A Spark Ignites

To Know Is To Rule.

Information is power. Ignorance breeds failure, for the ignorant do not understand why they fail. With knowledge, one accepts no outcome that does not further their goals. To the ignorant, it would appear as though Sheoldred was thoroughly beaten. Her forces were dominated by those of the rival praetor, Elesh Norn, and her every movement was meticulously recorded documented. But despite these setbacks, Sheoldred continued to smile. She had still come out ahead.

Sheoldred’s true strength was never drawn from her military might, but from her vast networks of spies and informers. She was rooted so deeply within every aspect of Phyrexia it was only fitting that she made her home within the very core of the artificial world. For a time she had kept the location of her domain a secret, but recent events had led to a change of policy. Sheoldred expected a visitor.

A skittering noise from below pulled the praetor from her revelry. Looking down, she saw one of her servants standing nervously at the door. It was a gruesome creature, covered with points of jagged metal and bone, woven together by the very flesh of the ponies it now cut down with such fervor. Such was the way of Phyrexia: impure parts combined to create a perfect whole. With a beckoning hoof, Sheoldred bid the hulking creature enter. It was very large by pony standards- nearly half and again the size of your average stallion, but it was nothing compared to Sheoldred.

A massive fiend with four crab-like legs and a gaping maw filled with rows of jagged teeth served as Sheoldred’s lower half. From it grew a body not unlike that of your average pony—It even had two front hooves—but with several key differences. The oily black plating that served as the ‘flesh’ of the fiend spread up her torso and over her head, curling into two thick horns atop her head. Instead of the large eyes of the equines, Sheoldred sported eight glowing slits in her plating, giving her visage an almost spider like quality. The plating parted around her muzzle, revealing a soft purple muzzle and making it seem as though there was a pony beneath all this armor. This, of course, was an illusion. Sheoldred was a phyrexian pure: an artificial being, a mockery of the life around her.

Her servant prostrated itself below her, and for a moment Sheoldred considered giving in to her lower half’s burning desire to feast upon the lesser creature. “Milady; the Grand Cenobite is coming. She will be here any—“ its voice was cut off by the crunching noise of its body being crushed by her jagged fangs. She shook it as a dog would a toy before tossing it against the wall where it landed in a broken heap.

At that moment another creature entered her domain. The fiend snarled at the intrusion, but the being didn’t seem to mind, in fact Sheoldred thought she noticed a hint of a smile forming on its face. It was a tall, feminine form that stood before her, a build normally reserved for royalty. But instead of a floating ethereal mane and pristine coat, this creature bore only horrors. The mare-thing was covered in hardened plates the color of bleached bone, giving it the appearance of a macabre doll. Upon its face was mask of the same material, shaped in a large arc with sharp points on either side. The beings muzzle stuck out from an opening at the opening at the bottom, making it look like she was balancing a crescent moon upon her nose. Perhaps this would have been more amusing had the few places of exposed flesh—her muzzle, neck, ear, and waist, not been completely devoid of skin. Instead there was a mesh of red; an unholy combination of muscle and machine that served to give this abomination life. A luxurious crimson gown hung from her flank, suspended from the floor by a legion of skittering abominations formed from the same curious metal as the Cenobite herself.

“Sheoldred—“ spoke Elesh Norn, each word sounding as though it was sung by a choir,”—long have your whispers been felt across Phyrexia. Would you not share your wisdom with The Machine Orthodoxy?”

Sheoldred composed herself, casually crossing her hooves and resting upon her bulbous lower half as a mare would her lover’s bed. She spoke coyly in a soft, grinding whisper that Norn had to strain to comprehend. “What is it that brings the Grand Cenobite herself to my humble abode? The others may start to wonder…”

Despite her rival’s lack of eyes, Sheoldred could tell she was being glared at.

“If you have to ask, than perhaps you are not as well informed as I have been led to believe. Your forces are in ruins, whisperer, your networks crippled. You are a spider clinging to a single strand of silk.”

“Surely you did not come here just to gloat? No… Only divine will moves the hoof of the great Elesh Norn. Have you come to put an end to me, once and for all?” Despite her accusations, Sheoldred did not seem particularly worried.

“Many advised me to do just that, they view you as a threat to the glorious vision, and as you know I can allow no threat to Phyrexia to harm it. But I see more in you—I see a wayward servant of the Father of Machines whose gifts could be of great use to the orthodoxy. I extend my hoof to you, Sheoldred, know that this is not an act I do lightly.”

“I’m flattered,” deadpanned Sheoldred. “But what makes you think I would give up all of this”—she waved a hoof at the dismal black room—“to stay in some stuffy church? Besides, white isn’t exactly my color.”

“You do not fully comprehend what my offer entails. Division is weakness, and a weak Phyrexia is no Phyrexia at all. You will join me at my seat of power above. You will report only to me, all my might will be at your disposal—so long as yours too is at mine. But you needn’t take me at my word: I bring with me a gesture of good faith.”

On cue, one of the beings holding her train walked to the front. It ripped a white metal plate from its chest—and act that would have been incredibly painful if the conversion hadn’t removed its capacity for pain—exposing a hidden compartment. From this the being withdrew a severed, semi-mechanical, head.

“Roxith, Thane of Rot,” continued Norn. “And from what I understand a rival of yours. With your armies defeated, he meant to use his own to stage a coup and take your place as praetor. I intervened.”

A sickly black aura surrounded the head and it lazily floated towards Sheoldred, who examined it thoroughly. Yes, it was indeed Roxith. Sheoldred had never cared for the brute, he had been little more than a thorn in her side for years, but none the less she saw this for what it was. Roxith was an anathema to the orthodoxy; under his rule Phyrexia would sooner destroy than indoctrinate the lesser creatures on Mirrodin’s surface; the same creatures who now made up the majority of Norn’s followers. No, both praetors knew what this head meant: something stood in the way of Norn’s ambitions, and was destroyed. The message was loud and clear.

“It does not seem as though I have much of a choice, now does it?” mused Sheoldred, dropping all pretenses. “Very well then, Norn. You win, I shall accompany you above. But I insist on keeping the head.”

“What you do with the trophy is no concern of mine. I shall give you a moment to prepare, then we shall head for the surface. Two praetors will emerge from the depths, for the glory of the divine vision. Phyrexia: unified at last.” With this, Elesh Norn turned dramatically and exited the room.

For a moment, a look of fury overcame Sheoldred. This was all necessary, as before with the wretch that had announced Norn’s arrival mere moments before she entered her dominion. The walls had eyes after all, and they had to believe that Sheoldred thought she’d been outplayed.

But Sheoldred was never outplayed. There was no secret on the layered world that could escape. To know is to rule. Roxith’s death came as no surprise to her, for she had planted the seeds of his betrayal herself. She had allowed Norn’s agents to infiltrate her organizations, feeding them what Norn wanted to hear, and now everything had fallen into place.

Norn still clings to the ravings of a madmare. Her ‘father of machines’ was nothing more than a halfwit golem who did little more than deliver us to this world. Karn’s escape of this plane damaged her plans, but only furthered my own; he saved me the trouble of killing him. The father of machines is the supreme beings, the ultimate Phyrexian. Karn was impure and ignorant, both his schemes and those of the orthodoxy are shortsighted. This is why they fail.

But the machinations of Sheoldred had no such limitations. For knowledge was power, and her foes knew only what Sheoldred allowed them to believe. They worried about ruling this single plane, while Sheoldred worried about ruling the entire multiverse. They pondered over the possibility of travel between planes without a spark, while Sheoldred held the blueprints. But most importantly, they were all stuck here whilst Sheoldred already had a foot upon another world.

The artifact had called out like a beacon, and Sheoldred had been happy to reply. It had not been easy to keep this revelations from her enemies, many of whom searched constantly for just such an event, but she had done it. For years it had lay dormant, a relic of the old Phyrexian Empire, but finally it had awakened. It sent her visions of a world rich with mana; a world free of meddling ‘walkers due to a shield that had protected it for generations, a shield that had just developed its first crack. And through that crack the taint of Phyrexia would ooze, with Sheoldred at its head, ready to conquer yet another civilization as was their divine right.

The artifact itself was a receptacle for the glistening oil: the putrid black substance that coursed through every Phyrexian and corrupted all it touched to their way of life. Many a time had some foalish creature spilled the ‘blood’ of Phyrexia, only to have that very blood turn them into that which they once fought. It was a beautiful system, and it meant that when Sheoldred took her first steps onto the new world, she would already have a foothold. While the artifact did its work on the other side, she had lots of her own ahead of her.

Fortunately much of that work had been done for her, an army doesn’t just fall into your lap every day and Sheoldred intended to take advantage of it. Elesh Norn would surely have eyes on her, but eluding her would be child’s play for Phyrexia’s master of subtlety. Under the Grand Cenobites very muzzle, using blueprints devised by their enemies, Sheoldred would construct a device that would transport her and her legions to the unsuspecting world.

It would be a glorious slaughter.

And when she was done, with a plane’s worth of thralls at her back, Sheoldred would return a conqueror. Norn was right; Phyrexia would be unified. But it would be at the feet of the new father of machines: Sheoldred.

And there’s not a force in the multiverse that can stop me now.

~~~

“The ground is just so… Squishy!”

“You have got to be kidding me!”

Karn had been very knowledgeable about the plane of Innistrad. He told them about vampires, undead, angels and demons. He told them about the local religions and superstitions. He’d given them a disturbingly detailed description of Havengul’s signature dishes and nightlife. Unfortunately, he’d neglected to mention there’d be dirt.

“I’m sorry! Back home the ground is made of metal! This is just—Eww, it’s moving around my hoof!”

Rainbow let out an exasperated sigh. Their grand, multiverse saving adventure had come to an immediate and grinding halt. Because of dirt. Dirt. “Am I going to have to carry you?”

Steel Shaper looked at her sheepishly, ceasing the shuffling of her hooves in the dirt but continuing to look uncomfortable. “Sorry, this is just really new to me, you know? Well of course you know, I mean you’re not from here either… So what’s your world—er, plane, like?”

“Can we talk about this and walk at the same time? It’s getting kind of dark…” Steel nodded, and the two mares began their trek down the dirt road, towards the settlement known as Havengul. Strange name for a place like that… I’d have called it ‘Fogsdale’ or ‘Spooky-Building-Ville’. Heh, guess I know why I didn’t get my cutiemark in city naming… The sound of her companion clearing her throat snapped Rainbow back into reality. “My ‘plane’, right. Well, we have dirt. That’s something, I guess… And buildings, and trees, and grass… Do you have grass where you’re from?” I’m an idiot.

“Yeah, but I don’t think it’s the same. Mirrodin grass is metal, and it’s sharp. Really sharp. The plains where I grew up were full of the stuff. This one time, when my sister was a filly, she fell right into a whole patch of the stuff! Dad was digging through it, getting himself all cut up—he still has the scars—but all of the sudden, there she was. Not a cut on her, lying on a bed of the stuff!” Steel laughed at the memory. “Dad didn’t let her out of his sight for a week.”

Rainbow silently thanked Celestia that she managed to steer the conversation somewhere reasonable. “Oh, you’ve got a sister, huh? How old?”

“Well, she’s five years younger than me, so—wait, do you guys use years?” Rainbow nodded. “Okay, so—hang on, how long are your years? Is five a lot where you’re from? How old are you?”

Uh-oh, I’m losing her. Come on Rainbow, reel her back in! “You know what? Her age doesn’t really matter. Just tell me about her, what’s she like?”

Steel smiled as she spoke of her sister. “She’s super brave, even got her cutie mark defending the tribe against a dross-horror!” Her smile faded. “Yeah, she’s a real hero. Not like me, while she was off fighting the Phyrexians I was stuck at home, building weapons and reinforcing our defenses… Fat load of good that did, they tore through it like it was nothing.”

Rainbow cringed. She knew talking about these monsters was hard for Steel, but at the same time she was overcome with a morbid curiosity. She needed to find out exactly what she was up against eventually, right? And at least it’s not dirt.

“So, Phyrexians. What’s the deal with those guys anyway?” Smooth.

Steel raised an eyebrow at her, but when it became clear that she was serious she began to speak. “They’re... horrible. Monsters from the center of the world. Something happened where the elders of our tribe—elders from all across Mirrodin if the rumors were true—just vanished, and that’s when they came. Before we knew it we were at war, but it wasn’t a war like any of us had ever known.

“Phyrexia isn’t an enemy that can be fought with traditional means, we learned that the hard way. It’s a disease, spreading across the world—plane—whatever. If they ‘got’ somepony, they’d drag them underground. Next time you’d see them they’d be one of them, but different. They’d take the bits from one pony and put them on somepony else. Even when we did manage to take one of them down, they’d scavenge the pieces and tack them on somewhere else. Dad always said they had to have a weakness, but I’m not so sure…”

For the first time since she had undertaken this mission, Rainbow felt like she was thoroughly in over her head. Legions of mass-murdering, body-snatching, monsters? Suddenly, all her experience with ‘world saving’ felt woefully inadequate. Nightmare Moon wanted to rule Equestria, and even Discord hadn’t actually hurt anypony. Sombra and the Changelings were bad, but everypony had come out of those situations alive. This was different, millions of lives had already been lost to this enemy, and by the sounds of it that was only beginning. And Equestria is next on their list of places to conquer… a shiver tore through Rainbow’s spine. The Elements were gone, Rainbow was gone, and her friends had no idea what was coming. Worst of all, their only hope lay in Rainbow convincing a bunch of ponies she’d never even met to help save a world they didn’t even know existed! It all seemed so—

A loud crack filled the air, and Rainbow’s face stung from the impact of her hoof. Get it together! You’re Rainbow Dash, you’re awesome! Your friends need you, and if these ponies don’t want to help, well, you’ll drag them kicking and screaming back to Karn! The fires of determination burning within her once more, Rainbow picked up the pace.

Steel followed suit, examining the city that lay before them. Tall buildings of wood and stone, strange slanted roofs, architecture the likes of which she had never imagined.  But it was dark, unlike Mirrodin whose vast metal plains would shine under the light of the suns, this place was soaked in a dull gloom. As they approached the gatehouse Steel got her first look at the ponies of this strange plane.

The guards were earth ponies, their grey and brown coats perfectly matching the dreary nature of this place. They wore tricorne hats and had a blade, resting in its sheath at their side, ready to defend their city from whatever threats came charging out of the forest. Unease crept over her, what would these ponies think of them? Artifice was common on Mirrodin, but would the residence of this plane take offence to her metal hoof? Would they even speak the same language? She understood Rainbow well enough, hopefully it would be the same with these ponies. Speaking of Rainbow, what would these ponies think of her multicolored mane and bright blue coat? We’re going to stick out like a sore hoof…

The grey stallion took a step towards the duo. “Halt! That’s far enough. State your business, travelers, what brings you to Havengul?”

Well at least that’s one question answered. Steel glanced over at Rainbow who was staring at her expectantly. She turned back to the stallion, feeling his harsh gaze bore into her metallic leg. She cleared her throat.

“Hi, we’re umm…”

Buck.