My Little Pony: My Little Pony The Martian

AMICITAS Mission Three – Mission Day 298

ARES 3 solar day 294

Tightening wrenches while wearing a spacesuit is annoying, but there's nothing you can do about it. Today Mark and the ponies are removing the old batteries from Amicitas and replacing them with two hydrogen fuel cells from residential areas. This job requires the use of a magic battery so that Starlight Glimmer can move the battery safely and steadily. At the same time, four of the five remaining seats in the pony spaceship had to be removed, and part of the floor had to be lifted to remove the slender battery from the circuit. Of course, since the battery is too long to fit into the Amicitas airlock, the airlock is fully open during the entire operation.

They all spent four hours the day before moving the hay stored in the cabin into the accommodation section so that the bridge area could be relieved of pressure. It took them a full hour and a half today to remove the seats and floor, then disconnect all the cables to the old battery. Now that all the preparations were finally completed, Mark, Fireball and Dragonfly stared at the battery that was shaped slightly like a car engine.

"It's not easy to put this thing into the shell of rover No. 1," Mark said. "How did you get it in in the first place?"

"Teleport it directly into the cabin, and then float it and install it in place." Tingting replied, "As long as there is about 50% of the battery, there should be no problem in transferring it to Starlight."

"Yes," Starlight's voice came from the magic radio communication channel, "but it's not necessary. The more magic energy we save, the sooner we can fully charge the battery, and the sooner we can enjoy the extended magic field time every day. "

"Do you think we can lift it up with our bare hands?" Mark knelt down, leaned over and put his gloved hand into the gap. "I can only barely put my hand in."

"Absolutely not," Fireball said, pointing to his own suit. Mark's spacesuit relies on both air pressure and material strength to keep Mark in an atmospheric pressure environment. The space suits made by the ponies are closer to the technical level of the Apollo era, which means the materials are more fluffy. "Got to get that pony to come."

"Starlight, can you..."

"Here we come." Then a series of grunts and pony-language curses came from across the channel. Wearing a clumsy space suit and carrying a 60-kilogram stone covered with a metal shell on the Amicitas ramp is definitely not an interesting pastime for anyone. Starlight finally threw herself over the threshold of the open airlock, stood on all fours on the deck and walked in with the battery on her back.

"Stand still for now," Dragonfly trotted over, intending to check Starlight's right forearm. If something goes wrong with the new patch...

"It's okay," Starlight muttered, "it's much easier to move around than before. It's just that the grinding makes me angry."

"After all, we still have to check it out," said Tingting.

"Do you mind if I take a look?" Fireball stood next to her, leaning next to Dragonfly's head and staring at Starlight's legs.

"No!" Xingguang quickly took a few steps back and complained, "And how did you manage to run over quietly in the blink of an eye?"

"It is not easy to track wild rocks." Dragonfly complained. "Gems are easily frightened by nature and will run away immediately if they find any sign of potential danger. But Fireball is a well-known gem hunter among the dragons. No gem can Escape from his clutches.”

Fireball didn't answer. He just laughed quietly. Dragonfly's back was turned to him, so all she could see was the deformed reflection reflected in the starlight mask; but feeling the amusement and accompanying threat emanating from the dragon, she could almost count the fangs exposed by the dragon. Clearly.

"It's in good condition," the changeling, realizing that his joke might make him angry, quickly concluded and changed the subject, "Let's move the battery out of the pit first. We can move it into the airlock so you can We can see it and levitate it down to a safe location. Once it reaches the ground, we should be able to carry it away."

"It's 'us', right?" Fireball teased, "Just like 'we' carried the airlock to the cave?"

"Let's finish the work before we talk." Starlight grumbled as her patience was exhausted.

"No, wait a minute," Mark interrupted, stretching his finger, "I also hope to hear more mentions of this so-called 'we' concept from Dragonfly in the future. Because I don't remember that there was a certain insect horse that day. Part of 'us'. Fireball, do you remember that?"

"Absolutely not," Fireball replied, shaking his head solemnly.

"You should know that I can feel you all snickering in your hearts." Dingting muttered softly.

"Just treat it as your snack," Mark replied. "After you finish eating, get out of the way and let Long and I perform a lumbar disc rupture for everyone."

"What plate?" Fireball's vocabulary is still insufficient.

"What he means is that both of you will break your waist." Starlight explained angrily.

Fireball straightened his back after hearing this, his helmet almost touching the ceiling of the bridge, "Of course not," he was obviously unconvinced, "Dragon is very strong. Dragon is... very... mighty, yes, mighty! Mine My scales are like shields! My teeth are like swords!"

"Your tail is like a thunderbolt," Mark continued.

"That's right!"

"Your wings are like hurricanes."

"Correct!"

"But you really better have some mint in your breath. Maybe some gum would help."

"Yes...what does this mean?"

"Just a reminder, all his strength," Mark replied, "can't cover up the fact that Smoog is a bit stupid."

Fireball scoffed, the smoke filling his helmet for a while. "That's not me," he retorted, "but I can still carry the battery myself. I'm stronger than all of you here combined."

Dragonfly chose this moment to rejoin the conversation. "But what if you hurt yourself?" she asked. "It's unlikely, but what if? Will the damage be permanent? While you're lying on your bunk recovering from your injuries, we're going to How long can we last without your help? Don’t always think about showing off your skills. It’s better to be careful. Learn to cooperate. Okay?”

Fireball thought about it for a moment. "Okay," he finally agreed, "you're right. But I can still do it."

Cherry Berry, who was standing on the ground outside the spacecraft cabin with Spitfire, called on the radio, "Do you still want to remove this battery today? We are wasting EVA time like this."

"Sorry." Mark said, retreating to the edge of the bridge and leaning next to the pilot's console. Dragonfly and Fireball ran to the opposite corner, close to the sealed hatch and the ramp leading to the living quarters, leaving ample space for Starlight to lift out the battery.

Starlight removed the magic energy battery from his back, placed it on the deck and started operating. Blue light surrounded her helmet, and a ray jumped out to grab the battery in the pit. After a second, she whispered. After a few more seconds, she began to flex her hoofs and crouch forward to continue exerting her strength. Her humming became louder and the light also grew. The deck began to tilt under the dragonfly's hooves.

"Starlight, hold still first," Cherry Berry ordered softly but firmly, "please relax the energy used to lift it little by little, okay? The slower, the better. Don't let go directly, just slowly lower it. May I?"

"Okay... ah?" Starlight's answer was tired and confused, but the light eventually weakened little by little, and after a second or two, the deck returned to a horizontal position.

"Okay, let go slowly," Berry continued to instruct, "let go completely. Cut off the spell."

"It's ready." The magic energy lingering around the Starlight Helmet dissipated, "I didn't know the battery was so heavy."

"Actually not," Berry explained simply, "It's just that it's still fixed in the spacecraft. You just lifted the stern into the air and almost overturned the spacecraft."

Dragonfly could only vaguely see Mark hiding behind the reflective mask, his head turning into a shadow and shaking in confusion, "But...but how did Starlight manage to lift the spacecraft while she was standing in it?" "?" Magic once again gave him a big shock, "According to the principle of leverage, this should be completely impossible!"

Dragonfly allowed the others beside her to discuss magic and the many unexplainable effects it produced, while he himself considered the possibility of melting into the cabin floor and disappearing. She completely forgot about the bolts that fixed the battery in the pit. A full eight bolts. The bolts required a special type of socket wrench to remove; she didn't have one in her toolbox because removing the battery wasn't part of the planned maintenance mid-mission.

But she forgot about it. Forget about this ridiculously obvious thing, because the battery must be bolted on. Otherwise, any slight change in momentum will cause this huge battery to slide around in the pit and damage various devices... But this was completely forgotten by her...

"Dingming," Mark finally remembered to ask, "how do we loosen the battery?"

"Oh, it's broken!" Dragonfly looked around and said to him, "The battery in my space suit is about to run out! I have to go back quickly..." Then she was quiet for a while, and then used her front hooves to imitate the noise of a radio failure. True, this would only buy her ten minutes before she finally admitted her stupidity, but it would give her a chance to think of ways to make herself feel less stupid.

She ignored her inner desire to use these ten minutes to take the opportunity to run to the cave and crawl back into the cocoon; no matter how comfortable she felt in the cocoon, she would still be the same fool when she came out.

Mission Log – Solar Day 295

Today we finished replacing the old batteries on the pony spacecraft with the fourteen existing hydrogen fuel cells in the two habitations. The hydrogen fuel cell has been connected to the power supply system of the spacecraft, and since the power supply system is now connected to the residential area power grid, the power supply power control equipment in the residential area can schedule the two batteries to draw power or charge as needed. Tomorrow I'll hook up the old battery into the cobbled-together device I used to temporarily replace the on-board power supply when the pressurized section of Rover 1 was removed from the chassis.

Getting the batteries out ended up using a lot of magical assistance from the stars that we weren't expecting. The tools needed to loosen the eight bolts holding the battery to the bilge were not in the Dragonfly's tool box, and even if I could find a suitable socket, it wouldn't be long enough for me to reach underneath. Moreover, NASA only gave me four types of kits listed in the Ares mission specifications.

But after discussing tactics in the Hab yesterday, we came up with the idea that Starlight could cast a simple spell to cause the bolt to undo itself. The only problem was that in order to use the spell, we had to temporarily repressurize the Ponyship's bridge section because, according to Starlight, there wouldn't be "enough sound waves" without it. I didn't know if she was joking or serious.

Anyway, with that done we depressurized the bridge again, pushed the battery into the airlock hatch, and had Starlight lift it out and lower it to the ground. It's certainly lighter than the huge airlock before, but it's not much different, so I'm glad to have Fireball help move this thing to the No. 1 rover parts warehouse. Then Starlight carried up the two hydrogen fuel cells, and I spent the rest of the day connecting the lines, while Tingting set up a few simple clamps to fix them at the back of the cabin. They're a little wider and don't fit into the original grooves where the old batteries were placed, but together they weigh only half as much as the old batteries and provide far more energy.

Weight was the main reason we decided to get this done now. The magic energy required to move the battery is much less than moving the entire spacecraft... After we reduce the weight of the spacecraft in this way, it will be much easier when we need to move the spacecraft and install it on the chassis of the No. 1 rover.

Tomorrow we will take away the only spare hab lighting strip and one already installed on the hab, and use them to replace the two still functioning light bulbs on the pony ship. Later, while I was working as an electrician to reconnect the pony spacecraft's batteries to the power grid, the others would make plans for the final big lift of the spacecraft.

Looking at the to-do list, I feel pretty good. Despite a long break and delays for various reasons, we have now completed sixteen of the twenty-nine tasks in the mobile home renovation plan. In fact, there should be twenty-seven in total; I have decided that the Pathfinder will not accompany us on the journey. We couldn't generate enough power to run its heater, and once we hit the road, its usefulness was so limited that it wasn't worth carrying so much weight. NASA probably wouldn't like this idea, but I'm sure that about two weeks after I told them I wasn't going to take Pathfinder, they would openly take the idea as their own.

And the best part is that after the renovation is completed, the power supply of the residential area is not affected, and our hay warehouse is still there; the only thing we have to do before hitting the road is to load up the pony moved from the cave to survive. It's just a system device box.

I have a feeling we'll have about a hundred solar days left with nothing to do. Curious how such idleness would affect the situation.

As for the rest, no D&D tonight; just reruns of the 70s TV series. Starlight said she wanted to redo the campaign after Dragonfly assassinated the king. See, she figured he was going to order his guards to kill us so he wouldn't have to pay the reward for cleaning up the Shark Lizards. Of course, none of us blame Starlight for later not allowing Lord Riftjaw to seize the throne in the name of conquest, but we do think that having to fight his way between two hundred royal guardsmen and a fifth-level mage vizier was a bit much.

Well, actually one hundred and ninety-two guards. I reminded the vizi that no matter what he did to us, the king's heir would probably fire him and successfully persuaded him; and the last eight surviving guards failed the will test and were as sharp as little dolls. He screamed and fled into the night. Fortunately, Fireball and Berry put Dragonfly's Paladin to sleep long enough for us to carry him out smoothly; because none of us wanted to face the other four battalions of guards in the same way as Riftchin proposed. beat.

We now know why Earth's probes never found any Martians: murderous bums like us got them first.