Fireball stretched. He’d been stretching for twenty minutes, but after almost four hours in the pilot’s seat, he felt incredibly stiff, especially in the tail. In the Hab he hadn’t spent nearly as much time seated as he did in the ship, and when he had sat it was on a work stool, not in a flight couch.

Around him, the rest of the crew were settling in, the post-driving chores done, lunchtime still a little while away. Starlight Glimmer had taken her suit over to the ship’s head, so she could report the day’s progress to Equestria without spilling water all over the place. The three scouts just lay on the deck, resting, Cherry Berry and Spitire looking tired, Dragonfly one small step short of exhausted. Mark, for his part, leaned against one of the second row of flight couches, staring at the head with curiosity while Dragonfly quietly translated Mares Code into English.

“Message… received… Friendship,” she said as the response message came through. “Will… relay… to Twilight Sparkle and Chrysalis… gone to… Hair Hat City… for Summer… Sun… Celebration, over.”

Cherry Berry and Spitfire moaned.

“What’s wrong?” Mark asked.

“This is the second Summer Sun Celebration we’ve spent on Mars,” Cherry Berry sighed.

“Here. Not there,” Spitfire added.

“Well, look at the bright side,” Mark said, smiling. “We launch in eighty sols. There’s a good chance you’ll be home in time for… what’s the next big holiday?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Fireball snorted. “Ponies have holiday every week.”

“Not every week,” Cherry protested. “Not more than every other week.”

“Yeah, and they’ll make another one just for the day you get back,” Fireball growled. “So no sighs. Keep mind on getting home.”

Cherry Berry sat up and glared at Fireball. “Nice gentle attitude you have there,” she said.

“As gentle as the next dragon who ain’t Spike.”

From the head, Starlight called, “Do we have anything more we want to say today? If not, I’m signing off.”

Cherry looked at Fireball. “Tell them to start buying our Hearth’s Warming presents,” she said. “And make sure Fireball gets coal.”

Fireball made a face. “Coal? Tastes awful. And gives me gas.”

“I don’t think they meant for you to eat it,” Mark said.

“Whatever.” Fireball stretched again. It was crowded in the bridge, but at least it wasn't the habitat compartment. After two weeks on the road, nobody wanted to be in there until they had to be, when mealtime came or when night fell.

But for the moment a room without nutty whiny ponies or cheerful monkeys seemed like a good idea. “I make lunch,” he said. “I tell you when ready.”

We made our first southbound leg today. We’re now past Trouvelot and on our way to a region of smaller craters marked on my map as Thymiamata. The bad news is, NASA predicts the leading edge of the dust storm to catch us just as we enter that area. We’re hoping we get the go-ahead to turn east before we hit Crommelin crater, though. The area around Crommelin is really bad even by the standards of Arabia Terra. Plus, Crommelin is just above Mars’ equator. If we go more than 150 kilometers south of it, we drop south of the MAV… meaning that after that, we’ll be driving AWAY from our destination.

But the important thing is that we keep moving. If we stop, not only do we miss the launch, but we probably die. We can’t make it back to the Hab now, even if we wanted to. So we have to make as much ground as fast as we can while guaranteeing a full battery in the morning for more driving.

That’s not easy. The ground east of Trouvelot was pretty badly broken, with several small craters to dodge, ejecta from those craters and from Trouvelot itself, and a lot of gullies and ravines that dwarf the little ditches we had in Acidalia. But after two hours today we found a huge lake bed which runs north-northeast to south-southwest. It’s got some sand dunes, but nothing too difficult. We haven’t bogged down or threatened to tip over- more just plowed right through. There’s a ridge we have to go around tomorrow or the next sol, but for two days we should have comparatively smooth driving.

After that, though, it’s back into the standard Arabia Terra crap… complete with sandstorm. Because into each life a little crap must fall, unless you’re Mark Watney and anyone unfortunate enough to be within his blast radius, in which case enjoy the fucking Niagara Falls of diarrhetic feces from the sky.

We’re not reporting to NASA anymore, but we’re not completely out of contact. At high noon local time we turn on the radio to receive-only. Hermes will send a message update within ten minutes with a brief on the next day’s driving and a weather report. After the ten minutes is up, we turn off the radio. Granted we don’t need to be saving every scrap of power just yet, which is why we’re still using the microwave for meals and all the computers for entertainment. But the radio thing is NASA’s idea, and it doesn’t really hurt at this point to start doing it.

That said, we’re going to make tonight the last D&D session for a while. And I’ve decided to make a little peace offering to Starlight. Her Priestess of Om character is about to draw the attention of a Discworld-style unicorn that’s escaped from the elves. If she plays the situation right, she might just get to be a witch after all…

Since we’re not on power rationing yet, I’m going to report: my plan went a little too successfully. Starlight is now the Ninth Prophetess of Om due to consecutive natural 20s rolled on her knowledge of Omnianism as it applies to the holiness or unholiness of wild unicorns. As in, Om manifested, and she made the case to sanctify her new unicorn friend, and made it stick. For one night, the pony the others call Ms. Can’t Roll made every roll.

Of course, the others are mad at me for two reasons: (1) Starlight got a magic pet and they didn’t; and (2) all those good rolls were wasted on what amounts to diplomancing. No combat.

I think the reason GMs get the reputation for being TPK addicts is, TPK is the only way a GM can win..

Author's Notes:

San Japan setup is tomorrow. Going to be busy, so I'm going to take advantage of the situation in story to cheat a little and do several short-short chapters as our heroes begin driving through the storm.

Because on Monday I might have the time to write the good bit...