The Dangers of Chalk

A glimmer among the muffins brought Twilight to her senses. In the midst of the incident, she'd forgotten about the great hunk of metal, that had deteriorated only slightly from the explosion. In fact, even more deadly sharp surfaces covered it now. Muffins relented to her hooves, as she spooled out magic to gently pull it free from the ground.

With a lurch and an ominous groan, the majority of the structure departed the earth, allowing inspection from all angles. Bent, twisted metal rods, intricate mechanisms, shattered glass and strips of rubber made up it's majority, like someone had taken to a huge, delicate machine with a giant sledgehammer, then burn it for good measure. Seeing nothing, Twilight set it aside gently, careful not to damage it further.

Allowing magic to surge from her horn, it spilled over the field if muffins, rapidly spreading up drainpipes and over bridges, the arcane mass seeking every muffin within proximity to the caster, until almost all were enveloped in a ocean of magic, bonding with the very matter of the muffins and infusing them with magic. Twilight, with a subtle twitch, cut off the stabilising stream of magic from her horn, causing the ocean if magic to snap back into it's own dimension, dragging the magic-infused matter with it to be broken down into pure energy.

In a literal flash, the field, and most houses, were free of muffins. Pinkie fell from the air after the baked goods supporting her vanished, and Spike collapsed onto his haunches with a look of despair. Now that she could think without a series of space-time anomalies to distract her, she summoned the mug she'd studied so hard to her side.

The cat stared at her from its ceramic prison, as if she was to blame for all misery in Equestria.

"I hate you." Twilight gently tried setting the metal straight, to no avail. Frowning, the glow on her horn intensified, as she tried with a little more force, still without result. A little more strength, and the mass of metal remained unchanged. Gritting her teeth, metal suddenly went flying everywhere as the metal snapped straight in a hundredth of a second under the sheer power of the spell, sending deadly projectiles in all directions. Even Pinkie looked up when a stray shard shore half her mane off.

Twilight panted for a moment, before regaining her composure.

"See! Perfectly fine!" She now had an assortment of metal bars, rods and sheets that glittered annoyingly. Shielding her eyes with one hoof, she observed to rivet holes occurring in some pieces, as well as the tiny mechanisms that looked out of place next to the brightly painted sheets of steel. "The majority of the wreckage appears to be made out of a iron type material," she noted aloud, "and although it is stronger, it appears more brittle." Steel fragments went flying as Twilight snapped a rod in half, disposing of the pieces in a flash of purple.

"Twi, didn't you say a while ago that you preferred non-destructive testing?" Spike said from her side.

"Sure, but with so much material," Twilight... squeed... "I can run as many tests as I want! However. I. Want. Them!" her face split into a wide grin, like a filly on Hearth's Warming who had jus seen the massive pile of presents under the tree. Twilight turned towards him. "Don't you see, Spike, this could hold all the answers! Maybe I'll finally figure out just what's going in here!" she said.

"You mean the things randomly appearing and causing mass devastation?" Spike asked.

"Of course not, silly, the mug! THE MUG! THE GRUMPY MUG!"

"Twi, you should sleep more often."

x<>X<>x<

Donning my sunglasses, I walked out the door into the bright midday sun, paper bag smelling deliciously of cinnamon donut in hand. I smiled as I walked across the road, looking out upon the hundreds of people, pets and cars going about their lives, I but a stranger quickly forgotten, as were they.

Browning leaves crunched underfoot, and dense cloud cover obscured the sun, creating the effect of an ambient light. Hoisting my coat up to my ears, I continued towards the most notable building in town. The great glass monolith, just under half the size of the Empire State Building, was in the shape of a giant sphere, supported by eight metal curves shaped as if someone had cut a hoop in half, in which the sphere rested on the neck created by the arches. Another eight metal curves ran from the base if the larger, curving inwards and upwards to meet the sphere slightly off-centre, with hundreds of thousands if sheets of glass creating a concave effect between each. Eight elevators, each an eighth of a circle, rose and fell out of sync as they traversed from the ground floor, through the neck, and up into the sphere at beck and will.

A huge set of doors adorned all eight faces, with an electronic sign above each one. Reaching the wide footpath that ran all the way around the building, I stepped onto a passing train (Courtesy of the Transport Division), as it continued its eternal loop of the building. Munching on my donut, I stepped off the transport as we passed an obscure sculpture composed of various mechanical parts. I made my way towards the door, stepping around a pair of gawking tourists, and sighed in relief as the cold air inside the building wafted over me.

A (What do you know?) glass wall separated this eighth from its neighbours, the Finance and Economy Division and the Utilities and Services Division. Making my way past reception, I swiped my card against the elevator console. Disposing of my donut bag, I licked my fingers as I watched the sleek object descend. The doors opened with a gentle swish, allowing a disgruntled fellow struggling to hold together a binder full of papers into the lobby. I made my way inside, jabbing at the button for the eight level of the sphere, Research and Development Division, Zoological Research Floor.

As the elevator squeezed through the neck, I was rudely interrupted by a jagged chunk of crystal, the size of a small horse, flying past the window. I pushed my face against the glass, watching as it crashed through the lobby roof, causing half the roof to buckle and shatter. A wooden beam, a boulder and a cake followed it in quick succession.

Pressing myself against the back of the elevator, I daren't look up lest a missile or something crashed through the glass, but an ominous buzzing drew my attention upwards. I quickly risked a look upwards, trying to see around the metal roof of the elevator as it delivered me upwards. My mouth was left hanging as a great green and purple ball of plasmatic energy filled my vision, as it tore apart a small portion of the building, while continuing to spit out things that didn't even make sense.

Realising the elevator was going to deliver me into the great roiling orb, I began to severely panic, my hands shaking as I collapsed onto the floor, breathing heavily.

"Think, think, you have a degree!" I told myself.

"In zoology!" I responded.

"Come on, there must be something I can do!"

"We're not bloody Bear Grills!"

"I know, I know, just shut up and let me think!"

I glanced up, as the orb drew only a dozen metres closer. Abandoning all my wits, I screamed as I was consumed by the fiery depths.