//------------------------------// // The Magnet Sets the Moon on Fire // Story: The Malignant Magnet // by derpyland //------------------------------// Hours went by. The world waited while the magnet plotted its next move. Then… As soon as Celestia heard the crash she raced into her throne room. “Guards! What is–” She stopped. On the red carpet, lying directly in front of her throne, was a small, round, ebony object. To the left was a shattered stained glass window. Shards of glass littered the floor – but oddly, the magnet was lying on top of them. When Celestia glanced out the broken window she saw that it was getting dark. It would soon be time for her sister Luna to raise the moon. The sound of approaching hoofbeats turned her attention back to the puzzle of the shattered glass. Four tall, strong guards approached her at high speed. “What is it, your highness?” their leader asked. Celestia gestured with her hoof toward the magnet. “Do any of you know where that came from?” The guards eyed it curiously. “No, your majesty,” one of them finally said. “It looks like a magnet,” another one added. Celestia nodded. “It most certainly is. But what I want to know is how–” The magnet struck! Drawing itself toward the metal armor worn by the guards, it ricocheted from one metal helmet to the other. By now the magnet had caused so much destruction that it was bursting with power. It struck the guards with such force that within seconds all four of them were on the ground, unconscious. As a final touch the magnet whipped around and knocked the crown right off of Celestia’s head – and then landed squarely on her throne. Celestia gasped as she saw her guards fall. She then coldly turned her attention to the evil object that was insolently seated on her throne. Using her powerful alicorn magic (which, truthfully, had not solved any dangerous problems in a very long time), she levitated her dented crown back onto her head and then reached out to immobilize the magnet. But as soon as she reached out to grab it the magnet soared across the room. Celestia tried time and time again to seize it, but it always moved too fast for her and slipped through her magical grasp. The magnet gleefully shattered one window after another, and watched as Celestia’s rage began to boil. Finally Celestia could take it no more. Summoning all of her power, she shot a dazzling beam of pure energy out of her horn and toward the evil magnet. The magnet danced away. Celestia’s beam followed it as quickly as she could move – but the magnet was still faster. It soared out the window and vanished into the air. Exhausted, Celestia stopped. A loud cracking noise turned her attention to the room’s walls. She belatedly realized that she had just sliced up the walls of her castle and destroyed the supports that held up the ceiling. Celestia shouted in anger and teleported herself and her unconscious guards out of the castle – just as the ceiling caved in. From outside the castle she watched as her home collapsed into ruins. Not again, she groaned to herself. Don’t tell me that my fight against evil has destroyed yet another castle! I knew there was a reason I normally let Twilight take care of these problems. Then she looked up in the sky and realized that the damage to her castle was the least of her worries. The evil ebony magnet had chosen its path very carefully. It knew that Celestia would try to vaporize it, and it chose an arc that would neatly slice Luna’s tower apart – just as she was trying to raise the Moon into position. When Celestia’s beam cut through the wall of her palace and struck Luna’s tower, the tower shifted and its outer wall knocked into Luna. The Princess of the Night was violently knocked off of her balcony at the precise moment she had reached out and grabbed the Moon. Luna screamed in surprise and lost control of what she was doing – and inadvertently slammed the Moon into the Sun. As Celestia looked in the sky, the Sun and the Moon had already merged into one and the Moon was on fire. Luna was hovering in the air, desperately trying to pry the two apart. She was not having any success. This definitely looks like a job for Twilight, Celestia thought to herself. I’d better send her a letter.