The place we know as Equestria is a world of friendship and magic.

It is also one of many.

Most of these worlds are destined never to meet.

Discord, of course, cares little for destiny.

A mare named Shale Hearth must deal with being hurled deep into a world that is not her own, a place vastly different from her home in Epona, a place steeped in strange magic.

Twilight Sparkle and the other Elements of Harmony must deal with the consequences of a portal the Spirit of Chaos made between the Everfree Forest and a world where thought, fire and steel are the highest powers of pony ken, a world with no concept of magic.

This is a story of discovery.

This is a story of Discord's Gate.

A crossover of sorts with the Hell's Gate series by David Weber. At least, it started that way.

Having read the series is not necessary to enjoy this one, but it will help you appreciate all the puns I snuck in. By now the universe Equestria gets chaos-welded to is more an "In spirit" interpretation of Sharona than anything that could be construed as a proper crossover.

Rated T for not being something I'd read out loud to my six-year-old sister.

So, you may or may not know of the previous iteration of this fic, Discord's Gate. I committed several grave errors in the pacing of that version, and as such I am rewriting it here. It's effectively a different story anyway, as events are moving much slower here, and the outcome is not nearly as certain…

Image credit to this person, who is really awesome and also has a tumblr

Do note that I own neither My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, nor the Hell's Gate series. Said properties belong to Hasbro and David Weber through Baen Books, respectively. Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, and this is a most sincere flattery of them both with no compensation towards myself involved beyond the writing experience and fuzzy-wuzzys I'm gaining from posting it here.

In short, this is a fan-fiction work, a parody or whatever-label-is-necessary-to-keep-my-sorry-jacksey-from-getting-sued.