King Sombra

Development:

The show's story editor, Meghan McCarthy, and another staff member have stated that the character's name is Sombra.[4][5][6] A tweet by Hasbro's My Little Pony Twitter account spells the name as "Somber".[7] "Sombra" is a Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician word for "shadow", which comes from the Latin "umbra". A differently-shaded version of the armor around King Sombra's neck is used for the 2012 Design a My Little Pony Finalists poster, as part of Steel Masquerade's armor. Jim Miller, the show's storyboard supervisor and King Sombra's voice actor in season three, drew inspiration from the vocals of the Mastodon song "Crystal Skull" for his performance as King Sombra.[8] Meghan McCarthy has said that King Sombra was inspired by Sauron from The Lord of the Rings and is meant to be a dark presence.[9] King Sombra is a dark gray unicorn with a black spiky mane and tail. Unlike regular unicorn horns, which match the pony's coat color and are straight and segmented, Sombra's horn is curved, smooth, sharp at the tip and it gradients from dark gray to red. He has sharp teeth with two visible fangs unlike other ponies and red—green when younger—irises, but most often his otherwise white eyes appear green and have a purple mist emanating from them, which disappears both times he is attacked. He wears silver armor on his legs and neck, a crown with horn-like points on his head, and a red cape that covers his flank. When his flank is shown briefly in Princess Celestia's flashback, he has no visible cutie mark. When he is turned to shadow in the flashback, only his head remains, and when he returns as an amorphous black cloud, only his eyes are visible at first.

Development 2:

The alternate universe version of Sombra in the IDW comics' Reflections story arc has a neatly smooth mane and tail with blue streaks. His horn is a solid color and segmented like other unicorns, and he still has green irises instead of red. He wears a light blue crown with a yellow gem, matching shoes and collar, and a purple cape instead of a red one. After the alternate Sombra absorbs the evil from alternate Celestia and Luna, he closely resembles the original King Sombra. On March 15, 2015, prior to Sombra's reformation in the comics, Jim Miller was asked, "I would like your thoughts on this: are Sombra and Tirek the redeemable types? This is not about Season 5 at all[,]" and replied, "I don't want to speculate in case we ever decide to use them again."[10] On April 1, 2015, the release date of My Little Pony: FIENDship is Magic Issue #1, Jeremy Whitley stated regarding Sombra's FIENDship is Magic Issue 1-established backstory, "Well, as show has made it clear it will not deal with Sombra, there is no reason to worry it will be contradicted."[11] A cut scene from Slice of Life would have featured Sombra inexplicably appearing and getting into a musical duel with Octavia Melody, inspired by "The Devil Went Down to Georgia." [12] According to Twitter conversations with Jim Miller in early October 2016, late February 2018, and mid-April 2018, he might not reprise his performance as Sombra if the character ever has further voiced dialogue.[13][14][15] Alvin Sanders replaced Miller as the voice of Sombra in season nine. As such, Sombra's voice in season nine is different than his voice in season three. Jim Miller explained that when he voiced Sombra in season three, he was in a disembodied state while Alvin's voice for Sombra in season nine is his true fully-formed voice.[16]

Depiction in the Series:

Season Three King Sombra first appears in the season three premiere The Crystal Empire - Part 1. Princess Celestia describes him at the beginning of the episode as "a unicorn whose heart was black as night" and took over the Crystal Empire. In a flashback, Sombra looks down gleefully from his castle at a chain-gang of Crystal Ponies, when two silhouettes of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna shoot 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". Celestia demonstrates that if the empire is filled with hope and love, then those emotions will be reflected across all of Equestria, but if hatred and fear take over the Crystal Empire, black crystals sprout from the ground. When Celestia creates the crystals, her horn is engulfed in black mist and her eyes glow green and emanate the purple smoky trail the same way Sombra's eyes do, implying that she may have knowledge of his magic.

Depiction in the Series 2:

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 they meet Princess Cadance, Shining Armor explains that Cadance is using her magic to "spread love and light" to protect the Crystal Empire and that King Sombra countered Shining Armor's protection spell. Later in the episode, Twilight and her friends interview some Crystal Ponies. One pony whom Twilight interviews tells her that she can't seem to remember anything before King Sombra came to power and flinches while a superimposed image of King Sombra's eyes flashes over her. She then says she doesn't want to remember anything about his rule. King Sombra goes to the Empire S3E2 King Sombra appears. 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.

Depiction in the Series 3:

Twilight performs "a little trick Celestia taught [her]", which gives her the same green glowing eyes and horn engulfed in black mist as Celestia did at the beginning of the story. She turns the throne black with this spell, and slowly makes the throne room look the way it did when King Sombra ruled. She finds a hidden staircase, and at its bottom is "a doorway that leads to your worst fear", created by "King Sombra's dark magic". When Twilight is under the spell, she has the same green eyes as Sombra; Spike wakes her from this state, but then he falls into it himself and his eyes change the same way, and Twilight wakes him in turn. King Sombra's defeat S3E2 King Sombra's temporary defeat. Eventually, Twilight and Spike find the Crystal Heart, but Sombra, able to invade once Cadance is no longer able to perform her spell, traps Twilight 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 saying "Use the light and love within you to ensure that King Sombra does not [return]", 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. In Games Ponies Play, Sombra is briefly referenced when Rainbow Dash says the Crystal Ponies "lost a thousand years to an evil king's curse."

Depiction in the Series 4:

Season five In The Cutie Re-Mark - Part 1, due to Starlight Glimmer altering history, she inadvertently creates an alternate future where Sombra—unopposed by the Mane Six and Spike—has successfully reclaimed the Crystal Empire and conquered half of Equestria. He is seen commanding an army of Crystal Ponies under his control in a war against Princess Celestia.

Depiction in the Series 5:

Season six In the season six premiere, Spike mentions King Sombra while telling the Crystal Ponies about how he was defeated. Later, Twilight Sparkle mentions that the reason King Sombra merely hid the Crystal Heart rather than getting rid of it was to stop the Frozen North's weather from breaching the empire.

Depiction in the Series 6:

Season nine In the season nine premiere The Beginning of the End - Part 1, King Sombra is restored by Grogar to join him in an alliance with Queen Chrysalis, Lord Tirek, and Cozy Glow to take over Equestria. Uninterested in allying with his fellow villains, Sombra sets out on his own to retake the Crystal Empire by himself. He is successful in single-handedly storming the city, enslaving its citizens, and imprisoning the royal family, but the Mane Six defeat him with the Elements of Harmony just as quickly, seemingly vaporizing Sombra. After the Mane Six return the Elements to the Tree of Harmony, however, Sombra reappears and destroys the tree along with the Elements, having faked his earlier defeat to remove the source of the Mane Six's power. King Sombra consumed by light S9E2 Sombra is vanquished once again. In Part 2, Sombra proceeds to attack Ponyville, brainwashing its citizens into helping him lay siege to Canterlot Castle, which he easily seizes control of upon finding it unattended by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. However, he is opposed yet again by the Mane Six alongside Discord, who pretends to be injured by Sombra's magic to spur his friends into action. Realizing that they still embody the spirit of the Elements without wielding the artifacts, the Mane Six combine their magic and destroy Sombra for a second time. Observing this from his crystal ball, Grogar shows Sombra's demise to the other villains as a warning of what could happen to them if they do not unite against the Mane Six. King Sombra is mentioned in Uprooted, Sparkle's Seven, She's All Yak, and The Last Crusade. In The Ending of the End - Part 1, it is revealed that Grogar was Discord in disguise all along and restored Sombra in an attempt to boost Twilight's self-confidence as Equestria's future ruler. In Part 2, Twilight has a photo of Sombra pinned on a thought chart along with pictures of the other villains.

Magic:

Twilight Sparkle says that King Sombra uses dark magic. He can generate black crystals that function as weapons and neutralize magic, and he can turn his body to shadow to dodge attacks and travel large distances. He is also powerful enough to cast a curse to make the Crystal Empire disappear. In The Beginning of the End, Sombra demonstrates the ability to subjugate ponies into doing his bidding with his gaze, as well as show ponies their greatest fear. He can also conjure helmets (which serve the same function as his mind-controlling gaze) from out of thin air.