After returning for the fifth time I was expecting the group hug to come. Except that it didn't. By the time I could see again I found the reason why. The Doctor had returned and was conversing with everyone. I was a bit surprised that no one noticed us return, but they did after I fake coughed to get their attention.
"You're back!" Twilight exclaimed before ending her discussion and teleporting over to Rainbow Dash.
The others soon followed suit and left the Doctor alone to go reunite with their friend. I simply walked past them. The Doctor was back and I had no idea why he left in the first place. I kind of wanted to know why.
"Hey there Doc. Where've you been?"
"In case you thought differently you should know that the universe does have other problems that need my attention to deal with."
"Yeah, don't worry. I can understand that. Feels kind of... ehhh... but I get it. What was it by the way?"
"It's better if you don't know. I mean that. If you knew then there's no telling the damage that could be done."
"And that is all I need to know to not ask about it again," I said pointing at him.
"Right! Well, I was filled in a little about what's happening so far. It seems you only have one rift left to seal. Good, good job. Jolly good."
"Yep. I kind of wish I could stick around in this last one for a while. There's a whole lot of people there I would just love to just... be around."
"Well if there isn't any immediate danger," Twilight stated into our conversation leading the group of ponies back to the two of us, "we could see how they're doing before we leave."
"Visiting some people I barely know- er, I mean in a face to face manner, would be rather... What's the word I'm looking for?"
"Intrusive."
"Thanks Rarity. Intrusive is what I mean. I'm pretty sure when none of you had any memories of me that you weren't exactly happy to have me around. Except maybe Pinkie Pie. She's always happy to meet new people."
"Or anyone else for that matter!" she cried happily.
"Exactly. You were around him for a bit so he probably won't mind you, but it's quite different for me."
"From the short time I was there I got the distinct impression that he would be very welcoming to pretty much anypony. Especially if you can create a bunch of food out of thin air."
Holy shit. She was right. If I cut down on their food bill then there was a chance that Chi Chi might have me move in out of gratitude.
"This trip is suddenly looking up. Still when we left there was a whole mess of things going on. The situation might be pretty bad over there."
"That's why I said we would if there wasn't any immediate danger. Don't worry Seth. I'm going to make sure nothing goes wrong."
Ah fuck. I need to distance myself from this bad juju pronto. I just didn't know how. I think I might be doomed.
"Well, we won't know until we head out. Let's finish this up Twilight."
"Yes. Let's do it!"
"You can do it Twilight!"
"We're all behind ya!"
"Thank you everyone. We'll be back soon."
"And then I can throw a party!"
"And I'll have a song ready for that when we get back."
"Really? What is it?"
"You'll find out when I get back."
"Well hurry up! I wanna hear the song!"
While saying that Pinkie pushed the two of us towards the rift. It showed off just how strong she was that our feet stayed planted the whole time. It was probably a result of gag humor but either way it worked out it was still impressive. It also got us to our destination in a fun way.
"Ready Twilight?"
"Ready!"
I held out my hand to which she placed her hoof in it. I then reached out with my other hand and touched the rift. Like always a bright light filled my vision before fading away after a short time. When it cleared I looked at the place we were in with a bit of hope. However we were greeted with almost a carbon copy of the place we just left from. Other than a few spires it was a flat, slightly rocky place with a few patches of grass here and there. I let out a huff of air and pulled Eris out to get my bearings.
"Which way?"
"That way," I responded while pointing the way Eris indicated.
"Well then, let's get moving."
"Yeah, if we have to walk then it is going to take forever."
"Well what do you suggest then?"
"I thought you'd never ask," I grinned as I snapped my fingers.
Appearing in front of me was a Ford Mustang convertible. The car was metallic blue with a white horseshoe on the hood just like I had always wanted. It had the top down too because I was no longer in any danger of burning to a crisp in twenty minutes thanks to the reinforcement spell I had applied. I did instinctively change out the shocks because of the terrain. After all, I had no idea how long I was going to be driving or if what we would be driving on would change.
"This looks slightly different that the one you and Rainbow Dash rode in."
"That's because there are tens of thousands of variations of these. This one in particular is a Ford Mustang. I could get into the differences, but we need to get started on our way to the rift. Hop into the pass- I mean the seat in the front on the right."
Twilight did as instructed and jumped into the passenger's seat. I got into the driver's seat the old fashioned way and started it up. Thankfully she wasn't startled by the engine turning over this time. I switched into drive and we were on our merry way. Well... after I buckled up and turned on the radio of course. That was actually kind of amusing to me. Watching Twilight firstly because she attempted to do so without using magic at first. When it tightened and she flipped over onto her face she then operated it with her magic. The other thing was when I turned on the radio. I honestly forgot that it wasn't tuned into the usual rock station I listened to so when it came on we were buffeted with a very loud opera man's voice. We both jumped at that as I quickly turned the volume down. After a shared giggle I tried finding a station to listen to. That failed so I just made a playlist and put it into the speaker system.
The next twenty minutes were pretty uneventful. I kept the music low enough that we could talk which Twilight spent asking about the place we were in. I told her that this place was called 'A Story Can't Write Itself' by The Coltist. It was a crossover story that had only gone three chapters but I knew that this was it since it had a passing mention of Twilight in a chapter while still having most of the characters that had shown up when I was there. Here for certain I knew of five sources: Dragonball Z, Bleach, Yu Yu Hakusho, One Piece, and Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha. If I added in Twilight Sparkle due to my interference then that made it a My Little Pony crossover as well giving it six source materials to work with. It showed that as well. The pacing was bad and the character juggling was spotty. It had some good humor but was not very good when describing fighting scenes.
I was getting into the different series that made up this fanfiction when I noted that a decently sized ship had started to fly alongside us. Yes, you heard me right. A ship about the size of a few one story houses was gliding along the ground parallel to our movement. That was a conversation stopper. Twilight had just gotten a look at it as well when it pulled ahead of us and caused me to slow down and stop the car. The ship looped back around and landed about twenty feet ahead of us. I decided to exit the vehicle while letting the engine idle in case we needed to leave. I wasn't sure how that would work, but I think I just didn't want to poof it away yet.
After the two of us had exited the vehicle a ramp came down on the ship. A brunette walked down and looked at the two of us. I only needed a moment to place her. It was Nanoha Takamachi from Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha; specifically the Strikers version of her. She looked at Twilight for a moment and then looked at me and smiled a very wide smile.
"Commander Seth!"
I didn't even have time to process what she had said before she, I kid you not, ran over and glomped me. I had never, ever been glomped before. She smelled really nice. It all happened so fast that I couldn't process the events quickly enough to respond to her.
"Where did you go this time? Did you bring along your friend to help out or did you just bring her along to meet us?
"...Bwha?"
"Are you always this articulate?" Twilight bemused.
"Oh my gosh she can talk!" Nanoha squealed and let go of me to look at Twilight. "You're so adorable! My name is Nanoha. What's yours?"
"Greetings! My name is Twilight Sparkle. It's a pleasure to me you."
Nanoha's bright and cheery mood slowly drained away and in it's place was a more shocked expression. Her gaze then turned to me.
"Twilight Sparkle? You brought the Twilight Sparkle, princess of Equestria, to our world?"
"Umm... yeah? I kind of needed to."
"But you said- ...wait a second."
She quickly gave me an appraising look before widening her eyes.
"I can't believe I missed it. I really can't believe I missed it. We need to get on board. I think it's almost time."
"Time for what?" I asked. "And what did you miss?"
"That I can give an explanation for when we board the ship. I'm not sure how much time we have. Both of you come with me. Please."
I gave Twilight a questioning look.
"I don't see a problem. Besides, they may be able to help us get to the rift faster."
"Good point," I said and turned back to Nanoha. "Lead on."
She gave us a smile as she led us onto the ship. The two of us, after I poofed the Mustang, went up the ramp and into what looked like a troop transport. It actually reminded me of the ship from the Star Trek reboot that Kirk and company took to Starfleet Academy only a bit roomier. Another difference was that there weren't any seats on the wall that had a door which led to the cockpit. Instead there were two large screens. After the ramp went up, a wall slid down and two similar displays showed up on that as well. We all walked up to the door before Nanoha knocked on it.
"Ayane, we have a situation."
"What is it now?" a woman's voice answered in a deeper tone. "And you better not be getting busy back there!"
"It's the omega thirteen scenario."
"...Fuck really? I was going to go see my boyfriend this weekend."
"I don't like it either, but you know to load the file right?"
"I need clearance from another general first. You know that."
"Then get it. Fast."
"Well, now that I believe you're done I think Twilight and I would like to know what's going on."
"Of course. Since things are what they are right now I'm not sure how much you would know. Do you know who I am specifically?"
"Yeah. You're..." I trailed off for a moment to get things just right, "...Nanoha Takamachi, an operator for the Time Space Administration Bureau. You carry a device called Raging Heart that lets you use magic. And no Twilight, I'll tell you about it later."
I looked to the side to see Twilight's hoof go down with a blush.
"I see. And how much do you know about the situation going on on this planet right now?"
"Right now nothing. The last time I was here was at the beginning of the Cell Games when everyone started popping up all over the place. I think the last thing I even saw was you and Fate touching down before I left."
"Oh. That... is really not good. You aren't up to speed on anything at all going on right now."
"Did everything go smoothly then?"
"I suppose so. Gohan defeated Cell and no one died."
"Nobody died? Did they get... the cyborgs out of Cell?"
"They did indeed. After Gohan punched Cell so hard that 18 was expelled there was a cry for him to do it again and get 17 out. Not in so many words, but he did it just as Cell was about to try something. What happened after that was Cell tried to destroy the Earth but was teleported away by Goku. We weren't sure what happened but he then reappeared with three other individuals saying that Cell blew up."
"But I bet he came back," I said knowingly.
"Indeed. He came back more powerful than ever, but most of us were still weakened after he assaulted us with those miniature copies of himself. In the end Gohan managed to barely overpower him with some assistance. After that, all of us got together and had a conversation about our arrival."
"How long ago was that?" Twilight asked.
"About two years now. Wow that really doesn't feel like it was that long ago."
"Sounds interesting."
"Oh it was much more interesting than you can imagine. Everything began in earnest about two weeks after the battle-"
"General Takamachi," the pilot, Ayane, interrupted, "we've gotten permission from General Vegeta to unlock the omega thirteen file."
"General Vegeta?" I asked incredulously.
"We ask ourselves the same thing every. Day. Go ahead Ayane."
The screens lit up on every monitor in the ship. On them was a symbol for Capsule Corporation with omega thirteen spelled out underneath it. That was shown for ten seconds until a person showed up. I was pretty damn surprised at who it was.
Especially because it was me.