Message in a Bottle

by Starscribe

Part 2: Orbital

Sarah could feel the weight of Pharynx’s attention on her, and couldn’t look away from the rusting barrel of his gun. There was a clear opening at the end, and that darkness seemed like it was going to swallow her.

Deep breath, Sarah. You’ve had cons go worse than this. You’ll be fine.

She had to be. She still remembered the threats Discord had made, and she knew better than to think they were empty. He had promised if she died during this little adventure, he would somehow bring her back as one of them. James is suffering enough for both of us, I don’t have to join him.

“The pony is trying to be useful,” she said, taking each word slowly and carefully. This changeling seemed far too wise to do something stupid like accidentally shoot her. But it didn’t hurt to be careful. “Being useful requires information. If you didn’t want me to have the information in this old log, you could’ve locked the door.”

Pharynx glowered at her. He rested one hoof casually on the edge of the gun, spinning it around in a lazy circle until it pointed back at her.

“Bold,” he finally said. “I do not know if I should be impressed at your audacity or frustrated that you weren’t clever enough not to get caught.” He sat back on his haunches, though one hoof was kept tense at every moment, always within reach of the gun.

“Really?” Sarah felt herself smiling, though she knew that was obviously wrong. “I thought I had everything perfect. I learned the patrols, I made sure all the guards knew about my trips, I opened the door when none of them were watching.”

“Getting it to open was a remarkable feat from a pony,” Pharynx admitted, though there was a grumble in his tone as he said it. He didn’t want to admit it. “But you did miss an important detail. The guards patrolling outside might not have seen you go in, but they saw you pass by, and then the shift on the other side never saw you emerge. If you were already the target of intense scrutiny, well… let’s just say that you were noticed. And I’ve taken steps to ensure that I would get that information before anypony else. It doesn’t matter what skin they wear—every soldier in this castle remembers why they’re still alive today. They follow my commands when it comes to keeping us safe. However much of their private time they waste doing crafts and speaking with Thorax’s counselors.”

“Dammit,” Sarah muttered, abandoning all pretense. “Yeah, I knew that was a danger. I thought I’d be going quick enough, but…” She shrugged her wings. “Can’t win them all. If I had your trick I’d have done it for sure… but I can’t do what you do.”

“The blood becomes a mask,” Pharynx agreed. “But we don’t use that gift in our home. Changing shape is the tool of our captivity. Our sleeping sisters and brothers in the maintenance system do it as part of their duty. Using that gift would’ve revealed you as an intruder just as swiftly.”

She moved to get up slowly, but the changeling smacked one hoof down on the gun again, and she fell still, spreading her wings in what she hoped would be a pacifying way. “Okay, okay. I’m not going to try anything.”

This time he laughed. “Then why are we here?”

She didn’t have any sensible response to that, not anything that wouldn’t seem obviously snide or insincere. So she said nothing. She was still watching, though—watching his reactions, as well as his inattention. Maybe if she could stall this long enough the guards would eventually feel guilty and Ocellus would hear about this.

Then again, maybe not.

“I’m the only one in all the hive that takes threats to us seriously,” Pharynx said. “It wasn’t always that way. Chrysalis knew how precarious our position was. Look what happened to her. Once Harmony removed her from power, there was no question of if we would be attacked again—only when.”

“I’m not here to hurt you,” Sarah said, and she didn’t have to lie. “I have no vested interest in what you guys do either way. Join us on the surface, or bugger off down here for the rest of eternity, I don’t fucking care.” She tapped one of the flickering screens with one hoof. It went back to correct colors, though the images dancing through it now seemed distorted in other ways.

“But this place is old… I don’t know how it got in here, but it’s falling apart. Our AI can build new stuff. Probably as nice as this.”

Pharynx chuckled, though there was far less humor in his voice than there had been the time before. “Chrysalis found us… woke us up. Helped us see that we were different than all you ponies. You wanted us to think we were like you, to live like you, think like you… but you couldn’t. Your lies won’t work after all that your people have done.”

“We didn’t do a damn thing,” Sarah spat, pointing at the screen. “We’re not from here either, asshole. If we were up in Othar for five seconds you’d see that.” Assuming the whole thing didn’t get exploded by some evil space aliens.

Now the changeling was the one smiling. He rose to his hooves, lifting the gun in his magic and pacing slowly behind her. “See, that’s the trouble with your story, isn’t it? It’s always somewhere else. There could be proof for this outlandish theory waiting on the surface… or maybe it’s a trap, and you’re going to capture us and try to learn how to get an army here. Maybe you’re a Celestial agent.”

Sarah didn’t care about the gun anymore. She got up, glaring back at him. “We’ve had this song and dance already, Pharynx! You don’t believe us, fine! You don’t have to come! Hell, you could send blindfolded idiots to go with us, so long as you could secretly get them back later to hear their testimony! I don’t want your damn broken starship and neither does Forerunner! We’ll build our own! And the ponies can fuck right off with how they want you to think. We ended the quarantine. We deposed Celestia. I think we’ve made our disagreements quite apparent.”

The changeling tapped his gun lightly on the screen, which was still endlessly repeating that little bit of pieced-together log. “Then why’d you sneak off like this? Ocellus could’ve gotten you in here. You’re lying to the ones on your side, as well as the ones who aren’t.”

Damn. Her mind scrambled for an explanation. Obviously her first attempt earlier that day wouldn’t do her any good.

“I’m trying to understand you,” she eventually said. “I wanted to know if you were really telling us the truth. It seemed like maybe you’d stolen this ship from someone, and I wanted to know who that someone was.”

“It’s our ship,” Pharynx repeated, his voice dropping into a low growl. “The Inanna survived even when everything about us did not. Harmony couldn’t help itself—it preserved it because it was unique, but because it was alien and outside of its influence it hid the ship away where no one could use it again. You see what the years have done. Even preserved, it’s falling apart at the seams. No thanks to whatever you did.”

“You… don’t know how to fix it,” Sarah muttered, her eyes widening. “You remember… being members of her crew. But you changed, just like we had to. Harmony made you join, and you forgot.” She gestured at the single working terminal.

“We can fix anything on Equus,” Pharynx snapped, gesturing at her with the gun as though it were a stick. “That’s what these bodies were designed for. The whole ring. We are its hooves.”

“The ring, sure. But not your ship.” She grinned wider. “I bet we could. Forerunner… I don’t really understand how he works, but I know he’s the most intelligent computer ever. He’s so smart that we don’t even need human crew. We still have us, because otherwise what would be the point, but…”

“Your misdirection is a waste of time and energy,” Pharynx grumbled, though his voice didn’t sound that convincing. “I have destroyed security threats over less. If you really care about our future, you can find your way to a sleeper and wait for us to wake you up like them.” He gestured at the screen, and the image of crewman Iris.

“That’s a waste of your time and you know it.” Sarah closed some of the distance between them, walking right up to the barrel of his gun. Not very quickly, though. She didn’t want to encourage him to shoot her. “Nothing I learned here puts you in danger. And if you really thought I was a security threat, we’re about to leave anyway. I wasn’t trying to send a message, and you haven’t told us where we’re going to emerge on the surface.

“The obvious answer is to do nothing. You caught me, and you can always use it against me a little later if it looks like I’m actually going to try to screw with you. But I’m not. I want nothing more than for the Pioneering Society to make diplomatic contact with you.”

“Why?!” He gestured wildly with the gun, but at least he didn’t shoot it. “There’s no angle there! There’s always something to be gained with you ponies! Always something to be taken, or destroyed. I don’t buy your buzzing friendship argument! It wasn’t true for Celestia and it certainly isn’t true for you.”

“Because ponies are such good hackers.” Sarah took a step back, towards the door. She ignored Pharynx’s angry gestures this time, just kept walking backwards. “Look, I was never smart enough for the Pioneering Society. I scammed my way in there too. But I knew what we wanted. Those are some good people—all they wanted to do was get to know every civilization out there, and fill up all the empty worlds with people. I promise once you meet them you’re going to change your mind. But this… this is stupid.”

“I’ll shoot,” Pharynx said, waving the gun around again. But Sarah could hear the lie in his voice. Maybe the gun didn’t work at all, it certainly didn’t look like it was in good shape. “We’re not done here.”

“I think we are,” she said. Then she left. Pharynx didn’t shoot her on her way out. She walked right back to the bedroom, and found Ocellus still leading James through some simple exercises.

“I can do it,” James announced, as soon as he noticed her come back in. “You wanna see? It’s the first good thing that’s happened on this trip. Not worth the price of admission, but…”

“Sure thing,” she said. Then in a whisper. “If anyone asks, I’ve been watching this whole time.”

He could do it, as it happened, and she watched James change back into himself right before her eyes. The same ordinary-looking unicorn he’d been when they first met, anyway.

“That’s excellent for your first new form,” Ocellus said. “I’ve heard this is common for newly transformed ponies. But you need to learn more than one if you want to—”

“This is enough to start,” James said, plopping right down on his haunches and looking at her like he might start biting if she tried to teach him again. “I’ll learn more next time. All I need to do is be a pony to go back, yeah? This will be good. Maybe I can learn to be human…”

“I’d have to see one,” Ocellus said. “But probably. My uncle can change into a rock. The sleepers can become industrial equipment. I’m sure you could manage… whatever a human is.”

“Normal,” Sarah supplied, thinking back to the face she’d seen on the screen. Now that she thought about it, looking at Ocellus made that face seem familiar. But she couldn’t quite place what was making her think that way.

If she feared that Pharynx would come for her with soldiers, her fears were in vain.

They left the next morning.

---

Leaving Twilight’s castle had been a difficult thing for Flurry Heart. The ponies living there had prepared a special farewell breakfast, which even Perez ate with grace. The dragon might’ve wore his mask for the entire affair and barely talked, but at least he didn’t yell insults at the Elements again.

I’m glad we aren’t going to be traveling with him anymore. It’s gonna be good to see Lucky again.

There were so many hopeful eyes watching from every corner of the entryway as they slipped away. She knew many of them by name from her visits to Ponyville, though she wasn’t as close to them as Twilight’s friends.

“We’re going to figure this out,” Twilight promised, loud enough for everypony to hear. “I’m sorry we can’t take you with us right now, but you’ll be safer here. We will send rescue for you long before your supplies run out. Just stay safe, and try to help the others in Ponyville get in too if you can.”

Several of Twilight’s friends had relatives in this room, and they said one last tearful farewell before rejoining Flurry Heart and Twilight near the door. It was hard not to admire their courage—they might never see their families again. Flurry Heart now knew exactly what that farewell was like.

When it was all done, Twilight brought them straight out of her castle with another teleport, bypassing Ponyville entirely and returning them to the wilderness.

They walked for several days, though this time they had proper supplies and camping gear instead of what could be salvaged from an occupied city in a few hours. As they traveled north, a slow drizzle became a constant rain that soaked Flurry Heart to the bone and reduced Perez to nothing but frustrated swearing in that strange language he used.

Flurry Heart might not have paid much attention when it came time to learn about pegasus magic and weather control, but she had learned a few things. She knew, for example, that Equestria’s climate completely depended on the hard work of pegasi. Without it, some parts of the country would be blasted with storms strong enough to knock down buildings, while other parts slowly withered for lack of water. Not to mention everything about pony agriculture depended on reliable weather.

With those systems gone, the results were… severe. By the fourth day, they had made it far enough into the mountains that they could see no more signs of civilization, and the rain grew so bad that the earth ponies in the group had to tie themselves to the others and use their magic to help hold everypony else to the ground.

Flurry felt her ragged mane whipped about in the endless storm, and tried in vain to brush the moisture from her face. But there was so much of it now that it rose almost to her knees, and she didn’t walk so much as get dragged through the muddy trail left by Applejack and Pinkie Pie. She should’ve had her own earth pony magic to help with this, but of course she was worthless and hadn’t learned how to use it either.

Then she saw the light shining on them from above. The orderly flashes formed a simple circle in the air, which rotated around as an object took shape from the downpour. She recognized it an instant later, even as Pinkie Pie let out a scream of terror and Fluttershy covered her face with a wing.

“What the hay is that?” Rainbow Dash asked, her voice loud enough to cut through the storm. But then again, she was a pegasus, with plenty of experience dealing with extreme weather.

“I don’t know!” Twilight called back. “I think I’m going to hide us! Whatever it is, it’s getting closer! We should’ve been picked up by now! Maybe they got caught!”

Her horn started to glow. It wasn’t night, but Flurry Heart could see the light against a sky blackened with constant storm. “Wait!” she shouted, louder than either of them. Loud enough that even the rain faded momentarily into the background. “That’s not dangerous, that’s the Wing of Midnight! It’s our ride!”

Twilight looked like she might be about to argue, but the sleek metal object wasn’t waiting for them to speak in peace before landing. It came down without regard for the young trees up ahead, smashing straight through with cracking wood that sounded almost like thunder. Despite the immense power of the humans and their technology, Flurry Heart could see the ship was rocking back and forth in the wind—probably this was as close to the extremes of its usefulness as it could be.

A ramp smashed down maybe ten meters ahead of them, and light blasted out from inside. There’s warm beds in there. Showers, soap. Flurry Heart found some earth pony strength, and tugged sideways on the rope. Whatever discomfort or unease Twilight or her friends might be feeling at the prospect of riding with humans, Flurry Heart ignored it.

A metallic outline took shape on the edge of the ramp, roughly the size of an adult pony but glittering with moisture. She couldn’t see a face, only a glassy helmet. The voice she heard from within was entirely familiar to her, though it didn’t belong to her favorite pony in Othar.

“You the ones I was sent for?” Olivia asked, her voice unnaturally loud over the storm. It also didn’t sound quite like she was the one speaking. Flurry Heart had long since come to recognize the slightly unnatural cadence of someone repeating a translation. The spell that Forerunner’s ponies used wasn’t as smooth or as seamless as a pony spell, but anyone could use it and it wouldn’t drive you crazy. “I’m Prefect Fischer. Planetary Governor Lucky Break sent me.”

She paused then, looking at Flurry Heart. “Well, I know you.” She waved one wing politely through her suit. “Good to see you alive and well, Flurry Heart. Guess you picked bad timing for a vacation back to the motherland, eh?”

Flurry Heart didn’t laugh. She could still see the ruined skyline of Canterlot when she closed her eyes, and her mother’s body frozen behind glass, watching her in horror. If Flurry Heart hadn’t come, things would’ve been just as bad for them, but it still stung to hear.

“You,” Twilight said, stopping beside Flurry on the ramp. “You sound… older than you should.”

Wearing her armor, Olivia was much harder to read than Twilight. The Alicorn’s anger and suspicion was obvious in the way she put herself between the armored pony and her friends. Ready to fight, if that was what it took.

“I was always older than I looked,” she answered, her words even slower and more deliberate than usual. “When Lucky brought me back to life, I fixed that. I would’ve fixed the four-leg thing, but… she didn’t know how.”

“Major!” Perez strode up to her, slicing through the rope with one claw. He did it so casually it seemed for a moment like it wasn’t even there. “Good to see you in the field again.”

“Not Major,” she corrected, this time in English. “I’m Prefect now. It’s a civilian position. Appointed.”

“Of course it is,” Perez said, not even slowing as he made his way up the ramp. He turned to yell a little louder. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I want to get my ass out of the rain.” He didn’t ask for permission or wait for any of them then, just walked up into the open airship and out of sight.

“Perhaps we should continue this conversation inside,” Olivia said a second later, one of her legs twitching spasmodically. “This suit isn’t waterproof, and my prosthetic is… malfunctioning. Forerunner says if we don’t get moving soon, the auto-impeller is going to burn out, so… sooner the better.”

“I don’t understand,” Pinkie Pie muttered, as Twilight’s friends followed Olivia up the ramp. “Viserion didn’t bring any donkey friends.”

Flurry Heart brought up the rear, always glancing over her shoulder. There was no telling if the Storm King’s soldiers were lurking. Maybe they’d followed all this way, maybe they’d only been waiting for the humans to reveal themselves so they could kill them too.

But no one emerged from the new swamp behind them. The ramp slid closed, and almost instantly the floor started rumbling. Flurry’s ears pressed to her head as the human airship engine roared to life.

“Trans-orbital flightpath registered,” said Forerunner’s voice, loud enough to echo through the room without distorting. “Please follow the illuminated path to acceleration chairs.”

They were all gathered in a clump in the cargo-bay, creating a small pond out of the water that had collected on their bodies.

Olivia reached up, removing her helmet with a hiss of pressure and a metallic click. She tossed it to the side, where it bounced off her shoulder and hung by a strap. “Isn’t that a bit extreme, Forerunner?”

“We are being followed,” he answered, also in English. “I do not wish to alarm our guests.”

“What are they sayin’?” Applejack seemed to be disturbed by the directionless voice that surrounded them, because she kept glancing around, as though she would be able to find a pony sitting in a booth somewhere and talking to them.

“We’re in danger,” Flurry Heart supplied, not waiting to see whether Olivia would want to share or not. Regardless of what Forerunner thought, she was done keeping secrets from her aunt. “Who is it, Forerunner?”

There was nothing forcing the intelligence that ran all of Othar to answer her. It wasn’t one of her subjects, wasn’t even a pony. But in her experience, he usually did what she asked. And when he couldn’t, he would always explain why.

“Dragons,” Forerunner answered, switching to Eoch as though he’d been speaking that way all along. “They’re moving too fast for my satellite to read the markings on their armor, but I’m certain the Storm King sent them. They appear to know where we are, though at present I cannot ascertain how.”

Olivia eyed her, looking briefly annoyed. But she didn’t actually say anything.

“That sounds bad,” Rainbow Dash said, shaking herself dry like a dog and splashing the rest of them with enough water that Rarity actually squealed with displeasure. “Let’s go!” She banged one hoof on the floor. “Tell the captain to step on it!”

“I cannot,” Forerunner said. And as he spoke, the lights set into the floor and wall flashed again, illuminating a route that led directly to the wall. There were six chairs there, which she remembered from Lucky’s instructions even if she’d never used them. “We are already accelerating as rapidly as possible. You must all take your seats before this vessel can accelerate further. If you do not, the dragons will intercept us in approximately one minute.”

That was enough that the Elements rushed to obey, hurrying over to the seats. Even if they didn’t know exactly how to use them. But that was alright, since Flurry was there to demonstrate that part.

“But not everypony,” Twilight said. “If we’re all in here, then you could…” She shook her head. “Look, I don’t trust you ponies yet. No offence, but… I think I should go with you. Flurry too.” She glanced over her shoulder at the others. “We’ll make sure nothing happens.”

“Whatever, Twi!” Rainbow Dash shouted from her seat, annoyed. “Just hurry! I’ve almost frozen, I don’t want to be cooked into dragon food too.”

Olivia didn’t argue with her, though she looked like she wanted to on principle. “Fine, come with me! Perez, you find a crash couch on your own. Flurry, him or me, doesn’t matter.”

They ran, dodging up the stairs and down the hall that led to the bridge. The door to the nearest crew quarters opened by itself, exposing a pair of couches inside. Olivia dropped into the one marked with bright yellow, which had special grips to hold onto her armor. That was most of its only purpose—it wouldn’t be able to do all the weird magic these things did through steel.

“You can take the one next to me, Aunt Twilight.” Flurry Heart sat down, pulling the straps over her chest. Outside, the Wing of Midnight began to rumble and shake. “They’re breathing fire at us,” Forerunner called in English. Flurry could hear the rhythmic click of anti-aircraft fire from the ceiling, and she wondered which would die first. The side of an airship, or the dragons?

“There’s got to be a spell for this,” Twilight muttered, as she got one of the straps tangled around her neck. Flurry had to help her get it undone, lifting it for her so she could try again. Her magic was inferior in every way to what her aunt could manifest, but simple power wasn’t everything. “There are enchantments for controlling acceleration and momentum. Why not use those instead?”

She clicked the last of the restraints into place, and something roared to life below them.

“If you’re hurting my friends…”

“I will not harm your friends or anypony else visiting the Pioneering Society in peace,” Forerunner said, his voice quick and harsh. “We are performing a high-G parabolic burn, as the ones following us are not equipped to leave atmosphere and this will make our return trajectory impossible for them to guess. But you’re about to feel—”

A sharp jab poked through Flurry Heart’s side, painful but brief. She felt something cool wash over her, spreading from the point of impact and making her whole body relax, her heart slow, the world start to fuzz. She could dimly make out Forerunner’s words in Eoch, explaining to Twilight and maybe her friends too.

“Do not be alarmed. The cocktail of medications administered by acceleration couches is known to prevent hemorrhaging in ninety-five percent of cases I have examined so far. Remain where you are until you wake—” And the world went black.

She saw terrible things in her dreams, nightmares of vivid memory that replayed in slow motion. She watched her mother die before her eyes, along with one of the other most respected Alicorns in all Equestria. She stood by and did nothing as they fought and died, and for that she had been spared.

Then she saw what they did to the ones she loved. Saw her father beaten whenever she objected, her mother’s corpse moved into her bedroom to watch over her. She saw the bodies of those ponies who resisted piled up before the palace.

This is all your fault, her mother’s crystal corpse told her. You betrayed Equestria. If you had fought the invading humans with us when you had the chance, Celestia would’ve still been alive to help.

She screamed that she hadn’t had a choice—that Celestia had tortured her, and the humans hadn’t done anything to warrant fighting them. But her mother’s body didn’t care. It kept on reminding her of how much of a failure she was right up until the moment that she gasped, and woke drenched in sweat.

Flurry Heart woke weightless. She felt herself lifting up slightly against the straps, her mane standing on end and poking out in all directions around her. She twitched at the feeling—it was one she’d felt through a mental link with remote drones on the Agamemnon, but never with her own body before. We’re in space. I wish Lucky could’ve come with us.

She looked across the room, and realized that Olivia was gone. Twilight was still there, though, her eyes distant and glazed. She’d never felt the power of human medical potions before.

Flurry Heart levitated the latch off her chest, then pushed the crash-harness up and over. She spread her wings, using a few quick flaps to push her towards the doorway. She kept going as she got close, even as she turned to glance back at her resting aunt. Unfortunately she smacked right into the wall.

“Twilight?” she said, brushing one hoof through her mane and trying to pretend she hadn’t just looked incredibly stupid.

“Not the books… don’t burn it again…” Twilight muttered, her horn glowing faintly lavender. But nothing actually happened, and her hooves grasped at nothing.

“Aunt Twi, wake up.”

The older Alicorn muttered more nonsense, twitching against her restraints, but she didn’t get up. I guess I don’t have to stay with her. It isn’t like Olivia waited with me.

“Forerunner, are you there?”

“Until the last star goes out,” answered his voice. “Major Fischer, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack are together in the mess hall, if you’d like to join them. The others responded less favorably to medication, and will likely take a few more hours to recover. There is a hallucinogenic side-effect with some unicorns, and possibly Alicorns as well. I don’t suppose you experienced any?”

“Yes,” Flurry Heart muttered, shuddering all over. “Where can I find some grieves? I’d rather walk than float.”

“The cabinet behind you,” Forerunner said, even as the metal door clicked and it started to drift open. “There are four pairs inside.”

“Thank you.”

Flurry Heart pulled them on as quickly as she could, ignoring Twilight’s frightened muttering. “I’ll get you out, Shining…” she said, over and over. “Don’t worry big brother. I’m coming…”

“I’m coming to the bridge,” Flurry Heart announced, activating the grieves with a twitch and feeling them secure against the floor. “Tell me if Twilight wakes up. You’ll want me there.”

There was a different pattern to walking with them, and she hadn’t practiced with four legs. She pretended for a moment that she only had two, and moved each half of her body’s legs in sync, using the exact same place-lift-place rhythm she would’ve used controlling a distant drone.

“Affirmative,” Forerunner said. “There’s nopony on the bridge.”

“I know,” Flurry Heart said. “I don’t care. That’s where the biggest screen is. I wanna see my home.”

Comments

[Amneiger]

“Not the books… don’t burn it again…” Twilight muttered, her horn glowing faintly lavender.

Yeah, that's definitely going to help Twilight trust the humans.

“There are enchantments for controlling acceleration and momentum. Why not use those instead?”

It seems logical that Twilight would have a spell that lets her analyze magical patterns, right? Going to be interesting to see her reaction to how no human technology has magic in it...well, unless she's already talked to whatever department was confiscating human artifacts way back towards the beginning of this story and had a chance to analyze those.

[Booster Spice]

Good thing the Dragons dont have energy magics that help them survive extremes in this.

Then again, major thing in recent episode about gems need clarifying. Was it full canon, or just narrative wimsy for that episode.

[JMP]

Things seem to be going ok on both ends. Sarah is not dead, and Flurry and co. are on their way to Motherlode.

[Raistlin]

Once Harmony removed her from power, there was no question of if we would be attacked again—only when

Still learning English, but I think "if" and "when" should have either quotation marks or cursive in the context of the phrase, and specially when accompanied by another preposition like "of".

[ANTIcarrot]

Still learning English, but I think "if" and "when" should have either quotation marks or cursive in the context of the phrase, and specially when accompanied by another preposition like "of".

Putting the two words in italics wouldn't go amiss, but it is grammatically correct as is.

[Proton]

Another excellent chapter. Hope @starscribe is enjoying the writing this as I am reading it each week!

[KMCA]

Major Fischer, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack are together in the mess hall

Prefect.

[djthomp]

Good job bullshiting your way past Pharynx , Sarah. It may have even been fairly accurate.

Odd and slightly suspicious that the most magically dangerous pony varieties reacted the worst to the acceleration cocktail. Did they just accidentally discover an easy way to non-fatally incapacitate an alicorn?

[Latrans]

I'm mildly curious what Rarity is busy having nightmares about...

[FanOfMostEverything]

Okay, caught up. And more than half-tempted to punch Twilight and Pharynx in the face.

9107665
Even Forerunner thinks of her as military personnel first.

[Raistlin]

9116429

To be fair until very recently Pharynx had good reasons to be that level of paranoid, with Celestia and Harmony out there to get the changelings and bring them back to the fold.

[Misty Horse]

Finally back to reading this and now working to catch up. Loving it as always. I just have to say I'm extremely bothered by the forced aspect of Flurry's low sense of self worth. It's far too aggressive for this story.

[Nyerguds]

“See, that’s the trouble with your story, isn’t it? It’s always somewhere else. There could be proof for this outlandish theory waiting on the surface… or maybe it’s a trap, and you’re going to capture us and try to learn how to get an army here. Maybe you’re a Celestial agent.”

Girl... your hoof implants. They can show you're from a higher tech society!

“I know,” Flurry Heart said. “I don’t care. That’s where the biggest screen is. I wanna see my home.”

She adapted really quickly to human tech

[Jack-Pony]

"I wanna see my home."

[Malandy]

Inducing Horrible Nightmares on people is not a good idea for relations.

Typos:

grieves > greaves [x2]