The crystal unicorn crossed her arms, placing them under her breasts to push them up and make them look fuller, for no other reason than what appeared to be her own amusement as she struck a provocative pose.

“So you think you’re ready, Celestia?” Schorl asked the princess in mocking tone, “Then allow me to remind you of what you agreed on earlier. You are going to face off against King Dainn in verbal debate, and without the help of your deer friend there.”

“I still believe that this is incredibly unfair.” Eadgil stated, knowing that the crystal mare was going to do her best to bolster Dainn’s arguments.

“Ok Eadgil, we all get it,” Schorl said, removing one arm from under her tits so she could flick a portion of her long mane aside, “You like to be the smartest guy in the room, but now it’s time for everyone else to get a turn.”

“What’s the matter, boy?” said Dainn, noting the looks the other caribou was giving the red collar, “I would’ve thought you enjoyed taking orders from a mare.”

“Oh please my lord, don’t say something so ridiculous.” Schorl said with a scoff, “As if I am in the position to be ordering around a male.”

“I’m not even sure someone like him could be considered male,” Dainn added, “He is a perfect candidate for switching in my opinion,”

“Enough,” Celestia butted in, “Your fight is with me now Dainn, and I don’t appreciate being ignored.”

“Oh… I’m sorry, I had almost forgotten you were here. Such an unimportant creature as you are.”

“Dainn, I can tolerate your antics for as long as you want, but if you wish to leave this place-”

“Then I need to show you your place once again, of course.” Dainn said, finishing Celestia’s sentence with his own perspective on the matter. “Then why don’t we begin? I’ll even start us off with the point I brought up before. ‘That I am a better leader than you’.”

“Nice try Dainn,” said Eadgil, “But the topic at hand is if you were able to provide safety for the citizens of Equestria.”

“And already you are breaking the rules in place.” said Dainn, annoyed that this other caribou wouldn’t stop butting in.

“I’m not breaking any rules,” Eadgil replied, “If I recall right, I’m just forbidden from helping Celestia, and this isn’t helping as much as it’s keeping things from getting derailed.”

“But there is no derailment involved in the king’s statement,” said Schorl, “As the notion that he was the better leader can be easily attributed to the fact that he provided improved protection from external forces.”

“That’s right,” Dainn said with confidence, “‘With Celestia in charge, the kingdom of Equestria was frequently being attacked’. From what I heard, it was almost like the citizens of her kingdom were set upon by some sort of problem on a weekly bases.”

“You say this,” Celestia spoke up, now that the debate was starting proper, “‘But do you even understand what the kingdom went through before you showed up’?”

“Of course I do,” Dainn said without hesitation, “‘The rumors were very specific about what your sister did as Nightmare Moon’.”

Dainn’s words flew at Celestia’s question, but the alicorn was prepared this time, “Then you should know that ‘I was the one that orchestrated her defeat’.” Celestia’s fact generated itself before her question, blocking it from Dainn’s counter-argument, which crashed into the red letters and shattered on impact. “While I had not personally dealt with the situation first hand, ‘I did send my prized student to stop and purify my sister’.”

“Your prized student…” said Dainn, lingering on the words, “Oh yes, you mean the purple alicorn. What was her name again?”

“I believe it is ‘Twilight Sparkle’, my lord.” answered Schorl, an evil grin beginning to form on her muzzle.

“Oh yes, that’s right. Did you know that in my world, Celestia, that 'Twilight Sparkle submitted to my rule’. ‘She gave up both her wings and horn of her own free will’, and happily gave her body to the desires of men, and assisted me in violating both you and your sister alongside the fourth one of your abominable species. She was such the eager red collar, always lusting to learn of some new depraved act, to delve into the depths of what it meant to be a woman.” Dainn chuckled a bit, watching Celestia cringe at his testimony of what her beloved pupil would have been like had she lost to him in her own world. “And I believe it goes without saying that this is all true, since none of us are capable of lying here.”

As much as it hurt Celestia to hear that, she knew it was just an attempt from Dainn to unnerve her. It had little to do with the current discussion, and nothing to do with her own world. Plus, even if she wished to take Dainn’s bait, the words that appeared from his statements were revealing more than he probably understood, and allowed Celestia some leeway to keep faith in her student.

“Try as you might Dainn, I’m not going to let you ignore that my actions put into motion Twilight’s ascension to one of the six Elements of Harmony, and that because of that, she was able to protect Equestria where I could not. ‘This also lead to the defeat of Discord’, who you must know tried to send Equestria spiraling into chaos at one point.”

“He undoubtedly knows about Discord,” said Eadgil, “In my world, he claimed to ha- mrph!”

The caribou’s words were halted as the crystal unicorn next to him leapt onto his back, and clamped her hands down tightly over his snout and jaw. “That’s enough of that.” she said in a playful tone, “Whatever part Discord played in the king’s world, the main point to make with it is that ‘Discord never made himself a threat to Dainn’s kingdom’.”

Eadgil was put off by the mare’s handling of him, but chose not to retaliate. Not that he felt he couldn’t, as though he was a more scholarly caribou, he was still strong enough to outmatch the strength of the unicorn. Rather he didn’t wish to bring potential harm to the mare, who he assumed had been indoctrinated into believing Dainn’s way was proper.

“On that note, I do think this is deserving of a little penalty.” said Schorl as she held tightly to the caribou, “As such, I don’t believe Celestia should be able to press on with any questions about Discord.”

“I agree with that sentiment.” Dainn added, wanting to punish both Eadgil and Celestia in any way possible.

That was a step too far for Eadgil though, and reaching up to his muzzle, he tore Schorl’s hand away. “Enough! This is a court case. I can overlook this little attack, but by what reason are you trying to limit our information?”

“You brought it on by breaking the established rules, repetitively I might add,” said Schorl, “So you really don’t have room to object to this.”

“Rules I didn’t agree to, I might add”, Eadgil pointed out. “I never agreed to being silenced. The three of you overruled me. And now I see that you only pushed for this in order to keep us from finding out the truth of the matter - and you will go as far as physically attacking others in order to achieve that end.”

“Oh, I didn’t even hurt you with that little grab.” said Schorl, taking a standoffish stance.

“Whether you hurt me or not isn’t even the issue”, Eadgil frowned. “This isn’t a schoolyard, and I’m not personally offended. I don’t complain about being hurt, I point out that you’re not above getting physical in order to prevent the truth from coming out in a court case.”

“Please, both of you. Let’s move on,” said Celestia, content in leaving the issue of Discord behind, and not interested in starting a squabble that would further derail the matter at hand, “There are more villains repelled by Twilight and her friends than just those two, such as Sombra and Chrysalis.”

“That’s funny, I thought that this place couldn’t allow lies, as from what I heard it was…” Dainn stopped on his last word, not wanting to utter the words his lips were trying to form.

“You heard it was whom?” Celestia inquired, having lured Dainn into a trap.

“‘That those two were defeated by Shining Armor and…Cadence’.”

“That is true,” Celestia said, confirming the events, “The finishing blows on both Sombra and Chrysalis were in a large part because of them, but the Elements of Harmony played a pivotal role in both events.”

“And what does this prove? That you’re leadership is what spared Equestria from the brink of destruction? One could just as easily say you got lucky on all accounts.”

“As one could say about you,” Celestia rebutted, seeing the circular logic Dainn was presenting, “And where would we get by attributing luck to our every decision? It would be folly to do so, thus it is better that we take for fact that the state of our own versions of Equestria were brought on by our own actions.”

Dainn gave Celestia’s comment a snort, remembering that God had practically said that luck was on his side in all his endeavors through the intervention of some universal force. Why she would be beyond that same influence by some other force was beyond him, but she was right that it would be pointless to say that their actions were not of their own doing for the sake of this debate.

“None of this negates what I’ve said though. In fact, it only further confirms the frequencies of the attacks on your kingdom.”

“It does prove though that despite it all, ‘My decisions lead to the protection of Equestria against these numerous attacks’.” Celestia’s words, while not contradicting Dainn’s facts, showed the flaws of their design. Dainn was trying to use them to display that Celestia and her kingdom were considered a weak and easy target to external forces, but no matter how she was perceived, Equestria still stood after each of these attempts of conquest and invasion. The frequency of it all only compounded to show that no matter the threat, Equestria managed to pull through, and that was at least in part because of events Celestia set in motion. Because of this, Dainn’s statement crumbled before her counter-argument, and the king was left without his verbal shield.

Of course, Dainn wasn’t going to take this lying down. This small triumph of logic couldn’t set him back, as he knew how to put the princess back in her place. “Perhaps you did protect your people in some manner, but ‘You were the one to put them in danger to begin with’. You lack the presence of a real leader, and even though you repelled those who besieged your kingdom, you invited them to attack you in the first place.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Celestia said to the caribou king, “‘There is little reason to believe that you would not had suffered the same attacks had you been in my place’.”

“Is that so?” Dainn asked rhetorically, “Well perhaps your fool of a sister would have tried to stand up against me, not knowing of my might, but I know from experience that Chrysalis would submit to me. As for Sombra, I unfortunately never had the opportunity to find out, seeing as your beloved mares destroyed him. For all I know, all he needed was proper guidance. His goals were similar to my own, from my understanding, and a push into the right direction may have stopped him from enslaving males in the same manner as he did mares.”

“You do realize that Sombra had been driven mad from a thousand years of imprisonment, yes?” Celestia questioned, “I doubt that you would have swayed him in that state, and even had he not have been, he was not the type to make allegiances.”

“Ah yes, his imprisonment. That does bring up another important point. Tell me Celestia, ‘Of the four threats of Equestria we have used as examples, how many of them were problems you had dealt with before, and allowed to become the problems they turned into’?”

It was the first time that Dainn had bothered using the ‘question’ option that Eadgil had created, but he found it deliciously ironic that the traitor caribou’s addition was being used in such a manner against the princess. Dainn knew enough about the legends and rumors of these four to predict the answer she would give, and it would not be in her favor.

“All of them,” Celestia answered, not attempting to hide her involvement with the four villains, “Luna and I both were responsible for imprisoning Sombra and Discord, and I likewise imprisoned both Luna and Chrysalis on my own.”

“Then it is fair to say that because you didn’t take more permanent measures with any of these four, ‘You are responsible for any of the suffering they caused upon their return’.”

Unlike all the other times Dainn had made an accusation against Celestia, this time hit directly on its mark. Celestia found it impossible to deny her own part in the actions of these four. Luna herself hadn’t caused that much damage upon her arrival, knocking down a couple of royal guards who had been trained for such an inevitability, and making a failed attempt on the lives of Twilight and her friends. Sombra likewise had no opportunity to actually harm anyone, just causing mild trauma in the crystal ponies due to his presence. Discord and Chrysalis however, they had caused real damage in the kingdom, and in a sense, Dainn was right that she could have prevented it from coming to be. Not only them, but there were others of whom she could have dealt with in more effective ways that would have saved her citizens from undue suffering.

“At least when I come across a problem, I take care of it.” Dainn continued, “I have troublemakers watched over constantly, and stripped of their harmful abilities. If that doesn’t stop them from openly rebelling, then purpling and blanking is their fates. In any case, this guarantees the safety of the kingdom by removing any potential threats. ‘It may be a heavy and strict punishment, but the results speak for themselves’.”

“Can you say the same, Celestia?” Schorl piped in, “Or do your many failures keep you up at night in shame?”

The white alicorn did feel a strong sense of responsibility for all these events, and while Twilight usually fixed these mistakes of her past, they were not suppose to be the burden of her protege to bare. It was part of the reason Celestia didn’t believe that she could submit to Dainn as his slave, not legitimately at least, regardless of what rules Dainn’s world had that forced things into his favor. To do so would be an abandonment of her duties as princess, and an allowance of her people’s suffering. It was also because of this that she couldn’t allow this tyrant to be reborn into another world to continue his terrible reign.

“Dainn, I can admit that I have made plenty of errors in my rule. Ones that have caused the ponies of Equestria pain and misery. You however are pain and misery, and I will not accept that you could lead the ponies better in my stead.”

“Then you are just being stubborn,” Dainn remarked, “As I said, ‘None of your typical villains were a threat to my kingdom’.”

Both Dainn and Celestia’s eyes widened as they watched the words appear in blue. Dainn’s words were not fact, just his assumptions. That lead leeway into his kingdom being in danger. The problem was that Celestia couldn’t determine who was in fact the threat. It could have been any of the ones mentioned before. It could have been some villain that Dainn was unfamiliar with, of which there were many. It could have even been someone that Celestia didn’t know about, so long as they fit the profile.

Thus, Celestia couldn’t just take shots in the dark, as Dainn could just deny any of her accusations, since it appeared he didn’t know himself who was the threat. With no knowledge of the threat, and no logic towards figuring it out, Dainn wouldn’t be lying if he said he thought it was impossible. Then again, there might have been some way to root out a possible suspect. Something that both rulers had experienced in different ways.

“Dainn… ‘Did you ever experience an onset of black, thorny vines that attacked Equestria shortly after you had control over’?”

“Grasping at more straws?” Dainn asked back to the alicorn.

“Answer the question.”

“Yes, we did encounter the ‘creeper vines’, as we decided to call them.”

Celestia found it odd that the vines had the same name in Dainn’s world as her own, but that had little to do with why she made her inquiry about them. “And I assume that they caused problems for you, or am I wrong?”

“Not enough to be considered a threat,” Dainn replied, “They acclimated to enchantment of the Crystal Cock fairly easily, and for some time were very amusing as they violated every mare in their path. In many ways, they acted like the rape pods we had brought from our homelands.”

“But they were enough of a problem that you had to get rid of them.”

“They became an issue, yes.” Dainn admitted, “Being that they were difficult to cut, and had a tendency of keeping mares away from their masters, we had to fix the problem. It took weeks to figure out their origins, but we eventually uncovered the location of a tree in the Everfree Forest, which the vines were coming from.”

“The Tree of Harmony,” Celestia clarified.

“We noticed that the tree had several shapes within it that matched the gemstones that gave your ‘Elements of Harmony’ there undeserved powers. We had tried to alter those gems in a similar manner as the Crystal Cock, but we found them to be much more durable. Thus when we finally found a use for them, we gladly allowed them to be relinquish them back to that tree, being mere useless trinkets to us. The ceremony was quite the spectacle. You should have seen how happy your student was to give up her burden of power.”

“That’s funny, because ‘In my world it took Twilight just a day to fix the problem’.” Celestia stated, knowing exactly why Dainn would have such a lengthy delay. In his world, all the alicorns had their horns removed. No horns meant no alicorn magic, and no alicorn magic meant that there was no way to finish the potion Zecora had made to look into the past and learn of The Tree of Harmony.

This lead Celestia to a couple more conclusions, both coming from an assumption that Dainn wasn’t giving out all the information he had on the incident. For starters, if he had encountered the vines, he also surely encountered their destructive nature. They may have been affected by the caribou’s vile enchantments, but that wouldn’t have stopped them from bursting from the ground and reeking havoc throughout Equestria. Celestia was pretty sure that the amusement gained from their presence was short-lived once the caribou noticed the damage they were causing to their newly conquered kingdom. Dainn said that he didn’t perceive the vines as a threat, but the way he spoke the caribou would not consider flaming rocks falling from the sky as threatening

Then there was the question of how they found the tree in the first place. A full scale search of the kingdom might have been put in place, but even then The Tree of Harmony was not in an easily located place, nor a place most would want to venture into unprepared. No, Celestia assumed that someone had to tell him, and if the alicorn had been imprisoned, and not allowed to be dragged away by the vines like in her world, she could tell where that information came from. She might not have given it immediately, wanting the caribou to sweat a little, but in the end the suffering to her kingdom would have gotten to her. If that were indeed the case, Celestia had no doubt that Dainn would never bring up her involvement, even if she asked a direct question.

So instead she decided to ask one that he would answer. “Now that we have confirmed that the creeper vine incident happened, and detailed how you dealt with it, I have one last question on the topic.”

“Then speak it, mare.” Dainn said with disdain, seeing no point behind this path of questioning Celestia choose to travel down. The only point that she had made thus far is that in her way the problem was solved quicker, but to Dainn quicker didn’t necessarily mean better.

“My question to you,” Celestia begun, eyes unflinching as she stared down Dainn, “Is ‘Do you know what caused the creeper vines in the first place’?”

“I assume that ‘It was just another bit of incompetence on your part’. Yet another oversight that could have been prevented had you just been more aware.”

The words projected themselves towards the question, and smashed into them, bursting through in a fashion not unlike the times before when a counter-argument defeated a statement. Dainn believed that he had once more shot down the mare, as all of the bad in Equestria could be attributed to her lack of capability as a leader. It was a unstoppable statement that could prove her at fault for any wrongs. Even if she tried to pin something on him, he could just turn it around and say that if she had been a better leader, then none of it would have ever happened.

As he was basking in another victory though, he became aware that Celestia’s question hadn’t been completely demolished, and that his unstoppable statement had… stopped. More accurately, it had gotten stuck in the purple words, causing slight damage, but not shattering them completely like usual.

Celestia took a deep breath, and looked at the damage caused. She understood why her question didn’t stand up against Dainn’s response, but also knew why it didn’t get destroyed either.

“As vague as your statement is,” Celestia said, “It is not untrue. Had I have done more to investigate the tactics of my enemies, then the creeper vines would not have been a threat to either of our worlds. I always could have been a better leader, but as you said before, ‘better’ is just a word used by those who don’t know how to express something.”

Dainn smirked, “Good to see you finally starting to see reason. Now all you have to do is submit to the fact that ‘I was better than you’.”

“However,” Celestia went on to say, “It is important to see one’s own faults, as much as it is to be able to see the faults in others, and this is where you have failed to understand that you aren’t infallible either.”

“I might have made a few mistakes so far as God and the Universe is concerned, but from my understanding, in my own world, I am perfect.” Dainn put out his arms before him at waist height, beckoning Celestia to make whatever feeble attack she thought she could. “If you can say otherwise, then be my guest.”

“Gladly,” Celestia said, “Because for a supposedly perfect being, you are incredibly flawed.”

“What?” Dainn snapped back, believing this to be nothing more than an offensive bluff.

“After all, if you were really perfect, then you would have learned the true cause of this disaster.”

“I just said it was y-”

“‘That the one who caused this disaster was Discord’!”

The words appeared with a thunderous rumble, and unlike before, they did not launch themselves at Dainn’s words. They didn’t have to, as their very presence was enough to decimate any contradicting statement, turning them to dust before they vanished.

“In my world, we found out shortly afterwards that the seeds were planted by Discord. From what you have said, I can tell that you didn’t have the means to figure this out for yourself, so that means that you were incapable of discerning a potential threat to your kingdom.”

“Wait a moment,” Dainn said, finding himself now on the defensive against the alicorn princess, “Didn’t we already agree that matters involving Discord were off the table?”

“Actually,” Eadgil piped in, “You only agreed that Celestia couldn’t ask questions about him. And while I won’t add any assistance with this new information, I must admit that knowing what I know makes this argument… interesting.”

Dainn looked to Schorl to deal with Eadgil’s interruption, who just shrugged, not seeing anything that Eadgil said as breaking the no helping rule. “Damn it, Discord…” The king muttered to himself. He should have known that such a chaotic being would cause some sort of trouble for him.

“So, what we have come down to,” Schorl said aloud, raising her voice so that none could ignore her, “Is that Dainn had a problem with a creature who is, at best, unpredictable. That really doesn’t sound like much of a condemning statement to me.”

“S-she’s right,” Dainn chimed in, “This still doesn’t remove the fact ‘That none of the other three dared go against me’.”

“You mean like Sombra, who was already dead.” Celestia replied, “Or Chrysalis, who uses trickery to catch her prey, and specializes in conquering men, or my sister who…” The thought of Luna brought pause to the princess. At first she was going to bring up that Luna was no longer Nightmare Moon, and thus not a threat to the kingdom to begin with, but then it dawned on her what Dainn had just said in his big, blue words.

Dainn believed that Luna had never gone against him. That she might have been a disobedient mare and a black collar, as Celestia couldn’t see Luna as being any more willing to submit to this tyrant as herself, but to him she was unwilling to do anything against his will. Dainn truly was so delusional that he assumed that he had his kingdom under absolute control, even as he was presented with logical evidence that he didn’t.

Then another series of words Dainn had made earlier came back to the forefront of her mind. Ones he had made earlier to prove his methods as legitimate, and were registered as fact. ‘It may be a heavy and strict punishment, but the results speak for themselves’. Those words lingered there, unscathed by any attack.

“Dainn… You’re dead.” She said solemnly at the revelation that formed in her mind.

“A fact I am well aware of, I assure you.” he said back.

“No, I mean that, for all the safety you say you have to offer towards your citizens, you ended up dying.”

“Well, yes,” Dainn admitted, unable to deny it when it was stated earlier what this trial was about, “But that doesn’t mean it reflects my abilities to defend my kingdom.”

“How does it not?” Celestia questioned, “You believe yourself to be the strongest and smartest of all the caribou, right?”

“Well that could be debatable.” Dainn said, his nerves riling up again.

“Oh, you are being too modest my lord,” said Schorl, “It is well known that ‘Dainn is considered the strongest and smartest caribou of his kingdom’.”

“So if you were to die, then that means you were defeated by something that could potentially destroy the empire you built.” said Celestia, glad for once to have the crystal mare’s commentary.

Dainn shot Schorl a quick glare of disapproval, but then turned back to Celestia. “Just because I died doesn’t mean I had to have died to someone. ‘I could have died for any reason for all you know’.” Dainn was banking on Celestia’s lack of knowledge on this one, as she couldn’t say for sure if he had been murdered or not.

“Didn’t Eadgil mention earlier that you had been killed?” asked Celestia, remembering that it was brought up.

“I did,” Eadgil answered, “And even our host brought up that our two worlds are incredibly similar.”

“No more out of you, boy.” Dainn said, seeing this verging on another breach of the rules, “Unless you want this line of questioning to end now.”

“Are you afraid of what I might say?”, Eadgil smirked.

The look given to him by the other male repulsed Dainn, having seen that smug expression from many a stag, but never directed at him. Still, he had to focus, and take back the ground he had lost.

“Fine, I was killed. But who is to say that what I left behind wouldn’t be able to uphold my kingdom without me? Powerful men and submissive women who all wish to carry on my ideas, and the ways of the caribou, the ways that are part of the natural order.”

Instead of a response, the other caribou just reacted with a chuckle.

“I am saying that,” Celestia answered, having a more direct response for the caribou king, “As I have no doubt in my mind that you were not defeated by some external threat, the likes of which my kingdom had to attend to so very often, but from within.”

“What is that even suppose to mean?”

“In all your assumptions of perfection and invincibility, wherein you never see anything as being a danger to you or your loyal followers, that everything can be, and in your mind is, conformed to your perspective of the world… You have neglected the strength of those you wish to rule over.”

Dainn’s eyes widened, as the mare was dangerously close to pinpointing a killer, as vague as his assumptions were.

“Your methods are designed to make it so no one would ever side with you, unless they were under your mind controlling enchantments or felt there was a way they could profit from your cruelty. You may have swayed a few ponies to your side; the weak, the corrupt, and the cowardly.” Leaning forward, Celestia slapped her hands down hard on the desk before her, causing Dainn to recoil from the commanding aura she was giving off, “But there would be plenty remaining who would oppose you to the last. The same rebels you mentioned previously, those who were not corrupted by any of your schemes. With how carelessly you ignore the danger they represent to you, it is without a doubt that ‘One of the ponies you thought you had under your hoof brought you to your end’.”

“GGGGRRRRRRR!!!” Dainn could do little more than growl in response, infuriated that Celestia could be so right. How was this even possible? She was a female. Females were not suppose to be this smart. They were not suppose to be able to figure out complex details by the use of deductive logic.

“Dainn, you have no ability to protect the citizens of your kingdom, because your kingdom is one built against itself. Those who side with you are corrupt, those that don’t are slaves, and those who aren’t slaves will always look for ways to defy you. They may not act out to avoid your petty ire, but they would never consider what you do as right or just, and when you finally put them in a position where they have no other options, they will do whatever they can to bring your reign to an end.”

Dainn grabbed his head, and leaned forward, not getting why this was going so bad for him. He was the smartest caribou, no, smartest male who had ever existed, and thus was likewise the smartest being in his world. He shouldn’t have been able to be out debated like this, and yet here he was, struggling to see where he could go on from here. He could try to speculate about the possibilities of his kingdom being perfectly fine if everyone simply did what they were suppose to, but it would be a fruitless endeavor, as the fact still remained that they didn’t. Everything wrong with his kingdom could be pinned on the ponies that inhabited it, and how unwilling they were to acclimate without magical coercion or bribery, but ultimately the disorder of his kingdom could be projected back to him.

He just was unwilling to accept any of this. No matter if it was true, if everyone was incapable of lying, or that it was logically sound, it was all rubbish. He was a good king. He provided his people everything they needed and desired. So what if a few suffered? So what if thousands suffered? Overall he did what was best for everyone. He enforced the natural order between males and females. He was not the bad guy in all of this.

“So…” Dainn heard uttered from across from him, causing him to lift his eyes up just enough to see Eadgil and Celestia with their head turned to Schorl, who had a large, toothy grin. “We went through all that, proved that Dainn doesn't care about either the happiness or safety of his people… And for what?”

“What do you mean ‘for what’?” Eadgil asked, feeling that his restrictions had been lifted at this point, Celestia being the clear winner of the previous debate.

“How many times do I have to say it? This whole trial has nothing to do with whether Dainn can make those he rules over happy. It’s not even about if he can make them safe. ‘The topic of our discussion is if Dainn’s methods are beneficial to the world’.”

Eadgil rubbed his temples. “Alright...”, he said. “Tell me one thing. What is 'the world'?”

“Isn’t that the question,” Schorl said, slipping in a giggle before adding, “But for the purposes of this debate, why don’t we define ‘the world’ as ‘the living creatures and environment that inhabit the reality Dainn lives in’. That shouldn’t be too loose a definition, since he exists in all of our realities.”

“Okay, then. How many of these creatures does one need to benefit in order to benefit ‘the world’?”

“Wow, you are really picky with the details.” Schorl snarked, “But let’s say that as as long as his actions have an overall positive outcome, then it should be seen as beneficial, even if the difference is only by one person.”

“But then your entire point is moot. Because by that definition, it does make a difference whether those who live under Dainn’s rule are safe and well-off or not.”

“Oh, how small you think,” said Schorl, “How… short term. It is to be expected though, I suppose, seeing that from the start, you both have been attacking this from the wrong angle. How brilliant our lord’s misdirection was, making you both go around in circles over some nonsensical notion.”

Celestia was starting to become a bit unnerved by the crystal mare’s words, believing for a moment that Dainn had in some way tricked both her and Eadgil. “What angle are you talking about?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Schorl said, walking herself around to the other side of the table, “You guys have been going on and on about morals, rights, and the general well-being of all those sweet, innocent ponies under our lord’s rule… as if that applies to someone like him. What does any of that mean to Dainn, or his little band of caribou men?”

Eadgil smiled. “Well, Dainn did present himself as a savior of Equestria, or at least its males, but I actually agree with your point. However, I would like to point out that it was you who just a moment ago defined the benefit of the world as general well-being, not us. As you bring up over and over again, ’This discussion is about whether Dainn’s rule was beneficial to the world’, nothing more, nothing less. It is not about whether he was even concerned about that. By your own criteria, it wasn’t beneficial to the world. Pointing out that it wasn’t even meant to be changes nothing about that fact.”

“Perhaps you would be right, to someone who doesn’t see the bigger picture, but to do that, one has to understand that Dainn isn’t some sort of hero. That everything he did was for himself. His kingdom, his followers, the safety of the caribou, the lies that he made to make himself out as a savior of all malekind, those were all byproducts of making sure he got what he wanted. You both go on and on about his actions like they matter, but what do they matter to a villain?”

Dainn slammed his fist down on his desk, outraged at what he had just heard uttered from the mouth of this insolent red collar. “'I… AM NOT THE VILLAIN HERE'!”

Schorl had spun her head around at the sound of the king’s anger, pupils narrowed in surprise. “Excuse me?”

“I am not the problem!” Dainn said pointing across to the three on the opposite side of the room from him. “All of you are the problems! Females who don’t understand their place! Males who have misplaced sympathy for them, and so called followers of my ideals who make me look bad by association! ‘I am the one in the right’!”

For a while, the room was brought to silence, Dainn’s rage shocking those at the other desk. The king usually never showed any kind of emotion, preferring to be stoic to all he encountered. For them, this was the first time seeing the imposing creature in such a state, though for Dainn it was just an emotion he had been allowing to get out more frequently.

“Oh…” Schorl said, taking some time to recover from the outburst, which likewise allowed Dainn to calm himself down. “I see…” she went on to say with a sigh, “And here I was hoping you were at least different in that regard. Seems that I’ve made a mistake.” The mare’s own expression dramatically changed, from one with a perpetual smile across it, to one that looked blankly at the one she had been calling lord. “Allow me to correct that.” she finished, sitting herself upon the front of the desk she had been standing behind all this time, crossing her legs, and placing her hands upon her knees.

Dainn looked in bewilderment at the red collar, as the helpful mare now looked to be taking a defiant stance against him. “Wha-”

“Oh no, no need to speak,” Schorl said to the caribou, “Not yet at least. But please, allow me to reintroduce myself. 'My name is Schorl Tourmaline'. 'I am a villain', and 'I’ll be your opponent now'.”

Author's Notes:

There is an old quote that comes from Shakespeare. "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them". On a personal level, I fit into... none of these categories. I most certainly wasn't born into greatness, as I am a simple girl from a family that at best could be considered "lower middle class". I have family members who have managed to do well for themselves, but most of them want little to do with my side of the family.

I have never aspired to do anything great in my life, happy to be one of the little cogs in the machine of society, and living an average life where I stay at home most of the time, play video games, and occasionally type out long winded fanfics. The greatest things I've done in life is get my associate's degree in computer programming, and purchase a house. I have no real aspirations beyond dying in said house, and living as comfortable as possible until said demise. Aside for that, my only long term goals are to work as hard as I can to satisfy those incredibly basic goals, and maybe winning a card game tournament from time to time.

As for greatness being thrust upon me... well I would like to say that people have low expectations of me. I'd like to, but there have been those times when people look to me for leadership, because no one else can be arsed to take it up themselves. This is never anything grand, just stuff like directing a group project for my aforementioned degree, or being the one to step up to responsibility when seemingly everyone around me wants to take the path of immediate self destruction. Even so, I would like to believe that most of these tasks are incredibly simple, and that anyone could take up my role, had they the gumption to do so. What I am trying to get at is "I am no one special".

So juxtapose that with someone like Dainn. A man who has grandiose aspirations. He isn't the type to simply be one drop in the sea of mediocrity, he wishes to be the Neptunian god that controls its ebb and flow. He cannot be content with being the direct student of the king and possible future king of the caribou, how he was born great. He cannot be content with having saved his race from disaster, the time greatness was thrust upon him. Nor can he be content with having conquered a nation with what was essentially his own two hands, which was his aspirations to greatness.

Dainn, in his mind, must be the lord of everything. He must control not one nation, but every nation. He can't simply be the most powerful thing in Equestria, but the most powerful thing in existence. he can't simply live with the knowledge that he is an intelligent being, but must be smarter than everything else to the point that he has pseudo-precognition, where in all around him essentially dance to the beat of his perception of reality, and thus he always makes the right move because everyone else acts as a puppet and does what he wants them to do.

Of course, none of this is realistically possible, even in the realms of fantasy. Dainn cannot live in a world where those who oppose him are inexorably compelled to failure. There will always be someone in the world smart than him, and likewise someone stronger. By now, it if fairly clear that the concepts that Dainn is the best person ever, with the best men ever, and the best kingdom ever are just delusions built in his head to satiate his massive ego, of which uses caribou ideas to back up.

Celestia isn't a bad leader because she fucks up constantly. Quite the contrary. People like to use Celestia's poor ability to fend off the final bosses of each season as an example that she shouldn't rule Equestria, but fail to look at her the rest of the time cause she doesn't matter to the series at those times. However, in times of peace are when Celestia shines, because she is the one who runs the machine that is Equestria. I remember an episode where she was sitting in her throne with a stack of papers that could fill a dictionary, and reviewing and signing each one. Celestia at one point was Equestria's protector, when she had the power of the elements, but that time has passed, and now she acts as a diploma and the guiding force behind Equestria on the whole. When things happen, they happen because she makes it happen. Now I could point out points were it looks like she could have flubbed in this department too (like the whole buffalo incident or the like), but when it comes down to it we can see that Celestia is good at her job because outside of those times when someone comes to wreck her shit, her lands are ran in a peaceful and efficient manner (usually).

Dainn on the other hand runs a kingdom that is constantly at ends with itself, and where those who want to screw over everyone else are the winners. It is a paradise for people like Flim and Flam, where in they get a free pass to do as they please with a populace brain washed into thinking that anything that makes women miserable is a must have, and a hell for those who are on the receiving end of said scams.

So Celestia isn't a poor leader because she's a woman, or she can't defend her kingdom. She is a poor leader because she has to be, else it would hard for Dainn to uphold that his way is "better", because then people could compare the two rules and the affects they cause on equal ground. If Celestia was a guy instead of a woman, Dainn would have likewise found a reason that Celestia "had to be removed" because he wants to rule everything, and Equestria is part of everything.

In the end though, I wonder what is truly the better position here. To be like me, and have low expectations for life and your lot in it, allowing for an easier ability to be content, while living a less than stellar life, or to be like Dainn. To want a spectacular, if unobtainable, life where in your contentment only comes from 100% success, and in turn that success has you shouldering the weight of the world. Actually, no, I don't wonder that, as Dainn's goals in life contradict his wants. He doesn't want responsibility, which comes with leadership, he wants the perks that stem from it. If he was given a stack of papers to sign, he'd delegate the work to someone else, no doubt. At least in my observations, Dainn doesn't know what to do with the world, except condemn it for not living up to his assumed perfection.