Nightmare Moon's Stars

No matter how many times she looked it, she never got tired of it.

Twilight stared out the window and took in the sight of the planet below. Equestria.

It had been a while since Princess Luna, now Nightmare Moon, started having nightmares of the future. As much as it pained Twilight to know that Nightmare Moon continued to be haunted by those dreams to this very day, she had to look at the bright side. Nightmare Moon's nightmares gave her Equestria insight into technologies unimagable before. From hot air balloons and zeppelins to a space ships and a space station, even though Twilight had been apart of the research teams for nearly every project, she was still fascinated by it all.

"Princess Twilight?"

Looking over to her shoulder, a bat pony stood in the doorway.

"Its time."

"A little bit longer." Replied Twilight. This had been the ninth time she asked him for more time. Surely this time he would drag her out by the tail.

"A little bit longer." Refrained the bat pony.

"A little bit longer." Repeated Twilight.

The bat pony simply bowed and left.

Twilight simply couldn't help herself. The prospect of returning to her castle to work as the Princess of Friendship still held its place in her heart, but there was something new. A deep realization within Twilight had been born. A simple one that she simply couldn't see before.

Ponies were small. Very, very small. Canterlot Castle vaunted towers were impossible to see from here. Its gold and purple topped towers overshadowed by the electric lighting of the surrounding city. Even the sculpture garden where Discord was once interned and the hedge maze were flooded by lights from the city.

Without even turning her head, Twilight could see the lights of Ponyville, a now bustling city. The presence of Princess Twilight Sparkle was more than enough to spark development in the area. But when Nightmare Moon ordered research facilities to be constructed there so that Twilight would not have to constantly travel between Canterlot and Ponyville, the area boomed.

Other countries had joined the newly established Equestrian Star Realm as well. Many had resisted but when the first rockets starting beaming down images of the planet's surface far above altitudes anypony could reach, no one wanted to be the last to join. To this day it was still rumored that Breezies had been employed to manipulated the order in which the paperwork was processed.

Thankfully, Nightmare Moon's new Equestrian Star Realm left terrestrial control in the hands of the locals. Dragons were already arguing with unicorns in regards to any prospective space gems. The dragons had already prepared research facilities on studying space gem cuisine, while unicorn tailors prepared warehouses full of dresses ready to be adorned with space gems.

"Princess Twilight?" The bat pony interrupted again.

"A little bit longer." Replied Twilight. This had been the tenth time she asked him for more time. Surely this time he would drag her out by the tail.

"We have an incoming transmission for you." The bat pony responded.

"A little bit longer." Repeated Twilight.

"Nightmare Moon is calling you. She said she wanted to speak to you about the colonization project."

Twilight silently stood there as the gears in her head slowly shifted. Willing herself to close her eyes, she finally turned around.

"Alright. Lets go find some ponies a new pasture." Answered Twilight.

Sitting in her castle in Ponyville, Twilight prepared for an emergency meeting between the princesses. The Thunderbolts exploration team had found something and sent the data back with urgency.

Months of exploration and many months more of planetary analysis to finally find a planet suitable for Equestrian life yielded nothing. It did yield something else though.

Alien life.

Not the aliens Nightmare Moon had been dreaming of for so long, but something else entirely. Alien spacecraft which looked completely un-Equestrian. Twilight could only stare at the images beamed back by the fleet in awe. Surprisingly, it was Princess Cadence who broke the silence.

"Gather anthropologists from across the world. Have them devise multiple ways of communicating with them. I want to open diplomatic channels as soon as possible. If they are not enemies, they can be allies." Sternly ordered Princess Cadence.

Princess Celestia quickly followed up, "Prepare to send a diplomatic mission as soon as communications are open!"

"Twilight begin allocating resources for fleet construction."

Everypony stared at Nightmare Moon.

"Ni-sister. We should not reach out with weapons in hand." Quietly replied Princess Celestia. Twilight's ears flopped flat against her head, after all this time, Princess Celestia still had trouble talking with Nightmare Moon.

"We won't sister. Our weapons will be behind our flanks." Coldly replied Nightmare Moon. "If they are not our enemies, they will not see our weapons. If they are, we will be glad to be prepared."

Twilight could only sit there in silence as the two stared at each other through the magical screens. Celestia was visibly troubled just by looking at Nightmare Moon, a testament to the damage done by her second return. Celestia no longer cried or begged Nightmare Moon to turn back into Princess Luna but she couldn't accept Nightmare Moon as her sister. Nightmare Moon however, stared with a troubled expression. She was not foalish enough to not understand Celestia's dilemma, but she was powerless to do anything about it.

No, thought Twilight. Thats not right either. Nightmare Moon could ease Celestia's worries by turning back into Princess Luna. But if those nightmares are still haunting her, would Princess Luna want to come back?

Cadence broke the silence, "Twilight, make the necessary adjustments to the budget to move forward on the colonization project. We will make the necessary changes once we know more about these aliens."

With more enthusiasm than necessary, "Agreed!" Shouted Twilight as she slammed her hoofs on the table and pushed herself up. Before slowly sitting back down when she realized her outburst. "I'll... get right on it. Aha hah ha..." Nervously chuckled Twilight as the volume of her voice continued to drop.

"*Ahem*, that will be sufficient then." Calmly announced Nightmare Moon. "Celestia, please contact the other nations and inform them of the situation. If they wish to participate, they know the conditions. Twilight, focus on rebalancing and redesigning the budget, I know you will want to join the research team, but this is more important right now. Moving forward, we will need the flexibility to reallocate resources quickly in the future. Dismissed!"

The images of Cadence and Nightmare Moon disappeared as they returned to their respective duties, but the image of Celestia stayed.

"Twilight?" Asked Celestia.

"Yes, Princess Celestia?" Twilight responded.

"Think we'll ever meet them?" Asked Celestia.

"Huh?"

"No, its nothing. It was just... a daydream I had. Huh." Chuckled Celestia.

Twilight simply stared confused by Celestia.

"I'm not sure what I was thinking then, but do take care of yourself Twilight. Your letters have gotten more infrequent since you returned from space. I hope Ni-my sister is not overworking you." Inquired Celestia.

"No, I've been... thinking about the colonization project." Cautiously answered Twilight. "So much of our culture is based on you raising the sun and Luna raising the moon. On a different planet that won't happen! What'll happen to ponies where the weather isn't controlled by pegesi? Can Earth Ponies buck alien trees the same as trees? Can unicorns do if they can't use their magic?! Dragons explode because of the atmosphere!?!" Frantically screamed Twilight as she began to simultanously babble and hyperventilate.

Celestia's face simply soften into a smile as she watched Twilight just as she had as a student. "Its all right Twilight. I have trust in you and your research. Whatever planet we colonize will be safe for Equestrians because you'll make sure of it." Celestia softly spoke, in the same teacher's voice she had used so many times with Twilight.

Slowing her breathing, Twilight gathered herself, smiled back at Celestia and simply said, "Thank you. I'll never get tired of hearing that from you Princess Celestia."

Twilight practically drowned in her work. Despite the army of ponies working under her, the project proved to be nothing less than a mess. Since the project had been conceived under Nightmare Moon's direction, none of the logistical planning had taken into account Equestrians other than ponies.

That was a mistake.

When the discovery of aliens had been announced to the world, a fuse was lit. The science that went into planetary research was dense enough to turn nearly everyone towards blatant disinterest, but the discovery of aliens summed up the situation quite nicely.

If aliens could live on different planets, we could too.

The parameters of the project changed on a daily basis.

Everyone, including non-ponies, wanted to be a part of the project and as members of the Equestrian Star Realm Twilight felt the need to accommodate them. The food stores quadrupled due to the variety of species onboard. Brand new research teams were established in order to adapt equipment for non-ponies. A brand new command center was even constructed because of the expanded, and non-pony, staff. By the time construction on the colony ship began, research teams had discovered no less than 4 viable planets for colonization.

And yet, that was not the only thing threatening to drown Twilight. The Equestrian Star Realm had established multiple resource gathering satellites at this time and had granted Princess Celestia authority to allocate and redistribute them for domestic purposes as she saw fit. Nightmare Moon's request to make the resource allocation system more streamlined resulted in a political mess so large that Twilight and Celestia both suspected Discord had a hand in the matter.

When Nightmare Moon ordered Twilight to redirect resources for use by the Equestrian Star Realm, the ruling classes were outraged. They had begun to enjoy the fruits of the Equestrian Star Realm and loathed to give them up. Not even Princess Celestia's one thousand years of negotiating experience was able to fully quell the uproar. More than once a furious ambassador or noble stormed out of Celestia's throne room fuming about the greed of the Equestrian Star Realm. And as the architect of the Equestrian Star Realm's resource allocation, Twilight's presence was demanded for the proceedings.

Its not completely terrible, thought Twilight. These meetings give me time to be alone with Princess Celestia. She pretends otherwise, but even now she tries to defend her sister. Projected meetings are no substitute for physical face-to-face meetings.

Curling up in bed, Twilight thought about the past. Her time as a mere librarian in Ponyville was filled with fond lighthearted times, unlike her current, high stress situation.

Well... that is not quite true either, dwelled Twilight. Using the Elements of Harmony on Nightmare Moon, reforming Discord, defeating Tirek and... I better not think about it. Maybe I should schedule myself a vacation. Or at least a few hours at a spa, I haven't had a seaweed wrap in a while. Tomorrow is another day, I should look forward to finally interacting with aliens.