King Sombra is in G5: Chapter 2 (Fan Theory)

[Misty Shadow 7,084]

One fan comic theory later, I'm back to making stuff about the shadow king. This is mostly a discussion of evidence of Sombra's possible presence in Chapter 2 of Make Your Mark. 

https://www.deviantart.com/cloudmistdragon/art/King-Sombra-is-in-G5-Ch-2-MLP-Fan-Theory-931556674

Prelude

After taking a break last theory from talking about King Sombra for a change, I’ve decided to resume speculation about the potential role he could play in MLP Generation 5. The last theory I wrote on this subject, King Sombra, Hope, and Umbrum in G5, grew far more popular than I anticipated for a theory that’s only been out for four months and I’m glad a lot of people seem to be happy with it. However, there were two statements in that theory and a statement in the theory preceding it I had to amend.

Everyone who has seen Make Your Mark Chapter 2 knows that the information on Opaline’s horn colors was wrong. None of us had seen her in proper light at the time with her being covered in shadow for a cliffhanger’s dramatic effect, but I made sure to correct the comment in light of what we know now. I also commented on how both Misty and Opaline were possibly Sombra’s daughters, however, in MYM Chapter 2’s first episode, Izzy Does It, Opaline purports that she rescued Misty as a filly, making her like a mother or foster parent to her. Even as the veracity of this claim is questionable knowing Opaline, it does solidify a wide enough age gap between the two to make me doubt that they’re siblings. Thus, this comment was reworded. Finally, the statement from the theory made prior to that one, regarding Opaline’s horn starting with a dark color and getting brighter until it ends with a bright tip, is actually correct…but not in the way I believed at the time. What it could actually mean is something I’ll discuss later in this theory.

Just wanted to point these things out, since I don’t intend to cover up my mistakes. I’ve always been in the habit of making noted updates and edits, but this is a time where I felt that too many people had seen the wrong information. Despite that, I’m very satisfied with my last two Sombra theories. However, you know what always happens. Any time new stuff to theorize comes our way, I can never help myself. Now that I’ve seen all of Chapter 2 of Make Your Mark, I’m going to explain why it’s even more possible now for Sombra to play a part in Generation 5.

Opaline and Misty: What We Know About Them

I fully expected to have to correct a bit of the speculation I made on our two villains back when none of us even knew their names. They’re still quite the enigmatic duo, with us only getting information on them little by little for the sake of good storytelling. Make Your Mark is a plot-heavy show with every new episode being a new part of the story, so no one wants to get too much information on our current villains too fast as to not spoil the suspense. The minute bits of information we do get though are certainly worth discussing. Believe it or not, even their names are worth noting in regards to relations to Sombra, Radiant Hope, and the umbrum.

Hope and Opaline both share an “op” in their name and Misty’s name could be a reference to the mist coming from Sombra’s eyes or the eyes of the other umbrum. Of course, this could easily just be a coincidence, but we’re just getting started. In MYM Chapter 2’s first episode, Misty gives Sunny a spy camera disguised as a compact mirror. Easy to overlook is the insignia on the compact mirror. It depicts a blue-eyed alicorn with a menacing expression on her face.

 

There are two blue-eyed alicorns we know from Friendship is Magic, Princess Luna and Flurry Heart. Luna does not even physically appear in the world of FiM’s future in The Last Problem, implying that she and Celestia have passed away from the world, and this manner of expression would be uncharacteristic for Flurry to make. It’s very likely modeled after a villain, but we don’t know any villainous alicorns that could plausibly be the model besides Opaline. This alicorn also can’t be Opaline, since it doesn’t have a curved horn like her. Could it be modeled after Hope’s princess form? Not only does she have blue eyes, this alicorn wears hoof accessories where gems can be inserted just like her…

You can also very faintly make out a crown on the alicorn’s head with purple gems just like her…

Could it be…did Radiant Hope truly become a corrupted alicorn princess? I didn’t want to believe Sombra corrupted her in my last theory, but this clue seems to suggest the possibility. It’s possible the expression is simply meant to be stern, not evil. However, if a corrupted Hope is Opaline’s mother, that would explain why Opaline went so wrong. And even if Sombra didn’t corrupt her, Hope was never intended to be a pure spirit.

Opaline also still very much appears like she could be Hope’s daughter, even in the light. She’s clearly purple like her and boasts a luminescent look similar to hers and the Crystal Ponies, plus her mane is white with blue-green streaks, akin to Hope’s white-blue mane. Misty’s hair looks even more umbrum-like in the light, with all the colors of the hair of Rabia, Sombra’s mother, being even more noticeable. You can also see that she’s blue, pink, and purple, all colors of the umbrum Hope met. This leads to my next point, calling into question whether or not Misty is truly a unicorn. And even if she is, in no way would that remove the possibility of her being related to Sombra…

Misty and Sombra’s Relation to Unicorns

First, I need to elaborate further on that last mistake from an earlier theory now, because this is where it comes into play. Although I was correct in calling Opaline’s horn color pattern starting with a dark color from the bottom and progressively becoming brighter going up to the top, ending with a bright tip similar to Sombra’s horn color pattern, the now-amended implication I intended at the time, that being that this feature was something special, was erroneous. In G5’s 3D-animated content, all unicorns have this feature with a dark color starting at the bottom followed by a color in their horns that grows brighter up to the top (depending on the lighting, this is not always immediately apparent) with exception. Misty is one of those exceptions with her horn being a special blend of multiple colors, yet still ending with a bright tip. Her special horn is the evidence least worth noting though.

In The Traditional Unicorn Sleep-Over, she didn’t even know the most basic of unicorn traditions even children knew despite Opaline’s claim of rescuing her when she was a child, is unfamiliar with pony food, and is even adverse to using even basic, helpful magic spells like levitation. How does Opaline feed her? This episode also revealed that crystals are not just a prominent feature of Bridlewood Forest, but a prominent part of unicorn culture, with beliefs about how they relate to occult-like forms of magic just like in our world.

Izzy even apparently has the power to speak to the spirits of her ancestors, and despite Misty’s obliviousness to every unicorn tradition, you can see crystals in Opaline’s castle. Speaking of Opaline, something I already noted in the description of my last theory was Opaline’s use of dark magic, having purple bubbles appear around her horn just like how purple bubbles appear around Sombra’s horn.

 

This even happens while she uses simple levitation magic on a flower after conjuring it from a magic pool, while Princess Celestia and Twilight Sparkle only had such bubbles appear around their horns when using dark magic. However, just like the mistake I made with the unicorn horn color patterns, I didn’t notice at the time that this is another staple feature of the unicorns in G5’s 3D animated media, purple bubbles appearing around their horns whenever they use ordinary magic.

…..Coincidence? I strongly doubt it. At the very least, these design decisions are inspired by Sombra, definitely. With the unicorns possessing Sombra’s horn color pattern, his fascination with crystals, and his magic-casting aura, it honestly raises the possibility of him being like a Father Abraham figure to them. Why Izzy wouldn’t speak to his spirit could easily be explained by him being a forgotten part of history or still among the living…

Regardless, the possibility of Sombra being tied to G5 is continuing to strengthen. In the first chapter of my King Sombra is in G5 theory, I brought up Sombra’s possible relations to the Tree of Harmony and how close it was to Bridlewood. In The Cutie Mark Mix-Up, a filly mentions a striking bit of information to Sunny about a book about a tree that grows special crystals called elements. That’s referring to the Tree of Harmony, surely? In a plot-centric show like Make Your Mark, it’s hard to conceive this moment building to nothing.

If this was to later lead to the main characters learning about the Tree’s history, they’d likely end up learning about Sombra destroying the Tree if the Sombra from show canon is being incorporated here. Even if he’s been forgotten, we could still get foreshadowing with a description like, “a mysterious force destroyed the Tree”. In any case, the stories of our two villains are definitely building to something, and I’ll elaborate on the biggest pieces of evidence pointing towards a potential reveal about them having a relation to Sombra and the umbrum…

Misty’s Mark and Opaline’s Fire  

I mentioned earlier that Opaline had crystals in her castle. Surely, she must know more about unicorns that she hasn’t told Misty as a way to manipulate her more easily. After all, Misty seems to believe that she’s a normal unicorn regardless of what her true nature could be, given her vying to get a cutie mark from Opaline. And if she has ties to Sombra through umbrumhood, I’m sure Opaline would keep that secret from her too. Of course, umbrum don’t have cutie marks, and even the Sombra from the show canon didn’t possess one. Regardless of what’s canon in this show, that’s a similarity Misty and Sombra share. Even her fake cutie mark, the symbol of a butterfly, could mean more than meets the eye. After all, the umbrum resembled butterflies in their false forms and even their real forms had butterfly-like wings.  

Given the fact that the series is called, “Make Your Mark”, a major plot twist involving a character’s cutie mark is likely to have already been planned. If Opaline is playing Misty for a sucker, never intending to give her a cutie mark, it’s an imaginable scenario for her to insist that  she didn’t technically lie to Misty. She’d go on to say that her false promise was something she couldn’t actually fulfill to begin with, leading her to reveal to Misty that she’s not a normal pony at all…

Interestingly though, Misty seems to know something about Opaline’s true nature despite possibly not knowing her own. She describes Opaline as “made of fire” at the end of the Make Your Mark episode, Have You Seen This Dragon?. Opaline also describes herself to Misty as a “fire alicorn” in the Tell Your Tale episode, Dragon Dad. What does this have to do with Sombra, you might ask? If you remember the first time we saw Sombra in Friendship is Magic, what was he surrounded by? Magical fire. More specifically, purple flames. And what does Opaline have around her throne? Purple flames.

It still begs the question, however, how much a being of shadow like Sombra is tied to fire. Astonishingly, even more evidence of this relation exists. If you recall Siege of the Crystal Empire, Chrysalis described the umbrum as having burned ponies’ homes.

The umbrum appear to have done this with their own magical fire. They and Sombra also do not appear to just be creatures of shadow, but also creatures of smoke.

Furthermore, Opaline also possesses the ability to absorb dragon fire into her horn. Remember the comic cover that showed Hope fighting a dragon-like beast? And how Opaline also has ankle braces with emblems of dragons? Sombra’s first defeat infamously came about from the actions of a baby dragon. Funny to imagine it not being coincidence if this has something to do with why Opaline is obsessed with Sparky’s power.

Conclusion

That’s all for the second chapter of my King Sombra is in G5 theory. Honestly, this is actually more of a sequel to my King Sombra, Hope, and Umbrum in G5 theory, but that was part of an expansion of the first chapter of my King Sombra is in G5 theory. I also couldn’t help myself titling it this way, especially given that it focuses primarily on evidence from Make Your Mark Chapter 2. I’d also like to talk about any potential evidence I find in the G5 comics, however, I’ve only read snippets of them and the explanation for the origin of the Unity Crystals in Issue #2 at this moment in time. Since we also have no idea when the next batch of MYM episodes will drop at this moment in time, it could be a short time before we get more evidence from the show or a long time I’ll be encouraged to fill by catching up with the comics. Either way, my confidence continues to grow about the show’s current villains having a connection of some kind to Sombra.

Edited May 28, 2023 by CloudMistDragon