My Little Pony: My Little Pony The Martian

AMICITAS Mission Three – Mission Day 262

ARES 3 solar day 259

The effect of standing outdoors on Mars without a spacesuit helmet is basically suicide on the spot, unless you have a magical unicorn accompanying you.

The five of them stood together outside the Cave Farm airlock in a tight gesture not seen outside the rover in many days. The only thing that protects them from experiencing a brief but extremely painful death when they take off their helmets is a small tank of compressed oxygen and a battery-powered force field barrier.

"I still think this is stupid." Fireball said bluntly.

Spitfire ignored him and took off his helmet. Although it may indeed be stupid, this method is very similar to a classic and effective team-building method, so she is still willing to try it. And they spent an hour discussing the most suitable form of activities before finally deciding on this special plan.

The email from Dr. Shields—the last message sent before Dr. Kapol ordered to cut off the email and chat channels and begin the long data transmission that lasted several days—mentioned that this was a man who was born in his forties. The unreliable treatments that were notorious many years ago were only briefly popular for a short period of time, and were quickly replaced by more effective treatments and became history. And according to the doctor, their current situation is one of the very few where this therapy might actually be applicable.

According to Starlight Glimmer's translation, the treatment is called Primal Scream Therapy.

"I can maintain this barrier for about ten minutes," Starlight said, "So Berry, it's limited to one language, okay?"

Berry curled her lips in disdain, then stepped forward and pressed against the edge of the force field barrier. She took a deep breath.

Upon seeing this, Fei Huo quickly blocked his ears with his front hooves as a reflex before Berry Berry could open his mouth.

Primal Scream Therapy was originally supposed to involve meaningless shouts and yells without words, but most of the refugees had a lot to say about Mars. Berry chose to conduct this exchange in her native language, and made up for the relative lack of a high concentration of obscene words in the language with a large number of rhyming slang and cryptic words.

The echo disappeared almost immediately. Outside the force field barrier, the thin air of Mars absorbed the sound wave's energy, leaving nothing behind.

"Not bad," Fireball said in English, "but now look at mine."

An adult dragon is as large as a medium-sized commercial airliner. When they roar, the sound is heard in all directions, and the energy of the shock wave is enough to frighten the birds in the sky.

It would take more than a century for Fireball to reach that size, but his straightforward wordless roar accompanied by the largest burst of flames he had erupted in months was still spectacular, even compared to his elders. Compared with them, they can also show a power that cannot be underestimated...

...Unfortunately, the rainbow flame ended with a burst of coughing halfway through its roar, leaving only a large amount of black smoke that made everyone breathless.

Seeing everyone busy coughing and waiting for the pony's EVA life support system to clear the choking smoke from the bubbles, Spitfire decided that it was her turn now. Of course she couldn't compete with the power of the dragon's roar - no pony could, not even the big brother who had taken vocal lessons from several dragons.

But that's not the purpose of this kind of training at all, right? The real intention is to gather all my frustrations, all my anger, sadness and fear, and throw them at the abstract world in front of me, instead of venting them to my friends regardless. Spitfire's simple half-roaring, half-roaring cry can also achieve the goal.

Next up is Mark. He achieved a similar effect to Berry's tirade with just "Fuck!!!" Miraculously, the echo of that word lasted a little longer than the roar of the fireball.

The last person to appear was Starlight Glimmer, who had been standing behind everyone the whole time, waiting, listening, and concentrating. Now they turned their heads to face her, seeing the dark green flames shooting out of the corners of her eyes, and feeling the bursts of hot smoke emanating from her body.

Everyone suddenly subconsciously scrambled for helmets and fled to the outside of the bubble.

Starlight's scream was slowly exhaled, and the magic energy flowing through her body at the same time added fuel to the flames, gradually amplifying from a soft beginning to a thunderous roar that shook the earth. Clusters of deep purple and dark crystals rise from the ground beside the hillside. Starting from Starlight's body, they extend forward in a roughly conical shape, and the cracked ground spreads down the slope for more than a hundred meters.

After that, the flames gradually faded, and Starlight returned to her normal voice and said, "I feel better now. Please help me put on my helmet, okay?" After a while, Mark reached out and was about to touch the sparks that had just grown in the Martian soil. When he saw a small piece of crystal, she stopped him and warned, "Oh, by the way, don't touch these things. Something terrible could happen."

The echo remains.

According to the grapevine, Starlight's cry continued to echo across Mars long after the incident occurred.

Back in the cave, the team members gathered around the dragonfly cocoon and listened to Mark read the dialogue between Bilbo and Smoog in The Hobbit.

"I know some dragons like this," Fireball muttered. "Old fool. Likes the sound of his voice. How I used to be your age."

Mark put down the computer and thought for a while, then asked, "Do you think Smoog is an antique? The one who yelled, 'Kids, get off my lawn'?"

"Pretty much," Fireball replied. "If he's starting to lose his scales, he must be old and sick. No dragon has ever been bald."

"That's right," Spitfire agreed. "Listen to me as an experienced pony, dragons have no weaknesses."

"That's damn right." Fireball nodded, speaking his English with a Southern—or more accurately, Hazzard County—accent.

"Then what do you think of Bilbo?" Mark asked again.

"I think Bilbo is doomed without the Ring," whispered Fireball. "An angry dragon won't be interested in small talk. He should run away at once."

"But if Bilbo escapes, he won't be able to get the information that the dwarves can use to kill Smoog." Starlight Glimmer interjected, "Isn't this the ultimate purpose of this trip?"

"Am I the only one here," Cherry Berry also joined in, "who thinks those dwarves have always been useless? If it wasn't Gandalf who saved them, it was Bilbo. Will Bilbo save them this time?"

Mark smiled, "This book has been reproduced in several different movies. The first of them had a line at the end of this scene that did not appear in the book. The dwarves congratulated Bilbo for surviving, and he replied Said, 'Thank you for your kindness, but I would very much like a more practical response - in other words, put out the fire!!!'"

Everyone burst into laughter. Spitfire had had teammates yell the same thing in serious situations that weren't funny at all, and she couldn't help but laugh.

It feels really good to have the team back together.