.<br /><br />Young Steel ran for his life, eyes barely open and ears pressed to his side. Trying to keep out the smell of blood and chocolate, the sight of colored fabrics and corpses, the sound of laughter and some other thing that wasn't . . . right.<br /> <br />Artery and Easel found their son, but by this point they were truly desperate. Then they heard of Manehatten; a place where all races were welcomed, that was like Equestria as they knew it. Peaceful, progressive, and prosperous.<br />Artery was able to get a new job at one of Manehatten's hospitals and his family eventually settled down; returning to normalcy.<br /><br />As Steel got older, he wanted a job. So he signed up as a paper pony. He didn't mind the early hours, or long flights alone. It was good pay and he could read the comic strips on break. Steel eventually worked his way into the business as a staff writer for a pulp magazine. He would write stories about dashing heroes fighting crooks and monsters in a variety of settings; from the ancient past to the far future. For Steel though, this wasn't enough.<br /><br />He was a good writer, but the magazine never sold particularly well. Ponies told him his stories were "quaint," "childish," and "out of touch with how things really are!" These words in particular belonged to Sure Fire of the Arqueteer corps. and part-time literary critic. As much as Steel resented his claims, he had to admit Sure Fire had a point. Steel had come a long way since beating up bullies with carved wood, but he had never actually experienced anything like what he wrote. So for both improving his writing and a sense of self-vindication, Steel began to hire out his services as a freelance security provider. He took various odd-jobs as a bodyguard, sentinel, rent-a-cop and such but his biggest exploit was a contract with the City's Militia. <br /><br />One of the Crimelords of the Slums had been killed, and the gangs he normally kept in check began to riot. The police were quickly overwhelmed. Homes burned, ponies died, and more were to follow if these criminals weren't stopped. The militia was deployed to keep the gangsters from reaching the rest of the city while Ponies of Fortune and Conscripts were sent to subdue or kill the rioters as befitting the situation.<br /><br />Early in the fight, Steel distinguished himself by killing quickly, efficiently, and "stylishly." This quickly outed him to all the gangsters, who swarmed him. Soon Steel was fighting over a dozen ponies. Luckily, through some kind of cultural mentality, they didn't swarm him, instead surrounding him so each could have a go at him without the chance of Steel escaping. This worked brilliantly. Steel held there attention so much that the Militia was able to surround them and end the riot. By the time all was said and done, Steel was cut in seven places, bruised in twelve, and shot in two. He spent close to a month in the hospital recovering, but he had over a dozen confirmed kills.<br /><br />Steel then wrote another adventure panel about a gladiator in Ancient Roam. This one sold much better, and even Sure Fire begrudgingly admitted it was much more visceral and believable than Steel's earlier creations.<br /><br />Steel felt like he had come full circle, like he earned his cutie-mark all over again! Using the money from the riot job, had a twin pair of wing-sabers magically forged for him by an old pegasus smithy; knowledgeable in the ancient crafts of pegasi metallurgy. He decided to collectively name them "Donkey Jote," after the donkey folk hero who persisted to follow the old ways of chivalry long after those days had passed.<br /> <br />Steel has since then persisted as a pulp writer and occasional columnist but also hiring himself as something of a "swashbuckler for hire." Steel took jobs from whomever had a cause he felt right.<br /><br />One day, he will finally earn the undisputed title of Master Swordpony. From whom he doesn't know, only the Princesses could grant it. One this is for certain, Steel's quest is one of ambition tempered by honor.<br />