Shadow Equestria: The Poisoned Curse

Hikaru

I kept my eyes half open as I continued to observe the ponies that Lyra passed by on the way home. I could feel an animosity growing inside of me, for the past half-a-day I hadn't been able to even talk to Lyra... And I have no idea why it was making me mad. I know that before I came here I had almost no desire to talk to anyone but now, I couldn't help but feel like I wanted to talk to Lyra for hours on end. It was like having pent up anger just waiting to boil over.

So naturally, I did the most sensible thing regarding this situation, I pushed the emotions to the back of my mind and placed them in the 'things to ignore' list.

I began to feel uneasy as I sense the tense step in Lyra's stride, I also feel incredibly unable to ease her tensions since I'm currently restricted as far as speaking to her in public goes. I end up casting a glance off to my left to see a magenta colored mare stumble in what I would guess to be a drunken stupor out of a local tavern... She certainly looks like she knows how to have a good time. I begin to just think about how a pony's actions in public could reflect their personality. My eye catches a grey pegasus mare walking very close to a brown earth pony stallion, those two must be in some sort of relationship... It definitely looks like she cares about him. I continue my sweep of each pony, none really standing out until I see a stallion that looked almost exactly the same as the one that was with the grey mare, I do a double-take just to make sure the chakra drain wasn't just messing with my eyes. My eyes lingered on the marks that I see on the ponies' flanks, suddenly something clicked in the back of my mind...

... ... ... I was actually doing something that would be considered openly perverted in my home country... WHAT THE HELL BRAIN!!!! YOU LET SOMEONE ELSE DO YOUR JOB? I'M SUPPOSED TO BE GATHERING INFORMATION HERE! BUT WHAT HAVE YOU GOT ME DOING? BEING A PERVERT!

... Sorry about that... I tend to get into mental arguments with myself... So, where was I, Oh yes! The part about being a pervert to understand a bit more about those butt-tattoos that these ponies have.

I've noticed that each adult pony has one, every foal seems to not have one... so maybe it's some sort of coming-of-age ritual to get one of these tattoos? I'll have to ask Lyra when we get back to her house... I could even get something to eat now that I hear my stomach grumbling.

It's so much easier to maintain chakra on a full stomach.

I give a silent sigh of relief when I see Lyra's house, I hear the satisfying sounds of lock tumblers allowing access to the house. She walks in and I give a relaxing leap off of Lyra's back... and I give a reflexive completely non-startled leap into a defensive position and not into an off-balance tumble when an incredibly loud noise explodes around me as Lyra closes her door.

"SURPRISE!" Yeah... Completely sticking with my story.

Lyra

I whip around at the shout and see all of the Elements of Harmony in my house, my flash of fear melts to a feeling of happiness when I see the sign that says 'Yay, You Got A Pet' it was too bad Pinkie put it in Comic Sans.

They all just seem to crowd around me, except for Fluttershy who stays back. It takes me several seconds before I notice the stunned cat at my side, all the other's conversations seem to be incredibly distant as I levitate Hikaru up to my face. I could see the panic in his eyes, as blank as they looked, I felt like I WAS staring into his soul every bit of him just... seemed to be there, just waiting for me to decipher it.

I quickly pulled him into a hug and just began to whisper quietly to him, his heart was beating right next to mine and I could feel his pulse calming to a normal level. For the entire time I had him close to me, I felt like the world was perfect.

Hikaru

As Lyra held me close I felt how soft she was, I could feel her heart beating almost exactly in tune with mine, I had no idea what she was actually saying to me but whatever she was saying was certainly helping me get over the shock of what just happened. I finally felt alright enough to begin looking around the room and noticed several ponies of different colors, the one that drew my attention was a cyan pegasus that had a multi-colored mane. After several seconds I finally heard what she was saying.

"...So sorry Lyra, we didn't think that this would give your cat a panic attack, we just wanted to show you that we were happy that you got a new pet..."

For some reason, I couldn't help but lean into Lyra as I heard her reply, "It's ok, I've only had him for about two days now so I didn't even know that would happen... I was just wondering when Pinkie would throw the party."

I then heard the orange pony speak in some sort of strange accent, I really couldn't place it... but I swear it had something to do with her hat. "We all wanted t' make this a special occasion, it's not every day a friend gets a new pet."

Lyra had used her levitation to place me on her back again as she went with the group into the living area. I noticed the Pink pony walk in several moments afterward.

Pinkie

I quietly bounced over to the front door as Twilight led everypony out to the living room, with a quick flick of my hoof I had the door locked again, I took a glance over my shoulder and noticed Fluttershy going up the stairs to lock the windows. I gave her a wide grin before I bounced my way out to the living room as well.

Hikaru

As much as they tried to hide their actions, after the pink pony arrived in the living room I discreetly used my Byakugan to watch the other's actions, as one would leave another would make sure neither I nor Lyra were looking at them before heading out of the room to lock windows in a specific area... I knew almost exactly what they were doing... I just decided to go along with whatever they were trying to do because my chakra was beginning to run low again.

As the last of the windows were locked I had to release the byakugan or risk not having enough chakra to keep the ruse up during the party, I warily tracked my gaze to the purple pony as she approached Lyra... her next words still freak me out.

"Lyra... The girls and I would rather not do anything forceful, but we're worried that you might be travelling around with some sort of transformed creature... I'm going to cast a spell that will let us know for sure, and I want you to get to a safe place as fast as possible."

I didn't have to imagine the look on my face because I knew that it mirrored the shock on Lyra's. I am a damn ninja! has my skill really degraded that much since coming here!? or are these ponies really THAT well trained? I feel that depressed feeling well up inside of me at the fact that I've been found out this easily... I was so... Incompetent...

At that precise moment Lyra levitated me to the ground next to her and gave me a very sympathetic look before saying the two words that I knew would eventually come.

"...Show them..."

By the surprised gasps I heard around the room, I wasn't the only one who was at least slightly unprepared for this level of cooperation. With a slow nod I closed my eyes and allowed my chakra to stop infusing the jutsu and reveal my true form... honestly... definitely up there on my list of bad ideas... really close to the entry called 'organizing every mental note into a list'

When the superficial smoke cleared I saw six VERY shocked ponies. Out of all of their looks I really expected the blue one to come at me swinging, but once again... because of whatever laws of surprise govern this world... I was expecting wrongly. I saw a blur of yellow and pink before my vision was filled with a sea of emerald-green, it was at precisely the moment I heard her voice that I recognized this new paralyzing technique.

"How Dare You! You came into my house, and ate food that I saved for animals that needed it, and then decided to get That close to me! You lied and manipulated Lyra and me!"

She continued to say a few more things, but I never heard them as my mind reeled back in my head... The whole experience was as if I was looking through a tunnel, I didn't even realize that I was screaming in pain until my shoulder connected with a doorframe.

As my mind became more aware of my current situation I felt a familiar strength emanating from the mark on my shoulder but there was something new to it, another feeling that was spreading alongside the strength. As I spent several more moments flailing about in pain it wasn't until my entire arm was covered in the pain equivalent of being burned alive, the curse mark wasn't just giving me strength... It was taking it's compensation as it activated. I could tell that they now saw the glowing marks streching across my body when I felt the agony spread across my chest and make it hard for me to breathe. Almost half a minute of burned-alive pain later I knew that the transformation was finished and the marks on my body looked like black flames instead of glowing embers I could feel the hard wood floor against my kneecaps as my gaze was locked on each grain of wood, I knew that my long hair was obscuring my face from view. I could feel the influence of the mark, all my anger at being brought to my knees was being barely reigned in like a horse that refused to be tame. My fury flared as my memories of my recent blunders flashed through my mind.

I finally looked up with all the fury that these ponies had now caused me to feel, and I enjoyed a twisted pleasure out of seeing the horrified looks on their faces. The mark threatened to remove me from control and I had to use all of my willpower to keep from killing as many of them as I could.

Lyra

It was horrible, and all we did was watch as Hikaru flailed around and looked like he was being burned by some sort of strange fire that quickly spread all over his body. When the yelling finally stopped I saw that the flames had changed color from a glowing orange to a midnight black, but that wasn't the scariest part, the look he had on his face was much different from when I had first seen his face... His eyes now were filled with anger and fury, he looked like a wild monster that was now let loose to kill as it wished. The entire room was locked in a stalemate, waiting on the first side to make a move.

I heard him barely mutter a few words before he seemed to just dissapear and pain wracked my entire body.

"...Dengan No Jutsu..." It was the last thing I heard before I fell unconscious.