Hyperspace was far from a quiet void like the depths of space, but more akin to a vast ocean of eddies and currents. Windows revealed stars and the local gas giants that dotted the deep ocean blue, yet felt much closer together.

To the Akira, they cruised at a speed comparable to the Rainbow Dash’s travel drive. However, with hyperspace travel, the Akira could go nearly seven lightyears per day. That placed the closest Initiative system C’Zar at nearly four days away. With the scopes revealing no sign of any further Waylan presence, the crew settled in for a long journey. However, it was barely a few hours in that the frigate came upon a curious, if foreboding sight. What appeared to be a massive vortex laid ahead of them. Live Wire studied his sensor panel intently, yet unsure of what his screen was telling him. “Hey, Mores, any idea what that is?”

“Send it my way.”

As Wire fumbled to do just that without a connector, he eventually managed to accidentally put it on the main viewer. Hyperspace around them had a narrow corridor of calm space. In almost every angle to the galactic west were dense nebula, threatening the vessel. Running along the corridor and the storms was a vortex funneling in the direction they were going.

Mote became excited at the sight of it. “Exaltation. Cerithus bless us, it’s a halthu! Permission to launch a probe.”

“Ah - sure. What is a halthu?” Wiggly inquired as Winter carefully avoided it.

Morales tapped into the probe’s telemetry before the thing could enter the anomaly. “A halthu is a reversal of the storms around us. The storms are areas of dense hyperspace, whereas the current before us is a section of low density. Pressure from the surrounding storm will flow into it and cause it to form a semi-stable pipeline of sorts for weeks at a time. We call it a halthu because it flows in the direction we want to go.”

“Explanation. The current could more than double our speed. For sluggish freighters, it can accelerate them to even greater speeds. The only slight issue is overshooting our destination should we decide to ride it.”

“Ride it? It’s safe enough to do that?” Winter was instantly intrigued. The pilot recalled surfing in her youth, and the mental image of those tall ocean waves dominated her mind.

“Does it really matter if we use it though?” Wire put out there, snapping Winter out of her daydreams. “So long as we can access a functional portal station, we could be at the homeworld in a day or so.”

Catching wind of Winter’s sudden, yet thus far restrained sulking, Wiggly leaned over his way. “That’s assuming we can cut in line. You know those portals can only receive from one other portal at a time, right? And that’s assuming the scheduling works in our favor.”

Winter saw her opening and bottled up her frustration to give a mask of level headedness. “So what’s it going to be, ride the wave or sit in line for who knows how long?”

Seeing he was outnumbered, Wire looked to his only lifeline: Mote. “Well I guess that depends on if this halthu even stays on course. By the looks of it, it’s going further into Initiative space, but it’ll take us away from C’Zar.”

“Explanation. That is what the probe is for. It travels ahead of us to let us know of any sudden or subtle changes in direction.”

Gazing around the room, Wire saw Winter’s version of ‘don’t take this from me’ glare, and the cathrex looked like children waiting in line at a rollercoaster. He didn’t even need to see Wiggly to know her vote. “Alright, alright, I give up.”

YES! Winter took a moment to compose herself. “This halthu sounds like a riptide to me. So how do I safely enter it?”

“Have you ever been on a planet’s ocean that had waves?” Morales queried with a massive grin at the coming fun.

An equally muzzle splitting grin cleaved Winter’s face. “Say no more.” Winter wiggled to firmly settle into her seat.

Sprocket keyed up the intercom. “All hooves, this is the captain speaking. We might be hitting some turbulence. Please remain seated and secure any loose items immediately.”

Winter went parallel to the riptide, testing the waters. She could already feel the riptide trying to suck the Akira into itself. “So how do we get back out? Anything special?”

Morales pressed his hands and hooves against the tank to secure himself. “By turning us as perpendicular as the hull can survive. The hardest part is exiting the threshold. This old bird will need to redline the engines to get back out, but the old girl can handle it just fine.”

“I’m getting reports across the ship,” Wiggly announced. “The crew’s ready.”

“Here we go!” Winter angled the Akira into it, and the ship rocked as if a great hand had grabbed it and started pushing it through water.

Rattling in her seat, Mote watched as they flew past the storms at far greater speeds. The empty coffee cups around Wire’s station fell off, and both he and Sprocket were holding onto their seats, both filled with dangerous thrill. Winter felt alive riding the waves of her youth.

“Statement. Get to the center, the halthu it is calmest there.”

Reluctantly doing so, Winter guided the frigate down further. True enough, once the Akira found its way close to the center, the shaking subsided to a mild rumble.

After everyone on the bridge recovered from being rattled around, they took stock of the situation. Wire kept a close eye on the probe and the stars around them. “Well we’ll officially be inside Initiative territory again by midnight. How long do we want to keep riding this?”

“Technically speaking, we never left Initiative territory,” Sprocket reminded him with a playful eyebrow wiggle.

Mote went about setting things up for that very question. “Explanation. We can not expect a straight path. Currents flow much like rivers, bending and weaving. Unlike planetary rivers though, there is no real predicting the ultimate path unless we map the entirety of the storms.” She looked back over the others. “Mockery. Something you ponies are layabouts in doing I presume.”

“Pah,” Wiggly scoffed at the feeble joke. “Who needs weather reports when we have the best pilot this side of the galactic core?”

Winter had to exert supreme effort to avoid returning to the edges of the riptide to get the rumbling to return. “I’m hardly the best, but I won’t refuse a compliment.”

“Perhaps when our peoples open proper channels, we can conduct races and mock battles,” Morales interjected with firm intent. “But for now, we need to keep an eye on the star charts. But if say… we wanted to go to your homeworld of Equiss we would need to remain in the halthu for over four days, give or take a few hours. Assuming an intercept course, naturally.”

“There are plenty of pony controlled systems long before we get that far,” Winter said while gently moving the Akira about to find the smoothest spot. Turbulence is best felt in a fighter anyway, less people to complain about it.

“Statement. For now though, you can swap the autopilot to halthu condition. It will keep us in the center well enough.”

Felin stalked the dark, chem stained streets on the south side of the moon. The local district housed a number of seedy places, and the building she entered fit right in with the rest.

Through a short grungy hallway and a rusting door, she stepped inside an ad hoc chemical lab. Three chemists slaved over their equipment with careful haste. Cots and empty food containers were pushed off to one corner, and the room stank of unwashed bodies and bleach.

The lead chemist was a hippogriff, and jumped at hearing the door creak open. She eased up a bit upon seeing the black drake. “Oh, Felin. For a moment there I thought someone had found us.”

“You’re the one who called me, Beckett.” Felin remained by the door for a moment longer, watching the abandoned hallways, then shut it. “You have an update?”

“We do.” Beckett waved her over to a table with a small refrigerator sitting on it. The chemist led her on, and opened it to reveal three vials and a single loaded syringe. She grabbed the syringe to present it to the drake. A thick green substance sloshed within. “PX7, a weaker version of street Shocker. It will target any machine neural interface in seconds. Based on an average centauri, it will put those tissues in stasis for about a half an hour per dose, and give you a mild high as promised. Not that you should take repeated dosages,” Beckett warned while hasty wagging a claw. “Any more than two in a twenty four hour period could prove fatal.”

Felin carefully grabbed the syringe. The needle had a plastic protector over it, but Felin wasn’t going to take chances. “This will completely stop the sensor weapon from killing you?”

A sickened pall fell over the bird as he recalled the test subjects Fein had provided. “Certainly not. Even just one second of exposure will kill you, PX7 only buys you time. Not that it would be worth living.” Beckett hemmed and hawed for a few moments looking for the right words. “The high is just to keep the user from having a panic attack. Freezing the MNI means anything between losing any outside connections to uncontrolled movement based on how chromed up you are.”

“Then that is enough for my needs.” Felin produced a credit chit and placed it on the table. “Your payment.”

Beckett swiped the chit and plugged it into a pad. When it all showed green, she hesitated. “I know it is not my place to ask, but-”

“The less you know, the better,” Felin interjected sharply. “Know that if your product works as intended the payment you received tonight will pale before future rewards.”

Beckett clamped her beak shut, and reluctantly nodded. She raced over to grab a cooler before placing the other samples of PX7 inside it before returning it all to Felin. “There. Shall we continue to make more?”

“Of course,” Felin lied smoothly. “If you remain here and out of sight, I will personally ensure your future accommodations are worthy of your talents.” That much at least was the truth.

The Akira was three days in on its journey through the riptide. The crew had more or less gotten used to the constant rumble as it wasn’t all that different to the ambient noise every ship’s engines and reactors created. When not busy with other duties, most of the ponies were too enthralled by the novelty of hyperspace travel to do much more than watch the storms surrounding them. Stars and their surrounding planets created oases of light. It was on that third day close to lunchtime when Wiggly and the others were alerted by the probe ahead of them.

Returning to their stations, Wiggly was the first to see the reason. “Oh boy, the riptide’s jinking off to the south. “The Ruby Empire controls most of civilized space in that direction. We need to leave.”

Winter studied the map and found the stars were between them and the bend in the riptide. She mourned the loss of her chrome, as it had the complete star map of all claimed star systems. Now, she had to go about it from memory. “If I had to-m choose… ah ha! We need to go to the second one! Winter blurted out. Everyone followed her hoof to the yellow star with five planets. “That’s my home system.” She looked to Wiggly with an excited grin. “The second planet. I’d recognize Victoria anywhere!”

Needing no further prompting, Wiggly discarded the map and the other celestial bodies so she could zoom in on Victoria. It was a tidally locked world with a ring of craggy canyons. Solar shades on one end and mirrors on the other allowed the planet to be habitable all over. Then she brought up the encyclopedia entry on the planet. Sure enough there was a perfect match. “Looks like we have our destination.” She cleared her throat and keyed up the PA. “All hooves now hear this. We’re leaving the riptide and will be entering the orbit of Victoria shortly. Strap yourselves in boys!” Ending the announcement, she nodded at Winter. “Take us in.”

As Winter guilded the frigate onward, the heavy turbulence returned in earnest. The Akira turned its nose, and the riptide protested the vessel disturbing its flow. Winter and the others were being shaken hard against the straps of their seats, and the hum of the engines grew to an angry growl. Yet as they closed in on the edge, the riptide fought back and threatened to drag them back to the center.

“Alert. You’ll have to punch us out!”

“Got it. Wiggs, I need all the power you can give me.”

Spreading her wings, Sprocket sent the command to the mechans. “Do it!”

Under Winter’s command, the Akira surged forward and roared its way out of the riptide, and angled its way towards Victoria. Winter flared her wings from the thrill of it, and rolled the frigate a few times. “Oh for the love of Cadence I need to do that again!”

Live Wire was getting flashbacks of the pirate attack on the Cloud Jumper. “Maybe later. Much later.”

Wiggly was more excited to see Victoria up close. “Belly ache another time. Let’s see what’s up there.” Upon closing in on the lens between hyperspace and the planet, a great cloud could be seen around Victoria’s central orbital station. A hundred transports, freighters, miners, and passenger craft passed in and out. The lights on the dark side of the planet below were dense and lively as the mirrors were currently shaded to provide an artificial night. Police craft flitted about, checking cargo, and the navy stood watch on the periphery. Dominating it all were a trio of orbital stations with the other two bristling with weapons and naval docking spires.

The ponies, and even the two cathrex were transfixed by this jewel of the Initiative. Tears fell from Winter’s eyes. It’s alive and well.

Wiggly could hardly believe her eyes. Sure she had seen videos of other worlds, but not even Lilian had been so grand before the war. Victoria took her breath away. She pressed a few controls to make sure the feeds were available to the crew.

The majesty of it touched Morales deeply. Tears mixed with the water of his tank. “It looks so much like Deltath before its fall. It’s like the wheels of time rolled back.”

“Recollection. I see it too,” Mote replied while cupping her mouth. “It’s just like the movies. Oh what I would give to see the homeworld restored again.”

The two aliens’ comments struck a nervous chord in Live Wire. The Waylan came to mind, or worse yet, some warlord with the fuhai. He broke out into a cold sweat at seeing the planet go dark. Swallowing the lump in his throat, he refocused on his station. “How do we open a channel to orbital traffic control? Our comms can’t punch into hyperspace.”

“Statement. We’ll drop a comm buoy.” Mote went about doing just that.

Once the buoy was deployed and passed into real space, Wiggly had to wiggle to shake off some nerves. “Open a channel.” Mote proceeded, then nodded to her. “This is the AIN Akira to the Victoria port authority. Requesting approach clearance.”

There was no response for a few moments. Long enough for all eyes to fall on Mote. “Assertion. Don’t look at me, I’m showing five by five.”

A loud and firm voice cracked in. “This is Victoria control, AIN Akira, I am not seeing your transponder. Need I remind you traveling without an active transponder at this time is a class eight felony?”

At this time? Unaware of what class eight meant, and a look at her fellow ponies gave no clue either. “Control, we’re not technically in-system yet, we just wanted to make sure the way was clear and that no one would try to shoot us when we drop in at the buoy’s location.” Wiggly ‘covered the mic’ and turned around to Morales. “That’s where we’ll appear right?”

“So long as we don’t move much, yes.”

There was a longer pause from the station before the voice came back with an irritated tone. “I don’t have time for pranks. There aren’t even any auxiliary vessels assigned to this system, or any system for that matter. Switch off this channel or I’ll involve the police.”

“Well we did deliver our warning,” Morales commented dryly. “Maybe we should drop in on a different planet. Your record says Feldspar is just a mining world, we could go there first.”

“Not a chance.” Wiggly stood up in her chair, and flared her wings. Lightning danced between her fingers as she proclaimed, “we have enough stuff here to turn the heads of a whole planet. We better make an entrance to match.”

The speech resonated with Winter’s thrill seeking. “I like it. Shall I push us through?”

Live Wire’s fur stood up at the idea. “Now hold on-”

“The honor is yours, Winny!” Wiggly said while keeping her dramatic stance.

The Akira started moving. With no choice but to take his seat, Wire prepared to raise the shields at a moment’s notice.

In real space, a dimple in space appeared around the unauthorized comm buoy. One of the nearby destroyers was zeroing in on this opportunity for target practice. The cannon barked and the shot obliterated the unauthorized buoy. The gunnery crew were taken aback by a strange frigate appearing where the buoy was moments earlier.

Wiggly radioed once more with a smirk on her lips. “Control this is the AIN Akira again. May we have an approach vector from these coordinates?”

This time, the response was immediate. “Where did?!” A face appeared on screen to match the controller’s voice. It was a flabbergasted teal crystal stallion. “I had that area scanned three times. Where did you come from?”

“The Lilian system, actually,” Wiggly responded with her smirk never leaving.

“That’s not-” The stallion clapped his mouth shut, and read the transponder code. “My problem.” He looked aside as someone else spoke to him. “You are directed to land at docking bay seven, slot five.”

Slowly sitting back down, Wiggly gave him a puzzled look. “Not even going to ask what our cargo and purpose is?”

“Your purpose is to report to bay seven, slot five. Or you’ll find out your cargo won’t matter in a hurry.”

Winter Gale suddenly froze in excited fear, and turned to Wiggly. “We better just do it. They only get touchy like this when a High Queen is here.”

“Th-” Wiggly realized just how close they were to a violent end. “Control, we’ll get right on that.”

“Good. Sending you a flight plan. Do not deviate from it.”

The caller vanished, and Winter could see a path of light directing them to the chosen spot. She set the autopilot to follow it, and turned to speak to the rest of them. “So, what are you going to tell them when we dock?”

Quirking her head, Wiggly shrugged. “The truth.”

“Good.” Winter replied with a feral grin. She sent Wire and the aliens a message “Because they’ll have guns on us the moment we walk down the ramp.”

“Guns?” Wiggly shivered. “Why? We’re flagged as a navy ship. We might catch some sass for dropping in, but that should be it, right?”

Morales read Winter’s message and arched a bemused eyebrow. “I can’t say holo-shows are a reliable reference, but I’ve seen a few ponies get arrested for sneezing at an alicorn’s direction during a parade.”

“Oh come on, that had to be a parody.”

“Conjecture. Every parody has its roots in facts,” Mote offered with a hopefully believable tone.

“And barring that,” Winter pressed on, “it’ll be hard to explain why a navy pilot has no chrome or ident chip before somepony loses their patience.” The growing terror in Wiggly’s eyes was enough to let Winter give it up. “Or I could just be exaggerating for payback.”

Realization struck Wiggly instantly. An annoyed grin cleaved her muzzle. “Oh you, nag. Alright you got me, but turnabout is going to be sweet.”

The Akira came in for a smooth landing at the cavernous docking bay of the naval station. The route between the bridge and the off ramp was crowded by passengers overly excited to finally disembark and catch various flights home. Hoofshakes and final gratitudes were shared, with Morales especially getting swamped with offers to return the favor.

Waiting for them at the closed ramp was Howling Tempest. Welcoming them with a warm grin, he dipped his head as they approached. “Never in my wildest did I think I would see Victoria before I was old and gray. Could you grant me the privilege of joining you as the first party to disembark?”

“Ha, as if you need to ask.” Wiggly shook his hoof with vigor. “It’s the least we can do for you.”

Wire slapped the button, and the ramp yawned open with a lazy hiss. Wiggly bounded down the ramp before it fully descended, and took a long deep breath. “Ohhh yeah. That’s the smell of a dockyard alright.” She spun around to watch the five others descend the ramp. “You can really tell how healthy a station is by the air quality.”

Lacking spin or gravity, the bay had a spell array near the ramp. Except for the two fliers, everyone laid a hoof or hand on the raised array which enchanted them to magically keep them on the ground. Dockworkers were waiting inside adjacent rooms for orders. The delay gave many of them time to look over the odd vessel with keen interest. It bore the Initiative crests on the wings and nose, but it kept the original blue and white paint. Yet it was the very shape of the Akira that captured their attention. To many, it was a ship that merged form and function beautifully.

Heavy airlock doors hissed open to allow a five pony team to enter. Leading the group was a lanky pegasus stallion in the navy blues. The ones following him were two staff officers and marines.

Wiggly stopped her null-gravity prancing, and settled back down in front of her crew. Once the newcomers came close enough she could finally read his rank insignia. “Permission to enter the station proper, Commandant,” she said with a crisp salute.

He returned the salute with a stony face. “In time. I am Commandant Coiled Strike. First, I’d like to know who you are. The navy decommissioned the last auxiliary vessel a year after the war ended.”

“So it really is over.” Wiggly’s massive grin and contagious cheer was shared by Winter and Wire. The Commandant was a bit unsettled by the hasty exaltation. “Sorry, sorry. We’re from the Lilian system. We’ve been out of the loop for quite a while.”

“Lilian… Lilian…” Strike mumbled until his implants got the information. “Your system is marked as isolated. In fact, the portal fleet shouldn’t arrive for another twenty years. Care to explain how you got here?”

“In that gorgeous beauty,” Wiggly jabbed a wing at her ship. “To put it briefly, the Akira has ship-based FTL.”

“Does it now?” Strike sounded dubious. He looked over the rather alien craft. Yet its unfamiliar design could be of non-pony yet still Equiss make. “Aside from reestablishing contact with civilization, what is the purpose of your visit, and I need your cargo manifest.”

“Our cargo is simpler than our purpose actually. Aside from provisions, we’re carrying sixty passengers, all naval personnel, and one thousand, two hundred, and eighty six war dead.” That earned a sharp look from the welcoming party. “Along with the body of High Admiral Gleaming Light.”

The name flashed an alert in Strike’s vision and he froze in absolute shock. “You-you’re carrying one of Flurry Heart’s sons?!” That was something far beyond some convoluted attempt to defraud the navy. Falsifying such a claim was tantamount to sacrilege. The additional claim of over a thousand war dead brushed all other considerations aside. “I will send teams to retrieve and verify the caskets immediately.”

With a command sent from her wings, the Akira lowered two cargo elevators laden with caskets and passengers serving as color guards. “I would appreciate it. They’ve been away from home for too long.”

Strike waved his marines over, and silently ordered them to check everything. “This is going to take every color guard I have in orbit.” He sighed at the enormity of it all. His job may have required him to verify the caskets’ authenticity, but in his heart he couldn’t believe in a fraud so blatant and yet so easily disprovable. He composed himself to address her again. “What else do you have for me?”

Steadying herself, Wiggly pressed on. “We have extra-Equiss friends with us.” She stood aside and waved a wing at the two cathrex. “They wish to open formal diplomatic relations with us, and are requesting to speak to a high queen for that purpose.”

Morales and Mote politely introduced themselves. Strike was a bit bewildered and defaulted to a puzzled expression. “I take it this is where the FTL came from.”

“It is,” Wiggly replied evenly. “More than you realize.”

“Fascinating…” Strike rubbed his chin. “Dare I ask for anything else?”

“Just the living war hero behind me,” Wiggly proclaimed as she stepped aside and waved Tempest forward. “May I present Captain Howling Tempest, CO of the Rainbow Dash for over a decade, and the one who ended the local Ruby Navy’s fleet.”

At such a presentation, Tempest stepped around everyone else to arrive up front with a controlled, embarrassed look. “I only did my duty, nothing more.” He presented the hoof with his ident.

Strike scanned it with his eyes, and it confirmed the less embellished facts of Wiggly’s heraldry. “By Luna’s stars. Does the Rainbow Dash still fly?” It was no secret that Luna herself favored that ship’s lineage. Strike’s question was shared in his staff officers’ excited faces.

“A bit battered, but she still plies the deep black. I also have a letter from Signed Ballot, governor of Lilian for a high queen’s eyes only.”

Strike leaned away for a few moments before turning back again. “Truly astonishing. High Queen Luna will be overjoyed to hear of the RD’s actions in your absence. As luck has it, Victoria is hosting two high queens at the moment, including Luna herself. Give me the letters and I’ll ensure they are in her hooves within the hour.”

Winter got a little jumpy upon hearing Luna was in-system. Yet she masked it well enough from everyone but Wire who thought it odd, but didn’t want to question her here.

Wiggly and the others were quickly whisked away to be hosted in the royal banquet hall onboard the station. Such an installation became common once a planet became prosperous enough. A high queen always liked to make appearances during certain milestones on a planet’s development, and properly hosting them was a matter of honor.

With a high queen being planetside, the hall was always kept ready to serve at a moment’s notice. Even the ceiling projectors were tactfully masked by lights and statues of famous heroes and ships. Both Morales and Wire had been instantly drawn in by the food, and once the staff declared that they were free to eat without needing to wait, they promptly gorged themselves. Mote, Tempest, and Winter read up on current events and proper etiquette for meeting with a high queen. Wiggly Sprocket however, was enamored by something everyone else passed over: a curved bookshelf.

Wiggly was locked in place by the old books’ invisible hand before walking over almost as if she were in a trance. While book covered the right half of the shelves, an array of tools dominated the left. Few of them were modern though. Wrenches, drafting implements, fine hammers, and pieces of larger tools were all arrayed in neat displays. With a careful hoof, she picked up a portfolio: ‘Prototypes and Assorted Improvements’. Ignorant of the book’s value, she gently opened up to a random page. The smell of aged paper and glue, the comfortable weight of the book, the feel of the well maintained cover, and the tantilizing design of an early antimatter reactor stirred something primeval within her. She inhaled deeply, and savored the scent of the miniature slice of a workshop. I belong here.

The thought felt random, and yet rang true in her ears. She looked up at the other books and tools before looking back down at the portfolio in her hooves. The Akira was her home, but this little nook brought her a level of peace and tranquility she had only ever felt when neck deep in machinery. “I know what I’m doing with the spare utility closet.”

While everyone else went about their eating or studies, Wiggly lost herself in the portfolio. The world around her faded away as she dove head first into the schematics and notations. She consumed each line and word like an ancient vampire starved of blood.

She didn’t even hear someone calling her name. It took that someone forcefully shaking her that Wiggly snapped out of her trance. “Wiggs!”

Gasping, she pulled back, only to calm down upon seeing her brother. “What’s up?”

“Come on, the queens will be here any second!”

A fire was lit under her hooves and she sprinted to the others who were all in a line by some large double doors. In her rush, Wiggly didn’t even realize she instinctively tucked the portfolio under her left wing. She saw Morales’ gut was visibly distended and was looking a bit nauseous. Even so, he remained standing while a marine captain conversed with Tempest. Upon seeing Wiggly and her brother arrive the marine politely disengaged from Tempest. “Good. Try to remember that the queens prefer a friendly atmosphere, but introductions are still a formal event. You will all line up abreast and kneel when they arrive.”

Wiggly made her way into the line with Wire taking her right and Morales taking her left. Nervous energy at finally meeting an alicorn was leaving her in shivers. She looked over to Morales who popped some tablets to try and keep his food down. “You going to be okay?”

“I tend to stress eat,” he managed to choke out after chewing the tablets. “Medicine is fine, I can do brain surgery and heart replacements all week, but dignitaries and what not are my worst fears.”

“So I noticed. Whatever genes you have to not get fat served you well last week.” Wiggly giggled at the mental image of the mountains of food he put away.

He grunted in pained relief as the medication started to calm his overworked stomach. “It took us centuries to perfect that one, and it has to be adapted to every xenotype. It didn’t exactly help us keep weight on when food was scarce though.”

“Attention!” Bellowed the marine, silencing all chatter. “Announcing her royal majesties; High Queen Luna and High Queen Flurry Heart!” The double doors opened, and everyone knelt in a hurry.

Ohhhh, I can’t believe this is finally happening! Wiggly strained an eye to see. One alicorn was an event, but two in one place was exceedingly rare.

The pair that walked inside exuded an intense pressure, not a physical one, but on the mind and magical senses. Those with horns could feel it more sharply, but only Live Wire could actually see the blanket of dark blue magic encasing the one on the left, and rich pink light flowing around the other. Yet that pressure did not cause pain or fear, but that of exultation. They were seen as the best of ponykind, be it true or not. Their point made, they dimmed the pressure, allowing Live Wire to see properly.

Luna entered first with Flurry Heart a single step behind her. Luna was as tall, twice that of a normal mare, and majestic as all the pictures and videos made her out to be. Her ethereal dark mane flowed on astral winds with stars forming constellations. Her eyes bore a warmth to them that could ease any troubled soul, like a warm blanket on a cold night.

Flurry Heart carried herself with more casual grace, reflecting her more cavalier attitude towards the airs her station demanded. However, no one could miss how somber she was. It was an expression that didn’t seem to fit right on her face. All media about her revealed a mare that was the embodiment of laughter itself. She kept her predominantly purple mane more material than her counterpart. Yet there was still a fey-like grace about her that mortal mares could only dream of. Both alicorns wore silver or crystalline regalia. The spirals of their horns were embedded with narrow crystalline threads that melded well into the circlets they wore.

“You may rise,” Luna commanded in a voice that spoke of assured confidence. As Wiggly rose back up, Luna stared into the pegacorn’s eyes with deep contemplation. Wiggly started to get nervous, and didn’t even notice Flurry Heart was doing the same. Yet as quickly as Luna locked eyes with her, the elder mare moved her gaze towards Wiggly’s left side. It was only then that Wiggly realized she had taken the book with her. Terror erupted in the young mare at the impudence she so very clearly committed. Yet if Luna took offense to the now profusely sweating mortal in front of her, she made no show of it, and focused her gaze upon the two cathrex.

Wiggly had been so focused on Luna, she didn’t notice the look of euphoric shock from Flurry Heart upon seeing the book nestled in Wiggly’s wing. The alicorn had to force herself to put on a mask of aloof compassion.

“Ordinarily, something as monumental as first contact would have preferably been done in a stately manner,” she cast a sly eye at the siblings. “Not on a barren moon. But circumstance rarely cares for such lofty desires.” Luna looked up at the food on the table behind them, and saw a visible portion was already consumed. “If you still have room to eat, we could talk over dinner.”

Mote was fine with either here or a new venue, but she thought it’d be more amusing if Morales made the choice, so she met his gaze with a permissive one of her own. For his part, Morales had to use supreme effort to hold back a burp. He looked a little worse for wear, yet his love of food won out. “I can always eat.”

The alicorns shared an amused, muffled giggle as the rest of the guests gave the bloated Morales an absolutely astonished look.

Flurry Heart stepped up as she was able to subdue her suppressed giggles first. Her eyes lingered on Wiggly for a moment before addressing them all. “Then unless there is some other immediate issue your initial report didn’t cover, let’s take our seats and get started.”

Once everyone was seated and fresh plates of food were in place, Wiggly sent a quiet message to Morales.

It was a sad day, as the great food laying before him might actually go uneaten.

With Morales more or less incapacitated at the moment. Mote took the lead at the alicorns’ insistence. “Statement. The Cathrex Combine wishes to extend the hand of solidarity. As a gift, we are willing to share some of our strain spinning - or as you call it, gene tailoring.” She looked at the mortal mares. “Miss Wiggly, Miss Winter, if you please.”

Genetic tailoring being a divisive issue among the larger initiative, the two alicorns withheld judgment for now. Once both mares had circled around so the queens could get a good look at them, Mote continued. “For reasons I can explain shortly, we cathrex avoid all forms of ‘chrome’. Yet we too have a need to interface with machines.” Mote flushed red for a moment. She had prepared for this, but given what she was, it was still awkward for her. “So we have devised ways for a fully organic being to do just that. Your tails, please.”

After a full demonstration, and with Mote’s models returning to their seats, Flurry Heart asked the burning question she shared with Luna. “I can see why a pegacorn would be interested in this, but why go through the trouble of avoiding chrome?”

Mote’s voice threatened to shrink away. Thankfully, Morales had recovered enough to join in. “That answer requires sharing our history a bit. I won’t take your valuable time with minutiae.” Morales gave a tourniqueted version of the same speech he gave Tempest weeks earlier. Much to his growing anxiety though, the two queens withheld their questions until after he finished.

Unbeknownst to the others, the queens’ regalia had an impressive compact sensor suite. The cathrex were novel, so it was difficult to determine if he was lying, but what they could do was check the other ponies. Not one of them seemed to react to any lie. So the alien is honest, or he’s capable of keeping his story straight. Luna shared this thought with her counterpart.

Flurry Heart looked at Luna for any dissenting opinion on her face. She had gotten very good at reading her aunt over the centuries, and her word alone wasn’t enough.