//------------------------------//
// Chapter 4 
// Story: Forbidden Deeper 
// by SaltyJustice 
//------------------------------//

	We walked back into the palace and made our way down towards Luna's room, in the same wing as mine and Celestia's.  We spoke no more on the way.
As we made the turn to the hallway where the doors to our rooms were, I spied a guardspony standing near Luna's door.  As we got closer, I noticed it was the same one I had met earlier, Antares, if I was recalling correctly.
"Captain, I thought you said you were off duty?  What are you doing here?" I asked him.
"My job ma'am.  A soldier is never off duty," he said simply.  I wasn't buying it, but before I could probe him further, Luna cut me off.
"I appreciate your concern captain, but I'm sure we can take care of ourselves," Luna said.  She was keeping her face flat and her voice monotone, but I swear I heard her stifle a giggle.
The guard corps insisted on protecting us and treating us as crucial, to be saved even if it meant sacrificing their lives, but in truth, I was sure that we had wound up protecting them more often than not.  Such happenstances were rare, of course, as the occasional mentally-ill pony would make an attempt on Celestia and during such circumstances, Celestia would need to be restrained to keep from hurting her assailant.  Political rebels usually took to attacking the council members instead of us, and I can recall at least one occasion when it was up to me alone to protect them.  That was in an age before newspapers, but the rumors that passed around were a treat to listen to, afterwards.
"Very well ma'am," Wedge said, "at least let me get the door for you."
He opened Luna's door and held it open as she passed through.  It was dark, and she was a dark mare, but I was pretty sure I could make out the hue of a blush on her face.  This was getting more and more amusing as time went on, suddenly I wanted to spend more time with her just to watch her get embarrassed when stallions did things for her.
I was getting ready to leave when I heard something out of place.  I stopped and looked around for a moment, listening and trying to focus on it.  Wedge noticed my attention and looked around too, leaving Luna's door open as she went to her desk.
"Is something amiss?" he asked me.
"Shhh, listen," I said.  The sound had stopped, and Luna stopped moving as well, turning her head to look at me with a curious expression.  She didn't speak, we just waited in silence until the sound came again.
Skrik skrik skrik skrik.
"There, did you hear that?" I said softly.  Wedge shook his head, but Luna nodded.
"It's coming from in here somewhere," she said, "likely a mouse."
"Yes, likely a rodent of some sort.  You shouldn't leave food out in your room," I said, scolding her.  It felt good, really good.
Oh no.
I'm becoming my mother!
Before panic could set in, the sound came again, and much louder.  Too loud for a mouse to make.  It quieted after a few moments, but I wasn't going to just ignore it.
"Perhaps we ought to figure out what's causing it.  It'll drive me crazy if  I don't," I said.  Wedge still looked confused.
"I don't hear anything, are you sure you're not just imagining it?" he asked.
Luna started to pace nervously, and I took the hint of what her body language was saying.
"Captain, could you wait outside the door for me?  Make sure no rodents come rushing out of the room without us knowing," I said.
"Of course Princess," he said.  I walked into the room, and he closed the door softly behind me.
"Hope you don't mind," I said in a whisper to Luna.
"Thank you, sister.  I do not want to do anything improper," she said.
I giggled, maybe a bit too loud, and her face turned fire-red, visible even in the soft moonlight coming through the windows high on the wall.
I had to pick my wording carefully to avoid implying something here, but this was going to be fun.
"Luna, do you perhaps fancy captain Antares?" I asked her.  She turned away and started looking through the stacks of papers which she had stacked against the walls, next to her bookshelves.
"I do not know what you are talking about," she said.  She buried her face in the papers so I couldn't see her.
"I knew it!  Oh Luna, there's nothing improper about a Princess fancying an officer.  Just look at me," I said.  She kept her head in the papers.
"No, nothing scratching in here," she said.  In fact, I hadn't heard the scratching sound since the door had closed.
"You don't have to be embarrassed about it, it's perfectly normal in this day and age," I said.
"We are to remain distant and our judgement to remain clear," she said, though it was her repeating a mantra as though she didn't understand the words themselves.
"This stallion, he has rekindled something that I thought I had lost.  I... do not wish to talk about it," she said finally.
"Fine," I said.  I went over to her desk and started to look under it for a mouse hole, but in truth I was looking at the documents on the desk.  The letterheads all indicated they were formal government correspondence, nothing juicy.  No love letters, is what I mean.
"Has the castle had a vermin problem recently?" she asked, muffled, as her head was now under her bed.
"Not that I know of, but then again, I haven't been around much.  Maybe they followed me in, thinking I was their leader.  I smell the part," I said.
I stopped and perked my head up, as did Luna.
	SKRIK SKRIK SKRIK.
There was the sound again, and now it was very loud.  So loud, that I wondered why Wedge hadn't heard it and said something.  It was also coming from up on the walls.
I looked up at the windows as Luna did, and finally I saw the source of the sound.
Something was hanging outside of her window, looking at us.

While most ponies would bolt at the sight of that, I was more curious than anything else.  My first approximation was that it was a tree branch, and the shadows were playing tricks on my eyes.  I spent a lot of time outside at night during my work, so this sort of thing was common.  However, the wind outside should have been sending measured waves through the leaves if it was a branch, while this object was hanging perfectly still.
Luna walked over to me and looked up at the object as well.  Her night vision was better than mine, or anypony's, really, so she'd be able to deduce what it was.
"Celestia?" she said.
"What is she, spying on us now?  It's not her," I said dismissively.
She ignored me and flew up to the window.  The ceiling in this room was two stories tall, the windows were above the tops of the bookshelves and cast the light downwards, to facilitate reading in the dark for Luna.  As she flew up towards it, the black object reacted and rotated to face her, and I could see very clearly the outline of the horn and face.  It matched Celestia's shape but I still wasn't alarmed.  It must have a reasonable explanation.
Hovering in place for a moment, Luna worked out how to open the window, as it was presumably not made for such things, being up on the wall as it was.  At last she pushed something I couldn't see, and the window opened neatly with a click.
A hoof shot through and caught her in the chin, forcing her backwards.  She whirled in midair and landed on the floor next to me.  My sword was already drawn before she landed.
"Who are you?  Show yourself!" I shouted, and brandished my blade in the glow of the moon.  Luna took my hint and cast a light spell to help me see, and I saw from the outline of the creature as it effortlessly melted and reshaped itself to flow through the window that it was indeed Celestia.  I didn't react, I could scarcely believe it.  My mouth hung open, but my grip did not relax.
A prank.  Maybe another of those rotten Changelings.  Something else.  My senses had sent off no alarm at all.  Luna had already made up her mind.
"Celestia, if you can hear me, please.  Say something," she said, calmly, as though it were a simple request to pass the salt at dinner.  I wasn't sure how she was keeping her repose like this, the only reason I hadn't moved was shock.  I kept trying to convince myself this wasn't happening, as the black shape that matched every curve of Celestia's body landed on the floor in front of us.  Behind me, the door opened and Wedge burst in, but he said nothing.  I couldn't tear my eyes away for fear that I'd blink and she'd be gone.
"Tia?  Stop it, stop whatever sick prank you're playing!" I pleaded with her.  Sheer instinct kept my sword aloft, though I'd never swing it at her.
Her eyes opened, deep crimson spheres amid her black body.  No pupils, just red.  The face was crunched in anguish, or anger, it was impossible to tell.  Her mouth opened, and only a faint whisper came out.
"H-help me.." it said.  Her mouth closed abruptly and her neck started to twitch at unnatural angles.  It turned to look at me, this thing that held Celestia in its grip, then it snapped abruptly to glare at Luna.
It stared at us as we stood, motionless.  I chanced a whisper to Luna, though no doubt the creature could hear us.
"You must distract her," I hissed, "hold her still.  There may still be a chance."
Luna did not respond, and instead continued focusing straight ahead.
"Celestia, fight it.  It will do terrible things to you, just keep fighting it.  It cannot win if you do not let it," she said.
"Have you gone mad?  I can fix her!  I can – " I started.
"She will not let you fix her," Luna said.  The creature took a step forward and the both of us tensed, waiting for it to strike out.  The scene was all too familiar.  Could it have happened twice?
There was no argument, no talking, no bragging.  The corruption must still have been fighting her for control, I reasoned, but I was reluctant to do anything.  Luna really was the expert here, and I didn't want to botch it like last time.  So I stood helplessly, watching everything spiral out of control, watching the world fall apart around me.
Luna took a step forward, and the creature took one backward.  Luna's step was gingerly, the beast's was fearful.  It was like cornering an animal, waiting for it to lash out in desperation.  Luna took another step forward.
"It will make it hurt when you resist.  That is good, learn to love the pain.  The pain means you're free," she said.  I began to wonder just what kind of hell Tia was going through now, if these were the words Luna was speaking to her.
A hiss came out of the creature.  It took another step away, and had little space left before it would bump into the wall.  It looked at me again.
I heard something crack within it's body, like a bone snapping.  I couldn't see any deformation in the outer layer of black, but it opened its mouth.  A moment later, blood started to pour out, and we stood there watching as it did, afraid to get closer.  The message was clear enough.
"This one belongs to me," it said.  It was Celestia's voice, sure enough.  It looked at Luna again.  "It gives itself willingly."
"Do not listen to it Amoria, that is not our sister!" Luna shouted, the words bouncing off the walls and lending an echo.  Hollowness.  Mere moments ago the fight had ended, and I had stood by and watched.  Like a fool, a helpless, weak, fool.
"It laments this affair.  I will bend it.  It wishes for tolerance.  This one is amusing," it said, again in Tia's voice.  Her voice no longer had that heavenly, inspiring tone.  Gone was the love and caring behind every word.  There was no compassion here.
I felt an upwelling of magic in the room, the kind I could feel sometimes when my sisters would raise their respective bodies.  This was no lunar ascent though, it was a gathering.  Luna's face betrayed none of the emotion swirling within her, but the magic flowing into her from everywhere on earth did.  Her eyes began to glow as the moon did, and the familiar royal voice boomed through the room.
"Release my sister, abomination, or face the full force of my wrath," she said.  Her tone, measured and professional, sat opposed to her stance.
"It would not strike its loved ones, would its loved ones strike it?  It will learn this lesson too," the creature said.
A great wave of force conjured from beneath Luna's hooves and shot out in every direction, looping and swirling in the air of the room.  It went everywhere, kindly skirting around myself and the shocked guardspony just behind me, traveling the full course of the room all at once, before concentrating and attacking Celestia from every angle.  The force hit from every side and Luna shouted at me from above the din.
"Now Amoria!"
I did not hesitate this time.  I leaped in and grabbed Tia's neck, concentrating as hard as I could.  The flow of the air around me stopped in a moment as Luna scaled back her assault, and the other-sight came quickly to me.
I stopped.
No.
I stepped back and the sight dropped.  Luna dashed towards me as the beast took off and flew up towards the window.
"Amoria!?  What is wrong?" she asked me.  The creature melted into the darkness and flowed out the window as though it were consciously guided air, a part of the night itself.  Celestia was gone.  Not that she had left, but when I had looked...
"She wasn't there," I said.
"What do you mean?  Speak!" Luna shouted at me.
"There was nothing to save.  All black, just black.  Celestia is gone," I said.
I felt tears well up in my eyes and could see Luna desperately fighting back her own, to no avail.  They came and poured out as she threw herself around me.  Though we have lived for so many millennia in each other's company, never before had we felt more alone.