My Little Pony: My Little Pony The Martian

AMICITAS Mission Three – Mission Day 128

ARES 3 solar day 129

Mark sat in front of the computer and read messages from Earth. They split up the day before yesterday. All the members of Amicitas went to the cave farm (Berry, Dragonfly and Fireball went to do farm work, while Starlight and Fireball mined crystal mines), but he used up an entire carbon dioxide filter. It took a whole day to disassemble all the control panels of the MDV while wearing a space suit. During the dismantling process, he discovered some damage that was previously invisible to the naked eye, so he took some photos reflecting the situation and sent them back to Earth. Now he is checking the revised renovation plan and preparing to repair or directly isolate the damaged electrical components to prepare for the safe restoration of power supply to MDV in the future.

He concentrated on analyzing the detailed operating instructions and marked them in small letters on the remaining sampling box labels. He completely didn't notice the two ponies appearing next to him until Starlight knocked on his knees twice. Only then did he react. He was stunned for a moment, then asked them cautiously: "Xingguang, what's wrong?"

Starlight stretched out a hoof and pointed at Spitfire who was standing next to her, "Splitfire wants to tell you something." Her words were cautious but not harsh, "And she hoped you could understand, so she asked me Translate for her.”

Mark frowned, turned around on the stool and faced Xiaoma and said, "Okay, I'm listening. What's the matter?"

Feihuo's slightly hoarse voice came out with a soft and calm pony language. Mark could understand a few words in fragments, but it was not enough to decipher a complete and clear message.

"Splitfire said you treated her - and actually treated us - like children." Starlight translated in English, "You didn't give us the respect we deserved. She's tried to hint to you before. Many times, I even mentioned it to you directly, but you didn’t seem to listen.”

Mark nodded and signaled Spitfire to continue.

Feihuo said something else.

"How many decisions do we have the right to make?" Xingguang's translator's tone became a little excited at this time, "When will you stop explaining this and that to us all the time, like a teacher and a student... And school..."

"Little girl?" Mark blurted out without much thought, "Or you should be considered a filly?"

Feihuo was furious after hearing this. She pointed at Mark with her hoof and roared, "Did you see that?! That's it!" She and Starlight exchanged a barrage of pony talk, and it took several seconds before they stopped.

Starlight waited until Spitfire's anger gradually calmed down before asking, "I guess you understand?"

"I understand." Mark nodded, "I understand."

So Feihuo's tone returned to his previous calmness, but Mark could still tell that this was the result of Feihuo's extreme restraint on his emotions. He already had some experience in this area and basically knew how to distinguish the different tones of pony language. In fact, if you ignore the vowels formed by neighing sounds and the consonants produced by snorting, the intonations of pony language and human language still have many similarities.

"You no longer have to teach us like children." Starlight continued, "We may not all speak your language fluently, but we understand it well enough that we don't need to bab anymore. "

Spitfire mocked from the side, "Aa, aa, aa."

"Yes." Starlight said, "We are all tired of hearing it now."

Then Spitfire looked around the living cabin and waved his hoof, his words still soft, but he seemed to be only one step away from roaring.

"And it's not just a matter of teaching," Starlight continued, "How much trust do we get here? We can open the door, use the microwave, write a few emails, watch TV and so on. Not much else. We I told you everything about our spaceship. Then when will you teach us how to operate the habitation module? And the rover? What about other things?"

Mark nodded. The ponies have a point.

Feihuo pointed at himself again, his tone suddenly filled with a hint of sadness.

"Spike is the oldest here." Starlight continued to explain. "Although she doesn't have much experience in space, she is at least a responsible adult. She is still the leader here. She is not the one who does these things. I don’t understand. She’ll take care of herself if you let her.”

Then Spitfire whispered the last sentence.

"What do I need," Xingguang translated slowly, "so that you can treat me the way I treat you now?"

Mark turned to Starlight with novelty in his eyes.

"That's probably what she wants to say." Xingguang replied, "And most of us have similar concerns. Tingting doesn't mind the way you treat her; and you and I have already gone to explore the road together. , so I’m basically used to it. But the rest of you still have opinions, and I may have a little bit too.”

Mark took a deep breath after hearing this. "Sorry," he replied, "I'm not a good teacher." He looked at Spitfire and continued, "I'm not a pilot. I've never been an officer. I'm not even a doctor, I just received some simple training before. Just emergency training. You and I don’t have much in common.”

Spitfire tilted his head, looking a little confused.

"The problem is, I don't know how to treat you appropriately," Mark said. "It would be much easier if you were all human and spoke the same language as me. After all, we all know how to interact with each other. Communicate." At this point he sighed, "But you are not humans. And you are the first aliens that my species has ever come into contact with. Do you understand how important this is?"

"I'm learning," Feihuo stumbled in response, "I'm learning how to talk to you."

Mark just shook his head at this. "That's not the same thing at all," he said. "The language you are learning now is, at best, just a bunch of words. But how do I use these words when I communicate with you?" he typed. The gesture gave a few examples, "To what extent is it a joke? If it goes too far, will it be regarded as an insult? Which words can be used for communication, and which are not allowed?" He sighed again, "You should have been able to communicate with each other. You have to meet a diplomat, an anthropologist, or at least a doctor, and what you have in front of you now is just a guy who knows how to grow vegetables and occasionally tinker here and there." He stroked his hands. Holding the shoulders of the two ponies, he added, "You must know that you are the most significant event that my species has ever experienced. It is absolutely unprecedented. And I don't know what to do to avoid accidents (fuck it up).”

At this time, Feihuo suddenly showed some curiosity and asked: "What does 'fuck' mean?"

"Aha! Look, look, look, look!" Mark raised his index finger and shook it, warning, "This is not okay! Do you still want me to treat you as an adult (horse)? Didn't you just say Already..."

"If you don't speak, how can I learn English?" Feihuo couldn't hold his breath, and his intermittent words showed a bit of embarrassment.

Mark wasn't very happy either, so he retorted directly: "Then what else can I do besides using this tone of teaching a child?"

"You...you...you...you do it!" Feihuo choked on these words for a long time, "You just do it! It's not hard enough! I have been teaching in our place! Teach adult horses to become the best Nice flight (home)!”

At this time, Mark was almost so embarrassed that he had to ask for help: "Starlight, come here and do me a favor."

Starlight rolled her eyes and said some pony-speak, including the word "fuck" three times.

But this did not succeed in quelling Fei Huo's anger. She asked, "Why did you tell Starlight but not me?"

Mark had a sullen face: "That's because Starlight and I stayed in the rover for three whole weeks. Usually I try to control my mouth when I'm around you, but that time I blurted it out accidentally."

Starlight then added a few pony words to explain.

Feihuo was puzzled when he heard this. "Shut up?" she asked. "Watch what you say? Why?"

"You didn't listen... forget it, wait." Mark was a little confused, took a deep breath and forced himself to reorganize his thoughts. "You know that there are curse words in pony language like "buck," right? Would you say such a thing on an important occasion—in front of important people?"

"What? Of course not!" Spitfire replied, "Wrong! Wrong place! Disrespectful!"

Mark slid off the stool and knelt on the floor, bringing himself to eye level with Spitfire. "For humans, at this moment, you five are the most important people in the universe." He said, "And you are living in my habitat now. I have to be responsible for you. Therefore, I must keep you Stay healthy and happy…”

"You don't...uh huh!"

Starlight blocked Spitfire's mouth with a hoof. "Why are you responsible?" she asked Mark, raising her voice to cover up the noise of Spitfire's struggle. "We can take care of ourselves just as well as you."

"The reason why I am responsible is because you are in trouble and I can help you." Mark's answer was very straightforward, "You are trapped on Mars. In my habitat. In my world . No one here can help you except me. And if I don’t do this, you may die. Even if you are humans from Earth, I still have to take responsibility." Then he continued in a solemn tone He made a concluding speech, but the ever-rising corners of his mouth still betrayed his true intentions, "The stronger the botanist, the greater the responsibility.[1]"

Spitfire gradually calmed down, and Starlight released the gagged hoof. "I'm sorry," Spitfire's first sentence after regaining his freedom of speech was an apology, "I'm not..."

"It's okay, no need to apologize." Mark said, "I fucked up-meaning I messed up." He breathed a sigh of relief, "But the question now is, what should we do next?"

A man and two horses stood in silence, unconsciously thinking a lot.

[11:51] Watney: Bro, I need a little advice. I feel that I have done my best in teaching my friends how to use English. Xingguang and Tingting are basically fluent, but the others probably won't be any better than before no matter how hard they learn. Do you have any unique insights into English foreign language teaching courses for adults? (Note, "adult" is the emphasis.)

[12:05] JPL: Mark, we've been sitting on this for a while. Are you going to make this a priority for us?

[12:20] Watney: Please. We must now find a way to quickly improve the English proficiency of the other three, otherwise all mankind will have to learn to read and write a language with at least three vowels and four consonants that cannot be pronounced normally.

[12:35] JPL: Okay, we'll get back to you within a few days. But now we need to focus on the power supply of MDV as a flight simulator. Any progress?

[12:50] Watney: The morning's maintenance work was interrupted by a parent-teacher conference halfway through. I'm now ready to get out and get back to work.

[13:05] JPL: Mark, I have a suggestion. How did ponies react after reading Harry Potter?

[13:21] Watney: Just barely. Starlight kept switching back and forth between ranting about how "magic doesn't work like that" and taking notes on a whiteboard. Spitfire made me reread all the chapters about the Quidditch game over and over again. Fireball initially disliked Hagrid, but now he's starting to like him a bit, even though he calls him "Hagrid P. Coltrane" half the time. As for Tingting... I don't know if she really likes her or if she is pretending to like her for me. Berry seemed indifferent and a little tired.

[13:36] JPL: Then have them take turns reading the story out loud. Don't correct their mistakes. Let them correct each other themselves.

[13:51] Watney: If you think this would work, I'd give it a try.

[14:04] JPL: At least it works for my kids. Now hurry up and get back to work.

[Note:]

1. With great botany es great responsibility: I can do it! (fog)

Excerpt from "With great power es great responsibility." (The greater the ability, the greater the responsibility.)