My Little Pony: My Little Pony The Martian

AMICITAS Mission Three – Mission Day 518

ARES 3 solar day 508

The 27-meter-tall behemoth loomed over the low sand dunes surrounding it. It sat firmly on the sandstone surface that had been flattened by the flames and powerful tail of its landing thrusters. Its once shiny shell had been scratched after a year or so of grinding on the Martian surface, and its original luster had dimmed and looked somewhat inferior. However, the dazzling light it reflected in the midday sun was still enough to be called a beacon that attracted everyone's attention.

At this moment, a vehicle that had gone through all kinds of hardships that made this rocket pale in comparison and looked even more weathered and battle-scarred slowly drove over and stopped aside. Six pairs of eyes in the car stared at them at the same time.

Mark Watney's heart sings as he sees the Ares 4 MAV. When he first started his life on the red planet, he lived from day to day, not thinking about long-term plans. But after the cave farm was officially put into operation and they were connected to Earth again, he was determined to start preparing for their eventual escape, although he was not confident. Now that they had been trapped for more than days, and nearly days of driving, he had an irrefutable fact before him: even if the sky fell and the earth collapsed, he would not be buried on Mars. At this moment, all he wanted was to give the spacecraft a big hug. He would cheer and dance around it, and as soon as he put on his space suit and stepped out of the rover's airlock, he would turn his heart into action.

Cherry Berry looked at the ship in front of her, and couldn't help comparing it to the original Amicitas before it crashed. The MAV was much shorter and thicker than most of the rockets she had flown for the Changeling Space Program. Yet it was different from other ships that were made from off-the-shelf parts. It was designed and built specifically for this mission. Like Amicitas, its graceful curves were seamlessly integrated, a shining monument of elegance and practicality, a shining example of human engineering at its highest level. She only hoped she would be able to fly it.

Starlight Glimmer silently considered what she would do with the MAV for their escape plan. The docking ring connecting the landing stage to the first stage would have to be removed—NASA was going to have to remove one of the first stage's engines. They were also going to remove the spare maneuvering thrusters and the attached fuel tanks and replace them with Amicitas' old thruster modules; this would take at least a few hours of hovering work—no, wait, there were crossbars all around the cockpit, maybe Mark could find a place to attach a suspension harness so he could float in the air without magic. She calculated in her mind how much remaining energy in the batteries would be consumed for each operation, and how much magic would remain to keep everyone in the team healthy, but she forced herself not to think about the weakest link in the chain: herself.

Tingting stared at the rocket, her eyes full of fatigue, even more tired than she was willing to admit. Although she no longer had to undertake reconnaissance missions, it still could not compensate for the loss caused by the reduction in the time of magic energy intake. She felt that she finally experienced Bilbo's complaint that she was "bland, like too little butter and too much bread, so it could only be spread thinly." The metal tower in front of them meant that they would have to devote countless days of hard work, and she was already unable to do it. Despite this, she still had a smile on her face when she looked at the MAV. In a few weeks, she will have the opportunity to dance on the edge of the knife with the god of death again in her own way.

Fireball looked at the rocket in front of him with fear in his heart. He had never been passionate about the space industry. Every time he went to space in the past, it was only because the pressure of not riding the rocket overwhelmed his aversion to riding the rocket. And his idea that riding a rocket was the lesser of two evils had led to three major misjudgments in the end - one crashed into a mountain, another was trapped in orbit, and another was trapped in another universe. But even though he hated rockets so much, he would still make the same choice whether to ride or not this time, because even dying in space seemed much better than dying slowly and painfully from hunger, suffocation, or freezing on the surface of this stupid planet.

Feihuo looked at the rocket with a confident smile on her face. When Amicitas was launched a year and a half ago, she was still a seriously over-age recruit. The reason for her selection was not because of her outstanding talents, but because of political reasons. However, during the period after the mission began, she proved time and again with her actions that she was able to take on multiple roles, and was able to serve as a doctor, a co-pilot, and a consultant to make suggestions with her rich experience... In the end, there was also the responsibility of being a Pegasus that could not be ignored. Yes, she had brushed shoulders with death several times during this period, but this was nothing new to her. Now she understands that when this rocket flies into the sky in the future, her identity on board will no longer be a naive rookie, but a tested veteran... sharing the responsibility.

They put on their space suits together, walked outside, celebrated the end of their long journey across Mars, and followed Mark up the ramp, through the airlock and into the spacecraft. Their individual thoughts and anxieties were irrelevant at this moment, and what was expressed was their common feeling: after a long wait, they were really going home.

[10:41] Houston: Congratulations from everyone here at Mission Control! Great job! How are you doing now?

[10:57] MAV: Thank you! Watney, Berry, Glimmer, and Fireball are all in good health. Tingting is weak from the lack of mana and the special labor of maintaining the space suit. Spitfire is recovering well from her flight injuries, her feathers are growing back, and she is training daily to recover. The rover systems are functioning well. The ponies' suits are worn and patched, but still in good working order. I have my EVA and Martinez's suit, as well as three space suit radios that I have disassembled for the ponies. We currently have thirteen mana batteries and fifteen booster batteries fully charged, with eight more still being charged. The plan is to connect the MAV to the rover's power system, use the ponies to provide air to the life support system, and then do a complete diagnostic of the MAV's systems before starting the modification project.

[11:12] Houston: That's great news. We have determined that everything is in place for launch and Hermes rendezvous on Sol 551. The specifics of the MAV modification have been entered into the MAV's onboard computer and are accessible via the wireless network. We also hope to discuss the feasibility of electrolyzing water from an alien life support system to produce hydrogen for the MAV's fuel generator. We need to find a way to separate molecular oxygen from molecular hydrogen after electrolysis without an atmospheric regulator. Can this Starlight do that?

[11:27] MAV: Here is the starlight. I can do it in theory, but it will cost me mana. How important is this?

[11:43] 休斯顿：MAV燃料发生器的氢气供应足够它产出相当于储箱容量90%的燃料。这点余量是我们考虑到飞行器从地球前往火星的途中会有不定量的氢气储备逸散而特别设定的。若有额外的氢气，留出的这点容量我们至少还可以用掉一半。增加5%至10%的燃料量可以提供更强推力，同时也有更大的安全裕度应对意外情形。

[11:58] MAV: OK. Then send me the steps and I will find a way to separate the oxygen from the hydrogen.

[12:13] Houston: Tingting, we also wanted to discuss with you the preparations for the nd rover and Sojourner to begin their unplanned extended missions. How is Sojourner doing?

[12:27] MAV: Sojourner is doing fine, can’t wait to go out and see the rocks!

[12:41] Houston: Not bad. Okay, the rest of today and tomorrow will be spent on inspection and preparation. Meimei, we hope you can start flight simulations on Sol 510. Martinez will review your performance after each simulation. We will try to stagger simulation training with renovation work, but if there is a conflict, please use your own judgment to resolve it. If there are no other questions, we will then return the communication to the MAV so that it can continue to receive your accumulated data and send you the backlog of emails here.

[12:53] HERMES: And we have the bandwidth to send you some new music now. So you don't have an excuse to keep ranting about how bad disco was.

[12:57] MAV: Thank God, good people live a peaceful life. Send it to me soon, anything is fine as long as it's not disco. If it doesn't work, I'll be patient and maybe I'll like anti-synth.