A Midwinter Night's Nightmare
A cold breeze whispered through the air, blowing away some of the leaves the wolf lay upon.
He stared, unblinking, at the dim crescent moon high above. Here, the view was clear of branches or clouds, and yet…
Odium reached a lonely paw for the sky. He let his arm slump over his eyes. He needed to get some rest if he wanted to make it out alive.
He clenched his eyes shut, listening to the occasional hoots and howls of the night. Something rustled in the shadows, though he didn’t dare pursue it.
Still, it was hard to sleep. Not necessarily because of the noise, but… he turned onto his side. It would’ve been nice if he could just… throw away these past few months. Erase them from memory.
Stupid!
The word echoed through his skull in his own voice. Stupid, stupid, STUPID!
A huff of air escaped his lips. Best to just forget it all tonight. Push everything out, and maybe, just maybe, drift off to whatever slumber was hopefully coming for him.
~~~
Thud!
Odium groaned, rubbing his head as he stood up. Why was it so… bright? His paws sunk into the porous ground a little, eliciting a cringe.
And come to think of it, where was he?
He turned his head. Wispy renditions of the ponies he’d met and fought stood at a distance. It was hard to tell what was on their faces. One of the figments raised a hoof, pointing past him.
Odium turned the other way, only to find… well, himself.
“Repent.” A familiar voice echoed overhead. “As a Princess of Equestria, I demand your repentance for your crimes against ponykind!”
The words bit into him. His smoky, cowering form shuddered as the words hit him.
“But I said I was sorry!” The form stuttered, “I wasn’t thinking! I was acting on a lie!”
The six mares began to ooze together, each of their forms melting into one another until all that remained was a hulking, monstrous cloud. “Repent!” The combined voices of the ponies demanded.
A quiet whimper rose from the other Odium.
“You are aware of what slander is, aren’t you?” The voice of Twilight Sparkle cut through the smog. “Lies give way to lies, and against a Princess of Equestria, no less.” A silhouette of the mare’s head grew from the cloud. “Dare I call it… treason?”
Odium stepped in front of his smoggy duplicate. “He didn’t know! I didn’t know!”
“Lies!” Twilight’s head yelled in response. “You are a puppet! Strung along without a thought of your own! You think you’re a hero, but you’re not. You’re nothing but a mouthpiece for that Calypso you kept spewing about...”
“But I’ve changed!” Odium threw his arms out, inadvertently dispelling his own form. The remaining smoke began to swirl around him. “I’ve changed, haven’t I? I… I thought we made up. Became frie—”
“Friendship?” Twilight’s voice cackled. The rest of the mares joined in with howling laughter as their looming cloud echoed with thunder. “You? Us? Friends? What a joke! We tried to tell you the truth, and what did you do? You attacked us again!”
“B-but—”
“And then you have the nerve to ask for a bigger punishment! What are you, a masochist? I know you’re at least a sucker for assault and battery. You sure tried hard to beat us up. Lucky us that you failed!”
Laughter erupted from the cloud yet again as lightning cracked within, lighting its smoky greys with electric blues.
“I—” Odium stammered. “I—”
The blinding light surrounding them began to dim as the pony cloud grew. “And who knows when you’ll attack again? It could be next week. It could even be tomorrow! What would your parents think, seeing their own son like this?” A larger-than-life hoof rose from the cloud to scratch Twilight’s chin. “I suppose a nice dungeon view would suit you well, would it not? Then again, maybe you’d enjoy something like that.”
“Ignorant!” Odium’s ears perked at the sound of his father’s voice. “I thought we taught you better…”
“Wh—no!” The wolf yelled, clenching his ears flat against his head. “No, no, no! Stop it! I know I’m better now!”
“Oh? Is that another one of your sweet little lies?” Twilight chided. “Or am I hearing the sounds of desperation?”
Odium backed away, gritting his teeth. “No. I know that you wouldn’t say the things you’ve said. I know you’re not real. Twilight wouldn’t laugh at friendship. I know I tried to do some bad things in the past. I know I was being used. But I’m better now. That has to count for something, right?”
The smoke encircling his waist slipped away, forming a small blob hovering before him. His eyes widened as his face emerged from the cloud once more.
“Thank you.”
“Wait—” Odium blinked. “Wait, wha—”
“You’ve said all you needed to say. Farewell, Odium.”
He watched as the smoky face rose into the endless sky.
“I believe our time here is over as well.” The collective voices of the mares echoed over the brightening plane. “There is nothing more that needs to be done.”
A confused grumble arose from Odium as they too began to fade.
“Oo-dium!” A distant voice called. “Whe—there he is! Under the leaves!”
Something brushed against his head, though, strangely, nothing was there.
“Girls, carry his stuff back. He must’ve been half-frozen to death in this weather!”
~~~
Warmth.
Odium opened a sleepy eye.
“Hey, you’re finally awake.”
He turned his head. Rainbow Dash stared back.
“Gah!” The wolf jerked back, nearly falling off the cot. “What’re you doing here? What-huh?”
“Well, it was either this or dig up a wolfcicle, sooooo…” Rainbow scratched her head. “Yeah. I don’t think Flutters would’ve liked the idea of holding a funeral. Again.”
“Again?” Odium sputtered. “Wha—”
“One of her songbirds died. It was a while back though, and she’s got, like, three times as many now.”
“Oh. Well, I hope the rest of them live long, then!” Odium glanced about the room. “Where are the rest of you?”
Rainbow raised a brow. “The rest of me—oh! I’ll call them in. We’ve been taking turns watching you.”
“Don’t you have other things to do, though? I’m sure there’s plenty of villains out there, right?”
“Nah, things have been pretty slow lately after the whole mess that happened with Cozy Glow and Tirek and stuff. It’s nice to not be called to save Equestria right before you take a nap, y’know?”
“Uhh… yeah.”
“Yeah. Anyway—” Rainbow Dash hopped off the stool. “Gonna call the girls now.”
Odium watched as she wandered out of the room.
~~~
It took a few minutes, but soon enough he could hear their voices in the hallway outside.
“What were you doing in the snow like that?” Fluttershy rushed to his side. “I thought you said you were going home!”
Odium cringed. “Um… about that—”
“You’re homeless, aren’t you?” Rainbow Dash deadpanned. She got a smack from Applejack in response.
Odium lowered his head. “Yeah. I usually stay in the woods when I don’t have anywhere else to sleep for the night. It’s familiar there.”
“Familiar, yeah, but the Everfree Forest is no place for sleeping! I’m surprised you weren’t eaten by a bugbear!”
“Quiet down, Rainbow,” Rarity hushed. “Don’t forget that we’re in a hospital.”
Rainbow Dash grumbled something under her breath about always getting noise complaints as she wandered off again.
“Now then.” Twilight stared into Odium’s eyes. “Thankfully, it was only mild hypothermia, so you shouldn’t be in here for much longer. What are you going to do when you’re discharged?”
Odium shrugged. “Help around, I guess? I like to travel, if that helps any.”
“Hm.”
“Hm?”
“I want to hear your ideas first. I’m not going to pressure you into anything. Celestia knows you’ve gone through enough on that end.”
“I… think I’ll head off on my own again.” Odium fidgeted with a fold in the sheets. “I like the feeling I get when I know I’ve helped someone out. I’ll stay out of your manes this time, I promise. Though, maybe we’ll meet again?”
“Maybe.”
“Thanks.”
Twilight cocked her head.
“For stopping me. For making me realize I was being used. For letting me be here today, instead of… well...” He glanced at the blizzard outside the window. “You know.”
Twilight nodded. “I understand.”
Odium closed his eyes again. Maybe he’d finally get some good sleep here. A blizzard was no weather for traveling, anyway.
Author's Note
This might be the last time I ask TheMajorTechie for editing, as I think it's time for me to learn how to write my own fic on my own from now on.
Originally, Odium was going to be brutally called out by both the dream versions of the Mane Six, his parents, and himself before finally realizing that he's a bad person and deserves way worse than what he got. Something similar to Grace's memories from Infinity Train.
However, this was changed due to how I always write Odium, which is him either being beaten up and/or wanting to be beaten up for his misdeeds. TheMajorTechie decided to give him at least some good luck for a change because of that.
