My Little Masquerade

Special thanks to Rhanite for letting me use his picture for the Cover Art, and Lithl, for giving me the advice that helped write this story in the first place, as well as helping to point out the horrible mistakes the original draft had.
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic belongs to Lauren Faust and Hasbro.
Vampire the Masquerade belongs to White Wolf.

Prologue

“And that class, is how Arcane Frequency can affect what kinds of spell you cast, and how using the wrong frequency with the wrong spell can cause mishaps,” said a purple unicorn with a starburst as a cutie mark, finishing her lecture to her very bored class. “Now, are there any questions?”

In the entire lecture hall, there were only about 10% of her students were still awake at this point. One of these utterly bored students raised her hoof and asked, “Professor Sparkle, wasn’t class supposed to end 45 minutes ago?”

Upon hearing this news, Twilight quickly glanced at the clock on the wall and exclaimed, “Goodness, you’re right! Now everyone remember to read chapters… 8… through… 12.” Unfortunately for the assigned reading, the entire class burst from the room the moment she realized that class was supposed to be over. “Become a professor, they said,” muttered an annoyed Twilight, “Students would love to learn from someone as intelligent as you, they said,” as she drudged herself out of the lecture hall, and towards her office.

As she walked across the University of Canterlot’s campus, she idly wondered if she should have taken that librarian job in Ponyville instead. Sure, there would have been fewer research opportunities, but she would have been surrounded by books, as well as not having to teach students who only took her class as a first year requirement. Upon reaching her office, she noticed that upon her desk, there was a book that she had not placed there herself. “Hmm, what’s this?” she wondered aloud, as she drew closer to it. On the book’s cover, in place of a title, was a circle with a square in it, and a triangle on its top right side. As she opened the book to examine closer, she discovered that in place of letters and words, strange symbols she had never seen before filled the book. At that moment, a grin spread across Twilight’s face, as this could only mean one thing, there was a mystery in front of her, and she wouldn’t rest until she figured out what the book said. She then noticed that under the book was a single piece of paper that simply said “Good luck.” Twilight had no idea who sent her the book, but at that moment, she really didn’t care.

Over the next few days, between sleeping, teaching, and eating, Twilight focused on nothing but translating the mysterious tome. One the fourth day, at about 9:30 PM, after looking through 15 different language guides and several different translator spells, she finally managed to translated the strange script. “Eureka!” she proclaimed, “Now, what secrets do you contain,” she muttered as she read through the book with mounting excitement. However, as she read through the book, her excitement slowly changed to irritation and disappointment. After translating the first line of the book, she determined that it read A Beginner’s Guide to Thaumaturgy, or Blood Magic for Dummies. As she read further, it continued to speak of how blood could be used to power spells, and that magic without blood was almost powerless in comparison. “Blood Magic, really,” an exasperated Twilight sighed, “Everypony knows there is no such thing as Blood Magic. Besides, doesn’t the sender know that Nightmare Night isn’t for another month?” Twilight then gathered her saddlebags together, and trotted home, grumbling about pranksters and how she had wasted four days on this rubbish.

Unbeknownst to Twilight, a mysterious pony was watching her, very happy that her book had been deciphered, and in such a small amount of time. Yes, this new initiate wouldn’t be like the plethora of foals that had come before her in recent nights. “Report,” she ordered of the pony behind her. “Has anypony interrupted ze examination?”

“No, master,” said a stallion, standing a few feet away the mare in the alleyway, “None of the ghouls we had placed in her class had any trouble getting the tome into her room, and we’ve had those trained in Auspex keeping an eye on her at all times.”

“And you are sure she has already completed ze translation?”

“Those watching her have confirmed this.”

“Good, tell all ponies currently watching her to stand down and to return to ze Chantry. I will attend to zis matter myself.”

“As you wish, my master,” as the stallion bowed low to the ground, then left to fulfill his orders.

“Twilight Sparkle, it has been a while since I created a childe of my own, let’s hope you are worth ze trouble,” the mare said under her breath, as she trotted down the street.

After she reached her apartment and had begun to put her things away, Twilight noticed that she had accidentally put the new translated book of so-called Blood Magic in her saddlebags without thinking about it. “I can’t believe I wasted four days on you,” she darkly muttered to the book, before placing it on her coffee table, “At least it will be good for a laugh, I guess. I do wonder though, who would go to all the trouble of making an entire book in a fake language, and filling it full of nonsense, just to prank me?” she wondered. She figured it was probably one of her students, mad that they had failed one of her exams.

Before she could ponder the matter further, she heard a knock on her apartment door and went to answer it. As soon as she opened the door, a light blue earth pony with a white mane, wearing a black and white striped dress, and purple sunglasses strode into the room pronouncing, “I, Photo Finish, have arrived!”

Twilight stared at her for a full ten seconds before being able to say anything. “So, not to sound rude but… who are you and why did you just walk into my home?” asked a very confused Twilight.

“As I said, I am Photo Finish, you may have heard of me?” asked Photo Finish, thinking that saying her name would obviously tell Twilight who she was.

“No, I haven’t,” Twilight stated flatly.

It was Photo Finish’s turn to stare at Twilight for a full ten seconds. “Photo Finish, ze most famous fashion photographer in all of Canterlot, you must have heard my name around somewhere,” Photo Finish continued, but to no avail, as Twilight simply shook her head. “Well no matter, I see you have finished translating my book, did you find it enjoyable?” Photo Finish asked, trying to gauge Twilight’s reaction.

“So you’re the one who sent me that prank book?” demanded a now furious Twilight, “Why did you send me an obviously fake spell book, and why have you barged into my home?

At this, Photo began to laugh, “Ha ha ha, who told you zat book was a prank? And as for ze reason I’m here, it is because you translated zat book.”

“How could you possibly have known I translated that book?” Twilight asked, “and as for why it’s a prank, everypony knows that Blood Magic is nothing but a myth. No magic experiment involving blood has ever been successful in the history of Equestria.”

“Well, no mortal magic involving blood,” stated Photo, “and as for why I know you translated zat tome, I’ve been keeping a close eye on you, Twilight Sparkle.”

“W-what?!? I don’t know what you’re going on about, but I demand you leave my home this instant!” a suddenly very scared Twilight yelled at Photo Finish. However, instead of leaving, Photo began to slowly walk towards Twilight, and even though she was wearing sunglasses, Twilight could tell she had the look of a predator stalking its prey. “S-stay back!” shouted Twilight, who was beginning to panic. She then proceeded to telekinetically lift up her entire couch, and throw it at Photo Finish.

In response, Photo raised a single hoof and the couch stopped in mid-air, “Zat is very good, Twilight, most ponies do not have enough power to lift anything bigger zan a book or two, but to lift something of zis size and weight, I knew you were worth my time.” She then gestured with her hoof, and sent the couch slamming into a wall at the far end of the room, cracking the plaster and sending bits of couch and wall everywhere.

As Twilight backed up, she started throwing more and more things at Photo, who simply deflected all that was sent at her, all without touching them. “You’re not a unicorn, how are you doing this?!?” demanded Twilight, whose curiosity would not be satiated, even in a state of pure panic.

Photo merely smiled at this, looked dead into Twilight’s eyes and said, “Ze fact zat you can ask questions other zan ‘Please don’t hurt me’ at a time like zis only finalizes zat you are indeed worthy of zis gift. Don’t worry, all will be made clear in time. Now, STOP!” Contrary to any amount of sense, Twilight stopped moving, which allowed to Photo to finally close the gap between them. Photo then leaned in close and whispered in Twilight’s ear, “Forgive me, but your current magic is insufficient. Let me open for you ze door to real power.”

For an instant, Twilight saw that Photo had for fangs sticking from her mouth, then felt them pierce her flesh, as Photo bit down onto Twilight’s neck, and began to drain the blood from Twilight’s body. While Twilight expected to feel pain, there was none, in fact, it was the best feeling she had ever felt. Until that moment, Twilight had never even considered that a pony could feel like this, feeling even pleasure so grand, nothing could compare. The pure bliss that filled her body at that moment was better than anything she could or would ever experience in her entire life, to a bliss that no drugs or sex could ever possibly hope to match. This feeling of pure ecstasy was so good, that thoughts of fighting back, or resistance of any kind, did not even flicker across her mind.

Photo Finish released Twilight after the last of her blood had been drained from her body, allowing her to become dimly aware of how cold her body was - and how dark everything was becoming. In her last moments of consciousness, Twilight felt something warm and sticky trickle down her throat, and Twilight heard the words, “Welcome to ze Tremere Clan, Twilight Sparkle,” and then she knew no more.