My very first one-shot.

Gosh, it certainly has felt like forever since I made it. It wasn’t the first fanfic for MLP that I made and posted (that credit goes to From Repair to Despair, which I’ll be commenting on how that story came to be later), but this story was definitely my first one-shot and second story overall.

But anyway, I made this story in part because it became one out of many that I was inspired to make after seeing the MLP Movie.

From the time I first saw it, I found myself taking an extremely huge notice on the Storm King, the main antagonist of the film. I absolutely loved the personality and sense of humor he had, as well as the awesome performance Liev Schreiber gave. However, like many others, I didn’t feel satisfied by the lack of screentime and development he had, and it wasn’t just that either...I felt bothered by the fact that he was constantly getting overshadowed by Tempest Shadow, and how much notice fans gave her compared to the Storm King.

Several seem to interpret him as an overgrown man child looking for his toy in order to takeover the world, but that wasn’t how I interpreted him. My view of the Storm King...is that he’s the most evil and ruthless villain of MLP yet, and that his intentions weren’t to takeover the world...but to destroy it...by causing death and destruction everywhere he went, until finally, there would be no more life. He does it because he deeply enjoys murdering countless lives and destroying everything he sees without a care, to cause the world to burn and recreate everything in his own image.

This photo down here would be the one to illustrate precisely what I find to be what the Storm King wanted to do:

I became dissatisfied with the amount of negative feedback he got from fans and how people have been constantly interpreting him as something he isn’t.

I became surprised that Hasbro itself didn’t bother giving him a scene that detailed his arrival in Canterlot, as well as the lack of fanfics that the character had gotten compared to Tempest.

But that’s when it hit me.

What if I made a story about him?

One that could give us the opportunity to explore and understand him more, as well as be the one thing that not even Hasbro itself did?

And so I did.

Even though his time on the screen was short, I felt like I completely understood who he is as a character and what his intentions were.

Because of his lack of screen time, as well as his only other major appearances being in some prequel comics for the film, I took inspiration from several villains that I found are just like and have a lot in common with the Storm King, examples including Hades (Disney’s Hercules), Kai (Kung Fu Panda 3), and Ultron (Avengers: Age of Ultron).

He proved himself to be really fun for me to work with, and even today, I found my story to be so good and true, it’s actually canon.

I wanted to make my story like a villain introduction, as well as like a scene where the villain shows who he is and what his intentions are. So, in preparation for that, I watched several clips from movies and tv shows where a villain gets introduced, and where audiences can get to know him or her more and get who he is.

My only hope is that people will enjoy my story after reading it and that it can inspire others when it comes to making stories about the Storm King & how he can be viewed as a villain.

Has anyone ever wondered what my inspirations for how I often view the Storm King are? As well as for how to approach “A King’s Grand Entrance” and what to model it after?

Well, that’s why I made this post. To show you guys what one of my inspirations is.

Take a look:

The reason this video inspires me is because, among other things, I always thought that the Storm King was like that of a crime lord, the terrorist and businessman-type. A killer as well. And here, Michael Clarke Duncan’s Kingpin inspired me, because he too represents that type of villain, and he too has a very smooth and calm sort of personality, with a dark sense of humor on the side. I have a feeling that Liev Schreiber’s Kingpin is going to inspire me on this as well. This clip (despite having not seen the whole Director’s Cut of this film yet) was also one of my inspirations for my story, because I wanted to make it like a villain introduction, where we could also explore him some.

When I saw the early release of “Daring Doubt” via a website months ago, I found myself having mixed feelings concerning it. Over time, though...my feelings for the episode went from mixed to negative. Especially to where it became one of my least favorite episodes.

The ending in particular was something that I found to be really baffling among others. Ahuizotl’s reformation, and what he revealed after touching the Talisman of Tonatiuh, was an element that I didn’t think made sense at all. It seemed to be awfully contradictory to his previous portrayals and intentions, where he was clearly a villain who intended to cause destruction for some reason or another.

I had no idea how the story fit into the canon of the show, and something in my gut was even telling me that he wasn’t being truthful to begin with.

And then it hit me.

An idea lodged itself in my head saying “Why not make a story that centers on Ahuizotl and takes place after “Daring Doubt”? To see if he was being truthful or not?”

And so that’s what I did. I started it right after the early releasing of the episode in order to get an early start and post the story before the series’s conclusion. It took a long time, as well as tons of concentration, thought, and effort, but I found it to be something worth working on.

Inspiration for Ahuizotl’s dimensionalism, portrayal, intentions, and backstory included that of Thanos in the MCU, and the story itself was inspired by the true revealings of Mysterio in Spider Man: Far From Home. As the story evolved and I worked on the character more, I also found myself modeling the character after that of environmental extremists, particularly ones who believe that humans are lower than every other element of creation and must be destroyed. Making him an idealist was also what I was inspired to do.

If my hunch is right, there are people who have a certain idea or vision of what it is that can help the world be better. People who envision what they think can create harmony and order even if it includes doing the most despicable of things.

Also, one thing that everyone, and I mean everyone, has in common is this: They want to prove that they’re right and all who doubted them are wrong. There’s an arrogance in each of us that says our ideas and visions are better than others, and if we’re not careful...that arrogance becomes us.

At times, I couldn’t help but find myself feeling pained by carrying Fluttershy’s efforts of kindness to Ahuizotl into this, but yet...I couldn’t ignore that this was reality. Not everyone who is evil can ever be redeemed.

Unlike my previous stories, I decided to tell my fanfic in the past tense, seeing that there was no reason not to and because I wanted to give that a shot.