*** Mission Log: Sol 5116 ***
*** AOS – undefined ***
*** Message Received (Source: null): It’s not a rock. ***
*** PARTIAL COMMAND RECOGNIZED: Rock ***
*** Preparing to clear sample bin in preparation for fresh sample ***
*** Scanning … ***
“I know it’s not a rock, Maud,” Starlight sighed. “But what do you make of it?”
Maud Pie looked at her friend with that unblinking stare of hers. “I don’t know. What would one make out of a machine from another universe? I suppose with some work, you could turn it into an umbrella stand.”
Starlight’s jaw worked wordlessly for a while before she replied: “You know what I meant. I know you do. Maud? What are you looking at?”
Following her line of sight, Starlight watched Opportunity move its robotic arm towards its body, grabbing onto a small object that had been tucked away in its chassis and depositing said object slightly in front of it, almost as if to show it off to the two ponies and say: ‘Look what I found! Neat, huh?’
“Huh,” Maud offered in her monotone voice. “That … is a rock.”
“Then what do you make of that?” Starlight asked triumphantly.
Maud looked her in the eyes and held her gaze for a good long while. Finally she said: “I don’t know. A rock this size, there’s not a lot you could make out of it.” Pause. “Doorstop, maybe?” she finally suggested.
Starlight’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “Maud! It wasn’t funny the first time.”
The earth pony once again held the eye contact without blinking. “Yes, it was.”
Starlight stared back and said nothing. The corner of her mouth twitched, as did her left eye. “Alright, yes, it was,” she conceded and broke into a fit of giggles. “Good one, Maud.”
“It’s all in the … timing,” she replied sagely. Then she lowered her head to examine the specimen more closely, sniffing at it curiously.
“It looks very … ordinary,” Starlight observed.
“Basalt, volcanic origin,” the expert stated. “Very ordinary in fact. More than 90% of volcanic rock is basalt.”
“Anything else?” Starlight asked, then suppressed a shudder and an ‘Ew!’ as she watched Maud lean in even closer and actually lick the stone, or more accurately the flecks of dirt still clinging to it.
“Hm, curious.” Maud dug out her pet rock from her pocket and placed him next to the sample. “Talk amongst yourselves for a while and play nice.”
Starlight gave her a look.
Maud shrugged. “Boulder wanted to say hello.”
*** PanCAM: Sample detected ***
*** IDD: Extending Instrument Deployment Device ***
*** MI: Beginning Microscopic Imaging ***
*** MI – ERROR: undefined ***
*** MI: Beginning Microscopic Imaging ***
*** MI – ERROR: undefined ***
*** MI: Beginning Microscopic Imaging ***
*** MI: Imaging underway ***
*** Spectrographic Analysis Queued ***
*** APXS – WARNING: Radioisotope source decaying, additional processing time required ***
*** MB – WARNING: Radioisotope source decayed, instrument offline due to command override ***
*** MTES – WARNING: Mirror obstruction detected, instrument offline due to command override***
Maud looked on as Opportunity became very excited, taking picture after picture and reading after reading from Boulder, happy to be exploring once again. Finally, she turned back to the patiently waiting Starlight. “The rock is ordinary, but the dirt is out of this world.”
“Duh, I brought it here from a different dimension. Of course it’s not from this world.”
Maud shook her head, ever so slowly. “No, that’s not what I meant. Salt.”
“Salt?” Starlight asked, confused.
“Salt,” Maud confirmed. “Perchlorate salt, to be exact. In an unusually high concentration. So high, in fact, that it couldn’t have come from an ecosystem anywhere close to the one here on Equus."
“Explain.”
“Perchlorate gets broken down by microbes over time. To find it in such a high concentration, it indicates a pretty much lifeless, barren biome.”
“Huh, so you mean to say its homeworld is much more arid and inhospitable than Equestria? Maybe it was stuck in a desert for some reason when I heard it call out? It was covered in a lot of red dust.”
“I’d like to take some of this dust for further study if you still have it,” Maud said in, what was for her, an incredibly excited voice that barely managed to rise above her usual monotone. “But that’s not what I’m getting at. I don’t think the place you found it in was anywhere near where it was originally built. I think your new friend here is literally an alien, sent to explore other worlds.”
Having finished its analysis, the rover turned its camera eyes towards the ponies and proudly relayed its preliminary conclusion.
*** Message Sent: It’s a rock! ***
*** Message Sent: Beginning Image Upload ***
And then it took a picture of a sight few ponies ever witness with its panoramic camera, the sight of Maudileena Daisy Pie’s face, smiling visibly.
Aww, little Oppy is so dutifully excited to be taking pictures of and analysing boulder, and I love how Maud very quickly came to the conclusion that the soil sample Oppy had would not be possible on a planet covered in life, in turn correctly concluding the rover was not from where Starlight found him
I"m liking this story a lot
lol... cute xD
heh, I should have realized that Maude would be one of the first ponies to be fascinated with Oppy.
It makes sense that they'd become quick friends, one being a roving geologist, the other a geologist pony, and enough emotion between them to fill one whole pony (I kid )
I love this story.
I can just imagine the guys at JPL and NASA if they ever start getting messages. They looks of shock would be EPIC.
Dawww
That was a really good song too.
Also, can I just say Maude officially beat NASA scientists to something they've been dying to get their hands on, real martian dirt and samples?
Aww, so cute!
So we've had Voyager, and now Opportunity. What's next, Curiosity?
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i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/483/159/a43.png
Hay now, you're a Rock Star.
A short chapter but a chapter non the less, and quite q good one tbh!
Didn't expected to get into this story but I'm really curious to see what direction it'll take.
Btw: nice music!
boy there going to be in for a shock if someone down the line find a working link with the rover
erm I heard a rumor that they regained contact
edit: lets see if I can find a link
edit 2: oops its curiosity my bad
I believe all things have souls, even inanimate objects, so that song makes me sad.
humans will bond with ANYTHING.
I need to see that
You know, you all can buy a Lego version and have one for yourself?
This is unfairly adorable. Eagerly looking forward to more.
Well, you can definitely see the family resemblance between Opportunity and Sojourner...
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oh oh lets not forget the Athena rover that was supposed to go on the scrubbed 2001 surveyor mission... which looks like a weird mash up middle ground between Sojourner and Opportunity. science.ksc.nasa.gov/mars/2001/lander1.jpg tes.asu.edu/TESNEWS/7_VOL/1NO/athena.gif
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one of the nice things about us in my opinion.
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You forgot the sister Spirit!
Short but sweet! Like really sweet! The salt did not affect it at all.
all that glitters is gold
only shooting stars break the mold
Hey, maybe this is the sort of afterlife Oppy is in right now?
He deserves it, the little guy
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So, would that make Starlight its guardian Angel?
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Yep, and maybe even something better than that
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Now why would I go and do something silly like buy a Lego imitation? I just need a few hundred thousand and I'll build my own.
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I think you're thinking of Curiosity when you say the size of a compact. Oppy is a bit smaller, about the size of a golf cart. Here's a pic of a model of Spirit and Oppy beside the 9 year old girl who named them for size reference. upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/Sofi_Collis_MER.jpg
Buuuuuuuuut that said I think Oppy would still be pretty ginormous compared to most ponies.
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Well, ya, sorry. It's nuclear powered. It's not like Oppy, who could've gone for another 15 years, in theroery, with luck. Nuclear power will of course last it a pretty good amount of time, but once it's gone, it's gone.
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I don't think so. Opportunity has a height of 150 centimeters, which would put its 'eye level' right there as well because that's where the PanCam sits. (At least that's my understanding. The 150 cm are from the ground to the top of the mast, which is Oppy's tallest point.)
Ponies are classified as ponies until a height at the withers (which is where shoulders and neck meet) of 145 centimeters. Add a couple more to get to eye level and the tallest pony that is still technically a pony would actually be taller than Oppy.
But let's take the 4 foot shoulder height that you suggested for ponies, that's about 122 centimeters at the shoulder. Add maybe 15 to get to eye level and you have eye level at about 137 and ultimate height maybe 142 cm.
That would actually put Starlight and most ponies of average height roughly at 'eye level' with Oppy, give or take a few centimeters. Celestia would actually tower over the rover like she does over most ponies.
That's what I've been assuming at least so far.
To give a relative estimate, I'd say Starlight is just a shade shorter than Oppy while Big Mac would probably be slightly taller than the rover.
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And ponies are clearly trying to keep up here.
*listens to opportunity song at the end of the chapter* I'm not crying, there's just an onion cutting ninja here somewhere
This brought a smile to my face, not gonna lie.
I feel that over time with enough exposure to magic and equestrian culture that opportunity will gain sentience
*grins* I am very much enjoying this story!
And a very lovely and fitting song.
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Little guy worked himself to death for our sake,he deserves a memorial on mars and a nice afterlife
You sure are taking a lot of quality pictures...
memegenerator.net/img/instances/47320247/its-not-just-a-boulder-its-a-rock.jpg
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well, yes, i suppose Sunset noticed both of the Twilight's though what all she could see through the "Rainbow Colored Death Beam" is debatable. hard to miss the "Sexy Purple She-Demon" (don't ask, some people are really weird though being purple is one of my top 5 favorite colors i can't really blame them) ripping holes in the time-space continuum though
To that song o7
ZZzzz....
:/
Huh. I didn`t expect Maud to be an expert chemist, but I guess it makes sense.