Octavia Sings the Blues

by GrassAndClouds2

Bluenote's Day

If Bluenote had to pick her favorite part of her home, she would choose the music room without hesitation. It was perfect for its job: just big enough that she could fit four students in at once for ensemble lessons, but small enough that the foals felt comfortable instead of intimidated. The bright blue walls put teacher and students alike into a pleasant mood, and the cushions scattered liberally around were just the right size for a weary pony who had been wrestling with sousaphone or sax for an hour. Over the years, dozens of foals had joyfully scampered from one shelf to the next as they searched for the perfect instrument, jammed out melodies while their teacher smiled and praised and played right alongside them, and reclined on those cushions as they ate pudding and listened to a piece of music that Bluenote felt would be instructive. It was a place of happiness and laughter, and whenever Bluenote was feeling sad or upset, a brief stop in her music room cheered her up. It was a good room.

But even a music teacher didn't teach all the time. And so, when Bluenote wasn't teaching--or having fun with her adult friends, or swinging on her hammock in the backyard while sipping a tall glass of lemonade, or sleeping peacefully in her bed while dreaming of musical delights--she often played around in her second favorite room, the kitchen. Just as she improvised with music to produce jazz tunes she loved, she intuitively combined ingredients to produce her favorite snacks. Yes, it took a while, and there were false starts--she'd rather not think about the melted toast incident, or the flaming bowl of cereal--but that was part of the fun. The delicious food at the end tasted even better when compared with the silly disasters of the first few attempts. And the satisfaction of having improvised it from scratch just made the whole thing all the better.

And so it was that Bluenote, after a quick trip to the market, returned to her kitchen and began preparing for what she was certain would be a fun day of baking. "Alright!" she chirped as she set her big bag of groceries onto a counter. "Flour, check! Yeast, check! Olive oil, yogurt, onion, licorice..." She unpacked fifteen ingredients, some of them ones Octavia had used, some she hadn't. To those she added a few spices, herbs, and some other foodstuffs from her cabinets and larder. A big frying pan and some mixing bowls were dug out from a cabinet, utensils came from a sideboard, and in short, the kitchen was quickly prepped for a day of baking. Within minutes, almost everything was ready.

"I think I've got everything," mused Bluenote. "Now--oh! Can't believe I almost forgot it!" She hurried to a cabinet and plucked out a big poofy chef's hat that was twice as big as her head. Giggling, she set it on her head and admired her reflection in the window. "Alright, now I've got my baking hat and I'm ready to bake! One order of delicious naan bread, coming right up!"

She proofed the yeast and kneaded the first batch of dough quickly, her experienced hooves making short work of the task. She then mixed in some of the ingredients Octavia had used, including sugar, salt, and yogurt. She also added a few of her own devising, including herbs, a hint of cream, and garlic that was passed through the oven until it had been roasted into a golden brown. This, thought Bluenote, Will be like a garlic breadstick, but naan is so thin that it will be even crunchier and yummier than a normal breadstick! This will be delicious! She split the naan into pieces and put three in to cook--she didn't have a tandoor, but she figured that she could just cook it for a little longer using her oven's lower amount of heat--and then moved on to the next set while it cooked. Okay, that one's in. Let's see, how about a dessert one next?

Batch two was a sweet naan, with chocolate, cinnamon, and other ingredients that foals worldwide (and also Pinkie Pie) loved with all their hearts. Batch three was another dessert, but instead of decadent chocolate, Bluenote experimented with simply increasing the amount of sweet cream and yogurt. Soon it too was ready for baking. Bluenote opened the oven up, realized that it was time to check on batch one, and took out the pan...

And saw a mass of flaming charcoal. Furthremore, once she doused it in water and cracked it open, she saw that the inside was somehow still raw.

She blinked for a moment, then laughed. "Guess I should have kneaded the dough a little thinner." Shaking her head at her own silliness, she set the charcoal aside, then moved on to the next batch.

Don't worry, stomach. I'll get this naan yet!

***

"...Oh! I'm an expert baker, baking just for fun!
"The stallions say they like my cakes; I'd love to make them some!
"My cakes are so much in demand, I've never had to foist!
"The stallions eat so many that they have to leave in hoists!

She whistled a few bars as she approached the oven to take out the next batch. Her kitchen now had quite a few naan remnants, ranging from sludge to bricks to charcoal blocks to 'actually pretty good,' but she wasn't going to stop until she was completely satisfied. This particular variety used a very thin piece of naan with heavy water content to stop it from burning, as well as a few other ingredients for taste. She visualized what she wanted it to look like, a perfect piece of flaky, crispy, bubbling, golden-brown naan. Then she sang a few more lines from her song:

"One stallion says my bread could not be better than his mum's!
"He then examined all my dough; he even squeezed my buns!
"I had to--"

Bluenote's door banged open and scampering hooves heralded the arrival of Bluenote's first student of the day. "Blue! Blue!" cried out Titchy Scratch as she hurried into the kitchen, a tin recorder poking out of one saddlebag. "HI!"

"Hi, Titchy!" Bluenote grinned. "You're a couple minutes early. Want to help me with a taste test? Miss Philharmonica showed me a recipe and now I'm trying to make it myself, but I'll need a foal with some really good taste buds to make sure I get it right!"

"Yay! Yay!" Titchy nodded his head so quickly that it blurred.

Bluenote chuckled, carefully set her gigantic baker's hat onto Titchy's (after tightening it a bit so that it didn't swallow the foal up), and turned back to the oven. Technically, she was being paid to foalsitting Titchy, but the foal seemed to like making noise on the recorder so much that Bluenote couldn't help but try to encourage that love of music with a few pointers here and there. And pointers there would be; Bluenote hoped to introduce the idea of scales today. Still, that could come after the food. She opened up the oven and took out the pan with the water-heavy naan...

Only to find that, while the water had stopped the naan from burning, it hadn't stopped it from melting in the high heat. The dough looked like porridge. Specifically, the kind of porridge that bubbled, and hissed and made foals all over Equestria insist that dessert for dinner was a perfectly viable choice.

"Yuck, yuck!" Titchy stuck out his tongue.

Bluenote poked it with a hoof, tasted it, then frowned. "Yes," she said, in a voice of sage wisdom. "I agree with your verdict of 'yuck.'"

Titchy giggled. Then a big bubble rose out of the naan liquid and burst, splattering Bluenote's face with naan goop and causing the foal to laugh even harder. When Bluenote took the chef's hat back, looking like the most hapless and bemused baker in the world, the foal was in hysterics. Lessons are fun! he thought.

Bluenote caught a glimpse of herself in the window and chuckled as well. "Oh no!" she said, raising up to her hind legs and extending her front hooves as if she were Frankenstein. "It's the gloop monster! It's going to gloopify you!"

"Run, run!" Titchy giggled and took off at a run. Soon the two were scampering through the house, until Titchy was worn out enough that he was willing to sit down and go through a (very loud) scale or two with Bluenote.

And so they played, and they had a blast. And when they were done, Bluenote returned to her kitchen. Okay, so using lots of liquid doesn't work. Maybe if I...

***

Silver Spoon blinked at the spread in front of her. "What is it?"

"A little onion, a little licorice, a little roasted garlic..." Bluenote delicately spread some of the mixture onto a thick slice of rye bread. "Also a few herbs, some olive oil, and a touch of yogurt. Hungry?" She beamed and offered her the slice.

The foal licked her lips, but then shook her head and looked in the direction of the music room. "No. We should start practicing. I mastered all the exercises that you assigned me last week. I'm ready for the next level."

Bluenote chuckled. "You mastered everything I assigned you? You must have worked very hard!"

She made sure to give Silver Spoon an encouraging smile, but the foal just inclined her head. "Of course I did," she said. "I always do."

Bluenote walked the foal over to her music room, carefully determining how to elicit a grin or a giggle from the serious, reserved student. "How did your band practice go yesterday?"

The foal frowned. "A slow start," she said. "We started by arguing over the name again; Tootsie Flute wants us to be called the Pretty Flowers, and Bebop wants us to be called the Rock-Awesome Foals, and I wanted something more elegant and refined. And even once we got going we got distracted."

"What did you practice?"

"Tootsie Flute learned a melody from Lyra, and so we were trying to play it on our instruments. But then Bebop started trying to dance to it, and she's not a very good dancer so I had to show her how to dance, and by the time Betty Buttle came in with our food for the snack break we were all spinning and dancing instead of playing, and--"

Bluenote saw a smile flicker onto the foal's face for a moment before vanishing, as if Silver Spoon was ashamed that she had been distracted from her craft by foalish games. Aha! "That sounds like a lot of fun!" she said. "It reminds me of my first sock hop!"

"What's a sock?"

Bluenote waved a hoof. "Never mind. Why don't you play that melody for me? Maybe I can teach you how to play it so you can make your friends as happy as Tootsie Flute made you!"

Silver Spoon hesitated, obviously torn, before she climbed up onto the piano bench and slipped on the tapered gloves that she used to press the narrow piano keys with her hooves. "Well..." she said at last, "I thought we could do the next set of exercises today so I could get even better, and--"

"Are you sure?" Bluenote grinned. "Because we could do exercises anytime, but right now, I can help you learn a piece of music that I think you and your friends will find really fun! And then you can all play it together, and you can play it for the other ponies when your band debuts, and all your friends will be dancing and bopping around, and..."

She didn't need to continue; a smile had broken out onto Silver Spoon's face, almost as if the foal herself was unaware of it. The teacher beamed to herself, but outwardly, she just waited until the foal seemed to come back to herself. "Maybe just this once," she said, an undercurrent of eagerness plainly audible in her serious, businesslike tone. "I suppose that would be good training."

"Of course it would!" Bluenote sat by Silver Spoon. "Now..."

But the foal was looking hungrily at the slice of bread covered with spread, as if her concession to do one enjoyable thing made her more tolerant of others. "Actually," she said, "May I have a little of that spread?"

"Sure! Help yourself!"

Silver Spoon took a dainty bite of the bread. "Mmm!" she enthused, her attitude forgotten in the face of sheer deliciousness. "What is it?"

"Well, Miss Philharmonica showed me a recipe for a kind of bread called naan. I'm having a little trouble getting the baking part right, but in the meantime, I figured I could still work out the flavors. That's the mixture I'll add to the dough in my next trial. What do you think--"

She saw that the bread had somehow obtained a large bite out of its side while she had been talking. Silver Spoon, a bit of spread smeared around her muzzle, blushed slightly. "It's, ah, very good. Not quite like my father's chef can do, but still, quite respectable." She nodded. "I approve."

"I'm glad you like it!" said Bluenote, making a note that this set of ingredients was a keeper. "Now, how did that melody go?"

"Well, it started like this..."

***

Bluenote's last appointment of the day was a filly who didn't yet like music all that much.

"Alright!" said Bluenote, hurrying out of her kitchen with her chef's hat on her head and a tray balanced on her back. "We're all ready!"

"Ready for what?" Noi wrinkled her nose. She was Carrot Top's younger sister, and was at Bluenote's only because her mother had told her that she needed a hobby. She had wanted, Bluenote knew, to help her sister with her hydroponic farming, but she didn't quite have the science background to handle that yet. So she was at Bluenote's house instead, clearly looking for whatever would take the least effort to get her mother out of her mane.

"Ready to hear some music!" Bluenote put the tray down next to Noi and walked over to a fancy record player. Except for the piano and her cottage itself, it was the most expensive thing she owned. "What kind of music do you like?"

"Whatever."

"Hmm. I don't think I have that genre." Noi giggled, and Bluenote put on some light and bouncy classical music that she knew foals often liked. "Do you like it?"

"It's fine," said Noi, with no real conviction. She tasted some of the bread on the tray that Bluenote had set down. "What's this?"

"Naan bread. Miss Philharmonica gave me the recipe. How is it?"

Noi frowned. "Like... burned onions?"

This was true, Bluenote discovered, once she took a bite. It wasn't charcoaled, or melted, or raw, but the onions were off. They had to be roasted before going into the dish so that the taste wasn't just raw onion, but apparently the onions couldn't be roasted all the way or they would burn once baked with the naan bread. The dough itself hadn't burned, but the onion chunks scattered within it added an unwholesome, charred taste anyway. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great either.

Fortunately, Bluenote had a solution for that. "Well, try some of the chocolate spread!" she said, pushing a little container nearer to the foal. "Chocolate makes everything taste good!"

Noi nodded at this incontrovertible fact and began to apply the spread. Meanwhile, Bluenote played a jazz record for a few moments, then an epic ballad of the sort Lyra liked and a wubstep record Vinyl had just produced. Noi, though, listened with no sign of joy except for when she was taking bites from the chocolate block of naan. Still, Bluenote was undaunted. Music was so wonderful that every foal was certain to like at least one song.

"Hmm," she said after another few records failed to impress. "Let's try something else. What's the most fun thing you did in the last two weeks?"

Noi brightened immediately. "My sister let me help her on her farm!" she said. "I got to help plant carrots, and even mix up the new tree ants for her hydropony thingies!"

"Nutrients for her hydroponics? That sounds like a lot of fun," said Bluenote.

"Oh, it is! And when we were done we sprayed each other with the hydropony hoses!" Noi paused. "But that was only cause her helper was out sick. Usually they all say I'm too little to do hydropony stuff."

"Well, you're growing fast," said Bluenote, rumaging through her shelves. Aha! She took out a recording of a hoedown that had taken place in Hoofington a few months prior. "I'm sure you'll be able to help soon."

"But I wanna help now!" said Noi, whose muzzle was now smeared with chocolate. "She's doing all kinds of cool stuff, and I wanna do it with her! Cause she's the best big sister ever!"

"Maybe you can," agreed Bluenote. "Here, listen to this."

She played the hoedown, a jaunty fiddle tune that was as warm and bright as a fine summer's morning, and as fast-paced and flowing as the nutrient slurries that Carrot Top fed her crops. It was the music that farmers danced to when the sun was low and they were celebrating the accomplishment of another day; the music of bountiful harvests and great feasts. It was music that bespoke confidence, joy, and satisfaction.

"Hey, I like this!" Noi sprang up from her cushion and hurried to the record player, as if trying to shove her head into the music. "This is really really good! It's amazing!"

"Maybe you could help your sister by learning to play music like this," said Bluenote. "I'll bet you could get good enough on the fiddle so that, when she came home after a long day of hydroponicing, you could make her really happy with a song like that!"

"Yay!" Noi hopped from hoof to hoof, ennui forgotten. "Can you teach me fiddle, Bluenote? Please please please?"

"It's not my specialty, but I can certainly get you started." Bluenote grinned. "You should go see Medley about getting a fiddle. I'll get you set up with some basic scales."

The 'lesson' concluded soon after, with Noi borrowing some of Bluenote's hoedown records for 'inspiration.' "You should also come to Tootsie Flute's recital," said Bluenote. "Some of her music sounds a little like this. I think you'll like it!"

"I'll be there!" said Noi. "When is it?"

"Just a little bit, actually." Bluenote looked out her window, which gave her a nice view of the setting sun. "Maybe twenty minutes, in Ponyville Park."

"I--" Noi's stomach rumbled. "Can I get a snack first?"

"Actually, there'll be snacks at the concert. So save your appetite! You'll get to taste some delicious food soon enough!"

When she was gone, Bluenote checked the clock. She had just enough time to make one more try of the naan, and she thought she knew what to do this time. She had the ingredient mix right, so if she just thinned the bread a little more, she would make a delicious, crispy, chewy, flaky naan. And the foals would love it, just as they would love the music, and they would be happy. And that was what mattered.

Whistling merrily, Bluenote reentered her kitchen and began her last try at the bread.

***

"Bluenote!"

The tubist grinned as the foals surrounded her. She had been running late, but had managed to pack up the last batch of naan and rush to the park just in time. "Hello!" she said. "Are you ready for a wonderful concert?"

"YAY!" the foals cheered.

Tootsie Flute hopped onto the stage and took out her flute. Her smile was bright even in the evening light. "Thank you!" she squeaked. "I'm going to share my first epic ballad! It's called 'The Ballad of Tootsie Flute and her Awesome Adventures!'"

Lyra, one of the few adults present, cheered louder than anypony else. "You'll do awesome, Tootsie Flute!"

"But first," chirped Bluenote. "While she gets warmed up, I brought a few snacks!" She set the trays down onto a table and began to unpack them. "Would anypony like to try some?"

"Me!" cheered all the foals, Lyra, and Pinkie Pie.

"What is it?" asked Scootaloo.

"This is based on a recipe I got from Octavia Philharmonica," said Bluenote. "Now, I haven't had time to taste this last batch yet, so you should let me try it first--"

Her protests were cut off when the foals stampeded past her and grabbed slices.

"Or you can be as surprised as I am," Bluenote said. She took a slice for herself, tried it...

And was almost knocked over by a blast of raw onion and garlic.

She had cut the roasting time for the onion, garlic, and other herbs too far. Now they hadn't cooked at all, and instead of the caramelized taste of roasted vegetables, it was just sharp blasts of onion onto her tongue. Even Bluenote, the village's gourmand, coughed as her body disagreed with the naan.

There were other problems too. The dough had become dry and brittle the onion hadn't cooked down with roasting, so there was more onion and less dough, so the bread had cooked faster and dried out. The delicate flavors of the other ingredients were lost in the raw onion and crackling dough. And there was even a faint hint of curdled cream mixing in with everything else. All in all,the dish didn't work.

And the foals agreed. "Yuck!" they cried. "This is awful! It's horrible! Blech!"

Bluenote sighed bemusedly and put one of the naan pieces on her head. Ah well. Better luck next time! "Well, at least it makes a good hat!" she said.

The foals looked at her, laughed, and then began having a food fight with the rest of the bread.

Next week, at the hoedown. Then I'll get it for sure. But for now... Bluenote thought, her gaze drifting back to the stage. Now, Tootsie--

"Bluenote!" The tubist turned to see Octavia trotting over. "I hope I am not too late. I heard that Tootsie Flute was giving a concert tonight?"

"Yes!" cheered Lyra. "At long last, her training and toil pay off! Now, she will delight us all with her ballad of wonder and glory!"

"I look forward to hearing it," said Octavia.

"Just don't try the food," said Sweetie Belle, in the innocently insensitive manner of foals. "It's awful."

"Oh?" Octavia trotted over to the table. "What is it?"

Bluenote had a sudden feeling of impending doom.

"Naan!" said Apple Bloom. "But Sweetie's right. It's terrible."

"Isn't it your recipe?" asked Diamond Tiara, her voice sickly sweet. "I'm so sorry if this is the kind of thing you had to eat growing up, Miss Philharmonica."

Octavia was silent for a moment. "Excuse me?"

"Well--" began Bluenote.

"Bluenote said it was your recipe," said Silver Spoon. "If you like it, of course, there's nothing wrong with that. But I don't like raw onions or burned bread myself--"

"It was my mother's," said Octavia, in a low voice. She looked at Bluenote with something dangerous flashing in her eyes.

"Er..." said Bluenote.

Octavia turned away and trotted to the table, then took a slice of naan and tried it. Her eyes widened, and she was still for a moment. Then she turned to the tubist, and Bluenote stepped back, because she could see pain and anger in the cellist's eyes.

"This is not my mother's recipe," she hissed.

"I just tried--"

"This was was meaningful to me!" the cellist said. "But you ruined it for some... inane joke?!"

"It wasn't supposed to be a joke!" said Bluenote. "It was supposed--"

Octavia slowly glanced up at Bluenote's head, where she was still wearing a piece of the terrible naan bread as a hat.

"I mean..." Bluenote trailed off. "But... it's just a recipe. Right?"

Octavia's eyes flashed. "I told you this in confidence. Because I thought it might make you happy, because I know how much you like new foods. How could you turn it into this garbage for the sake of a cheap laugh?!"

"But--"

"I trusted you! And you have made me look like an idiot at your first opportunity!"

"But--"

"It's not Bluenote's fault!" objected Diamond Tiara, who was eavesdropping. "She's a great cook! It's not her fault your mom's recipe sucks--"

"Diamond Tiara!" snapped Bluenote, but it was too late.

Octavia's eyes glimmered with tears, and then she turned on her hoof and began to walk off. And when Bluenote called after her, she broke into a gallop and fled.

Bluenote stared after her. But... but it's just a recipe, I don't... what did I do wrong?

"Um, Miss Bluenote?" The tubist turned to see Tootsie Flute waving at her. "I'm ready to start now."

Bluenote desperately wanted to pursue Octavia to apologize and make things right. But she had a duty towards the foals. And so she fixed a smile on her face, took a breath, and said, "Of course! Ah, forget the snacks. Now we'll hear some music by Tootsie Flute..."

But even though Tootsie played her heart out, and even though all the foals clearly loved her music, Bluenote couldn't make herself feel happy.

Author's Note:

I had to edit that song a bit to make it more age appropriate. The original is a bit randier. (That song link is the reason this story has a teen rating.)

I thought it'd be fun to explore how Bluenote does her teaching. She's pretty good at it, I'd say.

I do want to explore the hydroponics more at some point (Talon and Thorn introduced the idea of CT using hydroponics in 'Generosity Games', and I really like the concept, hence it showing up again here). Maybe one of the Musical 6 will wind up on the farms for a while, and will learn about AJ's traditional methods and CT's hydroponic-based ones.

Comments

[Talon and Thorn]

I love the description of the music room, it sounds just perfect. How many instruments does she have on hoof? Does she have some sort of deal with Medley to have them on permanent loan? All those foals will be begging their parents to get them a *insert instrument here* for hearth's warming, could be quite a money spinner.

she'd rather not think about the melted toast incident, or the flaming bowl of cereal

So that's where Sweetie Bell learned it!

A nice mix of foals taking lesions today, they seem to cover a range of ages, Noi seems distressingly teenaged near the beginning although she opened up once they got to the bit she found interesting.

The idea of using gloves to play the piano is interesting but I'd assume that a pony piano would have keys big enough to play with hooves, unless that would make it to long. Maybe a wheeled stool to allow the pianist to zip up and down the register?

I think Octy took that a little hard at the end, sure it's a very important recipe to her but she bit Bluenotes head off a bit readily, I suppose she is the serious one and Bluenote did seem to be making it all a joke.

As for the Hydroponics, I sort of saw Carrot Top and Vinyl being similar, both trying hi-tech solutions to their crafts. Maybe Applejack and Carrot Top could get into some sort of disagreement (whether Carrot Top can enter her crop in some sort of competition?) and have Octy and Vinyl join in on different sides linking to their own styles of music (Is dub trot music? Octy votes No!).

[Whiteeyes]

Was that cereal line a reference to Magnetism?

[wolfstorm56]

Aww I knew it was coming but it was still hard to see such a misunderstanding explode like that. Though it was great to see how Bluenote interacted with the foals and she's pretty good at getting them to find something to enjoy about music.

[GrassAndClouds2]

4183230 : It was a reference to the Simpsons. In one episode, Homer pours a bowl of cereal and it immediately bursts into flame for no apparent reason.

4182973 : Bluenote has her tuba, a well-used piano, and some fundamentals (like the tin recorder she let Titchy use). She likely has a deal with Medley for pretty much exactly the reasons you discussed. :-) That said, since most foals are only going to get one or maybe two instruments ever, it's probably not all that lucrative.

While expanding a piano and adding a sliding stool could work for some things, it limits the range that the pianist can express at any given time (they can only stretch their forelegs so far, so if they're in the base tones, they might not be able to reach treble). So I think the normal piano with tapered gloves works better. In my mind, the gloves have 'fingers', which can play chords based on how the earth ponies roll their ankles about. (It's probably impossible for me to figure out a sane way for earth ponies to play a piano, but dang it, I'm going to try!)

This is the first time Octavia's ever been hurt by a friend... after all, it's the first time she's actually had friends at all. SoI think it makes sense that she's very upset.

I like the idea of a friendly competition between CT and AJ (dirt versus water!). It'd be funny if the foals got involved; I could just see Apple Bloom and Noi going at it. And Tavi and Vinyl on opposing sides could be fun too. (That said, I should probably emphasize that it would be a friendly competition--at worst, the kind of frenemie thing that Dash and AJ had going in your own 'Race That Ate Friendships.')

4183393 : One thing I really like about writing Bluenote is how she cares so much about making sure everypony has fun, even foals that might not be interested in music at first (like Noi) or who take things extremely seriously (like Silver Spoon). Not only will she teach them, but she'll make sure they're smiling while she does it. :-)

[Talon and Thorn]

4184397

Well for the piano maybe layers of keys to reduce the width of the instrument? You're never going to get one method to allow any combination of keys to be pressed at the same time but you have the same problem with a human piano so you're just limited in the sounds you can make and have to work music around it.

For the hydroponics side I didn't mean for Carrot Top to be a one trick pony in using it, she's interested in many 'high tech' forms of gardening so unusual fertilisers (might gross ponies out but does earth pony dung make crops grow quicker?), cross breeding of crops, depending on the tech level of the C-verse things like inducing Polyploidy in crops might work. It might be interesting to look into earth pony magic a bit deeper than just makes plants grow better and see if they can manipulate plants in other ways.

It might be interesting for Applejack to stand for the traditional ways of farming only to be reminded that traditional methods were new once, maybe with a reminder of Granny Smith discovering how to make zap apple jam.

[wolfstorm56]

4184397 ha, she sounds like a real kind sort. :)

[punzil504]

The melted toast incident?

img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130102024539/mlp/images/7/7e/Toast_S2E5.png

[Walabio]

About playing pianoforte, mine headcanon has the ponies able to project telekinetic dendritic fractal tentacles from their extremities. I imagine Cherilee having a lesson like thus:

> “Today, we shall see your gripping and manipulating magic projecting from your hooves. Please place an hoof into this sack of flour and think grab. Then withdraw the hoof.”
——
Cherilee

As the foals withdraw their hooves, a tentacle of flour emerges. The tentacle bifurcates into 2, then 4, then 8, et cetra tentacles. This continues at least someteen times, if not to infinity The foals can easily manipulate their fractal dendritic tentacles and use them for fine manipulation, making them much more dextrous than humans. The ratio of each parent tentacle to it children would be Φ:1. If the ponies fanout their tentacles, The tentacles of 1 hoof for a tentacle-tree the size of a pony-head.

I imagine that ponies could play the pianoforte

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

As someone who has a bachelor's degree in culinary arts, I think my sens of doom was larger than most. *Winces* Oh, Bluenote. There's room for improv, but first make sure you KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING!!!!!!

[Lord King Cocoon]

Yes, it took a while, and there were false starts--she'd rather not think about the melted toast incident, or the flaming bowl of cereal--but that was part of the fun.

Is Bluenote related to Sweetie Belle?

Want to help me with a taste test?

Bluenote: "Hey, Titchy! I like your new shirt. It's a really nice shade of red."

The dough looked like porridge. Specifically, the kind of porridge that bubbled, and hissed and made foals all over Equestria insist that dessert for dinner was a perfectly viable choice.

If Bluenote isn't related to Sweetie Belle, then she at least taught her how to cook.