//------------------------------//
// The Night Mother 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

The last ornate hallway took a left turn, exiting into a shallow mountain bowl with the stars close above, short natural crags the only things separating the Monk Lords' chamber from the high mountain winds. A raised U-shape surrounded a small central courtyard, open space in the middle and a dusk statue seated watchfully at the back. Eight glowing veins intersected at its base, and around the raised edges, hooded batponies sat, high enough to look down on the chamber yet low enough for quiet conversation to be held.

Starlight counted five in total, waiting patiently like statues. The gem in the dusk statue's core pulsed slowly in time with the blue power flowing from its base, though for reasons she couldn't fathom it was red instead of the omnipresent color scheme of the rest of the city.

"Emineeence!?" Jaxy called, kneeling heavily before the council. "I have delivered the travelers!"

"Thank you," the middle mare said in an accentless voice slowed by age. "Jaxy, you are dismissed."

Jaxy bowed, retreating without turning around and taking his guard with him. Starlight's gaze tried to follow two sides of the room at once as she and her friends were suddenly alone, the mare who had spoken raising a silent wrinkled hoof.

In response to her gesture, two double-doors swung out from the walls, closing off the way back into the mountain.

Maple sucked in a breath, but the central mare spoke before she could. "I just thought we'd like more privacy," she began, reaching up with both hooves and sliding back her hood. A glimmering silver mane that seemed to reflect the moon fell free, matching her unnatural eyes and almost ethereal over her aged, smiling face. "I hear you've brought me one of my old colleagues."

Everyone looked at each other, and Gerardo was elected to speak. "That we have, milady. Might you have a title? We wouldn't want to be rude."

"You may call me Eidys," the mare slowly replied. "But my station is one of humility before the Night Mother. This is not a place where decorum matters more than the contents of your heart, Gerardo."

Gerardo looked up. "You know our names, then."

"The Night Mother has informed us of your coming," Eidys said, her companions still deep in prayer. "Maple. Wayward Valey. Gerardo Guillaume, Starlight... She has a message for you, young Felicity. She tells you she is pleased with your path."

A faint chill ran down Starlight's spine. Eidys hadn't used her full name. Of her friends, only Maple knew it, but she was sure the Night Mother had some way of knowing, too. Did the Night Mother know why she didn't want her friends knowing, and had omitted it on purpose? Did she know about Starlight's vision in the harmonic flame in Ironridge, of a desolate landscape where Valey knew her name, one that ostensibly couldn't happen if Valey never learned?

"Then it sounds like you've been well-briefed," Gerardo confirmed. "You also know of our present mission, I take it."

Eidys frowned. "Mistvale is vast, and you've passed through some shadows in the Night Mother's all-seeing eye. From what we've heard from the captain, you have quite a concerning tale."

"That we do." Gerardo nodded. "I'd be surprised if encountering a criminal of legend wasn't. I'd like to apologize first and foremost for any role we may have played in freeing him, though I imagine that's not the most important thing to discuss."

Eidys gave him a scrutinizing look. "How are you so sure you met Yanavan? The captain told me he met your captive himself, yet you didn't believe him when he said that was somepony else."

Gerardo grinned grimly. "First because he said so, but when we met him, he was empowered by Nightmare Modules. Those are the treasures Yanavan purportedly stole, are they not?"

"And you'd know what those look like," Eidys said with a glance straight at Starlight. "Yet I'm told your captive doesn't share the transformation they effect on sarosians."

Maple cleared her throat, stepping bravely forward. "We have a way to reverse that transformation."

Eidys' eyes narrowed on her. "That's very interesting. And you swear on your loved ones you're telling the truth?"

Valey swallowed. "And what if we weren't?"

"Then you'd be applauded for your prank and told to find a more appreciative audience in the city proper, with no harm done save for a few wasted minutes," Eidys deadpanned. "I'm far more worried you're being serious."

Starlight felt a slight chill.

"A host approaches," the other hooded Monk Lords muttered in sync.

Eidys' eyes turned heavenward, and Starlight and her friends followed the gaze. Over the chamber's ridge crested a squadron of robed batponies, holding ropes and flying in formation. At the center was a figure clearly restrained, and it didn't take any guesswork to tell who.

The guards hovered down in the center of the chamber, landing between the dusk statue and Starlight's friends. "Release him," Eidys commanded. "From bonds and arts. Then you are dismissed."

Ropes were slowly undone, monks tapping their hooves against Yanavan in careful combinations before taking wing once again. Starlight frowned at the acts. "Hey, that dude's dangerous!" Valey protested. "We kept him locked up as hard as we could! Don't just free him!"

Eidys' gaze drifted to her. "This room is protected by forces more powerful than he can possibly imagine," she chastised, turning to the monk who was now abandoned in the center of the room. "And besides. That's not Yanavan."

Yanavan stood up shakily, locking eyes on Eidys. "And who are you to tell me otherwise, fool? I was before your time!"

Eidys lifted a hoof, and Yanavan flinched as an audible slap echoed through the air. "The real Yanavan's wife," she chastised, inspecting her hoof with disinterest, having stricken him despite the distance. "You look nothing like him. You were clearly no Monk Lord, either."

The stallion paled.

"Wait, what!?" Valey took a shocked step forward. "You mean we got kicked around by a random bum? He totally had the Nightmare Modules, though!"

Eidys paid her no attention, grinning down at the fake Yanavan. "Your disguise is cracking. Clearly a good enough actor to fool these people, but nopony becomes a Monk Lord for being gullible. Now tell me about all this commotion about Nightmare Modules."

The stallion spun in a circle, but he was surrounded, Eidys and the dusk statue on the front and Starlight and her friends behind. "Tell you?" He bristled. "You'd like to know, wouldn't you? Pah. You had them for generations and kept them as pretty ornaments." A spike of arrogance wormed its way into his tone, growing until it dominated it. "Simpering fools. Why should I pretend you deserve what I've learned?"

"Honey, we already know everything there is to know about Nightmare Modules," Eidys countered with a smirk, effortlessly beating him in force of personality. "The council and I are far more interested in you."

As the two elders squared off, Starlight's fur began to prickle, giving the uncomfortable feeling she was being watched. It had been all throughout the chamber, she realized, only now was growing more intense. Was it the dusk statue? She swallowed, looking everywhere but at the arguing monks.

The fake Yanavan hissed. "Curious about me, are you? Why not be curious about your goddess? Or is it too easy, simply believing everything you're taught to believe? I was the one who searched where there was nothing. I looked for more!" He straightened up. "Bluster all you want, but you hold no power here."

"My, you're a feisty upstart," Eidys countered. "And I never claimed to be powerful. But someone who does wants a word with you, and you'd best not test my mercy if you want to avoid facing her amusement. Now tell us why they say you carried Nightmare Modules."

"You dare make demands of me? You utter fools..." The fake Yanavan shook his head. "They were gifts bestowed by my goddess, a power unknowably greater than yours! You oppose me out of ignorance alone. Hahahaha!"

"Bananas, who did we pick up?" Valey blinked in concern, eyes wide.

Eidys gave her a smirk. "Wait your turn, hun. The codgers are talking." Her gaze snapped back to the stallion, dominant and amused. "Our goddess versus your goddess, hmm? The Night Mother accepts, whenever yours decides to show up. But it's just us mortals here for now. Why not start by showing us what your gifted Nightmare Modules can do?"

The fake Yanavan winced, and Eidys leaned forward like a vulture. "So were they taken from you, or is your goddess not as generous as you make her out to be?"

"Does it fill you with pride, stooping to such pitiful, obvious insults?" The fake Yanavan held his head righteously, refusing to break eye contact. "Shaming my goddess when yours withheld from you a millennium of power? The ground you stand on is nothing but straw, worshipping empty effigies who have nothing more than kind words. Where are her actions? Where was her power on the day Gyre invaded and was turned back by Garsheeva?"

Starlight blinked, remembering Gerardo's story of the crusade from shortly after the monk was captured. The fake Yanavan had said it stirred up a storm of questioning the Night Mother, almost a precursor to his own betrayal in its impact on society. That must have still happened, only he was lying about staying on her side...

He continued with a chuckle. "In those days I left to live in exile, refusing her pretenses forevermore. But my new goddess sought me out. She came to me, foretold these travelers' arrival and how I could convince them to bring me to your very doorstep. Cling to your last moments of rhetoric, for this hour of gloating is the last gift the Night Mother will ever give you."

Eidys rolled her eyes. "She's starting to get mad at me for not letting her laugh at you herself. Honey?"

Starlight saw the shadow cloak seconds before it dropped.

"You speak of these things like a gift," a quiet, elderly stallion's voice said, his haunches and forelegs dissolving in a void. "That proves you don't know what they are."

The fake Yanavan blanched. "What!?"

Before him, sitting directly beneath the dusk statue, a stallion just as ancient as Eidys appeared, flowing beneath his open cloak with monochromatic energy. He gave the imposter a colorless look. "I am Yanavan, as I have been for the past thirty years. Your identity was never in question. And for you to mistake the goddess's burden for a gift, you must have fallen very far, indeed."

Everyone in Starlight's group jumped. "You were here!?" Felicity shrieked in disbelief. "Did they know? Are you still allied? What was the meaning of our exodus!?"

None of the Monk Lords reacted, Eidys watching the conflict with a wry look. "You," the imposter said, staring calmly at the new Yanavan. "So, the hypocrisy-"

Flash!

A jet of magical flame surged around Eidys, and where she had been stood an elderly sphinx, still wearing the Monk Lord's robes. Feathered wings spread, and she glided down with unnatural lightness to land beside Yanavan before the statue. "I'm sorry," she announced, greeting the fake with a wide-toothed grin. "Were we about to re-litigate every tiny bit of this who's-who I just waited through? Let me speed things along." Her slitted eyes flashed red. "I am the Night Mother, who you've had plenty of time to talk down." She extended a wing to the new Yanavan's back. "This is my faithful servant who does exactly as I command, whom you impersonated. And you are Perynus, who confided in me as a foal about every crush you had. Doesn't that save time?"

Felicity was still wide-eyed from shock. "You're telling me in person you ordered Yanavan's..."

The Night Mother shot her a look. "Goddesses work in mysterious ways."

The fake Yanavan drew himself up, meeting her stare levelly. "I abandoned that name when I abdicated your presence long ago. I am Yanavan, a name I am far more worthy of than one who still serves you."

"Really." The Night Mother tapped a claw, looking unamused. "Now where is your goddess? I was promised a challenge. And don't try to fight me by yourself."

"Ask and you shall receive." Perynus backed up, spread his shoulders and turned to the heavens. "Oh, nameless one, I call as you decree!"

The Night Mother watched... and the air began to shimmer. Starlight's entire spine shivered, a huge patch of space distorting as something invisible started to become corporeal again. She realized a second before it finished what it was.

The metal dragon from the plaza stood in the Monk Lords' chamber, immobile, staring down at Perynus in exactly the same pose she had seen it last.

"Hah!" The Night Mother snorted so hard she nearly fell over. "And here I let myself get excited." She turned her back on Perynus, stepping toward her statue. "Congratulations. You've pranked a goddess."

"You have no understanding of what you call a-"

"Quiet, you." The Night Mother made a snapping noise with her tail, cutting the monk off as he swelled. "I was talking to her."

The silver dragon stood over him, completely immobile.

Perynus stared back up at it with a righteous smirk. "Let her eat those words."

Slowly, the dragon's tail began to rotate beneath its casing.

A faint red glow lit the insides of the blue crystals that formed it, and with a silent hiss of moving metal, it lifted a claw toward Perynus. He watched the claw expectantly.

Faster than Starlight could blink, the claw changed, two needle-like spines shooting out from its talons. Longer than swords and thinner than knives, they pierced his body all the way through, and the claw continued to rise, lifting him off his hooves like food skewered in an eldritch fork. She had the sudden realization that if they were to spread apart, it would be the messiest possible way to die... but instead they pulsed faintly with energy, and Perynus paled and lost his color. He stiffened, stopped moving, seemed to grow hard... and then popped into a soft cloud of ash, just like the black sword, and drifted slowly to the stones. Without even putting its claw down, the dragon shimmered and disappeared again.

"What is the meaning of all this?" Gerardo whispered, agape.

"I... But... Night Mother..." Felicity weakly stretched a hoof.

"Bananas, that was messed up."

Starlight didn't think the events needed any explanation. The Night Mother had a metal dragon, and it had misled the fake Yanavan... for fun? She had never heard of a goddess with a better reason. Actually, she had never heard of a goddess with any reason. They did what they wanted, didn't they? The same reason the real Yanavan was apparently here, and all the other Monk Lords were fine with it.

The Night Mother yawned, batted her mouth with a paw, and turned to Starlight and her friends. "Now that that chicanery is taken care of, let's pay some attention to you lot."

"W-What is the meaning of this?" Felicity trembled, pointing at the stallion at the Night Mother's side. "Is that him? Yanavan was here all along, and all of you knew and sanctioned it? Everything I and my family went through in Gyre..."

The sphinx approached, putting a wrinkled paw on her shoulder. "All of your afflictions happened regardless of whose fault it was. I see time in thousands of years, dear child. Changing events to ease your life could threaten millions of others', leaving them with these exact questions you have. But I have been with you through it, though you are but one in a sea of children, and your faith will be rewarded in time. Show me a goddess who could do more, and I will entrust you to their care instantly."

Felicity took a shaky breath.

"You will be fine," the Night Mother promised, turning to Starlight and Valey. "You two are the ones I truly want to meet."

"Us?" Valey blinked, pointing to herself.

"You," the Night Mother confirmed, slitted eyes dilating. "But you never stop to pray at my statues. Even when I guided Senescey to help you meet with me in person, you slipped out of my grasp. You've been hard enough to get ahold of to challenge a goddess." She grinned. "I like that."

Starlight's ears pressed back. "You mean the hospital? We were supposed to meet you there? What do you want us for?"

The Night Mother's eyes pulsed, and the dusk statue pulsed in turn. With a grinding of stone, its base started to move... and slid backwards, revealing a stone stairway beneath the ground, all eight of the room's blue veins winding their way down below.

"You have my interest and my full attention," she continued, eyes fixing on Valey. "Artifice of Luna." Her gaze switched to Starlight. "And you, a unicorn who can use Nightmare Modules without consequence."

Starlight gulped. "What's down there?"

"Please follow me," Yanavan, beckoning to Starlight alone. "I wish to have words with my fellow wielder. You have my oath no harm will befall you."

"Can I come too?" Maple asked hesitantly, stepping forward.

The Night Mother shook her head. "You've come a long way," she insisted. "The rest of you, remain here and speak with me instead."

Valey fixed her with a stare. "Can you tell me what moon glass is, where I came from, what I am, why I'm here and whether there's anything I can do about it?"

The Night Mother motioned to the floor. "Once these two go below, sit down and find out."