A cold shiver raised the fur on the back of Twilight's neck. She slowly turned to face the mirror, noticing a flash of movement out of the corner of her eye.
Twilight blinked and turned away from the mirror. Squinting ahead, she saw nothing but darkness.
A whistling noise split the silence. Something sharp pierced her neck. The void swallowed her up.
A voice, somewhere between a song and a whisper: "…to actualize the dream…to finally see the human race living in harmony."
Twilight groaned, blinking away the haze that clouded her vision. Ignoring the throbbing pain in her head, she looked around. She could not see what was ahead of her.
"Good, you're awake," a dispassionate voice said from somewhere to her left.
She whipped around, her headache screaming in protest. Still, Twilight saw nothing. Coughing to clear her dry throat, she asked, "Who are you?"
"My identity is irrelevant."
Twilight waved her horn to cast a simple light spell. Nothing happened. Panic seized her. She reached up to the end of her horn. Some hard, metal thing blocked the end. "What did you do to my horn?!" Twilight yelled. She could not even feel it. Her heartbeat thundered in her ears.
"Ignore that necessary precaution. I will take it off and return you to your friends soon enough, but for now, please listen. I need your help."
Twilight glared at the unknown. "You really think I'll help you after you kidnapped me?"
A wave of nausea crashed over Twilight, sending a pulse of warmth flowing down from her horn, down her neck, and through her body. "What are you…" she trailed off, dizzy, but increasingly calm. The muscles in her limbs relaxed, sending her to the ground in an undignified flop. The ringing intensified into an unbearable whine, but after a moment, it faded to a whisper. Although her mind felt wrapped in cotton, she remained awake, and the voice resumed.
"My species has knowledge and technology beyond your wildest dreams. Our medicine doubled our expected lifespans and eliminated diseases that wiped out millions of our ancestors. We can circle our planet in hours using machines that travel faster than sound. We have walked on our planet's moon using a similar machine. We communicate instantaneously across the world with our universally accessible, inconceivably massive storehouse of information. We have mapped the relationship between time, space, and the fundamental forces of the universe. We now study it on the smallest possible scale where conceivability breaks down."
A thousand questions exploded in Twilight's head, but the voice continued without pause.
"However, we slaughter and violate each other constantly, justified by dogmatic tribal loyalties. Xenophobia, oversimplied overconfidence, and selfish narcissism hold the reins of power. None of us can care about more than a couple hundred of our fellows – a figure eight orders of magnitude smaller than our population. Our history is filled with sexism, racism, ignorance, extreme poverty, and oligarchy. Only recently have we begun to beat some of them back, and yet they live on as inevitable tendencies hiding behind traditional values that will not die. Hardwired demons cannot be exorcised.
"Your species lack the knowledge and technological capabilities of mine, but we could never attain your moral capabilities. Something about the interplay between your culture, history, biology, and magic has allowed you to construct a society united by unshakeable principles of harmony. I must discover what."
"Thanks, I think, but I wouldn't say—" Twilight tried to interject, but the voice ignored her and plowed on.
"Your rulers, perhaps? Your oldest Princess seems incorruptible. Your beautiful culture emerged under her leadership. Yet that only raises the question – what perfected her? Not mere experience, nor magical or political power alone. The formerly mad tyrant Discord had more of all three. It cannot only be those traits manifested in a pony, nor be caused by genetics or shared environment, since her younger sister descended into genocidal madness and needed rescue.
"Magic in general lacks the agency to play a causal role, as it is used for the purposes of magicians – and it is not limited to good purposes, since evil magics are a constant threat. It is analogous to technology. The Elements of Harmony form the one significant exception, hinting at the mysterious factor which allowed you ponies to rise above the foolish squabbles of human politics and our sociocultural...mess."
"The Elements of Harmony are great, but they don't—" Again the voice ignored her.
"There must exist a final cause, some universal essence of Harmony that guides your species…but not mine. My species needs its guidance, but we will not accept it willingly." The voice finally paused for a moment, and then sighed. "I cannot, unfortunately, ask you to conquer my species in a direct conflict. Your Harmony would not allow it, and unless Harmony interfered beyond my wildest dreams you would be slaughtered…"
Twilight's face contorted.
"…on the other hand, if I allow the unguided integration of our cultures, we would drag you down before you have the chance to lift us up. The invisible hand of the free market of ideas is blind to the moral valence of ideas and selects only for fecundity. Many human ideas with high fecundity are cancers that must not infect your species. Similarly, each technology is intended for a specific use, and many of the intended uses of human technology are harmful. While human technology intended for harm can be used for benefit, it must usually first be fixed. Our societies must undergo guided evolution, such that only those human ideas and technologies deemed acceptable by Harmony may survive."
"What do you mean by guided?" Twilight asked, confused and increasingly uncomfortable.
"Your Harmony must dominate and subordinate the collective will of humanity, a feat only possible if contrived. Three possibilities exist when the two collide: Harmony will dominate and subordinate the human will through their contact, the inverse, or neither. If the first, whatever I do from this point forward will be re-purposed towards the Harmonic telos. Nothing in its grand plan – to prosper us and not to harm us, to give us hope and a future – could possibly be wrong. If the second, I must annihilate the collective will of humanity in a pre-emptive strike to prevent the domination and subordination of Harmony. If the third, I must force the domination and subordination of the human will under Harmony. In any such case I am justified to topple my society and hand their remains to you on a silver platter."
After a long pause trying to process the man's speech, Twilight spoke up. "You're insane."
"I would rather be the monster who uplifted humanity than the man who let it rot. Show me the flaw in my reasoning and I will immediately cease. Until then, I eagerly await the martyrdom of my reputation and character for the preservation and advancement of Harmony."
A burst of white light flooded the room. Twilight winced and automatically shut her eyes, watching blobs of light swim across her vision. When she cracked them open a moment later, a wooden frame set on a dull stone wall greeted her. The fuzzy gray haze within settled into clear and distinct white letters on a black background, spelling out four lines:
"Do whatever must be done
to actualize the dream
to finally see the human race
living in harmony."
"What is…" she started to ask, before the wave of warmth poured through her again and the void returned.