Image imported from derpibooru 
Original Description:
 
UPDATE: I made some major changes to the Storm King and his forces. While coming across a scale comparison concept art of the Storm Army, I discovered that the hue (color) for the eyes and symbol were off by 6 digits, so now they should be more blue now. Also, the concept art allowed me to give the Storm Creatures their correct color scheme. I am also planning on posting a duplicate of this pic with the Storm King flashing an evil smile on Derpibooru, and perhaps the change the design of the legs and tail as from his shadowy silhouette from What Lies Beneath.)
 
“Ponies of Equestria, we come on behalf of the fearsome, the powerful, the almighty…Storm King!”
 
Before the Twilight Sparkle ascended the throne, Equestria was still a beautiful and peaceful kingdom ruled by her wise mentor, Princess Celestia, and her sister, Luna. While Celestia groomed Twilight to be a leader, knowing her destiny to bring harmony throughout the world, friendship and harmony were already the cherished principles of the pony prinicipality. However, in other parts of the world of My Little Pony, non-pony creatures lived incredibly different lives. Griffonstone, the home of Equestria’s long-time allies, the Griffons, fell on evil days since the loss of their beloved treasure, the Idol of Boreas, and the death of King Grover, becoming greedy and egotistical. Before Ember’s reign, her father, Torch, ruled as Dragonlord, showing cruelty and oppression to all his fellow Dragons. Under the dominion of the wicked Queen Chrysalis, the Changelings were once a swarm of hideous flylike monsters attacking lands and stealing love from other creatures, and Equestria was their most coveted kingdom. The Yaks lived in isolation in Yakyakistan, while the Kirin stripped themselves of their voices and emotions in order to prevent themselves from turning into the fiery niriks and destory their forest home. The Hippogriffs lived a peaceful life on their island home to the far south of the world, ruled under the grace of Queen Novo and her daughter, Princess Skystar. There is also the pleasant kingdom of Abyssinia, which is the home to large sapient cats. Elsewhere, in the middle of the Bone Dry Desert, there is the crooked settlement of Klugetown, which teems with strange, greedy creatures who would sell, trade, or steal anything they had or got their appendages on for a profit (even capturing and selling passersby as slaves, pets, or any sort of commodity), with the rat boss, Verko, running the town with revolting rapacity. In the forested edge of Equestria’s southern borders lies the territory of the Arimaspi, the giant one-eyed satyrs who when not attacking Griffonstone for riches would spend their days in their mountain fortress, while in a lost kingdom, one of the two sons of King Vorak, the gargoyle Scorpan rules as the current monarch while his evil centaur brother Tirek languishes in the pits of Tartarus for his crimes in stealing magic from the ponies a thousand moons ago. And the swamp at the southern tip of the continent houses great mud trolls, who are known for their sarcastic humor (as well as their messy hairs, if moss, sticks and mud count as hair).
 
But to the farthest south of this world stands a lone island near the Great Iceberg Barrier (MLP’s equivalent of Antarctica). It is a mysterious, gloomy, and terrifying realm where ominous mountains jutted out from the barren isle, while a raging sea storm engulfs the peaks and the coasts mercilessly buffeted by ferocious ocean swells, devouring the shoreline and leaving behind sheer cliffs, perilous promontories and escarpments. The only inhabitants of this no pony’s land is a tribe of hardened warrior beasts, which everycreature to this day know all to well as the fearsome Storm Creatures. These beasts are clad with white fur, wearing darkened armor, armed with sharp claws and great strength, and donning frightening tribal masks with soul-piercing blue eyes peering out. They would come in many different shapes and sizes, some being bigger than elephants and others as small as ponies. While most of these beast look like a hybrid of pantherines and primates, there were some that have very unique forms. One creature by the name of Grubber looks like a hedgehog, in fact he is often mistaken for one, and his face looks like a mix of a pug and a hyena’s. There was said to be a general that bore more similarities with the standard Storm Creatures, but had cloven hooves, a monkeylike tail, pointed ears, and his primate face didn’t always don a mask. This character was named Klavis, and was said to take part in leading the charge against more powerful nations. Whatever forms these creatures take, they share the following features: a white woolly coat, dark grey skin and/or fur, three fingers, and blue eyes. While all of the Storm Creatures wear tribal masks, there are some in ranks that don more intimidating yet functional variations. Bigger troops, which would serve as tanks for the army, would wear masks with mammoth-like tusks. These features inspired fear and probably did worst. The armor the creatures wear is probably crafted from metal found in meteors, some of which had properties that cancelled out magic; anti-magic metal. This metal would be used for beasts’ other creations, such as for their military forks and shields. Despite living an isolated life on their island, they demonstrated industrial skills, from metalsmithing to building massive airships. Although not as advanced as the humans from the Equestria Girls World, the Storm Creatures are able to create devices that are foreign to the ponies, such as a foldable loudspeaker. But they did use magical objects as well, from obsidian orbs when shattered, release a green mist that petrifies anyone exposed to it, to a potion-based spell used to communicate with others. At the heart of this treacherous isle is creatures’ settlement: a great black castle, dark and forbidding with its windows and doorways shining an eerie blue, lightning dancing along its jagged spire-like turrets, silhouetted against the stormy sky. However, it is said that this grim-looking fortress was built in command by a leader who would desire to “take up resident” in lands beyond the ill-boding island.
 
At first living a simple but hard life on their inhospitable island home, the Storm Creatures began to travel to other realms… and conquer them. And leading them was a monster whose name would forever strike fear in the hearts of many - The Storm King! This terrible beast was a purely evil, power-hungry overlord who desired nothing more but to possess power and subjugate all nations and creatures. He had the telltale white coat of fur and icy blue eyes his kinscreatures share, wore jet black armor, and looked like a giant monkey with a tapering tail and nasty tusks. He even towered over his huge minions. Many would’ve mistaken him for a yeti at first glance, and some thought he was a satyr due to his black-horned crown and hoofed feet. But what made this conqueror and destroyer of kingdoms feared was his shifting mood swings. He could be pleasant and cheerful one moment, sardonic and petulant the next, and then he would be cold and ruthless. These unpredictable shifts in demeanor would leave even his fearless warriors trembling. The notorious Storm King spent the past several years launching unexpected invasions on distant lands, expanding a great empire where all were his slaves. Among the nations he conquered were Abyssinia, Klugetown, Zorgorath, the bird nation of Ornithia, and many more. Hippogriffia was also assaulted by this tyrant, but Queen Novo and the Hippogriffs escaped enslavement by using their magic pearl to turn into sea-ponies. Although he lacked magic like many enemies of Equestria, such as Tirek, King Sombra, Queen Chrysalis, and Grogar, the Storm King was very powerful and successfully conquered the lands south of the pony nation with his armada of airships and army of creatures. The smallest member of the horde, Grubber, was not as powerful, mean, and scary as his fellow Storm Creatures, but he did earn his place of honor as the assistant to the nefarious Storm King through his wise-cracking and cunning (and possibly whipping boy if things didn’t go his master’s way and desired to punish somecreature). It was said that the Storm King used to have a second-in-command before a certain pony came along. Who this was is a mystery, but some Abyssinians recalled seeing the Storm King accompanied by a ghastly specter shaped like a storm cloud with long, three-fingered arms and a face contorted like the Storm Creatures’ masks with the same blue eyes, and going by the name of Strife.
 
Despite his title, the Storm King seemed to have no interest in “ruling” anyone. Instead, he preferred to terrorize, pillage and destroy any civilization he came across, as well as collect magical items in the hopes to empower himself. Perhaps his most defining trait was his absolute hatred for the concept of friendship. He believed it was a liability and that friends were potential traitors, and would only hold him back from true power, thus without them, he believed he had no competition for his focus. At the same time, he saw his followers only as servants and agents of his will. Since the Storm Creatures lived a difficult life, it is likely that a Social Darwinism contributed to the Storm King’s egotistical, “every creature for themself” philosophy. It is clear that he desired for only two things: power and control. To have total control of every land, every creature, every treasure and every power, even the power to control the elements of reality itself. What would drive this overlord to desire only to assert himself and have control over all more than to rule seems unusual and yet terrifying. Perhaps he secretly lacked a sense of central confidence in himself, and probably sought to acquire it by taking control away from others. Whatever the reason, this evil, iron-fisted, friendship-hating beast would not rest until he possessed the one object of power that would truly make him the Storm King and make the entire world to bow to his ba-ba-ba-boom, baby!
 

 
Okay, that was quite a discussion and a theory to boot. This was something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time now. Have one of my most favorite MLP:FIM villains with his minions. I especially wanted to see him with Grubber. At first, I thought finding good references for the Storm Creatures would be impossible, but I got lucky when I found a scene featuring them in Klugetown. As you’ll notice, the creature on the left has tilted his head. I wanted to bring a little life so to speak. Making the vectors of them wasn’t a pain, and I’m really glad how they turned out. After seeing a size comparison between the Storm King and his beasts silhouette against the cavern walls in What Lies Beneath, I like how he towers over them. He is their king after all, and it seems in MLP royals must be bigger than their subjects. But those weren’t just my first Storm Creature vectors, there is also my first Grubber vector. At first, I thought I could find a good reference of him, but ironically I was quite the reverse. Eventually, I decided to improvise. I used his debut scene when he set up his loudspeaker, and gave him his open mouth when he’s shouting into it. The gradient in his paws and tails were easy, but I got sloppy at first with the pink in his ears. Feathering doesn’t work, just use a radial gradient. So Grubber was a pain to make. After comparing him to Tempest Shadow, and comparing her to the Storm King in size, I believe this is the accurate height for the “hedgehog.” The stormy background was definitely perfect, and I added the storm symbol for good measure.
 
Now, I do want to point out that this was how I discovered I got the Storm King’s coat color wrong. His white fur was too bright. When I went to MLP Wikia to be sure, there was my confirmation, and with it my burden of re-doing my vectors of him. His coat’s not the EXACT color of his soldiers, but at least it doesn’t have him standout too much.
 
(If you noticed in the story detailing the reason behind the Storm King’s desire for power and control, I’m going to discuss more about that in my next vector of him, and tag a very special guest who theorized this insight. It might explain everything about the power-hungry beast ;) (Wink).)
 
Storm King, Grubber, Storm Creatures, and Storm Symbol by me
 
Traced from My Little Pony the Movie
 
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic created by Lauren Faust and owned by Hasbro
 
Now before I end this discussion, for those who are curious about Tempest Shadow’s absence. Here’s the sitch: I didn’t include her because I want this to be more about the beasts, and Tempest wasn’t really part of them, just a last minute recruit. Consider this to take place before she joins. I would say this though, if Gameloft included him into game and with a show-style design of him, I would’ve included the Storm King’s original lieutenant, Strife too. Oh well.
 
With that said, Let’s whip up a storm!