The huge monolithic superstructure before Twilight Sparkle seemed to emit a sense of majesty, causing her to unknowingly shiver in awe, her mouth wide open as she studied the ruin. The trapezoidal shape of the structure was unlike anything she had ever seen, or read about, with its silver-grey metal base, along with streaks of bright blue running across the surface of it, with four appendages thrust upwards in a shape reminiscent of a griffon's claw. The top was hidden from view by a large cloud, further emphasising the height of the superstructure. The fact that it was built into the rockface of the cavern only seemed to increase the thought of the structure being odd in terms of equestrian architecture.

It took all of her effort to glance away from the sight before her eyes so she could excitedly clap her hooves together and looked to her friends. Before she could start ranting about the significance of this structure for Equestrian archaeology, Twilight noticed that the group before her all shared the same gaze she had prior.

Rainbow Dash eyes were the widest she had ever seen them, even more so than when she met Daring Doo for the first time. Applejack's mouth was as wide as Twilight's was before, though somehow, she had it in a more dignified manner. Rarity's eyes glittered at the sight of the monolith, her wide smile expression portraying her lust for the architects of the sight. Fluttershy was for once completely calm, staring forward intently without fear. Pinkie Pie was, well Pinkie, unable to be still for a single second, leaping around the small group in excessive energy and excitement, screaming her head off out of sheer surprise. Spike also had his jaw hanging low, his back arched forward as if his head became too heavy for his body to handle upright.

A small gust of wind flew into Twilight, informing her of three new arrivals to the group. Princess Celestia's long, wide wings were spread out as she glided down to place herself in front of Twilight, her former student. Following her was Princess Luna, Celestia's sister, and Princess Cadance, sister in law to Twilight. Celestia's face had a level of caution showing, highlighting the intrigue of the situation.

“Princess Celestia!” Twilight exclaimed. “Have you ever seen anything like this?”

“No, I haven’t”, Celestia stated softly, low enough that only the small group with her could hear. ‘And that’s what worries me’, she thought to herself, as she looked around to the surrounding environment.

They were in a vast canyon at the edge of the Griffon Empire, undiscovered until recently by a joint team of Equestrian and Griffonian geologists who accidently stumbled through a veil of magic that cloaked the canyon through a shield of invisibility. The vast site of ancient, unknown structures before them immediately caused them to contact all authorities on the planet, alerting Equestria to the find. While flying over just before, Celestia determined the canyon to be roughly thirty times the size of Canterlot, an unimaginable figure for many of the ponies living in Equestria.

Within the canyon, several unique superstructures stood high and mighty, though visibly aged, surrounded by smaller, yet similar structures that still towered over the average pony noble mansion in terms of length. Most of them had a similar material as the main base, though one or two were made of slightly eroded ancient stone.

Celestia had been alive for a very long time, yet she had never seen anything like this before. That begged the question: Who built this, and why? That’s what they were here to find out. A combined expedition from all across the planet, with representatives and archaeologists from Equestria, the Griffons, Thorax’s changeling hive, the zebra’s, the hippogriffs and the Minotaurs, has been gathered here, with Celestia and the others in the small group of alicorns and the bearers of the elements as consultants and supervisors.

Celestia, contemplating the potential answers, didn’t notice Twilight, with a gleeful look on her face, spread her wings and soar across the sky to the tip of the Trapezoidal structure, with a notepad and pencil floating in her magical grasp. However, this broke the remaining ponies out of their initial shock to attempt to follow Twilight.

Rainbow caught up to Twilight easily, as she was the better flyer out of the two, with Spike close behind, slowly flying along with the wings he developed only a year ago. Fluttershy also took to the skies yet hung close to the ground in hopes of finding any animals that live in the canyon on the structure. That left Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie to find a path that led to the top.

As Twilight and Rainbow reached the top, the cloud split in two, revealing a large platform leading to a huge door the height of the Throne Room at Canterlot. The surface of the platform was covered in lines and symbols that appeared to flow in the direction towards the door.

“This is SO Awesome”, Rainbow blurted out, her face full of excitement. “I can see this now as a potential story of Daring Doo. If only we invited her, it would have been crazy. With both our awesomeness…”

Twilight would have rolled her eyes at Rainbow’s boasting, but she was too engrossed in scribbling down detailed descriptions of the structure, so unaware of everything that she failed to notice a tiny blue light appear on the frame of the door.

The ever watchful gaze of the presence was intrigued by the sight it beheld. Two young, female ponies have come before the ancient installation in search for knowledge. A feeling of amusement emerged from within. Did they believe that they will find anything of value without consequence, the presence questioned.

As four more ponies arrived, along with a small dragon, the presence noted the differences between each one, identifying the purple one as an alicorn, the blue one with a rainbow coloured mane and the yellow one as Pegasi, the white one as a unicorn and the orange and pink ones as regular ponies. All of them emitted the presence of magic, though varying from each individual.

The presence’s attention quickly focused on the purple alicorn, noticing how she was scribbling down whatever she can, in extreme detail. Remarkable, how the minds of these ponies’ work, especially that one.

Using the recording systems of the superstructure the presence was inhabiting at the moment, it began to monitor the conversation that had begun between the 7 individuals, easily identifying the names of each of them, though its attention was still prioritising the one named ‘Twilight’, analysing her. A quick mental scan went unnoticed by the ponies, as the presence determined which one would be chosen, culminating in Twilight being picked, though the ones named ‘Rainbow’ and ‘Applejack’ were also prime candidates.

A sense of anticipation overcame the presence. It was time to set events in motion.

Using its control over the internal architecture of the superstructure’s mechanical and technological components, the presence began to manipulate the superstructure and the environment of the site to suits its needs, preparing for the task ahead.

During the manipulation, the presence overheard the ponies talking about “getting through the door”, especially Twilight, who wanted to “get a closer look at the potential magic sources that lie here.”

Indeed, she shall get a very close look and even a demonstration at the power of the ruin.

“Maybe we should just wait for the other princesses before considering opening that door”, Applejack said, her cautious nature emerging slightly. “We don’t know what’s behind it, or even what this whole building is for.”

“I agree with Applejack”, Rarity concurred, studying the worn out nature of the platform and wall. “Though I would have liked a word with the designer of this place. It needs a bit more of a smooth touch and some artistic drabs in my honest opinion.”

Twilight shook her head at Rarity’s comment, until the door lit up and a large blue transparent symbol appeared, hovering just off the surface of the door. It was a ring, with four lines running through it, the middle two lines went straight through the middle from bottom to top, while the other two cuts to the sides.

As if summoned by the symbol, sections of the wall and platform lit up in a light blue colour, dazzling the seven friends temporarily as the lights quickly went brighter, then dimmed significantly. Rainbow, after she recovered, immediately flew to the edge of the platform, looking down at the main body of the superstructure. She was greeted by the sight of more lights emerging across the body, and parts of it extending out of the main surface, creating a rough body instead of the smoothness evident before. A quiet hum greeted all the expedition members, though they could not pinpoint where it was coming from.

Rainbow quickly realised that the three princesses they left behind, along with several Pegasi and Griffons, were racing to the top of the superstructure. When they arrived, it was clear that they were giving the seven friends accusatory looks.

“What”, Celestia forced out of her gritted teeth, “did you do?!”

“We…don’t know”, Spike replied, looking around to the others, each of whom had surprised and confused looks on their faces.

A loud grinding noise was heard from behind, causing everyone to turn around and witness the massive door slowly rise up. To everyone’s astonishment, the door revealed a beautiful, sleek and shiny interior, almost causing Rarity to faint out of sheer pleasure.

While the exterior may have been a bit rusted, the trapezoidal corridor before the group was clean, bright and looked brand new. Nothing was broken, the colour pallet had changed from steel blue to a bluish-green tinge on a steel surface. The floor was lit up by lit up lines flowing through it, while the walls had large braces that connected to the ceiling. The same symbol as before was everywhere along the braces, though cut into the surface of the material.

In awe, and forgetting their initial argument, the now enlarged group began to walk in, passing through the floating symbol after realising it was not a physical object. However, after the last pony had entered, no one noticed the symbol flicker, and was replaced for a second by a smaller hologram, green in colour, which was also a ring, yet thick on the edges and in the middle hovered a hexagon with three stumps on the bottom three sides. By the time the door closed behind them, the original symbol returned.

At the end of the corridor was an identical door, though it did not have a holographic symbol before it. Spike, who was ahead of the group, cautiously walked up to the door, looking for any means of opening it. Near the left side of the door, as he approached, a blue object appeared floating in front of Spike, who jumped back in surprise. Though the object was transparent, when Spike decided to move his hand through to check if it was just an illusion, his hand encountered a semisolid piece of light, pressing it forward. A large hiss was heard, as the door split into four and slid out of site, revealing a sight that eclipsed what the group has seen before.

The cavernous room before them was vast, as if it was the inside of a volcano. In the middle was an elevated circular platform that had steps connecting it to the ground. Spires formed a perimeter a few metres away, creating a fence that was not connected. The walls were smooth yet inscribed on them were blinding symbols and hieroglyphics that were unrecognisable. The true stunner was the holographic diagram of Eques that floated in the middle of the air, high above the centre of the platform.

In awe, the group spread out, each individual closely analysing or appreciating a portion of the room. Twilight and Spike went to the centre first, climbing the stair until they reached the platform. On it, they noticed a holographic console, similar to the one Spike activated at the door, though this one was much larger, and one section of it had a different colour, red.

Twilight suddenly felt a strong desire that directed her to the console, her hooves slowly approaching it while she felt faint, as if she was in a trance. Spike, following her, noticed that her hoof was outstretched as she neared the red section. Spike recognised the section as a button, though he was unsure as to what it does.

“Twilight?” he asked, concerned at what she was doing.

“I don’t think you should…” Spike began until Twilight’s hoof connected with the button.

What everyone noticed first was the sudden noise that overwhelmed their eardrums. The large hum was everywhere, distracting the group until the spires started to extend upwards.

Twilight shook her head, as if everything became clear again. She looked in horror first at her hooves, then the console, which had lit up.

Suddenly, a small circle appeared around Twilight, creating a forcefield that threw Spike off the platform. All of the unicorns, along with Celestia, Luna and Cadance attempted to use their magic to break the circle, but to no avail.

The holographic planet morphed into a map of what looked like a giant ring, then zoomed out until focusing on a small object that was unrecognisable. As the hologram settled down, three objects emerged from the ceiling, each of them a thin, cylindrical like tube, with appendages.

As the tubes appeared, Twilight felt herself being lifted off the ground by an invisible force, that soon appeared as a small forcefield. She, along with the others, attempted to break the field, but she was still floating towards the tubes, which were now facing her.

Three bright lights flickered on, from the tubes, and suddenly the room was filled with a flash, blinding all in the room.

As the vision returned to Celestia and the others, they noticed that the room had quickly returned to its previous state, though with a horrendous exemption.

Twilight Sparkle, the princess of friendship, was gone.

Author's Note

Hi Everyone, dalek117 here.

This prologue is mainly here to set up how Twilight goes to the PoA. And yes, the ruin is forerunner. But I will leave the identity of the presence a mystery for now.

If you see any errors or canon inconsistencies, please comment below or dm me.

Hope you enjoy