History Fanfic / RitesOfAscension

* BadassPrincess: Luna. Luna Luna Luna. She is currently the most powerful warrior on the planet, and is ''still not at full power''.

** Before that, Celestia states that Twilight is more powerful than other unicorns, by an order of magnitude.

* WorthyOpponent: Celestia sees Charlemane as this.
** [[spoiler: Subverted somewhat in Chapter 26, as Charlemane is revealed to be the only pony on the Council (other than Blueblood) that Celestia can actually implicitly trust.]]

''[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/39849/rites-of-ascension Rites of Ascension]]'' is an ongoing WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic fanfiction by [=CVBrony=].

''Rites of Ascension'' follows the adventures of Twilight Sparkle fifteen years after the events of the second season of Friendship is Magic, for the most part ignoring anything happening after [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E25ACanterlotWeddingPart1 A Canterlot Wedding]]. The story chronicles her ascension to alicornhood and the political turmoil that surrounds her, from coup attempts to scheming aristocrats, to the fallout of millenia-old mistakes.

* [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/76892/love-and-barriers Love and Barriers]], a story of the first meeting and the romance of Shining Armor and Princess Cadence.
* [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/53321/designing-intrigue Designing Intrigue]] follows Rarity as she maneuvers the dark and glamorous underworld of Equestria as an [[TuxedoAndMartini agent of the Crown]].
* [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/153395/the-rites-encyclopedia The Rites Encyclopedia]] is an {{Infodump}} for large amount of information casually mentioned in the main story, sort of like an [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin encyclopedia]]. Only canon up until the point where it conflicts with the main story. Also features Twilight and others frequently [[BreakingTheFourthWall talking to the audience directly]] in lectures about their universe.
* [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/179251/rites-of-ascension-fireside-tales Fireside Tales]] is a collection of shorts that take place in the Rites EU, but have little bearing on the larger storyline.

* TheChessmaster: Celestia. She does admit that due to working on her own for a millennium, it is hard to counsel with other ponies, even her own sister. She even considers the current head of the Council to be excellent at this.
** Comes back to bite her in the cutie mark in chapter 20; Twilight calls her out on it in their next scene in chapter 22.

** MeaningfulName: Bellerophon in Myth/GreekMythology captured and rode a pegasus. The one here? Captured and ridden by pegasi.

[[caption-width-right:350:One day, Twilight, all of this will be yours.]]

* FromBadToWorse: Equestria's sociopolitical standing, and Twilight in particular, can't seem to catch a break. One of the first things Twilight learns after her ascension is that the country is slowly breaking apart due to outlying subjects being maltreated by their nobles and believing Celestia cannot secure them from threats such as those seen in canon. Then there's a coup attempt during which [[spoiler:the Elements of Harmony are stolen]], and then- after Twilight begins to take a more active hand in dealing with international matters- two successive routine reconnaissance missions [[spoiler:pull Equestria into a war with Zebrica and retroactively invalidate the entire government of the griffon lands (to which the above malcontents were defecting)]].

* TheManBehindTheMan: For all the terror he inspires and all the irrevocable damage he's done, Discord accidentally lets slip that he may answer to an even ''higher'' power.
* ManipulativeBastard: [[spoiler:There are hints that Charlemane has ulterior plans for Equestria and the Crown, and has been subtly influencing political relations to achieve his goals]].

* BadassBaritone: [[spoiler:Shining Armor, already a badass par none and the second most powerful unicorn after his sister Twilight, gains a deeper voice after he is made High Cardinal (i.e. leader) of Luna's Night Guard following his firing from the Day Guard]].

* BigBrotherInstinct: Shining Armor will do anything to protect his little sister. [[spoiler:Even using the Day Guard to set up a spy system of sorts so he can keep tabs on Twilight during her stay in Ponyville. He's also aware that Twilight's status as an ascendant alicorn will make age a problem, so he makes Spike, whose species are longer-lived than ponies, promise to look after Twilight in his stead]].

* IronicHell: [[spoiler: Twilight's mother is exiled to Ponyville - or, as she calls it, a "po-dunk, backwater mud pony town".]]

* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: Played straight with every single Royal. Celestia is busy running the country, Luna is trying to get her political power ''back'', both Cadence and Shining have important duties to the Crown, and even ''Blueblood'' is shown to be an important politcal pawn for Celestia. Twilight is on her way to becoming this, but her "Royal" is still unofficial.

* WillfullyWeak: Celestia keeps herself from fighting at full power because doing so means [[KillItWithFire everything will literally go up in flames]]. [[spoiler:Because of this, some ponies think she has become a weak and inefficient ruler and stage a coup so they can overthrow and replace her with someone "stronger"]].

* PersonOfMassDestruction : The reason Princess Celestia doesn't get into big fights. She has only two settings: Off, and Nuke. See the page image? That's what's left of the army she fought[[note]](along with her command at the time, who [[HeroicSacrifice knowingly urged her to strike]])[[/note]]. That's not water, it's ''glass''.

* {{Doorstopper}}: As of December 2015, the main story alone is over 300K words long- and WordOfGod is that it is not even halfway through the second of five projected books.

* FirstNameBasis: Celestia and Luna are trying to get Twilight here.

-> ''''Luna:''' ''Twilight Sparkle, the Rites of Ascension are yours and yours alone to endure. Anypony else that tries will be ground to dust by the gears of fate.''

* KangarooCourt: In the wake of the attack on Canterlot, [[spoiler:Shining Armor is subject to one by the Council and removed from command of the Guard, despite demonstrating that he and the Guard could not have been better prepared (and if anything the Council themselves were more to blame for the state of things)]].

** Luna pulls this on Celestia after [[spoiler:Shining Armor is fired from command of the Royal Guard by inducting him as the leader of her Night Guard, to allow him to secretly continue investigating the conspiracies. Celestia had seen the attack on Shining coming and had been grooming him as a populist voice in the courts, which was central to most of her near future plans, but she didn't tell Luna because they always ended up butting heads over long-term strategy and she didn't tell Shining so he, and their enemies, would believe he was no longer a threat. Not only does Celestia's plan go up in smoke, but she worries that the relatively unsubtle Shining will be caught doing more than is strictly legal for the Night Guard, at which point Luna's crown and authority (and Celestia's own, if she steps in) would be pretty much fucked]]. Celestia's setup of all this also means that she played this trope on herself, but since Luna acknowledged Celestia might well have a plan but was tired of being left waiting in the dark, she really has no excuse.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Luna pulls this on Celestia after [[spoiler:Shining Armor is fired from command of the Royal Guard by inducting him as the leader of her Night Guard, to allow him to secretly continue investigating the conspiracies. Celestia had seen the attack on Shining coming and had been grooming him as a populist voice in the courts, which was central to most of her near future plans, but she didn't tell Luna because they always ended up butting heads over long-term strategy and she didn't tell Shining so he, and their enemies, would believe he was no longer a threat. Not only does Celestia's plan go up in smoke, but she worries that the relatively unsubtle Shining will be caught doing more than is strictly legal for the Night Guard, at which point Luna's crown and authority (and Celestia's own, if she steps in) would be pretty much fucked]]. Celestia's setup of all this also means that she played this trope on herself, but since Luna acknowledged Celestia might well have a plan but was tired of being left waiting in the dark, she really has no excuse.

* KangarooCourt: In the wake of the attack on Canterlot, [[spoiler:Shining Armor is subject to one by the Council and removed from command of the Guard, despite demonstrating that he and the Guard could not have been better prepared (and if anything the Council themselves were more to blame for the state of things)]].

* AmbiguouslyEvil: The Inner Council. [[spoiler: At least one of them is involved with the people behind General Towers]].

* AristocratsAreEvil: Celestia's been trying a long game to work against this, as part of being TheChessmaster.
* ArousedByTheirVoice: Cadence is apparently turned on by Shining's new and deeper voice.

* CallingTheOldManOut: Just before [[spoiler:banishing her to Ponyville]], Twilight calls her mother out on never being there for her and using her as a stepping stone for social climber, including making it perfectly clear she would rather have had Celestia as her mother.

* FantasticRacism and FantasticSlurs: The unicorn nobility tend to have this view towards earth ponies, thinking of them as "mud ponies". And at least one [[NoodleIncident assassination attempt]] involved an earth-pony supremacy outfit.

* [[LostTechnology Lost Magic]]: Sums up what Discord did to the world. It's unknown to anypony but Celestia and Luna how much they lost, exactly.

* [[TheManBehindTheMan The Man In Front Of The Man]]: For all the terror he inspires and all the irrevocable damage he's done, Discord accidentally lets slip that he may answer to an even ''higher'' power.

* [[PersonOfMassDestruction Pony of Mass Destruction]]: The reason Princess Celestia doesn't get into big fights. She has only two settings: Off, and Nuke. See the page image? That's what's left of the army she fought[[note]](along with her command at the time, who [[HeroicSacrifice knowingly urged her to strike]])[[/note]]. That's not water, it's ''glass''.

* [[YouKnowImBlackRight You Know I'm an Earth Pony, Right?]]: The reason why Celestia is unhappy with the term 'mud-pony'. Alicorns embody all three tribes. It's not really played for laughs either time that BerserkButton has been hit (aside from the audience laughing at an idiot getting her comeuppance).

* AppliedPhlebtonium: Solidified magic, used as a general fuel source for machines. It's also rather volatile[[spoiler: , as Applejack and Spike find out]].

** MeaningfulName: Bellerophon in GreekMythology captured and rode a pegasus. The one here? Captured and ridden by pegasi.

''Rites of Ascension'' follows the adventures of Twilight Sparkle fifteen years after the events of the second season of Friendship is Magic, for the most part ignoring anything happening after [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E25ACanterlotWeddingPart1 A Canterlot Wedding]]. The story chronicles her ascension to alicornhood and the political turmoil that surrounds her, from coup attempts to scheming aristocrats, to the fallout of millenia-old mistakes.

* FantasticRacism: The unicorn nobility tend to have this view towards earth ponies, thinking of them as "mud ponies".

* PoweredArmor: Given to Twilight during the invasion, it normally looks like a simple torc, but activates into full-body armor with dozens of enchantments.