Archive Three: Slow Day
Representative’s Log: Alec Willey
March 22st, 2262 @ 18:32 GMT
Okay, yesterday, I made a personal log that would probably be better as an official log, and now I’m making an official log that may be better as a personal log… maybe I’m wrong about that.
Sorry about that awkward start. Let’s just say that today, Trish won’t have any reason to call me a grump. Because I feel I had a good day today. We all used yesterday to relax after that party. And today, we had a chance to interact with the others on a normal day… well, as normal as two creatures from different planets can be. But it’s very different than at the party. Aside from the ponies who would gather around us because of their fascination, the town was rather peaceful.
Anyway, today, Erica wanted to get into contact with Twilight. I guess it makes sense that they would manage to bond. Twilight is the resident expert on the human language (save for Captain Edwards), and Erica is our linguist. Anyway, she wanted to get into contact with Twilight to work on a new translation program. I don’t know the details. Foreign languages are not my forte. But I chose to come too. Not because I was interested in what they were doing. I was just hoping that Twilight could assist in her translation spell so I could talk to Pinkie. I wanted to get to know who she was when she wasn’t partying. Thankfully, Twilight was planning on meeting up with Pinkie before we arrived anyway, Though I never learned why.
Anyway, when we arrived at Sugarcube Corner, I learned that… Pinkie is that hyper. But when she’s not involved with a party, she’s not as in your face about it. With Twilight’s assistance, I was able to talk with her, learning that she lived with an entirely different family than her own. Although considering that her family name translates into “Pie”, and the other family’s name translates into “Cake”, I wonder if there is some relation.
After getting to know Pinkie, I asked what that yellow pegasus’ name was. I forgot how to pronounce it. But it translates into “Flutter Shy”. I was gonna go to Flutter Shy’s… well… after I figured out where she lived. And in hindsight, it probably would’ve been better to be invited rather than to just show up. I wouldn’t want to startle her. And the language barrier would’ve been an issue too. So when I get around to it, I’ll ask Twilight if she’d be willing to set up a time for us to hang out and get to know each other, using Twilight as the translator… I don’t like having to “use” someone like that though.
Anyway, before I had the chance to leave, Pinkie offered me a fresh-baked doughnut. How could I resist the opportunity? I remember when I was a kid and we had a school field trip to a Crispy Cream factory. And when we were there, we got to try freshly baked doughnuts… if heaven were a taste, that was it… having those delicious doughnuts melt in your mouth…
Sorry, I got a little sidetracked. I’d say the doughnut that Pinkie made was on par with Crispy Cream, though I wouldn’t say it’s the same. They had an almost strange taste. And it makes sense when I learned that it was a clover doughnut. Trust me, it tastes better than it sounds.
Anyway, as I was eating that doughnut, a couple of children… foals… came in. They wouldn’t have been any more than a few years old. And as much as I love children, I also feel awkward with them. But Pinkie insisted on introducing me to them. They were twins; brother and sister. The boy was a pegasus named Pound, and he was the roughhousing type. The girl was a unicorn named Pumpkin, and she was rather inquisitive. What caught me off guard was that they didn’t seem to question what I was. But I suppose it makes sense with Captain Edwards around.
As Pumpkin asked me questions, Pound was using me as a jungle gym. I chose to indulge him by getting into different positions for him to climb. My neck is probably gonna be sore tomorrow.
Well, I guess that’s all I have to say. I’m not as energetic as I used to be, and kids are full of energy. So I’m gonna go take a nap… outside.
[END LOG]
Representative’s Log: Erica Dean
March 22st, 2262 @ 19:13 GMT
I’d say today was productive. I don’t have much to say since today was a rather slow day. I did manage to get together with Twilight to try and program the translation system to work with their language. I’ll be spending some more time with her to work on that, so my logs will be less frequent for a little while.
Simply put, I’ll be working with her to create a translation program that would be compatible with her translator spell. I think it would be fascinating to see how Earthling technology would interact when combined with Equus magic.
Twilight’s translator spell is fascinating to me because it contains an AI. At least that’s the best way I can think to describe it. I know that the term ‘AI’ is usually synonymous with a computer program. But Twilight’s spell contains a different kind of AI. Perhaps this AI is connected to the natural magic of this world. Would that mean that this world has natural internet compatibility? That’s also something to study. Twilight’s spell is capable of learning and adapting, just like an AI.
The intent is to develop and translation device that doesn’t require a unicorn to cast the spell or someone there to act as a translator. I still believe learning the language on your own would be beneficial. But that takes time, and not everyone can learn other languages easily.
It’s a short log entry, I know. But like I said, it was a slow day today. I’ll continue to update the progress, but will most likely be short entries. So I’ll be starting a file for update logs. I suppose the name is currently a work in progress. But you get the idea. I’ll keep you posted.
[END LOG]
Representative’s Log: Troy Storey
March 22st, 2262 @ 19:46 GMT
After testing Terra Squad for any medical anomalies from that party,
Alec: “I knew that name would stick!”
…I’ve found nothing to be concerned about. Although I did do some testing on a cupcake that I had leftover. After breaking down the ingredients, I’ve found something interesting. It’s odd how similar many plants are in this world as with at home. But that’s not what I found odd.
I don’t know if it’s specific to Pink Pie’s cupcakes, or if it’s common with these ponies. But the sweetener used wasn’t normal sugar. It seems that, at least with this cupcake, the sweetener was nectar. As in from flowers.
This is fascinating on so many levels. But it’s something to take note of for anyone who may have allergies. Perhaps the use of nectar is normal for them because of flowers being a part of their natural diets.
I propose that researchers back on Earth look into attempting to convert nectar into baking sugar. There’s also the fact that this is a clover cupcake. I know that Alec has already addressed this. But these are clover cupcakes, and they do have a fascinating flavor to them. I should see if we can get a recipe that can be converted for Earth clovers.
This is a short log entry, as with the others posted today. It’s been a slow day. Which seems strange now that I think of it. Wouldn’t the ponies be more interested in meeting us?
Alec: “Maybe everyone’s just exhausted from that welcome party we received.”
Alec brings up a good point. It was probably slow because everyone’s recovering from that party. Simply put, consider this a warning. If you decide to visit Equus, you WILL get a welcome party.
Alec: “Who would’ve guessed that we’d have to warn people of a welcome party.”
[END LOG]
Representative’s Log: Troy Storey
March 23rd, 2262 @ 8:03 GMT
Trish and Alec are two peas in a pod. For better or for worse. First of all, Trish never made her scheduled log entry last night. Her logic was based on Erica’s log entry about limiting her log entries for tech updates. Since yesterday was a slow day for everyone, there was nothing that much of note to mention. And between Alec, Erica, and my own log entries, her reasoning was that because she had nothing to add, there was no need for her to make her own log entry.
And Alec agrees with her. If there’s nothing to add, there’s no point in making a log entry. That makes it two votes for limited log updates, one vote for daily log entries, and one abstained vote for not knowing about the vote, which qualifies as a vote for limited, since Erica specified that idea.
In short, I’m agreeing to it with the caveat of myself posting daily logs. After all, if one of us doesn’t keep you updated frequently, how would you know the difference between a slow day and something going wrong?
I’ll sign out now.
[END LOG]
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Oh wow, I forgot that this existed.
10637652
Same... I think I remember some of it, Fimfiction has the first two chapters as already read.
Yay, this is back!
It's alive it's alive it's alive seriously what level of necromancy brought this back to life not that I'm complaining the original was pretty awesome
Nice to see this story return. I had to reread it to jog my memories.
Yes... I was afraid it was dead.
As soon as I saw this updated, I read the previous story and the 3 chapters of the side story, I be happy now
10637761
Simply put, someone commented that it has been 3 years since the last update. That was a good kick in the butt.
Hell of a ressurgence!
10642457
You cannot conceive of a possible context to justify him being there, therefore there's absolutely no context for him to be there. That's an argument from incredulity. Has it never occurred to you that he doesn't normally act like that? Has it never occurred to you that he doesn't let his personal issues affect his performance?
I understand where you're coming from, don't get me wrong. Alec didn't make a great first impression on you, and you only get one chance at a first impression. But you're still making assumptions in a situation where context really does matter.
10644085
Incredulity is a very important signal that something ain't right, especially when trying to explain away the incredible thing just raises worse questions.
See, space exploration is built on a fundamentally obsessive attention to safeguarding and contingency - it's a very understandable side effect when your profession involves strapping yourself to thousands of tons of kaboom and shooting yourself into airless vacuum where debris flies around at tens of thousands of mph. Among those many, many safeguards is the most intense psychological screening of almost any government agency in existence, even more than the ones we authorize to kill people.
Family issues are one of the things that are specifically looked for in most psych screens, and while not necessarily disqualifying they're very much noticed. Astronauts in space are additionally required to take ongoing psych evals twice a month while in flight. There are entire protocols in place to deal with someone losing their crap - we even saw the documents detailing them after a real astronaut tried to kill someone once.
So to bring this back to Alec, just what the hell happened to any of that here? Yes, I'm extremely incredulous that nobody saw anything risky about putting a guy under the command of his estranged father. Or that nobody in several months' worth of cramped quarters and regular psych checkins noticed things boiling over. Or that he spent a whole log whining and openly cursing out mission control on the day of landfall, fellow astronauts and even diplomats witnessed it, and nobody reported him for a psych eval and careful consideration of whether he was ready to conduct diplomacy with friggen aliens. Or that he was allowed to stay on the mission at all after losing his shit while flying a 4 million pound vehicle filled with highly explosive fuel into atmosphere at orbital speeds and then disengaging the autopilot to play cowboy by hand (those protocols for dealing with a dangerous astronaut? They start with duct tape and tranquilizers). Not only am I quite incredulous about all of that, but I can pretty much assure you any possible explanation will be even less credible.
That's also why I'm saying the whole crew is a train wreck. Something like Alec doesn't happen unless every single point of contact lets it for an extended period of time, and said points of contact are trained to regard his behavior as a direct mortal hazard as much as a risk to mission objective.
The only reason I'm not going too in-depth about some of these details is to avoid spoilers. But it's not spoilers if I point out that this takes place in the 23rd century, not the 21st century. Therefore the understanding of psychology would be far more in-depth than it is now. And they have evaluated that he is NOT a risk. They'll take into account his outburst during the landing sequence now. In fact, they were able to calculate that the risk factor was lower than it would've been otherwise, because of the fact that the landing party wasn't just chosen for the expertise, but because they are actually friends, and know how to deal with Alec in the rare occasions when stress does get to him. And that's because he normally reacts to stress in a much different way. Simply put, they're not just coworkers on the same mission. They were put together because they've been friends for a long time. They were chosen for their expertise. Being friends prior is just the reason why they were put together specifically.
But going back to my issue with spoilers, I don't have to worry about spoilers when addressing a specific detail that's blatantly wrong. Alec never deactivated the autopilot. All he did was change the coordinates.
Calling me out for mistakes I may or may not have made is one thing. Literally changing the narrative is just lying. Also, you should look up what an argument from incredulity is. Perhaps I should be more specific and say it's an argument from personal incredulity.
I honestly do hope you continue reading because things do make more sense later on. I will be modifying some of my original intent, but only because I don't remember what my original intent was. But it really is a case where the context changes everything. As for the deleted sections, anyone who reads them won't actually see the deleted parts. I only left them in so the readers of this story know what was redacted. The only other people who would know what was deleted would be anyone listening in. The higher-ups who will read those logs will see that there was a redaction, but not what was redacted.
Chief Medical Officer’s Log: Leonard Horatio McCoy
January 28th, 2021 @ 16:55 GMT
Awesome to see this story still has a pulse.
Can't be human, though.
Only one beat per decade.
10651009
Don't be silly. It's gotta have at least 2 beats per decade.
Holy shit, an update! And why do I only find out about it now?
Earth calling Arrow 19. Earth calling Arrow 19. Please respond.
This crew comes over as genuine and charismatic, very sad that this beauty seems to be permanently indisposed.