By the time Twilight left her library home, a large throng of ponies were making their way towards the Everfree impact site. So much for my discovery, Twilight thought to herself. Despite this, she pressed onward, following the crowd to the path nearest the meteor's location. She was quite surprised to find the forest cordoned off by the town guards. One of the guards' stoic faces broke upon making contact with her, grinning a relieved grin and motioning her over.

"Twilight Sparkle, just the mare I'd wanted to see; I was about to send a runner for you."

Quite confused, she responded, "Me? What for?"

"Well, whenever anything unusual happens you seem to be the one to go to, so I'd just figured....no offense."

She was above a snarky response, but she's still rolled her eyes at such a remark. Still, she took it upon herself to investigate the meteor.

It was a short trek into the Everfree, and despite the eeriness of the forest, she was more than capable of handling any threat this far in. Nearing where she assumed the meteor impacted, she could see singed and cracked trees in the distance, and could faintly smell ozone atop the thick stench of smoke. Reaching a patch of trees just outside the crater, Twilight came upon Eagle Eye, Ponyville's premier detective, apparently taking action to secure and study the meteor.

"Ah, Miss Sparkle, I'm glad you made it so quickly. Its....well....you have to see it, its like nothing I've ever seen before." The investigator seemed quite eager, completely excited to be stumped like this.

"I know; I haven't had the change to study a meteor fragment in person before!"

"Oh, are you in for a treat. This, Twilight Sparkle, is no meteor...."

Confused, Twilight entered the clearing, and gasped. Deep in the glade lay the meteor's impact crater, but despite the destruction surrounding the area, the object was completely intact, likely thanks due to the shimmering blue shield. Although the shield partially obstructed their view inwards, there was still enough visibility to see the massive golem standing within. It was a figure unlike Twilight had ever seen; the feet were clearly hooves, but the front limbs ended in flexible, stocky digits like a dragon's claw. Its torso was a round, stocky shape and the figure plainly lacked a head, but it was evident that this was the original construction and not some destruction wrought by the statue's descent through the atmosphere.

What was odd was the swiveling orb atop the torso, bright blue light shimmering through the shield and tracking all the guards' movements. Even stranger still, was the fact that neither this golem nor its shield emitted any magical signature whatsoever, despite the clear evidence that magic was at play. Who would build such a statue? How would they power its magic? Why would they drop it from the sky? All these questions and more rang out in Twilight's head.

Without warning, the golem inside rose up from its kneeling position, towering at least 25 feet tall within its shield. Despite the quickness of this movement, it continued to lie still, despite the startled reactions of the guards present. Moving closer, Twilight light up her horn to try and get a magical scan on the golem through its shield. Despite her care, the shield flickered, and the titanic golem moved again; this time it reached on its back for some strange metal object, which it then pointed at her.

A loud screech echoed through the clearing, emanating from the golem. An imposing, gravely voice soon followed, garbled and riddled with static as if spoken through a radio. Unfortunately, it was completely alien to her. "Attraray, too av tar aggsy axchoon par Loot Elltee Farahd quex Ihmk. Ilt ex toos om varn, sek husvor axiom tu foray untag. Too aw fif send colldwor!"

Frightened, Twilight canceled the spell and took a step back, barely taking notice of the two guards rushing to place themselves between her and the golem. Simultaneously they shouted for her to get to cover, and for the golem to cease whatever it was doing lest they be forced to take action against it. Twilight saw their mistake, and tried yelling out a warning as they lit their horns against the figure.

With a static discharge, the shield shimmered and died, and the massive golem practically jumped backwards, showing speed that contradicted its stocky frame. There was deep thump, as if someone blew into a rather long pipe for fun, and great clouds of smoke filled the area. Finally, two incredibly deafening bangs round out through the clearing, causing all ponies present to either clench their ears in pain or retreat towards Ponyville.

Twilight ran like she hadn't run for some time. Mentally, she kicked herself for choosing to stay in, not exercising with Rainbow Dash as often, and for snacking more than she was proud to admit. Still, she ran as fast as she could, piecing together what she could from the brief interaction: the massive metal golem was disturbingly fast for something so huge, it was capable of advanced movement and operated completely free of any magic.

That last fact frightened her more than any villain she'd faced in her adventurous career.

Author's Note

Wew