ML54: I know it's been a while, but it's time to continue the Pony Apocolypse.

Flash: Starring your's truly.

ML54: Disclaimer Sweetie Belle!

Sweetie: Okay! ML54 doesn't own My Little Pony!

Royal Guard

"It was once quoted that each day is a gift, not a given right...The thing about gifts is that they can easily be taken away..."

Four Weeks after the Fall of Ponyville

Flash Sentry

Canterlot

"Protect the Princesses! Fall in on me!" I screamed to my fellow guards, pausing only to aim my hoof gun to the head of the newly turned pony to my left, launching a lead bullet straight into it's skull.

My fellow guards, Nightwing and Nocturnal from the Lunar guard and Iron Defence from the Celestial guard, struck down their targets and fell back behind me just inside the doors of the Canterlot Castle.

As soon as they were behind the doors, Aegis and Blade Heart, two more Celestial guards, used a quick spell, causing a nearby pillar to collapse in front of the door. "Will this hold?!"

"It'll buy us time!" I replied, motioning my head towards the throne room. "For now we've got to get Princesses Luna, Celestia and Prince Blueblood to the Crystal Empire! It's the only area that's not yet been hit by the curse!"

"How are we going to get them all the way there?!" To be honest, I wasn't totally sure of that myself...though if I remember correctly...

"The train is still in the station, right?" The two Lunar guards looked at me, confused, before nodding, having seen the conductor running from his vehicle when the former corpses started to overrun the train. "Then that's your ticket out of here!"

"But sir, four stallions need to pull that thing, and we aren't trained for that!"

"This train was designed and powered by magic and coal, no pulling required!" I answered Aegis, confidently. The group seemed a little less than enthusiastic about my plan, but they didn't have the luxury of choice at this point.

We entered the throne room and saluted to the two princesses and Prince Blueblood, who was sitting on his Aunts left.

"At ease Captain Sentry..." Heh, Captain Sentry. I was still getting used to that. See Prince Shining Armour decided to rank me up after he finally took his title, allowing himself to settle into his new duties with his wife.

His barrier around the Crystal Empire seemed to be effective at keeping the infected out, so hopefully we could get the rest of the royals over there to protect them...

...however there is one HUGE problem I'm seeing.

"Um...ma'am. Where's Princess Twilight Sparkle?" I addressed, looking around as if she'd be right around the corner. She sighed.

"She decided to stay in Ponyville for her royal duties, but she's now stuck in the library with a few other survivors."

"What do we care?!" I heard Blueblood interrupt, causing us to turn to him in shock. "We can't just stay here and wait for her, we need to leave now! She's safe where she is, but these things are getting in here!"

"I hate to agree with Blueblood, Captain..." I heard Nightwing say from behind me. "But they'll find a way through that door soon, we need to get to that train and get these three to safety..."

I thought about that...It is true that these three were in greater danger the longer they stay here, but we couldn't just leave Twilight behind...

I couldn't just leave that beautiful mare behind...

"Alright...Get these three to the train! You're acting leader Aegis!"

"Wait, what?!" I heard Nightwing's confused voice exclaim as I flew up to the stain-glass window behind the royals.

"I was transferred here to be part of Princess Twilight Sparkle's bodyguard unit, and I'm not going to leave her behind! You guys take the train and I'll find her and make my own way back!" I ordered, leaving the guys looking a little disheartened and uncertain.

"But Captain..."

"No buts!" I shouted and they stood to attention, nervously. "I gave you an order and I wouldn't have issued it if I didn't have faith that you could accomplish it..." Then as an after thought, I grinned sheepishly. "Besides, Shining Armour would kill me if I left his sister behind." With that, I shot the glass and charged through, flying through and shattering the rest of the window.

Though even through the loud crashing noise, I could swear I heard Princess Luna mutter 'Ah, young love...' However faint the voice was, it still got a blush out of me.

I flew in a large arc til I was high up in the clouds, noticing that the zombies seemed to like to stay on the surface they died on, as I noticed a couple of them shuffling around on the clouds. These Pegasi must have gotten bitten and flew up to the clouds to nurse their wounds...

I weaved around these ponies, who tried to grab for me, most ending up falling over the side of the cloud.

I glanced over at the gate and saw it start to open up, so I thought I could at least clear the way a little.

I flew over the ones that hung around near the entrance to the castle. "Hey you undead, maggot crawlers!" They seemed to have heard my insult cause most of them turned towards me. "Come get me, I bet I'm nice and tasty!" I teased, flying away as they gave chase, but I was in the air so I was pretty safe.

I knew I couldn't stay in the air forever, and it was only a matter of time until I ran out of clouds, but I didn't care for that right now. I just needed to get the royals and my fellow guards to the train so they can get the hay out of here. Then I can move on to Ponyville.

I continued to guide a majority of the horde away from the Princesses and Prince, while the guard silently dispatched the rest with a quiet blow to the head with a knife or a magical grasp on a nearby piece of debris.

It was like a dance of a sorts, the type were we both brought essential roles to the table. I loudly drew away large quantities of the crowd while my friends silently finished off the rest. It was an effectively way of doing this. I knew it wouldn't work for much larger crowds, but for the few that roamed the streets this strategy worked just fine.

Soon, I found myself drawing some of the creatures away from the entrance to the train station, before noticing that the front gate was locked, I groaned, before diving down silently, after losing the horde I had accumulated, to aim my hoof gun at the lock.

A loud BANG resonated through the area as each and every zombie on the road turned to, causing me to grin sheepishly and flap my wings. "Hey guys...Uh, don't let me interrupt your...Whatever your doing, I'll just be on my way..." I said, trying to get up in the sky before realising that my wings were out of energy.

The crowd were limping towards me, so I pointed my hoof gun out and pulled the trigger before a 'click' was heard. "Oh for Celestia's sake!" I cried out, unloading the empty clip of my weapon, before reaching to plug a new one in.

I then looked up and saw that too many were too close to effectively shoot. "Well as I always like to say...When the going gets tough...I run away!" I shouted, running to my right, the horde following me.

Well, at least the others can get to the train. Although I had a bit of a problem on my hooves...I had about thirty Zombies chasing me and all I had was a hoof gun that holds about eight bullets a clip, not very useful at this point.

I looked up in front and noticed that the horde of eighty I had gathered had found me and blocked off my escape route. I turned back, holding out my weapon in front of me. "So much for having fun being Twilight's bodyguard..." I thought to myself, bitterly, as I plugged a bullet into the closest one's forehead. "Now I'm gonna be zombie chow..."

Just as I started saying goodbyes in my head, I felt a magical grip surround me, and I was pulled up off of the ground as one landed on the ground where I was.

I looked up, confused, until I saw a familiar face. "Blitzkrieg!" I called out, happily, to the Bicorn who was holding me in his magical grasp. He had silver fur with a red mane and red eyes, a picture of an explosion on his flank. What was most notable about him, though, was that he had two horns rather than one, and those horns were curled up slightly and a bit longer too.

He grinned at me. "It iz good to zee you are okay, mein friend." He replied in a Germaren (Ger-mare-n) accent from Germareny. I always heard it was a nice country despite it's...history. But hay, what's in the past is in the past. Besides, Blitzkrieg was a friend.

"Good to see you too, buddy." I replied, glancing to see the train start to move. "Maybe you should try to teleport onto that train, you can get somewhere safe..."

"Nah, zhere iz no thrill in safety, only in danger...I shall accompany you on your quest to zave your Princess." He replied, grinning. I flushed a little, but grinned back, a little glad for the back-up.

"Thanks dude, I really appreciate it." I grinned, holding my hoof up for a hoof bump, which he returned.

"Zo to Ponyville..." He said, his two horns glowing in a green aura before the a loud popping sound could be heard.

The two of us fell to the ground, groaning from the light fall. "Uh...I'm at least getting better at zis..." He muttered to himself. I rubbed my head and looked up in time to look into the barrel of a shotgun being pointing into my face by an edgy looking, red Earth Pony.

"Say somethin'!" He hissed, a southern drawl to his voice. I panicked a bit, my head scrambling for anything to say. In the end, all that came up was.

"Um...Nice weather we're having?" I saw the pony relax and pull the gun away from my face.

"Ah could ask fer better." He chuckled, holding out a hoof to help me up, which I took. "Sorry 'bout tha', jus' gotta be sure y'all weren't one o' them."

"Don't vorry about it mein friend, ve vould be vorried if you veren't suspicious." Blitzkrieg answered for me, brushing some of the dirt off of his coat. The pony nodded and seemed to motion for someone above him.

I looked above and noticed a pale blue Pegasus with a familiar armour land next to him. "Soarin these two need ta go back ta tha farm before we head ta tha Boutique." He said, causing me to intervene.

"Um, sorry to interrupt, but I'm here on orders to protect Princess Twilight Sparkle." The two nodded to each other, smiling a little.

"Well that's a coincidence cause we were going there to save them as well. The big guy's sister is there as well, along with a whole lotta others." The Pegasus, Soarin the Wonderbolt, answered. I knew who he was, one of the only Royal Air Force left.

"You said the Boutique? I thought they were taking cover in the library?" I asked, curiously. The two shifted a bit before answering.

"We got a message from Spike tha dragon tha' tha library was overrun, so we decided we needed ta go git 'em outta there as soon as possible." The red pony answer, trotting forward a little. "Bu' we sure could use tha help."

"Zhen let us go!" Blitzkrieg said, following the red pony.

I decided to trot next to him as Soarin continued to scan the ground from above. "So, who're you?"

"Mah name's Big Macintosh, an' that there is Soarin." He answered, pointing out the Pegasus.

"Well it's good to meet ya, I'm Flash Sentry and this is my friend Blitzkrieg." I replied, pointing out my Bicorn friend.

We managed to find a breach in the wall around Ponyville and were now making our way through town. "Darn these streets are quieter then Ah imagined." Macintosh whispered besides me, motioning for Soarin to come down to our level.

He complied, touching down in front of us. "Did ya see anythin'?"

"Yeah...They were gathering around Town Hall, I don't know why though."

"Zounds like zhere could be survivors in zhere." Blitzkrieg offered. "Perhaps we should help zhem?"

Big Macintosh looked like he was about to argue, but it seemed he changed his mind before he did. "Yer right. Flash, Soarin you two should go check, that way y'all can jus' fly outta there if thing's git rough."

"Yes sir!" I said, grinning. I was always more at home following orders than I was at issuing them.

"While yer doin' that, me an' Blitzkrieg will git ta tha Boutique an' git them ta tha farm, so meet us back there." Soarin nodded, flying up. I decided to do the same, relieved that my wings now had the energy to get me flying.

"Let's do this!" I said to Soarin, who grinned back as we made our way to Town Hall.

It was a relatively short flight and it didn't take long to find an open window to climb through. The two of us, carefully, crept into the room, looking around ourselves to assure us that there weren't any hostiles in the immediate area.

Seeing that the coast was clear, we moved towards the door, I moved towards the left side of the door while he moved to the right side.

We nodded to each other before I opened it...

...a gunshot then fired towards us.

Soarin and I held our position, careful not to provoke the attacker anymore. "Hold fire! We're the rescue team! Hold fire!" Soarin shouted, hoping to calm the attacker down.

"...Soarin?!" I heard a child like voice reply, surprising me but not more-so than Soarin who looked as white as a ghost.

"Applebloom?!" He replied, rushing out the door and into the corridor where we saw a small yellow filly helping a larger tan coloured pony stand.

"Look Caramel, rescue ponies!" The filly, Applebloom I guess, told the stallion as she tried to get him to hurry. He grunted and fell over and lent on the wall to the left. "C'mon Caramel don't give up!"

We made our way towards them and I knelt down next to him while Soarin fussed over the filly. "You okay soldier?" I asked, looking him over for any sign of injury.

"No..." He replied, holding his hoof to show me that he was missing a chunk of flesh in his left forearm. "I got bit..."

I gasped, but tried to rack my brain for ideas. Biting is how this curse spreads, so if someone is bitten, they become one of them. The Princesses ordered a vaccine to be created, but they overran us before a cure was discovered.

"Go..." I heard him say, much to our surprise. "Get Applebloom outta here...I have nothing left to live for...Just go..."

"Caramel! No!" Applebloom screamed in protest, grabbing his by his collarbone skin. "Sassaflash wouldn't want ya ta give up! Ya can't die like this!"

"If you don't leave...We'll all die...like this..." I heard him gasp, before viciously coughing, spattering a bit of blood on the hoof he used to cover his mouth.

Applebloom whimpered, holding onto him before Soarin rested a hoof on her shoulder. That was when I noticed the eye-patch and gun for the first time. My eyes widened in shock. "W-when did she lose an eye?! Who gave her a gun?! Does she even know how to use a gun?!"

"Thank you fer savin' me Caramel..." The filly nuzzled Caramel's cheek before walking towards the window with Soarin in tow. I was about to follow before I looked at the stallion next to me.

He looked at me, glancing at my gun every so often. I sighed when I realised what he was thinking...

...he didn't want to be one of them...

I drew my weapon and pointed it at him. "This has to be your choice..." I told him, prepared to grant him this mercy...I already had to before, what's one more.

He nodded and closed his eyes, preparing himself.

A loud bang resonated through the area and his blood burst free from his head and onto the wall behind him. With that done, he wasn't going to become one of them.

I could feel water build up in my tear ducts, but I quickly wiped it away. I can't afford to show weakness now!

I made my towards the other two, Applebloom looking up at me, both horrified and grateful at what I had done. Soarin looked like he understood as he scooped the filly up and told her to hold on tight.

"We should head towards the Boutique. I'm sure the big guy won't leave until he sees his sister." Soarin explained, to which the filly's face lit up slightly.

"Big Mac's here?!" I smiled as the two of us took off out the window. I looked down and saw that the zombies had found their way into the building and were now entering at a horrifyingly efficient rate.

Not like they'd find anything though.

We flew over, what I presumed, was the Carousel Boutique since Big Macintosh and Blitzkrieg were standing outside with a bunch of other ponies. I also saw Soarin touch down and Applebloom run straight into Big Macintosh's embrace.

I smiled at the sight of the filly reuniting with her brother, it was one of those rays of hope in a sea of darkness that should be enjoyed while it lasted.

I looked towards Soarin who had some sort of folder in his hooves. "Hey Soarin, where'd that come from?" I whispered while the rest of the group made a fuss over the filly. The adults seemed relieved that she was okay and the other kids were hugging her none stop.

"Applebloom handed it to me to hold for her..." He replied, opening it, before his eyes had widened in shock. "...oh man..."

"What's up?" I asked, curiously. He sighed, nodding towards Mac.

"He has a crush on a pony called Pinkie Pie...And well." He motioned for me to look at the folder. I glanced inside and saw a family tree of some description. It had the mare in question, along with the yellow filly and Big Mac listed in it. "Their cousins..."

"Oh..." I replied, grunting. Well that's not good. Now to add to the many pile of problems, Big Macintosh is going to be heart broken as well.

I glanced over and my breath caught in my throat. There she was! Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship, Element of Magic...Most beautiful mare in the World.

I excused myself from Soarin, before walking towards the Alicorn. She noticed me and it looked like she remembered me at least because she looked a bit shocked.

I bowed before her, ignoring the looks everyone gave me. "Princess Twilight, Captain Flash Sentry, I was assigned to be your personal body guard. Sorry I'm a little tardy."

"Alright, let's continue this on the farm, shall we? I fear I don't like being out here in the open that much." Said a white Unicorn mare from the group.

"Right...But where's Caramel?" Mac asked, confused. "Ah coulda sworn ya said he was with ya."

"He's dead..." Applebloom answered from his back, letting out a melancholy sigh. They seemed shocked by the answer, but didn't say a thing.

I made sure to stay by the Princess's side as we walked, ready to protect her with everything I had.

I found my Princess, and nothing was ever going to take her away from me while I still had breath in my lungs and bullets in my gun.

ML54: Please Read and Review, but no flames.