My Little Pony: My Little Pony The Martian

Mission Log – Solar Day 290

Today NASA finally insisted that we finish that damn inventory count, so we spent the whole day turning this place upside down and combing through everything.

The patch on Starlight's brand new arm - right front leg - is much more sophisticated than the previous crude emergency measure that finally broke apart after nearly two hundred solar days. When they were carrying out a space suit renovation mission the day before yesterday, Dragonfly spit out three layers of materials with different textures back and forth. The final result was that the durability and flexibility of the new patch were greatly enhanced. Of course, such results are not perfect. We also discussed adding a layer of Hab Canvas to the patch as a protective covering, but Ting Ting concluded that this layer would become an operational impediment if a new patch was needed in the future.

One of the many issues NASA is particularly concerned about is those disposable carbon dioxide filters. They wanted to make sure that even with my level of EVA activity, the filter wouldn't run out. Well, the good news is that as long as the space suit's life support system is not working, the airflow to the filter element will be completely shut off, so the absorption capacity of the filter element will not be consumed unnecessarily when riding on the rover or in the habitation module. It will be used by other systems. Responsible for processing. And every time the air storage tank of the habitation cabin is low, the ponies will pump their own fresh air into the habitation cabin, and let the air conditioner absorb the excess gas and separate it into individual components. Store them all.

So I can enjoy the luxury of leaving the filter element in the spacesuit until it is saturated, then releasing the carbon dioxide-filled air when the alarm sounds and replenishing the spacesuit with fresh air, and spending the rest of the EVA activity. And let’s not forget that I rarely drive the rover (the same filter the rover uses) without at least one pony accompanying me so I can borrow their spacesuit environmental system. I remember that I only changed the filter element of rover No. 6 five times after Sol .

As a result, as of now, apart from the filter elements currently installed in space suits and rovers, I still have two hundred complete filter elements in my inventory. In other words, I still have 1,600 hours of EVA time without manually deflating it. If I assume that I will use a filter element for EVA every solar day in the future, this can be converted into two hundred solar days of EVA... and no matter what happens next, we will have the most on this broken rock. Only for another two hundred and sixty-one solar days. Therefore, aside from some truly fatal situations, the number of filters is definitely enough to last me until the end of the mission.

Most of the other results from the inventory count were pretty good, too. We only sneaked away a little bit of the food package; by around 430solar day I was even able to get back to a full food package (well, two-thirds of it actually). Believe me, I can't wait for this. I've even picked out my meal to celebrate Sun Day 430: the last of the bacon breakfast wraps, and one of the four remaining spaghetti bolognese dinner wraps.

Over a lunch today that was less than pasta, we finished reading The Fellowship of the Ring. The content discussed after the conclusion is... very interesting. Dragonfly makes a well-reasoned argument, saying that Boromir was doing what he thought was right when he tried to get Frodo to take the Ring to Gondor. As expected, the ponies immediately retorted that Boromir's idea was wrong and that he was tempted by the Lord of the Rings. Dragonfly then points out that it was Boromir's sense of duty to Gondor - his pride and love for his country - that made it possible to gain control of the Ring in the first place, settling the argument with a final word. After all, this is what Gandalf and Galadriel have always worried about - that the Ring will distort the shining points in human nature and use it to betray them.

She concluded with a bit of wisdom that I don't think anypony has ever heard: "Everyone is, in their own mind, the hero of their own story." They exchanged while discussing their villains. Part of it was cut back to Pony's language, but Dragonfly was still able to firmly defend her position. The ponies were naturally not convinced by this, but this controversy definitely made them think. In the end, only Starlight Glimmer continues to argue, saying that there is at least one pony who doesn't think she's a hero - herself.

After this the discussion quickly moved on to Frodo and Mount Amon Hen; everyone agreed that such a thing would be a fool's errand.

Back to the topic; we should be able to finish the inventory tonight, and then Starlight will help Tingting create a custom character to use in the new campaign. We need a warrior; I'm a bard, Fireball is a monk, Spitfire is an elf priest, and CherryBerry is a druid. This team is in urgent need of a tank; but in the end it still depends on what Ting Ting has planned...

"Paladin???" Starlight was shocked.

"Paladin," Dragonfly affirmed, "lawful justice. Critical attack on evil. Critical attack on incomplete justice. Critical attack indifferent. Destruction is all."

Starlight Glimmer covered her face with her hooves. "Do you really think we are like this?"

"You mean you ponies? Pfft! Of course not!" Dragonfly waved her hooves, "Except for the princess and Twilight Sparkle's friends, you ponies are all priests who have sworn not to use violence! Don't think too much," she Grinning, he continued, "I just want an excuse to attack."

"Have you ever played Trolls and Dungeons before? Or this Dungeons and Dragons?" Starlight said helplessly, "Believe me, there is really no need for any excuse."

"Strike everything," Dragonfly replied, "but in a lawful and righteous way. All for the glory of [God So-and-so]."

Starlight sighed, silently brushing away the tale of the tangled balance of power between political gray zones in a fallen kingdom into the trash heap.

Want to run a marathon? Bugs, willing to accompany you. bring it on.

So on that day, Starlight Glimmering, the deadly city lord of Mars, was born.