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// Chapter One: The Calm Before the Storm 
// Story: King Sombra: Babysitter? 
// by Badguy400 
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The story begins in the Crystal Empire, where Shining Armor and Princess Cadence are trying their best to calm down Flurry Heart. Why? Well, Flurry Heart did “nearly” get foalnapped by King Sombra, was imprisoned alongside her family because of him, and was fighting the corrupted guards once she and her family broke out somehow. Unfortunately, all of this made Flurry Heart have terrible nightmares that just never seem to end; even though it’s been only a few days.

“Flurry Heart, calm down sweetie, it’s okay. It’s over.” Shining Armor said with a loving and caring tone. But Flurry Heart was having none of it. She then took the opportunity to cry even louder because of another “nightmare” she just had; even though she wasn’t asleep anymore. The reason being is that when she started crying, it’s because she just woke up from having a nightmare while taking a nap. Now that she’s awake, she can still remember the nightmare she just had, and then made it worse by remembering the time that she felt one of her hind legs being grasped, and levitating because of Sombra’s magic. And other flashbacks.

“Oh.. my poor baby”, said Princess Cadence consolingly, “do you need a hug?” She then spreads out her arms so Flurry Heart can hug her. Flurry Heart doesn’t respond at first because she was still sniffling and wiping her tears. After a few seconds, she flew towards her mother’s arms, and hugged her whilst still having tears in her eyes. “Shining,” began Cadence; “I feel like that at this rate, we won’t be able to get any goodnight sleep if she keeps crying”.

“I know beloved, but what else can we do? We’ve tried everything.” Shining Armor is now rubbing the sides of his head with his forehooves. He was basically just having a mini meltdown in his head because of how sleep deprived he is. Come to think of it, Cadence wasn’t faring any better than he is either, and she’s got bags under her eyes. Actually, both of them have bags under their eyes, and their manes are all messed up. Well except for Flurry obviously; she just has tears in her eyes from crying too much.

“Hmm,“ Cadence thought for a minute, “we did get her to stop crying soon after we gave her her Whammy remember?” Cadence looked to Shining Armor and awaited his response.

“I guess..” said Shining, “but like I said, we’ve literally tried everything. There’s just no way to get her to stop crying. Also, *yawns*, it’s not like that she’ll get better anytime soon. Face it honey, *starts to look defeated*, we really did try everything.”

“Well,“ Cadence said, “not everything you know.”

“What do you mean? We literally tried everything”, said Shining Armor as he rubs his eyes.

“Well.. “ Cadence paused, “what if we.. I don’t know.. get King Sombra to babysit for a bit?” Cadence chuckled nervously and looked towards her husband.

Shining Armor blinked twice at that suggestion, and said, “you got to be kidding me, there’s no way we’re doing that. No way, no how.” Shining Armor gave a look of utter disbelief and slight distrust, and continued, “No way is King Sombra babysitting our daughter. What if he hurts her again? Or worse?”

“Then we’ll get Twilight to watch over him then. She’s not busy today. So, why not?” Cadence reassured her husband. 

Shining Armor felt a little uncomfortable. “I don’t know... last time that Discord was watching over Spike while Twilight was away, he and Spike got into an argument, and they both vowed to never speak to each other for one whole week.” Shining then rubs his head in discomfort of the thought.

“Well then maybe this will be different. Who knows? It might work out in the end. I mean..” Cadence thought out loud nervously, “what’s the worst that can happen?”