My Little Pony: My Little Pony The Martian

AMICITAS Mission Three – Mission Day 522

ARES 3 solar day 512

Cherry Meimei stared at the computer screen in front of her. On the red background of the screen were two lines of eye-catching white characters:

Simulation terminated - impact speed 1327.4 m/s

Press Enter to end the simulation.

She was so angry that she finally controlled her temper and growled softly, then she tapped the corresponding keys on the keyboard according to the instructions, and then collapsed back into her flight seat in frustration.

"So, are we dead this time?" Starlight Glimmer asked. Her only task in the simulation was to stare at her computer and watch the two sliders on the screen of the Twinkle Engine control interface - one for specifying the mass to be moved, the other for the number of pulses per second to drive the engine, and finally a start and stop button. The simulation ended too early, and the Twinkle Engine was not put to use.

"Yeah, we're dead," Berry whispered. "I was sure we had it under control. A deflection thrust failure and three boost crystals failed during launch. But I swear I was paying attention to the track the whole time! How did we crash?"

"I don't know." Spitfire muttered, "But Martinez will tell us in a few minutes."

As expected, within six minutes (the simulation itself lasted only a minute and a half), Martinez's voice was heard over the MAV comm system. "Ha, Johnson has you stumped," he added. "But don't feel bad; she pulled off a combination that failed me a month ago. I noticed you reset the thruster cutouts in the simulation; good idea, but your thrusters didn't actually fail. You did lose a first-stage engine, but the anomaly wasn't reflected in the indicator lights, and the altitude radar failed. Combined with the partial loss of your magical boost system, this situation is barely survivable. So don't blame yourself too much for this failure."

"But I must mention, Spitfire, that you should have noticed the problem with the altimeter reading. As co-pilot and systems controller, it is your job to continuously communicate the data you receive to the pilot—and us—at all times. The pilot may not be able to check the instrument display himself. Your life depends on your ability to quickly and accurately convey the critical information that keeps pouring in to us. But according to the audio recordings, your reaction time is insufficient."

"I know you're still having trouble with English. I understand. My great-grandmother never learned to speak the language, may she rest in peace. But you have to understand what being in the Air Force means. You've led pilots into danger. You've trained new pilots. You know how to work hard. You can do it."

"Okay," Martinez concluded, "the good news is that you've only failed four times out of nineteen. It looks like you've got a pretty solid grasp on the control system. You're actually better than Mark in this regard, and probably better than Vogel and Beck. The bad news is that the next few simulations will get harder and harder. We'll test you in every survivable scenario, plus a few impossible ones. But there won't be many, because they only make sense on Star Trek. OK, reset all the switches, and let us know when you're ready for the next scenario."

"Waiting for your news, over."

Meimei nodded to Feihuo, signaling him to start following the pre-flight checklist, one by one, restoring all the switches used in the previous round of simulation. "Major, thank you for your comments." Then she spoke on the channel, "I only have two questions. First, you will be watching us at that time, and you will tell us if there is a problem, right? Second, are instrument failures common in your place? Because the instruments on our spacecraft will never break unless you kick them hard. We are built to the standard of anti-shape spirits. At the same time, we are also dragon-proof. And yak-proof. Why don't you humans do the same? Over."

Spitfire paused as she was resetting the switch, and looked at Meimei with a raised eyebrow. "Commander, are you really going to say this?" she asked. "This is the only ship we have. Are you going to tell them that this isn't good enough?"

Meimei also picked up her checklist and began to reset the switches on her side of the console. "That's not what I mean." She replied, "The only times we encountered damage in the cockpit before, without exception, we broke it accidentally. We have never encountered an instrument that just broke down while we were using it. It's impossible. I never thought about it in this direction before. Engine failure is natural; control failure is reasonable. But instruments never have problems." She shuddered as she spoke, "Think about it, we almost died so many times before; if even one instrument in these marginal balls had a problem, how many times would we have died?"

No one present answered.

Six minutes later, they got Martinez's reply. "Yes, we will definitely be watching, but we can't guarantee that we will be able to communicate with you. If the communication is lost, you will be on your own. It is best to be prepared for such a situation. The probability of instrument failure is actually not high, but similar situations have indeed happened before. We also hope that you can be prepared for such a situation. But having said that, after this matter is over, I would like to see the many instruments on your control console that never fail. This is definitely a holy grail achievement for test pilots. I hope the above can answer your questions. Over."

Berry looked at Starlight. "What's a grail? And why do they have to have holy -> holey ones?"

Starlight just shrugged. "Not sure," she replied. "I just know it has something to do with naming dogs after Indiana Jones Terriers."

"Stupid human." Feihuo muttered softly.