My Little Pony: My Little Pony The Martian

AMICITAS Mission Three – Mission Day 106

ARES 3 solar day 107

"Mark?" Berry asked, "What does 'permission' mean?"

"What does 'permission' mean?" Mark habitually corrected her grammatical errors.

Berry rolled her eyes: "Then what does 'permission' mean?"

"Where did you see that word?"

"Here. It's in the email." Berry turned the computer screen in front of her to Mark so that he could read it. It showed the following content:

Bandai International Group would like to congratulate you on your successful survival on a planet with extremely harsh environment. You must know that thousands or even billions of people on the earth are cheering for you and are eagerly looking forward to your safe landing on the earth so that a formal and grand celebration ceremony can be held for your arrival.

Of course, as we all know, there are many, many people who are already impatient. They had no time to wait until the final rescue was successful, but were eager to let your image enter their lives now; so some unscrupulous opportunistic thieves began to take advantage of people's psychological needs to steal your and other team members' portraits without authorization. , producing a large number of dolls and other types of toys of such low quality that they do not accurately reflect your true appearance - an injustice that our colleagues at Bandai urgently need to correct.

If you agree to grant the use of your likeness to Bandai to manufacture official toys for children on Earth, we can ensure that the final product is of reliable quality while remaining true to the original characters (i.e. you and your teammates). In addition, as an image license holder, Bandai has the legal basis to represent you and severely punish the greedy businessmen who manufacture counterfeit and shoddy toys as mentioned earlier.

Attached to the email is a draft contract for your reference. Due to your lack of legal counsel, we have contacted the NASA Legal Department regarding this matter and they will handle the matter on your behalf. If you have any questions about the terms of the contract, please contact them; the contract has provided you with a large number of preferential conditions, and we will be honored to have the opportunity to cooperate with you.

Mark read it again, frowned, and said, "'Permission' allows you to do one thing. And what this email means is that there is a company that wants to buy your name and face."

"What???" Berry hurriedly covered her face with her front hooves, "Didn't you say you don't have magic! I'm still using these!"

"No," Mark reassured her, "that's not what it means. They are going to ask you to allow them to make toys for you and your team members, and no one else can make those toys in the future."

"Oh, I understand." Berry said and added in pony language, "It's strange, why is Brother Smooth-tongued here too?"

"Sorry, what did you just say?" Mark asked, "I only understood the words 'how' and 'come here'."

"Nothing." Berry sighed, her tone exactly the same as Mark's usual response whenever she asked Mark something he didn't want to explain, "I have to ask our side for their opinion." She put the computer on On the workbench, they jumped off the high stool and trotted over the bare, damp soil they were about to prepare for reseeding. In order to facilitate contact with Ma Xing at any time, Star Glimmer's space suit has been placed on a nearby sample box recently. "Dragon!" she called, "I have an important message to send home. Lend me your hoof!"

"Wow, sir," Dragonfly chuckled, "I never knew you would be interested in something like this."

"Have you laughed enough? Go and work for me." Berry said and turned on the life support system of the starlight spacesuit.

AMICITAS: Amicitas calls Maltimore, uses the starlight space suit to reply, completed.

ESA: Maltimore calls Amicitas, over.

AMICITAS: A company from Mark World wants to make toys and other products using the names and likenesses of the team members. Please provide suggestions. complete.

ESA: When did the Glib Brothers get there too? complete.

AMICITAS: Everyone knows that, right? But now we have to get down to business. You also said that you would cooperate with Mark and his people to make them happy. complete.

ESA: Please wait a moment. I’m going to ask Cocoon. Over.

AMICITAS: Standby, over.

ESA: conduct public bidding. Let Mark's space agency be solely responsible for managing the bid. --cocoon

In addition, educational toy manufacturers must also be given priority. ——Twilight Sparkle

Finished.

AMICITAS: Thanks for the suggestion, I'll pass it on. Communication ends.

ESA: Amicitas please stand by, over.

AMICITAS: Standing by, what's the matter? complete.

ESA: Since Mark can receive messages from his planet, we thought we should also send messages to the team here. One per day. complete.

AMICITAS: Got it. When will it be sent? complete.

ESA: If I could, I would send the first one now. We have received more than 10,000 letters addressed to you here. The best of them we keep in the life support control room. Ready to receive messages sent to Spitfire, completed.

AMICITAS: Ready to receive, completed.

ESA: quotation marks. The Wonderbolts are no longer complete without you. Your spot is now open in our lineup for every show, and will remain so until you are successfully rescued. You may have left the team, but remember you will always be a member of the Wonderbolts. We will rush to the rescue as soon as possible to ensure that everything is as before when you return to the team. But it’s hard to say what your previous records were, because I probably broke a few more. Always remember to never forget your true colors and show yourself! ——Rainbow Dash and the Wonderbolts. quotation marks. complete.

AMICITAS: Message received. grateful. See you tomorrow. Communication ends.

The fireball threw Starlight Glimmer into the passenger seat with a bang. The unicorn suddenly grinned in pain, but still tried hard to restrain itself from shouting. The previous treatment was not completely ineffective, but the efficacy of Equestria's magic medicine was greatly reduced here; her broken front leg had shown some improvement, but it was still far from being completely healed.

"I still think this kind of thing is stupid." He muttered while sitting in the driver's seat, reaching out to turn on the backup radio system. "It's just a bunch of stupid questions. It won't get us any closer to home."

"It doesn't take much effort." Starlight replied, "Besides, who knows? Friendship can make miracles happen. So let's just be friends of the earth. What do you think?"

Fireball continued to complain, hammered another button, and began to speak: "Hermes, the Friendship here is broadcasting on 108.6. Hermes, the Friendship, communication check."

"It should be 'megahertz,'" Starlight said, "and you have to repeat it so they won't miss it even if they didn't hear it the first time."

"They came up with this stupid idea." Fireball was still unconvinced, "This is their idea and the time they set. They should listen carefully."

"No matter what, please repeat it again," Starlight said without giving in at all, "Please."

Fireball's throat couldn't help but rumble, but he finally swallowed his breath and repeated it. This time he finally got the word "megahertz" right.

Five and a half minutes later, a sound came from Fireball and Starlight's earphones: "Friendship, this is Hermes, the signal is mid-low. Prepare to receive the planned transmission content, completed."

So Xingguang changed himself into a more comfortable position. What was broadcast next would be much longer than those humans expected. "Hermes, this is the Friendship, the voice is clear. The broadcast begins now..."

Johnson resisted the urge to curl up into a ball. She still has great faith in the Ares 3 crew, even if they now crowd her desk to hear this extraordinary spectacle of birds singing and horses braying.

"Did Mark say it sounded like Welsh?" Martinez asked, "because it sounded more like Russian to me, coming from a horse's mouth."

"Wrong, this is Welsh." Vogel said firmly, "It could also be Flemish. Russian has a stronger guttural sound."

"But what he mentioned before about 'l' appearing in every other consonant is indeed wrong." Baker interjected, "'l' only appears once in every fifth consonant. Every other consonant should appear in it." It’s ‘ch’.”

"Johnson, you are recording now, right?" Lewis asked, "You didn't record what we said, did you?"

"Correct," Johnson replied.

The chatter on the other end of the radio paused for a moment. Then the familiar voice from before continued in English: "Hello Earth. This is Star Glimmer. Some of you have asked the crew of our ship to answer some questions so that you can get to know us better. In addition, To help, I have just sent this message in our own language; I will repeat it in yours."

“Since our languages ​​are very similar at the grammatical level, we hope this will help you better understand our other ways of communicating in the future; we hope that one day we can cross the language barrier and communicate with each other as friends and speak freely. "

"Oh," Baker muttered, "that makes sense. Nice idea."

“Brilliant. (German – Sehr gut)” Vogel agreed.

Then the interview began. Starlight read the questions and corresponding answers aloud, taking long pauses between questions and answers as required by NASA.

Interview Transcript #1

What's your name? "Star Glimmered."

What's your job on your ship? "I helped create the Twinkle Engine. The main purpose of this boarding was to observe the operation of the engine and collect relevant scientific data during a journey to a nearby planet."

Why did you first get involved in spaceflight? "My teacher Twilight Sparkle wrote a report about our world orbiting the sun, and the princess was responsible for rotating the world so that the sun wouldn't shine on the same side of the planet for too long. Before that, almost all horses agreed that the Earth was flat. Theory. The use of rockets to fly only existed in the imagination. When everyone decided to launch their own space flight program, Twilight Sparkle created a space program for our country, and I assisted."

Who is waiting for you there? "I have a lot of friends waiting for me to come back, including my best friend Twiggy and my childhood friend Sunset. Of course, there's Twilight and Spike, and Pink Pie and... well, there's a lot more. That’s right.”

What is your impression of humans? "Humans and ponies are very similar. I think once we have the ability to communicate with each other freely, we can become very good friends."

Do you look forward to visiting Earth after you are rescued? "Of course I'm willing to come and visit Earth! Your science and technology are really astounding! I can't wait to see all the wonders you can show us!"

What will you do when you finally get home? "I will do what I have always wanted to do, sometimes not as well as others. I will work hard to make friends and make our world a better place."

What's your favorite disco song? "Dancing Queen."

If you could get one small item from your world (other than a spaceship), what would it be? "About a thousand pieces of paper. We don't have any paper here, and it's driving me crazy!"

Do you have anything to say to people on Earth? "If everyone can treat each other seriously, we can all become friends. Where we are, friendship is the most powerful force in the world. By working together and thinking about each other, we can be invincible and capable of anything."

"She really means it." Johnson said softly.

"But it seems a bit pretentious to me," Martinez said. "Also, what's going on with the 'favorite disco song' question? Commander, is it your fault?"

"I choose to remain silent[1]." Lewis looked serious, but in the end he couldn't hold back his laughter.

At this time, the weak and fuzzy voice in the loudspeaker said: "This ends our transmission. Thank you Hermes. Thank you Earth. We will see you tomorrow. Friendship communication is over."

[Note:]

1. I plead the fifth: The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution grants citizens the right to refuse to answer questions. (To plead the fifth means to refuse to answer a question, especially in a criminal trial, on the grounds that you might incriminate yourself. )