//------------------------------// // 3. Rockstar // Story: My battery is low, and it’s getting dark // by Naughty_Ranko //------------------------------// *** 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.