Grubber, the little round hedgehog creature with a white mohawk, sat on the edge of a balcony at Canterlot Castle, stuffing himself with cake. His old boss, the Storm King, was dead, so now there was no one to interrupt him from filling his maw with as many sweets as he wanted. No one except...
"Grubber!" a familiar female voice called out.
Grubber turned behind him, his mouth full of cake, as he saw his other boss, Tempest, a fierce looking purple unicorn with a scarred eye and broken horn staring down at him.
"Ohmmm...hi Temmmmpest..." Grubber spoke with his mouth full, "Sorrmmm...'boutmm...theth...Storm King...anmmm...yourth...horn..."
Grubber finally gulped down the rest of his cake as Tempest sneered at him, her chipped horn sparking a bright blue. Grubber cringed, thinking she was going to zap him but instead Tempest just frowned and sighed.
"My name's not actually Tempest." she admitted, cracking a smile, "It's Fizzlepop Berrytwist."
Grubber snorted and giggled.
"Thath funny cause you're all bad an' scary buth your name'th all cuddly and goofy and you'th changed it cause..." he rambled.
"There's something I need to tell you." Tempest (Fizzlepop) spoke up, "I wanted to apologize."
"Apolo'thgize for what?" Grubber asked.
"For how I mistreated you." Tempest explained, "You're the closest thing I've had to a friend for years and all I've done was push you around or zap you."
"Yeahth, you liked to use that chipped tooth horn thingy alot." Grubber agreed, "But you know, ith cool. Want some cake? Ith got gourmet icning."
"There's something else...I wanted to tell you." Tempest continued as she trotted forward.
Grubber wondered for a brief moment if this was a trick so she could zap him again but instead he felt her two front hoofs wrap around his stubby body and tear drops fall on his head.
"Ith it raining?" he wondered, "No, you're crying. You started crying, now'th I'm gonna start crying, and ith gonna be awkward."
Grubber did indeed start crying as the two former lackeys wept into each other's fur.
"I'm so sorry..." Tempest whispered, "I love you, Grubber."
"Waith, what?" Grubber asked right before Tempest kissed him right on the lips.
Tempest hugged Grubber even tigher and they locked lips for several minutes.
"You've got icning on your mouth." Tempest noted, licking her lips, "Strawberry flavored."
"Noth bad, huh?" Grubber said, still blushing.
Without warning, Tempest's horn sparked up and shot an energy bolt into the sky that disappated into a heart shaped firework.
"Whoah...pretty..." Grubber noted, "So you werth serious?"
"I...guess so..." Tempest said, surprised at her own reaction.
"So thath means we're gonna have some pretty weird lookin' babieth huh?" Grubber remarked.
*****************************
Two years had passed since the defeat of the Storm King. Life had gone back to what passed for normal in Equestria. Only two new megalomanical overlords had attacked and maybe some old throwback villains for good measure. The now legendary six friends known as the Elements of Harmony, but usually called the Mane Six, were on their way to visit some old friends.
The six ponies arrived at a small cottage near the edge of the Everfree Forest. One of them, Rarity, spoke up.
"How quaint." she remarked.
"Now don't go gettin' all hoity-toity on 'em." Applejack scolded, "We jus' got here."
Applejack walked up to the door of the cottage and knocked. The door swung open and she was greeted by Grubber, now even more rotund than usual.
"Welthcome everypony!" he said cheerily, "Pleath come inside."
Grubber waddled inside as the six ponies followed him, Pinkie in particular bouncing up and down as usual. The pony formerly known as Tempest (looking a bit rotund herself) was huddled on the floor playing with her two children.
"Oh there you all are." Tempest/Fizzlepop announced, "I'd like you to meet my little ones. This is my daughter Sodapop Eggcreamfizz and Storm Shadow."
Sodapop Eggcreamfizz was a purple hoglet creature, sharing her mother's purple coat and even a horn, despite not being a pony. Storm Shadow was an earth pony colt with a white coat and grey mane, the reverse of his father. He did not yet have a cutie mark.
"Those are some mighty weird lookin' youngins, and weird names." Applejack whispered to Rarity.
"Now who's being hoity-toity?" Rarity whispered back.
"Magic fight!" Sodapop shouted, suddently zapping Twilight Sparkle with little bursts of energy from her horn.
"Hey! That hurts! Cut it out!" Twilight yelped.
"Sodapop!" Tempest chided, "Stop that this instant!"
"But Mommy, I wanna magic fight!" Sodapop insisted.
"Now, Sodapop!" Tempest ordered, stomping the floor with her hoof.
"Okay Mommy." Sodapop replied.
"Look Mommy! I'm a ninja!" Storm Shadow shouted, kicking Rarity's shin for no reason.
"You little ruffian!" Rarity couldn't help but say.
"Sthorm Shadow!" Grubber scolded, "Go thit in tha corner!"
"Sorry, Daddy." Storm Shadow said as he trotted to the corner.
"Why'd ya name 'im Storm Shadow?" Pinkie spoke up, "Cause that sounds a whole lot like 'Storm King' and 'Tempest Shadow' put together and I thought you guys were good guys now."
"So what have you all been up to?" Twilight asks.
"We're shippers." Tempest replied.
"Well duh!" Pinkie said, "That's why you got married."
"Noth that kind of shipper." Grubber corrected, "We work for Capthain Celaeno's delivery company."
"Ohhhh...." Pinkie replied, "So you work for the pirate parrots who rescued us from you guys and then you blew up their ship and then they helped us again and we all lived happily ever after?"
"Pretty much." Tempest remarked.
"You know what'd be so awesome?" Rainbow Dash spoke up, "Rainbows! Rainbows everywhere!"
"Like painting the room rainbow colors?" Tempest asked.
"No, I mean literal rainbows!" Rainbow Dash continued, "Rainbows over here! Rainbows over there! Rainbows everywhere!"
"Ah don't think they're too interested, sugarcube." Applejack advised.
"But that's just so unrainbow!" Dash complained.
"So what made you decide to live so close to Everfree?" Fluttershy asked.
"Regular pony kids don't parthicularly like our freakish hybrid chilthren." Grubber explained.
"That's so sad." Fluttershy said.
"Really, Pinkie?" Twilight scoffed, shaking her head.
"Ith fine." Grubber explained, "Ith not like I sthill like the Storm King or anything, ith's just that 'Storm Sthadow' sthounds so cool when you say it!"
"So now you know." Tempest remarked.
"And knowing ith half the batthle!" Grubber concluded.
"G.I. JOE!!" everypony shouted.
