Prologue
~ Location : Ponyville ~
~ Time : Late Afternoon ~
Another day Ponyville, peaceful, quiet all things considered, some ponies going around and getting groceries, clothes, furniture, maybe going out for a nice walk or flight, or just spending sometime with family or even friends. The temperature's not too hot, nor is it too cold, the breeze is even nice, not blowing too hard and not cooling anyone too much or too little. The fillies and colts, having gotten out of school are also enjoying the day.
Then, they all feel it, at first, almost unnoticeable, but then they felt a small, continuous tremor, and before anyone could react, just on the edge of the town, the ground rose, as if being pushed up by some unforeseen force. Then, while the citizens began to panic, it suddenly collapsed, and cloud of dirt was flung up and into the town. After awhile, most of the townsponies finally began to approach, a bit wary, and find nothing within, except what looks like a crater... and almost everypony thought the same thing: sinkhole.
Immediately, ponies went in to investigate, making sure nopony was caught up in it, nor is trapped in it, after a few hours of digging and moving, no pony found anything, and decided to take a break and wait until the next day to keep searching, and many ponies stayed close to their families that night.
The next day, some more ponies than the previous day were digging and moving whatever they could make sure absolutely not one creature was injured in it.
~ POV Change: First Person, Steel Beam ~
~ Location: Sinkhole, Ponyville NW Field ~
Moving whatever rubble I could get my hooves on, and with some assistance from my co-worker Wrecking Block, we continue to move boulders and various bits of material that were created or moved in the crater of the sinkhole with only our Earth Pony strength.
"Find anything on your end yet?" Block asks, before pounding a boulder into bits with his bare hooves.
"Nuttin' yet, jus' rawks, rawks, and moar rawks..." I say, sounding bored and exhausted, "nawt tha' I mind potentially helpin' any ponies tha' were caught in all this, but..." I sigh in frustration as I begin to push another boulder. "I jus' wish-"
Moving that boulder caused some loud cracking, and before either of us could look or comprehend the potential danger, the ground just behind the boulder I began moving crumbles before us and causes a bunch of dust to fly into the air, blocking our view and get into our lungs a bit.
Coughing to clear my lungs of the dust in them, I look around to find Block.
"Hey Block- *cough cough* B-Block, ya alright?" I half-shouted in worry, then I hear him beginning to cough as well.
"Y-yeah... *cough* ... the Tartarus was that...?" Block asks, then bumps into me due to our vision being blocked by the dust.
The dust begins to settle, and we can see each other again... somewhat.
"Not sure, probably some unstable ground tha' decided ta collapse now," looks around and then notices what was left behind after that portion of the ground had collapsed, my eyes widened and slack-jawed, I breathlessly mutter, "... w-woah..."
Block quickly looks over, before asking, "What's w-... wrong...?" Now looking at the same thing I am, we almost share the same expression.
We both stare at the strangest, most technological looking set of massive metal doors...
"... we should tell Twilight... she might be able to help with this..." Block suggests, beginning to look at the door with unease.
"... ya go do tha', I'll stay, maybe try ta figure out how ta open the door..." I say simply before walking to the door with a small smile, "At least this way, I can keep myself properly occupied."
~ POV Change: 3rd Person Omniscient ~
~ Location: Unknown Lab, Ponyville Sinkhole ~
Once Twilight was made aware of what was discovered, she, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Steel Beam go and, with some effort, manage to force one of the two doors open and begin to explore inside.
The inside was so technological, it felt... almost alien, the designs and patterns along the walls, floor, ceiling, and even some pedestals(?) and light fixtures, it was both alluring and discouraging to see.
"Alright team, do not touch anything unless I give the go ahead," Twilight orders, looking everyone over, "Steel, right?" he nods, "you keep an eye out for any unstable areas, and, if possible, reinforce them, or point them out so that we can avoid them, Rainbow," looks to her, "keep an eye out for any danger, Celestia knows what could be down here..." as Rainbow salutes, she then looks to Rarity, "and Rarity, I need you to help investigate, to make sure nothing is overlooked."
"Not a problem dear," Rarity states with a smile, and looks over the place, "and I must say, this place seems to have its own unique charm, despite its... current creepy and depressing undertones, if we could get the lights on, I'm sure it would-"
"Focus Rarity, investigation now, dress ideas later," Twilight states, "sorry if I'm being a bit harsh but this place is not known to anyone currently, not even in any records I've seen, so we've got to be cautious."
"Right, sorry darling," Rarity apologizes before looking to Twilight and smiles, "Lead the way."
Twilight nods, before going on, lighting the way with her horn as Steel and Rarity follow by hoof, while Rainbow glides through the air behind then, looking about.
After a few moments of looking around the place, they come across an open room with some kind of... large machine with a lot of small buttons with an unknown symbol upon each and three doors connected to the room, all partially open. The one in the back leading to a room with massive glass containers, most with some dark-green, cubic gems of some kind, while only a few have the same gems, yet are glowing with some kind of energy, and at the back of the room, there's a large, glowing green button with unknown symbols. The door to the right led to a small room, but there seems to be some kind of golems in there, two to be specific, but one had been smashed to bits by a large piece of fallen equipment, both damaged beyond any possible repair, while the other one remained inactive. Finally, the door to the left seemed to have a few more of the glowing cubic gems from before, but not many, along with some other items, potentially tools, no currently feasible uses known.
Twilight, after examining all four rooms, looks both relieved and frustrated as she fiddles with the large machine in the middle with buttons.
"Why doesn't anything work...?" Twilight asks no one in particular, "There's clearly something I missed..."
Before long, suddenly, light flicker on and the machine before sudden glows as energy courses through its systems, and some holographic screens pop-up before her, startling her, Rarity, and Steel.
"Did that help?" Rainbow asks, flying back to the group from the room with large glass cylinders.
"It seems so, but... what did you do?" Twilight says, looking to Rainbow in confusion.
"I pressed the big green button," Rainbow says simply, "the room felt like a generator room of some kind, also, all of the doors are wide open now, and the place is lit up, so... I guess that's good?"
Before Twilight could begin the lecture she was about to give Rainbow, the machine makes a noise, prompting Twilight to look at the holographic screen, and it seems to present her with a labeled button, that she can't read.
After a few moments, she sighs as she pushes it with her hoof and new text appears on the screen, and then a 'hiss' is heard as smaller, glass cylinder pops up and seems to have a... floating, rainbow-colored heart inside of it slowly bobbing up and down inside of it's container, not even like the organ, it's more like the symbol for love.
"What is this...?" Twilight says, looking at it, seeming to be mesmerized.
Twilight is brought back to her senses after hearing the same familiar noise, like a electronic 'beep', come from the machine and finds a new prompt and two different buttons, one highlighted green with only six symbols, and the other highlighted red with seven symbols.
Twilight hesitantly presses the green prompt, and just as she looks back up to the 'heart', it is suddenly sucked downwards, supposedly into the the machine, before a small dot of rainbow light follows the pattern along the floor to the room with the golems. The group quickly, but carefully heads into the room, and find a similar container to the one in the machine, now on the wall, between the two indentations on the wall where the golems seem to stand.
Another holographic screen pops up, and has two buttons, both a light blue, and Twilight approaches the screen, and looks between both buttons, before pressing the first of the two buttons, and the indentation in the wall to her left, where the smashed golem lay, begins to glow with the same light blue color. Then, the color becomes a startling red and the some prompts appear on the screen, indicating something went wrong, and goes back to the original selection and the left indentation goes dark once more. This time, after realizing it was the same prompt from before, Twilight selects the second prompt, and the indentation where the inactive golem stood, began to glow light blue, and then, get a green indicator on the screen, the rainbow heart goes through the patterns on the wall, before entering the golem, and then a bar appears on the screen, filling slowly filling up... then glitches a bit, before filling up the rest of the way and the golem begins to hum with energy, and lights turn on on its body, before they eyes open, appearing lifeless despite emitting light... then golem staggers a bit, remaining on it's two legs, and putting one of its four hands on its head.
"W-... what the...?" it said, sounding almost feminine and looks around, almost as if unsure and confused as to what's going on, then looks to its hands, then feels over its body looking... greatly unsure. "What is... where...?" Then it notices the group, and looks very confused.
Twilight, Rainbow, Rarity, and Steel, looking at it slaw-jawed, and the golem then looks... embarrassed...?
"Um... h-hi...?" it says, waving at them awkwardly.