To be honest, as otherworldly spirits co-inhabiting your body went, Soldier was not that bad. If Celestia were pressed to describe her usual experience living with the human, she’d suppose it was like living with a roommate that had no regard for your personal space, but still stayed cordial enough to do their own dishes. This would of course prompt whoever was interviewing her to ask how Celestia knew anything about living with a roommate and Soldier would order this imagined interrogator to walk off a balcony.

Celestia scribbled down a note reminding her secretary to send a fruit basket to poor private Calm Breeze. The colt had obviously been stoned out of his mind on guard duty, but guarding the palace interior was a notoriously dull affair, so Celestia would have given the matter a pass. She might have mentioned the incident to the colt’s superior later if it was evident that he was supplementing his high during the day. Soldier was obviously not so lenient on the matter of guard protocol, as was evident by the colt’s broken legs from walking off an open balcony and dropping three stories into a rosebush. The colt would have lost an eye to a thorn, if Celestia hadn’t stepped in to realign the tissue and mend it together. It had annoyed her greatly that Soldier allowed her to heal a guard’s eye, but actively stopped her from saving Luna’s life.

She wasn’t sure if she should take what had happened with Luna and her two spirits as a sign for what was to come, or a testament to Soldier’s character. Soldier had been the one to retrieve Smuggler from beyond the veil, despite his obvious disregard for Luna’s life. Celestia realized that Soldier had done what he did purely as a favor to her. She knew a few ways to circumvent the hold Soldier’s presence had on her heart, but they were either risky and time-consuming, or required the death of the spirit. The human spirits had demonstrated the ability to leave their host body, but at least two out of the three had some regard for the well-being of their hosts.

She did understand the man’s ire towards her sister, as she had seen the mangled nature of his very soul after what Luna had done to him, all to save a mindless beast. The more she thought about the depth of Soldier’s anger, the more frightened she was to be left in the same room with Luna. Soldier didn’t need to know any spells to destroy Luna with the reservoir of power the sun diarch commanded and he had proven to be in complete control of her every faculty whenever he stepped in. The pragmatic man probably wouldn’t bother using magic, opting to either stab Luna in the eye with Celestia’s horn, or simply order Luna to cook her own brain. Celestia preferred to think Luna’s continued survival spoke for both Soldier’s character and her strength of will.

She wouldn’t say that it was the universe conspiring against her and her ailing confidence, but she did think that it was vexing Soldier chose that exact moment to make the quill she was using float over to a blank paper and start writing in blocky letters. Her horn was numb until the phoenix quill ran out of ink and she floated it over the ink pot to refill it. Celestia preferred this method of communication to the man simply speaking using her mouth, but he could take the time to get good enough at using her magic to use the quill properly. She was wary of broaching the subject with the human though, seeing how overpowering he was just with his ability to order the wills of others. Imagining the irate human with delicate control over her magic was a frightening thought, but the sight of those blocky letters made the teacher in her shudder.

“Battery, Crystals, Solution? I know you’re a man of few words, but even a foal can express themselves more clearly. I need to finish reviewing these documents, so use my mouth.” Celestia fought down a groan at the thought of somepony taking her words out of context. It had been far easier to censor her own words to avoid these double entendres, before Soldier started sharing a body with her.

“I am a problem for you, we need a solution. Something to store part of me, spare your heart. Crystals store energy, maybe use them.” Celestia heard her own mouth say in her voice, but she still heard Soldier’s more masculine voice interlaced with hers. Nopony else could make out the difference in their voices, but Soldier was far more blunt in his mannerisms and her eyes took on a radiant blue hue whenever he took over, so not being able to know who was talking had never been an issue. Celestia kept going over the documents she’d been presented that day and mulled over Soldier’s proposition.

“Crystals can be used to store energy, but to find one specifically attuned to retain your arcane frequency is near impossible. Every little piece has its own frequency they respond to and an arcane construct as complicated as you would cause any crystal with even the tiniest of imperfections to shatter. It is a branch of magic I’ve researched extensively before you came into my life.” Celestia could feel Soldier’s presence lessen as she finished her lecture. She went back to going over the documents, still feeling Soldier’s attention on her all the while. They shared a body, so it was not like Soldier could go anywhere, but it felt like he was waiting for something, rather than just leaving her alone.

She went blind as soon as she put the documents she had been perusing aside. If she didn’t happen to have an inter-dimensional spirit inhabiting her body, this might have been a degree or two more alarming. She felt her head moving to and fro, but still could not see even a glimpse of light. Soldier had not forced control over her so overtly without a valid reason in the past so Celestia decided to bite her tongue and wait for an explanation from the man.

“I see one, below.” Soldier stated as Celestia’s sight returned. She blinked her eyes and saw her office irradiated in a strange golden light, before her vision cleared. She moved her limbs one by one, making sure Soldier hadn’t left her numb in some important appendage, before picking up the stack of documents in her magic and trotting out the door. She stepped out of her office and floated the stack of papers over to the desk of her secretary as she passed. She bid the mare a quicker than usual greeting and goodbye as her legs kept walking out of her office and down the hall.

“The fastest way down would be back the way we came and two corridors down.” Celestia dryly commented as Soldier turned a corner. Her body stopped, carefully turned around and then kept going the other way. Clearly, Soldier had a purpose and just like any other male he would rather be lost than ask for directions. Soldier kept walking her body forward in silence, only stopping when he reached the winding stairs she’d directed him towards. As powerful as he was, he still had not mastered challenging stairs in an equine body. She had already finished most of her duties for the day and she found it unlikely that Soldier would lead her to any real danger, so she started trotting down the stairs carefully.

“Do you have an answer to that question, Soldier?” Celestia quietly asked as the silence stretched on. She felt Soldier’s presence swell and halted her advance down the stairs. She started to cautiously trot down again as only her mouth fell numb.

“She took a part of me away, she should have known better.” Soldier answered her insistent question. Celestia knew Soldier could work past the anger he felt for Luna, but she was also aware of the stubborn nature of the man. Simply telling him that holding onto that anger was harmful and illogical would work just as well as building a snowman in tartarus. She had instead chosen to repeatedly ask the man to rationalize his anger and then pick apart his excuses in a rational way. She’d come to understand that men like Soldier answered far better to reason than emotional pleas. The downside was that she had to be sure her retorts were based on logic, or she would lose credibility in his eyes.

“She came out better for what she endured at the mercy of the Elements of Harmony. I believe Discord used that fact to slip the horror of what happened to you past her conscience.” Celestia explained as soon as she could control her mouth again. Soldier didn’t respond to her and it was not like she expected for the solemn man to keep up a conversation. His silence could mean that he had acknowledged her point and saw no reason to interact with her any longer, or it could just be him deciding to ignore her reasoning. The fact that he lived in the very narrow blind spot she still had in discerning if someone lied to her was unnerving enough to make her fear him.

Soldier walked her body down the halls of the castle and every little staircase leading down he could find. He only stopped commandeering her body as they stepped into the great hall at the ground level of the castle. She trotted to the centre of the room slowly, her head swiveling to and fro lazily. What could Soldier have been leading her towards? She could feel his presence shift inside her and the alicorn was cast into darkness again as the spirit took her sight from her.

“Above us? Not upstairs…” Celestia could hear her covered hooves striking the marble of the great hall as Soldier repositioned her body. “Not part of light fixtures, little to the left, in the stone. No other crystals around it, you’ll find it.”

Celestia jerked as she was given control again. She had complete control of her body, but she was startled as she suddenly saw the world like Soldier viewed it. The world pulsated in hues of colors she could hardly name and pure golden light pulsated off of her body, washing over the details of the room she was in and giving her a detailed image of the cavernous space she was in. Celestia moved her head to the side and noticed that she could see the other colors shining through the golden radiance, there were different colored outlines of ponies moving about the castle shining through walls that were like breaths of smoke, despite being made of granite. She watched in awe as wisps of color bled off of the ponies whenever they used magic and splashed onto their surrounding like a cascade of molten stars.

“Focus.” Soldier muttered as Celestia kept looking around, trying to determine the range of Soldier’s vision. Her neck snapped back to stare at the ceiling again and she begrudgingly followed Soldier’s vague instructions. Not part of the kaleidoscope of dull glimmers that were the ornate chandeliers, a little to the left and in the stone. She assumed that meant whatever she was looking for was imbedded in the murky fog of the ceiling and squinted her eyes to catch any glimmers of light. It took a few seconds, but eventually she saw the glimmer of something blue.

The all too familiar cold blue light jumped out at her and she froze at the sight of what the irregular crystal in the stone of Canterlot castle reflected back at her. She saw a mass of blue light around her body, moving and raging like a miniature cyclone. She could also see a humanoid figure at centre of the typhoon of arcane energy, Fixed in place above her by wisps of golden light affixed to a bright golden light above her heart. It was not the form of the stoic and gruff Soldier she knew. It was the picture of a man writhing and screaming as he was torn and shredded by a storm boiling out of his own flesh, parts of him blasting to pieces, as another part reintegrated. She watched in horror as the golden light shining from that spot over her heart pulsed and sent the maelstrom of blue into a frenzy, exploding outward and tearing Soldier’s humanoid shadow into nothing in the process.

“No!” Celestia took an involuntary step toward the scene unfolding in the strangely intricate reflection the jagged piece of crystal offered of Soldier’s true form. The man was a dim-witted brute, but she would never wish harm upon him. She unfurled her wings and saw the cloud of blue obscuring her form shift and contract as golden light showered out from her outstretched wings. The mass of blue flowed inward and wrapped around the strands of gold from her heart to form the shadow of the man she’d just seen torn asunder. The skeletal figure writhed and screamed in silent agony as flesh knit itself around the undying core of her still beating heart. Celestia thought back to every instance of Soldier losing his temper and saw every instance in a new light. It had always been at the loss of control in some form or other. He’d been dealing with having his very essence torn apart on a daily to an hourly basis, so understably any weakness in those he sympathized with would be jarring.

“Why didn’t you tell me? You know I would have helped you.” Celestia watched as the dismantled form in the middle of the storm leaned into her body and disappeared into her flesh. She could feel her mouth going numb a moment later, as the storm of blue light calmed around her.

“Not your problem. Can the crystal be used?” Soldier was right in assuming that a crystal would be compatible if it could reflect his uniquely oppressive arcane signature so perfectly. She would have to order the stone workers of the castle to extract the crystal as soon as possible. She knew the dimensions of the thing and that it would at least serve as a template for engineering a housing for Soldier’s spirit.

“Yes, it will help us immensely in anchoring you to your own body.” Celestia looked away from the ghastly image the crystal projected and closed her eyes. She felt a little bad about her attitude toward the man, knowing what he’s been going through in silence. Having your body torn and shattered just from your own arcane energy was a fear she still entertained from time to time. Her eyes shot open as a thought occurred to her. She’d always thought Soldier had some nefarious purpose to take her body over when she slept, but seeing what happened to the man when he was outside of her body, she did wonder…

“What happens when you possess me? How does it feel?” Celestia would have glanced at the crystal in the ceiling to see Soldier’s reaction, but she found herself to be with no agency in her own body yet again. She could feel her muscles tense and stretch as Soldier used the excuse to take over her whole body. Soldier carefully folded her legs beneath her and laid herself down on the cool marble floor, spreading her wings out to feel the coolness and smoothness of the stone. A sigh of contentment escaped her lips and Soldier closed her eyes before answering her question.

“No pain, moored in this moment, your light soothes. More aware, reprieve from the grating lights. They are grossly incandescent, words are yours, I think.” Celestia felt a pang of irritation at the man’s fractured way of speech, but then thought to the barely intelligible answers she gave to anyone disturbing her in the middle of a relaxing bath, or other equally distracting activities. She had never considered Soldier sounded so unfocused because it was distracting not being continuously torn apart by your own power. There was no way she could have know, but she still felt this little tidbit add to her guilt. Celestia would have responded to the man, but obviously Soldier was taking full advantage of his rapt audience.

“Less of me left to hurt every morning, I feel this power thrumming louder, see it reaching farther. Outside of me holds no will, it supersedes those in contact, I feel more whole. Dangerous for them, loss of control, my whims are turning violent.” Celestia felt her head droop down to the floor and she savored the soothing coolness of the marble on her neck, despite the grim implications of what Soldier was telling her. It was glaringly obvious to the seasoned healer, now that she knew the kind of existence Soldier led day to day, that Soldier wanted to rest, to sleep and stop hurting. The fact that his own existence denied him that reprieve was something that could cause some ire.

“How many will I touch when I give up? That is our problem.” Celestia would have gasped and shot up, but Soldier was still laying her body in the middle of the grand hall. Her loss of control didn’t diminish from the frighteningly valid point the human was making; Soldier made those around him do as he willed, so if he decided to stop fighting the pain, how many ponies would follow him? Given the fact Celestia didn’t know what Soldier’s gathered energy would do without a will to guide it, it could be a pandemic of suicidal tendencies washing over Equestria, or simple destructive power just waiting to set Canterlot aflame.

“Princess, are you feeling well? Shall I call the healers?” A nervous guard asked Celestia. She could move her head to answer the poor colt a moment later, as Soldier retreated back to his routine of pain. She saw three more guards stationed around her, keeping her reclined form from whoever had business to go through the main hall of Canterlot Castle. it was not a particularly busy day, but more than a few guests and foreign dignitaries must have passed her in the time she lay there. She had to assume her sudden bout of talking to herself and staring at the roof would be in more than a few publications by tomorrow.

“I am quite alright, don’t worry. Could you please go and inform the masonry staff that I will need to extract a piece of the roof.” Celestia glanced at the still lingering light in the otherwise inconspicuous spot of decorated marble. She could see the violent movement of blue light around her reflected golden figure, but any details were fading fast. Soldier would wait for her to use the proper channels without complaint, but Celestia was opposed to causing the man undue pain for the sake of bureaucracy. She hopped back up on four legs, only in part trying to convince the guards she was alright.

“I’ll try to be neat about it. The three of you, clear the space below that chandeleur.” Celestia didn’t wait for the three other guards to acknowledge her, before jumping into the air and raising to level with the chandeleur. She used some improvised pegasi magic to give herself some stabler footing and then went to work on prodding the patch of roof the jagged crystal was located with her magic. There were no obvious load bearing structures near it, nor did she detect any metal from plumbing pipes or electrical wires from the offices above. She could do this here and now and save herself a day or two.

She encapsulated a cylindrical piece of marble in a stasis field, created a small pouch of silken magic under it and then started to vibrate and heat the space around her field, effectively grinding the marble to dust. She reached the point beyond the crystal and stopped the spell drilling into the marble. She picked out five small pieces of marble from her magical pouch and then levitated them into the cavity around the piece of marble she wanted. She made sure they were on the same level and that they were on even intervals of the circumference of the cylinder.

She tuned the stasis field to cut out below them in a straight line, before heating the pieces of marble with a flash of magic. There was a loud crack and a tuft of pungent smoke puffed out in her face, but the cylinder of rock slid out effortlessly. She had what she wanted and she only had to deposit the small pouch of grinded marble in a dustbin. She fluttered down to the floor again, bid farewells to the bewildered guards and started trotting toward Canterlot University. She’d already gone this far, so depositing the crystal at the lab was not that big of a task. She found a dustbin on the way and briefly contemplated on the surprise the servant would have when presented with a dustbin filled with ground up marble.

“You are certain that the ponies there know how to handle the crystal? Finding this in the castle was a stroke of luck, according to you.” Celestia jumped to the side in surprise, as she heard Soldier’s voice coming from her side, rather than her own mouth. She saw the cylinder of rock floating next to her, but she also saw a torrent of boiling blue light raging in and around it. The blue energy obscured the mass of marble almost completely, but nopony on the street even gave it a second glance. They only gave her the usual courteous nod and then decided to keep going about their business as their eyes flashed blue. Soldier had insisted it was not something he did consciously, but Celestia had her doubts. Still, she had to wonder if ponies were not acknowledging the harsh mass of blue light at her side because they couldn’t see it, or because Soldier’s power had intensified, now that he had an anchor in her plane of existence.

“How are you doing that?” Celestia asked, as she resumed her journey to the ABP lab. She had a pretty concrete idea on how Soldier was able to manifest, but she really wanted to hear the man’s point of view on it. Despite the existence of actual spirits in Equestria, it was notoriously hard to hear accounts of the world from their perspective, as most of them had done away with describable language. Human turned ethereal spirit was as close as anypony could get.

“Parts of me are drawn to the crystal, they stay still when the rest twists and rushes about you blindly. I feel the fire licking at my soul stronger, but I see you as any other sees you. I choose to cling to that image.” Celestia didn’t know if she should be honoured or creeped out by such devotion, so her body decided to shiver uncomfortably as her face took on a slight tint of red. Hearing Soldier describe his experience corresponded with what she knew about ethereal spirits. They tended to be sensitive to other forms of energy, but conversely had unique ways to sense and manipulate the energies they had an affinity to.

He was especially sensitive to personal magical fields, which was evident in the fact he could sense them through walls and most likely played a big part in his ability to supercede the wills of others. The pain Soldier experienced was most likely because he lacked ways to contain his own energy in a way that would shield it from interacting with the “grating lights” of the world around him. He was not a naturally formed spirit, so he had no home or safe haven to return to.

“You might not know it, but what you’ve told me will help us create you a suitable body. You really should have told me you were in pain before this.” His artificial body would have to be able to restrain his energy within its confines and have an existing will he could supercede. Celestia believed the frame constructed out of the red vine met those characteristics and the crystal gave them a valid anchoring point, but the matter of containing his energy within the body would have to be brought to the engineering team. It was not a complex matter with the crystal available for a base, but it was a slow and meticulous process to enchant such materials.

“You are too kind, I didn’t want to compromise your judgment.” Celestia wanted to refute the man, but decided to stay quiet after her rational mind caught up to what he was saying. Knowing Soldier was being torn apart by just existing in Equestria would have driven her to some rash decisions. An millennia of government hadn’t been able to take the healer out of her, so Soldier was right in assuming she would react as one, rather than as a ruler of Equestria. Staying quiet about his pain had been the only way Celestia wouldn’t have moved heaven and earth to save Soldier from his fate.

“I hope you would stop making sense.” Celestia sighed as she walked into the faculty building of Canterlot university. She had to pass through the offices and the Canterlot guard secretary to gain access to the lab where the artificial bodies were being constructed. She gave the secretary a nod and kept trotting through. There was a chance the lab was empty this late in the day, but she could always leave a note about the nature of the crystal.

“Princess!” The lone pegasi engineer working in the large room she just entered into exclaimed in quite a startled tone. The grey speckled winged pegasi scrambled to remove a metallic headband from his head, before stepping away from his work station. “Whatever brings you out here, at this time of day? My name is Grey Pinion, but I’m not in charge or anything. Most of the others are at the forge to make some adjustments to the endoskeleton. I don’t know when they’ll be back.”

“It is quite alright, I am not here to monitor your progress in any official capacity. I am here to give you something that will help in making an anchor for Soldier.” Celestia set the stone on a nearby table and trotted to the colt’s work station. The stallion fluttered about her, obviously nervous about something. He kept glancing back at the thing he’d been in such a hurry to take off.

“This is an interesting contraption. Can you tell me its purpose?” Celestia remarked as she levitated a flimsier looking headband from the pegasi’s table. The thicker version he’d been wearing was most likely a modified version the colt was working on, but Celestia didn’t want to put him on the spot so suddenly.

“That is a neural transmitter we use to link to a receiver in the body and see if it can move in a way described in the project overview. The rest are out with the one actually linked to the receiver to finetune the movement of the hip joint and spine. Things kept grinding together when we turned it to the left.” Celestia nodded appreciatively and set the headband down. She’d heard that psychological magic had been making leaps and bounds with Luna back, but to actually have a device to control a created body with just your mind was impressive.

“How has it been working with Smuggler?” Soldier asked through the crystal. The pegasi flinched at the unfamiliar voice, but his features spread into a huge grin as he pieced together who was talking.

“Is that Soldier? He can talk through rocks? No, most likely something inside to trap his energy, give him a chance to vibrate air molecules through it.” Grey Pinion took to the air and started to examine the hunk of rock from every conceivable angle. “Doesn’t look constructed, or of optimal shape for containment… You’ve brought us a crystal capable of withstanding his arcane energy! This is simply...”

“Calm down.” Celestia saw a wisp of the blue light swirling around the rock shoot out toward Grey Pinion and then watched as the colt’s wings locked to his sides and he obediently sat down next to the table. He was grinning the whole way through the act.

“I performed actions outside of the literal interpretation of the verbal command, so some manner of information is conveyed purely through the energy transmitted. Transference of energy conveys the intent behind the words, but spoken words seem to be required for going against the free will of anyone affected by the effect documented.” Grey Pinion rattled out in a dreamy tone, as he rested his head on the table and stared at the hunk of rock with excitement glistening in his eyes. “That is so cool…”

“I appreciate the enthusiasm of youth more than most ponies do, but I would still like to see the vine-based model before I go. I believe it will be easiest to convert that model for Soldier’s needs.” Grey Pinion snapped out of his academic fugue state and scrambled to lead her to a set of winding stairs at the back of the main room.

“The red vines were the original best choice to construct the musclerature out of, as they can constrict and loosen in a similar way to actual muscles. Having the base be a plant also gave us the added benefit of the implanted vines rooting into the endoskeleton on their own.” The excited colt rattled out as he unfurled his wings and sped up the stairs in leaps and bounds. The space didn’t allow for Celestia to fully extend her wings, so she followed the colt up using the actual stairs.

“The main problem with using these vines was their insistence on trying to eat us. They sensed our heartbeats and lashed out whenever we got close enough. We had to bring in specialists just to set them into the endoskeleton safely.” Celestia could hear the colt opening a heavy door and take a step back, as if he thought something would jump out at him. “That was when we had to re-imagine the scale of the artificial body. The vines just can’t do everything that’s needed for a full-range of motion in a six foot frame. It’s an issue with the science of how the vines work, so nothing we could do in such a small time window.”

“The model we ended up working with is a ten foot one. We couldn’t make it any smaller with the technology we had at the time, so this branch of research has been building on that frame. We could make it gradually more compact with some of the artificial muscles added in, but if the vines are the important part, then this is the scale you’d have to live with.” Celestia reached the top of the staircase and paused as she saw what lay behind the heavy-set door. Celestia entered the room as the pegasi paused, letting her eyes scan over the behemoth in front of her, glancing at the rest of the room.

The room beyond was taller than the landing of the staircase leading to it, but the humanoid frame of vines anchored upright on the opposite wall still nearly scraped the roof. The wall to her right was made completely out of glass, giving the shelves of potted plants ample light in the mornings and giving whoever worked there a view of the whole of the campus of Canterlot University. The body had branches of coiling vines sprouting from it across the wall it lay on, as well as small white flowers sprouting from these offshoots. A glimmer of metal here and there signified the presence of a metal frame keeping it all together.

“The vines are still alive. You have not been feeding them properly, so they are reaching out for the sun.” Celestia muttered, looking up at the metal skull overgrown with thorny vines. Her eyes traveled down and she took notice of several metal rings and clasps holding the giant’s hands together, rings and clasps bound several vines together and coiled them around each other to form the digits and thumb. There was what looked like a medical brace covering the wrist and part of the forearm, seemingly keeping the intricate collection of vines in place, similar braces were on most of the joints. The whole body was covered in the thorny vines, bound together at the joints and parts where they were meant to simulate muscles in the human frame. Seeing the lines of vines and the metal clasps and rings keeping them together gave the towering body a disturbing sense of flayed skin and stitched together flesh.

“We were kind of hesitant on presenting the body to you like this, as we found it unnecessarily imposing. I think the most popular solution was to cover the body in stitched artificial leather and then fill the inside with nutrient-rich sap to lessen the friction between the metal joints and the vines. The sap would be slowly consumed by the vines, so some oiling of the joints and rehydration would be required. I am sure we can come up with something else if that displeases you.” The young pegasi explained in a careful tone, clearly not sure what to make of Celestia’s silence. Celestia could hear Grey Pinion shuffling awkwardly, as she contemplated Soldier commanding such a colossal body.

“I suggested on letting grass grow on it and give it a beard made out of moss, with a mane of dandelions. I mean, who could fear a walking flower bed?” Grey Pinion sounded downright terrified by this point and Celestia fought back her stupification to spare the colt’s heart.

“Clearly you have not spent any great stretch of time in the Everfree forest.” Celestia retorted with a light chuckle. She fell silent and looked up to the faceless behemoth and placed a hoof over her chest. “Would you like to test it out, Soldier?”

“Pegasi, bring the crystal up here.” Celestia ordered as her head snapped toward the ashen colt. Grey Pinion’s eyes flashed blue and he raced out of the room. Soldier turned Celestia’s head to look at the artificial body again. “I will not leave your body if it means only pain for you. We see if the crystal works and if I can move this thing, then I will face the pain again.”

Grey Pinion rushed into the room and stumbled as soon as he set down on the ground. The carefully extracted mass of rock shattered to a million pieces and Celestia was locked in her own body, watching it happen with only mild interest portrayed on her features. The stone shattered easily into dust and fragments, but the jagged crystal within only broke into a dozen or so sharp pieces. Clean breaks, she could see no splintering fractures within the pieces. It could still be used to complete Soldier’s body. She watched with some degree of dread as Soldier used her magic to pick up a small piece of the crystal and then used a hoof to press it on the spot above her heart.

“Okay, hold that there.” Soldier said it so nonchalantly, but he didn’t have to live through the experience of his presence tearing itself out of her. She’d thought her body had felt numb when Soldier took over, but that was nothing compared to the feeling of Soldier peeling away his presence piece by piece, leaving an itching vast emptiness behind. His soul felt oppressive and suffocating, but there was a disturbing sense of vulnerability when he was not there. Her skin felt like paper and her insides like glass, as if she could shatter with the faintest touch.

“Gah!” She lurched down as she regained control of her body again. All of Soldier’s power was now concentrated on the bit of flesh he was bound to. The next step would be for the man to untether the connection and leave her body as a torrent of blue light. That was not pleasant for either one of them, hence the pause. Celestia pressed the crystal closer to her chest, feeling the power already clinging to it, a sense of security radiating into her body.

She inhaled as deeply as she could and as she exhaled her vision was filled with blue gaseous light, as Soldier rushed out of her with the extended exhale. Celestia exhaled the breath in her lungs as slowly as she could, as Soldier had timed his exit with her exhale to make it easier for her. He could have forced his way out through her flesh and being, but Soldier had seen how painful that was when he had rushed to extract himself to retrieve Smuggler. Soldier’s presence billowed out on the floor, flowing over every nook and cranny of the floor, constantly moving and shifting. The tables and chairs and everything disturbing the flow of the light rattled and creaked as Soldier’s power escaped Celestia’s body. She could hear the windows rattling and cracking from the pressure of containing the sudden push of Soldier’s will. The blue light gathered around the mortified Grey Pinion and launched him out of the room, Celestia could hear the colt tumble down the stairs before the door slammed shut.

Celestia was running out of breath when the billowing mass of Soldier’s essence rose above her eyes and engulfed her completely in harsh blue light. The mass of his form had grown exponentially from the last time he had left her body. This must have been what he had meant with his power thrumming louder with each day. Tears stung her eyes and her lungs burned as the last substantial mote of light escaped her mouth and nostrils. She gulped down precious air and clenched the blue crystal closer to her chest. She could feel Soldier’s energy radiating into her body from the sharp crystal, reducing the total shutdown of her heart to an ache only gradually worse than heartburn. The crystal would definitely allow Soldier to exist in a separate body, given a proper housing to channel and store that energy and possibly even surgical insertion near her heart. The blue energy swirled and shifted about her, lingering close to her.

“It works, don’t worry about me. You go ahead.” Celestia took a final deep breath before straightening her posture. She glanced around the swirling blue light around her, searching for that shadow figure that commanded all of the power surrounding her. She had seen it clearly in the reflection from the crystal, so she should definitely be able to see him even clearer now that all of him was outside of her.

“Älä pysähdy. Älä unohda. Älä pysähdy. Älä unohda. Älä pysähdy. Keskity.” Celestia heard muttered whispers from the crystal she held to her breast. She saw a change in the movement of the light around her, watching it gradually swirl and rotate above a single point. Soldier had always been in a blind spot for her, so seeing the man struggle to take control of what he had been made into was enlightening. The light spun faster and closer, folding into itself to form a humanoid form, slowly coming into focus.

Soldier’s frame was emancipated, but at least he seemed whole, at least when it came to limbs. The obvious battle scars had disappeared from him, but where there used to be a wounded man standing proud to fight for a cause he did not remember, now there was a raging collection of power struggling to remember what he was. Soldier’s form solidified and turned to face Celestia. She could still see the alien features of the man that had dragged her out of the brink of death, but his body was marred by shimmering gashes that bled the light that fueled the storm of power around them. Celestia looked up at the face she owed her life to and saw two bright pools of blue and a carefully kept calm facade, rather than the strong-willed man that had pushed her away from death.

Celestia looked away from the man’s marred face and body, her eyes immediately drawn to what the human was clutching in his right hand. It was that black and sharp thing Soldier had shown her in their first meeting. It was the presentation of all the things Soldier had ripped from Luna’s mind and Soldier refused to let it go. The black thing stayed an
immaculate presentation of what had born Soldier and his two brothers. It could hold the key in helping him find peace, but he refused to give anyone the power to do what had been done to him. The hand clutching the thing had been dyed black and an aura of wrongness clung to the strange metal object.

Soldier turned away from her without a word and disappeared into the storm again. The movement of the storm around her changed drastically, as it rushed around and past her to meet at the direction of the artificial body. The mass of light was quiet in its movement, but the air displaced by the metaphysical mass whistled and hummed, giving the whole scene a mystical air.

“Soldier?” Celestia asked as the last mote of light disappeared into the colossal body of vines. For a moment that seemed to stretch into infinity she could not see or hear any movement. The first sign of life was a blue glow spreading out from the chest of the body, seeping through the gaps of the vines and settling in any nook and crevice on the behemoth.

“I cannot see. The lights are muted, the pain is a dull ache.” The voice came from the crystal she held to her chest, but the light coming from the giant body pulsed in time of the words. She watched as the giant’s hands clenched and rotated lazily. The whole torso flexed slowly and the arms broke free from their shackles easily as more and more of the body in front of her became animated. The restraints that kept the body upright gave Soldier only a moment of pause, before they lay on the floor either broken or roughly undone. Soldier stepped out of the platform the artificial body had been resting and stood there silently for an uncomfortable moment.

“Can you hear me? Clearly you can move it, but tell me if anything seems wrong, the ponies here will see to fixing it.” Soldier raised a hand to his head, grasped the branching vines sprouting from the eye sockets of the metal skull and yanked them out by the root. Celestia cringed just from witnessing it, but Soldier showed no pain or unease with the act. He dropped the vines to the floor unceremoniously and turned toward the wall of glass. Sunset was only an hour or so away, but the window faced the morning sun, so Soldier was faced with the sight of shadows slowly claiming the grounds of Canterlot university. Despite the less than ideal view, Soldier stomped over the the window and carefully pressed a hand onto it. Regardless of the care in the act Celestia could hear the glass creak from the weight.

“The pegasi is alive, by the way. I can see his light fluttering about outside like a canary in a mine. I think I scared him.” Soldier’s voice rung out from the crystal. His voice had not changed, but Celestia still felt her heart skip a beat when hearing it. She took a tentative step back from the spirit, trying to figure out what had startled her. The realization struck her when she saw Soldier’s head lazily turn to follow the flight of a pegasi guard flying home in the distance. It was such a normal thing to do that Celestia realized it had been the first time she heard the man be anything but angry and in pain in a very long while, making the slight hint of amusement in his voice jump out at her.

“How long do I have?” Soldier asked, making Celestia wilt a little at the solemn resignation in his voice. It was reminiscent to veteran guards with a terminal disease asking how long they had to live. Yet, given how close Soldier’s everyday existence was to the more radical depictions of Tartarus, Celestia saw little difference in the two.

“I have to set the sun in an hour. I do not have to actually be there, I can -”

“Yes, you do. 45 minutes, thank you.” Soldier’s tone brooked no argument. He did not want to upset the political climate anymore than the actions of Smuggler and Priest had already done, at least that was what Celestia assumed. Celestia had to wonder if the man was simply reacting to how she acted, or if he really could envision the messy situation he was in. She couldn’t decide which option was more frightening, regardless of the truth. An intelligent man with so much power, or a simple man with such deep devotion to her.

30 minutes, that’s how long Soldier stood staring out of the window as Celestia clutched the crystal to her chest. Celestia could feel peace and awe radiating from the crystal she clutched so close to her chest it was surely going to break the skin. Soldier enjoyed watching the world go by in his own body, just like she had caught him doing on the nights he took control of her body. He offered the sun diarch no conversation in this time and Celestia didn’t feel right in disturbing the quiet man. Celestia still felt like she was being punished by every moment of peace Soldier had, knowing she would have to force him to face his tortured existence again.

“You chose to sacrifice yourself for my life, I forced you to come back with me.” Celestia was surprised how easy it was to say the thing she’d wanted to tell the man all this time. It must have been something to do with the surreality of their situation. Soldier’s body did not move, it did not react in any way. “I am sorry for forcing you to endure all of this.”

“I chose this fate, you should not blame yourself.” Soldier commented, finally turning his head away from the window. His eyes were two bright spots of blue light, slowly leaking out his essence, as if it were smoke. His face held no mouth, so Celestia couldn’t help but shudder at the sight. If it weren’t for the feeling of awkward unease she sensed from the crystal she would think she was looking at a monster.

“This body is slow. There is a delay to everything I do.” The colossal body finally turned away from the window, stomping its way over to loom over her. She could feel an assortment of emotions radiating from the crystal as Soldier stared at her. There were moments of awe, spots of anger, spikes of fear, with an underlying feeling of regret and disappointment. It was what ponies would call “having a moment” and Celestia felt like a voyeur witnessing the private man’s inner workings. Celestia stayed quiet and still as she felt the turmoil of emotions gradually calm and be replaced with the silent conviction she’d come to expect from the man.

Soldier suddenly bended at the knees and crashed down in front of her. His torso was hunched over and his hands rested limply at either side of her. His face was a breath away from touching her muzzle and the bottomless pools of blue that served as his eyes filled her whole world. She could hear the vines creak and the metal keeping them together strain as blue light started to shine from deeper within the body, quickly turning into the billowing smoke that was Soldier’s essence. The colossal body was obscured by the dense smoke in seconds and the ceiling of the room became like a stormy sky, with silent blue lines of light dancing within the inky blue.

Celestia wanted to react to the obvious change in Soldier’s essence, but the light in his eyes had grown into an overpowering force keeping her still and quiet. She had been unconscious the last time Soldier had returned to her body and she wasn’t sure Soldier had much idea what he looked like to other people, but the change from a gaseous mass of light into a frighteningly dark and oppressive storm of blue light was far too drastic. She felt her mouth click open and saw a pure tendril of blue light extend out of the artificial body’s chest and slither down her throat without pause. It was not painful or unpleasant in any solid way, but just the thought of Soldier forcing a part of himself into her while she stood paralyzed was beyond wrong.

Celestia felt her body relax and loosen as Soldier tethered his essence to the link between them again. That feeling of helplessness and fragility was blown away by the power Soldier shared with her and the relief she felt was something she would call orgasmic in very select company. She blinked and refocused her eyes to witness the benevolent violation of her body. The familiar blue light was rushing into her mouth out of the artificial body, but that dark indigo storm had also grown in size and intensity. There was no way so much arcane energy would be cast off from jumping into and out of the artificial body, so all of that violent energy would reintegrate into her body. The cloud was roughly a third of Soldier’s earlier mass, so there was no chance he could just leave it behind. Such a condensed mass of arcane energy could easily turn into a cataclysmic weather phenomena, or simply explode if tampered with.

“This will be unpleasant for you.” Soldier simply stated through the crystal, as the last of his core essence slipped down her throat and settled in her breast. Celestia felt a new sense of dread settle on her mind as she watched the angry mass of crackling energy above. The difference in the scopes of their tolerance for pain had been made more than obvious for her, so what Soldier described as unpleasant might very well be excruciating by her standards.

Celestia would not admit it if asked, but she screamed like a little filly when the heavy clouds circling above her stopped their rotation and fell down upon her like molten lead. The pain of the condensed energy tearing through her body to join Soldier’s core essence was indescribable. Alicorn or no, Celestia could feel her consciousness slipping from the all-encompassing pain searing her body. She didn’t know if it was over, or if it had just begun, but Celestia still welcomed the roaring emptiness rushing to meet her.

Soldier

Soldier felt Celestia’s presence weaken and fizzle out, but he gave her body enough time to fall on the ground before he moved to take over. He knew not to disturb the mare too soon after she fell asleep, as he knew she very well could wake up and panic at her loss of control in the time it took Soldier to maneuver her body out of her lavish bed. It was getting harder and harder to let Celestia win their internal power struggles without being too obvious about it. Paying attention to what was going on around her was also becoming more taxing, as his view of the world kept slipping further and further into the spiritual plane. The few hours he could spend looking at the world through Celestia’s eyes helped ground him somewhat, but it was becoming a losing battle.

“Come in.” Speaking with an equine mouth had been strange at first, but luckily their vocal cords were either similarly built to humans, or he had some supernatural advantage in getting his message across. The fact he still had to actually order someone to do something for his ability to work fully supported that theory. Grey Pinion entered the room just as Soldier was concentrating on the act of getting an equine body upright. Celestia was actually built more along the lines of a winged horse, so it was harder than it would be for the stubby footed mutants flocking around her. The constant positivism and lackadaisy attitudes were severely grating on his already frayed nerves, so maybe there was some hidden benefit to gradually losing the ability to actually hear them.

“Your Highness?” Soldier turned Celestia’s head to stare at Grey Pinion. The speckled winged bird-thing flinched at seeing his blue eyes staring back at him and immediately found the floor more alluring. The winged pony knew he was not talking to Celestia now, so Soldier turned back to look at his artificial body. The stillness he’d experienced had felt almost overwhelmingly distracting, but he still had become aware of some design flaws.

“The hands are constructed meticulously, but the tendons clenching the fist will have to be strengthened. We carry things by grabbing them with those digits, so they have to be able to endure approximately how much the body can lift. You shouldn’t try using leather for the skin, ask Smuggler about kevlar and he’ll figure something out. A self-mending fiber weave would be ideal.” Soldier turned Celestia’s body around and stared down at the shivering colt until he looked up to meet his eyes.

“You were told to keep the prototype hidden. Tell me if I’m wrong.” He let some of his power slip out with his last sentence. The bird-pony stopped shivering long enough to shake his head as his power forced an answer out of him.

“He did explain it to me. I just didn’t think Princess Celestia would bring the crystal to us herself. I didn’t think you would come here.” Grey Pinion flinched away as soon as he stopped talking. Soldier watched the equine thing consider escape, but then wisely decide against it. It was sad seeing these candy-colored blobs of happy thoughts acting so pathetic, but at least it was clear that Smuggler had left enough of an impression on the thing.

“You’ve done your part already. Hurting or breaking you at this point is not something I want to do.” Soldier turned Celestia’s head around until he spied a small fragment of the crystal scattered broken on the ground. He carefully focused Celestia’s magic on the miniscule shard and presented it to the frightened pegasi. “Go downstairs and fit this into a discreet earring.”

He hadn’t even laced the order with his power, but the pegasi gladly took the excuse to leave the room, snatching the shard of crystal with a deft swipe of his wing and rushing down the stairs. It would take the nervous bastard a moment to mount the crystal into something Celestia would wear, so Soldier decided to take that moment for himself. The artificial body was intact and could be controlled by him even without Smuggler’s secret ingredient, so no worries there. The view from the room suffered when he couldn’t see the color of magic dancing in this world, but it was still a calming thing to look at.

After all of the crazy shit that’s been going on in his life Soldier was glad to sacrifice a moment or two to doing nothing productive. His past life had been what molded his current goal-driven personality, but he saw no way to regain that part of himself. He’d made peace with that fact when he felt his very essence scatter to the storm of his own power for the first time. The human form was what was familiar, but he’d been forced to sacrifice it at times to stay in control. His new life would be shaped by his control over this power the mutilation of his soul had cursed him with.

“I am no feeble man, I am a will unfettered by the restraints of a mortal body.” The crystals on the floor uttered in unison as the calming mantra entered his mind. Soldier might have found Smuggler annoying, but the tired spirit couldn’t deny that the wordy bastard could put his new life in perspective.

He had little memory of his life as a human, but he had enough of an idea of how it had been to live in a mortal body. He remembered pain and pleasure and gut-wrenching terror, mirrored by joy that made him light as a feather. A rollercoaster of highs and lows with a mundane meaty existence filled with small aches and joys in the stretches between. Those familiar carnal reactions were gone, replaced by the literal metamorphosis of his very essence whenever he felt something strongly enough. It was taxing to keep his constantly shifting self in that mundane stretch of reality needed for interacting with Celestia’s plane of reality.

He hadn’t been paying attention to the flow of time, but it did feel like the grey pegasi should be about done with the earring. A physical body made the whole counting time thing laughably easy. Time was a funny concept to him now, as it had started to lose meaning for him right about the time his new form had started to stabilize. There was no heart to tick away his time on this earth and neither was there a central nervous system and its limitations to shackle his view of the world. Time flowed just as fast as he was willing to view it, frozen at one moment and speeding by him at another. The ability to speed through the unimportant stuff did make suffering through Celestia’s dull daily routine as a passenger easier, but it was another thing he had to pay attention to. He had figured out a way to match the flow of time to Celestia’s heartbeat, but he would have to find another way to do it in a body of his own.

Now, Soldier really appreciated that Celestia’s body was more or less shaped like something his shoddy memory could recognize as a real thing, but there was one glaring design flaw in it when it came to traversing stairs. He could not see her hooves when going down the steps, it was physical impossibility given the sun diarch ridiculously long mane and the wings furled at her sides. He hadn’t had a millennia to get used to the dimension of the awkwardly elongated body, so it was always a chore to make sure all of the limbs went to the right place at the right time. The pegasi would definitely be done by the time he got back down to the ground floor. He would rather take his time and stay unscathed, than stumble down the stairs and be forced to explain a broken leg to a frightened Celestia.

The pegasi was still working when Soldier walked in, but the way he kept moving his head away and leaning back in a moment later suggested he was putting on the finishing touches. He knew for a fact it was hard to stay quiet when hooves met pretty much any surface, but the excitable pegasi still flinched when he found Soldier staring down at him.

“It will be just a moment. Do you have any preference in the way the crystals are positioned in the body? We’ll be crafting proper housings for the cut crystals and doing small adjustments depending on the purpose of the surrounding limbs, but your input is still appreciated.” The pegasi rattled out, without stopping his delicate work. He was able to multitask and was not intimidated enough to stop being professional, no wonder Smuggler had taken a liking to the colt.

“The hands are meant for delicate work, so two for the digits and one for the thumb, one at every major joint, plus forearms and shins. Some kind of lenses for the eyes would be appreciated, humans are very vision-based.” Grey Pinion gave him a surprised look, but returned to his work quick enough. The colt probably thought he would be the crude bully to counteract Smuggler’s intellectual manipulation. To an extent, he was not wrong.

Soldier had wondered about the thing Grey Pinion had a hard time accepting. For some metaphysical bullshit reason, the metamorphosis of his mind into arcane matter had made him, for the lack of a more fitting term, smart. He’d come to a very simple conclusion concerning the matter with Smuggler: it was not as if he could deduce the mysteries of life any faster or deeper than the scholars around him, he just had far more pieces of the puzzle to begin with. He could see and hear the world as if it was a part of his own body, so problems that involved the manipulation and control of energy within that world were naturally easier for him. It wasn’t his fault if that encompassed the kinds of problems the best minds of Canterlot were trying to solve.

“It’s all a matter of perspective. Give me that earring.” He might have trailed off for a moment, as Grey Pinion had finished his work on the simple earring. He’d bent thin golden thread in a circle and set the shard in the middle by its two sharp ends, somewhat resembling an eye, but you’d have to stretch your imagination a little. It was small enough to be inconspicuous and had no jagged edges, so it would do to save him the trouble of commandeering parts of Celestia’s body to communicate. “It will do, you got a mirror?”

“I think it’s best if I put it on for you. Anyone sees Celestia bleeding for any reason and both the media and nobles go crazy for days.” The pegasi chuckled at his interpretation of the world and picked up the prototype he should have kept hidden. The petty side of Soldier had the impulse of making the colt break the thing beyond recognition, but the more rational side of him agreed to let an actual pony deal with an equine earring. A colorless shimmer surrounded the thick headband and the simple earring floated out to pinch it’s lock into Celestia’s right ear, near the base. Grey Pinion set the headband back down as Soldier stared down at him again. He couldn’t quite decide what to make of the pegasi and it bothered him.

“Pick up the sharpest thing you can reach.” Soldier ordered through the crystal in the earring. He might as well test the thing out if he had it custom made. He could see a flash of terror in Grey Pinion’s eyes, before his command took over and the pony calmly picked up a chiseling tool of some sort with a sharp and curved edge. The fear returned to his features as soon as that action was done. The frantic glances to the possible weapon indicated he could not let go of it. That was good.

“Tell me the worst way you could hurt yourself with that.” Widening of the eyes, nearly imperceptible lean back, before Grey Pinion relaxed again. There was a small delay between the spoken word and the command. That would be something to take into account.

“I could gouge out my eyes, damage the optic nerve. Be trapped as a blind pegasus. I could also cut off a wing, crippled with a reminder of what used to be.” Grey Pinion answered the question with the same enthusiasm he had talked about his work earlier. That was also a good sign. The only difference from using Celestia’s body seemed to be that slight delay. It was a good thing to know, but it was unlikely it would matter much. Grey Pinion was visibly shaking, only hoof holding onto the sharp instrument staying steady. He was clearly terrified and unsure what Soldier would do.

“Each time you have an urge to go against us, I want you to imagine another form of hurt that would destroy you. I do not want to make you do those things, but I most definitely can.” Soldier laced every word with his power, striking every word into unquestionable truth in the colt’s mind. Tears were threatening to spill out of Grey Pinion’s over-sized eyes as he nodded his head weakly.

“I am glad we have an understanding. Now. what are you going to do with Smuggler’s gift to you?” Soldier reached out and called the energy keeping the sharp carving tool clutched in the artisan’s hoof back. The metal instrument clattered on the ground and the pegasi hiccuped in fright and sighed in relief at the same time, making it a strained kind of snort.

“Keep it secret, keep it safe.” The pegasi answered quietly and drew in his hooves as close to his body as he could. He’d witnessed some ponies reacting this way to his energy wrestling control from them. Some of them just weren’t as quick to spring back to being themselves, from being reduced to an extension of his will.

“Keep it hidden, yes. Keeping it safe is all up to your discretion.” Soldier watched as the pegasi nodded weakly and deposited the heavy headband into the bottom drawer of his work station. The other ponies who had reacted like this had recovered promptly, so he really should start leading Celestia’s body toward that tower she raised and lowered the sun in. He turned Celestia’s body away from the colt just as he pulled out a silver flask out of another drawer.

“Have a nice day, my little pony!” He called out using Celestia’s mouth, straining his control to give her voice a cheery tone. Emotions were hard to mimic when the body was not yours, but some small part of him thought it necessary to rub the fact he could take control of their immortal goddess so completely in Grey Pinion’s face.

The walk back through the stretch of streets between Canterlot Castle and the university was uneventful. He only had to expel his power onto the few ladder-climbing nobles that happened to cross his path, urging them to give Celestia a polite bow rather than engage in conversation. The part of the populace that actually mattered had enough manners and common sense not to bother the sun diarch to begin with. The understanding relief of the royal guards at the castle gates suggested that Celestia had made a habit of shaking her guards in the past. That was a possibly useful piece of information he’d most likely forget by the end of the day.

He might have been able to grasp obscure concepts like the interaction between molded arcane energy and natural free-flowing magical energy easily, but he was abysmal at retaining any of that information long enough to educate anyone else. He could understand everything as well as he could see them; that was as far he was willing to go on that train of thought.

He stopped Celestia’s unconscious trek through the castle as he saw a group of pegasi guards practicing aerial maneuvers. He knew Celestia had to be there to set the sun to avoid a political clusterfuck, but he also knew that watching pegasi in flight was one of the few things that brought him peace in his new form. He carefully set Celestia’s body to lean next to the window in the corridor he had been walking her body through and closed the alicorn’s eyes. He then carefully moved enough of his essence out of Celestia for him to see the world in that otherworldly way that had surprised Celestia earlier.

He sensed and experienced the world with his own tumultuous essence, rather than relying on any specialized organs. He was especially sensitive to the frequency of energy that was called magic in this world and could easily feel and reach out to it through walls and other obstacles. He could sense the presence and movement of magic no matter what state his essence was in, but for him to “see” it as a three dimensional picture, he had to expose a part of his core essence to the world and risk having the grating lights peel away another part of himself.

The pain of having that happen to you over and over again without knowing why or how would make you wish you were nothing. It would make you scream and forget everything, until you found a way to hide and cower from the hurt blowing your essence into a storm of boiling energy. He was sensitive to magic, giving him extraordinary insight into its inner workings, but that also meant that his core essence reacted harshly to direct contact to it. His form had been designed to reside in a body able to shield him from that glare, but he’d been given sentience before that had happened, as was the case for Priest and Smuggler. They hadn’t taken it very well.

Despite all of that, he would still risk feeling his sense of self shatter all over again if he could watch a pegasi fly free. Earth ponies left their magic onto the world through touch and direct action, unicorns projected controlled and intricate shapes that were pretty to look at, but pegasi magic didn’t work on such simple terms. Their wings flowed with pure light, pushing and pulling on the dull colours around them, lighting them with the tint of their will to be part of that dull ethereal sea of colour, disturbing the stagnant nature of it. Celestia might have seen a winged pony dashing through the air, but Soldier saw a living light cutting through the mundane world and giving him a fleeting glimpse of a world of pure beauty, a world he felt he belonged.

There was a part of him that wanted to stop his stubborn struggle and step into that world of light and see all that this world could offer him. He was made into a being of energy, of thought given form, so why was he fighting so hard to stay affixed to this world that could only offer him pain and discord?

The group of pegasi were finishing up their routine, the invisible masterpiece lingering in the air around them for only a moment. Soldier drew his essence back into Celestia’s body and straightened her out as quickly as he could. Three guards had found Celestia’s resting body while Soldier had been enraptured by the pegasi, they’d the common sense not to disturb him, but they were in a hurry if they were going to make it to the ceremony with the celestial objects switching places. He decided to ignore common courtesy and started speeding up Celestia’s body to a full gallop. It might have been the action-oriented lifestyle of his former life, but he found it easier to control Celestia’s body when it was running, no time for hesitation.

The guards had been surprised by Celestia running through the halls of the castle at full gallop, but were able to keep up with Soldier’s pace well enough, being royal guards and all. He ran Celestia through the main hall, vaulting over one noble or another on the way and then leapt up the spiral staircase he’d used earlier. He made his way to Celestia’s office and then ran the familiar stretch to the tower he’d been to before. He skidded to a halt on the top of the stairs up and drew in as much air as he could. His vision through Celestia’s eyes had been blurry and dimming for the last few minutes, so she was most likely starving for air. Remembering to breathe properly was a hard thing to do when you could literally ignore the pain. The guards were hard of breath and giving him weird looks, but he kept focusing on intaking as much air as possible.Celestia’s body was hardy from being an alicorn, but Soldier’s partial disconnection with her body might have made him able to push it a little too far.

“We should be back on schedule, right?” Soldier asked one of the guards through Celestia’s new earring, giving the stallion a fright. He would most likely not have the patience to stay hidden with a way to communicate with the outside world so easily accessible, so the guards might as well find out sooner rather than later. “Don’t pretend Kamos didn’t tell you what I am. I had to take control if Celestia were to get here on time.”

“Come in, Soldier. Let us awaken our sister for the formalities.” Hearing Luna’s voice did cause his essence to boil briefly, but a glimpse at the world as he saw it calmed him considerably. He walked Celestia into the room with a neutral look on her face. He really didn’t know what had stopped him from killing the bitch before Smuggler had started his play, but he was in no hurry to call the fellow spirit out on it. Smuggler had a purpose for what he’d done, just as there’d been a purpose to Priest going rogue. He was not that concerned about what Smuggler would do to poor little Luna, but he was anxious to see where it was all going.

“Wake her up, I’ll step out.” Soldier courtly stated and crashed Celestia’s body down at the table with coffee and snacks. The transition from the safety of a mortal body and the glare of the outside was harsh enough for time to lurch forward as he lost his grip on the moment. The experience was disorienting, uncomfortable and terrifying on the most basic of levels, but to call it painful was the little white lie he’d decided to tell, mostly to spare himself from attempting to explain concepts he couldn’t put into words.

He started drifting back into consciousness as the two sisters were walking back from the balcony. Luna striding confidently in her humanoid form and Celestia smiling warmly at the spring in her sister’s step. It seemed like Celestia had regained consciousness and lowered the sun, as he had hoped. He continued to ignore the sisters discussing the political implications of him running Celestia through the castle and instead kept his eye on the little mote of light peeking through the mesh of lies Smuggler had woven around Luna’s humanoid form. Luna’s pain was of no consequence to him, but he had to be impressed by the imitation Smuggler had created. He could actually feel himself hating the faux princess.

Smuggler’s name defined him to the letter, he plotted and moved his pieces in place in the dark, while masquerading as the snarky jokester with little hold on reality. It was astounding how more ponies were not immediately suspicious of the spirit when they lived in a world where their names represented their base nature in a similar way. You could make an educated guess at most ponies’ occupation or passion just from knowing their name, so why was it that most ponies stayed blind to this fact?

He watched the two sisters banter light-heartedly, about some inane things. He found no qualms about seeing Celestia happy, she’d run the empire on her lonesome for a millenia, she’d paid her due. Smuggler had done a good job on creating a better version of Luna if she was both able to fool Celestia and make her laugh.

Soldier was not a name that described him, nor was it something he was passionate about, it was an acknowledgment of his purpose in this world. His purpose was to fight for what he believed was right, to be loyal to a cause, to a nation, to a person. He had chosen to be loyal to Celestia and the nation she’d governed. The conviction of such loyalty was familiar and gave him the strength to hold on. Luna was not necessarily what was best for Celestia, or Equestria for that matter, so he was content to let Smuggler play his games.

“Cadance sent us a letter about her wedding. She wishes to hold the ceremonies in Canterlot Castle, but she was concerned about us. She asked if we could attend the proceedings, inquiring if we were up to it, so soon after the issue with Fenrir.” Luna stopped and gave a serious look to Celestia, most likely conveying that she meant “us” in its layman form, just this once. Soldier couldn’t bring himself to pay close enough attention to catch it, but he did fight to regain his hold on the moment when Cadance was mentioned.

“Don’t tell her about us.” Celestia flinched at the sound of his voice, whipping her head to the right and then to the left, searching for him. He might have neglected to mention the earring to her. He knew something was going to go wrong during the wedding involving the pink alicorn. He hadn’t retained the specifics in his less than reliable mind, but he would rather not be a known variable in the debacle.

“You have some new jewelry, by the way.” Soldier whispered through the earring, causing Celestia to slap a hoof up to her ear. He didn’t like being treated like a pesky mosquito, especially when the act got a chuckle out of Luna. He was really looking forward to having a body of his own. He would be lying if slapping Luna was not high on the list of things he wanted to do.

“Cadance will have her hooves full with the wedding, Soldier and Smuggler are not her problems. The artificial bodies are scheduled to be completed around the date she set for the proceedings, so telling Cadance would only needlessly worry her.” Celestia pondered Luna’s words for a moment, before nodding and sighing.

“Keeping them a secret was such an easy decision at the time…” Celestia turned away from her sister and trotted back to her tea. Soldier knew they had given the diarchy far more trouble than three disembodied spirits called to their world should, but he actually felt proud of that fact. He was not going to let Luna off easy and if their decision of brushing Luna’s crime under the rug brought them grief, then so be it.

“Humans are… difficult, I agree. We will be better off with them in their own bodies.” Luna assured her distraught sister, sitting down across from her to drink her coffee. There was a stretch of silence as they both tried to relax, but Luna broke the silence just as Soldier was starting to let the moment slip. “Do you think Soldier will join the guard? Smuggler is obviously the scholarly sort, but do you think Soldier could actually take orders rather than give them?”

“It is his choice, but he does hold the guard to a higher standard than anypony else, from what I’ve seen.” Celestia sounded calm and composed, giving her answer between sips of tea. Soldier knew he could excel in the mundane routine he’d witnessed from the guard so far, but he wanted more out of his life than surviving to see another day. Guarding ponies he didn’t know or care about from harm, just to get a paycheck he would never use, was not something he could envision himself doing.

A towering humanoid guard among a homogenized group like the guard would raise far too many questions he would have to repeatedly answer. It would be marginally better to be thought of as Celestia’s try at an artificial lifeform. It would give him an excuse to play dumb, as most of these technicolor equines were mind-shatteringly cheery and dull-witted. He should have expected such to be the case for a bunch of herbivorous pack animals, but he’d made the mistake of measuring every other pony to Celestia. He didn’t feel like he owed them an explanation of his origin, but he had a feeling Celestia would insist.

“I am where I am needed.” Celestia’s ear flicked as he spoke, again reacting to him like he was an offending insect. He wondered if it was the result of his energy gathering at a single point, even for that brief moment it took him to talk. He would have to ask Celestia about it if he remembered.

“So he does that too? Smuggler’s been waking me up by singing about his “perfect day” in this weird vibrating female voice. He keeps changing the lyrics, but he’s doing something obscene to at least one stallion and a number of mannequins.” Luna set down her cup of coffee and Celestia’s tea cup floated down to its plate slowly. “It is better for both of us if I don’t go into the details, but he’s always wearing a wedding gown, so I think he’s hinting at something to do with the wedding.”

“Sounds like something he’d do.” Soldier commented before Celestia had a chance to talk. He was entrenched in this moment again and he really did not want to live through another bout of sisterly banter. He hoped for a stretch of confused silence as he labored to cut his ties to their view of time. He might have been flung in and out of the measured flow of time, but it was not easy to make detachment from it happen by force.

“Smuggler did say that he could not outright tell me anything about what he knew, as it would create a paradox.” Luna pondered, leaning back on her chair and bringing her coffee up to her lips. Soldier could feel the moment slipping away, but he also had the urge to correct the faux lunar princess.

“Telling you would change the future he knows far too drastically for him to gain anything from having that knowledge in the first place. He only knows how to react to a future he knows.” He had to strain his consciousness to finish his sentence, but the look of bewilderment and ire he left behind in Luna’s eyes was worth it. He let the mundane world melt away as his concept of time and space shifted into something he could not fully comprehend, but welcomed as a distraction, an universal white noise where he could think.

He did not know how long he could keep calling himself human without lying, but there was solace in knowing who he could blame for his gradual change into something he would have feared in his old life. Clinging onto life just to spite the progenitor of your pained existence was not a grand or just goal, but it was something he could call his own. The anger was not something Discord or Luna forced upon him when they mangled his soul, it was something his surviving humanity had decided on and held onto.

He was a soldier without an army, a human without a body and a man without a past, but he was a spirit with someone to hate. Celestia might not have agreed with his thinking, but him giving up his grudge would be like killing the human he used to be completely. He would not let this world take that last bit of identity from him.

Author's Notes:

This was surprisingly easy to write. I hope I can keep up the pace. Thanks for reading, comment if you have questions or if you spot some blatant mistakes I missed.