In another world, a pair of young men sit in the office of their commanding officer-no, the commanding officer.

One of the men wears a long red trenchcoat, emblazoned with the symbol of Flamel on the back, and wears his blonde hair in a long ponytail. The other wears a full set of heavy armor, and is noticeably taller.

The officer they are reporting to wears the blue greatcoat of a military officer, which has the insignia of the highest authority in the country of Amestris: the Führer, ruler of the land and commander-in-chief of Amestris's military. In particular, he commands the State Alchemists.

The nameplate on his desk reads "Roy Mustang".

"So this one researcher discovered another world?" said the short blonde one.

"Not a world, Fullmetal-a universe. It's completely separate from ours, which means that we, the country of Amestris, and our entire planet, simply never existed in this alternate universe."

"Like the world beyond the Gate, but without any connection to ours?" said the one in the armor. His voice was noticeably younger.

"That's what I got from it," said Mustang. "Our researchers in lab 5-"

The short one-Fullmetal-cringed.

"-have figured out how to send you there."

Both the tiny one and the armored one sit straight up.

"Not only that, but your alchemy will definitely work there, and you'll have an easy way back. So I'm sending you into this new world..."

Mustang struck a dramatic pose, standing on his desk and pointing towards a new frontier...

"...to find out what lies beyond!"

"You could cut down on the dramatics," Fullmetal commented.


After Freeman had been suitably restrained-Twilight was, for once, thankful for Rarity's insistence on bringing a sewing kit and plenty of cloth everywhere-they had questioned him.

These strange two-legged things were called humans-or, at least, Gordon was a human. The soldiers who had attacked them at the party were a combination of humans and another kind of creature-Gordon referred to these soldiers as the Combine.

Apparently, the Combine had already taken over Gordon's world, and he was on his way to fight their leader on his world, a human known as Dr. Breen. As Gordon was sneaking into the Combine's main fortress on his world-he called it "Earth"-he was forced to hide inside of a troop transport, pinned in his hiding place by the soldiers preparing to leave.

As luck would have it, Gordon was on one of the transports bound for Equestria, which was carrying the very platoon which had attacked Pinkie's party! He managed to escape into the woods, and found the pony encampment by sheer luck.

After this was explained, one of the other ponies-was that the owner of the quills and sofas store?-asked how the strange metal thing worked.

"This is called a gun," Gordon explained, gesturing to the small metal thing. "They come in a variety of shapes and sizes, but their main function is the same: throwing a small chunk of metal called a bullet at high speed. Some guns fire more bullets, some fire larger bullets, but they are all highly dangerous weapons."

The quill-and-sofa store owner-Davenport, that was his name-smiled. "I bet if we learned how to use those things, we'd have a better chance of stopping this Combine you've been talking about."

"How in the hay do you treat the wound, though?" Dr. Stable had joined the small herd surrounding Mr. Freeman, shoving his way to the front. "There's at least two dozen ponies who're badly hurt, and-Celestia help me-I just don't know how to treat them!"

Rarity released the human, and he walked away, earnestly explaining the intricacies of internal bleeding and organ damage to Dr. Stable.

While Gordon busied himself assisting Stable and Fluttershy, Twilight began whispering in Applejack's ear:

"Do you think we can trust him?"

"Well, he's one of them hoomans, but..." Applejack sighed. "Ah think we should let him help. I figger he's not trying to hurt us, and he already has a bone to pick with them Combine fellas. 'Sides, I could probably take 'im out with one kick, if worse gets ta worst."

"I hope you're right, Applejack." Twilight shook her head, as if to shake off a doubt. "I know you're right! You're the Element of Honesty, for Luna's sake, why would you be wrong?"