Having gotten through 4 chapters in a row and feeling pretty up with it, I gotta say... this chapter was actually a really nice read. It was good to get out of the hole (..I mean ...town, what town?) that they were stuck in for a long long time and get out and see snippets of the wider world.

The party of misfits Celestia gathered together is going to be a fun set of choices.
I like the slight hint of Soarin and Spitfire I caught there. Funny that without those two, Spitfire considers the newbie wonderbolts rather lost.
Moondancer is going to be crazy going forth as depending on how nice Celestia feels, that mare could be a real weapon or just a good defence of artifacts.
And Starlight is going to be really sad when she finds her colt is with Celestia's group and not likely to see things her way.. I kinda look forward to the two of them meeting though.

Bon Bon and Lyra coming up next too I hope? I wonder why you included Lyra (Bon Bon is clearly a good choice though) as Lyra seems to be mostly a musco not a fighter.
Blossomforth and Cloud Kicker together are gonna be a crazy pair in power too. Wonder if they are gonna get themselves in trouble for bucking in the wrong place or something
Although alternatively, I can see the suggestive comments continuing as they are and driving some ponies up the wall.

Up next some Flutterdash as they try to figure out their odd bond, Dash's dream for their future together, their body swap problem and more?
I also expect that AJ giving Rarity a hard word will go down as well as a ton of bricks but she really needs to hear it and let the strongest mare on the team (physically I mean) be allowed to fight till she actually gets too round to, as opposed to being relegated to the sideline already when she can still be of use.
And Twilight and Pinkie Pie ...
I really don't know where you will take them. The mix they have going on makes them pretty hard to predict, but they do certainly feel in character (given the circumstance). Although I still disagree with Pinkie's antics on the train with Moondancer. That was a bit too weird for me.

9495278

Who gave you my outline

And well I mostly picked the ten ponies because they've either been part of the Wonderbolts (Blossomforth, Spitfire), the Royal Guards (Indigo Zap, Mjolna, Fleur, Cloudkicker, and Lyra- Lyra doesn't look like it but my backstory for her is the Royal Guards.) the Archmages (Moondancer and Sunburst) or M.A.R.E. with Bon Bon. Most of them have been either kicked out or moved on to different places thanks to how rigid most of the army has become. They need all the help they can get.

AJ will have a lot of things in the coming chapters. Pinkie's going to probably be the worst off after what happened in Ironhoof. It doesn't excuse her just going with testing Moondancer, Pinkie has her own problems. Primarily backstory related it seems once I figured out what I was planning, badly, I might add, but hey it's a plot point now. And partially all this mess or starting to address a lot of it is why I separated the newest chapter off on its own. Tonally, it's different.