• Published 2nd Jan 2018
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The Maretian - Kris Overstreet



Mark Watney is stranded- the only human on Mars. But he's not alone- five astronauts from a magical kingdom are shipwrecked with him.

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Sol 336

Changeling Space Program Mission Forty-Nine hurtled through the upper atmosphere in a cone of superheated plasma, the rocket being pushed to the very edge of survivability by an array of enchanted crystals hundreds of miles behind it. Inside the control capsule, its sole occupant repeated a single word, for no other reason than to remind the ponies on the ground that she was still alive and conscious.

“Okay!”

It was less a word than a grunt, but Chrysalis managed to get it out regardless, somehow keeping her hooves on the controls despite eight times the normal force of gravity pressing hard on her entire body.

“Okay!”

This, beyond all doubt, was the worst ascent she had ever piloted, worse than her first flight, worse than Mission Five, which more than one book had called “Chryssy’s Bad Idea”, worse than anything.

“Okay!”

Her muscles really, really ached. It took the kind of willpower that (in her own mind) made her the perfect ruler of her fractious subjects to keep one hoof on the engine throttle and the other on the joystick. But if she let her forehooves drop, she’d never be able to lift them to the controls again while the current acceleration lasted.

“Okay!”

With this kind of monstrous acceleration, it seemed madness to add to it by firing the sole engine on the short, single-stage test vehicle. But the engines were required to turn the flight from a purely vertical flight into a shot to orbit. The capsule reaction wheels, mighty as they were, would only put the ship on its side; the fifteen magical repulsor pylons would continue pushing the three comparatively small crystals tucked behind the engine bell directly away from themselves, regardless of which way the ship was actually pointed.

“Okay!”

By itself, the ship might just be able to lift itself off the ground on a half-full tank. With the addition of the enchanted ring of rocks on the ground far, far behind her, Chrysalis was now bound not just for orbit but for a rendezvous with Concordia and her long-overdue shift on station there. Her three-person capsule (the other two seats currently empty) would replace the one that would take Cadance and a certain stowaway back to Equus.

“Okay, six point five gees and falling,” Chrysalis said, getting something more closely approaching a deep breath for the first time in three minutes. “On course ninety by fifty, fuel at sixty percent, all systems nominal.” All ship’s systems, that is. The pilot’s systems felt like she’d just been popped out of the cardboard in some pony toddler’s activity book. She could be her own drogue parachute.

“Horseton copies, Forty-Nine.” Chrysalis forced herself not to frown at the sound of Rainbow Dash’s voice. Yes, it was joint operations these days, and yes the little showoff was the second most senior pilot remaining on the planet, but it just felt wrong to have any pony other than the pony as capcom for what was, at least in name, a Changeling Space Program flight run from Horseton Space Center. “Twilight confirms you are go for orbit and Concordia rendezvous, repeat go for Concordia.”

The acceleration was tapering off rapidly now, and Chrysalis checked her speed indicators, then opened the taps on her chemical rocket engine a little more. For a moment she’d wondered if those stupid enchanted rocks would let her stop at Concordia, or if their creator had decided to surprise the changeling queen by making her commander of Equestria’s first permanent moon base, population one.

“Forty-Nine, ESA speaking.” Ah, and speak of the pony herself. The idiot genius must have taken the headset from Rainbow Dash. “If we restrict the mana flow a little more, the extra weight of the NASA ship should reduce acceleration even more, making the system safe for the Amicitas crew to use for escape. I think we’re almost ready to send them the specifications and await results of their own local testing.”

That made Chrysalis smile. As much as the perfect pony princess of Putting Her Nose Into the Private Business of Evil Masterminds annoyed her, it felt good when Twilight Sparkle’s plans worked… because when she failed she tried again, and when she succeeded she literally knocked the ball out of the park.

Yes, she could live with Twilight Sparkle’s plans, so long as they weren’t pointed at her.

“Sounds good to me,” she said. “Hurry up with the bookwork, and let’s bring our people home!”

Author's Note:

Original plan: leave Kansas City about 8 to 8:30 AM, get home 9 PM, write another "tell me about X" chapter.

Detour after detour in Kansas (closing down a dozen miles of a major north-south highway with a twenty-mile detour in either direction? GPS sending you down roads they're just now closing because they're maintaining the railroad crossings? Turnoff doesn't exist?) cost me at least two, closer to three hours of driving time.

So this, what I can do in half an hour, is what there is for today. (I got home at just before 11 PM, after leadfooting it through the Ozarks of eastern Oklahoma.)

Chryssy's "Okay!" is directly inspired by Alan Shepard's call during the first Mercury flight's re-entry, during which he pulled over seven G's of deceleration.

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