Chapter 49: sam's challenge

Sam was sitting in a chair as he was thinking and thinking about how applejack was holding out in this world. "man I really hope applejack is ok" he thought as he was sitting in his chair tapping his foot, as he was still thinking about applejack he then felt a tap on the back of his shoulder. He then turned around to see that it was his friends "hey there pal" Corey said.

"hey you guys, what's up".

"nothing much, in fact we were looking for you".

"oh?".

"yea, we have to talk about our progress".

Sam then got up from the chair "fine with me, I was kinda getting lonely anyway" the boys all snickered as they then went on there way to find a place to have there conversation.

They all walked inside a small store as they sat at a round table and started to discuss there progress.

"so" sam said "how have you guys been so far?".

"we've been good". Corey said.

"any luck with finding the girls?" sam asked.

"clayton, dillon, and I have found ours, what about the three of you?".

Max shook his head "no such luck at the moment".

The six of them sighed "hey cheer up" Clayton said "you guys are gonna find them in no time", jack smiled at him "thanks Clayton, I just hope that your right".

"I know I'm right, you'll find the girls in no time".

"that is...if you boys keep wasting time like you are now" a voice said behind them, the boys all then turned around to see it was none other than black haze as he was dressed in his custom zebra suit with his left leg over his right. The boys then stood up with anger in there eyes "black haze!" max shouted, "you have some nerve showing your face here!".

Black haze then clapped his hands as he grinned at them "my my, what big words you have, I felt so threaten by them". The boys then walked up to him as black haze got up as well, "if the six of you think of trying to hurt me, then you can kiss your marefriends goodbye" he threatened.

The boys stopped, they really wanted to make him pay. But they also knew that he controlled the world that they were in and he could shift it to how he could see fit and there was nothing stopping him.

Black haze smiled "that's right, without me your powerless" he mocked "and now if you excuse me, I must be off. But hehe I wish you the best of some luck" he said as he left from the store leaving the boys to think. "damn! I hate that guy" jack said, the others nodded in agreement "sounds like you guys are having a rough time" a voice said.

The boys all turned to the side to see a man that had on black pants, a black sleeveless shirt, black gloves and a long back trench coat. The boys kept glancing at the stranger "what's it to you?" max asked him, the stranger then got up and walked over to them slowly "well what it is to me is that I know that man" he said "or should I say..alicorn". This caught the boys attention "you know him?" sam asked, the stranger smiled "know him, my boy. That alicorn used to be my friend..my best friend no less".

The boys were shocked to hear what he just said as dillon then charged at him "you bastered! Your working with black haze on this!?" he shouted as he held him by the caller. The stranger didn't flinch as he felt the boy's fingers dig into his skin "please, that alicorn can rot for all I care. In fact i want to kill him just as much as the six of you do" he said. Dillon then let the man go as he crossed his arms "and what makes you think that were going to trust you?" dillon said, the stranger then fixed his coat a bit as he looked at the boys "because I want to help you as much as I can" he said "I've been stuck in this hell of a nightmare for over 99,000 years, and I have been working on plan after plan on ways to get out of this world and kill my old friend".

The boys looked at each other with uneasy looks, they really wanted to get back at black haze but they were leery to trust the man. Max then walked up to him "are you sure we can trust you?" he asked, the stranger nodded at him "yes. That I promise you all, I shall help you out as much as I can and fix whatever my old friend has done to you young men".

The boys looked at each other again until max turned back to him as he held out his hand "ok, well let you help us" he said. The stranger then gently grabbed his hand and shook it "thank you..oh I'm terribly sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is blade", max smiled a bit "blade huh? A very fitting name". Blade smiled "thanks".

"no problem".

The seven of them then walked out of the store and headed on there way. As they all walked down the street they talked to blade about the reason why they were there. "I see, so that's why your all here" blade said "mhm, he took us and our marefriends here and now we can't leave until we find them" max said "plus to make matters worse black haze controls this whole world under his will, and there is nothing that we can do about it" he finished.

Blade then rubbed his chin a bit "I see, well...what if I told you that I can get the six of you and your marefriends back home" blade said. This made max smile with glee "really!?" he said, blade nodded "yup, I happen to know a thing or two about some advanced magic, and I think I know of a way to take you back". The boys sighed in relief seeing that something was going there way, Corey then tapped blade on the shoulder "hey blade".

Blade turned to him "yea?".

"just exactly how did you and black haze become friends?".

Blade then pondered about his question for a bit until he opened his mouth "well let me see, hmmmmm. Well it all started when I lived in equestria when I was still a filly" he said "I was a very bright and curious child, always wanting to know how the world worked and always wanted to discover new things, it was during that time that I bumped into black haze. I had meet many friendly and wonderful fillies at my age, including princess celestia and Luna". The boys were a bit surprised by this "wait, you mean to tell me that you were friends with princess celestia and Luna?" jack said.

Blade nodded "of course, you see my family were there parents royal guards during that time, plus the two were still young and not fully ready to come to terms with there royal heritage just yet. Besides...I used to have a crush on princess celestia at that time" he said making a tiny blush show on his face, Corey then nudged his shoulder "so, you had a thing for her huh?" he joked. Blade looked away "yea...I did, but I could tell that she knew that I liked her, we did spend time together but that was only during when our parents had meetings, her family was very nice and so were my parents. But they were very worried about me being friends with black haze telling me that he was...different".

"different? How?" sam asked.

"he had a strange aurora around him and he was always shunned by other fillies, he was alone but he didn't mind. After all...I became his only friend, and he became my friend. We spent time with each other and enjoyed each others company, I wanted to become a solider of the royal family" blade sighed "but black haze...he had other plans" he said "he wanted to become the ultimate master of magic but it never came to be, he was too weak and the only pony that was given that title was kain".

Clayton placed his hands behind his head "so kain was alive during that time?" he said.

"yes, kain was a very wise young unicorn" blade said "he was kind, loving, selfless, loyal, had a great sense of humor and so on. He was the master of basic, advanced, and elite magic. He was the best and black haze wanted to be like him, so my friend practiced and practiced his magic but nothing changed. He could never master his magic up to par with kain and he knew deep down that he never could, I tried to talk to him about this, but black haze wouldn't have any of it. I pleaded and pleaded with my friend to stop, but it was too late, he became obsessed with becoming an elite magic user and he then soon left equestira. I never saw him again for over 16 years".

"then what happened?" dillon asked.

"well..when I turned 16, I was a member of the academy for the royal guards. I was hoping to become the rank of solider so that I could protect the royal family, but that day changed my life forever" he said as he then closed his eyes "that would be the last time I would see my family and friends".

"what!?" the boys said unison.

Blade then crossed his arms "on that day, when I was training for my exam, I walked around the hallway left and right thinking about how well I might do on my exam test, it was then that I saw a pony walk down the hallway wearing a black cloak. As the stranger walked past me I felt a really uneasy aurora. But I shrugged it off thinking that it was all in my head, that was the greatest mistake that I had ever made in my life".

"what happened next?" max asked.

Blade then rubbed his left arm "as I went back to thinking about my exam I was interrupted by somepony screaming from the throne room. I quickly ran as fast as I could to see what had happened, what I saw would forever haunt me for the rest of my life" blade then started to breathe heavily "I saw...thousands and thousands of ponies on the ground, covered in there own blood".

"my god" Corey said.

"yea...tell me about it, that scene alone traumatized me for life, but as I looked at my comrades bodies that laid before me. I looked up to see the pony that had past me earlier and I was horrified to see that it was none other than my old friend black haze, I was stunned. I had no idea that he would do something like that, to kill so many ponies and not feel one bit of regret. I tried to stop him myself...but he defeated me in a matter of seconds. After he took me down he then created a portal and threw me in, which is the world that were all in now".

The boys were all quiet, they were just to amazed to hear about what had happened to blade that it was almost painful. Sam then placed his hand on blades shoulder "don't worry man, will get him just you wait" he said.

Blade smiled at him "thanks sam, but black haze is my responsibility and I should be the one to take him on alone" he said, sam was about to say something else until max tapped on his back "will get to conversations latter, right now we have to find applejack, pinkie pie, and twilight" he said. Everyone nodded as they all then scattered around town trying to find the last three.

OUTSKIRTS OF TOWN

Sam and blade were walking down the street as they talked between each other "so what do you like in this world?" he asked him.

Blade smiled a bit "well..there are a few things that I have liked in this world, the foods is alright. Although I don't like eating meat, it's horrible" he said as he stuck out his tongue. Sam smiled at him as he saw blade stick out his tongue "you know, your not so bad blade".

"thanks, I have to admit i'm very happy to have someone to talk to from equestira, even if you and your friends are from another world", Sam stretched his arms "well same here blade, I just can't wait to go back home, what about you? Are you gonna come back home with us once this is all over?".

Blade pondered about his words for a second until he turned to sam "I'm not sure just yet".

"alright, I guess you'll have the answer that your looking for after we get the others" sam said as he walked past him, blade then looked down at the ground "...sure" he thought. As the two walked down the dirt path they both glanced to see a rundown farm with a large field of dead plants and vegetables, sam rested his elbows on the old wooden white fence "geez, this place is a mess" sam said.

"yea, looks like this place hasn't seen a good clean in some time" blade said, as the two kept looking a young woman walked behind the two boys, she had on a cowboy jacket that showed her chest that was covered with a white shirt as it was wrapped in a knot at the bottom and cowboy like boots that went up to her thighs, she also wore a small skirt and a cowboy hat that was slanted on her head a bit, her hair was blond and in a ponytail at the end. "hey!" she shouted "what in the world are the two of ya doing here!?", the boys hen turned around to face her.

Sam started to smile as he looked at her. The girl then started to raise her eyebrow as she then started to tap her foot impatiently "ya both got ten seconds to tell me what yer doing here before I get rid of ya both" she threatened, sam then got out of his thoughts as he then walked up to her "sorry for trespassing, we just thought that this place was abandoned" he said, the girl sighed as she then pushed up her hat up a bit "that's alright, I guess I can understand that, the sad part is that this old farm is my families home".

"really?" sam said a bit stunned.

"yup, this farm here has been with my family since I was a little girl" the girl then snapped her fingers "oh i'm sorry I didn't really ask for yer names, my names Jamie sanders" Jamie said as she held out her hands to them, sam and blade then grabbed her hands with there's "I'm sam, and this here is blade".

"charmed".

Jamie smiled brightly at them "boy howdy, you two must have came a awful long way here huh? You two must be tired?" she said. Sam yawned a bit as he rubbed his eyes "yea...a little, but we don't want to intrude on you and your family. It just wouldn't be polite" sam said, Jamie then looked at sam with a raised eyebrow "ah horseshoes! It's fine with me and my family won't mind if I have a bit of company around for a bit". Blade glanced over at the farm then at Jamie "hey Jamie" he said.

"yea?".

"ummm not to be rude or anything, but has your family considered fixing up the farm?".

"ah that...well we...we just don't have enough money to do that" she said a bit upset, blade then hugged her for a bit until he let go "sorry for asking you such a personal question" he said. Jamie looked at him and shook her head "it's alright, you didn't offend me in any way".

Sam placed a finger on his chin until he snapped his fingers "hey! If it's alright with your family and you, how about we help you fix up the farm? We could give your family a helping hand starting tomorrow, what do ya say?" he asked her, Jamie almost went into tears of joy hearing what sam said "you mean it? You wanna help me out with he farm?".

Sam nodded at her.

"but I only meet the both of ya just now and now the two of ya wanna help me?".

Blade smiled at her "of course, you've got nothing to lose if you have a few more hands around the place", Jamie was almost crying as she then hugged sam tightly "oh thank ya so so much sugarcube" Jamie said. Sam placed his hands around her gently "no problem Jamie, anything to help out a friend", Jamie then let go of sam's waist as she then ran over to the farms small two story run down house to tell her family the good news. Blade then nudged sam's shoulder a bit "what?".

"clever move" blade said.

"thanks blade".

"it's nothing, that idea to offer our help to her really came into your favor, now all you have to do is get applejack to like you and you have her in your arms" he finished with a wink, sam blinked a bit after he heard what blade said "h-how did you know that was applejack?". Blade started to walk over to the house "hehe, well I could tell that it was her just by reading your facial expressions" he said with a smile. Sam blinked one more time before he then followed blade to the house.

As the two reached the house Jamie had ran out of the house to tell them the good news that they could stay and help them out for a bit, she then opened the door to let the boys in as she showed her family to them, she introduced sam and blade to her big brother, her senile grandmother, and her two brothers and two sisters, a grand total of five kids. Well four really since her brother was the oldest and Jamie was the second oldest, they all introduced themselves to one another, talked about things and so forth. After a few hours they all then decided that it was getting late and went to hit the hay, blade slept downstairs as sam had to share a room with Jamie, since blade got the last and only guest room in the house.

THE NEXT DAY

It was 6:09 a.m as the sky was still light blue and the sun was trying it's best to shine and wake up the family. The suns rays came through the cracks of the roof and shined on sam's face forcing him to wake up. As he awoke he blew some hay off of his arms "man, talk about back pain" he mumbled, when sam spent the night with Jamie he refused to share her bed with him, as he told her that he didn't want to get any funny ideas on there first encounter. She understood and told him that once they got to know each other more then she would allow him to sleep in the bed with her.

As sam got to his feet he quietly walked out of the room as not to wake up Jamie or the other members of the family. As sam walked downstairs he then walked into the kitchen only to be greeted by blade "morning friend" blade said as he had a cup of tea beside him, "morning, I guess you got up a little earlier than I did" sam said. Blade smiled "yea, I always get up really early in the morning, not really sure why I do it", sam then walked over to him and pulled up a Chair "well it's nothing to wrap your head around, after all we have a big day today" he said "were gonna help out Jamie".

Blade only sipped a bit of his tea "well, once we all get our work done, then we can work on getting you and applejack together once again" blade said, sam nodded at him "that won't be a problem".

As the two proceeded with there conversation on what to do, they were then interrupted by the sound of someone yawning as they were walking downstairs. "ahh, morin boys" Jamie said, sam and blade turned to the door entrance and smiled at her "morning Jamie" the two said in unison, Jamie smiled as she walked over to the fridge and pulled out an apple as then walked over to the sink to wash it off. The water took some time to come out of the faucet as rattled a bit and vibrated until fresh water came out, as Jamie washed her apple she then tried to turn off the water but the handle was stuck in it's place "ugh! Not again" she groaned as she kept trying to push the small handle back to stop the water, she kept moving her hand as hard as she could but it wouldn't budge. Jamie sighed as she then hit the top of the handle with her fist making it move a bit as she then grabbed it and turned it as hard as she could finally making the water stop.

"it's about it" she said as she turned around to face the boys "sorry about that" she said "but our pluming isn't as grand as it used to be", sam shrugged "that's alright, will just fix it, it can't be that hard".

Jamie then rubbed her arm as she looked at the ground "I wish it were that simple sam...but we really can't fix any of the pluming in the house, money is tight and hard to come by in these times of need, I've been working a lot of odd jobs under the table to support my family. But it's not enough, I work around my neighbors yards and stuff but it's never enough". She frowned and looked as if she was about to cry, sam was heartbroken by this as he got up from his seat and held her in a warm loving hug "hey it's alright" he said "like I said yesterday, blade and I are gonna help ya get this place back to it's former glory, and that's a fact". Jamie then looked up at sam as she wiped her tears a bit "thanks sam" she said with a small smile on her face.

"anytime Jamie".

"ahem", the two then looked over to see blade sitting with his arms crossed and his eyebrow raised "i truly apologize for interrupting this warm kodak moment, but I think we can get some new parts to fix this place up with" he said. Sam and Jamie glanced at each other then back at blade "what do ya mean?" Jamie asked him, blade then pulled out his wallet and opened it showing a huge sum of money "what I mean is I can go buy the stuff that we need to fix up this place, sure it won't be done in a day, but with a little time will have this farm good as new" he said with a smile, Jamie felt as if her prayers have been answered "oh blade, ya really mean it?" she asked.

Blade nodded "of course, I don't mind using my money to help out a new friend".

Jamie then removed her hands from sam's body as she ran out of the kitchen to go tell her family the good news. As she was out of the kitchen sam then looked at blade with a raised eyebrow, blade blinked at him "what?".

"did you really make all that money?" he asked him.

Blade then looked at sam with narrow eyes "one yes, I a lot of jobs while I was here in this world for quite some time, and I just saved my money in my wallet". Sam placed his finger on his lip as he tried to think of how many jobs it took him to get all that money, blade snickered at him "hehe, don't worry about it, the best part of this plan is that we now can help out Jamie and her family".

Sam broke out of his thought as he then closed his eyes "yea your right, now we can keep her family afloat". Blade grinned "and now you and Jamie can get some time alone when you guys are working" he said with a wink at the end of his sentence, sam opened one of his eyes after hearing his comment "let's just go get ready so we can fix up this place" he said.

DOWN THE STREET OF THE OUTSKIRTS OF TOWN

Jamie, sam, and blade were all walking down the dirt path on there way to the general store to get the supplies that they needed to fix up the farm. Jamie was walking a head of the boys as they were walking behind her "ugh! We have been walking for over 8 minutes" blade mumbled "how far are we gonna keep walking?".

Sam then turned to him "you don't enjoy a little stroll?" sam mocked, blade rolled his eyes "no, I'm all in for walking and jogging, but this feels like forever" he said "just how far is this place?", Jamie then turned her head to blade "were not too far, just a few more miles" she said, the three kept walking more than a few more minutes until they finally reached there destination "were here" Jamie said. Blade sighed "finally", as the three walked in they were greeted by the store clerk "howdy Jamie" the store owner said. "hey there, how have ya been?".

"oh this and that, nothing much around here" the owner said, Jamie nodded at him "that's fine, hey if it's not too much trouble. But we kinda need some parts for the farm" she said, the owner rubbed his face before returning an answer "ah, so you all finally got some money to fix up the farm eh?" he asked.

Jamie nodded at him "sure do, well my friend here does" she said as she pointed to him "he said that he's gonna pay for all the stuff that we need to repair the farm with", the man looked at blade and smiled "well aren't you the kindest thing" the man said. Blade shrugged "meh, it's the least I could do". The owner then went to the back to get the supplies for Jamie so she could take them back to the farm, after blade paid for the equipment and the three headed back home.

As the three stood outside a few feet away from the farm Jamie then pointed at the sections of the barn for them to do "alright then, blade you'll take care of the pluming, sam you'll work on painting the outside and the inside of the barn and house, and I'll start plantin the seeds and after that well be done for today" she said. The boys nodded as they all started to get to work, a few hours had passed since the three had started working on the farm. Blade was in the basement getting rid of all the old pipes and replacing them with brand new ones "ok let me see, I got the pipes in the kitchen done, and some of the waterworks are finished" he said "hmmm, I think the only thing left that needs fixing is the water pipes in the bathroom".

As blade was taking care of the pipes, sam was painting inside the house, since he had finished painting the barn outside. He had also finished painting the kitchen and the living room, and now he was doing the bathroom.

"whew, man I'm tired" sam said as he laid the paint brush back into the bucket, he then started to take off his clothes and walk into the shower. As he got in, he then tried to turn on one of the handles but it wouldn't move "huh? What the hell?" he said as he tried to turn it again but it didn't move. Sam was getting annoyed as he then pulled as hard as he could until he heard it move a bit, "yes" he said with a smile.

His smile then soon turned to a look of worry as he heard the shower head start to shake and rattle as it then shot out a large stream of cold water "ah! Dammit!" sam shouted, he leaned over to turn off the water but the knobs were stuck. "oh shit" sam thought as he tried his best to get to move, as he was busy working with knobs Jamie was walking upstairs carrying a basket of sheets. As she was whistling she then heard someone in the bathroom "you ok in there?" she asked as she knocked on the door. "ah Jamie! Perfect timing!" sam shouted "I can't get the water in the shower to turn off!", Jamie then dropped her basket on the floor as she then ran into the bathroom to see that the tub was half full of water. "what in the hay happened in here?!" she asked him, sam was trying his best to turn off the water "hehe, I was gonna take a shower but it looks like the water pipes in here aren't fixed" he said, Jamie sighed happily as she got into the tub to help him turn off the water, the two of them had a bit of time getting the water to shut off until they finally got it.

"whew, finally" Jamie said.

"yea".

Sam then looked to see that Jamie was all wet from helping him turn off the water "ops, hehe sorry that I got you all wet", Jamie didn't say anything as she was looking at sam's body and admiring it a bit. Jamie bit her upper lip a bit before she glanced up at him "that's alright sam" she said "ya know, I was gonna take a shower myself, but seein how I'm all wet, I guess I can still take my shower. That is if you don't mind joinin me?".

Sam was taken back a bit before he then swallowed "a-are you sure Jamie?".

"ya, I'm perfectly sure sam" she said as she then took her hat off and her clothes and threw them on the floor showing sam her very firm and built body. Sam blushed as he looked at her legs and thighs to see that she had more muscle on her lower body, sam then raised his hands and moved them over to her hips as Jamie then held onto his hands and placed them on her back. He felt her soft skin as he gently moved his hands all over her back making her blush "enjoying yer self there sugarcube?" Jamie asked him in a playful tone, sam glanced at her as he didn't know how close his face was to hers "yea..I'm enjoying this" he said with a small bit of lust in his voice. Jamie then placed her hands onto his face as she then locked her lips with his as tightly as she could, sam was amazed as he felt jamie's tongue move all over inside his mouth. There warm embraced was soon gone as blade was on the other side of door knocking "hey sam, you alright in there? I heard the water go off in the bathroom an thought that you might need some help" he said. Sam then glanced at Jamie to see her have a pout on her face, he smiled as he bit her lips gently until he then shouted back at blade "yea man I'm alright, don't worry I got the water turned off" he said.

Blade sighed in relief "that's good because I didn't fix them just yet and I'm gonna fix them tomorrow".

"tha-" sam stopped his sentence as he looked to see that Jamie had his hands on her ass. Sam blushed even more as Jamie then started to kiss his neck "that's fine blade" he said, blade was a bit worried "you alright in there?" he asked him.

"y-yea man, I'm good", blade then glanced to his right to see a basket full of white sheets in it "didn't Jamie have that basket?" he thought "why would she just Lea-" he then started to realize what was really going on in the bathroom as he smiled "alright sam I'll leave you be, you just be carful in there ok" he said. "ok blade" sam said as blade walked downstairs "well well, that was easier than I thought" he said to himself.