“Your yells could kill an Ursssa, you know that?” asked Sapphire Heart, who was rubbing her temples in an attempt to stop the ringing sensation in her ears.
“I said I was sorry!” Twilight apologized for the umpteenth time as she searched the book held in her magic. Despite being well organized, it had taken her a good five minutes to find what she was looking for. Now, she had to find the invisibility spell to sneak the lamia up to Pinkie’s room inside Sugarcube Corner for a private talking.
“Finally!” Sapphire exclaimed as she let go of her head, the ringing gone at last. She then turned to the alicorn. “How is the sssearch going ssso far?”
“Just a minute…” Twilight flipped a few more pages and stopped a dozen later. “Ha ha! Here it is!” She began reading it, the hybrid leaning over her shoulder to take at peak as well, though it was short-lived as the librarian closed the book, having memorized the spell already.
“Ssso, what’s next?” Sapphire queried.
“Not much. The spell is quite simple, actually. Once I cast it on you, it is going to nullify the reflection of the light on you. Because of that, others won’t be able to see the reflected colors of the light spectrum the sun sends, since it won’t have anything to reflect on its rays on because of the spell.”
Sapphire was staring blankly at the alicorn like she had grown a second pair of wings. “W-what?”
“It means you’ll become invisible,” Twilight pouted as another pony couldn’t understand her scientific speech.
Sapphire finally nodded in understanding at the simpler version, much to the magician’s dismay. She was then directed to stand still as her friend’s horn lit up, charging up the spell, only to be interrupted by soft knocks on the front door.
“Who could that be?” wondered Twilight as she stopped the magical operation.
“Well, unlessss my eyes deceive me, you do live in a library, don’t you?” Sapphire said matter-of-factly as she waved a hoof around the place.
The alicorn slightly blushed at the obviousness of it all. “Yeah. It kind of slips my mind sometimes.” She approached the door, turning to the lamia before opening it. “You should hide upstairs until whoever it is leaves."
The lamia nodded and did as instructed, climbing up the stairs, disappearing from sight, though she stayed nearby out of curiosity.
Back in the living room, the knocking resounded again, a bit more forcefully this time, much to Twilight's annoyance.
"I'm coming!" she shouted, opening the door with her telekinesis. "Sorry for the delay. Had something important to..." She stopped as she noticed who was standing in front of her. "Pinkie Pie?"
"Hey Twilight. Um..." she sheepishly clopped her fore hooves together. "Do you know where Sapphire Heart is?"
The question took the alicorn by surprise, having not expected the party mare to have come to her herself, but she quickly recovered from it. "Yeah, she's here. We were about to come over to your place and have a talk."
"That's good," Pinkie said simply, earning a raised eyebrow and a confused "Huh?" from Twilight.
“Can I… can I come in?” Pinkie asked.
Without saying a word, Twilight stepped aside, allowing her friend to enter the library, and closed the door behind her. She then turned back and looked at her friend, who was rubbing a fore hoof against the other. She also noticed that her mane had gotten back some of its usual puffiness, which was a sign that she must be faring a bit better than the previous night.
“Is everything alright, Pinkie?” Twilight questioned worriedly.
“Not really,” Pinkie admitted, “so that’s why I’d like to talk to her. In private, please.”
“With the way you treated her last night, you expect me to leave you alone with her?”
“Please, Twilight. I know I let my anger get the best of me, but trust me, it won’t happen again.”
“That doesn’t help ease my fear that it might.”
“I know, but I have to talk to her. I Pinkie Promised I would…”
“You did…?”
“Yeah, though I can’t say to whom. It would be against the Pinkie Promise rule. But I want to talk to her.” She shook her head. “No, I have to.”
Twilight’s gaze continued to bore into the pink mare’s, and it wasn’t after a long awkward and interminable silence that she turned and made her way to the stairs.
“Follow me,” the librarian said flatly, not even looking back once as she ascended to the upper floor. Pinkie didn’t need to be asked twice, as she quickly caught up with her, remaining silent the entire time.
Upstairs, Sapphire Heart, who had recognized Pinkie’s voice from the beginning, was currently overwhelmed with a wave of confusion. Even though she hadn’t managed to understand what the two ponies had said from where she was, she still picked on the neutral tone the pink pony had used throughout her talk with Twilight, and that made her more confused. Last night, she had been enraged. What could have caused the shift in her mood?
She was soon snapped out of her thoughts as she heard hoofsteps coming her way, joined by a distant “Follow me” from the librarian. As she listened carefully, she could tell that two ponies were coming up, and her whole body tensed as she could only guessed who the other one could be. That tension rose to an extreme level as her guess proved to be correct; behind Twilight Sparkle followed Pinkie Pie, a neutral mark on her face veiling any emotions she might be feeling.
Sapphire and Pinkie shared a quick emotionless stare before Twilight ushered the earth pony in her bedroom, beckoning her to wait there. She closed the door and faced the hybrid, who didn’t dare say anything. Even if she wanted, she didn’t know what to think of the situation anyway.
Twilight approached the lamia and put a hoof on her shoulder, though the lack of a smile or any other encouraging gestures didn’t ease her nervousness.
“Whatever happens in there, good luck,” she simply said.
“W-what?” Sapphire Heart stuttered. “You’re not sssticking with me?”
“Not directly, no. But I’ll stay nearby in case things go out of control, so I won’t be far away.”
The lamia gulped nervously, not sure what to expect on the other side of the door. She didn’t think she could take another outlash. Her moral was already low as it was; it would totally wreck her.
“I know it’s not going to be easy, Sapphire, but whatever she has to say must be important, and it seems you’re the one she’s willing to get the answers. Even if I insisted, she Pinkie Promised that she speaks with you alone, so there’s nothing I can do about it. Sorry.”
Twilight used her magic to open the door to her room. Albeit being reluctant about it, the lamia slowly made her way inside, looking at the alicorn one more time before the door was gently closed shut again.
Silence then filled the room for what felt like eternity to the two mares, neither of them saying a word. Pinkie was sitting on her rump and was currently finding the ceiling to be interesting, despite it being devoid of decorations and whatnot. Sapphire, on her part, had grabbed her snake tail with her hooves and was absentmindedly caressing it, a sign of her obvious discomfort.
“It’s really been a while, hasn’t it?” Pinkie stated when the silence was about to drive them nuts.
“Yeah, it has…” Sapphire replied, not sure how else to respond to that. The fact that she couldn’t read Pinkie’s facial expression caused her to worry to no end.
“It’s hard to imagine that it’s been six years since we first met. Time sure flies, doesn’t it?”
The hybrid said nothing. She watched Pinkie intently, and the more she did, the more she just wanted to vanish from existence.
“And then you showed up last night, reopening the doors to a past I wanted to forget, or so I thought I could, but for some reasons, I never managed to.”
“Pinkie…?”
“But after a talk with somepony close to me and some thinking, I think I finally found out why I couldn’t get rid of those memories, of the pain, of everything tied to them.”
“Pinkie, wha-”
“I’m sorry.”
Sapphire’s body froze instantly, and she found herself stuttering, trying to no avail to form a coherent response. The only coherent word that managed to leave her lips was a confused “What?”
“I’m sorry,” Pinkie repeated, “for the way I acted last night.”
“Why are you apologizing?” the snakepony asked once she regained the ability to speak properly. “I should be the one to apologize to you. After what I’ve done, you have the right to me mad at me.”
“No, I don’t,” she said, lowering her head to look at the lamia.
Sapphire was taken aback by that statement. “What do you mean?” No matter how hard she tried to make sense of the current situation, her mind went blank.
Pinkie sighed and braced herself for the longest conversation she ever had. “Like I said, I’ve done some thinking this morning when I woke up. I still had the talk I had with somepony last night when I got back home in mind, and she made me realize some things.”
The hybrid coiled her tail and sad on the makeshift cushion, making herself comfortable to listen to Pinkie's story.
"The day when you almost... raped me, when my dad took me home, I've been severely punished. He wouldn't let me leave the farm without him or my mom keeping watch on me. I also received the biggest spank of my life that day. It hurt, but not as much as what I felt inside."
"Pinkie, I'm ssso sssorr-"
"Don't interrupt, please," Pinkie half demanded, half pleaded, and the lamia complied. "That day, the emotions I've felt were overwhelming. I was worried about your odd behavior. That worry turned to fear when I realized there was nothing I could do to stop you." Sapphire Heart's ears flattened against her skull as she was reminded of her mistake.
"And once it ended, when my father came in and brought me back home, I felt betrayed. Betrayed by my best friend, and that made me mad since then.
"My life on the farm, already not as joyful, even after I earned my cutie mark, became a living nightmare when my whole family has been told about what I had been doing all these times I left home. When they learned what I spent my days with, they all looked at me with disapproving glares. My sisters barely looked at or talked to me, my mother was horrified, and my father... I guess the most accurate word would be disgusted.
“Eventually, one night, I ran away and ended up here in Ponyville, wanting to leave everything behind. However, that proved to be harder than I thought, as the torrent of emotions followed me. Of course, being so young and confused at the time, I put the blame on the one who caused my pain, or so was what I thought back then.
“But this morning, when I reminisced everything, I wondered: was I mad for the right reasons? Why was I in the first place?”
“Pinkie,” Sapphire cut in, “after the way I acted, it’s sssimply normal to be mad at me. Even I couldn’t forgive myssself for what I have done when I regained control of my sssenssses.”
“It’s true that you broke my heart and trust that day, Sapphire, but truth be told, I found out that I wasn’t directing my anger to the right target.”
“What do you mean?” the lamia asked, raising an eyebrow questioningly.
“As I said, I was mad at what you did, not at you…” Pinkie sighed. “It doesn’t look like it, but these are two different things, and it took me a kick in the flank last night, as small as it may have been, to realize all that.
"I'll never forgive what happened that day, Sapphire, that's for sure." The hybrid deflated quite a bit at that statement. "But in the end, I can forgive you."
"What?" Sapphire gasped, words suddenly failing her as her mind processed what Pinkie had just said. "Why?" she asked, opting for the simplest word to show her confusion.
"Because," Pinkie Pie began as she stood up on her four hooves, "we've learned to know each other in a little bit more than a year. We played together. We laughed together. We cried together. We shared our pain with each other. We used to be very special friends before we were torn apart by that incident."
Pinkie slowly made her way towards the stoned beige-coated mare, who didn't dare move at all. "As we spent more and more time together, I started feeling like we were becoming closer than friends. I felt as if I had gotten a third sister.
"As the first year passed, another feeling started to form inside me, yet it was foreign to me back then, and now that I am old enough to analyze it with an adult's mind, I think I may have discovered why I hurt so much, why I kept dreaming about you and our time spent together when I ran away from home, and why I couldn't take it all out of my head.
"I..." Pinkie gulped, "I think I had a crush on you."
Instantly, the snakepony's pupils widened to the size of a saucer. She felt the same way as I did too? A little wave of joy built up in her chest, only to vanish as she realized what Pinkie's admission implied.
I messed up more than I thought I did... No wonder she was that mad and miserable. She sighed heavily. I shouldn't have come back here. I don't even deserve somepony like her.
She stood up from her scaly cushion and turned her back to the pink mare, her head hung low. “Pinkie, I never realized your pain was that deep, and there’s nothing I can do to take it all back. Ssso I’ll jussst go. Sssomewhere far away where I won’t be able to hurt you more than I already have.
“I had, and sssometimes ssstill do, trouble sssleeping at night as that incident replayed in my mind. I already messssed up badly once. I couldn’t live it down if I did a sssecond time, ssso…”
She started heading for the door. Despite Pinkie’s claims that she forgave her, she couldn’t believe it. She couldn’t do so herself. If she couldn’t make amends with Pinkie Pie, then she’d make sure that she wouldn’t be able to cause her any more pain.
When she was about to reach the door, however, Pinkie quickly dashed around the lamia and blocked its access, stopping her in her tracks.
“Where are you going?” she asked Sapphire Heart.
“Sssome place where I won’t be able to hurt you anymore. I don’t deserve you after everything that has happened, ssso it would be bessst if I jussst vanished.”
“What if I don’t want you to?”
Sapphire blinked once, then twice, then another time before her brain managed to process what Pinkie had just said.
“I said that I forgave you, didn’t I?” Pinkie continued.
“How can you?” the hybrid half snapped, half choked. “I nearly committed one of the worssst pony crimes there are, ssso how can you forgive sssomething like that?”
Pinkie didn’t answer immediately. She stared deep into the lamia’s sapphire eyes, which were still moist. Then, much to the latter’s astonishment, she smiled. It may be small, but it was still a smile nonetheless.
“Because…” she began, “I can see past those feelings that kept me bound all these years. I now know that the Sapphire Heart I knew back then wouldn’t have done something like that in her right mind. I knew something was wrong with you that day, but I didn’t know what it was, and that was what scared me the most.”
“Pinkie, if only you knew all the misery I’ve been through sssince that day. I ssswore to myssself that if I ever wanted to talk to you again sssomeday, then I had to fight what got us both in this predicament.” The lamia sighed heavily.
“I believe you, Sapphy,” Pinkie said, catching the hybrid off-guard with the use of her old nickname. “And truth be told, I really miss this time when we used to spend our days together.”
“Me too…” Sapphire nodded. Neither of them said anything for a while, which caused the pink mare to grow impatient. When she had enough, she looked at Sapphire and spread her arms wide, at which the lamia raised an eyebrow.
“Come here, silly,” Pinkie Pie invited.
“You sure?” Sapphire asked, still unsure of herself and how they stood now.
“If you don’t, I’ll just go with the hard way,” the party pony teasingly threatened, although for the snakepony, it looked as if it was the biggest threat she ever received, because she complied right away, throwing herself in Pinkie’s arms, which quickly closed around her.
Tears of joy formed at the corners of her eyes, as well as her friend’s, and they remained like that for a little while.
“I should have seen sooner that all of this affected you as much as it did for me,” Pinkie stated.
“It’s all right, Pinkie. In all honesssty, I shouldn’t have waited ssso long before coming to sssee you, because I was afraid of your reaction, but eventually, I had to. I couldn’t hide forever.”
“And it took a good kick in the flank to realize that,” they said in unison, causing them to stare at each other for a second and then fall to the floor, laughing.
It took them a good minute to calm down, their laughter being reduced to barely restrained chuckles. They had to fight the urge to flop back onto the floor in another fit of laughs as they stood back up.
"Ssso," Sapphire began once her breathing had returned to normal, "where do we go from here?"
"Where do you wanna go?"
The lamia slapped her head with a hoof at Pinkie's innocent question. "Not that kind of 'where'. I meant: what happens between us now?"
"Well," Pinkie started, approaching her friend, rubbing the top of her head against the brown-maned mare, "we could start over from where we last stood before the incident." She sniffed at Sapphire's hair, much to the latter's embarrassment, though she didn't do anything to stop her antics, so she must be fine with it.
"Your mane still feels like silk, and you still have that cavern-y smell," Pinkie commented.
"Uh, thanks?" the hybrid sheepishly offered for an answer, not sure what else to say to that.
That moment, however, was short-lived as Pinkie stepped back and looked her friend deep in the eyes with a serious look in her own, much to the snakepony's worry, who never liked to be on the receiving end of it.
"There's one more thing I wanna know, though," Pinkie began. "What happened to you after that day? Did you eat well?" She gasped. "You didn't go back to thievery for food, did you?"
Sapphire Heart was quick to answer, as she shook her head negatively and waved her hooves in front of her as a sign of denial. "No, I didn't, and even if I had wanted, I couldn't have anyway.
"The night of the day your father took you back with him, I figured it would have been a matter of time before ponies in town were made aware of my presence here, ssso I had to get away from here. Even if I felt like I didn't have any reason to continue with my life, sssomehow, sssomething inssside me, which I jussst recently identified as the hope to sssee you again sssomeday, kept me going.
"Ssso I packed the leftover food you had given me, along with the cover you gifted me with, and left the cave. Even if I thought I might never sssee you or hear of you again, dessspite what I did and feeling like I didn't deserve you, whenever I wrapped myssself in that cover, it felt like you were ssstill by my ssside. No matter what I tried to put everything behind me, I couldn't ssstop thinking about you."
“Me neither,” Pinkie added. “Where did you move to?”
“I…” Sapphire fidgeted slightly. “Don’t be mad at me please. I know I shouldn’t have, but at the time, it felt like the mossst inviting place in the world for me, or ssso I consssidered.”
“Sapphy, tell me,” Pinkie demanded, a hint of firmness in her voice.
“I exiled myssself in the Everfree Foressst.” She closed her eyes tightly, waiting to be reprimanded by her friend for her reckless decision.
“How…?” Pinkie said, though her tone was so low it almost sounded like a whisper. “How did you manage to survive in there?” The hybrid didn’t miss the trace of worry that the pink pony carried in her voice as she continued.
“Everypony knows it’s dangerous out there. Even I am scared of that place sometimes. Most ponies who enter never come out.”
“You and your friends did jussst fine in there,” Sapphire commented.
“That was different! We went in to stop Night-” Pinkie stopped herself suddenly as a light bulb lit up in her head. “Wait a second. How do you know about that?”
“Newspapers. You were depicted in it for saving Equessstria from night eternal. Ssseeing you in them was alssso an important factor that made me want to sssee you face to face in the firssst place.”
Pinkie slightly raised an eyebrow. “How did you get your hooves on newspapers IN the Everfree?” she pushed.
“The zebra who took me in brought some back with her whenever she came back from her errands.”
Zebra? Could it be…? “It wasn’t a zebra mare named Zecora, was it?” Pinkie asked. Zecora was the only zebra she knew - literally - that lived in the cursed forest. Unless it’s just a coincidence…
“I figured you would guessss that right,” the lamia said.
“Huh?”
“She found me one day in the foressst. I wasn’t faring well, and she took me in her home without quessstions, and as weak as I was, even if I had wanted, I couldn’t resissst.
“Long ssstory short, I didn’t trussst her at firssst, jussst like anyone elssse. Eventually, the kindnessss she showed me payed off and I was back in good health again. Well, physically at leassst…”
“But,” Pinkie interjected, “we’ve known Zecora for two years. You mean that all this time, you were at her place?” The lamia merely nodded.
“As time passssed, little by little, I warmed up to her. Although I was nursssed back to health, my mind was ssstill in turmoil, and I don’t know what tipped her off, but one night, she came to me and opened her heart to me.
“I told her everything. About my miserable and lonely life, about you and the time we ssspent together, about what I felt towards you all this time, and my missstake.
“I-” she was interrupted by a pink hoof on her lips, blocking any more words to come out. The hybrid rose an eyebrow questioningly at her friend, who only gave a simple smile in return.
“I’m just happy that you were safe all this time,” Pinkie said. “Though, if Zecora knew about us, why didn’t she tell me that you were there all along?”
Sapphire Heart stared at her with a deadpan look. “Ssseriously, Pinkie, you really have to asssk that?
“Sssuppose she had, how would you have reacted?” Pinkie opened her mouth to answer, but when nothing came out, she closed it and flattened her ears against her skull shamefully. “That’s what I thought. You don’t know because you probably wouldn’t have been ready, right?” Though she said nothing, Pinkie nodded her head.
“I was the sssame as well. I ssstill had things to put back in place in my mind before I could find the courage to talk to you face to face. And truth be told, I never found it.”
“What do you mean?” Pinkie asked, confused.
“Zecora and I agreed that the bessst option to get closure to all of this was to ssspeak with you. However, I kept pushing further the moment of truth. I feared your reception regarding my return, ssso I didn’t dare make the move, until…”
“Until what?” Pinkie asked, cocking her head to the left slightly.
The hybrid chuckled sheepishly and rubbed the back of her head with a hoof. “Well, would you believe me if I sssaid that she kicked me out after a while?”
Pinkie’s eyes widened to the point where one would think they would fall off. “What?!”
“Yeah, I know it may sssound unlike her, but she did it on the pretenssse that it was for the bessst. She even forbade me to enter until I had ssspoken to you. I thought she was bluffing, but I ssstupidly waited three days on her doorssstep, and not once did she open her door for me.
“Ssso, yeah. That’s the kind of kick I got to actually act,” Sapphire finished. She anxiously looked up at Pinkie Pie, patiently awaiting a response on her part.
“I guess we should be thankful then, shouldn’t we?” the earth pony stated.
“Huh?” Sapphire blurted out.
“If it weren’t for Zecora, you might not have dared come here at all. And if it were not for Mrs. Cake’s convincing, I might not have dared show up at Twilight’s door this morning. We would probably have wallowed in our pain for who knows how long.”
“I sssee what you mean, and I’m afraid to sssay that you’re probably right with that,” the snakepony admitted when Pinkie was done with her explanation.
“So, are we good?” Pinkie asked, offering a hoof and a smile on her face.
“It’s more than I could have hoped for,” Sapphire said as she bumped it with her own, replicating her friend’s smile.
“Great! Cuz now I have a ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ party to plan!” Pinkie exclaimed excitedly.
Sapphire’s colors practically drained from her body at the idea of a party for her, not really keen on it.
“Pinkie, I don’t think this is a good idea…”
“Oh no, you are not ssskipping this one, Sapphy.”
“But…”
“No buts, missy! Besides, you’re in Ponyville, now. Ponies here are used to weird stuff happening around town. We’ve had Nightmare Moon, an invasion of parasprites, a cranky Ursa, Discord’s madness when he was a bad guy, and all other kinds of crazy things. Seeing a lamia wandering around town won’t bother anypony compared to all of these.
“Besides, most ponies in Ponyville are very receptive of others, especially my best friends.” She leaned her head to the side and looked at the bedroom door behind the snakepony. “Isn’t that right, Twilight?”
Sapphire turned around as the alicorn walked in her room, the most sheepish smile plastered on her face and a shameful blush on her cheeks that proved her culpability.
“How did you know I was eavesdropping?” she asked the party mare.
“Just a hunch. I never knew you were capable of that,” she subtly teased her friend.
“I didn’t do it in a bad way,” the librarian defended. “I was just worried about you two, and how things might turn out, so I just wanted to stay nearby in case things went out of control.”
“Well, you can sssee that everything is fine now,” Sapphire chimed in.
“So, you heard everything?” Pinkie asked the lavender mare.
“I sure did,” she said as she approached the two ponies in the room and grabbed them both in a little group hug. “And I’m happy to say that I am proud of you, girls.
“It’s easy to hold a grudge, and I know it’s hard to get rid of the pain and negative emotions that were created by an incident like that or other similar events. But it’s not as hard as trying to find closure, no matter how it might end. Sometimes, a closure doesn’t necessarily mean a happy ending, but at least it puts your mind at ease on the matter, because it gives you the answers you were looking for.
“But sometimes, a closure can open a door. A chance to mend the broken pieces together and start over again. I’m happy that the latter happened to you both. None of you deserved what happened, and even less what the incident brought and caused afterwards.
“You created a strong and special bond together all these years ago. Even during all this time you were separated, it seems to me that even though it grew weak since that day, it never completely broke. If it had, I don’t think any of you would be in this room right now, what do you think?”
Her audience stared at her with unblinking eyes for the entirety of her speech and remained frozen like statues for a little bit longer. It was Pinkie who snapped out of it first, adorning a wide smile on her face as she addressed the alicorn again.
“How many romance novels did you read?” she teased playfully.
“Um, why do you ask?” she questioned as she lightly blushed and dragged a hoof on the floor in an avoiding manner. It was clear she didn’t want to answer, but with Pinkie, she didn’t have to; the enlarging smile on her face told her that she could make a good estimate of the answer.
“Aw, come on Twi, I’m kidding!” Pinkie said as she got the Twilight’s side and nudged her with an elbow. “No need to be embarrassed about that kind of stuff.”
“I am not embarrassed!” the librarian exclaimed, only to realize a few seconds later what she did. “I fell for it again, didn’t I?”
“Yupie-dopie! Not my fault if you’re an easy target, silly!” Pinkie said as she quickly hugged her. “Although I’m sorry for making you uncomfortable.”
“Hey, no harm, no foul. Don’t worry about it,” Twilight said as she put a hoof around Pinkie’s back and returned the hug.
“Um, is there anything here I should underssstand?” Sapphire asked as she looked at the two mares in front of her.
“Pinkie’s usual antics, don’t ask,” was all Twilight told her, which was enough of a reason for her. The alicorn then let go of the earth pony, who hurriedly headed for the door the moment she was released.
“I’m sorry girls, but I gotta go! Got a party to prepare for tonight,” she said as she exited the room, closing the door behind her. Twilight could see the lamia sweating nervously in the corner of her eye. Before she could walk to her and reassure her, the door opened again, revealing the cheerful mare once more. “Oh, and everypony in town is invited, just so you know! Ciao!” she added before leaving again. Sapphire was now biting her bottom lip, unsure about the whole thing.
“You have nothing to be worried about, Sapphire,” Twilight encouraged.
“Easy for you to sssay. I’ll remind you that my firssst encounter with ponies wasn’t pleasant, ssso excuse me if I’m not that enthusiassstic about the idea of mingling with other ponies.”
“How about I present you to my close friends, then? They’ll be coming at the party too. That way, you’d feel more comfortable tonight.”
“Are you certain? They pretty much were shocked last night when I showed up at your door.”
“And so was I. You can’t blame us for that, can you? It’s not every day you see a lamia wandering about, so it’s just normal to be surprised.” She stood next to the hybrid and wrapped a wing around her torso. “They are good ponies, trust me.”
Sapphire looked down as she thought about it. On one hoof, she was afraid of receiving a bad reception because of what she was. On the other, if Twilight and Pinkie said was true, there was a chance that she could finally feel accepted by others, and the idea was very appealing. She wouldn’t need to hide anymore. She’d be able to live a normal life like anypony.
Her decision made, she breathed deeply before giving her answer: “Okay.”
The response made Twilight smile approvingly. “I’m sure you’ll like them.” She then headed for the door as well. “Do you mind staying here while I bring them here?”
The lamia shook her head. “Alright, then,” the librarian continued. “I won’t be long, so expect us back in two hours top.” She used her magic to open her door, though before she exited, she turned back to her guest. “I don’t know what interests you, but feel free to read any book you want. This is a library, after all.” With that, she left, closing the door and leaving Sapphire Heart alone.
Although the snakepony’s nervosity hadn’t dissipated completely, it wasn’t as worse as it first was. Now that she was all by herself with her own thoughts, she took the opportunity to look around the room.
Books. That was pretty much what the walls and shelves were adorned with. She really loves to read that much, doesn’t she? she mused as she slithered around the room, stopping at Twilight’s bedside table, where a pile of thick volumes rested on.
Not knowing what else to do as she awaited the young princess’ return, she grabbed the book on top of the pile and settled in the bed. I doubt she’ll mind, she thought as she looked at the cover.
“Daring Do and the Quessst for the Sssapphire Ssstone,” she read aloud. “I never had the chance to read anything before.” She made herself comfortable on the bed, coiling her tail around her. “Well, here goes nothing, I guessss.” She then opened the volume to the first page and began to read.