Having issues understanding multiple mc's in Flash 2004

Sorry for the grossly naive question,

I am having a hard time getting the concept of multiple MC’s running simultaneously.

My concepts are based on the photoslideshow tutorial. Have it working fine with one MC and dynamic text from XML file.

I cannot figure out how to call or reference the 2nd MC from the same actionscript.

Pictures change…but need text (as an image - to support non working emmbedded fonts) to fade in tandem with the pics.

Any pointers to tutorials that may address this would be greatly appreciated…

Please excuse my ignorance and "noobiness’ in advance.

Thanks