Twilight, Ocellus, and Dandelion were pointed towards a particular set of apartment complexes. Two-floor buildings in which resembled that of a motel and each door had a picture of the resident. Almost immediately, the young Changeling spotted which one Mango was in by one of the pictures. A big-nosed stallion with glasses, thin mustache, with a coat of red and yellow and a green mane.
Hesitation nearly made her unable to approach the door. However, Twilight beat her to it by knocking on the door. The Headmare looked over her shoulder. “You coming?”
Nodding, she hastily went up to the door nervously. While they waited and they can hear movement inside, Dandelion spoke up his observation. “Why are your legs shaking?” He asked the Changeling.
“It’s… c-complicated.”
The door suddenly opened briefly with someone saying: “I don’t accept butter toasts on Thursdays.” Before being closed. However, before it could do so, the door paused for a moment before being opened wide to the stallion in the picture. A slightly wrinkled face blinked a couple of times. “Hang on… Dandelion? What are you doin’ with a princess and a Changeling in blue?”
“Hey Mango,” Dandelion said, hugging him. “Long time no see.”
“That’s an understatement, haven’t seen you around since you a baby.”
Hayson snarked, “C’mon, you saw me last week.”
“And not give these two ladies the impression that I’m old? How rude.” He chuckled. “But come in! I was gonna put the kettle on.”
The three of them entered into the small apartment, Ocellus immediately took notice of a wall with photographs in them. She scanned in hopes to find something, anything that suggests what might have happened to The Beatles.
“You’re that other Princess, aren’t you?” Mango asked, slipping into the kitchen.
“You can just call me Twilight, sir.” She told him.
“It isn’t every day you get paid a visit by royalty. So how exactly do you know me?”
“Truthfully? I don’t, but my student seems to know what you used to do.”
“Is that right?”
“Yeah Mango,” Dandelion told him, sitting on a couch. “Apparently she’s heard about when you were a drummer.”
“Seriously? That was ages ago.” He poked his head out, “Eh, miss? What’s your name again?”
The Changeling refocused on the old stallion. “Ocellus, sir.”
“O-cell-us…” He said slowly, letting the words move around in his mouth. “That sounds like the name of a medication for a sleep disorder.” He ducked his head back in. “So Ocellus, how did you hear about me?”
“Well… it’s kinda a long story. But… were you ever part of a band?”
“Yes. Back when I was young.” Mango told her as they heard cups being taken out and put down. “About… fifty or so years ago, I think. My, has it been that long already? Yeah, I used to be in a band. I was a drummer once. It was made of me and three other fellas in Trottingham back in the late fifties, early sixties. Ha… That used to be fun at first when we called ourselves Th-”
“The Beatles.”
The kitchen went very quiet for a minute. In that stillness, Twilight was about to go see what was happening. That was until Mango walked out, amazed. “How the blazes did you know that?”
“It’s… complicated.” She replied. “Look, the point is that I might be the only being in the world that’s aware of what you used to be. If I did try to tell you how exactly I know, you wouldn’t believe me. But all you need to know is that I knew you guys were once a band. Only… something happened. Something different.”
“Being cryptic, aren’t we?” Mango said. “You miss don’t look to be anywhere near as old as I am. But I am rather curious how you know the band name when everyone else has forgotten.”
“I just… I just do. Yeah, I know that’s not a good enough answer, but at the moment, it’s the best I got. So… I came all this way to ask you,” she walked forward towards him. “What happened to The Beatles?”
He let out a breath, in a tried sigh sort of way. “Golly… Never in me life have I ever thought that anyone would have been interested. Ponies back then certainly weren’t.”
“What do you mean?”
Mango returned to the kitchen as he explained. “Well… we did try. I’ll tell ya that. We really tried hard going to gigs just ta get noticed. Sure, Pull and Dawn wrote up some new songs and the four of us pulled together what we had into band competitions or just tryin’ ta get a record deal from someone. But… no luck. We tried, and tried, but by… I want to say… ’64, things got so bad, morale so low, and Pull and Dawn got so frustrated with everything and each other… We just couldn’t do it anymore. We quit. The band fell apart and we went our own ways just ta get by.
“Not to say that we didn’t at least try ta keep in touch now and then. Pull got married and Forge had a son. Dawn took up painting in watercolors last I heard. Once in a blue moon, we’d run into each other somehow ta see how the other is doin’. As for me, I became a stand-up comedian, got married, had a son that, I heard last that he’s getting a job as a drummer for a band soon. Of course, now and then I also run into the kids as well. Oh! That reminds me, Dandelion, what do you got in that box of yours?”
“Oh! Right!” Hayson said. “I just found this when I was going through dad’s old room. And I found some stuff that I felt that should be for you guys to keep.”
“What is it?” Ocellus inquired.
The stallion sitting on the couch opened up the lid. “There’s just some pictures and sheet music. Some of which I remembered he used to sing to me when I was having a bad day.”
“Oh, that’s rather nice of…” her eyes widen. “Sheet music?”
“Yeah,” he nodded. “I think he wrote this stuff after he broke up with his band.”
“Let me see those!” The Changeling rushed over to peek her head inside the box. But before she could touch it, however, she found her hoof frozen in her Headmare’s aura.
“Ocellus! You don’t just grab things that aren’t yours.”
“Besides,” Dandelion said getting up. “I’m giving this to one of my dad’s friends.”
“So why me?” Mango asked.
“Well, I can’t find Pull or Dawn, knowing that those two tend to go everywhere. Plus, out of the three of them, I know where you are most of the time.” He trotted into the kitchen in which Ocellus followed. “So here, I think this stuff should be yours.”
After Mango put the kettle off when it started to whistle, he took ahold of the box to set it on the counter and looked inside. “Hey! I remember these.” He said, pulling out a few black-and-white photographs. “I remember when we started on the village green when somepony took this. Oh! And this one,” the Changeling saw this picture where it showed a younger Mango at the drums in which had the words “The Beatles” on them. “This was after Dawn came up with the name.”
“So why Beatle?” Twilight asked walking into the kitchen and seeing the photo.
“That was Dawn’s idea. When we got started, ponies asked us what we were called. So he said Beatle. After all, it was only a name like shoe.” He chuckled. “Yes, we could have been called ‘The Shoes,’ for all you know. And… oh hey!” He pulled sheet music. “These were the songs we did!”
“Can I see?” Ocellus pleaded, looking over the older stallion’s shoulder. “‘From Me To You,’ ‘She Loves You,’ ‘I Saw Her Standing There,’ ‘Love Me Do,’ ‘Please Please Me,’ ‘P.S. I Love You,’ ‘I Want to Hold Your Hoof,’ ‘I Feel Fine,’ ‘There’s a Place,’” she gasped, “‘Twist and Shout!’ That one is one of my favorites!”
“You sure you’re a young lady?” Mango jabbed. “Then you must be ancient to have heard some of these like… wait…” He pulled up some other sheet music. “I don’t remember playing any of these.”
“That’s my dad’s,” Hayson told him. “If anything, those songs he wrote them for me when I was growing up.”
The Changeling took hold of the sheet music and read off the titles. “‘Something…’ ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ ‘If I Need Someone,’ and… ‘Here Comes the Sun!’ This is amazing! They’re still here!”
Mango took a step back and spoke over to Twilight, “Princess, I think this one needs some psychotherapy.”
“So, hold on!” Ocellus turned to the ye old Beatle, “Does this mean that Pull and Dawn still wrote song-”
“Oh goodness no! Those two gave up on music a long time ago. Plus, I’m pretty sure those two hadn’t spoken to one another in years.”
“And you two sure you don’t know where they are?”
Dandelion shrugged, “Do you think I would be here if I did?”
“And don’t look at me,” Mango said, “I don’t keep track where those two headed off. Dawn alone, he could be anywhere by now.”
“So…” Ocelles’s ears folded back, “I take it there’s no hope of bringing the band back together?”
Mango shook his head. “Filly, I hadn’t touched the drums since the sixties. I’m far too out of practice myself. None of us, except for Forge had picked up an instrument after the incident. If you’re trying to do what I think you’re trying to do, I’m sorry to tell ya that it’s not gonna work.”
“But… But this can’t happen!” The Changeling pleaded. “Your guy’s music is somehow been criminally underrated and taken for granted. I can’t stand by and let something like Yesterday fade into nothing.”
“Yesterday?” Dandelion asked. “What’s that?”
She waved a hoof, “It’s a song I know that Pull and Dawn wrote… or probably didn’t now.”
“How does it go?” Mango asked.
Ocellus said that it would be best to play it, but she didn’t bring her guitar. Twilight suggested of going towards the music center where she remembered that there were instruments there. However, Mango suggested that if she remembered how it went, then she could just simply sing it. So, slumping in a chair, her eyes closed and forehooves over her eyes, took in some calming breaths while the old Beatle was starting to pour the hot water into cups.
Then, she began to sing one of the few songs she had memoried. Of how all her troubles were once someplace else but now, she was stuck with them.
In the middle of singing acapella, she noticed how quiet the room had gotten. Looking up, she gasped as she saw tears running down Mango’s cheek. “Oh Goddesses! I’m sorry! Did I overstep something?”
He sniffed as he wiped away the tears. “No… That was quite something… and something that Pull and Dawn would have written that… It just brought memories is all. I never heard of it before, but I must say, if there’s anypony I know that would have written something like that, it would have been them.” Then as he put the tea bags into the cups, his eyes widen. “You know, why not you sing them?”
“Say what?”
“Those songs. You have a sweet-sounding voice there.”
“B-But I can’t!”
“Why not?” Hayson said. “Whatever that was, it was good. Like… really good. If that was just one song, I’m curious to see how you’d do with the others in that box.”
“I-I don’t…” Ocellus shook her head. “I don’t know. I mean, these songs are still yours and-”
“Here, how about this?” Mango said carrying the tray over. “If Dandelion over here says that you can sing these songs, then you’d have my permission too. The band may have lost faith in these songs, but you haven’t. If you really believe that these songs deserve a second chance, then, why stop you?”
“And I will help you,” Twilight said. “Just as long as you promise to work on your classes, and to give credit to who compose these songs, then I will lend a hoof to bring a song like what you just sang into public consciousness.”
All of them turned to Dandelion. He took a moment to consider, “You know what… If dad were around, I think he would let you sing his songs too. But of course, the only thing that I ask is don’t steal these as your own.”
Ocellus sighed as Mango gave her cup. “It’s… It’s such a big responsibility. I don’t know if I could pull something like this off but… You’re right Mr. Star, I do have faith in these songs. If I’m lucky, maybe I could find Pull and Dawn too so they could help me put back what was stolen. But for now, I only promise to try.”