AMICITAS FLIGHT THREE – MISSION DAY 327
ARES III SOL 322
TRANSCRIPT – WATER TELEGRAPH EXCHANGE, ESA BALTIMARE and ESA SHIP AMICITAS
AMICITAS: Amicitas calling Baltimare, use suit SG for response, over.
ESA: Baltimare calling Amicitas, over.
AMICITAS: Mark wishes to speak to Twilight Sparkle and/or Chrysalis, over.
ESA: QC – lucky you, I just splashed down four days ago. Princess Egghead is busy designing new system for Angel Twelve. Put him on.
AMICITAS: Greetings and salutations from Earth, oh glorious Queen Chrysalis. I am Master Mark Watney, astronaut and explorer. I salute you on behalf of my people, over.
ESA: QC – What did he really say, over?
AMICITAS: No, that was all Mark, over.
ESA: You’re putting me on, over.
AMICITAS: DF – He said it, my queen. He says, “Never spoke to a queen before, and I wanted to do it right.” Over.
ESA: Hello, Mark. How is my subject? How is my pilot? Tell me what the ponies won’t. And leave out the diplomatic talk, I only get that on letters from Canterlot complaining about dumb things like bills, subpoenas, drones running up hotel bills, like that, over.
AMICITAS: “Dragonfly’s slowly getting better physically. She still creeps us out sometimes. And Cherry Berry can’t make a Streetwise roll to save her neck.” Over.
ESA: Don’t infect me with your nerdiness, Mark. As for Dragonfly, good to hear she keeps you guessing. Over.
AMICITAS: “How can you be an astronaut and not be a nerd?” Over.
ESA: It’s a burden being the one with common sense, but I bear it well. Over.
AMICITAS: “No, seriously. Even Martinez (human crewmate) has a degree in systems engineering. You have to learn tons of stuff to fly. Nerd is how you get to be an astronaut.” Over.
ESA: Or you can be the one writing the nerds’ paychecks, over.
AMICITAS: “That works too. But if that’s the case, why do you fly? It can’t be for the science or the adventure.” Over.
ESA: You don’t have to be a nerd to enjoy being in space. I get to look down on all the little people. What got you out into space, then? Over.
AMICITAS: “Astronauts were always my heroes. And when the Mars missions began, I figured if people were going to Mars they needed to learn how to grow crops there. I was more right than I thought.” Over.
ESA: What does that have to do with you?
AMICITAS: “I’m a (scientist of farming). Growing things is my career. Well, was. Now my career is Not Being Killed By Mars.” Over.
ESA: Not much chance of promotion there, over.
AMICITAS: “It has more of a future than the alternative. I get to turn forty-two in a few days, so that’s something.” Over.
ESA: You’re having a birthday?? (note: remainder of transmission was too rapid-fire for anyone to decipher, but it went on for quite some time)
AMICITAS: Amicitas calling Baltimare, comms check and get Pinkie Pie away from the life support, over.
ESA: TS - Taken care of. Pinkie asks me to tell you all your backlog of birthday parties will be made up once you arrive safe at home, Mark included, over.
AMICITAS: Amicitas copies birthday parties for all, over.
ESA: TS – Sorry, but we have to go now. Chrysalis says Mark gave her something to think about. That worries me, over.
AMICITAS: DF- That's my queen! What progress on rescue, over?
ESA: TS - No progress without another big spell on your end. Experiments on booster idea show promise, over.
AMICITAS: SG - Will let you know if we have plans for another big spell. Until then we’re trying to moderate use of magic to save up battery charge, over.
ESA: Understood. Keep us informed. Out.
Poor Chrysalis. Finally gets some respect and she can't even believe it's sincere.
Poor Mark. 42 years of Pinkie Pie birthday parties upcoming all in single one sugar-fuelled hit.
I'm sure it's nothing to worry about, Twilight. Chrysalis is just learning to appreciate the Magic of Friendship!
I would love to see Mark making genuine friend of Chrissy
9017144
dude get your magic users straight, you don't mix wizards with warlocks.
Congratulations on hitting 182 chapters or approximately half a year of daily uploads! Party
9017889
Oh, yes, congratulations, Kris Overstreet!
And thanks, TL_One, for pointing that out.
There needs to be more of this kind of... Well, it really isn't filler
As much as Starlight and Dragonfly have talked to. Earth, there needs to be more interaction between Mark and Equestria
What is the highest number of Pinkie Pie parties can be delivered all at once? 42
Maybe we've found the question.
9017889
9017897
And as they said, congrats
Haha, everything about that conversation was great. I kinda want them to meet face to face.
Edit: Also yeah! Congrats on the milestone!
It shows how one is a Ponyville native when they can recognize Pinkie Banter through morse-code watergraph. I bet Cherry actually understood at least half of what she said
9017853
am more worry about her finding out that humans are better at her at manipulating people to do what they want when they want and buy things that are useless without thinking like fidget spinners and more
This actually raises a very interesting scenerio.. hear me out on this...
Pinkie is known to frequently break the fourth wall (and occasionally swaps places with her EqG counterpart). What if Pinkie shows up and throws a huge party for the crew? That would give Dragonfly a major love boost, give NASA and Earth something to shit themselves over (especially if Pinkie rigs the chat to Hermes to directly do a Q&A).
Not only that, she would know the Universe corridants needed for Angel 12, but use it as a radio ONLY that would boost communication between all three locations. Starlight and Dragonfly would have to serve as translators, but it would also allow diplomatic relations while all sides work on a solution to bringing their crew safely home.
9017943 And you've basically summed up the reasons that's not going to happen.
9017959
Oh well I tried, but still congratulations on the milestone
9017959
btw i like to see pinkie and mark talk to each other about AI and video games of our world that would be nerd haven right there
9016922
Yeah, except the accounts that are recorded in the Bible as examples, to which I was referring, though I'll admit the Bible today is the end result of literary Telephone...
9017976
So much Telephone...Combined with Babel-fish for extra fun. Written in 3-4 different languages, two of which are dead. Translated into what is now a dead language, then into what English used to be. Then into modern language. Then into post-modern language (and Jive. Don't forget the Jive version...)
What did she mean by that...? Also, I really want to see humans visit Equus now.
9017959
9017943
It would make a good omake, but due to the serious nature of this story, having Pinkie Pie just come in and do everything ruins the mood and tension.
Although I always think Pinkie is more limited then Discord. Discord can just break the 4th wall...Pinkie's abilities require a little extra.
For example, enforcing a Pinkie Promise.
However....even then its temporary...for example, if she popped up out of a pile of rocks on Mars and shouted "FOREVER!" she would then slowly go back into the rocks, and be unable to tell anyone exactly where she was, or how she got their.
So it fails to be useful.
Edit: Congrats on the milestone Kris
Ugh! Just had a birthday today. I got sick from too much sugar. Time to say bye bye to Sugar Island Pinkie.
It's odd reading a story where distances and times are so exact, sometimes.
In some of my favorite works, when I read about people jumping entire universes, a few million miles drift or a few years back or forth is entirely within a the margin for error. It's not like there's some super-universal constant between realities drifting around.
I'm reminded of this line from all the way back on Sol 8...
Sounds like they are about to have a birthday emergency.
The conversation with Chrysalis had me thinking of Garlight's campaign. What is when generating the character, she decided to make Mark play a secret Changeling infiltrator. The rest of the part, and the other players, think Mark's character is a pony. Only he and Slimmer know the truth.
holy shit i am 200 chapters behind again god damnit
WHY CAN'T I JUST GET CAUGHT UP
oh well
anyways, great job! featured again!
9018011
Hebrew and Greek aren't dead. Aramaic, maybe. What's the fourth? Latin? Yeah, I guess so. But we still have records of Aramaic and Latin, so it's not difficult for experts to translate. That's how the best new Bible translations are made - they go back to the original source, not translating translations.
9018068
Yes, I hope to see that used, too.
9018134
What, were you gone for 200 days?
9018155
The "original source"? All of the original manuscripts have been loooooong lost in time.
The oldest remaining copies are Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus. Both of them flawed and incomplete (Sinaiticus misses half of the OT, and Vaticanus having significant translating errors). And both of them were written back on early 4th century (after Jesus).
Looks like Mark finally has the answer to life, the universe, and everything.
9018218
Okay, so we don't have the ORIGINAL original manuscripts. But their content has been faithfully copied and passed down for many centuries. I think you just don't like the Bible, so you're looking for ways to discredit it.
https://www.gotquestions.org/original-Bible.html
9018229
Having "great confidence" a long line of dead copyist monks did their job without making mistakes (or intentional "adaptations" to fit the church vision and policies) doesn't make It true, I'm afraid to say.
And gotquestions.org is anything but a reliable, neutral source. They also support Young Earth Creationism.
9018261
Like I said, you're predispositioned to find any way to attack the Bible, so it's not even worth my time to try talking to you. I disagree strongly with you on all of your points. Let's just both shut up and enjoy Kris Overstreet's story.
I wonder what Chryssi is thinking about. Maybe it's about why she bothered going into space? (Plot to take over the planet aside.)
Thank you very much for taking on this project and seeing it through. This has become one of my favorite stories to read and everything about it is charming!
...Ok, making additional space in the Watney harem...
Great. Now Pinkie's mojo is going to be warping narrative causality in the direction of an Equestrian rescue mission so that she can celebrate Watney's birthdays. While her influence will certainly hurry things along; it would be a real kick in the teeth for the crew of the Hermes if Watney suddenly lit out for Equestria while they were still out somewhere betwixt earth and mars. Perhaps the ESA can pick up the Hermes crew on the way out?
9018378
Who's Pinkey?
Here's an idea.
How hard can you push stuff with magic?
How much magic do you need to push things really hard?
Do you need less magic to push really small things? Like tiny itty-bitty thingies, I'm talking real small.
Sand engines.
Same shit as neon engines, but with sand.
Mars' covered in sand. Take sand, load sand in rocket, push sand really hard.
Oh, and Mars's sand tend to explode fiercely. Make solid booster, add magic to push violently burning sand.
Get off Mars, fly to Earth, feed Cherry Berry all the cherries.
pre00.deviantart.net/8717/th/pre/f/2012/020/3/a/pinkie_pie___mouthful_of_cherries_by_mysticalpha-d4mzpre.jpg
9018380
Storms take it, I can never remember how to spell that name.
I saw you delete that comment, Ocelloid. I'm going to not delete it from my e-mail so I can remember the response I was going to give it.
We're getting off topic and Kris is going to tell us to cut it out when he logs in again. I don't appreciate people attacking the Bible, though.
9018388
How hard is it to remember "Pinkie Pie"?
9018393
Hard enough that we're having this conversation at 5:30 in the morning. Feeling pugnacious today? Ach, I've nothing better to do, too late to stay up and too early to sleep. bloody 3rd shift schedule...
9018381
You’re close to what they are actually attempting now. The plan (currently at least, who knows if it might change again) is to use magic to literally push against Mars. Imagine you were to sit on a skateboard and push against a wall, you don’t push the wall anywhere, but good ol’ Newton’s 3rd law sends you careening in the opposite direction. Much like the example as well, one you’re too far from the wall, you can’t push off of it anymore; the ponies are trying to find out how far they can be to “push” off the ground before they can’t “reach” it anymore. Besides, some kind of sand based thruster would require having all of that sand as weight on the ship before launch on top of the weight of the magic batteries and the thruster bells (which are already too heavy). sand is REALLY heavy, much less thrust to weight than liquid fuel or any kind of magic thruster. Neon engines only work great once you’re in the weightless vaccum of space, where any acceleration won’t decay from friction, so you only need a real tiny push. The ponies need to push out of Mars’ atmosphere and escape it’s pull of gravity (moreso the latter than the former) which needs a lot more force.
Poor Chrysalis. The only person to give her any form of defferential acknowledgement, and its The Nutter On The Bus.
Also, How many cupcakes can fit into Angel 12s maintenance hatch?
ALL OF THEM.
9018396
I'm not being belligerent, but I cannot allow characters' names to be misspelled. I feel the same way about people misspelling Sweetie Belle or Apple Bloom, for example.
9018381
The question is does the third law of physics still apply when magic is in use or does magic absorb the equal and opposite reaction. Based on some of the things I've been seeing in the show and the story I'd assume that the third law does not apply. Even if it did you run into the question of if you can safely propel the sand fast enough to overcome the force of gravity, the resistance of the air, and the sand's weight. Just like a neon engine is only worth jack shit in deep space where there is almost no gravity, if the sand engine you are proposing isn't strong enough it would be more worthless than throwing baseballs at the ground in an attempt to fly. Lastly but certainly not least there is also the problem of just how agitated Mars seems to get when exposed to magic, running that sand engine would require a bunch of magically charged sand plowing right into Mars with the additional magical propulsion from the pony engines, together this could instantly form a major magical burning dust devil that swats the escape craft out of the air killing everyone.
So while your idea is interesting and has some merit, I don't see it working out to well.
9018388
Maybe some supplementary information will help to solidify your memory by anchoring it with cross-references.
First, there are only really two suffixes for English words to keep track of: -ie and -y. The -ey suffix isn't used for much outside of being an alternative spelling for -y on the end of words that end in "e" because people intuitively recognize that there's a grammatical distinction between -ie and -y that should be preserved.
Also, while "Pinky Pie" would technically be an accurate description, since -y means "having the quality of" when applied to nouns, and she is certainly pink, the meaning of -ie fits her even better...
-ie is used to make diminuitive or affectionate forms and "Pinkie Pie" was quite obviously conceived as a portmanteau of "Pink" and "Cutie Pie". (See also how -ie is used to form "Trixie" from "Beatrix" as an affectionate nickname.)
9018401
Ah, my apologies then, I've been awake for far too long and my prose is starting to slip. This is a rather excellent story though isn't it? As a random shot in the dark, story-recommendation wise, have you read Legacy by Nfire? It's very good.
9017886
Too late. Harry Potter already did, when Rowling paired up "Wizard" and "Witch" rather than Wizard/Wizardess and Warlock/Witch.
9018036 9017959
That raises an idea for an interesting experiment. Have Cherry Berry, the Ponyville native, explain a Pinkie (Pie) Promise—along with the consequences—to Mark. Then have Mark make a Pinkie Promise and break it after a random period of time determined in advance has elapsed—all without telling Pinkie.
If null result, repeat after informing Pinkie Pie via water telegraph of the intent to try the experiment. If it does work in any fashion, however, it gives the Maretians one more way to signal the ESA in case of emergency… and render Pinkie even creepier than she is now.