-------------------------------------------------------------10, DOWNING STREET-------------------------------------------------------------------
It was now 1:10pm in Britain, which meant it was now around 11:40am in Equestria. Prime Minister Chamberlain and President Roosevelt were relieved, that these ponies, the Equestrians were friendly, and more so, they were willing to establish diplomatic relations with the rest of the world. After conducting diplomatic relations on their country, they wondered if they could get a plane there to bring them to Switzerland to meet up with the League of Nations. Japan and China had both agreed to temporary truces, and Adolf had agreed to halt the mobilisation of German troops to the Polish border until the summit had taken place. The world leaders would be flying within two days.
As they were chatting about what to show to the ponies once they arrived, Chamberlain's servant walked in. "Sirs, our ambassadors are calling in. They want to give you a quick update." Chamberlain and Roosevelt sighed, as they walked off to the first contact room, in which the telephone, which was currently ringing, from the American and British ambassadors to the new land.
"Rockmond, Wood, how is it going over there?" asked President Roosevelt.
"All well, Mr. President. We just finished our brunch, and now, a total of 150 of us are going into their city, which seems to be called Manehattan, as in, similar to Manhattan, New York City. There is a huge auditorium-like structure there, where diplomatic negotiations will be held." came the voice of Ambassador Rockmond. "We will be leaving in under 5 minutes. We should be there till around 4:30pm Britain time, or around 3:00pm over here. Oh, hang on, Wood is calling me, we gotta go, see you in sometime!" said Rockmond, as he got called off for something, and hung up the phone. Well, it was lunch time over here in the UK, and Roosevelt was in the mood for some fish and chips, so they decided to go and eat.
-------------------------------------------------------------------MANEHATTAN------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ambassador Wood straightened his tie, combed his long brown hair, and freshened up one last time, as he prepared to leave his ship, along with Ambassador Rockmond, the combined fifty members of their first contact teams, and around 98 soldiers from both their countries. Wood walked down the Nelson's gangplank, seeing everybody in attention and ready to go, while Rockmond was already waiting for him. "What took you so long?" asked an annoyed Rockmond, clearly unhappy about waiting.
"Couldn't find my glasses. Sorry about that, I'm ready now." said an apologetic Wood, who had literally spent fifteen minutes looking for his glasses, which had been on his bed onboard the Nelson, the whole time. "Let's go, everybody!" said Wood, beginning to walk towards the main city. As all 150 men began to do so, they could see the Equestrian guards stationed at the docks, beginning to move as well, as they walked out of the Manehattan docks, as they began to walk towards the city.
Walking into the city, the resemblances to New York City became even more vivid, as they could see what looked like the Empire State Building, just smaller by around fifty stories. For some of the Americans, especially Rockmond, who lived in New York City.
Right where there would normally be an Italian restaurant named Luciano's, not too far from his condo in NYC, there was a restaurant called Luziano's. For some of the sailors who had literally grown up in NYC, such as Captain Buck Danny of the USS Colorado, there were even more similarities. Right were there would have been a White Castle restaurant in downtown Manhattan, there was a restaurant called Black Palace, and where Nathan's Famous would have been, there was a very similar place called Sam's Amazin', serving veggie sandwiches instead of hot dogs. Danny was just admiring how these ponies had managed to use magic to build this, since they didn't have technology. There was even a theme park named Pony Island! They could also see all the inhabitants of Manehattan.
All the inhabitants were looking worried and fearfully at them. They were all either unicorns, pegasi, or ponies without wings or horns all together. They were all different coat and mane colors, and had strange markings on their hindquarters. Despite wearing no clothing, some of them were wearing hats, scarves, and glasses for some reason. That was when he noticed that a few of the sailors at the back of his contingent, were stopping to take pictures with their cameras which they had brought on shore with them. Danny pulled out his radio and called them. "Alright guys, I'll give you time for sightseeing later, but for now, lets get to the negotiations first." ordered Danny. The sailors instantly slung their cameras back around their necks and continued marching with the rest of the group.
Just as Danny began marching, a purple unicorn with a lavender and pink mane, the one that was part of the princesses' retinue during first contact came up beside him, levitating a book and a quill, and started asking questions.
"Hi, I'm Twilight Sparkle, could I ask you some questions, if it's fine with you?" she asked.
"Sure, sure, ask away." replied Danny, willing to answer.
"What is the name of your species? How do you build a large ship of steel and make it move without sails? Are there any other species on your planet? What are those box devices-"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, one at a time, please! I can't answer all of those at once."
"Okay, what is the name of your world and your species?" asked Twilight.
"There are many names, but the most common is human or homo sapiens in scientific terms. Our planet is known as Earth."
"Okay, hoo-man, er, how can you build a ship so large out of metal and enable it to move without sails?"
"Well I'm not much of an engineer, but we do have infrastructure and a dry dock which enable to build a ship like this, and as for how its moved without sails, it is powered by four turbo-electric drives, with steam produced by eight boilers, driving the ship forward."
"Hmm, interesting. I'm guessing Earth has a large industrial capacity?" asked Twilight, amazed how these hoo-mans had the ability to create such things.
"Yes, it does." replied Danny.
"Are there any other species on this planet?" asked Twilight.
"There are many, yes, but we are the only ones with sapience."
"Wait, what?! You're the only species on your planet that are sapient?!"
"Yes, all the other species on Earth are not sapient. We believe some are as intelligent as humans, but they aren't on the same level of intelligence as us and we cannot speak to them, you see."
Twilight was speechless that there were no other sapient species on this planet, as she originally thought there would be at least two or more species on this planet, like there were in Equis.
"Okay, so you are the sole dominant species here, can you explain what kind of box devices you are using?"
"These are personal radios, also known as walkie-talkies. We use them to talk to each other at long distances, and to deliver orders."
"Oh, that's so amazing! What kind of a magic crystal is it powered by?"
"Magic crystal?" asked a confused Danny. "No, no, no. This is not powered by something like that. Its powered by electricity stored in batteries."
"Oh, okay, uh, last question, what are those black staffs you and your guards are carrying, and why are they wearing such strangely colored clothes? Aren't you carrying proper armor and weapons such as spears to protect yourselves?"
Now Danny was thoroughly shocked. Seriously, they had magic powers, but they didn't have things like guns, and had weapons from Earth's medieval period? Like, how? But then again, they were aliens, so they probably didn't have such weapons. Anyways, he pulled his handgun, and showed it to Twilight.
"I'm sorry, this is not some simple staff. It is a weapon called a gun, which shoots out projectiles called bullets at high velocity and high temperature, to penetrate and kill someone. There is no way of fully stopping a bullet, so we wear these clothes to camouflage ourselves in the environments we are fighting in, and confuse our enemies." explained Danny. Danny noticed that his answer had made the unicorn's eyes go wide in surprise and fear, and her ears going up like a cat's, and so had those of a few other ponies next to them. He wondered why; there was no reason to not explain how a gun worked, it was open knowledge as to how they worked.
"Thank you for the information, uhhh - "
"Captain Buck Danny of the USS Colorado."
"Thank you, Mr. Danny for the information. I really appreciate it."
"No problemo."
Danny returned to his marching position and the remainder of the journey was calm and without incident, until they reached the auditorium around 8 minutes later. There were multiple ponies with cameras reminiscent of Earthly ones from the 1850s, and Danny guessed they were probably reporters.
"Hello, do you aliens kidnap fillies?"
"What gods do you worship?"
"Do aliens like art?"
"What kind of strange clothes are you wearing?"
Danny felt offended at that last one. Strange clothes?! The ponies weren't wearing clothes at all, for shit's sake! But since this was a diplomatic mission, he quickly suppressed his emotions, and ignored their questions. He and the other humans then rushed into the building before they were completely drowned in a sea of reporters.
-----------------------------------------------------MANEHATTAN CONVENTION CENTER-----------------------------------------------------
After they finally arrived at the Manehattan Conference Center, Celestia had all the humans enter the main conference room, and had them wait there, until they got ready. Five minutes after they were all settled, Celestia, Luna, and Cadance arrived in the conference room, ready to start up the negotiations. Celestia had the first contact presentation ready to go, and she was nervous. If they didn't start up diplomatic ties with Earth's countries soon, the Equestrian economy would collapse in less than 10 months, due to the lack of customers for their goods and natural resources.
The three princesses sat down, looking at the two human ambassadors, from the United States of America, and the one from Britain. The American ambassador wore a blue suit with a white tie, while the one from Britain wore a black suit with a red tie. Celestia thought internally, "Don't panic, 'Tia. Think of this as a regular diplomatic meeting with regular ambassadors. Just take it slow and smooth, and keep a straight face." Celestia sat down in the center chair, with Luna to her left, and Cadance to her right.
The situation in the room was a little awkward, with good reason, as the last time such a large assembly had taken place was over 100 years earlier, between Equestria and Gryphonia after a rebel uprising of Griffons attacked Equestria, and one involving the Crystal Empire less than 10 years before it vanished for a thousand years.
Discord was also there, having again read the minds of the ponies at Canterlot Castle, and once more having sent out his spirit to watch the negotiations. He was now around 17% free, but could still send out more of his essence every time the number of cracks in the statue increased, so he was able to see the negotiations.
The awkward silence continued for another thirty seconds before the American ambassadors finally broke the silence. "So, shall we get started?"
"Yes, let me first give you a brief history on Equestria. AHEM."
Celestia let off a small sigh, calmed her nerves down and began.
"The Kingdom of Equestria is a unitary state that is governed by an absolute monarchy with the current rulers as I, Princess Celestia, and my sister, Princess Luna. Our kingdom was founded over 2,500 years ago, and has a current population of around 200 million ponies. Our kingdom became the most prosperous on our planet, Equis, with an average income of around 50,000 bits per year, and an annual income of around 100 billion bits a year. Equestria exported a lot of raw materials and goods before we were transported to your planet. This document will give you a more detailed analysis of our nation." explained Celestia, giving a large purple folder to the American and British ambassadors with her hoof. Cadance then spoke up.
"Like Equestria, the Crystal Empire is also a unitary state governed by an absolute monarchy with the current ruler as I, Princess Cadance. Our kingdom was founded just around 2,000 years ago by the late Princess Amore, and has a current population of around 50 million ponies. Our kingdom became the third most prosperous on Equis after Equestria, and Gryphonia, which was once inhabited by griffons, another dominant species on Equis. We have an average income of about 69,000 bits per year, and an annual income of around 75 billion bits per year. We exported a lot of precious metals and crystals. This document will give you a detailed analysis of our kingdom." explained Cadance, giving a similar folder, this one sky blue, to the ambassadors.
The ambassadors and their attaches read the folders carefully for around fifteen minutes, when Rockmond finally spoke up. "Your highnesses, both your kingdoms seem to be wealthier than the average Earthly country, but I would like to ask, why did you come to Earth?"
"Errr... we don't know why, we did not come willingly. There was a strange storm two days ago, and it knocked everypony out, and when we woke up, we had been transported to your planet." explained Celestia.
"But, that's impossible! How can a whole continent suddenly be transported to another world?"
"As I said, we are trying to find out how, but we still haven't found anything."
"Well, that's good to know. We would to tell you that your nations' arrival on Earth sent countries all over the world into a state of panic, as we didn't know if you were hostile."
"I understand. Could you tell the other countries that we are pacifists, and we mean no harm to your nations?"
"There are 69 countries on our planet, some are our allies, and some are our enemies, so they would not believe you until you said it personally."
This shocked all the ponies in the conference room, including Twilight and the Royal Guards. Even Luna, who had been silent all this while, finally said something.
"That is a lot of countries. H-how do we tell them all we are friendly?" asked Luna.
"We have an organization called the League of Nations, where the representatives of all countries come together to discuss global matters. We believe that if you can personally come there itself to explain your situation to the rest of the world, as there will be a meeting of the League of Nations in a few days to discuss your arrival on Earth."
"I will gladly come and explain, when is this meeting taking place and where?" said Celestia.
"The meeting will take place in two days. We can have one of our ships take you to the League of Nations headquarters in Geneva."
"Alright then, I'll clear my schedule to get ready to go there in two days, for now you and your personnel can stay in Equestria for research and scientific purposes, and regarding the opening of diplomatic relations, we will provide buildings for consulates in the capital city of Canterlot, we can discuss something like trade and other agreements once diplomatic contact and communication are properly established."
"Thank you for your hospitality, I will send messages to our leader."
"No problem. I will have Princess Luna and my protege, Twilight Sparkle accompany you and your sailors on a tour of Manehattan. I would also like to invite you to dinner at the local plaza."
"Thank you, your Majesty. We will gladly accept."
"Alright, that concludes this meeting today, then." said Celestia, as she and Cadance left the conference room, while Luna and Twilight began to lead the humans out of the city to tour the city and take them back to their ships.
On the way out, Cadance asked Celestia, "Are you sure we can trust the humans, 'Tia?"
"They are very nice to us, Cadance, and they seem to be interested in starting up diplomatic ties. I'm sure we can trust them." With that, niece and aunt went outside the Manehattan Convention Center to face the reporters, explaining that the humans came in peace, and they would be staying there for some days, and that Celestia would visit the League of Nations in Geneva in two days.
Twilight, meanwhile, couldn't wait to accompany the humans around Manehattan, and had brought notebooks to record their lives and daily habits. Luna was also interested, to know how the governments of human countries worked, and wondered what their culture was like. Meanwhile, Discord, pleased to see how things were going, painfully sent his essence back to his statue in Canterlot, which had cracked another 2%, and would be fully liberated some time after Celestia's visit to the League of Nations.
With this, first contact and diplomatic negotiations were concluded, preparations for the League of Nations meeting were in full swing, and the whole world was excited to know what the Equestrians had to offer.