Jet and Shade's afternoon wasn't exactly going as they planned. As TEK began moving further along, Celestia started supplying them with new equipment on a regular basis, which would later be moved to whatever location they ended up establishing themselves. The newest addition to their equipment was a new screen projector, and now it wasn't working.
"I don't understand, Shade, how do I technology?"
Jet incoherently complained as he failed to comprehend their device's current malfunction. Shade continued to examine the projector as he too could not solve the problem.
"Lousy thing won't even start up anymore! It was working just fine two days ago!"
"You would think the Princess would be able to get us properly working equipment."
"I'm sure it's not her fault, Jet. No, there's something else wrong that we just haven't figured out yet."
Both sat on their haunches as they tried to come up with a solution or any other ideas. Shade was the first to give a suggestion after a few minutes of silent thought.
"Think we should ask for help with this?"
"Probably. We need someone more skilled with technology on TEK anyway."
"Yeah. We'll add 'technician' to the list of roles we need, then. Right along with 'improviser,' 'infiltrator,' and 'musician.'"
Jet gave Shade a puzzled look.
"Wait, 'musician?' Why would we possibly need a musician?"
"Who else is gonna write our theme song?"
Jet was unimpressed.
"You can't be serious."
The grin on Shade's face said otherwise. Jet facehoofed and sighed.
"Shade... we're not some sort of comic book superhero team. We don't get 'theme songs' in real life."
Shade frowned as Jet headed to the door.
"Now C'mon, we got some 'hiring' to do. Got the projector?"
"Yeah. Lets get moving."
Shade answered as he carried the projector in his magical grip.
Jet and Shade were now heading to the newly built workshop to see if they could find any possible TEK members. Jet suggested that they bring the projector as a test. With the technology industry booming, it was important that TEK had a capable engineer or technician.
"You really think we'll find somepony? All this technology stuff is relatively new to Equestria."
"Only one way to find out, Shade."
The workshop was on the northeast side of Ponyville, near the outskirts of town.
"There it is."
Jet pointed out with his hoof.
"Finally. Let's see what they can do."
____________
"GUH! I can't believe they weren't able to do anything!"
Shade exclaimed as they left one of the workshops in town.
"Hey hey, calm down. Keep that thing in your grip. Just because they couldn't help us doesn't mean that no-pony can't. We just have to keep searching."
Shade sighed as he eased his frustration. He still needed to work on his anger issues.
"Look, they told us to go the club across the street and talk to the owner."
Shade snorted.
"Pfft, please. What the heck can a club owner do for us?"
"This is the only lead we have right now. We have no choice but to follow it."
Sighing, Shade followed Jet across the street to the club the ponies at the workshop mentioned. Out of curiosity, Jet looked up to see what the name of this club was.
"'The Vine,' huh?"
Shade chuckled a bit.
"Hehehe... Does the music here grow on you or something?"
Thankfully, it wasn't quite so late in the day, so the club wasn't active. However, that also meant it was closed and the door was locked.
"Looks like we'll have to wait until it opens."
Shade was having just about enough at the moment.
"We don't have time for this."
*FLASH!*
Realizing what Shade just did, Jet was immediately worried, and started to whisper-shout to him.
"Shade! You shouldn't have teleported us in! This is breaking and en-"
"Oh quit your whining. If this doesen't work out, I'll just wipe their short-term memory of this experience. And since i teleported us in, we didn't break anything and there will be no trace of us being here."
"Oh yeah... I guess that makes sense. Well, since we're in here, we might as well try to find the owner..."
It was fairly dark inside, and there seemed to be no sign that anypony was even present besides the two of them.
Shade activated his light magic to get a better look at the club's interior.
"I didn't know you could do that!"
"Old trick I learned a while back. And you don't really need to whisper still. I don't think there's anypony here."
What Shade did see was a cluster of empty tables, arranged and organized around a large open space that was most likely a dance floor. The floor separated the tables from a larger table closer to the wall, which was most likely where the DJ equipment would be located. The lack of such equipment suggested there was no-pony here to set it up.
"Maybe the owner won't be coming until sometime before the club opens. Which means we should probably get out of here..."
"Then we can check what time this place opens today. There was probably a list with the opening and closing times outside."
Within seconds, Shade teleported them back outside the club, which caught Jet a little bit off guard.
"What th- oh. Back outside. You know, if we had just waited for a while like I said, we could have checked the opening time earlier..."
"Shut up."
Shade growled as he headed over to the time sheet that was just to his right. Naturally, Jet was a little shocked by Shade's remark. He seemed to be losing his calm composure every minute today.
"Dang, Shade... you had all these flavors to choose from, and you chose to be salty."
Shade couldn't ignore the way he was acting either, and felt the need to apologize. Setting down the projector he was still carrying, he turned back to face his friend.
"I... I'm sorry, Jet. I've just been having a hard time with all this... starting to lose my cool a bit..."
"I know this is frustrating, bro. I get that. Just try to keep calm and power through it."
Sighing, Shade sat on his haunches, closing his eyes and attempting to clear his mind. The cool afternoon breeze blew through his mane gently. In all truthfulness, it was a fairly nice, peaceful day.
Jet saw that Shade was in his own tranquil state, and did not try disturb him. So, they both waited silently as time passed by. After sitting for what felt like hours, but was most likely about 20 minutes, Jet saw somepony heading towards them. He turned to alert Shade, who was leaning back against the wall of the club.
"Shade?"
"Yes?"
"Oh, you are awake. I think I see the owner coming."
Shade slowly opened his eyes, also seeing the approaching pony. He rose to his hooves slowly.
"Well then. Let's get this taken care of."
Soon, a light cream, unicorn mare with a wild blue and light blue-striped mane stopped in front of them, wearing magenta shades.
"Uh... can I help you two?"
"Perhaps. Are you the owner of this establishment?"
"Heck yeah I am! Vinyl Scratch, AKA DJ PON-3, at your service. Now why are you guys here so early?"
"Well miss Scratch-"
"Just Vinyl's good."
"-Vinyl, we have a bit of a technological problem, and we were told you were the pony to come to. My name is Jet, and this is my friend Shade."
Shade stepped forward, bringing forth the broken projector in his telekinetic grasp.
"There seems to be something wrong with our new projector, and we can't figure out what. We were kinda hoping you could take a look at it?"
Vinyl took the projector in her own aura, looking it over.
"I guess I can see what I can do. Got a bit of time before the place really opens up. Why don't you guys c'mon in?"
Jet and Shade both looked at each other for a second, then turned back to Vinyl.
"Seriously?"
"Yeah, this shouldn't take too long. No biggie."
Both shrugged, and Jet spoke up again.
"If you say so, miss Vinyl."
"Just Vinyl."
______________
Shade and Jet sat at one of the empty tables away from the main table. At the moment, it was where Vinyl had been working for at least half an hour now. They had engaged her in a fairly simple conversation as she worked on the projector, asking about her club, how business was going, the basics. So far everything was going well, and she seemed to know what she was doing while she worked.
But the time for small talk was over. Jet gave Shade a simple nod to let him know it was time to start assessing her skills.
"So, you're pretty good with technology, eh Vinyl?"
"Yeah, I'm pretty skilled with it. Good with fixing and tuning a lot of equipment. It's also why I DJ, too."
"Really now?"
"Yeah, I've always been into music. Even classical sometimes. But I always loved the idea of mixing music and electronics, which I'm also really good with. It's a real art in my opinion."
Jet and Shade were liking what they were hearing. While it was good to know they had a possible technician for TEK, it was also interesting to hear about Vinyl's love of music.
"We just may have to come and hear your work someday."
Shade said with a smile.
"Come anytime you like. Well, that should just about do it. Your projector should be working just fine now."
Vinyl said, removing her shades to reveal her ruby red eyes.
Jet couldn't help but marvel at this mare's skill. He was expecting this to take some time, but apparently she wasn't joking when she said it wouldn't take long.
"That was... much faster than I expected. I guess you really are skilled with this kind of stuff."
"Yeah, like I said. I do a lot of this kind of stuff, fixing and inventing and whatnot."
Both Jet and Shade perked up.
"Wait, you *invent* stuff?"
"Every now and then. A lot of it's sound and music based, but each is a machine of my design."
Jet and Shade's interest levels were raising fast. They knew they were definitely going to get the results they were hoping for.
"You wouldn't mind showing us some of these inventions, would you?"
Vinyl chuckled a bit.
"I was hoping you'd ask."
_____________
Jet and Shade followed Vinyl to the basement of the club. She had led them through a door to the far right of the main table, which took them to a staircase that descended to the left to another door on the left. Through this door, once Vinyl turned on the lights, was something that made Jet and Shade's jaws drop.
In the basement of the club, almost everywhere, was a whole gallery of gadgets and machines, some finished and on display, others still works-in-progress. Nevertheless, they were all breathtaking. The basement itself was decently sized, made entirely of concrete with a few light fixtures on the ceiling and a tiled floor. In the center was a wide table, most likely a workstation, and on the far sides of it were large metal shelves which held all of Vinyl's creations. In the back was a smaller shelf that stored various tools and equipment.
"Whoa... these are amazing, Vinyl!"
Jet stated in his amazement. Shade, meanwhile, still hadn't picked up his jaw.
"Hehe... thanks. My friend Octavia says I spend too much time on this 'junk,' but I say: if there's something you love doin', don't let anything stop you from doin' it."
Shade was still frozen in awe for another moment, observing all of Vinyl's inventions. He walked over to one in particular that caught his eye.
"What's this one right here?"
"Ah, one of my favorites. That's my Bass Cannon."
"Bass Cannon?
"Uh-huh. It's a device that emits sound waves in a constant stream. It also has different settings and tunes for maximum wubs!"
Jet raised an eyebrow.
"Wubs? You mean like dubtrot and techno music?"
Vinyl nodded.
"So you managed to weaponize music?"
Vinyl frowned slightly at Jet's question.
"Well, I guess it *could* be used as a weapon, I mean I haven't really found any other practical use for it, but I'm not really sure why anypony would use this as a weapon."
"I understand. That question was a bit odd, I guess, hehe..."
"In any case, Vinyl, we think it's really cool you showed us all of this. I'm sure you're very proud of your work. And thank you as well for fixing our projector. How much did you want for that by the way?"
Vinyl threw her hoof up at Shade.
"Nah, don't worry about it. It was nothing really, I like fixing stuff. I am glad that I got to show my inventions to somepony else, ponies who appreciate my work."
Jet and Shade both smiled sincerely. Realizing that Vinyl would have to start setting up the club for tonight soon, Jet decided to make this the end of their visit.
"Well Vinyl, we'll let you get to work with the whole club thing. Thanks for your help, and for showing us all of this. You really are quite talented."
"Yeah, I really should start getting the place ready soon... Hope I see you guys around sometime. You're pretty cool yourselves."
With their assessment complete and their equipment repaired, Jet and Shade left Vinyl's club while she prepared for the coming night. Outside, Luna's night was beginning to fall in its beautiful purple sky, stars appearing and shining by the dozen. On the way back home, the heads of TEK discussed matters.
"Well Shade, we not only got our technician, but we got your musician as well. Are you happy now?"
"Yes."
_________________________
The next day, early noon
_________________________
Vinyl Scratch was on her way home from a small trip to the café. She'd been in the mood for a milkshake today, which she was now carrying with her telekinesis. As always, Vinyl had her trademark headphones on as she walked. The beats and rhythm suited her just fine.
Finally reaching her home, Vinyl unlocked and opened the door with her magic, still bobbing her head to the music that only she could hear. When she looked up from closing her door, however, she jumped back and knocked her headphones off after being startled from seeing Jet and Shade sitting at her dining room table across the room.
"WHAT TH- What are you guys doing here!? How'd you get in my house!?"
Vinyl screamed after she almost spat out her milkshake.
Jet spoke calmly in his answer.
"Hello, Vinyl. Please forgive our intrusion, but there is something we must discuss."
Confused and somewhat angered, Vinyl picked up her headphones and sat on the couch next to the front door.
"This better be important."
"I think you'll be interested in hearing what we have to say."
A fourth voice spoke from behind a wall, and Vinyl watched in awe as Princess Celestia stepped from behind it.
"Vinyl Scratch, we have a proposition for you."
Vinyl slowly removed her glasses as her eyes widened in disbelief.