Wow... are they actually leaving?
Don't know why this surprised me but I didn't expect this for some reason...
Well this will be interesting!

Ion drive? So this thing is still sub-light? It could take centuries or even millenia to get to where they are going. Considering AGI has been on Equestria for over a thousand years already, when they do get back, will AGI's civilization still exist?

8606612

8606614 AGI's objectives included "return"

8606694 I am dealing with a somewhat hard and realistic sci-fi here. Relativity will be maintained.

8606793 So it will take hundreds of years? Assuming the PONI's can live that long, they are going to be bored out of their artificial skulls.

8607048 Well, they have a fusion reactor, they have an ion drive. Constant acceleration is perfectly possible. As I stated, relativity will be taken into account.

8607057But you can't accelerate beyond light speed. You need to warp space or tunnel through it to achieve that, at least as far as I understand it. Also, as I understand ion drives accelerate really slowly.

8607098 Hrrm, I did have an explanation written, but I think I will remove it in favor of saying that the calculations I have done for the relativistic trip are correct, and verified by a second source.

8607101Okay... so how long is it going to take?

8607265 The next chapter will detail that.

8606793
Well, we do have magic now, which includes teleportarion. I wonder if our newly robotic freinds can find a way to break realitivity on the way. They'll have plenty of time to do so.
Also, if the ion drives can provide 5g of acceleration, why were they not used in the booster stage? If they are more efficent than the chemical propulsion that is plenty of force to lob somthing into orbit.

8607330 All those things will be explored, as for using the ion drive to lift off, 9g of acceleration was used to launch (as is typical of rockets today), and that included the heavy booster rocket that was still firing well out of Equus' atmosphere.

Fact time: Falcon 9-heavy produces upwards of 5g of acceleration in its first stage, and it only limits itself to that much to protect cargo. 2nd stage is capable of up to 9g. As I said, I did a lot of number crunching.

As for surviving such pressure, the PONI are not exactly as prone to acceleration problems anymore, and for short periods of time can sustain an extremely large amount of such (so long as their chassis is well secured).

We're going on a trip in our favorite rocket ship...
You know, Organic Information has been really quiet lately. Has its usefulness been exceeded?
Wow, has it really only been seventeen chapters? It feels like almost double that.
To AGI: interrupt 72, status navigation ETA?
Keep going! ;)

8607490 "Only been seventeen chapters"

8607553
To be fair, your bit space has room for hundreds!

8607555 It does.

CPU: 2,097,140 (100%) nodes (100% engaged) Operational Memory: 126,164,664 (93%) words Storage: 238,825,963 (44%) words

93%! Better than it's been in a long time.

"Darling, wake up." The interrupt wasn't startling, nor did I jerk suddenly to wakefulness. As the data came, I slipped from sleeping to wakefulness like a pegasus stepping off a cliff with their wings to bear them. "You interrupt in your sleep."

PFFF

"I know, Upper-dear. Have you noticed what the majority of the data in storage is? Metals, rocks, designs for all of this ." I tossed references to the mine. "He isn't a monster sent to grab ponies, but something made him do it."

Oooh~ and now they are sleuths.

" Don't be scared. We are going #Home ."

THINGS ARE OCCURRING.

Neither alicorn knew what to make of the starship as it left the world. The huge rocket thruster burned until well past Equus' gravity well. Dropping the now-useless rocket, the starship engaged an engine that accelerated ions to immense speed.

Luna and Celestia, staring from an open window. "What the BUCK"

Feeling out with my magic, I wrapped the huge reactor up and lifted.

Ursa minor nothing, let's try something interesting.