The days leading up the the weekend seemed to trickle by like a strangled garden hose in Alan’s mind. He passed the days away by manning the bar like always then spending the nights answering all of Caramella’s curious questions. She’d calmed down considerably since Alan had agreed to help her and contented to staying upstairs in his apartment (Alan thought it was safer that way—he wasn’t sure that he could explain her to anybody even if they were drunk) asking tons of questions about himself and the human world. Technology seemed to catch her interests the most, and Alan even taught her how to use his laptop (with heavy safety features enabled—he couldn’t live with himself if he had scarred the little pony for life) and his cell phone. When his own past came into question though other matters seemed to pop up, or so he told himself.

His human patrons, even as few as they were, had even started to take note of a subtle change in their barman. Once or twice Alan overheard one of them muttering things that sounded like “looks a hell of a lot more chipper” or “what’s his deal?” One of them even had the gall to ask him straight up why he was so energized all of a sudden. He merely replied with shrug and a knowing wink. For some reason, the man left immediately.

And then, it came. The near-afternoon sun shined on saturday like it had always done. Alan put up a notice on the front door of the bar that stated he would be closed until tuesday, giving himself about three days to get Caramella down to Canterlot.

He stood in front of his car, bundled up in a coat, and gulped. It would be his first time in his entire life going out of state. He knew he was being dumb being nervous about it—especially as a grown adult. And yet, the butterflies flittered around inside of his stomach all the same, but there was a faint excitement—the thrill of the unknown—there as well. Caramella stood next to him with a chipper smile on her muzzle, clad in only her cloak. Sadly, he hadn’t had been able to find her saddlebags.

“So, this is like a personal train?” she asked.

“Erm...” Alan got into the vehicle, an old beat-up pick-up truck with room in the back for additional passengers, and opened the side door, to which she happily jumped inside. “I guess? I’ve never really thought about it.” He turned the key and the engine sputtered to life.

She scrunched her muzzle and flattened her ears at the flaring engine, making Alan smirk. He gave the pedals a few experimental pumps. Admittedly, it had been a while since he’d last driven anywhere farther than his local supermarket. He checked both of their seat belts, gave the mirrors a glance, and then they were off.

Alan backed out of his driveway and soon found himself speeding out of town and onto winding backroads. High firs and thick hemlock trees flanked either side of the road. A thick layer of snow covered the treetops, creating a veritable winter wonderland. Caramella was torn between playing with the radio and smushing her muzzle against the windows. Whenever she did that, it caused his heart to beat just a bit faster than normal. He didn’t have the heart to tell the little pony to knock it off though; hopefully thanks to the shade and snow, anybody who caught a glimpse of her would think they had seen a very weird looking dog.

Mile after mile, hour after hour—both seemed to blur together as Alan continued driving. The forests melted away eventually, and the land started to bulge here and there, turning into a series of rolling white hilltops. The only relatively flat land that remained was the single stretch of highway Alan had gotten onto. Like a knife, it sliced a path through the earth allowing a myriad of travelers passage north to south and vice versa.

Caramella talked excitedly about a wide swath of Equestrian geography along the way, when she came up from air from the looking at the passing scenery that is. Topics ranged from floating cloud cities, wild forests that seemed to behave more like the ones in his own world, to great falls made of rainbows. Each city seemed to become wilder and crazier than the last. When he heard that this world’s Canterlot had a counterpart in Equestria built on top of a mountain, he hoped dearly that it wasn’t the same here. He wasn’t sure his old beater could take it. Eventually though the passing terrain outside reclaimed Caramella’s interests.

“Hey. Hey, Alan?” Caramella asked, her cheek still propped against the window.

“Hmmmm?” he replied, one hand twisting the knob of the radio down.

“What’s wrong with the sky?”

Alan spared a quick glance to find that Caramella was looking at him, with a hint of nervousness in her eyes.

“Why’s it doing that?” she pointed one fuzzy appendage outside. The clouds were starting to take on a faint orange-purple tinge.

Alan blinked. “What do you mean?”

“It’s setting! But, it’s not supposed to do that right now!” She gasped. “Sweet Celestia, is that the moon too? Why can I see both at the same time!”

Alan gave his dashboard one quick look and hazarded a guess. “I’m guessing you don’t have daylight savings time, do you?”

“Daylight what?” Her muzzle scrunched.

He explained the event, to which Caramella gave her own thoughtful response: “That’s stupid. I mean, why wouldn’t you just have an equal amount of both daytime and night?”

“Er, well you see, our sun just kinda does its own thing, we don’t really have anybody controlling it.”

“Wha? But, how does that even work? That doesn’t make sense at all!”

“Well, there’s a fair bit of gravity involved and—oh, hey! Look!”

Up ahead, a sign flashed to life as the car's headlights washed over it. Yellow poppies laid against a blue background. Welcome to California!

And, back on the dashboard, a tiny image of an oil can lit up.

“Aw crap.”

Author's Note

And so, the journey begins! The next batch of chapters are being worked on currently so stay tuned!

I don't have any beta readers so any comments pointing out stuff would be appreciated. Most important though, tell me what you like and dislike so I can get a readers perspective. It really helps.

This chapter was fueled Nemes - Whiskey.