Chapter 1 - A Complicated Situation
“So, Ocellus,” Sandbar asked, “how are your music lessons going?”
The young, blue Changeling adjusted her saddlebag. Although the hike through the White Tail Woods was rather trying for the whole class – especially Professor Applejack’s survival class – the sudden spring for conversation was welcoming. Since most conversations had fallen quiet for the last half-hour of the field trip, Ocellus greeted the break in the monotony.
“It’s coming along,” she replied to her friend, “Octavia is pretty nice and helpful. She made sense in how the guitar works along with what notes go where.”
“That’s good,” Sandbar, a young light green pony nodded. “And what song are ya gonna be doing?”
“Well, since we agreed that it’s best that I stuck with doing something easy for now, we thought that we should start out with the song, Yesterday.”
“Ooh! That’s a good one!” He beamed, “It’s such a classic.”
“Well, it’s hard not to be influenced when I could hear you playing The Beatles through the wall.” She giggled.
“What can I say? They’re my favorite band. They changed and influenced how music was thought about.”
“Maybe because their stuff is catchy. You know, until I came to school, I never heard of them. But once I’ve heard you playing their songs on that phonograph of yours, it’s hard to forget. To me, they sound like a lot of fun. All You Need is Love, Yesterday, Elanor Rigby, Yellow Submarine, Come Together, Strawberry Fields, Twist and Shout, it’s songs like those that want me to pick up an instrument and sing along.”
“I know, right!” Sandbar smiled.
“Hey! You two gonna catch up or what?” Shouted Smolder further up on the trail. The two of them quickly realized that they were behind and galloped over to catch up. Smolder the Dragoness was looking over her shoulder when they came up. She was behind Gallus, a Griffon; Yona the Yak, and in the lead was Silverstream the Hippogriff. “So, what got you guys distracted back there?”
“We were just talking about The Beatles,” Ocellus told her, “and that I’m gonna be playing one of their songs.”
Gallus asked her which one of their songs, and when she told him, he rolled his eyes. “You really should play Hey Jude, now that’s a fun one that’s catchy as Tartarus.”
“You know who The Beatles are?” Sandbar asked, an eyebrow raised.
“You’d be surprised by the amount of thrown away records we keep finding in Griffonstone.” He replied. “To be honest, before I came here, I was getting sick of Sargent Pepper being played on loop.”
“My favorite is Here Comes the Sun,” Silverstream interjected. “I love to hear it whenever I’m having a bad day. Once it starts playing, it’s like my troubles are washed away.”
“Yona thinks Beatles… okay.” Yona lifted up a hoof, waving carelessly. “Music nice. But Yona thinks pony music be better.”
“I see what you mean.” Smolder agreed. “The druggy stuff is a little too weird for my taste. But some of the other stuff isn’t that bad.”
“Well, I like them.” Ocellus said. “I still kinda wish that they might have made more songs, or at the very least meet them before they split up.”
“Too bad that half of them are still living, though.” Sandbar commented. “Hayson died of cancer, and Lemon murdered…” he shook his head. “It’s still sad, but at least McCart and Star are around, too bad that concert tickets to see either one of them costs a fortune.”
“Maybe,” the Changeling shrugged. “But you know, whenever I do play that song, I kinda daydream what it might have been like to play it along sides them. To become a Beatle, in a way.”
“Yona confused.” The Yak interjected, “Ocellus said Changelings not bugs.”
Ocellus laughed. After a while, the conversation died out as the students continued on the path when, out from the corner of the Changeling’s eye, she spotted something. Off from the path, she noticed a clearing where there was a patch of mud that looked like parts of it were glowing in a spectrum of colors. Curious, she flew over to that clearing to get a closer look.
The mud sat at the bottom of where a portion of the ground had sunken a little. But the longer she looked at it, the more colors that it changed as the soft earth illuminated from red to purple to green, to yellow, to blue and so on. She couldn’t sense any magic from this curious patch of soil as it was radiating light.
“Hey guys!” she called out, “Come look at this.” While she waited, she did what any creature would do – she reached out to touch it. At first, it just felt like ordinary mud. But when she tried to pull away, she found that she couldn’t move, as her hoof was sinking further in. “Guys!” she tried to pull away, but it kept being sunken in further. “GUYS! HELP!”
More of her foreleg was being swallowed up as if something from underneath had taken hold of her and wasn’t letting go. But while she struggled, she heard her friends come rushing in by the time her face was touching the mud. The next thing she knew, she felt their hooves and claws taking hold of her as she was sinking further. She held her breath before her head went under.
Ocellus couldn’t remember how she has woken up in a hospital bed. But the next thing she knew, her eyes were fluttering open in the sanitized lights overhead. Her vision cleared up as she could make out some figures around her. One of them leaned over her face. She could hear words with a tone that was concern. It took her a minute for her eyes and ears to readjust and process what was happening.
It was a face. And from the purple eyes, she realized who it was. Her mother was asking if she was alright.
“Mom?”
She felt being hugged by her. “Oh, thank Goddess, you’ve scared us! I almost thought we’ve lost you.”
Blinking, Ocellus took notice that not only that the rest of her family was here, but so were her friends. “What’s going on?”
“Hey Ocellus,” Smolder waved. “So long story short, you were nearly sucked into some kind of magical quicksand or something like that and you uh… almost died. We were able to pull you out, but we had to rush you over to the hospital as quickly as possible.”
“But you’re safe now,” her cherry eyed father said, placing a hoof over her head. “We got here as quick as we could to make sure you’re alright.”
Sitting up, she rubbed her hooves over her eyes. “How long am I going to be here?”
“Just overnight,” Sandbar told her. “There’s just some medicine you got to take and make sure that you don’t have anything that would make you sick.”
“Joy,” she said sarcastically, letting herself fall back and her head landing on a pillow.
“Which is why,” Smolder went around and pulled out a guitar. “I thought I’d bring this to you. That at least it would give you something to do.”
“My guitar,” she smiled, taking the instrument into her hooves. “How thoughtful of you. Since I’m going to be stuck here overnight, I might as well rehearse that song I’m practicing.”
“What song?” her mother asked.
“Oh! I don’t think you’ve heard of it yet, I just barely figured out how to play it. Do you mind if I…?”
Her parents told her to go right ahead.
Looking down at the row of strings, she took a moment to remember where exactly her hoof should be before she started to play slowly the first few bars, almost like a waltz in rhythm. And then, she began to sing. However, as she sang the first few lines that she stopped. Looking up, she noticed the faces of her parents in which they were entranced, however, what got her attention was her friends. They were looking at her wide-eyed. Amazed at what they were hearing. “What?”
“Well…” Sandbar gestured his hoof, “go on.”
Blinking, she did. As she continued on to sing, she observed the expressions of her friends. They were enchanted as if they never heard of the song before.
She couldn’t finish the song as she noticed how her friends were looking at one another. “Oh wow…” Silverstream whispered. “That was amazing! What was that?”
“Yesterday?” The Changeling answered.
“I must say,” her father told her, “that was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard.”
“Since when did you learn to write songs like that?” Gallus asked.
Ocellus blinked in confusion. “What are you talking about? I didn’t write it. McCart did.”
“Huh?” Sandbar tilted his head.
“You know, McCart. The Beatles.”
All her friends looked at one another, sharing a puzzled look. “Who?” The pony asked.
“The Beatles,” Ocellus said. “You know, Lemon, McCart, Hayson, and Star.” They blinked. “The Fab Four…? One of the greatest bands of all time…? Ringing any bells?”
“Is this new band?” Yona inquired.
“No! This was a group that was around in the ‘60s. Oh,” The young Changeling smirked. “I get it, this is a joke, isn’t it? Okay, ha-ha, very funny.”
“Now what are you talking about?” Gallus questioned. “We’re not pulling a prank here. You think we would when you’re in the hospital?”
“You’re…” Ocellus’s expression changed from skeptic to realization. “You’re serious?”
“Hon,” her mother asked, “are you okay?”
“But… you can’t be serious.” She insisted, ignoring her mother’s concern. “Sandbar, you introduced their music to me. They’re your favorite band.”
“Uh… no?” He shook his head, “That’s the The Who. Are you sure you’re alright?”
“Still,” Smolder said, “that was still a pretty nice sounding song there.”
“Nice?!” She sat up, nearly hopping off the bed. “That wasn’t just a ‘nice sounding song!’ It’s Yesterday! One of the greatest songs ever written! How can any of you not heard of it!?”
“Ocellus,” her father said, placing a hoof on her, “calm down. We’ve never heard of it either. And while that was really good, but you still need to rest.”
“But-”
“No buts,” her mother interrupted. “Ocellus, we’re grateful that you’re back, but right now, you need to rest up and do what the doctors tell you. Okay? You can practice that lovely song all you want, but what’s important right now is you need to take care of yourself.”
Even after her friends had left and her parents after, Ocellus lay in bed, thinking. It had to be a joke. A prank. That’s what it got to be. Her family was one thing was as they never heard of The Beatles or their songs. So, their behavior was believable. But her friends? They knew perfectly well who that band was. That was a fact. They couldn’t have forgotten the Beatles.
Except… she could sense when they were talking that they were all sincere. Nothing to hint that they were lying. However, even then they couldn’t be able to forget them…
Right?
As soon as she was free to leave, Ocellus went straight towards the school’s library. She spent hours desperately searching for some trace of The Beatles.
“They got to be here somewhere…” she muttered to herself as she looked around the music section of the library the twentieth time. “I just know it!”
Be it the music section, the history, or the cultural studies sections, she came out empty. Even when she went to every record and music shop in town, there wasn’t a single piece of evidence of their music. She turned towards the shop owners, musicians playing on the street, even her music teacher, but no matter who she went to, no one, it seemed, has any idea who the Changeling is talking about.
So, late at night, she turned to the one source of knowledge that she could go to. If there was someone who knew her obscure knowledge in every field, it was Princess Twilight Sparkle, the Headmare. Flying up to the crystalline doors, banging on them at a staccato pace until a very tired looking alicorn in a nightcap opened it.
“Ocellus?” Twilight asked, rubbing an eye and yawning. “It’s the middle of the night, what are you-”
“Do you honestly not know who The Beatles are?”
She shrugged. “Not really. Why?”
Ocellus’s jaw dropped. “Oh, Goddess… Then I’m in a really, really, really, really, really, really complicated situation.” Just as the Changeling was about to leave, she felt a tug on her tail, finding the Headmare’s magic was keeping her still.
“What’s wrong?” Twilight asked, trying to wake up. “You’re shaking, has something bad happened?”
“I… I…” Ocellus let her hunches drop to the ground. “Headmare… I think I need help.”
“Well, come inside. Tell me what’s bothering you.”
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Tracking this because of the brilliance of the concept.
...So I take it Coca Cola, cigarettes,
the guys who made WonderwallOasis, and Harry Trotter don't exist either?Jokes aside, as a fellow Beatlemaniac, I'm look forward to seeing where this goes.
:)
Can’t be done worse then the actual movie! I’m gonna have to read this!
9891761
Personally, I thought it had an interesting idea, but it didn't really go all the way through. It had a million possibilities one could do with it and they went for safe route. I just want to see how I would tackle this thought experiment.
First thought that came to mind when I read the chapter was this.
Anyway, I have never heard of the movie, but the premise of the first chapter peaks my interest. Lookin forward to where you take this story.
9891789
I agree
Amazing! I’m invested in what our little buggo will do next!
For the record, I liked Yesterday. I was excited to read this because I liked the movie.
This is pretty good, you’re also going to get me to play a Beatles’ song on my drums every chapter, though, not that I’m complaining.
But I have one qualm:
Fun fact: The Rolling Stones got popular because they marketed themselves as a heavier, grittier Beatles. Without an opponent, they aren’t going to grow nearly as popular.
9897908
Any suggestions for an alternative?
I never really seen this movie before But if it's like this there should be very interesting take on specially I did love their songs
Alright I'm sold. Amazing first chapter. Honestly if this didn't show up on the front page on the latest updates, I would've never discovered this. I love the premise of Yesterday so much, but I hated it for the way it shifted into romance. I hope this one delivers.
Also,
Come on now, get Pinkie to perform instead, she was also in the Beatles.