King Sombra

King Sombra is a unicorn, who appears as the main antagonist in My Little Pony Friendship is Magic third season's premiere The Crystal Empire. His name has been confirmed by show staff members.

"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.

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 publically. 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.

King Sombra is mentioned by one of the Crystal Ponies and Twilight Sparkle in the promotional clip for The Crystal Empire shown at Hasbro's My Little Pony panel at the New York Comic Con 2012 and later uploaded to Hasbro's My Little Pony Facebook page. His distinct eyes briefly flash over the Crystal Pony who mentions his name.

His backstory is also explained in the first eight minutes of the episode, which have been released.

Depiction in the series
King Sombra is a unicorn whose heart is said to be as black as night. 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, disappearing into a crevice of ice which closed up, but not before he put a curse on the Crystal Kingdom that caused it to disappear for a thousand years.

Eventually the Crystal Empire reappeared, but the Crystal Ponies had no memory of their kingdom before Sombra took over, and the mere memory of him causes them pain. Sombra returned along with the Crystal Empire, and tried to attack it again. He cursed Shining Armor's horn to prevent him from using his magic, so Princess Cadance cast a protection spell around the Crystal Empire.

When Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Spike came to the Crystal Empire to protect it, Sombra chased after them in shadow form, but they got through the barrier, although he attacked Shining Armor he survived.

When Cadance began to run out of power to perform the spell, the barrier briefly deactivated. Sombra's horn was broken off as the barrier reactivated, and he transformed it into a dark crystal which showed Twilight and Spike their worst fears as they searched for the Crystal Heart, which is the key to protecting the Crystal Empire. He made Twilight think that Celestia told her she failed her test and that she wouldn't continue her studies, and made Spike think Twilight was sending him away, but Twilight eventually realized what Sombra was doing.

Eventually they reached the Crystal Heart, but Sombra, able to invade once Cadance was no longer able to perform her spell, trapped Twilight in a wall of dark crystals, keeping her from the Crystal Heart. Twilight told Spike to take the Crystal Heart to Cadance. Returning to his physical form, Sombra tried to spear Spike with a dark crystal, but Cadance saved him from the attack. With the return of the Crystal Heart, the Crystal Empire was restored to the way it was, and Sombra was turned to crystal and shattered to pieces.

Trivia

 * Sombra's first defeat leaving him as a disembodied shadow gives him a similarity to Myotismon, and, to an extent, Sauron. The former also uses fear while in his Omega form, while the latter rules a land similar in appearance to the Crystal Empire when it is under Sombra's control. Although Sombra is shown to be able to return to his physical form.
 * His shadow form also looks similar to that of Makuta.
 * elements of darkness / shadow have occured in several other MLP villains - most notably Nightmare Moon and Tirek.
 * Sombra has a few distinctions as being the first major antagonist in the fourth generation who is
 * A male character associated with darkness (Discord is more associated with chaos and based off Q)
 * A pony who isn't an alicorn (Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon, Trixie, and the Flim Flam brothers were minor antagonists)
 * Possibly inspired by a Lord of the Rings villain (The Diamond Dogs were minor antagonists)
 * The first villain My little Pony Friendship is Magic to die.