Shining Armor puts on Sombra's crown, jokingly at first, but as time goes on he starts wearing it more and more and his personality begins to change.

Cadance liked the changes at first. He was more passionate and determined. He'd grind through an entire day's work by lunch and either spend the rest of the day with her, training the guards, or in the library, learning new spells.

But things quickly head south.

Twilight, hoping to undo the crown's hold on her brother, begins research into Sombra's past and who he truly was.

Her research reveals some startling secrets about Equestria's history, it's rulers, and an old plan of Sombra's that is nearing completion.

First, she discovers that "Sombra" was not his name, but a pseudonym bestowed upon him by Celestia after his banishment, so that no one would connect the pony she painted as a monster with many of the most influential figures in Equestrian history.

His true name was Clover the Clever, son of Starswirl and Princess Platinum, rightful heir to the unicorn royal family, founder of the Crystal Empire, and the first bearer of the Element of Magic.

In his youth, Clover became known as an insatiable lady's man, taking any and every opportunity he could find to bed a female. He was known to have had many relationships with both ponies and other species. He was also confirmed to have fathered the first hippogriff, a pony/griffon hybrid, with the reigning queen of the griffons at that time.

There are even rumors that he had frequent relations with wild horses, the pony equivalent of a gorilla, but since these rumors didn't start until Celestia and Luna's rule began they are very likely propaganda, though he never seemed to deny it.

When he was finally convinced by his parents to settle down in his late-thirties he took six wives, two from each race of ponies. Both of the unicorns were his immediate cousins, though that was common among unicorns during that time period, and one of the pegasi was the legendary Commander Hurricane, whom he was said to have had a particular fondness for. Even then it's said he would frequently invite servants to spend the night with the seven of them.

Though it seems that even he had certain lines he wouldn't cross. He is quoted as having turned down three mares in his life, all for the same reason. Chancellor Puddinghead, Celestia, and Luna. When asked what his reasons where, he said, "As my parents told me, never get in bed with crazy."

This lead Twilight on a tangent of searching genealogical records, and she discovered that a large portion of Equestria's population are his direct descendants, including herself, Shining Armor, and the other mane six.

Getting back to the main point of her research, she discovers that he became unable to use the Element of Magic after losing faith in friendship due to two of the other element bearers betraying the rest and taking over Equestria using dark magic (or "alicorn magic" as they called it).

He escaped with his wives, their children, whatever followers he could save, and a large number of earth ponies, (the majority of pegasi and unicorns already trapped within Equestria's borders), and fled to the frozen north, where they built the Crystal Empire.

Over his remaining years, Clover created numerous plans to try and liberate Equestria.

The first was learning dark magic himself and using it against them. He created the Alicorn Amulet in an attempt to find a way to cast dark magic without the corrupting side effects, but gave up when it clearly failed.

The second was creating powerful magical artifacts and implanting part of his soul in them, such as his crown, which would empower the user, but in return would slowly make them more like him, essentially creating copies of himself to combat Celestia. He withdrew that plan as the idea of altering another being's mind was further than he was willing to go. However, using his notes on the idea is what helps Twilight release Shining Armor.

The Third plan still involved splitting off parts of his soul, but placing them in volunteers among his family and servants, without the corrupting effect of the previous plan. The soul fragments would impart a portion of his power on the bearer and give them his memories so that they could know what really happened. He then sent them out across Equestria and beyond to make sure that at least some of them would survive.

Over time, each fragment would grow strong enough that they could be divided several more times, multiplying the number of those who knew the truth each generation.

His final plan was the Crystal Heart. Using his intimate knowledge of the Elements of Harmony, he created the Crystal Heart, believing that the pure love focused through it would be enough to counter the usurpers' dark magic and destroy them.

Unfortunately, Equestria unleashed a surprise attack. The alicorns used their dark magic to corrupt the minds of his citizens and turn them against him, making him unable to reach the Crystal Heart before they found him and was forced to try using dark magic to defend himself.

He fought admirably, but the dark magic quickly corrupted his mind, making his thoughts less and less coherent. Knowing that he could not win, his last act of sanity was to gather all of his remaining magic and send the Crystal Empire outside of time until either he or one of his soul fragment bearers returned, preventing Celestia and Luna from claiming them.

The Sombra that Twilight had seen at the Crystal Empire was the result of Clover the Clever being driven mad by his dark magic and left to rot beneath the ice for a thousand years.

But there are still an unknown number of fragments of the real Clover out there, looking to take Equestria back, and Twilight cant help but wonder if they are right to do so.

4671728 you should make this a story

4671925
I plan on it.