//------------------------------//
// The Story, part 3: Despair And Hope 
// Story: A Story And A Game 
// by forthur 
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I refilled the mugs and cups and brought out a plate of cookies. The ponies were awfully quiet. Maybe I was making the story too gloomy?
It doesn't matter, I thought. Soon the mystery will be revealed and the tone of the story should shift a bit.

Some fifteen minutes later you suddenly find the Crystal Empire's station appearing out of the fog, where you find the other missing train. Even in this fog and rapidly fading light it quickly becomes obvious that whatever happened to that first train also happened here.

Everything is dark and quiet. Windows are broken, open and closed bags and suitcases are everywhere. A thin layer of snow has covered everything out on the platform.
Meanwhile there is no pony to be seen. No guard, no crystal pony, nopony. If there weren't a cold breeze whistling through the broken windows it would have been completely silent.

You decide not to stay too long here, and set out for the city itself. Hopefully someone at the palace can make sense of all of this.

Assuming there still is somepony at the palace.

You soon see the first house along the road. It too is dark, although the windows are unbroken.

Suddenly the fog lights up in brilliant yellow. For a second you fear the worst, but then realization dawns. The setting sun must have found a break in the clouds, casting its last rays on the layer of fog.

This gives Rainbow an idea, and she immediately sets off, straight up.

The layer of fog is surprisingly thin; only thirty meters up Rainbow breaks through into the clear air beyond. She gasps as she takes in this strange landscape, with numerous roofs and crystal spires poking out of the swirling fog below. A few faraway breaks in the thick cloud layer overhead create a spectacular backdrop of golden rays pointing to the amber setting sun.

Central to all of this is the tall palace, but it is not its usual brilliant light blue. It is covered in a sickly green goo.

And everywhere, perched on roofs, crawling all over the palace and flying in small flocks through the air, are thousands, many thousands of... changelings!

Yeah, I know, not the most original adversaries. But I didn't have all that much time to prepare this story, fixing up my house and all. And they fit perfectly with the game.

Meanwhile, the reactions of the Mane Six varied from an excited Rainbow Dash to a more concerned look on Rarity's face.
"I can't see why you're so happy, Rainbow darling. We can't fight such an overwhelming force, you know that. I'm very curious to see how we're going to get out of this without the help of Shining Armor and princess Cadance."

Fluttershy looked at me with those beautiful big blue eyes. "This story does have a happy end, right? ... Please?"

I wanted to tell her that everything was going to be okay, but I couldn't.
"I'm sorry, Fluttershy, but I can't tell you that. Not only do I not want to give spoilers, at this point even I don't know if this story will have a happy end. Just trust me."

Rainbow immediately spins around and flies back down again; into the fog, to her friends.
No time to explain. "We have to hide, now!"

She drags the five of you to that house, throws open the front door, pushes all of you inside, all the while muttering about how they might have seen her.

The living room is a mess. The couch, a table and some chairs are lying haphazardly near the corner of the room. Everything has been pulled from the closets, loose paper and broken earthenware cover the ground.

"What did you see, Rainbow?" asks Twilight.
"Changelings! Thousands of them! They're everywhere, and the palace is completely covered in green goo!"

Then Rainbow remembers something, a glint she had seen just before she flipped over to dive back down.
"Completely covered except for the Crystal Heart, that is. I could see it rotating in its usual spot. Around there was no goo at all."

"That's because they're scared of it. They don't like to go near it," a rough voice says.

You look around and discover an earth pony stallion has stepped out from behind the couch.
"It's good to see ponies I can trust," he continues. "Today was chaos. For example, this morning almost the entire family next door turned out to be changelings. I'm Laminary Quartz by the way. Just call me Quartz."

He calls the rest of his family from their hiding spot behind the piled up furniture. A scared looking mare with a young foal joins you, before he tells about what happened here.

"The past few weeks have been weird, in hindsight. Everypony was a bit more jittery than usual. There were rumors of ponies going mad, or suffering from amnesia. But it was always a neighbor of a friend of a nephew, or something. I just worked in the mine. A month ago we have discovered a new vein, and we are still looking for any branches we might have missed.
Anyway, all was relatively well until yesterday afternoon, when this fog just appeared out of nowhere. It didn't seem to be dangerous, so we just, well, waited. Usually when something weird or dangerous is happening we just leave it to the Prince and Princess to do something about it. And they always do."

"We haven't seen them for weeks, you know," his wife suddenly cuts in. "They're always around town, chatting with ponies, or training the guard. But not since, I don't know... Even Citrine was talking about it."

"Then, this morning, the changelings were suddenly everywhere," Quartz continues. "A lot of them flew in, but they must have replaced quite a number of ponies over the past few weeks. Anypony could be a changeling, including many of the guards. There was no way we could defend or fight back. It was over before we knew it."

You share a look with your friends. You saw it happen in Canterlot. Here in the Empire there had been no advance warning.

"Have you seen their queen, Chrysalis?" Twilight asks.

"If there is a queen she's probably up in the palace. We didn't see much; we've stayed in today as we were too scared to go out. Especially after they searched our house. Every house. They were looking for blood crystals. They must have found out about the Shining Spires."

Seeing your confusion Quartz starts to explain. "The Prince and Princess cannot always be around to protect the Empire. So Shining Armor build a defense system - the Crystal Heart can emit a growing bubble or shield that can throw any invaders out."

I've drawn a small heart from the box, carved from wood and painted like the real thing. I place it on the table, then add three equally well-crafted and painted miniature crystal-like spires around it.

"It's powered by both their magics; I don't really understand that stuff. I'm a miner. I know about rocks." he adds with an apologetic shrug.
"But they made sure everypony knew that it's activated by the three spires around the Heart. Just insert one blood crystal into each of them, and voom! Easy as cake. And blood crystals are everywhere. Everypony has them."

"What are blood crystals? They sound... intriguing," Rarity asks.

I drew a few blood crystals from Heartwood's box. His wife had made them, and he was especially proud of them. I could see why. Apparently they were made from some sort of inedible rock candy. They were a translucent dark red and actually had subtle golden glow within. I just had to make sure they wouldn't get wet.

"They're only found in the mine Quartz works in," his wife explains. "They're dark red, like blood, and they have this magic in them that gives them a warm glow. They're always at body temperature. We use them a lot, as night lights and bed warmers. Many ponies swear they're good for your health if you have them near or on you; I don't know, but I always have one in my saddle bags, just in case."

Quartz continues. "Like I said, everypony has them. Most have several. Until today, that is. These changelings could sniff them out somehow, and any blood crystal they found they simply ate. Gobbled them up. Wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself."

I dramatically scooped up the crystals and place them back into the box.

Twilight sighs. There had been a spot of hope, and then it had been thoroughly dashed again. "They ate all of them? There aren't any left in some hidden or hard to reach place?"

Quartz shakes his head. "I'm sorry. They were very thorough. They even dug up the ones in the garden that were warming the roots of my sunberry bush."