//------------------------------// // Extreme Measures // Story: The Legend of the Everfree // by Shadowmane PX-41 //------------------------------// "Alright. Poster's set, petition's on Change, and Mystable is positively buzzing with this news about Miasma and the Treekillers." Rarity looked at all of the progress on her phone. The petition that she had made online already had over a thousand signatures, and there were so many comments on the news involving Miasma threatening to kill Rainbow Dash that her Mystable inbox couldn't hold it anymore. "People are already on their way to Camp Everfree to help with the fundraising to overturn the bankruptcy papers." "Yeah, that's fine. But look at us!" Sour grumbled and folded her arms as she looked over at Sweet, colouring on a blank sheet of paper with her tongue stuck out. "We're all super-freaks with no control of our powers, Miasma's going to go through with her demoliton anyways, and worst of all, I'm stuck babysitting this baby over here." She gruffly pointed to Sweet with her thumb. "Yeah. Getting these powers controlled might be a bit of a bother, considering that we have different ones for each of us." Sugarcoat tipped her hand, accidentally shooting a firework out of the door that flew into the air and exploded. "Alright. Honest to god, is the only reason I have firework powers because I have a logo that resembles a sparkler?" "Well, mine represents a thundercloud, so maybe that's the reason why I've got lightning powers." Indigo looked down at the icon on her t-shirt and pointed over to the floor, firing a tiny bolt that vanished as soon as it collided with the wood. "Sour and Sweet were created because together, they were kinda mean and nice at the same time." Applejack looked over at Sour and Sweet, who were both digging through their pockets to find objects that would re-style their hairs. "Splitting the two apart is kinda odd, though, especially considering that they look identical." "We're already on it!" Sweet found two pink ribbons and clumped one side of her hair into a large ponytail. She wrapped the first ribbon around the hair before doing the same with the other side, giving her a pair of pigtails. "Don't I look cute?" she squealed at her new look. "Uggh. Pigtails are so baby-ish..." Sour grumbled and re-organized her hair until her fringe completely covered her forehead. "Now this is a hairstyle that I can connect with. It's lifeless, mean, and doesn't want me to be associated with anyone." "We're gonna have to find some way to get those two back together before we're done at the Everfree Forest..." Sunset crossed her arms as she looked at both Sour and Sweet, admiring their new hairstyles. "I admit that Sweet is pretty nice, but even so, if Sour's out there making trouble, it's going to be impossible for both her and Sweet to re-unite and re-form as Sour Sweet without a little hassle from the cops." "Speaking of the cops, Miasma's probably got a lot of bad blood on her now." Rainbow Dash looked through the newspaper articles. They showed a video with a picture of Miasma speaking to a group of policemen. "Let's see how she'll respond." She hit the play button and saw the other girls gather around the screen. "Miasma. You're under arrest on attempted murder." The first policeman showed a picture of Miasma holding the gun at Rainbow Dash's face. "Lay down your weapon and surrender quietly, or we'll have to drag you out kicking and screaming." "Hmmph. Pitiful humans. How long will you realize that your world is tainted with such corruption like murder, scandals, greed, and other such wrongdoings?" Miasma stood up and paced left and right behind her desk. "And yet you accuse me of being a monster, when all around you are demons, animals, and zombies representing humanity's evils still plague the world? No wonder New World want this world purged." "This isn't a joke, Miasma! You have until the count of three to surrender, or so help me, we'll do this the hard way!" The cop raised his arm, causing the others to wield their guns. All of them assault rifles with double magazines, laser sights equipped to the barrels, and elongated barrels. "One... Two..." "Three!" Miasma hit a button, and the floor beneath the men opened up, sending them all down to the furnace where they would burn alive. She watched the cops tumble like a house of cards into the hole and calmly pressed it again lightly to close it up. "WHAT?!" The girls all stared in horror as they watched Miasma reach over to the intercom. "Svengallop. I'm advancing the plan prematurely." Miasma pushed on the button and spoke into a microphone. "We're tearing down the Everfree Forest at midnight. Not on Sunday." "How?" Svengallop responded. "Even with the progress the men are making, there's no way that we can possibly shred the forest in time." "There is one way that we can do this all, and erase those petulent babies that have been toying around with our machines at the same time." Miasma's brows lowered. "Prepare the Cerberus. I will pilot it myself, burn that forest to the ground, and turn the Rainbooms into Rainbloodstains!" And with that, she pointed her gun at the camera and shot it out completely, ending the video clip. "She stood up to the cops, killed them all, moved the logging phase to midnight, and she's still going?!" Lemon Zest took her hands away from her mouth once the video ended. "And here I thought Abacus Cinch was evil, but this is downright demonic..." "The Cerberus?" Sunset Shimmer rewound the video multiple times, letting the word sink in. "What is that?" "It's quite possible that Miasma's not who we think she is." Sugarcoat looked over at Sunset, but the emotionless eyes that she had were once replaced with those of pure terror. "Of all the things that I've seen in my life, I've never seen someone as cruel, wicked, and absolutely despicable as that. Gaia Everfree was right. She's a witch." "And one that won't stop until we defeat her..." Sci-Twi nodded. "But how are we going to defeat her if we've only got twelve hours?!" Indigo Zap threw her arms out. "I think this is the end. Camp Everfree is doomed! And so too is the Everfree Forest!" "There's still some time to get this done, Indigo Zap." Sunny Flare gave her a gentle pat on the back. "The logging doesn't begin until midnight, and she's already got the cops on her tail." "And if needs be, the military will get involved with this, considering the way she butchered them back at her office." Rarity tossed her curl upwards, watching it fall right back down. "She might have rushed the project, but she's put herself at a major handicap with everything she's fighting against." "Yeah. Gaia Everfree, Glori, the police, the military..." Pinkie used her fingers to list off everything that was on her side. "And us..." Sci-Twi hung her head. "Yes, Twilight. Us!" Midnight appeared behind her and licked at her ears, causing her to stumble and turn around. "Soon, the bloodbath will begin, and as Gaia Everfree, Gloriosa, the Rainbooms, Shadowbolts, and the forces of the world fall, will you finally use the magic for something other than some icky concept as friendship or togetherness? Or will you once more be a dog, trapped on the leash of your friends and unable to achieve true greatness?" "Go away, Midnight! This doesn't concern you!" Sci-Twi threw a punch at Midnight, but saw it go right through her. She punched again and again and again, but none of her attacks landed on the demon. "I'm. Not. Afraid. Of. YOU!" "Gyahahahahahahah! And yet you can't muster up the strength to defeat me?" Midnight cackled as more of the fists were through her chest. "You're nothing more than a worm, dancing on the hook of a fishing pole ready to catch me, and free me from my imprisonment!" "ENOUGH!" Sci-Twi roared and headbutted straight through Midnight, hitting her head on a wall and knocking her out. "Twilight!" Everyone called out as the spectacled girl fell onto her back and groaned from the pain. "This isn't going well..." Applejack grimaced as the other girls picked her up and carried her off. "Get her to the tent! Fluttershy. You can do first-aid, right?" Sunset called out. "Yes." Fluttershy slowly nodded. "Take care of Twilight until she recovers. Hurry!" Sunset pleaded, causing Fluttershy to run out with Applejack and Rarity so that they could tend to Twilight's wounds. Once they were gone, Sunset said, "We need all of the help we can get to defat Miasma now..." The sounds of welding tools and clanging metal echoed throughout the warehouse walls as Miasma and Svengallop walked past all of the workbenches and offices towards a wide open space in the building. It was covered with yellow and black warning lines as a giant machine was being loaded down onto it by a massive crane. The giant machine had three heads, was made from the strongest metals on the planet, and had the Miasma De-foreststation emblem on all four of its' legs. It also had a massive tail, and resembled a dog in most senses, but the insides of the mouths had massive laser cannons and flamethrower nozzles attached to them, with smaller hatches on the legs and back. With all of those specs, it made Miasma and Svengallop look like ants in comparison. "The Cerberus is the most powerful and expensive land robot that New World has created, Miasma." Svengallop stretched his arms out to show off all of the details. "Equipped with laser cannons that arc between targets upon a successful hit, flamethrowers to burn down the trees with ease, and a variety of rockets, machine guns, flare launchers, and other weapons of destruction, it is the epitemy of ultimate power; the power needed to raze the Everfree Forest in minutes." "What's the weight?" Miasma raised a brow. "Two-thousand, five-hundred tonnes of pure steel and titanium, this thing is heavier than five depot trucks fully loaded and stacked on top of each other," Sven responded. "Max speed?" "Seventy miles per hour, fourty with weapon systems activated." "Durability?" "It'll take a nuke to even destroy this thing, let alone damage it. Regular warheads have no affect on it due to the gifts New World gave it." Sven pointed to a little green dot on the top. "A quantum shield generator, capable of withstanding some of the heaviest firepower from both regular weapons, and from those miserable little Rainbooms and their super-magic." "May I take it for a test drive?" Miasma let out a smile as she looked over at Sven. "You certainly can." Sven pushed a button and handed the remote to Miasma, causing a small chair to descent on a platform from the robot's underbelly. "Have as much fun as you want, but be sure to re-stock on ammo before you leave. With how powerful the Rainbooms are together, as well as that tree monster that's been slaughtering our soldiers, you're gonna need it." Miasma took the remote, walked onto the platform, and sat down on the chair. She hit the button again, and the platform rose up into the machine, taking her into the cockpit. The inside of the Cerberus was much different than the outside. The cockpit's console was much bigger than she was expecting, with multiple different keyboards and buttons labelled with all kinds of weaponry. There were also three big buttons overhead to control the Cerberus' heads and make them fire their weapons. Miasma clicked the seatbelt and allowed a green laser bar to scan her face. "Identity confirmed. Welcome to the Cerberus, Miasma." A computerized voice generated a screen which showed a logo of the planet earth with the words "New World" underneath it. "On behalf of the council and myself, we hope you enjoy your bloodbath." Miasma grabbed onto two joysticks and thrust them left, causing the Cerberus to stand up and walk down to another part of the warehouse. The massive machine's footsteps were so loud that it completely blocked out all of the noise on the outside. With a massive roar, the noise from every other part of the building was almost silenced as it impacted the eardrums of Svengallop and the other men. The Cerberus stomped down the hall until it came to a massive firing range with pictures of the Rainbooms dotted all over the place. The test dummies that were on the ground were singing and dancing with rainbows all around the building. The songs that they had sang during the Battle of the Bands were playing throughout the range as well. "You loathsome apes! Prophecy or no propechy, you will NOT derail New World's plans! I swear it!" Miasma furiously slammed the buttons, causing the Cerberus to open fire on everything in the room. The heads fired out flamethrowers and lasers with phenomenal reach, hitting all of their targets instantly and causing the chaos to spread to other parts of the room. Missiles and machine guns opened fire from the legs and claws of the machine, tearing the test dummies to pieces in mere seconds, and destroying the speakers that were blaring out the music. After a few more seconds, the bright and rainbow-filled firing range was now ladened with fires, bullet holes, craters, and smoke as the Cerberus turned around and walked towards another open door leading to the outside world. "Now then." Miasma cracked her knuckles as she firmly grasped onto the joysticks again. "Let's see how those Rainbooms can stand up to this..." Her smile grew wider and her brows lowered as she piloted the machine towards the exit. As the machine walked forward, she sang a small song to herself. I fell into an Everfree Forest Fire The trees fell down, down, down, and the flames rose up higher. And they burned, burned, burned! Everfree Fire. Everfree Fire... The Cerberus ran out as fast as it could, leaving small holes where its' feet were with every step as it went off to the Everfree Forest along with a bunch of Miasma's logging machines behind it. At a massive stone ruin, Gaia Everfree's eyes shot open, and she clutched at her head, groaning as she felt something deep down within her. The forest was crying out to her, and it was taxing her mind. "Gaia!" Gloriosa walked up to her. "What's going on?" "The worst that I feared is coming, Gloriosa." Gaia Everfree picked up the Gatekey from Gloriosa's bag and planted it into a slot on the ring. "Miasma leads the very forces of hell itself to destroy us. In other words, something big is coming. And not just big. Housetree big." "What?!" Gloriosa's eyes widened at what Gaia said. "Then, how can we defeat this?" "Gloriosa. As you are well aware, the Gatekey not only serves as a gateway to other worlds, but also serves as a lockdown device for protecting the Everfree Forest from evil." Gaia reached her arms out, pouring green energy into the relic, making the symbols around the ring light up, which in turn, made the entire ruin glow a bright shade of white. "Miasma has clearly resorted to her ultimate weapon, and I am left with no other choice... "Forgive me" —Gaia raised her hands high into the air and threw them down into the ground, causing an earthquake to form all around the forest— "But this forest shall exist no more!"