//------------------------------//
// Chapter 10 
// Story: The Right Man in the Wrong Place... 
// by CORACK 
//------------------------------//

	I might have told Dusty Heart that I had to get to Canterlot, but actually following through was going to be a challenge. When Golden Dawn helped me out of bed, a wave of dizziness almost made me fall over. It was only through sheer force of will that I remained standing. I rested my hand on Golden's back, using her to steady myself until the feeling had passed.

"Are you sure you're going to be okay to travel?" Golden asked with concern.

"I don't really have a choice, if I stay here, I've got no chance of getting help. I just hope your princesses can fix... whatever this is."

I felt a wing wrap around me, pulling me closer to my friend. I looked down and smiled, grateful for the support. She looked back at me, her eyes sparkling with a strength of will I wished I possessed.

"They will Hail Storm, I know it."

There wasn't a hint of doubt in that statement. I could tell, deep down, that she hadn't said it just to make me feel better. She believed it all the way to her core. Somehow, some of that strength, that hope, that rock solid faith, transferred to me. When I finally did break eye contact, I felt like some of my lost hope had been restored. I actually felt a little bit better.

With renewed strength, I walked out of the room under my own power, Golden Dawn trailing behind me, ready to swoop in if I faltered. We passed through the parlor on the way out. Trixie and Blue Skies had already left, but Dusty Heart was sitting in a chair, waiting for us. I walked up to him and extended my hand.

"Thank you Dusty, for everything." I said shaking his hoof.

"Don't worry about it, and don't try to give me any more bits, you've already given me enough. Stay safe on your journey and good luck," he said.

We headed outside and I found my truck parked right in front of Dusty's fence. I gave it a quick glance over for mailbox shaped dents but saw nothing. As I walked up to the door, I reached in my pocket for the keys and had a brief moment of panic when my fingers grasped nothing but air.

"Looking for these?" Golden Dawn asked as I remembered she had said she had taken them.

"Yep," I said, wondering where she had been keeping them. She wasn't wearing her saddle bags. I didn't really have time to mull it over since she tossed them in my direction. I reached out and caught the flying keys. 

The door was already unlocked, so I climbed up in and settled down into the seat. Everything looked undisturbed, but I hadn't really expected Golden Dawn to have done anything. It wasn't like she took it out for a joy ride.

The passenger door opened with a click and Golden Dawn climbed up inside. Her cloud bench was exactly where she had left it, still as puffy as the day she had formed it. Once she settled in, I started the engine.

The drive to Golden Dawn's shop was quiet and uneventful. She insisted that I sit in the car while she packed everything that I had left in the apartment into the trailer. When it was finally loaded up she pulled it outside and hooked it up to the truck. I wouldn't be comfortable without doing one final check to make sure I wasn't leaving anything, so I got out, walked inside, and climbed the stairs. Golden Dawn followed me up.

"What about the guns? When we left to see Trixie they were both still disassembled." I asked as I looked around the apartment.

"They're all in the trailer, I put the two rifles back together and packed them up when Dusty sent me home that first day. Oh, that reminds me..." Golden Dawn spun around, glided down to the shop and then flew back up carrying a box in her hooves.

I opened up the box, inside were some pieces of metal that looked very familiar. 

"Did you... Is that a duplicate of the lever action's receiver?" I asked, looking at the largest piece. I also saw a bolt, a hammer and part of the trigger assembly.

"Well it's a start, it isn't quite finished. When I was putting everything back together, I figured I'd finish taking the measurements I was working on. One thing lead to another and I found myself machining out some of the parts. This is all I managed to get done so far, but I've got detailed notes on a the rest of that gun."

"That's incredible, you did that all in one day?"

"To be honest, the lever action seems to be extremely simple, mechanically speaking. The bolt action too, I just started with the lever action because I remember you saying you had more ammunition for it."

Satisfied that I wasn't leaving anything we both headed back down. She put the box of parts back in a drawer and we headed outside.

"I'll work more on it when I get back to Hoofston," she said with a grin as we walked over to the truck.

"Remind me and you can take some ammunition back with you, to test it out once it's finished." I looked up at the truck and had a nagging feeling that something was missing.

"Oh!" I said as I realized what it was. "We almost forgot the extra fuel."

Golden Dawn had three drums of the stuff in her engine room. Using a handcart we wheeled the drums out to the truck. Golden Dawn then showed off her stupidly impressive carrying capacity, and complete disregard for physics as she flew each of the barrels up from the ground, into the back of the truck. It was obvious from her grunting that flying the barrels was a strain, but they each weighed over 300lbs, which had to be a significant portion of her own body weight, so it was still impressive. I just watched on with disbelief, then climbed up into the back and helped her strap the barrels down. She ran back inside to lock everything up and then we set off.

"I need to make a stop at my house," she said, giving me directions.

"Didn't you say you lived in a cloud?"

"Cloud home, but yeah, I just need to fly up and grab a few things."

When we got to Golden's home, I looked out the window and gawked. Sure enough there was a house, made of clouds hovering about 500 feet up in the air. It made me dizzy just thinking about it. The style reminded me of ancient Roman buildings with large pillars made of clouds and a triangular roof. She flew up and disappeared for a few minutes before returning with a large duffel bag that she tossed in the back seat. We made one last stop at Hoofston's market and purchased enough food for a few days. I was digging through the bag, figuring we could eat lunch on the road when Golden Dawn interrupted me.

"Hey Hail, let's grab lunch here before we leave, we can save that food for the road."

"Sounds like a plan, where too?"

"Smokey Griddle? I could go for some pancakes."

Truthfully, my stomach had been doing backflips ever since I had woken up at Dusty's. The problem was, I was very hungry, having not eaten anything solid in quite some time. I wasn't sure if I could hold anything down, but I wanted to try and pancakes did sound good. I put the orange I was holding back into the bag of food and drove towards the small restaurant.

Much to my surprise, Blue Skies, Dusty Heart and a few of the other ponies I met since arriving in Hoofston were all waiting inside.

"Surprise!" Blue Skies said trotting over and giving me a hug. "You didn't think you'd be leaving without saying goodbye did you?"

"I guess not," I said returning the hug.

I kept my meal light, I didn't feel any better at the end of it, but I wasn't doing any worse either. What the meal lacked in quantity, it made up for in pleasant conversation and warm goodbyes. I had only known the ponies at the table for a short while but I appreciated their friendship. Without help from Golden Dawn and Dusty Heart I would have died and even though I had been injured in the process, without Blue Skies leading me to Trixie, I wouldn't be preparing to head for the capital. When the food was finished and talking was dying down, I thanked everyone there for all of their help and bid them all a fond farewell. Then it was off to the truck with Golden as be began our journey to Canterlot.





"Crud, I forgot to get a map," I said as I was driving through town.

"I know how to get there, besides, it's hard to get lost with a pegasus... built in compass," she said tapping her head.

"I could use one of those, even with GPS I get lost."

"GPS?"

"Oh sorry, Global Positioning System. It's a system of man made satellites that orbit my planet. They send out a signal that devices, like my phone, can connect to. By connecting to multiple satellites the device can determine its exact location, accurate to within a few yards. My phone can pull up a map of all the roads in my country then use the GPS signal to determine which street is is on. Then it can plan a route from one location to almost anywhere else on the continent."

Golden Dawn mulled this over for a moment before her eyes lit up.

"Wait, man made satellites? Like humans have put things into space?'

"Yeah, lots of things. We even sent people to our moon. It was before I was born though, and we haven't been back in a while."

Golden Dawn's eyes grew twice as big, an impressive feat considering how large they were already.

"That's incredible! How did you do it? Tell me everything."

I spent the new few hours talking about satellites, space exploration, NASA and the moon landing. It wasn't an area I was intimately familiar but I answered all of her questions as best as I could. It was actually a great distraction from the long drive and I began to feel a bit better as we got farther and farther from the town. Eventually, I ran out of things to babble about and the subject drifted to Golden Dawn's future plans. She talked about some modifications she was going to be making to the next version of her engine, her plans to make a diesel powered automobile, to compete with steam cars, and the factory she wanted to set up to build them.

Golden Dawn let me know that we'd be ending up the day's travels in large town called Appleloosa. It was a located about 200 miles north of Hoofston. The road wasn't in the best of shape, which limited my top speed and was making the trip take much longer than it would have had I been on a modern highway. If the conditions didn't change, I guessed that we'd be getting to the town a little after 8 at night. 

We passed one small town between Hoofston and Appleloosa, well town was maybe being a bit generous. It consisted of a water and fuel stop for trains and a single building that was combination saloon, hotel and store. We pulled in and had a quick dinner before getting back on the road.

Finally, later that evening, we arrived in Appleloosa. Just from driving down the main street I could tell that it was much larger than Hoofston. Even this late at night, ponies wandered up and down the streets heading to various destinations. I got more than a few curious looks and at least one pony saw my truck, and took off in the other direction.

We found a hotel and I parked my truck behind it. I was glad we were stopping for the night, as even though I had done far longer drives before, I was feeling exhausted and starting to feel sick again. I had thought about letting Golden Dawn take over for a while but I didn't want such an inexperienced driver behind the wheel in the dark on a dirt road. We headed into the hotel and walked up to the front desk. 

Behind the counter was a tired looking pony sitting on a stool reading a book. I cleared my throat to get her attention, then she floated the book over to the counter and looked up. Her eyes opened up wide and she leaned back, falling off the stool; blushing with embarrassment she pulled herself up off the floor and looked back up at Golden Dawn and I.

"Can I help you?" she said with a squeak.

"I'd like a room for the night," I said.

"Okay." she choked out, even quieter than her last response. She turned to a book and started flipping through some pages.

After that she seemed to pull herself together, when she was done checking her book she looked up.

"You're in luck we've got one room left and only for tonight," she said. "There's a big rodeo coming up and almost everything is booked for the rest of the week."

"Seems we left Hoofston on the right day," I said to Golden Dawn.

"Oh you're from Hoofston?" the pony behind the counter asked.

"She is," I said nodding at Golden Dawn. "I'm... not from Equestria."

The pony coughed at that, "Oh, well uh, welcome to Appleloosa. I'm... sorry about my reaction. I've never seen a... what did you say you were again?" 

"I didn't, and I'm a human."

"I've never seen a human before, you startled me. Can't be too careful, what with all the talk of missing ponies lately," she said. "But, I guess if you were up to something, you'd probably not announce yourself asking for a room."

"It's... okay, don't worry about it," I said, trying to sigh.

I thanked the pony and then paid for the room. As we headed towards it I turned to Golden Dawn.

"Well, I'm surprised I made it this long before getting that kind of reaction." I said. "Not her fault, but ugh, it sure doesn't feel good to be on the receiving end of that."

Golden Dawn gave me a reassuring brush with her wing. "She did seem a little nervous, but at least she apologized. You've got to understand, ponies have never seen a human before."

"Am I scary?"

"Not to me, but not everypony reacts the same way to the unknown, some might ignore you, some might fear you and others will just be curious. I'm afraid you're going to see more of this as we get deeper into Equestria where other races are less common. Don't worry too much about it, ponies are usually a friendly bunch, once they get to know you."

I set down my suitcase, opened the door and walked inside. My face immediately fell, the room had cost next to nothing and now I knew why. It was tiny, there was no bathroom and only a single small bed.

"You can have the bed, I'll sleep in the truck." I said picking my suitcase back up.

Golden Dawn looked confused. "Why? We can just share it."

I felt my face redden slightly, "Uh I don't know how it is with ponies but adult humans only usually only share a bed if they're in a relationship, or um... about to get... physical."

Without missing a beat, Golden Dawn let her lustful eyes wander over my body from head to toe. The she looked up, staring me directly in the face. "Same with ponies," she said seductively, pushing the room door closed with her rear leg.

"I.. uh... ah?" I started to stammer.

"Bwahahahahahaha" Golden Dawn burst into laughter. "I'm just teasing you... humans don't have sleepovers?"

"Not since I was a kid," I said.

"There's nothing wrong with sleeping with friends, and it's not like there's some law that says if we're sharing one we gotta have sex. But if your weird human culture says you can't do it, feel free to sleep in that cramped truck. More room for me."

I thought about the truck, 2/3 of the bench was packed away in the trailer so Golden could sit on her cloud chair. Since the bench didn't recline and I wasn't a fan of sleeping while sitting up, I gave up on that idea.

"It does look better than the truck..." I said, putting my suitcase back down.

There was a shared bathroom down the hall so I used it, got ready for bed and headed back for the room. Golden Dawn was already laying down, she scooched over as much as she could and I climbed in. The bed was about a foot and a half too short and not nearly as wide as the ones in Dusty's and Golden's apartment. And with her in the other half I couldn't curl up to keep my feet from hanging over the edge. This was going to be a long night.





"That is the last time we're sharing a bed," I said groggily, as I was packing my stuff back into the truck. I climbed in and started it up.

"Why? Did you have trouble sleeping?" Golden asked.

I just glared at her for a moment before responding.

"First I woke up in the middle of the night sneezing, it happened two more times before I figured out what was going on, your wing kept brushing up against my face and your feathers were tickling my nose. I turned around the other way which solved that problem, but then a short while later you latched onto me with all four legs. I tried to wiggle free but you had me in a death grip and somehow you slept through my attempts to wake you."

"Sorry... I've always been a heavy sleeper," she said sheepishly.

"Your fur or coat or whatever you call it is like a blanket, so I was practically dying of heat, but there was nothing I could do so I gave up and eventually fell back asleep. After that, everything was alright until right before dawn, you must have been having a dream or something because you started kicking like crazy. Four legs of doom, all aimed at me. Let me tell you something, hooves hurt!"

"I didn't do any permanent damage did I?" Golden asked, giving me a sheepish smile.

"No, but not for lack of trying. You actually kicked me off the bed entirely sometime just before the sun came up. At that point I just  didn't bother getting back up and slept on the floor. I should have done that from the start, the bed was too small and not particularly comfortable."

"Yeah it wasn't great. It's too bad you aren't a pegasus, you haven't slept till you've tried a cloud bed, it's the most comfortable thing in the universe," she said.

"I'll have to take your word for it." I said with a shrug.

There had only been one road coming out of Hoofston so up until that point I hadn't had to worry about directions. Appleloosa was a good deal larger and was connected via both road and rail to several different towns. True to her word, Golden Dawn got me on the right path and we started the long drive north. The 200 mile trip the day before had taken almost 7 hours and constantly having to slow down and speed up was burning through fuel much faster than I had liked. It was a good thing we had brought all three barrels of fuel, because there was no way I would have made it on two alone. Thankfully as we left the frontier and headed further into civilization, the quality of the road improved considerably and we were making much better time. 

Except for an hour when Golden Dawn took a turn, I pulled a nearly 12 hour driving shift. Had I been feeling sick throughout the day, I would have never been able to do it. Once again though, as we got out on the road I began to feel a bit better. In fact, I would have done the whole thing but she kept asking when she would be able to try it out again, so I finally caved in and let her. 

For only having driven once in her entire life she did a good job, but the seat really wasn't designed for her. I think if she had been able to pull the bench out and make a cloud seat shaped more like pony chairs, she might have been able driver longer, but since she couldn't, she quickly got annoyed with the cramped conditions. Which was just as well, because, while she drove, I had to squish up on the back bench. Even if it hadn't been packed full of stuff, the back seat of the truck was no place for a full sized adult. The only reason I could even fit there is because the passenger side of the front seat removed, I had plenty of legroom. 

Even though I seemed to improve during the day, I could still tell something was wrong with me. That, combined with the long road trip was taking it's toll. By my estimate, we had driven nearly half of the remaining distance, but as darkness fell, I had to call it a night. 

Lack of sleep combined with my failing health was starting to cause issues. My coordination suffered and I could tell my response time was off. When I had woken, my body had started to ache all over, some of that had faded away during the long drive but I was still plagued with random bursts of pain.

To make matters worse, I was nearly out of pain killers, which I was taking every night just to get enough sleep. Deep down, I was worried that that whatever issues the enchantments had caused, were not only serious, but possibly had resulted in permanent damage. It was only Golden Dawn's firm belief that making it to Canterlot and getting help from one of the princesses would solve my problems that kept me going.

"I think we're going to have to sleep in the truck tonight," I said yawning as I pulled the truck over.

"Huh? Wha?" Golden Dawn said she jolted her head up, coming out of her half asleep state.

"You said the next town was Coltsonville?" 

"Yeah."

"We just passed a sign that said 'Coltsonville, 40 miles' on the other side of the road. I think that the turn I took an hour ago bypassed the town while you were sleeping." 

"I wasn't sleeping!"

"Well, zoned out then, your eyes were half closed and you were unresponsive, anyway I remember you saying it was the last town for a while right?"

"Yeah, it was," Golden said.

"All right, I'll just pull over here, it sucks but hey, I think we're more than halfway there, if we do this well tomorrow we'll make it to the capital!"

I turned the engine off and got as comfortable as I could. Golden Dawn fiddled with her cloud a bit, poofing it out and making a sort of bed, a few minutes later she was curled up and snoring quietly.

"I want a cloud," I said jealously as I leaned up against the window.

I was so tired that even the cold glass didn't keep me from quickly falling asleep.





A tapping sound coming from outside the car woke me up the next morning. While I was yawning, and debating whether or not I wanted to open my eyes, I realized that I wasn't leaning up against the window anymore. Whatever I was sleeping on was far warmer, softer and more comfortable than cold hard glass.

I hadn't noticed it at first because I hurt all over, the aches and pain of the previous day had not dropped off at all with sleep. Still though, somehow through all of this, I had somehow ended up in a very comfortable position and moving was not anywhere near the top of my priorities.  It wasn't till I realized that whatever I was laying on was slowly rising and falling that I forced myself awake. With considerably more difficulty than it should have taken, I opened my eyes, sunlight filtered through something goldenrod and fluffy that was partially blocking my vision. I raised a hand and pushed away the wing that had snuck over me in the night. At some point I must have leaned the other way and ended up using Golden's chest as a pillow.

Damn, she's cute all curled up on that cloud.

I heard a tapping again.

What is that noise?

I looked up and saw a dark tan earth pony leaning against the side of the truck, tapping on the windows. He looked confused but also slightly annoyed.

I sat up as quickly as I could, which made me lightheaded, now that I was more fully awake, I could tell that the aches and pains had not dissipated with sleep. I signaled the pony to back away and opened the door

"Uh hello... can I help you?" I asked, wondering why this pony was knocking on my window.

"Yeah, your... uh... wagon. It's blocking the road," he said.

"What?" I said, climbing out of the truck. I was sure I had pulled off the road before I had gone to sleep. We had left the warmer climate of southern Equestria during the day before and were now in what I guessed was the heartland. Farms stretched out on either side of the road as far as my eyes could see, many times larger than the smaller ones that surrounded Hoofston. On either side of the smaller road, corn was growing almost up to my eye level. The small gap between the thick rows of corn wasn't just a path through the field, it was a road. Sitting in that road was a small wooden wagon full of corn, the back of my trailer blocking its path.

"I'm so sorry, I was up all day yesterday driving from Appleloosa and I missed the turn for Coltsonville and just figured I'd sleep on the side of the road, I didn't even see the intersection. I'll move out of the way right now."

My eyes went fuzzy for a moment, standing up was making me dizzy.

The ponies gaze softened.  "You came all the way from Appleloosa in one day? That must have been quite a trip."

"Yeah it was a long one, give me a second and I'll get this thing moved."

"Isn't this thing a little heavy for just you, do you need to wake up your pegasus friend?"

"Oh, uh no, its um, its mechanical, uh like a train sorta."

"I see," the pony said, he didn't look all that interested, I guess he just wanted me to move out of the way.

I climbed back into the truck and started it up; sitting down helped and I felt a little better. After double checking to make sure the pony was out of the way I pulled forward a few feet, giving his wagon enough room to pass. Golden Dawn started to stir in her cloud as I was hopping out again.

"Sorry again!" I said as the pony hooked himself back up to his wagon.

He waved at me and then started pulling his wagon down the road in the other direction.

"What's going on?" Golden Dawn asked followed by a loud yawn.

"Had to move the truck I was blocking somepony," I said while pulling out a canteen. I popped two painkillers into my mouth and swallowed them, noting that there were only two more left. 

Somepony, ugh, I'm going native.

"Did you sleep any better last night?" Golden Dawn asked.

"I uh..." I thought about when I woke up and my face grew warm.

"I slept perfectly, as I said clouds are the best beds and I was extremely comfortable... that was, until somepony decided to use me as a pillow," she said with a smirk.

"I'm so sorry," I said blushing fiercely. "I must have moved in my sleep."

"I don't mind, besides that window couldn't have been very comfortable."

"No, it wasn't," I said with a sigh.

"How are you feeling?" Golden asked.

I looked at her, my eyes must have been filled with fear and doubt because her expression immediately changed to one of concern.

"I don't know Golden, I've never felt like this before, I'm worried, whatever is wrong with me it's serious."

She placed her hoof on my hand and gave it a squeeze.

"It will be okay, Princess Twilight and Princess Cadance will be able to help," she said reassuringly. Once again, her unshakable faith that everything would turn out alright seemed to give me strength. I hoped it would last. 

"I hope so," I said softly.

A moment of silence went by before I spoke up again.

"Golden Dawn?"

"Yeah Hail Storm?"

"Thanks for coming with me and watching out for me, I've only known you for a while but you've been a great friend."

Golden Dawn beamed at my statement but didn't say anything in reply. She had been a good friend, as had Dusty and Blue Skies. Even Kitchen Sink for the short time I had worked with him had been friendly. It had been a while since I had any real friends. Back on Earth, outside of work I had barely interacted with anyone.

I laughed to myself at the ridiculousness of the situation. It had taken being magically transported to another planet to finally make some friends. My thoughts turned to what would happen in Canterlot. If I was sent back to Earth, would I lose that friendship forever? The idea made my stomach weak.

Golden chowed down on some apples for breakfast while I picked at my own food. Though my overall state seemed to fluctuate randomly, one that that had not changed was the trouble I was having with food. Since I had woken up, keeping things down was difficult. My only recourse was to try to stick mostly water, nibbling on small bites of food from time to time.

Eventually the painkillers started kicking in and I wanted to get moving again. Golden Dawn hopped out of the car and refilled the tank before we set off.

"How are we doing on fuel?" I asked as she got back in.

"We've got a little more than a barrel and a half left."

"What about the two smaller jugs?"

"Oh I forgot about those, I've just been using my stuff."

"You're going to have to come up with a name for it."

"Ugh, I'm no good at that, I just usually call it kerosene - vegetable oil blend," she said. "What would you call it?"

"Diesel cause I'm lazy," I said with a grin. "It's not like anyone here would know it's not real diesel."

"Diesel it is," Golden said with a small laugh.

Like the day before we were making very good time, it helped that the farmer pony who had woken me up had done so even earlier than we had set out the previous day. With any luck we'd be reach Canterlot late that night.

As we drove on, I noticed the land begin to change. It started in the north, far ahead of us but still clearly visible across the vast fields of wheat that had dominated the view for the last few hours. Slowly the farmland began to dwindle; trees started popping up, first in small groups, then larger and larger until there was no telling where one group started and another began.

The road turned gradually to the west, keeping the forest to our right while the last of the open fields followed us for several more miles. Eventually even those vanished when we came to a long wooden bridge crossing a massive gorge. I slowed the truck down as we reached the bridge, it was humongous, the biggest wooden bridge I'd ever seen, the sides were open and I could see the steep drop off of the ravine. I gulped and stopped the truck.

"Uh Golden, did you know about this bridge?"

"Yeah, we're at Ghastly Gorge, not quite half way to Ponyville which is the last town before we get to Canterlot, why what's up?"

"Is there any other way around the gorge?" I asked nervously.

"Not unless you want to go all the way back to Appleloosa, go east to Dodge Junction, then head north, it would add at least another day and a half."

"Is that it?"

"The only other option would be to go south west from Appleloosa, skirt the San Palomino Desert, head north through Las Pegasus then finally take the road from Las Pegasus that meets up with this one on the other side of the gorge, that would be even slower though, why?"

"I uh... um," I swallowed what little spit I could muster. "The bridge, it uh might not take the weight of the truck."

Golden Dawn looked at the bridge, then she looked at me, then turned back to the bridge again.

"Maybe?" she said. "It's a pretty big bridge and these things are usually magically strengthened to prevent collapse."

"But ponies don't have trucks and this truck weighs a lot!" I said nervously.

"I think it will be okay." Golden said looking out the window at the bridge again.

I'd driven over bridges before of course, that didn't mean I had to like it. And those bridges were designed for cars and trucks and buses. Who knew what kind of what limitations a pony designed bridge would have? Still, Golden Dawn was probably right and we didn't have the time or fuel to go either of the other ways. I took it slow at first, inching the truck onto the bridge; the trailer followed, nearly a minute later.

Like the massive wooden train bridges you see in movies, the sides of the bridge were open and I could see I could see everything. Sheer rock cliffs on either side dropped hundreds of feet straight down to the rocky canyon floor. There was a river flowing through the center of the gorge, from this height the trees along its banks looked like miniature toy versions of themselves. My heart started beating rapidly and I shifted my eyes forward.

My hands were gripping the steering wheel so hard they were turning white and my breathing started to get erratic. I was a third of the way across when I heard a creaking sound. I slammed my foot down on the pedal, the engine roared and the whole truck jumped forward with a mighty whump. We reached the other side ten seconds later but I drove another hundred feet or so before I noticed Golden Dawn was saying something and I started to slow down.

"I'm sorry, I didn't here you can you repeat yourself?" I said, forcing my breathing back to normal.

"What the hay was that?" Golden asked, still in shock over my reckless driving.

"I heard a creak."

"So!? Wooden bridges do that sometimes, the bridge was fine!"

"I'm sorry, I just... I... look, I just... I don't like heights, okay?" I said, dumping the truth out in the open.

"Oh." Golden Dawn said, giving me a sympathetic look. "I'm sorry I yelled at you."

"No, it's not your fault, it's stupid, of all the things I've had to deal with since I got here, a bridge is not that bad. I mean I'm on another planet! That's like, I dunno, at least 100 times worse than a bridge."

"At least that," Golden Dawn said with a smile while gently running her wing up my back. "Everypony has fears. I'm afraid of spiders, if I had been with you in the mines, I would have flown away and hid in a cloud for a day.  Best thing about cloud homes, no spiders at all."

"Blah, I know but heights... it has to seem silly to you, you're a pegasus, you've got wings. You can soar up into the sky without a care in the world... It must be beautiful up there."

"It is," Golden Dawn said smiling, her eyes were shining brightly and in them I could see her love for the sky. "If we can find a way for you to use enchantments without getting sick, I can bring you. There's a spell that lets anypony walk on clouds. We could go to Cloudsdale, or you could even come visit my home."

"I think I'd have a heart attack and die if you stuck me on a cloud," I said with a nervous laugh. "But... If I didn't... If I somehow lived through it, I think I'd like that."

The bridge behind us, it was time to move forward. Rather abruptly, the forest to our right grew thicker and darker, it was almost ominous looking. The road skirted the outside of the forest, getting close but never daring to enter. To the far left was a double set of train tracks, Golden Dawn said they were the same line that ran all the way to Appleloosa and then south to Hoofston. We had passed one train earlier in the day, going the other direction, but hadn't seen anything since then.

"What's up with the creepy forest?" I asked Golden who kept giving it glances every time the road got particularly close to the treeline.

"That's the Everfree Forest," she said with a whisper. "Nopony knows why, but there's something wrong with that forest. The weather runs itself, the animals that live there are wild and monsters thrive in its borders."

"I think I remember Dusty Heart mentioning that place."

"Can you feel it?" Golden Dawn asked.

"Feel what?"

"Every pony I've known who has traveled close to the forest before has said they can feel a sense of wrongness just by being near it. The deeper you go into the forest the stronger that feeling gets. I've never been close enough to feel it before though. Now I know what my friends were talking about."

"No? I don't feel anything, it just looks like a dark, and fairly wild, forest."

"Hmm, maybe only ponies can feel it." Golden Dawn said.

"Maybe. The only thing I feel right now is hungry, oh, and I can feel that the pain meds I took earlier starting to wear off. You want to stop for lunch soon? I want to try to actually keep some food down."

"Can we drive a little more, till we're farther away from the forest?" Golden Dawn asked.

"Uh sure."

Eventually the road turned away from the forest, I pulled to one side and Golden Dawn got out and stretched her wings. I took my last two painkillers and tried eating a little bit of food. The nibbling I had been doing wasn't cutting it and even though I felt kind of queasy I was also very hungry.  Unfortunately, my stomach decided holding down food was not on the menu. Not more than a few minutes after finishing my sandwich, I had to run out of the car, over to a bush and quickly lost everything that I had just taken in.

In addition to my stomach problems, the constant aches had started turning into random spots of piercing pain that would flare up without warning. The pain would disappear as quickly as it had appeared with no apparent cause. I didn't tell Golden Dawn because she still looked anxious about her proximity to the forest and I didn't want to add to her worry. 

After our break it was time to get moving again, within a few miles the road turned back to the right and we found ourselves alongside the Everfree again. I still couldn't feel the strange sensation of wrongness that Golden had been talking about but it was clear as day that she was very much on edge. I thought back to the times that I wasn't doing so well and when she had been there for me; there was really only one thing I could do. I put out my hand, rested it on the back of her neck and gave her a friendly squeeze. She looked over at me and smiled, after that she seemed much better.

We ran into another bridge a short while later, this one built over a small, but fast moving river. It was much smaller and lower to the ground, but even though the fear wasn't there, I still looked at it with a suspicious eye. Unlike the last bridge which had used massive logs for supports, this one had skinny boards. It looked like it was only meant for foot traffic and maybe light wagons.

"Okay so the last bridge was fine but this one I actually thing might not be sturdy enough for the truck," I said.

Golden Dawn looked up from the map she was reading.

"Actually, I think you might be right. How much does this truck weigh again?" she asked.

"I don't know exactly but somewhere in the 6500-7000 pound range, and that's not including the trailer, the stuff we have in the back, or us."

"Let me get out and take a look at it." 

Golden Dawn hopped out of the car and trotted over to the bridge. She flew up and under it and then a moment later she flew over to my window.

"What do you think?"

"I don't know, if it's been magically strengthened, it should hold, but I have no way of knowing if it is or isn't. I don't want to risk it unless we have to, can you wait here a moment?"

"Sure," I said, somewhat confused.

Golden Dawn took off like a jet, up higher and higher into the sky and then started following the river downstream. I lost track of her as the distance grew but about ten minutes later I caught sight of her flying back towards me.

"There's a spot in the river about two miles downstream from here that's both very shallow and free of rocks. It's a little wider than it is here but the current slows down quite a bit at that spot. Can the truck drive across it?"

"How shallow are we talking about?"

"One to two feet."

"I think so, is the path clear from here to there?"

"Yep."

I had to take it slow, very slow, because while the truck was perfectly happy with heading off road, the trailer was not. I followed Golden Dawn through the rolling fields of grass until we arrived at the crossing she had found earlier. I was going to get out of the truck to inspect the river but a sudden wave of pain in my chest made me reconsider.

"I'll watch from out here," Golden Dawn said.

"Sounds good," I replied gritting my teeth and trying to ignore the pain. It wasn't going away as quickly as the last few outbursts had.

Once I hit the riverbed, I kept the truck moving, not wanting to get stuck on the wet stones and mud at the bottom of the river. About half way across, the truck started slowing down as the trailer sank into the mud but I gave it some more gas and was able to break free. After I reached the other side, Golden got back in and we slowly made our way back to the road. The whole thing added at least an extra hour to our trip and I was getting a little concerned about making Canterlot in time.

"How badly are we behind schedule?" I asked Golden Dawn.

"It kind of depends, I know you wanted to make Canterlot tonight but... we've been making excellent time on the open roads but I think we're going to hit a slowdown when we get near Canterlot."

"Why's that?"

"Canterlot is up in a mountain."

"Huh? Are there roads up there?"

"Well yes, but from the direction we are approaching we need to take the old road. It's much narrower than this one, there are lots of switchbacks and we may hit traffic. Even if we don't you won't be able to drive nearly as fast as you have been out in the countryside. We might consider stopping at Ponyville tonight. From there, it's only another 25 miles to Canterlot, we can do that the next morning, easy peasy."

"I guess we'll figure it out when we get closer, see how late it is."

"Do you want me to drive at all...? I've uh... noticed you seem like you aren't doing so well."

I hung my head down. "No, I'm not. If you think you will be okay, I wouldn't mind a break."

"Let's switch then, why don't you try to get some rest in the back?"

Golden Dawn climbed into the driver's seat while I made room on the bench in the back. I stretched my legs out as far as I could and leaned up against a pile of blankets, using them as a pillow.

Golden Dawn made a better pillow.

I couldn't actually fall asleep as I was in far too much pain, but at least with Golden Dawn at the wheel at least I didn't have to concentrate on driving. I eventually gave up trying and decided to look out the window. Another forest, this one much friendlier looking, sprang up on the left, and pretty soon we were surrounded by trees on both sides. As the hours rolled by the western forest started to thin out, but the treeline never vanished completely. Instead, as the sun started to drop below the horizon, we hit the start of a small white picket fence as the forest shifted into an apple orchard.

Shortly after that the Everfree dropped away and a buffer of apple trees sprung up in its place. We were surrounded on both sides with rows and rows of trees containing some of the largest, most delicious looking apples I'd ever seen.  If I thought I could have kept one down, I would have asked Golden Dawn stop the truck and hopped the fence. 

"That's Sweet Apple Acres," Golden Dawn said, noticing me looking out the window. "Best apples in all of Equestria."

"I had some of those, back in Hoofston, they look even better fresh," I said, wiping a bit of drool away with the sleeve of my shirt.

"Maybe when the princesses get you better we can go, they have pick your own apple days and their cider is to die for," Golden Dawn said with a dreamy grin.

"Hard cider?" 

Golden nodded.

"I'm in," I said with a half smile. I loved going apple picking, adding a little alcohol to the trip would only improve things.

"Yay!" Golden Dawn exclaimed happily.

Once we hit Sweet Apple Acres, Ponyville followed not much later. I had noticed something a bit with the last few towns we had passed through. They had all been fairly small, but Ponyville was huge, larger than either Hoofston or Appleloosa, and it had the same strange makeup.

Hoofston, Appleloosa, and most of the smaller towns we had passed through on the first two days of travels looked like towns you would see in a western movie. If it wasn't for the colorful ponies inhabiting them, I would swear I had ended up back in the 1800s. 

That all changed on the third day. Every town I had passed through today had a completely different style of architecture. They looked even more primitive, they wouldn't have been out of place in medieval Europe, or perhaps a cartoon version of a fairy tale.

Had I arrived in Equestria and found myself in Ponyville instead of Hoofston, I would have never suspected that ponies had anything as modern as trains or electricity, at least not until I dug a little deeper.

Initially, most of the buildings were simple wooden affairs with thatched roofs, but as we made our way through town, the fairy tale illusion started to fade. A small collection of far more modern buildings gave away that the simple construction had to be a stylistic choice rather than a technological one. 

Ponies enjoyed a far more advanced society than an outside observer could spot at first glance. I saw hints of this as I drove through the town. Electric lights in windows, modernish brick buildings, disguised to match the rest of the town. I even saw a bowling alley of all things. It made me wonder how much I truly knew about pony technological advancement. Golden Dawn had mentioned that there were much larger cities elsewhere in Equestria, what would they look like?

It was late enough that most of the roads were devoid of ponies, but every once in awhile we'd pass small groups of them. For some reason almost none of them even gave the truck a second glance. Was it that the ponies of this town more used to the unusual? Or was it because Golden Dawn was driving instead of some strange looking alien? I had no way of knowing. Eventually she spotted a hotel and pulled up alongside it. There was a pony standing at the door, he saw us and walked over, Golden lowered the window so he could talk.

"Uh miss, you can't put your... wagon here, there's a small field down the street you can use though."

"Oh okay, sorry," she said, we drove past several small shops before finding the field.

"Do you want to come with me now or do you want me to come get you after I have a room?" Golden Dawn asked.

"I think I'll wait here, moving hurts."

She jumped out and began to walk back towards the hotel as I stared blankly out the window. Several minutes later a rumbling in my stomach let me know that getting out of the car quickly would be prudent.

I got out and quickly searched for somewhere inconspicuous to be sick, I found a modern looking metal dumpster on the side of one of the buildings; I lifted the lid, leaned over the side and let loose, taking care to not get anything on my clothes. The putrid bile stank to high heavens but luckily I made it just in time to get everything into the dumpster. I got back to the car just as Golden was coming out to get me.

"Sick again?" she asked.

"Yeah," I said sadly. "But I'm actually feeling a little better now." It was a lie, I hadn't felt this sick all day. I almost asked Golden to just keep driving to Canterlot, but the thought of getting back into the truck for another few hours made me reconsider.

"You look really pale," she said. She put her hoof on my forehead. "And you're burning up, maybe we should take you to the hospital."

"Dusty couldn't find anything wrong with me, and your pony doctors will have no idea what to do with a human." I just wanted to lie down somewhere and not be poked and prodded.

"Still, it might be worth trying," she said with a frown.

"Why don't we head to our room, let me sit down, get a drink and try to eat something, if I can't hold it down, then we'll go."

"I guess," she said reluctantly agreeing.

The room was much nicer than the one we had rented in Appleloosa, two beds and a bathroom were a welcome sight. Except for the missing television, and lack of an air conditioner, it was fairly indistinguishable from any other modern hotel room; there was even electric lighting. I sat down on a small couch, sipping a glass of water while Golden Dawn went in search for something that I could eat. Ten minutes later she came back with some dry toast. I nibbled at it, eventually polishing off both slices. Amazingly, it stayed down without even a bit of a fuss. I climbed into bed, got as comfortable as possible and closed my eyes.