The Beatle

by CrackedInkWell

First published 18th of October, 2019

What would Ocellus do if everyone, except for her, forgot The Beatles?

Warning: The following is currently unedited. You have been warned.

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In the land of Equestria, the music of The Beatles has become beloved. For Ocellus, thanks to Sandbar, she has been introduced to their music and has picked up music lessons to play one of their songs. But what would happen if one day, she wakes up and finds that no one, not her friends, her scholarly Headmare, or even all of Equestria has forgotten about the Fab Four?

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An idea that's based on the film "Yesterday," and is taking in a deeper dive into this brilliant concept.

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.”

Chapter 2 - Forgotten Music

In truth, Ocellus had never stepped inside the walls of her headmare’s castle before. While it’s right next door to the school, there were times that she wondered what it must be like inside. She half expected it to be a grandiose, fancy, covered top to bottom in gold and jewels that would make the Crystal Empire jealous. She thought that maybe she would find rows of servants and guards to tend her every whim around the clock.

However, when she stepped inside that, while impressive of the purple crystal walls with a tree motif and massive hallways, the Changeling was taken aback how bare it seemed. Even the humble kitchen wasn’t as big as she expected it to be. Although well stocked, it was much smaller, and she noticed that there weren’t any staff ever since she was invited in. While she sat near the wooden table in the middle of the room where overhead pots and pan were hanging over, Twilight insisted that she make them tea.

“Forgive me if I come off as rude,” Ocellus began, “but don’t you have anyone to do that for you?”

“What makes you say that?” Her Headmare asked once she stuck in the tea leaves into the pot and put it over the stove.

“I mean… you are a princess, and I just assumed that you would have a, uh… servant staff to do this for you.”

She tilted her head a little. “Don’t you know that I don’t have servants?”

“What about Spike?”

“He’s my assistant. I never once saw him as a servant. He’s like family to me.” She sat down next to her. “So, what’s going on with you? Why did you decide to wake me up in the middle of the night?”

“It’s uh… It’s hard to put it into words.”

“But try anyway. The first step to address whatever problem is to address it. Something has clearly gotten under your skin – so to speak – and is bothering you.”

Ocellus fiddled with her hooves, looking down and not looking at Twilight. “You’re gonna think I’m crazy.”

“Why?”

“Because… something happened to me recently and I… I’ve no idea what to do. You remember when I asked you that question if you’ve heard of The Beatles?”

“That was a couple of minutes ago.”

She looked up. “Do you swear that you’ve never heard of any pop-rock group by that name?”

“Honestly? I thought you were referring to the bug, beetle.”

The Changeling sighed into her hooves. “It was like yesterday that everycreature has heard of them, knew the songs and were well respected. And now… I can’t find any trace that they existed. It’s like…” she looked up again, “for you, it’ll be the equivalent that when you wake up tomorrow morning, only to discover that nobody knows who Shakespur is. No one remembers the plays or his poetry, except for you. What exactly would you have done in something like that?”

“Oh…” Twilight tapped her chin. “Big question there. But I think what you’re saying is that you remember something that is culturally important, only no one else does.” Ocellus nodded. “Well… in theory, if I were in those horseshoes, and if I feel strongly that this is something worth sharing… I’d do what I can to preserve those ideas before they’re lost forever. I mean, with Shakespur alone, I can’t imagine a world without A Mid Summer’s Night Dream, or Roanio and Filliet, or even The Tempest. Maybe I wouldn’t be able to catch the genius of his writing style, but maybe I could bring back his stories.”

“Yeah, but music is different.” Ocellus said. “With music, it doesn’t work unless you know every note. With The Beatles, they’ve written about a hundred songs and I only know some of them.” She gasped, “Can I even remember the lyrics?! Uh…” she closed her eyes. At first, she tried to remember songs such as Come Together, Yellow Submarine, and even the song that Dawn Lemon wrote Imagine. Yet, regardless of how hard she tried to concentrate, the lyrics were muddied and mixed up. And Ocellus knew it. She banged her head on the table. “I’m forgetting! I can’t remember some of them!”

She felt a hoof on her back. “Ocellus, it’s okay.”

“No, it’s not.” She shook her head. “I’m the only one in the world that remembers their songs… but I can’t even do that! I remember the melodies and a hoofful of songs but that’s about it. And I can only play one among the hundreds they’ve made.” Lifting her head, tears were streaming down from them. “I can’t do this… W-What am I going to do?”

Twilight had to spend the next couple of minutes trying to calm her down. Soon enough, the tea was finished and after pouring a couple of cups and drying her tears. Eventually, the Princess asked her, “So… do you remember anything from them?”

Ocellus nodded, “Apart from Yesterday, I remember how some of the tunes go. I wish I could play them, except I don’t know much how to write music, or even…” She paused, looking into the reflection of her teacup, an idea dawned on her. “…. Unless…”

“What?”

“Suppose… The Beatles that I know were a popular band in the 60s, some of them were still alive. So, do you think that maybe… they could be still around. Headmare, even if I could remember every song, with every note and lyric, I don’t feel comfortable taking the credit for something that isn’t mine. I do feel that these songs shouldn’t be forgotten, but I don’t want my name attached to something that isn’t my work. This music needs to be put back where it belongs… but I can’t do this by myself.”

Twilight smiled. “I’m proud of you for taking up such a responsibility. However, I can’t help but think that if you can’t find them, would you still credit these songs as your own?”

“Like, if they don’t exist?” Twilight nodded. “I… I’m not sure. But I still need to find them, that is if they’re still alive. If there’s anyone in the whole world that could bring back what is stolen, it’s them.”

“But do you know what their names are? Even if this band exists, do you have an idea who they are or where they might be?”

She nodded, “All I know is that they came from Trottingham, and their names are Pull McCart, Dawn Lemon, Forge Hayson and Mango Star. They’re most likely be really old by now-”

“Mango Star?” Twilight blinked, “As in the comedian?”

Ocellus’s jaw dropped the second time that night. “Wait! You know him!?”

Twilight shrugged, “Not much really. When Spike and I were trying to return a library book, I remember seeing an old poster and when we got to the retirement place, I saw his face through a window. He’s most likely retired now.”

“Headmare, I need to go talk to him.”

“What?” She asked surprised, “Ocellus, you have school tomorrow-”

“If you have a chance to bring back Shakespur while he’s still around, would you?”

There was a pause between them. “You really believe in this?” She nodded. After a sigh, Twilight thought it over for a good solid minute. “I’ll tell you what,” she said, “I will take you to that retirement center first thing in the morning to find your missing band. But in exchange, you will have to do your schoolwork and I will keep an eye to make sure that you do that work. Deal?”

She shook her hoof. “Deal.”

It took all morning to reach Silver Stable Community, and on the train over, Ocellus had spent her time looking through her homework and textbooks while Twilight was nearby. However, making westward towards the coast, they’ve finally reached the retirement place. They entered the main building towards the reception desk.

“Now I can’t guarantee that he might be here or if he’s available,” Twilight told her as they walked in. “However, I can promise that I will do what I can to see if Mango is open to talking to us.”

“And make sure you ask for the others,” Ocellus insisted.

“I doubt that they would be here, but I’ll try.” She said, stopping at a row of chairs were a few ponies sat there waiting. “Stay right here, I’m gonna go check. But if I don’t find anypony that’s connected to that group, we’re going straight back to Ponyville.” With that, Twilight turned and walked towards the reception desk.

The blue Changeling took a seat next to a pony. A long-maned stallion who held onto a cardboard box, waiting. This wouldn’t catch much of her interest was that this pony’s cutie mark was a guitar, and his face bears a resemblance to- “Can I help you?”

Ocellus was caught off guard, if not a bit embarrassed that she was staring. “Oh! Sorry, I didn’t mean to stare, it’s just…”

“What?”

“You uh… reminded me of someone.”

“Oh?” He then took notice of Twilight talking to someone at the reception desk. “So, uh… You with the Princess?”

She nodded, “Yeah. We’re looking for someone. It’s… It’s really complicated, but we’re trying to find someone that used to be a musician and… I just really hope they’re around.”

“Yeah? Who are you trying to find, if you mind of me asking?”

“Chances are, you probably never heard of him. Someone name Mango Star.”

The stallion went quiet, “The Comedian?”

“I guess s-”

“Who used to be a drummer.”

Now it was Ocellus’s turn to be surprised. “How do you know?”

“Because I’m trying to get ahold of him myself.” He said, tapping the box. “My dad had used to be in a band, and he passed away some time ago. Recently I found this box that had some of his stuff and I thought that maybe I could at least give it to one dad’s friends.”

The Changeling went quiet for a solid minute, it became awkward to the point where he had to ask her if she’s okay. “Sir… what’s your name?” she finally asked.

“Hayson,” he replied. “Name’s Dandelion Hayson. I’m in a band myself and… seriously, are you okay?”

In truth, Ocellus was in a state of shock. “Oh, dear goddess… this is… I… c-could I shake your hoof?”

Dandelion blinked, “I guess so? I didn’t do anything special.”

“Actually, Mr. Hayson,” she said shaking his hoof, “your dad was one of the ponies I was looking for.”

“Really? Why’s that?”

She took a moment to think about her next words carefully. “It’s just… Let’s say that I might be one of the few that’s… aware of ponies like your dad. And I want to do what I can to uh… bring them to the limelight.”

Twilight returned to tell her that they could go ahead to meat Mango.