One of those falling sensations that sometimes just happen while sleeping plunged me out of my dreams and made me crash back into a harsh and cold reality. I shot up from the seat cushions in shock and sat upright, panting and trying not to lose my composure and tumble down to the floor like one big, terrified mess.

"There you are. May I see your ticket, please?"

I felt sweaty all over. My vision was a blur; while blinking it back I gradually remembered where I was. When I could see clearly again, I quickly spotted the stallion with the bushy mustache standing right in front of me. Another moment later, I noticed the conductor's uniform he was wearing.

Just my luck. I was falling again, at least that's how I felt for a moment. My heart dropped about two floors down, right into my hindlegs and probably beyond. I didn't feel right in the head, unable to even put two words together in response. So I just stared at him in the heat of the moment, mouth agape, drooling like an idiot. He exchanged a quick look with Mac, who still sat at his old place, and didn't seem at all comfortable with the idea of getting involved.

Eventually the conductor realized that he wasn't going to get a good explanation from the poor stallion whom I'd dragged into all this, and turned back to me. "Are you alright, miss?" He sounded genuinely concerned this time. I didn't realize that in time, otherwise I might have tried using it to my advantage.

"I'm...good," I stuttered after another moment's silence. "Really. You just caught me a little off-guard there."

His features relaxed somewhat at that. "It's fine," he said. "May I see your ticket, then?"

I averted his eyes, and openly admitted the truth. "I don't have one. Couldn't afford it."

And what else was I supposed to say? After considering the situation for what few seconds I had, I'd decided there wasn't any way out of this for me, anyway. Might as well face the consequences. The conductor seemed surprised at that; he narrowed his gaze in suspicion for a bit.

"I have to ask you to remain seated. I'll be back in a minute."

With that he turned towards the next compartment of seats, to address a bunch of ponies I couldn't see. When I looked around, I noticed a good many of them. In fact, the car was easily more than halfway full at this point, filled with bored out of their mind travelers who had nothing better to do than give me some mistrustful glances every now and again, before quickly turning away once I even so much as tried returning the favor. No-one on the train would look at me then, but it was easy to guess that I was the one they were thinking about. In whatever uncomfortable way that might be. I did my best not to look over towards Mac; the situation had become embarrassing enough as it was.

The minutes took forever to pass. But I felt like crap all the way through. I definitely couldn't go back to sleep right now, even if it was just to pass the time. I was too nervous for that. A shiver ran down my spine, when the conductor had finished his rounds and came marching back up the aisle. I shot him an anxious look just as he finally got back to me. He returned it and motioned to the near end of the carriage.

"If you'd come along, please."

After a brief walk of shame past four or five rows of seats, we got to the secluded area at the exit doors, out of everypony's sight and hearing range, thanks to the door to the main compartment closing behind us. As his horn lit up, a yellow clipboard with a stack of forms on it and a pen came hovering out of the small bag he'd strapped around himself. "Well, then," he began. "No ticket and no legal tender on yourself to pay for one? If you have any money, I'll give you another chance right now."

I shook my head. "Nothing, sorry." The pen began dancing over the form, filling out fields here and there.

"Alright. We'll be arriving at a station in a few minutes. Naturally, I'll have to ask you to leave the train once we're there. I'll also need your full name and current residence. Royal Equestrian Railways will send a formal complaint and fine to your address, which will have to be paid within a time frame of fourteen days to avoid any further legal consequences. Do you follow so far?"

I nodded.

"Your name, then?"

"I...Cherry Cola," I burst out, reminding myself not to think about it for too long. "I live on 4213...Hayshire Drive in Baltimare."

That was a real address, by the way. And if anyone by that name actually lived there, I could only hope I'd find a time to apologize to her in time. And what else could I do? Telling him I was homeless would have probably made the situation even worse.

"Alright, then," he replied. The pen and clipboard wandered back into his bag. "Stay here now, we'll be at the station at any moment."

With that, he fell back on his haunches but kept sternly regarding me. All the same, I had to force myself to just look out the window. I also had to suppress a grin; had I known how easily I could get off despite being caught as a stowaway, I could have saved myself dozens of tickets during the past few years.

Then again, that probably wasn't a good idea either. Have it become a habit to skip fees like that, and they eventually catch up with you no matter what. I figured I should be thankful for being let off the hook this once, and not to push my luck in the future. The question how long I'd stay truthful to that promise was up in the air, of course. I might not just be able to buy my ticket out of wherever I'd end up next.

When I could see we were pulling into another station, I felt like I'd aged six or seven years in the past half hour alone. And when we came to a halt and the door opened, the conductor didn't have to say another word for me to leap outside onto the platform, and out of his jurisdiction. I spared another thought on him when silently wishing him good luck finding Cherry Cola in Baltimare, before turning right and casually strolling out of his sight.

The air outside was still could of course, but at least now the sun was shining, so I didn't again feel like I'd freeze all over within seconds. In fact, there wasn't a single cloud in the sky. And as the engine's whistle hooted across the platform and the train was set back in motion, I realized how winter had now come to Equestria, and I never even noticed.

The train station consisted of a two-story wooden building and a single track. The town whose name was Ponyville, as a sign on the station building told me, didn't exactly make the impression of a metropolis. Especially since I couldn't see a soul out on the platform except myself, until Mac walked past me, and I remembered how this was supposedly his hometown.

He didn't exactly walk past all the way. After he'd gotten two or three feet past me, he stopped, and even from my position I could see the gears in his head working. He turned back around to face me after a moment.

"You…got a place to go, right?" he asked.

"Not really." I just wanted to sink into the ground as soon as he started talking to me again. "I didn't plan on ending up here."

He scowled. "Need someplace?"

"You really don't have to."

"I know."

I really just wished I hadn't been kicked off the train, then. Not for another station or so, at least. He didn't deserve having to put up with me, but even then we both knew there was no other option for me. If only all of his would have happened during the summer, I thought! In summer, I'd just sleep outside somewhere for a couple of weeks trying to figure things out, which of course, I never did. I forced myself to look Mac in the eye. He looked somewhat grim at the prospect of inviting me over, but earnest all the same. I couldn't turn down the offer, how would that make me look? Not too great, that much I could tell.

"Well, okay," I mumbled. "Where...do you live?"

He motioned with his head, "right that way." And on our way we were, into the unknown once again.

We didn't talk too much along the way. He didn't seem too much of a talker in general, which was just as well. There weren't a lot of ponies out and about on the streets, but I couldn't blame them given the season and all that. Either way it gave me more time to take in the atmosphere of the town, uneventful as it was. The buildings were what I'd describe as somewhat rusty, with their timber-framed facades and hay-stacked roofs and all that. I couldn't imagine anything like that in a town like Manehattan or the likes.

But it got even rustier than that as we got closer to Mac's home. It was a little outside of town even, namely a little farm surrounded by hilly acres with rows and rows of trees that currently didn't bear any leaves or fruits. From what he told me earlier, I guessed those to be apple trees, but I couldn't for the life of me have told the difference.

We trotted up to one of the wooden shacks that made up the centerpiece of the estate and which, guessing from his determination, seemed to be the house where he lived. Again, I couldn't have known. The windows were all closed down with wooden lids, making it look all too similar than the nearby barn or whatever it was. He knocked on what I guessed to be the front door, then took a step back and waited. It hadn't even occurred to me that there might be someone else living with him.

We waited for a minute or so, and I couldn't deny that I'd started shivering again. Whatever I'd do hadn't I taken him up for his offer, I had no way of telling. Eventually, the oaken door swung open revealing an orange-coated, blonde mare standing in the door frame. Her freckled face lit up at the sight of my companion, and she was quick to rush forward and greet him with a hug.

"There ya are, we've been waiting all of yesterday for ya," she told him in an accent similar to his. I guess that shouldn't have surprised me. She grew a bit more serious after her warm welcome. "Did you get the deal?"

"Yeah, we got the deal," Mac replied with a nod, and the mare relaxed again.

"Phew, well, that's gonna have us set for now, I guess," she said with a grin before giving me an interested look, greeting me with a "Howdy there."

"Uh...hi," I mumbled, and immediately scolded myself for it. Way to break the ice.

"You are..." she began with a questioning look.

"Punch. Berry Punch," I told her. "Well, about that..."

"Give us a minute, alright?" Mac asked. "Come in and get yerself warmed up, and my sister and I'll discuss this here."

I nodded, as I followed him across the doorstep. The mare regarded both of us with confused looks, before closing the door behind us and having Mac lead her to a nearby room, leaving me standing in the corridor. I swallowed hard. At least she was only his sister, I thought. That did make the situation a bit less awkward. And maybe it even raised my chances of being taken in for now.

Then I thought, did I even want to do this? I hardly even knew these ponies, and even by just coming into their home like that, I felt like I was being incredibly rude and intrusive. Had I had any other place to go just then, I'd have used my first opportunity to gallop right back out of there. But that wasn't the case. And now this whole family of complete strangers would have to put up with me, for better or worse. As I looked around the room to distract myself, I spotted a family photo depicting Mac and his sister, along with some older lime coated mare, and a bright yellowish filly.

There was another door up ahead which stood a bit ajar, and I could hear some muffled, high-pitched voices coming from there. That was probably them, I figured. After I'd waited on the doorstep for another while, I decided to go on ahead and take a look inside. I had nothing better to do, anyway, might as well introduce myself.

When peeking through the door, I spotted a large, cozy-looking living room. There was a kitchen with a large dining table to my left, and a lit fireplace to my right. The old mare from the photo I could spot fast asleep and quietly snoring on a rocking chair near the latter. Two fillies were sitting around the kitchen table, one of them clearly the one from the photo. The other one who was coated in different shades of purple I hadn't seen any hint of so far. They were fixated on some sheets of paper laying in front of them. Doing homework, most likely. That in itself made them more qualified for their later life than me, sadly. I wanted to take a step back, out into the hallway, but the two fillies already spotted me.

"Hey, wait," the purple one squeaked, looking directly at me. Her friend reacted by also turning her eyes towards me, and she immediately did look very confused and worried. Which is likely how anyone would react to a stranger suddenly showing up in their own home. I didn't make things less tense by just standing there, frozen, unsure what to do. While the yellow filly was growing visibly aggravated, I couldn't help but notice the other one thoughtfully studying me.

"Are you my sister?" she asked, out of the blue. Both me and her friend looked at her, even more bewildered. With all that catching me even more off-guard than anything else so far, I didn't even notice the door open up behind me, as the orange mare stepped out and past me. Once she'd gotten into sight, the yellow filly immediately looked to her for help.

"Alright then, AB and Piña, listen up." She motioned towards me. "This here's Miss Berry Punch, she'll be stayin' with us for a couple nights, cause she ain't got no other place to go, y'hear? Now, Mac an' I are gonna help her git back on her hoofs. Till then, she'll just be up in the guestroom, so don't you let yourselves be irritated none."

I cracked a false smile, hoping to break some of the tension. It didn't work, needless to say.

"Well, Miss Punch," the mare said. "Allow me to introduce ourselves. This here's my baby sister Apple Bloom, and that's Piña Colada from her school. And I'm Applejack. You already know my brother Big Macintosh, of course."

"Hi, Miss Punch," the purple filly yelled, waving a hoof. "I like your coat color."

I shrank back a little at that, and so did Applejack. The old mare meanwhile, didn't even stir throughout any of this. Apple Bloom did a more intimidated wave, mumbling some sort of greeting along with it. I just nodded in response. It seemed to be the most reasonable thing to do. Applejack turned back to me and Mac.

"Say, what do y'all say I'll make us some tea, while you get yerself warmed up? Mac can show you to your room."

I turned to face Mac who still stood behind me in the hallway. As he began trotting up the stairs, he motioned for me to follow. Once we made it to the first floor landing, he paused.

"Guest room's upstairs, first door to your left," he told me. "There's a bathroom all the way down the hall, with a shower and whatnot. You might want to use that, uh, no offense."

I nodded. "None taken," I replied, all too tired. And how could I have taken any offense from anything these ponies said? If anything, they should be the ones taking it from me. As Mac left me to myself marching up to the third floor, I still couldn't believe I was actually doing this.

I'd thought to myself some time before that good things might still exist in this world. And who knew. Maybe they really did.