It was a sign of respect that the student would always get in before the scheduled meeting. It was a moral that Sunset had noted was shared between many (but not all) Humans and Equestrians.

Of course Sunset did not particularly hold a lot of respect for her classes. She had learned quite a lot in her time as the personal student of Princess Celestia, and Equestrians had learned the same make up of chemical and mathematical formulas.

There was little she really had to learn here, in those fields at least. She could pass the classes with barely any effort, though she had noted a few concepts in this years textbook that she had not encountered before.

Perhaps it was something that had not been discovered yet in Equestria when she had left, or perhaps humans were pushing ahead in the race for topping the molecular understandings of all things.

It was a interesting question, actually: were these new topics were the product of the time since she had exited the tutelage of the real Celestia or the product of seeking these questions out with the lens of science instead of magic. It was somewhat similar to other questions she'd had since coming to this world, like how being a different species with different aging patterns on a planet with different day and year lengths affected her age mentally and physiology

Of course, she wasn't here to learn those things. No, if she wanted to figure out that, she'd go bully a nerd who specialized in extreme sci-fi nonsense to go calculate it for her, and she still hadn't determined a way to do that that would not get her sent to Area 51.

Instead, she was taking advantage of the empty classroom and it's chalkboard to test a spell she had only just remembered.

With a glowing pencil, she tapped a spare notebook and sketched out the latin letter A.

History seemed to be one of the very few things that was not parallel between her world and this one. Commander Hurricane and Princess Platinum, the union of tribes and the age of Discord, humanity did not live through events that were even remotely akin to them.

Despite being one race undivided by evolutionary origin, diet, magic, wings, or size, mankind was divided in their histories between seemingly hundreds of different varieties of themselves. Trying to keep Egyptians, Greeks, Mayans, Carthaginians, Norsemen, Romans, Japanese, Mongolians, Aboriginals, Incan, and the rest of them separate and distinct took at least 60% of the brainpower Sunset devoted to educational pursuits in this world.

She had once gotten into a argument with a librarian about how different a single race in Equestria could be. How a Griffin from one city could differ so grandly from another, or a Earth Pony between Appleloosa and Manehattan.

Sunset at the time did not think a race with the same bodies and abilities could ever be that different, yet humanity had proven that librarian correct.

It irritated Sunset to no end that the librarian was right. Fortunately, the old hag was probably dead.

Of course, when Sunset did manage to straighten out who was from where and built what when, she couldn't help but be impressed at what humans did manage to pull off without a single, united government, and their tendency to kill each other.

They could willingly go to the moon and return from it, built structures far older than than many of Equestria's ruins that withstood the ravages of time surprisingly well (though how odd so many of them were pyramids), and did it all without magic.

"....The third and final Emperor of Germany Wilheim the Second was known for his impatient and arrogant attitude. Known for his irritability, issues with his mother, and his desire to make himself seem tougher than he actually was due to sustaining several disabilities as a child, the Emperor was obsessed with giving his people 'a place in the sun'. As a result, he alienated the other nations of the world, plotted several plans that had no realistic chance of succeeding, and eventually drew the world into one of it's most brutal and pointless wars ever....."

Sunset sighed. What was the point? The monuments were somewhat interesting, but in what possible way could a long dead alien (for her at least) teach her anything remotely useful

A necessary evil: long and tedious but to simply not do it was unheard of. One could never get anywhere without a proper education.
To succeed in life, one needed to survive High School, brave the unknown realm that was College, and slay the six headed evil that was student loans. That is how one lived.

Rarity did well enough in school. Honor Roll every semester, and easily in the top 20%. Harvard would snub its prestigious nose at her, but she could probably get into almost any college she wanted.

Of course college was already looming over her Junior head. Much like the grim reaper, but armed with scholarship bribery and mascot idolatry.

It felt like someone had made a brilliant dress, but didn't add that final lair of edge lacing. The dress was still functional, but each and every time one looked at it she could just see something was missing.

It was vexing really. On the tip of one's tongue, a persistent feeling that wouldn't leave her all day.

Sweetie Belle's voice pierced the silence in the way only she could, just as Rarity was preparing to get to the bus.

Normally Sweetie would follow her, with a conversation resulting that was 20% bickering, 30% talking about her day, and 50% wishing Rarity had her driver's license already so they could drive to school.

Sadly parental signatures were a requirement and her parents were always busy with something or another.

"Rats, you grounded or something?" Scootaloo questioned sympathetically as Rarity continued to listen in.

Now, it was hardly ladylike to do so, but Rarity’s inner gossip latched on and listened in on the conversation for any and all juicy tid-bits. Granted, this was partly out of self interest, given that Sweetie would likely complain about this all the way home, and it would give Rarity some forewarning about it.

And part because Rarity happened to be rather fond of Sweetie's friends. They were charming in their own special way, and were not too annoying. Sure, she did not get along with their elder sisters anymore, but there was an unspoken agreement between them not to cause problems with the younger girls friendship.

"Nahh, it ain't that. See, there's been somethin' hitting the apple orchards at night."

Rarity frowned. She was well aware of how the loss of even a single apple tree could be problematic for them, let alone multiple trees.

"Are you guys gonna be okay? I mean, you have apple insurance or something, right?" Scootaloo asked.

"Ah don' know. It's the strangest thin'.....whatever's been drainin' the apples like some sort a vampire, later in the day the apples just, come back. Like they hadn' been ruined at all."

"Witchcraft!" Sweetie shouted in shock, although a slight smile hinted she wasn’t all that serious.

"....Granny would agree with ya'. Whatever it is, we want to figure it all out. It's been happenin' ever since Friday".

Rarity's eyes widened with realization as she recalled the strange light and her new powe Was whatever was happening to Applejack's farm related?!

'Like it is your problem. You and Applejack aren't friends anymore, if she has some sort of really vegetarian Edward Cullen attacking her trees it isn't of any concern to you.' She could almost visualize her negative emotions, her shoulder devil if you will, commenting about how she had no reason to get involved in this.

'Just because you and Applejack are no longer friends, doesn't mean you wouldn't help her in case of a disaster. Plus, if whatever is going on is connected to whatever happened to you, you may be the only person who can make it right. It's the generous thing to do,' her conscience, her shoulder angel if one continued with the earlier analogy, countered.

She could even see them: purple constructs miming their conversation on her shoulder. One with horns and bat wings, the other with a halo and angel wings. One dressed in dark leather, the other in white robes.

Or at least as much as those colors could be seen in the purple sheen. Strangely, both figures’ figure’s fashion was absolutely fabulous, if she did say so herself.

Looking around rapidly for anyone who might have seen this, she quickly swatted the projections of her struggle away as she decided to make her decision in only the most logical way she had.

One quick read through her daily planner reminded her of no upcoming assignments due, and thus she had a mission for tonight.

However, Rarity was not the only one who had been listening in on the trio's issues.

Hidden from view and leaning against the wall with crossed arms, Sunset Shimmer had a thoughtful look as she listened in

It was only mildly unsettling from an outsider's perspective, meaning the poor sophomore whose locker she was leaning near was only slightly terrified for his life.

. While she didn’t know if what was going on was magical in nature and a threat, there was no way in Cerberus’s nine balls she would risk ignoring it and losing her magic as a result after it inevitably came to bite her in the flank. She did not want to lose her magic because she ignored something hidden on a apple farm of all things.

Besides, she was rather curious, and, if anything remotely magical in this magic-less void the humans called home was around, even if it was just a magical raccoon, she wanted to check it out. Moreover, this might be a chance to obtain some real power. She wouldn’t forgive herself if she passed up the opportunity to obtain something powerful, useful, or even just intriguing. Heck, even if it only ended up being some magical animal, she could always use a pet. She’d could name it Tiberius.

A threat, a boon, or just a magically mutated raccoon. She wouldn't know until she went and checked it out.

The locker beside her slam shut. Sunset absently listened to nameless sophomore number 12 whose name she hadn’t bothered to learn practically flee down the hall before she turned to get going herself.

Where the locker had once obstructed her vision stood an athlete. A certain underachieving student, never found without her signature blue jacket on.

Now Rainbow Dash and glaring were nothing new. In fact, they were practically old friends!

However, the glare she was giving Sunset was a new level of intensity. It was the 'I loath you with all my being' glare, sprinkled with a extra helping of confidence and belief in her own success.

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Really? And it only took you until the end of the day? My, what a good job Rainbow. I’d give you a dog treat, but sadly I ran out."

"Oh really? Did someone win the Fall Formal when I wasn't looking? Or did I get knocked off my ranking as the smartest student in the school? I know you definitely didn't take either of those titles, so don't kid yourself."

Power over others was something that was created greatly by image and actions. Building her power up took a long time, and a lot of work.

But a single beat down, perhaps even a single punch to the face she did not avenge ten-fold, could make it all tumble down.

She once heard a quote. She didn't know where it had come from: book, cinema, legend...but it went something like this.

Sunset was not a God, she had been denied that. However, that could easily be replaced with the following quote.

"If you could make the Princess bleed, people would cease to fear her.", Sunset Shimmer circa today

Rainbow Dash was certainly able to hurt her. She was on a short-list of people in this building who could do that to her, alongside Applejack and her older brother.

Sunset was not physically incompetent, but she was nowhere near Rainbow's physical fitness. Rainbow could easily beat her senseless if she ever got properly motivated to do so (and didn't fear the consequences).

There was a very good reason that Sunset had removed 4 very good reasons for her to do a while back.

Of course, even if Rainbow wasn't a complete dunce, she didn't know about all of Sunset's cards.

"And just whose going to stop me, you?" Sunset mockingly asked, her eyes flashing blue.

"Hell yeah I will!" Rainbow countered, her multi-colored hair seeming even brighter than normal.

Their electric confrontation had gathered a bit of a crowd, meaning that Sunset had even more reasons to ensure that she did not lose. Even if she'd have to deal with certain ramifications that would be a massive pain...

The tension and anticipation that had been building between the two immediately died down the moment that voice spoke up.

The gathered crowd around the two parted, revealing a female figure who averted the near uniformity of the female skirt wearers. Her hair was also the only rival to Rainbow's hair in the color pallet competition.

Principal Celestia. Looking as unsettling as ever, and now somewhat cross with both her and Rainbow.

"I take it you were just going your separate ways, back home perhaps?" she offered them a way out, an eyebrow raised in a tone that suggested that they very well should take it.

Given that the only other option was detention most likely, possibly suspension, neither she nor Rainbow could follow.

However, assuming that her adventure tonight did not end with her death by magically mutated raccoon, this interrupted fight would resume at some later point.

Perhaps not-Celestia thought they could talk it out later when their heads were cooler. But that was a silly idea.

Rarity took a deep breath as she waved her hand to form a large, purple carpet in front of her.

Even without taking a form originating from her own mind, the words of her shoulder devil still rang in her ears.

A part of her still felt like she'd be right to ignore the Apple's plight. That she shouldn't care what happened to them.

However, Rarity could ignore that little nagging feeling. Not only could, she would ignore it.

This was an act of generosity, of good will, of being the better person. It was a virtue she was taught, that she believed all should hold themselves to.

A glittering light flashed in her room, a bright purple. Rarity turned her gaze towards the source of the light, which just so happened to be the locket lying unworn on her bedside table.

She could just hear her inner voice shout 'IDEA', as purple light formed underneath the locket. The light soon sprung up in the air like a spring-loaded platform from an old cartoon, sending the locket into the air and into the palm of her hand.

Sometimes clothing and accessories spoke to a girl, telling her that today was the day to wear them. This case, it was quite literally speaking to her.

So standing on her purple carpet, the construct floated into the air before speeding off through the air.

All that was missing now, was a song about a whole new world. And maybe a hot guy flying with her with exposed abs. That would be nice.

Flying through the night, Rarity observed dozens of cars flowing beneath her, two pairs of glowing lights and a murky body in the gloom of the night.

She flew unseen, like a specter. Perhaps her purple was invisible in the nightly blue, or perhaps no one was looking up. Either was possible.

She flew by several advertisement billboards as she went, catching only tidbits here and there.

Donut Joe's, the best place....

Do you ever dream of being thinner, taller, faster, or even stronger......

Come on by Flim and Flam......

Blueblood for President.....

At that last one Rarity could not resist stopping her flight by that particular billboard, and with a glowing cookie cutter larger than her homeroom made an, adjustment.

And so she flew on away, the billboard amended to saying a better, much more...fitting message.

DON'T VOTE Blueblood for President......

With that generous act for the people, she continued her flight onward to the Apple Family Farm.

Lying back on the branches of a thick tree in the orchard, Sunset took a large bite from an apple that had been growing on it just moments before as if she hadn't had dinner.

That was true of course, but she would prefer to not mention that aloud if she could.

Smacking her lips, Sunset sighed in contentment. For a family of hicks, they grew fairly good apples.

Cider still tasted like trash in this world, but the base apples were wonderful. Perhaps she should take a few of them for the road.

And soon 3 apple cores littered the tree base, even as Sunset tried to water her mouth.

"Pleh......I need something to drink...." she summoned a fourth apple to her hand and held it above her mouth before focusing some more magic at it.

The apple quickly liquidated, forming a stream of amber liquid that entered her mouth in a trickle.

Swishing it in her mouth a bit to first make her mouth feel less like a desert, she quickly spat it out as the taste of the cider registered.

"Bah, disgusting Earth Cider....." the fact that liquefying the apple without peel or process might not be how one makes a good apple beverage did not cross Sunset's mind. "Now, where was I...oh yes...." with a burst of blue light, she teleported to another tree.

"May I name you Tiberius and use you to guard me as I sleep at night and extort people in the day?"

Landing in the crutch of another tree, Sunset noted the apples here were green. What were those called again, Granny something apples, probably not Smith.

She was taken out of her musings though, as she noticed what was going on in front of her.

Flying in between the massive and all named trees of the orchard, Rarity looked left and right for anything that seemed strange, horrifying, or out of place.

So unless she saw Applejack's fashion sense, than it would in all probability be the mystery creature/culprit.

There were a multitude of lures and traps known to hunters throughout history, ranging from simple decoys to false calls and of course bait. These tools of the trade all shared a kind of practicality, a common function that hunters worldwide could identify at a glance to veteran hunters. Rarity wasn't a hunter. In fact, she had little clue what went into "Hunting", and was forced to rely on what little experience she had with animals: namely, her precious fluffykins and beloved kitty Opal. Opal, on the rare days she felt up to playing, loved a feather tipped cat toy. Lacking other options, Rarity had created a copy of Opal's favorite feather cat toy and was shaking it around in the vain hope that mysterious monsters worked like kitties.

"Come out, come out, whatever horrible monster you are," Rarity called out wondering if she could create some jingly bells to use for her purposes "Why don't you stop stealing apples and expand your horizons somewhere else. I mean, I'm sure there is a family named after some other kind of fruit somewhere you could be bothering. Or maybe a family named after celery, yes yes. Why don't you go raid the Celery family farm now, you mysterious creature...."

Her carpet freezing mid-flight, Rarity felt a shiver slide down her spine. Her toy turning into a purple glowing flashlight, she slowly turned around, moving the purple high beam towards the source of the sound.

She let out a deep sigh of relief, "Oh, good, an owl. You don't eat apples do you?"

"......That isn't Granny Smith or Applejack?" Or that was what she assumed the bird was saying. She wasn't Fluttershy, she didn't speak owl.

"Who....." apparently that was the only strange thing it had seen around recently.

"Oh, too bad...." Rarity supposed there was a genuine question of why she was asking an owl for help here. "Say, what kind of owl are you? I always mix up Barn Owls and Barred Owls, and you don't have horns so you aren't a Great Horned Owl. Eastern Screech perhaps?"

Letting out an alarmed screech, the owl suddenly flew off. Rarity wondered if that was the owl saying 'yes, I am a Eastern Screech Owl', before she heard rustling behind her.

Turning right back around, Rarity's beam of purple light caught several apple cores impacting the ground before exploding into mush that looked nothing so much as a dropped "mystery" meat casserole served at the School cafeteria.

Trembling, she brought her light source up into the tree, where a hiss emerged. It sounded like some horrible median sound between human and bat.

Rarity saw the creature, and her mind crashed to a halt, incidentally causing her carpet to flicker out of existence.

It was Fluttershy. Fluttershy was perched on a branch across from her messily devouring apples.

No, this Fluttershy seemed to have an odd brown coloration to her skin, glowing red eyes, and large ears that looked almost batlike. Her hands were oddly enlarged and had sizeable talons, as did her barren feet. Her arms now had a large, thin membrane from her arm to her torso, that looked rather like a bat's wing. Her clothing looked somewhat ragged and worn, as if she had not changed out of them in days.

"Well, no wonder I felt something was missing....." Rarity frowned under her breath. Fluttershy hadn't been at school today it would seem. Could....could she have quite possibly been like this for days?

But forget that....what on earth happened to her!? Was it the same thing that happened to her?

Shrieking loudly at her, Fluttershy looked upon her with animalistic rage, before swooping at her with those sharp and horribly ungroomed nails of hers.

In an instant, Rarity formed a glowing net, attached to two different trees. The apparently feral Fluttershy was caught up in the net, struggling to escape.

"Now Fluttershy, why don't you just calm down and...." Rarity began in a deceptively calm tone that she most certainly did not feel only for Fluttershy's body began to shift, her form seemingly dissolving and reforming. Where once she had bat wings, ears, and horrible claws her body was now covered in harsh looking brown scales, all sticking up from her body like miniature knives. New claws emerged from her hands, and a large, scaled tail of all things emerged from under her skirt. Her hair had also been replaced by similarly colored scales.

She began to thrash once more, and this time her scales were able to cut through the net like it was mere string.

"So, you can do that.....whatever it is you just did," Rarity noted in a slow, scared tone of voice. Once Fluttershy had freed herself, she narrowed her eyes at Rarity, before her form shifted once again.

She was now mostly human-looking, but with a pair of cat-like ears with long, black tufts at the end of them and whiskers coming out from side of her face. She was covered in brown fur, and her legs looked stronger than before.

She then leapt at her, moving faster at her than Rainbow Dash could run in a sprint.

Rarity formed purple armor around herself, without even time to make it look good, before Fluttershy slammed into her, her claws immediately trying to pierce Rarity's chest cavity. The armor there held, as did the parts protecting her neck as Fluttershy bit her.

She responded with an explosion of purple light that blew Fluttershy off of her, before forming a purple stockade that slammed harshly down on Fluttershy, resisting her movements.

"That is quite enough Fluttershy!" Rarity exclaimed rather crossly. "You can skip school, turn into a monster, and attack Applejack's apples all you want, but I cross the line when you try to bite my neck! Honestly, were you trying to kill me!?"

Fluttershy responded with her body shimmering into a dark red scale covering with no hair or visible ears, followed by Fluttershy spitting at her.

Rarity blocked the spat with a glowing umbrella, that promptly began to hiss as some sort of acid melted away it at.

"Okay, I don't watch Animal Planet much, let alone since it started focusing on gold and treehouses, but even I know that no snake spits venom like that!"

"Or is it like that Ben 10 show after the first one......what was it called again? That was always more Sweetie's thing than mine...."

Lifting up her now Swiss energy umbrella to her face and dissolving it, Rarity snapped her fingers as a purple energy mask formed around Fluttershy's face and left eye.

"That is quite enough Fluttershy! Now, I don't know what on earth I'm going to have to do, but you are going to go back to normal now, or at least get housebroken...."

Fluttershy shimmered again, as the visible parts of her changed from scales to some sort of shiny, hard looking skin. Spines grew on her legs and back, and her mouth extended outwards, causing her mask to bulge unnaturally.

Fluttershy then pushed with her legs, throwing her into the air and shattering the stockade and mask, before shifting again into a black haired, large armed, and flat nosed creature.

Rarity knew this one at least: for coming down from above now came Flutter-Gorilla. Or perhaps Flutterilla: naming things was not her strong suit.

Rarity gritted her teeth, wondering what on earth would make Fluttershy stop trying to attack her, when her locket glowed.

Unsure of what else would be an option here, Rarity reached for the locket and aimed it right at Fluttershy.

Power Error. Rarity blinked and looked around. Ability uncontrollable at present form, instincts and underlying emotions dominating logic and higher emotions. Initiating further power advancement.

A voice emanated from the light, even as it slowed down Fluttershy mid-lunge. The light caused Flutterilla to roar, clutching her head instead of having her arms out in a 'pummel Rarity' sort of way.

The gorilla parts began to dissolve away, leaving only regular, not part-animal Fluttershy.

Quickly forming a purple cushion, Fluttershy was caught mid-fall, and began to stir just as Rarity ran over to her.

Groaning a bit, Fluttershy rose herself off the cushion somewhat dizzily, before noticing Rarity.

"You've been stealing Applejack's fruit like a vampire, tried to kill me, and routinely turned your skin all scaly and unpleasant; you tell me" Rarity questioned with some harshness to her voice. Fluttershy flinched, before frowning.

"I....I don't remember. I remember walking home from the animal shelter on Friday....there was this loud explosion, and a blue ring....and then everything just goes dark....sorry....."

"The same as with me...." Rarity noted "But I didn't turn into some monstrous freak...."

"Sorry Fluttershy......" and of course no one would notice Fluttershy being missing all weekend. Among her old friends there were only a few good parental figures among them, and two of them were dead. Did Fluttershy's parents even realize she had been missing?

"So........" Rarity began, not sure exactly what she should say here. Fluttershy was seemingly back to normal, or at least back to her senses, but what now?

"Well well, that was certainly entertaining" A familiar voice neither girl was happy to hear rang out through the orchard. As Fluttershy whimpered, Rarity turned harshly towards the origin of the sound, even as her locket glowed blue.

It rose over her head, before flying off into a nearby tree, where it quickly landed around a finger. Said finger promptly twirled it around.

The owner of the finger looked back at them in frank shock, but quickly regained her characteristic smug grin from up top a tree branch, sitting as if she had been watching a sports game.

"Well, this was certainly more exiting then I thought. I thought all I might find is a crazy raccoon, but here I find something even more interesting."

It was Sunset Shimmer, and she had Rarity's locket. At this point she had stopped twirling it around and now had it lying limp from her hand. The center purple diamond was flashing purple, sort of like what one saw in a electronic device with low battery.

"That is my locket, you thief!" Rarity shouted in a rage. Sunset merely rose an eyebrow, before pointing at the locket.

"Something like this......no, I don't think it is yours. I don't know how something like it is here....but between you and I, I'd say I'm the only one who has any right to it".

Sunset promptly flashed blue, before vanishing as she had never been sitting in the tree.

Character Role Auditions 1, or 'the Writer's been listening to a trailer so often he's been mongreening'

KrspaceTFiM studios, a subsidy of CENSORED Studios of Fanfiction.net, had many things going on and about.

It had sets to place, research to do, and lawyers to point in only the directions one wants them in.

Setting up character roles for the current production was another major issue, and that in turn led to auditioning.

That was always a length process, and it took a while to find the good talent hidden among the bad.

Princess Twilight Sparkle's voice shouted out, even as a duo of wrapping human boys got upset.

"We need to show ourselves as potential characters, with the ages set up the author could just retcon us out as a bunch of green freshmen instead of the important and loved antagonist...."

As the two were dragged off by a large man with loud vocal tones, Twilight turned to Spike the Dragon, who had the master list for today.

"Why would he be on the list?" Spike questioned as he double checked for the guy just in case "What would he have to gain from this production?"

"Yeah, but people just generally assume that Doctor Who is canon to MLP series 4 and role with it thanks to Doctor Whooves. If we put Serpentor in this story we'd have to put a crossover label up".

"......Ah, the lights! The big guy isn't getting enough likes to stroke his ego and the entire production is going dark!"

".....Spike, he figured out how to see the bookshelf list, he can stroke his ego with that. Obviously this is a part of some audition...probably the Great and Powerful....."

"I've got no strings, To hold me down" the ominous music began to play in the darkness, as Spike's eyes widened.

"So what, this is Chrysalis or Starlight's audition then?" Twilight noted how most of the other villains did not sing.

"To make me fret, or make me frown"

"Yep, Starlight......" Twilight declared as her horn began to glow threatening "You are way down on the list of two-parter bad guys to use Starlight, so why don't you just come on out and stop with the Pinnochio references....."

The red lights glowed bright as a sun, temporarily blinding the two, before the light dimmed to reveal the perpetrator of the audition.

It was Lyra Heartstrings, wearing a metal, ant like helmet with glowing red-eyes.

"What do you think?" The Canterlot High student asked excitedly "Do I get the part?"

Equestria Girls: The Empowered World

by KrspaceT

Human Zoo