In all of Canterlot City, there existed a single, odd stoplight, unique from all its kin.

The stoplight stood from a post in the concrete, facing one end of a busy city street that hit another street perpendicularly.

As that street ran along without heed east to west, the street the odd stoplight guarded instead moved north to south starting from, or ending at depending on how one looks at it, this very point.

This stoplight was known for its odd ability to react to the present situation in ways most streetlights did not. Unlike most mechanically timed, systematic stoplights, this machine seemed to turn red and green at the most optimal times: it was green whenever approaching vehicles had a clear path, and would turn red as best to seemingly save the lives of both the drivers, and the jaywalkers who often crossed the street here .

There existed many theories as to why it acted this way. Some suspected the streetlight was being manipulated by someone in the nearby apartment buildings, a shut in who connected with machine more than man. The fact a intelligent girl was known to live in an apartment here as a recluse lent weight to this theory.

Another theory was that the stoplight was an experiment by a scientist, sanity debatable and varied by the gossiper, who was experimenting with artificial intelligence with the hopes of either creating partners for humanity, or a force destined to destroy it.

One teenage girl thought the stoplight was an alien robot created by a race of surprisingly sentient magical horses. This teenage girl of course was known for her eccentric nature and was generally laughed off whenever she had this idea.

Said rumor of course, was why a trio of extremely fresh freshman not even a full week into high school, were standing in the middle of the street patiently.

“….Ah don’ know ‘bout this” the red head of the group began as the palest of the three smiled.

“Oh come on Apple Bloom, this is a brilliant idea! If we can prove that this stoplight is sentient, we’ll be famous! We could stop some evil scientist planning to overthrow the human race!”

“Or the evil scientists realizes we’re on to him and doesn’t change it” the third among them, dressed far more tomboyishly, pointed out as the pale one looked rather surprised.

The trio then heard the oncoming sound of an approaching motor bike. And moving fast, probably faster than the speed limit was.

“Quickly, out of the street!” Apple Bloom shouted as the trio started to run to the sidewalk.

Unfortunately, they chose to run to the right, meaning they ended up walking right into the path of the incoming vehicle.

It would be a riddle for the ages what started first: the stoplight that had lured the trio here turning to red, or the driver of the motorbike hitting the brakes.

After a few loud moments filled with only the screeching of braking tires and the scared shouting of her friends, Apple Bloom opened her eyes and uncrossed her arms, finding herself not injured in any way.

The front wheel of the black motorbike was only inches from her body, and the smell of rubber was overwhelming to the intelligent farmgirl.

“Oh, ah’m sorry Mister, ah didn’ see ya comin…..” Apple Bloom began to apologize to the biker that she had nearly been hit by, before she realized two things.

One, that the biker was female, and thus calling her Mister was an incredible insult.

And two, that the biker was a leather jacket wearing junior from the very same highschool she and her friends attended, and one whose name was spoken with distrust, fear, and anger by many who attended it.

The brutal queen bee seemed to at first be unable to really comprehend what just happened. She looked at the still motionless Apple Bloom, then to the street light. She stared at it for a moment as realization crossed her face, quickly swapped out by an dumbfounded expression over the sheer idiocy of what the three had been doing.

The confusion quickly passed however, and her more default emotion came up in full force.

As surprise gave way to anger, the trio of Freshman followed their instincts as the lowest on the food chain and promptly skedaddled away as fast as their little feet could carry them.

Watching them leave like a predator watching fleeing prey, the bully began to debate what rumor would have to be waiting for those three annoyances for school once the weekend was though, before turning her incredulous gaze ot the

“You’re supposed to be some sort of magic stoplight, right?” Sunset questioned the red light in a sarcastic tone, as if the idea of anything on this world being magical was the silliest thing she had ever heard, though there was also a bit of frustration laced in her voice over that very concept “What do you think those three idiots should come back to school to find: a frame-up for some of my untapped dirt on the football team, or should I tear their friendship apart?”

The stoplight didn’t answer, which was a point to the argument that this stoplight could not think, or at least speak.

The fact that the stoplight seemed to take unusually long to turn green again, which combined with the city’s recent law change over turning on red and the police motorbikes that always seemed to go just as she was planning to turn, was almost enough to earn it a point in the it can think category.

Between nearly hitting some idiot freshman and the stoplight that took forever to change, Sunset was late to get to her destination. So late that it was already dark out.

Perhaps that was not the most descriptive of terms, for Sunset Shimmer was not known for her sunny disposition.

As her motorbike illuminated the desolate and abandoned warehouse she had driven up to, Sunset eyed the aged structure with an unreadable expression, before reaching for the key.

With a turn of the key, the engine deactivated. As light faded away from the area, Sunset reached to pocket her keys, putting her bike's stand up, and got off the bike ready to get to her.....

Sunset's eyes widened as a sonic boom split the silence. Sunset's looked around, seeking the source of the disturbance until her eyes slowly trailed up.

A giant, blue ring of energy was moving across the sky, growing larger and larger and larger as it moved from the epicenter outwards like a ripple in water.

Simultaneously from around where the growing energy ripple originated, six glittering lights had fallen, twinkling towards the earth below like snowflakes.

Sunset however, did not really catch that all that well, for as the energy flew across the sky Sunset's eyes rolled back, and the high school junior found herself falling to the ground, unconscious.

Meanwhile in Canterlot Park a teenage girl dressed in royal purple sweatpants with three blue diamonds on the side and a white exercise T-Shirt with a thread thimble and needle on the front of it was jogging.

A pair of light blue ear buds were in her ears, and she was just about at the end of the song.

The song eventually ended with a strong, final chord as the teenager ceased her jog, breathing heavily.

"Well....that....was.....painful as ever, but as they say no pain, no gain," the girl breathed, hints of an accent that made her sound unique to all around her.

It was a ongoing debate in school as to why this the case. Some suggested she was adopted, others suggested she was trying to sound smarter than she actually was. A certain girl had suggested she was a time traveler with an unrecognizable accent like that.

And really, it was not unrecognizable. Honestly people would just sooner assume she had a British accent like some ignoramus, thank god for an actual British person being in her school's orchestra.

It did not help when she was out of town, of course, but at least at home she got a break from all the jokes about her cooking.

Sadly, Sweetie Belle had a reputation with food that certainly didn't help with the rampant stereotyping.

Taking a sip from a bottle of water in hand, the young woman found herself gazing at a fountain of a marble white, featureless human, water coming out of its vague hands and eyes.

It was a monument to conformity and anti-individualism, as commissioned by a now defunct Protestant group that sprung out during the 1800's that saw conformity as the best way to convey their faith to God: she was interested in the arts, but that message just didn't appeal to her.

All together, they created a far more brilliant picture than if everything was exactly the same. When these different ideas combined and collided, it created the most brilliant ideas and made everyone better for it.

If one couldn't handle people being different, she'd never have been friends with.....them.

She could almost feel the statue look over her as that thought came to mind, as if she just proved the point of it's makers.

It didn't of course. A few bad apples, pun fully intended, did not disprove all nonconformity.

Feeling some energy return to her, the girl closed the top of her bottle and was ready to jog on home....

Rarity looked up at the sky and gasped as a blue ring of energy rippled across the sky. She only had a few seconds to take in the majestic, impossible sight before her eyes rolled up and she collapsed. All the while, her earbuds happily played song after song with only the silent Earth to listen..

A pale hand reached out to the complaining device, and switched it off. The hand fumbled as it did so, clearly somewhat disoriented.

Unsteadily, the girl got back on her feet, holding her head which was now feeling rather sore.

"What in heaven just happened...." she asked herself as she reached into her pocket for her cellphone.

How long had she been lying on the ground getting covered in dirt and just asking for someone to pickpocket her, at best!?!

With a groan, Rarity fumbled with the phone a bit longer and unlocked it. Her eyes went wide at the time. It was 6:00 p.m. It was supposed to be 5:00 p.m. It was not 5:00 p.m.

A quick glance at her surroundings revealed the sun was clearly further down than it should be. All of this amounted to a flat and very confused, "What?" from the fashionista.

Rarity

Are you still running? Really, you aren't fat

Hoops is an jerk

Mom and Dad haven't come back home, I won't say anything if you get me some food

Sweetie Belle

She was out for an hour, after a giant explosion rang out across the sky, and Sweetie only thought she was being self-conscious?

Quickly toggling her phone to her internet browser, Rarity quickly went to the news.

A worried look on her face, Rarity quickly hit the search engine with an inquisition about local Canterlot News.

"I didn't just imagine that, did I?" she shook her head "No, not unless I just fainted for no reason. And that can't be the case. I eat well, I take care of myself, I don't just fall asleep at random......"

Rarity's eyes widened as the sound of something scurrying nearby reached her ears. Nerves already frayed, she swung rapidly to the statue and tensed.

"Whoever's out there, I'll have you know I took karate!" she warned, Her stance shifted, adopting a center of gravity lower to the ground. While her pose superficially resembled a true karate stance and even held some evidence of actual training, it was noticeably sloppy, likely from lack of practice.

Purple light began to glow around her hands before crystallizing into a pair of stylish purple gloves protecting her hands in case of a fist fight.

A cat's yowling behind the statue and further scurrying answered and solved that problem, though that did leave one thing.

"What in the world?" Rarity questioned as she looked at her hands. The lights flickered away as she did so, leaving her with more questions than answers.

Trying to process what just happened left her completely still for a few moments. Slowly, she extended her hand, fingers splayed out.

Making a gripping motion, the purple light began to reform, eventually taking the form of a sword made of purple light.

She rotated her hand as to have the sword blade facing up, and thought of a large mallet (or was it hammer? Whatever it was called, Rarity had a clear picture of it in her mind). The lights shimmered, as the hilt of the purple energy sword extended downwards, impacting the ground with an actual oomph.

The sword thinned out as well, extended further up before fattening up at the end into a perfect cylinder, the sort one would use at a carnival game.

The mallet fell over to the ground like a real hammer would, and did not fade the moment her grip was released from it.

The strength in her legs giving out, Rarity began falling as if to faint, only to be caught on something.

A glowing purple couch. Perfectly sized for dramatic fainting. Rather comfortable too.

"This is......convenient" Rarity observed in a shocked tone, though somewhat glad she didn't collapse to the ground again as she had done enough of that tonight.

With unsteady limbs, Sunset was back on her feet, feeling like she had just gotten a blow to the head, from inside it.

Feeling around, Sunset couldn't feel anything out of place, and her motor bike was still here.

Growling to herself Sunset walked over to the oddly distant key. She hunched over to grab the damn thing and froze. Just before contact, a blue glow enveloped her hand.

Shocked, Sunset stared, and nervously swallowed. Slowly, Sunset's grip tightened before she hurled the key at the warehouse with all the force of a professional pitcher. Instantly, some would say naturally, she stretched out her other senses like she had done so long ago, and reached out..

Her hand glowed once more, as did the key. Before it even hit the wall it was once more surrounded by a blue aura and was floating back to her outstretched, glowing hand.

The key came back to Sunset once more. It froze in mid-air as Sunset focused, held only by the aura.

With a slow, deliberate motion Sunset rose a single finger up, causing the key to mirror her.

If anyone had been here this night, they'd have seen a most rare sight: the eyes of the most feared student in Canterlot High filled with tears.

The tears were accompanied by a smile, but unlike any smile her fellow students had seen on her.

Equestria Girls: The Empowered World

by KrspaceT

A Night Unlike Any Other