“If, my brother says,” said Pharynx, cutting him off. “That’s the key word. This stranger has just come in here without any evidence to tell us everything we want to hear. It would be wonderful if everything she had just said was true. But whether or not it is…” He trailed off. “We cannot act based on words alone. Consider the security threat of her presence. Now consider what might happen if we took the court onto the surface to verify her claim. Celestia’s agents could be waiting there to capture us. Harmony has long wanted us destroyed for violating its perception of the Quarantine, even if it could find no guideline we violated in order to force the matter. Going to the surface would allow those not restricted by the ancients to destroy us.”