Guards were swarming around the place about a minute after the attack. Silver sat outside as the moon rose on the horizon with a blanket wrapped around her. The stallion that had saved her sat next to her hoping to give her some comfort. He was a bright yellow unicorn with a red mane and red eyes.

"Hey. The Commander never gave me your name."

"Silver… My name's Silver Bit."

"I'm Orion. You okay?"

"My boy friend's dead, and my business is being seized by your boss. How do you think?" Silver said; her voice still raspy from holding back her sobs. She hated crying. It made her feel like she was some little filly that scraped her knee. She never wanted empathy from anypony, despite her always being willing to give it.

"Yeah, about that-"

"I know that thing in there isn't him but they told me he was dead."

"They said that to make you mad. They feed on emotions. The one that was with you was feeding on love. A few minutes ago they were feeding on fear and hate. But-"

"What were those things anyways?"

"Changelings. They're creatures that live at the edges of Equestria. We've been hunting them for some time now. They-"

"Why me? Why'd they choose me?"

"If you'd let me finish what I'm saying for once. They look for ponies that either have been in love for a long time or have just started. From there they suck all of the love from the relationship. If they can't do that, they rape and murder to feed on fear and the hate of the ones effected. They normally suck all of the blood from a victim to gain all of their memories."

"So?"

"So, you said that Tiber acted differently? Forgetting what he normally wouldn't?"

"Yeah?" Silver started connecting the dots. "He's still alive?"

"They've been having a hard time finding ponies to hurt thanks to us so they keep hostages to feed on. It's not hard to believe that he's still alive."

"I have to go find him." Silver said standing up from the curb waiting for somepony to point her in the direction of the hive.

"It's not that simple. We've been hunting them for about a year now and we've only narrowed it down to somewhere near the Badlands."

"Take me there now."

"You know that's at the southernmost tip of Equestria right?"

"I don't care. I'm not letting one of my friends be hurt like this."

"Okay, let me rephrase this. You are asking me to take you to the Badlands. Land of the Dragons, and where the worst monsters leave Tartarus. You want me to take you there? From here that's a month's travel on hoof."

"You're in the military. You should have unlimited resources right?"

"We're not the Royal Guard. We have to go through two Princesses' instead of one. And we're not exactly on Celestia's sunny side."

"Then we hoof it."

"Okay you're insane."

"If they're in the Badlands we should be able to find them."

"Even if you find their hive, that's no guarantee that your boyfriend will still be alive by then."

"I'm not letting somepony else go through this. I'm going and I need somepony to come with me."

"I'm not diverting resources to save your-"

"Then have somepony come with me. I only need one pony for backup."

"I can't authorize anypony to follow you to the Badlands."

"Then I'll go on my own." Silver let the blanket fall from her shoulders as she walked back into the shop.

A mix of Guards and cops combed the area for evidence that would help them find the location of the hive but Silver knew that would take too long. She pushed past them all and into her office. She stepped on the head of the changeling that had pretended to be Tiber and over to the wall where she kept the claws. If worse came to worse, she'd use those in a fight. If she could writer her name with them, she could snap a neck or two with more force than her hoofs could muster.

With the claws now a fixed to her shoulders, she walked back out and grabbed two rifles from the gun rack along with a powder horn and saddle bags full of ammunition packets. Just as she left the shop, Orion stopped her again.

"You're can't do this." He said putting his hoof in her chest.

Silver reached her left claw around and clamped down on his foreleg. "Watch me."

She used the mechanized muscle to move his hoof off of her and then walked past him.

"I mean, you can't track them down. You don't know how."

"Then I'll comb all of Equestria until I find them."

"Let me be a bit more blunt." Orion said stepping in front of her again. "You don't know how to track. My talent is tracking. Changelings are my specialty."

"So? You said you wouldn't help. So I'm going on my own."

"No. I said I couldn't authorize anypony to go with you. Commander Nexus ordered me to."

"How'd you get word to him so fast?"

"Radio transceiver." He said pointing to his right ear. "I called him and told him what you were planning on doing, so he assigned me to help you."

"Why?"

"Nexus doesn't like collateral damage. He's always told us that if we ever go to war that we leave the civilians alone. It's not acceptable in his book."

"So you're just going to follow me?"

"No. I'm going to lead you to the hive. If I can hang on to their trail long enough we should be able to find where in the Badlands they are this time."

"What'd you mean, this time?"

"I've always lost the trail just after the border of the Badlands. If we can get there in less than a month, the trail might still be fresh enough for me to follow it."

"And you're up for this?"

"I have my own score to settle with those things. Like it or not, you're the one who's following me."

"Fine. But we run into trouble, we're handling it my way."

"And your way is?"

"Putting a lead ball in its breast. What else?"

"Subtle."

Orion walked slightly faster than Silver and started towards the bay.

"'So. You have a plan or are we just going to walk?"

Orion's horn glowed a dark green color and he looked to either side of the street. "Changelings aren't too bright. They just know the basic location of everything and when told, they follow visual cues. The trail leads to the bay so they followed the ocean. We follow that as fast as we can, we find their bases of operations, then we make our way to the Badlands. Easy peezy."

"That easy?"

"Yep."

"Okay. So if you're yellow and red, why's your aura green?"

"It's the spell. The tracking spell makes it green. Normally it's light red."

"Oh. Is that the only spell you know?"

"The only important one. Let's just get moving. We'll rest at noon and continue until dawn."

"You want to travel at night?"

"They don't see well at night. Enough light and they're blind for a moment. They don't sleep so their eyes adjust to the light slowly."

"That's why you can see their eyes in low light."

"Yeah. White circles of eyes underneath their blue lenses."

"It's creepy."

"You have no idea."

Author's Notes:

Nexus: Kinda short ain't it?
Me: Set up my ponysona, pure set up.
Nexus: I still don't get why you put these in the notes.
Me: Because, it's entertaining and I couldn't think of anything else to put in here.
Nexus: But what-.... Ponysona?
Me: Someone on Deviant Art used it so I thought I'd give it a shot.
Nexus: Never do that again.
Me: Don't have to tell me twice.