Lily leaned back in her throne, an unreadable pokerface hiding her thoughts from her disappointed children. While she suspected that these teens were more than they appeared, the sheer scope of their abilities surprised her. She could sense their convictions as they traded blows with the seeds. Absolutely nothing was going to stop them from coming to her. But that was not the only thing she sensed from them. At the heart of all of that power, she sensed a brittle frailty. Doubt and fear tainted the true potential these eleven teens had at their disposal. The girl named Bonbon was a prime example of that, but three girls in particular held that truth to a more extreme degree.
As a smile started to grow on her face, her attention shifted away from the portals to her three fuming daughters. None of them took the loss of the seeds well, each of them having just come down from a thirty minute rant about how unfair it was that the girl named Derpy won. With a light chuckle, she summoned a shadow tendril out of the ground and scooped them onto her lap.
"Have you all gotten it out of your systems?" she asked, a hint of playfulness coloring her tone.
They each gave her some reluctant nods, but continued to pout and stare at the ground.
"Now none of that," she frowned. "Sometimes, seeds lose. It's something that happens from time to time. When you three create your own, you will have to come to terms with that someday."
"No way," Scootaloo grumbled. "My seeds will be the best in the world!"
"Same," Applebloom nodded.
"I won't let them fight," Sweetie sniffled. "If I'm strong enough, they won't need to."
That last comment surprised the Archwraith. While she admitted to having favorites among her seeds, they never amounted more to her than just tools. To see her daughter actually weep at the thought of losing one was as novel a concept as could be to her. It reminded her of her own sister in a way and how forward she was when hunting.
Perhaps I should arrange a meeting when this is over, she mused.
Shelving that train of thought for another time, she leveled an excited smile at the young Wraiths in her arms.
"Enough gloom my dears," she cooed. "What do you say we have a little fun?"
Scootaloo looked up at her in confusion and asked, "Aren't we under attack?"
Lilly giggled and patted the confused girl on the head as she said, "For the most part, but this is the perfect chance to put what you've learned into practice."
"Do ya' mean it?" Applebloom gasped, an excited smile threatening to spit her head in half.
"Yes," Lilly nodded, then gave them a stern look as she added, "But there are a few conditions that you will follow. Do you three understand?"
They nodded eagerly, the three young Wraiths practically vibrating with excitement.
"Very well," Lily smiled. "This is what we are going to do."
***
Rarity sighed, her shimmering clothing catching the dim light surrounding her like a faint aurora. Having seen little point in it, she decided to hold off on dispelling her magic garment as she, yet again, found herself navigating seemingly endless hallways. It was frustrating, but any time spent outside of battle was time she could spend replenishing her magic. A relatively kind trade as far a she was concerned. The thirty minutes she spent resting in the arena after her near brush with death had managed to replenish most of her reserves, but it still put her on edge. If crossing blades with a mere grunt took that much of an effort for her to defeat, what kind of trial awaited her when she faced off against Lily?
She paused and shook her head.
"None of that," she frowned. "You will see this through. This time tomorrow, you will have Sweetie back in your life and everything will be right in the world again."
With a firm nod, she resumed her march through the gloomy halls, a new determination burning in her eyes. The same could be said for two other girls whose paths slowly started to cross with hers. She was the first to enter this intersection, the sudden shift in decorative style making her halt her forward march. It was yet another massive chamber, but instead of glowing flowers providing the light for it, massive gold crystals shined brightly in the ceiling and upper walls. Ten openings marked the room's perimeter and instead of flowers covering the floor, elegant slabs of marble depicting an ornate forest shimmered below her feet. It all reminded Rarity of an ornate ballroom from some fairytale, a fact that she would've appreciated greatly if the circumstances were different. She frowned as the comparison reminded her of the reason why she was here. Countless nights of her not so distant youth spent playing make-believe with her much younger sister. Oh how she wished she could go back to those simple days, when magic was nothing more that myth and legend.
Two sets of footsteps caught her attention, bringing her back to the present as she turned towards their source. She jumped into a fighting stance as her outfit switched into its attack form. When she saw who it was she let out a sigh and lowered her guard.
"You have no idea how happy I am to see you two," Rarity smiled.
"Ditto," Rainbow chuckled, staggering almost drunkenly into the chamber.
"Same," Applejack sighed, leveling a weary smile at her fashionable friend. "Came close to not makin' it though."
"You had to fight something as well?" Rarity asked.
"You guys too?" Rainbow frowned.
"Ah'm willin' ta' bet we've all got a partner for this hoedown," Applejack spat. "That Lily varmint ain't makin' this easy for us, that's for sure."
"Bring it on," Rainbow smirked, punching her palm. "We'll bring down anything she throws at us."
"You will, will you?" a familiar female voice said, condescension thick in her tone as it echoed around them.
All of them took stances, standing back to back and scanning their surroundings.
"Where are you bitch," Rainbow snarled, her wings flaring back into existence as she ponied back up.
Applejack was not far behind her, her eyes glowing as her magic surged through her. The Archwraith chuckled coldly at the display. A cold wave of power washed across the room that forced a chill down the trio's spines.
"Such crude language. And after I've been such a courteous host. Anyway, now that I have the three of you in one place, I feel it is only fair that I give you a reward for all your hard work."
"Ah ain't buyin' anythin' you're sellin'," Applejack growled, her glare traveling across the room.
"Oh no my dears, I insist."
The sadistic glee in the disembodied voice made their blood run cold as it echoed all around them. A bit of movement from the room's center caught their attention. They quickly turned to face it, ready to unleash whatever spell they would need to deal with the new threat. What they saw froze them to their cores. Fazing out of the ground like ebon-clad phantoms were the very same girls they came to rescue. Each of them were dressed in black summer dresses, but that wasn't the only change they noticed. Each of them were as gray as ash, their hair as black as the darkest shadows of the abyss. Their eyes were just as dark with golden pupils that shined with a faint demonic light. The young girls smiled up at the teens, but instead of the sweet innocents they usually held, the smiles carried something that felt wrong to the older girls.
"Well, what do you think?" Lily asked, her tone a strange mix of jovial and sadistic. "After all this time and everything you've been through, you finally got what you wanted. Now, you get to do what every good older sibling strives for, to help guide their sibling into becoming stronger people. Now , my sweet little ones, time to feed."
Applebloom wasted no time making the first move, a wide grin spread wide across her face as she blitzed in front of Applejack. The older Apple had just enough time to look shocked before a small fist slammed into her chest and sent her flying across the room into a wall. Rainbow looked back to call out to her friend , only to feel something rip into her left shoulder a second later. With a pained hiss, she examined her arm to see three deep claw marks cut into it. A light giggling behind her pulled her attention away from her wound towards a smiling Scootaloo, the preteen licking blood off of her freshly grown claws. Rarity could only watch in horror as her sister pointed her palm at her and summoned a jet-black transparent sphere around her. Rarity quickly shifted her outfit to its defensive form just as the barrier shrank around her. An intense pressure enveloped her as she tried to fight back against her sister's shield, but it was slowly proving to be a futile effort. At the same time, Applejack pulled herself out of her wall with just seconds to spare before her sister moved within striking range. Thinking fast, she pointed her palm at the younger Apple and tapped into a small amount of her magic. A faint green glow surrounded her before she flew back towards the other end of the room. Half way there, she slammed her foot into the ground, deep cracks covering it as her foot planted itself firmly into the damaged marble. Applejack watched in horror as her sister repeated the processes, the young girl slowly advancing in spite of the gravity field pulling her the opposite way. She tried to increase the strength of the spell, but Applebloom killed that attempt by chucking a soccer ball-sized piece of marble at her head. Rainbow was meanwhile caught in a razor-sharp tempest of pain as Scootaloo shot around her at supersonic speeds. In a matter of seconds, the sporty teen was covered with deep gashes as she tried to keep track of the young girl. While her aeromancy gave her some kind of hint as to where the girl was, the attack was always too quick for her to do more than cover her face. She tried to cast an air barrier around herself to give herself some breathing room, only for Scootaloo to appear in front of her inside her defense. With a blindingly fast slash to the face, the young Wraith tore through that idea with next to no effort. Meanwhile, Rarity struggled to think of what she could give up to make her defense stronger as Sweetie tried to squeeze the life right out of her. Sweetie's smile grew more demented as she slowly closed her outstretched hand, the pressure her shield put on her sister steadily growing more intense as she did. She felt like a bug in a display case, crushing weight put upon her making it harder and harder to breath by the second. Applejack grit her teeth as she shifted the spell she cast on Applebloom into one that returned her center of gravity back towards the ground, but at three times the weight in an attempt to make the girl stop. Applebloom's smile grew as she powered through the intensified gravity zone with little effort. The farm girl had just enough time to look shocked before her sister grabbed her outstretched hand and easily flipped her over her shoulder into the cracked ground below with a thundering boom. Rainbow tried to ignore the cry of pain Applejack made as she tried to fly to the top of the room to escape Scootaloo, only for the speedy Wraith to follow her seconds later with a pair of bat-like wings of her own. Rainbow wailed in pain as the small girl ripped into her even more on the way back to the ground.
"What's wrong Rainbow?" Scootaloo mocked as she floated down to the ground. "Can't keep up?"
Rainbow groaned as she staggered to her feet, pain written across her face that had nothing to do with her wounds as she stared at the young girl before her.
"Scoots, please, don't make me do this," she whimpered. "I don't want to hurt you."
Scootaloo giggled and with a twisted smile said, "Hurt me? You can't even catch me! And you call yourself the best? Please. You're a joke! Then again, what do you expect from someone too stupid to know they're being played."
Rainbow flinched at that, Scootaloo's words cutting her deeper than her claws ever could. A stray tear made it past her defenses as she stared numbly at her. Why did it need to be this way?
"When you think about it, I'm doing you a favor," Scootaloo added, flexing her claws.
At the same time, a similar scene played out between Applebloom and Applejack as the younger Apple pinned her elder to the ground under her foot. Applejack could only grunt in pain as she pushed against the small foot to keep it from crushing through her chest. Applebloom just watched her struggle with a calm smile, the Wraith slowly adding more strength to her stomp to drag out the pain for as long as possible.
"A-Applebloom, please, stop," Applejack begged, her strength failing her more and more as the seconds ticked by. "We're sisters! Family! We don't need ta' do this!"
"Funny," Applebloom snorted. "Ah remember you tellin' Sunset that once. Does that mean you'll throw me under the bus someday too?"
Applejack's eyes widened at that, the shock almost great enough to make her forget about the foot coming down to crush her as she stammered out, "Ah...Ah would ne-"
"Guess I should get rid of you before ya' get the chance, huh?" she said, her smile widening as she added a little more pressure to her attack. "Can't take too many risks when it comes ta' snakes, right?"
Applejack gritted her teeth as she fought against the crushing weight pressing down on her. As she laid there fighting back tears of shame, it was hard to tell if the weight came from her sister's heel or her guilt.
All the while, Rarity struggled to find a way out of a similar situation as Sweetie's barrier threatened to crush her like a bug.
"S-S-Sweetie, please!" She grunted, falling to her knee under the intense strain her body was under. "S-Snap out of it! Do you have any idea what y-you're doing?"
"Yep!" Sweetie chirped, proud smile wide across her face. "I'm going to kill you, duh!"
Rarity let out a pained wail as she felt her right shoulder crack under the pressure, but that still paled in comparison to the pain she felt when she heard those words leave her sister's mouth. The casual way she said it felt like a kick to the gut with a steel-toed boot. A part of her didn't want to believe it, but she couldn't deny the reality of the situation. If nothing changed, her sister was going to kill her.
"I can't believe you fell for that," Sweetie giggled. "Didn't you learn anything from Anon-A-Miss? It was such an obvious trap and you jumped head first into it! 'Oh please save me from the scary monster big sis' how pathetic! To think I looked up to you at some point!"
A menacing edge filled her tone as she said, "Good thing I've got new sisters to look up to now."
Rarity's eyes fell to the ground, her hands trembling as she felt her heart fall into the abyss. Tears slid down her face as she let herself come to terms with her fate. Not just hers, but the fates of all of her friends as well. It was her own foolish hope that put them in this situation. If she had just stopped and thought about the situation for a moment, registered how convenient it had all seemed, then maybe things would've played out differently.
As the three older girls fell into despair, the young Wraiths came to the same conclusion at almost the same time; it was time to harvest. Each of them prepared themselves to deliver the finishing blow, but just before they could do so, three figures charged into the room. Applebloom let out a yelp as a pillar of diamond shot her into the air from beneath her other foot before a fist made of the same material knocked her across the room. Sweetie screamed in pain as the hand she was using to channel her barrier was sliced clean off at the wrist, the rapier's owner leveling a cold glare at her as she stood between the young Wraith and her prey. Scootaloo had just enough time to blink before someone seemingly appeared in front of her and sent her clear across the room with a single punch, a searing electric charge ripping through her from the point of contact all the way to the tips of her freshly grown wings.
Rarity gasped, the barrier holding her in place vanishing and taking its crushing grip with it. Coughing, she looked up to see who her savior was. Standing like a warrior from a forgotten legend, Octavia glared at the seething Wraith child. Her hand gripped her rapier tightly as she pointed its blade at Sweetie, a new hand regrowing on her wrist as she growled at her like a furious beast.
"That is enough," Octavia coldly declared.
"Y-You cut off my hand!" Sweetie said incredulously.
"And I will do much more than that if you do not retreat," Octavia glared. "This is your last warning."
Sweetie's shock slowly shifted into rage, her hunter's instincts flaring in her like lit napalm the longer she stared at Octavia. She worked hard to get Rarity ready to be harvested and she'd be damned if she was going to let this human get in her way. Applebloom found herself in a similar situation as she pried herself out of a wall, Bonbon kneeling down to Applejack and putting something in her mouth. The Wraith snarled as she charged towards the girl, only for a thin diamond pillar to spout from the ground at just the right angle for it to slam into her chest. Her eyes popped wide, the blow knocking the air out of her as she staggered back.
"Hey cousin," Bonbon said coldly, slowly rising to her feet. "Been a while, huh?"
Applebloom leveled a glare at her as she struggled to get air back into her lungs, every fiber of her being screaming at her to tear this girl apart. Bonbon took in the show of aggression with a sigh, then turned to fully face her. Her blue vest rippled before it shifted into a hooded summer jacket, said hood covering her head and hiding her eyes within its shadow. Applebloom tightened her hands into fists then charged towards the candy maker to deliver a devastating right hook. To her surprise, the girl casually leaned away from the strike.
"What? You didn't think I was just going to stand here and take it, did you?" she smirked.
Applebloom let out a battle cry as she took more swings at her, each missing by the tiniest of fractions. All the while, Bonbon's smile never left her face. That smile added to Applebloom's fury as she doubled her efforts to hit the girl. Her fist nearly connected with the girl's chin before the diamond fist from earlier slammed into her side. Applebloom gained enough traction to both keep herself from flying across the room and push back against the car-sized adamant fist. She growled as she pushed back against it, her rage adding to her already impressive strength. Bonbon sighed and shook her head at the display.
"I'm only doing this because we're family," she said flatly, smile finally melting off of her face. "Stop this and we can see if there's a way to turn you back to normal."
"Shut up!" Applebloom grunted. "Ah came here ta kill Applejack and Ah'll do the same ta' you if you don't get out of my way!"
"Hard way it is then," she sighed. "Fine. I did give you a chance though. Remember that."
At the same time, a similar standstill was happening between Scootaloo and Lightning Dust, the two girls staring each other down like tigers waiting for the right moment to pounce. Scootaloo's wings and claws twitched with nervous tension, the girl's fight with Yim running through her mind in a loop. She knew that the older teen was fast, even without her magic boosting her body. She could also confirm that her lightning attacks were a lot stronger than she thought, passing blow or not. If she wanted to get out of this in one piece and still have a chance of finishing her hunt, she was going to need to be careful. She spread her wings slowly, every muscle in her body tense as she prepared to strike. Lightning matched her, her feathers twitching faintly as her wings tensed with nervous energy. Their stare-down continued for several long seconds before they disappeared in a blast of air. Two blurs, one gray and one teal, shot across the sky faster than the eye could properly track. Every now and then, they would meet before separating again the next second. They soon returned to the ground and ran towards each other at the same speeds. When they met, they were still blurs as they threw punches, kicks, and various other attacks. Eventually, Scootaloo was shot across the room by an electrically charged punch from Lightning, the girl holding her pose after landing the blow as the young Wraith slid across the floor. Scootaloo groaned as she staggered to her feet, a look of murderous fury plastered across her face. That changed into horror when she saw the state of her left arm. The limb was completely jerked out of its socket at her shoulder, everything from that point down hanging limply at her side.
"I might not have fancy pressure point martial arts like Flutters, but I can figure something out when I need to," Lighting sighed. "What do you say we stop this before things get out of hand?"
Scootaloo's glare hardened and with a loud pop, her shoulder mended itself. Lighting sighed, then shifted into a fighting stance.
"Can't say I didn't try."
As they two sporty girls clashed, Sweetie tried to find away to get past the one foolish enough to get between her and her prey. A ferocious snarl passed her lips as she summoned over a dozen soccer ball-sized black spheres and with a swing of her hand directed them towards Octavia. The musician's blade sliced the projectiles to pieces, her movements an elegant dance as she stood her ground. The young Wraith's rage grew as she tried to do to Octavia what she did to Rarity, but the second the barrier took shape, she sliced clean through it with a quick full-body spin. Sweetie let out a frustrated scream, but before she could launch another attack, Octavia closed the distance between them and swung her sword. Agony and horror filled Sweetie as she saw her arms fall away from her body, the shock more than enough to encourage her to jump ten feet backwards from her attacker. Anger took back its place from shock as Sweetie's arms regenerated. A bit of movement out the corner of her eye caught her attention, giving her just enough time to create a soft barrier to keep her real sister from slamming into her. A wasted effort as Scootaloo crashed into them a second later with the force of a SLAM missile, making the trio collectively do that with a wall.
Dazed, but still alive thanks to their powers, they groaned and staggered to their feet. Octavia, Lightning, and Bonbon stared them down from the middle of the room, none of them showing any emotion as they prepared their next spells. They never got the chance. All of the light in the room dropped to near darkness as a new presence made itself known to them. Cold chills shot down all of their spines as a figure slowly faded into existence in front of the CMC. It looked the same as the creature that greeted them at the bridge, only now it had more details. They saw that the creature had gray skin and long hair that matched her slim fitting dress. She had the same eyes as the children behind her as she faced the three teens with an impossible to read look.
"It isn't wise to stand between a child and their meal," Lily said coldly. "They need all the strength they can get in this world."
The three girls tried to say something, but their mouths refused to move. Pure, unadulterated fear filled them as Lily's energy surrounded them like a hungry python. A cold sweat covered their bodies as they tried to think of a way out of this mess. Lily continued to stare at them for a few more agonizing seconds before she shifted her attention down towards her discouraged children.
"Time to go," she said simply.
They huffed irritably as they faded away, their mother not far behind. The light in the room abruptly returned the second the Archwraith vanished and the three teens felt like they could breathe again. They traded wide-eyed stares as they struggled to process what they had just experienced. Finding little else to do with themselves, they turned to administer aid to their fallen friends. It was as they did that that they started to wonder if they really had what it took to see this mission through.