Another Like Me

"Well..." Twilight said, beginning to tell the tale, "It all started when I asked where you'd gone, and Pinkie said she'd heard you were in the back where the cider was, and so I went over there, and found that..."

~Another Like Me~

The crowd was chanting, ponies were stomping, the music was playing and Shingo was feeling victory in his sights. He saw his opponent barely able to sit up straight, and while he himself felt himself able to fall down from his unbalance, he was sure that if he got through this last drink, he could win this competition.

"Hey Shingo! Why don't you just **hic*** do us both a favor and...give up already?" Caramel said in a dazed manner. Now Shingo was determined to win this little contest, so he managed to retort.*

"N-No way man," The blue stallion slurred out, "you're just all tree...skin...and no bite!" He yelled out, he then held his mug up to Big Mac, "hey man, another round!" he ordered as Mac filled their mugs up. The crowd waited with baited breath as the two competitors lifted the mugs up to their faces. For a second it looked as if Shingo wasn't going to be able to hold his drink in, but he managed to forge on and keep it contained. Caramel however, was just staring at his drink, and just decided to do the only thing he could. Pass out. With this, the crowd roared with approval as Shingo got up on the table and whooped with a cry of victory, accompanied by a very...unsuccessful victory dance that looked like a failed mix between tapdancing and somebody tripping, causing him to fall off the table.

"Congrats' on winnin' the contest there Shingo!" Mac said as he helped the drunken stallion up.

"Hey thanks man, and dude...let me just say that you are like the bestest cup filler-er there ever was!" Shingo slurred out, "I love you man!" With that he gave big Mac a huge hug, which the stallion awkwardly endured, giving him a simple pat on the back. "Hey whaddya' say everypony? Three cheers for this big red ol' lug!" He called out to the crowd of bystanding ponies, who were more than happy to go along with him, it being his party and all. "Hip Hip!"

"Hooray!" The crowd chanted.

"Hip hip!"

"Hooray!"

"Hip Hip!"

"Hooray!" Meanwhile, while that was going on, Rainbow and Applejack were trying their hardest not to burst out laughing at Shingo, who's antics were quite well received by most of the other ponies.

"Whoowee!" Applejack whistled in admiration, "that Shingo can sure hold his liquor! Most other stallions would've ended up like ol' Caramel over there by now!"

"Totally!" Rainbow nodded in agreement, "say...what do you say we try it out ourselves?" Rainbow inquired to the farm-pony with a mischievous grin.

"Are you suggestin' what I think ya' are?" The orange mare asked with a smirk.

"Well hey no harm in it right?" Rainbow said with an equally large grin, "I mean besides, if worse comes to worse, Twilight will always be the sober one in the end! So it's all good!"

"Alright! But I'm warnin' ya', I ain't no lightweight!" Applejack teased.

"I was hoping you wouldn't be!" The cyan pegasus fired back, "this way it'll be a challenge!" And with that, the two mares lined up some drinks, and with one contest later they had joined Shingo in a drunken conversation at one of the tables, with poor Big Mac being the only sober one there, and he himself was half-tempted to just go with the flow, but his good judgement and responsibility got the better of him and kept him in check.

"So-So-So h-have you girls ever played the game called Goof Troop?" Shingo asked the mare's with a lazy grin on his face.

"Goof Troop?" Applejack parroted, "what in tarnation kinda' game is that nonsense?" she asked with a giggle, her country accent augmented further by the heavy amounts of cider that she'd had.

"You've *never** played Goof Troop?" The stallion asked in disbelief, a look of pure shock etched on his face.*

"Nah man, just **hic*** tell us what it is!" Rainbow asked eagerly, curious about this game.*

"Man! Goof Troop is only like the boopinest game there is!" Shingo yelled out, the mares trying to stifle their laughter at his outburst.

"Boopinest eh?" Mac said, thoroughly confused since he was currently the only sane one at the table.

"W-well com-come on tell us what boopinest means!" Rainbow pleaded, giving Shingo puppy-dog eyes.

"Well boopinest means it's...got a lot of boops in it...I dunno man..." Shingo said as he tried to remember what exactly it meant to be the 'boopinest' but his hindered state of mind just didn't work properly.

"Well what in sam hill is a 'boop'?" Applejack said, her brows furrowed at the strange word.

"Oh you know a 'boop!'" Shingo said as if it were the most mundane thing, "you know like when somebody does this!" He said, putting a hoof on each of the mare's muzzles and pressed down on their noses slightly while making a high pitched noise, "boop!" He said as he pulled his hooves back with a huge grin, while the mare's looked incredulously at each other then at Shingo, before they all burst into laughter. Big Mac however, was still having a hard time following this, and just decided to give up, pouring himself a mug of cider.

"Eenope!" He thought calmly as he made a silent vow, "Never going to let this kid get drunk ever again!" After that interesting conversation Shingo decided to stumble out of the room and go mingle again. He grinned when he saw Scootaloo, and went over to her.

"Hey Scoots how's the party for you?" He asked, ruffling her mane as she laughed a little at the action.

"It's been going great Shingo! How are you?" The filly replied happily.

"Oh man I'm just been fine and dandy as I've ever been...*hic*...just fan-freakin'-tastical." The stallion replied, giving her a lazy grin. He then continued, "you know, when I first met you I was like 'oh my gawsh a talkin' horse!'" he yelled out, making many histrionic gestures while doing so, "but then, after I got used to you, I was like, 'man that Scootaloo, she's like the most adorable thing ever!'" Shingo laughed as he picked her up and hugged her tightly as the filly blushed and squirmed in his grip.

"Aw Shingo, not in front of my friends!" The filly whined, embarrassed at the fact that her two friends, a little yellow filly with a red mane and a pink bow, and a white unicorn filly with a pink and purple mane, had seen the display. Shingo then dropped Scootaloo and gave the two a stare, before gaining a look of recognition.

"O-Oh yeah! Those are...aw man...what was it..." the drunken pony asked himself as he racked his brain, "oh yeah these two are your friends Pum Bloom and Belle Hop right?" He asked, looking at Scootaloo for confirmation as she face-hooved while the two other fillies simply giggled at what he'd said.

"Well sorry to break it to ya' mister!" The yellow filly who he'd addressed as Pum Bloom. "But mah name's Apple Bloom, and that there is Sweetie Belle!" She said in a correcting tone as the other filly gave a small wave to him.

"D'awww" Shingo almost coo'ed in delight, "you have a country accent! That's so freakin' adorable!" He said complimenting the filly, "and that purple and pink mane is way rad!" He added as he patted Sweetie Belle's head a couple of times before scooping up all the fillies into a giant hug. While he was distracted, Sweetie Belle leaned over to the other two.

"Hey, Scootaloo is he feeling alright?" The small unicorn asked, a bit confused by the large stallion's behavior.

"Well, at this point I'm not too sure myself." The pegasus filly answered in a whisper.

"Ah think Ah know what it might be." Apple Bloom said as she remembered something.

"What might that be?"

"Well when Granny Smith and Ah would make the Zap Apple Cider, Ah'd always see the adults who'd had a lot to drink start ta' act real silly, like Mr. Shingo is right now!" The filly explained, making the other two make a chorus of 'oh's in understanding.

"Hey Shingo?" Scootaloo asked her used to be human friend, nudging him to get his attention.

"Yeah Scootaloo?" He asked, suddenly looking down with such clarity that Scootaloo wouldn't have believed that he'd been drunk before if she hadn't seen it herself.

"Well I was just wondering...have you been drinking too much cider?" The filly asked cautiously.

"Oh silly Scoots!" The stallion answered as his face snapped back to the lazy look it had earlier, "there's never such a thing as *too much** cider! But if I had to count I'd say..." He paused for a second as he counted some numbers on his hooves, making the fillies glance at each other nervously. "Fifteen." He said simply. "Well anyways, nice talkin' to ya'll!" He said, imitating Applejack's voice as he said 'ya'll' before walking off to somewhere else.*

"Fifteen?" Scootaloo echoed before turning back to her friends. "Should we be worried?"

"Yes." The other two replied in unison.

"Hey Twilight Twinkle my favorite egghead!" Shingo called out as he draped a hoof around the lavender unicorn, who had been busy getting some punch from the refreshment table.

"Um...Shingo are you drunk by any chance?" She asked as she eyed the hoof wrapped around her.

"What! Me? *Drunk?** Aw no no no!" He said letting go of her and waving his arms in denial. "No! No! Nope! Not at all!" He slurred lazily, which made Twilight roll her eyes, as this denial had only confirmed her suspicions. "What makes you think I'm drunk?"*

"Well for starters my name is *Twilight Sparkle** and I don't think you usually call me an egghead." She said with a smirk.*

"Oh yeah, that's usually Dashie's job!" Shingo said as he softly conked himself on the head to reprimand himself. "Anyways," he said, shaking his head to get back to his point, "even if I was drunk, which I'm not! I'd still be Ok because you'd still be saber...sebar...celebate..."

"Sober?" Twilight offered with a chuckle at the wrong use of the word.

"Yeah that, but hey I just got a wicked cool idea!" Shingo yelled suddenly as his brain came up with, what he thought was, a brilliant idea.

"Oh yeah? What would that be Shingo?" She asked with a smile, seeing no harm in deciding to humor him.

"Well ok, here it goes, so you know how you told me you write those friendshippy papers to the Princess Stellestria-"

"Celestia-"

"Trollestia."

"Close enough." The mare simply rolled her eyes, but maintained her smile.

"Anyways yeah, so you write those friendshippy things about being friends right?" He asked, to which she nodded in confirmation. "Well what if...wait for it... you wrote a friendshippy note, about a friendshippy note?" He asked with a whole-hearted grin, waiting for her to chime in with what he thought would be praise. Seeing that she was simply giving him a look of confusion, he decided to elaborate, "oh you know like 'dear Princess Dementia,' " he said, almost doing a perfect representation of Twilight's voice, "'I decided that instead of doing that mail thing I do every week on the usual friendship kind of things, I thought I'd do a report *about** a report! How about them apples?'" He said, stopping to see the look on Twilight's face, who was struggling to stifle her laughter at the imitation of her friendship reports.*

"Now Shingo I don't think she'd really approve of that!" The mare said with a smile as she tried to bring a sense of logic back to the table.

"Oh come Twilight! In my whole-hearted opinion, I think she'd be all like 'Twilight Blinkle, that was such a good report, that Imma' give you the day off for the rest of the year!'" He slurred out as he tried to imitate a regal voice, but it ended up sounding like a terribly done British accent. This only made Twilight burst into uncontrollable laughter at the ridiculousness of his statement.

Figuring that he'd convinced her, Shingo decided to get some fresh air outside, needing to clear his lungs of the hot air inside the tree that formed due to all the ponies currently in it. Once he got outside he found a familiar yellow pegasus sitting alone near the dirt road, admiring the moonlight. He was about to go surprise her, when suddenly his mind remembered one crucial fact that Pinkie told him: "Don't scare Fluttershy." So instead he casually, well as casually as a drunken pony could, walked up to her and sat down next to her. "Hey Fluttershy?" He asked as quietly as possible, but the mare still let out an 'eep' of surprise and whipped around, before seeing that it was him and got slightly calmer.

"O-oh hey S-Shingo, sorry about the yell, you just startled me a little." She said apologetically.

"Huh...good thing I didn't scare her..." Shingo thought to himself, but opted to say, "it's alright Fluttershy, I probably should've let you know I was coming before hand." He said sheepishly as he gave a grin to her, which she returned with a soft smile of her own before turning back to look at the scenery.

"Hey Fluttershy?" Shingo said, breaking the brief silence, making her turn to face him. "Just out of curiosity, how come you're not in there with everyone else?"

"Oh..." The mare shifted a bit uncomfortably at the question, which Shingo, even in his drunken state, managed to catch wind of.

"It's ok if you don't want to answer-"

"O-Oh no i-it's fine!" Fluttershy hastily answered, catching him by surprise. "It's just that, I'm usually not one to be around ponies really. I usually prefer to be alone or at my cottage with my animals."

"Oh..." Shingo nodded as she explained, "but why not try to hang around more ponies more often?"

"Well...it's usually because I'm afraid of what they'll think of me..." the mare explained quietly as she hung her head.

"...Fluttershy? Why are you afraid of what they say?" Shingo asked the mare, who simply remained silent. He sighed and tried again. "Fluttershy, please just at least tell me why?" He pleaded, giving her a soft look.

"Because I feel like they'll make fun of me, or they won't like me for whatever reason..." she answered after a long pause. Shingo figured this was the case, and decided to tell her what he told Scootaloo before.

"Fluttershy," he said putting a hoof on her shoulder, which made her freeze, but she kept listening, "I've told this to Scootaloo, but I feel like you need to hear this too. Don't let what people say get to you! If someone makes fun of you or purposely insults you to inflict harm, then they aren't worth the trouble of paying attention to."

"But what if what they say is right? What then..."

"No, it doesn't matter, because you know yourself better than anyone else does. You have to choose who to listen to. If it's your friends telling you something, then it may be a good thing because they want you to be better, but if it's some random pony being mean, then you don't need to listen."

"..."

"Besides, you know you'll always have Twilight and the others to help you out, and me as well!" He said giving her a smile. After a while of watching her, he saw a soft smile come onto her face.

"Thanks for telling me that Shingo, I really appreciate you trying to help me out, but if it's all the same to you, I think I'll remain outside...if that's alright with you..." She said with gratitude.

"Hey it's no problem, it was nice to talk to you, but I'll just head back inside, so I'll see you later Fluttershy!"

"Goodbye." The mare gave him a small wave, which he returned as he went back.

As he headed back inside he went to the back room where he found Applejack and Rainbow Dash lying on the ground. Big Macintosh however, was still at the table, still not drunk, but seemed to be headed that way. "'Ey Big Mac? What happened to them?"

"Passed out." Mac mumbled as he just decided to keep on going with his drink, having endured enough craziness for the night.

"Oh, ok." Shingo said, nodding in understanding.

~Another Like Me~

"Then you basically tried to pick them up, but ended up tiring yourself out and just fell asleep next to them." Twilight finished as Shingo continued to stare at her, mouth hanging wide open at the tale he had just been told.

"Okay there's no way all of that could've happened!" Shingo tried to deny it, but Twilight's calm smile told him otherwise as he sighed in defeat. "That really happened didn't it?"

"Yup, and this is the version where I left out the part where you stage dived with Vinyl Scratch into the punch bowl, or the part where you looked at your reflection in a doorknob with Pinkie, and just bobbed back and forth going 'wooo wooo,' or-"

"Okay I think I get it." Shingo replied cutting her off as he tried not to imagine those scenarios in his head. "Well, thanks for letting the party be at your place anyway."

"It's no problem Shingo, you're welcome here anytime!" Twilight said giving him a warm smile, "just don't get drunk too often though," she added with a smirk.

"Nope, never again!" Shingo agreed as they both shared a laugh between themselves. Just then they heard the sound of a door opening, and turned to see that Applejack and Rainbow Dash had finally awoken from their respective slumbers.

"Oh man...that was some party last night!" Rainbow Dash said as he yawned and gave her wings a couple of flaps.

"No kiddin' there RD!" Applejack agreed before a look of horror crossed her face, "aw horseapples! I was supposed to watch the girls today, but I still haven't finished my work at the Acres! Aw man...what'll I do..." The mare paced around nervously as she contemplated what to do. It was then that Shingo decided to speak up.

"Hey Applejack, I'll watch the girls for today if you want!" He volunteered as the mare gave a sigh of relief.

"Oh that would be mighty helpful of ya' Shingo! Thanks!" She said as she gave a grateful smile towards him.

"No problem!" He said with a grin, "you guys have done so much for me already, I'd be glad to return the favor! Besides! How hard could watching three fillies be?" He asked the mares, who stared at him a little bit before giving each other knowing smiles. "What?" Shingo asked as he saw the looks they were giving each other.

"Nothin' Shingo!" Applejack said waving any suspicions away, "IHere, you can walk with me to the Acres and I'll show you to the spot they're usually at if you want!"

"Sure that'd be great!"

"Alright then! Let's head out!" The farm-pony declared as she and Shingo headed towards the door. "Alright, see ya' later Twi! Later RD!" She said, waving to the two mares as she and her companion headed out. After the two left, Rainbow Dash turned towards the unicorn.

"So Twilight? What exactly happened last night?" The mare asked out of curiosity. This question made the Element of Magic smirk, as it gave her another chance to tell the epic tale once again. This time she'd include everything that happened.

"Well...it all started..." Twilight began as Rainbow settled in to hear the story...

So remember kids, don't do the whole alcohol thing, or else things might get out of hand. Tune in next Wednesday for the epic time with Shingo and the Cutie Mark Crusader Adventures!