The First Debate
The day was calm. Twilight was studying, as usual when she didn't have anything to do. There was a picnic planned later today with her friends, but she still had plenty of time before then. There also hadn't been any monsters or friendship problems in the past week, which was a little odd, but she was thankful nonetheless. A break like this didn't come often. Not that she didn't enjoy fighting monsters and teaching friendship lessons, but a little time to one's self never hurt anypony.
Spike was asleep, he'd been busy this past week, what with helping her organize her book collection, and help clean the castle, he was the best number one assistant that an alicorn could ask for. He deserved a good rest for all the help he had been. The thought of him snoozing put a smile on her lips.
Today she was reading up on Starswirl's Theory on the Somewhere Door, a theoretical magical door that, theoretically, could lead to the heart of all magic in the universe. Starswirl, while brilliantly detailed, was quite the skeptic. Though, Twilight found herself agreeing quite frankly on the points he made.
Suddenly there was a knock on her door. Considering Spike was asleep and the only other pony in castle besides her was Starlight, she assumed it was her. "Yes Starlight? What is it?" she asked.
"Oh, I just thought i'd knock. People complain when I don't," said a voice that was clearly not Starlight's as the door opened revealing....a human. A few memories flashed back to the time she went through the mirror to chase after Sunset Shimmer. He definitely looked human, though he did look a bit off. For one, he wore no shirt, revealing a well toned and muscular body. He had short, dirty blonde hair with piercing blue eyes, and wore rather formal looking leather slacks and work boots. He also wore a belt that held several small pockets and bags of unknown miscellaneous things. He was much taller than most of the humans she had met back in Canterlot High, probably about the same height as Principal Celestia had been. She wasn't that great at judging human ages, but if she had to guess he was probably around his late twenties, maybe early thirties.
"What? Who are you? How did you get here? Are you lost? Do you need--" she began to ask, baffled by the sudden appearance of a human in her castle. However, he silenced her, as suddenly his hand was firmly on her muzzle, clamping it shut. She had not seen him take any steps toward her, he had simply appeared there and was not where he was previously. "Calm yourself. Had I meant you harm or ill, you and everyone you have ever known and loved would have already have been dead, and you wouldn't even have known it was me."
Her eyes widened in fear as she saw the cold look in his eyes. She tried to pull away to speak, and started channeling magic for a spell, but he held her there firmly. "Ah ah aah. Calm yourself. I've only come to talk. You are the one they call 'Twilight Sparkle', yes? Nod for yes, shake for no," he said in a calm and diplomatic tone. Twilight hesitated, she could tell he was dangerous, and possibly quite powerful, but she could tell he wasn't here to cause her harm. He seemed genuine in wanting to talk. She nodded.
He let go of her muzzle. "Good. Smart of you not to lie. Means we can have an honest conversation," he said with a chuckle.
"Who are you? What do you want?" Twilight asked, cautiously watching the stranger.
"Wait a moment, not here," he said putting a hand on her shoulder.
"Wait, wha--" she began to protest before she stopped. They were no longer in her castle. Instead, they were floating above a sea. But the sea had no water, instead rivers and waves of images and scenes some of which she recognized, most of which she did not.
"This is the Sea of Time, my dear. It's different each world you go to and can change depending on who sees it. Sometimes its river, sometimes its a rug, and sometimes it's a roulette wheel. It's also called many different things depending where you go, but the proper name for it is the Nexus," the stranger explained.
"What? Sea of Time? The Nexus? What are...? No, wait, who are you?" Twilight asked, straitening her priorities. She shook her head in attempt to clear some of the confusion going on in her mind, sadly, it only helped a little.
"You may call me D-Jinn," said the stranger in a casual tone.
"D-Jinn? What kind of weird, nonsensical name is that?" Twilight asked.
"That's a story from a world you need not worry yourself about. And before you ask, no, it is not my real name. But that is neither here nor there. It is the name I choose to use, and the name by which you will refer to me by."
Twilight frowned, she decided not to chase the topic further, as "D-Jinn" or whoever he was, did not seem to want to disclose any further on the topic. She would have to play this carefully. She did not know what this "D-Jinn" character was capable of... "Well....you said you wanted....to talk?"
D-Jinn smiled, "Indeed. To debate, really. Needed a Yin to my Yang, as it were. A test of ideologies. And no, you don't have a choice in the matter."
Twilight took a hesitant step back, "A debate? What do you mean? Test of ideologies? Ideologies of what?"
"You will see," D-Jinn said with an emotionless face. Twilight didn't have time to ponder what he meant before suddenly being yanked across the Nexus as the world began to spin around them. Suddenly, they were floating in the air. There was a city below them. At first she was confused, until she saw Canterlot Castle beneath them. The city also looked....less developed, medieval, even.
"Where are we?" Twilight asked.
"Not where, but when," D-Jinn answered.
"Okay, When are w--" she stopped dead in mid sentence. She had noticed the sky. Both the sun and moon stood above, nearing an eclipse. Stormclouds began forming overhead as she noticed two very familiar alicorns staring each other down, clearly in the middle of an argument. "This is....when Princess Luna and Celestia fought back when Luna first turned into Nightmare Moon!"
"Indeed. And before you do anything brash, I'll warn you that noone can see nor hear us. We are merely observers at this moment," D-Jinn explained.
"I don't understand, why have you brought me here? What is it that you want of me?" Twilight asked, both in genuine curiosity and in suspicion. D-Jinn's face remained emotionless. "Nothing. Just to talk."
"But why here? Why show me this moment?" she was starting to get irritated by his cryptic behavior.
"Because I am going to change it. I'm going to end Nightmare Moon, right here and now," D-Jinn said nonchalantly, as if it were obvious.
"What? No! You can't!" Twilight protested.
"Of course I can. I could kill her right here and now."
"NO! You can't!! That'll change history---everything! This is wrong!"
D-Jinn merely frowned, "You are right, perhaps killing her is a little extreme. Then we will just make it so that she never turned into Nightmare Moon in the first place. We shall talk with her and prevent the final straw that pushed her over the edge from ever happening."
"Wait, what? No, you can't do that! This is history, it's not meant to change, the damages could be catastrophic!"
"Why shouldn't I? Do you not see the good it will do? Celestia will never lose her sister. Luna will never be banished for a thousand years, exiled and alone on the moon, suffocating with her own darkness. The world will be happier, will it not? Celestia and Luna will be spared a millennia of agony. Is that not a good deed? Is that not a penultimate act of Friendship? To give someone you cherish and care about reprieve from the pains of their past? You could stop it all, right here, right now. Righting a wrong in the universe. Give them both the happiness they deserve."
"I-I-I...." Twilight hesistated, "...but you just said you were going to kill her! How can i trust--"
"And you changed my mind. I am not unreasonable. Now I am offering you a better alternative. A less extreme path. Would you rather i switch back to my original plan?" he interjected.
"No!! I....ugh, it's just.....this is wrong!" Twilight protested with a stomp of her hoof.
"How so? Do you not owe Celestia your life, for all the advice, care, and deeds she has done for you?" D-Jinn asked, crossing his arms.
"Well, yes, but--"
"Then do you not owe her this? This happiness? This good deed? This act of love and friendship?"
"Yes, but this....this feels wrong."
"Why? Do you believe that this will somehow end badly for her? For them? Don't be silly. We aren't taking something away from them, we are giving them a gift. One that can only improve the world. How many disasters will be prevented because of Luna's freedom? Hmm? Are you going to try and say that keeping her locked up in the moon for a thousand years will be better for her? For Celestia? For the people of Equestria?"
"N-No! I...I..." Twilight tried to protest, but his words struck true. Even though this would change history, she couldn't imagine how it would go badly, no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't see it. And a part of her hated herself for it, but finally, she gave a defeated sigh. "...You're right...it would be better...it's just......it feels wrong, I just don't know why yet..."
"How can such an act of Friendship be wrong? Are you not the Princess of Friendship? Do you not love and care for your friends?" D-Jinn asked.
"I do! I love each and every one of them, and i owe them everything....And I want them all to be happy..." Twilight said, drooping her ears as she looked at her hooves.
D-Jinn put a hand upon her shoulder. "Then is it truly wrong to bring them that happiness? To show them just how much their friendship means to you?"
"No....You are right..." Twilight sighed, defeated. "I want them to be happy, they deserve it..."
"Then I will let you speak to young Luna, before she gives into her inner darkness."
Twilight watched as another version of herself walked out from her and entered the timeline. She watched as the other her talked to Luna. It was a long talk, but as they finished, she could see Luna smiling. She had made sure that she did not reveal who she was, or where she came from to Luna, all to avoid complications. She was just a stranger that had came to talk to her. Luna would believe it was all but a dream. When it was all done,Twilight could remember every word spoken, every emotion and memory shared in that talk. A duality of memories, both of watching it all, and of actually being there.
"What was that? Why did I see another me?" Twilight asked.
"It's not really another or alternate you. It is just you. It's just the you that stepped into the time stream. It's not a different you, or a branching path. You see, being in the Nexus, as long as we are here, Time is irrelevant to us. You have already done this, but you also stayed here to watch. It's not multiple you's, it's simply you doing multiple things at simultaneous times."
"That doesn't make any sense!" Twilight said with frown, though her instincts told her he was right.
He smirked, "Yeah, Time is like that sometimes. It's concepts are strange to those who have not seen it like I have."
Twilight frowned, then suddenly a sharp pain pulsed in her chest, and she felt herself weaken considerably. The pain continued to amplify. "W-What is...? What's happening?" she managed to say, though each word was a struggle.
Her body began blinking in and out, and D-Jinn only smirked. "A thousand years is a long time for things to change. All the changes were small, of course, but a thousand years of uncountable small changes leads to a drastically different future."
He then frowned, "With Luna never becoming Nightmare Moon, Celestia had no reason to send you to Ponyville, and you never met your friends. But it's more than that. You never became her prize pupil or personal student. And you were never tested to hatch Spike's egg. By some miracle, you're parents still met, but you are now an only child."
"W-What? Y-You tricked me!" Twilight tried to lift herself up, but found it increasingly hard to do so. She felt like she was losing herself. And to her own horror, it was because she was. She could barely feel her wings, and everything felt both numb and painful at the same time, a paradox her brain couldn't quite comprehend.
"It was test. You failed. Simple as that, really. But don't worry, you won't remember a thing. This version of you will be erased, never to be again. So you won't have to suffer for long. But I'll make sure to have a nice conversation with the other you. And your friends," he replied with a wicked grin.
"No! NOOO! NOOOOOO---
Twilight blinked as she looked at the strange being before her. "Who are you? Where am I? What's going on?"
The being gave a small smirk, looking down at the young lavender unicorn. "You may call me D-Jinn, and this is the Nexus. I've come to talk, both with you and a few other ponies..."