"'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.