A lone pony toiled away in the dark catacombs beneath the crystal palace. The dark chambers beneath, known only to the gray-hued unicorn within them, had been retrofitted into a laboratory. Numerous aerenth constructs littered the tables and shelves, they and the other dark magic experiments being cataloged by magically held quills and parchment spread out across the stations. The incredible magic potential of the laboratory’s occupant managed to write pages of notes simultaneously with each quill and parchment as he moved from one experiment to another. He was a large unicorn and had grown larger since he began these experiments years ago, but aside from a slight growth in his canine teeth and a bend beginning to occur in his horn; he looked perfectly normal sporting a set of green eyes with a slate gray coat and ink-black mane.
 
The archmage paused his experimentation and moved to the lowest depths of the catacombs, descending down a near-infinite flight of stairs until he stood before a seemingly solid rock wall. He knelt, letting his messy black mane spill onto the floor as he put his horn to it. An incantation was thought and a spurt of green and black dark magic stabbed out from the horn into the floor. The ground shifted, splitting open and revealing a massive tome inscribed with all manner of heinous looking runes and writing. The unicorn controlled his thoughts, focusing on all his master had taught him to use to become strong, to focus his power and foster its growth. He thought of all those for whom he held malice, all those he sought to conquer with brutality, to unrepentantly strip away to nothingness without pause just like the chilling blizzards of the north. Chrysalis was lust for status and a bastardization of love, Tirek and Sendak before him were greed for more of what they already possessed, Discord was gluttony for hedonistic excess and indulgence at the expense of others. And Archmage Saros was wrath.
 
Evil made light to Grogar’s tome, opening it. For what seemed like hours, Sombra studied the texts, memorizing them over and over again. Upfront he was the weakest of his peers, but the teachings of a god could make even a simple unicorn mighty enough to stand beside the others. Of course, after years of experiments (including numerous ones on himself) one might consider him to have deviated away from a normal unicorn as the use of dark magic was starting to bend his form. And of all of Grogar’s students, Saros was the one most keen to experiment and study. He closed his master’s tome and sealed it away yet again for safe keeping, ascending the stairs to get back to work. Returning to the laboratory, Saros drew up an inkwell and quill to write down both what he’d seen from Grogar’s tome as well as the fruits of his own experiments; copying them all down into a small spellbook.
 
The source of his dark magic was too precious and too large to lug around, best to avoid the cumbersomeness of carrying it and the risk of safety or exposure in doing so by just keeping it locked away. Hence the creation of the smaller booklet. Saros regarded it as he filled in the last page, which was packed with notes on dark magic. One such note involved a spell he’d come up with by combining Sendak’s magic draining spell with a magic containment spell he’d devised that blocked a unicorn’s magic through aerenths impacted onto the horn.
 
“No replacement for the Master’s work, but for its purpose of portable reference; it will suffice.”
 
 
Story created by tarbano  
Archmage Saros (King Sombra) is owned by Hasbro