Author's Note

To those who are still invested in this story I both deeply apologize for and am highly excited to bring you this long awaited next chapter. To those who are new to this story I do hope you keep an open mind and read this tale from the beginning and please forgive my many gramitorical mistakes throughout. Thanks for reading this and now on with ending of this tale...

Chapter 41: The Best Night Ever, Part 2.

Canterlot Castle, Canterlot.
Several Hours Later.

John awoke with to a throbbing pain blasting though his skull. He winced as each pulse of his heart shot white hot pain through his brain. He was barely able to squint and even then it was a struggle to keep his eyes open for more than a few seconds at a time.

"Where?" He wondered as he looked around noting his blurry vision. This just made him even more confused.

"How-" A loud clang to his right gave him pause as he looked to the source and saw a blue blob enter the dark corners of his vision.

"Dash?" He asked. In response he got a soft chuckle and then the wind left him forcefully as a hoof impacted his gut causing him to yell out in agony. His headache got even worse as his adrenaline kicked in.

"Don't you dare say her name you pathetic piece of shit!" He knew that voice.

"Soarin." He muttered to himself as Soarin trotted back and forth in front of him. Soarin smirked as he came to a stop in front of the human that had vexed him throughout this entire ordeal. Soarin trotted up to the detained human and smiled.

"You have been a thorn in my side for far to long." He said as brushed a hoof across John's cheek before he drove his hoof into his face causing him to stagger as his body weight tugged against the chain he found himself locked into. It was bolted to the wall and thus did not give an inch as he lay there getting his spinning head under control. With a now swollen cheek and throbbing head all's John could do was delve into his thoughts.

"Please let Rainbow and the others be safe." Soarin smirked as he trotted over to the human and leaned down.

"Don't you worry, I'll be sure to take good care of Dash when your gone." He smiled as John struggled to get to his feet. Once he did so he smirked right on back.

"Please she doesn't need a candy ass like you to look after her." He smiled as Soarin's smirk left his muzzle, replaced with a scowl.

"She can look after herself just fine." Soarin saw red as he brought a hoof down on John's head knocking him out once more. He let out a huff as he stomped off down the deserted torch lit hallway. He glanced back at John and smirked.

"Just you wait one way or another she will be mine." With his ego satisfied and his head full of happier times to come between himself and Dash he sauntered off as Aion looked on pleased with the brutes work.

"Now to cast the spell and get this whole mess sorted out." He said as his horn began to glow.

5:47 P.M.

Aion looked around in wonder as he stepped his first hoof into the dining hall of Canterlot Castle.

"Wow." He exclaimed as he looked ever upwards. His line of sight was obscured as he stopped walking causing the group to bump into him. John just chuckled as he looked down at the colt who was now on his back looking up at the group sheepishly.

"Uh hi there." He waived a hoof as the group all gave out a collective giggle.

"Come here little bro." John said as he picked him up and set him on his head. "Better?" He asked as Aion gave him a nod from his perch. John looked around the dining hall and was pleasantly surprised to see Princess Luna enthusiastically waving a hoof at the group. They all laughed as her antics as they made there way over to the head of the table. When they got there Celestia gave them all a beaming smile.

"Hello all of you." She greeted the group as they all bowed. She to inclined her head to them letting them rise to greet her at eye level. Shining stepped foreword to answer for the group.

"Your highness we are all really humbled and excited to be here tonight." He said bowing to the two rulers of Equestria who both chuckled at his professional attitude. A hoof on his shoulder caused shining to look back and blush as Cadence gave him a sultry smile.

"Relax honey." She asked as she rubbed her cheek against his own. He blushed as he turned to putty in her hooves. Cadence gave him a giggle as she let her hoof drop to the ground.

"After all we're all here to enjoy our time with one another." She said as she turned to the group who all nodded in agreement. John chuckled as he leaned against a nearby pillar.

"Yeah, I've had enough excitement for one lifetime this year thanks." Everyone gave off a chuckle as they took their seats. John taking a cue from Shining proceeded to grab his family's chairs as well as Dash's. They all gave him thanks and a nod of appreciation, meanwhile Celestia looked on, a smirk adorning her muzzle as she watched her subjects all start to mingle as the food was brought in. Looking all around the dining hall full of tables and guests from home and abroad filled her with such joy. The only thing she could compare it to was how she felt over six months ago when her sister was brought back to her.

"So there I was starring down the dragon telling him to get back in line with everyone else-" Celestia stopped listening in on Hot Shot and his exploits instead opting to listen in on her newest resident and his many adventures. Looking over at John she winced seeing his still missing limb. She shook her head and sighed.

"Oh, how cruel we ponies can be." She thought as the smile John wore began to infect her own sullen face. As she looked on her eyes met John's and he just gave her a small nod of satisfaction. Celestia let a chuckle escape her muzzle as she looked past her newest charge and over to her old student. Twilight delighted herself by bringing her parent's up to speed on John and his situation. Night Light let out a whistle as he smirked at John.

"So John has our little girl finally found a coltfriend?" John for his part didn't want to embarrass Twilight and so have his response a small modicum of thought.

"Well as lovely as Twilight is-" She blushed at this trying to hide her now pink face under the table.-"I must admit that while I was in her care I was sadly not in the frame of mind to give her beauty the proper recognition it deserved." He said feeling rather pleased with himself for potentially defusing a volatile situation. Luna let out a hearty laugh as she fixed the group with a smirk.

"Thow has thine tongue of a diplomat young John." She raised a glass in toast, as did the rest of the table not wanting to leave the lunar princess to toast alone. Dash giggled as she to held up a metal goblet in her magical grasp.

"Here is to a happy year once more," Celestia bellowed as the whole hall cheered.
"We have come a long way in only a short amount of time." She continued as she scanned the room, seeing bright beaming faces all around.

"We have had families reunited, made new friends and have even come to find true love this year. All in the name of harmony and friendship. May this new year bring us all even more joy than the last." The whole hall drank from there cups and let out a round of applause. At the table John had just finished his first cup when he was pulled to the left and given a soft kiss on the lips. He was surprised at first but soon melted into it as he wrapped Rainbow in a loving embrace.

"PLEASE!" Fluttershy begged as Sorin dragged John over to a crudely drawn rune etched into the stone floor of the castle dungeon. Sorin didn't even spare Fluttershy or any of the others a glance as he threw John to the cold hard ground and simply walked away into the dark corners of the neighboring cells.

"John sweetie look at mommy." Fluttershy pleaded as John struggled to turn himself over. When he did so he was horrified to see not only Fluttershy in a cage but Dash as well. She however was furiously trying to bash her cage to pieces. Every time she hit it through it would glow a soft blue and shock her. She screamed through the pain and finally set her eyes on John.

"Hey don't worry there big guy!" She tried to keep her voice from quivering but it did little to hide the fear inside of her.

"I'll be out of this cage in ten seconds flat." She glared at the direction Sorin went.

"And when I get free I am going to kill you, you sick twisted bastard!" She shouted at the top of her lungs.

"I know you can hear me!" She continued to struggle as Fluttershy to began to try and break her cage. John meanwhile just stared on as a blank expression took hold of his face. The two mares stopped there struggling as hoofsteps could be heard. They both waited with bated breath and anger seething throughout their bodies. They were all shocked when none other than Chancellor Neysay trotted out of the darkness.

"Yes here we are." He said as he trotted around John's prone form and studied the glyphs carved into the rune.

"Just right for the ritual at hand." He said ignoring the mares presence and trotting off back to where Sorin went. All three of them where I'm shock. Finally Fluttershy found her voice again.

"That's impossible, i killed him myself." She muttered as she shrank back into her cage going through her memories trying to find a logical reason for his rebirth. Her thoughts were further interupted as now Sorin and The Chancellor both reemerged from hiding but this time they were accompanied by a third pony, this one was also a stallion with a white coat, jet black mane and a pair of crimson eye's. Dash's brain clicked.

"Aion?" She asked not entirely sure of her assumption. The stallion looked her way and snorted in disgust.

"So my doppelganger has been here." He sighed as he shook his head pulling a dagger out of thin air. Both mares and John stared at the vile instrument as Aion slowly trotted around the incantation making sure every geometric sigal was perfect.

"Oh well. It won't matter now." He siad as he plunged the dagger into John's chest. White hot agony ripped throughout his body as John let out a blood curdling scream. Dash and Fluttershy both let out their own wails of protest as the sigal now stained with blood began to glow a sickly shade of red. Sorin and The Chancellor both smiled wickedly as the ritual began to take hold. John meanwhile struggled to stay awake through the mind numbing pain. Fluttershy frantically began to use all of her might to try and break her cage, Dash doing the same. Drawing some magical power from John's blood Fluttershy went to work using some of his spilt life force to saw through their prisons. The three stallions were to busy chanting an incantation to hurry the spell along to notice the mares progress. Just as the two got through their cages however they where all blinded by a bright flash of light.

"NOOOO!"

The wave of magical energy swept throughout the castle, not ceasing in it's efforts to race across all of creation, eventually extending it's influence across the universe. As the wave travelled throughout the cosmos all that it touched lay frozen in time as the very fabric of reality itself began to unwind. At the epicenter of it all, suspended in the air John saw for a brief moment his adoptive mother and his one and only marefreind reaching their hooves out to him in vain. All's he could do was reach back, knowing that whatever came next he would never again lay his eyes on those two extraordinary mares. In a fraction of a second there was a flash of light and all was still once more as time resumed its natural course.

Slowly, shakily, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy both got to their hooves, both of them were in shock at what they just witnessed. As the two studied their surroundings feeling lost and confused they both tried and failed to contain their pent up emotions.

THE END...