(NOTE: During meetings between the Equians and the Feds, to make it completely clear which language is being spoken, all Terranglo is in green and all Equish is in blue. While it is obvious in most places which language is being spoken, I colored them all for consistency.) However, I will only be doing it for this chapter.

In the century and a half since he had held his first Royal Court, Prince Destined Path had grown a lot more assured and confident in his role as one of the triumequirate alicorn rulers of Equestria. With so many years of experience, he no longer felt out of place in the throne room, even if he still looked like he was in his twenties. He now dealt with about a third of the royal duties, allowing Celestia and Luna more time to attend to other duties, or just to have some well-earned time off. Today, Destined was substituting for Celestia who was overseas at a conference, and he was hearing the petitions of some of the citizens before a scheduled meeting with the ministers to discuss a revision to the tax laws. He found the pegasus’ problem a lot more interesting though, and he paid close attention to what the stallion was telling him.

A flash-bang of teleportation interrupted the petitioner’s tale, and a moment later Twilight Sparkle was practically in his face.

“You have to go back in time and save them!” the Princess of Magic demanded.

Destined sighed internally, having anticipated this moment. Only his mother’s lifetime habit of stewing and stressing out over problems had caused it to be put off for this long, but he had known that she would come to this point inevitably. He looked over at the stallion and said, “Forgive me, my little pony – please excuse us for a moment. I will return to give my full attention to your petition briefly.” He turned to his head to his advisor. “Please offer Mister Silver Coin refreshments in my absence. This should not take long.”

Destined then turned back to Twilight who looked ready to burst. “Let’s go somewhere private to talk about this, Mother.” His horn lit up, and with a quiet pop, they left the throne room and reappeared just as smoothly in the family’s private quarters. While Twilight was a master of magic, Destined was the master of time and space, and no alicorn could match his skill with teleportation. “Now, Mom, what is it you want me to do?” he asked, knowing full well what she was going to request.

“Isn’t it obvious? You need to go back in time and teleport to the Cosmic Lotus and warn them of the peril ahead! The mana beacon will still be working then.”

Destined sighed out loud this time. “You do realize that if I did that, it would only cause a fork in the time probability path. The Twilight Sparkle in front of me now would become a lesser probability who would never learn what happened to the ship.”

“But the new reality would have saved the entire crew, including many of our family!”

“That is assuming that they need saving. We have lost contact, so we don’t know their fate, but I believe that they are okay.”

“How can you say that? The last data that we got from them shows them in deep trouble!”

“Have you forgotten my visit to the far future? Although a lot of important details were kept from me and the others, we do know that beings from another world were part of that future. I choose to believe, as I have always suspected, that this is the moment when we first contact those other beings. Have a bit of faith in my brother – this is Wandering’s moment of destiny, I am sure of it.”

“And what if we still don’t hear from them in weeks? How confident of your feelings would you be then?” Twilight demanded.

“Mom, I could wait for a year and still do as you ask. I can do that under my own power now without even a boost from Blue Streak. Trust me – I won’t let anyone down. In the meantime though, this is Wandering’s time to shine. If anypony can achieve their goal, it’s him. And with Starry, Techbird, and all the others aboard the Lotus to help him, I’m confident that we will be hearing how they dealt with the emergency soon enough. I know that it’s going to be difficult waiting for them to get back in contact, but it will be worth the wait.”

Destined wrapped a reassuring wing around his mother and hugged her. “I know, but we’re here for you, Mom.”

After a long moment, Destined withdrew his wing and lit up his horn. “And now I had better get back to the court. I may be the Alicorn of Time, but even I can’t waste it.”

While Forestwalker could not answer Rosepetal’s question about using hooves, shi knew that the key to finding out was to learn more of the language of their unusual visitors. Although shi still had a pounding headache from the first language lesson, shi was eager to learn more. Shi faced hir teacher, pointed to hir head, and said in Equish, “More words now?”

Forestwalker was disappointed, but shi certainly understood why. “How long?”

The unicorn pondered that question. “Half a day.” She waved a hoof to indicate uncertainty.

Forestwalker turned to Rosepetal. “Could we invite Amethyst to stay aboard and teach me?”

Rosepetal firmly shook her head. “While I don’t believe that they have anything to do with the Swarm, we still know next to nothing about them and they may still pose an unknown threat. First Contact protocols require cautious steps, and I would not be surprised if their own leader thinks the same way. We will arrange another meeting while we both assess our first meeting. There are a lot of questions that I will want to ask once you have a greater command of the language. Meanwhile we have to monitor you for any undesirable side-effects of the teaching method aside from the understandable headache.”

The chakat was disappointed, but understood the realities of the situation. “Okay, Commander, but I just want to say that I still detect no animosity or deceit from any of them… well, three of them anyway. The fourth is still a total blank to me.”

Rosepetal turned to the obvious leader and spoke slowly and simply in the hope of the other translating for him. “Come back in half a day. We will talk more then.”

Wandering listened to Amethyst’s translation, and startled Rosepetal by answering in Terranglo. “Come back half a day. Goodbye.”

The Federation team watched as their visitors headed back into their skiff and the airlock closed. The shuttle bay doors reopened with the air held back by the strong force field across the opening. The skiff passed smoothly through the force-field and the doors closed once more.

“Well, this is going down as one of the more interesting days in my journal,” Forestwalker said as they all turned to leave the shuttle bay.

“For all of us, Forest,” Rosepetal replied as they stepped into the decontamination room where they were met by Doctor Saarath.

As the giantess Caitian directed them to stand in booths where sensors and sterilizers ensured that they brought nothing undesirable into the rest of the ship, Rosepetal asked, “What were your impressions, Commander Midnight?”

The black chakat replied, “While I agree that these aliens are probably not inimical to us, I also got the distinct impression from the dragonish one that he was amused by the security forces watching over them. If he felt that the entire security squad in the shuttle bay plus ourselves against the four of them were of little consequence, what does that say about our odd visitors?”

Doctor Zubon had a decontamination spell ready when the skiff docked, and the team were treated with it before they were allowed to leave the vehicle. All of them then headed to the common room to have a meeting. Wandering called up a few others to attend, and soon there was a large gathering in the room. A screen was lowered, and a recording of the meeting was played in its entirety from the magitek crystal camera in Wandering’s uniform.

When the replay ended, Starry said, “You caught onto the language quickly, Wandering.”

The alicorn stallion nodded. “I may not be as good as Amethyst, but Papa Path taught me well. It has come in handy many times in my past adventures. Once I hear a word and know its meaning, it sticks. I’ll leave comprehensive translation to others though. Anyway, I’m pleased that we have made this much progress in learning their language already. It’s going to make our task a lot easier if we end up needing their assistance.”

“Speaking of which,” Playbitz spoke up, “Are we going to resume deceleration soon? I’ll have to recalculate our course if not, because otherwise we’ll miss that lovely blue and green planet that we were aiming for.” He gestured in the direction of the image on the screen that the TESS had captured of the fourth planet in the system.

Wandering said, “That lovely planet is probably home to those beings, so I am going to wait until we know more about them before encroaching on their world. I don’t wish to appear a threat to them. Which reminds me…” He turned to Eon and said, “Why the attitude? You were borderline disrespectful.”

“Oh, come on, Captain! You saw their weapons for yourself. None of them were magic-powered, and your shield alone could have easily handled all of their energy weapons,” Eon protested. “We’re all warrior-scholars and can read their body-language. Aside from that black six-limbed one, and perhaps that two-legged male, I don’t believe any of them posed a real threat to us.”

“That is no reason to be contemptuous of them. If you hope to take over from Warmaster Blue Streak eventually, that is something that you are going to have to learn. Besides, if they picked up on that, it might give them cause for concern about us. I can’t emphasize too much how important first impressions are when dealing with a new culture.”

“Back on Equus while I was still travelling and meeting new civilizations, they were as close to being aliens as the ones on that ship over there. What is perfectly normal for you and me might be intimidating to them, and vice versa. This is too important to screw up, Eon, so at least try to be respectful when we go meet them again.”

Wandering looked around at the others gathered there. “We’ve heard what Eon thinks – so what impressions did any of you get from them?”

“There seems to be a complete lack of magic,” Amethyst replied. “I did not detect any while I was connected with Forestwalker.”

Wandering nodded. “While everyone’s attention was focused on your language spell, I did a deep scan of the ship. I was unable to detect any magic at work, or even the taint of raw mana. It would seem that despite their diversity, they all share the common trait of being totally magicless.”

“Is that even possible?” Doctor Zubon asked. “Studies have shown that magic is fundamental to all life on Equus.”

“All I can say to that is that we’re not on Equus anymore. What is fundamental on our world might be irrelevant on theirs.”

“Then how do you suppose they expected my language spell to work?” Amethyst asked.

“That’s a very good question,” Wandering said. “Perhaps they will have some surprises in store for us too. Phalanx, did you perceive anything of interest?”

“Their ship is awash with emotions, but while that landing bay had too much fear and suspicion, that was mostly emanating from the guards that they had posted further away. As I mentioned earlier, the one that Amethyst calls Forestwalker is very openly friendly and curious. The sheer amount of positive emotion that she was giving off definitely offset the bitter taste of the negative emotions. Overall, my impression is that they are afraid of something but willing to go to the effort of making peaceful contact.”

“That’s reassuring,” Wandering said. “Amethyst – how long do you think that it will take to get a good working vocabulary going?”

The hybrid unicorn took another sip of the headache potion that Zubon had provided before answering. “Provided that Forestwalker has a similar recovery time from these sessions as I do, it will take only two more to be reasonably fluent. The language spell works exponentially because it’s hardest to start from scratch to get the basic concepts down. That’s why we are currently limited to a few hundred of our mutually commonest words. The next session should extend that to a few thousand, and after that, the spell will have enough material to work with to define tens of thousands more. You should be able to work out more obscure words that Forestwalker does not know by yourself after that.”

“Excellent!” Wandering turned back to Playbitz. “We will hold off on deceleration until after the third language lesson. At that point we should know better how we wish to proceed. You may wish to recalculate our course from shortly after that.”

The alicorn then addressed their Chief Scientist. “Techbird, what are your impressions of the equipment that can be seen in the GemVee recording?”

“Bearing in mind the lack of magic in use, there obviously isn’t any magitek, but their purely physical technology appears to be a match or better than our own equipment. The shuttles that can be seen parked there certainly look like the product of a multi-generational design process, and judging by their ship, almost certainly faster and more maneuverable than our skiff. I can only guess at the function of most things that can be seen, but considering that it isn’t just bare functional-looking equipment, I would say that it bespeaks a high degree of sophistication. I can hardly wait to get my talons on it!”

“That jibes with my own impressions, which leaves me with a puzzle. How can such a powerful and sophisticated civilization be so afraid of a ship that is half-crippled and nowhere near as advanced as theirs?”

After Midnight dismissed the Security team, shi accompanied Rosepetal and Forestwalker to the main conference room where Boyce was waiting for them along with the other department heads. They noted a view of the shuttle bay meeting on the big screen at the end of the table as they took seats.

“That was a very interesting first contact meeting,” Boyce said without preamble. “However, you were a bit reckless, Forest, although it did seem to get us a good head-start on communicating with them.”

“I would never have done that if my senses didn’t tell me that it was relatively safe,” Forestwalker protested.

“Relatively is a dangerous word in the space business. However, I can’t argue with the results.”

“I believe the risk was definitely worth it,” Rosepetal said, “but what did you find out that we haven’t heard as yet?”

“While we had every scanner on them from the moment that they entered the shuttle bay, we have been left with even more questions. First of all, although there is electronic equipment that we could detect aboard their shuttle craft, it was inadequate for the needs of such a vessel. We could not even determine its power source except that it was giving off readings identical to those of the mystery energy weapon of the Swarm. Stranger yet, every one of those four aliens were also giving off traces of that energy signature, presumably from equipment embedded in their uniforms. While I tend to agree with your assessment that they are not associated with the Swarm, they definitely have knowledge that would be of immense value to Star Fleet. Other than that, technology-wise, their modest tech only makes me more amazed that they successfully accomplished an interstellar journey.”

The head of the Astronomy Department spoke up. “Not only that, sir, but considering that we are familiar with all the nearby star systems, their starting point must have been light-centuries away.”

“Not necessarily,” a female Voxxan said. “We received a report from the CDF ship that went to investigate the weak gamma ray burst that heralded the alien ship’s arrival. It might explain a lot.”

Boyce arched an eyebrow. “And when were you planning to share that information, Lieutenant Laressi?”

The vixen’s ears pinked a little, but she replied firmly, “Sir – the report only came in as the first contact meeting began. I thought that it was prudent to concentrate on that and wait to bring up this relevant information now.”

Laressi touched a button on the keypad in front of her, and the view on the main screen changed to display a star-field with six barely visible spheres surrounding a patch of space that glowed faintly purple. “This is what the scout found. It took hir a long time because it is almost invisible and hard to detect at three light-days distance from Chakastra, and that has kept it from being found for this long. Captain – that purple glow is light seen through a tunnel. It’s an impossibility – an absolutely stable wormhole.”

“What about those planetoids?” Boyce asked as he peered closely at the image. “They each seem to have a symbol on them in gigantic scale.”

“Much more than that, sir.” Laressi zoomed the image on one of the spheroids, revealing thousands more symbols on a smaller scale. “I have no idea of their significance, but all of those six planetoids are engraved with those.” She zoomed out again. “The planetoids seem to have a stable relationship with each other, equally spaced in a hexagonal arrangement that faces directly at Chakastra. I speculate that it is a gateway to this stellar system.”

“Wait! If they came through that, they could have come from anywhere in the galaxy,” Boyce said, surprise evident on his face.

“You’re underestimating it, sir – if it’s totally controlled, they could be from anywhere in the universe.”

‘I have a better question,” Boyce said. “Why did they build it and put the endpoint here?”

Midnight spoke up. “If those aliens have anything to do with the construction of that stable wormhole, I think we had better start giving a lot more respect for their level of technology.”

“Captain, I’ve been waiting my entire extended lifetime to get my answers. I’m so close! You have to let me join you!”

Wandering looked at the determined face of the griffoness and knew that there was no point in arguing. “Alright, Techbird, get in the skiff. But please – try to restrain yourself while you’re there. We’re still in the earliest stages of feeling out each other. We don’t need any unfortunate incidents.”

Techbird joined the others who had previously visited the huge ship still coasting alongside their own. Wandering came aboard and closed the airlock door. Soon the skiff was on its way back over, albeit not as cautiously as it had on its first journey. The second exchange of blinking lights let them know that they were expected this time.

Techbird studied the alien ship intensely as they approached, no detail escaping her attention. She did not miss the slight glow as they passed through the force-field that constrained the air in the shuttle bay, but her eyes were quickly drawn to the vehicles and equipment within. She could hardly wait to get her talons on some of it!

The team members disembarked with the eager griffoness between them to restrain her enthusiasm, and they lined up much as they had previously as their counterparts approached. While the two centauroid creatures were the same, as was the Abyssinian-like leader, the fourth was different this time. Obviously a guard of some nature, this tiger-striped being towered over everyone else and would have intimidated virtually anyone. Fortunately Wandering was not easily cowed, and Eon merely gave him an appraising look. Phalanx scanned the creature as a matter of course and tasted his emotions – intense but not actually hostile. Techbird was oblivious to all four as her eyes were only on the technology that she longed to get hold of. Only Amethyst was a little put off by the huge catlike alien.

“Weren’t there supposed to be only four of them, sir?” the Rakshani security officer quietly asked his commander.

Midnight answered, “There were only four last time, but there’s no reason why they could not bring a fifth this time. Judging by its intense emotions and where it’s been looking, I gather it’s only interested in our equipment. Considering what we know about their own ship, that’s hardly surprising. Just stick to your instructions.”

The contact team drew up to the five from the visitors’ ship and got a closer look at the new addition.

“Rose, I can see through that new creature!” Forestwalker whispered to her co-wife.

“It appears to be some sort of living crystalline being. Fascinating! They are getting more interesting all the time. Anyway, you’re up.”

Amethyst stepped forward to meet Forestwalker. “Yes, teach more now. Sit down, please.”

As before, Amethyst touched her horn to Forestwalker’s head and began the spell. While those two were occupied, Wandering approached Rosepetal, stopping when Midnight held up a hand to indicate he should come no closer. The stallion bent around to retrieve two small devices from a pocket in his uniform, and he held one out to the Commander.

Midnight quickly scanned the device with hir PADD and nodded. “It seems innocuous.”

Rosepetal took the communicator from Wandering, but her attention was not on the device. “How are you holding that with just a hoof?” she asked.

The alicorn understood enough of the words that that he had learned from Amethyst that he could gather her meaning. Having dealt with species such as the minotaurs who had grasping appendages, he comprehended her confusion. He lifted his foreleg again, turning it in exactly the way a horse could not to show the underside of his hoof. He searched his very limited vocabulary for a word. “Feel it,” he urged.

Rosepetal leaned down and put her hand upon the upturned hoof, and she saw the frog bulge a little to make contact with her fingers. It was soft, warm, and not unpleasant. Then she felt a gentle force envelope her fingers and give them a gentle pull.

Rosepetal nodded in comprehension. “Some kind of tactile kinesis. That explains a lot.” Wandering released her fingers and she stood upright and said, “Thank you.”

While the Terranglo word ‘thank’ was not in his limited vocabulary as yet, the alicorn understood the intention and smiled and replied in Equish, “You’re welcome.”

Encouraged by this exchange, the Caitian decided to try asking more questions. “You all have wings, but they are all too small to be of any use, especially those insect-like ones. Why do you have them?”

This question was far too complex for Wandering to comprehend with the limited number of words at his disposal, and he shrugged helplessly. “No words yet.”

Rosepetal resigned herself to wait until Forestwalker and the unicorn finished their session in the hope that she could re-ask the question and be understood.

After several more uneventful minutes, Amethyst broke off the spell, and each of them leaned back with a groan as they rubbed their aching heads.

“Same skull-splitting headache as last time, but otherwise I’m fine,” the chakat replied.

Amethyst said, “It was as hard as the first session, but now we know many thousands of words each.”

The unicorn shook her head. “I do not know all words yet. I can guess what ‘fluent’ means. It is my talent.”

“We are explorers. We traveled to the Far Star to discover the unknown.” Her speech was a little stilted as she sought out the new words to use.

Amethyst’s face lit with comprehension. “Ah! No – it was a surprise for us.” She was going to say more but Wandering cleared his throat significantly. “You need to talk with our Captain.”

Rosepetal nodded. She understood that neither side was going to blurt out everything that the other wanted to know without better understanding each other. “When can we talk?”

Amethyst gestured to Forestwalker and herself. “We now know a few thousand words each of our languages. One more session and we will know all words. Then we will be ready to talk without problems.”

“That is fair enough. Clear communication is key to peace. We will meet again soon… what is your crew person doing?”

Rosepetal had noticed Techbird edging over towards some equipment, and the Rakshani security officer had moved to intercept her.

Amethyst rolled her eyes. “Techbird is our chief scientist. She is very, very curious.”

“I see. I am afraid that her questions must wait for another time.” Rosepetal turned to Wandering and said, “Captain, we will talk again soon. Our crew must rest up for next time.” She trusted the unicorn to clarify her words later if necessary.

Wandering got the gist of what the Caitian had said though. He held up the mate to the comm that he had given to Rosepetal. “We talk when ready.”

The Cosmic Lotus team headed back to the skiff, herding the reluctant griffoness as the Pegasus team watched. The skiff departed and the four turned to head out of the shuttle bay. As they walked, Rosepetal held out the comm to Midnight and said, “Give this thing a deep scan.”

Midnight used hir PADD to try to analyze it and came up with puzzling results. “It does not appear to be dangerous in any way that I can detect, but on the other hand I can’t see how it can possibly function at all. It does not appear to have any conventional electronics.”

“I suppose we should give it a test then,” Rosepetal said, lifting it to her head. It only had a couple of buttons – essentially a walkie-talkie, but that was understandable. She pushed the green button, guessing that it was the ‘on’ switch, and it glowed. “This is Commander Rosepetal testing the communicator.”

A moment later, Amethyst’s voice came back. “We hear you, Commander. The comm works properly.”

“Acknowledged. Rosepetal out.” She pushed the red button and the light went out. She nodded thoughtfully. “As much as their scientist was curious about our technology, I find myself just as intrigued with theirs. Clearly they know something we don’t, and bearing in mind their usage of the unknown energy, we may have found some powerful allies.”

“I agree. That’s why it’s essential that this First Contact situation must go well. While I don’t believe that the one ship out there poses a threat, we don’t know who might follow after them. While they may indeed be peaceful explorers, that does not necessarily apply to all their people. History is full of examples of how things can go wrong very quickly and easily, and Star Fleet has enough problems without creating more.”

Wandering smiled indulgently. “Tech, I have explored and integrated myself into many cultures back on Equus, and it sometimes took me months to learn enough to fit in smoothly with them. Things continue to go very smoothly and quickly with these meetings, and I’ll be very happy if they keep progressing this well. You will just have to cultivate a little patience. It took us ten subjective years to get here – a few more days isn’t going to kill you.”

Phalanx spoke up. “Judging by the emotions that I could taste, they’re very wary of us. Slow and cautious is the best path, and please don’t try to pick up any of their technology next time.”

Techbird gave them a guilty look. “Sorry. Just don’t leave me out of any of this. I can see that I am closer to answering my Question than ever before, and it excites me immensely.”

Wandering patted Techbird on her withers. “I understand, but like I said before – be patient. Thanks to Flix, you have a healthy new body and a long life ahead of you yet. You will have time to find your Answer.”

“While you recover from your latest session of language learning, I am going to arrange a reception for some visitors. I plan to invite some of them over to the Cosmic Lotus for a getting-to-know-you party. As Mama Twilight always likes to remind me – Friendship is Magic, and I hope to put that magic to good use. If we can convince them that we would make good allies, we may get a lot of help with our current problems.”

“Sure, we might make good allies for them, but would they be good allies for us?” Eon asked. “You tend to be over-optimistic, Captain. I advise a bit more caution.”

Wandering grinned back at the dracopony. “Guilty as charged, Eon, but I’m not totally naïve. I’m hoping that the party will cause them to let their guard down a bit, and if that doesn’t work – well, I have a back-up plan.”

“Sorry – I’m playing those cards close to my chest. I’ll tell you later if it becomes necessary.”

After they had been decontaminated, Wandering sought out Willow. The orange changeling was delighted with the prospect of entertaining a group of aliens. The prospect of dealing with several species about which she knew nothing did not daunt her in the slightest.

“I might not have a cutie mark to prove it, Captain, but this is my special talent. Just leave it to me!”

After Amethyst had been treated for her headache and followed that up with a good sleep, Wandering had her use a spell to teach him the latest batch of words of the new language, Terranglo. This was simpler and far less painful than the spell that was needed to learn a strange language from scratch, but the alicorn normally preferred learning a new vocabulary the old-fashioned way, claiming that it gave him a better understanding and feel for the language. However, time was of the essence, and when you had a resource such as the expert linguist Amethyst at your disposal, you took advantage of it. Thus he was fully prepared for their next visit to the Pegasus.

A brief exchange on the comm unit that they had left with their new acquaintances had cleared them for their third visit. Wandering managed to persuade Techbird to stay behind this time, arguing that it was his intention to invite them over to the Cosmic Lotus to entertain them and encourage them to do the same in return. The griffoness would definitely be among those who would get to see more of the alien ship then.

The scenario was unchanged when the four stepped out of the skiff, although Phalanx reported that the level of fear and tension was considerably lower this time.

“Good,” Wandering murmured. “That bodes well for our plans.” As the groups paused about three meters apart, he put on his best smile and said, “Hello, Commander Rosepetal. We are ready to learn the remaining language.”

Wandering inclined his head towards Amethyst. “Language is Amethyst Scroll’s special talent. She learns and teaches me quickly.”

“Then I suppose that we had better let her do her task. Forest, are you ready?”

Forestwalker stepped forward. “Readier than ever. M’Lai gave me a treatment that she believes will ameliorate the effects of the learning process that Amethyst uses.” She settled down and Amethyst moved into her usual position. Her horn glowed and the two were immediately locked in the learning spell once more.

Wandering turned his attention back to Rosepetal. “While we wait, we can talk some. I want to invite you to a party on my ship.”

The Caitian frowned a little. “A party? Do you mean a diplomatic conference?”

Wandering shook his head. “I do not know the word ‘diplomatic’, but I can guess. I mean party. Food, entertainment, and fun to welcome new friends.”

Rosepetal tilted her head slightly in puzzlement. “You wish to throw a party for strangers already? We barely know each other yet! And we cannot be sure that your foods are compatible with our metabolisms.”

Again a couple of Rosepetal’s words were not in Wandering’s new vocabulary, but he gleaned their meaning. Having anticipated a problem, he gestured for Phalanx to step forward. The changeling was carrying a box which he presented to the Caitian.

Wandering said, “This box contains samples of the foods we eat. You may test them for safety.”

Midnight stepped up to take the box and shi scanned it with hir PADD before passing it on to Rosepetal. The alicorn was a little saddened that they were worried about being given some sort of booby-trap, but he had to concede that it was a wise precaution nonetheless.

Rosepetal opened the box and peered inside. There were a multitude of small, clear packets each containing a sample of different foods from cake to salmon pâté which Kale Robe had prepared for them. There were also samples of drinks in tiny jars.

Rosepetal smiled. “A proper party indeed. Thank you. We will consider your invitation.” She put the box aside on a nearby shelf. “Seeing as you have a larger vocabulary now, I would like to ask a couple of questions about things that have us puzzled.”

“First – you showed me how you can hold things with your hoof, but that still seems inadequate for a species to develop sophisticated technology. Did you get help from other species?”

Wandering realized that none of his team had carried anything by magical levitation yet, but while he did not wish to give away too much of their capabilities just yet, that one was so basic that it would very quickly be discovered. “Let me show you.”

The alicorn’s horn glowed, and the box of samples and several other objects on the shelf lifted into the air and did a dance in front of Rosepetal.

Wandering did not know what a Terran was, but he wondered if they had any relationship to the Equians. Maybe they had the magic that these beings lacked? He made a mental note to follow up on that thought later. “You have another question?”

Rosepetal nodded. “I asked this the last time, but you did not understand then. You all have wings, but not even the biggest of them would enable you to fly, and certainly not those insect-like ones, so why do you have them?”

The alicorn wondered if he had understood the question correctly, but he decided to give the obvious answer in the hope of clarification. “We have wings to fly.”

Rosepetal frowned. “No – that’s impossible. How can you fly with those wings? Your body mass to wing area is far too great.”

Wandering grinned and spread his wings. “This is how.” He gave a powerful flap to lift himself into the air, and then maintained a hover with slow gentle beats while still levitating the objects from his previous demonstration.

Both the changeling and the dracopony launched into a hover like the alicorn, Eon’s leathery wings cupping the air in gusts while Phalanx’s diaphanous wings buzzed.

Even Midnight was a little shocked at the incredible display, while the Rakshani was a little disturbed and raised his weapon to a ready position. However, Wandering settled to the floor and folded his wings, and the others followed suit.

Rosepetal shook herself out of her stupor. “Obviously not, but I look forward to learning why.” She decided to put off further questions for the moment. Apparently there was far more to these strange beings than met the eye, and it was wise to learn as much as they could while treading carefully.

They all waited patiently until Amethyst and Forestwalker finished their session. As the chakat was about to get up, Amethyst threw her forelegs around Forestwalker and hugged hir. Midnight flinched at the unexpected move, but Forestwalker did not hesitate to return the embrace, and after a long while, the two parted with genuine smiles of friendship.

“Much better than the past two sessions, Commander. Not only do I think that the medicine was effective, but I think that with the far larger vocabulary we had to work with after the second session, it was easier to make associations with the remaining words. I just have to let things settle down in my head a bit.”

Amethyst said, “We both know the entirety of each other’s languages now. I will teach Captain Path the rest of your language when we return to the Cosmic Lotus, but before that, on behalf of my captain and my crew-mates, I wish to unambiguously declare our hope and intention of making a peaceful, friendly, and mutually beneficial relationship between our two cultures.”

“Excellent. That is our hope also.” Rosepetal faced Wandering once more. “I will pass on your invitation to Admiral Kline and recommend that we pursue this relationship further. It has been a surprising pleasure to meet you and your crew, Captain Path.”

“Thank you, Commander Rosepetal. Call us when you are ready to accept our invitation, and I will send our… little ship to pick up your group.”

“Yes – I don’t think one of our shuttles would be able to access your ship.” She chose not to mention that they could probably beam over. If they did not possess that technology, there was no need to give away that capability.

The Cosmic Lotus team boarded their skiff and departed. A bemused Rosepetal passed the box of samples to Forestwalker and said, “These are food specimens that our visitors provided. Make sure that they get thoroughly analyzed. While I don’t believe that they would deliberately harm us, as you know there are certain things that one species can eat while another can’t. I don’t want any unpleasant surprises.”

“What do you think, Captain? Do you reckon they will accept the invitation?” Eon asked as they headed back to the Cosmic Lotus.

The dracopony grinned. “Great! I think a party is just the thing after all the drama of the past few days.”

“I agree. The crew has earned a break after all the hard work put into completing repairs. And if we can make some new friends at the same time, that’s all the better.”

“Admiral – I have the results of the analysis of the sample foods,” came the voice of the technician over the intercom.

“None whatsoever, provided you don’t overindulge in the alcohol,” the technician added with a chuckle. “The sample was pretty potent stuff. Anyway, we did find one extremely puzzling factor.”

Boyce frowned; he did not like puzzles when it came to foods that he was meant to consume. “What is it?”

“The foods are not only totally compatible with Terran biology, they are also virtually identical to Terran foodstuffs.”

Boyce was stunned. Despite the fact that many foods from one planet could be consumed by beings native to another planet, there was no such thing as a total compatibility. In fact, it was common for at least half to be poisonous to non-natives, and the other half, while edible, were only similar to familiar foods. But these were identical? There was a mystery to solve here that had little to do with eating. He smiled. Finding out was going to be fun.

Cosmic Lotus

by Goldfur

Communicating