To Twilight Sparkle and Princess Celestia, it is a simple surprise visit to Canterlot. To the ponies of the Equestrian Civil Service, it is twenty-four hours of chaos, politics, weaponized dessert, politics, underhooved manipulation of media, politics, and things batrachian and tentacular. Who said bureaucracy isn't exciting?

What does it mean to be Celestia? What does it mean to be "at the top"?

Celestia knows.

And soon, Twilight will too.

Now on Equestria Daily!

Winner of the Second Twilestia Contest.

Now in Russian! Courtesy of Nogood.

I'd heard about the TV show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic from my college roommate who is way too into the show. Disturbingly so, actually, but good gravy I would never watch the darned thing! What am I, five? I've got better things to do with my time than watch a silly little girl's show. However, that didn't stop... something from transporting me into the world of the show, so here I am... in Equestria... trying to get home. This is gonna be interesting.

Special thanks to GuyFace, Jack Kellar, Storm Shaker, Spiffy McSquee, and Goober Trooper for helping me with this one!

When Wreck-it-Ralph finds a villain character who seems to have gone Turbo, he finds more than a handful in the handful sized sprite.
For one thing, she has no idea what game she comes from.
For another, her code seems completely foreign to the Arcade.
For a third...she's absolutely adorable.
Having only just finished cleaning up after King Candy's mess, this little Nightmare could be a problem...or the greatest blessing Ralph has ever received.
And shadows from the past move behind the scenes...

Part of the PWNY-verse.

Edit: Now with cover art by KittyCoverArt.
Edit: Now with fan art at the end of the first chapter.

This is a fic based on the Time Loop Files, the format of which was first codified by Innortal on fanfiction.net.
Here's a brief guide.
The basic idea is, one character (the Anchor, usually the main character of a fictional setting) is looping back to the very first moments of their parent series every time either they die or some kind of time limit expires. They of course end up monumentally stir crazy given enough time.
Eventually others start to loop as well.
The reset is not always perfect. Sometimes a loop's history will be different to the "prime" loop, or canonical plot.
"Crossover" or "Fusion" loops also occur, randomly. These can involve the home loopers having a guest, or the anchor for one universe spending time in another, or replacements of one character by another.
Vacation Loops are where the Anchor (or others) decide/s "buck it" and lets off steam by doing whatever comes to mind. There's little or no attempt to maintain the original timeline.

In addition, and particularly more recently, it should be known that this story has a collaborative element to it - people may submit loop ideas or loops, ideally at the Spacebattles thread (a link to the current version of which is on the Trope page), and they may become included.

There's two page image options, thanks to Filraen - the current page image has been edited by the original creator from this work of theirs.. The other one is here:
http://hourglass-vectors.deviantart.com/art/MLP-Loops-466030169

This story is a sequel to Stardust

Twilight has finally returned home from the harrowing challenge that Discord set upon her, and the residents of Ponyville and the Elements especially look forward to having their dear friend returned to them.

Twilight, however, has changed. Still suffering from her injuries, almost incapable of using magic and haunted by the memories of her time on Earth, she becomes increasingly withdrawn from those who were closest to her. Will her frustration at her current state and her friends inability to understand her experiences cost her what she valued most before Discord's bet?

(Sequel to Stardust, familiarity with this is recommended!)
(Proofread by Arzoo!)
(Coverart commission drawn by the amazing KairaAnix!)
(Crossover with XCOM: Enemy Within, though the crossover and human elements are minimal)
(Featured 4/28/2014, thanks folks!)

Twilight Sparkle is a troubled pony who just wants to understand—magic, history, the Elements of Harmony, how other ponies work, and how to live a functional, fulfilling life like everypony else. She excels in everything she does, because all she does is read. Some things are just harder for some ponies. But when she sets her sights higher, toward exploring the obscure terrain of interpony relationships and navigating the circuitous history of the Elements, she learns more than any book she's read could tell her. The world has its secrets for a reason.

Inspired by fiction in the vein of, e.g., HPMOR, Worm, Luminosity, Ra, and To the Stars. I identify this story as a so-called "rational" fiction; for more information, feel free to check out the subreddit /r/rational, or read my comment on /r/mylittlepony explaining some details about my goals and values regarding the story. If you'd like to see non-chapter progress updates, you can follow my twitter, @aknifeallblade.