"So, let's get this straight," Moondancer said, as she and Starlight Glimmer trotted after Trixie along darkened upper corridors in Canterlot's Royal Palace. "We're going to a tea party?"

"Yep," Trixie replied.

"At night?" Starlight asked.

Trixie shrugged. "So it's a few hours past sunset. Big deal." Shoving her magician's hat to a more resolute angle, she trotted straight ahead.

Starlight eyed her skeptically. "Trixie, are you sure you read the invitation correctly?"

"Of course!" The showpony lofted her snout. "The Great and Powerful Trixie would never flub a curtain-up!" Rolling her eyes, she went on in a more conversational tone. "Look, Princess Luna's still getting over not being Nightmare Moon anymore, right? And she's been shifting her hours toward evening, so eventually she can resume her role as Princess of the Night, right? So obviously, she'll want to start holding social events after dark."

"Including... tea parties?" Moondancer asked.

"With her most trusted companions, don't forget," Trixie gloated. "Which is us! See? All perfectly normal."

"If you say so." Moondancer glanced around nervously. The echoes of their hoof-steps were vanishing into the depths of the shadowy hallways, and returning multiplied, and eerily distorted...

She trotted a little faster, to keep up with the others.

Turning a final corner, the three of them found themselves facing the tall, bone-white doors of the Lunar Suite. As they approached, the doors clicked open and swung wide, all by themselves. Beyond were only moonlit shadows.

Even Trixie came to a halt at that. Biting her lip, she peered into the gloom.

"Um... Princess Luna?" she called, in a voice uncommonly small and meek.

With a suddenness that made them all gasp and take a step back, a pale-violet alicorn filly with a flowing, sky-blue mane emerged from the darkness. She stood facing them, her snout held high, regal...

... and smiling in delight on seeing her guests.

"Lady Trixie!" Luna said, indulgently using the ersatz titles Trixie had invented for herself and her friends. "And, let us see... Countess Moondancer, was it not? And Baroness Starlight Glimmer?"

"Low pony again..." Starlight grumbled, though good-naturedly so.

"Princess Luna!" shouted Trixie. Abandoning all pretense at decorum she rushed forward and flung her forehooves around the Princess, hugging her tightly. So did Moondancer, but more circumspectly, glancing up at Luna to be sure it was okay.

Luna willingly returned their embraces. "My dearest of friends..." she whispered, too overcome to say more. Then she looked up at Starlight. Who waved a hoof, smiling.

"I'm good, Your Highness. As always, just being invited is an honor."

"Thou art most welcome, all my friends." Luna turned and led the way into the suite. "And please pardon the dramatics. With the return of my powers, my connection with the Night, I have been working to rebuild my image. But we are none of us strangers, so do make thyselves comfortable."

With a wave of a hoof Luna lit coldlight lamps, set in tree-shaped sconces around the chamber. Their moonlike glow pushed back the shadows, revealing a luxuriously appointed main room, with its carpeting, tapestries, and curtains all patterned in deep blue evening tones. The main doors swung quietly shut behind them, and ahead on the spacious balcony there was a broad table encircled by comfortable seating cushions. It was already laid out for afternoon tea, even given the lateness of the hour.

But it was at Luna herself that the ponies all stared in surprise.

"Are you getting taller, Your Highness?" Starlight asked.

"And your coat," Moondancer added, "isn't it a darker shade of blue than before? I mean," she added quickly, "if that's not an impolite question?"

Luna looked about at them.

"Yes, I am," she finally replied. "And yes, it is. Celestia says it is a side-effect of the return of my powers. That I shall not forever remain an overgrown filly, but shall gradually regain my stature and coloration as Princess of the Night." She looked briefly worried. "That is... all right, is it not?"

"Absolutely," Starlight replied. "And it's a good thing, right? It means soon you'll be back to your old self again."

"And maybe... just maybe..." Trixie added wistfully, "your memories might return too?"

"Perhaps." Luna shook her head. "Though truth be told I am not certain I would like that. It may be for the best, allowing the past to remain in the past. To begin anew, as I am. In so far as I am able."

"Oh." Trixie looked somber, her shoulders slumped. Then she quickly brightened up as they all moved to sit down around the table. "Well, Princess! Let me tell you all about this wonderful new magic trick, which Starlight here has finally, finally learned to pull off, all by herself." She shook her head in mock disgust.

"Oh, please do!" Luna encouraged. While at the same time giving Starlight a quick, knowing wink.

For a while the ponies chatted together of inconsequential things, as Luna poured out and they passed round the scone plate and jam. Of doings in the Royal Court, as Luna worked hard to reclaim her role as Princess of the Moon and Stars. And of the research studies the Advanced Projects group had been assigning themselves, in lieu of formal classwork at Celestia's School.

Then Luna suddenly paused at length, looking anxious. And finally got round to what the others immediately sensed was the real purpose of the gathering.

"My friends," she began. "Ever since thou aided my return, I have come to rely on thy company, kindness, and discretion, just as much as I do on my sister's loving care and patience. And Celestia has oft spoke of thy capable skill and diligence facing unusual and difficult challenges." She turned to look at Trixie. "Might I now call upon your team, Trixie, to aid me in that more formal capacity?"

Trixie blinked in surprise at that, startled speechless.

"Of course, Your Highness," Starlight quickly answered for her. "How can we help?"

In response, Luna turned the gloom behind her. "Guard, attend us!"

And her guests gasped as glowing eyes blazed alight, staring out at them from the shadows.

Seeming to emerge straight out of the darkness itself, two of Luna's purple-armored nightmare guards stepped forward. The nightmares were large and ruggedly built, with gray pelts, dragon-like wings, heavily-fanged jaws, and burnt-gold eyes that glowed with an unsettling infernal light. They were a disquieting sight, even once you'd got used to them. In part because they would simply stand there, motionless and silent, not even breathing, simply regarding you with an unreadable, wolf-like gaze. You found yourself wondering if they were even alive at all... and almost hoping they weren't, given what they appeared to be contemplating.

Approaching Luna, the nightmares dropped to their knees, heads bowed abjectly and subserviently. Then they rose as one, snapping to attention, utterly motionless and fiercely attentive. Even Luna herself seemed taken aback by the aggressive display of fealty. But she swiftly recovered, and turned to her friends.

"This is Nacht," she said, gesturing to the one on the left. "And this, Skaad." She gestured to the other. "They are my personal guardians, and leaders amongst their kind in my Night Guard. They have served me, faithfully and true, for well over a thousand years..."

She looked briefly embarrassed.

"... at least, so I have been informed."

She glanced around the table at her guests. "As Nightmare Moon, I summoned them to lead my armies against Celestia. And now that I am returned to myself, I feel the time for such forces is long past. I would therefore reward my guards' unstinting loyalty by freeing them of the bond holding them to me. By allowing them finally, at long last, to return home to their kith and kin."

At this, the nightmares' stern expressions briefly faltered. They glanced at each other uncomfortably, almost forlornly, as if they felt abandoned.

"That sounds... really nice of you, Princess," Moondancer hazarded. "But I'm guessing it's not so easy, right?"

"No. It is not." Luna shook her head. "For when I say I summoned them, I was not being metaphorical. I summoned them -- brought them into physical being." She nodded at her guest's shocked stares. "They are creatures of the dream realm. Of my dreams, my darkest, blackest, most terrible of dreams. Which... adds its own complications. Observe, my friends!"

She turned to the guards once more. "Faithful servants! I have spoken to thee of my wish to release thee from thy service, and return thee home. Pray tell my friends here what thou told me in reply. These are my most trusted of companions. Thou may say anything before them thou would say before me."

The nightmares eyed each other, then Nacht spoke. His voice was low and gravelly, yet surprisingly soft-spoken. "Thou art the Mistress of Nightmares," he said, lowering his head respectfully. "We can but follow, Mistress. Thou must lead."

Luna nodded sadly, and turned to her guests once more. "As they say, to return them home I must lead them there myself. Back into the dream-realm, back into the dream from which I summoned them, long, long ago..."

She hunched, looking frightened.

"And, my friends... I do not remember how..."

In the candle-lit main workroom of the Advanced Projects tower, Twilight Sparkle was seated at her usual place at the big circular worktable. The lavender unicorn's snout was buried in a thick book, with several more stacked conveniently all around her. Twilight read onwards into the night, oblivious of the lateness of the hour.

Behind her, resting comfortably on a favorite cushion, was Commander Tempest Shadow. The tall, black-armored pony appeared half-asleep as she sat, quietly and patiently, keeping watch over her friend. Yet her head snapped up and around, alert and efficient, at the sound of the entry doors slamming below, and multiple sets of hooves charging up the stairs toward the main floor.

Starlight Glimmer and Moondancer hove into view, and galloped across the room toward the library stacks. "... and we'll need Clover the Clever's treatise on dreams and dreaming," Starlight was saying, "plus that compendium of shadow magic. You know? The one with the collection of spells relating to trans-psychic bridges?"

"On it!" Moondancer's horn blazed, and her magic quickly whipped her mane into its efficient top-knot, keeping it out of the way as she vanished amongst the back stacks. And Starlight almost without slowing down took a right-angled turn straight up a ladder, then began poking around at the top of a bookshelf. Her magic lifted out books and shoved them back in, as she ferreted around industriously.

Behind them both, Trixie finally appeared. She sauntered casually up the stairs then over to the main table. Seating herself, she glanced about, nervously tapping her forehooves together.

"Trixie?" Twilight asked.

Before the showpony could reply, Starlight called down from overhead. "Twilight! Where's that journal by General Duskhelm? The one where he was talking about Luna's command of the Forces of the Night?"

"I... thought we were done with books like that," Twilight called back. "I had Spike add it to the bin going back to the Archives."

"What! What'd you do that for? I need it! Like now!" Sliding down the ladder, she dashed over to the bin by the stairs and rooted through it hurriedly, pitching books in every direction. "Aha!" she finally cried, holding up a slim volume. "Thank you, Spike! For being such an incorrigible lazybones."

"What's... going on?" Twilight asked. And jerked back as Starlight slammed the book down on the worktable, along with several others she'd brought along in her magic.

"No time to explain!" Starlight said, as she levitated over some spell-scroll paper and quills from the table's caddy. One quill immediately became a blur over the paper, sketching out an initial frame.

Moondancer joined her, dropping several large tomes onto the table and flipping them open to relevant pages. She grinned nervously at Twilight. "We just need to recreate an alicorn-level spell from over a thousand years ago. Which nopony ever bothered to write down, since it was pretty much unique to the only pony who could actually work it." She shrugged. "Like they say, the impossible just takes a while longer."

From the bunkroom behind the bookshelves Sunset Shimmer trotted out. The flame-maned pony yawned and rubbed her eyes. "What's all the noise out here? Are we being invaded by gummy bears again or... was I only dreaming that?" Spotting Trixie, Sunset grinned. "Hey, Trix! How'd tea with Luna go?"

"Oh... fine. Like usual. No big deal." Trixie smiled weakly. "Luna only asked us to help her out by going with her into one of her own dreams. To a place where nightmares live. To return her guards to their ancestral home, or something like that. You know, kind of thing that happens every day?"

Sunset stared at her.

"Speaking as a pony who's actually been to another dimension, that... still didn't make a whole lot of sense to me."

"Luna is Princess of the Night," Moondancer explained. "And one of her powers is visiting the dream realm. She's supposed to watch over ponies' dreams and if necessary intervene if a bad dream gets seriously out of hoof. At least, she used to before, well... you know..."

"Before she became Nightmare Moon," Trixie finished bluntly. "And now that she's not anymore, she wants to get back to doing her old job. Only along with everything else she lost in giving up being Nightmare Moon, she's lost the spell she used to get to this dream-realm thingy. Which... kinda makes things difficult, as you can imagine."

"And that's where we come in," Starlight said as she ran a hooftip down a list of spell components in one of the books. "Luna thinks that maybe if we can help her get back to this particular dream, and from there find a way out to the larger dream realm, that'll help jog her memory of how to get there herself."

"And she's asked our help with that?" Twilight asked. "Not the Research ponies at the Archives? Or even Celestia?"

"I think..." Moondancer said carefully, "she's afraid to ask anypony else. It's difficult enough as it is convincing everypony to trust her again. Would you want to admit you'd lost track of one of your signature spells?"

"And Celestia can't help," Starlight added. "This requires Luna's magic, her affinity with the Night and dreaming. But we can make it work, no problem!" Her quill scribbled madly over the paper, crossing out nearly as much as it was writing down. "Luna can invoke the spell, easy. We just have to piece it together again. Or... as much of it as we can figure out, or... even something remotely like it..."

The quill skidded to a halt. Starlight fell silent and stared at the scroll, momentarily stymied by the enormity of the task. "Uh, maybe? I hope?"

"Here, give me that." Twilight gently took hold of the quill and scroll with her magic. "You're just making a mess trying to copy everything down so fast. I'll work on getting the boilerplate for the spell set up. You focus on figuring out what components we need."

"Thanks, Twilight!"

"I can help you there," Sunset said. She yawned and stretched. "Once I've woken up properly, that is. There's some optimizations we can apply once we have the framework doped out. And we should make the spell configurable. That way, if it doesn't work first time, we just switch components and try again. Here, gimme that, Moon-Moon." She grabbed the spell-catalog Moondancer was holding. "I'll help Starlight look stuff up. You take care of chasing down the references we'll need."

"No problem. And thanks, Sunset!" Moondancer grinned and pumped a hoof. "Yeah! Are we a team or what? Look, I'm gonna go hunt around on my own, see what else I can find. Yell when you gals need something!"

Turning, she vanished back into the stacks. And the others set to work, industrious and oblivious, focused on the job...

... except Trixie, who sat watching them. And sighed.

"And the Great and Powerful Trixie will just... sit here quietly? Providing, um... moral support, I guess?"

Tempest snorted in amusement. "Welcome to my world..."

"Oh, and Twilight?" Starlight looked up, smiling mischievously. "Just so you know, Trixie's in charge of the group now."

Twilight blinked, and stared. "Trixie's what?"

The group turned to look at the showpony, who first tried to hide beneath her hat. And then, adopting a blasé air, shrugged carelessly. "Well, what can Trixie say? I'm simply the pony Luna's known the longest. Um, even if she doesn't really remember it. But she trusts me! I was her personal student when she was Nightmare Moon, after all, so naturally she assumes I'm in charge." She glanced around at the others uneasily. "Well... that's what she says. But look, haven't you heard the saying we have in the entertainment biz? The customer is always right?"

Sunset smiled. "Isn't it, there's a sucker born every minute?"

Trixie nodded. "That's the Barnum translation." Seeing doubtful looks from the others, she grunted impatiently. "Look, the point is, we're helping Princess Luna here. She's still feeling lost and unsure of herself. And as long as we're helping her with that, everything else is just... details!" She waved her hooves. "Props and stage-lighting! Look, we can do this, I know we can!" She struck a pose, lofting a hoof in the air. "And the Grrreat and Powerful Trrrixie would never let an appreciative audience down! The show must go on!" Spreading her hooves, she glanced around triumphantly at the others. "So? Who's with me?"

Tempest exchanged a glance with Twilight.

"Overconfident and underinformed... sounds like management material to me."

After several busy days and nights of experimenting, testing, and reconfiguring the Advanced Projects group returned to the Lunar Suite early one morning, just after sunrise.

With Trixie in the lead. Moondancer and Starlight trotted to either side of her, their carryalls laden with books and other equipment.

"Why does Tempest have to follow me everywhere?" Trixie grumbled. She glanced over her shoulder at the Commander, who was striding barely a pace behind her as the group approached the Suite's doors.

"Well," Twilight said from the rear of the group next to Sunset, "if Princess Luna thinks you're in charge, that makes you a Very Important Pony --"

"Dare we say it?" Sunset put in cheekily. "A Great and Powerful pony?"

Twilight glanced reprovingly at her. "So we need to show the Princess we take that seriously."

"And somepony needs to keep an eye on you." Tempest rolled her eyes. "Just my luck, I guess."

Trixie huffed in annoyance, but didn't press the point.

At the Suite's doorway Luna once again greeted them herself. The Princess appeared both pleased and a bit overwhelmed by the number and enthusiasm of her guests. Yet as the ponies unpacked books and scrolls and chalk and set to work, the Princess became quietly withdrawn. She stood off to the side, bracketed by her nightmare guards, and watched attentively -- almost editorially, in fact -- as Starlight and Sunset sketched out an intricate magic circle on an open stretch of floor near the main doors.

"Now," Starlight said, tucking the glowing chalk safely back in its box, "this won't be quite the same as your dreamwalking spell, Your Highness. But once you activate it, it should establish a psychic portal. In essence, it'll create a bridge to your own personal dream-realm."

"And then all you have to do," Moondancer added, "is go to sleep and try to dream about the place we all need to get to. Once you're there, you'll open the portal from your end, and we'll cross over the bridge and meet you on the other side -- in the dream itself."

"Since you'll be the one dreaming," Starlight warned, "you may not have the same ability to control events that you'd normally have. But we'll be there, and we should be able to act on your behalf. And we'll... have a look round. Try to figure out what to do next. And kinda... take it from there." She gritted her teeth. "At least, that's the theory."

"Don't you worry, Princess!" Trixie threw her forehooves around Starlight and Moondancer. "My Great and Powerful assistants here know their stuff. They won't let you down!"

"I am certain they will not." Luna attempted a vanishing smile. "I only hope I shall prove as capable." She had been studying the spell-scroll that Starlight had presented her, and seemed satisfied by it. Reluctantly she charged her horn, then touched a forehoof to the circle. It came alight, gleaming with her shimmering blue magic.

"That should do it," Sunset said. "Now as we planned, Princess, you go tuck in. And we'll be ready out here, when the portal opens."

Luna nodded uneasily. Then turning, she headed for her sanctum-like bedroom, accompanied by her guards plus Trixie and Moondancer. And Twilight as well, following along behind them silent and watchful.

The bedroom's tall windows were hung with heavy, light-smothering curtains. These were already drawn against the daylight, plunging the room into night-dark shadow. In the center of the deep-carpeted, sound-proofed room was Luna's bed, shaped like a huge crescent Moon riding on billowing clouds. The bed was hung with star-speckled curtains and arrayed with soft pillows and blankets. A single cold-light lantern hung from its arched crescent canopy, a solitary beacon in the dark.

Luna came to an abrupt halt. She stared apprehensively at the bed, as if at a rack or an executioner's block.

"It'll be okay, Princess," Moondancer encouraged. "You'll have all of us there to help you, whatever happens."

Relaxing a bit, Luna nodded thankfully. Then she moved to climb into the bed and tuck herself in. Drawing up the covers, she gazed up forlornly at the lantern hanging above her.

"Trixie..." she called, holding out a hoof.

"Princess?" The showpony moved to lean on the bed's carved railing.

"Will you be there?" Luna asked. "Promise me you will be."

"Of course, Princess! Why do you even ask?"

Luna smiled uneasily. "I know sometimes you feel uncertain about yourself, that your magic is not as strong as the others."

"Um... yeah." Trixie admitted. "Sometimes."

"Know this then: you are important. As in so many things, a gift is rarely obvious until it is expressed. And though I cannot say exactly why, I do feel this is a problem only you can solve, Trixie Luna Moon."

"Me?" Trixie squeaked.

"You." Luna nodded. "With the help of your capable team, of course." She lay back, settling herself. "You can do this, Trixie."

Trixie looked briefly uncomfortable. Then she set her jaw determinedly. "You can count on us, Princess!"

Luna merely smiled back at her, relieved.

Twilight nodded her head towards the doorway. "Let's go check on the portal-spell, Trixie? And give Luna some privacy?"

"Right..." Trixie nodded. "... right. Uh, good call, Twilight!" Turning from the bedside, Trixie followed the others out through the doors, past the nightmare guards standing sentinel at the doorway.

Luna gazed across at the guards herself. "Follow, my faithful servants."

The guards bowed their heads. "We shall, Mistress," answered Nacht.

Luna's horn sang, and the lantern winked out. Then she got comfortable in the darkness, as the guards backed out of the room and drew the doors quietly shut behind them. With that done the guards turned about to face the outer room and then came to attention, silent and motionless as usual, vigilantly on watch.

Which essentially left the Advanced Projects team to themselves. The ponies gathered around the glowing magic circle, and looked at each other, uneasily.

"And now?" Tempest asked.

"Now..." Moondancer said, "we wait."

"And hope Luna can find the right dream," Starlight added.

"Might be a while," Sunset warned. "Maybe we should've brought a deck of cards?"

Trixie snorted, and crossed her forehooves.

"And just how are we supposed to know when she's found it?"

Even as she spoke, the nightmares suddenly came alert. Their heads swept back and forth, as if triangulating on something no one else could sense.

At the same time, the air above the magic circle glowed. The glow coalesced into a vaporous, swirling blue mist. Without hesitation, the guards trotted straight forward, into the mist.

And vanished.

Twilight raised an eyebrow.

"That... could be a clue."

Next Chapter: City of Nightmares Estimated time remaining: 54 Minutes