//------------------------------// // 1 - Friendship Might Be Magic // Story: Miraculous: Ride of the Gatebreaker // by Ponky //------------------------------// “Hurry, Marinette! You’re still on time!” cracked the voice of Tikki from her hiding spot in Marinette’s purse. Panting, Marinette leaped up the steps to her school’s vast courtyard two by two. She had to take a break for breath at the top. “This would have been… easier… in the suit…” she wheezed. “You’re almost there! You can do it!” Tikki smiled up at her. “You don’t want your parents to get suspicious again, do you?” “Eep!” Marinette’s shoulders tightened and she took off again, running through an ache in her side. Seconds before the bell rang to start class, Marinette burst through the door of her classroom with the loud announcement, “I’m here!” Several of her classmates laughed. Her teacher, Ms. Bustier, did not. She sighed instead, eyeing Marinette with lids half-closed over her teal eyes. “I won’t count you as tardy today, Marinette,” she said, “but please try to be more on time tomorrow, all right?” Marinette nodded once with a serious expression. “Yes, Miss Bustier. I’m sorry. Thank you so much.” She skittered to her desk next to her best friend, Alya. “No ‘It won’t happen again’ this time, hmm?” Alya whispered coyly. “I really can’t promise that,” Marinette said with a weak smile. “Good morning.” “Always good to see you, girl.” Miss Bustier brushed back a lock of her auburn hair and smiled at the rest of the class. “Right then, students. We’ll be continuing our study of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables today. Remind me, had we just finished Volume Two or have we already met Marius?” Marinette gulped and she tapped the ends of her fingers together above her desk. She suddenly noticed the lack of thick blonde hair directly in front of her. “Where’s Adrien?” she whispered, leaning closer to Alya. “He hasn’t shown up yet,” Alya said, rolling her eyes. “I swear, you two are made for each other.” Marinette couldn’t help it: she giggled. Her cheeks immediately went pink and she turned back to the front of the class with an innocent expression. “Chloé?” said Ms. Bustier. “Could you remind me how far along in the book we’ve gotten?” Chloé Bourgeois looked up past her heavy makeup and sneered at the teacher. “I was sick that day,” she said curtly. “You haven’t missed a day of school all year, Chloé,” droned Ms. Bustier. “I meant I was sick of Les Misérables,” Chloé said with a snide smile. A wave of chuckles passed over the small class. Ms. Bustier grunted. “Very funny. You do realize it’s one of the most influential works of literature in the world, and one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century, all based on our history and the revolts that occurred in this very city?” “Whatever,” Chloé said, checking her nails. “Sabrina, tell her where we were.” “We started Volume Three,” Sabrina immediately chirped at Chloé’s right, “but we haven’t been introduced to Marius quite yet.” “Thank you, Sabrina,” Ms. Bustier said with a smile. She got caught between sighing and clearing her throat, taking a moment to compose herself before opening the massive novel on the corner of her desk at the front of the class. A blanket of dark clouds moved in front of the sun, blocking the natural light that normally streamed into the classroom. “Oh, dear.” Ms. Bustier frowned. “We’ll have to flip on the switch. Nino, would you hop up and turn on the lights, please?” “Sure thing, Miss B!” Nino said, sliding out of his desk and plodding to the lightswitch by the door. As he reached out to flip it, Adrien Agreste burst through the front door in a very similar manner to Marinette’s entrance earlier. “I’m here!” he called out, summoning another wave of laughter from the students. “Sup, Adrien,” Nino said, offering his best friend a fist. The two greeted each other with smiles and a fist bump before Nino flipped on the light. Ms. Bustier couldn’t help but smile. “Honestly, Adrien. What is it that keeps you and Marinette from arriving to school on time?” Adrien looked up and grinned at Marinette. She nearly fainted. “Please, take your seats, both of you. We’re just about to be introduced to, in my opinion, the most interesting character in Les Misérables.” Adrien and Nino took their seats at the front of the class, just below Marinette and Alya. Tuning her ears, Marinette managed to hear their whispered conversation. “Where were you, dude?” Nino asked. “I slept in,” said Adrien. “Yeah right! Then why did you say you were going to bed at, like, eight o’clock last night?” Adrien’s sculpted hands slid over his perfect, beautiful face. Marinette blinked and shook her head. Adrien rubbed his face. “All right, I didn’t sleep in. I was… watching something.” “Oh, yeah?” Nino raised an eyebrow. “Something that good?” Adrien shrugged. “I don’t know yet. It’s all right. I don’t get what all the fuss is about yet.” “What fuss?” “Never mind. I’ll tell you later.” “Tell me now, bro!” “It’s embarrassing.” Nino tried to whisper quieter, but Marinette still managed to hear him. “Were you watching porn?” Adrien blanched along with Marinette. “What? No! What?” Nino laughed under his breath. “Then what was it, dude?” Adrien was quiet, glanced over at Chloé and Sabrina, then mumbled unintelligibly, “Mllpnfrshpsmgc.” Nino leaned closer. “What was that?” Marinette leaned farther across her desk, as well. Adrien snorted. “Mililponfreshpzmaj.” Nino tilted his head. “Milton’s Milton Factory?” Adrien pounded his fist lightly on the surface of his desk. “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic!” he hissed. Nino twitched, lurched, and suddenly howled with laughter. He caught the entire class’s attention and earned a dirty look from Ms. Bustier. “Nino! Would you mind sharing with the class what exactly is so funny?” Nino snorted and rubbed the back of his red cap. “Uhhh…” Before he had a chance to make something up, a terrific thunderclap boomed outside. Ms. Bustier yelped and raised a hand to her chest as sheets of rain suddenly pounded on the classroom’s huge windows. Her students were just as surprised, though many of them were delighted by the display. “My, that was surprising,” the teacher said. “It’s been a while since we had a thunderstorm in Paris.” Marinette’s eyes narrowed. She scanned the angry clouds outside for any unusual signs. As hard as she looked, the storm seemed entirely normal, without a hint of magic among its rain or flashes of lightning. Adrien was focused on the sky, as well. So focused, in fact, that Nino had to poke him in the shoulder to get his attention. “You can’t just leave me hanging like that, dude,” Nino said with a lopsided grin. “Why were you watching My Little Pony?” “Look, I’ll tell you later, okay?” he said. “I swear, it’s not as weird as you think.” “Pff. Suuure.” Nino chuckled to himself and resumed a comfortable position in on the bench. Marinette sat back, too. “My Little Pony?” she said to herself. “What was that?” asked Alya. Marinette shook her head. “Nothing. It’s quite a storm!” She managed a brief smile before falling back into her own thoughts. Why would Adrien watch something like My Little Pony? She couldn’t wait to get home and find out. 🐞 Twilight knocked gingerly on Rainbow Dash’s front door. “Rainbow?” she asked loudly. “Are you in there?” “No!” Rainbow shouted back. Twilight giggled and opened the door, letting herself in. She folded her wings at her sides and trotted through the cloudhouse, peeking around corners for her blue friend. “I didn’t mean to make you mad, Rainbow,” Twilight said. She bore a smile, but her eyes were sincere. “Won’t you come out and talk to me?” A patch of cloudstuff above Twilight’s head ripped open with a prolonged pfff. She looked up to see Rainbow’s pouty face staring at her from an upper floor. “I’m not mad at you, Twilight,” Rainbow said. “I’m just super bummed.” “Ha!” Twilight offered her another smile. “I’m sorry?” “Ugh.” Rainbow dropped through the hole she had made. It patched itself up in the whoosh of her momentum. “You don’t need to be. I swear, I’m not mad at you. You’re one of my best friends, and you’re a freaking Alicorn, for peat’s sake.” Her frown morphed reluctantly into a sheepish grin. “Thanks for coming over. You’re so stupidly nice.” Twilight shrugged. “I learned from Fluttershy. But my competitive edge I learned from you.” She smoothed down her bangs with a sigh. “It feels good to win, Rainbow, but I also know it hurts to lose. Especially for someone who cares as much as you do. I don’t want you to feel bad.” “Thanks, Twi. Really. But again… that’s not really what this is about.” “Oh?” Twilight tilted her head as she followed Rainbow into the kitchen. Rainbow Dash pulled two carrot from a cloudshelf. She tossed one to Twilight and munched on the other hungrily. Without waiting to swallow, Rainbow Dash said, “I dunno, it’s just weird. When I first met you, you were just a goofy nerd. You were cool, too ― somehow ― and I liked you right away, but… I dunno, I also kinda felt bad for you.” She laughed at herself. Twilight’s jaw dropped. “What do you mean you felt bad for me?” “You were clueless!” Rainbow said. “And clumsy!” “Was not!” “Was too!” Rainbow finished her carrot and did a backflip for good measure. “We all liked you, Twi, I’m not saying we didn’t. But seriously, you were a goofball.” She snickered and added, “Well, you still are a goofball.” “Where are you going with this, Rainbow?” Twilight asked with a flat expression. “I just mean,” Rainbow said, leaning against her counter, “that I never thought you’d be better than me at something. At anything.” She spun her hoof on the countertop, keeping her eyes away from Twilight. “Like, I can fly faster than you. We both know that. But one day that might not be true, y’know? Like, who knows what you’re really able to do. Everyday it’s something new. Something awesome.” A painful smile twitched at her mouth. “You’re awesome, Twilight. I never thought it would be true, but it is. You’re super awesome.” “Thank you, Rainbow,” Twilight said. “And I’m sorry that my awesomeness… um… bums you out.” Rainbow laughed and waved a hoof. “No, no, not like that. Look, this is hard for me to say, okay? I’m not good at this stuff.” She cleared her throat and bravely looked Twilight in the eye. “I always felt like I was the one that ponies looked up to in this town. Now it’s you. Everypony looks up to you, Twilight. Me included. And even though that kinda sucks to be dethroned or whatever, it’s also kinda awesome, because you’re, like… my best friend.” She shrugged. “There. That’s close enough.” “Oh, Rainbow…” Twilight trotted up and hugged Rainbow’s neck with one foreleg. “That was really sweet of you. And just because I have a lot of eyes on me now doesn’t mean I’m more admired. You’re still the town favorite, no doubt about it!” “Eh. Thanks, Twi.” Rainbow quickly hugged her back, then stretched her back like a cat. “Jeez, that flight really did a number on me.” “Yeah, my horn hurts, too,” Twilight said, tapping it delicately. Rainbow stared at her horn with an unusually thoughtful expression. “It can hurt?” “Oh, sure,” Twilight said, nodding. “It kinda feels like a part of my brain, actually. Like, when I get a headache, it usually starts in my horn.” “Ouch. That sucks.” Rainbow shuddered. “Well, I guess with great power comes great liability.” “Something like that,” said Twilight, grinning. “Come on, let’s go get a bite to eat. You look starving.” “Am I ever!” said Rainbow Dash, flying through her corridors to the front door. “Hurry up, slowpoke! And no teleporting!” Twilight happily followed suit.