To Peace, with War

The sky was a dim orange, with few clouds covering the view towards the rising sun.

Keen Eye sighed, he always loved watching the sunrise, it never seemed to bore him, probably the reason he always picked this time of the morning to be on his shift, he never minded waking up early for it, it was totally worth it, every living second of it.

An hour later and his small alarm clock next to him began to buzz, a noise to signal the end of his shift.

'Well, another eventless hour' thought Keen Eye, as he began his descent from his post.

As he was walking down the ramp to the center of the city, he noticed his neighboring guards exiting their posts as well, although they seemed more tired and less enthusiastic as he was, they couldn't be blamed, these unicorns were relatively young compared to Keen Eye, they hadn't seen much action in their time, so they had nothing to look for or to look out for every morning.

Keen Eye hadn't always been a sentry that was only for the past 4 years. Before that he was a covering unit in a scout party, because of his special talent, he could spot an enemy from a mile away, and almost always determine their race. However one day on patrol, he had noticed a lone pegasus flying low in the distance, not pondering why it was out on its own, he informed his leading captain of it and his pack set off towards it.

Less than a minute later, the pegasus was tied to the ground by magic. However, even though it was unable to move, it was still grinning, Keen Eye didn't think much of this, until he saw roughly 20 pegasi descend from a thick cloud layer above the unicorns. Catching them by surprise, the unicorns hadn't had time to prepare a spell to defend themselves.

Keen Eye, realising his mistake and his position, couldn't do anything to help his friends, apart from watch them be ruthlessly slaughtered by the armed pegasi.

After 5 minutes of fighting, all 8 unicorn lay dead on the ground, with only one pegasus injured. Keen Eye couldn't watch any longer, he turned and ran as fast as his legs could take him.

Returning home alone, was suspicious as it was dangerous, costing him several minutes of spell casting to prove he wasn't a Changeling that was attempting to infiltrate the city. He returned quickly to his commanding General, whom he quickly explained his story to, and after a few minutes of silence, Keen Eye, told the General that he no longer wanted to go out on patrol and simply wished to be a lookout sentry. The General accepted and Keen Eye began his new job the following day.

Snapping back to reality, Keen Eye, noticed he was at the military gate to the inner city, and, after a quick spell check, he was granted permission through.

despite living his entire life here, he still admired the city in all its glory, the towering spires of the castle where the king resided, the miles upon miles of smoothened Gemstone, which we gathered from Tagra mine, in conquered dragon territory and the rows upon rows of triple story housing perfectly placed along each street.

Keen Eye couldn't hold back a smile as he wandered through the streets towards the castle, where just beyond lay the barracks, where he resided.

After a short 15 minute walk to the barracks, he made his way to his private room, which he had acquired after he had received a promotion for a bravery act in the field.

After he had hung his armour up on the wall he wondered over to his bed and flopped down onto it, closing his eyes and ever so slowly drifting into a seemingly light sleep.

It seemed to him like he had been dreaming for hours now when he was startled awake by a rapid bang on the door, when actually he had only been asleep for 45 minutes. Grumbling, he wandered over to his door and swung it open to reveal a smallish unicorn with some boots for a cutie mark.

'What do you want' Keen Eye muttered

'Sir' The Unicorn replied, 'Attack on the eastern wall.'

Keen Eye's ears suddenly perked up.

'An attack you say?, any races identified yet?'

'Suspected Earth Ponies sir, we spotted several pieces of artillery as well.'

'Curses' was the reply 'Ill be out as soon as possible, warn any other officers that haven't been notified as well.'

'Yes sir, I'll get right to that' and with that he ran off again.

Keen Eye, immediately grabbed his armour and his dagger, and sprinted out the door, he was well aware of how dangerous Earth Ponies could be, despite not having any magic or wings, they relied solely on manufacturing weapons and brute force.

As he slammed open the door to the barracks and ran outside, he could hear the shouting of unicorns in the distance, commanding orders. Keen Eye, ran towards the eastern wall as fast as he could, knowing that the wall needed as many soldiers as possible.

As he reached the wall, he was called over by an officer, who seemed to be white with fear, despite having a dark brown coat.

'S..S.Sir' he mumbled as he thrust a hoof towards the horizon. 'look'

Keen Eye quickly ran to the edge of the wall and stared at the horizon, then blinked, and stared again, and after the realisation of the situation had finally hit him, he stood back for a second to make sure he wasn't seeing things, he wasn't.

On the horizon, about 2 miles away, the ground turned black with Earth Ponies, and artillery, and shields, and Brutes.

equaling, to the largest army, any unicorn had seen in a very, long time. and Keen Eye, knowing not to panic, used the only useful spell to himself, He looked up, focused his mind and shot a small green flare into the air, and waited. About ten seconds later, a green wall appeared in front of him, and ever so slowly, began to expand, until it covered the entire eastern wall. Being one of 25 unicorns able to do that spell, he was highly respected in the ranks, but being relatively new to the spell, meant that he was utterly exhausted, and would have to wait days to regenerate his magic.

'That will hold them' He muttered, exhausted '...For now'