Thirty Minute Ponies 136 members · 57 stories
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Esle Ynopemos
Group Admin

FTL jumps always left everypony disoriented for a moment. It took a few seconds of spinning heads and ringing ears before the crew could return to task.

Among the first to recover was Captain Pulsar. She was a stern unicorn with a stern face. Far too young for the lines on her face. Far too young to be captain, really. A pony didn't become captain at her age unless there were a lot of battlefield promotions. Stars knew there had been. Her choppy forelock was swept forward in an attempt to hide her broken horn without looking like it bothered her.

“Report,” she snapped as soon as her comm officer's screen flashed with activity.

The comm officer, a dusky earth pony, clutched his headset to his ears. “Honesty, Generosity, and Kindness are reporting successful jumps,” he said.

The captain's ear flicked at this. “What about Loyalty?”

The comm officer was silent for a minute, save for a few terse taps of his hooves against his console. “...No hails from the Loyalty, Captain,” he finally said. “They're not showing up on the proximity scanners.”

Pulsar hissed a curse under her breath.

The comm officer swallowed. “They were reporting problems with their jump drive in a few of the previous jumps, Ma'am,” he offered, “maybe they're just slow to spin up this time.”

It was possible. Or they could have missed the target zone and ended up on the other side of the planet. Or their warp core exploded, or the Nightmare got them. There were plenty of possible explanations for the Loyalty's absence, and too many of them were bad.

Her hooves clicked against the bridge's polished steel floor as she paced. Her eyes raised to the wide central monitor set in against the hull to give the illusion of a window into space. The wide gray disc of a planet filled the view.

“Keep searching,” she said. “What have the scans got to say about this rock?”

The comm officer tapped another few keystrokes and the display filled with statistics, thermal images, and graphs. “Atmosphere is O2 rich,” he said, his eyes flickering over the byzantine lists and numbers. “It's a little thin and dry, but it's breathable.”

Pulsar frowned at the data. “It looks pretty grim.”

It was an understatement. The swollen, dying sun that the planet orbited had blasted away anything too close to the equator, leaving only a narrow habitable zone up near the pole. Orbital imaging produced pictures of gnarled, thorny vegetation that looked unpleasant and inhospitable. Life on this planet would consist of long dark nights that lasted weeks and brief, broiling days that lasted mere hours. Radiation meds would be an issue. They had so few ponies left who could cast that spell.

The comm officer licked his lips. “It's no Equestria, but...” He trailed off. 'But we're running out of chances,' was left unsaid. Nopony needed to hear it. Nopony needed to be reminded of the water riots aboard the Laughter. The slow breakdown of the food recyclers. The ever-present threat that the next jump would land the fleet back under the shadow of the Nightmare again.

Captain Pulsar's eyes darted back and forth across the screen, perhaps searching for some glimmer of hope among the dusty ball floating miles below the last of Harmony Fleet. She didn't find one.

“We...” Her hesitation betrayed her. More than the catch in her voice or the lost look behind her eyes, that moment of hesitation revealed her for the scared filly she really was instead of the iron-hard captain she knew her crew needed her to be.

She caught herself after only a second, and the mask came back. “We hold orbit,” she declared. “We wait for Loyalty to rejoin the fleet, then we plot our next jump.” She glanced up once more at the gray world on the monitor.

“There's nothing for us here,” she said.

The prompt: Our home among the stars.


I think maybe I need to re-watch Battlestar Galactica again...

This is a thirty minute writing prompt, meaning you have thirty minutes to finish your story from the time you start writing. You may take as much time as you wish to think, plan, or outline before you begin, but once the first word is on the page, the timer begins. When you are finished, post your story to this thread, and, in the tradition of the TMP mods of yore, I will read and give it a comment when I can.

Traditionally, TMP prompts would have a six to eight-hour window in which to submit, but for these legacy prompts, there will be no limit after the prompt is up. Go ahead and post something a year from now, if you like. Just bear in mind that I'm less likely to respond with feedback to anything submitted more than a week or so after the prompt. Good luck!

3999139
Legacy Prompt 19: Starlight

Amethyst glanced around carefully, making sure that no one was hiding in the darkness of the sewage tunnel. Only when she was sure she was alone did she move, pulling back the enchanted curtain she’d hung across this little side tunnel when she’d moved in. For a brief second, a small burst of light flared out, and then she was through, the curtain falling back and seeming to fade into the wall, blocking the tunnel from sight.
As the curtain slipped into place behind her, Amethyst heard the faintest of noises. Carefully, the changeling doe froze, listening as hard as she could, and identified it - the faint catch of breath from a stifled sob. ‘Kiddo, it’s okay,’ she called out gently, ‘it’s just me.’
Ever so slowly, a pile of what appeared to be cast-off carpeting began to move, eventually revealing a tiny changeling nymph stepping into the lamplight. ‘I’m sorry, Ammy!’ the little one thought back, ‘I’m sorry!’
Amethyst stepped forward. ‘Sorry? For what? What happened?’
The little nymph’s eyes went wide. ‘I, I… you said to stay inside, but I fell against the curtain, and I saw stars out there.’ She sobbed, physically, before going on. ‘And they came this way! I’m sorry!’
Amethyst’s breath caught in her throat. For her cousin’s sake, though, she refused to let her fear run free. ‘That’s… it’s not good, but it’s not the end of the world.’
‘But...’
Amethyst shook her head. ‘No buts, kiddo. Even if they had found you, it wouldn’t necessarily be all bad. You’re too young to remember, but we used to live out among those stars.’
‘We did?’
Amethyst grinned, fangs glinting in the firelight.. ‘Yeah.’ Slowly, she slipped to the ground, pulling her cousin to her side. “Let me tell you the story,” she whispered.

"A long time ago, we changelings lived out in the world, among the stars. Now, the stars didn’t call themselves stars; they had different names for themselves. But that’s what they were, shining stars filled with light. And in those original days, when changelings didn’t have to hide, the stars would shine that light freely for everyone.
"But bad things happened. I don’t know exactly what they were, but it lead to the stars beginning to lose their light. They didn’t shine it as much anymore, and when they did, they only wanted to shine it for those like themselves. So the changelings had to hide, with only a few brave ones going out and pretending to be like the stars themselves, to get just a little starlight to keep themselves alive.
"Eventually, the bad things passed and the stars began to shine brightly again, but by that time, the changelings had been gone for so long the stars didn’t remember them any more. And some of the changelings, in that long drought of starlight, had been twisted by the darkness; given the chance, those changelings would slurp the starlight right out of a star, leaving the stars weak and helpless. Because of those evil changelings, those darklings, the rest of us couldn’t just go back to the stars either. Instead, we had to keep hiding, pretending to be like the stars. We lived among them again, even if they didn’t know it, sneaking away with their starlight, and that’s how it’s been ever since."

‘Was it really like that, Ammy? Did we really live with the stars?’
Amethyst smiled sadly. ‘Yeah, kiddo. We did. Up until the darklings came for our family, at least.’ She forced a cheerful grin, rubbing a hoof behind her cousin’s crest.
The little nymph stared sadly back. ‘I wish it was like that now, Ammy.’
‘It will be soon, kiddo.’ Amethyst stepped over to the lamp. ‘If the stars are coming down here, it won’t be safe to stay much longer. We’ve got to hide among the stars again.’ With a small burst of flame, the changeling doe was replaced by a pink unicorn mare with a purple mane. “Get dressed, Dinks, like I showed you,” she whispered as she picked up the lamp.
A little giggle, followed by ‘Yes ma’am, Miss Star.’ A second flash of flame revealed a tiny grayish unicorn filly, who Amethyst levitated onto her back.
Amethyst grinned at her cousin. “Amethyst Star,” she said, lightly. “It even sounds like one of their names.” She shook her head, then grinned again. “Let’s get going, Dinks. I know a pegasus courier who looks a little like you; with a little effort, I bet we can get close enough for her to shine her light on us for a while.”
Pausing only to strip her precious enchanted curtain from the wall, Amethyst set off, heading back out among the stars.

Magic crackled through the air, and small objects around the room began to lift off of the tables and floor. Princess Twilight Sparkle's horn sparked and shone, and somewhere amid all the chaos and swirling magical lines, a baby dragon dove for cover. The whirling winds and flashing light grew to a crescendo, then stopped, and Twilight Sparkle was gone.

When she opened her eyes, Princess Twilight Sparkle found herself in a familiar place. A quick, disbelieving look showed her that she was alone, and she allowed herself a little excited dance on her hooves. It had worked! All around her hung quiet, blue clouds of... something, and little star-like points of light, which signified... something. Twilight took a deep breath of whatever passed for air here, and tried to calm herself. This was new, this was something to be observed and studied. This was not a playground for full-grown mares to hop around like excitable fillies.

Now that she took the time to consider, Twilight couldn't help but feel that this place, or this other world, was deeply calming by nature. She remembered being here before, just before her apotheosis into an alicorn princess. She had been scared, she had been nervous, and uncertain of Princess Celestia's plans for her, but she had managed a remarkable calm and restraint despite everything. Now that she was here again, she could feel that same lightness and calming serenity creeping back in. Suddenly she wished that she'd had the foresight to bring quill and ink with her, as well as something to take notes on.

She looked down at her hooves, seemingly solidly planted on some kind of invisible floor. Stepping forward, like last time, continued on the same level as though there were something there. With no other options than to move forward for the moment, Twilight Sparkle began walking. Her hooves made no noise on these clouds, and watching the points of light pass her was soothing, if a bit alien and strange. As she walked, she had the feeling that she was moving while standing still, and it didn't make any sense when she thought about it. Twilight just placed that sort of thing in the same category as Pinkie-sense, and tried to just accept it as it was.

Her silent hooffalls and the calming, quieting effect of the place served her well, as out of the fog a figure of a pony appeared. Sitting at rest, with eyes closed and calm, easy breathing was the regal figure of Princess Celestia.

Twilight gasped quietly, but the Princess didn't seem to hear her. Something about the scene was so private and silent that Twilight quite nearly galloped off in a panic for having seen it, but instead she simply stood paralyzed by indecision a few moments. Something in the air must have changed, because a few seconds later Princess Celestia opened her eyes, and turned toward Twilight, and her eyes grew wide.

A silent moment hung in the air between the two alicorns, and the lack of a greeting formed into a slowly growing ball of panic within Twilight.

A ball of panic that was immediately dissolved by a warm and strangely lighthearted laugh from Princess Celestia.

"Princess Twilight, I should have expected you would find me."

Celestia's warm, proud smile made Twilight's heart leap in her chest. It was that same pride she always saw when she excelled at some test, or learned a new magical talent. It still managed to draw a faint blush to the young princess' muzzle. Twilight Sparkle hated how it always made her stammer in embarrassment, but even the calming atmosphere of this place had its limits. "I... I'm sorry, I didn't mean to intrude! I didn't even know you were here, I just wanted to try to come back here, and--"

Princess Celestia stood, and Twilight managed to stop blathering apologies. Celestia leaned her muzzle down and nuzzled against Twilight's mane, and Twilight just smiled and felt all her panic and worry disappear. "Twilight, don't worry. You are as welcome here as any princess. I assume Cadance showed you how? It is remarkable that you learned so quickly."

"Princess Cadance? No, I... well, I was studying that book that connects Equestria to Canterlot High, and I remembered that the first time I was here. I had noticed the resonance of this world, and..."

The look of shock on Princess Celestia's face was so unusual that Twilight couldn't continue speaking. Had it been any other pony, she might have thought it almost comical. She continued after a moment, the nervousness she felt creeping into her voice. "... I... modified that spell, myself?"

Another moment passed before Princess Celestia smiled, positively glowing with pride. "My dear Twilight, I have known you for years and you still surprise me."

Celestia pulled Twilight into a brief hug, and then sat again, resting in the trackless clouds and stars of this world. "I assumed Princess Cadance showed you the way, because it is not an easy spell to master. Cadance took four years, and my sister... well, she rarely comes here, even now. To think you created a spell for this, all alone... I believe Princess Luna would be quite jealous." Celestia's smile turned a bit wry. "Please do not tell her I told you that, Twilight."

"Of course not, Princess! But... where are we, exactly?"

Princess Celestia turned her head upward, looking into the stars around them. "I don't believe it has a name, Princess Twilight. Only alicorn magic can reach it, however. I come here often, for solitude, or rest from my duties."

Twilight immediately thought to apologize and tried to stand, but suddenly found Celestia's wing opened over her back, holding her in place. Celestia spoke again after a moment. "I don't own this place, Twilight Sparkle. Here I am not 'Princess Celestia'. We can just be two ponies, two friends."

A moment passed as Twilight Sparkle let that sink in. Back in Equestria, Spike was probably growing a bit worried about her prolonged absence. She wondered if the Canterlot Castle staff were getting concerned about the missing princess as well. But for right now, the biggest thing in Twilight's mind was the comforting warmth of her friend, and the softness of her wing over Twilight's back.

"Okay, Prin--- Okay, Celestia."

Celestia smiled at her. Smiling, they both just turned to look at the stars.

Esle Ynopemos
Group Admin

4001948 I gotta say, I love the imagery of changelings seeing ponies as though they were shining stars. That's very evocative, and a neat take on the prompt.

I wonder what, specifically, the 'bad things' were. There's a few candidates in canon - Discord, maybe, or the Windigos.

Esle Ynopemos
Group Admin

4002865 A nice bit of Twilestia. Whether it's shipping or friendshipping or whatever else it might be is irrelevant; what matters is that it's nice and calm and fluffy. Just the sort of break busy princesses need, I think.

3999139 Here's mine.

Legacy Prompt #19: First Contact

Twilight Sparkle stared out of the window, into the black void of space. Stars glittered and shone in the distance, and Twilight was trapped inside a cage of steel and plastic. Her hooves made a hollow, ringing impact, as opposed to the hard sound that she was used to from walking on Equestria’s surface, or any solid earth, to be honest.

The thought of Equestria brought a wave of melancholy to Twilight. She couldn’t have known what was going to happen. Couldn’t have prevented it, but that never stopped Twilight from wondering, or missing her many, many friends that she had made on her now absent planet. Even Celestia and Luna were gone, and Twilight had to assume that Cadance was missing to, though that was unlikely, given her old foalsitter’s nature.

Still, it wasn’t all bad. Now she was on a space ship, having been ‘rescued’ from inside an asteroid belt, and she had all kinds of new things to study.

Or she would, if that mechanism on the wall would stop buzzing commands at her. Ever since she’d been taken aboard the ship, it had been barking commands almost non-stop. Of course, Twilight had cast the ‘Babel’ spell on her own ears, so she could understand what it, and her captors were saying, and the reactions had not been good.

They’d been trying to get her to go to the ‘Med Bay’ for some time, which Twilight could assume was the ships’ medical facility, presumably to understand how she was able to survive out in the cold black of space without suffering any damage. Twilight didn’t think these aliens were going to be able to understand magic, or the concept of a self-fulfilling immortal. Truth be told, Twilight wasn’t sure that the aliens who had found her were nice ones, but she was reserving judgement.

“Look, will one of you stupid idiots get into that room and get that purple horse into the med bay? She’ll fetch a high price, and...”

Twilight didn’t need to hear anymore. If her translation was correct, and she was ninety eight percent sure that it was, then these aliens were intending to sell her, and probably other things too. She fired up her horn, and scanned the ship. Sure enough, her magic returned that there were several captive life-forms held in the floors of the ship below her. Slavery was not a new concept to Twilight-several of the cultures that she had run into had practiced it.

And every time, Twilight found it abhorrent. And this time, there was no standing culture or watchful government to make sure that Twilight didn’t interfere. Rearing back, Twilight thrust her horn at the outer wall of the ship, and blew a hole, opening it to the absolute emptiness of space.

The first time that Twilight had discovered that she didn’t need to breath had been on a practice teleport to the Moon. Twilight had stayed up there for a full half-hour before she realized that she hadn’t taken a single breath. In her defence, she’d found some really interesting rock formations and craters. Still, as an immortal, Twilight was more or less immune to harsh conditions of space, and thus simply teleported up to where she guessed the aliens flew the ship. There, she floated outside the window, and waved hello to the aliens. She watched as they scrambled about, yelling to each other. Or so Twilight guessed. She couldn’t actually hear them. But judging by the way that they were running about, Twilight guessed that they were yelling.

****Time****

Now sure that her captors were convinced that she was some kind of space monster, Twilight teleported inside the ship again, and by levitating the aliens into a room, and then using her magic to seal the door shut, she took control of the space ship. After all, it was a far better mode of transport than an endless chain of teleports.

“Well,” said Twilight, as she arrived back in the control centre of the ship, “maybe I can find something interesting to do out here. Maybe even new friends.”

With that, Twilight set about studying the controls of her new ship. She didn’t want to accidentally steer into the heart of a star, and she wanted to see if these aliens had gotten around the faster-than-light problem.

3999139
Legacy Prompt, No.19, Captain Prism Flash, by KwirkyJ



The universe spun as Captain Prism Flash turned the wheel, a wide grin on her face.

“See, Lieutenant Butter? Now we can go anywhere!”

Lieutenant Butter was holding on tight to Captain Prism, but Prism didn’t mind.

“Tank and I got everything all patched up, and we’re good to go!”

“I’m so glad,” Said Lieutenant Butter. “After all that happened with those space-rocks, I wasn’t sure we’d be going again. I should never have doubted you, Prism Flash. You’re so… awesome.”

“I totally am,” boasted Prism Flash. “Now how about we make space wakes and get on!”

With a great roar (but not too loud, Prism Flash was considerate about that), the space-dirigible hurtled itself onward, destination: Anywhere Prism Flash Went But That’s Nice Because Butter Could Come Too.

Captain Prism wasn’t much for standing at the controls, though, so she left them and took to flying around for a while and sometimes taking naps. Lieutenant Butter was happy to take over the piloting, and enjoyed watching Prism.

Then the alarms blared, scaring Butter.

“Oh no, what’s happening?” she cried. “Prism, help!”

Prism Flash was there in an instant.

“Oh no, looks like those Space House Sparrow mercenaries from before weren’t finished after all!” Prism quickly took the wheel and the space-balloon heaved sideways. “Fuel Tank, we gotta go faster!’

Through the intercom came the chief engineer's reply, “Full power now, Captain Prism, it may not be enough!”

“Luna’s Beard,’ Prism Flash cursed, “Looks like we can’t outrun them.”

“Oh, no!” said Lieutenant Butter. “Captain Prism, what are we going to do?”

“Don’t you worry, Fluttershy, we can still out-maneuver them.” The space-balloon twisted again, and the ship arced around a giant space-rock. It was so close Butter could almost reach out and touch it, but she didn’t. She wasn’t scared, either, because she trusted Captain Prism Fash.

“I trust you,” Butter said.

But ahead wasn’t safety, it was another ship! On the rigging up high, their lookout Angel shouted a warning.

“Look out!” Butter cried.

“Drat, it’s Orange Mare!” said Prism. She spun the wheel and the space-balloon heaved again, but the space-wagon of Orange Mare turned. The ships scraped against each other with a very loud scraping noise. Lieutenant Butter pressed her hooves over her ears it was so loud. Rainbow Flash didn’t, because she wasn’t bothered by mere sounds.

The space-balloon bucked throwing them into the air. “Don’t worry, Fluttershy, I got ya!” Yelled Flash, and she flew over in an instant and grabbed her from floating out into space.

“Well, what do we have here,” came another voice.

“Orange Mare!” said Captain Flash, defensive. “What are you doing here again?”

“What do you think I’m doing here, partner,” Said Orange Mare. She tipped her massive hat. “I’m after you, Miss Prism Dash, I told you once and I’ll tell you until you understand.”

“I’ll never work in your space-apple mines! Never!” Yelled Prism Dash, flying defiantly between Butter and Orange Mare.”

“You say that now, but I think my Space House Sparrow mercenaries will leave you little


There was a knock on the door. Fluttershy gave a quiet yelp and the quill smudged on the parchment.

“Oh dear, I wonder who that could be? Angel, can you open the door, please?” Daintily, she placed her writing utensil on the desk and quickly went to the door herself


“Hey, little guy, is Fluttershy – Oh, hi, Fluttershy!”

She couldn’t stop a smile flooding her face when she saw Rainbow Dash at her door.

“Oh, hello, Rainbow Dash.”

“Hey, the Wonderbolts are gonna be racing in Cloudsdale this afternoon. Do you want to come?”

She did, actually, want to spend time with Rainbow Dash. She wanted nothing more than to join in the things that Rainbow liked. Her ears drooped.

“I… Oh, I don’t know, Rainbow Dash. There, um, won’t be a lot of ponies there, will there?”

“Of course there will, Fluttershy. It’s the Wonderbolts, it’s not like they put on private races or anything.”

Of course.

“Oh. Um, I’m really, really sorry, Rainbow Dash, but I, um, I don’t think so. There’s so much I need to do for my animal friends, I don’t think I can take the time…”

“Oh, really?” Rainbows ears sagged.

“Um, maybe, if you have the time, you’d like some tea before you fly off? With me, I mean?”

“Sorry, Fluttershy, but I gotta jet if I want a good ticket. Hey, tell you what, I’ll get you a poster, maybe they’ll sign one for you?”

“That would be, um…” her face flushed. Rainbow, asking to get something for her?

“Hey, you okay?”

“What?”

“Your face is all red.”

“Oh, I –! I, um, I…” Fluttershy stammered, trying to think of an excuse.

“You’re not getting a cold or anything, are you? Pony Pox?”

“Oh, yes! I am!” she cried. “Cough, cough. A cold, very sudden. Ah-choo. Yes. I can’t get other ponies sick.”

“Man, I hope you feel better quick, Fluttershy…”

“I’m sure I will, Rainbow. Um, you’d better go. Don’t want a bad seat or anything.”

“Right. Take care, Fluttershy.”

“Thank you, Rainbow Dash.”

Fluttershy watched Rainbow Dash as she flew off. She shut the door with a heavy sigh and returned to her desk. She looked at the notebook for a moment before turning the page over and dipping the quill once again into the pot of ink...


Lieutenant Butter lay in the bed, Fuel Tank nearby, working the dozens of valves in his steady pace.

“You worry too much,” he said, slow and sagely. “If Captain Prism says you need your rest, she’s probably right. She’s an athlete, and a captain. She knows the importance of staying healthy.”

“You’re right, Tank,” said Lieutenant Butter.

Author's Note:
One could argue that I have done this prompt before, but I wanted to think up something new. What began as a fun romp with some comedic romance twist at the end wound up as something all too bittersweet as it came out. Optional subtitle, In Which We Learn Fluttershy May Or May Not Need Counseling. Note to self: outline more, next time.

And I bet you thought only Rainbow Dash wrote bad space-adventure self-insert stories.

4010948
This was a fun one. And sad. Fun and sad.

Esle Ynopemos
Group Admin

4009061 These aliens have learned a very valuable lesson: Don't f:yay: with Twilight Sparkle. They can write to their princess about it.

The implications of this one are awfully depressing, though. Twilight would have had to have been floating out there by herself for a very, very long time.

Esle Ynopemos
Group Admin

4010948 My gosh, this is adorable! At first I assumed this was Rainbow Dash's imagination, because that's just the sort of ego she has. But then it turns out Fluttershy was writing it, and it makes so much sense. Poor girl.

4019275
...And were this a full, publishable story, the audience would be confused because, apparently, comedy-sad is not a thing that can exist. Thanks for the comment!

(And thank you for your comment as well, Esle, though yours was anticipated)

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