I was shocked by this sudden revelation? Ponyville was on fire? What? I... that was unexpected.
It was when the fire leapt over onto Yellow's house that I snapped out of shock and instantly bolted into the hallway. I hadn't even gotten down the stairs and I could hear the screams from outside, and screams from within this own house.
"DAISY HEART!!!!" Came the frantic shout from downstairs, belonging to Yellow Rock.
When I got down, he was at the door with the kids, his expression reading pure panic, and the children were cowering with him, fearing what might come.
"GET THE DOOR OPEN!!! GO GO GO!!!" I shouted, running towards him, and he quickly obeyed and rushed outside, me just behind him and the kids staying close to him.
There was a lot of things to be said about what was going on outside. I shall sum it up to this: Ponyville's in deep shit right now. Ponies ran around the streets, screaming their little heads off. Every building in the direction of Sugarcube Corner was either burning or burnt to almost nothing. Worse, just seconds later, ponies that had been inside houses across the street came rushing outside... and they were on fire. I assume that Yellow tried blocking the kids' eyes while we watched the burning ponies run around, screaming their heads off before falling to the ground and flailing about in their death throes, before falling silent and ceasing to move.
The kids then began crying, Yellow's attempts probably having failed, and I exchanged glances with him.
"Follow me!" I told him, rearing back (you wouldn't believe how incredibly weird that was for me) and starting into a run towards the street near Sugarcube Corner.
I know I said that area was on fire, but the other way was actually worse. And besides, I think the fire stopped not far beyond Sugarcube Corner. I just needed to get over there before the fire did.
The four of us ran a short distance before quickly being joined by several other fleeing ponies, and at about the time we started passing Sugarcube Corner I noticed the Cakes, all four of them, leaving the burning building. However, their path was blocked by large amounts of debris that had probably came from the upper floors, and what few gaps in the rubble there was were too small for all the Cakes to make it out.
"Go," I told Yellow, "Get the kids and everypony else to safety! I have to help them!" I turned to leave but a hoof stopped me.
"Don't go! You might die!"
"And so will they! I need to try!" I broke free of his grip and rushed over to the Cakes. I didn't hear him respond. Instead, only the clopping of numerous sets of hooves.
"Hold on, guys!" I hollered at the Cakes, and they stood back several feet, allowing me to kick away enough of the debris so there was a large enough hole for them. The four then crawled out, their small children first, and they stopped to thank me after all of them were out.
"I thought we were goners for sure!" Mr. Cake said in a sigh of relief.
"It's not over yet! Is there anypony else near here?" I asked him.
"No, everypony else got out! We're the last ones on this street!" He responded.
"Alright, get out of here! You saw where the others ran, right?" He nodded in response.
"Then go! I'll meet up with you guys!" They ran almost as quickly as I told them that.
Me, I gazed further into the burning streets to see if anypony else might be trapped... all I can say is that if they were, they weren't alive anymore. I was about to turn around when there was a heavy thud that shook the ground, and for a moment my heart stopped. Fire. Plus attacked town. Equals... dragon.
I turned around to see-
"MOTHER OF GOD!!"
Oh wait... I said that out loud...
The beast that I now laid my eyes upon had dark brown scales. Its wings were... well, part of them were on the ground, supporting its body because... it only had... two legs... and they were...
Oh my God. It was a Skyrim dragon. No doubt about that... WHAT WERE THEY DOING IN EQUESTRIA?!?!?!?!
But then I noticed why it had landed. It had landed near where I stopped to tell Yellow to run. It had landed... in front of the Cakes.
"YOL..." It said in its booming voice, and then a second later, I watched, with horror, as the thing I would slay all the time in Skyrim murdered the Cakes. Every. Last. One of them.
"NOOOO!!!!" I shrieked, even though my voice was nothing compared to the combined sound of the dragon's fire breath and the deathly screams of the Cakes.
And but moments later, the fire stopped coming from the dragon's mouth, to reveal the charred husks of the four Cakes... which collapsed onto the ground, so burnt they were petrified, and they were frozen that way in their death throes.
And then the dragon looked at me.
"Oh shit oh shit ohshitohshitohshit!!!!" I panicked and turned tail and almost began running... only to stop mid-step and realize there was nowhere to go.
There was another, granted not as hard, thud as the dragon took a step towards me, and I fell back on my haunches, mouth quivering with fear as it got closer and closer, and I could only watch, as that was all I could do. I mean, killing a dragon in a videogame is one thing, but in real life? Don't even try. Especially when you're an Earth Pony.
The dragon stopped so that its face was just inches from mine... and let me just say this... its head was bigger than me. It opened its mouth slightly and gave me a whiff of its horrid breath, which smelled of what can only be described as hell.
It was then that I silently muttered a few prayers, even though I hadn't exactly been that religious. Not only that, but if I had been wearing any pants right then, I would have shit them.
"Nowhere to run, pony." It spoke in its deep and powerful voice, releasing even more of its wretched breath at me.
I'm fucked. Basically all that was to be said of that situation.
"YO-" I'm surprised I wasn't blown away by the sheer volume of his voice. All he had to say was the 'Y' and I could sense my death rapidly approached. And the worst feeling of my entire life, I then decided, was that I was powerless to do anything about it.
Fortunately for me, however, he stopped mid-Shout, and the look in his eye revealed he had just been dealt an unexpected blow. He turned his big ugly head around, and in doing so (because my vision was no longer obstructed), Twilight Sparkle was revealed, standing near the charred bodies of the Cakes, her expression reading something you shouldn't see on the face of an adorable cartoon pony.
Ok, given that she looked much more real. And not as adorable.
"Get. AWAY! FROM HER!!!!" She shouted, blasting the dragon with a beam of magic.
... the fucker didn't even flinch.
"Hi los nid wah zey, malkey." It said, completely having forgotten about me. Not that I was complaining, or anything.
"YOL..." And just a moment later, the same fire breath that had cooked the Cakes struck Twilight.
And it was just when I feared I was truly fucked now, it turned out that Twilight had survived thanks to some shield spell or whatever you'd call it. The dragon growled in irritation at this. But before it could say something, Twilight took to the sky.
... that was something I'd never unsee.
"Hi lorot lok los hin grah-zeymahzin? TOL ENGEIN WAH ZEY!!!" Right after uttering those words, the beast extended it wings and flapped, sending a nearly hurricane-wind speed wave into me, which forced me onto the ground.
And then, moments later, the dragon had left me, chasing after the princess. I didn't exactly sit there and wait for him to return.
I bolted, running towards where Yellow and the others had run... to pause at the charred forms of the Cakes. Any fur or clothing they had on them was gone, and their skin was almost as black as coal. Each of the four bodies was curled in some way, their blackened and charred expressions frozen into that of unbearable agony.
I wanted to have been able to give them a proper burial. I really did. But I had no idea how burials worked here in Equestria... and besides, I needed to get out of Ponyville myself. I'm... I'm sure they'd scour the ruins later to... to do that for the dead.
A terrifying roar from above later had sent me back on my run, following the roadway I last saw Yellow running. Of course, the streets weren't littered with only the remains of buildings. Charred pony corpses were strewn about here and there, largely closer to the houses. I had no idea how high the body count must have been... and neither did I want to think about it.
I continued running, finally getting past the point where buildings were on fire, which was essentially the end of town. Glancing around, there was no sign of anypony... or anyone around. Either that meant they had ran further... or... or...
No, of course it was the former. The dragon was preoccupied with Twilight anyways. She was a madmare. Did... did I really just say that? Yes, yes I did. Well, I guess that's technically correct. Yeah, she's a madmare. Didn't she see her magic didn't even make that thing flinch the second time? I mean, I know she had the Elements of Harmony and all, but... would they even get to use them? The dragon could probably interrupt their rainbow laser thing, right? Maybe? I dunno, perhaps I should have looked more into-
Quickly, I happened across a trio of ponies; an Earth Pony, Unicorn, and a Pegasus. The pegasus appeared to be wounded, but not critically.
"Hey, are you alright?" I asked, trotting up to them.
The Earth Pony, a stallion, turned his attention to me, and in his expression I could see the gears of his head turning as he processed everything that had happened.
"Duke, concentrate and help me here." The unicorn almost yelled, and within a second the stallion went and... held down medical bandages?
The unicorn's horn ignited and some of the medical bandages tore themselves free from the rest and wrapped around the site of one of the injuries, all the while the grounded pegasus clenched her teeth, obviously in some amount of pain.
"What happened?" I asked... well, anyone who could respond.
"We were headed here to stop for the night while on our way back to Canterlot. Scarlet Breeze here decided to charge that... weird-looking dragon. You can see how that turned out for her." She told me that while continuing to bandage Scarlet's wounds. She was good at multitasking, I'd give her that.
"Were you... were you one of the townsponies?" She asked, glancing up at me, briefly, before getting more bandages ready.
I didn't respond, instead looking back at the burning settlement known as Ponyville, thinking back to the horrid demise of the Cakes, and my near-death experience with the dragon. I shuddered at the memories.
"I'm... I'm terribly sorry." She said sincerely, though still focused on Scarlet.
"It's not your fault. Hey, would you happen to have seen a large group of ponies leaving Ponyville?"
"No..." I began to have a sickening feeling wash over me. What if Yellow and the kids hadn't made it? What about all those other ponies? Did... did the dragon get them? No, it couldn't have... it was chasing Twilight...
"The Elements lived here, didn't they? Did you see them at all?" The unicorn asked.
"Only one of them, and she saved my life by making the dragon pursue her." Wow. It now hit me. I was saved by a supposed-to-be fictional character that shouldn't even exist... wow.
She glanced over at Ponyville, and I knew that both she and I hoped that the Elements were ok. Seconds later, we saw something that could mean many things.
The dragon ascended the air above Ponyville, a distant roar echoing as it got higher. And then in a quick, sudden movement, it flew off in the exact opposite direction we were facing, getting smaller and smaller with each passing moment, until I could see it no more.
"I guess the Elements didn't defeat it." I muttered, and the unicorn sighed. I suppose there just wasn't much to say about something like that.
"Why," she asked nopony in particular, "why would that dragon do this? Just why?"
I looked at her, and back at the burning town, and then repeated this a few times before just lowering my head. "It's a dragon. It can do whatever it wants."
"The Princesses will be outraged. I look forward to seeing that motherbucker encased in stone."
"Ruby, despite recent events, could you contain that tongue of yours?" The stallion, Duke, who judging on his voice is probably a lot older than 'Ruby', scolded her.
"Yeah yeah. I kno-" She started.
"She's right to use that foul language," I interrupted, "I watched that dragon... I watched it burn an... an entire family right before my eyes. I..." I had to fight back an urge to cry, my eyes tearing up slightly at the horrific memory.
I had no problem watching the townspeople of Helgen die when I played Skyrim. I had no problem watching a farmer attack a dragon with a knife, only to be killed by being shaken in the dragon's powerful jaws and then flung into the walls of Whiterun. And I certainly had no problem watching a werewolf tear apart a group of men. But that was because that hadn't been real. This time, it had been real, and now there was a problem. A real problem.
As if waking up as a mare wasn't a big enough problem to deal with.
Suddenly, I found myself being hugged by the unico- ... by Ruby. My crying ceased, and I just stared at Duke, and then down at Scarlet, thinking that she literally stopped tending to her friend's wounds to hug me. A complete stranger.
"Um, shouldn't you be-" I started.
"I finished." She cut me off.
She released her embrace and faced me, and we just stared at each other for about half a second. Then she broke the silence.
"I'm Ruby Aurora," she introduced herself, "he's Duke Venture, and she's Scarlet Breeze." She pointed at the respective ponies. Oh crap, I gotta tell her I'm-
"I'm John." I said on instinct.
That should've been end game right there. That should've been the point where the three of them cocked their heads sideways and went 'what kind of a name is that?' There was just one reason why I hadn't accidentally told them I wasn't who I appeared to be.
That wasn't the name that left my mouth. 'Daisy Heart' was.
Ok, what the hell?! I can live with slipping up on someone, or anyone, or anybody, but slipping up on my own name?! That's problematic.
I know there's a ton of stories in the fandom that have this sort of thing. Character goes to Equestria, turns into pony, and then can't say their human name. But yet, I had said if just fine ye- wait. No, I didn't say it just fine. I nearly broke into a sweat. Or did I break into a sweat? Nevermind that. Apparently, I had to use effort to say my human name.
What?
"Good to officially meet you, Daisy Heart. I wish... we had met on more... positive circumstances." I almost didn't hear her. I had been quite busy pondering what my lack of natural ability to say my name could mean. Hopefully, it was a side effect of possessing this... Daisy Heart's body. Hopefully. I could possibly see the Princesses about that problem after the dragon is dealt with. If... it didn't go into hiding.
"Uh, yeah. Good to meet you... too." I said after a few moments of my earlier pondering.
"Look!" Duke suddenly shouted, pointing a hoof towards... Ponyville.
Ruby and I glanced over at the burning town, to find the Mane 6 walking towards us. And... they didn't look very happy. At all.
Pinkie Pie lacked the spring in her step. And her smile. And she looked around everywhere, as if looking for some... pony.
Applejack looked like she was out of breath, and it was then I saw she had Apple Bloom on her back. Big sister instincts probably kicked in, I guess. Other than that, she looked ok.
Rarity's mane was... oh God, it hurt to look at. It was all... messed up. I... I didn't see Sweetie Belle. I hoped that didn't mean... didn't mean she didn't make it. She also limped slightly as she walked.
Fluttershy... well... Fluttershy looked downright terrified. I don't really blame her. She also looked like she had taken a beating. Now that... that's a death sentence. Beating up Fluttershy. No one, and I mean, no one, beats up Fluttershy.
Rainbow Dash... she... she especially looked like... well... shit. She had some minor burn marks along her body and on her- oh shit, her wings were broken. I mean, they were literally bent in ways they shouldn't be. She kept one hoof off of the ground. The pained look on her face said it all.
And then there's Twilight. Her wings were ok, but that can't be said for the rest of her. She had more burn marks than all the ponies combined, and it appeared large chunks of her mane and tail were... singed off. Her horn was, to my surprise, untouched.
Ruby and I rushed over to their aid, and for a moment, the Mane 6 appeared relieved.
"It looks like... we distracted the dragon... for long enough to... save more ponies." Twilight said, gasping painfully with each few words.
"What happened to you girls?!" Ruby asked them.
"We fought it," Rainbow Dash winced as she spoke, "and all we accomplished was cause a distraction for it. If Applejack had... been there, we could've defeated it."
"How did it-" I started.
"I don't know. It... it hardly was affected by my magic... and it was immune to Fluttershy's stare. Not that she... got long to stare at its eyes. It... it launched her into a building with its breath! I've never heard of dragons using that kind of attack. It didn't even touch her! Rainbow Dash was knocked out of the air and sent into a burning building. Thankfully, the fire wasn't everywhere where she landed. Applejack had been at Sweet Apple Acres when it attacked. Pinkie Pie... she, well, even with her... abilities, the dragon just... I'm sorry, I need... we need to sit down." Twilight told us.
They walked a few feet further before plopping down onto the ground, groaning as they did. They must've been exhausted from that... precisely how anyone should be after fighting a dragon. I mean, come on, it's not like the dragon's gonna land so you can cut it to pieces with your sword. I'm talking to you, Bethesda!
"What are we gonna do now?" Ruby asked.
"Head to... Canterlot," Twilight said, "I'm sure the Princesses could help us..."
And then, as if almost on queue, sunbutt herself literally appeared out of nowhere, with her a rather large group of armored ponies.