Every schoolfilly has heard of the Federation - the tall, mysterious, magicless beings from another world, who visit only rarely and briefly; waiting, they say, for 'stable planetary political unity'.

This is the story of when they first visited Equestria; of early contact between the Princesses and the Federation. It is also the tale of how Princess Luna, with some help from the House of Sparkle, managed the first fully Equestrian warp jump; and of how Spike became the first dragon in space.

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Additional note: There is an alternate ending for this story, which can be found over here. It follows on directly after the chapter titled Further Communications (and there is a note in the author's notes for that chapter to that effect, with another link).

The reasons for the split are contained in the comments to this story. (Note: Said reasons contain spoilers)

Anon's dead, apparently, and Death has come to claim his soul. There's just one problem: he doesn't want to go. And there's nothing Death can do to make him.

For Rainbow Dash, seeing is believing. When her friend Twilight Sparkle told her that "electricity is harmful to humans with enough likelihood that you should definitely not zap Anon with lightning bolts", she didn't listen. After all from the two of them, it was Dash who saw more creatures zapped with lightning. Most of those occurrences were her doing as well. And so she decided to knock down two apples with one stone - teach her book loving friend a lesson about who the real weather expert is, and cure the local oddity that was Anonymous the Human from his irrational fear. Oh, and of course have a blast doing it.

Things don't exactly go according to her plan however, and she ends up creating a bigger mess than she could comprehend - not only for herself and her target, but also a certain somepony who will have to abandon her ancient traditions and improvise on the spot.

Formerly marked mature for uncouth language and the death theme. I now have an actual 'death' tag though, so I dropped it down.

Merithorical proofreading and non-constructive feedback: Anoridan and Void Whisperer
Nitpicking and comma insertion: abronie

Commander Shepard remembers firing the crucible. She remembers she had to make an important choice. She remembers good friends, a lover, and plenty of loyal crewmen.

She just can't remember what her choice was. What the threat she was striving so hard to end was. Or what the faces of the most important people in her life look like.

She also has no idea how she wound up in the monster filled forest she's come to call home for the past eight months. Or how she picked up a snarky A.I. making its home in her omni-tool.

Sunset Shimmer and Equestria’s own Princess of Friendship Twilight Sparkle have spent hours, literally hours, researching earth baby intelligence and have come to some startling conclusions regarding human Flurry Heart.

Cover art cropped from a piece by Calli-pi-zho.

Gamer-type fic, inspired by Clicker Heroes

Reincarnation doesn't always go forward in time. Sometimes it goes in a loop, as in the case of Twilight Sparkle. She lives, she fights, she gets allies. Than she dies, improves herself and friends, and occasionally buys something that makes the world a better place. Finally, she is reborn and lose her memory. Rinse and Repeat.

However, with her rising to Alicorn, she has unlocked a few new things that would make her lives easier. The down side? In order to afford these, the world needs a hard reset. The temptation? She could keep her memories.

Soon Twilight Sparkle will see just how much she has done for the land of Equestria over her many lives, and see first hand what it was to start with. Thankfully, with no sarcasm for once, Discord is here to help her build the world back up.

Teleportation - the best way to travel! Not many unicorns master this ancient spell, and even among those who do, the details of how exactly it works remain a mystery. Some even fear what it may or may not do to the caster, but nopony knows for sure.

After much studying, it is time for Twilight Sparkle to perform the spell for the first time. A simple test: Just move from Point A to Point B. But Twilight is about to find out that there is more to teleportation than she thought.

A lot more.

Set prior to the show canon.
Inspired by (but completely unrelated to) Ocalhoun's story Blink.

All he knew was his globe. He was left inside of it as punishment for his devious crimes, but that was hundreds of years ago. Still, he sits inside his spherical home, his mind slowly degrading as each day passes.

He can't even remember what he did wrong in the first place.

The scary thing is, neither can the alicorn who put him there.

Cover image by HoodwinkedTales
Story input by Enigmatic Otaku and ROBCakeran53

While trying to make her family tree, Rainbow Dash finds her mother's family totally missing from public records. Maybe with Twilight's help, she'll learn something about her ancestry.

SPOILERS IN COMMENTS:
DO NOT READ THE COMMENTS UNTILL AFTER YOU READ THE STORY.

Editing and creative help from BionicBrony

For Doctor Twilight Sparkle, life at Canterlot National Hospital was pretty good. She'd struck up a bond with the director and even had enough time to publish a paper or two. There's only one thing she needs to advance even further: better bedside manner.
For these reasons, Doctor Celestia carts her off to a tiny Ponyville practice. Now, Twilight must find a way to both cure and tolerate the village idiots--and try to convince a certain high-strung healer that she's not after her job.

Because "grumpy doctor Twilight" practically writes itself. Art by Punk-Pegasus