My Little Pony: My Little Pony The Martian

AMICITAS Mission Three – Mission Day 62

ARES 3 solar day 64

"I'm a little jealous of you." Tingting said, "You are about to start a twenty-day two-person (horse) world with Mark."

She and Starlight were walking towards the rover carrying saddlebags filled with Mark's food packs. Mark had chosen these himself, and according to him, the few remaining pony food packets should be reserved for the horses responsible for tending the crops. At this time, Mark himself was holding a large plastic bucket full of water in his hands.

"You should have taken this seat." Starlight responded, "We all should know by now that your ability to understand Mark's language is the best among us, bar none."

"That's not okay." Tingting said, "Don't forget that I have to stay with the best source of love at all times. Even if Mark's emotions are indeed so nourishing, he is just a single person." After a while, she hissed softly and added, "Besides, don't forget that there is a death box in the car."

"Are you going to mention that thing again? Why do you always keep talking about which pot you are not talking about!" Starlight waited for Mark to open the rover's airlock and complained, "In the beginning you were always saying that this planet is harmful to How unfriendly we are.”

"This is the truth!"

"So be it. But now you say that thing called 'RTG' or something is a 'death box'."

"Xingguang, I have countless experiences fighting wits and courage with the Death Horse." Tingting said, "The process was really interesting. But this time when I saw the box, I saw the Death Horse staring at me. Saying that, I'm going to be serious this time." After saying this, the changeling in the spacesuit couldn't help but shudder, "The point is not that the box is going to take my life. Or let everyone die together or something like that. . Or the whole mass is annihilated. No. It doesn't consider that at all. It is the essence of death - wrapped in a thin envelope."

"Do you want to stop thinking about it?" Starlight replied, "In every sense of the word, haven't we been only a thin wall away from death in the past two months?"

Dragonfly just shook her head. "I still don't... Hey, Mark, wait, let me help!"

"He's not wearing the communication crystal," Starlight said angrily, "He can't hear us."

"But that bucket of water is too heavy!" Dragonfly was still stubborn. "I can move it...Mark, come here, let me..." The changeling tried to get into the bucket that was barely placed on Mark's lap to keep it. Under the balanced water tank, Mark was busy operating the rover's airbrake panel with his free hand. This drill caused the water tank to suddenly lose its balance. Mark quickly used two hands to hold it to prevent it from falling and breaking the sealing lid.

"Ouch!" Tingting hurriedly took a few steps back, stood up with her legs to steady Mark, and then sat down on the steps of the rover, looking like she was deeply regretful. Mark took some time to calm down and carefully placed the water tank next to him, then patted Dragonfly's helmet and motioned for her to step back.

"What's wrong with you again?" This time it was Starlight's turn to shake her head, "Why do you think this can help?"

"It's hard to say, my back is quite strong." Ding Ting insisted, "Of course I'm not as powerful as the boss, but I'm still strong enough! Maybe I could have made him understand better with my gestures just now..."

"Okay, I've had enough. I know you're not that stupid. Can we have a nice chat?" Starlight pointed in the direction of the living area and said, "Just inside the airlock?"

Something bad is happening. Dragonfly didn't really like the tone of Xingguang's words now. "Why don't we just talk outside here?"

"Because I don't want Mark to see the two of us arguing again." Starlight growled lowly, "Especially considering that even if he can't pronounce it normally, he can already understand many pony words."

"But you just said that he couldn't hear us through the spacesuit." Dingting was still making the final struggle.

"Bugs. Let's go now." Starlight's bone-chilling tone almost made the outdoor ambient temperature of Mars feel ashamed (today was the depth of winter, the sky was clear and the temperature was minus 25 degrees Celsius).

"Yes, sir." Tingting finally gave up her resistance. She checked the suit radio settings again, making sure the two of them were still connected to a private channel and not the one shared by the group. Confirmed, it is indeed a private call. She patted Mark's knee, raised a hoof to signal that she and Starlight wanted to go back, waited for Mark to wave to show understanding, and then followed the unicorn back to the airlock of the habitation module.

Starlight didn't even bother to operate the airlock to start repressurizing it. As soon as the outer hatch closed, she started roaring at Dragonfly. "That's enough. Listen to me. I spent my entire formative years learning how to cajole, flatter, manipulate, and intimidate ponies to get my way. I'm certainly trying to change now. I'm a newbie, but I still remember those little tricks for the time being; and you've been playing tricks since we got here, and you haven't stopped."

"I've always thought you were a candidate to be the Queen of the Insect Nest." Dragonfly said.

"Did you see? That's it!" Starlight pointed a hoof at Dragonfly and accused, "You're doing it again! Complimenting for no reason! Flattery to your superiors! Whenever you get the chance, you'll be hot on the face but cold on the bottom! And you keep pretending to be like this! What a lovable idiot! Every time you get a chance to be alone with one of us, you start talking to him and flattering him! Even to Mark, except that you act like an idiot most of the time around him. A pet dog that is so attentive for nothing!" The unicorn's eyes became sharper and sharper, "Tell me! What kind of medicine are you selling in your gourd?!"

Dragonfly sighed. "If I tell you, it won't work," she said, "but it's really important that it works."

"Is it still a matter of love?" Starlight asked, "We take turns giving you two hugs every day! Sometimes even three times! I put all my love into hugs every day! Isn't this enough? ?!”

A dead end. No, it looks like I can't escape, right? Why do these ponies have to make things so difficult for me? "You left home at a young age and went out to explore, didn't you?" asked the changeling. "After that, you established your own small village. Starting from scratching the ground on your own, you recruited one person after another. Pony. You think you work hard, don't you?"

"Nonsense, of course this kind of work is hard!" Starlight said firmly, "But what does this have to do with the current situation?"

"Then have you ever been unable to eat for several days in a row?" asked Ting Ting, "or even several weeks in a row?"

"Uh... never?" Xingguang looked a little confused, "I have always worked hard, so even if sometimes the results are not very good, I can always make a living."

"I have." At this moment, Tingting put away all her flattery and disguise, revealing the pure Hive Warrior in her heart. "Every changeling has it. The love stolen by the intruder has to travel hundreds of miles, and it can be brought back safely to the insect nest without being caught or transferred in the middle. We live in poverty all day long, So much so that the only clues to understand that there is still a lifestyle that is opposite to poverty in the world are the daily necessities, trinkets, etc. brought back by the infiltrators. Please imagine a kind of hard work day after day, In the end, it is possible to live a life without any income. The premise is that you can imagine it. For me, there is no need to imagine, because I am in it!”

"So in the end it's still about love." Starlight still looked unconcerned for the time being.

"No," said the dragonfly, "This is about hatred. This is about anger. Yes, I am a little hungry. All changelings feel at least a little hungry at all times. But if you hadn't kept getting on each other's nerves I'm so nervous that I have to spend all my love to avoid being contaminated by your negative emotions. The hugs you gave me are enough!"

Starlight didn't react. "Why didn't you..."

"Fireball doesn't like us because we are not dragons." She continued to bombard her with a lot of information. "He respects Berry because, after all, Berry is Berry. He also respects me because I saved him. But he fundamentally hates all of us horses and refuses to work with us. But what he hates most about all horses is himself, because he believes that he does not belong in the team."

"Well," Starlight tried to argue, "that's just..."

"Spike Fire always controls you because of your health, because that is basically her only responsibility." Tingting continued to pour out her words, "She has always felt worthless because she suffered Her training was to be a pilot and commander; her only role here was that of a doctor - for which she had only received a total of six weeks of training."

"How did you..."

"Berry thinks she's just a fake." The changeling continued, "She spends her days and nights hoping that some princess savior will come and take over this responsibility from her shoulders, because she doesn't trust herself to handle it. Ability to handle affairs. This is why she defers decisions to you most of the time - your words always sound like you know more than she does."

"But... uh... I..."

"And you." Dragonfly looked a little malicious and said viciously, "You spend all your time solving current problems or personal affairs; you don't notice, or you don't care at all, what other horses say. Or feelings. Of course I am an exception, because you are always worried that one day I will go berserk and drain everyone dry."

"This is not true at all!" Starlight suddenly stomped her hoof, and this movement that should have been silent actually triggered a vibration, and a throbbing was sent up along Dragonfly's hoof.

Tingting took a deep breath and swallowed back the other harsh words that she originally wanted to spit out. It was easy for the changeling to break a pony's mind; but she didn't want to hurt the horse in front of her right now. "Maybe not." She whispered and made a concession, "But if the emotions in your hearts that I feel here continue to develop, it is not far from that situation. Especially Berry, who is extremely neurotic. After all, I I’ve worked with her for many years. I don’t know her too well.”

"But Berry is the missile operator with firm eyes!" Starlight still didn't want to believe it.

"Is she on the rocket now?" Dragonfly asked.

"Theoretically..."

(Silence)

"You know what I mean."

"Uh...she's not here." Starlight was defeated.

"Then it looks like she might pilot another rocket in the near future?" Tingting continued to ask.

"No, it's impossible."

"It's that simple. She only has confidence in herself when it comes to flying. Give her a question about flying and you can follow her on a day trip to hell and get out of it safe and sound. But from any other perspective," Tingting paused for emphasis, "she is definitely just an ordinary pony. She is not the seventh element of the Essence of Harmony."

At this time, Xingguang made a strange sound, then reacted and closed his mouth firmly. Dragonfly couldn't help but nod in approval. Okay, this pony finally understands when it's not appropriate to show off his knowledge.

"So she needs help to bring this team together." Tingting continued, "We just trained together as a group before... How long? Three weeks? But it doesn't matter, because this mission is planned. It was supposed to be only five days, right? It was just a matter of flying around the star, taking a few photos of the future landing site in orbit, and then flying back and that was it. And these few people in our team But they are all senior pilots, design geniuses, experienced leaders and so on. It is unlikely that anything will go wrong after just five days of work."

"Well, it turned out that this kind of accident happened halfway through the mission. Now Berry doesn't know how to lead us forward; Fireball doesn't care at all; Spitfire has always been careful not to act deviantly; and you are immersed in the world composed of numbers and magic. Nothing in the world has been noticed." The changeling shook his head and sighed, "So who is left?"

"Then, I guess you're the only one left?" Starlight said.

"Yes. Of course, I do it out of self-interest—I'll get more food and less poison—but I also do it to keep the crew together. Together. So I became that crazy silly bug, and also the cute alien pet. I became Miss Helping Horses, Miss Enthusiastic, and even the atmosphere mediator who saved the scene. And I have done so many different things. Just to make you like me more, and also to make each of you feel better about yourself and each other.”

Tingting sat down on the cold deck and began her summary: "But the premise for this to work is that the target is not aware of my behavior. Once the victim starts to have doubts, it will be no good." Now." She stroked the ground with one fore hoof and continued, "By the way, these are all the basics of osmosis. This is how the changelings survive - everyone in the team has their own Perform your duties and make your own contribution to the collective.”

Almost completely deflated, Starlight took a few steps back and hit the inner door of the airlock. "I...I'm sorry," she said, "but, uh..."

"But I am a changeling, yes, I understand this." Tingting said with a look of disdain, "Then let me tell you straight, this sentence is absolutely true, you can record it: I have never Lied to any of you in fact."

Starlight Glimmer hung her head, which made her space suit feel a little overwhelmed, and asked, "Is it really that bad?"

"It's bad enough." Tingting replied, "By the way, your leaving the residential area this time will probably dilute the negative emotions here a lot. You won't annoy Feihuo anymore, and the same goes for you. ; But without you, she will probably feel even more useless than before. If Mark hadn't been here to divert our attention every day, I don't even want to imagine how bad the situation would be."

"But in a day or two he won't be here," Starlight muttered.

Dragonfly nodded. "Hopefully he will keep his collection of TV series. I think I should be able to continue teaching English classes, at least as a group activity other than farm work."

Starlight also nodded through his helmet. "I'll ask Mark about this..." She suddenly paused, "I just had an idea. You should know that Berry always wants to use the parts here to try to build a new spaceship, right?"

Dragonfly was startled and shrank back. Who is playing dumb now? "That's impossible!" she insisted. "Half of Mark's descent vehicle was completely destroyed, and the only thing left on the base of the ascent vehicle was what we needed to handle the extra CO2." Fuel generator! Besides, the components of these two vehicles are incompatible with the remaining components of Amicitas in any way! We spent more than a week convincing Berry that this was not feasible!"

"You know what I know, everyone knows it's impossible." Starlight said, "But it's still a good time-killing activity. As long as ponies have something to do in front of them, they usually won't do it anymore. Is there any doubt? Let them have something to do all the time, and they won't cause any trouble."

"Let me think about it again." Tingting finally accepted the suggestion.

"Now," Starlight said, "it's time for an apology hug."

Ding Ting was very happy that the snacks this time did not have the smell of suspicion compared to before; however, there was still a bit of firm determination in them, a smell similar to soaked raisins and cereals.