"No, please! Don't do it!" pleaded a first voice.
"Oh, come on, you'll like it, I promise," reassured a second.
"I'm not ready for this! Please, stop!" begged the first voice.
"I jussst want to show you how much you mean to me, sssweetie, how grateful I am to all you've done for me. I'll make it quick then, how doesss that sssound?"
"No. No! NO! I DON'T WANT THIS! HELP!!!"
"You stay away from my daughter, you filthy beast!" yelled a stallion's voice as the sound of a hunting gun was heard, echoing on the walls around them.
* * *
Pinkie woke up abruptly from her slumber and sat on her bed. She was sweating a lot, she could feel a few tears rolling down her cheeks, and her breathing had accelerated. She could swear her mane had lost a bit of its usual curly look. It had been an awful long time since she last had that dream, and she thought she had managed to patch that wound, but since the truth or dare game with the girls, she found out that it was still there, just as deep as it had been since she started having it not too long after that incident five years ago.
It took her a little while to calm her breathing. Trying to go back to sleep in her actual state wouldn't be the best idea, she thought, so she opted for the traditional short walk outside to take some fresh air and calm her nerves. She quietly got out of her bed, making sure to cushion the clopping sound her hooves made against the wooden floor as best she could as to not wake any of her still snoozing friends. She discreetly headed into the kitchen and poured herself a small glass of water, which she gulped down in one go, before going outside, softly closing the door behind her.
Pinkie Pie inhaled slowly, taking as much of the fresh air as she could in her lungs, before exhaling it out. She repeated the process a few more times, feeling more relaxed as she did so, and then sat her rump on the library's porch. She lifted her head towards the sky, her eyes locking on the multiple shiny stars that decorated it. Luna sure did a great job with her night once again, she admitted.
However, the Night Princess' work was not what preoccupied the pink mare at the moment. Her mind was filled with memories she'd rather forget, memories of a time that lost all its meaning because of a huge mistake. The more she dwelved into these hurtful memories, the more the sadness in her heart grew, along with a touch of anger towards the one who caused it all.
It's all her fault, she thought to herself. I told her to stop, and she still kept going. She saw that I didn't like it, so why?
"Why?" Pinkie asked no one in particular, her eyes still fixed on the starry sky above.
"Why can't I just forget about it?" Her head dropped as she let out these words.
"Forget about what?" asked a feminine, sultry voice nearby.
Instantly, Pinkie's body froze. Her mane and tail both deflated completely, now laying flat on her head and on the ground respectively. She'd recognize that voice anywhere for having spent so long hearing it before. Normally, she would have been happy to greet and welcome the mare who called her, if it wasn't for the fact that this individual did something unforgivable, even by Pinkie Pie's standards, and nopony had seen the party pony not forgive someone.
"What are you doing here?" Pinkie asked the other pony with a hint of agressiveness in her tone that indicated that she would have preferred not to have this meeting at all.
"I sssimply decided to come and visit," replied the other as she got out of the bush she was hiding in.
Any other pony who saw what came out would have run away in utter terror, but Pinkie Pie wasn't any other pony. She eyed the figure from the corners of her eyes as it revealed itself completely under the full moon's glow. The new pony's coat was of a light beige. Her brown mane flowed down to the middle of her back, with her hair combed so that most of her forehead was clear of any locks. Her sapphire blue eyes tried in vain to make contact with Pinkie's, who still avoided her gaze.
What made this strange mare different was that she didn't have hind legs. Instead, a scaly tail, much like a snake's, stretched out, starting from her waist and going on for about twenty feet before ending at the tip.
The lamia pony hadn't even moved an inch before being ordered by an unhappy Pinkie Pie to stay where she was. The anger she felt in the pink mare's heart made her ears droop as she recoiled a bit, but not wanting to add oil to the fire, she complied, coiling her tail and sitting on it.
"To visit, huh?" the party planner continued, venom clear in her voice, which didn't go unnoticed by her guest.
"You don't ssseem happy to sssee me," the hybrid stated matter-of-factly.
That was the last straw, as Pinkie's anger boiled to a point that could probably make Princess Celestia herself run for her life. She turned completely to face the lamia, and she could feel herself wither under the fierce gaze the pink pony was throwing her way.
"Happy to see you?!" Pinkie exclaimed, her voice slowly gaining in volume as she kept going. "How in the world would I be happy to see you after what you almost did to me, Sapphire Heart? Or did you forget all about it?"
Sapphire Heart could only lower her head in shame as she recalled that day. Pinkie Pie didn't seem to have forgotten about it.
"I didn't forget, Pinkie but ssstill-"
"But still what?" she asked, practically yelling.
"...I don't know," was all Sapphire found to answer.
"You don't know?" Pinkie now was nose to nose with the lamia, and the latter could only drop lower as the earth pony's fury bore into her soul.
"YOU DON'T KNOW?" she repeated, now definitely yelling uncontrollably. "What you did back then was bad, Sapphire, really bad! And even when I begged for you," she prodded the lamia in the chest with a hoof, "to stop, what did you do?"
"...I-I..." was all she could muster before being cut again.
"You just kept going!" Pinkie lashed out, tears now dripping down her face. "I don't know what you were thinking back then, but if my dad hadn't stopped you, I don't know what would have!"
"I don't know either," Sapphire mumbled as she lowered her head once again. She was shedding tears of her own, and the amount doubled after the smack the pony in front of her gave her on her left cheek.
"How can you not know?! I was confused and scared, yet you didn't take notice of it! Instead, you took advantage of it! Do you understand what that means?!"
Pinkie was literally fuming now. The hybrid could only nod as she hid and sobbed like a little filly into the coils of her tail. The library's front door, which had been swung open a few seconds before the end of Pinkie's outburst, now revealed five mares, all of them standing still with their jaw on the floor and eyes as wide as saucers at what they saw in front of them and what they managed to hear.
Their next reaction, however, differed from one another. Fluttershy quickly barricaded herself in Twilight's bedroom. Rarity fainted. Rainbow Dash, who had been hovering in the door frame, lost her focus and fell face first on the hard floor beneath. Applejack's brain was temporarily out of commission. Twilight Sparkle could only let her gaze wander left and right from her pink boiling friend to the bawling snake-tailed pony. She couldn't make sense of the situation in front of her, adding to her existing confusion and surprise.
"What in the wide wild world of Equestria is going on, here? What's with all the yelling, Pinkie Pie? And more importantly: what's a lamia pony doing here in Ponyville?" the alicorn frantically asked aloud, still trying to understand what was happening. She had never seen Pinkie that angry before, even less a lamia pony, since they were said to be myths. Still, myths can be true sometimes. Take Nightmare Moon for example, she quickly mused mentally.
"What is happening is that I don't wanna talk to or see her," Pinkie put emphasis on the last word as she pointed a hoof towards the still weeping hybrid, who seemed oblivious to the gazes directed her way. She didn't care about anything but the sorrow in her heart. She could be thrown in a dungeon or die right where she was, it wouldn't change anything at all.
"But Pinkie, I don't understand," Twilight persisted. "What's your relation with her? And more importantly, how did you meet her? I always thought lamia ponies were myths from Saddle Arabia."
"It doesn't matter anymore," the grumpy mare said as she turned back and started walking away. "Night's over, goodnight girls."
Twilight was too dumbstruck to even go after her friend and stop her. Sure, she wanted more answers, but she also knew that dealing with Pinkie Pie while she was in that state wouldn't get her very far, so she just looked at her as she walked further away. She turned left around a corner, and Twilight then found staring at empty space.
Twilight didn't know how long she would have stared in the direction her friend left, but the sobbing sounds from the creature in front of her home snapped her back to reality as she turned her gaze towards her. Getting answers from her would be fruitless as well, and even so, she wasn't even sure if she'd cooperate.
The alicorn still found it hard to believe what was standing before her. All she knew about lamia ponies came from old stories of the Saddle Arabian folklore, and they weren't really good ones, if what they said about those hybrids were true. Yet, myths and reality were two different things, since the specimen in front of her didn't match the description the story books gave them. She never read anything once about a lamia pony being heartbroken, and that made her even more worried about the hybrid's wellbeing.
Something's not right here. Obviously she and Pinkie Pie know each other, or rather, have known each other, but something really grave happened, if Pinkie's outburst is any indication. It was the farthest she could go in her analysis. Although she did want to figure everything out tonight, she knew that her answers wouldn't come as long as Pinkie was still mad, so she settled to go back to bed and wait until tomorrow before questioning her.
As she turned back towards her door, she saw that Rainbow Dash had recovered from her little fall and Applejack had regained her senses. Rarity, on the other hoof, still laid on the floor where she fainted, and she couldn't see Fluttershy anywhere. She probably hid herself somewhere, she thought.
"Sorry girls, but I think we'll have to cancel the sleepover tonight," she said as she approached her friends in the doorway.
"It's alright, sugarcube, but what about Pinkie Pie?" asked the farm pony.
"I'll talk to her tomorrow. Right now, I think it's best to leave her alone, and for us to have some sleep. I can't really think straight when I'm tired."
"It's good and all, but what about her?" queried Rainbow Dash.
"Well, we can't leave her here on the streets, that's for sure." She lowered her voice as she continued. "Should anypony see her, panic is bound to take hold in town, and having her being captured by the Royal Guards, should anypony alert them, is the last thing she needs right now, so I thought of letting her stay with me in the library for the time being, with Spike being away on royal business again and all, so she wouldn't have to worry about curious eyes."
"What?" shouted Applejack, only to pushed inside the tree house with Rainbow, Twilight closing the door behind them. She didn't want Sapphire Heart to overhear their conversation. Her two friends' mouth could have a tendency to speak before their brain, and even though they were technically dealing with a monster spoken in legends, something inside the alicorn told her there was more than meet the eyes to the individual.
"Are you serious, sugarcube?" asked Applejack.
"Of course I am, AJ. We can't leave her outside alone, now can we?"
"And leave YOU alone with that beast? Who knows what that thing might do to you?"
"Applejack, I know how to take care of myself. I'll be fine."
"Nuh-huh, no way I'm letting one of my friends in some monster's company, Twi. We don't even know what it is!"
"Applejack," Twilight shook her head in exasperation, "I thought you were better than that."
The farm pony was taken aback by her friend's statement. "What?" was all she found to reply to that. The cyan pegasus next to her didn't dare say anything, and even if she wanted, she didn't know what to say or think of the situation. She instead opted to check on Fluttershy, who was still hiding upstairs, and left her two friends finish their talk alone.
"Listen, Applejack," Twilight continued, "I appreciate your concern, but you can really be stubborn sometimes."
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"Everything," she answered simply. She then approached the window and quickly peeked through it, and then turned back to look her friend in the eye.
"Now, I need you to look outside and honestly tell me what you see." Twilight's patience had all but remained now, and Applejack knew better than to push her magical friend above her limits. The results tended to be very ugly, so she quickly complied and did as she was asked.
As she looked outside, she saw it : a monster that came straight out from a horror book. However, if she was honest with herself, she had to admit that it wasn't how she envisioned it. She saw the creature stroke her tail with its hooves in a comforting manner. She saw it all curled on itself like a scared animal. But what struck her the most was the look in its eyes. From her point of view, Applejack could have a glimpse of its face, and what she saw sent a pang of guilt and remorse to her heart.
Dejection and sorry. The words hung in her mind for a while, and as she processed the implications they brought, she couldn't help but feel sorry for the suffering lamia pony.
"Now, AJ," Twilight said from behind her, "do you see now? Is this what a monster looks like to you?"
"No," the farm pony admitted as she lowered her head in shame. "I just wanted to make sure she won't cause any trouble."
"Oh, Applejack," Twilight said as she put a foreleg around the orange pony's shoulder. "Don't you trust me?"
"Of course I trust ya, sugarcube, but-"
"But nothing. Now, it's very late, we're all tired, and there's a guest shivering outside, so let's just put everything aside for now and decide what to do of the situation tomorrow after a good night's sleep."
"Okay," Applejack sighed.
"I promise I'll be fine. Although, can you do me a small favor and take Rarity home?" Twilight asked as she pointed at the still unconscious fashionista, who still hadn't woken up.
Applejack followed Twilight's hoof, and upon seeing her unicorn friend still lying on the floor, she rolled her eyes and let out a chuckle and the sight before agreeing to the task. With the alicorn's help, Rarity was soon secured on Applejack's back, and both of them proceeded for the entrance door, Twilight following close behind.
As they stepped outside, they saw Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy flying away, who must have left by the second story window. As Applejack started to leave, she gave a sidelong look to the mass of scales that still hadn't moved and began her walk back home, leaving Twilight with the lamia pony.
The alicorn waited until all her friends disappeared from sight before slowly approaching the hybrid. She stopped a good two feet away, not wanting to invade her personal space without her consent.
"You're gonna get cold if you stay outside. Nights in Ponyville can get chilly sometimes," Twilight told Sapphire Heart.
"What does it matter?" she replied, pain and sadness still evident in her voice.
"What it matters is that I don't want to find a corpse on my doorstep because you suffered from hypothermia."
"Why would you care, anyway? You and your friends witnessssed it yourssselves tonight. I'm jussst a pitiful monssster that is not worthy of anypony's attention. It would be best if you just left me alone, please," she choked on the last word.
Twilight took a step back as Sapphire said that. It was worse than she thought. Not only was she broken, but she was alone as well. That only doubled Twilight's resolve to lend her a helping hoof. Regaining the bit of composure she lost, she got around the lamia pony and crouched down in order to make eye contact, though it proved difficult with her keeping her head hung low.
"Sapphire Heart," she began, and as the lamia looked up on instinct at hearing her full name, finally connecting her sapphire eyes with Twilight's amethyst ones.
"I'll tell you why I care," the princess went on, breathing deeply as she briefly looked back to the time she was still living in Canterlot, before moving on. "About two years ago, a showmare arrived in town. She was an arrogant braggart, and soon left Ponyville when the townsfolk realized that all her stories were lies to make her look better. Needless to say, she intrigued me since then."
"What does that have to do with me?" asked Sapphire Heart, confused.
"I am getting to that. As I was saying, she piqued my curiosity. Then, a few months ago, she came back in town, seeking revenge for being humiliated and wreaked havoc in Ponyville. After we managed to put everything back to normal, she left again, though I had decided to follow her to the edge of the town to have a talk with her.
"I was curious as to why she boasted so much during her shows. I wanted to know what she was trying to prove by doing that. However, the answer I got wasn't the one I was expecting. She told me she just wanted to be remembered, and if ponies could remember her name, then she wouldn't feel alone.
"So that's why I want to help you, Sapphire Heart. I've seen what years of loneliness can do to a pony, heck, even I have been through it when I was a filly, though it wasn't that much of a problem in my case, I'll admit. But the point is that I want to help you fix what's broken as best I can, just like I did with that showmare."
The lamia was shell-shocked at what she heard. Still, despite this, she still wasn't a hundred percent sure. There was still a troubling question lingering in her mind, and it was with great difficulty that she let it out :
"I don't underssstand. Why would you want to help a creep like me?"
"You're not a creep." Twilight stated matter-of-factly.
"What? How can you sssay I'm not a monssster? Look at me! I'm not even a pony. I'm an abomination of the world used in tales to ssscare little foals. And besides, what makesss you think you can help me? Tell me."
"I don't know how, for now at least," Twilight admitted. "However, Pinkie Pie is my friend, and you are somehow related to her, if I'm guessing correctly, so these are all the reasons I need to try to help you both as best I can. I can't stand seeing Pinkie in that state, nor you either. Pretending that nothing is wrong when something clearly is and letting it pass like it was unimportant; that would make me a monster."
It was then that Sapphire Heart's remaining defenses crumbled down. This pony was truly sincere. She didn't mind her appearance. She considered her like any normal pony, someone worth to be cared for, and for the first time since that day five years ago, she was happy, though it wasn't enough to get rid of the sadness in her heart, she embraced the feeling nonetheless. There was still a dim light of hope for her, and that lit a fire inside her heart that she thought would never burn again.
"Well, I don't know about you, but I am beat, so I'm gonna bid you goodnight, Sapphire," Twilight said as she turned around and started heading back inside. She heard movement from behind as she reached the door frame, and couldn't help but smile as she looked back and saw the lamia following her, seemingly having made her decision. The alicorn stood aside to let her in first before closing and locking the door, hopefully for the last time that night.
"Feel free to make yourself at home. I'm going to hit the hay now. You can use any of these beds if you want. Sleep well, Sapphire." Twilight wished her as she closed the lights and jumped into her bed, which was still in the living room along with five others, which were now unoccupied. She then laid down on it, tucking her wings down so they wouldn't annoy her, and brought her blankets to her neck with her telekinesis.
Sapphire Heart didn't need to be asked twice. Tonight's events had drained her of her energy, so she climbed in the bed farthest from Twilight's, not wanting to invade her personal space. She was immediately overwhelmed with an incredible sense of comfort. As she coiled up her tail around herself to make herself as small as possible and put the blankets over her, she felt something she had never felt before.
Warmth. She felt warm and cozy as she laid on the soft mattress, and she cherished every second she spent it in. She felt safe, and she couldn't remember the last time she felt that way. She felt like she could stay in it forever and never wake up. Just as she was about to fall asleep, she turned to her host one last time before she spoke.
"Excuse me, missss..."
"The name's Twilight Sparkle, and no need for formalities please," the alicorn couldn't help but smack herself for having forgotten to introduce herself before.
"Twilight, thank you," was all the hybrid said before closing her eyes and letting sleep claim her.
The princess allowed a smile to form on her lips before shutting her eyes tight and murmuring a quiet you're welcome before falling asleep as well.
She was going to need it for the next day.