Tempest stared down at her map of Equestria. Spending the past few months researching tactics for conquering Equestria proved more difficult than initially thought.Her desk was scattered with maps, books, references, and chunks of obsidian. When they would finally land, the violet unicorn demanded that her invasion go as smoothly as possible.
The first idea she’d considered was to bring in the Storm Creatures and just brute force the kingdom into submission. That was of course until Grubber had relayed some startling intel regarding the powerful magic that the princesses of Equestria possessed. Such a frontal assault would surely be met with a barrage of spells and incantations that could render her army useless.
“Such power,” Tempest whispered to herself, staring out into the black storm clouds that surrounded her airship. “If only my horn were whole, I wouldn’t be in such a shameful position.” Relying on the Storm King to fix her horn placed her in a difficult position. But what choice did she have?
Tempest sat back, scratching her head. Taking in a deep breath, she allowed her gaze to drift away from her books and over to the wooden staff that leaned against the corner. The Staff of Sacanas had been a lucky find. It’d taken months of preparation and searching. Discerning its location via the lost journals of Scorpan and then acquiring the Storm King’s permission to actually retrieve the staff from its resting place had taken so much out of the pony. Of course, when she’d found it, the staff was void of any power; a decoration at best.
“You’d better not be wasting my time Tempest. If this stick turns out to be a dud, then my fury will rain down upon your dinky little airship.” The Storm King had warned her.
With the staff now in her possession, Tempest was to return it to the king immediately for inspection.
Letting out a sigh, Tempest trotted over to the staff and hopelessly attempted to revive it with a spark from her magic. The bolt struck the crystal atop the staff. It glowed and sputtered, bringing forth some hope that maybe it had worked. Tempest stepped back, watching the artifact glow and rise up into the air. Just as quickly as it did so, the magic burst from the crystal and shot out at one of the unicorn’s books.
Tempest watched in disgust as one of her reference books burned to ash. “Of course. It’ll take much more powerful magic for this thing to work.” If she could just sap the magic from the four princesses of Equestria, then the staff would be a worthy prize for the Storm King. “But how? How do I get those princesses together?”
A sudden knock on the door to her quarters pulled the unicorn from her thoughts. She turned around as Grubber opened up and peeked his head in. “H-Hey Tempest! What’s up? All ready for your meeting with the great Storm King?”
His voice filled with that sarcastic excitement that at least brought some comfort to Tempest. While Grubber was nothing more than her underling, he at least sympathized with her on some things. For that much, she was grateful.
“Of course. I anticipate his disappointment at the staff’s lack of functionality, but I do know how to make the thing work.”
Grubber chuckled and said, “Good. Because I’d hate to be the one to tell him you brought back a broken stick. The little monster laughed as he said, “that would not be a conversation I’d want to have with him, if you know what I mean.”
Tempest narrowed her eyes at the underling. “Is there a reason you interrupted by work?”
Seeing Tempest was losing patience, Grubber hurriedly said, “Yes of course! I didn’t mean to disturb you but . . . well I’d been hanging out with the guys today and we’ve . . .”
“The guys?” Tempest asked, approaching the hedgehog, her temper already flaring. “You’re supposed to be out in Equestria, gathering me information for our eventual attack. And you’re hanging out with a bunch of Storm Creatures instead?!”
“No, I was doing both. I swear.” Grubber said, and opening the door, he beckoned Tempest to follow. “It’s just that . . . you’ve been so tense lately. And that is not good for one’s health, or posture at that.”
“Grubber. What do you want?”
“Just come out onto the deck of the ship. Please Tempest.”
Rolling her eyes, Tempest said, “Fine.” And followed the hedgehog out of her quarters and up onto the deck of her airship. “This had better be good.”
“Oh, it will be! I promise!” and leading Tempest up to the deck, he stepped aside to let the unicorn out onto the deck. With a flick of the lights and an explosion of streamers, a bunch of Storm Creatures jumped out from behind cargo boxes with party hats and Grubber shouted, “Happy Birthday!”
Tempest’s eyes opened up wide as she looked around, spotting the streamers, the cake, a table of neatly wrapped gifts. The most offending thing to her eyes was a large, colorful banner that read, “Happy Birthday Fizzlepop Berrytwist!”
“What is all this?” Tempest asked, stepping around, bewildered by her underling’s actions. Her breathing growing heavy as she realized her soldiers must’ve wasted their entire day on this when the meeting with the Storm King was now only hours away.
“Well, you know, you’ve been working so hard. And we haven’t had cake in a while. When I saw it was your birthday, I just decided to . . .”
“You decided to use my birthday as an excuse to slack off and satisfy your sweet tooth! You hung up a banner showcasing a name that I DO NOT go by anymore!” Tempest snarled at Grubber, her body shaking as she struggled to keep her cool.
Grubber, immediately seeing his mistake, thrust his hands out in a veined attempt to calm down the unicorn. “Well it just seemed weird using your new name. And besides, the cake we got fits so much better with your original name than with Tempest Shadow. I mean, what kind of cake do you get for a pony named, Tempest Shadow anyways?”
Somewhere in Tempest’s head, a vein popped and she shot a bolt of electrified magic at the hedgehog, frying him. “I do not want a birthday party, or birthday cake, or birthday presents! If you want to do something for me, then do your job and get me more information on Equestria.” With that Tempest fired her magic at the party, shredding the banner, overturning the table of gifts, and exploding the cake which sent pink and purple frosting everywhere. She turned her magical fury towards the group of Storm Creatures who’d been encouraging the buffoon’s behavior and when they backed off, Tempest Shadow finally regained composure.
Looking from Grubber to the other soldiers on board, Tempest saw their terrified faces. Satisfied that she’d made her point, the unicorn turned back to return to her quarters. “Now get back to work, all of you. This is not the time for celebration.”
Tempest slammed the door shut to her room and smashed her head against the table. How could anyone celebrate at a time like this? Surely, they couldn’t have been serious. Grubber above all, should’ve known better than to use her real name like that. Just what the hell was he thinking?
Taking in a deep breath, Tempest collected herself and stared back down at her books and maps. At the end of the day, it didn’t matter. None of it mattered.
But just as Tempest opened up one of her books, a knock came to her door. Before the pony could tell her minion to “go the hell away”, he entered anyway with a small plate of collapsed cake and a flattened, half torn gift.
“You may not want to celebrate your birthday. But we do.” He said. His voice quivered from Tempest’s little tantrum just seconds before.Before Grubber left, he looked to Tempest a bit disheartened and said, “I wasn’t slacking either Tempest. Your cake came from Equestria, along with that gift. Enjoy.” And then the hedgehog was gone.
The unicorn rolled her eyes and eventually trotted over to the door where the cake rested along with her gift. Leaning down, she tasted the cake. Not bad. She thought to herself, tasting strawberry, raspberry, and a hint of blueberry maybe? An interesting combination that warmed her tongue and sprinkled her lips with frosting. She found herself licking it off her face, thoroughly enjoying it.
Turning to the gift, Tempest carefully inspected it, wondering what kind of useless trinket Grubber could’ve picked up. Tearing away the wrapping paper, she stepped back and gasped at its contents. Inside the box was nothing more than a piece of paper. It was flier for the first ever Friendship Festival to be held in Canterlot. “Join the four princesses of Equestria for a magical time with special guest Songbird Serenade.”
Tempest read over the rest of the flier. Her smile grew. This was it. This was exactly what she needed for her plan to work. “All the princesses in one convenient location.”
Opening the door to her quarters, Tempest called out for her underling. “Grubber! Where are you?”
The hedgehog waddled up to her nervously. Sweat dripped down his face as he quickly looked up to her. “Yes T-Tempest? What is it?”
Shoving the empty plate into his hand, the unicorn said, “I’d like more cake please. And if you have time, the rest of my gifts.”
Grubber’s look of astonishment transformed into a great big smile and he said, “Y-Yes! Right away Tempest!” and the unicorn watched the runt dash off out of sight, shouting for the Storm Creatures not to eat all the cake.
Tempest shook her head and chuckled. “Might as well celebrate. Now that we have a plan.” She said, and Tempest Shadow “partied” the night away, eating cake and quietly opening up birthday presents on her airship, on her birthday.
The End