Fallout: Oxygen

Carbon is the first to finish. His black goggles over his eyes did nothing to cover the piercing blue orbs underneath it’s lightly tinted glass. A battle saddle on his back held two shotguns under his large wings, on each side of his torso. His wings are folded tightly over the lethal weapons. Large saddlebags hold his important gear and possessions. He’s wearing an armored repair jumpsuit with “RoBronco” on it.

Helium is next, arriving in the living room wearing a clean pre-war spring dress. She trots lightly over, practically floating as if she was filled with helium. Her small bag of items goes into her big brother’s bags. She holds no weapons or supplies except for a standard medical box from the Ministry of Peace strapped tightly on her back.

Dad comes in. “Sorry. Uploading the files took a bit longer than expected.” He wears a RoBronco jumpsuit too, except his isn’t as armored, though still enhanced. Tools of all kinds were strapped into his belt. He nods to Carbon.

Carbon nods back. “Everypony ready?”

Hydrogen comes from upstairs, full Enclave armor encasing her and an energy rifle battle saddle ready for combat. “Ready,” she claims.

Carbon nods. He trots up the stairs with Dad.

BOOSH CREEeeeeeee...

Carbon and Dad gallop down the stairs. “Let’s go,” instructs the large pegasus. Helium climbs onto his back as he busts through the door. They lead us to the edge off the city. Pegasi begin to notice us, suspicion building. “Jump!” he yells, diving off the cloud. I stop moving, momentum carrying me a few hoofsteps forward before I tilt off the very edge, peering down to the lower cloud cover that had thinned to expose the dirty Equestrian Wasteland below.

My heart stops. “I can’t fly!” I scream to the diving pegasi.

A second later, Dad’s wings catch the wind, halting his descent. Quickly, he soars back up to me. His legs wrap around me protectively. I lift off the fluffy collection of evaporated water.

Dad’s whole body tightens around me and we dive toward Equestria’s surface- my home for so many years. It is admittedly extremely absolutely uncontrollably terrifying. And it got so much worse as Dad began spinning to quicken our descent.

Shots ring out from the space near us. Dad slows his twirls to see. An Enclave pony- no wait!- Mom- shoots energy enhanced buckshot in response to the Enclave’s continuing attack on her.

“Nitro!”

“Nitrous!”

“Nitrogen!”

“Mom!”

The family yells in their excitement. Mom’s wings beat like a hummingbird’s at her family’s love, thrusting her forward. The Enclave deploys more troops.

Dad’s spinning starts going extremely fast, before it stops. We catch up to Hydro, Carbon, and Helium.

Hydrogen is grinning like mad. She separates from the group, rushing toward the approaching soldiers with her rifle battle saddle. She fires a round. One drops and the others are missed and fire their own weapons.

We land the same time as the body, giving us the pleasure of hearing the meaty thud of the collision. I see it and gag. It’s a pegasus pancake.

There were still about 20 pegasi chasing us.

“Buck me,” cusses Hydrogen as she lands next to me with Mom right behind her.

“Everyone’s wings still flapping?” asks Mom.

“You know it Nitro,” states Dad.

“Let’s do this.” Mom’s tone of voice betrays her slumping body. Her right wing’s shot. The hole created by the bullet glows green around the edges. I wince from Mom’s wound.

Carbon comes over, Helium floats off his back, and Mom takes her place. Instead, Helium settles on my back. “Ready,” cooes Helium with a devilish grin hidden behind my mane.

“Ready,” Mom agrees. Her word kickstarts everypony’s wings, including Helium’s.

Carbon launches into the sky, keeping low to the ground as his wings beat hard. Dad keeps right behind him. Hydrogen holds the Enclave at bay, showering the sky in bullets.

My legs begin moving, throwing me forward. The pegasi flying in front of me slow. No. No way am I slowing them down.

Pain numbs my legs as I push hard to show I’m not weak. Helium weighs nothing and helps greatly to propel me forward with her wings buzzing.

The family quickens or I slow. Shit. No! No! I have to prove I’m more than dust on the road! “Oxygen?” I look behind me to my aunt. “You ready?”

“Ready for what?”

Helium’s wings aren’t visible- that’s how hard she’s flapping. No sound resonates from them either. Slowly we rise from the ground, only momentum carrying us forward. “Hydro! Give us a push will you?”

Hydrogen approaches, going at incredible speeds she soars right under us, an inch away. Helium and I get caught in her winds, racing us forward so far that we find ourselves past the family, which had gotten pretty far away.

“Nice one Helium!” calls Mom from Carbon’s back.

“Woooo!” cheers Helium as she races us forward.

FFFFFZzzzzzzzzzzttt.

I make no sound as my body crumbles and falls to the ground about 10 yards.

“Oxy!” screeches Mom.

Dad races toward me, but I hit the ground first.

CRK!

“OXY!”

The family stops, every one of them huddled around me.

This is family.

“Those bastards are gonna pay Oxy. Just give me a second.”

“No. Don’t,” I weakly sputter. Blood in my throat is a second from hurling me into a coughing fit.

She either ignores me or doesn’t hear my quiet and broken voice. Her battle saddle unfolds as she retrieves something from a bag. Mom empties the bag’s contents into an open chamber in her saddle. It closes with a soft shhh. Her whole battle saddle transforms, molding into a new cannon. The new weapon glows a dangerous green. “BACK OFF NOW OR YOU GET WHAT MY YEARS OF SPARE TIME HAS MADE!”

The incoming pegasi continue to rage on in their attack.

Ffft. A glowing green ball launches into the air to meet the oncoming assault. Pegasi begin to change course for a moment to avoid the object before it collapses in on itself, disappearing. They continue normally, charging on their way to kill us.

Helium turns to Mom for a comment. “Not worki-”

Balefire lights the skies like megaspells from the war’s finishing act, erupting from a point in the middle of the Enclave’s barrage. Pure, searing heat races toward us. Helium is on Carbon, Dad is on Helium, Mom’s under me.

We’re sprinting, soaring for our lives.

“This isn’t the end,” whispers a strained voice underneath me. She’s screaming. Doesn’t sound like it.

The sound wave hits us, and I watch my family helplessly as we tumble. I attempt to reach out my limbs, and stop rolling. Everypony is either dead or unconscious. “I gotta help…” I whimper, trying to drag myself toward the hopefully perfectly fine family. My hooves don’t react. And before blackness drowns my vision I get a look at my crooked and bloody legs.