Pinkie Discovers Jazz

Chapter 10 – Beats for a Lil’ Filly

“You know, we still have not found our drummer yet.” Spike says as the rest of the band along with Granny Smith and Mr. Coltrane are having a break from all that practice that they have been doing. Pinkie has to go back to baking at the Sugarcube Corner and it is best that they talked about this without Pinkie. Pinkie’s fascination with marching bands bass drums will not help in this case.

“It is very apparent to us all, Spike.” Octavia points out the obvious as she sips on her cup of tea. The utter absence of a constant beat tends to cause both Pinkie and Spike to stray away from the playing, and Octavia could only do so much to keep the tempo. But a double bass is a very low-pitched instrument and its sound can be eclipsed by louder and brighter instruments, which is the case with Pinkie’s loud horns, and the intense melodies of Spike’s piano. Thus despite the flair of everything else, what is perhaps the most important element of any band is out of reach for them.

“So all you cool cats know no cat that could play the skins huh? That’s beat up. Besides, the skins decide the jive of whatever jazz that you cats want to beat it out.” Mr. Coltrane’s lingo is confusing, but somehow everyone in the room knew what he’s saying to all of them.

“Well, Mr. Coltrane what kind of jazz are we anyway?” Spike asks the old zebra. The old Zebra is now scratching his head, trying to think about his answer to Spike’s question.

“Ah would say that you cats play almost everything except them ‘smooth jazz’, which Ah think is nonsense. It’s the bible. So y’all need to find a cat that could play yer tunes barrelhouse.” Mr. Coltrane takes a sip out of his tea as he lets his words seep into the minds of both Octavia and Spike. Both the dragon and the mare know that this particular pony will be the hardest member to find in their band. They need someone dependable and reliable to not be led astray by the rest of the band. That pony would also need a great amount of stamina to keep the beat going on. And above all that pony needs to also be able to keep the beat consistently.

Finding this pony is almost impossible……..Or is it?

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Applejack is bored out of her mind, as she had nothing to buck as fall becomes winter. All the necessary steps to allow the entire apple trees to survive the cold winter have been made, and also Zap Apple season is already over. “Bucky McGillycuddy" and "Kicks McGee" are itchy for something to buck, but she knows well that other than picking a fight with somepony she will not be using them until much, much later. Clearing snow has always been Big Macintosh’s expertise, and he clearly prefers to do it alone.

“Oh well, lemme see what those sugarcubes are up to.” Applejack could only think of one thing to do right now; check up on Pinkie and the others in that jazz endeavor of theirs. She might as well, as she is just too darn bored out of her mind. As she wraps a scarf around her neck, she wonders if they have any success in finding their elusive last member.

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“I honestly wish that the next pony that walks through that door will be our drummer. It would be sooo cool if she comes in with a big blast of drumming and epicness!” Pinkie has just returned from the Cakes’ shop, and in tow she has both Pound Cake and Pumpkin Cake. The Cakes are too busy baking goods for the forthcoming celebrations during the winter, the foremost of the winter celebrations being Hearth Warming’s Eve. The foals are obviously happy to see the others in the library’s basement, and soon enough their attention is now focused on the old zebra. Pinkie Pie then pulls some baby seats out of nowhere and places the two Cakes into their respective chairs. Pinkie then pulls her instruments out and places then on the table.

“How’d you do that cool cat?” Mr. Coltrane is definitely amazed by Pinkie’s ability to pull out whatever she wants from anywhere, and he could only imagine how useful and convenient that ability is. But then Granny Smith nudges the old zebra and then he remembered the old mare’s advice. Pinkie appears to have missed Mr. Coltrane’s question and she proceed to just take a seat.

As the silence returns, Octavia then proceeds to walk to her double bass and started to tune it while Spike decides to get some shut-eye on the table. Pinkie’s attention is now focused on the cakes, as she tries to make them laugh and be happy. Granny Smith knows that without a drummer they could not make more progress and she could only hope that for everypony’s sake this will not devolve into something less.

“Give it time, Edith. It always happens when there is a cat less.” The old zebra answered her thoughts. But unbeknownst to everypony, something is definitely about to happen, but no in the way that they would expect it. Well, maybe Pinkie, but right now she appears to be quite oblivious.

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As Applejack walks into the town she could see that everypony is preparing for the festivities ahead. She then reminded herself that she needs to talk to Grannny about the plans for the holidays and she wondered what presents she should give her family. But before she could even say ‘lickety-split’ she bumps into something small. She also felt a rather cold and soft thing on her chest, and as it made contact with her body, she could feel the thing melting and running down her fur. She looks down, and she realized that her chest is now smeared with vanilla ice-cream, and a bright blue filly with a white mane is now looking at Applejack with teary eyes.

Consarn it……, Applejack cursed to herself. This is what you get when you are thinking too much when you are walking around town. She then look at the filly who was about to burst into tears, and indeed ended up bursting in tears.

“Ah’m sorry lil’ filly. Ur…..” Applejack realized that she could not buy her a new ice-cream as she had not brought any bits out with her today. Nervously looking around, she needs to do something fast to make the filly feel much better and not break her image as that of the most dependable pony. She looked around and then as she processes her surroundings, she noticed a few items that she could use to distract the filly from the ice-cream. A few barrels, dustbin lids and a light pole would help her in this endeavor.

Applejack arranges the multiple empty barrels and dustbin lids, and once she is happy with the arrangement, she used her hoofs to hit the barrels and the dustbin lids. The resulting sound caught the attention of the filly, which stopped crying. Applejack somehow needs to keep this up and tries to give it a rather positive beat. She’s got no idea what she is going to do other than keeping it fun. As the chiming from the dustbin lids and also the fat hollow beat of the empty barrels fill the air, Applejack hopes that her improvised ‘Make a filly happy’ plan would at least distract the filly, if it failed to work.

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“Y’all heard that?”

It appeared that Granny Smith’s ears caught something interesting. She then prods the old zebra who was taking a nap. As soon as he comes to his senses he could also hear what Granny Smith is listening to, and perks up. Whoever it is that is playing that noise right now, that pony is keeping up a good tempo and also has the strength enough to keep it going. However, it appears that the others are deep in whatever it is that are occupying them and are unable to hear the beat.

Soon enough, the two old friends decide to walk out from the basement and as they ascend the staircase, they could hear the drumming getting louder and louder. Once they are at the lobby of the library they could hear that the sound is coming right outside their doorstep. As they walked towards the door, they wonder who that mysterious pony is. But then soon enough, they could hear some cheers and once they opened the door, their eyes were greeted by a crowd forming around the said mysterious performer. Unfortunately for the two old equines, the crowd is so dense that they could not just see through the crowd.They looked at each other and knew that they could only do one thing and one thing only: brave through the crowd of ponies.

Of course, thinking about something and doing something are entirely different matters, and indeed for the ageing equines, this is indeed a monumental task. One does not simply walk into a crowd. While trying to get across through the wave of ponies, Granny Smith smith could only feel a sudden sharp pain in her back.

“Ooooooo mah back!” Granny Smith had already twisted her back. The old zebra stallion decided to push his hoof into Granny Smith’s back and soon enough a loud audible crack could be heard, and Granny Smith could feel a sense of relief running down her body. Just when she was about to say thank you to her old friend, she noticed a weird grimace on the old zebra’s face.

“Miles….not you too.” Granny dearly hoped that it is not what it is, but her friend looked at her assuringly and pats her on the shoulder. To be exact it is more like he is holding her for support.

“Eeyup. Excuse me…….." Mr. Coltrane then takes a polite and deep breath before exclaiming in pain about his back, all while the drumming continues in the background.

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Applejack thinks of playing her improvised drums as bucking her apple trees. Some of them are tough as hay and needs to be kicked hard to let the apples fall, while others seem to be far more fragile and thus require a more delicate touch. She would also need to keep her strength so that she could keep on bucking lots of apple trees or else she would already run out of energy from bucking the first few trees. But above all, she could always feel the flow of the trees and the magic of nature. It is the essence of who she is and how she came to be. The way she makes the sound of the drums swing, the strength that she used in hitting the barrels and dustbin lids, the pace and the intensity in which she goes about it, Applejack just let her hooves drum on just like how she bucks any apple tree in Sweet Apple Acres. Her eyes are closed so that she could feel the magic of the whole thing flowing in her.

Applejack could hear the filly cheering, but then the pale orange pony could hear something else. A cheer? No, it is a crowd cheering and giving applause. She opens her eyes and realized that a crowd of ponies are all around her clapping and whistling to her performance. Applejack could only blush and she stopped drumming, and it was then that a few ponies actually walked up to her and hands her some bits.

“No…NO…Ah can’t accept this.” Applejack protested and tries to hand them back their bits. But then it was the little filly who cheered on Applejack.

“Wow I didn’t know you could use barrels like that! Thank you for making me the show!” The little filly smiled widely, and Applejack couldn’t help but to smile back. However one of the mares who was handing her bits decided to talk to the filly.
“Oh….she was making a show for you? That’s nice.” Said Lyra, the light aquamarine unicorn with a harp as her cutie mark. The filly nodded enthusiastically.

“Uh huh. I bumped into her when I was eating my ice-cream and since my ice-cream got stuck in her chest, I was sad. It was then that she make me the show!” The filly is now jumping with excitement. Lyra then gives Applejack a smirk, and Applejack knew that somehow she could not refuse this one.

“Take this bits and buy the filly a new ice-cream. It would really make her day if the pony that made her special by playing some music to also buy her some ice-cream” Lyra then puts the bits into Applejack’s hoof. As the filly look at Applejack with unbridled excitement, and the rest of the crowd looking at her, Applejack could only think about how this is a little unfair. But yet, Lyra does have a point.

“Alright, Ah guess Ah could live with that. C’mon now, let’s get you that ice-cream.” Applejack now sighs, and the filly is now jumping with joy.

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The two old equine immediately noticed that the drumming had stopped, and there appears to be something going on in front of them. They tried their best to get through the crowd, but unfortunately for them, the exchange of hip twisting and hip fixing went on for a while before the crowd finally dissipates. To the two old equine’s disappointment, they failed to discover who this mysterious pony is. The only things left from the presence of this pony are the empty barrels and dustbin lids arranged in an impromptu drum set. To make it even worse, the tracks of multiple ponies are everywhere making it impossible to know which direction the pony took.

“Consarn it.” Granny Smith could only sigh as she looks at the drum set with defeat. Mr. Coltrane then puts his hoof on Granny Smith’s shoulder.

“There now Edith, no need to be all salty like that.” Of course, Mr. Coltrane does feel some sense of disappointment, but he tends to take things in stride and when the fates wants them to not find this pony he will just let them do things as the fates always has a bigger plan.