//------------------------------// // Chap 17 // Story: Magic Paint Brushes 2: A New Canvas To Paint On // by Ugly-Duckling123 //------------------------------// It had only been a few minutes since the wall of the castle had been blown in, but already almost everyone had found someway to see what was going on in the courtyard, regretting it as the dust cleared and they saw Sarah in her new dress attacking Eric as if she was enjoying it. "Not a very good fighter are you boy?" Sarah called out when she had once again knocked him down. "I grew up by the rule 'Don't fight girls'." Eric said back rolling out of the way of her next attack. "And I especially don't fight with my girlfriends!" he added, skillfully shooting an arrow at her to catch the fabric of her dress at the shoulder and pin her to the tree. "Good thing I'm not your girlfriend then," Sarah said, an evil grin on her face as she kicked his feet out from under him once she was free. "Isn't it?" "Yes... You... Are!" Eric said pain in each word, though whether it was emotional or physical, no one could tell. But Sarah wasn't listening. Instead she just picked Eric up at the shoulders and spread her wings, flying into the air, and held him out at arms length. "Would a girlfriend do this?" she asked in a loud whisper, loosening her grip while looking away. "Whoops." Eric tried his best not to scream as he began falling and prepared himself to hit the floor when instead he landed smack bang in the middle of an over sized pillow and sank into it. Crawling to the edge and sliding down to meet everyone he had to keep repeating to himself that this girl was not the girl he fell in love with. "Eric!" he heard a group of ponies cry as he landed, making him look up - with his arm back around his waist - to the girls with their Elements and Discord, who was looking very prideful for poofing up the pillow. "Eric are you alright?" Applejack asked. "Oh yeah," Eric said in his tone and speech patten he used when he was like this. "Besides the fact that I just got dumped by my girlfriend in both ways to 'get dumped'. I'm fine. Thanks for the pillow Discord," he added. "See Chaos is a good thing," Discord said zapping away the pillow and placing a bubble around the eight of them so they'll be safe to talk in case Sarah tried anything. "Can I get back to you on that? Like after Sarah's either back to normal or away from here?" Eric said, panting a bit wincing when he moved, trying not to show any pain. "Hello, the girl set out to destroy Elements of Harmony is getting bored over here," Sarah called out to them in a slight mocking voice, getting their attention so they looked up into the tree. "And what makes y'all think you can do that, Missy?" Applejack called out narrowing her eyes at this new Sarah. "Well I spy someone down there who's managed it before," Sarah said now hanging upside down from the highest branch. "So why can't I do it? Oh and it's on Sombra and Chrysalis's orders," she added, ending with her new evil grin on her face. Conveniently at that point the branch Sarah was hanging from broke away from the tree falling to the ground making her leap off it and flutter in the sky for while. "Sarah fight it!" Eric called out after the noise of the branch died away, "Fight this darkness inside you. You don't belong on that side, you belong over here with us, with the good ponies, with me!" he said eyes wide as if begging. "You're not Sarah Shadows, you're Sarah Jones, you're..." But what she was Eric didn't get to finish saying because at that point Sarah fired an attack right to his chest, bursting the bubble and making him crunch over with pain and fall over backwards. There were definite signs of blood now. As the girls crowded around Eric, who was coughing up blood, Discord turned to Sarah. "Just how did you get in here anyway? Tia and Lulu's protection spell's meant to hold back all darkness from trying to get in." "New wonderful powers come with with new abilities, you mismatched old coot," Sarah said, having to avoid a couple of custard pies thrown at her. "How else do you think Sombra managed to get in here last night and capture me?" "Sarah, we don't want to fight you," Twilight said, stepping forward eyes on Sarah. "You're our friend Sarah and even though friends have fights, this is a bit much don't you think?" "I am not your friend!" Sarah said, slowly cupping her hands together forming an energy ball that grew with each word, lifting it above her head. She was about to release it when her head started hurting, making her lose her concentration and meaning the ball of energy was now gone, making her clutch her eyes. When she opened them a frown was on her face. "Humph, fortunately for the lot of you," she began, coming down by the darkest part of the courtyard with the most shadows. "I've just been set another assignment meaning you get to live for another day of this beautiful world of yours getting destroyed. Bye bye." With that, Sarah Shadows slid into the darkness and she was gone. After waiting a few minutes to be safe, Discord snapped his talons, fixing the wall and setting up lanterns around the courtyard, before snapping them again transporting all of them to the room that was now dubbed the infirmary, just as Eric's eyes slid closed whispering to himself. "Some anniversary." When Eric next opened his eyes the first thing he felt was a world of pain. Everything hurt, his arms, his head, his chest, his ribs, everything. It was even hurting him to breath. Slowly, he tried to get up but found he couldn't do it. Sighing Eric tried to remember when he last hurt this badly - not managing to get very far as he spotted four little foals three Unicorn filly's and a Pegasus colt at the end of his bed, all asleep, who had obviously tried to keep an eye on him throughout the night. Smiling a little despite the state he was in, Eric turned to the door as it was opened and in came Jack, wearing one of those never seen on Jack's face frowns and not looking into Eric's eyes as he took a stool and sat down by the bed. "Everyone's just finished filling me in on what went down yesterday when I was out for the count," he said quietly so not to wake up the foals. "Ever thought this is how your first fight with her would end up?" he asked trying to add some humor to the events. "I think you already know the answer to that Jack," Eric said wincing as he pushed himself up onto his pillows. "So what's the buzz on me and Sarah?" he asked. "Well..." Jack said poofing up a piece of parchment that unrolled itself going to the floor and flowing behind him a bit. "You, my hopefully-cousin-in-law-if-this-gets-sorted-out, have got... Three broken ribs, a black eye, intense bleeding, a sprained ankle, a broken wrist, a cracked skull from when you hit the wall, very sore mussels, and one big fat broken heart," Jack finished. "I worked out that last one last night thank you," Eric said, rolling his eyes. "News on Sarah?" he asked. "Nothing so far," Jack said, returning to his gloomy self. "Doesn't help that the bug posing as her isn't corroborating either. No one can get through to her," Jack explained. "Twilight thinks if we 'Become friends with her' she'll help us out. But nothing's working. They even confiscated my flamethrower so I wouldn't use it on her to show we mean no harm." "Couldn't you just... I don't know snap your fingers and get it back?" Eric asked trying not to laugh too much because it hurt. "Yeah, but our Sarah said to tone down my skills a bit, didn't she?" Jack asked making a glass of chocolate milk appear in front of him. Just then a few yawns were heard coming from the foot of the bed, as Amber, Ruby and Jade all woke up stretching together and rubbing the sand out of their eyes. "Hi girls," Jack said trying to lift the tone in his voice chuckling that it made each of them jump and spin around. "Um..." they all said shifting their eyes to each other their horns sparking, questioning looks on their faces. "Aren't any of you going to say 'hi' to Jack girls?" Eric said shifting around on the pillows holding his arms out. "Meester Eric!" Amber cried quickly but carefully walking up to him to show her appreciation for saving her "We thought you'd never wake up," she said tears rolling down her cheeks. "How long was I out then?" Eric asked comforting her, looking to Jack. "Between 9 - 11 hours," Jack said shrugging "But you know to a kid if somethings not straight away, it's takes forever." Nodding in agreement Eric looked to the girls. "I'm alright girls," he said trying to keep the bandages around his waist from being seen by them. "Just a broken heart and a few bones." he said smiling. "We'll look after you!" they all called big grins on their little faces. "That's quite alright girls I can handle myself how about you four go and get some breakfast or something, I'll be down in a bit," he said nodding to the colt who was still asleep. "Ok..." the three said frowning as they got off the bed, after waking Chris up, and together they went though the door.