Smoky Nights always believed her greatest failure was not doing enough to save her teacher and closest friend from being consumed by nightmares, but she has no idea how much further still she could fall.
After failing to stop Luna from becoming Nightmare Moon, Smoky Nights doesn't believe a thousand years trapped in stone is anything close to the punishment she deserves, although Luna isn't shy about arguing otherwise. But their argument is petty compared to the dangers they, and the rest of Equestria, have yet to face.
In the darkest hour of the night Celestia found her sister exactly where she had hoped she would not be, yet again. There was no doubting the beauty of the royal gardens, even at night, especially while the night-blooming flowers were in their full and fragrant splendour. The gentle babble of the fountains sung a peaceful ballad to perfect a scene of harmony and meditation.
But this did not change the fact that Luna sought out this quiet corner of the garden for self-pity and indulgence, as Celestia saw it.
“Following me again, sister?” Luna asked.
Celestia stepped silently off the path and crossed the grass to sit beside her.
“I worry for you,” Celestia admitted, laying a wing across her sister’s shoulders, “I know it must be hard for you, and Nightmare Night could hardly have gone worse, but nothing will change if you continue to hide yourself away here.”
Luna sniffed indignantly and turned her head away. “I am not hiding.”
“Running away, then, whatever you like to call it.”
“Why is that so terrible?” Luna shrugged off her sister’s wing and stood up to face her. “The ponies will not learn to love me in a day or a week. Why can I not wait out the meantime with memories of better times? And better ponies,”
Luna cast her gaze up at the statue that stood over them. A pegasus bowed to her from atop a plinth, its face hidden behind its mane and its wings partially spread. The placard affixed to it had faded beyond recognition and the stone showed years of wear from wind and rain. Its place in the garden was often looked over in favour of the grander works of art located closer to the castle.
Celestia looked up at the stone figure prostrated before her and weighed the price of the truth against her sister’s happiness, not for the first time. It was the expression on Luna’s face, the war of guilt and yearning being fought in her dark eyes, that finally swayed her decision.
“Luna,” Celestia began, in a voice so soft it was barely a whisper, “that is no statue.”
“What do you mean?” Luna replied, frowning down at her. She stepped closer to the sculpture and rapped her hoof against the pegasus’ stone leg. It produced a dull clunk, just as expected. “Is it not stone?”
Celestia shook her head sadly. “Do you remember our fight with Discord, all those years ago?”
“Of course,” Luna directed a scowl over her shoulder to where the chaos spirit’s statue had stood for a thousand years, until he broke free. “He mocked us to the end. But how does that have anything to do with this statue?”
Celestia got slowly to her feet so that she was at eye level with the stone pegasus. She could not look her sister in the eye at that moment. “I must have spent moons trying to change her mind, but she would not be swayed. I almost had no choice but to cast the spell.”
It took Luna only a few seconds to realise what Celestia was saying. The impact of it left her breathless, and horrified.
“How could you condemn her like that?” she demanded.
Celestia shut her eyes tightly and let the verbal assault find its mark, as she knew it would. She had been expecting this argument from the moment Luna returned to her. Unfortunately, weeks of preparation had not prepared her.
“We entombed Discord as punishment!” Luna cried, her eyes shining with renewed grief, “How could you let my closest friend choose a thousand years of lifeless stone and loneliness?”
“She demanded it,” Celestia sighed, turning away, “all for your sake.”
Luna’s fury stalled for a moment, but only a moment. “And did you tell her this is the last thing I could have ever wanted for her?”
“I tried every argument I could think of.” Celestia peeked at her sister from behind her mane. “Were you happier thinking she had died a thousand years ago?”
Luna stepped back, obviously torn. Her eyes darted at the statue and for a moment Celestia thought Luna was going to cry. She moved to embrace her and felt only a momentary resistance from her sister, but no tears came. There were no sobs to be heard, nor a tremor to be felt. Luna leant silently into her sister and made one last demand for the night.
“You have to let her out.”
Celestia murmured her agreement. “I shall send for the bearers of the elements in the morning.”
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,”
Luna dropped to the floor beside the dusty pegasus and hugged her tightly, unaware that she was holding on just a little too tight. Smoky leant against her despite her crushed lungs and closed her eyes against the curious gazes of the other ponies in the room. Her thoughts moved sluggishly through a growing headache and she would have liked nothing more than to sleep.
“I missed you,” Luna murmured, just barely loud enough for Smoky to hear.
Smoky smiled into her dear friend’s mane, even as lonely memories tried to swim up through her woozy mind at the thought of how much she had missed her teacher. Instead of letting them become too focused she pushed them firmly away. Luna pulled away at the same moment and for a moment Smoky wondered if the princess could hear her thoughts.
“How could you do that?” Luna demanded. Her angry eyes sparkled wetly. “You must be insane!”
Smoky laughed, or tried to. It started weak and ended in a cough. Her lungs felt as though they had been coated in gravel. “That’s what Tia said,”
“She was right! What in Equestria made you think that spell was safe? What if you had starved inside that statue, or continued to age?”
“I knew it was safe because we tested it.”
“How did you test it?” Twilight asked curiously, drawing the ponies’ attention.
Smoky blinked slowly up at the purple unicorn with the golden tiara perched atop her head and was momentarily confused by her lack of wings. The only other ponies she had ever seen wearing a tiara were Luna and Celestia, and yet this strange pony appeared not to be an alicorn.
Seeing the confusion on her face, Celestia stepped forward to introduce Smoky Nights to the bearers of the elements.
“This is my student, Twilight Sparkle, and her friends, who bear the Elements of Harmony with her,” Celestia said, and then gestured to each pony in turn as she named them. Smoky nodded to each, since she was pinned down and unable to bow properly. “I’m afraid I have already told them some of your story, Smoky.”
“I know,” she replied, “I could sort of hear things while I was in the statue; as if it was coming through a waterfall.” She tilted her head to the side just enough to see Twilight through a parting in her fringe. “We tested the spell by casting it on plants and then releasing them some months later to see if they were still healthy. All of them survived.”
“It was still too large a risk,” Luna insisted.
“Would you rather I died a thousand years ago?”
Luna recoiled and got to her hooves. “Until yesterday I thought you had, and I accepted it.”
Smoky forcefully ignored the painful tingling in her legs and clambered up. Her entire body shook with the effort. She took a breath to argue with the princess and was interrupted by Luna’s shocked gasp.
“What happened to you?” she demanded, touching her hoof gingerly to Smoky’s shoulder.
Smoky glanced down at the rough black scar that radiated out from the centre of her chest to touch her shoulders and forelegs. The fur at the edges of it still looked charred. She had no feeling in the scar itself, only a tightness in the skin around it. She would have tried to hide it from view if she didn’t need all four legs to stay standing.
“That’s, uh,” she glanced worriedly at Celestia, “Didn’t you tell her?”
Celestia shook her head sadly. “I’m so sorry, Smoky. I completely forgot.”
“What is it?” Luna asked, glancing from one to the other.
Smoky’s gaze drifted away from her friend as she explained. “That’s where Nightmare Moon struck me,”
Luna turned pale with horror. She snatched her hoof away and backed up, as if the dangers of her nightmares still lingered. Smoky sat down, too tired to stand. She tried to remember the words she had practised before Celestia turned her to stone, but they wouldn’t come. Her mind was still struggling to catch up after the dream-like state she had spent the last thousand years in. Before she or anyone else could think of what to say Luna turned and ran from the room.
Rarity stepped carefully between the rubble and put her hoof on Smoky’s shoulder, saying, “Don’t worry, darling, we can cover it up with a shawl or even a scarf, whatever you like.”
Smoky looked down at the ugly mark and sighed. “I suppose I should.” Suddenly she remembered what else the pretty unicorn and her friends had done for her today and smiled up at them. “I’m sorry, I haven’t even thanked you all yet.”
“It was no problem,” Twilight Sparkle insisted, shaking her head.
“Perhaps, but I feel I owe you all even so. If there’s ever anything I can do for you all, please don’t hesitate to ask.”
“Oh, well,” Twilight blushed when her friends’ eyebrows rose in her direction, “I would love to study your eyes, when you have time. I’ve read about your talent some time ago, and it sounds fascinating, especially since you’re a pegasus.”
Smoky tried to laugh, though it didn’t come out easily. “You’re not the first to want to study me.” She glanced over at Celestia. “Do you remember that unicorn that tried to find a spell that would copy my talent to him? His name escapes me.”
“Sticky Toffee,” Celestia replied without hesitation. She shook her head sadly. “I’m afraid he was still blind when last I saw him.”
“Oh,”
Twilight laughed nervously. “Well, I’ll rule that experiment off my list,”
“That would be wise.”
Smoky tried to hide a yawn behind a smile and her hoof, but it was hard to hide anything with six ponies and a princess staring at her.
“Why don’t I find you somewhere to sleep?” Celestia offered, “And a visit with a doctor would not go astray, I think.”
The pegasus nodded gratefully. She thanked the bearers of the elements one last time before they left and then stumbled to her hooves to follow Celestia deeper into the palace. She trudged down the vaguely familiar halls at a snail’s pace with her head hanging so low that her pigtails dragged across the marble. Celestia guided her with a wing across her shoulders.
“I’m glad to have you back,” the princess said as they walked.
Smoky lifted her head just enough to peak at Celestia through her dusty fringe. “So you’ve forgiven me, then?”
Smoky Nights woke with the rising moon. Her body still ached and her thoughts still swam through a slowly dissipating haze, but even being trapped in her stone hadn’t changed her natural body clock. She climbed carefully out of the bed Celestia had had prepared for her and crept into the bathroom to draw a bath. She didn’t wait for the water to fill it. Instead she climbed in and stuck her head under the tap. Dust and fragments of stone still clung to her and it felt heavenly to finally wash it away. In fact, everything felt fantastic. The simple fact that she was able to feel made her sigh with delight. She swirled the rising water with her hoof and treasured even that small movement.
The water cooled far too quickly for her taste. When she finally stepped out of the tub water streamed from her coat and made a spreading puddle on the floor. She shook off as much as she could before throwing a few towels on a dry part of the floor and rolling on them. It wasn’t an efficient method of drying herself off, but it was too much fun not to try. She couldn’t have been more disappointed when she heard some pony knocking on her door.
Smoky answered the door still dripping and with her mane sticking out in all directions.
“Good evening, Smoky Nights,” the guard on the other side said, smiling politely and trying very hard not to let his eyes wander from hers, “Princess Luna would like to speak with you, if you’re feeling well enough.”
“Is her study still at the end of the end of the west wing?” Smoky asked.
“Yes, miss,”
“Please tell her I’ll be there in a few minutes, once I’m cleaned up.”
“Will do,”
The guard bowed and trotted away in one smooth motion. Smoky went back to the bathroom to fix her mane and roll a few more times over the towels. The long walk to the west wing was chilly after the steam that filled the bathroom, though she barely noticed. The basic layout seemed to be exactly what she remembered, but the style and decorations had changed. Even the view out of the windows was drastically different. The small, neat homes of the past had been replaced with opulent buildings that towered over streets paved with perfectly cut stones. Looking down on it Smoky could barely recognise anything beyond the castle grounds. Even the layout had changed.
A pair of guards walking down the hall paused when they noticed Smoky leaning up against the window panes. One of them coughed to get her attention.
“Are you lost, Miss Nights?” he asked politely.
Smoky backed away from the window, flushed. “Oh, no, everything’s just changed so much and I got a bit distracted,” She paused, and squinted at the pair. For a moment the pale blue stallion and his red companion turned pure white in their golden armour. “You know me?”
“Princess Celestia briefed us all on your arrival,” the red mare replied with a cheery smile, “she said you might get a little turned around. Can we show you around?”
Smoky glanced from the guards to the expensive view and then down the glittering hall. “I suppose you should. Luna’s study is likely to be nowhere near I remember it.”
“Don’t worry, it’s just down here a little way,”
The mare practically pranced past, humming a tune Smoky didn’t recognise. The stallion fell into step with Smoky at a more sedate pace. Smoky peered at his armour as they walked, comparing it with old memories of what the guards used to wear. He did his best to pretend he didn’t notice at first, until she reached out to touch his shoulder plate. He sidestepped out of reach with a nervous but polite smile.
“Ah, sorry,” Smoky said, forcing a laugh, “I was just wondering if they still used the same paint on your armour. It used to glow in certain light.”
He looked uncertainly at his golden shoes. “I’ve never noticed a glow before,”
“Here we are!” the red mare called out suddenly, presenting an imposing door with a wave of her hoof. She knocked twice, bowed low, and pushed the door open before anyone inside had a chance to answer. “It was lovely to meet you, Miss Nights.”
The mare bounced away back down the hall, her companion hurrying after.
Smoky approached the door and stepped inside slowly, wide eyed as she caught sight of the familiar glow of dozens of stars. Unlike every other piece of Canterlot she had seen Luna’s rooms were exactly as they had looked a thousand years ago, except for one thing. The alicorn standing near the balcony doors didn’t appear happy to see her at all.
“Come in, Smoky,” Luna said firmly.
The pegasus obeyed without hesitation. She closed the door carefully behind her and kept her eyes lowered as she turned back to face the princess. The scar on her chest felt almost like it was burning under Luna’s gaze. For a long time she heard only the tap of hooves on the carpet as Luna paced back and forth. The effort to stay still was exhausting.
“I am entirely at a loss for what to say to you,” the princess said finally, pausing in front of the pegasus. She lifted Smoky’s head gently with her hoof and smiled down at her. “But I am glad to have you with me again. I missed you terribly.”
Smoky sighed with relief and sagged on her weak legs. “Can I continue my studies with you, then?”
Luna tilted her head to the side. “From what I understand you studied quite extensively while I was… gone. Surely you don’t still need my guidance.”
“I was concentrating on time spells then. They would have been useful if I could cast them, but honestly I think I’ve forgotten most of them by now.”
“Then I have no choice but to continue where we left off,”
Smoky hugged her impulsively. She felt Luna flinch back, just for a moment. When she pulled back she looked down at the ugly black scar that had come between them and forced a laugh. “I guess I should take Rarity’s advice about a scarf.”
Guilt flashed over Luna’s face. She took a step back.
“Smoky, I-”
Her student interrupted without hesitation.
“It wasn’t you.” Smoky said it with such assurance that Luna was taken aback. She tried to speak again, and wasn’t given the chance. “And there’s nothing left to say about any of it. You said so yourself.”
Luna sat down, breathed deep, and said, “Yes, I did.” She glanced one last time at the ugly black scar before meeting Smoky’s eyes squarely. “If I remember correctly, we last spoke about these colours you can see when unicorns use their magic. Is that still true?”
Smoky settled into a comfortable position and relaxed into the familiar setting. She crossed her forelegs loosely in front of her, the better to hide the scar, and did her best to immerse herself and her mentor in the new topic. Her memories continued to slip and slide out of her grasp far too often, but she was too happy to be frustrated with herself. All was right in her world again.
