//------------------------------//
// A New Day 
// Story: Ponyville Dashers 
// by AimBot 
//------------------------------//

	Vinyl shoots you a big smile, one of the ones that grown-ups put on when they're trying to hide something. You squint at her, and give her a certain look. The kind of look that says "I'm watching you". She dramatically puts a hoof to her heart, and dons a mock-hurt expression. 
"Whatever," you say, shaking your head. 
Vinyl snorts, "Uh-huh." She bumps you with her hips and laughs. "Cheer up squirt. Today's a good day."
After you catch your balance again, you start to laugh with her. But you don't want to laugh, you're trying to be serious here! Her laughter escalates as you snort, trying to keep a straight face. One jab with her hoof, right into your side, breaks it. You burst out laughing with your sister. Right there, in the middle of the street. Ponies opened their windows to look at you, those on the streets just stared. But you didn't care; that was one important thing Vinyl had taught you. Her exact words were "If they ever laugh at you, laugh harder. If they stare at you, make them laugh. Love your enemies, squirt, it really gets under their skin".  
As you both calm down, your thoughts start to drift. After a moment, your mind settles itself on practice. Or more specifically, her. Scootaloo... In your own mind, the name has a nice ring to it. Then, your mind begins to drift again, and you find yourself thinking about all the embarrassing moments you've had to go through. The time at that one filly's birthday party (you hardly knew her, but you still got an invitation... it's seems likely your mother had a hoof in it) when you accidentally flooded the basement. The filly (and all her friends) never spoke to you again. Then there was that one Nightmare Night when a bunch of the other foals tricked you into "mummifying" yourself with toilet paper... That might be one reason you don't socialize as much as you should (despite the best attempts by your mother). And of course, there was the worst one, the Apple-Sauce incident, involving a bowl of applesauce, the waitress, yourself, and a stray puddle of some kind of soft-drink. Needless to say, you needed four baths to get all the sauce out, and... Well, you're never, ever going back to that diner again. 
As you walked, Vinyl apparently notice the frown growing on your face, and she jabbed you with her leg. When you glanced at her, she began to whistle a familiar tune. And through her shades, you could see her eyes staring back at you, waiting for you to respond. At first, you resist. But the urge becomes to strong. You manage to control yourself, and only hum along to the tune Vinyl is setting up. She bumps you again, not breaking the steady tune. You give a reluctant sigh, you hum louder. Just a few moments later, the frown on your face disappears and is replaced with a grin. 
"I'll put one hoof in front of the other one," You sing aloud, much to Vinyl's pleasure (and amusement). 
Despite the strange looks other ponies give you and Vinyl, you persist. "I don't need a new love or a new life, just a better place to lie."
You chuckle in between the verses, and Vinyl smiles at you. "I'll put one hoof in front of the other one, I don't need a new love or a new life, just a better place to lie."
Vinyl stops whistling and sings along with you, "In front of the other one! In front of the other one! Just a better place to lie..."
Both of you burst into laughter, and Vinyl wraps her hoof around your shoulder. From the side of the road, a few ponies laugh with you (or maybe at you, it's hard to tell the difference nowadays), and a smaller group actually applauds you. Vinyl steps ahead of you, and checks the door. Just as it should have been, the door was locked. She quickly unlocked, and went inside. You followed her hoof-steps quickly, and directly into the kitchen. 
Vinyl glances at you as she raids the refrigerator, "What'll it be, squirt?"
"Anything." You quickly reply, trotting into the den and dropping your bag in the small pocket of empty space next to the sofa. 
While Vinyl continues to dig through the food, you pace over to the stairs and look up. "Mom?" Waiting a few moments for a reply, you call again, "Mom!"
You hear the fridge door close, and Vinyl sets an apple down on the counter. "Sorry squirt, got bad news."
Your heart sinks the moment she says it. You already know what she's going to say, and she knows you know. But she says it anyway.
"She's out on business again. Otherwise she would've come out to get you."
You stare at the wall, refusing to make eye contact. "How long will she be gone?"
"Two weeks; at least."
"What?" You shout, looking straight at Vinyl. "My first game is next week! She can't miss it!"
Vinyl, as normal, clambers over the low counter instead of going around, and sets a hoof on your shoulder. "I know, squirt. She did the same thing to me when I was a filly; she missed all my music recitals. Don't worry though," she begins, rearing up on her hinds legs and placing a hoof on her chest, "The best big sister in all of Equestria will be there to cheer you on to victory." 
Vinyl holds the same, proud stance for little more than a few seconds before you tackle her onto the sofa. As you both hit the cushions, you give her the biggest (and one of the roughest) hugs you can manage. 
A few minutes later, the heartwarming sibling hug had turned into playful roughhousing, which somehow managed to get both Vinyl and yourself face-first on the hardwood floor. After ten minutes of exhausting (and slightly aggressive) play with Vinyl, you stand up and take a deep breath.
"I won..." you say with a grin.
"No..." Vinyl begins, gasping. "No you didn't!"
You stick your tongue out at Vinyl, and she does the same. Wiping a few beads of sweat from your forehead, you start walking towards the stairs. You feel a tug on your tail, and turn around. Vinyl is holding onto you, her horn glowing a deep blue. You snort at her, and focus. Quickly, you levitate her sunglasses over and place them on your head. You grin at Vinyl, and she scowls at you.
"Hey!" She shouts, "No fair!"
You toss her shades onto the sofa, and she immediately releases you to fetch them. As you trot up the stairs, you hear her call up "You alright squirt?"
"Yeah," You call back, "Just going up to my room."
"Forgot something?"
You stop dead in your tracks, and tilt your head. After a moment of deep thought, you realize. You left your bag downstairs. As you turn to run back down, you see Vinyl at the doorway, levitating your bag up towards you. 
"Thanks sis," You say, taking the bag and going back up. 
"No prob, squirt." 
Vinyl goes off (most likely to the newspaper or some kind of magazine) and you don't hear from her for a while. You go up to your room, toss your bag into your closet, and lay down on your bed. Just a few minutes of staring at the ceiling has you bored out of your mind. 
After a moment, you let your eyes wander, and they rest upon a hoof-carved music box. You jump up off your bed, and run over to your dresser, quickly (and carefully) retrieving the music box. 
You turn towards the desk, and glance out the window as you pass. Nothing on the streets worth mentioning. You set the music box down, and lift the top. Inside, lay a few metal plates, folded over onto a large circular platform. Tucked away in a cloth pocket beneath the top was a small lever, which you quickly remove and place into the slot on the side of the box. You wind the lever multiple times, before setting it down on the desk. 
The two metal plates on the platform unfold, revealing metal cutouts of Princess Celestia and Luna. The platform spun around in a counterclockwise motion, moving the cutouts in a near-majestic manor. The inner workings of the box played a light lullaby, that half-tempted you to fall asleep then and there. As the music gently lulls your thoughts, you hear a sudden racket from outside. Your mind instantly snaps awake. You snatch the lever, put it back, and close the box. The music stops the moment the lid touches the box itself. You leave the box where it is, and quickly run to the window. Without looking, you throw the window open and poke your head outside. 
The first thing you see is at least a dozen ponies gathering around what appears to be a pile buckets, which were once stacked. The pile begins to shift, and two fillies poke their heads up from the pile. A pale unicorn filly, and an earth filly. The earth filly's bright red mane is neatly finished off with a bow, while the unicorn filly's mane is two different colors, a light shade of purple and... pink, maybe? They both look at each other, and then start tossing buckets aside like they were looking for something.
Then a pegasus filly climbs out of the mess. Purple mane, bright orange coat; she seemed so familiar. The very moment she starts to turn around, you realize it was her. Those must've been the "super-awesome friends" you heard her talking about. It seemed as though the supposed "exploits" they went on were at least partly true. 
The three of them exchange laughter and a few words, before Scootaloo looks up and notices you standing at the window. She smiles, and waves a hoof at you. A bit nervously, you wave back. The unicorn and earth filly both exchange confused glances, and start talking to Scootaloo. She says something back to them, and waves to you again.
"Hey!" Scootaloo shouts, "Come on down! I need to introduce you all!"
Slightly confused, you comply, closing the window and running downstairs. Vinyl, currently sitting on the sofa, hears you  running and catches you before you get to the door.
"Where ya goin' squirt?" She asks, wrapping one hoof around your stomach and placing the other atop your head.
"Outside." you retort dully. 
Vinyl rubs your head roughly and laughs, "You don't say?"
"Let..." You begin, pulling away, "Go!"
Vinyl releases you, which causes you to stumble forward and trip. She laughs as you pick yourself up, and you snort at her. You trot towards the door, open it, and run across the street. There, the three fillies had already begun picking up the large amount of buckets, and began re-stacking them. Scootaloo perked her head up and smiled.
"Hey, here he is!" Scootaloo whispered loudly, bumping her friends. 
All three of them look at you, Scootaloo's friends raise their eyebrows at each other, and Scootaloo smiles. 
"This is Sweetie Belle," Scootaloo says, motioning towards the unicorn, "And Apple Bloom." she motioned towards the earth filly.
"Hi there." Sweetie Belle says, waving a hoof. 
"Nice to meet ya." Apple Bloom adds in. 
"We're the Cutie Mark Crusaders." Scootaloo finished proudly, rearing up on her hind legs and placing a hoof on her chest. 
You nod, and nervously add "Glad to meet you both."
The three continue picking up and stacking the buckets, and you give them a helping hoof. Around two minutes later, all the buckets were cleanly stacked. Of course, Vinyl took a peak out the window, and saw you helping the three fillies. 
By the time you had finished helping the three, Vinyl was standing at the doorway. And the sun had begun to crest across the horizon. Both Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle turned to Scootaloo.
"I gotta get goin' Scootaloo, or Applejack'll be real sore at me." Apple Bloom said, waving as she trotted off. 
"Yeah, me too. Bye." Sweetie went off in the opposite direction. 
Scootaloo frowned. "Aw..."
Ignoring Vinyl's gaze, you turned to Scootaloo. "You can come over my house for a while."
Scootaloo shook her head. "No, I should probably get going too... Nice seeing you though."
You pause, and glance at Vinyl. "Wait! I'll be back in a second."
You quickly run over to Vinyl and give her your best puppy-dog face. "Can I take a quick walk?"
She sighs, "Alright. But make it quick, Octavia is coming over for a visit tomorrow, so you need to be in bed early."
With one of the biggest grins, you run back to Scootaloo. The grin fades away within a moment, replaced by a slightly embarrassed smile. "Uh.... I can, er... walk with you... I mean..."
Scootaloo nods, "Alright. Let's go." 
As you walk, your mind drifts onto Scootaloo's friends. They seemed like an... odd bunch. But then again, you didn't have that much room to talk about that; you and your sister were an odd pair too. 
"Your friends are kinda..." You begin, looking for the right word.
"Yeah, I know. Awesome, right?" Scootaloo playfully punches your shoulder. "You know, you might make a good Crusader yourself if you were a bit more adventurous."
You cock your head back and give her a funny look. "Adventurous? How?"
She shakes her head, and looks as though she's in deep thought, "You know... You should explore more. Play outside more. You shouldn't be afraid to get dirty."
You almost take offense, but you can't, "I'm not afraid to get dirty!" You exclaim defensively. "You should know that, with the Apple-Sauce accid-" You begin. 
Scootaloo quickly becomes flushed, "Oh, uh... yeah..."
You look at the ground as you walk. "I just don't like going out because I'm clumsy, and well... Unlucky."
Scootaloo looks up at you with a surprised look, "You're not unlucky. You caught that ball perfectly."
You shake your head, "Nah, that's usually not how it works for me."
Scootaloo taps your shoulder, "It's not that bad, I'm sure."
She looks up, and you do too. You see a neat little two-story house, it seems a little outdated but it was in good shape. From inside, you see the flash of a yellow-coated pony inside, and then you hear something. 	
"Scootaloo, come inside!" a mare's muffled voice called out.
"Coming!" Scootaloo called back. She began towards the door, but turned back to you. "See you at practice, right?"
You nod, and she runs into the house. You begin walking back home with a strange feeling, tugging at your heart and stomach. Maybe it's just hunger, after all, you never got that apple Vinyl gave you. But another part of it seems to have something to do with Scootaloo... You just can't get her out of your mind. 
As you walk, the last important thought you have is "Maybe Vinyl and Octavia can help me figure it out..."