The basement was dark, utterly and completely, save for the single ball of witch-light hovering around Twilight's skull. A sheer give away to her position, but she couldn't descend the shadow ridden staircase without it. It creaked and swayed with her steps, whining under her weight and threatening her if she stayed in one spot for to long. But she had to take it slow, or else she risked tumbling down the stairs and cracking her skull open on whatever was below her. Concrete, she assumed.
SHNNNNNK
Twilight froze, perking her ears and listening to the sounds in the darkness. Nothing moved. Nothing else made a noise. The horrifying sound faded into the darkness where it had come from: the corner. Nervously, Twilight continued down the stairs until she found the ground below, concrete, like she'd anticipated, only it was concrete soaked in gasoline. She reached up and rubbed at her eyes, feeling the burn from the fumes and whimpered.
"Pin-key?" she called out sheepishly and held her breath. She froze completely, listening to each and every sound the silence had to offer her.
"What?" whispered the gloom. Twilight snapped her head towards the sound of the voice .
SHNNNNNNK
Slowly, timidly, Twilight glided the hovering witch-light towards the source of the sound and bit back a scream. It Pinkie Pie, lounging quietly upon what looked to be several crates of fireworks and empty cans of gasoline. Her fur was ragged and in shambles and her mane glistened wetly. She had soaked herself in the foul smelling liquid, which neatly masked the other horrific scents she'd been awash in. She stared blearily ahead with on eye open, and at nothing in particular, but it was the object in her mouth that caught Twilight's attention. Something that forced tears to her eyes and to stop her in her tracks. A small box of matches. She opened it casually, and pulled out a little red stick which she held in her teeth. She planned to immolate herself. Was that what she meant be 'waking up'? Oh, Celestia, no. NO! She gripped the box firmly in her hooves, and drew the match across the strip.
SHNNNNNK
Twilight winced and squeezed her eyes shut, whimpering quietly. When nothing happened, and a fiery demise didn't engulf her, she cracked an eye open and trembled. The match stick had broken. Pinkie gave an annoyed little huff and tossed the snapped stick to the ground atop a small pile of others. Instantly Twilight's eyes flickered across the discarded matches and the box Pinkie was holding. If she had to guess, there were about ten sticks on the ground. How many were in the box? It was a small box. Maybe a full box of twenty or so? Which meant there would be ten left...
"Pin-key" Twilight whimpered.
SHNNNNNNK. Nine.
"What?" she snarled again, peering into the darkness. Twilight had the feeling she was not staring at her specifically, but perhaps just into the darkness itself. The mage cleared her throat and tried to dry her eyes, but her tears wouldn't stop. She was about to die. She could feel it.
"Heeeeey. Hey Pin-key...I found you. I found you... ish me. Twilight...Pin-key pleash put the matches down...Pin-key..." Twilight sobbed, reaching a hoof towards the pink pony. Pinkie glared at Twilight quietly before she shook her head with a groan.
"Nuh-uh. You're not Twilight. Twilight's...she's...she's inna house. She's fine. She's safe. You're jus' another hallucination. G'way. 'snot safe here," Pinkie grumbled, tugging another match from the box. Twilight flinched, watching in absolute terror as she brought the match to the strip.
SHHHHHHHHHHNK Eight.
"No, no, no, no, Pin-key, I'm ish me! I'm real! I'm real! Lishen, L-lishen to me! Pin-key, pleash! You gotta lishen! I'm shorry! I am sho shorry! I shouldn't have tried to put you to shleep! I shouldn't have done a lot of things, but what I should have done was lishen! I should have lishened to you, and I am sho shorry I didn't! You desherve a better friend than me, and I'm sho shorry!" Twilight cried, reaching up to wipe tears from her eyes again. Pinkie glared quietly, reaching down to tug out another match. Oh! Nonononononononono!!!
SHHHHHHHK Seven.
"I know, I know about the dreams! I mean the nightmares! T-the future! You're sheeing the future, right?!" Twilight squawked, her voice riddled with panic. Pinkie slowly plucked another match from the box, grumbling to herself.
"And you've been trying to save everypony, right?! You've been running around town, t-trying to help, and that's all you want to do, and it mush be killing you!! Lemme help, Pinkie, Lemme help, Oh, NONONO, CELESITA!!!" Twilight shrieked, watching as Pinkie struck another match along the strip.
SHHHHHHHHHK Six.
Twilight drew in a deep breath. Still alive. She was still alive. She reached up, rubbing her hooves over her face, trying to clear her tears again, before tossing Pinkie a pleading look. The pink pony wobbled where she sat, reached up, slapped a hoof across her face and groaned.
"You never believe in me. You never believed anything I had to say,"
"I schrewed up. I really did. I'm shorry! I wanna help you, I wanna fix thish! Pleash, Pin-key, it doeshn't have to be thish way! We can do shomething else! J-Just tell me why! WHY?! Why the fire?! W-what ish all thish?!" Twilight screamed. Pinkie plucked another match from the box. Ohnoohnoohnoohnoohnoohnoohnoohno!
"Building comes down," she groaned. Twilight's ears perked immediately and she glanced around the darkness.
"Building comes down?" she squeaked. Pinkie gave a weary nod and gestured towards the room.
"Always the same. Ponies show up for the Summer Sun Celebration. Building collapses. Everypony gets buried. Everypony dies," Pinkie mumbled. Twilight meekly nodded her head. OK. That made a broken kind of sense. Pinkie was trying to destroy the building before everypony else could be buried under rubble. That was a Pinkie thing to do. Sacrifice herself.
"W-well, maybe we could tell the mayor, or, or, or, we could keep the poniesh from gathering near the building! WE COULD PIN-KEY NO!!" Twilight shrieked, covering her head with both hooves as Pinkie struck another match against the strip.
SHHHHHHK Five.
"Naw. This is the only way. It's gotta be this way. Gotta be. I've seen it all," Pinkie whimpered. She let her gaze drift from the darkness towards Twilight and reached up to rub at her own eyes, sniffling quietly. "But I don't wanna do this...I'm scared, Twilight...I scared, and I jus wanna wake up. I don't wanna do this anymore," she sobbed, reaching for another match. Twilight nodded her head, watching helplessly as Pinkie drew the match down across the strip again.
SHHHHHHHK Four.
She was too tired to strike it properly, Twilight realized. It was the reason for the delay. The reason they were both still alive. Twilight swallowed and sat down, keeping her gaze leveled at Pinkie.
"I can help. I want to help. I'm here to help! LET ME HELP!! PLEASH! Pin-key, plesh! I'm begging you! I can save you, jush, jush let me! CELESTIA JUSH LET ME!!" Twilight shrieked in panic. She nearly jumped to her hooves and went racing for the stairs, but she swallowed the flight portion of the fight or flight response and remained where she was. Trembling, but stationary. "I'm sho sorry, I'm a terrible friend. I'm horrible, jush, let me make it up. Pleash, pleash, oh, pleash, let me make it up, I'm sho sorry," Twilight sobbed. Pinkie sniffled and rubbed her nose with a hoof, peering at the crying filly before her. She plucked another match from the box.
"How? How can you? You're not real and everypony's gonna die anyway," Pinkie grumbled. Twilight shook her head so hard she managed to topple herself over. The fumes and the dizziness combined was doing a number on her.
"NO! N-NO! Thatsh not true! I talked to Luna! S-she said she can help! W-with the dreamsh! She'll help! She'll help! I'll help!! Let ush help! I know what you're going though! I understand and I trush you, but I shwear it doeshn't need to be thish way! WE CAN CHANGE THINGSH! PIN-KEY PLEASH!!" Twilight shrieked, watching helplessly as Pinkie pulled the match to her teeth, and struck it along the strip.
SHHHHHHHK Three.
"Can't change anything. It's always the same, Twilight. It's always the same," Pinkie sobbed. Twilight shook her head again, reaching up from the floor towards her tortured friend. She had to save this pony. She had to.
"No! Pin-Key, lishen to me! Jus-jush put the maches down and lishen!! I...W-wait. It can't be. Thish can't be the same. Did you know I'd be here? You couldn't. If you knew I'd come down here you wouldn't have bothered trying to drug me! Y-You'd have known it wash pointlessh! Right?! It wouldn't have changed anything, since thatsh not the future you'd have wanted! Thish can't be what you shaw in your dream! You shaw ONE future where I tried to shtop you! And you changed it caush I'm not here to shtop you!! I'M NOT HERE TO SHTOP YOU PIN-KEY, I'M HERE TO HELP!" Twilight screamed as Pinkie brought the match down to the strip, but stopped before she could strike it. She tilted her curiously staring at the pony in front of her. The hallucination wasn't like the others. It was different. It was still screaming at her, yes, but not insisting that she do it.
"...Twilight? W-wait, no! Nonononono Twilight is that you?!" she squeaked, eyes widening in horror. That wasn't right! That wasn't right at all!
"Yesh!!" Twilight squealed. Pinkie immediately dropped the matches, and climbed to her hooves, dragging herself over towards the downed mare to try and help her up. She was real, not a hallucination!
"You can't BE here!! W-What are you doing here?!" Pinkie shrieked in alarm. Twilight shook her head weakly.
"I said I came to help you...W-We can't be here, you're right...We gotta...We gotta get out of here. I know I schrewed up, Pinkie. But, trush me, okay? I'm gonna sholve thish. We're gonna fish thish! Noponysh gonna get hurt. But we gotta leave firsh. Ish gonna be okay. I...I crosh my heart, hope to fly, sthick a cupcake in my eye," Twilight whimpered. Pinkie nervously glanced over towards the boxes and crates of leftover fireworks, the empty canisters of gasoline, and then back to Twilight. If she was wrong, everypony in town could die by the morning...but if she was right, it was possible that no one would have to die at all. If anything, at least Pinkie could still get Twilight somewhere safe before she 'woke' herself up. With a grunt, Pinkie used what little energy she had to heft Twilight to her hooves and slowly, the two of them made their way up the stairs.
"Ish gonna be okay, Pinkie...ish gonna be okay, I promise..." Twilight sputtered as Pinkie guided her through the darkness towards the door. Pinkie nodded her head quietly, grunting with each step of the way. Together, they trekked through the gasoline soaked corridors until the two of them had managed to make it out of the front doors of City Hall. Gently, Pinkie set Twilight down on the street and turned back towards the building, staring at it longingly.
"...I'm sorry, Twilight. Now they're you're safe, I have to finish my work. I've seen what happens. It's the only way," Pinkie whimpered. Twilight shook her head and to Pinkies complete and utter horror, held up the box of matches she had pilfered while Pinkie was carrying her.
"No, Pinkie, theresh another way," Twilight said. Pinkie could only watch, dumbfounded as Twilight opened the box and pulled a match free, and struck it against the strip with a tiny burst of flame. She held it aloft, making sure Pinkie could see it before she nodded her head and started backing away from the building, motioning for Pinkie to do the same. Pinkie stared in shock, but found her legs moving on their own, following Twilight's lead. She stopped when Twilight stopped and watched in silence as Twilight casually tossed the lit match into the building.
"But...Y-you...Twilight?" Pinkie sputtered in confusion. Twilight smiled weakly.
"I said I trush you. I said I was here to help, I said I'd save you," Twilight said, as the last of her energy faded away from her and she was drowned her in darkness. The fiery blaze of the Town Hall her last flickering memory of the night.