"My name is Sunset Shimmer, and there are two Twilight Sparkles who are both madly in love with me.

Please help."

"Would you tell anypony if you knew the world was going to end, Twilight Sparkle?"

My unicorn parents called me a worthless mud pony. They pushed me every day to overcome my lowly status. When I woke up one morning with my cutie mark, I thought they would love me. I couldn’t have been farther from the truth.

It was not destiny or enjoyment that led me to discover the cello and composing. My parents made that decision, deciding before I was born I would continue their family legacy of famous musicians.

They did not realize what that decision would cost them.

Special Thanks and Links:

Cover Art: Dreampaw. The inspiration for the story.
Dramatic reading of Act I-III by Malao567. June 2013
Reading with music by ObabScribbler. June 2014
Song: Hooks and Strings by Reverb Brony. May 2014

Style inspired by H.P. Lovecraft
TypeWriterError: Editor & Rating Board
Gage of Grandiloquence: Editor
The11thWonder: Pre-reader
Nharctic: Pre-reader
Breath of Plagues: My Pinch Editor.
ArgonMatrix: Bad Grammar Exterminator
Daemon of Decay: Advice, also inspired me to write fan fiction. Blame him!

Her heart was broken. Her reputation in Ponyville was in ruins. A menace, they called her. Said she wasn't a real hero. Blamed her for the sudden disappearance of their real hero, Mare Do Well. She'd even been abandoned by her five best friends. Everything she thought she could count on was destroyed.

Bent on vengeance and driven by her raw emotions, Rainbow Dash becomes a villain that Ponyville won't soon forget. But she soon finds that not everything in Ponyville is quite what it seems.

Special thanks to DragonShadow, who pre-read and helped me revise this story. Thanks also to JofY, who gave suggestions for the second revision.

The comments are full of unmarked spoilers, so watch out.
Obviously, this contains massive spoilers for the season 2 episode "The Mysterious Mare Do Well," and one must have seen it before this story will make much sense.
Rated Teen for violence and some blood.