Starfall
Twilight stared up at the stars, her immaculate vision mentally tracing every constellation she could remember. She sat on top of her little hill, meekly biting into the apple she had brought as a substitute for dinner, which she had skipped. To her, the rumbling in the pit of her stomach was a small price to pay.
In seconds, the sky was filled with streaks of white light. It looked as if the entire sky was rending itself apart, and the ethereal trails were the very fabric of reality, showing itself for maybe a half second, before disappearing into oblivion forever. Twilight knew that meteorites couldn’t damage subspace even if they wanted to, but the idea thrilled her. The meteor shower was beautiful in every respect, just another way for ponies to enjoy Luna’s night. She was startled when one of the pinpricks of light didn’t disappear in the blink of an eye, but rather glowed like a bright new star in the night sky. It took Twilight only a few seconds to comprehend the only logical explanation for the meteor’s movements… She teleported herself off the hill just in time for the meteorite to slam into the ground where she had been standing. Dust flew, and the hill became a crater. The earth-shattering Boom rattled her to the bones, knocking her back another 20 feet with a concussive wave of kinetic force.
Slowly, Twilight got to her hooves, shaking herself clean of all the dust and dirt she had collected. When she had checked to make sure everything was in one piece, she looked back to the crater. The crater was nowhere near concentric, like in the movies, but was like an elliptical trench had been carved out of the ground by some vengeful god with a problem against stargazers. Smoke curled upward from where the meteorite had finally yielded to friction, and the smell of ozone filled her nostrils. Her eyes widened when she saw the meteorite. Or, at least, what she had presumed was a meteorite…
Laying in the center of the crater was a pony. Well, at least, by the most liberal of definitions, was a pony. It looked like it was made of pure silver, the material slightly glowing from the friction of entering the atmosphere. Steam peeled off it in ghostly tendrils, which writhed and bended like wraiths. Its face was devoid of all features, except for its lidded eyes. It almost looked like a forged steel version of one of Rarity’s mannequins. On the pony’s flank was it’s very vague cutie mark; a symbol foreign to her extensive years of studying various pony cultures…
It’s eyes opened slightly, and it was only then that Twilight noticed the pony had large gashes across it’s chest and forehooves, the wounds leaking an ichor the same color as its skin. It tried to lift itself up on wobbly legs, only to fall back to the ground with a metallic clank! Twilight, on instinct, rushed down into the crater, kneeling down by the metal pony. Its eyes, glowing white orbs with neither irises nor pupils, looked up to her, and their eyes met.
It was then that she felt something touch her consciousness; a presence unknown to her and foreign from every other mind she had magically touched. The personality was oddly crafted; as if it was not one, but many minds collated into one, operating in one massive, perfect union. It spoke to her, it’s voice not that unlike that of a stallion’s somewhere around her own age…
'Help… me…'
Through the mental connection, she felt the pony’s pain, extreme and mind-shattering, rending apart his psyche with its brutal spikes. It was all he could do to get those two words across the river of their minds, and after that, the metallic pony just lay there, unable to move as the pain ravaged his mind and body.
It was a split second decision, but Twilight knew if she didn’t help him, there was a good chance the… thing would die. She gently lifted the pony with her magic, and like a shot, she was off.
Twilight opened the door and rushed inside, setting the metallic pony on the dining room table. When she looked him over, she realized she didn’t know how exactly to help him. Twilight had never fixed up anypony with this much damage, and she took a step back to find a book on emergency aid…
No… just, she heard the pony think at her. 'Just… keep the… wounds… together… I’ll take it… from there…'
She was able to, after a few seconds of analyzing the way he spoke, send back her own message through the link, 'What do you mean?'
'Just… trust me…'
After a second of contemplation, Twilight did as she was asked, pulling the two sides of the wounds together as far as she could. She nearly released the spell in shock when the wounds started to heal themselves, stands of silvery skin shooting out over the chasms of the bloody trenches like harpoons. Soon, the wounds were nothing but reflective scars, and they too disappeared in a few minutes.
It took another five minutes before the pony sent a message through the mental link, 'Thank you stranger. If you hadn’t come along when you did…' it paused, before adding, 'Where am I?'
'You don’t remember how you got here?' Twilight asked, confused on how one could simply forget falling through the atmosphere and almost killing himself.
'…No.' The silver pony said, shaking his featureless head.' I… I remember falling, then… then…' it met her eyes with its own glowing white ones, and another emotion made its way across the link; loss. '…Nothing. Not a thing! Not how I got here, not where I came from…' It’s eyes suddenly widened, and joy flowed through the link, 'My name!'
'What? What about your name?' she asked.
'My name! I remember my name!' it shouted triumphantly. 'My name is Shift! I may not know anything else, but I know my name!'
'Alright… Shift.' She said, 'Why don’t we get you comfortable? I bet that table isn’t too comfy after all you’ve been through.'
Shift looked down, and for the first time, noticed that he was indeed laying prone on a wooden table. After a few minutes, and with much magical help from his only acquaintance, he managed to lay himself down on a pullout bed, mentally sighing as his head hit the pillow.
Twilight sat down in a chair next to the bed, 'How did you… um… do what you did back there?'
'Did what?' He asked, a furless eyebrow raised,' You mean the repair? I… really don’t know. I just… followed my instincts.' He cocked his head, staring off into space, 'Give me a second to trace it back down some of my networks…'
'Networks?' She asked, irrediclous, 'You mean… you’re a machine?'
'I think so. Hold on, I found a… self-schematic…?' there was a lull on the link, before his voice came back over the line, a hint of confused awe in his voice,' Project: SHIFT, model XAI-1, Nanite-based life-form, artificial personality…' His voice faltered, and when it came back, there was barely suppressed rage in it, 'The rest of the file is corrupted and fragged. I might as well be reading Latin. I could get the rest of my memory banks cleaned out and defragmented… but it seems to be a bit of a lengthy procedure…'
'How long?' Twilight asked. She had just met this metal amnesiac, and yet she felt a feeling of responsibility towards him. Maybe it was the linkage of their minds; the blinding feeling of somepony else’s pain from a (usually) fatal accident wasn’t something she could forget easily.
'Estimated completion time is a little over a month.' He said. 'In the meantime, I guess I need to stay incognito. If you’re anything like the rest of this planet’s population, I might stand out a little bit.'
'Well,' she thought,' If you want, you can stay here until your… repairs are complete.' She also couldn’t pretend she wasn’t curious; what was Shift? Who had built him? Heck, a better question would be who could build him?
'Thank you…' another pause, and a shake of his reflective head, 'Forgive me, I haven’t even asked the name of my savior!'
Twilight laughed,' Savior? I just held your wounds together, and I am definitely no-pony’s savior! My name, however, is Twilight Sparkle, but my friends just call me Twilight.'
Shift cocked his head to the side, like a friendly pooch would to an unknown person, '…Would I be considered a friend?'
'Sure?' She thought, a thin smile appearing on her lips, amused at the almost child-like behavior this creature was exhibiting. He was almost like a foal separated from his mother in a crowded mall, asking around in a polite, yet slightly fearful, tone if anyone had seen his folks. Shift didn’t really know what to do, and it seemed he was like her in one respect; neither could stand not knowing something.
At her answer, Shift nodded, his childish eyes happily widened, 'I have a friend! I have a friend, and her name is Twilight!' It was then that his mouth-less head made an unmistakable sound; that of yawning (Not even going to pretend to know how he did it…)
'I think we both need some sleep.' She said, grinning at Shift’s fluttering eyelids.
'Sleep? Whazzat…' his eyes shut with an audible clink, and the metal pony fell onto the bed, making a sound not unlike a quiet buzzsaw. Twilight giggled a little, before climbing the stairs to find her own bed.