A different take on alicorn ascension. Sixteen years after arriving in Ponyville, Twilight Sparkle is excited to have invented a brand-new kind of spell, but it will come with consequences she cannot possibly anticipate. Meanwhile, threats in shadows around the world conspire to overthrow the Solar Throne. With her world turned upside down, she will have to come to terms with the role that fate has dealt her while straining to keep Celestia in power.

Now with a TVTropes page! Please show it some love! Also check out the official side stories, Designing Intrigue, and Love and Barriers! (With even more in my stories page!)

(Please Note: This story was started before any season three information was available. All episodes in season three and later are non-canon for this story, which also means there's no Crystal Empire in this one. In addition, the promotional map released close to the beginning of season three was also not available and is not compatible with this story. While the OC tag is active because there are OCs in the story, they're really just supporting characters. The focus is on Twilight.)

Also be sure to check out the Rites of Ascension Expanded Universe Group! We're working to develop the resources needed for other authors to try their hand at writing stories set in the Rites Universe!

The Book Two cover art was created by the amazing Silfoe! The original cover art can still be found at Violet Squiggle's deviantArt page.

Author's Notes, including proofreader's credits, can be found here!

"This is 100% Approved by Twilight's Library!"

Twilight gets a distressing letter from Celestia and rushes to Canterlot.
What happened to the princess? What is Luna up to? Why do I sound like the narrator to a bad crime drama?
The first chapter is inspired by a drawing from JohnJoseco. The rest will be my own madness doing its part.

Twilight is now gone, her friends and family are devastated. Twilight must now have to find a way back. She has to. Doesn't she?

Special Thanks:
Thanks to Stormy Venture for all the help!
Thanks to The Myth for the plot!

Princess Celestia tires of constantly being surrounded by decorum, deference, and formality, and decides to take a day off from being Princess. But visiting Ponyville incognito is harder than she expects. Will she be able to fit in and make friends without blowing her cover?

Twilight becomes alicorn of the stars. This is sort of a problem, because Luna kind of already was alicorn of the stars. Oops!

TV Tropes

Diablo Crossover.

The Archangel of Justice destroyed the Worldstone to spare Humanity the corruption Baal infected it with. The force of its death knell shatters Mount Arreat and sends Tyrael hurtling across the endless planes of reality. He falls upon a world untouched by Angel or Demon, far from the sight of the High Heavens. So far, in fact, that he fears he will not be reborn from the Crystal Arch.

Wounded and near death, hope appears in the form of two strange creatures bearing the power of night and day.

Tyrael now faces a time of recovery as his power slowly heals within a body fashioned for him by his saviours. Justice Incarnate tastes for the first time the life of a mortal, and it is a strange, confusing experience .He has been left in the care of one Twilight Sparkle to learn of this world.

After all, where better to find peace and harmony than Ponyville?

Act I - The Root of Evil
Act II - ????????
Act III - ???????
Act IV - ???????

[Cover image used with full permission of the owner. Go on, go have a look at Chagial's stuff.]

This story is a sequel to Lines and Webs

For four long years, Celestia's apprentice Twilight Sparkle, once a model pony and a hero among heroes, has waged a bitter and secret struggle with her onetime mentor. Though she works from the shadows, directing her forces from the Old Capitol in the Everfree Forest, Twilight Sparkle is unable to gain any advantage,

Likewise, Princess Celestia finds her once-faithful student far more cunning and elusive than she had anticipated, and even now searches for a way to bring Twilight Sparkle's rebellion to its knees.

It is a game of greys, of knives in the dark and of poisoned wine, where pawns are moved and traded and exchanged for greater advantage, all the while drawing both sides nearer to the conflict which shall tear Equestria in two.

At the center of this conflict is a new pawn, one who only wished to see the truth for herself. Drawn into a deadly game whose rules she does not understand, Sweetie Belle must learn to survive in a world where all is darkened, and nopony can be completely trusted.

Because when gods play chess, all pieces are expendable.

A nation will crumble, old enemies shall return in the most unexpected ways, and regardless of who is victorious, only one thing can be certain.

Nothing shall ever be the same.

Followed by Stormsinger.

Canterlot... For centuries, Canterlot was the shining gem of Equestria, the pinnacle of pony society. Now, it’s a reminder, a bleak and monolithic warning to the world. 

Changed by the chemical and technological poisons that plague the mountain, an abomination of nature, I wander the greatest disaster Equestria has ever seen. 

... I will escape eventually, and when I do, I hope my friends still see me as Twilight Sparkle, and not the monster that hides among the ruins. 

After a horrible accident, Luna is forced to resort to drastic measures in order to save Twilights life. While unconscious, Twilight meets a powerful stallion who claims to be responsible for death, sleep, and all other states of unconsciousness. He turns out to have quite a tale to spin for her, and what he reveals may well be the undoing of one thousand years of harmony.

And so, the rewrite has begun.

CURRENTLY PUBLISHING PHYSICAL COPIES, UNTIL THE 25th OF SEPTEMBER: http://igg.me/at/InnerGloryFinalFund

After doing some research into the history of Alicorns, Twilight finds a dead end. When she chooses to pursue it against Celestia's wishes, she finds herself entangled in a messy history that some want forgotten. An Alicorn's position comes with sacrifice. And when given power, one will always be in want of more...

A complicated explanation for the history and intricacies of the My Little Pony universe. If you're reading this, be ready for the long haul.

A rewrite, or rather, the heavily revised and actually worth reading version of The Struggle for Power, my earlier work. Think of that as an alpha build, and this as the "released-to-the-public" program.
http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/05/story-struggle-for-power.html