My Little Pony: My Little Pony The Martian

AMICITAS Mission Three – Mission Day 5

Ares III Solar Day 9

Starlight chewed her portion of the cheese and mushroom egg roll with pleasure. She gave the alien who called himself Mahrq a taste, and the monkey was so shocked that he couldn't contain himself. This suited her perfectly: although she was grateful for his generosity in sharing the food, she had had enough of the daily staple of beans.

Maybe the staple food of their race is beans (by the way, he looks just like the "human" in Sunset's mirror world, but the skin coloring is all wrong, and he's not that thin. Besides, the mirror world (Hope no other horse knows about the shit that happened); or maybe he really has a penchant for beans. This probably explains his odd behavior of taking all the alfalfa seeds and planting them in a plastic box that looks like a Manehattan balcony.

Seriously, what on earth do they want to put a small garden in such a small base? They don't need to remove carbon dioxide - after all, machines do it for them. However, Dragonfly kept trying to operate the machine (which actually included water circulation machines, air filters, and any device with buttons, switches, and displays) until she was dragged away from the machine by the alien. After "settling" the dragonfly, he used pictures on the whiteboard to explain the gadgets that the clever little changeling had been tinkering with since the first night.

In any case they must learn to communicate with their host - at least to understand his thinking. Starlight was so sure of it that she kept thinking of solutions during her enforced bed rest. If they wanted to work with the biped, they would have to learn how to communicate, and after all the food they had brought was gone, they would have to rely on the alien. So specifically how to learn to communicate with aliens is a top priority.

"Berry?" Starlight tried to attract the attention of the commander who was devouring oatmeal (a bowl of frozen oats with a lone cherry on top). "Crew meeting, now." The commander sighed, Eat the remaining food in the next bowl. "Okay, everyone gather around the bed."

Spitfire stayed by Starlight's side to watch over the restless patient, while enjoying his daily energy breakfast of scrambled eggs with alfalfa mix. He was hesitating between eating the few sapphires for breakfast or oatmeal, and he had to always be on guard against aliens discovering the fireballs in the small vault. Hearing the sound, he put down his breakfast and came over. The last dragonfly, who was observing the monkey allocating and preserving its own food, slowly walked over and announced the beginning of the meeting.

The alien noticed that the situation had changed and was about to pick up the whiteboard and marker, but was stopped by Starlight, so he went back to continue working angrily. This also makes Starlight feel even more magical: Why is the alien's body language so similar to theirs? You don't even need the mind-reading skills of a changeling to easily communicate with the alien about right and wrong and simple feelings.

"Is everyone here?" Berry said, "Xingguang has something to say."

"Uh..." Starlight brought her attention back to the important matter at hand, "You mentioned that the food reserves in the ship are kept intact, right?"

"So far, yes," Berry said. "At least I can't find any damage caused by the previous impact."

"Okay, let's get down to business. We had lunch, dinner, and breakfast before the accident," Starlight said, "and we also brought yesterday's dinner and today's breakfast and lunch ourselves. So so far the total has been It consumed three horses and one dragon for two days of supplies, right?”

"I understand what you mean," Berry said. "I've been worried about this recently. According to standard procedures, Amicitas only carried a total of 30 days of supplies for seven crew members when it was launched."

"Yes, this kind of important information is really hard to come by (you remember such trivial things clearly)." Fireball teased.

"Ahem," Berry rolled her eyes at him and continued, "One of the supplies is gems for the dragon, but it stands to reason that we still have a surplus, right?"

Starlight shook her head. "The situation now is very different from before. We have lost communication with the Friendship Point/Houston Center and have no idea where we are and no way to tell them that we are alive. This means..." Starlight paused, suddenly Realizing that revealing the truth now would not help morale, she swallowed what she was about to say and reconciled, "Rescue may not arrive for a long time in the future, at least until a new rescue ship is built. After the boat." Berry nodded slowly. In addition to her responsibilities as a space horse, she also served as a supervisor during the construction of the rocket. At that time, she spent most of her time and energy supervising the construction of the rocket. "I understand, so you want us to implement rationing of food rations?"

"It's not a problem for me," Dragonfly said, "It's enough for you to give me a few loving hugs, but I still have to drink water."

"Oral intention," Fireball muttered, "This is a big trouble for us. I need to take at least some crystals every day to stay healthy. I can't eat grass like you, so we all have to eat our own food. "

"So you have to eat rocks," Dragonfly sneered, "Go outside, rocks are everywhere."

"Yes, I can eat those too," Fireball raised his voice, which surprised Mahrq and put down the breakfast he was doing. "If that's the case, you can also eat horse body waste, isn't it wonderful?"

"Uh..." Feihuo made a face and said, "I know what you mean. I have at least read dragon emergency care books. Is it really okay for you to talk about this kind of topic while I am eating?"

Fireball sat down on the ground, sighed, and muttered in a not-so-sincere tone, "Sorry." Soon he added, "Anyway, you understand what I mean. Dragons have to eat gems, and there is no substitute." .”

"How many sapphires do you have left?" Starlight asked.

"Thirteen, even if I eat all the meals, I still have room in my stomach, but I have to keep them until the supplies are used up..." The dragon almost lay down on the ground, and its slender figure made this scene very dramatic. "If I could control myself."

"So that's why you swallowed the food packet given by the alien alive?" Starlight asked.

"No, plastic packaging cannot be digested. It's just to scare the monkey."

"So it's not because plastic can replace gemstones?"

"nonexistent."

"That means if we didn't ration, Fireball would be malnourished within a month if we relied too heavily on Mahrq's food. As for the other horses," she added, "we initially had three ponies for six. Ten days, food every day for various missions (such as spacewalks or going out and back), right?”

"Yes," Spitfire nodded after painstakingly calculating the mission nutritional expenses for ponies, changelings and dragons.

"We can reduce this by one-third - or at least a quarter - as long as we limit the amount of activity, there should be no problem." Starlight said, "In this way, we will have about fourteen days. There is room for maneuver. But after that," she sighed, "it will all depend on the owner of the house, and I have a hunch that he will not be as generous to us as he was in the past three days." Everyone present agreed. On the first night, when the six of them played "you draw and I guess", the alien explained that he had five companions at first, but the rest were forced to evacuate during the storm, but he was injured and trapped Here it is. He is now alone and awaiting rescue. That's why there were extra beds available when the group of victims arrived, and the aliens had plenty of surplus food... and that's why he tried his best to preserve that food.

"I don't understand," Spitfire said. "Look, he spends almost half the time banging on that thing—"

Dragonfly interrupted him, "I think it's a computer, it looks a lot like the video game console we have there."

"Maybe," Spitfire admitted, "or maybe it's a two-way TV or something, but in any case, it's much more advanced than our technology. Look at the lighting here -" She pointed to the densely packed dome, illuminated by a large number of small light strips. 's plastic structure, "almost like natural light! And we do almost everything without magic! They're clearly several generations ahead of us. Why not give him a ride while he's gone? No matter where he comes from, there's no place like this The environment is worse." She raised her hoof again and pointed to the desolation of the outside world.

"Spyfire, how long would it take to travel between Mars and Star without the Sparkle Engine?" Starlight asked. "I believe Twilight and Dr. Von Buern (CSP setting, who designed the rocket system) Minotaur) should have been mentioned in training.”

"The best position? If it's just a flyby, it will take six months to go back and forth," Spitfire recalled. "The orbit will be even longer. So what? We are talking about aliens now!"

"Don't think so," Starlight said, struggling to use magic to lift the plastic spoon that was flying, and put it down again after a few seconds. "The environmental magic in this room is only enough for me to maintain this state without using batteries. A state. Based on the information collected in recent days, I speculate that this world - possibly this parallel universe - lacks the existence of a parity magic energy field. The magic energy we perceive now only comes from life itself and is not enough to operate at all Devices like the Twinkle Engine also mean that rescue is at least months away."

"The system of the space suit can still be used." Feihuo was still unconvinced.

"Those systems," Dragonfly interjected, "are designed to operate solely on a horse's own magic field. Even changelings can use it, and we hardly release any magic energy. Trust me, we really don't. How much energy does it take to power that system?”

"I wonder if you have noticed," Xingguang said, "Since arriving here, the energy of the space suit's EVA thruster has been slowly consumed, which means that our magic field has also become weaker and is not even enough to support the operation of the space suit system."

"In the past, we could use the spacesuit for several days in a row, along with the water and gas supply on the ground, and everything was running normally. What now? I recommend limiting the EVA duration to a maximum of 8 hours. The communication and navigation system can only last 8 hours. We're blind until the charge is complete, let alone the thrusters."

Fireball shrugged. "But where can we go? Walking for exercise here doesn't sound very appealing."

"In short," Starlight said, "we must take a long-term view. All we have at hand now are our ship, Mahrq's base, the mess left by the storm, and all the resources that this frozen hell may exploit. And what we have to do The goal is to postpone the deadline for resource exhaustion as much as possible and use as few resources as possible.”

"At least there is enough air and water," Berry said, "as long as the life support system of the space suit can still be used."

"Besides that," Starlight continued, "we also need to learn to communicate with the owners here. I have a solution for that," she added, looking at Spitfire, "but it might mean another round of bed rest. A few days." Turning to Berry, Starlight continued, "Next time we go to the spaceship, we need to bring back one of the batteries. It should be rechargeable here, and we may also need-"

Mahrq had emptied his food bag and was grabbing a space suit from the charging rack.

"Where is he going?" Dragonfly asked, "He looks a little worried and depressed."

"I'll go ask," Starlight said, pushing away the tray on the bed and jumping to the ground. "Flying Fire, hold on to me later."

"What are you going to do?" Spitfire asked in a "put away your bold ideas" tone.

"A variant of Bit Lead's universal decoding spell," Starlight said, walking towards the alien. "This spell can be used to decode any form of encrypted information. I adjusted the parameters so that it can operate in both directions, and I hope it works."

"You're going to lose it," Spitfire warned.

Starlight Glimmer ignored her. The whiteboard Mahrq had picked up earlier was still on a nearby workbench, along with a marker. She took a deep breath, used magic to levitate the pen, flew to Mahrq who was putting on his space suit, and patted him on the shoulder. The alien flinched and turned to look behind him. His eyes widened in surprise when he saw this scene: an ordinary marker was enveloped in a turquoise halo, floating back to where Starlight was standing, and fell on the workbench. He unconsciously put down his helmet and half-worn spacesuit, and walked towards where she stood, sweating slightly and breathing heavily. She clearly had his undivided attention. She still didn't understand his language, but she was pretty sure he was talking about "how is this done?"

"Calm down, Starlight." She whispered to herself: "You are the most powerful unicorn in the Equestrian Kingdom today, and you have the deepest magic reserve since Star Swirl was born. You can fight the Alicorn Princess one-on-one and win. Fight the odds. You can do it."

"I can do it."

"Please please please..."

Her horn lit up again, this time much brighter than before, and the light overwhelmed her and the alien. The energy consumption was intense from the beginning, and Starlight's knees couldn't help but feel weak. It must be resolved quickly. "Can you understand?" she asked, "As soon as possible, I can't last long."

The alien said something urgently. From the jumbled sentences, Starlight heard: "...How...did you...do it..."

Success! The spell still needs fine-tuning, but there is no doubt that the experiment was a success! "No time to explain," she said, "Where are you going?"

A barrage of shots. "Go outside. You are so stupid."

Look what this says! It's just nonsense. "What are you going for?"

More barrage. "Look for the antenna dish. The radio is broken. Can't find it and can't fix it."

Her energy was running low and she had to stop casting spells or faint. "Draw it, we can help." She struggled to end the spell and fell to her knees.

In an instant, Spitfire jumped over from across the room and supported her. "Low gravity is such a good thing," Starlight was still thinking in a daze as Spitfire carried her to the bed.

Mahrq wanted to follow, but stopped, picked up the whiteboard and marker again, drew a rough sketch, and turned the whiteboard over to show them.

Berry was the first to recognize it. "That's a tracking antenna," she said.

"Parabolic radio antenna," Dragonfly corrected, "There's nothing wrong with that."

"He said his radio was broken," Starlight said unsteadily, "Spike, I'm fine. This isn't a relapse of mana depletion." But he barely escaped. She had to find a way to reduce the energy consumption of that spell, and there was a lot of work to do...

"You mean he can't communicate either?" Feihuo asked.

Starlight Glimmer sighed and let Spitfire lay her on her back on the bed. Resistance now only adds to the pain. "To be honest," she said, "I don't think his pack even knows he's still here."

Hermes – Mission Day 133

"Okay, everyone on standby," Lewis said. "Martinez, start the process immediately after the camera locks on the residential area."

"Roger that," Martinez replied.

"Johnson, Vogel, you man the camera. Vogel, we need to survey the site. Johnson, point the camera at the residential area. We're going to watch for any signs of movement. Not a long shot, but if If they use residential areas as shelter, this is your best chance of photographing them."

"Yes, Commander," Vogel replied. Johnson nodded.

Dr. Chris Baker had nothing to do. He put one hand on the ceiling of the hatch and watched. For the first time in a few days, the Ares 3 team members once again engaged in intense and orderly work. Lewis came out of the previous difficulties and urged the team members to work hard, and team morale also increased. It was all about the curiosity and sense of mission that came with possibly photographing real aliens. At the same time, this also means another possibility, but Martinez warned Baker, Vogel and Johnson not to mention this matter in front of Lewis. And now the results are about to emerge.

After observing the rover moving toward the crash site yesterday, Lewis came up with a plan and got NASA's approval. Hermes will be slowed down in orbit and carefully calibrated so that the camera can capture the landing site for as long as possible. Today, Hermes' orbit passes almost directly above the habitation area, making the habitation module a better photographic subject than the alien spacecraft, even if NASA would like to get more images of the latter.

"Camera locked," Johnson reported, "recording."

"Still camera locked," Vogel replied, "receiving data." Pictures flashed before him, and Johnson's eyes were glued to the rapidly zooming image on the terminal.

"Pitch control engaged," Martinez replied from his workstation as the sound of attitude control engines firing echoed through the cabin. "Performing normally, no correction required."

"High-definition images of the antenna field are being taken," Vogel reported. "The debris is spread out over a wide area, with sand and rocks everywhere. It's completely destroyed."

"Aiming at the residential area," Johnson said, "Rover Two is parked next to the charging station of Airlock One. Rover One is still partially buried in the sand."

"MAV landing stage intact," Vogel reported. "MDV is missing - wait a minute, MDV moved laterally about two hundred meters. There is visible damage to the skin."

"Closest point in two minutes," Martinez reported.

Beck couldn't help the smile on his face. Everything is as it was before the disaster on Sol 6. This is what a team should be like - especially considering they've been away from Earth for eight months.

"Motion detected!"

Everyone's eyes turned to Johnson, although Vog was still observing his terminal: "As soon as the airlock detects movement - someone is preparing to exit the cabin!"

"Refocusing on airlock one," Vogel reported.

"One...two...three spacesuits," Johnson reported, "one orange and two white. Those two look really weird..."

“One minute closer,” Martinez said.

"The orange one and one of the white ones looks really long," Vogel said, looking at the photo of the airlock. "Maybe an oversized backpack? It's hard to see from above."

"The fourth one!" Johnson said, followed by an exclamation, "The red and white one! That's our space suit!"

"Turn to my screen," Lewis ordered. Baker walked uninvited toward the commander's workstation so he could look over his shoulder at the screen. A small dot on the screen stretched out a more elongated arm to operate the airlock controls, apparently causing the door to close.

"Oh my God," Vogel whispered.

"I knew it!!" Martinez cheered as if victorious.

"It's Mark," Johnson muttered.

Baker was next to the commander, so he was the only one who heard her lament, "Oh my God, I left him behind."

"Attention everyone, let's get back to the topic," he said, surprising Lewis. "There's a bunch of journalists on the ground who can't wait to see this news."

But this sentence is still a step too late. Although the sadness was suppressed, Baker realized that the team was still missing someone after all. Regardless it was cause for celebration - his best friend was back from the dead after all! Yet he was vaguely worried about the others. Especially Commander Lewis.