$re = '/@(.*)(@[\s\S]*)@default\.\1.*/';
$str = '@d.e.f@=y
@a.b.c@=x
@h.i.j@=aaaa
@default.a.b.c@=QQQ
@asdfasd.fasdfs.asdfa@=23423
@default.h.i.j@=234
@default.RR.TT@=393993
@x.y.z@=0
@default.q.r.s@=1
@l.m.n@=8.3
@q.r.s@=78
@blah.blah.blah@=blah';
$subst = "@$1$2";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str, 1);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$result;
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php