Magic Paint Brushes 2: A New Canvas To Paint On

by Ugly-Duckling123

Chap 5

As soon as the 'excitement' died down Sarah went straight over to Eric a punched him square on the arm making him cry out.

"Ow jeez what was that for?" he asked rubbing it.

"Someone here was going to do something Knave, so be happy it was me," she said glaring at him as she turned and ran for the door and into the forest to find her upset cousin.

"Come on pretty boy, lets get you to see Twi and the others," Applejack said not too pleased with him or his actions either.

*
After some more walking through the castle the three of them made it to what seemed to of been the library of the place where they saw, a broken-winged Rainbow Dash entertaining a group of foals with the story she was reading, Rarity was giving out blankets she found, Fluttershy and Zecora over in the corner bandaging up some ponies who got hurt during the first invasion, and right at the back were Twilight, Celestia and Luna all looking worried.

As they walked in everyone looked up to see who it was and the Elements and the Princesses came over to greet Eric.

"Nice to see you again Eric," Celestia said smiling "But where is Sarah?"

"Err... She got angry with me because I insulated her cousin, and they both ran off into the forest." Eric said rubbing the back of his neck bowing his head in shame.

"Well to be fair, you did say some rather mean things to him," Applejack said eying him a bit.

"Yeah," he said "I'll say sorry next time I see him. But first how bad is everything and just what are these 'Changelings' and who's this King Sombra?"

"Changelings are creatures who have the power to disguise themselves as the ones you love and then feed off of your love for them." Twilight said annoyed for some reason. "The more love they get the stronger they become."

"And Sombra?" Eric said nodding in understanding.

"King Sombra was an old enemy of ours. A Unicorn who's heart was black as night who took over the Crystal Empire" Celestia said "He was then over thrown. Turned to shadow, and banished to the ice of the arctic North."

"But not before he was able to put a curse upon the empire. A curse that caused it to vanish into thin air," Luna said continuing with the story "When it returned, the Elements of Harmony went to help protect it and destroyed Sombra for good."

"So... How is he here now?" Eric said getting the news into his mind.

"HEY SIS I THINK WE FOUND SOMETHING!" a high toned cry screamed from above them making them look up and see a little yellow Earth Pony with a red mane and bow calling them all up to the higher level of the library.

"What is it Apple Bloom?" Applejack asked when they got there.

"We were going though the books to find something more interesting to read, when we came across the one with the story of the Mare in the Moon in." Apple Bloom answered holding up a book.

"So we went looking in it to see if it had anything interesting," an orange Pegasus said buzzing her wings hovering a bit with excitement. "And we found something that might tell us how to fix everything."

"Page 93," the white Unicorn said pushing the book the grown ups.

Shrugging Twilight brought the book up in front of her and turned to the page.

The pages had turned yellow with age but the words were still visible and could be read.

"When three become four
The darkest of evil will rise once more
Leading an army that can change at will with their Queen by his side
There will be no where to hide

Only when the two warriors of harmony become one
Can this be undone
With the love in their hearts they hold
Together they can save the world"

"So how do you think this will help Scootaloo?" Rainbow asked the orange filly.

"The first line's 'When three become four' dummy." Scootaloo said rolling her eyes "Before Twilight solved that spell and became a princess there were three of them. But with her here now there are four."

"And the next two say The darkest of evil will rise once more. Leading an army that can change at will with their Queen by his side' That's a perfect description on what happened." the unicorn said bouncing around that she did something to help.

"Ok so what about the second half of the poem?" Eric said getting the filly's attention for the first time, making their excitement drain away and them back up a bit eyes on him.

"Oh it's alright girls," Discord said shrinking down to their size to see if their alright. "He's alright. When he isn't shouting insults at people that is. But I think he's one of the two in the second part of that prophecy there."

"Ok I'm sorry I said that," Eric said rubbing the bridge of his nose, "I get like that when I'm annoyed, and say and do things I don't mean to. Hasn't that ever happened to you?" he asked looking at the Draconequus.

"Of course," he said "But by insulting Jack you insulted me. And let me tell you, if we weren't in this crumbly old castle with bigger problems out there, you'd be getting your 'just desserts'."

"Still no idea who you are," Scootaloo said speaking up and cutting off the argument.

"My name's Eric." he replied bowing to the three filly's "I came here with my girlfriend and her cousin, who at the moment hate me for the same reason Discord does.
"So now that we all know each other," he continued looking at Discord "What do you mean one of the two in the second part?" he asked asking for the book from Twilight so he could see.

"Where did you get that outfit from?" was Discords answer.

"From fighting Moon-Butt the first time we came here..." Eric said not looking up trying to work it out for himself.

"And how did Sarah get hers?" Discord continued.

"By having all the Elements of Harmony inside her." Eric said finally understanding. "Oh no. No no no no no no no no. I'm not going to put her in danger just because this piece of paper says so."

"I think you may of done that already Sugarcube." Applejack said. "You sent both of them out into the forest after your little argument with Jack remember?"

---

*

---

"JACK!"

In the forest, Sarah was wondering around calling Jack's name trying to find him hoping she'll find him before something else did.
She had been searching for five minutes getting nowhere except to the river.

"I hate my life," she said getting down to the ground picking up a stick and drawing in the dirt resting for a bit before she went back.
"I hate the fact my parents run the school, how I didn't have any friends until Eric came along, how I basically killed him the first time we were here because he was comforting me giving Nightmare Moon time to attack us."

She was so caught up in this she didn't realize that the shadows were moving or heard the buzzing of wings.

"Why did he have to move in across the street anyway?" she said rubbing out the love hearts she had drawn getting up and brushing herself off turning to see tens of those black bug ponies.

"Err... Hello?" she said trying to find a way out "Did you want to get to the river? I'm sorry, I'll just..."

Suddenly they were all pouncing at her teeth bared pinning her down.

"HELP!" she cried screaming at the top of her lungs only ending up with her mouth getting covered in green gunk.

Sarah tried struggling out from under them, to blast them back but there were too many of them.

"Oh Buggsy!" a voice she never thought she would love to hear cried above them making everyone look up seeing Jack lying down in mid air. "Would you mind getting off my cousin. I mean sure she's the perfect cushion and all but I don't think either of our parents want her to die because she was flattened by bugs."

All he got in reply was a round of hissing and some coming up to fight him.

"Well I see asking nicely didn't work so..." Jack said getting up and brushing himself down, coming back with a flame thrower and an army's uniform. "GET AWAY FROM HER!" he cried letting the flames burn off the wings of the ones in front of him making them land in giant bowls of jelly he had just zapped up, turning the gun to the ones still on his cousin.

The one standing by Sarah's head seemingly the leader changed into a pony so he could talk to Jack easier.

"You wouldn't fire at us when we're still on her would you boy!" he said grinning.

"You think you can tell what I'd do or not?" Jack asked lining up the flame thrower finger on the trigger, getting a worried look from Sarah.

"Go ahead then," the leader said "Turn her to cinders. Because we're not moving."

"What do you mean by 'we'?" Jack asked smirking.

Confused the leader turned around to see his whole troupe killed, Pinkamena standing to one side twirling her knife in her hoof an evil smile on her lips.

"So I'll ask nicely again," Jack said coming down. "Can you get away from by cousin please."

"I... I'm just following orders," the pony-ling said getting scared backing away from Sarah so she could get up and rip the stuff from her mouth, but let Jack continue.

"Well I'm dismissing those orders," Jack said stepping in front of Sarah "So leave us alone."

Getting nods the Changeling, shifted back and flew off into the darkness of the forest.

"Jack!" Sarah said running up to him when he got rid of the flamethrower. "I'm sorry for what Eric said. He was just annoyed that he couldn't get back up. Please come back."

"Sarah, you need to be more careful out here." Jack said hugging her back "You have no idea what come out in these woods at night."

"I have a few ideas. When I first came, I met Timberwolves, a Manticore, a Ursa Minor and Major, and a Dragon." Sarah said remembering as they went over to Pinkamena who was putting her knife away and together they made their way back to the castle.

Jack smirking said "Timberwolves, Manticore's, Ursa's, and Dragons, oh my." getting a fun-punch on the arm for getting a gag out of it.

"Jack, why did you save me back home?" Sarah asked rubbing her arm looking away.

Pinkamena feeling that this was a private conversation increased her speed a bit to let them be.

"You mean you wanted to get hit by that car?" Jack asked stopping.

"Well no, not really," Sarah said stopping too. "But at first you were... Laugh-at-anything-and-stealing-bracelets Jack. Then you were save-my-cousin-from-a-car-and-come-with-her-and-her-boyfriend-to-help-the-ponies-of-Equestria Jack. I'm just wondering why?"

"Well one, I don't think Uncle Bill and Auntie Jodie would of wanted their child hit by a car," Jack said counting off on his fingers. "And two, Equestria is like a second home. Whenever I get... Upset, I come here to let my feelings out. You know."

Sarah was about to reply when her head began to hurt again making her clutch it trying to get it to stop.

"Sarah," she heard Jack say, "Sarah what's wrong?"

"No... Nothing, lets just get back to the others," she said wondering what that was for looking at her bracelet questioningly, as they raced down the path to catch up with Pinkamena.

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[Luna-tic]

dun dun DUNNNNNN.