Day 1: Pinkie Pie
With a squeal of brakes, the train from Canterlot pulled into Ponyville station. Several ponies got off, and strolled along the platform, meeting the people who had been waiting for them. No ponies got onto the train; there would be a delay while the engine was refuelled.
After ten minutes, only one pony remained on the platform, waiting.
Twilight frowned at the train. She knew that Discord had got on the train in Canterlot, she had received a note from the Princess to that effect. Of course, considering that this was Discord under consideration, that didn't mean he'd necessarily remained on the train...
Twilight strolled slowly toward the rear of the train, and then turned about and walked towards the stylishly decorated engine.
Huh, that's new. she thought quietly, looking at the decorative metalwork on the engine. Looks almost like Rarity's had a hand in the design of that engine. But surely that can't be very aerodynamic, can it? She tilted her head to the side. What is it supposed to be, anyway? Some sort of vine or something? No... organic, yes, but it gives more the impression of fauna than flora...
And then, like one of those optical illusions that looks like two faces at one moment and a candlestick at the next, Twilight realised what she was looking at.
“Alright, Discord.” she said, to the engine's additions. “Planning to stay there all week?”
“Maybe.” said the metal carved dragonequus. Then it unwrapped itself from the engine and, a moment later, Discord stood on the platform, a flower-patterned suitcase in one hand. “Then again,” he added, “maybe not.”
“I didn't think you would.” said Twilight. “I mean, it would be rather boring, right? Just sitting there all week...”
“...watching all the scenery go by...” added Discord.
“...no-one to talk to but one driver at a time, whole hours just watching coal being loaded... sounds boring to me.”
Discord shrugged. “Oh, I don't know. It would be rather surprising if the coal suddenly grew into coal-trees, wouldn't it?”
Twilight considered that for a moment. “I guess it would.” she said. “But it wouldn't surprise you if you were the one doing it, now would it?”
“No,” agreed Discord. “But it would certainly be surprising if it just happened and I hadn't done it. Or persuaded anyone else to do it.”
Twilight nodded. “Yes,” she said. “Yes, it would. But that's – well – highly improbable. Pretty near to impossible.”
Discord smiled, a little sadly. “Yes,” he said, “I know.” He sighed. “And that is the bar I'm asking you to beat. Well. Enough about that. Shall we get on with it? I believe that today, it is Pinkie Pie's turn to try to surprise me?”
Twilight narrowed her eyes. “Oooookay.” she said. “I know that you would have predicted that I'd ask my friends. And I know that you know that I know that you know that you were invited for one week, and that there are seven of us. So, taking turns is a reasonable plan. But how did you figure out that it was Pinkie's turn first?”
Discord shrugged. “Secret.” he said.
“Secret?” asked Twilight.
“Weeeeeeeeeeell, more like 'it'd take several hours to explain' and I think I'd rather not waste all that time right now.” explained Discord. “Anyhow, I think you're supposed to be leading me someplace? Making it look natural? Ah... the library, perhaps?”
Twilight gave Discord a flat look, her ears pointed outward to either side and her eyes narrowed.
“Oh, alright, if you want the summarised version, I'm a creature of chaos.” said Discord. “I have no trouble following how Pinkie thinks.” He strolled off the platform and along the road, forcing Twilight to hurry along if she wanted to keep an eye on him. “Also, of all the Elements, I think that Laughter has always been closest to my heart. Even in the worst of my villain days.” He turned back to look at Twilight. “I do hope Celestia's right about you.”
“Um... right about me how?” asked Twilight, hurrying to catch up.
Discord responded by imitating Celestia's voice perfectly. “When Twilight sets out to do something,” he said, “it gets done. No matter what, no matter when, no matter where. It gets done.”
“She said that?” asked Twilight. “She really said that?”
Discord nodded. “I do hope she's right.” he said. “I really don't want to have to go back to the old days.”
* * *
“SURPRISE!”
fweeeeeeeeeeeep!
Discord glanced over the interior of the library, casting his eyes over the balloons, the streamers, the cake. The punch, the confetti, the gramophone. The games corner, the toothless alligator, the dozens of ponies of all ages. He put down his flower-patterned luggage and clapped. “Well done, well done.” he said. “Solid execution, nice decorations, good synchronisation on the shout there. Really nice try with Gummy there, but I already knew about him. Not really all that surprising, though, is it?”
“Oh, come on.” said Pinkie. “Of course it's surprising. I give a party to everypony who comes to visit Ponyville, right?”
“I'm not exactly a pony.” pointed out Discord, pedantically.
“And everygriffon too,” continued Pinkie, “though we've only really had one griffon and she didn't really like the party in any case. I got a toasted marshmallow, though, so it wasn't a total loss. So, anyway, you'd expect me to throw you a party, right? But I'm supposed to be surprising you, and so if you didn't get a party that would be a surprise. But then, you would be expecting me to surprise you, so you wouldn't be expecting a party at all so a party would be an even bigger surprise, right?” She finished by giving Discord a big, hopeful grin.
Discord simply smiled, and patted Pinkie on the head. “I assigned a high probability to a party,” he explained, “and a low probability to no party. Neither outcome would really have surprised me.”
“Aw, phooey.” said Pinkie, crossing her forelegs sulkily. “That's not fair.”
“To be fair,” added Discord, “I do enjoy a good party.”
“Great!” said Pinkie, cheering up instantly. “Would you like some cake?”
“Some cake would be lovely.” said Discord.
“Ooooh, muffins!” added Pinkie, handing out slices of cake to some fillies and colts. “I forgot the muffins. Hey, you can teleport, right? Could you pop over the Sugarcube Corner and fetch the muffins? Just pop outside the door and knock first, okay? Mrs Cake gets a bit upset if people teleport into her store.”
* * *
“SURPRISE!”
fweeeeeeeeeeeep!
Pinkie gave Discord a large, hopeful grin. “I thought you'd be expecting one party,” she explained, “but nopony expects two parties in one day!”
“A good try.” said Discord, waggling his lion-paw horizontally in the air. “I give it a seven out of ten. I'm guessing you had Twilight teleport all the guests while I was knocking on the door?”
“Yep-arooni” nodded Pinkie, grinning. “Don't tell Mrs. Cake about that part, okay? She's busy with a takeout delivery order, and I asked Bon-bon to make sure to keep her chatting for extra-long today.”
“My lips are sealed.” replied Discord, laying his lion paw on his chest.
“Okay, good. Then let's have a surprise-while-fetching-the-muffins PARTY! Which game would you like to play? Or maybe we should get back to the welcome party in the library?”
“Well,” said Discord, “I've always been partial to Twister. Besides, I don't think it's a good idea to move the party back before Twilight's had a bit of a rest...”
* * *
“You can stay in my spare room, if you like.” said Twilight, yawning. “My goodness. I've never been to two Pinkie parties in one day before. It really does take it out of one, doesn't it?”
“Especially if you're teleporting one entire party to the other party.” said Discord, with a nod. “And don't worry, I've made plans for accommodation.” He hefted his flower-patterned suitcase.
“You're going to... sleep in your luggage?” asked Twilight.
Discord shrugged. “I guess that's one way to put it.” he said. He glanced around, and spotted a suitable alleyway. Stepping into it, he unzipped his bag and laid it flat...
...and right there, in front of Twilight's eyes, a tall tower rose up out of the suitcase. Twice the height of the library, made of rock and with three gems in ever-shifting colours hovering two-thirds of the way up. Twilight's eyes looked at the jagged pointy top, and followed the tower down as it widened, and widened further as it got closer to the ground, ending in an substantially sized lower floor. It was such an unexpected sight that it took her several moments to realise that the tower was a good deal wider than the alley had been. Twilight glanced left and right, but the buildings on either side were still there, and still in good repair. For a moment, she thought that the alley had widened... but no. The alley was just as narrow as it had always been.
It simply now contained a building far too large to bit into the alleyway; one which, moreover, was not touching the sides.
“It's um.” said Twilight, looking at the structure whose very existence defied common sense, the laws of physics, and probably the laws of good design, as well. “It's, um. It's very, um. It's... it's... um. It's really very... you.”
“Why, thank you.” said Discord. “I'll meet whoever is going to be surprising me tomorrow outside my front door, okay?”
“Whoever?” asked Twilight. “You don't know? You didn't predict it?”
“Of course I predicted it.” said Discord. “But if I tell you, then you'll change it. Besides, after today's non-stop partying, I'm rather looking forward to a change of pace tomorrow.”
“So... right here, then, tomorrow?”
Discord shook his head, tutting. “No, no, Twilight.” he said. “Right outside my front door tomorrow morning. Did you really expect my front door to stay in the same place all night long?”
* * *
Discord's final thought: Pinkie's not done yet. She knew this wouldn't work; she knows she can't surprise me when I'm expecting her to surprise me. She'll come back later, probably pop out of somewhere and blow a flugelhorn in my ear. Day 4, I imagine.
I wish I wasn't expecting that.
I don't expect any of the others to try anything outside their agreed day. Pity, that; if they all tried at once, they might be harder to predict.
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Normally, the last thing tried would be the one to work, but that doesn't seem likely.
3347987
True; but that's usually because when something works, the characters stop trying, because they've already succeeded.
In this case, there's a Pinkie cake in it for whoever succeeds best, so there's an incentive to keep trying. Also, they want to solve the problem in a long-term way; one surprise only gains a few months to think. So I can reasonably say that the last thing tried may or may not work in this story...
3349495
I would be highly disappointed if that worked.
Out of curiosity, do you know what Discord's surprise is going to be yet? I have no desire to know what it is (I despise spoilers), but I want to know if you know.
3350836
Let me put this in as non-spoilery a way as I can; I know exactly how the epilogue will go. It will include a sequel hook (though I'm not yet sure if I will ever write the sequel).
I also know whether Discord will receive a surprise, and I have a broad idea of the scene where that is finally made firmly clear. I also know exactly where in the story that scene will occur. There will be foreshadowing for that scene, and there may possibly have been foreshadowing already. (There may also be, and there may also have been, red herrings; things that look like foreshadowing but aren't).
However, there are a few fine details that occur prior to the epilogue that I still need to work out.
...I think that answers your question without spoiling anything.
3351393
No spoilers given away, and you did answer the question to a satisfactory degree and then added a bunch more on. All I saw was a giant sign saying, "HEY, GO REREAD MY STORY TO LOOK FOR CLUES IF YOU WANT THEM!" However you did do a good job hiding it behind a ton of politeness and vagueness.
Suddenly I'm thinking of the surprise execution paradox. The surprise is going to come some time this week. When? Who knows!
Even though this doesn't feel the same as the show, I like Discord's voice in this story. It's what I can imagine he'd sound like if he were genuinely, pathetically, desperately BORED.
Discords house looks really large, yet fit into an alley that did not grow in size and has room to spare...
Something tells me that his house is...
posterplanet.net/doctorwho/images/doctor-who-tardis-bigger-on-the-inside-poster-p3623.jpg
It feels kind of weird saying this, but Discord seems to boring in this. I know that's kind of the idea, but it doesn't like Discord
4693026 Actually, the alley is.
He asked her to surprise him. She agreed. Only way I could think of is if she didn’t do anything at ALL. Or, something disharmonious...
This story is just a straight up story about trying to out Batman Gambit Discord and I am HERE for it
