"Not at all." The unicorn's blue mane, somewhat less impeccably coiffured than usual, bobbed as his head nodded toward a bedsheet-size chart posted on the shed's back wall. "Vanhoover is the principle—almost the only—city of the northwest. You started in Ponyville, if I understand correctly. North, directly toward Canterlot, I can tell you from personal knowledge would have presented too great a hazard. Southward is frontier, being mostly desert, badlands, and other inhospitable terrains. The east is more populous, but more difficult to reach past Canterlot. No. Westward, then north, was the best choice available, and that inevitably would bring you here."