She had been fighting the magic for weeks. All the years she had had it, it had just been a benevolent presence inside her, willing to do whatever she asked as long as she asked it politely. But after her transformation from unicorn to princess, its power had been growing. It was growing harder to make the magic do what she wished...and it was growing ever easier to let it follow its own rapidly developing will.
It was easier to surrender, rather than to fight.
She could see that now, as she lay in her bed, listening to her own breathing, and that of Spike, who slept beside her. But she also could not see how to give in, for if she did, the Elements of Harmony would be incomplete, and Equestria would crumble as soon as the newest villain stepped within its borders.
She lay in her bed, staring up at the ceiling. Night was the worst, for as soon as the last rays of sunlight disappeared, with them went all hope that she would be able to keep her magic fully at bay...that her magic would not creep through her body, longing to take her over, only needing one word to do so.
No. It was not her magic - not anymore. It was its own, and she feared it...she feared it even more than failing her mentor. If she failed Princess Celestia...well, now that she was a princess, she wasn't relying on Celestia to further her studies anymore. She was studying by herself, and Celestia certainly couldn't stop her from doing that. She also could not de-rank Twilight, for to do so would mean an uproar of protests...and nopony wanted that, unless it would be for their benefit.
I'm rambling. Why am I rambling? Twilight thought. I need to focus all of my attention on staying awake - I can't fall asleep until the morning! Her...the magic was making her become nocturnal, for to go to sleep when the shadows reigned was to succumb. To die. And she couldn't surrender. Not yet.
Why not? she wondered, as she lay there. A breeze wafted through the window, which was open slightly, and sent a shiver of pleasure through her wings.
Her wings. That was the answer to her rambling: she needed to go for a midnight fly-around, to breathe in the fresh, cool air, to feel the chill of the fall night and the wind in her wings.
So she rose, silently pushing the covers aside and tiptoeing to the window. She eased it up all the way, and launched herself out! She fell about a foot, relishing the air rushing in her wake, then spread her wings and soared upwards, catching an air current, then beating her wings steadily to keep herself in the air.
Twilight flew through the streets of Ponyville, brooding on the prospect of surrender. If she gave in to the magic inside her, it would take her over...transform her - though into what, she didn't know. And the Elements of Harmony would no longer exist, unless a new Element of Magic was found somewhere in Equestria.
If she didn't surrender, she would be able to sleep half the day away as she always did...but when she woke up, she would face the approaching night. And the thought of another twelve hours of struggling to stay awake, of half-feverish resistance...it was almost too much to bear.
I don't know what to do anymore. My days are spent with dread anticipation, and my nights are just about the worst experience I could ever have. I don't deserve this life! I don't know how to go on...it's just getting to be too much. Twilight found that tears were streaming down her cheeks, and that she was slowly sinking through the air, unable to concentrate on flying and her worries at the same time. She descended, landing on the cobblestone street.
She sought any comfort she could possibly find. Her eyes found it, in the gentle glow of the moon. She gazed up at it, and her face contorted with internal pain.
"I don't know!" she sobbed aloud, burying her face in her hooves. "I just don't know anything anymore!"
And then, she heard a voice.
"I can help you..."
Twilight looked up, wiping her eyes and sniffing loudly. "Who's there?" she asked in a quavering voice.
"I've been here all along, Twilight Andromeda Sparkle. You've simply ignored me all these years...but lately, you have been warming to me, and I can finally say what I have wanted to say this whole time."
Twilight realized that the voice was in her own head. No...
"I can dispel all of your sorrows with a single command. I can elevate you to a level higher than you have ever dreamed of! Troubles and pain will no longer be yours. All I need...is a single word..."
Twilight hesitated. Then her eyes flicked up to Luna's moon, and the sight of it reminded her of what she would lose, what her friends and all of Equestria would lose, if she did what the magic was asking her to do. "No!" she cried. "I will never give in!" But then she saw something that made her courage falter.
Dark clouds were moving in, from all sides. The sky grew darker and darker, and a cold wind picked up. Twilight gasped as its icy fingers raked through her mane and tail, across her still-spread wings, along her whole body. She could see lines of ice traced along her skin where it had touched.
"How about now, Twilight Sparkle?" the magic breathed in her ear as the wind whistled around her, as the dark clouds obscured the last rays of moonlight. "When all hope is lost, when you will surely die, will you refuse?"
Twilight gasped for air as the storm clouds closed in. She could feel their density pressing against her skin, and she knew that this was no ordinary storm. She knew that it was the magic's doing...and that it would be worth nothing to resist now. The power that had once been hers had finally, truly gained a life - and a voice - of its own. If she did not give in now, there was no telling what might happen. She took a deep breath.
"I will not," she said, letting her body go limp. The wind lifted her into the air, and as the faintest traces of purple began to whisper around her, she repeated herself, but louder.
"I will not refuse. Take me over. Do what you wish with me. I am forever yours."
The strands of violet grew brighter, and began to whirl around her, joined by tendrils of pink. "Say it!" the magic begged, its excitement plain to hear. "SAY IT!! WILL YOU GIVE IN??!"
Twilight closed her right eye, leaving her dominant left open for the moment - for she wished to see as best she could the magic that swirled through the air. The pink and purple strands were beautiful. Tears flowed down her cheeks, and her open eye began to glow with the power inside her. She could feel her horn warming, its heat increasing until it burned red-hot. Her mane and tail streamed around her in the force of the wind.
She drew in a deep breath, which was to be her last, as she closed her other eye and basked in the glory, in the heat of her horn, in the wonderful lightening sensation of nearly being free.
"Yes."
Freedom is a wonderful thing. As the magic around her grew so searingly bright as to obscure her form, Twilight Andromeda Sparkle felt the worry, the pain, the power within her, drain out of her. In one blissful moment, she knew what it was like to be completely and absolutely...
...free.
A wave of blinding white light burst forth from her heart, and spread throughout all of Equestria. Power drained from every single mare, every stallion, every creature within its borders. And every one of them knew, too, what it was to be free.
...
....
........
...
"And that's how Equestria was unmade!"
*pause*
"Dunno why I'm still here though." 
END.
