For a moment, Lex just stared at the scythe as it floated in front of him.
Finally. Finally something was going right for a change. With Severance, he could renew his thaumaturgic spellcasting, bringing the bulk of his powers to bear against the problems that were still plaguing Vanhoover. To say nothing of utilizing the weapon against whatever monster threw itself at him next. But in the meantime, there were questions he needed it to answer.
Reaching out to grab it with his telekinesis, Lex pulled the weapon closer. “Where have you been?” His voice held none of the relief he’d felt mere moments ago, not out of any intent to disguise his feelings but because he’d already pushed those emotions away, focusing on what came next. “Tell me everything that happened since I saw you last.”
The weapon’s response had barely begun when Sonata interrupted. “Welcome back!” Heedless of Lex’s aura around the thing, she brazenly walked up to the scythe and threw a foreleg around it in a hug. “It’s, like, totes great to see you again! I-, hey!” She yelped as it suddenly jerked away from her before glaring at Lex, knowing that he was responsible for the abrupt end to her friendly reunion. “What did you do that for?”
“Sonata, do NOT touch that thing!” Lex met her glare with one of his own, remembering the Night Mare’s casual observation that the scythe altered the mentality of those who wielded it to better suit the dark goddess’s liking. He’d ordered the weapon not to do that under any circumstances, and as far as he was aware it hadn’t changed Cloudbank’s thoughts, but there was no reason to take a chance. Especially not when it came to his beloved.
“Aww, why not?” Sonata pouted. “He’s our friend too, right? And after what happened to everypony else, I thought you’d be, like, dancing for joy now that he’s back.”
“It’s not a ‘he,’ it’s an ‘it.’ And it’s extremely…” Lex didn’t finish speaking, forcing himself to stop before he lost his temper. Instead, he took a moment to remind himself that no one but him knew about Severance’s ability to alter its user’s mind, nor about its vague warning about abandoning him if he came to rely on it overmuch. As far as Sonata knew, Severance was a reliable weapon that was also alive, and nothing else. There was no reason to chastise her. Even so, his response came around gritted teeth, exhaustion burning away what little patience he had left. “Just…let me debrief it, alright?”
Her brow crinkled at that, tilting her head in confusion. “Huh? What’s that?”
“I want it to report on what happened in Vanhoover.”
“Ohhh, why didn’t you say so?” Smiling guilelessly, Sonata turned away so that Lex and Severance could catch up. I shouldn’t get in their way, she decided. Lex needs more guy friends. Instead, she turned to regard everypony else. Severance’s return had attracted more than a few ponies, and the crowd itself was starting to draw others over, curious about what was going on. The sight of so many eyes directed at her – or at least, near her – was enough to make her slightly giddy. Now, to start doing her job as a spokespony. “Everypony!” She made sure to get it right that time. “Everypony, listen up! In just a minute, Lex Legis will make an announcement about all the super-tragic stuff that’s happened. And it’s gonna be totes awesome because it’ll be delivered by his hot spokespony: me!” She couldn’t help but jump for joy then, heedless of how her attitude didn’t match what she’d just said, looking over her should to shoot Lex a grin and a wink.
Unable to help but gape at the juxtaposition between her words and her attitude, Lex somehow forced himself to turn his attention back to Severance, turning and walking away from the crowd as he brought the scythe with him. He’d deal with Sonata later. “Now, tell me what happened after I sent you with Cloudbank.”
The scythe’s accounting of the events was short and to the point. It took only a few minutes for it to describe what had happened in Vanhoover, relaying how Cloudbank and her followers had successfully fought their way into the bank, barely managing to get into the bank vault before escaping with the money they’d been sent to retrieve. Despite – or perhaps because of – the dispassionate recounting, Lex felt his chest tighten. The knowledge that they had all struggled so hard, risking their lives to fulfill the directive he’d given them, somehow made the knowledge of their loss even harder to deal with.
That was the reason why, once the scythe reached the point in its report where Nosey appeared out of nowhere and dispatched the others with contemptible ease, Lex suddenly interrupted it. “Why didn’t you save them?” The words came tumbling out of their own accord. “There must have been something you could have done!”
The scythe didn’t hesitate in its reply, pointing out that saving them was Lex’s responsibility, not its own. “Don’t you dare lecture me on responsibility!” hissed Lex, his eyes blazing green and purple. “I lent you to Cloudbank so that you could assist her in accomplishing her mission, the first priority of which was always to come back alive!” When Severance began to blithely reply that Cloudbank was weak, Lex snapped.
Unable to hold back an inarticulate cry of rage, he slammed the scythe to the ground. Immediately, it tried to lift itself back into the air, but Lex lunged forward, stomping on the flat of the blade, leaning his weight on it and pressing the weapon back down into the dirt. “Don’t you dare disparage those ponies who gave their lives in my service! Don’t you DARE!” Incensed, he lifted his hoof only to slam it back down again before Severance could rise. “Those five ponies were the very best of everyone in Vanhoover! In all of Equestria! They all displayed courage and selflessness and acumen beyond all expectations! They deserve to be honored for their sacrifice!” He brought his hoof down on the blade again, not noticing that it felt warmer than it did a moment ago, his voice rising as the feelings he’d been suppressing for the last few hours finally boiled over, black crystals beginning to sprout from the ground. “YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED TO HAVE COME BACK HERE WITHOUT THEM! YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED FOR NOT HAVING DONE EVERYTHING IN YOUR POWER TO HAVE SAVED THEIR LIVES, EVEN IF IT MEANT YOURS! YOU HAD A MORAL DUTY TO PROTECT THEM, AND YOUR FAILURE IS A DISGRACE THAT WILL NEVER GO AWA-”
His ranting was cut off as he suddenly snatched his hoof away from Severance with a snarl of pain, the blade suddenly being too hot to touch. As he watched, the weapon slowly rose back into the air, its blade already beginning to glow a dull red. Slowly, it rotated in place until its blade was pointed directly at him, and although Lex had never been good at reading people, even he could understand the gesture. But far from being intimidated, Lex only felt angrier at the weapon’s defiance. “You think I’m afraid of you?” he growled, holding out a hoof – his left hoof, the one with the barbed wire that was the Night Mare’s holy symbol wound around it – towards the scythe in a threat of his own. “Do your worst! I crushed that monster that slew the others and sent you wherever you were! I can do the same to you! I-”
Suddenly, Sonata was in front of him. Before he could even blink, she stood up on her hind legs, waving at something behind him. “And that’s our fearless leader, Lex Legis, with his, uh, inspirational words of…inspiration! You all are a great audience! Stay right there, and we’ll be right, um, back after…after we get back!” She kept waving as she spoke, a rictus grin on her face as she glanced at Lex, canting her head toward the back of the medical tent in an exaggerated fashion.
Humiliated at his loss of control having been a public spectacle, Lex slunk in the indicated direction, his ears folded back and his eyes once again in their natural state, the black crystals that had been growing now crumbling to dust. But as miserable as he felt right then, he still kept an eye on Severance, which followed him at a slight distance. Fortunately, the scythe seemed inclined to cease hostilities as well, its red-hot glow slowly fading until all traces of its spontaneous thermal reaction were gone.
Sonata was the last one to join them, walking backward on her hind legs as she continued waving to the crowd of ponies. It was only after she’d joined them around back of the medical tent, with it between them and the assembled ponies, that she flopped down onto her back with a loud groan. Turning a critical eye on Lex, she huffed. “You just had to upstage me, didn’t you?”
He bristled at the rebuke. “Sonata, I-”
“I was joking,” she sighed as she climbed to her hooves. Looking at Severance, she frowned. “Look, I know you just got back and all, but could you give me and Lex a sec?” The scythe didn’t move for a moment, and for a moment it seemed like it was going to ignore her request, before it began to float away from them, stopping a few dozen feet further back. Giving the weapon a cordial wave in gratitude, Sonata turned back to her boyfriend, who tensed in anticipation of her chastising him over what just happened.
But no reprimand came. Instead, she walked over and nuzzled him, her happy-go-lucky expression changing into a look of concern. “Listen…it’s okay if you feel like crying.”
Confused and emotionally drained, Lex reverted to type, presuming the worst of her intentions. “Do not patronize me!” he snapped, moving away from her.
But Sonata was unfazed. “I don’t know what that means, but I’m being totes serious. A good cry will make you feel better.” She smiled at him then, a small one of understanding, rather than her usual boisterous grin. “I speak from experience.”
“I do not need to-, this is ridiculous!” Lex stamped a hoof in agitation. “Severance’s failure needs to be addressed! If you had heard the way it referred to Cloudbank and the others, you would have been furious too! You-”
“Lex,” she interrupted, “I’m trying to tell you: you didn’t sound furious just now. You sounded, like, heartbroken.” She could practically see the words striking home, his body going rigid. The sight was incredibly sad, especially after everything he’d already gone through to try and keep everypony safe. “It wasn’t your fault,” she said softly.
He was breathing heavier now, swallowing before he spoke again. “Do not….don’t you dare presume to tell me…” He couldn’t finish, a strangled sound coming from his throat.
Closing the distance between them, Sonata hugged him. For a moment he didn’t react, and she thought he might pull away from her again, but then she felt him curl a foreleg around her and hug her back. They stayed that way for long moments, him breathing deeply as she just held him, feeling tremors of repressed emotion run through his body. When they finally separated, she gave him a sad smile. He didn’t return the expression, keeping his eyes on the ground, but he seemed to be calmer, his breathing having slowed down.
“Listen,” she ventured. “You already told me what you need everyone to do, right? Trenches, fences, stuff like that? How about I go out there and get all that started, and you can stay here and rest for a little bit. No fighting with Severance or anything, just take it easy, okay?” He nodded, but still didn’t make eye contact with her. Knowing that was the most she’d get out of him, she leaned in and kissed his cheek before heading back toward the crowd.
“Sonata.”
“Hm?” Pausing, she glanced back at him. He hadn’t moved, facing away from her now that she’d started to head back. But she heard his next words clearly.
“…thank you.”