To the unsuspecting mind, no one could have ever guessed it but one of Discord's favourite hobbies was thrifting. He would always stress that he liked thrifting, not antiquing, not vintage shopping. Thrifting. The three terms were simply not synonymous.
For the Lord of Chaos, he enjoyed looking at the mess of items and the vast array of every possible item and combination that you would not think was possible. To Discord, thrifting almost rivaled his Chaotic nature, something he especially enjoyed, never knowing what you’ll find.
Juggling a bag of bits and hearing the individual coins jingle made his heart ring. He was ecstatic. Teleporting right in front of his favourite thrift stores, “Thieves and Bits,” he waltzed in with a toothy grin, excited to see what he’ll find today. Thieves and Bits happened to be in Ponyville (Partially because it was near where his bestest of friends lived and he loved to stop by and see them afterward). Ponyville housed an impressive and extensive collection of items. Its rich history, older demographic, and diversity greatly contributed to this much to his pleasure.
“Afternoon, Discord!” The store clerk said as soon as he appeared in the center of the store, much to no one’s surprise as the two other customers were still hustling along their way.
The store was quaint, to say the least, it housed many categories of items from typical clothes to rustic toys, all morphed together after all the years of lifting one to check out and then placing it right down in a random location, sometimes across the store. It was beautiful. Even the flickering light above the glass counter still stayed unwaveringly flicking. Discord snickered knowing the bulb will never cease waving from bright to dark since he was the one to keep the light bulb alive. It adds to the homeliness, he finds himself thinking every time he enters the store.
His gaze went from the light to the sales clerk, his expression softening, addressing his friend, “Afternoon to you too, Pocket Watch!” He replied, flashing Pocket his signature grin, “Got anything good today?” Bending down to lean against the glass countertop he quickly summoned a pair of eyeglasses as if to inspect each speck of the display.
Pocket nodded, “Oh yeah! Lots! Lots of jewelry!” Discord greedily tapped the glass seeing him retrieve the hidden case that contained the rings, bracelets, and necklaces.
He grinned, “Oooo! How lovely!” After putting on all the bracelets on his arms, shrinking the sizes of them as he saw fit he nodded in satisfaction, “I always thought my arms were barren and needed a dazzle!”
Pocket gave Discord a blank smile seeing him move onto the rings, this time shrinking or enlarging his fingers to make them fit. Well, the alligator ring would have fit perfectly on his thumb but throughout it would look better on his ring talon. Rings were fickle, but he always made them work.
“You know, when we got this one I thought it kinda looked like you! Don’t you think so?” Pocket Watch said holding up a gold necklace. Or rather, half of a gold necklace. Its pendant only reveals half of its full picture. Discord took one glance at the necklace Pocket was holding and immediately dropped all the rings on his fingers from flaring his arms out in utter disbelief and shock.
His eyes were travelling every corner, every surface, every curve of the pendant. It was undeniably hers.
His amazing face looked back at him, he could see his reflection on its newly polished surface. And instead of feeling that pure joy well up in his heart upon seeing himself on something so precious all he felt was a pang of hurt and betrayal. He could feel his breathing become Ridgid from the vices of this revelation brought to his heart.
At least she took good care of it. That was all he was willing to admit.
Silence passed over the whole store now, even the two unbothered customers seemed to stop. Time was moving very slowly. Time was on the terms of the Lord of Chaos. Discord mustered a shaking smile, threatening to turn into a scowl at any waking moment. He clasped his hands together which made a loud sound emphasizing the strain on his soul.
“Oh my, I didn’t know they made memorabilia of me, I’m so flattered!” He defected with an overly cheery tone that failed to conceal his unmitigated disappointment.
Pocket Watch waited until the twitch on Discord’s eye broke before slowly nodding, “Uh- yeah for sure!” He fumbled, sweat was dripping from the side of his face now, “About time, don’t you think?
“Mhmm,” he hummed in agreement, doing his best to control his seething anger and hurt.
Pocket merely chuckled to let out the tension, “I was actually going to buy this for myself if no one else-”
“NO!” Discord shouted, the suppressed wrath he kept under the appearance of a regular customer was threatening to spill as lightning began to flash outside. The light only helped to illuminate the furry from the crease and frowns in his facial expression. At this point, everyone in the store looked at the pair still like dust, this warranted a slight blush to overcome the draconequus.
Pocket Watch on the other hand simply titled his head timidly waving off the outburst, upholding his friendly smile he addressed Discord as if nothing transpired, “Oh? Did you want this necklace then?”
Discord shyly nodded.
“You know it is missing the other half, right?” He asked, tracing the outline of the break of the heart.
Discord winced at the acknowledgment, “Ahem, yes I shall buy this impeccable piece of merchandise. My apologies Pocket, I just wanted something to remember myself by,” Discord explained, leaking a stream of tears.
Pocket Watch chuckled, “No-no, I completely understand. It’s all yours, Discord, for five bits!”
Over the course of the whole conversation, the price point was the one thing provoking him to just burn down the whole store and continue on his day like normal. His face was the epitome of a scowl, his attempts of being amicable shattered.
It was the fact that it was marked so low. Something of this caliber should at least cost a thousand bits! After all, it was the symbol of his friendship, so how dare someone decide it wasn’t as valuable? How dare someone decide to give it up?
With a snap of his talons, a bag of bits appeared right on top of the countertop, and the sheer weight of the coins began cracking the glass top.
Pocket Watch shifted his eyes to the bits than to Discord who was not crossing his arms and raising his eyebrow, anticipating a rebuttal, “Um, Discord this is way too-”
“Thanks! Bye-bye!” He hastily said before Pocket could complete his sentence and disappeared from the store leaving the clerk to count the bits he left.
Gold was never a scarce resource for someone who could make it from the snap of his talons. What was scarce and irreplaceable though was his friendship with a certain local princess.
☆ ☆ ☆
Spike hummed a familiar tune trying to get into the rhythm and pace of drying and placing. He was making great progress with the plates when suddenly he felt the texture change texture. He wasn’t rubbing on a smooth surface but rather something that was way too rough and uneven to be eaten on. Hesitating, he set aside the towel and shut his eyes tight waiting for something, or rather someone to jump at him.
Ripping his eyes open he looked down and let out a shriek unbecoming of a mighty dragon.
“Where’s Twilight?” The plate demanded until it materialized into something Spike was slightly more accustomed to. Even if that happened to be someone with no set of matching limps and clear grief they were trying to bury.
Spike’s mouth sill laid agape as he casually resumed drying off the remaining dishes. Clearing his voice to restart his approach he turned to confront the home intruder, “Not too fast Discord. Why are you even here!”
“Just answer the question!” Discord yelled leaning down towards the small dragon to affirm the difference in their heights.
Spike stood his ground (as well as anyone could with a cute apron on) to glare straight into his eyes, “Nuh-uh,” he said, crossing his arms stubbornly. “Not until you give me a valid reason.”
All Discord could do was roll his eyes, “It’s a very urgent matter, Spike, don’t worry about it.”
Spike sighed, “‘Urgent’ and ‘don’t worry do not co-exist in the same sentence.”
That got a chuckle out of Discord. He found it funny that someone has the audacity to defy him with such strife. “The fact I’m even asking about where she is saying all you need to know.”
Spike raised an eyebrow and continued to stare at Discord beckoning him to continue.
“When will I ever be in such a need for the whereabouts of my dear friend unless I absolutely need it?”
“You and Twilight don’t even talk!” Discord grimaced at that notion because it was true.
“Exactly! I wouldn’t see her unless I needed to, Spike!”
Spike let out an audibly annoyed breath, “She’s at a conference in Manehattan-”
With a click, he heard too many times Discord was gone. Spike turned back picking up the rag to start polishing the plates again when a second snap ranged. All cleaned and neatly stacked the dishes laid. Spike grinned, taking off his apron to enjoy the rest of his day.
☆ ☆ ☆
“Thank you, Princess Twilight. Your moderation today was much appreciated. We’ll see you in a few moments for further debriefing with Cloudsdale?” The Manehatten delegate asked getting up from his bow.
Twilight nodded her head in acknowledgment, “Of course,” she smiled and waved the delegate farewell. Seeing him and the others leave the room Twilight allowed herself to breathe.
Before she could turn around to pack up her notes properly she gave a loud scream that echoed through the whole venue, “AH- Discord! What are you doing here!” She spat at the dragonequus in front of her.
Discord scowled lowering himself to stare intently at the princess, “What is this?” he asked, shoving her half of their ‘unbreakable’ bond.
Twilight’s anger dissipated, a new perplexing expression quickly replacing it. She squinted, trying to make out the image on the gold plate, “Your face on a necklace?”
“No!” Discord snapped his tremble threatening to disintegrate the piece of jewelry in his paw, “Twilight, for someone so smart you would think she would have a good memory!” Discord tsk’d rolling his eyes almost jokingly and finished with a pout.
Twilight tilted her head and opened her mouth slowly then closed it. She was taking her time shifting through her fleeting memories, “I’m sorry, I don’t follow.” she admits.
He frowned, “This is your half of our matching friendship necklaces! To show that we’re BFFs?”
Twilight’s expression remained unchanged, save for the new furrow between her eyebrows.
He smacked his face dragging his paw downwards, the force almost pulling his facial features off, “Best friends forever?” he reiterated to her to no avail.
“Look, Discord, I seriously don’t know why you’re here in Manehattan over something so trivial,” Twilight said casting Discord aside to shuffle her notes around for the upcoming debate.
“I found it at a thrift store!”
She groaned, turning back to meet Discord, “Yeah? Did you know donating your belongings for another pony to have a chance to use is far better than throwing them out? It’s sustainable.”
“I-is that how you picture our friendship?!” Discord cried, even for someone of his nature he rarely got this rattled up in his emotions. However, this time, his hurt was on full display, his eyes watering without him giving them the command to, his hands were trembling, and a crushed expression he didn’t know he was capable of making appeared. “Is our friendship something to be thrown out as you please?”
At this point a pang of guilt welled up inside Twilight's heart, guilt she didn’t know it was possible for her to harbour for Discord. She shook her head, her words failing to come out to defuse the situation.
“Then fine, so be it!” He settled, snapping his talons before thinking of where he wanted to go, he just needed to leave.
“Discord! Wait!” Twilight protested but he was long gone, her pleas had no chance to reach him and now she was alone.
With a heavy sigh, she continued to look through her notes, not reading or retaining any of the information she gathered. She just needed to preoccupy herself, perhaps even to erase the last five minutes. Was it plausible to read until her head was full with just the latest political scene of Cloudsdale and nothing of what transpired? The notion made her chuckle before quickly returning to a sulk.
Her mind still continued to race, she didn’t know what could have made Discord so upset until he had to spell it out for her. She cringed. What kind of friend does that make me? She thought, clenching her jaw tightly. All she could do was slam her hoof onto the table which made the papers fly off, to affirm her defeat.
“Um, Princess?” A staff member nervously spoke up, which halted her quickening thinking. She started to approach her but the vibration of her steps ringed clear through the thick tension the nearby Princess produced.
Twilight looked up, her annoyed expression hadn’t left, “What is it?”
“W-we have five minutes until the next debate… I thought I w-would let you know!” The pony squeaked.
Twilight gathered herself, closing her eyes to summon her composure back, “Thank you for the heads up,” she managed to smile. The pony quickly nodded, taking no time to leave the Princess as soon as she could. Twilight grimaced. She would have to make amends another time, at least after she was finished with the conference.
☆ ☆ ☆
“I didn’t mean- ugh! There wasn’t any special ceremony, when I lived in Canterlot these things were such a commodity! With no intent or meaning!” Twilight explained, her breathing suddenly becoming rapid from the efforts to justify her position. Leaning back on Fluttershy’s armchair she groaned and placed a hoof on her forehead to stop the oncoming headache.
Fluttershy merely slipped her tea, taking in what her friend had said, “Oh, dear Twilight…” was all she had to say.
The lack of a substantial response made Twilight cry, “Fluttershy, I know I messed up.” she said and brought her hooves to her face.
Fluttershy shook her head, “Well, Twilight you can't assume everything is a commodity. Certain things mean something to certain ponies,” she said softly.
Twilight stared at Fluttershy, communicating that she already learned that not-so-simple fact, “How can I find Discord?” She asked, the reason why she had come to Fluttershy and not bury the incident entirely was the simple truth that Fluttershy was the only one in Equestria to have any idea where Discord could have gone. “I need to set things right,” she whispered, a sense of determination setting her ablaze.
Fluttershy tapped her chin, “He’ll most likely be at home.”
“Okay great!” Twilight jumped out of her seat, “Where does he live?” All she needed to do was go to his house and talk things out, piece of cake-
“Uh, I’ve only been there once,” Fluttershy shuffled through her old mail before holding one out for Twilight to take, “It says right here. Wonderful place, really! I think you’ll enjoy it a lot!” She hummed.
Twilight hesitated before asking, “Fluttershy, what in Celestia’s sun is Chaosville?!”
Fluttershy shrugged. She barely had a clue. Twilight's whole face contorted, “I’m sorry I couldn’t be more help,” Fluttershy quietly said.
Twilight gave Fluttershy a subtle smile, “No thank you, I wouldn’t have anywhere to start. It looks like I have my work set out for me.”
Fluttershy giggled, “Good luck!” she said before Twilight teleported away.
☆ ☆ ☆
Twilight cleared her schedule for that day and immediately allocated all her time for her trip to Canterlot. Spike protested and argued that she will regret it come the following week when her work would be mounted for her to ache over. She hadn’t cared though she knew he was right. However, the tunnel vision and pacing thoughts to set things right drove her to make rather impulsive decisions.
Luckily her travel time was cut as all she needed to do was teleport right outside the gates of the castle. She felt very lucky and fortunate that her magical abilities had allowed her to be much more efficient, especially in dire situations like these.
With the occasional wave to some guards and maids, she finally managed to reach the Canterlot archives.
Breathing in the smell of ancient books she gleefully began looking at the nearest bookshelf. The Canterlot Archives was a hub of overflowing information and although she spent her youth growing up in the very castle that housed such wonderful work she never properly managed to read through all of the books in here. And frankly, she doesn’t think she ever will.
“Princess Twilight?” A familiar voice sounded behind her.
Twilight turned around to meet them. And instantly smiled at the pony. It was the archivist, someone whom she had known since her childhood, “Brush Stroke! It’s great to see you!”
“Likewise, though I’m more curious as to why you’re here,” He chuckled.
Twilight smiled, “I need information on portal spells, I’m sure the archives have a number of books here, correct? I remember reading some of them a few years ago.”
“You would be correct!” He said, “Follow me.” Brush Stroke turned towards the stairs, leading Twilight up to the next floor. He approached the nearest shelf and pulled a heavy tome free with this magic. “You can start with this, it’s basic background information complete with a refined definition of what portals exactly are. You can relate to how convoluted these things can be so it’s always nice to have that exact meaning pointed out to us.”
Twilight took the book and flipped through the pages and began to suffocate in dust instead of the marvelous words. “This is really great,” she coughed, “I’ll be needing the rest of this shelf then if they’re all on portal spells.” She said, taking the whole top row of books with her levitation.
Brush Stroke’s mouth just laid agape seeing the Princess juggle the books combing through each of them and placing them into two separate piles. Twilight was already in a trance setting up her system of categorizing. “Aah, Princess, this is the first time anyone has been so set on portal spells,”
Twilight hummed still hyperfocus, flipping through each page at record speeds.
“Ahem, may I ask why?”
“I need to enter another realm.” Twilight mindlessly replied.
Brush Stroke nodded, her words didn’t reach him yet entirely, “Excuse me?” he laughed at the preposterous feat.
“I need to enter another realm,” she repeated, only now slightly annoyed at the interruption.
He nervously chuckled, “Y-you know… It takes a lot of energy in order to produce one let alone producing one for another realm!”
“I know,” she mumbled dismissively.
“Well, if you need anything just let me know!” He said before leaving Twilight be. His words never reached her, she was too absorbed.
Leaning closely into the book to look at a specific diagram of a spell. For unicorns portal, spells acted like teleportation, except more taxing and more inconvenient. The reason why they still had them was to automate a lot of delivery services to other neighbouring kingdoms for trade. The most famous portals were the ones between Vanhoover and Griftinstone, the Vanhoover economy was reliant on their fishery exports.
Portals were unreasonably more complicated though, it took a lot of power and pressure to equalize the system. Only the most talented could ever dream of sustaining a portal for a period of time let alone even creating one. She groaned at the task ahead of her.
At some point, she had categorized the whole section on portal spells into piles. Relevant and Irrelevant. In most of the books, she glanced at protein history over the course of five hundred years. The history she already knew and did not need. The relevant books, however, were much more promising. They had ways one could cast a portal. Though none of them had any idea how to cast one to another dimension.
Twilight frowned, sorting the useless books to reshelve and then stuffing the ones in her saddlebag. She was glad the archive was situated near the Star Swirl the Bearded Wing, and if that produced nothing she could always take a trip to the library.
Teleporting to the center of the wing she immediately combed through all the shelves. Twilight knew that she was going to be disappointed. She partially lived in the wing and over the course of years studying his work she knew there would be nothing.
All these scrolls and over two hundred spells and none of them had any interest in specifically opening a hole to another domain.
Except for the occasional banishment spells and the study of the mirror to the world she visited many moons ago, nothing details how anyone could enter another world without the assistance of pre-existing portals scattered across Equestria. The chances of Twilight finding a portal let alone the correct portal to Chaosville (if there even is one) was slim. Incredibly slim.
Wordlessly, taking the banishment spells she decided to make her way to Canterlot Library.
The walk wasn’t that long, every so often she would be stopped by a noble asking how she was, some small talk to garner more acclaim until she hastily excused herself away from the conversation. She regretted choosing to walk.
Passing by a park her heart soared seeing the harmony of the fillies and colt playing with each other amicably.
She was about to leave when two friends caught her eye, “Wow! These are so sparkly!” said a small filly. She was holding onto a necklace with a small pendant with the letter ‘B’ and half of an ‘F’ was embossed onto it. Twilight frowned at the irony. “I love them! But I love them more because you were the one to give them to me!”
Her friend beamed, “With these, you’ll always have a piece of me with you. To remind you of our eternal friendship! Of course, they’ll remind me of it too!” he exclaimed, putting the other half of the chain around his neck.
The filly laughed, “Now we’re kinda like the elements of harmony!”
Twilight couldn’t watch the exchange anymore and left. Opting to just teleport to the library. No time to delude.
It would be a few hours in the library until she finished her first draft of the spell. The library patrons were all gone and it was just Twilight in a back corner scribbling down all her knowledge on this one topic down. The prevalent silence reached Twilight when she finally placed her quill down.
On typical days she would have revelled in spending her whole day utterly engrossed in old tomes. Except currently, it seems like after every book she read and finished she felt herself become increasingly more depressed.
Rubbing her eyes she basked in her work. The spell she created was a combination of Star Swirl’s banishment spells and the fundament of portal spells. Their basic principle became more and more important to Twilight to ensure she had a way to return home. The last piece triggered the portal itself to respond to the location she wanted to enter. The key was a bit of chaos magic.
Twilight dabbled in many forms of magic, after all, she was the element of magic. Chaos magic was, to say the least, difficult. It wasn’t something she could easily pick up from glancing at it, like dark magic. Or something she was familiar with such as friendship. It took giving up her mind completely and letting it be consumed by her magic. Letting her magic control her to become its vessel. Giving in allowed for chaos, a loss of order, and a loss of harmony.
For someone like Twilight being disciplined in magic for many years, since her first lessons of magic with Celestia were about control of her horn, and being a more logical pony producing chaos went against her very nature. It was contradictory, for Twilight, who reinforced harmony casting chaos was almost impossible.
Except she wasn’t considered the strongest mage of the era for nothing.
Taking a moment to compose herself, she closed her eyes. Tracing the outline of the portal with her magic before giving up control in exchange for an ounce of chaos. An ounce was all she needed.
Feeling her whole being go numb her horn acted on impulse connecting to the premade structure of the spell and blasting the skeleton portal with pure chaos.
Shaking her head to regain consciousness she marvelled at the portal she made, she smiled seeing the shadow of a draconequus she happily clapped her hooves. Her exhaustion from depleting her magic was quickly forgotten as Twilight excitedly stepped right in.
Discord halted his knitting upon seeing Twilight standing in the center of his living room. Taking off his glasses to see clearer, “Twilight?” he asked, unsure if it was really her.
“Discord! Thank Celestia it worked!” She jumped, too ecstatic to even notice she was upside down from the environment.
“B-but how?” Discord asked, honestly astonished.
Twilight smiled, “Well it took only all the books on portal spells in Canterlot and combing through the two hundred and something or so spells Star Swirl created. And overcoming my instincts to make a bit of chaos magic and crafting the correct form and cross-referencing and years of practicing magic and refining my skills, but that’s a story for another day, so now I’m here!” She finished.
Discord nodded, although not getting any of it he felt touched. His heart swelled up more than he thought it was capable of. What was this funny feeling? Was it friendship? “You travelled all this way for me?” He said, tears freely leaking from his eyes.
“Of course!” Flying up to properly meet Discord in the eyes she cleared her throat. She had considered for a while what she was going to say to set things right, “Discord, I’m sorry I disregarded your token of our friendship,” she started. “Although I was never one for material things, I shouldn’t have been inconsiderate towards your feelings for them. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I’m sorry.” She said quietly.
Twilight summoned a pair of new matching necklaces, though this time they were gemstones. One purple, and dark blue respectively. Unsure if she was welcome to come any closer to Discord she awkwardly placed the necklace with the purple gem around his neck before she put on the dark blue one around hers. He was too busy sniffing to protest.
“I should go-”
Discord grabbed Twilight and held her tightly. The words on his lips will fail to describe the overwhelming feeling he felt for her at this moment, “Thank you, Twilight.” He whispered.
Letting go of the alicorn he smiled, “It’s almost perfect.” Touching the gems they glowed in response to his magic, becoming instantly brighter. “I instilled a small portion of my magic so you can find me instead of going on this quest again.” He laughed.
Twilight looked down at her necklace, “They’re perfect,” this time Twilight was the one to return the embrace.
“You really didn’t have to go through all this effort. I wasn’t that hurt. I would have forgiven you after the fifty-second hour,” he confessed.
“Really?” Twilight said sarcastically.
“Yes and no, I was devastated momentarily. I just, I really appreciate you. Not what you can do for me, or what you can give me, I appreciate you, Twilight. As a pony. As a friend.”
“Me too, Discord. Me too.” Though their friendship wasn’t as conventional, the simple thought that they were willing to put in the thought and effort for one another was enough.
And when Twilight left and Discord was able to take a look at her craftsmanship he began to tear up again from the text on the back of the pendant. BFFs - Twilight Sparkle and Discord.
Author's Note
I don't know why, but I love this duo so much.
