Upon Dainn’s utterance of his admittance of failure to the kingdom he had forged, time literally stopped in the room. All other participants of the trial froze on spot. There were no witty retorts to his confession, no smirks or bouts of laughter at his expense. Not so much as a single twitch of movement came from the three across from his table, each of them becoming as still as statues.

Dainn, on the other hand, didn’t feel this sudden stopping of time’s flow, nor did one other that occupied the room with him. The red-maned alicorn, the one who was acting as impartial observer to the trial and divine creator of the universe as Dainn knew it, was likewise able to move freely, and thus descended down from her seat, hitting the floor with the gentlest of clops as her four hooves touched the polished marble floor.

“I see you have finally cast aside the delusions you had placed on yourself.” the alicorn said, heading towards Dainn at a steady walk.

“How could I not?” Dainn replied, only registering her words as he stared down at the tabletop beneath him, his body hunched forward as he held his head. He was still having trouble dealing with the avalanche of revelations crashing down on him. With a simple understanding that his acts, that everything he had worked so hard to achieve, were only ever going to cause ruin, it painted a dark picture over his previous perceptions of himself.

No longer could he claim heroics for his countless acts of violation towards a race incapable of fighting back, or that his ends justified the means. He couldn’t even feign ignorance, because he knew what The Cycle was, and simply ignored its implications on himself when he found that knowledge inconvenient. If he had just stopped and thought, took a moment to actually look at what he was doing, to truly observe the atrocious acts he and his men were committing in the name of a goal they couldn’t accomplish, then perhaps he would have found another way.

Dainn wanted to at least believe that was the case, but now he wasn’t so sure. After all, how many times did people tell him that he was wrong? That he was only causing more problems with his rule? That he was no king? Dainn had always dismissed those claims as the words of the uneducated and the rebellious, but that was the problem. He never once took a moment to consider if they were right.

“So what now?” the caribou asked, still hanging his head in defeat.

The alicorn placed herself on the other side of the table from Dainn, dividing the two of them with the wooden structure. “What do you think should happen?”

“I don’t know…” he replied solemnly, “I want to say that you send me back to my world with this knowledge of how much I screwed up intact, but something tells me that isn’t how this works.”

“I’m afraid not,” said the creator, “Beyond my realm, beyond the land of the dead, and within the realities in which you exist, you can only ever be a version of yourself, and without such a…” The mare took a moment to look around at the surroundings of the grand courtroom, “Dramatic method of convincing, you would never come to these conclusions on your own.”

“Then you decide,” said Dainn, “Apparently my choices only lead to terrible ends for myself and others. Send me back to the abyss, remove my ability to be reincarnated, destroy my already doomed realities for all I care.”

“Dainn, I created this scenario for you to achieve one goal: not to condemn or condone, but to give you context.” the alicorn said gently, “I would not destroy the worlds created by the presence of you and your kind, as such a world is no more or less worthless than any other, no matter what kind of creatures exist in it. However, it is important that all those who inhabit a world understand their role in it, and that is something that I don’t believe you have ever, or would ever accomplish without anything short of divine intervention.”

“I agree…” Dainn admitted, his ego too crushed to try to contradict the mare, “And I now have the context you wished me to have. So with it I will say again, you decide what to do with me. As God of this universe, only you can unerringly make a decision that will not lead to the same kind of disaster I would cause in your place.”

The alicorn took a deep breath in, and as she exhaled everything around Dainn and herself faded. The courtroom, the furnishing in it, even Celestia, Eadgil, and Schorl. Everything dissipated, and returned back to the darkness that Dainn had become accustom to, and now found comforting.

“If that is your viewpoint after all this, then I believe that it is time that ‘Dainn’ ceased to be.” the alicorn stated to the caribou who was forced to rise as his seat faded away.

“Are you going to cancel out my existence all together?” Dainn questioned, seeing that as the most likely outcome for one such as himself.

“Not entirely,” the alicorn replied, “Dainn will have still existed, and his deeds will still affect the realities which he has touched, but his existence will end here. Dainn will no longer be allowed to be reborn into new worlds. Dainn will not dwell in the land of the dead. Dainn will not have a physical presence anywhere, and will only be a memory.”

“I… understand…” said Dainn, submitting to the mare’s judgement, “But if I may… if this is going to be my final moments… Could you please show me one last mercy.”

“And what would that be?” asked the alicorn, knowing that last requests were common among those seeing their finality.

“I have so many questions. So many things that have only been half told to me throughout my journey to this point. Though it might be meaningless, if my being is to come to an end I would like to know the answers to these questions, answers only you can provide.”

The alicorn looked at Dainn with pity, knowing well that he was in a sense as much of a victim in this than anyone else. The circumstances of his creation, in both his world and from the external forces that manifested his being, never gave him a chance to be anything else than what he was. Yet in this time where he had been shown that all he was made to believe as truth throughout his life were false, he chose to seek answers, even though his existence was coming to a close. It was an admirable trait in itself. One that showed a great deal of humility from one who mere minutes ago assumed himself infallible.

“I shall grant you the answers to three more questions,” the alicorn said, “It is the least I can do for one on the brink of annihilation.”

Three questions. That is what Dainn was given in his final moments. It seemed like so little, but he assumed that God would have given him just enough to satisfy his curiosity. It was up to him though to decide which ones to ask in order to reach that gratification was up to him. He would have to think carefully on which questions were most important to him.

However, he did already have one question in mind that he just had to ask. “God… if my existence was such a blight on any world I touched, why was I allowed to reincarnate to begin with? Death had told me that there was something special about me. That the universe itself had taken interest in me to the point that they would revive me at their discretion when I died. Before, I had believed it was because I was a necessary force, maintaining balance and order, but now I know this isn’t the case. So what am I that I was given this undeserved chance to ruin countless versions of the same world?”

“I see,” the alicorn replied, “You wish to know your purpose and why the universe took interest in you in the first place. I will try to answer this in a way you can comprehend.”

“And I will do my best to comprehend what you say.” said Dainn, realizing that what a god had to say on the topic of ‘purpose’ might have been beyond that of what a mere mortal could decipher.

“I had touched on this before the trial, about how you were created by a universal force, and how other forces interfered with that force’s vision for my creations. It might be hard to understand, but imagine all these forces as… the writers of your destiny, and that you are but a character that exists in the stories they wish to tell. You are molded from the moment of your inception into an image and role that they desire, to fulfill a purpose of their desire. They give you a reason for being, and as long as they find you worth including in their tales, they will continue to bring you back as many times as they deem necessary to fill in the space they have deemed you fit in.”

“So I exist… to amuse these forces?” Dainn reasoned aloud.

Understanding that this wasn’t Dainn’s intended second question, and not wishing to rob him of it for misspeaking, the alicorn answered it without penalty, as it was directly related to the original first inquiry.

“You amused some of them, that is for certain. For others though, you were just an outlet for their own sense of righteousness, or a scapegoat for their ideals. A person such as you allows an easy excuse for other characters, of both similar and opposing viewpoints, to exist as well. Of course, you are not the only person with such a fate either, as all within your reality are subjected to being the unwitting characters in a story of someone else’s crafting.”

“Then again, why am I so special that they chose me to bring back time and time again?” asked Dainn, reiterating his original question.

“That is where you are mistaken.” the alicorn answered, “You are not special. In fact, most of the people in your world are subject to the same process of reincarnation. Most are used more often than yourself, but you are such a prominent example of the views you represent that those who wish to champion or demonize these ideals use you as an example. You’re not even unique as a conqueror of Equestria, or as a person who wishes to make slaves of my creations. There have been many ‘Dainn’s, of many form and many names. Be they a zebra who wishes to fit all ponies into his shackles, or a centaur who wishes to lay waste to Equestria for vague reasons, there will always be some version of what you represent, even after you cease to be.”

“That seems… unfair,” said Dainn, “If I am to be compared to a character in a book, then the way I am was never of my choosing. I simply followed the path given to me by the hands of my fickle writers.”

“And yet you are who you are.” the alicorn responded, “And nothing can change that. Dainn is Dainn, just as Celestia is Celestia, and Luna is Luna. There might be variations on their beings, but in the end the core of the character can never be altered.”

There was something to what the god said that rang true to Dainn. Be it that he was guided or not, in his own mind he had never seen anything wrong with the way he acted till now. Whatever principles and concepts he represented, they were as much a part of him as the blood coursing through his veins. Thus his fate was as much his own design as it was those who wrote his story.

“Ok… I think I understand.” the caribou said, sinking ever slightly more into his despair.

“Then what of your second question?” asked the alicorn.

That was a tough thing to answer, as there was still so much that could be told. There was one thing on his mind though, a question that spoke measures about his role as king of the caribou, and his perceived responsibility to that title.

“What happened to my men? My people?”

“You wish to know what happened to them throughout all realities?” the alicorn ask hesitantly. Even for one such as her, that would be a bit of an undertaking.

“Not exactly,” Dainn said, already knowing that in most realities the caribou ended with his realization of supreme power, “I simply wish to know what happened to those I left behind.”

“Ah, you wish to know of the world that you were last killed in. That is something that I can easily explain.”

The mare made her horn glow, and retrieved her telescope from the void. Dainn watched as she made a few turns of the segmented sections, aligning the arcane runes on it in ways that only she understood, until the device emitted a cone-shaped light from the large end on it. The light landed on a patch of the darkness surrounding them, and projected before Dainn a moving image of several caribou.

With the group of caribou, Dainn quickly discerned three things. The first was that they were all stags, the second was that they were held naked within shackles that bound their wrists and ankles, with chains leading from one another to link together their respective appendages and limit their movements as a group. Lastly, he recognized a few familiar faces in the crowd, as the focus of the projection was placed on those at the front of the pack.

It was his council, the eight men that he kept closest to him during his rise to power and reign, each bearing their own set of bruises and magic induced burns. They were so proud and cock sure when under their king’s command, but now they stood with a lacking any of the sign of their former confidence. Instead they wore faces of terror, outrage, and resignation, with the one at the start of the line looking the most frightened of the lot.

Dainn knew this stag as Vestri, the man who had been his right hand man and primary tactician. In the projection though, he was a trembling mess, his antlers broken to jagged stumps, which disabled him from using magic of any kind. Thus handicapped, and with the shackles placed on him, Vestri was essentially helpless as a pair of pony guards removed him from the others, and escorted him forward.

As the projection followed his movements, Dainn soon saw what terrified him so, and understood immediately how one of his bravest men could be reduced to such a state as the device his people used to turn undeserving males into females came into view.

“After you were killed, your kingdom quickly crumbled. The spell you had placed over Equestria was brought to an end, and your men were for the most part captured and subdued.” explained the alicorn, “And understanding that caribou females were a drastically less threat than stags were, the ponies took what they believed was an appropriate and just measure to assure those who enslaved them could never do so again.”

Vestri tried to struggle, frantically so as he did everything in his power to stay away from the machine, but as more ponies came to help the others, the stag found himself being forced into the machine, and strapped into place. Never before had he seen Vestri plead and beg as he did when a pony, the one Dainn knew as Shining Armor, went over to the activation lever for the device. Tears freely flowing from his eyes as he tossed aside any dignity he had if it meant there was the slightest of possibilities that he could be spared this fate. There wasn’t though, and without even the smallest ounce of remorse, Shining Armor flipped the switch and started up the runic magics that powered the machine.

Runic symbols lit up all over the switching machine, flowing into Vestri, altering him as it had so many males before him. Dainn himself watched horrified as the man begun to shrink, his muscles keeping their firm definition, but becoming more slender and sleek. As that happened, several other parts of his body grew outwards, becoming fuller and more rounded, those being his hips, ass and chest as feminine features took shape. His face likewise formed a sleeker, more rounded shape, losing many of the rough, masculine edges that easily separated a male caribou from a female, while at the same time his dick and testicles retreated inside his body, leaving behind a newly formed slit, and a tiny nub to form a clitoris.

The entire process was exhausting, for both Vestri and Dainn, not made easier for either participant by the endless screaming Vestri made during the process. It left Vestri as a frail vision of his former self, his features so drastically changed that one would not recognize anything about him, save for the color patterns of his fur and his eyes. When the guards came to remove him from the device, they hardly had to loosen the straps that bound him due to the difference between his new form to his former one. Once removed though, they gave Vestri a moment to reflect on his new form, dragging him over to a mirror which was placed there by the caribou for that very purpose.

“I hope you’re happy with your new body, ‘Vestria’,” Shining Armor said to the newly created doe, “Cause you’re gonna live in it for the rest of your life.”

The sheer amount of terror plastered on the doe’s face was beyond measure, her narrow irises darting around to all the male ponies that had their own eyes locked on her. He, or rather ‘she’ now, knew that she had become completely helpless, and what happened to females when at the mercy of men. Those thoughts only became intensified as another caribou, a male wearing armor like that of the pony guards, came up from behind and wrapped a red collar around her slender neck.
Dainn knew this caribou well, as he was one he took great interest in. He was Gunne, a stag deemed cursed by his own people, all save for Dainn himself, and perhaps the ignorant females who didn’t know any better. What a surprise it was to Dainn to see him cooperating with the ponies, as his loyalty to the caribou ways always appeared to him to be one of Gunne’s highest priorities. Yet there he was, using his own magic to seal a leather collar around the throat of his commanding officer.

As the collar became bound to its new bearer, the effects of the runes etched on its inside took effect, suddenly stimulating the neck muscles of the doe trapped inside it with a rhythmic massage. It was an unintended side effect of using materials that the ponies had on hand after toppling the caribou empire, but it affected Vestri’s sensitive new form all the same. She could feel the sensations travel through her, arousing her feminine mind with fresh feelings unlike anything she had felt as a male. It was enough to excite her inexperienced mind and body, igniting a strong arousal that moistened her nethers, caused her nipples to stiffen, and elicited a low moan from the depths of her being.

Gunne looked at the fallen former stag with disgust, and with very little notice tossed her by her new collar to a group of pony guards. “Take the bitch.” he said callously, “Do with her what you will.”

Dainn had expected the stallions to act on the offer. To do what came natural and take advantage of the female on the spot. Instead, they simply reapplied her shackles, and then attached to a ring bolted to the wall as they went on to place the next caribou in line into the device.

“The ponies ended up changing the genders of a large majority of your race,” the alicorn spoke up, “With very few escaping that fate. After that, all who collaborated with your rule, both caribou and pony alike, were sent to Tartarus to serve out sentences given to them by a newly appointed pony committee, some left there to never see the light of day again.”

The mare gave the telescope a small flick, and the projection changed from the stags to a bunch of caribou cows, who were being cared for by mare and stallions who took pity upon them. They, unlike the males shown before them, were not bound or collared. They were even given concealing clothing, which was an odd sight for Dainn to see on the female deer.

“The ponies, however, had mercy upon your females, seeing them as just another set of victims created by your race’s misogynistic ideology. The committee decided it would be best to rehabilitate them and adapt them to a new life where they could join the ponies as equals. It was not an easy process, of course. After having been treated as property and slaves for so long, only having their sexual talents treated with any kind of appreciation, it was hard for the women of your race to go beyond that. Many never truly adapted either, but the ponies kept trying in the hopes that eventually their ways would take hold, even if it took generations.”

This information gave Dainn a lot to think about. Seeing what had become of his people after his passing, it became a little more understandable how someone like Eadgil could come to be, as if the ponies were reforming does, they would more than likely try to do the same with the less dangerous members of the male population too, especially if their intent was to make the species continue on under their own ideas of social structure. If he had learned of this before the trial, he would have been furious, but having been enlightened of his own misdoings, he couldn’t muster the effort to be angry. How could he be mad at the ponies for trying to change his people in the same way he tried to change theirs?

“I believe that answers your question on the fate of your people.” the alicorn stated, allowing the image of the somewhat confused, but otherwise content does to continue on uninterrupted. “Speak your final question, so we may bring an end to this.”

There were still so many things that Dainn could ask. A near bottomless pit of inquiries about his life, and about the universe itself, but one question ate at his soul more than any other. Of all the things he could want in his final moments, he would like some form of absolution for all he had done. Some purpose for his existence besides to spread suffering and ruin. There had to be some justification for it all, and it seemed like the crystal mare from before knew what that was. At least, she had heavily implied that she had the answers when it came to why his rule was actually a benefit to the worlds he inhabited. In all honesty, Dainn couldn’t figure out what it could be, but if there was an answer, he wanted to know.

“I would… like to know how the crystal mare would have defended my actions, had she not gone against me in the trial.” He said, acknowledging that once this was answered, his time would be at an end.

“That is an odd request.” the alicorn replied, “I had come to believe you thought the words of mares, and particularly that one, were nonsense.”

“Perhaps, but she seems to be the only one of that trio who believed I had any redeeming qualities. Even if it is nonsense, I would like to know what it was.”

The alicorn closed her eyes, and fell into a deep thought. Dainn didn’t know exactly what she was doing, but stayed quiet and still as she meditated, Several minutes passed in this shared silence, but his patience was inevitably rewarded when she opened her eyes and said. “The mare seemed to have a very inventive method of proving that you were something needed by the worlds you inhabited. I don’t know what could have gave her this point of view though, as such an understanding of the workings of the universe usually isn’t found among mortals.”

“If it’s enough to perplex an entity such as yourself, it must be a very persuasive argument.” Dainn replied, hoping it to be the case. Hoping that perhaps he could be told that his efforts were not all for nothing.

“I believe the strength of the argument is a relative notion, but not one without merit.” The alicorn went on to say, “What she proposed was that you were a catalyst for the evolution and advancement of the world on the whole.”

“I had always assumed something of that nature, but why do I feel that this isn’t going to be in the way I had thought…”

“It isn’t.” the alicorn stated bluntly, “As to her, you were a proponent of natural selection. She would have proposed that if not for your existence, then the creatures of Equestria, and the rest of the world, would never have had such a daunting foe to overcome. You and your kingdom were one of the most difficult things that ponykind has ever come up against, and by defeating your rule, they have become more prepared than ever to face off against any future plights that would come their way throughout history. The best weapons are forged in fire.”

“But what of the worlds that didn’t overcome the caribou?” Dainn asked, assuming a flaw in this logic, “They would be utterly annihilated. They wouldn’t gain new strength or knowledge to face further turmoil. They would all just cease to be.”

“And that is where the argument earns its relative nature. If an infinite amount of realities are formed, and half are destroyed, while the other half thrive, would you consider that a failure? Would you consider it a success? Would you consider it all meaningless? In the end, it is up to the observer to decide, but in this example we are saying that those who profited from this coin flip could only do so at the expense of those who suffered. Even ones like Eadgil and Celestia couldn’t truly argue that they didn’t gain something from this, as their very existence in the forms present in the courtroom could only be if you existed as well.”

“I have to say… that is a fairly flimsy argument…” Dainn said disappointed, as it didn’t change the fact that he was still pictured as the villain of this tale. Of course, that is what Schorl wanted to portray from the very start, so why did he assume otherwise?

“And yet it is the truth,” the alicorn said, twisting the segments of her telescope once more. When she stopped, a new projection appeared. One of ponies, working together and rebuilding their world, “Despite all the mistakes you have made, and the horrors you created, the threat you represented inspired unity within the ponies unlike any before.”

The images swirled and reformed, showing several stallions helping groups of troubled looking mares, providing them with food, shelter, and an ear to listen to their tragic experiences. “You awakened a sense of compassion in them that had been lacking in the time before your arrival”

The image shifted again, and this time landed on three young fillies with their hands joined together, wearing collars, but smiles with hope as they called out “Cutiemark Crusaders Freedom Fighters!”

“You forced even the youngest to have the courage to fight against your ways, and give their part in toppling your regime.”

Another shift, and this time the image fell upon a group of pegasi, each wearing blue uniforms with lightning bolt designs upon them, with both male and female flying side by side in formation.

“You sparked within them a determination to face any obstacle, no matter how great, or how much of a perceived handicap they have.”

Switching again, the image finally transformed into a scene of six mares Dainn recognize. The six Elements of Harmony, all restored to the forms they had before the Fall had started. Every horn repaired and every feather regrown, as they joined together to hug the yellow one in a tearful embrace.

“And you gave them the opportunity to grant forgiveness for the sins they had committed under your rule, even to themselves.”

The image zoomed out, until the entirety of Equestria was in view.

“In a sense, the misery and despair you spread had laid way for Equestria to experience more joy and hope than it ever could have without you, and just like the power of love and friendship, ‘Hope’ is it’s own form of magic.”

Dainn flinched at what he saw, identifying a form of peace and harmony that his kingdom could never have had. It was both sickening and disturbing, the feeling of knowing that this was what he had kept from being. What his existence would have prevented had he continued unopposed. He had been a fool, and now more than ever, he felt that his immediate dissolution was well deserved.

“Of course, Equestria will always have another enemy to face.” said the alicorn, the projection revealing several menacing figures, some ponies, some not, and some races he had never even encountered. “But you have done much to expose those hiding behind a facade, those who only wished to manipulate and control others for personal gain.” With those words, the image of Vestri’s personal slave mare appeared, showing her being dragged away in chains, along with several other stallions and mares who had betrayed their princess and kingdom for the caribou’s favor.

“That, Dainn, is the legacy you will leave behind with your death. Not one of tyranny, enslavement and rape, but one where no one will have to suffer from those concepts ever again.”

With that declaration, the images stopped, and the light from the projection retreated back inside the telescope. To Dainn, that acted as the signal for what this had all been leading up to. There was no more to show. No more answers to give. It was time. What other note could he go off on?

Without so much of another word from either the caribou, or the godly alicorn, the process began. The horn atop the mare’s head covered in a glow unlike any before. One of a deep darkness, a black void that was thicker than the one that formed the world around Dainn. He could tell from the mere sight of it that it was oblivion. That as soon as God did what it would with that spell, he would be no more. He was afraid, as how wouldn’t he be when faced with his complete and utter end. He closed his eyes, but that did nothing to prevent him from seeing that shadowy mass. So instead he decided to look away, finding the act to be neither cowardly or courageous, simply a coping mechanism.

However, when he did, he saw something. Something that he had never seen before in his stay in the void. Off in the distance, there was a speck of light. Then he noticed that there wasn’t just one, but many. All around him, twinkling at a distance that he could never conceive to reach, were clusters of stars. Seeing them, he couldn’t help but turn his body to look at them all, and in his last seconds come to the understanding of what they were.

It was the universe, in all of its glory. A countless number of worlds and realities that would never again be subjected to the corruption that he represented. Perhaps they would undergo their own trials. Perhaps they would fail to overcome them. Perhaps they were, like the reality he originally came from, doomed to destruction from their conception. If such a reality existed though, then surely there was another where the opposite was true as well, and maybe that was all a person could ever hope for. That no matter what wrongs came to be, there would be some place in the universe where the right things would happen instead. Nonetheless, now seeing these stars, the caribou king had to agree with what God had to say about them before the trial. That they were all beautiful.

With that final though, Dainn heard the sound of some devastating force from behind him, and then-