A Tyrant To A King

by ShuTodoroki

Chapter 4: A King's Pride

Sombra just stared at Discord blankly for a few seconds before snorting scornfully, turning around to not look at his so-called reformer. That wasn’t much of a decision, was it? “Such great options for someone who is a king!” He spat, while Discord shook his head with disdain.

“You really don’t understand that you don’t have much choice in the matter, do you?” Discord crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow since he figured the former king’s pride had to come to an end at some point.

Sombra shot another death glare at the Lord of Chaos, refusing to give the draconequus the luxury of a reply. Even if that didn’t seem like a great option, he’d find a way out. Without his magic. He stood his ground by sitting with his back turned against Discord, his hooves crossed as he looked down upon someone who let themselves be controlled by others.

“I’m going to take that as a yes. Now come on, you should be grateful that Celestia is giving you a second chance! She’s given me, well, multiple!” He snapped into existence a costume which made him look like Princess Celestia, mimicking her voice as he spoke.

“Now Discord, you hid the Elements of Harmony, corrupted the Mane Six when you broke out of stone, and betrayed Equestria for Tirek, but let bygones be bygones, hm?” He turned back to his normal self, irritated when he saw that Sombra still refused to talk to him, even at the mention of Tirek.

“Seriously? You’re not even going to say anything now? You’re going to be turned to stone like I was if you don’t reform yourself for good, you know!” Discord asserted, to dead silence from Sombra. His pride had obviously clouded his sense of self-preservation.

He was just greeted with a defiant “hmph” from Sombra, the only sign of life from him being his dark, shadowy mane flowing like always. Losing his patience, Discord growled as he stormed off, knowing that he now had to think of a coherent plan since Sombra would be harder to crack than he anticipated.

Sombra huffed as he enjoyed his relative peace and quiet once more, simmering over the choice Celestia had given him. He’d rather die with pride than be turned into a statue that the ponies of the future would just ogle at, and being bound by arbitrary morals that got in the way of what he wanted to accomplish wasn’t an option for him either. He refused to accept it.

Moreso, he refused to be reformed by the same draconequus who had dared stand in his way in Canterlot! How the Lord of Chaos could stoop to something so low mystified him, but to be honest he didn’t really care about that at the moment. If Discord was with them, he wasn’t close at all to trusting him enough to carry on a conversation. Who knows what Celestia was up to, bringing the Lord of Chaos to his cell…

Meanwhile, Discord had snapped himself back to his realm, pacing back and forth as he tried to figure out what to do while he sat on the ceiling. Normally, he wouldn’t have a problem with Sombra being turned to stone; after all, he didn’t have any sort of personal connection to him.

However, the fact that Princess Celestia had entrusted him to reform Discord like Fluttershy reformed him was almost poetic in a way, and he felt like it’d hurt his own pride if he couldn’t succeed at winning even the most stubborn stallion in existence over.

C’mon, Discord, it’ll be mighty disappointing if you show up to Princess Celestia empty hoofed. He told himself, as he tried to think like Sombra, raising a lion’s paw to his goatee to stroke it in thought. How do you get through a skull as thick as Sombra’s? Threats obviously didn’t work.

He had already attempted bargaining by telling him how he could be set free, but Sombra was currently blind to reason. Maybe the stubborn stallion just needed time? Hmmm. I’m usually better at thinking up plans that involve Fluttershy. After all, she’s the only pony I know very well.

Moving to one of the windows of his home, he stared aimlessly into the chaotic landscape outside which usually helped him think of things if he was stuck, but nothing was working, much to his frustration. But he couldn’t give up so soon, right? He had only seen Sombra once!

Well, he doubted that there was anyone else that was even remotely suitable for the job, and he supposed that he could just try again tomorrow as he stood up, only to materialize a light bulb over his head as he thought of something.

“Maybe Celestia knew this would be a tough job, and I can ask her for advice like Twilight did.” He said to himself, not exactly liking to be dependent on someone else for guidance, but he was really clueless as to what to do to reform Sombra, at least when the Tyrant of the North was still so bitter about his defeat.

Besides, the sooner he was able to reform Sombra, the sooner he could go back to his “normal” way of life and resume his regular tea parties with Fluttershy that he so eagerly looked forward to. Well, he’d still have them, just less often, which was already bad enough for him.

---

The first thing next morning he teleported to the doors outside of the throne room in Canterlot, letting himself in when the royal guards recognized who he was, even if they looked a little bit dubious about what Celestia had told them, that Discord was going to visit the throne room more often to provide updates on Sombra’s progress.

He didn’t pay much attention to them though, not when Celestia greeted him happily while Luna smiled from her own throne. “Good morning, Discord! I’m assuming you tried to talk to Sombra yesterday; did it go well?”

“Errr, it was anything but well.” Discord admitted, crossing his arms as he gave a disappointed sigh, though his expression of exhaustion soon turned into one of realization when Princess Celestia didn’t seem at all surprised by the news.

“Hm. I figured he would be too prideful to listen to you so quickly on the first day. Have you tried thinking of anything that could get through to him? Surely Sombra is intelligent enough to see reason; nopony could take over the entire Crystal Empire otherwise.”

Discord nodded eagerly, showing that he really did try to come up with ideas to persuade Sombra to see reason. “Trust me; I straight up told him that he had a choice between being reformed and being turned to stone and he started ignoring me at that point! Anypony who’s sane would take the option that leaves them alive!”

“Well, Sombra isn’t exactly the most sane, as you probably know.” Celestia replied, as she held a hoof to her chin thoughtfully. “Perhaps he needs time by himself. Don’t visit him for a few days.”

Discord raised an eyebrow, unsure how that would make a difference. “Isn’t being left alone what he wants? At least that seemed pretty clear to me when he dared give me the silent treatment.”

“Maybe in the short run, but when left in isolation, ponies will get lonely. They might be more receptive to whatever somepony has to say afterwards, when they see them again.”

Discord still felt hesitant about it, not even sure if Sombra could feel anything but spite, anger, and hatred. That was what he was the embodiment of, right? Though if Celestia thought it was a good idea, he supposed it wouldn’t hurt to give it a try, if he didn’t have any better ideas.

“Well, if you say so. It’s as simple as that? I don’t grace him with my presence for several days and he’ll magically become more receptive to whatever I say?”

“I can’t speak for how Sombra will react, but I would think that he has emotions just like you and I. There’s nothing that I can think of that is truly incapable of feeling loneliness that’s alive.” Celestia explained, while Luna nodded in agreement.

“It’s worth giving a try, at least. We wouldn’t have chosen you to be the one to reform Sombra if we didn’t think that you would be capable.” Luna added, Discord grinning in reply.

“I would like to see Sombra actually carrying on a normal conversation for once! You never really hear him say anything that isn’t about his plans for world domination or how your attempts to stop him are futile.”

Celestia chuckled, knowing what Discord was talking about. “It has been a relatively recent development that Sombra is talking more often; when my sister and I banished him for the first time, he was a stallion of few words.”

“Indeed. We didn’t even know where he had come from. In fact, we still don’t know much about his life before he was the ruler of the Crystal Empire. Perhaps that could be a viable conversation starter, once you see him again.” Luna suggested.

Discord shook his head. “Errr, he doesn’t seem to be the type to open up about his backstory. He probably has a tragic one if he’s that evil, you know? I’ll probably start off with what’s your favorite food, what’s your hobbies, things like that. I’ve learned how to carry on a conversation like a normal draconequus, thanks to Fluttershy.”

“Somehow, I think he would hate small talk more.” Celestia replied with a soft smile. “But whatever you think is best to try to carry on a conversation with Sombra, Discord. Is there anything else you wish to discuss?”

“Nothing else. I’ll see what I can do with Sombra. It won’t be easy, but I hope that your suggestion to leave him alone for a bit will knock some sense into him. Honestly, to still be so stubborn when you’re faced with being turned into a stone statue…” Discord scoffed at the idea, Celestia making a shrugging motion.

“Pride can sometimes cloud one’s judgment to an extent that they’re blind to reason. I look forward to our next meeting, Discord.”

Discord nodded and snapped himself back to his realm after that, looking at an upside down calendar in his house. “With all of this free time, a tea party with Fluttershy sounds like a great idea while I leave Sombra alone…”

---

Discord hadn’t bothered Sombra for the entirety of the next day which he saw as a blessing, but soon it started to feel a bit suspect when he hadn’t seen the Lord of Chaos the entirety of the day after that either. Initially he thought that Discord had taken the hint that he didn’t want to be bothered and had decided to leave him alone, but he soon realized that didn’t make sense.

He had obviously been tasked by Celestia to reform him, and he doubted that the princess would allow Discord to give up so easily. So why was it he hadn’t seen the draconequus ever since that one meeting when he had given him the silent treatment?

He found it quite odd, which he supposed wasn’t out of the realm of possibility since Discord by definition was an odd and peculiar being, but why would he just give up like that? Discord seemed the type to be tenacious, at least.

Unless…Celestia had ordered Discord to leave him alone for a few days? Yes, the cunning princess probably wanted him to become desperate so that he would definitely carry on a conversation, even if he didn’t want to.

Well he wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction! No, he was King Sombra, rightful ruler of the Crystal Empire, and he wasn’t going to bow to anypony’s whim. If she wanted to make him submit, she would just have to try harder.

Comments

[Bronycommander]

its alwways ard to swallow the pride