142.1 (Detective Ethan Redfield)
After The Weasley Twins' Cucco Pastry Loop:
Two familiar red haired teens found themselves waking up in a pitch black room, strapped to a pair of chairs. Moments later, a lamp flashed on, illuminating a pink haired girl sitting across from them. Her hands were folded as she gave them an uncharacteristically serious expression.
"Boys," She spoke in a serious tone, "I hear word going around about a certain pair of Weasley Twins who claimed to have 'beaten me at my own game.' That you turned Tirek into a chicken like I did, but with a pastry instead of magic."
The two shrugged. "Cucco, but who's nitpicking."
Pinky leaned in close. "Just because you gave one pastry prank, you think you gentlemen are the kings of pranks?!"
The twins looked slightly affronted. "No, we're the kings of pranks because we've been pranking before you were even looping."
Pinkie raised a hoof, "I will not let this go unopposed. I declare war upon you both!"
She then gave a cheerful smile as the room lit up, revealing a Hogwarts classroom with the words PRANKS GALORE written on the blackboard. The Weasley Twins' bonds vanished like magic as Pinkie stood and started pacing about the room. "A prank war. Looping Dash will keep score and decide who's the greatest prankster in the multiverse between the three of us."
The Twins looked around, "But Dash isn't even here."
Pinkie ran over to a door and pulled it open, revealing a strange looking house elf, "Silly Billies. I keep Dashes scattered all over Hogwarts, in case of Dash emergency."
Dash rubbed her face. "Pinkie, you could have just called me when you needed instead of making me wait behind this door for the last fifteen minutes."
142.2 (Evilhumour)
Twilight was readying herself for an unAwake Nightmare Moon when a colt slammed the doors open, with a cape around his neck. Twilight's mouth dropped in disbelief at what was she was seeing, the rest of her Awake friend in similar positions.
"Who dares interrupt me?!" She shouted, standing on her hind legs at the blue colt holding a gun.
"I HAVE ALREADY BESTED THE MOON, THE APPLES AND THE SPIKES," he shouted, pointing the pea shooter at the alicorn. "I HAVE BESTED THE SIX CHAMPIONS AND DEFEATED THE FATHER!" He then fired miniature bullets at Nightmare Moon who was flying to avoid the powerful and painful shots. Twilight watched in awe as he avoid all her magic blasts and was actually close to defeating Nightmare Moon by all regards of her tired state. The colt suddenly ducked as an apple went sailing through the window, only to smash into Nightmare Moon's face, knocking away the Nightmare Taint from Luna.
Luna looked up in disbelief at her saviour. "W-who are you?"
The colt, with a cutie mark of the moon with a spike and apple on it stood on the stage, smiling at the princess. "I am the Guy."
142.3 (Evilhumour)
"Dusk?"
"Yes Elusive?"
"Why are we Space Marines going to fight a daemon invasion without any of our usual powers?" The usual mare looper who was currently a male space marine asked a bit concerned, blasting away the damons with ease as Dusk was summoning mighty pskyer blasts to hold the tide back.
"More than likely because of the obvious joke." Leman muttered unhappily as he cut apart several of the daemons that were attacking with his chainblade. Being an average space marine was always odd to him as he felt so weak and powerless.
"Yeah, making up a new chapter just for us?" Applejack asked as he stood side by side the Anchor of the loop. "Ah thought Fenrir and Sleipnir were better than that!"
"Actually," Butterscotch said from the titan he was in. Everyone unsure of how exactly he got one this loop but everyone else was still glad that Leman was stopped from taking it as a joyride considering the horror stories that Fluttershy shared. "The Rainbow Warrior are an actual chapter and none of this is really made up." He then turned back and blasted an entire squad of daemons with a soft apology.
"Yeah, ah figured that were something screwy when Dashie was the captain instead of ya Twiliy."
"That's Chapter Captain Rainbow Blitz AJ!" Their in-loop leader shouted with glee in his blue power armor, the rainbow strip far larger than anyone else, as he punched apart several daemons. "I'm so loving this!"
"That aside," Leman muttered as he was smacked backwards by an exploding party favor. He hated being so weak. "Is no one else concern that we are dealing with an unAwake Chaos Goddess Pinkie Pie?!"
142.4 (Evilhumour)
Nurgle tilted his head as the goddess in front of him was not Isha and rolled his eyes.
"Begone mortal," he grumbled, splashing her two tone hair with several of his less favourable maggots and diseases . "I care not for you, only my love ... oh it's you Cadence."
The usual pony alicorn chuckled weakly, brushing herself clean with her hand and using her magic to heal herself from his most lovely diseases that he had been working on for Isha. "Hello Nurgle," she smiled as she stood up as she regrew her wing. "I take it that you're keeping up your practice of creating new diseases?"
"Yes," he rolled his eyes, not feeling in his usual good mood, stepping onto some Nurglings as he grabbed some rotten fruit out of his subspace pocket and sending it back to health before throwing it at the fellow looper. "Although it was not for the likes of you."
"Oh," the deity blinked as she caught the fruit and tentatively took a bite of it after using her magic to rid it of several horrifying diseases that Nurgle left on it, more than likely by mistake then intent. "For Isha, I suppose?"
Nurgle flashed his eyes to her and for a brief moment, Nurgle took some of his darker aspects of his rights as a Chaos God. As he choked the very air around him all forms of life and death, he remembered the first and only time Slaanesh had tried to tease him about Isha. Khorne had stepped in to stop the brutality he was unleashing onto the terrified Slaanesh and Tzeentch made several strides to make sure no one ever made the same mistake the near dead Chaos God made again.
"Speak carefully," he said evenly, causing the looper to back up in instinctual fright. "The last deity of lust found it poor to joke about my beloved and I will not show you anymore leniency than I did to hir."
"I would never joke about love, Nurgle." Cadence was truly taken back by Slaanesh's callous words and actions; already resolving to reeducate her fellow deity of love on their duties towards others. "If you want, we can talk about your relationship with Isha and I might be able to help you a bit."
Nurgle listened to her words and judged them to be honest. Nodding his head, he summoned two sofas for them and allowed Cadence a tiny bit of power so she could reshape herself into her normal equine self.
"Thank you very much Nurgle." Cadence flashed him a smile as sat across of him. "Even though I know, can you please tell me how did you two meet?"
Nurgle smiled as he thought back to his first encounters with his beloved to understanding pony across of him.
142.5 (Ryuus2)
Lemon Rush felt oddly good this loop as he flexed his wings and came to a landing. He'd woken up in his mother’s place this time, so he was an adult Equestrian for the first time in a while. He had a similar role to his mother as well, except he was known to handle the roughest beasts of the Everfree on top of the cuddlier ones. He was very surprised to realize that his loop memories included how to perform a spinal adjustment on a hydra and a deep tissue massage on a manticore, as well as the best way to fluff Angel's tail.
This loop appeared to be a mostly baseline Equestria. He opted out of being the Element of Kindness when Twilight came by, and instead stayed to calm the panicking crowd while Silver Spoon, currently Gilda's niece Silver Beak, filled in. The other Crusaders were apparently asleep, so she opted to return to Griffonia with Gilda to help her conquer the realm with mime. The only other obvious changes were an unawake Rainbow Dash who dressed in style, and that Ivory Scroll was taking a vacation this loop. Cheerilee had offered to fill in for her, citing a desire to expand her knowledge on bureaucracy for a later lesson. She had suggested Lemon fill in for her for some reason and he'd agreed readily enough.
As he walked in the door to the small schoolhouse he was ready for anything from an unawake Diamond Tiara's usual antics up to the Crusaders all awakening at once. He was not, however, ready for the four consecutive pings from four distinctly non-crusader foals. The grins on the three colts and one (probably) filly told him all he needed to know. The Chaos Gods had replaced the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
'Welp,' he thought. 'We're doomed.'
After class let out, the four foals stayed behind to talk to their new teacher.
The first thing out of Lemon's mouth was not "So you're the Crusaders this time," or "be good or I'm telling your parents," or even "kill me now before you crash the loop with tree sap." It was instead, "where the Oak did you get that filly sized seifuku, Slaanesh?"
The pink furred unicorn col- fil-...uh, pubescent pony with the expertly coiffed baby blue mane and matching blue eyes in the white and blue patterned Japanese school girl uniform struck a pose. "Do you like it? Rarity Onee-chan made it for me based on a Neighponese design I liked," Slaanesh, currently Elusive 'I can be a Sweetie if you like' Bell, said.
"Before you ask, we don't know either," the light blue furred earth pony/unicorn colt with salt & pepper mane and purple eyes known as Gleaming Mind, otherwise Tzeentch, added. "Shi's apparently been like this since before shi awoke."
"This body is stupid!" Khorne grumbled hotly, flapping his tiny wings uselessly. He was currently a pegasus colt with red fur and eyes and a cropped black mane who answered to Bashaloo, but thanks to an incident with Granny Smith everyone called him Dot.
"Actually, Pegasi are the primary military force, due to their incredible speed, agility, and durability," Lemon said, hoping to head off any potential blood sports before they could begin. "They can fly, walk on clouds, and use weather magic to create and direct rain, sleet, snow, twisters, and lightning."
Khorne perked up at the list of combat maneuvers his new species was capable of. "Well, that's better-"
"You're wings are still too small to fly, though, so you can't reach the clouds to do most of that," Nurgle, presently a green furred earth pony colt with brown mane and yellow eyes named Apple Core, cut him off. "Now I must be off, I've got a new recipe to work on."
"You're not mixing up plagues in the barn, are you?" Lemon asked worriedly, memories of Nurgle's attempts to recreate the various strains of T-Virus flashing through his mind.
"No, no my dear boy. I'm working on a new recipe for apple beer."
"Beer?" he asked with puzzled relief. "I didn't think you'd be interested in that."
"Fermentation is all about one thing rotting away and something else feasting on its remains to grow. Imagine the possibilities!"
"...And now I cannot drink for a month. Damn you, Nurgle," he groaned. He glanced between them looking for cutie marks. He got three blank flanks and one skirt, but if he tipped his head just so much and blew lightly-- He slapped his face -and made a mental note to never do that with a hoof again- before that thought could finish forming. Ignoring his bruised cheek and Slaanesh's grin, he asked a question that he knew he'd regret asking. "You four aren't going to start Crusading for your Cutie Marks, are you?"
"Suggoi! That's a great idea! You're so smart, Lemon-Sensei," Slaanesh cooed sultrily, shaking hir hips in a way that made Lemon shudder instinctively for reasons he Did Not want to delve into.
At an unspoken signal, all four foals shouted in unison "CUTIE MARK CHAOS GODS! YAY!" then ran off.
Once they were gone, Lemon Rush responded in the only way he could. He fainted.
Later that weekend, Lemon met Twilight for tea in her library. She had taken the occasion to thaw a pot of Fluttershy's personal blend that had been preserved in her pocket. It wasn't as good as the original, but it was about as close as almost anyone could get.
After a relaxing gulp of the tea, Lemon asked, "So, everyone knew that it was them but me, and you all decided to prank me with it?"
"Actually, none of us knew who they were for sure," Twilight explained. "Ivory did need a vacation, and Cheerilee did want to expand her course list. I was busy with research at the time, and suggested you to fill in because I knew you could handle anything the new foals could dish out, whoever they were, even if they did awaken. It was a surprise to all of us when it turned out to be those four. How are you handling things by the way? Is the Crusading too much for you?"
Lemon slumped into his seat. "I can handle the Crusading; it's not much worse than some of the stuff I've done as a foal. But somehow, they seem to be causing more trouble than they do back home," Leman groaned. "Apple Core behaves himself, but I have to keep reminding him not to share any of the lunches he brings with anypony. Gleaming Mind keeps nominating himself for different positions and then delegating everyone else to do his work. He even tried nominating himself the teacher once, and I will admit that I took a small pleasure in putting him in detention for disrupting the class." He preened a bit at the memory. One did not often get a chance to so completely one-up the scheming god so thoroughly, even with all the foreknowledge the loops could provide. After another gulp of tea he continued. "Those two are reasonably well behaved, but Dot is always looking for fights or crashing into things because he can't get used to his body. Thanks for looking after him by the way. He's not causing too much trouble?"
"Not at all," Twilight said. Normally, when Scootaloo's parents were...unsavory, she would arrange to stay with Rainbow Dash (awake or not). But with the unawake Dash dressing in style this loop, it was felt that someone a bit more...forceful should look after her replacement this time. And since neither Twilight nor Lemon want to see the end result of leaving the battle god with the Timberwolf versions of Freki and Geri -and their honorary pack-mate Angel Bunny (not awake, thankfully)- for any amount of time, Twilight had volunteered to take him in.
"Actually, he and Spike have been spending a lot of time together. It's always so hard for him to make guy friends his age, and the two seem to have bonded over the whole 'honorable warrior' thing. They've even been working on that Dragon Code of his. I'm kinda looking forward to seeing how the Dragon Migration goes this time around." She grinned. It wasn't often she got to watch her unawake little brother teach those three bullies a lesson, and with Khorne's help -carefully monitored, of course- it looked like it would be a good show. "And Elusive?" Twilight asked curiously.
Lemon's slight good mood melted away immediately at the reminder of the current form of the god(dess) of sensation. He slumped forward onto the table with a groan. "It's Elusive that's getting to me the most. Shi keeps hitting on me, which is actually not that different, but the way shi works all the outfits into it and acts all innocent..." he trailed off with a shudder as he banished the thoughts. "I can't even put hir in detention when shi goes too far because shi always manages to pull out some kind of bondage gear from nowhere. First there were the shackles, then the straight jacket, and last time it was shibari and- Gah!" He smacked his head into the table to suppress the thoughts and the shivers they caused. Fortunately he was able to hold back enough to keep from splitting the table, and only set the tea service to shaking ponderously.
"I'm sure it's not that bad," Twilight said as she rubbed his shoulders with a hoof.
"I caught Rarity giving hir tips. She thinks it's romantic," he mumbled into the table. Twilight sweat dropped. "And the Shipping. Oh, the Shipping..." he half-sobbed.
Before anything else could be said, the sounds of stampeding ponies, splintering wood, and general chaos floated in through the open window. Ponyville being Ponyville, this could mean anything from a monster attack to a royal visit to Zecora grocery shopping, but it was most likely a Cutie Mark Crusade judging by the swirly eyed red and black foal covered in tree sap that flew through the window and crashed into the table in front of them. Leman sighed the sigh of the long suffering, took a moment to compose himself, downed his cup of tea in a single gulp, and got up to go run damage control on his other students. Twilight chuckled at the predicament her fellow anchor had been placed in, then picked up Khorne in her magic and carried him off to the bathroom to begin the long but much practiced process of washing the tree sap from his coat.
Three sap-coated foals sat staring at what once was a rather complicated bit of insanity. Well, two of them were staring, the third was too busy fussing about the sap plastering her/his/its clothes and mane.
"It should have worked! Why didn't it work?!" The light-blue colt ranted.
The green colt sighed. "I just don't know what went wrong."
The pink co- fi- one, was busily trying to think up a cleaning spell that could get rid of tree sap without damaging hir frou-frou princess dress. Hir mane would need professional help. "You'd better hope I don't need a shave to get this sap out of my mane, Gleemy, or I'm taking it out of your feathery backside when we get home." Just then she noticed Lemon trotting determinedly up the street towards them and hir personality pulled a 180, from feminine fury to coquettishly girlish innocence. "Oh Lemon-sensei! Can you please help me? I seem to have gotten very sticky with unusual fluids."
Lemon froze mid trot and resisted the urge to scream in mental and spiritual agony. Barely.
Shaking himself out of it, he put on his 'serious teacher' face. "Okay, what were you lot doing this time?" he asked, glancing at the large pile of wood, pipe, rope, and sundry materials that usually resulted from a failed Crusade.
Tzeentch puffed his chest out and began his duties as chief orator of the CMCG. Interestingly, this was the only position he'd granted himself that he didn't delegate to someone else. "We were trying to get our Cutie Marks in monster catching. To that end, we took apart a game Nurgle found in the HUB and rebuilt it at 100 scale size, taking several liberties and making modifications based off the work of Rube Goldberg."
Lemon face hoofed. This was a bad idea as it just made his headache worse. "...You tried building a better mousetrap?"
"Well..." Tzeentch hedged, until he heard a suspiciously lupine growl from his anchor/instructor. "In laymen's terms...yes."
"You- that- I- whatever," Lemon gave up with a sigh. "Just...go get cleaned up. And don't forget to come back and clean this up tomorrow."
Slaanesh stayed behind as the other two tromped off. "Sensei? Rarity Onee-chan left me a note to give you," shi simpered sweetly, presenting him the note from within hir blouse.
Being very careful to ignore the inviting way the blouse hung open, Lemon accepted the note. When he was done he froze again, this time in shock and dread. Rarity was out of town for the next few days. And she wanted him to look after Elusive.
Slaanesh used peeking at the letter as an excuse to saddle up to his muscular barrel, clearly being innocently inappropriate. Hir reaction was the complete opposite of the stallions. Shi started prancing all over the place like Pinkie Pie. "Yatta! Sugoi! Sleepover with Lemon-Sensei! Squeee!!"
This time, Lemon didn't even try to stop the scream from escaping.
Khorne lifted an ear as he thought he heard a scream. "Twilight," he grumbled as the mare ran the bath for him, "Did you hear that?"
Twilight tilted her head, listening. "I don't think so...."
A few days later Twilight, currently a Pegasus, was sharing a cloud with Rainbow Dash and taking in the site of the bustling ponies below. "Still not ready to show them the new you?" Twilight asked Rainbow Dash a.k.a. the God Emperor of Mankind a.k.a. Empy.
The stylishly dressed blue Pegasus shook her head. "Not quite. I would have had no choice but to reveal myself had I awoken as Celestia as usual, but when I noticed I was a commoner, an impressive one, yes, but still a commoner...I decided to just relax and roll with it."
"Not to mention that it gives you the perfect chance to observe how Lemon is handling the loops without him knowing," the anchor said casually. Empy didn't rise to the bait. She just continued to watch her son as he wrangled the Chaos Gods out of their newest Cutie Mark Crusade -something to do with Zap Apple Cider- with a small smile on her face.
142.6 (Evilhumour)
"Vinyl Scratch, get your flabby white flanks back here this second!"
Twilight blinked as Vinyl ran past her with fear on face as several large musical items went flying through the air.
"I've said I'm sorry Octy!" She whimpered as she ducked a guitar.
"And how many times have you've said that to me?!" Octavia shouted, bucking a violin overhead that landed directly in front of the panicking looper.
"Whoa whoa whoa!" Twilight shouted, teleporting in the middle of the two, Vinyl cowering in fear with Octavia picking up her prized cello. "What the tree sap is going on?"
"She forget our anniversary! Again!" the earth pony glared at the gulping musician. "You'd think after looping for so long she'd be able to keep track of our special day, but noooo!"
"Wait, you're looping?!" Twilight reared back in surprise. How did she miss this?
The musician in front of her sighed, and placed down the blunt instrument of pain and wonder. "No, I'm not. She just told me about them, again apparently, and how often we do become a couple." She blushed now, rubbing her beige hooves together. "It might be a bit hard to believe, but if you give her enough time she can be really romantic and sweet." She chuckled softly. "Like a few hundred years I'm willing to wager."
"Hey!" The looping musician poked her head out of scared heap that was hiding behind Twilight. "I'm not that bad!"
"Yes, you are when you just told me that you often forget to keep track of our anniversaries and then schedule a world tour around Equestria on this loops anniversary !" Her glared caused many other ponies watching the scene to gulp and take a step back.
"But it ends just before this loops anniversary Octy!" Vinyl whined back.
"Only by chance!" Octavia yelled. "You asked me, and I quote, 'Say, my sweet music loving and giving mare, what's this day on the calendar that has all this girly hearts around it? Heh, already marking the day when your DJ queen comes back-Octy, why are you so angry and reaching for the piano?'"
Twilight winced, and braced herself for a long friendship salvage mission. She had to bite back a genuine laugh; she had not done this before and it would be something new to write to Celestia.
142.7 (Alex Prior)
Twilight Tirek, Part One
Twilight Awoke, and yet she didn't. If she were to strain her brain, it would occur to her that she was Wakening extremely slowly, and as such take appropriate measures. Alas, she did not. It was for such reason that it felt as if she was thinking through molasses.
Through the haze, she felt herself move, to sneak towards a shape. Twilight did not think to clear her head; she was barely able to think at all.
The shape resolved into a stallion; an intellectual returning from a library. As if hearing her, the stallion turned; his eyes widened. "Oh, my," he spoke, "Do you need some assistance?"
But Twilight didn't listen. Her gaze zeroed in on the load of books in the stallion's telekinetic grip; without hesitation, relying straight on instincts, she opened her mouth and drained the tomes in the stallion's grasp.
Immediately, her head cleared somewhat. As such, she was able to realize a few things.
One, while she was quadrupedal, she also had hands.
Two, she realized that time had reset once again.
Three, she had just drained books of their knowledge.
'I don't think I'm a pony this time around.'
"No, Tirek. I'm afraid I must call in another to stop-"
Celestia Awoke mid-sentence, tripped over her own tongue and fell into a coughing fit. Her sister and her student were upon her side in an instant.
"Princess Celestia! Are you alright?"
Celestia looked into the concerned face of the red alicorn, and nodded. "I'm fine. I just threw myself in a Loop by accident." She surreptitiously checked the faces of Luna and Cadence, only for them not to show any signs of Awakening. Dogwood. She was on her own for now.
Celestia cleared her throat. "As I was saying, Twilight will be dealt with by Discord."
Naturally, gasps greeted that statement.
"...and that's the gist of your mission, Discord. Are you capable of it?"
Celestia peered at the Draconequus. "Are you even, perchance, Awake?"
Said entity nodded with an entirely too large grin. The Princess massaged her forehead with a hoof. "Why am I even asking, of course you are. Were you just expecting an exposition, and how long have you been Awake?"
Discord held up two toes. "First," he curved one toe, "yes, and second," he curved the second, "since Silver reformed my unAwake self. She's been Awake since the beginning, by the way. Did you even check your Memories, or just the ones pertaining our resident Centaur?"
At Celestia's abashed smile, he facepalmed. "Of all the Loops for me to make sense for a change..."
"What have you done?"
The stallion's whisper cut straight through Twilight's confusion. She looked up. To her horror, the books the stallion was frantically flipping through were blank. She had literally drained them of knowledge.
Twilight shook her head to clear it. "It does not matter what I have done," she found herself saying, "It's what I will be doing." Her mouth twisted itself to a grin. The stallion fled.
The centauress found herself expelling a breath. "A close one," she whispered. 'Library,' her mind supplied. 'I need to know more.'
Finding a treasure of knowledge had been devilishly simple. As he inhaled the books, she found her mind clearing more and more. She remembered Loopers. She remembered her Admin. She-
"I do hope I'm not interrupting anything."
She whirled around. There, leaning to a bookshelf, dressed in a sweater and wearing glasses, was Discord. He would have looked every inch the disapproving librarian were it not for the unusually large grin he was sporting.
"You see," he said, unhooking himself from the shelf, "I was just teaching my apprentice the finer nuances of chaos magic, when suddenly I received a most curious summons."
He grinned. "Apparently someone's been a bad girl."
Twilight narrowed her eyes. "Apprentice? Since when were you willing to teach anything to a pony?"
Discord feigned surprise. "Silver Spoon, a pony? But of course not! She's a draconequus like I am!" Out of a whim, he decided to test a little something. "Threw me for a Loop, it did."
The centauress inhaled sharply. "You are Awake?"
Discord blinked. He wasn't expecting that one; he'd felt no Ping from her. Out of curiousity, he sent one out and watched her stumble.
"What was that?" was the demand he received, and if anything, it threw him into an actual loop.
"That was a Ping, Twilight. Remember? Similar to the one you do with your Elements?" Frankly, he was getting a little concerned.
Twilight massaged her temples. "Element Check, yes... Oak, everything's so fuzzy... I need to know more..."
The spirit of chaos could only roll his eyes. 'Might as well pull a baseline.'
"Oh, hello, Princess."
Celestia smiled at her guest. "Good morning, Silver." She was lying on her bed. "You needn't worry about me; I simply had a rough Awakening this morning."
Silver nodded in understanding. Truth be told, her own had been rather intense, as well. Waking up just after using the Elements, then discovering the Element of Magic being Tirek himself? She'd had the shock of her life!
"So, what do you think of this Loop, Princess?"
"Celestia, please."
"Celestia. Sorry. Your unAwake self preferred to be called Princess."
Celestia nodded. "Completely understandable, Silver. Now, I suppose you are wondering why I called you here this morning?"
Ignoring the Draconequus' deadpan look, she soldiered on. "I need your help packing."
At Silver's questioning look, she smiled. "Our centaur fiend gains literal power from books this time around. Knowledge is Power, capital letters being the key here. Were she to drain all of them, she'd beat Tirek by several orders of magnitude."
"The villain Tirek or the plothead Tirek?"
Celestia rolled her eyes. "I know he's not very nice even as a pony, but you must specify. Do you speak of the centaur or the alicorn?"
Her mouth twitched. Silver was also fighting a grin. At precisely that moment, a letter popped into existence.
Silver caught it, unrolled it and started reading out loud. It was short and sufficient.
Celestia,
Going baseline. Twilight's half-Awake; we need books to properly Wake her. She doesn't even remember her Pocket yet, and has forgotten how to Ping! Don't mind the empty libraries.
--Discord
Silver blinked. "You said she got the power from knowledge, right?" At Celestia's nod, she continued. "So what happens when you add Looping knowledge to that?"
Celestia rubbed her chin with a hoof. "Technically, she may gain enough power to Ascend. Practically, there's the Pocket, isn't there?"
"The one Discord said she doesn't remember yet?" deadpanned Silver.
The two Loopers exchanged a horrified look.
"Ficus."