//------------------------------//
// Chapter Two 
// Story: The Darkest Day of Her Life 
// by Muddy Waters 
//------------------------------//

The sun hung high and Luna was creating a groove in the throne room floor when the doors finally opened and the guards announced the arrival of Twilight Sparkle and her friends. Celestia swept forward to greet them before her sister had a chance to rush them away to the garden.
“Welcome,” the princess of the sun said warmly, greeting her student with an especially fond smile, “thank you for coming on such short notice.”
“We could hardly turn down a royal request!” Rarity insisted.
Twilight nodded her agreement. “I’m sorry we couldn’t come sooner. Your letter sounded urgent.”
“Is there a monster somewhere?” Rainbow dash asked, bouncing on the spot in excitement.
Celestia shook her head slowly as her smile faded. “There is no danger to Equestria, as far as I am aware. I asked you to come because we need you to use the Elements of Harmony.”
The friends glanced anxiously at each other. Twilight frowned up at her teacher. “But if there isn’t any danger, why do we need the elements?”
Luna marched toward them then, stamping her hooves impatiently. “Must we go through the entire story first?”
Celestia attempted to sooth her sister with a look and a gentle touch of her wing. “It cannot hurt to wait a few more minutes.”
“Of course! What is a few minutes compared to a thousand years?”
Luna stalked across the room and threw herself onto her throne with her back to the others. Celestia smiled apologetically at her guests.
“Please don’t take her actions to heart,” she said softly, “her anger is with me, I assure you.”
Rarity put a hoof to her heart. “Is everything alright? What in Equestria happened?”
Celestia took a moment to compose herself and breathe deeply before launching into a story that hurt her to recall.
“A thousand years ago, Luna had a student that she cared very deeply for,”
“You mean Smoky Nights?” Twilight asked, “I read about her while I was researching the myth of the Mare in the Moon. Is it true that she could see through any illusion?”
Celestia nodded. “She was a talented pony,”
“Is!” Luna said loudly, barely lifting her head off her folded legs.
“Yes,” Celestia sighed and looked over her shoulder. “I just had a thought, Luna. Why don’t you bring the statue in here?”
Luna stood up even as she looked about to argue, but a thought changed her mind. She glanced at the massive stained glass windows that lined the walls. “I will need to darken the windows as well when I return. Good thinking, sister.”
Celestia waited until the doors closed behind Luna before resuming her story.
“After I was forced to banish Nightmare Moon, Smoky was understandably distraught. One day she happened to come to me after I had a vision of Nightmare Moon’s return.” Celestia shook her head sadly. “I made a mistake telling her what I had seen. She became convinced it was her destiny to free Luna from the influence of her nightmares. When I tried to convince her otherwise she sought out the most gifted unicorns of the day to try to convince them to send her through time.”
Rainbow Dash gasped. “Are we going to use the elements to create a rift in time so you can reach through and drag her out of the past?”
“I doubt the elements could do that,” Twilight pointed out, “it would take an immense amount of magic to go back a thousand years.”
“Indeed,” Celestia agreed, “Smoky discovered all of this in her quest, and when she eventually returned to me she believed she had only one option left.”
Luna chose that moment to fling open the throne room doors and stride instead, levitating the bowing statue behind her. The others turned and watched as the princess placed the statue lovingly in front of them. Without saying anything about the worn old piece of stone she turned her gaze on the windows and began to darken them one by one with her magic. The room was slowly consumed by shadows as she worked.
Unlike the others, Twilight peered up at the statue. She tiptoed close enough to see under the statue’s fringe and was slightly unnerved to see that one eye was open and seemed to be staring at her. The statue looked to be entirely made of stone and completely immobile, and yet Twilight was sure that it was watching her.
“Isn’t that enough?” Celestia asked her sister after half the windows were covered.
Luna paused only long enough to say, “No.”
As Luna continued slowly down the long room Celestia brought forth a box from behind the thrones with her magic and settled it carefully in front of the ponies. When she opened it the Elements of Harmony glowed with their own soft light, holding back the darkness that Luna was creating. Celestia lifted each one in turn to place them on their respective bearers.
“Celestia,” Fluttershy began tentatively her necklace settled around her neck, “what happened to Smoky Nights?”
“Do you remember what happened to Discord when you defeated him?” Celestia replied.
Fluttershy nodded minutely. “He turned to stone,”
“Luna and I first cast that same spell on him over a thousand years ago, and it was his fate that inspired Smoky that the same spell would carry her through all these years,” Celestia turned unhappily to face the statue, adding under her breath, “unscathed, I hope,”
Luna finally finished her task and returned to her sister’s side, without hearing what she had to say. She her hoof almost trembled as she gestured to Twilight and said, “Well, go on, I’m ready.”
With only a slight frown at her sister’s impatience Celestia gathered herself with a single deep breath and then settled into the task of teaching Twilight how to break the spell. Her student listened with as much focus and determination to succeed as ever. When she was sure she had memorised it she gathered her friends around the statue and mimicked her mentor’s steadying breath.
Her eyes tightly closed, Twilight began the releasing spell with a blinding light display from her horn. Rainbows erupted from each of the other elements, connecting the ponies that were lifted from the floor by the sheer power of their magic. It all came to a head at the Element of Magic, where the magic erupted outwards and struck the statue in a blinding blast.
Shattered stone scattered in all directions. In the aftermath the ponies and alicorns alike were blinded by the sudden darkness. When the dust finally cleared and they had blinked the stars from their eyes all they could do was stare. The statue was gone, the plinth cracked and empty.
Luna was the first to break the silence with her scream.
“What did you do?” she shouted, rounding on Twilight.
The unicorn could only gape in horror.
“Whoa, whoa, princess,” Applejack cried, rushing from the other side of the plinth, “She just fell off! Nothin’ to worry ‘bout!”
Luna stared back at her for several seconds as her words struggled to sink in.
Applejack smiled shakily up at her. “Come see, it’s all ok,”
The princess took a trembling breath and then allowed the pony to lead her around to where Fluttershy and Rarity were standing uncertainly over the limp form of a grey pegasus with long, dark blue pigtails and a faint groan rattling in her throat. At the sound of Luna’s whimper Smoky lifted her head just far enough to blow her fringe out of her eyes and smile.
She coughed once to clear the dust from her lungs and said, “Took your time, Tia,”