Chapter Six, A Heart of Amber.

"All I'm doing is sharing a bullet, that's still caring, isn't it?"

Amber was pounding on his armor, slamming her hooves down on it making loud clanks as Cobalt was just dying of laughter. "Oh your face was sooooo hilarious!" He laughed harder as there was next a hoof to his face in a sudden burst of pain. "Ow! Well F you too, let's keep moving." He replied, and could only giggle like an ass hole watching Amber shake from gliding over a gap, nearly eight stories down with a messed up wing.

"So uh, would sorry cut it?"

*WACK*

"Ow! Guess not! Any harder and you might slap some sense into me!"

*WACK*

"OW! I WAS JOKING."

***

After landing and regaining composure, they were both slowly sneaking through the building they had landed on. After a little bit of rubbing his cheek the hoof mark was starting to go away, would've hurt more of she had armor.

'Note to self... DON'T piss her off when she has power armor... Or at least have a helmet on...' He thought to himself while still attempting to concentrate on the task at hand. Get through the building, find the catwalk networks, get to that fort and suit up for a real war. He could only grin at what he'd do when he gets to that field and finds the slaving bastards who took his lover and have been slaving anything innocent, or anything not innocent too, in this hell.

He couldn't wait... He just couldn't wait...

His thoughts were interuppted by sudden gunfire. "Well there goes the option for going in quietly!" He yelled over to Amber, then realised she was in the other room still. "Oh. I blew our cover... Just great." He groaned as bullets began flying and jumping back into the other room with Amber. "Got to think less and concentrate more!" He said to her as she floated her rifle with a mirror around the door frame and took out a raider, the other knew what she was doing and got into cover.

Cobalt then heard her gurgle and yelp as he also heard gunfire and saw the wall Amber was hiding behind being ripped through by bullets. He noticed she got hit once, though it didn't do much to her considering she had her leather and metal armor on, most likely bruised her from the impact.

"You okay?" He asked her and she nodded, he nodded back. "Okay well get ready to either heal me or mourn me." He said quickily rushing into the room, the raider heard him charging and began firing for some reason at his armor instead of his exposed head. Odd, but he used it to his advantage and kept charging.

He rammed into the raider, send the raider flying back onto the the floor, and before he could recover from the sudden charge, Amber made sure to put a bullet into the raider's head, splattering brain matter all over the floor.

"Ew." Cobalt kind of muttered. "Alright, let's keep moving." He said to Amber who nodded. He kind of sighed. 'I wish I could talk to her more... Kind of lonely...'

He shook his head violently removing that thought from his head. Lonely?! He's never been lonely before, what the hell is going on? He shuddered at the thoughts of loneliness, and actually having friends.

Amber was looking at him with an eyebrow raised at what exactly he was doing. "Uh. Just ignore it, bad thoughts." He replied and she shrugged, he followed her, still thinking intently on what the hell he was thinking of.

They entered the next room, strangely quiet, but you can't always expect enemies in each and every room of this city. But if you become too cozy and aren't on your hooves, it could surprise you. And kill you. The next room had his geiger counter slightly clicking, the only real sound in the room, other than that it was distant gunfire or the creaks and groans of the building and the sound of his own breath.

He kept shifting his gaze around the room suspisciously, also looking for a door. "Amber? Can you try and find where we are on the map?" He asked and she nodded pulling out the map and spreading it out upon a nearby table, she was tracing her hooves along the map and looked like she was mouthing stuff to herself.

He shifted his gaze away from her working and trotted to a nearby window and looked out, he could see the mid-day sun. Bright even in the immense cloud cover, smoke, and fog. It illuminated the streets in a blood red aura, he watched soot fall and ashes sparkle when light made contact with it almost giving the illusion of it was snowing.

A poisionous, snow, this time not crafted by Pegasi in Cloudsdayle, but instead by the rage of war created by two nations. He mused these thoughts for a little while, looking out in the streets until he saw a Unicorn in the streets, slightly sneaking around. The pony, even at the distance he stood at, looked beaten and hurt from the way they limped and used anything to hold them up. He looked for the stairs and was quickily down the stairs to the first floor, checking it out for any raiders in the shadows

. He set himself against the wall nearby a window and continued to watch the pony, he'd seen a trick much like this before from the slavers. Sending out a slave armed with a vest of explosives, trying to play on his emotions. But this pony didn't have any vest of explosives, he had a collar but not an explosive one. He knows explosives enough, he even uses explosive collars to destroy poles and support beams because of it's curved charges causing it to explode inward, making it more forceful.

He kind of popped his head up. "Psst!" He made a noise, and got the pony's attention. "Hey! Get out of the streets!" He called over to the pony who looked hesitant until he realised why Cobalt was telling him to get out of the streets, he looks around and saw Raiders who had not yet noticed him trotting around in higher floors of buildings and on rooftops.

He quickily ran for Cobalt and slid in through the doorway, he still looked suspiscious of the pony who had called him over. "Who the fuck are you?" The pony asked Cobalt.

"Uh, Cobalt. Trying to save my, er, friend from the slavers at Trotter Field." He replied and the colt nodded a little.

"I was being brought there, but some raiders ambushed the convoy and I got away. M'names Draco. Or some ponies would called me Rad King because I was born with a mutation and I can take Radiation better than a normal pony." He said pointing at his dragon like irises, his eyes noticably had a slight glow.

"Hope that doesn't glow too brightly, because if I am taking you with us then we don't want your eyes as bright as the sun." He noted and Draco nodded.

"Only gets brighter when it nears radiation." He replied then pulled out a pair of shades from a small, dirty bag. "I usually wear these because it can reduce some of the light that's given off." He said putting the shades over his eyes.

"Alright, good. Say, you can take radiation better?" He asked and Draco nodded. "Good, me and a friend of mine named Amber are heading to that old fort down in the sourthen part of the city, we heard it is full of rads and ghouls." Cobalt told him and Draco nodded a little and got up, so did Cobalt.

"Same thing I heard, the raiders don't dare to go there but I overheard slavers saying they're trying to get to that fort for some sort of heavy weapons armory..." He replied and Cobalt looked stunned.

"Oh shit. Then we have to move." He began to ascend to the second floor of the building where Amber seemed to have circled where they were and the route they needed to take to get to the fort by the catwalks. "Good job Amber, just in time too. Slavers are going to try to get there first. Can't let that happen." He said and Amber nodded and stared at Draco.

"My names Draco, nice to meet you Amber." He said holding out a hoof and Amber shook it with a kind, but tired smile. "Alright, so we're heading to that fort?" Draco asked and they both nodded.

"Here, take my pistol. You need something." Cobalt said handing his 10mm pistol to Draco who nodded. Amber left the room and came back with a mostly intact pair of raider armor that wasn't too badly protective, or too disgusting.

"Thanks, better than nothing." Draco replied fitting the peices of armor on and then found a place to put the pistol, Amber then gave him a small rifle and some ammo she picked up from some raiders. "Thanks once more." He smiled as he was now armed and armored.

"Alright, now when we get to the fort and clear the place I'll fix up some better armor and weapons for you two. Got it?" They both nodded to what Cobalt said as he changed the energy crystal for his plasma caster. "Good, because we're going to move quickily. I don't want slavers getting their hooves on that type of weaponry." He said as Amber folded up the map and slid it into her saddle bag and they began to move to the nearest way that Amber had found to get to one of the rooftops to where they could access the catwalks.

Draco was actually a good addition to their little team, though Cobalt didn't trust him as much as he trusted Amber now, he proved useful. He could shoot very well, and he could even make a bullet out of anything wiith his magic. Sure a lot weren't as damaging as a normal bullet, but if you're out of ammo you'll take any bullet you can find. He was very useful and sometimes would help watch their backs as they moved from building to building on their way to the fort.

Amber pulled out her notepad again and began scribbling quickily. 'Catwalks should be accessable from the fourth floor of the building. She wrote down and pointed at the slightly ruined building that had some wooden boards leading across to other rooftops and various other buildings.

"And this will get us to the fort quicker?" Cobalt asked and she nodded and began to write again.

'Quicker than the streets, sure there'll be a lot more raiders than the streets but less of a chance of stepping on a mine.' She wrote down and nodded to Cobalt.

"Good catch Amber, let's get ready to shoot just about everything in sight." He checked his weapons, as did his two companions.

They moved to the door of the building they were currently at and Cobalt took a position at the door and nodded showing he was ready to be covered. Amber and Draco nodded back and Cobalt quickily galloped across the street and entered the next building, checking the room he was in the took a position to keep watching the room as Amber joined him and took a position at a window to cover Draco.

Draco ran across the road in the same path as Cobalt and Amber, he was slightly slower than the other two because of his injury but Amber had already made sure to bandage it. He slid through the doorway of the building to join the other two.

"Alright, now let's check the floors and get up to those catwalks." He whispered incaise any raiders were nearby. Draco and Amber nodded. It amazed Cobalt how they had been so quiet and had not fired a single shot for awhile, but it also scared him too. This could be a trap.

Cobalt kept that thought in mind as they made their way to the stairs and catiously made their way up them. Cobalt was at point, Amber was in the middle, and Draco was at the back of the line covering their flanks in case any raiders tried to ambush them from the back.

Cobalt stopped at a door the second floor. "We ready?" He said to the two, Amber cocked her rifle in reply and Draco nodded as a reply. "Alright, lets form up." He said as he got onto the left side of the door and his companions got onto the right side of the door. He then turned and bucked the door pretty much off it's hinges and got into cover as the other two went into the room and shot a raid, another ran off.

"Get him, quickily!" Cobalt called to his friends as he slid to cover. Draco popped out of cover and floated the small rifle with his magic, he took a big breath and held it.

BANG

The raider dropped like an apple from a tree, a hole in his chest appeared as he fell to the floor whining in pain, pleading to not be killed. Odd for a raider, they usually taunt you until death. Cobalt slowly approached the downed and good as dead raider.

He examined the sadist closer to find him only to be a young colt, it didn't hit Cobalt immediantly, but it kind of made him look at the colt a little differently. Another example of how Amber is changing him from a heartless, uncaring bastard into a pony who gives a fuck.

She's too kind.

Cobalt grabbed Draco's pistol and shot the colt right in the forehead, saves him from the pain so it's not as cruel as letting him die slowly. And at least he got to kill him, Draco was great at sniping, almost better than him. But he's so headstrong he wouldn't admit to it, but it kept popping up in his head.

"Alright, Amber give me those taped frag mines." He said to her and she went into her saddlebag.

"What are you planning?" Draco asked him, curious about why he would need frag mines, or ones that are taped.

"Going to place them around the place and blow the building after we got onto the catwalks. It'll either slow them down or make them interested in why an entire building seemed to of exploded." He said grabbed the two mines taped together than Amber was giving to him. He trotted to areas in the building that seemed weak and put a double mine in each of them, he found the building's supports and placed two double mines there as well. He placed acouple nearby a window to where he would start this explosion.

"Alright, let's get to the fourth floor." He said and they both nodded.

***

"Upstairs! Upstairs!" Cobalt barked at the two who jumped right up the stairs as bullets shredded the walls and stairs behind them, as soon as they were up Cobalt slammed the door and locked it. "Go to the catwalks I'll follow!" He hissed at them, the others didn't even nod they just ran.

Behind that door was a large group of some really nasty raiders chasing them up both flights of stairs, they had just returned from the streets and saw the trio walking right up the stairs, apparently they weren't to kind to that and began to open fire.

Cobalt armed the double fragmine and set it near the door and put some more around the top floor room.

BOOM

The armed mine exploded and pretty much blew off the area around the door, sending shrapnel into Cobalt and causing him to lose balance. He waddled to the catwalks, dizzy and punctured by a piece of shrapnel in his neck. Blood flowed along his neck in a steady river as he headed to his friends and watched Draco come and help him along.

"Come on! Come on!" Draco said to him helping him across the catwalks to Amber, Cobalt began flailing a little. "What's wrong?" He asked panically and Cobalt pointed back to the building where the fragmines were and then pulled out a grenade. He pulled the pin and tossed it into the window on the second floor and jumped to the floor of the building they were in.

Acouple raiders appeared from the ruined doorway of the other building right as a loud roar sounded and the ground trimmered, the raiders began to lose balance and the floor pretty much exploded and crashed around them causing them to call into the firery rubble below. Dead or not, they would be dead buried or burning from the remains of the building. The remaining unexploded fragmines would kill any raider who came to assist, and if they tried disarming one, there's still the second one to contend with.

Amber laid Cobalt on his back as she watched the dark life source flow from his neck steadily, it either punctured an artery or just cut his neck. But it was a good amount of blood, slightlu forming a pool next to his head.

"How bad?" Draco asked walking up to them.

"Not good." Cobalt gasped a little him and coughed as Amber covered his mouth and made a motion not to speak or it'd make it worse.

"Think you can patch him up?" Draco said to Amber and she sighed. She began to write on her notepad.

'May of punctured an artery, I don't have the tools to fix that up. I might just have to remove the piece of shrapnel and slide a cloth in to hopefully stop the bleeding. The fort may have some more medical supplies, if we can get there.' The notepad dropped on the floor and she kept examing the wound.

"Well I can try to get to the fort myself and bring back some stuff." Draco suggested, Amber simply shook her head.

She wrote down: 'Stay here and protect us, I'll try to get him into moving condition.'

"Alright." He replied trotting off and looking around the building.

Amber began to pull out her medical kit and sedated Cobalt so he wouldn't be in pain anymore, then started with trying to remove the shrpanel from his neck, slowly and carefully, she took her time.

Footnote: Level Up!
New Perk -- Beyond the Colt of Duty: You are always staying behind so you can allow your friends to escape safely, you gain a +2 to combat skills when your health drops below 30%.

Author's Note

Merry Chris-

Oh too soon. :(

Thank you Recordsmash (AKA Masterbrony Forever) for allowing me to use your Fallout Equestria OC, Draco Nightstalker.