Dawn peeked over the hills and through the trees to shine down on the still forms of four sleeping bags and Twilight, who sat under a tree wallowing in abject misery as her heart ached. She had opted to give her sleeping bag to the filly, reasoning that she needed it more. Truth was that Twilight doubted she would be sleeping much for the next few days. The screams of the ponies in Prance were echoing around her head too loud.

"Can't sleep?" Fleur's voice whispered from behind her. Twilight's head whipped round to where Fleur was lay, propping herself up on one elbow. She shook her head in response before averting her eyes, unwilling to look Fleur in the face.

"Me neither." There was a gentle rustling as Fleur clambered out of her sleeping bag and donned her cloak before stretching. "Come on." She nodded her head towards an embankment which led down to a small stream.

"Where are we going?" Twilight asked quietly.

"Not far. I just think you and I need to have a little talk." Twilight rose to her hooves and followed Fleur down the embankment, over the stream and up the other side where Fleur sat down and wrapped her cloak around her to ward off the early morning chill. "You know I envy you being part pegasus and not feeling the cold so much." Twilight nodded gently causing Fleur to sigh irritably. "If I wanted to talk to myself I wouldn't have asked you to come."

"I-I'm sorry... I d-don't know what you want me to say. If this is about what I said to you the other day then I'm sorry about..." She trailed off as Fleur chuckled lightly. "What?"

"Sorry Twilight, it's just that our little disagreement seems so silly now compared to what happened yesterday. I'm surprised you're still worrying about it." Fleur shifted on her hooves as she made herself more comfortable. "Since we're on the topic though, yeah I was kind of pissed at what you said," she said, making Twilight wince. "But I guess you did have a point." Twilight looked up at Fleur, her eyes wide in surprise. "I'm still going to have to steal for our survival but only what we need. I guess I was letting my childhood get to me because that's what I wanted to be like back then, able to steal anything and everything I wanted. Thing is though, I wasn't too good with my magic back then so it was a lot harder. But now it’s better it all seemed so easy and I may have gotten greedy. Anyway, I'm willing to make this little concession to you if you do something in return."

"Of course! Anything!"

"Stop judging ponies for having to do unsavoury things to survive. No offence Twilight, but without intentionally undermining your achievements I have to say you've had a pretty easy life, where the biggest consequence for your mistakes was a stern talking to. You don't get to judge and look down on those who have to struggle to get by day to day, and you don't get to say what a pony shouldn't do just because you've never had to sink that low."

"That's fair," Twilight said, nodding, "and I'm sorry I was like that. Rules and regulations have kind of been a big part of my life and to see a pony just flagrantly break the law in front of me, well, I guess it's kind of a kneejerk reaction. 'You shouldn't do that, it's wrong.' I'll try to not do it again."

"Good." Fleur took in a deep breath and slowly exhaled it. "Now, onto the big stuff." Twilight cowered away from Fleur slightly, causing Fleur to ask why.

"Because you're probably going to hit me. Celestia knows I deserve it."

"Twilight, I'm not going to hit you. In fact, I'm not even angry at you."

"What? How? I mean you should be mad at me seeing how badly I screwed everything up!"

"Okay yeah, you messed up on the whole 'don't use magic' thing, but I don't blame you for what happened in Prance. That probably would've happened with or without you doing what you did. No, I blame the Duke and his stupid army. I blame that pompous General and that idiot soldier that killed that mare even if it was an accident. If I had been in the same situation as you I probably wouldn't have done anything different."

"No. If I hadn't attacked those soldiers then they wouldn't have arrested all those unicorns, they wouldn't have asked for more soldiers to come to the city, changed the curfew, and those executions wouldn't have been taking place at all. That mare wouldn't have died for nothing and that riot would never have happened!"

"Don't be stupid Twilight, if you hadn't acted against the soldiers then I'm sure somepony else would've eventually. You helping some ponies’ doesn't mean you're responsible for everything that happened after. You didn't tell those ponies to attack the soldiers and you didn't tell whoever it was to burn down half the city!"

"Why are you trying to tell me it's not my fault? You seemed so sure it was me that messed it all up at the execution yesterday, yet now you're trying to calmly say it's not my fault! What gives Fleur? Why are you so calm about this?"

Fleur stopped, opening and closing her mouth as she tried to think of what to say. "You know what? Yes. Yes I am angry okay? I was angry at you too because I thought the ponies of Prance were going to have an even shittier life than before with all those soldiers around. But then what happened happened, and being angry at you seems pointless now since there is no way that you could have been solely responsible for all that. So instead I'm just angry at everything."

"But you should be angry at me! It's my fault!"

"Believe or not Twilight, it's not all about you. You can mope around swimming in self-pity if you want, but personally I would prefer you didn't. We need you, and we can't do this without you, and your guilt complex doesn't help us. Besides Prance was a nasty place if you looked deep enough; some of it needed burning down just to get the stench out."

Twilight's head shot up, her eyes wide and her mouth hanging open in shock, "Fleur! Ponies lived there, innocent ponies that didn't deserve that! And it was your home! How could you say such a thing?"

"Yeah, I know. It's also the city I saw my parents die in. It's the city I had to learn the hard lessons about survival in, and it's the city that one nasty winter I had to s-" She stopped and took a breath to calm herself. "Lets just say that some ponies in that city deserved to burn." She hugged herself gently.

"Fleur..."

"No, I'm done talking about this. I'm dealing with it in my way, you need to deal with it in whatever way suits you."

"But what about the others?"

"I don't know if you've noticed but Trixie tends to bury everything in humour and irreverence which I find odd for somepony who spent months diligently planning her revenge against you, while Octavia seems to take things in and cope with them almost ridiculously easy. I'm almost jealous of her for that. As for the filly, she seems delightfully unencumbered by notions of worry. Five minutes out of Prance and she was cracking jokes."

"You like her don't you?"

"Of course I do, she reminds me of myself." Fleur looked down and scuffed her hoof on the wet grass. "What are we going to do with her though? It's not like we can tell her what we're up to."

"I don't think we should worry about that too much right now. I'd be happy if we could give her a name rather than call her 'the filly.'"

"Yeah, I guess we don't need to worry about her for a couple days at least." Fleur got up and stretched, her joints clicking as she did. "Right now we should focus on getting to where we're going. I'm going to grab the canteens and find some water a bit cleaner than what this stream can offer,"

"I'll-"

"You, Twilight, should talk to the princesses on that stone thing you have. If anypony would know about making mistakes it would be the pony that tried to end the world or the sister that let it get that far and had to stop her." Fleur sauntered off back to where the others were before heading further up into the forest leaving Twilight alone with her suddenly frantic thoughts.

Twilight paced back and forward, planning in her mind what exactly she was going to say to whoever answered on the stone. Hi Celestia, it's me. Just wanted to call to let you know Prance is in ruins. Nope. Hey Princess, you know how you said I should do this mission through any means possible? Guess what! I accidentally blew up Prance! Ugh, don't be stupid Twilight.

Twilight growled at herself and paced a few more times before stopping by the rotting stump she had placed the speaker stone on. Biting her lip she decided to just get on with it and pressed her horn to the stone before she could over think it and chicken out again. She didn't have to wait long for an answer.

"Good morning Twilight," said Celestia's voice from the stone. "You're up early. Is everything alright?" Twilight tried to speak but the words caught in her throat and no matter how hard she tried she couldn't say them. "Twilight? Hello?"

Nope, it’s going to be tears. Hearing the warmth and concern in Celestia's voice broke all the resolve she had and she collapsed onto her knees as the tears came without hesitation. "H-h-hi Cele-Celestia-a-a..."

"Twilight? Are you crying? What's happened?"

Twilight wiped her eyes and tried to compose herself but it was as if she was trying to stop a flood with tissue paper. "D-did Luna tell you about what I did with the s-soldiers?"

"Yes, and I have to admit I was worried about you doing something like that, and not just because of you using magic so openly. Has something happened since?"

"You could s-say that." Twilight told Celestia about all that had transpired since her last conversation with Luna and she had to admit that telling somepony who didn't immediately yell back at her was extremely cathartic.

"Oh my." Twilight waited for Celestia to say more and the longer the silence grew the tighter her chest became as she awaited the tongue-lashing she was expecting. "You shouldn't blame yourself for that Twilight." Huh?

"But I messed up so badly Princess! I got all those ponies hurt and k-killed! Prance is in ruins because of me! How am I supposed to not blame myself?"

"Twilight, you're putting too much weight on your own actions. Considering all that was happening in Prance anyway your actions were but a drop in the ocean, a big drop that created a few waves admittedly but you must realise that all those ponies acted of their own accord. You aren't responsible for the actions of others."

"But as a princess you told me I'm responsible for the ponies around me. If the actions of a pony results in them getting hurt, does that not mean it's my fault for not stopping them?"

"Twisting my own words against me... We'll make a politician of you yet Twilight," Celestia said with a small chuckle. "But you are responsible for ponies as a whole, not individuals. You will have to make decisions that will hurt some but help others and you will have to deal with the consequences of those decisions. It's all part of being a princess Twilight, and sometimes you will have to make decisions that get ponies hurt whether by accident or by design. I chose to not act against Sombra until it was too late, and as a result hundreds died in the war that followed because I hesitated instead of stopping him before he took over the Crystal Empire by force. And that is just one example of many."

"But you shouldn't blame yourself because of what Sombra did, he was a monster! How were you to know what he would do?"

"Just as you shouldn't blame yourself for the actions of the ponies in Prance. You didn't know they were suddenly going to revolt, you were only trying to help ponies and you shouldn't make yourself suffer because it didn't end how you wanted."

"I... I understand."

"Do you? Truly? You must have realised by now that Mareitania is a brutal place. It's a slim hope if you think Mareitania can be freed without anypony getting hurt."

"No, I get it, I do. The greater good right?"

"Not really Twilight, in my experience there is no greater good. Just good and not good and not letting fear of consequences stop you from doing good. Now I have to ask, what are you going to do now that you're on the road again?"

"I'm not entirely sure. Fleur's in charge of the plan right now and she hasn't really explained it in detail. All I know is she has a plan involving the birthday of the Duke's son and a party on a riverboat. She has us walking to someplace called Whiplash to catch it."

"Whiplash? I really do hope she knows what she's doing."

"Why? What's wrong with Whiplash other that its awful name?"

"Whiplash is..." There was a rattle of static from the stone as Celestia sighed wearily. "You know I said that each region or city has a compound containing pegasi to control the weather." Twilight's stomach churned at the thought of the pegasi's treatment here but managed to stammer a yes. "Whiplash is the center of all that. Think of it as a distribution center but dealing in pegasus slaves and the equipment needed to control them. For your purposes though it’s also a major trade hub and a port for the Mareissippi river. Take care to keep your wings well hidden if you're going there."

"I will Celestia. Thanks for talking to me, I needed it."

"You're welcome Twilight, always. Take care of yourself." The was a burst of static as the connection was cut off and Twilight teleported the stone back to her bags before laying on her back and crossing her forelegs over her face.

"Why does everypony insist it's not my fault?"

"Did that help?" Fleur asked once Twilight rejoined her and the others.

"Slightly, maybe a little bit, perhaps." Twilight rubbed her face with a hoof and sighed, "Not really. But how I feel about what happened in Prance doesn't matter. It'll all have been for nothing if I just give up."

"That's the way, ignore your problems until they either go away or get replaced by a bigger problem." Fleur sat down and started rolling up her sleeping bag, humming as she did.

"How do you do it Fleur? How do you cope with what's happened?"

"I don't know if you've noticed Twilight but I'm not exactly the pony I was when we started this. This isn't Fleur de Lis the famous Canterlot model. This is Fleur, the hardened street rat who didn't give a whole lot of fucks about things."

"I wouldn't say that. You cared about the pegasi in Stalliongrad-"

"I pitied them Twilight, and thanked whatever deity might have been listening that I wasn't born with wings instead of a horn. Yes I felt for them and wished for their freedom but I didn't lift a hoof to help them, and I stopped going near them because it made me feel bad. I certainly didn't give much thought to how it made them feel." Fleur stopped rolling up her sleeping bag and rested on her haunches. "Okay, maybe Fleur the hardened street rat isn't the same pony she used to be either, or maybe she is... I don't know. I've been through a lot Twilight and learning to cope with things is part of that. Now please stop asking."

Twilight nodded and took a drink out of her canteen, watching the others for a moment. Octavia was sleeping peacefully, while the filly was snoring obnoxiously loud, and Trixie was peeking at her out the corner of her eye before squeezing it shut and pretending to snore when she saw Twilight notice her. "Good morning Trixie."

"Darn it! Now I have to get up," Trixie muttered under her breath. She stretched and sat up, making a show of having just woke up. "Good morning Twilight, Fleur, Octa- nope she's still asleep, and that little bast- no, still sleeping too. Please tell me there's something tasty for breakfast."

"Nope," said Fleur, "but there is all this green stuff called grass on the ground. It seems to grow quite freely so eat as much as you want."

"You'll never make head chef with that attitude," Trixie snarked, sticking her tongue out at Fleur who stuck her own out in return. "So what's the plan today? I bet it involves walking."

"We might be able to fit some trotting in if time allows."

"Marvellous." Trixie got up and performed her usual morning routine of stretching like a cat and sounding like all her joints had dislocated overnight. "At least tell me we have coffee."

"Nope, just good old fashioned water."

"Ugh, worst camping trip ever."

"What is wrong with you!" Twilight burst out, unintentionally waking Octavia and the filly. "Did yesterday not happen? Is it all a fever dream I had? Because I have no idea how you two can joke like it never happened!"

"Mmm... What's going on?" the filly asked sleepily as she rubbed her eyes.

"Oh great Twilight," Trixie said as she gave Twilight an accusing stare, "you woke the baby. Now we'll never get her to settle."

"Hey!"

"Am I going completely insane!?" Twilight steadied herself as she started to hyperventilate, her chest heaving with each rapid breath she took. Octavia jumped out of her sleeping bag and grabbed Twilight by the shoulders.

"Easy Twilight, slow breaths. In, hold, out. In, hold, out." She repeated the exercise until Twilight's breathing returned to a more normal pace and she no longer looked in danger of collapsing. "Feeling better now?" Twilight nodded in answer.

"How did you know how to do that?" asked Trixie as she quirked an eyebrow at Octavia.

"Pre show nerves and anxiety attacks tend to go hoof in hoof. I don't get them myself but I know a good many musicians that do." She put a comforting leg around Twilight who looked strangely ashamed.

"Twilight's having difficulty dealing with yesterday," Fleur said as she passed Twilight a canteen in her magic. "She seems to think that what happened there was entirely her fault."

Octavia gave Fleur a dirty look, "So did you yesterday when you yelled at her. Besides, something like that isn't something you can get over with a good night's sleep. I end up shaking if I think about it too much."

"Yes I was angry at her, but that was for attacking those soldiers and making that dumb ass General think there was an actual insurrection in Prance. I was expecting more soldiers, more executions, less freedoms and a whole lot of unicorns being beat senseless for no other reason than for the soldiers petty revenge. I'm no longer angry at her because none of that happened. I've been thinking about it and if I'm honest I must admit I'm actually slightly pleased it happened."

"What!?" Twilight, Trixie and Octavia shouted in unison.

"It means ponies in this crap ass country are willing to fight back against the Duke and his cronies. If we're going to do this we need ponies to mmph mamph..." She stopped when Trixie suddenly shoved a hoof over her mouth and nodded at the filly who was wearing a sly grin. "Oh... Shit."

"Twilight's the pony that attacked those soldiers?" asked the filly as she leaned forward and with her eyes wide. The others looked between themselves and Twilight nodded weakly. "That is sooo cool! Next you'll be telling me that you're the ponies that did that rescue in Stalliongrad!" Most of the others nodded again, except Trixie who looked awkward instead and pleaded the others with her eyes to not tell the filly it was her they rescued. "That is awesome! You guys are heroes!"

"What!?"

"Oh man this is so awesome! I gotta tell my friends about this if... they're not, y'know, dead." The filly deflated and a couple of tears escaped as she lay down slowly.

"I'm sorry..." Twilight said, her voice cracking as she watched the filly dissolve into tears.

"It really happened didn't it? Prance really was destroyed."

"You don't know that," Fleur said as she gave the filly a comforting stroke on her mane. "Once the fighting was over hopefully they put the fires out."

"Yeah, but all those ponies still got hurt and killed."

"I really am sorry," Twilight said shakily. "I never expected that to happen. I was just helping ponies when I attacked those soldiers."

"Did you- Did you tell the ponies to start fighting the soldiers?"

"What? No! I wanted them to stop fighting."

"Then it's not your fault. You just inspired them is all, showed them that they can stand up for themselves. You became a hero to them." The filly gave Twilight brave smile.

Twilight however looked panicked. "I'm no hero! I never wanted to inspire anypony to do something like that!"

"Look at it this way Twilight," said Trixie who looked far too happy, "if you inspired those ponies to do that then it does make it sort of your fault. Now you can justifiably blame yourself." Twilight started hyperventilating again and Trixie backed away because Octavia's expression promised violence if she got too near.

"Not. Helping."

Twilight world spun as the excess oxygen rushed to her head. She was no hero, of that she was certain but at the same time a small part agreed with the filly because it allowed her to cling onto the hope that maybe what happened in Prance could in theory have been positive.

"I need- I need air!" She shrugged Octavia off and tore off her cloak before sprinting into the forest as fast as she could, ignoring the shouts of the others to stop. Soon as she was out of sight she spread her wings, invisible as they were, and teleported herself above the trees, her momentum from running easing the transition into flight. The wind swept through her mane and her heart leapt as she left her worries behind for a brief moment but they quickly returned when she saw the rising plume of smoke that could only be Prance.

She hovered for a few moments before searching out a nearby cloud and resting upon it, her breathing again becoming ragged as she viewed the smoking remains of the city. "I'm no hero," she told herself. She continued staring at Prance, letting time wash over her when suddenly she clicked; the smoke from Prance was white, which, if she remembered correctly, meant the fires had stopped burning which also hopefully meant the fighting was over.

Feeling relieved she smiled slightly and was about to return to the others and share the good news when a shadow flashed over her. She ducked down and searched about hoping to find what had caused it. Looking up she swiftly found the cause was none other than a pegasus, one that was doing a lot of flapping for the slow speed it was maintaining. She remembered what Celestia had told her about the wing clippings and surmised that must be the reason for the extra flapping.

She wrapped some of the cloud around herself for cover and watched as the pegasus flew down to a pool that the stream fed into. Around the pool were several other pegasi that appeared to be making clouds from the water, as well as some guards and a collection of caged wagons. There was also a device with an antenna on one of the wagons that Twilight couldn't fathom but figured it might have something to do with the collars the pegasi were forced to wear.

Twilight had never seen clouds made from scratch although she had heard of the process. The clouds in Equestria were all made by the weather factory in Cloudsdale, but there were no pegasus cities in Mareitania so it only made sense that all the weather here was made from scratch. As she watched a pair of pegasi formed a cloud, the flapping of their wings near the water seemed to generate a mist which they gathered in their hooves and pressed into clouds. Once it was big enough another pegasus would collect it and push it up into the sky.

All in all the process seemed very laborious and time consuming which is probably why the weather in Mareitania seemed to last for days at a time and why there seemed to be a lot of grey clouds around that didn't really do much. The pegasi were too busy making new weather to immediately clear out the remains of the old weather.

Fascinating as it was though, Twilight was very exposed here and if one of the pegasi spotted her they might have some awkward questions about what a unicorn was doing hiding in a cloud. She flapped her wings gently, slowly propelling the cloud down towards the forest but stopped when she heard a splash and shouting.

She looked back at the pool where one of the pegasi, a cream coloured mare, appeared to have fallen in and splashed one of the guards judging by what he was shouting. The mare dragged herself out of the pool and was instantly set upon by the guard who kicked and hit her. The mare didn't make a sound until the guard pushed her over and stretched her wing out over a rock and threatened to stomp on it. Only then did she tearfully plead and beg. The guard held her down a bit longer and seemed to be whispering something in her ear and Twilight could see her nodding to whatever he said.

He released her and slapped her on the flank before she resumed her work, her head hanging low and her expression ashamed. Twilight felt something build inside her, a righteous anger directed at that despicable guard and those who employed him. She didn't even notice that she had been shaking the entire time as she warred with herself over whether to intervene or not. This needed to stop, and Twilight would see to that. She still blamed herself for Prance but there was no way she was going to let that stop her now, not when there were ponies who needed her help.

She grit her teeth and continued her descent into the forest where she discarded the cloud and returned to her companions.

It didn't take long for her to find the others. All she had to do was follow the argument.

"I don't see why I even have to have a name. I've never needed one before."

"Yes, but I refuse to call you 'the filly,' or 'her,'" Twilight heard Octavia say. "You need something by which we can refer to you as."

"Alright, fine. But all your suggestions are rubbish! Trixie's is the best I've heard so far and she wasn't even being serious!"

"Excuse me? Trixie was being deadly serious thank you very much!"

"And what might that have been?" Twilight asked stepping out from between the trees.

"Shithead," Trixie told her with a smug grin. "It's both a name and a description."

"I won't even bother list all the practical reasons why that would be a bad idea. Besides we need to get moving, there's a pegasus weather team thing over there somewhere," she said, pointing behind her, "and I don't want them finding us."

"Why not?" the filly asked. "It's just a weather team, what are they going to do if they find us? Give us blank hopeless stares until we feel sorry for them?"

Twilight narrowed her eyes at the filly, who raised an eyebrow in return. "I really hope you're not saying that because you have an issue with pegasi."

"Unless you're hiding a pair of wings about yourself somewhere I don't see why you should care. But no, I don't have an issue with pegasi, it's just they aren't exactly known for their happy, smiley attitudes." The filly shrugged and turned away muttering something Twilight couldn't make out. It was a good job too because she was straining to hide her reaction to what the filly said about wings.

"Ladies," Fleur said as she pulled the straps tight on her saddlebags. "I don't know about you but we need to be in Whiplash in four days and personally I'd rather make it there in less than that. I think we've bickered enough for one morning so let’s get a move on shall we?"

Soon enough they had gathered their belongings and headed down to the road they had walked along the previous night. Fleur took the lead with Twilight just behind her, and Trixie, Octavia and the filly brought up the rear where they were arguing about names again.

Fleur slowed and drew level with Twilight so they could talk. "Feeling better?" she asked.

Twilight sighed and looked away before answering. "Yes and no. I'm not okay with what happened yesterday, and I doubt I ever will be." She turned back to Fleur, a determined expression on her face, "But those pegasi reminded me what this is all about. I'm not giving up."

"Good," Fleur said with a smile, "because if you're going to go off flying in full view it better be for a good reason."

"How did you know I was flying?"

Fleur smirked at Twilight, "I didn't until just now."

"Oh. Sorry."

Author's Notes:

Tldr; Twilight blames herself for Prance.

Saying this here because it isn't worth an entire blog but the lack of updates is because the next three-four chapters are one continuous bit and I'd rather get them all written before posting so if I was to change something I don't have to come on here and do it.