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// 38 - Back to the Books 
// Story: Sunburst to the Rescue 
// by David Silver 
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It was a curious sensation. As he read the book alongside Twilight, trying to absorb and work through the dense language, he had the impression that his 'guest' was going the same. Platinum was quiet and didn't even give that background feeling of looking through his eyes.

All the better, he decided. He was free to be himself. "This is an interesting notion..."

"Mm?" Twilight glanced over from her half of the tome. "What is she proposing?"

Sunburst tapped at the book lightly. "Radical but theoretically one time surgery. It would have to be performed on a fully grown patient with the condition, but could be done as early as early adulthood, barring any growth spurts up here." He reached up to tap his altered horn.

Twilight made a little face. "I'm not sure you could pay me enough bits to want to have anyone cutting into my horn, and I can't imagine I'm the only one who would feel the same way."

"But if it worked..."

Twilight tapped  her chin softly before she nodded towards her side of the book. "She argued that such invasive procedures could lower the life expectancy of the average unicorn. While many could, potentially, lead perfectly fine, magically-active, lives, there is a risk of complications that we can't just ignore."

"But to deny the option?" Sunburst arched a brow. "If it was made clear what the benefits and risks are, at least ponies would have a choice to try and solve... this." He threw a hoof at the book as a whole.

Twilight nodded slowly. "You... may have a point. We should keep going, but keeping this operation a secret..." She leaned over to see the diagrams that were on Sunburst's side of the book. "It wouldn't be the right thing to do. Would... you trust it?"

Sunburst winced a little. "It's... hard to give an honest answer. I cheated." He tapped his altered horn. "I have your horn now. I just have to finish learning how to use it, rather than fixing mine... If you offered it to me while I was busy failing at Celestia's school? I woulda taken it in a heartbeat... Probably for a few years after that, come to think."

He sat back a little, a gentle smile spreading on his face. "After that, I kinda... just resigned... 'I'll never have real magic,' was just a fact I had to accept."

Twilight shook her head quickly. "How terrible! This is why we're doing this. No pony should just have to... accept that. Really." She tapped Sunburst's side of the open tome. "Let's get this copied and sent to the medical colleges. The sooner they can review and assimilate its learning, the better."

Sunburst suddenly grinned. "Most ponies have to accept that, Twilight."

She blinked, disarmed. "What?"

"There are more tribes that can not use magic than those that can. Any earth pony or pegasus is going to have to accept that magic is just not going to happen." He nodded softly as he spoke. "They do get other talents, of course, but that fact remains."

Twilight blinked her eyes slowly. "Oh... well, yes, I suppose that's true. Fluttershy will never weave an enchantment, but she will stare down a creature that turns you to stone with a mean look." She wobbled a hoof. "So I'd say she's still pretty magic, just not, you know, our magic."

"How your friend, Applejack, lands all the apples in the baskets when she kicks a tree is pretty magic," Sunburst easily agreed. "We should examine that."

"Maybe after this." She tossed her head towards the book. "Let's take a break to transcribe this surgery. We need to have it in as plain a language as possible, using modern terminology in the writing and on the diagrams." She suddenly grunted. "If we had this, why isn't it already being used?!"

"Wouldn't be the first innovation to wait a while before ponies realized they were sitting on a good thing." Sunburst nodded softly. "Let's get started." He drew out a piece of paper in his mouth.

"Not ready for motion yet, I gather?" She was watching him hold the paper in his mouth. "Do you have light working yet?"

He dropped the paper on the table, blushing a little. "Oh, um..." His horn began to glow softly, but it had his color of magic, not Twilight's.

Twilight noticed that with a tilt of her head. "How fascinating. Guess that proves the color comes from the inside, not the horn. Good to know."

He looked up at his glowing horn. "Yeah, go figure. I'm getting a hoof on it, bit by bit. Speaking of that... We need to talk, about Platinum."

"Princess Platinum," came a voice in his head. "What about me?"

Twilight seemed to notice his distraction. "Is she back?"

"Yeah, uh, I meant to ask about her position." He rolled a hoof softly. "She may... be a magical item, but she has intelligence and will. She has desires and can be reasoned with. What would it take to have her recognized as a person?"

Platinum blew a sudden and very un-royal raspberry in his head. "They would never!"

Twilight tilted her head. "Well, hmm... I'll need to review the existing..." She trailed off with a growing frown. "I'll ask Celestia if this has ever happened before. If she is fully thinking and has both feelings and the ability to tell right from wrong, then it wouldn't be very ethical to keep her as a slave."

"Your princess is... so soft. I can see why you like her. I would have laughed this entire topic away..." She didn't sound certain if she was for or against the notion. "To... be free. Is that really something I could do? What would I do?! My... All I know is overseeing the husband of the princess! I don't even have a body, and that crown hardly qualifies!"

Sunburst smiled a little. "She's scared."

"Scared?" Twilight arched a brow. "That's a curious reaction to considering her freedoms and rights."

"That is exactly why it's terrifying. She doesn't know how to be a free pony. She would need a more permanent body to live in, and she would have to learn how to live in modern day Equestria." He rolled a hoof softly. "Considering where she's come from, and been raised as, this is an alien way of life."

"I... could see that." She leaned in towards Sunburst. "Can you hear me, Princess Platinum?"

"I can."

"She can." Sunburst nodded.

"Then let me be clear; even if Celestia tells me there is nothing stopping this from happening, it won't happen unless you actually want it. You will be the most rare of pony." She smiled a bit oddly. "You'll have the choice of being born. Take it, and you will gain all the benefits, and responsibilities, of citizenship."

"I need to think about this."

His mental space became clear. "She's withdrawn. She's thinking about it. So... you're going to ask Celestia?"

"After we finish this." She drew a quill over in her magic. "Let's get to writing."

They refocused on the task at hoof, penning up a procedure that went from step to step without any confusing philosophical ramblings. It was not a time to discuss the ethics of the matter, but they did include complications to be wary of and potential responses to them. 

The diagrams they basically copied from the tome as they were, just updating the keys of the lines pointing to things with more modern names for each procedure and bodypart referred to. There was no need to assume a random doctor would be versed in the older variants of Ponish.

Satisfied, both sat back. The scroll they had created floated in front of them in Twilight's magic. She gestured at it with a smile. "Our first real result. This will change lives."

Sunburst thought  back towards his young adulthood, wondering how different it would have been if that very paper they were going to send in to the world had already been there. "Yeah... I hope some young pony has their... you know, their hope given back." He reached up and gently ran a hoof along the thick part of the scroll. "You know where it has to be?"

"I do." Her wings spread out wide. "This seems like a fine time for a break. I'll fly off to the post office and get this on its way. But first..."

She hugged Sunburst, drawing him close. He was stunned a moment before he awkwardly returned it, the two embracing in a quiet moment.

"We did it," she whispered. "I mean, we're not done, but we've done something... I'm tempted to tell Pinkie about it so she can throw one of her parties."

"You know she wouldn't hesitate." Sunburst gently waved towards the door. "Go on, get that going."

"With pleasure!" She took flight, not to the door, but instead through a window, only pausing long enough to push it open.

Sunburst came up along the same path and closed the window gently, smiling. He wouldn't get those years back, but he got a Twilight, and she was worth a few years he figured, nodding to himself. The bitter kernel of regret was softened, thinking of the girlfriend he happened to like.

"Love."

He frowned at the voice in his head. "Feeling better?"

"Still considering things, but you love her. Don't be coy in your own mind."

"You realize, if you become free, you won't be attached to me, or Twilight anymore. I mean, you can be our friends, if you want, but you have to get out of my head."

"Why?" He could feel her tilting her head just a little. "Whyever would that be? Managing you is what I know best. I dare say I'm doing a fabulous job at it. Watching you grow into your position is a great pleasure."

"You know, you could be helping so many more ponies."

"Hmm? Enough, come here."

Suddenly he was in a small sitting room. He was plopped down right on an impossibly soft cushion. Across from him was Princess Platinum, smiling at him curiously. "That's better. You weren't doing anything, so talk to me properly. What do you mean?"

He looked around, startled. The walls were covered in exquisite art of different mediums. Dangling jewelry competing for space with flat paintings. Sculptures dotted every available surface. "Oh... hello. I meant you don't have to just help me. If you're free, you're allowed to offer your services to so many other married or betrothed ponies that could use a helping hoof."

Platinum clopped her hooves. "A fascinating idea, but there are even less true royals these days than there were back when I was first created. Most of them are either already married, or still very single. I checked." She gestured and a book appeared floating over her hoof, then another appeared beside it only to be joined by a third. "They keep good records of these things. Thank you for bringing the material to me."

Sunburst smiled a little. Being thanked by her seemed a rare thing. "My pleasure, but it doesn't have to be royalty."

She frowned at that. "I wouldn't want my lovely crown resting on the brow of some common-born pony. Ugh, the propriety! That would... no! No, I will not casually touch the heads of... ew, darling, just ew."

He shook his head with a little smile. "That's why you would charge a fair fee for your service."

"This isn't about money! I don't even need it. It's not like I require sustenance." She shook her head in refusal. "I don't see how that helps."

"Think about it." He stood up. "First, if you are a free pony, you can always tell a pony no, even if they have the bits. Second, a high price will dissuade the lowest and attract higher-breeds of clients. They may not be royal, but nobles, and successful merchants?"