Another Like Me

Shingo? A muffled voice sounded out, making the toss and turn as he slept, not fully asleep anymore, but still definitely not awake. Hey wake up! The voice called out again, this time causing his to wince and cover his ears in irritation at being woken up.

"Five more minutes ma..." He murmured sleepily and he tried to go back to sleep.

"Aw geez, I thought we finally had him for a second!" Scootaloo said, doing a face-hoof in a response to the failed wake-up attempt.

"How did he even end up in here?" Sweetie Belle asked confused.

"That's what I've been wondering, but ah guess we best work on gettin' him up." Applebloom replied with a shrug. Suddenly, Scootaloo got a mischievous grin on her face as a plan came together in her mind; a plan that was sure to wake Shingo up no matter what.

"Hey Applebloom!"

"Yeah?" The yellow filly scooted closer to her pegasus friend as the latter whispered her scheme into her ear. Sweetie Belle, not wanting to be left out of the loop, scooted in as close as she could and shared in the whispers of her friends. As the conversation went on the three fillies grinned and giggled as they worked out the details of their plot. Unbeknownst to Shingo, Applebloom was stealthily making her way over to where he was sleeping.

Once she had made it and made sure that he was still asleep, she signaled to the other two crusaders, who nodded in response. Grabbing a megaphone in the nearby corner that Scootaloo had stashed for her Rainbow Dash fanclub meetings, Sweetie Belle slid it across the floor to Applebloom, who winced at the resulting noise. Luckily, the blue stallion hadn't reacted in the slightest and was content to snore away.

Smiling at the success of their plan so far, Applebloom set the megaphone to about three-fourths of the maximum volume. The other two crusaders then covered their ears for what they knew was to be a pretty loud sales pitch. Applebloom took a deep breath, her chest and cheeks puffing up in an effort to build up as much air as they could, before finally...

"BUY SOME APPLES! BUY SOME APPLES! BUY SOME APPLES!"

"AH! OH GOD OFFICER I SWEAR I DIDN'T PUT THOSE IN MY BAG!" Shingo cried out in terror as the ear-shattering sales pitch resounded off his ear drums. Shooting up and looking around frantically, his look of bewilderment turned into an unamused look as he noticed that three little fillies were rolling on the ground laughing in front of him.

"Hahaha! Oh sweet Celestia!" Scootaloo breathed out after her laughter had died down a bit. "I knew he'd be surprised, but not that surprised!"

"Ah know, that was great!" The red-maned filly agreed with a snicker of her  own.

"Sorry Mr. Shingo, but it was too much of a chance to pass up!" Sweetie Belle said, still in a fit of high-pitched giggles.

"Eh, it's alright." Shingo replied with a hearty chuckle of his own, "I was kind of asking for it just laying there like that."

"Speaking of which why were you in our clubhouse, and how'd you even get in here?" Scootaloo inquired, the other crusaders turning to him with an equally curious expression.

Oh so this clubhouse belongs to them eh? Well at least this makes everything make a lot more sense... Shingo thought in relief. In truth, he had been hoping that it wouldn't belong to someone that could call trespassing charges, because that would've been way too much of a problem for him to work through. After realizing that the fillies were still awaiting an answer, he turned back to them and explained what had went on last night, omitting the details about going through princess Luna's memories of course, telling them that they had simply talked for a while, though that still made the fillies chatter on excitedly and ask questions about it.

After finally telling them how he'd ended up getting locked in the clubhouse from the windows, they all gave him a perplexed look.

"...You did know the door was unlocked right?" Scootaloo asked puzzled at the thought of such an obvious solution being left unchecked.

"...What?" Was all Shingo said, a deadpan look washing over his face.

"Y-Yeah the door's always unlocked!" She pointed to the doorknob, which up until now Shingo had assumed came with a lock, which made sense logically, because why not keep a door on the lock just in case? Unfortunately this realization made him think of another question that made no sense.

"So...the door doesn't lock at all, but the windows do?" At this, Applebloom gained a sheepish look on her face as his point finally dawned on her.

"Well I uh-" She began to try to cobble together an explanation before someone else interrupted the conversation, much to her relief.

"Applebloom are ya'll out here?" A mare's voice called out. The group turned towards the door to see that Applejack climbing up the ramp to the clubhouse. "O-Oh howdy Shingo, what brings ya' here?" She asked, obviously not prepared for a visit from him today.

"Uh..." The stallion's mind raced as he was thinking whether to work up an explanation on how exactly he ended up here, and blurted out the most plausible thing on hand. "I dropped by to spend some time with yooouu?" At this, Applejack's mouth dropped open just a tad, and Shingo could have sworn that her face turn a bright red for a second or two.

"U-Uh I well um..." The orange mare was caught off guard by this. It wasn't very often that a stallion dropped by to see her in particular. Usually they came to ask if Macintosh was done for the day so they could go and hang out for a bit in town; so when Shingo told her that he came to see her, it not only surprised her, but also made her heart flutter and gave her a sense of elation to boot! Of course, with that rush of emotions bearing down on her so suddenly, her ability to speak was...delayed so to speak.

"Sis why are ya' acting funny?" The little yellow filly questioned curiously. "Are ya' gettin' sick or somethin'?" This mild interrogation only served to further deepen the blush that had been painted across her sister's face.

"Don't you worry about that none!" Applejack retorted hastily, finally managing to find her words. "Now come on Applebloom you gotta help me at the market today!"

"Aw but I wanted to go crusadin'!" Applebloom whined with a pout on her face.

"Come on, you can do that tomorrow!"

"Fiiine..." With a look of defeat, the little filly sighed and followed her older sister, who was doing her best to fight her blush back down to inconspicuous levels.

"...That was..." Scootaloo paused, trying to find the right words to describe what had just occurred.

"Bizarre?" Sweetie Belle offered.

"Yeah, bizarre."

"No kidding..." Shingo murmured quietly, not fully sure what to make of how Applejack was just acting.

~~Another Like Me~~

"Looks like this is the place..." The man said to himself as he stood on a hill overlooking the town in front of him. His eyes were narrowed deep in concentration as he studied the layout of the town. He saw that the central hubs of the town were next a giant clock tower and oak tree, and also near a fountain that looked like the town square. The latter seemed to be a sort of market place that had many ponies shopping for a variety of items and produce.

The man recalled the orders Discord had given him before he'd set off the night before.

"Now my dear boy I'm assuming that you get the gist of the plan then?" The spirit of chaos inquired to him. He nodded in understanding as he went over the plan one last time to make sure no details were left out.

"Yeah, so I go into town, cause as much chaos as I can, and then I'm free to pursue whatever I wish?"

"Spot on!" Discord's voice rang out with approval. "Just be sure that many of the town's inhabitants see what you're capable of. After all, sometimes the most chaos can be caused by paranoia and pandemonium."

"Gotcha. As soon I do this I can do whatever I want though right?" The man asked, trying to clarify if the deal had changed or not. He got the feeling that whatever he was doing bargains with was quite the trickster.

"Exactly, though I need not tell you that should you fail, however small a chance of that may be, then the deal will be declared null and void?"

"I thought that was established the moment I said yes to this?"

"Good, well then off you go! I'll get you out of the city, but after that it's up to you."

"Got it."

After that it had been a long journey through the night for him. Fortunately for him though, being a conjuration from the Yata mirror had its perks. He didn't get hungry or thirsty, and nothing short of a challenging fight was really enough to actually wear him out.

As he sat on the hillside his mind was mulling over the different plans of attack. He knew that his first step would probably be to casually stroll in and wait until the busiest part of the day since it was still a bit early in the morning. After that he had a couple of different ways he could go about the plan. After a few moments of deliberation he finally shook his head.

"Whatever, I'm better at winging these things anyways." He told himself with a smirk. "Anyways, it doesn't matter what I do, because by the end of the day, Ponyville is gonna be nothin' but a pile of ashes." His smirk turned into a wolfish grin as he chuckled. He then made a snapping motion and ignited a flame on his pointer finger. He held the small ember in front of his face towards the horizon. I suppose the only question left to ask is how well do ponies burn. He thought, snickering as he extinguished the flame; before finally getting up and heading towards the town itself.

~~Another Like Me~~

The door to Sugar Cube Corner swung open, signaling that a couple of customers had just arrived. Pinkie Pie, who was currently working the counter today, was always more than happy to greet and chat with customers, though sometimes it tended to get a bit out of hoof when she would go on too many tangents in one conversation. Fortunately for her, the patrons who had just entered were none other than Rainbow Dash.

"Oh hiya Dashie! Whatcha up to today? Ooh oh let me guess!" The bubbly mare said, hopping over to the cyan colored pegasus in her usual joy-filled manner. Rainbow Dash cringed inwardly as she knew that if she didn't interrupt the pink party pony immediately, then the conversation would take a pretty drastic one-sided turn.

"Uh actually Pinkie I kind of just stopped by for a quick lunch break before getting back to work!" Rainbow Dash explained quickly, which served to make Pinkie stop speaking much to her relief.

"Oh ok! What would you like? We got pastries, cakes, candy, pies, cupcakes, muffins, eclairs..." The mare kept listing an assortment of sweet, dough based goodies as Rainbow tuned her out while trying to decide her order. Figuring she'd get something quick and light she decided that a few muffins and cupcakes would likely be the best choice.

"Uh Pinkie?" She asked, trying to get the attention of her friend.

"-and Tortillas, and biscuits-"

"Pinkie!"

"Oh sorry! Hehe got carried away there a little bit!" Pinkie said with a giggle as she finally snapped out of her checklist of baked goods. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes at this, but smiled nonetheless, already used to the mare's antics having been her friend for a while now.

"Alright I guess I'll just have a couple of chocolate chip muffins and a plain old vanilla cupcake please!" The pegasus said, confirming her order.

"Oki doki loki! Be back in a flash!"

"Ok I don't mind...waiting?" Rainbow's eyes widened as she blinked once and found that Pinkie had indeed remained true to her words. She literally was back in a flash, already with her order that looked fresh out of the oven.

"Alrighty Dashie, usually this would cost about 5 bits, but I'll give ya' a discount and make it 3 since we're super-duper splendiferous buddies!"

"Thanks Pinkie, I appreciate it!" Rainbow said with sincerity as she paid the change that she owed. However, just as Pinkie was handing her order to her, the pink pony's body began to shudder and shake violently, causing the cupcake pastries to fly out of her hooves and onto Rainbow's face. Now normally, one could imagine that she'd be angry at this little slip-up that the element of Laughter had caused, but the rainbow-maned pegasus knew that more pressing matters were at hoof. "Whoa Pinkie! What's going on with your Pinkie Sense?"

"I-I d-don't k-k-know!" The mare in question replied, her words coming out shakily as her body continued to rapidly vibrate. "W-Whatever it is i-i-its a d-d-doozy-y-y!"

"You mean as bad as the one with Twilight that one time?"

"U-Uh h-huh!"

"Well then we better tell the rest of the girls so we can prepare for whatever it is! ...Unless Twilight's conducting another experiment again, which in that case we need to ready the bunker!" Rainbow declared, grabbing her friend's hoof and dragged her along as she galloped out the door.

"O-Oki d-doki l-l-loki-i-i-i!"

~~Another Like Me~~

"And that's when we ended up covered in the stuff!" Scootaloo said with a grimace as Sweetie Belle mimicked her facial expression.

"Man you three manage to get covered in tree sap pretty often on these crusades of yours." Shingo commented. The orange filly had been in the midst of a story about how they'd been trying to get ahold of Rainbow Dash so they could figure out how she had acquired her cutie mark.

"Yeah in all honesty Scootaloo some of your ideas really aren't the most sanitary." Sweetie Belle said with a sigh as she recalled how much of a fit Rarity had thrown as she had come home. Ugh...I still flinch whenever I hear the words 'power shower' the filly thought with a shudder.

"Well at least they're more fun than some of your ideas." Scootaloo grumbled under her breath. Honestly, how could her fellow crusader possibly think that she'd want a cutie mark in interior designing or gardening?

"Alright you two settle down!" Shingo interrupted with a chuckle, since he knew that these types of arguments didn't really end well when ones tastes and pursuits were involved. Suddenly, he paused and sniffed the air. Something felt off to him, the air had been perfectly clear and fresh a second ago. However, now that he took a good whiff of air in his nostrils he smelled a faint trace of something different. It smelled kind of like...

"Hey do you guys smell smoke?" Scootaloo asked suddenly, having noticed the strange scent as well.

"Hey look a campfire!" Sweetie yelled in surprise, pointing a hoof in the distance. "You think they'll give us some of their smores?"

"I don't know, but I hope they do, I'm starving!"

"Girls I don't think that's a campfire." Shingo said, the fillies stopping their daydreams about chocolaty marshmallowy treats and turning to face him. He didn't notice this however, and knew that whatever the source of the smoke was, it definitely shouldn't be inside the town. That is unless Ponyville had a new bar and grill that he hadn't heard about yet. Holding a hoof up, he told the girls to keep a safe distance from him and began to gallop into town. Whatever that smoke was coming from, it definitely gave him the wrong vibes, and yet kept hoping for the tiniest chance that he was worrying for nothing, and that the smoke was actually for a beneficial purpose.

He couldn't have been more wrong.