My Little Pony: My Little Pony The Martian

AMICITAS Mission Three – Mission Day 290

ARES 3 solar day 286

Transcript – Hydraulic Telegraph Switch – ESA Maltimore Center ＜-＞ ESA spacecraft AMICITAS

AMICITAS: Amicitas calls Maltimore, uses the starlight space suit to reply, completed.

ESA: Maltimore calls Amicitas, over.

AMICITAS: Based on previous reports, preparations are being made for a second attempt to awaken the Dragonfly. Please notify when the tracking spell is ready, completed.

ESA: Get ready to track your spells. Let us know when you are ready to cast the spell and we will ask you to wait if necessary, over.

AMICITAS: Received, please stand by, over.

ESA: On standby, over.

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Berry asked from the side.

"Not much," Starlight struggled to say with her mouth full of cables, "How about we move back and try not to absorb the magic energy?"

Cherry Berry especially hated this moment when she was powerless. There was important work to be done, but she could only stand by and watch as Starlight Glimmer connected every magical battery she could find.

This time, all the cables were connected, clamped, and even twisted directly to a single battery, instead of being connected in series as before; there was no rabbit ear device installed on this battery this time. This is because this time Starlight decided not to use the previous method of creating a magic field, but to directly inject magic energy into the dragonfly. And because connecting the cable directly to the cocoon carries the risk of cooking a changeling in the cocoon, Starlight will personally go into battle this time to directly guide the magic energy herself, which will give her the ability to control the flow of magic energy and sense the feedback from the target. ability……

...In addition, this approach also brought the risk of roasting a changeling and a unicorn at the same time, which caused repeated discussions and strong protests from everyone.

However, Starlight finally decided to adopt this plan because they had no extra time or magic energy to try a third time. If there is still no visible reaction this time, they will have to take another approach. In view of this, Berry asked Mark for a spare plastic dome support column of the habitation cabin, so that they would have an oversized stick at their disposal at any time, and her cherry trees would be protected from damage. .

But apart from having this two-meter-long piece of flexible plastic under the hoof (with the internal elastic band removed so it can be separated from the rest of the assembly), there's not much that CherryBerry can do. Spitfire also wanted to find something to do, so she took the initiative to send a telegram to Equestria, her hooves dangling ready to press the water pipe located at the neck of Starlight's worn space suit. Fireball seemed content that he had nothing to do, sitting far away from everyone and observing quietly. Mark was probably in the same mood as Berry, pacing back and forth.

Starlight began to flip the switches on the battery one by one. The last battery electrode, partially covered by several cable clamps, began to freely flow with eager magic energy, sparkling and crackling. This experiment will use every battery - nineteen ordinary batteries plus four giant batteries that will be used for MAV transformation in the future; the ponies have tried their best to collect every battery in this barren desert. Any trace of magic energy will be put into this move without any reservation.

In the end, there is only one switch left. After flipping it, the last battery will switch from charging to releasing. Starlight, surrounded by cables, stood with her front hooves on the electrodes, facing the cocoon. "The experiment is ready."

"Send a message to Twilight Sparkle," Berry ordered. "The spell is ready. On standby, waiting for final order approval."

CherryBerry looked at Spitfire's water pipe and heard the click of the plastic and the soft splash of water as the hooves pressed against each other. A universe away, dozens of ponies plus one or two changelings, and maybe a minotaur, would watch an indicator light flashing on a certain panel. One of them would have the water supply override switch pressed under his hoof or claw or whatever, ready to send a reply.

More splashes followed. Now, except for Mark, they were all able to listen to the voices and interpret the messages sent by the water telegraph. But Spitfire would still loudly repeat the message he received in English, not because Mark was there, but because this was the protocol: "Twilight Sparkle sent a message: Preparation for tracking is complete, everything is ready, and the experiment can begin. .”

Cherry took a deep breath and said, "Mark, Fireball, be prepared. If the spell goes out of control, go to rescue immediately."

"Yes, sir." Mark replied neatly.

"Starlight, don't rush and take your time," she continued, "just start the show."

She watched Starlight stand up, reach down with one hoof to flip the switch, and then slap the two electrodes of the battery with one hoof. In an instant, her eyes turned pure white and glowed brightly, and an invisible updraft held up her mane and tail, flying rapidly in the air.

The unicorn gritted his teeth. Concentrated, her eyebrows were lowered and her lips were pursed.

From the tip of her horn burst out powerful magic energy that was so bright that it could not be seen directly, completely covering up the pale sunlight outside the cave; this beam of pure energy, which was twice as high as the pony at the origin, thundered down like a waterfall. The cocoon is covered with water, and the splashing overflow hits the crystal covering the cave wall behind the cocoon.

Cherry Berry raised a hoof to cover her barely open eyes and continued to witness this spectacle. This is incomparable with the weak magic environment generated by the magic field projector to simulate the Kingdom of Equestria - such intensity is significantly higher than the background magic energy under the natural conditions of the Kingdom of Equestria. Not even the energy unleashed during Canterlot's final battle, where she was shackled and chained, while Twilight's friends fought against the power-obsessed Storm King to rescue the princesses.

Berry still feels quite young, but she has also accumulated a lot of life experience while traveling around the world. In order to pursue her dream of flying, she has done more or less reasonable jobs. And this experience now is the second largest event that consumes pure magic energy that she has ever witnessed, bar none.

(There was only one first, and she was miles away; given the devastation caused by Twilight Sparkle's battle with Tirek, she was especially grateful for her absence.)

Even the halo emanating from the outermost edge of this huge beam of magic energy is full of energy. Berry lowered her head and saw that her earth pony magic absorbed and transmitted the slight energy at the edge of the beam. The roots of the surrounding crops immediately responded, urging small clusters of alfalfa sprouts to burst out of the ground. Spitfire spread his wings and soared into the air without flapping. Fireball exhaled a trace of smoke from his nostrils.

And on the other side of the beam... was darkness. The core of the beam swirled like a tornado, and like a vortex cracked in the water, it was continuously sucked into the depths of the shadow shrouding the cocoon. However, even this shadow cannot absorb all the energy contained in the beam, and the remainder that overflows from both sides turns into a rainbow that sprinkles down from the surrounding quartz, accompanied by the sound of a bell that rings like a silver bell, echoing deeper into the cave.

The beam continued to pour. Berry glanced at Starlight and saw sweat rolling down her cheeks and sweat foam accumulating on her body. But her eyes were still shining steadily and locked on the target, her lips were slightly parted and she roared, directing all the magic energy stored by the farm and the ponies in two weeks to rush towards the cocoon.

Under the beam, the shadows gradually melted and dispersed, washed away without a trace. A pool of whirlpool also disappeared, submerged in a sea of ​​pure light. The magic power didn't care, and the master didn't care. The energy just keeps flowing, seemingly endless, splashing, sputtering, filling the target...

...until it ends as unexpectedly as it started. Starlight Glimmer fell down on the battery, his back heaving and he was breathing heavily.

The results of these magic stones accumulating weak magic energy over a full two weeks were completely released in just about a minute and a half. The show is over.

"Mark! Spitfire! Go take care of Starlight!" Berry immediately put aside the shock to her senses and shouted to instruct the refugees to start working, "Fireball! Come here and help me deal with the batteries! Act quickly and turn them off. !" Indeed, even if the battery is completely exhausted, there are still bits and pieces of magic energy from the living creatures in the cave, which are collected by the battery and gathered at two tiny points, dancing on the tips of Starlight's hooves.

Mark and Spitfire dragged Unicorn away from the battery and over the cables, laying her flat on her back on a sleeping mat. Berry checked one row of batteries one by one, while Fireball was in charge of the other row, turning the switches back to charging state one by one. The sparks from the electrodes stopped.

After the clicking sound of the switch stopped, she heard the splash of water on the other side of the telegraph. She ordered, "Spike, go and send 'Please resend message'."

Spitfire looked at Starlight, and this time it was obvious that the battery had drained him completely. But she was at least still breathing normally (albeit more vigorously) and not showing any signs of pain, so she put her medical duties aside for the time being and prioritized following orders. She walked to her suit, sent out a few letters, and then waited for the monitor to reply, "Twilight calls Friendship... We almost found you... Can you recast for two more minutes? Over."

Starlight sat up suddenly, feeling a little out of control, "Recast the spell???" Then she twitched and struggled to stand up, "Recast the spell??? What the hell is..." She tried to move toward the piece of equipment used to generate electricity. She walked away wearing the spacesuit she had signed up for, completely overestimating her current abilities. Her left front leg couldn't hold up and became weak, and she stumbled forward and fell into a mouthful of mud.

"Starlight, relax," Mark stroked her hair on her temples with his hand and comforted her, "Take a rest first..."

"It's so easy to let go of the horse," Xingguang cursed. She struggled to get up again, "Give me that space suit. I want to tell my teacher exactly what I think..."

A cloud of water mist sprayed towards Xingguang's face, and she was so frightened that she shrank back with a grin on her face. Mark took the sprayer from his botany experiment equipment and sprayed her face again, "No! Sit down! Bad unicorn! Not good!"

"Ouch!" Starlight, whose face was covered with water, raised his hoof to cover his face, but fell forward again. Finally giving up her resistance, she lay down angrily and said to Spitfire, "Starlight Glimmer's message to Twilight Sparkle: 'I used the entire vocabulary of Cherry Berry to you.' Not changed word for word. Just send it like this!"

CherryBerry nodded to Spitfire, who shrugged the news. Watching the last word merge into the soft soil, she asked, "Do you feel better?"

"Much better." Starlight sighed and complained, "I used up the magic energy collected in seventeen solar days at once, and she asked me to do it all over again. She has created miracles so many times that she forgets that other ponies don't do this. Able..."

"How is your situation?" Berry asked again.

"I'll be fine after a little rest," Starlight replied, "I'm just really tired. Have you ever tried riding a tatzlwurm while steering it in the direction you wanted to go?"

"Well, I'm pretty sure no horse has ever had this experience," Berry replied.

"That's the feeling, anyway," Starlight described. "The magic always wants to run around. It always wants to do something - it doesn't care what it is, as long as it's doing it."

There was the sound of water. "Twilight Sparkle's message to Starlight Glimmer," Spitfire translated, "'There's no need to get so angry. We already had your location within two centimeters when we lost the signal. Over.'"

"There's no way," Starlight Glimmer protested, "that I'm going to be allowed to ride the Tazo Worm for another two minutes straight. And I can tell she's going to go the extra mile and let me ride for three more minutes if I can help it. She will She'll do that for any horse because she's Twilight Sparkle, but sometimes she just doesn't think twice about how other horses are feeling."

Berry sighed and said, "Send a message to Twilight, 'Ability is limited. Today's arrangements end here. Waiting for the results, will report, friendship communication ends.'"

The water splashed everywhere, and came again. "The message sent by Yuyuyu to Cherry Berry," Feihuo relayed, "is on standby, ready to receive the report. Yuyuyu's communication is not over yet, it is over."

Berry sighed again. "Inform them that the message has been received and ask them to wait," she replied, "and then come over and check to make sure Starlight is okay."

After the message was sent and Starlight was cared for (and imprisoned) by Amicitas's medical staff, the other three walked towards Tingting's corner. Normally, the flashes of neon and magical energy fade from the crystal after the magic field projector is turned off, but the quartz behind the cocoon still exhibits a dazzling brilliance that is almost impossible to describe in words. Every color in the rainbow, and several colors outside the rainbow, appear brightly on the crystal walls, dazzling under the enhanced lighting of overhead sun collectors. In a few places the crystals even looked like they were partially invisible.

As for the cocoon itself, the large characters "leave me alone" on the outer surface have been washed away without a trace. Now it shines almost as brightly as the crystal next to it, like a piece of obsidian that has been polished so brightly that it can be seen, with a black slime-like cable hanging from the ceiling of the cave.

Unfortunately nothing else has changed. It certainly showed no signs of activity. The cover at the bottom of the cocoon did not open on its own.

Mark was the first to speak, "So...how are these crystals? Fireballs, do you feel hungry after looking at them?"

Fireball's answer was cautious and firm, and this time there was almost no mistake: "It would be a sin to bite even one of these. That entire wall will become the center... core of any treasure cache we have there."

"I didn't hear you say no."

"Go clean your ears."

"We can only wait and see what happens," Berry said, bringing the conversation back to the topic. "We still have a lot of things to do. Now it's time to drain the wells again."

The three of them then began tending to the plants (including the latest sprouts), carrying large amounts of water from the water collection well to the airlock, and checking the hydrothermal system for leaks. Starlight was recovering well after a few hours of rest, and they had lunch together. They read next, huddled together and savoring the Alliance's arduous trek through the caves of Moria.

There was no movement in the cocoon the whole time.

Then everyone put on their space suits and hugged cocoons to say goodbye as usual, trying to suppress their inner disappointment... However, there was one exception.

"I'll stay here tonight." Starlight said, "Remember that Dragonfly didn't attack Mark until midnight, right? Maybe it will take a while for her to recover. Someone should be guarding here just in case. .”

Berry nodded, "Maybe we should all stay?"

"That won't work," Starlight said, "It's just me. If something unexpected happens, you must be prepared to save me tomorrow."

"Maybe you shouldn't stay," Spitfire said uneasy, "This way, you won't need rescue."

"I'll be fine," Starlight insisted. "I still have this stick." She patted the plastic stick next to her that Berry barely remembered existed.

The last thing Berry saw as the airlock door closed was Starlight's smiling face and her hooves waving goodbye.

I hope, she thought, this decision doesn't turn out to be a terrible mistake.