TEK: The Beginning

by Jet Fly

Chapter 9: Search

_______________
One year later
_______________

So much had led up to this point. Jet and Shade had come so far now, both in their training and in their lives in general. Through all of it, both had grown into more than they could have ever anticipated. Both learned and developed new skills as well.

Jet had fully mastered his "wind blades" to the point where they could cleanly slice through the thickest wood. Shade had learned an ancient method of quick group travel through opening a portal to another location, though he could only open a portal to a location he's previously been to or to one he can see, and it expended a lot of energy. He could also harness his magical energy to fire from his horn either a bolt of energy or a warp beam to transport separate objects.

The aforementioned training was now completed, and quite ahead of Celestia's schedule. She had planned out everything to give them enough time to fully hone their skills and prepare themselves for anything that lay ahead in the future, but she didn't realize just how skilled they already were in some areas.

Jet knew almost every existing and extinct creature and nearly everything about them, which actually led to the discovery of his claw-shaped cutie mark a couple years back. He was also well adept at speed and strategy. Shade was in his own category altogether. Skills such as stealth, endurance, and strength were not new concepts to him, merely traits he needed to slightly improve. His alertness to his surroundings was also quite remarkable. However, when she asked him how he had developed such skills, he only gave her a grim expression as he told her-

"From needing to survive two months in the Everfree Forest."

He refused to talk about it any further. But now was not the time to dwell on the past. Now was the time for commendation. The Princess of the Day and the two of her most favored pupils were meeting secretly as Jet and Shade "graduated." The training had been rigorous, but at last came to an end.

"I am very proud of the both of you, and I am glad to delegate such a weighty responsibility to such willing and talented stallions."

Jet and Shade both stood proudly and respectfully before their solar diarch as she went on with the secret ceremony.

"You both have come a long way, and have exceeded my own expectations. It is my hope that you take my guidance and your training to heart to protect all of Equestria from the background."

Jet took in Celestia's words as she spoke, then stole a glance at his comrade. He noticed a single tear trailing from Shade's eye. Shade took Celestia's words to heart as well, his mind thinking back on everyone he knew and loved.

*Trust me, Princess. I WILL protect them.*

Celestia turned to look Jet in the eyes.

"Jet Fly, due to your impeccable strategic thinking, you will be designated as the leader of TEK."

Jet bowed his head in respectful humility.

"I am honored, Princess."

Celestia smiled, then turned to Shade.

"And you, Shade Vortex, for your immense bravery and capability, shall be his second-in-command."

Shade imitated Jet's respectful gesture.

"A responsibility I shall not fail."

Celestia nodded, motioning for the duo to rise.

"With your training complete, and the foundation for your team laid, it is time for you to seek out others fit to join you in the defense of Equestria. I shall send you both to two separate locations. Jet, I shall send you to search the city of Manehattan."

Jet nodded and gave a salute.

"As for you Shade, I'm sending you to the one place you would likely want to visit first," Celestia said with a smile.

Shade's eyes widened because he knew exactly where she was referring to.

"Home..."
___________

Shade couldn't wait to return to Ponyville and see his family and friends after nearly three years. He'd decided it'd be best to take the train this time, refusing to ever step hoof into that death trap of a forest again, and Celestia had been kind enough to pay for the ticket. Jet had taken a separate train to Manehattan, so he rode alone.

*I don't like alone... the sooner I get home the better. Sure, I could have warped there through a portal, but I want that to be a surprise. I'll take everything slowly.*

Shade thought back to all the good memories he had of his two female friends back home. Back when his life was happy and simple, he thought.

*I'm just glad to know they're still there. They've become pretty well known over the past year as the Elements of Harmony. I wonder what the other four are like? I knew Twilight back in my early days at Celestia's school, but we didn't really associate much.*

Shade relaxed himself in his seat, getting ready to take a nap as he waited for the next hour to pass by.

*Guess I'll find out soon enough.*

By the time Shade woke up, it was late noon and the train was just pulling into the Ponyville train station.

*It's like I always wake up just when I need to...*

Stretching first, Shade got up and exited the train carriage. When he finally left the train station, he stopped in the middle of town.

*Now... where do I go?*
____________

Twilight Sparkle and Spike were taking another stroll through town as they went through the items on Twilight's checklist. Spike was always a bit annoyed by his "big sister's" obsession with organization and planning, but he trudged through it nonetheless.

"Alright, Spike, we've almost completed our agenda. Next we have to pick up some items at the marrrr...."

Twilight trailed off as she spotted a familiar-looking stallion standing a few meters ahead.

"Uh... Twilight? Something wrong?"

*Is that who I think it is?*

Spike looked to where Twilight was staring. His eyes narrowed as he began to rub his chin in thought.

"Huh. Now where have I seen him before?"

Twilight started moving towards the dark gray stallion, and Spike followed. Nearly halfway to him, she called out.

"...Shade Vortex?"

The stallion turned around as he heard his name. His face immediately beamed upon recognizing the lavender unicorn.

"Twilight! I was just looking for one of you!"

Now Twilight was confused.

"Hi, Shade... it's been a while. Um, what did you mean, 'one of me?'"

"I heard how you and five others became the Elements of Harmony. It was all in the papers at Canterlot!"

Twilight warmed up now that she had that cleared up, but she still had some questions.

"Oh right, that! That makes sense. So what brings you to Ponyville?"

Shade let out a small sigh as he went on to explain his business in Ponyville.

"I used to live here about three years ago. I've come back after some... self-discovery. I was actually friends with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. Now I've returned to see them and my parents, whom I currently trying to find. They weren't back at our house for some reason..."

Twilight's face beamed with cheerful surprise upon hearing this news.

"YOU KNOW FLUTTERSHY AND RAINBOW DASH!?"

"Hehe... yeah. There good friends of mine. I would've come back sooner, but... circumstances... Anyway, I've wanted to see them again for some time now."

"Well then I'll take you to 'em! Come with me! I'm sure they'd be glad to see you again!"

Shade chuckled.

"Hehe, I certainly hope so."

Twilight was about to lead the way before stopping, remembering something.

"Oh wait! I almost forgot! Shade, you remember my assistant, Spike?"

Spike waved his claw as Shade eyed him for a while. Shade's face scrunched up in thought, searching his memory banks. Spike frowned as Shade finally said:

"Barely."
___________

Rainbow Dash lazily rested on a small hovering cloud in the air above the park. Aside from flying or racing, this was her favorite thing to do. There was no better feeling than to rest on the most softest substance in Equestria. Needless to say, she didn't feel like doing much of anything right now. That's why she was a bit annoyed when Twilight tried to disturb her nap.

"Rainbow Dash!"

"...Ughhh..."

"Rainbow! Can you come down for a sec?"

"...Whyyyy...?"

"I have an old friend who wants to see you!"

Rainbow finally perked up a bit.

*Huh?*

"And who might that possibly HUH!!!!!!!!!"

Rainbow's response was cut off as she gasped upon looking down to see this 'old friend.' She couldn't believe her eyes.

"Shade!?"

Shade Vortex chuckled at his old friend's surprise.

"Hey Dash. It's been a while."

Rainbow immediately rushed down in a rainbow blur as she gave Shade a giant bear hug.

"OH MY GOSH YOU FINALLY CAME BACK!!!"

She reeled back a bit and glanced the newest feature on his flank.

"And you finally got your cutie mark!"

"Hehe... yeah..."

Shade replied almost weakly, still recovering from Rainbow's near-tackle. Twilight was chuckling the whole time as she watched the reunion, but stopped to ask something that puzzled her a bit.

"Wait, *finally* got your cutie mark?"

Shade hung his head a bit while Rainbow turned to Twilight.

"Yeah. Shade here's been a blank flank nearly all his life! That's actually why he left about three years ago, on some 'self-discovery' quest or something. By the way, Shade, how did you get your cutie mark? What does it even mean? I wanna know EVERYTHING!"

Shade hung his head even lower, however.

"Trust me... you don't."

The three of them were silent for a while, then Shade perked back up.

"...Right. Well, as for what my mark actually means, I wanted to wait and show you, Fluttershy, and my parents all at once. By the way, do you know where they are?"

Glad that the awkward silence was broken, Rainbow turned to answer him.

"Fluttershy's back at her house with her animals probably. As for your parents... they actually moved to Manehattan last year..."

"What!?"

Shade's ears flopped down and his expression saddened.

"How could they leave..."

"Sorry, Shade. Your Dad got a new job that took him there, so they had to move. They would've sent a letter, but no-pony knew where you were..."

Twilight put a hoof on Shade's shoulder as he sighed.

"Yeah... I guess that's true... Well I guess I can still see Fluttershy then, maybe even meet your other friends as well."

Twilight finally spoke up again after listening to her friends' conversation.

"I'd be glad to introduce you."

Rainbow spoke up as well.

"Fair warning. One of them is a bit... hyper."

Twilight giggled.

"That's ONE way to describe Pinkie Pie."
___________

Shade took some time to reacquaint himself with his old hometown again, buying out his parent's now vacant house. In another hour or so, his friends were throwing a "welcome back" party for him. And apparently, Pinkie Pie threw spectacular parties.

*Guess we'll see if that holds true later on.*

Shade was ecstatic that he was back here. He only wanted to take this time to relax and enjoy the moment. He'd start searching for TEK recruits tomorrow.

*I won't forget my mission, but I can't ignore my friends either.*

Shade continued strolling through town, occasionally stopping to greet those he recognized. Then he looked to his right and saw a place that made him freeze: the path to the Everfree Forest. He stood there as horrible memories flooded his mind.

*It takes more than time to forget an experience like that...*

Shaking his head to clear away the nightmarish memories from his mind, Shade turned the opposite direction, heading back into town. It was almost time for the party.
_______________________
Manehattan Air Space
_______________________
Jet smiled as he continued his slow decent to the ground below. Manehattan was always so fascinating to him: the huge buildings, the bustling public. It had all seemed so intriguing. Now Jet had his chance to explore the entire city!

Looking to his right, he saw a reflection of himself in the windows of the skyscraper he was descending next to. Then he shook his head to clear his thoughts.

*I gotta keep my head in the game. I'm here for a specific reason, not to sight see.*

After finally touching down, Jet looked around and took in his surroundings. He seemed to be in some sort of market. Ponies were everywhere, and no-pony seemed to even notice him. That was fine with Jet. He didn't come here to gain popularity. He came here for one reason: find possible recruits.
But he couldn't let the general public know that, they couldn't know anything, it was for their own safety. So, to combat this, he came up with a semi-truthful cover story: he had just graduated from Canterlot and was now in Manehattan because of the Science of Equestria laboratory. He planned to get a job there and hopefully settle down. Jet gave a small chuckle at the second part of his cover story.

*"Settle down," hehe. As if. No mare can tie ME down.*

Getting back to his mission, he remembered that he had to find a possible member for TEK. But they couldn't be just anypony. They had to be trustworthy, kind, generous, capable, loyal, and fun (as insisted by Jet).

*Manehattan is full of ponies. There HAS to be at least ONE pony who meets those standards.*

Jet thought to himself as he made his way to the Lab. He made sure to notice every movement around him, taking it all in, looking for anything to give him a hint of who and who didn't have potential. Thanks to his extra sensitive hearing and eyesight (due to regular pegasus skills, intense training as a child, and the intense training from Celestia), and so far, he didn't really notice anything that stood out to him. After about an hour of walking, Jet finally made his way to the Lab.
Applying for the job was almost too easy, seeing as he had BOTH PRINCESSES as referrals, and graduated Canterlot's most prestigious school with straight A's. He couldn't help but smile. After passing the short test needed to receive the job, he made his way to his station. The job itself didn't worry him at all, it was his REAL job that worried him. What if he didn't notice anything? What if he didn't find anyone? Jet shook his head to clear his thoughts.

*No point in worrying about what I can't control. I'll just see what happens, and if I don't find anypony, I'll go check in Shade's town.*

After a bit of walking, Jet finally found his station.

*Here goes nothing...*
________________

Over the past 2 weeks, Jet had searched far, wide, high, and low for anypony who could be a good companion for TEK. Nothing escaped his eyes and ears. But to his dismay, none seemed to qualify. Most of the ponies in this city were cruel and dishonest, similar to Canterlot. Now there were good, honest ponies, but they were either too elderly or already had families, and Jet didn't want to put a family under that kind of pressure.

Deciding that he was wasting good time in this city when he could be somewhere else, Jet decided to mail a letter to Shade, asking his friend for advice on what to do. The next day he received a teleported letter in response, saying:

*Jet, don't waste time going somewhere else. Visit Ponyville, I'm sure you'll be surprised at what you find.*
____________

“Huh, so this is Ponyville. Not bad. Very different from the busy city life."

Jet spoke to himself as he walked off the train. He decided to take the motorized vehicle instead of flying so that he could read the latest Daring Do book while he traveled. After the train had stopped, he tucked his book in his small suitcase full of small items he gained from his time in Manehattan.
Now here he was, making his way to the small town.

As he came closer, he saw a small black dot, and as he continued to walk the dot became clearer. Finally, he recognized the object as his best friend.

“Your late."

Jet only smiled.

“Better late than never. So, what's so special about this town?"

“It's not so much the town that's special, but the ponies that live in it. Jet, welcome to Ponyville."

Comments

[BronyBlazeFire]

Ok. So here we go. Very good chapter.
I especially like seeing "aforementioned" in your story. But I will tell you what all my English teachers (and the two book writers I've talked to) have told me. Don't use 10 bit words when a 2 bit word would work just fine. lol Pony terms.
"Aforementioned" is a good word, and I commend you on the use of a thesaurus, but you main readers most likely don't have extensive vocabularies, and don't know what you are saying. While it wouldn't be hard to use context clues to figure it out, try not to make your readers feel like they need a dictionary to read this. lol
Still, I love the way you are getting to the point of starting off your sentences in different ways. If you didn't then you would sound like a point to point outline. "he did this. he did that. " The variety adds flavor and pace to the story. Using a bit more description of the world around the characters would be helpful. I fount the characters in a white "box" as I read because I didn't know the environment. For example.

"Rainbow Dash lazily rested on a small hovering cloud in the air above the park. Aside from flying or racing, this was her favorite thing to do. There was no better feeling than to rest on the most softest substance in Equestria. Needless to say, she didn't feel like doing much of anything right now. That's why she was a bit annoyed when Twilight tried to disturb her nap."

that is what you have now. I would add in things like:
"Rainbow Dash lazily rested on a small hovering cloud in the air above the park, basking in the warm afternoon sun. Aside from flying or racing, this was her favorite thing to do. There was no better feeling than to rest on the most softest substance in Equestria. Needless to say, she didn't feel like doing much of anything right now. That's why she was a bit annoyed when Twilight tried to disturb her nap."

That simple. Or perhaps talk about the mammoth sizes of the buildings in Mainhatten vs the elegant cathedral like architecture of canterlot.
Also wording helps a lot.
"The elegant cathedral like architecture of canterlot loomed over blaze as she stood awestruck just out side the train station."
VS
"The pretty buildings of canterlot shocked blaze as she stood out side the train station."
Both said the same thing. but the first gave off an air of regality and impressiveness. the second was just boring. XD
Do you see what I mean?
You guys are improving significantly with your writing skills, and it is obvious that you are getting better. What I have here is just my 2 scents on what I have learned and seen you could use improvement on.

[BronyBlazeFire]

6097781
heeheeheee. long review on this one. XD

[Shade Vortex]

6097783 Very excellent advice, Blaze! We have been trying to get better with the descriptive writing, and the word choice.

[BronyBlazeFire]

6099579
Well it is very apparent you are getting better!! It's almost like totally different writers cause the improvement is that noticeable.