King Sombra

King Sombra is a male unicorn who appears in the third season's premiere, The Crystal Empire.

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.

Depiction in the series
King Sombra is first mentioned by Princess Celestia when she teaches Twilight Sparkle about the existence of the Crystal Empire. Celestia tells Twilight that Sombra is a unicorn whose "heart was black as night", who took over the Crystal Empire "one thousand years ago"; she says he was overthrown, turned to shadow, and banished to "the ice of the arctic north", but only after putting a curse on the empire, which caused it to vanish into thin air. King Sombra is later mentioned by one of the Crystal Ponies and Twilight Sparkle. His distinct eyes briefly flash over the Crystal Pony who mentions his name.

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