Lex glared balefully at Severance, the weapon having gone completely still in response to his accusation.
By itself that wasn’t unusual; since it was capable of unassisted flight, it was common for Severance to simply hover in the air when Lex wasn’t holding or carrying it. But now, gripping it in his telekinesis, he could feel the difference. Although it was still aloft, there was a sensation of resistance to it now, as though it were sunk deeply in concrete even though it was currently surrounded by nothing but air. It’s readying itself in case I try to fling it to the ground again, realized Lex, remembering what had happened a few hours ago when he’d lost his temper after Severance had confirmed the deaths of Cloudbank’s group. Despite his fatigue, the scythe’s recalcitrance fanned the flames of his anger. “Your warning was never anything more than chicanery! You had no intention of deserting me no matter how I used you!”
It was only then that Severance spoke up, issuing a cool denial in a voice that was filled with either smugness or condescension, Lex wasn’t sure which. But the scythe’s assurance that it would indeed have left him and returned to the Night Mare’s side if he’d come to rely upon it too much did little to quell Lex’s sense of betrayal. “Liar!” he hissed, his eyes blazing green and purple. “Ever since I received you, I’ve put you to work on numerous tasks of vital importance!” He began to list them off then, punctuating each one with a stamp of his hoof. “Serving as a battery to renew my magic! Guarding me in my sleep! Protecting the backs of the ponies that I brought here from the shelter! To say nothing of the critical role you played in procuring an escape route for the ponies I sent into Vanhoover! All of that, and you’re still here!” He narrowed his eyes then, lips curling back in a snarl. “I demand to know why, if you never planned on leaving, you made that threat in the first place?!”
He kept his voice low, not wanting anypony to hear that Severance was the reason he was able to use his strongest magic so liberally, though the furious tenor wasn’t dampened for it. But if Severance was shaken by Lex’s anger, it hid it well. Its voice was still clipped as it asked in what had to be a rhetorical manner if those tasks constituted overreliance.
The weapon’s reply sounded more like an evasion than an answer to Lex, and had he been able to lift a hoof off the ground for more than a second without falling over he would have pointed it at the weapon. “You tell me! You were the one who refused to provide any sort of parameters or guidelines, even though I inquired as to them!” Despite his anger, Lex was aware of a stirring in the back of his mind, identical to when he’d been pondering the mystery of Block Party’s death, letting him know that there was something salient that he was overlooking, some sort of key connection that he hadn’t made. With regard to Block Party, it had ended up being that Nosey – when he’d been issuing those identity tests to her – hadn’t used her horn to move anything. But now…what was it?
The realization was enough to blunt his anger, and as if it sensed that, Severance spoke up again…this time in acquiescence, offering to describe the conditions of overreliance in full. That was enough to make Lex raise an eyebrow, caught off-guard by its sudden capitulation, but not so much that he didn’t move to confirm it immediately. “You should have said that before,” he snapped. “Now, tell me clearly and precisely what actions and circumstances are acceptable uses of your capabilities versus those you’re proscribing as overly dependent.”
But what Severance said next caused Lex’s brow to furrow in confusion.
“What?” he frowned. “‘Legitimate utilization is the subsumption of another’s capabilities to your will,’” he echoed, his voice filled with disbelief. “‘Overreliance is the opposite’?! You can’t be serious! That’s not a guideline, it’s an axiom! It makes things less clear, not more!”
But Severance disagreed, pointing out how it had ceased to operate for Cloudbank after she had asked it for help when the kraken had taken control of her motor functions. In doing so, she had not only declared that she was powerless, but had presented that powerlessness as a plea for Severance to come to her aid. That, the scythe explained, was her willful abandonment of any pretense of authority over it, and so had declared that there was no reason for it to obey her. Even the most loyal of minions, it finished, would lose faith in a master who openly surrendered control over them.
For a moment, Lex could only gape in reply, utterly aghast at both the reasoning and at the sentiment behind it. “That’s completely absurd,” he scoffed. “Not only is that sentiment completely in the eye of the proverbial beholder, it puts all of its emphasis on disposition and none at all on actual ability! By that logic, someone who conducts themselves imperiously without having the requisite power to enforce their will-” But Severance interrupted him then, asserting that any such individual would quickly find themselves overthrown anyway, since prerogative without sufficient power would make it impossible to keep rebellious or ambitious followers in line. Those who deserved to rule, it concluded, were those with both the power and the desire to impress their will on others.
“Sophistry,” hissed Lex. “What you’re spouting is nothing more than meritocratic determinism, with no conception of justice or moral virtue as integral components!” But Severance’s reaction to this was bobbing slightly in the air, an action that Lex guessed was its equivalent of a shrug. He was proven right a moment later as Severance casually asserted that those were empty words, defined only insofar as they were enforced by those with power. After all, it noted idly, such ideas were entirely the creation of sapient creatures, and so sapient creatures could make them mean whatever they wanted.
“You’re wrong,” shot back Lex, refusing to let this go. He knew that this wasn’t the time for it, that this was a distraction he couldn’t afford, but he couldn’t help himself. Everything the weapon had just said was an insult to the moral framework he had spent the majority of his life developing. It went beyond amorality, straight into moral nihilism, and absolutely could not go unchallenged. “Other people have intrinsic value to them beyond being made to serve as extensions of your will-” He stopped in mid-sentence as he suddenly realized what he’d been overlooking.
This is what the Night Mare was talking about! he realized, a horrified chill going down his spine. When the goddess had appeared in his dream earlier that evening, she had excoriated him for trying to accomplish everything “on his own.” He had found the rebuke hypocritical of her, since although he knew little about her dogma, he knew that self-reliance was a central part of it. Wasn’t attempting to solve the challenges facing him under his own power the very epitome of the beliefs that she championed?
But now, the abhorrent philosophy that Severance had been spouting made it clear that, from the scythe’s standpoint – and therefore the Night Mare’s, since Severance was surely her mouthpiece in this – there was an alternate, warped interpretation of what constituted “self-reliance.” It’s not just personal ability, Lex realized, his eyes wide and staring at nothing as the realization came crashing down on him. “The subsumption of another’s capabilities to your will!” That’s what Severance said! Which means her religion considers those who act in service to another to be an extension of that individual’s power!
It was, he realized, extremely close to his own philosophy regarding the distribution of authority. After all, the proactive government that he intended to build would need a massive infrastructure built, with a great many ponies staffing it, all so they could implement the reforms and changes that he intended to enact. As government employees working to apply the laws and regulations that he would create, and in the course of that duty be ultimately answerable to him, they could be characterized as being subsumed to his will. There’s no such thing as a government of just one individual, Lex knew. Suddenly, the Night Mare’s insistence that he knew almost nothing about leadership was extremely disturbing.
Lex shook his head then, squeezing his eyes shut as he forced his thoughts back into order. “You’re wrong,” he repeated, opening his eyes and looking at Severance again. “The recognition of other members of the moral community is a vital component in ruling-”
“All done!” called Sonata, trotting over happily, brushing some dust from her coat. “I totes spread the tent over all the holes! Those ghouls are so gonna trip over them when they come here!” She knew because she had done that a bunch of times just now. “So, you think of a plan?”
“I would have,” snapped Lex peevishly, “but this miscreant weapon’s continued insistence that…”
Sonata bit her lip at Lex’s angry response, not sure what to make of the way he suddenly trailed off at the end. “Are you guys getting into another fight?” she asked, worried and exasperated all at once. “‘Cuz this really isn’t the time for you two to try and measure who’s bigger.” Not that she’d ever been clear about why guys would want to compare sizes when they got into a fight, but Adagio and Aria had said many times that was what they did. Which is, like, super weird. Can’t guys tell who’s taller just by looking?
But Lex wasn’t paying attention to her, instead tracing back the conversation he’d been having with Severance. If he was right, then there was a salient point that he’d overlooked…one that might be absolutely vital for what was about to happen. “You do realize,” he began, considerably calmer now, “that by your own reasoning, you’re subordinate to me.” He’d presumed that was the case when the Night Mare had presented the scythe to him, of course, but now he wanted Severance to acknowledge it personally.
The weapon did so a moment later, not hesitating to recognize Lex’s strength and his ambition. “And you have no intent to challenge me with regard to either of those factors?” he replied, tensing slightly. He doubted that it did, since the worst it had ever done was threaten to return to the Night Mare; even when he’d thrown it on the ground and stomped on it, the most it had ever done was move to defend itself, rather than fight back. Sure enough, the weapon replied in the negative a moment later, asserting that it was created to assist those who both acknowledged the Night Mare and lived up to her ideals.
Lex frowned slightly at that, but managed to let the philosophical argument lie for now. There would be time to resume it after the current crisis was over. “In that case,” he said slowly, bringing the scythe closer, “I have a new order for you for when the ghouls attack.”
Idly, he swung the blade, letting it cleave through rock that had been dragged nearby when Sonata had pulled the top of the medical tent away from its bottom half. Unsurprisingly, Severance cleaved through the stone as though it was made of butter, but Lex’s eyes were on the ground nearby. The earth around the rock was undamaged, which was unsurprising considering that the blade hadn’t made contact with it. But in his mind’s eye, Lex was comparing it to what had happened when Cloudbank swung the scythe at the ship fragment that the Great Lord of the Deep had thrown at them, completely bisecting it in one stroke.
“When the undead ponies get here,” said Lex, holding the blade out in front of him, “I’m going to wield you, and you’re going to use your full power.”