"I tried to do this with you, with all of you!" Chrysalis said. "So many ways, I tried to make it so we could be together. I've lived thousands of lifetimes. I've been Celestia, Luna and Twilight Sparkle."
"Even... Spitfire, Soarin and Derpy and... Prince Blueblood?" Rainbow Dash asked. "And if you were me, you better not have ruined my reputation in... whatever universe you're from."
"She's from MULTIPLE universeseses...ses..." Pinkie said. "Which means she's seen MULTIPLE PINKIE PIES! How many times have you been me?"
"Darlin, she's saying she's taken all our places at one time or another... and another," Applejack said. Apparently, she was able to make sense of this. "None of us were probably around."
"Because she... caught us?" Fluttershy asked.
"That would seem to be the case," Rarity said.
"Yeah, caught or worse," Spike added. And there we go, that's the Mane Six and Spike so you know they were there.
"I've seen you all grow and live and die, watched this world die too many times to see it happen again. This is the way it has to be... a second chance for all of us. A real second chance for me."
The Director turned back to the white portal. "Recognize this, Dan? It's the portal that took you here to Equestria. It doesn't lead back to Earth, though, no, it leads to another Equestria. Or rather, the past of this world."
"Time travel?" Dan asked. "But that'll only create a new Equestria! We're operating on multiverse rules, remember? Just like the last samurai guy said to Vice Grip on the moon!"
Without looking at him, she said, "Yes, and you believed that."
"Wh-WHAAAT?!!" More an accusation and exclamation than actual question did Dan yell.
"She's right, Dan," Twilight said. "Time magic, it's... it's possible."
"It's more than possible. It's the only way. For Equestria, for all of us to get a second chance, the old one has to be wiped away. I tried to do that so many ways..."
She was telling the truth. Possibly for the first time. She'd lived all their lives, tried diverting Equestria's path to something, anything except being destroyed by her own magic. The Director, Chrysalis was meant to destroy Equestria. It was her purpose. But, as with parasites, destroying the host means destroying the parasite as well. Chrysalis could change into any pony, but even with the magic absorbed from multiple Equestrias, could not change herself.
So, she found another version of herself that could.
"I was meant to destroy Equestria. And I did. Time and time again. I grew tired of it, grew tired of the silence, the agony, the loneliness. I tried to change things once... but I couldn't. I tried again. And again. And again. And again. And again... and I never could." She paced as she talked. Finally, she cast a longing gaze at Chrys, still held in stasis. With her hands, she touched the glass of the tank. "But she could."
"DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH HER!!" Dan shouted. "I don't care who... what you are!! I'll... I'll..." He was helpless, hanging in midair. Still, he threatened her. He did what he could.
"I know you will. I didn't expect you to fall in love with her. Of course, I didn't expect a lot of things."
"You tried to make this world into anything except what it was... the Fallout stuff, the Magic Gears, the underground labs, the... everything," Twilight said.
Chrysalis nodded. "I failed to change the course of this Equestria. I failed to make a new Equestria. I failed to get you to leave and find another planet of your own. So this... this is my last resort. You and I will go back to this world before it came to be... and prevent Equestria from ever happening."
"But how the heck would that work?" Pinkie asked. "If she erases Equestria, that means she'll be erased, too! And then she wouldn't be able to go back to erase Equestria because she'd already be erased, so Equestria would-"
"She predates Equestria! And Dan isn't from Equestria," Phoenix exclaimed. "If Equestria is erased, they'd be immune to changes in the timeline!" (I think. Time travel... is really complicated.)
Chrysalis nodded again. She activated a switch on the side of Chrys' tank and the glass lowered. She still hung in place, suspended by magic. The hum in the air grew faster, like the whirring of a great and unseen cosmic engine. Chrys was at the center of it.
"We have been separated for too long. The version of me, the part of me that wanted redemption... that could attain it, it is finally at hand."
"NO! NO!!" Dan shouted. He struggled, he wrenched himself, but the magic binding him was too strong. Even his unique relationship with magic offered him no resistance to multiple overlapping bonds of this magnitude. He slipped through one to be caught by another and still, he struggled. And he was actually inching closer a bit in the process. But he wouldn't make it in time.
Chrysalis turned back to him. "Chrys and I will be one, Dan. Like you. Chaos and harmony, right and wrong, light and darkness, living as one. And we'll be together. I always wanted both, you know. I wanted both... of us to be together." And she reached out to touch the hoof of her other self.
*BAM!!*
But she never would.
*BAM BAM BAM chik chik*
No one saw who fired. All eyes were on Chrysalis. Her hand took the first shot and her back took the second...and the third... and the fourth. She crumpled to the floor, clutching herself, bleeding red and green on the platform... two different and distinct types of blood, not quite human or changeling.
She took all four bullets. It was all Phoenix's gun had left in it.
"Nicky!!" Dan exclaimed. The magic binding Dan faded. As worried he was about Chrys, he had to thank his best friend for having the spine to do what was necessary. "You actually did it! I knew I trusted you with that gun for a reason!"
"Dan..."
Dan turned around. Phoenix, Twilight and all the others still hung in the air. The one who shot the Director was behind them, and he was still holding the gun. And when Dan saw, he could not believe his eyes.
The Director pulled herself up. Out of the shadows, he stepped into the light, and she saw him, for the first time and the last time, truly saw him.
"We have ALL. Fucking had. Enough. Of you," Rice said. The pistol clattered to the ground, empty.
"CHRYS!!" Dan ran to where Chrys was. And he got her down. "Chrys! Chrys, wake up! Wake up, it's Dan! It's us... it's all of us! C'mon..."
"Dan..." her eyes opened. And she smiled at him. "Where have you been?"
The machine exploded with lightning-like energy above them. Bright white lights, streaks of crackling, jagged magic or energy or both, a force that split the fabric of space and time to the core erupted in the darkness. The light it emitted illuminated next to nothing; it was absorbed almost as quickly as it was let out, like the flash of a camera.
Rice ran around the machine to the distortion. The ball of light was still formed, still draining magic from the surrounding area but it was swirling rapidly. Like a storm, it surged.
"It's unstable!" Rice shouted. He turned back to the machine. "I've got to reverse the energy flow!"
"Rice, let's get the hell out of here!!" Dan shouted.
But the answer was clear, clear as day. Rice shook his head. "It'll destroy... everything. I can reverse the energy to minimize the blast. You... you have to get everyone out."
"Bu... but what about..." Chrys was still too weak to ask the whole question.
"Get the hell out of here! NOW! Go!"
Dan had already started getting down the other ponies. Twilight and Phoenix were first, then the others. Rice went to work, trying to fix the machine. Finally, with the last of their friends saved, Dan helped Chrys down the corridor.
"Rice!" he shouted. He looked back at him and said, "...thank you."
"You earned this, Dan. At least one of us did," Rice said. "So don't waste it. Go."
For the first time, Dan actually listened to Rice. Imagine that.
To his part, Rice did not waste his second chance, either. His chance to do something right for Equestria, for ponies and for everyone. For the future. What was the future if not a second chance, an endless ocean on the horizon of the present sea of time, waiting just beyond for us to sail to it? A new tomorrow is a new world and ultimately, we all have a choice at the beginning of each day. How will we build that tomorrow? You can either dwell in the past, or get to work in the present. That's where the future is built, and where second chances come from.
Lights exploded again as Rice worked. Magic bubbled and crackled. The air was like a hot soup, like the broth of a potion, almost. The humidity in the air could be a vector for magic, something few ponies realized. Rice didn't pay attention to any of it; he'd ignored magic for most of his life, focusing on the practical functions of even the supernatural. He wasn't about to stop now.
He reconnected a circuit and flipped the switch down again.
All around him, the stasis pods of the changelings opened. By the dozens, the changelings immediately woke up and flew out, eager to escape the cave. They all flew out and down the corridor.
"Okay, yeah, that's right, don't any of you actually stop to help me. No no, I've got this all, go. Just be safe. Ungrateful little bastards," he grumbled. "Hey, one of you want to change into me and do this so I can escape? You get to be a hero!"
If the changelings heard or understood him, they did not say.
"Yeah, yeah, buzz off. Get out. You all owe me your lives, by the way. I better be remembered in the history books after this!" Rice yelled. For all the good it did; he was alone.
The departure of the changelings meant less magic flowed into the distortion but it was still unstable, still breaking down the world around them. At first, he thought he was making progress, but then he saw a stone levitating.
"Okay, yeah, that's not supposed to happen."
"None of this was." Almost alone; the Director, Chrysalis was still alive, somehow. "But it doesn't have to happen. Come with me. We'll escape this world together!"
"Damn it, lady, why can't you just stay dead?!"
"To be fair, I wasn't sure I was alive to begin with," she said. She lifted him into the air with her magic. For just a brief moment, she turned her hand around to see the blood on it, and smiled. "Now I am." It dripped from her hand down to the ground and stained the floor. It did not evaporate, it did not vanish, it did not disappear before it hit the ground. It remained.
She turned around. "I see... I see now. It makes sense."
"Let me down! Yes, you exist, now let me stop this thing or it'll kill us all!"
But she wasn't listening. "This is where it started for me and her. For all of us. Right here..." she turned around to him again. "We could remake things together. You and I... we could ha-"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!" Dan charged in. He tackled Chrysalis to the ground and the pair of them tumbled across the platform.
"Dan!"
"I FORGOT THAT I STILL HAVE TO GET REVENGE ON SOMEBODY!!" He pulled her up by her shoulders. "And you'll do!"
"You... you're making a mistake! We could make this place better! We could really change the world for once!" She reached for the portal. "We could have it... both ways."
Dan took her by the neck. "I never wanted it both ways." And he charged the machine. "I wanted it MY way!"
"NO!!"
Dan slammed her into the stasis capsule. She crashed through the glass and the machine exploded.
"I guess it's true what they say. The system is broke," Dan said. With that, the machine exploded again. Large and imposing, it was connected to the other stasis pods and the ceiling. Literally, the machine that had been holding Chrys was connected to Equestria AND the changelings. Now, it was falling apart.
"It's working! The field is reversing!" Rice shouted. Behind him, the distortion swirled rapidly. It was turning into a vortex. Wind whipped around them and tugged at his coat and Dan's shirt.
"Let's get out of here!"
Dan ran around the machine, Rice followed. And Rice was almost halfway around the machine when it finally collapsed.
"Gaah!"
The machine exploded and the roof caved in. Rubble blocked the path, nearly choking the cave.
"Rice!" Again, Dan went back for Rice. He climbed over the debris and had to shield his eyes; the brightness from the magical vortex was nearly blinding.
"Rice, come on!"
Rice had been knocked down. Debris from the machine pinned his boots. He pulled his legs out of them.
"Give me your hand!!"
Dazed but coming to, he reached out. He grabbed Dan's hand, but just as he did, the vortex began pulling them both harder. Dan grabbed his gauntlet with both hands.
"The spell, it's too strong!" Rice shouted. He looked back, and then he looked up at Dan.
"Give me your other hand, come on!!"
He swung the other gauntlet... but it was no use. The pull was already too strong. Even now, Dan was being yanked forward.
"If you stay here, you'll get pulled in, too."
"Don't talk like that!"
"...Good bye, Dan." Rice unlatched his hoof from the gauntlet. And he was pulled in to the vortex.
"NO!!"
Dan reached out and grabbed his hoof. He pulled Rice close to him.
"You stubborn asshole!"
"That's JERK. Just say jerk, it's a lot easier!"
The gauntlet was pulled into the vortex. It vanished.
"We can't escape now! Great going," Rice said.
Dan turned around. "Fine... fine," he said. "Then we do this my way."
"What are you-"
"We go out with a bang!!" Dan took Rice and ran to the vortex. It pulled them both in.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!"
The magical distortion sucked both of them in. The pair vanished, and so did the distortion. Around it, the room collapsed, rocks, machines and all.