Author's Note

A story that came about after reading BookyBrony's "chains" after a late night viewing of Exodus: Gods and Kings. Religious in inspiration, ambiguous in theme, and (hopefully) epic in scale.

1 It's a Revolution, I Suppose

Callum's muscles ached. The human of 27 years lay in one of the top bunks of one of the many slave huts that dotted the edges of the quarry outside of Fillydelphia. That it was a top bunk was particularly rough. After a day of hauling stone one didn't want to have climb a ladder to get to bed. Still, the promise of a sweet sleep, even the small five hours he'd be allotted, made the climb work as his muscles ached. He'd done the same sort of work he'd been doing for twelve years, but today was especially brutal. Normally willing to stay awake if only for a bit to think to himself, Callum passed out.

He wasn't sure how long he'd been asleep. Maybe for a few hours. Maybe only seconds. All he knew was that he had been propelled from the nothingness of a deep sleep into the middle of the quarry. Startled, he stumbled before sensing an uneasy stillness. Yes, it was the middle of the night. Yet not even the sounds of the world filled the air. Cautiously he called out. "Hello?" His heart raced. His voice didn't echo.

"Hello Callum." At least that's what he thought the voice said. It wasn't so much a voice as much as it was a song...a song that called the crackle of a fire to mind. He turned and looked up...a ring of fire circled him overhead...the voice had come from it...he was sure of it. He looked...the ring of swirling red, orange, yellow, purple, and blue...the song-like voice...he couldn't help but fall to his knees. "You know me" the slave whispered. "Yes, you and your people. For all two hundred years of servitude and many more before that. I am yours, and you are mine."

Callum tilted his head. "We are yours?"

"Yes. All things are me and I am all things..." the ring of fire shrank and moved before him, dancing. "And you...all of you...are to be free."

"Three hundred years?" Callum asked. "It's take three hundred years."

"All things must be allowed to progress as they are. It is time for you to know your freedom. You and your kin. All of them." Callum nearly found himself yelling at whatever this was. "All things must be allowed?!?!"

Yet the entity, whatever it was, only responded calmly. "Yes, but know the Azure Dawn will be restored." Callum looked up confused. The term was foreign to him. "Your freedom, your culture, all have been taken. But now is the time of your freedom. You will know what has been forgotten" the entity added, its voice like a pleasant sound playing in his mind.

Callum glanced at the creature with a sideways glance. He wished to question it more. Why whatever it was allowed a race it apparently cared for to toil in servitude, under creatures that possessed powers humans could never hope to comprehend. Yet...he couldn't. The glory of this thing was overwhelming. "Why come here?" he asked. "The princesses...they could free us all. Tell them."

"The moon wishes you free...the sun claims to as well but dithers as your people, my people, suffer. Excuses are three centuries old. There will be no more."

He wanted to ask more. That Celestia claimed to want humans free was news enough. She was a symbol of fear to most of his kind. A human could be beaten merely for catching a glimpse of her supposedly divine form. Yet he found himself calmed...the urgency to ask these questions not extinguished but calmed. "Then why me?" he managed to ask.

"You tame that which cannot be tamed. And ride between two streams." Callum could only shake his head. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Your people either accept their servitude and will not rebel, or they harbour hatred for your oppressors that would see them slaughter ponies with no regard should they be convinced that rebellion were not futile. You posses that rage Callum. I know you do. I feel it. Yet I know you will not slaughter an innocent. And it is this what I seek. To lead my people to freedom yet to not see more ponies die then is necessary."

"You don't wish them dead? You claim to care for us, but you do not want to see our oppressors killed?" Callum asked, his voice almost yelling again. "I am yours, and you are mine. As are all things" the voice answered. "They have stumbled and erred. Some will die, yes. Yet there will be no genocide in this act."

"I don't know...what you expect of me" Callum replied and stood. "I've toiled in this quarry most of my life. I've been a slave for all of it. You...you cannot expect me to do this." He turned to head to the ramps back up to the slave huts.

The fire flashed before him and then towards him. Callum froze, eyed winced shut, expecting to be burned. Yet...it did not come. It passed through him. Filling him with a warm, comforting feeling. "As long as you stand before tyranny, you will never be alone" the voice whispered as it passed through his form.

Callum awoke suddenly, his grey eyes wide awake, body stiff. He was in bed. A top bunk. He looked around. Everyone else was fast asleep. He looked out a window. It still seemed dark. No hint of morning. He lay his head on the thin, mangy pillow. It was a dream...but it felt real...and he still felt that warm glow inside of him. His mind raced.

A deity? It appeared to be one of some sort. No human had any memory of their culture before enslavement. Two centuries had stripped their culture from them. It could have been an old human god. It was possible. The ponies claimed Celestia and Luna were divine. If they were it wasn't outside the realm of possibility that another...he took a deep breath, exhaustion catching up with him as he passed out....

The next day played out like most. The slaves awoke at the first inklings of dawn and were herded into groups to perform their tasks. Around midday a brief break was allowed. Callum would have been content to find a place to sit and eat the ration of nuts and berries provided but not today. Not after the night before.

He was looking for a group of slaves. The human elders. They were the oldest workers. They mostly settled disputes between human slaves. It was a suitable arrangement for the pony overseers. They weren't forced to deal with every problem that cropped up. The elders, meanwhile, would promise not to promote any form of disobedience. That was the problem. What few privileges they were afforded were allowed because they wouldn't rebel. What he was going to propose they would most likely reject out of a sense of self-preservation. Yet he didn't know who else to go to. Finally he saw them, sitting in a circle, eating their meagre fill.

He approached, standing before them, waiting for one to notice him. "Yes?" a man of around 45 asked, raising his hand to his eyes.

"I...um..." Callum stumbled over his words. He hadn't actually thought about what he was going to say. "I've come to speak with you. About something very important." The man nodded and motioned for his comrades to spread out, to make room for Callum in their circle. The younger slave nodded and sat crossed legged.

"I...I don't know how to begin really. I guess it started last night..."

"What started last night?" another elder asked. Callum took a deep breath. "A dream. I had a dream."

The elders looked at him, some showing amusement, some showing annoyance. "A dream son?" the first elder to have greeted him, a human named Lede, asked. "And why bother us with your dreams?" Callum turned his head calmly. "Because of something I met. Met in it. It told me...told me it wanted us...all of us...free."

"The quarry?" another elder, named Niels, asked. Callum shook his head. "No. Humans." The elders sat in silence for a moment before Lede spoke up. "You should go" he said, looking down at his meagre lunch.

Callum shook his head, standing and balling his fists. "If I'm wrong, pity me for my stupidity" Callum responded firmly. "Yet if I'm right!" he added, yelling and as turned his back and marched towards the centre of the quarry. "If I'm right, then I have to see..."

The slave approached a hearty looking Earth Pony named Klondike, one of the overseers keeping an eye on the slaves as they enjoyed their brief rest from drudgery that day. The pony turned, looking at the human, yelling and approaching him. "Quiet slave" he hissed, lowering his head with a snarl, looking like he might charge. "And back to work for all of you!" he yelled to the other overseers as much as to Callum and the rest of the humans. Everywhere Earth Pony guards began to heard the slaves into their work gangs. Callum, however, stood firm.

"No." he said firmly, yet with a strange sense of calmness about him. Lede watched, curiously. Klondike laughed. "What was that mongrel?" he asked, head tilted in amusement.

"I said no" Callum answered, trying his best to sound steadfast, despite panicking. This was idiotic! Stupid! If he only got a beating out of this he'd be lucky. Still the words "never alone" echoed in his mind. He stood firm as the blue Earth Pony approached. "Back to work. Now" he growled.

Callum just closed his eyes and shook his head. The next thing he felt was a powerful thud. Klondike had bucked him square in the chest. He flew back, landing on the quarry floor. He cried out in pain. Ribs cracked, easily...the back of his head was pounding...he'd hit it against the stone floor. He'd die here...how could he not? Yet he felt himself stumble to his knees. His injuries were real yet...yet they didn't matter. He felt the pain. Felt death inching closer yet...yet they just seemed so distant. "No" he said once more, kneeling broken before Klondike.

The Earth Pony grunted and went buck him again yet...a flash. Callum swore he saw a flash of fire, sending Klondike hurtling the other direction. Callum, for his part, stood slowly. He didn't know how but..but whatever that flash was...his ribs no longer hurt. His head no longer hurt. His bones no longer ached...Suddenly, without thinking it through, he raised a fist.

"NO!" he yelled again, his pain vanishing as adrenaline pumped through his body. A mob of human slaves, captivated by his display, overwhelmed the Earth Pony overseers as Callum stood by, not moving, watching...

"You will stop this later but today...today it must be done" the voice! It was back! It didn't speak clearly. It danced on the sounds of the world yet Callum knew...he could hear it! "Move, and know that the time is now."

So it was. The Fillydelphia Quarry was abandoned. Its human slave population having made off. The dead Earth Ponies earned the wrath of officials who condemned the uprising, vowing to find the escaped slaves and punish them. And yet among human slaves rumours began to circulate. A band of fighters...no rebels...no an army...were amassing in the forests. Led by one who promised freedom. Not by his hand, but from another.

Azure Dawn was rising.