Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot

by Equimorto

Tox

"How are things out there?"

A guard peeked out the window. "Not too bad. Nothing close it looks like."

"Do you think we're ever going to actually do anything here?" asked another guard.

The pony sat down again. "Honestly? I hope not. It would mean we've gotten through this whole thing without actually having to risk our lives."

The guard who'd asked huffed, blowing up a strand of her mane. "Those faceless things are gonna leave us without a job."

"Nowhere in our job description did it say we would be supposed to fight in a literal war and put our lives on the line against monsters."

"I'm pretty sure it did say that," another guard intervened. "Implied with the whole protecting the Empire thing, at least."

The stallion who'd spoken looked mildly bothered. "Well, yeah, probably, but no one actually thinks that part is for real. It's like there just as a formality." He looked at the window. "At least, I didn't sign up for this."

The mare looked at him with a quirked eyebrow. "Then what did you sign up for? You realise this is the Guard we're talking about, yeah? Did you just want to stand around looking cool wearing armour?"

"Yes," replied the stallion with a straight face. "And as a matter of fact, that's more or less what I've been doing for my entire career, and I've been paid pretty well to do it." He laid his back against the wall with a small thud. "It's not easy standing around in armour during the summer, so I think I deserved it, too."

"You realise that's not beneficial to society, right?" the mare said. "Just the standing around I mean. You looking good doesn't really contribute anything. The entire point of the Guard is that you're available to help if things like this ever happen and you need to defend regular ponies."

"I know that," the stallion replied, "I passed the entry tests too. But as anypony can tell you if they've ever paid attention to it, these things usually don't happen. And when they do happen, nine times out of then it's someone else who ends up actually taking care of the real problem. So excuse me if I didn't expect an interdimensional war to break out during my lifetime."

"It's more like a single battle than a war for now," another guard noted. "I don't think there's even been a formal declaration of war or anything like that." He paused to think for a moment. "I wonder if that has implications on how this is classified and how warcrimes would be judged in this context."

The others ignored him. "So why did you choose to stay?" the mare asked.

"Because it's my job and I'm supposed to?" the stallion said.

"You could have quit. You could die here, I don't think any salary is worth risking that. I don't think you would have even had to quit actually, you could have just decided you didn't want to be here and Princess Twilight would have allowed it, I'm pretty sure she did the same with others."

"It's not that," the stallion replied. "This is like, what I'm supposed to do. As a guard. Moral obligation and stuff. I don't like it, but it wouldn't be fair if I didn't stick around."

The mare blew away her mane again. "Well, alright then."