AMICITAS FLIGHT THREE – MISSION DAY 41
ARES III SOL 44
Even though built from the products of Equestria’s most advanced metallurgy and engineered to withstand the forces of atmospheric re-entry, potential crash landings, and changeling accidents, the Amicitas’s cargo airlock was still breakable. Indeed, under the circumstances, it was quite literally irreplaceable. It couldn’t just be dragged or thrown up the slope to the cave and then crammed into the mouth. It had to be handled delicately.
That was why Starlight had levitated it onto the rover’s cargo rack and why Spitfire and Dragonfly had strapped it down securely and ridden atop the rover with it. It was why Mark had driven the rover at less than half its top speed, taking a gentle hour and ten minutes to drive from the Hab to the cave. And, since Starlight needed to conserve magic for the sealing spell to come, that was why the three strongest people were carrying the massive assembly up the slope by hand and hoof.
Hand, and hoof, and aching, aching back. Cherry Berry hadn’t missed the strength boost earth pony magic normally provided this desperately since the crash.
“Commander,” Fireball said quietly from one end, “I’m pretty sure I could carry this myself if you’ll just-“
“Shut. Up,” Cherry Berry gasped from under over two tons of metal. “Keep. Going.”
“Yes, ma’am,” the dragon said. He’d been very quiet since the explosion- to which Cherry said good. She didn’t know if it was guilt or her truly heroic chewing-out after the fact, and it didn’t really matter. If the accident taught him to be more careful, that was fantastic. But right now, with about half of the weight of the airlock on her spine, shoving her mercifully padded and overengineered suit backpack onto her like a second skin, she was in no mood to appreciate such things.
“Not pfahr nou,” Mark chipped in, trying to lift more on his end of the airlock. The alien voice irritated Cherry right now, too. More and more Mark was using that patronizing, talking-to-children tone of voice with the ponies. Cherry didn’t think he even realized he was doing it. But that same tone of voice was in the adults talking to children on Partridge Herd, and to a lesser extent all over Electric Store. Nopony appreciated being talked down to, even if in an unfamiliar language. Cherry appreciated it least of all from a tall biped who probably wouldn’t last five minutes in a wagon harness.
Yes, Fireball probably could have carried the whole thing on his back with Mark and Cherry to steady the load. And Mark probably only meant to encourage her with his words. But Cherry had grown sick and tired of playing in, put politely, mud. She was tired of sitting back and overseeing things while others did the actual work most of the time. She wanted something she could do, herself, to show her strength, her experience, her value.
So here she was, destroying her vertebrae and wrecking her knees and fetlocks, hauling a super-technological empty metal box up a hill.
“Okay, stop!” By now everypony knew those two words in Mark’s language, so Spitfire said them in English instead of Equestrian. She didn’t know the words for the rest of it, so she switched back to her native tongue for, “Boys, pick up! Up, Mark! Dragonfly, get Cherry out!”
The load rose off Cherry’s back, more due to Fireball’s efforts than Mark’s. Cherry flopped to the Martian sand and gasped for breath as Dragonfly hooked her forelegs with her fetlocks. “Good job, boss!” the changeling said, hauling the exhausted pony out of the way. “Okay, she’s out!”
“Okay, set it down easy, boys. Down slow, Mark!” Spitfire shouted. With a faint crunching noise the airlock touched down, and Fireball and Mark stepped away. Mark stumbled a bit, looking ready to join Cherry prone on the dirt.
Ha, Cherry thought mirthlessly. What did he do to wear himself out? I had most of the weight. On my shoulders. And pelvis. And oh, oh, oh, my back.
Spitfire looked her over and shook her head with disapproval. “You’ve caught Starlight’s insanity,” she said. “Is there something about this planet that makes people suicidally stupid?”
“Is the cave ready?” Cherry gasped, not yet ready to pull herself back onto her hooves. Maybe Fireball could carry her back to the rover. Yes, that sounded like an excellent idea.
“We’ve harvested all the crystals within sixteen hooves of the entrance,” Spitfire said. “We’ve put some in bins to take back today, but most of them will just sit out here until we need them.”
“Good,” Cherry wheezed. “How’s Starlight?”
“Pushing too hard, like usual,” Spitfire grumbled. “Book says she should have been in bed for a week after that level of magic overstrain. She’s risking permanent damage, you know.”
“Yes, I know,” Cherry replied. “So’s everypony else. I’m told death is quite permanent.” She groaned. That last sentence was such a Chrysalis thing to say. She’d spent far too long working for the queen-bug, hadn’t she? Yes, she had. She could see it in Spitfire’s face, since the reflective helmet visor was retracted on her suit.
Cherry watched the pegasus swallowing the words Smart aleck and replacing them with a forced, “Yes, ma’am.”
As embarrassing as that yes-ma’am was from the ex-Wonderbolts commander, Cherry hurt too much to care. Anyway, time was pressing. They couldn’t stay out in their suits all day like they could back home. “Okay,” she said. “Get me out of the way, and tell Starlight it’s showtime.”
A minute later, leaning against Dragonfly for support, Cherry Berry watched as the airlock lifted into the air and floated with speed and precision into the cave mouth that had been specifically widened and smoothed and dug out to admit it. Of course, Starlight wasn’t showing off; the speed was absolutely necessary to save power in the magic battery for the more important spell.
Sealing spells were common among the more accomplished mages of Equestria. Dozens of spells created magical doors that couldn’t be opened without the right spell or password. Unfortunately, Starlight had explained, most of those spells were useless here because they were really force-fields that required a constant supply of magic that this Faust-forsaken planet just didn’t provide. But there had been one such spell she’d read once in Twilight’s books that turned the doorframe itself into the door, reshaping the doorway and walls to make it appear as if no door existed. With a minor tweak, she’d said, the spell could seal up all the empty space around the airlock- making the material airtight in the process.
And, for once, it looked like Starlight had gotten the spell right on the first go. Cherry gasped as the now-toothless cave mouth warped and stretched almost like lips, pulling down from above and up through the dust and soil. In about thirty seconds the cave was gone, at least as far as the outside world could tell. In its place sat a smooth low-sloped hillside with a lump jutting out of it and a large metal door cut into the end of the lump.
Spitfire had, of course, spent the whole period of spell-casting right next to Starlight. Cherry could hear her over the suit comms, grumbling, “Okay, that’s two ponies done with work for the day,” as Starlight released the spell and folded like a road map. “Three if you count Mark. Fireball, come get Starlight. Cherry, I recommend lunch break at the rover.”
“Agreed,” she said, still leaning on Dragonfly. “Workers first. Spitfire, Fireball, Dragonfly, go eat.”
“No, ma’am,” Dragonfly insisted. Cherry felt something tapping on her thruster backpack. “I need to open up your suit and make sure nothing’s broken.”
“No,” Cherry said, sighing. “Starlight and I are probably going to spend the rest of the day in the rover. That means we go in last so we won’t be in anypony else’s way.”
“Then I’m staying out with you,” Dragonfly said simply. “Suits aren’t anything to joke about.”
“Fine. Let’s get back. Spitfire, you and Fireball eat with Mark. We’ll wait outside.”
Cherry managed to get off the hillside without being carried. Fireball’s claws were full with Starlight and the magic battery, and Mark was leaning a hand on Spitfire’s helmet to keep his own balance. So long as she could walk, she couldn’t justify burdening anypony else.
Once Mark, Fireball and Spitfire were in the rover, Cherry signaled Starlight and Dragonfly to switch suit comms to the private channel. “Is that the last bit of magic you have to do?” she asked Starlight. “Because you need to lay off for a while, for Spitfire’s sake at least.”
“Can’t stop yet,” Starlight said weakly. “Have to seal the back of the cave. Also need light. If I can cut some prisms off the crystals on the ceiling, I can enchant them to absorb sunlight and beam it into the crystals they came from. It’s an ancient Crystal Empire lighting trick. Uses the sunlight to power the spell- very efficient if it works.”
“If?”
Starlight groaned. “Look, it had better work, all right?” she asked. “We have a total of six light fixtures in the ship, one bulb each, and four spare bulbs that survived the crash. We can’t use them to light the cave. And Mark’s shelter needs all its lights for its farm, so we can’t steal those. And I don’t have the energy to turn the cave roof into a giant airtight skylight.” She sighed. “But I can get the solar enchantment done tomorrow, and once the prisms are enchanted anypony can set them up. Maybe I can rest after that.”
“Okay,” Cherry nodded. “Tomorrow you can do that while the rest of us are turning the soil and preparing the plumbing for the farm. And after tomorrow you’re confined to quarters.”
“Excuse me?” Dragonfly asked. “What do you mean ‘us’? You need to rest too, boss.”
“You need an earth pony to pull the harrow,” Cherry groaned.
“We’ll figure something out,” Dragonfly insisted. “You need to rest.”
“I need to do my share,” Cherry insisted.
Dragonfly shook her head inside her helmet. “Cherry, you don’t have to prove yourself to us,” she said. “’Specially not to me. We’ve been working together for four years. We know you’re doing your job. You always do.”
“My job is getting all of you home,” Cherry said. She waved a hoof at the Martian landscape, the small mounds of ancient ice volcanoes and rock outcrops dotting the orange-tinged horizon. “Is this home? No? Then my job’s not done yet.”
“For today it is, boss,” Dragonfly said quietly. “We can take it from here today. Just relax.”
There was a companionable silence. After several minutes Cherry broke it, asking, “How are you doing for food?”
“Still behind,” Dragonfly admitted. “Becoming that human from Mark’s crew photos and movies took more out of me than I expected. And I didn’t dare feed off of him in that condition. He was in and out like the bird in one of those Germane clocks.” The changeling made a circling gesture with her hoof near her helmet to indicate Mark’s state of non compos mentis. “Becoming that human was the only way I could get him to hear me. And I don’t think I could have fooled him in his right mind. Couldn’t get her voice right from the little we saw of her.”
“How much of his language do you know?” Starlight broke in.
“At least as much as you do, I think,” Dragonfly admitted. “I have more free time than the rest of you, so I spend a lot of it around Mark. And remember, I was one of the queen’s best warriors and infiltrators in the bad old days. Learning how your victims speak is a prime skill for infiltrators. Helps us keep our cover.” She smiled smugly and added, “While you’ve all been laughing at stupid humans or singing words you don’t know, I’ve been working.”
“Good. That kind of working could help us stay alive,” Cherry sighed. “Do you think you can get him to focus on more language lessons? That new silly show of his gives us sounds and written words, but we’re still missing a lot of vocabulary.”
“Maybe,” Dragonfly drawled. “Will I get in trouble for snacking?”
Cherry snorted. “We know you’re already doing it,” she said. “Just don’t suck him dry. I’ve noticed him get dizzy a couple times when you get too close.”
“Sorry. But I’ve never had anyling else think this form,” Dragonfly pointed to herself, “was cute. Well, aside from Ad Astra. And that nutty Canterlot entomologist. And- well, it’s pretty rare, anyway.”
The rover airlock door began cycling, and Cherry motioned the others to switch back to all-call. “Everypony, group hug for Dragonfly when we change meal shifts.”
Cherry half-expected Fireball to make a crack about a lazy bug, or Spitfire to make a remark about Dragonfly getting fat. Instead all she got was, “Yes, ma’am,” from both. A week ago Cherry would have been delighted to do without yet another round of bickering and the inevitable argument to follow. Now she wanted the bickering- and the spirit that came with it- to come back.
Out in the almost-bright Martian noonday, a dark shadow still hovered over the castaways, and Cherry Berry didn’t know what to do about it.
If that's not a reference to Topaz I'll be slightly sad.
Another great chapter. If you need to take a break from updating every day, don't worry, we'll wait!
I am not sure if this is healthy or not, but lately I refuse to go to sleep before I read the new chapter of this fic.
Thanks Kris, this is more addictive than pinkies cupcakes.
Another leftover frm Skylab?
The airlock that could?
8700472
Ditto
8700584 The cargo airlock from Amicitas. The pony ship had two airlocks and a docking port; this is the airlock from the section of the ship that already had a hole in it.
It's a delicate balance. You want morale high enough to make sure everyone thinks they can survive, but not so high that they make stupid mistakes in their cockiness. Cherry has her work cut out for her there.
Still, at least the cave farm is well on its way... as long as Starlight's horn can endure the strain. They may not have many spare light fixtures, but they don't have any spare unicorns.
This was a really sweet moment from Dragonfly, but I think the tag should have been an action tag joined with dashes rather than commas. I liked Cherry thinking something Queen Chrysalis would say, too
I STILL SHIP IT!!!!
Starlight is going to develop permanent magical damage, isn't she? Most likely sealing the cave and creating the lightning is the last magic she's going to do for a LONG time
Hmmmm....
Since there wasn't the hydrogen explosion, the fabric around the air lock should last longer, since their wasn't a huge strain event on it.
Also, since the old ship is on the one side, doesn't that mean they're alternating the airlocks used more?
I'm still waiting for Dragonfly to do something like hack up some slime in front of Mark.
And, yes, my headcanon says "that nutty Canterlot entomologist" = Topaz Showers
Cherry didn’t think he even realized he was doing it. But that same tone of voice was in the adults talking to children on Partridge Herd, and to a lesser extent all over Electric Store.
Milk it for all it's worth, Cherry! One of my favorite passages from Arrow 18 was when Twilight inadvertently let slip that she's been taking advantage of ponies' adorability in order to get away with all sorts of stuff that Randy wouldn't put up with otherwise.
Ohhh... I caught the reference to the "Changling of the Guard". Or at least I'm pretty sure that's who you meant when talking about the entomologist from Canterlot. :-D
Good addition focusing on the interactions and also the emotional state of the crew, I hope they'll get better soon.
8701060
yeah that's also what I thought.
Remember to feed your changling people! Three square hugs a day, and be sure to kiss them goodnight!
Question: how is Mark communicating over comms? I thought that wasn't possible. Did they... figure out how to match the human suits' frequency?
Questions about earlier, which I almost forgot: considering Cherry was "under over two tons of metal," how much was each of the three carrying? And was that Earth or Martian weight? (Earth weight corresponds to 750+ lb on Mars; Mars weight corresponds to over five tons on an Earth.)
Ongoing question: is Thorax's transformation ever going to be reflected here? Was it perhaps addressed already in Changeling Space Program? (Though honestly, I'm behind on the latest FiM season. Changelings post-Chrysalis are, ironically, a bit of a black box to me.)
(ETA: Yes, airplane black boxes are fluorescent orange. I mean in the sense of "black box technology," of not being able to see just how the behavior arises. Can the new changelings still disguise themselves, for instance?)
i;m sorry but fireball needs his guilt
it may be the only thing keeping him from doing something stupid agian
8701099
It was neither Earth nor Martian weight.
It was mass.
8701099 ... oops.
Yeah, big oops.
I hadn't intended to give Mark a pony comm system yet. Starlight can do it- a crystal, a spell, and a mana battery scavenged from one of Amicitas's maneuvering thrusters would do it.
I'll have to think about where I can drop the comm addition into Mark's hands, but I'd rather backtrack and give him the ability to talk via suit than rewrite this bit to eliminate it.
The Mars weight of the airlock is officially Quite a Lot.
The Season 6 finale was treated in CSP as a bizarre nightmare Chrysalis once had, partly because of the major flaws in the story's internal logic, partly because the story and its outcome are incompatible with CSP. I haven't decided totally about Thorax, but the last we heard he was settled into a satisfying life in the Crystal Empire, almost as far away from Chrysalis as she wanted him to be.
8701099 OK, added a paragraph to Sol 43 to give Watney a pony comm (and further piss off Spitfire).
8701189
Y'know, I considered saying "mass or weight," but I recalled (and Dr. Wiki agrees) that "In scientific contexts where pound (force) and pound (mass) need to be distinguished, SI units are usually used instead." And since an object's weight as measured on Earth mostly matches (in name) its mass, I hoped that would get the point across.
But enough about my pride. 8701290 has rendered it moot.
8701379
It absolutely carried the point across; I'm just pedantic about the distinction.
Man, I am loving this. I've always loved stranger-in strange-land type stories, but with this it's two groups of strangers dealing with a land strange to all of them.
It's like Enemy Mine with more hugging and rainbow colored horses. It even has a reptilian!
Nutty entomologists are the best kind. :P
Feh, shows what she knows.
*Alondro resumes work in his spooky castle laboratory*
s2.quickmeme.com/img/04/04541b413736609e35023ac5d5edb6d2b295fb65aece596f58ba0d3c25928dbb.jpg
Does anybody else think Mark is going to be a bit annoyed when he learns 'fly has been using him as a food source?
8702585
Eh I think he will be weirded out mostly.
8702585
"Oh wow...they literally DO feed on sunshine and hugs".
oh, so Mark wasn't just imagining his human teammate talking to him! but it took a lot of effort for Dragonfly to do it, and that's why his wings stopped sparkling and the holes in his legs got bigger.
There's only ever too little Chryssie, never too much.
Bug needs hugs!
If only they could send a photo of her to Earth.
To quote Smiling Jack from VtM: Bloodlines,
I can't tell what is trying to survive worse, your characters or your vehicle. . .
Ow. Yeah, he's gonna get in trouble for that eventually
But... why? she's been doing an excellent job keeping this outfit together
Hah! It is apt for the situation, though
Yeah, no surprise. I already remarked on that when she did the force fields for the wall scan.
Oh, that is classy!
Hehe. You totally could though, judging from Mark's reaction
Awesome. They might have a real interpreter soon.
Hee, 'lings are totes adorbs
At least it's benign. Their 'social' has need of some engineering.
Wait, what? Don't these six have even a single flashlight among themselves?
There is three quote here.
9338900 The third jot is an apostrophe, signifying the absence of the E in 'especially'.
9326818
Probably not any flashlights rated for months/years.
Situation is degrading... Moral with it...
Hope they make it
Good chapter
I know I was intended to be just a fun shout out, but I love to imagine how Idol Hooves would react to the entire CSP universe. This and CSP take place long after the Royal Wedding, so we don't know his exact situation during the events of these stories just yet, but I can definitely see him throwing a monkey wrench into the whole thing.
10590815
Damn... I know i get the reference from somewere. Amazing to learn from were it came. Nice
So Ad Astra is into changelings, eh? Good for her.
Also, why is it that Dragonfly has more time than the others? Does she not sleep?
10602317
Changelings are workoholics by nature. Harvesting love is a chore...
Stand strong and keep snuggel the Lovebug
Good to know Chrysalis's confidence and humor rubbed off on Cherry! She needed it; if not quite as much as Chrysalis needed compassion the other way around...
Human + Cuddlebug = Snuggels?
Hold the phone!!... nutty canterlot entomologist?... who could that ever be?! XD
Mark x Dragonfly? I dig it ♡
8700810
If ever there was a romance option, it be here.
11585105
'Changeling of the Guard' is a amazing story.
Topaz is a mare to behold.
11697238
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/420947/the-maretian-the-secret-logs