You've been staring at Sombra for quite a while, judging by the expressions all around, spanning from slightly concerned to slightly amused. Their looks don't faze you; it was quite shaking to know that he'd come close to death. The very idea seems antithetic to who he is. Despite all the power he's regained--the things you've witnessed yourself, and you suspect he may even be holding back--he is still more of a mortal pony now than his legend suggests.

"I am here," he whispers to you alone, as you'd gotten close enough to him during the tale that he needed only dip his head slightly. His breath stirs the sensitive shell of your ear, and while the intent was to reassure, you can't help but remember the last time he'd whispered into your ear so closely. You nod and shuffle closer to him.

"You two are just adorable," coos Discord who has taken on the form most familiar once more. "Why, it's like you don't even need to drag Fluttershy into your little herd. At all."

Fluttershy gives the draconequus another gentle whap with her wing, and he rolls his eyes.

"Fine, fine. But can we get back to the story? We're finally getting to my favorite part: Me!"

"A fact we are all keenly aware of," Sombra remarks with a smirk. "As if you would ever allow us to forget."

"I can change the lock," Discord threatens, and you aren't sure if he's jesting or even what he's referring to.

"So quick to assume I intend offense when I am merely observing."

The whole exchange calls to mind foals bickering, if the foals were a thousand years old or more, by some measure or another. You can't help but take some amusement until Fluttershy speaks up.

"Boys." It's a command, and they both focus entirely on her immediately.

"Sorry."
"My apologies."

"It's alright," she reassures them as Discord obligingly hands her one of the few remaining cookies. "I know we can all get along."

"I concede, Discord's arrival was certainly a...pivotal moment as I grappled my way back onto my hooves..."

"Oh, how wonderful it is to see you again, Sombrero," Discord spoke, his tone positively dripping with somewhere between mirth and malice.

"Discord," replied Sombra, as levelly as he was able. Not a stretch given his condition. "I am surprised that the Princesses have left you to roam free these last centuries."

"They didn't."

Definitely malice, Sombra thought. "And I suppose you blame me for that somehow."

"Well, skipping a thousand years certainly hasn't dulled your intuition."

"Um...D-Discord, please--" The meek voice was drowned out.

"You could have refused her command, and yet you didn't. Were you so eager to bloody your mismatched talons so Celestia would not have to?"

"Says the stallion who broke countless ponies in his mines. I suppose you did need new fur rugs every so often, so who can blame you there? I merely wanted to talk with you," Discord crooned. "Why, in my hay-day, we could have created such wonders--"

"You insult my former subjects at your peril, monster," Sombra growled, growing immediately defensive. "Had the villainess sent you any later I could have done Equestria her greatest favor ever, and erased you from existence before moving on to her."

"N-now, Sombra, that's not very--" The argument continued heedless of her words.

"Monster? Moi?" spoke the well-darkened kettle that now rested on the arm of the couch. "I stand corrected; you must have left your sense behind when you blue-boxed the Empire."

"Neither of you gave me a choice," spat Sombra, rolling over so he could at least be upright as he stared down the talking kettle. "And I doubt you've changed your nature. How many times have you already betrayed Fluttershy when the mood suited you?"

Discord was suddenly very much Discord, in his natural form. All disguises were shed, and he glared at Sombra with an expression that could have killed. His voice was a dangerous kind of cold when he spoke again, every word through his teeth. "Now listen here, you little sh-"

"ENOUGH!"

Silence fell, and the two fell back as Fluttershy stood between them, expression stern and wings flared until they trembled. Their glares faded, neither willing to direct their animosity even in the pegasus' general direction. Ultimately, they both looked away at the same time.

"Sombra. Discord has changed. I may be his only friend, and while mistakes have been made...he's learning to be a very good friend."

Sombra realized then that he may have stepped on a sore point. He nodded once, still looking down.

"Discord. Sombra is my guest right now, and he's still not well. You know better than to poke Harry the Bear when he's hurting. I'm very disappointed in you for not treating Sombra with at least that respect."

Sombra mouthed 'Harry the Bear?' inquisitively as he looked up again. Discord had finally pulled his own gaze up from the floor, and to the stallion's surprise, he was utterly cowed. "I'm...I'm sorry, Fluttershy," he spoke with as much seriousness as Sombra had ever heard from Celestia.

"I apologize as well," Sombra added with a nod. "We...we have history, however brief it may be. I should not have jumped into an argument."

"By 'history' he means five minutes, a thousand years ago."

"None of that now," Fluttershy said, ending the conversation and brooking no argument. "Discord, you can stay if you promise not to upset Sombra. Sombra, remember that Discord is my friend. If you want to be my friend too, you'll have to learn to get along with him, too."

"I will try, Fluttershy," Sombra spoke at length, looking to Discord with some effort. "Perhaps a truce for now...for her?"

"Certainly not for your own sake," agreed Discord jovially, offering his talon in a fist. Sombra extended his right forehoof in kind, tense until the moment's contact had been made and passed.

You shudder and feel a slight retch build at the back of your throat.

"Oh, I know, it was positively, sickeningly sweet!" crooned Discord, his eyes somehow larger and more shimmering than before with both mismatched appendages squeezing his cheeks.

You swallow finally, feeling just a bit green. "You...you were talking about the cookie...right?" In hindsight, you really shouldn't have had any more cookies once you'd realized they were a grab-bag of flavors straight from the heart of chaos himself. The last one had been a saccharine flavor-bomb that nearly made you toss all of your previous cookies, and you suddenly wish very much that you were on the floor again.

"A little of column A," he shrugs. "Now, where was I..?"

"Perhaps I should continue? Your narrative may prove too disconcerting after subjecting Bluebell to your baking, and every offense intended," Sombra smirks, "I don't trust gravity when you're playing with it."

It was perhaps a day later when Sombra finally found his way to his hooves again, and with Fluttershy's steadying wing and side to lean on, he was soon walking without further aid. He smiled, feeling at once empowered, and thankful to the pegasus who'd helped him recover from mortal peril.

That was when the door burst open with a violent slam. Something fell to the ground nearby, jostled from the shock. The dust cleared quickly from the doorway, revealing Princess Celestia. "Stop right there, criminal scum!"

Sombra's legs failed him, and even as he went down, he noted that her mane wasn't quite flowing, her eyes were red pinpricks on yellow sclera, and she wore a mismatched set of horribly tarnished armor instead of her regalia.

"...damn you," growled Sombra as he caught his breath and got back to his hooves.

Without dispelling his latest illusion, he rolled about cackling like the mad beast he truly was. "Priceless! Absolutely priceless!"

"Discord," came Fluttershy's warning tone.

"Oh, fine, fine. I won't terrify him anymore," he relented with before shedding Celestia's form, reclining mid-air and conjuring up a tub of popcorn. "I'll just watch when you finally call the guards. Will it be soon?"

"Discord!"

"What? Was it supposed to be a secret?" he mock-whispered, loud enough to be heard through the entire house.

"I'm not calling the guards."

Discord sobered up somewhat. "But Fluttershy...think of the bounty on him! Why, you and I could have our own palace, even bigger than Sparklebutt's! And ours will have padded crystal chairs, not those rigid insults to backsides!"

Fluttershy shot him a deadpan stare.

"I'm right here, you fool," muttered Sombra.

"Besides," continued the draconequus, pulling out a black balloon and inflating it with a single breath. A cacophony of squeaking later he'd folded it into a pony-like shape, drawn a comical scowl on the face, and tacked a red horn on top. "It's not that difficult to conjure up a new Tyrant of the North. Didn't the last one explode in front of numerous credible witnesses?" A claw casually pierced the balloon figure--only Fluttershy missed exactly where he'd pierced it--and it deflated with a rather protracted rude noise.

"I assure you, I am the King Sombra. And trust me, I have questioned Fluttershy's decision myself," grumbled the literally fallen King as he steadied himself on his hooves once more. "I think I understand now, and if you are her friend, I suspect you know why as well."

"You're right. Because she is Fluttershy," sighed Discord, suddenly an odd-eyed donkey. It worried Sombra slightly that he pieced together what would be said next before he spoke: "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, considering all the chances she's already given me to make a jackass of myself."

"Discord...I-I'm flattered, but...please don't ever make that joke again. Especially in front of Cranky. Or Matilda?" pleaded Fluttershy, visibly relaxing as she noted she wouldn't have to break the two up again.

"Spoilsport. But since you asked," he acquiesced.

"Discord raises a fair point, however, Fluttershy. I am rather stuck here."

"Oh, you can stay until you're all better. I really don't mind," she assured Sombra, all while ushering him back toward the couch to at least sit. "I had one pony who was here for three weeks before he could leave. His friends visited him too, so he wouldn't be lonely or bored with just...well, just me to talk to for all that time."

"That is the problem. I do not have friends, possibly present company notwithstanding--"

"We'll have to see," Discord interjected.

Sombra ignored him as he continued. "--but you do. And only one of them is a reformed tormentor of pony souls. Only my worst reputation precedes me, and can you truly say that any of your friends would not run straight to Princess Twilight Sparkle with news that I have returned?"

Fluttershy had no answer.

"I must choose my fate, it seems. I am thankful that you gave me a chance to do so, rather than allow me to perish at the designs of feral beasts." He bowed his head in his gratitude even as he rest upon the couch once more.

"Now, not that I wish to step all over such delicious melodrama, you great big ray of sunspots," Discord cut in with an audible eye-rolling as he lay draped along the exact contour of the back of the couch, "but I would expect more creative thought from such a ruthless tyrant."

"I suppose you have a better idea?"

"I. Am. Chaos! My good stallion," he practically crowed, throwing his arms outward. "I always have a better idea or thirteen."

"You'll...you'll help him?" Fluttershy ventured, her tone guarded, scanning the draconequus for any of his telltale signs that he was up to something.

"Oh, I never said that I would for certain. But truly, Sombra, did you forget what happened when last we met?"

"How could I? Celestia sent you to ensure my ponies would be wiped out!"

"No, no, no, not that part--which is wrong, by the way," he added, tapping Sombra on the nose with one of his paw's digits, forcing him to go involuntarily cross-eyed, to Fluttershy's quiet amusement. "You had a choice then, did you not? You thought you had to choose whether to stand your ground and fight me, or to declare abject surrender. And I am a big enough draconequus to admit that I was so incredibly proud when you chose neither of those! It takes a great deal to surprise the spirit of chaos, you know."

"So you say I have a choice now. I stay, and await the arrival of somepony who would dutifully inform the Princesses of my presence. I leave, in a weakened state, and likely be discovered by somepony who might very well do the same. You imply a third choice, between 'Fluttershy's domicile' and 'outside'?"

"Ohohoho, he is a keeper, Fluttershy! Precisely! There is always space between spaces..." Discord unzipped the open air behind him and stepped halfway into the invisible rift in reality until only his head and improbably long neck were visible. "...if you know how to get there."

Sombra's complete and undivided attention was freely given to Discord then. "And you propose that you might show me how."

"Exactly! I might! Let's make it interesting. I'll flip this glass of chocolate milk. Heads, I give you the key to one of my infinite and unquantifiable little retreats. Now, this is time-share, and if I need it for anything, well...if the pocket dimension is rocking," he prompted, swirling the glass almost suggestively. Sombra sighed but nodded for him to continue. "Tails...

"Tails, I march right up to Princess Sunbutt and tell her that her prodigal consort has returned."

Sombra stared him down for a long moment. Fluttershy looked back and forth between them, worry etched on her face. Finally, Sombra broke the quiet. "I accept."

Fluttershy's eyes widened for a moment in panic. "W-wait, Discord, not on my..."

Discord had already tossed the glass up into the air. It came down in a perfect arc, right toward the--

"...rug."

It exploded.

Sombra's eye twitched, despite himself. "What."

"Oh. A-at least it's dry."

"Well, that settles it! Here, I'll make this little old thing a key for you," Discord said, picking up something from the low table in front of the couch, something that Sombra hadn't noticed until now. "It looks like there's a spare anyway." He touched it with a clawtip and it hummed. Sombra noticed that the other identical black pendant seemed to twitch where it lay.

He felt more than a little touched that Fluttershy had collected something she must have assumed his personal effects along with him, and in awe of whomever had enchanted the crystal. Would that I had known a mage so talented a thousand years ago.

"Now, the trick is to just turn sideways," Discord helpfully explained, handing it to Sombra.

"Sideways? From what?"

"Sideways from everything."

It is your turn to yawn first this time while Sombra pauses and takes a sip of some tea that Fluttershy had insisted on brewing herself during the story. He nods as though you'd spoken. "It is quite late in the evening. There is a bit more to tell...but that can be a tale for tomorrow." He looks up toward the nearest window, now darkened but for a sliver of moonlight now cutting an imperceptibly slow path along the floor above.

"I should get going back home," you say, realizing just how late it has gotten.

Sombra's embrace stops you, and he grins as you look his way. "I understand you and your alpha mare have gotten comfortable together?"

You and Fluttershy smile, blush, and nod as one.

"Would you not spend the night with your herd?"

Despite the jealousy he'd insinuated earlier in the evening, Discord seems to have a graceful out, ready for the occasion. "Well, looks like I'm the fourth wheel here. You little colts and fillies have fun. I have a cute green mare who's truly interested in spending time with boring old Discord." He snaps his talons once and disappears. With a dizzying lack of dizziness, you find yourself back on the correct interior surface of the living room. His chaotic baking had even vanished along with him, leaving only the tea that is finished a few moments later.

After Fluttershy puts that away in the kitchen, she returns, both smiling and scuffing a hoof at the ground, a nervous habit of hers you've tried very hard not to gush over: It's simply too adorable. She nods, and you head upstairs together.

Tucking in is chaste as it can be, but as you drift off with Sombra's foreleg draped possessively across your chest from one side, and Fluttershy's wing blanketing the both of you from the other, you decide nopony in her right mind could have declined an offer like this.

Author's Note

HAVE ANOTHER! I wasn't willing to make everypony wait so long after that last chapter, as I think I mentioned, so I really only needed finishing touches on this one. Regretfully I have not caught up past the Yakisode of S5 so until I actually watch the show again, I used the time this morning to clean this up and make it publish-ready. Enjoy!