Sundrop’s ship touched down at her private estate. As promised, it had been a relatively short trip. Rotunda had been observing the colony from a vid-screen that had a camera placed on the outer hull of the ship showing the landing. From what she could tell, Haizum colony was closer to the ‘inner core’. The more developed worlds that made up what the Empire called the galactic centre. Equestria at its middle and then branching outwards to the rest of the galaxy.

During the landing she could make out multiple cities, each dotting the landscape whereas currently, Sleipnir only had the main centre which didn’t really have a name yet. Surrounding them the planet was lush and green, with only a few areas showing the original rocky surface of the planet. Terraforming was nearly complete. Haizum was a rich colony, having given much of its land over to farming the Foruna fruit. The lush green landscape was dotted with fields which centered around large farmsteads. As the ship landed, Rotunda took note they had touched down at one of the larger ones. At this point her maid, Cherry, waddled her way into the room.

“We’ve landed my mistress. Sundrop has already disembarked. She awaits you in her mansion. She apologizes for not waiting but she had some things to attend to upon her return.” Cherry said, Rotunda just observed her new uniform and smiled before giving her reply.

“Thank you my dear. That tailor of hers has done a fantastic job. If you could be by my side for the duration of the visit unless I say otherwise I’d appreciate it.”

“Of course mistress.” was all that Cherry replied, the maid turned to prepare to waddle next to her more mobile master who was herself now piloting her pad towards the ships exit.

Once disembarked Rotunda stopped for a moment and observed her surroundings, the house in front of her was as magnificent as the ship. With a pearly white marble covering and gaudy stone carvings it looked nothing like a farmhouse, more like a mansion as Cherry had said. It put her home back on Sleipnir to shame in its lavishness. It sat high atop a hillside, looking down on the multiple fields of the Foruna fruits below it, it was now plainly obvious how Sundrop or her family had made their money here. The weather was pleasant too, sunny but not baking hot. Looking at the ponies busying themselves below on the farm she could see why.

Not one was capable of moving under their own power, clearly Sundrop looked after her workers well. Every single one was working on a pad. Scuttling about doing their duties, it seemed to be they were collecting the ripened fruit. All varied in size, but all big and fat enough to need pads to get about. In fact she perhaps surmised that Cherry and Sundrop’s own personal servants were the only ones within a reasonable distance not using them. Looking a the rest of the horizon Rotunda could only make cities out in the distances, vast and dense their pristine white skyscrapers rose high above the ground. The colony looked so...clean, compared to Sleipnir's still developing state.

Cherry lightly coughed. “Mistress, your friend awaits you inside.”

“Thank you dear, please lead on.”

Passing inside the house and down a long, wide corridor Rotunda took note of the further lavish decoration inside. The walls were lined with paintings, statuettes and other items only the rich decorated their houses with. At the end, two doors swung open and revealed behind them a huge space for entertaining. At the centre, Sundrop had parked her pad and had a screen hovering in front of her face, Rotunda heard her mutter “Increase the water flow on the southern fields, crop isn’t doing so well…” before shutting it off and looking at her with a smile. “Ah, Comet! Do make yourself at home. I’m sorry I had some work to sort out upon landing, but I’m free now.” she tapped on the side of her pad with her lower hooves, from behind her Dewgrass appeared, he must have been there the entire time. “Dewgrass, please inform the kitchen of my arrival home. We require a small feast.”

“At once my lady.” the stallion waddling his way out of one of the many doors to the room, presumably towards the kitchens.

“Not at all, I was observing your lovely colony. It seems very, organized.” Rotunda said.

“You know not many ponies notice the grid system we have worked out here.” Sundrop replied, smiling as she brought up a map of the colony. “It’s only really noticeable if you look when touching down. We are primarily a farming colony, but we of course need places for the ponies here to live. Large cities sit on a grid system, roughly 250 miles apart each. Between them, nothing but fields and farmsteads like this one. The cities also serve as any space ports for those wanting to get off world. Only farm owners such as myself have the rights to land their ships in places like this.”

“Hmmm, impressive. How long have you been at this?” Rotunda asked, curious.

“Roughly 800 years. Before Haizum was a manufacturing colony, not fully explored you see. It was by luck that when the colony was started to be explored fully a pocket of the Foruna fruit was found growing on the southern continent. As you can see, we’ve terraformed much of the colony to allow for perfect growing conditions for it.” she said rather triumphantly, clearly it was a big deal here to be able to grow these things. With their properties, it was obvious why.

“That is all you grow? Surely not all your citizens eat these fruits every day, you’d all be as big as houses and more within months?” Rotunda pressed. The more she was learning, the more interesting it became.

“Of course not. Actually very little of the populace indulge in the fruits. It is far more profitable to sell them to other colonies. That’s not to say they don’t indulge in one or two once in a while.” Sundrop smiled, the smile growing wider as Dewgrass returned with some trolleys of food dishes which he laid out for the two of them to enjoy. It was always good to discuss interesting matters with some food, Rotunda observing it.

“Then how do you get these? You don’t make it yourself or grow it here?” she asked, observing a cucumber sandwich.

“All imported dear. That is the only downside of the colony. We are completely dependant on offworld imports for more regular foods. I suppose in a crises we could turn over some of our farmlands to growing more regular crops but the Foruna fruits bring in so much money, we can easily afford to import whatever we desire. The fruits paid for the golden ship we rode in on.” she explained, taking a bite of a sandwich for herself.

“Must be rather tempting to want to take those fruits for yourself, I assume trade is regulated?”

“Absolutely, we are very strict on how they are sold and shipped off-world. Farm owners such as myself have to comply with extremely strict standards. My staff have to even be weighed every day when entering and leaving the premises. If they’ve gained 150 pounds or more then, it’s obvious they’re sneaking fruits.” Sundrop explained.

“I must admit I’ve never seen a farm where all the workers are so large they have to work on pads.”

“Like I said, they do indulge, sometimes. But they buy their own fruits. We may give them a gift of some after Hearth's Warming or other holidays but they must be able to work, even on pads.”

“The fruits are certainly...interesting, I am very surprised they have not made their way to Sleipnir.” Rotunda asked. The size of the farms and the richness of the colony made it obvious this operation was no secret, she’d have thought all the colonies would have been keen to get some sort of contract deal going.

“We ship them in limited quantities, there are a number of factors that mean we cannot ship them to colonies for all their citizens to partake in, it is a luxury food. Firstly the cost puts them out of reach for most citizens of other colonies, secondly, we are but one planet producing. You know there are countless other colonies, we cannot supply them all, as well as our own citizens. It is a juggling act to actually agree contracts for amounts depending on supply and demand. Then there is the consumption, believe it or not, not many ponies want to eat them as they need to be eaten. Cutting them up is no good, the effect is lost. So we can then only supply them to the ones that eat them as we did. Obviously even with all those factors, demand is high and we have to make sure everypony is supplied.” the explanation continuing. The fat mare took a breath for a moment to eat, allowing Rotunda to respond.

“Indeed, so what wiggle room would there be to supply Sleipnir with some of these amazing fruits?” Rotunda asked.

“Practically none I’m afraid, our quotas are filled this year. I hope that isn’t why you made this trip, I’d be upset if it was all for nothing.” Sundrop said, her grin turning more to a placid and neutral look.

“Okay, let me put it another way. What about a private supply, to just one buyer, myself?” she asked, the neutral look on Sundrop’s face now turning back to a smile.

“You know I thought after our small little feast on that resort you were curious. One single extra pony we may be able to squeeze into our supply chain. Before we can discuss something like that, I must give you a tour of the farm so you understand the effort these fruits take to cultivate. Then you can try a few more of them to sample again to make sure you’re really interested. For now let us eat, once we’re done I’ll arrange for a tour. Dewgrass, go and fetch the farm manager if you’d be so kind. Inform him we have a guest to show around.”

Dewgrass simply nodded and waddled his way out of another door. A farm tour would be interesting, Rotunda was keen to see just how these fruits were cultivated and hopefully once done, she could formulate some sort of deal with Sundrop. That goal of gaining to be the biggest mare on the colony was inching its way closer, sealing the deal just required a little patience and finesse on her part. She kept her cool and the conversation moved on, but inside, her heart was beating against her chest with excitement. Something she had not felt in years.