The group made it back to the castle. Almost everyone in the group started walking towards the entrance, except for Odium, who just stood there with a guilty frown. They all sighed before easing the doors open.

"Oh, Twilight? Everyone?," Celestia said. "Good to see you all back,"

"How did it go with Odium? Did you calm him down?" Luna asked.

"Sort of," Twilight replied. "But he's going to work hard to make amends for his mistakes, starting with us,"

"Oh, that's great," Celestia said. "Where is he?"

Twilight and the others peeked their heads back out the door. "You can come inside, now."

Odium walked into the room while the others stepped out of his way. With his head hung low, he approached the princesses.

"Odium," Celestia said. "Is there something you'd like to say to us?"

He sighed. "Yes, your majesties... I'm s-sorry for thinking that Twilight and her friends were evil and for attacking them because of that."

"Good," Luna chimed. "You may go now."

And with that, he walked towards the entrance. "See ya,"

"Phew!" Pinkie Pie whispered to Twilight. "And here I thought we were going to—" Twilight covered her mouth, but Odium quickly turned around.

"You were going to wha...?" Odium asked.

Twilight nervously chuckled. "N-nothing! You can go on to fix your mistakes, now! Have a safe trip!"

"What were you going to do to me?!"

Twilight bit her bottom lip. "T-turn you into stone if we had to, but we—!"

"YOU WHAT?!!!" Odium yelled.

"I thought you learned that we weren't evil, Odium! We thought that you’ve changed!" Rainbow Dash chastised.

"And besides, we only do that to truly irredeemable villains!" Applejack chimed.

"How could I be any different after everything I've tried to do to you? I'm the heartless jerk who tried to brutally hurt most of you, so I don't blame you if that's what you were going to do to me. If not, then what else, huh? You're going to do something else to me? Something horrible to me? IS THAT WHAT YOU'RE GONNA TO DO?!!!" Odium yelled, holding onto his chest.

"No, Odium!" Twilight shouted, tearing up. "Just...!"

Twilight tries to approach him again, but he smacks her away with a loud growl, causing her to fall back and the others to gasp. As a result, the impact caused Pinkie Pie to accidentally drop the staff out of her mane.

"Oh, no, no, no, no, no!" Pinkie Pie grabbed the staff and tried to put it back, but she was too late, as Odium already spotted it.

"W-why do you still have that around?" Odium asked.

"We were going to get rid of it after we—!" Spike replied.

"Yeah, right," Odium said in a mocking tone. "And by it, you mean me, right? If so, then WHAT A GREAT IDEA!!! Gabriella may have been wrong about a lot of things, but she wasn't wrong about one thing: You all are vindictive, manipulative, murderous beings who would kill anyone that would go against you! Well, guess what. I'm not going to be one of them without another fight...!"

And just like that, Odium lunged at the group with both fists riled up.

"LOOK OUT!" Fluttershy shouted.

In retaliation, Twilight, Starlight, and Discord teleported away while the rest simply ran to both sides.

"Did you really have to bring that up, Pinkie Pie?" Discord asked.

"Sorry," Pinkie Pie replied.

As soon as she reappeared, Odium quickly kicked Twilight to a nearby wall. As she got up from the ground, Odium menacingly stood before her.

"I'm not going to be another one of your victims, Twilight Sparkle and friends!"

"We weren't going to kill you, Odium! We're sorry!" Twilight replied, sobbing.

Odium tightened his teeth before glancing down at his clenched claws and releasing them. His face fell as he briefly saw the monster he's become. Before he could open his mouth to say anything else, he was soon encased in a pale yellow and blue aura of magic and flung into another nearby wall. The impact was enough to leave a large crack behind him as he fell on his face with a hard "grunt".

"Leave. Them. Alone!" Celestia demanded in a low voice.

After a few seconds of groaning, Odium sat up from the ground and looked down at his black nose. A large drop of blood dripped from his nostril, prompting him to wipe it off, only for another drop to form. This, however, caused the group to gasp at the sight of it.

"Oh dear, I am so sorry-!" Celestia panicked.

Despite being on the verge of passing out again, he slowly got up from the ground while holding onto his crooked back. He then clenched his fists as he glared at the group. "Y-yeah right! This is what you all wanted all along, wasn't it?! Just go ahead and continue, since you're all so protective of those you like, and so heartless and murderous with those you don't like!"

"That's Enough! No one talks to my sister like that!" Luna shouted.

"Then, kill me for it, why don't cha! You all know you want to! Just admit it! Or better yet, just show it, you heartless, callous jerk—!"

"JUST FORGET IT, ALRIGHT?!" Fluttershy yelled before the rest of the group and Odium all darted at her. "We've tried to be nice! We've tried to reason with you! We've tried to tell you a thousand times that we weren't going to do that to you, and yet you still refuse to listen to us?! What is wrong with you?!"

"Yeah!" Pinkie Pie chimed. "You should be ashamed of yourself, you... party pooper!"

"They're right! You've been nothing, but violent, hateful, untrusting, and hypocritical towards us all because of some petty mistakes that we've fixed a long time ago, when all we've been trying to do is help you and be nice to you! And if you keep acting like that, then you're the one who's being heartless and callous around here and don't even deserve to be considered a good being!" Twilight chastised.

On the surface, the tightness Odium felt remained the same as he stared at the group's consistent glares. But deep down, the very contents of his brain told an entirely different story. Violent. Hateful. Untrusting. Hypocritical. Help. Nice. All these words and more passed through his already messed-up brain until said tightness steadily faded away in turn.

How did it come to this? Why did this have to happen? Those were all Odium could think about at the time. Then a few flashes occurred in his mind as if he was having a seizure. That had to be it. After all, The others couldn't see the flashes and they were too bright and quick for him to read clearly. But once they soon cleared up, his gut twisted up as he took a good, hard look at what he was seeing.

First, the many years of him being tricked by Gabriella that caused all this; Then, him ruining the lives of those he tried to help that made them hate him now; and now, him consciously attacking others twice under a petty, callous, unforgiving, and spiteful assumption of them being evil despite their kindness and helpfulness. Something that he should've been all along.

How did he not realize this before?! How could he have made this happen?! He's poison! That's who he is! He thought that he was so noble, so good, and always destined to do the right thing, but that's not true! It never was true and it will never be true! He's turned out for the worse! He's nothing, but a jerk! A monster! A cruel, heartless, horrible monster! In fact, he was definitely born that way! He brought all of this on himself and now he can never turn back no matter what!

And so, within a few seconds, he let out a deep, quiet sigh. "You're right. I've been nothing but evil to you. To all of you." Odium then lowered his head. "So just go on ahead. Do what you must. I don't care anymore."

Altogether, the group soon dropped their resolve as they took in what was going on. Their expressions saddened while they glanced at each other and then back at him. He's not kidding. He's really asking for it.

"What are you all waiting for? Do it." Odium said.

But instead, the group strode towards Odium before laying their hooves, or in Spike and Discord's case, claws, on his shoulders in pity.

"Odium, it doesn't have to be this way. You can still make things right again." Twilight bade.

"No, I can't. I've caused nothing but trouble already, so don't I deserve to-?"

"Odium! Just listen to us, alright?!" Fluttershy yelled.

"We're not going to let you get off scot-free, but we're not going to let you suffer, either. We're not evil or heartless like you think we are. That's exactly what we've been trying to tell you all along." Twilight continued.

Rainbow Dash pressed her muzzle onto Odium's. "But that doesn't mean we're gonna give you an apology for what we've said earlier, so don't even think about it!"

"I know," Odium replied. "So... What punishment are you going to give me?"

The group exchanged stern glances before turning their focus back to Odium.

Author's Note

The reason why I made the group temporarily punish Odium for his crimes was because I wanted to show that they've grown past the Easily Forgiven habit and to subvert the trope through them allowing the punishment, but still not wanting him to suffer, and Odium doing nothing to object to it because he knows that he's caused too much trouble to deserve forgiveness or redemption and needs to pay for the pain he tried to give the group.

I was originally going to have Odium get a self-realization of how evil, violent, hypocritical, and irredeemable he's become, but I couldn't find a great way to do that that would fit with both the current story and/or his character. Sorry.

The thing about my character, Odium, is that he's a really spiteful and vindictive person (or wolf). I wanted to created a character that's not entirely wrong in terms of reasons or motivations, but goes about things the wrong way in terms of actions and behavior. I also wanted to use Odium to teach others about how the road to hell is paved with good intentions and how you need to show said intentions through your actions since good intentions usually aren't enough by themselves if you don't show them through your actions.

One of the reasons why Odium relapsed back into his hateful demeanor is because he believes that that's all he is now and that he can never go back no matter what he do. He truly believes that he's incapable of ever being good, if at all, because he's been made irredeemable through his actions, behavior, and injustices due to revolving his entire life and self-worth around extreme morality, justice, integrity, and right and wrong ever since his birth.

Also, I'm sorry for bringing this up, but what Odium was really going to do before the group gave him his real punishment was turn himself in to the guards in order for them to send him to Tartarus for eternity for his crimes due to him believing that he's unworthy of forgiveness or redemption.