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// Prologue 
// Story: Velvet Missteps 
// by PhycoKrusk 
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Velvet Step of Canterlot was an accomplished mare. She was only a young adult — pink-coated and mauve-maned with a ballet slipper emblazoned on her hindquarters — and had already conquered the worlds of both dancing and homeownership. That was using a really, really generous definition of ‘conquered,’ of course, but she had conquered them nevertheless. And also of course, in a particular moment in time, on a particular Tuesday afternoon, absolutely none of that matter. Certainly not while she was faced with a particular emergency:

“Why did I drink so much lemonade?”

Fortunately, it was a particular emergency that’s already been dealt with at this point in the story, and accordingly, there shall be no provided rundown of events, because ew. Although a rundown of events was likewise not needed, as far as Velvet Step was concerned, for after she finished drying her hooves and replaced the towel she used on the crystal towel rack, and looked at the crystal walls, and the crystal floor, and the crystal sink, and crystal toilet, and crystal magazine caddy, she began to sense that something, possibly, was amiss.

“Crystal? When and why did you remodel our bathroom in, um, crystal?” she asked.

There was no answer.

“Crystal?” Velvet asked again, turning around and opening the door.

It was perfectly understandable, really, when her eyes opened as wide as they could when it was not the hallway in her condo that greeted her, but a griffon wearing shining, silver armor with jeweled studs and a crested helmet, and ominous music.

The fact that he was there at all was bad enough, but even worse, he looked very irritated and even angry with her, as if she'd disrupted his carefully organized schedule. Still even worse, he had background music, somehow. The changelings had run all over Canterlot and nearly conquered Equestria, and they didn’t have background music! With sudden, terrified resignation, Velvet realized that she was staring down the Final Boss.

She shrank back from him as he reached out with one of his taloned feet and said, “Passport.”

Velvet blinked. “Passport?” she asked.

The griffon nodded, once. “Please,” he added.

“Well, why would I need a passport to be in my own condo?” she asked. That was actually a good point, and gave her the courage to stand up taller. “If anything, I should be asking you for your passport! Please.”

The griffon’s eyes narrowed, and Velvet shrank back again. “You must be confused, or trying to distract me,” he said. “There aren’t any condos in the Crystal Empire, and there never will be if I have my way.”

Velvet wasn’t terribly interested in whether the griffon would have his way or not. “The Crystal Empire?!”