My Little Pony: My Little Pony The Martian

AMICITAS Mission Three – Mission Day 458

ARES 3 solar day 450

"Hermes calls Friendship. NASA has given you permission to launch the Sirius 8 mission to the source of Maworth Valley. This journey should take fifteen days. Once you leave Maworth Valley, we expect to direct you to avoid it. At that time, the front edge of the sandstorm will slowly approach you. The current width of the sandstorm is about 600 kilometers, and it is moving due west at a speed of 4 kilometers per hour."

"By the way, a piece of unrelated news: Dr. Baker officially proposed to Johnson yesterday, and we think you also have the right to know. They are also thinking of asking me to officiate the wedding, but I still have to remind them that as a naval captain, I have no right. To officiate a wedding, let alone as a mission commander appointed by NASA. Therefore, this important matter will have to wait until at least we land and end the quarantine before we have the opportunity to consider it. Baker also asked me to tell you that he also intends to invite You showed up as best man. You can probably guess how Martinez reacted to that."

"Finally, let me give you a brief update on the latest progress of our rescue mission: Hermes has just crossed the Earth's orbit and started our return flight. We are currently approaching Mars quickly and are expected to successfully rendezvous with you as planned on Sol 551 - which will be the Hermes mission day. 689. If the Shiny engine fails to operate as expected, the Ares 3 crew will break Gennady Padalka's world record for lifetime spaceflight of 879 days. Even if it takes a few more days from the time we leave Mars. Today we will also exceed the previous record of 438 consecutive days in space set by Valery Polyakov. Yes, I also checked the information specifically for this. I just want to take this opportunity to mention that because of this trip You are not the only one who will go down in history for your mission.”

"See you in almost one hundred and four days. Hermes communication completed."

Dragonfly woke up in the cold that made her uncomfortable. Compared with the outdoor surface temperature on Mars at midnight, the inside of the cave is definitely warm and comfortable, but she has long been accustomed to a controlled living environment since the changelings' "long-overturned dark history" came to an end, and now this place is still The temperature is a bit lower than her preferred living temperature. What she wants is more sleep, and to do that she must seek out more calories.

On Sol 450, a lot of physical labor was performed that required wearing a space suit. Fifteen giant batteries in total, each weighing kilograms, had to be carefully moved piece by piece into the cave airlock, then transported outdoors and down the side of what Mark now calls Amicitas Mountain to the rover. After arriving, each battery needs to be carefully threaded and wired little by little into the complex saddle bag rigging to fix it so that when they are suspended in the protective belt, they will not swing randomly and hit the thick metal support pillars extending from the chassis.

While Fireball, Mark and Cherry Berry were leading this important event, several others were also carrying those ordinary-sized magic batteries - taking away twenty-one and leaving nine in the cave, connected to the infected of iridescent crystal core. What was carried out at the end was the core driving crystal of the Sparkling Engine, which was fixed with extreme caution in a fixed base filled with protective materials in the Amicitas bridge.

What was then shipped out were their respective private belongings. The branch that had been transplanted into a small plastic box was stuffed into one of Mark's spare spacesuits and carefully transferred to the spacecraft. Following closely behind were two boxes filled with cherry leaves that they would take on the road to make tea with the hot water provided by the life support system. There is another box further back, containing eight small rainbow crystals that Starlight intends to take back to Malaysia for research. And so on.

Then after they were ready, Spitfire took out a metal plate removed from Amicitas and a larger piece of the same type of material. She said it was to make a mission medal for each of the six of them, so that they could take a small part of the spacecraft home together. After a brief argument (this time Starlight rarely won the argument), Starlight took a little energy from a certain battery left behind and cut out five metal plates. On them were engraved as follows in Pony language and English:

Cherry Berry – Star Glimmer – Fireball – Dragonfly – Spitfire – Mark Watney

ESA’s 54th mission – AMICITAS mission three – ARES 3 extended mission

ESA/CSP/DSI/NASA

And in the center of the metal piece, where it should have been reserved for some kind of emblem or positive energy motto, was written:

"home"

When the final work was finally completed, they enjoyed a final meal, which was mainly made from a large amount of fresh alfalfa buds with a sweet smell, and then spread out their sleeping mats and lay down at the entrance of the cave, talking freely about everything they liked. They commented on the ugliness of mixing Xiang and Martian dust hoofers into compost, the countless hours spent irrigating plants with a trickle, and how they might improve their response if they encountered a similar situation in the future. Their topics ranged from disco music to television entertainment to the various books in the small electronic library NASA had sent them. They also looked back on their numerous near-death experiences in the past few days, and lamented how wonderful this world was that persisted in trying to erase the word "escape" from them.

They said nothing about the journey to Schiaparelli. The theme of the evening was their past - about the past rather than the future.

Finally, they fell asleep peacefully in the cave with no artificial lighting, bathed in the dim light of the heating rainbow crystal.

Until the dragonfly wakes up now. Her eyesight was different from the others. It was not affected in almost complete darkness, or at least it was enough for her to see that the five astronauts who were lying on their respective sleeping bags three hours ago were now curled up. There was a nest; Fireball and Mark were lying on their backs and stacked at the bottom, with three ponies lying on top of them.

The grumbling dragonfly muttered a few words in the ancient language of changelings (not a sharp hiss, but a soft chirp of insects), dragged itself closer to the sleep pile, and stood between Mark and the fireball at the bottom. I found a little gap and squeezed in. The position sandwiched between the dragon with its own heat source and the human with almost no body hair was the warmest; and if Mark poked his belly again this time, at least she would definitely not kick his belly.

Warmth and comfort came again, and she fell asleep peacefully again... and returned to dreamland...

Flying fire into dreams.

"Tell me, who is that horse?"

"I don't know. Am I supposed to recognize her?"

"It's just that she looks familiar."

"Oh, you mean her? That's Spitfire. She used to be a pilot."

After such a brief conversation, the pair of Central City fillies continued down the street, leaving them to stand alone in the rain, wearing a cloud-removing jacket, with a lonely look like a flying fire riding the wind.

Behind her stands a huge poster on the 20th floor of a store: Young, energetic, brave and strong? Come join the Wonderbolts! The proud face pictured on the side was once hers.

It's always been her. Until three years ago.

She could only vaguely feel that she might still have wings. They were hugging her sides. Just the thought of briefly stretching her wings made her breathless. Some invisible force tightly bound her, preventing her from flying into the blue sky again.

I was once a hero, she thought to herself. Once upon a time, I could train a team of young pilots and narcissistic maniacs with an inflated mentality into a world-renowned first-class flying team. My life after that was supposed to be everything - including my significant other. But all I want is to do this job well, fly and lead generations of aviators.