King Sombra

**King Sombra**is a male unicorn who appears as the main antagonist in *My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic* of season 3's premiere *The Crystal Empire*and the season 9's premiere *The Beginning of the End.*

## Biography

King Sombra first appeared on Hasbro's Pony Wedding microsite, which has been accessible since July 2012, before any information about the character was released publically. The quiz does not refer to him by name. In the microsite's Wedding Quiz section, the quiz "Your dream wedding location!" includes the question "Who should be the MC?", with Sombra as the choice that steers the quiz's result to the Crystal Empire.

Writer M.A. Larson wrote on Twitter regarding the quiz's image of King Sombra that was presented to him: "Interesting. I read about that in a script but never seen it before.

King Sombra is mentioned by one of the crystal ponies and Twilight Sparkle in the promotional clip for The Crystal Empire shown at Hasbro's My Little Pony panel at the New York Comic Con 2012 and later uploaded to Hasbro's My Little Pony Facebook page. His distinct eyes briefly flash over the crystal pony who mentions his name.

In the adventures series, King Sombra began to want an heir to the Crystal Empire, and spotted Atticus Fudo being born, but the boy was born premature. His parents were very devastated to know that their newborn son could die very soon, but soon King Sombra came to them and gave the baby boy his crystal powers and would allow for the boy to live on if he would become his heir to the Crystal Empire. Of course, the parents agreed.

Some time after Atticus was born and given up to The Sixth Street Orphanage, Sombra kept an eye on his heir which he dubbed as his foster nephew and Sombra being called "Uncle Sombra" by him, his hopes had been shattered once Atticus made a friend which was a very young Cherry Butler and the two became best friends which made Atticus's sadness and anger of not having any friends fade away, and from then on, King Sombra made it his intention to haunt Cherry and try to kill her so that Atticus will remember his destiny of ruling The Crystal Empire.

Sombra is very much The Big Bad of the adventures series with his motivations to have Cherry out of the picture so that Atticus will rule The Crystal Empire and become a villain, but fails numerous times, even teaming up with villains the duo meet on various adventures together. In *Cherry and Atticus's Big Equestrian Adventure*, Sombra is back with a very powerful vengeance, even traveling to G3 Equestria known as The Dream Valley as he teams up with both Lord Tirek and Scorpan before the latter's betrayal.

When the story leads into the season 9 premiere of The Beginning of the End, Sombra is recruited by Grogar along with Tirek, Cozy Glow, and Queen Chrysalis. Sombra shows his vast interest in keeping Atticus as his heir and even wishes to actually kill Cherry, and at first, he succeeds, until she comes back after being trained by Drell and with some help with Megan Williams. After Sombra is defeated, unlike his canon counterpart, he does not die, and gets sent into The Cave of the Ethers for until a descendant born from Atticus and Mo who would have the same crystal powers as Atticus would be brought into the world.

In the next generation of adventures, Akito and Estelle meet and hear about their Uncle Sombra, not aware that he is evil up until *Akito and Estelle's Adventures of Little Miss Christmas* when he nearly makes Eloise (Eloise at the Plaza), Giselle (Eloise at the Plaza), and Nanny (Eloise at the Plaza) homeless with their help to make Eloise bring out the best Christmas show ever with his help. Sombra begins to stalk Akito a bit to make him his new heir to the Crystal Empire after failing with his father.

Sombra soon reforms in *Akito and Estelle Meet Anastasia* after beginning to team up with Rasputin since their goals are similar, but Akito ends up in Limbo with the two, and Akito and Sombra soon begin to bond and Sombra realizes that being so good doesn't sound so bad after all. Of course, others are hesitant to give him a chance at first, but soon, he shows that he is indeed a changed unicorn and becomes a family friend, especially with tutoring Akito in magic in the adventures with Star Butterfly.

## Abilities

King Sombra appears in the show as a being of pure darkness. Due to this, he appears to be virtually impossible to damage via targeted magic, easily dodging Shining Armor's magic beam. However, he cannot penetrate some magical barriers, as he was unable to touch the Princess Cadance's field of love magic without getting harmed. His dark form can spread to immense distances, to the point that he can surround the Crystal Empire all by himself. He can also sink the ground and travel this way, leaving a trail of sharp crystals in his path.

Celestia states that she and Luna were the ones responsible for turning Sombra into shadow. This may imply that, albeit formidable in his present state, he could be even more powerful in his true pony form.

King Sombra's main power seems to be creating dark, jagged crystals. Those can serve as sharp weapons or imprison his enemies. If he engulfs a unicorn pony in his darkness, he can cover their horn with crystal, blocking off their magical abilities.

King Sombra's unicorn magic is unlike any other previously seen on the show. It is inferred by Celestia to be dark magic, powered by hatred and fear. The glow associated with it is a toxic purple bubbling. Though it can be cast by others, Sombra seems to be the main practitioner of it. It is affiliated with corruption, able to taint the Crystal Empire in a matter of minutes. In addition to creating dark crystals, this magic can also be used to show one an illusion of one's greatest fear, or even counter teleportation magic.

In The Beginning of the End, Sombra demonstrates the ability to subjugate ponies into doing his bidding with his gaze.

## Trivia

* After he reforms, we are shown that he is currently dating Princess Celestia as the two used to be old friends when they were younger before the Alicorn princess took over with her sister.
* Sombra mentions a list of dark names such as Obisidan or Eclipsa when he shows a list to his grandniece and grandnephews before he realizes this was actually a list of possible baby names if he and Celestia decide to become parents.
* King Sombra has his own display in the museum Hall of Villains as shown in *Felicity and the Descendants*as well as Felicity's father's pipe organ during The Enchanted Christmas.