//------------------------------//
// ...For Rabbits, That Is 
// Story: Higher Ground 
// by Lissamel 
//------------------------------//

Mere seconds after his hoof knocked against the door, a small mail slot near the bottom opened. Beady black eyes scanned him up and down for a moment or two before the slot closed again. There was some chatter going on inside, and Discord leaned closer to hear it.
“What is it, Angel…? Oh, a visitor? Is it Trixie? I want to do another show, show Rarity I can be just as—It isn’t? Aw. Well, go and let him in, then.”
That…Sounded incredibly normal. Well, this got underwhelming really fast. 
The door opened moments later, a small white rabbit happening to be the doorman. The rabbit blinked, then allowed Discord to walk in, and he did so. “Olly-olly-oxen-free?” He called jokingly, looking around.
At his hooves were various animals—Kitties and puppies and hamsters and the like—obsessing over him like crazy. From the ceiling hung tarot cards and little clear plastic balls. Obviously, decorating was not Fluttershy’s strong point. 
“Hello, Mister...?”
“Discord.” He replied, though he knew full well how smoothly that was going to go.
There was a slight pause before Fluttershy said something—“Slight identity issues. Oh, come this way, please, and I’ll see how I can help you.”
He didn’t need help; he knew full well who he was. Nonetheless, he followed the sound of her voice, since the room was rather dim, save for candles every now and then. Was that why it smelled overwhelmingly of orange vanilla? “Marco.” He said blandly, hoping she’d play along.
“Polo.” She replied.
Discord found her quickly after that, illuminated by the same orange vanilla candles and wearing a purple fruit hat. Wait—A fruit hat? Okay, this just got more surreal. She was staring into a crystal ball that was seemingly filled with smoke.
Without looking up, the mare gestured with a hoof. “You may sit.”
He looked behind him to see a blue velvet sofa. He stared at it a while, knowing how ponies were supposed to sit, but not knowing how to twist his body into that position. Maybe it wasn’t worth the effort. “Nah, I’ll stand.”
“If you insist.” She muttered, sticking out her tongue as she stared harder into the smoke within the crystal ball. “Now, anything in particular you want me to see?”
Well, maybe he could screw around with her. “Where am I right now?”
Fluttershy began to do a few spastic gestures, her fruit hat tipping to the left. When she finished, she pushed it back up. The smoke within the ball twisted and spiraled, and then suddenly cleared, showing…
…Nothing.
Nothing?
Fluttershy looked up, and finally, her brain processed the question. “Oh, ha-ha-ha, very funny. Now, what about a real question? I’m rather popular and don’t have all day.”
As shown by that total lack of a line outside her bungalow, of course. As smoke refilled the ball, he paused for a moment to think, then asked, “Can you do, oh, I don’t know, previous incarnations?”
She smirked, flipping a hoof dismissively. “Of course I can! No fortune teller can’t.”
“Then do so.”
She began gesturing like crazy, some fruit actually falling off of her hat as she was nearly dancing. The smoke weaved and dipped and dived, made loops and turns, went all the way to the top and then snapped to the bottom.  
The smoke cleared, an image shaking into view. Discord leaned slightly closer, looking at what it was.
Wait…Was that--?
A-A Diamond Dog?
“There you go. Now, that’ll be twenty bits for a start-up fee…”
Discord frowned. “But that’s wrong.”
Fluttershy shook her head. “No, my predictions are always right. Now, two times fifteen is thirty…”
“But I was told by another one what my previous incarnation was—And it sure as heck wasn’t a Diamond Dog.”
“Fine, mister better-fortune-teller-then-thou. What was it?”
He smiled proudly. “Obviously, a Draconequus.”
She looked at him with a perfectly deadpan expression. Then, she looked over at her white rabbit, and the two muttered between themselves for a moment or so. Suddenly, she looked up again, shaking her head with a little laugh. “No, no, everypony knows there’s only one of those.”
Honestly, he should have guessed she would say that. “Yes, maybe there were more, though.”
“Now, are you going to pay me? Twenty plus thirty is—Oh, would you like a spirit guide animal? That’ll be fifty bits extra.”
Obviously, she wasn’t one to dwell on a subject for that long. Discord lay out the bits Pinkie had forced him to take and counted them. Six bits exactly. So how did she expect him to pay out, at minimum, fifty bits? “You’re joking. I don’t have that kind of money.”
Fluttershy leaned over the table, counting his money again, just to be sure he did it right. She came to the exact same conclusion as he did. “Oh, you’re in debt, too? Should have figured.”
“D-Debt? To whom?”
“Rarity, of course.” She scowled a little just as she mentioned the unicorn’s name. “Everypony’s in debt to her nowadays. Really, how does she expect me to upstage her when nopony can pay for…” She paused abruptly, then buried a front hoof in her forehead (Discord had overheard, once, this was called a ‘facehoof’) and muttered. “Oh, yeah…”
Discord laughed a bit. “Listen, can I write up an IOU? I should be able to pay you back sooner or later.” Quick, think of some plausible job! “Triple-W pays me sometime this week.”
He never thought he’d think this again, but thank you, Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy looked over, frowning at him. “Oh, I know you! You’re the pegasus that made the snow almost cave in my roof.”
He chuckled nervously. “Now, now, that was just a heck of a doppelganger…”
“You were trying to kill me! And my animals, too!”
“Well, not to get a bad fortune and run, but—That’s exactly what I’m doing. Toodles!” And with that, Discord flapped his wings furiously, darting out of Fluttershy’s bungalow and slamming the door behind him, panting a little. Dodged another bullet. He pressed his ear to the door to hear what might have been Angel restraining the pegasus from breaking the door down. Then, so he wouldn’t cause an unwanted distraction, he quietly flew away.
You know who he hadn’t seen? Applejack and Rarity. I mean, twice now, he’d heard talk about the unicorn, but the earth pony seemed to be gone from existence. All the better, he guessed. However, if the unicorn was such an extreme force in this place as to put near everypony in debt, maybe she was worth conversing with. After all, he’d made her greedy first.
In the distance, he saw a large building, the same shade of purple as the sign. Well, if Rarity was going to be anyplace, that was it. He darted a bit faster (making a magenta mare drop her groceries in the process) until he reached the building. Smirking to himself, he wandered inside.