Peleides sat somberly on the station seating. It was getting late, and she didn’t have anywhere to stay. In a larger town, she might be able to find some abandoned building to sleep in, but in a small town like this, she doubted even being able to find an empty shed where she wouldn’t draw attention.

“Mind if I have a seat?” The white unicorn from the ticket booth sat beside her, lowering the many luggage bags she was levitating to the ground.

Peleides turned and looked at the mare. The unicorn had a bright, white coat, and a long purple mane, painstakingly styled. She shrugged. “‘s a free country.”

“That it is, that it is,” the mare chuckled as she sat. The mare looked down at the old saddle bag next to Peleides. Noticing the mares gaze, the changeling pulled her bag closer. “Oh, I mean no harm, deary. I was just wondering where you got that charming old thing?”

Peleides looked down at the bag, frowning. Eyebrows are so much fun! Truth be told, she wasn’t entirely sure who had given it to her, it was just one of the many gifts potential suitors had brought in hopes of winning her heart.

“I haven’t seen that style of bag in quite a few years,” the mare tittered lightly.

Did this cow just insult my bag?

“I-It was a gift from my mother,” she stuttered. Peleides pulled the bag tighter to her side. It took all of her effort not to giggle at the act she was putting on. “I-It was the last thing she gave me. I like it.”

She didn’t like it, really. It was something to carry her things around in. She liked her things, but the sack of cloth used to carry those things around. She couldn’t care less if it burned, so long as her things were removed first.

“Oh, I am so sorry. I did not mean to disparage it, but it is true, I haven’t this style in a long time, not since I designed it twelve years ago.” The mare chuckled again, pointing to the gaudy stylised “R” on the side of the bag. “A Rarity design, don’t you know?”

“W-What?”

“Rarity,” the unicorn extended a hoof in greeting. “I’m somewhat of a name across Equestria, I’m surprised you haven’t heard of me.”

“P-Pelly,” held out a quavering hoof, meeting the white mares own. She recognised the name, alright. One of the Elements of something-something, her mother had been particularly colourful in her description of this mare, though there were some discrepancies in her mothers description. For one thing, this mare did not have her head stuck up her own plot, a position Peleides always had trouble imagining.

“So, Pelly. Why are you travelling to the Crystal Empire?” Rarity asked. “While it is lovely this time of year, it’s rather a long way to go for somepony so young.”

Why was this pony so interested in Peleides? Had she divined her secret, that the young unicorn was not who she appeared. Was she going to magical-love-blast Peleides all the way back to the Changeling Empire?

Peleides was positively shaking all over as she gave her answer. In her panic, she could not concoct a story, and spoke more truthfully than she would have planned. “M-My f-f-father lives in the C-Crystal Empire. I-I’ve never met him, b-but…”

“Oh, my dear! That is très tragique!” The mare swooned. “It is like a tragic novel, a young mare, barely in her prime, running off to find her estranged father… but my dear, you are shivering. You must be cold, and ever so frightened.”

Rarity levitated a sweater out of one of her bags, and put it on the changeling before she could even protest. Peleides struggled in vain, the weird sensation of clothing against her coat felt alien to her. Rarity gasped when the young changeling stopped struggling.

“Oh my, it looks simply divine on you, my dear.”

“I-I can’t accept this,” Peleides objected. She doubted she could sell it for much anyway.

“Oh my dear, you most certainly can.” Rarity hummed as she reached into her coin purse. “I hope you can also accept this.” Rarity pulled out a small slip of paper, and levitated it to the disguised changeling.

Peleides looked at the slip of paper in her hooves. One ticket to the Crystal Empire.

Tears leaked from her eyes as she stared at the small slip of paper.

“Thank you,” Peleides pulled the mare into a hug. You complete sucker.

Rarity patted Peleides gently on her back. “I knew I was right when I thought to buy your ticket.”

“You don’t know what this means to me.” How did you rubes ever beat my mother? She must have been colossally stupid to have lost to you.

“It’s alright dear,” Rarity chuckled, as the younger mare pushed away.

“I’ll find some way to pay you back, I promise.”

“Oh, no need to pay me back, my dear,” she chuckled. “I was the Bearer of the Element of Generosity, after all!”

The two sat in silence, Peleides smiling as she played with the ticket in her hooves, Rarity smiling with pride at having helped out a poor unfortunate soul.

Peleides and Rarity parted ways as they boarded the train, Peleides boarded the open section car, while Rarity made her way through to the wagon-lit. She found a seat close to the rear of the car, near where Rarity had gone through to her cozy bed.

At first, it was exciting, she had never been on a train before. The gentle click-clack of the wheels on the rail, the slight swaying of the cart. It soon became tiresome, and the realities of public transport became more apparent.

Peleides laid across the uncomfortable bench, trying to relax; though she might well have been laying on a stone slab, for all the comfort this pitiful excuse for a bench provided. Added to that, there was the mother and her screaming foal three seats down from her to add to the wonderful ambiance. Two seats down from them was an earth pony stallion, snoring his head off, oblivious to the world around him.

An hour into her journey, she was able to get some rest, albeit only light sleep so she could maintain her form.

She grumbled, as one of the sleeping compartments could have been locked, and she could have dropped her disguise.

This is an outrage! I am a princess, and I have to sleep like a common drone!

Her brooding was interrupted by the muttering of another pony, dressed in a frilly pink nightgown. “What kind of service is this? A sleeping compartment should at least have a little filly’s room. To expect one to traipse through a train at night in her silk nightware…”

Peleides watched the mare as she tromped down the center of the car towards the washrooms. A smile spread across her face, disappearing quickly as she cast an invisibility spell on herself, quietly making her way to the sleeper car.

Peleides was able to find Rarity’s compartment, the mare had left the door slightly ajar in her rush to the lavatory. Peleides squeezed inside, and let her spell drop. The room was exquisite, with a large, comfortable bed, almost as large as her sleeper ring back home. The room had plenty of space for luggage, and the designer had made use of most of it.

“If I were rich, where would I keep my purse?” she asked herself. Well, not in an unlocked compartment on a public train.

She found Rarity’s saddlebag, opening it and finding the coinpurse inside. It was filled with bits, and Peleides reckoned that if somepony could spend as ostentatiously as Rarity had done on this sleeper car, she could afford to donate a few more bits to the needy. And it just so happened that Peleides was in need of a few bits, and would be happy to oblige the mare.

She emptied her own bag of Changeling currency onto the bed, then Rarity’s bag of bits. She levitated the golden bits into her own purse, and the useless coins into Rarity’s.

Putting the coin purse back into Rarity’s saddlebag, Peleides spied the ticket for the room. She looked around and sighed. If only there were some way of taking this room, taking Rarity’s place… but no, it was too much of a risk. Too many things could go wrong. Annoyed, she gripped the ticket in her magical aura and burned it in green flame.

Peleides exited the sleeper car just in time, Rarity passed by as the changeling skulked back to her seat under the invisibility spell.

“Tickets, please.”

Peleides jumped as she was awoken. She looked around, it was still night outside, but there was a stallion in uniform staring down at her.

“Ummm, sorry. What?”

“Tickets, please.” The stallion huffed in frustration.

“O-Oh, sorry.” Peleides fumbled about in her bag, trying to find the ticket Rarity had bought her. The stallion looked over the ticket, then punched it and handed it back to her.

For a second time that night, Peleides was startled awake from her slumber. The train had slowed down to stop, though it was still dark outside the windows, no station could be seen.

“Unhoove me, you ruffians!” the white mare screeched as she was dragged through the aisle of the train by two guards. “I paid good money for that room, and I will not be treated this way. Do you not know who I am?”

A third unicorn followed them, levitating her luggage behind him.

When the train finally stopped, they opened the carriage door.

“N-Now see here, you can’t just throw me out,” the mare whimpered. Peleides watched on in silence, suppressing her every urge to laugh. “If it is a matter of money, please, let me buy another ticket.”

The guards stood over her as she levitated her coin purse out of her saddle bags. They watched intently as she opened her purse.

“Oh, dear. This isn’t my—”

“Ma’am, you will exit the train with us, now!” The guards lowered their spears, brandishing them at the startled mare.

“This isn’t—”

Whatever it wasn’t, Peleides would never know, as the white mare was ejected from the train, the two guards following after her.

“Send word ahead to Canterlot, we will await their arrival.”

The unicorn porter who had followed them dumped the mare’s luggage unceremoniously onto the ground, then snapped off a crisp salute.

Peleides caught the pleading eye of the mare, standing miserably in the mud outside the train. The changeling gave a small wave to the mare as the train started its journey again, a smirk on her face. The white unicorn’s face showed that the mare did not miss the smirk.

As the train resumed full speed, Peleides had to cast a sound dampening spell, this was far too funny a situation to not cackle.

Oh, mother was right. A good cackle does wonders for the soul!