My Little Pony: My Little Pony The Martian

AMICITAS Mission Three – Mission Day 343

ARES 3 solar day 338

Although they spent the whole morning digging potatoes in the living cabin, and just after noon they had to go to the cave farm to harvest or replant the surviving potatoes, when it was time to report their reading results, everyone still rushed to take out their computers. Recent efforts to tell the lives and deeds of today’s heroes have been stumbling and confusing, but at least they have reached a definite conclusion: telling stories is too difficult.

"Okay," Xingguang saw everyone gathered around and said, "Dingting, why don't you talk first?"

"I have no objection." Tingting looked at everyone, "I have not read the entire book "The Base", and I have no intention of reading it in a hurry. When I first read the introduction, I still imagined a huge empire and spaceships. , magnificent battle scenes and unparalleled great heroes. What did you actually read in the end?" She patted her computer, "It's all mathematics. Mathematics, books, and a bunch of long talks by Blabla. Basically nothing happened! If something did happen, it was so far away from the main plot that it would have no impact on anyone. If Isaac Asimov's style is like this, I It’s better to hope that he doesn’t write too many books.”

"Only four to five hundred copies." Mark muttered softly.

"Okay," Starlight shrugged, "Then we won't read it. Fireball, what do you think of the Golden Spider?"

"It's fun," Fireball replied, "but it's a little confusing in some places. I also looked up what 'exile' means. And then I looked up immigrants. Did you know that humans don't want other humans to move from one place to another? Moving to another place? And making it difficult to do this? Dragons can't stand this kind of thing for long. Stupid idea."

"Brothers, blow hard for me!" Tingting teased as usual.

"Be quiet," Feihuo retorted, "your queen, what's the word, the number one reason for objecting to Yi-Ming."

"Feihuo, don't provoke the dragonfly." Cherry Berry ordered softly.

"Anyway," Fireball continued, "I can understand what blackmail means. Some dragons I know also do this. Your roof is nice, with fresh straw, and it burns quickly. If someone sneezes, it will be bad. And then don't give a lot of gold and your nose will be itchy or something. So I can understand it. But the main reason why this is a good book is the two protagonists. The story-telling characters are interesting and smart. I like them very much . And his boss, the fat human, I think I also like. I want to know what makes his head spin. I really like this book. Any more?"

"NASA sent over forty books by Rex Stout," Starlight replied. "I think they must have specially selected long-running series or highly prolific authors." She then turned to Cherry Berry. , "Next is the ring world. Berry?"

It was getting closer and closer to Berry's turn to give the report, and her face was getting redder and redder. "Mark," she asked in a low voice, "are all humans so obsessed with sex-related things?"

"Uh..." Mark moved his position, looking a little uncomfortable, "I don't think the ring world is that..."

"A device that can trigger orgasms on demand anytime, anywhere?" Obviously, it took a lot of courage for Berry to speak, "A world where sex is used to facilitate any kind of transaction? What kind of imagination can How can you come up with such a plot?!"

"Maybe it's an imagination that wants to wear the book sales rankings every day?" Mark said casually.

This sentence even made Berry's face darken. For a while, Starlight looked at Berry and was reminded of Big Macintosh.

Mark obviously noticed his inappropriate choice of words, "Sorry. I didn't mean it. It's my fault."

Cherry Berry coughed a few times and continued her report. "Most of this book is interesting. A group of disparate aliens - just like us - come together to explore a strange new world. Accidentally crash land on that world. Support each other and rely on each other. Helping each other find their way home. There's action. There's some big ideas about luck and design. There's real emotion. But..."

Starlight wonders why Twilight Sparkle hasn't come here to rescue them yet. Berry's blush should be enough to penetrate several dimensions...

"Listen to me, this Tamaki... Tamaki... I really can't concentrate when I read these sexual things, okay!" the commander concluded, "and if I were to read this book aloud, It will inevitably make me think about what kind of content is in the book!"

"How about we exchange things?" Tingting would certainly not miss this opportunity. "Perhaps I can translate this book for my queen after I go back. You also know that she likes reading such pornographic books. of."

"I don't need to know such details." Starlight changed the subject, "Next. Spitfire, what do you think of the equal rights ceremony?"

Spitfire patted her computer gently. "This story," she replied, "is like home."

"Like home?" The curious Xingguang leaned closer, "What do you mean?"

"Rather, what would it be like if we didn't have princesses there and humans were in charge of management." Spitfire continued to explain, "A lot of stupid things. Why can't boys or girls become wizards? Or witches? But then I thought about it. In our place, I know the unicorns in Cloud Valley and the earth ponies in the capital. I think of the pegasus who want to teach magic. I think of the earth ponies who want to fly." She said this. Looking at Cherry Berry, "So girls want to be wizards, just, uh, like earth ponies want to fly. That kind of thing."

"Metaphor." Starlight reminded.

"You name it. So I understand that part. But the rest of it...it's not like Hogwarts. It's not like Middle-earth. It's real people. It's magic that sometimes goes wrong. It’s weird things that happen for no reason. There are monsters. There’s daily life. There’s also privy. I also looked up the word. It means toilet. Harry Potter went to the bathroom just to talk to Myrtle. "There aren't even toilets in Middle-earth." Feihuo laughed, and although his next sentence was a bit cautious, it couldn't help the laughter in his words: "No one even goes to the toilet in Middle-earth."

"Not even on the Starship Enterprise," Mark muttered.

"Clam?"

"Nothing, continue."

"In short, there are big adventures, big ideas, and it feels like home." She paused and added, "But home is not flat ground, nor is it piled on the back of a giant turtle."

"Glad you enjoyed it," Starlight continued, "so that leaves us with two books to choose from. The Golden Spider by Rex Stout, and Equality by Terry Pratchett Quan Li. And since I have been busy doing the final enchantments on the new Sparkling Engine and Repulsion Propulsion System recently, I have been exposed to enough magic, so I vote for Murder Mystery."

"Me too." Fireball agreed.

"I don't want to hear any more stories about how mean people can be," Berry replied. "I definitely don't want to read a book that contains a blackmail plot. I'll vote for another one."

Feihuo patted her chin and asked tentatively, "Are you sure you don't want Ring World?"

The red-faced earth pony Berry makes another appearance. "Sure."

"Well, I still choose mine." Feihuo nodded and said, "I like mysterious stories, but I prefer the feeling of home."

Then everyone looked at Dragonfly, who was pondering with his chin on his hoof. "Can you promise not to knock me on the head again?" she asked Fei Huo.

"There's no guarantee." Feihuo showed no mercy.

"Feihuo, I told you not to do this again!"

Dragonfly just shrugged, "Both books have a lot of action, right?"

"Shootout," Fireball responded.

"Magic duel." Feihuo also added.

The changeling shrugged again, "Then I think both are fine." She replied, "Sorry, but I choose to abstain. Let Mark have the final say. After all, this is still his book."

Mark noticed everyone's eyes turning to him and shrugged. "Actually, I've never read The Golden Spider before," he replied. "I'm generally not very interested in mystery-themed things. But a later book in the Discworld series does have a lot of action. , a little magic, and a murder mystery. Plus politics, heroism, and romance."

"And blackmail?"

Mark shrugged again, "Well, yes, a little bit." He added, "But to clarify, the person who carried out the extortion was not actually an individual. I don't know if you will feel better."

Cherry Berry's confused eyes became almost as wide as that of a postal horse, "How is that possible?"

Mark grinned, took the computer from Spitfire, and rummaged through the library for the title of another work. "People often call them palace guards, city guards, or patrolmen. However, no matter what name they are called, these people play exactly the same role in any heroic fantasy novel: that is, by about the third chapter (Or ten minutes into the movie) rush into the room, attack the protagonists in turn, and get killed. As for whether they like this arrangement, no one has ever asked them for their opinions.”

Everyone's attention was attracted, listening to Mark reading about the dragon in the story (Fireball was not satisfied with the description in the book, "There have never been dragons so close to each other without fighting."), and they were drunk. The night watchman collapsed in the gutter, and the impact of books on time and space (Starlight: "It's absolutely true! Twilight has told me this many times!"). The aliens listened and added a few comments from time to time, laughing at the stupidity of the cultists in the story and the innocence on the lanky face of the six-foot-tall dwarf boy who was sent alone to the big city.

All in all, it's a good start - and much better than arguing all day long about what it's like to live next to some of the greatest heroes in the history of Malaysia.