Prologue
Long ago in the kingdom known as the Crystal Empire, there lived a Prince named Sombra, who was a fair and just leader who wanted nothing more than peace and tranquility for his subjects. He had everything a good leader should have, he had the love of the Crystal Ponies, a willing army to stand beside him in the case of an attack, a seat in the royal council beside Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, and the affections of one Crystal Pony in particular named Sitári.
Prince Sombra also had a very intelligent mind, he would spend countless hours in the Crystal Library, reading every book, scroll and tome on the subject of magic he could find. But, one day, everything changed for the Prince when he picked up a book on Dark Magic and attempted one of the spells without fully understanding what it would do to him. It, of course, backfired and created an evil and twisted version of himself, his mane moved like a shadowy smoke, horn was curved, smooth, sharp at the tip and it went from dark gray to red. He had sharp teeth with two visible fangs and his eyes were the clear difference, his eyes were green with red irises and had a purple mist emanating from them. This duplicate announced that he was the living embodiment of every ounce of fear, hatred and jealousy that he'd ever felt in his life he then announced that he wanted the Empire and before the real Sombra could make his first attack to prevent him from doing so, the imposter vanished.
After he had recovered from his shock, he set out to the Crystal Palace and sent out his guards to track him down; ordering them to keep the Crystal Ponies inside, to search high and low throughout the Empire and the Arctic Ice. Within a few hours, Prince Sombra was alerted of his imposter's whereabouts and that he had turned two of his guards to stone. He was also told that he would only fight Prince Sombra and nopony else. Prince Sombra, thinking only of his subject's safety and the danger he had put them in because of his recklessness, accepted and met his duplicate on the Arctic Ice.
Sombra was prepared for anything, hostility, retaliation or both, what he was not prepared for was what he saw. His duplicate was standing on a frozen pond holding the most treasured artifact of The Empire with a levitation spell, he had the Crystal Heart. An ancient artifact that enabled the Crystal Ponies to spread their love and light across Equestria. Sombra was about to make his attack to retrieve the heart, the imposter made it disappear with a bubbling, black aura. Prince Sombra then knew he had to destroy what he unintentionally created. Thus, the battle had begun. Prince Sombra used every defense and attack he knew, but this being in front of him was part of him and thus, knew the counter spells for every attack the Prince threw at him. Prince Sombra would've had a victory after making a series of crystals grow out of the ice and sending the evil twin flying back a few yards in the process. The real Sombra then teleported to him and had him pinned down as the cracking ice came closer to them, the fake Sombra then saw this as his opportunity, and as the Prince readied his spell to destroy his mistake, the demon then turned into a shadowy smoke and tied him down as the ice cracks came closer. The ice broke from under him and he was in the chilling water, he felt his life slip away as the hole he fell through became more and more distant. His eyes slowly closed as the evil still surrounding him took over his body, blackening his heart and deforming him in the process.
When he emerged from the water, he was no longer Prince Sombra, he now crowned himself King Sombra. As soon as he was crowned he began his work on enslaving the Crystal Ponies, including the mare who had once loved him, she was now heartbroken that the stallion she held dearly inside her heart had become what he was.
King Sombra's rule lasted for a month before word got to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, who then fled to the Empire and tried everything in their efforts to take Sombra down. They turned into shadow and banished him to the Arctic Ice, but before they could do so, he placed a curse on the Empire, banishing it and making it vanish into thin air.
1000 years later, the Empire returned along with Sombra and was defeated by the newest bearers of the Elements of Harmony, Prince Shining Armor, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, and Spike the dragon. The leader of the group, the Element of Magic, had found the Crystal Heart and Sombra had almost won if Princess Cadence hadn't been thrown and hadn't caught Spike and the Crystal heart. Princess Cadence then gave the citizens the advantage by letting it be activated by them. Sombra was then obliterated by their love and light and everypony in the Empire celebrated for the next two weeks, for the tyrant King was finally deceased.
Or so they thought...
