//------------------------------//
// Lovely Food... 
// Story: Higher Ground 
// by Lissamel 
//------------------------------//

	It was dark inside, despite it being rather decently light outside. Discord had to blink a few times just to see a counter with a rack displaying perfectly frosted cupcakes. Did she just not care if people could see the things she sold, or could she honestly not pay for lighting? He’d believe either one.
He looked back and forth, wondering if anypony even owned this store. I mean, there were cupcakes, but who knew how old those were? Most likely, they were left there for the illusion that somepony owned this place. Deciding that if the place was deserted nopony would care; Discord began stacking the cupcakes one atop the other until he had a little pyramid made of cupcakes. And since he had to carry each one in his mouth, he came to the conclusion that they were either rotten or very bitter. No wonder they hadn’t been sold.
“You going to buy these? Three bits to start, but really you can get it much cheaper.”
Looking over from his cupcake pyramid, he saw the unmistakable face of Pinkie Pie, smiling eagerly. While her mane seemed to be a weird mix of curly and straight and she seemed remarkably thin, nothing to unusual had happened to her. 
“Haven’t a bit to my name.” He replied matter-of-factly.
“That’s okay!” She insisted, then attempted to force some money into his hooves. “You can take some of my bits, and then pay me back with them!”
While he may know nothing about owning anything like a store, he did know that this was an incredibly dumb way to get ponies to buy things. You would make no profits. “No, really, I don’t want them.”
“Please take it and buy them!” She insisted, “I need to pay off my debt somehow!”
He frowned and took her bits. He probably wouldn’t get sweets with them, but maybe there was a fountain he could toss them into. 
“Good!” She smiled wide. “Now, what do you like? We have cupcakes and tarts and cakes and cookies and cinnamon rolls and éclairs and doughnuts and beignets and so many other things! Best in Jadeite, I promise!”
Discord highly doubted that. He’d had a taste of the cupcakes, after all. “I don’t know…”
“PLEASE!” She shouted, her eyes wide. “I need this money! Barely anypony gets things from me and if I don’t repay my debt I could get thrown out of the city! Thrown. Out.” She emphasized the words, as though Discord didn’t grasp the concept. “Is there a problem? Are they to sweet? To dry? Is it me? I could change if it made you buy something.”
Surprisingly, he was at a loss for words. That hardly mattered—Like usual, Pinkie was doing all the talking for him. “Are you afraid there’s nothing you’d like? I can do custom orders. Oh! Do you not like sweets? T-that’s okay, I’m sure I can get some other things, too…”
He tried to get a word in, but suddenly Pinkie looked off in the distance. “Is someone out there…? Please buy something, oh ones who watch over me and all I do, and help me with this debt! I can’t be banished! Mother and father back at the rock farm will never take me seriously.”
“Do you often have horrible delusions?” He asked bitterly.
She looked back to Discord, blinking. “Rarity told me there’s ponies who watch all things I do, and that they’d buy my sweets when I needed them to! Um, it hasn’t worked so far.”
He smiled a bit. “Well, maybe you’re not begging hard enough.”
“Ah?”
“Don’t you understand?” He chuckled. “To get otherworldly beings to like you, you have to grovel at their—H-hooves, yes.”
It took a moment, but soon, she smiled freakishly wide. “Are YOU an otherworldly being?”
Finally, somepony noticed it! “Yes.”
“Are ALL pegasai otherworldly beings that’ll buy my sweets?”
“Well…I…Yes. Yes they all are.” He replied, completely deadpan.
Pinkie quickly dropped to the floor, bowing her head. “Oh great pegasus sir, all my gratitude and honor goes to you! Now buy something!”
Why couldn’t taking over the normal Equestria be this easy? Discord smirked smugly. Now, all he needed to do is convince all other ponies of otherworldly beings. “Yes, yes, dearest Pinkie Pie. Certainly.”
She suddenly looked confused. “How d’ya know my name?”
Oh, good going. “…Don’t all otherworldly beings have complete knowledge of all ponies?”
“Oh! Yeah!” Pinkie nodded. “Of course they do, why wouldn’t they?”
He nodded. Dodged a bullet. “Now, for my first action as your supreme over…pony…I would like a really big cake. Red velvet, of course, with cream cheese frosting and a little model of me on top of it—Made of marzipan! It should be about five layers with a layer of frosting between each layer of cake.” Discord paused to see Pinkie slowly smiling and nodding. This must be her big break. “And then I’ll write up an IOU and pay you sometime next month.”
Pinkie nodded eagerly. “Yes sir! I’ll get on that right away. Do you want text on that, too?”
“Oh, yes, all the better.”
“What should it say?”
“Just my name, of course. Just ‘Discord’.”
She blinked. “Okay, Disco! You can count on me!” And with that, she began hopping off into the kitchen, happily muttering about how lucky she was.
“R-D!” He yelled, not wanting his cake just to say ‘Disco’. That would be stupid! “D-I-S-C-O-R-D!” 
She giggled. “That’s not how you spell ‘Disco’!”
Well, at least Pinkie was acting like her normal self, even if she was under the wrongful assumption that his name was ‘Disco’. Smirking to himself, Discord began walking out, hoping his lovely cake wouldn’t be as bitter as those cupcakes. “And I expect it done sometime next week!” He added, though he barely knew if he would still be here by next week.
She didn’t reply, but he assumed she got the message as he left, the bell announcing his departure.
Now thinking about it, something was off—And he meant more then usual. Hadn’t Pinkie said, of all ponies, Rarity was the one who told her about otherworldly beings? That seemed weird. Rarity was not the type to associate herself with the occult. So why would she mention that to Pinkie…?
Whatever. Maybe when he found her, he’d ask about it. Flying away from Rhubarb Pastries, he looked around for somepony else to see. How about Fluttershy? While annoying in her mushy sweetness, she was an easy-to-manipulate doormat. Discord scanned the area, looking for an animal shelter or something else distinctly Fluttershy-ish.
He came upon a sign, a pastel yellow in color. In precise pastel pink lettering, it read:
Fluttershy, spirit medium, fortune teller, and pet whisperer! (As seen in Trixie’s Amazing Travelling Circus)
Well, stumbling upon things at random really was working for him today! Looking at the little bungalow, he tapped on the door with a hoof and waited for a reply.