When Nightmares Return

Odium P.O.V

I was not like most ponies that much I knew. I was raised near a really dark forest, in which I don't know the name of, at an old, beaten Cabin.  There was no sign of anypony in sight, no, only me, my mother and my father.  Or at least that's how it was.

My mother was abusive; whenever I messed up on my chores she'd beat me and call me a “useless brat”. She’d punch me, slap me, and whenever I'd really messed up she'd use “the club”, a very old dark brown table leg decorated with barbed wire and my own blood.

I walked into my dirty room, with only a desk, a lamp and an old mattress. The room itself was full of spiderwebs and dust.  I approached my dusty desk and saw the only thing I have to remember my father. His picture book containing photos from when he was a kid and till we moved to this house.  I opened the book to it's first page and on that page I saw a purple baby unicorn with a wild black mane and blue eyes, sleeping in a cradle. Above the cradle, a stream of paper hangs saying “Welcome to the world Nature Springs” I turned the page to a picture with that same baby unicorn, only in the photograph he was a toddler using his very first spell, it showed my father as a toddler using a light spell in the dark.

I smiled at the picture, at least my father had a normal childhood.  I skipped further ahead in the book. The page I landed on was him and my mother's wedding photo. It showed the unicorn all grown up with a cutie mark that showed a tree with pink flowers as leafs. He was standing next to a yellow earth pony with a blue and beautiful mane, decorated with roses and her cutie mark was a green leaf, the bottom of the photo contains the words “Congratulations! Nature springs and Beauty Leaves.” They both looked so happy. If only they knew what would happen in the future.

I turned the page to see myself as a baby colt being wrapped around in my mother's forelegs. I definitely resembled my father a lot more then my mother. The only resemblance that I had of my mother was my blaze orange eyes. I looked at my baby self, I look so peaceful, anypony who saw me would assume that this baby will live a long and happy life.

The Last page didn't have a picture, instead there is a note, no doubt written by my father.  I regret turning to this page again.

I can't take it anymore! My wife has gone mad! Ever since she found out about the “Brew of stress relief” she has been abusing our son, Odium, having huge fits of anger, and she has also been hitting me. I wouldn't fight back because I knew it wasn't her fault. Curse those Zebras! If it weren't for them then this would've never happened! Right now as I am writing this I can hear my, now 11 year old, son crying. He can't take the pain and that is the worst part of it all, I can't take seeing my son in so much pain. I tried talking to him, but I can never convince him that things will get better. Its simply too much to take. By the time you read this I will be gone.

Odium if you read this, I apologize deeply, and I love you.

I felt my eyes watering as I read it. I see what looked like a raindrop fall on the note despite there being a roof over my head and it's not even raining. More of those raindrops fall on to the paper.

“How could you?!” I said with anger, “HOW COULD YOU?!!!” I slammed the book shut with my magic and I threw it at the wall, violently causing it bad cracks.  I turned my head to a portrait of my father.

“HOW COULD YOU LEAVE ME HERE WHEN I NEEDED YOU THE MOST!?” I stared at the picture as I heavily breathed, for a moment and I began to sob, I lied down on the ground and I was about to cry for a long time. I then heard angry hoofsteps come to my door.

No!

The sound of creaking wood and loud thumps approach closer and closer to my door. I began to panic, I can feel my heart was beating fast, as my mother opened the door. Her hair was wild and her body looked as if it belonged to a saggy old mare despite being only 45 years old.

She stomps into my room with anger written all over her eyes. “What's with all the noise?!”  She shouted at me. She looked at the direction where I threw the book and saw the broken wall.

  Her eyes widened in anger and she slowly turned her head in my direction; her veins popped out of her neck and her eyes had crooked red lines. I was terrified, this wasn't the face of a loving mother, this was a face of a demon. She walked up to my terrified self and she slapped me with her back hoof, I felt the tears of physical pain mix with my tears of sadness slowly falling from my eyes. “You good for nothing pile of dung! First you wake me up from my nap and now you go even further and destroy part of my house!”  She punched me right in the face so hard I fell on my back, I lifted my head back up as my lungs were begging for air.

  I felt blood dripping from my nose. “I should be getting the club but I need you to get me more of those leaves from the forest, and you need to be at your best for this. I'm low on that ingredient and I need it to make more of that stuff I make.”

“And why don't you go and get it yourself?  How do you know I won't just run away?” I said while rubbing my muzzle and then my eyes.

“And where would you go then huh? To daddy? Oh wait you can't because he is gone! Do you want me to break your spine?! No? Then do as I say!” She said as she stormed out of my room.

I gritted my teeth and my muscles tensed up.  I felt a strange yet satisfying magic course through me as my anger and hatred directed towards my mother rise, the corners of my vision began to glow with purple and green as I thought of my mother dead by my hooves. However those thoughts and that magic began to fade, for I remembered the very reason why my mother is like the way she is.  My mother is addicted to that brew and it's the withdraws that made her abuse me and if I get her those herbs, I'll be only feeding her habit. “No, I shouldn't hate her, it's not her fault.” I whispered to myself.

I got up on my hooves and I used my magic to lift some cloth and I use the cloth to plug my bleeding nose. I turned my body to the door and I took a deep breath.  “I have to find a way to cure my mother of her addiction. If I don't then she’ll be like this forever.” I grabbed my satchel from my closet and I walked out of my room; the rest of my house was just a simple kitchen and dinning room, I am forbidden to go anywhere near my mother's room. I walked out the backdoor, to see nothing but hills of green grass. I admired the view, the sun was rising above the hills of green grass.  This place is so beautiful and yet so dark.

I looked left to see that forest. The trees sure did not look anything like the trees I have seen in my dad's picture book.

I needed a way to cure my mother of her addiction and the best bet I have is in my satchel. I looked inside my satchel to find a book, titled ‘Location Spells: You'll never need a map again’. This book was written by my father not to long before he died. I  suppose it's a good thing my father taught me how to read after all.

“Good thing I kept this book, mother didn't even notice it's still gone.”  I said to myself. “I should look for someone who knows about the brew my mother uses, my best bet would be a zebra. Agh I hate zebras! If it wasn't for their stupid fetish for mixing things then my mother would’ve never found that brew in the first place!”

I opened the book to see many fancy words and some of which I didn't even understand. “Dad Why do you have to use such confusing words?”  thankfully I understood what spell I had to use to find the nearest ‘Intelligent lifeforms’.  I guess lifeform is something that is living and ‘Intelligent’ is what separates it from smart creatures too dumb, for my sake I hope it leads me to some”zebra” I can talk to so I can get help for my mother.  I used my magic as the book tells me to, my horn lit up and it showed some kind of pathway, two of them, one leading towards the hills and the other into the forest.  The one leading to the hill was a bright white, the other was gray. I took another look at the book to see what does this all mean.  The spell, as it turns out, create two pathways to the closest ‘intelligent lifeform’ and sometimes they can lead to groups and in other times it can lead to only one life form, the brighter the path, the bigger the group.  There is also an option for unicorns with a big amount of raw power.  If used properly, you can use your magic to see images of the area the paths are leading you too.  I'm not sure if I'm powerful enough to cast the optional part but it never hurts to try.

I used my horn and magic the way the book told me, this spell is definitely a hard one. I squinch my face really hard due to the amount of magic I was using. Nothing. Even with all of my magic nothing! I was starting to get angry, I felt my magical ability increase whilst I was angry.

“Why? Why can't I do it?!” I shouted and punched the ground to my surprise my horn flashed a dark purple light, two images were shown in my sight right after. One showed a small village, the ponies there all had the same cutie mark, two lines up and down from each other. Cutie marks, what a ridiculous thing to have, I don't have a cutie mark because I never tried to get it; I have no interest in it anyway. The other image showed a hut decorated with bizarre things on it, definitely doesn't belong to a pony, that was my clearly best bet to finding a Zebra. I deactivated the spell and I followed the grey path.

I used the telekinesis spell to move aside branches and to bend the tree trunks so that there is an easier way to the hut. I walked along the path, as I walked I saw a plant that had the leaves my mother needs for that brew, a part of what made my mother into the sadistic whore she is today; I ripped it out of its roots with my magic, I added heat to the spell until I finally lit the plant on fire along with all of those leaves, I watched the herb burn and I smiled.

4 hours later

I continued along the grey path using my horn to light up the way, I have been using my magic to move the trees out of the way as I walked and walked and walked, exhaustion begun to take it's hold, I breathed heavily, the trees were very heavy, and waking while bending them the other way with my magic is not helping, there has to be easier way. Not only that but I feel something coming from the side of the path through the bushes, I look in that direction and I see the green leaves of the bushes move along the cold wind. Something is not right, I look closer into the bushes, what is that? “I know you're in there so come on out.” I said hoping it was able to talk.

A familiar pony walked out of the bushes, no it couldn't be, I was shocked at the sight of him. “Son, is that you?” he said.

I took a step back. “D-dad? B-but I don't understand where have you been this whole time”

“No son, why would I be dead? Come on son let's get you back home to your mother?”

“Wait, what? But I thought…” I then realized the truth. “IMPOSTER!” I picked up a rock and I threw it at him, when it hit him the imposter turned into a weird bug like pony that had both wings and a horn, as well as glowing greenish blue eyes. “What are you, and why do you disguise yourself as my father?!”

“Ah, that hurt you know.” It said rubbing his face. Its voice was strange, it almost sounded like more than one.

“Answer my questions!” I shouted.

“Oh come on, stop pretending you've never heard of a changeling before.”

“Changeling? What in tartarus is that?” I replied.

“Your joking right?” It said, as if I'm suppose to know what his kind is, when I shook my head no, he look at me as if I was crazy. “How? My kind invaded Canterlot, surely all ponies should know by now.”

I tilted my head. “What does ‘invade’ mean?”

The changeling face hooved himself. “Ok, I'm convinced you're an idiot. Invade means to attack a home of a group, that's what my fellow changelings did to your capital city.”

Capital? Canterlot? I think dad read me a book about that city when I was a foal.

I sitting in bed listening to my dad read to me a book about Equestria. “Canterlot, the capital city of Equestria, it is a huge and beautiful city, but the one thing that makes this city so special is that it is the home of Princess Celestia.” My dad read.

“Daddy?”

“Hm, yes son?”

“Who is Princess Celestia?”

My dad smiled at me, he was the only one who would ever smile at me. “Princess Celestia is a great pony, she is the one that raises and lowers the sun.”

“Oh, so that's how the sun goes up and down.”

“Exactly. And not only does she raise and lower the sun, but she also rules over Equestria, she promises us harmony and joy, she's like a mother to us and we, the ponies, are her children.” He said.

I paused, like a mother? “Speaking of mothers, why is my mom always hitting me? Even when I didn't do anything wrong she still hits me.” I think of the abuse, of how much it hurts physically and emotionally, I feel so hurt and unloved. Tears started falling out of my eyes. “You read me stories of foals with mothers who care for them and loves them, why can't my mom be the same as those mothers?” I begun to cry.

I was surprised to see my father reached out to me and hugged me, I felt something wet course down my back and I hear sobs from my father. “Son whatever happens please don't blame your mother. Everything she does to you, what she does to me, is not her fault. Please don't cry, please.” he hugged me tighter

I was surprised to hear my dad cry, he's suffering just as much as I am, I hugged back and said “Thank you for caring about me.”

“Odium, my son, I will always care about you. Remember that.”

I shedded tears remembering my father, I read books to remind me of when he'd read to me, including spellbooks, but it was never the same why did he leave me?”

“Kid? Why are you crying? Canterlot survived if that's what you're crying about.” the changeling said.

“You want to know why? You should know, tell me where's my father?!” I shouted, preparing to charge at him.

“What are you talking about?”

“You transformed into looking like him and yet you didn't know about me or my mother so I know you weren't spying on us, so tell me how did you knew to make yourself look like my father?!”

“Calm down kid, I don't know where your father is, I looked into your heart and saw that your father was the only pony you  cared about and I transformed into him, I wanted to use your dad's appearance to consume your love for him but you saw past it.”

“What are you even talking about?”

“Changelings feed off of love, we make ourselves look like someone they care about and we eat off of their love, that's how we survive.” It said.

I shutter at the thought “Ugh, sounds creepy.” I commented.

“Yea, I get that a lot, I'd love to chat longer but my Queen expects me to be back soon, see ya later kid.” It flapped its wings fast and flew out of the forest.

“What a strange creature.”

4 hours earlier

Nightmare P.O.V

I sit on a cloud above the everfree forest. I can feel myself getting weaker by the second, my magic is fading. I need a new host now, a host whose heart is filled with darkness and hatred. Luna is no longer an option, Discord is a fool who doesn't have much hate in him anyways, Chrysalis could've been a good option but changelings are immune to body possession, Sombra would've been perfect but he is nowhere to be found and Tirek is in Tartarus. I started to lose hope.

“I just have to face it, there is literally nopony who has the darkness I need, I may as well just lay here and just wait for myself to die.”

Then out of nowhere I sensed it, dark magic emitting from anger, it's power was great. I smiled, there's still hope for me.

“It seems I have a new target.” I used an invisibility spell and I followed where the rage is coming from. “Whoever this pony is he or she has a lot of anger, not exactly my taste but it's something, once I combine my spirit with his I will get revenge on Celestia all I need to do is convince him that he needs me and that Celestia is a threat. Question is, how do I do that?”

Odium P.O.V

This forest is beautiful, I couldn't help but admire the forest. I didn't know why this was, I can't explain it. It didn't matter for I had to carry on for my mother, it's what my dad would want after all.  I walk on for I don't even know how long, using my magic to clear the way. It became exhausting, I think I'm using magic too much. I wobble around, it became difficult to walk I keep on losing my balance and my legs kept on shaking as if it was very cold outside and yet I was hot, sweat poured down my head while I forced myself onward. “I have to keep going.” I became too tired to walk, I collapsed down on the ground. “No, not yet.” I crawl through my path. “I have to… help my mother.” I close my eyes and stopped moving. I hear the sound of howling, I can't move I'm just too tired.