//------------------------------//
// Chapter 9 
// Story: Scootaloo's Dilemma 
// by PonyvilleDJ 
//------------------------------//

	As the sun blazed its path across the sky, the Crusaders spent much of the day wishing they could do more. Despite Vinyl's reputation as a party machine, she genuinely knew what she was doing and showed the three fillies EVERYTHING there was to being a disc jockey. First came the history lesson about the first gramophones that played crudely recorded music.

"Twilight Sparkle has a couple like that at the library," Sweetie Belle had chimed in.

It was true that Twilight had a few gramophone records in the back rooms of the Golden Oaks Library, though Granny Smith was about the only pony that ever checked them out. More recent vinyl albums were kept off to the side of the gramophone records, though there really wasn't that much difference. Still, Vinyl insisted that there was a vast plethora of differences, though the Crusaders didn't get it.

As the day progressed Vinyl taught them about tempos, keys, time signatures, and how it all came together. Halfway through a lecture about the difference between bass-drops and breakdowns, Vinyl began rummaging through the kitchen, growing more and more frustrated by the second.

"Octavia!" she finally called out. "Where's that bottle of Jaeger? I can't make any bombs without it!"

"I told you it would stay hidden!" Octavia called back from upstairs. "So long as there are minors under this roof, you're not going to find it!"

Gritting her teeth, Vinyl eventually let it go and looked at the can in her hoof. Shrugging she popped the tab.

"Well, Red Pony DOES make you a pegasus..."

Chugging the whole can, she smashed it against her head and let out a loud 'YEAH!' like a certain buff pegasus.

"Alright, where were we?"

Obviously, the DJ hadn't REALLY become a pegasus; it was just an advertising slogan. As the day progressed, the Crusaders began to see how hard the great DJ P0n-3 lived compared to the lot of them. Energy drinks and loud music were the norm for her, especially the prior. Every couple of minutes, Vinyl would keep going back to the kitchen to get another Red Pony before downing the whole thing. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom decided to try some, but it tasted aweful. Vinyl was about to say that the common description tasted like cold moose piss, but Octavia just happened to be in the kitchen at that moment to offer them orange juice and diced fruits. As Vinyl began to explain, Octavia had 'accidentally' lost one of the apples she had been cutting, said fruit lodging itself nicely in the DJ's mouth.

When the shadows grew long and the sun began to set, Rarity came back for the Crusaders. Vinyl was just getting done with showing them her mixing board a knock sounded the unicorn's arrival. Octavia let her in and the fillies gathered around her, eager to share what they had learned. With the fillies milling about, Rarity did her best to chat up Octavia one last time before they left. Though she couldn't nick any concert tickets off of her, she at least got an autograph, and that was more than any of her friends had. She also convinced Octavia to stop by the boutique sometime soon. If this went well, she might even get to design outfits for a Canterlot Symphony production. With the girls rounded up and Rarity ready to head home, they left the musical mares and made their way down the road.

"That was a lot of fun," Sweetie Belle said as she hopped around in bliss.

"Yeah, but it was a lotta work," Apple Bloom chimed in. "Ah still don't think Ah can remember the whole scale. How'd it go again; E, A, I, O, U?"

"No, no," Scootaloo corrected her friend. "That's vowels. The scale went just like in the alphabet; A, B, C, D, E, F."

"Actually, Scootaloo," Rarity spoke up. "It's C, D, E, F, G, A, B. Though there are some instruments that are tuned differently. The piano starts on C before running through the scales. But violins start on G."

"And guitars start on E," a voice from above added. From overhead, Rainbow Dash dove down, landing next to Rarity. "So, what are we talking about?"

"We just had music lessons with DJ P0n-3," Scootaloo spoke up. "We were trying to remember how music scales went."

"Cool. Well, there's this one song I heard not too long ago that uses drop-tuning; it's pretty sweet."

"Drop-tunin'?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Yeah," Rainbow Dash replied. "It's when they tune their guitars lower to make the song sound heavier and darker. It also makes the chords easier to play."

"Oh like you could play an instrument, Rainbow Dash," Rarity scoffed. "Even in your 'drop-tuning', it would just be a garbled mess."

"Oh yeah?" Rainbow replied. "That sounds like a challenge."

Staring each other down, the pegasus and the unicorn both grinned and shook on it.

"I'll tell you what, Rainbow Dash," Rarity began. "If you can learn to play one song by the end of the month, on ANY instrument you want, why, I'll design a 'Rainbow Dash' line of clothing."

"Alright," Rainbow replied. "And what if I can't?"

She loved a challenge, and everypony knew it. As the exchange played out, the Crusaders- Scootaloo in particular- watched intently, shifting their attention to whoever was speaking.

"If you can't play at least one song by month's end," Rarity went on. "You will have the honor of being my model for the new pegasus line I've been sketching for next summer. Next year, wings are going to be in, and I won't be caught off guard. Come to think of it..."

She turned her focus off her friend and onto Scootaloo.

"You know, there are pegasi foals who like to look good too. Scootaloo, how would you like to be a model for a children's' edition?"

"UGH! No WAY!" Scootaloo cried. "I wouldn't be caught DEAD in any of that hoity toity fashion!"

"I beg your pardon?" Rarity gasped. "I'll have you know that my designs are far different from anything Hoity Toity has put out, thank you very much."

Rainbow Dash let out a small chuckle, but the Crusaders didn't seem to get it. Walking off, the bickering continued with no foreseeable end in sight.

The following morning, Scootaloo left the clubhouse and headed off to school. Packed in her saddlebags were a the books she had checked out from the library a while back. She hadn't had a chance to read them yet, so with the day ahead, she planned to stop by Golden Oaks and read them their. After school, Apple Bloom had help her brother and sister prep the orchard for winter, and Sweetie Belle was helping her sister pick up fabrics.

Trotting down the road into Ponyville, the sun was just coming up over the horizon. Scootaloo stopped in at Sugarcube Corner for quick bite before school. Grabbing a muffin Pinkie Pie had just taken out of the oven, she happily devoured it, washing it down with a nice cold glass of milk. She noticed she had some time yet before school started decided to grab the morning paper. She had heard there was a new artist working on the comics and she wanted to see how they stacked up. Tearing the paper apart until she found the comics, she found the new strip. It was okay, but it wasn't very funny. Looking down at the signature, Scootaloo could only wander even more who the artist was. All that was written was a cursive 'L'.

She would find out more about it later, but right now, she had to get to school. All that time reading the other comics had eaten up her free-time. Dropping a few bits on the counter, she grabbed her bag and took off running. Shops all over town were beginning to open up as she made her way to Ponyville Schoolhouse, many of which had owners that were just in Sugarcube Corner themselves. As she reached her destination, she met up with her frends and went inside. The day itself was rather uneventful, save for an incident involving some spitballs.

When the bell rang at the end of the school day, the Crusaders waved each other off as they went their separate ways. Scootaloo set her sights on the library, intent on read her books. As she stepped through the door, she once again saw Spike's odd, entertainment device. She wanted to pull up a seat and watch, but her mind was set. Stepping into one of the quiet study rooms, she dumped out her bag and began flipping through the pages of ‘Obscure Faces From Queer Places’, she had learned quite a bit about the old Lunar Republic from Spike's game. They had planned to bring back Nightmare Moon and haver lead as their sovereign, but after the leaders of the renegade nation were outed as ponies with mental disorders, the chain of command had fallen apart.

Putting that book aside, she set out ‘That Which Never Was’, noticing the subtitle read 'A Collection of Catastrophic Failures'. Opening it up to the first few pages, she saw the repeating catapult, an invention patented in 296 CE by a unicorn named Iron Hammer. A blacksmith his whole life, he hadn't taken into account the factor of shaking a machine like that had to suffer. Repeating fire shook the catapult so much that it had tore itself apart, crushing seven ponies to death- including the inventor- as well as injuring a dozen more. Turning the page, she saw a self-playing guitar. Unfortunately, on its unveiling, a string snapped under its excessive tension created by the machine that played it and cut the operator's throat open. Luckily, he was treated quickly and lived, but nopony dared go near it for fear of a repeat performance, no pun intended.

Though rather gruesome, a lot of these stories were actually quite fascinating. She kept looking through the crazy, macabre stories of failed inventions and even a few rallies gone wrong. Apparently, Princess Celestia wasn't so perfect. In 625 ALB, the Princess outlawed the manufacture and sale of alcohol. There were many protests and rallies, one of which was called the Royal Roast. Several irate ponies came with homemade alcohol and lobbed them at the castle, setting fire to it to try and burn the place down. As the masses panicked, the flames spread and several shops caught fire. All in all, fourteen ponies were killed by fire, nine from smoke inhalation, and nearly twenty were trampled to death in the panic. A few months later, Princess Celestia lifted the ban on alcohol.

As Scootaloo looked out the window, she figured she had enough time to read one more story before she had to go. Turning the page, she couldn't believe what she was seeing. In the corner, a burned down building lay in ruins. It was just like the one in the stories she had been told when she was little.

In 995 ALB, a house on the outskirts of Phillydelphia was approved for renovation. It was going to be converted into a diner with a home upstairs. The papers had been signed, the payments made, and it would have only been a matter of weeks before the Thunder Shack would have been opened for business. However, one night, a mysterious fire engulfed the building in flames, dashing not only the hopes and dreams of the couple living their, but taking their lives as well.

As firefighters fought the towering inferno, it soon became evident that it was no accident. When the flames were quenched and investigation underway, several broken bottles with kerosene residue were found in several places. Though the bodies of both Greasy Spoon and Thunder Pop were found and identified, the body of their child, Scootaloo was burned beyond recognition. Only a few bones remained to be buried alongside her parents.

Scootaloo dropped the book, a look of shock and confusion plastering her face. Looking back at the picture, there was no mistaking it; That was her home.