//------------------------------// // Past Memories // Story: To Love a Hybrid // by Applejack-fan //------------------------------// It must have been near noon when the owner of the Golden Oaks Library woke up from a gratefully uneventful night's sleep. On any normal day, she would have caused a scene for having overslept, but today she couldn't care, since she didn't have any princess duties or important tasks to do, so she took all her time to get out of bed and stretch every limb of her body, wings included, which were still ignoring her brain's order to wake up. After a series of popping and cracking sounds, a sigh of relief escaped her lips. Despite not having any big chore to do today, she still had her pink friend's problem to deal with. Speaking of which, she turned around in order to rise her guest from her slumber, however, upon seeing the peaceful look that spread on her sleeping features, she couldn't bring herself to force her out of sleep. Instead, she couldn't help but stifle a small chuckle at how adorable she looked with her hooves tightly hugging the pillow, the blanket half fallen on the floor and her snake tail wrapped all around the bed as if she didn't want to be separated from it. Her decision made, she let her be for now and headed for the kitchen to start a small breakfast. She didn't know what lamia ponies' diet was; the stories she read never even spoke about it. She opted to make cinnamon and apple pancakes in hopes that it would please Sapphire Heart. After a good fifteen minutes of cooking, a strong and delectable aroma could be smelled in the library's kitchen, which quickly spread into the living room next door, to finally reach the drowsy lamia's nostrils, which quickly caught up with it and made her rise from her sleep. As she woke, she breathed in deeply, taking as much of the sweet smell as she could, eliciting a growl from her empty stomach. With a goofy smile on her face, her tongue limping out of her mouth and practically drooling, she followed the smell to its source. As Twilight finished preparing the pancakes, her ears caught on the sound Sapphire's tail made against the wooden floor, but when she turned around to greet her, she almost burst out laughing at how silly her guest looked with her tongue sticking out of her open mouth and the tip of her tail wiggling left and right like a dog's would. She couldn't help but think of the sight as being funny and adorable at the same time. I guess she's liking the smell of the pancakes. "You're going to catch flies in your mouth if you keep this up," the alicorn said, failing to hide a smirk as she turned back to the stove, put it off and levitated their breakfast onto two porcelain plates and withdrew two forks and knives from a drawer. The lamia quickly closed her mouth and flushed sheepishly before replying, "Sssorry, it's jussst that I've never sssmelled anything that good before." "Oh?" Twilight exclaimed as she deposited the dishes on the table and turned to fetch butter and some maple syrup from the fridge, along with a carton of fresh apple juice. "I wasn't really sure if you were going to like this. Having never met a lamia before, so I didn't know what you ate, so..." she continued, her voice becoming slightly nervous as she finished her sentence, which Sapphire Heart immediately noticed. "No need to worry about that, Twilight. Lamias eat the sssame things you ponies do. Even if we are half sssnake, we don't share the sssame diet as they do, I can assure you," she confirmed to the alicorn. "That's good," replied Twilight as she picked up the two items from the fridge and closed it. "It's just that nopony knows anything about your kind, so I didn't want to make a fool of myself or make you upset, so I was slightly worried," she continued as she put the condiments on the table and grabbed two glasses from a cupboard to pour juice in. "Very underssstandable," Sapphire declared before the delectable aroma caught her nostrils again. "What's that sssmell, anyway? I can dissstinguish apple, but I have no idea what that other part is." "I made cinnamon and apple pancakes for breakfast," Twilight answered as she put the glasses down and filled them as she sat at the table, raising an eyebrow at Sapphire's statement all the while. "You've never had cinnamon before?" The lamia shook her head. "Can't sssay I had." "Then now's a good time to start. Come and sit before it gets cold." Sapphire complied and settled in the chair in front of Twilight's, minding her snake tail as she did to avoid knocking anything over. Once she was comfortably seated, her tail coiled under the table, she picked up her utensils and began eating her meal, though to Twilight's eyes, it looked more like devouring. The princess let out a chuckle at that and poured some syrup on her pancakes before taking a bite off of them, followed by a sip of her juice. "Hehe, you look like you've never eaten pancakes before," Twilight commented before taking a second bite, closing her eyes in satisfaction as she swallowed it. When she reopened them, she saw that Sapphire Heart had suddenly stopped eating, and she noticed the look of sadness in her blue eyes. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, Sapphire!" Twilight frantically apologized, starting to panic at the thought that she may have hurt her guest. "I didn't mean to upset you!" "It's okay..." the lamia softly said, not looking up from her plate. "But-" "It's fine, really," Sapphire Heart assured, though her tone wasn't very convincing. "You couldn't know." "What?" Twilight exclaimed, confusion quickly replacing her panic. The hybrid took a deep breath before continuing. "Twilight Sssparkle, you are one of Pinkie Pie's close friends, ssso I believe it would be fair to you to know why I am here. This tale is gonna be long, ssso I'd be grateful if you would take sssome of your time to listen to it. Alssso," her tone had now become pleading at this point, "I'd asssk that you wait until the end before judging me, please." "Judge you? What's that supposed to mean?" Twilight asked, shocked at the strange request. "Please," Sapphire Heart insisted, her hooves held up in a begging manner. The look of resignation in her eyes made Twilight's heart clench, and the alicorn swore she saw a tear roll down the hybrid's cheek. Whatever it was that weighed on Sapphire's heart, she was willing to open up, and to somepony she had only met the day before nonetheless. Although Twilight did want answers, she never thought of getting them this way. It was then that she realized just how desperate the lamia was. "Forget it," Sapphire said after a while, the awkward silence becoming too uncomfortable for her. "I'll jussst get out of your mane and-" "Alright," Twilight finally agreed with a sigh. "What did you sssay?" Sapphire stared at the alicorn, dumbstruck at what she had just heard. "Alright, I promise," Twilight asserted as she approached the hybrid. "Although, that's not how I was expecting to get answers, but apparently," she put a hoof on Sapphire's shoulder, "this means a lot to you, and I'd only feel bad to leave you in this condition. I know that you and Pinkie Pie used to know each other for a while, that I am certain, but whatever happened between you two is certainly weighing on you both, and I can't bear to leave things as is without lending a hoof to mend the situation." Sapphire Heart was stunned by Twilight's declaration. After so many years, she had finally found somepony who was willing to listen to her broken heart, and so she did the first thing that came to her mind to express her gratitude. She held Twilight in her hooves and hugged her tight, shedding a few tears all the while. Instinctively, the alicorn hugged her back. She had never realized how alone the hybrid was, and that made her more eager to hear the other mare's tale. Right now, she needed a shoulder to lean on and an ear to listen, and Twilight was willing to offer her both. After a good minute, they pulled apart, and Twilight summoned a handkerchief and hoofed it to her guest, which she accepted with a quiet "Thanks". She then blew her nose hard on it and threw it in the nearby trash when she was done. "Feeling better?" asked Twilight. "Yesss," she nodded, sniffing a bit as she answered. "It's jussst that I had forgotten what it felt like to hug sssomepony, and I jussst-" "Hush," Twilight cut her. "How about we take a seat and start from the beginning, hmm?" she proposed. The lamia agreed, and the two mares headed for the living room, forgetting their nearly untouched breakfast on the kitchen table. Twilight sat herself on the couch and then gently patted the spot next to her invitingly. The snakepony didn't need to be asked twice and soon joined Twilight, coiling her tail as usual so it wasn't in the way. "Comfortable?" the alicorn queried, receiving a nod from her guest. "Good. So, how about you tell me some about yourself for a start? Sapphire Heart nodded again as a slight frown formed on her face before she spoke: "Well, there isn't much to tell about me, to be honessst. I pretty much grew up alone for nearly half of my life. I lossst my parents when I was little, ssso I had to take care of myssself on my own to sssurvive. I managed to find shelter in an abandoned cave not too far from a pony village. "And who sssays 'village' sssays 'food', and having nothing under hoof to sssustain myssself, I had no other choice but to sneak inside the village at night ssso that nopony would sssee me and sssteal what I needed from food ssstalls, and sssometimes, I even had to look in the trash." "That's horrible!" Twilight exclaimed with a gasp. That explained why Sapphire was eating like a glutton earlier; she was malnourished. Now that she thought about it, she did notice that the lamia looked slimmer than any other pony she had seen before. She took mental note to feed her a proper meal after they were done with all the questioning. "I know," Sapphire Heart continued, "and I hated it. Not jussst fishing in the trash, but alssso the whole sssneak and theft part. Although it was necessssary, I disliked every moment of it, and even today, I ssstill do. However, I knew it was better than being caught and being chased down by an angry mob of ponies who wouldn't be kind to my presence. After all, I do have the body of a monssster. "Ssso I repeated the processss whenever I was running out of sssupplies. However, it ssseems that the village sssomehow took notice of the disappearing food and ssset ponies to keep watch at night, because one day, when I came back to renew my reserve, sssomepony sssounded the alarm, and I was quickly given chase afterwards." She shivered as she recalled that memory, and it didn't go unnoticed to Twilight, as she draped a comforting wing over the trembling mare, who settled against the soft feathers, which seemed to have a soothing effect on her. The librarian waited until Sapphire Heart's shaking stopped before she nodded for her to continue. "I've never felt ssso ssscared in my life. I thought losing my parents was terrible, but this... this was jussst ten times worssse. They were brandishing torches and forks at me as they hunted me down. I managed to essscape back my cave and hid deep in it, however, one of the chasing ponies threw his fork at me and hit me in the tail. "Only when I was sure they wouldn't come inssside did I take notice of the pain it created. That pony didn't missss his shot, because the ssspikes of the fork were planted deep into my ssscales. I didn't even dare remove it. Inssstead, I jussst curled into a ball and weeped, wishing for it all to end, for the never ending pain to go away, and even for somepony to find me and finish me off. "I wished I could have jussst died back there..." she said, falling silent afterwards. Tears were now soaking the fur of her cheeks, and Twilight completely wrapped the broken mare within her wing, stroking her back with a hoof at the same time, slowly swinging back and forth, offering as much comfort as she could. The hybrid gladly accepted the kind gesture, leaning on the alicorn's shoulder and weeping on it. Twilight could feel tears of her own flowing down her purple cheeks. She couldn't help but feel for the lamia in her embrace as she imagined what she'd been through. Twilight didn't know how much time she had passed trying to comfort the sobbing mare, but eventually, her calming strokes on her back finally achieved their intended goal. The librarian summoned another handkerchief for Sapphire, which she discarded thereafter. Once her tears had dried out, she returned to her sitting position and offered Twilight an honest smile of gratitude. "I take it that those events still haunt you sometimes?" Twilight dared to ask. "Often, actually," the lamia responded. "Although, I don't think they'll be as bad anymore. I kind of feel a little lighter deep inssside." "Yeah, that's what happens when you open your heart to someone else, and trust me, I've been through there as well one too many times in the past, so I know how that feels like." "Yeah. Honessstly Twilight, thank you very much. I really mean it." "Don't mention it, Sapphire. Besides, that's what friends do, right?" Sapphire Heart froze at that last statement and looked the alicorn dead in the eyes. Did she just... call me her friend? "Do... do you really mean it?" she asked the alicorn, still shell-shocked. "What about?" Twilight asked back, raising an eyebrow at the odd question. "About me being your... friend?" That last word still felt foreign on the lamia's tongue. She had always thought that she'd never find anypony else who would be willing to accept her, and yet, Twilight Sparkle just called a friend, and that made the dim light in her heart from the previous evening to shine even brighter. "Yes, I do," Twilight nodded with an honest smile. "No one deserves to be alone, and forever more, I saw that there is more to you than meets the eyes, so you qualify as a friend in my books." As she finished saying those words, Twilight found herself trapped in a bear hug from Sapphire's part, who was spewing out a series of "Thank you" in quick succession. When the lamia felt her target struggling in her grip, she let go and chuckled sheepishly, rubbing a hoof behind her head. "Sssorry, I jussst reacted on impulssse, I guessss." "It's fine, I just didn't expect that much of a reaction," Twilight assured. "Anyway, back on track. What happened next? Obviously, something happened afterwards, right?" Although Sapphire's smile faded as they went back to their original topic, it didn't turn back into a frown like before. In fact, she felt much more comfortable talking to the librarian, her friend. "What makes you think that?" Sapphire challenged teasingly. "You standing in front of me alive kinda gave it away," Twilight answered matter-of-factly. "Point taken. And yessss, sssomething did happen, sssomething I'll always be grateful about for the ressst of my life. "When morning came that day, I ssstill hadn't moved from my position. I couldn't even sssleep that night, my thoughts being filled with death wishes and whatnot. Then, I heard hoofsssteps approaching. Thinking it was somepony from the village coming back to finish me off, I closed my eyes, ready to accept my fate. "However, the blow I was waiting for never came." * * * "Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh! Are you okay?" asked a high pitched voice, panic evident in her tone. I opened my eyes. The voice wasn't an adult's. It was a young filly's voice, probably as old as me if I was to compare it to mine. I then dared to turn my gaze towards its source, but when I did, there was nothing at the entrance of the hole I had crawled into. "That's a big looking fork right there! Don't worry, auntie Pinkie Pie will fix this up!" the voice said, now seemingly to had come from behind me. Auntie Pinkie Pie? What was happening? I felt something nudging at my tail, or to be more accurate, the fork planted in it, and just that small movement made me wince in pain. "Hmmm... we're gonna need extreme measures," I heard the voice say. I turned my head to the left, and what I saw made me gape. A pink filly with a slightly darker toned curly mane and tail with three colored round things on her flank was pulling at the fork, seemingly intending to remove it. And that she did, quickly. I screamed so loudly from the sudden pain I swore it could have caused a cave in. Tears cascaded down my face, and I blacked out in seconds. * * * I didn't know how long I had been unconscious, but when I woke up, most of the pain was gone. Not understanding what was going on, I looked at my tail, and I was surprised to see it tightly wrapped in a thick white cloth. I could see some red stains where the remaining pain came from, which I could only guess as blood, and that made me shiver. However, one question remained: who in the world had bandaged me? Luckily, I didn't have to look for an answer, since a voice, the same from before, called out to me. "Good, you're awake!" it said, and it was coming from my right this time, so I turned to look in that direction, and saw that same filly, which I had only managed to get a quick glimpse of before blacking out. "These were nasty big holes you had there in your tail," she continued. "It's a good thing I always have an emergency first aid kit for emergencies." She put a hoof into her mane and pulled out a white box adorned with a red cross out of it. Wait, what? How did she do that? The box was bigger than her head! How did she...? "Hey! Equestria to Miss Snakepony!" The pink filly was now standing right in front of my face, her smile still plastered on her lips. How she got there so quickly without me noticing was beyond my understanding. "W-what?" was all I could muster. I was confused. I didn't understand. Who was she? Why was she here? Why did she help me? And more importantly, why wasn't she afraid of me? Anypony would have run away by now, yet she still stood there with no apparent signs of fear whatsoever. "I said, what's your name, silly." "Sssapphire Heart," I responded, my mouth talking on its own while my brain was still processing what was going on. The filly giggled. "You have a funny way to pronounce your 's'," she simply stated. "I'm Pinkie Pie! You may not remember me mentioning it while I bandaged you because you were suffering and screaming and crying and then you lost consciousness," she said that last sentence without needing to catch her breath. How she did that, I didn't know, but I decided it best not to delve on it. "So, why were you crying all alone in an abandoned cave with a giant fork planted in your tail?" she asked as if the answer wasn't obvious. However, when I looked her in the eye, even though that smile of hers hadn't left her face, I could see that she was dead serious all the same. "Because nopony wants to be around a monssster like me," I told her, hoping that answer would make her realize what she was currently dealing with. "You're not a monster, silly! Monsters are terrifying and wild creatures that eat ponies and live in the Everfree Forest, like manticores, hydras and timberwolves," she said as if it was that simple. "Then what about this?" I asked as I pointed at my tail. "How can a pony with a sssnake tail not be terrifying? Surely you can't call that normal!" The pink filly put a hoof under her chin as she seemed to think it over, though it only lasted a few seconds before she answered, her smile quickly returning on her face. "I know it's not normal, but that doesn't make you a monster. Monsters are evil and mean and don't cry and eat ponies, yet you were crying when I found you here." She seemed sincere, yet there was still a hint of doubt in me, which brought up my next question. "Why would you care about me, when everypony elssse would jussst be glad to kill me upon ssseeing me?" I saw her shiver a bit and lose her smile as I spoke the word 'kill'. Although I felt a bit bad for causing her that reaction, I had to say it to make her understand. "Why would anypony want to do that?" she asked, and that was the final straw. I stood tall on my tail, looking above her as anger took hold of me. "Because I'm different! Because ponies are ssscared of what is different! That's why!" Pinkie Pie shrunk a bit under my gaze and her ears had drooped. I let out a few angry breaths before I felt the pain in my tail again, this time even worse, and I fell down to the floor. Yet, my head didn't land on the rocky surface, instead, it was met with a pair of hooves that caught me before I hit the ground. With my rage gone, I did the only thing a suffering pony would do: I cried. I didn't fight the tears anymore; I knew it wasn't worth the effort. However, what came next surprised me. The hooves that had caught me wrapped around my torso, and I felt somepony's head resting atop mine. I didn't resist, instead hugging back the one holding me. I let the tears flow like a fountain and clung to the other pony. After minutes that felt like hours, I rose my head with dried out eyes and met Pinkie Pie's visage. She was smiling kindly and honestly at me, and her hooves were still wrapped around my midsection. I still couldn't believe that she was still there, however, that fact created something in my heart I never felt before. For the first time in ages, somepony cared about me. She wasn't afraid of my appearance. She looked at me as if I was anypony else, and she wasn't judging me. Held in her comforting embrace, I finally felt happy for once, and that lit a spark of hope in my heart. But then it had to end. Pinkie pulled me away, though she still held my shoulders at hooves' length, her smile never leaving her face. That smile grew wider as I smiled back at her. "Feeling better?" she asked. "Much, thank you." "No need to thank me, silly. That's what friends do. They help and comfort each other when others feel alone." "F-friends?" that word was foreign to me. I've always been living on my own. I know what it meant, but the fact of being called that by somepony else felt... great. No, more than that, it felt refreshing. "Yep!" Pinkie exclaimed. "I... I think I'd like that..." "Woohoo!" the filly yelled as she jumped high in the air; a jump I know no normal pony should be able to do. "This is so great! Oh, wait til' I tell my sisters and my parents that I made a new friend! We're gonna have so much fun to-" "NO!" I cut her abruptly. I started panicking at the thought of her telling others about me, who would probably not be kind to my looks. "What?" she asked me, confused. "But-" "No!" I repeated firmly. "Please, jussst... don't tell anypony about me," I pleaded her. Silence hung in the air for a while as I stared at the floor. "Okay," I heard Pinkie say. "Huh?" I asked as I looked back up. "I'll keep our friendship a secret. Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye," she exclaimed as she drew a cross on her chest, waved her hooves in what looked like an attempt at flight before poking her eye with a hoof. "What was that?" I questioned with a raised eyebrow. "Just something I came up with. I call it a Pinkie Promise. Breaking one is the best way to lose a friend," she explained in a professional manner. "So, your secret is safe with me." "Thank you very much," I said with a smile of my own. Goodness, it felt good to be able to smile genuinely. I had found a friend, and I didn't want that friendship to end. * * * "That's... wow. That is something," Twilight said when the mare sitting next to her finally took a pause. What she had just been told was a lot to digest, but she managed to make a short summary with all the details she had been provided. Firstly, Sapphire lost her parents when she had just entered her teens, and had lived a solitary life ever since. Secondly, she had to resort to thievery to feed herself. Thirdly, she was caught stealing food one night and was then being hunted down, but she luckily escaped, but not without a serious injury. Lastly, she had been found by Pinkie Pie, who healed her and befriended her, not caring at all that she was a lamia pony. "That's one way to put it," Sapphire Heart agreed after a short while. "Sssince that day, Pinkie would jussst come to my cave to visit whenever she could, and each time, she brought sssome food from her rock farm, which happens to have been nearby all along, ssso I didn't have to worry about ssstealing from the townsponies anymore thanks to her." "Still, there's one question that's plaguing me," Twilight cut in. "What was she doing in your cave when she found you?" The snakepony chuckled lightly at that. "I asssked her the sssame question back then, and she told me that she was jussst walking by during an errant her father gave her and she sssimply got curious." "I should have guessed it would have been something along those lines," the alicorn rolled her eyes. "I take it you've experienced her... one-of-a-kind behavior before?" "One too many times, I'm afraid. That pony is so curious about anything that comes out of the ordinary that it becomes infuriating sometimes. I've known Pinkie for a little more than two years and I still can't figure how her brain works, nor do I believe I will manage to, no matter the amount of effort I put into it, so I just leave it as Pinkie being Pinkie Pie. "However, this doesn't apply when she's acting like she did last night," Twilight added afterwards. "Yeah, about that..." Sapphire started, now feeling nervous, her blue eyes fixed on the floor and toying with a strand of brown hair from her mane unconsciously. The shift in her tone didn't go unnoticed by the librarian. "Are you alright?" she asked. The lamia quickly glanced Twilight's way before closing her eyes. She breathed deeply in an attempt to steel her resolve, and she only reopened them a minute later. She still felt anxious, however, she knew she had to tell Twilight at some point anyway. She knew the conversation would take an unpleasant turn from now on, but the alicorn had the right to know about it. She feared what her new friend would think afterwards, but it had to be done regardless. Besides, she was tired of running away. "Twilight Sssparkle, I'm not gonna lie to you. As you may remember from lassst night, Pinkie was... I guessss enraged would be the bessst word to dessscribe her reaction." "I do recall, yes. I'm also guessing that something bad happened?" "It was worssse than bad. What happened, or rather, what I did, was, and ssstill is, unforgivable." She paused for a few seconds before moving on. "Twilight, out of curiosity, do you have any idea what happens when a lamia enters puberty?" The alicorn was taken by surprise by the odd question, but shook her head nonetheless. "Then allow me to tell you a little sssomething about our ssspecies. Lamias can be very lussstful when they want to, however they are able to control themssselves. However, when one enters puberty, she loses that body control for approximately two years. Now can you sssee where I am going?" Twilight barely managed to stifle a gasp, which the hybrid took as a yes. "You...?" "It was about a year later sssince the day we met. She came to visit like she did the other times. During that year, we got to know each other more until we became bessst friends, and I ssstarted feeling butterflies in my chessst whenever I sssaw her. Then we both entered our teens. At firssst, it was easy to ignore my lamia inssstincts, but one day, it became too much and I lossst control of myssself. "And I ssstarted taking advantage of her, as you ponies would call it. I couldn't think. I didn't care about anything elssse. I know she told me to ssstop many times, but I was out of control, my body acting on itsss own to sssatisssfy itsss needs. "And then it ssstopped. I didn't like how it happened, but for Pinkie's sssake, I was more than happy it did. A ssstallion, which I can only guessss was her father, followed her all the way to the cave. I don't remember much of what happened, having been in a trance of sssome sssort, but I do recall hearing the sssound of a hunting gun resssounding in the cave, which sssnapped me out of what I was doing. "Before I fled deeper in the cave, I caught a glimpssse of Pinkie's visage, and I'll never forget the looks of confusion and fear dancing on it. When I was sssure I was alone, I cried as shame and realization of what I was about to do took hold of me. "It was alssso the lassst time I sssaw Pinkie Pie," she finished. She had lost some of her resolve along the way, as she had turned her back to Twilight and didn't dare take a look at her reaction to what she had just revealed. The librarian, on her part, didn't dare say anything. She never expected that what happened between Pinkie Pie and Sapphire Heart was that big. She was so lost in her thoughts, her mind processing everything, that she didn't notice the lamia had stood to leave until she was about to reach the front door. Twilight quickly cast her teleportation spell and rematerialized between the library entrance and the broken hybrid. "Where are you going?" she asked her. "Back to where a monssster like me belong: alone in an abandoned cave. I don't deserve to be anyone's friend with what I did back then." "That's not true," Twilight said firmly, taking the lamia by surprise, and continued before she could reply. "Shut up and let me finish. Sure, what you did was bad, and it's true that you'll never be able to forget that event. However, forgiveness is still not out of your reach," she asserted. "How can you sssay that? I almossst outright raped her, Twilight! How can a crime as big as this be forgivable?" Sapphire Heart practically yelled back. "Because I know there's still more to the story," the alicorn answered. "Would that have happened on any other circumstances, I would have put you under arrest for such a crime. What stops me is that I can see that you are hurting from it all and are trying to make amends for it. Am I right?" The hybrid lowered her head as she said, "You really are a very sssmart mare, Twilight Sssparkle." "I get that a lot." "Yet, that doesn't change the fact that you are right once more. I did come here for a few reasons." "And those would be...?" "In fact, there were two main reasons that drove me here. The firssst was that I wanted to try and asssk Pinkie Pie for forgivenessss, and we both know how that worked out. But more importantly, I wanted closure. I wasn't expecting her to forgive me; even I can't forgive myssself. When I decided to come here, all I wished to do was to at leassst tell her how I felt sssince that incident, that I never meant for it to happen, and how much she meant to me all along. Alas, it is cryssstal clear she doesn't want to hear any of it, and I don't blame her, either." "That's so unlike Pinkie Pie to not accept an apology," Twilight chimed in. "Usually, she always finds it in her heart to forgive anything. Something's off here." "What do you mean?" Sapphire asked, not quite following where the librarian was going with this. "I'm not certain, but I might have a hypothesis." The hybrid's ears perked up a bit, a cue for Twilight to continue. "You said earlier that it was Pinkie's father who caught you in the act, right?" the alicorn asked, receiving a nod from Sapphire Heart. "And I can only guess he was mad back there, right?" "Mad is putting it lightly. I think furious is a more accurate term. I think I heard him yell at Pinkie Pie as I got away from him, though it was hard to tell, sssince I was focusing on getting out of sssight ssso as to not be shot by his hunting gun. Although, I can't sssee where you're..." She stopped, her eyes widening as a wave of realization hit her, and apparently, the conclusion she came up with was spot on, because Twilight said out loud what her mind was thinking: "I think that she got in trouble with her father after he scared you off, though how much, I couldn't know. Like I said, it's just my own logical theory. The only way to know for sure would be to ask Pinkie Pie herself." "And that would be a lossst cause, Twilight. I could barely insert a full sentence the lassst time I tried talking to her, and she'll never want to ssspeak to me again, I know it. It would be bessst to-" The hybrid was cut off by a purple hoof into her mouth, and her gaze moved up on its own accord to meet Twilight's. "I don't wanna hear any of that nonsense, Sapphire," the alicorn said sternly. "Listen, you messed up big time, I agree, but is that what you wanted?" Sapphire shook her head, unable to give a verbal answer with Twilight's hoof keeping her mouth shut. "Did you ever intend to do what you did?" Another shake of the head. "Is this really the kind of closure you want?" she finished, earning another shake from the lamia's part. "Then you're going to have that talk with her," Twilight said, taking her hoof off of her guest's mouth, who stared at her with unbelieving eyes. "B-but-" "No 'buts'. I'll even come with you as a moral support, and because I need to disguise you until we reach Sugarcube Corner. I don't think ponies in town are ready to see a lamia pony roaming about, so we're gonna have to hide you until we get to a private place. And besides, it is my duty to help my friends as best I can, remember?" "You really ssstill think of me as your friend?" Sapphire Heart asked, stunned. "Even after everything I told you?" Twilight slowly nodded her head. "Right now, you need friends more than anything if you want to at least settle things with Pinkie Pie. I'm not saying that she'll be forgiving you at the end, but we'll at the very least make her listen to you. That'll be the best we'll be able to do. What will comes after depends on how the conversation goes. "Now, where is that book on illusions and enchantments?" the librarian asked herself. "SPIKE!" she shouted, and the hybrid had to cover her ears with her hooves to avoid becoming deaf.