Applejack and Rainbow Dash hammered their hooves on the Castle’s front door.
“Twilight!” Rainbow shouted. “What’s going on?”
“Princess Celestia!” Applejack said. “We saw you fly in there! Please, is Twilight okay?”
Fluttershy landed softly behind them. “Pinkie just told me! What’s happening?”
“We don’t know,” Applejack said, looking over her shoulder with a nervous expression. “They won’t let us in. Golly, I got a bad feelin’... I hope Twilight’s all right.”
“Oh no…” Fluttershy sniffed and hugged her long tail to her chest while Applejack and Rainbow Dash continued to knock wildly.
🐞
Emilie Onidae had nowhere to run.
“Stupid… stupid…” she mumbled to herself, struggling to keep tears from her eyes. “I should’ve known better. It’s always the seme. Always the seme…”
She crossed a street and tripped on the far curb, falling to the pavement on her hands and knees. With tears finally building at the bottom of her eyes, she covered her face and hurried to a nearby alleyway between two tall buildings.
“Every time I try to make friends… who am I fooling? I am a loser. I don’t belong here with dad, or in Scotland with mum. I don’t belong anywhere.”
She leaned against a wall and ― all alone ― started to cry.
🐞
There was a flash of light from inside the Castle. Rainbow Dash and Applejack froze in place.
“Twilight?” Applejack called out.
The golden front doors finally opened. Spike stood, shivering, with wide eyes and a small mouth.
“What happened, Spike?” Rainbow Dash asked, almost picking the dragon up. “Is it Twilight? Is she okay?”
Spike shook his head. “Princess Celestia took her back to Canterlot,” Spike said in a distant voice. “She said… that something’s very wrong.”
“What, like… she teleported? Just now?” Applejack gaped. “All the way to Canterlot?”
Spike nodded.
“Horseapples…” Rainbow Dash swore, floating slowly to her haunches. “This must be really serious. That’s gotta take a lot of magic.”
“I’m scared,” Spike whimpered.
Fluttershy wrapped around him in an instant. “It’s all right, Spike,” she whispered as his trembles doubled. “Twilight will be okay. Princess Celestia will know what to do.”
“I frickin’ hope so,” Rainbow Dash said. “I fly to Canterlot and help out, just in case!”
“Uh-uh, sugarcube,” Applejack said. “You’re gonna wait with the rest of us. We needja right now.”
Rainbow Dash pulled down her eyelids. “Uuugghh… why do I have to be so loved?”
🐞
The aperture opened quickly, and Hawk Moth looked over Paris with a glint in his eye. A hundred snow-white butterflies flapped silently all around him.
“Yes… finding solace in make believe is a beautiful thing, until it reminds you how lonely you are. The sadness… the embarrassment… so many negative emotions to feed my most powerful akuma yet.”
Hawk Moth reached out one black glove. A pure butterfly landed in his palm; he carefully covered its body in his other hand, and a cloud of darkness spilled out like fog between his fingers. When he removed his hand, the butterfly had been transformed into a black and violet moth, sparking with dark energy.
Hawk Moth chuckled to himself, raised his hand toward the window, and watched the moth rise toward the hole in its streaming center.
“Fly away, my little akuma, and evilize her!”
With a confident twirl of his cane, Hawk Moth let out a deep, prolonged chuckle.
🐞
Emilie wiped at the tears on her cheeks, but more kept coming while she hid in the narrow alley.
A black moth, glowing with purple magic, flew down from above and landed on her homemade tail. Its body and power sank into the tail like melting snow.
Emilie felt a shock course through her body. She gasped and looked straight ahead, overcome with a strange vision. Thousands of imaginative, colorful worlds soared past her vision while a smooth voice spoke directly into her mind.
“Gatebreaker, I am Hawk Moth. I give you the power to show naysayers how real an infinite multiverse can be. All I ask in return is that you bring me the Miraculouses of Ladybug and Cat Noir. Do we have a deal?”
With a fierce grin, Emilie lowered her head. “Yes, Hawk Moth,” she said in a cold voice.
Beginning with her tail before spreading over her entire body, a bubbling, smoky substance of purple and black enveloped her entire body. It morphed and grew at rapid speeds, reconstituting her entire frame. When the darkness fizzled away, there was no longer a round Scottish girl in the Parisian alleyway, but instead a nine foot centaur emerged from its shadows.
Gatebreaker looked down at herself, admiring the womanly, muscular torso covered in dark leather armor. Her skin and fur were blindingly white, with zebra-like stripes of rich auburn adorning her from the neck down. Her tail was long and brilliantly orange, while the hair on her head was thick and swept backward in spiky clumps. Her tongue rolled over her newly sharpened teeth, and a wicked smile spread below her glowing green eyes.
An enormous longbow doubled as a staff in her left hand. She reached behind her and found a quiver of black, crackling arrows. She laughed, knocking an arrow on the long bowstring.
“Time to prove the neigh-sayers wrong,” she growled.
🐞
“Emilie! Emilie!! Oh, where did she go?” Marinette stopped on a street corner, breathing hard. “It’s no use, is it? She could be anywhere by now.”
“It’s all right, Marinette,” said Alya, just behind her. “We’ll track her down.”
“How?”
“Maybe one of the bronies knows where she lives.”
Marinette waited for Jean-Marc and Claude to catch up before asking, “Do either of you know Emilie very well?”
“Afraid not. This was her first meetup,” said Claude. He rubbed the back of his neck. “Couldn’t have gone much worse, could it?”
A gigantic creature thundered down an adjacent street. Half woman, half horse, and all ferocious, it charged toward the Eiffel Tower in a white and orange streak.
“Uhhh… was that what I think it was?” Claude asked in a squeaky voice.
“A centaur!” Alya slapped her forehead. “Gah! I bet you anything that’s Emilie. So much for taking a break from akumas.” She grinned. “At least this means we’ll get to see Ladybug and Cat Noir!”
Marinette gulped. “A-Are you sure we should stick around? I mean, that thing looked pretty dangerous… hehe…”
“That thing is the new friend we’ve been trying to find for the last twenty minutes,” Alya reminded her, folding her arms.
“You don’t know that!” Adrien spoke up, standing by Nino behind the two bronies. “Maybe it’s someone else entirely.”
“You do realize that Chloé’s involved, right?” Alya asked flatly. “Whatever. You guys can head home if you want. I’m gonna stick around and take some pics for the blog!” She rose her phone to her eye level and sprinted after the galloping centaur.
“I wanna see Ladybug!” said Claude, chasing after her with Jean-Marc close behind.
“Me, too!” Nino pumped his fist. “Come on, Adrien! We’ll miss the big superhero fight!”
“Ehhh, you go ahead,” said Adrien, stepping backward. “My dad doesn’t want me anywhere near all these supervillains that keep popping up. I think I’ll just head home.”
“What? Seriously?” Nino’s arms flopped at his sides. “That’s so lame!”
“Take some good pictures for me, huh?” Adrien smiled weakly.
Nino rolled his eyes. “Ugh. Whatever, man. Your loss.” He tore down the street, leaving Adrien and Marinette alone on the corner.
“So, uh… guess you’re going home, too?” asked Adrien.
Marinette nodded, wide-eyed. “Yup. Gonna just… start now, heh heh…”
“Me, too. Yeah.” Adrien turned around. “So long.”
Marinette waved succinctly. “Byyee!”
Adrien picked up his pace, turning a corner up ahead.
Marinette’s shoulder dropped in a deep sigh. “Phew! As much as I’d have loved for him to walk me home, now is not the time.” She opened her purse. “Did you hear all that, Tikki?”
“I sure did, Marinette.” She looked up with huge, worried eyes. “Centaurs are powerful creatures! You’ll have to be on your very best game here.”
“Aren’t I always?” Marinette grinned, glanced around for passerby, and finally flipped her hair away from her ear with a resounding, “Tikki, spots on!”
Tikki beamed before dissolving into a swirl of red and black. Marinette’s round earrings drank in the magic, and a blissfully familiar suit of skin-tight red, decorated with evenly spaced black circles from the neck down, accompanied an identically themed mask that materialized over her eyes and the bridge of her nose. The ladybug yoyo appeared on her hip, and she posed heroically before using it to zipline quickly up the side of the nearest building.
Just around the corner, Adrien brought Plagg into the open. “That thing looks intense.”
“Ehhh, centaurs aren’t so bad,” Plagg said with his eyes half closed.
“What do you mean?” asked Adrien. “Do they really exist? Un-akumatized?”
“Errm, maybe.” Plagg yawned. “I’m hungry.”
“Let’s hope you can hold over until we’ve taken this thing on. Plagg! Claws out!”
Plagg reluctantly absorbed into Adrien’s silver ring, which turned as black as night. He closed his eyes as the magic took hold, painting a layered, black suit over his body. Cat-like ears and a concealing mask appeared as he ran his hands over his head, and a belt-like tail shot out behind him. He scratched at the air for good measure, then expertly twirled his infinitely extending baton.
“Ahhh, I love this life,” he sighed to himself, then vaulted up onto a nearby rooftop with a quick flick of his staff.
He landed on his feet, sprinting along rooftops next to Ladybug.
“Hello, m’lady,” he said. “Long time, no see.”
“That should be a good thing, Cat Noir,” Ladybug said back with a smirk.
“The day villains stop terrorizing Paris will be the worst day of my life, if it means I never get to see you again.” He winked at her.
Ladybug sighed impatiently. “I’m guessing you saw the centaur, too?”
“Yup. I’ve even got an idea who she really is.”
“So do I. Come on, let’s hurry!”
In tandem, they leapt off a roof and dropped into the emptying square around the Eiffel Tower.
“Where are you, little rat?” The centaur’s voice, though feminine, boomed through the entire vicinity. She stomped her hooves angrily as her eyes scanned over groups of Parisians and tourists alike fleeing from the site, many of them screaming.
“Wow.” Cat Noir smirked awkwardly. “I hate to say this around you, m’lady, but… she’s kinda hot.”
“Excuse me?” Ladybug’s eyes flicked up and down the yet-distant centaur. “She’s half horse.”
“Well, the other half.”
“Is orange and striped?”
“Oh, so orange women can’t be beautiful, huh?”
Ladybug laughed in spite of herself. “Let’s just keep these people safe. Hey, Emilie!”
The centaur turned to face them as Ladybug and Cat Noir skidded to a stop some hundred feet away from her.
“Huh?” Cat Noir lifted a masked brow at Ladybug. “How’d you know her name?”
“I make it my point to know everything important in situations like this,” Ladybug quipped back at half-volume. She cleared her throat and yelled out, “You don’t have to do this! Hawk Moth’s power is only corrupting you!”
“My name is not Emilie,” the centaur bellowed. “It is Gatebreaker!”
“Not the worst I’ve heard so far,” Cat Noir said smugly, folding his arms. “I don’t get it, though. Why Gatebreaker?”
An evil grin stretched over Gatebreaker’s face. She lifted her bow with a crackling arrow and shot it into the sky. The strange object soared for a moment before forming a rip in the air itself. Though the arrow vanished, the rip remained, and from it poured dozens of large, leathery, bat-like creatures with wide mouths of razor sharp teeth.
“Holy hairballs!” Cat Noir yelled. “That’s new!”
Ladybug gaped as the creatures formed a flapping halo around the Eiffel Tower. “What are those?” she asked.
“Creatures from another dimension.” Gatebreaker knocked another arrow. “There are many more. Would you like to see?”
“Uhhh, no!” Cat Noir shook his head, bounded forward with two mighty steps, and extended his staff in Gatebreaker’s direction. The end of his staff smashed through the dark arrow in her grasp; it fizzled away inconsequentially.
“What?” Gatebreaker scowled.
“That’s the thing about akuma-powers,” Cat Noir said, spinning his shrunken baton under the nine-foot centaur. “They’re usually pretty easy to nerf.”
“Raaaugh!” Gatebreaker reared up on her hind legs and tried to bring her full weight onto Cat Noir’s body. He rolled out of the way with a grunt, looking to Ladybug for assistance.
She was already on it. Ladybug tossed her yoyo, wrapping its string several times around Gatebreaker’s forelegs. Unbalanced, the centaur toppled to one side, grabbing Cat Noir around the throat in a slender, human hand.
“Grtttt jbbb, Ldybgggg!” Cat Noir choked.
“Hya!” Ladybug pulled her yoyo back into her palm, jumped forward, spun around, and delivered a massive kick to Gatebreaker’s wrist.
The centaur yelled in pain and let go of Cat Noir. He backflipped immediately, putting distance between himself and the angry beast. “We gotta break this horse, and fast!”
“Where’s the akum-AAAAA!” From behind, some of the leathery creatures grabbed Ladybug by her shoulders and lifted her high above the ground.
“Ladybug!” Cat Noir held tight to one end of his staff and shot the other end into the ground, launching him high into the air. He spun the rod quickly over his head, using its force to guide himself through the air toward Ladybug.
In the meantime, Ladybug yanked one shoulder free of the monsters and swung sideways. She use the momentum to bring her legs up and kick another monster in the side of its wide mouth. The creature shrieked and let go. Ladybug fell ―
― and Cat Noir caught her, tucking one arm around her waist. He extended his pole the ground below and tilted toward Gatebreaker. They fell together, approaching the villain with laser-like focus in their eyes.
“Rrrgh!” Gatebreaker aimed another arrow directly at them and shot. Ladybug jumped off the end of the staff, vaulting over the arrow; Cat Noir shrunk his weapon down and fell out of the arrow’s path, as well. Where they had been, the projectile ripped another ragged hole in space, and waves of searing heat blasted out of it, raising the temperature around the Eiffel Tower by at least fifty degrees.
“Hoooo, that’s hot!” Cat Noir complained, landing awkwardly twenty feet from the centaur. He glanced up at the newest rift, billowing yellow steam. “Do you even know what you’re doing?”
“I shatter blockades between the realms of our universe,” Gatebreaker announced.
Cat Noir smirked. “Okay, cool. So why are you a centaur?”
Gatebreaker charged at him. He ran directly at her, as well, dropping to his hip at the last moment. He slid between all four of her hooves and struck her belly hard with his staff. He brushed past her tail and hopped back to his feet as the centaur roared in pain.
“Nice slide!” said Ladybug, joining at Cat Noir’s left.
“The sweat helps,” he said, wiping his brow with the back of a gloved hand. “Phew, this costume is not heat-resistant!”
“We have to find a way to close these portals if we’re going to keep fighting.” Ladybug looked up at the leathery monsters; they seemed to be suffering in the heat, as well. “Do you think your special power can close up the rips?”
“Uhh, I’m not sure destruction is the best method for closing holes in spacetime,” Cat Noir gulped, “or whatever is going on here.”
“Right… we need to destroy her akuma. Then everything will go back to normal. Creation might do the trick.” She tossed her yoyo into the air where it spun above her head, glowing brightly. “Lucky Charm!” she yelled.
The yoyo snapped back into her hand, and from the light emerged three inflated balloons. Rather than falling into Ladybug’s hands, they began to float upward and away.
“Balloons?” Ladybug asked aloud. “What am I supposed to do with those?” She wound up her yoyo and tossed it at the balloon’s conjoined strings; it wrapped around the strings and pulled the objects back to earth.
“Better figure it out fast,” Cat Noir said with his tongue hanging out of his mouth. “I think I’m gonna pass out from this heat.”
Ladybug’s world turned black and white. She glanced all around her, but the only objects illuminated in red with black dots were the balloons themselves and the howling centaur ahead.
“Huh… I don’t get it.” Ladybug frowned. “But that’s never stopped me before. Hey, Gatebreaker!” She held the balloons over her head with a confident smile. “Do these mean anything to you?”
Limping in pain, Gatebreaker turned to see the three balloons. Her eyes widened, and her chiseled face took on a much gentler expression. “Pinkie Pie…” she muttered.
“Your favorite pony? Of course!” Ladybug strutted closer to the centaur. “It doesn’t matter what anyone said about the show you love, Emilie. What matters is how it makes you feel, and the sort of life it inspires you to live.”
“That girl…” A scowl returned to Gatebreaker’s face. “The one who said it’s not real.”
“Chloé,” said Ladybug. “Er… I’m guessing. I’ve had problems with her before.” She shook her head slowly. “Chloé was wrong, Emilie. She’s always wrong. You don’t have to pay her any mind.”
But Gatebreaker wasn’t listening. “Chloé…” she repeated, snarling. “Chloé! Where are you?” She turned around, casting her glowing green eyes over the Eiffel Tower’s nearly empty square.
In the distance, Alya was filming the event from behind a metal garbage bin on the sidewalk. Beyond her, a group of boys in My Little Pony-themed attire watched in awe. And even farther than that, a bleach-blonde girl in a yellow cardigan shivered, trying to hide herself behind a street sign.
“You!” Gatebreaker thundered, and galloped ferociously across the square.
Chloé screamed and ran for her life down a nearby, one-way street.
“Oh no!” Ladybug panicked, looking up at the balloons. “That did not go as I expected!”
“Does it ever?” Cat Noir asked with a smile. “Check it out: the rifts are closing.”
Indeed, the rips in space over their heads shrunk as Gatebreaker chased Chloé away from the Tower.
“She must power them herself,” Ladybug thought out loud. “The farther she gets from the holes she’s created, the weaker the connection between our world and the ones she taps into.”
“The akuma must be in her bow, don’t you think?” Cat Noir asked.
“It doesn’t make sense… Emilie wouldn’t have a bow and arrow, would she?”
“I don’t think so, but we’ve been wrong before.”
Ladybug nodded at that. Her earrings flashed as one of the five black dots disappeared. “Right. I’m gonna change back any minute. Let’s get back to Gatebreaker, and then use your Cataclysm on her bow.”
“Way ahead of you, m’lady.” Cat Noir winked and took off toward the street where Chloé had been. Ladybug spun her yoyo behind her, cast it forward, wrapped it around a streetlight, and recoiled the string. The momentum launched her forward, and the duo were soon hot on the centaur’s trail of destruction through the streets of panicked Paris.