My Little Pony: My Little Pony The Martian

AMICITAS Mission Three – Mission Day 167

ARES 3 solar day 167

A year ago, if anyone had told Fireball that he would dig holes in the soil all day long like an ordinary diamond dog, not to dig for gems, but for pony vegetables, he would have definitely said that they were crazy. It would be unthinkable to add details such as being on a desolate planet in a different world and having to obey the instructions of a hairless monkey.

However, he is now gently picking a tuber from a plant that is very uncomfortable for horses, and then gently placing the roots of the plant back into the dug soil, so that more wise tubers can grow in the future. .

And the strangest thing was that he wasn't even angry at all. For him, this is one of the few jobs he can do. After all, even if he is really retarded, he still won't be able to learn to dig potatoes.

The actual workload is indeed huge. It seemed that there were three or four layers of potatoes growing in the soil. The roots were all entangled and entangled with each other, barely leaving much space for the surrounding soil. By now there were hundreds of potatoes piled near the cave airlock. Of course, for them, none of the potatoes obtained through hard work is less, and every harvest in the future is also crucial.

It's not like he's never eaten potatoes before - he's experienced them long before he landed on Mars, even before participating in Amicitas. Those food packages made by ponies, even if they contained gems for dragons, still included a variety of vegetables, so a few times he had eaten baked potatoes or mashed potatoes sprinkled with sporadic magnetite. , it probably tastes like quartz paste... Anyway, overall, the current situation is very ironic.

However, all his previous knowledge of potatoes stopped there. He had never seen with his own eyes where they were born, and he had always been indifferent to the matter. After all, growing crops was a stupid thing that only ponies could do. And even though he had spent a lot of time caring for these plants in recent months for the survival of his team members, he had absolutely no interest in continuing to serve them after returning to the horse country.

But even so something happened that he didn't expect; the process by which the plant gradually grew and eventually became food now completely fascinated him.

"Good leadership."

After hearing the sound, Berry raised her head and looked at the fireball. She threw the potatoes in her mouth toward the plastic bucket and said, "What's wrong?"

"What does it feel like to plant something?" Fireball asked.

Berry didn't react for a moment. "How do I know this?" she said. "The earth pony magic I have is no different from other ordinary earth ponies. After all, I am not Carrot Top or Apple Jack. They only need to plant seeds of one kind to take root and sprout, but even if I In an environment like that of Malaysia, we can only give plants some slight encouragement at most."

"Okay, okay, you've told us this thousands of times." Fireball obviously didn't have the patience to listen to her old-fashioned disclaimer, "But you have been doing farm work before the space race started, right? "

"Well, that's true." Berry shrugged, "But I have basically done everything. And after I return to Malaysia and get my full salary, I will take a year to do nothing. Just fly hot air balloons.”

"Then, what does it feel like?" Fireball asked.

Berry shrugged again. “It’s just work,” she said. “Planting seeds, removing weeds, attracting native creatures to eat pests like ladybugs or weevils, and making sure the soil is well irrigated. Then you’re done. Waiting for the harvest.”

"Yes, but..." Fireball couldn't even figure out how to express what he meant in Ponylish, let alone English, "but what's it like to grow something?"

Berry was speechless and choked. "This... this is just a job," she said after she regained her composure. "I think I don't understand what you are asking. Maybe you can ask Mark?" She turned to face the dexterous man opposite. The alien who was peeling the potato tubers off the plants one by one struggled, "Didn't he say before that he was a Ph.D. in growing things?"

"Oh, no," Fireball was obviously not happy, "If I want to ask him, I have to speak English."

"Anyway, we all need opportunities to practice." Berry said, "Speaking of which, how was your last practice with the MAV simulator?"

The spacecraft controlled by the fireball in the last time flew directly into the sky and fell upside down back to the surface of Mars in the simulator. Obviously, Tingting hasn't revealed this matter yet. "I probably learned something." He decided to end the conversation early to avoid falling into a trap, "Then I'll ask Mark."

After successfully escaping from the embarrassing situation next to the commander, he walked towards the strange monkey. At the same time, he concentrated on his words and said slowly: "Mark? What does it look like to plant plants?"

Mark smiled slightly. "What's it like?" he repeated again. "It's a sense of accomplishment, that's it."

This time it was Fireball's turn to react. Why does English have to have so many weird phrases? "What does sense of accomplishment mean?"

"It's a strong sense of capability." Mark said, "All it takes is some seeds, or sometimes cut branches. You fertilize it, water it. You remove all kinds of pests for it; if If you find other plants occupying its living territory, you should get rid of them in time. Then one day when you look at this beautiful creature in front of you, you can say to yourself: 'These are all my achievements.' It's really great. TM is amazing.”

"Really?" Fireball was a little unbelievable.

"Really," Mark replied, "It feels great. It doesn't matter if you get food, flowers, etc."

"Okay, thanks."

Fireball returned to his work again, but this time he was thinking seriously about something while holding a simple shovel to dig out the potatoes. Yes, he almost understood the feeling. It's like the process of a dragon hoarding treasures, except that it's not mined or stolen, but requires careful care and watching it grow little by little, becoming more valuable or more delicious.

So from this perspective, this farm, this farm is actually... uh... it has become a shared treasure house in a sense. All team members contributed their time and energy and brought out their unique talents. As a result, life and beauty appeared here, and at the same time, sufficient food was provided to support them all until rescue arrived. And yes, all these results are due to them.

So Fireball decided that he would raise a plant after returning to his cave in the Kingdom of Horses. It can be the kind that is easier to survive, and it is best to be able to adapt to the environment in the desert. He remembered that there was a small skylight above a ledge in his cave that let in a little sunlight every morning. Yes, this place couldn't be more suitable.

But the other dragons couldn't seize this opportunity to laugh at him. How could those guys who had never seen the world know what it was like to be trapped on Mars for many years.

Mission Log – Solar Day 168

Gan.

Nearly 5100 potatoes, a full % more than the first harvest.

Five thousand one hundred potatoes.

Or to put it another way, the crops in the cave farm and the habitation module combined produced about a metric ton of potatoes this time.

And Airlock One, also known as the potato shed, is now so full that it's about to explode. For this reason, Fireball had to find some scrap metal and various cables from the alien spacecraft to temporarily build a second potato storage room. Given that the current situation is so extreme, this crop production can only be characterized as a "bumper harvest." If it weren't for the fact that the sight of potatoes makes me want to vomit right now, I would probably jump into a sea of ​​potatoes and swim like Uncle Scrooge.

A quick calculation shows that our current stock of potatoes can last for 680 solar days (only including what I eat), and hay can last for 360 solar days (these are for ponies); at the same time, because we often share food with each other , resulting in this estimation result not being very accurate. I can give the ponies potatoes that last (according to my standards) 180 days, so they have an extra 60 days. After balancing, my inventory can last until 500 solar days, while they are Around solar day 420.

We have hope. The dawn is ahead. If things go well, just one more harvest may be enough for us to survive until Sol 768's rescue arrives; if we can succeed twice, we can sit back and relax. Of course, current estimates do not include losses caused by food spoilage, but you must know that Mars is a natural deep freezer. Potatoes will keep perfectly well if piled in a shed, while hay will simply need to be kept dry for long-term storage—not a difficult thing to do on Mars.

Therefore, I am naturally panicking now, because this means that Mars will bring us some new surprises anytime and anywhere in an attempt to make us all GG. After all, it's been too long since we were last hit by an explosion. If you can escape the first day of the lunar month, you can't escape the fifteenth day.

So what will it be this time? Is it a wheel lock on the No. 2 rover? Or is one of the only two intact airtight compartments of the alien spacecraft leaking? (It would be even worse if the bridge leaked. The only available airlock on the ship is currently there.) Or there will be a broken crystal block on the top of the cave, which will directly smash the ship's life support system equipment box in the cave. flat?

MD, the more I think about it, the more scared I am. The last thing seems really possible, right? I need to go talk to the ponies - we need to build a barrier like a roll cage or shield to protect this magical life support system from any damage if the cave collapses. This chest is too damn useful to allow anything to happen to it - especially considering that once we lose it, we lose our best chance of not starving ourselves while we wait for Hermes to come to the rescue. .