//------------------------------//
// Chapter LXIX 
// Story: Lessons in quirks 
// by Mike84 
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	Frank Blanket felt tired, sick, battered and a little dizzy as he staggered up the final steps to the storeroom. The day had taken its toll and he was more relieved than he would admit even to himself that the offer of the mayor had spared him the need to set up his tent somewhere in the mud and under the torrential rainfall. As he entered the room through the broken trap door however, he shivered a little and cast a nervous look around. He was not a hero and had always been prone to avoid rather than encounter dangerous situations. Tonight he had had no choice at first and later on he had not thought at all about whether or not he had any. But now, even with the benefit of the hindsight of having survived, the room gave him the creeps. He should have died here and still couldn't explain how so many times the spells of the attacker had missed him. There was a whistling sound of wind from the small hole in the roof and the shattered window through which the attacker and Twilight had left. Near the window, the constantly pattering rain had formed a puddle and time and again the pattering and whistling was drowned out by the sound of rolling thunder. Pulling himself together, Frank walked over to the couch on which he had spend the last night and behind which he had taken cover from the first blasts of the attack. 
The couch was a mess. Its back had been shattered, the cushioning was scorched and shredded, downs were scattered all around it and the occasional gusts of wind from the broken window had driven some of the downs to every part of the room. In spite of these gusts, a smell of burning still lingered in the air and some pointed pieces of broken wood protruding from the shambles that had used to be a couch convinced Frank that he would not find any rest on it. Tired as he was, he still felt he wouldn't fall asleep right at the site of his near murder anyway. Perhaps his best option now was to see if any of his second set of clothing had survived the scorching of his saddle-bag sufficiently to serve as some makeshift cushioning and then lie down on the floor one stair down. While at it, he could also check out exactly what was left of his possessions and maybe get some idea of just how to continue tomorrow. 
The remains of the bags didn't look any better than the remains of the couch. Wooden parts of its framework had broken and pierced the torn sailcloth. The two lids forming the desktop and its prop had both cracked and several of the hinges were broken and twisted. The attacker's spell had hit the bag whose lid formed the desktop and it had suffered most from the fire, but even though the other bag had gotten away with minor scorch marks, the bag as a whole was destroyed beyond repair. Frank decided to take a look at the unburnt of the two bags first, hoping to find more that he still had rather than what he had lost. Some of the contents had slipped partly or completely out of the torn back. There lay the portfolio with his certificates and credentials from the academy. It was a little bent and got some soot specks on it, but nothing really bad. The jute back was there, with the remains of what at one time had been Fillydelphia soft pretzels, and also his money bag with his coinage and the stone. The few books he had had in this bag were tattered but otherwise okay. Very carefully Frank picked up the book The tales of the merry adventures of Robing Hooves, bent the buckled cover back in shape as good as he could and shoved several loose pages back in place. He ran one hoof along the edges of the cover, closed his eyes for a moment and pressed the book against his chest, almost as if giving it a hug before he placed it carefully to the other items he had salvaged. His second set of clothing was there and whatever minor tears or specs it might have suffered, it was too dark to recognize this clearly, they would certainly suffice for some improvised cushioning. As he dragged the second wraparound from the bag, something fell from it and hit the ground with a tinny sound. It was his harmonica with its holder. Both looked very dented, but when Frank put on the holder and gave it a try, he found that however dented it looked, the harmonica still sounded the same as before. 
With nothing left in the better shaped of the two bags, Frank hesitantly turned towards the one that had suffered the brunt of the attacker's spell and that had apparently reignited after he had left. Ashes and few shreds of paper were most of what had remained of the books he had carried in the bag. Moreover, what little shreds of intact paper remained, were for the most part blotted. Not one of the ink bottles in the bag had remained intact. To depict various cutie marks, Frank's stationeries had included an assortment of different colored inks and as he dragged forth whatever he could get hold of from the remains of that bag, his hooves and lower forelegs took on a pattern that looked like a very messy, sooty and smudged mockery of Rainbow Dash's mane. All the books in there had been related to his studies, some had been rather expensive and some had included what little helpful information on cutie mark matters had already been published, but not one of these books had remained in any readable state. Of his own writings and long work, Frank didn't even find a single identifiable page, not even some piece of cardboard from any of the folders in which he had filed them. It was all just gone like it had never existed at all. He rummaged in every corner of the broken back but all he got was ink, soot and dust. 
He had seen the bag and feared that some of his work had been destroyed, but up to this point Frank had clung to the hope that his extinguishing the flames with his own body had saved most, or at least part of it. He had not been prepared for the loss of all of it. The realization sunk in heavily and it felt like a relentless grip was squeezing his chest. The question what to do tomorrow and how to continue at all became even more pressing. Maybe he would have had another fit, like the very one through which he had stumbled across the book of Doctor Quircs, but for his sheer exhaustion and his wish not to stumble across anything like that book again. 
He just sat down, stared at the remains of his bag, felt numb, listened to the pattering of the rain and occasional thundering and finally put the dented harmonica in his mouth to play some kind of melody without paying any actual attention to what he was playing. He couldn't tell how long he had sat there and just played something without paying any attention to it until he finally stopped but still continued to just stare at his bag. But suddenly he pricked up his ears. There was a change. At first he had thought that it was just the silence after he had stopped playing the harmonica, but this silence was deeper. He could still see the rain coming down outside the broken window, he saw a flash of lightning and he was certain he should have heard some sound of whistling wind, but the silence was absolute, with not a single raindrop's splash being audible. Also there seemed to be a kind of iridescence between him and the world outside the window. 
Frank Blanket jumped up and whirled around. A silent flash of lightning outside illuminated the room for a short moment and on the opposite end of the room Frank spotted a tall figure. He was wearing an elegant looking black suit and white shirt along with a tie that more than the rest of the exquisite clothing seemed to match the wearer's nature as it was constantly changing its colors and patterns. He wore spectacles of two different colors which too were in a constant, gradual change of color and transparency. He was whiffing a calabash pipe and its strangely luminescent smoke seemed to form a variety of figures and shapes around the smoker that dissolved the moment Frank's eyes fixed upon them to figure out what they were. An intensive smell of cinnamon and cookies was filling the room. On the his head the smoker wore a headgear that looked rather shabby compared to the rest of his attire. A kind of bowler hat with a wide rim so twisted that it seemed to expand the ears of the wearer. 
"You...?" Frank Blanket gasped, not really knowing what to say while a flood of realizations struck him. For a brief instant his eyes flickered to the broken trap door but he called himself to order. He didn't know the schemes of his visitor, but he was well aware that he would not leave this room without his consent. Overplaying his uncertainty as much as he could, Frank put on a straight face and asked: "Dr. Adus Noceo Quircs, I presume?"
"Draconequus Discord. One should think some of those 'Daring Do and the secret scripture' fans would have figured that one out, but perhaps I am less predictable than you claimed last time we met?"
Discord gave a very broad and toothy grin and Frank couldn't help falling a step back from him. The draconequus blew into the pipe and from its bowl an orange glow, like an oversized ember, rose and zoomed to the center of the room where it remained suspended in the air near the broken spiral stair. Like a hoovering campfire with flames licking in every direction, the glow from Discord's pipe filled the room with a flickering light. 
Frank stared at this uncommon light source as if he expected it to explode any moment. 
"Now don't look like that", Discord said. "If I wanted to see Ponyville Town Hall burned to the ground, all I would have had to do was nothing at all. You sure left a number of glowing embers and sparks when you ran off so hastily and while I don't want to polish my own halo...", he reached up for a halo that had just appeared above his head and started polishing it with a flowered handkerchief before it dissolved into a ring of green smoke, "...I daresay we wouldn't be talking in this room had I not taken it upon me to do some snuffing out after you left to... well do some other snuffing out I suppose?"
Frank swallowed. His mind was racing. He remembered his own earlier astonishment about the fact that the town hall hadn't caught fire and he remembered the many other strange and improbable coincidences of this night. No doubt, Discord had the answers to many of the open questions, but Frank didn't know what to make of this whole situation. Very cautiously he took a few steps towards the suspended fire from which a warmth like that of a chimney eradiated. "Discord... Dr. Quircs... however I should call you..."
"My liege is good."
"I think not..."
Discord snorted: "I bet my hat you would be the type to 'Princess' Twilight all the time until royally ordered to stop it and then still feeling awkward about it, but when there is the chance to actually play the courtier with the consent of the one fawned over, you don't want to fawn."
"That hat you would bet... it looks familiar", Frank switched the topic.
"Doesn't it? The things ponies are loosing these days. Can you imagine I found this just lying around in Everfree Forest?"
Frank sighed. Perhaps he would have taken some pleasure from this kind of banter under different circumstances, but he still felt drained, numbed and with trying to offer a bold front to the spirit of chaos he had mustered whatever spirit of his own he had still had. 
"So, with you being Dr. Quircs, what part did you play in all this? Why have you come here? What have you done? What do you want?"
"So many questions. How about taking turns? Each question I answer obliges you to answer one of mine."
"You want to ask me questions?" Frank was more than a little surprised at this. 
"I do. And since you already asked and I answered, I take it that you are accepting my suggestion. So my turn it is now."
Frank was taken by surprise and some voice in his mind told him not to let himself be engaged in this, but another voice told him that more likely than not there wasn't much that he could conceal from the master of chaos anyway whether he agreed to this game of questions and answers or not, while on the other hoof he could barely hope for a better chance to get some of the answers he was looking for. He nodded silently.
"What have you got in your pocket?" Discord asked with his eyes fixed on the pocket of Frank's shirt. From his own pocket, Discord produced a ring on a chain and let it dangle from his clawed hand. Frank recognized the magic suppressor ring which he had lost, but at the moment he was too much taken by surprise about Discord's question to mind that ring. He was quite certain that Discord knew exactly what he had in his pocket and that no pretenses or denying would help him. But just how much did Discord know and had he been observer or originator of the recent events? Frank was frantically thinking about what to say and what to ask while he resigned to the inescapable and drew the torn book page out of his pocket. 
Discord flicked disapprovingly and Frank couldn't tell if his disapproval was in mockery or seriously. "Now, now, what would Princess Twilight say if she knew you are a biblioclast?"
"I honestly don't know for certain what she would say if she knew all about this, that's all the answer I can give there. But I am not! Not a biblioclast, I mean; not usually... it is better to keep this away. It wouldn't do any good."
Discord uttered a jeering and bleating laughter. "Wouldn't do any good to whom I wonder? Are you the kind of pony who thinks the ends justify the means; especially with the ends being so much about self protection?" 
"I am not! Not that kind of pony, not with all ends at least and certainly not with all means..." Frank Blanket was quivering a little and he couldn't tell if it was for fear, suppressed anger or for being just overcharged with everything that had happened and that was happening still. But in spite of everything, the confrontation with Discord had torn him from the previous exhaustion. 
"Self protection... I admit it's part of it, but it's also for their good. Princess Twilight, the bearers of the Elements, anypony here... they are too good for this. They shouldn't have to resort to..." Frank stopped as if a sudden realization had struck him and his expression became very conscious-smitten, "...to that kind of means." 
Frank sniffed quietly and suddenly he barked at Discord: "Give me my hat! It's not yours to bet with!"
Discord looked a little taken aback at this sudden outburst and one more familiar with him than Frank Blanket might have been able to read from Discord's expression that he was perhaps considering whether he should transform the loudmouthed colt into a drum set or something along those lines. For some reason however, he reached up with his lionpaw, took off the hat and threw it towards Frank, making it fly like a frisbee which the twisted and asymmetric shape of the hat should have made physically impossible. 
Frank dropped the page he had been holding, caught the hat, put it on and pulled the brim low, as if to shield his face from Discord's eyes. 
"You're welcome", the draconequus growled crabbily while he also levitated the magic suppressor ring into the pocket of Frank's shirt.
"So because you think you protect them from 'the means' you won't let anypony know about the crucial bit of information I penned you onto that page?" Discord asked and it was difficult to tell if he was mocking Frank or not. The colt in any case remained calm now. 
"Princess Luna knows... I think."
"And you think that the highness who has fallen to 'the means' before is to be trusted with this information but none of the others who have not?"
Frank didn't answer right away, he clenched his teeth and glimpsed down at a passage of the page that was lying in front of his hooves. He finally picked it up and held it as far from himself as he could, as if disgusted by the lines he was reading once again:

There is however something that switchlings take rather ill. Given their own unkind disposition, their weak point seems as unlikely as it seems sensible due to the fact that their bane constitutes the opposite of love, their main source of strength and power. Hatred, anger, wrath and rage prove formidably baleful for their kind. If they try to overtake a being meeting them with these sentiments, it will have an effect so draining on their strength, power and vitality that it comes down to ends similar to a pony emptying a cup of poison. But, to stick with that image, it is the dose that makes the poison and the simple justified anger of someone trying to fend off an attack will not suffice to harm a switchling. To fend off or even knock off a switchling, it takes a deep rooted kind of these sentiments, based not just on a fleeting fit of temper and intense enough to possibly prove poison even for the one exerting it, as lately demonstrated by the no longer mover but inhabitant of the moon.

Frank stuffed the page back into his pocket. 
"And what, I wonder, would Twilight Sparkle and the others think if they learn that the pony they put so much confidence in is capable of such poisonous feelings? Not at all in line with their friendship is magic kind of world outlook, is it?" Discord pouted tauntingly.
"I don't want to be that way. I avoid it much as I can." Frank took a deep breath. "After I read that page, and when everything got out of hoof and the princess was in danger and with all the anger about… anyway, I did what had to be done." 
Discord eyed Frank while he puffed some indeterminable shapes out of his pipe. 
"Did he, I wonder...", Discord mumbled apparently more to himself than to Frank.
"What's that?" 
Discord just shook his head absentmindedly. 
"It's my turn to ask questions now! Don't think that I haven't been counting yours! You owe me some answers!"
Discord slowly took off the ever color changing spectacles and cast them carelessly over his shoulder. Rather than falling to the floor, the spectacles sprouted a pair of wings and after flapping around in some circles, they made for the broken window and disappeared into the darkness of the night. Frank forced himself not to be distracted but kept his eyes fixed on Discord. 
"Did Fluttershy tell you about that stare of hers? Your look looks rather similar now… but don't answer, I don't want to owe you yet another answer. Go ahead, ask away!"
"Why have you come here now at all?"
Discord struck his goatbeard with his clawed hand, tilted his head first in one, then in the other direction and finally said: "Perhaps to make you an offer that you might find interesting."
"An offer?" Frank asked perplexed. "What kind of offer could that be?"
"What if I told you that I know much of what made you a suitable receiver of that page which you feel others should not receive? I know where your anger is coming from and unlike you yourself, I am quite capable of putting you in a position to right these wrongs."
Frank was looking at Discord, trying not to let any inkling of his thoughts find its way onto his face. 
"What if I asked you to call me 'my liege', regard me as such and that for it I could ensure that many more will be calling you so, or call you whatever else you prefer to be called. You could then have the means to right the wrongs and not a princess of sun or moon or anything else would be able to keep you from it. What if I promised as your liege, I would not in any way interfere with your own work in righting them while you yourself could be seated on the high throne in Canterlot if this be your wish."
"Get away!" Frank said. He hadn't raised his voice and there was no anger in it, just something that sounded like pure, stunned horror. 
"What if I told you…", Discord continued, his eyes narrowing, "...that if you didn't accept the offer, I will let every Princess know immediately about your covering up and about what a dangerously hateful pony you are? What… and where do you think you are going?"
Frank had abruptly turned away and with quick steps he made for the broken trapdoor. 
"I'm not listening to this any longer!" he hissed. But as he tried to step through the trapdoor, he found that the sound barrier Discord had cast around the room held in more than just sounds. He was trapped inside its sphere as if it was made of stone or metal. 
Frank cast his head around, his eyes glaring fiercely. "Do what you must! You will not blackmail me into submission! Let me out and I will tell Twilight everything! Take me out or do your worst, I will not be a tool of your schemes!"
Suddenly, Frank lost the ground under his hooves and found himself suspended in the air and zooming towards Discord until there was barely a pony's length between them. Discord had taken the pipe out of his mouth and was eying Frank menacingly. 
"Are you sure this is what you would be saying?"
Frank was twitching and trembling, but there was no way out of the suspension imposed upon him by Discord's magical grip. At last he seemed to resign, slackened and closed his eyes and felt how he was lowered to the ground where he crouched down.
"No change of mind?" Discord insisted.
Apparently Frank wanted to say something, but his voice was cracking up and all he got out was some indiscernible stammering, before shook his head fiercely and breathed something that sounded like: "Finish!"
Whatever drive had allowed Frank to take his stand now seemed to be spent as he huddled together.
"Bravo!"
Discord's put the pipe back between his teeth and clapped his lionpaw and the taloned hand together, producing a clapping sound that the unlike pair of hands should have been unable to produce.
"What?" snapped Frank, his anger returning suddenly and fiercely. "Will you mock me now?"
"You are kind of asking for it", Discord grumbled. "But in fact I am not mocking you at all… not now at least. I was merely applauding a test passed."
"A test?" Frank repeated bleakly.
"Knowing about your disposition and having a fair idea of some of its origins, I had to figure out where you stand, protector of the realm of Equestria that I am."
"Protector… you?" Frank's voice was the oddest imaginable combination of incredulous bewilderment and fit of rage in the making. 
"You just suggested a coup d'état against Princess Celestia and you dare styling yourself protector of anything?"
"I did not", Discord said calmly. 
"You did too!" shouted Frank.
"Now, now, just because I know about your secret and your anger is no reason for you to abandon those manners of yours which I praised when we met at dear Fluttershy's home and get so loud instead", Discord said in a provokingly rebuking voice. 
"You suggested just that! For me to call you 'my liege' and be seated on—" Frank said through clenched teeth, but Discord interrupted him.
"I see that this has been a rather unusual and tiring day for you", he said and it was impossible to tell whether or not his understanding was honest. "Perhaps that is why a pony so capable of remembering what exactly somebody says fails to make the distinction between a suggestion and a hypothesis."
"I asked you why you had come! And you said…" Frank stopped mid-sentence and suddenly there was an expression of realization on his face. 
"Perhaps, is what I said...", Discord said with smirk, "...and what ifs all along. But given the fact that I actually meant to put you to the test, I will be fair enough not to hold it against you that you would think of me as so malicious a backstabber and given the test results, I am even ready to assume that your deep rooted kind of hatred, anger and wrath, strong enough to harm a switchling need not turn you into some kind of backstabber yourself. Will you in turn give me the benefit of the doubt at least until after I answer those questions that you still haven't asked?"
Frank seemed to ponder this for a moment, but finally nodded. He was looking kind of lost however and finally said: "I just don't know where to start. Can you just tell me from the beginning which role you played in the events of the last days?"
Discord opened his mouth, but there was no sound and all of a sudden it appeared like he was choking on something. He cleared his throat and said: "There is one last thing I need to make sure about before I can continue. Did you enjoy the party the day before yesterday?"
"What? Discord, are you dodging the question again?" a deep furrow appeared on Frank's forehead. "I cannot make you tell me anything, but if you want to turn this into some kind of cat-and-mouse game, just spare me and—"
"Do me the favor and never use the image 'cat-and-mouse game' in the presence of Fluttershy. But I am not trying to dodge your questions. In fact, I am bound by a Pinkie promise that I am trying to dodge so I can answer you, but to do that, I need you to answer me. Did you enjoy the party?"
"Yes I did. It was a very warm welcoming to be sure."
"And nothing I could tell you would ruin this party for you?" 
After a few moments Frank shook his head. "It was a great time; a great day and nothing in the world can take this joy I already had away from me, not even you, Discord!"
Discord rolled his eyes. "A simple 'no' would have been enough, but since my tale cannot ruin the party for you, I am not breaking the Pinkie promise I gave by giving you some insight in my point of view of the last days." 
Discord engulfed his calabash pipe, chewed on it for a moment and finally produced something that looked like a gum bubble which floated towards the center of the room to come to rest beside the suspended fire. It seemed filled with the figure forming vapors which Frank had noticed before, but inside the bubble they didn't dissolve as Frank looked onto them. Instead the figures became clearer, colorful and finally the bubble reminded Frank of the crystal balls some fortune tellers were supposed to work with, though Frank had never seen any of those before and was rather skeptical about the validity of any such fortune telling. The bubble however depicted scenes from the party two days ago rather than making any predictions of the future. 
"Dear Fluttershy was kind enough to permit me to come along to the party, hidden in her mane so my presence wouldn't inconvenience anypony else", Discord explained dryly. "But she is not exactly subtle about concealing something… or someone and so Twilight, the Element of sceptic— of magic I mean, was onto us right away. Chased poor Fluttershy all the way up to the top…", Discord pointed at the broken stair leading up to the cupola, "...and there she had me promise once again not to show myself to anypony or annoy or attack or do anything to anypony or do any magic during the party except for…" Discord pointed at the bubble that illustrated everything he was telling.
"My spectacles…", Frank said as he saw in the bubble how a tiny Discord hidden in Fluttershy's mane changed differently colored glasses back to clear transparency in an alley where Frank had run after his fit of anger about Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon bullying Scootaloo, "...I thought the magic had just worn off."
"Just worn off", Discord snorted. "You really don't think very high of my magic, do you? But what do you ponies know anyway with your limited vision?"
At these words, a new image appeared inside the bubble. Frank saw the crowd of ponies at the party, but between them moved one pony whom he recognized as Filthy Rich only when he took a closer look. Unlike all the other ponies, Filthy Rich's color appeared to be changing, his regular fur color shining through a blackish, fumy blur that seemed to pulse between variable degrees of transparency. Frank remembered of course that Mr. Rich had been controlled by the switchling at the time. 
"You knew?" he asked grimly. "You knew but didn't tell Twilight or anypony that there was this monster walking among them?"
"And of course you will blame me for it, right?" Discord said. "But you may want to add to your considerations the fact that I, as part of my reformation, imposed some magic upon myself that keeps me from breaking any Pinkie promises I make."
Frank remembered Discord's apparent choking when before he tried to tell, before Frank's assurance that nothing Discord said could ruin the party for him.
"I had promised not to ruin the party for anypony or impose magic upon anypony. Telling Twilight that some unknown menace— I didn't know at the time what it was, though I could make some competent guesses— was walking among them surely would have put a damper on her party mood. Still I tried to negotiate the point about the use of magic."
There was a slightly muffled sounding version of Discord's voice coming from the bubble: 
"How very interesting!" The image in the bubble still showed the uncanny figure of Mr. Rich walking between the other ponies. 
"Be quiet Discord!" a muffled, but sharp sounding whisper of Twilight's voice responded. "You promised!"
"Alright, I will not be one to inconvenience you or anypony else on this party... Does that go for anypony who happens not to be a pony too?" Discord's muffled voice asked.
"Of course!" Twilight's sharp muffled whisper came from the bubble. 
"Had our dear Princess been a little more confident about my estimation of appropriate use of magic on pony parties, I daresay it might have spared you all some trouble. Before I could think of some other way to get it into her thick skull that it might be—"
"Do not talk of Princess Twilight like that!" Frank said angrily.
"Oh for great Tohobohu's sake! Here I am lying out to you why it was a bad thing that her Highness had me Pinkie promise my possibility to warn her or anypony away and all you got to do is trying to lecture me about what I should and what I shouldn't say? Are you even serious? Here we are, commander of chaos and harbinger of hatred, in an attic among the debris caused, in the end, by her princessiness' unwillingness to give me a chance to handle things, and all you care about is courtly etiquette? Will you just drop that ridiculous mask for a moment and let me continue? By Eris' and her golden apple, I have been exemplary in my patience already!"
The outburst of the draconequus caught Frank by surprise and reduced him to obedient silence while he was trying to figure out the outlandish exclamations as well as trying to swallow himself being titled 'harbinger of hatred' by the 'commander of chaos'. 
"As I was saying…", Discord continued, "...before I could think of some other way to get it into her Highness' enormously thick skull, that I was kind of out to warn her, her pet dragon reappeared and revealing my presence to anyone but her and Fluttershy was explicitly against the rules of that Pinkie promise.  For the rest of the evening I got no chance at all anymore to have an undisturbed word with Twilight. I kept an eye on Filthy blackish there, but since he didn't mess up the party for anypony to the point that I might have considered myself released from that Pinkie promise there was really nothing I could do. At last the party ended and I brought Fluttershy home. When I asked her to come along to your little picnic the next morning she told me 'no', can you imagine that? I even risked some serious discord with Luna when I managed to meddle a little with a dream of Twilight's, but since it seemed the little princess had no need for me either I went where I am going when I'm just utterly fed up with you ponies."
"And you sulked?" Frank asked looking at a sulking Discord head looking at him out of the bubble. 
Discord growled slightly and poked his tongue at his own image inside the bubble. Discord's image inside the bubble returned a rude grimace.
"Oh for… I really need to find better mannered pipes to chew into presentation bubbles!" Discord sighed. "Oh well, perhaps I was sulking for a while. But I was also being a little more informed then about what exactly I had seen walking among you ponies during the party."
"You were being informed?" Frank asked, but Discord ignored the inquiry.
"Kindhearted and caring as I am, I came back to Ponyville the next evening to see if everything was alright just to find that everything was a total mess. Chaos and without me even having a hand in it. Not the good kind of funny as Miss Pinkamena Diane Pie would probably put it. You were locked up here, my dear Fluttershy was starting to get worried about ever more of her birds being traumatized, her Highness was going after some crotchety butler, all the while still suspecting me too once she couldn't keep up blaming said butler and I got around just in the nick of time to give her pet owl a subtle magic hind to get home immediately and keep her from falling to that now rather owlish opponent."
"But I don't understand", Frank said. "If you knew, why didn't you just put an end to it there and then? Why didn't you just tell Twilight what was going on?"
"Would you have expected me to do that? If so, it may be in improvement with regard to me being so predictable as you claimed two days ago. There was also still that Pinkie promise, I don't know if I could have told Twilight even if I had meant to."
"But you didn't mean to? Surely you could have found a way around it just like you did with me."
"And why should I have? I got my pride too, you know, and if her Highness doesn't trust me… and if she did… maybe it is a good thing if I don't get her to trust me too much just yet."
Frank seemed about to ask something, but Discord cut him of with a shake of his head and a discarding wave before he could actually say anything.
"Besides, should I have deprived the new princess of the chance to do her job? And even her higher Highness Celestia herself is not exactly known to meddle with her subject's affairs unless she is asked to or her intervention is really necessary. In any case I was curious about the hearing, how our princess would perform and also what exactly our inconspicuously intrusive impostor was up to. It was quite a delightful show to see how much effort her Highness… uhm yea, I guess it wasn't quite so delightful for you."
Franks impression had hardened and he was clearly struggling to suppress his anger while the bubble flashed several scenes from the hearing. 
"To be fair, I think Twilight didn't do too bad, given the fact that she lacked quite a few crucial pieces of the puzzle. So after the hearing was over, I made sure you got your hooves on some of the information that she was missing and also with some helpful hints on what the intruder doesn't handle so well and that you could provide, especially after the hearing."
"But how could you know?" Frank asked wearily. "I always try to keep it to me. I got myself under control. I suppose Princess Luna, who can enter the dreams of sleeping ponies may have her means, but you—"
"...got means of my own", Discord said flatly. "But with your outburst on the stage and with you kicking about folders up here, you were not exactly as subtle as you may pride yourself to be… perhaps it still could have counted as you just sulking about the hearing."
"Did you always observe me? Just how can you know all you know and how did you learn what you wrote in that book you let me find?"
Discord discarded the question with a seemingly impatient wave that let a frown appear on Frank's forehead, but Discord ignored this too and continued:
"What I did not know and what I had not foreseen was that of all ponies you happened to lay out all your findings to the one under the switchling's control even though you could have been able to guess this."
Frank Blanket cut a defiant face but he stifled an angry response, remembering that he himself had thought of and referred to his revelation to the controlled Featherscribe as foolish. But when he saw something like a green flash inside the bubble he couldn't keep his anger in anymore: 
"Ponys could have been hurt or even killed, you know? Just because you wouldn't try to tell Twilight. I was very nearly… oh."
Frank fell silent suddenly and a look of utter surprise appeared on his face as a realization struck him. Discord was emphatically inspecting his claws and talons and mockingly pretended to blow some dust from them. 
"It was you! That's why she didn't hit when she could barely miss me! You deflected her spells!"
"Sorry to disillusion you, but yes. She didn't just miss you because it was your lucky day. Done yelling at me?"
"I wouldn't have called it a lucky day, but thank you! I guess I'm more obliged to Dr. Quircs than I had realized."
"You're welcome", Discord said. 
The bubble turned dark and only when in one corner a reddish shine appeared did Frank recognize that the bubble now showed the burning forest. 
"There wasn't so much left to do for me from there on", Discord said. "Her moony Highness was quite capable to stem the tide from the forest while dear Fluttershy was quite capable to stem her Highness' mooniness."
Frank raised one eyebrow. He was pretty sure that the word 'mooniness' was one of Discord's own creations, but he had a good idea of what it was supposed to describe. The words from the book echoed in Frank's mind: '...a deep rooted kind of these sentiments, based not just on a fleeting fit of temper and intense enough to possibly prove poison even for the one exerting it, as lately demonstrated by the no longer mover but inhabitant of the moon.'
"Princess Luna knew", Frank said. "When at the edge of the forest I tried to summarize what a switchling is I didn't have to tell her. And she allowed for herself to stay at the forest's edge and let me go in instead."
"If I do not succeed, the less the loss to everypony, if too successful much less the threat. But I can succeed!" Discord recited and it took Frank some moments before he realized that these had been his own words to Luna at the edge of the forest. "You got an air for pompous words, you know that? You ever considered writing dramas or plays?"
It wasn't quite clear if Discord's words had been taunting or if it had been an actual suggestion. Frank in any case appeared strangely frightened at the suggestion. Whatever Discord's intention, he just continued without waiting for any response from Frank:
"It seemed the best to me to keep an eye on the newer princess for the time being."
For a moment the bubble in the middle of the room took on the appearance of a large and rather eerie looking eyeball, before it turned dark again.
"To be fair, I didn't have to intervene as much in the forest as I had to up here. The little princess may be growing with her tasks. Just a few whispered words which she then believed to be a trick of her own mind was all it took to get her on her way and from there on I could remain a silent observer for the rest of the time… oh well, I think at one point her Highness actually heard me snorting, but I guess she put that one off as a trick of her own mind too. In any case there was no need for me to do anything more. And here we are."
"But why didn't you just…?" Frank broke of sighed and shook his head slightly. "I guess it may not be up to us mortals to understand everything immortals do or what they don't or why."
"There you go again", Discord said. "Maybe you really want to write that kind of stuff down."
Frank gave a dismissive wave with one hoof, shook his head and suddenly all the weariness of before seemed to come back to him. For some reason, talking about the events of the night with all its perils and frights had felt calming, distracting and even almost comforting to Frank, but now it seemed like they had reached the end of it.