//------------------------------//
// 3: Moving places 
// Story: To Die Twice 
// by Quite Quiet 
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“Sweetie, time to wake up, we’ve got a long walk ahead of us.” If anything could ruin a good night’s sleep better than anything, it was the sound of her new ‘caretaker’ as they called it. That far too happy voice went through walls, relentlessly waking her from the comforting slumber.

Reluctantly Trixie strips off the borrowed blanked they gave her yesterday, not caring where it ends up in her sleepy haze. Getting up on her hooves she stretches her back for a moment, stopping when she hears that rewarding crack from it. Regardless of what other ponies said, sleeping on the floor on a couple of pillows was not the recipe for a good night’s rest.

As her eyes goes into focus for the first time that morning she turns her head towards the source of the sound generator. Standing in the doorway to the interrogation room is the same white earth pony from yesterday, the smile plastered on her face like she’d never done anything else. Not even breaking her smile for a moment to blow a strand of her deep blue mane out of her eyes.

“Had a nice sleep, did you?” she asks, presumably completely oblivious to the fact Trixie had been sleeping on a couple of pillows with a borrowed blanked for the entire night. Not wanting to complain Trixie merely nods in response.

“Great, let’s get some breakfast and we’ll be on our way right after.”

Breakfast as it turned out was more off the same stuff she had yesterday, though with a fresh apple to go with it. But being as hungry as she was no complaints were heard from her, and sitting in the cafeteria beat the interrogation room by far. Occupying the corner near the exit Trixie sat happily munching down on the apple she were given. Resting against the grey walls on the wooden bench right beneath her.

Sitting right next to her was Winter Heart, her new guardian as they called it. Winter paid her little attention at the moment, simply looking out across the deserted cafeteria. Tables clean and vacant for ponies to use if the wished to, all neatly lined up in rows of four per row with just enough space to not get caught between them when you walked down the aisle. The silence only broken by Trixie’s chewing which in itself barely moved past the two ponies occupying the room.

Finishing off the last pieces off the apple Trixie nimbly jumps off the bench, standing just a neck and head above the edge of it. Looking up at Winter she patiently waits for the older mare to get off as well. Appearing lost in thought Winter simply walked out of the room, oblivious to the little filly following in her wake.

Navigating through the hallways for the third time in two days, the pair made their way towards the entrance. Passing many of the same booths as they did on the way in. Booths that still contained many of the same ponies as before, with just as chaotic desks as well. Papers lying spread everywhere a common theme among all of them, some having more than others but none that completely broke the pattern. Most of the ponies passing them on their way never gave them a second glance and the few that did were ones Trixie never saw on their way inside. As the entrance grew nearer Winter stopped in front of a reception desk too high for Trixie to see over.

“Sweetie can you wait here a moment, I need to report that you’re leaving to the reception. It will only take a minute,” she politely asked but the tone she used didn’t play around, Trixie wasn’t to move anywhere for the next few moments.

Looking towards Winter as she moved up to the desk, presumably to sign a release paper that gave her the legal rights to be her guardian. Under the few minutes that the process takes, Trixie does nothing but watch. She watches the pen go from board to mouth then forward to where the paper most likely lay before being dropped off to the side again. Winter is given a paper by magic that she takes in her mouth before giving a low bow to the receptionist and walking away.

Still carrying the paper in her mouth Winter once again signals to Trixie with a tugging motion of her head, before walking towards a pair of brown-grey saddlebags. She unlocks the snowflake shaped cutie mark buttons that matches her own before depositing the paper inside them. Relocking the bags once again Winter puts her head in between the bags and slips them on, securing them safely on her back, partly covering the blue snowflake she have as cutie mark.

“Come on now, sweetie. We have a long way to go and only so many hours to do it.” And after a second of waiting she simply walked out of the door. Blinking, Trixie stands unmoving just where she did before with mouth open. After a moment to collect herself she moves forward to the door, requiring both fore hooves and a large amount of force from her to push the glass door open. The hinges screech loudly as the door slowly opens to the world again.

Standing outside is Winter and the smile from earlier that morning gone, replaced with an uncaring line for mouth. Staring intently at Trixie as she gets closer, the older mare begins to move as soon as Trixie is close enough. Keeping a brisk pace that forces her to trot in order to keep up, Trixie is soon exhausted in her attempt to navigate the equally crowded streets from before. Following in the wake of her guardian leaves a gap in ponies right in front her which she stays in as much possible.

Trotting down the main district’s road lead her past nondescript brick house after brick house, one not any different from the one before. Occasionally Winter glances back over her shoulder to check if she’s there, but Trixie soon finds her doing that less and less as the time goes on. As the journey down the main road continues the amount of ponies going about grows fewer and fewer, ultimately only a few still around.

Then, just a row of buildings ahead of their group is a field. The buildings abruptly stops and stretching out in both directions is two large fields of wheat, slightly bending in the breeze. Panting slightly as she nears the field a spark of appreciation appears when Winter slows down just so much she doesn’t have to trot anymore. Now with Winter slowly walking alongside one side of the road, Trixie moves closer until they are walking directly beside each other.

Looking up at the mare, Trixie finds her looking down at her with a calculating face. Looking into those deep blue eyes show no sign of emotion, only the examining glancing across her body

“I really don’t like that city,” Winter suddenly begins, the small scowl on her face present for an instant.

“Miss Heart?” A question is the only thing Trixie manages to reply with, unsure of exactly where this is going.

“The city is a dangerous place for fillies like you. A piece of advice, never go in there if you don’t have to and get out as fast as possible.” Finishing her two sentences Winter gets really quiet, the only sound coming from her being the cropping of hooves on gravels in the road.

“I’m sorry Miss Heart, but I don’t understand. I’ve been in large cities before and I haven’t noticed anything dangerous,” Trixie replies after a few moments to form a response that isn’t too revealing but still carry the conversation towards answers.

“Oh little filly you don’t know it yet, but all the cities are dangerous places. That’s where I come to find ponies like you who get to live with ponies like me. Ponies your age should never see me, let alone know what I do and what I represent. Now, nothing more of this we have in fact a schedule to keep and we can’t fall behind.” Without missing a beat, Winter once again picked up the pace enough to force Trixie back into trotting to keep up.

Not much was said after that conversation thankfully for Trixie. It let her focus on keeping up more than anything. The pace kept stead for several hours only slowing down a little every now and then to let Trixie catch her breath. The countryside passed in a blur, fields blending into each other as they progressed. Wheat field exchanged for apple orchards that were exchanged for carrots, hay and every other imaginable crop along the way. Together they moved past the still river flowing across the road, bridge rotten and unsafe to use.

“The water is too deep, I can’t get across here.” It was true, too. Winter had found the shallowest place along the river bed to wade over at, but she was still too short to get across. Backing up so her head was above the surface of the water, she watched as Winter crossed the river once again coming back over to her side.

“Hop up on my back then and I carry you across. But hurry we need to get going as fast as possible.” And that’s what she did. Taking a moment to collect herself Trixie jumped up out of the water onto the back of the older pony present. Water splashing everywhere as she landed, barely staying on from the momentum she had.

A now very much drenched Winter and Trixie crossed the river together, both heads a comfortable distance above the surface. Manes dripping and falling in their eyes they exited on the other side of the river, a successful river crossing later. Trixie taking another moment to catch her breath while Winter went and picked up the saddlebags she had thrown across earlier to stop them from getting wet altogether. A silly notion now that both of them had water dripping from everywhere. Shaking off most of the water quickly the two of them more or less enthusiastically resumed the journey to the orphanage that should only have taken a day.

Winter once again taking the lead with Trixie falling in behind her slightly to the right to stay clear of the major part of the road. After the obstacle that was the river, the familiar routine once again continued. Trixie slightly struggling to keep up and Winter only looking back often enough to make sure she wasn’t missing.

Not long after the sun had started its decent towards the horizon the first buildings came into view for Trixie. Far off in the distance several squared houses with chimneys stood clumped together. And as the hour went on more and more of the houses could be seen. Grey, white and yellow being the most common colours of houses but some red could be seen unlike the last town where everything was at least tinted red of not completely red.

Standing by the side of the road was a sign, a rather large one at that. On the sign painted in bold letter black on white was a notice: ‘Welcome to Hoofington. Population: Rising.’ Passing the sign as she read it Trixie comes to a striking realization.

“I know this place! I’ve been here once before, several years ago. Or in the future I suppose, I hope most of the things I saw then still are the same.” The thought process ends there for the time as Trixie suddenly finds herself on a small walked-in path away from the main road across the countryside and the scant few trees standing alone here and there. Climbing up a rather steep hill the pace plummets to a crawl so not to slip and fall down again.

Ascending the top of the hill, the sight that meets her is shocking to say the least. From the hillside the filly stands alone on the hill as she watches Winter Heart walk down the canyon on the other side. Following the path she is taking with her eyes Trixie’s eyesight stops upon the most neglected building she’s seen so far. What little of the blue paint on the walls still sticking to it are desperately trying to pull off, the wooden walls underneath not offering much resistance. Several broken windows and some missing their glass completely.

She watches as Winter moves alongside one wall of the house, looking for something. At one point she stops and pushes on one of the outer walls for a moment. Much to Trixie’s surprise a door opens and the mare beside the door turns towards her.

“Hurry up and get down here, you need your room before the night,” she practically screams up the hill to cover the distance between them, shockingly aware of the sudden stop for half of the group.

Finding the motivation to move again, Trixie scampers down the side of the hill almost slipping several times but catching herself before tumbling. Then as she nears the foot she slips a final time. Unable to catch her balance she stumbles and tumbles down the rest of the way. Head into the ground her body flips on her back as she slides down the grassy hillside towards the rundown house.

Groaning slightly Trixie shakily gets back up on her hooves again, standing in place a second to calm her spinning head down at least a little.

After a sufficient amount of time, Trixie closes the rest of the distance between herself and the house on shaky legs. The door in the wall leads into the house to a completely dark room without any apparent light source. Standing just outside and peeking in, Trixie can find nothing of notice from the dim light that the sun still gives off. A sudden white hoof shoves her into the room before slamming the door shut.

“There is a bath tub and a bed in there. Clean up and sleep there for the night, I will have your room ready in the morning,” comes the muffled sound through the door from the outside. “Please get some sleep tonight, you will need it tomorrow.”

With the final sentence said, the clopping off hooves departing can be heard through the walls of the house. In the distance another noise can be heard that sounds like a door opening, and several other sounds of doors closing.

Getting back up Trixie feels her way through the darkness towards where the door was just a minute ago, trying to find any way to open up the door from the inside. Running her hooves over the completely slick and flat surface she touches her way across the lower half of the door. At one point she bumps into a vertical crack and decided to follow it downwards. Slowly moving her hoof down she bump into the second uneven part of the entire door.

“A hinge?” She examines the hinge to the best of her ability, which isn’t much due to her lack of sight and unfamiliarity with the task.

“The door opens inwards, and this side is completely flat making it impossible to get a grip of.” As the train of thought continues she comes to a striking realization that up until now had been obscured by finding and examining the door closely.

“I’m stuck in here.”