“Okay, just a little bit more… perfect!” Twilight Sparkle looked up from her compass. “Now, we just have to-” She broke off as she saw that the compass needle, rather than swinging to keep its direction, was maintaining its position relative to the compass itself as she moved it. “No,” she half-yelled, half-moaned, shaking the compass. Finally, it settled into position, swinging freely, and ended up pointing several degrees away from where it had been originally. Carefully, Twilight slipped the pads she’d positioned on the floor until they were once more aligned, this time to the new heading, and hesitantly tapped the compass. It quivered, then settled back into the same position, and she gave a sigh of relief. “Good,” she said, wiping her brow with her hoof, “they’re ready.”
She then turned to the first of her two guests. “Princess Celestia, would you please step on the red pad?” Then, as the pony in question meekly did so, Twilight turned to the other. “And you, Princess Luna, to the blue one?”
Instead of moving, the named pony simply stared at Twilight. “Darling,” she said, “I think your panic is causing you to hallucinate a bit. Could we perhaps take a break for supper, instead?”
Twilight blinked, the image in front of her rapidly refocusing itself. Luna doesn’t-
Slowly, Twilight rubbed her eyes. Once they were clear, she was looking, not at Luna, but at Rarity. Rarity wearing the costume they’d used to help teach Rainbow Dash, but still Rarity. Slowly, Twilight’s gaze swung sideways, to where a similarly-costumed Fluttershy stood, precisely where Twilight had set her. “I… I’m sorry, but I can’t. Tomorrow’s meeting is important, and the Yeti prince is very precise about what he considers proper protocol. I can’t afford to mess anything up. That’s why I need to make sure I’ve got my role memorized and perfected.”
“Come now, darling,” Rarity said as she stepped to Twilight’s side, “surely he can’t be that bad.”
Twilight swung her head, staring slightly over Rarity’s left shoulder as she spoke. “From what I’ve heard, he exiled his own wife because she accidentally let a candle drip on him.”
“Twilight, please.” Fluttershy, having come up on Twilight’s other side, placed her own foreleg across the back of Twilight’s neck. “We know how important this is to you, but you really do need to take a short break. You won’t do yourself or anyone else any good if you get to worked up.” She pivoted, allowing her to gaze straight into Twilight’s eyes. “You don’t want to repeat what happened with your old doll, do you?”
Twilight’s eyes went wide with fright, and she cringed back. “No, Princess Celestia, I…” She trailed off as she realized what she’d said, and slowly shook her head. “Maybe you two are right,” she said, finally. “I am too close to this. Rarity, is that offer for supper still available?”
“It is,” Rarity said, nodding. “After you, my dear.” And so they set out, into the light of the setting sun.

The Prompt(s):
East of the Sun
and / or
West of the Moon

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!

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Legacy Prompt No. 51, Stalemate by KwirkyJ

The bed heaved, her stomach with it. Rainbow Dash stirred, coughing hoarsely as she fought back bile. She pulled at the ropes again, the pain bringing the blur of reality into sharp relief. There, a book propped up before her, the thing that looked like Twilight sat; the thing that brought this upon her.
“I hate you.” The words failed, muted and croaking in her parched throat.
Twilight’s ear twitched absently.
Another cough. “I said,” this time it worked, “I hate you.”
Twilight startled, instantly on her hooves. “Rainbow Dash!” The appearance of genuine concern was immaculate. “You’re up. Here, you need to drink some water.”
“Don’t want it,” Rainbow tried, managing again on the second try.
“Rainbow, please! You’ve lost so much… you wouldn’t take it even while…”
After a thick swallow, “Maybe if I wasn’t tied up.”
“I know. I’m sorry, Rainbow. But… but you have to stay—”
“You’re not Twilight. She would let me go.”
“I know it hurts, but if you just stopped struggling—”
“You’ll never take me, changeling. Never.”
Twilight sagged. “You’ve gotten even worse. You were tugging even while you were asleep.” She cautiously drew closer, making a face at the vibrant red welts. “Can I see your legs, please?”
Rainbow tried to bite her.
“I’m sorry, Rainbow, I really am. You tried… you could have drowned.”
“Drowned? Me?”
“We’re in the middle of the sea, Rainbow.” The false Twilight gestured to the room, obviously a cabin swaying with the motion of waves. “You agreed that you shouldn’t fly when you…” She gulped. “Please, Rainbow. You have to drink something. You’ve lost so much fluid.”
Rainbow pretended to consider it for a moment. “No. Poisoned.”
Shocked, “Rainbow!”
“Daring Do and The Astral Sceptre, the Vi’e camel horde. The real Twilight would understand.”
“We read that book together, Rainbow, you and I! But… but….” She trailed off.
“Gotcha.” Rainbow grinned in feeble triumph.
“No, Rainbow. You… you were poisoned. Are poisoned. Very badly. Don’t you remember anymore?”
Rainbow squinted in concentration. “What’s to remember? You‘re just trying to pump me for information! I figured out your game, changeling. You won’t get anything outta me.”
“The map sent us, Rainbow. To Zecora’s homeland. Remember? The zebras? We helped the zebras. But you ate something… Something cursed. It’s been eating your sanity for two days now.”
The purple imposter unrolled a map that had been sitting on the bench. She pointed to the right of Equestria, down near the twin marks of the Royal Sisters. “The pilot says we’re still only about here. Just west of the moon. Celestia and Luna will know what to do. I hope.”
Rainbow just glowered at her, defiant.
“Please, Rainbow, let me help you. Give me something, please, I want to just help you remember. Like with Discord, remember? I can use my magic—”
“Don’t you dare.” Rainbow snapped her teeth again. “I remember Shining Armor; what that changeling’s magic did to Twilight’s brother’s head. You’re not gonna do that to me.”
Dejected, “Of course I won’t.”
“Twilight would help me. Twilight would know what to do. Twilight would let me go.” Each mention of ‘Twilight’ was lye. “Celestia’s student would do what’s right and take care of a changeling like you. The Element of Magic would blast you into oblivion. Again, remember? The Princess of Friendship would be there for me. My friend. My friend. Not you. Stop crying, you monster, you aren’t her!”
Twilight dragged herself away, wiping. “I-I’m going… I’m going to double check with the pilot.”
Throat rasping, “Don’t you dare, go, thing! I’m not done with you! You’re not going to get to me that easily! Get back here! I said get back in here! Don’t leave me alone!”

Author's Note:
This prompt was hard. I spent I don't know how long trying to come up with a way to tie this to an idea about an 'S.S. West of the Moon' frigate or airship, something about bat-ponies, and some mix of the two, all for nought. Finally, I considered making a response to you, CHeighlund, about such a heinous prompt (hyperbole, of course!), remembered you have a predilection for changelings, and this idea came to me.

At inception I had intended to be much more ambiguous whether or not Twi is a changeling, but in my (rare!) exercise of outlining this was downplayed for what seemed like good ideas at the time.

(Also also, playing with indented formatting versus line-breaks.)

4696955
Thank you for responding; I was starting to wonder if anyone would.

First thoughts:
Please tell me what Rainbow ate, so I can never touch it.

A (somewhat disturbing) look at what's happening inside Rainbow's head. To the outside observer, it seems clear Twilight isn't the changeling, but Rainbow's view does make sense, if we simply assume her major point. (That she isn't going crazy.) And even if it's just a lull in the poison's effects, Rainbow does seem remarkably coherent right now...

Well done.

(PS: The indent style looks fine to me, but then, I'm biased - that's how I generally write.)

4685462

Had a hard time coming up with something, I tried a few far-east sort of settings and thought about space exploration just going on a 'distance' theme, before settling on this instead. It doesn't really work, in retrospect, but what the heck, it's Wednesday afternoon and there's not much time left. So, east/west as political leanings, in a sort of way. This story has no relation to any current or past political situation, seriously, it's just a fanfic.

Princess Twilight Sparkle sighed, looking down at the map of Equestria, flat against the table in the Royal Study, deep inside Canterlot Castle. The situation was fairly obvious, though perhaps the solution wasn't. "Okay, so... Once more. We have reports of a changeling army coming out of the badlands to the south."

"Yes, Twilight Sparkle." Princess Luna's voice showed her growing frustration with the prolonged talks. "As I've said, we could drive them away with a minor show of military power. The passes through the mesas there are narrow. It would not take many soldiers to hold them."

Princess Twilight glanced toward Princess Celestia, knowing an argument was coming.

Princess Celestia smiled tightly. It wasn't her normal, placid, regal smile. This smile was wrung through with disapproval. "Dear sister, that would cause needless loss of life. If we only drove them slightly eastward and northward, we could rely on the forests and the Foal Mountains to slow their advance until they turn back."

"But-" Princess Twilight felt surprised that she was able to get that word in.

"And sacrifice Dodge City? Our old castle? How many changelings would stay in the Everfree Forest, Sister? We must show these invaders that we will not be swayed!"

"Prin-"

Princess Celestia sounded as though she were instructing a disobedient foal. "Luna, things do not work as they did a thousand years ago. We can not simply throw the Guard at every problem. Besides, they would easily be outnumbered. You have been gone a very long time, and-"

Anger flared in Princess Luna's tone. "Whose fault is that, dear sister?"

Princess Twilight's horn flashed brightly, leaving both other alicorns in the room blinking and covering their eyes with their hooves. Twilight felt a pang of something like panic at having done that to the other Princesses, mixed with a sort of pride that she even could. She spoke in a quiet tone. "Princess Luna, Princess Celestia, please, don't argue about that. We need to make a decision, we don't have forever to talk about this."

Celestia recovered first, her voice contrite and much more even. "You are right, dear Twilight. We are all friends, and we should act like it."

"I am sorry, Sister." Princess Luna offered her elder sister a smile, forced as it was, and the resentment seemed to be washed away as Celestia returned it.

"Friends! That's just it!" Twilight clapped her hooves together, and her horn glowed with a long-range teleport spell.

A brief explanation of the problem later, and after some poring over the map with the assorted ponies, Twilight felt that she could ask again. "So, that's what's happening. Princess Luna feels like we should stop them with the military, while Princess Celestia was hoping for a slightly more passive approach. What do you girls think?"

Four voices started speaking at once, and Twilight had to raise her voice to put a stop to it. "Ah! One at a time! Uhh, Spike, you can pick who speaks first."

"Um..." Spike took a moment, standing at Twilight's side, and then pointed to Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash grinned and pulled Spike to her with a foreleg, rubbing his spines with a hoof. "Yeah, that's right! Anyway, Princess Luna's right! Let's go in there and kick their flanks! Don't just push them back, let's make sure there aren't any left to invade next time!"

Princess Luna's brow knit slightly. "Rainbow Dash, I do not think--"

"Hey! You don't have Spike, you can't talk!" Rainbow grinned, holding up the baby dragon as if he was a teddy or something. Princess Luna just rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Hey, what-" Spike managed a few words as Applejack quickly grabbed him away from Rainbow, and spoke her own piece.

"Now you listen here. I ain't saying we need to go killin' each and every one of them bugs or anythin', but I can't have 'em marchin' all through my orchard and fields. They'll trample everythin' alive in there, an' that's saying nothin' about how much Ponyville would get messed up havin' all them liars running around pretendin' to be real ponies. I say beat 'em back hard enough to make sure they don't try it again."

Spike suddenly glowed with a purple-ish magic, one he was pretty familiar with. Twilight lifted him from Applejack's forelegs and set him down beside her, on the opposite side from the farm pony and her loud pegasus friend. Twilight smiled, though there wasn't much mirth in it. "Rainbow, Applejack, those are just... worse than Princess Luna's idea! We can't just kill them all, they may look like bugs, but they're still thinking creatures!"

"Um, I agree." Fluttershy spoke, and then halted, as if realizing she was out of turn. Spike sighed, and took a few steps over to stand under her wing. Fluttershy smiled at the little dragon, and spoke again. "We could, um... just let them talk to us, or visit. Maybe they're just hungry, there isn't any love in the badlands, and... we... um...."

Her voice trailed off at the looks from her friends and the Princesses, ranging from disbelief to appalled. The awkward quiet only lasted a moment before a pink blur swept Spike up and onto her head, the dragon only able to make a panicked noise before realizing whose frizzy pink mane he was all tangled in. Pinkie smiled, forelegs wrapped in a hug around a somewhat startled Fluttershy. "Yeah! We could invite them to Ponyville, and have a super huge costume party! Everypony could have a double and a triple and a double-double and it would super fun and exciting! Nopony would know who anypony really was, and it'd be so full of happiness and love that the changelings wouldn't even HAVE to invade!"

Princess Twilight's face wore an expression that Pinkie had become fairly familiar with, as she pulled her number one assistant out of Pinkie's mane and set him beside her again. Twilight Sparkle sighed heavily, glancing to Princess Celestia before speaking to her remaining friend. "... Rarity?"

Rarity smiled and pulled Spike to her, the baby dragon seeming much happier with this situation than any of the other ponies taking him. She gently ruffled his spines and held him close. "Oh, just look at what all this discussion has done to my little Spikey-Wikey! As for you, Twilight, Darling, I am not a strategist, and I simply don't understand why I have been interrupted for this. I have an incredible amount of work to do for the fall line, and fall will be coming regardless of any nasty little changeling business."

Twilight's horn glowed, before sending Rarity and Spike back to Ponyville again. She let her head fall forward against the table, as Rainbow Dash leaped across it to fuss at Pinkie's ideas, and Applejack started in on Fluttershy's varmint-lovin' nature.

Sometimes, politics were just impossible.

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First, prompter's note.

but for these legacy prompts, there will be no limit after the prompt is up

Ergo, no such thing as 'not much time left'. Esle responded to one of my submissions given six months after the original prompt went active; I'm not going to offer any less than that if I can help it. That said, I am grateful you came up with something.

As to the story itself -
I'm afraid I'm going to have to side with Luna here - Celestia's plan basically requires the enemy to give up and go home. That only works if you're willing to show them why that's a good idea, and Celestia is explicitly undercutting that by trying to protect her little ponies. It's an admirable goal, but it won't work - for ponies, it might have, but going strictly by pure protocanon*, that's not how changelings operate.
Given that Twilight seems to think (later on) that Luna's plan is a bad one, though, I'm wondering why the others were involved - wouldn't it be 2-1, Twi-lestia vs Luna?

That said, everyone's reactions do seem appropriate and in-character, and Rainbow's treatment of Spike was amusing. ("You don't have him, so you don't get to speak!") Although if Luna is looking for another ally, she should point out that if the changelings do invade, then fashion designers would likely be out of work - the changelings at the wedding had no problem replicating Applejack's hat, after all. That might just shock Rarity out of her neutrality.

*There are two 'layers' of canon, Protocanon and Deuterocanon. For MLP, the show is Proto and the comics are Deutero.

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I am compelled to add, adapted from Galaxy Quest,

"You're just going to have to figure out what it wants; what is its motivation."
"It's a [changeling army], it doesn't have a motivation!"
"See, that's your problem, [Luna]. You were never serious about the craft."