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Celestibra is the het ship between Princess Celestia and King Sombra from the My Little Pony fandom.
Canon[]
In King Sombra's debut, "The Crystal Empire", Celestia is revealed to have challenged his takeover of the Crystal Empire alongside her sister, Princess Luna. The two sisters defeated Sombra and imprisoned him beneath the Frozen North, but the Crystal Empire disappeared shortly thereafter. In IDW's My Little Pony: FIENDship is Magic #1, an entry in Sombra's diary notes that he expects defeat at the two sisters' hands, but that he will gain some measure of victory by magically banishing the Empire.
In IDW's My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic #17-20, Celestia is revealed to have a very different history and relationship with a King Sombra from an alternate universe. Before she had ever even heard of the Sombra from her own world, Celestia explored such alternate universes with her mentor Star Swirl the Bearded. In one such world, Celestia discovered that her alternate self was a villainess, and was briefly imprisoned after being mistaken for her. Fortunately, the truth was soon discovered and Celestia was released by the world's King Sombra, whom Celestia seems to have been immediately struck by. This initially manifested as awkwardness, from difficulty speaking to obvious discomfort, such as when Sombra took her by the hoof.
Mirror-Sombra, for his part, soon began to warm up to his otherworldly visitor, paying her a compliment that left Celestia so flustered that she spit hot coffee in her host's face. Fortunately, Sombra showed no signs of being upset, and the pair soon became quite cordial with each other. Celestia and Star Swirl were then surprised to be introduced to that world's version of Celestia's sister Luna, who was quick to comment on Celestia's loveliness. Sombra concurred with this sentiment, and soon led his guests on a tour of some of his world, which later saw Celestia act as his partner during a dance festival.
As Celestia and Star Swirl prepared to depart for their own world, Sombra invited both of them to return, and Celestia eagerly expressed a desire to see Sombra again. Both ponies eagerly anticipated their reunion, and Celestia would accompany Star Swirl on his expeditions to Mirror-Sombra's world and even journey there by herself. This latter activity was in defiance of Star Swirl's instructions, as he had begun to notice troubling signs that their journeys were affecting the two universes in adverse ways. Mirror-Sombra fully supported Celestia's actions, in spite of knowing that they were going behind Star Swirl's back.
On one of these clandestine visits, he showed Celestia a wishing garden where ponies attached written wishes to trees. Having never before had use for the tradition, he asks Celestia now to help him write a wish, though he does teasingly question whether she's capable of writing based on certain odd differences between their worlds. The pair wrote out their wishes to be together always, and after the tender exchange Celestia went back to her own world, where she was confronted by an angry Star Swirl. He promptly used a spell to seal the magical mirror they had been using for their travels, breaking Celestia's heart by not even giving her a chance to make one more trip and say goodbye to Sombra.
However, Celestia eventually found a means of breaking Star Swirl's spell and began to visit Mirror-Sombra's world again. Unfortunately, as Star Swirl had feared, this made the ties between their worlds dangerously strong. To make matters worse, Celestia's counterpart learned of her existence and sought to travel through the mirror herself and invade Celestia's world. She offered to leave Mirror-Sombra and Celestia in peace, but Sombra could not condemn a world he knew Celestia loved to the horrible fate Mirror-Celestia and Luna (who had also become a villain by this point) had inflicted upon his.
Eventually, Celestia was attacked by her counterpart while on another visit to Sombra, who quickly sent her home to her own world. Seeing his shape in the mirror, Twilight Sparkle and her friends believed him to be Celestia's assailant, but Celestia quickly refuted this belief upon regaining consciousness. She would ultimately send Twilight and her friends through the mirror to assist Sombra against Mirror-Celestia and Luna. However, when the heroic ponies engaged the evil princesses, Sombra himself would halt their combat after receiving a message informing them that any harm done to Mirror-Celestia was also inflicted upon Celestia herself.
It was at this point that Twilight and her friends, and their world's Princess Luna, learned of Sombra and Celestia's relationship. Knowing that they could not directly harm Mirror-Celestia and Luna, Twilight hit upon the idea of using the Elements of Harmony to encase the wicked princesses in crystal. However, before they could carry out this plan, Mirror-Celestia launched an attack that caused the two universes to begin merging together, leading to a confrontation between both Celestias. Much to Mirror-Sombra's horror, as Twilight and her friends attempted to imprison Mirror-Celestia, Prime Celestia also began to be encased in crystal.
Though Celestia was willing to suffer such a fate, Sombra could not bear inflicting it upon his love. After clarifying that his own counterpart from their world was a villain, Sombra struck down Twilight and her friends in order to make use of the Elements of Harmony himself. With their power, he drew the evil power corrupting Mirror-Celestia and Luna out of them, allowing them to become heroic individuals like their counterparts. However, this act demanded that Sombra take this evil into himself, a heroic sacrifice that broke Celestia's heart.
Now resembling his evil counterpart from Celestia's world, Mirror-Sombra fled Celestia's touch and disappeared, leaving a tearful Celestia behind. As she and the rest of the creatures from her world fled through the rapidly shrinking portal leading home, Celestia pleaded with Mirror-Luna to take care of her lost love. Celestia asked Twilight and her friends to destroy the shattered remnants of the mirror leading to the other world, keeping only a single piece and her copy of the wish as mementos of the love that she had lost. Celestia then bid goodbye to Sombra, finding some comfort that she had been blessed with such love. Unbeknownst to her, the mirror fragment carried her words and image through to the other world, where the now corrupt Sombra shed a tear as he made his own farewell to Celestia and gripped the crown she had left behind.
As for the Prime Universe King Sombra, when he eventually returned some 1000 years after his initial defeat, Celestia responded by sending Shining Armor and Princess Cadance, and later Twilight Sparkle and her friends, to deal with him instead of facing him again herself. In IDW's My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic #34-37, titled "Siege of the Crystal Empire", Celestia once again faces Sombra after he is restored by his old friend Radiant Hope, the one who initially alerted Celestia and Luna to his evil activities. With Queen Chrysalis' assistance, King Sombra is able to overcome her and Luna and turn them both into stone. However, he later has a change of heart and sets in motion a chain of events that returns them to normal. In thanks, Celestia and Luna join Twilight and Princess Cadance in helping Radiant Hope safe Sombra, who is in danger of being banished by the magic of the Crystal Heart.
In seeming conflict with these events, in "The Beginning of the End" an evil Sombra would later be resurrected by Discord, in the guise of the villain Grogar, in the hopes of recruiting him to join an alliance of evil against Equestria. Sombra preferred to pursue his own path of conquest, and Celestia would once again refrain from doing battle with him in favor of allowing Twilight and her friends to contend with the villain. Only in an alternate timeline seen in "The Cutie Re-Mark", in which Sombra successfully reconquered the Crystal Empire and set out to add the rest of Equestria to his realm, did Celestia take the lead in the effort to defeat him if possible.
Fanon[]
For the most part, the ship is supported as a pairing of Celestia with the Mirror-Sombra introduced in the IDW comics, who canonically appeared as a romantic couple. Fan works tend to explore the pairing further, with some seeking to find some means by which their enforced separation can be overcome and they can live together happily.
Celestia is rather more rarely coupled with the Sombra from her own universe, sometimes exploring the idea that-due to both originating over 1000 years before the main events of the Friendship is Magic animated series-the pair may have known each other before they met as enemies. However, their lack of on-screen interactions leaves other fans more inclined to pair Celestia with other characters. Moreover, Prime Universe Sombra has a number of other characters with whom he is more often paired, including Twilight Sparkle, other members of the Mane Six, or even Princess Luna. For fans of the comics, Hopebra-the ship between Prime Universe King Sombra and Radiant Hope-holds far more appeal.
There are 12 works featuring the pairing on A03.
Fandom[]
- FAN FICTION
- Celestia/Sombra tag on AO3
Gallery[]
Cartoon[]
IDW comics[]
Reflections[]
Siege of the Crystal Empire[]
[]
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| SHIPS | het | Applespike • AppleTaps • BrightButter • Celestibra • CheesePie • Chrysirek • Confettishipping • FlashLight • FlashShimmer • Fluttercord • FlutterMac • Hopebra • Lunbra • MacinDash • MarbleMac • MordeTwi • Rariblood • RariMac • RariPants • ShadDash • ShiningCadance • SoarinDash • Sombrashy • SonDash • Spabby • Spember • Spolder • Starblazer • SugarMac • SweetieMash • Twibra • Twigian • YoshiShy |
| femslash | AppleDash • Appleshy • Autumnjack • Chryslestia • FlutterDash • LyraBon • Moonscout • Octav3 • PinkieDash • RariJack • ShimGlim • SunsetDash • SunsetPie • SunsetSparkle • Templight • Twijack • TwiPie • Twishy | |
| slash | Gallbar • Sporax • WizWinds | |
| family | AppleSisters • RariBelle | |
| CHARACTERS | female | Applejack • Fluttershy • Pinkie Pie • Rainbow Dash • Rarity • Sunset Shimmer • Twilight Sparkle |
| male | Big McIntosh • King Sombra • Spike | |