My Little Pony: My Little Pony The Martian

AMICITAS Mission Three – Mission Day 22

ARES 3 solar day 26

Berry lifted the limp space suit onto her back, then opened the water nozzle, watching the water flow from the nozzle to the red-gray soil beside her hooves, while slowly counting to fifteen in her heart. For the first time, things went so smoothly. Everypony is too busy to argue or get into trouble, and Berry is finally able to focus on the task at hand and take some time to rest.

The schedule for the next three days has been arranged. Tomorrow will be the second soil cultivation work, digging up the treated soil and spreading it on the remaining half of the Martian soil surface. In the remaining two days, everyone here will divide their activities into two parts. She, Mark, and Fireball would revisit the crash site to conduct a thorough inspection of the mountain above the Crystal Cave, looking for cracks, faults, or other threats that might cause problems if internal work began. Starlight Glimmer, Dragonfly and Spitfire will stay at the base, carefully dismantling the skin around the engineering bay on the starboard side of the spacecraft, removing the attached airlock, and taking out the spare electric heater.

Fireball and Spitfire want to switch their missions, and for good reason. Fireball has great strength and can help dismantle the ship safely, while Spitfire has experience in exploring terrain. But Berry still maintained its current decision. Spitfire had to stay anywhere where the likelihood of injury was higher, which meant she had to be on top of the spaceship project this time. Since both Starlight and Dragonfly had to carry out spacecraft-related work, they had no choice but to conduct terrain inspections other than fireball. Fortunately, they all accepted the task in the end and stopped arguing.

Now Berry and Fireball are adding water to the soil, preparing to mix it with the treated soil (even Berry, who has not inherited the family's talent for farming, can feel the barrenness of the soil on the surface of Mars). On the other side, Dragonfly and Flying Fire Safety measures for the renovation project are being discussed. Starlight drew a magic array-like pattern on the whiteboard, while Mark carefully inspected the handfuls of potatoes he had stored. He had already cut two of the twelve, each into four pieces. At this time, Berry was looking at him preparing the third incision, and noticed that the expression on his face was the same as when she saw Rarity doing it before. The look on his face when he was wearing a piece of extremely expensive and rare cloth was so similar.

She took a moment to calm herself down, counting to ten, then flipped a switch, splashing more water into the lifeless soil. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, stop. The fireball a few feet away was bending down and doing the same action, holding the space suit with one claw and guiding the nozzle with the other, aiming at the place where water was needed. Start, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, stop. Berry nodded, indicating that the operation was correct, and continued to work hard.

Then a slight hissing sound reached her ears. She raised her head and saw Mark carefully putting down the knife in his hand, and his originally pale face turned ashen.

The cabin is depressurized!

"Change the extravehicular suit!" As soon as she shouted the command, she shook off her space suit from her shoulders, pulled down the zipper and slid her hind legs in. She hurriedly stuck her legs in, pulled the torso of the suit to a position where she could reach her front hooves, zipped it up, and sealed the outer seal. She wanted to reach for the helmet, but found that it was not beside her... This was not a drill, and we were not on our own ship. How stupid! she thought to herself.

Looking up when she was done, she saw the rest of the crew in chaos.

Fireball, now wearing his own spacesuit but no helmet, was jumping on the dirt floor toward the alien's spacesuit rack, where the other spacesuits and helmets were piled up and tangled together. The other three crew members arrived early and were trying to untie the three spacesuits that were tangled together. They were hurriedly passing helmets around, but they couldn't find their own. (Unlike the alien spacesuits, which have the exact same size and helmet design, the ponies' spacesuit helmets are not universal. Dragonfly and Starlight's helmets leave extra room for their horns, and Berry's helmets have extra space for their horns. Berry and Spitfire don't have this design; Fireball's special head and neck shape makes his helmet different from others.)

"Everyone, calm down!" Berry shouted, trying her best to resist the urge to rush over to the messy scene next to the pile of spacesuits. "Check the helmet on Hoof! If what you took is not yours, find it." Owner! Attention, don’t rush to find your helmet until you’ve put on your space suit!”

As soon as she reached the scene, a helmet rolled beside her hooves. That's hers. She grabbed it with her front hooves and put it on her head, snapping it into the suit's locking ring. She reached out a hoof to operate the locking ring tab...

...But this ring just won't lock. As she pulled and turned the metal ring, she heard something squeaking in the threads of the locking ring.

Holy crap, crap, crap! "Check your locking rings!" She said calmly and forcefully, trying not to show panic. Even if a horizontal spin occurs while driving a spacecraft, as long as you keep a clear head and follow the recovery steps step by step, you will still be able to escape unscathed... "Make sure there is no dirt or debris inside! If there is, please help each other clean it up!" "

Two other spacesuits had dirt on their necks, and another had mud stuck in its helmet. Starlight and Dragonfly quickly cast spells to blow away the sand, and finally everyone put on their helmets.

"Dressing completed!" Fireball reported.

After Dragonfly cast a spell, Berry's own locking ring locked, clamping the base of the helmet to complete the airtight seal. She turned on the air supply with one hoof, took a breath of the sweet Equestrian air, and then said, "Getting dressed!"

"Dressing done!"

"Dressing done!"

"Dressing done!"

Berry looked around quickly - yes, all five crew members were wearing space suits.

Wait... five?

She slowly turned around and found Mark looking at them with a confused look on his face. He seemed calm at first...but Berry noticed that he kept tapping the tip of his knife on the workbench, playing a chaotic rhythm.

In any case she never heard that hiss again after putting the helmet on. "Starlight," she said, "ask Mark what that sound was."

Starlight nodded and walked slowly across the mound to Mark's workbench. As usual, her helmet and Mark's head were shrouded in the light of the translation spell, and they exchanged a few words - Starlight obviously understood, while Mark seemed a little confused.

"What was that hissing sound?...What did you mean, not dangerous?...Then why did you turn pale just now?...What, can you say it again, I didn't hear it clearly?...Um...Thank you."

The light dissipated and Starlight sat on the ground.

"How's it going?" Berry asked.

"He said it was just a minor dust storm," Starlight said. "It was too weak to pose a threat to us. The base was designed to withstand more severe dust storms. He also mentioned some nonsense about open wounds."

"So there is no leak?" Berry asked, and added before Starlight answered, "No need to ask anymore. If there was, he would have told us already."

"So, was it a false alarm just now?" Fireball asked again.

Berry thought for a while. "No," she finally said cautiously, "this is not as simple as a false alarm."

"What do you mean?"

Berry turned around and faced all the horses except Starlight. "Look what just happened!" she said. "It took us four times as long as normal to complete the dressing! We have not maintained our equipment recently and have not conducted drills. If something really happened just now, then Maybe we're all screwed! Remember what happened when Starlight tried to cast a spell to conjure Cheerilee a few days ago? If the canvas in the living area is damaged, can we complete the spacesuit replacement in time?"

The room fell silent for a moment, and only a few slight sounds could be heard as someone uncomfortably dug into the soil with their hooves in spacesuits.

"Starlight," Berry continued, "when you think the time is right, talk to Mark. We need to create a place to store the space suits we don't use. Under the cupboard obviously won't work. Tingting, you are responsible for our The suit is undergoing maintenance. We've been on multi-day missions before, so you should know what to do next."

"No problem, boss!" said Tingting.

"Firefire," Berry continued to assign tasks, "Once we have a separate storage location for space suits, you will be responsible for conducting safety drills. Design new operating procedures based on the actual space conditions provided by Mark. I hereby grant you Full authority to order immediate emergency drills without warning without affecting mission execution, regardless of the number of crew members present."

Spitfire straightened up now. In Berry's memory, this was the second time she stood up so straight except when she was selected to participate in the mission. She raised one of her space-suited front hooves in a standard salute and said eagerly: "As you command, sir!"

"Okay," Berry returned the gift and continued, "Everyone present, take off your space suits. Before setting up a special storage space, temporarily put the helmets on their respective bunks, including your space suits, except Fireball and I. Then everyone resumes their previous work."

"What about me?" Fireball sounded a little uneasy, "Don't I need to make adjustments?"

Berry shook her head. "You were the first to put on your space suit," she said, "and your helmet locking ring didn't get stuck. You were obviously prepared for this, and we weren't. You can keep things as they are."

"No," Fireball replied coldly, "Maybe I need it too." He stretched out his claws to unlock the locking ring and took off the helmet. "My things are kept tidy and not tangled with other space suits. It's just It's just dragon intuition and good luck. My space suit is part of my storage (just like gems and other belongings). It's just a subconscious reaction." He pondered for a few words, and then said, "I don't trust me intuition, because it always makes me feel invincible. This is the third emergency situation I have encountered in space, and the first two times my intuition made the situation worse. This time the situation is also It's not getting any better," he snapped, his expression changing slightly, "It's just that I'm luckier this time."

"We are all lucky this time." Berry said, "Everyone remember: today is our lucky day. Disband."

Everyone's helmets were taken off, the spacesuits were placed on the bunks, and Berry and Fireball went back to water the soil. As Berry swung her suit over her back again, she noticed the fireball staring at her. She then asked, "Do you have any other requests?"

"No, sir." Fireball said, brushing off his previous rough tone, "I'm just glad to see the sharp-eyed missile operator from before is back."

Sharp eyes? Berry thought. Where did this conclusion come from? I just thought we were all done. I was so panicked that I ordered a change of clothes without communicating with Mark to confirm whether an emergency had occurred. Because I didn't take good care of my team members, if something happened, Fireball would be the only survivor. I was in shock the whole time, and if I'm angry now it's because I almost got myself killed.

"Thank you for the compliment." She replied dully, resisting the urge to shake her knees, and stretched out her hoof to turn on the water supply of her space suit. Berry tried her best to keep her panicked thoughts calm and counted intently. One, two, three, four, five...