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.

(Seriously, go read Lithl’s My Little Exalt, it’s way better than my stuff)

Chapter 1

You’re a Blood Wizard, Twilight

“GAH!” Twilight screamed, as she awoke from the worst nightmare of her life. “Twilight, calm down,” she said to herself, “It was only a dream.” ‘Wait, what was I dreaming about?’ she thought to herself, ‘It had something to do with blood, I think.’ Then, it all came back to her: the blue earth pony with the sunglasses, the fake Blood Magic book, being attacked, the sensation of teeth sinking through her neck. She ran a hoof over her neck, but found nothing - no bite mark, no sign of any sort of injury whatsoever, ‘See Twilight, it really was a dream,’ she thought. However, when Twilight looked up, she realized she had no idea where she was.

As she looked around, she noticed that instead of being in the organized chaos of her messy apartment, she was in a dark, windowless room. The room itself held no signs that anypony lived there, it was just a grey room with grey walls, a table, which had a lit candle on it, across from the bed she was on.

“W-where am I?! What’s going on?!” Twilight she said, in hopes that somepony would answer her.

In response to these queries, the door to the room opened, and the blue mare from the night before walked into the room saying, “Both excellent questions! But first, how are you feeling?”

“YOU!” Twilight exclaimed, “S-STAY BACK!!!” She attempted to throw the table at Photo Finish with her magic, but the table did not move; her horn did not even glow.

Photo gave her a pointed look and said, “If I was able to defeat you with no problem last night, what makes you zink you can win now? Besides, in case you haven’t noticed, your magic isn’t exactly working. Now, calm down and let’s talk like rational ponies.”

Twilight looked like she was about to scream in protest, but decided to bite back her retort. Twilight had to admit that Photo had a point, she had no idea where she was, she still had no access to her magic, and there was nothing stopping Photo from beating her down once more. Shooting Photo a glare, Twilight muttered back, “…Fine. To answer your previous question, I feel fine. That’s kind of weird isn’t it? Shouldn’t I be in intensive care or dead from blood loss, since you bit into my throat?”

“Don’t worry about zat, I’ll teach you to remove bite marks from zose you drink out of when ze time comes,” replied Photo, who appeared to ignore the look of absolute horror Twilight now had. “Besides, it was ze only way for you to join ze clan.”

“What clan? Anyway, couldn’t you have just given me an invitation if you wanted me to join your… whatever this is?” asked Twilight.

“Why, Clan Tremere, of course. Ze most powerful Warlocks in ze world! Besides, you hardly pass out invitations to join a secretive clan of vampires, and before you zink me mad, check your pulse,” suggested Photo.

‘Great,’ thought Twilight, ‘Not only did I get abducted, it was by a pony who is completely insa-” Her train of thought stopped immediately when she brought her hoof to her neck, but couldn’t find a heartbeat. For all intents and purposes, she should be dead. “N-no!” Twilight shakily cried, “I can’t be dead, there’s so much I haven’t done yet!”

“If you’re done being melodramatic,” Photo said in an annoyed voice, “You’ll notice zat even zough your heart’s not beating, and you’re not breathing, you are still moving. You are only undead, not fully dead. Nozing is going to stop you from living your life, so to speak. Now stand up, zere’s much to do, and I’d razer start now. Photo gestured for Twilight to follow as she began to walk out of the room.

Twilight pulled herself to her hooves and followed Photo in a much larger room, filled with bookcases and tables covered in strange scientific equipment. Twilight decided to ask, “So, if I really am a vampire, does that mean that I can’t eat garlic bread or touch religious symbols?”

“What? Oh, yes, zose myths,” Photo said with disdain, “No, neizer religious symbols nor garlic will harm you, zough you can forget about eating. Trying to consume anyzing other zan blood will only cause you to vomit ashes. In fact, ze only zings zat zose ridiculous myths got right was is zat sunlight will burn us and fire will cause incredible damage. Anyzing else you may zink you know, ignore it.” Photo then took that opportunity to dramatically turn around, gesture to the walls, and proclaim, “Now, welcome to ze Chantry of Clan Tremere! I am zis Chantry’s Regent. It’s leader, if you will.”

“I still don’t know what that is,” Twilight replied flatly.

“Neonates, so impatient,” Photo muttered, “Anyway, as you know I, am a vampire, part of ze Clan Tremere. As I am your sire, you are now a member of ze clan as well. A clan is a group of vampires zat is descended from one of several original vampires. In Clan Tremere’s case, Star Swirl ze Bearded.”

During this lecture, Twilight was trying to take notes with a pencil and piece of paper she found on a nearby table. She was having difficulty, due to her lack of practice using her mouth, and her inability to magically lift the pencil, However, she stopped abruptly at hearing the name ‘Star Swirl.’ “Star Swirl the Bearded, as in The Star Swirl, the most famous unicorn magician in history?” asked a now ecstatic Twilight, temporarily forgetting that she was now a damned undead abomination. “He was a vampire?!”

“Well, he wasn’t originally. He was just a regular magician at first, leader of a sect of powerful magi, but as he became older, he became entranced by ze idea of eternal life. After years of experimenting, he succeeded and turned himself and his subordinates into vampires. Unfortunately, ze other pre-existing clans did not approve of zem, considering zem upstarts, and not true vampires. It was only hundreds of years after zat we did finally find a place in kindred society,” lectured Photo, as if she had explained this hundreds of times.

“Fascinating,” Twilight said as she furiously wrote down everything Photo had said, “So, what do you mean by Kindred?”

“Kindred is our word for vampire, it sounds much more refined zan simply saying vampire, no?” said Photo. “Anyway, you should know zat every clan has different powers, and ze most powerful ability of our clan in is Zaumaturgy, or as it is more widely known, Blood Magic. We had to develop it, since being undead all but strips away regular magic.”

“Wait, WHAT?! But I’m a professor of Magic, won’t ponies find it suspicious if I can’t do magic? Not to mention that my special talent is magic, that means I’m now useless,” moaned Twilight.

“Not to worry, simply concentrate on ze vitae, or blood, whatever you wish to call it in wizin your body. If you do, you should be able to pass for ze living, including limited access to magic. How else would we be able to pass ourselves off as normal if pegasi suddenly could not stand on clouds, or unicorns could not levitate objects?” Photo said, in an attempt to placate Twilight.

Twilight decided to try this by concentrating not on her horn, but on the blood within her. She then focused on a nearby beaker, and managed to lift it into the air with telekinesis.

“Very good, but you should know, doing that for long periods of time will drain ze blood right out of you and may lead to a sort of vampiric coma known as torpor, or worse, so use it sparingly,” Photo said, satisfied that her student was catching on.

“Alright, do you mind if I ask why you chose me?” asked Twilight, hoping she wasn’t overstepping any bounds.

“Zat question is quite alright. In truth, we of clan Tremere value intelligence in our potential recruits above all else, and by translating zat tome I sent you, you proved your intelligence in spades. Besides, zat cutie mark you have means you’re talented in all magic, including blood magic. I have a feeling you will excel at Zaumaturgy.” Photo said as she smirked and lifted the bottom part of her dress to reveal her own cutie mark, which was identical to Twilight’s.

“Wow,” was all Twilight could think to say.

“Now come zis way; before we begin your training, zere is somezing of grave importance we must do,” said Photo, guiding Twilight through another door which led into a long hallway.

As they walked, Twilight looked into some of the passing rooms and could not believe her eyes. In one room, a Pegasus appeared to be lighting candles by blinking. In another room, she saw what appeared to be stone ponies moving heavy equipment around at the behest of a unicorn. She decided to stop looking into the rooms when she passed by a cauldron that appeared to be filled with blood, and realized that instead of being horrified by it, she was drooling.

“How is it that all of this has remained hidden?” asked Twilight, obviously enamored by what she was seeing despite herself.

“Well, most of kindred society follows what we call ze Masquerade. Zis is essentially ze ‘Don’t tell mortals we exist or we kill you rule.’ It was put in place by ze Camarilla at ze time of ze Ponyish Inquisition, when we realized zat even zough we were stronger, ze mortals could kill us zrough sheer numbers,” explained Photo.

“Camarilla?” asked Twlight.

“A group of vampire which is officially made up of seven of ze 13 clans, and before you ask, yes, zat includes ze Tremere. In fact, if it wasn’t for us, zere would be no Camarilla. Of course, regardless of what ze ozer clans say, all kindred are part of ze Camarilla. Ah, were here,” proclaimed Photo.

At the end of the hallway, through the last door, they walked into a wide open room, which contained nothing but a dais with a gold chalice on it, in the middle of a strange rune-covered circle which covered the floor. “Now, stand and wait,” ordered Photo.

Twilight stood and watched as Photo began to chant and murmur. The circle began to glow brighter and brighter until a bright red light filled the room. After five minutes, Photo finished her chanting and trotted over to the chalice. She then took out a long knife and slit her own wrist over the chalice. As the blood flowed into the container, she loudly proclaimed, “From ze blood of one, ze Seven shall flow, let zis Neonate taste true power, and forever serve zose of true strength.” As she said this, the red blood that filled the cup turned sickly black.

Photo brought the container over to Twilight and commanded, “Now, Twilight Sparkle, drink, and truly become one of us.”

Fearing the consequences if she disobeyed, Twilight brought the chalice to her lips, and drank the dark liquid. While she felt the same elation she felt before when she was bitten by Photo, she felt something more. A sensation of power rippled through her as she drank, ancient power, power of which she had never even conceived of. She now knew that a fraction of that power flowed through her veins, and this filled her with joy. At the same time, she hungered for more power.

“Congratulations, you have now been bound to ze seven elders of Clan Tremere. Now, Apprentice of ze First Circle of Mysteries, 10th Generation Tremere, Twilight Sparkle, your training may begin,” Photo proclaimed, obviously happy things were proceeding smoothly. “Let us begin, ze magicks.” She snaked a hoof around Twilight neck and proclaimed, “We go!” and before Twilight could even wipe the blood from her mouth, she was pulled back down the hallway to begin her training.