With an evening of celebration and wishing Lyra and Sweetie well behind me, I was cuddled up in bed beside Tufts—Tjinimin. Every night, just before I closed my eyes, I felt another jolt of surprise that we'd come together as we had. I loved the bat silly, and from what I could see he had it just as bad.

When I closed my eyes and felt sleep start to pour over me like liquid honey, I expected the usual dream to wrap me up. Tufts and I had dreamt together ever since we'd started sharing our bed, but tonight was different.

The moment the dream started I felt growing worry. There was something out there—old and hostile—and I couldn't find it. I called out, cried the names of those I loved until something tickled at my mind. "Nightmare—" I took a sharp breath in the dream, "—Moon."

"Yes."

I wanted to scream. It was like being a little girl again and watching—being part of—a scary movie. But though that little girl wanted to screech like a bat and run, I stood my ground. I had family to protect. "You're Princess Celestia's sis—"

"DO NOT SAY THAT NAME!"

The voice shoved me completely out of the dream and sleep. I woke with a start and realized this was it. This was what Celestia had asked me to do. Afraid to close my eyes again, I took a deep breath. Come on, Joyce, put on your big-girl-pants. The logical side of me wanted to complain that I hadn't worn pants in almost a year, but I closed my eyes again and, after a few minutes of almost-panic, managed to sleep.

"You came back?"

Coming from all around me, the voice was feminine, but strong. So strong. I squared my shoulders and nodded. "I made a promise to help you."

All the darkness of the world pulled together into a solid mass. A silvery light beamed down from above as I watched a pony form from the dark matter of my dream. "To help me? To whom did you make such a terrible promise to?" The words were honeyed now—more terrifying by far than before.

Nightmare Moon, at least in my dream, was darkness personified (ponified?). Her body was the kind of blue/black of a raven's feathers, and her eyes looked huge with slit pupils. Atop her head was a helmet, and her mane and tail looked like they were made of the night sky itself. I couldn't help but have two thoughts about her—she was both magnificent and just a little camp.

Honesty, Joyce. You have to be honest or she'll see right through you. "You told me not to say her name. She wanted somepony to be on your side."

"My side? My side is darkness. I want everypony to know how terrible I am, and how rotten my sister was to me. Every pony in Equestria is to blame for what I've become, and now it's time for you all to be punished." Nightmare Moon looked at me for a moment and then raised an eyebrow. "What?"

Even in my dream I was a bat pony (thought Tufts had insisted on parrot hippogriffs even in some of our fantastical nights), and stretching my wings I showed Nightmare Moon the extent of my differences. "I am not a pony born in Equestria. I'm from another world."

Nightmare Moon walked around me. I couldn't help but feel as though she was judging me, mostly because she obviously was, but if being a doctor had taught me anything it was that shame is useless.

I stood proud and stretched my wings a little wider.

"You are a proud pony. A bat pony." Nightmare moon walked around to stand in front of me. "If I were to make night eternal, I believe you'd be one of the few who could see that as a good thing. So tell me, bat pony who's on my side, what news do you bring me?"

I shrugged. "I'm not exactly a princess—" A funny thought just hit me. "What should I call you?"

"My name is Nightmare Moon. You will not use any other name for me, nor titles." She leaned forward and flashed fangs that were horribly white on her dark blue/black body.

"Nightmare Moon," I said with a smile, "If I mention what I do with my days, you'll get angry again."

Those slit eyes narrowed down to thin lines. "Her?"

"Her." I tucked my wings in at my side and noticed Nightmare Moon watching how I folded them. I paused and turned slightly to the side to show her again. "The world I come from is suffering from a deluge of magic. She is trying to establish trade with them, and I'm advising her on it."

"Ugh. Change of topic, please."

I shrugged my shoulders. "I'm studying to be a doctor. A pony doctor that is. Back home, I'm already qualified." I pondered sitting down, but Nightmare Moon was still examining my wing. "What about you?"

Nightmare Moon looked surprised, something I could well appreciate was a unique thing for her if she were Celestia's sister. "What about me?"

"What do you do? What do you like? What don't you like—except her?" I closed my wing only when she'd fully released it. "Well?"

The darkness that was Nightmare Moon seemed to leech out of her and spread around my dream. A chill of could flowed through me so that I was loosening my wings to wrap them a little tighter.

"I am revenge. Nothing more. I exist to make my sister pay for what she did to me."

The dream ended, and I was alone in the room with Tufts. One of his wings was spread over me, and without hesitation I nuzzled closer and felt his warmth. The rest of my night was uninterrupted by my new friend.

It was nearly six months before I dreamt of her again.

The mango tree I shared with Tufts was gone. Instead it was a dark and cold night. I knew before I heard her who it was. "Nightmare Moon."

"This is not easy, you know."

I scoffed at the understatement. "It's hard enough using this to communicate with my daughter when she pokes her head into this world. From what I researched, you're stuck in the moon. How are you today?"

Silence reigned. The darkness coiled itself up and tightened—formed into a pony. "You actually want to know how I feel? I'm furious!" Nightmare Moon began pacing. "But it won't be long until I can finally have my revenge!"

"Revenge against Princess Celestia?" I realized too late that I shouldn't have said her name.

The night pulled around me and Nightmare Moon stared into my eyes. "DON'T SAY THAT NAME!" It hurt to hear her so loud, but I wasn't shoved out of the dream. "Don't ever say it."

"I work for her," I said. "I literally use her name dozens of times a day when I'm in the castle. If you keep threatening me, I'll just leave."

"Wait!"

I waited.

"For a thousand years I've lived with only the memories of my sister's slowly evolving apathy." As Nightmare Moon spoke, I sat down and listened. She must have spent nearly an hour in silence. "Well?"

"Well what?" I asked.

Nightmare Moon let out a sigh. "You're supposed to be on my side. Surely you know the story from my sister's point of view. Aren't you going to denounce me?"

"Actually, there's no information on you. Prin—She doesn't even mention you." I studied the night sky in Nightmare Moon's mane.

She sat there and just looked at me. "But you told her about our first dream?"

I shook my head in answer. "I already said, I'm on your side. Telling her what happened would go against that. I told my husband, but nopony else."

"You surprise me. Very well, let me tell you of what happened." As Nightmare Moon spoke, the dream around us changed into a palatial room covered in soft cushions and shrouded in dark silk. Platters of food surrounded us, and I definitely wasn't going to ignore the cozy confines she'd built. "A long time ago there were two princesses—"

Nightmare Moon spread her wings and the darkness of her mane and tail shot toward me. "Don't fight, I must protect you for this to work. You are useless if you fall to my curse."

Her magic would have scared me, but I trusted her words and tried to relax. What Nightmare Moon did was build a shell—a wall—inside me. "What curse?"

"I was angry and lashed out."

"You're still angry." I couldn't keep a chuckle from my voice.

Nightmare Moon laughed aloud and nodded. "Well put. I cursed every pony and their descendants. They would not know the name of Princess Luna. My curse would scour my former name from the minds of all. You may not be affected, as you are from another world, but I'd rather not risk it."

Princess Luna. The name I'd never read. It made sense that Celestia's sister was named for the sun's opposite in Equestria. "The curse, that's why you're not in any book? Or were you, and it just—"

"My sister hid away the books. Ask her why." Nightmare Moon's presence—her magic—tingled inside me. It was alive and powerful. "But now you are safe from it, so I will tell you the story of the princess nopony loved.

"Nine hundred and ninety-five years ago Equestria had been formed for just a hundred years. Peace had been hard work to wrest from the chaos around us, but we'd done it with the tools our mentors had given us. When at last the sun and the moon themselves had become erratic, and ponies struggled to maintain them, we took over."

The story was fantastic in the most literal sense. If I'd told anyone this back on Earth, I might have been locked up and given a lot of things to keep me relaxed. Heck, I'd have locked myself up. But this was real—there was no reason for her to lie about things so far, and from what I'd read in my own studies, this was how it happened, though my studies had left out Princess Luna.

"My sister ruled the day. Everypony loved her, spent the time under her sun working, playing, and telling her how much they enjoyed doing both. The night was my time. There were many things that called the night time their home, both physical and magical. In the real world I battled monsters and protected villages such that they could persist unmolested, and in the ponies' dreams I fought off frightful things that sought to bend them and render them unto a crop of wheat.

"What I did wasn't visible to them. They easily forgot that I fought and struggled every night to save them from the nightmares and monsters. When those same ponies I saved time and again decided on a new holiday to honor my sister, Princess Luna broke." Nightmare Moon blew out a snort. "It wasn't right! I did all the work to protect them! THEY SHOULD HAVE MADE A CELEBRATION FOR ME!"

The force of Nightmare Moon's voice was enough to scatter cushions and turn over trays of food. I used one wing to rescue some nearby cushions and another to save the nearest tray of food. "They should have," I said.

Terrible wrath gave way to a smile—a genuine, soft smile—on Nightmare Moon's face. She looked me in my eyes and nodded. "Ask my sister for the rest, and feel free to talk freely about my visits. I want her to know I'm coming for her."

Like an oversize bubble bursting, Nightmare Moon popped out of my dream. One moment she was there, the next she was not. Then, just as I started to sample one of the mangoes on the tray I'd saved, a large bat pony stallion approached.

The dream was still as powerful as it was when Nightmare Moon had been in it—it still carried magic that told me it was almost-real. Tufts' hoofsteps stopped and he settled down at my side. "She came again."

"She's still angry. I can't blame her for that—she's stewed on her anger for almost a thousand years." Deftly slicing the mango's cheeks free, I scored a cross pattern into each and passed one to Tufts. "I need to hear the other half of this. She said I could discuss it with Celestia, but I'm hesitant to say anything but to ask for her side." I started work on my own half of the mango.

When Tufts' wing stretched over my back, I felt warmth spread through me. He leaned against me, and I him. "You have her magic about you."

"There was—" I nibbled a little more mango from the skin, "—a curse. I believe I'll ask Celestia about that, too. She protected me against it."

"Maybe, but there's more to this. She protected you far more than just from a curse." Tufts' smile as he nuzzled my cheek surprised me not at all. "I don't mind you having more protection."

"I don't think even Celestia could have protected me against it. I'm trying to be her friend, and I think we've at least established a level of trust she's not known before, but I need to talk to her more."

Weekend tea—now that I was visiting Celestia for both days of every weekend—was long and drawn out, though we talked business. I was prepared to ask Celestia my question about Princess Luna when the Royal Guards announced an official visitor.

I waited while Celestia got up and left to deal with them—I might be a friend to her, and an advisor, but some topics Princess Celestia needed to handle without a bat tagging along. I lifted my teacup to my lips and took a sip of the wonderful brew. There wasn't much more relaxing than sipping tea with Celestia in her sun room.

All that was why I wasn't prepared for the loud screech from the open door. I spun my head around and blinked in surprise at the bat pony mare in the doorway. She ran toward me as fast as her hooves could carry her, and I barely managed to put down the cup before the mare caught me up in a hug.

My brain took another second before it supplied the identity of the mare. "Dream Thunder?!"

"Joyce! It's so good to see you!" Dream hugged tighter, and I returned the squeeze as good as she gave. "I wish it were some other reason I am here."

"Huh? What's wrong?" Worry hit me. Robin? Was my daughter in trouble? "What's wrong?"

"Something slipped through the barrier with the last trade shipment. I couldn't feel anything, but seconds after I'd realigned the whole area with Equestria—that's something I learned how to do—a group of hunters rushed up and—It's a Yara-ma-yha-who." The way she said it implied that it wasn't just a terrible thing, but it had become somewhat common knowledge to people back in Australia—Thestralia.

Celestia was standing in the doorway still. She looked upset, but also curious. At least, she looks that way to me. She had her mask on—Princess Celestia of Equestria gave nothing away unless you'd spent a lot of time with her.

"What's that?" I asked.

Dream stared at me in shock, then looked back to Princess Celestia. "Your Highness, could you come over here and I'll show you both?"

Walking forward, Celestia looked at me with the slightest of raised eyebrows. I nodded back. "How will you—"

Dream Thunder stretched one huge wing toward me and one toward Celestia. The moment they both touched I felt the Dreaming overcome me. But it was different. I felt Dream Thunder as a source of intense power here, Celestia too, but there was something within me that caused my being to react and flare brightly. It didn't take a genius (like either of my daughters) to realize what it was—Nightmare Moon's magic.

Filled with Nightmare Moon's power and protected, I waited for Dream Thunder to explain herself.

"This is what a Yara-ma-yha-who does." Dream's words spilled power into the shared dream, and a pony appeared before us, sitting relaxed and looking a little dazed. Then the monster appeared. It looked like a red-coated foal with a huge head and long tentacles instead of wings.

The Yara-ma-yha-who crept up behind the pony and its tentacles shot out and grabbed the pony. Celestia gasped as the little monster grabbed and pulled itself up onto the pony's back. Peeling back its lips, the monster revealed not a single tooth in its mouth before it closed its mouth around the pony's throat.

"It's attack is magical. It will drain the blood of a pony over a period of days. The pony will seem more and more dazed, but will always return to where the Yara-ma-yha-who first caught them. By the end of a week, if it completes its meal…"

By now the pony looked as drained as Dream had implied. They seemed to shrink by moments, their fur taking on a more and more reddish tint.

The Yara-ma-yha-who opened its mouth huge and, somewhat like a snake, pulled the pony inside and swallowed them. It was horrifying to watch the pony smile as the monster ate them, but I had to assume this was a show. Please let it be a show.

"It takes seconds. Once they've swallowed the pony—" Dream shuddered visibly as the Yara-ma-yha-who vomited up its prey, "—they regurgitate them in a moment as another of their kind."

"You have to deal with these back in Thestralia?" I couldn't take my eyes off the monster as it regurgitated the changed pony's teeth. I felt my stomach lurch before I had to do something. The power of Nightmare Moon poured through to my hooves as I jumped forward and brought them down on each of the Yara-ma-yha-who. The moment my black-shrouded hooves struck, the dream monsters were destroyed. "S-Sorry. I couldn't help but—"

Dream Thunder stepped up to my side. "It's okay. We deal with them when we find them, but there's a lot of cunning in the—" Dream looked aside at Celestia, "—damn things. I brought the hunters with me, but we obviously need permission and—please—assistance in hunting this down."

"I'll have a squad of Monster Hunters ready to join your hunters. They'll be ready to move before the end of the day, and they'll have a letter from me to ensure they get the assistance needed." Celesta was staring not at the remains of the monsters—there wasn't any—but rather my hooves.

I lifted my head to look at Celestia just as Dream Thunder ended the magic that brought us into her Dreaming. I shook my head to clear the cobwebs of what my brain told me had been actual sleep. Dream waited for Celestia while she summoned scroll and quill.

"Joyce, could you take this to the Guard headquarters across the city—I'd like a fast reaction, and you're the fastest flier here." Celestia's smile as she floated the scroll to me told me she trusted me implicitly, too.

I took the scroll and tucked it into my saddle bag as I walked toward the door. This was a duty, and part of my job—technically. Celestia paid me well for my advice, but carrying this message was something just as important as my regular duties to her.

"Run and fly, ma'am," the Royal Guard at the door told me, then lifted his voice. "Royal Courier coming through! Make way!"

I'd never heard the shout before, but I struck my hooves on the stone floor and galloped down the hallway as the shout was relayed along by the throats of the Royal Guard. As soon as I left the castle, I spread my wings and leapt into the air with every ounce of vigor I possessed.

One pump. Two pumps. My wings were built for cupping huge quantities of air in low magic worlds to pull me into the sky. In Equestria, with magic excited to see something with wings fly, I shot forward and was airborne.

This was not the day for fanciful gliding. I kept pumping my wings ensuring each shove shot me forward and kept my altitude just enough to get me over buildings. The rumors I'd heard around the castle of somepony in Cloudsdale (a city built in clouds that I was determined to visit next holidays from school) had performed what they called a sonic rainboom urged me to fly faster and faster, but those same rumors (some told by a pair of Wonderbolts themselves) claimed nopony else had done one in centuries. I liked to think I came close as I reached the other side of the city—the E.U.P. Guard.

I'd heard rumors from Lyra about ponies silly enough to try flying over the Guard complex, so I quickly back-winged at the front gate and felt every inch of my membranes strain to slow me before I hit the ground. "Message from Princess Celestia!" I drew the scroll from my bag and showed the seal on it to the guardponies on duty.

"Bottle Rocket!" The guardpony waited for a moment for a third guard to come rushing out of the guardhouse. "Escort this courier directly to Lieutenant Peaks."

"Sir!" The pegasus that was obviously named Bottle Rocket turned to look at me. "Please follow me, ma'am!" When I ruffled my wings to get them fully settled at my sides, her eyes almost popped out of her head. Bottle froze in place staring at my wings.

I leaned forward and lifted one hoof up to the side of my face. "This is the part where you show me where to go."

"R-R-Right! Uh, yeah! Let's go." Bottle turned and headed back into the grounds of the Guard training headquarters, though I could see she kept turning when she could to look back at me. "Uh, you don't mind if I ask you something?"

The mare seemed so new to her job that I had to wonder if she'd been in Lyra's class. "So long as it doesn't slow us down, go ahead."

"Well, in basic training, there was a mare who said her mother was a bat pony. You're the only one I've ever seen, so I kinda figured you might know Lyra?"

Bingo. One of Lyra's friends, or at least somepony she'd known. "I'm Lyra's mum. Where we come from, there's only bat ponies."

"Really? That sounds amazing. Where is that?"

"Is this the right way?" I asked as we had veered off toward what looked like an empty field on the edge of Canterlot.

"Oh! Right! Sorry. Lieutenant Stiff Peaks will be in the mess hall at the moment." Bottle Rocket led the way to where we found a lot of ponies eating lunch and talking loudly. Leading the way through the crowd to the kitchen, Bottle brightened when she spotted someone. "There's the lieutenant."

In the direction she gestured was an earth pony stallion who was wearing chef whites. "That's the commander here? He looks like a cook."

"He is." Bottle lifted her voice. "Lieutenant! Messenger from Princess Celestia!"

"Not the Royal Guard we're used to seeing. Ma'am?" Stiff Peaks had a very deep voice that sounded like he'd used it a lot. He talked easily over the noise of the kitchen. He held out a hoof toward me.

"You're the commander of the Guard here?" I asked and, at his nod, passed him the scroll.

Stiff unrolled the scroll and seemed to quickly read it. His face didn't betray his feelings at all, or at least I wasn't used to seeing his face do such. At last, though, he finally raised an eyebrow and looked at me. "Private Bottle Rocket, find Sergeant Broad Strokes and tell her to be in my office as soon as possible, then head back to your post. Miss Joyce, please come with me."

By the time he escorted me to his office, the other pony he'd requested was waiting. "Sergeant Strokes, this is Joyce. She's brought rather troubling word from Princess Celestia. A creature has invaded Equestria that, if left unchecked, will not just harm ponies but turn them into more of itself. The nation has supplied a squad of their own hunters to track it down, but have requested an escort."

"You want a squad of my best monster hunters?" Broad Strokes asked.

Now it made sense. I'd heard from Sweetie Drops all about the Monster Hunters division of the E.U.P. Guard, and of course they'd be the perfect ponies for the job.

"A full squad. Make sure that newbie you got—Private Sweetie Drops—is with them. They're going to have one part-timer tacked on as well." As Stiff Peaks spoke, I had a shocked moment as I realized what he was about to say next. "Lyra Heartstrings has intimate knowledge of the foreigners and will act as liaison. Private Drops has too, but to a much lesser extent.

"The princess explained everything, ma'am. Your daughter and her fiancee will mostly be there to keep both groups working together."

I hadn't even realized Stiff Peaks was addressing me. "She signed up for duty—they both did. I have to let my filly take her own path." As I spoke, Stiff was writing on a scroll.

Passing the scroll to Broad Strokes, Stiff Peaks began working on another. "Those're your orders, Sergeant, you'll have the lead on this one. Make sure to bring all your ponies home."

"Yes sir!" Broad Strokes left the room with his scroll.

"Joyce, could you take this one back to Princess Celestia? Also, I understand you'll have the best chance of finding Lyra before the day's out. If you could find and escort her to the castle, that'd be a major help." He finished writing in a second scroll and stamped it with some wax that melted against the surface of the scroll all on its own.

I took the scroll when he held it out. "She'll be with her friends. I'll find her easily enough."

I left the Guard and took to the sky again. Circling around the city itself, I narrowed my eyes against the glare of the white marble everywhere and looked for anypony who knew Lyra. As I wheeled around, I spotted one of her friends from school.

A short dive and conversation later and I knew Lyra was already at the castle, but was with Princess Cadance. Rather than fly right into the castle grounds, I landed at the gate and explained who I needed to see and in what order.

"Hey, Mum, what's up?" Lyra answered Cadance's door wearing the most amazing dress I'd ever seen. It was pure white and had ruffles upon ruffles and a train that was supported by blue magic behind her.

"Something serious." I hated saying the words. Lyra looked so free spirited, and when she heard what I said it all fled. "Something nasty has gotten through from Australia. They sent a squad to held deal with it, but Princess Celestia wants you to assist a squad of Monster Hunters to help them."

Tufts: Are you going to invite Pinkie Pie to the Party?

"I would, but she has gone on her own big journey. There is a calling each creature must face in their life, and she is seeking out hers." Rolling his shoulders, Tufts snagged a bunch of grapes from a nearby beck with one wing-thumb. "Besides, I believe Cadance has things well under control."

So I do this "Ask X" thing. X can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and they will definitely, hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories, and they will answer the best question in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer. Try to keep it to one question per post! They will pick one question per chapter.

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