Celestia wakes up freezing, goosebumps and sweat coating her forehead. No nightmare should ever be that vivid or that scary. With shaking hooves, she checks every inch of her and opens her mouth twice to make sure it's still attached. Exhaling, she takes in another ragged breath and another, trying to recover from the lucid hallucination. She springs out of bed and looks around her dark room. With a flash of magic she lights the turret suite. Seeing everything is as it should, she runs to the window to make sure it was truly a dream.

Shivering violently, she pulls the rope by her bedside. A moment later a blue and red mane pony enters the room.

"Yes, milady?" She said.

Celestia, rattled by the nightmare, shook her head. "Fetch me Luna, would you." She orders.

"She's in the middle of cou-" Celestia gave her a bone chilling look. "Yes milady."

The princess levitates a flask of whiskey from above her mantle and eyes the alcohol. Yanking the stopper off, she takes a huge swig of the scotch. Wincing at the taste, she puts it back in place. She walks over to her desk and organizes the papers and documents neatly.

"You wanted me, sister?" Luna said from behind her sibling.

Celestia's heart nearly gave out. "Don't scare me like that!" She growled.

"Sorry. You wanted me?"

"Yes. I want you to free the boy."

"What do you mean?" she evaded. "I freed him."

"That is total bulls-"

"No." The younger alicorn refused. "I don't have to."

"WHAT!" Celestia roared. "Slavery is illegal!"

"Here." Luna replied coolly. "But actually he's a citizen of The Northern Counties. All laws there apply to him here. I have legal ownership of him, according to their statutes."

Celestia was furious. "But you aren't a citizen there so" She was cut off.

"Did we ever re-file those papers to make me an Equestrian citizen?" Luna smirked.

Her older sister's jaw dropped. She hadn't, and by a law she herself had passed, Luna had full right to all legal status as Seamus' master.

"You told me to study law, sister." Luna said smugly. "And there is nothing you can do about it!"

A guard ran into the room covered in blood. Everything stopped. The two alicorns stared in horror at the gore covering the white coated guard. He was breathing heavily, a glassy, distant look in his eyes.

"The vampire… he's... in the gardens demanding he see you two." He panted.

"Is that blood… yours?!" Luna asked.

"No! It's my entire platoon's!" He wailed. "He was so fast! We couldn't stop him!"

Without another word, the two disappear in a flash of magic.

Jakben stood in the middle of a field of bodies, laughing madly, flashing his monstrous, gore covered fangs to the circle of guards around him. Well over forty bodies in varying states of dismemberment and decapitation lay in a sixty hoof wide pool of blood around him. Dark clouds filled the sky, covering Luna's moon. Statues with weapons had the occasional guard impaled on them.

Celestia herself was petrified by the brutality of the vampire. And yet, he stood in the midst of a thousand guards, laughing in insane mirth.

"What Hell spawned that monster?" Celestia whispered in genuine horror.

A foolish guard ran at the vampire, bringing his sword down in an arc to cleave Jakben's skull open. It sunk into the blood-soaked earth. Suddenly the vampire grabbed the guard by the back legs. He looked at Luna with fear-filled eyes, let out one pitiful whimper, and torn in half from the base of his spine all the way up to his skull, which popped off and landed with a thud by Luna, the look of terror still on his face.

Jakben cackled in insane pleasure, holding a half of the guard's body in each hoof. He dug his face into the corpse and tore off a rib, which he chewed on like it was a pork rind. Swallowing his snack, he laughed again and gestured for more to move towards them.

"I'm going to be sick!" Luna wretched.

"Stay strong, if he really wanted us dead he would have tried at us by now." Celestia explained.

He saw them from across the gardens and smiled.

"About time. I tore through at least half your guards, as you can probably see." He chuckled. "I have a package for you two, as well as Seamus."

"Present it and leave." Celestia demanded.

Shrugging, the vampire gestures toward the statue beside them.

"It's by the head." Jakben said and disappeared.

Just like that, the monster was gone and the guards were standing in puddles of their comrade's blood. A pack about the size of a barrel was sitting by the statue and the head was staring directly at Luna. She shuddered and threw it away with a disgusted flick of magic.

"You there!" Celestia barked to a soldier. "Open that pack!"

Fluttershy woke up to a poorly suppressed, rather childish giggle.

"That's hilarious!" She heard Rainbow Dash giggle.

"I think it's cute." Rarity sighed

"I really don't know what to think." Twilight muttered

"But seriously! She's spooning him!" Rainbow broke into a fresh fit of laughter

.

Fluttershy opened her eyes to find herself curled around Seamus, her hooves around him and one wing placed possessively over his smaller frame. She didn't move, but sat there and let her cheeks flush scarlet while Rainbow laughed her flank off. Twilight shook her head and Rarity scolded Dash for her rude comments.

At that moment Luna charged in, levitating a large pack behind her. She looked angrier than any had ever seen the moon princess. She took one look at Fluttershy and screamed.

"Get off him, you filthy harlot!"

Fluttershy didn't know what that meant, but she jumped off the bed and hid behind Twilight. In a rage, Luna threw the bag onto the bed, startling Seamus. She grabbed him by the horn and hoisted him up to her eye level.

"That bastard vampire friend of yours just killed sixty-two guards to deliver that package. I want to know what in the gods' names was so important about a bunch of damn sheet music and some instruments!" she screamed into his face.

Seamus hesitated and Luna threw him across the room. He hit the opposite wall with a resounding thud of the wind being knocked of the helpless youth. Luna stormed towards him, but Celestia appeared in front of her, barring her path.

"Leave! Now!" Celestia ordered.

Luna backed away slowly, but didn't leave the room. Celestia turned to Seamus and held out a hoof to help him up. He looked at it and recoiled, hoisting himself up off the floor.

"Now Seamus…" The sun princess said. "What Luna said is true, but it's not your fault Jakben came the way he did."

She undid the string on the bag and a myriad of string instruments fall out. "Does any of this mean anything to you?"

Seamus's eyes watered, but he said. "She made me play music; she would always compliment my voice."

Celestia drew some sheet music from the sack and put it in front of him. He took the music in his hooves, read a few lines, and tossed them away. Before anypony could stop him, he ran into the bathroom and locked the door. Muffled sobs could be heard from inside. Luna charged at the door, nostrils flaring in anger. Celestia placed herself in front of the door and knocked. There was no response.

Twilight picked up the stapled sheets and read a few lines.

"This isn't music. It's a note made to look like music."

"How, when there are only so many letters on the bar?" Rarity asked.

"It's hard to explain, but I can read it for you guys." Twilight offered; they all nodded.

"Here we go." She took a deep breathe.

'I must say hello to you, my most appreciated of servants, as you have served me well while I had you. You are still the only true one to be at my side and Jakben misses you too. The one that has taken your departure hardest is without a doubt Sky, he was so distraught he couldn't work and I had to throw him to the…' Twilight squinted at the page. 'Sautelus?'

"I don't know that word. I think I pronounced it right, though." Twilight explained, and then continued.

'We all know how lonely he can get, so I gave him some company. I sincerely hope your enjoying yourself. I wouldn't trust any of the ponies around you, by the way.'

A loud, remorse filled wail stabbed their ears as she read the last few lines. A new bought of sobbing could be plainly heard by everypony there.

"What the heck is a 'Sautelus'?" Rainbow exclaimed.

"It doesn't sound pleasant." Remarked Rarity.

"Maybe Seamus will tell us, when he dries the waterworks and grows a pair!" Luna spat.

Rainbow Dash flew up to Luna and looked right into her eyes and growled.

"You have no idea what he went through! You have no right to judge him!"

Luna blinked in astonishment; nopony had ever before had the sheer gall to stand up to her.

Celestia as fed up with all the fighting and bickering.

"Enough!" She yelled "Everypony go to breakfast in the Dining Hall!"

Everypony began to move towards the door.

"Except you, Fluttershy." She added "Close the door."

After it was shut Celestia sighed and leaned against a bed. She hadn't slept all night and the stress was eating away what energy she had left. Fluttershy looked at her leader and asked.

"Um, why did you ask me to stay?"

"Because I need a pony who he trusts and I'm fairly sure he doesn't trust me." She explained.

They both looked at the threshold to the bathroom. They couldn't hear him crying. Fluttershy tentatively knocked at the door. He didn't respond.

"Sea, are you okay?" She whispered through the door.

"I'm fine." He replied, his voice hoarse.

"Can you come out? Celestia wants to talk to you."

A small click came from the doorknob and he appeared to the two mares. He shuffled over to the bed and jumped onto the too-large mattress. The bruised purple rings around his eyes were more pronounced than ever before. Celestia walked over to the young colt and tried to put a hoof on his shoulder. Seamus recoiled in fear. The sun princess sighed again and walked farther away.

"Why are you so afraid of me? I never did anything to you." She asked.

"I don't know you." Was his usual short response.

He was literally looking directly at the princess now, but even on the high stacked mattress he was a horn shorter than her. He was long limbed and had a build reminiscent to Fleur-De-Lise's, the same long, skinny muscle of her in a smaller, far more fragile form.

"Okay, what is this... Sautelus mentioned in the letter?"

Seamus grew pale under his maroon coat and his pupils shrunk to pinpoints of fear at the very mention of the thing's name.

"A… spirit… or maybe a boggart… or some other thing." He stuttered in his light accent.

"Why are you so afraid of it?" Celestia asked.

He sprang up and stood to his full height. "No reason!" He yelled.

She raised her eyebrows and he still had the look of denial on his mare-ish face.

"So you don't know what it is?" she continued.

He shook his head and lay back down. He looked almost like a cat as he paced a circle and settled down into the soft sheets. Fluttershy stepped into the bed beside him and he gave her an alienated look. She did exactly as he had done and mirrored his pose perfectly as she lay down across from his smaller frame. Celestia was intrigued at the add exchange, but shrugged.

"Moving on from this… creature." The princess continued. "Who is Sky?"

Seamus looked up at her in surprise. An intense focus neither of the mares had seen before was in his eyes, partnered with a tender, warm emotion that he also radiated at the mention of the name.

"She mentioned him? How is he? Is he doing okay without me? Is something wrong?" he said, all in rapid succession.

"She said he was so upset she might have to turn him over to this Sautelus."

"She can't do that! We had a deal! She had to turn him free if you paid more than a million bits for me and you did! I want to write back! She can't break the rules like that." He yelled, standing up.

"Calm down!" Celestia ordered. Seamus stood his ground. "Who is Sky?" She demanded.

"We… were..." he began to trail off; a long silence filled the room.

"Was he your friend?" the princess asked.

"Yeah… we were best friends back North." He responded quickly.

Celestia knew there was more to the story than that, but decided that it wasn't worth arguing about. She sighed and set the letter down.

"I'll have my fastest messenger deliver a letter back."

She stood up and got ready to leave. Fluttershy and Seamus did the same and followed her to the dining hall. The breakfast was tense and Luna looked angry. The whole meal she glared at her sister in loathing. Nopony talked or even tried to start a conversation in the awkward atmosphere. The animosity was so thick it felt like the air would set fire if one lit a match. Finally, Seamus spoke up.

"I need to say something." He began. "I have a friend that I think might be in trouble back in The Northern Counties. I'd like it if maybe Celestia could go get him."

Luna slammed both her hooves onto the table, causing the plates to rattle. "Absolutely not! We don't have time to go gallivanting into the Counties to retrieve one unimportant little friend of yours! He's probably having fun, busy, off being used in some way or another by that hag of a mare!"

"But it said in the note she'd torture him to death if he didn't behave for her! I caused that by leaving and I won't let him die because you're too selfish to help me!"

The distraught colt ran from the table, his eyes watering. Everypony looked at Luna in disappointment. Celestia looked livid.

"You didn't have to be so inconsiderate, sister! You could have at least sent somepony to barter for his best friend! Those two probably got through day by day during their servitude just by talking and laughing! Next time don't act like Melody!"

Luna was stunned when Fluttershy pushed herself out from the table and ran after the young alicorn.

Next Chapter: Revelations Estimated time remaining: 5 Hours, 17 Minutes