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// 27 - Gotta Catch 'Em All 
// Story: Sunburst to the Rescue 
// by David Silver 
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Sunburst perked up with a thought. "Is there a pony in charge of this? You mentioned one before right?"

Star bobbed her head. "Yup. What about him?"

"He has authority, and, I imagine, moves around a lot." He stroked his beard lightly. "Think he might have some pins?"

"Of course." She clip-clopped her forehooves before hopping up to all four. "Let's find him." She tapped at her chin. "He would be in the autograph room for ten more minutes."

It was a time that Sunburst appreciated her creepy knowledge of exactly when and what famous ponies were doing. "Do you know where that is?"

"Follow me." She set off at a lively trot. "This is exciting. It's not often I really get to help an important pony out." She turned an ear towards him. "We'll get all the pins before the end of the day."

"That'd be nice." A thought tickled at him. "Do you think anyone else is closing in on it?"

"I hope not! There can only be one winner, so let's hurry up." She redoubled her motion, breaking into a full gallop through the crowd of ponies, bobbing and weaving among them.

Sunburst hurried after her, apologizing to the ponies he bumped along the way. "Pardon me, sorry, excuse me..." He wasn't sure how she managed to move so quickly in the dense convention, but at least he kept her in sight, and soon they arrived at the autograph room.

There was a long line waiting to get inside. Star frowned at it. "Mmm."

Sunburst caught up with her, panting. "Where... is he?"

She pointed past the line. "In there, oh!" She went up to the door, skipping the line. "Excuse me?"

One of the convention staffers waved at the line. "No line skipping."

"I'm not trying to get an autograph. I needed to talk to the con chair."

The staffer hiked a brow and looked into the room. He waved a hoof inside of it and gestured for somepony to come closer. Soon a stallion emerged, looking between the staffer and Star. "Something wrong?"

Sunburst smiled brightly. "Just a couple of treasure hunters. We hear you may have something we need."

He laughed at that, reaching a hoof into a pocket and producing two pins. "Good luck. Having a good time?"

"A great time!" Star hopped in place with a smile. "Just two more."

"That few? Well, better get back to work. Good luck." He ducked right back into the autograph room, leaving them to their scavenging.

"Well, " sighed out Sunburst. "One of them is going to be hard... Let's go for the other one." He pulled up the brochure and  ran his eyes over the clues. "Request from the royal vault three things, each twice as grand as the one before it." He looked to Star Catcher. "Any idea what a 'royal vault' would be?"

She frowned at that, the two going quiet a moment before she reached for the brochure. She flipped through it with a soft muttering. "Maybe... something... Oh!" She slapped down a hoof on the page she was looking at. "That's what the convention store's called. How could I forget that? Well, there aren't any important ponies there..."

They broke into a trot. She didn't dash away that time, allowing Sunburst to keep up with her as they wove through the crowd towards the convention store that had 'ROYAL VAULT' displayed over the table in bright gold. There were only a few ponies nearby, one looking over what it offered, others loitering.

Sunburst advanced towards the table, peering over the wide selections of treasure hunting-themed trinkets. "Huh..."

Star pointed past him to a price list. "That has the whole list."

His eyes lifted towards it and he frowned with thought, mouthing numbers silently a moment. "Excuse me?"

One of the convention staff sitting behind the table looked up at him. "Yep?"

"I would... like... One pencil end, one pin, and one magnet." He pointed to each thing in turn, each exactly twice as expensive as the one before it.

"He requests it," noted Star with a big grin.

"Oh, well, since you're requesting it..." He reached under the table and came back up, siding something just under his hoof. "Here you are, something to make it better." Moving his hoof, a pin was revealed.

Sunburst plucked up the pin in his magic. "Can she have one too? Thanks."

"Yeah, sure. You actually want that stuff?" He produced a second pin, sliding it towards Star, who added it right to her vest.

Star shook her head quickly. "Just came for this, but thanks!"

"Yeah, thanks." Sunburst nodded at him and turned away. "Now for the hardest one..."





Twilight watched the scenery slowly scroll past. "Why didn't Celestia teach me that trick?" If she could send a letter to Spike like the princess could... Then again, how would he reply? His replies went straight to Canterlot, and would not reach her. She didn't have a phone in the castle, a fact she was considering doing something about.

She looked as far ahead as  her vantage point allowed in the train and sighed loudly. It would take days for the train to even finish getting to Ponyville. By the time she arrived, he would already be done with the convention. "Maybe he'll have a treasure box..." She smiled at the thought of it. She really wanted to prod at its contents, and he would be helpful for that as well.

Her head sunk against the glass of the window. "So this is what it's like." Having a special somepony had downsides. As nice as it was when he was around, being forced away felt almost equally bad. Her mind turned to how they would celebrate when they were reunited. "We'll translate another twelve pages." She nodded firmy to herself. "Then we'll fix that little problem of his."

Her thoughts strayed towards that problem. She tried to imagine having it herself, her magic stymied by an unfortunate roll of the dice. Would she have ever managed to hatch Spike, or do most of the other things that made her Twilight? Would she even try? Would she have found some other fascination besides magic to fixate on? She smiled a little, deciding that was very likely. What she would have picked to obsess over, she couldn't even guess.

What would Sunburst have been if he didn't have that condition? What wonders would he have already accomplished? She sighed softly, squirming in place. That wasn't a productive line of thought. Better to look to the future, curing him, and offering hope to foals. The future could maybe be free of the disease. Wouldn't that be wonderful?

She nodded with rising determination. She was certain Sunburst felt the same way. He wasn't bitter about the past,  he just wanted to fix the present and the future. And they'd do just that! She sat up tall. "But first thing's first." She had a cutie map quest to fulfill.





"What's so hard about it?" She read over the line out loud, "Right where you start, you might trip over me when the whistle blows."

Sunburst sighed gently. "I know where they are, or were. There was almost a stampede towards them and I handed them out to ponies. They're all gone."

Star tilted her head. "That was really good of you, but if they're all gone..."

"Yeah..." He rubbed behind his head. "That was silly of me..."

She prodded him on the closer shoulder. "I say we turn them in."

He blinked at that. "But we're missing one."

"And if they're decent ponies, they'll count it anyway. You were busy being a good pony and keeping people from getting hurt." She nodded firmly. "If they say no, well, their loss. Hmmph."

He nodded at her. "Oh, well... you have a point. Unless we trade for one of those pins, there aren't a lot of other options."

She grinned. "Well, if they say no, then we try the trading thing." She hopped up in place and came down facing in a new direction. "Onwards, to adventure!" She giggled as she walked. "This is fun."

They went to the room specified in the scavenger hunt. It was out of the way of most of the major traffic lines, just on the side of a small hallway. 'Treasure' was hung up on a sign over the door, and idle conversation could be heard drifting out of the door.

Inside the room were two mares and a stallion seated around a table. On the table was the treasure chest. Sunburst smiled on seeing it, figuring that meant they weren't too late. "Excuse me?"

All three looked over, their conversation dropping instantly. The mare closest to the door stood up. "Do you have all the pins?"

Star waved dramatically at Sunburst. "All but one, and we have a good reason for that one."

The stallion cocked a brow. "Yeah?"

Sunburst cleared his throat softly. "Well, yes. The one I missed was the one placed just outside the opening ceremony. The ponies were ready to riot towards it."

The other mare lifted her shoulders. "And you didn't want to push in?"

"Not exactly..." He rubbed behind his head. "I passed out pins in an orderly fashion so nopony would get hurt."

The first mare smiled a little. "And you ended up with nothing for yourself."

"Yeah..." He rubbed a hoof over the floor. "Kind of silly, I suppose. I had them right there, but I wasn't thinking about that."

The stallion leaned forward, still sitting on his chair. "Sounds to me like you remembered the number one rule."

The second mare bobbed her head in agreement. "Besides, we already knew you did that."

Sunburst's ears went up. "What?"

The first mare rolled her eyes. "They weren't suppose to mention that, but it's kind of hard to miss. You were coralling that crowd of rabid treasure hunters like a champ." She clopped her forehooves. "Of course we're going to count it. Not like you didn't get to the basket. Let's see all the other pins."

Sunburst eagerly collected up all his pins, plucking them free of his robe to set them on the table between the three staffers. "Here we go. It was a team effort, with Twilight, Star here--" He waved at her as he mentioned her. "--, and myself."

Star began to blush brightly. "Aw, I didn't help that much..."

The first mare counted over the pins while studying each in turn. "Not bad, looks like you have them all." She swept the pins back towards Sunburst. "See you at the award ceremony."

Sunburst blinked softly. "Oh, is that when the chest is given?"

The stallion shook his head. "You won't be the only one with them all. There's a contest for who gets the grand prize and who gets the runner ups."

Star's ears fell. "Wait, but... we did it fast."

The second mare snorted softly. "You're not even the first one, so be happy, since if it was first come, you'd already have lost." She produced a big red ribbon with a treasure chest on it. "Keep this, it'll get you into the contest for the chest. Win it, and you get the chest. The runner up prizes aren't bad though. Look on the bright side."

Sunburst took the ribbon in his magic. "Right, okay. What will the final contest be?"

The second mare grinned wickedly. "That'd be telling! Be there and be ready."

Star raised a hoof. "If it's alright to say, how many others have gotten this far?"

They shared a look among themselves before the stallion shrugged. "You're the fourth valid one." He snorted softly. "Some ponies tried to cheat, but we saw through that."

"Really?" Sunburst raised a brow at that. "That's not really in the spirit of things."

The first mare shook her head. "Exactly not. Hey, if it helps, I kinda hope you win. You're a treasure hunter with a good heart."