My Little Pony: My Little Pony The Martian

AMICITAS Mission Three – Mission Day 300

ARES 3 solar day 296

[08:02] JPL: Good morning, it’s time for your daily checkup. We believe everyone is doing well. Today is the summer solstice in the residential area. You can take advantage of this great time to enjoy the rare sunshine and warmth. Our weather forecast shows the possibility of brief periods of above freezing temperatures over the next few weeks before a weak sandstorm, currently on the Shifting Sands Plains, will reduce sunlight and cause temperatures to drop over the next few days. However, Dr. Keller asked me to remind you that we do not encourage you to sunbathe. First, because the space suit has not been designed to have a bikini version, and there is no way to protect you from ultraviolet rays except for the long distance from the sun. harm.

[08:41] Watney: Summer solstice? ? ? Why didn't you tell us before? We all missed it! Can’t believe we missed it!

[09:20] JPL: I guess this is somepony replying. I can't imagine Mark being so disappointed about missing the summer or winter solstice. Is this part of your culture?

[10:03] Watney: The stars are shining here. We hold a summer celebration on the longest day of the year to celebrate the reign of all - the Sky Princess (that's not the right translation). We stayed up all night partying the night before and spent the morning after watching the princess rise as the sun came up. (Yes, I know, it actually rotates our planet, but the traditional saying is the sun rises.) This is our most important holiday of the year after Hearth Festival.

[10:43] JPL: Got it. By the way, our scientists are still fussing over the idea that magic is powerful enough to even rotate a planet the size of the Earth. But this is the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere of Mars, not your world. I guess these two time points should be staggered, right?

[11:21] Watney: Sorry, we're busy right now. Gotta prepare for a belated summer celebration! - Starlight - Otherwise, what else would we have to celebrate on this broken stone? --mark

It is the depth of winter in Malaysia at this time, and the Hearth Festival has just passed less than a month; on Earth, it is late September, and the Johnson Center in Houston still retains the residual tropical heat of summer. However, on Mars, today is the first day of summer. The three ponies found this excuse to drag the other three non-ponies to announce their vacation, inspect the few entertainment resources they had in the habitation module, and Get ready for a summer celebration party that lasts all night long.

The snack, thinly sliced ​​potato slices that Starlight Glimmer used a bit of magic to bake on the heating element of the air conditioner, was their most successful attempt at making potato chips to date. During the production process, she used up almost all the salt she had collected so far - she would need to arrange another salt collection in the next few days - but the final product actually made a crunchy sound, and it was not the charcoal kind. Hard and crispy. All in all, the results are basically not that bad.

Unfortunately, there was no party fruit wine, but Cherry Berry picked a lot of cherry leaves and brewed a large amount of cherry leaf tea with meticulousness and precision. Although this drink is not fruit wine and does not contain any alcohol, it At least it tastes better than bland plain water. (Unfortunately, drinking coffee was more than a hundred solar days ago.)

Spitfire took the initiative to plan the games at the party. He went to the Cave Farm to get the whiteboards stored there, added them to the pile of whiteboards in the living cabin, and then began brainstorming ways to play crossword puzzles/talking with pictures/such games. She also found a space suit underwear left by Mark's former team member, picked up several pieces of antenna fragments from everywhere, hung the jumpsuit in front of a cupboard, and announced the official creation of the Mars Shooting Challenge, also known as " Antenna for Watneyza". Starlight and Berry protested strongly, but Dragonfly, Fireball and Mark all laughed heartily when they saw it. In the end, the minority had to obey the majority.

Mark was originally responsible for choosing the music for the party, but he pointed out that since this was a pony festival, it would be inappropriate to play human music. "Besides," he added, "I'm tired of listening to the Beatles and disco while I work. Give my ears a change."

So at the beginning of the party, the three ponies sang traditional summer songs in the original pony language... The accompanying background music had different lyrics, but they were very familiar.

"Stop, stop, stop!" Mark, who was not very happy, interrupted the singing, "Didn't we agree that Earth music is not allowed to be played!"

"We are singing in pony language." Berry looked innocent.

"Yes, you translated Celebration," Mark protested, "but this is still a disco song!"

"When we get home," Starlight said unimpressed, "it's going to be a traditional pony song."

"Play at all our festivals." Spitfire barely stuttered on the word festival this time.

"Girls, would you like to start over again?" Berry said, clapping her hoof four times.

Mark let go of her, and Starlight Glimmer tried to regain her balance in the small clearing where the potatoes had been temporarily cleared during the game. Somewhere ahead of her is her target - Spitfire's reenactment of the botched accident that left Mark stranded here and his encounter with the crew of the crashed Equestrian spaceship.

...Forget it, whatever. If this game didn't excite Mark, she didn't need to mind. Moreover, she will definitely win this time. True, her magic power was of little use without batteries other than barely lifting the antenna into the air, but it was still enough to allow her to attach a patch of dirt to a device that would send out some kind of signal that only she could sense. Spell. And now she has felt it, right in... that direction. So all she had to do was walk in the direction of the signal, cross the bit of dirt, and then poke this stupid piece of metal straight into the butt of the onesie, and she was done.

Starlight, confident of winning, began to make strides forward. She stepped over the magical mark she had left, erasing the traces of cheating with one hoof. She held the suspended antenna and stretched it forward...and continued to move forward...it was strange, she should have reached the cupboard a long time ago...

"Stop, that's it," she felt the antenna controlled by her magic being pulled away by a force, and a hand reached down and took off her blindfold. "If you keep going you might puncture the habitat, and then we won't be able to have a party."

Starlight was stunned. She actually missed the cabinet perfectly and stuck the antenna into a gap between the cabinets. Sure enough, at the height where she held the antenna, the area directly in front of her was empty except for the canvas dome of the habitation module.

Everyone burst into laughter, and Starlight stepped aside shyly and watched Mark put on a blindfold on himself. This time the fireball spun around him several times, making the two-legged beast unable to stand firmly. He staggered and stumbled, and it took him a while to calm down. Only after his body regained his balance did he start walking.

Then he walked straight forward with cautious steps, raising the antenna slightly above his waist and stretching it directly in front of his body... just a hair away from the target, he inserted the antenna into the fabric and inserted it directly into his buttocks.

After some congratulations, the antenna was pulled out and handed to Fireball, followed by Dragonfly. The fireball only touched the left edge of the torso of the jumpsuit, while the dragonfly pierced Mark's right thigh.

Finally it was Spitfire's turn. "Turn me more," she said knowingly, "twice as much. I've trained this. I've trained this on others."

"Fireball, do you hear me?" Mark smiled maliciously, "This lady wants to have some excitement."

"I heard it." Fireball also grinned. Then the blindfold was lowered and Spitfire stepped forward. The fireball tossed the Pegasus in the air like pizza dough for more than thirty seconds, making her roll around every possible axis of rotation before gently putting her back down. On the ground, he handed the antenna to her.

It has to be said that Feihuo remained silent even after being tortured, and only swayed slightly when he stood up, which really amazed everyone. "I don't swing like Mark," she said sarcastically, "I have training."

"Hey," Mark refused, "You have four legs, I only have two."

"It's training." Feihuo said and took two steps forward. The result immediately proved that she had not found her balance at all, at least not enough to allow her to walk normally. She staggered and rushed to one side, then staggered to the other side, and then inadvertently the antenna in her mouth encountered a resistance.

"Oh... ow," Mark moaned, while the others burst out laughing.

"What's wrong? What's wrong?" Feihuo hurriedly let go of the antenna and raised a hoof to remove his blindfold to see what was going on.

"Splitfire, congratulations," Mark continued, "If Firestar had given me this, then the future Mrs. Watney would have had to adopt a child."

The antenna was suspended from a slender stump and inserted directly into the crotch of the lining of the space suit.

It took a few minutes for the laughter to subside, and Spitfire was unanimously voted the worthy winner of the competition.

The clock said three fifteen. The sunrise will not arrive until 5:24 in the residential area. All games were over, and after some begging Mark finally agreed to play some of Johnson's Beatles tunes in the background. The six of them sat on their own bunks, eating homemade potato chips that were still half full in the small sample container, sipping cold cherry tea and chatting.

"Speaking of which," Spitfire said, staring at the cold tea in the cup, "if we had... uh... added some secret drinks, maybe it would be more... more... like a party?"

"Want to drink?" Mark asked.

"Yes, that goes without saying," Fireball muttered, "I need to find a way to light it up."

This sentence caused a bunch of laughter from the superiors.

"This is, of course, impossible," Mark said. "Unless there are very special circumstances, NASA never allows drinking during missions. Martinez does have about four ounces of bottled communion wine on Hermes. , but that’s all the alcohol we have outside of the medical kit.”

Fei Huo was stunned, "Is there wine in the medicine box?"

Mark shook his head and replied, "Modified alcohol is definitely not drinkable."

"MD." Feihuo cursed in disappointment.

"By the way," Dragonfly interjected, "We have never celebrated festivals like this in the Insect Nest. Occasionally there will be celebrations when Cocoon announces our victory, and there will also be a Taotie Festival when the love yield is particularly good... ..." Having said this, she paused and thought for a while. "Speaking of which, we haven't held a Taotie Festival in several years; considering that the food we eat is so good now, we should actually hold it again."

"Hmm. It sounds quite like Thanksgiving." Mark thought for a moment and asked, "This gluttonous festival of yours... Why are you holding back?"

"Leave us alone," Starlight quickly explained, "your pronunciation is almost right."

"This time." Spitfire complained softly.

“You’re celebrating this holiday when there’s a lot of food, right?” Mark continued, “Like the Thanksgiving my team members were supposed to spend here?”

"Grateful... gracious..." Dragonfly chanted these two words slowly, "I think there is a difference between the two. No matter how much or little food we get, we should all be grateful to the Queen. The theme of the Taotie Festival is just that with lots of food, you’ll hardly feel hungry all day long.”

"Ah. It doesn't just mean a good harvest to us," Mark explained. "On this day, families who have traveled far away will come back to reunite and spend this day together as a family."

"It's so warm," Berry sighed.

"Yeah," Mark said, "it reminds us why we moved in the first place."

"It's not so warm when you say this," Berry stretched out her hooves to pick up a potato chip and chewed it. "But that was after the harvest, right? What festival do you celebrate at the beginning of summer?"

"Well, we don't celebrate any festivals on the real summer solstice," Mark replied, "but there was one about four weeks ago, and we would mourn the soldiers who died to protect us on that day..."

"We don't have this kind of festival," Spitfire said. "Not enough dead guards." She raised her cup and drank it in one gulp, then added in pony language, "Thanks, Celestia." Got out of bed and poured tea.

"Well...a few weeks after the Summer Solstice is Independence Day, when my country celebrates its freedom from the kings who once ruled it."

"I still don't understand," Starlight couldn't help but say, "You are a democratic system. We always thought that a democratic government would collapse once the area under its jurisdiction exceeds the size of a city. The Minotaur Islands have the only one I know of. A national democracy.”

“To be honest,” Mark explained, “our democracy has been on the verge of collapse a few times. [Memorial] Day was originally intended to honor those who fell in democracy’s darkest moments and to decorate their Grave." This time it was his turn to drink the whole glass.

"But there is no king? No queen? No princess? Just a group of people?" Cherry Berry couldn't bear the awkward silence and asked again.

"That danger has arisen a few times," Mark said, "but most of the time we are happier without an absolute ruler demanding our worship and total surrender."

"Wait, no," Starlight continued to argue, "Our princess is not like that at all. In fact, our princess...MD, if only I could translate the name!" She snorted and continued. , "Anyway, she's been trying her best not to be idolized and generally lets the ponies live their lives freely. Not to mention she's done so much work!"

"And you don't have anyone like this," Berry interjected. "No one is stabilizing your planet, and no one is guarding your dreams. No one is taking responsibility to ensure that everyone can discover their strengths and have a chance to live. Live a happy life.”

Mark shook his head, "Our world is not like this." He said, "The earth rotates on its own, and we still have to have the nightmares we should have. There are still many people who will never have the chance to live the life they want."

"This is too tragic," Berry expressed sympathy, "It feels like your entire world is a free and eternal forest."

"Because it's true," Mark said, having learned about the Everfree Forest and its dangers from hearing ponies tell stories about Equestria before. "We can't control the weather. Most animals other than those we tame domestic animals either stay away. We are far away, or they are trying to kill us. Even on the farm we have to deal with overgrown weeds, pests and floods. There are nine billion of us - we weigh about half the mass of our planet. Thirty-five percent of all mammals—yet we don’t have any meaningful means to really control it."

"Of course." Dragonfly's voice was surprisingly quiet, "Don't you ponies understand yet? This is a free and eternal universe."

The ponies froze at the thought. "The whole universe is like...like..." Feihuo stuttered, trying to name the place she was not familiar with.

"I understand," Berry said, not even bothering to speak English. "My eldest princess, this makes everything make sense. This will explain why this planet always wants to kill us."

"And Mark grew up in such a bad place!" Starlight said in surprise, still insisting on speaking English.

"Girls, really," Mark said quickly, "it's okay..."

A human finds himself crushed under the embrace of a pile of ponies. And a moment later Dragonfly also joined in, because the true nature of the changeling is hard to change.

Fireball didn't feel the intention to join, and just took a sip of tea quietly.

"Okay, okay, come down," Mark finally said, "Don't forget, my tribe is the top predator/predator/parasite on our entire planet. More than 100% of the planet's Three percent of the multicellular animal biomass is ours. One species can actually account for three percent. Our life is not bad." He smiled and added, "Ha, even if we have to walk through the shadow of death, Valley, I will also have no fear of evil, because I am the most vicious cub around here.”

The ponies in the hug froze again. "Mark," Starlight asked cautiously, "are you saying you are one of the monsters in the Free Eternal Forest?"

"This...I never said that I wasn't..."

Then the collective hug ended abruptly and everyone fled.

"These ponies," Fireball muttered and shook his head.

"Thank you Mark," Berry said coldly, "Now I can stay awake until sunrise."

"I'm willing to help." Mark smiled.

"I think we should drive the evil forest monster back," Spitfire said carefully, "and make him pay the price."

"Oh, really?" Mark asked, crossing his arms, "Then what are you going to do?"

"The power of music," Pegasus shouted immediately, "fly!"

"Here it comes!" Before Mark could react, the changeling rushed to the computer and cut Johnson's music files into Lewis's. The speakers in the habitat began to play the first few bars of Get Down Tonight loudly.

"No...!" Mark howled exaggeratedly as he acted, "Curse you! You fell to the despicable and shameless means of Bugger! But the time for revenge will always come!" He rushed forward and said: He picked up the burning body and began to tickle her under her front legs.

The tickling battle lasted until mid-sunrise.