37 hours before arrival at Equestria, on the bridge
“We'd rather like to join in, if you don't mind.” said Rarity, firmly.
“Eeeeyup.” agreed Applejack.
“Are you sure?” asked Rainbow Dash. “I'm warning you, this guy doesn't pull his punches. I mean, I'm still hurting from yesterday, and I'm awesome.”
“Our sisters,” said Rarity firmly, “were recently kidnapped and taken from us. If I was right there at the time, I'm not sure I could have stopped them – Twilight was right there when they took Spike, and she couldn't stop them.” She stamped one hoof firmly. “I'm not much of a fighter, but if what I learn here can help me to keep Sweetie Belle safe, then that's worth a bit of stiffness, I'm sure.”
“Eeeeeeyup.” said Applejack, with equal firmness.
“An honourable reason.” said Var'aQ. “But why are there only three of you here? Why not the others?”
“Oh, well, Fluttershy's a bit timid around strangers, Pinkie Pie is keeping our sisters out of trouble while we're busy, and Twilight had someone else she wanted to talk to...”
Rarity pointed her horn at the other end of the bridge, where Twilight and Sunek sat staring at some sort of board and conversing in low voices...
* * *
“Knight to F7.” said Sunek, moving a piece on the board and removing Twilight's pawn. “This is what we refer to as a fork; in which one piece threatens two others; specifically, your queen, on D8, and your rook, on H8.”
“I see.” nodded Twilight. “But my king can take it off, right?” She pointed with one hoof.
“That would put him in check, from the bishop at C4.” pointed out Sunek.
“Oh, I see.” said Twilight, with a nod. “In that case, it seems that I would have to move the queen...”
She wrapped the piece in her magic and lifted it slightly, studying the board to find the best place to put it down again. Sunek watched with great interest as the queen simply hovered in the air...
* * *
“SNOW LEOPARD!” yelled Pinkie, running full-speed along the corridor. “SNOW LEOPARD SNOW LEOPARD SNOW LEOPARD!”
Sweetie Belle lay on Pinkie's back, her hooves holding tight to Pinkie's mane, her eyes wide with fear; Applebloom and Scootaloo ran full-tilt ahead of her, leading their rapid flight. They came to a screeching halt in the forward observation deck, where Fluttershy was standing at one end of the window, looking out at the stars; and two of the aliens were standing at the other end, chatting quietly.
“Oh, hello, Pinkie.” said Fluttershy, calmly.
“Fluttershy!” said Pinkie, hopping from hoof to hoof and ignoring the humans' conversation. “You gotta come quick! We saw a snow leopard!”
“It was huge!” said Scootaloo, her eyes wide.
“Oh, dear.”
“Awww, it wasn't that big.” said Pinkie.
“Did it look hurt?”
“It looked scary.” volunteered Sweetie Belle.
“It looked more lost than anything else.” said Pinkie.
“In any sort of trouble?”
“It was the trouble!” said Applebloom.
“Okay.” said Fluttershy. “Where is it?”
* * *
“You do recall what happened when trade with the minotaurs first opened, right?” asked Flim, as he and his brother guarded an unassuming cargo bay door.(1) “Dozens of opportunities for a freelance unicorn to turn a decent profit?”
“I do remember.” said Flam. “But... well, that time I was... um... absorbed by the Borg. I still know... bits and pieces... of what they knew. And do you remember that machine that we got our breakfast from?”
Flim nodded.
“They've all got something similar.” said Flam. “Everypony in this 'Federation'. Once they get hold of one of anything – even just for ten minutes if they're prepared – they can scan it and copy it, as often and as thoroughly as they want. Everypony who can visit Equestria already has all the cider they could ever need, and can create it faster than the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy can squeeze it. And they don't even need apples.”
“That does rather reduce the commercial opportunities on one side of the equation...” began Flim.
“And as for the other side,” said Flam, “the Federation has rules about trading with planets that don't have their own space travel yet. And the rules more or less come down to 'don't'. I mean, there's a few exceptions, but even if there's any trading with Equestria, it'll be a trickle.”
“That's the official trade.” said Flim. “The unofficial...”
“Ferengi.” said Flam. “Almost entirely. The smarter ones will realise that kidnapping potential customers is a bad idea, but as we've already seen, those who don't realise that are more trouble than they're worth.”
“I see.” said Flim.
(1) The Ferengi on the far side of the door had stopped making offers after the Flim Flam brothers had refused a bribe of a full bar of gold-pressed latinum; largely on the basis that latinum was next to worthless in Equestria, but also partially on the basis that they were pretty sure Var'aQ would give them a beating if they took it, and until this ship returned to Equestria, there wouldn't be any way to flee to a nearby town.