Author's Note
Hi Guys! I have another story for you all! This one's been bouncing around in my head for a while now. I just now put it on paper because I thought about it a lot earlier this morning and was like, "why not?" I know this won't make up for my absence. But I hope to start being here more as time goes on.
The Odd Factory
There was a place everyone avoided like the plague. It had no distinguishing features, no flashy color scheme, and no discernable purpose outside of simply...being there. For all intents and purposes, It was a run of the mill building made of the same brick and mortar as every other building in Canterlot. And yet, as Twilight Sparkle stood, eyes locked onto the double doors that made up the entrance to the building, she couldn't help but feel like something was...off.
The more she stared at it, the more menacing it became. It was like a giant creature, looming over her, ready to lash out at any moment and snatch her up into its maw never to be seen again. But no, that couldn't be right. There was just no way a simple building could be that scary. Sure, there were rumors going around that the owner was a rather...interesting person, or that the building was some sort of laboratory for secret and dangerous experiments, but those were just rumors. They couldn't be real. Right?
Right?
But then there were the sounds. Banging and clanking, booming and crashing. Loud enough to rouse her from her rest in the middle of the night. Or at least it used to be. Most people had gotten used to it by now. To them, it was just background noise, just another aspect of their daily lives. Even as they passed by it every single day, barely casting so much as a glance at it in their peripheral vision.
But not Twilight Sparkle. She was aware of it, and she was going to get to the bottom of it, if it was the last thing she did. The building was right in front of her, and the crowds of people in front of her felt like a sea of bodies as they passed by. It took her a while to muster up the courage to walk through all of that, but soon, she found herself weaving through them all, muttering apologies the whole way through.
Now, she stood in front of the building proper, and the only thing stopping her from walking inside was a pair of glass double doors that suddenly seemed much more imposing from up close.
She steeled herself and raised a fist to knock on the door when, all of a sudden.
The door opened.
"Good evening, my dear!" Came a loud, excited voice from the other side of the door. The noise came as a shock to Twilight, who yelped and jumped back in fright from the doors.
As she did this, the voice continued on, seemingly aware of her newly terrified condition. "Oh my! I am sorry. Did I scare you? I do tend to have that effect on others."
Twilight cautiously turned to face the man, looking him up and down for a moment. He seemed rather lavish in his style of dress, and his manner of speaking gave off a distinct mix of flamboyancy and grace, all at the same time. In his hand was a cane topped off with a golden mechanical dragon head. Was this the owner? Everyone did say he was rather eccentric. Twilight wasn't sure what to make of him yet, so she decided that more observations were in order.
"I...can see that. Excuse me, but, who are you?" Twilight asked, her voice sounding like a mix of curiosity and fear as she spoke.
"Dissidia Sylvester Cordville, at your service, Ma'am." He said with a bow, not hesitating in the least. He then lifted Twilight's hand in his and kissed the back of her hand. "And who, may I ask, are you?"
"Oh...." Twilight blushed at the intimate contact, and was suddenly unable to snatch her hand away no matter how much her body wanted to. "M-My name is T-Twilight Sparkle."
"Well don't just stand there, dear! You're here for a reason aren't you? Come in, come in!" Came the jovial voice of the owner, shaking Twilight from her trance. She only had enough time to look up and see him heading back inside when she was suddenly grabbed and pulled inside along with him.
Twilight was in awe at all the weird things she was seeing. Metal pipes ran up and down the walls on each side of the building, blowing out steam here and there from little holes in the tops. Little gears stood mounted on the walls beside them turning and turning as they went to work powering what Twilight was sure was an as yet unseen object of interest somewhere in the room.
As they made their way through, Twilight couldn't help but get curious. "So, Mr. Cordville, what is all this?" She asked, genuine curiosity bubbling up inside her. It was almost as if, for that small moment, she had forgotten that she was testing this man.
"Please, Twilight. Mr. Cordville was my father. Call me Discord! All my friends do!" Cordville said with a cheerful grin, spinning around and yet somehow moving to be in front of her all at the same time, his cane pressed gently against her nose as if to chide her for her mistake.
Twilight meanwhile, had no idea when, how or even what she could have done to make him consider the two of them friends, much less close enough to be giving each other nicknames. And what was with that name? Discord? Well, it did seem to fit him to a T... "Right, then...Discord, what is all this?"
"This, my dear Sparkle," He said, finally removing his cane from her nose. "Is a Mecca for Machines, A Paradise for Parts, A Temple for Tune-ups! Welcome, to Steaming Chaos, your number one spot for all things technology!"
As he said this, Discord seemed to grow more and more animated, his movements, which had at first been simply walking around, swinging his cane and using a loud voice, were now wild gesturing, the occasional spin, and, as she stood before him now, boisterous grandstanding the likes of which Twilight had never seen.
Did he really think himself so great? Her opinion of him was finally starting to form, and it was not a favorable one. Unless...was he trying to...entertain her? That had to be it right? There's no way someone could have this much energy. Barring Pinkie of course. That girl was an explosion waiting to happen.
She decided to be less harsh on the man. He was just trying to his best. "So...all this is for sale then?" She pointed to the various mechanical items he had stored on his shelves.
"Oh, no, no, no!" He quickly went over and hid them as though he thought she was going to take them. "You can't have those!" At which point he went over to the opposite wall and pulled lever not too far from a small statue of what looked like a dragon. "Now these on the other hand..."
The next thing Twilight saw blew her mind. Once he pulled the lever, the wall opened up, and what came out of it was just astonishing.
A glass case filled to the brim with mechanical knickknacks and figures, and even some useful items like clocks and watches and what Twilight was sure was a wand of some kind.
"Wow...you made all this yourself?" Twilight couldn't help but be impressed. This was unlike anything she had ever seen before!
"Yes I did."
"But how?" Twilight asked as she looked at them all.
"With that." Discord says as he points up towards the back wall. There, on the wall, was a giant mechanical Dragon head, mounted like a hunting trophy. Did it have...antlers? How Twilight never noticed that, she would never know.
"What exactly is that?"
"That, my dear Twilight, is my very own assembly machine. I built that myself too."
"Really? How does it work? You have to tell me."
"Well, you see those gears on the wall?" Discord pointed to the gears Twilight just knew had some form of use. "I put a bunch of materials into the machine and press a button, and those gears start turning, operating the antlers on top."
"Those things move?" Twilight looked over to the odd, out of place looking antlers on the head of the dragon.
"Yep. They help assemble the items I make Items that you can have, if you want them."
"You mean I can have this?" Twilight said, quite a bit of childish excitement seeping into her voice at the thought of experimenting with new things.
"You can have as much as you want! For a price of course."
Twilight was suddenly very on edge. The way he said that last bit put her off considerably. "What price?"
Discord's face suddenly fell, and every sign of that once lively, flamboyant personality was gone, replaced with a sad, lonely expression that struck Twilight to her very core. How could one man be so sad?
"Tell more people about this place." Came his sad reply. The way he said it made Twilight's heart wrench in her chest.
"Why? Has no one come here except me?" She asked, hoping to find out why he suddenly seemed so alone.
"Well, there was one other person, but that was a long, long time ago. Ever since then no one's shown up. It's like i'm cursed or something."
"Can you think of a reason why no one would show up?" Twilight asked tentatively, trying to approach the topic cautiously.
Discord just laughed. "I can think of several. How about we start with the fact that my family has been ostracized from society for generations..."
"And why is that?"
"You've seen why, you're looking at it!" The force in his tone made Twilight back away. "Sorry about that. It's just...you've seen me. You've seen...all this. My family dates back to before the three tribes even came together. We were like this even back then. Always optimistic, always looking up, to the future. And to us, that future was machines."
Twilight remained quiet and carefully listened to his words. She came over and offered him the couch, which he took
"But the others didn't agree with us. They shunned us and exiled us, left us to fend for ourselves. We tried to survive for as long as we could. We fought and we bled and we did everything we could. Made it our mission even. But by the time my people were accepted back into society, they were dead and I was the only one left. This place is the only thing I have left of them. I just want to share it with the world. So please. Tell more people about this place. That's all I ask."
As Twilight listened, she found herself starting to cry. She couldn't believe all of that had happened to him. And still, he managed to smile despite all that, and only wants to share his culture with the world. What an admirable man. Her previous thoughts on him were more than wrong. They were an insult to him as a person. And she chided herself mentally before standing up to speak.
"Well, Discord, if that's what you want. I'll be happy to do it."
He was surprised to hear her say this, and looked up at her as if she had just spoken a forbidden spell "R-Really? You'd do that?"
"Of course I would! I'd love to even! It's always nice to share one's culture with the world. Plus, you won't be lonely anymore."
Discord looked at her for a moment, seeming to study her. Did he think she was lying? She gave him a determined look, hoping to show she could be trusted, only to be nearly knocked over when he suddenly hugged her.
"Thank you..." He said, as tears began streaming down his face. She could hear sniffles coming from him as he held her tight, as if she would disappear if he didn't keep her in place. She simply hugged back.
"You're welcome."
