I could barely see it at all. It was just a slightly bigger blur in the distance. In fact, the crater seemed to be filled with this haze, which grew thicker as I followed the rim wall around the edges of my vision.
Looking up, the sky looks mostly unchanged. The sun is still bright, though not as bright as on Earth. There are no obvious clouds, no storm front, nothing like the Sol 6 storm or the Electric Storm.
But the storm is there, and it's getting closer. And the direction we're going now, if we drive seventy kilometers per sol, only about twenty-two of that counts as getting closer to Schiaparelli.
I'm racking my brains trying to think of something we can do to boost power or driving efficiency or both. Problem is, nothing comes to mind. We tried everything already when we were testing the Whinnybago, not just the six of us here but over fifty engineers back at NASA.
But if we don't think of something else, this trip could become a lot longer... and hungrier.
Author's Notes:
In the book Mark finds out he's in a dust storm by noting the haze he sees looking across Marth Crater— a pockmark well over fifty kilometers across. And that was when his solar cells were performing at 97%.
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Sol 479
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AMICITAS FLIGHT THREE — MISSION DAY 488
ARES III SOL 479
The Equestrians huddled. They hadn't done this for quite some time, but Starlight had insisted. She didn't want Mark to hear— or, at least, to understand— what they were talking about.
"So what are we talking about?" Fireball asked, in Equestrian. Starlight had insisted on that, too, for the same reason. "Is it about how we stopped early?"
"Sixty-three kilometers," Starlight said. "This morning the batteries were only at eighty-three percent charge."
"It's actually darker outside," Cherry Berry said. "It kind of snuck up on us, but it's obvious now."
"And Mark couldn't find Phobos when it rose," Starlight added. "The dust is too thick to see anything in the sky but the sun."
"How big is this storm, anyway?" Dragonfly asked.
"Big, and growing," Starlight said. "Mark says that about once every four years or so, a dust storm blows up big enough to cover the entire planet in a dust cloud. They last for weeks, sometimes months."
"We haven't got months," Fireball pointed out.
"I know." Starlight looked at Dragonfly. "You kept talking about hearing voices from this and that. Hearing anything from the planet? The weather? Anything at all?"
Dragonfly turned her gaze away from Starlight's. "I don't like to talk about it," she muttered. "You all laugh. You keep it inside, but I hear it anyway."
"We're not laughing now," Starlight said. "Right now, I'm wondering if Mars has windigoes."
"Windigoes?" Spitfire's eyes opened almost fully. "You mean the monsters from the Hearth's Warming stories?"
"That's right," Starlight said, "and I don't mean the nice one from `The Lonely Red Windigo,' either. Think about it; we're getting on each other's nerves, and the weather is changing as if it deliberately wants to freeze us solid."
"Um," Cherry Berry said, "we're not grumpy anymore. We're worried."
"Pfft, worried," Fireball said. "We're scared. We're bucking terrified."
"And I'm not feeling anything like windigoes around us," Dragonfly said. "Mars isn't saying anything. All I feel is the six of us, the rover, and the death box. The rover only ever says one thing— `Let's go.' And the death box just says, `Good night, mortals, good work, I'll probably kill you in the morning.'"
"Does it care if Mars gets us first?" Cherry asked.
"Cherry, commanders don't say things like that," Spitfire snapped.
"Not wrong, though," Fireball grumbled. "It looks like we're going to die out here."
"It's not hopeless!" Spitfire insisted. "Twilight Sparkle might be just about to save us!"
"If she is," Dragonfly sighed, "now would be a really good time."
"Well, this is awkward."
In the middle of the table, lights blinking, sat Angel 16.
On one side of the table sat Princess Twilight Sparkle, head of the Equestrian Space Agency; Queen Chrysalis, head of Changeling Space Program; and Princess Luna, one of the ruling diarchs of Equestria.
On the other side of the table sat Twilight Sparkle, unicorn scientist; Chrysalis, one of the leaders of the Resistance; and Queen Nightmare Moon, tyrant of Equestria.
"I still want to know, counterpart of mine," Nightmare Moon purred in a most unfriendly tone, "what persuaded you to surrender to our sister."
"Well, there was the purifying blast of pure harmonic magic direct to the face," Princess Luna said. "Did you not get that?"
"I destroyed the Elements of Harmony with my own hoof," Nightmare Moon said.
"So did I," Luna said. "It didn't help. The Elements are not just artifacts. They're avatars of the highest ideals of civilization. And they summoned to them six mares suitable to embody those ideals."
"Which did not occur in my universe," Nightmare Moon said. "My initial takeover met with zero resistance, even from my sister." She glared at the changeling and pony sharing her side of the able and hissed, "Resistance, such as it was, came later."
"Obviously something happened to prevent Rainbow Dash from achieving a sonic rainboom in your universe," said Princess Twilight, speaking from experience.
"Rainbow Dash is a lieutenant in my Shadowbolts," Nightmare Moon said. "None more loyal."
"Rarity?"
"Chambermaid and dresser," Nightmare Moon said. "She insists on trying to get me to wear bright, frilly things. `Contrast' this and `Lace softens the lines' that."
"Applejack?"
"Led the first uprising against me. She lives in my dungeons now as a hostage against the future good conduct of the Apple clan."
"Pinkie Pie?"
"Who?"
"Fluttershy?"
"Never heard of her, either."
Princess Twilight pointed to her non-alicorn doppelganger. "And you? Did you attend Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns?"
"I... dropped out," Twilight said sadly. "Once I read all the books and scrolls in the public shelves, I left to seek out knowledge on my own. I was in Hollow Shades investigating the mystery of the disappearance of the Pillars of Harmony when the Night Without Dawn began. I returned to Canterlot and was recruited into the Resistance by Princess Cadance."
"And when I find her, I shall bring proper order to the kingdom again," Nightmare Moon growled. "That filly has been a thorn in my flank for far too long."
"I was studying the moon, trying to find some way to return Nightmare Moon to her prison," Unicorn Twilight continued. "That's when we saw her magic reach out and grab this object in space. We thought it might be something we could use to defeat her, so we organized the Resistance to infiltrate her castle and steal the object." She glared at non-queen Chrysalis. "We were discovered."
"Not my fault," non-queen Chrysalis snapped back. "Your ponies betrayed my changelings."
"What is the matter with you??" definitely-queen Chrysalis shouted. "Changelings don't get betrayed! They do the betraying!"
"Well, excuse me for trying to survive in a life or death battle against a mad goddess!" not-queen Chrysalis shouted back.
"I am not mad!!" Nightmare Moon shrieked. "How dare you imply that my sanity is not up to scratch-"
"LADIES, PLEASE!" Princess Twilight's horn lit up, and four muzzles found themselves clamped shut by magical force.
"To get back to your original question," Luna said quietly, her mouth not being sealed, "it was rather for the best that I surrendered. Our night has been appreciated more than ever, especially since exploration began of the void beyond. And I have since learned to appreciate the talents of our sister, and the trials she undergoes."
Nightmare Moon's horn flared, dispelling Princess Twilight's muzzling spell. "Oh, spare me," she snarled. "Miss Pretty Perfect Princess? I can do anything she did, and do it better! I protect our ponies from the monsters that roam the waking world, and I am a thousand times more terrible than the beasts that stalk their dreams! What does she do better than you," she sneered the pronoun at Luna, "do?"
Luna didn't even blink. "She opens shopping centers and bridges and the like."
Nightmare Moon's jaw dropped. "Y-y-you mean," she stammered, "I don't have to DO that?"
"And she can send nobles home from open court," Luna continued, "happy and cheerful— without actually agreeing to any of their foolish proposals."
"I'm sorry?" Nightmare Moon asked, even more boggled. "This is our sister? Celestia? The shy mare who got tongue-tied every time Princess Platinum berated her about acting her station?"
Unicorn Twilight blinked and looked at Nightmare Moon. "Princess Celestia? Tongue-tied?"
"Yes, except when she babbled uncontrollably," Nightmare Moon said. "You would not believe how fast she'd go to pieces any time someone asked her to... um..." The tyrant queen blushed under her helmet, finding something interesting on the wall to look at. "We may discuss this another time," she muttered. "Indeed we have much to discuss when we return home. But now it is time we got to our proper business: an explanation into the cause for this... device," she said, poking the steel casing of the space probe on the table, "and its intrusion into Our realm."
Explanations followed.
The dimensional counterparts, curious, accepted the invitation to watch the film collected by the probe, once it was developed. This process was rushed to completion, and two hours later the group of them sat and watched the flickering images of a couple of different versions of Equus, a desolate lifeless rock, empty space, and a blue-white world with different continents that Princess Twilight referred to as "an Earth."
And then the scene shifted from space to someplace entirely other, a realm flooded with a murky, roiling green mist. An eye floated into view... then another, and another, and another. They flowed around one another, obviously not tethered to anything, yet giving the impression of being under the control of a single mind.
Well, hello. I knew allowing that bit of metal to pass through would be worthwhile. Such a fascinating cluster of worldlets you had here.
The ponies tried to scream, and couldn't.
They tried to blink, and couldn't.
All six of them sat rigid, staring at the projector screen, as something extended out of it and into the room.
"I heard somepony's watching a film!" The door to the conference room banged open, and this world's native Pinkie Pie barged in, wobbling on her hind legs as her forelegs carried a gigantic tub of popcorn. "And you can't have a film-watching party without the po-" Her eyes locked onto the screen, and her body froze. The tub of popcorn fell to the floor, its contents spilling everywhere.
At the same moment, the tentacle of otherness recoiled back into the screen.
PINKIE!
No, wait... you are not MY Pinkie.
Whew.
You are just a pony... an extraordinary pony, but still only a pony.
Very well. You at least shall be no obstacle to-
Hey, Gnarly, watcha doin'?
The tentacle, which had begun to extend itself back into the room, froze. On the screen behind it a portion of the roiling green was pushed aside by a mass of rigid cotton-candy cloud which seemed to extend into non-Euclidian geometric shapes.
Gnarly! I'm ashamed of you! What did I tell you about this?
The not-voice had a mixture of cringe and whine in it: It's mean to conquer and defile the realms of puny insignificant mortals.
Now say you're sorry! Or no (untranslatable concept) with your (different untranslatable concept) tonight!
I apologize for my intrusion into your lower dimension. It won't happen again.
Okay! Now let's clean up the mess you made...
The ponies blinked.
A tinny fanfare rang from the film projector's built-in speaker. The title appeared on the screen: Bunny-Wunny Adventures on Carrotcake Mountain!
"What did we just see?" Princess Twilight asked.
"Nightmares beyond the dream realm," Princess Luna gasped.
"Things mares were not meant to know," Nightmare Moon added.
"Aw, ponies always complain about the Bunny-Wunny Adventures," Pinkie Pie said between mouthfuls of popcorn. "They just can't appreciate a simple, sweet, fun story."
"Wait a moment," Queen Chrysalis said. "If this is a children's film, what happened to the film from the probe?"
"Oh, that's obvious," Pinkie said. "They couldn't close the door while the film existed, so they made the film not exist anymore."
"So... they destroyed it," Resistance Chrysalis said cautiously.
"Nah," Pinkie said. "It never existed. Duh!"
"But... if it never existed..." Unicorn Twilight began.
"... then how do we remember seeing it?" Princess Twilight finished.
"You don't," Pinkie said. "You remember the fact of seeing it, but if you remembered what you saw, that would be a door too. Really, am I the only one who sees all this obvious stuff that's totally obvious?"
"But they had a Pinkie!"
"Lots of places have a Pinkie!" The local Pinkie giggled and added, "Sometimes more than one!"
"I vote," Resistance Chrysalis said, "we all just relax, forget everything, and watch the movie. And pass me that popcorn."
"Since when do we eat food?" Queen Chrysalis asked.
"Fine. Pass me some of that love of popcorn, please."
"One moment," Princess Luna said. "The seven of us saw that film... but didn't the ponies who developed it see it as well?"
"The eldritch beings are powerful," Nightmare Moon said, "but neither all-knowing nor infallible."
"To the developers! Post-haste!" Luna cried. "The nightmares such visions can spawn would be just as deadly as the original invaders!"
The two moon princesses galloped out the door.
Princess Twilight and Queen Chrysalis looked at each other. "No Angel 17?" Chrysalis asked.
"No Angel 17," Twilight agreed.
"Sssh!" Resistance Chrysalis hissed. "We're trying to watch a movie!"
Author's Notes:
Inspired by comments on last chapter.
This is probably the last we see of Equus for the rest of the story...
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Sols 480-481
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MISSION LOG — SOL 480
Hermes message of the day: "We can't see your rover on the surface anymore. The storm is too thick. The center of the storm is about two hundred kilometers due east of you, but the edges... well, the storm covers a huge portion of the planet now, Mark. All we can suggest is that you try disengaging two of the wheel clutches, while you're still on comparatively level ground, and see if that saves power."
