Twilight Sparkle has been called to Canterlot on royal business: a university's archeology department needs help with a tricky project. All very routine and hum-drum for her... but for Rainbow Dash, it's a chance to get an inside view of the exciting and fast-paced world of ancient history! But how much does she really know about the field? A chance meeting with a larger-than-life pony teaches her about the difference between reality and imagination.

Update: This story is followed by a full-length sequel. Check out The Death of Daring Do: Engine of Eternity"!

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!

Lemon Dreams is a happy pony with a perfect life in Ponyville. There's only one problem - she thinks she's a lemon.

Is she really a pony-shaped citrus fruit, or is she just crazy? Does it even matter? When Lemon Dreams finds herself at odds with the ponies of Ponyville and pursued by a strangely familiar ghost, she realises she must discover the answers to those questions before it's too late.

After a dispute between Twilight and Rainbow about the latest Daring Do novel, Rainbow struggles to make Twilight see things her way. Yet, no matter what she tries, Twilight is adamant that what Rainbow believes is unrealistic and could never happen. However, a day of baking shenanigans and a night at Twilight's soon makes Rainbow question how she feels towards her friend. Could there be something more than just friendship between the two?

Written for the Second TwiDash "Abandoned Fic" Contest. The rules of engagement can be found here.

Edited by The Abyss and DarqFox.

Cover art used with permission from Choedan-Kal

At 3:15 AM, Adams woke me with a loud knock on my front door.
"Put your boots on," he said when I answered. "There's a biblical monster in my house."

* * *

A Visual Companion, by the author
Interview with the author, from the Royal Canterlot Library.
Audiobook by Robin Jacks and Wubcake.
Audiobook by Scribbler.
In-depth analysis by the Heroic Tales cast.
Literary Analysis by ScarletWeather.
Special thanks to GaryOak.
Reviews:
City of Doors
One Man's Pony Ramblings
PresentPerfect
Louder Yay
Between Lines
Bad Horse

[Featured on EqD and FiM Fiction] Chrysalis is brought to Canterlot to stand trial for her failed invasion. Thinking her fate is sealed, she is determined to be defiant to the very end. Loosely based on March to the Scaffold, the 4th movement of the musical piece Symphonie Fantastique by Hector Berlioz.
All links to the music pieces are in the Author Notes.
Dramatic reading of the entire story by Illya Leonov
Dramatic reading of Chapter 1 by xPsychoShyx
Picture is by Huussii