My Little Masquerade: Corruption

My Little Masquerade: Corruption

By Strawberry Jelly

Chapter 2 - Of Missions and Mortis

“How long are you going to pout?”  Vinyl rolled her eyes from behind her sunglasses.  It had already been three hours since Twilight had been dug up from the earth, but, to Vinyl's amazement, she was still angry at being buried for three days straight.  “I told you that it is important to your training.  Learning Morits tends to be a little... unsettling.  That's why I had to desensitize you to the concept of death.”

“Desensitize me?!  Is that what you call that?”  Twilight hissed and took a long sip from her glass, savoring the sweet sensation that blood had brought over her.  It was a shame that she couldn't savor the first time she drank it; mostly because it never really seemed as delicious since.

“It's tradition for clan Cappadocian.”  Vinyl reinforced her point with a stern gaze.  “Besides, you'll understand once your training starts.”

“Yeah, about that...  Can I at least get a nice bath before then?  I'm still coated in dirt,”  Twilight grimaced at the clumps of mud that were caught in her mane and fur.  While she was sealed in a coffin for three days, she had accidentally busted the lid after several hundred hits against the pine, flooding the box with dirt that made the rest of her stay even more miserable.

“I'll admit that I'd rather you look presentable for when the prince inevitably comes around,”  Vinyl nodded.  “Which brings up another point...  The Giovanni normally don't sire outside their family.  In fact, it puts you in a rather awkward predicament; if by some miracle a Giovanni doesn't recognize you as a Cappadocian, make sure to tell them that you are from the Clover family.  They are the only family in the Giovanni that sire unicorns...  And also tend to side with the Camarilla.”

“Why tell me this now?”  Twilight blinked curiously, cursing herself for not having her pen and paper to write it down.

“Because Canterlot and the surrounding area is home to the Apple Family; which apart from being the second biggest family in the Giovanni, they tend to dislike the Cappadocian the most.”  Vinyl clarified, taking a long drink from her glass before continuing.  “You won't always be in Elysium or the Haven, so it just might save your life.  Remember, you are not a random kine sired by the Giovanni either...  You are a Clover.”

“Wait, if they only sire from family, does that mean-”  Twilight was cut off by Vinyl nodding and finishing for her.

“Incestuous relationships, necromancy, occultism, and the goddess knows what else...  That is what the Giovanni are.  Not to mention...  Diablerists.”  Vinyl grimaced at that last word and visibly shuddered in rage.  “That's enough though; go get cleaned up and we'll start, kid.”

Twilight felt a smile creep up on her lips at the mention of learning magic.  Despite her recent death, she still felt that need to learn inside of her. She made her way to the bathroom with her silly grin fading upon a realization,  “Do I cast a reflection?  What if I never get to see myself again?!”  Her fears were put to rest as she took a look in the mirror and had watched herself stare back, but that relief lasted only a moment before she let out a horrified scream.  “W-What happened to me?!”

The reflection she was staring at was a purple unicorn for sure, but her body had gained an unnatural pallor and her eyes had deep bags underneath them.  She figured that she would look a little more pale as a vampire, but this extent was almost nightmarish.  She looked like a walking, talking corpse, and if she didn't know any better, could still be found six feet underground.

“Find a mirror, I take it?”  Vinyl could be heard cackling from the other side of the door.  “Don't worry about it; you'll get used to it, Cupcake.”

“Don't worry about it?!  I look like I've been dead for days!”  Twilight hissed through the door.  She expected to look a little different, sure, but this was to the point that she looked like a monster.

“Technically you have been.”  Vinyl quipped.  “No, you just need to feed a little more and it should help.  Although, I'll admit that you'll never quite look...  Alive...  You see, every clan seems to have a bizarre affliction or defect, and us Cappadocians are no exception, kid.  We look...  Well, we look like what you see; a walking corpse.”

“But you don't-”  Twilight stopped in thought, realizing that she had never really seen her sire's eyes, and her body was a pale white anyway.  Behind the sunglasses, Vinyl was a completely mysterious pony.  “Oh.”

“Tellin' ya, you'll adjust,”  She stated confidently and stomped her hoof down.  “Now, hurry up so we can start!”

~*~*~

For three long weeks Vinyl Scratch had spent drilling knowledge of both the arcane and the occult into Twilight's mind.  Despite the overwhelming principles of Kindred society, laws, her powers, and even the information on the thirteen clans, Twilight had absorbed the concepts and ideas like a sponge.

Her penchant for magic had also gifted her with quickly learning how to feign her unicorn powers, as well as how to use her disciplines without snare; save for one in specific...

“No, no, No!”  Vinyl shouted and swatted a ruler harshly against Twilight's back, eliciting a pained yelp from the mare.  Not that it particularly hurt, but she still instinctively shrank away from the sharp assault from her sire.  “I know that you know how to use Mortis, but you just lack the willpower to do so!”

“But it's a pony...”  Twilight whimpered at the half-rotten corpse that sat sprawled out in front of her.  She could feel herself wanting to wretch from the smell alone, but something inside of her had kept her from it.

“No, it's a corpse!”  Vinyl hissed.  “Kid, you need to realize that she's been dead for weeks!  It's not like we even killed her either; we dug her out of a pine box in the ground!”

“It still doesn't feel right...”  Twilight cowered away from Vinyl's angered glare.  Ever since the mare had stopped wearing her sunglasses, Twilight wanted nothing more than to escape those disapproving eyes.

“You're not hurting anyone by practicing on an already dead body,”  Vinyl pressed a forehoof against her forehead in exasperation, wanting nothing more than to scream.  “If it makes you feel better, just imagine it as an inanimate object that never lived.”

“O-Okay,”  Twilight nodded and focused again on the body, feeling a sinking feeling in her chest that weighed her down like a tonne of bricks.  She could only see the pained look that was plastered on the mare's face, having halfway been eaten by the various creatures in the ground.  All she needed to do was focus and turn the flesh into ash, but her entire body fought against the very idea of defiling somebody more than she already had.  After a good four minutes, she finally focused her vitae onto the body in spite of the utter disgust at the very idea.

“It's not that hard!”  She hissed and stomped her hoof onto the ground, sending Twilight's focus over the edge and transforming the body into nothing more than a pile of ash and bone.  "See?!"

Twilight folded her ears back against her head and looked apologetically at her sire, feeling her eyes water uneasily.  “I just...  I feel horrible...  I'm so sorry, but this just feels so wrong!”

“Not as sorry as you may end up.  Twilight, there will come a time where Mortis will save your life, and if you can't use it...  Then you will be as good as dead.”  Vinyl reprimanded Twilight calmly, but the sense of urgency showed through her voice all the same.  “My job is to prepare you for what fate may throw your way, and I'm trying my hardest.  You are a Cappadocian that I have taught the three main branches of Mortis to, and you are born to the 8th generation on top of that.  Most childer around your age will be of the 10th or 11th generation, so you have the upper hoof.  Your vitae is more potent, your blood more willing to bend to your whim, and the capacity for your disciplines are naturally higher.”

“But it still feels so... Wrong...”  Twilight sighed quietly.

“Twilight...”  Vinyl frowned and placed a hoof of her childe's chin, making her gaze into her own eyes.  “I would not have sired you if I didn't think you had a fate beyond that of what the Prince wanted for you.  It's good to keep your morals, but you need to know that they needn't be set in stone, or they will just become a burden.  You have mastered Auspex without fault, and even your Fortitude discipline is better than expected, but you need to truly let yourself use Mortis like I know you can.”

“I want to...  I really do, but it just...”  Twilight closed her eyes and let out a weak sigh.

“I know, I really do...  I promise it'll be alright,”  She said before pulling her childe into a warm embrace, wrapping a hoof around the other unicorn's withers.  “But there is still a sense of urgency.  The time will come when you need to use it, and you can't be afraid when that moment arrives.  I-”

She was cut off by the sound of a loud pounding at the door, to which Vinyl cursed hatefully at and walked towards the source of the noise.  She slipped her sunglasses back on before opening the door and letting a revolted grimace form on her lips.  “Hoity Toity.”  She stated with relative disgust.

“Vinyl Scratch.”  The Tremere responded.  “The Prince has informed me to deliver this to the Neonate.  Encased is a mission that needs to be dealt with, and Blueblood sees it as the perfect opportunity to test her skills and loyalty to the Camarilla.  I'm sure you will be more than happy to oblige, Nigrimancer.”  His voice, although having the facade of high society, clearly had a tone of spite beneath it that even Twilight had picked up on.

“Thank you, Blood Witch.  I shall see to it that it is taken care of,”  Vinyl countered with an equally spiteful tone, hidden under the ever-so-thin masquerade of politeness.

“See that you do.”  Hoity Toity replied with a disgusted expression on his face that lasted even after the door was closed in it.

“What was that all about?”  Twilight inquired after watching that display put on by the two vampires.

Vinyl Scratch only placed the letter in front of her childe, keeping the hateful scowl on her face that could curdle milk.  “That damned Blood Witch suspects what we really are.  Normally I would disregard what that pompous Ventrue Prince asks, as the Giovanni are nominally an Independent clan, but I fear that may only make us look more suspicious to Hoity Toity.  Attention is hardly what we want right now.”

“So, about the letter...?”  Twilight suggested, levitating the envelope in front of her face and eying it over.  It was plain, white paper that was sealed only by a drop of wax with a garnished image of a scepter in the center of it.

“Open it...  It has details for some pointless mission that the Prince wants done,”  Vinyl rolled her eyes and relaxed back into her seat.  Already being put in a bad mood from having her training interrupted, seeing Hoity Toity had only made her blood go from a mild simmer to a full on boil.

Twilight nodded and opened the envelope, reading over its contents aloud:

“Dear Neonate,

It has come to my attention that the Primogen for clan Malkavian has, in fact, gone missing.  Normally I would not place the trust in finding an AWOL Malkavian to a Neonate, but the other Primogen seem to agree that you need some degree of responsibility in order to prove your clan's willingness to work with the Camarilla.  Know that this is not a fool's errand, Neonate, as I expect you to find the whereabouts of the Malkavian known as Zecora.

Enclosed are the several locations that Zecora has been seen over the past few nights before her disappearance.  As I do not expect you to have any trouble with this mission, I will request that Vinyl Scratch remain at the Haven and only offer guidance when necessary.  Under no conditions do I want her to actively assist you in your search for our wayward Primogen.

Best Regards,

Prince Blueblood”

Twilight reread through the letter a few more times silently before looking over the map of Equestria that had been enclosed, which sported several red circles on it.  Vinyl on the other hoof had let out a long, angered sigh before speaking.

“That no good, backstabbing, rat sucking Usurper!”  She hissed out in pure rage.  “He wants you to fumble this mission, but I'm not going to let that happen!”

“Who, Hoity Toity?”  Twilight inquired, only having a sharp glance from her sire in response.

“I want you to find the Primogen, Twilight.  I want you to show that Warlock his place!”  Vinyl continued her rampage by jumping to her feet.  “The best place to start would probably be her haven, I'd imagine...”

“Her haven?  Like, her house?”  Twilight blinked curiously and looked over the map again.  “Where's it at?  They also have some really strange places circled...”

“That's because Zecora is a Malkavian, Twilight...  Malkavians are...  Interesting to say the least.  They are all completely insane, but there's something to their madness.  To put it in layman's terms, they can see the future,”  Vinyl stated as if such a thing was perfectly normal, but still left Twilight wide eyed and confused.

“But they...  That sounds even more insane!  I may have just been introduced into Kindred society merely weeks ago, but you can't expect me to believe that they can see the 'future'!”  Twilight rolled her eyes at the very notion, eliciting a sharp whack from the ruler that her sire had somehow gotten in mere seconds.  “Ow!”

“Don't be so arrogant!  You don't have to believe me, but you should never state anything outside your experience as impossible...  There are things out there in the dark that even the most ancient of Kindred know nothing about.”  Vinyl glared at her childe for a moment before looking at the map.  “Speaking of which, are you prepared to walk into the Everfree Forest, kid?  That's where the haven of the Primogen is said to be.”  She mentioned and tapped her hoof against the red circle that was dead in the middle of said forest.  “On the way though, I would suggest stopping at the Redbuck Hotel; it's where she tends to stay during her visits to Canterlot.”

Twilight nodded, rubbing her cheek at the stinging that her sire had caused.  “I-I can do that.”  She stated, trying not to let her voice show her nervousness.  “But...  It's just that this is my first time out of the Haven...”

“Don't worry, Cupcake...  You'll do fine; I promise you will.  You've grown stronger then even you realize, I imagine.  Just use your guts, and more importantly, your head.”  Vinyl reassured Twilight with a soft smile.  “That, and if anyone tries anything against you, show them what you've learned.  Well, as long as no Kine see you anyway;  you still need to abide by the Masquerade.”

Twilight nodded in understanding before looking over her map once more.  This was it; the moment of truth for her...  The moment that she had spent that past few weeks training for.  Despite her nervousness, it reminded her of the tests she used to take in school; which as anyone would tell you, she never failed a test.

“I'm ready.”  Twilight stated and folded the map, placing it into her saddlebags and levitating the bags onto her back.  “I'm ready to find the Primogen and ace this test.”

Vinyl shook her head and rolled her eyes upon watching her childe leave the haven.  “She really is in over her head.”

~*~*~

Twilight found herself staring at the map for a good hour before realizing something unbelievably pertinent... “Aaaaaaaand....  I'm lost.”  She silently lamented to herself in the middle of the empty street, unaware of what awaited her in the nights to come.