Another Like Me

Iori watched as his nemesis, Kyo, settled into a stance he knew all too well. The stance of the Kusanagi's brand of fighting. Of course with such a sudden opportunity to do battle with his hated rival, he debated on whether or not to actually act upon this one. On one hand, he absolutely hated Kyo with just about every fiber of his being, and would like nothing more than to tear him apart in a one on one fight. However, in doing so he would probably create a lot of...annoyances in the future in the form of his many friends and allies, most notably that of the woman who had sent him out to find the brunette fighter in the first place, Chizuru Kagura.

Sighing, Iori knew he had to defuse this fight before it began, much to his disappointment. So with great reluctance he raised a hand to stop Kyo. "Wait a minute you idiot!" He growled at his would be opponent, "I'm not here to fight you!"

"Wait what?" Kyo stopped suddenly, and the shock on his face was visibly evident to his crimson haired adversary. However, after a few seconds of recovering his thoughts, he smirked. "You picked a weird time to bury your man crush on me Yagami, I'm almost hurt by it!"

Why that little! Iori thought, enraged at the insult. From that one smart remark he had half a mind to go over and just do away with him immediately. Fortunately though, he gritted his teeth and managed to keep his anger in check. "Just...just come along and keep all the stupid comments to yourself...that Kagura woman told me to come and find you..." he forced out as quickly as he could. Without giving the other man a chance to respond he swiftly turned around and began heading back to the Kusanagi residence. One of these days... he thought with a grin, relishing the dream of the day when he would finally do in the man he so utterly despised.

Kyo however, rolled his eyes and decided to follow. Even though a match would have helped to clear his mind from all the things that had been happening lately, he figured that if Chizuru had a lead on whatever happened to Shingo, he should at least go check it out. So with a shrug he followed the path that Iori had taken, slowly of course, just in case it was a trap of some sort.

~~Another Like Me~~

Shingo Yabuki was confused. He had read about Nightmare Moon while grading the history tests for miss Cheerilee, and from what he had read she had been a pretty terrifying figure, whose power rivaled even that of princess Celestia. Strangely enough though, while he had read much about the conflict between her and Celestia, there had been no mention of princess Luna in the slightest. Had Nightmare Moon caused her to disappear somehow?

"Um, princess Luna?" He asked tentatively, wondering if asking something like this was a bit too much of a touchy subject. After all, angering a princess who was quite literally the embodiment of the night was a pretty poor idea.

"Yes my little erm...human?"  She said in a surprisingly warm and friendly tone. "What does thou have to ask us?"

"Um w-well." He stammered, still nervous, "I've kinda skimmed through a bit of what happened between your sister and Nightmare Moon, but well...it didn't say anything about you? Why is that?" At this Shingo was afraid he had asked the wrong question, as he saw that the princess's expression had visibly darkened in response to his inquiry. To his relief however, it was not an angry vibe she gave off, rather one of sadness and regret.

"All will be explained my friend, in due time." She told him reassuringly, an idea of how to explain what had happened popped into her head, and she figured that it would work well for the situation. "In fact," she continued, "instead of telling you, I shall show you what happened so long ago."

"What do you mean by-" The young fighter was cut off as he saw Luna's horn begin to glow. He was initially a bit scared, thinking that she really was about to destroy him for intruding on touchy personal subjects, but to his surprise, the light emanating from her horn was not a harsh one, but a more gentle and soothing one. Figuring at this point it was better to trust the princess and see where this was going, he watched curiously as Luna drew closer. He eventually blushed a light shade of red as she drew ever closer to him, their faces but inches away, until Luna lowered her horn and gently touched his head with it, resulting in a blinding flash of light that made Shingo cover his eyes at the intensity.

Strangely enough, after removing the foreleg from his face, he found himself not in the extravagant and bedazzling palace in Canterlot, but a strange void of some sort. However, before he could call out to Luna, who had mysteriously disappeared, the void began shifting and changing, forming into more recognizable shapes. At first all he could see were the  cobblestone bricks that obviously marked where the road was. As he began to trot along the path that had formed however, he began to see the void churning and creating more and more things until he found himself amid a sprawling city that looked weirdly familiar, even though he knew he had never been in it before.

Since he knew that this was once again a new place that he knew nothing about, and somehow a pony again, he knew the best idea would probably be to ask someone where he was exactly. Seeing that he was in a relatively crowded marketplace, he went up to a moderately dressed stallion who was wearing a white suit that complemented his black fur and white mane quite considerably.

"Excuse me!" Shingo called out to him. "Can I ask you a quick question?" Unfortunately, his words drew no response as the stallion continued to chat with the mare running the stall in front of him. Figuring that they were too engaged in the conversation to hear him he decided to try again. "Um sir?" He said, a bit louder this time, "can I ask you something?" Again, no response. At this Shingo was getting a bit annoyed at the fact that the stallion was ignoring him, and decided to try and tap him on the shoulder. "Hey budd- wha?" His annoyance dissipated quickly as he saw his hoof pass completely through the other pony as if he was no different than the air that they were breathing. "Um...alright?" Deciding that the situation had just descended into the status of "weirdly creepy" he decided explore a bit.

To his bewilderment he found that none of the other ponies even acknowledged or even felt him passing through them as he continued on. Eventually though, he shook it off and came upon what looked to be a palace of some sort. Huh, well that looks oddly important! Trotting inside the gate, he almost jumped out of his skin at seeing an entire platoon of guards glaring right at him when entering the castle gate! After regaining his composure though, he saw that it was merely a drill that they were practicing on and had happened to be facing his way.

After that little bout of terror, he saw that the only thing left to do was enter the palace before him. Once inside the doors, it hit him. I'm in the same palace that Luna and I were in before! Indeed the palace was eerily similar to the one he had been in just a few minutes ago. However, it did look a bit...newer than when he last saw it. Seeing nothing else left to do but to explore, he found himself trying all the doors in his vicinity. Unfortunately, almost all of them were locked, and he couldn't pass through them like he did the other ponies, which made no sense to him. He shrugged and figured that whatever this was he shouldn't dwell on it and saw the only door he hadn't tried yet: An absolutely enormous set of doors that told him whatever lay beyond them, it was definitely of the utmost importance.

With a timid poke of his hoof, the door creaked open ever so slightly, and even though nopony could see him, he decided it would be just to peer through the crack of the door. What he saw made his jaw drop in a most amusing fashion.

Beyond the door was a throne room of which seemed straight out of a storybook. It was an exceedingly long walk, red velvet carpet dividing each side of the room, which were both adorned with many stained glass windows, each one depicting what Shingo guessed was an important part of their history. It was absolutely breathtaking to the young King of Fighters participant, as the best dwelling he had ever laid eyes upon was anything larger than his one story house, which was quite small.

"Honestly Tia, Discord is finished! I don't think we have anything else to worry about!" Shingo whirled around at the voice he suddenly heard. Unfortunately for him, the figures the voices belonged to happened to open the door he was leaning on, causing him to lost balance and fall flat on his muzzle. Luckily, since nopony could really take notice of this bout of clumsiness, he got over the embarrassment rather quickly. What caught his attention though, was not princess Luna, whom he immediately recognized out of the duo. Rather, he was busy paying attention to the other alicorn mare that was present.

"Is that...princess Celestia?" He wondered as he fully took in her appearance. There was no doubt that she was definitely somepony important, as the alabaster alicorn seemed to radiate authority even more than princess Luna. Yet, unlike her nocturnal sister, she seemed to have a more gentle and warm presence, which Shingo found kind of funny considering she was the princess of the sun.

"I know little sister, but yet, I fear we are not yet through these dark times..." When the taller princess spoke, Shingo felt that her voice was not unlike his mother's, as opposed to her sister's, which ironically reminded him of an older sister of some sort.

"Sister, you worry too much, we should take pride in the fact that we managed to rescue these lands from Discord's reign of chaos."

Discord eh? Sounds like he gave the ponies here a lot of trouble while he was around... The fighter mused to himself as he kept listening to the two sisters converse.

"Perhaps you are right Luna, maybe it is simply nerves. Now come, it is time for you to raise the moon." Celestia beckoned her sister to another room, and as they shut the door behind them, the accidental eavesdropper was left  to ponder what he had just heard.

So if they were saying that they just recently defeated Discord, then that must mean... he suddenly pieced it all together, Luna's spell, the fact that the castle was newer, and the fact that the newspapers were advertising wagon sales instead of carriages! (Hey give him some credit, he actually did some researching on the papers in between chapters, but that's a story for another time.) I must be in Luna's memories then... well if that's the case I don't see what this has to do with Nightmare Moon, I mean she hasn't even really showed up yet...

Shingo was about to see if he couldn't follow the princesses to gather more info, when suddenly the space around him shifted back to the white void it originally formed from. After this however, it quickly began to reform once again into the city that he was in before. A few things were different from the first time however. The ponies that were bustling about had disappeared from the streets, which was understandable given that it was night this time, and that it was raining.

Figuring that since these were Luna's memories, the best thing to do would be to get into the castle as he did previously. Thankfully, even though it was raining quite a bit, it seemed to have no effect on him, as he found himself as dry as ever. The walk over there was much shorter than last time now that he knew where to go. Once he went inside the castle however, he found that unlike last time, the door to the throne room was locked.

"Hm...guess I better try the other ones then..." He whispered to himself as he trotted back down the hallway. After a couple of tries and failures with some of the doors, he finally found one that was unlocked. It lead up a few flights of stairs, and eventually Shingo found himself at one of the top floors, and took a look out of one of the windows. Wow, what a view they have up here! He whistled in amazement. From this height he could practically see the entire town and what was beyond it! If it weren't for the rain dampening the mood ever so slightly, he would daresay it was a picturesque view, like one would print on a postcard if they were a tourist on vacation!

Of course, he knew that the view was not what he was here for, and eventually tore himself away from the spot. He began to sigh at the many doors he would have to search through down this hall. Luckily for him, he heard a few voices speaking softly, and so he went to investigate. Cautiously cracking the door open once again, he peered inside the doorway to see what was going on. Much to his surprise, this time it was only princess Luna lying behind the doorway, but this confused him, if he had heard another voice talking to her, then where were they?

"No, my sister would never do such a thing!" Luna said, waving away whatever invisible pony was speaking to her.

"Honestly Luna, are you so naive as to believe she wouldn't?" The voice that spoke to Luna belonged to someone Shingo could tell was not exactly among the best of crowds to hang out with, and yet, it seemed strangely familiar...filing that little thought for later, he focused back on the conversation at hand. "Look out at Canterlot Luna!" The voice instructed, and she did so, "why should ponies shun your night, and choose to relish the daytime? And why would your sister take the position that ponies would deem more apt and fitting to complete their work and bask in times of leisure?"

Shingo could see that Luna was troubled by this statement, and began to see that the voice seemed to be pushing her down a path that would probably not end well for all parties involved.

"No! My sister is better than what you are accusing her of!" Luna whispered harshly, turning to glare at wherever the owner of the other voice might be.

"...Suit yourself." was the reply that came, "but know that what I say is true, and that in time, you will come to see that your sister sees you as beneath her."

"Away with you!" Luna said coldly, "I wish to hear no more of your lies and cajolery! Now begone!" After hearing no response from the other voice for a couple of minutes, Luna sighed and dropped from a demeanor of anger, to one of sadness. "My sister would never do such a thing...would she?" Dejected, she turned one last time to look out at Canterlot, and the lack of ponies on the streets.

At this point the void shifted a third time, and once again Shingo was on the same road as before, and though it was daytime, all the ponies on the streets looked...scared for some reason, and there was a certain tension in the air that definitely hadn't been there before. All these factors made Shingo realize that whatever was going on in this memory, it definitely wasn't a good thing, and so at this point instead of trotting he decided to just gallop all the way over to the castle.

The fears that something was amiss only increased as he got to the castle as the guards, whom he had previously observed to be fearless and without emotion, all seemed strangely...uneasy. As the young man turned pony passed through them, he could hear whispers of something going on between the royal sisters. At this, he made a beeline for the door which he went through on his first trip. Bursting inside, he had braced himself for some kind of epic confrontation of some sort, but much to his disappointment, nopony was even in the throne room!

"Well that was anticlimactic." He muttered to himself as he turned around. He was about to go back and check some place else when the doors opened again and Celestia trotted in. Nevermind! He thought to himself, choosing to remain in the room. At first he was a bit baffled as to why the memories lead him here, surely this would be more fit for Celestia's memories if it had to deal with her wouldn't it? His question was shortly answered by Luna stepping out from behind the shadow of the throne at the end of the room.

To say the look on Luna's face set an ill omen was an understatement. It was not just a look of pure anger or rage, but something more. It was a look of many things, jealousy, betrayal, hurt, disdain, and even a little bit of insanity! The young stallion gulped at seeing this, and braced himself for what he knew would not be a pleasant conversation.

"Luna?" Celestia questioned with a straight look, "what is the meaning of this? The guards told me you have been acting strangely as of late! With reports of you talking to yourself in your room to an unknown source, among other things." At this her gaze softened, "sister please, whatever is troubling you, let me help you!"

"Do refer to me as part of your family!" The dark alicorn hissed in response, catching Celestia off guard, "family would not betray each as you have done!"

"Luna what are you talking about, I've done no such thing!" Her sister said in outrage.

"I've had enough of your *lies!*" Luna shouted in the same voice Shingo had heard her use on him back at the apple farm. "You thought I wouldn't see it would you!" she continued with a venomous glare, "you thought you could possibly get away with taking all the adoration of our subjects while you threw me away?!?"

"Luna stop this nonsense! You know I would never do such a thing!" Celestia pleaded desperately, tears beginning to run down her face at her sister's accusations. She tried to head over to her sister to do something, anything to calm her down, but a magical field from the alicorn of the night stopped her from proceeding.

"Not. Another. *Step." The iciness of the tone that Luna was using with her sister made Shingo tense up. Even though he knew that this was only a memory, this kind of feeling, it was unreal! However, Luna was not finished speaking, "did you really think I would sit idly by while they all basked in your *precious light?" She asked, the last part of her question dripping with sarcasm.

"Luna..." Celestia was at a loss of what to do, she had never thought that her sister would do something like this, and she cursed herself for not even asking Luna about this matter before it had all spiraled out of control like this.

"There can be only ONE princess in Equestria!" Luna declared, stepping up on the perch behind the royal throne. "And that princess will be ME!" She roared triumphantly as she slammed her hooves to the ground, shattering the top part of the throne with little effort, and the crack that had formed beneath her spread behind her, and to the walls until it finally made its way to the stained glass window above her. The window was destroyed in an instant, leaving an ominous view of the entire sun. Both Shingo and Celestia gasped at what happened next. The sun was being blotted out by something, a pitch black shadow that only increased as it eventually covered the entire orb of light, the entire world around them becoming much darker until things were barely visible, just as it was at night.

"Luna no! Stop this madness!" Celestia tried to yell to her sister. Unfortunately for her, Luna was now completely ignoring her. Much to the surprise of everypony present, Luna included, a strange cloud of darkness began to envelope the dark blue alicorn, and much like the moon had blotted out the sun, the darkness spread until it had encased her entirely. A few terrifying seconds passed as Celestia waited with baited breath, until finally the darkness unraveled itself from her younger sister.

The sight that met their eyes made Shingo tremble in fear. Luna had undergone a horrific transformation. No longer was she a dark blue that matched the celestial sky at night, but a much more evil pitch black, as if all the light from her fur had been extinguished. Both her horn and her height now matched her older sister's, and her teeth had now become sharper, giving them a fang-like appearance. Whatever had happened to her, Shingo doubted she was going to listen to reason.

As Celestia continued to try and cry out to her sister to listen to reason, Luna, now overcome with whatever dark power she had been consumed by, continued to simply laugh maniacally as she took in the power she now wielded. "Please sister, don't make me do this..." Celestia whispered as the tears rolled down her face. Yet as much as she wanted things to change, the princess of the sun knew what she had to do.

"Sister, I'm sorry I must do this to you, but you have forced my hand..." with one last look at her sister, she closed her eyes. Shingo wondered what she was going to do, when suddenly he saw that she had summoned what looked like 5 necklaces and a tiara, each one made of gold with a different gem embedded in their middles. Each gem was cut into a different shape. A balloon, an apple, a diamond, a butterfly, a lightning bolt, he recognized all of them except the one on the tiara, which looked like some sort of six point star. Suddenly, as Celestia's horn flared up with an intense light, the regalia also began to resonate with the power she was giving off.

Nightmare Moon noticed this, and flared up her own response, finally realizing what her sister was about to do. "You wouldn't dare!"

Celestia simply gave her a solemn look in response, "to save our subjects and our kingdom, and especially you little sister? You know I would!" And with that, the light that had been building around Celestia suddenly discharged in a beam of light, and with a cry of rage Nightmare Moon was struck by it.

Shingo had no choice but to cover his eyes or else risk getting blinded. The display lasted for about an entire minute before he decided to uncover his eyes. Once he did a sickening feeling formed in his gut. Princess Luna was no longer present, and Celestia was simply lying down, sobbing.

Before he could do anything else, the white void began to shift back into its original form, but this time, instead of it forming into another memory, he found himself waking up as if from a dream. After yawning and stretching a bit he noticed the real princess Luna sitting next to him with a mournful gaze.

"Now you know the truth." She said simply.