Protect

You walk on an earthen path meandering near the shore of a peaceful river in the middle of a small, narrow valley nestled between the mountains of the great unicorn range.

The valley has no name, but it is home to a few scattered villages. The one you left yesterday was called Sundance, and you are nearing another hamlet called Rainbarrel.

This knowledge was given to you by your Mistress.

Your hooves stomp heavily on the ground, raising little clouds of dust behind you. The sound echoes around the valley, scaring away some nearby birds.

You like birds. Sometimes you stand still and let them perch on your back or your horn, but they often relieve themselves on you and your Master says you should try to stay clean. So you don’t do it often.

The woods are quiet around you, with only the wind whistling through the branches to break the silence. Not that you mind.

You keep walking on the path. Rainbarrel should be getting closer now. You can already see wisps of gentle smoke rising above the treetops.

A stream crosses the path, where a simple little bridge was built over it. You walk past it. You don’t trust bridges. You know how heavy you are.

You walk right into the stream, fording it bare-hooved. You sink a little in the mud, but it doesn’t slow you down. You feel the fresh water cool you, taking away the heat given by the sun over the last few hours.

You like water. It is always so gentle.

You reach the other shore and take a moment to shake the mud off your hooves before taking off on the path again.

The woods clear, and you can now see Rainbarrel. The town looks peaceful enough. It has a bunch of houses of stone and wood. Around the village is a big wall. It looks old, with breaches in it and a few vines growing on its sides.

You pass a sign on the side of the road. You cannot read, but you assume it indicates that this is indeed Rainbarrel.

You pass under the crumbling archway of the town gates, almost needing to crouch for a little while, and you enter the village.

Ponies are looking at you. Some of them move out of your way, others simply stare. A few more are running around and shouting. They are calling out to somepony.

A small group runs up to you. You stop walking. You wonder if they need help with something.

The one in the middle comes up to you and asks if you are one of those guardians. He hesitates on the word “guardian”, as if he is not sure if it is the right word.

You stand still, stoically listening.

The beige pony says he is the mayor of Rainbarrel. He asks for your help. He says that the town is being attacked at night by little, ugly creatures.

When you hear “attacked”, you quickly look all around to make sure no one is in danger.

You have to protect the ponies.

One of the guards says that the creatures may be “goblins”, but no one is really sure.

You spin around again, looking everywhere to make sure there are no goblins in sight. You know what goblins are. Your Mistress taught you exactly what they look like.

You must protect the ponies.

The mayor sweeps his blue mane out of his face and explains how the goblins have been raiding the town every few nights for about a month now, each attack bringing even greater numbers. They have already damaged the town walls, making their attacks all the easier for them.

They have not shown signs of their presence for two days, but the mayor feels this only means they’re preparing something big.

You stomp your hooves decidedly, standing straight to show you will help them.

You will protect the ponies.

The mayor continues his explanations. Most of the toughest ponies in town have already been wounded while defending against the raids. They are now desperate, down to only a small group of trained soldiers and filling the gaps with every able-bodied pony in town. They don’t have time to repair the walls and are considering evacuating their homes to flee as far as possible.

He says they sent a messenger to request aid from Canterlot, but that was only yesterday, so he assumes that you are only here by chance.

You wait until he finishes, apparently waiting for an answer from you, before you give him a military salute. The sound of metal on metal rings across the street.

After a moment of silence, one of the guardsponies next to the mayor tells him that he thinks that this means that you are awaiting orders. He says “oh” in the long, drawn-out manner of someone who suddenly understands something new.

He looks around, seemingly a bit overwhelmed, before hesitantly saying that the first thing they need if they are to have a chance is to repair the walls.

You immediately set off to do so. One of the ponies who stood next to the mayor guides you to the construction crew. He says his name is Keystone and that he is Rainbarrel’s chief engineer and repairpony. He is mostly gray: light gray coat and dark gray mane. A sturdy gray earth pony. He almost looks like an actual stone. Keystone leads you to his crew and explains to you all what needs to be done.

With your strength, your stamina and their talent, the wall is fully repaired by nightfall. They made you carry the heavy stones, hold them in place while they secured them, and haul their tools around all afternoon. But you are not tired. You are never tired.

When the work is done, the workers all cheer for you and thank you for your hard work. Keystone comes up to you to thank you personally, saying this would have taken days without your help. He reaches up to pat you on the back. You are very tall.

The workers scatter to return home, and you follow Keystone back to the mayor’s office.

The mayor looks very impressed by your work. He even looks happy.

He says there is nothing more for you to do right now, except maybe patrol around the town.

You turn around and go outside. You walk out of the town walls and begin circling around the city, keeping your attention on the surrounding woods. Sometimes you think you see things moving in the shadows, but nothing comes out.

You count thirty-seven turns around the city before the sun comes up.

You keep patrolling.

You are protecting the ponies.

Some time after the sunrise, the town’s foals sneak out of the walls and run up to you excitedly. They start asking you many questions, too fast and numerous for you to be able to answer, even if you could.

They are fascinated by you.

You like the little ones. Your Master said you should always protect them above all others.

After a few minutes of being met with silence, they become a little annoyed and one of them, an orange unicorn colt, asks if you can even understand them. You do not answer. He asks you to nod if you can understand. He bobs his head up and down with wide movements, saying that this is how you nod.

When you imitate him, they all start jumping around in excitement.

Their joy makes you happy. You like the little ones.

The orange colt then explains that nodding is a way to say yes without speaking, and that to say no you need to shake your head. The whole group demonstrates.

Their joy doubles when you imitate them again. You realize that you now know something your Mistress didn’t teach you. You jump up and down too. You have learned. You are so proud.

You realize that being outside the walls is not safe for the little ones, and you begin leading them back into town. They follow you, asking you many questions. They ask them in a way that they can be answered with yes or no, so that you can answer with nods and headshakes.

They ask if you have a name. You shake your head and they all look sad for a moment. Then one of them, a light-pink pegasus filly, suggests they should give you one.

They explode in animated chatter, each one suggesting a seemingly endless stream of names for you, waiting for you to show appreciation for one. You don’t really want a name, though.

They don’t manage to settle on any single name before you get them safely back in town.

Older ponies rush up to them, some claiming to have been worried sick all morning. Most adults scold the little ones for their dangerous behavior. The goblins are outside and the little ones could have gotten hurt or abducted.

You would never let this happen.

You would protect the ponies, especially the little ones.

You like the little ones. They made you learn.

Their parents take them away and you feel a bit sad. The little ones look sad too. One of them says it was fun to hang out with you.

You begin walking back to return to your rounds.

You notice many ponies gathered in the town square. The trained guards are teaching the others how to fight. You watch them for a bit.

Keystone’s voice stirs you, scaring away a bird that had landed on your head.

He says he has been looking for you. He couldn’t sleep very well last night and this somehow gave him some ideas. He asks you to follow him.

You both go to his workshop. He brings you inside to show you a long piece of timber with straps attached to it. He makes you go right next to it and begins strapping the log to your body.

It looks like a jousting lance but hangs about halfway between your belly and the ground. Keystone says this is the perfect height for the goblins. He says that with this you’ll be able to fight more than one at once. There are many goblins to fight, after all.

He brings you outside, where he set up a bunch of smaller logs on the ground. He painted grinning faces on them. He asks you to test your new weapon.

You simply pivot your body, sweeping your “lance” across the field of logs. They all topple in one quick motion. Some are sent flying away. Keystone says this is perfect. He asks you to keep swinging it to see if the straps can hold with repeated use. He seems satisfied.

A mare runs up to Keystone. She says he should come see something.

Keystone makes you take off the harness and puts it back in his workshop. You then both follow the mare to the town gates.

When you arrive, you see the mayor standing on the wall, looking outside. Keystone climbs the stairs to join him. The mayor points at something in the distance and Keystone gasps at what he sees. You peek through the iron-fenced gate to see a group of small, green shapes fidgeting with something on the road. Goblins.

They erect some kind of round lumpy flag. Three of those short poles are raised. The figures then bend down and start scratching the earth. When they finish, they stand back up, turn to the village and start dancing, slowly backing away into the woods and shouting things no one can hear. Their shrill laughs are still audible, though.

The mayor says someone should go see what they did. One of the guards volunteers, as well as Keystone. The mayor tells you to go with them and make sure they are safe.

You nod. You will protect the ponies.

The three of you exit the gates, walking slowly towards the poles. You occasionally spot silhouettes in the shadows in the woods, and you hear constant, distant grating laughter.

When you finally get close enough to see what the goblins left on the road, you hear Keystone being sick next to you, on the side of the road. The guard shouts angrily into the woods. You get a bit closer and observe the pony heads planted on top of the poles. Where are their bodies?

You don’t like the goblins.

Keystone and the guard come closer too, the both of them very angry. The guard looks at the scratches on the ground and asks what it means. Keystone reads hesitantly, sounding out the letters carefully. He says it looks like the word “tonight” spelled very badly.

Both stallions look at each other with wide eyes and start running back towards Rainbarrel. You pick up the poles and follow them. It’s not nice to leave them here, you think. You hear the goblins laughing all around you. They throw pebbles that clink on your armor.

Keystone and the guard reach the town before you. You see them talking to the mayor. The mayor shouts things and everypony starts running everywhere. The guard returns with a wide piece of cloth and asks you to give him the heads. He hides them in the cloth and takes them back in town.

They close the gates after you walk inside.

Everypony is agitated, running around to set barrels up on the walls, to bring stones in piles near the top, ready to be thrown.

The mayor brings Keystone and the guards in his office. He asks you to come too. They have a “strategy meeting”. You are not very good with the big intelligent decisions so you just stand in a corner and listen. Your Master would understand this. He is a great soldier. Your Mistress would understand too because she is so intelligent.

Your Mistress taught you everything. Well, except nodding.

Your Master taught you to protect the ponies.

Keystone mentions the thing he made for you this morning. The mayor asks you if you know how to fight with it. You nod.

Keystone asks you to remember the soldiers you saw teaching others today. He asks if you think you can fight better than them. You nod. You can fight much better than them.

They continue their meeting. At the end, they tell you your job will be to stay outside the walls and stop the goblins from getting in. As many as you can, for as long as you can.

You nod. You will stop the goblins. You will protect the ponies.

You tap your hoof on the symbol painted on your chestplate, a blue shield with a pink star and smaller white stars above. You will protect them. You silently swear on that mark.

Keystone and the guards go outside to finish their preparations. You are about to exit the gates when Keystone stops you and tells you to come back to his workshop. He straps your weapon on you again and says you can go now.

He wishes you good luck.

You navigate the streets carefully, trying to avoid hurting the ponies with your lance. You go back outside the walls.

While you patrol outside, the goblins keep laughing in the woods, throwing rocks from where you cannot see them. Sometimes they come out of the trees to dance and laugh at you, mocking you and the ponies of Rainbarrel. Sometimes you hear what they say. They say mean things about you and the ponies. They say they will hurt them. You will not let them.

You will protect the ponies.

It only takes fifteen turns around the town before the sky goes dark.

You can see Rainbarrel is fully lit up with many torches. You also see many ponies standing on the walls.

But you also see many torches moving around in the woods. Many, many torches. The goblins laugh all the time now. You hear them chant things, scary songs to scare the ponies. You are not scared.

You are never scared.

You will protect the ponies.

You reach the gates and plant yourself in front. You can see the little shapes of goblins gathering just at the edge of the woods. There are hundreds. There are thousands.

They snuff out their torches and keep shuffling in the darkness. You can hear them moving and laughing, and yelling things to each other.

Then you hear a loud horn sounding in the woods, then another in another direction. They are sounding horns all around Rainbarrel.

You hear and feel a rumbling. The goblins are charging, running towards the city with their thousands of little feet.

You can see them now. They are standing on just two legs, carrying vicious little curved knives in their front legs. They are green and look dirty. They are barely taller than little ones. They are screaming, showing their rotten and dirty little pointy teeth while waving their arms around. Their little beady red eyes shine in the dark.

And there are thousands of them. More than you can count. There could be millions.

You rush up to them, and spin around, swinging the log at their heads. It is attached to you at just the right height. About twenty fall down with your first swing.

They try to stab you with their vicious knives. Their blades clink on your armored body, bouncing without hurting you. Some even break.

You begin circling the town at full gallop, swinging your lance left and right constantly. Many goblins are swept away, and you step on many more, crushing them.

The ponies of Rainbarrel throw rocks at them. There are so many goblins that they never really miss. There is no place to miss.

You clear large passages in the ranks of the goblins, but even with you and the ponies’ rocks they still reach the walls.

They start climbing. They look like big, green, hairless spiders.

The townsponies begin pouring burning oil from the top of the wall. A lot of goblins fall down, screaming. More just step over them to try climbing the wall. It looks harder now that the wall is coated in oil, but they still do it. They stick their knives in the spaces between the stones to help them climb.

You find yourself back in front of the gates. You just completed one more turn around Rainbarrel. Your lance is sticky with goblin blood. The townsponies are now fighting the goblins on the walls.

A big bunch of goblins begin piling up on you. You shake them off easily, but some grab on to your log and start shredding it with their vicious little knives or their teeth. You smack them on the other goblins, but those just grab on to the mass and pile up more and more on the weapon.

Some use their knives to slash the straps and the log falls off from your side.

You push them away by waving your forelegs around, clearing a circle around you. Your spin ends with you facing the town. Only a few ponies are still on the walls and they bleed while struggling to fight off the goblins. Many places on the walls are unguarded, letting the goblins pour inside without resistance.

You failed to protect the ponies. You hear screaming coming from the town.

You see the town’s pegasus ponies take off, pulling carts. Inside the carts are the very old ponies who could not fight, the hurt ponies who can’t fight anymore, and the little ones.

You hear them scream and see them pointing. You look at what they are pointing at.

A group of goblins are raising bows into the sky.

You must protect the ponies. You must protect the little ones.

You become very angry. You failed to protect all the ponies, but you can still protect the little ones. You will protect the little ones.

You charge.

The goblins are crushed beneath your hooves. A group gets in front of you and brace spears into the ground, waiting for you to impale yourself on them. The metal clinks on your chest and all the goblins get for their efforts are broken weapons and broken bodies. You don’t even slow down.

You reach the archers before they can fire and they try to run from you. You don’t let them get away. Some try to hide behind trees, under their roots, but you just smash through the trunks to get them. The trees fall on more goblins nearby. You break all their bows.

When you turn around, you see Rainbarrel on fire. Many houses are burning and you can hear screams from inside. You start rushing back to the town. There are still ponies to protect.

You have to protect the ponies who are left.

You stomp on as many goblins as you can on the way. They keep trying to stab you with their knives. You are covered in the goblins’ blood, their sweat and the dirty grease of their skin.

When you get closer, you see some goblins carrying cannons and fire-mouths. Their weapons are very crude. One group fires on the gate. Their cannon explodes, sending them flying away and on fire, but the cannonball still shoots forwards. It breaks a large hole in the gate. Goblins begin pouring in the breach.

You get to the hole, stepping on every goblin you can reach. You go through and turn around to bend the iron-fenced gate closed again. As soon as the hole is closed, you see another cannon has lined up to shoot the gate.

This one shoots without exploding and the cannonball hits with much more force, tearing the whole gate out of the wall. When you get back up from under the twisted heap of metal, you notice your left foreleg doesn’t bend correctly anymore.
The goblins are everywhere in the streets. They are fighting with everypony. Their knives shine in the light of the fires. The ponies are losing.

You pounce on them, smashing every goblin you see trying to hurt the ponies. The townsponies are falling back, retreating to the town square. You try to stand between them and the goblins as much as possible. To protect them.

Protect the ponies.

The goblins jump on you, breaking their knives and their teeth when they try to stab and bite you.

You see Keystone trying to fight off five goblins at once. He smacks them with a stick held in his mouth. One of the goblins slashes at his rear legs with his little knife.

Protect them. Protect him.

Keystone yelps in pain and falls down. The goblins jump on him and plant their knives in him. One of them stands on Keystone’s back to lick his knife triumphantly.

You kick him away before stomping him deep into the ground.

Your bad leg and the goblins on your back slowed you down so much that you couldn’t help Keystone in time.

You have failed.

You try to shake off the goblins but they have begun jamming their knives in your joints. You can’t move as well as before.

There are still ponies to protect.

Protect them.

Protect.

You try to move towards the remaining ponies in the town square. They are standing in a circle, back to back, yelling at the goblins. Their last stand.

Protect.

You drag yourself forward.

Protect.

You hear another goblin cannon fire. You hear a loud crack and your head is suddenly jerked to the side. The cannonball broke your left eye.

Protect.

You fall to the ground, trying to squish the goblins under your back, but your legs just don’t work anymore and you are stuck on your side. The goblins pile up on you and continue jamming their knives in you. A few of them bring pickaxes and start chipping at your body.

Protect.

You have failed to protect the ponies.

Protect.

You have failed.

You are broken.

You feel a spell activate inside you, calling to your Mistress.

One second you see the circle of ponies and the infinite horde of little green monsters around them, and the next you see your Mistress’ face.

You failed.

She looks scared or upset. You feel her using your eye to see what happened. She gasps and calls your Master. He asks what is going on. You cannot see him but you hear his voice.

She says that unit 122-b is being destroyed by a horde of goblins. She says that there are still ponies left to save.

You know. You have failed.

Your Mistress says that if your Master sends a battalion of guards to its location they could get there in time.

Your Master answers that she needs to buy them time. He tells her to do it. Your Mistress gasps and pleads no. She doesn’t want to do what he says.

Your Master tells her that she knows what they were made for and that she should know to not get so attached to them.

She hangs her head as if she is giving up.

She looks back up at you with tears in her eyes.

You wish you could apologize to her. You failed to protect the ponies and now you failed to protect her from sadness.

You want to say you are sorry but your Mistress didn’t give you the power to speak. Your mouth is only good to grab things.

She tells you to activate the last bastion protocol.

She whispers that she is sorry and then you can’t see her anymore.

You see the ponies and the goblins again. There are only about thirty ponies left.

You want to protect them.

You can still protect them.

You feel, deep inside you, the magic that gives you life. Your Master’s magic. Around it is your Mistress’ magic. It keeps your Master’s magic inside you.

Protect them.

With just a thought, you feel a spell break. It was cast by your Mistress. It was the last one she cast, the one who held all the others in place. It was the keystone.

You miss Keystone. He was a nice pony.

After the keystone breaks you feel all your Mistress’ magic breaking too. The spells go out one by one, and their energy is poured into your Master’s spell by another one of your Mistress’ spells. The last of her spells to break.

Protect the ponies.

Protect them.

Protect.

Your Master’s magic is free now. It starts to pour out of your horn. It’s a big pink bubble. The goblins can’t get inside it. They hit it as if it was a big rock wall.

You can’t move at all anymore.

Protect.

The bubble gets bigger and bigger around you. The goblins are pushed away. Those who were on you look like they are flying up in the air.

It is gettingg hArd tio think.

Protect.

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She walks down a seemingly endless corridor on the ground level of the Great Canterlot University. Students are kneeling to her left and right, some out of genuine respect, some out of the ridiculous fear that the figure of authority in charge of their education could and would just inflict disproportionate retribution for the merest slight. They are being foalish, of course, but she understands the feeling. It is a fear she herself held for an embarrassingly long time. Besides, treating the headmistress of the university like the princess herself is a time-honored tradition.

She finally reaches her destination. The large double doors leading to the magic-proofed spell-testing rooms are as unnecessarily imposing as ever. She shouldn’t even have to do this here. The spells she is about to perform are hardly a test anymore.

But the rules are the rules. She heads to room five, the “heavy machines” room.

The anonymous guard at the entrance lets her in with a polite nod and she soon finds herself in front of “it”.

The smiths in the engineering department did an excellent job, as always. It almost looks new. The chipped marks have been filled, filed and sanded to a smooth finish, the glass plate for the left eye has been replaced, and the whole surface has been re-polished to a glossy sheen. Testing it with her telekinesis, she notes with satisfaction that the bent leg has been realigned to perfection. Even the crest painted on the front has been given a touch-up and a coat of varnish.

The pony-shaped statue stands almost twice as tall as her, its joints so perfectly calibrated that it doesn’t lose its posture unless acted upon by an outside force.

She almost doesn’t notice the door opening behind her, so engrossed in her inspection of the finely-crafted mountain of metal.

She turns towards the new arrival and flashes a brief smile.

Her brother just walked in through the door.

They greet each other with a brief nuzzle. The stallion breaks away and steps closer to the iron behemoth in the middle of the room. He inspects it as well, lost in thought for a few seconds.

“So,” he finally says, “goblins, huh?”

“Yep.”

“And they broke it.”

The mare shakes her head lightly, not in denial but rather in disbelief.

“Hard to think that just last year they were only a legend, even more obscure than that of the mare in the moon, right?”

“Pretty unbelievable, yeah.”

The stallion looks away from the iron statue and walks to a nearby window.

“Wow,” he says softly, as if struck by a sudden memory. “Has it really been ten years, Twilight? Ten years since your biggest homework assignment ever was to make some friends?”

Twilight chuckles quietly.

“Yep, time sure does fly when you’re saving the world every other week. Seems like every day now some new forgotten evil pops back to life to threaten all of Equestria.”

…

“So,” she begins, “are you ready for this?”

“Oh, yeah. Give me a second.”

Shining Armor takes position in front of the object. His sister steps to the side to let him work. His horn begins to glow, spreading a bright pink sphere of magical energy around his head.

Twilight’s own horn ignites as well. She magically grabs her brother’s shield and redirects its energy into the sturdy husk in front of them. The pink bubble starts contracting and moves away from his horn, entering the articulated statue.

Shining Armor keeps pouring his energy into the now invisible spell while Twilight’s focus shifts to binding it in place inside the iron dummy. She casts layer after layer of seals and bindings, infusing every cubic inch of the statue with their combined magic before applying even more complex spells to give that energy the power to move its receptacle.

She feels, senses the proto-mind forming. This is it. The moment she hates. The fleeting moment where she can absolutely not deny the fact that she is literally bringing a new life to this world. A moment away from the reason, the rationalization. A single instant where there is only her, her magic and the brand new consciousness she just birthed.

This is why she grows so attached to them. Losing them feels like losing a child. Her brother can simply never understand.

Their horns stop glowing, the light of magic receding as they struggle for breath. She takes a moment to recover and focuses again. There is one thing she still needs to do.

She uses her magic to infuse the construct with knowledge. It has become a trivial task through the dozens upon dozens of times she did this already. The usual package of facts and data, always the same for every unit, injected directly into their consciousness. She could probably recite it all from memory at that point, without needing the magic to guide her through the transfer of information.

It feels like minutes for her, but from the outside the teaching spell only lasts a few seconds. She finally breaks her concentration and sits down to recuperate from the exertion. It is done.

It stirs, a sudden yet subtle shift in its stance the sole sign of its awakening. The golem is complete. It turns its head to look at both ponies in turn, awaiting orders.

Shining Armor steps up to it, the one-and-a-half tons of steel and iron molded in his image staring at him intently. He asks the usual question, recited in a practiced way.

“Unit 122-c, will you serve, protect and defend the fair citizens of Equestria with your very being?”

The guardian looks at its Mistress, then back to its Master.

It nods.

It will protect the ponies.