Hurricane Trinity

by Lovesick-Ded


Treacherous

HURRICANE TRINITY

An MLP Extended-Universe Story

Written by M.J. Hopper

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Storm.

“That’s…not my name…”

Prince Stormbreaker finally came to his senses, and the darkness around him faded as he forced his eyes to open and take in the current situation. He had remembered, at the very least, being in a different room before he had passed out; a much darker one…but now, the daylight filtered freely through an open window and there were soft noises in the air; murmurs and chatter, for the most part. The younger prince was lying down on his back, and he very quickly realized, from the scent alone, that he was in the infirmary. Anxiety immediately struck the yeti-goat and he attempted to bolt upright but failed, as a strong jolt of pain shot through his skull; groaning, he collapsed back down upon the cot, rubbing at his temple with one hand.

“Careful, Stormy.” A familiar hoof reached out, placing itself atop said hand. “You suffered a bit of a concussion back there. It’s honestly a miracle your back didn’t snap itself in half when you hit that pillar; good gods…” Gallyen’s voice broke for a moment. “I…I was so worried...”

“I…hit a pillar…?” Stormbreaker was still trying to make sense of what had transpired before he had passed out; he had managed to remember very little so far which was quite frankly not rare. Gallyen knew quite well that amnesia was a side-effect of head trauma, and merely nodded in response.

“It was during your Catalyst ceremony, last night. Father instructed you to touch the Staff of Trinity shortly after you received your bell catalyst…do you remember anything, anything at all, that happened around that time?” The older goat was urging him drastically to recollect his thoughts, it seemed; for what reason, the yeti-goat prince did not know, but he struggled with his memory regardless.

“I, uh…” He struggled to piece together what had happened prior to his passing out as best as he could; eventually something clicked and his eyes widened a bit. He looked over toward Gallyen, forcing himself upright on his elbows. “G-Gallyen…wait. There was…I remember something.” He shut his eyes for a moment and exhaled before looking up again. “Wh-when you had your ceremony, and had to touch the Staff yourself…did you…”

He bit his lip slightly and looked to the side. “Did you…SEE anything?”

Gallyen’s ears pricked a bit, and now it was his turn to look awkwardly confused; he shook his head in response. “No, Stormy…in fact, my ceremony never involved touching the Staff in the first place. It was held in the Palace Gardens due to my affinity with holy magic, because apparently the springs there are imbued with that type of energy.” He sighed heavily. “I don’t really understand why Father implored you to touch the Staff, either, to be entirely honest. The last goat to ever touch the Staff at all was Father himself, and that was years ago apparently. Due to the raw power it emits, it is highly dangerous to wield, so it’s rare that Father allows anyone to even go near it.”

Stormbreaker eyed his older brother in utter befuddlement, but, at the same time there was a trace of fear in his eyes; something wasn’t right. “Wh…what…?”

The elder goat shook his head. “I…I don’t understand either, like I said. Father never really explained to either me nor Mother what his intentions behind it were. All I know is that he must have seen something in you that encouraged this course of action…but what that is, I really do not know.” There was a brief moment of silence before Gallyen eyed Stormbreaker with a hint of curiosity. “By the way…you said something before…something about ‘did you see anything.’ Did you…have some kind of vision when you touched it, or something?”

“Uh…” The young yeti-goat could feel beads of sweat forming upon his brow from the sudden pang of anxiety that struck him; he was attempting to recall the images he had seen, the words he had heard, to photographic perfection, but it was impossible at this point. Everything had gone by so quickly that he had no time to recollect or even think upon what he had seen or what it ultimately meant. He shook his head. “N-no. If I did see something, I don’t remember it…at least not entirely.”

Gallyen raised an eyebrow. “So…you DID see something? Or no?”

“Could you STOP?” Stormbreaker snapped back at him irritably before realizing what he had just done, and was immediately apologetic. “Sorry, Gallyen…ugh. I…yes, I did see something, but like I said, I don’t remember what exactly it entailed. It went by way too fast for me to get a grasp on it.”

Something seemed to flicker in the elder goat’s eyes, although it was very faint and disappeared just as quickly as it came. Before Stormbreaker could utter a word about this, Gallyen had risen to his hooves, and was trotting toward one of the nearby windows, seemingly interested in what was outside. The yeti-goat tilted his head slightly, before attempting to struggle onto his own feet and plod over to where his older brother was standing. He turned his attention toward the window. “What’s up? Do you see something interesting?”

“Yeah.” Gallyen placed one hoof upon the windowsill, turning his attention up toward the sky. His ears flattened a bit. “You know…Tambelon is one of the few places in Trinity that gets to see the sunlight, most of the time. But, truth is…I’d like a rainy day, one of these days. The crops honestly need more water…and we could do with a little change of pace.” He looked over toward his brother, a slight glint of anticipation in one eye, and smiled. “Hey, Stormy. Would you do something for me?”

Stormbreaker eyed the goat uneasily. “Uh…sure?”

“Okay, good.” Gallyen looked back toward the sky, still smiling away. “I have a theory in my head…but, I’m not sure if it’s true or not. I want to test it…just to be sure.” He pointed a hoof in the direction of a small cluster of clouds in the distance. “You can control your magic, now that you have your bell catalyst, right? So…focus on those clouds over there, and try to hit ‘em, okay?”

The younger being eyed his brother yet again, this time with pure disbelief. “What makes you think I can—”

“Just TRY.”

Stormbreaker could feel his heart beginning to pound a bit as he looked toward the clouds; it was true that he now wielded a bell catalyst, but he had no idea how to bring out his magic—or if it was even there in the first place, for that matter. Regardless, his curiosity was beginning to eat at him, both in the sense that he wanted to know what type of magic he had, if any, and that he really was confused as to what Gallyen was attempting to prove with this. He looked up toward the clouds, attempting to focus in on them, and drew in a breath, holding it for a few moments and squeezing his eyes shut.

Come on, Stormbreaker…you can do this.

Focus.

“Ugh…” He mustered forth every ounce of willpower he had toward his mind, attempting to force himself to summon forth something—anything—that could be unleashed…nothing came to him, however, and he immediately felt disheartened because of this. Knowing that Gallyen was counting on him, though, he continued his attempts for what seemed like hours, but it was ultimately fruitless; he slumped down against the windowsill, clutching at his head with one hand, tears beginning to form in the corners of his eyes. He could barely manage to choke out the words through his own emotion:

“I knew it…I just…freaking knew it…”

Gallyen had been concerned, truth be told, since he found that his brother was having difficulty summoning forth his ability to begin with, and he now dropped down beside him; his soft nose brushed against Stormbreaker’s cheek in comfort. “Hey…Stormy, don’t be upset. I…maybe I’m not an expert, but I think it was that you were trying TOO hard, you know? If you would just—”

“Gallyen…please…stop.” The younger creature dropped his face into one folded arm, hiding his features, and his body trembled a bit. “I know you’re only trying to be nice, but…I don’t want you to. They were right the entire damned time…I don’t HAVE any abilities. I’m just a useless freakshow attraction that needs to be—”

“That isn’t true, though!” The elder goat retorted, reaching out to place a hoof on Stormbreaker’s shoulder. His brow furrowed in irritation. “I have believed in you all these years, and I refuse to give up hope now! Mother is NOT right about you. You have a gift, Stormy, and you need to be able to—”

“GALLYEN!” Stormbreaker’s tone suddenly switched from despair to pure anger; he whipped his head in his brother’s direction, tears beginning to stream down his cheeks, and smacked the goat’s hoof away. “I told you that I’m a worthless hack, and that’s all I ever WILL be; now LEAVE. ME. ALONE!!!”

It was unclear to say what exactly happened then and there next; all either of them knew was that there was a violent flash of bright blue light, followed by a loud booming sound that seemed to shake the entire infirmary to its very core. The floorboards quivered, the walls seemed to violently shift, and the window behind them shattered into small shards, sending glass raining down atop both of them and causing the empty wooden framework to fall from its hinges and clatter to the ground. Gallyen was almost thrown backward from the shock-force of the combined light and sound; he skittered across the floor about ten feet from the window before finally collecting his bearings and looking up in surprise.

Stormbreaker was collapsed on his side below the windowsill, his body trembling violently and the rune patterns on his horns bathed in a glowing blue light similar to the light that had lit up the room only mere seconds ago. Outside, the sky was darkening, and for a moment Gallyen feared that something might have happened; that perhaps some of the Demons had breached the Tambelon lines…

…And then, the rainfall.

It began with a few soft patters at first; those patters quickly were accompanied by additional ones until it flowed together into one singular sound…the sound of a rainy day. The clouds were dark and seemed to shift and pulse slightly with a strange aura…like an energy, almost, of sorts. The elder goat appeared baffled for a moment and turned for a brief second to look behind him. His eyes grew wide as he saw—albeit barely recognizable by this point in time—the remains of a large glass mirror; his look of fear became a small smile, then a grin; finally he burst out laughing and began prancing around the room like an elated lamb, kicking his back legs victoriously.

“Ha, ha-ha! I knew it, I KNEW it!!”

Stormbreaker was still trembling like a leaf but hearing Gallyen’s laughter cleared some of the fog in his senses; he pushed himself upright shakily, the runic pattern’s glow fading as he did so, and rubbed at his head. The pounding sensation within his skull was incredible, and the catalyst around his chest felt warm, as if it had been exposed to a tremendous source of heat. Trying to steady his breathing—as he had not been aware, up until this point, that he was slightly hyperventilating—he looked up toward his brother with an expression of sheer perplexity. “What are you laughing about?”

“Eee, hee-hee…” Gallyen attempted to steady his mirth and looked over at Stormbreaker, although he was still smiling away. An excited energy sparked within his eyes. “I’m sorry…I’m just…absolutely amazed. Stormy, do you even know what you just DID a few moments ago?!”

“N-no…” The smaller creature’s ears pricked slightly as he finally took notice of the rain pounding down outside; he placed both hands upon the windowsill and pulled himself up to look. “Hey…when did it start raining, Gallyen? A moment ago it was sunny, and—” He fell silent as he took notice of Gallyen’s knowing grin, and his eyes widened a bit. “W-wait…you can’t possibly be saying that I could do something like—”

“But you DID.” Gallyen thrust his head forward slightly, his eyes wide and glittering with elation. He gave another tiny prance with his forelegs. “It took a…rather harsh approach, I guess…to draw it out, but it’s THERE, Stormy! You have a power of your own, and it finally revealed itself after YEARS of lying dormant within you…and it’s an incredibly rare one, at that. There is literally NO other Caprinian in all of Tambelon that can do what you do.”

“And just…what CAN I do?” Stormbreaker responded; the question was more of curiosity at Gallyen’s judgement than anything else, truth be told. The older goat eyed him with excitement, gesturing his head toward the rain outside.

“You can control the weather, Stormy,” he declared. “Do you even KNOW how much elemental magic one has to seize knowledge of in order to cause rainfall alone? This is a rare talent, Stormy. Like, a REALLY rare one. Father needs to be informed of this immediately!”

Stormbreaker looked toward his brother, eyes wide; a jolt of anxiety shot up his neck and he attempted to struggle to his feet. “G-Gallyen, no…wait—”

If the elder goat had heard a single word he had uttered, it had apparently fallen on deaf ears, for he was already on his way out of the infirmary. The yeti-goat quickly took a step forward in an attempt to follow him, but the pain immediately returned, crippling him temporarily; he collapsed onto his side against a nearby cot, trembling a bit. The catalyst still felt like a warm water bottle looped around his neck, and he wondered to himself if this was even worth getting nervous over.

No one was going to care, right…?

*

“Skystar, c’mon…you’ve gotta attend.”

“I…I don’t want to.” The young Hippogryph princess’s eyes welled with tears yet again; she had lost count of how many times this had happened since losing the Stratia Engagus match against her mother, but she didn’t care how pitiful she was making herself look at this point. Despite how adamant Capper was about the fact that she, indeed, was capable of wielding Penance, she herself could no longer hold that belief firmly within her grasp and say it for certain. Everything felt utterly hopeless and confusing, and it was reaching the point where she could no longer tell which way was up. She tucked her head down between her front claws, heaving a defeated sigh. “Just…go to Mom’s dinner without me this time. I don’t even know if I wanna face her, after making myself look like an idiot.”

“That ain’t true.” The young Abyssinian’s brow furrowed and he swished his tail slightly in mild agitation before curling it over her back, looking down at her with a soft gaze. “Y’all did your best out there, at least I think y’all did for your first Strata-whatever match.” He sighed and brought a paw to his face; forgetting about traditions was not a good way to go about anything, but he had to keep trying…he shook his head. “Look, I still think that we need to do more research on Penance or whatever. Y’all might not have been able to activate it during the match, but…it still CALLED you, right? Your name, specifically?”

“Yes, and it even led me to it, with like…this yellow light.” She sighed again and turned over on her side, averting her eyes from Capper. “But, it’s not like it matters…I’m not even capable of drawing out its power. With you, at least you were able to immediately feel the energy, right? You said it felt good…you know, that it was RIGHT for you to have the Destroyers.”

“W-well, yeah…” Capper’s ears dropped slightly in defeat. “But that doesn’t mean that—”

“Just…just go.” The little Hippogryph curled up a bit and opened one wing ever-so-slightly to flick Capper’s tail away. She shut her eyes. “I don’t want to be bothered anymore right now. It’s not gonna help.”

The cat-being was about to open his mouth again to say something to her, but upon viewing her defeated position, he thought against it; now it was his turn to sigh and look defeated as he pushed himself to his feet and began walking toward the entrance of the infirmary, where the rest of the group had been waiting. He looked up at the others, ears down against the back of his skull and eyes glazed over with hopelessness. “I tried, guys…she’s…she really ain’t takin’ this well, it seems…”

“To be honest, neither would I.” Storm shook his head, his arms folded, though his expression and poise seemed neutral. He leaned against the doorway, curling his tail around one leg. “It almost feels like that…whatever-it-was…simply called her to crush her hopes. You all probably would get the gist that I know completely how that feels.” He averted his gaze to the side and shook his head.

“Something feels off, though.” Celaeno tapped a claw against her beak in thought. “From what you’ve told me, Capper, the Destroyers never actually ‘called’ you; you just happened to come across them and pick them up, right?”

Capper nodded in response. “Yeah, pretty much, Feathers…they were just, like, the first pair of daggers I grabbed. I was in such a hurry at the time I pretty much didn’t think anything of it.”

“And my—I mean, Sk-Skystar’s…” Celaeno huffed out a breath of relief for her save before continuing. “It called to her, which means it wanted her to find it, in some way. So, this is an entirely different series of events…for you, the power of the daggers just surged through you…but for Skystar, it might be different. It’s entirely possible that the path to being a Chosen depends on the stature of the relic itself.”

Storm raised an eyebrow, smiling a bit. “Not bad, ‘Feathers.’ And here I thought pirates were all about stealing things without prior knowledge. Gods know that you didn’t have any clue most of my ships were just hauling useless materials…”

Celaeno whipped her head in his direction to shoot him a nasty glare. “Shut your face,” she stated; the yeti-goat could only grin coyly in response and there was a brief moment of tension as the parrot woman drew one talon into a fist, debating with herself whether to clock the smile off of his face or not. Thankfully:

“Ah, THERE you are!”

The group immediately snapped to attention as Constelle appeared in the hallway; the stately Hippogryph reached one front claw up to brush a stray feather from his glinting eyes as he smiled. “I have been looking everywhere for you lot; the dinner starts in just a short amount of time. We must make haste, if we are to dignify manners.” He paused to glance over at Skystar and then momentarily dismissed it as he focused his attention back upon the others. “Please, come with me, if you may. Her Majesty has requested a…rather special…location for you to dine tonight, in particular.”

“I, uh…” Celaeno opened her mouth to respond, stating that maybe it was best that they stay with Skystar awhile longer, but the purple Hippogryph was already hurriedly attempting to herd them in an opposite direction down the hallway. Sighing, she finally allowed herself to simply go with the flow, so to speak, and followed Constelle and the others across the castle balcony.

It wasn’t really like anything could possibly turn sour whilst they were away, right?

Constelle halted near a small, eroded corridor east of the main citadel; he stopped and flicked his ears, as if listening, or searching for something. Finally he nodded, lowering his guard before turning around and bowing his head apologetically.

“Ah…it appears that we are a bit too far from the Citadel for my guards’ liking,” he said, sounding slightly concerned. He furrowed his brow, again apologetic, almost. “Please excuse any rowdy behavior they might perform; they REALLY are good boys, deep down…”

Capper raised an eyebrow, his ears quivering slightly; something wasn’t right here. “What do y’all mean by that?”

“It should be obvious to you...fur-covered rogue.” He cast a mild nod to the guards behind them. “Do it.”

“You scoun—!” Capper exclaimed, beginning to leap forward, but he was cut off by a swift blow to the head that sent him into unconsciousness almost immediately, and collapsed into a heap on the ground next to Celaeno, who had received the same “treatment” as he. Grubber and Storm were dispersed in a similar manner, and once they collapsed, Constelle stood over the small heap, curling his beak ever-so-slightly. A huge part of him desired to spit upon their bodies, but no…not yet.

They needed to be SHOWN the fearsome power of the Hippogryphs in their last minutes. Try as he might, for some reason Constelle had always been a fan of theatrics. He sighed reflectively to himself before looking at the guards once more.

“Drag them to the farthest possible location from the Citadel,” he ordered, turning around. “Oh, and…don’t touch the weapons. Leave them on their bodies for when they eventually awaken.”

A taller Hippogryph than Constelle blinked and looked toward his commanding officer with befuddlement. “G-General, why would you want…?”

Constelle flicked his gaze back and smiled wanly.

“It would be entertaining for me…to watch them struggle.”