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// Sunburst 
// Story: Colgate's Rants 4:  Fans' Choice 
// by StormLuna 
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Sunburst (Suggested by SonicRPika) 

As many of you know I often get patients from outside of Ponyville because either their dentist got shut down for having an unsanitary office or because they flat out suck.  Surprisingly, my next patient does not fit into either one of those categories.  Sunburst was referred to me by Starlight Glimmer.  Assuming he can pay up, I might let her exert more dominance over my harem and who knows, I might let her dominate me once a month if Sunburst pays up. 

He comes in and he seems like a nice pony, kind of quiet and shy.  If this is any indication, he will wind up being just fine.  I ask him how he is going to pay and of course he waves around an insurance card.  I take a look at it and it reads "Crystallers Associates, Inc."  I have never heard of it before so I took a look at the back of it and the phone number looks extremely suspicious.  The customer service number is just one number off from the one for TiaCare.   Given the difference in numbers I decided I would take him back.

Like so many other patients he was apprehensive to open his mouth.  When he did open it I was shocked.  Half of his teeth were broken off and naturally this pissed me off.  I smacked him and asked him what the hell he was thinking.  He started going on about how in the days before Sombra that crystallers would eat crystals and it would not harm them at all.  If he has been doing that and they haven't made him sick, then perhaps he is related to Pinkie.

Of course he didn't have the broken pieces and unlike what I did with Cadence though, I did not use my magic to fix his teeth.  Chances are he does not have any pretty relics for me to go and seize because I know he won't have enough for the co-pay when I'm done with this.  

Now he seems calm and quiet on the outside but on that day I did learn he has a horrible temper.  He began going ballistic that I would not use my magic to fix his teeth given that I did that for Cadence.  I smacked him again and let him know that I only went against my principles because I figured Cadence would be able to pay me.

What I had to do was a technique I had never used before.  I had to use a grinder to cut the tops off of his teeth down to where they would all be the same length.  Yeah he doesn't have much in the way of teeth left but hey, I don't want him walking around with jagged teeth of uneven length.  That would be a crime against his smile!

When I took him up front he was clearly grouchy but he wouldn't be the only one once I ran his insurance card through the system.  It was declined because it claimed I was outside of the company's network.  Before he could start going ballistic again I put a stun spell on him and called the number on the back of the card.  It is odd, I know I have talked to this representative before.  After grilling her for a few minutes I learned that his insurance is yet another subsidiary of TiaCare!

After that I was enraged.  Yeah his bill came up to only 1,000 bits but still, he had no way to pay me.  He had no cash on him and I highly doubt he has anything of any value.  Wait a minute, he is an employee of the Crystal Empire so the empire will owe me for this.  Now I didn't feel like returning with Sunburst up to the empire to demand my money that day, I did have other patients as well so I gave him a bill to hoof deliver to Cadence.

You're not going to believe this.  Several days later I receive a cashier's check from The Royal Crystal Bank in the sum of 1,000 bits!  Woo-hoo!  I actually got paid without having to travel out of town and inconvenience patients to collect my money.  Now am I going to make a habit of this?  No I am not.  If he comes down again and can't pay, I'll go home with him and I'm taking that silver Alicorn statue that I want so badly. 

On a final note, since Sunburst inconvenienced me and I had to wait a bit for my payment, Starlight had to compensate me since she referred him.  I revoked her rights to dominate the other mares in my harem for a month.  So for a month she was just another slave but hey, she's still a happier mare than she was when she first came to see me.