After about thirty minutes of lying in a pool of paranoid sweat, Seeker returned with a potion. I drank it, took a minute to recover from my panicked state and was finally prepared. We entered the castle.

"What the buck?" Seeker and I asked simultaneously.

The castle was filled with the population of Canterlot. They were lying on the ground on top of what looked like Support Circles, but instead of being boosted, their magic was being drained away. Sky was at the end of the hall, unconscious and tied to a table. She also had a Support Circle underneath her, but this one seemed to be powering her up. Is it giving her the power from the civilians? From her horn shot a beam which lead to a portal of some sort. The portal showed a bright light that I couldn't see through.

"What is this?" Asked Seeker. "What's wrong with them?"

"I think they're being drained by Arcane Circles," I explained. "Their power seems to be going to Sky who's keeping that portal open. Whoever did this has been planning this for a while. Researching Arcane Circles to the point where they can do something like this is impressive."

"And you're sure the government is behind this?"

"Definitely."

"What do we do?"

"We go through the portal and stop them."

"What about the Ponies that are trapped here?"

"We can help them later, right now we need to stop the masterminds behind this. But they do make me think of something."

"What?"

"If they were willing to make the civilians suffer, I might not be able to reason with them."

"You're strong enough to fight them though, right?"

"Maybe."

"Only maybe?"

"Well, probably. But they might have the power of the Arcane Circles on their side, and I don't have my magic."

"What happens if you can't stop them?"

"We die horribly."

"W-What?!"

"Enough questions, let's go!" I ran towards the portal and leapt through, into the light.

I landed on my hooves. I was still in the castle, but it was now midday. From the looks of things, six to twelve hours before Nightmare Dong attacked. Not too far in front of me was the good old stone structure with the five stone balls of Harmony on stone pedestals. That's still a lot of stone. Next to it was a group of five pompous-looking Ponies dressed in gold and purple clothes. One of them was wearing an interesting hat and another, closer than the others, seemed to be monolouging. Seeker stumbled out of the portal and ended up on the floor next to me.

"Smooth," I said sarcastically. Seeker gave me the stink eye.

"Well excuse me for not being well practiced in leaping through portals!" She retorted. I sighed and offered a hoof to help her up, which was soon accepted. Seeker looked toward the five Ponies. "Is that them?"

"Probably."

"So... Are you just going to ask them to stop?"

"That's the plan."

"And if it doesn't work?"

"Beat the crap out of them." I started walking towards them. Seeker scrambled to catch up before walking in sync with me.

"Wait, that's it?"

"It worked on God-Horse II, a group of slavers, myself from the past, a cultist lieutenant, a demon dog and my daughter, so it should work here. Albeit the last one was more of a fight for the sake of a fight."

"You are such a weirdo."

"That's not-! Well, I suppose this is the second time I've traverse the planes of time and space to have sex with another version of myself... Fair enough." We were near the five Ponies now. "Hey!" I called to them, causing them to turn and face me with confused expressions. "Yeah, you five!"

"Who are you?" Asked one of them.

"I'm Cloud Calculation! I'm here to politely ask you to stop what you are doing!"

"Why should we do that?" Asked another.

"If you change history here you'll end up destroying two universes." I'd stopped shouting since I was close enough for normal-ish speech.

"What?"

"My daughter accidentally caused a paradox and now if you try to restore the Elements two universes will be destroyed." The middle one, previously monolouging, stepped towards me.

"And why should we care?"

"Because-"

"Because we should care more about others than we should about ourselves?! Is that what you're going to say?!"

"What? No, I-"

"Well we've worked too hard for a peasant like you to stop us now!"

"We're really going straight to this?"

"You think that you and that stupid bitch that caused this are the only ones who can use Arcane Circles?!"

"Woah! Woah! Language!"

"We've researched your stupid Circles! And we've created one of our own!" He gained a face of constipation. An Arcane Circle was created underneath him and another under Seeker, who was giving me a worried look. "Behold! My Drain Circle!" Seeker suddenly collapsed as her magic was visibly sucked out of her. She tried to fly away, but her wings did nothing. Mr. Evil Guy seemed to be gaining magic at the same rate Seeker lost hers. After a few seconds the Circles were dismissed, leaving an exhausted Seeker and a powered up Mr. Evil Guy. Is Mr. Evil Guy really the best I can come up with? Yes. Okay.

"So you suck the magic of others for yourself? Interesting. Nowhere near as effective as a Support Circle, but still. Interesting."

"I've become unstoppable with this new power! Nopony will stand in my way!" I coughed. "And now I shall slay you where you stand! This will be the toughest battle you shall ever face, for it shall be your last bat-!" I hit him in the face with a Shield Bash, knocking him out instantly. His friends soon followed. I turned to look at Seeker.

"Are you okay?" Seeker was wheezing for breath, but managed to nod. "Good."I summoned Support Circles under her and the five shitty villains, then walked through the portal with them following. Now for the boring part of cleaning up the mess of civilians. When the portal closes, God-Dong I and II should be returned here. I guess that guy was right though. About what? His Circle really did... I put on mental sunglasses.

...Suck.

Author's Notes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YMPAH67f4o

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One more chapter before things go back to normal.
Or at least as 'normal' as things usually are.