AMICITAS FLIGHT THREE – MISSION DAY 250
ARES III SOL 247
“Does it guess easy?” Mark hissed dramatically. “It must have a competition with us, my preciousss! If precious asks, and it doesn’t answer, we eats it, my precioussss. If it asks us, and we doesn’t answer, then we does what it wants, eh? We shows it the way out, yes!”
The rush of preparation for the storm had put the reading of The Hobbit on hold, but now there was nothing left to do except hope that the storm didn’t cause a landslide that buried the airlock. Considering how comparatively flat the slopes of Site Epsilon were, that wasn’t likely, so the five castaways sat next to Dragonfly’s cocoon, gathered around the single largest source of light in the cave, the computer in Mark’s hands. With the space suits deactivated, the only other light sources in the chamber were the indicators on the Amicitas life support box and the dim orange glow of the one active electric heater.
None of them had ever been in the cave after dark before. Oh, there had been the early exploration using space suit helmet lights, but even those had been during daytime outdoors. At night, without the suits, with only the bedrolls from Amicitas to separate them from the dirt floor, the cave was all shadows and gloom, right down to the constant trickling sound of the water heating system from Equestria running down into the well.
Spitfire could easily imagine Bilbo Baggins, a sort of human-pony, sitting next to an underground lake, facing the creepy, terrifying Gollum in the darkness and the horrible claustrophobic depths of the goblin cave, with nothing for light except the flickering light of a magic sword.
In fact, she could imagine it a little too easy. Indoors, under rock, at night was not a place most pegasi felt comfortable with, Spitfire even less than most.
“White horses?” she heard Starlight ask in a slightly offended tone. “White horses for teeth? Mark, are members of your species like beavers or something? Who has horse-sized teeth?”
“It’s a riddle, Starlight,” Cherry replied. “It’s not meant to be literal.”
“But... oh, never mind,” Starlight grumbled. “Just bear in mind I’m going to imagine the Royal Guard on parade every time I watch Mark eating from now on.”
“You watch me eat?” Mark asked. “Planning a nature documentary? ‘Here we see the Watney in his unnatural habitat, underground on a desert planet.’”
“What does ‘documentary’ mean? I know what a document is, but not a documentary.”
“It means I need to get back to reading the book. Then he asked his second: ‘Voiceless it cries, wingless flutters, toothless bites, mouthless mutters.’ What do you think that one is?”
Spitfire thought of the ten million stone teeth, most of them with pointed or jagged ends, all around them and above them. I think that one is a hint to pull the Harry Potter back out and read another quidditch game, she thought. I like quidditch. It’s played above a nice green field in open skies on a pleasant day. You don’t play quidditch in caves.
And nasty cannibal creatures don’t accost you in quidditch stadiums.
Well, hardly ever.
“Wind? Really? I’d never got that one!” Cherry said. “Hey, Spitfire, why didn’t you guess?”
“Huh?” Spitfire pulled her mind out of mental images of Gollum wearing a Slytherin scarf and returned her attention to the others. “Sorry, guess what?”
“The riddle,” Cherry said. “The answer was ‘wind’.”
“Oh. Hm.” She struggled to think. “Mark, read it me again, please.”
Mark read the riddle-poem again.
Spitfire shook her head. “I would not guess wind,” she said carefully. “The thing in the riddle is a monster. Evil. The wind is my friend. It doesn’t cry or bite. It whispers and… and… rubs?”
Mark and Starlight chuckled a bit. In Equestrian Starlight said, “A masseuse rubs, Spitfire. Is there something going on between you and the wind that you wouldn’t want the Canterlot Herald to know about?”
The pegasus snorted and turned her head, acting like she was ignoring the others as Mark recited something about eyes and faces. Again the others went into a frenzy of guessing, but of all people it was Fireball who guessed it- or almost; he said the sun looking at sunflowers, and the book said the sun on daisies. Feh. Sunflowers and daisies are totally different.
Then Mark read a new one, hissing his way through a truly sinister riddle: “… it lies behind stars and under hills, and empty holes it fills, it comes first and follows after, ends life, kills-“
Above them, something rumbled. Mark went silent, and everyone got just a little bit closer to one another.
“What was that?” Fireball asked. “Cave in?”
“Impossible,” Starlight said, her voice failing to sell the word with any conviction. “The roof is solid.”
“It’s thunder,” Spitfire said. “I never think I’d hear thunder on this planet.”
“It can’t be thunder,” Mark said. “We’d only hear thunder if the lightning were right on top-“
Blinding light filled the cave. A deafening CRACK struck the ears of the castaways like a whip. For half a second, a beam of sinuous light linked one of the crystals in the ceiling and The Stump. A smaller light lit up the far end of the farm, as the lightning traveled through the water heating system and grounded again in the metal-lined trench leading to the well.
Then there was a lesser crack, followed by the hissing sound of crystal fragments falling to the farmland below.
In the dim light of the computer screen, five faces looked at one another. Five bodies pressed against one another.
“Quartz is an insulator,” Mark muttered. “How can lightning get at us inside a cave made of quartz underground??”
“The sun crystals,” Starlight answered. “The enchantment channels light through. Light is a kind of electric magnetism. But the spell gathers up light, to make it brighter in the cave.”
“So it gather up lightning too,” Fireball grumbled. “Perfect.”
“Lightning went through pipes,” Spitfire added. “Did you see?”
“I think the life support system is insulated,” Starlight said. “Dragonfly would have known for sure.”
“It’s not safe here,” Cherry said. “Any ideas for someplace safer?
“Deeper into the cave?” Spitfire asked. “Keep to sides of cave?”
“We’d have to get too close to the runoff trench,” Mark pointed out.
More soft rumbling echoed in through the cave walls.
Cherry pointed up. “And too much under the-“
CRACK!
More crystals fell from the ceiling, hissing into the alfalfa.
Five castaways blinked the afterimages of the second lightning strike out of their eyes, huddling together in silence. All thought of leaving the comparative shelter of the cave entrance had vanished.
Finally Cherry said, “Or we could stay right here. I’m tired of reading for tonight. Can we watch TV? Electric Company maybe?”
Spitfire, grateful beyond words that she hadn’t been the one to say it first, nodded her head in perfect agreement.
Mark, without argument, closed the text window and brought up the video player, quickly replacing mental images of deep underground with actual images of bright colors and smiling faces.
Everyone watched, and listened, in silence.
Outside, Mars cried and bit and muttered with all the strength it could muster, setting off electrical auroras that popped and crackled through the dust-dense air.
Well that's pretty crazy!
I swear to God they need to read The Princess Bride
Just a Love from the book that help our Intrepid sick Changeling
Spooky.
It's certainly good for setting the mood of the scene. Makes me want to go read The Hobbit now...
OK, gang, you can stop accidentally terraforming a planet now.
Damn, I wonder what the next log entry will look like.
And heres me just after watching the crazy Dutch guy show how well modern electronics stand up to million volt continous discharges. In the case of the Nokia 3310, 6 inches of plasma spewing out of its ports, followed by full arcing, and it tried dialing out to ask for help, and in the end shut down. And restarted by turning it on again. He prooved it by dialing it while it was being zapped, and it rang with the incoming call. the smartphone survived pretty well but became useless when the touch screen sensor processing chip fried, even though it could boot up.
Spewed plasma jets is what you use for propulsion when you have lots of power spare such as with pulse inertial fusion etc. They have other capabilities as well, but one lot we dont know how to even describe them yet, and the rest you have to ask Twilight.
Just hope Mars runs out of shorting power before they run out of conductng crystals, because thats going to chew into teh light for the farm, for food and charging rates, and reduce the number of crystals available for battery production as well.
If the magic thrusters interfered with the atmosphere, how much did the fixed magic pulses of the cave and battery charging affect it and will do so afterwards?
Is all that fear fouling fair Dragonfly's recovery?
"This thing all things devours:
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers-"
"Chrysalis! The answer is Queen Chrysalis!"
The "well, hardly ever" and Gollum playing for Slytherin just killed me
I'm wondering if the crystals shattering was the lighting crystals shattering, and how much damage that's doing to the other crystals. How many of them suitable for replacement light enchantments and batteries are going to be left, will that be a new constraint on them?
Next storm they'll have to bring the other ends inside first as part of their storm prep.
I was wondering how the storm would threaten them directly when the cave should have been basically a bomb shelter compared to the weather, even lightning because of the layer of quartz.
8945768
The Shrieking Eels, the Fireswamp, The Machine? Yeah, a device that sucks the life out of you is a good thing to mention while sitting next to Dragonfly's cocoon.
I listened to the hobbit books on tape far too much as a child, so nostaligia there. And yeah, not the good place for Gollum.
The image of the lightning arcing from the roof to the table in the crystal cave. And meanwhile I'm imagining lighting almost digging at the ground above the cave like claws.
I think Stephen King's It would be the perfect lecture for this occasion. :D
I hope Mark introduces the ponies to Edgar Allen Poe or H.P. Lovecraft.
We get it, Mars. You've made your point quite thoroughly by now. You can stop breaking physics now.
8945768
As you wish.
You know, I thought Mark was being silly about eating the same stuff for every meal again... I don't care that he wasn't, it's a great quote for it.
8945778 Yeah, I don't think the planet likes it much.
I love The Hobbit! I read it and re-read it so many times as a child. I can't wait to see how the Equestrians react when they get to the Trilogy proper and learn about Sauron and the Rings of Power. Hmm... I wonder if Starlight will point out the similarities between Sauron's One Ring and Voldemort's Horcruxes....
8945964
After hearing these stories, Starlight decides to make her own artifact to make herself immortal. If those hacks Sauron and Voldemort can do it, so can she.
img00.deviantart.net/54dc/i/2016/256/2/e/starlight_s_birthday_by_pandramodo-dahj9v8.png
8945778 Alondro uses the Force to float to Mars like Leia Poppins, "Imma terraform you nowz, trololo!"
8945816
It would have to be Dragonfly erupting out of her cocoon to answer that one.
8945777
"OK Spitfire, let me talk you about Pennywise the Clown".
As others have said, I agree that the storm and the darkness really helps set the mood for this scene. I, too, wonder if the storm will affect Dragonfly in any way.
Status update on the song: I still have work on Kris's melody suspended, as I'm waiting on him for clarification on the tempo and rhythm. River Babble got back to me with guidance on Spitfire's verse, so I completed that and began work on the next section.
i.imgur.com/b7dxa5r.png
Is that what Gollum said? I mean, I wouldn't be terribly surprised, but still, "If it" is what I'd expect.
Anyway, am I the only one seeing the irony of watching The Electric Company for comfort because lightning is scary?
I'm thinking that's more of a pegasus thing than anyone else could ever understand (the alicorn princesses aside, that is); after all, the weather is in a pegasus pony's blood and it is an integral part of her magic - it's not a far stretch from there to consider that one perk of that would be the wind being her close (if not somewhat intimate) friend
8945843
Bit it's true love!!!
I just hope none of those breaking crystals were important. The sun crystal probably aren't rated as plasma conduits.
That is a rather amusing mental image.
Burrahorses.
Hooooly crap! I was so worried the life support system would fry. after all, it must be metal. Guess they have good insulation on that thing! Yeaaah probably a bad time for the riddle scene, unless one of them really likes the scary campfire story atmosphere. XD;
Hmm. if I understand correctly, Sun has already set. So how's electric heater active?
8947307
Batteries. No sensible being would use solar power without batteries
My PRECIOUSSSSSSSSSSSSS!
Eeeee! Gollum!
I love The hobbit. It's much more a fantasy adventure story than Lord of the Rings.
Ahh, yes. Perfect atmosphere for this scene
Though I guess Mirkwood would make them nostalgic for spiders, at this point
WOAH WHAT
Exacty! What is this m... oh. magic. Right. They messed with those. Ugh
Cue Fireball's turn to go loopy, having him retreat to the back of the cave, constantly muttering to himself and hissing to anyone who comes close
8946229
He clearly said "to blaaaaave", and as we all know, "to blave" means to bluff!
Damn... Mars will be pissed they survived
Mars will be pissed they survived
Mars will be definitely pissed they survived this...
11485562
Dude you have spammed the same comment three times in a row. Please, just.. think about whether what you are saying actually needs to be said, because we are on chapter 146 and so far your running average for comments at the top of the chain is above two
Mars will not be pleased that the unwelcome guests survived...