A Tyrant To A King

by ShuTodoroki

Chapter 11: Growing Suspicions

The proper bed was certainly more comfortable than the metal floor of his former cell, and he had a much less tumultuous sleep as a result. He was accustomed to waking up around an hour before Celestia raised the sun, but on his first full day in his new castle suite it was already mid morning when he woke up.

The bright sunlight streaming into his room through the curtains woke him up, and his eyes groggily opened as he was roused from his slumber. Well, that was certainly more pleasant than being woken up when breakfast of stale bread was practically thrown into his cell by an angry royal guard.

He was wearing nothing, his armor still strewn on the floor at the foot of his bed. Although he had worn his armor even while he was sleeping when he was kept in his cell, when he had a proper bed he took it off, finding that it got in the way when he was lying on his back, despite how fond of it he was.

The first thing he did was put his armor back on once he got out of bed, not wanting Discord to see him without it, or anypony for that matter. His crown, armor, and red cape made him look like a king, otherwise he was just a dark gray unicorn. Many would find it peculiar, but those items of clothing reminded him of his glory days, especially now.

He expected Discord to appear out of nowhere soon considering the draconequus visited him every morning, but as noon started to come around, he noted that his reformer still hadn't shown his face, even when a more substantial lunch was teleported to the foot of the door leading to his room.

Initially he just thought that Discord was running late, but by the time the sun started to set he knew that Discord wasn't coming, at least not for today. It was highly irregular of the draconequus to do so, and he had to wonder why Discord had skipped visiting him today. Had he done something to offend the Lord of Chaos?

Not that he cared about what others thought of him, no, but he had a right to wonder what had happened. Perhaps Discord was leaving him alone again, under Celestia's orders. But he had carried on a fairly cordial conversation with him, right? There was no reason for Celestia to think that he deserved being ignored again, if Discord was being truthful.

So why did Discord not visit me today? He wanted to think that he was just wondering about this because of boredom since he had nothing else better to do, but that was becoming increasingly more difficult to tell himself. He growled in frustration as he paced about his castle suite, a habit of his when he was trying to think. In the past, he never cared about what anypony thought of him.

Now…he couldn't even keep his thoughts in order without them straying back to wondering what had happened. Perhaps Celestia dismissed Discord from his job to reform him, regretting her decision. What would happen to him then? He wasn't nearly desperate enough to inquire about it to the two royal guards stationed outside his door, but he didn't want to think about it any longer.

At the end of the day, when Luna had raised the moon high in the sky, Sombra decided to turn in early, figuring that at least he could find some peace in his sleep as he lay down in his bed. This whole reformation effort was making his straightforward plan more difficult than it had to be, and he didn't like it one bit, not when it wasn't a problem before.

He didn't need friendship before, and he certainly didn't need it now, since he was fully healed from his regeneration process long ago by this point and ready to take back his rightful empire. Yet it seemed like friendship was finding him whether he liked it or not, and it was intent on changing him in ways he didn't want it to.

---

Sombra didn't register the burst of chaos magic when Discord had appeared in his room early the next morning, probably still making up for the endless nights of tumultuous sleep he had gotten when he was stuck in his cell, not having the luxury of a proper mattress to get proper sleep.

Discord probably could've left when he saw that Sombra was sleeping and done what any other person would've done, but he was not normal by any means. He watched with intrigue as Sombra slept on his side, his soft breathing being the only sound coming from him as his chest rose and fell slightly with each breath.

He looked almost peaceful as he slept, a stark contrast from how his brows were always knitted into a frown whenever he was talking with him. It was also interesting to see Sombra without his crown and presumably without the rest of his armor, since Discord could see it strewn about at the foot of Sombra's bed.

Discord had never seen Sombra without his characteristic armor, and he figured that the former tyrant had intended for it to stay that way, not expecting anyone to enter his quarters while he was asleep. Well, he could always blame Sombra for it if he got angry, since Celestia had already raised the sun an hour ago.

Sombra's normally a heavy sleeper. Got it. He mentally noted, as much fun as it was to be able to be in Sombra's presence without getting a snarky response from the dark gray stallion. It was almost mesmerizing to watch his mane continue to flow even while he was asleep, which he assumed was the same with Celestia and Luna.

Eventually, however, Sombra started to stir, as the sunlight streaming in from his large picturesque windows acted like a natural alarm clock. His eyes slowly opened as he raised his front legs to stretch; he didn't seem to have noticed Discord's presence yet, but he soon did when the draconequus spoke.

"Well, that certainly answers the question as to whether your mane stops flowing when you sleep." Discord remarked with an amused expression, Sombra practically jumping out of bed as his head quickly swung around to see his reformer. A furious blush dominated his features as he remembered he was wearing absolutely nothing, and no one was supposed to see him like this.

"WHAT IN THE-" Sombra stopped himself as he lowered his voice a bit, knowing that yelling at Discord wasn't going to do him any favors. "I was sleeping! Were you watching me?" He asked incredulously, figuring that most likely was the case if Discord was already there.

"Well, yes, but I usually visit you this early in the morning. I suppose having a proper bed means that you sleep in longer, hm?" Discord noted, finding it highly amusing how Sombra looked almost embarrassed, rather than angry. That was a sign of progress, wasn't it?

Sombra rolled his eyes as he walked over to quickly put on his armor, every second that he was bare like this making him feel more and more exposed, even if not wearing clothes was pretty standard amongst ponies. "Somepony actually normal would've left and come back when they saw that I was still sleeping."

"Ah, yes, but I'm not normal, am I?" Discord replied with a chuckle, thinking that Sombra walked right into that one. He found it ridiculous that the charcoal stallion was so wedded to his armor; it served no purpose really other than to be decorative from his perspective. "Why do you even bother to wear all of that stuff?"

Sombra looked offended, as he snorted in contempt. Yes, he shouldn't expect Discord to know anything about being royalty, but it was something he didn't like having to explain. "I always wear my armor because it's what makes me a king. Besides, it's the only clothes I have and I've noticed most ponies in Canterlot wear clothes."

"But you're basically under house arrest, and no one ever sees you besides me. Why do you care? I personally don't care whether you wear that armor or not. As you can see, I travel around wherever I please without wearing anything." Discord pointed out, trying his luck to see if Sombra would open up.

Sombra looked uncomfortable as he decided to change the subject, not wanting to go into how he felt more confident when he wore his royal armor, like how he did when he ruled the Crystal Empire. His red cape also served to hide the fact that he had no cutie mark; no one would respect him if they learned that he didn't have one as an adult, since he appeared as a normal stallion most of the time despite being a shadow pony.

"It's my personal preference, alright? Besides, I have more pressing questions for you. You didn't show up yesterday morning, despite how dedicated you seemed to be in your visits to reform me. I assume you were busy with something?" Sombra inquired, since he was going to ask about that anyway.

Discord looked taken aback by the question, as he tried to think of something quickly to cover up what he had really been doing that day. And those three villains didn't even manage to retrieve the bell…it was all a waste. He lamented, though he didn't have time to think much more of it now.

"Well, I didn't want to be too overbearing, right? I mean, you may think that I can't pick up on things, but it's pretty obvious that you only tolerate my presence, so I decided to spend that day having a tea party with Fluttershy. Once you're set free, you should really join us one of these days."

Sombra was pretty suspicious of how Discord acted. Sure, his response seemed to check out, but he had a gut feeling that Discord was holding something back from him. He decided to not pursue it any longer, however, since he had no concrete proof of anything and it'd only complicate things if he brought up his doubts about the draconequus' sincerity.

"I'd be interested." He replied, trying to garner favor since he really didn't care all that much about tea parties and things like that.

"I'm sure Fluttershy would be delighted to have a plus one at our tea parties! Really, she knows how to make some mean carrot-ginger sandwiches to go along with the ginseng tea. Just, no promises that it doesn't also sing show tunes and you have to catch it before you can drink it."

Discord mentioning Fluttershy once again brought Sombra back to what he was going to ask the draconequus, so he decided to ask it before he forgot. "What did you do after Fluttershy reformed you by showing you the magic of friendship?"

"What do you mean what did I do?" Discord asked, not fully understanding Sombra's question.

"Well, surely you must've felt lost when you couldn't rule Equestria in eternal chaos anymore."

"Oh, well I do have my own realm so I lived there for a while, and also caused a bit of trouble here and there since I'm always down for a prank. I really just spent my time learning about friendship since I never felt like my position as Lord of Chaos was in jeopardy at all."

"Must be nice to have that luxury." Sombra muttered, knowing that he probably wouldn't be welcome back into the Crystal Empire anytime soon, even if he was reformed.

Discord wasn't sure what to say to that, as he twiddled his thumbs nervously. Huh, well it would be more difficult for Sombra since his home was hostile to him at the moment. "Well, we can cross that bridge when we come to it. But it's nice that you're thinking about what you would do when you're reformed."

That answer didn't make anything clearer for Sombra, and it made him question whether deciding to give friendship a chance was the best option. Was that all it gave him? Confusion?

Comments

[Bronycommander]

Interesting approch about the armor. Of course.m its more comfortable to sleep without it.

And that with fluttershy, let me put it this way. How likely you find she could redeem sombra?

[ShuTodoroki]

11519134
Yeah, I'm kind of building my own headcanons around Sombra with him always appearing with his armor and stuff like that. XD And I don't think Fluttershy could redeem Sombra as easily as Discord can; she's probably terrified of Sombra and wouldn't be able to make very good conversation. Discord's more out there and the plus is that he can connect with Sombra on many things that a villain considering reformation would be worried about.

[Bronycommander]

11519139
And eager to see more.

Well, if i may say, my friend who got me into sombra tried that with a funny result

[ShuTodoroki]

11519144
They tried getting Fluttershy to reform Sombra? I've seen many fics about that.

[Bronycommander]

11519146
Pardon, old habit. I just find it amusing as sombra here, screwed up in a hilarious way