Imprisoned within reflection

Xalecian's recollection of past was broken when suddenly more of the ceiling collapsed on the floor, only few meters away from the mirror. His eyes narrowed as he turned his attention to the collapse spot, seeing that while the hole was still small, the surrounding area had grown weak under the centuries of weather and nature. He wouldn't be surprised that if one day some explorer of the old castle would just fall through the floor, thinking it was solid when in reality it was hollow and weak.

Shaking his head in amusement, he raised his head to see what time it was. The sky was clear, but the sun hadn't reached it's usual position, so it was still early in the morning. He never understood the need to control nature itself, but these ponies had taken it to extreme, which in the end would give them (in theory) the control of the whole planet if they wished it. Such dangerous tampering with creation, as the animals and nature itself couldn't do anything without the help of these ponies.

At least the Everfree Forest was one of the only places where ponies didn't control everything in sight, though that might be because of the forest attacking anyone trying to force it into obedience. Such power of nature, creating an hive mind of sorts between the forests and the animals within, protecting their natural style of live.

Hmm.....maybe there was a way to turn the whole planet into one big, wild version of Everfree Forest, where no creature or plant obeyed the forceful control of the ponies and other sentient creatures......but that was the future Xalecian's problem to solve, if he ever got out of this damn prison of his.

making a mental sigh, he continued to remember the days of the past......

"Is there something on my face, Ma'am?"

So, the reaction of ponies to what he looked like was utter confusion. To them, he looked like normal earth pony, with only difference the red iris of his eyes glowing and being taller than normal ones. He wasn't sure what they were expecting, maybe some red skinned demon with strange symbols on his face or something so alien, they couldn't compare it to anything on the planet.

The captain was first to react, only raising her eyebrow at his looks before shaking her head "No, I was just comparing your similarities to us ponies, even though it's clear to me that your not from here, or even the same species as us. Though, your are handsome by our standards" Xalecian gave a amused chuckle at that, it was a while since someone reacted so...casually to his presence. Everyone he had met in last 15 years either reacted with fear, anger, respect or praising (the last group almost literally kissing his ass to gain his favor. It never worked, but it didn't stop them from trying).

It was nice to be treated that way once in a while.......

Snapping out of his thoughts, he handed the helmet to captain as he began to take the rest of his heavy armor off, starting with his gauntlets. Night Blossom seemed impressed with the strength and weight of the helmet, as she inspected it closely before handing it to one of the apprentices working at the armory. To say the least, pony wasn't expecting such heavy weight (Xalecian later learned that the stallion had literally joined day before his summoning in the armory, so he wasn't used to heavy weights) that he almost fell over when it was so casually given to him.

It took nearly 5 minutes to take the armor off, though it was mostly thanks to hard to access claps that held his armor together. The smiths were quick to start taking the measures as soon as the apprentices had moved the armor pieces into small pile, where they would later be put into armor stand, which (again, something he later learned) amused the older members of the armory as the apprentices had to make one strong enough to hold his armor and then put it there. Luckily for them, at least one was unicorn, though the weight and impressive magic resistance made it hard.

As the smiths finished taking his measures and started working, the captain motioned him to follow as they left and started heading toward the barracks, walking in slower pace than before "If I may ask, Ma'am, why are you personally escorting me around? would one of your guards be more efficient at doing this?" Xalecian asked as he turned his head towards Night Blossom, who continued to look forward with small smile on her face.

"While that is true, I would rather take a break from boring paperwork of nothing interesting happening tonight. True, there are some important things to do, but last few months have been so calm, there hasn't been nothing but same paperwork that is night after night the same. If something even little interesting happened, i would hear it immediately, but as it stands there hasn't been anything interesting except maybe one or two Everfree monsters coming too close to the nearby settlements"  She explained with bored tone, before flashing him a smirk.

"But it's not everyday, or night in the matter, that you get to meet a experienced warrior from another world, summoned by princess Luna herself to join her royal guard. And after the personal experience with your fighting capacity and lack of nervousness fighting superior officer, getting to know you would be more interesting than reading the same old reports night after night" Night Blossom finished as Xalecian raised an eyebrow at her. They were currently half-way between barracks and armory, walking slow enough pace to make it a stroll rather than moving from place to place.

"From what I read between the lines, that means that you will be getting to know me and my past in both on and off-duty, meaning your words of not questioning about my past was a discouragement to the guards around us. As for the personally escorting me, I either made good enough impression to have you take your time off from insignificant paperwork or it was an order from princess Luna herself that you escort me. Your clearly bored with lack of serious action, rather fight in front lines of some war, hunt dangerous criminals or extinguish an attempted coup than sit all night, as you have last few years" Xalecian said as they finally arrived at the almost empty barracks, some guards having just finished their shifts as they were ready to take their free time before going to bed.

"Three years, but your correct on all accounts" Captain answered as she opened the door and gestured him inside, which he did as she closed the door behind her as she entered after him. The office was quite simple, a bookcase on the left and window on the right as the table was set so that the person sitting behind the desk would be facing the door. The room wasn't anything fancy, which was good, because it meant that the captain wasn't a person who was trying to impress whoever came to the office. Practical, and easily defended or escaped if the almost unnoticeable web of magic danced across the darkened window, giving the room enough light but not too much.

As Night Blossom takes her seat behind the desk, she makes a quick motion to the comfortable chair opposite of hers, which Xalecian gladly takes after hours of standing and walking without rest. Really, Luna made him stand the whole time they talked, and the walk around the palace wasn't too hard to do, but the slow numbness creeping up his legs was annoying.

"Now then, since you're the new member of the lunar guard, i will need you to fill the paperwork involving it. After that, you can retire to your temporal sleeping place, because the sun will rise up soon and i'm sure you will most likely spend some of the day sleeping" Night Blossom said as she gave him a stack of papers, which required some sharp eyes to understand the small text on it. Fun part however, which was pure luck, was that the written language of his world and Equis was mostly similar, with letters looking a little different. However, the alphabet was close enough to understand which letter was which in his language, allowing easy mental remembering and learning the Equestrian written language.

"And tomorrow, Ma'am?" Xalecian questioned as he focused on filling the stack of papers, though noticing the mischievous smile on captain's face as she began to read through the worthless pile of reports literally about nothing happening tonight "Tomorrow, you will be put through initial testing and will start your official training. It doesn't matter if you have experience, everyone goes through the training. Luckily for you, the training of new squad starts in next few days , so you'll be trained with them" she explained casually as she continued reading through the reports in fast pace, checking for anything that wasn't exactly the same as the last report had.

Now, some might question how she could do that, but the answer is very simple. EVERY single report is written the same way, with only things changing being the time, who patrolled and where they patrolled. So, it would be easy to spot changes on the reports, if you had years of experience reading both the 'something happened tonight' and 'nothing happened tonight'.

Anyway, moving on, the rest of time with Xalecian filling the required paperwork while captain went through the utterly boring reports in fast pace was uneventful, with exception of another guard coming to drop the last few reports of the night.

"Hello, Xalecian" A voice interrupted his thoughts, making him raise his head to look at the person standing in front of the mirror. The woman in white dress with golden crown and jewels stood in front of it, with horn on her head and wings on her back. Xalecian narrowed his eyes as he looked at the woman in front of him "This hallucination again?" he though to himself as he raised himself into standing position.

"What is it that you want, hallucination?" He asked, watching as the woman in front of him let out a sad sigh. The room was well lighten up with the ball of light hovering above them, near the ceiling where the hole was "How many times have I told you, that I am not an hallucination? That I come here out of genuine intentions of turning you away from your darkened path?" Celestia said with tired voice as she looked at Xalecian with sadness in her eyes.

However, he wasn't fooled by this sight before him. He had experienced this hallucination before, 19 times to be exact, during his imprisonment. The glass between him and freedom was enchanted, so when it was closed, nothing except light could pass through it. Not even magic could break the barrier between this failed-experiment-turned-prison and the real world.

He could already see the mistakes in hallucination as it spoke, though he ignored all it said as the obvious errors shifted and changed. The other wing was too short, the horn was leaning more to right than it should, the eyes were different color, the imprint of the jewels and crown kept shifting.....the mistakes in this hallucination kept going on and on.

Taking a deep breath to calm his mind, he could see the hallucination disappear as he sat back down and raised his head towards the hole, seeing the sunlight come through and light the chamber he was in. His eyes narrowed in disgust as he leaned against the back wall as watched the electricity dance on the surface of his gauntlets.

However, his mind was elsewhere as he remembered seeing the hallucination few moments ago. While it was disgusting to see Celestia standing there, it was better than seeing the two foals (children? pony terminology is strange at times) , both genderless and faceless, standing there with their mother between them. The same female who smiled at him with that strange smile of hers, like he had seen her smile before he had led the failed coup and been imprisoned in this mirror.

How long has it been since that day that he had seen her, before he had gone to free mistress Luna from the tyranny of Celestia? How long has he been imprisoned in this cursed prison, to suffer his own, mortal mind breaking and tormenting him with hallucinations of what could be? He had lost count after eight centuries, but he knew that the time was close. The stars were nearing their alignment and help Luna escape her cursed prison. The night would last forever, but the planet would live under the iron fist of Nightmare Moon and her servants.

Yes, the time would be soon. An year or two, but in the end, it would not matter. Their mistress would be free to get her revenge, and make the ponies appreciate her night. There would be no-one powerful enough to resist her, and those who attempted would be crushed under her loyal soldiers and the members of cult of Nightmare Moon (or at least, he hoped those two fools managed to create it).

Maybe he could visit 'her' grave after their mistress returned.......