My Little Pony: My Little Pony The Martian

AMICITAS Mission Three – Mission Day 517

ARES 3 solar day 507

The mobile home rolled forward.

Although the Schiaparelli Basin's rough surface is dotted with small schist ridges, sand dunes and rocks, it did not prevent the tandem rover from maintaining a top speed of 25 kilometers per hour.

Driving over low sand dunes blown into fans by the weak Martian wind.

Drive past craters that were once lakes and tumbling rock ridges carved out by ancient water flows.

Driving over the surface of the soil, small cracks are left on the ground after years of thermal expansion and contraction.

Although the passengers in the cabin may suffer from occasional bouts of motion sickness due to all kinds of bumps, bounces, shoves and shakes along the way, the RV never stops.

For the first time since leaving the cave, Cherryberry was also a passenger. When they had their suits serviced last, Tingting had added a thick layer of protection to the inside and outside of her boots, knowing that she would be the one doing the most mileage. She had walked over 3,600 kilometers in this suit, with each step. The rubber coating had only started to flake off yesterday, a testament to the otherworldly properties of the changeling slime and the time-tested, solid design of the pony suit.

To this end, Tingting requisitioned an uncharged magic battery and consumed some potatoes to repair the space suit - including her own, which was borrowed by three different ponies along the way, and the intensity of use was almost the same as Berry's, so it also needed maintenance. Now the newly applied slime has not yet completely solidified, so the two space suits have to be left aside today. Cherry Berry, who has nothing to do, can only find a seat in the second row and watch the desert outside the porthole passing by them.

Today's itinerary didn't require anyone to explore the way ahead. The ground was open and flat, with almost no rocks to be seen. In addition, the rover would reach the MAV in a day, so it felt unnecessary to go out and explore the terrain now. Three ponies, a changeling, and a dragon sat quietly on the former bridge of Amicitas, looking out the window at the monotonous scenery, and occasionally experiencing a few bumps and sways with the car.

The road conditions were not of concern to Berry, but she certainly appreciated a day off from time to time. She held the simple soil pot that contained Groot with her front hooves, and from time to time she would reach out a hoof to check the situation and make sure that the transplanted saplings were growing well. The little guy had doubled in size since they left the cave farm, and it seemed certain that this trip had not had any adverse effects on him.

But Meimei's mind was mostly on the upcoming launch. It was fun at the time, but it was one thing to train on a dust storm-damaged MDV, and it was another to train on an MAV—this time they were using the real thing. She had to start training early to get the hang of it. There was no "if it doesn't work, let the computer fly the ship" in this matter. If the MAV missed the chance to rendezvous with the Hermes, the backup plan required a pilot on board to fly the ship—and her previous training on the MDV had already shown that she was undoubtedly the best pilot on the team.

At this point, failure is no longer an option. If you fail, you will have to watch everyone die in the endless space, all because you can't shoulder the responsibility at the critical moment.

Fireball interrupted her anxiety. "Roger that, Mark," he said. "Wait a moment." He nodded to Spitfire in the passenger seat, and when she turned on the radio, he continued, "Hermes, Friendship calling. We have received the habitation beacon signal from the MAV. The rover radio is receiving messages from Earth. From now on, all communications, except for emergencies, will be transmitted through the MAV. This station is offline. Friendship communication is over."

"What did you say just now?" Meimei asked. Feihuo and Huoqiu were both wearing flight radio headsets, but Meimei didn't, so she naturally couldn't hear the message from Mark.

"The rover has steady reception of the MAV's signal," Fireball replied. "NASA wants all communications to go through that now. Mark is sending them log reports and stuff."

"Ah!" Xingguang suddenly jumped up from her flight seat, "I haven't finished writing my report on Feihuo's flight yet!" She ran to the living module as fast as she could to get her computer. On the way, the rover suddenly shook and she was caught off guard and came into contact with the outer frame of the pressure cabin door.

"Anyway," Fireball continued to explain, "with the MAV, there's no need to monitor our radios here. So I turned off the communication."

"Oh." Meimei's heart ached. She certainly understood this, but she still couldn't help but feel sad. Even up to now, she had only used the ship's communication a few times... In fact, there were not many opportunities - but when she thought that just now was most likely the last time the radio on the spacecraft went offline...

Enough! She stopped herself from thinking. Amicitas is gone. We made it into this trailer to bring us here. And this mission is almost over. It is no longer your ship, either now or in the past year or so.

But there was a voice in Meimei's heart that echoed, it will always be my spaceship. And I couldn't take it home.

The crew members around her began to make a lot of noise and busyness again, but Meimei slumped in her seat in a daze, holding her sapling tightly in her arms, as if she could give the spaceship a big hug in this way.