What if Tempest Shadow had been the movie villain outright rather than a lackey?

7010143
"That's a nice horn you've got there..."

7010143 "Thanks," managed Tempest once she got her hooves under her. "And I'll take that," she added, taking the Staff of Sacanas away from Princess Twilight Sparkle.

While the six mares gaped in amazement, Tempest Shadow raised the staff over her head, and lightning crackled through the sky behind her.

"Behold," she bellowed, "and bow before the might of your new Storm Queen! Buhahaha!"

Then while Twilight was still gawking with her mouth wide open, Tempest pushed the staff back into the crook of her leg.

"Just kidding. You know, before I became old Stormy's minion, I used to have a career in stand-up comedy."

"We saved the wrong one," mused Applejack. "Think we can find any more of them fancy bombs?"

7010143
Then we would've gotten an astounding villain, with depth to her character, rather than Mr. Shows-Up-At-The-Finale-And-Is-Silly-But-Underwhelming there.

7010153
Care to give further context?

7010162
Well, that would be the main point yes.

7010165
As in, Evil Tempest is looking for a horn to replace her own, and she doesn't care if it already belongs to somepony else.

7010143
You asking because you were underwhelmed by the Storm King’s lack of presence and screentime throughout the movie?

7010182
Indeed. (Also his lack of power and, y'know, storminess. At least Tempest can make lightning!)

7010166
She'll have all the horn she needs when she's an alicorn.

7010143
The Storm King hit the ground with a loud crash and shattered into uncountable pieces.

A strange cold cruel wind raked the ponies fur before flying around Tempest.

She smiled. "Thank you. Wow, you saccharine singers actually fell for it. All I had to do was whisper the right things and sit back and play the flunky. Now, I know who are the true threats! Sing your last song. I suggest Equestrian Pie."

Pinkie frowned. "Nope, not a relative."

Tempest's eyes narrowed.

Dark clouds covered the warm golden sunlight as the strange winds flew around Tempest.

Fluttershy cowered. "Um, what's going on?"
Rainbow Dash tried to fly to Tempest, but a wind smashed her to the ground. Blood dribbled out of her muzzle.

The area was shrouded in darkness until Twilight cast a light spell. It struggled against the wind before becoming bright though it did little to illuminate Tempest who was now a dark magenta blur.

The blur grew larger until it was as big as an alicorn. Then Tempest appeared shrouded in hues of black, red and purple. Her horn was now complete but it was a shifting shadow of red and black. "The Storm king had a benefactor, but as you know the King is no more. Now, I have the faith of the Benefactor. This time its faith in me won't be in vain. LONG LIVE THE STORM QUEEN!"

Twilight narrowed her eyes and her ears went back on her head. "Bring it!"

Then Tempest brought out a connect four board. "Best three out of five?"

Twilight nodded grimly.

7010185
I actually made a story that detailed the Storm King’s arrival in Canterlot. I too was dissatisfied with his lack of screentime, yet there was something about him that was immediately intriguing.

It’s made to give the character more exploration, and one might even say that it’s good enough to be considered canonical to the show and film.

7010165
Well, then I'd imagine it to be something along the lines of this. Mind you, I know there will be some holes and weak points, since I came up with this on the spot:

Tempest, after being ostracized for her handicap, left Equestria to find her own way. The events shown in the song Open Up Your Eyes haven't changed, but what Tempest encountered in her journey has. Instead of somehow getting embroiled with the worlds worst slaver, Tempest finds a tome that hints at a way to restore her horn. However, the spell is so extremely draining that it will permanently drain the magic of the unicorn who casts it, making it impractical. The spell was discarded as useless, until Tempest finds it and hatches a scheme. She either finds or devises a spell that allows her to force another unicorn (or an alicorn) to cast a particular spell and/or drain their magic by force, and goes to work.

So, rather than aiming to recover the Alicorn's power for the Storm King, she seeks to use Celestia, Ruler of Equestria as fodder for her spell. She doesn't need this much magic, but she's grown bitter towards the home that abandoned her, so much so that she wants to see it crumble while she rises back to her old self again. Perhaps she even thinks that an Alicorn's magic might give her similar powers as well... And then, she could fix what's wrong with the broken system that abandoned a crippled Unicorn to her own suffering.

She uses her wit and guile to amass a large attack force and launches a surprise attack on Canterlot. Events unfold similarly to how they did in the movie, with the distinct difference that the Storm King isn't around; this is all Tempest's show. She ends up taking Canterlot and subduing the princesses, and expresses some surprise at Luna and Twilight's presence, since she's been gone for the duration of the show and had been under the impression that Cadence and Celestia were the only Alicorns in Equestria.

When Twilight escapes, Tempest doesn't immediately follow, seeing her goal in her sights. But after "thawing" Celestia and the others, she learns through boastful bragging that Twilight and her friends are the Elements of Harmony and have crushed out several would-be usurpers in the short time they've been around. Now seeing them as a threat, Tempest gives chase, hoping to find a way to defeat the elements before they recuperate and strike back.

In the end, rather than capturing Twilight, Tempest nabs the one she perceives to be the weakest of the crew, Fluttershy. This not only gives out little Nutterbutterflutter an actual point in the movie, but also gets to show off her element. When Tempest explains her story through song, Fluttershy expresses dismay at what happened to Tempest. Tempest, who hadn't seen many ponies give a damn about her before this, is taken slightly off guard and shows a moment of weakness, only to think for a moment and decide that it's all a trick to try and get loose. She explodes at Fluttershy before showing her the captured and overrun Canterlot to break her spirit.

Returning to Canterlot, Tempest locks up Fluttershy and begins the ritual to capture Celestia's magic. Twilight and company arrive, breaking Fluttershy out of her cell and defeating the guards... but Tempest expected that. In her chase, she'd seen how capable the Mane 6 was, and expected they'd be able to best her guards. Fluttershy's imprisonment was a distraction to give Tempest some much-needed time to complete the ritual. By the time Twilight and company arrive, the ritual is already half-over. By this point, Tempest is slightly stronger than your average unicorn in terms of magical power, and has all her fancy alchemy and kung-fu as well. On a visual level, I almost imagine her horn still being broken, but there being a kind of ethereal overlay of a normal horn "completing" it, since the ritual isn't over. Big climactic battle, yadda yadda. Defeated and broken, Tempest refuses to return the magic. She is finally whole; she won't go back now.

The Mane 6, however -- with the urging of Fluttershy, who has seen Tempest at her weakest -- show a level of compassion that Tempest hadn't seen before. She is staggered, and with some coaxing, begrudgingly agrees to return the magic. Now back to her normal self, vulnerable and miserable, Tempest goes to leave, but Twilight stops her. She reveals that Celestia had been developing magic dampening technology for a while now (as evident in 2, 4, 6, Greaaaat) and that reversing that technology to create an "artificial horn" to strengthen her weakened and unfocused magic shouldn't be too complex. It would take time -- probably years -- but they could make Tempest whole again. However, Tempest may not accept, coming to see that her own hatred and bitterness had been the real problem, not her damaged horn. Her real goal, deep down, hadn't been to make herself whole, but to instead lash back at the place that had scorned her.

This leads into the last scene of the movie, which plays basically the same as before.

7010205
True. Besides singing and screaming, she didn't talk nearly at all in the entire movie
(Singing in which she only had two solo singing lines in all of the movie songs. At least Applejack and Rarity actually had their own separate section of solo singing lines in "We got this together". )
I'm currently debating whether or not to totally rewrite the movie, and when I do, I'll make sure that Fluttershy, Rarity and Applejack have a much bigger role then they did in the movie. That is an amazing plot for a rewrite of the movie.

7010205
Quite interesting. The early parts are much in line with what I had in mind, but I hadn't imagined using it to focus on Fluttershy. Of course, that would leave Applejack even more left out...

7010663
Yeah, I'd try to find scenes for AJ to shine. I was just focusing on Tempest in this; I think Fluttershy would be a better character to win Tempest over emotionally. Twilight is well-meaning, but Fluttershy is the embodiment of the emotion that Tempest never was given.

7010676
True. But Twilight is the star of the movie... it's a tricky balance.

7010678
So, that means that there'd need to be more emphasis on the return to Canterlot, rather than showing the state Canterlot was in upon arrival there. A panning shot of a smoking Canterlot would be plenty to get the message across. And since Tempest's goal isn't to enslave ponies, we won't need to spend any time on our captured character seeing the horrors of slavery infringing into Equestria. This places focus on the Remaining 5, giving chances for AJ to shine. The time earned from cutting scenes that are now unneeded, such as the "cellphone call" scene with the Storm King, will give more time to spend on the main cast, as well as delve deeper into Tempest's psyche.

7010688
True. Although in that case, what shall be done about the ordinary ponies - in hiding?

And what of Tempest's army? Does she still have one? And what about Grubber?

7010143
If that was the case Equestria would have lost badly. Tempest would not have hesitated, she is not the type to do so. If anything she would have destoryed the Alicorn statues and killed Twilight.

7010689
More than likely, Canterlot would be in a state of high alert; as I said, through guile, wit, and straight up buying mercs, Tempest would be able to amass an attacking force. That force would be occupying Canterlot, aiming to keep out anypony who would hope to reclaim the city until Tempest finishes her ritual. At that point, by their reckoning, they'll have a super-powerful, magic-flinging unicorn for good measure. Also, it's probable to have them still carry the anti-magic shields; we'll say that Tempest discovered the spells/formula to make them in the same tome that the discarded 'restoration' spell was in.

The common ponies would likely be living in a state very akin to Marshal Law; watched over by armed ponies, who will crush out any resistance with swift retaliation. They would be terrified; their ruler was defeated and the Elements have vanished. Hope is still there, but it's dwindling as more and more time passes.

Grubber... He could still be one of Tempest's lackeys, but... eh.

7010699
Eh, that depends on her motivations. If death and chaos is her goal, then yeah, maybe. If ruling is her goal, also maybe. But if her goal is still "to become whole" then she wouldn't really have a reason to kill the Princesses...

7010699
Depends on her goals, doesn't it?

7010700
Could be.

I actually had an idea that if Twilight and co were able to get through to Tempest, then Grubber might betray her and become the final boss, allowing her to sacrifice herself as per canon.

7010702

7010704

It's more the fact I doubt she would leave loose ends untied, she seems to an incredibly competent individual who would not allow an enemy as resourceful as Twilight to live nore would she leave the others in case they were freed. Discord could help but aside from that they would be in a bad way.

7010707
If she wants the power of the alicorns like the Storm King did, then she needs them alive.

7010710
What I meant was she drains their power then kills them, no reason to leave loose ends.

7010727
Once she has all the power, what threat can they be? If they even survive the process, that is.

Of course, I didn't plan on her getting that far.

7010704
I don't know, Grubber was a comedy relief throwaway character... And self-sacrifice is all well and good, but rather than that, showing her break down emotionally and rage against the facts laid before her would be a moment of character development that the movie lacked. Basically, it crammed all that development into her self-sacrifice. I'd personally like to see her battle those demons; like Sunset Shimmer's eventual moment of catharsis, but with more buildup and less... bad writing.

7011074
I think there's room for both. And if we develop his role and their relationship, he's no longer throwaway, is he?

7011078
Fair point. I'd like to see Grubber become something more than an annoying joke.

7011110
He's clearly meant to be the Spike to her Twilight - the closest thing each other has to a friend. If he was her most loyal follower, then seeing her seemingly reject her grand plans by giving in to the weakness in her heart would feel like a deep betrayal.

7011116
My only problem with that is this: Twilight has just made friends with Tempest, so would she be willing to harm the friend of her new friend? And would Tempest be willing to hurt the only creature to ever give a single damn about her up till now? It'd be a moral conundrum that I don't think either of them would be able to easily overcome.

But I do like the idea of Grubber trying to get Alicorn magic. It's giving off a real "Scrappy Doo from the Scooby Doo Movie" vibe, and that twist was hilarious enough for me to not hate that movie entirely.

7011121
I think perhaps Twilight might hesitate and put herself in danger, and then Tempest might act to protect her new friend. But I'm not sure of the details.

7011137
It would be an interesting situation; a tearful Tempest demanding Grubber stop, while he ignores her and continues to drain magic in the hopes of becoming stronger. He attacks Twilight and Tempest moves in, blocking the strike with one of her anti-magic shields (she'd have one in the fight against Twilight; she isn't stupid. She knows Twilight is waaay more powerful than her.) Tears blurring her vision, she'd demand he stop, trying to use her role as his leader instead of his friend now.

Grubber laughs, saying that he'll be stronger than her, once this is over. Tempest, being practical and rational, knows he's right. She knows nopony else will be able to beat Grubber easily. So, rather than waiting to find out if it was possible, she'd deal the last blow to Grubber before he finishes, ala the movie's climax.

7010729
Tempest likely would have done research on the enemy first and knows how many past conqurers lost by letting the heroes live. Also considering how quickly Tempest was able to take out three Alicorns without too much trouble. Not to mention she was powerful enough to counteract up to four Alicorns worth of power.

7011326
Yeah, but the movie isn't going to end with the bad girl winning and l=killing the show's lead.

7011337
I believe that's why they put the Storm King in there, they couldn't find a convincing way to make Tempest lose without it feeling forced.

7011377
In the end she's just a unicorn with half a horn - it's her beating three alicorns that's the forced part.

7011382
Tempest is a very interesting unicorn, first off she is massive. She is a full head over Twilight, also she rose to Commander under the service of a ruthless tyrant. It's possible she grew so strong because she was pushed in an incredibly harsh environment. Eqeustria has known one thousand years of peace, Tempest has been raised in war and conflict.

7011428
Her strength - and also her weakness.

7011437
It might be posisble Unicorns have tremendous potential whne purt under great hardship. Something the Princesses have tried to avoid, I mean Tempest is hardly the first Op unicorn Starlight could fit into this category to a lesser degree.