Magic Paint Brushes 4

by Ugly-Duckling123

Chapter 3

The next morning just before the kids woke up Jack, Suzy, Eric and Sarah were having one last check and talk about the gifts this 'Alex' person brought for them.

"I know I've never met him before," Jack said finishing his sketch on what Alex looked like and showing it to Suzy since she didn't see him. "But it just felt like I did from somewhere. And even without that feeling, I have a bad feeling about these gifts... I just don't know why."

"Well he must of known you at least to want to do such a thing," Suzy said looking into her memory to try and remember or recognize who this person is.

"Jack we've been over the gifts as much inside and out as we can for eight hours," Sarah said yawning slightly a cup of coffee in her hand. "If there was something off about them I'd of think we'd of found them by now wouldn't you?"

"I suppose," Jack said picking up the doll again that looked just like Emma with black four-holed button eyes - this gift giving off the most feeling of 'Don't-Trust-Me'. "Ok They can have them. I'm not all that happy about it... But there you go."

"So when will they get them?" Eric said his ears picking up on a door opening and trying to be quiet cries of excitement.

"On their birthday in a few weeks," Jack said smirking having heard the cries too.

"NO!!!" Sophie and Billy's loud cries came out as they came rushing up to their parents and Sarah and Eric, Emma slowly coming out after them sucking her thumb "PLEASE CAN WE HAVE THEM NOW?! PLEASE!" the two blondes cried out.

"Well they did say 'Please'," Sarah said looking to Jack and Sarah.

"Yeah, so I heard," Jack said rubbing his ear checking they still worked.

"Ok you can get them now," Suzy said looking to her children "However if you find anything wrong with them. Anything at all... I want you to give them back to either me or Daddy and tell us. Got it?" she asked looking at the three of them who all nodded and said together...

"Cross my heart, Hope to fly. Stick a cupcake in my eye."

"Ok Billy get the sketch book," Suzy said checking the names "Sophie gets the diary. And Emma get the doll."

"THANKS MAMMY!" the blonde cried and rushed back to their room to put them somewhere safe.

"Thank you Mammy," Emma said taking the doll and looking at it seeing it looked just like her right down to her favorite outfit.

"Right then who's up for breakfast?" Eric asked going to the kitchen part of the room and checking what cereal the hotel gave them.

---

After breakfast the family packed up their things and went to the hotel car-park getting ready to leave - they were only to stay for one night.

On the ride home, Sophie and Billy were squibbling away in their presents and playing games with their parents while Eric drove, and Sarah navigated and Emma just hugged her doll and napped.

She never liked playing games as much as Sophie and Billy did. Nor did she like being as loud as them.

What she liked was being like her Auntie Fluttershy, kind, quiet, peaceful, loving and beloved by all the animals.

Fluttershy was her role model in Equestria, but here her role model was her Mummy and Auntie Sarah.
*o*
At the moment she was having a nice dream of all of her family and the ponies and Uncle Discord (he told them to call him Uncle because Grandpa made him sound old) in a town in Equestria she had never seen before, and everything was was like... like crystals.

The family went into the palace passing a spinning heart, and into the throne room where suddenly everything went black and Emma found herself on her own.

'Mammy? Papa?' she asked looking around hugging her new present tighter.

Then a light got switched on and it revealed a descending spiral staircase.

Not sure what to do but seeing it was the only way out of the room, Emma moved forward and began to take the stairs.
After a bit she came to the bottom and found a door.
Slowly she walked up to the door, her doll still close to her, and reached out...

"Emma..." someone called and the door was fading away as she woke up.
*o*
"Emma... We're home sweetie, time to wake up," Sarah said gently shaking the little girl again, this time waking her up.

Slowly, Emma opened her eyes and yawned as Sarah undid her safety-seat's seat belt and brought her out of the car.

"Auntie Sarah..." Emma said quietly so no one heard her except Sarah. "What would you say if I said I had a weird dream just now..." she asked hand tight on the doll and wanting to keep it but remembering her Pinkie Promise to her parents.

"It depends what made it weird sweetie," Sarah said taking her into the house Jack and Suzy now live in - they were able to afford it with all the money they were making on their book.

"Well... We were in Equestria," she began once she was set down and they were out of the way of the door so the others could come in. "I know we were because the ponies and Uncle Discord were there too... But it was somewhere I didn't know. Anyway, we went into some kind of palace, then everything went dark and no one was there with me... After going down some stairs I found, I saw a door, but you woke me up before I could see what was on the other side."

"Have you had this dream before, sweetie?" Sarah asked, trying to get all the facts.

"No," Emma said shaking her head.

"Did you eat anything different last night before you went to bed?"

"Nuh uh."

Sarah was thinking then saw Jack coming in. Waving to him to come over but be quiet and listen Sarah asked. "When you said it was somewhere you didn't know... What did it look like?"

"It... It was like everything, the walls of the buildings, the roads, the ponies themselves..." Emma began not noticing her daddy was there listening in getting nervous with each word "Were all made of crystals. And as we went into the palace there was a spinning heart to the... left." she said after working out which side it was.

Looking up, a small questioning look in her eyes, Sarah saw Jack, nod and a motion to wrap this up.

"Ok... Well, I'm not sure what to say sweetie, except to tell me or someone else if you have it again," Sarah said looking into the girls eyes gently stroking her arm. "Ok?"

"Ok..." Emma said and speed off to her room to introduce her new doll to all her other dolls, not noticing her daddy as she left.

"I'm guessing what she saw was the Crystal Empire then?" Sarah said getting up and dusting off her trousers.

"Yep..." Jack said a disappointed look on his face. "Wonder how she got that dream though. I'm sure Suzy and me asked Luna not to spoil it for her, and she hasn't been there before so she wouldn't know anything about it." he said as they made for the kitchen where Eric and Suzy were having some tea.

"What's wrong?" Eric asked curious.

"Somehow... Emma now knows of the Crystal Empire," Jack said going though the post and finding some bills, and some birthday cards for the triplets from Sarah's parents.

"Does she know that's where we're going for their birthday?" Suzy asked taking a sip of her tea with honey.

"Not that I got out of her," Sarah said replaying what the girl said.

Just them there was a 'THUD' and two cries of 'MAMMY! PAPA!' and Billy and Sophie were soon in the kitchen Billy holding his arm and Sophie looking upset.

"EMMA PUSHED ME/SOPHIE OVER AND THE BIT BILLY/ME ON THE ARM BECAUSE HE WAS REACHING FOR HER NEW DOLL!" they both screamed out together tears in their eyes.
*o*
Being around kids more than the others Jack understood what they were screaming right away and got up and rushed upstairs to the children's shared room where Emma was on the window seat speaking to the new doll and apologizing to it for Billy trying to take it away.

Knocking on the door Jack made himself known to his daughter and came into the room.

Looking up, Emma gasped and pulled her blanket over her and the doll's head - something she did when ever she was afraid.

"I'm not here to hurt you baby," Jack said slowly coming over and sitting next to her pulling the blanket off. "I'm just wondering what made you do that to your brother and sister," he said explaining why he was there.

"So... Sophie wouldn't leave me alone when I said I didn't want to play with her..." Emma said quietly crawling onto her daddy's lap "And Billy tried to take Little Emma away from me and use her as the prize at the end of the game they wanted to play."

"So instead of saying 'I don't want to play, thank you,' you shoved Sophie over and bit Billy on the arm?" Jack asked an accusing tone to his voice.

"I did say that, but they didn't listen..." Emma said hugging her daddy her face to his chest hand clamped to her doll's arm "They never listen to me... Nobody does..."

"Hey... hey... hey..." Jack said rubbing her back and pulling away to look at her "I listen to you, Sarah listens to you, Mummy listens to you... Just because someone doesn't listen to you doesn't mean you can be mean to them. Maybe their ears are just turned off because they're too excited to pick up anything," he said speaking of Sophie and Billy.

"Sworry Papa..." Emma said calming down and sniffing a bit, rubbing her eyes. "I promise not to do it again."

"Good," Jack said smiling putting Emma onto the floor and then standing up himself. "Now lets go repeat that to your brother and sister shall we?" he said holding out a hand a kind smile on his face.

After putting Little Emma down, Emma slowly reached out for her daddy's hand and together they left the room.

---

From his home that was just an abandoned/rundown school house, Sombra was smiling joyfully as the camera's he put in the doll watched the girl and Jack leave the room, not believing that his plan actually worked. Or that it was working so fast.

He had got the doll made especially made by a toy maker to make it look like the brown haired girl, to make her love it even more.

Then using almost all the magic he had left in his crystal placed a bit of dark magic inside it along with a camera spell so he could see what was going on.

And judging by how she reacted just now just by her brother trying to take it, she will become super attached to it when the time comes for the next part of his plan to work out - Getting back into Equestria.