When they had left Rarity's boutique far enough behind to be out of earshot Twilight turned to Frank. She wasn't really sure where to start. Frank had made some good points before and the question whether she might have reacted any different to him if she had known that he was a hobo had actually given her something to chew on. Moreover another thought had occurred to her. Frank had spent some time in Canterlot and had been talking to Princess Celestia. Maybe the Princess was not omniscient, but Twilight had always seen her as about as close to omniscience as possible. Her long experience and knowledge of pony nature had probably made it easy for her to see right through what Twilight hadn't seen in spite of it appearing so glaringly obvious once Frank had spelled it out. Twilight could not imagine that Celestia had been unaware and was almost certain that the visit of Frank was more than the mere "little task that may be less of a challenge but more of a delight for the inquisitive student as whom I have always known you" as which Celestia had described it in her first letter. Perhaps this was more like a lesson about being a Princess than a study about cutie marks; and maybe it was both of that. Perhaps the best thing to do now was to do what she should have done before.
"Frank, who exactly are you? Tell something about yourself."
The colt looked a bit insecure. "Uhm yes, well... but what do you want to know?"
"For starters, how could you possibly hear what Rarity was saying? She was talking quietly, there was the screen, you were so far away... you shouldn't have heard, let alone understood, anything."
"Oh that, well I shouldn't have left my hat on when we got to Miss Rarity's place, but I hadn't expected—"
"Don't switch the topic! I didn't ask you about fashion", Twilight interrupted sternly, not willing to let Frank off the hook.
"No, you don't understand. It is because of this hat that I heard you talking and understood what you said. Please let me demonstrate."
The colt took the twisted hat from his head and offered it to Twilight. She was looking at it with confusion but didn't accept it.
"Take it", Frank said. "Put it on and you will see... or hear rather."
Twilight took the ugly headgear but eyed it skeptically.
"I don't see anypony around watching you and if somepony did, a hat is not enough to turn a princess into a hobo", he chuckled.
Twilight didn't like the joke, but reluctantly she put on the hat shifting it a little so it didn't slip over her horn. The effect was as immediate as it was impressive. The twisted brim around her ears had the effect of greatly enhanced pinnas even though her ears didn't fit quite exactly into the twists matching Frank's ears. Twilight could hear the twittering of birds, the chirping of some insects and other sounds from the direction of the forest that was still too far away for her to have taken any notice of the sounds without Frank's hat.
Twilight was impressed, but as she put off the hat to hoove it back to Frank she gave him a critical look: "You made this hat yourself? To eavesdrop on other ponies?"
"No I didn't", Frank said defensively. "I mean, I did make it, twist the brim and stiffen it the way it is. Auditoriums in Fillydelphia are large, often overcrowded and not all the lecturers understand the need to speak up to be heard in the rear rows. When traveling on your own it can sometimes be helping to hear what is lying ahead, saving even if one happened to travel through regions like the Everfree Forest."
"You have been in Everfree Forest?" Twilight asked surprised.
"Oh no, I have not. But if I ever did go there...", he shrugged. "In any case I have grown so used to this hat that perhaps I'm forgetting sometimes that it is not quite... in vogue?"
This time Twilight couldn't help but laugh at the understatement.
"And why are you so interested in meeting Discord?"
"I once saw him…", Frank began and seeing the look of surprise on Twilight's face, he hurried to add: "He was still all stone at the time. It was during a school field trip to Canterlot. I was quite young but I found this interesting and tried to read what I could find about him; which was not all too much. But I had been wondering about this... creature. It didn't seem to fit together at all."
"Or fit to anything or anypony at all either", Twilight snorted. "Be careful about Discord, Frank."
"You don't believe in his reformation?" It was Frank's turn to look surprised.
Twilight didn't respond right away, carefully pondering her answer. "Princess Celestia wanted to see him reformed and Fluttershy trusts him..."
Twilight sighed. "I just don't really know. Discord is not a joke. He came closer to breaking our friendship than anyone or anything ever did…" Twilight's words sounded like she was talking to herself rather than Frank. Her look became a bit unfocused as if she was staring right at a faraway and very unpleasant memory. She shook her head as if to literally shake off the thought. "He is dangerous and so... manipulative."
She stopped and cast a look at the colt who backed away from the big eyes looking at her. Not that Twilight had been looking angry or threatening, but it was a look as if she was trying to scan him for what eyes alone couldn't see.
"Princess? Twilight?" Frank asked insecurely.
"Never mind. Let us go and just not linger around Discord if we can help it."
They didn't talk for the rest of the way to Fluttershy's cottage. There had been more Twilight had been going to ask, but the memory of the first encounter with Discord had put Twilight in a taciturn mood. Frank was shy to interrupt her brooding silence. The sight of Fluttershy's home didn't help to lift Twilight's spirit. Rarity's warning would not have been necessary for Twilight to know who was guest in Fluttershy's house given the knot in the wooden pole of the mailbox, the puffs of differently colored smoke rising from the chimney forming rude grimaces and the bridge across the brook in front of Fluttershy's home being in a constant wavelike motion would have been sufficient to leave no doubt about Discord's presence. Moreover every single leaf on the tree closest to Fluttershy's home had taken on a different color and pattern of lines, circles and random shapes. Rather than staying the way they were, each leaf was in a state of constant change of color and pattern while the trunk of the tree stretched, contracted, bent and straightened in an almost dance like manner, but without any predictable sequence. The sheer overload of stimuli made it almost impossible to look at the tree for more than a few seconds without risk of a severe headache.
"Artsy", Frank commented as they passed the bridge which Twilight forced into immobility with a slashing movement of her horn.
Maybe Twilight's use of magic had given away her presence to Discord, or he had noticed her approach by other means known to him alone and passed the information on to Fluttershy. In any case Twilight didn't have to knock but Fluttershy already opened the door when Twillight and Frank were still some steps away. The pegasus looked quite at ease and didn't seem to be in any way disconcerted about the nearby tree not acting in accordance with regular tree behavior or about anything else, until her look fell on Frank and her smile became a little insecure.
"Hello Fluttershy", Twilight greeted her friend with the most reassuring smile she could muster.
"I don't want to disturb you. I just want you to meet somepony and we'll be on our way again."
"Oh, okay…", Fluttershy said taken aback, her shyness giving way not so much because of the reassurance but because of surprise about the barely concealed eagerness of Twilight to get away again as quickly as possible.
"Maybe Pinkie Pie has already told you about my guest." Twilight continued.
"Oh, so that was what she was trying to do", a jeering voice said.
Twilight abandoned all hope to get away without attracting the attention of the dragonequus. Discord was walking through the wall of Fluttershy's cottage, not bothering to take the door. In his lion-pawed right hand he held a cup upside down taking a sip by tilting the cup allowing some of its contents to pour up to his mouth in utter defiance of the laws of gravity.
"What do you mean by 'was trying to', Discord?" Twilight growled.
Discord rolled the sip he had taken around in his mouth, making a show of enjoying it before at last he swallowed. "I am also most delighted to see you, Princess. And so honored that royal duties still allow you to come just to pay your respects to me."
Discord snapped the talons of his left hand and a pretentious coronation mantle appeared around Twilight's torso. Twilight dissolved the mantle instantly with her magic and there was a dangerous sparkling in her eyes when, stressing every word, she snarled: "Discord! What did you do to Pinkie?"
Discord hurled the cup over his shoulder. It passed through the grassy roof of Fluttershy's cottage leaving nothing behind but a venus flytrap which immediately started snapping at a butterfly passing by. Resigning to a stern look from Fluttershy, Discord rolled his eyes and the carnivorous plant turned into a daisy.
"Well, she just seemed so restless and noisy. I didn't want her to upset my dear Fluttershy here..."
Fluttershy dissolved and instantaneously reappeared on Discord's left arm where he was holding her like a kitten. At the same time a shining halo appeared above Discord's head.
"...so I just calmed her down a little until she left."
"And that was not very kind of you", Fluttershy said as she fluttered away from Discord's arm. Looking at Twilight, Fluttershy added: "She was perhaps a tiny bit restless."
"What did he do to her, Fluttershy?" Twilight asked, giving up on trying to get a clear response from Discord.
"Well... when she came in—"
"Burst in!" Discord interjected.
"...Discord made her talk all funny. I mean talk so one couldn't understand what she was saying. And when she continued he made a switch appear which he turned until Pinkie was silent."
Twilight glared at Discord angry at herself for having a tiny voice at the back of her mind telling her that occasionally a volume control for Pinkie Pie would not be the worst thing to have.
"Did you turn her back to normal, Discord?" Twilight demanded to know.
"Turn her into normal? I would never do such a cruel thing to poor Pink—"
"DISCORD!"
The dragonequus sighed. "Cross my heart..." A shining red cross glowed up on Discord's chest, "...hope to fly...", he was flapping with the batwing and the pegasus wing on his back, "...stick a cupcake in my eye." A cupcake appeared in Discord's lionpaw and he slapped it onto his left eye. "By the time she crossed the bridge she was not normal, but she was the way she had been before bursting in here."
Twilight decided to accept the Pinkie promise from Discord's mouth. Thinking that for the first time today she could introduce Frank without first correcting the notion of him being 'Mr. Breathe Please', Twilight turned to her pegasus friend: "I would like you to meet Frank Blanket. He is a... a wandering student from Fillydelphia."
"Oh the pleasure is all mine!" shouted Discord. He plucked his taloned left hand from his arm and hurled it towards Frank where it remained hoovering in the air stretched out for a shake. Up to now Frank had observed and listened in silence, but when the talons were hoovering in the air in front of him he accepted the shake with his left hoof responding: "Oh certainly not all of it, Mr. Discord."
Discord guffawed while his talons were zigzagging back to him to reattach to his harm.
"An intellectual with manners! That's so uncommon!"
Twilight's look was all daggers and it was only consideration for Fluttershy, who was looking rather unhappy, that she denied herself a sharp response to Discord's taunt.
"I'm very happy to meet you too, Miss Fluttershy", Frank said smiling and approaching slowly.
"Hello...", Fluttershy breathed almost inaudible.
Twilight thought she would never understand how Fluttershy of all ponies, Fluttershy who was scared into shivers at the mere prospect of having to talk to somepony she hadn't met before, happened to be the one pony to establish something like a friendship with one of the creepiest, most loathsome and certainly least shy creatures in all of Equestria.
"And what exactly is this wandering student studying I'm wondering?" said Discord.
"What's it to you, Discord?" said Twilight.
"Cutie marks", Frank said at the same time. "And err... other things..." he added, giving Twilight an apologetic look.
"How very cute", Discord taunted. "Say... didn't I see you before somewhere?"
"Maybe", Frank said, "But I'm surprised you even remember. You know, you looked all stoned at the time."
For a moment Discord looked stunned. He had provoked all kind of reactions from ponies, but being on the receiving end of a jest rather than threats, curses or pleas was something he couldn't remember.
"Oh you mean I looked like this?" Discord said snapping his talons while holding up a mirror he had produced out of nowhere into his lion-paw.
A shudder ran through Frank's body and it turned all gray.
"Discord!" Twilight and Fluttershy shouted at the same time.
Frank's eyes flickered nervously before they met the mirror Discord was holding and he seemed to calm down. "Distinguished looking", he commented.
"Turn him back immediately Discord or I swear I will—"
"...do what, Princess Twilight? Turn me back to stone with the Elements? Oh right you don't have them anymore. How very silly of me to forget about such a minor detail."
"Discord, you promised!" Fluttershy said quietly looking very unhappy.
"Oh don't look at me like that, Fluttershy, or else I'll turn back into stone, Elements or no Elements. Sometimes you are really not so different from that cockatrice you told me about, you know that?"
Dropping the mirror, which burst into a pile of dices as it hit the ground, Discord gave a wave with his paw and Frank's color turned first to green, earning Discord a stern look from Fluttershy, and then back to his original colors.
Eager to be done with all this, Twilight said to Fluttershy: "Frank would really like to ask us some questions about cutie marks and the time when yours were switched. We already asked Applejack and Rarity..."
"And why would he not want to ask questions of me?" Discord asked.
"For starters Discord, you don't even have a cutie mark and—"
"You would like me to ask you questions?" Frank asked eagerly and almost instantaneously he had produced a role of paper and a quill from his saddle-bag.
Once again Discord looked at the student in disbelief.
"You... want to ask me questions?"
"But of course! You are a living historical source and—"
"Historical source!" snapped Discord. "I am the spirit of chaos..."
The quill in Franks hand burst into a green flame and crumbled to ashes as Frank hastily dropped it.
"I am—"
"So predictable!" unlike Discord Frank did not raise his voice.
"What?"
"Always do what nopony expects. But that's exactly what ponies are expecting from you by now and you still call that chaos?" Frank's tone was that of an unimpressed art-critic.
Not just Discord but also Twilight and Fluttershy were goggling at him now.
Frank took his spectacles from his nose one of whose lenses had turned amber while the other one had turned green all of a sudden and pocketed them.
"Maybe you are getting old. I've seen Pinkie Pie today; do you really think your antics are still that surprising? You are doing all these random things at such a rate that ponies are getting used to it. I'm sorry for you and since you don't want to answer any questions after all, please excuse me. I think I got to head to Ponyville to get a new quill."
At the last words he couldn't quite keep every trace of anger from his voice.
Discord had gradually shrunk to the size of the ponies standing beside him.
"Please excuse me, Miss Fluttershy. I didn't mean to cause any distress", Frank said with a slight bow.
"Touché", the shrunk Discord said suddenly and held out the lion-paw in which he held a quill.
A look of genuine surprise appeared on Frank's face.
"Thank you", he said while accepting the quill. "That is something that really does surprise me."
Twilight said goodbye to Fluttershy and she and Frank headed back over the bridge which began to rotate once they had passed it.