//------------------------------//
// 3 - From the Source 
// Story: Sunburst to the Rescue 
// by David Silver 
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"I was visiting Baltimare," she began. "Other business had me there, concluded successfully. Since I was there, I decided to at least poke my nose into a few interesting shops before I came home." She waved a hoof around as if looking with it. "And that's when I saw it. In a bookstore, in the back. The owner had given up selling it, and it just sat there, dusty and forgotten."

Sunburst began clapping eagerly at the tale. "What a find! Did you snap it up?"

"Not right away," she admitted, putting a hoof gently on the book. "I didn't know what it was either, yet, but I had a good feeling. You're more familiar with the author, but I didn't have that advantage. In the end, the title promised answers, and the text defied them, and the challenge of it is what won me over."

"And I'm glad it did." Sunburst nodded towards the massive tome. "What a find," he sighed out, eyes closing a little. "You're quite the antiquer." He patted the book gently. "Now, um..." He gingerly peeked at the next page, only to release his magic and let it flutter back down. "We have reading to do. If this follows her usual pattern, which it may not, given its size, we should pay attention to the change of flow between pages. Left and right are not the same."

Twilight leaned over the words, peering with a bit of wonder. "Why would--"

"Ours is not the question why, in this case." He raised a hoof and booped her nose gently. "She did it, and she isn't here to ask the why of it. It's just up to us to decipher it. She enjoyed a good debate so much, she often debated with herself in her writing. The two sides will argue the opposing sides of any issue, attempting to give perfectly reasonable and credible logic to support their side."

Twilight rubbed her booped nose lightly. "That explains some of what I read. I... was starting to think the writer was just insane, and that may yet be the case, but..."

"But she isn't, er, wasn't. She had a razor sharp intellect." His eyes swept over the letters, reading them voraciously. "So... what made you interested in the, uh, topic?"

Twilight leaned in, brushing against Sunburst in order to have a good reading vantage. "Oh, well..." She smiled widely, cheeks squeaking. "Scholarly interest?"

Sunburst glanced towards her. "You saw a challenge and couldn't refuse."

"Basically."

Sunburst laughed nervously. "O-of course." Why would the princess be personally interested in that subject? Neither her nor any of her close friends suffered that issue. "And what a challenge this is," he said to smooth away the awkwardness. "Besides, there's a good chance she never fully figured it out."

"Or she might have," argued Twilight. "If she found it and decided Equestria could only have it when it 'earned' that knowledge, putting it in her hugest book ever sounds like exactly what this mare would do, from what you've told me."

Sunburst's glasses fell down along his snout as he sat up, regarding Twilight. "That... might be the case." Hope dared to reignite in a small ember in his chest. "Let's get through this introductory chapter first, and no, we shouldn't skip it. It sets the tone."

Talk ebbed away as they both absorbed the page. They compared their thoughts on it, even as Twilight looked a little flustered. "We've only just begun, do we need to analyze every page?"

"Every one," assured Sunburst. "Just the way she writes. On the positive, if we take meticulous enough notes--" His words were cut off as Twilight's papers floated around where he could see them easier. She had not been slouching. "Just like that. Nopony else will have to. We're trailblazers, burning a path forward into knowledge for others to follow."

It was Twilight's turn to clop her hooves. "You make that sound much more appealing. Yes, let's be the brave first explorers, even if it's harder and slower than anycreature else will ever have to deal with. They'll walk down the path we left behind. I wonder if they'll think of us?" She waved it away. "It doesn't matter. We'll be doing our part." She reached for the book, but her magic did the actual lifting, very gently turning the page. "Thank you, for coming so quickly. I feel like we can do this."

A knock from the door of the room they were in had both of their heads snapping to see Spike standing there. "Hey, uh, dinner's ready, if you can peel yourselves away for a moment."

Twilight's eyes went wide. "Dinner? Already?! How long have we been reading that first page?!"

Sunburst rose to his hooves and stretched, working out the kinks that had formed from sitting still for so long. "Thanks, Spike. What are we having?"

Spike grinned. "Enchiladas." He watched Twilight's expression fall to potential horror. "Without cheese," he added, pointing at her. Even as she sagged with relief he turned away. "Right this way. You can't keep thinking without fuel."

Twilight nodded softly. "Yes, right. Thank you. Right this way, Sunburst." She fell in behind Spike and soon all three were on the way to the dining room.

Spike raced ahead at the last moment, hopping up onto the table in a spritely display. "Behold." He lifted the metal lid of the platter, revealing the orderly stack of enchiladas, awaiting devouring. "But wait, there's more." With a foot, he yanked off another lid, and his tail grabbed a third, revealing sides to go with it.

Sunburst sank into a chair with a smile. "This is more than I usually prepare for dinner."

Spike set the lids in a pile to the side. "What do you usually have?" He hiked a brow, remembering what Sunburt's home looked like. "Do you usually have dinner?"

Sunburst started to color rapidly. "I, well, sometimes?"

Twilight's glow wrapped around one of the wrapped treats and lifted it quickly over to the plate in front of Sunburst. "Well, we won't be having that. You're my study assistant, and that means you're being fed."

Spike grinned as he speared one for himself. "And if she forgets, I'll be here. Bunch of bookworms get lost in your tomes and lose all track of time." He sank his teeth into the soft tastiness. "Mmm, that's what I'm here for, so ponies don't come to visit one day and find Twilight's skeleton draped over one of her favorite books."

Twilight colored as she sat up. "Spike! That isn't funny." She glanced left and right before taking a sharing of all the offering for herself, assembling it on her plate. "I don't get... that distracted."

Spike leaned over towards Sunburst, whispering, "Usually."

"I heard that."

Spike giggled as he got into eating voraciously. "So, learn anything yet?"

Sunburst shook his head. "We've only just taken the first step."

"Wow, that slow?" Spike grabbed a shaker and rattled it, releasing not salt or pepper, but a light dusting of sapphires over his food. "You two'll be at it forever at that rate. May as well just move in."

That blush was proving contagious, leaping from pony to pony without pity or mercy. "O-oh, um... Will I be staying here while we work on this?" He looked to Twilight, uncertain. "I could get a room in town, if you prefer?"

Twilight was quick to wave a hoof dismissively. "Nonsense. I have this huge castle and most of the rooms are empty. Besides, we already prepared a room for you."

"Correction, I prepared a room for you." Spike grinned at Sunburst. "So you never have to be far away."

"Are the enchiladas done?" Starlight entered the dining room with a smile, which tempered a little, seeing who was already at the table. "Oh, hey... how's the studying going?" She hopped up into a chair and got her own share of the food. "Unlock the mysteries of the universe already?"

Spike stuck out his tongue, wings flapping in a fidget. "They managed to read the first page, Ooo."

Starlight blinked at that. "Wow, that thick? No wonder you called Sunburst."

Twilight shook her head quickly. "We were just getting started. I feel certain that our speed will increase as we grow accustomed to the work. That isn't to say Sunburst hasn't already proven himself, because he has. Thank you, Sunburst."

Sunburst smiled awkwardly. "I'm just as interested in deciphering that book, I assure you."

Starlight leaned in a little. "Well, all work and no play makes a dull pony. Why don't we take a little break from that dusty old thing? It's not going anywhere. We could... play a little board game?"

Sunburst's smile changed a little, gazing at Starlight like a loved, but bothersome, sister. "We're just getting into the tempo of it."

Twilight was fast to bob her head. "Now that we've made the first real dent in this project, I can't imagine pulling myself away from it so quickly."

Even as Starlight sank, her head against a hoof, Spike raised a fork of speared veggies at her. "Hey, I'm up for a little board game."

The two studious ponies finished devouring the food needed to sustain their mighty minds and dashed back to the book with all the giddiness of foals on Hearth's Warming day. Sunburst plopped down before the open tome, nodding to it. "And now we proceed."

"I find it fascinating that she seems to be somewhat misandrist." Twilight wobbled a hoof at the book. "We've scarcely begun, but it does seem clear. With the exception of Star Swirl, who she regarded as having 'The capacity of a mare'."

Sunburst rubbed at a cheek lightly, covering any coloration it might have had. "Those were different times. These days, a pony is measured by their talent and skill, not by their... You know."

"Despite that, if she thought stallions were inherently weaker magic users, her findings may even focus on them for her research on why a given pony may have weaker access to magic without obvious horn defects." Her eyes were on the second page, reading slowly. "What does this mean?"

Sunburst jumped, eyes darting to where Twilight was pointing. "Oh, hmm.." He turned back to the first page, then back again to the second, eyes scanning rapidly. "I think she's referring to something she hasn't yet brought up. Take a note of that to return to later." Sunburst sat back with a sigh, smiling. "She didn't have an editor, not that such a profession was really a 'thing' yet, so her thoughts don't always come down in the right order to make it easy for someone trying to absorb what she wrote."

Twilight huffed softly. "Or, she did this on purpose, to make sure ponies 'earned' it." She made a little scoff of a noise. "Remind me to not do that when I write my memoirs, alright?"

"Alright." Sunburst put a hoof behind his head, his eyes still on the page. "I... doubt you'll have a problem."

"Mmm?"

"I'm sure what you write will be perfectly understandable. I've, uh, already... read some of it. It was... very..." His blush had reached critical levels, muddying his ability to speak. "Very... eloquent! Precise. It's..." He dared to peek up.

Twilight was looking directly at him, which made him freeze. She smiled a little and put a hoof on his cheek. "Thanks. Don't be so nervous though. I promise, I'm not quizzing you on this." She turned her attention back on the book. "Let's do this."

The second page collapsed under their combined mental power in only two hours, a distinct upgrade from the first page. Still, it was only one more page. With such a massive book, neither was fooled into thinking any real knowledge had been obtained yet. Still, they were getting the hang of it. They decided to go for one more page for the night, crushing the third page in only an hour, and finding a hint, but not the meat, of what had confused Twilight on the page before.

"It's fascinating..." Twilight stood up. "You're right, each page seems to argue the one before it. She takes both sides of the debate with equal passion. Tomorrow, we'll see if we can't go faster still. I want to get to page 20 at the minimum."

Sunburst ran a hoof through his frazzled mane. "Challenge accepted. We can, um, do this." He hopped up to his hooves. "Thank you, for inviting me."