Distance can drive us apart. It can also bring us closer together.

After all is said and done, and the ponies have gone their separate ways, the only way they have to keep in touch is through letters.

Original Equestria Daily post is here
Russian translation
Chinese translation
Polish translation
Spanish translation

Now with music and audiobook

After ascending to Princesshood, Twilight decides that it's time to really take the notion of "A Sound Mind in a Sound Body" to heart. She has the "Sound Mind" bit down (mostly), but years of sitting inside hunched over a book has given her quite a bit of ground to make up on the "Sound Body" front.

Fortunately, she has an athletic friend to help her out.

In the far reaches of Canterlot Castle, high above in the towers lived the archmage. Everypony knew her, yet few had met her.

Twilight Sparkle sighed, having teleported away another noble seeking favors before reaching the top of the stairs for the second time today. They never learned. As the archmage, she already dealt with political squabbles far too often without inviting them into her home. Aside from personal favors for Celestia, she did what was required of her position and then returned to seclusion and research.

The nobility grumbled that no archmage should be a commoner, and Twilight’s disrespect toward them proved it. Each and every time they were forced to bow to her, they hated what they saw: the position, the status, the deference.

Was she not powerful? Was she not great?

Twilight, now reading through dusty scrolls and long forgotten tales, wrote in her notes — notes gathering dust of their own. A brief thought flashed through her mind.

Am I not powerful? Am I not great?

And then Twilight picked up The Tale of the Royal Pony Sisters.

Defunct side stories told in Across the Boundary. They can still provide a little context, but when in doubt, the main story here is canon.

Cover art provided by Lafiir

Bonbon has been trying to get to know Lyra for years, but the unicorn refuses to show her true self or accept Bonbon's advances. When Bonbon discovers that Lyra is leaving town without even saying goodbye, Bonbon decides to follow, no matter how far they must go or how hard Lyra protests. Rainbow Dash tags along as a guide, paid by Lyra for her services, but the tight-lipped Wonderbolt appears to have her own motivations as well.

It's all secrets and lies, but Bonbon is determined to get to the truth, even if it takes her to the end of the world. And it just might.

- Big thanks to Thanqol for his aid in prereading and reviewing
- Featured on Equestria Daily
- Interview about this story

Ling, a mute and magic-less young changeling, is stranded in Canterlot. Only a week after the failed invasion, and desperate for love, she resorts to begging in the streets for hugs... and ends up adopted by the end of the day. However, there are those who see her, not as a person, or even a changeling, but as a pawn in a devious plot, one that could ruin her foster parents...

But Ling is nowhere near as defenseless as she seems...

The third story in the rebooted Cricket-verse, aka The Nonsense-Verse.

Pinkie Pie sits alone in a room with an unopened box. What's in the box, you ask?

Only everything.

Minuette, the unicorn with an hourglass cutie mark. Many automatically assume her talent has something to do with time. If they only knew what kind of time....

Teleportation. It is the best possible way to travel... As long as you don't think about it too much. As long as you don't ask where Twilight goes in that split second when she's neither here nor there.

The sound I listened to as I wrote it, available to you in order to give you the option of having the same atmosphere.

No relation to the other story with the same name, just a coincidence of both picking the same excellent title. I was unaware that the other one existed.
Dramatic Reading by Charles Spratt | Second Reading by TheDizzyDan | Third Reading by Crafty Arts | Fourth Reading by Stormy787
Russian Translation 1 (by Aloz) | Russian Translation 2 (by Doof Ex Machina)

[Complete! With TVTropes apparently!]
Also, apparently, an animated trailer.

In a world of brass and steam, Twilight Sparkle had thought she had made a life-changing discovery with the invention of the telescope. For better or worse, she was correct.

Now her discovery has not only changed her life, but the lives of those she seeks out in her desperate attempt to contact the only other creature as lonely as Twilight herself.

It all would have been much simpler, but it had to be the one Twilight could only call The Mare on the Moon.

Decidedly not within walking distance, then.

[Featured on EQD before story was meant to be submitted. 4/03/2015]

[Editing team: Southpaw, Wolfvenom, Maskedferret, SwanSong and BluePaladin42, without whom this story would be a fraction of its current state.]
[Special thanks to Novel-Idea for the updated cover]

Reforming the tax and legal system had been her responsibility a thousand years ago, and it will be so again. There have been many changes during her millennium of absence, but the fundamentals always stayed the same. Ponies would find ways to circumvent the laws for their own benefit, and it was her job to make sure that didn't happen—in the most direct way possible.

Sequel: Gryphon Greed is Good
Artwork by: HoodwinkedTales with Speedpainting
Proofread by: Eckaji, Snakeskin Ducttape, and PresentPerfect
Featured on Equestria Daily
Review link: PresentPerfect, Ambion, and PaulAsaran