Imprisoned within reflection

He let out a sigh as he put his hand against the mirror, the metal of his gauntlet rubbing against the glass surface and creating a high pitched sound when he dragged his hand down against the surface. The freedom was so close, yet so far, with simple glass between him and the end of his centuries long imprisonment.

He had tried so many times to escape, only to fail time and time again, as the only way to leave was to have someone open the way outside. Neither his own magic or sound carried through the mirror, leaving him alone in silence after Celestia had thrown him into this cursed prison without caring if he lived or died.

The moment he had been imprisoned, Celestia had ordered something to her guards, but he couldn't hear anything as the glass stopped all that tried to enter or leave. The dark part of this prison, however, was that air didn't leave or enter either, so he had to sacrifice his own flesh to remain alive. Celestia hadn't cared or seen it, as he had been transported to this damned circle room and left in the dark.

Of course, that had been fixed as the centuries had gone, slowly forming a hole in the ceiling until it was big enough to let enough light into the dark room. However, it didn't change the fact that he had been forced to turn himself into wraith just to keep himself from suffocating to death in this embarrassing prison, which he had himself made, due to the request of his mistress.

He let out a tired sight as he raised his gauntlet in front of him and took a look at it, seeing the centuries old blood still tainting the surface of the beautiful metal patterns. He formed a fist with his gauntlet as he hit the glass surface of his prison hard, watching as the force traveled through it but not breaking it. It was painful to stay in this prison of his, as he was awake the whole time. He could easily understand why some wanted immortality, but for him, it was a curse.

His former body was still a mortal, so his mind wasn't intended to suffer centuries worth of being alone in the dark, with no sound around him. His magic was still within his core, but it was merely a shadow of it's former self, barely able to contain his soul and new body in place.

As he turned his attention back to the beautiful moon, his thoughts went back to the days of past.....

He could feel it, the ache of his bones as the muscles started materializing around them, followed by everything as his body went through a slow progress of materializing into this new world. He could feel the clothes materialize around his body as the strong, metal armor started to materialize, moving from the legs upwards as it came into existence. He could hear the whispering of people around him as his armor fully surrounded him, the familiar weight surrounding him.

As he opened his eyes, he could only see blur, before the burning sensation in his chest forced him to take deep breath, his vision starting to focus. He could see himself hovering in the air, surrounded by rune circle. It was clear that he was not alone however, as there were few unicorns around the circle, their horns glowing as they wore dark blue armor, clearly designed to be draconic in nature.

The room was quite nice, blue glassed windows and lunar themed furniture. The banners were on the walls, presenting the night sister as the single throne stood in front of him. However, Xalecian's attention was drawn to beautiful woman sitting on the said throne, her dark dress and blue skin almost glowing in the moonlight that shined through the windows, with her appearance and aura screaming royalty worth of his respect.

He could see her smile as she rose from her throne and slowly, but gracefully, walked towards him like a predator stalking her prey. With a single motion of her hand, the unicorns released their hold on him as he fell to his feet. He caught himself easily and corrected his pose to the one of war commander, standing straight with his hands on his sides as he kept his eyes on the woman in front of him.

As princess Luna stopped in front of Xalecian, the guards looked nervously at the armored warrior standing only few meters away from their princess, even though he was currently unarmed. Compared to the princess, who with her sister princess Celestia normally towered the ponies around them, looked small compared to the warrior in front of her. Normal ponies were around the height of 160 cm or less while the princesses themselves were around 180 cm, but Xalecian was standing 195 cm, forcing even the princess to tilt her head a little to look at him in the eyes.

The small silence moment passed between people in the room as the towering warrior and night princess continued to keep an eye contact, standing completely still as the guards and unicorns nervously shifted and looked at each other, wondering what was happening. The silence was broken as Xalecian knelt down, one knee raised as he bowed his head and crossed his right arm across his chest, with his fist in front of where his heart was as the other hand gently touched the ground. The guards held their breath, ready to strike as the metallic horns were being pointed directly at their princess, but the tension was broken as the kneeling warrior said two words

"Your highness" The dark and powerful voice said, the tone filled with respect as the smile widened on the princess Luna's face as the kneeling warrior stayed still, waiting for the command of his mistress as Luna motioned the guards to relax, signalling that she could protect herself if needed, though that was highly unlikely.

"Thou may rise now, Xalecian Nexus" Princess Luna said in her royal tone, watching as her new warrior didn't react to it as he raised himself to his feet and stood straight, waiting for her command. "Guards, leave us. We will call you back when we are done talking with our new servant" she ordered without moving her gaze from the glowing eyes of Xalecian. The guards and unicorns were quick to obey, leaving the throne room as they closed the door behind them, leaving their princess alone with her new servant.

Before Luna could say anything, Xalecian interrupted her with amused tone "Royal tone, your highness? I wasn't expecting it, though it's clear why you used it" he said in calm tone as Luna chuckled a little, knowing enough about him that he meant no disrespect with this tension breaking comment "It is to be expected from the princess of Equestria to speak in royal tone, though it would seem that it would be more comfortable to talk in informal manner, when we are talking in private" Luna answered with smile on her lips as she turned around and walked back to her throne, with Xalecian few steps behind before stopping in front of her throne.

They continued talking few hours, as the night was almost always silent, as most of the ponies slept through Luna's beautiful night, leaving her with very much freedom to do what she wanted. So, since they were left undisturbed, Luna gave him brief explanation of the world Xalecian now lived in, as well as explained his role in her inner circle: He would become a member of her royal guard, and earn his ranks from there.

This of course left bitter taste in his mouth, because of his former role in Legion, though he did understand it clearly that he was bound to obey her, as promise that he made was binding his soul to hers. Still, even though he was currently in such a low position, he would proof his worth to his new....mistress.

Currently however his focus was not in the conversation, but the annoying sight of two guards escorting him towards the barracks, where Night Blossom, the captain of the lunar guard, was currently reading some documents and reports. While it wasn't the meeting that annoyed him, it was the two guards giving him nervous glances over their shoulders as well as the guards that they passed that made his eyes narrow in displeasure.

He would love nothing more than teach these weaklings to grow a backbone, but first he would have to reach correct rank to beat them into shape. He could see so many flaws in the guards, though some might be because of his size and the look of his armor. He seriously couldn't blame them if he was part of the reason for their unprofessional acting, because he loved whipping the new members of Legion into shape, especially if they hadn't seen him in person yet. The look on their face as he charged was always priceless.....

Anyway, back to the matters in hand, it seems his mood would darken even more as they passed through the barracks, where more than few guards were readying themselves for their shift as he walked through it to reach the captain's office. They didn't even reach for their weapons, just standing there and looking at him in shock as he calmly passed through, though he noticed the few older looking members only raising their eyebrow at him, before continuing putting their armor on after taking their quick glance at him.

Good, at least not all of the guards looked so hopeless as he first though, but that might be because the older guards only checked if he possessed any weapons before relaxing. His current line of thought ended as he arrived at the door, where the guard on the right knocked the door to the office, where the simple "come in" came as response.

As the guard on the right walked in, he stayed outside with the other guard as the first one closed the door behind him. He could hear them talking silently behind the closed door, but he was more annoyed about the guard next to him, who looked like Lucifer himself was towering over him and staring at him with glare as the armies of hell stood behind him and wearing full armor and heavy weapons.

Xalecian raised an eyebrow at the guard, daring him to do something other than silently whimper. Unfortunately, the guard couldn't see the facial expression because of the helmet shielding his face, only the darkness and two, red glowing eyes narrowing as they looked at him.

The guard was luckily spared from being under the gaze of Xalecian too long as the door opened, drawing the warrior's attention to it as female warrior stepped out, her armor looking almost the same as the night guards, only female version with little more color and changes made here and there to make it look higher rank.

Compared to her fellow guards, the captain herself was around 165 cm tall Unicorn, making her little bit taller than most of the guards and ponies. And like all the other guards, her skin was dark grey and her pupils were slit, which made her look even more dangerous to common criminals. However, it was clear that it was an enchantment on the armor, as he had seen one of the guards have visible changes when he put his armor on in a hurry to get away from the towering warrior.

Back to the captain, her figure was quite feminine, though one look around the body told that she knew how to fight, with some muscles and skill to back her up. As he made a rapid inspection of Night Blossom, he could see her eyes slowly traveling across his body (more like his armor), making a clear mental list of things to know about him. Weaknesses to the armor, how he carried his own body, the clear sign of strong muscles and something else he hadn't bothered to think about right now.

So it wasn't a complete surprise when the captain moved fast as her horn flashed a blinding light and targeted his middle section for the obvious hit spot. Unfortunately for her, it didn't end so well as he quickly dodged her attack, half blind from the spell as he swept her legs under her and used the motion to grasp her by the throat and bring her hard to the ground.

They both stayed still as they looked at each other, with Xalecian kneeling down on one foot as his hand kept a grip on Night Blossom's throat (not too hard, just enough to make her know he could use more strength) as the other was drawn back into the fist and ready to strike. Night Blossom on other hand had her right arm grasping tightly at the hand holding her throat, with her legs ready to strike at his middle section and left arm on the hilt of the sword on her belt.

The guards were fast to react (though not fast enough, if asked from either one), with their weapons drawn and ready to assist their captain if needed. The tension on the room was broken as the smile spread on captain's lips as she let a small chuckle, breaking the tension as Xalecian released his grip on her throat and stood up, offering his hand to her as his other hand opened and relaxed.

The captain was quick to accept the offered hand as Xalecian pulled her to her feet, giving out an amused chuckle at both the situation that had happened and the confused looks of the guards around them "Well then, that was fun" Night Blossom said as the swept her armor to wipe non-existing dust from it, before looking at him in the eye "You have quite fast reflex, and apparently more than enough experience in fighting both professionally and dirty with strength and speed to back it up. What's your name, soldier?" She asked in commanding tone, which seemed to dismiss the shock from the guards still in the barracks and making them continue their business.

"Xalecian Nexus, Ma'am" Xalecian answered as he gave her a salute, which made her raise an eyebrow before returning it. "Apparently our worlds have more than few similarities, though i'm not going to question about your past life." She said in lower voice than normally, before speaking up again.

"Now then, first thing we are going to do is to get you acquainted with your new sleeping place, as well as to get you a new armor. I'm sure you would love to wear that armor everywhere you go, but as member of royal guard you will wear the armor designated to lunar guards, do you understand?" Night Blossom questioned, making it clear that she was in charge.

"Yes, Ma'am" He said as the captain motioned him to follow and walked past him, making him turn around as he steadily walked few steps behind her, turning left from the barracks and heading towards the temporal quarters. It was fairly close, due to the fact that sometimes they needed to add few extra beds in the other rooms after an accident with fire that burned most of the barracks down and half of her office few months ago.

As the captain opened the door, inside was a fairly large room with multiple beds, though only one was currently in use. The expressions on the faces of the two stallions was priceless as they had been caught by their own captain having some....private time before their shifts began. He took his position on left side of the door as the captain teared the two stallions a new ones, both of them not daring to run away from angry mare (woman? it's quite confusing to talk about them when in his world, the stallions and mare's were equine, while here the 'ponies' were more human than ponies) nor to even approach the door as he stood there in scary armor, towering over them like demon from tartarus (this world's version of hell, though it was more like a prison than what it should be).

Cutting the long story short, the two guards got punished with extra shifts and being moved into different squads, with their schedule being made so that other was on duty while other was not. After the captain calmed down, she swept the incident under the rug like it never happened as she explained that Xalecian would be using one of the beds in here until they could make a more suitable bed for his length in the small, private quarters he would later receive (apparently he and the captain would be only ones with private rooms, so they would literally be next to each other near the barracks. His was already being prepared by the servants, though the bed would need to be bigger. Apparently Luna had some plans to get a new warrior into her guards, as the quarters had been prepared a week before he had been summoned).

Moving on, the walk to the armory was short, as they weren't far away from the barracks because of obvious reasons. Both solar and lunar guards had their own barracks and armory in opposite ends of the castle, meaning that the solar guards would rarely be seen by lunar guards in their armor except when they were both deployed somewhere.

As they arrived at the armory, it became clear that the armors were, boldly said, too small to fit. As the captain introduced him to the caretakers and smiths, to say the least they were both impressed with his size and the armor itself. Of course, since it would take few hours to make him a new armor, he would have to wait for the later to get it. However, they still needed to measure him and store his armor away, meaning he had to take it off right there.

This was going to be fun......