Discord's Pet Human

by Thorizard

Everything

Chapter 8: Everything

It’s still dark when I wake up, but Fluttershy is already up and moving. I look up at Discord, but he’s looking ahead at the town. I start to get up, and he moves to lift me to my feet. When I look out at the town, I instead see Fluttershy joining her five friends. I also see Princess Celestia and Luna behind them. Everyone smiles at Fluttershy, at Discord, and at me.
Everyone smiles but Princess Celestia.
“Good evening, ponies,” Discord says with his hands clasped politely behind his back.
I stand close to him, trying to seem polite. I don’t know what to say though. I just smile.
“I have heard what you’ve done, Discord,” Celestia says. “Giving incredible magical power to such a volatile soul as you’ve done would usually be grounds for imprisonment.”
Discord doesn’t reply. He looks to Fluttershy instead, and she nods in understanding.
“I don’t mean to intrude,” she says, turning to Celestia, “but I think we should give Discord the benefit of the doubt. He did have a plan, and I think his plan worked.”
“I find it hard to believe that any plan could justify such destruction and potential harm to others,” Celestia replies, “but feel free to explain.”
“I’m ready to hear this as well, Discord,” Twilight says. “You yanked us from our homes in an instant and moved the palace without any explanation.”
I step forward and get ready to speak, but I feel Celestia’s harsh eyes on me immediately. She stares me down, but I have to speak up for Discord. I take a breath, and steel myself in spite of the princess, but Discord puts his talon-like hand on my shoulder and gently pulls me back.
I look up at him, and he looks calmly ahead. He steps forward this time and begins. “I could tell this story in a hundred different ways with all sorts of magic and rhetoric, but it still might not seem right, and you might never believe me.”
“Yeah, that’s pretty much right,” Rainbow Dash says. Rarity and Apple Jack nod in agreement.
“I’d still like to hear your side of the story,” Celestia says.
Discord nods. “Very well. Then I’m afraid I’ll need help to tell this story properly.” He looks to me. I nod back at him. “Caleb, I need you to tell everyone the truth.”
My stomach sinks. My eyes grow wide, and my heart starts to race immediately. Truth? He can’t mean– no, he said that I would never have to tell anyone. He must mean something else. His eyes are somber and serious though. I know what he means.
“Caleb,” he says, “I need you to tell us the truth about your past.”
My neck feels almost paralyzed as I nod and turn to look at the ponies. They stare at me. Some of them raise their eyebrows. Some look calm. Fluttershy smiles patiently. I swallow, and choke in a deep breath.
“I–” I start, but my voice cracks as I let it out. My face flushes with nervousness, but everyone keeps waiting. “I’m sorry.”
That’s all I can do for the moment. I take a few breaths. No one says a word though. They expect me to do this. I have to do it. Discord needs me to tell the truth. I nod and breathe in again. “I lied about my past. I lied about who I was and what my life on Earth was like. My name is Caleb Tobin, but I did not grow up poor. I grew up in a wealthy house. I was never hungry, I wasn’t adopted; I was taken care of mostly by our steward-slash-babysitter.”
I pause and look up. I look at Fluttershy and tell my story to her. “My father didn’t leave the family. He was just never home because he worked so much. When he was home, he was still working, so I started to feel like his work meant more to him than I did. He made money and was going to put me through college, but he never spent time with me, especially after my mom died.”
I take a moment. Talking about this memory is going to be tough for me. Last time I talked about my mom’s death, I was able to distance myself a little because I was hardly even talking about my own life. Then again, lying may have made that even harder. Lying about my mom felt awful. This time, I’m really acknowledging her and what she meant to me. And I have friends to support me.
I take a breath. “One thing I didn’t lie about is that my mom did die. She had gotten cancer, and it took a heavy toll on her life and on our whole family. With my father never around, and never seeming to care really, she had no hope of winning. She was eventually cured from the cancer after several years, but the pain she had physically and emotionally eventually made her addicted to painkillers and depressants. We didn’t think anything of it for a long time. She was in pain. Why would we be worried that she wanted something to ease it? But she could never get past it. She started sneaking the drugs.”
I shook my head. I hated remembering my mom this way. “She was good. She was so good to me. She was a great mom who cared for me and loved me and told me to never get involved with drugs. I feel like she might have been when she was younger. Maybe that made her more prone to addiction, I don’t know. I’ll never know what happened. All I know is that when she felt pain, there was nothing I could do. I tried to be there for her. My father didn’t. And I think that’s what made her feel like it was okay. She just needed something to ease the pain, to make her forget that she was-” I shuddered a sigh out. I was tearing up, and my throat was so dry. I could barely speak at all, but I had to. I had to be honest. All I had done was lie, and I lied about my mom. She deserved better than to be lied about. I wanted them to know what she really went through. Even if my life wasn’t hard, I wanted them to know that hers was, even if she wasn’t poor.
“I think she wanted to forget that she was forgotten. He never cared, but I did, and it was never enough. Before long, she was gone. Even while she was looking straight at me, she couldn’t see me. She couldn’t remember who I was or why I was with her even though I was at her side every day. I didn’t know what to do. And before I knew it, she had taken too much, and she died. I don’t know if it was on purpose. I think it was. She was made to feel so worthless.”
Discord placed his hand on my shoulder. I was about to shake it off, but I felt reassured by it. So I nodded and went on. “I found her dead, and the way she had been recently, I had no idea if she was dead or just worse than usual. But I realized it eventually.”
I barely get it all out. I stop and breathe deeply. I made it through without crying, but I can still feel the tears about to burst through the dam of my weak emotions. I feel Discord’s warm gryphon hand on my shoulder, and the dam gets stronger. The tears relax and flow back. I look up and see that everyone is still waiting patiently for me to go on. Princess Luna is already crying. I know she cares so much, and I hope she can forgive me. I look at her as I continue the story.
“I almost decided to be a doctor because of that. I wanted to make sure that no one else would have to be so helpless while their mother died in front of them. I wanted to help.”
My emotions vanish as I get ready to tell the next part. That’s not true. The sadness vanishes. I can feel my anger waltzing in, and Luna can see it in my face. I can see my anger reflected in her eyes all the way across from me.
“That changed when I found out about her treatment. How they had purposefully given her drugs just to sell medicine when there were solutions she was better able to handle. The doctor made money off of her treatment, off of her drug use. I was disgusted, and of course my father did nothing to help. It took me over a year to find all of this out, and maybe it’s not all true. It’s just what I’ve gathered from bits and pieces.”
I shook my head. “She was weak and had no one to support her. I was just a boy. Father didn’t care. Her family left her to take care of herself. After all, her husband had the money, but she needed more than money then.”
I sigh loudly. “After the funeral, I ran away. So, I really was homeless then. Though, that was only for a few weeks before the police caught me and took me home. My father beat me for running away, and that was the end of it. I didn’t care. I knew better anyways. I learned a lot while I was on the streets for that short amount of time. I saw people living in real poverty, like I’d never seen before. I saw them suffering, hungry, lonely, sick, desperate. Some had gone insane from lack of real human connection, and some had decided enough was enough. Some had not enough food to eat, and some had not enough water to drink, and some were simply waiting for whatever disease or addiction they had to kill them off. I was horrified by all of it.”
“So after I went back home, I decided I had to do something. Being out on the streets, I obviously couldn’t do anything. What would I do? Talk to them? No, I had to make a change by becoming powerful. I started looking toward a career in politics. Then, I could really bring all of them out of that hell and back into the real world where they could be happy. After all, they were all only there due to the selfishness of others. I had to counteract that somehow, but I needed power.”
Twilight nods. “Hm. That’s starting to make sense.”
“Yes,” Celestia says, “that certainly explains your motives and actions when you received the power from Discord. I’m guessing you intended to bring that magic from Equestria to Earth?”
I nodded. “I looked into politics for the power to change that messed-up world. I had always heard things like communism and socialism were evil, but capitalism killed my mom. So I looked into them, and I started to find the answers I wanted. I read up on Marxism, and I found some hope.
“Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for me to realize my ideas would never work. My country was too hateful toward the idea of helping others without getting something in return. Just by talking to people, I realized my political dreams were a waste of time if we I wanted to change things that drastically. I lost hope in the world. I lost hope in life. I was as depressed as I could imagine being.
“That’s when Discord showed up. He was so strange that I knew something was wrong with the world compared to the normal messed-up crap. I didn’t scream when I saw him just because I figured I was still dreaming – he showed up right when I was waking up in the morning. When I realized he was real, I knew he was some kind of magical and definitely a little bit insane. Part of me was scared of him, but I was mostly excited. Something had given me the chance to change the world. I focused on that. I was searching for power, and a powerful being showed up to help me.
I look at Discord, and he watches me. He doesn’t change his facial expression at all, not even to encourage. He just wants me to keep going.
“He invited me to a world where everything was different. People were kind and friendly in this world. They helped each other and truly cared. He knew too much about me, things he shouldn’t have known, for me to think that he wasn’t magical and powerful. So, I believed him. I had lost all my ambitions on my world, so I decided to try going to a place where things were just better. He told me I would basically be his pet, and that it was for his development according to Fluttershy. I didn’t care about that though. I just went along with his plan. It was all I had. I didn’t feel bad about leaving my ad behind. He couldn’t do anything for me anymore. He could have put me through college, but it didn’t mean anything at that point. He definitely couldn’t help my mom.
“So I left. I followed a weird creature to a weird land, and I ended up in a weird interview.”
“Discord,” Celestia says, assuming me to be finished, “is that all true?”
He nods. “Absolutely.”
“And you knew every piece of it?”
“I’m afraid so, your highness.”
“Do you have anything to add?” I guess she doesn’t want to hear any more from me.
“As you know,” he begins, “Fluttershy was the one who told me to get a ‘pet’ in order to further my reformation into becoming the main protagonist of my own spin-off show, My Friendly Discord: Friendship is Chaos. The idea was to get a pet that I could train and learn to love even though that pet had done nothing for me before. I was intrigued by this concept. I had never become close to any of the ponies in Equestria except for Fluttershy, who did everything she could to become my friend, Twilight, who saved me from Tirek despite my betrayal, and Celestia, who first believed in me and wanted me to try being good. However, I just could not get behind the idea of developing a relationship with an animal like a cat with no sort of intriguing intellect, folly, or troubles.
“So I researched day and night. I knew that Fluttershy would never approve of me taking a pony as a pet, and a dragon or gryphon would just be such annoyances in my life. Suddenly,” and he taps himself on the head as if acting out his revelation, “I remembered Twilight’s trips to another world. I looked into what sort of creatures she found there, and I realized that a human would be the perfect candidate for a pet. After all, they come fully trained, they can hold a conversation, they do plenty of stupid things for me to laugh at, and they just adore chaos. I spent some time learning about their world, enjoying their hobbies, studying their discourse. Eventually, I felt ready to make a selection.
“I was going to simply pick the smartest-looking human around. I always take more pleasure in raising the smart ones of course. They’re just so capable and enjoyable.” He pauses, and I think he’s looking at one of them. I can’t tell which though. “But something was bothering me. It went back to what Fluttershy said about loving a pet who had done nothing for me. If I were to choose a pet who could be so enjoyable, then they would of course be doing something for me, and that just would not do! So I searched for a human that could never do a thing for me, and I stumbled on Caleb.”
Something twinges at my lip. I know it’s not Discord’s magic this time. He continues, “He was so depressed, so miserable, so thoughtful that I could not pass him up. No matter which human I looked at, I could not help but compare them to Caleb. Everything in the world seemed so pointless to him, and he wanted to change the world to have a point. I had never seen such stark contrast with one’s outlook on the world except for in myself, wanting to take away all the points of the world. I felt kinship with him already though I had never formally introduced myself. By the time I gathered up the strength to meet him, he was nearly intent on suicide.”
“Fluttershy,” Celesta says as she looks at the gentle pony, “did you know anything about Discord’s actions up this point?”
“No, I’m afraid,” she says. “I only knew that he was looking for a pet. I respected that he wanted to take his time because I knew he was searching hard. I could see him reading all the time and looking for answers, but I never guessed that he was using Princess Twilight Sparkle’s Journal on Earth and Human Experiences could have been used for finding a human for a pet.”
Twilight raises her hoof slightly, then lowers it and shakes her head.
Applejack isn’t so polite. “Fluttershy, did you really see him looking at a book about Earth and not think he was up to something?”
“Come now, Applejack,” Discord says. “Think in context. For all she knew, I was looking at what animals humans took for pets.”
“Oh, don’t you start, two-face,” Applejack says as she walks forward, but Twilight stops her.
“AJ, you have to understand that Fluttershy would always give Discord the benefit of the doubt as she would to any of us,” she says kindly, glancing at Fluttershy with a smile as Fluttershy smiles back. “It’s just her nature.”
“Well, alright,” Applejack says, a little defeated.
“Now, I admit that all of this makes me feel a little easier about Discord bringing Caleb into this world though I still will not condone that choice,” Celestia says. “However, I have yet to see any reason, Discord, for you to give him magic and let him destroy an entire town and even put the lives of others at risk.”
Discord looks at Celestia for a moment. Then he looks at me and says, “Caleb, do you know why I did that?”
I don’t have any idea, but I have to say something. Discord needs me to say something obviously, or he wouldn’t have asked. Except, there’s no reason. Why would he let me do so many horrible things? I wanted to change the world, and I was completely wrong. He knew I was wrong, but he let me try. My mouth’s open. Discord looks back at Celestia.
“I didn’t expect you to,” he says. I guess that was for me. I’m not sure if he felt disappointment in me or if he was just confirming something. “He had to learn somehow. He needed something to wake him up from his ideals and his goals. Explaining to him simply was not enough. It would be like trying to calm down a rabid bear; there’s simply no doing it! I needed something to bring him understanding by breaking apart what he believed in right in front of him. When he left Earth, he thought he was coming to a world where all were equal and joyful. What does he find when he shows up in Equestria though? He meets princesses, showing a clear divide in political power in his eyes, and he sees that some ponies have magic while others do not, which shows further difference in birthright. This broke him. He was sure that the circumstances of one’s birth decided his fate. He was sure that a single being could stand above all others if he had enough power, but it’s not true. Enough people gathered together with motivation can stand above any challenge.”
“Well yeah,” Applejack says. “Why’s that so important?”
“The child had lost hope in the world, in humans, even in equines,” Discord explains. “A belief was growing in him like an infection that whoever was in power would remain in power, that whoever was underprivileged would simply stay there forever. Given his disposition and determination to create change, he was headed down a dangerous path whether on Earth or Equestria.”
“Get to the point,” Rainbow Dash says.
“If Caleb was not shown for sure that anyone can make his or her own destiny through hard work, determination, and the support of true friends,” Discord says, pausing for a moment as he surveys the ponies, “why would he ever have tried? Why would he try to help others if he thought they would always fall? Why would he try to become his best if he knew he would never make it? Why would ever value friendship?”
“I see,” Celestia mumbles.
“All of you talk about the magic of friendship, and I have finally come to believe you,” he continues. “How could you not support the desperate attempt to explain to Caleb the value of friendship? He needed a family, and he did not believe that he had one. He needed friends, but he could not trust anyone enough to be one. He was on the verge of murder or suicide! I apologize greatly for inconveniencing a few ponies, even ruining some of their days. However, you will not make me apologize for saving this young man’s life.”
“Discord,” Fluttershy says, a tear falling from her eye to above her smile.
“There is nothing in the world that could make me believe that it was not the right decision,” he says. He looks exhausted. All the magical power in the world, but justifying a good cause takes the wind out of him. It’s obviously not his forte, but he did it. He did it all for me.
Everything he did was for me. Everything.
How can I just realize this now? Everything he did was for me! Taking me as a pet wasn’t done because Fluttershy told him to do it; he did that because he wanted to help me. Letting me meet the ponies wasn’t so he could justify himself by not keeping a secret; it was so I could have friends. He didn’t read my mind, and he was honest about that because he wanted to respect me. He gave me magic power and let me attack his close friends not because he wanted to have fun watching, but he did it all because it was to save my life. My life was in danger, and I didn’t even know it. I didn’t care about it, but he did. I never did a thing to deserve it, but he saw within his heart to help me, to save me, to love me. It wasn’t for him; it was for me. It wasn’t because of me; it was because of him. Everything. Everything was for me, and all because he was truly good.
I struggle to keep standing. Discord puts his hand on my shoulder again, holding me firmer than before. He must have sensed my weakness. I hold him and pull myself back to balance.
Celestia looks at me, and she looks at Discord. She looks across at the ponies, seeing the tears on Fluttershy, Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and – most emotionally of all – on her sister Luna. She nods. “Very well. I accept your apology for the damages, and I expect you to fix it all immediately.”
“Of course, Princess,” Discord says, snapping his fingers as everything in and around Ponyville slides into its former position, fixing itself magically.
“No one was hurt, and you’re right,” she says. “We may have saved Caleb’s young life. That’s something worth celebrating. It’s late now. I expect an interview broadcast across Equestria in the morning. Would you be willing to do this, Fluttershy?”
“Oh, no, no, no!” she mouses, backing away slightly even. “I couldn’t! I’d love to, but I simply cou–”
“That’s alright, Fluttershy,” Twilight says. “Would it be alright if I did the interview again? I think we can get a better look at Caleb for the whole world if we take just one more chance.”
“That sounds wonderful to me,” Celestia says. “Does that sound nice to everyone else?”
General noises and declarations of approval emit from the crowd of friends.
“Wonderful,” she says. “Then, you’re all dismissed. Sleep well, and prepare yourselves. Tomorrow will be a busy day for all of us.”
I hope it isn’t too busy. I’ve had enough busy days recently.
All the ponies begin to disperse. Everyone but Celestia leaves. She smiles at Discord, and even he leaves. She stays though, and she walks right up to me as her smile fades slowly.
“I support what Discord did for you, Caleb,” she says. I smile through my tears to show my agreeing support. “I’ll gladly forgive him for whatever damage he has caused. His methods are unconventional, but his potential good deeds are beyond measure, and he showed that tonight. His heart was in the right place, and he had a logical plan to back it up.”
“That’s true,” I say. “Even if I was trying to do good things, I just didn’t know enough to do anything right.”
“Quiet,” she says, leaving no amount of kindness in her voice. “I may forgive Discord, and the whole world may forgive both of you, but I want to make something very clear. I promised 1,000 years ago that I would never let my sister cry in pain again. After the agony and torture she was put through, I vowed to never let her be hurt even once. You forced me to break the promise that I held above even raising the sun every morning. For that, for making Luna cry, I will never, ever forgive you.”
She looks at me for a moment. My eyes are wide. I can’t breathe. My lips are barely parted, but I can’t close them or even move at all.
She turns her head and vanishes without warning. I let air rush back into my lungs, and I fall back onto the ground. I look straight ahead for a long time.
When I finally calm down enough to look around, I realize that Fluttershy’s cottage is just down the hill. It’s in perfect shape too. I walk down and pray for sleep. I know who I expect to see there. She’s the only reason I can even bare to try sleeping, now that I see what I’ve done.

Author's Note:

Hey friends. Hope you enjoy this week's entry. With the break this week, I should be able to get a lot of writing done and continue the pace of weekly posts. Thanks for checking in!

Comments

[Cozybro]

I enjoy this story quite a lot. The author really knows how to set up a plot.

[Pixel Berry]

I can't help but wonder what it would be like if it was Queen Chrysalis and she 'summoned' a pet to help with her own reformation project... or maybe bring the darkest creature in the universe and it's actually a human. I mean, something like that happened already, but things got complicated and she even threw out the human, thinking that they were useless.

[Ephedianroyalty]

Geez, that whole block of text lost me. Wooo, yay, friggin dipshit learned a friendship. Touchy feely moment(I normally cry at the drop of a hat(obviously when it’s overly heartwarming or slightly too sad), but all I felt was disgust at the MC). Suddenly slightly out of character but believable Tia basically saying that she’s gonna punt him to the sun next time he messes up. Oh, and don’t forget blindsiding the readers with no foreshadowing whatsoever with a new backstory. I think the story needs a little work, although to get me to rant like this is pretty extraordinary. Imma stick this in tracking and hope it gets better (1/1000000 chance it doesn’t, soo...). If I ever reread this story, I’m skipping the first 8 chapters.