It was in that moment that my heart stopped completely. That confirmation of when he’d died only further validated the fears I’d previously held onto, fears that I’d been foolish enough to think I could let go of. This shadowy figure who’d haunted my dreams was right all along. He’d predicted that Friday wouldn’t pass without me losing someone who I held close and that through this event happening I’d lose everyone I loved most.
“David?” my mom’s voice rang out on the other end, snapping me out of my “blue screen of death”.
“Uh- yes, mom?”
“Are you O.K.?”
“Ah mean… aside from tha obvious… Ah guess so.”
“O.K. Just know that you can call me anytime if you have something that concerns you.”
“Ah know,” I replied rather half-heartedly.
“I love you and I’ll talk to you more later. Tell Savannah and Ariel that I love them too.”
“Ah will ‘n Ah love you too. Bye,” I stated before hanging up the phone.
I loved my mom and, on many occasions, I could go to her to bring up anything that might’ve bothered me. This, however, was a whole ‘nother situation. Neither she, nor anyone else in my family for that matter, knew about my escapades in Equestria or even that I was close friends with the Mane 6. All they knew was that it was just a show I really enjoyed. Pure Fantasy. Nothing more.
Bringing up anything about what’d really been happening over the past few years was a surefire ticket right back to the loony bin. But if I couldn’t bring it up with her, who could I bring it up with? As much as I was tempted to let the girls in on my current predicament, the last thing that they needed at that time was to be burdened by someone else’s problems, especially when they’d come to relax and take a break from the normal demands of having to save Equestria for the 8 billionth time.
And what about Savannah? These dreams I’d been having concerned her just as much. In that moment, though, all I could think of was the Star Wars prequels. More specifically, how Anakin had those prophetic nightmares that, whenever he told anyone else about them or even took steps towards preventing them from happening, they came to fruition anyways. I was also reminded of a quote I’d heard long ago, that “one often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it”.
As far as I was concerned, this would take some time to figure out how to handle properly. For the time being, though, no one would know about these dreams until the time was right. When that time would be right, though, was anyone’s guess.
* * * * * * * *
2 weeks later and I still hadn’t come up with when the best time would be to explain myself to the others. In that time, we’d made it through the remaining Disney animated movies, ending with Zootopia, and I’d begun leading them through the movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, making it all the way up to Captain America: The Winter Soldier. As far as their show went, me and Savannah caught them up on the first 2 Equestria Girls movies, all of Season 4, and part of Season 5, stopping after the “Slice Of Life” episode.
I had previously told the girls that we’d get around to watching The Wizard Of Oz after the Disney movies in order to prepare them for when we’d go to see Wicked on Broadway along with The Phantom Of The Opera. Now, we were 4 days away from going to see them and I’d purposefully kept them from watching the movie itself.
My reasoning for this was that, over the past couple of weeks, I’d been thinking about the prophesied dreams I’d been having. The more I thought about them, the more I began to think to myself, “What if this is the exact same event that causes me to lose everyone?” For those reasons, I’d blocked it from my mind, hoping that the others would forget it just as easily if it were never brought up at all.
We had just finished a rather filling dinner of homemade macaroni and cheese when Fluttershy gazed out the window at the night sky.
“Look!” she exclaimed, in hushed excitement. “The full moon is out tonight.”
The rest of us made our way over to the windows to discover that this was indeed the case.
“It’s soo beautiful,” Rarity remarked.
“That it is,” AJ agreed.
“I just got an idea,” Savannah began, holding Ariel. “Why don’t we go for a walk on the beach under the moonlight? We don’t get to do it that often and I’m sure that you girls would find it quite enjoyable.”
“That sounds great, babe,” I replied.
“Yes indeedly!” Pinkie piped up.
And so, after getting ourselves bundled up properly, we made our way out into the frigid night to walk along the beach under the light of the full moon. To that day, I still remembered the first time I’d ever gotten to partake in such a moment about 2-3 years earlier. I remembered the light of the full moon shining down on the ocean, the glow of it shimmering on the waves like a bed of diamonds on a sapphire tapestry. It was a truly magical moment that I was glad to be able to scratch off of my bucket list.
This night was very similar except that I was able to share it with my closest friends. One could say that their presence made that night all the more special which would be hard to disagree with. We walked along the sandy shore hand in hand, simply enjoying each other’s company, none of us speaking a word as we took in this beautiful moment together. Finally, though, Savannah broke the silence.
“I just realized something.”
“What’s that?” Fluttershy questioned.
“We’re going to see Wicked in a few days and none of you have even seen The Wizard Of Oz yet.”
My heart immediately sank at the mention of that movie. I’d been putting it off for as long as I could, hoping that everyone would forget about it and we’d be able to avoid it all together. Now that Savannah had brought it up, there was no way that it would escape from anyone’s memory any time soon. Thinking as quickly as I could, I tried to come up with some form of excuse as to why we shouldn’t go to New York.
“Ah’ve been thinkin that maybe it’s not such a good idea fer us ta go ta New York after all.”
“Why not?” Savannah puzzled.
“Because Ah don’ think New York is exactly tha best place fer us ta be bringin’ tha girls. It’s too risky ‘n hazardous fer ‘em.”
“Pfft. Hahahahahaha!” Rainbow laughed. “That’s a good one, twin.”
“Ah’m dead serious, Rainbow!” I stated, slightly annoyed at my concerns towards my friends being mocked in such a manner.
“David,” Twilight began, “you’re forgetting that we’ve been in plenty of perilous locations and situations before so it’s nothing we’re not already familiar with.”
“It kinda comes with the territory,” Rainbow added.
“Even I have to admit that it’s not really as dangerous as you’re making it out to be,” Savannah answered.
“Oh come on!” I protested. “Ah thought you were supposed ta be on ma side.”
“It’s true, though. You’ve already been there before with a group of friends and none of you came across any problems. How can this be any different?”
Because your very life might depend on it. I thought to myself.
“Besides,” Rarity started, “all of us were really looking forward to seeing both Phantom Of The Opera and Wicked soo much. It was meant to be the finale to our whole trip here.”
“Exactly. You don’t want to disappoint the girls like this when they’re supposed to be enjoying themselves here do you?”
In that moment, I was strongly thinking of objecting to this by flat-out telling all of them about the nightmares that I’d had. I was even screaming it out loud in my mind. A few things kept me from saying what was on my mind, though.
One was that we had agreed to end their time here with both shows. Going back on that now would put me in the position of “Indian giver” which I wasn’t about to let happen. Next was the fact that, as much as I hated to admit it, Savannah, Twilight, and Rainbow had legitimate points. I had been to New York before with friends and the girls had been in dangerous situations before, handling themselves pretty well in said situations.
A thought that had just occurred to me in that moment was the fact that we’d be in a group. Even if there were a threat that would take place, we’d at least have strength in numbers. Finally, even when I considered telling them all about my nightmares, I couldn’t stop thinking about the possibility that telling them, or even trying to prevent it from happening, would be the exact same thing that would cause the nightmares to come to pass. So finally, I relented.
“O.K. How bout we watch tha movie after we get back from our walk? We can finish off tha night with it.”
“Sounds good ta me, Sugarcube,” AJ remarked, “but, fer now, let’s jus enjoy our walk along tha beach.”
And, sure enough, not another word was spoken as we walked along under the moon’s cerulean glow enjoying each other’s company all the while.
* * * * * * * *
Later on that night, long after Ariel had fallen asleep, we had finished watching The Wizard Of Oz when I turned to my friends to see what their thoughts were on the movie.
“So how’d ya guys enjoy it?”
“It was O.K.,” Rainbow dismissed.
“I thought it was… about average,” Twilight stated. “I’m guessing that this was one of the first real life movies to incorporate color?”
“That it was,” Savannah stated. “Many decades ago, movies and pictures were mostly done in black and white. The reason for this was because color film and pictures were extremely expensive to produce.”
“Oh my!” Fluttershy remarked. “That must mean that this was a pretty expensive movie when it first came out.”
“Mhmm.”
“Anyways, there were a couple of moments that I took issue with in the movie,” Twilight continued. “One of them was the fact that the Wicked Witch Of The West was defeated by having water splashed on her. Are we supposed to believe that she went her entire life without ever coming in contact with water once? Or for that matter, even taking a shower? She must’ve smelled terrible.”
“Tell me ‘bout it,” I concurred.
“Additionally, I thought it was really kind of jerky of Glinda to send Dorothy on this long quest when she could’ve just returned home to Kansas at any point.”
“I know, right?” Rainbow added before briefly mimicking Glinda. “‘You wouldn’t have believed me if I told you.’ Horse apples she wouldn’t have! And what was with that wizard? For a movie called The Wizard Of Oz, the wizard is kinda the weakest element of the entire story and just as much of a jerk as Glinda.”
“I also took issue with the fact that, earlier on, Glinda outright stated that only good witches are beautiful and only bad witches are ugly,” Rarity stated. “That just seemed insultingly discriminatory.”
“All in all,” AJ finished up, “tha movie was O.K. Nothin’ too spectacular.”
“Somethin Ah feel Ah should mention is that this movie came out durin a much earlier period o’ film where a lot more focus was put on how ta get an emotional response from tha audience rather than tellin a consistent story,” I began. “Much like Snow White And The Seven Dwarves, it was more visual ‘n emotional in order fer tha endin’ ta seem all tha more rewardin’. That’s not ta say any o’ these are bad films. They still have people who come back ‘n watch ‘em all these years later.”
“I really enjoyed the character of the Cowardly Lion,” Fluttershy remarked.
I couldn’t help but smile at her comment. It didn’t really surprise me that much as Fluttershy had a lot in common with him. The biggest commonality that came to mind being that both of them are more powerful than they realize, their own self-doubt serving as the barrier that prevents that realization.
“Well Ah don’ know ‘bout you guys, but Ah’m bout ready ta call it a night,” I yawned.
“I’m right there with ya, twin,” Rainbow agreed.
Getting up, I made my way to the back bathroom to brush my teeth. As this was going on, I was trying more and more to let go of my worriedness and fears about us going to New York. We were going as a group anyways, so there shouldn’t be any problems.
I had just finished rinsing out my mouth when I heard Ariel crying from mine and Savannah’s bedroom. Rushing out of the bathroom, I made my way to our room in order to comfort our daughter and hopefully get her to fall back asleep. As I reached the door, I heard a soft voice coming from inside.
“Shh. It’s O.K. Fluttershy’s here now.”
Walking in, I saw Fluttershy holding Ariel in her arms, gently rocking her to calm her down. It was in that moment when she sang a soft lullaby to little Ariel.
“Hush now, dear young one,
There's no need to fear,
For all those who love you,
Will always be near.
Rest now, dear young one,
Close your sweet eyes,
And in the morning,
The sun will rise.”
And as Ariel let out a soft yawn, Fluttershy gently laid her back down in her crib. Turning around, she finally noticed me standing in the doorway.
“Oh. I’m sorry. I heard her crying and was trying to help her settle back in for the night. Savannah said it was O.K.”
“It’s a’ight,” I replied. “That was a really sweet song ya sang ta her.”
“Oh. Thanks,” she blushed. “It was a song my mother used to sing to me every night when I was just a filly.”
It wasn’t long before we were joined by Savannah.
“Is our daughter back asleep now?” Savannah questioned
“Yes. No problems at all.”
“Thanks, Flutters. The rest of the girls have gone to bed now so if you want you can join them.”
“O.K. Goodnight you two.”
“Goodnight,” Savannah and I answered in unison.
Settling in for the night, I now looked forward to the final few days that we had together, determined to make the most of them.
* * * * * * * *
The next day, we went through several more of the episodes from their show as well as finishing up the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Captain America: Civil War. Having just finished the latter, I turned to my friends to find out what their thoughts were on the movie. I was particularly curious as to what their thoughts were in regards to the movie’s inclusion of Spider-Man.
“How’d ya guys enjoy tha movie?”
“I’ve gotta say,” Rainbow began, “that was probably my favorite movie out of the whole series.”
“I agree,” Twilight added. “What I really enjoyed was the moral complexities of the story itself. Both sides had their good points and bad points so it keeps one guessing as to what the right choice is. Not to mention that every character in the movie, even the newer ones, had very believable and understandable motivations. The ending was also rather interesting as it didn’t really end on a positive note. This team that we’ve become familiar with over the past several movies is now torn apart, leaving their future uncertain.”
“I especially liked the Spider-Man character.”
“Me too!” Pinkie piped up excitedly.
I smiled softly at Rainbow and Pinkie’s comments before speaking up.
“Yup. Spider-Man is a pretty popular character not jus in Marvel but in comic books in general. One o’ tha creators o’ Spider-Man, Stan Lee, was quoted sayin’ that if Mickey Mouse was Disney’s icon, Spider-Man is Marvel’s.”
“Stan Lee?” Fluttershy puzzled.
“Stan Lee is a guy who’s famous for creating the majority of Marvel superheroes, with a few others,” Savannah stated. “Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, X-Men, the list goes on.”
“Woo-wee. That’s a lot o’ characters,” Applejack remarked.
“That it certainly is,” Rarity concurred.
“I just realized something,” Savannah spoke up.
“What’s that babe?” I questioned.
“There’s one last MCU movie we haven’t seen yet that just came out less than 2 weeks ago.”
My eyes suddenly widened upon realization.
“Right. That Doctor Strange movie came out on tha 28th of las’ month. Ah’d completely forgotten about that.”
“You forgot?” Savannah asked in an incredulous, but not confrontational, manner. “Normally that’s the sort of thing that you’d stay well on top of.”
“Yeah well Ah guess that, with ma granddad’s death happenin’ within a few days o’ that, it must’ve slipped ma mind,” I replied before being struck with an idea. “Hey. Why don’ Ah go ta Wal-Mart ta pick up tha movie ‘n we can watch it once Ah get home?”
“Are you sure about that, darling?” Rarity questioned. “We wouldn’t want to trouble you.”
“Of course Ah’m sure. Ah really want you guys ta see this movie mostly ‘cuz of all tha groundbreakin’ special effects it contains. Ah’m sure y’all’ll really enjoy it. In tha meantime, how bout ya guys watch some more of your show. It won’t take too long.”
“O.K. We’ll be waiting for you,” Fluttershy stated.
And so, grabbing my coat and shoes, I headed out into the night, mind focused on my goal. At least for the time being.
* * * * * * * *
A half hour and several dollars later, I’d bought the Blu-Ray of Doctor Strange and was on my way back home. On the way, as usual, I had the radio playing as I drove. For a while, there were some pretty uplifting songs on the radio, some upbeat and peppy and some more relaxed and laid-back.
But then, Everybody Hurts by R.E.M., a song I was all too familiar with, came on. Even at a young age, that song always hit me really hard and with Grandpa Joe’s death only 2 weeks prior, this was one of the worst possible times that that song could’ve been playing at. It didn’t exactly help that this song also made me think of the possibility of Savannah’s own demise.
You, the reader, probably already know about my fear of falling from heights, but that’s not even my deepest fear. My deepest fear for the longest time has been the fear of finding the love of my life only to lose them at a young age and, with Savannah having not even reached 21 yet, that fear was still at the forefront of my mind. Where that fear had originated from I don’t know, but it’s possible that the movie A Walk To Remember might’ve played a part in that. Either that or God knows how many Disney movies with their fake out deaths that played with my young mind.
As those thoughts were running through my head, I almost didn’t realize that I had drifted slightly into the oncoming lane before a car horn blared, snapping me back to reality as I returned to my proper lane. It was then that I turned the radio off as it was proving to be too much of a distraction at that time, driving home the rest of the way in complete silence.
Before long, I’d reached home and walked through the front door in time to see the girls just finishing up the episode Crusaders Of The Lost Mark. Savannah was the first to notice that I’d returned.
“Hey babe. You got the movie?”
“Right here,” I stated, holding it up for the others to see.
“Cool!” Rainbow exclaimed.
“I ordered pizza while you were gone,” Savannah continued. “It should be here any minute.”
As if on cue, there was a knock at the front door. Opening it up, there was the pizza delivery man with several boxes of pizza in his hand. After I paid for the pizzas and took them off of him, he thanked me for the money and left while I closed the door and brought the pizza boxes over to the table before setting them down, the aroma of melted cheese emanating strongly from within.
“Well that was pretty good timing,” Twilight remarked. “We can just eat our pizza while watching the movie.”
“That’s exactly what I was thinking!” Pinkie agreed enthusiastically.
“Yeah. I don’t see any problem with that,” Savannah added.
And so, after dishing up our pizza, pouring some soda, praying, and popping in the Blu-Ray, we all settled in to end the night off right: together.
* * * * * * * *
A couple hours later, we’d finished up Doctor Strange as well as our pizza before me and Savannah looked to the girls to find out what their thoughts were on the movie. Before either of us could speak, though, Rainbow was the first one to comment.
“Sweet mother of Celestia was that movie awesome!!! It’s incredible how they managed to pull off such mind-blowing visuals like that. It all looked soo real.”
“Definitely,” Rarity concurred. “The visuals were indeed spectacular and I thought the villain was somewhat better than previous villains in the series.”
“Loki seems like the only legitimately good villain that these Marvel movies have had thus far,” Twilight began, “but Kaecilius was definitely a step up from others.”
“Me ‘n Savannah got tha opportunity ta see this movie in 3-D when it first came out in theaters ‘n it was GORGEOUS!!!” I exclaimed. “This was definitely a movie that used 3-D technology properly in order ta enhance tha viewin’ experience.”
“Aw man,” Pinkie groaned. “I really wish that we could’ve gotten the chance to see it in 3-D.”
“Maybe one o’ these days, we might be able ta make that a possibility,” I started, “but, fer now, Ah think we should get some rest fer tomorrow.”
“What’s tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow’s when we go ta Dickinson’s like Ah promised you guys we would.”
At that statement, Pinkie’s eyes brightened up as a smile spread across her face and she ran over to hug me tightly.
“Oh thank you soo much Davey!!! You’re one of the best friends anypony could ever ask for.”
“Yer welcome,” I squeaked as she hugged me soo hard I had trouble breathing.
“Umm… Pinkie,” AJ began, “Ah think ya should let him go now.”
“Ooops. Sorry,” she answered, letting go of me.
“It’s O.K.,” I chuckled. “Now how bout we get some rest so that we’re all ready fer tomorrow?”
“You got it.”
“Sounds good to me,” Fluttershy yawned in agreement.
And with that, we made our way off to our separate rooms and settled in for the night, looking forward to all that tomorrow might hold.