AMICITAS FLIGHT THREE – MISSION DAY 367
ARES III SOL 361
Dragonfly leaned against the battery projecting the magic field, letting each rainbow-colored arc of magic ease the dull gnawing in every cell of her body.
Oh, she looked much better than she had when she first came out of the cocoon. Most of the wrinkles were gone. She’d put on weight. Her legs were now less hole and more whole, to make an English joke. So obviously the short daily doses of magic everybody got in the cave worked. She was, very gradually, getting better.
But.
Ninety sols from now, they would leave the cave behind, hopefully forever. After that the batteries that powered these brief recreations of a natural Equestrian environment would recharge only from the ponies themselves- not from the biomass of the cave. Even taking into account the difference between magic generated by thinking life and plant life, the recharge rate would be cut by two-thirds at least, and likely more.
Actually, certainly more, since part of the daily recharge would have to go to topping off the jumbo batteries, which couldn’t ride inside the Whinnybago with them.
Hard times were coming, which is why Dragonfly stayed as close to any magic field projectors that happened to be running.
Sometimes too close. “Dragonfly,” Starlight Glimmer said, “I know you need the exposure, but could you back a few feet away from the battery, please? You’re absorbing too much of the field.”
“Sorry.” Dragonfly reluctantly stepped backwards several paces.
“In fact,” Starlight continued, “could you fetch another battery? I don’t think this one will last long enough to finish the enchantment on all fifteen batteries.”
“I got it.” Before Dragonfly could move, Mark got up and walked over to the row of idle batteries by the cave wall, currently cabled together to help balance the absorption of magic produced by the plants. That was fine by Dragonfly, who didn’t like picking up a sixty-kilo battery in her forehooves. (Okay, it only weighed about twenty-five kilos on Mars, but she’d been sick a really long time.) Lifting it with her limited store of magic, of course, was right out.
Meanwhile, Starlight Glimmer focused her attention on the fifteen jumbo batteries. Each had enough spare space on the top of the crystal to jam in a secondary enchantment linking each battery to one of three forty-kilo slices of quartz. Each of these slices would have five batteries pouring all their power into pushing them away from the batteries at a particular rate of power consumption which, if their calculations were correct, would run about six minutes.
The plan was simple. Mount the slices of quartz around and behind the central engine bell of the first ascent stage of the MAV. The slices had been cut and shaped precisely according to the diagrams in the Ares mission protocols on Mark’s computers to fit in those spots. The fifteen jumbo batteries would be raised in a henge surrounding the MAV descent stage, and by some means- they hadn’t worked that out yet- they would be triggered to switch on half a second after the MAV lifted off the descent stage.
Based on the calculations from experiments back home, if all fifteen batteries worked, there would be fuel reserve in the second ascent stage for maneuvers . They could lose four and still make rendezvous with Hermes without having to use the Sparkle Drive. But that was based on the perfect conditions of Equestria, not the conditions prevailing in a cave on Mars, which was why Dragonfly hadn’t said a word in response to Starlight’s polite request to quit hogging the magic.
In fact… Dragonfly checked the battery charge indicator and said, “Finish this one and stop, Starlight. The battery’s about to run out.”
“Okay.” Starlight had another magic battery under her hooves, and she channeled both that power and the power she could tap from the weak artificial field into crafting the enchantment as strong and deep as she could. The magic flowed from her horn and into the clear quartz, not flickering even for the brief acknowledgment of Dragonfly’s warning. For twenty seconds the spell continued to burn invisible pathways into the stone, and then she cut it off, the enchantment finished. “Okay, shut it down and swap over.”
Dragonfly always hated the moment, even if it was brief, when the Jacolt’s ladder shut down and the magic field dropped. It no longer threatened her sanity when it happened, but it still felt like something which constantly lifted her up had been yanked away, replaced by a brutal, agonizing vacuum.
But she’d had a lot of practice dealing with it, hiding it, denying it. And anyway, it was the work of less than two minutes to remove the kludged aerials from the spent battery, attach them to the full battery, and switch it from recharge to discharge. “How’s it coming?” she asked as she performed this task.
“The three booster targets and ten of the jumbos are finished,” she said. “The enchantments all look good. We’ll have to add conductors to link the battery terminals to the receptor spots on the crystal. The original battery enchantment wasn’t designed to power a second enchantment on the battery itself, not directly.”
“Can you show me the places?”
“Sure. I need to drill a small hole into each of them to hard-mount the conductors, to make sure they stay in contact with the receptor spots in case the jumbos get shaken up by liftoff.”
“We have some power tools.”
“Nothing you or Mark has can cut quartz,” Starlight said. “I won’t be doing the drilling for another week at least, not until we get the charge back from today’s work.”
“Okay. If you’re sure you’re okay to do it.”
“Believe me, it’s a lot easier to put a two-inch hole in quartz than it is to add these enchantments. Ready with the new battery?”
“Yep.”
“Okay. I should be done in another ten minutes.”
“What did you think of the last part of the book?”
“Hm? Oh. Didn’t I say during Story Time?”
“You didn’t say anything. You let us talk.”
“Oh. Sorry, my mind was on this task. And besides, since Mark keeps complaining every time I bring up his species’ inferior system of government, I didn’t think he wanted to hear me talk about how Carrot is clearly meant to be an alicorn prince.”
“Oh, really?” Dragonfly asked. “Because, y’know, ponies often have orange buzz-cut hair, stand two meters tall, carry swords using the opposable thumbs they don’t have-“
“Switch the battery on, Dragonfly,” Starlight sighed.
Dragonfly, having done her little bit to shake up things just enough to keep them interesting, complied.
I sure hope Dragonfly will be okay between departure from the cave and liftoff from Mars. Things might go poorly otherwise. At least once they get on board Hermes, there will be that many more people to hug her. #HugABug
9057100 Not to mention the trip home (Earth) if the Sparkle Drive doesn't work.
9056579 Other way around. Mark got to Mars five sols before the ponies, so he's been on Mars roughly five days longer than them.
9057105 Well, worst case for the trip home to Earth, she can cocoon herself once they get to the Hermes. She's not a mission critical item at that point. She can be a pillow for each of the people for nighttime snuggles. (Not in that way, you perverts! Back! Back I say!)
...now you have me imagining Celestia and Luna arguing over who would have dibs on Prince Carrot
Carrot would be an excellent alicorn prince. And Mark is silly, Alicorns use telekinesis for their swords. Earth ponies, on the other hand, use their prehensile tails. Pegassi would use feathers, which is why they prefer wing blades.
9057105
They'll have enough sentient life on the Hermes to get power production back up, plus the experimental animals.
#hugabug
And once they've got over the bootstrap problem for magic item crafting in this universe, and make their own Sparkle Drive, we now have a legit excuse for my favorite spaceships: the ones with ridiculously fancy built in parks. It's not (just) for aesthetics, it's the ship's power core! Sure some unromantic fool will try crank out magic in bulk with an algal bio-reactor, but I figure a lush garden with proper feng shui and a harmonic atmosphere will be significantly more productive.
...Does Feng Shui actually work in this universe? Mars is basically a magical vacuum, but Earth should have a pretty solid thaumic field. Which in turn means meditation in the desert really is useful, it's quiet enough to hear subtleties like the voices of objects. I still think that is going to be critical to getting Earth magic up and running. This universe will have a very different style of magic than Equestria, even if it's working from the same principles, and I think that's interesting.
They REALLY need to take a clean bit of that viral enchantment with them when they leave and keep it fed. And keep it safely in orbit of the moon for experiments, of course, but it really is a unique resource.
That’s racist starlight. Boo boo
9057167 You could be onto something about it needing sentient life, though. If that were the case then it would be why the plants in the cave work, but would rule out algae and such (at least no one has proved algae is as sentient as a tree).
9057136 Right, but does her cocoon put her into a completely dormant state, or just a partial one? Does she still need some magic even in her pod? Given that she can consume magic in that state, I'd say there are still life-processes going on.
9057171
No it's not, it's Socialist.
*Comic Rimshot*
Also, no, it really isn't.
9057178
Her hibernation will reduce it to a minim at least, and if she gets snuggles ag night/an occasional jolt from a battery she should be able to safely recover when she reaches earth.
And for sentient life, I was mostly thinking that they said people produce alot more magic than plants. Oooh, I know! The garden power core will include a colony of lemurs! They're clearly people enough to really crank power production, and this is in no way an excuse to imagine lemurs frolicking in zero gravity. Or to engineer them gliding flaps.
I GUESS you could use ravens or parrots instead, since they're also semi-sentient and can fly so they'll adapt to zero g. They're also smaller, which has advantages. And they're colorful, there's alot to be said for that. If they're frugivorous parrots, you've got an excuse to include cherry trees in honor of the famous Equestrian captain.
For a more utilitarian craft, you could use a living-machine type setup to double as part of the ship's water recycling system, and produce copious quantities of algae, plants, and fish. Though you could have that as part of the Garden Core too really. It's all a matter of landscaping.
I could also imagine a 'warp core' that's really once of those pillar type coral reef aquariums. Genetically engineered for heavy bioluminescence because why in the galaxy wouldn't you? And stick in cuttlefish or octopuses for more power. And again, if you're clever you can make it part of the ship's life support functions. The real trick is finding a material transparent to magic to make the aquarium wall out of.
Also, when they get back and start working on getting basic magic working on Earth without a unicorn? Artificial gems of stupid sizes and especially large scale fused quartz are going to become extremely valuable industrially.
9057246 Semi-sentient? All animals are sentient. Higher forms of plants are sentient.
As for starship design, I'd suggest a Methuselah Ship myself, or a digital storage system (the best since there can be very little chance of contamination of the target biome). The ultimate question is, however: Why would you want to travel between stars personally?
We all get to heaven in our own sweet time
9057167
Nah, at the moment, Earth has no magic whatsoever. This is because, paradoxically, the creation of such a field must be catalyzed by the presence of magic.
.
.
.
That doesn't exist without said field.
.
.
.
It's literally a Chicken-and-the-Egg scenario. In any case, the sparking of a native Martian magical field, however temporary and ephermal; indicates that the moment any Equestrian, or perhaps even Watney himself at this point, arrives back on earth, their mere magical presence will spark the development of earth's own magical field. And unlike Mars, which actively strangles life, Earth is verdant to a degree that might even eclipse Equestria, at least in terms of intensity. I predict that orbital time-lapse photos will show a steadily widening zone of color saturation emanating from wherever our castaways first set hoof on terra.
9057167
Wingblade would be a dangerous weapon for its user. In air its usage would be a nonsense, because it would hinder flying and when used it would damage wings. On the ground it would damage wings. Wingblade is the kind of nonsense weapons that would never be used.
9057184
In Our Town we don't have any tolerance for any funny business... Or fun at all really.
9057321
I don't recall that being the case. I know they need something that can actively interact with magic in order to create something that can interact with it or even detect it, but that doesn't mean the magic is not there.
9057184
Eh I guess starlight forgot that all of the big problems we solved by having Twi and friends save the day. Nobel’s are useless and their military is a joke -See storm king invasion
9057376
A high-magic field has a dramatic effect on the local environment, this was described in detail by Watney when the Equestrians first set off a battery in the hab all those Sols ago. As Watney, a botanist who has certainly been out in the wilds over the course of his studies, had never seen such a thing, I can only surmise that magic has not yet manifested on earth.
9057330
Their feathers are prehensile (magic again, but seen repeatedly) and very durable, so you'd put a short blade on the farthest edge: when fighting in the air, it doesn't take much injury to your enemy to make them crash. It's all about who tags who first.
And besides, birds use their wings as weapons all the time. You ever seen a goose or a swan get mad?
But if you're going to INSIST on spoiling my fun, we can instead have the traditional pegasus weapon instead be a trailing sharp string like a fighting kite. Woven of mane hair so you can extend some of that tactile telekinesis through it. It's not as effective as it might be against ground targets of course, but that's what cloud artillery and strategic use of weather control is for.
9057390
All that means is that the field from the battery is stronger than the field on earth. If this were the show, we'd be able to see that Mars has coloration like it's Discorded.
9057301
This is the sentient-sapient debate thing again isn't it? What I meant was 'they're smarter, they probably generate more magic'.
9057330
Ayup, I've heard that instead of Wingblades, the concept looks something like this.
img00.deviantart.net/25a4/i/2015/289/7/c/slasher_armor_by_baron_engel-d9dajw8.jpg
Transcription of artist's description.
9057403 Debate? I don't tend to debate the meaning of words.
Sentient: has the ability to sense
Sapient: has the ability to reason
Just use the right one.
9057417
Fair enough XD
9057408
Interesting concept, I could go with that I guess. I do tend to assume the heavy armor would interfere with flight, even if they do mention that in the description. That's a matter of preference though. Either way, side-facing blades on the hooves aren't a bad idea either but they'd take very precise timing of your wingbeats to use. Something sharp actually on your wings would too of course, but at least you have better reach and more precise control. Stronger muscles too but neither weapon really is about strength. Maybe if you instead had downward facing blades like talons that could be folded up when on the ground?
Honestly more and more I'm liking the trailing blade or chain idea. It's similar to the real reason the Wonderbolts train to produce stormcloud traces, beyond that they look so cool: it's for Tholian Web type attacks, forcing a pursuer to break off, and setting snares for airships.
Only 90 sols left before a several month journey in a couple tin cans accross the face of death to the campsite from hell?
Do they have enough time left after preps, for Starlight to use enough battery power to Rainbow charge the Cave so that Twilight can at least track which universe theyre in and still have time for at least two full recharges of all batteries?
9057443
Well there's absolutely nothing subtle or precise about their tactics, they're copying peregrine falcons. One brutal strike to smash the enemy out of the air, then a hard climb for another run. They have other troops for dogfighting.
It should be noted that in this particular universal instance, ponies had roughly civil war equivalent artillery. Thus the intent was to ground the drakes where the fortress guns could get at them. Very, very, nasty fight.
img00.deviantart.net/e1f8/i/2015/288/b/9/i_was_there_04_by_baron_engel-d9d6phr.jpg
Hug the bug!
Interesting discussion in the comments, too bad the Equestrian military / royal guard are totally useless and could be defeated by a paper bag.
Those are some weirdly tiny dragons in those drawings.
9057417
there were a few scifi books that were discussing the difference. Normally sentient includes sapient, "sapient" is preferable from scientific point of view because it is a quantifiable property, while sentient is an ability of mind to identify and perceive subjectively. It's western philosophy concept to distinguish logic from emotions. I don't think that definition applies to plants, but can apply to higher order animals.
But fantasy setting like Equestria world may go in other direction... while being less sapient, animals are sentient, sentience becomes a quality of all things that require respect and care, which is a typical concept of Eastern philosophy. Even if they don't show level of pony sapience. Even if it's not a living being.
9057499
Well those were just drakes, younglings; serving as cannon fodder, literally. The two ringleaders were gargantuan. As to the Equestrian guard, lemme dig up a post from another discussion.
9057403
You should also realize, that using wing as weapon would expose it to enemy. And wings are the most important part of pegasus. Placing weapons on wings would be suicide. When attacking, pegasus would use body and hoofs and keep wings out of danger.
Here’s something nobody expected anyone to say: “Starlight, stop being a monarchist.”
Before you even think about a magic user having to stay behind to light the fuse so to speak, and making that magic user dragonflies since she could theoretically cocoon up in the rover with the death box and life-support box , please keep a mechanical method that could be devised in mind. Some sort of hourglass sand timer Gilligans island contraption might work.
a grate chapter love the hole story.
if you need to take a few day or weeks off from this story Kris Overstreet i would rather that than a total burn out and having a story die.
Wait, I must have missed something. Is Prince Carrot a character from their D&D game?
And now I can't help but imagine an alicorn on the City Watch. Pretty much the only species they don't have at this point.
9057666
Discworld. Carrot Ironfoundersson, a six-foot tall human by birth and dwarf by upbringing who's built like his namesake. He's obviously the heir to Ankh-Morpork's rotten throne, and has zero interest in claiming it.
9057575
What about the Storm King's invasion? That was a proper military incursion, and the Equestrian armed forces didn't even APPEAR.
9057246
...This idea is MAGNIFICENT.
9057666
Carrot Ironfoundersson is a dwarf. He's knad'zak'd his (unpronounceable), helped out in the family smithy all his life, and keeps up on the work teams.
The fact that he's also a foundling and twice as tall as everyone else in the mine is secondary.
Go read some Pratchett, starting with the The Watch subseries.
9057771
Strange, this is almost exactly how that other discussion went. I'll throw out the conversation and then elaborate my thoughts, this will be quite long, I'm afraid.
Antiquarian:
Fennyo:
Venerable Ro:
Basically, there's two things i'd like to think about.
Firstly, Tempest Storm performed a (nearly) flawless blitz against a civilization that has far more in common with hobbits than humans. Caught by surprise, ponies generally don't display the same bloody-minded reticence typical of humans. There is no such thing as an Equestrian Masada.
Secondly, I would not be particularly surprised to find that Canterlot is very lightly garrisoned; and primarily by ceremonial troops. Think about it, the sisters posses a far greater capacity to protect themselves and their guards than the reverse. Knowing Celestia, the elite troops are most likely out doing useful things instead of sitting about looking pretty. Honestly, the Royal guard's probably full of noble's children and ponies not quite fit for field work but not unfit for duty.
9057403
You don't get physical issue that blade would be too heavy and inflexible. Putting it on wing's end would increase wing momentum tenfold, thus forces acting on muscles would be increased same way, where tendons and muscles are designed only for certain load and movements... Even real wings have to flex during flight. When folded, they bend on themselves, blades on outer edge would cut into flank and hip if it is not flexible. You probably do not imagine well the anatomy and dynamics of wing. It's understandable, it's still a subject of research and studies.
Birds use wings to daze and put their opponent off balance. Mundane wing are not much but may help to scare. But pegasi wings? If they are capable to carry equine with their magic, they can daze, stun or injure.
I lean toward hoofblades, katar-like or spur-like.
9057613
hahaha!
9057834
I would not expect less from Antiquarian.
That's someone who's mind I wish to be able to read like a book.
9057932
Hoofblades like spurs do work fine yeah, the main issue is keeping them out of the way when landed and that's solved easily enough.
Birds fighting though, they do alot more with their wings than stun and confuse. I've always been told that a swan is perfectly happy to break your arm if you get it mad.
I also think we're talking about slightly different concepts for a weapon here. I'm not talking about a heavy blade all along the edge of the wing, because you're completely right that the wing needs to bend. I'm talking about a light one after the last joint and extending past the 'arm' to protect the primary feathers. It's a fairly delicate weapon for high speed glancing blows in mid air.
9057834
That's a good point about keeping Canterlot lightly garrisoned, and about how in any Equestrian conflict the next generation is going to be preternaturally Talented at war. With the unfortunate side effect that they'd start universal conscription and military school from a young enough age to trigger Cutie Marks from exposure to the concepts in a safe environment, even if they won't be fighting till they're older. And lots of practical exercises, not just theory. I wonder if there's a story in Equestrian Battle School. Naturally the protagonist gets a mark that isn't for war directly, and has to deal with that.
I'd add that I'd consider retreating after the first encounter with an unknown force completely sensible. There are a ton of creatures in Equus with game changing abilities, and until you know what they are it's not necessarily a great idea to fight them. I figure in the Canterlot invasion the guard retreated while evacuating civilians and preparing a counterattack, only to find out too late that they were three hammer blows from a monarchy. Some idiots dropped a vital message, and presumably are STILL unable to sit down.
9057977
so basically useful in air-to-air combat and messing with dive because of flow separation. that must be very technologically advanced weapon, because you can't just attach it to the miniscule phalanx joint, probably some relaxation mechanism required as well as aerodynamic tweaking. Outer primaries are attached to something that amount to our pinkie finger. That can work but would specialize flyers into fighters and ground attack units. And latter could use lances.
Anyway I may imagine that ability to control airflow would allow pegasus to drop opponent into stall or try and cripple their wings even without use if any hardware. Similar was actually possuble in plane to plane combat.
9057403
Sentience is the ability to act intentionally, as opposed to reacting to outside stimuli. Sapience is the capacity to introspect, to recognize oneself.
The actual definitions are more complex, of course, but those are the interesting distinctions.
Carrot, as a born king, would make an excellent alicorn prince. But what would he be a prince of? Would he have been born an alicorn, or would he ascend? He never struck me as the ascend-through-enlightenment type, as he's always had that aura of kingliness...
9057100
It was never the lack of love, it was the lack of magic. Putting herself in stasis might be the only choice on that long trip home with nothing but warm bodies to generate magic. However, if that Sparkle Drive is used, would it's shipwide field be enough to placate the Equestrian crew?
Looks like any beacon back home will have to wait till they get to Earth. Hopefully the scientific masses don't have an aneurysm when a pretty little unicorn starts shooting off a lot of Magic (with a capital M) in order to point the way home. I keep thinking it'll all be like some scene out of Encounters Of The Third Kind, up there on Devil's Peak. Hopefully Starlight doesn't take out a satellite when she goes super saiyan, blasting a megaspell beam into space as she drains the energy from a bank of enormous synthetic batteries.
Question is, will the equestrian probe that shows up on the tail of that beacon spell start playing music and flashing lights? (And it was if several billion hands slapped foreheads and suddenly groaned)
9057385
And not even them, for that matter. They just acted as the batteries while the gems did all the work.
9058204
Carrot Ironfounderson, Alicorn of Community.
Phew! Got caught up!
It's been a fun ride so far, looking forward to the successful min-maxing they're doing for the trip...
Keep going! ;)
Four days left till Mark has officially spent an entire Earth year on Mars.
9057579
Only if they weren't made with the credo "Pointy end away from user" in mind.
9059016
Per Wikipedia:
So 360 sols is 360 days plus a bit over 237 1/2 hours. The one-year point was about Sol 356 (because the Gregorian calendar has a leap/election year).
9059150
If I were a pegasus and had a choice, I'd just go with a hoof-mounted machine-pistol.