Hooves beat upon hardened stone as the purple earth pony charged across the cavern towards the mighty Thunderbird as blood oozed from its beak. There was a sudden rush in the air, something had changed that made the pony's gut wrench and then an impact. The impact of hooves repeated as Tread Lightly took out several of her flasks and threw them all at once. The explosion created a cloud of dust. Then she flew out threw the dust and slammed into the point upon the Thunderbird where its xiphoid should be with her entire body weight sinking into its chest.
There was a shriek of pain from the creature that was cut off as Morning Marigold's bloody body flew from the throat and made it choke; cut in several places and with a broken leg flew out of its maw and bounced off the ground twice before sliding to a stop. The Thunderbird staggered back as Tread landed and staggered to her knees a few feet away from Marigold. She slowly stood up and turned back to face the mighty lightning bird as it recovered. Messer arrested his dive and let out a sigh of relief.
The thunderbird laughed, something that sounded like a shrieking cackle that just reverberated and was less something you heard and more something you felt in your bones. “I thought you were going to make this easy on me. I have never tasted my own blood since I took this form. Now sister, shall we settle this finally?” It said as the creature turned to Tread Lightly.
Tread Lightly was caught off guard. 'Sister? WHAT!? What is he on........oh....no...how is this....possible...' the purple mare struggled to grasp. Her color drained from her face as her mind connected the dots and did the math to determine if it was even possible. Her facial expression changed to that of one full of mixed emotions. She wanted to express love, hatred, and remorse all at once as her voice trembled. “Brother.....is that you? Why...didn't you come to me?”
Messer's jaw was ajar as he heard the exchange. Marigold groaned, her eyes barely open. The tension in the room rose, to a level that could only be described as suffocation before a lightning strike was going to occur. Something had to break it; and no pony seemed to want to make that move for a solid uncomfortable few seconds. The Thunderbird's laughter slowly died down.
“You always said, 'Power corrupts and unlimited power corrupts unlimitedly.' If knowledge of me was power; then it would corrupt you.” The Thunderbird spoke pure hatred and absolute malice. “Instead, I embraced it! And now; I finally get to feel the symbol of my hatred before me. You will be crushed and I can move on to use this power for other desires,” The Thunderbird spoke; it's words full of hatred and malice. Any pony could taste the anger and vitriol coursing across the air with each breath.
“You....are my brother; this is what my experiment did to you?” she was still questioning it. Tread Lightly wanted affirmation. She needed this creature to say it out loud.
Messer flapped down to the ground slowly and knelt beside Marigold. He checked her pulse. It was still there but incredibly weak. She was breathing and her leg was shattered. He could tell other bone had cracked and likely there were more internal injuries. She had numerous lacerations across her back, neck, and head. Her face had the worst part, a long jagged cut running from horn down to her jaw. There was even a deep crack where the horn had deflected the jagged sharp tooth against it.
“Yes, I am what your brother became. There I said it. Are you satisfied? Your hooves turned me into the monster I am. And I embraced it. My love for you turned to pure hatred. And now, I finally will have my revenge.” The creature stated coldly, calmly but with as much venom in its words as if it had been a cobra biting down into the flesh of a mouse.
Tread Lightly shook her head trying to deny it but as she processed all of this; her mind was called back to her memory of the day her experiment lost her brother to her. An image range out in her mind, one from nightmares as she saw the spark of lightning that echoed through the chamber and it was like something just clicked. The purple mare in her memory could see through the explosion of lightning and hail of electrical discharge to make out the image of the thunderbird, much smaller than it was now. Then the shriek and it bolting off. This was her fault; she caused this. Her brother's current state of hatred and madness, Marigold's injuries, and now what might very well be their deaths. All of this raced through her mind and she would have been crippled if not for something that shattered the exchange between them.
A massive crack echoed through the chamber of crystals as Tread snapped back to reality. Messer Schmidt had enough of this and full on slammed his front hooves into the jaw of the Thunderbird creature while it was not looking at him. He left a visible black spot upon its yellow energy coursing hide as his hooves also looked a little burnt on the outside. The Thunderbird crashed to the ground as the weight of the pegasus fully set in and Messer hit the ground on his hooves, sliding across the flesh crystal to a stop. He looked up at the body of the Thunderbird as it got up and growled; “You little Whelp! How dare you!” it called out, and was interrupted by a small explosion that hit the lightning upon his neck eagle as Tread Lightly tossed one more of her test tubes at it.
The purple mare cursed under her breath, “Only two more of those left.” She decided she would have to find a way to make them count. The charred mark upon her brother's forehead and the black bruise under his chin showed he wasn't going to get off of this without injury as the mighty creature could taste a bit of blood from the Earth Pony kick to his chest come up into its throat.
The thunderbird growled as it staggered back to its clawed feet. Those claws screamed with the rending of stone through the room as it turned to the ponies with a deep guttural growl. “I'm going to truly enjoy your demise!”
The bird took flight and aimed itself right at Messer moving to full speed within seconds. There was a battlecry from both parties as they closed and then the impact. The sound of two sledge hammers impacting as both of Messer's hooves found their mark and slammed into the throat of the great bird. Simultaneously, there was a tearing sound, a gut wrecking sound of bone, sinew, and flesh being ripped as a cry of anguish shot up through the crystal chamber.
The Thunderbird hadn't been aiming to kill him, it wanted to maim. Its beak clasped around his wing and the mighty jaws ripped it clean off. The Thunderbird swallowed the pony wing down with a mighty gulp. Messer screamed out as blood flew from his yellow flank. He crashed to the ground and cascaded to a stop, a trail of blood smeared across the ground and the light of the crystals reflect against it.
The entire chamber turned over to a sanguine light. Tread Lightly focused upon the task at hand as the Thunderbird landed and turned to reveal one of its eyes was completely shut and bleeding from it's mouth, nose, and eyes from the internal injuries it had suffered. One of its eyes was closed from the hoof that had just slammed into it and likely would never be able to see again with how much blood for flowing out and sizzling off the electrical field of its flesh.
“Foolish Pony, you are delicious though.” it said, almost as though the damage to its eye was inconsequential. With Marigold and Messer disabled; the creature turned to Tread Lightly and gave a sinister grin. “Now that the after snacks are prepared, I can deal with you; dear sister. Finally rid of you and I can move on to grander things!” The Thunderbird cried out.
Tread Lightly looked up at the ceiling past the Thunderbird as it spoke. She saw a fissure but the Thunderbird wasn't in a position to take advantage. She dashed full on towards the fissure, opposite direction of her friends and parallel with the Thunderbird.
It looked at her perplexed, she wasn't running to her friends or the chamber exit. The creature let out a shriek and steadied itself. Only being able to see out of one eye required the creature to turn and face before moving to cut off Tread lightly. It took flight right along the ground at full speed towards the mare, stopping as she turned around to face him.
'Perfect' Tread Lightly thought and hurled her last two test tubes up towards the creature's head. They were hopeless throws as the thunderbird could see it coming even with just one eye. It easily dodged out of the way and stopped as it stood over Tread Lightly while she held her ground. Her lenses she hoped, were correct.
“That the best you got? That measly little throw? It will be a favor to put you out of your misery!” it mocked. The Thunderbird shrieked to the heavens as great lightning raptor raised up to strike and the explosions range out at the ceiling. The Thunderbird started to turn its head to look at what had been hit; 'No, it is just a distraction. Stirke now!' He could feel something upon his neck, the air changing for a brief moment and ignored it.
'It doesn't matter, that feeling means nothing. She is m!.?*' His thoughts were shattered as the ceiling itself came down upon him with rocks crushing into his back, wings, and legs like in avalanche. The mighty creature fell down like an accordion as bone and flesh audibly cracked and shattered in sickening crunches. The crashing noise of crystal and rock echoed with the sound of a smashing quarry and shattering glass as the Thunderbird was pinned and its electrical energy grounded. The sound of a few stray falling rocks hit as the creature tried to move and could feel its body broken and unable to lift the heavy load bearing down on it.
Tread Lightly walked towards him, tears in her eyes. “Why brother, why didn't you just come to me. We could of cured you,” She choked out through openly weeping. Tears linked her to the last of the electricity that wasn't grounded and it gave her a tingle. It wasn't enough to cause real damage but enough to make her flinch.
“I HATE YOU! You took my life from me because YOU MESSED UP! And you gave me all this power but NO PONY would ever take me back. I indulged in the power and I had you within my grasp! You stupid MARE! When I get out of here I'm going to kill you.” He threatened and shrieked, desperately trying to move and only resulting in his venomous words shooting drops of blood from his venom spewing beak onto Tread Lightly. The mare could see just how far he was gone now.
Tread looked over to her friends, Marigold's breathing was shallow but there. Messer was trying to stand but the sheer pain of his side kept him down upon his uninjured flank. She looked back to the creature and her face darkened. She had something inside her click.
Looking upon her friends she felt anguish of failures and a type of rage that Tread Lightly had never experience before. It was as though her love for her brother had turned completely to pure anger. She looked at what her brother had become and growled. The broken body an affront to anything she could have ever loved.
“Cute growl sis but we both know you've never had the guts to do something evil. You're a pony! Your kind always believes in redemption remember. There is nothing you are going to do, your threat is empty! I will win this eventually!” the thunderbird growled out. “My body will heal, I will rise up more powerful and find you! And when I do, nothing you can to do can stop me.”
Tread Lightly let tears roll down her cheeks as her own minor injures seemed to surge with drops of blood. Her adrenaline kicked in and she took a step forward. The mare looked down as she removed a scalpel, something she used for collecting samples.
“I know that you won't stop. And I know that you are too far gone. But you forget one thing. I am a pony whom has lost it all. And you just tried to take it all away again.” Her heavy breathing slowed and became silent. Her eyes grew cold and her resolve decided for her exactly the course of action the mare should take. “So I'm going to forgo everything the princesses have taught me about friendship and love and care and redemption. Because buck you, you bastard.” Her lab coat crumpled up as she knelt down to the wing, scalpel between her teeth. “You think I am incapable of evil?” she said. Outside there was shriek that could heard for miles. Blood would curdle at its sound. Tread Lightly covered herself in blood that day. The blood that used to be her brother and now was a monster. The blood of past that would never wash out of her labcoat or her memories.
Tread Lightly trotted over to her friends. Messer had dragged himself over to Marigold as the mare opened her eyes slowly. She could see more clearly than ever before. The air was thick with the stench of combat, death, and blood. The scent of burnt ozone clung to the air with the iron tang of crimson life liquid. Marigold smiled at Tread Lightly.
“Finally.....I finally got to see you shine and you made me face my fears....thank you.....” she said and started to close her eyes. Tread Lightly could see the wound upon her head and knew what she refused want to say. She took the hoof of her friend and held it tightly. There was a cough that brought Marigold back to full wakefulness for a few moments. “Thank you...my friend....I'll be waiting for you...with no....” She couldn't finish the sentence as her breath exhausted and her eyes glazed over. The smile upon the mare's face never went away, she just slowly laid onto her upon her best friend's shoulder as her organs shut down; her heart stopped and the blazing starlight of the center of a flower in spring bloom faded into the cold grey of endless winter.