Peleides moaned as she flew through Changeling airspace. Her stomach was grumbling, she hadn’t actually fed since her mother had locked her in her room.

Not for the first time did Peleides regret not bringing somepony to snack on. It was a long journey from the Capitol to the border. The only real encounter she had during her flight from the Badlands was her encounter at the border crossing.

“Papers please. Anything to declare, eh?” the border guard asked, in his thick northern accent. Most city changelings mocked their northern neighbours, but she found their accents quaint and charming, and they were ever so polite.

Peleides shook her head in response to his question, and hooved over her papers. Or at least, papers generously provided by a passing drone. Well, not so much generously provided but fearfully surrendered. Drones tended to live longer lives by not questioning their royalty.

It was as said drone that Peleides was currently disguised as. While Drone 27,856,345 would likely pass through the border crossing with little to no suspicion, Princess Peleides Blue Morphos would draw far more attention than she desired at this moment in time. The first time she had snuck out of the castle, she had revelled in the attention she received, though she learned quickly that an underaged teenage changeling could not order drinks from a public house, no matter how princess-y she was.

“Did you want to use one of our disguises?” the changeling politely offered. “We have a few earth ponies, and a unicorn. Or how aboot as pegaus?”

Peleides followed the border guard as he led her down the isle of suspended ponies. She really liked the beige coat of one of the suspended earth ponies, but her blue and fuschia mane looked terrible. So full, and bouncy. Ponies were gross. The aquamarine unicorn hanging next to her was not much better, but Peleides liked the style of her mane.

Concentrating, she channelled her magic through her horn. Green flame enveloped her body; when it dissipated, a beige winged unicorn with a mane of dark blue and a shock of cerulean shot through it (her own colours, though the guard didn’t know that), in the same style as the unicorn languishing inside her cocoon. Peleides admired herself in the full body mirror at the end of the hall. She looked pretty good, you know, for a soft and hairy pony.

A sharp clapping sound from behind her interrupted her thoughts.

“Wowee! You made your own form; don’t see many with your talent, eh?” The border guard looked her up and down, as the winged pegasus blushed. “But I doubt you’d want to go looking like that.”

Peleides raised an eyebrow. Oh wow, she thought, I have eyebrows. Look at ‘em waggle.

“Sorry?” she asked, after she had finished amusing herself with her own eyebrows.

The border guard tapped her horn. “You’ll have to choose, either the horn or the wings. Don’t want nopony thinking you’re a princess, eh?” The guard chuckled.

Peleides started to panic. “Oh, no. Ah hah hah hah,” she laughed, awkwardly. “Wouldn’t want anyone to think I’m a princess. No siree. No princesses here.”

Another flash of green fire and there stood the same beige pegasus with her mane of blues.

“Don’t worry aboot it, eh.” The guard smiled to her. “If you need to use magic, just find somewhere to shift into a unicorn. Well, let’s get you processed and on your way.”

Stamping her papers, the border guard let her through the gates leading towards Equestria.

“Dodge City is aboot a hundred kilometers that way,” the guard explained, pointing a holed hoof in the general direction. “From there, you can get a train to just aboot anywhere in Equestria. Happy hunting, eh?”

Stupid polite northern changelings and their stupid kilometers.

Peleides’ wings burned as she continued her flight north.

I thought that was, like, only twenty miles or something.

With the lights of the small town finally in sight, Peleides landed on the still-warm sands. Under the last dying rays of the sun, Peleides entered the town main. It was relatively quiet, few ponies were milling about the streets.

Peleides stepped down the unlit path between two darkened houses, and shed her pegasus disguise for a unicorn on. Her coat took on the aquamarine colour of the unicorn she had seen earlier, though Peleides made sure to stay closer to her own age, rather than that of the older mare’s.

She refused to change her mane colour.

The disguised changeling made her way towards the train station. She had never seen an actual train, Changelings not really having a mass transport system.

Waiting in line at the ticket booth, Peleides realised the first kink in her plan. As a Princess, she had never really gone wanting for anything, except maybe the approval of a mother who could go stick her head in the jaws of a thresher maw. She had secreted away a little bit of money, but she doubted the changeling coinage she had in her pack would fetch a decent exchange rate.

“H-how much for a ticket to the Crystal Empire?” she asked the ticket master.

The mare in the booth looked toward the changeling. “Three stops, through Ponyville, then Canterlot, then direct through to the Crystal Empire,” she recited in a bored monotone. “Seventy-four bits.”

“I-Is there a cheaper way?” Peleides bit her cheek, making her eyes water. Her mother always told her ponies were compassionate saps; maybe she could use that to her advantage.

The ticket master looked up from her crossword. “That is the cheapest ticket. Off Peak train, leaving in forty-five minutes. After that, you’ll have to wait until tomorrow, then you can pay one-hundred and twenty-seven bits for the peak hour train.”

“T-thanks anyway,” Peleides responded, trying her best to look dejected. It wasn’t particularly hard, as she was feeling rather dejected at that moment. She’d have to either stow away on the train, or she’d have to find some schmuck to work over for the bits needed. And she doubted her luck would extend her an opportunity to do that in the next forty minutes.

“Next please,” the ticket master called, as Peleides slunk away, her head bowed low. The marshmallow coloured mare that had stood inline behind the changeling stepped up to the booth as Peleides walked away.

“One ticket to Ponyville, please.”