This little tidbit is part of an idea I have for a King Sombra story, which I may even publish as a book detailing what would happen if “Siege of the Crystal Empire” was part of the same universe as “The Beginning of the End”. Or what would happen if the events of the comic were to happen.

Journal Log: The Day of My Return

Every year, whenever the Crystal Faire came, I’ve found myself hurting to the point where I could hardly get out of bed. In the midst of it all, Hope would simply stay by my side and provide me perhaps the only source of comfort I could get.

To my surprise, I found out that the very reason I was hurting whenever the Crystal Faire was going...was due to being a pony on the outside, but a dark creature called an Umbrum on the inside. Straight from the mouth of my own mother as I was talking to her through a red crystal, I also learned that she put me outside in the cold so that I could take down the Crystal Heart and release her and the rest of the Umbrum from their imprisonment.

If that’s really supposed to be my destiny, though?

I can only wonder what my ”mother’s” surprise would be if she ever found out that I immediately intended on abandoning her and the rest of those underground-dwellers. 

In the midst of getting better with my skills as an Umbrum-Pony hybrid, I took the time to reflect on the revelations given to me after I met Rabia. And as it became clear to me that I was intended to be her “puppet” rather than the new king and leader of the Umbrum, I decided then and there that I was going to simply keep them waiting for me. Forever. Even after I discovered the door leading into their imprisoned civilization, I planned to simply keep it closed and never let them out.

And for good reason.

The Umbrum are nothing but a bunch of disgusting incompetents, and I refuse to ever lead or associate myself with such cloudy rabble. They would do nothing but pester me day and night, and they would always want me to do whatever they wanted or demanded.

I, on the other hand, wish to serve only myself. To do whatever I want. And what I want is to remake Equestria into my own personal image, and to be worshiped as a god among the world.

As much as I still have a soft spot for Hope, and as astounded as I was of the lengths she went to just so that she could have me back, after she betrayed me I began to also realize something very important:

You cannot count on anyone. 

Friendship, Love, and Family are nothing but weaknesses that hold you down and keep you from grasping your inner potential. If not for my mercy in letting Hope live I would not have been banished by the Royal Sisters. I would have expanded the Crystal Empire into becoming a true empire until I eventually conquered Equestria for myself, and all before moving on to the rest of the world.

Now that Hope brought me back, I can finally move forward with my own secret plan:

Using a spell I created myself, I will keep the powers and abilities of the Umbrum within me after Hope and the princesses use their spell to turn me into a normal pony and sever my connection to the Umbrum. Their spell, meanwhile, will give me the actual flesh of a pony, which will enable me to touch the Crystal Heart without it hurting me. 

Combined together, I can absorb a creature’s entire being and shapeshift like an Umbrum, as well as be unaffected by the Crystal Heart like a pony. 

And when Hope and I recover Amore’s remains, I will absorb her contained powers from them and gain immortality. It was the very reason as to why I ensured her essence was still in those pieces in the first place.

Afterwards, I will kill Hope and return to the Crystal Empire stronger than ever. When I also open that door leading to the imprisoned Umbrum again, I will walk right into their city and absorb every one of them into my entire being. One Umbrum would have the capability of making me a powerful sorcerer, but absorbing all of them would bring me to the status of a god.

Starting from there, Equestria…will belong…to me.

7659302
Okay. I must admit this version of IDW's King Sombra is more believable than the current one. There wasn't need to add a 'redemption' scenario for a character like him.

7659302

Since you linked this to me, I'm assuming you want my opinion on it, but to be honest, I'm probably not the best person to ask. I have trouble seeing season nine Sombra as being the same character as season three Sombra, let alone as Whitley's version of Sombra on top of that. There are just too many differences for me to reconcile, and as I think I've said before, I don't much care for that episode in the first place, so that makes it an even harder sell for me. Granted, I appreciate the attempt to deepen the story of Beginning of the End by blending in the comic backstory like you have, and the absorbing thing he mentions does at least do something to explain why Sombra was so absurdly overpowered in season nine (which the episode itself made no attempt to do), so that's good. But yeah, while I wish you luck in writing this story if you do choose to do so, I'm probably not the audience for it. Sorry.

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It’s okay. My mission regarding what I had in mind is to expand on the mythology brought by the comics and see how they could connect with the episode, and I had fun figuring out ways to do that. What I wrote in this thread is merely a blueprint, so I haven’t officially gotten started.

Sombra has definitely proven to be my third favorite villain to work with, I’ll tell you that. It’s fun coming up with ways of making him more complex than how he was portrayed by both IDW and the show, which was something I also liked doing with the Storm King and Ahuizotl.

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He's certainly a fun character to figure out and try to lend depth to. I made an attempt of my own all the way back in 2013, though that was obviously pre-FIENDship, so I haven't had a chance to play with Witley's additions to his character yet. I'd like to at some point, but mostly I've just done general umbrum lore stuff, not anything diving deep into Sombra himself or the events of Siege.

7659302
I would say that would be an interesting one because I would love to see his Redemption Arc after being free from the darkness