Solar Windfall

by Crescent Pulsar

Chapter 1: Between a Rock and an Equine Place

Author's Note:

There aren’t many new Ranma 1/2 stories that catch my interest these days, and MLP crossovers with the series are rare, which are either dead or have long spans of time between updates, so I felt compelled to do more than acknowledge the reality of the situation and silently hope that things change. Which probably means that I'll be adding to the dead and/or slow-to-update pile.

Anyway, about two years ago I was surprised to be at the receiving end of a windfall, and I badly wanted a cover for this story before making it public. So, that's what I spent it on, and I've been burning to write it long before then. Now that circumstances have changed, I can.

Also, I couldn’t help spending extra on the cover so it’s partly animated:

When the final bell rang, Ranma breathed a sigh of relief and stood up from his desk, joining his classmates as they made their way toward the exit.

"One moment, Saotome-kun," spoke up Ninomiya Hinako, his homeroom teacher, as he passed by her desk.

He paused and exchanged a look with Tendo Akane, his fiancée, as well as Kuonji Ukyo, also his fiancée, and shrugged his shoulders before approaching their teacher, who was — as was often the case — in her pre-teen form. He stepped onto the platform to meet her behind the desk, and when he got there she gave him a sheet of paper. Ignoring the doodles around the message, he read: "Sunset Shimmer would like to meet you behind the equipment shed in an hour. She knows of a potential cure to your curse and wishes to share it with you. Please come alone, and prepared to keep a secret."

Glancing up from the paper, he shot his teacher a questioning look.

Sunset Shimmer had shown up on the school grounds around a month ago. No one had any idea of where she had come from, although most assumed some English-speaking country. At first he hadn't paid her any mind, but she ended up on his radar because his homeroom teacher, who taught English, had become her warden — probably not officially — and he regularly saw her at school, learning Japanese. Despite how innocuous her existence seemed, the strangeness of her arrival, and continued presence, had made him wary.

That wariness felt even more justified now that this mysterious girl wanted to meet with him alone, keep a secret, and dangled the prospect of being curse-free. Either she was setting him up for something, for some unknown reason, or she was sincere in wanting to help him, and both scenarios raised a lot of questions; questions that he could probably only get answers to if he accepted her invitation and the terms attached to it.

Regardless, if a cure was potentially on the line, he had to pursue it — it was just that simple. The downsides of having the curse far outweighed the upsides, between the lack of control, making adjustments both in fights and social situations, the threat that loomed over him because of his mother's expectations, feelings of insecurity, and the confusion and doubt that harried his psyche. When broken down, all he really wanted was peace of mind, and that was worth the risk.

His teacher didn't catch his look, because she eagerly dashed around him and out the door; probably toward something fun or delicious, if the expression on her face was any indication.

"What did Ninomiya-sensei want?" Akane inquired.

He had to suppress a groan, seeing as his teacher's effort to be covert had been rather elementary — which wasn't a surprise, considering her apparent age. Thankfully, he still had his back toward the girls, so he crumpled up the paper and stuffed it up his sleeve before turning around to face them. With a woeful tone and accompanying gestures, he replied, "Oh, she just wants me to do extra work to prepare for the upcoming test."

Both girls regarded him with skeptical expressions on their faces. Confident that he had convinced them with his acting skills, he didn't pay them any mind as he walked toward the exit, keen on getting home so he'd have an opportunity to go out alone.

---

"What the heck is their problem...?" Ranma wondered aloud between pants, his back against the inside of the school's perimeter wall.

He'd been in the middle of slipping his shoes on at home, in the genkan, when Akane had appeared and asked him where he was going. Put on the spot like that, he knew he had to respond before suspicion set in, but his ad-libbed answer provided her an opportunity to ask if she could join him. When he couldn't give her a good answer as to why she couldn't, he knew that he had to cut his losses and book it.

She had given chase, demanding that he tell her what he was doing with their teacher, but yelling, "Nothing," in response had — unsurprisingly — been ineffective.

Konatsu had been staking out the house, so Ukyo had been alerted and both joined the chase. Shampoo added herself to the mix after he narrowly avoided colliding with her in the air, while she was making a delivery on her bike, before she even knew what was going on. Fortunately, no one else involved themselves, and only Konatsu had proved a challenge to escape from, which had required the activation of his curse and a disguise.

As he removed his house dress and bonnet, which he had used to hide his attire and hair within the short window of time that he'd had to disguise himself, he was acutely aware of the fact that he had used his curse for the sake of seeking a cure. Again. It was "funny" how that tended to happen; probably every time but once, to his reckoning. Hopefully that didn't mean that he wouldn't get cured, which had happened every time.

After converting his disguise into energy and storing it with his ki, he began to walk toward the equipment shed, keeping his eyes and ears peeled for any potential interlopers. Much to his relief, he arrived at his destination without issue, and the only person that he expected to see was already there, waiting for him with crossed arms and a tapping foot.

Sunset Shimmer usually wore the girl's uniform while school was in session, but she had come back from Ninomiya's apartment wearing what he assumed was casual attire for her, based on the few times he'd seen her out of uniform. Her outfit consisted of a leather jacket, T-shirt, short skirt, a studded belt, and mid-calf leather boots. One side of her red and yellow-haired head was shaved, a consequence of her first encounter with the principal, but it didn't look bad with her hair swept to the other side. Overall, she kind of looked like a street tough to him, although he couldn't say what kind of person she actually was, on account of almost exclusively seeing her while she was learning Japanese during English class.

When her cyan eyes caught sight of him, she ceased tapping her foot, stood up straighter, then reached into one of her jacket pockets and pulled out several sheets of folded paper. Even from ten meters away he could see the dark, finger-shaped stains on them, and when he was close enough for her to hold one out for him, he was certain that the stains were chocolate. Not wanting to get any of it on his hands, he accepted the paper and unfolded it with care.

Looking down with his eyes, to keep her in his periphery, he read, "Do you swear to keep what I will reveal to you a secret? Nod or shake your head in reply."

Since he was already committed to seeing this through, he looked back up and nodded.

She gestured for him to follow her as she walked toward the trees in one corner of the premises, and he obliged after a second of hesitation, wondering why she was taking him there. The trees were fairly spread out, providing plenty of light, so an ambush seemed unlikely, and anyone looking wouldn't have a hard time finding them there. It wasn't until they were among the trees that he was able to see where they might be headed, because a large, lichen-covered stone was directly ahead of them. He was familiar with the stone, but he'd never thought much of it, assuming it had once been a part of a rock garden and had been left alone for one reason or another.

Upon reaching it, she walked around it and stopped on the other side, where she held out another piece of paper to him.

Once again making sure to not touch the chocolate, he moved the paper out of the shade of the canopy and read, "This stone is a marker for a dimensional portal. On the other side is the universe where I came from. If you choose to go there, you should meet a princess who would be willing to cure you. I can't guarantee that she will know how to, now or later, but she will if she can."

He looked at her, making his disbelief clear, then he glanced over at the stone. It was then that he noticed the side that they were facing was flat and almost entirely free of lichen, which gave the clear area an oval shape. It didn't look natural, but he was willing to believe that a dimensional portal could be possible: it wouldn't be too strange compared to some of the things he'd experienced before. In fact, it was a bit like that compact mirror that he had gotten sucked into, except a whole universe would be on the other side instead of being shrunk to fit into the space behind the mirror.

Thinking that it wouldn't hurt to try and touch the stone, and find out if there was a portal or not, he reached toward it with his index finger extended. Just before he would have made contact with it, the air shimmered with light and rippled, and he lost sight of half of his finger before he jerked his hand back. While the light and ripples faded, he held up his finger for inspection and was relieved to see that nothing unfortunate had happened to it.

Sunset Shimmer cleared her throat. When he turned his attention to her, he saw that she was holding out the last sheet of folded paper to him. Distracted by the thought that there might actually be a cure waiting for him in another universe, he wasn't mindful of the chocolate stains when he opened it up and read, "Don't be alarmed by what you see on the other side, or what form you find yourself in. I wish I could be more specific on the details, but I'll explain why I couldn't be once I can tell you myself. Oh, and speaking of that: the princess will have a way to understand you, so you shouldn't have any trouble making your request."

He looked up from the message and stared at where the portal was with a frown, weighing if he should still take a risk and trust Sunset Shimmer. Shifting forms and going to odd places weren't strange to him, but neither were traps and ulterior motives that benefited someone else, often at his expense. He didn't have many good experiences with authority figures, either; so, even if this princess were willing to cure him, he wouldn't be surprised if there was a price so steep that he would be better off passing it up.

In the end, he remained steadfast in his decision to pursue this cure. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, after all. Plus, he would seriously regret passing up on the one cure that would have actually worked out for him. Besides that, if word of this opportunity became public, he'd much rather deal with the situation that would arise from him trying and failing than not trying at all.

With that last thought in mind, he returned the messages to Sunset Shimmer, steeled himself, then resolutely marched toward the stone. He couldn't help closing his eyes just before taking the step that would carry him through the portal, but they snapped back open when his foot failed to land on anything solid and he felt himself tipping forward. Rather than feeling the vertigo that came with falling, however, he literally felt his body being flattened and stretched as some unknown force seemingly pulled him through the inside of a rainbow in a dizzying fashion, and for a split second he could have sworn that he was seeing double.

Before he knew it, he was ejected out of the other side and landed on his face before he could get a good look at his environment. His momentum flipped him onto his back, where he slid on a cool, smooth surface before being halted by something decidedly non-slippery. From his supine position, the world was upside down when he opened his eyes and looked back at where he had come from.

What he saw was a mirror, and between him and it was a highly-reflective floor. Around the mirror were pillars and very large stained glass windows, and nearby there were swallowtailed banners hanging from the ceiling; which all made sense, considering how he was there to see a princess. When he turned his head to the side, however, he got a surprise when he saw a strange, light grey creature lying on the floor beside him, so close that he could feel their breath on his face when they turned to look at him.

They both yelped and hurried to their feet. However, in his rush to put some distance between them, he was reminded that his body would be altered and quickly discovered two things: it didn't feel natural to stand upright on two legs, and his new feet offered little in the way of traction to keep him from slipping on the floor. The other creature appeared to be having a similar problem, although unlike him it had wings that were flapping erratically and out of sync.

Noticing the red carpet nearby, and its promised stability, he enlisted the aid of his hands in the hope of sparing himself from further embarrassment. Unfortunately, he found out — too late — that his hands had been replaced by hooves, which didn't help the situation at all. So, after what felt like an eternity of slipping, stumbling, flailing and falling, he finally landed, stomach-first, with most of his upper body on the carpet.

Panting, he turned his head to regard the winged creature when he heard it land next to him and expel a loud exhale. Now that he had an opportunity to get a good look at it, their body seemed to be equine in nature, although not much like any equine that he had seen back in his own universe, aside from the black mane and tail. He thought they looked kind of stocky, like a pony, but the area between the eyes and muzzle was noticeably short compared to what he was accustomed to seeing on either a horse or pony, and their blue eyes were simply enormous. Then there were the wings, and as far as he knew winged horses were still fictional where he came from.

He also thought that they looked male, but he couldn't be sure.

When they noticed him, they blinked their eyes owlishly before asking, "You're not the princess, are you?"

He furrowed his brow in confusion as he stared at the male-sounding equine. "Do I look like her or something?"

"No idea," the equine replied. "I wasn't told what she looked like."

Their answer, and his own voice, gave him a bad feeling. Before he could reason out why, he heard a woman clear her throat from the opposite way he was looking; and above, judging by where the grey equine's eyes went, which widened in awe at what they saw.

His eyes mirrored theirs upon seeing her. She was tall, probably twice as tall as his current form, and from his prone position, at her hooves, she seemed even taller. She had purple eyes and a white coat that was tinged with pink, as well as wings and a horn, but what stood out most was her mane and tail, with their four pastel colors, flowing in the air as if they were subject to the whims of the lightest breeze. Some kind of large, gold accessory hung from her neck and hugged the contours of her breast, bearing a purple gem of notable size at its center, and on her hooves were some fancy-looking footwear.

However, when he caught sight of the tiara on her head, he eagerly queried, "Are you a princess," at the same time as the light grey equine.

Dread filled him as he snapped his head back around to regard said equine, who proceeded to tentatively ask him, "Are you... My curse?"

Comments

[Poparakelis]

Interesting but, the near lack of dialogue is off-putting, and am I the only one who can't see the likes?

[Boldish42]

I'm interested to see where this goes, but I'm not really getting any 'Ranma' ya'know? I can chock the lack so far to shock or similar issues, but I hope to see a more lively Ranma.

[DracoLazarus]

You know, Sunset Shimmer's plan in the first Equestria movie would probably have made more sense if it had been Furinkan High than Canterlot High.