//------------------------------// // Magic Resurrected // Story: The Legend of the Everfree // by Shadowmane PX-41 //------------------------------// Sunset Shimmer and her friends were the first ones to feel the earthquake in the Everfree Forest. The ground beneath them rumbled and shuddered as the sound of rapidly growing trees filled the air. "What's happening?" Fluttershy's eyes darted around as she tried to withstand the power of the earthquake. Then, high above everyone's heads, the thorns that Gaia grew with her powers to prevent Miasma and her men from attacking were now trapping them and the rest of the crowd that had come to support them in a dome of thorns. The noise got louder once the vines were visible, and as soon as they blotted out the sky above, a bright burst of light came from where the thorns met at the top and fired a beam of light down at the ground. The beam struck the forest floor, sending bright blue energy across the forest that not only made plants bloom and the chopped trees re-grow as if nothing had ever happened, but any other machines in the forest that had been made by Miasma and her men were completely drowned in the plantlife, and were destroyed by the energy. The light touched Sunset Shimmer and her friends, forcing them to Pony-Up, while it did nothing for the crowd. There were some initial screams, but once they saw the magic make the flowers bloom and glow radiantly, the panic had been silenced. "Whoa!" Sugarcoat looked at the horn that now stuck out of the top of her head. She gave it a tiny poke with her finger before she felt at how long her hair had grown. "I suppose this is just another battle for you, right, Sunset?" "How did we Pony-Up?" Sunset looked over at how the rest of her friends had grown their extra appendages before she felt a horn growing out of her head too. "And more importantly, since when did me and Rarity get horns with our transformations? Seriously, that's never happened before..." "This must be Gaia's doing." Sci-Twi looked at how the light shone off of the plants and danced around the trees. "Think about it. The Gatekey was being filled when we were raising money to save the camp. It must be fully charged, and the forest's magic is back." "So... Mission accomplished?" Pinkie Pie smiled. "Not exactly, Pinkie." Sunset rubbed Pinkie's chest. "Miasma's not just going to roll over like some dog because we overturned her bankruptcy papers—especially after what we did to her and her men." "Sunset is right. You all know what Miasma is like." Sunny Flare walked up to the girls and nodded. "Miasma will probably be trying twice as hard to rip the forest apart now. She tends to get extremely angry when things don't go her way." "Don't remind us." Rainbow shuddered, remembering the time that a gun was pointed at her face. "She's also got the backing of those New World punks too." Sour cracked her knuckles and spat on the ground before crossing her arms. "I'd sure love to give each of them a pounding." "Hear, hear. Those heinous ruffians have plauged the Everfree Forest quite enough." Rarity nodded too. "I might be into fashion and am often a pacifist, but I will rip them to pieces nonetheless!" "Plus, we've all got superpowers!" Lemon Zest nodded, raised her hand up, and brought it down, sending out a shockwave that amplified the gravity heavily, making everyone else fall onto their bellies and backs. She raised her hand, causing the effects to vanish. "Oh. So that's what that does. Sorry." She blushed as everyone else got back on their feet. Not a moment afterward, Lemon Zest was bombarded by camera flashes from the paparazzi, and had a number of microphones shoved towards her. "Geez, chillax! It's just gravity powers!" Lemon whined to the crowd before she turned away. "Alright, alright. This has gone on long enough." Rainbow stepped forward, grabbed onto Lemon Zest, and darted away with her speed magic, before coming back for the other girls. In a few seconds, both the Rainbooms and Shadowbolts had vanished, and the crowd had no way on how to follow them. "There. Now this forest is protected for all of time." Gaia pulled her hands out from the ground and looked over to Gloriosa. The light that had hit the forest was now enveloping all of them, and blanketing the whole ruin in its radiance. "I know that it comes as a shock that the world around us has been cordoned off from the rest of the planet, but this is for the good of the forest, and to put a stop to that wicked witch once and for all." "I still don't understand, Gaia." Gloriosa slowly stepped forward and examined the Gatekey, which was now glowing all the colours of the rainbow. "Why go to all this trouble to seal the world off when the Power of the Everfree still has yet to choose a wielder?" "The Rainbooms are mighty heroines indeed, but unfortunately, they have all suffered from inner demons and internal conflicts." Gaia looked out of the light towards the forest. "They are pure now, yes. But the Power of the Everfree judges everything that that person has done. And if they have made any mistakes out of anger, or even evil, then it will instead blanket them in a nightmare scape that can only be ended once they wake up once again. "Sunset Shimmer might be the hero of two of the trials, she was still a ruthless monster back in the first." Gaia hung her head and sighed. "The Power of the Everfree will deny her, and most likely the rest of the Rainbooms because of their actions." She floated back to Gloriosa. "What I did was not out of selfishness, but out of insurance. This way, we will have plenty of time to evaluate all twelve of the chosen heroes, before we finally find the one worthy enough to wield the Power of the Everfree and finish Miasma and her mechanical army forever." "But what if none of them are worthy of the power?" Gloriosa tipped her hand. "We can't beat Miasma without it, can we?" "No, we cannot. Which is why there is a chosen one to wield the Power of the Everfree and stop this madness." Gaia Everfree looked back at Gloriosa and lifted her up into her arms. "Trust me, Gloriosa. This is the only way. It might be the hardest and least appealing way that there is, but we cannot take any chances with that fiend out there causing chaos." "It still seems like a bit of overkill to me that we have to not only wrap the whole forest in a thorn dome, but also to bury it underground too." Gloriosa laid back in Gaia's arms as she was carried off towards the Housetree. "Won't people realize what's going on and want to investigate?" "The Rainbooms and Shadowbolts approach. I can feel their magical power not only on full display, but escalating and transcending that of their old magic." Gaia's eyes turned green, and she saw the Shadowbolts and Rainbooms running together through the forest with their wings and horns. "Funny. Their magic used to start off as being accessible only through an Equestrian vessel. Now, it has evolved and gone beyond what it could do in the past. Soon, they will have the power to freely control their magic, without having to do something relating to their individual Elements of Harmony." "Sounds great, but that's still just words. Without proof that they can defeat Miasma with this power, then what good is it?" Gloriosa shrugged. "You just gave it to them without any form of training or combat regime. How are they gonna be able to use it to defeat the Treekillers?" "The Rainbooms are no ordinary mortals. They are immortals with aging bodies." Gaia smiled. "Starting out as babies, they have quickly grown up into invincible defenders of light, hope, and justice, facing some of the toughest enemies of all time, and safeguarding their home from forces beyond their imagination. "Don't worry about it, Gloriosa." Gaia gave her a gentle peck on her forehead before looking back to the Housetree. "I know that they will be able to save our world." "Somehow, I doubt that..." Gloriosa looked uncertain as the two of them approached a crossroads where the Rainbooms and Shadowbolts were just arriving. "Gloriosa! Gaia!" They all ran up to the two of them and walked side-by-side with them. "Girls!" Gloriosa masqueraded a look of happiness, when deep down, her emotions were entirely different. "How's it hanging?" "Oh, good, good. Except for the fact that this place has been covered with thorns!" Rarity pulled up her trousers, revealing a number of small cuts where the thorns had grazed her. "If it weren't for Fluttershy and her first-aid prowess, I wouldn't have survived!" "Rarity. It was just a few scrapes." Applejack shot her a bemused look as she pulled out some plasters and stuck them onto the open wounds. "You'll get over it. You always do." "So why did you two do it?" Sci-Twi raised a brow at Gaia and Gloriosa. "Weren't we trying to save this forest from Miasma?" "We are, but the Power of the Everfree still sleeps, and without it, your magic cannot reach its ultimate potential." Gaia Everfree put Gloriosa down and let her walk with the other girls. "Until it chooses its' bearer, we cannot guarantee success against Miasma or her mechanized warriors." "So then what are we waiting for? Let's go find this magic and wake it up!" Rainbow charged ahead with Indigo Zap. "Why the rush?" Sweet skipped after them with the rest of the group following close behind. "It's just a little magical ball, isn't it?" "Shows what you know, Sweet." Indigo Zap balled up her hands into knuckles. "Gaia Everfree just said it, didn't she? Without the Power of the Everfree, there's a chance that Miasma could win this! I don't want the Magic of Friendship to fail for the first time in our lives!" "It's worse. The Power of the Everfree can also be attacked while in its' dormant state by anyone, leading it to get cracked and corrupted." Gaia Everfree caught up with Rainbow and Indigo. "When this happens, it expels dark magic that anyone can get their hands on. If Miasma cracks it open and infuses herself with the darkness, then it's lights out for the Everfree Forest." "Uhhh... Yeah, and the end of the world thing that Gaia said." Rainbow Dash looked back to the others. "Honestly, Dashie, since when is it never the end of the world for you?" Gloriosa asked, leaping through the trees with her equipment ready. "Yeah, it's always been that way; ever since Twilight Sparkle came from Equestria. And it's likely not going to change now that we've got this super-duper magical upgrade!" Pinkie chirped. As the girls approached the Housetree, they heard a loud electric roar and the roaring of flames as the path ahead of them lit ablaze. Lasers shot out through the darkness and the sound of crashing trees accompanied the faint sound of the crackling fires up ahead. "What in Ecoloris' name is that?!" Gloriosa was the first to see what was going on, causing the rest of the girls to speed up. Miasma's Cerberus was chewing through the Housetree with all of its' weaponry. Firing its' missiles at the base, burning the surrounding trees with the flamethrowers, swiping everything behind it with the tail, and hammering into the massive tree with the mech's claws. The damage she did was extensive, and the Housetree had already acquired multiple holes and was beginning to light on fire. "Of all of the forests I've torn down before, this has to be the absolute worst of them all!" Miasma pounded on all of the buttons inside, making the Cerberus deluge the tree with machine gun shots and more flamethrower fires causing the flames to rise and cause cracks to appear around the Housetree. "Once I'm done with this forest, not only will we have the best city of all time, but I will personally never, ever, EVER allow anyone to have their say ever again! "In New World's new world, we shall destroy everyone and everything that does not heed our warnings, and ensure that corruption does not taint that world as it has that one!" she roared. "Now to roll out the red carpet, so that the Grand Master's plan to purge the world can go through unhindered! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!" Gaia's breathing went heavy, and her eyes turned red. Her hands turned into claws, and the leaves around her turned white as she glowed brighter and brighter. Letting out an ear-piercing scream of her own, she barrelled into the Cerberus, grabbed it with her vines, and slammed it onto the ground repeatedly. "STAY. OUT. OF. OUR. WORLD. YOU. WITCH!" Gaia screamed with every slam, but the Cerberus didn't take any damage due to the shield generator. "Initiating Anti-Gaia measures," the onboard AI for the Cerberus spoke. The Cerberus became incredibly hot, and lit the vines on fire. The flames danced until they spread out across the ground, and off to more trees in the distance. It also reached Gaia Everfree's body, and she was immediately lit on fire too. "GAIA!" Gloriosa cried out as she watched her friend light on fire. "Get out of here! Get to the Power and wake it up! NOW!" Gaia called back as the fires got higher and higher around her body, and were now up to her face. Gritting her teeth, Sunny Flare stomped on the ground and threw her arms out to the side, causing clouds to appear inside of the dome and pour down rain extremely heavily onto the battlefield. It doused all of the flames, including the ones around Gaia and the Housetree. "Gah! You miserable brats!" Miasma pushed Gaia away and set her sights on the Rainbooms, getting up to their faces with the heads of her Cerberus. "I should have killed you when I had the chance! Little babies like you should not have magic—especially if you do not have the proper way to control it!" She furiously pounded the buttons with her fists, sending the heads of the Cerberus out and making them bite at the girls. "DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! ALL OF YOU WORTHLESS TEENAGE TWERPS SHALL DIE!" The girls narrowly ducked and weaved out of the way of the beast's teeth as Gloriosa fired her sap bombs down on the eyes of the monstrous machine. The sap covered the eyes, and before Miasma could react, she was blinded by the sticky goop. "Girls! Follow me! I'll take you to the Power of the Everfree!" Gloriosa reached out to the Rainbooms, who wasted no time in following her. "Quickly! Before that monster follows us!" "Don't you dare run away from me! GET BACK HERE AND FIGHT LIKE PROPER MONSTERS!" Miasma screamed, making the heads roar once more as the girls made their escape into the darkened forest.