"Let's take a look," said Dusty, " at some potential causes. Maybe your most recent trauma. Let's see what that knocked loose."
Violia finished her drink in silence after Saber left and sighed. She went into deep thought about a few things. One for sure is what her bestie Esi was up to. She also thought about what hers or rituals Zecora was doing. Then her mind wondered once again to memories of her interactions with them. The wars she has waged, the fights she has won. The demons she has force back to the underworld. It's all but memories now mostly. She still does have a few demon hunting adventures with Esi, but it's mostly jackasses in the underworld causing issues now.
"Oh, hey." Maya leaned in by Viola. "Do you know Zecora by chance?" (You can say jackass. Notice it's not censored.)
Violia looks to Maya with some surprise. "Uhm... yeah. Why?" She says curiously, not knowing that Zecora was known around here or by Maya.
Violia tilts her head some. She didn't know looks would give away things, not things that were not too obvious anyway. "Well, I do come from the Everfree. I have a hut there in the deeper reaches that I stay in when I'm not called in to do work for the Underworld. It's kind of an arrangement I made to keep my connection between here and there in check."
(The site has swear filters, so most swear words are automatically censored. Beyond that, just use common sense and keep it PG-13.) White clouds swirled around them, and Nightshade and Dusty were transported to a warped and twisted version of the bar. In front of them, another Nightshade sat across from Azrael. "We need to talk." "As if I've anything to say to you." Nightshade, the real Nightshade raised a hoof and the scene faded. "I've gone over this a thousand times in my head. I know it's my fault. I went in expecting it to turn into a fight, and I just couldn't let it go until it did. It was like... a part of me wanted to make peace, but another part of me just wanted to beat him until he saw things my way."
Dusty shook his head. "Nightshade, you can't beat an opinion into a pony. No matter how wrong he is, or how right you are."
"You clearly don't know my father very well," she said darkly. "I've seen him do it." The scene in front of them changed, showing a very young Nightshade standing beside a fully-armored Silver. In front of them stood a trio of Yaks, the largest wearing a heavy gold crown. "YAKS WILL NOT AGREE TO TERMS! PONY LANDS GOOD FOR FARMING! WE WILL TAKE PONY LANDS!" Silver sighed wearily. "I think, perhaps, that His Majesty is biting off more than he can chew." "PONIES WEAK AND SMALL! PONIES NOT STOP YAK..." The Yak king's tirade was cut short as Silver grabbed him by the horns and tossed him across the room. His guards, surprised by the sudden attack, moved to defend their king, but were quickly knocked unconscious. Silver approached the fallen king and grabbed him by the throat. "Do not underestimate ponies, Your Majesty. Now, about the treaty..." "...Yaks understand. Yaks agree to sign." Nightshade watch the scene silently, a slight smile on her face. "I was seven years old when this happened. We were about to go to war, and he... he stopped it. I remember that it was the most amazing thing that I'd ever seen. I wanted so badly to be just like him." Her head dropped. "But I failed. In the end, I just wasn't strong enough."
"I see. So tell me. Do you see the difference between using force to stop a war, and... you know, let me show you something." Dusty forced the image to change. The scene showed Azrael, very much mortal, no horn, taking part in some mixed martial arts fight, dominating his opponent. Suddenly, about twenty fighters stormed the ring and jumped him, allegedly furious over his undefeated career. During the attack, Azrael's neck was broken, killing him in seconds in front of horrified fans of the massive stallion. "He already had his life cut short," Dusty spoke. "I was in the crowd to see this, believe it ir not. His career and mortality ripped away. Fighting was the only joy he found in life, and he was murdered over doing his job well. From here on, he went to live in Tartarus until... well, you already know." The scene changed to a still image of the horned, undead Azrael, clearly not all there, a distorted and tortured mind, leading several hundred weaker revenants into some battle. A look into his eyes would show that deep down, he hated what he was doing in that moment, but he was presently helpless to powers above him. Dusty let the scene linger until Nightshade decided to change it. "I want you to understand, truly grasp, that at this point, no amount of trauma alone that you could dish out could change him. The same applies to Silver, Maya, Zeran, Architect, myself, Stuffy McPatch, Princess Celestia. He's suffered through too much to have his mind changed through a beating by any being. I want to know if you understand now that there was never a chance for that assault to work. That is step one."
The stallion at the bar had seemingly vanished, in fact, he had headed upstairs. There was a loud thud sound also heard from upstairs.
In Mat's room, Mat had the bronze Stallion against the wall, with a hoof, staring at him, "Where in Tartarus did you come from?" Van responds like he always does, without any emotions, "Downstairs to see what was up here, I heard you two talking, so I came in." Rush blinked, "Weird, I didn't even see him come in, and the door was shut... How... how can he just randomly show up like that?" Van motions a hoof to the door, "... I opened the door." Mat looks at the door, wide open, "... I don't even understand."
"Oh, come on..." Maya pointed to Az. "Az. Please." "On it." Azrael stood up and stormed up the stairs, stopping in Mat's room. "Whatever is happening, explain."
Mat looks from Van to Berrilyn to Az then back at Van, "Now why can't you be noticeable like that?" Van just responds, pretty blankly, "... I don't know." Mat looks over at Az and Berrilyn, before letting go of Van. Van just toppled down, landing on his face, Mat sighed, "... Nothing, just took me by surprise, I thought he was going to attack me or something." Rush gives a bit of a nervous chuckle, "Geez, lay off him, Mat, he's just a young stallion."
Van speaks as he's face-first on the ground, slowly getting himself up, speaking blankly, "Anna Molly? The Incubus Song?" Mat shakes his head, "No, anomaly... But what are you talking about, Az?"
