The Crystal Empire, normally a place of blissful peace and love, was currently a place of uneasy peace and uncertainty. And no one felt this more than Princess Cadence as she waited for her Sister-in-law and her friends to arrive for an emergency. Sombra was back.

The Train began pulling into the station, but one of the occupants seemed a bit too impatient and busted out of the train as soon as the Princess was in line of sight.

“Where’s Sombra!?” Rainbow Dash shouted while punching the air in a display of toughness.

“He’s in the Empire,” Cadence answered quickly. “Not sure how, but more importantly, where is Twilight?”

“I’m here!” Twilight said as she exited the train after it stopped. She grabbed Rainbow’s ear harshly, getting her to complain in pain. “Don’t do something stupid like that! Didn’t you learn from the last twenty times when you crashed into a building because you forgot that you kept your momentum when leaving a moving train!?”

Cadence was surprised by her Sister-in-law’s harshness. “Is that you, Twilight?” She asked in slight doubt.

Twilight let go of her friend’s ear and nodded. “It is me, but we can do the dance later. Where is Sombra?”

“Last I was updated, he’s in the shopping district,” Cadence answered, while Twilight’s friends exited the train. Rarity heard the last detail as she approached the two talking princesses.

“The Shopping District!” The white unicorn exclaimed in over-dramatic shock. “It’s best we head there and see about stopping him before he does any damage there!”

Applejack shook her head in slight annoyance but didn’t say anything as Cadence began to lead the Mane 6 towards the shopping district. As they made their way there, Twilight asked, “So, any information on what he’s doing in the shopping district?”

Cadence slowed down a bit but didn’t stop, as she began to think, before sheepishly smiling. “I’m sorry but no,” she answered. “As soon as I heard that Sombra was back, I just sent you that message and teleported to the train station and waited.”

This caused Twilight to stop briefly and look at Cadence questioningly. “I never thought you’d be one to do that,” she admitted. “I’d imagine Shining doing something like that, but you, I never really thought you’d do that.”

“Alicorns aren’t infallible,” Cadence said. “You are proof of this.” The last bit got Twilight to smile sheepishly as well. They continued into the city for a bit, but before they got to the shopping district, Shining Armor and a pair of Crystal guards found them.

“Honey, it was a bit of a false alarm,” he said with a glad smile.

“What?! Are you saying we were called out here for a false alarm and had no reason to really come!?” Twilight bellowed, nearly knocking down everyone on the street.

A quick cleaning of his ears, and Shining continued. “Wrong choice of words,” he said. “It’s an emergency and an alarm that Sombra is back, but when I found him after getting the information from the witnesses, he’s surprisingly civil and not hostile.”

This got the entire group to stare at him questioningly, causing him to sigh in annoyance. “Cadence haters, when they are found, call her Crystal Keister, in the same pattern of Celestia haters calling her Cake Flanks, or Sunbutt,” he said. Those words got Cadence to blush lightly as he turned towards his Sister. “And you have a morbid fear of Quesadillas and Snakes because of a jumping snake prank gone wrong at a school lunch.” Twilight blushed as well.

“Sorry, for the looks,” Cadence said. “It just seemed odd that you sounded like you were vouching for him.”

“Not necessarily,” Shining pointed out. “The only thing I’m vouching for is that he is cooperating, mostly. Arresting him is impossible and he has been rather simple in his requests.”

“Requests?” Twilight asked.

“We found him at the spa, which was abandoned because of his presence,” Shining explained. “And since we couldn’t really arrest him, we simply have him “locked down” there and we granted the few smaller requests and came to find you for his last one.”

“What were the requests?” Cadence asked in concern.

“A considerable number of bottles of the various Crystal alcohols from when he used to rule as king, and whatever spa staff that would be indifferent to his presence to go back to work as if he was a foreign VIP, with a slight chance of Royal Coverage,” Shining answered. “And those were the small requests. The last one is an audience with Twilight, alone.”

Twilight and Cadence recoiled in shock. “You are seriously considering trusting him, alone, with your sister?” The latter asked.

“He’s proven civil and cooperative so far, and he hasn’t caused trouble,” Shining reasoned. “And while it will be a male in a room alone with my sister...as much as it irks me to say it, I feel like I can trust him with her and not cause trouble or do anything that he shouldn’t.”

Both Twilight and Cadence did their calming, breathing exercises before looking back at him. “I’ll talk with him,” Twilight said, ending the debate. “However, if he does do what he shouldn’t, you’re the one to blame for even considering talking.”

Shining nodded and began to lead the group to the spa. Upon arrival, they were about to be ‘attacked’ by the media massed outside of the building, but a good glare from the guards and Shining kept them from swarming all over them. Twilight gave everyone a somewhat reassuring nod before entering the building.

And what she saw was not what she expected. The main hot tub in the room was expanded and deepened to allow a morbidly obese Sombra, seemingly naked, to sit comfortably in it. A small group of spa employees were tending to him, massages on portions of his body, including his large belly, and serving some of the alcohol to him in enlarged margarita glasses...and they were doing it without a hint of brainwashing, practically being themselves as if they were working on a different morbidly obese stallion and not the former Tyrant of the Crystal Empire.

When the doors closed behind her, one of his ears twitched and he spared a glance behind himself before turning to one of the spa workers. “Please leave the room, some privacy is needed for this meeting,” he said with a smooth voice that oozed charisma. With a nod, the spa worker he spoke with gave a light whistle, and all of the employees in the room left to other parts of the building.

With what seemed to be little difficulty, Sombra slowly turned himself over in the hot tub, revealing the black and heart print bathing briefs on his big bum, which, themselves, seemed to be competing against his belly for size. With the margarita glass in hand, he crossed his arms over the pool’s edge and gave Twilight a sly looking smile, bedroom eyes and all.

“Would you care to join me?”

Author's Note

When properly motivated/'provoked', I can come up with stories and ideas real fast.
Image can't be placed, for reasons.
Taking a Dip