The life and times of Lafayette Ryder

Sezzerecknack, quolentempalon, tagunadonga.

Hissing voices, tremendous heat, and the awful smell of sulphur assault my senses as I dream.

Kessemyelod, xylngermey, zintophin.

Enormous black shadows engulf my mind and the voices begin to chant and scream.

DTYNUM, MMUEZZAFYTH, WUEZETH, WUEZETH, WUEZETH!

As the shrieking chorus reaches a crescendo smoke fills my nostrils and suffocates me. I shout for help, I beg the massive figures that surround me to stop whatever it is they’re doing but they just ignore me and keep chanting their words over and over again as they circle me like vultures. I open my mouth to scream again but find that I have nothing left to scream, I can’t breathe, I can’t see, and I can’t speak.

I do the only thing I can do.

I collapse.

<><><>

I sit bolt upright in bed and gasp for breath. My body is soaked with cold sweat, my limbs are shaking violently again, and the smell of smoke lingers. I look down and see that Twilight is still sound asleep on the bed, I get up carefully so I don’t disturb her rest, I slid a pair of flannel PJ pants on, and I leave our room. I walk into the kitchen and pour myself a glass of water, I try to drink but my hand is shaking so badly that I drop the cup. I grab a rag and kneel down to clean up my mess; I manage to cut my thumb on a shard of glass as I do. I look at the laceration; it’s small but bleeding profusely and the blood…

My eyes grow wide as I watch my blood spill from my finger tip, float down through the air and arrange itself on the floor in an obvious pattern. I stare at the bloody words as they form on the wooden floor.

War, demons, sanity, death, loss, defeat, coming, coming, coming!

The final drop of blood lands and makes the dot on the exclamation mark. I gawk at the oddity before me until the sound of a door opening startles me. I look up and see Dulcie walk into the kitchen in her underwear.

“Hey dad, what are you doing up so-” her voice falters as she sees the blood message. “That’s not good.”

“Yeah, I figured that.” I stand up to toss the pieces of glass in my hand into the garbage and then take a seat at the table.

“Dad,” Dulcie says worriedly, “Are you OK?”

I take a moment to calm my nervous mind down and to hide my quivering hand in the pocket of my pajama pants.

“I’m fine Dulcie, I’m just fine.” I say as she sits down next to me. “I know you’re worried about the episode earlier but I swear I’m fine now. What’s up?” I ask when I see her concentrating hard on something out of my sight.

“I just got another message.” She tells me.

“And?” I say after a few seconds of waiting.

“It said that the link from Earth to here is broken now, no more people will be coming and none can go back. I guess we’re here to stay.”

“Yep.”

We sit at the table for a couple minutes longer but neither of us speaks again. Eventually Dulcie just gets up and goes back to bed. After she’s out of the room I look over at the blood message again, all I see now is a small, red stain on the floor with pieces of broken glass in it. I wonder if that was all Dulcie saw, I wonder if that was all it ever was and I’m just seeing shit again, I wonder if I even care one way or the other. I clean the mess up magically and head outside.

<><><>

I meander through the darkened streets of town until I find a place called The Salt Lick, the only bar in Ponyville, and walk in. The bartender, an earth pony who could drink anyone under the table, even me, is already behind the counter waiting for a patron.

“Got anything strong?” I ask him. He just nods and pours me a shot of some clear liquid from a ceramic jug. I down the burning alcohol and leave him with a ‘thanks’ and a few coins. I walk back towards the library but something I see out of the corner of my eye stops me. I look over my shoulder and see nothing. Wait a second; I see the tip of a tail slip out of view. I turn back to see…

“Drentyth betsesdum.”

I look at the scaled face in front of me as it speaks. I have no idea why this thing is here or what it just said, but I have a feeling that it isn’t good. With a single flap of its mighty grey wings the aged reptile lifts its body into the air and soars away from me and into the dark night sky. I shrug off the chance encounter and walk briskly towards my home. About halfway there I start to smell the smoke and hear the crackling of fire.

I run.

I charge the door and bust into the library which is already ablaze. I rush through the burning room and into the house behind it. I scream for my family to wake as I barge into the boys’ room to get them. Dulcie and Twilight both run in to help but stop next to me when they see it.

Starbright lies in his bed whimpering in fright while Thaddeus is in the arms of a strange man. When I say that this person was strange I mean it strange by every definition, we do not know this guy, nor do we want to, and his appearance is anything but normal. He’s nude, though he lacks any evident genitalia, and stands eye level with me, that’s not the extent of his strangeness. He seems to have been stitched together in some grueling way; his torso and limbs are human, but at the neck, wrist, and ankles the smooth, tan skin transitions into rough, red, scaled flesh. His feet are large and clawed and so are his hands. He shifts his weight and I can see a long tail positioned at the base of his spine and two wings spouting from his shoulder blades. The most intriguing and disgusting thing about this creature is certainly his face, it’s too large for a human head, but small for a dragon head, even though it is shaped like the later, and his mouth seems misshapen. His teeth point every which way and are all different sizes and shapes. He snarls at us as I can see that his entire mouth is nothing but row after row of jagged, randomly placed canine teeth.

My analysis of the alien creature ends when I remember that my son is being held by it. I lunge but a heavy claw knocks me away and into the wall. I struggle to stand as the dragon/human hybrid turns and flees with my boy in its arms. I try to stand, I try to scream, I try to cry. I can’t. I just lay there dazed and confused as my family drags me outside of the burning house and into the road. I just sit on the ground as my neighbors and friends hurry to douse my house and the ones nearby in order to stop the fire from spreading. I just stare off into the distance at the direction the monstrosity took my son.

I see the Solar mountain range illuminated by the first rays of the morning sun. I see a winged silhouette, one far too large to be any Pegasi or Griffin, fly towards the mountains. I see where it lands. I know where Thaddeus will be.

Tears finally begin to flow and the pain of all the burns I recently received starts to register but I don’t really notice it yet, my mind is on something else right now.

I stand and call out, not to my family or my friends or my God, no I call out to Jeff, I call out to Soulless Sun, I call out to /B/. I call them and I tell them I’m ready.

I feel a flood of righteous fury flow into my veins, a wave of hate and chaos consume my mind, and a maelstrom of power build in my heart. I feel something deep down in the recesses of my mind snap completely.

I feel strong.

I feel good.

I feel ready to kill everything that stands in-between me and my son.

I look at the mountains again as the sun breaks over them; I see dragons, hundreds of them, flying towards the caves there.

I guess Zecora was right; the demons spawn in the dark,

And the Dragons ride at dawn, and now I’m going to go kill every one of those bastards until I get Thaddeus back.

I smile and speak, I don’t notice the octave difference in my voice or the slight accent and neither does anyone else.

“Daddy’s coming Thaddeus, don’t you worry, daddy’s coming for you.”