//------------------------------// // Twilight Sparkle vs Proxy Pylon // Story: Ponies Versus Starcraft // by ambion //------------------------------// It was forty two seconds past the appointed time, and Twilight Sparkle was running out of reasons why they’d be late. The pylon she paced before shone, as if with sympathy for her plight, continuing on its gentle waltz. By the fifty second mark, Twilight was pacing, trying to see if she could figure out if gravimetric distortions upon the warp matrix could cause micro temporal dilations of this magnitude. The full minute felt so terribly long for her. It wasn’t just that Twilight was punctual, oh no. She was quite proud of her time keeping, especially the complicated, intuitive system she had developed to approximate the actual meeting time. For instance, if her friend Applejack said ‘I’ll swing by about noon,’ the earth pony could reliably expected, within half an hour of the mark, to show, despite a predilection for being drawn away with unexpected tasks. On the other feather, somepony like Rainbow Dash might say ‘yeah, in five minutes,’ and what it actually meant was ‘Yes, Twilight Sparkle, I will - at some point after a nap, a trick, accounting on potential audience slash ego indicators, and something cool show up, appear at some point today. Or not. Whatever, it's cool.’ As for Pinkie Pie...Twilight’s hooves twitched through the dust. With Pinkie Pie, the usual order of Cause and Effect got drunk (probably at one of her parties, no less) and the two immutable fundamentals of time got unmentionably private somewhere or other. What had Twilight so on edge here though - even more so than being alone in an expansive, lonely dust bowl of a world with a fascinating yet silent piece of technology for company - was that those she was to be meeting here were supposed to be as orderly as her. The brotoss were supposed to be so punctual. It’s one of the things she loved about them. That and the amazing, no, fantastic, no beautiful breadth of their technology. Even if they weren’t showing up on time. “It’s probably nothing.” For her part, she let herself imagine that the floating crystal of the pylon nodded for her in a most placating manner. “They’re Brotoss, they wouldn’t just leave me out here.” She glanced about and was greeted by endless vistas of desolation. All around her, but for the one, softly glowing pylon. In her head, she named it ‘Pylo,’ and it became a friend and confidente. “I mean, just because I managed to get here on time doesn’t say anything against them.” Twilight pawed at the dusty soil, lowering her head to the little hole that she’d exposed. “Whatever way you look at it, they are the most orderly guys around.” Twilight stretched her neck up, far as it it would go, staring far as she could into the empty sky. Her voice went strange and nasally. “Not that that’s saying much, considering.” She whipped about on the pylon that - while obviously having changed in no way at all, somehow showed a complicated emotion of disappointment, curiosity, and helpfulness. Twilight shook dust from her mane and tail. “I don’t mean it like that! It’s just, well compared to the rest, the bugs and thugs, even Pinkie Pie would...no. No. Even they’re not like that.” Just the thought made her shudder, and she sheltered from the abrasive wind against the pylon. “Oh Pylo. Why can’t your creators be more like you?" Twilight smiled as her gaze sank into the artfully worked crystal, a masterpiece of form and function. “I mean, you’re steady. Constant. Reliable. Tastefully illuminated, and producing free energy at a square inverse dimensional reciprocation rate." Just thinking about it sent shivers of delight through her. “But instead they’re so blunt at times. Even the simplest logic says that you’d have to be deranged to be melee...and if and when that isn’t enough, they escalate to full on planetary incineration.” Twilight glanced about the lonely world, then, bursting with glee, embraced the pylon in a full on hug. “I can’t help but wonder how they ever managed to create something as amazing as you, Pylo...” She reveled in her hug for a good four seconds before a cautious cough brought her back to herself. Still hugging the pylon, she turned her head, cast adrift in a sea of self consciousness and dread. A sizeable Brotoss army stared at her from just feet away, to the last they were expresionless. Even the steel clad stalkers and dragoons, but especially the stalkers. “I was...was just checking the power flow and...and...how long have you been there?” She flung herself away from Pylo as if it were suddenly ablaze. A zealot casually pointed skywards, and along that line Twilight caught sight of an arbiter hanging in the air. Amongst it’s impressive repetoire, Twilight knew it’s most widespread - literally - function to be it’s mass area cloaking field. The same zealot shrugged non-chalantly, all the while the unicorn wanted to shrivel up and hide. “Oh, a few minutes. We thought ‘bugs and thugs’ was clever. He was smirking. If she buried her head in the dust, not just quickly but really quickly, she might just lose them and spare herself some of the burning embarrassment. The zealot stared at her an agonizing second before turning away. “Well, come on then. Pylo will be waiting for you, I’m sure.” As the army started it’s slow move to regroup around the arbiter, a shadowy voice whispered in the unicorn’s ear. “Pylo Toridas, Twilight Sparkle.” She huffed, and her lip trembled. “Hey, don’t worry about it, just teasing you. Those Khala guys, pfft, amirite? I’ve seen him dance when he thinks nobody is looking...and frankly, nobody should see that.” The heavy voice laughed with mirth, but quietly. “Just think," the voice went on to say amiably, "you’re probably a way better dancer than that guy.” Twilight immediately began her eyes searching for the most nondescript bit of dust in existence. “Uh...yeah. Right.” For all of it though, she blushed and smiled, and after a quick trot caught the Brotoss up, who welcomed her into their fold.