More details available here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kdptSUXKXWQsPTOhs_rE0ONxH1tiqrNvbGIt8gtsJzs/edit
In The Maretian, Spitfire starts out mostly the same as she appears on the show. She was brought on partially because of her experience in running the Wonderbolts, and partially for political reasons. They already had Starlight Glimmer because she helped build the Sparkle Drive, and worked with the Equestrian Space Agency, and Cherry Berry from the Changeling Space program, the pilot. That’s a unicorn and an earth pony, so Spitfire rounds it out with a pegasus on the crew. She’s the team medic, as well, but past that, doesn’t have much to do early on.


When the Equestrians start learning how to speak English for Mark Watney’s benefit, Spitfire takes the longest to learn, and even by the time they get to Schiaparelli crater where the Mars Ascent Vehicle is, her English is still a little bit broken. (Her Equestrian is completely natural, obviously.) Most of the lines we need for The Maretian right now are of Spitfire speaking English, but there might be times in the future where she speaks in Equestrian.


Here are some notes on Spitfire directly from Kris Overstreet, the author:

In the story, Spitfire's story arc is her need to feel needed. When she starts off, she's bummed because she's gone from a command to being the oldest and lowest-ranked member of the crew, put in a role she's only marginally qualified to fulfill, and deprived of her single greatest natural talent (flight). By the end of the story she's saved the mission at least twice, grown into her duties, and established herself as equal to the others, but at the cost of losing her competitive edge (and possibly other long-term health issues, hinted but not addressed in-story).

(incidentally, the majority of the reason why she continually rode Starlight on health issues was so she could feel like she was doing something positive. Patient = purpose.) (and her feeling of being the least qualified member of the crew is why she was the most sensitive on the subject of being talked down to / infantilized by Mark.)

For Equestrian, just act as Spitfire normally (in real world English), but for English from Spitfire, you have to act like it’s a foreign language to you and you’re struggling to form words. Reading English is also difficult for Spitfire.