Cry stared up at the dull white ceiling, which looked more like a dim, flickering yellow because of the candles and small lamps spread like flaming margarine throughout the room. The corners of his mask added to his confusion and frustration every time he noticed it at the corners of his eyes. He put a hand across it and rolled across the scruffy pile of blankets onto his back.

   The little unicorn was relatively silent, trying to recount everything that had happened to their society over the last day. "It didn't take them long at all," she said quietly. "They tore our cities to the ground in minutes. Most ponies got away - it didn't really seem like they were looking to kill."

   Cry sat up slowly. "... Why... why am I here, Twilight?"

   "Apparently, you're one of seven beings that our ruler, Celestia, can -"

   "No, I know," he interrupted with a wave of his hand. "Celestia, summoning stuff. But... why is it me?"

   There was a second or two of silence as the grandfather clock in the corner ticked away. "I'm not sure."

   Suddenly, a thought popped into his head. He looked up from his hands. "If I help you all out, can I go home?"

   Twilight looked a bit surprised. "Well, yes, of course. We don't want to hamper you longer than we are already." She paused. "You don't have to like us. You don't have to even accept that we exist. What we need you for - what we really need you for - is to help us out somehow. We don't know what we're doing with these mechanical things, and... you must have been chosen for a reason."

   Cry looked back down at his hands, and noticed with dull surprise that they were shaking a bit. He was probably in some kind of light shock still, but he'd gotten over it before and he could do it again. "I'll help you."

   Twilight stood quickly, smiling for the first time since they'd met. "You - you will?"

   He thought back, and didn't entirely remember saying he would. "Uh... yeah." He wasn't aware he was saying that, either.

   She ran towards him and hugged his waist as he stood. "I can't believe this. You have no idea how much you're helping us," she said, in an odd mixture between excited and very excited. "I can't thank you enough."

   "Yeah, yeah. I'm doing my - my duty, I guess," he replied, patting her head. "Uh... you don't have to keep hugging -"

   "Oh! Uh, sorry," she said, falling back to her hooves. She was really only a foot and a half or two feet smaller than him, and those eyes had grown on him over the half-hour they'd been talking. "We'll get anything you need. Name it and it's yours."

   "Are we going straight into war?" he asked, stretching for a moment and power walking over to the door.

   "Well... it's your decision," she replied unsurely, trotting alongside him down the hall.

   His mind was racing. But this was an act of charity - forced, but still charity. He had to go through what he knew about war, which, despite his self-defense training, wasn't very much. Rules. Get as few people - ponies - killed as possible. Confront the things peacefully. Then stealth in and sabotage if that doesn't work. "What's the biggest room in this place?"

   "Well, it is a bunker, so the main supply room."

   "Clear it out. I need a word with everyone."

   She sighed a little huffy embarrassed sigh. "Well, we haven't let everypony know that, you know, you exist yet. But, uh, I have a small group that you should probably meet."

   The place smelled like dirt. That was rather expected - the first time he heard they were in a hillside bunker and were surrounded by dirt, he smelled dirt. But it had become more unpleasant as his nerve grew. He was still in his pajamas - old boxers and an exhausted undershirt. He sighed, and stared out the small doorway to the hallway.

   He leaned back, and blew a raspberry for no reason. This is waaay too weird, he thought, and tried one last time to take his mask off. It's not gonna work, you friggin' moron. You tried this already.

   He jumped as Twilight trotted into the room and whispered, "They should be getting here soon. Get ready."

   "Oh, dear God," he said, more to himself than to Twilight. "Grown man in his underwear, wearing a creepy mask, and about to try to talk to..." he trailed off, putting a hand over his mask.

   "Sorry about that. But they don't know those are your pajamas. They could just be normal clothes to them," she whispered again. "Don't worry. You're going to do fine."

   Why am I taking a pep talk from a pony? We're going to war later. That's a more important subject for a goddamn pep talk. He shook his head, the bottom of the mask briefly catching the collar of his shirt. "Alright. Let's go," he muttered, and as if on cue, he saw a flash of blue, then of yellow, red, orange, green, violet -

   He, fully prepared to reach out a hand (which, in retrospect, would have been awkward anyways), simply felt himself recede into his seat as another pony, kind of like Twilight, came nervously into the room, her head turned away. He watched her nod before turning her head towards him - both of them gasped simultaneously.

   The rainbow-haired one flinched, Cry following in suit as her wings extended. Wings. Jesus. She regained her posture quickly, flapping her wings by her side and shaking her head. God, it's, like, two feet from me. Wings.

   She cleared her throat. "It's all good, everypony," she called behind her to the doorway in a crisp female voice. She kinda sounds like a jock I know if he were a chick, Cry thought to himself, forcing his muscles to relax.

   One by one, other ponies, all of different colours and varieties, walked slowly into the small room. There was an orange one, nothing on it, and a pink one, nothing on it either - then there was a bright white one with what looked like makeup who sat near the back with a bright yellow one that had wings. It's like Disney when they first invented technicolor.

   It didn't stay uncomfortably quiet for too long. All attention fell on Twilight, nearly crushing her, as she began to speak. "Uh, Cry? This is Applejack -" she pointed - "Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rarity."

   He nodded, the weight of his head taking its toll on him. "Aagh. Yeah. Got it. Are you all... girls? Females?"

   "Yeah! Hey, you're funny-looking! I like it!" the pink one chirruped, smiling broadly. He heard a brief giggle from Twilight behind him before bursting into laughter.

   After a second or two, it began to hurt his tired, recently-magically-transported sides, but he couldn't stop. It was probably nervous. At least he broke the ice. He put a hand on his chest and began to settle down, followed by the two or three others who had followed his lead. "... You're good," he added as he let out a final sigh. "So, um, Applejack, Rainbow... Dash, Pinkie Pie, R-Rarity, and Fluttershy." He paused again. "Is she..."

   "We try not to say anything," Rainbow Dash spoke up. Her voice had that quality that, no matter where it was, it carried throughout the entire room. "But, uh... she kept animals, and during the, um..." she trailed off as Fluttershy whimpered from the back.

   Cry sighed, and looked down at his folded hands. He felt that one really base feeling that he always got from catching Azumanga Daioh on late-night FiOS. When something with eyes that big looks sad, you just want to embrace it. He briefly seriously considered it, reasoning If I'm in a fever dream, nothing I do has consequence, but decided to play it safe and remain quiet. "I'm... uh, I'm truly sorry for your, um, your loss," he said, dissolving into mumbles.

   "Anyways," Twilight began again, "we were the Elements of Harmony before it happened, and even though we aren't sure where the elements are, we do know that we're a good team. We'll follow your lead," she finished weakly.

   "Yup! Let's go kick some robot flank!" Pinkie interjected, raising a hoof into the air in an unnatural position.

   Cry reeled back again. "How many joints y'all have in there?" he asked, getting a laugh from Pinkie and a chuckle from Dash. He smiled and sighed. "Alright, well, we're together now, and..." he trailed off, losing his words in the bottomless pit of nerve and confusion sitting pretty in the middle of his thought receptors.

   For a brief second, stared at the small audience. With a final cough to clear his throat, he launched into a terribly unprepared speech.

   "Uh... hi. I'm R- Cry, and I'm apparently from some other planet." He paused. "I'm supposed to help you fight something the invaded recently, and although I'm not totally sure how to, I know we'll be able to get it done together. The - really, the only reason I would be 'chosen' is 'cause I have hands and - well, maybe 'cause I'm twice as tall as... all of you." He chuckled, but felt himself slipping. His voice bounced around the little supply room to no reception.

   An idea hit him. He closed his eyes, feeling his eyelashes bush up against his mask briefly, and put himself where he was supposed to be - alone, in the dark, in the OCD-bitchsmack he called his room, with the old microphone that kinda smelled like blue Doritos and cranberry-pomegranate juice. "I know I don't look like much," he began again, his voice dropping to a beautiful pseudo-bass. "But I have been called here by some power we don't understand to help you all.

   "I'm on a different world. I'm somewhere I never even imagined I'd be, mainly because I didn't know it existed. I'm here now, and I've been developing a plan. You've lost homes and loved ones, and I have to find out why. Even though - even though I didn't ask to be your saviour, I'll do my absolute best." He paused as a collective shout of approval came from his audience. Standing ovation, he thought, and grabbed his side. You know it's bad when your own pun hurts you.

   He smiled, almost exactly like his mask - proud, but just barely noticeable. He waved a hand and tried to calm them down. "I - I didn't say I knew exactly what to do yet," he interrupted them. The cheers drowned out slowly, with a final clap-stomp-thing from Pinkie. "I need help from peop- ponies who know the land and know what they're doing with - uh - you know what I mean. I'm just one man; I'm not some kind of god. Do I have any, uh, volunteers?"

   "Ah'm willin'," Applejack said, stepping forwards and taking off the beaten (hopefully-not-leather) Stetson that, until then, had sat very comfortably on her bright blonde mane. Cry had to keep himself from snickering at her country accent - it was so out-of-place in a world full of sentient ponies... Come to think of it, why can they speak English?

   "Hey, Twi-"

   "I volunteer, too," Dash interrupted, nodding and stepping forward.

   "That's great, Rainbow. I knew we were going to need your wings." Twilight paused. "But I kinda figured you were going to volunteer anyways, but still, it's the follow-through that -"

   "Twilight?" Cry interrupted. "How do all the ponies here speak English?"

   Twilight looked over. "Wh - oh, your language? We don't. It's part of the spell."

   Cry cocked his head subconsciously, before correcting it, remembering his doctor told him he wasn't supposed to 'cause he could get a hunchback or something. "Oh, and why do all the ponies have things on their a - f - reeear ends?"

   "Uh -"

   "You don't have one yet?" Pinkie jumped in. Literally, she bounced in-between Twilight and him, her jaw open like he'd committed a mortal sin. "That means after we beat up all the robot things, we have something else to do!"

   Cry looked into her bright, cheerful face and noticed with a sour taste in his mouth that she hadn't slept last night. And her cheeks were matted. Every rose...

   "It's a cutie mark," Twilight said, the nerdy flare she had when she was describing the races returning. "See, every pony -"

   "T-tell me later, Twilight," Cry interrupted. "I... I know what I have to do now. It's pretty clear to me now."

   "R-really?" came a painfully hopeful voice from the back. The yellow one. Cry felt himself lose his words for a moment.

   "Yeah. Yes, I do. I have a really, really rudimentary plan that probably isn't going to work in the slightest. But... we have to try."