Solar Windfall

by Crescent Pulsar

Interlude: Call of Destiny

Sunset Shimmer was doing her best to concentrate while she practiced writing basic Kanji, but her guardian, Ninomiya Hinako, was making it difficult.

She put down her pencil and looked across the cluttered low table, her brow knitting as she watched the young girl cram potato chips into her mouth, completely entranced by the anime playing on the television and oblivious to the mess she was making. Despite being very enthusiastic about teaching her in general, she was easily distracted by anything even remotely interesting.

...Still, she was pleased that she had found a Ponish speaker so willing to provide her with room and board, as well as eager to teach her whatever she wanted to learn. That alone made their meeting seem fated, but there were other coincidences that made her believe that going through the mirror had been her destiny.

The name of the country that she found herself in, for instance, was commonly understood to mean "origin of the sun." However, upon further investigation, just to be thorough, she'd found out that it could also be read as "sun book." What were the odds that she would end up at a place whose identity was tied to the sun, and could also refer to a book with her cutie mark on it?

Also, the ward of Tokyo that the mirror had taken her to, Nerima, literally meant "training horse." While that wasn't an exact match, horses were still a part of the equine family, and the closest relation to ponies as well. Regardless, training was exactly what she planned to do, until she felt ready to confront Celestia.

And speaking of training: in her pursuit to understand how magic worked for humans, she had encountered a symbol that kinda resembled the center of her cutie mark, called "yin-yang." She wasn't sure what to think about it by itself, but within the context of everything else she assumed that it was also a sign that her life was on the right track.

The only thing she really didn't like about her situation, was the fact that she lived at a place called "Friendship Apartments." It always reminded her of Celestia, who often tried to push her away by telling her to make friends. Honestly, it bothered her more than how small the apartment was, which was a single room with an attached bathroom.

When she saw a disappointed expression appear on Hinako's face, and heard what sounded like a commercial break, she told her, "Hey, sensei, don't forget to clean up before going to bed."

Hinako regarded her with a pout and whined, "But I'm tired..."

Sunset fixed her with a stern expression. "Do you want to set a bad example?"

Biting her lip, Hinako glanced at the television, confirmed that commercials were still playing, then jumped to her feet and said, "O-of course not!"

While she began to pick up the trash on the table, Sunset shook her head. Not only was it easy to take advantage of her passion to teach scholastically, but her desire to teach proper behavior as well.

She was about to continue practicing Kanji when her ears barely caught the sound of a familiar buzz. Turning her head to look at her backpack, placed near the head of Hinako's bed, she saw a faint glow emitting from the opening of the main compartment.

She frowned, wondering why Celestia had waited so long to contact her with the relay book. She supposed it could have something to do with Ranma, but whatever praise she might be willing to offer for that wasn't of any interest to her. After all, the reason she had brought the book with her, when the amount of items she could bring were limited, was to give the princess a means of apologizing to her when she realized the error of her ways.

Since the only way to know why she was being contacted was to look, she crawled over to her backpack and pulled the book out. Once she was comfortably seated on her legs, she opened the book and found the latest entry, suppressing the anger that flared up when she was reminded of how many pages had gone unused.

"Hey," she read, recognizing the princess' handwriting, "this is Ranma." Her brow furrowed in confusion, but her pause was brief. "My male and female bodies got separated when I went through the portal, and that's put me in a tough position."

"That's interesting," she thought, unconcerned about their situation.

"I've decided to stay here for a while, at least until the next time the portal is open, to see if I want to be adopted by Celestia or—"

"What!?" She screamed internally, her grip on the book becoming vice-like and her body shaking with rage.

She heard Hinako gasp in surprise and exclaim, "Sunset-chan, are you misbehaving!?"

Looking over her shoulder, Sunset saw her guardian standing with her arms akimbo and scrutinizing her with narrowed eyes. Having witnessed what she did to "delinquents" many times by now, and not wanting to experience it for herself, she hurriedly responded with, "N-no! I was just upset by something I read!"

Hinako appeared ready to inquire further when her attention was completely derailed by the sound of the anime's return. Sunset released a sigh of relief when her guardian quickly sat back down at the table and became enraptured by the television, completely forgetting about her.

Looking back down at the book, she reined in her anger before reading, not wanting her ki to flare up and draw unwanted attention again. "I've decided to stay here for a while, at least until the next time the portal is open, to see if I want to be adopted by Celestia or try my luck back home. I was hoping you could keep me posted on what male me is doing until then. I'd really appreciate it."

Disregarding the request for now, she scowled and wondered what Celestia found so special about Ranma. What did they have that she didn't, to get the same treatment as Cadence; who, very notably, had become a princess? She had spent years trying to prove herself, to elevate herself so high that they would always be close. However, the more that she had improved, the more that she had advanced through her lessons, the less frequent came the praise and more often she had been pushed away, to socialize with other ponies.

She didn't need other ponies. She had once thought that Celestia was the only pony that mattered, after the princess found her special enough to be her protégé, but she eventually realized that she wasn't any better than her parents. All her mother had wanted to do was continue her partying lifestyle instead of having anything to do with her unplanned child. And when the princess had chosen her to be her protégé, her deadbeat father had become jealous and his lukewarm treatment of her became cold.

She wasn't sure what Celestia's problem with her was. Maybe she was jealous of how fast she learned, feared her power, or grew uninterested in her, and that's why she had dramatically slowed down their lessons and tried to make her waste her time on others. Whatever the reason, not even the princess was going to prevent her from reaching her full potential, and for trying to discard her she would make her regret it.

As her thoughts turned to the other Ranma, she frowned thoughtfully.

While she was still upset that Celestia found them to be exceptionally special, she couldn't really be angry at them. Depending on how things turned out, she might even end up empathizing with them. Regardless of how she felt about them, though, they could be an unwitting spy for her while she learned human magic and figured out how to get the powerful humans to do her bidding. All she needed to do was ensure they remained there and stayed in contact.

With that last thought in mind, she went over to the table to get her pencil, where she noticed that her guardian was now sprawled across it and lightly snoring, a line of drool already pooling on the tabletop. She didn't pay it any mind, since it was a rather common occurrence, and brought her pencil back to her book.

After some careful consideration, she wrote, "I'm sorry to hear about your situation. I'll let you know if anything notable happens with male Ranma."

Thinking that should be good enough, she returned the book to her backpack. Before she got back to practicing basic Kanji, she turned off the television and carried Hinako to her bed. After she was done tucking her in, she regarded her for a few seconds before shaking her head.

"I feel like I'm the guardian," she muttered.

Comments

[Whitertin]

Holy dam your alive !

[Too_cool_to_stab]

Thanks for the chapters!