Cruel Twist Of Fate or (Friendship Is Tragic)

by SapphireWings999

Chapter XII: I Wanna Be A Part Of It

After a few hours of getting everything packed for our trip, we lounged around in the living room while watching the entire Back To The Future trilogy as Savannah had suggested. We’d finished the last one just in time for pizza to be delivered which we ate and washed down with soda while Ariel was playing with her toys on the floor. As this was a particularly special occasion with our time together winding down, I decided to treat the girls to some stuffed crust pizza, realizing that they’d never gotten the chance to try it during the entirety of their stay here. Not much was spoken during that time as we ate our pizza quietly. Finally, Savannah spoke up.

“How’ve you girls enjoyed your stay so far?”

“I’ve gotta say that it’s certainly been an eye-opening experience,” Twilight answered after swallowing a bite of pizza.

“That’s one way of putting it,” Rarity added. “As I mentioned before, I’ve enjoyed all the little bits of your culture that we’ve come to be familiar with and I’m certainly looking forward to seeing those musicals tomorrow.”

“I really enjoyed those Marvel movies that we got to watch and the Back To The Future movies were pretty entertaining too!” Rainbow exclaimed, taking a swig of soda.

“Back Ta Tha Future was purdy enjoyable,” Applejack spoke up, “even if Ah had trouble understandin’ tha logic o’ time travel.”

“That’s perfectly understandable,” Savannah began. “Even the best time travel movies ever made have some form of plot hole or inconsistency, but it doesn’t ruin the movie by any means.”

“If only time travel did exist here so that our time together wouldn’t have to be up soo quickly,” Fluttershy lamented.

“Yeah,” Pinkie agreed sadly. “That is a real bummer.”

“Hey,” I began, “there’s nothin’ fer you guys ta worry ‘bout. Yer time might be almost up here, but that don’t mean that me, Savannah, ‘n Ariel can’t visit ya guys in tha future back in Equestria.”

“That’s what Ah was jus’ ‘bout ta say,” AJ answered. “Ah mean, Dayvid’s still got tha talisman fer whenever they wanna come back ta us so it’s not like this is tha las’ time we’ll ever be able ta see ‘em.”

“O.K. Can I just say that this is really great pizza?” Rainbow mentioned. “Like, I didn’t even know that cheese in the crust was possible, but, now that I do, it’s incredible how I never found out about it until just now.”

“I know right?!?” Pinkie piped up. “I don’t think I’ll ever look at pizza the same way again.”

“Maybe we’d even be able to bring that knowledge of stuffed crust pizza back to Equestria?” Twilight stated. “I can see it catching on really fast when we get back home.”

“Maybe,” I remarked.

It was in that moment when Ariel let out a soft yawn while rubbing her eyes.

“Looks like someone’s ready to call it a night,” Savannah commented as she picked our daughter up and carried her into our bedroom.

“Yup,” I replied. “Ah think it’s ‘bout time fer all of us ta call it a night. Tomorrow, we’ve gotta get up wicked early if we’re gonna make it ta New York. The Phantom Of The Opera starts at 2 PM ‘n it takes roughly 5 ½ hours jus’ ta get there. Not ta mention Ah’m sure that you girls might wanna look around tha place fer a bit in between shows.”

“When does the showing for Wicked start?” Twilight puzzled.

“7 PM. Tha theater itself is only ‘bout a 13 minute walk away from tha one showin’ Phantom ‘n there should be plenty o’ time fer sight-seein’ before then.”

“I guess we’ll see you in the morning, then,” Rarity stated, getting up from her seat.

“Sleep well you guys.”

“You too, David,” Fluttershy answered with a soft smile.

And so, all of us got up and headed off to our own separate rooms. As I got into bed with my wife, I cuddled her close to me, praying with all that was in me that everything would be alright the following day. Unbeknownst to me, at the time, was that that day would be the day that I truly did lose everything and everyone I held close and dear to me.

* * * * * * * *

The next morning, we awoke bright-eyed and bushy tailed (at least, if the girls still had their pony tails I’m sure that they would’ve been bushy), grabbed breakfast quickly, packed our bags into the cars and were soon on our way to New York City, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight in the Mustang with me and Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Applejack in the Charger with Savannah and Ariel. During the long drive down there, in order to pass the time, I introduced the girls to an old favorite game that me and my family would play on long car rides: the Beetles/Beatles game.

The way the game worked was that, every time we saw a Volkswagen Beetle car, we’d call out the name of one of the members of The Beatles starting with John then Paul, George, and Ringo. The goal was to make it all the way through all four of them or see how many times we could go through all four of them in a single trip. The girls were already familiar with The Beatles as I’d introduced them to their music a few weeks prior. The real challenge was trying to get them to recognize Volkswagen Beetles as opposed to any other car on the road. After a short while, though, they began to catch on.

There were also some other games for long car rides that came to mind like when my family tried to count the number of Ford Mustangs, fighting to see who could claim their Mustang first. The problem with that game, though, was that whenever we passed a graveyard, the first person to shout “bury your horses” would keep all of their Mustangs while everyone else would lose theirs. Along with the fact that there weren’t many graveyards on the highway, a game like that seemed to be in really bad taste considering my company, much in the same way that I wouldn’t bring up the old expression “beating a dead horse” around my friends either.

Something that the girls particularly enjoyed was whenever we went through a new state, always looking forward to the welcoming signs from each one we entered. New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and finally New York. Several hours and several rest stops later, we’d reached our destination: New York City.

Upon arriving, I was filled with nostalgia from the first time that I’d been there less than 3 years ago with old college friends. Such an immense city with soo much to offer and, now, I got to share it all with my closest friends. In that moment, life was pretty awesome.

The girls’ eyes widened with such intensity at the sight of our surroundings that I almost thought they might pop right out of their skulls. Finally, Rainbow was the first to break the silence.

“Oh. My. Gosh!!! This place is enormous! I think it might be even larger than Manehattan back home!”

“No arguing there,” Twilight concurred.

After several additional minutes of dealing with big city traffic, we arrived at a valet parking area on West 42nd Street, only a short distance away from the Majestic Theater, where we parked and got out to stretch our legs. Making sure all in our party were present and accounted for and making sure that we had our tickets for both shows, I spoke up to all the girls.

“O.K. listen up,” I began firmly, “as y’all know, this is a very large city ‘n it’s easy ta get lost here so make sure that ya stay close ‘n don’ wander off. If ya need ta go somewhere, make sure ya have someone else ta go with ya. Polly will be with Faith, Robin will be with Anne, ‘n Rosilyn will be with Tai. If we do get separated, we meet back up here. Got it?”

The girls all nodded in agreement.

“Good,” Savannah stated as she held Ariel in her arms. “Now who’s ready to see The Phantom Of The Opera?”

“Me!!!” all the girls exclaimed.

And so we began the short walk over to the theater. We were all dressed to the nines for this special occasion, me in my suit and favorite royal blue tie while Savannah and the girls wore dresses. The dresses for the girls Discord had already provided for them before they left Equestria, all of them varied.

Fluttershy’s dress was a mint green strapless dress that complimented her eyes nicely, Rarity wore a mauve, mermaid style dress that shimmered as she walked, Pinkie’s was a bright pink shirt dress with balloon embellishments, Twi had an asymmetrical, 1 shoulder dress the color of the night sky with its varying shades of blue, Applejack’s was a simple navy colored halter dress, and Rainbow wore a sundress with, what else, rainbow coloring all over it. We were certainly quite the colorful cast of characters.

Before long, we’d reached the theater, presented our tickets to the clerk, and entered the building. It took us a little while to get to our seats, but we finally found them before settling in. The inside of the theater was indeed a grand place that I’d almost completely forgotten about since the first and last time I was previously there. The countless arches along both sides, the ornate details on the balconies, even the ceiling was intricately designed. It was indeed majestic.

Finally, a hush fell over the crowd as the play was announced and the lights dimmed in preparation. With my family and friends by my side, we all sat back to enjoy the show together.

* * * * * * * *

About 2 ½ hours later, the show was finished, we were exiting the theater back out into the busy city, and the girls couldn’t stop talking about what we’d just seen.

“Wasn’t that soo totally AWESOME!?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. “I mean the story was awesome, the characters were awesome, the songs, doubly awesome!!!”

“I really enjoyed the songs too,” Twilight followed up. “I particularly enjoyed how well they developed the Phantom as a sympathetic character. Not that any of the crimes he committed were justified, but he was still an engaging and tragic figure.”

“I also loved the songs,” Fluttershy added.

“Me too,” Rarity agreed.

“Me five!” Pinkie piped up.

“What would you guys say some of your favorite songs were?” Savannah questioned, holding Ariel close.

“Oh wow,” Twilight began, “it’s soo hard to pick just one. I guess that my favorites were Think Of Me, Angel Of Music, The Phantom Of The Opera, Music Of The Night, Stranger than You Dreamt It, All I Ask Of You, and Past The Point Of No Return.”

“Mine were Poor Fool, He Makes Me Laugh!, Stranger than Ya Dreamt It, Wishin’ You Were Somehow Here Again, ‘n Down Once More,” Applejack stated, her tone turning slightly somber. “Wishin’ You Were Somehow Here Again made me think o’ ma parents ‘n how Ah often wish Ah still had ‘em with me.”

“Hey,” I started, reaching a hand out to AJ, “ya still have ‘em with ya where it truly counts,”-I tapped 2 fingers on her chest-“inside here.”

AJ offered a soft smile back at me before Savannah posed a question to her.

“Anne, what were the names of your parents if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Bright Mac ‘n Buttercup.”

“Buttercup,” I remarked. “That’s a really beautiful name.”

“It sure is,” Savannah added before turning her attention over to Fluttershy. “Faith, what were your favorite songs from the show?”

“I particularly enjoyed Think Of Me, Angel Of Music, Little Lotte, All I Ask Of You, and Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again.”

“My personal favorites were Think Of Me, Angel Of Music, Prima Donna, Masquerade, and Past The Point Of No Return,” Rarity followed up.

“I loved Angel Of Music, The Phantom Of The Opera, Masquerade, and Past The Point Of No Return,” Pinkie added, “especially The Phantom Of The Opera when the pipe organ played!”

I couldn’t help but smile at Pinkie’s remark before Rainbow threw in her two cents.

“I thought The Mirror, Stranger than You Dreamt It, Why Have You Brought Us Here?, Why So Silent?, Past The Point Of No Return, and Down Once More were pretty awesome.”

“Wow,” Savannah began, “I guess you guys must’ve really enjoyed the music a lot if you have that many favorites.”

“Ah think that kinda goes without sayin’,” I remarked before looking at my watch. “Looks like we’ve got a couple of hours before Wicked starts. You girls wanna look around tha area a bit?”

“Sure,” the girls replied in unison.

“Did ya have any particular place in mind?” AJ questioned.

“Well Ah was thinkin’ of maybe showin’ ya guys tha Nintendo shop in tha Rockefeller Plaza if yer interested.”

“What’s Nintendo?” Rainbow puzzled.

Savannah answered before I could even open my mouth.

“Nintendo is a very famous video game company that’s been around ever since the 80’s. They’re particularly famous for the many games they’ve released centering around Pokemon and Mario.”

The girls stared at Savannah like she had lobsters crawling out of her ears before I spoke up.

“We’ll try ta explain it on tha way over if any o’ y’all are interested in checkin’ tha place out.”

“I’m in!” Rainbow exclaimed.

“I suppose it might be worth checking out even if out of general curiosity,” Rarity commented.

“I’m interested,” Fluttershy answered softly.

“So am I!” Pinkie piped up.

“You’ve got me curious,” Twilight remarked.

“Let’s do it,” AJ affirmed.

And so, with approval from all the girls, we began the somewhat lengthy walk over to the Nintendo store all the while enjoying each other’s company. Little did I know that there was a dark shadow looming on the horizon that was about to bring everything crashing down before the day was up.

* * * * * * * *

“…So Pokemon is essentially a game where you capture creatures, have them battle others, and try to get them to level up to a higher form?” Twilight puzzled several minutes after me and Savannah tried explaining the concept of Pokemon to the girls.

“Well that’s one way o’ puttin’ it,” I answered.

“Oh my! That sounds awful,” Flutters countered, “having animals fight each other like that.”

“In all honesty,” Savannah began, “we never really thought that much about it when we were younger. Besides, it was never like any of the Pokemon ever died from battle; they just fainted until you could bring them to a hospital to be restored to full health.”

“I’m not really sure if that’s any more of a consolation.”

“Fair enough,” I stated.

It was then that we realized that we’d finally made it to the Nintendo store. Another wave of nostalgia swept over me at the last time that I’d visited it as our party headed inside the building to look around. Upon entering, the girls were amazed at the size of the store, all 10,000 square feet of it spanning 2 floors.

“Wow!” Pinkie remarked in amazement. “This place is massive. I don’t even know where to start.”

“It is quite a lot ta take in all at once,” I concurred. “Ah think Ah know a good place fer us ta start, though. Follow me.”

I then led the group over to a display showcasing the entire history of Nintendo systems including the NES, the Nintendo 64, the GameBoy, and the Wii among others. The girls looked on in wonder at the vast history of Nintendo displayed before them.

“Woo-wee!” AJ finally commented. “Nintendo sure has quite tha history, don’t it?”

“Oh ya don’t even know tha half of it,” I remarked. “Nintendo was famous fer single handedly savin’ tha entire video game industry as we know it.”

“How so?” Twilight puzzled.

“Well, back in tha early 80’s, there was a video game company known as Atari ‘n there was a movie that was really well received at tha time called E.T.: Tha Extra-Terrestrial. E.T. had a game that was made fer the Atari system ‘n it was awful, but people had already paid money fer tha game, makin’ it a financial hit. Because o’ this, tha video game market became flooded with a large number o’ games that were essentially jus’ centerin’ ‘round different products like Kool-Aid or Purina dog food. No customers wanted these games ‘n there was no way fer tha games ta be returned ta their company, leadin’ ta tha infamous video game crash of 1983.

“Shortly after this, Nintendo released tha game Super Mario Bros. fer tha NES which became one o’ tha best sellin’ video games in history, savin’ tha entire video game industry in tha process. As far as Atari goes, they stopped makin’ any more video game systems not long after tha crash ‘n many o’ their games were disposed of in a landfill all tha way out in New Mexico, ‘bout 700,000 ta be exact.”

“Sounds like a waste to me,” Rarity commented. “All those games just being dumped in the middle of nowhere.”

“Can’t argue with you there,” Rainbow added.

“Nintendo has a special place personally as both it ‘n Playstation have always been good ta me,” I stated. “Can’t say tha same thing ‘bout Xbox, though.”

“Oh my!” Fluttershy suddenly exclaimed while pointing a finger. “What’s that over there?”

Following where she was pointing, we looked over and saw shelves that held several Pikachu plushies.

“That’s Pikachu,” Savannah answered. “One of the most popular Pokemon ever.”

“He’s soo adorable!!!” Fluttershy beamed as she ran over to grab one off of the shelf.

I smiled softly at Fluttershy’s enthusiastic outburst before she brought one of the plushies back over, hugging it tightly. However, she wasn’t the only one interested in the Pikachu toy; Ariel tried reaching out for Fluttershy’s plushie several times, becoming more and more fussy all the while. Flutters was quick to pick up on this.

“Did you want a turn with it, little one?”

Ariel let out a soft grunt that indicated a yes before Fluttershy handed off the toy to her.

“There you go, Ariel.”

Ariel held the plushie close to her as if not wanting to ever let it go, even chewing on an ear. We then began looking around even more of the store from the Nintendo clothes to the Nintendo games and systems they had available to buy, including the recently released Nintendo Switch. After nearly a half hour, I looked at my watch and realized how late it was getting.

“Ah think we should probably go ‘n get somethin’ ta eat before Wicked starts,” I spoke up to the girls.

“Sounds like a good idea to me,” Pinkie agreed.

Making our way over to the checkout, I paid for Ariel’s Pikachu plushie before we all exited the building.

“Was there any place ya had in mind, Sugarcube?” AJ questioned.

“Well,” I began, “Ah do know of a little place not too far from tha Gershwin Theater called Ellen’s Stardust Diner that serves really great comfort food. It’s a pretty laid-back place overall.”

“Sounds to me like a perfect place to grab a meal before the show,” Twilight stated.

“Mhmm,” the other girls agreed.

And so we made our way off to the diner for a quick bite, never knowing what awaited us later that night.

Author's Note:

Hello Everypony. SapphireWings here with the penultimate chapter of my story. After over a year of writing, I'm finally nearing the end of this installment. I've had a very enjoyable time writing this entry in my (somewhat) epic saga and I look forward to the final chapter being published as I hope you the readers do also. Feel free to thumbs up and/or favorite this story if you're enjoying it, leave a comment below, and I'll see you at the end, whenever that may be.