One of the guards said, "We'll be there in ten minutes."

"Awesome.... So since you two are kind of my drivers, what's your names?"

The left one was brown with a black mane, "Charger's the name."

The right one was white with a very light blue mane, both stallions, "And I'm Sheath."

"It's a pleasure, Eli." After the ten minutes passed, they were flying over the Crystal Empire, Eli was astounded, "You ponies can do a lot with magic, damn."

But a little ways away, in the ice cold mountains, was a large mine, in front were several tents and outlines of homes. Just a little ways away, about a few thousand feet was a pretty massive portal with zombies just pouring out. "Oh fuck me, that's like a couple hundred zombies, I'm so fucked."

The chariot began to make it's way down, Eli took off his bag and started to dig through it, Sheath asked, "What're you looking for?"

"Something that's gonna make this battle easier." He pulled out two cans of hair spray, and two lighters. He attached the lighters to a small hole in his gauntlets. Next he placed the cans right behind them, the gauntlets were pretty long and very massive, about twice the size of his hands.

He strapped them in with duck tape from his bag, next he took a kind of metal pole out of the gauntlets, it wasn't at all big, but he attached the ends to the cans of hairspray nozzles. Eli asked, "Would ether of you know where I can buy more hair spray?"

"Um, why?" Asked Charger.

"For the reason you'll see." Charger and Sheath looked at each other in worry.

The chariot landed and Eli jumped out, he saw a line of humans in the same kind of gear Rue wore, but without the gas masks. They had riffles line up, easily thirty men and women there.

Rue ran up to him and said, "Good to see you Eli, I wish we could chat, but there's a zombie horde on it's way and we can't stop it. Shining Armor and Cadence are running a bit late, but they'll be here in a second."

Eli replied, "Very well, now it's time to show you how I've survived over the months, it's do or die time."

"I'm coming with you, I have great skills in hand to skull combat and I'm an excellent marksman."

"Very well Rue."

"There will also be a squad who'll come with us, we need the extra fire."

Eli asked, "What about these people?"

"Just in case we fail."

He thought for a moment, "Sounds good to me, but we won't fail, we won't. Just don't shoot me and we'll be good." She nodded.

"Alright men get up there!" As she shouted six of her soldiers ran up, "Ready Ma'am!" They shouted. Eli got a look at them before turning to Rue and saying.

"They'll do, let's move out."

Rue shouted, "Let's go you apes!" Eli charged on with rue right behind her and the soldiers behind her.

They didn't need to go far, once they were within seven hundred feet they stopped, "Ready up!" Shouted Rue, they got in a nice spaced out line with their guns ready to shoot, "Alright Eli, do your thing."

"Oh ya." Eli walked up a ways, Rue just about twenty feet away from Eli, he just stopped, "Come at me you rotting fucks!" He got out an air horn and honked it.

All the zombies were running right up to him, he dropped the can and said, "Come on!" As they got about twenty feet away Eli pointed his fists to them and said, "Light the flames and throw on the dead!" He flipped his lighters on and with is thumb, he pushed a button, the spray cans started to spray, but the spray caught fire, from two fists, to two flame throwers.

When a zombie got hit with the fire they almost combusted, lot's of gasses in a corpse. Eli just started to walk towards them, clearing a path, each step he took killed about twenty or more zombies.

He smiled under the welders mask, he said, "Cleanse by fire!" They didn't stand a chance against Eli.

But when a couple of zombies broke off the group Rue pulled out her AK-47 and fired three shots killing the zombies. She started to clean house. Eli made a U-turn and headed back, killing more and more zombies. He looked over head to see Cadence flying above, going towards the portal.

By now Eli had killed over two hundred something of the zombies, just from the flames. But the flames started to die down, "Oh fuck!" He shouted, he started to run through the zombies, trying to get out of the pack before his flames wore out.

He barely made it through before there wasn't anything coming out of the cans. "Fuck! I'm out. Time to go full fist!" he ripped off the modifications and threw the lighters on the ground.

He brought his fists up, ready to punch, but from behind him he started to hear shots, turns out the solders were starting their attack, which was what he needed.

With each burst of shots fell a zombie. Eli started to run, he shouted, "For Theo!" He jumped up and threw his right arm at a zombie, it contacted the head and just turned the head into liquid, he turned and threw another punch, killing another, then another, then another.

With each punch another one died. He wasn't used to a horde, just a small gathering. But thanks to Rue and the other soldiers the zombies didn't swarm him, but stayed in a decent line.

He felt a small wave flow over him, Rue shouted, "What was that?"

Eli replied, "It was... The portal Eragh! Closing." He saw a bright beam of purple light hit the ground and just disentigrated each zombie it hit, "Nice one Cadence!" Eli shouted.

He saw her salute back to him, but with that distraction a zombie grabbed his arm and tried to bit, but Eli pulled out his desert eagle and shot the zombie, "Keep fighting!" Shouted Eli, Rue shouted.

"Running out, gonna fallback!"

"Same here."

"Out!" He heard two of the soldiers shout.

Eli shouted, "Fine! General fallback! Move!" Eli turned around and booked it, Rue was much faster than he was just from her lack of weight, Eli was carrying about thirty pounds just in his fists alone, that slows you down.

He saw Shining Armor stop a little ways back and he fired a big beam of purple magic, it narrowly avoided Eli and just blasted away numerous zombies.

Eli got right behind Shining Armor and said, "Thanks, I owe you."

Eli caught his breath for a minute, but he heard someone shout. "AAAHH!" He looked back and saw that a zombie jumped a guy, he had his neck bit and was slowly dying. Eli took out his eagle and pointed it at the zombie, he fired one shot pinning the zombie in the head, he fired another shot killing the man.

"What was that?!" Shouted Shining.

"If I didn't, he would turn in about five minutes, that's how it infects! Now keep killing!"

Shining Armor didn't like that, but he knew it was what Eli had to do, so he kept blasting. Cadence landed next to him, panting, "I'm not sure how much long I can do this, those beams take a lot of magic."

"Take a rest Cadence, I'm hopping back in." Eli said, he ran around Shining Armor and started to swing again, this time there were about a hundred zombies instead of a thousand.

Rue ran back to the fight, now filled with ammo, she started to pick off zombies again, but her troops were still getting ammo, Eli tried to move around and pick them off, but they were starting to swarm Eli, he pulled out a grenade and pulled the pin, he dropped it and ran, "Grenade!" He shouted.

Eli ducked just as it blew up, chunks of zombies flew through the air like birds, landing all over the place, that took out about twenty out of the fight.

Cadence was back up in the air zapping the ones veering off. Shining Armor and Rue were picking off the zombies who tried to swarm him, and Eli just took on the rest.

It was efficient, still, it took about ten more minutes before every zombie was barbecue. On the ground were burnt, beaten, and even liquid zombie remains.

Eli threw off his welders mask and got on his knees, he was exhausted, "Fucking finally! I hate zombies!" Rue placed her hand on his shoulder and said.

"Thanks, you've become quite the badass."

"Heh, thanks, and you've become a very skilled marksman."

"How sweet, Shining Armor and Cadence will handle the bodies, they're gonna burn them in a big pile."

"That's the right idea, best way to do it."

She darted around, "But we'll need to stay around and make sure nothing happens, you know how the bodies act."

"Ya, ya, ya. I'll stay, but the moment it's cleaned up I'm going home, I got a a nice mare waiting for me back home. And i don't want her to worry."

Rue gasped, "Congrats man, I honestly thought you'd die alone." She walked away, Eli felt good, and a bit hurt at the same time.

The clean up took about three hours, well into the evening. Eli took a shower at the crystal empire. He showered with his clothes on, but he left his gear to Shining Armor and Cadence's soldiers to clean.

Charger and Sheath flew him back to Cloudsdale, he barely dried off so the flight there was shivering. He could barely stay awake.

But when he flew over Cloudsdale and saw the house, he pepped up and said, "It's good to be home." Charger replied.

"Ya, it is."

Eli asked, "So, do ether of you have a family?"

They looked at each other, Sheath replied, "I have a steady marefriend, but that's it."

Charger replied, "I have a daughter, love her to death. Do you?"

"Used to have a son, but now... Not anymore."

"Sorry to hear." Asked Sheath.

"Thanks, I'm so happy to be here, a fresh start, fun job, beautiful marefriend, and friends. What more could a guy ask for?"

"We're here." Said Sheath, Eli got out and said.

"See you two later, probably tomorrow knowing this place."

They both chuckled, "See ya." Said Sheath. They flew off and back to Canterlot.

Eli got to the door and knocked, Spitfire yelled, "One minute!" He looked around, eyeing the pillars next to him, holding on to the small roof over the porch. All out of cloud.

He heard the door open and saw Spitfire, her mane was a mess and she had some bags under her eyes, but she still flew in for a hug, "Eli I'm so glad you're back. I thought I wasn't gonna see you until tomorrow."

"I almost had to, clean up was a bitch." She kissed him on the lips, "But now it was worth it." He entered the house and gently closed the door.

Author's Note

Sorry for the delay, I got very busy that weekend, starting up another compressed course and finishing up a play, and trying to catch up on what should be too much math can make someone crash all weekend, only getting up for food and restroom.