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!"

Anon and I have been friends for awhile now. We get along together and Dinky loves him to death. I feel very fortunate to have a friend like him. Its just, I have always liked Anon a little more than I probably should. He needs a friend right now, seeing as he just went through a bad break up.

Who am I kidding anyways. Who would want me? I'm just... damaged goods.

Edit: Good HiE list approved

A/N Hi guys, this is just a short story I wrote in about an hour, HOPE YOU ENJOY! (I'd like to thank everyone who likes this, thanks for getting it featured)

A/N audio reading can be found here. Read by our very own The Mysterious Fluttershy Fan. Be sure to show your support to his channel if you like it!

You have lived in Equestria for some time now, around five or so years. You never meant to come here it just kinda happened. The first few months were a living hell for you, you were attacked because most thought you were a monster. This continued until you were captured by the Royal Guard and brought to meet Celestia and Luna. You explained your situation and over time you became friends, but that didn't stop the fact that you were ridiculed and attacked whenever you left the castle, and so in time you became content with staying within the confines of the castle. But one day guards showed up to your room and put you in chains...

"Sometimes the only reason we smile is to keep ourselves from crying."

Everypony in Ponyville knows Derpy Hooves, their friendly, cross-eyed and clumsy but reliable mailmare, a hard-working single mother who is never seen without a smile. For years, she and her family have been residents of the small town, and yet she has never once spoken of where she came from or what she did before her job with the Ponyville Post. Most ponies have simply written such things off over time as curiosity gives way to routine. Some, however, have started to notice just how strained the seemingly happy Pegasus' smile is becoming.

(Gore tag added as a precaution for implication rather than explicit description)
(A huge Thank you! to both Bad_Seed_72 and my brother Corwin for pre-reading this for me)

The Ponyspawn have invaded Equestria, and it is up to the newest addition to the Grey Wardens, Twilight Sparkle, to find the means to drive them back! With her friends and allies at her side, can Twilight defeat the evil tide before all of Equestria is devoured?

The Sequel, Pony Age: Catalyst, is available.

"It's so nice to see you again!" said the thing that was not Celestia. "Oh yes, I know who you are, Twilight Sparkle. I had a taste of your magic the first time we met. Mortals forget things so easily, I find. Allow me to refresh your memory: you tried to kill me. But you failed, Twilight Sparkle. You only mostly killed me. And I guess that makes you one very unlucky little pony."

(Second-person fic)

You are a school-age colt who hates Hearts and Hooves Day with a passion and wishes the holiday would leave as soon as it arrives. All that changes when you run into the local bully Diamond Tiara. You say something nice to her and suddenly your world starts to change...

EDIT: Featured on 3/9!
EDIT: Third Place Winner of the Poniverse Hearts and Hooves Day Contest!

Now with an audio drama produced by truesailorcomet, as well as TVTropes page!

Princess Luna takes on a Night Apprentice, her counterpart to Princess Celestia's Faithful Student, Twilight Sparkle. Nova Shine, a wandering unicorn from Canterlot, is given the position for the first time in a thousand years. What neither of them know is that there exists a long and secret history between the positions of the Faithful Student, the Night Apprentice, and a mysterious shadow that seems to keep popping up in Nova's and Twilight's dreams. This shadow, whatever it is, and the dreams it appears in do not bode well, but the Princesses remain tight-lipped about these nightmares.

Nova and Twilight agree to investigate the nightmares themselves, and this mission occupies them for some time. But as they continue their search, their relationship starts to develop into something more than just fellow students. As if to make matters any more chaotic, Trixie Lulamoon arrives on Twilight's doorstep announcing that she, too, has been dealing with nightmare problems.

Finally, there's also the shadow itself. An ancient and dangerous enemy, it has lain dormant for the last thousand or so years. Why it chooses to reveal itself now is anyone's best guess, but unless Twilight and Nova can stop it, there's no telling what will happen to Equestria...

First featured under the old system on 25 November 2013, with occasional reappearances in the new system.
Featured again on 19 November 2022, on its 10th anniversary, and again on 19 November 2023 when the final chapter of the rewrite was published. Many thanks, everyone.

All magic vanished from the world when Discord fell. Along with it, the might of the unicorns and alicorn princesses dwindled. Even the Elements Of Harmony lost their potence and were lost in the sea of time.

Left without the guidance of the alicorns and the magic of harmony, the ponies soon raised Equestria to a country ruled by science and industry. But still, some remain who dream of magic.

As the mysterious beast Magia threatens the world, a sickly filly named Twilight Sparkle and five friends take it upon themselves to delve into the caverns beneath Canterlot to find the burial ground of magic, the Lunarium.

This is an ongoing Rewrite. The story in and of itself was finished in April 2013 but needed some massive editing. This new version features all new scenes, better descriptions, less mistakes, 3D-Effects, and a gratis code for the DLC-Character "Emo Pie", which on any other occasion would've been a pre-order bonus only.

Or something.

Current Coverart by: kmrshy, go check 'em out.

Also thanks to everybody who helps/ed editing this story, no matter if you did only help me with one chapter or all. Thank you for turning this rewrite from another mess into a brilliant story!

A KH crossover of MLP. Spike has been call names and teated like dirt since the night of the party, the six don't talk to him or listen but force him to do work for them, the CMC and his other friends avoid him but only talk to him by making him feel bad be calling him names and such, and now he dreams of seeing other worlds. lastly he goes to strange worlds that are odd as his but they people there don't seen to care that a dragon is talking to them.

Any music and picture in this fic belong to their rightful owners.
Owners of any enemy belongs to Xelku9,
Owner of keyblade images belong to Marduk-Kurios, xNovafox,Weapondesignerdawe, Setoshiarenharikai,Zfshadowsoldier, Kiekesuke