Student 32: Sunset Shimmer

by Show Stopper

Arc 1: Chapter 3

Author's Note:

Time for some language notes! I'll be adding these to the top of every relevant chapter.
Regular text = Japanese
Italicized Text = Equestrian (Sunset's thoughts only.)
"Italicized Text in quotation marks" = English
"Italicized Latin in quotation marks" = Latin (obviously)
Please enjoy.

The next month passed mostly without incident for Sunset. Well, with as little incident as Mahora class 2-A ever experiences. Fights between Asuna and the Class Rep, a surprisingly fierce game of dodge-ball, and other eccentricities came together to make it the most surreal month of Sunset's life, and that was without any significant magic involved.

Meanwhile, Sunset continued to study hard. She'd managed to claw her way up to second place in the school, much to Satomi Hakase's frustration. She'd also begun tutoring Asuna whenever she had time, further cementing their newfound "friendship." She'd finally moved out of Library Island and into the dorm shared by Yue and Nodoka, though she still spent a lot of her spare time exploring the dungeons of the island. That mirror had gotten to this world somehow, and she intended to figure out just who knew about, and had written about, her world.

Sunset was relaxing (as much as possible with her class around) in the baths one evening, her mind wandering from topic to topic. Her thoughts lazily drifted from the upcoming deadline she'd set for Negi to the approaching end-of-year exams to wondering for the hundredth time why humans had such a stupid nudity taboo and whether she'd eventually start to feel uncomfortable without clothes.

That would make things really awkward once I go back to Equestria, she thought, looking over her classmates and admiring their forms. Wearing clothes all the time wouldn't be too horrible, but almost nopony outside of Canterlot does. I can't go around blushing and flustered just because I can see everypony's flanks. She shrugged, closing her eyes and leaning her head back against the edge of the bath. Oh well, a problem for another time.

"Asuna! Asunaaaa! Big news!"

Sunset cracked open an eye, seeing Asuna's brown-haired roommate rushing over. She shrugged it off and relaxed again. Konoka, huh? Must be something to do with the kid. Meh, not that it concerns me.

"EH!? Broken up!?"

Sunset's eyes snapped open, her ears twitching to- her attention turning towards the conversation.

"I think Sakurako and the others were told not to talk about it," Konoka continued. "I don't really know all the details, but Grandf- I mean, the principal seemed really mad! It's because our class always comes in last!"

Sunset groaned, standing up and walking towards the gathered group. That old idiot! Guess it makes sense, though. Split up the carefree idiots, and they might actually start taking school seriously.

"And even worse!" Haruna added. "The really dumb people get held back! Or maybe they have to do all the grades from Kindergarten all over again!"

"Okay, that's taking things too far," Sunset said, whacking Haruna on the back of the head. "There's being worried, and then there's fear-mongering. What sort of idiot would actually believe that someone would have to go back to Kinder-" It was then that she finally noticed that all of the Baka Rangers were in attendance. "Huh. Guess you know your audience after all."

"Nichibotsu-chaaan," whined the pink-haired Makie Sasaki of the gymnastics club, aka. Baka Pink. "That's mean!"

"But even ignoring Haruna," Yue said, "our class being broken up is a very real possibility."

"But this class is really fun!" Konoka said. "I don't want it to be broken up!"

"Th-this is bad," Makie stammered, waving her arms frantically. "We're the ones who are dragging the class down!"

"Even if we study ourselves to death," moaned Ku Fei, the expert martial artist and Baka Yellow, "we won't make it by Monday-aru!"

"Nichibotsu!" Asuna said, turning desperately to Sunset. "C-could you tutor all of them too? You've helped me out a ton, after all!"

"Are you kidding?!" Sunset shouted. "I've been working with you for months to get your scores up to where they are now! I was planning some serious cram sessions over the next three days to get you ready for the exams! There's no way I can get all of the Baka Rangers up to speed. I'm not a miracle worker!"

"If it comes to this," Yue muttered, "then maybe we'll have to go look for 'that thing' after all."

"Yue!" Haruna exclaimed. "You don't mean-"

"What!? What is it?" Asuna demanded. "Do you have a solution?"

"Are you sure about that, Yue" Sunset asked. "I've tried to find my way to that thing several times."

Yue nodded. "The high-schoolers have a map that they think leads to it, and the Baka Rangers should be up to it."

"What is it?!" Asuna demanded.

"You guys know about Library Island, right?" Yue asked. "It's where our Library Exploration Club goes."

"Yeah," Asuna said. "That giant building that floats in the middle of the lake, right?"

"The truth is-"

"Legend," Sunset interrupted.

Yue continued as if Sunset hadn't interrupted. "-deep within Library Island, there's apparently a 'magic book' that makes the reader more intelligent."

"It's probably just a book that helps amateurs understand difficult concepts on various topics," Sunset said, sharing a meaningful glance with Asuna. "Still, it might be useful."

Sunset watched as the wheels turned in Asuna's head before she nodded, a determined grin splitting her face. "Let's go!" she exclaimed. "To Library Island!"

***

That evening found the Library Exploration Club leading Negi and the Baka Rangers around to the back of Library Island. Sunset smiled nostalgically at what had for months been her front door. The plan was for her and Konoka to accompany Negi and the Baka Rangers while Nodoka and Haruna remained up top to maintain communications just in case something went wrong.

"Is this really okay?" Makie nervously asked, not for the first time. "The lower levels are off limits to middle school. I hear there's all sorts of traps and stuff down there."

"No problem!" Asuna said, full of confidence. "I'll take care of it!"

"And how's that?" Sunset muttered to her as they stepped through the huge, ornate double doors.

"By having Negi take care of it," she whispered back before turning to the young teacher. "Hey, Negi! That's your cue! Protect us with your magic powers, okay?"

Negi blinked a couple of times, still half asleep. "Oh, my magic? Um, I've kinda, uh, sealed it."

Sunset's jaw dropped as the double doors slammed shut behind them. "You what?!" she hissed. "What in the world made you think that was a good idea?!"

"Oh, me and my big mouth," Asuna groaned. "I yelled at him today about using his magic for everything."

Sunset facepalmed. "And so your conclusion was that, since you were using it a little to much, the only possible solution was to cut it off entirely?!"

"I-it's only for three days," Negi stammered. "J-just until the exams are over!"

Sunset sighed, shaking her head. She nodded down a staircase that the rest of their group was disappearing down. "Let's go. It'll look suspicious if we stick around up here whispering to each other."

The three of them caught up with the rest of the group in the middle of Yue's explanation of the island. "Because the collection just kept growing, the plans were re-drawn for expansion underground. Nowadays, there's not a single person living who's familiar with the entire complex. And so, for the purpose of exploring this place, Mahora University inaugurated..." She paused dramatically as they reached the bottom of the stairs and everyone else got their first glimpse of the cavernous dungeons beneath the lake. "...us, the Mahora Academy Library Exploration Club."

Sunset smirked at everyone's cries of shock and awe as she leaned casually on a railing. She stared out over the maze of bookshelves, most of them several dozen meters tall. Ladders, staircases, and bridges connected the various floors and the tops of staircases, which were obviously designed to be walked across. Chandeliers and scattered lamps bathed most of the upper stories in a welcome glow, while lower levels were more sparsely lit with torches. Trees grew inexplicably from the walls and floors, stretching up towards the ceiling. A winding river could be seen far below, working its way further underground.

"Wow!" Negi shouted, all tiredness forgotten. "There's so many books! This is amazing!"

"This is Basement Level 3 of Library Island," Yue explained, sipping from a carton of juice and failing to keep the pride from her voice. "It's said that us middle-schoolers are forbidden to go any further than this."

"Asuna-san!" Negi shouted, rushing over to a nearby bookshelf. "Take a look at this! This book here is very rare!"

"Ah, Sensei!" Yue said, reaching out towards him. "In order to stop theives from stealing these rare books, we have-"

A soft "click" was heard as Negi grabbed the book in question. A crossbow bolt shot from between two books on a nearby shelf, flying straight for Negi. He was saved at the last minute as Kaede Nagase, aka Baka Green, snatched the arrow from the air before snapping it in two.

"-a lot of traps," Yue finished. "Please be careful."

"Damn it, Haruna!" Sunset said, talking into the tiny radio she had placed in her ear. "You said the entryway was free of traps!"

"Oops," Haruna's voice was carefree and unconcerned. "Must have missed one. I guess that means you've reached Basement Level 3? Give it your best down there!"

Sunset sighed. "Roger."

"Um, ah, by the way," Negi stammered, the adrenaline starting to wear off and leaving him trembling, "just why are we coming down here?"

While the Baka Rangers explained the current quest to Negi, Sunset approached Yue. "Are you sure having them along is a good idea?" she asked. "I mean, I know that Ku Fei is some sort of amazing martial artist, and Asuna and Kaede can take care of themselves, but aren't Makie and the kid a little... absentminded to make it through here safely?"

"Makie's surprisingly capable," Yue said. "And Asuna can take care of Sensei."

"Hey, Nichibotsu-chan." Sunset turned to see Makie looking around nervously. "Y-you used to live down here, right? I-is it really safe?"

"Eeeeh!?" Negi exclaimed. "Nichibotsu-san, you used to live down here?"

Sunset sighed, massaging the bridge of her nose. "Yeah, I did. I only moved into the dorms about a month ago. And Makie, it's perfectly safe down here as long as you have an experienced guide. Konoka and Yue have been exploring down here for almost two years now, and I've done a ton of solo exploring myself. Do what we say and don't wander off, and you should be fine."

"I'm pretty impressed," Kaede said, looking around. "It's hard to imagine settling down to sleep in a place like this, de gozaru."

"Hey!" Konoka said, her face lighting up, "why don't you show them where you were living? Negi-kun might be able to find something that we couldn't!"

Sunset opened her mouth to object, but stopped as she considered the possibility. I haven't been back there since I started studying Latin, so I should be able to get a better idea of what the rest of those books are talking about. And I bet the kid's the only one in this group who can read it with any fluency. She eyed Negi for a moment before nodding. He already knows I'm from another world. Might as well see if he can find anything out. "Yeah, okay," she said. "Here, it's this way." She turned and headed for a nearby staircase leading further down.

"So, why were you living in Library Island?" Negi asked, jogging to catch up with Sunset.

"That's where the Library Exploration Club found me," she explained. "I don't remember anything from before then."

"She was really determined to stay," Konoka added as they exited the stairwell and came to a dark chasm, lit on either side by torches and spanned by a rope bridge. "She wanted to see if anything in any of the books could give her a clue about how she got there. Unfortunately, a lot of them were in pretty advanced English, and the rest were in Latin."

"I think I've mostly understood what's in the English ones," Sunset said as she started across the bridge, "but I haven't had time to master Latin yet." She smirked over her shoulder at Negi. "I don't suppose you'd be able to help me with that, Sensei?"

"Of course!" Negi replied happily. "Anything to help one of my students. I learned Latin growing up, so I should be able to read them for you."

Sunset rolled her eyes and turned back around as she reached the end of the bridge. She stepped to the side and pointed down at the ground. "Be careful right here," she warned them. "There's a pressure-plate just when you step off. We're not sure what it does, but none of us want to experiment this close to a cliff-face."

She led them through Library Island, taking a longer rout than she was used to to avoid more trap-heavy corridors that she had long ago learned to navigate with ease. There was still one close scare with a pit-trap, but Makie was able to save herself from falling by lashing her gymnastics ribbon to an overhead stalactite. After twenty minutes of walking, they finally came across a dead-end. Sunset kicked a tile on the floor, nudging it into place and unlocking the secret bookshelf. "Would all of you mind waiting outside?" Sunset asked, rubbing the back of her neck nervously. "I'd, um, I'd like to talk with Negi about this alone."

Konoka nodded. "Of course. We can let everyone else see inside once you're done."

"Hey, Yue-chan," Makie said as Sunset pushed open the swinging bookshelf and gestured for Negi to enter, "how much further do we have to walk?"

"Let's see..." Sunset caught a glance of Yue taking out their map before she closed the door, plunging her and Negi into darkness.

"Um, Nichibotsu-san?" Negi asked. "How are we going to-"

Sunset pulled an electric lantern out of her backpack, turning it on and placing it on the ground. "Spring Break," she said.

"W-what?"

"That's your new deadline." Sunset walked over to the tarp-covered mirror, glaring at it as she considered just what, and who, lay beyond. "If you haven't started teaching me magic by the beginning of Spring Break, I'm going public with your secret." Before he could form an objection, Sunset grabbed the tarp and ripped it from the mirror. "Now, what do you know about this?"

Curiosity took the place off fear as Negi beheld the ornate mirror. Its surface was a single ovular pane of glass over a sheet of sterling silver. The frame was of beautifully painted wood, carved into the shape of a horseshoe. It rested on a two-tiered pedestal and bore another horseshoe design on top, this one with a carving of a basic human figure in the center.

"I... I don't know," Negi admitted, examining the mirror closely. "It doesn't look like anything I've ever read about, and the design doesn't really fit with any society connected closely with magic." He placed his hand against the glass, closing his eyes. "But there's definitely magic here. A lot of it, in fact." He opened his eyes and stepped back, looking around the room. "An artifact with that much magic would be rare in the Magical World. What's it doing underneath Mahora?"

"No idea," Sunset admitted. She grabbed a book of the nearby shelf, flipping through it for a bit before putting it back. "And the books in here are no help either. The few that aren't in Latin don't talk about magic, mirrors, or even horses." She glanced at Negi who looked confused. "Trust me, it's relevant." She went back to examining the books which she could see, even with her limited knowledge of Latin, held no further answers. "That mirror is a portal that opens once every two and a half years. The one on my side was created over a thousand years ago by..." She hesitated for a moment, searching for a translation. "Uzu no Hoshi the Bearded. But I have no idea why the other side of the portal opens up here."

"Uzu no Hoshi?" Negi asked, confused. "That would be... Star Vortex?"

Sunset shook her head. "Vortex is too strong a word. More like... Star Swirl."

Negi scratched his head. "That's... a really weird name."

Sunset shrugged. "And mine isn't? In English, it translates to Sunset Shimmer. That's how all of the names back in my world are."

"About that..." Negi hesitated, staring at the mirror. "You said that this mirror takes you to another world. Do you mean a parallel universe?"

Again, Sunset shrugged and searched her mind for the proper vocabulary. "I didn't really study... travel between universes under Princess... Tentai?" She shook her head. "Wow, that translation's even worse. Anyway, if you've got nothing, I guess we don't really have anything else to discuss."

"W-wait, Nichibotsu-san!" Negi shouted as Sunset started to push the door open. "W-what about what you said?! I-I still don't know if I can-"

"Wow! Nichibotsu, you used to live here?"

Nagi shut up as Makie entered the room and looked around, the rest of their group following after.

"Yup," Sunset replied. "They found me on the floor by that mirror, nothing else around me but bookshelves full of useless books." Seeing Yue's glare, she corrected herself. "Useless to explain how I got here."

"That is pretty strange-aru," Ku Fei said, looking around. "Is there any other way out?"

"Not that we've been able to find," Yue said. "Good news, Nichibotsu. Turns out your old room is on the way to our destination. We should be able to reach it in about an hour and a half."

"Good," Sunset said. "That'll give us plenty of time tomorrow to actually put that book to the test. Lead on."

***

The path to the book was far more treacherous than the first few levels of Library Island. The bookshelves grew taller, the chasms wider, and new traps and obstacles presented themselves. Eventually, they reached a point that even Sunset had not dared venture beyond alone. An hour and a half later, they found themselves crawling through a narrow space, barely tall enough for the single shelf of books that lined it on either side.

"Y-Yue-chan," Asuna panted, "are we there yet?"

"No," Yue replied around the flashlight in her mouth, examining the map. "Just a little further to go."

"Yue's really getting into this, isn't she?" Konoka asked, smiling as brightly as ever despite the cramped spaces.

"Hehe, you can tell?" Yue asked.

"Barely," Sunset replied. "Your face is the same as ever."

"Well," Yue explained, "our senpais from the University Branch of the club can't fit into spaces like these. This means that we, the Middle-school Branch, are the first to explore this place. It's a testament to the athletic ability of the Baka Rangers that we've made it this far. Congratulations." She pointed to a square of stone in the ceiling ahead which had light shining from around the edges. "Come, the book lies right ahead of us."

Asuna and Sunset moved forward to push the heavy square of stone up and to the side before climbing into the room behind. Asuna's jaw dropped and Sunset let out a low whistle. "Damn. There's a sight you don't see every day."

The chamber they'd entered was huge, stone columns holding up the ceiling and leading up to a massive platform with a single staircase leading up to it. A huge set of double doors sat at the back of the platform, a small pedestal siting just in front of them. Twin giant carved from stone flanked the doors, one holding a war-hammer and the other a broadsword.

"The vault of the magic book," Yue said, clenching her fist. "We've finally reached it."

"Look!" Makie shouted, pointing up towards the pedestal. "There's the book!"

Negi turned to look, his face filling with shock. "Th-that's..."

"What is it, Negi?" Asuna asked.

Negi pointed up at the book, excitement and disbelief warring for position on his face. "That's the Legendary Book of Melchizedek! I can't believe this! I've never seen it in real life!"

"You mean," Asuna said, staring between Negi and the book, "it's the real thing?"

"Real thing?!" Negi exclaimed. "It's a magical text of the highest level! It's true that you might become a bit smarter by reading it, but it's not as simple as-"

"WE DID IT!!!"

The Baka Rangers rushed forward, shouting for joy as they raced up the stairs. They started across the narrow bridge that led to the pedestal, headless to Negi's calls to wait.

"A book as important as that is bound to be booby trapped!" Negi shouted, racing up after them, Konoka and Sunset following right behind. "Please be careful!"

*CLICK*

The bridge divided in two, swinging out from under them and dropping everyone to the platform below. The platform formed an 8 by 8 grid of circles, each inlaid with a single letter of Hiragana. On the side of the platform nearest the book was written the word...

"Twister?" Makie asked in surprise.

"Ho ho ho."

Everyone looked up as the statues leapt to life, stepping sideways to face them as they cut off their path to the book. "If you want this book," the one with the hammer roared, "you'll have to answer my questions first! Ho ho ho!"

"Wh-wh-wh-what the hell!!!" Asuna shouted. "The statue is moving!"

"First question!" the statue said. "What is the Japanese translation of the English word difficult?"

"E-everyone! Calm down!" Negi shouted. "It'll be okay! If you answer the questions properly, we should be able to get out of this trap. Just press the corresponding translation letters for difficult!"

Sunset sighed in relief. Okay, we should be fine, she thought. After all, if it's starting with a word like that, we should be able to handle-

"Sensei!" Makie shouted. "What's dificult?!"

Sunset facepalmed. "We're doomed."

***

What followed was at once one of the most frustrating and most entertaining few minutes of Sunset's life. Figuring that stepping onto the playing grid might count as cheating, Negi, Konoka, and Sunset were forced to do nothing but watch and offer hints as the Baka Rangers tried desperately to answer the golem's questions. After a series of simple (though difficult for the Baka Rangers) questions, the golem finally announced, "Final question! What's the translation for dish?"

"Eh?" Ku Fei asked, obviously lost and in pain. "Dish?"

Sunset groaned. "Oh come on! You put it on the table next to silverware!"

"I-I've got it!" Asuna exclaimed. "It's 'osara,' isn't it?!"

"O!" shouted Kaede, placing her free foot on the letter.

"Sa!" cried Yue, slapping down her free hand.

Asuna and Kaede both slammed their last free limbs down at once. "Ra!"

"Um, girls," Sunset said nervously, staring up at the chuckling statue as it raised its hammer, "that's 'ru.'"

"M-monkey?" Negi asked, dumbfounded.

"WRONG!" shouted the golem, swinging its hammer down and shattering the platform. The girls and Negi screamed as they fell into darkness.

Comments

[Fangren]

Hmm, I'm nearly at the end of what you've got so far...

Well, let's see. Only minor mistakes I caught were using 'weather' instead of 'whether' early on, and using 'senpais' when senpai is its own plural. Though using the word at all in an English-language story instead of simply 'seniors' is...

Moving on. I question the decision to make Sunset #2 in the school so quickly - she's smart, certainly, but I don't think she's got Hakase beat. And not just because she's new in the world, either.

The names you chose for Starswirl and Celestia are... not really the best. I get that Sunset's new with the language, and I won't pretend like I'm fluent or anything but... Well, Starswirl I think should just be 'Hoshiuzu' - one word, straight and to the point. Celestia is a bit different since it's more of a proper name, but I think 'Tenko' would suffice - 'ten' meaning celestial/heavenly, and -ko being (as I recall) something of a default suffix for women's names?

Anyway. Plot-wise, I'm glad you skipped ahead to this part of canon, though I'm a tad disappointed again you didn't change more aside from the detour to Sunset's old room. Speaking of, I'm glad you finally had her move out - though it's something that ought to have gotten more attention drawn to it in-story. Don't just tell us Sunset is doing these things, you gotta show them too! Don't just stick to the Negima script!

[Show Stopper]

8614590
Thanks again for the feedback. I'm noticing that sticking to the script is a big crutch of mine. I try to distance Sunset from Negi further on, but I'm still going to have to be careful about that.

Thanks especially for the feedback on the names. Hoshiuzu probably isn't going to comeup much, but I was struggling to find a good name for Celestia. "Tenko" sounds a lot better.

As for "senpais," I pulled that straight from the manga but, as you pointed out before, translation of the early chapters was a little off. (I'm going to have to look out for that more going forward.)

[the other sans]

taking a longer rout than she was used to

1. Route. This is one of the cases where the lettering is the same but the pronunciation is different. Rout would mean to divert.

[Pinklestia]

Hahaha!

[KittyrinnAiko]

8614590
Tenko generally refers to a fox. Specifically a nine tail kitsune over 1000 years in age. Not sure that's a good fit for Celestia. The translation for Star Swirl used means vertex of the stars, and Tentai ( 天体 ) means heavenly body. A better translation would be Tenno ( 天の ) Celestial, or Tennō (天皇), literally "heavenly sovereign". Which just happens to be the title for the Emperor of Japan. That actually would have worked great for this as it would have caused loads of confusion. Otherwise, the standard format is to use a phonetic spelling for the actual name. Celestia converted to the appropriate character sets comes out as 'Seresutia' ( セレスティア ) and is pronounced more or less the same as it normally would.

Oh, and the Devine Kami associated with the sun, Amaterasu-ōmikami, is sometimes depicted as a white horse.

[Show Stopper]

9701214
Bear in mind that Sunset it coming up with these translations on the spot; they aren't meant to be perfect.

Also, again, she's not translating from English, so "Seresutia" (or variations thereof) wouldn't make any sense.

As for Amaterasu, I doubt Celestia would want to step on anyone's toes by taking the name of one of their gods, and I doubt Sunset would enjoy trying to explain that one away either.

[Aemon Targaryen]

i really like this translation to japanese of the names.

Could you tell me what are the translations/equivalents of the names of all MLP Characters ? I want to know this because i read the fanfiction friendship souls where Sunset became a soul reaper (of bleach) and i would like to know the names of the characters if they were in a japanese version.

[Show Stopper]

10809402
I'll look into that and PM you later. Thanks for giving this story a shot! Hope you enjoy!

[Aemon Targaryen]

10809406
If you don't already know friendship souls, you should read it, it's a other case of "mlp characters who dealt with japanese".

For a obvious example, Sunset Zanpakuto and techniques (I will not spoil you).

[Darkriver101]

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

[Joe Toon]

Negima was one of the very first mangas I've ever read. Reading Sunset here makes me a little nostalgic.