Tempest kept her face to the ground, as she followed Twilight and Starlight through the streets of Ponyville towards Sweetheart's office. As they walked, Tempest could hear the sounds of ponies scorning her, with anger in their expressions and voices. Still, Tempest did whatever she could to ignore them.
"I suppose you’re right, Twilight," Tempest sighed, looking over at the Princess of Friendship. "Not everypony’s going to forgive me for what I’ve done."
"That's right, Tempest," Twilight somberly replied. "But remember that most ponies believe in second chances. If your friend Grubber can earn a second chance, then why can't you? Just focus on what you have in front of you now. In time, if ponies see that you truly have changed, they’ll come to accept."
But the growing (though quiet) conversations about herself, made it impossible for Tempest to take the advice to heart.
"I don't think she's going to be able ignore those conversations," Starlight whispered to Twilight. "What should we do?"
"We're almost at Sweetheart's office," Twilight replied to Starlight. “It’s best not to engage them, arguing won’t solve anything.”
However, Starlight began to notice some ponies turning their eyes towards them, but only at one pony: Tempest Shadow herself. "Twilight, I've got a really bad feeling about this," Starlight nervously gulped. "These ponies look like they want to harm Tempest. I think we should place a protection spell around us."
Then, suddenly, without warning the three ponies heard a loud cry! A brown coated unicorn stallion came rushing towards them, throwing a glass jar right at Tempest!
"Tempest, get back!" Twilight cried as she activated a shield spell to deflect the jar's impact, sending it right back on the ground, shattering! The unicorn snarled as he tried to get to Tempest. "Princess, get out of the way!” He growled. "She needs to pay for what she did in Canterlot!"
"No, you get out of the way!" Twilight snapped in an angry voice, glaring at the pony. "What you just did was uncalled for! What is the meaning of this?! What do you expect to gain from attacking Tempest?!"
The pony snarled for a few moments and several other ponies stood at his side. "We want justice, Princess Twilight," A cream colored earth pony mare sneered. "Justice for our family and friends who spent three days in Canterlot, treated like caged animals! And now you’re hiding the pony who helped spearhead the invasion! Turn her over to us now, justice will be served!"
"In case you’ve all forgotten," Starlight countered to the crowd. "It was the Storm King who was responsible for what happened in Canterlot! And Tempest helped to destroy him."
"LIES!" Shouted the cream colored mare. "She’s as guilty as the rest of those monsters!" The rest of the crowd agreed, and began grew more and more desperate to get their hooves on Tempest.
Still, Twilight did all she could to try and protect her former enemy from this frenzied crowd. Then, the crowd began to chant. "WE WANT TEMPEST! WE WANT TEMPEST! WE WANT TEMPEST!" The chants grew louder and Twilight activated her horn firing a freezing spell that silenced the crowd.
"Listen to me, all of you!" Twilight shouted, trying to sound reasonable, yet authoritative. "I know you are all suffering from what happened in Canterlot. But, I can assure you that everyone is suffering, even Tempest Shadow! And your current behavior is not going to make the healing process go even faster! Let that sink in for a minute! What would you prove by attacking her here and now, other than you’re no better than she is?! Revenge isn’t the same as justice!"
As Twilight spoke (and held the crowd at bay), Starlight led Tempest towards Sweetheart's office. Once both had made it inside Sweetheart's office, Twilight released her grip on the crowds and joined them inside.
"I'm telling you, they’re right," Tempest sighed to Twilight. "They want me to pay for what I did to you all."
"Trust me, Tempest," Twilight replied, as she shut the door. "What that crowd wanted to do was nothing, NOTHING, that we would consider fair justice. They'll settle for nothing short of blood, which is not what I want, and certainly not what my fellow princesses want."
"Well, I know of one pony who will settle for blood," Tempest thought aloud, as she began to think about her family. "Razzle Fizzle."
"Look, we'll do whatever we can to help you, Tempest," Starlight spoke up, trying to comfort the troubled unicorn. "We know you’re not a bad pony at heart. We know you have regret for what you did."
At that very moment, the door opened and Sweetheart emerged from her office. "I thought I heard some noise," She remarked, then turned towards Twilight and the others. Tempest gulped, as Sweetheart walked over to her, taking off her glasses. "You must be Tempest Shadow, I suppose."
"Yes," Tempest answered, nervously awaiting Sweetheart, who to turned to a member of the crowd that had gathered in Ponyville. "I am Tempest Shadow, who is somehow not currently being punished by a crowd of very angry ponies."
"Well, I will say that crowds of angry ponies make themselves look foolish when they behave like this,” Sweetheart remarked. “But it’s not my place to make such judgements, I’m here to help a patient. Princess Twilight tells me that you have some things you wish to talk about?"
"Y-Yes." Tempest briefly stuttered.
"Then come on in." Sweetheart smiled, as she opened the door and allowed Tempest to make her way into the office.
Twilight went in with Tempest, while Starlight stayed in the office. "Make sure those crowds don't gather around here," She ordered to Starlight. "I don’t want to risk an embarrassing public incident. But don’t cause harm, restrain them but don’t push them back. Can you manage that?"
"Of course, Twilight. I’ll do what I can." Starlight nodded, and looked out the window towards the angry crowd. Hopefully, they’d relent and go home, because Starlight doubted she could hold them off for long if they attacked.
Shutting the door, Sweetheart looked towards Tempest Shadow with a tender expression on her face, as she sat down at her desk. "Now, remember that I’, here to help you, Tempest," She explained. "It's like Twilight told me earlier, you are as much a victim in the Storm King's attack as any other pony. But, that doesn't mean that…"
"I don’t share some responsibility," Tempest interrupted. "Yes, I know. I’ll still share some responsibility for my actions. But, I wasn't born evil at all and…"
"I know, I know," Sweetheart comforted, trying to calm Tempest down. "But, it's healthier to release our frustrations by talking about them. Now, what I’m going to do, is write down what is tormenting you, and how I can help you make up for what happened. Are there any questions before we begin?"
Tempest glanced nervously at Twilight, and then shook her head.
Meanwhile, Celestia, Luna and Cadence were still discussing the possibility of going into Tempest's dreams.
"You know, Luna, as much as your intentions may seem," Celestia cautioned, now having heard the entire story. "I don't think it's a good idea to ‘help’ Tempest by barging in her private matters. We need to wait until Twilight shares her thoughts about it. Otherwise, we risk doing more harm than good."
"But sister, why?" Luna remarked, suddenly feeling stabbed in the back. "Why would you say such a thing? If anypony knows about the psyche of a pony while asleep, it’s me."
"Because I know that it’s wrong to intervene in such private matters, unless it’s for a good reason,” Celestia warned. “The last thing I want us to do, is cause Fizzlepop any more damage to her already troubled psyche."
"But Aunt Luna does have a point," Cadence remarked. "We can't help Fizzlepop unless we have an understanding of what is going on inside her."
"Nevertheless, we still should wait for Twilight's thoughts on the matter,” Celestia said firmly. “Until then, Luna, you may only intervene in her dreams if she’s suffering from nightmares. And Cadence, I would advise you against any intervention on your own. It seems your lack of explanation behind your abilities when Twilight was younger, gave her the wrong idea when she sought to duplicate your ‘Want It, Need It Spell’ once. I'm sorry, but that's my final decision."
Luna desperately wanted to protest Celestia's decision, but she couldn't bring herself to doing so. The idea of arguing over something like this was only going to make the problem worse than it already was, and she knew it.
"Until then," Celestia declared, walking back towards the throne room doors. "We have our subjects to comfort from the nightmare we went through. As imperative as it is that we try to help Fizzlepop adjust, we cannot neglect the well being of the rest of our subjects. We will only intervene on Fizzlepop’s behalf, if Twilight believes it’s the only option we have left."