//------------------------------//
// Chapter 4: Caregivers 
// Story: Nibiru: Chaos Collision 
// by Knox Locke 
//------------------------------//

"Holy shit."

This was what Felicity uttered as the Grant siblings followed her into Discord's crater.

"I thought you said this was a dog," she said.

"We lied," said Luke bluntly.

"I would hope so," the vet replied. "Otherwise, this thing's even more fucked up than I thought."

'All I need is my claws fixed up, my friends,' came Discord's voice in their heads.

Felicity screamed and jumped at least three feet into the air. Upon reentering the atmosphere, she quickly attempted to hide herself behind Maggie, even though she was the smaller of the two siblings and Felicity was taller than either of them.

"Don't worry, Ms. Cross," Maggie said, attempting to comfort the grown woman whimpering in fear behind her. "This is Discord. He won't hurt you."

'I wouldn't dream of it,' came Discord's voice.

'In fact,' he adjusted his head slightly to get a better view of her cowering form, 'you remind me of somepony very dear to me.'

Felicity's face peeked over Maggie's shoulder. She had nearly begun crying due to her fear.

"R-really?" she asked meekly. "Who?"

	'I doubt you would know them,' came the reply. 'She does live in a different dimension, after all.'

"Wait, what?" asked Maggie. "You're from a different dimension?"

"Why am I not surprised?" Luke muttered under his breath.

Then, he noticed something strange about Discord's terminology.

"Wait," he said. "Did you just say 'some-pony'?"

'Oh,' said the voice. 'Yes, I suppose that phrasing must be a little weird here.'

Then everyone was distracted away from the subject when Felicity unexpectedly got out from behind Maggie and went back to examining Discord.

As she observed more and more injuries on his battered and broken form, she began to show more and more sympathy towards the admittedly frightening creature.

"Aw, you poor baby," she said when he winced in pain at the slightest movement of his tail. "Don't worry. At the rate you're healing, you should be able to at least get out of this crater in a matter of weeks."

'Oh, it won't be nearly that long, my dear,' said his voice in her head. 'Do take another look at my claw, would you?'

"Of course," she said as she drew her attention back to his eagle claw. "But may I ask why?"

'It's simple,' he said in her head. 'Once I can snap my claws without writhing in pain, everything will be alright.'

Felicity rolled this over in her head, but she couldn't seem to make heads or tails of it. Nonetheless, she took a closer look at the claw, being careful not to move it too much.

"If you don't mind me asking," she said as she worked, "what happened to get you in this state?"

'It's quite simple really,' Discord responded. 'I was having a bit of fun with dimensional travel, but I jumped through the portal before it was ready. As a result, I hit your planet. Hard.'





Felicity worked fast, and she was done patching up Discord in less than an hour.

"That should do it," she said as she packed up her things. "He should be OK to be moved in a few weeks, and his claw should only take a few days to heal properly."

She looked directly at Discord for the last part, earning a slight smile from him.

After Felicity left, Maggie and Luke stayed with Discord for a while longer. Thinking Discord might want to know more about where he was, Maggie pulled up some history articles on her smartphone.

Discord was utterly horrified by what he saw. Equestria may have villains and the forces of evil magic, but this world was so much worse. From what he'd seen of the people here so far, the last thing he expected of this world was war, corrupt governments, and weather that ravages their cities of its own fruition. The last time Equestria had seen a time of war was over a thousand years ago. These creatures couldn't seem to keep the cursed things away. The typical year in Equestria brought with it a maximum of around five or six homicides, so the number presented by this world was positively staggering!

As he gained more information, he came to a conclusion. This was not the world his kind and generous caretakers deserved. He would have to fix that.