They were right in front of the town of Appleloosa, which seemed desolate as there was nopony else in sight. They walked towards the bar where there was a jukebox playing loudly, that they could here from the edge of the town. However once they arrived at the bar there was no pony there ever it seemed like the entire town had either ran away or had been caught by changelings.
Thorax and Pop Rock went knocking on other doors but Cotton didn’t even try she knew that everypony was gone from the town. Cotton stayed in the middle of town while she watched the others not giving up hope until they’d knocked on every last door in the town. As they finally finished knocking they joined Cotton in the middle each of them wondering what was next.
“They aren’t here” Pop Rock said.
“Where are they?” Thorax asked.
“The changelings in Canterlot said captive but I’m pretty sure that that was code for all of the Appleloosans” Cotton said.
“They won’t be far it would be really hard to take an entire town captive and ship them far away” Thorax replied.
“Let’s look around the outskirts and see if there are any traces of where they could be, and if we find them there could be another clue to where the crusaders might be “Cotton said.
“Let’s go” Pop Rock said.
All three of them walked away from the empty town and walked past the train station and walked by the side of the train track. They didn’t stop walking and walked in the same direction for what seemed like hours but then stopped when they saw a fire glowing in the distance. It was late and the trio were hoping that wherever the fire was that there’d be a place to rest.
They walked for miles until they approached the camp of the buffalos but it seemed to be empty until something came out of a tent. It was Little Strongheart who wasn’t captured by the changelings who had captured everypony else. The trio sat down with her by the fire and began to question her about the disappearance of the Appleloosans and the other buffalos.
“What happened?” Cotton asked.
“Yesterday loads of funny looking creatures came out of nowhere and took my friends and family I went to the nearby town but nopony was there, ever since I’ve been here awaiting their return but no they haven’t” Little Strongheart said.
“We can help we’re looking for some ponies who were also taken away by the creatures known as changelings” Pop Rock explained. “We think that there could be clues wherever your friends have been taken.”
“You’ll help me?” Little Strongheart asked.
“Yeah we will, even though we don’t know how to” Thorax said.
The group got up and even though it was the night they were content that they were going find the ones that had been taken. It was obvious that Strongheart was missing her friends and family and Cotton walked next to her. Although Cotton had only known the crusaders for a few hours she still missed them as if she’d known them her entire life and she wanted to comfort Strongheart.
“We will find them you know” Cotton said.
“I don’t doubt that we will but it’s what the creatures have done to them is what I worry about” Strongheart said.
“I worry about crusaders and wonder how I’ll find them especially since the changelings managed to capture the mane six” Cotton said.
“To be honest with you I don’t trust you and the other two there’s something off about you” Strongheart said.
Cotton knew that she meant Thorax but revealing his true identity to anypony would be hard for them to understand. Cotton and the others continued to walk until they came across a mine where Strongheart wanted to go inside. Both Pop Rock and Cotton blocked the entrance not wanting to waste time with yet another cave.
“No way we aren’t going in, they wouldn’t go into the mine we’ve checked so many others and normally it’s just such a waste of time” Pop Rock said looking at Cotton.
“True it none of us want to waste time with yet another cave especially since Pop Rock and I were trapped in an avalanche in the crystal mines in Canterlot” Cotton said.
“Fine let’s head east towards the mountain we can see everything in the area from there it might give us a sign as where they are” Strongheart said.
“It’s best if we listen to her, she knows the area well and we want to help” Thorax said.
They all followed as Strongheart led them through the dusty area and towards a massive mountain. As they walked east and eventually reached the mountain Strongheart stopped and readied herself to hike. The mountain was steep and even Strongheart found it hard to climb up the mountain even though she had experience as she’d obviously climbed it at least once before.
Pop Rock’s wings came out and he grabbed Cotton and quickly flew her up to a flat point near the top of the mountain. Pop Rock flew down and grabbed Thorax and then placed him right next to where Cotton was standing. Again he flew down and this time grabbed hold of Strongheart however the wind was strong and he had to use a lot of wing power. As he set Strongheart down and stood next to his friends and looked out at the view that he could barely see because it was pitch black.
“Maybe if we go to sleep and wake up later on we might be able to see more clearly” Thorax suggested.
“Sleep my kind could be in trouble right now” Strongheart said.
“I know, it must be hard but we can’t see maybe if we get some rest we might be able to see where the buffalos and the Appleloosans are in the morning” Pop Rock said.
“Fine” Strongheart grunted angrily.
As the others fell to sleep Cotton crept away from them and sat on the other side of the ledge that they were on. Not only did Cotton not want to sleep but she couldn’t as she knew that Princess Luna would be expecting for here to go to sleep when they wanted to go to the next place. It appeared that it wasn’t only Cotton that couldn’t sleep Pop Rock was also awake and he went over to her.
“You ok?” He asked quietly.
“Of course I am why aren’t you asleep?” She replied.
“I can’t sleep I just want to find the crusaders and go back home to a nice and comfy bed” Pop Rock said.
“Yeah I understand and I’m really sorry that I let you come along and I thank you so much because you’ve stayed with me even after the danger I thought that after the cave in Everfree you’d go home” Cotton said.
“I promised that I wouldn’t let you walk into danger, not on your own anyway” Pop Rock said.
“I want to find the crusaders but you know I’ll let you out of that promise if you really want to if anything happened to you or Thorax I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself because it would be my fault” Cotton said.
“It wouldn’t, anyway are you going to go home after we’ve found them?” Pop Rock asked.
“No you saw how annoying my parents are I’ll probably end up joining another circus if I went back there, I don’t have a plan but my life will play out how it’s meant to be” Cotton said.
They sat there for hours until dawn and then they woke Thorax and Strongheart up to see where the missing could be found. They looked around and saw both Appleloosa and the campsite of the buffalos and then they saw something moving in the orchard where there was hundreds of apple trees. All of them looked hard and then realised that everypony was tied to the trees in the orchard and that there was changelings guarding the captives.
“Do you see that?” Thorax asked.
“Yeah they’re all there” Pop Rock replied.
“Let’s prepare for a battle to save all of them” Strongheart said.
“Before we fight we’ve got to trust each other and I trust you Strongheart and you have to trust us” Cotton said. “Thorax show her who you really are.”
“Really?” Thorax asked then Cotton nodded and then he transformed into his natural form as a changeling.
“I knew there was something wrong about you, but you seem pretty good even for one of them creatures” Strongheart said.
“Now I’m going to transform back into a pony form because everypony else might not understand” Thorax said transforming back into a stallion.
Pop Rock flew each of them down one by one until all three of the others were down and then they started running. Now they knew exactly where they were going and we're going to try to save the others before anything happened. They were right next to the orchard when they saw the first changeling clearly and he was guarding the captives.
“You ready for a fight?” Pop Rock asked them all.
“My magic is charged, your wings are intact and these two have perfectly fine hooves to fight with” Cotton said. “I’m pretty sure we are.”
They gathered in a straight line and then ran towards the changelings Cotton began the fight by sending a huge light beam up into the sky and then aimed it at the changeling in the front of the orchard. The fight had truly began and Pop Rock flew up into the sky while Cotton levitated up on top of an apple and Thorax and Strongheart went into the forest of trees.
The captives were all tied up to the trees in the middle and there was lots of changelings in the way. Cotton jumped from tree to tree blasting every changeling back with her magic and Pop Rock was defeating the ones that had flew up. Both Thorax and Strongheart were charging through hordes of changelings hoping to get into the centre so they could save the captives. They were all close to the centre when out of nowhere more came rushing out to help the ones that were being easily defeated.
Thorax changed into his natural form allowing him to sneak past the bad changelings and was able to advance to the centre. Thorax turned back into his stallion form behind a tree and started to untie some of the captives. Cotton was knocked out of a tree but luckily Pop Rock caught her and placed her safely on the floor and flew back into the skies.
Now alongside Cotton, Strongheart charged into a swarm who were pushed to the sides but closely followed them. Pop Rock was flying into the changelings and quickly opened one of his wings while the other one continued to flap which hit them. As the others fought the changelings, Thorax continued to free the changelings when he noticed something weird right next to the trees in an open clearing.
“We’re being attacked my king, what should we do?” A changeling asked.
“Stay there until the last possible moment then join me in the main base” A face of a pony said.
Thorax stood and stared as he realised that Queen Chrysalis wasn’t behind this and recognised who the true leader of this attack was. King Sombra the previous leader of the Crystal Empire and a very villainous king who everypony thought had been destroyed by Princess Cadance and Spike. Thorax snapped back into action freeing the captives in sight and telling them to run back to Appleloosa.
The others kept coming closer to the middle of the orchard blasting all the changelings that stepped into their paths. They reached the middle and most of the captives had been freed by Thorax and the last captive was freed. They were all backed into the middle of the orchard and were surrounded but then Cotton’s horn lighted up and it wasn’t her usual pink colour it was dark purple. All of the changelings saw it as a massive beam of purple let out and they all swarmed together and then retreated.
All four of them headed back to Appleloosa and every pony and buffalo who had previously been captives were really happy. Even though the apple orchard had been a little wrecked during the battle against the changelings they weren’t a bit upset. They were so glad to welcome the team that had saved them from the changelings to their town and wanted to throw a party for them.
“We’d love to stay and all but the three of us have to get going” Cotton said.
“Oh that’s a shame” Braeburn said.
“Yeah, it is but she got it a bit wrong she means the four of us have to get going” Strongheart said.
“Really you want to help us?” Pop Rock asked.
“You helped me find my people and friends, there’s no better way to thank you than to help you save your friends” Strongheart said. “Where are we going?”
“I heard a changeling commander talking to his leader and it turns out they’re working for King Sombra” Thorax said.
“Not Chrysalis, if it’s Sombra and changelings he’ll think that nopony suspects him and he’ll probably be near the Crystal Empire” Pop Rock said.
“Get me a bed I’m going to sleep” Cotton said.
“What it’s the middle of the day?” Strongheart said and Cotton glared at her.
Cotton was led to a room where she lay down on a bed and was instantly asleep and a dream had started. She was in the room but this time she was seeing herself in a mirror and she was destroying Equestria but then it disappeared. As the mirror of Cotton destroying Equestria disappeared Princess Luna appears in its place and she seemed distressed for some reason.
“We need Discord right away” Cotton said.
“We’ll send him but you have to know that all of the known fake ponies are missing” Princess Luna said.
“Well we believe that the Crusaders and the mane six are in the Crystal Empire hopefully we’re on the verge of finding them” Cotton said.
“Ok Discord will be there soon” Princess Luna said.
Cotton then awoke from her short slumber and saw that Pop Rock, Thorax and Strongheart were ready to leave. Cotton was very glad that they were coming close to finding the rest of the ponies that had been taken away by the changelings. Also saving Appleloosa was good too but was scared of the mirror that was in the room and it was weird since that her magic was purple then too. Discord then showed up and with a click of his fingers they were in the Crystal Empire staring at the massive palace in the distant and there was lots of glowing crystal ponies walking around.