Twilight’s vision was fading in and out. “Dear Princess Celestia…” she mumbled.
“I’m here, Twilight. I’m right here.”
“P-Princess?”
“Shhh… it’s going to be all right.”
Twilight caught glimpses of streaming Sunlight, smooth granite, fluttering curtains…
“Just breathe, Twilight.”
“Where are we? Wh-what’s happening to me, Princess?”
“We’re safe in the castle. You’re safe, Twilight. That’s all that matters.”
“Augh!” A shot of pain coursed through Twilight’s horn. “Oh, it hurts!”
Celestia coughed. “Your horn… it’s burning up, Twilight. Are you trying to cast any spells?”
“No! I’m not trying to do―gah!” Twilight doubled over. Only in her throes did she realize Princess Celestia was holding her, cradling Twilight’s entire body close to Celestia’s own. “Oh, Princess… what is happening to me?”
“Don’t be afraid, Twilight.” Princess Celestia’s voice was very soft. “I’ve called for the most esteemed doctors and mages in Canterlot. They’re on their way. You will be all right, my faithful student.”
Blind, Twilight gulped and nodded. “Okay, Princess. I-I trust you.”
“Just breathe, Twilight. Breathe.”
Twilight shuddered between each terrified breath.
🐞
“We have to keep her away from those rifts,” Ladybug said, sprinting at Cat Noir’s side. “Whatever happens, don’t let her go back to the Eiffel Tower.”
“She won’t have a chance.” Cat Noir smirked and clenched one fist. “And I’ll destroy the bow before she gets a chance to open another one.”
“Good luck!”
“Don’t you mean bad luck?” Cat Noir winked. “That’s kinda my thing.”
They turned a corner and almost ran into the centaur’s backside. They dove to either side of Gatebreaker and scanned the scene from the sidewalks. Chloé was backed against a row of abandoned cars blocking her path through the narrow street; Gatebreaker was aiming her bow directly at the cowering teenager.
“Please don’t shoot me!” Chloé was panicking. “Ladybug! Save me, plea-heeeease!”
“Don’t do it, Gatebreaker,” Ladybug shouted up at the centaur. “Don’t give Chloé power over your feelings.”
Gatebreaker snorted. “Don’t you see? She has no power. I am the powerful one. I can do anything.” She turned her menacing head to the right and sneered at Ladybug without wavering her aim. “Now she will see how infinite and real the multiverse is.”
Ladybug’s masked brow creased. “What do you mean?”
Gatebreaker grinned and opened her mouth to speak, when suddenly the blunt end of a metal pole struck her in the back of the head. She buckled forward, pressing one palm into her new bruise with an annoyed roar. Her left hand ― holding the gleaming longbow ― tensed her her side.
“Cataclysm!” Cat Noir shouted, channeling dark energy into his gloved fist. He leapt forward with superhuman strength and wrapped his crackling fingers around the bow. Its silvery surface rusted in moments and crumbled in the centaur’s angry grasp. Its string dropped limply to the street.
Gatebreaker glared angrily at Cat Noir, but the hero and his partner were standing over the shambles of the bow, waiting for the appearance of a black and violet butterfly.
“No akuma?” Ladybug asked after several empty seconds. “But… that must mean…”
She and Cat Noir looked up into Gatebreaker’s face. The mighty beast sneered at them, pulled an arrow from her quiver, and flexed the muscles of her left arm. A brilliant gleam of silver shone from the palm of her hand, bending into a moon shape. The Parisian heroes watched in horror as a new bow, identical to the first, materialized in the light shining from Gatebreaker’s fist.
“Blind fools,” Gatebreaker growled at them. “You see so little of what there is.”
Cat Noir’s ring flashed at him. He looked at it, then at Ladybug’s earrings. There were only two black dots left.
“You’re gonna change back,” he warned her.
“So are you!” Ladybug said worriedly.
Cat Noir smirked. “Don’t worry about me, m’lady. I’ll find out where the akuma is. Be back as soon as you can.”
“But what if―”
“Emilie, stop!” called a voice from far behind the centaur.
Ladybug, Cat Noir, Gatebreaker, and Chloé Bourgeois all looked toward the terrified voice. It came from one of several bronies standing in a tight group far down the road. “You don’t have to do this! Let Ladybug and Cat Noir help you!”
“Are you all so blind?” Gatebreaker bellowed. “Do you not understand my power? What I am about to do?”
“Don’t hurt anyone!” called another brony. Ladybug recognized him as Claude, the lively boy from the meetup. “You’ll only regret it, Emilie!”
“I am not Emilie!” cried the huge creature. “I am Gatebreaker, the path between dimensions!”
“Yo, Emilie, we’re not trying to hurt your feelings,” said Nino, emerging from the group. Jean-Marc and Claude followed him bravely as they marched toward Gatebreaker. “We just want you to know that we accept you as you are! Y’know? We’re here for you and we support you, no matter what jerks like Chloé say!”
“Hey!” Chloé barked. “I’m right here, you know!”
“Sweet boy… I thank you for your kind words,” said Gatebreaker as Nino and the others continued their approach. “But you do not understand. My goal is not to harm, but to educate! Not to destroy, but to free!” She turned back to Chloé with menace in her glowing eyes. “The gates I break are meant to be broken. They keep us from seeing the truth.”
Ladybug’s earrings signaled her final minute before her transformation back into a normal girl. “I-I have to go!” she whispered to Cat Noir.
“Go, then!” he said without tearing his eyes from Gatebreaker’s movements. “I’ll take care of this!”
“You too shall see,” Gatebreaker said. “You all shall see! Nothing is not real! Nowhere does not exist!” She pulled back a crackling arrow and aimed it right at Chloé. “The multiverse is endless.”
“No!” Cat Noir lunged for the bow.
He was too late. Gatebreaker released the tension in her bowstring, and the magical arrow burned through the air and struck Chloé directly in the abdomen. She screamed, but the sound of her pain quickly faded as the arrow ripped a hole in space. Chloé vanished completely.
The portal was somehow different than the others. Ladybug noticed immediately. It was brighter, larger, and light bent around its jagged shape like it bends around an eclipse. She suddenly felt herself drawn toward the light, but not in her mind: quite literally, her entire body was being sucked toward the portal.
“Wh-what’s going on?” Cat Noir stuttered, boots sliding over the pavement.
“It must be… some kind of vacuum on the other side.” Ladybug turned around and threw her yoyo, but it wrapped around her body and disappeared into the portal. “Gyah! I-I can’t hold it!”
“It’s too strong!” Cat Noir tried to use his pole as a brake, but it ground noisily until suddenly the pull was too strong, and he joined Chloé and the yoyo on the other side of the portal. “Ladybuuuug!”
“Aahhh! Help us! Help us!”
Ladybug watched Nino, Jean-Marc, and Claude fly toward the portal, spin around it like going down a drain, and vanish in its light.
“Ohhh… darn it!” Ladybug jumped off the ground and let the portal take its toll. “I’m coming, Cat Noir!”
Gatebreaker watched her portal swallow them all with delight.
Hawk Moth’s voice spoke directly into her mind: “Gatebreaker! What are you doing? You can’t send them into oblivion! I need those Miraculouses!”
“It’s not oblivion, Hawk Moth,” Gatebreaker said. “It’s home.” And with that, she galloped straight into her own rift in space. When her entire frame had vanished, the hole sealed itself up, and Paris was left in eerie silence.
🐞
“No!” Hawk Moth shouted in his observatory. He stomped his foot. “Gatebreaker! Promise me you will return with their Miraculouses! Gatebreaker? Answer me!”
His mental connection to the centaur was gone. In a fit of rage, he tore off the brooch on his chest and squeezed it in his palm. “Nooroo!” he yelled.
The tiny purple kwami appeared out of thin air, shivering at the sound of his master’s voice. “Y-y-yes, Hawk Moth?”
“Where did she go?” he asked loudly. “Where did she take them?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Nooroo whimpered. “I can’t see what you’re doing while I’m in there.”
“The centaur! I gave a little girl the power to access other dimensions, and now she’s gone through a portal with Ladybug and Cat Noir!” Spit flew from his lips as he screamed in a low voice. “Now I’ve completely lost track of her. Where have they gone? How will I get them back? Has she lost her powers!?”
Nooroo’s head shook vigorously. “No, Hawk Moth, she didn’t lose her powers. Until you specifically take them away from her, she’ll retain whatever power you gave her through the akuma.”
Hawk Moth sighed and rubbed his forehead. “At least they can come back,” he muttered. “How will I get a hold of her? Do you know where she’s gone?”
“No.” Nooroo sniffed. “I don’t have any answers for you, Master. Whatever mess you’ve made… it’s your own.”
Hawk Moth gritted his teeth and moved as if to hit the little kwami. Nooroo cowered in midair.
Finally, Hawk Moth dropped his hand and reattached his brooch. Nooroo swirled into it, and Hawk Moth was once again robed in his tight purple suit and silver mask.
“You may have escaped me for now, Gatebreaker,” he spoke to no one, “but your powers are limited. Those I will give my next villain are not.” He grinned maliciously. “Hmm… villain versus villain. How very dangerous I’ve become.” He began to laugh as he searched the streets of Paris for another tortured soul.
🐞
Lyra Heartstrings and her best friend Bon Bon trotted gaily through the streets of Ponyville, eager to enjoy a relaxing day of picnics and ponywatching.
“I just love days like today!” Lyra said with a flounce of her mane. “I can feel it in the air: something wonderful’s going to happen!”
Bon Bon snorted and rolled her eyes. “That’s easy when your definition of ‘wonderful’ is spotting a pretty butterfly.”
Lyra gasped and pointed down, as if on cue. “Bon Bon, look! Look on that flower!” She bent down and beamed at a bright yellow petal and the spotted dot upon it. “It’s a ladybug! Oh, isn’t it the cutest?”
Bon Bon smirked. “It is pretty darn cute, for an insect.”
“I hear that ladybugs are a symbol of good luck!”
Bon Bon’s ears twitched, and she looked further down the road. “What is…? Hey, Lyra, do you hear that?”
“That ladybugs are a symbol of good luck? Yeah, I just told you, that’s what I hear!”
“No, not that. Listen.”
They did, together. Lyra stood up and her ears perked toward the sky. Panicked yet familiar voices rang through the air, like desperate fighting between good friends.
“Is that Applejack?” Lyra asked. “I think I hear Applejack’s voice.”
“And I could have sworn I heard Rainbow Dash.” Bon Bon nodded. “Come on, let’s go see what’s wrong.”
Hip to hip, Lyra and Bon Bon galloped down a few streets and approached the towering crystal castle. Grouped around the front doors were several ponies, many of which were Twilight’s closest friends. The anger in their voices and nervous expressions spoke volumes even louder than the shouting.
“What’s wrong?” Bon Bon asked as she and Lyra approached the group.
“Princess Celestia took Twilight away!” somepony cried. “She’s dying!”
“She is not dying!” Spike yelled immediately. “We have no idea what’s happening to her.”
“That’s even worse!” a stallion declared, echoed by hectic chatter in the crowd. It grew every moment, drawing attention from all across town.
“Everypony calm down!” Applejack said for the dozenth time. “I’m sure we’ll be hearin’ from the Princesses soon. They can send letters through Spike, remember?” She gestured to the dragon at her side.
“Just let me fly to Canterlot real fast and see what’s up!” Rainbow Dash whined in a hover. “I’ll be back in, like, forty minutes! Maybe forty-five!”
“We both know Canterlot’s farther away’n it looks, Rainbow,” Applejack growled up at her. “Whatever’s goin’ on with Twilight, I’m sure it’s gonna be fine.” She turned back to the crowd. “There’s no reason for y’all to be in such a tizzy!”
“Is that what Princess Twilight would say if you were suddenly whisked away to Canterlot?” asked a random mare.
Applejack blinked. “Uhhh… well, no, I reckon not, but…”
Fluttershy sidled up to Applejack and cleared her throat. “I think we should let Rainbow go,” she said softly. “I want to know what’s happening.”
“I heard that!” Rainbow Dash said triumphantly. “Okay, here I go! I’ll be right back!”
“Rainbow, no!” Applejack jumped and caught Rainbow Dash’s tail in her teeth before the pegasus could jet away. “P-tooee! If we wanna get a hold o’ Celestia so bad, let’s just send a little letter through Spike! That’s instant messagin’ right there!”
A murmur of accord spread through the crowd, urging Spike to clear his throat.
“Okay, hold on…” From somewhere behind him, Spike produced a pen and parchment. “What do you wanna say?”
There was silence for a moment, then everypony got an idea and spoke up at once.
“Is Twilight okay?”
“When’s she coming back?”
“What happened to her?”
“Should I go to Canterlot!?”
“What can we do to help?”
“Tell her I can be there in, like, fifteen minutes!”
“Enough!” Applejack threw her hooves in the air and everypony quieted down. “Ahem. I’ll do the talkin’. So… Dear Princess Celestia.”
Spike began to scribble.
“We here in Ponyville just wanna know what happened with Twilight. When you’ve got the time, couldja please give us some kinda status update. We just wanna know she’s all right. Yours… uh… Ponyville.”
“Po… ny… ville.” Spike finished with a flick of his wrist, rolled up the letter, and blew it to ash on a wave of green flame. A sigh spread through the gathered citizens, and the waiting began.
It did not last long.
A stone’s throw away, sandwiching the crowd between the Castle and this new phenomenon, a glowing rip in the fabric of space appeared with a high pitched roar. The ponies all spun and gasped at the portal, some of them shivering instantly.
“What is that?”
“This is bad timing…”
“Darn it! Where’s Twilight when you need her?”
More gasps and even some screams accompanied the surfacing of several forms from the light. The shapes arrived gradually, like a spark in slow motion. The first to fully materialize was a young, blonde mare with a garish yellow coat and icy blue eyes.
“Gah!” the mare exclaimed, rearing up on her hind legs only to tip over sideways. “Oof! What the… what is this? What did she do to me?” Her face contorted and she began to cry.
Rainbow Dash and Applejack glanced at each other with nervous eyes.
The next three forms to appear were stallions, one brown, one blue, and one green. Unlike the first mare, they wandered away from the portal with wide eyes, surveying the township all around them with nothing less than awe.
“What’s going on?” Fluttershy asked in a wavering falsetto.
“Wait…” Applejack answered with a gentle hoof on her shoulder.
Two more equines materialized behind the group of three. The mare was pale and thin, with a shiny, dark blue mane and sky blue eyes that narrowed in the light of the portal. The other was a stallion who, to Applejack’s shock, was colored almost exactly like her: orange, with a spiky blonde mane and striking emerald eyes.
“Whoa…” Rainbow Dash said from above. “Are you seeing what I’m seeing?”
The blue-maned mare glanced at the portal behind her, then at the ponies who had come through with her, and finally at the group gawking at them all. Her irises suddenly shrunk and she called out, “Everyone, get back! Get back!” She lifted her forelegs and tried to urge them away, but she lost her balance and landed squarely on her chin. “Ungh!”
Still, the ponies obeyed, especially when the largest spark of all ― a great glowing beacon shining brightly from the center of the portal ― grew into a terrifying shape.
“It’s Tirek!” Rainbow Dash shouted. “He’s back!”
“That’s too skinny to be Tirek…” said Applejack.
“I think… it’s a girl centaur!” Fluttershy said.
The shape fully formed and stepped out of the light, revealing an orange and white striped centaur with glowing green eyes and a long, sharp smile. The portal faded behind her, though it didn’t disappear completely.
The centaur beamed triumphantly and trotted in a slow circle. “Yes… yessss!” Her eyes swept over the ponies nearest her. She spotted the crying blonde mare and bent down, grabbing the pony around the throat in a massive hand. “How now, Chloé?” she asked in a rumbling voice. “Can you yet say that anything is pretend? That anything is worth dismissing? Look!”
As her onlookers gasped, the centaur stood at her full height and held the trembling yellow mare by her neck, forcing her to gaze over the city of Ponyville.
“The multiverse is infinite!” the centaur announced as the poor pony squirmed. “There is no corner unknown to me, no possibility unseen! I am Gatebreaker, and I shall ensure that none shall suffer under your ignorance again!”
The centaur cackled, but her laugh was cut short when something slammed into her abdomen. She gasped for air and let go of the yellow mare, who landed hard on the ground.
Gatebreaker stumbled backward and stared angrily at the blue wings under her nose.
“It’s not cool to choke ponies, Fencesmasher,” Rainbow Dash said proudly, crossing her forehooves as she hovered backward out of the centaur’s reach. “No matter what weird dimension you’re from.”
Gatebreaker moved to attack, when suddenly her green eyes softened. Her jaw hung slightly open for a moment before she whispered, “Rainbow Dash?”
The pegasus blinked. “Huh? Uhhh… have we met?”