//------------------------------//
// Chapter 12 – Spring Break (Track 1) 
// Story: The Beatle 
// by CrackedInkWell 
//------------------------------//

In hindsight, having Starlight be more or less a chaperone around the borders of Equestria made the most sense to Ocellus. Not only will she be able to get around across vast distances in a much shorter amount of time, but next to Twilight, she has several spells that could be used in self-defense if the occasion calls for it. Besides, the only way for Ocellus’s parents to agree for their daughter to go on this short but no doubt risky tour is with an adult nearby.

Not that the Changeling mind, after all, if this music was going to be revived, she would have to travel to distant places and try to get it out to as many ears as possible. Of course, she would have to simplify her luggage, carrying only the essential instruments she would need from going north to south. Luckily, she was prepared and was ready to sing the last-minute songs that she, along with Pull and Dawn put together. 

“So, are we ready?” Starlight asked. She and Ocellus were outside of the school with bundles of their luggage about them.

Ocellus nodded. “I believe I have everything I needed here. Yours?”

“Defiantly. Luckily for me, I have learned from the mistakes the last time I have gone traveling. But I do have a question though. How come your friends Dawn and Pull aren’t coming?”

“I think they deserve a break. After all the stuff we went through with Discord alone and the hurricane of songs that we’ve tried to piece together, I thought that maybe it’s best to stop composing for a bit to breathe.”

“Well, that’s thoughtful of you.” Starlight smiled.

“And before we go anywhere, how exactly would this long teleportation work for us? I can only imagine that going from one end of the world to the next must take a huge amount of energy.”

“Well yes, as long as I don’t overstrain myself, we should be fine. Although I may need several hours, possibly a day to recharge since it’s not just you and me that are being teleported, but all of this stuff.” She waved a hoof at the suitcases, supplies, and equipment. “We may have to use other modes of getting around if we have to. But regardless of what happens, just remember that I’m here to make sure that nothing happens to you. Otherwise, I’d be in huge trouble. Now then,” she opened up one of the suitcases to pull out some heavy winter coats, “I suggest that you put these on. Since we’re heading to Yakyakistan first, I figured that we have these on before we head off.”

So, after taking a moment to put on and button up the coats, Starlight told her to hold on before her horn glowed brightly and like that, they were gone.





There was a blinding flash, and the next thing the blinking Ocellus knew, she felt something cold on her hooves before her eyes could adjust. Awkwardly standing, she waited a moment register where in the world she was. In every direction were tall, jagged mountains covered in countless layers of snow. About a minute or so later, she registered that they were at the bottom of a valley, and on top of a hill was a tall, wooden fortress with two Yak carved statues standing at attention before a door. 

“Starlight?”

“Right here.” Ocellus looked over and couldn’t help but giggle to find her adult supervisor being buried up to her head in the snow. Then after climbing out from the snowbank and taking out whatever luggage that was buried, Starlight inquired: “So Ocellus, if you don’t mind of me asking, out of all the places to go on tour, especially during Spring Break, why here?”

Taking up her things in her magic and starting their walk up the steep hill, Ocellus said, “Because of two reasons: firstly, because Yona told me that Yakyakistan is becoming curious about music outside their borders. She said that if there was any better way to introduce them to it, I’m probably the best choice.”

“Okay, and the second?”

“Well… I may or may not have a song about Yakyakistan that I think they will like.”

“Here’s a tip, Ocellus, anytime you say, ‘I may or may not,’ you’ve obviously had.”

Several minutes later of climbing up the cliff-like trail, they came to the imposing doors of Yakyakistan that were open ajar. Even before Ocellus could look inside, she had expected that the icy city-state would be populated by the proud Yaks that, as far as her friend told her, wasn’t that crowded. However, she was confused that half-way-up, she heard loud chatter. Then, as soon as she and Starlight got a good look at Yakyakistan, they stood there in shock.

Not because the walled city was empty – quite the opposite! Beyond its doors there was a confusion of Yaks, Ponies, Crystal Ponies, even Griffons scrambling about that had a common theme at a glance. Walking into the enormous double doors she saw shirts, trinkets, posters, even records that were all about one thing: The Beatle. In every direction, there was her picture, along with the symbol of a beetle in her colors.

“Look! There she is!” Someone cried.

“Oh, crap.” Ocellus said before a screaming mob came stomping towards her. 

Thinking quickly, Starlight summoned up a shield spell, encased them in a bubble and lifting them off the ground. All around, even in the air by the pegasi and Griffons, they were surrounded by fans with the zeal of hungry zombies. 

“Where did they come from!” Starlight looked over to Ocellus, “I thought that this was going to be small.”

“It was!” And as far as Ocellus was aware, it was supposed to be. Of course, through Twilight’s help, she did manage to send letters as north as Yakyakistan to the Hippogriff Kingdom asking them permission to perform. Of course, she was granted that permission. However, she had expected that she would be performing to a local audience. That the gigs would be small affairs to song those iconic songs towards in order to grow.

What happened next, the two of them in the bubble thought that they were witnessing an earthquake. Ponies on the ground found that they could not stand as the huts nearby vibrated and chipped apart. But just as quickly they realized that the shaking was actually a series of stomps. The Yaks were trying to get their attention.

“Enough!” Out of the dying excitable cries, there was a figure that was pushing his way through. “Guest should not attack musician. Yaks thought Ponies and Griffons acted better!”

The shield that Starlight was holding up levitated over towards the yak that spoke. “I take it you’re Prince Rutherford?”

He nodded. “Yak thought this would be simple music performance. Yak did not expect home to be overrun by ponies.”

“Wait,” Ocellus asked, “you didn’t invite them?”

The prince parted a part of his mane for him to see. “Changeling didn’t?”

“Now hold on,” Starlight asked, disbursing the shield spell. “If you didn’t invite them,” she pointed to the Prince, “and you didn’t invite them,” she pointed to the student before pointing at herself, “and don’t look at me, this isn’t my idea either… so who did?” Immediately she turned to a nearby fan, “You, how did you know she was playing here?”

“Didn’t you know?” a mare asked, “I’ve heard it from a griffon.”

“A griffon?”

“Yeah. Blue, about this big, has a gift shop outside of the School of Friendship.”

“You mean Gallus?” Ocellus blinked. “But I didn’t…”





“Ooooh… I really needed this.” Ocellus said as her back was being messaged. 

It was the day after the windmill concert and thanks to some connections, the Changeling and her friends had found themselves at the local spa.

“This feels like home.” Silverstream commented at a nearby table, with a spa pony rubbing her hooves over her back. 

“You have spa’s?” Ocellus asked. 

“One of the perks of being related to royalty.” She replied, “Especially if you ask my aunt really nicely.”

“Ya know,” they turned their attention to Gallus, in a white fuzzy robe and a turban towel on his head, “maybe we should come here more often. After all, with all those bits that have been made last night, we probably have enough to come here once a week for a year.”

“Sure, but I didn’t realize that it would be this stressful.” Ocellus commented. “Especially knowing that this won’t be the last.”

“What are you talking about?” Silverstream inquired.

“Well I have to worry about Spring Break.” She said, “I going to need some help writing letters to places like Yakyakistan, Appaloosa, maybe Manehattan, the Hippogriff Kingdom… To be honest, I still need to figure that out on top of the assignments and essays that need to be written up.”

“Yeah?” Gallus asked, a claw to his beak, “And are you going to be playing there during Spring Break?”

“Well I am going to try to perform at Yakyakistan and the Hippogriff Kingdom for sure.”

“What’s in Yakyakistan?” Silverstream questioned, “And why would you want to go there during Spring Break?”

“Because… I have an idea for a song that I think they should hear first.”





Ocellus blinked after she realized the screw-up she made. “I think I’ve made a huge mistake.”

“Yakyakistan in chaos!” The Prince told them. “So much Ponies and Griffons that Yaks might as well be invaded by them. Not enough food to go around. Not enough shelter. And not enough toilets either.”

“We are so sorry for this, Prince Rutherford,” Starlight said with a bow, “if you want us to leave than-”

“I think I need to sing now.”

Both Yak prince and unicorn turned to the Young Changeling. “What?” They asked at once.

“This is my fault that Yakyakistan ended up like this.” She told them. “And by the looks of it, they’re not gonna go away until I sing for them. So, the sooner I start, the quicker you’ll have… well… my fans out of your hair, so to speak, Prince Rutherford.” She bowed. “Now, where was I going to perform?”

“Ideally, in Music Hut.” He pointed over to a tiny thatched hut.

Ocellus shook her head. “It’s not going to be big enough to house everyone… Unless…” She turned around towards the gate of Yakyakistan. “That valley we came across… It should have more than enough room… And the valley was bowl-shaped…” Her eyes widened. “I got an idea!” Spreading her wings, she flew up in the air and yelling as loud as she could, she called out: “EVERYCREATURE! CAN I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE!” Everyone’s eyes were on her. “SO DID ALL OF YOU COME ALL THIS WAY TO HEAR ME SING?”

They called out that they did.

“DO YOU ALL WANT ME TO SING NOW TO GET OUT OF THIS COLD?”

Of course, they did.

“WELL, I GOT SOME GOOD NEWS FOR ALL OF YOU! IN HALF-AN-HOUR, I WILL BE SINGING OVER AT THE GATE OF YAKYAKISTAN! I STILL HAVE SOME THINGS TO DO BUT GO OVER INTO THE VALLEY OVER THERE AND WE CAN GET THIS CONCERT STARTED! DOES THAT SOUND LIKE A PLAN!?”

There were cheers of joy as the fans vibrated out of the village. 





Ocellus has to give the Yaks credit when faced with a difficult situation, the entire city-state as a whole would come together to invent a solution to preserve themselves. And given the overcrowding and the… pollution that the fans had left behind, they all knew that they will not go away until all of them could hear the Changeling’s music. Because if not all of them could hear her… well… they fear the worst may come. 

Which was way that just outside of the city gates, the pulled together a system of horns that act as a massive megaphone. It worked so well, that even a whisper into this contraption could be heard from whoever was on the other side of the valley. And given the equipment that Ocellus had brought along, this was essentially very good news.

Standing before the lake of her audience, a guitar in her hoof and the row right below her, she approached the mouthpiece. “Good afternoon Yakyakistan! Are you all ready to rock!” Her audience cheered loudly. “That’s good to hear because, at the very end of this, I have a brand-new song for this occasion. But before we can get to that, let’s start off with something fun, shall we?” Cheering still, she looked down for a moment at her instrument, making sure that her hooves were on the right chords and near the other mouthpiece for them to hear. “Let’s start with ‘Can’t Buy Me Love.’”

Her audience screamed at the name, so she, in turn, sang with as much excited energy as the crowd and stopped on the first button. 



As she sang, she started to notice that the ground was starting to shake to the beat of the song. It didn’t take long to figure out where it was coming from. Near the front row where she was playing, there were lines of young Yaks that were stomping in a dancing frenzy. It wasn’t strong enough to throw Ocellus off balance, but she could feel that they were keeping time to the drumbeat. 

Even in the snow, her audience had started to dance in the lake of moving and swaying bodies that waved their limbs and cascade over one another. It was, in Ocellus’s eyes, an impression of a sea of color in a storm. Chaotic as it is, the way the audience moved with the melody, in how they twist, turn, shout, and stomp was in perfect harmony of one another. It was surreal to the Changeling that she was the one that’s conducting this surreal impression of color, bodies, and frenzied souls with nothing more than her voice and a guitar.

While she played on, singing the song from memory, she looked further into the detail of her audience. Here, there were young Yaks who stomped in joy of seeing her. There, a griffin was dancing with another in the air. In the corner, a blond, chubby stallion with a camera was taking pictures. And in the very back, a group of fans had put together a series of signs, each one that had a large, capitalized letter and holding them up to spell:

THE BEATLE FOR LIFE!

On top of all this, Ocellus felt that she was being smothered in love from every direction. A melting pot of flavors that was on her tongue every time she opened her mouth. There was a split thought that if Chrysalis was smart in the past, she could easily have gained more love than what anyling would do with simply by being a musician. In a song alone, there was a feast of love that could back in the day sustain the hive for a year. 

But she couldn’t think too hard on that. 

For now, she had a concert to sing.





The cold, bitter air was welcoming, yet a hard gift on her lungs. Going through one song after another for about half-an-hour was like running up Mt. Everhoof in her slippers. While difficult the task, she was almost through with her task. Still, there was one last song to do.

After taking a brief moment to get a drink of water and switching her guitar, she turned to her audience. “I promised a new song for you, didn’t I?” They cheered mindlessly. “Well, since I had planned on going on this small tour, especially to Yakyakistan first, I thought it would be nice to sing a song about it. Well, thanks to the brilliant songwriters of Pull McCart and Dawn Lemon, we came up with the perfect song. I hope you guys like it. It’s called, Back in Yakyakistan.”



So she immediately got right to it with a quick buildup of low chords which build up louder and louder among the now deafening audience. And then, she sang.

What came out of her voice was a raw, passionate energy that echoed out throughout the valley. At that moment it was as if all the good elements of rock-and-roll with all its energy, with the subtle chord progression of classical music, the result of that final song was magical. From the young Yaks, it was as if they had finally found the music they wanted to hear. From the other fans, it was thrilling to listen to Ocellus push her vocals to ever greater limits as she was giving everything she got. 

To the rocking beat, even the very ground had shaken as if it was experiencing an earthquake. So much so, that during the shaking, Ocellus had to take flight to keep herself off the ground to the bouncing microphones just to keep herself study. She concentrated hard among the discordant screams of the fans and tried as hard to stay on tempo, on the beat. Fortunately, the repeated Thump! Thump! Thump! that was, a strange way, helped her like a metronome.

She got to the part of the song where she praised those Yak mares that blow her away by leaving the south behind. Of how those ladies are on her mind in the coda. Below her, there were shouts and cheers of both sexes, she could have sworn that she saw one of the larger females’ faint, squishing a few ponies underneath. Still, she continued.

After she has gotten through the last verse, she decided that she wasn’t done yet. Right where the original song ended, with the three-note “Woo ooo ooo.” She repeated this over to where some of the audience started to catch on. “Sing it with me!” Ocellus cried out as the three-note chant repeated growing louder with her guitar. It grew, and grew, forward, behind, left, right, above and below, the chant of raw excitement became louder before Ocellus exploded with the final lyrics in how glad to be back in Yakyakistan. 

Playing the final chord, she pump her hoof in the air and screamed: “THAT’S ALL I HAVE, THANK YOU YAKYAKISTAN!” The crowd screamed back. Satisfied, Ocellus took a bow.

Immediately, among the loudest of cheers from her audience, she turned and galloped back through the city gates. To her surprise, the local Yaks too were applauding by stomping on their hooves, especially the elders that showed their approval. 

“Very clever.” Prince Rutherford said as he approached her, “Last song had traditional Yak chant, and Changeling used it appropriately too.”

“Chant?” She blinked. “What chant?”

“The chant of joy. It is simple chant, but Changeling places it in song, good touch.”

“So I take it you liked the music?”

There was a loud mutter all around.

The Prince laughed, “Changeling music, not as good as Yak music is still pretty good. But last song Changeling sing was best.”

“Well, thank you.” She bowed. Ocellus took noticed that near one of the huts, Starlight still looked exhausted from having to perform a few energy-draining magic. “Prince Rutherford, if it’s appropriate, is it possible to ask you a favor?”

He solemnly nodded. “Depends, what is Changeling request?”

“If you can’t, I understand but… is it possible to get me and Starlight to the Crystal Empire as quickly as possible? I still feel bad for what had happened this morning, and I figure that the sooner I leave, the sooner you’ll have all the uh… unwanted tourists out of your manes.”

The Prince parted his mane so that he could look at her, “Consider it done. Yaks know short cut. While they go through old road, you shall go through secret path. Prince will be sure to give escorts for your safe passage.”

“Thank you, Prince Rutherford.”

So after quickly packing up their things and the equipment, Ocellus and her chaperone were on their way with an armed escort. Around the frantic audience and down towards the shining Empire.





Later that night, Starlight walked out from a much-needed shower. Thanks to Ocellus’s popularity and her connections, she had managed to get a few rooms at the Crystal Palace. Although the Crystal Empire was not their destinations, it was a merciful stop between Yakyakestan and where they’re planning on going next. For now, however, she was in the process of drying herself off.

A thought came to her that maybe she should go check on Ocellus to see if she’s doing alright. So, after she was done, she went to the room next door to hers and knocked. “Ocellus? Hey, you doing okay?”

But there was no reply.

She knocked again. “Ocellus?” Putting a hoof on the handle, she noticed found that it was unlocked. After she opened it, the room was empty. On the bed, however, she spotted an open guitar case. “Where did you go?” she said aloud.

Starlight spent a good half-hour looking for the student, asking the servants and guards if they had seen her. They pointed towards the barracks that housed the Crystal Guards. This made her curious, what is Ocellus doing over there? She went through the hallways and down staircases, and at one point, she could swear that she heard singing. Like a choir of voices that hauntingly sang in the echoes of the Palace.

At last, she reached it; and through the doorway were not only the guards that had gathered around Ocellus who was standing on a table but even random servants. Here and there, maids and hoofcolts gathered around the Changeling just in time for Starlight to hear that they were singing along with Ocellus at the end of one of her songs.

She paused when they applauded. 

“Another!” Someone cried out.

“Oh, I don’t know…” Ocellus said, her back against the open door where Starlight can see her. “I think it’s getting late and I…” All around her, there were pitiful, begging moans for her to stay just a little longer. “Well… Just one more song, alright? One more and I need to head to bed.” There was an agreeable murmur. “Okay, so what song haven’t we done yet?”

“Oh! Oh!” A maid raised her hoof, jumping in excitement. “Do Eight Days a Week!”

“Alright, alright!” Ocellus said before a wave of suggestions could say otherwise. “Does everyone know this one?”

There was laughter. “It’s practically an anthem for us,” one of the guards joked. 

“I’ll take that as a yes.” She said before she starts strumming her guitar. “This is Eight Days a Week.”



Ocellus started to string out the first few bars before they began to sing. They were loud enough that they drowned out her voice, and yet, it seemed that the young Changeling didn’t mind. Through the doorway, Starlight saw a comradery out of this love song. Standing there, she saw the tired faces on all of them, a sign from a hard day’s work. From the guard that had to stand in place for hours to the maids that were down low scrubbing floors until they shine like mirrors, it was as if everyone in that room could relate to that song.

It suddenly occurred to Starlight why Ocellus was here. She was, at least briefly, giving the staff here a good enough time to relax and sing songs. That out from a monotonous life, she is providing them with lively music that had joy in every bar. How they sang together, clop their hooves together to the beat, all of them living in that moment of that last song. And she noticed this with Ocellus that compared to the concert from this morning, this single room with all of the palace staff was the happiest place in the world.