Ledger felt the train jerk suddenly and found himself blinking and glancing around with blurry eyes, all the while stifling a yawn. Yet it still took him a few moments before he fully brought himself out of the drowsy sleep that had overtaken him, not even remembering ever being comfortable enough to fall asleep at any point on the train ride. The changes in his surroundings, however, told him he had done exactly that. Octavia was missing from her seat across the aisle and the train car was all but silent, the continuous clacking of the rails and wheels as they powered towards their destination told him that he’d been out far longer than he’d thought he had.

He felt out of sorts as he sat there, as one is wont to do in unfamiliar places. A strange alien feeling that only seems to become apparent when you’re tired. Ledger usually only felt like this when he was at a hotel, but it wasn’t out of the ordinary enough to warrant any concern. Ledger lifted himself from his seat, stumbling as his tired body got used to the moving train car that swayed back and forth ever so slightly on the rails.

After he got his legs back under control he made his way for the car in front of him. He exited his current car and looked forwards across the small gap. A flimsy pathway had been added and there were guardrails that stretched between him and his destination, greatly reducing the risk in the traversing of the gap. However, it did little to quell the welling uncertainty that had already begun to grow. And all because of a foot long rickety pathway.

He swallowed his fear and shimmied his way over the bridge. Overly hesitant steps stretched out his travel time to far greater than it should have been as he grasped the guard rails with white knuckles. When he reached the other car he opened the door with a bit of panic in his actions and stepped eagerly into the relative safety that it provided.

He breathed deeply through his nose to try and hide his panic as he regained his composure, only to realize there was only one other pony in the car to begin with. Relaxing himself, he approached the counter and glanced at the food options that he would have on this particular trip.

Sandwiches, really, were the only food items on the board. Some sparkling water, gin and tonic, various other drinks were marked off to the side, but as far as food went, it was almost strictly sandwiches. And that made Ledger far happier than he normally would be. Because this was a train that went in between the dragon capital and the pony one, which meant there was meat on a select number of sandwiches.

“Can I get a turkey and cheddar hogi?” Ledger said with a grin, excited that meat was back on the menu, as it wasn’t served in pony towns most of the time. Griffons and dragons were the only ones who made them, or the ponies who catered to them. So, naturally, Ledger got it whenever he could.

The pony turned to him and smiled. “Ah, Mr. Ledger. Did your nap suit you well, sir?” While he waited for the answer to his question, the pony bussied himself with procuring the meat, cheese, and bread from around the small kitchen that he had been given.

“Yes, it was pretty nice actually.” Ledger returned the smile. “But I’m curious, how did you know? Did you pass by me when you boarded?”

“Nah.” The stallion returned with a lighthearted tone. “That young mare that came through mentioned it in passing.” He turned around and began to allign the meat and cheese and the bread he had laid on the counter a moment before.

“Oh?” Ledger looked around the car to make sure he hadn’t missed anyone, and indeed, the car was completely empty of any other patrons. “Where did she end up getting to anyway, I don’t see her anywhere in here and she wasn’t back in the passenger car when I woke up. Not really anywhere else to go is there?”

“She was talking to a dragon bloke, they seemed to be discussing something when they suddenly got up and moved to the next car up.” The pony slid the finished sandwich across the table and Ledger pulled his coin purse from his coat pocket, handing a few bits to the pony to pay for the meal, and another one as a tip.

“What’s in the next car up?” Ledger asked before he took a hefty bite out of the sandwich, not bothering to hide his hunger in the least.

“Not a clue sir, this is the furthest one up that I ever go. No reason to go any further.” The pony was putting away the remnants of food that he hadn’t used for the sandwich, then placed the offered bits into a small tray at the back of the kitchen that slid into the wall. He promptly locked it as soon as he was done with it.

“Huh…” Ledger said with a mouth half full of meat and cheese, his eyes moving to the door to the next car and lingering on it even as he swallowed his bite. He was about to take a second one when the car jerked slightly and made him miss his food. He glanced at the sandwich and then to the door again.

Ledger gripped the sandwich in one hand and nodded to the stallion in thanks, then approached the door, taking a smaller nibble of his food. He pushed the door open softly and looked to the next car. He bit into the sandwich again, but didn’t cleave through it, only holding it in his mouth as he grabbed the guard rails with either hand. He repeated the process he had done earlier, until he got to the other side, where he held back from flying through to the inside.

He placed his ear against the door and listened carefully, taking another bite of his sandwich now that he had a spare hand to hold it in. He heard angry mumbles coming from the other side, growing slightly in volume over the course of the time that he listened. He recognized Octavia’s voice, but he didn’t recognize the other one, undoubtedly the dragon that the kitchen worker had told him of.

Eventually they seemed to come to a peak and Ledger, against his better judgement to just leave it alone, entered the car as nonchalantly as he could manage. Octavia and the dragon looked at him, he looked back and glanced around the car. The dragon that Octavia had been talking to was about Ledger’s height, covered in red scales and had a small overbite. When he smiled in greeting, he made full show of the sharp teeth that he held in his jaws. All in all, he looked very composed.

Octavia on the other hand, was everything but. Her hair seemed mussed and her jaw was set in stubborness. She looked at Ledger with mixed emotions, and he returned the same feeling. She seemed to be guiding Ledger’s eyes with her own, wanting him to look at something, but he had seen the object of her gaze moments after entering, it wasn’t like the dragon had tried to hide them.

A trio of dragons stood shackled together nearby with very clear looks of defeat on their faces. Two of them were about pony height but the third was even smaller, and looked familiar. Ledger attempted to hide the surprise from his face. He hadn’t expected to meet this particular member of the old group in quite this place. He hadn’t expected him to meet at all really.

“Hello sir, what brings you here?” Ledger glanced at the dragon and took another bite of his sandwich, using it as an excuse to think as to how he wanted to take this conversation.

“Not much else to do really, just taking a look around.” He looked at Octavia like he hadn’t seen her when he came in. “Treble, good to see you. How are things going?”

Octavia looked back at him with a face of burning anger, but neglected to answer. She was very clearly angry that this was occuring on a train that she had bought passage on, but it wasn’t against the law in the slightest, due to the fact that the dragon country was one of the destinations. And he suspected Octavia knew this, just that she didn’t have to like it. What she didn’t seem to know however was that she was not in a position to berate this dragon for his job, and that she should just let the situation drop.

She looked away angrily and Ledger looked back at the dragons. The familiar one, purple and green, he wanted to make sure it was who he thought it was before he made a purchase. And if it was Spike he would make that purchase almost immediately. However, he wanted to do so in such a way that still made him seem aloof and seperate, which meant kneeling down in front of potential Spike and asking really nicely wasn’t an option.

He took another bite of his sandwich as he thought, and when he swallowed that bite he had the basics of a plan forming. “What are the price tags?” Octavia stared daggers into his head as he said that but he pretended he didn’t care.

The dragon smiled at the possibility of an early sale, then he wouldn’t have to pay the auction fee. “Forty bits for the taller ones and thirty for the runt.”

Ledger tapped his chin and nodded as if in deep thought. “Do you have any paperwork to back up those prices?” In all honesty, Ledger had no idea if those prices were high, low, or normal. Which was why he’d asked it without any aggression, it made him seem curious to simply see if the price was worth it, instead of being outraged by it being too high or worried about why it was so low.

The dragon nodded eagerly and pulled a clip board from off the top of a box, handing it to Ledger. He glanced through it, making sure to spend time on the first two papers even though he didn’t care about them in the least. He moved on to the third and glanced at the name section of the paper. And, to his slight annoyance, there wasn’t one there. Glancing through the words, he came to a small, illegible footnote at the bottom.

“What’s this here?” He said, pointing at it and looking at the dragon. The dragon moved over to look at the paper and a smile broke out on his face as he saw what Ledger was indicating.

“There’s a story on that there.” The dragon stepped back to where he was before. “So, the guy who sold us this runt right, he’s trying so hard to sweeten the deal, everything in his power that isn’t straight out lying.” The dragon adopted a laughing tone as he continued. “And so then, just out of nowhere, he’s like ‘This dragonling has magic powers!’. Not even kidding. And so he gets the dragon to come up and then he breathes fire and it’s just green fire. Normal fire, but green. And he’s like ‘See, told ya he’s magic!’ We still got him for cheap though, no one's gonna buy him for any high amount just because his fire is green!” The dragon was shaking with laughter by this point and Ledger was smiling kindly in response.

Ledger turned his attention back to the paper, waiting a moment before he announced his decision, merely so he didn’t seem rushed. “Ah, what the heck, I’ll take the runt.” He handed the papers back to the dragon, who was now wearing a very surprised look on his face. “Thirty bits right?” He pulled his coin purse from his pocket and took out three ten bit pieces. He handed them to the dragon and it seemed to take a moment for the dragon to realize that he was serious.

He got the key fairly quickly from a pouch nearby and undid the shackles to the smaller dragon, shoving him with some degree of force towards Ledger, who nodded in response, as if pleased with the action, and then graciously accepted the papers of ownership that were passed his way. He looked at Octavia, who still refused to give him any amount of eye contact, and headed back towards the exit to the car, finishing off his sandwich with a final bite. The small dragon followed dutifully, and after a moment they got outside.

After he closed the door he stopped and gripped onto a nearby post, wanting to talk to Spike before they went back into another cart. He turned around and the dragonling flinched away, scared of the biped. Ledger, realizing how imposing a form he cut, crouched down as low as he could while remaining on his feet.

The door to the previous car opened and Ledger quickly stood back up to his full height before he realized that it was only Octavia who had come out. She, however, was full of rage. Upon seeing Ledger there, she slammed the door in a fit. With a deathly glare she closed the distance, looking as imposing as she could given she was smaller than he.

“What was all that crap!?” She shouted angrily, Ledger keeping his face impassive as she released her verbal fury onto him. “Was all that just to spite me huh?”

Ledger looked to Spike, who was gazing at Octavia with what could only be hope, as much as he could muster anyway, and Ledger looked back to Octavia.

“You think that you can just pull that crap huh? You’re gonna support this slavery ring? Seriously? You are the WORST member of the queen’s court. None of them have dragon slaves, but you bought one on a WHIM. For NO REASON. You even did that whole stupid speech, like I was supposed to pity you for all that, but I can see now that you were just lying. You didn’t care about that foal, he probably doesn't even exist, you just wanted me on your side, huh? Get as many ponies in your corner as you can. I thought you had at least some self respect but clearly I was -”

She was silenced as she felt a smack hit her face, knocking her vision to the side. She paused for a moment before she got around to looking back at Ledger, not believing he had just hit her. She prepared to rant but was stopped as he shoved a roll of papers into her face. “What the heck is this?” She dropped her gaze to look at it briefly before looking at Ledger again.

His eyes were close to tears and his face was painted with rage. “His ownership papers. Since you're clearly so much better than I am, he'll be better off with you right?” She took them in surprise, and Ledger turned away, letting the two to be by themselves. He didn’t bother to grab the guard rail, or to ascertain his steps as he moved back towards the kitchen car. He didn’t care enough. As he was about to open the door, he stopped and turned around. “And don’t talk to me. Ever again.”

Then he left, closing the door to the kitchen carefully behind him.