Another Like Me

Luna looked out into the domain that she had power over every evening after the sun had set, and her sister’s rule over the celestial plane had ended. A full moon exuded a beautiful, yet ethereal aura from its place in the sky, complemented by the many stars that dotted the rest of the plane like miniature beacons.

However, the princess of the night’s focus was not on the sky tonight, but rather upon the letter she and her sister had received only a few hours prior to her departure. The letter itself had stated alarmingly that a portal of who knows what had appeared, and her sister’s faithful student and her fellow Elements of Harmony had gone to investigate. Normally, such vague news would not have registered such alarm to the younger alicorn, but this time she couldn’t shake the feeling that things were not as they seemed.

“Such an ominous, foreboding feeling I have…this cannot be anything good…” She thought to herself as her eyes scanned the horizon lazily, only seeing the occasional tree or local wildlife roaming around the area.

“Princess Luna?” A voice from the front of her carriage snapped her out of her thoughts.

“Yes Night Stalker?” The princess asked as she brought her attention to the stallion.

“Is everything all right my lady? You seem a bit troubled.” The stallion said with worry.

“No Night Stalker,” Luna said with a sigh, “I am fine.”

“Well forgive me if I don’t believe you my lady but that sigh would indicate that something is amiss.” The guard answered back with a slight laugh, making the princess chuckle at his perceptiveness.

“Indeed you know us too well Night Stalker.” the princess conceded as she smiled slightly, knowing that despite Night Stalker being younger than most of the guards he was always able to sense when something might be wrong. “It’s just that ever since my sister and we received Twilight Sparkle’s letter, we could not shake the feeling of something…lurking…” Luna trailed off as she returned to her thoughtful state once again.

“Well whatever it is I’m sure we can take care of whatever it is, and besides, even if we can’t take it, we still have you, Celestia, and the Elements as backup correct?” The other guard, Lunar Edge, said confidently. “I mean seriously, nothing short of Discord’s return could possibly be that bad right?” The stallion joked, but only caused Luna to furrow her brows as he mentioned the one possibility her mind had mulled over the entire trip. Nevertheless the princess threw out a laugh to appease him.

“I’m sure you’re right Lunar Edge, forgive us for causing any concern to the both of you.” Luna said apologetically as the stallions nodded, acknowledging the apology before turning back to their duties. After that, the rest of the trip towards Ponyville was silent, leaving the alicorn to her thoughts, and eventually leading to her to an ultimatum. “I must tell ‘Tia when I return to Canterlot about my suspicions. Hopefully she can ease my restlessness.” Somehow though, even though her sister had always provided a welcome reprieve from any past events, Luna felt that this time, things would be different, but for better or worse she couldn’t tell for sure.

~~Another Like Me~~

"Oh man that has to be the longest I've ever had to stay at a school in one day!" Shingo muttered tiredly to himself, giving out a short yawn. He and Ms. Cheerilee had just locked up the schoolhouse after a long afternoon of putting textbooks away, sorting through papers, and a bit of planning the lesson for the next day. "Man, I hate to say it but I think I prefer training over this!" He chuckled at this, remembering that Kyo's training had always been quite rigorous.

However, as he kept thinking about his home, his mood became somber as thoughts of his friends and family filled his mind. "I wonder if they're out there looking for me right now, I hope Mr. Kusanagi and the others aren't worrying too much..." he said sadly as he looked up into the sky. However, he then cleared his thoughts with a few shakes of his head. "Come on Shingo," he told himself, "don't get so down on yourself! I'm sure they're doing everything they can to find you a way back home! Besides! You could be a lot worse off! You've found yourself some good friends here!" He smiled as he thought of all the friendly ponies he had met so far.

Just as he was about to start trotting again, he suddenly felt a strange sensation wash over him, and before he knew it, his body emitted a bright flash of light that lingered only for a couple of seconds before dying down. He looked down to find that he had been returned to human form. "Aw crud!" He thought with concern, "It looks like that spell Twilight put on me wore off! Well better here where nopony can see me rather than out in broad daylight. Now I should probably head back to Twilight's house before anyone is able to find me..." He then set off down the path towards Ponyville, and was grateful that conveniently enough his normal outfit as a human was still on him even after being a pony.

Shingo continued to walk down the path until he suddenly heard the bushes rustling behind him. Whipping around towards the source of the sound, he immediately assumed a fighting stance and tensed in preparation for whatever was lurking behind the shrubbery.

"CUTIE MARK CRUSADER MONSTER CATCHERS!!!" Shingo was caught off guard by three familiar fillies suddenly leaping out from behind the bush and tackling him to the ground. He also saw what looked to be a butterfly net cover his face. After a second though he suddenly realized that the trap was quite easy to escape from and got up as the crusaders tried their best to keep him pinned down. Of course, it was an effort comparable to a trio of fruit flies trying to keep a car from moving, and Shingo chuckled as he stood up and gently set them on the ground.

After a quick apology from Scootaloo, who hadn't recognized his silhouette through all the trees, and a bit of explaining to the other crusaders of how he was actually a human from another world, they all began heading back towards the general  direction of Sweet Apple Acres to drop off Apple Bloom back at her home.

"So you and yer' pals actually managed to save the world?" Apple Bloom asked in awe as Shingo told them the story of how Kyo, Iori, and Chizuru had managed to seal the evil Orochi away after he was summoned by his followers.

"Sure did!" Shingo said with a grin as he recalled what had happened afterwards, "after that Mr. Kusanagi and I went back to school, but not before giving me these!" He said as he showed them the blue gloves that Kyo had given him after the tournament. The gloves themselves were fingerless, and were the same hue of dark blue that his jacket and pants were. They also had two gold stripes each, one around the palm area, and another just before the glove ended on his arm. Proudly displayed above the bottom stripes was the symbol of the Kusanagi clan, a ring that had many rays that jutted outward from it's center, and most likely represented the sun.

"He gave you gloves?" Sweetie Belle asked him in confusion, "not money or anything like that?"

"Well we were both kind of broke being high school students and all," Shingo gave a short laugh at this, "in fact, he always gave me lessons in exchange for some food that I offered to bring him, but the gloves were a symbol of how much I progressed that year, and I think from then on he actually considered me officially one of his friends and fellow fighters!"

"Oooh I get it now!" Sweetie Belle said with an understanding smile. As they neared the barn of Sweet Apple Acres Shingo decided that he'd off towards Ponyville.

"I'll see you later girls, I need to head back to Twilight's so she can turn me into a pony again!" He said to them as he turned to leave.

"Aw..." The three girls gave a disappointed groan at this, which halted Shingo's departure. Not wanting to leave on a sad note, he figured hanging out with them for a little bit wouldn't hurt anything.

"Aw come on girls cheer up! How's about we play a good ol' game of tag or something?" He offered, and grinned as the three seemed to perk up at his suggestion. They soon decided that he'd start off being it, and would wait for thirty seconds until he would decide to go and find them.

After the thirty seconds were up he took a quick scan of the area and concluded that none of the three were in his immediate vicinity, and so he decided to go search behind the barn.

As he rifled through the many barrels that had been discarded, he heard a soft giggle come from one of the closed barrels, and silently tip-toed towards the container.

"Ah-ha!" He yelled triumphantly as he lifted the lid dramatically to find...an empty barrel? "Wait but that can't be right..." He said confused as he thoroughly inspected the bottom of the barrel, which yielded no secret switches or compartments like he thought it might have had. "That's strange, I could've sworn..." he muttered as he finally set down the barrel lid, which was strangely heavier than all the rest of the ones he had lifted before. "Wait a minute..." he stopped and yanked the lid back up as he saw Scootaloo, who let out a surprised squeak at being discovered.

"Aw man!" She groaned in defeat, "I was hoping you wouldn't notice!"

"Well Scoots I gotta' hand it to ya', you almost had me!" He said with a chuckle before ruffling her mane playfully, "now come on, let's go find the others!"

"Yeah!" Scootaloo eagerly trotted alongside him as they decided to go look in the apple orchard. Searching the first row of trees, they couldn't find anything out of the ordinary until they came to the very last tree, which seemed as normal as all the rest...that is until an apple randomly fell from one of the branches without any visible force. Looking up, Shingo grinned as he saw Apple Bloom hanging onto a branch.

"Hey Apple Bloom, the jig is up! I found ya'!" He said, trying to coax her to let go of the branch so he could catch her.

"No ya' didn't!" She replied cheekily, sticking her tongue out at him.

"Yeah I did!"

"Nuh uh!"

"Don't make me bring out the secret weapon!" He called out, which only confused Scootaloo and Apple Bloom as to what he meant.

"What secret weapon?" The somewhat concealed filly asked nervously.

"Oh, a little something I like to call SHINGOKIIIICK-UUU!" The human cried out as he suddenly flew forward foot-first and kicked the tree with a force strong enough to rival the buck of an Earth pony. This in turn caused the tree to shake violently, and the once hidden filly cried out as she fell out of the tree and into Shingo's waiting arms.

"Wow Shingo what kind of move was that?" Scootaloo asked excitedly as she ran up to him.

"Yeah what was that? Ah'd say that was enough ta' rival my sister's and maybe even Big Mac's bucks!" Apple Bloom said equally impressed. Shingo chuckled and rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment from the praise, but decided to tell them.

"Well girls, that was none other than my patented Shingo Kick™!" He said, saying the name of his attack with a dramatic flair, "it is a move I came up with during the time I was training with my master, and comes in handy in a lot of situations!" After his explanation of the move, they turned to go find Sweetie Belle, only to find that three large figures were blocking their way.

"Halt!" The figure in the middle said ominously as the three began to approach Shingo, who stepped in front of Scootaloo and Apple Bloom protectively.

"Well this can't be good..." Shingo nervously thought as he gulped.

~~Another Like Me~~

(5 minutes Earlier)

"Princess Luna, we are nearing Sweet Apple Acres, ETA for Ponyville is about 15 more minutes!" Lunar Edge called out from the front of the carriage.

"Thank you Lunar Edge!" The princess called back as she looked out over the immense apple orchard that many a generation of Apple family members had carefully tended to. She had actually managed to get ahold of one of their pies once after her sister had visited Ponyville for a short while, and found it to be the most delicious thing she had ever tasted. As she subconsciously licked her lips in delight at the memory of the pastry, she noticed that three fillies were running around, "Most likely playing a game of some sort," she thought to herself, and sat back in the carriage to relax.

"Aahh!" The cry of a filly jolted her out of her relaxed state, and she immediately looked back towards the ground in alarm. Suddenly, to her horror, she saw some sort of horrid, bipedal creature knocking against a tree, and as the tree shuddered under the impact of the beast's attack a filly fell off the branch she was hanging onto out of desperation, and the creature swiftly caught it, another orange filly watching in what looked to be horror at the creature. The guards must have noticed the same thing, as they gave her a questioning look on what to do. A simple nod was all it took, and they sped towards the ground to aid the poor young ponies.

"HALT!" Luna used her Royal Canterlot voice, which she was glad to finally put to use, to command the creature, and she watched as it stood protectively in front of its prey like any predator would. It did seem to be a bit intimidated by their sudden arrival, so that was a good sign, maybe it could be convinced to let the fillies go.

"Unhand those fillies this instant!" She bellowed once more, but the creature seemed adamant on keeping the fillies with him, and so Luna decided to use good old Canterlotian guard force, "guards, apprehend the creature!" she ordered.

~~Another Like Me~~

"Guards, apprehend the creature!" The midnight blue pony yelled vehemently as the two ponies accompanying her brandished their spears and advanced on him.

"Oh come on!" Shingo thought as he fought the urge to face-palm. Once again a slight misunderstanding had been blown out of proportion and ended with him having to reap the consequences. Of course, since they did have weapons, he knew that he'd have to be smart in this fight, since they had longer range than he did.

"Don't worry Night Stalker, I can take this thing on my own with one hoof tied behind my back!" The guard on the right boasted as he took a stance to fight.

"Well at least this fight is kind of fair now what with the one on one now." Shingo mentally shrugged as he faced his opponent. The stallion made the first move and made a stabbing motion with with his spear, fully intending on gutting the human through and through. Of course, Shingo sidestepped the move easily and turned the dodge into an attack, elbowing the guard in the face, which made the guard give out a growl of annoyance.

"Not bad!" His adversary said in approval, after which he discarded his spear.

"Lunar Edge what are you doing?!?" The one earlier identified as Night Stalker called out to his fellow guardspony in shock as he caught the spear.

"What? This beast seems pretty adept at fighting, and I like a challenge anyways!" Lunar Edge said with a grin, before charging at Shingo once again, but feigned a punch before going into a sweep kick that knocked the KOF combatant off his feet. However, he quickly recovered by turning his fall into a dodge roll that gave him some distance between him and his opponent. He then decided to go on the offensive this time.

"Lunar watch yourself!" Night Stalker called out a warning as Shingo charged right towards him, and Lunar Edge readied a punch as Shingo neared him. Once the fighter was directly in front of him, he swung his hoof with all his might...only to meet air as Shingo had seen the punch coming a mile away and stopped just short of its arc.

"Body ga amai ze!" Shingo yelled out as he took a step forward and caught the left side of the stallion's muzzle before stepping back into his original position.

"By Celestia's mane, that hurt!" The guard hissed in pain as he felt the punch collide, almost threatening to knock him down.

"Told ya' to watch yourself." His partner said with a smug look on his face.

"Shut up man." He growled back annoyed at his partner's smirk. He then decided to use his ability to fly to his advantage and gave his wings a few flaps of preparation before lifting off. He then rocketed towards Shingo, his wings slicing through the air menacingly as he neared his target. Unfortunately, his speed was not enough as he saw his adversary leap over him. As a pegasus though, he was able to turn quite quickly and head back towards the, in his eyes, monstrosity, who was still in the air. "Gotcha now!" He thought with a smug grin as he caught his enemy in the one place he couldn't maneuver without wings, the air. "Aw man, the Princess is going to be so prou-"

"SHINGOKIIICK-UUU!!!" A cry snapped him out of his thoughts as he saw the creature somehow propel itself a few more inches into the air and bring it's foot down hard onto his back. Needless to say, the wind was knocked out of him the second he hit the ground. This surprised everybody, as Shingo had no visible wings with which to gain any altitude, but nevertheless he did manage to gain a few inches, which was all he needed.

"Wow Scootaloo, Shingo was right, that move sure does come in handy!" The yellow filly whispered to her friend, who nodded in agreement.

"I'm ok!" Lunar Edge said groggily, his eyes still blurry from the impact he had taken on the ground. He slowly got back up before taunting Shingo once again, albeit being a bit forced. "Come on ya' son of a mare, what do ya' got?" He slurred out before assuming a shoddily made up boxing stance.

"That wasn't even a proper insult..." Night Stalker groaned, shaking his head in disapproval as Luna simply rolled her eyes. Shingo however, noticed that it was getting pretty late as it was and so he really wanted to get some rest back at Twilight's house before returning to the school the next day. With that, he flared up his energy and decided to go with an old classic.

"Ba-keen! Moero, Shingo!" He cried out as he used his Burning Shingo combo on Lunar Edge, who cried out in defeat as the string of punches left him lying on the ground K.O.'ed. At this, the unconscious stallion was dragged away by his partner, who sighed in frustration at his partner's naivety in battle.

(Music stops)

"Sorry about that my lady." Night Stalker said apologetically to Luna, "I shall complete the mission in my partner's stead."

"That won't be necessary." Luna said as she stepped forward in front of the now puzzled guard. "We'll take care of him."

"What?!?" Night Stalker whispered out in disbelief, "Princess are you sure-" the anxious guard was cut off as Luna held a hoof up and gave him a reassuring smile.

"Do not worry about us, I assure you I am quite capable of combat myself, though I do not often get the chance to partake in it."

"If you say so my lady..." The guard hesitantly took a seat away from the soon to be combatants and nervously awaited for the start of the fight. Shingo on the other hand was confused at this turn of events. This pony didn't really look so fearsome, but then again neither did Athena, Yuri, or Choi, and they proved to be pretty tough opponents, so he didn't let the mare's initial appearance cloud his judgement.

"This is turning out to be one interesting night..." He thought to himself as he prepared for round two of the combat...