Twi-ling

By the time they reached where the heart was supposed to be, Twilight assumed they all had frostbite considering how cold it was. It had to be in the single digits, maybe even negatives. The heart was still there, but it wasn't crystal-y or bright blue. It was a dull, flat gray. And it didn't give off any aura of love or anything else. The Crystal Empire had-or was going to fall.

"I can't believe it," Twilight heard Pinkie say to Rainbow. "The Crystal Ponies... I thought they were safe!"

Rainbow answered with, "Well, Cadence is like... Not here anymore... So it does sort of make sense."

Twilight put her head in her hooves. She didn't know what to do. There was nothing left to do. Looking around, a lot of crystal homes were destroyed.

Twilight suddenly jerked her head up and strode over to the heart and began to try using magic, but nothing happened. She tried to amplify the heart with friendship, but it was no use. Friendship wasn't its fuel, and no magic still. Whatever. It was worth a shot, she supposed. She decided to examine the palace and told the others two remain downstairs and try to coax the Crystal Ponies out of their homes.

Queen Chrysalis stalked around the cage holding the pink Princess of Love. "Did you put out the Crystal Heart?" she hissed at Cadence.

"Y-yes, Chrysalis," the weakened alicorn replied.

A glare and a growl from the changeling queen made her correct herself. "M-My queen. My apologies."

Cadence had no idea where she was, and that was fine with Chrysalis. But the changeling was indeed surprised that the princess didn't remember the caves beneath Canterlot. Two voices whispering distracted her from Cadence. "Shut up," she growled at the two previous rulers of Equestria. "Or I'll through you into the abyss just like I did Rarity."

That shut them up. They had been forced to watch everything that happened to the Mane Six. Until they were all wiped out. She cackled before adding another protection spell to ensure they didn't disappear and teleported away.

"Nothing upstairs," Twilight said to the two as she arrived back under the palace. "Any word of the ponies?"

Both Rainbow and Pinkie shook their heads in defeat. Pinkie looked up. "You think it's time to throw in the towel, Twi?"

"No!" Rainbow and Twilight shouted immediately together.

"Let's just look upstairs again," Twilight said. "I probably missed something."