My Little Pony: My Little Pony The Martian

Mission Log – Solar Day 219

If only it had taken a little longer.

Today we are harvesting alfalfa in the cave. The reality is that we harvested what little alfalfa we had left that could still be harvested, and there wasn't much of it. We had just transported the results back to the living cabin and had them weighed. After being washed away by methane, pits and floods, only 92.5 kilograms were left in our fields. In other words, it took us nearly sixty solar days to grow food, but it was only enough for the pony to eat for thirty solar days. This momentum is not good.

But luckily that doesn't mean we're cold. There's still plenty of hay left from the previous harvests - just not enough to last us all the way to Sol 551. As long as we wait until the next potato harvest, we're almost certain to have enough food to reach our target. In fact, to be honest, the total amount of food we have now may be enough; but even if ponies can eat potatoes, the protein content of alfalfa is still higher in comparison, and it has more benefits for their bodies in all aspects. benefit.

Now that we were in the cave, we sown most of the remaining alfalfa seeds into the area after the sinkhole was filled. We also took cuttings from alfalfa that, while not quite dead, had lost its harvest value. Once I got back to the habitat I dunked the ends of the cuttings into the water. In fact, there are conditions for doing this even in caves, but at that time I didn't have the tools to fix the cuttings to prevent them from falling down and soaking in the water. Tomorrow I will go back and transplant these cuttings into the field that is left after the alfalfa seeds are used up. Currently, my transplant survival rate is only about 50%, which is certainly not ideal, but it’s still better than nothing.

I also checked the condition of several potato plants at the same time. One of the tubers has reached maturity, but the others are still a little green, so harvesting them early is out of the question.

We tried a new experiment today, and the main purpose was actually for the sake of Dragonfly. Starlight Glimmer transferred the energy collected from all the batteries in the cave into a single battery and filled it up. She then set up the device to project a magic field like she had done when making the battery, and let it run continuously for half an hour. Dragonfly tried to pretend that it was no big deal, but Fireball couldn't help but moved the bug to the battery and sat down to look at her. Dragonfly complained a few times, but didn't struggle much.

In addition to alleviating our worries about such a cute alien around us, the experimental results also have a clear conclusion. This was the first time I was able to witness firsthand how plants reacted to the presence of cherry berries. The potatoes didn't show much movement, but after she inspected individual plants, the leaves seemed to be enlarging a bit. The reaction of alfalfa was even more obvious. The wilted yellow plant straightened up under my eyes, and the transplanted cuttings actually grew by an inch.

However, the changes in the cherry tree are the most eye-catching. I swear I saw a sapling bend its branches in her direction.

However, Berry has always insisted that she is not a farmer, saying that farm work is not her "special talent". After what I saw today, I really want to see what a pony with a talent for farming can do. Starlight told me she knew a pony who could turn seeds into blooming flowers in a matter of seconds, and today I finally believed her.

Think about how potentially valuable this ability is to us. The current population of the earth is about to exceed the nine billion mark, but half of the people are in a miserable state that politicians euphemistically call "food supply insecurity" and ordinary people call it "famine." Countries are fighting to protect or exploit ecologically exhausted fishing grounds, while large numbers of refugees are fleeing for water and grass, desperately escaping from a country that is about to become a desert and heading for geomantic treasures with abundant food. Plant science, which has developed rapidly in the past decade, continues to pursue sustainable development methods that can feed the world, which may exceed 11 billion people in my lifetime - provided that there is no disaster like the zombie crisis. road.

Think carefully about the future and what we can learn from ponies. Ponies like Cherry Berry can transform nutrient-depleted barren soil into the world's breadbasket; Pegasus like Spitfire has the ability to control the weather - imagine turning the Sahara Desert back into the lush water and grass it was tens of thousands of years ago. The emergence of unicorn magic and magic technology will empower humans to harness the unlimited energy generated by life itself, replacing fossil fuels in one fell swoop.

We humans owe so much to our planet. Dragonfly always says that Mars hates our presence, maybe not because we are intruders. Mars may treat us about as much as we hate the embarrassing rash we get. We are parasitic lice on Mother Earth, and Mars does not want to see such disgusting things on itself.

However, ponies and their friends can help us solve all the above problems. I’m not talking about the hippie nonsense of “returning to nature” or “getting close to the earth”. Nature is a ruthless, malicious sadist, and there are a million ways to send you to the west. (But now I'm willing to give nature a bag of all-natural fertilizer and a Mother's Day card, and Mars, that bitch, can't even get a fucking tie.) Pony's solution is the best solution - a kind of The ecological balance under careful management not only meets the needs of the people but also protects the natural environment system that is the source of life.

And our reward for them is... video games? Hot chicken antique TV series? Children's books? Give them training on how to avoid suicide risks in the operation of space projects?

Apparently Earth is going to have to send a more capable negotiator than me.

Starlight was watching me typing from behind, and she said their world wasn't perfect either. They also have barren wastelands and deserts. (She's also shocked that nine billion people live on one planet.) And it's not yet clear whether the magic generated by all life on Earth is enough to create an Equestria-like economy. Much work remains to be done.

But the future is promising, and dreams can always be had.

In addition to dreams, there can also be nightmares, because the cold reality is before us: if we can't escape this deadly cold little broken ball, all these dreams can only be reduced to empty talk.