King Sombra

King Sombra is a male unicorn who appears as the antagonist in the third season's premiere, The Crystal Empire. He has the least screen time and lines of all four main antagonists in the series so far.

Name and design
The show's story editor Meghan McCarthy, as well as another staff member, have stated that the character's name is Sombra. A tweet by Hasbro's My Little Pony Twitter account spells the name Somber. "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.

Appearance
Sombra is a grey unicorn with a black spiky mane and tail. He has sharp teeth with 2 visible fangs and green eyes with red irises. A purple mist usually seems to emanate from his eyes. The green and purple disappeared both times he was being 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.His cutie mark can't be seen because of his cape. His shadow form resembles an enormous black cloud, with only his eyes with the green scleras and the purple haze.

Personality
Sombra appears to be extremely cruel and sadistic. He considered the Crystal Ponies nothing more than slaves, and cursed them prior to his defeat in the past. During his appearances, he didn't speak much, but it was clear that he strongly wanted to reclaim his empire upon reawakening. He seems to feed off of misery, anger and fear, and can place powerful hypnotic spells on others to control them.

History
Princess Celestia describes King Sombra as a unicorn whose heart is "as black as night". According to Celestia, he took over the Crystal Empire and enslaved the Crystal Ponies before Celestia and Luna overthrew him, turning him to shadow and banishing him to the Arctic North. He disappeared into a crevice of ice which closed up, but not before he put a curse on the Crystal Empire that caused it to disappear for a thousand years.

In The Crystal Empire, Part 1, the Crystal Empire reappears. Celestia sends Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Spike to join Shining Armor and Princess Cadance in defending the empire against the grasp of King Sombra, who has also returned. When the Ponyville friends get off their train, Sombra chases after them in shadow form. Shining Armor stops to confront Sombra, but he dodges Shining Armor's beams of magic and plunges at him. The Ponyville friends safely run through the magical barrier around the empire, but when Shining Armor crosses the barrier shortly afterwards, his horn has been encrusted with black crystals that impede his magic.

Later in the episode, the Crystal Ponies that Twilight and her friends interview have little to no memories of their empire before Sombra took over. One pony who Twilight interviews appears to feel pain when she attempts to remember anything about Sombra's reign. When the friends first meet Princess Cadance, she is casting that protection spell around the Crystal Empire. Shining Armor explains that her magic is filling the empire with love and light to keep Sombra out.

When Cadance began to run out of power to perform the spell, the barrier briefly deactivates. Sombra's horn was broken off as the barrier reactivates, and he transforms it into a dark crystal which embeds itself in the ground and begins spreading through the Crystal Empire. He also enchants a door with dark magic that show Twilight and Spike their worst fears as they search for the Crystal Heart, the key to protecting the Crystal Empire. When Twilight runs through the door, she sees Celestia telling her she failed her test and that she won't continue her studies. When Spike opens the door, he thinks Twilight is sending him away.

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 wall of dark crystals. Twilight tells Spike to take the Crystal Heart to Cadance. Returning to his physical form, Sombra tries to spear Spike with a dark crystal and take the Crystal Heart, but Cadance saves Spike from the attack and retrieves the relic. With the return of the Crystal Heart, the Crystal Empire is restored to its former glory, and Sombra is turned to crystal, shattered to pieces, and ultimately destroyed.

Promotional material
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 publicly. 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."

Gallery

 * King Sombra image gallery