Pinkie Discovers Jazz

by Crisis_Vyper

DRUMMING LIKE A HURRICANE!

Chapter 12 – DRUMMING LIKE A HURRICANE!

It took them the entire night and all the way until the next morning before they heard Spike’s voice, shouting in excitement. By then Applebloom was jolted awake by the shouting and immediately noticed Spike is now running towards the center of the library with a book on his hand. He was already wrapped up in several layers of clothing, as during the night the temperature had dropped significantly that his cold-bloodedness is affecting him more than anyone in the library. Everyone else is now clad in at least a scarf or a vest to try and keep warm.

“I FOUND IT! A SOLUTION THAT REQUIRES NO WEATHER PEGASI!” It took the dragon a little bit of searching and pressing some unknown secret compartment of the library to find the book that could be their salvation. Soon enough everyone is in the center of the room. Pinkie who was unconscious the entire time, finally wakes up to see everyone gathering at the center of the room. Seeing that something is going on, she hops towards the crowd, with some acknowledgements that the pink pony is present to hear this out.

“Well what are you waiting for? Read it out!” Rainbow Dash beckons the little dragon to read out the solution. Meanwhile, Twilight is just telling Pinkie about what they did while she is unconscious. Applejack’s expression is that of relief, but there is still an air of nervousness around her. The other Apples are too busy paying attention to Spike to notice Applejack.

“It says here that this particular spell, called 'Livin on a Spell' is done a long time ago by an unicorn named Jon Bon Poni at the North Pole to get rid of a snowstorm. Let’s see here….yadda yadda yadda…..a whole lot of history of the expedition…..a love affair....lots of hard partying....magic accident………Aha! It seems that this spell has a reasonable amount of success if the specific requirements in casting this spell are made.”
“Well what do we need Spike?” Twilight asked. Spike reads a little bit more before answering Twilight.
“Huh……it that other than casting this spell using this rather complex-looking equation of a spell, it also says the spell needs a particular specific kind of focus. “ Spike’s expression is now rather perplexed, and he went silent as he reads the book even further. Everyone is now looking at each other now that Spike is silent. Applejack’s anxiety is now back again, and she finally popped the question that is on everyone’s mind.

“What do you mean ‘ specific focus’ ?” Applejack asked. From her experience with saving Equestria four times over, she knew that somehow there is always a catch. Spike cleared his throat before continuing on.
“Well from what to book is telling me, the focus is some sort of continuous, discordant but yet rhythmically consistent loud noise or noises that could be used to scare the storm away. Wait…..storm feel fear? And if so, do they dream of sheeps?” Spike asked Rainbow Dash, which pushed aside the question to ask her own.

“How in the hay do we find such a specific focus anyway? Discordant but yet rhythmically consistent? Those two words do not even go together in the same sentence!” Rainbow Dash said out loud, not believing the ridiculousness of this spell. Everyone just stood there uncertain about how they go about this solution until Pinkie broke the silence.

“You know, from the sound of it, we could just play some jazz.” It was then that Pinkie realized that everyone in the room is now looking at her, flabbergasted. It had not occurred to everyone in the room that they have the tools to create this focus all this time. Of course Pinkie is a good metagamer so she thinks in a bigger picture I guess. A pony in particular had an expression of both shock and disbelief. Twilight is caught off-guard that someone else before her had come up with the solution to the problem, and the one that cracked the puzzle is the least logical of ponies added more salt to the wound that is her pride. Before long Spike clears his throat, and started talking.

“Well tell you what. I am going to make breakfast, and anyone who wants to help me make dinner could do so, while the others could do their own thing. Once we had all eaten our meal, we could then see Twilight prepare the spell if anyone is interested.” Everyone nods in agreement.

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- Evening at Golden Oaks Library -

The purple unicorn is now spreading out the energy from her horn in multiple beams, but keeping each beam in the same thickness and as it reflects on the other floating magical wards. The symbols on the floor glows with a bright blue light, and before long the symbols are now glowing in a consistent pale blue light. Twilight wipes a few sweats off her brown before the beams of magic from her horn dissipate. Everyone is now looking at her, wondering if she is successful.

“Well, thank Celestia that I had taken a class once in “Advanced Chromatic Algorithmic Spells” or else there might be a dark wormhole that would make the storm the least of our problems. I could see now why this spell needs a weird focus, as this spell has a weird prismatic energy distribution, and this requires Clover’s Incatations of Relativity and Starswirl’s Hexagrammatical Warding system to keep the prismatic arcanium magical output in a steady and ever-changing formation to compensate for the erratic nature of the beam, which could only mean that the noises are there to regulate the output of the energy once the spell reaches maturity and….” Twilight stopped as soon as everyone is not getting what she is saying at all. Twilight then coughs politely before she continues on.

“Anyway….. I have done all the necessary steps needed to prepare the spell, but it would take us a while, so we will not be able to do anything until tomorrow morning at the earliest. So all, we can do now is wait until the spell is ready.” Twilight is a little disappointed that she is the only pony that understands the words that is coming out from her mouth. Soon silence descends upon the room, and Twilight is taken aback by this. She knows that everyone is a little anxious, but she did not expect this most quiet of silence from everyone, including Pinkie. It was then a small voice gently broke the silence and everyone is now looking at the point of origin of the voice.

“So…what do we do now?” Applebloom asked everyone in the room. It was then that another pony speaks.
“Come to think about it, I always wondered how Granny and Mr. Coltrane met each other. Would you mind telling us the tale to pass the time Granny and Mr. Coltrane?” Octavia asked the old green mare and the old zebra. Both elderly equine looked at each other and smiled.

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-The next day -

As morning rises in Ponyville, the weather had gone so bad that everyone is now wearing many layers of clothing just to keep themselves warm,. Many had likened it to the turbulent winters that marked the land before the founding of Equestia.
At the library, the ponies wake up to the sound of low humming of energies. As everyone went down to the basement, they soon found out the source of the low humming; it seems that the runes on the floor are now glowing with a greenish hue and it is filled with eldritch energy. From Twilight’s expression, it appears that the spell is now complete. Immediately there is a great amount of activity within the library as everyone play their part in making this a success.

As the musicians prepare themselves to help in the channeling of the spell, Twilight could only wonder if everything would turn out alright. The purple unicorn is now channeling her magic into the runic formation and tries to release its energy with the help of this rather unconventional of foci.

“Alright everyone! Let’s do this!” Everyone in the band is now giving her the hooves up, and they begin their performance. As the sound cracks through the air, the runes on the ground began to change from a greenish hue to a more yellow-ish glow and as they played everypony else could only look in awe as this plan is slowly working. As the band plays on, the runes are slowly turning into a golden bright yellow. But then suddenly the runes are fading away, turning into a darker color with every moment. It was Twilight who noticed something is wrong with the spell.

“Guys, you guys are not keeping up a consistent sound!” She shouted over the sound of the playing instruments. As everyone looked on, they noticed what Granny is saying, as now instead of jazz it appears to be a rather convoluted mess of noises again. It is just like Pinkie’s first foray into jazz where it sounds like a riot of noises rather than music. Octavia is now struggling to keep the tempo, but her bass is barely audible over the sound of the horns and the piano. Octavia’s role as the tempo keeper is now compromised.

“Great, how do we fix this?!?!” Rainbow Dash is shouting to Granny Smith and Twilight, and soon enough Granny Smith replied.
“Consarn it! We need a drummer mah dear!” Granny Smith shouted. Everyone else in the room are now wondering what will happen if they do not get their drummer. Unfortunately for everypony it was Applebloom who voiced out their collective thoughts
“Granny, Twilight….What happens if the spell fails?” The purple unicorn paused for a while, trying to focus her attention on the fluctuating energy while answering Applebloom.
“Well, I would like to keep this nice and civil but……PONYVILLE WILL EXPLODE!!!!” Twilight shouted back, worried that her answer may cause more harm than good now.
"GREAT NOW WE ARE NOW ON A HIGHWAY TO THE DANGER ZONE!!!" Spike exclaimed.
"NO YOU IDIOT! WE ARE RIGHT IN THE DANGER ZONE!" Octavia shouts back at Spike. As Rainbow Dash looks at everyone in the room, she wonders how in the hay they could find a drummer now. Nopony here even resembles a drummer. Now she could only accept her fate as there is no way anyone could escape from this situation.

However a particular orange mare is now having an epiphany. The fate of Ponyville now hangs in the balance. She thought that this is utterly ridiculous that a drummer in a band could be so important, and this level of importance is just off the charts. A drummer, saving the likes of Ponyville? This sounds like that cartoon that Applebloom and Big Macintosh watched called “Black Heaven: Hard Rock Saves Outer Space” where a bunch of old middle-aged ex-rocker ponies are forced to save an alien race using rock music from their enemies. She had once called that cartoon ‘utterly dumb’ and nopony could save anypony from imminent disaster using music. Well, Celestia just decided to let Applejack’s own comment at the time to bite her in the flank. She looked at everyone in the room who are now trying their best to help in this most dire of situations, or are now looking with a look of acceptance about their fate. Her stubbornness in keeping her secret is too much to bear, but even then there are more important things that are more important than her pride. This is one of them, and if she wants to tell everyone about her secret she might as well go out with a bang even if she failed to save the situation.

“BUCK IT TO APPLELOSA!!!!! RAINBOW, APPLEBLOOM, BIG MAC! GET SOME EMPTY BARRELS, DUSTBIN LIDS AND STICKS YOU COULD FIND! AH AM GONNA FIX THIS RIGHT!” The three ponies immediately scrambled once Applejack snapped. Before long the others have brought Applejack anything that could actually make sounds, from spoons to barrels and other such paraphernalia that . The cowpony is now arranging everything into some semblance of a drum set to everyone’s surprise and before long Applejack begins hitting her improvised drum set.

“FOLLOW MAH BEAT!” The beat that Applejack chose as a focus is utterly primal and intense. Octavia, Pinkie and Spike are utterly clueless about what they are supposed to do but only the old wily zebra is aware of what they are playing exactly. He gives himself a smile as he plays his instrument, knowing that Applejack is unconsciously playing what is perhaps one of his most favorite forms of drumming; Rumba. And when there is Rumba, there is a party.Soon enough, Applejack accompanied her primal beats with a more refined sound from the other tools that she have under her disposal.

It was then that Spike tries to get the tune right with Applejack’s intense drumming, followed by Octavia’s bass play. The old zebra is now smiling, knowing that at least they are now feeling some sense from the beat. To the zebra’s surprise, Applejack is actually using all four of her legs in playing all the percussion that they need, her hind alternating between the two large and long barrels, while her forelimbs are hitting the dustbin lids and the smaller barrels with her forelegs all while keeping at least some of her legs on the ground. Amazing how these Ponyville ponies could multitask, Mr.Coltrane asked himself.

Before long, he went on and play his part to the whole mix of music and Pinkie finally follows suit with both her trumpet and trombone. With Mr. Coltrane as a baseline for her own part, she tries to keep up with everyone else. Pinkie is amazed how everyone managed to even pick up on something random that Applejack is playing and before long, she also surprised herself with her ability to keep up with them. In fact it is because of the beat that she was able to keep up with everyone.

Applebloom could only watch in awe as her sister is hitting all those random objects into a sound that is utterly amazing. Rainbow could only help Applebloom close her jaw back, and Big Macintosh could only cover Rainbow’s jaw in return.
“Eeyup.” Big Macintosh’s response is perhaps the most apt response that anyone that is neither playing the instruments or casting spells could ever say.

Soon enough to Twilight’s surprise, the rings are now returning to their bright golden yellow glow. Before long the bright golden yellow turned into a bright white light, and Twilight immediately knew that it is time to release the spell. As she pressed on with the final burst of energy that her horn could provide, the room is engulfed in a bright light.

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-Somewhere above Ponyville-

The fat Pegasus named Easy Watch is now dipping his doughnut into his mug of coffee, watching from a cloud high above the raging ice tempest. Thanks to that accident, the dark grey Pegasus is forced to watch the storm to prevent anything from going into the storm, in particular family members of ponies that are crazy enough to brave through the blizzard to get into that town, and also keep a close eye for anything exiting Ponyville. Suddenly something caught the pegasus’ eye.

“What on Celestia’s bottom?” The Pegasus jaw is wide open as he saw a bright light coming from within the blizzard that is enveloping Ponyville and blasted out, shattering the storm in an instance. He was blown away from his cloud perch, and the blast of energy caused him to let go of his coffee mug and his doughnut. As he watched his coffee mug and doughnut falls towards the earth and seeing how the storm is suddenly gone a single though flashes through his mind; His superiors need to know this.

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Amidst the chaos in the basement of the library, several groans could be heard and as the smoke dissipates, a silhouette of a pony standing on their hind legs could be seen. It was Pinkie Pie, and she is looking down on the floor with a single foreleg triumphantly raised up in the air brandishing a trumpet in the air like a sword. Figuring that it is best to not mess with Pinkie’s victory pose, the others take the time to recompose themselves.

"Outta the danger zone....."Spike's voice is hoarse and dry, but everyone could hear his voice. Twilight could only muster enough strength to facehoof at Spike's comment before she passes out from the exhaustion.
“That’s one mighty spell…” Applejack said with a hint of amazement as she adjusted her hat. Of course it was then that she realized that her own grandmother is now looking at her. Great…., Applejack thought. She knew this is going to come up sooner or later, and this time she is willing to take whatever responsibility for not telling her grandmother the truth.

“Mah own Jackie’s the mysterious drummer pony?” Granny Smith’s surprise is no surprise at all for Applejack. Well, she had kept it hidden for a good two days now, which is the longest time Applejack could have kept any secret. Keeping secrets is almost anathema for Applejack so much as to cause her a very nervous tick, and whenever she does not want anyone to know anything she tends to run away and disappear until the truth was beaten out of her. She then remembered her time when she did not want to tell her friends and family that she did not win the rodeo competition and how they chased her across the desert on wagons.

“Well….Nopony asked.” Applejack said, albeit rather unconvincingly. It was then that Applejack winced and tries to feebly hide behind her hat, her body felt that it was the best possible action for her own protection. Instead, a single hoof is all that Applejack got for not telling her grandmother the truth.

“Using them trash as drums, where’d you learn that trick from?” Granny Smith’s approving tone made Applejack smiled and the burden of her heart is now all gone. The truth is now all laid bare before everyone. This will take some time to explain, but at least the cowpony’s conscience is clear.

“Well….let’s get a seat and Ah will tell you all about it Granny.”

Author's Note:

A clue as to how the Applejack-led jazz session sounds like - The Afro Cuban Jazz Cartel-Song for Chano