The first thing Sam did as he returned to Ponyville was stop by the apple Orchard that was directly bordering the Everfree. It took him a few minutes before he found the mare he had met the night previously, Applejack. He skidded to a stop in front of her, barely panting from the exertion.

"Woah there, feller!" AJ said as she almost ran into him. When she looked up and saw his red eyes and fangs she paled a little as memories of her friend ruining her orchard one time came flooding back to the forefront. They still aren't sure how she doesn't need blood, but that wasn't important. "Y'all a Vampony now…?"

“Huh? Oh… uh temporarily until the dark mage is beaten, then I’ll turn back because not being… in… the sun… It’s morning isn’t it?” He looked up, barely realizing in his haste that he had been in the sun the entire time. She simply nodded, dumbfounded by how he hadn't noticed, let alone hadn't caught fire yet.

"Ya mind tellin' me how ya ain't burnin' up right now? 'Cause last Ah checked Vampony's can't go out in the sun." She said after shaking her head clear of the confusion.

“Uh… Magic bullshit? I don’t really understand it myself…” He doubted telling a dream that dream logic made no sense would go over well… “But I’m here to pick up some of those apples I ordered.”

"Ah, right. How many y'all grabbin' taday?" Applejack hefted up a wooden bucket of apples and started leading him back to the farmhouse that looked suspiciously like a barn.

“Well, I’d take all two hundred and fifty six if you have them. “ He said, nodding at the rustic appearance, although it was a little shabbily made, and a lot of space was wasted.

Applejack chuckled and set the bucket down and circled around it. "Tell ya what. You take this bucket here, and pay fer thirty, and then come back in about an hour and get the rest. Sound good ta you?"

“Sounds good.” He said, moving a bunch of gold ingots into his crafting space and turning them into nuggets, then putting those nuggets into the space and getting what his system called bits. He dropped a stack of sixty at his feet, not expecting that they'd pile up to his knees.

"Welp… I seen weirder things 'round Pinkie… If y'all need a helpin' hoof with these, let me or nah broth- Where'd mah apples go?" She asked, noticing the suddenly empty bucket. The answer would be in his inventory, and true to her word, the stack said thirty. She must count them as she’s picking them or something.

“Ah, in my… extradimensional space.” He said, remembering the explanation he used for Celestia was. She looked up at him, then imitated a fish for a few seconds before shaking her head is disbelief.

"Y'all chaos bein's need ta get bells or somethin'... Ah can't keep track ah how many there are 'round these parts no more. Discord found out tha reason he done been alone fer so long was that he done pulled all his folks from when he was a little tyke, and now we got Draco… Draco… whatever the hay they are flyin' round all willy nilly…" She said with a sigh.

“Right… Well, I’ve got to get going. I guess I’ll see you round town…” He said, unsure how to answer her any differently as he began turning around.

She nodded in response and picked the bucket up and carried it back to the orchard with a faint smile playing with her lips. "Just wait till Ah tell 'Bloom bout this…" she said with a chuckle as she walked away.

As Sam walked away from the farm and through town, he idly looked at the coin called a bit. It’s stylized sun on one side, and a crescent moon stamped on the other. That was until he noticed a stand with newspapers, and a bored mare looking at the empty street. It was definitely too early for most ponies to be up and about. He made a detour, pausing in front of her.

“Got anything national?” He asked.

She looked up at him, paused, then smiled widely. "You're the one that changed my Vampony patron into a Dawnwatcher, aren't you?! She said you looked like a hairless monkey without a tail and wearing strange crystal armor, but I thought she was just joking!"

“Uh… Silver Lining? Then probably? And it’s diamond… Seriously, you got anything national? I’m trying to find a criminal.” He said, off-put by this dream’s crazy acceptance of the living dead.

"Oh, right!" She turned around, shuffling through some of her piles and mumbling a list of random items to herself before turning back around with a newspaper with the headline Mysterious fire almost breaks wall keeping out Timberwolves! Culprit still at large! written in big block letters. "This one came from a village in the forest over that way…" She said gesturing in the opposite direction of the Everfree. "Only about a day's walk from here."

“Right, how many bits?” He asked, already having a stack in his hand.

"Oh, this time's on me. Have some family out there, so I hope you catch them." She said as she slid the newspaper to him. "Good luck hunting for him!"

“Will do.” he said, nodding as he took it and walked away. He had to see twilight about some stuff, firstly, to get her to stop trying to drink herself to death every time he walked by, and also that she talked about being a princess of Equestria, so she should have some knowledge on this dark mage.

He opened the newspaper to the page about the fire, reading over it. All things considered, two found brutally murdered inside an inn wasn’t all that bad considering what his mind could have conjured up. The fire didn’t actually hurt anybody, but had caused a lot of property damage.

He looked up as he finally found his way to the center of town. If this wasn’t a dream, and he didn’t have the ability to literally make one, he’d wonder how someone could make a tree a building. He knocked on the front door, newspaper folded up by his side.

From inside he heard hurried footfalls and a brief clatter followed by hushed swearing. A tiny purple drake opened the door and stepped outside, closing it behind him and hissing in a low tone, "What is it!? Twilight's still asleep and she's going to be very irritated when she wakes up because Pinkie spiked her punch at the party yesterday!"

“Spiked her punch? She was drunk when she was forcefully thrown into the party by the bartender. I presume you’re her courtier?” He said, looking down.

"Something like that… she hatched me to become Princess Celestia's student. And she wasn't completely drunk, just tipsy. When she's actually drunk she starts shooting off magical fireworks. Inside." He said exasperated.

“Right… “ He sighed. “Look, She’s needed for some princessly duties and honestly I feel bad for her, but it’s her fault for drinking instead of dealing with the news like an adult… er… a functional adult.”

"You'd think so, but…" he sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Right, so I'm assuming you're here for the filly that appeared here a couple days ago?"

“Filly?” He asked, remembering the term. “Uh… not exactly, but it might be related.”

"What's up then?" He asked, still just as annoyed, but somewhat understanding now.

“Well, I’m pretty much here to deal with the dark mage that’s been free in Equestria. My sunshine,” he frowned at his own attempt to nickname Celestia. “Kinda has a promise from me to do so. So I figured instead of going to wherever Canterlot is, I’d come to the mare who claims to be her student to see if you have any leads.”

"Ah. Then yeah, you want to talk to the filly. Said her friend was the mage that appeared almost two weeks ago and that he's not as mean as Celestia says he is. Personally? I think she's just too trusting. Twilight seems to think he's a Diamond Dog that figured out how other creatures can cast magic, so she tried to save him. Not sure what happened since then though." He shrugged as he stepped back inside, leaving the door open for him as an unspoken invitation. He stepped inside, surprised at the library's worth of shelves with books on them. He looked around for where the little drake went, before shrugging and taking a seat at the reading table.

The drake soon returned, a claw on a little green unicorn filly to guide her. "I would light a candle, but with how foalish Twilight's been, I don't think that's a good idea. Anyway, this is Jade Evergreen. Sister of Aurana, the mare we're assuming he-"

"Big sis was foalnapped! Silphen hasn't done anything wrong, and… and… And he just cares too much about us!" The filly snapped, yelling loud enough to wake up Twilight who just looked at them from the top of the stairwell. She looked like she had seen better days, that much was obvious…

“Unfortunately, this… Silphen, has indeed done wrong according to the laws of Equestria.” He placed the newspaper on the table from under his arm and began to read. “'Skinny Diamond Dog starts fire in Hooferville after two were found dead in town inn.' While I haven’t been here a while, two accounts of probable murder, and a several thousand bits of property damage are pretty big crimes.”

"They were going to foalnap us, or kill us… He was trying to protect me and sis… he didn't have a choice in the matter!" She shot back, tears starting to form in her eyes. He felt bad for continuing on, but unfortunately, this filly was an eyewitness.

“Where I come from our laws on just murder are as varied as the fruits that grow on trees, so I won’t go much into that without evidence, but even still, he had knowingly started a fire on the town walls, causing half of the town to be vulnerable. I can’t find any just cause for arson. On top of his already heavy crimes of using dark magic… well, he’s got explaining to do before I even think about letting him see more than the obsidian walls of my castle, let alone roam free. So please little filly, tell me where he’s gone.” He looked at the filly in tears unblinkingly, it hurt him to be this callous, but this Silphen had already killed, and if Celestia was worried about him, that meant he was powerful enough to resort to means other than murder.

She challenged his stare with a stare of her own. Seemed she wouldn't back down from this. "He was trying to save my big sister. He once said that magic isn't evil, it's how you use it that makes it evil. I don't think he wanted to kill them, but I don't think he feels good about it either!"

“That’s the issue!” He slammed his palm on the table in irritation, his red eyes glowing in the shadows of the library. “He used it in evil ways! Murder in self defence is still murder, little filly! He could be tearing his soul in pieces for all I care, and I get his social stigma, I truly do, my fiance tried to kill me because of it, but frankly, he’s done nothing in his quest for revenge but prove everyone right.” As Sam finished his rant, the door flew open, slamming into the wall.

"Princess Twilight!" A gray mare with a bowtie shouted from the doorframe, panting heavily.

Twilight teleported onto the table and whispered in a deadly low voice, "All of you will either respect that this is a library, or you will leave. Octavia, you had better tell me what's going on. Now." She demanded in clear irritation, not bothering to be too polite at the moment.

"It… it's Vinyl. She's found the Diamond Dog dark mage and is fighting him right now! He… he was with another mare, a brown unicorn with moneybags and a bandit mask for her cutiemark!" She said in a panic.

"Aurana!" Jade shouted as she tried to make a break for it. Sam, already up, pushed her gently back down before exiting out the door, grabbing onto the top of the doorframe and swinging over the mare named Octavia. With a flip of his spellbook he launched himself up onto the nearest roof.

He ran across the rooftops with his speed spell, more like an animal than a human as he looked through his upgrade for being a level four vampire. He grabbed two which made him less susceptible to falling damage, and one which reduced the damage of him burning in the sun, which he hoped, as minecraft didn’t actually have sun mechanics, also meant fire. He activated his Bloodhunt, looking around, the form of two mares and a bipedal were a distance aways outside of the last house.

He leaped, several leaping spells took away a third of his mana as he launched himself. He took out one of the enchanted apples he had made before he went to Twilight’s, he bit into it, the gold barely phasing him as he ate the entire thing. His entire bar was full of golden hearts with one white heart at the beginning. The fire resistance and regular resistance would do nicely for this fight.

As the forms of two mares and a silver bipedal wolf came closer, he growled out into the air, his voice loud and hissing. “Dark mage Silphen!”

Silphen had been holding off Vinyl's soundwaves by simply creating a vacuum bubble around them, stopping the sound from reaching them. Each time the stream ended, he would drop and reactivate the bubble so they always had fresh air to breathe. That was, until a second figure appeared and caused Silphen to shiver slightly.

"Aurana, in that brief moment after Vinyl first hit me, I was taken to another world for two weeks. There, I met something far scarier than the tyrant that Celestia has become. But I think that…" He said as he then pointed to the flying figure, getting Vinyl to look as well. "Might just be the second worst thing I've seen. Fucking flying Minecraft Steve… Did Tia get a Token…?"

Silphen shook his head and pulled out the crossbow he hadn't thought to use back when he was with the Doom Marines and handed it to her. "Like it or not, use this on me if you suspect I'm starting to turn evil in this fight, got it? I meant what I said when I told you you had to stay safe."

“Dark mage Silphen!” Aurana nodded mutely, shivering as the hissing voice reached them. Soon, dirt obscured their vision, all that could be seen through it was the glowing blue outline of the figure who had crashed. Before the cloud could clear, Silphen had started pulling up stone to turn into armor for himself.

Even before his armor fully formed, he quickly put his arms in front of his chest, feeling them creak as it felt like he was just hit by a speeding car, sending him flying back. Silphen growled faintly, but planted his feet and slid back so the armor could finish covering him and repair the damage. He then summoned a blade of ice in one hand, a spell he had gotten very familiar with in his studies in the other world, and a shield of hyper compressed air, strong enough to, in theory, stop a meteor dead in its tracks.

Expecting a human figure to step out of the cloud, Silphen had to look twice when instead three blue orbs of pure magic shot out, fast enough to already reach him, they battered the shield fiercely, it should of held, but instead, when the sparks finally fled from his vision, the figure in front of him was like it was from video game hell. The humanlike Minecraft Steve, complete with peach fuzz, but with red eyes and fangs practically as large as his pinkie, punched the barrier hard enough that it exploded with the force of a gale. Silphen quickly swung, hoping to catch the monster, even a knick would seal his fate, but he just barely missed due to being thrown back again.

Silphen growled, feeling himself starting to slip again, but he held back long enough to instead summon a small church made of pure light. Light Sanctum prohibited hostility, provided the caster could hold it long enough for the doors to close… He didn't want to fight this other Displaced, and knew he would have problems if he did.

Sam frowned when his leg sweep did nothing more than push the dark mage back. He saw them began to open their mouth but didn’t give the mage any chances to incant a more powerful spell. He swung his pickaxe sideways, and smiled in satisfaction as the entire building made out of light shattered. Silphen's eyes widened at the sight, then he chuffed and simply grabbed his blade of ice again, having stabbed it into the ground to channel the Sanctum. Seems this was about to turn into a sword fight…

"Token!" He called out, hoping to at least catch him off guard long enough to start talking with him.

Sam charged at the mage with no hesitation, his spellbook appearing in his hand as he pushed his hand into Silphen’s chest, a quick pulse of magic and his armor disintegrated, appearing as stone in his inventory. Silphen panicked and retreated, trying to think of a material he could do that too… and realizing he'd come up short.

"Fine!" He shouted, stabbing his blade into the ground and creating a frozen field around himself, flash freezing everything within a roughly ten foot radius in a second. Sam ignored it, frowning as two and a half of his absorption hearts were taken off, and all of them were chilled, turning frosty. He grunted at the ten second timer of the chilled debuff before continuing to run towards Silphen, unaffected by the icy floor.

He used his momentum, sliding on the ice to send a good kick into Silphen’s undefended chest. He coughed up a bit of blood as the sound of ribs breaking was heard echoing throughout the frozen clearing. Silphen grabbed the vampire's leg and called on a spell he hadn't used in a long time and pushed his wounds into Sam… only to be shocked when it failed.

"You… cheater…" he said before trying to throw him back and heal himself. Sam used the throwing momentum to regain his balance, backflipping onto a perfect square of obsidian he placed down. His spellbook pages flipped as the same volley of three blue bolts of mana were sent towards Silphen, who took a deep breath and shouted, expelling enough mana into the area to forcefully dispel the orbs as he slid across the ice, intent on cutting Sam. If he could at least get a cut on him, he could die knowing he hurt a Steve Displaced.

His spellbook pages turned again as a two meter tall wall of obsidian rose up in front of Silphen. He snorted and held out a hand, expecting it to be the volcanic glass he could use for a spell, only to find out when he faceplanted into it that it was, in fact, the second hardest material in Minecraft. He stumbled back in pain as he rubbed his nose, before using an airblast to get some distance.

Sam leapt off the block of obsidian, using a single hand to flip himself over the wall he made. He could hear the wolf’s blood, feel his heartbeat. The mage was terrified, a few more knocks to the head should do it he thought. He was surprised when he crested the wall that the mage had a spell aimed directly at him.

"Suck dick!" He shouted as he sent a bolt of his own blood at Sam. It wouldn't do any harm, they both knew that, but Silphen hadn't planned for it to do so. He intended it to be a distraction so he could run in, pulling on some of the ice nearby, and cut the guy.

Hit by the projectile, he went spinning in the air before gaining control, sliding backwards on the ice before his back hit his obsidian wall. He grunted as he lashed out with his arm, parrying the blade of ice against his armor, and sent a double kick with his back against the wall into Silphen’s stomach, causing him to puke up more blood and focus on healing for a bit longer. He looked up in anger, but refused to give in.

Suddenly, he recalled an alloy from a certain comic series that was, almost, unbreakable. He went purely on the defensive, chanting as he slowly began creating the armor he needed from that alloy.

Sam was surprised to see the mage was still standing and fighting. He looked at his own strength three buff. As the mage began chanting, he finally prepared his sword, it’s hilt a solid gold, the ethereal purple blade looked more like a swirling mangled key than a blade, but he tapped the floor of ice causing the ground to shatter, leaving solid dirt in its place. The mana coming off the sword was immense, all of it congregating from the air, an impossible scene. Silphen yelped as he stumbled to the ground, falling on his ass and causing the alloy to turn to smoke and fade away.

"Fuckfuckfuckfuck!" Silphen began saying, backing away from the approaching death he saw before him. He couldn't get away, not this time… and then he felt a second mind in his own soul, trying to guide him.

'Stand up and swing that damn blade, mutt! You think I want to die either!?' The other guy said. He quickly realized who it was. That was the true Silphen Dardo.

Sam pushed off, the ground gaining a furrow or two as he was upon Silphen, his blade coming down. The wolf, despite the feral grin on the other Displaced's face, saw barely any malice, at least he didn’t before a small explosion of energy impacted Sam’s side, sending him flying and crashing towards the ground a few feet away. Looking over, Aurana had the crossbow in her magical grasp, her horn glowing. Sam hissed, the attack didn’t hurt, but he had lost four damn hearts from it.

Silphen saw this and told his other half to get out and defend her. What he didn't expect, was for him to listen. The true Silphen Dardo rose from the dirt, everything about him having changed.

"You're the one Ashton deemed worthy of our heart, little pony?" He said nonchalantly as he glanced back at her. "I must admit, you are fairly cute. Now, stay there and you'll be safe, alright?" And then she swore she could see the gravity in front of her suddenly increase.

Sam got up, noticing it was a little harder to move, but he swung his sword and nodded, noticing no difference. He looked at the wolf, this obviously wasn’t the same guy, his blood was calm and smooth. The other one barely knew how to fight, second form? Or split personality?

“So what do I call you?” He called out.

"Well, seeing as how Ashton has been using my name, I believe it's only fitting I use his. You may call me Ashton Grey. And I am the true Archmage of the Soft Metal Furred Wolves. Second highest fur, Silver breed. And you, according to his memories we shared, are a Displaced version of someone named Steve from a game called Minecraft, yes?" He answered, returning with his own question.

“Heh, no idea what a Displaced is, but you’ve got a long title, suppose mine isn’t very different. Sam Ryker, Prince Consort of Equestria, Lord of the Everfree, and Crafter of Worlds.” He said, shamelessly making up the last title.

Ashton bowed slightly, showing his respect for the man. "A pleasure. I suspect that you're not a summoned being then? One with a Token as Silphen and I have?" He then proceeded to create his Token, just without it being a proper one. "Such an unusual message too, Silphen. A… what did you call it? Green Lantern's Oath? Interesting… Well, I suppose we've done enough chitchat, yes? Shall we begin?" He then prepared himself, the blade of ice in one hand, held out as if it were a gentleman's duel, while the other, held behind himself, began preparing a Sun Moon Beam spell.

Sam didn’t hesitate to grab his only potion he had gotten as a drop from his inventory. Ignoring the time needed to drink it, and the half heart of damage he took as he shoved it in his mouth and chewed. He flipped his spellbook rapidly, three different spells, Speed, protection, and finally, as two wolves with glowing cyan eyes stepped out on either side of him. He twirled his blade, pointing it at Ashton in a silent signal to begin anew.

Ashton smirked as he waved his blade and forced the two wolves back from where they came. He couldn't do much about the buff effects, but he decided to ignore them for a moment and toy with Sam. With the same wave of his hand Sam felt gravity shift to the side and he was suddenly falling towards some trees.

Calmly, Sam’s spellbook turned, his mana, having been reduced to a third of its capacity after casting those three spells, was already back at half due to the Mana regen three effect he had for a minute. He placed a wall of obsidian, bending his knees as he landed, before launching himself, already oriented to the new gravity, at the archmage. Ashton sidestepped the swing of Sam's blade and pointed the readied spell at his face before firing. He sensed Sam wouldn't be killed by such a, normally, brutal attack but he should be hurting for it.

Ashton was surprised when Sam was able to bring his already impossible sword around and deflect the beam, Sam’s spellbook turned once more as Sam was launched mid air, headbutting Ashton.

Ashton grunted a little but flung Sam's gravity upwards for a second before increasing it to be that of TWENTY TIMES that of the Equis' standard gravity! He huffed and began preparing the armor spell Silphen had been trying to cast earlier, sighing when Mist, his sentient spell assistant, informed him it would take a full minute of chanting to get the spell work to flow properly in this world. "Yes, thank you, Mist, I was already aware of this fact."

Sam, seeing the ground approaching, took out his ultimate weapon. As he was a few feet from the ground, the sound of splashing water made Ashton look over. Sam had landed safely in a one meter square of water safely.

"Huh… That… shouldn't be possible, according to the laws of reali-... Surely you jest, Silphen… Well, then! Seeing as how slamming you into the ground won't incapacitate you, Sam, and you can't harm me yourself, shall we call a truce and speak like civilized beings? Or shall we continue this dance until you run out of whatever is allowing you to keep up with someone who has enough mana to flood worlds with it?" Ashton asked, preparing to shift Sam's gravity in the opposite direction of the floating obsidian wall he was decidedly ignoring at the moment.

“I guess that means you’re willing to submit to my ruling on your punishment? Besides, the fight was getting boring, is that all you do? Throw people around?” Sam asked, gathering the water back into his bucket and turning his pages, suddenly his body was flooded with pure mana, causing whatever gravity affect on him to dissipate.

"Interesting… but no, I am… rather unused to trying to keep a target alive. Seems Silphen doesn't want me using all the powers I have at my disposal. I could have ended this the moment I stepped forward, but it seems he wishes for us to stop using magic to kill, and only to defend. Ourselves and others." Ashton replied, letting the gravity field disperse as he did.

“Quite frankly, I don’t really care, but as far as i can tell, it’s too late, at least two confirmed deaths, and however many more haven’t been discovered yet, means that while my Fiance’s views on you are extreme, you still need some form of justice.”

"Oh, I wasn't going to argue that detail. The first two deaths were completely unnecessary, and he could've let the minotaur he killed return to the lands from which he came. Instead, Silphen lost himself to his rage and sorrow and heartache at not being able to defend Miss Aurana there from being kidnapped. And by a rather notorious bandit lord if the souls of his fallen 'tools' are to be believed." Ashton said taking a careful step forward, knowing that any sudden moves would spark the fight to return in full swing once more.

Sam sighed, letting his sword return to wherever it goes when he no longer has it selected. Quite frankly, talking to this guy was annoying, since he spoke in such a formal tone, like a businessman, or someone who frankly just never cared.

“Right… let’s get Silphen back out here, he’s the one who actually did it.” He finally said, shaking his head.

Ashton bowed once more before stumbling as he pulled Silphen back to the front. "-are you…?! Shit! Don't kill me, please!" He begged, clearly panicking once more.

“Look, it’s been a long day, and quite frankly I’m not sure how I’ve dreamed up several of what I’ve witnessed, but you?” he sighed. “Look, Sunshine isn’t all that bad… she just has issues, besides, after all this, I’ll be determining your punishment.”

"Not that- she tried to give my fucking soul a ta- wait you're going to determine what happens, not the kill happy tyrant?" Silphen asked, so caught off guard by everything that's happened today that he briefly had a mental short circuit and took a second to realize what he said.

“I’d ask you not to call my fiance names… but yeah. I’m almost sad, been here awhile, pretty sure I’m going to wake up soon.” He said, almost sad that this entire world would be gone when he woke up. It was better than what he had back in the real world.

Silphen winced slightly. "So uh… not sure how to tell you this, but… You already are awake. You bought a thing from a guy at a con, right? Then woke up here?" He asked nervously, trying to be delicate about the situation.

“No that can’t… you sure? Cause the symptoms are there? I can’t feel pain, things pretty much go right for me, and this whole world is too crazy not to be a dream, I mean, talking ponies?” He chuckled sarcastically.

"Sam… if you're in a dream, then I'm in a never ending nightmare. You have a Token already?" Silphen asked, trying to use that to prove his point. "Or do you even know how they're made?"

“Wait… you mean that… Admin command, give item Displaced underscore Token Silphen, one.” He stared at his hand, the grass sigil Ashton had made earlier appearing in his hand and making him feel calm while the words of the Green Lantern's Oath filled his head. Silphen, however, winced slightly at the sight of it and looked away, ashamed.

Sam took a deep breath… “Fuuuuuuuuuu-”

As Celestia and Luna were having breakfast, the duo looked up at each other, then to the open window in confusion.

"Sister, do you hear that…?" Luna asked.

"Yeah, it almost sounds like…" Celestia started, pausing as she quickly realized who it was…

"-uuuUUUUUUUCK!"

"Damn, dude, you got some lungs on ya…" Silphen said, rubbing his wolf ears gently.

“...I knocked up a horse goddess…” He said, stunned.

"You wut." Silphen asked, dumbfounded by the rather nonchalant declaration.

“Remember when I said Celestia’s my fiance… fuck! I gotta worry- wait, what do I have to worry about? They’re going to be royalty when they grow up, that means we pretty much have all the wealth needed to raise them. Education isn’t an issue, neither would we have no time for them… But what if they don't get the proper morals set early on in life? What if after watching us they become snooty or something, they’d be an awful ruler, I’d have to do something to correct that and I don’t-”

"Ok! Sam! Sit down, shut up, and calm your tits. The fact you're this worked up means you're going to be fine." Ashton shouted, shoving himself to the forefront once more. "I may be calm and cold most of the time, but I know the troubles and worries of having to raise a pu- a… child, is it? Yes, a child. And lose them…" he shook his head to get rid of those thoughts. "Point is, you're going to be fine, got it? And some advice from one dad to another? Love them. No matter what happens, or what you have to punish them for, love them unconditionally. Understand?"

“Right… Right… Anyways, we got about less than ten minutes now before, oddly, love of my life that she is, Celestia, comes down here to deal with you. So let’s get this moving and I can deal with her killing me over and over for the decision afterwards.” He said, composing himself.

Ashton nodded and let Silphen take control again. Groaning in pain and holding his head slightly. "Note to self, let the switches happen… So you said you were the Lord of the Everfree? Right? So where's your castle…?" Silphen asked, trying to deal with his headache.

“Celestia’s old castle, anyways… You’ll be seeing a lot more of it, because first, as a declaration of you being, on technicality, one of my kind, don’t tell celestia you aren’t though. I’m declaring you my court wizard or whatever job title you want in that vein, declaring you part of my jurisdiction, and I’ll come up with some suitable punishment later, probably something involving tedious magic use, or some sort of community service. Right now I doubt I could come up with something clever that would mollify Equestria.” He rubbed his head, a headache of his own forming now that he decided not to imprison this guy in an obsidian cell.

"Right… you mind if I send Aurana to her sister first though? Pretty sure she's the most confused out of the lot of us…" Silphen said, glancing back at the thoroughly confused mare trying to figure out what the hell just happened.

“Right… actually, just have her run there, pretty sure any magic use is going to be heavily scrutinized right now. You too Miss Vinyl, Octavia’s waiting for you at Twilight's home, take Aurana with you, pretty sure her sister is the filly there.” He waved them off.

Aurana turned to the white unicorn mare, who had done the same. Vinyl shrugged and turned to leave, understanding that the two beings in front of her were far above her pay grade. Aurana looked back to Silphen and Sam, then down at the crossbow she still had a hold of. It was already loaded with another shot. She just let it fall, pointing it at the ground as she followed Vinyl back to Ponyville in a daze.

"Thanks…" Silphen said as he watched them leave. "I'm guessing you're going to take me through the Nether back to your base?"

“Fuck no, I haven’t even made a portal yet, let alone gone in one… Actually, I kinda gotta wait here, and probably should make a bed too.” He said, already setting a crafting table down.

"Ah… I guess that means I should play dead then…" Silphen said, laying down in the dirt, face down.

“Nah, get up. I don’t know what relationships you’ve been in, but I’m not building a marriage on lies.” He said as the blocks of wool and wood flowed in his hands like liquid as he assembled them into proper shape. “She’s going to be really pissed… But every marriage requires compromise.”

Silphen gulped but got back up, nervously watching the skies for the White Horse of Solar Destruction and Death. "You sure about this…? Have you actually died yet…?"

“Twenty-six times. One of which was by her, then we had make up sex.” He said casually as he placed the bed down, setting his spawn.

Silphen laughed nervously at that. "Bet there was an achievement for that. Regal Conception or some shit…"

And that was when he saw her descending like the fiery ball of wrath he had come to know her as. "Sam! Are you ok?! Did he kill you!?" But her being concerned for Sam threw him off guard.

He smiled gently, not at all like a man who knew his fiance was about to murder him repeatedly.

“Not at all! He was quite easy to beat honestly.” Sam put up a hand behind his back, cutting off any protests from Silphen, as he stepped closer to Celestia, cupping her cheek in his free hand. “I was just detailing his punishment, My Sunshine.”

Celestia blushed a little, then noticed the single bed behind him. "Sam…? What was his punishment…?" She asked cautiously, starting to take a step back.

“...Temporary confinement in my castle…” He said, not attempting to keep her from moving away.

Her eye twitched. Her horn glowed a brilliant yellow… and Sam's face felt warm for a second before he found himself on his back, in the bed. "TEMPORARY!?" She yelled once he had reformed… only to blast him a second time.

He rolled out of bed before it hit him, landing on his feet. “Now Sunshine, let’s talk civil-” He was staring up at the sky again. “-ly."

"Civilly? CIVILLY!? Sam, that is, in your own words, someone who enjoys destroying for the simple fact that he can! Add to that the fact he's using magic far more corrupt and evil than what you are, and he should be banished from this land! Not held in temporary confinement!" Celestia shouted, blasting him a third time as he got up.

He rolled off the bed after he died again, rolling once more as a second beam hit where he rolled off to.

“Just let me explain-” He ducked, only for her to lower her horn and have the beam slice him instead of blast him. He loved that mare somehow, but he was getting tired of being blinded by the sky.

"Then explain while I keep putting holes in your head, since you clearly don't have a brain!" She said, tears starting to threaten to roll down her face as she watched him accept death, after death, after death, and not seem to care about how hurt she was by his betrayal.

“If I had any brains I wouldn’t love you!” He shouted in between her blasts. This caused her to stop, shocked by his blatant disregard.

"You… but…" Celestia then rested a hoof on her stomach, heartbroken.

“I- Shit, I didn’t mean like- Sunshine-” He stuttered as he got out of bed, staggering over to her.

She stepped away from him, her eyes wide with sorrow. "And yet, you said it…" she shook her head and turned to fly off. And Sam could've swore he saw her crying as she left.

He looked down… He didn’t mean it like that, but, ever since he came here, he had been treating everything as ephemeral, ready to disappear in a moment's notice… Did he truly love her? He couldn’t say, but he looked back at the bed. He had lost count of how many times he let her kill him, how many times he did nothing but stand there and let her release her rage and anguish on him…

He unequiped all his armor, his spellbook pages flapping wildly as he developed a different spell, a form of self, glyph of launch, three of amplify, and one of bounce… And when it was finished, he looked at the speck that was Celestia and launched himself.

Celestia was surprised when Sam impacted her, causing her to honk like a swan for a second, wrapping his arms around her back as they fell towards the ground, he cut off her screaming with a kiss. She was surprised that instead of this being some convoluted way to kill her, he bounced like a rubber ball, not even flinching as with each bounce they slowed more and more to a stop, until he was lying under her, his eyes closed, and their lips locked.

"S-Sam!?" She said in shock when he finally let her go. "W-what the Tartarus was that!?"

“Proof that I never had any brains to begin with… But I don’t need them to know that I love you.” He said, a small smile on his face.

She blinked, then smiled and kissed him. "You're insane, Sam. Thank you… But you do realize I have to send you back to that Griefer the express way, right?"

“He’s not going anywhere, trust me… And besides, what happened to that century old tension?” He smirked, circling her cutiemark with his pointer fingers, causing her to shiver and blush.

"You, sir, are a tease. Strip." Celestia commanded, getting up off of him. He nodded, flinging his shirt off him with more ease than the first time. His pants were second to go, removing them with practiced ease. They were really his only two articles of clothing, as apparently Minecraftians didn’t believe, or need, underwear.

"Mmm~... That's much better, Sam…" Celestia said as she came over to him, using her magic to remove her golden regalia. "Though I do hope you're ready for… wait, can you… you know…? I noticed last time but didn't think anything of it at the time…"

“Considering I’ve been awake for two whole weeks, I’m pretty sure my stamina is infinite, so you have your work cut out for you.” he smirked cupping her cheek.

Celestia winced slightly but kissed him. "Let me know when you're ready to blow then, and I'll help you there, ok~? Can't have my mate pent up if I'm getting release, now can I~?" She giggled and pushed him, gently, to the ground again.

“Will do Sunshine.” He said as he let her push him down. Quite frankly, he was worried that he’d have trouble after becoming the living dead, but apparently all systems were a go, if his full mast was anything to go by.

She smiled then pressed herself up against his shaft again, moaning a little at the sensation of being filled once again…

With a golden glow and the sound of a pop, Sam was dumped unceremoniously onto the hard, battleworn ground, a second later his clothes floated down after him. He mumbled as he got up before bending down to pick up his pants, completely aware that his lower half was soaked.

"Oh hey, you're- DUDE WHAT THE HELL!? Put something on, your lower half looks like it got dipped in a pool!" Silphen cried out as he started to get up before noticing that he was covered in a clear viscous liquid from around his waist down.

“Quit your complaining, I was already on it… And it’s not my fault immortals get really into it.” He said as he pulled up his pants, grabbing his shirt before it blew away in the slight breeze.

Silphen simply grumbled and shook his head. "Lucky fucker… Oh, and in case you lost track, she killed you eight more times. You're up to thirty-four."

"Yeah, I don't think the pegasi that flew over us at Celestia's fifth orgasm thought the same." He shook his head, putting his shirt on.

"Dude. TMI. But whatever. Think we should head back to your castle thing so you can throw me in an obi cage?" Silphen asked, expecting him to either command teleport them or use ender pearls.

"...You know when I said temporary confinement, I meant it. We're going back there, I'm making you some sort of court wizard, and you get the joy of hemorrhaging at the impossibility that is my magic." He said as he walked past Silphen. He groaned as he got up to follow, putting away the Timberwolf Cores he was trying to study.

Author's Note

For those curious about what happened at the end of the last chapter, go read FIGHT LIKE HELL, FIGHT LIKE DOOM MARINES!. Did a crossover with them.