No pony can hold onto their magic forever. Inevitably, a pony's body will be broken, and their magic will return to the air and soil. Celestia has held onto her magic for a very long time.

After many long years of preparation, the time for Twilight to succeed Celestia as Bearer of the Sun has come. But as the abdication ceremony in which Celestia will relinquish her power approaches, Twilight begins to desperately search for a way to stop the dread ritual of the ceremony and save her friend.

On a journey to a place seven hundred fifty million miles away, Twilight yearns for home.

Everypony knows Twilight Sparkle as the sweet, studious unicorn whose magic powers are matched only by her incredible focus and organizational skills. When Twilight's friends make fun of the way her checklists and schedules control her life, Twilight just laughs.

One day, for reasons known only to her, Twilight goes on an unstoppable organizing rampage. Soon, Rarity decides that she's had enough, and tries to stop Twilight before she organizes Carousel Boutique into oblivion.

Twilight Sparkle is very, very organized. Twilight Sparkle has never told anypony why she's so organized. Until now.

"When I read their letters... I think about how temporary everything really is."

A lonely princess pores over her studies in a frigid castle, desiring nothing more than the warmth of an old friend. Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Equestria, wears a heavy crown wrought of burdens too numerous to bear, but perhaps a special visitor can ease her pain, if only for a moment.

In a freak accident from the Cloudsdale weather control team, Twilight is struck down by an errant lightning bolt. But the veil of death is relatively thin...

Twilight is a princess. She is unassailable, indomitable, and above all, she is Good. This is what other ponies see, and this is the image that Twilight herself strives to live up to. She is kind when and where she can be, she is wise to the extent she is capable. And, by some miracle, the image and the reality line up more often than not.

And then, quite by accident, Twilight happens upon some disturbing news from a long-buried part of her life that destroys all of it.

For the first time, I'd like to give a gentle warning that this story involves a sensitive topic Sexual abuse. If you're bothered by this, I urge you not to read it. If you are effected by it, I urge you to seek the help and the compassion of others.

The friends we take for granted are often the ones that leave the largest impact on our lives. When Spike falls seriously ill with a mysterious disease and the ponies strive to nurse him back to health, Twilight Sparkle comes to grips with this very realization about her number one assistant--and friend.

EDIT: So this little story made it on Equestria Daily on 10/8/12. Now please excuse me while I pass out on Rarity's fainting couch while murmuring a soft Fluttershy "...yay."

When her mother passes away unexpectedly, Twilight Sparkle reflects on a parent she neglected in pursuit of her own dreams. With only a little time left before the funeral, she returns home to piece together what she can of a life she barely remembers, hoping to make peace with the memories of a pony she took for granted.

Twilight Sparkle has made a strange deal with Brad: he ties her up, and she does everything he tells her to.

Her beauty, sullied; her wisdom, corrupt; my love for her, violated. But still I answer...

Summoned to the palace in the dead of night, Twilight takes up a burden that even her generous, loving soul may not be able to handle...

Humanized Twilight/Tyrant!Celestia.