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// Chapter 55 - The Worst Day Ever 
// Story: The Pony Dreadfuls 
// by No one is home 
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I remember everything about that horrible day.  Everything else, the trial, my first days in the school, all that’s still a blur.  Between the rage and the sedation I guess it always will be.  But that terrible day is burned across my brain.  Moth was fanning the flames even as the invasion force scattered.  It was all Princess Fast Change’s fault.  She hid in her hive.  She LET the Nopony take Decanter.  She only cared about securing her place on the hill in the bed of the Silver Prince.

We arrived at the hive to an explosion of garish color.  At once our grievance was validated, and our ambitions were thwarted in one fell swoop.  Fast Change was gone.  She had finally done it, she had abandoned the hive to chase that damned prince on the hill.  She left Z-978 and Facehugger without a second thought.  In the end her promise to Surprise didn’t mean anything.  It would hurt less I think if it came as any kind of surprise.  Fast Change had abdicated to Stand In.   She had called all the drones together.  They had gone through that weird transformation.  Even Z, I don’t know if I would have recognized her without Facehugger.  She always wanted ponies to think she was a pretty changeling.  Maybe I should be happy for her.

Damn Stand In.  Damn Celestia twice.  What kind of choice did they give the hive?  Be pretty or be evil.  That was what it was.  I didn’t really even have a choice anymore.  I wasn’t the heir of the Unspoken Prince, no, I was the daughter of the darkness.  I was the heir of the Nopony.  And every pony on the hill who ignored his reign of terror in Decanter would be screaming for vengeance against me.  They let him run loose, they let him take everything from me.  They didn’t care so long as he only hurt the ponies in the shadows of Upper Canterlot.  Even Fast Change, all she cared about was escaping back to the shining city above us.  She made mom a promise, but in the end it meant nothing.

Stand In made it clear she would not tolerate dissent.  I understand her position.  She had to secure the mess she had inherited.  That meant giving the ponies the new pretty changelings Celestia told them meant that we weren’t evil anymore.  I wasn’t really a princess, just like Uncle Train Wreck wasn’t really a Prince.  Pretty and colorful equalled good.  Celestia had decreed it.  I had made my choice when I unleashed my hate to destroy the Nopony.  That path was closed to me.  I was an evil queen, and more important to Stand In, a dangerous rival.

I can’t blame my sisters for abandoning me.  Stand In had already led changeling drones away from one evil queen.  What chance did I really have?  They all took the out, right there in front of me, one by one.  Why wouldn’t they?  Who wants to be a hideous freak.  Who wants to be an evil changeling?  Thirteen stood by me, and Moth held off the guards and gave us time to escape.  I’m thankful for that.  Moth.  Sketch.  Shadefire.  They were all apprehended then and there.  Stand In painted us as villains and opportunists.  As if the problem wasn’t real.  As if our grievances were just in our minds.

I escaped with Thirteen and I knew exactly where to go.  I had to confront her.  I knew it meant the end of my freedom.  It didn’t matter anymore.  What did I have left to lose?  What was there left to take away?  I hated Fast Change at that moment.  I don’t know what I really wanted.  I don’t know what would have made me happy.  I wanted her to come back, and  I wanted her to disappear.  I wanted her to love me the way she loved her little changelings, and I wanted her to just dry up and blow away.  I was never good enough to be part of her family, just like Uncle Train Wreck had never been good enough for her.  But in the end did it matter?  Because she left them too.  All she cared about was living in that big shining castle.  All she cared about was her perfect alicorn prince.  Nothing else mattered to her.  Not her promise to mom, not Z, not her changelings, not even her own grubs.

She said I was a disgrace to mom’s memory.  She said Uncle Train Wreck would be ashamed of me.  Maybe she was right, but she’s no better!  She “earned” her little hoof hole defending the ponies in half measures.  She could never go back, any more than I could.  She thought she was so good.  She thought I was so evil.  But she’s never going to be a pretty little unicorn again.  And she can hide in a shiny castle forever behind her Silver Prince, but she’s no better than me.  She could have fought the Nopony.  She could have stopped him.  She could have saved Uncle Train Wreck.  He loved her, but she didn’t want him, so she let him die.  If she could, she’d let the whole hive die.  One less thing between her and her rainbows.  She wished they were all dead!  All the changelings, all her grubs, Z, me, she wanted us to all disappear so she could have her rainbows.

That’s what I told her.  I didn’t cry, because I’m an evil queen.  And she didn’t cry, because Fast Change doesn’t care about anything but her own happy little ending.  She got everything she wanted, and me and Thirteen are going to be locked away forever.  Because that’s how she wants it.  And that’s what I told her.  And I don’t feel bad about it.  Because she gets to be happy in her big shiny castle, and I get to shuffle between classes and meal times.  She get’s to cuddle with her Silver Prince, and I’ll never get to cuddle with mom or Uncle Train Wreck ever again.  And it’s HER fault.  And even if it’s not, I’m still never going to forgive her.