Well, it occured to me. Dragons live a lot longer than ponies, are significantly more powerful, and Spikes pretty intelligent. Why would he just stay Sombras bodyguard?
So heres a pic set in a universe where Spike is now the evil emperor overlord of the Crystal Empire (and probably most of Equestria). The Element Bearers are trapped in gems so they cant stop him, and hes got the necklace to prove it.
Been working on this off and on all day. Im actually pretty proud of it, considering for the most part I had zero idea where I was going to go with it. I just kept layering on effects till I got something that looked nice.