Seeker's information had been almost completely useless. The only useful thing I'd found out was that the sinks had been blocked just before I was found. After I'd been found, I was unconscious for about twenty minutes to an hour, then I'd gone around Dongville for another ten minutes. Finally, I went to Appledong for a fight and then back again which took about forty minutes. That made a total of somewhere between an hour and fifty minutes and an hour and ten. Unblocking them took a few hours, so if I checked to see if they were still blocked I could see if everypony disappeared very soon after I was knocked out.

I reached the bathroom that Bog usually targeted, hoping that it was the right one. Here goes nothing. I turned on a tap and, sure enough, the sink was blocked up. How do bread and cheese block pipes so effectively? Well, assuming Sink uses sandwiches like Bog does. There was a noise from behind me. I spun around and saw Seeker sprawled on the floor. I rolled my eyes. Dammit, Seeker... I summoned a Support Circle under her torso and lifted her back up onto her hooves.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I was... Just seeing... If you... Needed help..." She wheezed.

"How did you get tired from a run as short as that?"

"I've... Only just... Woken up!"

"Oh yeah. Fair enough."

"So... What did you... Find?"

"They're still blocked, so whatever happened was over with quickly."

"Now... What?"

"Do you have any clue how I can regain my magic?"

"No..."

"Then I've got no idea." Considering the attack on Appleloosa, the Cult of Disharmony was probably involved. I could understand if they only managed to get one God-Dong with a surprise attack, but how did they get Solaris and... Wait... "That's it! I've got it!"

"What?"

"God-Dong II! I can contact him in a dream!" I summoned a Support Circle under the both of us an started flying us back to the potion storage.

"Wait, didn't you say before that you were unconscious recently? If Prince Artemis even could contact you, why didn't he do it then?"

"I'd been brought here by somepony, they could have easily stop any dream I was having if they were good enough to stop my magic. I've woken up since then so if I go to sleep now, it should reset. I'll dream again so God-Dong II can contact me."

"How will you go to sleep so quickly? And where are we going?"

"Potions. That answers both questions by the way. We're going to find a potion to make me lose consciousness."

"Oh. Okay." There was a little silence as we sped along. "Who are you, anyway? You never introduced yourself."

"Cloud Calculation. I'm Sky Calculator's male doppelganger from an alternate universe, here to get laid to save my future daughter from being erased from time and stop the destruction of two universes." Seeker let out an annoyed sigh.

"If you're not going to tell me then at least don't lie to my face." I landed us started looking for a sleeping potion. Should I think of a colour for that? No point, I'll probably never need one again.

"I'm not lying." I found a sleeping potion, put it on a small Support Circle and went to a hospital room.

"Oh yeah, you're definitely telling the truth." I took off my armour and saddlebags and lay down on the room's bed.

"I know." I got comfortable and drank the potion. A wave of exhaustion washed over me and I collapsed.

"What the buck is going on?" Asked a strangely familiar voice from behind me. I turned around to see Ludong with a horrified look plastered on his face.

"I might have taken too much potion," I replied as a banana that was one day from retirement fell to the ground, clutching his chest. Never again would he see his family. They were a good bunch.

"That was the worst pun we've ever heard."

"'We'?"

"Yes."

"Okay. So what happened in real life? Where is everypony?" Ludong put on sunglasses and a black tie.

"You already have the answer within you, Cloud," he said in a dramatic voice.

"I'd ask how you know my name, but this is my dream after all."

"You know exactly what happened and where we all are."

"Really?"

"Yes. But in order to find out, you must go," he put on another pair of sunglasses, "another layer deep."

"Oh?"

"You must perform something I call," he put on a third pair of sunglasses, "inception."

"You said 'I' instead of 'we' that time."

"Yes," he put on a forth pair of sunglasses, "I did."

"Why are doing that?"

"What do you," he put on a fifth pair of sunglasses, "mean?"

"Putting on sunglasses."

"It makes me look," he put on a sixth pair of sunglasses, "badass."

"Okay."

"It is time to perform," he put on a seventh pair of sunglasses, "ince-" All of his sunglasses fell off. "Shit!"

"What do you mean 'go another layer deep'?"

"I must take you into a dream," he put on a pair of sunglasses, "within a dream."

"Okay."

"Well I'll tell you how it's possi- Wait, what?"

"I'm pretty lucid right now so I'll just get another potion." I pictured the sleeping potion and forced it into existence. "Should I just drink this right now?"

"Not yet. First, I need to," he put on a second pair of sunglasses, "take a doodie."

"Okay." I sat and waited for a while Ludong squatted in some bushes. "Done yet?"

"Yes," he walked out from the bushes and put on another pair of sunglasses, "I am."

"Can you stop that? It's really obnoxious."

"Fine. Party pooper..."

"Thank you." I drank the potion and once again collapsed.

Celestia was tap-dancing on top of a piano while Luna did... Things to a potato. Ludong materialized next to me.

"Now what?" I asked.

"Who are they?" He counter-asked.

"You and your brother back in Teatverse."

"What she doing to that potato...?"

"I don't know and I don't want to know. What do we do now?"

"I thought an extra layer would be enough for you to remember, but it looks like I was wrong."

"Remember what?" Ludong turned to me.

"Stop calling me Ludong."

"What?"

"We're in your mind, I can hear the monologue."

"It's my monologue, I can call you whatever I want!"

"Fine."

"What would I remember? I was knocked out when everything happened."

"You may not have been conscious, but your senses were still active. If we go deep enough, you can remember anything you heard, smelt, tasted or touched."

"No sight?"

"Your eyes were probably closed."

"Fair enough. Why don't you just tell me yourself?"

"Honestly?" I nodded. "I..." He sighed. "I don't really know..."

"Well, where are you?"

"I'm not sure. It's just sort of... Cloudy." Cloudy? Wait! Could he mean...?!

It looked like I was inside a cloud. Everything was very cloudy. And misty. Mistfully cloudy. A room of cloudy mist. With cloud walls. And ceiling.

That's got to be it! He's... Wherever that was. I really should've looked into what that was...

"Show me what the place it looked like so I can confirm if it's the same place," demanded Ludong. What? Oh right, he can hear my thoughts here.

"Okay, how do I do that?"

"Are you familiar with the thought-projection spell?"

"Yeah."

"Imagine you're casting it and it should happen."

"But my magic is cut off, it won't work."

"You're dreaming, anything can happen here. Where did you think you got that potion from?"

"I didn't really think about it."

"Anyway; you wouldn't be able to actually cast the spell even if you did have your magic, but you can make a version of it happen."

"Great!"

"Anything you can imagine can happen in dreams, especially when lucid."

"Not so great."

"What?"

"I can imagine some weird shit. Anyway..." I imagined I was pouring magic into my horn and forcing it into a thought-projection spell. Sure enough, a window in the fabric of dream reality appeared in front of us, showing me and I as we went to deal with past myself in the ethereal place.

"Yes!" Ludong loudly exclaimed. "That's it! That is where we are!"

"Okay, now we're making progress. The next question is, where the buck is it? I got there before when two versions of me from different timelines went back to the same point in time, so what do I do now?"

"My brother believes that this plane of existence exists partially separate to our own universe."

"So it's a type of pocket dimension?"

"That's what my brother thinks at least."

"Interesting, but how do I get there?"

"There is one creature that could get you there... One that was petrified and-"

"Discord?" Ludong looked confused.

"Who?"

"The God of chaos."

"Oh, you mean Eris? Yes, that is who I mean. You will have to convince her somehow to-"

"Yeah-yeah-yeah, I already know how." I can just do the same thing I did with Discord. "How will I undo the petrification? I don't have my magic."

"Which takes us back to the subject at hoof. We need to go another layer deep so that you can remember what they did to you."

"Why another one? Can't I just do another thought-projection spell?"

"The memories are buried deep in your subconsciousness. You'll need to go equally deep to access them."

"Okay." I created another sleeping potion. "Let's go." I drank it and collapsed a third time.

I was in a train made of chocolate surrounded by gingerbread Ponies who were screaming and running around. Looking out of a window, I could see that we weren't on any tracks and were speeding towards a chasm. Ludong reverse-melted next to me.

"You dream some really weird things," he observed.

"So how do I get to the memories?" I asked.

"I don't know. Going deeper didn't seem to help."

"Are you sure I even have them?"

"No."

"The- Wait, what?!"

"They did it in a book I once read so I thought it would be an interesting thing to try."

"Are you bucking kidding me?!"

"Sadly, it looks like it won't work."

"This was just a huge waste of time?!"

"Do you want to try going down another layer?" Before I could answer, the train flew into the chasm, hit a wall and exploded, killing me instantly.

My eyes snapped open to see Celestia tap-dancing on a piano. I had only gone up one layer. Ludong popped into existence next to me looking sombre.

"So many gingerbread casualties..."

"You're telling me that all of this was for nothing?!"

"Yes."

"Wha- Why would- You just- UGH!"

"It was pretty fun, right? And now you know to go to Eris to try and find us."

"Yeah! Eris! Great! It's not like I can't undo the petrification or- Wait..." ...But then why would they...? Oh my Realta.

"What's wrong?"

"It wasn't them..."

"What?"

"It wasn't the Cult of Disharmony... It couldn't have been..."

"Why not?"

"Because they didn't make sense with not making sense..."

"You've lost me." I pulled a whiteboard out of nowhere and a marker out of nowhere else. I wrote 'makes sense' near the top and then 'doesn't make sense' below it.

"The Cult are all about not making sense." I pointed to 'doesn't make sense'. "So them not making sense would be what you would expect." I drew a tick next to 'doesn't make sense'. "When they do something that would normally mean making sense," I pointed to 'makes sense', "they automatically stop making sense because they're doing something different than usual. Follow me so far?"

"I think so?"

"Their overall goal is to free Dis- Is to free Eris." I wrote 'Chaos God' in big letters in the corner of the board. "Now then; why would they need to clear Canterlot of its population?"

"Uh..."

"More specifically; what would they need to get that would require no interruption?"

"The statue of Eris?"

"But what haven't they done?"

"Taken the- Oh my stars..."

"Get it?"

"But what does it mean?!"

"Who would benefit from the lack of disharmony?"

"Everypony?"

"Not quite. Everyone. The whole of Magi. So!" I spun the whiteboard around to its clean side. "The motivation is set." I wrote 'harmony' on the board. "World peace. Well, more or less. Now why does this sound oh so familiar? Because this isn't the first try."

"This isn't the first try of what?"

"This isn't the first try to get harmony. Do you know about the ancient prophecy? 'The explosion of colour will set the destiny of six Ponies to wield the ultimate magic, and the final harmony will take the throne to Equestria'?"

"Yes, I know of it."

"Well, Sky and I interrupted the prophecy and threw it right down the shitter. Everyone goes crazy, there's a worldwide panic. A certain Cult forms to, supposedly, celebrate the return of the Chaos God. But what if it was all just an act? What if the Cult was just to lure in anyone who doubted the harmony? And what if those who doubted were sent to Appleloosa to distract Sky and Solaris while the rest of them worked?"

"Wouldn't they be sent to distract you also?"

"No. This has been a long time coming. Me coming here was an unexpected event in their plan, which is why I was left behind. They didn't know if I was just some look alike or clone gone wrong, so they took away my magic and locked me away."

"I'm confused. Who's 'they' and where did they take everypony?"

"You don't remember being taken, do you?"

"No."

"That's because you and Solaris were the only ones that were abducted. Everypony else went consensually."

"But why?"

"Because it was somepony they trusted. Somepony with power, wealth and control. Somepony who could get an entire city to evacuate without suspicion fast enough to stop jobs as simple as janitorial work." And leave the sinks blocked.

"Who?"

"The mortal government."

"What? Why would they do that?"

"The government wanted to restore order and get the prophecy back on track. To do that, they would need the Elements of Harmony."

"But I destroyed them, so...?"

"The prophecy was set in stone, so when Sky beat you and I beat Luna without saving the Elements we created an unstable point in each universe. When I was in the pocket dimension it was because an alternate timeline was being permanently destroyed. If I had died before going back to do what I had seen myself do, the first timeline would have been restored."

"What's wrong with that?"

"If the first timeline was restored, I would try again in the exact same way. Then the second timeline wouldn't be secured and would be erased again. It would keep happening. An infinite amount of times a second until the universe burnt out and was destroyed. Until everything was one hundred percent certain to be okay, I was stuck in the pocket dimension."

"So what? Are they trying to create an alternate timeline?"

"Sort of. Back in Teatverse, my daughter is being erased from time. We thought it was because she stopped me coming here and slamming Sky in the not-butt, but now I see what the real reason really is. She didn't almost stop me from screwing Sky, she almost stopped me from stopping the mortal government trying to stop Sky from stopping you from stopping the prophecy."

"I don't understand what they're trying to do. Are they trying to destroy the universe?"

"No. They're going to accidentally destroy the universe by stopping Sky. That, is how you got stuck in the pocket dimension. They knew you and Solaris would try to stop them, so they trapped you two there. They think they're doing good."

"They do?"

"They think they're helping the world, when in reality they're killing two."

"Why did they need Canterlot to be empty?"

"I don't know yet. But I will. Wake me up."

"Where are you going?"

"I'm gonna save the universes. I guess you were right though."

"Right?" I put on sunglasses.

Author's Notes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2vwsIyTPWc&feature=youtu.be

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R63 names used from here.