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Waking Up to Ash and Dust2,874 words
My Only Remaining Goal2,831 words
Adapt to the Unknown3,752 words
Don't Let Hope Be a Memory3,204 words
We're Off to Never Never Land3,894 words
Peace Be Returned2,912 words
You Will Remember Me3,290 words
When I Teach What I've Been Taught3,125 words
Your Sons and Your Daughters are Beyond Your Command4,127 words

Your Sons and Your Daughters are Beyond Your Command

“Come mothers and fathers throughout the land,
And don’t criticize what you can’t understand.
Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command,
Your old road is rapidly aging.
So get off the new one if you can’t lend a hand,
For the times they are a-changin'.”
-Bob Dylan, The Times They Are A-changin’.

"Hey out there in Haven, this is your good friend DJ Serenity coming at you from my studio here in Nightingale with today's news. Caravans coming from the Tribelands are coming back with reports of the death of Selia, the respected Zebra leader responsible for the Treaty of Augusta that brought the Great Georgia War to an end in 274 AE. President Charm has declared a day of mourning to remember the Selia and everything she has done to help the cause of peace in Georgia. On a lighter note, don't forget that tomorrow is the 101st Anniversary of the signing of the Articles of the People that laid the groundwork and formed Haven. The usual Founding Day parade will start at 1:00 PM tomorrow afternoon, I'll be there and I hope to see all of you there too. So let's take a moment to slow down and reflect with some music."

"And, that's pretty much the end of the tour," Violet said as we reached an area at the center of town. "This is Liberty Square, more or less the center of Nightingale. It's also where we have a lot of shops and the schoolhouse is over there, where the two of you will be going starting the day after tomorrow."

"Thank you for showing us around Ms. Violet," Alicia said with a weak smile, she looked like she was still a little shaken up by what she had read at the library.

"Of course you two, it's my job to make sure that new arrivals get accustomed to Nightingale," Violet said with a smile as she looked at us. "Are you two going to be okay? I know it's not easy to get settled in, especially at your age."

"Yeah, I think we'll be fine," I said as I looked over at Alicia who nodded a little. "Thank you for showing us around, what do we do now?"

"Well, Jennifer said that she'd meet us..." Violet said and then stopped and waved. We turned to see the familiar face of Jennifer Wright heading our way and she gave us a smile.

"Hey you two, Violet, how'd it go? They weren't any trouble were they?" Jennifer said with a smile as she gave us a look.

"No, of course not these two were perfect little fillies," Violet said with a chuckle as she gave Jennifer a nod. "How are things back at the office?"

"Busy, as usual, we got a sudden influx of refugees the other day and we're still processing all of them," Jennifer said with a shake of her head. "It's been crazy, but at least everything seems to be working out for now."

Violet shook her head a little, but she smiled and gave Jennifer a nod. I wondered how many new arrivals they had seen in their work in the RAA, but I didn't want to ask right now. For now, we were just going to get settled into life in Haven and get used to our new bodies.

"I'll see you two the day after tomorrow," Violet said with a smile as she headed off the way she came.

"She seems nice," Alicia said as she watched the older mare go. "Does she do this often?"

"Pretty much every day," Jennifer said as we started to walk together. "The RAA has a lot of ponies working for it that help acclimate the new arrivals to life here, and Violet is one of the better ones."

I smiled a little as we walked down the street past the storefronts. There were ponies that were buying and selling, of course, Nightingale was full of energy and excitement. I smiled a little when I saw a busy bookstore, my mom would've loved that, she had always pushed me to read more and I admit I enjoyed it.

I sighed a little, it still was weird not having her here with me. I had Alicia sure and Jennifer and Serenity were there to help as best they could, but what about my mom? Somehow meeting Malla and hearing part of her book actually made me miss her more than anything else, and I honestly wasn't sure what to do.

"Jennifer, is there a chance that my mom will return soon?" I asked as I looked up at the Unicorn mare who looked back at me and frowned a little. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked."

"Katie, it’s okay," Jennifer said with a shake of her head. "Honestly, we don't really know exactly how the returning process picks when someone will come back. It's possible that she could return tomorrow, or not for hundreds of years or more."

My ears drooped a little as I looked down at my hooves at that bit of information. It was exactly what I was afraid of, I may never see my mom again or any other member of my family.

Why had this happened? Why had I been separated from my mom like this by Equestria or, whatever force chose who picked what? I shook my head and felt a hoof wrap around me gently and I looked over to see Alicia looking at me with a reassuring smile.

"Katie, don't worry about it," she said softly as she hugged me. "Something tells me that your mom may come back soon, but until then you have me right? You told me you'd be here for me, well I'm going to do the same for you."

I smiled and hugged her back gently. Alicia wasn't family, not by blood, but she and I were getting closer and that was what really mattered. She was what I had right now, and that was what mattered.

"Thanks, Alicia," I said softly as I released the hug after a moment. "You're the best friend I've ever had, you know that right?"

"Same for me," Alicia said as she brushed her mane back a little. "I've never really had much in the way of friends until I met you. I just hope I don't mess it up somehow."

"You won't," I said and looked back at Jennifer. "So, uh, what are we going to do now?"

"Well, I think you two deserve something special, so come with me," Jennifer said with a smile as we started down the road again. "So come on, I know just where to go."

We followed the older mare, curious as to what she was talking about.

00000

I had seen a lot of things in Georgia since I had woken up a Pegasus filly. I'd seen an empty town, a dead body, a traveling tribe of Zebra Storytellers, a town in the middle of a university, and even a dragon. But this was probably the best thing I had seen yet, it was a familiar and welcome sight that gave me hope that things around here hadn't changed that much.

Ice cream!

"Wow, there's a lot of options here," Alicia said as she looked at the tubs of ice cream in surprise.

"Yeah, you can have anything you'd like, my treat," Jennifer said with a smile as she nodded to the Unicorn that was standing behind the counter.

"Let’s see..." I said as I propped myself up so I could see better, it was weird being this small but I was getting used to it. "I'll take some mint chocolate chip please."

"And what about you?" The Unicorn asked as she looked down at Alicia.

"Hmm, I'll take just chocolate please," Alicia said and gave a smile.

"I'll have a Birthday Cake, thank you Soft Serve," Jennifer said as the Unicorn nodded and took out three cones and put the ice cream in them as Jennifer levitated out several coins and placed them on the counter before taking the ice cream and heading over to a table with the two of us close behind as she put the cones in strange holders. "We found its easier to eat ice cream like this until you get used to being able to hold things in your hooves."

"How do you even hold things in hooves?" I asked confused as I looked down at my hooves and Jennifer chuckled as we started to eat our ice cream.

"Honestly, that's one of the big mysteries of this world," she said with a laugh. "I think it's some sort of personal magic personally, but we haven't ever really figured it out."

"Huh," Alicia said as she ate her ice cream. "So, there's a lot of, old world stuff I guess here?"

"Yeah, we're trying to preserve as much of the old Earth as we can," Jennifer said with a nod. "We don't want to forget where we came from just because we're no longer human, you know? If we don't learn from the mistakes of the past, then we're doomed to repeat them."

I looked up at Jennifer and then back at my ice cream. She did have a point, and it was the same reason why the Zencori told stories. I still had to wonder a bit about my wings, it was weird but somehow it still felt like I was incomplete or something just because I would probably never fly.

"So, how did you and Mrs. Serenity meet?" Alicia asked as she looked at Jennifer curiously.

Jennifer chuckled a little as she licked her cone. "That's quite a story, it was when I first arrived in Nightingale, I actually wound up here kind of like you two. The Zebras found me and brought me here and I nearly ran into this Pegasus mare who was on her way to a job interview with Nightingale Radio of all things," she said with a chuckle. "Yeah, this was before she became the DJ, we started to become friends after that and, well one thing lead to another and we started dating and wound up married a few years later."

"Did Serenity appear when she was younger?" I asked curiously, I didn't know a lot about the two mares that had brought us in and I was curious.

"Actually no, she's a second generation pony, born and raised here in Nightingale," Jennifer said with a chuckle. "Her parents actually thought it was weird that she was dating a pony working for the RAA, Serenity's got kind of a free spirit, but I won them over quickly."

I looked up at Jennifer for a long moment and then at Alicia. I actually kind of had to wonder about something since we weren't human anymore, would I date a pony someday? I didn't know what to think about that honestly, I was still not even sure if I liked boys let alone ponies.

Alicia giggled a little as she looked at me as if she knew exactly what I was thinking about and she gave me a smile before she looked at Jennifer again.

"So, is everyone, or everypony, attracted to other ponies?" I asked.

"Not really, it’s pretty much as varied as it was in the old world, with some extra species to make things interesting," Jennifer said. "But you two are too young to be worried about that right now. It usually takes a while for refugees to get used to the whole thing about being interested in a new species, and well you two are still young so you have a few years before you really have to worry about that."

I breathed a sigh of relief as I took a bite of my ice cream cone. "This ice cream is amazing, I don't think I've had any like this before."

"Well, one thing we made sure to make better was ice cream," Jennifer said with a chuckle. "Magic goes a long way to making things just perfect. It still takes a lot of getting used to when you first arrive though, just like flying. Maybe, just maybe, there's a chance that somehow everything will be okay, you know? We still have a long way to go before everything is perfect, but we're not going to give up just yet."

I nodded a little and sighed as I looked out the window at Nightingale beyond. It was like something out of a dream with all these ponies and other species, but I had already come to terms with the fact that it was very real.

"How many settlements are there in Haven?" Alicia asked curiously as she looked over at Jennifer curiously. "I mean, we saw a map of Haven, but that was from an old settlement."

"Oh, there are quite a few actually," Jennifer said. "After Nightingale was founded we had to start expanding outwards and forming new settlements to accommodate the growing population of refugees. It’s why we first came into contact with the Herd, we grew out and eventually, we happened to encounter the Herd."

"Which lead to the war," Alicia said and sighed a little as she shook her head. "I still don't really get the Herd though, I mean we've heard a little bit about them but not a whole lot about why they would even want to do that."

"The Herd is, complicated," Jennifer said with a sigh as she looked between the two of us. "They're something of a mystery beyond their obvious ideology of getting rid of anything of the old world. Frankly, we're lucky that the peace has lasted this long."

"Wow... so we don't know a lot about them?" Alicia asked and Jennifer nodded a little. "Wow, that's not good."

"Don't worry about it," Jennifer said with a soft smile. "You're going to be fine. They're still sticking to the treaty, and they haven't done much beyond some expansion to the west and taking whatever refugees they can. The two of you are very lucky that you were found by the Zencori."

"I almost wasn't," I said with a shake of my head as I looked over and gave Alicia a smile. "But Alicia saved me by getting me into that shelter. I'm just lucky that she was there and was able to help me."

"Shelter huh?" Jennifer asked curiously. "I remember reading that there was one set up in Gateway but nopony got to it in time sadly. I'm glad it saved the two of you at least."

"Yeah, me too," I said with a soft smile as I looked back at my wings and flexed them a little before I went back to eating my ice cream. "So, when do we actually have to start school?"

"Foundation Day is a National Holiday so the school doesn't meet then," Jennifer said. "Though, the two of you will have to learn a bit about some of the history. There's a lot to learn, and you're both going to need to be caught up with the rest of the class, but I'm sure you'll do fine."

I nodded a little and sighed, I just hoped she was right.

00000

"Hey, how'd your first day go?" Serenity asked as Jennifer lead me and Alicia into the house.

"Pretty well," Alicia said with a sigh as we took a seat in the living room. "We got some information on what I am, but it's not exactly good news."

Serenity and Jennifer listened carefully as we told them what we learned when we went to the library. They waited for us to finish as we told them about what the journal had said about the Starkatteri. When we finished they had a concerned look on their faces.

"This is the first we've ever heard of this," Jennifer said with a sigh and Serenity nodded a little. "I'm sorry that we don't have more information about this. The Zebras don't know anything about this."

"Though, it does explain their unease when it comes to the stars," Serenity commented. "What should we do about this? If there really is a threat to Haven..."

"You can't hurt her!" I said in protest as I jumped to my hooves. "She's my friend, she's done nothing wrong, you can't punish her for no reason!"

"Calm down Katie," Jennifer said with a sigh. "We're not just going to throw somepony in jail because they came back as a Starkatteri or whatever. We're worried about this yes, the fact of the matter is that if they are a threat then we have to consider how others may threaten us and the rest of the world."

"So, what am I supposed to do?" Alicia asked softly. "I don't want to be evil."

"Be yourself," Serenity said. "Don't let what you are dictate what kind of Pony... sorry, Zebra you are. You make that choice for yourself, nothing else does."

"Besides, I won't let you become evil," I said and hugged her gently. "You're going to be just fine, I promise."

I just hoped I really could keep that promise.

"Come on, that's enough worrying about such things for now and get some dinner," Jennifer said with a smile as she nodded towards the kitchen.

"Sounds good," I said and Alicia nodded as we headed into the kitchen together with the older ponies.

00000

That night before we went to bed me and Alicia went into the backyard and stared up at the stars together. I sighed a little as I looked over at the Zebra filly who sighed a little as she stared up quietly.

"Penny for your thoughts?" I asked and she turned her head to look at me.

"I'm just thinking about everything you know?" Alicia asked as she sighed a little. "I'm scared Katie..."

"About what Goldenrod told you about the Starkatteri?" I asked and she nodded a little. "You know we're not going to let..."

"What if you can't?" Alicia said as she sat up, interrupting me. "How am I supposed to believe that you really can stop this? What if I'm supposed to be evil? What am I supposed to do then?"

"I honestly don't know," I admitted as I ruffled my wings a little. "But I do know you, Alicia. You're one of the nicest people, ponies... Zebras... things I've ever met. You're not evil, and if anyone tries to make you evil I'm gonna make sure they fail."

"Thanks," Alicia said as she smiled at me and looked back up at the stars. "I... I don't like this Katie. Ever since I came back I felt like the stars were calling out to me, now I'm afraid to answer them."

I looked up at the stars for a long moment. Honestly, I wasn't even entirely sure what to think about that, was it possible that she really was hearing something? This whole thing sounded crazy to me, but then again I got turned into a talking pony.

I closed my eyes and laid back on the cool grass as I thought about that. For a moment I actually kind of wondered if it was possible that I could just lie there and hear what the stars were saying to Alicia. This whole thing felt crazy to me, I doubt I could actually hear them... right?

"Why do you think the stars are trying to talk to you?" I finally asked with a sigh.

"Honestly? I don't know if what we read is anything to go on they might be trying to make me like the Starkatteri in Equestria," Alicia said with a shake of her head. "But at the same time, I don't feel anything particularly malicious from them. I don't know, maybe they're trying to trick me or there's something else going on that we don't understand just yet."

"Yeah, maybe," I said as I looked over at her. "With everything that's going on though, I have to admit I'm just getting more and more worried. Like there's something about all of this that we're missing."

“Yeah, maybe,” Alicia said with a sigh as she closed her eyes. “I’m just glad you’re here with me Katie.”

“I’m glad I’m here too,” I said with a soft smile.

We laid back and stared up at the stars together for the longest time. When I closed my eyes, it was weird, it felt almost like I could hear something just like she said. I didn’t know if it really was from the stars, or if it was just my imagination.

I closed my eyes and felt myself drifting off to sleep.

00000

When I was younger, my mom had taken me to a few parades. I couldn’t remember much about them other than the usual things associated with parades. So when Jennifer and Serenity brought us to Liberty Square the next day I had to admit I was a little excited.

It was kind of weird to see all these ponies in one place. Looking around I saw more than just ponies and Zebras though, I saw what had to be Griffons and other strange species. I had seen them around town already, but it felt different to see them all gathered in one place.

I placed my hoof on Alicia’s gently as I gave her a smile. My friend looked a little nervous in the crowd, I didn’t blame her really. She smiled up at me and I put my wing around her gently.

“It’ll be okay,” I said quietly to her.

“You really think so?”

“Yeah, don’t worry about it,” I said reassuringly as I stayed close to my friend. “I’ll be here for you if you need it.”

“Thanks Katie,” Alicia said with a soft smile.

The parade began as music was playing. I smiled a little as I watched ponies and other species going past. There were floats and the familiar black and gold flag with the three stars that belonged to Haven flying in the wind. There were a few carriages with ponies inside them as well, each of them waving to the crowds.

“There’s the presidential carriage,” Serenity said as she pointed at one of them that was passing by. A mare with a short purple mane and a silver coat was seated next to a stallion. She smiled a little as she waved at the crowds. “That’s President Lucky Charm, she’ll be giving a speech here in the square after the parade.”

I smiled a little as I waved back more on instinct than anything else. I was a bit surprised by this, but this wasn’t too bad.

I kept watching for a while, but I slowly started to lose interest. Eventually as the parade ended, I felt Alicia’s hoof start to pull me away. I smiled as I looked at her and she returned the smile, the Zebra seemed to be a lot calmer now as we started to walk together with our caretakers towards the center of the square where a stage was waiting.

After a few minutes, the same grey and purple Unicorn mare moved up onto the stage where a podium was waiting. She cleared her throat and smiled a little as she looked out at the gathered citizens.

“Welcome every being to our yearly Foundation Day festivities,” Lucky Charm started as she straightened herself out. “I’m happy to see so many new faces here. Some of you recently returned, others come to us from distant lands. I want to welcome you all to Haven, and I’m glad that you could join us for this day. Over a hundred years ago, we came together to form a nation that was founded on principles that still hold us together to this day. Freedom, security, and above all else, peace. Things haven’t been easy for us since that day when our founders wrote up the Articles of the People, but we’re still strong. There are a lot of unknowns as we go forward into the future, but as time passes we’ll only become stronger, better. We’re not going to lose heart even in times like these. Haven will stand strong against those that threaten us. I ask that all of you do your part in…”

Whatever she was going to say next was cut off as another pony dressed in a military uniform jumped up and pushed her onto the stage below just before we heard a loud bang. The crowd erupted into chaos as soldiers filled in, searching for the source of the sound.

Something had just happened, and I got the feeling that our peaceful times in Haven were coming to an end.

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The Bricklayer

The Bricklayer #1 · Jun 26th, 2019 · 1 · ·

"How do you even hold things in hooves?" I asked confused as I looked down at my hooves and Jennifer chuckled as we started to eat our ice cream.
"Honestly, that's one of the big mysteries of this world," she said with a laugh. "I think it's some sort of personal magic personally, but we haven't ever really figured it out."

Ask Seriff, he could tell you all about Equestrian anatomy and how it is perfectly possible for this to be done without magic. But seriously, I do love this chapter, especially the opening. Hoo boy, going to have re-read everything -not that I'm complaining- to remember what is going on. Also, this chapter does not do me any favors in trying to dissuade my opinion that Katie and Alicia are going to end up dating someday.

RuinQueenofOblivion