Prologue
It was a normal day per se, the majority of the day's occurrences were common and mundane, events that everyone had done before. Unfortunately for this town of ponies however many more subtle devices, just under the surface, were happening as well. These hidden actions spun around the town, nopony noticed, nopony would notice as they busied themselves tying the inescapable knots of the universe. These strings, of course, would have little meaning on their own, however they were now rotating around the single strongest point of magic in the town, Twilight Sparkle.
The librarian herself was busy with sorting the books in her library when the first circumstance made itself known, a visit to the door and a talk with her friend Rarity informed the lavender mare that a blue mare she had thought gone from the town forever had come back boasting that she would triumph where she failed the last time. What was unknown to either of the close friends was that Trixie’s sudden assurity that she could defeat Twilight came from a power she had made a deal with, a power not of this peaceful world.
The lavender unicorn was heading out the door when a book nearby was knocked over by the sudden commotion. And thus the second hidden action was revealed as Twilight briefly glanced down at the page the book had fallen open to, theories on planar teleportation. With a sigh at her own carelessness the magic adept unicorn placed the book back where it had been. It's occurrence would cause her much more pain then she suspected though, the mare hoped to end this encounter with the unicorn who despised her in a peaceful fashion and get back to her books. Unfortunately however, destiny was fighting her on this one and she wasn’t aware enough to push back.
There was one more powerful thing however that broke the basket and tipped the scales to the event that was about to occur, the friends of the unicorn joined her on the way to confront Trixie. As has already been told, none of the events, if separated or done to a different unicorn, would have caused the same event. For this particular pony, this magically inclined and experienced caster, had something inside her that few beings did.
So when the Fates of destiny had drawn their lots and the two unicorn mares met in town square, blue and purple. Events triggered that had been being set up all day, events that still twirled around librarian, waiting to bestow its gift. It has been said that actions are like little droplets of water falling into a pond where they send out smaller and smaller waves to affect the rest of the liquid around them. It is nothing like this, events are like a fire and all the possible reactions are like tinder, the fire jumps from reaction to reaction blazing furiously and relentlessly as it destroys the normalcy that once stood.
Our librarian, the magic user herself, applied her idea to try and end things peaceably before anypony was hurt. The showmare was in opposition of this idea and with anger that she had not had previous the blue mare started the fight and fired the first magic bolt. The lavender mare tried to protect herself and her friends with defensive magic but the relentless onslaught would not let up.
It came to blows, scars were gained on both sides and the surrounding area was demolished as wayward spells hit random targets. It was back and forth for a while but the purple magic that was flung wildly through the air was beginning to beat away the blue magic. It was in this moment, just as the last purple magic bolt was cast at the showmare that it was destroyed mid flight, the blue mare smiled an evil grin that didn’t look to fit her face as a fireball rained down from the sky.
In her panic the librarian dug deep into herself and tried to find something, some remaining amount of magic to save not only herself but her friends as well. It was in this desperation, this powerful motivating desperation, that a thought came to her mind, planar teleportation. It was among many of the pieces of thought that ran through her mind and it would have gone completely unnoticed if she hadn't read it in a book not moments before arriving, but when she thought it she felt a spark within her.
When she focused on the spark, attempting to grab hold of this last detached magic it lead her outside her body, she gathered magic from the Everfree, from the plains to the south, from Froggy Bottom Bog, and from Ponyville itself, the magic was gathered quickly as the fireball fell towards her, but she still needed more magic. She found one more source, she took mana from the power of her friends spirits, the positive emotions that flowed through them, and she cast her spell.
She and her friends were dragged across entire universes and worlds as they were taken along by Twilight’s magic, when the magical pull finally wore away the six ponies found themselves amongst an odd assortment of buildings, the night was falling and several odd bipedal creatures were running quickly into the structures, they were running quickly and the lavender mare thought she could smell the fear that was running through the air, something was off.
"Destiny and Fate are the same thing, only simple minded fools fear one but hope for the other."
Black and Blue on the Plane of Shadows
“Where are we sugarcube?” Came the call of the orange earth pony who was slowly standing up from her position on the ground. It might be supposed that, after such a powerful spell, all who were involved in it would have little to no consciousness left in them, but all six of the ponies found they had energy to spare. Including Twilight who was shocked to find she wasn't magically fatigued in the least.
“I don’t know, I have no idea." Panic was rising in the librarian's voice as she continued to talk. "I’m sorry. I just lost control. I grabbed onto whatever magic I could to get us out of there. I didn't know that this would happen, lost in a strange world. It's just... my teleportation magic was used during the fight and I didn’t have enough left to take us all out of there.” The magic user said to her friends as she fought down tears, she was blaming herself for this, she had dragged her closest friends, close enough to almost be family, to wherever they were now.
“Oh, It’s alright darling, as long as we stick together I’m sure we can find our way back home.” Came the reply from the white unicorn, her words did little to stop Twilight from blaming herself but it kept her from saying it outloud.
The sun set quickly and the mares found the darkness gathering around them, just as they were about to stand and make their way towards one of the nearby houses a raspy voice caught their ears, “Candy-colored horses? These humans are getting more and more stupid every day if they think that this will do anything to stop us.”
The voice gathered a few chuckles from some similar sounding voices, all of them hidden. Rarity was offended as she turned around with her head held high. With a tone of indignation, she spoke in the general direction the voice had come from, “We are more than some candy-colored horses sirs, we are ladies and we wish to be treated as such.”
Silence followed the words of the unicorn as the hidden bearers of the voices looked at each other in confusion, eventually one of them spoke to another of the group, “Did you just hear that white one talk? I mean, I know this is Innistrad but you have to admit that that is very different.”
One of the mysterious creatures approached from the shadows with a swagger that made all of the mares tense, the creature continued its approach until it stood merely feet away from the lavender mare, at this distance Twilight could see that it was similarly shaped to the other bipeds she had seen as the sun was setting, the only real difference visible at this distance was that it’s skin was very pale in comparison to the pink the other creatures had had.
The creature looked at the horses with a raised eyebrow before yelling over his shoulder to those hidden in the forest, “Doesn’t really matter does it? I’m sure they taste just fine.” A shiver ran down the spines of the mares as the creature charged them, he was faster than his form should allow but he seemed to keep the pace easily. He dashed towards the five mares who were stunned still but was immediately hit across the face by a purple beam of magic from the sixth unfazed unicorn. The creature tumbled backwards towards the trees it had come from, after it stopped tumbling it got to its feet to look at the mare with puzzlement.
“No one eats my friends!” As Twilight shouted these words her friends drew from her courage and they all took fighting stances, the creature merely grinned malevolently as it waved forward a hand, five others that all seemed to be the same as the first creature approached quickly towards the stranded Equestrians.
The vampires were unafraid of the horses’ glares as they approached but were soon sent tumbling head over heels by a buck to the face, a party cannon to the chest, magic to any part of their body or were stopped dead by a death glare from a yellow pegasus until one of her friends could help her out.
When the group of vampires were beaten and all six mares were breathing heavily after the fight a slow clap came from the shadows the blood sucking creatures had come from.
“Impressive, very impressive.” Came a voice, it didn’t sound raspy, rather it sounded quite refined. “It takes more power than I would expect you to have to beat a group of my vampires, well deserving of an applause ladies.” Rarity took appreciation in the last word as she straightened her posture, what emerged from the shadows merely seconds later put her back on edge.
It looked similar to what they had just been fighting but was wearing clothing much more noble, the thing that had set the group on edge again though was the small dried rivers of blood that ran down its face from the mouth. “I haven’t seen another planeswalker on my home plane in a long time, they fear me far too much for that.”
“Stay away.” the purple unicorn said as she charged a burst of magic into her horn, the creature just smiled as he took a few more steps, with a brief pause the mare fired the magic spell at the slowly approaching creature, he smiled as he batted away the bolt in midair causing it fly off far into the night.
Blinking in disbelief the mare fired two more bolts of magic at the approaching monster, with as much ease as before it batted the magic out of the air with a single hand and its smile widened. Eventually it stood directly in front of the mares and it drew a sword from his sheath, the mares backed away in fear from the monster as it took one more step.
The sky was darkened and the six ponies looked up, a creature sailed over them and jumped at the creature that had its sword drawn, faster than the eye could follow the blade cut through the furry attacker and dropped it to the ground. Blood dripped off the edge of the blade and the vampire lifted it to his tongue to taste it. “Lycanthrope, four years of the curse it seems, oh and it had bird for lunch.”
The six ponies might have laughed if it weren’t for the matter of fact tone that the blade wielder spoke with, finally Twilight managed to speak a few words from between her lips as she looked at the monster, “What are you?”
“Well, that is rather rude isn’t it? I am a vampire but you can’t just judge me on that alone, I would assume that with how your white friend there had spoken you would have more manners than that.” As it spoke the tone seemed slightly playful, but it also sounded terrifying.
“It is polite to introduce yourself first sir, I will apologize for my friends behavior if you correct that error in your manners.” Rarity replied, the other five ponies looked at her with shock plain on their face as the thing regarded her coldly.
“You indeed have a point there I apologize for that, it's been far too long since I’ve met a proper lady, unless you count Elspeth, but I’m not sure about her.” The creature said with a nod, “My name is Sorin Markov, vampire lord, and may I just say that it is a pleasure to meet a fellow planeswalker who for once isn’t trying to take my head off.”
“Pleasure to meet you Mister Markov, my name is Rarity and these are my friends, Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash.” As the white mare spoke the names of her friends they all indicated themselves in some manner. After finishing the mare turned to face the librarian, “You will have to excuse Twilight for her rudeness we have just been through quite the ordeal and we are very unfamiliar with this place.”
Twilight merely looked at Sorin with her jaw low, the vampire lord raised an eyebrow and looked at the purple mare, with this action to break her from her silent amazement she decided to ask the question that was on her mind. “Vampires? Like vamponies?”
Sorin smiled as he looked at the mare, “In all my travels across the planes I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a vampony, you will have to be more specific.”
“They drink blood of other ponies in order to live and are undead.” Said Twilight.
“Ah yes, in that case vampires are much alike vamponies, with the exception that we require human blood rather than that of ponies.” Sorin turned away and looked away into the distance, while he was facing away the ponies all shared a look of worry amongst themselves but quickly hid them behind fake smiles as Sorin turned back to face them. “Well, come along then, can’t have a new planeswalker and her friends get killed when humans overreact to a powerful vampire near their town.”
With those words Markov turned away once again and set off at a brisk pace, the ponies all shared one more look of worry before they set off following the vampire lord, Twilight in front and Fluttershy bringing up the end of the line. After a few steps the escort looked back at the ponies following and raised an eyebrow.
“I wouldn’t pin the shy yellow pegasus as your best fighter, that’s odd.”
“What are you talking about?” Rainbow dash said with a slightly aggravated tone. “She’s at the back, you know, the safest place.”
Sorin’s eyes flickered with rage for a moment before he spoke again, “Do not assume that you know anything about my home plane pegasus, this is Innistrad, the one at the back is usually the first one to be targeted.”
Fluttershy froze at the words and Rainbow quickly switched her spots so that the shy pegasus was in the middle of the group, the pony directly in front of her and behind her grouped up closer to give the shy pegasus a feeling of protection and the group continued on.
“What is a planeswalker?” Twilight asked as the pale vampire led the way.
“You’re a planeswalker, Twilight.” Sorin said over his shoulder as a shadowy building was slowly outlined in the night backdrop.
“W-what?” The mare responded, stunned by the words.
“A planeswalker is a creature with the ability to travel across the different planes of the multiverse. Some event usually causes for the spark to be revealed, it can be a moment of great pain, loss, even joy I’ve heard. I found my spark when I contracted my vampirism, I have been walking the planes for a long time now, leaving my home to fall to this state.”
“Oh” Was all the purple mare said as they continued, moments later they entered the doors of the building that they had been heading to, inside they were greeted with a slew of dead vampires that lay nearly day on the floor, one was conscious enough to have his eyes flicking nervously across the room, as Sorin approached his movement caught the eye of the vampire and he looked at him in horror.
“Who are you? Who am I? Why don’t I remember? What’s going on!” The vampire shouted loudly, with an amazing swing of his blade the vampire was decapitated and Fluttershy let out a squeak.
“Beleren, come on out, I know you're here. I can smell you” Sorin said loudly to the thin air, yet somehow retaining a noble tone of voice. The ponies all adopted looks of confusion, except for Fluttershy who was still looking horrified at the decapitated vampire.
The air shimmered against a nearby wall as an illusion dissipated to reveal a man clad in a blue cloak with cold eyes looking out from under his hood. “Hello Sorin, I received information that a new planeswalker’s spark had been activated and that they had come here. I decided to see the new inductee.”
With a smile to the illusionist the vampire stepped lightly and silently to the side to put the purple mare behind him in full view. “Let me introduce you to Twilight Sparkle, unicorn planeswalker.” Jace’s eyes looked to the unicorn then to the vampire then back to the unicorn again.
“Unicorn planeswalker, just when you think you have it all figured out the multiverse throws the one thing that can still surprise you directly into your face.” Jace said as he slowly approached the librarian, “Next thing you know we’re gonna have a goblin planeswalker on our hands.”
“I have recently heard a rumor about Squee.....” The vampire let the sentence drop off as Jace refused to answer.
“Umm, sir, can you stop getting so close to me, you’re beginning to scare me.” Twilight said as she began to back away from the blue mage. The mage stopped his approach and Twilight stopped her retreat as she looked at the man. It was at this time that a cyan blur dashed past Twilight and flew towards Jace as quickly as she could.
The planeswalker easily sidestepped the mare, when she stopped to avoid crashing into the wall Jace grabbed her easily and Rainbow slumped in his grip, “Equestria, land of ponies.” Jace said as he set the pegasus down on the ground.
“What did yah do to her?” Applejack said as she approached the planeswalker.
“I read her mind and knocked her unconscious, I could have done much worse.” Jace turned his attention to Twilight, “Next time have a better control over your allies, planeswalker Twilight. Otherwise you’ll find them to be missing next time they charge ahead.”
“Well that was rather ungentlemanly of you Jace, violating another’s mind like that.” Sorin said as he looked at the blue mage, Jace returned the glare and silence began to fall, Twilight looked into the distance as her eyes glazed over.
“Vampires, Lycanthropes, Mind Readers, unconscious Rainbow Dash, I didn’t ask for this!” She shouted loudly, drawing the attention of the other two planeswalkers as well as the remainder of her friends.
“No one asks for this Twilight, it is a gift of the multiverse, a gift and a curse.” Jace said as he looked to the mare, “I didn’t learn I even had my gift until months after I had used it, I was fooled by a trusted teacher and stabbed in the back, in my rage I killed someone, or at least, thats what I told myself. After I did I tore the memories from my mind so I wouldn’t have to see it in my mind but I inserted some memories that told me exactly what happened.”
“Why are you telling me this?” The purple mare intoned, “We only just met each other and you’re already telling me your past, why?”
“Because we are planeswalkers, we can walk across multiple dimensions and seldom can we bring anyone with us, we are alone except for among ourselves and we fight for what we believe to be right. It is up to you to use your gift but I have heard only bad news from planeswalkers who refuse their own gift.”
“I think I’ll need to think about this, this is a lot to handle for one day.” Twilight said shakily, Jace nodded his head and Sorin took the opportunity to lead the mare and her friends to a guest bedroom for the remainder of the night, with Applejack carrying Rainbow on her back. The mares had intended to use the remainder of the night to share the events of the day, but all they could manage to do before they fell asleep on the floor was get the cyan mare into the bed to rest as peacefully as she could.
A voice echoed into her head that sounded familiar as she drifted off into sleep, “When you are ready I can teach you Twilight, I will be on this plane for a few more days if you need me.” As she drifted off into sleep she recognized the voice as Jace’s moments before the darkness of slumber overtook her.
Downstairs the vampire was chatting with the blue mage, “Would you have told her that under normal circumstances only the planeswalker can move between the planes and that non-planeswalker friends usually meet horrible ends?” Jace asked.
“Urza would disagree with you in that regard.” Sorin replied as he grinned.
“Urza would disagree with a lot of things, then he would bend the rules of physics to prove he was right all along, I don’t think his opinion would hold much sway right now.” Jace responded as he looked at the smiling vampire with his monotonous expression.
****
"You clerics brag about your strength of spirit, yet I take away the tiniest fragment, and you crumple like a rag doll."
—Sorin Markov
(So I think that each chapter will follow a day-night pattern from this point on. Or, in some cases, a day-planeswalk pattern. -N64Fan)
Many times Twilight had read the word ‘cacophony’ in books, yet she had never managed to securely grasp the idea. She had heard chaos, and she had heard Pinkie Pie wake up, but never had she come across something that she would describe as a cacophony. Until the morning that was, the sheer volume of noise echoing up through the house was painful to her ear and it took her many moments before she could manage to operate properly with it shooting through her skull.
Twilight looked around, her friends were all begrudgingly awake as well. She was about to shout over the noise when the door burst open. One of Sorin’s vampires servants spilled into the room, blood, sweat, and grime smeared across his face while he clutched an open wound at his side. Fluttershy gasped at the severeness of the wound but her worry went ignored, without wasting time he approached Twilight and, when he was sure that she would hear him, he shouted an important message that Sorin had given him to deliver.
“We’re under attack!” He called, loud enough that the other ponies managed to hear it over the din. “Master Markov and Master Jace want you downstairs now! They can barely defend, let alone start a counter attack!” Knowing the strength of both planeswalkers, Twilight couldn’t help but feel a sudden chill. As if she had been dragged under the ice water by an impossibly heavy weight. Twilight glanced to her friends, all of them shared a glance for a minute before nodding. Nodding a few seconds after they had Twilight ran past the vampire, her friends close behind.
They ran down the stairs as fast as they dared, making their way closer and closer to the voice of Markov that even now they could hear shouting below them. “Aim for the Muscles and Sinews, we’ll need them weaker if we want them down!” Upon reaching the base floor the ponies were all put into shock, odd insect-like creatures lay bleeding around the proud and tall form of the vampire planeswalker.
He didn’t notice them immediately, keeping his eye on the battlefield, in the distance he saw something that angered him, slicing a wide wound in another of the creature’s chests he turned to something that none of the present ponies could see, then he shouted again. “It’s a Shifting Sliver Jace, take it out before it becomes a problem! I do not want to use my magic if I don’t need to.” There was no response, but the vampire looked toward the fight expectantly. When a blue whirlwind whipped up around the sliver he had seen earlier he smiled.
Turning to his side he noticed the ponies had arrived and were looking at him like he was insane. Still smiling, Markov wiped the blood from his blade and bowed to them before jabbing it up through the throat of the next sliver that entered. “I’d love to treat you to a morning breakfast, but we’re under attack right now, so if you’ll excuse my manners at this time, that would be wonderful.”
“What’s happening?” Twilight quickly asked, looking past the opening and out onto the battle that raged between vampires and insects. She hadn’t seen anything like this before, she assumed this must be what the books meant when they told of wars. The topic however was something that Twilight had been proud to be ignorant of. Up until now anyway.
“Slivers, No idea how they managed to come back this time but I can’t say I’m surprised. If they were good at any one thing it was being extremely annoying.” Markov said, looking towards the battle as well where corpses of both sides piled on top of one another. Twilight briefly wondered how the vampires were surviving in the day and cast an exploratory spell to see if she could come up with an answer. Almost immediately she became aware of large waves of energy that were wafting off of Sorin.
“What are Slivers?” She eventually managed, her other friends still struck silent by the blood spilling that was happening in front of their eyes. Sorin noticed as well and paused for a moment to wonder why Twilight seemed unaffected while the rest of her friends were traumatized.
“Think of a hive mind taken to the next stage. Not only do they share ‘thoughts’ but they also share ‘abilites’.” Twilight looked confused, so he continued. “If, for instance, a sliver that can fly comes into the fray,” He pointed out a flying sliver, with the tip of his sword, that was approaching from a distance. As it flew next to other Slivers they grew wings as well and took to the air.
“That’s... amazing.” Twilight said, in awe at the evolutionary concept.
“Yes, it’s rather intruiging isn’t it? However, they are currently trying to kill us. So, if you would be so kind as to not be awestruck by them that would be very nice.” Sorin said with a smile. Spinning blindly he decapitated another Sliver and sighed. “Unfortunately, me and Jace can barely hold this position, so we can’t stop whatever is bringing them here.”
“And that’s where we come in.” Twilight said, the rest of her friends managing to drag themselves away from looking at the battle, though Fluttershy was now cowering behind everyone with her eyes closed. Applejack and Rainbow Dash seemed one hundred percent ready for whatever they would need to do to save everyone, meanwhile Pinkie and Rarity both shared looks of indecisiveness.
“No, that’s where you come in, Twilight.” Sorin said, eyeing her. “Your friends would only slow you down. I believe I did only ask for you to come down, why you brought your friends I have no idea.” Three slivers managed to get through the opening and were quickly dispatched by Sorin, but it was clear it was beginning to wear him out. In the distance a rain of ice collapsed around a group of slivers and froze them over permanently, removing them from the battle. Sorin smiled wryly at the sight.
“What?” Twilight looked behind her, all her friends looked uneasy now. “But their my friends, I can’t do it without them!” She turned around to face Sorin, who remained impassive.
“Then by all means, take them. If it ends with their deaths then that will be your problem won’t it?” The next sliver that entered was faster than the rest, and it got off an attack before Sorin could properly react. Angry splashed across the vampires face, then he placed his hand on the creature’s ‘face’. It froze in response. Twilight and the others watched in horror as the sliver began to twitch and writhe underneath of Sorin’s grasp, but it never broke free. At last the thing dropped to the ground, dead, and Sorin’s wound was healed.
“Well then? What’s stopping you? Jace will help clear the way, but you’re the ones who will need to destroy whatever is out there.” Sorin swiped his hand to his side as if to remove a liquid from it. A sliver jumped in from the side, aiming to attack Twilight. Before she could react a vampire jumped in from the opposite side of the hall and tackled it back out the way it had come with a sword through it’s midsection. Sorin didn’t seem to notice.
Twilight looked to her friends, and she was happily surprised to see them all nod to her almost immediately. She smiled and made her way to the exit proper of the building. “Good to hear it.” Came Sorin’s voice from behind, interrupted suddenly as he no doubt disposed of another enemy. “Jace will show you the way when you’ve left the building proper.”
As they were about to go through the door they were stopped by two vampires, each one with three sheathed swords. “With Master Sorin’s regards.” Gratefully Applejack and Rainbow took the weapons, eventually managing to coerce the rest into getting one for self protection. “If your friends die he would like them back, if you find the time.”
“They won’t die.” Twilight said through gritted teeth. “We’ve been through worse.”
The lie was obvious on her tongue, but the vampire didn’t seem to recognize it. “Merely relaying Master Sorin’s words.”
Somewhat ashamed Twilight nodded to the vampire and turned back to the door. “Are we ready girls?”
“Ready.” Came the conjoined reply of the elements. And then they were out of the manor and onto the battlefield.
*****
"It's actually quite simple, but since you've only recently begun to walk upright, it may take some time to explain."
—Jace Beleren
