Shadow Equestria: The Poisoned Curse

Fluttershy

As I woke up I heard the groans of the others around me, I gave a happy sigh when I noticed that they only looked roughed up. I placed a hoof on the spot where a powerful headache was brewing, then the memory hit me like a train as the headache built up to the point where I was blinded by the pain.

My gaze was connected to the creature's, his eyes looked blind but I could feel that it was an illusion. Every bit of him just seemed like he had to conceal himself for fear of weakness or inability. As I reprimanded him I hardly heard the words that were coming out of my mouth as I sank into those giant pools of secrets, the mysteries behind his eyes were just within reach but my mind refused to allow me to grasp them like they were some dark secret.

Just as I was about to stop the Stare that was when I heard the screaming, the creature recoiled as if I had set it on fire just by looking at it. I had withdrawn backwards and was about to ask what was wrong when I saw them, the glowing flames spreading along it's skin. All of us had recoiled back, even Rainbow Dash seemed like she didn't know what she should do. When the shouting stopped I had noticed that the flames had finally covered it's entire body and changed to black, I couldn't help myself as I fell back to the ground and stayed back out of a pure fear... Something had changed about this creature, something about it now made me truly fear it.

I was horrified as it raised it's head to look directly at me, gone were the mysterious and entrancing pools of knowledge, it's eyes had been replaced with raging skies of hatred and malice comparable to Nightmare Moon... possibly even worse. The area around it's eyes had been incredibly exaggerated in order to give it a far more intimidating look that was complemented by the flames imprinted on it's face.

I had heard it mumble a few words and tasted the crackle of electricity right before it seemed to just dissapear, immediately after that everything went black as pain wracked my body.

I slowed my hooves from their massage as the memory stopped, with each passing second the headache seemed to dull, I gave a small whimper as a tear rolled down my cheek. Whatever that creature was, it wasn't truly evil like Twilight thought it was... But I had changed it, something I had done changed it, it felt horrible to think about. That was also about the time that I registered the mint-green unicorn standing in front of me with a furious look.

"How could you do that!? You... The Element of Kindness... And you did SOMETHING to put him through all that pain!" She wheeled around to look at each of my friends who had finally come to their senses, "He hadn't done anything wrong to any of you, He was even willing to show you guys that he wasn't a bad guy! BUT NO You all had to jump to conclusions and now I have a broken window and I have no idea where he could've gone!" Every bit of anger in her voice seemed to cut like a knife as she spoke, I didn't know how sensitive the others were to emotions but I knew that I felt the greatest amount of it because of who I am... and it was true, I had unknowingly caused undue suffering and deserved every bit of anger that Lyra was throwing around.

Applejack stepped forward with a stern look on her face to challenge Lyra, "We found out his true nature... Every moment he's been here he's been an illusion! How do we know that he wasn't just actin' nice to lower yer guard?" If looks could kill, Lyra's house would've burnt to the ground.

"Because ever since he got here, even if he avoided answering some of my questions, he didn't lie to me... Even if he looks blind I know that they express just as much truth as ours do! Not one time did he try to hurt me even though he had plenty of opportunities! He was even willing to meet Twilight when I told him that knowing you guys would get him accepted around town better." At this we all stared at Lyra in shock. I know that I could actually believe that since, as a cat, Hikaru hadn't done anything to try and hurt me in my house... he even seemed greatful that I had fed him... just to keep his illusion working he acted just like a cat would when they let you know they felt comfortable around you.

I spoke up, or well, tried to speak up, "um... girls..." All of the girls seemed to carry on arguing when they didn't hear me, so I tried again, "...Girls... please..." Unfortunately, even at twice the volume it still wasn't loud enough. I gave a sigh before taking a deep breath, "...Girls!" Yay, outside voice volume... which was about their indoor voice volume though. Lyra and Rarity both turned to me, with the others following suit when they noticed Lyra looking at me. S-so many eyes... everypony's attention was on me... and I shrank back as far as the wooden floorboards would allow me to.

"Well... what is it?" Rainbow asked a little harsher than I knew she intended, it didn't quite help my confidence though.

"I... um... I..." I started, I had the words formed perfectly in my head, "We should try to look for him, I feel responsible for this and he could be out there hurting ponies because of what I did... Please, let's find him if at least to save him and anypony else from getting hurt." Strange thing about having a speech like that prepared in your mind, it tends to sound more like, "...Um... We should try to find him... He could be out there hurting ponies... we should... keep them... from getting hurt..." Well, so much for having a big speech that let them knew that I truly did feel guilty for doing what I did.

Twilight chimed in and seemed to take a far more confident attitude than earlier, "I'm going to have Spike send the princess a letter and then we have to search for him. Fluttershy's right, it doesn't matter if it was his intention or not to hurt ponies at first... he already attacked each of us and fled. I don't know whether he was trying to kill us or not... But we have to stop him before he does." Her tone was very stern and each other pony except Lyra seemed to completely accept her plan, Lyra on the other hoof definitely looked angry. She didn't even look at anypony before sprinting out of her house. Twilight tried calling after her but I knew it was no use, When Lyra tried to do something she could be as stubborn as Rainbow dash or Applejack. We all filed out of the house and I closed the door before we all scattered around town to look for Hikaru, Seeing as the town hadn't been razed to the ground yet I had high hopes that we could get him to calm down.

Lyra

I sprinted down the street toward the Everfree, A spell my mother had taught me when I was younger pulsed every so often from my horn as I tried to track Hikaru's energy signature... It wasn't that hard though since his was definitely different from the ponies and it was currently laced with an almost tangible darkness.