"It's on the house, Black dude!" Maya broke the hug and patted Azrael's cheek. "You know how to find it I'm sure."
(Holy jeeze, we get it!) "None of your business," Azrael replied plainly. "Arch!" Asmo looked up. "Thanks for doing something worthwhile, eh."
"Guess Arch went back home for a nap." Asmo walked himself inside the bar. "Looks like the worst of the damage was my fat ass breaking the floor. Easy fix, right?"
Hearth Song shifted back to her pony form and walked back into the bar. It had been a weird day. Silver had called her to a bar in the middle of nowhere to talk to a total stranger about the Cult of Discord, and she had arrived in time to watch her best friend lose her gods-damned mind and try to kill somepony. Odder still was the fact that Nightshade had lost. Nightshade never lost.
"Guys..." Maya stood in the doorway, frowning. "Last call. Then I need everypony out. There's blood and embalming fluid everywhere, the floor needs fixed, and we need a break. I'll reopen a week from now at noon when it's all clean. I'm sorry."
Heart Song shrugged and walked out. "Thanks for the lovely evening. You're all insane, and I was insane for coming here. See you next week!"
"The best in Equestria. If Shady can be saved, they'll find a way to do it." She dropped her head. "But you saw her, at the end. Ponies don't live through stuff like that."
"No, it's Shady's fault. And probably also that big dude who smells like a morgue. Seriously, what's his deal? I watched her land a dozen killing blows on him, and he just shrugged 'em off."
"If you have to know. He's a classic revenant zombie. Know how you've gotta destroy the brain in all those lame zombie shows? Them, you'd have to annihilate the brain. Or attack the soul."
"Huh. You folks really are weird." She sighed. "I've got to get this kid to bed. I guess I'll see you around." With that, she turned and walked away.
Raven sighed and went back in to Maya. With some talk, Raven agreed to just stay home the whole week. She'd stay at their houses and make better friends with Asmo while Maya, Dusty and Azrael spent most of the days fixing up the bar. Internally, Raven was being ripped apart. Her favorite uncle almost died, and her mare was mutilated, no word on whether she'd even survive. She didn't care if she came back not looking as pretty, she just wanted her to come back. Azrael felt at fault for everything. His childish bigotry caused the bar to be wrecked, he'd kicked his fragile, totally just friend in the chest, and he nearly murdered two ponies over something petty. He needed to be alone, so he disappeared into the Nexus, picked a random portal, and walked through for some space for the rest of the night. Maya and Skydust, while exhausted were just glad everything was over. Optimists, they were sure Nightshade was going to be fine, and if her new disfigurements became a problem, and couldn't be fixed by royal healers, Dusty could take some time to fix her face, as he had with Maya several times. Asmo didn't know what to feel. He did his best as mediator, snapped Azrael's horn, which probably saved everypony in the bar in his mind, and tried to talk Nightshade down. He did what he could, and *squee!* still went down. Maybe they just needed to literally rip each other apart to get it out of their systems. He decided *squee!* it and helped himself to a few beers before walking outside and waiting on Saber to be ready. Also, was Arch coming back? He had no idea yet. Overall, maybe a week off was a good thing for the group after all that chaos. If everypony else was ready, Maya would use her magic bar goddess powers to kick on the time skip.
Saber drank down the last of her rat piss. She walked out of the bar and patted Asmo's shoulder, and started walking around back to her car. She decided she would come and help fix the bar during the week.
Maya closed up shop after everypony left. She and Dusty stayed after to remove any broken floorboards sitting around. During the week, they decided to just bill Silver for somd bleach and Pone Sol. Nopony wanted to press charges on Nightshade. She got her ass kicked, punishment enough. Asmo spent a lot of time with Raven, and probably Saber, at Maya's place during the week. Maya reopened the bar exactly one week later, at noon, just like she promised. It looked and smelled like a brawl never happened. She retook her place at the bar. Dusty sat at his regular place, Raven sat next to him, clearly bummed, and Azrael reluctantly took his place by the door.
Saber pulled up, parking in her usual spot behind the bar. She came in with a dim smile on her face, and waved to everyone before sitting next to Raven and Dusty. "How are you holdin up?" she asked her.
