Lectern’s New and Used Books: Fall Semester

by Dave Bryant

Sunset’s friends ask her what music is like back home

Lectern’s New and Used Books, and the street running alongside the converted bungalow’s back yard, echoed with unaccustomed activity as five teenage girls labored to convert part of the wood fence to a double-leaf gate. Most of the noise was hammering of one sort or another, though voices figured prominently as well—particularly Applejack’s, in her role as straw boss on the project. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie supplied most of the remaining muscle, with Rarity and Twilight Sparkle handling tasks calling for coordination rather than strength. It wouldn’t do to flaunt their transformed magical talents in public, so they constrained themselves to more conventional methods—except when they could conceal a little magical help in some fashion.

Sunset Shimmer and Fluttershy sat at one of the weathered round redwood tables gracing the terra-cotta patio not far away. Though the weather was a little cold for comfort, they were determined to be with their friends even when working on a different project. Songwriting had fallen by the wayside over the last three frantically busy months, but all the Rainbooms wanted at least one new song for the late-autumn music festival now just a week away.

Brows furrowed in thought, the pair bent over music sheets scrawled with notes and notations and conferred in low, brief phrases. The pencils in their hands tapped or scribbled. Occasionally one or the other would hum a snatch of tune or sing a phrase, testing it out. Finally Fluttershy rubbed her eyes with the heels of her palms; Sunset sat back, blowing out a breath. By tacit agreement, it was time for a rest.

“What about a title?” Sunset asked half-rhetorically. “I can’t think of anything appropriate that isn’t hopelessly cheesy or pompous.”

“Well, let’s see,” Fluttershy responded thoughtfully. “We’re going to donate the ticket sales to the Dazzlings’ therapy care. The song is about how they’re going through a lot of changes, and how they still have a long way to go, but they’re working on it.”

“And from what I was told they still have an affinity for music, even if right now they’re pretty sensitive about it. Hmm. ‘Working on It’? No, that isn’t quite right.”

Fluttershy nodded in agreement. “I like the idea, though.”

Seeing the pair no longer absorbed in their collaboration, Twilight called out humorously, “How’s it going over there? Are you finished or is it still a work in progress?”

The songwriters stared at each other and in unison cried, “That’s it!”

“That’s what?” Pinkie asked quizzically.

“We were just wondering what to call it,” Sunset explained. “‘Work in Progress’ is perfect.”

“You’re welcome,” Sci-Twi said cheekily, inspiring general giggles and snickers. Sunset grinned, gratified by Twilight’s breezy, cheerful mood—a wonderful change from darker days haunted, sleeping or waking, by the specter of Midnight Sparkle.

 
Much later all of them sat around two of the tables pushed together, as was their habit when occupying the patio. “Sprawled” perhaps was more accurate; all of them were tired but pleased with their day’s work. They still had enough energy to try out the mostly completed song a cappella in quiet tones, familiarizing themselves with the lyrics and structure, showing up weak points that weren’t apparent to Fluttershy and Sunset alone. After a couple of run-throughs and the resulting jotted corrections and reminders to work on more, everyone was quiet for a time, simply resting and enjoying each other’s company.

At last, though, Dash spoke up idly. “So you told us about learning electric guitar, Sunset, but I gotta ask: What’s the music like where you come from? If they don’t have electricity most places, they can’t have electric guitars, right?”

Sunset chuckled and teased, “There’s hope for your jock brain yet, RD.” She ducked a thrown work glove and stuck out her tongue at her assailant, then continued more seriously. “You’re right, of course. Electric instruments, much less any digital technology, have to be way in the future back home.” She paused for a moment’s reflection; “home” had become a complex word for her. The others, by now able to follow their friends’ thoughts pretty well, blossomed with small, supportive smiles.

“You’d recognize it—it’s not that different—but it probably would sound pretty old-fashioned to you. Let’s see. . . . Recording is just getting started. There’s sheet music, and the new high-speed printing presses are making that lots cheaper and easier to get, just like magazines and newspapers.” Sunset waved a hand at her bookbag, where she often carried the Manehattan, Canterlot, and Ponyville newspapers sent her by Princess Twilight. “Musical instruments aren’t a whole lot cheaper, even here, than they were before industrial production, but they’re a lot easier to find. I’ll bet you can remember your grandparents’ or great-grandparents’ generations having a piano in almost every house.”

Most of her audience nodded, and Applejack said, “Heck, we have one.”

“There’s more emphasis on instruments that are easier for hooves or levitation—trombones more than trumpets, for instance, and a lot more of what you’d call lap slide guitars here, instead of the kind we play.”

Twilight pushed her glasses back up her nose with a fingertip. “You mentioned recording. I guess that would be things like player pianos and cylinder phonographs?”

“Yep! In fact, the last I heard, the first disc phonographs are selling like hotcakes, which puts them a little ahead of your history, I think.” Sunset grinned and waggled her eyebrows challengingly; the others laughed.

“So far, darling, we’ve seen some of that for ourselves in the newspapers,” Rarity pointed out. “In the advertisements, if nothing else. Though I admit I hadn’t anticipated the differences in what kinds of instruments are more popular.”

“Mm, good point. Okay, what else?” Sunset pondered a moment. “How about this: All that newfangled technology is making it easier for individual ponies—people—to make their own music, or to get it for themselves, so popular music is starting to spread at the expense of formal music. That’s where the action is.”

“So in another hunnerd, two hunnerd years they’ll have jazz, country-western, rock and roll—or at least music kinda like that,” Dash said. “And orchestras will be playing stuffy old-people music.” She looked a little defensive. “At least, that’s what younger ponies’ll say, right?”

Sunset propped her chin on a hand. “That would be my guess, yeah, but it might sound pretty different. I’m sure it’ll be just as complex and varied, but who knows what kinds of influences will go into it?”

“Magic,” Pinkie Pie put in with a wave of her arms over her head. “What about that?”

“Oh, it has some impact, but not as much as you might expect.” To the others’ raised eyebrows, Sunset went on, “Think about it. If magic can do it, why develop technology? Why is Equestria going through an Industrial Revolution at all?”

“I . . . never thought of that,” Rarity answered, taken aback. The others nodded in agreement, though Twilight looked thoughtful—clearly she’d wondered, even if none of the others had.

Sunset’s grin turned sly. “The answer’s pretty simple, just not obvious. Technology can be scaled up . . . but magic can’t, at least not very well. It takes a whole team of ponies, even magically strong earth ponies, to haul a train; a single locomotive does it better and faster. A crane can lift big heavy loads more efficiently than a crew of unicorns.” She made a claw of her hand and mimed a crane.

“Now, if it’s a small job, or a specialized one for an expert craftspony, yeah, magic can do some pretty amazing things. There’s a really popular singer right now who’s pioneering the use of unicorn spellwork to produce some of the same effects we get here with vocoders. How they’re doing it, I haven’t a clue. Remember, I was a student, not an expert.”

“If it’s that hard to do,” Twilight mused, thinking hard, “it might stay just a gimmick. It could be a really good gimmick, but . . .”

“But she won’t have a lot of competition, and it may not have a big long-term effect,” Sunset finished.

Dash broke in again. “But didn’t you tell us they can control the weather there? I mean, we can’t do that here at all, so that has to be something only magic can do, right?”

Sci-Twi commented pedantically, “A lot of scientists aren’t sure it would be a good idea even if we could—well, for our world, at least.” She glanced over at Sunset. “And I’ll bet there are limits to what weather ponies can do.”

The quondam unicorn shrugged. “I’m not up on the fine points of pegasus magic, but I’m pretty sure they have to work with whatever the local climate is. I think they can push the limits some, but if they go too far or too long, the results could be pretty bad. If they’re working in, say, a desert, they can’t make it rain all the time like it does over a tropical forest. So there’s only a little rain, but they can decide when and how it falls.”

Applejack whistled. “Even that much must make farmin’ a whole lot easier.”

“Sure does. Sometime I’ll have to tell you girls the whole story of the founding and Hearth’s-Warming. Anyway, the point is, technology is better than magic for big jobs, and makes it easier for the average pony to do a lot of things. Judging from the history here, I’ll bet that’s what’ll have the biggest effect on music.”

 
The discussion drifted in a technical direction, with more specific questions and topics. Sunset ended up humming or singing a range of tunes from memory, from old folk songs out of all the tribes’ traditions to recent favorites. The others agreed even the latter did sound old-fashioned to rock-attuned ears, but enjoyed them all nonetheless—if nothing else, for the glimpse they gave of another world the imported newspapers and magazines couldn’t provide.

At last the lot of them ended up singing an old round dating from Equestria’s early days, celebrating the new nation’s unity. Sunset directed the parts based on the tribes of her friends’ counterparts, and after a few stanzas they all collapsed into giggles, exhausted but happy.

“You know,” Rarity murmured thoughtfully, “we couldn’t perform the songs that really give away their sources, Sunset darling, but a good many of the songs you’ve sung us work just as well here as they do in your homeland. I wouldn’t mind performing some of them once in a while.”

Sunset sat back with an odd expression. “I never thought of that. I . . . the Rainbooms are more of a rock band. Would that work?”

Dash waved her arms dismissively. “Who cares? I think it would be awesome to branch out a little.”

“And it would be a nice way to honor your country and your world,” Twilight added.

“Besides, we all know ya get homesick once in a while.” Applejack smiled crookedly. “’Less ya think it’d be too much?”

“No—no, I think it would be great!” Sunset blinked a few times and finally raised a hand to brush at her eyes. “I don’t think we could do it for the concert coming up, which is too bad, but yeah, once we get some practice in on some of them, I’d love to.”

Pinkie just drummed on the table enthusiastically, leaving no doubt of her agreement, and Fluttershy nodded with a smile.

Author's Note:

No, I have no idea how or why Sunset learned electric guitar. The best fan explanation I’ve seen is that she learned it while dating Flash Sentry to practice her then-new manual dexterity—but I don’t want to commit to it (or any other) in case it’s “jossed” by later Equestria Girls canon. For this story, the details aren’t important, so I simply leave it open as a “noodle incident”.

Comments

[Snowdrifter]

Well, it makes sense that Sunset Shimmer learned to play guitar by..
(Wait for it...)
... Using her noodle!

[Poet Knight]

So... does/did Sunset not know of Ponyville's resident DJ? Did Pri-Twi not talk about her brother's wedding?

[Dave Bryant]

9623552
As I’ve described in other comments and posts, I hew rigorously to the late-nineteenth-century level of technology the series originally was supposed to work with, before the rampant anachronisms started creeping in. No DJs, no electronics, nothing like that.

[BirdsBooksBrownies]

9625277
I enjoy a good Vinyl Scratch story or video as much as any other fan, but I definitely agree that the show was particularly loosey-goosey where tech was concerned. Lauren Faust I believe said her main concerns were people putting in ridiculous things like finger sized light-switches or smartphones never mind warping a pony's foreleg so they could fit around a human-style umbrella.

Baron Engel managed a clever work around making her a Steam-punk style artist incorporating such marvels as a Steam operated Calliope for example.