> Coven
>  by Tethys
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A bleary-eyed, ultramarine unicorn plodded down a wooded path, occasionally swatting strands of her mane -- colored two differing shades of blue, as well as white -- out of her face. A sword hung from a sheath at her side, its blade sharpened earlier that day. We were supposed to return much earlier than this, the sun's almost set.

...I probably should've just ran from that timberwolf instead of freezing it to the ground, that spell took all the ice magic I had. I hope nobody's taken any magic from Frost yet, because I'm going to need to recharge.

She came across a rickety rope bridge, the forest around her giving way to open grass for a few meters before the ground itself gave way to a gaping chasm. The bridge was the only way for a grounded pony to cross the gap. With a sigh, she carefully began to cross.

Her ears flicked as she heard a snap and a muffled yelp from the forest behind her, and she turned sideways to look back.

"...Azurite, what are you doing?" she asked the deep blue unicorn sprawled out on the path, their face contorted in surprise.

"I tripped over a branch, I'm okay!" Azurite responded with a giggle, standing up and trotting onto the bridge. "Thanks for your concern, Lazuli."

Lazuli rolled her eyes, raising her head and smiling. "Sister, it's a branch. I'm sure you'll be fine." The mare's smile faded slightly. "...Do you have any magic you could spare?"

Azurite nodded. "Let's get across the bridge, then I'll see what I can do."

Lazuli gave her a small nod, turning ahead and beginning to trot once more. In the distance, she saw a ruined castle on a hill.

The two reached the other side after a short walk, Lazuli nearly toppling over as she stepped off of the bridge.

Azurite stepped off after her sister, carefully touching their horns together. Her horn lit up, deep blue light being thrown out around the two as Lazuli's weakly sparked to life in response. Closing her eyes, Azurite began to channel a steady stream of magic into Lazuli, being careful not to give too much and leave herself drained.

Lazuli sighed, feeling invigorated as the magic flowed into her. It settled with the meager amount she had left.

"...There," Azurite said after a minute or so of silence, her horn going out as she lifted it away and stood. "Better?"

Lazuli nodded, standing and looking toward the castle with her horn still lit. "What'd you give me?"

"Just some fire magic, probably enough for a few spells if you measure it out right," Azurite responded, sticking the tip of her tongue out at her sister.

Lazuli's horn fizzled out, and she gave Azurite an annoyed look. "You know I don't like fire, sister."

Azurite simply grinned. "You can just trade it to someone else once we get home, you know. It's not gonna hurt you."

Lazuli huffed, and the two mares set off toward the castle. From afar, Lazuli spotted another unicorn heading through the doors, a swirl of magic surrounding the pony as they entered. The path the two walked was sparse, with no trees on the castle's isolated hill.

Azurite looked toward her sister, worried. "...Have you heard that the elders are pushing for relocation? Ponies are roaming deeper into the Everfree with every moon, and the older succubi are getting nervous."

Lazuli nodded grimly. "I have, and I don't like it. We should be working with ponies, not fleeing from them."

"Where will we even go? We don't have anywhere else, there isn't another secluded place like this anywhere around here," Azurite said, her worry intensifying.

Lazuli looked down at the path, kicking a rock in her way. "...I don't know, sister. If we have to, we'll leave, bring Frost with us, and act as visitors in Ponyville. Ponies show up there all the time, we won't be any different."

"What if she doesn't want to go with us?"

"Then we'll find some other unicorn to drain," Lazuli tried her best to hide how nervous the idea made her.

As they neared the castle, Lazuli looks up toward it. Old, gray stone blocks formed the ruined building, streaked with vines. She saw no roof, the upper half of the structure seemingly torn from the rest and discarded elsewhere. Tall windows stood without their upper portions, their frames crumbled and broken where the two halves separated.

The twins walked up a set of smooth stone steps, reaching a rather plain door and pushing it open together as they step inside.

Lazuli gave a sigh of relief as she sees the centerpiece of the main chamber: an ornate circular base supporting a white, cloudy glass orb, with seven struts fanning out and ending in floating bases for their own orbs, forming a circle around the central plinth.

An orange-coated succubus, undisguised, stood next to this central point, her pale blue, red and purple mane reaching the first joint in her forelegs. They talked with a lavender alicorn.

Lazuli peered at the two of them, trotting closer. An ear flicked curiously as she spotted a third figure.

A lavender filly stood next to Twilight, her horn glowing softly as she levitated stray pebbles off the ground.

That must be her child.

The filly looked back at her, curiously. She nudged her mother's hoof with her own, pointing toward the twins and saying a few words that Lazuli couldn't hear. Twilight laughed, looking toward Pleione and tilting her head slightly. After a few seconds of talking with the succubus, the alicorn looked back toward her child and nodded, smiling and giving a few words of confirmation.

Lazuli moved to her sister's side, tilting her head at the filly as she began to trot over. "What's she doing?"

"I'm sure she just wants to say hello," Azurite said. "This might be her first visit."

They both gave the filly a wave as she reached the two of them. "Hello!" Azurite says cheerfully, smiling.

The filly bashfully returned the wave, looking curiously at them. "Hi. Mom told me that ponies like you need to eat magic to live, is that true?" she asked, tilting her head.

Lazuli nodded, a little taken aback by her sudden question. Her horn glowed as she removed her disguise, revealing her two-horned form. "...Yes, we do." Her left ear flicked slightly as she studied the filly, sensing a large amount of magic within her. "You seem to have a lot of it. What's your name?"

"Iolite. I know I do!" Her wings spread proudly as she beamed, settling back down to a smile and folding her wings a few moments later. "I'm not sure how you get the magic, but... can I give you some? I can get it back, I think."

"My name is Lazuli," the mare answered, looking toward her sister for help as she shrugged.

She's better at this sort of thing.

Azurite smiled at Iolite's enthusiasm. "Well, I'm Azurite. Yes, you can get it back. Did you ask your mother if it was okay to give us magic, though?"

Iolite nodded, her wings flaring out as she talked excitedly. "Yes! She said it was okay after she talked about it with Pleione. They said that they trust both of you.”

Azurite nodded to Iolite. "Alright, good. Could you light up your horn for me, please?"

Iolite closed her eyes, blinking them open as a purple aura sparked to life around her horn. "Um... will this hurt?"

Azurite’s disguise slipped away. "Not at all, don't worry." Blue magic sparked between her horns, and she carefully siphoned some of the alicorn's magic, funneling it into two small purple spheres and letting the remainder return to where it came from. "There. Did that hurt?"

Iolite shook her head, extinguishing her horn as she studied the spheres of magic. "No. What do you do with those?"

Lazuli took one of the orbs in her magic, opening her mouth and making a motion similar to inhaling. The orb slowly lost shape and flowed into her mouth, the magic diffusing through her body. "We eat them," she said with a fanged grin.

Iolite blinked at Lazuli, her head tilted. "...Where does it go? Do you need to digest it?"

"No, it just goes into our bodies ready to use."

"Yeah, but... where in your body?" Iolite asked, one ear flicking. "Is there something that holds it?"

Lazuli shook her head. "No, it spreads throughout our entire bodies, but most of it's here -" She tapped a hoof to her chest, indicating her heart "- and here -" She tapped her head. "Without magic, our organs wouldn't be able to function, and we'd die."

Azurite giggled quietly at Iolite's fascinated staring as she ate her own orb of magic. "Mhm! We can't make it ourselves, that's why we have to take it from other ponies."

"Iolite!" Twilight called, turning and waving a wing.

The filly turned and returned the wave, looking back toward Azurite and Lazuli. "Bye!"

Lazuli chuckled and waved to Iolite. "Goodbye, little one."

Azurite gave a wave as well, smiling.

The filly galloped back to her mother, chattering excitedly.

Twilight nodded along with her daughter’s chatter, saying a few inaudible words before looking toward the twins. She gave them a small smile as she trotted toward them and the entrance, an empty bag sitting on her back and her foal trotting beside her. "Thank you for humoring her, I'm sure she had a few questions," she said, chuckling as she reached the two mares.

The two sisters stepped apart to make way, and Azurite's smile widened. "It's not a problem at all, we were happy to answer them."

Lazuli bowed her head slightly to Iolite as she passed, widening her cat-like eyes and grinning her evilest grin. Iolite simply giggled in response.

Twilight let out a quiet snicker, pushing the door open with her magic to let her daughter through. "Goodbye, ah... Lazuli and Azurite, if I can trust Iolite's memory?"

"You'd be correct," Lazuli said, her expression returning to a smile. "Farewell."

"See you!" Azurite giggles, giving them a wave as they left and closed the door behind them.

The twins turned toward the center where Pleione still stood, her eyes half-closed. They slowly looked toward Azurite and Lazuli, blinking their eyes open and beckoning the two with a wave.

Trotting over with Lazuli at her side, Azurite tilted her head at the succubus. "Yes, Pleione?"

Pleione's pupils and irises cracked and splintered, breaking apart into seven uneven, jagged pieces as the whole faded into their parts. Their eyes turned a bright purple. "We want to know how well you did today, that's all. Electra wants to know if you drained anyone-" Their eyes flickered pink for a second as they flashed a smirk, "-but I’m… just going to count that as wanting to know of any progress made."

"I lost magic today," Lazuli said, frowning, "I had to fight off a timberwolf. I didn't kill it, I just wanted to get away." She paused, checking her reserves.  "However, Iolite's gift apparently brought me back up to full."

"I gained," Azurite said, "I didn't get into any fights, and drained a few old gemstones from a broken fountain. They were keeping the water in the basin fresh, even though the fountain looked like it hadn't been used for decades. I hated to watch it turn murky, but magic is magic." She chuckled. "I'm full, too."

Pleione pondered something, their broken eyes shifting to a smoky gray. "You would do well to share that magic with others," they said with a smile, "Not all of us were fortunate enough to meet Twilight and her daughter, and the unicorns have been strained lately." They gave the two a nod before continuing. "That is all we needed from you, you may go."

The twins nodded in turn, turning away and beginning to trot toward a hallway to the west.

Lazuli's thoughts wandered as she trotted. The common area has always been clear, without fail, during Twilight's visits.

Surely it's coincidental, not intentional. Twilight and Pleione are the ones who negotiated the terms that allowed this group to live here, after all. Even if she's an outsider, Pleione is allowing her to be here, there should be no issue.

...I know that that isn't true. There were issues, and several of the older succubi, Pleione notwithstanding, have been voicing their distaste at having to rely on gifts. Still, it was a beneficial arrangement; that's the only reason why no drastic actions have taken place yet.

The group gets to survive, and Twilight gets... something.

Lazuli's ear flicked as she stepped into one of the castle's several libraries, while Azurite waved to her sister and continued down the hall.

What would Twilight get out of it? Information? Surely that can't be it, there has to be something more substantial.

Her eyes set on a bookshelf, narrowing. She could just be studying us, to see if her texts on the Great War match up with reality.

The Great War happened long, long ago. Millennia, although Lazuli doesn't know exactly how many, having only learned of the war through Pleione's scattered retellings.

There were atrocities committed on both sides. Pleione’s mind was fractured by a unicorn's spell, but she survived. Her seven fragments grew into minds of their own, eventually regaining the ability to form the whole if they chose to do so.

Male succubi -- rare enough as they were -- were hunted to near extinction, their longer horns valued more than their female counterparts. In retaliation, the succubi drained entire unicorn villages and razed what was left with their residents' own magic.

Apparently, it was another factor that brought the three pony tribes together.

Lazuli understood the resentment towards outsiders. It was hard for them to accept the few unicorns they took in. But… the ponies -- the royalty, even, or at least one of them -- seem like they're trying to make amends, and it would be foolish to reject that proposal.

It's better than trying to run away again. She remembered nothing but misery when she thought back to the time before they discovered this place.

Thoughts flashed through her mind unbidden. A mine, then a monster, then her father's body lying lifeless in front of her and her sister. Then running, running, without end-

Lazuli jolted when a hoof tapped her shoulder. "You okay, Lazuli?"

She blinked a few times, her shrunken pupils returning to their normal size. She relaxed her unknowingly-clenched jaw and weighed-upon foreleg, both aching from the pressure. She looked to her left, seeing an iron-gray succubus with rusty red eyes full of concern and a mane with colors to match. 

"Ah, Hematite, hello!" she exclaimed, startled, "Y-yes, I'm fine."

Those concerned eyes remained on her. "I don't buy that. What's going on?"

Lazuli met Hematite's gaze with a melancholy look, making the other mare back off slightly.

"I'm… sorry, I just wanted to check on you," Hematite said, sighing. "You seemed anxious."

"I'm fine." Lazuli’s ears fell slightly. “Just remembering things.”

Hematite's ears drooped in turn as she nodded. "Right... do you want to sit down, unwind? We have a game of cards going in an empty study."

Lazuli shook her head, her voice quiet. "I think I'd rather sleep, it's been quite a day."

The rusty-eyed mare smiled tentatively and gave Lazuli a gentle pat on the shoulder. "Okay. I hope you sleep well."

Lazuli nodded and turned toward the hallway she entered from.

"Do you want me to tell Frost that you're back? I'm heading back to the game soon," Hematite asked before she could begin to leave, a slight smirk crossing her face.

"...That'd be nice, thank you," Lazuli felt her face heat up slightly, and she gave her friend a half-hearted grin.

"Alright, don't say I never did anything for you.”

Lazuli huffed, trotting out into the hallway. She headed west toward the makeshift sleeping quarters -- a large, formerly-empty room, now roofed with tarp. Beds were sectioned off with dividers, forming a crude dormitory. Upon entering, she looked around to see if anyone else was present, but the room was empty.

The room looked as though it was supposed to be another library, though it had no shelves. Studies split off of the main room, converted into individual bedrooms for those wanting a more private space.

Lazuli trotted to one of these rooms, stopping at the second door to the right on the north wall. She opened the door slightly and peeked in, checking to see if anyone entered it accidentally while she was out.

The room is empty, the bed is made, the lamp is out... good.

The tired succubus entered her room, sighing as she put some of the fire magic Azurite gave her to use. The lamp on her desk flared to life, illuminating the small space. This room had a ceiling, due to it being shorter than the point where the castle's roof was torn off.

She stepped over to the bed and removed her sword and sheath, setting them against the wall. With a sigh, she slumped onto the bed and pulled the sheets over herself. Exhaustion from the day's ordeals washed over her, and she slowly drifted into slumber.