Response to threatening environmental stimuli requires holistic detection and encoding of important environmental features that dictate threat. Animals need to recognize the likelihood that an environmental stimulus predicts threat and respond to these salient aversive stimuli appropriately. The nucleus accumbens is uniquely positioned to process this salient, aversive information and promote motivated output, through plasticity on the major projection neurons in the brain area. Here, we uncover a nucleus accumbens core local circuit whereby excitatory plasticity facilitates learning and recall of discrete aversive cues. We demonstrate that nucleus accumbens substance P release and long-term excitatory plasticity on dopamine 2 receptor expressing projection neurons is required for learning about aversion-associated cues. Additionally, we found learning and recall were dependent on different projection-neuron subtypes. Our work demonstrates a critical role for Nucleus Accumbens substance P in cue-dependent aversive learning.