The base was running smoothly. Rarity had come to understand only a little of how it worked and indeed, she caught herself wondering how she had managed to organize the colourful little probes at all.
She put the uttermost serious thought into it, or tried to, but she was currently sitting on the circumference of one of her pylons, upon the band of stylized metal that rotated steadily about the immense, glowing crystal. It made for quite the welcome distraction.
The unicorn suddenly wondered if she could have them accidentally-intentionally roll Tom by these elegant, hunky crystals, but as the colours and lights continued to dance before her she thought better of it. She wouldn't stoop so low, the past was in the past, and surely Tom was, for all the misgivings between them, too hardcore to be stung by such a gesture.
Rarity sighed, and hopped down from her perch of reflection, berating herself for even thinking of such things. It was, she had to admit, a bit unseemly to jump, but at the dusty grit of the world - at least those relevant bits of it directly under her hooves and around her little base - had been glazed into a gleaming glassiness by several probes she’d pulled from the mineral line.
That action hadn’t changed their overall efficacy much, and the little workers thrummed with constant activity. The majority gathered minerals, several collected vespene gas, smelly stuff that it was, though one dubiously favoured probe, ‘Probey-Wobey,’ as she dubbed it, followed Rarity’s pacing with mechanical exactitude. (Henceforth it will be called ‘PW’ because that is a disgustingly cutesy name otherwise. We will all pretend it just means ‘Probe Worker,’ but try as we might, we will know better.)
Probes lacked for limbs, but in the little array of conjured sparks it used to manipulate objects, this one held a bowl of tossed salad. Rarity couldn’t help but feel that it was giving her a look. The probe, not the salad. That’d have been silly.
“What?” she pleaded of it. Something about the wide, endearing crystal eye staring unblinkingly at her lettuce leaf as it floated in her magic made the whole thing very self conscious for her. “I have to eat, you know.”
Meeeooouuu? the little thing purred inquisitively. As sounds went, it was rather delightful, but as for meaningful conversation...not so much.
Of course, there was more to the little base than Rarity and the worker probes. She’d prodded at one of the structures the probes had brought into the intersecting fields of power from the pylons. The thing had had lit up with a sphere that was eye wateringly dark and bright at the same time, and shortly after a strange, armour clad warrior had stepped out.
His voice was understandable, if gruff. As for meaningful conversation, well...
“En taro Rarity!” he had shouted. She hoped it meant something flattering, but not too flattering. That could be awkward.
“Hello, darling, I am indeed Rarity, and welcome to our humble little outpost-”
“My life for fabulosity!” he proclaimed, like a great challenge to the universe in its entirety. While Rarity would be the first pony to agree on the values and virtues of fabulosity, the glimmering warrior had been so very outspoken about the whole thing.
With equal gumption, he had strode up to her and declared thusly: “We should expand to the natural!”
“Pardon?”
Uncertainty crept into the zealot’s voice, which actually brought it down to normal tones. “You know, the natural?”
Rarity nodded as she cast a cold, critical eye on her base. “Well, I suppose even with all the colour it is a bit stark without some greenery, a couple of flowers...”
“Er...right, that too. But what I mean is the natural expansion. There’s usually one around in this situation.
“Do tell me darling, what is a natural expansion then? Oh and do remind me to keep that greenery idea in mind as well, that’s worth looking into.”
“It’s, you know, another base.”
“Another base? We should go visit them. I hope they don’t mistake my ignorance for bad neighbourly manners.”
The zealot shook his head with effort. His expertise was in his limbs, not his head.
“No, not another base. A spot for another base. More minerals and things.”
A certain glimmer caught in Rarity’s eye. “More minerals? Oh, but do we need more?”
The zealot stared with the utmost seriousness into her eyes. “Do we want more? That is the question.”
Rarity nodded once. “Be a dear and go look around this ‘natural’ place for me, would you? We’ll come along when we’re a little more ready.” She dreaded the prospect of going exploring, in the dust and the dirt with it’s dirty dirtiness and desolate bleakness of bleak desolation.
So she’d sent him off to do that first.
In the meantime, she internally debated as to whether or not she should poke at the other structure. Excluding the pylons and that ghastly assimilator there were four in all, but two seemed to click and whir of their own accord and do very little else, leaving one mysterious remainder.
“Oh, why not. It’s hardly as if he was rude or anything. A diamond in the rough, surely. A bit of society will surely do him wonders. His hair certainly had style. I’m not sure at all what style, but it was...something.”
Without further adieu, she’d sidled in an extremely dignified manner up to the robotics bay. Whether it reacted to some prompt of hers, or if it inherently acted of its own, she didn’t know, just as the gateway had done it quickened into activity.
In the meantime she ate her salad, and sent PW to fetch a parasol. It was a good thing the structure took enough time for her to finish, because what stepped forth left her agape. The bowl clattered off the glassy ground. It was nearly crushed under a mighty metal limb, which with presence of mind Rarity would not have expected, hesitated and clattered down next to the unharmed bowl.
“I serve...forever.” Rarity squealed with delight as she momentarily forgot herself. This one knew exactly what she wanted , how could she not be elated?
It was huge. Immense. Immortal, in name at least. It looked like something from a tomb beneath the sands of a Darring Doo story. If something like that had been recast in heavy armour with twinned cannons, sent to the far reaches of space, seen a few things, and blown most of them up, it very well could have been nearly as impressive as the Immortal. Sure, those traits were necessary, but so much more important was that he had manners.
Rarity distractedly levitated the bowl to PW. “Be a dear and put this away please.” A thought seemed to strike her, and the unicorn eyed the sky warily. “And set up a few more pylons in the meantime. We could always do with a few more.” She blinked and recalled herself, quite the feat considering the massive, stoic, stalwart form of the patiently waiting Immortal. “Do come right back, we’ve got a natural to explore.” PW scurried away, making its distinctive sound.
If the point was pressed, Rarity might have admitted she was a bit flustered. This was dampened somewhat as they neared raw, nasty dirt. She winced, and the Immortal paused.
“My fairest mistress does not walk, she rides.” The mighty walker stooped enough for Rarity to graciously take the hint. It tingled and the air shone a slight blue as she passed through the Immortal’s shield before seating herself daintily atop it, between two heavy cannons.
“You certainly know how to treat a lady, good sir,” she said, laughing happily as the warrior-strider got up to speed. That the dust seemed to resolutely stay outside the translucent shield was another well appreciated boon.
It wasn’t very far at all until they came across the zealot, and Rarity thought he must be coming back to meet them, but no. He was punching rocks. Well, credit for effort, because he certainly slashed away at them with gusto.
“Hello, dear! Umm...what is it that you’re doing, exactly?”
The zealot didn’t even stop to talk, opting to sneak words in between possibly sweaty strikes.
“Clearing...debris! Nexus...goes...here!”
“Oh. Alright then.” She watched him work away for an awkward minute. If anything the zealot attacked the boulders with even more vigour. She realized how cool and reposed she felt compared to the merciless daylight and dust. Rarity felt around the Immortal’s top sneakily. Was there a...yes, there was. Air conditioning, just for her. He really did know how to treat a lady.
Still, that left nothing for her zealous zealot. “Would you - and this is just me thinking aloud here - perhaps want to take a break?” Besides, his grunts of exertion were most uncouth.
This did not prompt the reaction she’d hoped for. If anything, he grew more desperate and more furious in his hatred of large consolidated piles of mineral detritus.
“No! I must - Hyah! - clear the rocks... I’ll - Raa! - get it done...”
Rarity pondered, then whispered to her valiant strider. “I don’t suppose you could lend a...well, help him out anyway. I don’t want to bruise his pride, and I do appreciate his enthusiasm, but this is a bit tedious, isn’t it? Anything you can do within reason, please. Certainly don’t strain yourself like our friend there.”
Her whole body dipped and rose with the Immortal’s understanding nod. And then he fired his twin linked cannons.
It was a good thing the raining pebbles bounced off the shield, otherwise a few of them may well have fallen into Rarity’s slack jaw.
“Wha...”
“It is done.”
Rarity blinked. “That certainly... wow.”
What was presumably PW - all probes were identical - scooted between the Immortal’s legs, bustling on its way. The zealot ambled aside as the probe neared.
It got in position, to establish the warp-in of a nexus-
WE REQUIRE MORE MINERALS
Rarity shrieked; not with startelement or fear, but with frustrated anger. “I have had it up to here with you! Understand?! If it’s not pylons - pretty as they are - it’s minerals!” She stamped a hoof against the polished metal of the Immortal, a gesture he instantly forgave. Nobody liked that damn demanding voice anyway.
PW meowed its electric meow apologetically.
Rarity’s anger left her and she wilted into placid acceptance. “I suppose we just have to wait then. She slid down from her mount, tolerating the dirt beneath her hooves - a sure sign of woe indeed.
“Anyone up for tick-tack-toe?” The Immortal seemed content to wait forever, and she wasn’t sure PW could do something like a game. The zealot seemed to have the same thought and sat down, promptly beating her at the first round.
Rarity sighed. “Best out of three?”
Her warrior shrugged. “Alright.”