//------------------------------// // Chapter 7: A Stitch, In Time // Story: A World, Reflected // by Bliss Authority //------------------------------// Chapter 7: A Stitch, In Time It was impossible to mistake Rarity's reflection - Carrie, last name unknown - for anyone else. She was the only student to affect what Twilight still thought of as a Canterlot accent, for one thing; drawn out vow-whels, don't you know, and very crisp enunciation in a town where most people slurred and dropped inconvenient consonants. For another, Carrie wore a loose-fitting, flowing white dress with elaborate silver embroidery, capped with a violet scarf over her head that was adorned with diamond patterns in silver and pale blue. A necklace with lavender crystal rhombuses mounted on silver was draped in an arc over the top of her bosom. While the ensemble wasn't anything like a silk Gala dress, even Twilight's untrained eye thought her personal fashion approached art. And, of course, there was the fact that she encouraged their classmates to use her spare needles for their sewing lab. The only ones who took her up on her offer were a pair of girls with far too much black and neon makeup and hair like rows of roughly forged daggers - and a wall-eyed blonde in overalls who was trying and failing to extricate her sleeve from the bolt of cloth she'd sewn it onto. That_was very unlike the pony everypony should know. Carrie - Rarity - was a pariah in this world, and from her grimace, she knew it. "I just don’t know what went wrong," the blonde groaned. "A matter of depth perception, most likely," Carrie sighed. "You need the seam ripper, darling. It should be -" Twilight offered it. "Right here?" The seamstress paused, then took it. "Thank you." Twilight put a hand on the chair next to Carrie. "Is this seat taken?" she asked. Rarity's reflection frowned - which thawed into a cautious sort of smile. "Of course not, dear," she said. "I'd appreciate the company, not to mention the help." Twilight didn't entirely trust her hands yet. "I could help you look up patterns. Hold things in place. I - admit, I'm not the best seamstress in the world." "You are volunteering to help, at least," Rarity's reflection said, shaking her head. "I've had some bad experiences with students trying to ride my talent to an easy A - you understand. Not YOU, dear," she said to the blonde girl, who had winced. “You have something of an eye for color coordination, and an excellent sense of style. Not you and NEVER you, Ashliegh.” Twilight waved it off. "I’m familiar with that kind of freeloader, yes." This school was reminding her of her worst days in the Academy of Nine Stars more and more. "Uh - Carrie, right?" Her response was immediate and dramatic. She ceased work and slammed her hands on the table with enough force that the teacher stopped to look at them, and glared daggers at her. Ones made of ice. “Calm down, Karima.” Ashliegh – the wall-eyed blonde – grimaced, drumming her hands on her legs in nervous rhythms under the table. “People are staring.” Karima – Rarity’s reflection – dropped her shoulders, but her glare and tone remained arctic. "Who told you that hideous epithet?" she hissed. "Some of your old friends called you that -" "Which may be why they're my OLD friends. My name is Karima Almez. Karima Almez. I never want to hear the name Carrie again," she said, slumping back. "I swear I didn't mean anything by it," Twilight said, mentally kicking herself. She should have asked if it was a nickname - and the events of the school Gala would have given it traumatic connotations. "If I knew it was a touchy subject, I wouldn't have called you – well, that." "I'm sure they meant well," Ashliegh said, shrinking into her chair. "I'm not," Karima replied. She took up her needle and thimble, stitching without looking down. Without looking away from Twilight. Twilight turned to Ashliegh. “Do you want me to unsew you, or -” “I’ve got it,” she grumbled. Karima handed her the seam ripper, and with a little bit of effort, Ashliegh started to tear her sleeve free from a sheet of velour. Karima spoke. "Surely they must have told you WHY I'm called that." "I found out about the Gala, if that's what you mean," Twilight said in a very soft voice. "About the indignities you suffered. No one should have to go through that." Karima snorted. It was a very pony-like gesture, almost a perfect match for Rarity's upturned snout; Twilight couldn't help but smile. That earned her a glare. "Who are you and what do you want?" Karima asked. "To help you prove that Amber was responsible," Twilight said in the same soft tone of voice. "And that she was targeting you and your friends - your OLD friends - for a reason beyond petty cruelty." Karima blinked. "Darling," she said with a damn near ballistic arch of her eyebrow, "Either you're the most convincing liar since Jackie or you have me at a disadvantage. A severe one." “She’s not lying,” Ashliegh said. Karima turned to look at her. So, for that matter, did Twilight. “What makes you say so, Ash?” Karima asked. “She was looking towards memory instead of make-believe?” Ashliegh frowned. "I don't know how to explain it." She gave her arm a sharp tug, finally ripping it free. “There we go. I don’t even know HOW I managed that…” “You want to know who I am?" Twilight asked. "Is it alright if -” “Anything you can say to me, you can say to Ashliegh, dear.” Her flattened, affectless voice made the ‘dear’ seem perfunctory and cold. Twilight introduced herself and briefly spoke of how she met Jackie, Iris, Mike and Flash - leaving out the magic and mayhem, at least for that moment. As they spoke, Twilight searched for patterns, tools and thread - facilitating Rarity's reflection in the art of the dress. And Karima was skilled at it. Perhaps a little rougher around the edges and more subdued than Rarity was, but the first she could attribute to youth and the second to this alternative world's tendency towards subtlety. She also had a knack for directing Ashliegh towards those tasks most suited for her; eschewing anything that required depth perception, instead directing her towards aesthetic decisions or detail work. Ashliegh, much like her counterpart, was cheerful and helpful; intelligent and, when she took her time, perceptive as well. There were no more incidents like the sewn shirt-sleeve - partially because she was actively trying to prevent one. As Twilight's tale ended, Karima hissed a word in what sounded like Houreki; it could only have been an oath or profanity. "That doesn't answer the question of why we'd be a target." Technically true, Twilight thought, smirking and folding her arms. Of course, if she was correct, Karima knew perfectly well why she and hers were - Twilight felt something tingling in the center of her forehead. No, not a tingle; a roar and a sensation like fire. Or like hearing nails on a chalkboard, smelling sulfur and rot, tasting ash, or seeing a gritty black smoke just before it stung her eyes - at least, that's the closest she could get when describing it to someone without her particular senses. When trying to describe magic to non-unicorns, non-wizards, she could only grope towards what it felt like through synesthesia. Twilight grabbed her forehead and whimpered - then grit her teeth. The last time she had felt those sensations - and that strongly - was when Sombra made himself manifest. Everyone who was not Twilight or Karima was screaming, including the teacher - though she was trying to bark directions, give them some kind of order, while the students vocalized wordless terror. Karima winced - merely winced, one finger to where her horn would have been, were she a unicorn - then grabbed Twilight by the shoulder and pulled her down under the table a second before something reduced her chair to splinters. Her chair had been made of metal. Ashliegh added her scream to the chorus and fell backwards into her chair and from there onto the floor. She groaned and started backing away further with her arms. Her eyes were the size of teacups - and, curiously, both of them were squarely focused on the creature that was standing on what used to be Twilight's chair. It was broad, with the body and head of a great lion, but with the wide leathery wings of a dragon sprouting from a second pair of shoulders just behind its massive clawed paws. Tawny hair gave way to chitinous armor plates over its hind legs, and a segmented tapering scorpion's tail with a vicious barb. Twilight knew that the tail stinger was stupendously venomous. From experience. Rather than attacking the students, the manticore kneeled, snarling at Twilight and Karima. Twilight immediately took her backpack by the loop at its top and swung the weight of three textbooks at it, like a flail. She smashed it above one eye with the corner of a cover, drawing blood. The manticore roared with pain, then impaled the offending weapon with its tail and tore it from Twilight's grasp. "It's going straight for me," Twilight realized out loud. "The manticore is going straight for me - which means that it was ordered to attack ME, which means that I'm on the right track! This is great!" "WHAT ABOUT THIS SITUATION IS GREAT!?" Karima screamed. "We have a monster in the classroom! Of all the possible things that could happen -" "The worst possible thing?" Twilight nodded. Dawn and Dusk, they were all so like her friends. "Yes, just about, but it's also a desperation tactic on her part. I've got her running scared." "I'm pretty scared too!" Ashliegh wailed. "AGREED! LESS BABBLING! MORE SAVING OUR LIVES!" "Right!" Twilight flung herself out from under the bottom of the table and grabbed one of the chairs, using it like a lion-tamer would - she hoped. The Manticore actually raised an eyebrow at her before it batted the chair away with a single shoulder-wrenching blow, sending it flying through a plate-glass door to the courtyard. Twilight grabbed another chair and deliberately backed into a corner - the corner furthest from the exit. The other students turned once to look, then took that as their cue to leave - some through the door, and others through the hole in the glass. Karima went pale. "Allah akbar, it is following you." "And not the other students," Twilight said. She noted with dismay that no one was helping Ashliegh up - no, check that; the girls with the practically weaponized hairstyles looped their arms around one shoulder each, and hauled Ash to the door, leaving Twilight and Karima alone with it. Rarity's reflection crawled out from her hiding place, her hand on an amulet around her neck. In the shape of a purple-white lozenge. Of course. She had been hiding her brooch in plain sight. "You are out of your mind!" she said. "Not if you're who I think you are," Twilight said. "Not if you can stop it." "You knew what I was all along, didn't you," Karima said, her voice as cold as silver. "That's what this is all about." Twilight growled. "Cut the crap, Generosity," she snapped. "I can't do anything to it like this, but you - " The manticore grabbed Twilight by its forepaw and flung her against the blackboard across the room, hard. Twilight knew how to roll with a hit, landing with her shoulder instead of her neck, but it was still enough to break skin and knock the breath out of her in a strangled gasp of pain - and to crack the blackboard. Twilight fell to her other arm, and her knees, looking up at the creature as it advanced. Karima did not hesitate further. She thrust her brooch towards the ground and barked - "I am the jewel that glitters when gifted!" The hairs on the back of the manticore prickled up. TWILGHT felt gooseflesh, and magic whispering on her forehead. But where the calling of the manticore was smoke and brimstone and fire, this was cold and bright and scintillating color; it felt like a gemstone and tasted of a silver fork. The monster turned to face Karima - and Twilight noted, through the haze of pain, that it looked scared. Good, Twilight thought. It deserves to know what that feels like. And Karima finished swearing her oath - "In Generosity, I serve the cause of Harmony!" A lozenge defined by lines of blue-white force burst forth from the ground, followed by two diamonds that sparkled with white fire and joined the Amber Diamond of Generosity at her clavicle. Geometric lines of magical power spread out from her brooch, defining facets of rose-colored cloth with gilt trim. As they passed, each facet became part of a flowing garment that managed to be both modestly form-covering and suggestive of a full, curved figure with a swooping empire waist. A hooded shawl of golden cloth formed from fractal diamond patterns of magic, each dissolving into a minute sparkling jewel; and on her head they created a platinum coronet with the jutting twist of a unicorn's horn. Karima's dark hair flowed and rippled, gaining a metallic sheen like crushed amythest. She swept out her hand and grasped a staff of platinum tipped with a single, perfect, brilliant-cut diamond - upside down in its mount, with its wicked point turned into the tip of a spear. The entire process took mere seconds, but Twilight would always remember it as a slow and vivid transformation. She saw every part in each of her senses - including the magical. "I am the Lady of Generosity," Karima said with a mocking bow to the manticore, "and for avarice that bids you steal from those in true need, I will grind you into sand and less than sand, thief." She spun her staff in a figure-eight. "Diamonds, gold, and platinum are mine to command - glimpses of the Tartarus where I will send you!" The manticore tried to leap at the Lady of Generosity, but she was prepared for this. Twilight felt her extend her will out from the palm of her hand into the length of the staff - felt the staff store and magnify the energy, and saw the diamond at the tip refract Karima's living mana into its component 'colors.' She was not surprised to taste metal in the air, or to see a sheen of blue predominate. Enchantment, illusion, and geomancy; Rarity's specialties on the other side of the mirror. But Rarity used it to manipulate needles and gems, and to weave subtle enchantments into literally glamourous fashions. Karima would probably do the same, but right now she was acting as a war-enchantress. And Twilight had never seen a war-enchantress cut loose before. "Generous Raiment of Adamant!" Karima said into her staff arm, each word infused with more of her will. The manticore bit down on that arm, what it expected to be flesh - and instead tasted a mouth full of diamond. Suddenly, the full force of a manticore's bone-snapping jaw became the manticore's problem; Twilight HEARD the its teeth crumble, and its whimper. It reared up, lifting its paws and body up so that it could slam her onto the floor. Karima gave ground, twirling backwards in a graceful arcing motion like a ballet dancer - it wouldn't have surprised Twilight to learn that she was one, or whatever equivalent existed on this world - and at the end of her motion was the tip of her staff. "Generous Brilliant Cutter!" Karima said to the earth. At that command, a ray of light from her staff traced a glowing blue arc on the ground - and the floor shaped itself into tiny, sharpened shards of crystal that shot off in rippling rhythm like the belly of a sleeping dragon. Each shot popped like a cork from a bottle of Champmane, and each one drew a minute trickle of blood. Incantations. Incantations were necessary here, not mere aids for students. Or maybe they were aids, but spontaneous casting was more difficult and they needed all the mana boosts they could get. Or perhaps - well. Maybe it was callous of Twilight to hang back and take notes, but it wasn't like there was any way she could help with no method of channeling magic. Well, no current working theory. This was giving her ideas, and she comforted her conscience with the thought that this might allow her to help next time. To fight, next time. The monster grunted, and leapt - onto the reversed, sharpened end of Karima's staff. It's own weight (and that seemed to be a theme with Karima's fighting style, to use the enemy's advantages against it) combined with the menacing point of Karima's staff to impale it in the space where its shoulder blade connected with its spine. Some of the staff protruded past the creature's flesh, red with its blood and black with its bile. It gasped, the slow strangled wheeze of a creature with a punctured lung. Karima stepped back and tugged - the staff slid out in a single fluid pull. The manticore raised one paw, even still, flaring it's wings; but Karima reached forward with her hand, putting the creature's mouth between it and the diamond on her staff, and said the three words that ended the manticore's existence. "Generous Breathtaking Caress." She tugged with her hand, and pulled the creature's life force free as a swirling mass of silver-blue energy - it's last breath in something of a solid form. Karima then gently tossed that ball of vitality to Twilight. Instantly, the oppressive pain of her wrenched shoulder eased, and Twilight found she could stand. The manticore was not so lucky. It collapsed in a breathless and lifeless heap, its empty eyes staring forward and glossy. Seconds later, it started to burn with a red and black fire that consumed it totally - leaving behind a child. He was battered and bruised (and mercifully unconscious), but very much alive. "Just like the last time. Is this a baleful polymorph?" Twilight asked out loud. "I have no idea what that means," Karima answered. "I do know that these creatures need a child as some kind of anchor. Killing the beasts releases them." Which seemed bizzare and baroque to Twilight as a means for summoning monsters - but summoned monsters tended to be wispy and unstable things. Not solid and permanent, like these seemed. Karima stopped, then strode to Twilight's side, offering a shoulder. "Let me help you walk," she said. "You are going to need more healing than I can provide, I fear, as will the child. I will need to call the school nurse." "You've done more than enough to help," Twilight said - but she allowed Karima to help her bear her own weight. "Only the one this time..." Karima grimaced. "Yes, I thought that rather odd myself." "I have my theories." "Share them," Karima said, looking Twilight right in the eye. Her expression was carefully neutral, the sort of calm that can only be feigned. "She found me," she said. "Amber was trying to get me, specifically. She knew I was in the AREA, but not going to class with you - or, hopefully, she doesn't realize who you are either." Karima stared at her. "You're accusing her of being the summoner? Of murder through proxy?" she said - not so much with disbelief but with surprise, Twilight noted. "I have reasons to think so," Twilight said. Before Karima could repeat that command - share them - Twilight sighed. "Clues, really. I still need to gather evidence. Still, with her throwing things like polymorphed children at me…" The Lady of Harmony unpinned her brooch. Her return to civilian mien and the dispellation of her glamour was not instantaneous, but it seemed so; she stood as Karima again, with black hair instead of amethyst and a plain dress rather than one fit for a Gala. Then she paused outside the door. "Assume I am willing to indulge you," Karima said. "That you are correct about the source of our problems. What then? What would you have me do?" "It's not what I'd have you do," Twilight said. "It's what I'd have the Ladies of Harmony do together. Find her and stop her." "That will be impossible," Karima replied without missing a beat, her voice clipped and cold. "I cannot abide what they have done, what they have become. Do you have any idea of the insult Honesty offered me in the aftermath of the Gala? Or what so-called Kindness -" "No," Twilight said. "And I'd like to know what you have to say about it. But I have one advantage over you in finding out the real truth of what happened." Karima literally turned up her nose at her. "What is that, pray tell?" "I'm willing to hear their side of the story," Twilight said - and pushed the door open. The students were, to a one, uninjured, although most were shaken. Ashliegh was eating something, while the two girls that had rescued her were muttering their sympathies and cracking jokes in a low tone of voice. The one - her hair dyed seafoam green - had one hand on Ashliegh's shoulder, and the other girl -with hair dyed pink and indigo - clasped the first's free hand. These two would-be heroines were leaning into each other. They weren't alike enough around the face to be sisters. Lovers? They turned their heads up at the sound of Twilight and Karima's footsteps - and smiled. The girl with two-tone hair even waved. "How did you get out?" she asked. "We were pretty sure that, well…" "By saving us you got very killed?" the green-haired one suggested. Her partner turned to her and raised both eyebrows. "Laura. Really?" "We would have been," Karima said, "had not the Lady of Generosity intervened." Karima didn't miss a beat and had a perfectly straight face. Again, Twilight was struck by her use of the technical truth to mislead. Was Rarity so good at that kind of lie back home? Is that why Karima and the Lady of Honesty in Jackie grew apart? Laura - green-hair - raised a closed fist and shook it. "Woo! Score one for Teen Girl Squad!" "Indeed," Karima said, a slight smile on her lips. Ashleigh got up, holding her backpack in front of her, and walked towards the pair of them. She set the back down in front of her feet, before Twilight and Karima, and rummaged through it. Then she produced a sodden pastry, stained indigo in irregular patches, and tore it into three roughly equal pieces. She offered one each to Karima and Twilight. "Is that your lunch? I really can't…" Twilight said, waving her hands, suddenly feeling very exposed. "I have extra. Take it," Ash said. "You saved our lives. The least I can do is give you some muffin." Twilight found that the ordeal had left her hungry, and agreed, sitting next to the other girls that had a hand in saving Ashliegh's life and awaiting the nurse. Ash handed all of them fragments of muffin. Twilight thought it was delicious.