Chapter Four: A Generous Amount of Lies

"Now everybody, you and your partner have half an hour to design and sew together a beautiful, chic outfit or accessory. Base it on you or your partner's style or background and make it SHINE!" Miss Stitch, the fabrics teacher instructed.

Well Rarity, you've never failed to create an outfit and you're not starting now, the pale fashionista thought to herself as she collected her fabrics. Sitting at her station with sewing machine ready to go, fabric at her disposal and idea sparking up in her mind, she was ready.

"Excuse me madam, but may I work with you? No-one else seems to want to be my partner,"

Rarity looked up and she tried to keep her mouth from falling open. He was the most gorgeous young man she had ever seen, and she'd seen her fair share of handsome men. She smiled as nonchalantly as she could though nervous. Don't screw this up Rarity, you only get one chance with someone this cute she thought.

"Oh yes, yes you may darling. A-and what might be your name? My name is Rarity," she said with a wry grin. He pulled up a stool and sat beside her "Jules, spelt J-U-L-E-S, people often spell it J-E-W-E-L-S and it really annoys me. But anyway, Rarity is a beautiful name, it suits you" he said.

She blushed and played with her diamond hairclip "Thankyou darling, oh, but we should really get onto making this design. Half an hour only, and we've been talking for about fifteen minutes! Time is of the essence," she said with a flourish. He chuckled.

"I know, I'm a clothier back home but here I just make clothes for fun. It really passes the time," he said, brushing a lock of his neat blonde hair from his face and tucking it behind his ear. She smiled and grabbed the fabric, traced the pattern and began to cut it out with the fabric scissors.

He grabbed the pins and waited for her instruction, pinning the fabric together as she instructed. Handing him the thread, she sat by the sewing machine and fed it through the machine then stitching on the sequins and buttons.

"Jules darling, could you be a dear and be my model? I'm not sure how this will look," Rarity asked, holding up the lavender fabric scarf. He nodded and stood, taking off the purple sweater from his shoulders as she gently wrapped it around his neck.

"Well? What do you think? Isn't it just gorgeous?" she asked.

He fan his fingers over the soft material and smiled "It is simply beautiful, you've outdone yourself Rarity. Might I be able to keep this?" he asked. She nodded "Oh sure, I can make something like that anytime. It's yours,"

Miss Stitch put down her book and walked over to the duo, adjusting her cat-eye glasses and pink sweetheart-neckline shirt waistband "My sweet pastures that is simply divine. Rarity, isn't it? I think we have a winner here," the young woman said with a flourish, presenting a blue silk ribbon to Rarity.

The pale fashionista was speechless.

"R-really? We won?"

"Well actually you won, I just stood here and looked pretty" Jules smirked, making the two laugh. "No darling, you did help me, you handed me the things as I needed them. Thankyou Jules," Rarity thanked, holding out her hand and also the ribbon to Jules, who shook her hand and held it for a second.

The bell rang and the two left the room, going to recess in the cafeteria.

As Rarity walked in she eyed out her friends sitting at the table they normally sat at, sitting down beside Fluttershy. Try as she might, she just couldn't ignore the feeling that something was… different about her friends. Rainbow seemed quiet and kept giving horrid looks to the rest of the table.

Was there a fight she hadn't known about?

"Rainbow Dash," Rarity began politely.

"WHAT?!" Rainbow demanded loudly, staring at Rarity angrily. Twilight wouldn't have any of this. "Rainbow Dash, please stop! Everyone is staring at us…" the purplenette said. Rainbow glared at the nerdy girl "I don't have to, in fact, I don't have to sit with you boring girls either! I'm sitting over there from now on," Rainbow declared, pointing to a lonely table over in the corner of the room.

"Oh yeah, go ahead Rainbow Smash, like I care!" Pinkie yelled angrily, folding her arms.

"Watch it Stinky Pie!" Rainbow retorted.

"I'm so enjoying this yelling we're havin here! I'd loooooove to stay here forever," Applejack said snidely, looking to her left and right whilst biting her lip. Twilight couldn't believe her ears, her friends were fighting, or at least three of them were. This seemed all too familiar for her.

Twilight sighed and lowered her head, but felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up and met the purple eyes of her friend, Comet Nova. She felt a little better seeing her (Pegasus) friend again.

"Hey Twilight, what's wrong? I heard yelling from over here" the brunette said, tray of food in hand. Twilight looked to the table of arguing friend and turned back to Comet "I'm not exactly sure, but I've seen this sort of… discord before…"

"Uh-huh, well then… I've been meaning to talk to you about the chaos anyway. Meet me in the library in five minutes" Comet said, walking over to her friends and sitting down. Whatever that girl's thinking, it better work Twilight thought. She knew something was afoot.

/

The smell of books drifted all around the nerdy girl as she stepped into the library, books everywhere. She felt at home in the library, and even remembered sleeping there once on a bed of books. True to her word, sitting by the history of magic books, was the pale skinned brown haired Pegasus-girl Comet Nova.

"Hey Twilight, come sit down. I think I may have figured out why your friends are acting so different" Comet said, shutting a thick book and waving away the dust. "Yeah, why are they? Ever since that kid showed up they've been acting differently," Twilight said, sitting on the desk-chair beside Comet.

"Exactly, that kid, Crafty Blue. I know he's behind this somehow, I even saw him with Rainbow Dash. He looked into her eyes and it looked like he was… draining her of something… and now that I've seen Rainbow act so disloyal in the cafeteria… it all makes sense" the brunette said.

"Draining? Crafty? But he seems so nice, why him?"

"If my calculations are correct, and most times out of ten they are, then Crafty is pulling a fast one on us. I've seen his kind's magic before, and he's even tried it on me, but I've found that I'm one of few that are immune to Changeling magic" the brunette said solemnly, brushing a lock of her dark brown hair out of her face.

"Changeling? I… I can't believe it… I'd have to see it to believe it" Twilight said.

Comet frowned and stood, grabbing a slightly smaller book and flipping through the pages until she came to a page with a picture, one of a dark black horse with a flowing cyan mane and purple eyes. She showed it to Twilight "This here, is a Changeling. They are an equine and even human… parasite… if you will, taking the form of loved ones and feeding off of their love".

The Pegasus girl put the book back "Well, follow me… I have a feeling he's about to make his next move".

/

"I don't see how Crafty could be dangerous to us—"

Comet hushed Twilight as they came to the corner of the hall, two figures standing with their backs to the girls. One was a tall young man with grey skin, blonde hair and purple eyes and the other was Rarity. They were deep in conversation, the blonde young man giving Rarity flirty looks, and Rarity flirting back.

"They're just talking, and it's kinda weird for us to just eavesdrop on their conversation" Twilight said, feeling awkward. Comet rolled her eyes "Just keep watching, I tell you that's not Jules, that's Crafty". "How can that be Crafty?"

"Changelings can change form to steal love, just watch" she said, hushing the nerdy girl. Twilight frowned and kept watching as the Pegasus-girl instructed, eyes on the couple. Twilight felt wrong eavesdropping on Rarity and her strangely perfect friend.

Listening closely the purplenette heard a few things "…love you… date… beautiful… eyes…"

"Look! Look!" Comet whispered furiously, making pointing notions to Rarity and Jules. Twilight leaned in and looked over to the duo, her jaw falling open. Jules had his arms around Rarity, holding her to his body as he kissed her with such passion.

She felt her cheeks heat watching them "Comet, we're being creepy". The brunette girl sighed and rolled her eyes "Just watch, I'm waiting for him to use his magic on her then we can stop him! I know a spell," she said, grabbing out a strange tiara, similar to Twilight's crown but with a shooting star instead of a six-pointed star.

"Magic?"

"Yes, but the magic of Individuality. Changelings hate it since they often copy the forms of others, just waiting until the right moment…" the Pegasus girl said, not taking her purple eyes off the two and putting on the tiara. Twilight went to leave but saw what Comet had been anticipating.

Jules held Rarity's cheek and gazed into her eyes, purple eyes glowing and shifting into bright fluorescent green, Rarity falling limp in his arms. At that moment Comet leapt out and shouted "Not so fast Crafty Blue! Remember me?"

Jules's eyes changed back and widened upon seeing Comet "You! How dare you interrupt my feeding! Leave or else you shall taste the wrath of a changeling army!" he boomed in a voice similar to Vice-Principal Luna's crowd voice. Comet adjusted the tiara and a strange aura surrounded it, shooting off as a purple beam that hit Jules in the centre of his chest.

A green light surrounded Jules and he roared as, in a flash of white light, shifted into a familiar blue skinned boy with blonde hair. He looked in anger at his blue skin "NO! This wasn't supposed to happen! I disposed of your friends myself! How did you?"

"Never underestimate a Nova! We stick together. You used to be so nice, so loving… what happened? Why are you like this?" the brunette asked with sparkling heliotrope eyes. Crafty almost looked like he was going to cry, but snapped out of it "I changed of my own accord Commetria. Nothing changed me but me, leave it at that. It's a sensitive spot…"

She choked out a sob "Is this because of… of us?"

"Commetria, enough. We had something… but…" he gritted his teeth and sped off down the hall. She called after him but he had disappeared down the hall. She felt Twilight's hand on her shoulder and wiped the tears from her eyes "We used to be so close…"

The nerdy girl noticed Rarity asleep against the lockers, snoring away. Twilight woke up the pale fashionista and helped her to her feet "Rarity? Do you remember what happened?"

Rarity's normally blue eyes were instead a light shade of green, open wide "Twilight?"

"Rarity? Are you ok?"

The fashionista stepped harshly away from Twilight, eyeing Comet's tiara "Ooh! MINE!" and snatching it off of the brunette's head. Comet yelped "No! That's irreplaceable! Give that back! Its magic can only be used by me! It's dangerous in the wrong hands!"

Rarity clutched the tiara tightly to her chest "No way, its way too pretty to be in your hands! Such a diamond shouldn't be in your hands! It should be in mine!" the pale fashionista said possessively. Comet growled and dived for the tiara, only to fall to the floor.

"Ow! Oh wait… aha! This coin is sooooooooo pretty and sooooooooo valuable! It's mine!" Comet said, getting up and holding up a bent quarter like it was a precious gem. As she had predicted, Rarity dropped the tiara and grabbed the coin from her hands.

Twilight was confused.

"Discording magic, opposites and junk." Comet said simply "say something's valuable and they'll instantly want it even if it really isn't. But I don't know any un-discording spells so we'll have to study on it, if you want to help me" Comet said, putting her crown in her bag.

"I see, well then we'll work together on this. I'll see you tomorrow".

I am so sorry for this chapter taking so long, I had exams and heaps of other distractions stopping me from finishing this. My apologies to Retro Mania for putting this chapter on such a long hiatus, sorry. The next one will probably take a few days, a week if the quality is to be high. Once again, I am INCREDIABLY SORRY… Read and Review, hugs Sacredheart99.