Nightmare Moon's Stars

Dignity be damned, Cadance threw away her regalia in midair and belly flopped onto the largest cushion despite the presence of ESR guards rather than her own personal guards.

"Ice cream! Now!" Snapped her aide.

With her muzzle in a tub of chocolate ice cream, Cadance gave the nearby ESR guard a glance. The uniform was a crime against fashion but functional and could be adapted to member species of the ESR.

I wonder how we would adapt ESR uniforms...

Cadance's thoughts froze from a moment.

ESR, thats another change we've gotten used to pretty quickly. Although I suppose it was better than saying Equestrian Star Realm every time. It doesn't help that not everyone in the ESR was a pony in the first place. But now that we've made first contact... no. That is a very long ways off. Thought Cadance as she recalled the events of the past few weeks.

It had been a month since Celestia had spoken to Twilight but every inquiry to the ESR had promised Celestia and Cadance that everyone was keeping an eye on Twilight and actively moderating the amount of her work she did the best they could.

But the universe moved on with or without Twilight's vacation.

So it came as a complete surprise when a major breakthrough in alien contact came not from the ESR's enormous science division, but from the aliens themselves.

The aliens had successfully decrypted and deciphered the Equestrian language and reached out first.

As Cadance was designated to be the ESR's ambassador in the first place, she was ready to respond but unprepared. The creatures of Equestria were not ignorant to the tensions of an unfamiliar face and wanted to go in having quietly observed the aliens beforehand.

It certainly would have helped.

"MONSTER!"

The jaw of everyone hit the floor. Every race in the ESR had been represented for this meeting but the jaw that dropped the fastest was the alicorn jaw. Fortunately, that alicorn jaw did not speak that word.

Unfortunately, the sentient mushroom on the screen did.

For a moment, everyone had frozen and stared. Cadance stared at the fungoid lifeform while the fungoid lifeform stared at her. Despite the difference in biology and the technological distance between the two, Cadance could sense the fear radiating from her diplomatic counterpart.

"The Mycon Empire will not be stopped herbivores!" Hissed the fungus.

"Yaks won't be stopped by puny mushrooms!" Roared the yak ambassador with a stomp.

"We will feed your corpses to our spawn!" Shouted back one of the fungi.

"And we will burn you from the sky!" Sneered the dragon ambassador.

"...!" Cadance could only weakly squeak as the two parties devolved into a shouting match.

"What were you thinking?!" Cadance more than ever wished she had practiced the Royal Canterlot Voice. Half the ambassadors were able to stand their ground.

"First contact with an alien species and you allow it to collapse into a petty argument!" Continued Cadance. "We all agreed that we would reach out peacefully and minimize conflict, how could you do such a thing?"

"Because this isn't Equestria!"

Cadance stopped and snapped to see who said that and caught herself.

The dragon ambassador continued, "Peace and avoiding conflict cannot come at the cost of our safety and security! We cannot expect you alicorns to step in and magically fix things here!"

The breezie ambassador spoke, "If we must choose between being seen as small and weak or large and strong, we should appear large and strong even if we are not."

The yak ambassador stepped in, "Yaks enjoy a good boast, but not bad threats!"

The zebra ambassador interrupted his compatriots, "While we agree with your concerns, we see the burns. A troubled first contact, but not a lost fact."

Cadance silently stared at them and mulled their words. "What about you ambassador? You look like you have something you want to include."

The changeling ambassador shifted uncomfortably under the spotlight she found herself under. "I-um, well... I was wondering how Queen Chrysalis would approach this."

The flooring beneath Cadance's hooves sheared apart as Cadance slowly spoke through her clenched teeth, "What?"

"We-well, if they intend to be hostile to us we should take steps to deal with them?" Whimpered the changeling before curling up in a ball on the floor.

Cadance simply stared at the curled up changeling as the mood of the room quietly shifted towards apprehension.

No one wants to admit it, but diplomats can never discount the possibility of war, thought Cadance. Try as we might, war is and will always be a tool of diplomacy.

"Good job." Calmly said Nightmare Moon.

Cadance twitched at the response.

Nightmare Moon and Celestia's relaxed attitude towards Cadance's report both terrified and horrified her.

"But we've given a poor first impression! We only had one opportunity and we blew it! Our relationship will be mired by this throughout history." Cried Cadance.

Nightmare Moon simply glanced at Celestia.

"Cadance, over a thousand years ago early unicorns and griffins encounters almost always resulted in fights. The griffins thought unicorns were invading armed earth ponies and unicorns thought griffins were clawed pegasi raiders." Responded Celestia with a sigh. "I know our history is sparse on the details of that time, but a bad first impression doesn't foretell the future."

Cadance simply gawped at Celestia.

Celestia simply sighed and silently turned towards her sister.

"You did a good job. That is... what we expected of you." Awkwardly spoke Nightmare Moon before silently back at Celestia.

Sighing again, Celestia continued, "Cadance, while we expected you to put our best hoof forward as a diplomat, we also understood that the situation was so unusual that simply avoiding an immediate declaration of war would have been a success."

"You thought I would fail? Did you set me up?" Snapped Cadence.

"No!" Immediately replied Celestia. "We wanted you to present a good first impression, but you must understand that you and the Crystal Empire simply don't have the experience I have in diplomatic relations."

"Then why didn't you lead the delegation?" Pointed Cadence.

"You know why Cadance." Frowned Celestia. "As... Luna's sister, the nations of Equestria do not me to represent the ESR, lest all of Equestria appear to be ruled by us siblings. If it wasn't for Twilight heading the research and development division, she'd have my role as lead administrator."

"*ahem*" Interrupted Nightmare Moon. "If that is the end of your report, may I suggest we plan accordingly? Until the fleet is reassembled to full strength, it would be prudent to have plans in place should our new neighbors decide to graze on our lands."

"I'll see about expediting the necessary military resources... sister." Cautiously answered Celestia.

Nightmare Moon simply turned to Cadance, "Continue speaking to these Mycon. War is not a foregone conclusion. An enemy that doesn't point their weapon at us is not our enemy."