~ 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.
Author's Note
Sorry for those of you who have been waiting on a story for awhile, I've just... life has hit me pretty hard, especially now since I'm out of a job 'til the virus has blown over, I just find it hard to... write these stories, especially since I've practically had a story of mine shown to my favorite youtuber in what I feel like, is the worst way possible, and that has effected me quite hard... I just wanna delete my stories and give up, just... start over somehow...
But no, I'm not giving up that easily, I got myself here, and I can work my way out, and if I have to build myself from the ground up again, then I will gladly do so, also, for those that haven't figured it out yet, the Displaced is a Underfell Mettaton, picture provided made by Gryfic666 on deviantart, go check him out!
Chapter 1: The Activation
~ POV: 1st Person: ☜R☼⚐R ~
~ Location: ?✍︎?✍︎? ~
"Um... h-hi...?" I say, waving at the... colorful people?... awkwardly, unsure what to say.
They all just looked tense... wait... looking over each of them... there's one 'normal' looking person, relatively speaking since all of the seem to be pastel colored... yet... does that teenager have wings... that lady has a horn... and that woman has both???
I gain a confused expression... then the purple-skinned woman with a horn and wings spoke.
"By Celestia's mane... is it sapient...?"
I stare at them for a good amount of time, before speaking up myself.
"What... who the fuck is Celestia...?"
She looks at me like I just asked what the sun is, "Who is...?" the purple woman asks, then shakes her head before she states, "She's the ruler of Equestria, for the past millennium."
I blink a few times. "... that's... what...?" I ask in confusion, before I look myself over, "... what am I...?"
The blue-teenager with... rainbow hair... then quickly gets up in my face, hovering there, startling me as I then fall onto my ass.
"O-oof, jeez rainbow mane," I say, feeling confused as I felt no pain.
"Rainbow Dash," she stated, looking at me expectantly.
I blink. "... what?" I asked, bewildered.
"Rainbow Dash," she says again, before putting a hand to her chest... her furry chest... "that's my name."
I blink a few more times. "... that's the weirdest name I've ever heard..." I stated... then my eyes widen.
"Why you-!" Rainbow went to tackle me... only to be held back as her tail was suspended with a purplish-pink aura.
"No Rainbow, we can't just attack them outright," the purple pony said, "we don't even know it's capabilities, what if you got injured from doing such a thing!"
"U-um..." I gain a nervous look, not paying any attention to the words suddenly appearing in my vision, what was my name?
I try and can easily recall some of my past so I can't be having amnesia... I remember my friends, my family, my home... none of which are here... and I'm stuck in some sort of four-armed, mechanical body in some alien looking facility...
Despite the ponies still talking, I couldn't hear them as I began to lose myself mentally, can I find my way back, where is my home even, who am I, who is my family...?
Then I blacked out.
~ POV Change: First Person: Twilight ~
We jump when we hear a series of clangs, then look back over to the strange golem... which in now laying on it's side, with different symbols completely covering it's eyes, and large ones colored red flashing on them.
"What the hay?!" I shout, before running over to it and examining it, but I find no visible damage.
"I didn't anything this time, it just fell over!" Rainbow exclaims, just as surprised as Steel, Rarity, and I.
Then, once I've thought about all that's happened, I look back to the others with confidence.
"We need to tell the Princesses about this, and we might need to bright this..." I look to the fallen golem, "weird golem with us. just in case it awakens once more."
Steel nods, "Leave it ta me, it looks pretty heavy, so it'll take a bit, but I'll get it out o' here fer ya," he states this, before hefting the golem onto his back, looking weighed down, but he's able to move it without straining himself it seems.
"Alright," I say with a nod, "let's get out of here and let the other ponies know what we found."
We all then proceed towards the exit, with the golem in hoof.
~ POV change: Celestia Sol ~
~ Location: Canterlot Castle - Meeting Room, Canterlot Mountain ~
~ Timeskip: 38 minutes later... ~
Celestia sips on her tea with a surprisingly buff looking Unicorn across from her, looking hopeful as he speaks.
"... and I wish to be able to find anymore places to explore, examine, and even breathe the air of lost civilizations! ... and with your funding, we could find so much more!"
I smile, before placing my cup of tea back on the platter.
"Mister Hunter, while I appreciate you enthusiasm and your willingness to find more history for us... however-" I say, before a scroll appears before me from dragon fire, "Oh, apologies, my student is messaging me, may I...?"
"O-of course, your majesty," he says as he nods.
Silence reigns as I open and read over the letter, then I give a display of many emotions, and the Discovery clears his throat.
I look back to him, before responding. "Sorry about that, but it seems like an opportunity has arisen for you."
He blinks a few times, "... I'm... sorry, Princess...?"
"A sinkhole happened near Ponyville, and with it, an unknown, buried area has been discovered," I state with clarity, and his eyes widen in surprise, and I give him a warm smile, "So, I'll fund you for excavating that area to find out as much as you can, my little pony."
Discovery looked giddy, shocked, and confused at his own luck.
"I... thank you, Princess," he states then give a salute, "I will not fail you!"
"Of course," I nod, as I write down on a document, before I fold it up, seal it, and then pass it to him, "ask a guard to take you to the Treasury, and hoof this document over to the pony in charge there, and they'll give you the funding you requested."
Discovery nods, takes the document with his magic and puts it into his saddlebag, gives a slight bow, before taking off towards the nearest guard.
Then, I get up, and walk over to the nearest window, and look towards Ponyville, a bit surprised as I can somewhat make out the sinkhole from here. As I look, I quickly write down a letter, before sending it off to Twilight.
"An odd golem that seemed to be sapient... I wonder..." I mutter to myself as I go into thought.
~ POV Change: Luna Alqamar ~
~ Canterlot Castle - Luna's Royal Bedroom, Canterlot Mountain ~
~ Timeskip: 40 minutes earlier ~
I blink a few times... what was this... disturbance...? Something's going on in the realm of dreams...
I pick up a quill and papyrus, before writing down a quick note, getting a piece of 'tape', still an odd invention that, but handy all the same, then stick it on the outside of my door.
Once that was taken care of, I begin to make my way into the realm of dreams, getting comfortable as her mind fades into it.
When I open my eyes, I am floating downwards as the dreams of those that slumber float on by, however, my attention isn't focused on them, as I look towards... it seems like a dream, but it looks... like lightning is coming off of it and it looks... like 'static'?
"What in Tartarus...?" I say as I try to get a better look.
Once I touch the orb, however, I receive a strong, painful shock, pulling my hand away as I yelp in pain, then look to my hand, seeming to actually be singed.
"Hrrgh..." I partially looking back to the orb, seeing no noticeable changes, but being more cautious, "i-is this some sort of... protection magic...? Or perhaps... a curse of some kind...?"
After a bit, I put up some wards to protect myself, before attempting to enter the dream, and at first, it felt like I flew face first into window, without the pain. Almost falling over in shock from this unexpected feeling, I regain my hoofing before carefully trying again, this time, seeming to bend the 'barrier' I came across as I 'push' against it, taking up plenty of my energy and concentration. After a bit, I stop and feel like I've made little to no progress... then the next time I try to go against this barrier, I'm not trying much, and I'm basically asking this barrier to let me in, though, only mentally...
"ACCESS DENIED, PLEASE ENTER ADMIN PASSWORD." A... feminine... echoing... empty sounding voice states, startling me.
"W-what is...?" I ask, looking to the orb, the source of the voice, and find... some sort of display... 'emanating' from it that wasn't the before, with an empty bar... that suddenly filled with symbols that I've never seen before, before flashing red and making a cutting, irritating noise.
"PASSWORD INVALID, PLEASE ENTER ADMIN PASSWORD. TWO ATTEMPTS REMAINING," the same monotone, feminine voice states.
"Wait what? Two attempts??" I ask incredulously, before stomping one of my hooves in frustration, "Do I get a hint at least...?"
There is silence for a bit, before nice, soft bell chime is heard, and the display from before lengthens and more symbols that I do not recognize from anywhere I've been to or visited...
"Erm... could I have it in Equestrian?" I ask nervously and hopefully, looking embarrassed, "I do not understand this language..."
"SEARCHING FOR 'Equestrian' LANGUAGE," the voice states, mimicking when I said my own language, surprising me, before another pleasant bell is heard, "LANGUAGE FOUND, TRANSLATING . . . "
After a bit the word almost seem to melt, before reforming into words I understand, but I'm left feeling confused after reading it over, before double-checking...
ADMIN PASSWORD: [ | ]
Hint:
What is my name?
Author's Note
I seem to be slowly getting back onto a roll, and I hope all of you are enjoying what you are reading so far.
As always, go ahead and comment or give critique where it's needed.
T.U.B.--Class-S, signing off.