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Verse 3
Diamond Tiara sat up suddenly in bed, wide awake. The lamp still sat on the floor, and though it no longer flared brightly, it still shed light, at its lowest setting. It was by this light that she could see that it was now one o'clock. Quickly, she slid out of her bed and scooped up the lamp, turning it to its brightest setting. Then she sat on the bed, lamp grasped tightly in her hooves, waiting, determined to be ready no matter what appeared.
        But nothing did. The clock's hands did their thing, ticking away the moments of the night. Not in the rapidly spinning way they had earlier, but in the ordinary mundane way that clocks normally do, with a soft tick accompanying each movement.
        And so Diamond Tiara sat, waiting, as one became became quarter past. And quarter past became half past. Onwards time went, in its ordinary way, while Diamond Tiara sat waiting with increasing nervousness. By the time the clock neared two AM, she almost dared to wonder if perhaps it had all been a dream. But it was then that the lamp slipped from her grasp and floated up to the ceiling in the center of the room.
        There, it flipped upside down and somehow attached itself. It began to spin and rather than the more uniform light the lamp usually provided, it seemed as if it were reflecting beams of light of different colors in all different directions, almost as if it were a mirror ball. The beams danced across the room, darting this way and that, before finally gathering upon a single point: the statue upon the nightstand.
        The statue gave a small bow and tipped its top hat to its audience of one, a rather strange occurrence, given that statues are generally not known for their ability to move or their politeness, although in their defense, they never speak out of turn. But besides the movement, there was also the fact that this particular statue had never had a top hat before. Of course, it had never had a cane before either, and it had one of those now as well, so if that, then why not a top hat as well?
        Slowly at first, then faster, the statue began to do a tap dance number upon the dresser, the spotlight coming from the lamp following it as it moved from one end to the other and all points in between. At last, it ended it with a flourish and waited for applause.
        So strange and silly was it that Diamond Tiara felt obliged to grant its request. The statue straightened, bowed once more, and then jumped off the dresser. Rather than falling down to the ground, however, it stretched and grew. What had been the perfect miniature version of one of Equestria's most famous art pieces turned into something with mismatched limbs, horns, and a serpentine body. Stranger still, it did this all to music and as the transformation completed, sang, "Guess who's back, back again? Discord's back, tell a friend."
        It stopped at that and turned to look at Diamond Tiara. His head tilted side to side. "Wait, you don't have any friends, do you? Sucks to be you, I guess. But that doesn't mean we cannot have a good a time! Isn't that right... uh, wait, don't tell me... Carbon Headpiece?"
        The whole entrance had been so silly that Diamond Tiara could not help but utter the first thing that came to her mind. "Weren't you supposed to be here an hour ago?" Then she glowered at her visitor. "And my name is Diamond Tiara."
        Discord dismissed her objection with a nonchalant hand gesture. "Close enough. Your name, not the time. Always calling things by the same name, that can get so boring. Though I suppose it is better than referring to them by their characteristics, huh, pink pony? And as for the time..." Discord looked over at the clock. "Ah, I see the problem," he said, raising a hand up in the air, index finger extended. "You forgot about Discord Savings Time." And with that, the finger stretched toward the clock and spun it back one hour.
        "Right on time! Except nothing interesting is happening right now, is it? And that's no good. I spend all year cooped up as a statue in that boring garden where barely anything changes. This night is my only chance to have some fun. So we'll have to do something about the boring old time, won't we?"
        Diamond Tiara nodded in agreement. Some fun certainly sounded better than a painful trip down memory lane.
        "But first, we need to fix this room. How can you stand to even be in here? All this grey, where's the fun in that? Where's the color, the variety?" He looked around and shook his head. "How about a memorial?" Discord snapped his fingers and the walls were covered with images of Diamond Tiara's mom and Silver Spoon.
        "Please no, not after..." Diamond Tiara pleaded.
        "No? A mummorial then?" He snapped his fingers and the images changed to scenes of undead pony mummies. Some sat on thrones, surrounded by ponies with the heads of various animals, others were more scenes out of an old movie, and still others were quite realistic, what one expected to see in a museum. Even the painting of Silver Spoon now featured a mummified version of her. Again Diamond Tiara made her distaste obvious.
        "Okay, I know just the thing then. A mammal-mural. But something exotic, nothing close to home." Again he snapped his fingers. The whole room was a single scene now. A small zebra village occupied one wall, and it flowed seamlessly into a grasslands to one side and a jungle to the other. The far wall was a watering hole. "You like it? I threw in some birds and reptiles for free. If you look really closely, there's the ruins of a temple in the jungle. And somewhere out there on each wall there's a grey pegasus in a red and white striped sweater and a blue hat. Pretty awesome, if I do so say so myself."
        Diamond Tiara nodded agreeably, being a cunning pony. She figured if she kept disliking, he would just keep changing things. At least with this scene, Silver Spoon's portrait was untouched. Plus looking for the ruined temple seemed pretty interesting. She could always repaint it back to grey later.
        Discord stretched over to whisper conspiratorially to Diamond Tiara, "Did you know I've split myself into five hundred and two pieces for tonight? Got to make sure I get enough stories to tell myself for the whole rest of the year, after all. It gets terribly lonely otherwise, all alone in the garden. Never be alone if you can help it, kid-o. And speaking of that, we'd best get going. Freedom is wasting!"
        And so Diamond Tiara was pulled from her room, down the stairs, and out of the house, like a parent with a child eager to visit the toy store. Once outside, Discord frowned at the darkness. "Let there be light!" he exclaimed. And it felt as if the entire world sped up, ponies passing by in a blur, until the sun rose and there was light and ponies going about their business.
        Together, Discord and Diamond Tiara walked through Ponyville. As they walked, Discord pointed out whatever struck his fancy. If you have ever had the misfortune of meeting Discord, and I hope that that you have not, then you would know that almost anything could strike his fancy at any time, the only guarantee being that they would not hold it for long. What Diamond Tiara noticed though was that most of them involved multiple ponies: the snowball fight in the park, the couple dancing on the street, the carolers singing, and the various families off to visit yet more families and friends. The more ponies in the mix, the more it attracted Discord's attention and the longer it held it.
        The other thing Diamond Tiara noticed was that Discord would touch various packages ponies were carrying, and each time he did so, a quick flash of light would occur. Presents, covered plates of food, and whatever might have been in a saddle bag, it mattered not. He touched as many as he could, weaving and dancing between ponies to get at their goods.
        "Tell me, Discord," Diamond Tiara asked at last. "What are you doing with the flash and poof?"
        "Changing things, of course!" Discord exclaimed. He pointed to a family whose gift he had just touched. "They'll be so surprised when their colt opens the boring gift they got him and pulls out the fancy toy he really wanted, but they could not afford. He'll be happy." Discord leaned over and whispered into Tiara's ear, "It also makes lots of racket and will drive the parents to the moon."
        He pointed to another package. "Auntie Swirl's Seaweed Surprise will definitely surprise them when they discover it contains no seaweed this year, but instead oranges and kumquat. Seaweed, seriously, what was Sea Swirl thinking? Even I'm not that cruel. Besides, seaweed never turns out well. Did you know I once changed every house in Vanhoover to be made from seaweed? Not my best idea, the whole place smelled horrid. So I changed them all into igloos instead. Ah, those were the days," he reminisced. "There's limits on what I am allowed to do, of course, but what little chaos I'm allowed to make, I will." He winked slyly.
        Diamond Tiara stopped and stared at a house they were in front of. She had not even realized they had been approaching it. Years ago, she had come here often, at least twice a week. Her legs must still have remembered the way and taken her today, she figured. Or had Discord led them here? She tried to remember if either one of them had been leading, but could not recall.
        "Interesting place?" Discord asked, interrupting her musings.
        "It used to be, for me anyway, but then, you probably know that already," Diamond Tiara said. Hesitantly, she walked up to the door of the house and stopped. "I used to visit here quite often. Since the funeral, I've never been back. At first it was because I didn't know what to say, because the pain was too real. And then... I guess I just buried it, avoided thinking about it."
        "Sounds positively boring. Let's skip it. We can go ice skating instead."
        Taking a deep breath, Diamond Tiara stepped through the door and into the house beyond. The room beyond looked familiar to her, yet that very familiarity made the differences stand out all the more. Objects that had been moved, others than had been removed, and some new items added to fill the empty spaces. Quite a few new things, as if someone had been determined to fill an empty space, but had never quite managed to do it.
        With a pop, Discord appeared next to Diamond Tiara. "Now how did you know you could do that? I didn't tell you, did I?" He paused for a second, with a hand on his chin. "No, I most definitely did not."
        Diamond Tiara shrugged. "It just seemed like something one should be able to do in a whatever this is. Being stopped by something as simple as a door would rather ruin the impact."
        "Of course, of course. But still quite impressive. Did you know you're only the third sentient being in all the times I have done and am doing this to try that all on your own? Oh, just wait until I tell the rest of me." While he spoke, he busied himself with swapping the locations of various items.
        Ignoring Discord, Diamond Tiara wandered deeper into the house. It seemed sad. How something like a house could feel sad she wasn't entirely sure, but that is how it felt all the same, even with some festive holiday decorations scattered about.
        A corner of the living room drew Tiara's attention. A shelf stood there, covered in picture frames, toys, a bronzed set of socks, and a few medals, the type foals win no matter how they placed in a contest. Inside the picture frames where drawings obviously made by a child and pictures of Silver Spoon, though Diamond Tiara was in a couple as well. Everything was immaculate and seemed to have been placed with a determined precision. The life of her friend, captured in a shrine, while her spirit roamed the world in chains.
        Diamond Tiara slapped Discord's hand away as he reached for the shrine. "Not this. Leave this untouched."
        "But don't you see? They are stuck in a moment of time, static. They need to change, like this present," —Discord held up a rather large present, wrapped in silver foil, in one hand— "not stay in the past. They've got another shrine upstairs. Her room, practically untouched, as if she might come back, as if they might forget her if they changed it." With the free hand, he snapped his fingers and the present shimmered, the wrapping paper now seeming to spin, as if it were a belt, with every length equal to a side of a different pattern and color. To Diamond Tiara's dismay, she saw that the gift he had touched was for Silver Spoon. Discord just smiled and said, "You'll thank me later."
        "You change that back. You change that back right now!" Diamond Tiara demanded.
        Discord put the present back where he had gotten it from and slid over to Diamond Tiara. He put a comforting arm around Diamond Tiara's shoulder.. "I would, except... okay, you got me. I wouldn't. Besides, we have to de-p-a-r-t... Why? Because I wanna."
        With a snap of Discord's fingers, Diamond Tiara found herself standing within the barn of Sweet Apple Acres. All around her, ponies were having a good time. And not just ponies, but also some cows, sheep, and various pets. Matter of fact, the only party guest who did not appear to be having a good time was a long haired white cat, who sat upon a bale of hay, hissing and occasionally swiping a claw at whoever came near.
        Discord disentangled himself from Diamond Tiara and gestured grandiosely with his arm. "It's a party, get it?" At Tiara's blank stare, he sighed. "Sometimes you ponies are absolutely no fun. But speaking of fun, what do you think about joining this here shindig? You do remember how to party, don't you?"
        "Of course I do," Diamond Tiara said. "And I'm sure it'd be lovely, but they can't see or interact with us, remember?"
        "Come now, do you really think such a little thing would stop one such as me?" Discord tapped Diamond Tiara on the nose with a finger and then did the same to himself. "Now they'll think we are somepony else. The moment we walk away, we're gone from their memories. So now we're all good to join this hootenanny.
        "Now, what to do first... I got it! Let's go play some games. Pin the Tail, that was always fun. I invented that game, you know. Much more fun when you use actual ponies. Do you suppose they'd be willing to play it that way?"
        Diamond Tiara did not feel the need to dignify that with answer. Instead, she walked over to a table that was covered in a variety of food, no doubt all involving apples. The Apple family had the blind devotion to all things apple common amongst apple lovers. Diamond Tiara, well, even with being indifferent to most foods, found it hard to be indifferent to apples. She had made the decision to dislike them long ago. She was feeling a bit peckish, however, due to having eaten little at dinner. She selected an item and swallowed it with only a few chews. Reaching for a second one, she felt a tap on her shoulder. Looking over her shoulder, she found herself face to face with Apple Bloom, with Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle not far behind.
        "Hi, Babs! I didn't know you were coming," Apple Bloom exclaimed. Diamond Tiara looked around for Babs, but failed to find her. Apple Bloom giggled. "Oh, silly cuz. I've missed you." Diamond Tiara almost stumbled in surprise as Apple Bloom threw a hug around her neck. Tentatively, Diamond Tiara returned the hug.
        And so it was that Diamond Tiara joined in the party. As the evening wore on, she found herself enjoying it more and more. She joined the tea party with Fluttershy and the pets, played party games with the other foals, and slow danced with Twilight Sparkle's pet dragon, who drooled on her shoulder a bit. She even played a few games of "Pin the Tail". Discord won all of those, and though she was pretty sure he cheated, she found she did not mind. At last, the party began to die down and she found herself alone with Discord.
        "And how was it?" Discord asked. "You looked like you were having quite a lot of fun."
        "I was. This is, like, the best party I've ever been to. Everyone was having such a good time. Why weren't any of my parties even half as much fun?"
        "Because, for ponies, laughing with somepony generates more happiness than laughing at somepony. I could get all sciency-wiency and explain why, but your simple mortal mind could never understand the complexities behind it. So you'll just have to trust me that it is so, because I wouldn't lie to you, would I?"
        Diamond Tiara's brow scrunched as she pondered this, not quite sure if she believed it or not. For starters, there was one thing that did not make sense if it were so. "Then why do you do what you do? You just laugh at, you don't make everyone laugh," she accused Discord pointedly.
        "Ah, but I'm part dragon," Discord said, indicating his more draconic parts. "Dragons don't share."
        "Okay then, why didn't anyone tell me it could be like this?"
        "Would you have listened if they had, Shiny Rock Head? No? That's what I thought." Discord looked at his arm. "Look at my wrist. Time sure flies when you're not a statue in a boring garden that barely changes from day to day. Couple more things I'm supposed to show you before my time is up and they should be starting to happen just about now. Yeah, that's me, Mr. Chaos, working off a schedule." Discord rolled his eyes. "Pretty sickening, huh?"
        With that, Discord booped Tiara on the nose again and tapped himself as well. "Back to really abnormal. Now, let's follow... her." He pointed towards Applejack, who was having a hushed conversation with Big Macintosh. Diamond Tiara watches as Applejack stormed off, leaving Big Mac shaking his head.
        Diamond Tiara found herself pulled along in Discord's wake as he followed the farm pony. Out the door and into the orchards they went. It was dark, with much of the night sky obscured by clouds and the ground covered in undisturbed show, yet Applejack seemed to know exactly where she was going. And soon enough, she reached it, a shed on the far side of the orchard.
        At the sound of Applejack's approach, the door of the shed opened, allowing light to spill out. The silhouette of a pony stood within the doorway. The shed pony and Applejack greeted each other with a kiss, before retreating inside the shed and closing the door.
        "Come on, let's listen in." Discord cupped his hand to his ear and began listening through the door.
        "Can't we just look inside?" Diamond Tiara asked.
        "And spoil the surprise? I think not," Discord replied. And just to be safe, he tapped the shed, giving it a slight shimmer.
        Diamond Tiara gave the shed a test shove with her hoof, but she couldn't pass through it. Sighing, she put an ear to the door as well. Through it, she could hear the ponies within talking. It was muffled, distorted a bit, but Applejack's accent made it clear which one was her.
        "Ah just hate hiding this from everyone is all. Ah know some of them suspect something is up. Rarity's been prying with her usual dogged determination and Pinkie's been dropping hints about throwing a big party like they's apples in applebucking season," Applejack said.
        "I know this has been rough. Do you think I like hiding it any more than you do, my dear?" the other pony, a stallion by the sound of it, replied. "If it was just you and me, I'd shout it as loud as I could from the highest building in town. I'd put an advertisement in all the papers. I'd get the best seats in the house for a play and sit proudly beside you, hoof in hoof. But it isn't just us."
        "Ah know. But Ah don't know how much longer Ah can keep going like this." Silence from within the shed for a bit, before Applejack continued. "My brother almost demanded to know what was going on. Ah'm going to have to start telling ponies something soon. Ah won't... Ah can't lie to them. That's just not who Ah am."
        "I know, and it is part of what I love about you. But Tiara... How would she react? I have to think of her first."
        Shock raced through Diamond Tiara at the mention of her name. The pony that Applejack has sneaked off to see was her father? Of all the scenarios she might have imagined seeing on this night, never in a thousand years would this one have crossed her mind.
        "Ah know she's your daughter, sugarcube, and that you'd do anything for her. Ah feel the same way about my family. But you deserve some happiness too."
        Both parties inside the shed were silent, though Diamond Tiara could hear them shifting around slightly, next to each other. The silence continued for a few more minutes before her father spoke again. "I pulled some strings to get her made the director of this year's pageant, you know. I'd hoped that it would lead her to make some friends, to start living again."
        "It could still happen. It is Hearth's Warming, after all. If a miracle could happen, this is the time for it," Applejack said, though the tone of her voice made it obviously how likely she considered that. And that was the last that was said within the shed for a while.
        Gently, Discord pulled Diamond Tiara away from the shed. "Come," he said. "There is one more thing I have to show you."
        "My dad. Applejack. How? When? How could he?" Diamond Tiara asked. She had never considered that, since her mother's death, her father might be interested in any other pony. Parents are supposed to be immortal and unchanging, as reliable as the sun. And for her father to be interested in an Apple, well, that was even more unthinkable.
        "It surprises you? They've got quite a bit in common, you know. They both value a good day's work and a well run business. They've known each other for years, been there when the other suffered the worst day in their life. And the families have known each other for three generations now. So, sure, he's a little bit older than her, but I've seen far larger age gaps work." Discord paused and critically eyed Diamond Tiara. "Or is just that it is your father and an Apple? Do you dislike them that much that you would deny your father happiness?"
        Diamond Tiara ignored the question, unwilling to deal with something of that magnitude just yet.. "When did it start?"
        "After Silver Spoon's funeral. Death tends to make people reflect, especially if it was sudden and unexpected. He'd gone to visit your mother's grave, while she'd gone to visit that of her parents. They wound up talking, sharing grief, then sharing memories."
        "That long ago? But why hide it?"
        "Because you were in such pain. He didn't want to add this on top of everything else you were feeling. So they decided to wait on making it public until you were better, until you were happy again. Of course, that moment never came, did it? Silly ponies, waiting for change instead of making it happen."
        "Why?"
        "Why are they dating? Well, you see, when a pony and a--" Discord started to explain, before Diamond Tiara cut him off.
        "No, why are you doing this? You're Discord. Okay, you're bored with being a statue, I get that. But why all this?"
        Discord stopped walking. "Allow me to demonstrate."
        He raised his hand and from the ground a single link of chain arose. "This is a single pony, all by itself." He gave it a tap with his foot. "What happened?"
        Diamond Tiara was unsure what exactly she was supposed to see. "It... fell?"
        "Yup, it fell. Just it, nothing else. Pretty boring. Now, say we have more than one pony." With a flourish, nine more links rose from the ground, joining the first, all standing on an end, forming a circle. Again, he knocked the first one over with his foot. He looked at her expectantly.
        "Okay, they all fell this time."
        "Right, I knocked one over and lots of things happened. Less boring. And what happens if one gets back up?" He reached down and lifted one so that it stood up once more, causing all the others to wind up standing back up as well. "Nothing stands alone. It is all a giant pattern, all intertwined. What touches one part touches the whole. Like a stone thrown in a lake causes ripples that reach the far shore. Why do you think I love chaos so much? I change one thing and then everything around it changes as it reacts to what I did. Endless variety and wonder, each time I make a change. Nothing approaches it. You see?"
        Diamond Tiara nodded. "Whatever planned this night wants ponies to interact because it makes us stronger. And you, you're fine with this, because it means what affects one pony affects all."
        "Indeed. It works for them, it works for me eventually. Win-win. Not as good as a simple I win, but the best I can do for now. So I help set things up."
        Discord brushed the air with his hands, and snow flew away from a patch of ground. He extended his hands, spreading out his hands as far as possible, and pulled them up. Chain links rose from the ground, standing unattached as if dominoes, forming the outline of a head. Hers, Diamond Tiara, realized. Even the colors were there, for the links of chain were made of diamonds that matched the color of her coat and mane.
        "And later, I'm going to knock them down." With a grin, Discord bent over and selected a single link. Gently, he breathed on it, causing it to fall over. When it did, it knocked over the next link, which knocked over the next, each time with a soft tink sound. At certain points, a link falling over caused two links to fall. In others, multiple links would work together to knock over a single one. New patterns formed and disappeared as quickly as they had appeared. Ultimately, they ceased knocking each over, and the links left standing spelled a word: Chaos.
        "Glorious, isn't it?" Discord asked. Without giving Diamond Tiara an opportunity to answer, he continued, "Now, let's move on, places to be." With a snap of his fingers, the ground was as it had been before his demonstration, and he resumed his walk.
        Back to Ponyville the pair walked, Discord happily talking about whatever struck his fancy, with a pensive Diamond Tiara walking at his side. Upon re-entering the town, Discord once again occupied himself making what little change he was allowed to make, while leading onward into the poorer parts of town, the parts Diamond Tiara avoided. At last, he stopped before a poor specimen of a house.
        It was not that it was ill kept that made this house such a poor specimen. As far as maintenance went, it exceeded that of its nearby fellows. Nor was it that its front yard was a mess consisting of an uncut lawn, a weed filled garden, and an old wagon up on blocks. No, the house was well maintained, and the yard the best kept in the entire block. What made the house stand out was its size, or rather the lack therefore. Of all the houses Diamond Tiara had seen in her young life, she had never seen one so narrow. It seemed to be barely wider than its door.
        "Why are we stopping here?" Diamond Tiara asked.
        "Because this" --Discord swept his arms wide toward the narrow house with a flourish-- "is our destination," replied Discord.
        "But surely I don't know anyone that would live in such a place. What is the connection?"
        "Have you thought that perhaps the importance is in that there is no connection, but that perhaps there should be?" He gave her a little bit of time to ponder that. "Or perhaps, there is a connection, just not one you are aware of. And here she comes now."
        Scootaloo walked towards them, apparently heading home from the party. Stopping in front of the house, she glanced over her shoulder. Satisfied that no pony she knew was following her, she slipped up the path and into the house.
        Before this night, the knowledge that Scootaloo lived in a place like this would have filled Diamond Tiara with elation, and she would have reveled into using the knowledge to embarrass the pegasus as soon as possible. After the strange happenings of the night so far and the party, tonight she was merely curious as to the life of her classmate, wondering what else she did not know.
        "Come on. Or else we're going to miss all of the good stuff," Discord said. He skated towards Diamond Tiara and picked her up with a twirl, sliding toward the door. A split jump later and they were through the door and inside.
        Once inside, Diamond Tiara could see that the house's outside was not a clever disguise, magically larger on the inside than the outside. The inside was narrow, with a narrow stairway leading up to a second floor, a hallway barely wide enough to allow one pony to pass through, and room that was barely the size of her bedroom. The room contained a cramped kitchen area, a bar, and a living area. A small tree occupied one corner, with a pile of presents that was to scale, both in quantity and size. That left barely any room for the dining table with six chairs, upon three of which sat Scootaloo and her parents.
        "How was the party?" Scootaloo's mom asked.
        "Great," Scootaloo said and launched into a recounting of the events of the night. Diamond Tiara listened as Scootaloo somehow made the party sound even better than it had been. Discord though just yawned.
        "Okay, maybe we wouldn't have missed any good stuff. Party talk? Bah, we were there, remember? Let's go snoop instead," Discord said. Out of the dining area and into the hall he went, stopping in front of a door under the stairs. "I betcha this is a pantry. Maybe they have some chocolate milk in there. Although it would spoil if not kept cold, so maybe not. Well, there's no harm in checking, is there?" And with that, he stuck his head through the door.
        "Ooh, this is so much better. You have got to see this, shiny headpiece. It's a bedroom. They have turned this closet into a tiny bedroom. There is barely even room for anything besides the bed and a picture of Rainbow Dash on the wall, and get this, it is signed," Discord said.
        He pulled his head back through the door. "You know, that rainbow one was a real buzzkill. You'd figure with a mane with a variety of colors and her love of practical jokes, she'd be a blast, up for all sorts of things. But nope, friends this, loyalty that, must save home. But here I go, talking my head off again." From up on the stairway, Discord's arms reached down and grabbed his head, reattaching it to his neck. "Let's see what's up here!"
        Discord's tail wrapped itself around Diamond Tiara and pulled her up the narrow stairs behind him. At the top, there was a short hallway, with three doorways. Straight ahead, an open door revealed a bathroom. Diamond Tiara could see that, like every other room in the house so far, it was small and felt rather crowded. The other two doors, one to the left, the other to the right, were both closed. Diamond Tiara was swung through the air as Discord faced first one and the other, trying to decide which one to go for.
        "Oh, I know," Discord said. Diamond Tiara suddenly found herself thrown up in the air, spinning end over end, before landing solidly on her rump.
        "Ouch!"
        "Tails it is," Discord exclaimed, sweeping Tiara up in his arms and heading for the door on the right. Once there, he shoved the forward half of Diamond Tiara through the door and stuck his own head through as well.
        Diamond Tiara found herself looking into a bedroom. There was barely enough light to see by, coming in from the street lamps outside through the thin curtains that covered a window. A bunk bed stood along one wall and a dresser along another. A few toys lay scattered on the floor, mostly the type colts would play with and all well used. Turning her attention back to the bunk bed, Diamond Tiara counted three ponies, the largest one on the top bunk and two smaller ones sharing the bottom.
        "I never knew Scootaloo had three brothers," Diamond Tiara said.
        "No reason you should. After all, when is the last time you truly tried to talk to her? And what reason would she have to tell you anything? Or even others, since then the information might wind up back in your hooves?" Discord asked. "You haven't only cut yourself off from others, but succeeded in cutting others off from each other as well. Quite the list of achievements for one so young."
        Silence was the only answer Diamond Tiara could give. Downstairs, She could hear Scootaloo telling her parents good night and the closing of her bedroom door. The stairs creaked as the parents headed upstairs.
        Discord yawned. "Bored in this room. Time for a new location," Discord said, as he backed out into the hallway. Discord lifted Diamond Tiara up and down a few times. "Okay, ready? Try to land on your head this time," Discord said.
        "What? No!"
        "Oh, you're no fun," Discord pouted. "Fine, have it your way," Discord said and dropped Diamond Tiara. Together, the duo followed Scootaloo's parents into the room at the other end of the hall.
        "So what do you think?" Scootaloo's father asked.
        "To be honest, I don't know. On one hoof, that job offer would be a dream come true, for both of us. It is the type of job we've always wanted; we could work together, and we'd be able to afford a larger place. But on the other..." Scootaloo's mother let the last word dangling.
        The father nodded. "It would require moving to Cloudsdale. And with Scootaloo's condition, at her age, that would be a real problem. Plus it would mean she would have to leave her friends behind."
        "If only we could find another place in town for her to stay. Cloudsdale is close by. We could visit on our day's off. I'd ask my cousin, but you know they have their hands full right now."
        "Maybe she could stay with one of--"
        "You need to go," Discord said, as Scootaloo's parents continued their conversation. "Our time is up. Almost time to turn you over the last. You were pleasant company, for a pony. Come see me sometime. I'll be playing in Canterlot all millenium." Discord bent down and gently rubbed Diamond Tiara's mane. "Best of luck, silly filly." Discord snapped his fingers, and Diamond Tiara disappeared in a puff of smoke.
        "Well, time to resume my gnomely duties," Discord said. And then he was gone as well.

Description
Verse 3
Diamond Tiara sat up suddenly in bed, wide awake. The lamp still sat on the floor, and though it no longer flared brightly, it still shed light, at its lowest setting. It was by this light that she could see that it was now one o'clock. Quickly, she slid out of her bed and scooped up the lamp, turning it to its brightest setting. Then she sat on the bed, lamp grasped tightly in her hooves, waiting, determined to be ready no matter what appeared.
        But nothing did. The clock's hands did their thing, ticking away the moments of the night. Not in the rapidly spinning way they had earlier, but in the ordinary mundane way that clocks normally do, with a soft tick accompanying each movement.
        And so Diamond Tiara sat, waiting, as one became became quarter past. And quarter past became half past. Onwards time went, in its ordinary way, while Diamond Tiara sat waiting with increasing nervousness. By the time the clock neared two AM, she almost dared to wonder if perhaps it had all been a dream. But it was then that the lamp slipped from her grasp and floated up to the ceiling in the center of the room.
        There, it flipped upside down and somehow attached itself. It began to spin and rather than the more uniform light the lamp usually provided, it seemed as if it were reflecting beams of light of different colors in all different directions, almost as if it were a mirror ball. The beams danced across the room, darting this way and that, before finally gathering upon a single point: the statue upon the nightstand.
        The statue gave a small bow and tipped its top hat to its audience of one, a rather strange occurrence, given that statues are generally not known for their ability to move or their politeness, although in their defense, they never speak out of turn. But besides the movement, there was also the fact that this particular statue had never had a top hat before. Of course, it had never had a cane before either, and it had one of those now as well, so if that, then why not a top hat as well?
        Slowly at first, then faster, the statue began to do a tap dance number upon the dresser, the spotlight coming from the lamp following it as it moved from one end to the other and all points in between. At last, it ended it with a flourish and waited for applause.
        So strange and silly was it that Diamond Tiara felt obliged to grant its request. The statue straightened, bowed once more, and then jumped off the dresser. Rather than falling down to the ground, however, it stretched and grew. What had been the perfect miniature version of one of Equestria's most famous art pieces turned into something with mismatched limbs, horns, and a serpentine body. Stranger still, it did this all to music and as the transformation completed, sang, "Guess who's back, back again? Discord's back, tell a friend."
        It stopped at that and turned to look at Diamond Tiara. His head tilted side to side. "Wait, you don't have any friends, do you? Sucks to be you, I guess. But that doesn't mean we cannot have a good a time! Isn't that right... uh, wait, don't tell me... Carbon Headpiece?"
        The whole entrance had been so silly that Diamond Tiara could not help but utter the first thing that came to her mind. "Weren't you supposed to be here an hour ago?" Then she glowered at her visitor. "And my name is Diamond Tiara."
        Discord dismissed her objection with a nonchalant hand gesture. "Close enough. Your name, not the time. Always calling things by the same name, that can get so boring. Though I suppose it is better than referring to them by their characteristics, huh, pink pony? And as for the time..." Discord looked over at the clock. "Ah, I see the problem," he said, raising a hand up in the air, index finger extended. "You forgot about Discord Savings Time." And with that, the finger stretched toward the clock and spun it back one hour.
        "Right on time! Except nothing interesting is happening right now, is it? And that's no good. I spend all year cooped up as a statue in that boring garden where barely anything changes. This night is my only chance to have some fun. So we'll have to do something about the boring old time, won't we?"
        Diamond Tiara nodded in agreement. Some fun certainly sounded better than a painful trip down memory lane.
        "But first, we need to fix this room. How can you stand to even be in here? All this grey, where's the fun in that? Where's the color, the variety?" He looked around and shook his head. "How about a memorial?" Discord snapped his fingers and the walls were covered with images of Diamond Tiara's mom and Silver Spoon.
        "Please no, not after..." Diamond Tiara pleaded.
        "No? A mummorial then?" He snapped his fingers and the images changed to scenes of undead pony mummies. Some sat on thrones, surrounded by ponies with the heads of various animals, others were more scenes out of an old movie, and still others were quite realistic, what one expected to see in a museum. Even the painting of Silver Spoon now featured a mummified version of her. Again Diamond Tiara made her distaste obvious.
        "Okay, I know just the thing then. A mammal-mural. But something exotic, nothing close to home." Again he snapped his fingers. The whole room was a single scene now. A small zebra village occupied one wall, and it flowed seamlessly into a grasslands to one side and a jungle to the other. The far wall was a watering hole. "You like it? I threw in some birds and reptiles for free. If you look really closely, there's the ruins of a temple in the jungle. And somewhere out there on each wall there's a grey pegasus in a red and white striped sweater and a blue hat. Pretty awesome, if I do so say so myself."
        Diamond Tiara nodded agreeably, being a cunning pony. She figured if she kept disliking, he would just keep changing things. At least with this scene, Silver Spoon's portrait was untouched. Plus looking for the ruined temple seemed pretty interesting. She could always repaint it back to grey later.
        Discord stretched over to whisper conspiratorially to Diamond Tiara, "Did you know I've split myself into five hundred and two pieces for tonight? Got to make sure I get enough stories to tell myself for the whole rest of the year, after all. It gets terribly lonely otherwise, all alone in the garden. Never be alone if you can help it, kid-o. And speaking of that, we'd best get going. Freedom is wasting!"
        And so Diamond Tiara was pulled from her room, down the stairs, and out of the house, like a parent with a child eager to visit the toy store. Once outside, Discord frowned at the darkness. "Let there be light!" he exclaimed. And it felt as if the entire world sped up, ponies passing by in a blur, until the sun rose and there was light and ponies going about their business.
        Together, Discord and Diamond Tiara walked through Ponyville. As they walked, Discord pointed out whatever struck his fancy. If you have ever had the misfortune of meeting Discord, and I hope that that you have not, then you would know that almost anything could strike his fancy at any time, the only guarantee being that they would not hold it for long. What Diamond Tiara noticed though was that most of them involved multiple ponies: the snowball fight in the park, the couple dancing on the street, the carolers singing, and the various families off to visit yet more families and friends. The more ponies in the mix, the more it attracted Discord's attention and the longer it held it.
        The other thing Diamond Tiara noticed was that Discord would touch various packages ponies were carrying, and each time he did so, a quick flash of light would occur. Presents, covered plates of food, and whatever might have been in a saddle bag, it mattered not. He touched as many as he could, weaving and dancing between ponies to get at their goods.
        "Tell me, Discord," Diamond Tiara asked at last. "What are you doing with the flash and poof?"
        "Changing things, of course!" Discord exclaimed. He pointed to a family whose gift he had just touched. "They'll be so surprised when their colt opens the boring gift they got him and pulls out the fancy toy he really wanted, but they could not afford. He'll be happy." Discord leaned over and whispered into Tiara's ear, "It also makes lots of racket and will drive the parents to the moon."
        He pointed to another package. "Auntie Swirl's Seaweed Surprise will definitely surprise them when they discover it contains no seaweed this year, but instead oranges and kumquat. Seaweed, seriously, what was Sea Swirl thinking? Even I'm not that cruel. Besides, seaweed never turns out well. Did you know I once changed every house in Vanhoover to be made from seaweed? Not my best idea, the whole place smelled horrid. So I changed them all into igloos instead. Ah, those were the days," he reminisced. "There's limits on what I am allowed to do, of course, but what little chaos I'm allowed to make, I will." He winked slyly.
        Diamond Tiara stopped and stared at a house they were in front of. She had not even realized they had been approaching it. Years ago, she had come here often, at least twice a week. Her legs must still have remembered the way and taken her today, she figured. Or had Discord led them here? She tried to remember if either one of them had been leading, but could not recall.
        "Interesting place?" Discord asked, interrupting her musings.
        "It used to be, for me anyway, but then, you probably know that already," Diamond Tiara said. Hesitantly, she walked up to the door of the house and stopped. "I used to visit here quite often. Since the funeral, I've never been back. At first it was because I didn't know what to say, because the pain was too real. And then... I guess I just buried it, avoided thinking about it."
        "Sounds positively boring. Let's skip it. We can go ice skating instead."
        Taking a deep breath, Diamond Tiara stepped through the door and into the house beyond. The room beyond looked familiar to her, yet that very familiarity made the differences stand out all the more. Objects that had been moved, others than had been removed, and some new items added to fill the empty spaces. Quite a few new things, as if someone had been determined to fill an empty space, but had never quite managed to do it.
        With a pop, Discord appeared next to Diamond Tiara. "Now how did you know you could do that? I didn't tell you, did I?" He paused for a second, with a hand on his chin. "No, I most definitely did not."
        Diamond Tiara shrugged. "It just seemed like something one should be able to do in a whatever this is. Being stopped by something as simple as a door would rather ruin the impact."
        "Of course, of course. But still quite impressive. Did you know you're only the third sentient being in all the times I have done and am doing this to try that all on your own? Oh, just wait until I tell the rest of me." While he spoke, he busied himself with swapping the locations of various items.
        Ignoring Discord, Diamond Tiara wandered deeper into the house. It seemed sad. How something like a house could feel sad she wasn't entirely sure, but that is how it felt all the same, even with some festive holiday decorations scattered about.
        A corner of the living room drew Tiara's attention. A shelf stood there, covered in picture frames, toys, a bronzed set of socks, and a few medals, the type foals win no matter how they placed in a contest. Inside the picture frames where drawings obviously made by a child and pictures of Silver Spoon, though Diamond Tiara was in a couple as well. Everything was immaculate and seemed to have been placed with a determined precision. The life of her friend, captured in a shrine, while her spirit roamed the world in chains.
        Diamond Tiara slapped Discord's hand away as he reached for the shrine. "Not this. Leave this untouched."
        "But don't you see? They are stuck in a moment of time, static. They need to change, like this present," —Discord held up a rather large present, wrapped in silver foil, in one hand— "not stay in the past. They've got another shrine upstairs. Her room, practically untouched, as if she might come back, as if they might forget her if they changed it." With the free hand, he snapped his fingers and the present shimmered, the wrapping paper now seeming to spin, as if it were a belt, with every length equal to a side of a different pattern and color. To Diamond Tiara's dismay, she saw that the gift he had touched was for Silver Spoon. Discord just smiled and said, "You'll thank me later."
        "You change that back. You change that back right now!" Diamond Tiara demanded.
        Discord put the present back where he had gotten it from and slid over to Diamond Tiara. He put a comforting arm around Diamond Tiara's shoulder.. "I would, except... okay, you got me. I wouldn't. Besides, we have to de-p-a-r-t... Why? Because I wanna."
        With a snap of Discord's fingers, Diamond Tiara found herself standing within the barn of Sweet Apple Acres. All around her, ponies were having a good time. And not just ponies, but also some cows, sheep, and various pets. Matter of fact, the only party guest who did not appear to be having a good time was a long haired white cat, who sat upon a bale of hay, hissing and occasionally swiping a claw at whoever came near.
        Discord disentangled himself from Diamond Tiara and gestured grandiosely with his arm. "It's a party, get it?" At Tiara's blank stare, he sighed. "Sometimes you ponies are absolutely no fun. But speaking of fun, what do you think about joining this here shindig? You do remember how to party, don't you?"
        "Of course I do," Diamond Tiara said. "And I'm sure it'd be lovely, but they can't see or interact with us, remember?"
        "Come now, do you really think such a little thing would stop one such as me?" Discord tapped Diamond Tiara on the nose with a finger and then did the same to himself. "Now they'll think we are somepony else. The moment we walk away, we're gone from their memories. So now we're all good to join this hootenanny.
        "Now, what to do first... I got it! Let's go play some games. Pin the Tail, that was always fun. I invented that game, you know. Much more fun when you use actual ponies. Do you suppose they'd be willing to play it that way?"
        Diamond Tiara did not feel the need to dignify that with answer. Instead, she walked over to a table that was covered in a variety of food, no doubt all involving apples. The Apple family had the blind devotion to all things apple common amongst apple lovers. Diamond Tiara, well, even with being indifferent to most foods, found it hard to be indifferent to apples. She had made the decision to dislike them long ago. She was feeling a bit peckish, however, due to having eaten little at dinner. She selected an item and swallowed it with only a few chews. Reaching for a second one, she felt a tap on her shoulder. Looking over her shoulder, she found herself face to face with Apple Bloom, with Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle not far behind.
        "Hi, Babs! I didn't know you were coming," Apple Bloom exclaimed. Diamond Tiara looked around for Babs, but failed to find her. Apple Bloom giggled. "Oh, silly cuz. I've missed you." Diamond Tiara almost stumbled in surprise as Apple Bloom threw a hug around her neck. Tentatively, Diamond Tiara returned the hug.
        And so it was that Diamond Tiara joined in the party. As the evening wore on, she found herself enjoying it more and more. She joined the tea party with Fluttershy and the pets, played party games with the other foals, and slow danced with Twilight Sparkle's pet dragon, who drooled on her shoulder a bit. She even played a few games of "Pin the Tail". Discord won all of those, and though she was pretty sure he cheated, she found she did not mind. At last, the party began to die down and she found herself alone with Discord.
        "And how was it?" Discord asked. "You looked like you were having quite a lot of fun."
        "I was. This is, like, the best party I've ever been to. Everyone was having such a good time. Why weren't any of my parties even half as much fun?"
        "Because, for ponies, laughing with somepony generates more happiness than laughing at somepony. I could get all sciency-wiency and explain why, but your simple mortal mind could never understand the complexities behind it. So you'll just have to trust me that it is so, because I wouldn't lie to you, would I?"
        Diamond Tiara's brow scrunched as she pondered this, not quite sure if she believed it or not. For starters, there was one thing that did not make sense if it were so. "Then why do you do what you do? You just laugh at, you don't make everyone laugh," she accused Discord pointedly.
        "Ah, but I'm part dragon," Discord said, indicating his more draconic parts. "Dragons don't share."
        "Okay then, why didn't anyone tell me it could be like this?"
        "Would you have listened if they had, Shiny Rock Head? No? That's what I thought." Discord looked at his arm. "Look at my wrist. Time sure flies when you're not a statue in a boring garden that barely changes from day to day. Couple more things I'm supposed to show you before my time is up and they should be starting to happen just about now. Yeah, that's me, Mr. Chaos, working off a schedule." Discord rolled his eyes. "Pretty sickening, huh?"
        With that, Discord booped Tiara on the nose again and tapped himself as well. "Back to really abnormal. Now, let's follow... her." He pointed towards Applejack, who was having a hushed conversation with Big Macintosh. Diamond Tiara watches as Applejack stormed off, leaving Big Mac shaking his head.
        Diamond Tiara found herself pulled along in Discord's wake as he followed the farm pony. Out the door and into the orchards they went. It was dark, with much of the night sky obscured by clouds and the ground covered in undisturbed show, yet Applejack seemed to know exactly where she was going. And soon enough, she reached it, a shed on the far side of the orchard.
        At the sound of Applejack's approach, the door of the shed opened, allowing light to spill out. The silhouette of a pony stood within the doorway. The shed pony and Applejack greeted each other with a kiss, before retreating inside the shed and closing the door.
        "Come on, let's listen in." Discord cupped his hand to his ear and began listening through the door.
        "Can't we just look inside?" Diamond Tiara asked.
        "And spoil the surprise? I think not," Discord replied. And just to be safe, he tapped the shed, giving it a slight shimmer.
        Diamond Tiara gave the shed a test shove with her hoof, but she couldn't pass through it. Sighing, she put an ear to the door as well. Through it, she could hear the ponies within talking. It was muffled, distorted a bit, but Applejack's accent made it clear which one was her.
        "Ah just hate hiding this from everyone is all. Ah know some of them suspect something is up. Rarity's been prying with her usual dogged determination and Pinkie's been dropping hints about throwing a big party like they's apples in applebucking season," Applejack said.
        "I know this has been rough. Do you think I like hiding it any more than you do, my dear?" the other pony, a stallion by the sound of it, replied. "If it was just you and me, I'd shout it as loud as I could from the highest building in town. I'd put an advertisement in all the papers. I'd get the best seats in the house for a play and sit proudly beside you, hoof in hoof. But it isn't just us."
        "Ah know. But Ah don't know how much longer Ah can keep going like this." Silence from within the shed for a bit, before Applejack continued. "My brother almost demanded to know what was going on. Ah'm going to have to start telling ponies something soon. Ah won't... Ah can't lie to them. That's just not who Ah am."
        "I know, and it is part of what I love about you. But Tiara... How would she react? I have to think of her first."
        Shock raced through Diamond Tiara at the mention of her name. The pony that Applejack has sneaked off to see was her father? Of all the scenarios she might have imagined seeing on this night, never in a thousand years would this one have crossed her mind.
        "Ah know she's your daughter, sugarcube, and that you'd do anything for her. Ah feel the same way about my family. But you deserve some happiness too."
        Both parties inside the shed were silent, though Diamond Tiara could hear them shifting around slightly, next to each other. The silence continued for a few more minutes before her father spoke again. "I pulled some strings to get her made the director of this year's pageant, you know. I'd hoped that it would lead her to make some friends, to start living again."
        "It could still happen. It is Hearth's Warming, after all. If a miracle could happen, this is the time for it," Applejack said, though the tone of her voice made it obviously how likely she considered that. And that was the last that was said within the shed for a while.
        Gently, Discord pulled Diamond Tiara away from the shed. "Come," he said. "There is one more thing I have to show you."
        "My dad. Applejack. How? When? How could he?" Diamond Tiara asked. She had never considered that, since her mother's death, her father might be interested in any other pony. Parents are supposed to be immortal and unchanging, as reliable as the sun. And for her father to be interested in an Apple, well, that was even more unthinkable.
        "It surprises you? They've got quite a bit in common, you know. They both value a good day's work and a well run business. They've known each other for years, been there when the other suffered the worst day in their life. And the families have known each other for three generations now. So, sure, he's a little bit older than her, but I've seen far larger age gaps work." Discord paused and critically eyed Diamond Tiara. "Or is just that it is your father and an Apple? Do you dislike them that much that you would deny your father happiness?"
        Diamond Tiara ignored the question, unwilling to deal with something of that magnitude just yet.. "When did it start?"
        "After Silver Spoon's funeral. Death tends to make people reflect, especially if it was sudden and unexpected. He'd gone to visit your mother's grave, while she'd gone to visit that of her parents. They wound up talking, sharing grief, then sharing memories."
        "That long ago? But why hide it?"
        "Because you were in such pain. He didn't want to add this on top of everything else you were feeling. So they decided to wait on making it public until you were better, until you were happy again. Of course, that moment never came, did it? Silly ponies, waiting for change instead of making it happen."
        "Why?"
        "Why are they dating? Well, you see, when a pony and a--" Discord started to explain, before Diamond Tiara cut him off.
        "No, why are you doing this? You're Discord. Okay, you're bored with being a statue, I get that. But why all this?"
        Discord stopped walking. "Allow me to demonstrate."
        He raised his hand and from the ground a single link of chain arose. "This is a single pony, all by itself." He gave it a tap with his foot. "What happened?"
        Diamond Tiara was unsure what exactly she was supposed to see. "It... fell?"
        "Yup, it fell. Just it, nothing else. Pretty boring. Now, say we have more than one pony." With a flourish, nine more links rose from the ground, joining the first, all standing on an end, forming a circle. Again, he knocked the first one over with his foot. He looked at her expectantly.
        "Okay, they all fell this time."
        "Right, I knocked one over and lots of things happened. Less boring. And what happens if one gets back up?" He reached down and lifted one so that it stood up once more, causing all the others to wind up standing back up as well. "Nothing stands alone. It is all a giant pattern, all intertwined. What touches one part touches the whole. Like a stone thrown in a lake causes ripples that reach the far shore. Why do you think I love chaos so much? I change one thing and then everything around it changes as it reacts to what I did. Endless variety and wonder, each time I make a change. Nothing approaches it. You see?"
        Diamond Tiara nodded. "Whatever planned this night wants ponies to interact because it makes us stronger. And you, you're fine with this, because it means what affects one pony affects all."
        "Indeed. It works for them, it works for me eventually. Win-win. Not as good as a simple I win, but the best I can do for now. So I help set things up."
        Discord brushed the air with his hands, and snow flew away from a patch of ground. He extended his hands, spreading out his hands as far as possible, and pulled them up. Chain links rose from the ground, standing unattached as if dominoes, forming the outline of a head. Hers, Diamond Tiara, realized. Even the colors were there, for the links of chain were made of diamonds that matched the color of her coat and mane.
        "And later, I'm going to knock them down." With a grin, Discord bent over and selected a single link. Gently, he breathed on it, causing it to fall over. When it did, it knocked over the next link, which knocked over the next, each time with a soft tink sound. At certain points, a link falling over caused two links to fall. In others, multiple links would work together to knock over a single one. New patterns formed and disappeared as quickly as they had appeared. Ultimately, they ceased knocking each over, and the links left standing spelled a word: Chaos.
        "Glorious, isn't it?" Discord asked. Without giving Diamond Tiara an opportunity to answer, he continued, "Now, let's move on, places to be." With a snap of his fingers, the ground was as it had been before his demonstration, and he resumed his walk.
        Back to Ponyville the pair walked, Discord happily talking about whatever struck his fancy, with a pensive Diamond Tiara walking at his side. Upon re-entering the town, Discord once again occupied himself making what little change he was allowed to make, while leading onward into the poorer parts of town, the parts Diamond Tiara avoided. At last, he stopped before a poor specimen of a house.
        It was not that it was ill kept that made this house such a poor specimen. As far as maintenance went, it exceeded that of its nearby fellows. Nor was it that its front yard was a mess consisting of an uncut lawn, a weed filled garden, and an old wagon up on blocks. No, the house was well maintained, and the yard the best kept in the entire block. What made the house stand out was its size, or rather the lack therefore. Of all the houses Diamond Tiara had seen in her young life, she had never seen one so narrow. It seemed to be barely wider than its door.
        "Why are we stopping here?" Diamond Tiara asked.
        "Because this" --Discord swept his arms wide toward the narrow house with a flourish-- "is our destination," replied Discord.
        "But surely I don't know anyone that would live in such a place. What is the connection?"
        "Have you thought that perhaps the importance is in that there is no connection, but that perhaps there should be?" He gave her a little bit of time to ponder that. "Or perhaps, there is a connection, just not one you are aware of. And here she comes now."
        Scootaloo walked towards them, apparently heading home from the party. Stopping in front of the house, she glanced over her shoulder. Satisfied that no pony she knew was following her, she slipped up the path and into the house.
        Before this night, the knowledge that Scootaloo lived in a place like this would have filled Diamond Tiara with elation, and she would have reveled into using the knowledge to embarrass the pegasus as soon as possible. After the strange happenings of the night so far and the party, tonight she was merely curious as to the life of her classmate, wondering what else she did not know.
        "Come on. Or else we're going to miss all of the good stuff," Discord said. He skated towards Diamond Tiara and picked her up with a twirl, sliding toward the door. A split jump later and they were through the door and inside.
        Once inside, Diamond Tiara could see that the house's outside was not a clever disguise, magically larger on the inside than the outside. The inside was narrow, with a narrow stairway leading up to a second floor, a hallway barely wide enough to allow one pony to pass through, and room that was barely the size of her bedroom. The room contained a cramped kitchen area, a bar, and a living area. A small tree occupied one corner, with a pile of presents that was to scale, both in quantity and size. That left barely any room for the dining table with six chairs, upon three of which sat Scootaloo and her parents.
        "How was the party?" Scootaloo's mom asked.
        "Great," Scootaloo said and launched into a recounting of the events of the night. Diamond Tiara listened as Scootaloo somehow made the party sound even better than it had been. Discord though just yawned.
        "Okay, maybe we wouldn't have missed any good stuff. Party talk? Bah, we were there, remember? Let's go snoop instead," Discord said. Out of the dining area and into the hall he went, stopping in front of a door under the stairs. "I betcha this is a pantry. Maybe they have some chocolate milk in there. Although it would spoil if not kept cold, so maybe not. Well, there's no harm in checking, is there?" And with that, he stuck his head through the door.
        "Ooh, this is so much better. You have got to see this, shiny headpiece. It's a bedroom. They have turned this closet into a tiny bedroom. There is barely even room for anything besides the bed and a picture of Rainbow Dash on the wall, and get this, it is signed," Discord said.
        He pulled his head back through the door. "You know, that rainbow one was a real buzzkill. You'd figure with a mane with a variety of colors and her love of practical jokes, she'd be a blast, up for all sorts of things. But nope, friends this, loyalty that, must save home. But here I go, talking my head off again." From up on the stairway, Discord's arms reached down and grabbed his head, reattaching it to his neck. "Let's see what's up here!"
        Discord's tail wrapped itself around Diamond Tiara and pulled her up the narrow stairs behind him. At the top, there was a short hallway, with three doorways. Straight ahead, an open door revealed a bathroom. Diamond Tiara could see that, like every other room in the house so far, it was small and felt rather crowded. The other two doors, one to the left, the other to the right, were both closed. Diamond Tiara was swung through the air as Discord faced first one and the other, trying to decide which one to go for.
        "Oh, I know," Discord said. Diamond Tiara suddenly found herself thrown up in the air, spinning end over end, before landing solidly on her rump.
        "Ouch!"
        "Tails it is," Discord exclaimed, sweeping Tiara up in his arms and heading for the door on the right. Once there, he shoved the forward half of Diamond Tiara through the door and stuck his own head through as well.
        Diamond Tiara found herself looking into a bedroom. There was barely enough light to see by, coming in from the street lamps outside through the thin curtains that covered a window. A bunk bed stood along one wall and a dresser along another. A few toys lay scattered on the floor, mostly the type colts would play with and all well used. Turning her attention back to the bunk bed, Diamond Tiara counted three ponies, the largest one on the top bunk and two smaller ones sharing the bottom.
        "I never knew Scootaloo had three brothers," Diamond Tiara said.
        "No reason you should. After all, when is the last time you truly tried to talk to her? And what reason would she have to tell you anything? Or even others, since then the information might wind up back in your hooves?" Discord asked. "You haven't only cut yourself off from others, but succeeded in cutting others off from each other as well. Quite the list of achievements for one so young."
        Silence was the only answer Diamond Tiara could give. Downstairs, She could hear Scootaloo telling her parents good night and the closing of her bedroom door. The stairs creaked as the parents headed upstairs.
        Discord yawned. "Bored in this room. Time for a new location," Discord said, as he backed out into the hallway. Discord lifted Diamond Tiara up and down a few times. "Okay, ready? Try to land on your head this time," Discord said.
        "What? No!"
        "Oh, you're no fun," Discord pouted. "Fine, have it your way," Discord said and dropped Diamond Tiara. Together, the duo followed Scootaloo's parents into the room at the other end of the hall.
        "So what do you think?" Scootaloo's father asked.
        "To be honest, I don't know. On one hoof, that job offer would be a dream come true, for both of us. It is the type of job we've always wanted; we could work together, and we'd be able to afford a larger place. But on the other..." Scootaloo's mother let the last word dangling.
        The father nodded. "It would require moving to Cloudsdale. And with Scootaloo's condition, at her age, that would be a real problem. Plus it would mean she would have to leave her friends behind."
        "If only we could find another place in town for her to stay. Cloudsdale is close by. We could visit on our day's off. I'd ask my cousin, but you know they have their hands full right now."
        "Maybe she could stay with one of--"
        "You need to go," Discord said, as Scootaloo's parents continued their conversation. "Our time is up. Almost time to turn you over the last. You were pleasant company, for a pony. Come see me sometime. I'll be playing in Canterlot all millenium." Discord bent down and gently rubbed Diamond Tiara's mane. "Best of luck, silly filly." Discord snapped his fingers, and Diamond Tiara disappeared in a puff of smoke.
        "Well, time to resume my gnomely duties," Discord said. And then he was gone as well.