//------------------------------// // Chapter 8 // Story: The Magic Paint Brushes // by Ugly-Duckling123 //------------------------------// Up in the tower, Sarah had just woken up rubbing her head and looking around. Seeing the midnight blue and black color spree of the walls, confused her to start with. 'This isn't my room...' She thought. Then it all came back, the painting of the Mare in the Moon, the ponies, the Timber-wolves, the Manticore, the Ursa Minor, the bridge, and finally Nightmare Moon. Checking that she still had the paintbrush with her, Sarah began looking for a way to get out of this tower and find her friends. At first she thought of the window, but then remembered that 'princesses' were normally kept in the highest rooms so the knights would have to work hard to get to them. She spun around and rushed to the door, pulling as hard as she could on the ring only to find it was locked. Starting to panic a bit, Sarah took out the paintbrush again and looked at it, as though it would give her some ideas as to get out of there. But nothing came. Going over to the window again, Sarah looked out to the forest and to the sky where the eclipse was still at work. "Well," Sarah said to herself thinking of all the fairy tales with lock away princesses, "At least I haven't got anything guarding my tower." she said with a small smile. As if waiting for that line, out of the trees came a green dragon smoke coming out of it's nose, looking annoyed searching all around. "Oh come on!" Sarah screamed to the sky. Hearing a noise above him the dragon looked up an saw a pony he never saw before. It stood up on it's back legs, is fore ones waving around with things on the end of them, it's mane covered it's face, but he could see that it's face looked nothing like any of the ponies it had seen before, and it was covering up her fur with fabric that went all around her. Giving up his search for that small purple and green dragon that took his gems away from him, only to be saved by a purple Unicorn and owl, the green dragon spread it's wings and flew up to hover right outside of the window this strange pony was in. Gulping, Sarah backed up a bit when she saw the dragon open his wings and start to fly up to her room. "What kind of pony are you? And what are you doing here?" the dragon said once he was hovering outside the window. Not sure what to do Sarah went with the truth. "I'm not a pony." Sarah said trying to be brave. "I'm a girl. And I'm here because Nightmare Moon took my friend, and so I came to get him back, but then she put me in this tower, and I have no way out." Seeing the jewels this 'Girl' had on the ring on it's head and on her ears, the dragon said. "I can get you out of the tower in exchange of your jewels." he said eyes on Sarah's headband and earrings. Thinking of the deal for a bit, Sarah took out her earrings and ripped of her headband, and climbed up onto the window sill and jumped onto the dragons back and held on as he descended back to the ground. After Sarah got off, the dragon looked at her. "How did you know you could trust me?" he asked getting a better look at the 'Girl' now. "I didn't," Sarah said looking up to look the dragon in the eye. "But I thought since I was honest with you, you would be with me." she said holding out her headband and earrings. "Thank you." Taking them, the dragon opened his scales a bit, and placed them safely in there. "My names Sarah." Sarah said curtsying a bit as the dragon turned back to her. "They call me Verde." the dragon said bowing to her, forgetting about the small purple dragon. "May I help you further with rescuing your friend from Nightmare Moon, Sarah?" he asked sensing she was telling the truth about the Mare in the Moon. "You don't have to do that Verde," Sarah said blushing a bit slightly scared that a full grown dragon was talking to her like he had been one of her friends for years. "I insist," Verde said bowing again. "You see... When I was a hatchling, the Mare in the Moon came to my home land and bought with her anger, fear, cold and darkness. I was sent into the forest by my parents to stay safe from the other dragons. Because of her, I grew up with no parents and lived my life alone. If she's back, Sarah, I'd like to avenge my parents and my herd." Not knowing what to say, Sarah smiled an I-understand-completely smile and nodded. Then turned and ran to the front of the castle Verde close behind. In the dungeons, Eric had opened up a bit and had learnt the ponies names... Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity, Zecora and that the dragon was called Spike. He learnt that the six colorful ones, were something called the 'Elements of Harmony' and who exactly Nightmare Moon really was. "So if she was defeated twice, even though it's around one thousand years apart, why is she still here?" Eric asked. "We don't know," Twilight said "But what we do know, is the longer Equestria is in darkness, the stronger she becomes." "Better go and stop her as soon as you can then." Eric said resting against the wall of his cell. "Thanks for that," Rainbow said rolling her eyes "But in case you can't see we're all stuck in here, with no way out." Rainbow said a bit touchier than usual everyone but Fluttershy (who was the only one who knew Rainbow didn't like inclosed spaces) thought. "That's a dragon in there with you isn't it?" Eric said nodding to Spike. "Couldn't he just melt the bars or something. And I thought you Twilight, was suppose to the Princesses student. Surly she taught you how to get out of situations like this with your magic." Everyone was silent as the ideas sunk in, and a smirk made it's way over Eric's face. "Well, what are you waiting for," Eric said "Don't you have a place to save?" he said getting the paper ball out again and went back to his 'bed' to be a bit more safe from what they planned to do. As if to answer, the dungeon was lit up with a bright green light and heat and Spike's flames attacked the bars of their cell making the melt away. As soon as they had cooled down, Rainbow Dash was the first one out looking for the way out. "Nightmare Moon usually goes down that way." Eric said nodding down the pitch black corridor telling them the way out. As Rainbow was about to zoom off down it she felt a tug on her tail stopping her. "Aren't we forgetting someone Rainbow?" Applejack asked. Rainbow sighed and went over to Eric's cell and gave the lock her best buck. Now even though Rainbow was the best cloud clearer in all of Equestria, able to clear a sky in '10 seconds flat' they were soft and fluffy so she wasn't as good as Applejack at bucking hard things. Thankfully, the door and it's hinges were over a thousand years old, so it didn't need an Apple's buck to make it fall off itself. "Come on Pretty-boy," Rainbow said walking down the corridor. "Let's get you back to your princess." "She's not my princess Cloud-Butt," Eric said stepping out of his cell. "She's just the first friend I've ever had." "It does not matter what the reasons are," Zecora said stopping Rainbow from attacking Eric "Let's just get you back to Sarah." Without another word, and Spike on Twilight's back, the nine of them as quietly as they could went down the dark corridor relying on Spike and his eyes to tell them where to go. All hoping not to run into Nightmare Moon.