Another Like Me

Author's Note: ...Let's do this...

Shingo entered the center of the crowd with a bit of a skid as he halted his gallop suddenly, his inertia pulling up a few small clouds of dirt as his momentum diminished. Looking around, he noticed that the playground had fallen silent, and that the fillies and colts around obviously respected the older stallions and mares, as they did not utter a single word, and recoiled a tiny bit whenever his gaze covered their positions, as if they were expecting him to be angry at a specific individual. He noticed that even Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon had stopped as well, though they had been the ringleaders of the whole thing in question.

He noticed that the sunny weather had somehow been taken over by a wall of clouds that reflected that were a darker shade of gray, producing a dreary effect that he found quite fitting in this situation. He then looked back to Scootaloo, and saw her calming down, wiping a few tears that had accumulated in her eyes. She also looked quite curious as to what he was going to do, and in all honesty, the stallion himself did not know what he was about to say and do.

"What do ya' think he's gonna' do Sweetie Belle?" Applebloom whispered to the small unicorn filly as the younger sister of Rarity simply shrugged in response. They didn't really have a clear view of what was going on since they had been pushed back to the outer edge of the crowd, but when everypony had suddenly stopped so suddenly, they knew immediately that Shingo had been involved, and could at least see where he and their fellow crusader were now that the crowd had stopped pushing them out.

"Maybe he's going to finally put a stop to Diamond Tiara's bullying?" Sweetie Belle whispered back to her friend as they both looked back towards the center of the circle, not wanting to miss a second of what was about to happen.

"Alright can anypony please explain what's going on here?" Shingo asked calmly. He looked around the circle, expecting an answer, but no one responded to the question, much like he had expected. Applebloom, noticing the silence, decided to speak up.

"Well Mr. Shingo," she began as he turned to where she was, "me, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo were all just comin' up with some more crusading ideas, and then Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon came and took our paper, and then they just started callin' Scootaloo a whole buncha' nasty names!" Shingo knew that what she said had been true, and was proud that she'd been honest. However, he also noticed that at the mention of what they had done, the two fillies who had been bullying the crusaders gave a glare to the youngest Apple sibling.

"Diamond Tiara? Silver Spoon?" He asked with a new tone of seriousness, making the pair whip around to face him, "is this true?"

"W-well u-uh maybe..." the pink tiara-bearing filly responded, afraid of what the older pony's response would be, "but it's not like we did anything that bad!" She said hastily as she tried to lessen the impact of what she'd said in his eyes, thinking that he'd at least take her word into account.

Now normally Shingo would have at least treated their sides of the story equally, but seeing as he'd heard every word of what she'd said, he could no longer have an unbiased judgement. This fact made him sigh in response as he turned towards the crowd of schoolchildren, who hadn't moved a single muscle for fear of getting a bit of punishment themselves.

"Everypony not originally involved in this is free to leave." He said, the fillies and colts who fell under that category were more than happy to oblige his orders, and promptly went back to what they were doing before they had gathered.This left the group of Scootaloo, Shingo, Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon, and Applebloom and Sweetie Belle, who had come to the side of their fellow crusader and stood by her. As Shingo watched the crowd leave he paused for a second, and then proceeded to turn back to the group he was now with.

"Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, would you say that both of your words were some of the most terrible things to say?" The stallion asked, deciding to take a different approach to the situation.

"W-well I-I guess so..." Silver Spoon stammered out as the stallion raised an eyebrow at what she'd said, the serious look on his face never wavering.

"You guess?" He asked incredulously as he parroted her words, "so that means that there is some doubt that your words, that made one of your peers cry, weren't harmful?" At this, both of the bullies figured out something very important. He knew. However, contrary to what Shingo expected, instead of trying to worm their way out of the situation like he thought they would, he actually saw looks of guilt upon their faces as they remained silent, each of them considering what he'd said.

"Well, yeah they were pretty terrible now that we think about it..." The grey filly admitted, guilt etched upon her face as she turned to look at her partner, who nodded in agreement while she bore a matching look upon her countenance. In fact, the two had never actually taken a moment to look back at the things they'd said, to reflect upon the things they'd spoken to numerous colts and fillies at their school. As they'd picked on their fellow classmates and peers, in the heat of the moment they'd simply seen it as harmless teasing and all in good fun for them. However, as Shingo's words forced them to remember what they had done, they both realized just how horrible they truly had been to the other ponies in the school.

"Yeah, I guess we never really thought about what we were saying..." Diamond Tiara said, staring down at the ground. She then looked back up to Shingo with a look of sadness painted on her visage. She then found herself saying something she'd never actually said before, "I'm sorry..."

"Yeah, me too..." Silver Spoon said, in genuine agreement with the pink filly. Shingo studied their faces for a minute, trying to find some sign of any doubt or deceit that might have lay beneath the surface, but as far as he could tell, they were being completely honest.

"Ah don't think they're lying..." Applebloom whispered to herself in disbelief as she saw the two bullies apologize to Shingo. Now, she wasn't the Element of Honesty like her sister Applejack, but she could tell when a pony was lying or not, and she couldn't find any trace on the pink and gray fillies' faces that might've told her that they didn't mean what they'd said. Looking to her friends' faces she saw that they too had seen what she'd saw.

"Well whether or not you truly are sorry." Shingo said, "I think I need to explain something..." he said, taking a deep breath before asking them a question, "you all know the saying 'sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me?'" The fillies all nodded in response to his question, having heard the saying a few times before, "well that's not true at all," the stallion said in a matter-of-fact tone, "actually it can sometimes be said that the opposite is true..."

"You mean that getting hurt physically is better than getting hurt by words?" Sweetie Belle asked curiously, not knowing what to make of his statement.

"Yes. That's exactly it." Shingo nodded in response to her question. "Physical pain is just that, pain that we endure when getting hit by a certain force on the outside, and most ponies around here would probably say that getting hurt physically would be worse, but that's because they haven't really looked at it like I have..." he said looking to the sky, taking a pause before he continued, "the pain when we get hit or trip and fall may seem worse because it's more real to us, our nerves and our brains tell us it's that the pain is there, and that we need to go to a hospital to have it treated somehow."

He then turned to face the fillies and looked at Scootaloo in particular as he said the next part, "but words...words have a much more profound effect. When one gets hurt by words the pain may or may not be too great, and after the initial attack of insults or mockery we endure, we think it's ok, and that it's all over. However, the memories of those words stay inside us, inside our hearts and our minds, waiting, haunting us every time we make a mistake, or something bad happens to us. Those words that were said to us come back as strong as they were the day they were spoken, and hit us when we're at our lowest points, or have our guard lowered...words...speak volumes and last lifetimes...they can spread happiness, joy, or trust, building these things up, but also capable of tearing them down in an instant...words are very powerful things...depending on the choice of the wielder they can make or break somepony..." He concluded and over to the orange pegasus filly, "Scootaloo and I know this better than anyone..."

Everypony was left unable to speak by his words as they all had looks of awe on their faces. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were especially affected by this speech because they finally understood the consequences words could have upon a pony, and were saddened by what this implied for the things they'd said before. However, just as they were about to tell Shingo that they understood what he'd said, the bell that signified the start of class rang out, and all the colts and fillies on the playground began to leave. As the duo left, they took one last look at the group, and were about to try and apologize once more, but Shingo caught their eye and nodded as he gave them a gentle smile, showing that he knew that they had truly meant their apologies.

Scootaloo had been rendered speechless by what the stallion had said. No pony she'd ever known had ever said anything quite like that, while taking down two of the biggest bullies around Ponyville no less! However, as she saw the stallion facing away from her, she went up to him and asked him a simple question, "why?" Though she already knew the answer in her mind.

"I...I couldn't bear to see you suffer like that...not like I had..." He said, his voice almost a whisper. However, the filly heard him loud and clear, his response filling her with happiness. In her heart she knew only one thing could display the mix of gratitude and joy she felt for him right now, and enveloped him in a tight hug. "Thank you." She said looking up to his face with tears in her eyes once again, but this time ones that told of her happiness rather than suffering.

"Heh...anytime Scoots." He replied as he returned the embrace, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle joining the hug as well in thanks to Shingo as well for helping out their friend. "Now let's get back to class alright girls?" He asked them after they all had released their grips and gone back to normal. The group of girls nodded, and they walked with the stallion back to class, the sun finally breaking out of the clouds, and reverted to the joyful sunny day it had been at the start of the morning.

However, unbeknownst to the group, a presence had been watching, and listening to them the entire time. It was not one that was visible to a pony's eyes, but rather one that you could feel once you neared its location. The presence was one that was not that showed malevolent or benign intent, but rather gave a sense of panic and frenzy when it was near. "Interesting..." it thought curiously as it watched Shingo and the crusaders enter the school once again, "I summoned that human to this world out of the thought that he belonged to one of the most violent and chaotic races there are, but yet he single-handedly got rid of one of the most prominent sources of chaos in this place..." it gave a small "hm" of contemplation as it continued to think, "humans...perhaps there was more to them than that Orochi character originally thought..."

~Another Like Me~

It had recently become nightfall in Equestria, Luna having recently raised the moon herself while preparing for the task she had volunteered for this morning.

"Hm, alright we shall take Night Stalker and Lunar Edge with us for accompaniment,,," the Alicorn of the night thought as she mentally checked her list of preparations for her trip, which was to begin shortly. She decided that since it would most likely be a short trip to Ponyville, she wouldn't need too many guards as she could most likely take care of any danger that may have popped up herself. As she headed out of the palace and into her carriage she mulled over the things that she had read in the letter her sister's student had sent. "Strange magical fluctuations...could it be...no...he's been in stone for all this time..." she thought, shaking her head at the notion her brain had conceived.

As she walked passed the garden she could not help but admire the handiwork she had done on the sky tonight. Her moon was especially radiant and the stars shone with an extra hint of sparkle than usual. She had been feeling like today was special for some reason, but she didn't know why she thought that, as far as she could remember no one's birthday was today, and no holidays were in order. She shrugged the feeling off as her eyes fell upon the statue of the one she and her sister had banished so long ago: Discord, Chaos Incarnate. She got a wave of uneasiness as she saw the ever-cheerful grin that the statue gave off, but shook it off as she continued on, not wanting to leave the guards and her carriage waiting. "Well it is of no use to worry, it is not like he shall be released any time soon..." The princess muttered to herself as she walked out of the garden.

"Oh you keep telling yourself that princess...you keep telling yourself that..." A voice said mischievously in a voice that was quite enough to hide itself from the alicorn's senses, "but you just wait...the seal is weakening...and soon I will once again chaos shall reign over this land...and this time I won't be alone..."

Yup, that's it for now guys, but I'll be back this Saturday, and this time things get a little more Lunar bound!