//------------------------------//
// Omnincompetence Part 4 
// Story: Dan Vs. The Magic of Friendship(Season 1) 
// by Barrobroadcaster 
//------------------------------//

Equestria
Midsummer Night Castle

*Bing!* The elevator doors opened revealing Dan in his classically-disgruntled pose. Right next to him was Chrys, who looked pretty much the same but as a bug horse. Pinkie Pie was on Dan's other side, imitating him, much to his mild annoyance. She'd been back all of five minutes-

"Um, more like fifteen or twenty, actually. But I kinda lost track myself, what with the war between the evil ponies and the nazi humans and the evil lookalikes, and does time work the same way between universes? Universi? If time is universal, does that mean it's not multi-versal? Or is time really the multiverse and the universies are just-GLLGHH! ERRRG! EEEP!"

Dan strangled her, proving once and for all that he could counter Pinkie's Pinkie-ness. Everyone, say "thank you" to Dan.

Audience: Thanks, Dan.

"My pleasure. My EXTREME pleasure," Dan said, squeezing and shaking Pinkie, causing her head to rattle about and make the sound of a single marble clanging on the inside of a tin can. The rest of them filed out, knowing it was better not to interrupt Dan during his important uh... physical therapy interventions.

"C'mon, y'all. Let's get back to Twi and the others," AJ said, prying Dan off Pinkie.

Chrys smiled. "It's nice to have you both back. I'm sure Twilight, Rainbow and Fluttershy will be glad to see you."

"Err-hemmm! And what about us?" Discord and Firedance said, both poking their heads out of the looting sack and frowning.

"It's nice to have you ALL back," Chrys clarified, patting FD on his fiery head.

The east-side corridor was largely the same as it was when they first used the elevator. Except they were in the west-side corridor now, for some reason.

"How certain are we that this is the... correct universe?" Khan asked, looking around.

Dan sniffed the air. "Smells like our universe." He licked two fingers, held them up in the air. There was no wind. Finally, Dan held up a set of tuning forks and donged them together, then held them up to his ears to listen. The sound was a simple reverberation, but being the real Equestria, it carried an undertone of happiness, harmony and love, like a hint of honey in the aspects of every little thing. Equestria was like that; its unique space-time fabric was slightly softer, warmer, sweeter and more inviting than the average universe.

Dan nodded. "Yep, this is our place."

*Bing!* Another elevator opened up on the opposite side. The gang turned to find it already occupied, but not by anyone they already knew. Sort of.

The doors opened to reveal the gender-swapped or Rule Sixty-Three versions of pretty much the entire main cast. Dan stared back at his double, his girlfriend's double, a female version of Captain America, Khan, Discord, Applejack, Pinkie, the background Cylon, Firedance, Discord and even Twilight Sparkle and Phoenix, despite that they weren't among them.

Finally, guy Dan spoke. "Is Vice Grip a chick in your dimension?"

"Do you mean Vie Grid?" 

"Idiot horse in labcoat, claims to be scientist, builds machines, wants to blow up Earth-"

"Yeah," Nad nodded gruffly. "We got one of those."

"Called it," Dan said. The other human hit a button on the elevator and the doors closed again.

Firedance walked up to the double doors. "I've seen things like this before."

"Where?" Cap asked.

"The Crystal Empire," Firedance said.

"Yes, some of the castles have artifacts that link them to different versions of Equestria. Mirrors, doorways... elevators, it seems," Chrys explained. "All connecting them together."

"Who would bother building all these links between different universes? And all the same place, too. Equestria," Applejack asked.

"Someone looking for the right universe, maybe," Cap suggested. "Maybe the one they belonged in. Or that they came from."

Dan shook his head. "No. It's simpler than that," he said. He kicked one of the elevator doors. "This is a service elevator for maintenance and construction. I used to use them when I did construction work on Earth. It's for surveyors," Dan said. "Whoever used this was building something."

"Oooooh..." Pinkie remarked, eyes-wide. "Oooooh... Ooooooh! Maybe the Fausticorn used these!"

"Like a foreman overseeing the work on a construction project," Discord said. "But why so many? Why so many different kinds?" Discord hit the button on the side again and again. Every time he did, the doors opened revealing a different universe. Both comical and mystical, some of the worlds were unaware of Discord and the others observing them... while others on the other side were doing the exact same thing. More than a few looked right back.

Dan grabbed Discord's paw. "Stop messing with the multivator. It's not a t.v set."

Discord shrugged. "Could've fooled me." Dan dragged him off and the others followed him.

They reached the entrance to the foyer, but were blocked by an energy shield spawned by Trixie's horn. And a horde of possessed ponies and griffons trying to smash and claw their way through it. The others hesitated, but Dan just kept walking towards them.

"Excuse me. Excuse me, sorry. Coming through! Make a space! Tryin' to get by, here." He shouldered his way past the possessed ponies politely. "Trixie! Can you make a space, please? In the shield? So we can get by?"

Trixie looked exhausted, but complied. She pulled back the shield like a soft show curtain, because show mare, and allowed Dan and friends through.

"Wait! Stop!" Dan said, spinning around. "What do you think you're trying to do?"

The possessed pony shrugged. "I was just following you guys."

"No, no, I don't think so. You're still evil. Go back there with the others."

"Awww..." Dan shoved the stallion back past the shield. The stallion in question, a pegasus named Smooth Move, was the owner of a smoothie truck that operated in Cloudsdale's industrial district. "Are we still on for volleyball when we're done here?"

"When you're not evil, buddy."

"Alright, unless I get ya before then! Watch out!"

"Not gonna happen, Smooth. Not gonna happen," Dan said. Magical possession was a lot like the brainwashing Lighting Claw suffered. It was random and prone to failure. Smooth actually wasn't evil or possessed at the moment, but was too much of a dope to not realize it. So he continued biting on Trixie's shield with his teeth, making no progress but somehow given his breath a cool, minty freshness.

Reaching the middle of the foyer, he saw Vinyl, Tavi and the CMC setting up a makeshift stage of some kind. The three Magic Gear fillies were apparently hooked into the Bass Cannon and a trio of amplifiers. A super-sized Fluffle Puff was stuck to the ceiling, with sea ponies apparently stuck throughout her fluff.

"...Have you even READ anything from Earth?"

"You're seriously asking ME that question?"

"In the Bible, the Earth's population is washed away by a flood. Noah built an ark to-"

"I KNOW about Noah's Ark, Cleo," Twilight said, both her wings flaring in anger. Full-on princess rage mode activated. "I don't remember the part where Noah tried to blow up another planet in the process with nuclear horns!"

"How can you be so naive as to think that's not an option?!"

"How can YOU be so stupid as to think it's the ONLY option?!!"

Dan walked past Twilight and the Director, who were apparently engaged in a pointless argument. He felt mixed feelings, watching Twilight bicker with the main antagonist and the final boss. He could lunge at the Director, but she'd probably stop time or do some other weird thing and get away. Chrys was the only one who looked genuinely surprised to see the Director, but even that quickly faded.

Power and freedom... the relationship between the two was fire and ice. Twilight's own powers were nearing god-like potentials and yet, the more she could do, the more confined she felt. More power meant her abilities affected things on larger and larger scales, meaning it was harder to prevent those she cared about from feeling their effects. In a way, Twilight and the Director were very much alike. Almost too alike.

Even Dan was feeling this sentiment. The Director was right there, he could possibly grab her, smash her head into the desk she was sitting at, end all this right now. But it probably wouldn't work. Also, it would've been rude to interrupt her and Twilight. He was a gentleman. If it had been Vice Grip, he probably would've tried to pummel the science pone regardless. Cleo was kind of an omni-incompetent dork, but Vice Grip was a smug know-it-all know-nothing-in-reality prick. And this story only had room for one jerk.

He found a Blast Fuse nearby and decided to sit on her, holding his head in his hands. Her sister walked up to him.

"Hey Powdy."

"Hey Dan."

"You finish setting up bombs all over this place?"

She nodded. "Yep. You doing okay?"

"Yeah... I guess. Kinda worried about Nicky."

"Hi Dan!" Fusey exclaimed. She wobbled. "I'm a rocking horse pony!"

"Why isn't he with you?"

"He stayed behind to rescue... someone else," Dan said. "We went to an alternate universe, got abducted by nazi horses, found Pinkie and AJ and FD, but Nicky wanted to rescue the evil Twilight." He sighed heavily. "I could've gone back after him but... I wanted to get Pinkie and AJ to safety, first."

"Well, you did that," Powdy said.

"I just... it sucks that you can't be in two places at once, you know?"

Powdy nodded. "I know how you feel. I usually try to stick with Fusey, considering she's... well, you know."

"I'm unstable!"

"Yeah, that," Powdy said. "But you have to trust the magic friendship. You have to trust that the bond will-"

Dan suddenly got up.

"Wait, where are you going?"

"I don't trust that magic alone is going to save Nicky. I'm going to go get him. That's the problem with you guys here, you just..." He looked around. "You put too much faith in... blind faith! Whatever that even means. It's PEOPLE, it's US that gets the job done and whatever the heck magic is, it helps that. That's how it works," Dan declared.

For the briefest moment, Blast Powder felt like Twilight, the Director and Dan were all the same person. Chrys continued watching Twilight and Cleo bicker... powerless to stop it.

"I'm going back to the mirror universe for Nicky," Dan announced to everyone in the hall. "Anybody want anything?"

"Thpppp! Thppp-thppp thpppp thppppppppp!" Fluffle Beetus, hanging from the ceiling, gesticulated helplessly. BRING BACK MORE OF THEIR HAM.

"Trixie would like a peanut butter and pickle sandwich. Without the crust." Dan stared at Trixie for a long, disgusted moment. "ON PUMPERNICKEL BREAD!"

Dan took off Trixie's hat and somehow turned it into a megaphone. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. No, you idiot, no." He yelled and then handed it back to her. He then picked up Chrys off the floor and carried her back with him to the hallway.