My Little Masquerade: Corruption

My Little Masquerade: Corruption

By Strawberry Jelly

Prologue - Choose or Die

The world finally started to return to the unicorn, a process that went along slower than ever.  'Let's see...  I was walking home from the school and...'  She cringed as a jolt of pain echoed from the back of her head, reminding her that the last thing she had seen was some strange pony with...  'fangs.'  Her eyes shot open when she remembered that last part, finding herself blinded by a glaring light from above that took only a few seconds for her to adjust.

In front of her stood a white stallion whose voice came that had began as blur, but finally started to focus into a tone that bordered on regal.  While his face was expressionless, the words that left his mouth sounded harsh and reprimanding.  "-Ank you all for attending this meeting tonight, and at such a late hour.  It came to my attention that despite my prior orders, one of our kindred from the Tremere had decided that siring the mare was the sounder choice."

'Sire?  What-'  Twilight thought to herself before the memory came rushing back to her.  That's right, she was walking home and some stallion approached her.  'What did he say?  Something about blood...'  She focused her bleary thoughts, trying to remember exactly what had happened before she was brought here.  'Fangs, that's right!  He was wanting to do something that...  This is impossible!  This is madness, why am I here?!'

"Tell me, Hoity Toity, did you send this kindred to sire her, as he claims?"  The white stallion shot a glance over at the gray stallion that sat in the front row of the auditorium.  "Surely you of all kindred know of the punishment for illegal siring, let alone disobeying a prince's direct orders."

"Of course I had not ordered it, Blueblood,"  Hoity Toity replied with a wry frown on his lips,  "I insist that I was unaware of the accused's actions.  Once more, I must inform you that his actions were independent of the clan's functions and I am truly surprised that he would even attempt such a thing."

"As I suspected.  It is a shame though, as I have often considered the accused as an upstanding member of our society up until the actions of tonight..."  Blueblood made his way across the stage and walking past Twilight.

Looking over, Twilight noticed the white stallion looking down at the red coated earth pony that was about to-  'Oh Gods, what did I get myself into?!'  She let out a horrified scream that was muffled by the gag in her mouth.  Next to her was the stallion that assaulted her, but his face and sides were literally torn open.  He looked as if he was attacked by a pack of timber wolves, but the other ponies in the room seemed to remain indifferent.

"I'm sorry to say that the punishment for such a transgression is death by fire.  Know that I am no more than a judicator that must enforce these laws,"  Blueblood said perfectly calm, without a single hint of guilt or doubt showing itself in his face.  He signaled with his hoof, to which another stallion walked up with a torch and stabbed it into one of the open wounds, igniting the bound stallion in flame.

"No, please no!"

Twilight went wide-eyed at the sight, collapsing backwards in her ropes as the stallion screamed and writhed in agony.  The other ponies in the room all turned their head at the sight, save for the white unicorn that wore his ever-apathetic expression.  'Is this some kind of demon cult?!  I don't want to die, I'm too young to-'  Her vision blurred as tears threatened to burst forth.

"...  And so you see the punishment for taking such a dangerous action,"  Blueblood finally spoke again as he turned from the pile of ash and bones.  "We had yet to interpret what this mare has to do with the Seer's prophesy, and as such, we could not let her become aware of our existence as of yet.  Despite the Malkavian's vision, the accused had decided to take action into his own hooves...  However, this returns us to the fate of the kine; as you know, ponies are not allowed to know of our existence, so I must-"

He was cut off by Hoity Toity climbing onto the stage and whispering in such a soft tone that only Twilight and Blueblood could hear.  "Blueblood, you should know better than to go against her prophesies.  Zecora is one of the few Malkavians that can actually translate her visions into something other than cryptic gibberish."

"Yes...  I do suppose, but the rules that govern still remain."

"Then she needs to be sired!  You know that the Anarchs will use this proceeding as a weapon against you as is, let alone if you burnt two equines."  The gray stallion continued with a wry expression on his lips.  "Do what you feel is best, but I must advise you to take this into consideration."  With that last remark, Hoity Toity found himself back at his own seat in the front row.

"It has just been brought to my attention that the kine amongst us is undoubtedly the mare that Zecora has spoken of.  That being said, there is still the matter of her being a pony that must be attended to..."  He paused and waved his hoof out to the small crowd that was scattered throughout the room.  "Normally I would do what must be done to protect the Masquerade, but it seems the stakes are higher for her.  I wish to confer with the Primogen, as well as the ambassadors from the independent clans on this matter."

"Remember, these proceedings are necessary to enforce the laws that govern us all...  Those that decide to stay and have their opinion heard, then please stay; as for the rest of you, I do hope that the your night will be a pleasant one."  He commented as almost all of the crowd stood up and left through the doors in the back of the room.  Blueblood turned towards Twilight with a wry frown, "Forgive me, but you need to SLEEP."

'What have I gotten myself into?'  Twilight lamented in the last moments of her consciousness before having the world fade out around her.