Rarity was looking in a mirror that hung on the wall of the living room. She put on a yellow sunhat with a green nature pattern. “Hmm” she said questionably to herself. She switched the sunhat with another sunhat, but this one was white with a gold trim. She switched back and forth between the two hats. Eventually she pulled out a third sunhat that was green with small white daisies placed randomly, yet perfectly, around the hat.
“Perfect” Rarity said.
“Rarity” Sweetie Belle said with an impatient whine. “I want to go the beach.”
Rarity turned around to face her sister. “In a minute Sweetie Belle.” Rarity’s horn glowed blue and a tube of sunscreen levitated from her bag and opened. Her magic squeezed the tube and a pea size dab of white sunscreen was placed on her hoof. She began to rub the cream on her face and then got a little more on her hoof and started rubbing it on her fore and hind legs.
“Come on.” Sweetie Belle said, jumping up and down with anxiety.
“Here, put this on.” Rarity said, using her magic to toss the tube of sunscreen to her sister. The tube hit Sweetie Belle in the forehead and she caught it.
“Ouch!” She said, using her free hoof to rub her forehead. Rarity paid no attention to her sister as she was making sure the sunscreen was rubbed in. Sweetie Belle opened up the cap and began squeezing it. Nothing came out of the tube. She banged it against the floor and shook it but still nothing came out. She held up the tube to her eye to see if there was anything in it and, as she lightly squeezed it with her hoof, half the tube of sunscreen dumped out onto Sweetie Belle’s face. “Ah!”
Sweetie Belle began rubbing her eye with her right hoof. Rarity turned around. “Sweetie Belle, stop fooling around.” The fashion designer said.
“I’m…ah” Sweetie Belle’s eye was burning and watering. She continued rubbing it. “I’m not fooling around.” Sweetie Belle rushed over to the kitchen sink and began washing off the sunscreen from her face.
Rarity lifted a green sand bucket that stood in a corner of the living room, with her unicorn magic. “Sweetie Belle, you ready?” Rarity called out. She looked over at her sister, who was drying her face in the kitchen with a rag.
Sweetie Belle looked over at her sister and nodded.
“Well then, come on.”
Rarity and Sweetie Belle moved out the backdoor. Pass the backdoor there was a small porch with three wooden rocking chairs and two small glass tables. Pass the porch was a long deck that went past a small wall of dunes and down onto the beach. The two sisters walked down this deck and took their first steps onto the sandy beach.
Rarity and Sweetie Belle could see their friends, all doing their own separate things. Spike was resting on a beach towel with a pair of sunglasses on his face. Pinkie Pie was playing in the water with Gummy, Applebloom and Scootaloo were building a sandcastle, Rainbow Dash and Applejack were having a little race down the beach, and Twilight was, of course, reading a book.
Sweetie Belle made a dash towards her friends and instantly began helping them with the sandcastle. Rarity looked at the three friends playing so nicely together. Smiles on their faces, all was going well. Maybe she was wrong about her sister coming. Nothing has gone wrong yet, which Rarity began to believe was some kind of record.
Rarity began walking along the shore, with her bucket floating by her side, looking for seashells. It wasn’t long before she found a really beautiful pink one. It looked like some kind of spiral and had a small opening. “Now this is just gorgeous.” Rarity said. “Rarity, your outfits are going to be the biggest thing in Equestria.”
Just about five yards from where she stood she found another. Same kind of shell, only this one was a little bigger.
As she walked and picked up these beautiful pink shells, seagulls made their squawking sound in the air. It was so relaxing. The sun was low in the sky, but not setting.
Rarity stopped walking and took a moment to breath in the salty air. It wasn't the greatest scent in the world, but it sure was one of the most relaxing and opening smells. She wasn't use to such calm environments, the smell sea salt, the sound of gulls squawking and waves crashing, the sight of the sun glistening on the ocean, making the water shine.
A smile formed on the white unicorn's face. She continued walking. Up ahead there were about five or six of the shells. As she walked, the shells rustled in the bucket with every step.
"Oh, this is so wonderful." Rarity said to herself. She found many more shells, most of which were the same pink spiral ones.
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It was just a small pile of sand. Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, an Scootaloo all stared at their abomination of a sandcastle.
"Well Crusaders," Applebloom spoke to her friends. "It's official, we are not Sand sculpters, let alone sandcastle builders."
"I agree," Scootaloo said, pointing her hoof at, what was supposed to be, their sand castle. "I bet even a crab wouldn't even live here."
"It's not that bad." Sweetie Belle said and then the sand pile sunk into the ground, never to be seen again. "Ok, it's the worst thing we've ever created."
"Now what?" Scootaloo asked the group.
"Maybe we can get our cutie marks in snorkeling." Sweetie Belle suggested.
"We already tried that." Applebloom pointed out.
"Kite running?" Scootaloo said.
"Done it." Applebloom and Sweetie Belle said at the same time.
"How about sailing?" Applebloom said.
"Me and Sweetie Belle already tried that." Scootaloo said.
"How'd that go?" Applebloom asked.
"Let's just say the boat won't be turning up anytime soon." Sweetie Belle said.
"There has to be something we haven't tried." Applebloom said, throwing her body onto the sandy ground. "I mean if we tried everything then we should have gotten our cutie marks. Come on crusaders, we need to think."
" Hey, I might have an idea." Sweetie Belle told her friends.
"Well then tell us." Scootaloo said.
"Remember when we went searching for Black Mane's treasure?" Sweetie Belle asked.
The white unicorn's friends nodded.
"Well, what if our special talent is digging?" Sweetie Belle pointed out. Her friends' faces lighted up. "I mean, we definitely dug a mean hole."
"Sweetie Belle, you're brilliant." Applebloom complemented her friend. Sweetie Belle blushed and shrugged her shoulders.
"I think I saw some shovels inside." Scootaloo said.
"Cutie Mark Crusaders, Hole Diggers" Applebloom said and the group did their high hoof thing.
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The sky was orange and purple as the sun set down the ocean's horizon. Rarity had filled up the green bucket with the pink shells. She was so proud of herself. Instead of walking, she was prancing.
A perfect end to a perfect day. The ground vanished, or at least that's what it felt like, and Rarity fell down a fifteen foot hole. She and three other fillies were moaning in pain. Rarity opened her eyes to see that all her shells had spilled out of the bucket.
"How come every time we dig a hole somepony comes crashing down on top of us?" Scootaloo asked, hypothetically.
"Sweetie Belle." Rarity said in anger. "What is the meaning of this?"
"We're trying to dig a hole." Sweetie Belle said in a painful moan.
"For what purpose?" Rarity asked, still furious. She got up off the crusaders.
"Our cutie marks." Sweetie Belle said.
"Well I hope you're happy. Look at what you caused. You made me drop all my shells."
The four ponies looked at the shells on the ground, but something wasn't right. The shells were shaking in the sand.
"What in Equestria?" Rarity said.
Then, out from the small gaps in the shells, popped out red hermit crabs. Rarity was the first to scream. Her scream was so loud, so ear piercing, that her scream could be heard from miles.
The crusaders did the same. There must be about fifty crabs, crawling the deep pit. Rarity fought back as they attempted to crawl up her legs.
"Eww! Eww! Get off of me you...you filthy creatures." Rarity shrieked.
The crusaders were cornered by the little devils. The crawled closer and closer, their pinchers opening and snapping shut.
"Rarity!" Called a familiar voice. The four ponies looked up and saw Twilight looking down at them. "How did you get down there?"
"This is no time for silly questions." Rarity shouted. "Help us out of this hole!"
The crabs were nearly at the hooves of the crusaders. The three friends screamed.
"Hold on everypony." Twilight said. The purple unicorn turned around and galloped away.
"Twilight, you son of a diamond dog!" Rarity shouted in anger. "Come back and get us out!"
Minutes passed and all four of the trapped ponies were paralyzed with fear, they were covered in creepy, hairy, crawly, scary hermit crabs.
"You guys." Called their blue, rainbow maned friend. The terrified ponies didn't dare move, but they could tell Rainbow Dash was flying just above them. "Just stay calm, I'm gonna fly you all out of their."
Rainbow Dash got the three fillies out first and brushed all the hermit crabs off their bodies. "You guys ok?" Rainbow said.
"RAINBOW DASH!" Rarity yelled.
"Oops." Rainbow Dash said with a small smile on her face. She flew down into the hole and saw Rarity standing perfectly still, as two or three dozen hermit crabs crawled on her body. Rainbow Dash burst into laughter. Rarity looked furious at her but did not move.
"Hey, Rarity." Rainbow Dash said with much difficulty from her laughing too hard. "You're looking a bit crabby." Rainbow Dash began laughing even harder. Tears began running down the pegasus's face.
"Rainbow," Rarity said in rage and stillness.
"You should lighten up Rarity, but only just a pinch."
Rarity instantly forgot about the crabs and attacked Rainbow Dash. "Get me the buck out of here right now!" Rarity yelled as she was strangling the laughing pegasus.
"Ok! Ok!" Rainbow croaked. Rarity got off. Some of the crabs on Rarity had crawled onto Rainbow Dash and began pinching her. She yelped and brushed off the few crabs on her. She grabbed Rarity and flew her up out of the hole.
Rainbow Dash and the crusaders carefully removed the crabs from Rarity's body. Rainbow Dash notice a tear fall from Rarity's eyes.
"Hey, Rarity." Rainbow said. "We got them all off."
"Really, there all gone?" Rarity asked, sniffling.
"Yeah." Rainbow spoke.
"I...I think I'm going to go...take a shower." Rarity said, looking quite in shock. Rainbow saw Rarity's sunhat in the ditch, all covered in hermit crabs. Rainbow Dash was about to say something to Rarity, but Rarity was already gone.
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Rarity turned off the water and removed her white bathrobe and stepped into the warm bath. Her eyes were closed as she just relaxed.
Hmm, this is odd. It was as if something was tickling her nose. She opened her eyes and saw, staring back, a medium sized Hermit crab. It just looked back, and nothing else.
Rarity screamed. She smacked the shell demon with her hoof an jumped out of the bath. She grabbed a towel, not taking her eyes off the crab.
Once she was dried she snuck back into her bedroom, closing the door behind her.
It didn't take ling for her to fall asleep, but before she knew it she was awake again. Rarity looked at her clock and it said three AM. She looked at the shell covered walls. Just the very site of them sent shivers down her spine.
The white unicorn closed her eyes and took a deep breath through her nose and exhaled slowly out her mouth. There was slight sound of tapping.
Rarity opened her eyes to see the shells that decorated the room now moving. Oh sweet Celestia! It was horrifying, ever shell in the room had turned into hermit crabs and they were crawling all over the room like a web of baby spiders.
She screamed and woke up in her crab free room. She was drenched in sweat, her heart rate was abnormally fast, and in her mind echoed the loud tapping sound the crabs made as they crawled.