The train to Signal Academy sped between scattered trees and gentle hill slopes. Gray clouds clumped together in parts of the sky.

An hour into their trip, once Oni turned the conversation with their comment, "I love your crown!" Ruby put her backpack on the floor.

"Thanks!" Ruby wiggled in her seat and touched the plastic tiara. "I am princess of all Remnant because I'm the greatest."

"I want to be a princess, too!"

"You can be a princess, but you have to be a princess after me, because I came first."

"Why can't we be princesses together?"

"Duh! Of course we can!" Ruby thumped her own forehead with the butt of her palm and blinked wider with the realization. "Why didn't I think of that?"

An older voice interrupted them from the aisle, where a trio of kids were walking along: pre-teens, hands in their pockets, a couple spots of acne. The boy who led them said, "That's a Summer kid, for sure. What about the other one?"

Ruby chimed, "That's my mom's name."

Oni swatted in the boy's direction with snideness in their tone. "Yeah, that's her mom's name." They had to double-take, though, before they asked, "Wait, is that true?"

The other kids continued, barely acknowledging either of them had spoken. "Autumn? I don't know."

They moved along the aisle without stopping. "What was the girl talking about?"

"Who knows. Kids talk about anything."

"Do you think we'll get any more first years on this train?"

By then, the din of other conversations absorbed theirs until they became part of the white noise.

Their references left an obscure question in Ruby she didn't know how to phrase. It made sense for older kids to know more than her, and it also made sense for older kids to know more than they let on. For instance, her older sister's facial cues gave away her heart, even though Ruby had yet to figure out how to read them.

However, the trio of pre-teens spoke so smirkingly. Their emphasis made her stare after them trying to read their minds.

It didn't work, of course.

Oni spoke in their brutish way, "Where do I get a crown like that? Can I have yours?"

Ruby covered her tiara, but once she realized no one was going after it, she relaxed. "We can make one at school together."

Oni's gasp sounded like a hoover vacuum. "We can do that?!"

Ruby's new friend helped her forget about the older kids and the question they'd arisen in her. She forgot about how long she had left to ride the train, for both of them kept talking.

Their conversation went on throughout the morning, back and forth without interruption.

Ruby described the outfits worn by someone of their royal status, including the dress she wore that day. The most important aspect of any ensemble was to display their emblem. The emblem represented her in and out of the princess castle. (She promised to describe her castle another time.) A person's emblem usually took the form of an object, a place, or an idea — an outline of whatever shape best personified the noble.

The crown on her dress' front and circling her head belonged to Princess Carnation, the pink-scaled reptile who talked and walked on two legs: regent of her people who commanded and inspired from her throne even though she stood two and a half feet tall. The crown and Princess Carnation's weapon of choice, an alabaster scepter, signified the repitilian person's rulership so anyone who spotted those emblems would recognize who associated with her.

Oni blurted, "Sainal Academy has an emblem. It's the twin axes and the braids, right?"

"A school can't be a princess!" Ruby slapped her thighs. "It's a building. Only people can be princesses."

Then, she detailed the duties of a princess — the tasks that set them apart from anyone and everyone else.

It was Ruby's job as a royal heir to learn the ways of her predecessors. The King and Queen ruled all of Remnant, until one day she would inherit their power. Up to that time, the princess must learn everything they can, practice equal parts speech and combat. Only a master of both elements and the most intelligent minds could lead her people in the castle and on the battlefield. Being princess was a lot of work.

Oni said, "That's why queens can move anywhere they want in chess, but kings can only move one space at a time."

Ruby's mouth hung open a moment too long, before she caught up. "Er, yes! That's right. Because princesses grow up to be queens, and queens are the best."

She wasn't humble enough to admit she didn't know what chess was.

Oni dreamed out loud, "I can't wait for us to be queens."

The adult beside them chuckled and folded both his arms, but the child went on anyway. "Wait a moment! Is your mom and dad a queen and a king?"

"Of course." Ruby wriggled herself to sit fully straight with her nose in the air. "My mom is famous for hunting monsters and my dad is the best cook in the whole wild world."

Oni gasped like a vacuum again. "Your parents are hunters? I knew it! It's Summer Rose!"

Ruby flattened a hand to her chest and sat back, mouth gaped wide.

Oni bounced in their seat. "I have six of her Top Game cards. I knew it was weird what you said to the older kids. That is so cool!"

"You play Top Game? I try to play with Yang sometimes, but she always says I'm not following the rules so she calls Dad and then we can't play anymore even though I'd totally win every time." Ruby pitched the last few words at top volume whether or not Yang could hear further down the carriage.

Ruby went on describing her life at home for a little while, until their train passed between a couple warehouses. Boarded up windows streaked by, until the train emerged through a street intersection, where red lights blinked and a bar lay in front of a few waiting cars.

Abandoned tenements flanked their passage — four-story tall buildings made of dismal gray stone and broken glass and graffiti.

They slowed through a shipping yard, where a dozen vacant trucks and cargo vans awaited travel orders that appeared to never come.

Within five more minutes, the train had stopped at a station more resembling a one-person shack. Half a dozen strangers had gathered in a paddock, blocked by a yellow and black barrier from the train tracks. All of them bore their own baggage for a trip out of town — could it be called a town, what Ruby had seen so far? — including one black girl standing in her prime and height of adolescence.

She had anticipated this train with greater purpose than any of those behind her. Her plaited brown hair framed a face polished by foundation and outline. Certainty steeled her expression around her eyes and lips. She avoided any stares from the train passengers, even as the barrier admitted her through and she strode ahead of the crowd to the entrance of Cabin Four.

Navy and alabaster butterflies breezed around the hem of her pleated dress, which flowed with grace at her ankles around every step. A netted shawl draped over her slim top, both matching the aesthetic of her dress with designs of colored lace going up its sides, over her chest, and around her collar.

The other passengers fanned left and right to other vehicles, almost resembling gray wings as she boarded the student car alone.

She greeted the conductor in a voice too distant and out of view for Ruby to overhear, though she came their way eventually along the aisle.

Both of the little girls gaped at her stride. Her upturned chin and forward intent marched past, but she didn't miss a beat as her gaze slid upon them. Something about Ruby and Oni's wide eyes or their jaws on the floor must've affected her into a smile. Charm sweetened her baby-brown eyes, until she was gone as quickly as she had arrived.

Ruby couldn't know at the time how a senior classman might bless or doom her future. She only knew how enchanting was their first impression of each other aboard the train to school.