//------------------------------//
// 1 - Shooting star 
// Story: The Pony from Outer Space - Book 1 
// by Technopony145 
//------------------------------//

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.