The train car slid to a stop high on one of the cliffs. Whether it had been planned or whether it was just a coincidence, Dan didn't care. He pried himself off the back wall and stumbled his way to the entrance, bracing himself on the doorway.
Then, triumphantly and courageously, Dan declared, "I wanna go home... I just wanna... oh gawd, I'm gonna throw up."
And he would've thrown up right then and there. But the emergency air bags in the train car deployed and smashed him right back down to the floor again.
"Aulgh..." That was a noise he was making all too often lately. He tasted blood in his mouth and a little vomit. Good thing he hadn't eaten that much today. Wait, "Mmm-BLAAAGGGCK!" There was the vomit.
He looked left and right, then all around him. He had no idea where he was. He was NOT getting back on that train for anyone or anything(foreshadowing! Yeah I'm gonna make it obvious, don't worry.) In fact, he edged his way away from the train, slowly returning his body to a state where it could balance on two legs again.
"You came!" The Director said.
"You-mm, mm-blaaaugh!" He started to say, well, something and then blew chunks again.
Cleo only looked slightly disappointed for a second, an apologetic, unnerved twinge to her smile crept in before she was back to contentment. This was an important moment. For both of them.
"It-it really wouldn't be right if it wasn't you, would it?" she asked. "You've always done things your own way, even when they were what others wanted for you."
"Where..." He steadied himself, hands above his knees, bracing. "Where... is..."
She almost had to catch herself, feeling the breath catch in her throat. Which would he choose? It was only one or the other, they both knew that. She knew that, he knew that, she felt it, HE had to feel it. This was it, the big decision. Love or revenge. Love or revenge. Love or revenge? Which would it be? She almost couldn't say anything.
"Yes?" Chrys said. "Where is who?"
"Where is...." he looked around. "Where is everybody? Where the hell are we?"
"NO!" She roared. She swept him up with a rush of magic, an icy wind-like burst of energy that manifested into a claw wrapped around his neck in an instant. "NO! No, you are NOT going to weasel your way out of this?"
"Bblll," he made some sort of inaudible noise. Dan clawed at her grip, piercing the magic, forcing her to release him. He slipped through her grasp. Magic couldn't hold him for very long, no spell could. It obeyed his will, or at least, it couldn't ignore it. Or maybe it was something else entirely.
She turned, spinning around and grasping her hand. It burned, but the burn quickly turned to an icy one. Her form was still unstable.
"What... what d... do you want from me?" Dan asked. Again, he got up and steadied himself. "No don- don't tell me. I don't... care. I don't."
"What do you care about then? Why are you here?"
"You know why I'm-"
"NO I DON'T!!" Cleo yelled. "You weren't summoned! You weren't brought here on a whim! The cosmic forces didn't align and in most, if not EVERY other version of Equestria, you die inside of two months on this world, usually from your own stupidity! For buck's sake, you almost died from a piece of cheese!"
Dan squinted. "Hey, lactose intolerance is a very serious condition. I have glandular issues, too-"
"I know," she spun again. She got right up into his face. "I know EVERYTHING there is to know about you. But what I don't know is what you want. Why you're here, right here, right now. So tell me," she gripped him by his shoulders. "Who did you come here for? Was it for Chrys... or for Vice Grip?"
Dan looked at her, the deranged fangirl holding him. It was too easy to say it. "Both." And he knew it would piss her off, which was just another reason to do it.
She looked down again, not letting go. Not letting him get to her and asked again, "Which one? Who?"
"I can be here for more than one thing. I can be here because I want both."
She looked up at him again and said, "So do I."
"She wants both."
"You want Chrys AND Vice Grip? Why? You have issues, lady. You wanted us all to be part of your little collection, you wanted us to be protected, but you can't protect us. Not from yourself, not from anybody else! Not against our own will."
"Everything I've done has been to protect you from your own will. I've seen Equestria crumble away to dust enough times to know what's going to happen!"
"NO!" Dan shouted back. "NO you don't. You may THINK you know, but like a band on tour, they play the same songs but they never play them the exact same way. Sometimes the singer's off-key, sometimes the bass amp isn't plugged in properly, sometimes the roadie trips on the cord backstage. It's never the same show twice, but you?" He pointed at her. "You're a broken record. And we're tired of listening to you."
"The only reason you've survived this long is because of me!" Cleo said. "I protected you! How many things have gone just right for you? How many times have you been beaten, battered, poisoned, why do you think your rage gives you strength? Because I ordained it to be that way, Dan! I AM Equestria, and I AM its magic! What do you think protected your train car on your way here? Dumb luck?!"
"YES!!" Dan said back. "Wait... ALL THAT WAS YOU? Okay, I'm calling bullshit."
She cupped her hands, looked down. "It's not something I can help, either. I love you... I always have. My heart and Equestria are linked. The experiments in the Crystal Empire with the Crystal Heart, they were an effort to see if I could be separated from Equestria. But... I can't. No more than anyone else."
"What the hell is it you're saying?" Dan asked. "If you're... linked than why in the HELL ARE YOU FIGHTING US!?"
"Because you're not supposed to be here!! NONE OF YOU ARE!!!" She roared. "You think you're the only one who fell through the sky and wound up here of all places?"
"What- is this about Nicky? Nicky was summoned-"
"It's not just Phoenix, you idiot!" She shouted. "You think just because Twilight went through one mirror one way, she came back to the same place? NO. She..."
Dan lowered his hands. "What the hell is it you're saying?" He asked, more seriously this time. More... calmly.
"You weren't summoned here, Dan," Twilight said. "But everyone else was. This Equestria was dead, Dan. Everypony and every person in it is from another Equestria. I summoned them here myself."
Dan stopped, just breathed. "This... everybody? But..." And then he asked something he knew he'd regret. "But why?"
She turned to him. "I told you already: I destroyed Equestria. And I'm meant to destroy it. I looked for alternatives, for ways to stall it... but instead, the answer came to me. You. But I'm still a pony. And I can't ignore my role in things any more than this universe can ignore you. I'm meant to destroy this place. So either you... all of you have to go... or I do."
Dan didn't know what to think. He felt like throwing up again, but didn't. "The only thing keeping us apart right now is you, lady. It's YOU."
She nodded. "You're absolutely right. So I have to ask, again, are you here for Chrys or for Vice?"
He swallowed. "That depends. Wh..." He knew what was coming. He felt it. He didn't want to, but he felt it. "Which one have I found?"
"Heh... well, would it be funny if I said both?" She pulled back her hood. "Because I'm neither."
And underneath was a face Dan had seen before. He felt his heart stop.
It was Twilight Sparkle.
"Surprised?" She asked. Was it his Twilight? Was it partly his Twilight? Was there another Twilight he didn't know about? Was... was it...
The room was spinning. And he wasn't even in a room.
She pulled back the hood all the way. "I'm sorry it had to be this way. But, to be fair, you did say you wanted to be involved. And I did give you a roof over your head. Evicted from your apartment, friends abandoning you... and everything that happened with Ted. Did you really have a choice other than to come here? You needed a fresh start. And you got one."
Dan couldn't speak. It's long his tongue and voice box were frozen, like a hand gripped around his neck. He raised his own hand, finger shaking, and pointed at her.
"Did you really have much of a life before coming here? Much of anything?"
"Auh... ahll..."
She nodded. "You're very lucky. Remember this book?" She held up a tome with a black cover. "It's actually Lyra's. She's why you're here, you know? She just summons humans because, well, she likes humans. But she's not the best at summoning spells, so they just end up falling out of the sky sometimes. Like you did."
The title on the book read: A R C A N E A P O L O G Y. But Twilight, with a simple wave of her withered wrist, wiped away the shadows that protected the book's true title. And underneath, it read:
ANTHROPOLOGY 101
It was nothing more than a textbook.
"A lot of times, the truth is simple, but rarely satisfying. So no, I'm not who you came here for," Twilight said. "But I am going to give them to you. Are you ready?"
"Ah... Twi..."
She smiled. "I have to get going. But for the record... I'm rooting for you. As always."
The ground parted under Dan. A dark tunnel opened up and he slid down it, down into a shaft that ran deep into the mountain. He had entered Prosperity at last. He did not scream. All the way down, he didn't scream, didn't vomit, didn't make a noise.
In his mind, all he thought of was one thing. One pony. His friend.
"Twilight..."