"My lady." Gazelle bowed with restrained courtesy, despite being twice as tall as the sphinx filly he faced.
The Night Mother smiled, showing teeth. "Tearing up a hospital tonight, are we? Now what could make you do a thing like that?"
"I do what I want," Gazelle countered, straightening up, "as I always have. Now what's this about a message for me? It's mayhem in here, and I have revels to return to."
"Oh... ho ho ho." The Night Mother chuckled. "Nothing too dramatic. I just thought I'd tell you your piece is missing because I borrowed her. She's off your board for the time being, Gazelle. In case you were worried."
Gazelle's brow narrowed. "Making moves behind my back, are you? That wasn't our agreement."
The Night Mother returned his gaze without even twitching a hair, entirely unperturbed. "Our agreement, as with every pact I make, is secondary to ensuring her children's wellbeing. I had to remind you of this after the incident with the pirates two months ago, did I not?"
Gazelle charismatically shrugged, keeping his composure excellently despite the wall of expectation exerted by the Night Mother's presence. "And? Last I checked this merry Ironridge band has quite the reputation as heroes, don't they? I hardly see a downside in the name of peace and justice to letting them do as they please."
"Mhmmm," the Night Mother sarcastically purred. "And do you see a downside to your habit of supporting your home-grown rivals so they grow and make a better challenge?"
"'Tis but a sport." Gazelle licked his paw. "I ensure these things aren't left to grow overripe. Don't you trust me? Or are you saying you're prodding our heroes into a hornet's nest so they take care of it before I even have a chance to clean up after myself?"
"Your methods are at odds with your motives," the Night Mother growled. "You want to re-subjugate this lawless empire and present it whole and perfect to your sister when she takes the throne? A worthy goal. And if you want to stir up problems and allow them to fester for no better reason than to watch their dramatic conclusions?" Her demeanor flipped on its head, and suddenly she was purring approvingly. "I've always liked the things mortals can get up to. But you're making no progress, working against yourself, and you've allowed some forces to grow strong enough I have to lift my paws and take action myself to protect this land."
Gazelle put on a look of mock indignation. "Working against myself? Oh, please. My lady... Heh..." He closed his eyes and stood, shoulders shaking with a single chuckle. "You've seen my outlines. You're privy to the deepest extent of my plans for this empire, are you not? You should know my unfinished business is carefully cultivated to take care of itself. Why solve a problem directly when it's so much more entertaining to create another problem and have them cancel each other out?"
"How could I forget?" The Night Mother rolled her eyes. "Yes, clearly unifying the Griffon Empire is a task that must be as entertaining as possible. You could have no higher priorities."
Gazelle bristled. "Oh, come on! Lady, when we first met you told me you got a kick out of observing mortal antics like mine! Not only do you sanction it, you do the same!"
"So you're playing god now?" The Night Mother's grin returned. "I do. And I'm not reprimanding you, little prince." She reached up, stroking his chin with a single claw. "Just explaining why I decided to step in for a moment. Now stop worrying over Starlight. I'll give her back as soon as she's seen what I want her to see. If she's lucky, maybe I'll even get to talk with her."
"...I see." Gazelle closed his eyes and took a step back. "Very well, then. I'll inform Meltdown you're taking command of the situation. In the future, please do trust me to know what I'm doing."
The Night Mother bit her lip as if she was trying to stifle laughter. "Fine, then. Get on with your bad self."
Gazelle steadied himself and bowed, extending a paw. "I am the player."
The Night Mother met it with one of her own. "And I am the game."
"Glory to Garsheeva. May her love, as deep as the Aldenfold, and her virtue, as pure as the moon, be revealed to the entire world."
As the words left Gazelle's lips, the smaller sphinx huffed and turned away. "It always amuses me to hear you insult me so. Oh, and one other thing?"
"My lady?" Gazelle looked up, holding his bow.
The Night Mother's grin returned in force. "How confident are you how have everything under control? Make it on a scale of one to ten. And just for this conversation."
Gazelle furrowed his brow. "That's a trick question if I ever heard one. No matter what I say, you'll change the circumstances on me with something I didn't know."
"Astute as always." The Night Mother brushed him with her tail, purring. "Just between you and me?" She met him with a slit-eyed wink. "You forgot to make sure this room was empty before starting this conversation."
Before he could so much as pale, there was a spire of green flame, and a dizzy sarosian filly sat back on her haunches, blinking hard and rubbing her forehead. "Ow, what happened...?"
Gazelle snarled internally, forced to choose between further spooking the foal and hunting whoever the other sphinx had implied before they could get away. For all he knew, there was no one, and the fact that he wouldn't be able to find anyone would just make him paranoid.
Equally scared, camouflaged and hiding behind a pillar near the entrance, Jamjars greased her hooves to avoid noisy hooffalls, kicked for momentum, and silently glided away.
Starlight had descended another staircase, and prisoners were growing more common. They weren't everywhere, but she had passed at least five on the last floor, including two mares she thought knew the insane griffon she encountered earlier.
The various ponies' brightness was slowly driving her insane. She thought she could acclimate to it if she stayed like this long enough, but it still clashed against the sense of normal she remembered from before touching the moon glass. Mares and stallions, ponies and batponies, guards and prisoners, griffons and griffonesses, every living thing she passed had a quality to them that made her tingle with longing. What was she doing, desiring brutal pirates and criminals like this? She wanted... She wanted to polish them, to shine and hold and see that warmth, like there was a living quality to them that everything would be better the more she had.
It made no sense. She couldn't articulate what she wanted in physical terms; the closest emotion she knew was loneliness. But these ponies were bad, so why was she seeing them as something precious? Was she looking upon redeeming features, some inner spark of harmony that all lifeforms possessed, the absolute best that even the worst ponies had to offer?
If that was true, and if the Nightmare Modules allowed her to see the goodness within ponies... If it made her desire goodness, could she really say they were that evil after all?
A cold breeze interrupted her train of thought, and Starlight stared down a side passage, beholding another stairway. Wind, huh? And a temperature change? Curious, she turned and continued her journey down.