The Road to Recovery

Odium rolled back and forth, quivering his closed eyes while letting out a hard groan. The metal floor underneath him was hard and cold, which he couldn’t help but find fitting in at least a cosmic sense. The absorbent cotton of his large blanket was the only thing protecting him from the chilling breeze that passed through the tall, steel bars.

As if that wasn’t enough, he had to deal with the flashing lightning striking from above, along with the continuous hisses and growls of the other prisoners. All he could do was fold his ears and grit his teeth, but even then, it still felt impossible to block out the other noise that he was hearing.

It’s all my fault! Why did this have to happen?! I’m a monster! I’m not good and I will never be good again, if at all!

However, unbeknownst to him, there lived another creature from the far side of Tartarus. Its long, shadowy body curled up on top of a pillow as it snored like a freight train. The creature jerked its yellow, glowing eyes open as Odium’s sudden groaning hit its ears. “Huh?” Rubbing its eyes, the creature peered through its own bars, eyeballing at Odium’s cage. “Hmm... What do we have here?”

Catching its glimpse at the Cerberus facing the door from far away, it tapped its chin for as long as its thoughts could muster. Suddenly, a huge lightbulb popped up from above. “Huh? What the--!” Instantly, it dropped on the creature who then pried it away with all its strength. It soon became a church mouse as it slipped through its bars and flew. The element of surprise was all that it needed. Though, of course, it didn’t want to cause too much of a ruckus.

Now levitating near Odium’s cage, the creature lowered its head towards his snoozing victim. “Hello there, you,” it whispered. Unfortunately, its foresight proved to be faulty as Odium shrieked, causing the Cerberus to turn its body at his cage. Luckily, the creature cloaked itself in a transparent cover before the three-headed guardian spotted it.

The Cerberus growled as it turned back around. The creature sighed, reverting back to its original colors and turning its attention back to Odium.

“Who are you?” Odium asked.

“I am known by many names... Okay, maybe not that many, actually, but...”

Odium just stared at the creature and fell silent.

It cleared its throat. “Anyway, my name is Grimoire and I’m here to help you with your situation.”

“Thanks, but... I don’t think I deserve to be helped. Not after everything that happened three weeks ago,” Odium sighed.

“C’mon! You can’t just sit around here, moping and feeling sorry for yourself instead of going out there and fixing what you started.”

Odium jerked his head towards Grimoire. “Wait... How did you know I had problems to fix? Have you been spying on me or something?”

It blew a raspberry. “That’s not important. What is important is that I’m here to help you make amends for your misdeeds... if you want me to, that is?”

“Wait a minute, you’re not trying to manipulate me into doing your bidding, are you?” Odium asked.

“What?! Of course not! Why would you assume that about someone you’ve just met?”

“Because that’s the exact thing that brought me here. Why would this be any different?”

“Look, you want to fix your mistakes, right?”

“Yeah, but—“

“Well, you can’t do that if you continue to stay here. I can guide you through this turmoil, but I can’t do that if you won’t let me.” Grimoire extends its foreleg through Odium’s bars. “Now, do you want my help or not?”

Contemplating on the center of his cage, Odium gathered up his resolve. Even if today was the last day of his imprisonment, it still felt like an eternity had gone by. Now, he finally has a chance. He can finally start over. He would not let his guilt keep him from doing what was right. All he needed to do was wait until Twilight set him free.

And with that, Odium took a deep breath and grabbed onto Grimoire’s foreleg. Suddenly, Grimoire’s eyes closed as a glowing, white line coursed through its veins and into Odium’s. Shock crossed his face as he watched the light continue through his body. He jerked on his hand, but it stuck onto the foreleg.

Soon, a small ball of light slowly engulfed the two until it completely covered up every inch of the area. After the light dimmed down, Odium jolted his eyes open. Only this time, Grimoire was no longer next to his cage.

“Hello?! Grimoire?! Where are you?!”

“In here,” A disembodied voice replied.

“Wait, are you in—?”

“Your mind?” Grimoire replied. “Yeah. By the way, you really need to work on your self-esteem issues. It’s great to help others and all, but sometimes you—“

Suddenly, a whirring sound hit against Odium’s ears. He turned his head as multi-colored rays of magic swirled, warped and expanded until they enveloped into a flashing portal. Coming out of the portal were Twilight, now wearing a small crown on her head, and her friends, who stroded towards his cage with a small key in aura.

“Time’s up, Odium,” Twilight said. “So, are you ready to go out there and fix your mistakes?”

“Y-yeah, I think I am.”

“Are you sure?” Fluttershy asked. “You can stay here for a little longer if you don’t think you’re ready,”

“No, I’m ready. I just need to... Ngah, stretch out for a bit since its been so long.”

Silence filled the area for a bit as Odium momentarily stretched his limbs in front of the group.

“Okay, then...?” Rainbow Dash commented.

Twilight hovered the key into the lock and, with a creaking noise, turned it around the tumbler, thus easing the door open. Carefully, the group stepped back as Odium got up and pulled up his pants before stepping out of the cage. Then he followed them through the portal.

"Okay, now which mistake should we fix first?" Grimoire asked.

"Well, I think that, for starters, I should go apologize to those rock monsters."

"Rock? Monsters?"

"I thought you said you knew about the problems that I had."

"Yeah, but I didn't exactly know what they were, now did I?!"

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry."

With a sigh, Odium strolled his way through the sandy path of Dusty Gorge. His gut churred up as he remembered treading through the scorching hot dunes of the region. It definitely wasn't the best feeling he had in his life. Sweat ran down his fur and his side started cramping a bit. But despite the heat, his drive to make amends and some help from Grimoire kept him going.

All of a sudden, the ground beneath Odium's feet started shaking, causing him to come to an abrupt halt.

"Uh, why did you stop just—?"

Odium shushed. He closed his eyes while his ears twitched. "That roar... I can hear it... They must be close by!" He dashed through the desert. The constant trembling grew bigger and bigger as he moved closer and closer. So much that he bounced slightly higher and higher on the ground with each passing second.

"Ugh! I think I'm going to be sick!" Grimoire said.

Finally, Odium paused and placed his back on the rocky wall. Peering his head out from behind, his assumptions have proven to be true, this time, as he spotted the rock monsters stomping their way through the gorge. Before they could see him, he retreated back to the wall.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Go over there and apologize to them."

"But I can't just walk up to them without a plan. I mean, I have been stagnating on my years of martial arts training, so what if they try to kill me and I won't be able to defend myself without-?"

Grimoire silenced him. "I know how you feel, but like I always say, it's now or never. Remember that."

Hesitantly, Odium nodded his head and walked out of the wall. What has he got left to lose? The rock monsters turned their heads towards the grey canine, provoking them to growl and clench their fists.

"Uh, hi there. Good to— Woah!" Odium leapt away as one of the monsters' giant fists slammed down at him, leaving a large crack on the ground. "Wait! Before you kill me, I just wanted to say I'm sorry for—!" Ducked his head as another fist swung at him.

One of the monsters roared and grunted. Almost as if it was trying to say something to him in its own language, if Odium could even call it that. He raised his eyebrow. "Huh?" Digging one of its three fingers into the sand, it wrote letters that were so huge, it prompted the other rock monsters and Odium to take a couple, long steps back. Once it was done, Odium looked down at the surprisingly accurate message that said 'Apology not accepted!'

"But what can I do to make it up to all of you?!"

Wiping its hand at the message, the rock monster dug into the sand again. However, instead of writing, it ran its finger at a circular motion before poking a dot at the center and drawing a long line from there to the edge of the circle. Then it traced multiple, smaller lines around the inside next to the long one.

"Uh... What is that?" Odium asked.

All at once, The rock monsters growled at him again.

"Okay. Don't worry, I'll get it back. I promise."

And with that, Odium bolted out of the area without saying anything else. If he wanted to finish his brand new mission, he needed to keep his focus and not stir up any more trouble.

"Well... That didn't go so well," Grimoire said.

"Must you?"

"Yes."

Back to the rock monsters, with one tapping their foot in impatience. Their wait soon ended once they spotted Odium with his hands behind his back. As quickly as possible, the rock monsters bolted over to him and wrote another message in the sand that read 'So, how'd it go?'

Glancing at the message, Odium took a deep sigh. "Well, I got the sun dial, but..." Knowing that he's stalling the question, he swallowed his pride and took out the sun dial in front of the monsters. A shiver went down Odium's spine as they jerked the dial out of his hand and looked at its taped structure from every angle. This is it. They're going to smash him into mush for this. He just knew it.

Surprisingly, Odium was proven wrong as the rock monsters steadily peeled off the tape from the sun dial. What were they doing? He soon found out when they placed all the separate pieces on the ground. Then, they came together in a circle and shut their yellow eyes. After a few seconds, a luminous, yellow light surrounded the pieces, causing them to levitate before reconfiguring each other all at once and letting out a sizeable flash of white light.

Once the light faded away in turn, Odium slowly let down his claws to see what had happened. The sun dial became whole once again. All Odium could do is stand there without saying a single word, just gazing in awe at what the rock monsters did. What could he say after that? He assumed it wasn't going to be fixed. That he was going to be turned to mush after what happened to it.

But it probably didn't matter in the long run because now with the sun dial completely fixed, the rock monster trio can now tell the time as they studied the shadow that steadily moved through the setting sun.