Author's Note

I apologise in advance for any errors In this chapter. This is the first one I've written using my phone. Hope you all like it!

Chapter 20: Confrontation With Fate.

September 22, 1000, C.E.
Astral Plane.

"Come along my fellow's!" Luna shouted as she and the other's hauled flank to reach there friend. After they wandered off looking for there friend they began to hear what sounded like explosions off in the distance. After a mad dash to the source, they all stopped as they looked at the scene before them. They had reached the end of the kaleidoscoped plane and saw a now white expanse of nothingness before them. As they looked on they saw the source of the explosions. Standing there clad in white armor was a black pony. laid out behind it was a being that the other's knew all too well.

"JOHN!" Fluttershy shouted as she and the other's all ran down to his side. They all rushed over to him and took up a shielding position in front of him cutting off the white clad ponies view of him. Fluttershy rounded on the newcomer with a speed that startled it.

"What have you done to him!" Her eye's flashed red as the white clad pony was lifted into the air. The pony looked around in shock and began to fiddle with its helmet. Once it found the release button it flipped its helmet off.

"Fluttershy it's me!" He now shouted. Fluttershy glared at him.

"Do we know each other?" She sneard at him. The pony looked around as he cocked his head listening to something only he could hear.

"Oh, Crap!" His helmet encased his face once more as he looked at Fluttershy.

"Sorry about this." He said as he raised a hoof to her. His horn flared to life with a green aura as he shot a fire ball at her. Fluttershy simply tanked the hit as her aura flared up. The pony looked at her with a look of utter horror on his muzzle.

"The hell kind of magic is that?" He stated as Fluttershy simply brought the pony closer.

"You are going to tell me everything you know about what happened to my sone over there." She stated as her visage began to change. The pony looked on in even more horror as the once demure and timid pegasus he once knew morphed into a creature from his worst nightmare. Standing there before him, was a full-blown vampony and she was pissed at him.

"Oh shit." Was all he muttered as he began to struggle for any way out he could find. As he continued to struggle he looked behind her to see Princess Luna.

"Princess!" He called out as he held a hoof out to the lunar queen. She gave him a look of confusion. She trotted over and watched as Fluttershy looked ready to devour the poor soul. Calmly she trotted over to the enraged vampony and laid a hoof on her head. At once Fluttershy stopped herself looking up at the princess.

"Princess?" She asked as Luna held a soft smile on her face.

"It's ok little one." She gestured to the white clad pony.

"Let us take care of this one." She then grabbed the pony from Fluttershy's grasp and held him tight.

"Go and be with your friend." Fluttershy looked from the pony and back to John. She gave the pony a growl as she trotted back over to her friends. Now that they were alone Luna fixed the stallion with a glare that could freeze hellfire. The stallion gave her a soft smile.

"Well hello, Princess Luna. How's the wheater?" He asked as Luna brought him close.

"I will ask you this only once interloper. And I'd best like the answer or you will find yourself suffering a fate worse than death." The stallion paled as he fought to keep his thought's from escaping him.

"Princess please listen to me." He bagged to which Luna raised an eyebrow.

"We are. Speak cur or suffer." She yelled causing the stallion to flinch. He looked around before he took a deep breath.

"I'm going to just come right out and say it." Luna waited for him to continue.

"Princess I believe that somehow I might have crossed into another dimension." He winced and closed his eyes in preparation for incineration. When he didn't feel any heat or smell his coat burning he opened an eye to see Luna looking at him with some skepticism.

"Parden me if I find that hard to believe." She said as she mulled it over. "It's not entirely out of the range of possibility." She thought as she remembered Star Swirl's experiments with travel through time and space. She looked at the pony in her grasp.

"This shrimpy little wimp couldn't rip a hole in reality if it was ninety nine percent finished and needed only a tiny boost to get itself fully open." The stallion whithered as he read the Princess's thoughts. Gadget was shocked beyond words.

"P-p-princess?" He feebly mumbled grabbing her attention once more. She fixed Gadget with another glare.

"Speak fast naive!" She bellowed causing Gadget to once more cower in place.

"Princess please he-" gadget pointed a hoot at John, "-was like that when I found him." Luna pondered this new and the grave implications of its validity. She gave gadget and inquisitive glance now.

"And who pray tell would want to cause harm to an innocent-" Her reflexes kicked into high gear as she sensed a new presence just off to her left. Reacting purely on instinct she leapt to the side narrowly dodging a bolt of magic that lanced across the ground were she once stood. Landing a little off to the right of the group of ponies she brought with her Luna glared at her new foe.

"Who dares to strike at the goddess of the moon!?" Luna challenged looking at the attacker as he calmly trotted towards the group. He looked at the group and let out a soft chuckle as he stopped a few feet away from them.

"Goddess of the moon huh!?" He fixed Luna with a glare of his own.

"This is the first time I've heard you call yourself that," He smirked at Luna who reinforced her glare.

"And that's saying quite a lot considering all the times and places I've been to." He hefted his weapon, a huge monstrosity of a sword off of his back and held it out to face the group.

"Now if you'll excuse me I have some work to do." He tried to get closer but had to leap out of the way of a dark crystalline spike that tried to impale him. He ended up landing a few feet further back from were he once was. He fixed Luna with a face of pure annoyance now.

"Listen Princess we can do this same old song and dance like we alleyways do or you all can make it easier on yourselves and just hand the human over." He glared at the group. Dash had had enough of this guy.

"The only thing you'll be getting is a huge ass kicking punk so get lost!" Dash stood tall and proud as her body began to glow blue as arcs of lightning danced across her coat. Aion had to admit, he was impressed. Letting out a whistle he calmly began to walk back towards the group.

"Gotta admit the light show is pretty awesome Dash." He smirked as Dash looked him over with a critical eye. She let a smirk cross her muzzle.

"Sorry pal but we've never met before." She stated as Aion just laughed. He then fixed her with a penetrating gaze.

"Maybe not in this timeline but in others we've had the time of our lives." He smirked.

"Distinctly remember making you scream my name a few times to." Dash looked utterly horrified. Her scowl came back in full force.

"I'm pretty certain that in this or any other timeline you'd have a snowball's chance in hell with me." Aion's smug grin turned into a death glare in an instant.

"Oh fuck you miss perfect!" He stomped forward but was once again stopped. This time by a giant split rupturing the ground before him. He glared at the group before he broke out into a fit of giggles. Aj was puzzled.

"What's so funny?" Aion simply lit his horn up.

"Funny thing is that all of your posturing and grandstanding is useless." With a flash he was gone. A scream made the group circle around. They saw another flash as John disappeared before there eyes.

"John!" Dash screamed out as another flash alerted them. They all swung g around to see Aion holding John up with his magic, a hazy white glow enveloping his body.

"Now here's wh-" Fluttershy saw nothing but red. She disappeared in puff of smoke, only to reappear in front of Aion. Before he could cast a spell of his own Fluttershy slugged him. His concentration disrupted the spell fizzled out as Aion's head whipped back, blood spraying over the ground. John fell through the air only to get caught by Fluttershy. She let out a predatory growl as she held John close while she retreated, never removing her crimson eyes from the threat to her family. Aion spung back up with murderous hatred burning in his eyes.

"You know what fuck this!" His horn lit up and in a fraction of a second a sphere of magic erupted fourth sending a shockwave throughout the astral plane. Everyone froze in place as the spell took effect. They all looked on I horror as Aion freely moved about while everyone else was frozen in time. He smirked as he trotted over to his target.

"Nifty ain't it?" He smirked as he grabbed John by the collar a d dragged him along in front of the others. John let out a week moan of agony as he was flung through the air and slammed I to the ground. Aion was non plussed at his groan of pain.

"Damn. Must be loosing some magic being stuck in the astral plane for so long." He muttered as he trotted over to the beaten human being. A quick spell later and John was now pinned to the ground via spikes through his arms and legs. He let out a feeble muffled cry of pain that became even more distorted thanks to the time spell he was under.

"Tsk tsk." Aion wiggled a hoof as he circled John's body.

"You caused me a lot of trouble!" He punctuated his sentence with a stomp on o e of John's legs. A sickening crack was heard but it too reverberated around the spells area of effect. John was silenced by a flare of magic as Aion stopped in front of him.

"I'm going to enjoy erasing you from existence." Aion said as he leveled his horn at the human before him. John's silent please for mercy went unanswered. He saw the smoldering hatred in Aions eyes berring down on him. As John looked into the eyes of death he saw a faint flicker of hope as Aions eyes glazed over with moisture.

"Fizzle Pop, please forgive me." He muttered as he closed his eyes with a sigh. When he opened them once more his visage was as stone as let his spell loose. The group of ponies all cried out as there friend was hit with the blinding light. Princess Luna was enraged. Letting out a distorted cry of furry her horn lit up. With a powerful wave of magic the time field dissipated as Aion sat there looking on as John struggled to remain tethered to this reality. He was writhing in agony as he did so. Fluttershy ran over to his side with AJ close behind.

"No, no, no, no!" Fluttershy yelled as she cradled John's dissipating body. She held his hand in her hoof while she let her tears run freely.

"It's going be ok!" AJ yelled nuzzling John's face. He cringed from the pain as he tried to put on a brave face. A beam of midnight magic lanced over the trio to strike Aion who was sent flying. His concentration was broken and thus the glow faded from his horn. John felt his body stop disintegrating and looked around. He saw his friends huddled around him all of them except for Rainbow.

"D-d-dash?" He feebly called out to the sky blue pegasus. She snapped out of her shock giving John a tear filled look of worry.

"Wha- what?" She looked around feeling a dreadful sence of dejavu creep its way along her spine. There revelry was short lived as the whole group was sent flying by a blast of telekinetic energy. The group got back to there hooves only to freeze in place one more as Aion flared his wings in anger.

"ENOUGH!" He bellowed a command that forced the group to how before him.

"YOU PITIFUL FOOLS HAVE INTERFERED FOR THE LAST TIME!" With a wave of his horn he sent the group sprawling to the ground next to John who reached out to them. They staggered back to there feet all of them shooting Aion a glare. Aion in return sent them a devious grin. As he sauntered over to the group he stopped dead in his tracks and began to claw at his head. A piercing high pitched whistle ripped through the void stopping everyone in there tracks. Suddenly Aion flicked his eyes over to Rainbow Dash.

"NOOO!" He screamed as he lit his horn up. Dash meanwhile was still hyperventilating from her earlier feeling of dejavu. At once she sprang into action. The lightning dancing around her slowed to a crawl as she flew faster than she ever had before. Soon the whole world around her slowed to a halt. Looking around Dash was in shock. She'd never gone this fast before. Her eyes leveled on John. She saw the fear spreading across his face. She had had enough. Her eyes narrowed as she locked on to her target. With a mighty roar she sped past him. In normal time Aion saw a blur of lightning and rainbows whizz past him. His fear dissipated as his smirk reappeared.

"He element of loyalty indeed." He sneered.

"Even she kn-" His sentence stuck in his throat as he staggered back from a blow that sent him flying into the air. His eyes went wide in surprise as he looked around for his assailant.

"How!?" He saw nothing. He was then hit a few more times In rapid succession. The blitz of hooves that hammered into him sent him slamming Into the ground. As the dust cleared Aion flashed his gaze around.

"We're are you, you bitch!?" He shouted to the heavens. The only thing the group saw was the alicorn spazzing out as a blue streak flashed into and out of existence peppering Aion with hits. Aion staggered around after the assault and looked around wearily.

"Is that the best you got!?" He shouted in defiance. Dash smirked as she whizzed past him.

"Nope." She whispered into his ear as she passed by. He whirled around to see nothing but air. All of a sudden he jerked around as he was once again hit at light speed several times across his body. A yell of victory rang out as Dash put her all Into one find all hit. She zoomed at Aion leaving a rainbow trail of light behind her. When her hoof connected with Aions body the world around them all shattered in a blinding flash of prismatic light.