A coup is a dangerous time to be King. Not just for the one being couped, who more than likely will see themselves murdered at the whims of the nobles, crowd, army, whatever was doing the coup.

But also the one they were placing in power. One wrong move, and the powers that be would be more than ready to do it again.

In this case, the previous King was King Eustace Rousselle, a second-generation man who had made the terrible mistake of hinting that he might slacken our nation's response to their slavery far too much. So the powers that be, in this case the army and the populist faction of the Senate, had marched into the high mountain-top palace, far above the underground First City, grabbed him, and thrown him into the nearest cell.

I am Arthur Williams, formerly Corporal Williams of the Duke of Cambridge's Own Middlesex Regiment, currently the soon to be sworn in King of Elefthería, our home in this world. A first-generation man, the scars and missing arm can attest to that fact.

Perhaps you, dear reader, are reading my journal long after I am dead. Perhaps Elefthería is nought more than ash and history; perhaps you are confused by my meaning of "First and Second generation man". Perhaps, if I truly screwed up, you have no idea what Elefthería is.

Our home, Elefthería, is the one place in this world where mankind is free. We all know this to be true, for it was the fundamental reason our nation was made. When the Great King Cyrus crossed the northern Mountains with his 300 followers and found the Valley of the King, and drove out the slavers, he forged a compact with the many gods of mankind that no man shall be placed in chains within this new home without due reason, and certainly not for another's gain. Or that's how the legend goes. That was just under 200 years ago, apparently.

In truth, Elefthería is a nation about the size of Belgium in the northern reaches of the continent of Equestria, just north of the Kingdom of Equestria, south of Yakistan, and to the west of the icy plains that apparently had an empire once or something. It is the only nation in this world ruled by men and women and the only one where we are free.

Well, that's not entirely true. The Minotaurs of Labyrinthia do not restrict their slavery to humans, and the Zebras of Zeborica do not practise the abominable sin. Still, it is the only one where it is strictly outlawed. So, all humans that find themselves in this world, if they are able to break free, will usually make their way to Elefthería and break their shackles legally.

Perhaps, dear reader, by the time you have your hands upon this journal of mine, you still lack understanding. Perhaps you live in better times, and the idea of human enslavement is as bizarre and horrifically outdated as it was in my time back home.

The story goes that about 300 years ago, this world started to receive visitors from other worlds. Us humans. From all across history, from all across the globe, people would wake up and find themselves here. Usually alone, though not always. Originally, we were seen as confused people who needed to be sent back with all the effort the magicians of this world could offer. When that proved impossible to their greatest mages, the inhabitants of this world, mainly the ponies of Equestria, saw fit to try and integrate us into their society. More and more of us came through, but that didn't seem to worry them.

That is, until one man ruined everything.
His real name isn't known to us anymore. The Americans will refuse even to speak a false name; such is the shame they feel for this name. The rest of us will curse him out in whatever tongues we can. I'll call him "Alexander Uriah Adams", which is the best historical guess at his name.

Uriah was, by all accounts, a Plantation owner from Louisianna. And unlike seemingly everyone else who found their way into this world, he did not find himself alone in a strange land, with at best one other with them, but arrived with his entire plantation staff, chained and all.

As I said, men and women throughout all of human history find themselves in this place. I have talked with men and women from Abyssinia and the first Kingdom of Judea, and I have talked with those from the future, from the myriad of colonies that apparently broke free after the terrifyingly named "Second World War".

One was more than enough for me.

Anyway, Uriah arrived with his entire plantation staff, and this confused the local ponies. Why oh why were these men and women in chains, forced to serve at his will? And so, the story goes, he spoke of the "wonders" of free labour, and of the "Uplifting Burden" he was placed with to educate these lesser beings, and how he was supplying them with food and board, but a little harshness was necessary "to conduct their education as a race into good Christians".

What a terrible man.

Doubtlessly, he wasn't the first slave owner to find themselves in Equestria. By the last census of just Elefthería alone, our nation... My nation had 500,000 odd First Generation (that is, those who are of the first generation of a family line to arrive in this land) people in it, all across human history. Outside our mountain redoubt, there were likely 1 million further first-generation humans, most in chains. Some of them would be enslavers from everything from ancient kingdoms to the barren wastelands of whatever remained of humanity after 2141.

But he was the first to bring that concept to Equestria. To plant that seed, that "Meme", as some of the future people refer to it, into the ponies' minds. After an abortive coup to try and wrestle control of Equestria from the ponies and use the resources to try and find a way back home by a few radicals, some pony suggested they could work for their criminal sentences. This one suggestion by a count of some pony village that probably no longer exists would decide mankind's fate in this world for the rest of history. More and more humans would be enslaved. First, our criminals, of which there were a few. Hard to find jobs in Equestria when you don't have your primary talent writ upon your flesh. They'd do that later.

Then, the poor. Those that couldn't make ends meet could work for a wealthy, usually noble, family for room and board. Then, their children would find themselves forced into the same work once their parents got too old for it.

And like a rock rolling down a hill, everything accelerated. A failed revolution here, an economic crisis there, and mankind found itself enchained. Ironically, by an animal we ourselves used for labour without paying. However, our horses couldn't talk or really think.

So, humans were enslaved. But some broke out and founded the nation of Elefthería, here in the mountains. They made a Kingdom based on the ideas of freedom for all men and women and to bring about the destruction of slavery as an institution.

And after 200 years, we're no closer to that goal.

Today, the 15th March 197AF by our calendars, or 998 after banishment on the Equestrian one, I was led into the palace by my army unit at the behest of the Populist Party of the Senate and General Kelebekof the First Guard army.

Perhaps there was a reason they selected a twenty eight year old Lieutenant in the army to become King. If there is, I certainly don't know what the fuck it... What it is.

The palace was a flurry of activity. The coup had been remarkably bloodless. Eustace Rousselle hadn't put up any sort of a fight, content to be led into the palace's dungeons, but soldiers and guards and police officers lined every hallway. Occasional snaps of gunfire signalled the sound of the firing squads having to put down those few that didn't accept their King's resignation as gracefully as the King himself had. And, of course, a horde of media people, makeup artists, soldiers, generals and populists politicians crowded around me, getting ready for me to address the people.

King Rouselle had not been popular. Far from Elefthería's worse King, that would either be King Gupta the Chainmaker or King Huang the Damned. But he had ruled over a period of decline in the military and in the worsening domestic situation within Elefthería. But the call for the coup had only come when he had made it clear that he would allow Princess Celestia to come into this country with her slaves, and would break the most sacred tradition of this Kingdom. By allowing her to return with her slaves, it would mean that no longer would all men and women who entered into the lands of Elefthería be free, regardless of who they were or whoever thought they owned them. It was probably a move the man had agreed to in order to try and normalise relations with the nation that surrounded Elefthería on all sides, but it was a slap in the face to the core principles of the Kingdom and a direct threat to the freedom of all men and women still in chains outside the mountains.

Forced down into a leather chair, an army of people got to work on my clothes, my hair, my face. A sharp, severe middle-aged tawny woman who I knew by sight marched into the foyer of the palace where my makeover was taking place.
"Twelve minutes," General Kelebek ordered. "I want him ready in twelve minutes."

The general, chief of the army of Elefthería, was an Ottoman from 17th century Turkey. Apparently, she had arrived in Equestria as a girl no older than eleven, yet had murdered her captors and fought slavers across the breadth of the continent to make it to this land.

"There's not much makeup can do about..." I said, raising my missing left arm to point out my obvious lack of photogenic qualities.

"It's what the nation needs. After years of a corpulent, greedy tyrant, the people need a war hero."

War Hero. Hardly. That had not been how I lost the arm, despite what the people who knew what the Great War was assumed.

To their credit, the various people in charge of the King's image had turned my scruffy, camouflaged cloth Lieutenants uniform into a resplendent, kingly military uniform of Green and Silver, complete with a sabre. I was told that I would have to grow my hair out. Having a military buzzcut was apparently "Unkingly", despite my attempts to point out that the King of England had served in the navy.

A script was forced into my hand, and I was thrown in front of a camera and told to read it as convincingly as I could.

"People of Elefthería. One hour ago, King Rouselle was removed from power by a peaceful, non-violent coup d'etat designed to save the core fundamental principles that maintain our Kingdom and our freedom. He would allow Princess Celestia to bring slaves into our Kingdom and take them back with her. This would not only leave these people to remain in chains despite our obligation to support them but would threaten the freedom of not only every person who flees to our land for safety and freedom but the rights of all humans on this planet. As such, the armed forces and the ruling workers' party of the Eleftherían Senate invoked the power of Abdication and removed him from Kingly office. I, Arthur Williams, 1st Lieutenant of the Mountain Guard, have been chosen by the ruling party to take over as King. As of this moment, I am King Arthur the First. Long live Elefthería, Long Live Humanity."

The light on the camera immediately turned red, and I fell to the floor in shock. I had known since at least this morning I was to be King, but actually saying it aloud had made it all the more real and all the more terrifying.

Day 2 of my doubtlessly short reign as King of Elefthería.

I learnt today why I had been chosen as King. Apparently, I was a compromise candidate between the various factions not just within the Workers Party and the Army, but between the Merchant and trade Guilds, the University of Neu-Alexandria, the Optimates party, the Changbai clique and the myriad of other factions that all needed to sign off on the coup. The army obviously wanted one of their own, and the Workers Party wanted someone of a lower class. The Optimates wanted, if not one of their own, someone with limited political will, the Changbai Clique wanted someone who'd probably leave the White Mountain complex alone, the Merchant and trade guilds barely signed off on the coup at all, and the university had insisted on someone either a second-generation Eleftherían or from no earlier than 1870, with a preference for post-WW2. Quite why, I couldn't tell you.

That still left a massive pool of candidates, thousands of men and women. It wasn't as if Elefthería hadn't had at least two queens before. But apparently, since a lot of the first Generation people were from a time before the suffragette movement, and because of Equestria's female rulers, male Kings tended to soothe nerves in times of hardship. I wasn't exactly the best at... That sort of thing, I was born in the 19th century, after all, but even I thought that sounded like bullshit.

So, I fit the requirements: A young, career soldier, lower middle class with no apparent interest in politics before yesterday. I would've preferred to have been asked, but I doubted I'd sit on the throne long anyway. Rouselle himself had only been King for six years. King Hiawatha had died only two years into his reign, and I had no idea who was King before him.

I got coronated in a rather rushed ceremony. TV cameras and news crews were almost the only people allowed to actually be inside the palace during the ceremony and left shortly after. Obviously, for at least today, they'd sing my praises to the heavens and taut me as the second coming of King Cyrus the Great. That would last only a day at best, but it allowed me to get ready for the day after.

Already, my itinerary was terrifying. Opening the Senate for the first time since the coup tomorrow, meetings with the home office, the foreign office, the office of intelligence, the nucler... The nuclear research facility, a dozen other government branches.

But the moment the regal robes were removed from my shoulders, I ordered that the most pressing matter of the day be settled first. It was the one that had seen me placed on the throne in the first place and the one that would need to be dealt with quickly.

The Equestrian ambassador to Elefthería was generally seen as a bad posting for the poor pony it was foisted upon. We were, with good reason, not exactly well disposed to Equestria. The Griffons, Yaks and Minotaurs or dragons might have spates and disagreements with them, but we were the only nation all but openly hostile to the Equestrian government. It was a posting that seemed to age ponies twice as fast as any other, and Winter Gloom was no different.

I met with her in my new office, or "solar", as it was apparently called. The place still had paintings of King Rouselle up, but Winter Gloom diplomatically ignored them.
"Welcome, King Arthur," She said with a polite nod and a sip of tea. "Equestria wishes to extend warm wishes to the new King of Elefthería."

I took a swig of my own. It was far too... Fruity. It seemed the previous King preferred an Equestrian blend. I liked the Yakistani stuff. Harsh, bitter, almost more coffee than tea. I hoped the diplomat didn't take my wince as an indication against them. My ability to speak Equestrian was rather good; like a lot of First Generation men, I had to learn it when I arrived in this land- I had to be able to understand orders, after all.

"Perhaps I should cut to the heart of the matter," I opened with, but the diplomat ever so slightly hissed through her horsey teeth.

"There's no need to ruin a nice cup of tea with talk of..."

"Celestia cannot enter Elefthería," I interrupted, glaring right at the ambassador. "Certainly not with a cadre of enslaved people. I and all citizens of this nation would be honour bound to do all within our power to free them, and that would probably mean war between our two nations."

Winter Gloom sighed, seeming to age a decade in a moment, her previously blonde hair already closer to white.
"Celestia has not entered these lands since the reign of King Cyrus. We were close to rapprochement with your people. Real progress. To throw it all aside for... What, a silly trick of procedure? A cultural tradition?"

I nearly spat out my tea.
"Our greatest calling," I said, glowering. "The freedom and prosperity of all mankind."

"Young King, if I may make a suggestion- In the future, you will have to understand that emotions have little place in international politics. King Rouselle understood this better than any other King of Elefthería I have ever had the pleasure to meet," Winter Gloom explained. "Change at home cannot happen if your nation continues to act in such an antagonistic manner to our own."

I scoffed.
"Antagonistic manner? I apologise; I did not consider the feelings of the poor slavers. When they whip my brothers and sisters, surely they must truly gasp in horror that we are a little annoyed about this state of affairs. How undignified of me to see my people imprisoned and worked to death for the crime of existing."

She shook her head.
"I apologise, King Arthur. That was... Ill-mannered of me. Nonetheless, I will not be doing my job if I do not ask you to reconsider. Getting the Equestrian parliament to even agree to such a formal visit took a lot of the Princess' energies for the past few years. To throw it aside might jeopardise the strength of the abolitionist movement in my own country," Winter Gloom explained. "Which Celestia is, of course, a great supporter of."

"Yes, which is why she personally owns seventeen slaves, and wanted to bring them here," I said drolly, taking another gulp of the nasty tea.

She sighed.
"I can... You have to understand; there are far, far, far worse people to work for than Princess Celestia. Her slaves are basically mere servants, some too old to work who instead have a safe retirement in Canterlot Castle. Acts of charity."

"That's all very well, but a chain of silk is still a chain. Tell your Princess that the visit is off, but I will be willing to arrange a formal visit to Equestria in the new year," I offered.
"Assuming I'm still on the throne by then," I mumbled under my breath.

Winter Bloom nodded.
"Very well. If that is the wish of the Eleftherían government, then Celestia and Equestria will respect its wishes. We do not wish for any further quarrel between our two nations."

"Then, when you get the chance to, inform her that countless citizens of my country are chained in her borders illegally and by all rights should be free to return here."

"They are not citizens of Elefthería, King Arthur. Not until they cross the mountains." She reminded me. I glanced down at my missing arm.

"I am all too aware of that, Ambassador."

She followed my gaze and at least had the good manners to wince upon understanding my meaning. "My sympathies, King Arthur. Will this be all for our meeting today, or is there more the Eleftherían government wishes to inform my Princess?"

I noticed the way she phrased that. "The Eleftherían government" rather than "you". She knew, as well as I did, that I was a puppet to those who had set me upon the throne and was only saying what they agreed to, rather than what I thought and desired.

"No, Ambassador, I believe that will be all. Good day."

Much the rest of the day was taken with meetings and at least one other televised speech, but at one in the morning, under guard, I made my way into the dungeons beneath the royal palace. The last of the winter's snows covered the cobblestones between the main part of the palace and the dungeon, the high, harsh mountain winds ripping through the fur coat, but eventually, I made it inside.

The dungeons were not commonly used. Elefthería had actual prisons and such for normal criminals, so they were abandoned most of the time. But inside the dark, cramp and wet stone building sat a single decent cell, with a warm fire, mahogany furniture, a separate bathroom and bedroom, even a decent library. And inside this gilded cage, lying upon a reclining seat of dragon leather, lay the previous King.

He was the picture of hedonism, despite the black eye and bandaged hand, which stood as the only hint he had been deposed. He wore a burgundy dressing gown whose straps almost didn't meet over his wide waist, which he patted with his fat hand and its sausage-like fingers.
"No more steak, I beg you. I've been vegetarian for months, and the smell will only..." The King began to say, only to sit up and notice who it was that came to visit him. "Ah. My replacement. So, come to swing the axe yourself?"

"I believe we use lethal injections nowadays," I replied, tapping the cell door. One of my guards rushed forth and unlocked the cage door, and I stepped inside. As if sensing my move or perhaps foreshadowing my future fate, my guards remained outside, leaving me alone with the previous king.

"Ah, oui. So, what might I do for my replacement?" Eustace Rouselle asked. "I serve at the King's pleasure."

"You seem to be taking being deposed rather well?" I said.

"Oui, well, perhaps not being able to order the kitchen staff around will sort out my waistline, and once you are gone, I'll likely be allowed to become a private citizen, and you will be here," The King said jovially.

"Hmm. That does seem to be an occupational hazard, doesn't it?" I admitted. "When was the last time a King lasted more than a decade?"

"That would be five Kings ago, young man. King Kwamena. Managed eleven years before being poisoned. Before that? I will have no idea," Eustace admitted with a soft shrug. "Though I'm sure you're not here to talk royal history. Neither you or I descend from Kwamena or any other king. We were placed upon the throne by the powers that be to try and right the wrongs they perceived our predecessor committed. And once you offend enough people trying to do what is right, you too will be deposed."

I huffed.
"Your 'wrong' could be seen coming a mile away. You broke our most sacred tradition, nearly allowed slaves to enter our country, and leave it again still enslaved," I pointed out. "What were you thinking?"

"To save our country? What good is it to save a few men and leave a million to rot?" He asked.

"You risked all our enslavement by..."

"You're a soldier and an old slave beside, so your understanding of the Royalty of Equestria is skewed by hatred and propaganda. Elefthería is a nation poised to become a world power. We are the most technologically advanced nation in the world. But, to leverage that power, we must trade with the rest of the world. The old Diamond Dogs mines we built the first city inside might supply us with iron, chromium, copper and lead but heavy metals for industry? Merde, even just food? We can grow wheat in these lands, but what of spices? What of fruit? The air is far too cold for anything but the hardiest vegetables, and every winter, we risk famine."

"So, you sold out the rest of humanity for strawberries?" I wryly asked.

"No. You don't get it. Elefthería will continue to grow, far beyond our ability to feed and house them. Already, houses aboveground are at a premium. Why do you think the Clique have that cult beneath White Mountain? Their ideology is nuts, but because they can sell affordable housing, people flock to them anyway," Eustace shook his head. "We sit upon a time bomb, because if Elefthería collapses without normalising relations with the rest of the world, there will be no second chance for humanity. Our future will be only chains. So, as I was all but mandated to when I was placed on the throne by the guilds, the Optimates and the Clique, I was to see Elefthería become a friend of Equestria, trading partners, even allies. We are surrounded on it from all sides. If we want to access foreign markets, we must do so through them."

"I'd rather suffer famine and pain than let those outside these mountains suffer through enslavement," I shot back. I held up my missing left arm. "Nothing is worse than chains."

"And I respect that. A very First Generation view to have, no? But when I was a boy, I lived through King Huang's reign. I saw my younger sister waste away during the morning famine," The King's previously jolly green eyes failed to reflect the lamp lights around his gilded cell, and bore into my own. "I'd rather never see that happen again, whatever it took- Even if it meant looking the other way when the most important monarch on the planet brought her slaves with her on her first visit to our nation since its creation. Even if it meant not treating the nation that surrounds us as an ideological enemy, and try to work with it to phase out slavery."

"Did Lincoln "Phase out slavery"?" I asked, knowing but a little of American history.

"Ah, yes. The American president. I learnt about him in history class when I was a boy here in Elefthería. He also had to go to war to do so, and I'm rather certain even you know we'd lose in a war against Equestria," Eustace said drolly.

"On the defensive, in these mountains? Hardly. Unlike you, I was in the army. I know we'll be able to destroy any army those ponies send."

"And unlike you, boy, I was a king for six years. I know our logistical capabilities. And I know what the Princess can do, even if ponies make for poor soldiers, that matters little against the mare that controls the sun and moon," Eustace warned. "Even when you're in charge, you'll still have to buy food and goods from Equestria, unless you want to end up like Huang. Elefthería will tear itself apart from famine and unemployment before the army breaks, but it will tear itself apart."

The words sobered me. I was never exactly a warhawk, but I had considered that, in all honesty, all the world would be better off if the Ponies and Humans just ignored the other existed. We stood steadfast behind our mountain ranges, and they continued without us.

"Is it impossible? Full autarky?" I asked.

Eustace haughtily laughed.
"I had someone do a study on the possibility five years ago. The Diamond Dogs that ruled this place before us took most of the precious gems and such, but there's still great mineral wealth in those mountains. Our fertilisers are nearly as good as Earth Pony magic, and we might be able to advance those drones to automate farming and mining. The thing is, we don't just need minerals and food. We need oil. We need Uranium, which some of the Diamond Dogs before us clearly thought made cool jewellery. We need cloth, we even need immigration, especially from intellectuals from after the 19th century. We make do with people escaping slavery, but there just aren't enough people ending up in this world to keep growth going. And in the end, autarky not only weakens us but reduces our ability to act on the global stage. Slavery will never end unless we wield our political power to help end it. And that means we have to have something the rest of the world wants. And that means trading with it."

"But it is possible?" I asked.

"What year did you disappear from?" Eustace asked.

"1917," I replied.

Eustace breathed in through his teeth.
"Ah. World War 1. My condolences. My father came from 1703 France. My mother is from 2034 Argentina. She told me of this nation called "North Korea". A nation cut off from the rest of the world almost entirely. It's a miserable place, even by 2030 standards. The people are starving, the army is an enormous tumour, and it uses nuclear weapons to beg for food from the rest of the world. Its people are oppressed to all but ignore the rest of the world exists. There is no great North Korean culture, arts, or sciences. It exists as merely a fief of its great leader. That miserable state of affairs will be our nation's future under autarky. And that's the best-case scenario."

"And the worse case?"

"Our nation destroys itself in a real civil war, and we are scattered across the world and enslaved again."

I flinched.
"I see..." I mumbled. "So, that's why you did it."

"That's why I did it. And you'll have to make a similar choice too. Our status quo will not last forever. One day, you'll be placed in the same position all Kings and Queens of Elefthería are placed in: Our ideals, or our people? Freedom from chains or freedom from poverty? War, or peace? And our entire specie's future rests upon that decision. And, like me, you may not even be allowed to make it."

The cell door opened behind me, finally letting me out.
"Your majesty, we've got a formal dinner with the guild to go to," One of my guards said.

"Good luck, Arthur Williams. I hope you last at least one year," Eustace said honestly. "When your time comes, do as I did. Surrender without a fight. In a fight against the times, you'll always lose."

I didn't respond, instead turning on my feet and marching out of the cell, buttoning up my emerald green coat. A year was pretty hopeful, but I'd have to try.

I think I'll have to end things there. The dinner was utterly unimportant, only congratulations from the one major pillar of Eleftherían society that hadn't at all supported the coup. They didn't even ask for any favours in some serpentlike way. Perhaps they mean to depose me so quickly it won't matter.

I'm going to sleep in my new four poster bed, yet I feel only utter discomfort. All I can do is stare at the map of Elefthería, and hold back a scream at the nightmare ruling it will be.

Next time, in another life, if someone asks me to sit on the throne, I'm going to refuse. I'll certainly live a lot longer that time.

Author's Note

Boy, that's probably an awful first chapter, so much exposition. But hey, hopefully this concept interests people! Slavery is a difficult thing to write about, and I'm probably going to do an absolutely terrible job, but I couldn't shake this brainworm out of my head, not without at least giving it a try.