AMICITAS FLIGHT THREE – MISSION DAY 469
ARES III SOL 461
“Friendship, Hermes. You’re almost through the southern gap. Now turn directly east if possible. That’ll aim you towards the center of the main channel of Mawrth Vallis. Please acknowledge, over.”
Starlight Glimmer, seated next to Fireball in what had been Amicitas’s co-pilot seat, keyed on her microphone. “Friendship acknowledges, roger wilco, over.” Switching her headset from the ship radio to her suit’s magic-powered comms, she said, “Confirmation from Hermes, Mark. We’re in the valley. The main channel mouth is due east of us.”
“That’s what I figured,” Mark said from Rover 2’s cabin. “Cherry, did you get that?”
“We copy, Mark,” Cherry Berry’s voice added. “We’re clearing a couple of large rocks out of the way now, but the ground is wide open once you get past that last narrow part of the pass.”
Ten days of very easy driving across the northern lowlands of Mars had come to an abrupt end towards the end of driving the previous Sol. This hadn’t been totally without warning- NASA, via Johanssen on Hermes, had warned them- but it had still been a bit of a shock to see the big-ass mountain of flood debris dead ahead, where the low-resolution map in the rover computer showed a wide open valley entrance.
They’d parked close to the mountain and taken some pictures. NASA couldn’t decide if the great mountain that spanned almost the entire mouth of Mawrth Vallis was debris left behind by subsiding flood waters or the moraine of some long-gone glacier. They’d have to wait at least another forty sols to find out, but they’d sent Mark and Fireball out to get enough photos and video to keep the astrogeologists arguing for years.
As a consequence, the Whinnybago had made a late start of it the next day. Partly this was due to the shadow of the mountain blocking much of the early morning light, but mostly it was due to waiting for the broadcast window to Hermes to open so the crew could get guidance, even at eighteen minutes’ round-trip lightspeed delay, from Hermes, its superior Mars maps, and its direct connection to the Martian orbiter network.
Their eyes in the sky had revealed the southern pass between the mountain and the outer edge of the ancient valley mouth, though tight and half-filled with loose debris, was the more direct route around the obstacle. The northern route was twice as far and not that much more open, according to Johanssen. Unfortunately the difference might still have been moot, since a ten kilometer drive had taken an hour and a half, counting the time lost waiting for updates from Hermes.
But that was over- or almost so. “I see the tight spot you warned me about, Cherry,” Mark said. “Fireball, prepare for plus thirty on my mark… now!”
“Plus thirty,” Fireball rumbled, turning Amicitas’s flight yoke to the point marked on the steering guide Mark had installed.
“And zero!”
“Zero,” Fireball said as the rover crept cautiously past a boulder so large the top of it rose almost level with the former spaceship’s cockpit windows. “Boss, how big rocks did you move?”
“Don’t ask,” the earth pony turned forward scout replied.
“Minus ninety in three, two, one, now!” Mark ordered.
Fireball yanked the flight yoke all the way to the right. “Minus ninety,” he said.
“Hold it… hold it… zero!”
Fireball straightened. “Zero,” he said.
“Yeah, that looks beautiful,” Mark said. “Wide open now. Let’s get a little more distance from the pass, and then I’ll turn us due east and open up the throttle.”
“Which way is east?” Fireball asked. “Can’t see sun from back here.”
“Um, yeah, it’s pretty high up by now, isn’t it?” Mark said. “But I can see Spitfire’s spacesuit. It’s the only white thing anywhere in sight. Cherry, I’m following Spitfire. That good with you?”
“No problem, Mark. We’ll stick together for a while. What are we looking for?”
“An upslope. A shallow, level upslope. Starlight, ask Hermes for details, okay? By the time you get a reply, we should be eight or nine kilometers along.”
Starlight nodded to herself, then remembered Mark couldn’t see her head from the rover cabin. “Will do,” she said.
“Lot of trouble to drive up a river,” Fireball muttered from beside her.
“Less trouble than having to work it out for ourselves,” Starlight replied. She switched back over to the radio. “Hermes, Friendship,” she called. “We’re out of the pass now and making full speed due east. We expect to be about nine kilometers east from our current position by the time we get your response. Please give guidance to the best path up the valley from that position. Over.”
As Starlight switched her headset back to suit comms, she heard Mark say, “So, after all of that, are you talking to me again?”
“That depends, Mark,” Starlight growled. “Are you going to let me have my apprentice witch character?”
“Oh, not this again,” Mark moaned in her headset. “I banned all witches from the campaign because I didn’t think you’d have fun being constantly stepped on by Granny Weatherwax. If there’s a serious magic problem in Lancre and any witch is involved in any way, she’s going to take over the whole thing. She just is. That’s how the books worked.”
“They don’t work like that for Tiffany Aching.”
“I am not giving you Tiffany Aching for a starting-level character, Starlight,” Mark groaned. “Look, if you want to be a magic user, be a hedge-wizard.”
“I’m holding out for witch, Mark,” Starlight insisted.
“Dragonfly here. Just wanted to mention the total and absolute lack of rocks in the path ahead. Definite absence of obstacles of any kind for klicks and klicks. Nary a rock. Boulders are conspicuously inconspicuous.”
“Message acknowledged, Thesaurus Jones,” Mark replied.
“How much longer are we going to drive today, Mark?” Cherry asked. “We’re already an hour past the point where we’d normally stop.”
“I’m going for the full seventy kilometers,” Mark said. “We won’t start tomorrow on full batteries, but we can drive in shifts. Assuming no more major obstacles- or at least advance warning without geological detours- we should be back on normal driving schedule by the time we get out of Mawrth.”
“Pretty big assumptions, Mark,” said Starlight.
“I’m thinking big,” Mark replied. “Mars is a pretty big planet, after all.”
“If you’re thinking big, how about you think a little bigger about witches in the campaign!”
“Starlight, drop it. We’re tired of it.” Spitfire’s first words in the radio conversation were the last…
… almost.
“So, talking to me?” Mark asked.
Starlight stared silently out the cockpit windows at the gradually receding mountainside.
“That’d be a no,” Mark answered himself, and then the conversation really did die.
9132983 The One Ring gave Isildur invisibility. In fact, it was using it for that purpose that caused his death; he put on the Ring to flee an orc ambush and dove into the river Anduin to escape, but the Ring slipped off his finger. A few seconds later the orcs turned him into a pincushion. That said, it's also explicitly stated that the Rings of Power, especially the One, give the wearer power according to their stature. There's debate about whether Aragorn with the One Ring would have been as powerful as Sauron without it, but only Sauron, Gandalf or Saruman would have been able to wield its full power. Lesser beings would have to accept what the ring would deign to grant them, but they would be able to use- or not use- any of its powers.
In particular, Sauron never wanted to be invisible. His entire purpose of making the One was to dominate all the peoples of Middle-Earth. Domination was his thing. And it's kind of hard to dominate people if they can't see you...
Are they planning to have the changling cocoon up on the trip from Mars back to earth? It doesn't seem like there's enough life force on the space ship to sustain her, even with the cycling of the batteries.
Why do I get the feeling that Mark took the wrong turn in Albuquerque.
I'm gonna have to agree with Mark about Starlight's character. Between Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg there wouldn't be anything for her to do.
9133036 No cocoon.
Shouldn't that be in his headset? Or am I overthinking this.
9133041 Besides make the tea.
9133046 Starlight's POV; she's hearing his voice through her headset.
9133043 "Look, all I'm saying is a cocoon all the way back is only rational." Dragonfly floated in Hermes' zero gravity and waved a thin holey hoof at the lumpy green object glued to the bulkhead.
"That's bigger than the one you had on Mars," said Mark, floating beside the changeling only with one hand on a nearby grip since he did not have wings to adjust his trajectory.
"It's built for two," she explained. "You see, in order to reduce environmental load and to keep me emotioned up on the way to Earth, I thought--- Wait! Come back! I thought you liked snuggles!"
9133018
Very true I forgot about that.
Its one of the few exceptions to Tolken's definition of power. Power is supposed to come from within and be about what the person is good at. Its not something learned or earned or even exercised but native to the person. Thus the other rings making Dwarves wealthy, Elves preserving and humans adaptive (magical). Its one of the more interesting ideas hinted at in his books and is most clearly pointed out at Galadriel's confusion over Sam's use of the word "magic".
And all the rings of Power, but especially the One Ring, are supposed to make one stronger in their native power.
Isildur is not his father, but still a mighty warrior in his own right. So why did he get invisibility?
Still, I can see some fun with this idea. A unicorn gets an effect similar to the Alicorn Amulet.
A Pegasi is able to call down tornados or massive electrical storms. Possibly, depending on how far you want to take the idea, you could get true Supernatural weather, like massive Fire whirl that don't die after a minute or two.
Changelings won't just be able to mind control but literally weave emotions, able to make a group of people feel whatever the Changeling wants. (I would like to improve their shapeshifting as well, but they can already become anything so I am hard pressed to do that.)
Earth Ponies become akin to Druids, Poison Ivy or other such nature wizards, and wearing the One Ring will allow them to make vines spring up out of no where, command plants and maybe even animals, and the like.
Dragons gain wealth...and even more powerful breath weapons perhaps.
And Yaks are our Hobbits....all they get is the power to smash stuff better. And thus the Ring offers them very little in the way of temptation.
9133165
Never mind what the One Ring would do to your Talent.
Enhanced changeling shapeshifting would probably let you borrow the skills and personalities and special powers of the things you become. So becoming Discord would give you chaotic reality warping up to the limits of your magic and drive you stark blithering insane, for example.
9133203
Good idea with the Changelings. And Special Talents.
Pinkie Pie with the One Ring would either be terrifying or nothing would happen.
Terrifying because of what Power she already has for it to enhance
But there ring's Power is supposed to be part of its Temptation. And I question if any power it could enhance of hers will actually solve her wants. Breaking the 4th wall more, being better at parties, her numerous other abilities etc, don't make her better at bringing joy or having more friends.
So she MAY reject its temptation out of hand.
9133102
You might even wake up...
changedimproved.Technically it's incorrect to say 'roger wilco' in one go, and shorter messages would be used to facilitate communication. Unless radio protocol has changed, a more believable conversation would have gone as follows:
9133215
She'd get something like Sam: a vision of a whole realm turned to an endless celebration. And hopefully she'd be wise enough to realize that wouldn't really make anypony happy.
9132480
I thought the Ring's invisibility was more like shifting to the spirit side, reason for what Ringwraiths could sense and see Frodo when he had the Ring on.
9133102
Her name is Dragonfly, not Firefly. For a second, I thought you were saying she had used her changeling power to appear like (General) Firefly, of the Wonderbolts.
Smooth and bumpy, but always progress.
9133219 Unless you picked it up from a bad seventies TV show.
9133302
Starlight's dialogue is excusable, but Hermes's isn't. Unless I'm missing something, NASA radio protocol mostly falls in line with those generally used in airtraffic radio communications with maybe some military influences.
EDIT:
That got me thinking: what is standard radio protocol in Equestria?
9133262 fixed. Darned one A.M. updates. Past an old mans bedtime.
9133018
If I'm recalling The Silmarillion right (which I may not be, fuck that book was mostly dry) the One Ring did not, in fact, grant invisibility- by putting it on, it placed one in a more ethereal realm (of which I forget the exact name,) where Ainur and Eldar existed when they were not embodied, and thus, invisible to those so embodied- and ordinary mortals. As I understand, the reason the Ring-Wraiths were able to see Frodo was because they are NOT embodied, but somehow able to use their power to move objects- perhaps a function of the Nine which are never fully explained. I can't recall if he might've remained visible to Gandalf... I can't remember Bilbo or Frodo ever using it in his sight. Long time since I read the books though.
The temporary step outside of the realm of matter was, I believe, what sent Frodo off to Valinor at the end, though I suspect he might've passed beyond the Walls sometime after.
If in doubt, follow Spitfire. She will guide you home.
9133215
FWIW, the comics (FIM #69) recently did something kind of close to giving Pinkie that kind of power. Pinkie is feeling a bit annoyed that even though everyone enjoys her parties, they still only make ponies happy for a while. She wanted something more permanent. Coincidentally around that time a tree at Sweet Apple Acres produced a golden apple that, if you're pure of heart and eat it, will grant any wish until you willingly give up the power. Of course, Pinkie eats it (accidentally) but after finding out what she can do, starts turning Ponyville into a continuous party. Kind of like "Inspiration Manifestation" except with Pinkie instead of Rarity.
Another interesting thing with that issue - the art for the issue was done by fan artist Pencils. The art is great, tho the story is a bit meh. There was also the issue a while back where Pinkie ended up in Discord's dimension and took over, even becoming an alicorn for a time. I enjoyed that one much more - I just loved the idea of Princess Pinkie!
9133391 Hermes has only one line of dialog in this chapter, so I'm not sure where your objection to that lies. Capsule (ship) communications tend to be a bit more relaxed than air traffic comms. This would be even more so with a long lightspeed delay in which keeping transmissions brief would be outright counterproductive.
9133165 In the same scene I'm recalling (which I suspect is from Unfinished Tales) Isildur confesses to his trusted servant that he tried and failed, even knowing exactly what it was, to control the One Ring. Its will was stronger than his own.
9133473 I don't think the unseen world is explained overmuch by Tolkien anyplace. It co-exists with the material world, and elves who have been to Valinor have a strong presence in both worlds simultaneously. Wraiths and wights, while obviously without physical form in the material world, exist entirely in the spirit world... and, since it coexists with the material, they can still interact with it. I don't think it was ever a consistent concept with Tolkien, though.
Not important, but I think Watney would know to teach her you only say one or the other; never both.
The sun is white and would seem that way from Mars. So technically there'd be two white things in the sky.
9133666 It's late in the morning, late enough that the sun is above the angle that would let Mark see it through the forward windows of Rover 2.
9133632
Fair enough. I'm just used to the type of radio comms that are more at home in airtraffic communications, so it was a bit weird seeing the current dialogue as such.
9133215
The ring would do everything in its power to avoid The Pink One.
9132314 I gave it a quick spin last night. Note: I'm not actually fond of clicker games, mostly because I generally don't regard them as games. They're more a balance of, "are the new unlockables interesting, either in appearance or function, enough to keep my attention on what is otherwise a mind-numbing chore?"
The main things I observed: the inflation for more things is enormous, and I didn't see a variety of function other than "gets you more clicks." I don't ding you for limited graphics- after all, it is an alpha done on a couple of hours notice, so not much is expected.
I'm still very flattered you did even this much for a quick dream sequence, by the way.
9134148
Tom Bombadil was able to wear the Ring with no apparent effects. Pinkie would cause it to slip off her ankle/mane pseudopod and project a scream of existential terror on the minds of any telepaths on its way back to the nearest deep, dark hole to claim as its next hiding place.
Good that they're talking about the important stuff.
Crap. I've caught up to the update point. How am I supposed to sate my addiction now?
9134945
You could always read one of their other stories, there's never a bad time to reread Changeling Space Program.
If Starlight wants to have a witch as a power, her character should be nerfed. Her characters somehow keep getting high luck stats.
Who is this Thesaurus Johnes
Dammit, why
Eeeesh, that level of debris? That's a mess!
9133037
A wrong turn at Albuquerque will take you anywhere, so in this situation, in order to drive back to Earth, the right turn is to make a wrong turn. Right?
This is going to be a looong ride
Just humor her ones and kill her character. Done
10883791 Discworld witches don't die as easily as all that, especially with a mind as demonstrably devious as Glimglam's.
9134465
reminds me of a Harry Potter crossover story where Pinkie got hold of Tom Riddle's Diary...and drove it so crazy it self-destructed!
Nice
10883802
Sounds like a challange Mark might cherrish
9133473
Don't remember how it happened in the book, but in the movie Bilbo slipped the Ring on as he was saying goodbye to everyone at the party while Gandalf was watching. Who got to Bag End before Bilbo and spooked him saying, "I supposed you think that was terribly clever, don't you?"
So there's one time Gandalf saw it happen right in front of him.
Don't argue, the her regret the decision of challenging the GM