Bejeweled

"Yes.... I'd like a Maretini, Miss Sapphire... shaken... not stirred." Rarity mumbled, with a little chuckle afterwards "Yes, I did read it... long ago.".

Her smile however turned into an uncomfortable frown afterwards "The music seems a bit off, don't you think?" she asked, after all, this sort of electronic hip-hop was not an usual genre in a bar. It wasn't only off but loud as well, loud enough to get Rarity rose her body up, as she woke back to reality. She still couldn't see a thing since the shades were covering her eyes, so with a quick move of her hooves she removed them. She rubbed her eyelids as the sudden light was sort of irritating, but no less than the noise coming from outside. It seemed to come from the kitchen downstairs. Her weak body poured down from her bed as she took off to find the thing that disturbed her sleep. She cruised towards the exact source, the kitchen, as the sounds got louder and louder. Chops and stomps were heard from behind the door, matching the rhythm of the sounds.

'Agate!' she thought in herself in an angered voice. Her mind quickly changed when she saw a tail of dark blue whipping into her field of view as she opened the door with great care. In an instant she backed away, leaning towards the wall. Who was that?! Her unconscious fast threw an image of Sapphire Shores into her mind, but it was not her, for the diva had a curly tail, unlike the flat one she saw. Vinyl Scratch, perhaps? Her thoughts gone wild, someone was doing something in her kitchen, but who? What? Why? Then, out from nowhere, the music shut off and door opened.

"Yo, Rares! Morning!" a familiar voice told her.

"Agate?!" Rarity replied in shock. It was, indeed, the armorsmith, except that she had a different mane and tail. But, how? "Your mane... is blue."

The mustard coated grabbed the very closest tip of her mane with her hoof and dragged it into her field of view for some reason. "Oh yeah, it is. I dyed it myself this morning."

"Well, it is certainly interesting, but may I ask what was all this noisemaking is for?" the ivory one replied, almost shouting in fury.

"Oh, this? I was just making some, uh, stuff to eat." the armorsmith replied, dragging a dish with a few well-done sandwiches. They were all filled with various goods, hay, grass, vegetables, flowers, all that two slices of bread could handle.

Even though she was angry, this small surprise calmed the spirit of the seamstress... a little. Still, she remained who she was.

"I'm humbled by this little gesture, I really am, but last time I checked I didn't need unbearably loud music to make my breakfast."

"Yeah, sure, if you like it the boring way, then go for the boring way." Agate replied "But, I can't do anything without listening to something."

"Then, if you don't mind, how about turning down the volume so our eardrums won't catch on fire?" Rarity asked, only polite and calm on the outside of course.

"Alright, fine..." rolled her eyes the other one with a grumpy melody in her voice, as she turned around and placed back the dishes on the table where they were at first.

"I'm glad we came to this conclusion, now that we brought it up, how did you dye your mane like that?" Rarity asked in a curious manner. It was very strange, indeed, somepony just dyeing her mane in one morning with such perfection.

"Ink gems." Agate turned back at her with a wink, as she prepared the breakfast on the table next to her. The armorsmith had every little shelf around open by the time, so wouldn't have to look into them one by one again and again.

"Ink gems?" the ivory repeated "Those are extremely rare kind, how did you even get a hold on them?". Ink gems were indeed special ones. They were able to change the color of certain items, painting them over on contact and certain amount of magical energy infused. Such jewel was distinguishable by the liquid that was flowing inside it.

"Well, yeah, if you're talking about those crystal clear, super-fancy ones where you can see the ink, yeah, those are worth a decent sum, but the lesser, common ones like lapis or garnet, they're quite cheap when they're raw, especially from ponies who don't know what they're selling." the other unicorn explained, as they took place at the tables.

Lapis and garnet, gemstones that Rarity didn't even, in her wildest dreams decided to even take out from the ground. Her standards was way above such common litter when it came to making dresses. She took a bite of the food her friend made her and it was...

"Hmmm.... Pretty decent, though I think you went a bit too far with the mustard." Rarity thought as she opened up the chest of bread to see what's inside. She never was that kind of mare whose tongue enjoyed the spicy taste, despite her words often had that kind of flavor. Still, it wasn't remotely close to being unbearable to her. Agate on the other hoof devoured it with great pleasure, figured she can take it without difficulties.

"So what's the plan?" she asked.

Rarity became confused for a moment, but she knew the topic well after her mind reminded her about it "Plan? Oh, right. I haven't come up with anything so far, to tell the truth, how about you?"

"I actually have something, I think its kinda cool." Agate replied. Despite that, Rarity knew her well and was ready to hear the craziest of the craziest.

"I thought that we should just draw a bunch of stuff and then choose our favorite." the unicorn laid it out with some gentle moves of her hooves.

"That's... a rather fine idea, actually." Rarity replied in a rather shocked tone. Who would expect her friend to come up with something that's not half bad... or half mad for that matter.

"Afterwards, we can dye your mane as well." Agate giggled, watching the ivory coated take the rest of her breakfast, cleaning her mouth that already looked clean.

"This reminds me, I need to settle some things with a friend of mine here, she will be a great help in turning you into a lady." Rarity told her as she took a glance to the upper left corner, a place her eyes favored stashing the memories. "Until then, why not take a look around in town?".

"Yeah, good idea, I should look for a real estate agent or something now that you mention it." Agate replied, looking out the window.

Rarity lowered her eyebrow hearing the words "That early? Aren't you taking this a bit too lightly?"

"I have to plan forward if I need to move out as soon as I can." Agate replied. She seemed so sure of the victory, one would say she was blinded by confidence.

Rarity was not pleased with this attitude in the slightest, but settled with the thought as she didn't want to demotivate Agate just at the start.

"Very well then." Rarity told her, as she raised her body from the pillow. She took her dish with a gentle breeze of magic and cleaned it under the sink before putting it away. Agate was doing after her, repeating all steps exactly the same way, with a huge grin afterwards.

"Good." Rarity smiled, finally Agate grew manners out of thin air. She headed towards the exit of the boutique, she had to visit somepony very important and she could not procastinate about this.

"I got to see Octavia, then, hopefully she has some free time." she explained on the way there.

"Octavia?" Agate shouted "That cello-playing little..." she ranted without consideration. As usually, she overshoot her sentence and stopped just before saying something vulgar.

"Little what?" Rarity asked in response as a counter move, hitting Agate hard.

"...nothing." Agate groaned under her muzzle.

"Now listen up! You can trash-talk about me, you can trash-talk about my things, but do not ever dare to trash-talk about my friends, understood?!" Rarity lectured her partner, who groaned with disgust.

"By the way, Octavia moved here for a roughly same reason, so you may think twice next time before you open your filthy mouth." the ivory one huffed, as she was about to leave the room "Now, if you excuse me..."

Bam!

Agate rolled her eyes and strolled back to the bathroom upstairs. She took a look into the mirror and hummed "Maybe green should have been better?"

Rarity's powerful stomps became gentle steps along the way to Tavia's home. If her partner's manners alone would have been the only problem, but the thing that annoyed her to no end was the illusion of her actually learning to behave. Hope, that was crushed with a single blow. It was art what the smith was doing.

A strange, vibrating noise twitched her ear as she knocked on the door, which became a loud noise of a bass kicking as the door opened. It was Octavia, her mane grey and beautiful as always, her face filled with grace, her eyes so... tired? Anyhow, she smiled as the white unicorn showed up.

"Greetings, Miss Rarity. What brings you here?" she told her, screaming skywards afterwards "Vinyl, could you shut it off for a while?"

"A moment, I'm just putting together this sick beat." A voice shouted back followed by a second of rampaging disco music that came and went like lightning. "Oops! I dropped it. Hahahaha!" she laughed.

Octavia, not knowing what now, just hit her head at the wall to her right with a groan.

"Vinyl seems pretty jovial today." Rarity noted with a little but still awkward smile.

"She keeps making the same joke over and over again and still finds it funny for some reason." Octavia sighed as she let her friend in, taking her to the guestroom. One time her friend was a curse, yet a blessing in the other. Octavia and Vinyl have been living here for quite a while, as two flatmates. While they don't have the money to move to different houses yet, it doesn't really bother them... well, most of the time. Still, the duo is quite notorious for their hassles from time to time.

"So what is the matter, I'd be glad to play some chords if it moves your inspiration." the earth pony smiled. Whenever Rarity wanted to create something productive but the inspiration refused to came even after she kept watching the world come and go, she laid back and listened to the beautiful melody of the bass.

"No, not this time. I'd need your help with a friend of mine." the unicorn replied as her mind started to cringe at the word "friend".

"Yes?"

"She'd like to develop some manners of a lady, since she has very little and she is living in Canterlot." the ivory coated explained. Though of course, this was a lie, but the unicorn had the skill of deception and could make it look legit without problems.

Octavia raised her eyebrow on her left "Is her name Agate by any chance?" she asked.

'I should have known.' Rarity thought, realizing her plan of keeping her friend's true identity a secret failed. It seemed as the entire Canterlot would have a bounty on her head. There was no other choice now, she had to flow with the current. "Yes."

"I'm afraid I can't help you." Octavia responded her eyes shutting like steel door hitting the ground from above. She sat down on a small pillow in the room nearby, facing away from her fellow.

The answer came completely unexpected for the unicorn. It was so blunt and straightforward, she never heard Octavia refusing anything like this before.

"What? Why not?"

"I recognize an impossible task when I see one, Miss Rarity." Tavia told her.

The situation might be worse than she though. However Rarity didn't took no for an answer, especially from Octavia. "You could keep Vinyl on a leash so far, you have much more experience in the topic.".

Octavia turned her back to the unicorn "She is enough stress me a day, I need no more, especially not that... I mean, especially not Agate."

Rarity lowered her eyebrows. She hates such primitive behavior like calling each other names, there was something so infuriating in it to her. She refused to sit down in front of her, rather stood if needed.

"Agate also played this card this morning, I do hope I don't need to repeat myself. Is there something specific that bothers you about her?" Rarity asked.

"It's... nothing." she replied, her face completely red from all the anger that was ready to erupt like a volcano in any second. "Just bring her here tomorrow, I have a few things to discuss with her." she continued.

Rarity looked somewhat more delighted "Can I take it as a yes, then?"

"It depends, I have to see her myself." the bassist said, now in a more calm tone than before, as she stood up and made her way to the kitchen.

Rarity nodded with a warm smile and decided to drop the hot topic now that it was decided. Time was ticking and wasting an entire day seemed rather risky, but she forced nothing on Tavia.

"Anyhow, have you heard about Lovesick's big Equestria 3 tour?" she asked.

"Ah, yeah. It must have been a tough decision to reveal herself in public after so many years. But again, with those rumors floating around, I can understand. Poor girl." Octavia replied as she took two glasses out from the shelf nearby, with a bit of the usual wine to spice the conversation.

In the meanwhile, Agate was strolling around the town, her mane now boasting with a pale red color instead.

"Rose, there you are sweetheart." a calm voice of a stallion slapped her ear as a hoof touched her spine.

"S'up?" she told the stranger, revealing something the stallion didn't expect, a horn. He had a coat of brown with a darker shade in his mane, as well as he wore a very elegant, green necktie.

Only afterwards he noticed the ribbons and the gem."Oh, excuse me, I must have been mistaken." he apologized with a red face.

"Nah, it's fine, it didn't hurt. Though not knowing how your marefriend looks like is pretty naff... just saying." Agate note with a bit sour voice "I'm Agate, by the way." she introduced herself, reaching out with her hoof that the stallion gladly accepted.

"Name is Time Turner, I set and repair the clocks around the town." he responded, shaking hoof with the mare when from behind he noticed her... and she had a clear sign of disturbance in her eyes. It was the time he thought the small mistake he made is going to lead him to his doom.

He dropped Agate's hoof with a short "Excuse me." and ran to her mare. "Oh hi Rose."

"Timey?"

Agate also looked back to see the actual marefriend. The sight made her jaw drop with a huge smile.

"You know what? I take that back, I can't blame you for mistaking me with her." Agate laughed. Rose had a coat of very light beige and a pale scarlet mane that looked exactly like Agate's. "We're like carbon copies of each other." she added.

"Huh? No, we don't even look similar." Rose denied "My coat is much lighter than yours." she pointed out, reaching out her hoof to compare it with the other mares. Though it was indeed a difference, it didn't seem too significant.

"Rose, this is Agate, Agate this is Rose." Time explained, now that the two girls were holding each other's hooves.

"Nice to meet you." they said at the same time, though Agate's last word rather sounded like a "Ya" instead, as usual.

"We should get going now, the clock tower is stopped again, but we could take some time together." Rose told her with a delightful smile.

"Totally." replied Agate, waving and strolling away filled with energy. The ponies in this town were indeed most outgoing and on top of that, loose. She could easily imagine living here... though she felt she forgot something she wanted to do.

Arriving at her temporary home the smell of something burning smacked her in the face.

'Fire?' she thought, until she heard the squeals and noises coming from the kitchen. Yes, she most likely knew where it was coming from now. It was Rarity, trying to defend herself from the blazing fires she tried to calm down without any success. The pan suddenly began to glow with a purple aura in front of her, along with a voice she knew well enough.

"Watch out!" Agate shouted, taking the pan off the stove and throwing it into the empty sink where they wash the dishes. The flames began to calm there bit by bit, as the pops similar to fireworks with the bubbly noises started to disappear at once, leaving nothing but ashes behind.

Rarity sighed "Well, so long for lunch, I guess. Thank you.". Cooking wasn't something she was very good at. She needed to follow the recipies exactly to make something right, though often something minor was off still. It was something both Sweetie Belle and her inherited from the looks of it.

"Anytime, Rares. Should have left it to me if you know you can't cook, though." Agate replied with a cheerful tone.

"I can cook, thank you. Just... not very well." responded the ivory coated, with another sigh afterwards "I should have asked Mom to teach me before they go on their holiday."

In all of a sudden, however, Agate began to chuckle. "Guess you're in that stuff I was in when leaving home. Though it explains why you're living alone here with your sister." she told her, wrapping her leg around her friend's neck as she began shaking it, saying "Come on now, we got to draw something today as well."

"I guess you are right, this can wait." Rarity replied, snapping out of the melancholic state she was in as she turned back, leading the way upstairs.

"By the way, have you found the agent you were looking for?" she asked.

"What agent?" Agate asked back, making the seamstress turn back her head forwards with a deeply disturbed look on it. Did Agate just forgot that one thing she was going to do today alone?

Rarity opened the door of her bedroom and with a little charge of her magic she took a couple papers and pencils to give to her partner.

"You know, I was thinking we should work in separate rooms, just to make it a bit more exciting." she suggested now a bit more jovial than before.

"Good idea. I'll be in Sweetie's room then." Agate replied as she took the papers and left the room with strange giggles coming from her mouth.

Rarity was all by herself again... and it felt so lovely. She laid down her tired and used body on her beautiful bed and waited for her muse to come, which didn't take long.

"A-ha! Idea!" she sang as the pencil and the paper started their marvelous dance with each other.

Agate on the other hand, chose to lay on the hard ground instead, bursting out weird giggles with a creepy grin.

"Hihihi, yes, yes, it's perfect." she whispered in herself as she kept on drawing and drawing.

About an hour or so later, Agate knocked on the door of the other room. With an approval, she walked in with the reference sheets of her pieces, and she had plenty of them, just like Rarity.

"Well, well, that was quite a productive session for you, I see." Rarity marked in delight.

"Yeah, you can say that, check this out!" Agate told her uncurling the sheet of her favorite of all. "Full-steel plate that can reflect anything coming at it, razor-sharp spikes on the shoulder plates and smaller ones on sides and cracked golden motives all over it. Everypony is going to step aside if you come down the street in this thing."

"Certainly... unique." Rarity said with an awkward grin. The 'thing' was ugly as sin, as if it would have been made for a goblin. She rather took one of hers instead.

"How about this one?" she replied, raising on of her papers.

"A beautiful, purple traditional priestess robe with a hint of french baroque along the double frills and the end, plus shining golden accessories. Older styles of fashion is always respected by most." the unicorn explained, that bit of pride coming through her voice clearly.

Purple, frills and pish-posh, all cringeworthy a dress can ever have, melted into one piece. Agate still needed to have a closer look at that, maybe just to make her feel like throwing up even more. Rarity's eyes popped open when a tugging feeling took over her reference sheet, however.

"Let me take a look." Agate said, trying to pull the paper out of her friend's grasp.

"What? No, that's mine." Rarity replied, holding her plans with all her unicorn power.

"I just want to-"

Rip! In a strike of lightning the blueprint had lied in both their magical grasp, in half. Rarity didn't believe it happened for a few seconds, she kept gasping for air a few times before she lost her mind.

"That's it missy! There was a line, and you stepped it over, it's on now." she screamed in anger, taking away Agate's paper in a swift move, and before her eyes, tearing it in two. Then, she released them with a calm face, letting the gravity take care of the rest.

Agate couldn't tell a word, it happened so fast, but she already made up her mind during the process.

"I wanted to apologize, actually, but, you know, I changed my mind. War is war!" she shouted.

"If you would have paid attention you would know this is a dress contest, not a freak show." Rarity shouted out loudly, stepping up close to her friend.

"Well I'm not going to get in with this fabric waste, you better forget about it." Agate replied with a similar volume, pushing up her face against the other unicorn's too.

"Need I remind you who was begging for help yesterday? I am helping YOU out, if you don't remember. Maybe it just didn't get through that thick skull of yours."

"A thick skull that's going to break yours!"

Both mares took a step back from each others face, as their noses were almost touching each other. Words were not enough here anymore, actions were the only way to solve this. Their horn charged up with turquoise and magenta, as the two unicorns charged head-on in a vicious battle. As their horns clashed with all their might, they released a mystical sound with a raising pitch. The unicorns spar with quick and swift attacks, as the sound constantly changed its intensity and pitch with each collision. Their precious plans and papers all torn and crumpled under their hooves. Agate's blows were heavier, as her horn was somewhat longer and her magic was stronger than the one the ivory coated had. Rarity, however could turn her speed and cunning mind to her advantage, and she needed to do so quick because the wall was getting closer and closer behind her.

A swift duck from a right slash seemed an appropriate time for a counterattack, and the ivory one pierced upwards with her horn. That worked, forcing Agate to take a step back. Rarity made a quick thrust forwards once again to gain some more space as the armorsmith leaped back.

Agate needed that gap back however, and charged straight towards it with a powerful blow from above, one that the ivory coated could parry in the last second, resulting in a strength competition once again.

Agate kept oppressing Rarity, who was forced lower and lower, yet from this hopeless situation, the seamstress still saw a risky, but possible escape route. She had little choice and even less strength. A swift swipe in an arc downwards and she got the armorsmith off her balance, tripping her at her front legs. Agate didn't even had time to blink but she was already on a roll, and by the time she opened her eyes the ivory coated already made it on the top of her, her glowing blue horn pointing towards her foe's throat.

"Touché!" she said, her eyes filled with evil happiness.

"Rarity, I'm home!" a voice shouted from outside. Sweetie Belle, who just arrived back from school. Only then did the two realize the mess around them. Papers were lying everywhere across the room, the carpet ragged completely. Somehow even a roll of fabric fell down from the shelves which it was stored on.

"Rarity! Hey, sis." the filly said as the door opened. However as soon as she saw the two mares, she slowly closed it back. In a sudden, the two finally arrived back to reality, the anger leaving embarrassment behind. Rarity jumped away as she let Agate free to see her sister, with the armorsmith following her by slower steps.

"Sweetie Belle, h-how was your day?" Rarity said with a red face and awkwardness oozing from her mouth.

"What were you doing in there?" Sweetie asked, her face showing worries towards her sister.

"We were just..." Rarity tried to explain, but as her mind couldn't come up with anything rational, she gave in with a heavy sigh "We were fighting."

"Sister, if I remember few days ago you said that a lady doesn't fight neither at home, neither at school, never." Sweetie replied in puffed up manner to pick on her sister, as she took out her tape player from her bag "I even have it recorded."

A click later Rarity's voice was emitted by the device. "Sweetie Belle, a lady doesn't fight neither at home, neither at school, never!"

"B-but Diamon-"

"NEVER!" and with a click, all stopped. Rarity wanted to run, run and hide somewhere nopony will ever find her again. Her own actions betrayed the rules she set for her sister. So embarrassing. So shameful.

"It's alright Rarity." Sweetie giggled as she hugged her big sister "As long as I can punch Tiara in her face." she added in a bloodthristy tone in her voice.

Rarity didn't know what to say, it was either being hypocritical or being unladylike.

"Nah, it was me who got to her neck, Rares was just defending herself." Agate added, hanging her head in awkwardness as she stared at the floor.

"Alright, alright." Sweetie replied "So, will you apologize?"

The two mares stared at each other deep in the eyes.

"Agate, I..." started Rarity "I'm truly sorry for all I've stated before, I didn't mean it, at all." she continued.

"Yeah, I'm sorry too." Agate replied. "I wasn't being serious either, I just flipped out for nothing."

"Peace?" Sweetie asked.

"Peace." sounded the collective answer.

"Yay!" the filly shouted. "Now, don't let me see you do it again, or I'll tell Mum you like girls." she said in a lecturing manner, trotting to her room with big giggles afterwards.

"What?! You... you wouldn't dare it." she shouted at the laughing filly who just ran to her room, shutting the door.

"She wouldn't dare it... I know her." Rarity mumbled in herself. Agate strolled back to Rarity's room, they had a mess to clean up after all. Yet both of them stopped at one strange formation on the floor. Two pieces of paper, laying next to each other in a way, that they were sort of fitting together.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Agate asked.

"There is little chance, but I believe I do." Rarity replied. She charged up her horn and placed the two pieces on her drawing table. Agate took up every other thing scattered on the ground, as threw them out on the trash can.

The ivory coated took up her stylish, orange reading glasses and laid down comfortably on the back of her bed, Agate joining her from the right as well as the papers and pencils in front of them.

"Oh, sexy glasses." Agate said, receiving a pretty disturbed but still sort of thankful look from the seamstress. Was she just fooling around to make it look like Sweetie Belle was right, or was actually meaning it was not something she wanted to know.

"Shall we get started, then?" Rarity asked with a smug smile.

"Sure we shall." Agate told her friend, winking back as the two unicorns began working now with united forces.

Time flied by as the two friends shared their moments of laughter, creativity and after a while, hunger. However, they preferred not to try cooking once again, rather bring the dinner from a nearby restaurant. Anyhow, the reference for the dress was ready, and it looked just perfect. It wasn't a dress, but neither was it an armor, much like a little bit of both. Rarity laid it on the desk with careful moves, as the girls decided to get try out something new.

"So you just..."

"Simply brush it along your mane while focusing on the parts you want to paint." Agate repeated, assuring Rarity of the process.

Rarity still stared at the little garment, not understanding how such small, shapeless and ugly stone can do such wonderful things.

"If you're still not sure, check this out." Agate told her as she took out a shining black gem from her saddlebag, an onyx. Not any onyx, however. Rarity, step by step, approached the jewel. She couldn't believe her own eyes. The ink inside was there, seen crystal clearly as she shook it from time to time.

"I found this little fella below Rainbow Falls on a vacation. I use her the least for obvious reasons, but, uh, yeah, you can give a go with her if you would like to." Agate explained, letting go of the magicial aura, and laying it down in the hooves of the seamstress.

"Can I?" Rarity asked, as she took a look at Agate, then back at the jewel. "Thank you very much."

She closed her eyes and stroked the onyx along her magnificent, curly mane. She could feel the odd wave of magic rushing through it. As she opened it once again, her reflection in the mirror told her everything. The black mane looked gorgeous, yet dark and menacing on her. She ran it down her tail to see the magic slowly engulfing and turning the curls from blue to black.

She took a step closer, checked her mane from all sides, then let out a pleased smile for a second, frowning a bit afterwards.

"Oh wait, this blue is just terrible." she thought aloud, refering to her eye shadows that were now unifitting her new style.

While Rarity took out her makeup kit Agate also dyed her mane and tail from red to black, leaving only little of the liquid left in the jewel.

"Perfect!" Rarity thought, now that her eyeshades were changed to a charcoal black as well. "You look pretty smashing as well." she told her partner who was also changing her eye shadows. A quick look in the mirror, to check if a spot wasn't left out, then the girls were ready to hit the streets of the night in search of a restaurant.

"Oh, wait a second." Rarity said, turning back from the door as her horn charged up, taking out a black fabric of a robe and wrapping it around her neck. "Never thought I'll use this again, actually."

"Cool, you look totally like a vampony now." Agate complimented "All you need is a pair of red eyes." she added.

"Oh just wait for it darling, just wait for it." Rarity chuckled with a wicked smile as she closed the door of the boutique.

The situation slowly began to return to normal. Everypony was happy. The girls could work together without significant conflicts and the forces of light and dark lived in balance again... for now.