A number of ponies lay sprawled on the floor of a dimly lit room, slowly awakening from their slumber. After some time passed, a few ponies managed to bring themselves to their hooves and they began to wake and help the others. A large silver stallion, the first to wake up, paced back and forth along the front wall of what appeared to be a cafe they were currently occupying. He was attempting remember what happened to him broken by the sudden burst of questions.
"Why am I here? I ..."
"I can't remember, why can't I remember?"
"Uhh ... Wh-what’s going on?"
All of the others were up now, and all in various levels of shock of their current situation, many looked dazed and disorientated. Some held each other, others simply sat where they woke, lost in thought. Something had happened moments ago, though none in the room knew what it was. Their memory was blurry fuzz that got fuzzier the more they tried to focus.
The silver stallion had no idea what was happening and it frustrated him. What made it worse was that he didn’t know why it frustrated him. He tried to remember what was happening earlier that day, but he got nothing. The harder he tried, the more his mind got sluggish. It infuriated him. Acting on instinct, the he walked to the centre of the room. "Does anypony know anything about what caused this or what they were doing a moment ago?"
He was greeted with a variety of responses from a simple no to silent head shakes, but every pony’s attention was now on him. He wasn't sure why, but it felt natural to be in charge, it just felt right. Continuing his pacing, he glanced out through a crack in a curtained window, inspecting the brilliant sunny day, and after a moment of thought, walked through the upturned tables and chairs, the remains of plates and cutlery crunching under his hooves, and opened the grooved opaque crystal doors of the cafe.
Vibrant natural light flooded into the room, reflecting off the shiny, polished floor and walls. The sudden illumination startling many of the inward focused ponies, many of who got up and walked to the windows, drawing the curtains away to let in more of the light. The new light covered the floor, refracting off the shattered crystal covering the floor and throwing hundreds of miniature rainbow all across the walls of the regular sized cafe. The walls in turn bounced the spectrum of colours around and lit the interior up, bright as day.
With new interest, the ponies got up and walked to the windows, staring at everything outside. The sight of the city outside brought with it a sudden awareness of who they are. Reinvigorating their long term memories with various trivial bit of knowledge, such as their names and where they lived and their families. Things they loved and things hated. More glimpses of memories were suddenly there, in their consciousness, and a joyful tension built in the air. While none of them knew what had happened just before, without word they all knew what was on each others’ minds. Sombra was gone.
The elation of the information did little to ease their loss of memory. None of them remembered what they were doing, where they were going or what they should do. They simply wandered here and there, their memory still muddled.
Had any of them had being paying greater attention they would have noticed the short grey-coated mare with a sea green mane, backed into the corner that was nervously shifting on her hooves and the expression of absolute terror on her face.
She remembered everything.
A thousand years ago
The battle was still raging behind her. The two alicorns had been fighting King Sombra for what seemed like hours now. They came during the day, demanding he relinquish his position and release his slave-citizens. Their answer came in the form of vicious combat spells. And they had been trading those ever since. Sombra, for his part in the battle, was losing. And even now was surrounding himself with wall upon wall of the dense crystalline structure that the castle walls were composed of. But this was not what she fled from.
She galloped, pushing herself to her limits; she jumped, dodged, twisted and ducked. It was a losing battle however, and the dozen or so ponies that chased after were gaining ground by the second. What made matters worse however, was that along the mile stretch of crystal-cobble, there was little in the way of places to hide, and an even smaller number of places to run to.
Moments ago, sensing the princesses’ imminent victory, the soon-to-be liberated crystal ponies had turned their collective attentions to doing whatever necessary to make sure that never again would they be forced into slavery. They had the taste of freedom on their tongues and were unwilling to surrender it. So it came as no surprise to her that that when the large crowd turned and saw her, standing in the middle of the main crystal boulevard, they were shocked beyond belief.
The Crystal Empire rarely interacted with the other pony races, but the stories and tales of them were well known to its citizens. While the empire never had any significant threats or predators, the other pony races were not as lucky. Many spoke of dragons as large as mountains, bristling with scales and spines with breath stolen from the sun itself, or a pride of manticores, fierce winged beasts that could strike down a dozen ponies with ease. There were chimaeras, hydras, ursine, basilisk, cockatrice and many more. MANY more.
But the creature before them was none of those. It was far worse. The Crystal Empire was build with foundations of love and hope and happiness and all things good. Here was a creature that shared no similar beliefs. It was the epitome of hatred. There were not so many stories of it, but the ones they knew did not strike fear into the crystal ponies or make them quake. It was a creature that was opposed to everything the empire stood for. And they abhorred it, they despised it.
She watched the momentary shock of the crowd immediately transform to hate and spite and fury. A visible wave of disdain roiled through the ranks of citizens. All of it focused at her, and she knew it. Not sparing a second, she ran. And they chased. Now she was galloping at full pace down the wide central plaza that ran the length of the city, with a lynch mob in tow.
She spied the open door along the main boulevard, a cafe on the other side. Jumping over an open topped wagon, causing the following mob to temporarily lose sight of her, she skidded around a large lamppost and dived straight through the door ... slamming into tables covered with all sorts of crystal cups, saucers and plates. They fell, shattering and shooting in every direction, causing a tremendous amount of noise. She looked around, frantic and wild-eyed, for an exit, an escape. There’s no doubt they would have heard that. she thought while she dashed to the end of the room, jumping behind an overturned table.
As if on cue, the mob rushed in through the door, pausing briefly to survey the room. They spread out, forming a rough line as they searched the insides of the disused cafe. She was slowly working her way back, towards the kitchen when she accidentally bumped another table. There was a startled gasp and then sound of breaking glass, drawing the attention of every pony in the room.
They saw her. She saw them. Backed into the corner of the cafe, she had no place to run, so she stood, affixed to the ground in fright. The closed around her, radiating hate like the sun giving warmth. There they got the first good sight of her.
She didn't have the glossy sheen coat like the others had, nor was she transparent like them either. Her mane did not have the elegant style or iridescence in the light around her; instead it flowed off her head like long straight, slightly matted curtains. Her eyes had no pupils, or irises, or whites; they were just solid green. No, she wasn't a normal pony. She wasn't even a pony at all.
Velare was a changeling.
