The Night Mare’s answer to Lex’s demand came in the form of ominous laughter.
“Do you truly believe that you’re in a position to request anything of me?” she chuckled, and the humor in her voice didn’t hide the underlying malevolence. “Especially after how poorly you’ve kept your promise to spread my religion thus far?”
“I am not ‘requesting’ anything,” shot back Lex. “Severance is here as part of the bargain we struck. Since I was the one who stipulated that I be provisioned with an artifact of sufficient power to restore my primary magic, I am now moving to obviate that part of our accord.”
Again the Night Mare bared her teeth at him, the corners of her lips turning upward. “Is that so?”
Lex didn’t have a chance to react as her horn glowed, a deep blue aura that flickered like fire surrounding it and him in the same moment. Then he was flying backward at an incredible speed, only for his back to slam into the ring of azure fire that was surrounding them both an instant later. Rather than heat, his body was immediately wracked by intense cold, the flames more frigid than the worst chill he’d ever felt. He reflexively tried to pull away, but the goddess’s aura held him fast, keeping him pressed against the freezing fire. “I used to find your arrogance amusing,” announced the Night Mare casually as she stalked closer to him. “But lately, it’s begun to irritate me.”
Lex’s own horn glowed, trying to counter the Night Mare’s telekinesis with his own, but it was futile. Even a moment’s effort was enough to make it clear that he had even less hope of moving the goddess’s aura than he did of moving Equestria’s sun. The Night Mare, however, didn’t even seem to notice the attempt, stopping once she was right in front of him. “Why should I bother removing Severance from your world?” she hissed, her countenance no longer amused. “It brought those five foals to me. It cut down that worshiper of a false god. And it drove you to overthrow and humiliate that charlatan as a testament to my glory, something you wouldn’t have done if it had left you to your own devices.”
She yanked him away from the cerulean flames then, slamming him painfully to the ground on his back right in front of her. The goddess’s aura winked out then, but Lex didn’t have a chance to move before she brought a hoof down sharply on his chest, pinning him to the ground. “But you would have me remove it, and place all of my faith in you alone?” She leaned down, bringing her face closer to his, and this time when she bared her teeth at him it was a snarl. “Do you really think your actions warrant such consideration from me?”
Lex’s answer was to lift a foreleg and begin gesturing. The Night Mare’s hoof felt like it was caving his chest in, but not so much that he couldn’t draw breath, and he managed to rasp out the words to one of the few offensive spells that he had left, one that he hadn’t dared use against Celestia and Luna. An instant later the thin green beam of his disintegration spell shot upward, striking the Night Mare right between the eyes only to wink out of existence a second later, unable to damage her in the slightest.
For her part the goddess didn’t even seem to notice the attack, save to lean even more weight on her hoof, driving the breath from Lex’s lungs as his ribs creaked dangerously. “I have generously given you everything you’ve asked for and more, and yet you have repaid me with nothing but scorn. I gave you the power you wanted, and you’ve barely used any of it. I gave you guidance on how to lead others, and you’ve followed it only reluctantly. I gave you the means to bring Cloudbank, the one pony you actually brought into my fold, back to life, and not only have you not done so,” her hoof twisted sharply then, making the pain in his chest rise to agonizing levels, “you volunteered to use it on that pretender’s devotee instead!”
Unable to speak but still able to think, Lex tried to call upon his dark magic. Instantly, he felt a wave of lethargy run through him, signifying just how deeply he’d tapped his reserves in his battle with the alicorns, but there was enough left to let him transmute his body into shadow. That change, however, brought him no freedom; the Night Mare’s hoof was still keeping him pinned in place despite his being incorporeal. He couldn’t even sink into the ground, the pitch black substance beneath him still feeling as solid and impenetrable to his incorporeal form as it had for his physical body. Even the pain of the goddess’s hoof pressing down on him was persistent, defying his attempts to escape from her anger.
“I think,” continued the Night Mare casually, “that it would benefit me more if I simply had Severance kill you. After all, those foals seem quite receptive to its teaching them my dogma, unlike how you,” she narrowed her eyes, “wanted to slay the totems I’d granted them, rather than encouraging them to strengthen their bonds. Not that you could have killed them anyway. Not permanently. But that you wanted to at all speaks poorly of your willingness to honor our deal.”
She paused then, as if waiting for another attack to come, but Lex had no more magic to use against her. “So tell me, my champion,” she said after several seconds, raising her hoof and releasing him at last, “after how you’ve neglected your end of our bargain, why should I listen to this latest proposal of yours?”
But Lex would neither cower nor compromise. “Severance,” he hissed, changing back into physical form in order to conserve what little power he had left, “killed a pony!” Raising his foreleg, he pointed it at the Night Mare again. “Remove it from my world!”
“I CARE NOTHING FOR YOUR SILLY PROHIBITION AGAINST KILLING YOUR OWN KIND!” roared the Night Mare, her patience seemingly at an end. “YOU HAVE DEFAULTED ON YOUR DEBT TO ME!”
“Then kill me!” Rearing up on his hind legs, Lex spread his forelegs wide, presenting himself as a target. “Smite me where I stand! Drag my soul off to an eternity of torment!” He looked the goddess right in the eye, defiant. “I’m still your best chance of ever being worshiped in Equestria! You think those children will continue learning from Severance after I’m gone? That thing murdered somepony else in cold blood! Once they find out what it did, they won’t want anything to do with it! Nopony will, even if you have it twist their minds!” Lex felt certain of that, since he’d already told Sonata and Nosey the truth about what had happened. They’d make Severance’s callous disregard for pony life known if he died. And those five foals who’d insisted on fighting with him weren’t killers; when he’d yelled at Fruit Crunch for threatening to kill a guard during the fighting, the colt had shamefacedly admitted that he’d been bluffing. “There’s no one else who will exalt your name the way I did when I cast down Luna! There’s no one else who will introduce other ponies to your faith the way I did for Cloudbank! There’s no one else but me!”
The Night Mare glared at him then, an ugly look crossing her face. “You underestimate what Severance can do to the mentality of those that wield it. It can easily bring ponies to worship me with far more zeal than that fool it killed.”
“No one will wield it after what it did,” retorted Lex, falling back onto all fours. “Especially since the princesses will tell everyone about how it’s an ‘artifact of evil.’ At least I have Sonata and other ponies who’ll work to clear my name. No one will do that for Severance.”
Now it was the Night Mare’s turn to stare at him in hateful silence. “I could just kill you anyway, and write this world off as a loss,” she snarled at last.
Lex snorted. “Go right ahead. But we both know that the other gods from your pantheon are trying to spread their influence here. If they succeed, their power will increase, and you’ll be at risk of losing your position in the divine hierarchy.”
The Night Mare’s frustration was almost palpable, and Lex had to bite his lip to keep from smirking. Rubbing her nose in her own impotence like this was what she deserved for daring to attack him. But as satisfying as it was to remind the goddess that she needed him more than he needed her, Lex knew that he couldn’t let this encounter end on such an acrimonious note.
His relationship with the Night Mare was, ultimately, a political one. She was effectively a foreign government that his nascent administration had signed a treaty with. While Lex fully intended to attain absolute dominion over the territory that he ruled – which would be all of Equestria, and quite possibly beyond – he had no illusions of attaining a universal empire. Unless he could somehow cut Equestria off from the wider multiverse it now found itself open to (an undertaking of such scope as to be unimaginable), there would always be foreign groups that he’d need to deal with, as the influx of monsters and deities from Everglow was aptly demonstrating. While some of those would need to be met with military force, it wasn’t feasible to respond to all of them that way, which meant that positive relationships would need to be formed and maintained.
Of course, that had always been Lex’s weakness. But while he had Sonata to help compensate for that, she wasn’t here now, which meant that he had to repair his relationship with the Night Mare on his own. But this isn’t like trying to form friendships, he reminded himself. This is a transactional relationship. Which meant that he simply needed to incentivize the goddess into acquiescing to his proposal. That was irritating, since as far as Lex was concerned he was the one who was ultimately going to walk away from this with less than he’d started with, but Severance needed to be removed from Equestria before somepony else died.
“Remove Severance from this plane of existence, permanently,” repeated Lex, “and in exchange, I will prioritize my efforts to promulgate your religion.”
The Night Mare’s response was a sneer. “How tempting,” she spat, her sarcasm thick enough that even Lex could pick up on it. “In exchange for acceding to your latest entreaty, you’ll give me what you already owe me, and in such vague terms. How could I ever refuse such a generous offer?”
Lex let out a slow breath, reminding himself again that it was in his best interests to placate the goddess. “Then what, precisely, do you want in exchange for taking back your own artifact?”
The Night Mare’s smile came back then, with a cruel glint to it. "I want a sacrifice, from you."
The words made Lex tense. "What?"
"You will hold a ceremony in my honor," explained the goddess. "One conducted by you personally. Not Cloudbank, if you bother to bring her back, and not any of those foals. You. And you will publicly acknowledge your failure to accord me the respect I've earned from you up until now. And as part of your atonement, you will make a sacrifice to me."
Lex grit his teeth. "Of what?" If she just wanted money or jewels, that wouldn't be too difficult to arrange, but there was no way he was going to kill somepony else just to mollify her.
But her answer was neither of those things. "Of something valuable to you," replied the Night Mare. "Something you'll miss."