"'Ey, wake up!"
A forceful hoof pushed me off my bed and I tumbled onto the grimy floor. I opened my bleary eyes to a set of hooves in front of my face.
"What'd you do that fer?" I mumbled as I scrambled onto my hooves, looking at the dust-brown stallion who disturbed me.
"We'd got an contract. A simple delivery mission." I instantly stood straight up, or, as straight as I could when I was half-asleep.
"How much?"
"A couple of hundred bits," he started out of my doorway "I'll get my comms ready, the cargo is downstairs."
I groaned and fell back on my sorry excuse of a bed, which was just a metal bench with a tattered mattress on it. I sat up and glanced around my dimly lit and depressing room at all that it contained; a locker, a small grated window, and a cracked mirror hanging on one of the rusted iron walls.
With another grunt of effort, I pulled myself of the bed and after struggling to surpass the ancient padlock, opened the locker, grabbed my equipment, and headed out. As I left, I checked my reflection the shattered mirror. A tired-looking stallion with a dull and messy sky-blue coat peered back at me with bloodshot eyes that on normal days, I knew were bright green. I sighed, rubbed my head, and headed out.
As I made my way downstairs, I slipped on my outfit, a well-worn, but still dependable high speed suit. I grabbed the cargo, which I assumed was in my saddlebag that was resting on the main table. I opened the pack and peeked inside at the glowing item that I transporting. My eyes widened. I quickly closed the bag, swung it on my back, and exited through the front door.
As I set hoof out on the wet pavement, I felt the cold temperatures of the lower levels seep into my coat, though my suit nullified most of it. The street was dark, as it always was, and the yellow incandescent lights steamed into the early morning air (which I hadn't seen my digital clock, I wouldn't have known since sunlight never reached down here). As I breathed, puffs of white steam emitted from my lips and I could vaguely taste distant machine fumes.
I took out my helmet, which to a passerby would be a weirdly shaped hunk of metal. But I knew better, and I flipped it open and it expanded, plates whirring and opening, until it was big enough to slip onto my head. I burrowed my face into it and the UI came on, glowing with a ton of different symbols, each showing a map, accelerometer, or some other stats.
"That took you long enough, 5 and a 'alf minutes," a voice chuckled through an interior ear piece, "Why you were called Quicksteel, I'll never know. Slow Roast would 'ave been better."
"Lay it off, will you Spyder?" I grumbled in reply to his over-used joke. "Or I'll make a slow roast out of you."
"Ok, ok," Spyder said in a defeated tone, though I bet he was grinning. "Aren't you always the grump in the morning?"
"Enough with the jokes, where are we even going?" I inquired "And the who the heck are we giving this Thurge to anyways?"
"Sending your nav some coords. And to answer your second question, I don't really know. Another shady fellow with some business of 'is own, I would guess." I heard some electronic beeping noises and an alert that said my built-in navigation system received a destination. "You're ready to go."
A sudden pop could be heard behind me, but I knew what it was. It was Spyder's reconnaissance drone getting released from it's hiding place behind a fake vent grate. A small black shape quietly buzzed over my head and into the darkness. "'Urry up, Silver. Or the drone might get there before you."
"Ha, ha, very funny," and I powered up my own systems. I spread open my metal-trimmed wings and started galloping down the street. The second before I fell off the fake street (that was actually a synthetic asphalt-covered metal platform suspended between two massive towers), I turned my thrusters to max, causing the replusors installed at the base of my wings to turn from a dim blue to a blazing bright caerulean. I kicked off with my cybernetically enhanced hind legs and blasted into the empty air.
"Woo hoo!" I yelled as I went whirling through the air, dodging black machinery, buildings, and making the lights and neon signs into colourful swirls as I sped past them. Even without upgrades, I could still fly pretty fast, but with them? I could potentially break the sound barrier.
"Watch your volume! Some ponies are working to 'ave you not crash into a grease spot!"
I stabilized my flight, "Well, flying is so much more fun than staying in front of a screen all day and night! It's too bad you don't have wings."
"Yeah..." a grimaced reply came back through and I realized I hit a weak spot. Spyder was an Earth Pony, and from since the Techno-Revolution and population booms, they have always gotten the really short end of the stick.
At least two-thirds lost their jobs as farmers to machines, and since then, they have had to get dangerous jobs where machines could not operate (at least not yet) like working in Thurge mines or deep underwater or even as lab rats for cybernetic research. The rest turned to the streets or to criminal activity. I don't know much of Spyder's background, except that he was abandoned for being born with a horn or wings but he found he was really good with computers and made a living for himself as a hacker.
As for Pegasi, which I was, the Techo-Revolution didn't have such a big impact. It took a little longer for machines to take the jobs of weather ponies, but they saw how it was affecting earth ponies. They created and occupied positions that were irreplaceable by machines or joined the military. The rest found work in factories, or as delivery guys, like me. I'm a Courier, and though I may not carry as much stuff as those huge cargo transports, I'm far faster, inconspicuous, and able to get into more places where ponies don't want me to be.
"Sorry, mate, I didn't mean that," I apologized.
"Eh, it doesn't matter," he dropped the subject, making me think, not for the last time, that he'd just rather not think about it.
After a long awkward silence, I asked, "Where'd the Turge come from?" and I was truly puzzled, since Thurge (short for Thaumaturgium) was really rare and valuable. It's natural crystal form was the source of all our tech; it ran our machines, our power, and allowed the Net to function. Even it's other forms proved to really useful too, acting as a medicine, a cosmetic item, and even a magic enhancer. I didn't get to transport it very often.
"I don't know. Some guy appeared at our door, asked me to deliver it, 'anded me a few dozen bits, dropped it off and left. Seemed kinda of nervous."
"And that didn't seem suspicious to you?"
"Eh, he promised the receiver will give another couple hundred bits." he replied nonchalantly.
I shook my head. This was the kind of thing I wanted to avoid. Ever since the population booms and the exploding birthrates, criminal activity had skyrocketed. The government got unstable, becoming corrupt and unreliable to the point where each city had their own rules for themselves and the surrounding land and Equestria could only be considered a 'country' in the vaguest of terms. Now in every major city, dozens of gangs survive, smuggling, extorting, and doing all sorts of other shady stuff. I didn't want anything to with it, but I had no other choice, though I did my best to avoid the worst stuff.
The most horrible thing? Their entire market was based off illegal trading of Thurge. As useful as it was, it also caused a lot of trouble, especially like the abuse of the stuff as a magic enhancer. It allowed ponies to gain temporarily increased magical and physical abilities, but even despite the fact that overuse of it will deteriorate a pony's body, most are still obsessed with the stuff.
I was carrying the most valuable substance in the entire world on my back, and I was flying in the lower levels of the city, filled with gangs and other criminals.
Suddenly, I could sense two figures flying behind me and gaining. However, my radar didn't reveal anything, so I kept flying on. "Hey, Spyder, do you detect anyone behind me?"
No response.
"Spyder? Don't play your games with me, right now!" my UI said that the connection was severed. "Dammit," I muttered to myself. I slowly looked behind, just in time to see black shapes barrel into me. I managed to escape the brunt of the force but they still knocked me loose and I went spiraling into the air. Luckily, I was experienced in this sort of thing and recovered my senses and returned to normal flight.
Now in front of me, my attackers turned around and streaked towards me and I did a quick barrel roll to the side, missing them by millimeters. However, their speed and size created a buffet of wind, tossing me around like a ragdoll but I again regained control. I looked around for them and saw them circle back around me for another go.
"You want to play rough? Let's play rough!" I yelled at them, though it was most likely lost in the wind.
I set my thrusters to overdrive and rocketed away. Air rushed past me and the buildings and lights became blurs and shapes. I kept going until suit warned me that any longer my repulsors would meltdown. As I slowed down, I looked back and to my surprise saw my attackers gaining on me.
"Damn. They're harder, faster, and stronger then I am! What can I do?" I was suddenly struck with an insane idea. "Nav, what is the nearest path with the most obstructions?" the heads-up display showed an abandoned construction site. "Nav, set course to the selected location," My map system rerouted itself and I changed directions.
I looked back and saw that they changed course too. They were definitely after the Thurge I was transporting. I barreled down to the lower levels, the temperature getting colder and colder as I descended and I could feel ice starting to form on my wings. I was wondering how much longer until I would hit the level when suddenly a black surface appeared in front of me and I pulled up and zoomed just above the surface, which I realized was a street. It was long and winding, and I was wondering how long this street went for until I realized, it was an actual street. I was on bottom level.
As I got to the site, I could hear my pursuers' quiet hum of their repulsors behind me. I immediately flew into one of the unfinished complexes, dodging the many pillars that held up the structure up. I could hear them attempt to fly through the building, but as I thought, they were not as agile as me, and were slowing down. I smiled to myself; this was going to be fun.
I spent the next few moments losing them in the buildings, then having them gain on me, and then losing them again. I was getting tired, but I also could tell they were getting exhausted too. Finally, one of them made a mistake. I made a sharp turn around a concrete pillar and one of them clipped his wings on the ancient structure and spiraled into the other, bringing them both down beneath a pile of rubble and dust.
I pumped my hoof in victory and started to resume my delivery when I heard quick successions of blast and bright red beams flew past my head.
"What the-!?" I turned around and saw another group of ponies heading towards me, wearing the same outfits as the ones I had just taken down. And they had firearms. I turned around to flee when I felt a sharp pain in my right wing. I screamed and plummeted.
I tried to regain flight, but I couldn't. I snapped my head around and saw that they had shot my wing and had ripped through the repulsor. I was a falling stone, but I knew if I didn't do anything, I would die. I opened up my wings to generate lift, and managed to guide myself to crash through the top of one of the old warehouses.
I landed with a thud on the dirty ground, and felt pain wash over me. I collapsed, breathing hard, feeling the cuts on my face from my shattered helmet visor and my body aching from the crash. I felt horrible, but I was alive! However, those ponies who attacked me were still out there, so I gritted my teeth and tried to stand, only to have a flash of pain shoot up my leg. I grimaced and fell onto my haunches.
I exhaled to calm my nerves, and took in my surroundings, which weren't much because the only light was from the newly made hole in the roof. I was sitting in a puddle, because I could feel water soaking into my suit, and I could make out some vague shapes.
Suddenly, a bright light shone in my face, blinding me, and I covered my eyes with a hoof. I wasn't alone. I looked around me and saw all around me were more ponies with the same outfits. Now, close up, I saw that they were completely black, armoured, and every single one wore a black mask with glowing green eyes. And they all had firearms, and they were pointing them at me. Suddenly, a mechanical voice that sounded like metal plates screeching against another boomed out.
"Well, how nice of you to drop in here. Now, won't you give over that Thaumaturgium and then tell us of how you want to be disposed of?"
Author's Note
I hope you have enjoyed this! Since this is my very first submitted story on FimFiction, feedback would be very helpful. If there are any grammar mistakes or suggestions for improvement, I would love to hear it. Thank you.
As the bright yellow light encompassed everything, I could vaguely see the dark shapes closing in, trapping me within their circle. The ones who shot me down hovered above me, guarding the hole in the roof. They all had firearms, primed and ready, aimed at me.
I shakily got to my hooves, breathing deeply, and tried getting into a fighting stance. Pain shot up from my foreleg and washed over me. My vision darkened and I felt dizzy but I gritted my teeth and commanded myself to stay standing.
"Your attempts are commendable," grated the metal voice again, "But you're outnumbered, outmatched, and out armed. Just give over the Thurge and we'll give you the easy way to go."
"Ne- never," I got out, but I nearly fell back down from the effort. He was right; I was completely outmatched. I looked around at the ponies surrounding me. Perhaps I could stall them? Or maybe-
Suddenly, a female voice rang out, "Shock!" and a small shiny ball whizzed past me and landed between the dark-armoured ponies. As they turned their attention to it, somepony swooped down and grabbed me, pulling me away as I got the wind knocked out of me.
She dropped me onto the metal catwalk that spanned the warehouse, and turned around to watch the ponies below. While I recovered from the nausea and near blackout, I saw out of the corner of my eye arcs of blue electricity erupt from the metal object, hitting every black-outfitted pony in the area and making them fall to the ground lifeless. "Erghhh..." I groaned.
My rescuer turned back to me and noted, "You've lost a lot of blood." I groaned again in reply.
Her horn lit up, illuminating her face and- woah, she was pretty. If I wasn't curled up in the fetal position, my jaw would have dropped. Her lilac complexion was unblemished and her muzzle and ears were perfectly shaped, all slightly obscured by the bangs of her purple and turquoise streaked hair. Only her violet eyes seemed out of place; hardened and cold as ice.
As I lay there gawking at her, her magenta magic aura encompassed my body. Immediately, I was washed over with agonizing pain; my face felt like it was on fire and I could hear multiple crunches as my leg twisted in ways I thought weren't possible. Then it was all gone and... I could stand. "Wha..." I mumbled.
"A thank you would be appreciated," she said disapprovingly. "I just fixed your broken leg and sealed up all your cuts." I touched my face, and amazingly felt nothing.
"Uh, thanks-" I said, but then she held up a hoof. "No time for that. We need to get out of here." She looked down the catwalk, where it ended at a heavy steel door.
I peered the other way, at the hole in the roof. "We could go that way," I pointed. She turned around, saw what I was pointing at, and sighed, "Let me rephrase this; I'm here for something and you're either coming with me or sitting here to get recaptured."
"Humph, suit yourself. But you forgot, I'm a pegasus," I raised my wings to fly but pain shot through me again. I gasped and looked back at my wings. One was still mangled and bloody, though the cut from my repulsor getting seared off was gone. "Why didn't you fix my wing?!"
"I don't know how," she stated tensely, glancing down at the catwalk.
"You know how to fix a thousand cuts and mend broken bones, but you don't know how to fix wings?!"
"They're complex things." was her only response. I took a deep breath looked back at the hole. Then I turned towards her.
"Fine, I'll come with you," I gave in. "Let's just get whatever you want and then let's get outta here."
She smirked, "Alright, it should be easy enough. As long as nopony grabs an-" At that moment, alarms started blaring. "Alarm." She finished and looked over the catwalk. One of the ponies had woken up and managed to pull himself to a switch on the wall. "Buck," she uttered and started running towards the door, I close behind her.
The abandoned construction site was not as abandoned as I thought. We galloped through the twisting, darkened tunnels and corridors and at every corner we turned there was always a new group of black-clad ponies. Luckily they didn't have any firearms but they did have stun batons, which I did a decent job of protecting myself from.
Still, my newly-made friend barreled into them, throwing punches and knocking them into walls or each other; she was as good as she looked. I noticed that she had a style, hitting this part, jabbing that, and parrying every blow. These weren't just fighting skills I've seen from underground scuffles; these skills were from being trained. Where did she learn that?
Finally, we made it to another warehouse room, but this one was much larger and had whirring machinery, pumping pistons, and hissing pipes and rusty rails all over the place. There was nopony around, at least not yet. On the other side of the room was a computer console that glowed orange. "There it is!" she exclaimed and ran over to it, plugging a small metal cylinder data cipher into its port. "Distract them!" she cried as she suddenly vanished.
"Distract who? And where did you go?" Promptly, the sounds of many heavy hoofsteps echoed behind me and I felt premonition crawl up my neck. I slowly turned around to find myself face to face with a huge mob of dark-armoured ponies. Most of them had stun batons, but this time some had firearms. I cursed under my breath.
"Freeze, you little scoundrel." that metallic voice was back but as I looked around, I could not see its owner. "I offered you two reasonable choices and then you do this? Really?" reprimanded the voice.
"Dying and dying aren't very good choices." I remarked.
The voice laughed a harsh laugh, which somehow was even worse than when it was just talking. "This could've have been so much easier, you know. Well, I'm sorry for ending it like this." The voice paused. "Actually, not really. DESTROY HIM!!!" it screeched and the guns opened fire.
I yelped and backed up from the blazing shots, but instantly a thick smokescreen pooped up between us and all of the shots just flew overhead or completely missed me. After a moment of puzzlement, I realized that my ally had thrown a smoke grenade to cover me. "Thanks," I whispered as I got up to defend myself from the baton ponies charging through the smoke.
I repeatedly socked each one as they emerged from the smoke. Their masks must've have not been able to see through the smoke, I realized. Despite my efforts, more and more kept coming and I had to retreat. They were cornering me. I looked around me and suddenly an insane idea popped into my head.
I grabbed a wrench that was lying on a worktable and jammed it into a nearby piston, stopping it. They paid no attention to it and kept on coming. I grabbed a nearby hanging chain and wrapped it around my hoof. They still kept coming closer and soon I had my back to a wall. Surrounded by the armoured ponies, I prayed to whoever above that my plan would work. And then with a burst of fiery light, everything went to Tartarus.
The jammed piston finally exploded, blasting everypony with hot, compressed gas. The explosion also broke one of the rails that lined the ceiling, causing an empty vat to fall towards the earth. I flew into the air, pulled by the chain which was connected to the vat via pulley. As I reached the apex of my curve, I somersaulted, losing the chain before falling back down. Just as I was about go splat against the concrete floor, I opened up my good wing, creating an air buffer, and managed to roll into a landing. The vat fell upon the incapacitated ponies, trapping them underneath.
I knelt there, unbelieving what I had just did when a voice said, "Are you going to just sit there or are we going to get out of here?" I looked up at her extended hoof and smirking face.
I took it and got up. "Thanks," I said, "Got what you need?"
"Yeah, I did. Let's get outta here. I need to go to the Deachem Gardens-" Suddenly gunshots flew over our heads. The smokescreen was gone and the rest of the ponies were advancing. But it didn't matter. She flew at them; a whirlwind of incredible speed. Soon, they were all twitching on the ground. "Let's go. there should be a elevator shaft over there." she turned in direction of the shaft.
Suddenly I spotted one black-clad figure limping over to a switch that was labeled 'Facility Lockdown'. I immediately picked up one of the fallen guns and took aim. "What's taking so lo-" She turned around just as I pressed down on the trigger. "No!" she screamed and knocked the barrel of the gun to the side.
BANG!
She grabbed the gun, and threw it like a boomerang at the surprised armoured pony, knocking him out. Then she gripped her hoof and her face grimaced.
"What'd you do that for?!" I angrily said.
"Don't-" she breathed unsteadily, "Don't kill them."
I was stunned. "Don't kill them? They're trying to kill us! And how about you beating up all those other ponies?"
"Nopony died. I-" she gulped and revealed her gripped hoof. There a red streak on it. The bullet had grazed her.
My eyes widened, "Oh, I'm so sorry-"
She breathed deeply, "It doesn't matter," her horn glowed and soon it was nothing more than a faint pink line. "We gotta go. Now." she commanded and headed to the exit. "Don't grab a gun." she glared back at me.
"Okay, okay. Let's go." I followed her.
As we entered the shaft, I looked at the control console. "Says here," pointing at a blinking red light, "That this has no power. How are we going to get out of here?"
"Like this," Her horn glowed brightly and she blasted an arc of violet energy back into the warehouse, tearing through the machines like paper and creating a huge explosion. She then cast a bubble around the car and we were abruptly blasted upwards.
"Are you crazy?!" I yelled.
"No, the top's open." she replied calmly, pointing at the quickly growing sqaure of light above.
"Well, what about landing? How are we gonna do that?"
"Just watch and see."
As we were fired from the shaft like a cannon, she gripped tightly onto my shoulders while we soared through the underground air. I was screaming like there was no tomorrow, which I probably felt like there was. However, she was well-composed and as we started to fall back down, she yelled, "Open your wings!"
I continued screaming but that one sane part of my brain obeyed her and I opened up my wings. Suddenly, I felt another wave of pain wash over me as I felt her magic aura surround my wings. Our descent slowed and we landed on a passing cargo transport hovership.
I sat there regaining my breathing. "How- What?" I flexed my wings and realized something. "You fixed my wings. You said you couldn't."
Her eyes widened as she tried to think of something, "Um, I-" she stopped and turned around at the building. A swarm of black-armoured ponies emerged from the smoking top, some starting to fly towards us. She turned towards me, "I need your suit and Thurge."
"What? No way! You lied to me! Why would I give you my suit?!" I angrily retorted.
"That wasn't a question," she said quietly. Instantly, I slumped to the metal covering.
"How..." I said weakly, my vision darkening.
"I was sharing my stamina with you," She said. "There was no way you could get up and fight after falling through that roof. So I magically bonded our stamina."
She started taking off my suit and donning it on her own physique. "Sorry I have to do this to you. I promise I'll get this back to you."
"You- don't have wings," I stated, my conscious failing fast, everything starting to merge together in one shape.
She looked at me, and for a moment, I thought I saw anguish in her eyes. Then she turned away and jumped off the transport and somehow blasted off into the darkness.
Then everything went black.
