Illusion

As I passed the descending stairs I stopped to look at the stone double door that remained closed. The spherical dent in the center which seemed to serve no purpose other than the doors simple design. To anyone who came to these ruins it would spark curiosity, but to me? I already knew what lied beyond. There was no key for this door, but the "key" to unlocking said door was hidden away by me.

Looking from the door to my right hand I held one of the objects that was present within the room. A steel or silver staff about as tall as I was that had a blue crystal ball no bigger than the palm of my hand. On my left ring finger was a ring made of the same metal as the staff. The clothes I wore weren't mine, to be honest robes and cloaks weren't my kind of clothing, but this was all there was, and I should be thankful I wasn't forced to wear the clothes I came here in. I've made these castle ruins my temporary home since I couldn't really find any means of making it back to any kinds of civilization. That doesn't mean I haven't stopped searching, but I couldn't go too far in fear of losing my only shelter I had. Saying my situation is frustrating would be an understatement. I still had so much unanswered, but I remain hopeful that I may be able to return home with answers and a solution to my problem.

Returning my attention to what I was doing before I made my way out into the courtyard. Whoever built this castle had the idea of making it last, though clear signs of age were showing like vegetation, broken windows and rotting wood as well as cracks in the mortar. Still, it was better than no shelter at all. The woods in which this castle was in were peaceful for the most part, I didn't see any predators like bears or wolves despite being here for almost a month.

I approached one of the openings in the wall and squeezed through. Once on the other side I looked over the many trees that surrounded the castle. After my eyes landed on one with a carved out x I walked towards it, then looked for more. I kept following them until I had reached a point where the x's didn't go on. Taking out the knife I had strapped to a belt I resumed the process I had started several days ago. I had tried the north, east and south directions but gave up as the forest seemed to have no end. Over the past several days I repeated the same process. Marking trees with my knife but with little success in finding an end. Under normal circumstances this would be a lot more difficult, but I don't think I could call my situation normal by any means. I continued for several more days, I would have given up but I decided to stick with this path.

When it seemed hopeless my dedication was rewarded. When I got close enough I saw it in the distance. I had almost forgotten to mark the trees all the way to the edge because of how excited I was. When I got passed the tree line I was met with a lake with a huge waterfall in the distance. As awesome as the natural landmark was that wasn't what caught my attention the most. It was instead the man made landmark. Train tracks. Making my way over to them I saw to my left they went into a small tunnel before they emerged on the other side, and to my right was more track that didn't have an end in sight.

Going towards the tunnel I looked inside. I don't know the exact distance but I wasn't prepared to risk getting run over my a train as soon as I turned around. I stood there for ten minutes or so thinking before I heard the sounds of a train approaching. It was heading towards the tunnel. I started to flail my arms and even jumped to get the conductors attention. It was a long shot, but that didn't stop me from trying. As I watched the train pass through the tunnel I took in the fact on how strange the design was. It looked like something straight out of a kids cartoon.

Well I came this far and I ain't going to give up. So I started to follow the tracks to my right.

As I walked I heard a sound that was strangely absent in the forest. Birds. I don't understand why birds would be absent from a forest so large. Either way it was nice to have some ambiance as I walked through. The sight and sound of birds stayed with me until I heard and saw the sounds of another train passing by. This one looking almost identical to the one that had passed me earlier. I tried to get a look at anyone inside but was unable to. It took hours before I started to get a glimpse of something in the distance. A station. Picking up my pace I speed walked to the station. When I got there it was empty. Noticing a door leading to an interior area I walked to the door to see if there was anyone inside. What was strange is how small the door was. I wasn't a tall person, average height, but I had to duck in order to enter.

The interior reminded me more of those old train stations rather than a modern one. It matched the cartoonish look of the two trains I had seen thus far. A part of me thought I might have wandered onto the property some kind of amusement park. However what was behind the desk made me question just what kind of park it was.

This was the first ones I saw. I first thought it was some kind of animatronic. Whoever designed it put a lot of thought and effort into it if that were the case because it was made to look like it was reading something on the desk. What it was supposed to be was some kind of cartoonish pony. It had a light brown mane with a tan coat. Even more impressive is when it turned its head to look at me and started to speak. The first odd thing I noticed is how it stared at my lower torso rather than where my face was. I guess it wasn't programmed to make eye contact? I don't know enough about animatronics to know how it all works. Despite that, its voice was really well done, it sounded really authentic. Like I was having a real conversation.

When I asked where I was she named the station. The name of course was unfamiliar to me. Our conversation then shifted to buying a ticket to a place called Canterlot. When I mentioned I didn't have any money of any kind, she ended the conversation there. As I turned to walk away I saw two more of those things enter. I have heard of robots being able to walk but when they walked up to the counter and conversed with the one behind the counter I watched the encounter both amazed and confused.

If these robots were programmed to imitate social conversation and life then whoever was behind it put a lot of work into it. But surely an attraction like this, it would surely be very well known as I didn't know of any other amusement park, or anywhere that did something to this extent with animatronics. When there interactions ended I walked outside and took a seat in a bench that was lower to the ground when compared to normal benches. The two who "bought" their tickets, one with a male voice and one with female, sit down on another bench. I just waited and took advantage of the public space to rest up, however I did notice that the two were giving me glances every now and again, which made me nervous. These things were much to alive for my taste.

I looked at the ring on my left ring finger.

Then again this might not be the craziest thing I had experienced...

Twenty or so minutes later another train arrived from my right. When it stopped a few more exited while the two sitting down boarded. After the train left another came by, then another, then another. More ponies came and went. Some actually looked in my direction and had a wide variety of expressions. Along with the varying expressions I also noticed a few that were different. Some had horns while others had wings while others had neither. It only added to the strangeness of it all. When I decided that I wasn't going to get much help from here I decided to check out the nearby town. Ponies. Not a single person in sight. This was getting to the point where it was ridiculous, the whole town was filled with these things, imitating life. I even saw a few drinking from a cup, with actual liquid inside. That was it, I had enough, I had to be somewhere else. I went back to the train station and waited for another train to arrive. I stuck around where the rear of the train was and when it was just starting to move I ran towards it and leaped onto the small railed platform where the caboose was. I wasn't sure if I was just lucky or these things really didn't care who boards the train and that the ticket thing was just for show. Either way I was determined to get somewhere else. For awhile I stayed and watch the station slowly shrink to nothing as the train moved closer from the direction I came from.

I didn't even want to go in the train and just wanted to stay out here because I didn't want to be around those things if I could help it. As the train went through the tunnel and out the other end the scenery changed, and I was happy I didn't chance it and run through the tunnel because the tracks were on a built bridge spanning across a mountainous region. When I passed a huge waterfall I decided to go inside. I passed the caboose car and made my way past a luggage car before I found one with seats. There was only a few sitting closer to the front, so I sat down in the far right corner and waited. I really hope the conductor stuck to the other cars because if I was caught, well I don't know what would happen. Maybe these things had some kind of internal alarm to warn the local authorities. Then again if that meant I could get back to civilization, real civilization, then maybe that wasn't a bad thing.

After I got tired of staring at the door I looked to my right out the window to take in the natural landscape while still paying attention for sounds of any doors opening. As soon as my vision drifted to outside I then realized I was closer to my destination than I had previously thought. Impressive architecture of a castle built into the side of a mountains near a huge waterfall. And surrounding it were more extravagant buildings. This definingly put the town I was at previously to shame. As fantastical as the sight was my awe was soon replaced with worry. On one hand if there were people here then perhaps I could filially seek help. Even if there were more of those things there as long as there were people who could get me help I didn't care.

If not. I don't even want think about that.