Birthday Bios: Beans · 5:28pm May 13th, 2016
When I was nearly finished drawing this picture, I realized that I was drawing a grandparent character without drawing them how they look when they're, well, old. Oopsie. 
But I didn't want to waste this beauty, so remind me to draw old!Beans sometime in the future.
So, here we have the piano-playing Sandwich grandfather, who'd obviously have "Piano Man" as his theme song. 
More under the break.
Beans was a poor colt born in Manehattan to parents Coffee Grind and Chocolate "Lottie" Swirl. His parents couldn't agree on whether his name should be Coffee Beans or Cocoa Beans, so they just settled on calling him Beans. Some folks wondered if the kid had a flatulence problem (which he didn't--his flatulence was as normal as normal could be) due to his name.
Growing up, Beans had a brother named Brewster, who was about thirteen years older than him. Beans absolutely adored him, and often wanted to follow him everywhere, even to the places where little colts shouldn't go. Still, Brewster was the most chill pony anypony knew, and liked to take Beans around the city and teach him how to survive on the streets. They often went out and ate together, played together, and even talk about random stuff, usually to escape their ever arguing parents. Beans would spend his days in school daydreaming about what adventure he'd have with his brother next.
Brewster had even taken him to see a musically talented friend named Tempo, who had a collection of instruments, both old and new, in a warehouse. Beans liked to explore the maze created by all the different instruments and their different editions. He tried to be careful, though he once broke his leg when he accidentally dropped an accordion on it, and has ended up ripping open a couple of drums. However, the instrument he was most drawn to was the piano, where he plinked his first notes on the keys.
When Beans was eight, Brewster was killed in a gang fight. The family was shaken by the news, especially Beans, who was not just shaken, but completely shattered. He felt expected to be strong while his parents broke down, but he often crumbled and cried at school. His parents scolded him for not keeping his composure like a real stallion should, and spanked him for getting into fights at school. And the arguments between them just got worse and worse, usually over the subject of who should have stopped Brewster from getting involved in that scuffle. Beans was kept on lockdown, in fear that he'd meet the same fate as his brother, and so he witnessed how bad the arguments got.
When things started getting physical, Beans hightailed it out of there.
He went to the warehouse that Tempo owned, and lived with the fella there. To pass the time, he either read books in order to make up for school (he didn't dare go back lest one of his angry parents caught him there) or played around with the instruments. However, Tempo noticed that Beans spent the most time around the piano, and offered to teach him.
So, along his journey in learning how to play it, he practiced in order to deal with any emotional distress that came his way. When a storm would rage, he would play. When some crime happened a few blocks away, he'd play. When his brother's birthday or death anniversary rolled around, he'd play. When he learned about his father's death in a carriage accident, he played. When he learned of his mother's suicide, he played. And so on and so forth, so that he may comfort himself in the process of learning.
Tempo enjoyed his success in teaching Beans the art of piano, and set up a recital to show his friends, which earned Beans his cutie mark. Tempo went on to start a business on giving music lessons, and supported Beans as a surrogate father as well. Beans met many of the students, including an accordion player named Pizza Pockets, and his twin sister on the oboe, Macaroni. He found Pizza Pockets really annoying (and was confused on how he could lift an accordion), but he thought Macaroni was cute and had a crush on her for a while.
He went back to wandering the streets as a teenager, and learned more about how to survive on them. He's learned to smell a con artist when encountering one, how to avoid a gang and escape them if he ever bumped into one, many shortcuts throughout the city, and much more. He's also learned how to survive the rampant stupidity and selfishness of others surrounding him. He's had a few close calls and has ended up pickpocketed and mugged more than once, but he managed to survive in the end.
He got a job in playing the piano at a bar when he was in his twenties, and was soon supporting himself in a small apartment. It wasn't much, but he was content with his lot in life. As long as he was making music, he was home.
At around the age of thirty, his life changed when he pulled a confused out-of-towner out of the street, scolding her for being so stupid. The mare, Panini, was grateful, though she asked another favor in asking him where the school was, as she was applying for a job there. Beans begrudgingly led her to his old school, and wished her luck in getting the job. He thought he'd never bump into her again, but life had other plans.
Whenever Panini spotted him, she was always eager to run up to him and talk with him, asking him a lot of questions about both him and the city. He has tried to shake her off, but she was a persistent bugger, as she was alone in the city and latching onto the most sincerely helpful pony she had met so far. She also talked in length about her large family (Beans was surprised that ponies could have that many foals and survive), about the origin of her name (she was named in honor of an ancestor), and how she was bummed out about how all her siblings had found their special someponies, but she didn't (Beans only replied, "Gee, I wonder why"). She also bragged about how she had been teaching since she was sixteen, and he fired back with his own brags about his "pipes and keys" (singing ability and piano playing).
While he found her annoying at first, he came to appreciate her lively personality (apart from when she practically jumped into danger). He once caught her in the middle of teaching, and was as entranced with the lesson as the foals were. He in turn entranced her with his piano playing and singing. When Panini got sick, he found himself disappointed that they didn't have their daily talk.
With the help of Tempo, he tried to take her out on a date. They ended up visiting the pizzeria of the old annoyance Pizza Pockets, who tried to make the date more romantic for them by whipping out his accordion and singing a song. Beans was embarrassed, but Panini enjoyed it. The only thing that Beans liked about the entire thing was that Panini had kissed him at the end. That led to a lot more kisses and an eventual proposal.
He had expected the wedding to be mostly filled with Panini's friends and family, with only Tempo and maybe a couple of co-workers on his side. He was touched when upon his announcement, the frequent patrons were overjoyed, and were willing to go if he asked them.
They had a few years of married bliss before they had their daughter Cocoa Butter. She was a rowdy little filly, with an attitude that was not unlike her father's. While Beans was interested in teaching her the piano, she wasn't interested, instead preferring to concoct messes and bowls of gunk out of nearly everything in the kitchen. Still, she did sing whenever he played for her, and he enjoyed singing her lullabies.
Five years after Cocoa came her brother, Hay Burger. Unlike his sister, he was a timid and sensitive colt, often shutting down whenever things were overwhelmingly negative toward him. Cocoa Butter loved exploiting this in bullying him, and Beans and Panini often had to ground her. Meanwhile, Beans tried to get Hay to toughen up and walked with him around town to show him that he'd be able to survive in Manehattan. It was difficult, and Hay only made very slow progress (at least he ended up developing his father's snarky streak).
Interesting things came about during raising the two kids, whether it'd be dealing with Cocoa's experiments or teasing her brother, or Hay Burger obsessively organizing everything in the house or making friends of one of the daughters of--of all ponies--Pizza Pockets.
Beans: "Why do you keep coming into my life?!"
PP: "I think we're destined to share grandchildren." c:
Beans: 
Cocoa Butter worked many jobs to send herself to college, which had her parents proud. She came back introducing them to her quirky nerd of a boyfriend, Acorn Compound. After the Cocoa and Acorn were wed, Beans and Panini soon found themselves having a little grandson named Peanut Butter, who was a curious and sporty little munchkin. To Beans' disappointment, Peanut wasn't interested in playing the piano, though he liked to throw the music sheets around.
When it came to Hay Burger, Beans was concerned about his love life. He had expected him to fall for Honeydew, the childhood friend that he always found kind of spoiled and sweetly condescending. However, it was instead Honeydew's sister Mozzarella, who was more of a straightforwardly domineering kind of pony--the kind of mare that he didn't want his son to marry. While he and Panini agreed that their talents meshed well together, their personalities did not.
Still, for once Hay rebelled, and the result was another grandson, Cheese Sandwich. Much to Beans' frustration, Pizza Pockets already called dibs on teaching little Cheese an instrument--and the kid actually showed interest in the accordion.
Cocoa's daughter Ice Cream was the next grandfoal two months after Cheese, followed by Hay's next son, Tomato Sandwich, three years later. Ice Cream was not interested in the piano, and Beans had one last try in passing down the piano knowledge to Tomato.
Beans and Panini loved all four of the munchkins, though they didn't like the fact that they were getting old (Beans bemoaned his balding head). They disapproved of the fact that Peanut took after his mother and was starting to pick on Ice Cream and Cheese (Tomato was safe since he was a baby). They also were worried about Hay Burger, with Beans worrying that he and Mozzarella would end up like his parents, and make their boys miserable.
In walking home from a family get together, Panini channeled her younger self in not looking both ways across the street, and Beans pulled a muscle in his attempt to save her. The resulting crash severely injured Panini, and while both ended up at the hospital, Panini ended up succumbing to the injuries.
While Beans had played piano as a way to cope before, he couldn't this time. He just didn't have the energy, he just didn't care anymore, and he couldn't respond to any attempts of comfort and mutual grieving by either Cocoa or Hay. He wasn't even willing to fight the next thing that was ready to kill him. So, when a heart attack came a few weeks after Panini's death, he thought it fitting that he went out like that.
Those at the bar mourned the loss of their favorite piano pony, who could have been a wonderful music star, but wasn't interested in fame. A picture of him is hanging up in that pub, and sometimes, Hay Burger visits that place--not to drink, but just to find comfort in the picture, and talk with it as if Beans never left.
It's ironic that had Beans lived, Tomato would have been interested in learning how to play the piano.
"It's sad and its sweet and I knew it, complete, when I wore a younger colt's coat." This bio really reminded me of the song Piano Man, for some reason.
That last line. Stab me in the heart, why don't you?
Still, a very interesting perspective on the Sandwich line, and assuming bad luck is hereditary, a hint of just where Tomato got his unfortunate streak.