The Crystal Empire disappeared long ago during Princess Celestia and Princess Luna's quest to cleanse the land of Equestria from all forms of evil. King Sombra was a great threat to their entire world and when his defeat came about, at the cost of the Crystal Empire vanishing from existence, it brought nothing but a whole lot of good to the world.

What they didn't realise however, was that Sombra had survived their confrontation and was now plotting his revenge against them both in the one way he knew how.

Twilight Sparkle thought she was the luckiest filly in all of Equestria when Princess Celestia asked her to become her personal student, but she had no idea she'd be a pawn in a game nopony is even aware exists.

Source for art: https://www.deviantart.com/dipfanken/art/Domesticated-626423587

Twilight Sparkle left Equestria willingly one day, leaving only a note explaining not to look for her. Her friends did regardless, causing themselves unfathomable pain. After a decade, they had nearly forgotten about her, moving on; one day, however, a mysterious mare enters Celestia's court seeking an audience. Celestia recognizes the mare under the cloak; it was her most faithful student! She had returned, but how have the sands of time changed her? Is she still the book-loving unicorn they once knew? And how will her friends react to her return from the grave?

The description was edited by jamlamin
6/7/14: This story, after reviewing my own work, I deemed a mess and decided to put this on hiatus a few weeks ago. It's not the writing itself but the story, its not constructed that well, my biggest problem being my AU Twilight is just a poorly thought out, she's suppose to be broken yet I basically portrayed her as OP. I may eventually continue this, but most likely If I did I would just rewrite it.

It has been several months since the disappearance of Twilight Sparkle..

One night, after watching her sister raise the Moon and set the heavens alight, Princess Celestia begins to bed down for the night, only to be interrupted by portal forming in her room. From out of the portal comes none other than Twilight Sparkle, garbed in strange armor.

Princess Celestia, along with Luna, Cadence, and Shining Armor, are overjoyed by the Element of Magic's return, but are justifiably curious as to where she had been and what she had been doing. And so, Twilight begins her tale. A tale of survival against impossible odds. A tale of a people fighting for the most basic right of all sentient beings. The right to exist.

Fighters live for their next battle. They fight until they taste the dirt of defeat. But that was never supposed to be a part of Twilight Sparkle's schedule. Once, she was a promising student for Unicorns everywhere, and now... She's a bar fighter.
She says she'll leave Ponyville one day and return to her life as an accomplished scholar. But her new "friends" at Knuckle Brick Corner have made that more difficult than it needed to be.
Now she'll either have to learn to fight or learn how to fight better. As Equestria's rising contender for the most skilled fighter. Starting at the bottom of the loser's bracket.

Special thanks to kani! For drawing the awesome cover for this story!
Please check out the great artwork on kani's deviantArt page! (Click here for Art!)

Twilight is sentenced to life in prison. This prison, unofficially named 'Lunar Prison', has Celestia as its head warden though. Another thing is the fact that it practices Caped Panzer Games, which are death games in which certain inmate participate in various types of deathmatches and objective based combat in large mechanized tanks for various rewards. One thing, though, if you lose you die.
tags and such updated as story progresses
cover image source linked

Twilight didn't know what came over her. At one point, she was having a wonderful tea party with her friends, and the next thing she knew, she was trying to kill the princesses.
This could have something to do with the fact that nopony would listen to her at her brother's wedding, everypony thinking she is crazy, or even the fact that Discord was set free without anypony noticing.
She finds herself at Celestia's court, facing crimes she didn't commit.
"Twilight Sparkle, for stealing the Elements of Harmony, attempting to kill me and Princess Luna, and Betraying everything you were supposed to protect, you are hereby banished from Equestria, never to return!"
Celestia's words continued to ring in her ears as she followed the road out of Equestria. She would never see her friends again.

My entry to The Exiled Competition

Cover art can be found here. It was made by StarlightSpark on DeviantArt.

Due to a Magical Accident growing up, Twilight was separated with her love. With an idea of being able to finally reunite, Twilight jumps to the chance of being the Personal Guard of Princess Celestia's Student

But first, she has to get deal with this Trial round and why does it involve some Banished diety!?

Current Rating: Teen (because I realized that the road I was taking this, might be dark)

Sex tag is there just for implication, no explicit

(1-3 is introduction)

War is approaching Equestria and the Celestial sisters' ponydom is doomed to fall. So Luna and Celestia must travel to the capital of the ponysty ruled by the dark sovereign empress Nightmare Moon, in an attempt to avoid a war that they can never hope to survive. But upon their arrival the empress forces them into a dynastic marriage, or else she'll destroy their ponydom and enslave all of their subjects.

Twilight Sparkle was presumed to be dead. Destroyed without even a body to bury, the young victim of a deadly magical surge that claimed the lives of many others along side her. More than a decade later, reports of a violent murder by a pony bearing her name are brought to Celestia and Luna's attention. A trail of carnage leading directly towards Canterlot's doorstep, brought by a pony who strikes without mercy. As Twilight approaches, in service to an unknown master, the Alicorn Sisters desperately try to uncover what happened all those years ago.

Edited by Zintegy and The Pink Mugsy

Chapter Heading Art by KirillK
All Sketches and Artworks can be found HERE

Twilight Sparkle never thought she would ever be interested in teaching. Her entire existance was spent devoted to the study of magic (and the avoidance of making friends). But everything changed after she hosted a presentation at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, the very same school she failed to enter as a foal.

Now she is in tiny Ponyville. A village just to the west of Canterlot. It's small, quiet, and unassuming, Twilight Sparkle is certain that it's the perfect place to learn how to teach. After all, nothing happens in small towns, right?

Unfortunately for Twilight, destiny works in strange ways, and the very fate of Equestria may depend on... Making friends?!

[ AU inspired by FallingRain22's piece, which is also the art for this pic for the time being http://fallingrain22.deviantart.com/art/AU-Mane-6-477312935 ]

(Made popular stories box on 7/18/15, thank you!)

(Edit 5/2020: Okay, last time I edit this description and then I'll let it be what it is. First and second chapter have been revised. Enjoy!)