Chapter Three, In Strangers We Trust.

"Sometimes you just have to make new friends."

After about seven to eight mines disarmed and several ghouls dead behind them, they had cleared the tunnel of the explosive devices, and were able to reuse them.

*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP*

One of the mines almost exploded until Cobalt just slapped the top of the thing and it disarmed, magic huh?

After collecting the mines, Cobalt and Amber had continued their progress through the tunnels, going deeper into raider territory. Amber knew more about the tunnels and had been using them to help onies who had been captured by raiders to escape, but now Cobalt had a better, more violent ideas for the tunnels. Ideas which he was carefully planning inside his head.

Cobalt froze up, he heard talking. Really close, he held up a hoof to signal Amber to be quiet. Well, she's mute so not like she's going to say anything, but she knew what he was meaning by telling her to be quiet. They listened.

"Why'n tha' fuck are we attackin' them slavers anyway?" One asked, sounded like a male, very illiterate too. He had a very rough voice too, like a normal raider.

"Because. We shot down that goddess damned pegasus, almost killed her, then the slavers spotted us all running down the street straight at them, and she snuck off." Another male raider said, sounded thankfully, much more literate. Though he rolled his eyes at the gender remark, he already knew he looked feminine, he didn't need a reminder. It seemed like every raider, slaver, or just pony who he ever met seemed to of always called him a mare or filly, it annoyed him.

"Yeh. Ahwell, les go back to the tower, ah bet Crak will have anoth'r assignment fer us." He slurred to the other raider beginning to walk off until they heard a smack. "OW!"

"Don't call her that. He name is Crak The Raven, or Raven. Never call her Crak unless you want to be falling off one of these towers." The other growled and began to leave with the other as their conversation became distant.

Cobalt nodded back to Amber who nodded back and was about to step when she pulled him back, there was a trip wire he was about to set off. He sighed in relief and nodded to her and disarmed to drap which was connected to several grenades. "These raiders sure have a lot of heavy explosives... And some that I've fought seem to have some real nice weapons..." He whispered to her and she nodded.

Cobalt had been alone for about a month since Kieos got captured, fighting by himself, not having anyone to talk to. Sometimes he even tried to capture raiders and hopefully have someone to talk to, but that usually ended in him having to kill the raider because of them getting annoying, trying to kill him, or calling for help. It had taken it's toll on him, and now he finally finds a friendly pony and they can't even speak, he did feel bad for what the raiders did to her, but for all he knew, she may of deserved it. But he didn't want to think of that now, it'd most likely make things between them get harder to work together which she was a very valuable asset to him at the moment, with her ability to heal him and knowledge of the tunnels.

He was too deep in thought because he ran straight into a concrete support. She giggled a little and he shook his head a glared at her. "Quit it!" He said like a kid and it made her giggle more and snicker as she lit up her horn and moved him to the side of the pole so he could walk around it.

After about an hour of walking in the dark, they came to a metal door, it was obviously locked. Cobalt grumbled something and began to work on the door. As he was picking the lock of the door, Amber was looking over the door as well, her horn was lit up, illuminating a small area and the door as well. She was looking around at the door, examining it closely.

A *click* sounded from inside the door, and the tumblers began to turn and the handle spun and a wire seemed to snap from it. Amber quickily pulled him back using telekinesis and threw him down the tunnel and jumped back as a medium sized explosion shot her further down the tunnel and landed a little infront of Cobalt. He shook his head, explosions were much much louder without his helmet, and including in a tunnel.

The dust started to settle and Cobalt was back up and was helping Amber back up, they could hear yelling from in the room ahead. Obviously not good, he got his remaining plasma caster ready and gave Amber back his plasma pistol as she shook her head and made a very disgusting cough and and nodded, taking the pistol and getting ready.

"Cover's blown. Let's go loud, doesn't matter anymore. Kill everything that moves." He said to her and she rolled her eyes. Cobalt pulled out a grenade and pulled the pin and threw it into the doorway.

"GRENA!-"

*BANG*

A leg flew through the doorway, Cobalt moved up to the wall next to the door and slightly leaned to the side to look inside, a big blast mark, a couple bodies, then he moved his head back hearing a gunshot as it broke a piece of the doorway next to his head. Amber moved on the opposite side of him at the doorway, she nodded to him showing she was ready, Cobalt nodded back and moved inside, plasma caster blazing hitting targets and turning them to magicial goo or a smoking corpse. Amber followed him in and fired at stragglers.

The first couple were dead, then he heard yelling from another room, a raider shot right out of the room with a wicked knife charging at him, he moved to the side and Amber shot the raider, turning him to goo. Another ran out and charged Cobalt, he turned around and bucked the raider in the mouth, the raider mare's knife flew out of her mouth as she landed on the ground, limp and unmoving, dead. He had shattered her jaw and broke most of her skull from the buck right in the jaw.

Cobalt quickly moved to the door to the other room and was about to throw another frag grenade when Amber stopped him and shook her head. "What?" He asked her and she kept making motions he didn't understand, she got frustrated and stomped her hooves and ran into the room. There were acouple hostages in the room, but the raiders they killed before seemed to be the only ones guarding them. Amber shook her head and slapped the back of his head. "Ow!" He rubbed his head as she walked over to the hostages.

She motioned from him to come over to her, and quickly by the worry on her face. He ran over to them and examined the hostages. They were severely abused, some had cuts all over them, one had no ears, another was missing an eye and a leg, more alarmingly to Cobalt they were strappedup with explosives.

"They won't last long. And they're severely hurt..." Cobalt said in a solemn tone, Amber turned her head to him with a mortified look and slapped him again. "Ow! Stop it goddess dammit!" He growled at her as she went back and began untying to hostage ponies, and he began to help untie the explosives carefully. "You know as well as I do they're not going to survive long if we just let them go out in the city. They'll most likely get captured by raiders again, or slavers." Cobalt said to Amber who shook her head as she untied the one without ears and Cobalt removed the explosive harness. The earless mare got up and trotted away from them and was mumbling things that were inaudable.

The next one, the one covered in cuts and gashes, who was severely abused just stared at a body on the other side of the room, well more like a chard remains of a corpse. Cobalt looked at it, it was a small black skeleton that was chard and burnt tied to a metal pole. Cobalt didn't look very surprised, or mortified, though he recoiled at the horrid smell. He seemed pretty emotionless and calm, it disgusted Amber, but she assumed it was just some brain washing the Enclave did to him or something.

She untied the pony and even with the explosives still on her, the hostage mare ran over to the skeleton and hugged it, and began to cry, rubbing her head against the side of the skull screaming. "My poor child! My baby!" She yelled as she held the skeleton close. Cobalt just watched the mare hug her burned alive child, crying, yelling, and cursing the raiders, just emotionless.

Amber walked up next to him and looked sad for the mare, his face just seemed cold and emotionless, the world's cruel. Deal with it.

Cobalt began to disarm the explosive harness on the mare as Amber went to the last hostage and began to untie the stallion who had lost an eye and a leg, oddly enough he didn't have any explosives tied to him, though it slightly made sense; he was sitting next to two mares wired with explosives.

Cobalt had the explosives off of the crying mare and threw it to the side, it was really hard to pull the mare away from the skeleton of her child, she kept fighting it and pushing him away.

He tried to pull her away from her dead child and she punched him straight in the muzzle and pushed him away. "Get off of me you emotionless bastard! Go back to your fucking safe cities above the clouds and get the hell out of here!" She yelled at him.

Cobalt just got back up and grabbed her, then threw her away from her child. "He, or she. is DEAD. Get over it, crying is not going to make em' come back to life. Move on, or you'll never get over it." He said to her and held out a hoof.

She reluctantly took it and pulled herself up. "And just so you know, I'm not allowed back up, nor do I ever want to go back up." He said to her shaking his head.

For a little while and awkward silence ensued, except the crazed giggles and mumbles from the other mare without ears who had obviously gone insane from the torture and the harsh relality. And things werent going to get prettier anytime soon. Amber ushered the other ponies into the tunnel from the other room,

Cobalt gave her a nod. "Be safe, get them back to your little hiding place I'll hold here until you get back." He said, getting a nod from her as she led the way for the ponies. He sighed and sat against a wall, he didn't know where in the hell he was. He knew it had to be a building, maybe the basement. But something seemed, different. Instead of just a big storage area, or a bunch of offices, this place has a bunch of huge tanks of Celestia knows what, and a lot of boxes full of empty Sparkle Cola bottles, then again those might just be from the raiders.

He decided to explore a little, he headed to the next room and began to go up to the stairs. As he walked up the stairs, and opened the door to what looked like a huge rotunda with with a big oddly shaped glass window, and outside showed a pretty good sized clearing of the city, like a park. Still a lot of Sparkle Cola bottles, he continued further into the room, careful not to accidentially kick a bottle, he saw a huge sign wrapping around a big decorative bottle that had collapsed onto the ground.

"WORLD OF SPARKLE"

"Huh. Didn't know they made bottles that size."

Footnote: Level Up!
New Perk -- Tough Hide: The brutal experiences of the Equestrian Wasteland have hardened you. You gain +3 to Damage Threshold for each level of this perk you take.

Author's Note

Sorry it took a little longer than my daily chapters, I was enjoying my weekend before I had to go back to doing school from 9 AM to 10 PM.

So I hope you enjoyed the chapter, shortest one yet, and I know it was a little slow to me.

Love you all!