The two of them stayed in awkward silence until dawn. And since they started at early twilight, they'd been walking for about twelve hours. They stopped for supplies at a camping store close to the bay and got enough supplies for two people for a week. Orion had said they'd reach Ponyville by the time the food ran out. Every mile or so, Orion would lose the train but find it again with his spell. Apparently it had a time limit as to how long he could do it. Silver never got a glimpse of his cutie mark for some reason. It was covered by his dark blue armor. He said it was a magnifying glass over green fire but Silver wasn't really in a trusting mood.

She'd seen him levitate a few things and saw that the natural aura was, as he said, a light red but that his signature spell came across as green. Every few hours, he'd tap his ear and talk to Nexus through the small transceiver in his ear, telling him about their process. She still had her doubts about Orion. He was quiet otherwise. He was a lot nicer when he wasn't going with her, or she was going with him. At dawn, he checked the map and lit his horn with a green glow. starting to move more to the west. Silver checked her own compass and knit her brow.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought we were following the coast?" She asked following Orion.

"We are. But Ponyville is a few hundred miles this way and we need to stop off there. Unless you want to cross the desert without food or water."

"Why do we have to that?"

"Because, the only other place to stop then is Dodge or Appaloosa." Depending on if we walked past Dodge."

"Doesn't Ponyville connect directly to Dodge by the rails?"

"Yeah. We'll take the train to Dodge, then to Appaloosa before continuing on foot. If we didn't it'd take a year to cross Equestria."

"Good point."

"Plus, if we just went straight south, we'd have to go through the Everfree Forest."

"What's so bad about that?"

"Nopony really knows what's in there. Celestia and Luna's old castle is there, but other than that, we don't know anything about it."

"Frightening." Silver said sarcastically.

"Commander Nexus spent two months in there hiding from Equestria. He fought off manticores on a weekly basis."

"He did?"

"That's the scuttlebutt of it anyways. It was two years ago and he's not one to talk about the past."

"What about you? You said you had a score to settle with the changelings. What exactly did they do to you?"

"Trust me. You don't want to know."

"Believe me, I want to."

Orion stopped in his tracks and Silver nearly bumped into him. "When I was twelve, changelings covertly invaded Canterlot. These weren't the normal kind; they were a rare breed that literally sucked the love out of ponies along with their blood. They tore down my home and killed both of them in front of me. After that the Commander found after I had run away to Ponyville. He took me in and taught me magic and Luna showed me how to track changelings. I've been working for him ever since."

"And that's why you want to hunt them down? They killed your family?"

"Not all. I met this filly in Ponyville that needed somepony to look after her."

"What does she have to do with anything?"

"She is a changeling. Converted. She was too young to do any harm but everypony hated her."

"Again, why is she important?"

A smile started creeping across his face as he spoke. "I more or less adopted her. After I got recalled to Canterlot, she moved with me. I leave her with The Commander's maid whenever I leave for a mission. It's rare but sometimes I'm the only one for the job."

Silver started to like this side of him, the nicer, less broody side. "What's her name?"

"Eclipse. She's the most adorable little girl ever."

"What's she look like?"

"Black coat, purple mane, violate eyes. She never grew wings so she's just got a normal horn. She even has some freckles on her muzzle." Orion said with a chuckle.

Silver was really starting to enjoy this side a lot more than when they had started this journey. He acted like she'd always been his real daughter. For the next eight hours, Silver had Orion tell story after story of his little girl. He'd found her two years ago when she was six. He sympathized with her, seeing as she had more or less been tormented by the other foals for being who she was, and started with just letting her stay with him, but he eventually got all of the papers to legally make her his step daughter.

After that, Eclipse really lightened up and started acting like a normal girl. She's been a regular girl ever since; going to school, learning magic and other skills, playing with the few friends she can find and getting use to her new environment in Canterlot. By midday she couldn't even walk anymore. She had no idea how far they'd traveled but she did know that she needed to sleep. From his saddle bags, Orion pitched two tents. As soon as the first one was up, Silver threw her small cot into it and practically passed out. Orion only chuckled before making his and giving himself a restful sleep as well.

Night came quickly. Silver hated that. True, she wasn't getting much sleep to begin with considering it was broad daylight but she was able to drift off for a few hours before tossing and turning trying to fall back asleep. Orion didn't have an issue at all. It might have been a part of the training to work on such little sleep and remain nocturnal but that was beyond her. Silver helped Orion break down the camp before following him south west.

For the next five days, they kept to that schedule; only stopping to eat, refill canteens in creeks and streams and to take care of private business. When they reached Ponyville's northern border, Silver Bit was elated. They crossed a bridge into the small town. Though, for a small town, the whole place seemed to be bustling. Ponies walked in and out of shops and tended small gardens next to the dirt roads. They first stopped to resupply at the street market before finding a small motel near the center of town.

Silver checked into her own room as Orion caught up with somepony who recognized him. The rooms weren't that nice, but it was better than a piece of cloth on top of two sticks. Silver didn't hesitate to fall face first into to the sheets and fall straight asleep. She still didn't have an easy time staying asleep. It was like her body was giving her the minimal amount of rest she needs to function before her mind tells her that it's time to move, it's daylight after all.

She could never tell how much time had passed. She knew about a minute after laying down she had to throw her two rifles and saddle bags onto the floor for comfort. She could remember going to sleep for what felt like two hours but woke up five minutes later. After that she'd just fall asleep again and then it would feel like seconds before the time skipped ahead an hour.

After another bout of seconds turning into hours, a harsh knock came at her door. Silver lazily sat up and rolled out of the bed. She opened the door with a yawn and greeted the pony on the other side.

"Hey Orion. What's up?" she asked rubbing her eyes.

"It's almost dusk, we should get moving. We have a long walk ahead of us."

Silver didn't question it as she threw her supplies over her shoulders before exiting. She returned her card and paid the mare at the counter before following Orion towards what she assumed was the south side of town. As they passed Market Street, something clicked in Silver Bit's head.

"Wait. You said we'd be taking the train to Dodge and then to Appaloosa right?"

"Change of plans. The trains are delayed so we have to cut through the Everfree Forest and hope we don't run into anything before the desert."

"We can't survive out there with the supplies we have."

"We'll ration." Orion looked over his shoulder with his gaze past her. "We need to move faster." he said picking up the pace to a mild trot. Silver started to pick up speed as well if something completely out of the ordinary happened.

"Silver! Don't move!" Orion shouted from the other side of Market Street.

Silver Bit turned fast to see the bright yellow and red unicorn standing on the other side of the street. The Orion that had followed turned and seemed to stumble for a moment. Silver hesitated as well and then drew one of her muskets. She drew the hammer back to full cock and took aim at the second Orion before turning to the first one. Everypony saw her draw her weapon and scattered.

"Silver don't listen to that thing. It's a changeling! You have to believe me. It's leading you into a trap." The second one pleaded as she turn the weapon to him again.

"Silver, we have to move. If there's one of them there'll be more behind him." The first Orion said making her turn once more.

"Don't listen to it! You know I wouldn't take anypony through the Everfree Forest. You have to believe me."

"Silver!"

"Both of you shut up before I blow both of your heads off!" Silver shouted in anger.

She didn't know who to believe. This could've been a trap from the beginning and the first Orion was going to get her killed, or the second Orion was telling the truth. Her first thought was to ask somepony about the train schedule, but seeing as they all scattered, that wasn't going to happen. A quiz would suffice.

"Okay then. I'm going to ask three questions and first to answer all three correctly won't get blown away. Got it?"

"Yes." they said in unison.

Off the top of her head she could only think of one thing that she knew about Orion. "Okay, first question. Do you have a kid?"

"A step daughter." They both said.

"What's her name?"

"Eclipse." they both said again.

Okay this had better work or she'd have to shoot herself. "What race is she?"

"Converted changeling." they both said.

Faust be damned. The two of them groaned at the end of the questions. Both exactly the same.

What was she suppose to do now? It was obvious that they both knew what they were talking about. Considering he adopted a changeling as a daughter they should keep up with him, but she didn't think they'd be this good at impersonation seeing as how the first one didn't know anything other than her name and where she lived. What was she going to do now? She could start asking more specifics; but more than likely they would do what they just did. What could make her certain that one wasn't who they were?

Then it hit her. "Okay. Now I have a test. You see that apple over their?" She said pointing to the fruit stand across from her. "Levitate it."

"Easy." the first Orion scoffed. His horn glowed green and the apple lifted off of the cart.

Just as a smile crossed his face, he looked over to see Silver with her rifle aimed right at him. And before he could react, Silver pulled the trigger and let loose the lead ball. The round projectile landed right in between its eyes. The head snapped back and a green slime poured from the wound as it fell back in ball of green fire. As its body came to rest, the flames cleared revealing the changeling it was. Orion, the real one, ran up next to Silver and stopped as she reloaded the rifle.

"But-how'd you know?" Orion said baffled.

"Easy. Your aura isn't green."

"But-"

"That's only when you use the spell. The rest of the time its red." Silver looked him over and saw a puncture wound on his left foreleg. "I guess they took some of your blood?"

"Yeah." He said looking down at the still bleeding wound. "Like I said, once they get that, they know everything about you."

Orion levitated some gauze from Silver's saddle bags and wrapped the puncture to keep it from getting infected. Once Silver finished reloading her rifle and Orion grabbed his bags off of of the changeling, the ponies from the market started to peak out of their corners and homes just as the police arrived. They quickly took the body away and Market Street closed for investigation.

Not wanting any attention, Orion lead Silver to the train station where they quickly hopped the only train in the station, going straight to Dodge.

Author's Notes:

Nexus: You're a retard.
Me: Hey I mess up putting up the chapter. We all make mistakes anyways.
Nexus: I'm better at that kind of thing though.
Me: Just go back to your dimension. I've been having a bad day