The Chiropterran Labourer system had been a brutal mechanism of slavery for centuries. The machine treated sapient beings as nothing more than disposal cogs, denied all autonomy and independence for every waking moment of their lives, with death as the only escape.

Then, all of a sudden, Chiropterran slavery is abolished by the order of Empress Nightmare Moon. Just like that.

Merzaal and Abdaz are two former labourers, finding themselves the same situation, learning to reckon with their new reality on the way to an uncertain future. Where once there was an steel railroad they couldn't leave, there were diverging paths. Would those paths lead to emancipation, or a new form of slavery?

For however much a wolf can be tamed, however much it can hold back, it always hungers for the sheep's flesh.

Takes place in my New Lunar Millennium alternate universe, which is based on the Equestria at War setting. More information can be found here, but no prior knowledge of my AU beyond the general concept of it and the EaW setting is required to read this story.

Proofread and edited by Izzy Incraft and ManniTeneriSunt.