The clone took the shot to the gut, getting knocked against the guardrail, spitting again on the ground, "... *SQUEE* you, Dusty. Whatever you do is just going to be a band-aid. There's doubt, there's always going to be doubt." He cackled a bit as he looked over at Mat, "Tell me, when was the last time you talked to your paren...." Mat's eyes snapped as he quickly tackled down the clone, and began to just hammer his face with his hooves.
The subconscious of Mat was black, pretty much nothing was there, well, mainly nothing, there was a bit of a shadow there. A shadow of a pony, it was pretty much laying down face-first, it's hooves over it's head.
Mat continues to lay there, muttering, "... Stop fighting. I don't even know anymore. It's like a spiraling staircase that only goes down."
He looks up, seeing Dusty, slowly standing up, staring at him. "... I'm getting stronger, Dusty... What if I get too strong and everypony starts fearing me? What if they kick me out of Ponyville, or banish me from Equestria or just... form an angry mob and come after me to kill me or to chain me or do whatever, treat me like a monster."
He looks directly at Dusty, "... She's a Princess. Student of Celestia... I'm not a student of anyone, I'm barely even a guard, I'm off in Ponyville, doing my own thing. There's obvious differences between her and me..."
Nightshade and Raven arrived at the bar without further incident. Nightshade looked around. "Anypony seen Dusty?"
"Alright." Dusty conjured up images of Azrael, Nightshade, Maya, Zeran, Silver, and Architect's bodyguard guy. "Look familiar?" "Looks like he's uhh..." Raven spotted him. "Helping wrestler pony person in that booth." "Shady!" Maya perked up. "You're better."
Nightshade nodded. "Well, back to normal at least. I don't suppose you have any kind of tooth repair potion? I'd ask Dusty, but he looks kinda busy."
"Name something they have in common," he requested. "Always keep a healing potion around, but it's slow." She tossed Nightshade a little, red potion. "Lemme guess. She tried a trick?"
Dusty nodded. "Yes. They are all, pardon my Prench, bucking badasses. I've yet to see one of them run out of a town."
Nightshade nodded. "Appleloosa Grass Cutter. I did one and she wanted to try, too. Not sure what went wrong, but I think I gave her bad advice."
