Night Breeze, as he had been dubbed since joining Luna's guard, was one of the few non-thestrals in the Lunar Guard. This had piqued the Night Princess' interest in the bland, gray pegasus, much to the young stallion's dismay. This interest had led the Princess to spend more time speaking with the Private than she normally would have, and, unbeknownst to the pegasus, allow him to ask questions she normally would not answer. It was this peculiar set up that had led to this evening's topic, for the past several days Night Breeze had been having strange dreams that Luna had been unable to view from the dreamscape.

“So, tell me what exactly these dreams entail,” the Princess of the moon asked, as the pair sat alone in her bedroom, making the stallion extremely uncomfortable.

“W-well, I'm in th-the library, I-I think. And, um, someone comes in and starts talking to me-.”

“Somepony,” Luna corrected absent mindedly.

“No, ma’am, he's not a pony.”

Luna's eyebrow raised, “Not a pony?”

“No, he's like a- a giant hairless ape, but he's got some hair on his head.”

Luna's eyes narrowed, “Go on,” she said, her voice low.

“We-well, we talk about someone named Rainbow Dash for a while, and then he leaves.”

“...and that's all? No other name comes up?”

“I can barely remember that one, and only because of how famous she is.”

The princess smiled, “Yes, one of the youngest captains of the Wonderbolts, and one of the oldest to perform later in her life, on top of being one of the Elements of Harmony.”

“Not to mention all her airspeed records and innovations in flight.”

“Yes,” Luna chuckled, “I'm rather surprised you know of her.”

“Are you kidding? What pegasus DOESN'T know about her?”

“Allow me to correct myself, I'm surprised you know so much about her. Most only know pay attention to the titles she held, few of her other accomplishments. It's been almost 2000 years since she passed after all, most of her 'innovations' are just standard practice. But I digress, we were speaking of this dream. Is this reoccurring or are there many of them?”

“There's a couple of them, but they have been kinda frequent. The other one is... more surreal.”

Luna waited for a moment, then egged him on with a nod.

“W-well, I'm in a-a basement or something. Looking over these notes about spells or something, and suddenly I get really excited, like I just figured out something amazing. Then I get really freaked out and start burning the papers. The next thing I know I'm in Canterlot and-...” The pegasus blushed furiously then looked down at his hooves.

“What?”

“W-well it's, it's really not something I-I want to,” he spluttered as Luna rolled her eyes.

“I've seen all sorts of things while traversing the dreamscape, no matter what you say I've seen it a million times before,” she assured him.

“I-I-... okay,” taking a deep breath, still looking at the ground he says, “I'm in the library and you, Luna, are offering yourself to me. ...”

For a moment Luna was stunned. After processing it for a moment she stood up and troted over to the gray pegasus' side, lifted his face with her hoof and looked him in the eyes.

“Think carefully, Private, this is important. What are my EXACT words in the dream?”

Though every muscle in his body was screaming with fear Night Breeze couldn't move, and strangely enough the words came unbidden from the recesses of his mind.

“You say, 'I'll even give myself to you.'”

Luna let go of her guard's face and stepped back. Turning around, she drew in a shaky breath. What were the odds that those exact words, in the same location, would turn up in a dream? Highly unlikely actually, but what it meant eluded the princess.

Meanwhile, Night Breeze continued to panic about what he had said. Sure, maybe there were ponies that had dreams like that, but they weren't in Luna's guard. Worse, they weren't currently alone with said princess being interrogated about the dream. A part of him wanted to flee, fly as far away as he could as fast as he could, but something was preventing it.

“You're sure no other name comes up?” Luna asked, without turning around.

“I'm sure, no one, pony or otherwise, gets mentioned,” Night Breeze responded, his mind still trying to get the rest of his body to function, “Just Pete.”

An almost physical chill swept through the room. Luna stopped breathing as Night Breeze's eyes widened. Who was Pete? He was sure he had never heard THAT name before, only Rainbow Dash. On the other side of the room Luna was having a similar mental debate. The pegasus had said Rainbow Dash before, but had just said Pete, a name she hadn't heard in nearly a thousand years. That fact alone saddened her, especially after all the pain she went through after his passing, but this was not where she had expected to hear his name once more.

“Why did you say 'Pete?'” she asked, her voice calm, her unseen expression one of sheer panic.

“I-I don't know,” the private answered truthfully, “...he was... Rainbow Dash's husband. ...why do I know that? ...why isn't that in books?”

“...Pete Powell was a very, very incredible pony. A unicorn, he worked harder than many I've met before. Managing to not only raise a family, be captain of my guard, and do his own research, but to also aid the Elements of Harmony from his time on almost every occasion, master dark magic that even I struggle with, and keep his sanity. Upon his death we, my sister and I, revealed that he was not a pony, but actually had been a human we had transformed into one. The outcry had been massive, worse when we insisted on burying him with other heroes, though his qualifications for such could not be argued.

“There had been a long standing dislike of humans after a failed attempt at integrating them back into our society. The revelation that one of the most trusted, respected, and potentially most powerful, ponies had been human was disturbing for many. For an equal number, however, it shown that there had been more to the humans than they had known, because the Pete they knew had never been anything other than kind and compassionate.

“Even still, many historians refuse to acknowledge his existence, and even I find it difficult to argue. Many of his accomplishments were mostly done by others, he simply helped. It's as if he wanted to be forgotten. The one thing he did that would have been worthy of history was his research... and he burned it all when he realized the ramifications of it. Though he helped the Elements, he barely did much beyond moral support, his stint as captain inspired loyalty in the guard and marked the beginning of the Lunar Guard's era of public notice, but he did not do anything outstanding, and we could hardly tell others that he was a master of forbidden knowledge.”

Luna's reminiscing was cut off by the sound of the door being thrown open. She turned around to find Night Breeze fleeing as fast as he could. For a moment fear gripped the Princess of Night's heart, then sadness. What she didn't know, however, was what was going through Night Breeze's mind. Every single thing she had said brought up images, words, sounds that he was unfamiliar with, but could recall vividly. It scared him.

Without stopping, he leapt out an open window at the end of the hall and took flight into the midnight sky. With the wind failing to clear his head as it normally did, Night Breeze pushed open the door to his favorite tavern and downed a mug in record time. Calling down another, he trotted to the bathroom to try and clear his mind by splashing cold water on his face. Something he had seen in the movies. Drying his face with a wing, he looked himself over in the mirror and suddenly began questioning everything. These dreams, that he now felt were memories, his perception of reality, everything. Was he even Night Breeze?

“Well, you're not me,” a relaxed voice echoed in his head, causing the pegasus to look around, “Oh man, this is weird.”

Looking back into the mirror, feeling the need to try and see this voice as best as possible Night Breeze opened his mouth, “Who are you?” he whispered.

“Pete Powell,” the voice responded, strangely calm about the whole ordeal, “and this is going to be one wild ride.”

Author's Note

A WILD EPILOGUE APPEARS! Does it denote a sequel to the alternate? Who knows?! I don't!