The Brokenridge Mountains. A mountain chain situated on Equestria's wintry north, dividing the land of ponies from the territories of the yaks. Even then, in the afternoon, the dense layer of clouds that enveloped the sky allowed no rays of the sun to shine through. Blizzards and ice storms relentlessly pounded the frozen mountain peaks and released their deposits of ice and snow onto the land. Not many creatures could survive such inhospitable conditions.
Nevertheless, Maleficent's countenance was at ease, calm, even. The dark witch tested the air, her pale green fingers flexing, testing, reaching for something seen only by her. She closed her eyes and extended her senses, taking measure of the magical energies all around her.
How long she stood there, she did not know. But she was not in a hurry. She'd learned long ago that patience is a virtue, and a virtue that had served her well many times in the past.
Then she felt it. Darkness. A vile energy tinged with malice and cruelty, buried deep beneath the ice. Her eyes opened, the sorceress grinned and raised her staff, calling on her tremendous reserves of dark magic. The staff slammed into the ground, the earth shook, and the frozen rock beneath her parted violently, opening a ravine that the meager light of the sun could not breach.
She could feel the darkness now, stronger, rising from its prison and then, a dark cloud, almost palpable to the touch emerged from the ravine. From within the cloud—formless, a mass that writhed before her—two eyes opened.
"Sorceress," it rasped. "You have released me." It was a statement.
Maleficent grinned. "King Sombra, ruler of the Crystal Empire. I am Maleficent."
The shadowy mass blinked, taking in her words. "You... your presence... your magic... you are foreign to this world." Sombra said more to himself. "Why have you freed me?"
"A thousand years ago you were sealed away by the princesses of this land, were you not? I offer you a second chance. An opportunity to reclaim all that was lost to you."
Sombra grumbled, his eyes unblinking, never straying from Maleficent's. The strange being before him obviously held great power. He could feel her dark magic permeating the air around. Whatever reservations the fallen king may have had, the sorceress had sought him out. She could have destroyed him easily if she wished so, and there'd be little he could to to stop her in his weakened state. And so he found himself curious; intrigued at the sorceress' proposal. "And in return?"
"Your assistance," was the witch's sole reply. "But don't worry, great King. My terms are not steep. In fact I think you will find you stand much to gain."
"I'm listening."
Maleficent grinned. "Tell me, King Sombra, have you heard of the Heartless?"