My Little Pony: My Little Pony The Martian

AMICITAS Mission Three – Mission Day 256

ARES 3 solar day 253

Fireball hugged a pillar of crystal while trying not to think about the irony of his situation. Of course, his inner resistance had no effect. Instead, the imaginary image of himself being flattened by tons of shining crystals was more deeply imprinted in his mind.

"Do we really have to do this?" He stared closely at the two circles of buzzing magic chain saws that were rotating rapidly. The light blue light blade was so close that he was so frightened that he did not dare to speak out. "This feels like a bad idea. Like the one I came up with."

"Shut up." Xingguang was concentrating on adjusting the position of the two saw discs back and forth for a few centimeters, and said angrily, "Just be prepared to bear the weight when I start cutting. If this crystal hits the ground, If it's broken to pieces, it's over. We have to tear it down and start over."

Mark stood aside and his only purpose today was to transport the magic batteries needed for Starlight work, so he wisely remained silent.

"That's easy to say." Fireball's fondness for this clichéd English grew day by day. Of course, he said this, but what he was thinking in his mind was: the fireball sleeps here; he was born (eating) gems and died (carrying) gems.

The premise is that the unicorn won't chop him in half like it did when it tore the spaceship into pieces the day before yesterday.

"I told you, don't complain, shut up." Starlight moved the saw disc downwards a little, and then nodded to indicate that it was ready.

"Dragon doesn't nag and complain," Fireball defended seriously, "Either we don't say it, or we mean it if we say it."

"D+." Starlight was not in the mood to argue with him, so she pushed the saw blade forward.

Soon Fireball felt the weight of the rock in his claws increased, and after struggling to hold on for two or three seconds, he came to his senses and realized that Starlight's menacing cutting spell had not hurt him. But it was not yet time for him to breathe a sigh of relief; the texture of the crystal was as smooth as glass - after all, it was originally crystallized quartz - and it tried desperately to break free from his arms and slide to the earth. His response was to try to hold on tighter, so tight that the edges of the crystal pillars, which were as thick as tree trunks, cut into the scales covering his arms.

Then a layer of magic enveloped the crystal, lifted it out of the fireball's embrace, turned it carefully to one side, and then - gently - lowered it to the ground.

The big stone fell to the ground, and Fireball breathed a sigh of relief, exhaling a little black smoke. "Why didn't you do this from the beginning?"

"Then I have to cast two spells at the same time," Starlight replied. "I could do it in the horse country before, no problem. Now you want me to be here, relying only on batteries? I'm thinking too much." The purple unicorn circled He slowly turned around the stone pillar and examined it up and down carefully. "It looks like it should be fine," she finally said. "No flaws, no cracks, and the size is completely adequate. Now please step back."

This crystal block cut from a stone pillar diagonally passing through the cave could have been made into the core of more than a dozen conventional magic batteries. It could even be used to make four of the three types of batteries that Mark's boss had mentioned before. A meter-high giant magic battery. However, since there are only two crystals of such a large size and pure enough texture in the cave, the one in front of you will be used to make eight large batteries with a more reasonable size - a cross-section of thirty square centimeters and a length of one. One hundred and fifty centimeters.

Of course there will be waste of materials. The nature of quartz determines that it is easy to grow into a hexagonal structure. The battery will be made into a rectangular cube that is easy to stack. The original design was a cube, but now it has been changed to a rectangular prism in order to try to store as much energy as possible with limited materials. The process of removing excess crystals should be similar to peeling potatoes. However, on a planet where even the nutrients in potato skins are too precious to be wasted, the cutting of gemstones is much more meticulous. Specifically, the blue blade carefully cut it, and then used magic to carefully peel off the original hexagonal corners to expose the four corners. The same care is taken with the ends of the crystal, and each corner is trimmed into a square shape.

Then, after Starlight took the trimmed crystal block out of the scrap, she carefully recalibrated the cutting spell and began to use the knife - one piece, two pieces, three pieces - to cut the crystal block into eight identical segments. . The ordinary battery that Mark had been holding next to him the whole time weighed 60 kilograms, and the eight freshly baked crystals in front of him each weighed 300 kilograms.

That's the only reason why Fireball came to work today - weight. Starlight can only lift heavy objects with the help of a battery; without her magic, her strength is no different than that of any other pony. Mark is slightly stronger, but even under the gravity of Mars, he cannot carry such a final product alone. Only Fireball is strong enough to lift more than two and a half tons of rocks for a short time, giving Starlight breathing time to switch spells... In the same way, only he is strong enough to carry these crystal blocks out of the tangled corridor one at a time. Go to the front of the cave and assemble the battery there.

No complaints about Fireball either. That's all he can do. He's not a technician, he's not an engineer, and he doesn't know magic. He could only hold tools, carry heavy objects, and do what he was told. There are only two things he is good at: driving rockets and walking in space. Since these two skills are of little use on the surface of Mars, he can only do his best to help out; although he always has many dissatisfactions of one kind or another, he has never complained about his mission.

Unless the mission threatens to kill him. He is still just a young dragon, and the three tons of stones piled up like this can still make him suffer.

Fireball carried the cut crystals into lumps that were easy to process, and carried them to the entrance of the cave, chewing the scraps of sawdust as snacks along the way. He helped Starlight Glimmer, helping her put each crystal on the battery cover, bending the metal frame according to her instructions, and fixing the crystal to form a base.

"By the way," he asked tentatively, "we can... uh... make... uh... not a hole, but... a trench? Drill a trench on the crystal. Make the frame stronger."

"It won't work," Mark spoke before Starlight could. "This whole thing will shake like a sonufa when we launch it...it will shake so much that you can't even imagine it. The vibration alone might crack the crystal; if In order to install the battery housing frame, trenches are made in the crystal, but instead a breakthrough is prepared for the crack.”

"He's right," Starlight added, "We will have to build a fixing collar for the upper part of the crystal later, otherwise the battery will be shaken into pieces when taking off. But we have completed the cutting work, next Not anymore." She stared at a whiteboard with intricate diagrams drawn in what looked like a magic circle, the number eight, and a snowman's creation to antagonize Discord.

"Can't we use the leftover scraps from your spacecraft to build a larger battery frame?" Mark asked, "Building a new one from scratch will be much stronger."

"Maybe," Starlight replied, "If I were in the horse country, there would be no doubt about it, but here I don't have much confidence in my skills. If I make a mistake when reconstructing the electrodes to the array wiring, not only will the new battery manufacturing If it doesn't come out, even the old battery will be reimbursed. You should have asked Tingting for advice on this kind of thing." She leaned closer to the schematic diagram on the whiteboard and studied it carefully, "Please be quiet now, I want to concentrate on setting up the new enchantment array. "

"How much are you going to do this time?" Berry asked again.

"Just four." Starlight replied patiently, "The number is the same as before when making ordinary batteries. Now please make sure to let me focus. The next step is very important."

Mark pulled the last six spare batteries over to the field and began wiring up four of them. "Fireball, can you get the magic field generator? You know, the one that..." Mark said, buzzing and gesturing to the sparks rising from the antenna of the projection device.

"Mark, I know what that thing is." Fireball roared lowly; for the first time in an unknown period of time, a wisp of unknown fire came out of his nostrils.

"Okay, okay," Mark quickly defended, "I'm just not sure if you still remember how to say it."

"Mark, I know how to talk." Fireball roared. For some reason this human had made him very upset today.

"Fireball, he didn't mean it," Berry advised, "Don't take it too seriously."

"But he's like this every time!" Spitfire also yelled, "He always says he'll change it, but it's still the same next time!"

"Hey, what do you mean?" Mark was unhappy. "Such words are totally unfair. You know it well!"

"Feihuo, why are you so angry now!" Berry stood between Pegasus and the human.

"Can you care?!"

"Then what the hell do you want me to do?"

"It's better to treat us..."

"Hey!!!"

The fireball jumped back in shock. His instinct had forgotten all about the gravity of Mars at this time, and the force of his reaction was too great, pushing him off guard and causing him to lose his center of gravity and stagger. The strong flash of light mercilessly awakened his deep fear of the lightning and thunder of the past few days.

Seeing everyone scattered and falling in the mud, they must have experienced the same situation as him just now.

The starlight was an exception. It was suspended in mid-air and glowing. A beam of pure magic energy spurted out from the battery placed next to her and flowed through her body. "What's wrong with all of you?!" Her loud question echoed around the walls of the cave. Starlight waved her hoof and pointed at the cocoon hanging by the cave wall behind her. In front of it stood the little robot that was guarding it day and night. "Are you talking like that in front of Ting Ting?"

Fireball's internal organs curled up in shame. Where did he want to get the dragonfly just now? The only thing in his mind just now... was... full of resentment...

And then again, what on earth made him so angry?

The starlight floated back to the ground, releasing its magic. The light beam that had just connected her body to the battery instantly dissipated. "All of you," she ordered, "will send an email to Dr. Shields tonight. Now go and apologize to Tingting one by one."

The last one to hug the cocoon was Fireball, muttering lowly, "I'm sorry." But the reason why he ended up being the last one this time was just that he was the furthest away from the cocoon at the beginning.

When the new battery was built, they turned on the magic field again until the last battery was used up, almost without saying a word the whole time. Everyone consciously tried to keep the distance between their eyes. Then, after another round of hugs and apologies from Dragonfly, they quietly left.

Halfway back to the living area, Mark broke the deathly silence. "Why has the relationship between us suddenly become so tense?" he asked. "I feel like no matter what I say, I will definitely make someone angry."

"Nervous," Spitfire replied, "We've had a few close calls. Irritated. Anxious. It's not getting better. Sometimes it happens after fighting monsters."

"We all," Starlight insisted, "need to talk to Dr. Shields."

"There was never any need for mind-reading witch doctors during the space race." Berry said gloomily.

Fireball almost slipped his words, trying to swallow back the obvious rebuttal that was about to come out of his mouth. Anyone who knows even a little bit about the early space race—not just the Changelings, but also the various other space programs founded by Jack-O-Law, Jack-Law, and Dog—will realize that everyone involved needed to see a psychiatrist. .

But now is not the time to pick up which pot is not being opened.

There is, however, a crucial question.

"Starlight...this email," Fireball asked tentatively, "will it be graded?"

"Ask Dr. Shields."

After these words, everything returned to silence.