History Fanfic / RitesOfAscension

* IDidWhatIHadToDo: A minor version. Chapter 26 reveals that [[spoiler: as bad as Charlemane's interrogation of Shining Armor was, other members of the Council had wanted to do even worse, and so Charlemane was "as gentle as [he] could be without leaving an opening to allow another to take [his] place."]]

* AssKicksYou: Ditzy Doo captures Phantasma the thief by sitting on her mid-flight to knock her out of the air.

* AristocratsAreEvil: Several nobles are contributing to the breakdown of Equestria by both overtaxing their own citizens and taking more power from Celestia, who in turn has been trying a long game to work against this, as part of being TheChessmaster.

* MercyKill: [[spoiler:Twilight gives one to General Towers after learning that a nurse has poisoned his IV fluids.]]

* 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 Royal Guard]].

* TheWomanWearingTheQueenlyMask: Celestia, although throughout the story, the mask is slipping, and she's trying to take it off in front of Twilight.

* {{Doorstopper}}: As of May 2019, the main story is 621,508 words long.

* AGodIAmNot: Celestia and Luna are ''very'' insistent on this one, and with [[AGodAmI some]] [[DrunkOnTheDarkSide pretty]] [[DivineConflict damn]] [[CivilWar good]] [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E1MareInTheMoon reasons]].
* AfraidOfTheirOwnStrength: Celestia.

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

* {{Doorstopper}}: As of February 2018, the main story is 523,845 words long.

* EmotionEater: The changelings in general.
* SuicideAttack: [[spoiler: one particularly unfortunate changeling mook during the manehatten arc, ordered by chrysalis to prevent capture and interrogation. ]]

** [[spoiler:It's revealed that several nobles are fearing Twilight's alicorn ascension because, on top of being a powerful pony magic-wise, is too smart to be influenced by their political schemes, so they plot to have her future authority undermined or physically eliminated from the game entirely. TheCoup General Towers pulled on Canterlot was supposed to be Twilight's assassination]].
** [[spoiler:Charlemane seems to be subtly manipulating things behind the scenes towards some ulterior goal, most likely involving the well-being of Equestria]].
* ArousedByTheirVoice: Cadence is apparently turned on by Shining's new and deeper voice after [[spoiler:Luna inducts him into her Night Guard]].
* BackFromTheDead: Rainbow Dash kills one of Farrier's {{Mooks}} during her escape from his flagship, and he is resuscitated with CPR offscreen. [[spoiler:This dispels the geas on him and allows Twilight to interrogate him about Farrier's operations.]]
* 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 Royal Guard]].
* BarrierWarrior: Shining Armor, who possesses magic powerful enough to produce strong and durable force-fields. [[spoiler:He later passes onto Twilight his notes on how to make them, which saved her during a harrowing mission in Zebrica]].

* BigBrotherInstinct: Shining Armor will do anything to protect his little sister. [[spoiler:Even using the Royal 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]].
* {{Blackmail}}: [[spoiler:Apparently the current gryphon King Morvana did something that would warrant shame on her family for generations to come. Charlemane uses it to his advantage by threatening to expose her secrets if she does not voice disapproval towards Equestria's impending war with Zebrica]].
* 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 climbing, including making it perfectly clear she would rather have had Celestia as her mother.
** [[spoiler:Duke Esteem]] tries this with Celestia and Luna just before being sentenced for his crimes, asking why being immortal alicorns gives them the right to rule and why Luna hasn't been punished for her actions as Nightmare Moon. [[DoNotTauntCthulhu Then he gets his answers]].

* CoolAirship: The ''Bellerophon''. A top-secret airship with [[AppliedPhlebotinum solidified magic]] powered engines. [[spoiler:Also the duplicate.]]

* TheCoup: [[spoiler:A renegade faction led by General Towers is seeking to overthrow the Alicorn diarchy because they see its leadership - namely Celestia's - as weak and ineffectual. It's implied that someone from the Inner Council is behind this coup]].

* EnemyMine: [[spoiler:Twilight doesn't think very highly of Prince Blueblood ([[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E26TheBestNightEver with good reason]]), but both of them don't think very highly of the Inner Council and its political scheming, either. When suspicions of Cloudsdale's Duchess Artfeather's weapons smuggling arise, Blueblood proposes an alliance with Twilight to help expose her without the Council getting to Artfeather first. She accepts]].
* FantasticNuke: [[spoiler:A weapon deployed by Celestia during the lunar rebellions, capable of wiping out cities and leaving behind unlivable levels of thaumic contamination.]]

* 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)]]. A criminal investigation leads to the [[spoiler:effective destruction of Cloudsdale and loss of most of the industrial production of that city]] as the wrongdoers try to cover their tracks and destroy the evidence.

* HealingFactor: All alicorns have it, but Luna's seems especially potent. [[spoiler:So much that she cuts off her own tongue after her and Celestia's tongues touches because she couldn't clean it off.]]

--> '''Twilight:''' Palms, Luna. Grease some palms. It's a minotaur expression.

* InformedAbility: One of the story's few recurring criticisms is that [[BadassBookworm Twilight]], despite having supposedly expanded her magical knowledge even beyond that from canon and in fact pushed the boundaries of magical theory, is only briefly shown as such in-story by her channeling magic through her hooves at the beginning (only possible because she has unknowingly become an alicorn) and developing a new method for producing solidified magic (which is suppressed by Celestia in order not to cause upheaval, thanks to unpleasant past experience). Otherwise she seems to mostly react to others' feats and knowledge, frequently being blindsided by the techniques of both antagonists and supporting characters. Even one of her most awesome feats ([[spoiler:entrapping a volatile portal and preventing worldwide damage]]) is dependent on a shield spell which [[spoiler:Shining Armor]] had shared with her. The author has stated an intent to correct this in later arcs.

* ItsPersonal: [[spoiler:It's implied that Prince Blueblood chose to preside over Foible Plinth's trial because many of the extremely shoddy and hazardous buildings Foible Plinth built happened to be occupied by children, many of whom were orphans like Blueblood]].
* KangarooCourt: In the wake of the attack on Canterlot, Shining Armor is subject to one by the Council [[spoiler: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).
** [[spoiler:Prince Blueblood does this to Foible Plinth (the mobster that made shoddy schools and orphanages). The whole trial lasts for five minutes, if that.]]

* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: [[spoiler:Both Prince Blueblood and Princess Cadence's parents died in an airship accident when an engine exploded. Both of them believed the incident was produced by outside forces, but they don't have any evidence to prove it]].

* MeaningfulRename: [[spoiler:Shining Armor has his name changed to "Obsidian Armor" after he is fired and subsequently recruited into the Night Guard, and gets awesome armor to match his new name]].

* NebulousCriminalConspiracy: So nebulous that it's not even clear how many there actually are or how much they may or may not be connected. There's the well-hidden group of apparent corporations and nobles of which General Towers's coup attempt was an offshoot, referred to as the Robber Barons. There's the Equestrian Inner Council, each of whom has his/her own schemes and syndicates going (just one appears to be linked to [[spoiler:a Cloudsdale arms manufacturer, a Zebrican smuggling organization and a substandard housing developer]]) while working in concert to grab power from Princess Celestia, [[spoiler:at least one of whom is allegedly involved with the Robber Barons]]. Then there's the group of [[spoiler:illusionists who imprisoned and tortured Trixie]]. The myriad missions Twilight ends up on may or may not tie back to any of these.

** 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 bucked]]. 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.
** Twilight thinks this of herself after her espionage mission [[spoiler:triggers a war between Zebrica, Saddle Arabia and Equestria]]. Considering things had been volatile for a while, and she stopped [[spoiler:a cult leader from wiping out the whole Zebrican continent and triggering worldwide damage]], no one else agrees.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Because the Illusionists published fake news about Twilight Sparkle wanting to arrest Trixie Lunamon, [[spoiler: the unicorn surrendered herself to Twilight Sparkle. Giving the Grand Mage both confirmation of the group existence and an anti illusion spell Trixie created that, with some modifications by Twilight Sparkle, has made the Illusionists less effective overall and even lead to some of their plans being ruined]].

* ParentalAbandonment: [[spoiler:Both Prince Blueblood and Cadence's parents died in an airship accident when they were young. Both of them believe that the incident that claimed their parents' lives was planned, even though they don't have proof]].
* ParentalNeglect: Twilight Velvet frequently neglected her children Shining Armor and Twilight Sparkle in favor of getting into the nobility's good graces and elevating her own social status, so much that Shining (and Celestia herself) did the raising for most of Twilight's life. [[spoiler:In chapter 25, Twilight calls out her mother for her poor treatment, and sentences her to learning friendship in Ponyville]].

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: [[spoiler:Prince Blueblood angrily rips into the Inner Council for voting against Shining Armor during his trial despite the latter saving Equestria numerous times]].
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: The Princesses, obviously, but so are Shining Armor and his wife Princess Cadence. Twilight counts as she is elected Grand Mage, giving her authority and respect second only to the Princesses themselves, while learning the responsibilities of ruling and being an alicorn. [[spoiler:Prince Blueblood also counts; despite being a {{Jerkass}} in public, he deeply cares for the state of Canterlot and Equestria as a whole, and is one of the few nobles who has a strong moral compass in politics]].

* SoProudOfYou: Shining Armor says this to Twilight [[spoiler:after she saved Zebrica from a black hole portal and narrowly survived severe injuries]].
* SpannerInTheWorks: [[spoiler:It's implied that a unicorn named "Ionos" set up a plan by allying with an evil dragon and giving him a geas that will grant control over the town Wintervale. Said plan relied on Luna's impulsiveness and willingness to kill, but it did not anticipate Twilight Sparkle banishing the dragon to the void for his evil deeds]].

* SuperSoldier: [[spoiler:One newspaper calls Twilight this after her brutal, magical takedown of General Towers]].
* TakenForGranite: It's possible to be turned into a statue if you have done a very serious and strictly forbidden crime, such as [[spoiler:using a geas]].
* ThereAreNoTherapists: Averted. [[spoiler:Celestia and Luna are currently seeing a therapist for any issues that resulted from the Lunar Rebellions and Celestia's banishment of Luna to the moon]].

* TownWithADarkSecret: [[spoiler:The small mining town Wintervale is controlled by an evil dragon who put its residents under a geas and forced them to mine gems for him. Any outsiders who come to visit Wintervale are driven out, while those who show disobedience are eaten]].

** [[spoiler:Luna counts as well. The "Nightmare" form she took on in ''[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E1MareInTheMoon Mare in the Moon]]''? That was her ''true'' form. Her canon appearance from Season 2 onward was a glamour seal to keep her own power restrained and prevent ponies from freaking out and thus losing whatever little reputation she had since the Lunar Rebellion]].

** Justified. [[spoiler: During Nightmare Moon's rebellion, both sides tried to give themselves an edge by giving their troops advanced knowledge that they weren't yet ready for. This culminated, in Celestia's words, in "giving a foal a stick of dynamite with a match."]]

--> '''Luna:''' "Your torc will grow and change as you do, and your connection with it, as it develops, will let you command it more easily."

--> '''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.''

--> '''Celestia:''' Twilight Sparkle, welcome to the alicorn race.

** BecomingTheMask: Celestia has trouble with letting Luna and the others in on her secrets because she was alone for so long. She couldn't trust anypony for so long she forgot how.

* Omnibus: Although technically one continuous work, WordOfGod is that Rites of Ascension is meant to be broken up into approximately five books.

* DressedtoPlunder: Captain Farriér dresses in a suitably stereotypical pirate fashion.

* {{Doorstopper}}: As of July 2016, the main story alone is nearly 380K words long- and WordOfGod is that it is perhaps halfway through the second of five projected books. 496,749 words as of November 2017

* MedievalStasis: Enforced by Celestia for almost a thousand years after Luna's imprisonment. Averted for the actual story, as the IndustrialRevolution is finally getting kicked off with airships and {{Magitek}}.

* {{Doorstopper}}: As of July 2016, the main story alone is nearly 380K words long- and WordOfGod is that it is perhaps halfway through the second of five projected books.

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Because the Illusionists published fake news about Twilight Sparkle wanting to arrest Trixie Lunamon, [[spoiler: the unicorn surrendered herself to Twilight Sparkle. Giving the Grand Mage acendant her both confirmation of the group existence and a anti illusion spell Trixie created that, with some modifications, has made the Illusionists less effective overall and even lead to some of their plans being ruined]].