Justice by Moonlight (Served with Butter?)
Justice by Moonlight (Served with Butter?)
It shouldn't have been this way. Sweetie Belle had just wanted a trip to the beach with her big sister, and Rarity had finally acquiesced, even looking forward to the opportunity to bond. So what if Sweetie Belle was a little... overenthusiastic from time to time? So what if she'd somehow brought along both of her little (loud) friends? Minor changes of plan, no more.
Now though, Rarity sat on the still sun-warmed sand, her trembling hoof outstretched, shaking, as if actually coming into contact with the maroon cape lying abandoned on the beach meant the difference between facing reality, and rejecting it. Shutting her eyes and gasping out a sob, Rarity faced reality, clutching the shoddy cape to her chest, and allowing herself only a moment's grief before lifting her head, jaw set, and glaring in the direction of the monstrosity that had fled as she'd approached.
Her vision still blurred by tears on their way to soaking her muzzle, Rarity rushed from the shore to the cottage she'd rented, her horn glowing as she threw open the bathroom window from outside, and struggled to magically rip the shower rod from its mounting. Falling backwards, Rarity ignored the grass in her mane and rolled back to all fours before running to the sitting room window, and pulling her box of gems from inside.
“Ruby, ruby, sapphire, emerald, sapphire... diamond. This will pierce that wretched shell of yours, you sister-eating cretin!” Rarity fairly snarled to herself as her gem cutting spell worked the raw stone into a perfectly formed, if modified, tear cut. With the gem affixed to the rod, Rarity leaned over the sill and pulled a metallic pot lid and ribbon to her left hoof, strapping the ersatz shield into place. She turned away from the house, eyes narrowed in the direction of the beach. Corners of Sweetie Belle's cape, wreathed in the pale glow of her elder sister's magic, folded themselves into a knot around Rarity's neck.
“It. Is. On.” she growled. Rarity dashed toward the sand and waves as the moon began to climb from the sea to the sky, cape of the Cutie Mark Crusader fluttering in her wake, as if channeling the joyous levity of its last owner. Sod flew up around her until her pounding hooves reached the beach and scattered sand in all directions. Her makeshift spear with its deadly crystal point flashed in the moonlight, bright as any Legionnaire’s ever had, and though pebbles from the ground struck the shield on her hoof, it held unmoving, as if scoffing at the pathetic blows, as it waited for its genuine use.
Guided by the beast's tracks not yet washed away in the tide, Rarity came to a cave worn into a cliff on the beach. Seawater, salty and lukewarm, lapped at her hooves. She ignored it, or perhaps she wasn't even aware it existed. Inside was her quarry, the vicious creature that had taken her beautiful little sister. Inside was victory, or death. Inside was vengeance.. no. No, inside was justice.
“Get out here at once, you brute! Step forward and pay for your crimes!” Some sliver of the civilized mare Rarity had left on the beach that afternoon called out to her, warned her of the danger, reminded her that she was meant to cut fabric, not flesh. Unheeded, it fell into silence.
Inside the cavern, however, something stirred. A silhouette, barely visible against the stone wall, by moonlight reflected from the sea in which Rarity stood. Her own frame, white on white against the blindingly shining sea, was still as stone as she waited. At last, something was recognizable! An eye, aloft on a long stalk, turned in the direction of the shouting mare. It was a start, and that was enough.
Rarity hurled her spear, guiding it magically as it flew, and the monster's eye was pierced! An unholy shriek of agony filled the half-flooded cave, and water splashed in all directions as the beast turned to face its assailant. Again using her horn, Rarity retrieved her spear and held her ground outside. The water wasn't where she preferred to face the hulking thing, but she needed it to see her, as best it was able, to know who had dealt it such a wound. To know whom to pursue.
Facing the source of its agony at last, the great monster lashed out with a massive, snapping claw, the fierce clash of its exoskeletal appendage against Rarity's shield tossing her back into the sea. Drenched, Rarity immediately took to her feet, angling her shield against the next blow to reduce the impact. The massive claw glanced off, its force splashing beads of water into the clear night sky, but Rarity gave up only an inch.
Seeing her opening, Rarity struck a useless blow of her own, the spearhead turned by the creature's thick shield. Unwilling to risk another attack in the water, she ran for the beach, her own petite hooves' splashes drowned out by the great splashing of the creature giving chase. It was fast, but burdened by its massive shell and distracted by pain, while Rarity felt pain only in her heart. It failed to reach her before the pony had turned on the shore and set her hooves, diamond spear and stainless steel shield at the ready once more.
Again it struck, a massive claw snapping out at its equine target, but again Rarity turned it aside. Driven into the sand this time, the creature couldn't draw it back so quickly. Rarity leapt into the air, turning the spear point down, and wedged it in the joint of the huge claw. Flesh was pierced beneath her, and Rarity felt a wave of bitter satisfaction before her nemesis, recoiling in pain, flailed and sent her flying one direction, and the spear the other.
Though the claw she'd struck could no longer close, its sheer size and hard plating were enough to force Rarity on the defensive as the monstrous thing tried to use its ruined appendage as a blunt instrument. Block, roll, parry, twist—Rarity kept herself unharmed, but her stamina was no match for her foe's, and the soft, moving sand beneath her hooves sapped her energy that much faster as she shifted to maintain her footing on uncertain ground. She needed to strike back. She needed her spear.
Sure only that it was on the far side of the thing she fought, Rarity summoned up all the magic she could muster for a flash of brilliant white light, blinding it, and ran under the tremendous impenetrable shell, striking out as she cleared the far side to buck one of its spindly legs with a hoof before continuing to open space beyond.
Hurt by the kick, the creature's rotation was slowed, granting Rarity the time she needed to locate her lost polearm. Hoisting it magically, she flung it at the beast's remaining eyestalk. The toss flew wide, and Rarity grit her teeth, twisting the shaft in mid-air, just in time for the small head's sharp side to slice halfway though the thin stalk, eliciting a new roar of agony from the thing. The eye fell, dangling from the nearly severed stalk to land on the wide shell of Rarity's target's back.
Rolling there, and twisting the wounded stalk as it did, the creature's eye had become a new liability to it; every motion of its large body sent hot streaks of agony up the half cut stalk, driving it to new heights of rage. It struck out at Rarity, snapping with the good claw, and bludgeoning with the bad, struggling to find its foe now that it had been deprived of Luna's blessing of moonlight. No longer driving its claws into the sand, the thing presented Rarity not one opportunity to counter. The huge, sweeping appendages backed Rarity closer and closer to the ocean, and a second rush beneath was impossible while it kept up the frenzied attack.
At last, Rarity's hind hooves touched water. Bracing herself, she raised the shield on her left hoof to take a blow. The massive, injured claw swiped, and Rarity adjusted to take the hit. The sound of exoskeleton on steel was deafening, and the shield—the lid—flew into the water, yards away. Rarity lifted the now bare leg to her face, scowling at the ripped strap that had held her only protection in place.
“Right. Lace. Now why would I use lace?”
Blind, but not deaf, the creature struck at source of Rarity's voice with its good claw, latching onto Rarity's slender horn as she narrowly ducked the head-crushing blow. Lifting without releasing her, the sea monster shook Rarity feet above the water as the mare screamed in both fear and pain at being lifted so roughly. Below, the diamond head of her spear shone in the moonlight, and she pulled it into the air magically. In desperation, Rarity thrust the spear into the space between the claw's halves and fruitlessly tried to pry herself free. If the monster was troubled at all, it made no show of it.
As it raised her higher into the air, Rarity was struck with inspiration and lit her horn once more, cutting the chitinous surface of her captor's claw just as she had the diamond tipping her spear. Seeing a spot etched deep, Rarity thrust and thrust, striking the weak point over and over, for massive damage. At last, the etch turned into a crack turned into sundered shell, and Rarity's spear tore deep into the crab's claw, causing yet another agonized, monstrous shriek to rend the quiet of the night. Water alone could not fully soften Rarity's fall, however. From such a height, where she and the horrible thing dueled was simply too shallow, and Rarity lay on her stomach, coughing, winded, and helpless.
Lacking the sentience to realize that victory would be hollow, that its injuries had already doomed it to a painful demise, the beast pushed its front half up with its ruined claws, into the air over Rarity, and made no attempt to catch itself with its spindly legs. Looking over her shoulder at fast approaching death, Rarity acted out of sheer will to survive, and faster than she could roll, brought the spear up and set the butt in the heavy, soaked sand beside her.
Blind, and unaware in any case, the mass of shell and meat above Rarity crashed down onto the diamond tip with its whole weight. Beneath, Rarity winced, images of her dear little sister flashing before her eyes as her destruction rushed down... and stopped. Ichor poured from the shattered shell and rent flesh beneath, raining down upon Rarity's back, but the terrible force that had breached the thing's lower shell could not also breach its upper. Rarity was left to stare in shock at her victory—at Sweetie Belle's justice, as the wretched creature thrashed its last , feet from her head.
Soaked with sea water and worse, Rarity dragged herself out from under the corpse, and walked head down toward the little house she had rented. She would leave first thing in the morning. How she would explain the loss to her mother, Rarity didn't know. She pushed such questions aside as tears returned to her eyes once more, preferring numbness to the pain.
“Rarity! There you are!” a familiar, squeaky voice called from ahead. Rarity's head snapped up so quickly her neck would've been hurt, had she been capable of noticing. There before her were her little sister and her friends.
“Sweetie Belle? Sweetie Belle, oh darling you're alive! But how? Where? That thing, and... and...” Overwhelmed, Rarity stammered. Finally, senses recovered, Rarity realized an important question had gone unasked. “Where have you been? I've been worried sick about you!”
“Sorry, Rarity! While you were still asleep, we saw this giant crab out here, and thought maybe we could get our cutie marks as toreadors! Well, crab toreadors. So I waved my cape, and it charged and... we all kinda ran away.”
Scootaloo frowned. “Toree-uh-whats? I thought you said giant crab tamers! It was down there on the... Woah! What did you do to that giant crab?” Wings erect, Scootaloo bounded ahead, past Rarity while Applebloom and Sweetie Belle leaned to look around her. Applebloom's jaw dropped in silence, and Sweetie Belle's pale face took on a slightly greenish tint.
Slowly, Rarity recovered enough to look at the fillies and follow their eyes to the shallows, turning to face her handiwork as she did. “C-crab? That colossal thing was a crab?”
Rarity's only answer was a shrill, agonized wail from behind, as Sweetie Belle got her first look at Rarity's back. “My cape! Rarity! What did you do to it? It's ruined!” Each word carried all the pain of a broken heart, and Rarity knew that behind her, Sweetie Belle was sobbing. Rarity's eyes popped wide as she looked down at the knot tied below her chin. Celestia only knew what had poured from the crab onto that cape. She panicked and spun, desperate to stop the water works—desperate to stop the shrill cries.
“Wait! Sweetie, don't cry! I'll make you a new one, myself! From my very best fabric! It will be fabulous, I promise!”
Though the sobbing slowed, Sweetie Belle only shook her head, colorful locks bobbing. Applebloom and Scootaloo took to their friend's side, the crab forgotten for now, to shoot accusing glares at Rarity, who raised her hooves defensively. Sweetie Belle continued through tears. “No! We're the Cutie Mark Crusaders! They have to all match!”
Nodding quickly, Rarity accepted the requirement. If it would take three capes to mollify Sweetie Belle, then by Luna's lovely light, she would make three perfect, gorgeous capes. “Then I'll make one for each of you! I'll even base it on your design, Sweetie! I'll keep the colors, and even your emblems! I know! A Cutie Mark Crusader brooch for each of you, too, to hold it in place! Doesn't that sound wonderful, darling?”
Sweetie Belle had given up her tears, and looked up at her sister wide-eyed, an excited smile beginning to form on her lips. Before she could speak, however, Applebloom piped in from her left. “That's awful nice of ya, Miss Rarity, but ah dunno if ah'd feel right with such a fancy cape! Ah don't really have anything nice enough to go with it...”
Before Rarity could work out whether this was an honest, polite refusal or a shakedown, Sweetie Belle bounced into the air, squeaking her words with excitement. “I know! She can make each of us an outfit! Like she did for the fashion show with Twilight and everypony!”
Rarity's ears drooped slightly. “Ah, Sweetie Belle?”
Scootaloo looked dubiously at her friend. “I dunno... I'm not too big on dresses. But maybe if mine looked tough and cool...”
Rarity looked back and forth between her sister and Scootaloo. “Now, I truly appreciate your faith that I can make it look 'tough' and 'cool,' Scootaloo...”
Applebloom nodded, excitement rubbing off on her. “Sure! An' we can have our own fashion show, with the outfits Miss Rarity's gonna make us!”
As if with one mind, all three fillies leapt into the air, screaming into the dark night sky, “Cutie Mark Crusader fashion models! Yay!” And like that, they were gone, stampeding toward the rented house and chattering noisily, leaving Rarity to stare at their retreating backs and blink.
As she came to herself, Rarity turned back toward the great, dead crab, impaled on the water's edge. “You just couldn't have killed me, could you?”
