//------------------------------//
// Cable 
// Story: Cut From The Same Cloth 
// by TCC56 
//------------------------------//

A day passed. Coco's greatest advantage was that unlike her counterpart, she wasn't actually a high school student. No classes meant hours of additional work time, even if it was without a model.

Unfortunately, she also had disadvantages. 

Twilight held up the chaotic mass of fabric. "This... doesn't look like a dress."

"It's not," Coco chirruped. "I spent three hours using that to practice stitching." Her face fell. "Fingers are hard."

Rarity craned her neck over Twilight's shoulder to get a better look at the practice-cloth. "It's... you're making excellent progress, Coco." That was as far as her generosity could manage. 

Coco knew it and sighed heavily. "It's nowhere near good enough. And my ideas are..." She trailed away, instead presenting her evidence visually by holding out the paper. 

This time, Rarity bit her lip and stayed silent. It was obvious at a glance of the sketchpad that Coco was used to designing for quadrapeds - the designs would have been beautiful if not for the fact that they were shaped entirely wrong for anything but a pony. "While they do give me some ideas, I'm afraid that they're not quite..."

"Human?" Coco slumped in her chair, head banging against the drawing table. "I'm good at what I do. I know that. But I don't think I can do this."

Twilight edged closer to the despairing designer. "Is there another problem, maybe? I know that when Starlight came here, she got used to hands pretty quickly."

This time, Rarity interceded with a soft touch to Twilight's shoulder. "Darling, there's quite a lot of difference between being able to hold an ice cream cone and doing professional-caliber stitchwork. That's far beyond the basics and it's no surprise poor Coco's having trouble. Barely more than a day's worth of time is certainly not enough to master fine motor skills."

"And we've only got twenty-three hours left before they expect Coco Pommel to present at the competition," bemoaned the pony. 

"Actually," Twilight unhelpfully corrected, "I had to register you under a different name so they're expecting, um." She hesitated. "Popo Commel." 

Coco's head thumped against the table again.

"Really, darling?" Rarity pinched the bridge of her nose.

"I panicked!" Twilight confessed as she started to panic again. 

Silence rocked the room as all three of them got tangled in their own emotions - Twilight in panic, Coco in despair and Rarity in helpless frustration. 

But even as they descended, one exploded. 

"Friends!" 

Coco and Rarity swung violently towards Twilight. 

"Friends," she repeated. "Coco, do you remember at the castle? What Spike said?" Then Twilight's logic ground to a halt. "Oh, wait, no. You wouldn't, he said it the night before you arrived." 

Confused, Coco squinted at Twilight. "While you were arguing with the Princess?"

Twilight dismissed that part with a wave. "While we were researching, actually. I've been training myself to listen while I do other things. Missed one too many instances of Spike warning me about a problem or something being on fire because I was concentrating elsewhere, so it's been a side project to learn better multitasking but that's not the point." She forcefully tapped the inhuman designs. "You can't do this on your own, Coco. But while I was reading, Spike reminded Sunset and Starlight that they didn't have to do everything themselves because they were forgetting they had friends." 

Coco didn't seem to get it - but Rarity did. "Haven't you already tried that? I can't be of any more assistance without disqualifying you from the contest and as much as I love our other friends, I'm afraid that Applejack or Pinkie Pie would be less than helpful with this." 

Instead of agreeing - as Rarity was right - Twilight shook her head. "Not our friends." And she looked at Coco. "Yours." 

"But... I don't have any friends here," Coco observed with confusion. "And if I brought anypony from Equestria, they'd have the same problems I already do."

"Well, okay, not yours-yours. I mean other-yours." 

Coco's breath hitched as Twilight's meaning hit home. "I'm pretty sure we're not friends," she noted gravely.

"She's as close as the other you seems to have," Twilight pointed out, voice grim. "I know Suri's not really your friend-friend, but, well. We know she's allowed to compete, since she was entered before. She's more than capable enough to do the work. And you've worked with her before. Sort of." She wavered, but pushed on to finish strong. "We have to try, Coco. What other choice do we have?"

Uneasily, Coco bit her lip. "I... I don't think we have one," she admitted.





Finding Suri was not a small task - fortunately, Twilight's lack of knowledge about her former schoolmates was made up for by her ability to guess Cadance's passwords to the Crystal Prep computer network.

Which turned out to be useless, as Suri wasn't home. 

A quick burst of text messages to the Shadowbolts, however, pointed Twilight and Coco to a nearby strip mall. 

Suri wasn't supposed to be there - and she certainly wasn't supposed to have that bottle concealed in a brown paper bag. 

"Merlot," Coco confirmed, needing no more than a glance across the parking lot. "Suri always drank coffee when she was working and wine after she lost." 

Twilight frowned. "But she's underage."

Coco shivered with unease. "We should probably wait. Maybe find her tomorrow? Suri gets meaner than usual when she's like this."

"Tomorrow we're out of time." Twilight glanced between Suri and Coco, watching the Equestrian shift from foot to foot. "Does she really frighten you that much?"

Hesitation - then a nod. "Y--yeah. When we worked together, it was bad. Worse if she was having a moment like... like this. And after I left Suri, we never spoke again. I kept telling myself I should but I just... I couldn't. There were too many bad memories." 

Twilight pursed her lips. "And she still scares you."

"And she still scares me," came the quiet confession.

Slipping beside Coco, Twilight took her by the shoulders and pointed her towards Suri. "Coco, look at her. Is that someone to be afraid of?"

A haggard and sleep-deprived Suri skulked her way out of the strip mall, failing at not looking suspicious with her ill-gotten contraband. While Coco wasn't as familiar with human body language, the hunched shoulders and downcast eyes were close enough to pony movements for her to guess. 

"...No. I feel..." Coco wrestled with her own ghosts for a moment. "I feel sorry for her. She just had her life destroyed. By me. Or sort of me."

Twilight nodded, and gave Coco a light nudge forward. "Let's catch her before she does something dumb."

Catching, it turned out, was easy. The second her nervous eyes caught sight of Coco Pommel striding across the parking lot at her, Suri froze like a deer. And when the pair reached a car-length's away from her, Suri moved to bolt. 

"Wait!" Coco thrust out her hand helplessly. 

Twilight grabbed Suri around the waist with a purple band of magic, jerking her to a halt in the same motion that she started to run with. Thrashing in panic, Suri futilely twisted this way and that to try and escape.

Coco - far more familiar with how unicorn magic worked - didn't bat an eye. "Suri, please! I'm not who you think I am!"

The bottle of Merlot missed Coco by inches, smashing against the blacktop. "I know you're a backstabbing jerk!"

The insult made the Equestrian flinch more than the bottle. "I'm not Coco Pommel! I'm--" She took a deep breath. "I'm the pony!"

Suri froze at the sheer incongruity of the statement, a spasm running up her body as her brain rebooted itself. 

"You were at the Games! She's from the other world!" Twilight held her magic tight around Suri, giving her not even an inch to move. "She's not the Coco you know and she's trying to help!"

A glob of spit splattered on Coco's shoe. "I've had plenty of help from Coco," Suri snarled.

Twilight opened her mouth to respond - but Coco stepped between them. "No, Suri. She means I need your help. Please?"

All three went quiet as Suri glared at Coco. She didn't refute or refuse her immediately, but the tension still fogged the air. 

Eventually, Suri found words through clenched teeth. "I'm listening. I don't have a choice, but I'm listening."

Coco nodded to Twilight - who released her magical grip - before stepping closer. Suri took a half-step backwards, but didn't move fast enough to keep Coco from grabbing her hands. "I've been sent here from Equestria, and I think it's to stop the Coco you know from going down the path she is. But I'm failing, Suri. I can't stop her without help, and you're the only one who has the skills to do it."

A heartening hesitation. "Why should I help you or her." Suri's narrowed eyes bored into Coco.

But the Equestrian was ready - her heart knew the way. "Because I hope that deep down, you care. Her betrayal wouldn't have hurt so much if you didn't."

"That is stupidly cliche," Suri snidely observed without actually contradicting.

And Coco riposted with a simple smile. 

Before Suri could respond, Coco's voice lept to disembodied life. Behind the Coco who was present, Twilight was holding up her phone as it played a voicemail on speaker. 

The distant voice of Coco Pommel sneered. "Twilight Sparkle? I heard you entered the competition under a fake name with the pretend me. I don't know what you're trying to do, but you really should think about finding something else to occupy your time. Maybe stick to your own kind of designs instead? Leave fashion to people like me or that friend of yours." She paused for dramatic effect. "I'm sure Rarity wouldn't want to be pulled into this. I can't let you ruin this for me, Twilight. Not after I finally have my chance." Her voice chilled. "Withdraw." Then she laughed. "It's not like the other me could claim the prize, anyway!"

Twilight thumbed the disconnect button, shutting out Coco's jagged humor. The Equestrian looked to her, questions in her eyes and on her lips. Twilight cut to the point. "She called me earlier. I don't answer unknown numbers and never anything during class, so I didn't hear it until after school. And then I saw how bad a time you were having and didn't want to make things worse for you."

To that, Coco didn't have an answer. She just frowned and sagged.

Silence hung for half a minute more. Then, grudgingly, Suri looked between the two girls and the smashed bottle on the ground beside them. "What kind of help were you thinking."

Coco let out a sigh of joyful relief - she stepped forward to embrace Suri, only to be batted back. "Right, right, um, too soon. You still-- Okay. You probably guessed, but I need your help to win the Art of the Dress." 

Suri loudly snorted. 

Holding up her hand, Coco wiggled the alien appendages. "I don't get fingers. And all my designs are for, well, ponies."

"The presentation is in less than twenty-four hours," Suri observed with her best Soursweet voice. "You're mostly useless, I don't have any materials, Coco stole all my designs--" She clenched her fists, shaking with frustration. "Do you even have a model?"

Coco hesitated, because she knew she didn't. 

And then Twilight raised a hesitant hand. "Me?"

Suri froze. 

"Cadance assumed I was when we ran into her yesterday, and I, um, didn't really tell her otherwise," Twilight explained. "Coco can't and you can't, so I guess I'm the only choice."

Suri's eyes flickered back and forth. A spark ignited in them - one Twilight and Coco both recognized from seeing Rarity in her moments of inspiration. Suri's mouth started to move, forming words before her voice could catch up. "Yes. Yes, I see! Oh, wait and if--" A tape measure came out of Suri's pocket, checking the length of Twilight's arm. "I could..." And she trailed off as the inspiration died in the crib. "It doesn't matter," she sighed. "It's still so little time, and Coco has all my materials and work space."

Coco swooped in to rescue. "Rarity offered to donate hers already." She put a soft hand on Suri's forearm. "We don't have time, but we have Rarity's materials and space, your inspiration and my experience. We can do this, Suri," she assured. "If you're even half the designer the other you is, I know you can do it."

It took no time to think about it. Suri snorted. "Half? As if. I'm not going to let myself get shown up by a horse, m'kay?"