Another Like Me

Alright everybody BoldBlue is back again with another chapter of this story, and this time we're finally going to confront someone related to Diamonds...and...Tiaras...I just gave it away didn't I? Oh well! Without anymore delay here's the next chapter of Another Like Me!

"Ah it is good to be home again." Princess Celestia sighed deeply in contentment, enjoying the air of Canterlot that she had missed while she had been away. As she neared the castle she smiled as she saw that her younger sister, Princess Luna, had been waiting for her arrival.

"Welcome home dear sister!" Luna called out happily as she saw her sister come in for a landing that was as graceful as it was majestic. "We have missed thee very much while thou were on the trip to the Griffon Kingdom!"

"It is good to see you as well Luna! How has Canterlot and the rest of our fair nation been while I was away?" Celestia asked as she and her sibling turned to walk inside their castle, each of them nodding to the guards that bowed in respect to them as they passed.

"Oh it has been a slow couple of days to say the least. In fact, were it not for the occasional prank I played on some of the court members, the time would have been simply sleep-inducing!" The dark blue alicorn said as she faked a yawn to emphasize her point.

"Pranks hm? I suppose you borrowed the supplies from the element of Laughter?" Celestia gave an amused smile, knowing that the pink party pony from Ponyville was known to have a variety of tools to prank somepony with.

"Why of course! Ever since the day I went to the Nightmare Night celebration, I took the advice of Twilight Sparkle and her friends and began to partake in much more...modern activities." The princess of the night couldn't hide a smirk as she recounted the pranking spree she had recently engaged in. "Poor chancellor!" She thought with a small giggle, "I hope he still isn't made about that bowl of soup!"

"Ah speaking of my faithful student and her friends!" Celestia said, snapping Luna out of her thoughts, "has she sent any reports as of late?"

"Ah, now that thou mentions it, she did in fact send one just yesterday!" Luna said in realization, bringing out the aforementioned piece of parchment.

"Alright, let's have a look at this..." The older alicorn muttered as she unraveled the parchment.

Dear Princess Celestia,

Today I am not writing to you about friendship, but rather a phenomenon that has occurred about a minute ago. It was a strange occurrence that I found to be located somewhere in the Everfree Forest. Judging by what I sensed, it seemed to be massive fluctuation of energy that seemed to be comprised of magic, and something else...the girls and I will investigate this event tomorrow morning, as the Everfree is most dangerous at night. Hopefully I will be able to isolate the cause of the energy surge, and will update you on any information I can procure.

Your faithful student,

Twilight Sparkle

"Luna, you said this was sent yesterday correct?" The pure white alicorn inquired of her midnight blue sibling.

"Actually, it was sent the night before yesterday's morning now that we recall." The younger of the two said, correcting herself.

"Hm...Luna, you would not mind taking a trip later this evening to Ponyville in order to check on my student's current status in her investigation would you?"

"Of course not dear sister! We would be happy to give thee a chance to rest!"

"Thank you Luna, now I think we both should get some rest if you don't mind me saying, it's been a long week!" The alicorn said, covering her mouth as she gave a slight yawn.

"We agree completely! Good day dear sister!" Luna said bidding her older sister farewell as they each retired to their quarters.

"Now just what could that energy fluctuation have meant..." Celestia thought as she headed towards her private chambers, "hm...I suppose I shall find out this evening..." Though the princess was exhausted from her trip, she could not shake the feeling that something was about to happen, and whether that was a good or bad thing, she could not tell...

~Another Like Me~

Shingo awoke in his hospital bed to find that it was pretty early in the morning. Normally, no normal pony or human would've woken up at 6:00 in the morning of his own accord without an agenda, but due to his old habits of training with Kyo and the others, he usually woke up around this time anyways. Surprisingly enough, he felt great despite all the crusading mishaps that had happened yesterday.

"I guess I just needed a break from my everyday routine! It felt good just to mess around for no reason like that!" Shingo muttered as he remembered the many misadventures he'd had yesterday with the Cutie Mark Crusaders. As he was recalling the events, the door opened and revealed what looked to be a pony doctor. The stallion had a brown mane and a tan coat while wearing the standard doctor's apparel, complete with glasses and a stethoscope.

"Ah good morning Mr...Shingo is it?" The doctor asked him as he took a look at his clipboard.

"That's me sir!" Shingo replied with a smile.

"Well sir everything seems to check out, it says here that you took a moderate blow to the head while... zip-lining into the mayor's office?" The stallion said bewildered at the last part.

"Um...that's kind of a long story doc." Shingo said with a chuckle as he scratched his head nervously.

"Oh...well I suppose I'll take your word for it." The medical official shrugged and continued on with his report, "well you don't seem to have a concussion, which is good, and there are no other problems that we've discovered, so I'd say that you're free to go!" The pony looked up with a smile. "Just gave me a minute to sort out the paperwork and I'll have you right out of here!"

"Gee thanks doctor?"

"Stable."

"Thanks doctor Stable, I really appreciate it!" The blue stallion said gratefully as he shook the other's hoof in greeting.

"You're very welcome my good stallion, I'm just doing my job! Now if you'll excuse me!" The doctor said as he went to go finalize the necessary paperwork for Shingo's release. As the stallion left the former King of Fighters competitor decided he'd get out of bed and at least stretch a little.

"I may not be able to train with anyone right now, but that doesn't mean I can't do my job without being all limbered up!" He thought as he began to stretch his legs, which had almost fallen asleep from their lack of use for the past couple of hours. After stretching a bit, saw that his headband had been removed from his head, and had been placed on the nightstand next to his bed. "Can't forget my lucky headband, who knows what I'll run into today!" He told himself as he placed the item over his mane.

After a couple more minutes the doctor had finally come back with a puzzled look on his face. "Uh Mr. Shingo, please come here for a moment if you will."

"Sure thing!" Shingo responded as he went over to the physician, "what seems to be the trouble?"

"Well, it's the strangest thing!" The doctor said, obviously confused by what he'd found, "I was looking through the records to see if we had you on file, and for some reason the nurses said you didn't even have a record from anywhere in Equestria! You don't happen to know why that is?"

"Oh crud! That's right they couldn't possibly have any record on me!" Shingo froze as he resisted to urge to face-hoof himself. He was about to tell the doctor a terrible tale about how his hometown had tragically gotten hit by a pack of hungry hydras, but suddenly the group from yesterday come and interrupted the conversation, much to his relief.

"Hey Shingo! Ready for your first day of community service?" Ditzy Doo asked cheerfully.

"Yeah! I just need to talk to Doctor Stable about some-"

"Oh no it's quite alright sir!" The doctor cut him off, understanding the urgency of such a job, "we can discuss this at a later date if you'd like!"

"That'd be great doc!" Shingo said giving a grin as the group left and bid the nurses a farewell. Once they had left the hospital, Shingo wiped the sweat that had begun to form on his brow and sighed in relief. "Phew! Dodged a bullet there!"

"So Shingo how was your stay in the hospital?" Rainbow asked curiously.

"Eh, not too bad, it was a bit boring though..." Shingo said remembering how he had tried to entertain himself after the others had left the day before.

"I know! The last time I was there, it got so boring!" Rainbow agreed, remembering the last time she'd stayed in there and how she'd tried literally everything to keep from 'dying of boredom' as she'd put it. "I mean, it wasn't that bad because I read this- I mean uh, yeah it was pretty boring!" The mare fumbled, trying to cover up the fact that she'd actually read something for entertainment. However, Shingo grinned, having caught this little piece of information, and figured that he'd tease her a little.

"Wait what was that?" He asked as he held a hoof up to his ear, as if he hadn't heard her.

"Nothing!" The cyan pegasus yelped as a blush of embarrassment spread across her cheeks at one of her secrets being found out.

"Huh...funny, I never took you as one to be an egghead like Twilight!" Shingo said in a teasing manner.

"I am not an egghead!" Rainbow said as she gagged at the word that she'd described the lavender unicorn as so many times before.

"Aw lighten up Dashie!" Shingo said as he ruffled the mare's mane, making her blush deepen in response to the affectionate gesture, "I'm only joking, besides, it's not such a bad thing to read a book or two once in while!"

"I guess I can't disagree with you there!" Rainbow said while finally getting rid of the redness in her cheeks, "but I'm still going to get you back for that one!" She said as she stuck her tongue out at the stallion.

"I'll be counting on it!" The stallion said with a smirk, knowing very well that she'd get him back in some form or another. After that, Rainbow bid goodbye to the group and flew off to go do her job as the local weather patrol pony. After continuing on a bit, they passed a house that was revealed to be Ditzy Doo's own household. She told the fillies and Shingo to wait a moment as she went into her house in order to get something, or somepony as they soon saw the grey mare come out with what looked to be a small unicorn filly that had the color scheme of its mother.

"Shingo, I'd like to introduce you to somepony very special to me!" The mare said happily as she nudged the filly to come forward, but the little unicorn, intimidated by the older stallion, hid behind her mother. "Oh Dinky it's ok, there's nothing to be afraid of! This is one of my newest friends that I met just yesterday, and he's going to be in school with you, now say hello!" The older mare gently ushered Dinky towards Shingo, the latter kneeling a little in order to be closer to her level. This seemed to work because now Dinky wasn't quite so scared as she was before now that she noticed the care of which Shingo was trying to treat her with.

"H-hello, my name is Dinky Doo...nice to meet you!" The filly stammered as she shakily extended a hoof. As Shingo shook her hoof, there was only one question going through his mind.

"Are all the children here really *this** adorable?" He asked himself, "I mean seriously I think if everyone on earth just got one of them per person we'd be so enamored with these little ones that world peace wouldn't have a problem!*"

"Anyways, I've got to go!" Ditzy said as she smiled at the meeting of her daughter and the blue stallion, "my shift starts in a little while and I don't want to be late for it! Take care you all!" The mare called out as she flew off towards Ponyville's central hub. "Oh by the way Shingo! Rarity sent you this!" The postmare called out as a package was dropped above the recipient. It landed right in front of Shingo with a thump, and was a box that was wrapped quite nicely, almost as if the giver had taken extreme care to make even the packaging look as glamorous as possible.

"Oh wow something from my sister? Let's see what it is!" Sweetie Belle said excitedly.

"Yeah open it open it!" Applebloom cheered as Shingo began to tear off the packaging. After the storm of flying wrapping paper, the box was finally opened and to the stallion's surprise, he found that the gift was something unexpected.

"Hey! It's your old stuff!" Scootaloo called out in a bit of recognition.

"Oh wow she really got everything right! Even down to the material and designs on it!" Shingo said ecstatic at getting his outfit back. Of course the gloves were made to accommodate hooves instead of hands, but that was really the only difference. He put it on quite rapidly, and once everything was on he turned to the fillies. "So how do I look?" He asked as he fiddled with his gloves. The girls grinned and gave him hooves up of approval. They would've admired the outfit more, but suddenly a clock chimed off in the distance, signaling the passing of another hour.

"Oh no, 7:00!" Applebloom cried out in horror, "but class starts in 30 minutes!"

"And if we're late again Ms. Cheerilee is going to give us detention!" Sweetie Belle said equally terrified of the possible punishments that awaited them if they were tardy.

"No worries guys, I got this!" Scootaloo said as she went over to a tree and pulled out a scooter from behind it, as well as what looked to be a red wooden wagon that was attached to the scooter. The rest of the crusaders and Dinky knew what to do and hopped into wagon as they looked at Shingo expectantly, waiting for him to hop in with them.

"Are you sure this wagon will hold all of us?" The stallion asked skeptically, eyeing the small wagon that seemed to barely fit the three fill as it is, and this made him wonder whether the wagon would break under the weight of all of them.

"A' course!" Applebloom said as she gave him an assuring look, "this thing is a lot sturdier than it looks!" The others nodded in agreement, making Shingo shrug and hop in. It was a bit of a tight squeeze to fit in, but eventually everypony got settled just fine, and much to Shingo's surprise, the wagon did hold all of them without a problem.

"Huh, well what do you know? This wagon is pretty sturdy!" He thought as Scootaloo began to take off, pulling the wagon with a bit of a struggle at first, but as they accelerated the inertia helped take some of the load off of the orange filly. Soon, they began to see a quaint little building enclosed by a white wooden fence. The building itself reminded the former fighter of a small church that he knew of in his town, as it had a steeple with a small bell on top, which served mainly to signal the children for different reasons. There was also a small red flag raised up on its pole, and a playground for the fillies and colts to play in during recess.

"Well, here we are!" Scootaloo declared as they all jumped off the scooter and wagon. Suddenly, they heard a bell that signaled the start of class ring out, startling everypony into a state of urgency.

"Oh no we're gonna' be late!" Applebloom cried out as they all galloped inside the school, Shingo cursing his luck due to the fact that being late on his first day of community service wasn't really the best way to make a first impression.Once they got inside the school they found the last of their fellow students trickling in to the classroom which was almost about to shut. The group made a last ditch effort as they dove into the classroom with a cry of desperation, and much to their relief, they made it in just as the door shut.

"Well it's not the best entrance we could've made, but at least it wasn't too bad..." Shingo thought to himself as they picked themselves up, only to find the teacher, Ms. Cheerilee, tapping her hoof as she gave the fillies a stern look. "I take that back, this is terrible." he hastily corrected himself as Cheerilee flashed him a look as if he were a student of hers as well. As Applebloom, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Dinky Doo took their seats, Cheerilee motioned for the stallion to come with her to the head of the classroom.

"Children, settle down please!" She said, getting the attention of her students, who stopped the conversations that they had been engaged in, and faced the mare at the front. "Alright, I'd like to introduce you to our new assistant teacher, Mr. Shingo! He'll be helping out around the school for a couple of weeks, so please be on your best behavior for him, understand?" The  students nodded in response to her question, signifying their agreement. "Good, now before we begin I'd like to speak to him for a moment so quietly talk amongst yourselves!"

As the children struck up their own conversations once again the schoolteacher motioned Shingo over to her desk, and offered him a seat next to her, which he took with a bit of hesitance, not knowing exactly how the mare would react to his tardiness on his first day.

"So...Shingo...care to explain exactly what made you late on your first day?" Cheerilee asked with a frown on her face. Shingo gulped at seeing this look on the teacher's face and knew that the situation was quickly flying south.

"Well-I-uh-well you see..." Shingo sputtered out as he tried to explain himself, but was failing as his nervous feelings got the better of him and caused his train of thought to derail rapidly. However after a bit of this Cheerilee could no longer keep a straight face and began to giggle. "Wha?" Shingo thought in confusion, wondering why she could possibly be laughing in this type of situation.

"I-I'm sorry!" The cerise colored mare said apologetically as she got her laughter under control. "You just looked so nervous I just had to poke fun a little!"

"So...you're not mad then?" Shingo asked tentatively.

"Of course not!" Cheerilee replied as a cheerful smile lit her face. "However, I'd still like to know why you were in the hospital exactly? Mayor Mare didn't tell me too much about the situation due to having to 'order a new desk' as she put it."

"Wow, I really hit the desk *that** hard?*" Shingo muttered in shock as he began to recall the events of the day before. "Well the reason I was in the hospital was because I got into a couple of...sticky situations to say the least." He said cringing as he now found himself with an aversion to something other than milk: tree sap.

"Cutie Mark Crusading?" The teacher asked him with a knowing smile.

"Hey how'd you know?" He asked with a chuckle.

"Oh trust me, I've heard enough of stories about their many capers to know what you were getting into." She smirked at this, remembering the many times Applejack and Rarity had spoken to her about the tomfoolery the fillies had gotten into.

"Yeah, I guess that's why Applejack wished me good luck before I started the job eh?" Shingo said grinning sheepishly as the pair shared a light bout' of laughter. "Oh speaking of jobs!" He said in realization, "what exactly did you need me to help with around here?"

"Well, most of the things I'll need you to do I can tell you to help with as they happen, but nothing too hard really." The mare said as she mulled over the list of things to do in her mind. "The first thing that I need you to do is to grade these papers from our test we had the other day, here is the key to grade them, and you can use one of the offices across the hall to do the job." She explained as she handed him the necessary materials.

"Will do Ms. Cheerilee!" He said, giving her a little bow, which made her give out a short laugh, and left the room to finish his first task of the day. Once he found the office he set the stack of papers down and began to grade. The test was over basic equestrian history, and even though it was an elementary school child's test, Shingo found himself studying up on the key, at least to learn some rudimentary facts since he knew little about the land he had fallen into. "Huh...so the sun and moon are actually raised here each day by two giant ponies..." Shingo whispered with interest, "...Copernicus is probably rolling in his grave right now." As he read a couple more things he also learned a little about the founding of Equestria itself. "Hm...Commander Hurricane sounds pretty awesome, but Private Pansy...seriously who gave that poor guy that last name?" He thought to himself.

After a minute or so he realized that he still hadn't started to actually grade any papers, and snapped back to what he was supposed to be doing and began to read through each student's test quite quickly. "Hm, those Snips and Snails kids didn't do too well, giving us males a bad reputation here..." he thought with mild distaste at the respective scores of 58 and 45. "Hm...let's see...Sweetie Belle didn't do too badly, got herself an 83! Applebloom as well with an 87!" He thought, feeling a sense of pride for the two fillies. "Dinky here did great, with a 93!" He thought impressed as he gave a small whistle of approval. "Ah here's Scootaloo's test, let's see she got...uh oh..." he stopped as he added up the numbers of right and wrong answers on her paper.

"Hello Shingo how's the first day on the job going?" Asked a certain lavender unicorn, who startled Shingo into accidentally dropping his pencil.

"Gah-ah-hey Twilight what are you doing here?" The stallion asked in confusion at seeing the librarian at the school.

"Oh I was just talking to Ms. Cheerilee about a shipment of books that she needed for one of her lessons!" Twilight explained, making Shingo nod in understanding, "so what are you up to in here?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh nothin' really, just grading a few papers from the test these guys had the other day." He responded.

"Oh that's nice!" The mare said with a smile as she began to leave, "well I need to go, Spike is alone at the library right now and I need to make sure he didn't get into our ice cream supplies again."

"Huh, well you better hurry, otherwise you might get the cold shoulder when you get back." He said with a grin, "that was a terrible pun..." he thought, wincing inwardly, but it still managed to get a soft chuckle out of the mare as she said goodbye to him, and left him back to grading tests.

Facing his task once again he came back to the obstacle that had presented itself before Twilight had come in, "Scootaloo with a 69...just one more point and she would've passed..." he thought sadly. "Should I really? I mean it'd be helping her out a little...but that's academic dishonesty...but it's Scootaloo..." He groaned as he slumped his head on the desk, his brain in a mental tug-of-war on whether to help pass the orange filly or not. Finally, he sighed and just gave in, changing one of the multiple choice answers to the right one. "Well I hope this was worth it." He thought as he sighed once again and went back to grading the rest of the papers.

Finally, after a few more minutes, he had finished off the last test and gathered up all the papers into one stack. He trotted out and began to head back towards the classroom. On the way back he suddenly had a thought, "how am I grabbing things if I only have hooves..." after a bit of contemplation he decided to shrug it off since many of the things in this land seemed to defy physics as it was, Pinkie Pie being the most prominent thing he could think of. He then arrived at the classroom, and went in, finding that all the children had left the room while he was out, leaving Cheerilee to be the only occupant of the classroom. As he trotted in the teacher looked up from the lesson plan that she was preparing and saw him coming in.

"Ah, Shingo, done already?" She asked with mild surprise.

"Yup! All done just like you asked!" The stallion replied with a smile as he handed the stack of papers. "Honest test graders around the world forgive me..." he thought as he remembered what he'd done to Scootaloo's paper.

"Alrighty then, well for now I just need you to go outside and keep an eye on the children outside." Cheerilee said with a smile as she told him his next objective.

"Got it!" Shingo said as he went out to do his newly assigned duty.

~Another Like Me~

Scootaloo, Applebloom, and Sweetie Belle had been glad to get out of class for the break they had for recess. The three fillies had never been the types to just sit still in a classroom or anywhere else for that matter. They always needed something to do, and this type of mindset was what usually got them into trouble in the classroom a lot of the time. Ms. Cheerilee however knew that they weren't bad fillies, just restless ones who, when looking at the heart of the problem, really only wanted the one thing that everypony else had: their cutie marks.

Of course, right now the group of fillies had just finished a rousing game of dodgeball, and were now taking down some more ideas that they had for more crusading exploits. However, as they were working on their lists, a hoof snatched the papers up from them in a swift movement, making them turn in annoyance towards what was revealed to be none other than their current archenemies of the schoolyard, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon.

"Well if it isn't the Blank Flank Bearers!" The pink filly said in a mocking parody of the group's name.

"That's the Cutie Mark Crusaders! And give that back!" Applebloom growled in annoyance at the bully. Unfortunately Diamond and her friend Silver Spoon simply kept the farm-filly at bay with a game of keep away.

"Hey leave Applebloom alone!" Sweetie Belle called out angrily as she tried to help her friend get the paper back. Even with the new helper, the crusaders just weren't fast enough to catch the paper. Scootaloo watched this with growing frustration.

"Why can't she just leave us alone?" The orange pegasus thought in anger, "why does she keep messing with us like this?" Finally, she decided to speak up, "that's enough Diamond Tiara, leave my friends alone!" However, despite the filly's burst of courage she received when she spoke out, she tensed up as the bullies turned and faced her.

"You say something no-wings?" The bully said smirking at the orange filly.

"Yeah, I said leave my friends alone!" Scootaloo cried out, fighting off the anxiousness she was beginning to feel.

"Oh really, and who's gonna' make us you? A pegasus who can't even fly?" Silver Spoon said as she snickered. Scootaloo didn't reply, and only maintained an aggressive stance.

"Oh, look at you getting all ready to duke it out!" Diamond Tiara smirked as she saw Scootaloo getting ready to fight. "You know I wouldn't do that if I were you, if you did I'd tell Ms. Cheerilee."

"Who's to say she wouldn't believe me over you?" Scootaloo challenged bravely.

"That's hilarious!" The pink filly gave a short laugh as she smiled deviously, "think about it no-wings, you and those other two are always getting into trouble during class, and around town. With a track record like yours, why would she ever believe you over me?" The earth pony gave a look of triumph as she saw her adversary's stance begin to revert back to normal. "Face it, everybody in Ponyville only knows you as a troublemaker, a deviant, and a failure, both for your inability to fly, and your lack of Cutie Mark."

"Hey Tiara that was outta' line!" Applebloom tried to speak up for her friend, but the bully ignored her and continued the verbal assault.

"What? I've said nothing that isn't true!" The haughty filly said before turning back to Scootaloo, who was doing her best to remain calm, "you think that you're special, that you'll ever amount to something worthwhile? Think again you loser!" Diamond spat out harshly, "you think you'll ever accomplish your pathetic goals of being like your idol Rainbow Dash? Ha! I'd be surprised if she even throws a passing glance your way even though you're the president of that little fan-club you run!"

"No, don't let her words get to you!" Scootaloo chided herself mentally as she tried to fortify her internal defenses as wave after wave left her emotional walls wearing thin. However, some part of her, kept telling her that maybe the filly standing before her was right...she gritted her teeth as she tried to fight back a tear that was coming to her eye.

"Face it...you're nothing but a lost little Scootachicken, destined to never be anything great!" The orange filly cringed at the horrid nickname she had been given during the time she'd been here. "Scoot-a-Chick-en Scoot-a-Chick-en!" The two bullies began chanting the nickname over and over again, breaking Scootaloo's defenses even more. The straw that broke the camel's back however, was the fact that a group had formed due to the commotion being put out by the small group. Of the crowd that had gathered, many of the fillies began chanting the same thing, naive to the true consequences of their actions.

"Why?" Was all Scootaloo could think as the last bit of her emotional fortifications came crumbling down. Her mouth began to quiver at its edges and tears began to stream down her face. She did her best to hide her face as the crowd chanted the insulting nickname over and over again. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle tried their best to resolve the situation, trying desperately to move through the crowd and calling out their fellow crusader's name, but to no avail.

Shingo himself had been walking through the hall ways when he'd caught a glimpse of what was happening outside through a nearby window. At first he hadn't been able to hear what was being said, only that the crusaders were being messed with by a pair of fillies that looked to come from rich families by the looks of it, but once he opened the window to hear what was going on, he listened, horrified by the words were being said. He then began to gallop, and burst through the entrance doors of the school, eyeing the area of the playground where Scootaloo had been before.

As he heard more yelling he quickly turned and began to run, and saw that a crowd had gathered over where he had seen the previously small group. As he turned to gallop towards the group, a pair of voices startled him.

"Are you going over there?" It was Dinky Doo who had asked this question. Shingo nodded in response, making the filly sigh in relief. The other filly, who had a curly red mane, a light amber-gray coat, and glasses, was next to speak up.

"That meanie Diamond Tiara was always picking on them, we'd try to help, but every time we tried to stick up for them she'd turn to us and picking on us as well. I think after a while we just gave up...we're sorry..." The filly said sadly as Dinky nodded guiltily, confirming the story as true. Shingo however, knelt down and gave them pats of reassurance.

"It's alright girls," he said with a small smile, "I know it's hard to defend your friends from people like that, nobody can judge for feeling afraid to do something like that, because it takes a lot of courage to speak out like that. Thanks for at least trying to do that!" This seemed to make the fillies brighten up considerably, and with that, Shingo turned back to the crowd he had seen before, and his eyes widened at the sight of Scootaloo, who's face was one that bore a pain and sadness he had not seen in a long time. It was a look of lost hopes, one that he himself had felt the effects of only a couple of years before.

"Please, stop it you guys!" He heard Sweetie Belle call out, and saw that her words had no effect on the crowd whatsoever, as they continued to chant something over and over again, and it was obvious to him that it couldn't have been anything good. After assessing the situation, he knew what he had to do, and began to gallop towards the crowd.

"No! I will not let this happen!" He vowed silently as he neared the huge huddle, "I will *not** let her be cast on the same path that I had to tread! She doesn't deserve that! No one does!" Seconds away from the crowd he had one last thought, "I will not let you be hurt any longer Scootaloo...not like I was..." and with that the group of colts and fillies noticed his presence, and parted to let him in. "Let's do this...*" Shingo thought determinedly as he eyed the group within the crowd, already planning his moves out to end this turmoil...

Aw what? A cliffhanger? Yes I'm afraid so dear readers. Don't worry, I'll be back on Wednesday with the next part! In fact, the only reasons I did this chapter in two parts was because it was way too long originally, and I also didn't want to rush the confrontation with Diamond Tiara and have it end up being all crappy and what not, so that's why I'm taking a couple extra days to actually plan it out and see where my ideas take me! So like I said, see you guys on Wednesday!