//------------------------------//
// Ch. 60 Fruits of Labor 
// Story: The Gaps in F r i e n d s h i p 
// by Arcanum -Phantasy 
//------------------------------//

Lily stared Pinkie down, a range of emotions running through her. While centuries of life and death battles more than gave her a way to prepare for dangerous encounters, the young woman in front of her put her on edge. When others had come for her head in the past, the hatred they radiated was always so intense that she could inhale it with each breath. This girl was different. While she could sense emotions coming off of her, they were ones that she never felt from an opponent. Confidence. Conviction. Joy. She could even sense a trace of hope, but the lack of one particular emotion made her gather a larger portion of dark energy than she normally would. She felt no fear in the young woman.
Two titanic surges of power rippled across the field as two new portals opened. From them, two new figures entered the space, one familiar to Lily while the other was a complete mystery. One of them was a red woman with hair the same combination of colors as Sunset with sharp emerald eyes. She wore a dress that shined with the colors of a raging fire, gold, red, and orange moving through the fabric in a constant dance as her magic drifted among the threads. Standing next to her was a tall man dressed in a finely pressed gray business suit, his skin tone a lighter shade of gray. His red and yellow eyes scanned the battlefield with a solemn air to them, his usually bright smile replaced by a deep frown.
"Remind me to plan a vacation for you sis," Discord sighed. "Even a stiff like you shouldn't have to put up with this kind of thing all of the time."
"My duty in unending brother," Hearths Warming sighed, flashing him a rueful smile as she added, "I appreciate the thought though."
"Hearths Warming," Lily growled, pure vitriol poisoning her tone as she glared at the woman.
"Lily," Hearths Warming nodded, tone as cold as her expression.
"Come to die again?" the Wraith seethed, a cruel smirk forming on her face.
"Not this time," she sighed. "I have long grown tired of our foolish song and dance. My brother and I are just here to make things a little easier for my student."
As if signaled, Discord chose that moment to snap his fingers. Several flashes filled the air as Sunset and her friends vanished. Lily blinked, her head moving frantically on a swivel to find any trace of her stolen prey. Finding none, she leveled a burning glare at Discord.
"You will regret that," she growled, her energy flaring dangerously around her in a undulating black aura.
"I doubt that," Discord smirked. 
"TATTLE, NOW!" Pinkie cried.
"As you wish," a male voice purred.
Violet, star-spotted tendrils sprouted out of Pinkie's shadow and stabbed into three seemingly random spaces in the field. Their ends seemed to melt into the space around these places, the space shimmering like heat waves as the slowly pulled themselves free. Struggling in their grip were three very surprised young Wraiths.
A mix of horror and rage shot through her at the sight, her energy flaring out of her in response as she charged towards her helpless children. She barely took nine steps before chains made of the same star-spattered substance sprouted from the ground and held her in place. She fought frantically against her restraints as she watched her children struggle. Her heart sank when she saw that not even Applebloom's impressive strength could break her free. It completely shattered when Sweetie's terrified face turned towards her, panicked tears rolling down her cheeks as she reached towards her mother.
"Momma help! Please! Don't let them take me away!"
"I won't!" Lily wailed, her own tears flowing as she pulled desperately against her chains. "Your shields! Sweetie, use your shields!"
Sweetie nodded and tried to do as she was told, but she couldn't push past the terror running through her. A terror that doubled when a new tendril pointed itself at her chest. Her and her sisters fought with everything they had against their bindings, the chains holding Lily barely holding her down as she raged against them. The Archwraith could only watch in horror as her little ones screamed in fear in front of her. Then, like a viper, the three new tendrils phased into the young girls chests. 
They froze, eyes wide yet blank as the tendrils slowly phased out of them. Clutched firmly in their grip were three pulsating black diamonds. Lily watched, pure despair marring her face as the only thing she ever loved was being slowly ripped away from her. While it was only a few seconds, to the Archwraith, time seemed to slow to a crawl as the cores of her three daughters were shattered right before her eyes.
The three girls went limp and their original colors returned to them as their eyes slowly slid shut. At the same time, Lily fell to her knees, a look of absolute defeat spread across her face. The star studded tendrils gently carried the girls to Discord and Hearths Warming before they melted back into Pinkie's shadow. The two High Royals traded nods before they took their leave, Hearths Warming giving her student one last nervous look before she passed through her portal.
I leave the rest to you. Please be careful, my dear student.
As if sensing her teacher's thought, Pinkie looked over her shoulder at her and flashed a confidant grin before giving Lily her full attention. A second later, the Archwraith let out a wail of pure agony, a massive geyser of dark energy exploding out of her and leaving deep gashes in the ground around her. The chains binding her finally shattered as her grief cut through her, a grief that quickly turned into hatred when her tearstained gaze landed on Pinkie.
"YOU BITCH!" Lily roared. "YOU'LL DIE SCREAMING!!!"
With an earth-shattering shriek, the grieving mother fired a massive beam of dark energy at Pinkie, the attack more akin to a literal tsunami of darkness than a beam. Pinkie continued to smile in spite of the approaching assault, a smile that grew slightly as a figure emerged from her shadow. He was a young man around Pinkie's age, his skin a dark purple with specs of silver moving through it like stars in the night sky. His hair was dark brown, long, and messy in a way that sat mischievously on the border between accidentally and intentionally being made that way. He wore a black shirt and jeans with a matching pair of boots to complete the look. In one fluid motion, the figure raised his left hand above his head and a violet barrier covered with silver specks surrounded them at the last second, its shine almost hiding the glint of a gold ring on his raised hand's ring finger.
With a small flair of her own magic, Pinkie reached into a small gap and drew a machine gun while her partner used his to conjure a glowing silver magic circle over his free palm. Trading smiles, Pinkie opened a gap at her right, the other end opening up right behind Lily. They pointed their weapons at the distracted Wraith and fired, a hail of bullets from Pinkie while a burst of white light shot out of Tattle's circle 
Lily screamed in agony, her attack canceling itself as her whole body was torn in half with dozens of bullet holes covering her upper torso. Her lower body quickly pulled her upper half back onto it with a pair of black tendrils before she turned to face them, bullet wounds already closing as she pointed her spear at them. Pinkie quickly closed the gap and leveled her weapon at Lily before firing another volley at her, the Wraith letting out another agonized wail before Tattle blasted her away with another burst of light.
Lily swore loudly as she staggered to her feet, her mind a whirling vortex of rage as she glared at the pair. Every fiber of her being wanted to tear them apart, dark energy writhing around her like a mass of strangled vipers. A loud pounding echoed through her ears, hate-filled red tinting the edges of her vision more and more the longer she stared at them. It was when this wild hate threatened to literally consume her that a part of her mind pulled against it. It was just barely enough to  help her come to an unfortunate conclusion; she would lose this fight if she kept this going. 
Slowly, she forced herself to calm down, the darkness surrounding her shifting from a wild tempest into steady stream. Her grip tightened on her spear as memories of the children she just lost threatened to drag her back into madness, but she pushed that grief to the back of her heart for later. There will be time to grieve after she had disposed of her children's killers. She straightened her posture, wiped her tears away, and gave Pinkie and Tattle a glare that could freeze the sun as she leveled her spear at them form where they stood fifty feet away.
"No more games," Lily hissed, her voice echoing through the field in spite of its soft tone. "You...will...die."
https://youtu.be/18xOB0zJvSE
Pinkie's smile fell away, then she fired her gun at the Wraith again. Lily's hand was a blur for a second before she raised it as a closed fist. With a cold glare, she let her hand open and drop over a dozen crushed bullets onto the ground. Tattle had just enough time to put up another barrier before Lily closed the distance and threw a punch. The barrier shattered like glass on contact before Lily thrusted her spear towards them, ready to run them both through in a single stab. Pinkie opened a gap in front of the weapon with an exit aimed at the back of Lily's head, but she tilted her head to the side just in time to avoid it. The couple dove in opposite directions just in time to avoid a pillar of dark energy as it burst out of the ground. Pinkie tossed her gun aside, shoved each hand into two different small gaps, and drew two machetes while Tattle created a blade of pure light. Lily pulled her weapon out of Pinkie's previously summoned gap and rushed towards her. 
The three combatants clashed, Pinkie's swift and ever-changing dual-sword play combined with the raw power of Tattle's light sword more than enough to keep Lily on her toes. At the same time, Lily was far from an easy opponent. The thousands of years of experience the Archwraith had accumulated was more than apparent as she swiftly shifted her attention back and forth between her two opponents, her spear knocking away lethal strikes with occasional bursts of dark energy narrowly missing their mark at seamless transitions between attacks.
This isn't working, Pinkie mused, narrowly avoiding a head-strike from Lily's spear.
"Act Two!" Pinkie cried.
Tattle nodded, putting about ten feet of distance between him and the other two women. Pinkie charged forward, dropping her blades half way towards Lily as she aimed her spear at her head. Pinkie shoved her hands into yet another pair of gaps and when she pulled them out this time a pair of steel gantlets adorned her arms. She quickly parried the spear and threw a punch with her free hand. Lily put up an hand to block, but instead of preventing the metal fist from connecting with her chest, it blasted through her hand to complete its mission. Lily rode the impact, using it to put five feet of distance between her and Pinkie as she let her body heal itself. Not wanting to lose momentum, Pinkie pressed her attack, her fists flying at lightning speed as she forced her opponent onto the defensive. As the attacks came at her, Lily noticed a faint glow was coming off of the gantlets. A similar light in her left peripheral encouraged her to risk a quick glance that way. Tattle stood with his hands together as if in prayer, a cheshire grin spread wide across his face in the brief instant that their eyes met.
"So that is how it is," Lily grinned. "So be it!"
With that, she gained a bit of distance from Pinkie and exerted her will over her spear. The weapon quickly morphed into energy then covered her hands like shadowy gantlets. The two resumed their assault, fists flying in rapid succession as the two fighters tried to destroy their opponent. On contact, their fists released bursts of power that shook the ground like small explosives, direct bodily contact avoided by mere fractions of an inch save for fists colliding with fists. Pinkie's attacks were relentless, her technique constantly changing in an attempt to catch Lily off guard, but the Wraith was nothing if not adaptive. In time, Pinkie resorted to using her gaps to try turning the fight in her favor by redirecting Lily's attacks back on her, but after her fist entered a gap and nearly slammed into her head, she started introducing feints at random points to through Pinkie off. 
"Act Three!" Pinkie called, jumping backwards through a gap behind her to Tattle's left side.
Lily had just enough time to rase a brow at the pair in confusion, before Tattle charged at her. In a flash, the young man's hands changed into razor sharp foot-long claws and, as soon as he got into range, he took a swipe at her. It was only thanks to her keen reflexes and the energy coating her forearms that the claws didn't rip her upper torso apart. While she could've easily healed from such an injury, she didn't want to waste the energy if she could avoid it. Her smile grew along with her bloodlust as the energy coating her hands shifted into claws themselves before she took a swipe at him. The two were a blur of motion, both moving with the speed and grace of hunters as they tried to sink their claws into each other with smiles on their faces. Lily couldn't help but to be impressed with Tattle's skills, the young man dodging her attacks with the kind of grace and flexibility that reminded her of feral cats. That made her desire to kill him all the stronger, a part of her thrilled with the thought of killing a new powerful enemy. Him, and the wretched witch that took her daughters from her.
"Now!" Pinkie cried.
Tattle nodded and broke away from Lily just before a hail of bullets slammed into her from behind. She forced back her agonized scream as she fell to the ground, her lower back and legs torn to shreds as she looked over her shoulder. Pinkie sported a sinister grin, a mini gun clutched tightly in her hands with the barrel still spinning and smoking. Tattle came to her side, his hands no longer claws as he grinned at Lily. The Wraith silently seethed as she reformed herself, dark energy shimmering around her like heat waves as she turned to face them.
Stay in control, she fumed, her power raging inside of her, threatening to consume her from the inside out. Own your rage. Weald it! Aim it!
The mechanical grinding of Pinkie's weapon snapped Lily back into the present just in time to put up a wall of dark energy to block another hail of bullets. Channeling her anger, she manifested another spear and ran out from behind her cover to charge towards Pinkie. Pinkie quickly aimed her still firing mini gun at her approaching enemy, only to stop and drop the weapon when a dark aura surrounding Lily deflected the bullets. 
"Act four!" she cried, putting both of her hands up in front of herself.
Dozens of gaps appeared around her and Lily each, stopping the Wraith dead in her tracks as she waited to see what new hazard the pink girl had in store for her. She didn't need to wait long, as Tattle pointed his own hands at two of the gaps surrounding him and Pinkie , formed a magic circle in each palm, and fired a narrow beam of white light out of them into the portals. Lily barely managed to avoid the two beams when they shot out of two of the gaps surrounding her into another pair behind her. Tattle did it again several more times, each shot being fired into different gaps at varying angles in an attempt to trip up the Wraith. The Dream Cat's attempts where mostly successful, beams occasionally managing to find their mark in spite of Lily's impressive reflexes and sharp environmental awareness.
Both Tattle and Pinkie sported wide smiles as the Dream Cat altered his form, a new set of arms spouting from his body and pointing a circle inscribed palm at a different gap. Lily had just enough time to level a wide eyed look of shock at the pair and erect a dome of dark energy around herself  before a volley of magic beams fired at her from every direction. She fell to a knee, the strain of maintaining her defenses taking its toll on her already fraying resources. She gritted her teeth, her jaw almost snapping under the pressure as she tried to make her barrier endure the assault. At the same time, her power continued to rage inside her, demanding that she let it take over and bring an end to this pitiable farce. 
No! her pride screamed, her legs shaking as she forced herself to her feet. I will not give in! I am The Queen's daughter! None shall force me to resort to that! I REFUSE!!!
The temptation receded, and with a furious scream she let her power surge around her, the dark energy absorbing her shield to add to itself. It pushed back against Tattle's magic as Lily glared at the two teens, hatred burning in her eyes as she pulled back her spear. She let out a furious battle cry as she threw the spear, the weapon morphing into a narrow mass of dark energy as it tore though the air. Pinkie and Tattle quickly canceled their attack and got out of the way, Pinkie using a gap while Tattle teleported to her side twenty feet away from their original position. A massive explosion shook the field, a destructive dome-shaped burst of dark energy completely obliterating a huge chunk of it in the far distance before it faded away. The couple gave it the barest of acknowledgments as they stared at Lily, the Wraith summoning a new spear to throw at them.
The two gave each other a quick glance and grinned as Pinkie sent him a small nod. It was time to stop playing around and bring this show to a close. Tattle's whole body turned into a shapeless mass of violet magic energy with specks of silver before he completely engulfed Pinkie. Lily's glared took on a slightly confused edge at this, but she was through with the pairs surprises. With another scream of rage, she threw a spear at them only for a sudden burst of magic to destroy it before it made contact. Tattle's magic flared around them, a dense star-lit tempest of power raging as Pinkie felt her reserves blast past their normal limits. That was not the only change to take place, a fact that Lily became aware of when the storm of power blew apart. 
The raging maelstrom had knocked Pinkie's hood back revealing her now equine head, a cocky smile spread wide across her muzzle. A thin layer of fur covered every part of exposed skin that shined like silk under the moonlight. Her boots were gone, putting her hoofed feet on full display. Clutched firmly in her right hand was a glowing violet sword, small specks of silver flashing in random parts of it like small stars.
"Wha-What are you?" Lily demanded, a new spear forming in her hand in spite of her shock.
https://youtu.be/N8wTmqSby0E
"I already told you," Pinkie snorted, taking a stance. "I'm the one that's gonna kill you."
Before Lily could respond, Pinkie appeared in front of her, wide smile spread across her face as she swung her sword at her. Lily brought her spear up in defense only to watch with wide eyes as Pinkie's weapon sliced clean through her's, her upper torso not far behind as the attack continued. Lily screamed in agonized fury, but a burst of light from Pinkie's free hand sent her flying back before she could do anything about it. The Wraith let out a furious snarl as she forced herself to grow a new lower half and created a new spear as she regained her footing. Pinkie didn't relent, closing the distance yet again with her glowing blade ready to deliver another devastating blow. Lily tried to dodge it, but the girl opened a gap in the arch of her swing and cut into Lily's back at the last second. Seeing the futility of defense, Lily tried to press a counteroffensive, hoping her more experienced skills with her spear could aid her in her clash with the young swordswoman. That hope died a miserable death as Pinkie not only matched her, but the young woman's attacks tore through Lily's, her magic blade cleaving through several of Lily's spears regardless of how much power she put into them.
"Forty years," Pinkie frowned, blade pointed at her panting and bleeding opponent kneeling before her. "I spent Forty years training nonstop in a pocket dimension with two of the most powerful beings in two worlds for this."
Magic circles formed all across Pinkie's blade and the ground below Lily, raw magic thrumming through them like the bass from an amp. Lily glared hatefully at Pinkie, her dark energy coming to her in the form of a barrier. Pinkie sighed, knowing that such an act was futile as she willed her spell into action.
"Goodbye, monster."
With that, the magic circles activated, a beam of pure stellar magic exploding out of the center of Lily's circle like a great shining pillar into the heavens. Pinkie watched with a reserved sigh, a small relieved smile gracing her muzzle as Lily screamed in agony. Taking no pleasure in Lily's suffering, Pinkie turned her back on the scene and walked away. It was going to take some time to find a portion of Lily's nest that was thin enough for her to make a way out before it collapsed, especially now that she cast Tattle's Thirteenth Hour. 
As she did, Lily wailed in agony, Pinkie's last attack still going as it tore at her body's healing abilities. Slowly, her mind detached itself from her body, her heart and soul waiting for the inevitable to take her. While she waited, memories of the daughters she lost drifted towards her from the void. While she hadn't had them for very long, she loved her triplets with everything she had and cherished the few days she spent with them. A tear slid down her cheek as the memory of their death ran through her head like a cruel video reel stuck on repeat, frustration and despair swirling in her heart at her inability to avenge them. 
The ever-present primal darkness tapped at her restraints, the maddening power tempting her at her lowest point. She turned her head towards it, her will as brittle as glass as the swirling madness licked at the barrier. A sad smile spread across her lips as she shifted her attention down to the solid void beneath her. She lost her family, so why not her pride as well? She closed her eyes and with a hollow sigh, let the darkness in. As her mind drowned in the primal darkness and all of the immense power it offered, a single regret came to her.
She regretted that she would not remember Pinkie's death when she regained her senses.