Bart and Scoots

by Gazmanafc

Chapter Sixteen: So It's Come Down to this: A Clip Show Chapter

Chapter Sixteen
So It's Come Down to this: A Clip Show Chapter

The hours drew slowly for everyone.

In Springfield, Rainbow Dash spent her time with Bart finding him to be less of an "egghead" as she would put it, Bart mostly played on his Eggbox 180 while Rainbow Dash simply sat on her haunches and watched him, she couldn't play because she didn't possess opposable thumbs. Twilight Sparkle decided to spend her time with Lisa, learning about human culture, enough that she could compete with Lyra in a test of human trivia. Lisa showed Twilight her bedroom and played a few Jazz solos featuring some of her favourites such as "Jazzman", "Baker Street", and "Take Five" on her saxophone much to Homer's annoyance.

Twilight looks around the room and finds an album that's all by itself titled "Sax on the Beach."

"Who's Bleeding Gums Murphy?" Twilight asks.
"You could say that he's something of an old mentor of mine" replies Lisa.
"Old mentor? You mean he's not anymore?" Twilight says.
"You could say that." Lisa says.
"Oh, what happened to him?"
"He died. I was never told why." Lisa says mournfully.
"Oh, I'm sorry." Says Twilight..
"It's okay. I'm over this passing, he's never truly gone as long as I have his memory in my heart." says Lisa. "And I do still have the recordings I made with him on my computer."
"You do? Can I listen to them?"
"Sure."

Lisa sits at her Mapple computer, and searches through her music, double clicking on a song called "Second Grade Blues" a media player called MyTunes opens, and music starts to play.

A gruff male voice, assumed to be Bleeding Gums, starts the first verse with a sax riff between each line supplied by Lisa.

Oh I'm so lonely
Since my baby left me
I've got no money
and nothing is free
Oh I've been so lonely
Since the day I was born
All I've got is this rusty,
This rusty old horn

After a short riff where two saxophones merge, Lisa takes over the vocals, again with a sax riff, this time, supplied by Bleeding Gums himself.

I've got a bratty brother
He bugs me every day
And this morning my own mother
gave my last cupcake away
My dad acts like he belongs
He belongs in the zoo
I'm the saddest kid
in grade number two

"That's an interesting song, do you really think that Homer belongs in a zoo?" Twilight asks
Lisa laughs. "Maybe sometimes. But he means well."
"And I'm surprised that you don't think too highly of Bart. My brother, Shining Armour and I were inseparable growing up, I don't want to think of life without my BBBFF" says Twilight, Lisa looks at her with a strange look, Twilight felt a small case of déjà vu remembering the time she first used the acronym with her friends, "It means Big Brother Best Friend Forever"
"Oh. I thought you added two extra B's as a typo or something" responds Lisa remembering a certain Barbeque invite that Homer had written which stated that an extra B was for BYOBB which also had an extra B which Homer proclaimed as a typo. "Anyway, Bart and I do get along sometimes, I mean, we fight along in classic cases of sibling rivalry, but deep down, I know he cares about me, he once went far enough to pretty much save my future."
"Oh really, how did that happen?" asks Twilight curious, already knowing that she would be in for a story, she takes a seat next to Lisa's bed.
"Well, the whole school had to take an aptitude test to determine what our careers would be. I was hoping for something creative, mostly to do with Jazz. But, instead, all I got was homemaker, while Bart got Police Officer, I was pretty upset, and abandoned everything, the school band in particular, and started to hang with some older girls. I became a rebel, vandalising the school, and taking up smoking. Promise you won't tell anyone about that part, I'd never hear the end of it if anyone found out, especially from my mom." pleads Lisa.
"Uh... I don't know what you're referring to. But okay. I promise not to tell anyone. Cross my heart hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."

Lisa just stares blankly at her.

"Twilight, did you just make a Pinkie Promise?" Rainbow Dash's voice says, through the wall.
"Huh, Rainbow, you were listening?" asks Twilight.
"Yeah, somehow I can hear you through the wall." Rainbow Dash says.

Twilight looks at Lisa, curiously.

"Oh, the walls in this house are paper thin for some reason." she replies.

A yellow hand punches through the wall, retracting it in, his eye can be seen through the wall.

"Hey" Bart says.
"If you two were listening then you may as well join us for this story." Twilight says.
"Nah, we can just do it like this, we can hear you loud and clear. Though, you know what'll happen if Pinkie finds out you tell anypony" says Rainbow Dash.
"Yes, Rainbow, I know." Replies Twilight.

Both Bart and Lisa get that it's probably something sacred about Equestria and decide not to pry by asking them questions.

"Bart why don't you tell them where you were at while I was running amok through the school." says Lisa.
"Well.. I don't like to admit it, but I was serving as the Hall Monitor for the school after going for a ride in a Police car, and assisting them in a car chase and an arrest. They even gave me a gun!" he exclaims.
Lisa continues the story. "So we, effectually switched places. Though, I went further than Bart ever did or has. While in detention, to prove a point to the entire school, I stole all the Teachers Edition textbooks and stowed them away in my locker. Simultaneously, in a search for them..." Lisa pauses with something caught in her throat. Bart catches on to Lisa's pause and continues the story for her.
"...Principal Skinner and I were conducting a search of every locker in the school. Which was when I found that my own sister had stolen them all, Lisa told me that she was rebelling against her chosen career as a homemaker, she also said that I enjoyed the freedom of rebellion, which is true, but I still have my limits, we didn't have time to come up with a plan to help save Lisa from expulsion. So instead, I simply took the rap for the incident."
"Really?" says Twilight turning to Lisa.
"Yeah. It was one of the sweetest things he ever did for me." says Lisa.
"Heh. Don't get mushy on me Lis." jokes Bart. "I was given six hundred days detention as punishment, because of my recent services as a Hall Monitor." says Bart
"I decided to stay behind with Bart everyday playing my sax outside to keep him company as my way of saying 'Thank You'" continues Lisa.
"No big. Most of them were simply writing lines on the chalkboard. I think Skinner doesn't have any other ways of punishing people. He even made Scootaloo write lines. Heh. You'll like this Lis, Scoot totally went against what she was told. Skinner told her to write 'I WILL NOT ATTACK STUDENTS AND LIE' instead, she wrote 'PRINCIPAL SKINNER CAN ROT IN TARTRUS'" Bart laughs.
"Wow. That's quite a statement." says Twilight.

Rainbow Dash has quite a different response.

"Ahh. The squirt!" shouts Rainbow Dash.
"Oh that's right! I get so caught up in my studies that I lose track of time!" replies Twilight equally as loud.

Lisa checks the time on her computer, indicating the time as 10:53PM.

"Eleven PM. It's late enough for us to go to the 7G12 Studio now. Bart you ready?" asks Lisa.
"You bet, Lis!" Bart responds, "meet you downstairs."
"Oh yeah! Lets do this!" Replies Rainbow Dash.

Author's Note:

Okay, I lied. The original chapter 15 got split into three. So this chapter features story time for another look into the world of the Simpsons for folks who don't watch it too often. The next chapter will feature Sideshow Bob's introduction, serious this time!

Enjoy anyhow.

Comments

[Gazmanafc]

2185253 Heh. Thanks. I've actually considered FIM to be written in a similar style to the earlier seasons of The Simpsons as well.

I wouldn't say it's about nerves, plenty of people have crossed the two before me, but that was artwork, I just took a different approach and wrote a fic instead. One piece of art features Bart and Scootaloo rolling through the streets of Springfield and Ponyville respectfully which served as the genesis for this fic. Even though I liked that pic, it doesn't feel right to me to just use someone elses art here as the cover piece, so a friend from my website and I collaborated on a cover of our own instead (I designed the Simpson-ised version of Scootaloo). He and I also bounced plenty of the story ideas that were included in this fic off each other and fleshed the entire story out until the end, until about chapter 7 or so, I was just "winging it"

Despite the abundance of characters on either side, I didn't want to go nuts and just include them for the sake of it even if having a scene with Ralph or Lyra would be entertaining to see certainly. So there would be plenty of potential ideas that would be possible, but just not for my style of writing, nor would including every possible character suit this particular fic. So someone else could certainly go that route but not me.

[Razalon The Lizardman]

2185729 Agreed on all accounts.

It's great that the characters on both sides really gel well with each other: Twilight&Lisa, Rainbow&Bart, and I'm sure more could be found and incorporated given the incentive. I wonder how many other MLP fans see the show as echoing The Simpsons in the ways I stated? One thing I hope is that the show's writing staff borrows more from The Simpsons' style and writing techniques so MLP: FIM can last just as long.

[Gazmanafc]

2215004 So long as the writing style in MLP is inspired by Pre-Season 10 style of the Simpsons most material after that is just ugh.

The pairings of Twilight & Lisa, Rainbow & Bart indeed does work. Pinkie & Maggie could probably another pairing but for different reasons. In this story I picked Twilight & Rainbow not for the pairings. Twilight because she's needed to be able to do anything, and Rainbow for her connection to Scootaloo. Any similarities between the personalities of the MLP characters and Simpsons characters was completely ignored. But I understand the connections people would make, heck, I've made a few of my own.

[Razalon The Lizardman]

2228679 Seasons 1-10 were great, then it went downhill from season 11-22, but the last couple of seasons have seen the show return to its former glory.

I consider The Simpsons, MLP:FIM, and Pokemon as "The Big Three" of pop culture, in that their influence is etched so deeply into people's subconscious that they're accepted as part of life itself. What do you think?