Sol 432
AMICITAS FLIGHT THREE – MISSION DAY 440
ARES III SOL 432
Starlight Glimmer looked at the alfalfa growing in the cave. For some reason, today it smelled nicer than she remembered it ever smelling before.
Starlight had been raised by somewhat overprotective (and overbearing) parents in a well-to-do home in a unicorn settlement. She’d been brought up believing that grazing, like an ordinary, homeless nopony, was Just Not Done. You ate your hay from a bowl or in a casserole like civilized ponies did. But back home, if she’d smelled a hay field smelling as sweet and rich as the scent wafting off the little patch of cave soil now, she would have been tempted to take a few bites.
That, however, had been before spending almost exactly a year eating hay, hay, hay, hay, hay, hay, potato, hay, hay, potato and hay with a side order of hay. Today the smell comforted, but it tempted not in the least.
Today the magic field session had been cut short- as short as Starlight dared keep it while allowing Dragonfly the minimum she needed. The regular batteries would recharge in seventeen days in the cave if let alone, but for safety’s sake she worked on the twenty-day estimate- five percent per day. In theory the thirty normal batteries they now had would fill three empty batteries every two days. One battery could run a magic field projection for thirty-eight minutes, which seemed to provide enough of a magic environment for the health of the Equestrian members of the crew.
But today she’d pushed all the power she could into the fifteen giant-sized batteries with their repulsor enchantments, filling them up and, in the process, depleting the remaining batteries to a critical level. At least twenty-one of those batteries needed to be full- the seven for the Sparkle Drive and fourteen others for emergency use on the trip- before they departed.
Once they left the farm, the recharge rate, based on the six castaways and their meager output of magic alone, would be less than two percent per day- substantially less, because that recharge rate had been in the first days after the crash, when Dragonfly still had a magical surplus. Now, though no longer critically deprived of magic, she still soaked up enough of the trace magic field produced by the others to lower the whole considerably. The result would be an ongoing battle between recharging the smaller batteries and using them to keep the big batteries, which couldn’t recharge from the crew, at full strength. And, of course, they’d need to burn a little daily to keep Dragonfly healthy- well, functional, since healthy wasn’t going to happen until they got back to Equus- as much as possible.
For that reason Starlight had declared a moratorium on voluntary magic use. The batteries, from this point until launch, would be strictly for the most necessary and urgent needs, and even those kept to dead minimum. Furthermore, to ensure at least twenty-one full batteries no matter what, the magic time had been cut from half an hour to an amount that could be powered by one-fifth of the current daily production- ten minutes a day. And if anything happened that required magic to fix, that would be slashed further, to five.
The others, thankfully, had accepted this without complaint or even comment. It wasn’t as if the logic behind the decision hadn’t been obvious to everypony. And it wasn’t as if they hadn’t been struggling to scrape together five minutes per day of magic three months before. But her efforts to scrape together extra batteries for the last bit of their stay had, in a way, spoiled the others with half-hour recharges, or even ten-minute periods of concentrated magic that felt like being home again. After even a short period with those options available, a ten minute regular field felt like penance in comparison.
And, in fact, Starlight had at least one rebel- one she simply couldn’t rein in. Cherry Berry insisted on using magic time to fiddle with that broken branch she and Mark were keeping in the hand mister. Starlight’s fur practically rocked back and forth with the tug of war between Dragonfly’s body sucking at the magic field from one side and Cherry’s earth pony magic demanding more from the other side.
“Mark?” Cherry asked, as Starlight was considering the situation and wondering what, if anything, could be done about it. “Do you think these roots are long enough yet?”
Mark took a quick look. “Damn, I wish you could have done this for all those alfalfa cuttings that didn’t take.”
“I tried,” Cherry said. “I wasn’t motivated.”
“You sure are now.” The human took a close look in the slightly grubby water of the mister can. “I’d rather they were a bit longer. We need to pot Groot as soon as we can, so the roots can settle into the soil properly before we transfer him to the Whinnybago.”
“Groot?” Starlight asked.
Cherry looked up. “Hasn’t Mark told you that story?” she asked. “Here, ask him to tell it again while I work a bit more with Groot.”
Fireball cleared his throat. “You know we not supposed to add weight to the MAV, right?” he asked.
Cherry didn’t hiss like a changeling or growl like a dragon, but the glare she shot Fireball worked just as well to shut him up at once. Once satisfied that the question would not be repeated, she walked off with the edge of the mister bottle neck in her teeth, the leaf-covered branch rubbing her nose.
“Oookay,” Mark said quietly. “Well, now hear the tale of the Guardians of the Galaxy, a group of aliens thrown together in the name of adventure. One of their number was an outcast from a species of tree-like aliens. Although wise and patient, he had a language barrier problem, so that the only thing any of the others could understand was the phrase, ‘I am Groot.’”
Mark went on to briefly describe the noble sacrifice of Groot and the birth of his seedling/offspring, as it had played in the theaters during his college days.
Once this was done, Dragonfly said, “So what you’re saying is, you named that Groot because he’s a little seedling?”
“Yep.”
“Dumb pony idea,” Fireball snapped. “You think that cherry branch going to save us or something on the flight?”
“Well,” Mark drawled, “it won’t throw itself on a grenade or anything like that. But considering what it and its relatives have done for the sanity of the person who’s going to fly our ship…”
The five others looked over at Cherry, who was talking to the seedling and walking it around the larger relatives as if they also were part of the conversation.
“Smart pony plan,” Fireball said slowly. “Very smart pony plan. Very smart. What can we help?”
“Wait.” Spitfire spoke up, pointing to the seedling. “We take on MAV? How much mass?”
Mark considered. “Seedling, pot, soil, water? Ten kilos tops. Probably less.”
“We all get ten kilos too,” Spitfire insisted. “Thing to remember by. Science sample. Stuff. Ten kilo each.”
“Okay, fine,” Mark said, shrugging.
Starlight never said a word. She kept looking at her suit chronometer, watching for the ten minute mark to come around. But she considered adding a minute more for the sake of Cherry Berry’s mental state… and wondered what would be the most important twenty pounds or so of stuff from this world to take home.
Assuming NASA would allow sixty extra kilograms on the ship, that is.
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...go crazy? Don't mind if I do!
Groot may just save them. One more living thing generating magic.
Keep the pilot sane. Definitely a smart plan.
ok if that thing start talking for real you made there world into every sci fi book ever made and not the 1950s kind too
9117327
Just what I was thinking.
One living thing that loves them in fact.
9117336
"i am Goot?"
I noticed that you added 5 words to the chapter. I really don't want to re-read it all but did it change anything important?
All space and no cherries makes Cherry Berry a very pissed off pony
https://youtu.be/anwy2MPT5RE?t=30s
9117360
i am Batman
9117387
only a few will get that lol
9117405
"i am Groot,"
9117436
i am Batman!
9117465
"i. am. Groot!"
9117478 Donkey!
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I. AM. BATMAN!!!
I. Ma. Toorg.
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“Dear, don’t cause a fuss. I'll have your hay. I love it. I’m having hay, hay, hay, hay, hay, hay, hay, potato, hay, hay, hay, and hay!”
(“Hay, hay, hay, hay. Lovely hay! Wonderful hay!“)
“Shut up!! Potatoes are off.”
“Well, could I have her hay instead of the potato then?”
“You mean hay, hay, hay, hay, hay, hay, hay, hay, hay, hay, hay, and hay? Ew!”
9117509
“I AM THE LAW!”
9117525
And then we have Lobster Thermidor aux Crevettes with a Mornay sauce, Served in a Provençale Manner with Shallots and Aubergines, garnished with Truffle Paté, Brandy and a Fried egg on top and Hay
Is MAV pronounced/read out loud as "ehm ay vee" or "mav"? If both, which is more common, or which is Fireball likely to say it as?
Also, I can't help but wonder if what Fireball said is foreshadowing.
9117327
Ah, yes.
... Hay, hay, hay, hay. Hay, hay, hay, hay. Hayity-hay, hayity-hay! Hayity-hay, hayity-hay! Hay, hay, hay, hay....
9117537
“No, thanks. I will have… I’ll have a burger, please.”
“Oh, we don’t… we don’t make that.”
“Pretzel, hot pretzel, like mustard… you have mustard dip?”
“Ice cream. Baskin Robbins.”
“I’ll just have whatever’s hot and fresh.”
“Dude.”
9117325
9117525
SHUT UP both of you giving me a headack!
It's better to make little more charge than twenty-one full batteries.
After all, extra magic will add to extra dV in the pure form or in the form of perchlorate bomb.
Although "Penance"
does kinda work, Is that not meant to be "Pittance"?
So we got our Groot. Mark would naturally be Peter. I'd peg Dragonfly as Mantis (because emotion bugs), Fireball as Drax (someone who loves car chases as much as he does would have similar interests), Starlight as Nebula (both former villians), Cherry as Gamora (for her leadership qualities if nothing else), and I guess that would leave Spitfire to take the spot of Rocket?
9117599
Penance. A punishment for taking for granted their gluttonous usage of magic! 😆 😂
But pittance could work there too.
9117667
Only the author can tell us.
But try how it sound with synonyms:
9117743 Both work fine
You know, I wonder if there are Cherry based deserts on the Hermes?
Im going to have to go with The Raccoons And The Lost Star here, given so many things have overwritten the ability to find the old Polish reconnasence biplane with a rocket motor to escape.
When using lots of power, more mass is better. Makes the differnce between going unconcious and having your bones crushed under the acceleration.
9117327
What if all the battery recharging prior to the farming initiative came from stored Equestrian magic? We may find, to the horror of the denizens of Equus, that animal life doesn't, in fact, generate magic, only absorbs and stores it. That beyond a certain point their bodies bleed off excess absorbed magic to the environment. In that terrible scenario, plant life would be the only contributor in a null magic environment. Groot may in fact save them all.
9117801
If Vogel has a proper lab, he can create cherry flavoring synthetically. Not sure if that counts though.
Also, does he have such a proper lab? Only one person knows.
9117509
We are Spartacus.
9117549
I'd say simply mav is more likely instead of pronouncing the individual letters.
9117644
Actually, Gamora would be considered a former villian as well, as far as the show is concerned.
If fact, Starlight would be more the equivalent to her, not Nebula. Led down a dubious path before being shown a better way by Peter.
Cherry is Rocket. Cause of the connection to Groot. 😂 And being a pilot to the point of obsession.
And because of the questionable things I've seen from Spitfire over the course of the series, like having no problem with abandoning a team mate for someone better when it suited her and having to get a wake up call from Rainbow Dash when it came to Lightning Dust. I don't even think she felt guilty in either case. She was just called out on them and just shifted course because of it. I would put her as Nebula.
9117599 Penance is quite definitely the word I meant.
9117564
Bloody [pony] Vikings...
9117336
“Who Goes There?”
Sad to say, Seirrech doesn't sound nearly as good as Redrum.
I. AM. MUM-RA. THE EVERLIVING!
Eating fresh fruit is going to take her to nirvana. I know it would for me after eating spuds for 365+ days.
I Am Groot.
So, the moment they set foot, or hoof, back on Earth or Equestria, will Cherry's first words be 'Bring me cherries right. the buck! NOW!"
Or will the suits be smart enough to have an entire basket full of them in hand waiting for her?
9117509
I am the terror that flaps in the night! I am the final word in a long running gag! I . . . am Darkwiiiiiing Duck!
Neat. Victory for mental health
Great chapter
We - are - Groot !
I am Groot... IN A BOOT
Boot to the head
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