King Sombra (D)

*For this character's counterpart in the Order and Chaos Saga, see King Sombra (O&C).*
*For this character's counterpart in the Shining Sparkle Saga, see King Sombra (SS).*
**Note**: King Sombra's story in my universe doesn't follow the plot of the issues about him and the animated series after his appearance in Season 3.

**King Sombra** is a male unicorn, the former tyrannical ruler of the Crystal Empire. Princess Celestia tells Twilight Sparkle that he took over the Crystal Empire a thousand years ago but was banished into the frozen north. Before his banishment, King Sombra put a curse on the Crystal Empire which made it vanish into thin air. When the Empire returns, so does Sombra, who attempts to retake it. He is defeated by Princess Cadance and the Crystal Ponies' use of the Crystal Heart. However he is able to come back with a reincarnation spell.

## Personality

King Sombra is described by Princess Celestia as a unicorn whose heart is "black as night". In terms of personality, King Sombra is sadistic, fierce, and cruel, as evidenced by his referring to the Crystal Ponies as his "crystal slaves" and appearing to take delight in seeing them suffer. Though rarely speaking at his first appearance, he appears desperate to retake the Crystal Empire, as he chases Shining Armor and the Mane Six during their first encounter and curses Shining Armor, causing black crystals to grow on his horn and nullify his magic, and when rushing toward Spike in an attempt to regain the Crystal Heart.

He is shown to have a very cunning mind, being able to conceive a plan to regain his power. Even when obstacles came to his path, he was shown to overcome them with ease and even make them play in his advantage, like turning the guards Celestia had sent to watch over him into his personal loyal servants that helped him carry on his plan.

Sombra is also shown to be a great manipulator, as he tricked many ponies to believe he had reformed. Even though Twilight wasn't very convinced at first, Sombra made her start to believe on that façade by forging a fake rescue. He was even able to seduce Twilight and make her fall in love with him, despite that ended up having the same effect on him. Later, when facing Starlight, who was planning to trap Twilight in a time loop to get her revenge, Sombra was able to make her ally herself to him, promissing her she would be able to get her revenge on Twilight, if she helped him with his plan.

However, even with all his evilness, he does have a softer side, as he starts to fall in love for Twilight. This all starts at their first kiss, with Sombra starting to admire her beauty, only to completely fall in love with her at their first night together. This causes Sombra to realize that he wants more than power: he also wants love.

## Skills

   King Sombra is very skilled with dark magic. Black crystals shoot out of the ground as he advances towards the Crystal Empire, and he turns into a shadow in various scenes, dodging attacks and traveling large distances. His horn dissolves when it touches Princess Cadance's protective shield around the empire, and he is eventually repelled by her Crystal Heart magic. He was also able to transfer his soul into his horn when he was defeated and used a reincarnation spell to return with a new body.

With the help from his book of dark magic, he was able to get many spells that would help in his plan, like turning the guards Celestia had sent to watch over him into his loyal servants by killing them and making their shadows possess their bodies and also the Love Curse, which he would use to make Twilight be unable to hurt him, while also allowing him to become more powerful with the magic of the Elements of Magic.

King Sombra is also a genius mastermind that was able to come up with a plan that would allow him to get more power and also invulnerability to Equestria's greatest defense: the Elements of Harmony, being also able to overcome any obstacle that would come to his path with relatived ease.

## Description in the Saga

### Background

Before, Sombra was a crystal pony and a prince to the Crystal Empire. His parents always kept him in the castle, what caused him to go to the library, where he eventually found a book of dark magic. Starting to master it, he lost his crystal coat. His parents tried to stop him, but they failed and Sombra rebelled, taking over the empire.

### In the series

In the past, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna shot a beam at him that turns him to "shadow" and banishes him to "the ice of the arctic north." Celestia says he was able to put a curse on the empire as he was imprisoned, which caused it to "vanish into thin air".

When the Crystal Empire reappears, Sombra is able to get free from his prison and tries to conquer his former domain once again.

Twilight Sparkle and her friends travel to the Crystal Empire to defend it under the order of Princess Celestia. When they arrive in the frozen north of Equestria, they meet with Shining Armor on the outskirts of the Crystal Empire. Sombra rises as a cloud of black smoke behind them and pursues them through the snow. Shining Armor confronts Sombra and shoots a beam at him, which Sombra evades and lets the beam pass through the black cloud. Sombra then charges at Shining Armor, and the scene cuts right before they clash. Twilight and her friends pass safely through the barrier and arrive in the Crystal Empire, soon followed by Shining Armor, whose horn is now encrusted with black crystals which prevent him from using magic.

When Cadance's magical barrier starts to fade, Sombra approaches the barrier, but his horn is sheared off as the barrier rises again. It falls to the ground and transforms into a black crystal which embeds itself in the ground and begins spreading to the crystal gates of the Empire.

   Sombra is able to invade once Cadance is no longer able to perform her spell. While doing that, he feels Twilight approaching the Crystal Heart, so he traps her in a ring of black crystals to prevent her from using the heart. Twilight tells Spike to take the Crystal Heart to Cadance. At first Sombra advances as a pillar of black smoke, and he materializes as his unicorn self at the end of it. Right as he's about to take the Crystal Heart from Spike while standing upon a growing, menacing shard of his own crystals, Cadance, propelled by Shining Armor, snatches Spike and the Crystal Heart before he can reach them. With the return of the Crystal Heart and Cadance inspiring the crystal ponies, the Crystal Empire is restored to its former glory and Sombra, much to his horror, shatters to pieces in a flash of light, along with his crystals, and his remaining smoke dissipates.

### *The Rise of Sombra*

In "The Reincarnation Spell", it is revealed that, before being destroyed, Sombra transfered his soul to his horn and waited for a host for month. Then, a pair of stallions appeared and one finds the horn and, using his hypnotizing spell, Sombra is able to make the pony to put the horn at his forehead and then King Sombra reborns, using the stallion's body to retake his own. After that, he takes from the other pony all the information about what happened during his absence and gets to know about Twilight's ascending, having then an idea to a plan to regain power. Finishing gaining all the information he wanted, Sombra kills the second stallion, summoning then his armor and using the second stallion's blood to make his cape. With his armor ready, he turns into darkness and then goes to Ponyville.

In "Redemption", he have a meeting with Twilight and her friends at Twilight's castle and pleads for a second chance. Although they don't want to give him a second chance, they eventually agree, as they also gave one to Discord. Twilight, however, advice Sombra that, if he do the slightest mistake, he will be sorry and also blocks his magic, allowing him to stay at the castle so she could keep an eye on him. But when Sombra is in his bedroom alone, he takes a spark of dark magic he had stored to break Twilight's blocking spell and stretches a smile, as his plan is going perfectly.

In "Sombra... the Hero", Sombra has breakfast with Twilight, trying to make her disable the blocking spell on his horn, although he has already his magic back. Using his manipulative skills, Sombra convinces Twilight in going for a walk through the town. Knowing the only way to conquer Twilight's trust is becoming a hero, he fakes a rescue and "saves" Fluttershy. With this, he is able to put a doubt in Twilight's mind about if he really changed or not.

In "Celestia's Warning", Sombra uses his magic to spy the meeting between Twilight and her friends and becomes very pleased after seeing Twilight defending him and assert her determination to reform him even after the warning Princess Celestia made to her about him.

In "The Dark Book", Sombra is informed by Twilight she and Spike are going to the Crystal Empire to visit Shining and Cadance. During their absence, Sombra takes the opportunity to investigate the magic of the Friendship Castle, coming to the conclusion that its power comes from the Three of Harmony. Later that night, he goes to the Castle of the Two Sisters to recover a book of dark magic that Princess Celestia and Princess Luna took from him long ago. When he is able to do it, he is confronted by a guard who tries to take him in, but Sombra kills him and then uses a dark spell to control the guard's shadow and make it take control of the dead body, so nopony can notice what happened.

In "Putting the Plan in Motion", Sombra now, with his book, is able to find the perfect spell that will lead him to be great again, without the fear of having his enemies defeating him. Meanwhile, he becomes closer to Twilight to the point of her allowing him to use a little magic, like levitation. While Twilight and Spike are out to go to Rainbow Dash's celebration, Sombra goes to the Tree of Harmony to execute his plan. When he returns, he kills another guard and turned him into his slave, just like the other.

In "A Sparkle of Attraction", Sombra is taking a night walk until he finds Twilight having a late reading at the library. He takes this opportunity to get closer to her. Taking a bottle of wine and a couple of glasses with him, Sombra and Twilight start sharing the drink, while starting to get to know each other. They exchange their respective life stories and found out they have a lot in common. When Twilight tries to go to bed, she, due to the wine she drunk, tripped over, only to be caught by Sombra. They get so close that the two end up kissing. When they broke the kiss, Twilight hasted to get out. Sombra returns to his bedroom, where he wondered if he was falling in love with Twilight, but Sombra reasoned that he was only attracted by her and continued focused on his plan.

In "The Birth of a Dark Love", after their kiss, Sombra tried to find Twilight so they could talk about what happened, but she kept running from him. When Twilight comes to him, they end up making love. After the act, Sombra realizes he is falling for Twilight. When she awakes, Sombra is able to convince her to keep that in secret.

In "A Royal Dinner", as he and Twilight keep meeting at night, he finds himself falling for her, starting to have to choose between love and power. When Celestia and Luna invite him and Twilight to dinner in order to avaliate his change, Sombra ends up standing for Twilight instintively. At night, while trying to figure out how to have both love and power, Sombra notices somepony with an immense power, beyond himself and the princesses. He finds Starlight trying to get Star Swirl the Bearded's time traveling spell and makes her an offer to help him make some adjustments to his spell, what she agrees.

In "Revealed Secret Love", after a night of love, Twilight and Sombra talk about confessing their love to her friends. Despite Sombra's reluctance due to the fear that could compromise the love Twilight had for him, he ends up giving up to her. Next day, after being caught in a romantic manner by Spike at breakfast, they quickly cover that up. After Twilight leaves the room to clear more suspition, Sombra, using his cunning and manipulative mind, is able to convince Spike to eat with him. Later, he strolls with Twilight before the meeting with her friends. When they get to the throne room, they get to know Twilight's friends had found out everything after making Spike tell them about the kiss she and Sombra shared, what leads to an argument between the six friends. That night, King Sombra gets a message from Starlight saying she had completed the adjustments he had requested. Meeting at the Tree of Harmony, Sombra reveals that his plan is to take the power of the Elements of Harmony and separate Twilight from her friends, bonding her only to him, claiming that he had realize the value of things he thought were granted, like love. He then uses the modificated spell on the Element of Magic, setting everything ready for his evil plan.

In "Dropping the Mask", as he returns to his room, Sombra is informed by the guards of the princess' intention to seize him. He quickly realizes they got to discover his relationship with Twilight, figuring it was Rainbow Dash who told them. However, he keeps his calm, as he has everything prepared. When Celestia and Luna order the guards to bring Sombra in, he says it's time to "let the show begin". After he is brought to the thrones room with cuffs, Twilight apologizes to him for what is happening, but Sombra tells her it's not her fault, before breaking his cuffs with his magic, much to everypony's shock.

In "The Love Curse", with the reveal he still has his full magic leaves everypony shocked, specially Twilight, and they quickly realize Sombra was up to something. Twilight can't believe this and is convinced everything was a lie to what Sombra replies to be untrue, as he came to fall in love with her truely. Celestia then orders the guards to seize Sombra, but they are revealed to be his servants that he created after using a spell in his book. It's then that Twilight and her friends called upon the power of the Elements of Harmony. But when they used them on him, he got unharmed, getting only even more powerful after absorbing their power. Celestia and Luna try to attack him, but Sombra only turns them into stone and then holds Twilight's friends hostage. He proceeds to reveal Twilight that he had casted a curse on her that would prevent her from harming him as long she loved him. He also made her bond with him, causing her to need to be with Sombra. Promissing to free her friends and the alicorn princesses, Twilight goes away with him.

## Appearances

The Rise of Sombra

Legends:

* Y - Appears and have an active role
* N - Do not appears and is not mentioned directly by the characters.
* B - Appears, but have a passive role or his or her appearance is implicit
* M - Mentioned directly by the characters.