Luna entered with a delicate frown. "I hope you all enjoyed your vacation... It's time to get serious."

Rarity perked her ears at that. "Darling, really? We barely got back."

Luna held up a hoof. "Danger waits for no pony. This one is... personal."

Sweetie hopped to her hooves. "Just point us in the direction and we're on the case."

"It's not that easy." Luna sighed gently, rubbing near the base of her snout with a hoof. "The perp, whoever they are, they do meddle with my dreams. Um, not my dreams, specifically, but the dreams of ponies. That is my realm!" She clopped a hoof down firmly. "I will not stand for it!"

Rarity gasped, a hoof to her chest. "Why...how dreadful! To trespass on the sovereign domain of Equestria's very avatar of nightly repose?"

Her brows drew together severely as fangs glinted. "Such an intrusion wounds more than harmony - it violates the innermost sanctity of self! Dreams cradle ponykind's most vulnerable essence."

Bright looked puzzled, scratching behind a furry ear. "So some creep's messing with ponies' sleepy times? Are they just having freaky dreams or are folks somehow in danger?"

"An astute question." Luna began pacing, shadows deepening in her wake. "The reports remain unclear if malice or mischief drives this faceless oneiric invader. All victims describe unsettling visions - identities altered, worlds askew, the nonsensical made flesh..."

She halted, brow furrowed as she framed safeguards between herself and invasive memories. "None have awakened worse for wear, yet each tells of an oppressive dread sprawling in dreamscape's marrow."

Luna skewered her companions with sharp eyes that had witnessed nightmare's bloody birthing untold epochs ago. "Make no mistake - to flood the realm of ideals and impulse with alien terror? This reeks of targeted torment and bounds overbroken."

Sable-clad wings flared dangerously. "We shall teach this rogue the risk accosting those I swore to ever shelter. Now hop to it and fetch me clues!”

Sweetie Drops nodded, already turning even as she gave a salute. “We won’t fail you again Your Highness! I'll put this to rest or my name isn't Secret Agent Sweetie Drops!”

She hastily rounded up Bright and Rarity towards the intelligence division. “I have contacts versed in dream-talk and reaching between worlds. We’ll have leads or I'll eat our horseshoes!”

Rarity swept along in her wake beside groggy Bright, fury smoldering behind genteel facade. “Ah yes, a dear zebra friend who plumbed the mystic depths of isiphambano...lending mumblings of a mentor traversing landscapes oneiric.”

She smoothed elegant robes already regal enough to greet such an esteemed ally. “Come darling! our first visit may open portals revealing this night terror’s face...”

"Isi-whatnow?" Bright shook his head. "You're just making up words, Rares. Kinda like that but, but no idea what you just said."

Rarity pat her minion on the back. "A zebra who digs into dreams and helps others understand what's going on in them."

"Oh!" Bright clapped his hands together with a soft paff. "A dream doctor. Shoulda just said that."

"Darling..." Rarity rolled her eyes with annoyance as she willed the door open.

Inside was a zebra stallion. "Luna said you'd be coming."

"Luna is here." She arrived last, but not far behind. "Have you found anything of note?"

The zebra twirled on his seat, gesturing at a swirling panel. "The dream surface of Equestria ripples and changes before us. Something is hard at work, but to only foul ends, I think."

Bright's eyes widened taking in the chaotic maelstrom of colors and forms phasing across the massive vision orb the zebra mystically manipulated. He whistled low. "Woah trippy light show... So all that wildness is ponies dreaming right now huh?"

The zebra nodded. "Indeed. Oneironauts tread carefully lest visions ventured veer too far from waking sanity's anchor..." His eyes narrowed studying subtle shadows sweeping through the luminous currents.

"Yet bindings fray from strain not mortal - see there!" He pointed to smoky coils marring vibrant hues like oil through water. "Intentions uninvited imposition bringing...the dreamer's choice erasing!"

Rarity examined the ominous corruption with a delicate sniff. "So some brute blunders blindly past mental wards to churn imagination's sea...but to what end?" Her brows drew together severely. "Has this violation yielded more tangible marks than terror alone?"

Luna's ethereal mane flared as understanding lit her eyes. "You divine the design of this dark disruption so - speak!"

The zebra waved the view to a village they knew, Ponyville. "Here my vision showed when the violations started... Spreading out from there."

Luna nodded firmly. "Then we begin our investigation there! We will root out this foul being and show it what becoming an enemy of the dream world means." She stomped a hoof, eyes alight with fury. "Make ready, my friends. Sleep eternal may become the fate of our foe if they do not see reason."

Bright inclined an ear back at the orb they were leaving. "Ponyville, sleeping... What sleepy ponies do we know there... Can't be Rares, she's right here."

"I would have told you if bad dreams were haunting me, dear." She nudged against his side mid-trot. "But keep thinking."

"I am. We got Snails, he's slow enough he could be dreaming awake?" Bright counted on fingers as he went. "Twilight's the biggest magic anything in the area. Mmm... Most of them aren't known for just being asleep."

Sweetie inclined her head. "They don't need to be sleeping themselves."

"It can help." Luna sighed. "But it is far from required. The pony, or creature, involved may be quite awake as they work their dread magic over the land. Let's put a stop to it."

Rarity pursed her lips thoughtfully as their investigation drew nearer. "Working while awake yet remotely manipulating others’ vulnerable dreamscapes...such an esoteric approach suggests particular personal priorities, not mere random malice."

She tapped her chin. "Perhaps this knowledge-hungry spell-spinner simply prizes uncovering obscure insights over ethics in their obsessive questing?"

Bright snapped his fingers. "I got it - maybe it's that one weird pony who was always trying wild experiments and junk on her friends! Um, whatshername..."

He glanced between the mares questioningly. "Y'know, goes kinda crazy-eyed when she gets all science-happy? Pretty sure she lives in Ponyville."

Luna scowled. "We know of whom you speak. And have corrected her...enthusiasm before, when it grew overly hazardous." Her eyes hooded in solemn recollection. "She does not lightly dismiss the suffering of friends, whatever abstract aspirations drive her."

Approaching Ponyville's familiar homes and halls now, Luna addressed the group gravely. "I shall make inquiries directly of my sister's pupil - subtly, of course. But rule none out yet as a source of this oneric malady..."

She turned to Rarity and Sweetie Drops with grave intensity. "Search quietly for any ponies acting peculiar since the dreams darkened. And Bright..." Her intense gaze warmed slightly towards the eager hybrid. "Stick close and keep watch over Rarity, impulsive one."

Rarity beamed with gratitude, mouthing 'thank you!’ to Luna once Bright had bounced over to eagerly cling to her side like an anxious burr. Rarity let out a happy giggle at having Bright snuggled so close.

"Where to first then?" Bright looked around curiously as Rarity gently steered Bright towards Ponyville square as Luna slipped off stealthily to intercept Twilight Sparkle. "I don't suppose your little pony friends mentioned any peculiar town gossip lately regarding bad dreams?"

Rarity tapped at her chin. "Lyra mentioned having a poor one, but just in passing."

Sweetie snorted. "Lyra, she knows you're a vampire, one of the few."

"Lyra's awesome." Bright hopped up onto Rarity's back, assuming a proper mounted position. "But if she's just having bad dreams, that won't get us closer."

"Let's wander the town." Sweetie turned for the square. "Look for interesting things, and interesting ponies."

Ponyville had many things. Interesting ponies was one it had in ample supply. "Howdy." There was Apple Bloom, spotting the three wandering about. "Ya look lost. Can ah help ya any?"

Rarity brightened, waving a gracious hoof towards the earnest young farm filly. "Why hello there Apple Bloom! We're simply about and enjoying the fresh air today."

She leaned down conspiratorially with a playful wink. "But I don't suppose your savvy self happens to have caught wind of any curious rumors ahoof lately? New faces about perhaps?"

Apple Bloom rubbed her chin. "Well now, lessee here..." Her face lit up. "Oh, I nearly plum forgot! There was a mighty peculiar feller came into town coupla' days back. Real skinny, mane all messy, kept mumbling to hisself bout crystals or some such."

She nodded firmly. "I remember on account o' he was haulin' these big bulgin' saddlebags that near dwarfed him, but he still refused Big Mac's offer to lend a hoof tote'n em!"

Bloom screwed up her face trying to recall more as the agents shared intrigued looks. "Lemee think...Oh yeah! Last I seen he was headed off towards the Everfree forest. Heard he set himself up in the ol abandoned castle or somesuch."

She perked up proudly. "So was that the kinda funny bizness you was lookin for?"

Rarity smiled indulgently, patting Apple Bloom. "Indeed darling, you've been positively invaluable! Here -" A glittering apple-shaped brooch manifested on Bloom's lapel. "A shiny token for a helpful heart."

Rarity refined her posture as Apple Bloom scampered off proudly to show her new bauble off to the town. The vampony leaned in beside Sweetie and Bright to whisper confidentially. "An unknown hermit trespassing in forbidden realms...how very suspicious!"

Bright snorted at that. "That sounded like a hint with a capital H right there. I say we get over there and kick that guy until he cuts it out."

"We should check that out, at the least." Sweetie, pivoted towards the Everfree. "Be careful. Things can get wild between here and there. The Everfree is undomesticated."

Rarity winkled her nose. "You're being modest about that..."

Luna threw open the door to Twilight's tree abode. "I would like to check out a book."

"Really?" Spike dashed into view. "What kinda book?" He craned his head back to take in all of the large Luna. "Also, wow..."

Luna snorted with a little smile. "Good day, Spike. I admit, mine eyes are more eager to find Twilight. Where is she hiding on this fine day?"

Spike pointed off to a trapdoor leading downstairs. "She's bottle up in her lab, as usual." He rolled his eyes. "I swear, she just has me take care of the library. I thought she likes books!"

Luna nodded as if earnestly listening. "I will speak with her. Perhaps we can get her back at your side?"

"Would you?" He clapped his hands together firmly. "Please!"

Luna walked past him with a gentle smile. "I will see what she says." Even if her aims were not quite on what Spike had asked.

Descending into the subterranean lab, Luna's senses strained for clues confirming or denying the prodigious protégé's involvement with the dream epidemic. Glittering gadgets and gizmos stuffed the expansive chamber but all seemed inert for now as Twilight pored studiously over some towering tome.

Luna cleared her throat gently so as not to startle the engrossed unicorn. "Apologies for interrupting unannounced my dear wizard, but are you perchance hip-deep in researching remedies for strange nocturnal imaginings of late?"

Twilight blinked up owlishly as if resurfacing to reality through deep academic waters. "Oh! Evening , Princess Luna! Please excuse the clutter, I was just cross-referencing some fascinating minutiae on thaumic resonance states and their psychosensorial..."

Noticing Luna's subtly bemused smile, Twilight caught herself with a self-conscious chuckle. "Which is all just a fancy way of saying even I don't talk shop enough down here to avoid feeling cooped up." She rolled her shoulders wearily. "You're just in time to give me a great reason for a study break actually!"

Twilight tilted her head curiously. "What exactly brings you by though? Anything I can help sort out?" She fidgeted slightly. "No more dark magical influences causing havoc I hope?"

Luna shook her head with a gentle smile. "Nothing so grave as past troubles. Simply catching up on a concerned teacher's responsibilities." She waved dismissively. "I will leave you be. Just try to remember meals and blinks, yes?"

Upstairs, Spike was waiting. "Well? How'd it go?"

Luna's smile faded a little as she regarded Twilight's home. "She seemed... genuine. Engrossed in her studies, but not haunted." That left the mystery open wide as ever.

"But about the library?" Spike pointed to the door, then around the books that only he was tending to.

Author's Note

And we begin the new plot hook. Did you think there'd be a monster on that vacation?

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