Principal Celestia sat at her desk staring at a folder with a nurse report laying on top of it. Shaking her head, she gave a sigh and reached over to press a few buttons on the intercom.
After the beep she said, “Miss Cheerilee, can you please send Sunset Shimmer to my office right away.”
When she heard the confirmation, she sat back in her chair and returned her stare to the folder, waiting. After a few minutes she heard a knock on her office door.
“Come in Sunset,” said Celestia.
A beautiful yellow- and red-haired girl walked in with a nervous expression. Celestia gave her a warm smile and gestured to one of the two chairs in front of her desk. Sunset took the offered seat, but sat on the edge, still very nervous.
“Relax Sunset. You are not in trouble,” Celestia reassured her. “This is about the incident this morning.”
With a relieved sigh a slightly more relaxed Sunset nodded and sat back in the chair.
“I gather you heard about what happened this morning before school,” said Celestia.
“Uh, I actually saw what happened principal,” said Sunset. “Sam beat the crap out of Slab and his three friends. But they started it by trying to forcefully take – err, it – off of him,”
Celestia sighed and stared at the desk for a few seconds. She lifted her head just as Sunset started to fidget.
“I do not share the following lightly. You will keep this information a secret, even from your friends. Understood?” asked Celestia.
She waited until Sunset nodded then spoke again.
“Do you know why he is allowed to smoke Marijuana on school grounds?” asked Celestia.
Sunset shook her head and waited with bated breath for the principal to continue.
“It is to keep him calm help him deal with the pain,” said Celestia.
Sunset jerked her head back in shock. That was not an answer that she was expecting. She opened her mouth to ask but Celestia started speaking again before she could get a word out.
“It is also not the only pain killer that he has on his person. He also carries a few doses of morphine on him at all times. You may have seen him inject himself sometime during the week he has been here,” said Celestia.
Sunset thought back and what she had seen of the new student and realized she had indeed seen him inject himself during one of the lunch hours.
“Do you know what one of the highest dosages, for a patient who needs morphine as a pain medication, is per shot?” asked Celestia.
Sunset thought for a moment and then shook her head.
“It varies from patient to patient but it’s about two hundred milligrams. Sam, on the other hand needs a dose of two hundred and fifty milligrams every four hours just so he can walk around,” said Celestia.
Sunset’s jaw dropped at this and it took a few seconds for her to restart her brain.
“What happened to him?” asked Sunset.
Celestia sighed heavily and said, “Have you ever heard of the Underground Blood Championship?”
Sunset searched her memory for any mention of anything relevant but came up empty and shook her head.
“No principal, but the name sounds ominous,” Sunsets said with a shaking voice.
Principal Celestia’s expression darkened and her voice shook with a deep rage that made Sunset lean back in her chair. She knew that her principal wasn’t mad at her but she could feel the anger coming off of the older woman.
“It was an illegal operation that made millions by forcing innocents to fight to the death. They then live-streamed these fights all over the globe,” – Celestia ignored Sunset’s horrified gasp and continued – “the sickening thing was that they even made young children, that they had kidnapped, fight and kill each other.”
Celestia’s voice broke here and she looked down at her desk with tears in her eyes. Sunset was sitting on her chair with her hands over her mouth and tears streaming down her face.
Celestia shook her head a tiny bit and returned to her tale.
“Back to why I’m telling you all of this is because Interpol finally cracked their systems and took down the whole operation. Unfortunately, by the time they had cleared the compound all of the people that were kept as fighters were dead. These sick people had killed them all, well, all but one,” said Celestia.
“Sam!” exclaimed Sunset.
“Indeed, now the main reason I’m telling you all this is because you can contact your friend Princess Twilight, correct?” asked Celestia.
Sunset merely nodded as she was still crying. Celestia stood up and walked around the desk and pulled the young girl into a comforting hug. Sunset sniffed a few more times but finally regained control of herself.
“Why do you want me to contact Princess Twilight?” asked Sunset.
“Sam was placed here at my school to see if he could cope now that he has been freed. He was near dead when they found him, but I have not told you everything that had happened and what they did to him. It gets a lot worse but you do not need to worry about that. It's all already over. What I want from you is to contact Princess Twilight and tell her that I would like to speak to her about a very sensitive matter,” said Celestia.
Sunset thought for a few moments to try and figure out if she really wanted to ask what the principal meant by – it gets a lot worse – but ultimately decided she didn’t want to know.
“Yes, principal Celestia. I will write to her this afternoon and make it clear that it is very important and that she needs to come over as soon as possible,” said Sunset.
“Thank you Sunset! We may yet be able to save him from himself,” principal Celestia exclaimed with a relieved sigh.
“Um, principal Celestia. There is just one thing I would like to ask,” – she waited until Celestia nodded then continued, – “why does he need to smoke weed if he has the morphine to keep the pain in check? And why is he allowed to have in the first place?” asked Sunset.
Celestia’s tilted her head for a moment wondering how much to tell Sunset.
“Well, he and all of the others were drugged up to their eyeballs. They were also experimented on when not fighting. I don’t think I should say anymore at the moment,” said Celestia.
Sunset’s eyes had grown large and wet again, she nodded forcefully and looked down at her lap.
“This is why I want to talk to Princess Twilight. I want to hear if she has any ideas of what we could do for him or maybe even take him to her world to heal if needed,” said Celestia.
"That would be a good idea. She will definitely be able to help him. If not her alone then I know with utter certainty that Princess Celestia will do her utmost to help somepony who has been hurt." said Sunset.
