I redid an old drawing of Corrupted Cadence as my first piece for my new mashup of Cosmoverse and Cupidverse
*** Things were great in the Crystal Kingdom for about half a century under the rule of Princess Celestia and her husband, Shining Armor. In fact, the memories of King Sombra and his tyrranical rule had faded to the back of most ponies' memories. Everyone was filled with hope for the future, and for once Equestria seemed to be at a time of peace. Of course, this could not last.
The whereabouts of Sombra and any of his remains were completely unknown. Most ponies had assumed he had simply died, or had been banished to Tartarus. When an oddly-shaped crystal formation was brought back to the Crystal Empire, among other interesting finds on an expedition into the frozen wastelands, there was really no second thoughts given to it. It was studied for some months with no interesting properties discovered. It was really unknown why it was even kept. Such an unremarkable object really should have been discarded of, but something kept the head researcher from giving up on it. No one is sure how the princess ended up in contact with the so-called crystal. Some ponies speculate that it was dark magic driving fate, somehow manipulating events that lead to this moment. When the princess made the mistake of picking up the object, its true nature was revealed. The crystal was, in fact, the horn that had once belonged to King Sombra. The dark properties of the horn activated, and Princess Cadence became possessed. Another dark ruler was born.