The life and times of an Everfree mysteryby WafflegodmanChaptersWelcome to ParadiseA savior and the saintIntroductionsTugging on your HeartstringsIt's good... I mean, it's not that good, but it's still pretty good.Don't read this... I'm serious... Okay I'm not serious.SorryWelcome to ParadiseThe sun was high. The breeze was gentle. It was the perfect weather for a courier on the run. A man, about 187.96 centimeters tall, was sprinting across the rooftops of some skyscrapers. He was being chased by a battalion of cops. He didn't necessarily know why he was being chased; I mean he knew why, it was obviously the package he was delivering, but he didn't know what was in it. All he knew was that it was his job to get the package where it needed to go. The helicopters annoyed our little courier with constant pleas along the lines of "Stop now or we will open fire!" or "Resist further and we will not show mercy!" The courier put in some headphones when there was a fairly large gap between him and the nearest cops. He turned on his Mp3 player and hit the shuffle button, then he took off on his merry way when the song started. The realization of what the song was, and the combination of his current situation made him laugh. "Karma's a bitch," he claimed as he vaulted an exterior ventilation shaft. His pursuers got closer to him, but it didn't last as he made a twenty foot jump between two buildings. Eventually the rifleman in the helicopter started taking pot-shots at him. Our courier knew that he would have to get on ground level soon, or risk taking a bullet. He knew the city well, and knew that there was a large river coming up. It was an opportunity that he needed to get down ten stories in a short time. He checked over his shoulder, sure enough, there were more cops, and they were close. He made his way swiftly across another roof top, and came to his stop, a hundred foot free fall into a deep river. He contemplated continuing the chase for sake of the package, but a bullet flew right by the back of his neck, leaving a scratch mark on his sky blue hoodie, and he quickly decided that self-preservation was more important than a pay check from a shady organization. He leaped off the concrete roof, and plunged through the air. He turned around mid-flight and flipped off the onlooking cops right before he flipped around and prepared to plunge into the water. He didn't have anything against the cops, in fact he donated quite a bit of money to the city police force, but they cost him a week’s worth of cash, and that put him in quite a negative mood. He plunged feet first into the deep water of the rushing river. He opened his eyes and saw a blurred out version of his city, then his entire body tensed up, and colors started fill his vision. There was some pain, but it slowly faded as the colors grew brighter. All our little courier could do was think to himself 'Fuck me,' right before his vision faded, and his body disappeared into an orb of colors. Meanwhile, in a magical land of intelligent ponies and ancient creatures of myth one might tell a child that was too excited to go to bed about, a team of ponies were preparing for an expedition into the unrecorded wilds of the massive Everfree forest. A scientist, who also happened to be a map maker, Princess Luna, and the bearers of the Elements of Harmony were all going to do their best to map as much of the Everfree as they could, and identify any unknown creatures that were lurking through the woods. They gathered their gear and were all preparing themselves for the journey that lay ahead; they would leave at noon. Remember our little courier? Of course you do. If you didn't, I recommend finding the nearest medical facility in your area and scheduling an appointment for a brain scan. Now as I was saying, you remember our little courier. Well, he was just waking up from a dream about a cat made of watermelon. He got up and wiped away the dirt that had accumulated on his hoodie, which was when he noticed that he was dry. A few seconds later, he understood that he was no longer in his city. He looked over his surroundings: forest, as far as the eye can see. The trees were tall, but had plenty of branches to climb upon should the need occur. He also found that there was no path visible to him at the time. He then decided it would be wise to check the machine that might have sent him too this unknown land, for he reasoned that there were no more forests with trees like these in the state he lived in anymore. He opened the satchel at his side, and he found that the package was gone, but in its place were two stereo speakers that he could hook into his Mp3 player, should he wish. This confused him, but he wasn't about to question it; he could see and feel the objects, so he knew they were real. Just then, a gust of air blew hard against our little courier’s cheek. The courier turned in the direction the wind was blowing; he always followed the wind, it always seemed to point him in the right direction. He gazed upon the leafy expanse of wood and grass, and found that he could see movement, but just barely. The wind blew on his back once again, urging him to investigate the movement, and so he took off, jogging lightly in the direction he saw movement, curious as to what adventure he might be getting himself into. It was now about three, and the group of ponies found themselves deep in the umbrella of leaves that the Everfree provided. They encountered little resistance from the timberwolves, or any other inhabitants of the forest. They all decided to double their efforts so they could get as much data recorded as possible before the sun set, and the predators of the night came out to hunt. An hour of time passed since our little courier set off in search of the movement from earlier and he grew extremely tired; he may have slept a bit before awaking in this forest, but his muscles still had not healed from his recent chase, and his energy was certainly not replenished. He found himself in a large opening in the forest, and decided he would set up camp for an hour or two. He chose a tree to sleep in, rather than go through the trouble of making a shelter, and found a tree that bore fruit, apples to be exact, and grabbed one before returning to his chosen resting spot. He laid across a large branch, about fifteen feet of the ground; for my listeners from anywhere but the U.S., that's about 4.6 meters. He sunk his teeth into the fruit, savoring the flavor, as he took in the sweet air that surrounded him. He soon found himself drifting off into a deep state of meditation known as sleep. This sleep took him through the rest of the afternoon, and the night as well. It was sunrise when the princess woke from her slumber, an odd sensation since she was so used to waking at sunset. She nudged the rest of the exploration crew awake, and they set off, unaware of what they are to find ahead. A savior and the saintThe ponies were gathered in a bush, looking at a creature they had never seen before. It was wearing clothing and was as tall as Luna, but they dared not go near it, for they had no clue whether it was friendly or not. They waited, and waited, eventually the creature started to stir. Now, our little courier was well aware of his onlookers, and figured the eyes he saw in the darkness were just some harmless wild animal. The eyes had no hate or eagerness in them, they just seemed curious about our little courier, but he noticed something wrong with this picture. In the background, approaching the bush, was a colossal dragon. He didn't know how such a creature existed, but knew that it meant trouble. In the bush, our ponies were none the wiser. They kept their gaze on the creature. The creature stood up and faced the ponies. He unzipped his hoodie, and a gust of wind pulled it off him and the clothing flew off with the wind. Then he pulled up a rag back up from his neck and over his nose, effectively covering the lower half of his face and neck. The creature before them lowered his head and looked directly at the ponies. It could only be described as terrifying to them, the creature was clad in all black and his eyes shone a wild blue. Then he jumped backward and disappeared into the leaves. Our little courier acted with haste, he knew that whatever happy creatures were in that bush were about to be turned into stir fry by a creature that doesn't exist, and he wasn't going to let that happen. He grabbed a knife out of his satchel and a few explosives, and sprinted toward the right flank of the dragon. "Uh... did that thing just look at us?" asked a slightly worried Rainbow. "Yeah, did it look kinda scary to you?" responded Twilight. "No. Well... kinda, it just disappeared out of nowhere," said a slightly flustered Rainbow. Then, our little ponies heard a stick break and some leaves rustle to their left. It was the creature, but it was holding a shiny blade in its right hand now; luckily for them, it wasn't them its eyes were fixed on. They all turned to see what the creature was sprinting toward. They then wished they hadn't, because the thing it was sprinting toward was the biggest dragon any of them had ever seen, including Luna, who was now so scared herself that there was sweat dripping from her brow. Our little courier wasn't scared in the slightest though; just worried he wouldn't distract the beast fast enough. You see, our little courier has no sense of self-preservation when other lives were at stake; that's one reason he does all his jobs solo. Another thing about our little courier that you probably didn't know is that he doesn't do courier jobs exclusively. Espionage, thievery, reconnaissance, assassination, and party catering are just a few things on a long list of jobs he has done for any number of private and military organizations. So, what's that mean for the dragon? I know a word that comes to mind...pain. Our little ponies watched the creature sprint toward the beast. Then, the creature threw three small pellets at the Dragon. The pellets exploded, tearing away some scales. The dragon cried out in anger, and searched for the creature. Our little courier had climbed his way up a tree with world record speed, as if he never stopped sprinting, and was running across a large tree branch, straight toward the dragon. He flung himself toward the beast, and as he did so the dragon unleashed his flames at our little courier. The courier flew through the flames, and landed on the top of the dragon. He rolled, distributing his weight across the dragon’s head, and as he started to slide down the dragon’s neck, he buried his knife deep into the creature’s scales. The dragon roared in pain and flung his tail upward, just as our little courier was sliding down said appendage. The dragon darted away in fear of another attack, and our little courier had a bird’s-eye view of the spectacle as he soared well above the forest canopy. "Son of a BITCH!" our little courier screamed as he realized that he was well over a hundred plus feet above the ground, with no safe way down. Our little ponies were still trying to process what happened. They stared at the creature, who was now a black dot against a blue background, and wondered why it took on the dragon, and more importantly, how the buck it won. They all just kept staring at the creature as it was falling toward the ground, expecting it to do something, like fly away gracefully with a pair of hidden wings. But the creature kept falling. "Ah don't think that thing can fly," said an entranced Applejack. The ponies kept staring, and then the creature crashed through the trees and hit the ground, hard, just a couple of meters in front of them. What, you didn't expect Rainbow Dash to fly up and save him, or Luna to use some powerful spell to catch him, did you? Our little courier waited a few seconds, and when he didn't feel any pain, he knew he was in bad shape. He tried to pick himself up, but he fell over on his side. He settled for sitting up. He pressed against his chest and looked his limbs over. "Son of a bitch," he said to himself. He had a couple of broken ribs, his left arm was bent the wrong way, and his right leg was backward. "Whoever I saved better be gra..." he was about to say grateful, but instead he coughed up some blood. He looked toward the sun, and then passed out. "Uh, that thing talked," said Pinkie. "Yeah," responded Luna. "That thing saved us," said Rarity. "Yep," responded Luna. "I don't think that thing's limbs were that shape before, and I know it shouldn't be bleeding so much," said the scientist pony. "I agree," said a shocked Luna. IntroductionsI was thinking, perhaps you would like to know who's telling this tale. I can give you a hint, I ain't Colgate. Anyway, we left off with a dying courier, and some shocked ponies. Needless to say, our ponies didn't stay shocked for long, and they dragged our little courier back to Ponyville hospital. Besides a few odd looks, everypony tried to stay out of the princess’ way. The doctors did their jobs, and our little courier was saved. Fast forward three days and voila, we’ve got a curious Luna and a courier so drugged out that he doesn't know which way is up. "Good Sir, I am Princess Luna. I have a couple of questions for you," said the princess, hoping that our little courier wasn't so drugged out that he couldn't communicate. "Holy shit, a talking pony!" exclaimed our little courier; every single time he's been approached by a doctor or nurse while he was conscious he has uttered that phrase. "*Ahem* Right then, what is your name?" Luna tried. "My name is water and air, with a hint of rosemary," our little courier answered. "Uh...Okay then, um...where do you come from?" She assumed he would answer with another cryptic description, most likely describing a forest. "A faraway land, made of concrete and glass, with lots of watermelon," he answered. "Right, so you’re too high to communicate properly," Luna said, hanging her head in disappointment. "I suppose I can come back later." She knew she could, but she was too damn curious. "Good bye, pretty pony," our little courier said. "See you soon." Now, you may be wondering by now, 'What is his name?' Well, it's John, and his last name was Claud, pronounced like Cloud. But no one calls him that. No, they call him Rapid. 'How did he get that name?' you may be wondering. Well, someone just called him ‘Rapid’ one day, and the name stuck. ~~~~~(This goes out to Perception Filter, thanks for the squiggles!)~~~~~ It was around midnight. Luna had tried to communicate with creature three more times but gave up, and for some reason she couldn't get to sleep. She was sitting in the waiting room of the hospital, which was by now almost deserted, save for the few nurses and doctors. She found herself intrigued by a gadget the creature had kept in his satchel. It looked like an Mp3 player, but slightly smaller. She plugged the speakers into the device and pressed a couple of buttons on it. The screen lit up, and she cycled through the names on the device. Eventually she just pressed the shuffle button, eager to see what the device did. To her surprise, it was an Mp3 player. The song was in a strange language, but it was good nonetheless. She bobbed her head to the beat, and didn't notice when the door to the room creaked open. John was in the doorway, looking at the Alicorn groove to one of his favorite songs. He thought about how crazy this would sound to himself a few days ago. Then he thought of cracking a witty joke, but the Alicorn looked so happy listening to the music, and he didn't want to ruin it for her. When the song ended, the princess examined her surroundings. She noticed the door was open, and she worried that somepony might have seen her dancing. She looked around, and found herself face to face with the creature, who was sitting back right next to her, eyes closed and smiling. "Sorry about all the crazy talk princess, those drugs you gave me really messed with me," he said, as if noticing Luna looking at him. "Not a…wait, how do you know I'm a princess?" Luna asked; the drugs were supposed to also keep him from remembering anything while he was under their influence. "I remember everything from when I was awake," he answered. "Okay, wait, how did you get...," Luna started. "…out of the room without being spotted? Turns out, doctors don't do a good job of watching someone, especially if they're half asleep," John finished. An awkward silence took over for about thirty, long, seconds. "So, what is your name?" asked Luna. "Claud (Cloud). John Claud." He responded. "It's a nice name. Where do you come from?" Luna continued. "Earth," John responded. "Earth? That just means dirt, though," Luna said. "It's the planet I came from," John said, nonchalantly. "Wait, so you're not even from this planet?" Luna said excitedly. "I don't know, I don't even know if I'm from this dimension." John informed. "What?! Don't you miss your family, or friends?" she asked. John seemed way too relaxed in this situation. "I don't have any family, or...friends,” he said sadly. ."Oh...," Luna said. She was stunned that this creature didn't have friends. "I think I know some ponies that could help with that," she continued. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It was ten A.M., and John was asleep again. Luna had told Celestia to meet her at the hospital, and so it was that the two alicorns were standing over John. "’tis a strange creature," said Luna, breaking the silence. "Yes... and very, very, dangerous!" Celestia informed. "You know about these creatures?" asked Luna. "Yes, father told stories about them to me before he left," she informed. "Oh...So, how are they dangerous?" Luna wondered. "Humans, that is what they are called, can cause chaos in complete harmony, and find order in complete chaos. Beyond that, they are extremely smart, and effective combatants. One fit human equals that of ten well trained royal guards!" she informed. "Really?" Luna asked. "Yes, now let me continue," she said, "What they lack in strength, they make up for in mind. They are incapable of using magic naturally, but all have an outlandishly large manna pool. None of them have special talents that they are born with; they have the capability to choose what they are good at. And the last, and possibly the thing that worries me most, is that they have, depending on the individual, a drive so strong that it could kill them," she finished. "So, what do we do?" Luna asked with a slightly worried tone in her voice. "Let it explore Equestria freely, but watch it closely," answered Celestia, who was looking over John's sleeping body. An awkward silence filled the room, until John yawned loudly, causing the princesses to both yawn as well. Then the princesses decided to get at least a little sleep, and left the room. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Now is when the real mane character gets introduced; me! It was eight in the morning and I had just woken up. I got out of bed, stretched my legs, and checked myself out in the mirror,"Stunning as ever!" I said to myself. "Pfft...as if," said my roommate as she entered the room, "I made you some breakfast. You like blueberries, right Lyra?" Tugging on your Heartstrings"Good morning, Bon Bon." I greeted her happily, "Yeah, I love Blueberries," I said as I took one of the muffins she was holding. "I thought so. By the way, you're gonna be late for work," she informed. "Son of a bitch!" I blurted out as I rushed out the door. I ran all the way to the music shop I owned and operated. I didn't know why at the time, but I felt like today was going to be long, but good. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ About the same time I got up, John began to stir. Everything was surreal to him; I suppose it would be if you woke up to a bunch of intelligent animals that had never heard of a human before, let alone seen one. He put on his clothes; sadly his T-shirt was torched when he jumped through the flames of that dragon, but he was provided with a new one. It was white as snow, which looked good with the rest of his outfit, which came any color he wanted, as long as it was black. The shirt was made of a thick material, but it breathed and it hugged his torso, but didn't feel like it choked him. He was extremely grateful to whoever made this shirt. He read a note that was left for him: 'Sir Cloud, I am ever grateful to you for your assistance. Please take this money as a reward, it should be more than enough to live in the finest hotel in all of Equestria, plus food and other luxuries. Please consider making your home here in Ponyville, and don't be afraid to get in touch with me. Princess Luna, goddess of the night.’ "A couple of days in a forest, and suddenly I'm friends with a royal goddess. Did someone slip some shrooms into my food?" he mumbled to himself. He grabbed the pouch that was left on his bed and put it in his satchel. He draped the bag over his shoulder, and made his way out the building. He got a few odd looks from the inhabitants of the town, but nothing hostile, just curious. He was charmed by the atmosphere of the town, but one thing was bugging him. The damn roofs, they were thatch! He just came out of a hospital that out preformed any hospital on earth. It had state of the art equipment, and everything in there seemed modern, if not downright futuristic. But as soon he gets outside, the surrounding houses have thatch roofs. He knew it must only be a style thing, and that there was indeed modern roofing under the thatch, but it still bugged him. A few minutes later, something caught the corner of his eye: a large vinyl disc on top of a building. He was well out of the suburban area of Ponyville, and the surrounding buildings no longer looked like a recreation of Dark Age homes. He was drawn toward the store, one, for his love of music, and two, to see what kinda instruments ponies used. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I had just gotten set up behind the counter when I heard the bell ring, meaning a potential customer had come in. I walked out and froze as I saw the creature that had come in. I watched as it looked over a couple instruments, and then it turned to me. I was nervous and slightly scared, but then he opened his mouth. "Do you have any guitars?" he asked casually. I snapped out of my trance. I had never seen a creature like that one, but it sounded like any other pony. "Uh...Yeah, follow me," I said. It was odd for somepony, or in this case, something to ask for such a complicated instrument unless the pony asking was a unicorn. I walked to the back of the store. Lining the wall to the left was row after row of guitars. "Did you have a specific type in mind?" I asked, still a little nervous. "No, what is the highest quality guitar you have in stock?" it asked casually. "Well, we have a special guitar in stock, but it cost 100,000 bits," I informed. "What makes it so expensive?" the creature asked. "It uses magic to bring out the emotions and memories of the player. It consumes the magic of the player, and depending on how much Mana the player has, the guitar could make any sound in the world, and put it all together into one giant symphony. It could even modify the voice of the player when he sings, turning him into a one pony band!" I said, getting really excited as I described the instrument. "Sounds too good to be true," said the creature. "You can try it," I informed, "Here's the thing though, you'll be put into a sort of trance when you play, so you won't be able to stop from finishing the song." "I'm up for it, which guitar is it?" the creature asked with a look of pure excitement plastered on his face. "You'll have to come to the back room with me... You don't mind if I record what you play, do you? I've had other ponies try their hand at the instrument and what they play sometimes is really good, other times it's a little... off, but it's all in good fun," I asked as I walked through the door that led to a recording studio in the back of the store. "It'll be fine," it informed. I gave the creature an ornate pick, which was actually the instrument itself, and motioned for him to get into the booth. It put its hands out as if holding a guitar and a lime green electric guitar formed out of thin air. The creature plucked a string and an entire band of instruments formed around him, with phantoms of himself ready to play them; then heStarted to play. After it was over I found myself speechless; no one had ever played something so complete as that before. After a second he came out of his trance. "What just happened?" he asked. "Uh... you were awesome," I said, barely above a whisper. "I get off work at one, do ya want to get a coffee with me?" I asked, then promptly covered my mouth with my hoof and turned so he wouldn't see me blush, 'What the hay, why did I say that out loud?' I wondered. "Uh...Sure," he answered. It's good... I mean, it's not that good, but it's still pretty good.I smashed through the door to my and Bon Bon's house. "Where's my hoodie!?" I called. "On the couch, why do you need it?" Bon Bon asked as she came out the kitchen to inform me. "No time, help me straighten my hair," I ordered. "You have time to straighten your hair, so you have time to tell me what's going on," she told me. "Fine, just give me a second to catch my breath," I told her. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Meanwhile, John was relaxing on a park bench, admiring the pick that cost him half the bits he had been given. He went over what had happened to him so far, idly thumbing the pick in his hand as he did so. First, he woke up in an odd forest. Second, he fought multiple mythical creatures. Third, he was saved by a bunch of magical talking ponies. “Completely sane,” he thought. “I've just been sent to another dimension, what's there to be worried about anyway? You've got no family and all your friends either died or turned their backs on you,” he reasoned with himself. He looked up at the sun; it was a bit after noon, any minute now that unicorn should get off work. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "So a creature tries out that guitar thing and suddenly you’ve got the hots for him?" Bon Bon questioned. "No, I'm just intrigued by him," I said. "So you ran back here so you could straighten your hair, just because," Bon Bon continued. "Yeah," I confirmed. "I'm coming with you. It's not natural for somepony to be attracted to another creature so quickly," she said. "I'm not attracted to him!" I whined. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Come on," she said as she motioned to leave. "What's the hurry?" I asked, running up to her. "You actually made me a bit curious as well, so I brought the animonitor," she informed. "Isn't the animonitor that thing used by royal guards to look into the past of criminals?" I asked. "Yeah, they didn't ask for it back when I quit the night guard, and I thought it would be good to know a thing or two about this guy," she finished as we turned to corner. "That's him!" I said, gesturing with my hoof to John, who was lying on a park bench. "Alright...," she said, pulling up the animonitor "You ready?" she asked. "Sure," I responded happily. The animonitor looked like a small hand mirror, and it let out a purple flash. The world around us started to slow down fade to grey. A rectangular screen shot up out of the animonitor and emitted an image of John's eyes; suddenly a song started to play.. John's face disappeared in a flurry of snow, and then the image showed him standing on a mountain, dressed in tattered clothing. The image whited out again and switched to him running threw a plain of grass, while in the distance three tornadoes were dancing over water. The image followed John and then flew up into the sun. It then showed John running through the ruins of a town, covered in sand. People were chasing him and throwing stones. It switched when a stone came flying toward the image. It then showed him on the running on the rooftops of a grande city at night. Then at last it showed him kneeling on the ground in a cell, his head down and blood flowing out of wounds on his back, as if he had just been whipped. Then John looked up, his eyes glowing, with his left eye glowing red, and his right eye glowing blue. The image stopped as soon as the music stopped. "What does that mean?" I asked Bon Bon. "I'm not sure, this thing shows the moments of his past that left an impact on his psyche, but I don't think what we saw really happened..." Bon Bon said, and then started mumbling something. "Uh... Bon Bon?" I said, trying to get her attention back. "Listen," she said to me with a serious face. "Sometimes, if a pony has suffered extremely traumatic events, the animonitor will show you something similar in scale to what said pony suffered through," she finished. "So..." I offered, trying to understand why she seemed so worried. "That thing," she said, pointing toward John, "has been through a bunch of crazy shit. Excuse my cursing, but all the night guards have used an animonitor on Princess Luna, and the stuff we saw during that wasn't even close to being as intense as that," she said. "So..." I said, still confused. Bon Bon just facehoofed. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ John sat up and found himself face to face with an armored stallion. "Can I help you?" he asked, trying to sound as polite as possible. "The princesses request your audience at Sugar Cube Corner," the stallion said shakily. "Okay," John confirmed, and without hesitation the stallion took off, apparently scared of talking to John, leaving John confused as to where Sugar Cube Corner was. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Meanwhile, in some other dimension, we're about to meet some beings that will drastically change life in Equestria, for better or for worse. Author's note: I hate making author's notes, but I wanted to apologies for the delay in getting this chapter out to you. I've been busy creating backgrounds for characters that will be encountered later in the story, as well as trying to find a way to maintain the groove that's been set in this story already. And I would also like to say, do not worry about me completely forgetting about the Everfree. Oh no, don't worry about me forgetting about Everfree at all (maniacal laughter ensues) Don't read this... I'm serious... Okay I'm not serious.Hello check this out! It's a Co-story to this one by KG, another author for wafflegodman productions. And remember to vote for either John and Lyra, or team Kilo and Gilda! Just say who you want to 'win' down in the comments on either story. You can change your vote later, but your previous vote will still count for the other team. So... choose wisely! SorryHey. You may, or may not know this, but this channel used to have a couple of authors that wrote for it... Now there is only me, and I'm sad to say I'm not the author of this fic. That being said, I've decided to recreate this fic in honor of the authors memory. It is a slight reimagining, and I hope you can enjoy it. You can find it Here.
Welcome to ParadiseThe sun was high. The breeze was gentle. It was the perfect weather for a courier on the run. A man, about 187.96 centimeters tall, was sprinting across the rooftops of some skyscrapers. He was being chased by a battalion of cops. He didn't necessarily know why he was being chased; I mean he knew why, it was obviously the package he was delivering, but he didn't know what was in it. All he knew was that it was his job to get the package where it needed to go. The helicopters annoyed our little courier with constant pleas along the lines of "Stop now or we will open fire!" or "Resist further and we will not show mercy!" The courier put in some headphones when there was a fairly large gap between him and the nearest cops. He turned on his Mp3 player and hit the shuffle button, then he took off on his merry way when the song started. The realization of what the song was, and the combination of his current situation made him laugh. "Karma's a bitch," he claimed as he vaulted an exterior ventilation shaft. His pursuers got closer to him, but it didn't last as he made a twenty foot jump between two buildings. Eventually the rifleman in the helicopter started taking pot-shots at him. Our courier knew that he would have to get on ground level soon, or risk taking a bullet. He knew the city well, and knew that there was a large river coming up. It was an opportunity that he needed to get down ten stories in a short time. He checked over his shoulder, sure enough, there were more cops, and they were close. He made his way swiftly across another roof top, and came to his stop, a hundred foot free fall into a deep river. He contemplated continuing the chase for sake of the package, but a bullet flew right by the back of his neck, leaving a scratch mark on his sky blue hoodie, and he quickly decided that self-preservation was more important than a pay check from a shady organization. He leaped off the concrete roof, and plunged through the air. He turned around mid-flight and flipped off the onlooking cops right before he flipped around and prepared to plunge into the water. He didn't have anything against the cops, in fact he donated quite a bit of money to the city police force, but they cost him a week’s worth of cash, and that put him in quite a negative mood. He plunged feet first into the deep water of the rushing river. He opened his eyes and saw a blurred out version of his city, then his entire body tensed up, and colors started fill his vision. There was some pain, but it slowly faded as the colors grew brighter. All our little courier could do was think to himself 'Fuck me,' right before his vision faded, and his body disappeared into an orb of colors. Meanwhile, in a magical land of intelligent ponies and ancient creatures of myth one might tell a child that was too excited to go to bed about, a team of ponies were preparing for an expedition into the unrecorded wilds of the massive Everfree forest. A scientist, who also happened to be a map maker, Princess Luna, and the bearers of the Elements of Harmony were all going to do their best to map as much of the Everfree as they could, and identify any unknown creatures that were lurking through the woods. They gathered their gear and were all preparing themselves for the journey that lay ahead; they would leave at noon. Remember our little courier? Of course you do. If you didn't, I recommend finding the nearest medical facility in your area and scheduling an appointment for a brain scan. Now as I was saying, you remember our little courier. Well, he was just waking up from a dream about a cat made of watermelon. He got up and wiped away the dirt that had accumulated on his hoodie, which was when he noticed that he was dry. A few seconds later, he understood that he was no longer in his city. He looked over his surroundings: forest, as far as the eye can see. The trees were tall, but had plenty of branches to climb upon should the need occur. He also found that there was no path visible to him at the time. He then decided it would be wise to check the machine that might have sent him too this unknown land, for he reasoned that there were no more forests with trees like these in the state he lived in anymore. He opened the satchel at his side, and he found that the package was gone, but in its place were two stereo speakers that he could hook into his Mp3 player, should he wish. This confused him, but he wasn't about to question it; he could see and feel the objects, so he knew they were real. Just then, a gust of air blew hard against our little courier’s cheek. The courier turned in the direction the wind was blowing; he always followed the wind, it always seemed to point him in the right direction. He gazed upon the leafy expanse of wood and grass, and found that he could see movement, but just barely. The wind blew on his back once again, urging him to investigate the movement, and so he took off, jogging lightly in the direction he saw movement, curious as to what adventure he might be getting himself into. It was now about three, and the group of ponies found themselves deep in the umbrella of leaves that the Everfree provided. They encountered little resistance from the timberwolves, or any other inhabitants of the forest. They all decided to double their efforts so they could get as much data recorded as possible before the sun set, and the predators of the night came out to hunt. An hour of time passed since our little courier set off in search of the movement from earlier and he grew extremely tired; he may have slept a bit before awaking in this forest, but his muscles still had not healed from his recent chase, and his energy was certainly not replenished. He found himself in a large opening in the forest, and decided he would set up camp for an hour or two. He chose a tree to sleep in, rather than go through the trouble of making a shelter, and found a tree that bore fruit, apples to be exact, and grabbed one before returning to his chosen resting spot. He laid across a large branch, about fifteen feet of the ground; for my listeners from anywhere but the U.S., that's about 4.6 meters. He sunk his teeth into the fruit, savoring the flavor, as he took in the sweet air that surrounded him. He soon found himself drifting off into a deep state of meditation known as sleep. This sleep took him through the rest of the afternoon, and the night as well. It was sunrise when the princess woke from her slumber, an odd sensation since she was so used to waking at sunset. She nudged the rest of the exploration crew awake, and they set off, unaware of what they are to find ahead.
A savior and the saintThe ponies were gathered in a bush, looking at a creature they had never seen before. It was wearing clothing and was as tall as Luna, but they dared not go near it, for they had no clue whether it was friendly or not. They waited, and waited, eventually the creature started to stir. Now, our little courier was well aware of his onlookers, and figured the eyes he saw in the darkness were just some harmless wild animal. The eyes had no hate or eagerness in them, they just seemed curious about our little courier, but he noticed something wrong with this picture. In the background, approaching the bush, was a colossal dragon. He didn't know how such a creature existed, but knew that it meant trouble. In the bush, our ponies were none the wiser. They kept their gaze on the creature. The creature stood up and faced the ponies. He unzipped his hoodie, and a gust of wind pulled it off him and the clothing flew off with the wind. Then he pulled up a rag back up from his neck and over his nose, effectively covering the lower half of his face and neck. The creature before them lowered his head and looked directly at the ponies. It could only be described as terrifying to them, the creature was clad in all black and his eyes shone a wild blue. Then he jumped backward and disappeared into the leaves. Our little courier acted with haste, he knew that whatever happy creatures were in that bush were about to be turned into stir fry by a creature that doesn't exist, and he wasn't going to let that happen. He grabbed a knife out of his satchel and a few explosives, and sprinted toward the right flank of the dragon. "Uh... did that thing just look at us?" asked a slightly worried Rainbow. "Yeah, did it look kinda scary to you?" responded Twilight. "No. Well... kinda, it just disappeared out of nowhere," said a slightly flustered Rainbow. Then, our little ponies heard a stick break and some leaves rustle to their left. It was the creature, but it was holding a shiny blade in its right hand now; luckily for them, it wasn't them its eyes were fixed on. They all turned to see what the creature was sprinting toward. They then wished they hadn't, because the thing it was sprinting toward was the biggest dragon any of them had ever seen, including Luna, who was now so scared herself that there was sweat dripping from her brow. Our little courier wasn't scared in the slightest though; just worried he wouldn't distract the beast fast enough. You see, our little courier has no sense of self-preservation when other lives were at stake; that's one reason he does all his jobs solo. Another thing about our little courier that you probably didn't know is that he doesn't do courier jobs exclusively. Espionage, thievery, reconnaissance, assassination, and party catering are just a few things on a long list of jobs he has done for any number of private and military organizations. So, what's that mean for the dragon? I know a word that comes to mind...pain. Our little ponies watched the creature sprint toward the beast. Then, the creature threw three small pellets at the Dragon. The pellets exploded, tearing away some scales. The dragon cried out in anger, and searched for the creature. Our little courier had climbed his way up a tree with world record speed, as if he never stopped sprinting, and was running across a large tree branch, straight toward the dragon. He flung himself toward the beast, and as he did so the dragon unleashed his flames at our little courier. The courier flew through the flames, and landed on the top of the dragon. He rolled, distributing his weight across the dragon’s head, and as he started to slide down the dragon’s neck, he buried his knife deep into the creature’s scales. The dragon roared in pain and flung his tail upward, just as our little courier was sliding down said appendage. The dragon darted away in fear of another attack, and our little courier had a bird’s-eye view of the spectacle as he soared well above the forest canopy. "Son of a BITCH!" our little courier screamed as he realized that he was well over a hundred plus feet above the ground, with no safe way down. Our little ponies were still trying to process what happened. They stared at the creature, who was now a black dot against a blue background, and wondered why it took on the dragon, and more importantly, how the buck it won. They all just kept staring at the creature as it was falling toward the ground, expecting it to do something, like fly away gracefully with a pair of hidden wings. But the creature kept falling. "Ah don't think that thing can fly," said an entranced Applejack. The ponies kept staring, and then the creature crashed through the trees and hit the ground, hard, just a couple of meters in front of them. What, you didn't expect Rainbow Dash to fly up and save him, or Luna to use some powerful spell to catch him, did you? Our little courier waited a few seconds, and when he didn't feel any pain, he knew he was in bad shape. He tried to pick himself up, but he fell over on his side. He settled for sitting up. He pressed against his chest and looked his limbs over. "Son of a bitch," he said to himself. He had a couple of broken ribs, his left arm was bent the wrong way, and his right leg was backward. "Whoever I saved better be gra..." he was about to say grateful, but instead he coughed up some blood. He looked toward the sun, and then passed out. "Uh, that thing talked," said Pinkie. "Yeah," responded Luna. "That thing saved us," said Rarity. "Yep," responded Luna. "I don't think that thing's limbs were that shape before, and I know it shouldn't be bleeding so much," said the scientist pony. "I agree," said a shocked Luna.
IntroductionsI was thinking, perhaps you would like to know who's telling this tale. I can give you a hint, I ain't Colgate. Anyway, we left off with a dying courier, and some shocked ponies. Needless to say, our ponies didn't stay shocked for long, and they dragged our little courier back to Ponyville hospital. Besides a few odd looks, everypony tried to stay out of the princess’ way. The doctors did their jobs, and our little courier was saved. Fast forward three days and voila, we’ve got a curious Luna and a courier so drugged out that he doesn't know which way is up. "Good Sir, I am Princess Luna. I have a couple of questions for you," said the princess, hoping that our little courier wasn't so drugged out that he couldn't communicate. "Holy shit, a talking pony!" exclaimed our little courier; every single time he's been approached by a doctor or nurse while he was conscious he has uttered that phrase. "*Ahem* Right then, what is your name?" Luna tried. "My name is water and air, with a hint of rosemary," our little courier answered. "Uh...Okay then, um...where do you come from?" She assumed he would answer with another cryptic description, most likely describing a forest. "A faraway land, made of concrete and glass, with lots of watermelon," he answered. "Right, so you’re too high to communicate properly," Luna said, hanging her head in disappointment. "I suppose I can come back later." She knew she could, but she was too damn curious. "Good bye, pretty pony," our little courier said. "See you soon." Now, you may be wondering by now, 'What is his name?' Well, it's John, and his last name was Claud, pronounced like Cloud. But no one calls him that. No, they call him Rapid. 'How did he get that name?' you may be wondering. Well, someone just called him ‘Rapid’ one day, and the name stuck. ~~~~~(This goes out to Perception Filter, thanks for the squiggles!)~~~~~ It was around midnight. Luna had tried to communicate with creature three more times but gave up, and for some reason she couldn't get to sleep. She was sitting in the waiting room of the hospital, which was by now almost deserted, save for the few nurses and doctors. She found herself intrigued by a gadget the creature had kept in his satchel. It looked like an Mp3 player, but slightly smaller. She plugged the speakers into the device and pressed a couple of buttons on it. The screen lit up, and she cycled through the names on the device. Eventually she just pressed the shuffle button, eager to see what the device did. To her surprise, it was an Mp3 player. The song was in a strange language, but it was good nonetheless. She bobbed her head to the beat, and didn't notice when the door to the room creaked open. John was in the doorway, looking at the Alicorn groove to one of his favorite songs. He thought about how crazy this would sound to himself a few days ago. Then he thought of cracking a witty joke, but the Alicorn looked so happy listening to the music, and he didn't want to ruin it for her. When the song ended, the princess examined her surroundings. She noticed the door was open, and she worried that somepony might have seen her dancing. She looked around, and found herself face to face with the creature, who was sitting back right next to her, eyes closed and smiling. "Sorry about all the crazy talk princess, those drugs you gave me really messed with me," he said, as if noticing Luna looking at him. "Not a…wait, how do you know I'm a princess?" Luna asked; the drugs were supposed to also keep him from remembering anything while he was under their influence. "I remember everything from when I was awake," he answered. "Okay, wait, how did you get...," Luna started. "…out of the room without being spotted? Turns out, doctors don't do a good job of watching someone, especially if they're half asleep," John finished. An awkward silence took over for about thirty, long, seconds. "So, what is your name?" asked Luna. "Claud (Cloud). John Claud." He responded. "It's a nice name. Where do you come from?" Luna continued. "Earth," John responded. "Earth? That just means dirt, though," Luna said. "It's the planet I came from," John said, nonchalantly. "Wait, so you're not even from this planet?" Luna said excitedly. "I don't know, I don't even know if I'm from this dimension." John informed. "What?! Don't you miss your family, or friends?" she asked. John seemed way too relaxed in this situation. "I don't have any family, or...friends,” he said sadly. ."Oh...," Luna said. She was stunned that this creature didn't have friends. "I think I know some ponies that could help with that," she continued. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It was ten A.M., and John was asleep again. Luna had told Celestia to meet her at the hospital, and so it was that the two alicorns were standing over John. "’tis a strange creature," said Luna, breaking the silence. "Yes... and very, very, dangerous!" Celestia informed. "You know about these creatures?" asked Luna. "Yes, father told stories about them to me before he left," she informed. "Oh...So, how are they dangerous?" Luna wondered. "Humans, that is what they are called, can cause chaos in complete harmony, and find order in complete chaos. Beyond that, they are extremely smart, and effective combatants. One fit human equals that of ten well trained royal guards!" she informed. "Really?" Luna asked. "Yes, now let me continue," she said, "What they lack in strength, they make up for in mind. They are incapable of using magic naturally, but all have an outlandishly large manna pool. None of them have special talents that they are born with; they have the capability to choose what they are good at. And the last, and possibly the thing that worries me most, is that they have, depending on the individual, a drive so strong that it could kill them," she finished. "So, what do we do?" Luna asked with a slightly worried tone in her voice. "Let it explore Equestria freely, but watch it closely," answered Celestia, who was looking over John's sleeping body. An awkward silence filled the room, until John yawned loudly, causing the princesses to both yawn as well. Then the princesses decided to get at least a little sleep, and left the room. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Now is when the real mane character gets introduced; me! It was eight in the morning and I had just woken up. I got out of bed, stretched my legs, and checked myself out in the mirror,"Stunning as ever!" I said to myself. "Pfft...as if," said my roommate as she entered the room, "I made you some breakfast. You like blueberries, right Lyra?"
Tugging on your Heartstrings"Good morning, Bon Bon." I greeted her happily, "Yeah, I love Blueberries," I said as I took one of the muffins she was holding. "I thought so. By the way, you're gonna be late for work," she informed. "Son of a bitch!" I blurted out as I rushed out the door. I ran all the way to the music shop I owned and operated. I didn't know why at the time, but I felt like today was going to be long, but good. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ About the same time I got up, John began to stir. Everything was surreal to him; I suppose it would be if you woke up to a bunch of intelligent animals that had never heard of a human before, let alone seen one. He put on his clothes; sadly his T-shirt was torched when he jumped through the flames of that dragon, but he was provided with a new one. It was white as snow, which looked good with the rest of his outfit, which came any color he wanted, as long as it was black. The shirt was made of a thick material, but it breathed and it hugged his torso, but didn't feel like it choked him. He was extremely grateful to whoever made this shirt. He read a note that was left for him: 'Sir Cloud, I am ever grateful to you for your assistance. Please take this money as a reward, it should be more than enough to live in the finest hotel in all of Equestria, plus food and other luxuries. Please consider making your home here in Ponyville, and don't be afraid to get in touch with me. Princess Luna, goddess of the night.’ "A couple of days in a forest, and suddenly I'm friends with a royal goddess. Did someone slip some shrooms into my food?" he mumbled to himself. He grabbed the pouch that was left on his bed and put it in his satchel. He draped the bag over his shoulder, and made his way out the building. He got a few odd looks from the inhabitants of the town, but nothing hostile, just curious. He was charmed by the atmosphere of the town, but one thing was bugging him. The damn roofs, they were thatch! He just came out of a hospital that out preformed any hospital on earth. It had state of the art equipment, and everything in there seemed modern, if not downright futuristic. But as soon he gets outside, the surrounding houses have thatch roofs. He knew it must only be a style thing, and that there was indeed modern roofing under the thatch, but it still bugged him. A few minutes later, something caught the corner of his eye: a large vinyl disc on top of a building. He was well out of the suburban area of Ponyville, and the surrounding buildings no longer looked like a recreation of Dark Age homes. He was drawn toward the store, one, for his love of music, and two, to see what kinda instruments ponies used. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I had just gotten set up behind the counter when I heard the bell ring, meaning a potential customer had come in. I walked out and froze as I saw the creature that had come in. I watched as it looked over a couple instruments, and then it turned to me. I was nervous and slightly scared, but then he opened his mouth. "Do you have any guitars?" he asked casually. I snapped out of my trance. I had never seen a creature like that one, but it sounded like any other pony. "Uh...Yeah, follow me," I said. It was odd for somepony, or in this case, something to ask for such a complicated instrument unless the pony asking was a unicorn. I walked to the back of the store. Lining the wall to the left was row after row of guitars. "Did you have a specific type in mind?" I asked, still a little nervous. "No, what is the highest quality guitar you have in stock?" it asked casually. "Well, we have a special guitar in stock, but it cost 100,000 bits," I informed. "What makes it so expensive?" the creature asked. "It uses magic to bring out the emotions and memories of the player. It consumes the magic of the player, and depending on how much Mana the player has, the guitar could make any sound in the world, and put it all together into one giant symphony. It could even modify the voice of the player when he sings, turning him into a one pony band!" I said, getting really excited as I described the instrument. "Sounds too good to be true," said the creature. "You can try it," I informed, "Here's the thing though, you'll be put into a sort of trance when you play, so you won't be able to stop from finishing the song." "I'm up for it, which guitar is it?" the creature asked with a look of pure excitement plastered on his face. "You'll have to come to the back room with me... You don't mind if I record what you play, do you? I've had other ponies try their hand at the instrument and what they play sometimes is really good, other times it's a little... off, but it's all in good fun," I asked as I walked through the door that led to a recording studio in the back of the store. "It'll be fine," it informed. I gave the creature an ornate pick, which was actually the instrument itself, and motioned for him to get into the booth. It put its hands out as if holding a guitar and a lime green electric guitar formed out of thin air. The creature plucked a string and an entire band of instruments formed around him, with phantoms of himself ready to play them; then heStarted to play. After it was over I found myself speechless; no one had ever played something so complete as that before. After a second he came out of his trance. "What just happened?" he asked. "Uh... you were awesome," I said, barely above a whisper. "I get off work at one, do ya want to get a coffee with me?" I asked, then promptly covered my mouth with my hoof and turned so he wouldn't see me blush, 'What the hay, why did I say that out loud?' I wondered. "Uh...Sure," he answered.
It's good... I mean, it's not that good, but it's still pretty good.I smashed through the door to my and Bon Bon's house. "Where's my hoodie!?" I called. "On the couch, why do you need it?" Bon Bon asked as she came out the kitchen to inform me. "No time, help me straighten my hair," I ordered. "You have time to straighten your hair, so you have time to tell me what's going on," she told me. "Fine, just give me a second to catch my breath," I told her. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Meanwhile, John was relaxing on a park bench, admiring the pick that cost him half the bits he had been given. He went over what had happened to him so far, idly thumbing the pick in his hand as he did so. First, he woke up in an odd forest. Second, he fought multiple mythical creatures. Third, he was saved by a bunch of magical talking ponies. “Completely sane,” he thought. “I've just been sent to another dimension, what's there to be worried about anyway? You've got no family and all your friends either died or turned their backs on you,” he reasoned with himself. He looked up at the sun; it was a bit after noon, any minute now that unicorn should get off work. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "So a creature tries out that guitar thing and suddenly you’ve got the hots for him?" Bon Bon questioned. "No, I'm just intrigued by him," I said. "So you ran back here so you could straighten your hair, just because," Bon Bon continued. "Yeah," I confirmed. "I'm coming with you. It's not natural for somepony to be attracted to another creature so quickly," she said. "I'm not attracted to him!" I whined. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Come on," she said as she motioned to leave. "What's the hurry?" I asked, running up to her. "You actually made me a bit curious as well, so I brought the animonitor," she informed. "Isn't the animonitor that thing used by royal guards to look into the past of criminals?" I asked. "Yeah, they didn't ask for it back when I quit the night guard, and I thought it would be good to know a thing or two about this guy," she finished as we turned to corner. "That's him!" I said, gesturing with my hoof to John, who was lying on a park bench. "Alright...," she said, pulling up the animonitor "You ready?" she asked. "Sure," I responded happily. The animonitor looked like a small hand mirror, and it let out a purple flash. The world around us started to slow down fade to grey. A rectangular screen shot up out of the animonitor and emitted an image of John's eyes; suddenly a song started to play.. John's face disappeared in a flurry of snow, and then the image showed him standing on a mountain, dressed in tattered clothing. The image whited out again and switched to him running threw a plain of grass, while in the distance three tornadoes were dancing over water. The image followed John and then flew up into the sun. It then showed John running through the ruins of a town, covered in sand. People were chasing him and throwing stones. It switched when a stone came flying toward the image. It then showed him on the running on the rooftops of a grande city at night. Then at last it showed him kneeling on the ground in a cell, his head down and blood flowing out of wounds on his back, as if he had just been whipped. Then John looked up, his eyes glowing, with his left eye glowing red, and his right eye glowing blue. The image stopped as soon as the music stopped. "What does that mean?" I asked Bon Bon. "I'm not sure, this thing shows the moments of his past that left an impact on his psyche, but I don't think what we saw really happened..." Bon Bon said, and then started mumbling something. "Uh... Bon Bon?" I said, trying to get her attention back. "Listen," she said to me with a serious face. "Sometimes, if a pony has suffered extremely traumatic events, the animonitor will show you something similar in scale to what said pony suffered through," she finished. "So..." I offered, trying to understand why she seemed so worried. "That thing," she said, pointing toward John, "has been through a bunch of crazy shit. Excuse my cursing, but all the night guards have used an animonitor on Princess Luna, and the stuff we saw during that wasn't even close to being as intense as that," she said. "So..." I said, still confused. Bon Bon just facehoofed. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ John sat up and found himself face to face with an armored stallion. "Can I help you?" he asked, trying to sound as polite as possible. "The princesses request your audience at Sugar Cube Corner," the stallion said shakily. "Okay," John confirmed, and without hesitation the stallion took off, apparently scared of talking to John, leaving John confused as to where Sugar Cube Corner was. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Meanwhile, in some other dimension, we're about to meet some beings that will drastically change life in Equestria, for better or for worse. Author's note: I hate making author's notes, but I wanted to apologies for the delay in getting this chapter out to you. I've been busy creating backgrounds for characters that will be encountered later in the story, as well as trying to find a way to maintain the groove that's been set in this story already. And I would also like to say, do not worry about me completely forgetting about the Everfree. Oh no, don't worry about me forgetting about Everfree at all (maniacal laughter ensues)
Don't read this... I'm serious... Okay I'm not serious.Hello check this out! It's a Co-story to this one by KG, another author for wafflegodman productions. And remember to vote for either John and Lyra, or team Kilo and Gilda! Just say who you want to 'win' down in the comments on either story. You can change your vote later, but your previous vote will still count for the other team. So... choose wisely!
SorryHey. You may, or may not know this, but this channel used to have a couple of authors that wrote for it... Now there is only me, and I'm sad to say I'm not the author of this fic. That being said, I've decided to recreate this fic in honor of the authors memory. It is a slight reimagining, and I hope you can enjoy it. You can find it Here.
