She was alone. The only sound was the crackling of the fire as it burned. The smoke rose up to her nostrils threatening to suffocate her. She looked around the deserted hall of Canterlot Castle. Everypony had escaped. Everypony except her. She heard a crash as part of the doorway into the hall collapsed. Ash lay on the floor in heaps of white flakes. It only reminded her of her imminent death.
"But does it have to be this way?" She heard the voice from behind her. She turned to see a gray colt leaning against the wall. He had a skull for a cutie mark and huge wings. She stared at him for a few moments. She took notice of the skull cutie mark and his fiery red mane and tail. Then she finally asked: "Who are you?" The colt looked at her with an expressionless face.
"I'm the pegasus of death"
Twilight stood across from the gray pegasus staring at him.
"Why are you here?" She asked, even though she knew exactly why.
"Because you believe that it's your time." He walked towards Twilight slowly "You could still walk out of here. You could get out of this building. You could run out into the sun, away from all of this. So why haven't you?"
"What's the point?" Twilight asked. The gray colt smiled.
"The point is that there are people that love you. Would you really let all of that go?"
"But everypony dies. Everypony is forgotten. Nopony loves me." Tears began to form in the lavender mare's eyes. The pegasus walked closer towards Twilight and lifted her head.
"Your family does, Princess Celestia does and most of all your friends do."
Outside the building a crowd of ponies were gathered looking up at the once beautiful castle that stood before them, engulfed in red and orange flames. There were medical ponies taking care of some of the ponies who had been injured in the fire. Everypony had escaped, but not everypony survived afterwards. Even ponies who hadn't been in the building had died from falling shrapnel. Nopony knew who, or what, had caused the fire. All they knew was that there was only one pony who hadn't escaped. Five ponies were at the very front shouting the ponies name. But their shouts were lost, drowned out by the sound of everypony behind them.
Twilight looked towards the window.
"If you went now you could escape." The pegasus told her
"But do I want to?" Twilight replied looking back towards the gray colt "If any of them loved me they would be shouting my name. If Princess Celestia loved me she'd be in here right now trying to comfort me. But they aren't. Nopony is here." The pegasus of death looked at Twilight sadly.
"You've lost the will to live. You won't leave this building because you want to die. You think nopony cares about you. That all your friends have abandoned you. I can show you that they haven't." Twilight looked up at the colt.
"You could?" The pegasus nodded. "Show me." There was a flash of light and they appeared outside of the castle. Twilight turned to the colt.
"We aren't outside of the building. This is just our consciences." Twilight could hear familiar voices shouting her name. She turned to look. Stood there were all five of her friends looking up at the castle shouting for her. She looked back at the pegasus.
"They do care about me."
"You have to get out of the building. Fast." The pegasus said. They were back in the castle and she had a small smile planted on her face. "This building is going to collapse soon. If you don't get out you'll be killed. The building will fall and you'll be crushed by the rubble." Twilight's horn began to glow. "There's no time for magic! Just run!" She turned and began to run out of the burning hall jumping over the remains of the collapsed doorway. She began running down the stairs. She could tell they were close to collapsing so she had to be careful. She jumped over the stair barrier and landed on the marble floor. She began to run towards the exit when she heard a snap. She looked up to see the roof slowly falling apart. There was a crash as a piece of rubble landed in front of her. She turned and began to run to find another exit. She could hear the crackling of fire coming from where she had ran from. Suddenly there was a bang. The whole castle began to fall downwards. There was a flash of light and then...nothing.
~Aftermath~
Twilight's eyes flickered open. Her friends were looking down at her crying. Fluttershy squealed when she saw Twilight's open eyes. She hugged her tightly.
"Twilight! You're okay!" Everypony joined in with the hugging. When they had stopped Twilight smiled at them all.
"How did you survive?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"I teleported out. Even though somepony told me not to use magic. It was the only way." Twilight glanced to her side where the pegasus of death stood smiling. "I was weak from inhaling the smoke so when I did the teleportation spell I collapsed from exhaustion. Since I've never had to teleport that far before it drained a lot more energy than I expected."
"All that matters is that you're okay." Twilight turned around to see Princess Celestia standing there smiling at her.
"What happened?" Twilight asked. "How did the fire start?"
"The castle was attacked. You were knocked out by the attack and must have lost all memory of what happened." Celestia replied. Twilight turned to her friends and smiled.
"I think it's time we leave." She said urgently.
"What's wrong?" Fluttershy asked. Twilight stopped and looked at her.
"We have a fight to win." She turned and began walking towards Ponyville. "And I think I know who we're fighting against."
The creature laughed as it watched the six ponies ran towards Ponyville.
"Oh, Twilight," The creature said, chuckling. "Do you really think you can defeat me?" He looked at the five necklaces and the single tiara he held in his hand. "Good luck trying to find these."
