Gangs of Manehattan

As Fluttershy was suffering through the next week, a meeting took place in one of Manehattan's tallest buildings. The skyscraper, a steel and glass construct, had quite a foreboding appearance, mainly black and some red. It was a building that basically screamed “evil corporation”, yet it, and its owner, actually had a pretty good standing with most of the citizens of Manehattan. Donated a lot to charity, supported the city, that sort of stuff.

In an office suit on the 96th floor, around a large, dark, and very expensive desk sat four ponies. Each of them were well known in Manehattan and beyond, in business and politics. They had informants and cronies in a lot of places: Gangs, police, DA offices and more. Kept loyal by bribes, blackmail, favors and other means. Each of them had a glass and a bottle of very expensive alcohol in front of him.

In the dark, sparsely lit conference room, a very expensive leather office chair swiveled around, revealing the head of the meeting. The president of Umbrum Enterprises, Sombra. The other three were some of his partner, or, in their cases, rather his partners in crime. They all were quite powerful afterall. Svengallop, Wind Rider and Gladmane. Three of them were impeccably dressed, Sombra in a black suit, black shirt and red tie, costing multiple thousand bits. Gladmane was wearing his usual garish, eccentric suit-and-cape combo, while Svengallop wore a more usual suit, dark blue, light blue, striped shirt and a red tie. Meanwhile, Wind Rider looked a bit different, though no less expensive, wearing a leather jacket, jeans, boots and his trademark silk scarf.

Wind Rider, after the disgraceful end of his police career, had started a private security company. THwough in truth they often acted as muscle for Sombra and other powerful, unscrupulous figures. Gladmane meanwhile was one of Manehattan's most powerful bankers, and laundering hundreds of thousands of bits for Sombra every day, while having his own stuff going on the side.

Svengallop meanwhile was a political opportunist, supported by Sombra and the others due to their goals aligning. He was... of the old school. Had the right idea of where everypony should be in the world. That the city, and Equestria overall, should be run by those of wealth, taste and sophistication! The rich elite, not some grassroots no-names, plebeians or idealistic morons!

It was true that Sombra himself started at the bottom, but he never had any personal interest to reach a political office, He had managed to integrate himself very well into the circles of Svengallop, Spoiled Rich, Jet Set and Upper Crust and other like minded creatures however.

Currently, they were bickering over some issues, Sombra quietly observing, his face stern, resting on his folded hands. “Had Svengallop won the election back then, and not given Celestia a chance to solidify her position after his loss, we wouldn't even have many of these problems! And I'd still be commissioner!” Wind Rider grumbled.

“Don't pin this on me, Wind Rider!” The called-out stallion snapped! “It was that fucking accident that allowed her to ride a wave of sympathy!” He continued to angrily mutter on: “I swear she must've planned that! It's just too convenient! She adopts some little shit and a few weeks later, she's involved in a car crash that leaves her basically unscathed but the brat disappears? Yeah, sure!”

Sombra massaged his temple. Bickering fools... They've had this argument plenty of times by now! But they also had influence, money and connections. And, when not busy blaming each other for any perceived failure, they had an impact. Over the years, the four of them had many things possible for each other. Legal and illegal.

The unicorn turned his head to the banker at the desk. His voice was deep, smooth and pleasant, yet there was something in it that, if you noticed it, would put you on the edge, especially with the expression on his face and the stare glare in his eyes. He looked as close to a tiger as a pony could when his deep voice filled the room. “Gladmane, you haven't said anything so far! Do you have any news to report?”

“Not really.” Galdmane shrugged. “The operations are going smoothly, though I think some undercover cops have been sniffing around. Might have to deal with that soon., one way or another...” Then he smiled, “However, my personal project is finally taking shape!”

“You still want to build that casino?” Svengallop raised an eyebrow.

“A resort to reduce Las Pegasus to a second grade dump! Not just some random little casino!” He retorted, spreading out his arms, his eyes gleaming! He continued: “Gambling Halls, hotels, restaurants, an amusement park and more! It's going to be a town of its own!”

The former police chief burst out in laughter! “You're still pissed they ran you out of town, all those years ago? All this project of yours is you felating your own ego because you couldn't muscle your way into Las Pegasus!”

Gladmane ignored Wind Rider. “I found the perfect piece of land... It's near some small hole in the sticks. But it's near Canterlot. Used to be a farm with huge orchards until they went belly up and had to foreclose. Those country bumpkins got peanuts for land that's worth a fortune!” He let out one of his characteristic laughs. “Unfortunately, at the time we ran into a number of issues, I think you remember it, my friends? The farm was filed away and nearly forgotten about! But then, while checking through the files, we stumbled over it again and finally were going to sell it... I sent an intermediary and had stuff spread about the property. Bought it dirt cheap!”

Despite his previous burst of laughter, Wind Rider was intrigued by what he heard. He stopped playing with his silk scarf and listened intently as Gladmane's gaze turned to Svengallop and Sombra.

“Unfortunately, there is still some red tape, and the issue about the legality of gambling. So, I was hoping you gents might be able to use your connections to potentially procure an exception permit for me? I don't expect it to be solved fast, just that it be solved!”

The politician of the group stroke his chin. There were some favors he could call on, and maybe more, but his answer remained not quite committed: “I'll see what I can do...”

Meanwhile, Sombra gave a short nod. “I do think this could be a good investment. I'll have Radiant Hope create a list of potential contacts for me later.”

Gladmane gave the two a big smile and nodded. Then, he turned back to Wind Rider. “And, my dear Wind Rider, I hope you can, once the casinos are built, procure the security?”

“Of course!” The pegasus nodded. “I might have to expand first however, but until you need them, it'll take a few years at least anyway!”

“Perfect! And in return, contracts for construction, security and so on aside, Sombra will receive 10 % and you and Svengallop 5 % each of the resort! Once it gets going, that should be ample enough money to repay any expenses!”

“What about that town nearby? Won't they raise any fuss? Especially with the sudden influx of tourists? If they create a big controversy, even with our pull, It might cause your whole enterprise to flounder, or at least be less profitable.”

“Who cares about them? They should welcome the tourists!” Gladmane waved him off, turning his attention “Now, Sombra?”

He bent forward, a piercing glare fixed on the banker. “Yes?”

Gladmane swallowed. Sombra's eyes, his piercing stare always unnerved him. As calmly as he could muster, he asked him, “As a good business partner, I'd like to hire your construction company for the planning and construction of the resort, if that's alright for you?”

“Of course,” the dark, tall unicorn replied in a measured tone. “Daddy Grandeur will be elated to have something worthy of his decoration skills again. He's been complaining about the recent work he's had.”

Suddenly, behind them the door opened. “Excuse me, Sir? I am sorry that I have to interrupt your meeting!”

“Yes, Sans Smirk? Anything important?” The boss of Umbrum Enterprises asked with a raised eyebrow.

“I think so, Mr. Sombra!” The assistant declared as he entered the room, a phone in one hand and a folder with documents in the other. “Hard Hat has tried to call you! And when he didn't reach you, he called me! He has news that might be of interest! And Radiant Hope has given me some files for you to sign!”

Hard Hat was the head of his construction business. Well, that was one of his jobs, but it was his official position. He'd started working for Sombra quite early and showed a lot of promise on the construction sites. He also, as his boss found out, had some dealings on the side, working as hired muscle and so on. A hand-picked part of his construction crew by now had become one of Sombra Industries go-to muscles for problem solving.

“Put them on the desk,“ Sombra told his assistant, pointing at the table. “What does Hard Hat want?”

“It has to do with your-” Smirk paused for a moment, thinking about how to phrase it, considering his boss' guests. “-peculiar interest, sir!”

The unicorn's eyes widened. “Is he still on the line?” He asked Sans Smirk with an intense stare.

“Yes, Mr. Sombra!” An energetic nod underscored the answer.

Sombra gestured him to hand over the phone and, as he grabbed it, he quietly told him to leave the documents on the desk. “Yes, Hard Hat? You found something?... Wait a moment, you're hard to understand. I'll put you on speaker!” It was unfortunate, since his partners didn't quite know what it was about, but he was too impatient. Too long he had had to wait for any sort of advance.

The voice of Hard Hat rang out of the speaker, still a bit hard to understand, but understandable nonetheless. Gladmane, Wind Rider and Svengallop bend over to be closer. They were curious. For a long time now, they'd known that Sombra was searching for something... “Boss, I think we found one of the installations you're looking for, but it seems to have been ransacked ages ago. However, the guys are still looking through everything! Maybe whoever cleaned it out overlooked something!”

With a thunderous noise, Sombra slammed his fist on the table. Finally, they found something and it's been ransacked already? He growled.

“Boss? Is everything alright?!” The voice came from the phone again.

“Yes!” Sombra unintentionally snapped. “What site are you on?”

“Construction Site 17! The theater renovation! We had to check some stuff in the sewers and found some... markings on the walls. Lead from a hidden door in the basement down the sewers. Sent Garble and some others to check it out and they found a secret side room built into the sewer wall!” Suddenly, there were some background noises and and bits of words, but only Hard Hat's were somewhat intelligible. “Yes? OK! Wait a moment! Excuse me, Sir, I'll be back with you in a moment!... Show me!”

A minute or two later, Hard Hat was back on the phone, his voice sounding breathless but slightly triumphant, “Sir?!”

“Yes?” Could that finally be a break through? There was a shine in his eyes..

Trying to suppress any undue jubilation in case it turned out a dud, the voice on the other end of the phone told him, We found something!”

“What? What did you find?” The dark unicorn nearly implored.

“It's a file!” Hard Hat told him after a moment of contemplating what to tell exactly. “Contains only rows of numbers and letters. Might be code. If I had to judge? Might be coordinates or addresses. Maybe of other installation, offices and so on... If we can decode it.”

Sombra's answer was audibly strained from trying not to shout, “Send the papers over as soon as possible! I'll have ponies to crack it ready!”

“Al right, bo-” The call was ended before builder could finish.

Sombra looked up, his face a grim visage with a hint of controlled excitement. He looked right into all of his partners' eyes. “Well now, Sombra...” Gladmane began, clearing his throat, “I think it's about time you explain what's up with that. I've been wondering about that for a while now!”

Wind Rider nodded in agreement. “Gladmane's right! We're partners after all and my guys are protecting the construction sites you use to dig around for.... whatever you're looking for!”

“I also have to agree with the other two.” Svengallop added in a measured tone, after taking a sip of wine, curious, yet trying not to push his luck with Sombra too much. He was a dangerous pony, after all.

For a minute, there was leaden silence in the room, a pair of red eyes staring into the eyes of three other ponnies. For a moment, Svengallop feared that they had pushed their luck too far, but then, uncharacteristically, Sombra shrugged, letting out the tiniest of sighes. “Alright... I guess you can be allowed to know. You've heard too much already and are in too deep anyway. You know my... secret projects? Well, of course you do. Each of you has taken some quality time with them after all!”

“You mean the...” Whatever the ex-police chief wanted to say got immediately interrupted.

“Yes. That project...” A project to turn ponies and other creatures into obedient sex-slaves for sale and rental. Sombra emptied his glass of wine, before Radiant refilled it. “Some time ago, I stumbled over some old documents. Apparently, parts of the government had ideas in the same... basic ballpark, probably for military use, and built a number of secret underground labs, some as part of civilian or official buildings, others just hidden away. So far, most of them had had eithe two or three hidden underground levels under their basements, and some even had an especially hidden high security floor. I assume that's where the most interesting informations had been stored. The really important documents about, well, I think you can probably figure at this point! At least what was left of the files they had after they'd been cleaned out. I guess after the project had been canned, they decided to just forget about them, rather than risk any of that stuff getting lost on delivery to a storage site, or disposal. The high security rooms seemed to not have been swept clean, however. Maybe they didn't want anyone to get their hands on it, or none of the cleaning crews had access... Maybe it was just the usual incompetence.”

“So, the government was working on drugs for mind-control, mind-breaking, brainwashing and so on?” Wind Rider asked after emptying his glass of whiskey.

A nod, before Sombra continued. “Apparently. Though it might've been some small, secret groups or whatever. You know the inter-branch rivalries. Unfortunately, but not suprisingly, the laboratories we've found, if they had any papers left, were either the major failures, or incomplete. Or both. If we even found anything! But there were promising leads!” He took a sip himself. “I've sent a copy of one of those documents over to Fillydelphia. A two bit gang that's acting as a bunch of goons for hire for some of my... less-than-legal enterprises over there. I was told that they had a great drug cook, a zebra, I think, that could whip up some pretty impressive stuff. Maybe she could do something with it!”

“Judging from your expression, she wasn't able to?” The garishly dressed banker asked.

Sombra's answer was strained by an attempt at keeping his flaring anger in check, but the annoyance was hard to miss: “Maybe. I don't really know! That's the most annoying part! She made some pretty impressive stuff from the reports I've read, mind-breaking drugs, aphrodisiacs and more. But the effect, unless administered in doses that could very well leave the recipient either near catatonic or just dead, was only temporary. They needed regular doses. While there are some that have an interest in living sex-dolls, for me personally that's just a flat 'no'!”

Wind Rider laughed as he heard that. “It's boring, and you have to feed them, clean them... And they just have no character at all! You fucked one, you fucked them all! Now, turning a contrarian bitch into an obedient fuck toy? That has something! But even then, sometimes it's far nicer if they have some bite left in them, denial of their craving for the cock of the guy they once despised!”

“Indeed.” Sombra agreed quietly, and even the other two nodded. “But here's the thing that's so annoying: Those imbeciles, those lowlife morons,-” he clenched his fists nearly enough for their nails to draw blood as he let his mask of measured composure and semi-sophistication crack for a moment “- those short-sighted no-good, motherfucking, brain dead, shit shows of air wasting stupidity and blind greed!”

The other three exchanged worried looks. They'd never seen Sombra worked up like this! He usually tried to project an aura of calm superiority, of always being in control! All three of them hastily refilled their glasses and emptied them in a single gulp. And then quickly refilled them.

“So...” Svengallop cautiously ventured, “what did they do?”

The others winced when Sombra tore his eyes open, a wild fire flickering in their merciless red. “Those idiots decided that whatever that zebra had cooked up was good enough, drugged her up, stuffed her into a truck with other mares for brothels and dealers, together with a bunch of the drugs!”

His broad smile looking visibly strained, Gladmane tried to smooth the situation over, as Wind Rider emptied another glass of whiskey and Svengallop nervously sipped his wine, “But wasn't there a chance that they didn't use enough drugs? You said that the effect was only temporary...”

“That might've been a possibility...” The chairman of the meeting continued in a calmness that was even more worrying than his outburst before. Then, his shout shook the room. “IF THE FUCKING TRUCK HADN'T BEEN INTERCEPTED BY SOME GANG!” Audibly, and visibly, seething, he continued, “That happened, what? A year ago? Sometime thereabout at least! We never found out who did it or what happened to any of the mares, drugs, THE FORMULAS or the money they were also sending! They'd been masked, pulled the driver and co-driver out of the truck and then knocked them out, tied them up and left them there! I lost a good amount of money that day, together with a very talented cook! I hope I don't have to tell you what happened to those Fillydelphia half-wits.”

He didn't. They could imagine it quite well. They knew what happened to those that fucked up royally. Honest mistakes? Especially if one stood up for it and learned from it? Good chance of being left alive. Arrogance, stupidity and major fuck ups? One way trip to the grave. A very painful one at that! Though it was probably kinder from him to have sent ponies to deal with those crooks instead of going himself. Sombra was very strong, especially for a unicorn, more than able to take on even earth ponies considered to be very strong in hand to hand without breaking sweat! The three had seen what he could do others even without using his magic, and even Wind Rider, who'd seen a lot during his time on the police, preferred not to be reminded of the things he'd seen done by Sombra. “The zebra got closer than we'd ever been before...”

The unicorn sighed. “Especially since I'm convinced that we'll need some very potent stuff to get Manehattan's honored mayor...!”

“Ah, I see... so that's how you wanted to...” The politician mumbled to himself. He looked up at his partner. “You think that that bitch Celestia won't cave in to the stuff that turns any other mare we've ever seen into a good little slut?”

Shaking his head, Sombra answered, “She and her sister are alicorns! And even normal ponies, mare or stallion, zebras and griffons have shown themselves to be quite resistant at times! We didn't try try it on dragons or yaks yet and hippgryffs we assume are close to griffons and ponies...”

“Oh, don't remind me!” Gladmane twisted his face, remembering the time when a griffoness had nearly de-stallioned him with her beak....

“Indeed. We need some potent stuff we can give to her in a discreet way. Break her down, preferably slowly, over time, so that none will really question how she changed from one day to another. Then make her beg and-” looking at Svengallop, Sombra finished, -”throw the election to you, and then, well, you know!”

“Yes, I do know,” He agreed, “But don't forget: You promised Celestia and her sister to me, after a year of them being your... company!” Svengallop was patient, didn't mind waiting. And having Celestia fall for him the moment be became mayor – it was widely known that the two didn't like each other – would've raised suspicion. No, it was better if Sombra broke the two in, and after a year as his eye candy, few would care, or wonder why they'd flock to Svengallop.

“And I get the new commish's wife, wasn't it?” Wind Rider laughed, “And Spitfire! And my old post back, if possible!”

Again, Gladmane cleared his throat, “This is all very nice, but, I would like to come back to those cops... I need them to stop snooping around at my enterprises!”

“You want them killed?” Sombra threw an ambiguous look at the banker.

“What?! No!” Gladmane quickly objected, sounding utterly shocked, “That would just draw undue attention. It's cops, not some overly curious idiot sticking his muzzle into stuff that ain't of his concern!”

“Good. For a moment I had already wondered what had gotten into you. Dead cops would just mean that the MPD would be a major pain in the neck!” The chairman nodded.

Wind Rider added his own two bits to this: “Bribery would be the most quiet way, but I doubt it'd work. Not with the work Shining Armor and Spitfire have put into the force. Now, there are still plenty of cops that take bribes, but snooping around at stuff Gladmane's connected to? Nah, gotta be guys that are tough to crack.” His finger knocked against the side of his head as he was thinking. “Maybe some good old intimidation could work. Have some muscle show up, give them a thrashing and disappear....”

Sombra scratched his chin, thinking about it. “Who should I send? Trouble Shoes? Hard Hat and his crew? They could pretend to be drunks, get into an argument. Would mean that the cops might not investigate too deeply into this, while still making the investigators nervous. Especially if they are snooping around without all the necessary clearances..." Had they been given all the necessary authority, he, or Gladmane, would probably know about it. So it stood to reason that they were in a bit of a gray zone, and might not be able to point at their badges too easily.

“Maybe, after the beating, they could check their ID's. If we know their names, we might find some dirt on them!” Svengallop put forward.

“That's a great idea, Svengallop!” Gladmane cheered, “I bet we can find some dirt on at least one of them, and that guy then has to sabotage his friends!”

Again, he laughed his laughter, when the sound of a mare clearing her throat came from the shadow shrouded wall. “Oh, Lightning Dust?” Wind Rider asked the mare that had accompanied him. “Do you have anything to add to this?”

“Not really...” The pegasus shrugged. “Just that I'd like it if, instead of some of his goons, we could take care of this! We haven't had anything fun to do for a while now, boss!”

Her 'boss' raised an eyebrow. “So, you and your crew want to take care of this problem?”

“Yes, sir!” Lightning Dust snappily replied with a salute and a cocky grin.

“And the fact that you're dealing with cops?”

“Don't worry! We know how to make sure that the police won't find out! Learned from them, after all!”

The others at the table were a bit confused, or at least unconvinced. Gladmane was the first to vocalize it. “Oh yeah? I don't think we've been acquainted yet?”

“That's Lightning Dust” The private security contractor stated, “She went to the Academy in the year I got completely driven from the force. Showed a lot of promise, being at least on par with the stand-out of the year, Rainbow Dash, but the new ponies in charge thought her 'too reckless', too prone to violence, too much of a show-off! Pussies! In my time, she would've made it big in the force!”

The others nodded in agreement. In the good old days, the cops were dumb muscles for hire with a badge! They did what they were told, made some of their own additional income on the side... And now you had idiots that wanted to reform and change that!

“I saw her potential however, and protected her. Once I was out, they threw her out of the Academy! But I had, and still have, contacts and some supporters there and, together with two other rejects, Rolling Thunder and Short Fuse, I hired them and he three started to call themselves 'The Washouts'. Worked for me as my top squad and personal bodyguards ever since, though not in public. While some of my usual guys escort me, those three are the ones you don't see!”

Sven had to admit that it sounded pretty impressive, nearly too good. He just had to ask: “Why where the other two thrown out?”

“Rolling Thunder I don't know. Just heard that it had something to do with thunder clouds or something. Short Fuse... well, the name says it all. Anger management issues. Was a police brutality lawsuit in the making. Lightning Dust and Rolling Thunder usually can keep him in check though, and for most of their work, the temper isn't really an issue!”

“So, you trust them?” The politician asked again.

“I have the utmost confidence in their abilities.” Wind Ride stated matter-of-factly. “Now, there might be some collateral, but I don't think that really matters, now does it? Some bystanders getting hit, maybe some windows shattered... who cares?”

This actually satisfied all of them. For now at least. And now it was Sombra's turn to refill his glass. He toasted to his partners and emptied it. “Gentlecolts! To a very profitable future!”

As the others raised their glasses, and Lightning Dust grabbed her boss' half-empty whiskey bottle, there was another knock at the door. Sombra quickly emptied his glass.“Yes?”

This time, it wasn't Sans Smirk. Instead, it was an elegant unicorn mare, dressed in a quite sexy business attire. “Mr. Sombra! I hope you excuse the interruption?”

It was Radiant Hope. While Sans Smirk was basically Sombra's consiglieri, Radiant Hope acted as his aide and secretary primarily in public, and legal, arrangements. He had a high, yet ill-defined position, she was actually Vice-President of Umbrum Enterprises and was more than capable of running the company! It was just that she usually only had to step in if Sombra was inconvenienced, and that was rare, and so, while being his official second-in-command, usually acted as aide and secretary, unless she was sent to represent him. The division of labor between the two second most powerful figures in the company wasn't quite as clean cut as it sounded, both had involvements in either directions, but overall it kept each of them focused on their areas,

Sombra's demeanor shifted. Surprising Lightning Dust, but the other three had seen it before. His deep voice sounded nearly soft. “Yes? Radiant?”

“Sir, the …” She started, but Sombra interrupted her as he got an idea.

“Please, come a bit closer.” He gestured with his hand to add to his words.

“Mr. Sombra, you...” She started again, but again got interrupted. This time, by Sombra grabbing her arm and pulling her onto his lap, the clipboard she'd been carrying with her clattered on the ground as she came to lie on his knees, her hooves hanging over the table. He planted a soft, gentle kiss against her neck.

“Please, Radiant! Just Sombra! We've known each other for so long! And we aren't in public!” He told her, and it was true. Wind Rider and the others knew as well that they'd known each other for a very long time. Since they'd been foals even, from what they've gathered.

Sombra had been an outcast orphan. Bullied and ostracized by others. But Radiant Hope? She'd been the single bright spot of his youth, standing up for him, being with him.. She'd stuck with him through school and college, helped him to work his way up and found his company, even stayed with him when she found out about the less-than-savory side projects with which he had made a lot of his money.

“But... Sir!...Sombra, y-your p-partners!” She stammered.

Sombra's reply was soft, hardly audible to the others in the room: “Don't worry about them!”

It wasn't the first time they'd seen him act like that with her, though she didn't know it. Their relationship was none of their concern anyway, and that was both, their and Sombra's opinion. And they knew very well that, if they uttered one wrong word, one ill-chosen quip, or anything like that, they probably wouldn't live to regret it.

A lot of Manehattan would be surprised if they saw this however. Sombra's sexual appetite and escapades were well known, and he usually surrounded himself with an entourage of beautiful playmates, and most of those weren't even drugged! After all, he was rich, and very attractive, in a dark and hunky way.

He didn't discriminate either: He'd had pegasi, unicorns, earth ponies, zebras, griffons, hippogriffs, a yak and even a dragon once. There were rumors about at least one changeling, though those were always hard to qualify, especially with the changeling's near-mythical reputation. Other rumours said that some of his escorts had actually been femcolts he'd used for... relief. It was said that he didn't particularly care about that either, as long as he was in control.

But the playboy act was, to a large extent, just that: An Act. He did enjoy it, but the escapades also served other goals: They made him popular, for one. Made the common pony think that he was one of them, a pony with flaws, but also one one might want to have a drink with! To seem more harmless, and less like a rather cold and calculating kingpin of crime! Certainly, such a playcolt could never run a massive criminal enterprise! It also helped to keep Radiant Hope out of the targeting cross of ponies and others that wanted to get to him. But in his heart, if he had one, there was only place for her.

Radiant Hope meanwhile... didn't mind it. She loved Sombra and knew that she'd always have a special place in his heart, but she also knew that his appetite couldn't be sated by her alone. Also, if she was honest, she kind of started to get off on seeing him rail others. But not as much as she enjoyed those few hours when it was only the two of them, at home, cuddled together...

As Sombra's hand started to squeezer her tit, Radiant's face nuzzled against her bosses chest and neck, she finally managed to pass on what she'd wanted to say, “The mayor's charity event starts in two hours.”

“Mayor? Wasn't it Filthy Rich?” He asked, slightly confused.

Giving him a soft smile, and stabbing his muzzle playfully with her index finger, Radiant told him, “No, that's in a few weeks.”

He sighed. Back to work. Always back to work. Business, business, business, be it legal or illegal... “Well, I guess I'll go and take a shower and get some fresh clothes then... Get my limousine ready and prepare a check for... hmm... 250,000 bits!” Then, he remembered something else. “Also, please call Mudbriar and the others for a meeting tomorrow. I have a job for them. And I need to talk to Caballeron... And Professor Fossil and Buried Treasure also!”

Picking up her clip board and writing down the orders, Radiant, in a professional tone of voice again, replied, “Will be done, Mr. Sombra!”

Turning to his guests, Sombra stretched out his arms in a gesture meant to be inviting. “Well then, Gentlecolts! Any of you want to accompany me to the gala?”

All three denied the invitation. Svengallop would attend the gala, but later. For one, he had no interest in showing up on time at one of Celestia's events. No, he'd be fashonable late. And first had to do meet some of his associates for a few discussions: Zesty Gourmand and Suri Polomare. At the gala itself, he'd also have to talk with two of his main supporters, Jet Set and Upper Crust.

But sitting in a limousine with Sombra always caused the fur on the three ponies necks to stand up. As much as he was a good business partner, deep down they were deadly afraid of him.

“Well-” He shrugged, “-then don't me detain you any longer! I hope each of you has a nice evening! I'll have you contacted to schedule our next meeting sometime in the next week or so!”

As he left the office, Sombra immediately got surrouned by four gorgeous mares, a tomboyish unicorn, an elegant looking earth pony, a pegasus and a zebra. And two rather shy looking stallions as well, wearing female clothes. His current group of playthings. He always took good care of his lovers, even those that got rotated out once they started to bore him. They got a nice compensation and they were well cared for. Unless they got possessive and tried to force their way back to him. Sometimes he allowed some back, or at least had a short liaison with them again, but those that didn't understand that it was over... well...

He and his entourage stepped into the elevator, and he told the group, “I'm going to take a shower, who of of you wants to wash me?” All of them hastily volunteered. Sombra picked out one of the femcolts and the zebra. Turning to the earth pony meanwhile, he told her “And you, my dear... Please go and grab fresh clothes for me. I trust that you'll be able to pick a fitting suit for the mayor's charity gala?”

“Of course Sombra!” She excitedly chirped her answer as the elevator passed through Radiant Hope's apartment on the 98th floor and into Sombra's three floor penthouse.