King Sombra in the Moon (Theory Expansion)

[Misty Shadow 7,296]

I decided to give my least popular G4 Sombra theory that has been trounced popularity-wise by my G5 theory some support. 

https://www.deviantart.com/cloudmistdragon/art/King-Sombra-in-the-Moon-Theory-Expansion-908613377

Prelude

I was honestly pleasantly surprised by my theory about King Sombra possibly returning for G5 getting more attention than I expected, more than triple the viewership of the theory preceding it, King Sombra Was Always There. I suppose it’s not too stunning once I consider that my last G4 Sombra theory came out close to the fall of 2020, when there was hardly any G4 hype or Sombra discussion going on, while my G5 Sombra theory came out only a little over a month after the G5 movie’s release when speculation about Sombra in G5 was relatively popular. It became even more popular earlier this year once a toy of Sunny Starscout was teased with Sombra’s name in the description. However, that’s not what this discussion concerns, and not just because MLP toys have been known to tease things that never actually happened. My opinion on the tease is not strong one way or the other anyway. This writing of mine concerns my response to what not one, but two fans of my theories have told me. This is where my last G4 Sombra theory, which I will expand upon here, comes into play.

These fans are both friends of mine. The first one has been a longtime friend of mine who enjoyed my G5 theory but was insistent on countering a claim in my last G4 theory. The other is a friend I have not known for anywhere near as long but is more into my theories and stuff about Sombra in general. He even shared with me his own theory about how Sombra’s story in the Transformers crossover actually is canon in spite of all the insistence that it’s not canon because of how the Season 10 comic’s ending of Chrysalis being freed could be the explanation for how she’s free in that crossover, also citing Jeremy Whitley’s description of the S10 comic as the primary canon now. Needless to say, he believes that Sombra returned from ashes, meaning he’d be opposed to the idea of Sombra being banished to the moon. Likewise, that claim my other friend was arguing against was that the image of the pony on the moon was actually Sombra and not Nightmare Moon.

I still feel that there is a good possibility that Sombra was actually sealed in the moon when he was defeated, but I’m always open to hearing someone else’s point of view. The key points in the counter to my claim were assertions that the eye and horn didn’t match, I duly noted. Even though I affirmed what I clearly stated in the theory that only Sombra has something trailing from his eyes and horned headgear, I have it ingrained in me to not take a disagreement personally or act as such. The eye and the horn don’t resemble Sombra’s at first, touché. Back when this friend of mine rebutted me, however, I was only arguing off the top of my head with the facts I had memorized. I had also, at that point, only done comparisons to the image on the moon with images of Nightmare Moon and Sombra that were either full-body images or pictures of their heads. Now, I have done side-by-side comparisons with the features of the pony’s image on the moon to every single feature of Nightmare Moon and Sombra also shown on said image. And guess what? I believe it’s Sombra’s image more now? No. I believe it’s Sombra’s image a lot more now.

I am going to show everything I have reviewed with both a visual example and a written explanation of what matches up and what doesn’t so that everyone can follow along. Admittedly, most of this took me some time to catch even as I did come back to review the image of the pony on the moon every so often. However, if you can somehow tell me that you can’t see any similarities between the image of the pony on the moon to Sombra after this, I can’t help you. This breakdown will begin with comparisons between the image of the pony on the moon’s eye to Nightmare Moon’s eye and Sombra’s eye and end with comparisons between the horn in said image to Nightmare Moon’s horn and Sombra’s horn.

Eye

Although Nightmare Moon’s eye would initially seem to be a better match with its shape and natural curve, both the shape and curve are not unique to her at all. In fact, they are most easily replicated by Sombra right before he is defeated. We don’t see his right eye in the original image, but flipping the left eye and rotating it at the right angle where his right eye would be yields a match. Also take note of how the eye lacks Nightmare Moon’s eyelashes yet still has Sombra’s haze trailing from it like I’ve already pointed out in the past. I’ve also pointed out in the past the similarity between the pose and his pose when he was last defeated, and now we see yet another similarity between this eye and his eye when he was last defeated. This is coincidence, how?   

Side Curve

Just below the pony’s eye is a curve. While Nightmare Moon’s helmet has a curve close to her eye, it’s a short and small one preceding a curve that goes down towards her neck before looping back up. No such pattern is found on this pony’s image, the shape better matches the shape of the curve on Sombra’s face, only going right in the direction of his mouth.

Hair and Headgear

When Nightmare Moon was sent to the moon, hair did not appear on her visage in the moon. Remember that for later while we compare the hair. Nightmare Moon’s mane is quite long, going over her head. This pony’s mane, however, is short, only goes back, and has horn-like shapes in it. A shape resembling the center part of Sombra’s headpiece can also be seen. The issue of Nightmare Moon’s helmet, which I’ve already discussed, remains too. I said then that it covered everything except her horn regarding the horned headgear, but didn’t mention then that the helmet also leaves her ears exposed. This image shows no ears, which Sombra’s headgear does cover. The helmet also goes down to her snout, ending in a shape not seen here. Rather, we see V-like shapes belonging to the muzzle of Sombra in his pre-Season 9 appearances.

Armor

On the subject of V-like shapes, this is the key part of why the pony on the moon’s armor matches up better with Sombra than Nightmare Moon. The lines that contort into V-like shapes are only present on Sombra’s armor, not Nightmare Moon’s. This pony also lacks Nightmare Moon’s chest piece that bears an insignia of the moon, a chest piece that doesn’t even cover her entire chest. This pony’s armor covers both its chest and neck. The armor on the pony’s hoof is far different from Nightmare Moon’s as well, also creating a V-shape only seen on Sombra’s armor, covering far more of the forelimb, and lacking both its distinct curve and jagged shape.

Horn

Like I stated before, this is the last comparison and the one I have the most to say about. Part of the reason being because of all the things that should match Nightmare Moon’s features, this has the least reason not to match. Why? Because if you recall Nightmare Moon’s banishment, her horn was actually one of her few features that appeared on her visage on the moon. Her horn is even split into parts on that image where lines of her horn would be.

Every feature of Nightmare Moon was drastically simplified for this image of her on the moon. However, for this image that looks like Sombra, they included all these complex details that match Sombra better, specific details that everyone would ignore anyways, but left out a distinguishing quality of her horn for the more detailed design. What designer would do that if the designer’s intent was for the viewer to infer that this was Nightmare Moon? Doesn’t make sense, does it? As we can see here…

Not only is this horn clearly too short to be a more detailed rendition of Nightmare Moon’s, it also has a curve, different shades of lighting to match the different colors in Sombra’s horn, and contains dots, a feature that is unique to Sombra’s horn. Anyone who had seen Nightmare Moon’s visage before could have immediately made the distinction from the horn. Yet just like everything else, they made it match distinct features of Sombra. If you still allege to see nothing, I’ve done all that I can to show you. However, if you agree that it is Sombra’s image but insist that it is only there from the work of the fireworks in the episode where we see this visage of a pony on the moon, The Summer Sun Setback, and not Sombra being sealed in the moon, there is one last thing I can show you…

I already brought forth more evidence of the image being that of King Sombra’s in my King Sombra is Related to New G5 Villain theory, that being color from his pupil being visible on the moon, something that became even more apparent once the image of the pony on the moon was darkened.

When the unicorns used their firework magic on the moon, it only created an outline of a pony’s image, with color apparently only being represented by lighting and shading. Why would color from a pony’s pupil be there if it wasn’t there already? In fact, I can prove it was there beforehand. This is an image of what the moon looked like before the firework magic was used on it.

If the image is darkened like the image of the pony on the moon’s eye, a familiar image becomes recognizable.

By darkening the image just right, color in the eye matching Sombra’s eyes can be seen.

Now compare this to the image of the pony on the moon’s visage after the firework magic is used on the moon.

Not only is the eye color now apparent, so is a shape matching the shape of Sombra’s head. This proves that the image of the pony on the moon is not simply the work of fireworks.  

Conclusion

This is where the visual examinations end, but we’re not done just yet. I may have shown everything I possibly could show to get someone not in on this postulation to understand, but there is one more thing I have left to tell before I wrap this up. A logical deduction made from the aforementioned episode. Even though Princess Celestia stated that the purpose of the Summer Sun Celebration was to commemorate Princess Luna’s (Nightmare Moon’s) defeat, she also stated that she wanted to end the celebration, saying that she wanted to “leave behind the old to embrace the new”.

Think about it. If you were Celestia, would you want the last holiday like this to end with a painful reminder of the time you had to banish your sister to the moon by putting an effigy of her on the moon…or would you rather put an effigy of a recently defeated villain on there, one you and your sister fought and overcame in the past? Never mind that the way she and Luna look up at the moon and react happily is not characteristic of two ponies who have just seen such a painful reminder, rather a good, hopeful reminder and a sign of the capability of Equestria’s new leader.

Another logical deduction that can be made from the episode shows another problem with the assertion that the image of the pony on the moon is only the work of fireworks. If they were putting Sombra's image on the moon as part of Twilight Sparkle's last-minute changes to the celebration, that would mean this was Twilight's idea. A plothole I've pointed out in the past about Sombra is the lack of explanation for how banishing him the first time in The Beginning of the End didn't stop him from returning, but banishing him a second time did (we could assume Discord brought him back again, but we don't have proof of that, and there's evidence to the contrary with Sombra seemingly tracking the Mane 6 since his first defeat). Uprooted makes clear that Twilight and Spike know for sure Sombra won't be coming back...but how? They know nothing about how Discord brought Sombra back at this point. Twilight is a stargazer, however, who knew about the Mare in the Moon.

 That is all I have left to discuss in this expansion. Hold on to whatever opinions you wish to keep, this is just my presentation of the facts. The canon of what happened and what will happen to Sombra is now for the staff of G5 to decide. I personally feel that the G5 show having Sombra return from the moon at some point in the series like Nightmare Moon did at the start of FiM could realistically happen, given how much new generations of franchises like to pay homage to key moments of the past generations, but that’s just my opinion. This is just a continuation of something I’ve wanted to talk more about for a while, it only matters to me that you enjoyed reading this.  

Edited April 15, 2023 by CloudMistDragon
Major updates.

[PerlsteinProps 26,284]

Could all be very possible. Even if this isn't the case, it would be an awesome fan fic idea.