[
Now that the fight is over and the truth of the matter of the past few weeks is out, smacking her in the face, Nephenee has had some downtime to think, especially with what Zetta said. He was right. They've been behaving foolishly...between this and the incident where everyone ganged up on Flare Star and Harvey, and probably thing that she doesn't know about, it's feels like everypony is being rash...acting out of anger or hurt or something else. And it's time to bring the issue to light.
She knows it might backfire onto her...but that is the way of things.]
...Ah've been thinkin' 'bout what Zetta said, 'bout how we all reacted, an' 'bout a few other incidents an'...
What the hay are we doin'?
No, seriously, what are we doin'? This is a place where friendships are paramount, where our support for one another has real power beyond what ya'd think...an' as Ah look back, this ain't the first time we've reacted badly. Jus' a few weeks ago, when Miss Liz left...folks jumped onto Miss Flare Star an' Sir Harvey for things done in sadness an' anger. We shoulda forgiven them, supported 'em...an' we failed.
We did it again these past two weeks. An' while we reckoned we was doin' the right thing...some of it obviously wasn't. Ah know 'hindsight is 20/20' an' all that, but some of the things like what we did...an' in some cases,
still are doin'...that ain't right. [
Her somber features grow heated at one thought.] Like
waterboardin'? That shouldn't have been even considered, it's
torture, for cryin' out loud!
[
And as quickly as the anger came, it dissipates, replaced with a look of shame.] Ah'm embarrassed by how Ah reacted to some of this...when Ah saw my friends an' folks from my Commune, folks Ah should have protected, in what Ah thought was a dangerous situation...Ah suggested we steal into the castle, steal supplies...Ah didn't suggest that raid at all. but Ah did other stuff Ah ain't proud of...
Even if the aftermath of that forced me to get better an' face somethin' from my past that was holdin' onto me with an iron grip for almost a decade, that aftermath taught me that...what's goin' on here isn't gonna help us. If Ah'd held onto it...Ah don't know what would have happened. But Ah do know Ah ain't faultless in this, or in a few things even before now... so to any Ah've been short with an' such?
Ah'm sorry.
Ah'm not gonna lie...folks seem to be goin' downhill, an' we gotta put a stop to it. Because where we're headin' off to now? We ain't gonna be rescuin' anypony or stoppin' Cálice any time soon.
This is gonna sound funny comin' from a soldier, but...while Ah think we need to stay trained, since there will be battles in the future that need the strength of arms?
This isn't a war that will be won with weapons of iron and steel. It's gonna be our bonds that support us, an' those bonds are our true strength. Because even if some of us don't know where we belong, a lot of folks want to go home, an' that's the only way it's happenin'.
So let's work on forgin' them, both new ones an' those we already have.
~~~
( Private to Dandy )