I keep my senses open as I walked, searching for the entrance to the magic side of this town, but what magic I could sense was…it was like trying to find a drop of blood in a lake or trying to pick out a single grain of sand out of a mound of glitter…it was impossible to properly find and seek out, the only feeling of magic I could feel was on the base idea of knowing it’s there, but I couldn’t find it at all.

              The sound of my hoofs crunched through the gravel as I walked along the train tracks, there was no chance of finding a magic city in a place like this, based on how the magic of the area felt, I could guess that it was caused by there being a single magical person in the whole populace of the city. I walked along the track as I held my arms out a little, letting myself balance on the sunbaked warm metal, the smell of smoke, coal and old stagnant water heavy on the air around me with a heavy hint of dust lingering through it. I could hear the distant sound of cars and people, but I didn’t feel comfortable stopping in a place like this for any longer than absolute necessary which was none, so I just kept walking. As I walked, I let my footsteps fall uneven as I let the clack of my hoofs on the metal get musical, almost tap-shoe like as I laughed to myself, trying to replicate the intonation of various songs I knew as I danced down along the tracks.

              After a few minutes, I let my dancing footsteps turn to full gait steps as I picked up the pace, not fully running, but more of a very elongated skip. The wind was picking up a bit, but as it rippled through my hair…I paused as I looked behind me, there was the strange scent of strawberries on the air that had not been there before and it was a passing mote of that scent that wasn’t there anymore by the time I realized it had been there.

              “Weird” I whispered to myself as I stepped off the tracks at the crossing as I moved to be beside them, feeling the growing closer vibrations of a coming train through the tracks. As the train and I passed each other, I had to throw a shield up to avoid being pelted by the kicked up gravel. I wasn’t going to hop on that one sense I was heading in the direction I had just came from.

              “On the road again” I quietly sang to myself as the train passed me, I casted a haste spell on myself as I wanted to get out of this place quickly.

              It was…late when I stopped, sense I was now in the middle of nowhere in the Midwest, there was no forestry or anything that I could use to keep myself out of the open or whatever weather was rolling in, however that did mean that while not common, it wasn’t too difficult to find an abandoned barn somewhere that is one good breeze away from collapsing. I shouldered the door open with a heavy rusted metal screech and a crunch of dry-rotted wood as I slipped into the building. Stale air, dust and old, old hay making an air that instantly made me start sneezing more. I found a dry enough corner to hold up in for the night as I sat on what was probably once a crate of some kind, it almost gave out under my weight.

              After an hour or two of getting something to eat and letting my legs have a chance to rest, I started searching through what remained inside the barn to see if there was anything that I could use for something. I did find a large coil of rope, but when I went to pick it up, it just started crumbling in my hands, so I tossed it to the side. I found an old lantern, but it wasn’t in any kind of condition to be used. Anything that was metal was more rust than actual metal, anything wooden was dry-rotted and splintering, anything fiber was crispy and crunchy to the point touching it made it fall apart. Sections of the roof had fallen away letting beams of moonlight filter into the room; all of the dust motes catching the ivory light and almost looking like fireflies as they floated around in the air, the soft breeze made the wheat outside softly sway with an almost wave like sound with the consistency of the brushing sound, it was in a way oddly serene in its quietness; the fact the world inside the barn was almost frozen in time it was so quiet, everything felt so still.

              I used my hoofs and claws to find areas of the barn that I could climb up in, using my tail to find areas of the hay loft where I could stand as I grabbed the edge of the latch area of the roof as I pulled myself up and out of the building and onto the roof, avoiding area where it had already fallen away from or areas where it looked extremely thin. I sat on the edge of the roof as I looked up towards the sky, closing my eyes as I tilted my head back, feeling the breeze ruffle through my hair and against my skin as I had my arms folded on my lap.

              I flicked my hand as a few lights floated around my hand and arm as I let them drift and swirl around. The moonlight against the sea of wheat in all directions, save for behind me which was only a few yards away from the road with an overgrown dirt path leading up to the barn. The wheat looked white or silver by the moonlight on it, making it look more like ocean waves than shafts of wheat. I looked back up towards the sky as I thought about…where to go next; northward, southern, eastern or western. I had just came from the north-west, but knowing I’m in the Midwest made me feel uncomfortable knowing that I was in the region where I had started running away from.

              “Maybe I’ll head west again, find one of the giant magic cities.” I pondered as I looked out over the grounds.