Another Like Me

by BoldBlue

Rating: teen
Tags: Human, Crossover
Length: 56067

Scootaloo is feeling a bit down, but when a stranger arrives will he break her out of her sadness and gain a new friend in the process? What kinds of trouble will he get into in Equestria, and will Scootaloo ever learn to fly?

Scootaloo, a filly who dreams of becoming just like her idol, Rainbow Dash, is distraught after surviving another day of insults and mockery by the terrible duo of Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. Finally convinced that she'll no longer be worth anything, she almost gives up her hopes and dreams. However, one day a complete stranger drops in from nowhere, and finds in her a spirit akin to his own. Can this newcomer do away with the filly's sadness and help her accomplish her goals? Well, he certainly isn't going to give up without a try!

For those of you who don't know who the guy on the left is: http://snk.wikia.com/wiki/Shingo_Yabuki

(Crossover of King of Fighters and MLP, neither of which I do own.)

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-09-22 02:58:24 UTC

The Day the Bond was Forged

"Oh man what a crazy dream!" Shingo thought with a chuckle, "fighting wooden wolves and a talking horse, man if Kensou or Benimaru hear about this I'll never live it down!" He then gave out a rather large yawn and decided to get up. "Hm...the ground seems strangely...grassy...did I start sleep walking again?" He thought in confusion, cringing as he remembered that the last time he slept walk he had ended up outside on his lawn face first in a bowl of cereal. This embarrassing fact was augmented only by the sole fact that he extremely disliked milk, and guess what that bowl was filled with? Let's just say his neighbors got a rude awakening that day.

"Well even if I am on the lawn again at least no breakfast related food substances are involved." He thought optimistically as he then rubbed his eyes to get them at least a little more awake, but when he did so he gave a cry of shock. "What the?!? Oh no I'm still in that forest!" He then paused and looked a little bit contemplative, "so then that dream was real...so then that means..." he paused and looked down, confirming that the little orange horse he had seen before was indeed still there. "Huh...I guess I'll wait until she wakes up to ask her about this place..."

He decided to begin climbing a tree to get a lay of the land, he figured out that they were pretty deep into the forest that they were currently in, and it was morning, about breakfast time Shingo figured. With that, he began to carefully climb back down, but unfortunately a piece of bark gave way and made him lose his footing, making him fall a moderate height and landing in a heap. "Ow, now I know why I'm not cut out for rock climbing class..." he groaned, which managed to make Scootaloo wake up.

With a yawn, she got up and stretched her wings, and seemed a bit confused, but that faded as she recalled the events of the previous night. Looking around she found the creature she had met the night before lying in a heap as she figured out that he had fallen after climbing at the tree and began to stifle a laugh at the sight. "Hey c'mon it's not that funny!" Shingo said as he glared slightly at the filly.

"Hehe, sorry you just looked funny like that!" She said after calming her giggles.

"Hey!" Shingo cried with indignation, "You know I'm pretty sure things here would look pretty weird back where I come from! Especially talking horses like you!"

"Hey I'm a pony, and a pegasus I might add!" Scootaloo countered with a bit of offense in her voice. Shingo noticed he had hit a nerve and tried to apologize.

"Sorry sorry! It's just that where I'm from there's really not much of a difference to either term."

"That reminds me," Scootaloo said in realization, "what exactly are you, and where are you from? I mean, I've never heard of a creature like you in the Everfree Forest!"

"Everfree Forest eh? Is that where we are?" Shingo asked her, to which she nodded in confirmation. "Well, I'm what's called a human, think of a monkey, but bigger and smarter...and less hair!" He explained as Scootaloo listened with curiosity, "as to where I'm from, I'm from Osaka!" He said proudly, remembering his home along with his many friends and family he had made there.

"Oo-sock-uh? Where's that?" Scootaloo asked, not knowing where in Equestria that could be.

"Oh, Osaka? It's in Japan!" Shingo clarified, with not much result as the little orange pony was still as baffled as ever. "You've never heard of it? Hm...oh man..." Shingo paused, but then gave shocked look as he realized an important fact, "GAH! That means I must have been transported to an entirely different world!!!" He cried out loud, to which Scootaloo went wide-eyed.

"You're from a different world???" She said giving a look of wonder and amazement.

"Yeah, I think so anyways...hey mind telling me where this forest is in though? Nation-wise I mean."

"Well, we're in Equestria if that's what you mean..."

"Equestria? Hm...punny if I do say so myself..." Shingo said chuckling at his small joke. His humor was lost on Scootaloo though as she simply raised an eyebrow at his statement. Shingo then coughed nervously as he then shifted to another topic. "Ahem, well anyways I completely forgot! My name is Shingo Yabuki! Nice to meet you little pony!" He greeted with a smile as he held out his hand for a shake.

"Shingo? Heh that's a funny name!" Scootaloo said with a bit of a giggle.

"Hey!" Shingo cried out in protest, "I bet my name's way better than yours!"

"Oh yeah!"

"Yeah!"

"Well then Shingo," she said with a smirk, "my awesome name is Scootaloo!" She then stuck her tongue out, daring him to top, in her opinion, perfectly good name. However, she saw that Shingo was struggling to hold back his laughter as she glared angrily at him, but it was too much as he burst out laughing uncontrollably.

"Scootaloo?!?" He yelled out in between fits of laughter, "your name is Scootaloo??? That's hilarious!" He declared as he went on laughing. At this, Scootaloo remembered the way that Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon had laughed at her the day before, and began to tear up a bit while sniffling at the emotional wound that she had reopened. Shingo had heard this and went quiet.

"Oh nice going Shingo!" He thought to himself sarcastically, "Not even one day here and you've already made the pony equivalent of a little girl cry!" He sighed guiltily as he went over to the little pegasus filly.

"Scootaloo?" He inquired softly as the violet-maned pony turned to face him with tears in her eyes.

"What?" She asked, obviously wondering what he was up to.

"Listen, I'm sorry for laughing at you. I had no right to do that." He then held his hands up in a non-threatening manner, "In both of our defenses though, I think for both our worlds we have pretty weird names."

"Heh...yeah I guess so." The filly said as she gave a short laugh, "thanks for the apology, but it wasn't really your fault that I'm crying."

"Oh?" Shingo said raising an eyebrow, "then what was it?"

"Well...you seem pretty nice I guess, so I guess I'll tell you..." Scootaloo took a deep breath as she began to tell her tale. "It's just that, everyday at school there are these two other fillies in the class that are always making fun of my friends and I."

"Why would they do that?"

"Well, mostly because we don't have our cutie marks."

"Cutie marks?" Shingo said confused at the new term.

"Yeah, Cutie Marks are special markings that go on our flanks," she then gestured to hers, "after somepony finds their special talent."

"Ah, so sort of like finding your purpose I suppose..." Shingo said nodding his head in understanding.

"Yeah, but everypony else in our class has theirs except for my friends and I, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, and so everyday those two bullies would come up and keep calling us 'blank flanks' just because of that."

"Well, that doesn't seem so bad, you still had your friends so you didn't have to listen to them right?" Shingo asked trying to cheer her up.

"For a while I did ignore them, " Scootaloo said confirming, "but then..." she paused, gaining a depressed look, "then they started going after me specifically. They still mocked us as a group, but they always did it to me the most..."

"..." Shingo went silent, waiting for her to continue.

"They would always come up to me and make fun of my wings and how I can't fly," she emphasized this point by fluttering her wings a few times while hovering above the ground for a few seconds before falling down. "See? They'd always say I'd be a useless loser who shouldn't have even been a pegasus. They never got caught by Ms. Cheerilee either, because they knew they'd get in trouble, and so they'd always get me when she wasn't around or had her back turned."

Her voice broke as she began to sob, "the worst part is. They're right! I'll never be able to do anything worthwhile. I really am just a loser!" She cried out, "heck even pound cake, a foal only a few months old can already fly better than I can! If that doesn't scream failure I don't know what does!" Her sobs then turned to quiet sniffles, "I don't know why I ever thought I could be as awesome as Rainbow Dash one day..."

Throughout all of this, Shingo looked on in sadness. He felt a great sense of empathy for the little filly, though she didn't know it. However, he couldn't bear to see a person, or pony in this case, cry like this. "You know, I know how you feel." He said simply, getting Scootaloo to stop crying for a minute and look at him hesitantly.

"R-really?"

"Yeah, in fact, why don't I tell you a story of my own?" He said motioning for her to sit down by him, which she obliged. "Alright, it began a couple years ago, I was watching the King of Fighters tournament an-"

"King of Fighters tournament? What's that?"

"King of Fighters???" Shingo said getting a big grin on his face, "It's only the coolest thing ever! You get fighters from around the world getting together and making the most formidable teams there are to-"

"Wait fighting?" Scootaloo said with a bit of shock, "Isn't that a bit dangerous to do?"

"Well yeah...I suppose it is," Shingo said after giving it some thought, "however, when I first saw it I had been watching one fighter in particular! Kyo Kusanagi!" He said dramatically as Scootaloo noticed his shenanigans and giggled slightly. "Anyways, after that summer was over, I went back to school, and guess what? I figured out that Mr. Kusanagi and I went to the same school, and were even in some of the same classes together!"

"Oh wow!"

"Yup, and after seeing him I decided immediately to go up and ask him if he could train me. He was a bit surprised at first, but after asking him a couple more times I managed to get him to show me some of his moves!" Shingo said looking fondly on the day he had met his hero.

"Really? That's so cool that you got to do that!" Scootaloo said with awe.

"I know! Imagine! My hero! Showing me his own moves for me to train with! Eventually, he went on to accept me as his true student, giving me these gloves," he said showing Scootaloo the blue gloves he had on, "and training with me more and more often. We even won a tournament one year a little while ago!" He said proudly.

"So...seems like you had it made huh..." Scootaloo said feeling down on herself once again. Shingo stopped and noticed this before continuing on, but in a much more quite manner.

"Yeah...but it wasn't always like that..." he almost whispered, causing the filly to look up at him again. "In fact..." he continued, "that first year was especially hard for me. People would always come up to me and tell me I was wasting my time, that I'd never make it anywhere..." he paused, looking a bit crestfallen, "even my parents said that I should pick up something else to do..."

"..." Scootaloo looked at him in understanding, realizing what he had felt was very similar to her predicament.

"A lot of the fighters would pick on me too, calling me 'kid', 'runt', 'brat', all manner of names, some I can't and won't repeat ever..." he said bitterly at the memory, "for a while even Mr. Kusanagi, my own teacher said that maybe I should lay off the training for a while, but I didn't listen to them. Despite all their mocking manners and insults, I continued practicing as hard as I could to be the best I could possibly be! I'd never back down from a challenge, no matter how bad the odds were, and eventually, slowly I began to gain respect among the people I knew, if not for my skills as a fighter, then for my determination. No matter how hard they'd hit me I'd always try to hit them harder, even when I had barely any fight left in me, and eventually it was that determination that won us that final fight in the tournament that we won." He smiled once again as he remembered the medley of feelings he had had that day, of the celebrations that had occurred. However, much to Scootaloo's surprise, he then gave her a serious look. "Scootaloo, promise me something."

"Um...sure. What is it?" The little pegasus asked in surprise.

"Promise me that you won't give up, that you won't throw in the towel because of what others may say." He then went on, "I know it'll be tough at times, believe me I know, but even when it seems like the whole world is against you, you just gotta' keep at it and head towards your goals with your head held high. I've done it before, so I know!"

"But what makes you think I can do it?" Scootaloo asked skeptically, "I don't think I'd have the will or the strength to go on like you."

"You're wrong."

"Huh?" The filly was taken aback by this sudden refusal.

"I know you can do it. I know because I've found another like me, oppressed by people's judgements and opinions, scorned and ridiculed because they want to be something great and just because our dreams may seem out of our reach. Scootaloo, I've done this before...I've fulfilled my dream..." he paused, giving a warm smile as he held out his hand to her, "now it's your turn to do the same."

"..." Scootaloo was speechless at this. She had finally found somepony who understood how she had felt, somepony willing to work along with her to help her achieve her hopes and dreams, but most of all, somepony who truly believed in her. Feeling a couple tears of happiness come from her eyes, she pushed aside the hand and dove onto Shingo, giving her new friend a joyful hug, to which he returned warmly. "I promise Shingo, I won't let what other ponies say stop me!" she said softly to him. He smiled as the two shared a tender moment of companionship and somewhat of a sibling bond as well. However, something happened to bring the moment that the two shared to an abrupt halt.

"Hey guys! I think it came from this direction!" Scootaloo's eyes opened in surprise at the familiar voice that cried out. Shingo however, kept a hold on her protectively as he turned to face what was coming, in fear that it may have been some other foul creature of sorts. Much to his relief, it was only a group of six ponies that emerged from the bushes in front of them.

"Oh wow they have unicorns too?" Shingo thought in surprise as the group turned to stare at him. All was silent for a second as the group stared each other down.

"Git yer hands offa' her ya varmint!" The light orange mare with the stetson hat said as she narrowed her eyes at the perceived threat.

"Careful girls we don't know what this creature is capable of!" The lavender unicorn called out to the group.

"Step away from the squirt you monster!" The light blue pegasus called out angrily as she flew in towards Shingo at a blazing fast speed.

"Wait what no you've got it all wro- GAH!" He scrambled to dodge the hoof that came flying at him, dodging it by mere centimeters. "Aw man! I just can't get a break from the fighting huh?" He muttered as he readied himself for the impending fight...

The Day that Friends were Made

Note: in this chapter you must use this soundboard: This one in order to get the full impact of a certain character's words in the beginning of this chapter. So whenever words are bolded and italicized spoken by the character named Terry Bogard, switch over to the soundboard and click the corresponding phrase to hear the sound!

"Alright guys settle down!" Kyo called out to the group he had gathered, who were currently chattering among themselves amongst themselves. The group he had gathered consisted of his good friends Benimaru, a man with blond hair that stood straight up in a spiky tower and was able to wield lightning, Goro Daimon, a tall and very powerful judo master, Terry, a blond haired fighter from America, and his brother Andy, a shiranui ninja. Along with these people were a couple of Shingo's friends who were Sie Kensou, a young boy who used his psychic abilities along with kung fu, Kasumi Todoh, a sapphire haired girl who was a practitioner of her families style of fighting, Yuri Sakazaki, a brown haired girl who practiced Kyokugen Karate, and Rock Howard, the adopted son of Terry.

Together Kyo had gathered them at his house the moment that Shingo had been whisked away by the mysterious energy from the Yata Mirror. He figured that with their help, he could find a way to bring back his student, but so far they had gotten nowhere with the discussion. "Guys come on! We need to figure this out!" He sighed as they continued to ignore him and finally nodded to Terry after waiting a second. Terry pounded his fist loudly on the table, making all conversation in the room come to a stop.

"GET SERIOUS!" He yelled out.

"Thanks Terry!" Kyo told the blond haired fighter gratefully, who nodded in response, prompting him to continue. "Alright guys, I'm sure you're wondering why I gathered you here today."

"Mmphhphh" Kensou tried to respond to the statement, but couldn't as his mouth was currently invested in eating his favorite snack, a baozi, or meat dumpling. As he tried to speak however, he began choking, much to the shock and somewhat disgust of everyone present. As he tried fruitlessly tried to cough up his food, Terry went over and slapped his back quite hard, dislodging the offending food, but also making Kensou giving a yelp of pain.

"ARE YOU OK?" Terry asked the younger boy who was currently giving out a last couple of coughs.

"Yeah, but did you really have to hit me that hard?" The boy whimpered as he rubbed his throbbing back.

"Hey C'MON C'MON!"

"Yeah I guess you're right Terry! Even though it hurt it sure helped, so thanks!" Kensou agreed as Terry gave him a thumbs up and went back to his seat. "So Kyo as I was saying, yeah we were wondering! Over the phone you said something about Shingo right?"

"That's right, I hate to say this guys but...he's gone..." Kyo said a bit sadly as everyone gasped, while Terry made a "defeated" sound in response to the news.

"Wait, but do you know where he went though?" Yuri questioned hopefully, trying to see if there was some possible place to search.

"That's just it! We don't know..." Kyo trailed off, recalling how Shingo had disappeared into thin air.

"Hm...I think you'd better tell us the entire story my friend." Goro rumbled in his deep voice.

"Well...it all started..." Kyo began to explain the entire incident back to them, and by the time he had told everything, everyone had a different reaction, Goro and Benimaru had looks of deep thought, Shingo's friends ranged from worried, to downright sadness as they heard what happened, Terry and Andy were talking over what they thought might've happened.

"Hey Kyo, you said that the Yata mirror was responsible for the disappearance right?" Andy asked the fire-wielder, who nodded in response to the question. "Well I know this might sound a little crazy, but what if that energy didn't destroy him, what if it transported him somewhere?" Everyone in the room stopped to consider this, before Rock decided to speak up.

"But if it did, wouldn't somebody have found and recognized him by now? I mean he has been in a lot of KOF tournaments so someone out there is bound to recognize him!" He said with a raised eyebrow as a couple of others nodded in agreement.

"Hm...well you don't think..." Benimaru said, but trailed off as he shook his head at the thought, "nah forget it!"

"Oh come on Beni what's up?" Kyo said, trying to coax his friend's idea out of his head.

"Well I was just thinking, and this'll sound weird mind you, but what if he got transported to an entirely different world?" The spiky haired man offered his friends as he glanced around the room at them.

"But we don't have enough power alone to do something like that, and even if a force like that were present the only one strong enough to do that would be Orochi, and he's been sealed away for a while now!" Kyo said, furrowing his brows in thought.

"Then what if an other-worldly force intervened?" Andy offered up, which got everyone to think what force could possibly have done this.

"Well guys, if that's true, then we better figure out where to start..." Kyo proposed, to which everyone nodded. "Shingo, wherever it is you are...I sure hope you're alright..." He thought with worry as everyone headed to leave.

~Another Like Me~

"Alright Shingo, think, you're up against six mares who think you've endangered Scootaloo...and they want to fight..." The young man thought furiously as he braced himself for the battle to come. "I can't go full power, or else they could get seriously injured, but man I just wish they'd listen to me right now, but they probably would question me even more on how I could talk..." He rationalized this, and figured that the only way out of this was if Scootaloo could convince them to stop, which hopefully would be shortly.

"Rainbow, ya'll be careful with this thing, it don't seem to be from around here!" The orange mare warned the cyan one, who cockily grinned before facing Shingo.

"No worries Applejack!" The pegasus reassured her friend, "I'll take down this thing down in less than ten seconds flat or my name isn't Rainbow Dash!" She then took a fighting stance as she and Shingo prepared to fight. (Click link for the fight music.)

"Alright, here I come!" The pegasus named Rainbow Dash yelled as she flew at Shingo with blinding speed. He barely dodged, rolling out of her way as she did an aerial flip to change direction.

"Man she's fast!" Shingo thought in awe at the speed at which she flew, but grinned, "luckily I've dealt with fast before!"

"Twilight wait!" Scootaloo said on the sideline as she called out to the older pony.

"Not now Scootaloo!" Twilight chastised the filly, shooing her away, "I'm trying to determine what sort of creature we're facing here, it isn't like anything I've ever read about before!" The little pegasus groaned, knowing she wouldn't get any attention from Twilight, and decided to try one of the better candidates, namely, Fluttershy.

"Fluttershy!" Scootaloo called out to the pale yellow mare, who snapped out of her current task, which was watching a couple of critters stroll by, preferring to watch out for animals in need rather than watch a fight.

"Oh, hello Scootaloo, are you alright? I heard from the others that the creature over might have hurt you! Are you alright?" The mare asked, checking the filly for any injuries.

"That's just it Fluttershy! I need to tell you about the creature over there!" Scootaloo said exasperatedly as they both sat down. Fluttershy then looked at Scootaloo curiously, but nodded to the filly to continue you on. "Well..." The filly sighed as she began to explain what had happened the previous night.

"And now!" Shingo thought as he watched Rainbow go in for a dive, attempting to punch him with her hoof outstretched, but Shingo, being an experienced fighter, sidestepped the blow, grabbed her by her wings, and slammed her on the ground behind him.

"Not bad!" Rainbow complimented as she quickly got back up, "But I'm just getting warmed up!" She declared as she let her wings flare out and began hovering above the ground. She then flew towards Shingo before attacking at a fast pace, pelting him with a barrage a punches, kicks, and bucks, all of which Shingo managed to dodge, making her eyes go wide in surprise. "What? He dodged *all** of them???*" She thought before Shingo decided to counterattack.

"Here it goes!" He thought as he brought his fist into her face, making sure to hold back a bit, while following through with his elbow and then shoulder, lauching the surprised pegasus into the air. He then conjured up his energy, channeling it into a flurry of kicks as he rose higher and higher, pummeling the pegasus in the process. With one final overhead kick he finished his combo as Rainbow gave a yell of pain before flying to the ground in a heap. Shingo however, couldn't control his descent unlike his teacher, and ended up falling down onto the cyan mare as she attempted to get up, incapacitating her. The other mares, except Fluttershy, and another bright pink mare, gasped in surprise at seeing their pal get taken out so quickly.

"Why you! Ya'll just bought yerself a one way ticket ta' Hurtsville!" The orange mare named Applejack said angrily as she gave Shingo a glare.

"Well so much for not getting them angry!" Shingo thought as he face-palmed. He made sure to get the rainbow-maned pegasus out of the way as the mare with the stetson stepped up to challenge him. After a second of staring between the two, they both charged at each other, the mare deciding to turn as Shingo got close and readied herself to buck. However, what she didn't see coming was that Shingo kept running, but put his shoulder forward as he summoned his chi into the shoulder facing the pony. As his shoulder and her hooves collided together, there was a brief struggle as the two forces tried to overcome each other. However, after a couple more seconds the farm pony ended up getting launched backwards, her face covered in surprise and pain, Shingo sliding back only a few feet in contrast.

"B-but how! Nopony short of Big Mac can possibly have that kind of strength!" She thought in alarm as her face held a mixture of awe, respect, and a bit of fear towards the creature she was facing. She shook it off and got back up, trying to think of a plan.

"Ok, *never** doing that again!" Shingo thought gritting his teeth while rubbing the shoulder that had taken the brunt of the impact. "Man I really hope I didn't just dislocate this thing...wait what's she doing?*" He thought in alarm as he saw the pony he was facing take out a lasso and begin swinging it around her.

"Let's see how ya like this!" She called out as she swung the rope towards him, Shingo holding his ground as he watched the loop intently, waiting at the proper moment to react. As he felt the rope come around it, he calmly stood, waiting for it to tighten around him. "Gotcha now!" Applejack thought in triumph as she began to tighten the loop around Shingo's waist. However, he was ready for this, and simultaneously pushed the rope down while jumping out of the loop just as it tightened into a knot. Applejack's eyes widened at this as Shingo went on to grab the rope and tug. "Uh oh!" Applejack thought to herself as she felt herself get tugged away by the creature. Shingo went on the spin the rope round and round, making the mare get very dizzy. After he decided that she'd had enough he let go of the rope, making her fly away into a nearby bush.

"Another one down!" Shingo thought in triumph as he saw that the mare hadn't come back.

"Consarn it Pinkie why are ya making the world spin again like that!" Applejack said dizzily as she then fell unconscious.

"Ooo Ooo me next me next!" The pink mare called out excitedly as she literally bounced up and down in anticipation.

"Pinkie Pie!" Twilight said in a chastising notion, "This isn't a game- oh no!" she groaned as she saw Pinkie already trotting up to the creature happily.

"Hi my name is Pinkie Pie nice to meet you! Do you like parties? I like parties! In fact we should totally have a super duper awesome welcome-to-Ponyville-Party after we get done here!" The bubbly mare chattered excitedly. Shingo himself was surprised by her friendliness, but wondered if she had even taken a breath through her entire speech.

"Um...sure! I'd love a good party!" Shingo answered, barely managing to follow what she had said.

"Ooo you can talk? Awesome! I can't wait to introduce you to all my friends! I've got a whole bunch!" The mare chirped happily, "let's see there's Twilight, she'd love to learn all about you, Rarity, ooo that's the white pony over there, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, Cran-"

"Pinkie!" The lavender unicorn cut her off, obviously annoyed by her willingness to warm up to the unknown beast. The pink pony was snapped out of her thoughts as she suddenly realized what she was supposed to be doing.

"Oh right!" She said as she clopped her hooves in realization, "Serious time, I'm in a fight!" However, despite her attempts to be serious, she still giggled a little at the end of her sentence. She then hopped back a distance from Shingo and gave him a surprisingly convincing serious look.

"I don't know if I can actually fight this one...she just seems so...warm and happy!" He thought hesitantly, however, he jumped back and gasped as the pony in question had somehow appeared right in front of him. "W-what the?" The pony giggled in response however as she pulled out a large object from behind her. "Is that a cannon?" Was all Shingo had time to think as he promptly got launched into the air by a rather festive ball of party items, the cannon itself going off with the rather comical sound of a party noise maker. However, as surprised as the young man was, he was even more surprised as he saw the pink mare with him in the air.

"Ah let's see now where were we?" She asked him casually as she pulled out a clipboard and pencil from seemingly nowhere. "Oh! What's your favorite flavor of cake?"

"Um...chocolate?" Shingo responded, a bit scared at how she was doing all of this.

"Ooo that's a good one! Now how about your favorite type of drink?"

"Um...raspberry lemonade?"

"Hey I like that one a lot too! Now your favorite music?"

"A bit of techno and dubstep sometimes, but mostly rock I guess." Shingo decided to give up trying to figure the mare out and decided to go along with the odd questions.

"Well I don't know about that last one, but I know Vinyl Scratch can probably work out those first two for us!" The pink mare said giddily. "Oops, forgot! Rarity catch me!" The pink mare ordered as she fell towards the white unicorn on the ground.

"Wait Pinkie I-" The mare didn't have time to protest as she was firmly face-planted into the dirt by the pink mare, who patted her on the head.

"That'll do Rare, That'll do!" She said proudly.

"I just don't know about that pony..." Shingo thought shaking his head at Pinkie as he grabbed a nearby tree branch, using his momentum to swing around a couple of times before letting go and landing, but not before doing a couple of flips in mid-air.

"Guess it's up to me then!" The purple unicorn muttered to herself as she saw that Rarity was busily trying to clean herself up while Pinkie was telling her about all the party ideas for the creature. As Twilight flared up her magic her horn began to glow a raspberry color, an aura surrounding it.

"What's this now?" Shingo whispered to himself as he tensed up, feeling her energy begin to rise. Suddenly, her horn let out a short blast of magic that Shingo dodged. However, Twilight wasn't done yet as she began to fire rapid bolts of magic, waiting until the moment Shingo jumped into the air to use her plan. Her horn then began to charge for the upcoming spell, and then fired burst of magic that Shingo was unable to dodge due to being in mid-air, "Aw crud!" he thought as he felt himself unable to move, feeling himself getting encased in a layer of rock and falling to the ground shortly after. He was still able to hear what was going on outside, but it was slightly muffled.

"Well that should hold him for a bit!" Twilight declared proudly, admiring her handy work. "It may not hold it near as long as Discord's prison, but it should be able to hold him until the princess gets here!"

(Music Stops)

"Oh no! Shingo!" Scootaloo cried out as she ran up to her friend, seeing him get encased in stone.

"Oh no Twilight! Are we too late?" Fluttershy said in fear as she saw the state of the creature, which she recently found out meant no harm.

"No, I just managed to wrap things up, but who is Shingo?" Twilight asked the mare, curiously awaiting an answer.

"There they are AJ!" A voice called out from the woods as Rainbow Dash and Applejack galloped up to the group. "Whoa! Since when could it turn into a statue?"

"It couldn't, I just used a minor petrification spell on it to make sure it doesn't try to hurt us any more!" Twilight explained to the group.

"Oh Twilight! Will he be alright?" Fluttershy asked the unicorn, worry evident in her voice.

"Yeah, of course! Why do you ask?"

"Well...I think Scootaloo can explain the best." She said motioning for the filly to come forward. Scootaloo stepped into the middle of the group as she took a deep breath before starting to explain.

"Well you see, it all started yesterday night." The filly said as she began to recall the events of the previous night. "I had been practicing trying to fly, and had gotten a bit down in the dumps, when suddenly I heard a loud sound coming from the Everfree Forest. I also saw a bright flash of light, and decided to check it out. However, not knowing the area, I began to get lost in the forest, and ended up getting nowhere. Then, at the worst possible moment, a Timber wolf came out and began to chase me!" The filly saw that the mare's eyes had all widened, except Fluttershy's, having heard the story once before, "I had ran away, but tripped over a tree root and got cornered. Just when I thought I was done for, a creature came out and fought the timber wolf and started to fight it, and actually won against it. It turned to face me, but I guess it hadn't ever seen one of us before, so it fainted!"

"Huh, I guess that means it ain't from Equestria then..." Applejack rationalized as Scootaloo nodded in response.

"I figured that since it hadn't done anything thing to me, I'd sleep by it for the night." The young pegasus continued, "When he woke up I found him trying to climb down a tree, but he'd fallen in the process," Scootaloo and Pinkie giggled as they both imagined it happening, "afterwards, we both introduced ourselves, and he actually cheered me up, and we were about to leave when you all showed up!" Scootaloo finished her tale as she looked around the group.

"Oh...so he wasn't trying to capture or eat you after all?" Rainbow asked guiltily as she stared at Shingo, who was lying on the ground.

"Nope!" The filly responded affirmatively.

"Oh...I reckon' an apologies in order then...when'd ya say he be out of the stone Twilight?" Applejack inquired to the lavender unicorn.

"Oh he shoul-" She was cut off as Shingo suddenly burst out from his prison of stone, patting himself off in order to get the dust off of him. Everyone's jaw, but especially Twilight's dropped as he stretched to loosen his muscles back up.

"Shingo!" Scootaloo yelled happily as she ran up to her human friend, embracing him in a warm hug as he grinned in response.

"Scootaloo! I'm glad to see you're alright!" He said, laughing as he returned the hug. The mares all softly smiled at this, knowing for sure that he didn't mean anymore harm. Twilight however, still had her jaw dropped as Pinkie decided to tug on her lower lip before letting go, making it roll up much like a projector screen would.

"B-but you should have been in there for at least a day or two!" She yelled out, shocked at the ease of his escape.

"Oh...was I not supposed to break out of there?" He asked with an apologetic look, "sorry if I did that too soon, but it was pretty easy to do..." Twilight shook her head at her statement.

"Never mind that, I'm just sorry we assumed that you meant to hurt Scootaloo here!" The other mares nodded in agreement as they had looks of guilt, Rainbow Dash and Applejack especially.

"Hey it's alright guys!" Shingo said, trying to cheer them up, "I know you were just looking out for her, so no hard feelings! How's about we just start over?" He offered, making the mare's faces brighten considerably.

"Absolutely! My name is Twilight Sparkle! I'm a student of Princess Celestia of the city of Canterlot! If you'd like to come over to the library when this is done I'd like to learn more about you!" The unicorn introduced herself as the rainbow one was up next.

"My name is Rainbow Dash! Fastest flyer in all of Equestria and the one and only pegasus ever to do the legendary Sonic Rainboom! You seem pretty awesome, so let's hang out sometime!" The pegasus said heartily, as the orange farm-pony stepped up next.

"Mah name is Applejack, hardworking farm pony from Sweet Apple Acres, if ya'll ever need a place to stay, or fresh apple treats to eat, don't hesitate to call us up!" The pale yellow pegasus, who seemed a bit nervous, went up to him.

"M-my name is Fluttershy, I-I take care of the animals around if they're sick or injured. I-I'd love to have you over anytime!" The mare almost whispered, obviously taking a lot of courage as her namesake would imply. After she went back, the white unicorn with a mane that seemed very well taken care of, went to greet him.

"My name is Rarity! Aspiring fashonista and one of the most sophisticated ponies around. Darling you simply must come by my boutique sometime! I have loads of new fashion ideas that would be perfect for your kind!" She said as Shingo thanked her and agreed to her offer. Last, but certainly not least was the pink pony from earlier.

"Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie! Nice to meet you! I know we've already met but I just wanted to say that it's great that you came here and when we get back I should totally give you the grand tour of Ponyville, and afterwards throw you your party!" She took a deep breath after she finished, not bothering to inhale during her constant stream of words. Shingo simply chuckled and told her that he'd love to have a tour.

"Well in spite of the welcome I got earlier, I'm Shingo Yabuki, it's a pleasure to meet you all!" He said with a smile as he shook each one of the mare's hooves. Scootaloo hopped onto his head as they both shared a smile. "So now that that's out of the way where do we go next?" He asked curiously as he looked at the mares.

"Well I suppose the only thing to do now is to head back to Ponyville and officially welcome you!" Twilight said to him, Pinkie cheering at the last part of the statement. As they all shared a laugh at the pink pony's antics Shingo knew that even though he wasn't from here, that whatever happened now, he'd have good friends to help him through it all the way...

The Day that Parties Were Had

It was a relatively uneventful walk back to Ponyville for Shingo and his new group of friends. Pinkie was merrily skipping along while Applejack and Rainbow Dash were chatting casually as Fluttershy chose to walk in silence, preferring to let the ambient sounds of nature calm her, and Twilight and Rarity chatted with Shingo about things going on in Equestria. Scootaloo herself had chosen to ride on Shingo's head, the human boy not really minding the new passenger taking up residence on his cranium. The young man was in the middle of hearing a riveting tale about how Rainbow Dash and Applejack had competed in an "Iron Pony Competition," when he thought of an important problem that could potentially present itself.

"Say Twilight?" Shingo asked the lavender unicorn as he gained a look a realization on his face.

"Yes Shingo? Is something wrong?" Celestia's student looked back at him in curiosity.

"Well it's just that me being the first human here it looks like, I don't know if it's such a good idea for me to just run into town willy nilly..." He trailed off, imagining many scenarios filled with mass panic and paranoia at his arrival, and to his horror, all his imagined scenarios ended with him getting sentenced to a lifetime in the dungeon with nothing to drink but... milk. "That's just a fate worse than death right there..." he thought with a shudder.

"Hm...he does have a point Twilight dear." Rarity chimed in, "I mean considering how fast a rumor can spread in Ponyville it would probably be best to find another route to take in this situation so as to avoid a panic."

"That's right...but what could we do?" Twilight said to herself as she began to concentrate on the problem. However, Shingo, not wanting to face a lifetime of milk, put his creative mind to use, and came up with a rather unorthodox solution.

"Well...I guess until you girls think it'd be safe maybe it's best that you turn me into a pony, at least temporarily if you can..." Shingo said looking at the group to gather their opinions. As the mare's and Scootaloo thought this over, they figured that they'd really have nothing to lose by trying, and so they decided to go through with the idea.

"Alright Shingo, now I've never performed a spell of this magnitude before, so I'm getting a bit of help from Rarity here, and as for the of you girls, I'll need you guys to let us have the utmost concentration. If we get distracted, who knows what could happen!" Twilight said ominously, not wanting to imagine the horrors of broken concentration during the spell. As the rest of the group nodded in understanding Shingo stood in front of Twilight and Rarity while the others watched from nearby. "Are you ready Shingo?" Twilight asked her new human companion with a bit of both hesitance and excitement in her voice.

"Ready as I'll ever be!" He said giving her a thumbs up, prompting the two unicorn's to begin the procedure. The pair of ponies then flared up their magic as both their horns and Shingo began to gain a gradual glow. As the process went on, Shingo began to grimace as he felt his body begin to take on an entirely different form, his hands and feet beginning to harden and grow larger and rounder, forming hooves. His light brown hair began to grow a bit longer as it began to compensate for the growth of a stallion's mane. Soon after that Shingo shivered as he felt himself begin to get hair all over his body while his clothes began to fade away altogether. He flushed in embarrassment and began to cover himself up, but luckily the transformation was nearing it's end as he felt his center of gravity shift his weight onto all for of his limbs to walk on. With a final flash of light, the transformation was complete, and as the mares and filly uncovered their eyes, they witnessed its result.

"So guys? How do I look?" The now pony-fied Shingo asked the group as they simply stared at him, mouths agape. "What?" He asked as he saw the looks on their faces. He decided to look in the nearby lake to see how the transformation had gone, and grinned a bit at what he saw.

"Sweet! I'm a pegasus!" He thought, admiring his new wings, however, he noticed that he had a bit of trouble balancing on his new hooves, but figured that he'd get used to them later. He turned around to the mares and chuckled as he caught them staring a bit at him. Scootaloo was staring in a way that a little sister would look up to an older brother, which was perfectly normal in Shingo's mind, but the older mares were all staring with a bit of...romantic admiration. "Heh this'll be kinda' fun to tease them about!" He thought with a smirk, however, he opted out of teasing Fluttershy as he saw that she was shyly hiding her face from view behind her long pink mane. "So uh not to be rude," he coughed in order to gain their attention, "but maybe we can continue this staring contest at a later time? I think I still need that tour!" He said grinning as a blush came over all the faces of the mane six except Pinkie Pie, who cheered as she grabbed one of Shingo's fore-hooves, dragging him along while eagerly beginning to give him the grand tour of the town.

"Whoa! He doesn't look too bad!" Rainbow Dash commented, "I don't think I'd mind testing him in a couple of flying races myself!"

"Hold yer' horses there RD!" Applejack said with a chuckle at her friend's eagerness, "Ah think we oughta' let the boy test out his wings before doing a full fledged competition! And besides," the orange mare said gaining a smirk, "I caught ya' staring at him with your eyes all dreamy like that!"

"Hey!" Rainbow said with a blush while trying to fend off the accusation, "I saw you staring just as much as I was! So you can't say anything!" the pegasus mare concluded as she stuck her tongue out at the farm-mare. The rest of the group simply giggled at the budding argument while Scootaloo simply blanched childishly at the mention of romantic type things.

"Well girls I hate to break up this interesting argument," Rarity said with a knowing smirk on her face, "but I do believe that we should be getting back to Ponyville lest' Pinkie gives Shingo the tour without us!"

"Sure, just as soon as Captain Lies-a-Lot admits she was the one staring at Shingo like a new Zap Apple Tree!" The cyan mare said glaring at her current foe.

"Oh sure thing Rarity, just as soon as Rainbow Brash here fesses' up to makin' eyes at our new friend!" Applejack said returning her friend's glare in an equally effective manner. One could practically feel the electricity between them as the tension increased rapidly, neither side giving an inch in their respective arguments. That is, until Rarity came up with a new plan.

"Well darlings if you two insist on hiding your feelings so intently then I might just have to tell our dear Shingo about both of your respective feelings for him..." The unicorn grinned deviously as she saw the mares's faces take on looks of horror.

"You/Ya'll wouldn't dare!" The mares said at the same time, glaring at the fashonista.

"Oh wouldn't I?" Rarity said in a mischievous tone as Twilight, Fluttershy, and Scootaloo held back their laughter after seeing the begrudging look on their friends's faces.

"Fine you win!" Rainbow sighed as she shook hooves with Applejack, resolving the matter, but as soon as she saw that the other's had begun to walk away she issued a quiet challenge to the farm-pony "I bet I can get him to like me before you do!"

"Oh it is on!" Applejack declared just as quietly as they firmly shook hooves to seal the deal, now becoming each other's rivals in romance as they galloped back to catch up with the rest of the group.

~Another Like Me~

If Shingo thought he had known what the definition of "being hyper" was before, his definition definitely didn't compare to the enthusiasm and glee that Pinkie had while getting to town. As they got out of the forest they came to a hill overlooking the town. Pinkie then told him stay there for a second while she got him an "extra special surprise," to which he agreed while she sped off at a pace that would make even Usain Bolt jealous.

"Man, Olympic runners eat your heart out!" Shingo said to no one as he watched the pink mare gallop away, leaving nothing more than a Pinkie shaped dust cloud behind. However, as the dust cloud cleared he found out, much to his surprise, that as the dirt dissipated that Pinkie was in the dust cloud. "What?!?" He thought as his eyes widened in shock, "But she just- I mean she- aw never mind..." He decided to give up on trying to figure out how she got back so fast and instead focused on the object she had brought back with her.

It was a pink and magenta chest that stood atop a set of wagon wheels, and it was decorated in designs colored shades of bright yellow and light blue, making the entire container give off an aura of festivity. He was about to ask Pinkie what it was, when he saw her push a button and take a stance in preparation for something. As he tried again to ask he was cut off as the chest opened up to reveal a mix of multicolored flags, horns, poles that looked like candy canes, and even a stand that looked like it had a shelf stocked with cupcakes and an oven to boot. As he admired the set-up he suddenly heard an upbeat tune begin to play, and Pinkie then began to hop.

"Welcome welcome welcome, a fine welcome to you!" Pinkie began to sing and dance in rhythm with the music, which Shingo later knew as the "Welcome Song," each part of the performance giving off a light-hearted nature that made him smile.

"Man she's got a good voice!" He thought to himself in awe, and as the act continued he found Pinkie pulling out horns, drums, and even party hats out of nowhere as he could only watch with a bit of confusion as she strapped a party hat onto him pulled out a horn and actually managed to stick the horn through his ears and play it.

"Nope! Not even going to *try** and question that one!*" He thought in shock as he felt no pain from the horn going in and out of his ears. As he saw her dancing in a fashion that reminded him of Earth, the mare slid in front of him.

"Welcome welcome welcome! To Ponyville Today!" She finished her song while holding out the last word of the song for a little longer. She held her pose even after the song had ended. "Wait for it..." she said excitedly as she noticed Shingo about to speak. After she had said that the candy cane poles shot out confetti accompanied with a kazoo type of noise, and a cake literally shot out of the oven, accidentally splattering all over Shingo's face in the process. "Oops! Silly me!" Pinkie giggled as she noticed Shingo's now cake-covered face, "I must've over charged the oven today!" She chuckled as she hopped over to Shingo, who had by now licked all the cake off of his face, and much to his delight, it had been chocolate cake, his favorite flavor! "So???" Pinkie questioned him excitedly, "What'd you think?"

"Well...it..." Shingo took on a thoughtful look as he stifled a laugh at Pinkie's face, "it..."

"Yeah?"

"It was..."

"Yeah?" Pinkie scooted a bit closer as her eyes widened, awaiting his reaction.

"I think it was..."

"YEAH?" Pinkie was now bouncing up and down, almost bursting with anticipation, and Shingo knew this, because he almost failed to hide his laughter at her excitement.

"I think that that was only the best welcome anybody, or anypony for that matter, has ever given me!" He said happily, but truthfully. He then found himself lacking the ability to breath as Pinkie had rocketed over to him and given him a huge hug, that while friendly, was crushing him. "Uh Pinkie?" He gasped out, turning a darker shade of blue.

"Oh I just knew you'd love it! What was the best part? The cake? The confetti? The song? Personally I thought the music was the best part of it but-"

"Pinkie...No air..." Shingo tried to get the attention of the mare, but his words were lost in her excitement over his reaction to the welcome song, and so he was about to fall unconscious when he noticed that the rest of the girls were coming, making Pinkie drop him, much to his lungs's relief, and hop over to the group.

"Thank you dear lord!" Shingo thought as he took many a deep breath before going over to the mares. "Hey guys so you caught up finally eh?" He asked the group as they all nodded. Suddenly Pinkie gasped and rocketed away, this time not reappearing in the dust cloud she had left behind. "Hey where's she going this time?" He asked Twilight.

"Oh she's probably just going to get your party ready! It's her special talent you know!"

"Oh so she was serious about that huh? But I don't know how she's going to get a party ready on such short notice though..."

"Oh trust me, never doubt Pinkie Pie when it comes to a party, she's capable of doing a lot of other ponies would find near impossible." Twilight smirked, recalling the incident of when she tried to figure out how Pinkie was able to do the things she did.

"Believe me, I think I've already got an idea of what you're talking about." He said as he told them what had happened during the song earlier, and they shared a chuckle. He thought he had seen brief looks of jealousy on Rainbow Dash and Applejack's faces when he told them about the bone-crushing hug he had received, but wrote it off as him imagining things. "So who's going to give me the tour now that Pinkie has left?" He asked the mares, who looked at each other, and told him that they could go as a group, and when the respective places came up they'd each take a turn telling about the different places in Ponyville.

First up was Fluttershy's house, as it was the closest to the Everfree forest. As they neared the house he saw that the house itself seemed to be a part of the landscape. A bridge over a river leading to the cottage that looked integrated into a hill, flowers surrounding the yard, and to add to the atmosphere, many animals of all different sorts were running around playing with each other, even ones that Shingo knew that in his world were ones to have predator-prey relationships.

"Woah, now this is pretty amazing!" Shingo complemented the yellow pegasus on her house as she blushed a bit and hid behind her mane, her normal shyness coming forward. However, she managed to shake it off and began to describe her house.

"U-Uh w-well this is my house, it's very close to the Everfree so that anytime an animal is sick or injured, it can come here and be treated quite well and even live here if it wants to." The mare told him, "in fact, Angel Bunny, my favorite pet, came in one day from the Everfree, and I've taken care of him ever since!" At this the group continued onward they came upon a field of trees that Shingo noticed were all lined up in rows with the utmost precision.

"Huh...an Apple orchard?" He asked the girls as they nodded in response as Applejack came to the forefront.

"Yes siree'! This here field is home to the Apple trees of Sweet Apple Acres!" She said, using her hoof to gesture at the entirety of the field. "Across this field my family lives over there! There's my brother Big Macintosh, my little sister Apple Bloom, Granny Smith, and a'course yours truly, Applejack!" She said pointing to herself, and proceeded to offer Shingo a free apple from the orchard as a sample, which he took graciously. As he took his first bite, he stopped and took in the rich flavor as his eyes widened in awe at the simple deliciousness contained in the apple.

"This...is...amazing..." He said, promptly beginning to eat the rest as fast as possible while the mares all giggled at his reaction to the apple's taste.

"Well shoot that's to be expected!" Applejack chuckled at his statement, "We wouldn't be called the Apple family if we didn't have the best apples in Equestria!"

"Oh I believe that statement wholeheartedly!" The once human said as he pounded his chest for emphasis.

"Well if ya'll will be around for awhile you can have all the free apples you want!" The mare said, making Shingo's eyes go wide at the mention of all those delicious apples.

"Really?!? Aw thanks Applejack!" He said as he gave her a friendly hug, which she returned as she smirked at Rainbow Dash, who simply gave her a glare in response. After they broke the hug, they continued on as the main hub of Ponyville came into sight. However, much to Shingo's confusion they stopped at random, but as he looked at them in wonder they simply told him to look up. As he turned to raise his head, he gave a gasp of amazement as he saw what looked like a mansion made literally out of clouds.

"Like it?" Rainbow asked him, to which he nodded vigorously. "That's my house: Casa del Dash! Built it right out of the clouds myself!"

"You did?" Shingo asked in awe, "that's amazing, it must have taken you a while to build something like that!"

"Well for most ponies it would!" Rainbow said as her pride was beginning to come forward, "but for a pegasus as awesome as me it didn't even take that long!" The others rolled their eyes at this statement, knowing that the pegasus was doing her usual amount of boasting for the day. However, Scootaloo and Shingo took every word of hers without question. "Hey maybe later we can hang or something and I'll show you around my place and give you a tour of Cloudsdale too!"

"Hey that's not a bad idea Rainbow!" Shingo said as he thought about the idea, Rainbow silently cheering as Applejack 'hmphed' to herself, believing she had scored a date already. "Hey maybe Scootaloo could come along too!" He added making the orange filly perk up at his statement and give a pleading look to Rainbow Dash.

"Please Rainbow Dash would it be ok if I could? Please?" The filly practically begged the cyan mare, who was disappointed at the new deal she had been presented, but finally decided to agree anyway, figuring that since the filly looked up to her, it wouldn't be such a bad idea to let her tag along.

"Sure Scootaloo you can come along too..." She said with a little bit less enthusiasm, but ultimately Scootaloo and Shingo didn't notice as the filly went up to give her a hug while Shingo chuckled at her act of joy. Applejack gave a triumphant smirk to the cyan pegasus as the two shared a competitive look, knowing that it wouldn't be an easy win for either of them. After that, the group traveled into the outskirts of the town, and Shingo sighted a house that seemed to be made entirely out of desserts. After voicing his confusion, the mares chuckled and explained that the gingerbread house was where Pinkie lived along with Mr. and Mrs. Cake.

"That makes sense, considering she likes parties!" The stallion thought as he put two and two together. The group then moved on as they came upon a giant tree. "We're visiting a lumber jack's house?" He asked the group as they gave each other looks, and then began to laugh.

"No silly!" Twilight said as she came forward, "this is the Ponyville library, where I live alongside my assistants Spike and Owlowiscious!"

"Oh..." Shingo said understanding why they had laughed, and gave a sheepish grin at his mistake. Next the group trekked awhile until they came to a house that was quite fancy. Rarity came to the forefront.

"This dear Shingo, would be my place of residence, the Carousel Boutique." The white unicorn said as she gestured dramatically to the house, "It is where I, my parents, and my younger sister Sweetie Belle live. It is also the place where I run my business as a fashion designer, and if you would come by later, it would be my pleasure to give you a complementary set of clothes!"

"Gee thanks Rarity! That'd be awesome!" Shingo said pumping his hoof.

"Oh think nothing of it dear, I'm not called the Element of Generosity for nothing!" The mare said humbly as the group began to head back. After all the walking they had done that day, the group noticed that the sun was setting. As the sky began to darken, and Luna's moon began to rise, Shingo realized at that moment that he had no place to stay.

"Hey girls I just realized, where am I going to stay?" He asked as the mares realized that they hadn't addressed that problem. Applejack and Rainbow Dash however, knew exactly where they wanted him to stay, but before they could suggest their ideas, Pinkie Pie suddenly appeared in front of them.

"Hey guys! All finished with the tour I see?" She asked, and the girls nodded while Shingo wondered how she'd known that, and attributed it to her "being Pinkie Pie," as Twilight had suggested earlier. At this Pinkie then pulled Shingo by his hooves and sped towards Twilight's Library, the girls following closely behind. As they neared the library Shingo noticed that the lights that had previously been on inside the giant tree were now turned off somehow, but before he could say anything Pinkie opened the door and pushed him inside. Once he entered the lights immediately flickered on as he gazed in amazement as an entire crowd of ponies were there to greet him, all of them yelled 'surprise' as confetti rained down.

"What...is all this?" He said, still not believing what was in front of him.

"Well it's your 'Welcome to Ponyville Party' silly!" Pinkie said with a giggle, and gestured to the many ponies, "come on I'll introduce you!" She said eagerly as the rest of the girls engaged in conversations with the other ponies that were there. Among the time that Pinkie Pie had him, Shingo was introduced to many ponies, who were all quite friendly to him even though it was his first day here. He had even gotten to meet the mayor of the town, who apparently knew Pinkie quite well. After getting introduced to all the ponies, the party truly began as Pinkie pointed out the many activities such as games, dancing, mingling with ponies, and even snacks. Shingo thanked her for showing him around and decided to get some refreshments.

"Oh man! Raspberry lemonade?!?" He thought in delight, "she really *did** remember what I liked!*" As he chugged a cup of the heavenly liquid down in happiness, he noticed that a lot of the ponies had been getting on the dance floor. Shingo, not being much of a dancer himself, at first was hesitant to go down and dance, but figured that since it was a party for him, he'd do it anyway. As Pinkie saw him walk onto the dance floor, she whispered to the dj, Vinyl Scratch, to put on 'the song,' and she nodded, putting a different record onto the turntable.

"Alright everypony!" Vinyl called out to the crowd, "Let's kick this party into full gear!" The crowd cheered in response as the music began to play, and the lights in the library dimmed as Shingo saw many multicolored lights began to shine. He grinned as the tune began playing, deciding to dance the only way he knew how: Randomly, or "Shingo Style" as he called it. His grin only widened as he saw that Twilight and the others had joined him, and laughed as he saw that even Scootaloo and what looked to be a couple of her friends were breaking out a few moves of their own. As the ponies moved with the beat, Shingo discovered that he wasn't actually that bad of a dancer, throwing in a couple of breakdance moves and shuffling in there for good measure, and at one point had a portion of the crowd cheering him on as he danced.

After dancing for a while, he decided to take a break as he went over to the refreshment table to get some punch. As he was quenching his thirst a pair of stallions came up to introduce themselves.

"Hey man, you're the new stallion in town right?" A tan stallion with a brown mane asked him as he nodded in confirmation. "Well then it's nice to meet you! I'm Caramel, and that large stallion over there is my good friend Big Macintosh!" He said shaking Shingo's hoof as he introduced the other stallion to Shingo, who nodded in greeting.

"Oh Big Macintosh? You're Applejack's brother right?" Shingo said remembering the names of the ponies from Sweet Apple Acres.

"Eeyup!" Big Mac said in response.

"Is that your catch phrase?"

"Eeyup." This made the group chuckle a bit as they continued to talk.

"So Shingo?" Caramel said as the blue stallion turned back towards him.

"Yeah Caramel?"

"I just wanted to know if you were free this weekend. You see me and the other stallions were going to go bowling and have a stallion's night out. Since you're new here I figured you might want to get to know some of the guys in town?" Caramel offered as Shingo smiled at his words.

"Sure thing Caramel! I'd love to do that!"

"Well that's great! Now while we're here how's about we break out the adult drinks?" He said with a mischievous grin as he gestured over another room that seemed to hold what looked like a barrel that was labeled "Cider. Not for foal's or underage colt or filly consumption." Now Shingo figured that by the labeling and Caramel's tone, that he was delving into an alcoholic situation here, and back home he had never been a big drinker himself, but being here...he figured what was the harm in a couple of drinks.

"Sure why not?" He said casually as they walked into the other room that had many tables set up. The tables themselves were filled with adult stallions and mares casually drinking mugs of cider while conversing. Shingo, Caramel, and Big Mac all went up to the barrel and filled up their mugs before sitting down at a vacant table. Shingo found that unlike most alcoholic drinks in his world, this had quite the delicious flavor. After chatting a bit with the other stallions he saw Applejack and Rainbow Dash come over to the table and sit down in a couple of chairs.

"So Shingo, how's the party for ya' so far?" Applejack asked him.

"Oh it's been great! Pinkie sure knows how to make a great party!" He responded happily, remembering all the wonderful things about the event being held for him.

"Yeah that's Pinkie for you!" Rainbow Dash chuckled, "she may not be the brightest mare out there, but if there's one thing she knows how to do it's throw a party!"

"Hey speaking of parties." Caramel said after drinking his mug of cider. "How's about we liven this party up with a little challenge?"

"I'm all ears." Shingo said, genuinely curious at the stallion's offer.

"Well I figured that since you're new in town, and that since you're coming with us to hang out later this week, that we should test your...endurance with a little competition." He said as he tilted his head towards the barrels of cider in the back of the room. Shingo knew what he was offering, and that was a drinking contest. He normally would have refused, but Rainbow and Applejack then answered the statement with a bit of praise for their friend.

"Man are you kidding, Shingo could down a good ten mugs easy!" Rainbow Dash declared confidently.

"Well I don't-" Shingo tried to respond, but was cut off.

"Yeah! I bet he can out drink ya' no problem! Right Shingo?" Applejack inquired eagerly to her friend.

"Well I mean I wouldn't say that..." Shingo whispered, but saw that his words had gone unheard.

"Well well Shingo!" Caramel said with a grin, "it looks like your friends here are pretty confident in your abilities! So how about it? You and me?" He challenged as he held out his hoof. Shingo took a second to think about his options. On one hand, he could play it safe and not risk getting overly drunk, but on the other hand, he had two of his friends cheering him on as it was, and he was never one to back down from a challenge...

"I'll do it!" He said as he shook the stallion's hoof. A crowd began to gather around the table to watch the contest as Shingo braced himself for the incoming challenge. Big Mac explained the rules, which stated that they would each have a drink at the same time, taking it one mug at a time, until the loser would either pass out or tap out, signifying his resignation from the competition. As Shingo and Caramel waited for the mugs to be filled up, they wished each other good luck, and grabbed a mug from the table. As the countdown began to fall, they shared a heated look of determination between each other, the both of them fully intending to not let the other win.

"GO!" The crowd roared in unison as the two speedily gulped down their drinks. This continued until Shingo's third drink, where he started to feel a little bit woozy. Caramel noticed this, and with an equally dizzy grin decided to taunt his opponent.

"So Shingo? Feeling lightheaded yet?"

"N-no way man!" Shingo countered, "I'm just getting started." And with that the contest continued with a fourth, then a fifth, then a sixth drink. By the tenth drink Shingo couldn't remember what was happening anymore, the party seemed to happen in one big blur of memories. At some point he just flat out passed out.

~Another Like Me~

"Oh man what happened..." Shingo groaned as he struggled to get up from the ground, finding himself in the same room as he had been last night. He noticed that it was morning as the sun was coming in through a nearby window, and he decided to get back on his feet. However, when he did so he noticed that two ponies were piled on top of him. Namely, Applejack and Rainbow Dash. "Ok, now I've really gotta' find out what happened last night..." he muttered, remembering a meme that fit this scenario perfectly, having something to do with forgetting to turn off your swag or something. As he wandered into the living room he found that most of the party decorations had been cleared out and that the library now looked like a normal library. He found Twilight in the main room reading a book called "42: Is this number the answer to life itself?" As he walked in the mare noticed his presence.

"Oh hey Shingo! Finally woke up eh?" She said giving a small laugh.

"Yeah...but hey I really need to ask, what exactly happened last night?" He asked with a tone of worry in his voice.

"Oh, wondering about the whole aftermath of your drinking contest with Caramel huh?" Twilight inquired as he nodded. She giggled, motioning for him to take a seat in the chair next to her. "Well..." She began to tell her story, Shingo wondering just what had happened, and whether anything he did had ended up badly...

~Another Like Me~

Aw man that's a little bit of a cliffhanger huh?" Well fear not readers of this story of mine. Shingo will be back this Saturday to find out what actions his drunken self performed in the next installment of "Another Like Me."

The Day the Crusades were Instigated

Author's Note: Hey everybody! BoldBlue here again and guess what time it is? Yup, it's time to break out that Terry Bogard soundboard once again ladies and gentleman! Also, if you were wondering, in the previous chapter the 'boopinest' gag and the Pum Bloom idea were inspired by the hit Youtube series called Game Grumps, and I highly recommend you watch it if you haven't already! Now without further ado here comes the next installment of Another Like Me!

"Say Andy?" Kyo said as he saw the blond-haired ninja turn towards him. "I just realized, but isn't Mai usually with you two? I mean, she is pretty attached to you to say the least." The flame-wielding lad chuckled at the obvious understatement. Andy simply scratched his head in embarrassment as the rest of the group shared a small laugh at this as well, for they all knew that saying that the female Shiranui ninja was simply 'attached' to Andy was like saying a falcon punch was simply a brofist.

"Yeah I've been wondering that too!" Kensou chimed in just as baffled, "I mean usually everywhere you guys are she usually follows within the minute or so!"

"Well, between you and me guys, I had to convince her to stay behind because of...prior plans." Andy said, making the group, save for Terry, grow quite interested in what his plans were.

"What plans would those be?" Kensou said, scratching his head in thought as he tried to predict what sort of plan the younger Bogard brother could have had.

"Alright guys and girls, promise that what I'm about to show you, doesn't leave this conversation until I say so, got it?" He said with the utmost seriousness, making the group agree to keep his secret. "Well, then check this out!" He said pulling out a small box that seemed quite fancy, but the fanciness of the box was not what made everyone gasp in shock. Rather, it was the box's purpose that made everyone's eyes widen.

"Dude..." Kensou said bug-eyed at what was contained inside the box, "is that...what I think it is?"

"Well well Andy!" Kyo whistled, impressed by the display, "finally popping the question eh?" Andy smiled proudly and nodded, as the guys cheered and clapped him on the back, while the girls simply gushed at the event.

"I get to be the best man right?" Kensou asked jokingly as everyone laughed a bit at his question. Terry however, glared a little at the inquiry, but began laughing anyway.

"Hahaha- GET SERIOUS!" He told Kensou, who screamed in terror and hid behind Andy.

"Oh come now Terry was that really necessary?" Kyo asked the eldest Bogard incredulously.

"TAKE IT EASY!" The South-Town native held his hands up in defense.

"Oh all right, but anyways we should probably get moving!" Kyo said shrugging off Terry's response. As the group walked through the streets once more, Benimaru decided to speak up.

"So Kyo, where exactly did you say we were headed?"

"We're headed over to Kagura's place?"

"Why's that?"

"Well I figured that since her Yata mirror and my flames caused this, then maybe she'll know how to at least recreate the energy we had going before, and that will hopefully give us a lead on how to get Shingo back." Kyo explained as everyone else nodded, finally getting the plan. After that, the rest of the walk was relatively short as they neared Chizuru's place of residence. Once inside, the group greeted her and took a seat in her living room, which was spacious enough to fit them all surprisingly enough.

"Ah, it's good to see you all have made it!" The Yata mirror bearer greeted them all warmly after they had gotten settled.

"Good to see you too, but Kyo said you might know something about Shingo's disappearance?" Kasumi asked, always one to get straight to the point.

"Yes, and I believe that I have now figured out the cause of the disappearance!" The black-haired maiden answered. "You see, when Kyo's flame-imbued punch made contact with my mirror, it let out a burst of energy that normally wouldn't occur otherwise. This much you know, correct?" She gave glances around the room, making sure everyone was up to par with the situation. Everyone nodded in approval, and waited for her to continue. "Well the energy it gave off normally would have teleported the victim about a few miles away at most, but..."

"...But?" Rock Howard inquired, raising an eyebrow at her sudden pause.

"...but the energy was influenced by an outside force. At first I thought it was Orochi, but as I looked deeper into the matter, I realized that the energy was not of pure evil intent, like Orochi's would be. In fact, it seemed to have little intent at all..." The mirror user trailed off, obviously hitting a dead end in her trail of thoughts.

"Hey yeah, you're right!" Kyo said as he snapped his fingers in realization, "the energy seemed...chaotic if anything."

"Well whatever it was it doesn't sound like anything we've heard of before..." Goro Daimon grunted as he rubbed his chin in thought.

"Well then what can we do? If we don't know what caused it, how can we even get to Shingo then?" Yuri asked with worry.

"I'm not sure...for now, Kyo and I will look into this matter, and we'll call you back here again at the most in two days." Chizuru said. The group of fighters didn't seem to like being unable to do anything to help, but begrudgingly they all left one by one, except for Terry, who was starving by this point and gave out a cry of "ALRIGHT!". After the last fighter filed out the door Kyo spoke up in a quiet voice.

"You really think we'll be able to find out what happened to him Kagura?"

"I really hope so Kyo...I really hope so..."

~Another Like Me~

"So Applejack I noticed that whenever I asked about the difficulty of this job, you all smiled..." Shingo said with a bit of nervousness evident in his voice, "why was that?" Applejack smirked a little at his tone of voice and decided to tease him.

"Oh you'll find out soon enough..." she said with a small wink, "wouldn't want to spoil it now would I?"

"Uh, but that's kind of what I'm afraid of..." the stallion responded, her lack of spoilers not helping his growing hesitancy in taking the job.

"Oh don't worry, as long as you're fine with tree sap you'll be fine!" Applejack said in a reassuring tone.

"Oh ok...wait what?" Shingo did a double-take at that last part, but she would give no answers to any more of his questions, no matter how much he prodded her. Seeing this, he gave up on the subject and decided to ask about something else. "So what exactly do you guys do on the Acres?" He asked, curious to know what life was like on a farm, having come from the city setting himself.

"Well usually mah sister and brother and I take care of the orchard, making sure all the trees are healthy, and once the trees are in season we go apple bucking!" The orange mare explained.

"Apple bucking? Wouldn't you just pick them?"

"Shoot no! Bucking is much more efficient! You do it right, and all the apples come down off the tree in one try!" Applejack said, almost gasping in shock at Shingo's suggestion. "Anyways, I'll show you how we do it later, for now you've got a trio of fillies to take care of!" The mare said as she pointed a hoof to the acres, telling the blue stallion that they had finally arrived.

"Oh, I see, where are they exactly?" His question was immediately answered by the weight of a small orange filly jumping onto his head, and made him fall flat on his stomach in surprise. After he noticed who it was though, he grinned. "Hey Scootaloo how's it hanging?"

"It's been good! We've come up with a lot of crusading ideas that we want to try out with you today!" She said with much excitement in her voice.

"Wait, crusading?" Shingo asked confused as he gave a questioning look to Applejack, who simply mouthed "you'll find out" to him.

"Well I'll leave you to it Shingo. See ya Scootaloo!" The orange mare said giving a wave to the pair as she left to go do her work. Before she turned however her smile widened a bit, "and good luck."

"Oh I'm sure the girls will be fine!" The stallion said trying to wave off any doubts she had about the welfare of the girls.

"I was referrin' to you!" She said with a smirk.

"Oh..." And with that boost of confidence, Scootaloo excitedly ushered him into an area that was near the farm, but was a bit forested, so that one wouldn't be able to see it with out looking quite hard. Eventually, the duo came upon a club house that was quite secluded, and was obviously a secret that only Scootaloo and her friends probably knew about.

"Is this your clubhouse?" Shingo asked, impressed by the fact that three small fillies could have possibly built it.

"Yup, Applejack technically built it, but Applebloom fixed it up and Sweetie Belle and I contributed all the stuff in it!" The filly declared proudly. "Come on let's go inside, they're already waiting for us so we can start!" With that, the two trotted up the ramp and into the club house, which was modestly furnished, a few posters and doodles of different things on the walls, with a small chalkboard in the back, and a couple of windows around the room. Shingo saw that the two fillies he had met last night, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle, were on the floor, looking at a couple of papers that seemed to have a list of different activities on them.

"Hey Applebloom and Sweetie Belle!" Shingo called out as the fillies noticed that the two had come in.

"You mean 'Pum Bloom and Belle Hop' right?" Applebloom said jokingly, giving the stallion a mock glare.

"Sheesh that's a low blow!" Shingo said trying to sound offended, but couldn't hide his chuckle as the fillies burst into giggles as well. "Anyways, so what's all this about crusading I've been hearing?" He asked curiously, making the others's faces light up.

"Cutie Mark Crusader Explanations yay!" The three cheered as the they jumped up and gave each other hoof-bumps.

"Wha-" Shingo was baffled by this exclamation, and was about to ask, but he was cut of as Sweetie Belle started to explain.

"Well you see, Applebloom, Scootaloo and I never got our cutie marks!" She explained. "You see, since we all have blank flanks, all the other colts and fillies at school kind of make fun of us at school for being 'blank flanks.'" The small unicorn said, saying "blank flanks" in a mock insulting tone of voice.

"Oh yeah, just like Scootaloo told me before!" He thought in remembrance as he nodded for the filly to continue.

"Well since we all didn't have our marks yet, we decided to form a group that was dedicated to finding our special talents; that's when the Cutie Mark Crusaders™ were formed!" The filly concluded, smiling at both of her friends as she finished.

"Oh I get it! So I'm guessing that list is your activities for finding them then?" Shingo asked perceptively as the fillies nodded. "Alright then, let's get started!" He declared happily, making the girls cheer as well.

"Alright, so let's see what the first one on the list is!" Applebloom said looking at one of the lists.

"Cutie Mark Crusader Bakers hooray!" The trio cried out as Shingo still was confused as to why they did this, but shrugged and went along with them as they left the club house to their first item of business.

"Oh this doesn't sound so bad! What could possibly have had Applejack so skeptical about this?" He thought. This of course was probably the worst question to ask, as he would soon find out. (Click the link, it really adds atmosphere here.)

[Activity 1: Baking]

"Flour?" Applebloom asked, wearing a chef's hat and apron as she mixed the batter for the new pastry item they were working on.

"Check!" Sweetie Belle chirped, wearing the same thing and signified the recipe to continue.

"Eggs?"

"Check!"

"Blueberries?"

"Check!"

"Bananas?"

"Check!"

"Uh guys are you sure that the recipe for 'blueberry banana' cake has all this stuff?" Shingo asked as he looked over the list of ingredients. He himself was wearing a chef's hat as well as an apron that said 'I've heard of good bakers before, but this takes the cake!'

"A' course Shingo!" Applebloom said with a wave of her hoof.

"Yeah don't worry! It's ok, we've got this covered!" Sweetie Belle said, agreeing with her fellow crusader.

"It sure was nice of Pinkie letting us use the Cakes's bakery for this though!" Scootaloo said, the pink mare popping out of the nearby sink and giving her a 'hoof up' of approval, before disappearing once again.

"Still don't know how she does that!" The stallion thought, shaking his head as he chuckled at the pink mare's antic of the day. However, he stopped and gave a look of horror at the last pair of ingredients on the list, namely: baking soda and vinegar. He looked over just in time to see that the girls had just finished pouring an entire bottle of vinegar into the mixture, and brought out a box of baking soda. "No wait! Girls!" He tried to stop them, but it was too late as the fillies emptied out the contents of the box into the mix, which promptly began to bubble furiously at the substance that had entered it.

"Oh wow why's it bubbling like that?" Sweetie Belle asked the other two.

"I dunno..." Scootaloo answered curiously, eyes watching the mixture intently.

"Maybe the bubbles mean it'll be extra delicious!" Applebloom cried out happily.

"Yeah!" The trio exclaimed as they bounced eagerly in anticipation.

"Wait no get do-" Shingo tried to yell, but he was too late because suddenly the mixture exploded halfway through his sentence. The resulting explosion of cake batter left the room, and everything in it covered in a tasty, but sticky batter, which tasted of bananas and blueberries. "down..." Shingo finished his previous sentence lamely as Pinkie Pie opened the door, having heard the explosion.

"Oh sweet Celestia..." she gasped in shock, her eyes trailing around the room, from the cake-ridden walls to the batter-covered fillies and Shingo.

"Pinkie wait I can explai-"

"A room made of cake batter???" She said in awe as she happily bounced around the room, grabbing a hoof-full of batter and tasting it, making an 'mmm' of satisfaction. She then turned to address Shingo and the fillies, "this is the best idea ever! In fact, I'll have to go write this down in my book of party ideas right now!" The mare ran off, giggling happily at her new plethora of ideas that sprung up from this one incident.

"Well at least it can't get any worse..." Shingo sighed in thought as he licked some of the batter. "Man this really is tasty!"

[Activity 2: Bear Wrestling]

One quick shower later the group was ready, and hesitant on Shingo's part, to go to the next activity, which took place at Fluttershy's house.

"Remind again how you guys talked me into this?" Shingo asked in terror as he was sitting on a stool in the opposite corner of a makeshift wrestling ring, the Crusaders giving him a pre-match pep-talk. His opponent was one of Fluttershy's grizzly bears, and currently the yellow pegasus mare was on the other side of the ring giving the bear a massage, which it was enjoying greatly.

"Don't worry about that Shingo! Just dodge, and counter with the ol' one two combo!" Applebloom said, trying to boost the poor stallion's confidence.

"Uh Applebloom I think you're referring to boxing on that one." Scootaloo said as she corrected the earth pony.

"Heh, oh yeah!"

"Don't worry Shingo, we made sure to get him pre-match! We covered him in tree sap so he couldn't slip out of your grasp when you got him!" Sweetie Belle told him with pride.

"Wait huh?" He was about to protest, but the starting bell rang and the bear got up from the stool in the other corner.

"Don't be too rough on each other you two!" Fluttershy said to them, the bear nodded in response before baring his fangs at Shingo.

"Mommy." Was all Shingo could squeak out before the bear, fittingly, pulled him into a giant bear hug, but since the bear was covered in tree sap, not only did Shingo get his body covered in the sticky substance, but he also ended up getting a much longer bear hug than he originally thought. Ten minutes later, Fluttershy and the crusaders managed to pry him apart, revealing him to have fainted after his sappy experience, but the bear was perfectly fine, though still sticky as well.

[Activity 3: Ziplining]

After the crusaders and Fluttershy had brought Shingo back into the realm of consciousness the group once again set off. This time they were standing on the side of a tree that was on top of a pretty tall hill near Ponyville. Applebloom had set up a rope that was hooked to the tree, and as far as Shingo could tell led to one of the buildings in Ponyville.

"Are you guys sure this is safe?" The stallion said, eyeing the cable that they were hooked to warily.

"A' course! Even though the last time it broke, I worked out all the kinks this time!" Applebloom declared heartily.

"Yeah let's go!" Sweetie Belle cried out as she and the other two fillies jumped off of the platform attached to the tree. Shingo groaned, knowing he'd probably pay for this later and followed them. Much to his surprise the line actually held up, and as they picked up speed he found himself actually enjoying the rush.

"Man this is pretty aweso-" He was cut off as his face made contact with a nearby beehive, shattering it. Fortunately for him though, he was going much too fast for the angry insects to catch up to him, but his face still got covered in honey. "Well at least it's tasty!" He thought with a little bit of joy as licked some of the yummy substance off of his face. However, as they passed a cloud on the way down, he made contact with another larger, much more sturdy object. After his initial shock, it was revealed to be a pegasus with a blond mane and a gray coat.

"Oh my..." She said, looking at what she had just hit, and who she was also now traveling with, "I'm sorry! Are you okay?" The mare asked the stallion, who looked to be a bit dazed from the impact.

"Yeah, I think I'll be fine." Shingo said, the pain dulling a little bit as the mare giggled.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, I'm Ditzy Doo, the runner of the postal service in this town!" The mare grinned as she offered a hoof to shake, which Shingo was glad to meet.

"Nice to meet you Ditzy! My name is Shingo!" He said, and the conversation would have gone longer, but the two noticed what they were currently headed for: the top window in Town Hall. They saw that the fillies had made it in safely, and gave a sigh of relief, but as Shingo and Ditzy neared the window, an older mare that had a gray mane and glasses came to look out the window the crusaders had entered from, and screamed in surprise as she found two adult ponies headed straight for her. Ditzy had collided with the older mare, knocking her down and sending both of them to the ground. Shingo however, was left with nothing to hit, and as the rope ended his inertia actually carried him out of his harness and sent him careening straight into the desk into the other side of the room. Needless to say, he wasn't going to be awake for a while.

(Music stops)

~Another Like Me~

"Hey! Equestria to Shingo!" A voice cried out, making the stallion open his eyes slowly. The world was blurry, but he could tell that he had been moved to a different place than he was when he was knocked out. "Ah good you're finally awake!" As his vision finally cleared up he figured out he was in what looked like a hospital. He was also in a hospital gown and bed, which was embarrassing to say the least. He also saw that Rainbow Dash, the crusaders, and Ditzy Doo were there as well.

"Aw man what happened?" He groaned as he felt his head, which now sported a large bump.

"Well after we ziplined into Mayor Mare's office you hit your head on her desk, and got knocked out!" Scootaloo explained, but then added sadly "we didn't get our Cutie Marks though..."

"Wait, that was the mayor's office?" Shingo asked in fear, not wanting to get in trouble with any political officials already.

"Yeah!"

"Was she...upset about what happened?" He asked tentatively, not sure if he actually wanted a response.

"Believe it or not, she wasn't that angry!" Ditzy told him, making the stallion sigh in relief. "That's why she only gave you two weeks of community service for disrupting the peace, starting tomorrow!" She said, thinking that would make him happy.

"Aw man..." The stallion groaned in response, "doing what?"

"You'll be helping Ms. Cheerilee around the school for a couple of days at the school we go to!" Sweetie Belle said excitedly. "So we get to see you pretty much every day!"

"Well that doesn't sound so bad." Shingo said as he calmed down a bit.

"Yeah, and after school everyday, we can go crusade some more!" Scootaloo added happily. Shingo however, didn't respond, as his eyes began to twitch, and he fell backwards.

"Hey! He fainted again..." The orange filly said in shock as this statement made Rainbow Dash and Ditzy Doo share a grin between each other.

The Day Diamond was Scratched: Part 1

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!

The Day Diamond was Scratched: Part 2

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!

The Day the Misunderstandings Were Doubled

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...

The Day the Matter Was Explained

"HALT!" Applejack, who had been taking a short nap to rest from the day's work, was jolted awake by a yell that was loud enough to be heard all across Ponyville. After taking a few moments to calm herself from the sudden awakening she started to wonder who could possibly have yelled so loud. After contemplating the matter a couple of seconds another thought made its way to the front of her thoughts, "wait a minute...the fillies!" Her eyes widened as she realized she had no idea where her sister and her friends had gotten to! Just as she was about to run out and go search for them, Big Mac came downstairs, looking a little irritated that he'd been woken up so suddenly.

"Sis, what in tarnation was that yell I heard a second ago?" He asked his sister in his usual calm manner now that the notion to sleep had left his mind.

"I haven't got a clue big brother, but that don't matter right now! I need to find Applebloom and the others!" His younger sister replied frantically as she once again rushed towards the door. However, Big Macintosh held her back for a second, making her a bit angry. "Let me go! I gotta' make sure they're ok!"

"Applejack, calm down!" He said, giving her a stern look in the process.

"Calm down?!?" She yelled in outrage, "Applebloom could be out their being chased by who knows wha-"

"Applejack!" He snapped, silencing her, "just take a couple a' deep breaths now, and calm down." Applejack did as he asked, and looked considerably less anxious than she had before. With his sister now relatively more at ease, he continued, "I'm sure the girls were just out around the house playing, no need to get your tail in a knot over this kinda' thing." He placed a hoof on her shoulder in reassurance, and she gave him a grateful smile in return.

"Thanks Mac, I can always count on ya' to set me straight in times like this."

"Aw shucks Applejack, I know how worried you can get lookin' out for our sister like that." He then gave a slight smirk, "besides, if I wasn't here, who else would keep ya' from havin' a breakdown every other day."

"Oh quiet you!" Applejack said in fake anger, but then chuckled as she playfully punched her brother in his side. "Now let's go find those fillies." She then put on her signature stetson hat before opening the door and heading out into the farm to search.

"Hey sis, why don't we split up to search for em'?" Big Mac suggested.

"Hm...alright that'll make things easier I suppose," Applejack agreed after mulling over the idea in her head. "Alright, you head around the barn an' check there while I check in the apple orchards," she ordered. Her brother gave a nod and went off to his designated area, while she headed off to hers. "Why do I feel like something is about to happen..." She asked herself, tensing up as her steady trot began to turn into a gallop.

~~Another Like Me~~

As the dark blue mare approached Shingo he felt a strange aura emanating off of her. His fighter's intuition told him that there was more to her than she was initially letting on. The pony stopped a good ten feet away before staring him down, as if sizing him up. He knew that this was serious and held the stare she had for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, she spoke.

"So, what manner of beast art thou?" She inquired boldly, raising an eyebrow in curiosity as she waited patiently for an answer.

"Hm...I wonder if I should actually answer her or not...I mean Twilight and the others have already seen my human form talking and whatnot, but this mare is kind of putting me on edge..." Shingo thought to himself, remaining silent in the face of the alicorn's questioning. Finally after a few moments of hesitance he decided to go ahead and answer her. "Well ma'am, I'm what you'd call a human, but I'm pretty sure you haven't heard of my kind before." He said, making Night Stalker's eyes go wide in shock at hearing him speak, while Luna's eyebrows simply raised in mild surprise.

"Your statement is correct, for we have not heard of your species in any tome or biological archive. However, this would explain the odd dreams we hath been sensing for the past few nights."

"Dreams?" Shingo repeated, giving a confused look to the mare across from him, "she can sense dreams? Huh...well I suppose I was right about her being something out of the ordinary then..."

"Yes, as the Princess of the Night and co-rulers of Equestria along with my sister, Princess Celestia, it is within our bounds to sense dreams and all that they contain." She explained as a look of realization finally crossed Shingo's face.

"Wait a minute..." he thought, suddenly recalling the history tests he'd graded earlier that day, "if Celestia is her sister then that means..." He looked up at the mare in shock, "you're Princess Luna."

"Ah, so thou hast heard of us?" The princess asked, seeming visibly surprised by his revelation.

"Well, enough to know that as far as talking ponies go, you and your sister are pretty darned powerful." He replied, suddenly gulping nervously as he truly realized who he was going up against. The mild praise made Luna give a soft giggle before smirking at him.

"We take it that thou may hath reconsidered our earlier offer to do combat?" She asked, having a cocky tone in her voice.

"Nah, in fact, considering all the strong fighters I've faced, this actually makes me even more excited to face you!" Shingo said as he grinned back at the princess. After hearing his response, Luna chuckled to herself and gave him a smile for the first time, no longer feeling as if he was an enemy that needed to be apprehended.

"Well human, I suppose thine appetite for battle will have to be satiated." She called out, before planting her hooves in the dirt beneath her and taking a ready stance for battle.

"Well then Princess Luna, I, Shingo Yabuki, first (and currently only) student of Kyo Kusanagi, would be honored to challenge you." He recited before getting into a battle stance of his own.

Shingo made the first move as he tried to catch Luna off guard by quickly charging at her before doing a dodge roll to fake her out. He managed to successfully get behind her, leaving the window of attack open as she slowly turned to face him. "Kurai!" He yelled as he twisted his body around, putting all of his momentum into a punch that was headed straight for the princess's unprotected face...until it was stopped short by an unseen force. "What the heck, my punch was blocked?" he thought in surprise as he tried to break through whatever invisible barrier was hindering him.

"What's the matter human?" Luna asked nonchalantly as she gave him a friendly smile, "I thought thou desired to engage in combat with me? Could it be that thou art forfeiting the contest already?" She gave a small smirk as she said this, indicating that she was basically mocking him. Shingo, who by now realized the severity of his situation, tried to back away from the alicorn to give himself some distance, but found immediately that he was unable to move any part of his body until he felt himself being lifted up in the air and get thrown away..

"Well I kind of walked right into that one honestly..." he mentally sighed, but kept trying to break free of Luna's invisible grip on him. His efforts were fruitless however, as he saw Luna was once again approaching him in the same calm manner. "Alright think...what would Kensou do in this situation..." he closed his eyes as his mind began to summon forth a mental version of his friend, who took a look at his situation and shrugged.

"Well man, it looks like you're screwed on this one." The mental Kensou told him.

"Ok never mind!" Shingo sighed as he pushed away the image of the Dragon Spirit wielder and tried to think of someone else, "okay how about someone more wise, like Terry!" He gave a smile of satisfaction, surely the Legendary Hungry Wolf, who had participated in every King of Fighters tournament and taken down an entire crime mob in his hometown, would provide him with something. He then saw the image of Terry come into focus, and the man gave him a concise, well thought out, and to the point statement.

"You dead."

"...I'm questioning whether or not my brain wants me to win here..." Shingo thought annoyed as he again conjured up an image, though this one was of one of the lessons that Kyo had taught him during one of the training sessions.

"Alright Shingo, one thing to remember in battle is how to control and channel your inner energy, or chi as we've been calling it thus far." His master and friend told him as he assumed a stance that differed slightly from his battle pose. "As you already know, all living things have chi within them, and use it in pretty much everything we do. However, trained fighters like us know that chi can be manipulated in so many different ways. Take for instance MAX mode," he then paused as he let his energy level skyrocket, causing an ethereal white glow to surround him, "you already know that MAX mode is using our chi to enhance our body's sense of movement, reflexes, and basically pushes our body past its normal limits, which is why move cancels are made possible."

As Shingo was about to affirm his master's statement, Kyo then continued, "however, there are a couple of other ways that we can push our body's limits as well. The first one, I will show you today." He then led his student over to the courtyard of his house, otherwise his father would most likely yell at him for endangering the house. Once they were there, they stood side to side, and the flame-wielder spoke once again, "Alright, now I need you to close your eyes and envision your chi flowing outward, Shingo did so both in memory and in reality, which piqued Luna's curiosity as she decided to wait and see what he was up to.

"Hm...he seems to be preparing something, but what?" The alicorn thought to herself anxiously as she continued to watch the human go through what looked to be some sort of buildup of energy. Off to the side, Applebloom and Scootaloo watched with interest at what their honorary "fourth crusader" was doing.

"Scootaloo, is it just me or do you feel like he has a couple of tricks up his sleeve?" The yellow filly asked her friend, who looked thoughtful.

"Well, knowing the stories he told us about some of his fights, I bet he does!" She concluded. With that, they turned their attention back to the battle in the orchard.

"Alright Shingo, the next step is to imagine all the chi that you've summoned literally cover you, as if it were a second skin." Shingo nodded as he followed the order from his master, and much to everypony's surprise, an intense yellow aura began to radiate from Shingo's body, making the fillies and Night Stalker's jaws gape in amazement, and princess Luna tense up at the new development. Inside his mind the student heard his master congratulate him, "awesome job Shingo! This is what we call Armor mode, in which you use your chi to form a protective barrier to protect against physical and chi-based attacks. Heck, not only is your defensive power ramped up, but you won't even be knocked back by other attacks trying to counter yours!"

"Wow no kidding!" Shingo yelled in amazement as he inspected the new glow that had gathered around him. "That's awesome!"

"Word of warning though," Kyo said in a serious tone, cutting Shingo's awe-filled rambles short, "remember, just because you don't feel the hits doesn't mean they won't seriously injure you, so don't mistake this for invincibility."

"Yes sir Mr. Kusanagi!" Shingo nodded, completing both his lesson and the memory as he opened his eyes finally turned back to the battle at hand, the yellow aura still giving off a sharp light. He then grinned and turned to Luna. "Ready to get back to the fight princess?" He asked, which snapped the mare out of her thoughts.

"Of course!" She answered confidently, however, her mind was still on edge by the energy that had surrounded her opponent, and she knew that she had to watch out for whatever it might do. She was surprised to see that the human was charging her head on once again, and she wondered if he had a case of short term memory loss, or was really that insistent on getting thrown by her magic.

          As he began to near her, her horn lit up as magical energy began to charge in preparation to pluck the rash human off the ground. She then began to direct her magic onto his body so that it could lock him in place. However, once her magic had surrounded her opponent, she found that when she reached out with her magic that she couldn't get a grip on him! "What trickery is this?" She thought in shock as she fruitlessly tried to grab him mentally, only for her magical grasp to slip right off of him each time. It was as if he was coated in butter or oil, no matter how she tried to grasp him, he'd simply keep on coming, not even seeming hindered in the slightest.

         "Having a little trouble there?" The princess jumped, startled by Shingo, who was now standing directly in front of her with a mischievous grin on his face. Luna gasped in shock and wildly fired a few bolts of magic at her foe. Shingo easily dodged the unfocused attacks and decided to counter with a short combo. He gave a light punch that stunned the mare enough to let him follow up with a light kick, then a leg sweep, and finally an elbow to her neck which was accompanied by a two handed overhead hammer blow, leaving Luna on the ground with a pained look on her face. However, she was far from done as she quickly got to her hooves and stared at Shingo with an impressed look.

        "Well human, it would seem that thou art more versatile than we originally thought." She praised with a kind smile, which turned into a smirk, "however, just because we art of royalty does not not mean we art not well versed in the art of hoof to hoof combat." She then surprised Shingo by teleporting directly behind him and readying a buck with her hind legs. The KOF participant saw this coming and tried to counter attack with a heavy kick, but still received much of the blow. Luna grinned triumphantly as she felt her attack connect, interrupting the human's kick. "Even the hardiest of my royal guards would be reeling from that attack! Surely-" She cried out as she felt a force collide with her side, knocking her back a few feet.

        "Nice try princess but you're going to have to try a bit harder than that!" Shingo teased, and stifled a laugh when he saw the shocked expression on her face.

        "B-but how?" She stammered, obviously intimidated by the fact that not only did he render her magic ineffective, but even her physical attacks seemed to be rendered useless, as the human barely even seemed to acknowledge that he'd taken a hit.

"Thank God for Armor mode, that buck seemed like it would've downed me had it connected when I was normal!" Shingo sighed, relieved that his timing had prevented a serious injury, for now anyways. However as he prepared to charge Luna a third time, the yellow aura, much to his dismay, began to fade away before finally disappearing altogether, leaving Shingo with a look of fear on his face as Luna approached him with a smirk. "Well this isn't going so well..."

~~Another Like Me~~

        "Applebloom! Scootaloo! Sweetie Belle are y'all out here?" Big Macintosh sighed as he only heard silence linger in the air. He had been searching for the fillies for a while now, but his search hadn't turned up anything.He had already checked around the house, and the barn wasn't showing any sign of promise, so where could those three hooligans have gotten to? The stallion sighed once more and leaned on a nearby barrel, pondering on what to do next. "What in Tarnation!" his head snapped up as he heard a faint rustle in the stacks of hay in the barn. Wondering what sort of critter could possibly be roaming around, he crept over to the stack that seemed to be moving on its own. He put a hoof into the stack and rifled through the stack before his hoof finally felt a small form that let out an "eep" as it noticed he was there.

"Aw man you found me- wait Big Mac, what're you doing here?" Sweetie asked with confusion as she popped out of the haystack, expecting to find one of her friends or Shingo, but instead got Applebloom's older brother.

"I could ask you the same question! Now what were ya' doin' hidin' in there?" He asked, raising an eyebrow in curiosity.

"Oh well Applebloom, Scootaloo, and I saw Mr. Shingo passing by after he was walking by and he decided to play a game of hide and seek with us!" Sweetie Belle said with a smile as Big Mac gave a sigh of relief that at least someone was out there probably looking for them as well, albeit for different reasons.

"Well do ya' happen to know if he found em' or not?"

"Well, I did hear some talking near where Scootaloo was hiding, so I guess he found her, and I saw Applebloom heading towards the apple trees to go and hide!"

"Alright, that's loads of help Sweetie, thank ya' kindly. Now why don't ya' head back to the house and get yerself somethin' to eat?" He suggested, which made her smile widen as she ran to the house after thanking the stallion, who shook his head and chuckled at how she was acting. "Well shoot, she may be the sister of some fancy fashion designer, but she sure has a lot of energy in her!" With that, he decided to head to the apple orchards since that was the only lead he had on his sister's whereabouts. His anxiety was thankfully lowered since he knew his sister and possibly Shingo would be around there as well, not to mention Scootaloo, so hopefully whatever it was that yelled so loudly earlier wasn't hostile. "Ah just hope that whatever this thing is is in a good mood..." He thought before entering the orchard, searching for any familiar faces.

~~Another Like Me~~

Applejack was worried. That much was certain. She hadn't found hide nor hair of her little sister or any of her friends, and this frustrated, annoyed, and scared her all at the same time. She wasn't one to mull over every little worst case scenario of a situation like Twilight would, but when it came to her family's safety she tended to...mentally prepare herself. In this case the preparation in her mind was something to do with timber wolves, a treed Applebloom, and Spike laughing evilly with a top hat and mustache all the while. "Wait, where'd that last part come from?" She thought, puzzled at where the extraneous detail might have been relevant.

"Kurai!" She jumped, startled by the outburst that came without warning. After she calmed down for a minute or two, she listened and her the sounds of scuffling hooves and what sounded like magic bolts firing, as well as a couple of voices exchanging words.

"Sounds like some kind of fighitin' goin' on over there..." she whispered to herself, before feeling a twinge of fear wash over her, "sounds like they're more than a mite powerful by the sounds of it..." Her eyes widened as she thought about the possibility of Applebloom and the others getting wrapped up in such an event. "Ah better hurry, no tellin' what could come outta' this." She then began to turn her trot into an all out gallop as she made her way towards the source of the clash and clamor.

~~Another Like Me~~

Shingo was once again wrapped up in Luna's magical grasp, and needless to say it could have been going better for him. Luckily he had managed to at least been able to charge his energy a bit before she'd grabbed him but unfortunately it looked like the alicorn was about to unleash a pretty big magical strike. Much to his surprise though, she dropped him, and he took this as a chance to charge at her again, thinking that she'd exhausted her magical supply of energy.

"BE STILL!" He froze in mid-charge as her voice ordered, no, commanded his body to stay locked in place, and to his horror, no matter how hard he tried to fight it, he remained unable to break free of whatever she was doing to him. She smiled as she watched his futile attempts to break free, before her entire body began to glow a beautiful hue of midnight blue. She then to close her eyes as she tilted her head up to the sky and called upon the moon to give her a bit of its power.

"Crap, there's nothing I can do! She's got me trapped!" Shingo yelled to himself as he witnessed Luna's power increasing with each passing moment. Finally, after what seemed like a few minutes, Luna opened her eyes, which now radiated a pure, untainted shade of white, and looked at him.

"Feel the power of the moon encase you, LUNAR SPIRE!" She called out as Shingo saw himself get enveloped by energy that gave off the same silvery glow that the moon itself had. In fact, it reminded him a bit of how one of Kyo's desperation moves used a pillar of fire to start the attack, only a different color. As for how it felt...well let's just say it was similar in looks and power to how his master's attack was. Applebloom and Scootaloo, who had been glued to their seats by the fight so far, gawked at how much power the princess had at her call. Night Stalker simply shook his head, feeling pity for the poor human, for no one could possibly withstand an attack like that...right?

"Um...P-Princess Luna?" Scootaloo stuttered, still quite wary of the princess, both due to the Nightmare Moon fiasco, and by the display of power she had just shown.

"Yes my little pony, what dost thou need?" The princess asked calmly as she turned around, all signs of the power from before having left her.

"W-will he be...alright?" The small pegasus asked with worry.

"Of, course, that attack was meant to finish the fight, not destroy him!" The princess said, reassuring the orange filly, who promptly gave a sigh of relief that her friend was going to be ok eventually.

"Uh, p-princess..." Night Stalker stammered.

"Yes, what is troubling you Night Stalker?" The princess asked worriedly as she saw her guard gaping in amazement and pointing a hoof behind her. Her eyebrow raised as she turned to where he was pointing, and her jaw dropped as she saw Shingo still standing, pretty battered by the looks of it, but his look told her that the fight wasn't over yet. "Impossible..." She breathed out, remaining frozen in place as he approached her.

"Heh, funny, that's what I said too." The human chuckled as he approached her, and then held out his hand. "I think it goes without saying that you won this one princess." He gave her a smile, which she returned while reaching out with her hoof and shaking it. "Good match!"

"No, I think this match deserves to be called a draw fair human." The princess giggled as she saw him give a look of surprise.

"What, b-but why?"

"Nopony I know has ever been able to withstand an attack like that from me except my sister, and even then she is not as resourceful as you have proven to be, so I declare you an equal challenge for me as it was for you!" She said, watching as his face lit up in a grin.

"You know what this calls for right?" He asked her, laughing inwardly as he watched her grow puzzled. "No? Then let me show ya'!" (Please go to 2:39 in the video for this.)

"Um...what manner of tomfoolery was that?" Luna asked, a look of bewilderment on her face as she was trying to think about what had just happened.

"Oh heh, sorry, force of habit I guess." Shingo chuckled, the princess was obviously not used to post-match win poses judging by her reaction. Then again, the human figured that none of the ponies had probably ever experienced a tournament like the ones he was familiar with.

"Applebloom! Oh thank Celestia ya'll are ok!" A new voice called, making everyone turn around to find that Applejack had burst in, and promptly embraced the yellow filly protectively.

"Oh, hiya sis! What're you up to?" Applebloom asked innocently. This was the wrong thing to say apparently, as Applejack's left eye began to twitch, and an angry look came onto her face.

"What am I up to? I was worrying myself to death about ya'll three because I thought ya'll might be in danger!" The mare began to rant, with the princess and Shingo taking a step back from her as the two fillies present cowered underneath her gaze.

"Um...but Applejack we were with Shingo the entire time!" Scootaloo said, trying to appease, or at lease dampen the mare's disposition as she pointed at the human.

        "Wha-" Applejack followed the directory hoof, and found that indeed that not only was the human there, but so was Nightma- er, Princess Luna, who both wore, expressions of amusement on there faces, and Shingo even gave a small wave.

"Sup' Applejack?" He asked, giving, in her eyes, the most charming smile in existence, making her jaw drop only slightly while her face became a canvas for an artist who only painted in red. In reality though, Shingo had only given her a friendly grin and was quite confused about why she was turning such a scarlet hue. "Hm...she must have been running for a while if she's that exhausted!"

"Ah, the Element of Honesty!" Luna cried out happily in recognition, "we have not seen thee and the other Elements of Harmony since my return!"

"Oh, um, hi there Princess Luna...how ya' doin'?" Applejack replied nervously as she tried to keep her composure. Recently she and her other five friends, who wielded the Elements of Harmony, had fought against Nightmare Moon, who was actually Princess Luna that had been overcome by jealousy of the fact that most ponies preferred the daytime, while squandering the time they had during the night because of sleep. Now even though she and the other ponies of Ponyville knew that she wasn't the evil darkness ridden pony she once was, that didn't stop them from getting antsy whenever she was around or in the area.

"Oh..." Luna's face dropped a little as she noticed the orange mare's tension as she had responded to her. "We knew that our subjects were skeptical of us since our return, but for even an element of Harmony to regard us with such fear..." she trailed off as she turned her back to the other, feeling dejected while Shingo and the others gave each other looks of sadness. Applejack felt especially guilty since she was the one that had caused the princess's depression.

"Aw shucks princess..." Applejack took her hat off and scratched her mane, "I didn't mean t' offend you in any way..."

        "Oh it is quite alright Honesty, we knew that our subjects would be slow to trust us after what we had done to them and our sister, I only wish that we had not behaved so rashly back then..."

        "Um, Princess?" Shingo hesitated a second before asking the question, wondering if he was prying into a sensitive topic, "what exactly did you do?" The alicorn was surprised at the way he asked the question, his tone didn't show signs of suspicion or needling for information, he genuinely sounded curious about what had happened.

        "I suppose there is no harm in telling you..." The princess gestured to the ground, indicating for him to have a seat on the ground. After he had gotten settled in the princess's horn began to glow once again, her eyes taking on the same bright shade of white as before. Shingo gasped as he saw the surrounding area fade away to nothingness.

       "Do not be alarmed!" A voice boomed from all around, which startled him. However, he soon realized that he recognized the voice as Luna's, and so he felt a little more at ease.

      "Hey uh if you don't mind me asking princess...what exactly is going on?"

      "I am simply using my magic to share what memories I had about a thousand years ago, which is where all of this started."

      "A thousand years???" He gawked at that number, and the giggle he heard told him that the princess was amused by his reaction.

      "Yes, now let us begin..." Luna trailed off Shingo then saw that the darkness that surrounded him was transformed without warning. What he saw astounded him. He looked at his surroundings and saw that he was currently in a huge building of the fanciest kind he'd ever laid eyes on. He knew that they had obviously spared no expense in decorating the place, because it was both enormous and beautiful.

     "Princess...what is this place?"

     "...This is the palace that my sister and I reside in. It was on this day that it all began..."

     "What began?"

     "The rise of Nightmare Moon..."

~~Another Like Me~~

     Kyo sighed. He sighed because Chizuru was busy looking into what exactly caused his student's disappearance. Since he felt that was more in her department of work, he decided to take a casual stroll around the city. Well, it would be casual anyways, if his mind could stop asking so many questions about what had happened. Kyo hated to say it, but he had actually grown a bit attached to his student. Sure he had been a bit annoying at first, being a very, very persistent fanboy that only served to get Kyo some free meals when he didn't have the cash to buy his own, but over time, Kyo learned to look past that and saw a fighter who was determined to put all of his effort, and then some into anything he did.

    "I need to clear my head of this stuff." He muttered, kicking a nearby can it of frustration. Figuring he had nothing else to do he decided to get something to eat, he hadn't eaten anything since this morning anyways so why not? He was casually making his way to a nearby fast food joint he knew of, until he realized something. He was being followed. However, the footsteps that mimicked his own made no act to conceal themselves, rather, they made sure he knew of their owner's presence, and Kyo knew only one person who would do this sort of thing. Kyo turned around and faced the person behind him, a smirk working its way onto his face when his suspicions were confirmed.

    "..." The man said nothing, and simply gave a cold glare to the leader of Team Japan.

    "You know," Kyo spoke, "normally I'd be pretty disappointed to see your face around here, but today I think a fight with you is just the thing I needed..." he grinned "so let's not hold anything back, eh Yagami?"

~~Another Like Me~~

The Day that Memories were Shared

Iori watched as his nemesis, Kyo, settled into a stance he knew all too well. The stance of the Kusanagi's brand of fighting. Of course with such a sudden opportunity to do battle with his hated rival, he debated on whether or not to actually act upon this one. On one hand, he absolutely hated Kyo with just about every fiber of his being, and would like nothing more than to tear him apart in a one on one fight. However, in doing so he would probably create a lot of...annoyances in the future in the form of his many friends and allies, most notably that of the woman who had sent him out to find the brunette fighter in the first place, Chizuru Kagura.

Sighing, Iori knew he had to defuse this fight before it began, much to his disappointment. So with great reluctance he raised a hand to stop Kyo. "Wait a minute you idiot!" He growled at his would be opponent, "I'm not here to fight you!"

"Wait what?" Kyo stopped suddenly, and the shock on his face was visibly evident to his crimson haired adversary. However, after a few seconds of recovering his thoughts, he smirked. "You picked a weird time to bury your man crush on me Yagami, I'm almost hurt by it!"

Why that little! Iori thought, enraged at the insult. From that one smart remark he had half a mind to go over and just do away with him immediately. Fortunately though, he gritted his teeth and managed to keep his anger in check. "Just...just come along and keep all the stupid comments to yourself...that Kagura woman told me to come and find you..." he forced out as quickly as he could. Without giving the other man a chance to respond he swiftly turned around and began heading back to the Kusanagi residence. One of these days... he thought with a grin, relishing the dream of the day when he would finally do in the man he so utterly despised.

Kyo however, rolled his eyes and decided to follow. Even though a match would have helped to clear his mind from all the things that had been happening lately, he figured that if Chizuru had a lead on whatever happened to Shingo, he should at least go check it out. So with a shrug he followed the path that Iori had taken, slowly of course, just in case it was a trap of some sort.

~~Another Like Me~~

Shingo Yabuki was confused. He had read about Nightmare Moon while grading the history tests for miss Cheerilee, and from what he had read she had been a pretty terrifying figure, whose power rivaled even that of princess Celestia. Strangely enough though, while he had read much about the conflict between her and Celestia, there had been no mention of princess Luna in the slightest. Had Nightmare Moon caused her to disappear somehow?

"Um, princess Luna?" He asked tentatively, wondering if asking something like this was a bit too much of a touchy subject. After all, angering a princess who was quite literally the embodiment of the night was a pretty poor idea.

"Yes my little erm...human?"  She said in a surprisingly warm and friendly tone. "What does thou have to ask us?"

"Um w-well." He stammered, still nervous, "I've kinda skimmed through a bit of what happened between your sister and Nightmare Moon, but well...it didn't say anything about you? Why is that?" At this Shingo was afraid he had asked the wrong question, as he saw that the princess's expression had visibly darkened in response to his inquiry. To his relief however, it was not an angry vibe she gave off, rather one of sadness and regret.

"All will be explained my friend, in due time." She told him reassuringly, an idea of how to explain what had happened popped into her head, and she figured that it would work well for the situation. "In fact," she continued, "instead of telling you, I shall show you what happened so long ago."

"What do you mean by-" The young fighter was cut off as he saw Luna's horn begin to glow. He was initially a bit scared, thinking that she really was about to destroy him for intruding on touchy personal subjects, but to his surprise, the light emanating from her horn was not a harsh one, but a more gentle and soothing one. Figuring at this point it was better to trust the princess and see where this was going, he watched curiously as Luna drew closer. He eventually blushed a light shade of red as she drew ever closer to him, their faces but inches away, until Luna lowered her horn and gently touched his head with it, resulting in a blinding flash of light that made Shingo cover his eyes at the intensity.

Strangely enough, after removing the foreleg from his face, he found himself not in the extravagant and bedazzling palace in Canterlot, but a strange void of some sort. However, before he could call out to Luna, who had mysteriously disappeared, the void began shifting and changing, forming into more recognizable shapes. At first all he could see were the  cobblestone bricks that obviously marked where the road was. As he began to trot along the path that had formed however, he began to see the void churning and creating more and more things until he found himself amid a sprawling city that looked weirdly familiar, even though he knew he had never been in it before.

Since he knew that this was once again a new place that he knew nothing about, and somehow a pony again, he knew the best idea would probably be to ask someone where he was exactly. Seeing that he was in a relatively crowded marketplace, he went up to a moderately dressed stallion who was wearing a white suit that complemented his black fur and white mane quite considerably.

"Excuse me!" Shingo called out to him. "Can I ask you a quick question?" Unfortunately, his words drew no response as the stallion continued to chat with the mare running the stall in front of him. Figuring that they were too engaged in the conversation to hear him he decided to try again. "Um sir?" He said, a bit louder this time, "can I ask you something?" Again, no response. At this Shingo was getting a bit annoyed at the fact that the stallion was ignoring him, and decided to try and tap him on the shoulder. "Hey budd- wha?" His annoyance dissipated quickly as he saw his hoof pass completely through the other pony as if he was no different than the air that they were breathing. "Um...alright?" Deciding that the situation had just descended into the status of "weirdly creepy" he decided explore a bit.

To his bewilderment he found that none of the other ponies even acknowledged or even felt him passing through them as he continued on. Eventually though, he shook it off and came upon what looked to be a palace of some sort. Huh, well that looks oddly important! Trotting inside the gate, he almost jumped out of his skin at seeing an entire platoon of guards glaring right at him when entering the castle gate! After regaining his composure though, he saw that it was merely a drill that they were practicing on and had happened to be facing his way.

After that little bout of terror, he saw that the only thing left to do was enter the palace before him. Once inside the doors, it hit him. I'm in the same palace that Luna and I were in before! Indeed the palace was eerily similar to the one he had been in just a few minutes ago. However, it did look a bit...newer than when he last saw it. Seeing nothing else left to do but to explore, he found himself trying all the doors in his vicinity. Unfortunately, almost all of them were locked, and he couldn't pass through them like he did the other ponies, which made no sense to him. He shrugged and figured that whatever this was he shouldn't dwell on it and saw the only door he hadn't tried yet: An absolutely enormous set of doors that told him whatever lay beyond them, it was definitely of the utmost importance.

With a timid poke of his hoof, the door creaked open ever so slightly, and even though nopony could see him, he decided it would be just to peer through the crack of the door. What he saw made his jaw drop in a most amusing fashion.

Beyond the door was a throne room of which seemed straight out of a storybook. It was an exceedingly long walk, red velvet carpet dividing each side of the room, which were both adorned with many stained glass windows, each one depicting what Shingo guessed was an important part of their history. It was absolutely breathtaking to the young King of Fighters participant, as the best dwelling he had ever laid eyes upon was anything larger than his one story house, which was quite small.

"Honestly Tia, Discord is finished! I don't think we have anything else to worry about!" Shingo whirled around at the voice he suddenly heard. Unfortunately for him, the figures the voices belonged to happened to open the door he was leaning on, causing him to lost balance and fall flat on his muzzle. Luckily, since nopony could really take notice of this bout of clumsiness, he got over the embarrassment rather quickly. What caught his attention though, was not princess Luna, whom he immediately recognized out of the duo. Rather, he was busy paying attention to the other alicorn mare that was present.

"Is that...princess Celestia?" He wondered as he fully took in her appearance. There was no doubt that she was definitely somepony important, as the alabaster alicorn seemed to radiate authority even more than princess Luna. Yet, unlike her nocturnal sister, she seemed to have a more gentle and warm presence, which Shingo found kind of funny considering she was the princess of the sun.

"I know little sister, but yet, I fear we are not yet through these dark times..." When the taller princess spoke, Shingo felt that her voice was not unlike his mother's, as opposed to her sister's, which ironically reminded him of an older sister of some sort.

"Sister, you worry too much, we should take pride in the fact that we managed to rescue these lands from Discord's reign of chaos."

Discord eh? Sounds like he gave the ponies here a lot of trouble while he was around... The fighter mused to himself as he kept listening to the two sisters converse.

"Perhaps you are right Luna, maybe it is simply nerves. Now come, it is time for you to raise the moon." Celestia beckoned her sister to another room, and as they shut the door behind them, the accidental eavesdropper was left  to ponder what he had just heard.

So if they were saying that they just recently defeated Discord, then that must mean... he suddenly pieced it all together, Luna's spell, the fact that the castle was newer, and the fact that the newspapers were advertising wagon sales instead of carriages! (Hey give him some credit, he actually did some researching on the papers in between chapters, but that's a story for another time.) I must be in Luna's memories then... well if that's the case I don't see what this has to do with Nightmare Moon, I mean she hasn't even really showed up yet...

Shingo was about to see if he couldn't follow the princesses to gather more info, when suddenly the space around him shifted back to the white void it originally formed from. After this however, it quickly began to reform once again into the city that he was in before. A few things were different from the first time however. The ponies that were bustling about had disappeared from the streets, which was understandable given that it was night this time, and that it was raining.

Figuring that since these were Luna's memories, the best thing to do would be to get into the castle as he did previously. Thankfully, even though it was raining quite a bit, it seemed to have no effect on him, as he found himself as dry as ever. The walk over there was much shorter than last time now that he knew where to go. Once he went inside the castle however, he found that unlike last time, the door to the throne room was locked.

"Hm...guess I better try the other ones then..." He whispered to himself as he trotted back down the hallway. After a couple of tries and failures with some of the doors, he finally found one that was unlocked. It lead up a few flights of stairs, and eventually Shingo found himself at one of the top floors, and took a look out of one of the windows. Wow, what a view they have up here! He whistled in amazement. From this height he could practically see the entire town and what was beyond it! If it weren't for the rain dampening the mood ever so slightly, he would daresay it was a picturesque view, like one would print on a postcard if they were a tourist on vacation!

Of course, he knew that the view was not what he was here for, and eventually tore himself away from the spot. He began to sigh at the many doors he would have to search through down this hall. Luckily for him, he heard a few voices speaking softly, and so he went to investigate. Cautiously cracking the door open once again, he peered inside the doorway to see what was going on. Much to his surprise, this time it was only princess Luna lying behind the doorway, but this confused him, if he had heard another voice talking to her, then where were they?

"No, my sister would never do such a thing!" Luna said, waving away whatever invisible pony was speaking to her.

"Honestly Luna, are you so naive as to believe she wouldn't?" The voice that spoke to Luna belonged to someone Shingo could tell was not exactly among the best of crowds to hang out with, and yet, it seemed strangely familiar...filing that little thought for later, he focused back on the conversation at hand. "Look out at Canterlot Luna!" The voice instructed, and she did so, "why should ponies shun your night, and choose to relish the daytime? And why would your sister take the position that ponies would deem more apt and fitting to complete their work and bask in times of leisure?"

Shingo could see that Luna was troubled by this statement, and began to see that the voice seemed to be pushing her down a path that would probably not end well for all parties involved.

"No! My sister is better than what you are accusing her of!" Luna whispered harshly, turning to glare at wherever the owner of the other voice might be.

"...Suit yourself." was the reply that came, "but know that what I say is true, and that in time, you will come to see that your sister sees you as beneath her."

"Away with you!" Luna said coldly, "I wish to hear no more of your lies and cajolery! Now begone!" After hearing no response from the other voice for a couple of minutes, Luna sighed and dropped from a demeanor of anger, to one of sadness. "My sister would never do such a thing...would she?" Dejected, she turned one last time to look out at Canterlot, and the lack of ponies on the streets.

At this point the void shifted a third time, and once again Shingo was on the same road as before, and though it was daytime, all the ponies on the streets looked...scared for some reason, and there was a certain tension in the air that definitely hadn't been there before. All these factors made Shingo realize that whatever was going on in this memory, it definitely wasn't a good thing, and so at this point instead of trotting he decided to just gallop all the way over to the castle.

The fears that something was amiss only increased as he got to the castle as the guards, whom he had previously observed to be fearless and without emotion, all seemed strangely...uneasy. As the young man turned pony passed through them, he could hear whispers of something going on between the royal sisters. At this, he made a beeline for the door which he went through on his first trip. Bursting inside, he had braced himself for some kind of epic confrontation of some sort, but much to his disappointment, nopony was even in the throne room!

"Well that was anticlimactic." He muttered to himself as he turned around. He was about to go back and check some place else when the doors opened again and Celestia trotted in. Nevermind! He thought to himself, choosing to remain in the room. At first he was a bit baffled as to why the memories lead him here, surely this would be more fit for Celestia's memories if it had to deal with her wouldn't it? His question was shortly answered by Luna stepping out from behind the shadow of the throne at the end of the room.

To say the look on Luna's face set an ill omen was an understatement. It was not just a look of pure anger or rage, but something more. It was a look of many things, jealousy, betrayal, hurt, disdain, and even a little bit of insanity! The young stallion gulped at seeing this, and braced himself for what he knew would not be a pleasant conversation.

"Luna?" Celestia questioned with a straight look, "what is the meaning of this? The guards told me you have been acting strangely as of late! With reports of you talking to yourself in your room to an unknown source, among other things." At this her gaze softened, "sister please, whatever is troubling you, let me help you!"

"Do refer to me as part of your family!" The dark alicorn hissed in response, catching Celestia off guard, "family would not betray each as you have done!"

"Luna what are you talking about, I've done no such thing!" Her sister said in outrage.

"I've had enough of your *lies!*" Luna shouted in the same voice Shingo had heard her use on him back at the apple farm. "You thought I wouldn't see it would you!" she continued with a venomous glare, "you thought you could possibly get away with taking all the adoration of our subjects while you threw me away?!?"

"Luna stop this nonsense! You know I would never do such a thing!" Celestia pleaded desperately, tears beginning to run down her face at her sister's accusations. She tried to head over to her sister to do something, anything to calm her down, but a magical field from the alicorn of the night stopped her from proceeding.

"Not. Another. *Step." The iciness of the tone that Luna was using with her sister made Shingo tense up. Even though he knew that this was only a memory, this kind of feeling, it was unreal! However, Luna was not finished speaking, "did you really think I would sit idly by while they all basked in your *precious light?" She asked, the last part of her question dripping with sarcasm.

"Luna..." Celestia was at a loss of what to do, she had never thought that her sister would do something like this, and she cursed herself for not even asking Luna about this matter before it had all spiraled out of control like this.

"There can be only ONE princess in Equestria!" Luna declared, stepping up on the perch behind the royal throne. "And that princess will be ME!" She roared triumphantly as she slammed her hooves to the ground, shattering the top part of the throne with little effort, and the crack that had formed beneath her spread behind her, and to the walls until it finally made its way to the stained glass window above her. The window was destroyed in an instant, leaving an ominous view of the entire sun. Both Shingo and Celestia gasped at what happened next. The sun was being blotted out by something, a pitch black shadow that only increased as it eventually covered the entire orb of light, the entire world around them becoming much darker until things were barely visible, just as it was at night.

"Luna no! Stop this madness!" Celestia tried to yell to her sister. Unfortunately for her, Luna was now completely ignoring her. Much to the surprise of everypony present, Luna included, a strange cloud of darkness began to envelope the dark blue alicorn, and much like the moon had blotted out the sun, the darkness spread until it had encased her entirely. A few terrifying seconds passed as Celestia waited with baited breath, until finally the darkness unraveled itself from her younger sister.

The sight that met their eyes made Shingo tremble in fear. Luna had undergone a horrific transformation. No longer was she a dark blue that matched the celestial sky at night, but a much more evil pitch black, as if all the light from her fur had been extinguished. Both her horn and her height now matched her older sister's, and her teeth had now become sharper, giving them a fang-like appearance. Whatever had happened to her, Shingo doubted she was going to listen to reason.

As Celestia continued to try and cry out to her sister to listen to reason, Luna, now overcome with whatever dark power she had been consumed by, continued to simply laugh maniacally as she took in the power she now wielded. "Please sister, don't make me do this..." Celestia whispered as the tears rolled down her face. Yet as much as she wanted things to change, the princess of the sun knew what she had to do.

"Sister, I'm sorry I must do this to you, but you have forced my hand..." with one last look at her sister, she closed her eyes. Shingo wondered what she was going to do, when suddenly he saw that she had summoned what looked like 5 necklaces and a tiara, each one made of gold with a different gem embedded in their middles. Each gem was cut into a different shape. A balloon, an apple, a diamond, a butterfly, a lightning bolt, he recognized all of them except the one on the tiara, which looked like some sort of six point star. Suddenly, as Celestia's horn flared up with an intense light, the regalia also began to resonate with the power she was giving off.

Nightmare Moon noticed this, and flared up her own response, finally realizing what her sister was about to do. "You wouldn't dare!"

Celestia simply gave her a solemn look in response, "to save our subjects and our kingdom, and especially you little sister? You know I would!" And with that, the light that had been building around Celestia suddenly discharged in a beam of light, and with a cry of rage Nightmare Moon was struck by it.

Shingo had no choice but to cover his eyes or else risk getting blinded. The display lasted for about an entire minute before he decided to uncover his eyes. Once he did a sickening feeling formed in his gut. Princess Luna was no longer present, and Celestia was simply lying down, sobbing.

Before he could do anything else, the white void began to shift back into its original form, but this time, instead of it forming into another memory, he found himself waking up as if from a dream. After yawning and stretching a bit he noticed the real princess Luna sitting next to him with a mournful gaze.

"Now you know the truth." She said simply.

The Day that Regrets Were Dissolved

The young man was speechless, and not just because he was rapidly switching between human and pony form. His mind was still reeling at all the information that it had only begun to process. Luna was Nightmare Moon? She had grown jealous of her sister and in response had tried to overthrow her? No, that couldn't be all of it, because that voice he had heard had been coaxing her into a sense of distrust towards Celestia! Eesh! This is a lot to take in! He rubbed his head as all these questions and more bombarded his mind relentlessly.

"We hath never forgotten that day you know..." A quiet voice broke Shingo out of his thoughts. Turning back to princess Luna he was shocked to see trails of tears streaking down the alicorn's face. As he looked at her more and more, he began to see a glimpse of what that day had done to her. Years of pain, sadness, and regret were clearly evident, and his heart nearly broke at the sight of just how lost and lonely she looked. After receiving no audible response from him, Luna continued. "We hurt our sister so much that day, and I wish that it were possible to return to a previous time and simply redo all those moments that we had felt hate and anger towards her for betraying me, when it is we who were the ones being terrible all along."

As the princess quietly sobbed, Shingo was at a loss of what to do. He was never good with girls, for that seemed to be more up in Benimaru's department. Heck, he still had yet to have landed even one girlfriend, so comforting one of the female persuasion, albeit an alicorn in a land of talking ponies, was still thin ice for him. However, as clueless as he knew he was, he knew that in this situation, doing nothing was most definitely worse than messing up. With that, his mind decided it had had enough of the standing around and simply chose something spontaneous.

Princess Luna was used to ponies shying away from her. Given that she'd threatened all of Equestria  once, she knew that her subjects would be a little...skeptical about return, and from what she'd seen, getting through an entire conversation without a pony begging for mercy or trembling was a feat in it of itself for her! So to say she was confused at why she felt something warm wrap around her while crying was probably an understatement.

Don'tkillmeDon'tkillmeDon'tkillmeDon'tkillme! Shingo prayed to high heaven that randomly hugging a figure of royal authority didn't count as assault and/or something that warranted a restraining order, but since his mind had figured that this was the best option, whatever came out of it was his own fault. Well at least she doesn't look too angry! He thought in partial relief, since the look Luna wore wasn't exactly bad, but it didn't spell out "mission accomplished" either... After what felt like an hour or two he finally broke the unplanned embrace, which prompted Luna to finally regain her ability to speak again.

"Uh...pray tell friend Shingo..." she started off, her face sporting a tinge of red still left over from the sudden contact, "what warranted the sudden...embrace?"

"Eheh..." He coughed awkwardly into his hand since he really didn't have a reason as to why. "It just looked like you needed it I guess?"

Luna eyed him with a curious look. She had never met somepony that knew her history that was willing to even stand bravely in her vicinity, and yet here was a human, a creature that pony kind had never seen or heard of before, who was willing to at least try to comfort her, something only her sister would have before she had turned against her.

"But...art thou not afraid of who I am, or what I became?" She asked him, astonished that he didn't seem even the least bit frightened around her.

"Why would I be?" He asked. He wasn't asking it out of confusion, or sarcasm, Luna noted, but rather he was genuinely asking her to give him one good reason to be afraid of her.

"Dost thou mean to say that...thou art not afraid of me? Even after I turned against my own sister? After I threatened this entire land? Even after I became that horrible monster?"

"Luna stop it!" Shingo said firmly, catching her off guard. However, his stern look quickly gave way to a grin. "Trust me, you aren't even half the monster you think you are!" Seeing that she wore a look of disbelief, he knew further convincing was in order. "I mean first off, if you were a complete monster like you said, then you probably wouldn't be feeling remorseful about what happened would you?"

"Well I suppose..." Luna mulled over his question and slowly began see what he was saying.

"And secondly," Shingo continued, "the only reason you became like that was because you felt alone and threatened! Heck, most of the bad guys my master and I fought did horrible things just for kicks...and world domination!"

Luna giggled at that last part. Even though Shingo wasn't the adept socially, he did possess a sort of charm not unlike Pinkie Pie's. When he was happy or trying to make someone else happy, one couldn't help but smile at his optimism and enthusiasm.

"Well I suppose thou art correct. Maybe I have been too hard on myself..." At this Shingo nodded with a reassuring smile. "Yet, I still wish to speak with my sister about transpired that day...though I fear she might very well still be a bit touchy on that subject."

"Come on Luna, have a little faith!" The fighter replied, placing a hand on her shoulder, "she's your sister! Tying up a loose end like that can only benefit you in the long run!"

"Dost thou really think so?"

"I know so!" Shingo grinned while giving her a light pat on the back. He was about to continue when suddenly he gained a sheepish look. "Uh Luna? How exactly do I get back to the Apple farm?"

Luna had almost forgotten about that. She had been too wrapped up in all the strolls down memory lane she had taken. Now it was her turn to feel sheepish at the fact that she'd almost forgotten that she had neglected to teleport her own guards with her. Luckily though, teleportation spells, while quite difficult for the average unicorn, were not too difficult for her and her sister. So in order to save time she simply walked over to Shingo before charging up her magic, resulting in a bright flash as they found themselves back at Sweet Apple Acres.

Immediately following their arrival the guards Night Stalker and Lunar Edge came to their princess's side. They were both pretty embarrassed at the fact that they had managed to actually lose her, but when your princess is able to teleport and you're both pegasi these things tend to happen. So Luna didn't blame them for anything, rather taking fault for leaving them behind, much to their relief.

"Uh hey Luna one more thing before you go?" Shingo asked, causing the sapphire blue alicorn to turn to him. "I kinda don't want to draw attention to myself while I stay in Ponyville, so I kind of need to ask a favor!"

"Of course, what dost thou require of me?" Luna asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Well I kinda need an illusion spell to make me look like how I was while going through your memories."

"Oh is that all?" She chuckled. "A simple matter for one such as me, now hold still." She told him as she charged her horn once again. This time however, the discharge was followed by a puff of smoke, and when Shingo opened his eyes again, he was back in his pony persona, jacket and all.

"Thanks a lot princess!" He said gratefully, "it would have been pretty jarring if I had randomly walked in as something they'd never seen before!" He shuddered at the thought of the ponies in Ponyville all forming some type of angry mob to run him out of town because they thought he was some sort of dangerous animal. He knew that he was already two for two with the whole "fight the human" thing so he figured it would be best to avoid going for a third upset.

"Anytime friend, it's the I could do!" She said, giving him a smile. "I even added a cloud walking spell and a wing spell just to make the illusion more sound and believable!"

"Wait I can FLY NOW?!?" He exclaimed, squealing gleefully like a young filly. Eager to try out his wings he got a running start, leaped out into the air with a grace rivaling that of an Olympic diver, and proceeded to do a perfect face plant into the dirt.

Princess Luna had to hold both hooves over her mouth to stifle her laughter at his antics, while the night guards were simply doubled over in laughter, remembering that they themselves had once been at that level of skill when it came to flying as young colts.

Shingo's face burned brightly as he picked himself out of the dirt. He was embarrassed, but he knew he deserved that one since he was trying to attempt something of which he had no prior experience of. "Eheh, guess I'll work on that later?" He asked, the grin never leaving his face despite his embarrassment. Deciding that he should leave before anymore of his dignity chose to self-destruct, he waved goodbye to Luna and the guards that accompanied her as they teleported back to what he assumed was the castle they had previously been in.

After they had left, the young stallion decided to turn and head on back towards Twilight's tree library. Which, now that he thought of it was something that raised more questions in his mind. How did the tree stay alive if basically all it's bark on the inside were gone? How did they even install appliances in it if no electrical currents were going through the tree itself? How many pages could be made out of a tree like that and was it sad that three-fourths of everything in it were books? Yeah I need to sleep! He told himself as he realized his train of thought was quickly devolving into little more than a wagon of thought. A wagon that seemed to have only three wheels.

However as he was about to leave, he looked around and noticed that it was pretty dark out, and for some reason the words "it's dangerous to go alone," and "don't mine at night," seemed to pop into his head. Shrugging, he figured that while he was a capable fighter in his own right, it was best not to test his luck walking back to Twilight's alone, what with him being on the edge of town and all. I just hope Applejack doesn't mind me imposing on her... he thought nervously as he began to head deeper into the apple orchard.

As he was wandering around, trying to figure out where exactly Applejack's house was in all of these fields, he came across a peculiar little tree house that he hadn't seen before now. He figured that since it was on Apple property that it belonged to one of them, most likely Applebloom since Applejack and Big Macintosh likely wouldn't have much use for a tree house.

Figuring that he might as well check it out, he decided to climb up the tree, which proved to be a little harder since he didn't have hands currently, but he was able to make use of his new wings to boost him upward, finally making it over the railing and through the open window. Unfortunately that last pull up over the railing made him lose balance and fall over with a loud Thump!

"That could have gone way better than it did..." he muttered to himself. Picking himself up, he saw that the window had shut after his leg had knocked the latch that locked it in place. "Don't you dare be..." he tried pulling up the window, only to prove his efforts fruitless as it refused to budge. "Locked...great..." Shingo sighed at the pickle he had gotten himself into, "I guess the only thing to do is wait..." he whispered as he found a particularly nice spot on the hard wooden floor to sleep on. Once he lay down, he actually managed to fall asleep fairly quickly, and was soon snoring away the night, his mind still going over all the things he had found out that day...

~~Another Like Me~~

Discord? A voice rang out across the Canterlot Garden, unheard by everypony except its intended recipient. A few moments passed with no response to its call heard before the voice tried out again, with more force this time. Discord! This time a large yawn was heard until a new voice was heard, though instead of maintaining a serious tone, this voice seemed more lighthearted and carefree.

Would it kill you to pick a better time to have these nightly chats? It asked sleepily. Honestly is it too much to ask to let an avatar of chaos get his beauty sleep at this time of night?

Being trapped in stone for a thousand years should have been enough sleep for you you callous idiot! The initial voice retorted with a hint of anger.

Oh *my!** You wound me dear sir! Such insults should not be tossed around between partners in crime like us!* Discord chided playfully, which made the other voice sigh in response.

Just inform me how your plans are coming along! The first voice told Discord, its patience already running thin with the Draconequus, even though they weren't speaking face to face.

Well if you *must** know my plan to keep causing small amounts of chaos at that school in Ponyville were defused by that little human I decided to let in here!*

I told you that one would only serve to further disrupt our plans, but of course you don't have any sense at all do you?

Oh now where's the fun in making sense boyo? Asked Discord, a fake Scottish accent coming in at the word 'boyo.' Sometimes you have to liven things up a little and take a chance on something crazy!

Whatever! The other voice said, exasperated. Have you figured out anything else?

Actually I have! Discord replied, an excited tone in his voice. I researched a little bit about the world on your end a little and found something interesting about one of those little treasures, specifically the mirror.

And that is?

Well since I have a little influence to dip into its pool of magic, I managed to use what was available to make something like *this!*** He punctuated the end of his sentence with an audible snap of his fingers. Suddenly, a figure began to materialize in front of the statue of Discord. The silhouette immediately gave away the fact that the figure was human, or at least humanoid in shape. As the torso and head became visible however, it was revealed to be a young man with white shoes, a white T-shirt, and an ensemble of black jacket, pants, and gloves. His skin was relatively dark, and his eyes glowed faintly with an ominous red light. After a few moments of standing around the figure finally spoke.

"Huh, you aren't that lady with the mirror who usually summons me..." He said, his voice carrying tones of curiosity and confusion.

Did my appearance of a dragon plus other creatures not tip you off? Discord asked casually.

"Touche." Said the figure, smirking. Suddenly, the casual smirk shifted into a heated glare. "Now what reason did you have for summoning me?"

I have a little proposition for you. A little mercenary work you could say...

"What kind of proposition we talkin' about?" This offer had interested the human, for it's not every day one gets a business venture from a draconequus.

What if I told you I could release from the grip of that mirror, and gave you a will of your own? One not inhibited by any sort of restrictions?Now this was the sort of offer the man was looking for. For a little over 2 years, he hadn't been able to do anything except for follow the wills of that stupid woman and her mirror, but with something like this being offered to him...

"Whats the catch?" He narrowed his eyes. If his time on Earth had taught him anything it was that deals like this never came without a price.

No catch! Was the reply that came back. It reminded him of a sleazy salesman at a market, and those types of guys annoyed him to no end.

"You serious?"

As serious as I can try to be!

"...Count me in!" He said, grinning maliciously.

Excellent! Discord said joyously, before taking on a more malevolent tone. Now let me tell you about a town called Ponyville...

The Day the Ember Sparked

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.

The Day the Flame Ignited

Steady Twilight just a few more inches... The violet unicorn thought to herself, her mind working overtime as she was fully concentrated on the daunting task in front of her. She had recently been going over a book that she had borrowed from Zecora, the local zebra who lived in the Everfree forest. The book itself was full of useful recipes about many medicinal herbs and their different uses, and being the curious unicorn that she was, she decided to experiment around a little with what she had learned. Right now she was just about to finish what she hypothesized would turn out to be a healing potion...at least she hoped, otherwise she might have to head to the bunker based on what happened to her last time.

"TWILIGHT!" A voice pulled her out of her thoughts, causing the solution she had put the herbs into to fly out of her magical grasp and into another chemical nearby. The resulting mixture turned out to be quite the chemical reaction, as it suddenly exploded, throwing the studious mare into a nearby stool.

"Yes?" She called out a bit shakily, still dazed from being sent flying away. The owner of the voice was revealed to be none other than Rainbow Dash, bursting into the room with Pinkie Pie in tow. The latter was twitching and shaking violently, signaling to Twilight that she had entered a state that the three of them recalled all too well.

"Uh...do we need to ready the bunker again?" Rainbow asked as she surveyed the room, which had been thrown into disarray from the volatile chemical reaction that she had unwittingly caused moments ago.

"No!" Twilight replied with a glare, slightly annoyed that her friends had interrupted her experiment, and also a little peeved that the bunker kept being brought up whenever she endeavored to make any strides in the scientific field. However, her annoyance quickly subsided as she glanced at Pinkie. "Uh, is Pinkie..."

"It's what I came to tell you about." The cyan mare explained, "I was just taking a break from the weather patrol this morning, and decided to head to Sugarcube Corner for a bite to eat. Just as I ordered my food and was about to get it from Pinkie, her Pinkie sense got set off and now she's like this!"

"O-Oh boy-y-y t-this is gon-n-na be a doo-oo-oozy-y-y-y!" The pink pony exclaimed, the worry clearly evident in her voice.

"Pinkie!" Twilight said, trying to garner her attention, "Do you have any idea what might have set it off?"

"N-Nope!"

"Hm..." Twilight put a hoof to her chin, "then we have to first assess the situation and then gather the rest of the girls before we try to face whatever it is we're dealing with here!" With that, she ran up the stairs back into the main section of the library. Rainbow Dash huffed as she dragged Pinkie up the stairs as they attempted to catch up to the violet unicorn.

As Twilight had entered the main section of the library she found none other than Spike lounging around and munching on a particularly polished peridot as he read through Daring Do and the Wyvern's Den, one of the middle books of a series that Rainbow Dash had surprisingly become quite fond of. As she entered the room in a frenzy, the dragon looked up, startled by the sudden appearance of his caretaker and sisterly-figure. He quickly composed himself once he saw the look of panic begin to form on the mare's face.

"Twilight what's-" He started to ask, but quickly noticed Rainbow Dash and Pinkie coming up after his friend. Immediately upon locking eyes with the element of laughter he knew what was going on. "I need to ready the bunker don't I?" Twilight's heated glare was all the response he needed as he sheepishly shrugged in apology.

"Spike, I need you to take a letter and write to the Princess!" She ordered. The dragon nodded as he took out a quill and parchment in preparation for the message that he was about to jot down.

"What should I write?"

"I need you to tell her that we might need the Elements of Harmony for a matter of the utmost importance!"

"Um...mind telling me what for?" He asked skeptically. He was never sure really sure when Twilight was simply overreacting to something minute, or if something was actually in dire peril. Heck, she usually had twenty backup plans in reserve if bi-weekly re-shelving day had to be cancelled!

"Pinkie sense!"

"Oh come on I'm sure it's just-"

"CODE LEVEL PINK!"

"Oooooh..." At last the dragon finally understood that she was serious. Code level pink was only reserved for situations that had a chance of being extremely disastrous, or if Pinkie was visiting them on short notice. Scrawling down the letter at a feverish pace, he took a deep breath and blew a jet of emerald green flames that completely encased the paper. Once he had stopped exhaling the fire, he signaled to Twilight that he was done, and she sighed in relief that at least she had the elements reserved in case things went awry.

"Alright, Spike you stay and wait for the Princess's reply while Pinkie, Rainbow, and I go and get the other girls!"

"Alrighty!"

"Come on girls we need to move if we want to get to whatever Pinkie is sensing in time!"

"Right behind you Twilight!"

"O-oki doki l-loki!" With that, the three mares galloped out of the Golden Oaks Library as fast as they could to gather the other elements of harmony. Shortly after they had left, Spike sat back down on the chair he had been occupying before he had been interrupted by his lifelong friend.

Wonder what could be going on? He thought to himself, before shrugging it off and slowly getting back into the Daring Do novel he was reading through. Before that however, one last thought occurred to him, why do I feel like I've been completely ignored up until now?

~~Another Like Me~~

Applejack was having a rough day today. It was not because anything bad had happened to her, in fact today seemed like any other day that she sold her famous Sweet Apple Acres apples. However, unlike any other day that she had manned the stall with one of her siblings, she didn't feel like she was focused on the tasks at hand. This was because her mind kept drifting back to one stallion, or in this case human, though nopony actually knew what he truly was aside from her friends and the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

This musing did not go unnoticed by her younger sister, as the little filly knew without a doubt that something was plaguing her mind, and had a relatively good idea of what.

"Uh sis?" The smaller pony began.

"Huh?" Applejack shook her head as her sibling's voice pulled her back to reality. "Oh, what's on yer' mind Applebloom?"

"That's what I'm trying to ask you!" The filly responded with an incredulous look. "Ever since this mornin' you've been actin' funny!" Applejack sighed at the last part, she had hoped that she had done a good enough job of hiding the fact that she was distracted, but it seems that her little sister was able to read her quite well, as to be expected.

"Listen Applebloom I'm tellin' you that I'm just fine!"

"Well ok..." The older mare was relieved at this, thinking that she'd successfully made her sister lose interest in the conversation. "So uh...just outta' curiosity...what do ya' think of mister Shingo?" The filly said with a sly grin.

The youngest apple could tell she had hit the jackpot as her sister's face suddenly decided that it wanted to change to the same color of fur as her brother's. At this she knew she had her sister verbally cornered and began to chatter on and hop excitedly as a flurry of questions came out. "Ooo ooo are ya' gonna ask him to be a special somepony? Can I get a cutie-mark in matchmaking? Is he gonna be my new big brother? Ooo maybe the girls and I can be 'Cutie Mark Crusader weddin' planners!' Maybe-"

"Applebloom!" Her sister yelled, startling the filly enough into making her freeze in place. Of course, the damage was already done as her sister's face had gone past Big Mac's usual shade of crimson and just went straight for the dark red skin of their red delicious apples.

"What?" The filly inquired innocently. "I was just askin'!"

"Just keep an eye on the stall..." Her sister sighed as she walked away in order to escape from her sister's interrogation. She didn't stray too far of course, she was sitting on a bench close enough to keep a watchful eye on her sibling, but far enough so that it'd be too much of a hassle for Applebloom to continue her questioning.

However, thinking back on the questions that her sister did get to ask, there was no denying that she was at least attracted to the newcomer. She wasn't exactly sure why though. Maybe it was a combination of things? Maybe it was because she gained a respect for the amount of strength he had shown in their initial encounter, or maybe she admired him for the bond he had formed with Scootaloo in such a short amount of time. Of course, it didn't hurt that she found him to be quite handsome as a stallion.

Come on AJ! She thought to herself. Ya'll gotta stop thinkin' like this! Sides, it'd never work out anyway, he's a *human** and you're a pony, and he has too much to go back to where he's from...* She gained a look of disappointment at this, and realized that maybe she should just let it go for now, since dwelling on it would probably only make things worse. Maybe it will all work out some day... She thought with a hint of hope as she got up and began walking back towards the apple stall, where her sister was currently doing her best to sell some apples in a concise and professional manner...Basically meaning that she made a cute face and pleaded with the customer and tugged at their heartstrings.

"Oh you aren't you just the cutest thing?" An all too familiar voice squealed giddily. Looking up, Applejack saw that her guess was correct, and that it was indeed none other than Rarity who had spoken. Surprisingly enough, Fluttershy seemed to also be accompanying the alabaster unicorn. "Oh Applejack! I thought you might be around here as well!" Her friend greeted her with a cheery smile.

"Hello Applejack! It's nice to see you again!" The shy pegasus greeted her warmly, as she did with most of her close friends, who she had gotten used to being around and was as such not as shy around them.

"Howdy ya'll! Good to see you as well!" The apple bucker returned the sentiment with a smile of her own. Though her expression quickly changed from happy to confused. "Wait, Rarity you already bought apples this week. Comin' back for more already?"

"Oh no no!" The mare replied. "Fluttershy and I have just finished our weekly spa-meetup just a few minutes ago, and she said that she needed to buy some things at the market today afterwards. So I decided to accompany her on her little shopping trip!"

"Ah I see now."

"Indeed, and we couldn't help but notice that your adorable little sales pony was working quite hard!" The unicorn explained, giggling as she patted the beaming yellow filly on her mane. "So we decided to purchase some apples."

"Well thank you kindly for the business then ya'll! I reall-"

"Applejack! Rarity! Fluttershy!" Twilight called out to the trio as she galloped over to them, panting from all the exercise she had just gotten. "Gotta...tell...you...oh sweet Celestia I need to run more!"

"Easy there Twi. What's got ya'll all riled up in such a tizzy like that?" Applejack asked, worried that her friend may have overexerted herself getting to them. Suddenly, a look of fear flashed across the mare's face. "We don't need to ready the bunker do we?"

"NO WE DON'T NEED TO READY THE BUNKER!" Twilight yelled out, already sick of hearing that phrase being uttered so frequently today. Honestly, they couldn't just forget that incident and just leave it be?

"Oh my..." Fluttershy squeaked as she fearfully hid behind Applebloom due to the terror she had experienced when her friend had yelled out in frustration.

"Darling please get a hold of yourself!" Rarity reprimanded her fellow unicorn. "Please just relax for a minute and calmly explain to us what the matter is." Twilight sighed and realized that her friend was right, she needed to calm down if she wanted to explain the situation in an orderly and tact fashi-

"Heads up girls we got another Pinkie Sense Doozy incoming!" Rainbow Dash yelled out to her friends as she and the aforementioned pink mare finally caught up to Twilight and the rest of the gang. The purple unicorn in question simply growled in annoyance since she was going to explain that in about two seconds.

"Oh dear!" Rarity said with a worried look, "then this has become rather serious then hasn't it?"

"Yup!" Pinkie replied, but then got a surprised look on her face. "Hey wait the doozy signal finally stopped!"

"HUH?" The group cried out simultaneously.

"Yeah it's weird but I think I sense that somepony new just arrived in town..." The pink mare said with a pensive look. Her statement however made her friends give a glance of confusion amongst themselves. Usually if that was the case, then the mare would've wasted no time in beginning to prepare a party for the newcomer, but this time she seemed hesitant in what she should do...

"Pinkie don't you usually start to run off to throw a party for whoever it is right about now though?" Rainbow Dash asked the earth pony, who was simply scanning the horizon for something, or somepony.

"That's just it..." She replied, her face not giving any signs of her usual happiness, "I usually do feel like that...but this time it's...different for some reason."

"What do you mea-"

"Hey isn't that Mr. Shingo comin' from over there?" Applebloom asked, recognizing the figure in the distance who was slowly walking towards the town. The group of mares turned and saw that indeed a figure who looked quite similar to Shingo was making his way towards them.

"Applebloom run on home now." Applejack suddenly commanded.

"But why?" The filly asked, confused as to why her sister had issued that order so suddenly. There didn't seem to be any danger around right now, so why was her sister suddenly sounding like she was on edge? Wait a minute... She thought, the realization finally dawning on her. That can't be Mr. Shingo! I saw him just a second ago as a stallion with Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle! But if it ain't him...then who is *that?***

"Applebloom go!" Her sister said, ushering her with a few pushes with her muzzle. The filly complied, and began to head to her house at Sweet Apple Acres, an unknown feeling of dread welling up in the pit of her stomach as she took one final glance back to her sister and her friends and the unknown stranger who was heading directly towards them.

Back with the bearers of the Elements of Harmony, they were all giving mixed reactions to the new human heading walking towards them. Fluttershy was already intimidated by his appearance and opted to stay hidden behind the others. Twilight was eyeing him with curiosity, wondering if he was related to Shingo in any way given their similar appearances. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were tensed up and had already guessed that whatever he was here for, it couldn't have been anything good. Pinkie Pie was debating on whether or not to ask what he was up to, or whether he preferred chocolate or vanilla. Rarity could tell from the looks of his clothes that he definitely seemed more rough and rugged than Shingo.

The man was sizing up the ponies that had been gathered up in the market. Not even one of them seemed like they would pose any threat to him, though he felt all of their eyes had been glued to him the moment he had arrived. Heh, this is gonna be a cakewalk. He thought cockily as he grinned, opting to simply walk up to a group of six mares who were watching him intently.

"Pretty hot day out today am I right?" He asked as nonchalantly as he could. The mares were obviously not expecting this question as they seemed taken aback by the mundane quality of it.

"Uh, I suppose." The white horned one replied nervously as she looked back to her the other five for some help.

"I could do with a bit of colder weather myself." The purple one said with a shrug. The man chuckled as heard this, which seemed to only make the mares more nervous.

"That's too bad..." He said with mock sadness, "I heard that things were going to get rather...heated today." He chuckled darkly at the pun that only he understood.

"W-What makes ya' say that?" Applejack asked with a nervous gulp.

"Oh nothing..." he said with a shrug, before he ignited a flame in the palm of his hand, surprising the mares and making them take a few steps back from him. He smiled sadistically as he made the flame grow stronger and brighter with each passing moment before it finally was wide enough to reach his fingertips. "...just a feeling!" He shouted as he threw a wall of fire at them.

Luckily, Twilight managed to see this coming and managed to shield all of her friends from the raging inferno as the townspeople scattered, raising a mass panic at the hostile nature of the new comer who was able to somehow manipulate flames. The attack that the man had sent passed over the shield and had gone on to hit some of the stalls in the market, leaving nothing as the flames licked at the vegetables, fruit, and other flammable goods without mercy, leaving only piles of ashes to signify that something had once been there.

"Heh looks like things really went up in flames for you ponies eh?" He asked, laughing at his own twisted joke.

What *is** he?* Twilight thought with a mixture of fear and awe. In all her years of advanced magical studies she had never heard of anypony or anything short of a dragon that had been able to actually produce flames like this human was doing right now. However, she had to force her curious nature aside and figure out a plan quickly. The attack he launched at them had hit her shield harder than anything she had felt before, and had drained a lot of her magical reserves. Unless they came up with a plan fast, all of Ponyville was going to succumb to a blaze of fire, and unlike the parasprite attack that they had experience a while back, this time they wouldn't have anything left to rebuild.

"Twilight? What do we do?" Fluttershy squeaked in fear, the poor mare looking about ready to faint as she witnessed the powerful flame attack that the human had launched.

"Twilight!" A voice that made the unicorn experience  a great sense of relief reached her ears. The group turned around to find Spike had finally found them, holding an all too welcome box in his claws. As he arrived, his jaw dropped at the sheer amount of destruction that was present. "Whoa...looks like the library when I eat a bad-"

"Spike!"

"Oh right!" The dragon chastised himself for getting off track and opened the box and tossed each of the bearers their respective elements.

The human had been eyeing the box curiously, not knowing what it had contained. He was expecting some sort of weapon or tool that could deal a heavy amount of damage or that was resistant to flames, but...JEWELRY? This was too much for him as he burst out laughing, the mares not sharing in on his mood as they donned the necklaces and one tiara.

"Oh man this is hilarious!" He said as he wiped away a tear from laughing so hard. "What are you gonna do, make me have a heart attack from the price tags on those things?" He taunted, which only made the six mares and dragon glare at him heatedly.

"Oh ya'll are in for a real treat then!" Applejack smirked.

"What she said!" Rainbow Dash agreed with her friend. "We eat chumps like you for breakfast!"

"W-We do?" Fluttershy asked nervously. Seeing the looks of the other mares she straightened up and stood as tall as she was could. "I-I mean yes we do!"

"Pft! Now this I have to see!" Their adversary scoffed and folded his arms and watched intently as they began to slowly but surely rise in the air. His mocking look turned to one of curiosity as he saw the six begin to glow with an ethereal white light, their eyes matching the color of their aura as a ball of light began to form in the middle of the group. Suddenly, the light was transferred to Twilight's tiara and shot out of her horn in the blink of an eye. "Wha-" The man was left with no time to dodge as the beam struck him and enveloped him in a blinding pillar of light, a cloud of dust being raised from the sheer power of the elements being used.

On his end, the man was able to stand his ground surprisingly enough, since the blast hadn't pushed him as forcefully as he thought it would have. He felt a tingling sensation begin to develop on his arm. He brought the limb up in front of his face and examined it curiously. His eyes widened as he discovered that his entire arm was beginning to become encased inside a layer of stone. What the hell? He thought to himself. He had expected the blast to incinerate him or do some damage to him, but turning him into a statue? Well, he supposed he'd seen weirder things.

Twilight and her friends floated down to the ground, a bit tired from the use of their respective elements. However, they all had smiles on their faces as they had successfully vanquished the threat. Either they had encased the assailant in stone, or they had given him a form where he could do no harm as they had done with Luna. Who knows, this human may have been corrupted by the same darkness that had plagued the Princess of the night and had just needed their help to get back to normal. They were about to pack up, head home and inform Celestia through a letter about what had happened before Fluttershy happened to take one last glance behind her.

She gasped, which got the attention of the rest of the bearers of harmony, at the sight that met her eyes. The human was still standing, and worse, even though he had begun to turn to stone, he still wore the same smirk as he had before, and this made the six mares very uneasy as he began to chuckle.

"Gotta admit," he called out to them, "I wasn't exactly expecting those trinkets to make me the next centerpiece of a garden." He then produced a flame in the arm that was encased in stone. At first, this appeared to have no affect, but after a few seconds everyone could easily see that the flame was somehow repelling the stone and causing it to crack and break off of his arm, eventually giving him back the ability to move his arm freely.

"B-but how are you able to do this? The Elements of Harmony should have at least incapacitated you!" Twilight stammered out nervously. Well this kind of negates plans 20-43 now doesn't it?

"Well it probably should have," he answered with a shrug, "but based on the fact that your power was used to seal things away, and my flames are used for the same kind of purpose, well I think you can see that your power kind of recognized it as similar to itself in a way."

"Um Twilight?" Pinkie asked, shuffling nervously as she noticed that Celestia's student hadn't even budged an inch. "What now?"

"I don't know Pinkie, I'm trying to think of something!" The purple mare told her as she feverishly tried to work up some kind of plan to subdue their adversary, who was now very dangerous and apparently immune to their ace in the hole against threats.

"Guess we gotta do this the ol' fashioned way then?" Applejack asked grimly as she tensed up for the fight she knew was about to happen. "Back me up RD?"

"I'm with you AJ!" The rainbow maned pegasus replied, giving her friend a hoof bump as they faced the adversary in front of them.

"Oh! Looks like I finally get to have some fun today!" He said happily as he took a stance of his own.

"Fastball special?" The cowpony whispered to the weather team captain as the latter nodded in confirmation. The human raised an eyebrow, wondering at what they could be planning. Without warning, the stetson-wearing mare picked up the cyan one, and launched her towards him with a mighty buck. The pegasus seemed to be unharmed by this maneuver and used the momentum to fly towards him at a blinding speed, fully intending to hit him square in the chest.

It probably would've broken a few ribs and taken out a good chunk of his energy too, had he not stuck out his elbow and struck the mare square in the stomach, easily knocking the wind out of her and bringing her charge to a halt. Following it up, he gripped her neck tightly, making her claw furiously at his hand in a feeble attempt to break free of the hold he had on her as he raised her up in the air. She had a look of terror on her face as she locked eyes with him and saw that he fully intended to kill her without hesitation, or at least leave her in a state so horrible she wished she were dead.

"You know being a manifestation of magic, I'm not exactly one to go and actually indulge in meals," he said thoughtfully, "and you definitely aren't a chicken, but you know what?" He grinned menacingly as he added the next part, "I could go for a couple of roasted wings for dinner tonight." With that he began to pour power into his hand, and instantly Rainbow felt the palm of his hand rise in temperature immensely, the mere touch already singing her fur and beginning to scald the skin underneath.

Applejack rushed over to free her comrade, but had to dive to the side as the human used his free hand to launch a fireball that traveled towards her on the ground. She managed to dodge it, and got back up to continue, but saw in horror that a red tint of aura was already forming around his hand, no doubt the work of the flames he was able to summon. Looking back, she desperately hoped that at least one of her friends would be able to save Rainbow, but Fluttershy was trembling in fear, Rarity was standing stock still in horror, Twilight had pretty much exhausted all of her magical energy from the shield and from using the elements. That left only Pinkie, and the premier party pony was nowhere to be found currently.

The man was sporting quite the malicious grin on his face as he saw the look of pain etched on the mare's face. "Looks like this is the end of th-"

"SHINGO KICK-UU!" A voice interrupted, shocking everyone as a familiar blue stallion leaped in and caught the man by surprise with a full on back hoof to the face, launching him backwards and making him let go of Rainbow Dash, who began to gasp and cough as she was finally free of his grip.

"S-Shingo?" She said hoarsely, her throat still working on getting back to normal after having its air supply cut back immensely.

"Rainbow Dash! Geez I got here just in time!" He said, relieved that she hadn't sustained too many injuries.

"Y-Yeah, we tried to use the Elements of Harmony on him but he shrugged it off like it was nothing!" She explained. "Then me and AJ tried to take him out together, but he kind of got a hold on me..."

"I can see that..." He replied, a feeling of guilt washing over him due to the fact that he hadn't gotten there in time to save her from getting hurt. As they regrouped with the rest of the girls, Pinkie popped up behind him once again.

"Pinkie, where in the hay were ya'!" Applejack cried out in anger, remembering that her friend had left when Rainbow was being attacked. "If Shingo hadn't come along when he did-"

"Actually Applejack she came and found me and told me where you girls were at!" He explained, the pink mare giving him a grateful look as he vouched for her, "if she hadn't found me when she did I wouldn't have made it in time!"

"Oh, I just assumed-"

"It's alright Applejack, no harm done!" Pinkie said, patting the mare's stetson as a sign of forgiveness.

"Hey Pinkie you did get Scoots and Sweetie to a safe place right?" Shingo asked her.

"Yuppers!" She replied cheerfully, "They're already back at Sweet Apple Acres with Granny Smith and Big Mcintosh!"

"Good. Twilight how're you holding up?" He asked the violet unicorn, who was still in shock both due to the strain she had placed on herself and at the fact that the elements of harmony had failed. At his question she finally broke out of her stupor.

"Not too well, this all got out of hand so fast..." She replied, still unable to process what had occurred  in the last few minutes.

This isn't looking too great... The stallion thought to himself. The marketplace is burned to the ground and Rainbow is injured pretty badly. Aw man what would Mr. Kusanagi do?!? He thought desperately. He had never been in a situation this dire without any aid. Usually his master or one of his friends would be leading and keeping everyone calm and orderly. Looks like I'm gonna have to be the one to step up then... He thought grimly as he turned toward the mares, deciding to wing it as best as he could.

"Twilight, listen to me." Shingo commanded. "We need to focus on the task at hand. You need to warn everypony here to start getting ready to put out any fires that could start, and then keep as much water and other flame retardant things on hand just in case.." At this, Twilight seemed to calm down at least slightly now that a plan was in order.

"Right...warn everypony and gather anti-fire measures...got it!" She recited to herself before picking up Spike and placing him on her back.

"Hey Twilight who is that guy?" Spike asked her as she galloped away.

"Tell you later," was the reply that came back. Shingo checked off that order of business in his mind, knowing that Twilight was a sensible mare and could probably think of ways to fire-proof the town in ways he probably couldn't think of.

"Rarity, Fluttershy, think you could make sure Dash gets to the hospital pretty quickly?" He asked the unicorn and pegasus.

"Of course darling, but do be careful, that human is certainly stronger than he looks at a first glance." The refined mare told him as she and Fluttershy gathered their reckless friend and supported her as they headed towards Ponyville general.

"Pinkie, I need you to go around town and get anypony still out on the streets into their homes and keep them calm!"

"Oki doki loki!" With that, the pink mare gave a salute and dashed off as fast as she possibly could. A few pieces of confetti lingered after she had disappeared. Shingo blinked a couple of times before turning to the only mare that was left. He knew that out of all of them, she was probably going to be the most stubborn and adamant about her position on the situation.

"Applejack-" He started to turn towards the mare to tell her to take care of the fillies back at Sweet Apple Acres, but before he could say anything, she cut him off.

"I know what yer' gonna say, and I'm telling you that it ain't happening." She said firmly, catching the stallion off guard.

"Applejack," he sighed as he tried to reason with her, "I can't risk anypony out here getting hurt because of this guy."

"And I'm tellin' you ya' ain't takin' him on alone!" She fired back.

"Listen, I'm the only one here who knows everything he's capable of..." This statement got her to stop for a second as a question formed in her mind.

"Wait, you know him?" She asked, a hint of anger evident in her voice. She didn't think it was possible that Shingo was actually friends with the human, but of course, if he had known him from somewhere it could have been possible that he was out for revenge.

"Well not him per-say," Shingo said as he took a glance at the man, who was slowly getting up to his feet. "But my master used to use a lot of the same fighting techniques that he did." This managed to set Applejack at ease somewhat, but the matter of her refusal to leave still remained.

"Well well well." The man said, chuckling as he wiped away a bit of blood from his mouth that had gathered as a result of the hit he had taken. "Didn't expect your little boyfriend to be able to hit that hard." Shingo tensed up and stood in front of Applejack protectively, though a slight blush had formed on his face at the previous words that were spoken.

"Why don't you try picking on someone who's on your skill level?" He challenged, before turning to Applejack. "No offense Applejack." He said sheepishly.

"I'll keep that in mind." She said with a deadpan expression.

I'm going to regret that one later aren't I? He asked himself fearfully.

Heck yeah you are!

Not the time for it brain!

"So the little pony thinks he's a tough guy eh?" The man mocked. "Well if it's a fight you want then I'll be happy to oblige! So long as we do this one on one. Wouldn't want your girl over there to get hurt eh?" He jabbed a thumb towards Applejack, who recoiled instinctively at the gesture while gritting her teeth. She knew it was a risk to stay here and fight, but she couldn't just leave a friend she cared about to handle it alone could she?

"Huh, I didn't think your type would actually care about something like that." Shingo replied, blinking in surprise.

"Well I like my fights to be fair at the very least, and besides, I'm not a complete monster, so I'll cut you a deal! You win the fight, and I leave for good." Shingo liked the sound of that part. "If you lose though..." he paused, before throwing a flame at a nearby building, which instantly caught flame and began burning, turning back to the two ponies, he added, "that one's just the beginning of what I'm gonna do here."

That second part of that deal sounds quite horrific... Shingo thought as he turned to Applejack. "What do you think make of it? Think he's trying to pull something?" He figured that if anyone could see through a lie or a fake deal, it would be Applejack. After all, she is the element of Honesty.

"Hate to say it, but I think he's serious about it." She whispered to him. "I still don't like leaving you without any help though..."

"I know, but it's the only shot we have to prevent him from lighting up the entire town." He put a reassuring hoof on her shoulder. "You should probably try and find Twilight, maybe you two can think of something while I keep him busy."

"...Alright, I guess if you say so, then all I can do is trust you." She said begrudgingly, her face contorted in to a grimace at the fact that she had to leave. Before she left however, she embraced him while whispering in his ear, "be careful sugar cube."

"Don't worry AJ, I'll kick this guy's butt halfway across Ponyville!" He said with a grin. He tried to do a thumbs up, but remembered that he had hooves, and so he settled for a pat on the back. They exchanged a friendly smile before Applejack galloped off, leaving him to face the human alone.

"Isn't that just the sweetest thing?" The man asked with a snicker. Shingo didn't reply as he wordlessly took his fighting stance. The man saw this and observed the stallion closely for the first time. Strangely enough, this pony seemed...familiar to him somehow, but he couldn't quite place a finger on why this was. Shrugging inwardly, he settled into a stance of his own before asking his opponent a final question. "So what's your name little pony?"

"I don't see why that matters." Shingo fired back with an unusually cold tone of voice. This didn't faze the man as he chuckled in response to the icy reply.

"Hey now I just figured I'd get the name of an opponent. Besides, it'd be pretty stupid to ask you that after you've been burnt up now wouldn't it?"

On Shingo's end, he was doing his best to keep up a calm face, and so far it seemed to be working. On the inside though, he was actually quite nervous, and to be honest, a little terrified. He had never been the best fighter out there, considering that everyone in the King of Fighters was either a master of their fighting style, gifted with extraordinary powers, or both. Him though? He was just a plain old guy fresh out of high school who had a knack for optimism and getting into situations that went way over his head. It didn't help that this guy fought almost exactly like his master, Kyo Kusanagi, who he had never even managed to come close to defeating. He knew that this kind of thinking would only make him lose focus and end up getting him killed though, and so he took a deep breath. Alright, stay cool Shingo, Mr. Kusanagi may not be here to help you out, but that doesn't mean we've lost yet.

"My name is Shingo Yabuki," he said, a surge of confidence evident in his voice, "student of Kyo Kusanagi."

The man raised an eyebrow at the introduction. So he's been taught by my other self eh? ...This oughta' make things interesting then... He thought to himself, before grinning darkly. "The name's Kusanagi, but I'm sure that isn't too big of a surprise to you huh?"

"Not really, considering that you look a lot like my master."

"Well then I guess that's that then." Kusanagi said as he ignited a flame in his palm. "Let's dance!" The two fighters then charged at each other, each of them giving a battle cry as they went to clash, one with the intent to protect Ponyville, and the other with the intent to burn it to the ground. The fight had finally begun.

The Day Things Changed

Hello everybody! BoldBlue here with another story of mine. I came up with the idea of this story after seeing this picture: http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m08jxkx7hu1r1jqquo1_500.png and so I thought "hm...maybe a story about this kind of thing wouldn't be so bad?" Anyways, this will most likely be a shorter story than Dead Rising: Case Equestria, and if you haven't already checked it out, I urge you to do so and review it please! It would be much appreciated! So without further ado, here it goes!

~Another Like Me~

"Oh come on!" A cry of frustration was heard from the vicinity of the Cutie Mark Crusaders treehouse. The cry itself had originated from a small orange filly with a purple mane and tail, it seemed that she was quite tired, as she was panting frequently, and covered in sweat. She furiously flapped her wings in a desperate attempt to get airborne, but alas, she could only hover for a split second before falling to the ground in a heap. Unlike the other times she simply decided to remain on the ground, taking a rest from her many attempts at flying, which had been going on for at least an hour. The sun had long since set into the horizon as Luna's silver moon looked quite beautiful tonight, glowing brightly while complimenting the many stars that shined along with it.

Who was this young pony in distress you might ask? Why, it was none other than Scootaloo, a Cutie Mark Crusader, and an all together lovable filly that usually found herself getting into mischief of multiple kinds along with her best friends Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom in their endeavors to gain their cutie marks. Scootaloo however, was feeling down in the dumps today. "This is ridiculous!" she told herself in a huff, "no matter how hard I try, I just can't fly!" She sighed before slumping down, depressed, "I guess I'll never be able to be as awesome as Rainbow Dash...and even worse...Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were right..." at the remembrance of the two bullies, tears began to flow down her cheeks as she recalled the insults they had battered her with during school.

[Flashback: 5 hours earlier]

"Wow, this loser doesn't have a cutie mark or wings!" The pale magenta filly, Diamond Tiara, said jeering at Scootaloo.

"I do too have wings!" The pegasus filly shot back obviously angered at her words.

"Might as well not have them at all! Considering you can't even get more than an inch off the ground!" The other bully, Silver Spoon, said scoffing at her victim's rebuttal.

"I know, a blank flank and a lame wing! She's such a foal if she thinks Rainbow Dash would ever notice her!" Diamond Tiara said smirking as the pair of bullies began to laugh as they walked off, leaving Scootaloo both angry, and disheartened at their words.

[Flashback End]

"They're right," Scootaloo said, now breaking into sobs as she sniffled. "I'm just a loser...why would Rainbow Dash even think that I'd be worthy to learn from her at all." She took on a small smile, remembering how her friends had tried to comfort her afterwards.

Don't listen tah them Scoots! Apple Bloom had said patting her reassuringly on the back.

Yeah they're just jealous because we'll get Cutie marks that are 10 times better than their's! Sweetie Belle had declared, trying to cheer up her friend. Scootaloo at that time had shrugged and assured her friends that the bullies's words hadn't had an effect on her. However, now that her friends were gone, and her pride in no danger, she felt the full weight of the verbal assault take hold upon her, and she remained in the clubhouse, alone and depressed.

"I'm so useless..." She thought miserably as she simply decided to let the tears and sadness consume her, until she finally fell asleep, dreaming of the day she might finally fly, and the day her idol, Rainbow Dash, would finally notice her...

~Another Like Me~

"Come on Shingo! You gotta' try harder than that!" Shouted a youth, about 16 or 17 years old, at his opponent. This youth was none other than Kyo Kusanagi, the reigning champion of the King Of Fighter's tournament. He was a laid back young man that didn't care much for school, simply opting on training for the next tournament or hanging out with his friends and girlfriend. Today he wore a white jacket with a black t-shirt underneath, and some jeans that weren't overly tight, but not too loose either.

"B-but Mr. Kusanagi! This is ridiculous!" The opponent, a lad who was only about 1 or 2 years younger than Kyo, said tiredly. This youth was also brown haired, but chose to wore a blue button up jacket with a white undershirt and some dark blue slacks. "I'm used to fighting you and losing already, but with Ms. Chizuru here as well?!?" He cried in panic as he dodged a punch by Kyo, rolling away to distance himself from his opponents.

"I know this is hard Shingo," Kyo said with a bit of sympathy for his student, dropping his fists for a moment, " but times are tougher now! You saw what NESTS did! They captured me, and I'm already a seasoned fighter! I'm trying to train you for any situation, and with the way those guys were, who's to say someone might not gang up on you in a fight like this? Understand?" The teacher inquired as he returned to his fighting stance.

"...Yes sir Mr. Kusanagi!" Shingo replied after a bit of a pause.

"Good! Then I want to see your efforts double!" Kyo cried as he charged forward. Shingo groaned as he tried to anticipate his teacher's movements while also keeping an eye on his other opponent, Chizuru Kagura, a young woman who had known the both of them for a few years now. She was quite pretty, having fair skin and black hair let down, but wore a white hair band. She wore a white robe that looked as if it was a bit formal for the fighting scene, but she paid no mind to that, while also wearing black dress pants and some black heels that she seemed unhindered by as she was fighting.

"Oh man what am I gonna' do???" He thought in fear as he knew that taking his eyes off of either of his opponents would result in a beatdown that he would rather not have. "Wait!" He thought, his face lit up as he remembered something Kyo had told him before.

[Flashback]

Shingo had been tired after having a long training session with Kyo that day, and afterwards his teacher had come up to him with some advice.

"Shingo," He said garnering the attention of his student.

"Yes Mr. Kusanagi?"

"You have been doing very well in learning so far, but their is one thing you have to learn."

"What's that Mr. Kusanagi?" Shingo asked curiously, dusting himself off as he sat up, having been lying on the ground previously.

"You must always learn how to switch tactics at a moment's notice!" Kyo said with a serious, but kind look, "If you continue to keep using the same strategy over and over again, your opponent will easily figure you out and find a weakness in your style!"

"So what do I do?"

"You must always learn to use even the most unexpected things to your advantage, if you find yourself in a situation that is terrible, and the only way out is risky, do something totally unexpected, you never know! It might just catch your opponent off guard!"

[Flashback End]

"Hm...unexpected eh?" Shingo grinned as he had a crazy idea. "Well I guess there's no other option!" He braced himself as he did the one thing a rational person would never do: run right in the middle of his two adversaries. Shingo knew his opponents were surprise, as they both raised an eyebrow at his move. However, as he expected they both charged towards him, seeking to catch him in a double team attack. At the last second, as Kyo was beginning to charge his fist with the power of his flames, which were inherent to his family line, and Chizuru about to unleash the power of her Yata mirror, he side stepped, making his opponent's attacks collide. Shingo grinned as his foes made contact with one another. However, his grin faded as he saw what happened next.

"Oh no the Yata mirror!" Chizuru cried out in horror as it began to grow with a bright white light after coming into contact with Kyo's flame.

"Wait what's going on? What's happening to it?" Kyo asked apprehensively as he ran over to her, all notions of the sparring session coming to a halt.

"I-I don't know!" She said nervously, "It seems like your flames may have inadvertently set off somet-" she was cut off as it let out a bolt of energy that headed straight for an unsuspecting Shingo, who cried out in pain as he fell to the ground after getting hit by the energy.

"Shingo!" His friend and teacher both cried out as they ran over to him. They saw that the bolt of energy had sent him into a state of shock as he began to gain a faint glow.

"What's going on? What's happening to him?" Kyo cried out in frustration to Chizuru who didn't respond as she remained speechless at what was occurring.

"WHAT THE BLAZES IS ALL THIS YELLING ABOUT???" Yelled a dark haired man who was dressed in a forest green gi as he angrily ran in wondering what had happened.

"Dad!" Kyo cried out, "It's Shingo he's-" He suddenly cut off as a bright flash filled the room, making everyone shield their eyes from the spectacle. Once the light had faded, they looked to see that Shingo was no longer in the spot he'd been in. "-gone..."

~Another Like Me~

Scootaloo, after sleeping for a good hour or two, finally woke up with a yawn as she felt a little bit better than she had before, but was still quite sad. "Maybe I should just give up on being a pegasus altogether..." She thought dejectedly, and began climbing down. As she turned to leave for her home, she heard a loud and strange sound that sounded like that of an energy crackle. "Could that be a Sonic Rainboom??? No Rainbow Dash doesn't fly this late though!" The filly thought a bit confused, but finally decided to check it out. "It looks like it came from the Everfree forest..." She thought, hesitating at the idea of going in there. She had heard about the many terrible things in the forest: dragons, timberwolves, Apple Bloom had even told of a strange and scary town of grown ponies that had no cutie marks. However, strengthening her resolve she decided to head into the forest anyways.

After a few minutes of walking around, the orange-coated found herself lost, and growing a bit more terrified of the many sights and sounds of the forest with each passing minute. "Well, maybe if I can just find Ms. Zecora's place I'll be fine..." Scootaloo reassured herself as she looked around, and decided a direction to randomly walk in. However, she had no luck in finding the zebra's place, and simply found herself more lost than before. She sighed in frustration and turned around, "maybe it was the other wa-" she muttered but suddenly stopped as she heard a low growl emanate from behind her. "I sure hope that's my stomach..." she gulped nervously, breaking into a cold sweat as she slowly turned around to look behind her.

What met her eyes was one of the worst things she could think of, a canine, snarling and snapping at her with it's razor sharp teeth, and it's glowing green eyes staring right at her. It was completely made out of wood. "Timberwolf!" Scootaloo screamed as she galloped away as fast as she could, the wooden dog running and barking as it remained locked onto her. The chase continued for awhile until Scootaloo, in a moment of carelessness and terror, tripped over the root of a tree, making her fall to the ground. She winced in pain as she tumbled a few feet before finally stopping on her back. To her horror, she saw the timber wolf slowly advancing upon her, it's eyes narrowed and it's tongue licking its lips in anticipation of its next meal. "No! Go away! Shoo!" The filly shouted at dog desperately, but to no avail as it simply ignored her cries. "Oh no! Someone! Anyone! HELP ME!"

~Another Like Me~

"Oh man my head..." Shingo groaned as he began to awaken from his fit of unconsciousness. "Remind me never to order whatever I had Mr. Kusanagi...Mr. Kusanagi?" He suddenly shot up, taking in his surroundings. "Where am i?!? How did I get here in this forest?!?" He thought frantically as he looked around for some form of civilization, but could find none. Suddenly he recalled the events that had happened at his teacher's house only hours, but what seemed like moments to him, ago. "Wait a minute...that energy...it must've transported me here." He rationalized as he pieced the events together. "Yeah, that makes sense! One minute I was fighting with Mr. Kusanagi and Ms. Chizuru, and then her Yata mirror gave off a weird energy! I must've gotten hit by whatever light it gave off, and got transported here...and then fell a good bit then I suppose." He gained a look a triumph at having figured out his predicament, however, his look soon faded as he realized something. "Only...where is here?" He took another look around and noticed something. "Why do all the colors...pop out?" He wondered, "it's like something out of a cartoon...man the energy probably messed up my head too..." he groaned as he finally got up off of the ground and decided to walk around to see what he could find.

"Someone! Anyone! HELP ME!" A cry suddenly made him snap out of his musings and gain a battle stance.

"That sounded like a little girl!" He thought wide-eyed, "She sounded like she was in trouble! I've got to help her!" He declared in his mind as he began to run towards the sound of the voice he had heard. As he got further in he began to hear the sound of snarling and growling. "A wolf!" He thought in realization, "There's not much time left then!" He then doubled his pace as he got closer and closer until finally he saw what he was looking for, but gasped in shock at what he found. "A wolf...made of wood!" He thought bewildered, but shook it off as he realized what he came here for. Using the skills he had learned in his training with his teacher, he went for taking a silent approach of attack, instead of foolishly yelling like most people would. Bracing himself, he rushed in and leaped towards the wolf, the creature itself turning around just as he made contact.

As Shingo engaged the timber wolf, Scootaloo, who had been keeping her eyes shut, but opened them once she heard the growling of the wolf stop, could only watch in amazement as she saw a creature she had never seen before leap onto the timber wolf and actually begin fighting it one on one! She took a breath that she didn't realize that she'd been holding in as she could only gaze in awe at the fighting prowess of this newcomer. As the timber wolf tried to viciously claw at its new adversary, the creature would simply roll away or sidestep casually, as if not even having a hard time fighting it. Everytime the wolf tried to lunge, the creature would simply dodge and unleash a flurry of its own attacks, a mix of kicks and punches that looked as if they visibly hurt the timber wolf. At one point, she gasped as she saw the creature outright pick up the timber wolf and slam it down on the ground behind it.

After a few minutes, the timber wolf realized it was greatly outmatched and ran away, giving shame filled yelps as it ran off. "Woah... that was... amazing!" Scootaloo said out loud without realizing it.

"Hehe..." The creature chuckled, "well I mean that wasn't that bad, but I hope you're alright little-" it stopped suddenly as it turned around, finally facing her as it gained a shocked look on it's face. "...pony???"

"Uh yeah...I'm fine thank you very much!" Scootaloo said gratefully, however the creature didn't seem to hear her as it began to try to speak, but found itself lacking the ability.

"Wait ok Shingo get a grip! It's only a talking pony! Nothing to be worried abou- oh who am I kidding of course this is something to worry about!" The poor boy's mind raced furiously as he tried to contemplate the notion of a pony talking. "I-you-b-but..." Was all he could stammer out as his brain finally shut down, resulting in him fainting outright.

"Uh...hello? Mr...whatever it is you are?" Scootaloo inquired as he lay on the ground. "Oh come on! He fainted?!?" She yelled out in frustration. "Well at least the timber wolf is gone..." She thought as she opted to simply lay by the creature, deeming it friendly as it had not eaten her or acted hostile towards her. She snuggled up to Shingo a bit, trying to get warm as the brisk, cool air of the forest winds blew, making her shiver. "Well, guess the only thing to do now is to wait until morning I guess..."The little filly then yawned and snuggled up even closer to Shingo as she fell asleep, awaiting the dawn of a new day...

~Another Like Me~

The Day that Was Forgotten

"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!