King Diamante was a great leader who not only helped create the Empire which he ruled over but would protect it's people with his life. What made him change into the cruel and evil King Sombra? An ancient and evil relic discovered by the Crystal ponies may be the cause. (If you've read my previous story On the Elements of Harmony: Known Facts and Theories you may remember an old myth describing this ancient relic.) We all know how the story ends but what happened in the beginning and middle? The king of the Crystal Empire was not always what he is known as by the ponies today, he is only a shadow of the great king that he once was. This story is definitely darker then what I normally write and longer.

Special Thanks to musicluvr1974 (as you can tell by reading the comments) for proof reading and fixing my terrible grammatical errors.

I'm looking for a unique cover image for this story, one that's not used often (which is pretty hard to do with a Sombra story.) So if any of you awesome artists out there have something different, then I'd love to feature it. if you have something, send a message or comment. If your art is used, there will be a special thanks dedicated to you, here in the description.