Chapters 1 It's a Revolution, I Suppose
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.
2 Timing is Everything
Luna had little to be confident about. Her recent...reformation...had left her in the most awkward of positions. Welcomed back into her sister's court without open hooves. If only more around the palace had been skeptical. Maybe they were, but Celestia wouldn't allow them to show it. If they could then Luna would have something to prove. She could win their trust back. As it stood? Everyone treated her with the dignity her position afforded her. Yet she couldn't shake the feeling that she had much to pay for. Frustrating. Awkward. About most things. Not this though. This was the one thing of which she knew she could confront her sister on.
"Fifty-eight ponies were killed" Celestia coldly stated, almost as if in response to a question Luna had not asked.
Luna looked her sister in the eye. She was itching for an argument. She stayed silent, with just a hint of a smirk that said "I told you so."
The younger princess shook her head.
"You mean to tell me..." Luna asked, "...that ponies will see slaves finally seizing their freedom and declare that it was their oppressors who have been wronged?"
"Enough" Celestia bellowed, loud enough to scare her sister. "I wish for the humans to be free. I've regretted my actions for centuries. Yet I cannot stand aside on this issue. Those slaves...they've only made things worse for themselves." Celestia lowered her head, the true tragedy of the events of the past week weighing on her. "I have a duty to protect my people first and foremost" she added more confidently.
"Your majesties..." he began, "I trust I am not interrupting anything?" he asked, sounding unsure, already slowly backing out of the room.
"No" Celestia answered. "No not at all. Luna and I were just...discussing the incident outside of Fillydelphia."
"Well I might be able to add to that" the Captain of the Guard added, entering the room, annoying Luna with his singular focus on her sister.
"You've finished your initial investigation then?" Celestia asked.
"Yes Your Highness."
"And the rumours?"
"We've interrogated a few slaves from the area..." he stopped, feeling uneasy as Luna approached him, a stern look on her face. "Your Highness, I did all I could to ensure the interrogations were fair."
"Just continue with your report Captain" Luna remarked with distaste, choosing to stare out of a window, leaving the captain to her sister. Yet staying intently focused on the conversation.
"The rumours, Your Majesty? Of the supposed magical powers the ringleader supposedly wielded. The rumour cannot be collaborated. The two surviving overseers, though in rough shape, made no mention of it."
"So simply stories and nothing more?"
"No Your Majesty. The uprising came out of nowhere, it would seem. They cannot remember seeing any such displays of magic, but that wasn't where their attention was. It's entirely possible something happened that they would not have seen before the attackers fell upon them."
Celestia frowned, about to speak. Her sister, however, had beaten her by a moment. "I can tell you this slave doesn't posses those powers Captain" Luna remarked.
"You can, Your Majesty?" Shining Armour answered, surprised but inquisitive.
"If you could bring fire down on your enemies he'd have brought a firestorm down on this palace by now."
"He would have, Your Majesty?"
Luna turned around, indigent. "Wouldn't you? If you were in his place, and possessed such powers, wouldn't you kill everypony in this palace at the earliest possible opportunity?"
Shining Armour didn't know what to say. He just tried to remain his composure.
"Of course you would" Luna responded confidently. "And no one would blame you."
"Your Majesty I...if I may ask..." Shining Armour stuttered, "how do you know the magic powers in question were flame-based?"
"Like you, Captain," she sneered his title with contempt, "I spoke with humans. The difference was I didn't interrogate them."
Shining Armour sighed. "I should go" he said with a bow, followed by a courteous and respectful "Your Majesties."
"Be well Captain" Celestia called out as the unicorn left before turning to Luna. "I hope you're proud of yourself sister."
Luna didn't answer.
"You know his sister is my star pupil" Celestia added.
"Oh? Twilight?" Luna asked, her demeanour improving slightly.
"Yes. She has a human you know."
"I remember" Luna answered in a short tone.
"Well sister, I've seen the Captain with him. He's only ever treated him with respect and dignity. If you insist on shaming anyone I suggest you find someone else." Luna only shook her head as she left.
"If he does indeed treat his sister's slave that well it means he recognizes what's been allowed to perpetuate is wrong. Yet he still upholds it."
Celestia could have answered, yet she didn't. She could tell Luna wasn't interested. And why continue to drive a wedge between them over something Luna had resolved not to discuss? She would calm down, and return to her senses. And then the two sisters would work to find some way out of this mess. Somehow.
She hoped.
twelve years ago
"Mother, no!" Callum cried out before falling into the ground gasping. His collar tightening around the fifteen year old boy's throat as he tried to resist. Still though, he thrashed, causing the Earth Pony who tried to restrain him to back up a bit and shoot a glance at the Unicorn who could only offer a glance that said "what else do you want me to do?" Callum eventually collapsed, gasping in a heap, allowing the Earth Pony to slam a hoof against his chest for good measure.
"He's lively, that's for sure" he chuckled. The Unicorn, the master of the house, only nodded. The two seemingly ignoring the older human female on her knees, weeping quietly into her hands. "He'll make a fine labourer in your employer's quarry once you properly channel that energy of his."
Callum could only look up, trying to breath...his collar had loosened slightly, but only because his master...or his former master...didn't want to damage him as he was selling him. He strained, looking at his crying mother, trying to speak. The words, however, weren't coming out. He could only weekly reach towards her before collapsing again, only able to watch as he was drug away, into a caged cart. By the time he could breath normally again his home, where he had lived his whole life, began to get smaller and smaller...
present day
Callum awoke in a sweat and groaned. He could never go more then a week or two without having that dream. Regardless of how hard he tried to forget.
He rubbed his ribs, a sight ache throbbing away as he tried to collect himself. Everfree Forest was terrifying, but it was also safe...for now at anyrate. And not lacking in fresh water either. He splashed some that had been gathered for him onto his face. He had a couple hundred slaves waiting just outside of his makeshift shelter. He splashed more water, shaking his head. He needed to be focused, yet he couldn't shake this slightly dazed, hot feeling in his head. A side effect of...of whatever it was that had spoken to him perhaps?
"You're awake" he commented, a bit cautiously. This slave, this young labourer who'd never once shown any desire to do anything but pull stone, had taken charge of the uprising, his display of bravery having galvanized the lot of them. For Lede though? He didn't know what to make of him. How could you trust a leader you had no feel for? And to trust them as fugitives? He needed to speak with him.
"Yes, barely awake" Callum replied, taking a sip of what was left of the water before running his temples. "How are spirits?"
"Good, high" Lede answered, "but a bit restless. We've been camping here for days. Sooner or later..."
"They'll muster up what nerve they have and come looking for us, I know..." Callum replied, finishing Lede's thought for him.
"Myself and the elders...we just want to know what else you plan on doing. If you had anything planned that is..."
Callum sat down, the cool dirt of the forest floor feeling nice on his feet, used to treading on hot stone. "I need to...consult."
"With whatever it was that you told us spoke to you."
"Yes" the younger slave answered. He sounded more terrified at the possibility then excited or eager.
"How do you know it will answer?"
"I don't" Callum replied, confident in his lack of confidence. A sort of admittance that he was just as lost and restless as the rest of them.
Lede looked him in the eyes, the young slave's grey gaze full of sincerity. He wasn't lying when he spoke of this entity. At least not intentionally. Crazy, yes. Deceptive? No. "What do you want me to tell the others?" he asked.
"That I'll speak with them in a few hours, at the most. Maybe sooner."
Lede nodded. It seemed absurd, that he was taking orders from a slave thirty or years his junior. Yet this was...uncharted territory to say the least. He nodded. "Will do. Don't be any longer then you need to be though."
Lede exited the makeshift structure, just one among many that had sprung up among the group of escaped slaves. He looked around as slaves went about the basic business of survival. Going to and fro, making shelter, bringing water back from a nearby river. Everyone was focused on something. No one would notice if he stayed here, turning to get a peak inside. To see what Callum meant by this entity.
Callum knelt, and closed his eyes. "If...if you can hear me...please" he began, his head bowed. "I need to know what you want from me. From us. Where do we go from here?"
There was silence for a moment before the voice returned, a soft melody that more inferred words then spoke them outright, yet was entirely understandable. "You had that dream again." Callum opened his eyes. "How do you know about..."
"You are mine, I am yours, as I said. I know you."
"I've tried to forget" Callum answered. "There's no point in remembering and..."
"No" the voice answered, cutting him off. "You've all forgotten. Too much. No longer."
"Forgotten what? What else?" Callum asked, his curiosity peeked now that this entity was speaking to him.
"Azure Dawn" the voice answered, the words dancing in his ears, in his mind. Callum frowned. This entity had told him that the night it came to him.
"I still don't understand what that means."
"Exactly. You have all forgotten. And there will be no more forgetting. It is the name of your nation, your identity as humans that has been stripped from you..."
"Azure Dawn..." Callum said softly, feeling the words on his lips.
Lede was taken aback. Callum was kneeling there, speaking to no one. Yet he wasn't rambling like a crazy person. He paused, answered, having one half of a conversation calmly as if there were another party answering. He kept watching.
The voice continued. "Yes, and it will be a nation once again." Callum remained silent for a moment. "You wish me to..."
"To free your people. Force a settlement with Celestia's court, and bring your people together in one nation, returned to its proper place among the many peoples of this world" the voice answered. Direct. Clear. With purpose.
"How...I only have a few hundred. Not enough to wage war..." Callum asked, almost to himself as much as to the entity.
"Grow your numbers. And strike from the shadows. So long as you stand before tyranny, you will not be alone."
Callum didn't need to hear anything else. He knew the voice was finished. He drank what little remained of his water. Lede, watching quickly turned away...war? Is that what he had asked, to no one? Whatever it was he knew that blood was on the horizon.
