Rarity knew that a long train ride was always made shorter with the company of good ponies with whom to converse. As the train entered a dark tunnel, Rarity could see her reflection in the interior lights of the train car against the glass of the observation car. Her hoof adjusted the curls of her mane.
"Rarity? Rarity are you listening?" Sweetie Belle asked. Rarity's eyes refocused and looked at the reflection of her sister, behind her on the opposite side of the aisle.
Rarity assured her, "Well, of course I'm listening, darling! I just wanted to make sure my mane looked its best for when we make our grand entrance into Baltimare!" She flourished her curly, violet locks. "This hair doesn't just happen when I roll out of bed in the morning, after all."
"Sometimes I feel like you care more about your mane than you do about about me," Sweetie said. The train exited the tunnel and their reflections washed out in the bright light of the sun rising over Horseshoe Bay.
Rarity blanched. "Sweetie Belle! Don't say such things! You know you're the most important pony in my world! And I'm sorry if I've ever given you any reason to doubt that! That's what today's all about, after all. Catching up on lost time. You've gotten older, and we've both been so busy with our adult lives, it's easy for the time to slip away from us. That's why we're taking the time to do this. After all, if we do not ever take time, how can we ever have time?"
Sweetie Belle gave a neutral huff. The train rolled into the Baltimare station and they disembarked.
"Now then," Rarity said, adjusting her sequined saddle bag, "where shall we go first?"
Sweetie Belle pointed at the dot on her map nearest the train station. "Let's look at the Historical Arms and Armor museum! I need to do some research for our history lesson at school."
Rarity did a mental double-take. On first hearing her words, it sounded like her little sister was speaking as a student. But the young mare walking beside her wasn't a little filly anymore, and she was speaking as a teacher at Princess Twilight's School of Friendship. Rarity always believed that her sister was destined to be a famous singer with her beautiful voice. And while Sweetie had overcome her stage-fright somewhat since her days as a blank-flank, a career in the spotlight wasn't for her. Being the director of the school's glee club brought her all the joy she wanted, and at the end of the day, that was what mattered. But her primary duty was still that of a teacher for multiple subjects.
"What else have your students been learning about lately?" Rarity asked with sincere interest as they walked across the city.
"We recently learned about the astrological signs!" Sweetie said with a titter in her voice.
"Astrology?" Rarity balked. She found it inconceivable, or at the very least a bit unlikely that the relative position of the planets and the stars could have a special deep significance or meaning that exclusively applies to only you. "Is fortune-telling what passes for academia these days?"
Sweetie chuckled. "No, not the horoscope stuff! The history of the signs. It's really quite a fascinating tale!"
Rarity smiled. "Well, we've nothing but time, today. Please," she insisted on hearing about it. Sweetie beamed. Singing may have been her talent, but it took her a long time to realize that helping ponies and imparting knowledge was her calling. And she was quite good at it.
Sweetie Belle cleared her throat and her older sister could hear her tone of voice shift into 'teacher mode', "Well, as the story goes, on the night that Nightmare Moon rebelled against Princess Celestia, she arranged the stars in the sky to depict the twelve great foes that she had defeated as the Princess of the Night! Which we call constellations!" Rarity knew perfectly well what star constellations were, but she wouldn't dare interrupt her sister in the middle of telling a story.
Sweetie continued, "When Princess Celestia defeated Nightmare Moon, the responsibility of raising the moon fell to her, but she either couldn't, or wouldn't change her sister's stars. And so for a thousand years, the night sky stayed unchanged as an homage to the great feats of Princess Luna. It was a boon for nautical explorers who could use the night sky to help navigate the seas to new worlds before the invention of the compass!"
"Over the course of the year, the sun would rise in a different constellation, which, along with the moon phase cycles, became the basis for our twelve-month calendar, and which 'sign' you were born under became the basis for astrology and horoscopes!"
Rarity smiled with pride. "That's quite the thorough explanation, Sweetie," she praised. She tapped her hoof to her chin in faux wonder and then gave her another opportunity to show off her knowledge. "Though remind me, what are the twelve signs?"
Sweetie Belle tapped at the air in front of her, as though checking off an invisible checklist as she spoke. "There's Aquarius, the water elemental! It's in the name, really. Aqua! Then there's Pisces, the fish. I guess it was a really big fish. Like a shark. Or maybe even a sea serpent!"
"And I'm sure it was this big!" Rarity said, extending her hooves out to either side of her as far as she could, mocking every fishing story she had ever heard. Sweetie shared a giggle with her.
"Next there's also Sagittarius the archer, Gemini the twins, Virgo the maiden, and Libra the adjudicator."
"Adjudicator? Goodness, that's a spelling bee word if ever I've heard one!" Rarity exclaimed.
"It means a judge, or a pony that makes decisions," Sweetie explained. And let's see... there's Aries the Ram, Taurus the Bull, Leo the Lion, Capricorn the Goat, and Scorpio the Scorpion!"
"Quite the menagerie Luna kept up there!" Rarity said playfully, counting up everything in her head as they neared the museum. "Though... I think that's only eleven."
Standing in the entrance queue, Rarity looked at the medieval suits of armor in the windows of the museum front, admiring the intersection of blacksmithing and tailoring. The seams of metal suits jingled as the ground trembled, likely from a passing trolley. Sweetie Belle gave it no notice. She was lost in though as she double-checked her mental list. Her eyes lit up as she arrived at the answer. "Oh yeah! There's the-"
"CRAB!" a Baltimare citizen screamed as he galloped at full speed down the street, followed by several dozen more panicked ponies. "GIANT CRAB!"
Rarity looked in the direction from which the ponies were fleeing. Down the avenue, between the rows of buildings, she could see the glittering blue of the water in Horseshoe Bay, and what looked to be a mountain rising out of it. The ground tremors grew stronger, coming in sets of six as the terrible beast came ashore in a thunderous scuttle. Each of its legs came down like a meteor, leaving craters in the paved cityscape. Its claws were the size of city busses, swinging like wrecking balls at the buildings with the misfortune of being in its path. The massive crustacean bore down on them as it made its way down the avenue.
Rarity protectively grabbed her little sister's hoof and pulled her past the ticket kiosk into the museum. She shielded Sweetie's body with her own under a sturdy display table, hoping that it might save them from any falling debris as the rumbles grew into earthquakes. A monstrous screech pierced the air and the building across the street was smashed. Stonework the size of a refrigerator crashed against the front of the museum, smashing the window and sending artifact displays scattered across the tiled floor amid stones, dust and broken glass.
Sweetie Belle didn't want to look, but did so all the same. Terrified ponies in the streets ran for their very lives as a giant claw reached down to pluck them up by their manes, one by one. The other claw, razor sharp, reached over and cut their hair clean off, letting them fall several stories back to the hard ground. The lucky ones died on impact. Those less fortunate were left screaming in the pain of several broken bones and the slow death of internal injuries.
Sweetie Belle tried to pull away from Rarity's grasp. "We have to do something!"
"No. No!" Rarity cried, clutching her closer. "We are just going to close our eyes, cover our ears, and wait here, ignoring it until it goes away!"
"Rarity, look what's happening out there!" Sweetie said.
"To somepony else! It's happening to somepony else!"
Sweetie Belle elbowed her cowering sister and pulled herself free. "We're all somepony else, to somepony else!"
"Sweetie! The glass!" Sweetie Belle put on a set of iron horseshoes and grabbed one of the swords from the floor. "What are you going to do!?"
"What I can!" Sweetie charged out of the store gripping the sword in her magic and swung it against the crab's leg with repeated, metallic clangs, as though she were striking it against stone. A giant claw moved with unnatural speed, grabbing the pony by her mane. She shrieked as she was lifted up into the air, and carried away by the thunder of giant, chitinous legs.
Rarity hoped in vain that Sweetie could escape, somehow. Break free and survive the landing. Somehow. She seethed with anger under the table. Angry at the crab attacking the city and taking her sister. Angry at whoever could have saved them, but didn't. Angry at Sweetie Belle for being so reckless. But mostly, Rarity was angry at herself for doing nothing in her cowardice.
The crunching sound of glass under horseshoes approached Rarity. An aura of blue magic removed the table covering her. She looked at the pony standing before her.
"Princess Luna!" Rarity exclaimed. "Please, you have to do something! You have to stop that beast!"
Luna shook her head. "I can not. As it is not my fight."
"But- but you've beaten it before! The legends of the astrological signs!"
"If that were true, if I had defeated it before, you would not now be asking me to... defeat it. When I made its constellation, I gave it one of my brightest stars, as a reminder to the strength of such a foe. But as such, it was one of the first stars to appear in the evening, garnering the wishes of many ponies."
"It's more djinn than crab," Luna explained. "For such a creature, wishes are power. But for the ponies making the wishes, it is simply that: wishful thinking. But the creature does have one weak spot." Luna tapped the bridge of her nose, right between the eyes.
"Somepony must be able to do something!" Rarity cried.
"Somepony else, yes?" Luna asked pointedly. She took an ornate sword from the floor and held it. It glittered with silver, inlayed stars and embedded gems. Her magic held it by the blade as she inspected it and then pointed the handle at Rarity. "You! You look like somepony else to me!"
"But- but why me!?" Rarity asked.
"Because," Luna explained, "you must understand, as I once failed to, that this is not a monster that is defeated by destroying what we hate, but by saving that which we love. It shines brightest in the dark. It is there but can not be seen. To have it costs you nothing. To be without it costs you everything."
Sweetie Belle's screams pierced the air.
Before she even realized it, Rarity had taken the sword from Luna and gave chase to her sister's abductor. Though it had a much larger gait accompanying it's massive size, out of the water, the crab lumbered along slowly through the city. Rarity was able to catch up in very little time.
"I say now, you brute, unhand her!" Rarity shouted, striking one of it's legs with her sword. The blade reverberated in her magical grasp as though she has swung it against a steel girder. "Un-claw her!" Rarity yelled again, trying to move ahead of its path. "Let her go!"
Sweetie Belle shrieked as she continued to flail at her captor's grip on her. The giant crab's claw held her suspended nearly three stories in the air by her mane as it carried her. But Rarity had not chosen her words poorly. Her magic was ready to catch her if she were to fall. She swung again at another leg, only to be repelled once more by the impervious chitin armor. But she did manage to get its attention.
It turned and brought its leg up to stomp it back down again at her. The leg's jab was fast, but Rarity was faster, diving out of the way as the tip made an enormous pothole in the road, scattering broken cobblestones.
While all unicorns had magic, it was of varying strengths and disciplines. For some, it was alchemy, or botany, or something elemental-based like water. In Rarity's case, she had honed a fine dexterity to suit her talent as a seamstress. But her special magical talent was her ability to find and manipulate crystals and minerals. In another life she could have been an adept geomancer. Her eyes scanned the cobblestone road the giant crab was straddling. It was like one big claymore.
Rarity's magic grabbed as many of the road's stones as she could manage and wrenched them from their setting, flinging them upwards in a grapeshot against the crab's underbelly. She saved a bit of magic to be ready to catch Sweetie, and scarcely any more to shield herself from the stone shrapnel. The buildings' windows in the immediate area were shattered from the debris but the crab remained unscathed.
It turned to face her in heavy steps. The claw with Sweetie held tight while the other swung at Rarity in a wide arc. Again, Rarity dove out of the way, rolling inside the broken store front. Her fur was marred with dots of crimson from the nicks and cuts of the broken glass littering the floor. She ran through the store to the stairwell to the second floor. The claw swept through the second floor windows and several of the load bearing structures. The rest of the building above her creaked and shuddered around her as she ran towards the windows and dove out.
She landed on top of the rust-colored carapace of the crab's body as the building started to fold in on itself and topple over. Rarity grabbed a piece of the falling rubble and tried to aim it at the beast. The chunk of debris hit it like a meteor, but only managed to stagger it briefly. The rest of the building fell over across the road, blocking it from advancing any further inland. Regaining its step, it rotated itself to return to the sea along with Sweetie Belle. As it started to retreat, the crab intended to claim one last victim. It's free claw reached over to sever her from her mane.
"Don't you dare!" Rarity sprinted across the crab's back with her sword and swung at one of its protruding eye stalks. Seeing the attack coming, it retracted its eyes in time to avoid her slash. The crab's body lurched to one side, sending Rarity skittering off the smooth edge, and falling to the sand of the beach.
Rarity watched helplessly as the other claw reached over to cut her hair off. The crab had lurched to buck Rarity off, but it also threw off its aim. Instead of closing its cutting claw just above Sweetie's head, it cut just below.
Rarity's heart fell as Sweetie's screams were suddenly silenced. Her eyes clenched shut but she could still hear the muted thud of her little sister's body landing in the sand. Rarity felt her legs fail her, as she too, fell into the sand in crippling grief. Her chest ached with an agony beyond words. There was only her, her pain, and the lapping water of the shore. And the rumble of the coming storm clouds.
As quickly as she had been overcome with grief, it was replaced with pure, undiluted rage. She opened her eyes, but her vision was blurred with tears and red. The great beast lifted a leg to continue departing.
The air rushed out of Rarity's lungs in a noise that sounded nothing like any mare or feral beast, but every bit a battle cry of absolute rancor. She ran and put herself between the giant crab and the water, cutting off it's escape.
"No. I'm not letting you get away to terrorize somepony else some day!" she snarled. The manicured sand beach belied the once-rocky shore that used to line Horseshoe Bay. But Rarity could feel it beneath her hooves. Her magic called out to it. A boulder burst up from the sand at the crab like a cannon ball. And then another, and another. Driving it back with a furious salvo.
The crab staggered and Rarity grabbed one of its legs with her magic. Much like another constellation creature, the Ursa Minor, it was no mere, over-sized animal. It was a supernatural titan that was resistant to magic. And she was no savant mage like Princess Twilight Sparkle. The grip of her magic faltered as it tried to pull it's leg away from her. She poured more of her effort into her hold, barring the leg. Just long enough for her to bring in another boulder like a wrecking ball to it's leg joint, snapping the hinge inverted. It sounded like a tree trunk snapping in half, followed by a shrill hiss from the creature. The armor of the leg might have been impervious, but the leg was nonetheless broken.
Even so, it had five others, and they were all scurrying towards her in rapid stabs. Rarity bobbed and weaved from the legs, giving them only sand to strike. Another well-placed boulder halted its advance once more. But the next shot was blocked by the broad side of its claw, shielding itself from her barrage. It reared up a front leg to stab at her again and she rolled away to dodge it. But it was a feint. As she rolled, it's other claw swung across in a haymaker, grabbing her by her mane and lifting her into the air.
Rarity's world flashed white with the pain of being lifted by her hair, and with the lighting strike from the storm. The crash of thunder came right on its heels as the mid-day sky grew dark and the rain started to pour. Rarity flailed with her sword in panic at the claw holding her. She would just as well stop a speeding train with a twig. Basked in the wetness of the cool rain, the crab's eyes re-emerged to peer up at its tiny adversary, held aloft in its grip. Rarity glared back down at it in seething hatred.
With the dark storm cloud blotting out the sun, the rusty-orange shell of the crab shimmered with an ethereal aura. Points of light dotted it's back with interconnecting lines. Like the lines of a star constellation. The brightest star, the one she saw first, sat at its head, glowing right between its eyes. The wishing star.
Star light, star bright,
First star I see tonight,
I wish I may, I wish I might,
Have this wish I wish tonight.
The crab's other claw creaked open at it moved towards her neck. Rarity swung her sword over her head and sliced off her own mane. She fell with her sword under her like a spear, with the full weight of her hooves against the hilt guard.
Rarity recalled so many fanciful wishes she had made upon such a star as a filly. So many things. She had wanted such petty things. She wanted wealth. She wanted fame. She wanted beauty, talent, and a Prince Charming. But in that moment, none of that mattered. There was only one thing Rarity wanted. Only one thing she would wish for if she could, as she drove the entire length of the blade into the crab's brightest star. Through her grit teeth, her growling voice shook along with every muscle in her body.
"I want my sister back, you son of a bitch!"
