Nightmare Moon's Stars

"...should ensure the safety of the crew and passengers." Concluded Twilight.

"'Should?'" Pushed Nightmare Moon.

"W-well, the situations we are dealing with are so fast and distant from Equestria that magical exhaustion will be a constant concern." Nervously answered Twilight, "We can prioritize and reserve magic for this, but... well... we should still avoid fights?" By the time Twilight finished that line, she had dropped into Fluttershy levels of volume.

Nightmare Moon waited and then simply nodded. Smirking at Twilight's poorly veiled sigh and turned her head to Celestia, "We should have the system refitted and designed into all existing and future ships as soon as possible. Civilian and military."

Celestia nodded, "I will have all ship production put on hold for refits and have the design teams work on the modifications. We will have to reduce our projected production rates due to the increased cost."

"A ship can be rebuilt, a crew cannot." Nightmare Moon mused.

That garnered smiles from everypony in the room.

"Nonetheless, we should we cannot always avoid fights." Nightmare Moon continued. "See to it that our scientists continue to work on improved armor and shielding. Ideally, we would need neither, but it would be naive to believe our enemies would not develop armor and shields themselves. Cadance?"

Cadance nodded in recognition. "Yes, it was as we feared, a war has broken out among the alien races."

"Wait," interrupted Twilight, "can you be more specific in which alien races we are talking about?"

Cadance frowned. "Well... no. Not exactly..."

"What Cadance means to say is we do not know who the Vasudan Imperium is at war with." Interjected Celestia.

"B-how can we not know who they are at war with?! It is an interstellar war! At this level of technology the number of deaths must be catastrophic!" Shouted Twilight on the verge of becoming hysterical.

"Twilight, breathe. Remember what I taught you." Calmly spoke Cadance as she gently placed a hoof on Twilight's wither.

As Twilight slowly inhaled and exhaled, Cadance continued, "The reason we do not know who they are at war with whom is because they refuse to share that information with us. In addition, we believe it to be an alien race whom we have not made contact with."

"Perhaps our diplomats need more experience in spycraft." Pointed Nightmare Moon.

"No." Simultaneously replied Celestia and Cadance.

Nightmare Moon simply shot a toothy grin, while Twilight stared confused.

Celestia recovered first, "In any case, all we can do in this situation is wait and watch."

Cadance nodded, "As... callous as it may sound, we got lucky." Noticing Twilight's continued stare of confusion, Cadance continued, "The Vasudan Imperium was one of the alien races that was seeking to sign an defensive pact with us. Had we agreed to do so, we would currently be at war with no military."

"Accurate, which will be corrected." Nightmare Moon growled in frustration. "I have no desire to see our ponies, or our fellow Equestrians, sent to war. Even less so for a war on foreign lands like mercenaries."

"In that regard, we are of one mind." Quickly affirmed Celestia.

"Agreed." Followed Cadance.

"Mmm." Muttered Twilight as she lost herself in her thoughts.

Celestia noticed Twilight's behavior and immediately recognized it, "A bit for your thoughts Twilight?"

"Oh! Um... well, I was just thinking." Twilight answered nervously.

"Please. Share it. It would be problematic if we avoided speaking to one another." Nightmare Moon insisted.

"Er... well... I do not want Equestrians to be sent to fight wars that do not involve us, but this would be an opportunity... for science?" Twilight covered her face with her hooves.

"Hm..." Thought Nightmare Moon.

"Hehe. Ever the scientist, Twilight." Laughed Celestia. "While I understand what you are trying to say, you must remember that this is not a Daring Do adventure."

"And this would not be like the wars of yore." Added Cadance. "We would not be marching side-by-side with the Vasudans, but separated from one another by space and space ships. Any camaraderie would be, at most, limited to military officers coordinating the fleets."

"I see... I guess it was kind of silly..." Twilight smiled sheepishly.

"No." Interjected Nightmare Moon. "It was not."

Confused by Nightmare Moon's claim Cadance spoke on behalf of the others, "What do you mean?"

"Celestia may have forgotten after a thousand years of ruling Equestria, but I have not." Nightmare Moon sneered. "I keenly remember a time when Equestria was beneath the hooves of other empires, other rulers. Ponies would fight and die just so the surviving ponies could learn."

Celestia's eyes and mouth began to gape as she recalled those long forgotten days while Twilight continued to focus entirely on Nightmare Moon's impromptu history lesson.

"In times of war, ponies go to war with the equipment they have, not the equipment they need." Nightmare Moon continued. "We may not be able to learn from the Vasudans or their opponents on a personal level, but we may be able to learn about their equipment."

"Salvage." Twilight slowly realized. "You want to reverse engineer the salvage from the war to advance our own technology!"

Nightmare Moon simply smiled.

Celestia had a much more complex smile.

Cadance just frowned.

"Twilight, I should not have to remind you that we are dealing with Equestrian lives." Coldly reminded Cadance. "I do not like the idea of putting countless lives at risk for the sake of science."

"And she would not." Interjected Nightmare Moon. "Although I agreed to decline the defensive pact, I did review the details with our military and we found them to be surprisingly pliable."

"Military independence." Recalled Cadance. "Each military force would remain under the independent command of each sovereign country." Eyes widening in realization. "You would use our allies as a means to weaken the enemy before our own gallop in to finish them off!"

"And seize the salvage." Nightmare Moon acknowledged with a wide toothy smile.

"And uphold our end of the defensive pact." Added Celestia with a smirk.

Nightmare Moon frowned at that, "Yes, I suppose there is that as well."

The two stared at one another before Nightmare Moon finally spoke, "Nonetheless, we are not involved in this war and our ships are in need of refitting. We will keep this in mind for the future. If that is all for today, let us adjourn. Twilight's scientific lectures are insightful but not lacking in brevity."

Before Twilight could react, Celestia grabbed Twilight with her wings and hugged her close.

Cadance smiled at the outward but not unfamiliar gesture between the alicorns.

Nightmare Moon stopped for a moment to stare at the two, before leaving the room. All in all, a good meeting.