Panther Lily

Pantherlily is an Exceed, that used to work for the kingdom of Edolas as the Magic Militia's First Division Commander of the Royal Army. He is currently a member of the Fairy Tail Guild.

Appearance
His head is that of a black panther's, but with a white muzzle and a scar going down across his left eye. Like his fellow commanders (except Hughes), he wears a personal set of battle armor with a long cape draped around his body, as well as a helmet vaguely similar to that of Lyon Bastia.

However, when he reached Earth Land, he took a form, which is more typical for Exceeds, as a small, bipedal black cat with round ears. His facial features are retained, albeit in a super-deformed manner. Although he can return to his former form, he can only do so for a very limited amount of time. His guild tattoo is on his back in the same place as Happy's.

Personality
He seems to have a grumpy disposition and detests noisy people. He first appears by demanding that Byro and the hyperactive Hughes quiet down (Although Sugarboy noted that Pantherlily was in a nastier mood than usual). He also seems to have reservations about Operation ETD, unlike the other commanders. This is presumably because he does not want his own race to be destroyed, but he also said that for him Extalia is a fake country and he discarded it a long time ago. However Lily is on good terms with Mystogan as he saved the young prince from death when he was younger. Pantherlily does not discrimiate exceeds or humans and treats them as equals, unlike the exceeds in Edolas who viewed themselves as superior to the humans.

According to his Guild Card, he likes kiwi and hates thunder.

History
Pantherlily was once an Exceed that lived in Extalia that worked for the Extalia's army. One day he saved the Prince of Edolas from a certain danger. However, his act of bringing the young prince to Extalia was considered as an act of betrayal by the elders, labeled as 'Fallen/traitor', and removed from Extalia immediately. He started to live in humans world with Mystogan. Then he trained himself and joined the Royal Army of Edolas as the Royal Captain of the 1st Magic War Division.

Edolas Arc
Pantherlily is first seen with the rest of the Royal Army Captains. He first tells Byro and Hughes to be quiet, as he dislikes noisy people. When Erza Knightwalker questions him about it, she speculates that a recent military issue has made him grumpier than usual. Later, he is seen in a meeting with the rest of the Royal Staff and Faust himself. As the meeting is dismissed, he starts to voice his disapproval about the military agreement he is unhappy with, but stops and apologizes the moment he sees Faust's stare growing even more unsettling than usual.

He later appears running towards Erza, yelling her not to let the escaped Lucy Heartfilia and the "fallen" (Charle and Happy) to get away. He is then seen staring upward at them from the ground with the rest of the Army Captains after they've been cornered from both sky and ground. Later when Faust orders the initiation of Code ETD, which involves overthrowing the Exceed, he showed intense rage upon learning about the military and King's true plan. However, this does not make him falter in his duty, as when Gajeel Redfox and Happy set out to destroy the giant lacrima, Pantherlily uses his giant sword to slice away part of the floating island to prevent them from getting closer.As Gajeel tries to slash him, Pantherlily just flies away, before slashing down his massive sword and cutting away a bit more of the island along with it. He and Gajeel then prepare fight each other seriously.

Their fight starts to get intense, when Gajeel's Iron scales allow him to withstand an attack from Pantherlily's sword, but in the middle of the fight when Pantherlily mentions about being an outcast, Gajeel immediately takes a liking to him and tries to make him his cat companion. However before deciding to make him his companion, Gajeel decides to show him who's stronger and manages to smash his sword, shocking Lily. Their fight now is between hand to hand combat. Later on during their fight, Pantherlily and Gajeel observe the Dragon Chain Cannon being fired. Seeing that Gajeel ran off the fight to stop the crash, Pantherlily yelled at him for running away, only to be stunned by what Gajeel has to say "I'll be back to get you, to bring you to my guild, and if you don't come, I'll beat you up and drag you there" Pantherlily then noticed that Coco was helping the the enemy, and screamed at her to get away.

As he watched and yelled at them that it's useless to try to stop the Lacrima, he noticed that more Exceed came to push back the Lacrima, much to his surprise. He then had a flashback of how he was banished from Extalia because of helping and bringing a human back to Extalia. As he saw the Queen fall from the sky, he quickly saved her and asked if she is done lying. As the queen apologized, so did Pantherlily when he said that no matter how much he tried, he could never bring himself to hate Extalia as it's his home country. He then noticed that the Lacrima Island was being pushed back, and witnessed Mystogan sending the Lacrima back to Earth Land with Anima. Mystogan told him that he was glad to have saved his country, causing Pantherlily to thank him and referred to Mystogan as the Prince of Edolas. The celebration was cut short when Erza shot him through the stomach, declaring that the battle was not over yet. This angers Gajeel who later says "how dare you touch my cat." Lily is then seen watching the Dragon Slayers battle Faust with Mystogan, and is shocked when he realizes that Mystogan apparently faked being defeated by Faust to help treat Pantherlily's wounds. He then follows Mystogan into the room that produces Anima, and is stunned when Mystogan reveals his plan to transfer all magic in Edolas to Earth Land.

He then carries out his plan, leaving the people of Edolas in distress. Mystogan tells Pantherlily that there has to be a villain and a hero and he is the villain. He tells Pantherlily to kill him, becoming the hero and the "King of the New World"

Pantherlily refuses to kill him and instead offers to be the villain because they need to quell the chaos. Mystogan is amadant that Pantherlily has a happy life. They are interrupted by somebody who says that a riot is beginning to amass outside the palace, and Pantherlily follows outside to help deal with the rioters. When he asked how many people were involved, his subordinates replies that there were only 3 people, causing Lily to become distraught at the soldiers inability to halt the mayhem caused by only a few trouble-makers; but the soldiers further replied that the perpetrators were rather powerful, and Lily ultimately learns that the trio of rioters turn out to be Natsu, Gajeel and Wendy. Natsu claims to be the "Great Demon Lord Dragneel ". Mystogan tells Natsu to stop but Natsu just challenges him to beat him while revealing him as the prince of Edolas. It turns out Nadi overheard their conversation and told them so they decided to be the "villain" instead. Nadi tells Pantherlily to get ready for what they're gonna do next. Before all the exceeds are transferred to Earthland Pantherlily tells the prince he can take his time to rebuild the kingdom and the two bid each other farewell one last time.

Later, Pantherlily (with other Exceeds and Fairy Tail members) were sent to the Earth Land. After the Exceeds had left, Gajeel wondered about where Pantherlily was. Showing up in a normal exceed-sized form, Pantherlily requested that he join the guild that the Prince once stayed as he promised. Gajeel couldn't be happier, and held him tightly as he cried in happiness. Pantherlily then pulled the rope he had the whole time and stated that he had caught someone suspicious. As he pulled the person out, everyone was left speechless by the fact that person is Lisanna. She asks Pantherlily if he is an Exceed, to which he replies by stating his name, and Gajeel angrily asks her if she is picking a fight with his cat. When Lisanna revealed that she is actually from Earth Land and was sent to Edolas 2 years ago, Pantherlily alongside Natsu and the others help Lisanna to return to her siblings.

S-Class Trial arc
Back at Fairy Tail, everybody is acting hyper again. Pantherlily is surprised how noisy everyone is and finds it hard to believe they all have magical power inside them. Erza explains that's how mages are in Earth Land. She also points out that the magic isn't important, but the hearts and people who wield it. Pantherlily, tells Erza that it's comforting to see a familiar face like her's even though she's not the Erza he knew. When Gajeel propose a fight between the Dragon Slayer's Exceeds, Pantherlily refuses saying that picking a pointless fight only will get them hurt and suggested that he get along with Happy and Charle, but everybody else in the Guild started to fight. At one scene, everyone finishes fighting and is sleeping from exhaustion. Gajeel is seen sleeping, while hugging Pantherlily with one arm.

Pantherlily is then seen sword fighting with Erza later on in his original form for practice. He then transforms back into his chibi form and says that he can only retain his muscular form for a short period of time. The next day, at the S-Class Wizard Promotion Trial ceremony, when Gajeel gets angry about the master not picking him, Pantherlily says Erza told him the guild didn't trust him. He is later seen having a brief sparring session against Erza in his real form. The match ended short when Lily had to revert back to his chibi form, he then notes that he could only remain in his true form under a set amount of short time while he's in Earthland. He nevertheless ends up being the object of Gajeel's brags (who had apparently been overseeing the match) to Erza. Moments later he is seen pleased when Gajeel show his good intentions to help Levy become an S-Class.

A little before the first trial reaches the end, he and Charle fly towards the island despite not being allowed to, though Charle says that their merely going to watch. As they were flying he mention something strange about Mest's relation to his Prince. As they land on the beach, he stated that Mystogan was a secluded person who never socialized with anyone and would put everyone to sleep whenever he was around. He also found it unlikely that Mystogan would take a disciple, so he questions about weather Mest is actually a member of Fairy Tail.

He and Charle find and confront Mest just as the red signal flare is sent up into the air, questioning his motives and identity. Pantherlily transforms into his Battle Mode and pins him against a rock, but Mest teleports out of his grip to save Wendy from Azuma's attack, who appeared to reveal that he destroyed the Magic Council ship that was nearby. Lily tells everyone to stand back as he prepares for battle.

He then charges Azuma and immediately gets engulfed in an explosion. However, he presses on and successfully punches Azuma in the face. After that, the "firework" residue left behind from the previous explosion explodes, damaging him once more. Wishing that he had his sword, Pantherlily then is empowered by Wendy's Arms x Vernier, which increases both his leg speed and his arm strength. He then proceeds to dodge Azuma's explosions, and then flies high into the sky after Charle tells him to, thus serving as a distraction for a surprise attack by Mest and Wendy. However, Azuma notices the attempt and summons an enormous column of explosive flame, defeating all his opponents, including the airborne Pantherlily. On the ground, Pantherlily then reverts back to his Chibi form, unconscious.

He wakes up after Natsu arrives to the scene. Looking to the sky, he sees Caprico releasing numerous bubbles, which Grimoire Heart members emerge from to fight them. As Natsu and Happy take out most of the members in their immediate vicinity, he notes that he doesn't even have enough magic left to retain his Battle form. He looks on as Zancrow arrives to fight Natsu, and trembles in fear when he sees Zancrow incinerate his remaining allies. After Happy commentates too much on the fight, the annoyed Zancrow burns them as well.

Sometime later, after Natsu and Makarov's fight with Zancrow has concluded, Wendy and the cats are seen next to the unconscious Natsu and barely conscious Makarov, with Wendy trying to heal them. Some time later, Natsu wakes up and asks them where Makarov is, to which Pantherlily replies that he's right beside Natsu. Natsu then picks up a familiar scent of a former enemy that he fought on Galuna Island and walks off, despite the cats' protests.

He is later seen appearing somewhat shocked when Doranbolt comes back to the site. After Doranbolt proposes to help get Fairy Tail off of Tenrou Island, he along with the others, refuse and states that Fairy Tail can take care of its problems.

Pantherlily is seen telling Levy and Lisanna that Natsu and the others are on their way. Soon after, Rustyrose shows up and challenges him along with Levy and Lisanna to battle. He is later seen when he notices Bluenote's Magic.

Magic and Abilities
Caster Magic User: He uses the magic ability that all Exceed have Aera, allowing the user to sprout feathery wings that apparently grant flight while neutralizing the weight of one passenger/object.

Other
Battle Mode Shift: After going to Earthland and being turned into a smaller form, he demonstrates the ability to temporarily transform, with all his strength, back to his usual large size. This proves to be difficult, as he can only maintain his large size for a short period of time.

Enhanced Strength: Pantherlily has shown outrageous brute strength, as he is capable of swinging a titanic sword freely without hampering his flying in any serious way. Though it may be possible that the sword counts as his Aera's "one passanger", thereby neutralizing its weight. Also, he is shown to be skilled at dodging incoming attacks from a close range. He also has great endurance and strong hand-to-hand combat skills. Another indication of his brute strength is that he is able to punch a large rock and make a crack.

Enhanced Durability: In his true form, Pantherlily exhibits incredible fortitude against attacks, both physical and magical in nature. He was seen being able to take in Gajeel's iron fists and Azuma's explosive magic head-on, only to emerge relatively unscathed. Though whether or not the same could be said about him while assuming his reduced form is still in question.

Master Swordsmanship: His swordsmanship is good enough so that he was able to match S-Class mage Erza evenly in a mock battle. During his battle against Azuma, Lily appeared confident enough that he might be able to fight on even terms against the Grimoire Heart mage if only he had a sword with him. This strongly hints that swordsplay is Lily's strong point.

Weapons/Items
Bustermarm Sword: A very large sword decorated in a way that resembles a monstrous cat's face. This sword is able to easily cut earth with little force put behind it. It appears to be not equipped with an Edolas Magic Lacrima, and thus, has no function other than as a melee weapon. It is capable of cutting through iron. However, as Gajeel pointed out, the Dragon Scales Iron that he manifests isn't "ordinary iron", and as such, proved resistant against the sword.It was destroyed by Gajeel.

Major Battles

 * VS Gajeel Redfox = UNDETERMINED
 * with Wendy Marvell, Charle, and Mest Gryder VS Azuma = LOST
 * with Levy McGarden, and Lisanna VS Rustyrose= CURRENT

Trivia

 * According to his guild member card, he likes kiwi and dislikes thunder, this could very possibly be due to his feline nature; cats have exceptionally good hearing, which likely puts him at odds with noisy people.
 * While the rest of the Exceed have the usual pointed type Cat-ears, Lily has them rounded, like a real panther, in both his larger and his chibi form.
 * Pantherlily's Fairy Tail Stamp is on his back, the same place Happy has his.
 * Pantherlily bears a very strong resemblance to Blacksad, the main character of a French graphic novel of the same name which Mashima is particularly fond of.