The next few days of walking were only slightly more eventful than the first. During this time, I told Lyra the whole story of everything that had happened to me in the past five or so days. That is, the whole story except for a few details I decided to omit, like the nail-in-the-head thing. I'd rather not divulge into that in front of her.
"Wait," she interrupted me at one point, "So you're saying you're immortal?"
"Yeah. Don't ask for a demonstration, because I've had enough pain in the past few days to last me a lifetime."
"You do realize that's the craziest thing I've ever heard, right?"
"I'll be honest, I really don't care at this point. I just want to get to Anthropia and hopefully figure out who I am, and what the hell happened to me."
The days continued like this for a while. We hiked between some mountains, crossed a bunch of valleys, and various boring stuff like that. It's really nothing you'd be interested in. So, I'm gonna do a little fast-forward here and skip right ahead to the end.
After my exhaustion got to the point where my legs felt like they were made of melting rubber, I'd decided to sit down for a little while and take a breather. I let myself collapse on the grass and looked up at the sky. About mid-day now.
"You alright?" Lyra walked up beside me. "Man, you humans can't walk very far without resting, can you?"
"I'll have you know we're way more adept at walking over long distances than ponies."
"Then how come you're tired and I'm not?"
"I'm not in shape."
Lyra laughed and sat down next to me. "Well, I guess we can rest for a while. My legs are a bit tired too, even if I've got twice as many as you."
"Yeah, brag about your quadruped...ality all you want. I'm just going to lay here for a little while. There's no feasible way I could walk even another meter from here. Every step feels like nails in my feet."
Lyra looked off into the distance, suddenly stood up, and squinted. "Hey, what's that?"
I sat up. "I don't-"
I cut myself off as I saw off in the distance what looked like a huge town surrounded with walls. I couldn't quite make it out, but I saw various houses, and more importantly, a castle.
"Could that be Anthropia?" asked Lyra.
I jumped to my feet. "Hell if I know! Let's go find out for ourselves!" And with that, I bolted off towards the town.
Taking a second to catch up with me, Lyra ran to my side. "So, is running this fast painful for you right now?"
"Oh, you have no idea!"
And yet, I didn't stop until we got there.
~Half an hour later~
Okay, I lied. My legs gave out about three times on our way there. Look, I'm not a god, alright?
...Okay, bad choice of words. But you know what I meant. Anyway, after a good amount of running, walking, stumbling, crawling, resting, and complaining, we finally made it to the place. It's actually somewhat smaller than I thought it would be. Oh well.
Lyra and I approached a closed gate in the walls surrounding the castle, guarded by a sight for sore eyes: two humans, clad in some kind of gold-colored armor.
"Alright, let me handle this," I whispered to Lyra as we walk up to them.
"Halt!" a guard shouted, eyes on Lyra. "You Equestrians are not welcome here!"
"Woah," I said. "Blindsided by xenophobia." The guards' eyes shot to me, and then widened.
"Oh! Sir, my apologies," said a guard. The other promptly threw a lever jutting out of the ground, and the gate opened.
What? Did my accusing them of racism seriously work? Alright, I'm not complaining. I started walking into the town, but one of them stopped me.
"Er, my apologies for asking, Sir, but what are you doing with an Equestrian?"
I thought about this for a moment. I don't think they'll take "she's a tourist" as an answer. Time to wing it.
"She's a personal... guest of mine. I hope it's not too much trouble. She won't be staying long."
The guard hesitated for a moment. "...Very well, sir. Go along."
They both eyed Lyra suspiciously as we went inside, her staying silent until we got in.
"Wow! How did you even do that?!"
"I have no idea. I guess these guys are just really polite to their own kind."
I began to doubt this conclusion, however, as we began walking the streets. In a similar fashion to Ponyville, the streets were lined with various buildings, such as houses, shops, and other facilities. The streets and alleyways were decently populated by a multitude of humans, almost all of them giving us both weird, angry, or confused looks. They whispered various unintelligible things among themselves as we walked past.
"Man, this is so cool!" said Lyra. "I didn't know all humans wore clothes! Is it because you're all mostly hairless?"
"...Yeah, something along those lines. Look, I wouldn't go around asking questions just yet. I'm not sure how well these humans are acquainted with ponies, judging from those guards' reactions to you."
"Oh, fine. Where are we going, then?"
"That castle up there. The leader of this place is the most likely one to have some information on me, no matter how small."
As we approached the castle's gates, we were yet again stopped by two guards, before they suddenly changed their minds again and decided to let us in.
"Ah, my apologies, sir. Go right in." These ones didn't even bother to question Lyra as she followed me inside. Weird.
As we walked down the long, nicely-decorated hall, my current state of affairs finally fully dawned on me.
"My god, we're finally here. I can finally figure out who I am. Well, probably."
I looked down at my tattered suit, my charred pants, and stained shirt, all testaments to what I've been through the past few days. It hasn't felt that long, actually. But it's certainly been fun. So, is this the end of my journey?
"Let's hope so," said Lyra. "I'm pretty curious, too."
Reaching the end of the hall, we were met with a huge pair of doors and two more guards.
Upon getting close enough, one of the guards turned to me. "Have you come to meet with the King?"
"Yes, and I've brought someone else, too, if it's not too much trouble."
The guard looked at Lyra, then back to me. "That is no issue, sir. Go right in, he is not busy."
The guards stepped aside. I walked up and pushed the doors open slowly, gradually greeting me with a view of a large room, a single throne sitting at the back. In it sat a man who was clearly in his older years, his face adorned with a sizable grey beard and a crown on his head. His body was adorned with various robes that the average stereotypical king would wear.
As soon as we locked eyes, he stood up.
"My, my. So I was right."
With this, he began walking towards me. I stepped a single step back, not sure what he was going to do.
To my immense surprise, he stopped in front of me and promptly grabbed me in a hug that I assure you, was a very manly hug.
"Why is this man hugging me? And why does he smell like cheese?" I mentally asked myself.
"I had a feeling you'd show up here soon." He said this upon releasing me, leaving me slightly weirded out, but mostly confused.
I really had no idea what to say at this point, so I simply stood there in confusion, hoping he'd continue on with what he was talking about.
And, for better or worse, he did.
"It's good to have you back, my royal scientist."