When Empires fall

--ALERT DISTURBANCE IN OUTER GETS OF FACILITY 44 PUBLIC ENTRANCE ALPHA

-REQUESTING SECURITY CREWS

-SQUAD ONE UNRESPONSIVE

-SQUAD TWO UNRESPONSIVE

-SQUAD THREE UNRESPONSIVE

-SQUAD FOUR UNRESPONSIVE

-SQUAD FIVE UNRESPONSIVE

-SQUAD SIX UNRESPONSIVE

--PROCESSING

-UPDATE: OUTER GATE BREACHED: SCANNING

BIOLOGICAL SIGNATURES DETECTED

--ESTABLISHING LOCKDOWN PROTOCOLS

     -(Lockdown effectively turns the research facility into a fortress. Windows give way to steel shutters, doors are reinforced by blast shields. Blast shields are basically super thick complexes of Kelvar, Steel, and Electro-magnetic seals.

     In effect, it can withstand motar fire and frigate blasters. Also, all public entrances are deadlocked whilst emergency access points reject any security pass that's not Level 4, 5, or Military Police.)

--LOCKDOWN IN PROGRESS

-PROCESSING

--AWAKING HIGHEST RANK PERSONELL NOT DECEASED

-AWAITING ORDERS

--OUTER GATE PRIMARY BLAST DOOR HOLDING

-AWAITING ORDERS

June 11th.

     The sun was scorching Antique Hoove's skin, of all the times to find this archealogy site, it had to be in the middle of the summer heat wave in the badlands.

     But she went to it anyway, because there was something strange about this place, she could feel it, but couldn't tell what it was. Princess Celestia had agreed to give treasury funding to her digging sites due to her track record.

     Two years ago, she had found an abandoned palace in a forgotten territory of the Griffin Empire several thousand years ago.

     Eight months, she finished digging out an ancient Unicorn town. Making her a little bit of a celebrity. So she was sure she wasn't going to disappoint the princess on this dig.

     "What the hay!?"

"What's wrong?"

     There had been a team working at a gate they'd found.

"A huge metal door just rose up and blocked the gateway!"

     How was that possible? All of the sites they found were of civilisations thousands of years ago?

But she shrugged it off, she had to deal with this.

   "GET THE DYNAMITE DETAILED EYES!"

      "What if it damages artifacts inside?"

     She knew this, but she had no way of getting through the door apart from Dynamite.

Soon, a few diggers had dynamite and a pump switch. They stacked up a thick pile, and got everyone and themselves to a safe distance.

"THREE"

"TWO"

"ONE"

     A deafening explosion sent a shock wave through everyone, and left the gate caked in smoke.

Everyone just stared at each other for a few minutes before Antique Hooves broke the silence.

"Well, are we going to check it out or not?"

     "How can this be.. The technology they wielded should be thousands of years old!"

     Antique Hooves and her team members were completely dumbfounded. 7 feet tall and 2 feet thick, that amount of dynamite could blast a hole in the wall of the Canterlot palace. Yet there it was, the gate, with just a mere few scorch marks.

     She was going around with her new sea of questions, the near unbearable heat wasn't doing much good either.

She stopped, her eyes locking on to a strange dim, blue glow from the Center of a gate... was that.. A light?

     Her lead archaeologist noticed it too...

"Did they.. Have electricity?"

     Twilight Sparkle was rushing up the steps of the palace, it was unusual for the princess to give her such an urgent yet vague letter, but she wasn't going to refuse the princess anytime soon. She had simply been told not to tell anyone, not even spike, but to just make way for the palace as quick as possible.

     She had been lost in her thoughts when she realised she had just trotted straight past the throne room.

Composing herself, she entered to find the princess in her usual royal posture, with her sister beside her.

"Twilight Sparkle, so glad you could make it here on such short notice."

"Of course princess, I would never be late for anything wha-"

  "Relax, my faithful student, there are some urgent matters at hoof."

Twilight sparkle mused over the possible situation.

"Follow me Twilight."

     Twilight trotted after Celestia through a hall where the walls were decorated with paintings of old kings and queens, with various artifacts and works relating to each of them. Despite being part of a brilliant flawlessly maintained palace, she couldn't shake off the old and antique atmosphere these corridors held. She also was tiring a bit from trying to keep up with Celestia's effortless pace.

     Behind Twilight was Luna, she wasn't as tall as Celestia but still composed an appearance of Celestia's vast size in comparison to an average pony.

Her mentor stopped next to a painting of a King.

   "This King was my great grandfather, he would've probably have loved to encounter something like this.."

"Something like what?"

"You will see my student."

   They continued down the seemingly endless corridor until they entered a corner room, which had a very peaceful, cosy appearance. Twilight guessed that this was probably Celestia's private study.

     "Now Twilight, what you are about to be told is now officially a royal secret. You are not to reveal this to anyone under any circumstances."

     Twilight nodded, ever the more curious.

"Very well."

Luna brought over a small book which read as: ARCHAELOGICAL DIG REPORTS.

"Four days ago, an archaelogical dig in the Badlands uncovered some... Interesting artitechture."

     "Where do I come into all of this?"

"Well.. it's believed that the builders of this had electricity, and their structures have been found to have far more advanced materials. Not only that, but we found the ruins of ancient villages surrounding it."

     Twilight gasped.

"Gasp" :/

How could ancient buildings be superior to ours?

     "Since me and my beloved sister have our duties tying us to Equestria, we are sending you to the Archaelogical dig to help get some progress... progressed?"

     It must've been serious if the Sisters were sending her into the middle of the badlands. So she couldn't afford to turn them away.

"You can count on me!"

Celestia smiled.

"I know I can."

June 16th

     Twilight took a gulp from her water flask, the heat becoming almost unbearable. They sure weren't kidding about the summer heat wave she thought. She had been told about the summer heat in the badlands, but she didn't expect it to be this bad.

     Still, it wasn't enough to drown out the curiosity she had for the prospects of a technologically advanced ruin.

"Ms Sparkle?"

"That's me!"

   The pony who asked this was none other than Antique Hooves.

"Enjoying the sun?"

Twilight rolled her eyes at the sarcastic comment.

"Anyways, I was told to expect you, head down to the central tent for some briefing on the situation."

"Okay, I will."

     "It's just over there by the Water storage, you can't miss it."

With that, Pyrite left the tent. Twilight Sparkle followed after, observing the environment around her. It was the same as when she had first arrived, it'd taken a while to reach the site since the train lines didn't go any further than Appleloosa.

     The hills in the distant were bare, with nothing but a few dead shrubs and rocks. However, the site was very large, with tents of all shapes and sizes, surrounding by ponies galloping with various equipment.

She continued searching the site until she saw a large wooden water tower, with an unusually large tent beside it, which she figured was the tent that Antique Hooves had mentioned.

     It really was a serious situation as she noticed the Royal guards stationed at the tent.

     "Halt!"

    The guard next to him looked at her and said

"Wait, it's Twilight."

"Okay, sorry abut that Miss Sparkle, proceed."

Twilight then entered the tent calmly.

     When inside, she saw tables and supplies all over the place, and that the tent was big enough to have multiple rooms.

Most of them just had maps and equipment, or sleeping areas, but the largest room had seating and a desk with a map of the badlands, from the site to Appleloosa.

"Hello Twilight."

She turned around to find Antique Hooves which she felt a small wave of surprise.

     "So, I believe you're curious about what's going on?"

"The sisters gave me some information before I came here."

"Okay, so I guess we can crack on with this."

Antique Hooves went to her seat behind her desk and sighed slightly.

   "We uncovered the whole entrance three weeks ago, but it seems impenetrable. We ordered 400kg of Dynamite and it's barely put a scratch in."

    This intrigued Twilight, as she had never heard of any doors withstanding that amount without taking even the slightest amount of damage.

     "You're here because you're the strongest unicorn apart from the Princesses, so you might be able to open that gate with the strength of your magic."

"So you need me to shift the door because 400kg of dynamite didn't work?"

"Precisely."

"Well.. I think I can do that!"

Twilight felt her confidence swell. "Excellent, follow me."

     Twilight certainly didn't have the confidence she had five minutes ago. The door was huge, with a very distinct pattern of black scorch marks, which was probably the result of four hundred kilograms of dynamite.

There were two small flashing lights on a large, cylindrical component of the huge gate.

"Are you ready miss Sparkle?"

     Twilight paused for a moment, then spoke with a determined voice.

"Yes."

Her horn began to glow, and there was a tiny screeching sound at the gate. The whole team began to step back to a distance as Twilight focused on the gate.

--ALERT, OUTER BLAST GATE LOSING CONNECTION.

     The gate seemed to be rejecting a lot of her magic, as if it was a foreign matter, impervious to magic.

But Twilight's magical power rivalled that of Starswirl's.

Her eyes went pure white as she channelled every ounce of her magic into the gate.

     She vanished under a huge shock wave.

This kind of shock wave blew everyone off their hooves and sent wooden tables and equipment flying off.

Amongst the chaos, a huge groaning sound came from the gate, followed by the sound of electronics powering down.

     Everyone got back up, coughing from the huge amount of dust sent flowing.

Twilight was gasping on the floor, struggling to breathe due to the amount of magical exhaustion she was now suffering from.

"Miss Sparkle!"

.....

"Miss Sparkle!!"

"I'm.. I'm alright.."

     Antique Hooves sighed in relief, if Twilight had been hurt in some way at her dig, she would fear the Princesses's wrath.

     A few minutes later, after nobody had been hurt and Twilight just tired, the dust and sand had settled, Antique Hooves and some of her team inspected the gate.

     The gate was still there, but had recieved severe damage, it was half open, with mechanical links smashed and the frame dented and bent. It also clearly could not withstand punishment like it could've before.

"Wow.. Twilight really did batter it...."

--ALERT

-POWER DEPLETION TO RECEPTION OUTER BLAST DOORS

-MAINTENANCE CREWS UNRESPONSIVE

     It had been two hours since Twilight attempted to open the gate.

Despite the huge battering the gate took, it had taken hours with all the unicorns at camp, that and a royal request for a battering ram, which was only just accepted as Twilight had signed the request.

Three!

Two!

ONE!

Charge!

       A multitude of grunts was followed by a crash and a screeching noise.

They had finally fully opened the gate.

     Antique hooves grabbed her equipment and ran to Twilight's tent.

"Twilight, they got the gate fully open, we can explore the ruins!"

     This brought a huge smile to Twilight's face, so she grabbed a notebook and pencil, and began to gallop after Antique hooves.

     Together, they trekked into the entrance with a their equipment and teams...

     They were about to find something extraordinary..….………..…………..……