My Little Pony: My Little Pony The Martian

AMICITAS Mission Three – Mission Day 141

ARES 3 solar day 141

Starlight Glimmer's merciless gaze almost pierced through the hexagonal crystals partially covered in metal sheaths placed in front of her. What was she missing?

She checked the electrodes. She checked the battery contacts. She also tested the meter. She also discovered tiny cracks forming in the battery casings that were removed from the Amicitas engine room and repaired them. She even spent a lot of magic energy casting spells just to make sure that the giant amethyst block she selected for this first experiment was flawless on a molecular level.

But these stubborn new batteries refused to charge. She even tried inputting magic energy directly into them; and according to the current display of the battery energy meter/mana meter, this behavior was equivalent to throwing the magic energy directly into the void.

So she was stuck in a dilemma and hesitated to move forward - she was currently planning to use the energy of a functioning magic battery to conduct a detailed scan of the battery enchantment itself to look for possible errors.

"Starlight! Berry is looking for you on the radio!"

She sighed, stopping her spell and temporarily shelving her attempts to find the fault. She took out her helmet from the space suit storage area, flew it all the way and put it on her head, activated the space suit communication system three times, five times two, and started talking: "Amicitas, this is starlight."

"You're finally here!" Berry said on the other end of the headset, "Tell us what these checklist items are! We always mix up the activation order! This simulator will terminate directly if there is an inexplicable bus overvoltage. My patience is about to run out!"

Starlight sighed again. "Berry, just open everything in the order on the checklist and give it a try."

"We're already trying it! Spitfire and I have taken turns trying it, but we keep getting the switches mixed up! We have to figure out what we're doing!"

Starlight sighed, "Berry, I'm busy debugging new batteries here. If we encounter another emergency like the explosion of the living cabin or the fire of perchlorate, these batteries will come in handy. Please." Okay, can you hold on for a little longer?"

"Starlight," said the angry Berry, who was on the verge of crying. "Do you know why the worst reason for the failure of the flight simulation is the electrical system failure? We are almost halfway through, and everything was normal just now. , the result is that it suddenly collapsed! It’s unreasonable!”

"Anyway, you should try it slowly by yourself first," Starlight sighed, "I'll see if I can get Mark to help you. Starlight Glimmer's communication is completed." She turned off the spacesuit communication system, took off her helmet, and then restarted The scanning spell was activated. The problem must be with the enchantment. Once a crystal is enchanted, the spell itself is almost impossible to remove; however, it can sometimes be corrected...

"Starlight, can you help me?"

Starlight was so angry that he roared and turned off the magic battery again. "Fireball, what's going on?!"

"There is a problem with the article you asked me to write just now," Fireball muttered. "How do you spell 'dementor'?"

Starlight stretched out her hooves and rubbed the side of her head, with a look of helplessness on her face. "The book is on your computer," she said. "You can look for it directly there."

"Oh."

"Also, don't forget to use verb tenses." Starlight thought for a moment and added, "I hope there will be at least some past and continuous tenses in your article this time."

"Okay, okay," the dragon muttered.

Starlight shook her head and turned the battery switch back on, casting the scanning spell from the beginning while trying to remember where she had been before she was interrupted. If she's lucky, maybe the battery enchantment is just a minor flaw, or maybe both batteries are suffering from the same...

"Hi, Starlight! Do you have time now?" This time it was Mark's voice that broke the hard-won silence, "Now we have enough salt to last us for a while, but I recently discovered that we don't have much soap either. Now. Maybe you can make some potassium - potassium hydroxide - and..."

"That's enough!" Starlight turned off the battery again and jumped down from the workbench. "Dingting, are you willing to walk with me to the farm? I need to go to a place without interruption to solve this problem. Lose!"

Mark glanced at the dragonfly that hurried towards here as soon as he heard his name. "I understand most of what you said just now," he asked, "but what does 'incinerate' mean? ?”

"Ahhhh!!!" Starlight's head was about to explode.

"You mean 'interrupted'," Tingting responded softly, "I'll give you an example. You start by saying a long sentence."

Mark shrugged, "We choose to go to the moon in this decade," the familiar speech blurted out, "We choose..."

Dragonfly suddenly shouted loudly, "(This is) INTERRUPTED! (INTERRUPTED!)"

Mark didn't react for a moment. "Oh," he said, "you could have just told me."

"That's boring." Tingting didn't express much apology for this, "And the most important part is..."

"Time's up!" Mark grinned and added, "We also have this kind of joke here."

If Starlight hadn't smashed Dragonfly's space suit helmet directly towards her, this playfulness might have continued for a long time.

In the end, Mark drove the rover and sent them to the cave. Starlight's legs still had little strength, and her extravehicular suit still had a patch of changeling slime. On top of that, she had to transport four batteries ten kilometers away, so walking was obviously not a good idea.

After entering the cave, everyone immediately divided into two groups: Mark and Tingting spent their time checking whether the plumbing system was leaking, while Starlight was busy placing the two old batteries and the two new batteries that had been shut down on the site as much as possible. Right in the center. The trace amount of magic energy emitted by the surrounding plants is not reflected on the battery meter, but it can at least slow down the energy consumption slightly when the starlight is working.

After everything was finally ready, Starlight settled into this new environment without external interference. She blocked out the occasional noises from the two engineers beside her and concentrated on re-implementing the scanning spell. Where is the enchantment... Search again... Ah, I found it... The result was just as she had expected, the enchantment itself was intact and exactly the same as the original sample.

So...that means there's nothing wrong with enchantment itself, right? And no problems were found in any other components, so shouldn't this guy be usable... However, this is not the case in front of us.

What went wrong? What is the difference between the batteries she made on Mars and those batteries made in Malaysia but still made by her herself?

As she gradually fell into thought, her attention began to wander; but by accident, the target of the scanning spell was transferred from the new battery to one of the old batteries.

Then she woke up and found Mark and Dragonfly standing beside her. Tingting asked: "Are you okay?"

Starlight struggled to get up. At this moment she was lying on her back in the field, with many alfalfa clustered around her sides. She had accidentally locked herself into a magical feedback loop when she had just cast a spell, and now she was suffering from a severe headache. At this point she just hoped the battery hadn't been damaged in any way.

However, all physical pain no longer seemed important. In the flash of lightning, she discovered something.

With the help of the other two, Starlight finally stood up and returned to the batteries. The old battery was not damaged due to feedback, but the battery that had entered a deadlock due to her improper operation had been directly consumed from the previous 10% state to only 2%. According to her speculation, if the level of magic energy in the surrounding environment was normal, this thing would not just knock her back a few pieces like it did just now, but would explode directly. The few new batteries that were not involved were naturally not damaged.

With Mark's help, she reassembled the batteries, placing the nearly exhausted battery next to a new one and the functioning battery directly behind her. This time, she relied on the battery to power her and activated the scanning spell again, switching back and forth between the intact but almost exhausted old battery and the lifeless new battery in front of her.

The huge difference reflected in the comparison between the two was like the feedback loop caused by the previous accident, which slapped her in the face inexplicably. She had to use extreme concentration to detect the enchantment attached to the new battery; in contrast, the enchantment of the old battery made in the same way was so obvious that it was as clear as if it were etched directly into the crystal.

So the mystery was solved. The reason why the new battery cannot be charged is that the enchantment it carries is too weak, and the large mass of the crystal is not consistent with its purpose. Using such a heavy spar may not be as effective as the small gemstones set on the corner rings.

Starlight knew, however, that the way she cast the enchantment when making the new battery was exactly the same as the old one, so the difference was not her fault. The only remaining variables now are the gems mined from Mars and the environmental magic energy that Mars lacks... But to be honest, amethyst is amethyst, and it has nothing to do with where it is mined, right?

And if it was really the crystal itself that was different, then Starlight would have no way to save it. But she still has a way to change the magic field of the surrounding environment, at least to exert some temporary influence. Unfortunately, there are not enough conditions to allow her to conduct experiments at this time. The device she pieced together before that can make the battery project a magic field is still in the habitation cabin.

But...but...but...

...That so-called device is actually just two pieces of metal, right?

"Mark?" she asked softly, "Can I borrow a wrench?"

After spending half an hour talking and hammering, the preparations were finally completed.

Mark's tools are all designed by NASA, and since the accumulation of static electricity in space is one of the serious hazards, they are very interested in how to prevent astronauts from accidental electric shock injuries when trying to make repairs in the space environment. Therefore, Every tool he uses has a plastic or rubber grip.

But Mark came up with an alternative. There are still piles of metal fragments of the spacecraft in the cave that were urgently used to clean up a perchlorate hill created by a small mistake of Starlight; they were destroyed after completing their last mission (mixing soil with compost). He was thrown into a corner of the cave, quietly waiting for the opportunity to shine again. After quickly trimming the edges of these simple shovels, several temporary antennas of equal length appeared in front of them; then Mark fixed the final product on the end of the electrode of a magic battery.

Starlight carefully balanced the remaining magic energy stored in the two available batteries. She estimated that one of the batteries contained enough energy to cast the spell itself, while the remaining energy stored in the other battery would pour out, creating a - lasting only a few seconds - and An environmental magic field similar to the Kingdom of Horses.

This experiment will completely deplete the stored magic energy of all batteries, and it will take more than two weeks for them to be fully charged. But regardless, the experiment was worth the risk. Either they get a new battery that works... or they have to live with the batteries they have.

The mind is ready. Starlight placed her hoof on the magic battery electrode that was going to power the spell, recorded the corresponding enchantment matrix in her mind, and then nodded to Mark and Dragonfly to start. The two people turned on the switch of another available battery, and saw the arc light generated by the magic energy reaction rising slowly from the makeshift Yamibu ladder. The energy splashed around and they hurriedly dodged. The light is constantly reflecting and refracting on the crystal-encrusted cave walls, shrouding the entire cave in a bizarre atmosphere; while another battery is trying to draw energy from the magic field, and sparks generated by harmonics dance gracefully under the hooves of starlight.

Starlight was not in the mood to enjoy the light show at the moment. She suppressed the itching caused by the huge surge of magic energy on her hooves, and concentrated on the target, aiming at the weak enchantment at the core of the new battery to exert force. She drew energy from the battery under her hooves, wrapped her horns around her and fought hard against the crystal, and went all out to complete the enchantment spell.

alright. You're done.

And since I'm so tired that I'm turning over like a beached fish, I'd better get this thing in order. The familiar feeling of running out of mana reserves came back, but I didn't miss it much. I have long been accustomed to a life where there is always magic energy available in the battery.

Just as she struggled to raise her head, she saw sparks popping up around the electrodes of the target battery just like other batteries when they ran out.

Transcript – Hydraulic Telegraph Switch – ESA Maltimore Center ＜-＞ ESA spacecraft AMICITAS

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

ESA: Maltimore calls Amicitas, over.

AMICITAS: Starlight - a breakthrough in the production of magic batteries. The strength of the enchantment reapplied in the horseman's enhanced magical energy environment is sufficient to allow the battery to function properly in the low magic energy environment. complete.

ESA: That's good news. You are opening up a whole new realm of experimentation in enchantment. We've never been exposed to a purely mana-free environment before. complete.

AMICITAS: You can come and experience our magic-free environment here, and by the way, the headache caused by me using up all the magic energy reserves. This is not the first time. complete.

ESA: Well done anyway. What is the current status? complete.

AMICITAS: The current reserves of emergency magic batteries A and B are both below 1%. New batteries are 2%. It is too early to make an accurate measurement, but due to the lack of environmental magic energy during the casting process and the interference of previously failed enchantments, the capacity of battery C seems to be only about 40% of A or B. complete.

ESA: Got it. Any plans next? complete.

AMICITAS: In another sixteen days, all batteries should be charged to close to 90%. Avoid using batteries until then. Then collect several battery crystals from the cave and install them in the engine battery casing. Then use emergency batteries A and B to generate a double-strength magic field. Battery C is used to apply the enchantment spell until the energy is exhausted. complete.

ESA: Sounds good. Be careful not to overwork yourself. Communication ends.

AMICITAS: That's putting it lightly. Communication ends.