The Storm King

**The Storm King** is an Equestrian satyr-like monster and the main antagonist of the 2017 *My Little Pony* Movie, seeking to take over the world outside and inside Equestria by harnessing all of it's magic. His plan is somewhat similar to that of Tirek to even the appearance, but it is more intense, and not focused entirely on destruction. He is a ruthless conqueror who has laid waste to the lands outside Equestria, and now sets his sights on the ponies and their magic. Sinister and slightly insane, the Storm King commands an army of storm creatures that only aim to please him and spread his will across the world. He is voiced by Liev Schreiber (Sabertooth in *X-Men Origins: Wolverine*), but surprisingly, he acts more like a Faux Hades as far from his one scene in the trailer would suggest.

## History

### **IDW Comics**

The Storm King's origin serves as the basis of *My Little Pony: The Movie Prequel Issue #1*. In the issue, he and his second-in-command Strife invade the Abyssinian capital of Panthera, plundering all the palace treasure and setting fire to the rest of the city. However, Strife later betrays the Storm King and allies with Captain Celaeno and her crew of parrot pirates. The Storm King, enraged by this betrayal, appoints Grubber as his new second-in-command.

In Issue #2, the Storm King catches up with Celaeno's ship, tosses Strife overboard for his betrayal, and forces Celaeno and her crew to work for him as cargo haulers.

In Issue #4, the Storm King tracks down Tempest Shadow, who has been in possession of the Misfortune Malachite while fleeing from his Storm Creatures. The two then form an alliance, with Tempest agreeing to become the Storm King's new lieutenant in his search for magical power in exchange for the Storm King healing her broken horn.

### **Chapter Books**

In The *Stormy Road to Canterlot*, the Storm King meets a broken-horned Unicorn who stole the Misfortune Malachite from his possession. He offers to fix her horn if she can retrieve a pearl from the kingdom of Hippogriffia. After the Unicorn, now going by Tempest Shadow, fails in this task, she suggests stealing the magic from the three Alicorn princesses of Canterlot, to make him more powerful.

### **MLP Movie**

In My Little Pony The Movie, the Storm King appears as the central antagonist. His second-in-command Tempest Shadow, underling Grubber, and army of Storm Creatures are sent to Canterlot as an advance force to occupy the city and secure the magic of the four Alicorn princesses. In his first on-screen appearance, the Storm King communicates with Tempest via potion spell, and he reminds her of the terms of their agreement: deliver to him the princesses' magic and empower his Staff of Sacanas in exchange for restoring her broken horn.

Later in the film, Princess Skystar reveals that she, her mother Queen Novo, and the rest of the seaponies used to be Hippogriffs and live atop Mount Aris before the Storm King invaded and forced them to flee underwater.

After Twilight's capture, the Storm King appears before her and uses the Staff of Sacanas to drain her and the other princesses' magic, granting him massive power and control over the sun and moon. When Twilight's friends come to her rescue, the Storm King uses his newfound power to create a powerful cyclone. Tempest tells him to fulfill his end of their agreement and restore her horn, but he reveals that he was just using her and attacks her. Before the Storm King can destroy Twilight and Tempest, the rest of the Mane Six intervene and knock the Staff of Sacanas out of his hands.

As the staff's magic runs out of control, the Storm King and Twilight race to claim it, and they are both swept into the storm. They soon return to solid ground, and the Storm King attempts to turn Twilight and her friends to obsidian stone. Tempest, changed by the Storm King betraying her and Twilight saving her from the storm, jumps in the way, and they are both petrified. The Storm King's body falls off the castle balcony and shatters to pieces.

## Personality

Despite his intimidating appearance, he's actually quite a charismatic, laid-back, all-around friendly guy even while he's reducing entire nations to their knees. He is also just as humorous as he is a threat. He straddles close to faux affably evil, however, when he explains that he is a staunch opponent of concepts such as friendship. The prequel comic suggests him to be an animalistic abomination, but he refers to himself as a force of nature; not a king of storms, but a king who is a storm.

He's a very benevolent leader, as he is shown treating his soldiers incredibly well in the prequel comic, even planning to throw them a party for their services in conquering and pillaging in his name. As he later says, it's simply to ensure their loyalty to him as he sees them as mere enforcers of his will. The Storm King's actions seem to be driven by practicality and self-interest before other considerations, with little in the way of either genuine compassion or needless cruelty. He's very generous towards his soldiers and treats them extremely well, but this is simply to make sure they remain loyal to him. He also doesn't bother to enforce his rule on the nations he overruns, since he doesn't want to get saddled with the minutiae of ruling and administrating, simply sacking them for all they're worth before moving on.

His speech about friendship in the prequel comic firmly cements him as deliberately having no friends, seeing them as distractions and potential traitors.

## Quotes

* "Yeah, yeah! Friendship, flowers and ponies! Bleh!"
* "I'm SO TOTALLY over the cute pony thing!"
* "Let's get this storm started! Oh, hey, that's good, I should trademark that!"
* "Remember, Tempest. Only I have the power to make you whole. Make this twig work, and you'll get your reward. Fail me, and your horn won't be the only thing that's broken."
* "This place, it seems a little too, oh, I don't know, CUTE! I don't like cute! I never did like cute! Doesn't really go with my big, bad, powerful magic guy thing, does it?"

## Role in the Series

Since his role in the SAFAC series, and following his failed attempt to destroy Equestria through the Alicorn God of the Sea, Storm King has continued finding attempts to take revenge for his family by finding a force to restore his father's staff back to full power, and ultimately finds a chance with his AUU counterpart, Conquerius, thus prompting the Clam Lounge Squadron and the Shell Lodge Squad to protect both Equestria and Equaria from their influence.