Entering planetary atmosphere; flight vector: optimal
Target: point of maximum energy fluctuation
…
WARNING! Electromagnetic interference detected!
Malfunction! Flight vector off-target by 20.42%
Sensors offline! Guidance signal lost!
...CRASH!
Stardust looked up from her telescope and blinked. She magically levitated a pencil and began scribbling in her journal; “10:23pm: Unknown meteorite landed in nearby forest.” she did some quick calculations with an abacus, “calculated too small to survive atmosphere. Must investigate.”
Stardust levitated various scientific instruments into a pair of saddlebags and placed them on her back. She cantered down the stairs and into the living room, where a yellow-maned, blue earth stallion was laying on a couch.
“Hey sis, where you going to this late?” he asked, turning over to face the mare with her hoof on the front doorknob. She sighed inwardly, it was an unspoken agreement that when they went out after dark, they had to tell each other why.
“I just saw a meteor land out in the forest, and I’m going to investigate.”
The stallion’s ears perked up, “you think its aliens?” he asked excitedly,
Stardust groaned, much more verbally this time, “for the millionth time, Astro, there’s no such thing as aliens. Good-night.”
With that, the astronomer stepped out into the night, slamming the door behind her.
“Ugh,” Stardust said to herself as she cantered through the woods, “Astro and his sci-fi stories. When is he going to grow up?”
The disgruntled unicorn continued her rant as she headed towards her destination, “the only things that come from the sky are snowflakes, rain, and the occasional space rock.” She reached a not entirely unnatural clearing, a small crater in the middle. Stardust stared in awe at the object before her; a smoldering sphere, almost as big as her. The only way it could’ve crashed with this little damage was if it slowed down mid-flight. “That’s no space rock…” she said, edging closer to the foreign object.
Suddenly the sphere split across the equator, revealing glowing blue dot staring straight at the mare. The lower half unfolded, and the creature rose on four metal legs. Stardust stepped back, terrified. So scared she couldn’t even scream. Her mind was racing with thoughts of what this monster might do if it was let loose; Ponies screaming, towns burning, everything destroyed. Her horn began to glow sky blue, growing brighter and brighter as she willed the beast not to come any closer. It stared at her with that lone, glowing eye. Stardust’s eyes glowed pure white, and a bright beam of pure magic shot from her horn, striking the outsider dead-on. It buckled backwards from the sheer force of the blast, arcs of electricity jumping across its body.
Stardust was breathing heavily. She stared at the fallen…thing before her; an area of it was glowing red-hot. She took a cautious step back, then another, and then she galloped away as fast as her legs could carry her.
A minute passed. The light on the stricken creature lit once again, and it began to change shape. Metal plates folded and unfolded, mechanisms shifted under the surface, and wires made new connections whilst disconnecting others. The mechanical being took on a equine form; three vertical slots where a mouth would be and thick wires forming the mane and tail. A wave of pixels changed the gunmetal grey body and black wires to a yellow coat with a blue mane. Stardust’s duplicate scanned the clearing, and walked off in the direction of the original.
Author's Note
Apologies for (maybe?) mild dark. Hopefully it won't be too prominent in following chapters. ^^;
Stardust's head felt like it was on fire.
She didn't care.
She just had a close encounter with a living meteorite and blasted it with a spell she didn’t even know she could cast.
She didn’t care.
All she did care about was getting as far away from that…thing as possible.
She slammed the door behind her and put her back to it, panting heavily.
"Whoa, sis, what the hay happened to you?"
Astro had gotten off the couch and stared wide-eyed at his sister as she burst in. Stardust opened and closed her mouth, but could only manage unintelligible mutters and hoof gestures. She realized that she had been running on pure adrenaline up to this point.
“I…I think I need some sleep.” She managed, and started limping drunkenly towards the couch.
Astro sucked air through his teeth, “I’ll say. You’re horn’s all charred!” Stardust looked up to see that her horn was, indeed, blackened with soot; a common side-effect of sudden bursts of uncontrolled magic. “What the hay were you doing out there?”
Stardust collapsed onto the plush relief that was the couch, she didn’t even acknowledge her brother’s question. Or the sudden knock at the door.
Wait. She thought, eyes shooting open, Knock at the door!?
Wonder who in Equestria that could be, this late. Astro thought as he turned the doorknob. The front door opened to reveal…Stardust. Standing right in front of him…Staring at him…
Astro blinked, turned to look at the Stardust lying on the couch staring at the newcomer with a petrified expression, and then back at the Sardust in the doorway that had a hollow stare, then back again.
A sudden burst of incoherent sounds from the Stardust in the doorway prompted Astro to take a few hurried steps back in surprise. The doppelganger walked closer, now fully in the house itself.
“zzgrago torah-go.” it said, it spoke in no language Stardust could recognize,
Astro’s expression, however, turned from one of fright, to intrigue.
“Teeco-ram?” he said,
The duplicate tilted its head on one side, “zrago-ma? Idala-mo.” It replied,
“What are you doing?” Stardust whispered in her brother’s ear,
“His language sounds very similar to Technik.” he replied,
Stardust stared in bewilderment as her brother conversed with the outsider; it was as if he was speaking with an old friend.
“graah, tikgraa.” Said the outsider,
“He says he wants to know whether or not this is a traditional greeting. Heh! Dude’s crazy.”
“He?” said Stardust,
“Well, it sounds like a guy.”
“Whatever. Just tell him to stop being so creepy!”
“sk-borah, kolamona gree-zorah.”
“xramon? Torah-koo.”
“He says, ‘apologies. I assumed all members of your species looked this way.’”
The outsider began to change; its horn and mane retracted into its head, and the color disappeared from its body in a wave of pixels, revealing what could only be described as a mechanical monster.
“Ok…that is a little creepy.” Said Astro, turning towards his sister still sitting on the couch,
“Apologies, I am incapable of recreating your exact physiology.” Said the outsider,
Both siblings turned to the mechanized pony with eyes the size of dinner plates,
“Now you speak English?” asked Stardust,
“Affirmative. I have analyzed this one’s translations to generate a coherent speech program.” He motioned towards Astro, who seemed to be caught between pride and absolute dumbfoundment.
“Alright,” said Stardust, eyes narrowing, “one: just who the hay are you, two: why are you here, and three: how do I know you’re not here to mount some kind of invasion?”
The mechanical being was silent for a while, during which his eyes showed two spinning icons in place of pupils.
“404: data not found.” It replied.
Stardust turned to Astro, giving him a look that seemed to challenge his translation skills,
“Uh,” he started, “he says he doesn’t know.”
Author's Note
Don't try to find coherence in the alien language. That would just be silly. 
