The Lost Children

by RuinQueenofOblivion

When I Teach What I've Been Taught

I sighed a little as we headed to the Zencori camp the next day. It was hard to believe that after all the traveling we had done together the Zencori were having to leave for now. The Zebras were already working on packing up camp as we approached the camp with Jennifer and Serenity close behind.

"Hello little fillies, are you here to see us off?" Daegra asked with a smile.

"Yeah, we wanted to see you one last time," I said as me and Alicia hugged the older Zebra mare. "Will we ever see you again?"

"Of course silly little filly, we won't be gone forever," Daegra said as she ruffled my mane gently. "You're going to do just fine out here, I promise."

I smiled a little and looked at Alicia who nodded a little. It was actually kind of nice to know that Daegra had faith in us, maybe we would be okay, we certainly had the help we needed to survive.

"When will we see you again?" Alicia asked.

"Maybe after the vote, if we head back this way at least," Daegra said with a nod. "I'm sorry we have to leave so soon, but keep doing your best and figure out who you are. Katie, I think you would make a fine storyteller if you put your mind to it. Alicia, you still have a lot to figure out about yourself but you've got a good friend here who's going to make sure that you make the right decision."

I smiled at that and gave Alicia a nod as we released the hug. "Thanks Daegra," Alicia said with a smile as she looked up at her. "I just wish I knew more about what the Starkatteri was like."

"Well, you never know, there may still be answers out there for you," Daegra said with a nod. "Perhaps the RAA or the local library may be able to help you. Even if you are the first of your tribe, there are always ways to find answers."

Alicia nodded. "Okay, I'll see what I can find out I guess."

"That's the spirit!" Daegra said as she went back to helping get packed.

"You two are looking well," a familiar voice said and we turned to see Malla and Zooni standing there behind us.

"How is a large dragon so sneaky?" Alicia asked as she looked up at Malla who just laughed.

"Dragon secret, but that's not the point," Malla said. "We're about to leave ourselves and I wanted to say good-bye."

"Aww, it was nice meeting you Malla," I said and hugged the large dragon as best I could, its not easy to hug a dragon you know. "Where will you go now?"

"Back to Dragon's Rest probably," Malla said with a nod. "We've done what we can here and will get the ponies who wanted to go back there for now. You two are going to do just fine, just promise me one thing Katie."

"What's that?" I asked with a tilt of my head.

"If you find your mom, let me know okay?" She asked and I nodded.

"Okay!" I said and gave her one more hug before waving good-bye as the dragon and Zebra flew off.

It was hard saying good-bye to Daegra and the other Zebras. They had been the first friendly faces we had really seen after we had re-appeared, but we knew that they had their own things to take care of. I just hoped that we'd get to see them again someday.

"Come on you two, its time to start school," Jennifer said as we walked away from the empty camp. "Are you going to be okay?"

"Yeah, we'll be fine," I said with a soft smile as we started back down the road into town, it was time to see what we could learn about life in and around Nightingale.

"Hello, you must be Katie and Alicia," a Unicorn mare with a long white mane and a purple body said with a smile as she shook hooves with the two of us. "I'm Violet, I'll be helping you both get accustomed to life here in Haven and post-Event Earth."

"Its nice to meet you," I said with a soft smile as I shook her hoof.

"Yeah," Alicia said with a nod as the Unicorn looked down at her curiously.

"Hmm, I have to say I've never seen a Zebra with stripes like yours, are you maybe a new tribe?" She asked as she looked at my friend curiously.

"Yeah, I guess, I don't really know a lot about my Tribe yet," Alicia said as she rubbed her foreleg a little. I wrapped my foreleg around her gently and gave her a smile. "I was hoping that maybe we could get some sort of answers here."

"Well, there may be one pony who can help you, I can show you the way there," Violet said as she gave us a nod. "Do you two mind if we start the tour here? When we get to the Library we'll see if we can't get some more information about whatever tribe you're in."

"Okay, that sounds good," I said with a soft smile as we started to walk. I looked curiously up at the large building that we had started by, it looked pretty official. "What's this building here?"

"This is the Courthouse, its where the Articles of the People were written up over 100 years ago that would form the foundation of Haven's government," Violet said as we walked past the steps where ponies were moving in and out of the building. "Since then its doubled as a museum to the history of Haven as well as the offices for several members of the Assembly."

I was a little surprised by this, I had studied American government in school sure, but they had done a lot around here. Maybe this was their way of rebuilding in terms of buildings and government or something, I don't know.

"We've still got a lot of work to do before everything is all set around here," Violet said as she gestured towards some buildings that were still under construction. "Nightingale has served as the capital city of Haven since its founding as I said. In fact, it was actually an early influx of refugees around 213 AE that caused the formation of Haven to begin with.
Nightingale was just too small to handle all of them so we moved outwards and formed new settlements around the countryside."

I listened intently to what Violet was saying, it was actually really interesting to learn more about how this place had come to be. I knew a little bit about it from what Daegra told me about the three founders sure, but I didn't know a lot about how Haven itself had started.

We kept walking along the streets of Haven past several ponies and Griffons, some of which waved to us a little. Violet kept talking about everything in the city, she told us about a few places where notable refugees had re-appeared here and there, which was actually pretty interesting.

Then she said something that caught my attention immediately.

"Over here we have where a local band returned about 80 years ago, they're actually still around and will occasionally play music at the local amphitheater," Violet said as she pointed down one street. "They're still going strong and DJ Serenity plays their music pretty often."

"Wait, 80 years ago?" I asked as I blinked a little. "How old do ponies live?"

"Well, it tends to vary from species to species, but generally between 200 and 300 years," Violet said with a shrug as we neared another park, this one was smaller than the one that the Zencori had stayed in and had a statue at the center. "And here we are at the Memorial Park, this is where we honor those we lost during the Great Georgia War."

"That was the war with the Herd right?" Alicia asked curiously as she looked up at the statue which was of a Unicorn mare dressed in what looked like some sort of soldier outfit.

"Yes, it was, it was a dark time in Haven's history," Violet said with a frown as she looked at the statue and shook her head. "We lost a lot of good people in the fighting, it was only ended because the Zebras managed to get a treaty worked out that both sides could agree to."

"Wait, the Zebras intervened to stop the war?" I asked and blinked, I hadn't heard that before.

"Yes they did, the Treaty of Augusta was proposed by the then leader of the Tribelands Selia," Violet said with a nod. "It brought an end to the war, at least officially."

"Officially?" Alicia asked as she looked at the Unicorn mare with a worried look on her face. "What does that mean?"

"Well, Haven and the Herd have been at odds ever since and we've been trying to avoid all out war, but there are some, especially in the People's Army, who are afraid that war is inevitable," Violet said with a sigh. "But that's not important right now, you two don't have to worry about it. The treaty specifies that neither side is allowed to go into the other's territory to take refugees away. That's, something at least."

I nodded as we kept walking and stopped in front of a large building with steps leading up into it. There was a sign above the door that read "New Dawn Memorial Library."

"Well hello there little ones," a mare said in a voice with an accent I couldn't quite place as she looked down at us with a smile. She was colored a creamy white with strange stripes on her body that were colored gold with a gold colored horn sticking out of her forehead. "So what brings you two here?"

"We're, uh here to try and learn more about the Zebra Tribes," I said and the mare looked at us curiously before she levitated a pair of glasses out and placed them on the bridge of her muzzle.

"Ah, I see, one of you is a..." she said and her eyes went wide from behind her glasses as she looked at Alicia carefully. "How long has this one been here?"

"Umm... like here in the city our here on Earth?" Alicia asked with a tilt of her head.

"On Earth, its very important."

"Well, I've been back for a little over a week," Alicia said as she tilted her head a little. She was as confused by the strange Unicorn's behavior as I was, and it worried us both. "What's going on?"

"Goldenrod, is everything okay?" Violet asked as she looked at the mare now named Goldenrod. "What's the problem?"

"She's one of them..." Goldenrod said and leaned in and whispered something to Violet and the purple mare's eyes went wide.

"You're going to need to see something," Goldenrod said as she opened up the desk and took out a key..

"What's going on?" Alicia asked as we followed Goldenrod into the back room of the library. "Why is what I am suddenly so important?"

Goldenrod was quiet as she closed the door. There seemed like there was something that bothered her as she looked around and opened a case as she took out what looked like an old book.

"What's that?" I asked as I looked at the book with a worried look on my face.

"This is the journal that was written by my Grandfather, Goldenblood," Goldenrod said as she looked at Alicia with a worried look on her face. "He was a visitor from Equestria who came to Georgia."

Equestria again, something about this was getting weirder. Sure I knew about Malla meeting Lyra, but I didn't know how any of this might affect us.

"What's in it?" I asked as we got up on a chair and started looking through the journal. It was filled with images of Zebras and script written out. I recognized some information on the Zencori and there were other things listed.

"This is the only existing information on the Twelve and the One, its not something we normally show," Goldenrod said with a shake of her head. "When Goldenblood saw what was happening with the Zebras in Georgia he left it behind because he was afraid."

"Afraid of what?" Alicia asked as we turned another page to show information on a tribe called the Sahaani. "What was he afraid of?"

"Of you child," Goldenrod said and Alicia froze at that. "Open up to the ending."
We flipped through it and stopped at an image of a Zebra with the same circular markings that Alicia had on her face and body. I looked at the words on the page and froze a little.

Starkatteri.

The Starkatteri are the most mysterious of the Twelve and the One Tribes. The origin myth of the Zebra describes them as being the only one of the Thirteen tribes to have been born of the moon instead of the sun.

What is known about the Starkatteri mostly comes from the stories passed down by the Zencori. Traditional stories depict them as villains and monsters. They are considered cursed because of their connection with the stars. It is unknown if they worship the stars or if they form a connection with them similar to the other tribes and their spirits. Other stories claim they have killed members of the Zebra Empire and are pawns of the Stars.

If this Tribe ever appears on Earth, then they should be approached with extreme caution. It is unknown if they will ever appear, but given the presence of members of several Tribes it is likely that they will appear at one point or another.

If the Starkatteri appear, your only hope is that they can be convinced not to follow the same path as their counterparts in Equestria. If not, then this may spell doom for Earth.

"Wait, so, you think I'm sort of, bringer of doom?" Alicia asked as she read the words over and over again to make sure that she had read them correctly. "That's insane, I'm just a kid!"

"I know, but its the warning we got from my grandfather, he left behind this journal when he returned to Equestria in hopes that the information could be used," Goldenrod said with a sigh as she looked down at her hooves. "I'm sorry, I know this is a lot for you to take in."

"Well, its kind of in line with the dream we had..." I said with a sigh as I looked at the book again. Almost instinctively I draped my wing over Alicia in a protective way. I didn't think she was evil and I doubted that Goldenrod thought it either, but this scared me a little. "What can we do?"

"The Tribes on Earth don't always follow the traditions of their Equestria counterparts," Goldenrod said with a sigh as she picked the journal back up. "The Roamani for example are warriors, they're usually more aggressive than anything else. Most of the time they serve as defenders though, preferring to fight only when absolutely necessary, on Earth at least."

"So, I don't have to become like the Starkatteri back on Equestria..." Alicia said with a sigh as she looked over at me. "You're not going to let me become evil are you Katie?"

"No, and the only way I would is if somehow I went evil too, and I don't think that's going to happen," I said and pulled Alicia in close. "So what do we have to do to make sure that she doesn't try and take over the world or whatever?"

"Well, that's tricky," Goldenrod said with a sigh. "Its all about influences on her. If whatever force is causing the Zebras to be pushed towards certain traits in Georgia is stronger then there might be nothing we can do. Hopefully, there will be some way that everything will be okay."

"Yeah, I hope so," I said with a sigh as I looked at Alicia.

"Come on you two, lets go back out and see if we can't learn some more about the world," Goldenrod said with a smile as we headed back out.

"Umm, Ms. Goldenrod," Alicia said.

"Yes child?" Goldenrod asked as she looked down at Alicia.

"I was wondering, about your stripes," she said as she looked at Goldenrod. "Are you some sort of weird Zebra creature or something?"

"You might say that, I'm a Zony," Goldenrod said with a light chuckle. "My mother was a pony and my father a Zebra from the Logos tribe. I came to Haven to help with the libraries after the end of the war."

"Oh, I see," Alicia said and looked at her curiously for a moment.

I had to admit I was curious too, I didn't know that Ponies and Zebras could make babies together. I didn't want to think too much about it though, for now I just wanted to learn more.

"Is everything okay?" Violet asked as we came into view.

"Everything is fine, just as long as this little one is well taken care of we won't have anything to worry about from her," Goldenrod said as she ruffled Alicia's mane a little. "So, what books do you want to read?"

A little while later we headed out of the library with our bags filled with books on the history of Haven and other information. I smiled a little as I checked to make sure everything was secure.

"So, where to next?" I asked as I looked over at Alicia who nodded.

"Hey, what's that?" Alicia asked as she pointed at what looked like a parade float being set up.

"Oh, you two fillies are in for a treat, we're coming up on Founding Day," Violet said with a smile. "Its sort of a mix of The Fourth of July and Memorial Day. We use it as a time to celebrate the foundation of Haven as well as to look back on everything that we've lost and are still waiting on."

"When is it?" I asked curiously.

"The day after tomorrow, but the celebration tends to last all week," Violet said with a nod. "Come on, lets get back to your tour."

I nodded and we followed her back out into the city.