//------------------------------//
// 2 - The outsider 
// Story: The Pony from Outer Space - Book 1 
// by Technopony145 
//------------------------------//

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.”