King Shadow

INFORMATION

Race: Unicorn Gender: Male Type: Stallion Residence: Crystal Empire (formerly) Occupations: Ruled the Crystal Empire with iron hooves before being banished to the arctic north.

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

King Sombra is a dark gray unicorn with a spiky mane and tail. Unlike regular unicorn horns, which include the pony's coat color, and are straight and segmented, Sombra's horn is curved, smooth, refined at the tip, and gradients from dark gray to red. He has sharp teeth, with two visible fangs unlike other ponies, and red irises, but most of the time his eyes appear green and have a purple haze emanating from them, which disappears both times he is attacked. He wears silver armor on his legs and neck, a spiked crown on his head, and a red cape that covers his flank. When his flank is briefly shown in Princess Celestia's flashback, he has no visible Cutie Mark. When he transforms into Sombra in the flashback only his head remains, and when he returns as an amorphous black cloud, only his eyes are visible at first glance. The alternate universe version of Sombra in the IDW comics has a perfectly smooth mane and a blue tail with stripes. His horn is solid in color and segmented like other unicorns, and he even has green irises instead of red. He wears a light blue crown with a yellow jewel, matching shoes and necklace, and a purple cape instead of a red one.

DEVELOPMENT AND DESIGN

The show's editor, Meghan McCarthy, and another staff member have stated that the character's name is Sombra. A tweet from Hasbro My Little Pony on Twitter spells the name as “dark.” "Sombra" is a word in Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician for "shadow", which comes from the Latin "umbra". A different shadowed version of the armor around King Sombra's neck is used in a 2012 poster, as part of the Masquerade steel armor. Jim Miller, the show's storyboard supervisor and voice actor for King Sombra, sang vocals on the Mastodon song "Crystal Skull" for his performance as King Sombra. Meghan McCarthy said King Shadow was inspired by Sauron from The Lord of the Rings and is intended to be a dark presence.

DEFEAT

The series and most other material does not explicitly specify the exact nature of King Sombra's defeat at the end of The Crystal Empire – Part 2. Meghan McCarthy referred to Sombra as being "dead now" on February 22, 2013. Some later merchandise and other media raise ambiguity (in-and-out-of-universe). In February 2015, Jayson Thiessen (having joked a month earlier that somepony would die in the fifth season) was asked, "Why would a pony die on a TV-Y show?", and replied, "Hence the joke. Maybe someday someone will deal with death on a TV-Y show... Wait, Sesame Street made Mr. Shadow 80 years ago." However, in The Beginning of the End - Part 1 , Rarity mentions that King Sombra had "vanished into the ether" thanks to the powerful spell cast on him by the Crystal Heart; "vanishing into the ether" or "vanishing into the ether" is basically an archaic way of saying that he died, disappeared, or passed away without a trace.

REPRESENTATION IN THE SERIES

King Sombra first appeared in the season 3 finale. Princess Celestia described him at the beginning of the episode as "a unicorn whose heart was black as night" and inherited the Crystal Empire. In a flashback, Sombra looks down joyfully from his castle on a chain of crystal ponies, when two silhouettes of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna fire a beam at him that turns him into "shadow" and relegates him to "the ice of the arctic north." Celestia says that he was able to place a curse on the empire that he was trapped in, which made him "vanish into thin air." Celestia demonstrates that if the empire is filled with hope and love, then those emotions will be reflected throughout Equestria, but if hatred and fear take over the Crystal Empire, black crystals will sprout from the earth. When Celestia creates the crystals, her horn is shrouded in black mist and her eyes glow green and emanate a purple trail in the same way Sombra's eyes do, implying that she may have knowledge of their magic.

REPRESENTATION IN THE SERIES

Twilight Sparkle and her friends travel to the Crystal Empire to defend Princess Celestia's order. When they arrive in the frozen north of Equestria, they encounter Shining Armor on the outskirts of the Crystal Empire. Sombra rises as a cloud of black smoke behind him and chases them through the snow. Shining Armor confronts Sombra and fires a beam at him, which evades Sombra and allows the beam to pass through the black cloud. Sombra then charges Shining Armor, and the scene cuts to right before they collide. Twilight and her friends safely pass through the barrier and arrive in the Crystal Empire, shortly followed by Shining Armor, whose horn is now encrusted with black crystals that 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. Later in the episode, Twilight and her friends interview some crystal ponies. A pony interviewed by Twilight says that she doesn't remember anything before King Sombra came to power and cowers as a superimposed image of King Sombra looks over her. She then says that she doesn't want to remember anything about his rule.

REPRESENTATION IN THE SERIES

As Cadance's magical barrier begins to fade, Sombra approaches the barrier, but his horn is cut off when the barrier rises again. He falls to the ground and turns into a black crystal that embeds itself in the ground and begins spreading towards the Empire's crystal doors. Twilight performs "a little trick Celestia taught her", which gives her the same extended green eyes and horn shrouded in black mist as Celestia did at the beginning of the story. She transforms the throne with this magic, 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 door 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, and Spike agrees to her of this state, but then he falls over himself and his eyes change in the same way, and Twilight wakes him up in turn. Eventually, Twilight and Spike find the Crystal Heart, but Sombra, able to break in 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 asks Spike to bring the Crystal Heart to Cadance. Sombra advances as a column of black smoke, and he materializes as his unicorn self at the end of it. As he is about to take the Crystal Heart from Spike, Cadance, thrown by Shining Armor who threw her with Spike, snatches the Crystal Heart before he can reach them. With the Crystal Heart returned 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, to her horror, shatters in a flash of light, along with her crystals, and her remnants dissipate into smoke.

PERSONALITY

King Sombra is described by Princess Celestia as a unicorn whose heart is "black as night". Personality-wise, King Sombra is shown to be sadistic, ferocious, and cruel, as evidenced by his reference to the Crystal Ponies as his "crystal slaves" and that he seems to take pleasure in seeing them suffer. Although it has been reported that he seems 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 towards Spike in an attempt to retrieve the Crystal Heart. In My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic issue #18, a parallel version of King Sombra in another world is stated by Celestia to rule Equestria with "kindness and benevolence", as opposed to the King Sombra seen in the series. In his introduction, he is shown to be generally very kind and polite. He is also quite dashing and charming, as evidenced by Rarity and Fluttershy. The alternate Sombra is later revealed to be deeply in love with Celestia, who reciprocates his feelings. This Sombra also has a humble side, considering himself a normal pony who is also a king, shown when he has a heart for Twilight Sparkle, helping her through her doubts of being a princess. Unlike the original, this King Sombra is selfless, as he gives up his evil self to spare the good Celestia and restore balance to both their worlds, even if it means never seeing the pony he loves again, as even after being taken over by evil he mourns his beloved Celestia, now lost to him, possibly forever. In My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic issue #1, Sombra is shown to have been friendly, nice, and shy during his youth. However, after learning about his origin, he becomes evil and power-mad, referring to himself as the "king of all worlds".

MAGIC

Twilight Sparkle says that King Sombra uses dark magic. Black crystals erupt from the ground as he advances towards the Crystal Empire, and he transforms into a shadow in various scenarios, dodging attacks and traveling great distances. His horn dissolves when it touches Princess Cadance's protective shield around the empire, and he is eventually repelled by the Crystal Heart.

QUOTES

"He's just about the scariest pony ever - he can even appear as black smoke. King Sombra enslaved the Crystal Ponies, and when Princesses Celestia and Luna banished him, he made the Crystal Empire disappear. The ponies gained the Crystal Heart, plus the power of love, to restore the Empire - and break this evil Unicorn forever." "KING SOMBRA ruled the Crystal Empire thousands of years ago, but was banished and turned into a shadow. Before he disappeared, the black-hearted monster caused the kingdom to disappear and destroyed hope and love in the process. He recently returned, but was thwarted by Twilight Sparkle and her pony friends." "Former tyrannical ruler of the Crystal Empire, King Sombra is one annoying unicorn! With his powerful dark magic, piercing green eyes, and evil laugh, this shadowy dweller is the stuff of many nightmares." " [growls] Yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssss — The Crystal Empire – Part 2 "The Crystal Heart…" — The Crystal Empire – Part 2 "My crystal slaves…" — The Crystal Empire – Part 2 "[growls] That's mine!" — The Crystal Empire – Part 2 "What? No… No! Stop!" — The Crystal Empire – Part 2