//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5 
// Story: Forbidden Deeper 
// by SaltyJustice 
//------------------------------//

	My world began to grow hazy, a dark fringe all around the edges of my vision.  I was reacting now, some other part of me was talking care of my actions while I tried to comprehend what was happening.  I saw Shining Armor come in, flanked by a dozen guardsponies.  We were talking, somepony was shouting.  Luna was as paralyzed as I was.
I couldn't hear anything, all that I heard was a muffled roar, the sound of my own thoughts rocketing around my head, ricocheting along the inside.  Tia was the rock upon which everything else rested, the foundation of the world, to me.  She had always been there.  She always knew what to do, she always had a plan.  I thought I would have had more time, time to say goodbye, and yet now she was gone, snapped up and taken away, off into the night.
Shining Armor brought me close, and I said something to him.  I think I told him not to worry, but I wasn't paying attention to my own words.
Damn it Cadence, now is not the time for self pity!
My own thoughts snapped me out of my trance, pushing away the veil of darkness around my thoughts and bringing the world rushing back to me.
"What are we going to do?" my husband asked of me.  I stopped, thinking.  It was time, wasn't it?  If this had happened, it was time.
"The volunteers, you organized them.  Tia must have given you instructions," I said.  He nodded.
"Volunteers?" Luna asked.  I hoped her mind was doing better than mine.
"Twenty of our finest soldiers, who are ready and willing to enter the Abyss with us, and protect the bearers with their lives," I said.  Luna's concern was a difficult thing to note, her face would not betray it except for the very corner of her mouth, but I could see it.  She knew that, most likely, these volunteers would not be returning.
"Okay, listen to me.  We're out of time.  I thought we'd have more, but we are literally out of it.  Luna and I will head to Ponyville and get the bearers," I said.  Luna immediately trotted over to her wardrobe and began rifling through it.
"I'll go with you," Shining Armor said.
"No," I said back.
His expression fell.
"That's not what I meant.  I need you to get our troops suited up and ready to go, you've got two hours.  Meet us in Ponyville," I said.
"But - " he started.
"No buts," I said, but I couldn't stop myself anymore.  I drew close and kissed him, holding him gently by the neck.
"This is it, Shiney," I whispered.
"I know," he said.  He held me closer, our coats warmed one another gently as I savored the moment, memorizing every little part of it.  I'd need it to keep me warm later.
"All right, let's go," Luna said.  I turned to see her in her armor suit, with her longbow slung across her back and her spear in its holster along her side.  The crescent moon symbol featured prominently on her chest, her armor a dark blue to camouflage her among her element.  I hadn't seen her wear it for centuries, but it still fit as well as it had when it had first been forged.
"Two hours, captain Sparkle," I said, formally.  Shining Armor crisply saluted.
"Yes ma'am!" he said.  The guardsponies arranged around him as he prepared to bark orders.  Luna and I made our way out of the room.  A pony waited for us on the other side of the door as we shut it.
"Captain Antares?" Luna asked him.  He had left the room at some point during the scuffle, and was now in the hallway waiting for us.
"Princess, I would like to unofficially request permission to accompany you to Ponyville," he said, standing at attention, chest puffed out.
"Was he addressing you, or me?" I asked.  Luna shrugged.
"Captain, I appreciate your concern - " Luna started.
"This is me asking, not my rank.  I would like to come along, as a pony.  As your friend," he said.
Luna considered for a moment.  I deliberately said nothing, because, despite the circumstances, I still got a kick out of watching her struggle.  I may be millennia old, but I swear I will never grow up.
"Captain, I - " Luna started.
"Please, call me Wedge," he said.
"Your duties at the palace - " Luna started.
"Are nothing compared to the fate of the world," he said.
"The risks will be unfathomable.  The survival rate - " Luna started.
"Is near zero.  I know," he said.
"Can you fly, soldier?  We're not going to slow down, we're going full speed as soon as we take off," I asked.  Wedge flared his wings and angled them in a stretch.
"I got second place in the marathon in high school.  I'll keep up," he said.
"Amoria..." Luna hissed at me.  I winked at her.
"Very well, you may accompany us," Luna said.  She turned smartly and used her magic to open Celestia's door.  The room beyond was darkened as I entered it.  I spied a candle, and tried to light it with my magic, only to find that it had been doused with water.  How strange.
"Tia must have kept the key in here somewhere," Luna said, looking around in the dark.
"Key to what?" Wedge asked.
Luna didn't answer, and instead went over towards Celestia's bed.  She was looking for something under the carpet, stamping her hoof, hoping to hear an echo.
"There's a secondary lock for the vault.  You know, the one with the Elements of Harmony in it?" I whispered.  He seemed confused, but I let it drop.  I had to search myself.
It took us a few minutes, knocking over the desks and throwing aside the sheets, to locate the hidden vault.  It sat on a carpet directly adjacent to the fireplace, right under Tia's favorite pillow.  I supposed she spent enough time sitting on it, writing correspondence, that it'd be the safest place to keep something so valuable.
Actually opening the vault was an even simpler matter.  It was about the size of a hoofball, square, made of metal, and bolted into the stone in a recess on the floor.  I pried the bolts off my the tip of my sword, then I held the vault up in the air.  The vault was fairly heavy, mostly the weight of the vault itself, since after Luna disassembled it using her magic, the only thing left was a key.  Celestia was an awful clever one, I'll give her that, as the key was made out of Ziristone.  I recognized the material right away, it was hewn from a midnight-black rock.  The material would prevent a spell from accidentally destroying it.  Perhaps she had expected the vault to be destroyed, but felt the key itself too valuable to risk.
With the key in tow, the three of us headed towards the shrine, located in the exact center of the palace gardens.  The shrine itself had been constructed a long time hence, but Tia had decided to renovate it fairly recently, and replaced all of the old glass with stained depictions of great events in Equestria's history.
We entered the shrine, lit only by moonlight from the windows.  The defeat of Nightmare Moon, I saw it off to my left.  Discord, petrified and sealed away by Twilight and her friends, off to my right.  Spike, having saved the Crystal Empire thanks to Twilight's humility, the most recent addition, closest to the door.  There was only one non-decorative glass pane left in the shrine, an unadorned window nearest the chamber housing the Elements.
Luna inserted the key into the lock as we reached the door.  It took a few seconds for the mechanism inside to open, revealing a pedestal with a solitary box on it, sitting in the center of the vault.  Wedge waited at the door while we went inside.
I hadn't seen them in some time, truly.  I would never have asked to see them, and had no reason to:  they didn't belong to us anymore.  Some time ago, we discovered a book, called "The Elements of Harmony:  A Reference Guide".  It detailed the story of the three elements that we had worn around our necks, their significance, where they came from.  No author had been listed, and none of the scholars at the University would admit to having written it.  There was knowledge in there that nopony, save my sisters, could have had.
When Celestia banished the Nightmare, I had... left, for some time.  I couldn't bring myself to face my sister.  I wandered the country as I always had, but my route never did take me back to Celestia, perhaps I was guided by my own guilt rather than my senses.  Regardless, I had asked for a place to rest in a sleepy town on the eastern border.  It doesn't exist anymore, abandoned when the area was found to not have replenishable water sources, and its name is lost to me, but I do still remember the kindly old mare who let me sleep in the library's basement there.  She didn't care who I was, she had seen a traveler in need of a place to get away, and given her one.
There, on a reading table, I had found a copy of the book.  Somepony had left it open, and I decided to glance at the page.  It detailed six elements, not three.  I assumed it had been a mistake, since books were copied down by ponies and not presses in those days.  I had thought nothing of it at all, until much later.  We never did find out who wrote that book in the first place...
Luna opened the box and revealed, well, nothing.  The box was empty.  She shook her head.
"Again?  I feel as though I have walked this road before," she said.
"They must have relocated themselves, without us knowing it," I chuckled.  This wasn't the first time these innocent little jewels had somehow absconded from a locked vault under guard.
"That is – good news?  I am not sure anymore," Luna said.
"One less thing to carry.  To Ponyville?" I asked.  She nodded.
"One thing first," she said.  We walked out of the shrine, Luna with her head to the sky.
She waited, looking up at the moon.  It was near the horizon, the glow of the sun overpowering its figure as it neared.  We waited there for another minute, before Luna lowered her head.  She flapped, rising slowly off the ground until she was aligned with some axis I could not see, and the moon and sun switched positions.  The sun now shone over the land, lighting it in the glow of dawn.
Luna landed and turned back to me.  Her eyes said more than her words ever could, a thin film of tears threatened to burst forth, but was dashed away with a blink.
We took off, heading west, away from the sun and towards the blackest pit the universe had ever fathomed.