Sunburst to the Rescue

by David Silver

21 - Day 1

Ponies poured free of the main hall, chatting animatedly about the convention as a whole, and the scavenger hunt.

"It's right there!" came the a sudden cry. The crowd heaved as ponies pushed and tried to get at what had been found. Sunburst considered joining the rush, but opted against it. "Twilight, teleport me right there." He pointed to the center of things.

"Be careful." Suddenly he was gone, whisked away by her magic.

He popped just over a stack of papers. "Everypony!" he shouted as loud as he could. "This is a test. Let's do this properly. Form a line and I'll hand it out." He floated up the stack of papers and took one off, offering it to the nearest pony. "There's plenty here, let's be good adventurers about it."

While there were some surprised murmurs about who this strange new pony was giving orders, the fact that he was handing out the first needed item freely had ponies filtering past him instead of wondering about it for too long. He gave out every sheet he had, the last pony giggling with barely restrained joy as she pranced away.

He was left with nothing but a few new frazzles in his mane. "Oh..." He hadn't even gotten one for himself. "Oh well..." It was better to have defused what could have been a riot that hurt a pony, he decided.

"I'll just have to look twice as hard for the next one." He floated out the original list, scanning over it. "Overlooking the welcome, I reign from on high with the rising sun." He cracked a grin. That hadn't been the first item on the list, he picked one at random, but he felt sure on that one.

He turned back to the main hall and oriented himself, figuring out where north was, then he looked up and around. "Rising sun..." There was something stuck up in the rafters. He was sure of it!

"I have to get to the hall," spoke Twilight, breaking his thought. "You'll be alright?"

He jumped in surprise. "Oh, yes! Say, before you go, can I get one more teleport?"

Twilight tilted her head. "We really shouldn't make this a habit, but where did you need to go?"

He thrust a hoof up at the rafters. "I'm sure there's another, longer, way to get up there, but..."

"Be careful, please. I don't want my boyfriend falling and hurting himself." Her horn started glowing softly, brightening to a flash as she banished him away to where he wanted to be. "I forgot to ask if he got the first thing." She shook her head and trotted towards the exhibition hall. She has knick-knacks to sell and have appraised.

Sunburst appeared with a pop, landing on the narrow walkways. He glanced down and regretted it instantly. Why were they hiding them in such dangerous places? He could see it though. A basket held a bunch of something, likely for ponies to take one. He just had to cross the beams towards it. With slow steps he approached, daring not to have more than one hoof off the walkway at a time in a slow inching forward.

A pegasus darted up ahead of him and grabbed one of the little pins in the basket with a happy cheer. The stallion spotted him coming. "Uh, pretty sure you should be coming from that way." He pointed to a wider walkway that led to the basket.

"I didn't know about it." Sunburst kept nudging forward, working towards the basket with an almost-shuffle.

"Want a hoof?"

Sunburst smiled. "Please, if you can." Suddenly he was lifted up, the pegasus flying right under him and carrying him over to the basket. "Oh! Thank you." He grabbed a pin with his magic. "Let's head back down."

"No problem to help out a fellow adventurer, right?" The pegasus descended smoothly, letting Sunburst hop free. They met their hooves in a firm clop. "Heh, I feel like the mascots."

Sunburst was grinning, and feeling a bit like the happy mascots himself. "Yeah. Let's keep looking."

"I have to get to a panel." He pointed with a wing. "Good luck!"

"Good luck!" He waved at the fleeing pegasus before looking back at his brochure to make sure he wasn't missing a panel himself. There were so many more things to find!

---

Twilight sat down behind her booth, eyes scanning over her trinkets before looking out at the aisle in front of her.

"Ready?" It was the first pony she had bought from, the stallion beside her.

"Not entirely." She grinned a little. "I've overseen a convention before, but not participated as a dealer myself. It's... different."

"Don't worry about it." He tapped at his table with a broad hoof. "Just don't sit there."

"Don't sit here?" She stood up and peeked as if she might be sitting on something. "Why not?"

"I mean, you can if you want, but try not doing that. Shout, call. Greet ponies and get them over to look at what you have. It's easy to just sit there, but if you want to move what you have, put in some effort."

Twilight noticed a mare wandering right past her table, not even glancing at it. "Hello there," she called out. "Do you like the Power Ponies?"

The mare paused, looking confused a moment before her brain processed who had called to her and she turned to look at Twilight. "Yeah, a--" She stopped, seeing the Maneiac figure. "Oh wow!" She pointed a hoof at it. "Why's that here? This place is for antiques, right?"

Twilight gestured with a slightly over-dramatic sweep of a hoof. "But this is already an antique. Can you spot what makes this one different?"

The mare leaned in to peer at the figure, picking it up and turning it around carefully. Her presence drew over a stallion to peek at the table. "Wow, nice collection," he complimented before reaching for a button. "Ooo..."

Twilight could only smile. Things were looking up! "That was the button worn by Commander--"

---

Sunburst trotted along with a proud smile. He'd found three things so far! And he was just in time for his first panel. He slipped inside and trotted towards down the aisle, considering which seat to take.

An analysis on the preservation of corrodible metals. How could he miss that?! He listened to the lecturer eagerly, waving a hoof when he had a question. His smile waned a little as it pressed on. It turned out he knew as much as the lecturer on how to keep shiny keepsakes shining and new.

Disappointed, he quietly made his way free of the hall and pulled out his scavenger list. "At least I have something to work on." He looked to the next hint. "My hunger unending, it is only in foreign guts of the slain that you will find me." He tilted his head at the hint. "How morbid."

He shook his head. "Let's take this one step at a time." He wandered with purpose. Hunger unending. The food court? There were four food stands right in the convention hall right beside one another, awaiting the chance to sate the attendee's appetites.

"In foreign guts..." He looked from one to the next. Roasted carrots? Not foreign, no guts. He made a face at the idea of guts being involved with food. The next stand was offering hay burges. Again, dometic, not guts.

"Psst." Sunburst jumped. It was the pegasus from before. "You showed me where the other one was, there." He pointed to a stand and a particular offering.

"Griffon roasted links?!" Sunburst took a step forward. "Of course! Um, thanks!" They paused long enough to share a triumphant meeting of hooves before he dashed over to the stall. Just behind the display for the links was the basket, tucked in the corner of the stall. He lifted one free and tucked it away with a little giggle of joy.

A glance at the clock showed it was soon time for Twilight to want to start moving for her own panel desires. He hurriedly trotted through the crowd of adventurous ponies, making his way into the large room that held her and all the others offering trinkets.

Already he could see tables were less overflowing. The various trinkets that the attendees had in their bags, hooves, and magic were not on the tables. He ambled up to her table with a smile. "Woah, look at you!"

Twilight's wings spread wide. "I know! It's been amazing." She gestured over her collection, half of it removed. "I never knew selling things could be satisfying. How'd it go?" She leaned in close, over the table. "Did you find a lot of the scavanger parts?"

He pulled out the list. "I found 3, 5, and 8. Oh, and 9." He surrendered the list to her. "If you spot any on your way..."

"Of course." She tucked the list away as she circled the table. "Thanks for watching the table for me. If it keeps going this well, maybe we can just shut this down and focus on the convention itself."

"That'd be nice." He plopped his bottom down on the seller's side of the table, ready for customers. "Go on, have fun."

Twilight took the chance and began her trot free of the hall, only to run right into a smiling mare. "Oh, um, sorry about that."

"Think nothing of it, Princess." She giggled with a growing grin. "Welcome to Baltimare!"

"It's been a nice city so far," easily agreed Twilight. "I'm sorry, but I'm trying to get to a panel."

"Which one? I'll show you the way." She waved the way forward and turned away, though remaining close to Twilight.

"Thank you?" She held up her brochure with the panel highlighted. "Organizing the unknown."

"Wow, you're as smart as ponies say. This way!" She proudly walked in front of Twilight, giving any other pony that seemed to want to approach Twilight a dreadful glare. With her help, the way was quite clear. "Here we are." She gestured to the open doors that led to the panel room. "We should meet again later. Do you have dinner plans?"

Twilight dipped her head at the eager mare. "I haven't even gotten your name yet?"

"How silly of me." She put a hoof just at her lower lip. "I'm Star Catcher, and you are Twilight Sparkle, a thousand times more important than me." She laughed airily despite her self-deprecation. "A pleasure to help."

"Thank you, Star." She tossed her head towards the door. "I'm heading inside. I'm afraid I can't promise anything about dinner. Sunburst would get upset if I made plans without him."

"Him?" She leaned closer, eyes half-closing. "Sunburst, Sunburst... Wasn't he... the royal crystaller?"

"You have me at a disadvantage," she confessed, sliding towards the door. "I barely know you at all."

"We should fix that." She put a hoof on her chest. "I'll see you around the convention, Your Majesty. I'll treat you and Sunburst. Is this one of your friendship quests? How exciting!"

"Oh, well, not exactly." She took another little step towards the door, almost escaped. "It was nice meeting you. Have a good day!" She fled into the room.

The walls across from the door had numbers posted on them. "That's odd..." She pulled out the scavenging list and scanned over it. "It is the ideal way to grow."

Twilight smiled as she approached the numbers, forgetting the panel for a moment. She went right up to the numbers and put a hoof on a 1, then another 1, then 2... She followed the numbers along, getting to higher and higher numbers until she arrived at the final number, the largest one there, at least that belonged to the sequence. There were many other numbers that went past it, but they weren't part of it.

She pressed 277 in and it fell back. She leaned up and peeked inside with a glowing horn, spotting a basket inside. "Yes!" She snatched the pin just before the flap sealed itself shut.

Author's Note:

The scavenger hunt is off to a spirited start! Even if they don't get the grand prize, at least they'll qualify for something, right?

Star Catcher, what to make of her? Is she a typo waiting to happen?

This chapter was a bonus chapter voted by the patreon!

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Comments

[Booster Spice]

Prime numbers of the Zeeman Series?

Or are you just Zarking us Off?

[David Silver]

9170906
Golden Ratio.

[Booster Spice]

9170923

My apologise, I havent used them enough in game engines to recognise terms that far up at first glance.

Suprising how far INT(1.6^n) can get you though

[FanOfMostEverything]

Hmm... If Star Tracker's special talent is celebrity stalking...

Oh, this may not end well at all. I hope I'm just being paranoid.

Also:

the preservation of corrosive metals

So the metals cause other things to corrode? You may mean "corrodible."

[Daremo]

self-depreciation - self-deprecation

[David Silver]

9172777
Fixed! Yay, good to see you.

[Crystal Treasure]

Ugh, ponies like Star Catcher really irritate me...just like that lousy bellhop. But otherwise the chapter was great.

through the crow of adventurous ponies

crowd

[David Silver]

9174831
All fixed!

[NightEyes_5]

You put finacci sequence in there... And of course Twilight would understand it immediatly