A new arrival {open}

Scint never explained to Quantum what happened back there... some things best left unsaid.

When the Diamond Dogs popped up Scint was less than startled, and quickly told Quantum, "don't worry, I got this." He trotted forward, with his signature discomforting air of confidence. "Sup dawgs! sorry about the smell. oh, and the light." Scint dimmed his light-orb slightly, remembering how the diamond dogs were sensitive to light. he forwarded the message to Quantum, "Quantum, light's out." he then made a slight movement with his eyes, mouthing the words 'I'll explain later,' and hoping he was as good at mouthing words as he thought he was.

He turned back to the dogs, "Scintillance, resident of the under market, and assistant of Silvern Gleam. My companion here is unarmed and no threat to the under market, so don't worry. unless you're also afraid of him stabbing you with his horn, but we all find that just a little bit redicioulous. And I've personally never seen him cast a single offensive spell in my entire life, so there's that too. did I miss anything..?

Quantum decided to let Scint handle the situation. He was a dweller and would know how to deal with the Dogs. He did, however, now regret looking at the orb before because it would take time for his vision to adjust to the low light. He took a slight step foreword as he was introduced and inclined his head with a slight nod. At the mention of him being unarmed, he rolled his eyes. It was his guess that nopony was unarmed completely these days. In any case, forget war spells even, magic alone qualified as a weapon. Seriously, didn't anypony ever consider the results of being hit with a spell designed to melt small quantities of metal or glass?

"Silvern Gleam? Who is that? Another stinky pony?" The lanky one asked, obviously not willing to make the situation that easy. His small companion unfortunately shared his opinnion.

"Too many going in and out since the ponies started fighting, too many new. Too many untrusted", he said with a suspicious look at Scintillance. "Why should we trust that you say the truth."

The third dog started to scratch his head in thought.

Scint rolled his eyes, he had a feeling these dogs would give him trouble. maybe because they didn't set up a proper identification system. "y'know we need to set up some identification system before you guys skewer some poor filly just trying to come home from grocery shopping. Silver Gleam? the same pony that pays you guys with diamonds? the same pony that can probably stop paying you guys with diamonds if I stopped being nice and told her we're having this problem?" Scint had this problem before, and frankly he wasn't enjoying having to deal with it every time he visits manehattan for a breath of fresh air.

Quantum rolled his neck and assumed what he hoped was an unassuming and submissive stance.  He would never live it up if he was defeated by some Diamond Dogs on his first day in the city.

"The gem pony?" the gangling dog, seemingly the leader of this patrol, asked, suddenly intrigued. He turned around to his comrades and they began muttering between them. When they were done, they looked a bit more happy, but that still didn't make them friendly. "You'll follow. If gem pony doesn't know you..." The rest was left unsaid.

Scint gave a relieved sigh, "then it's all clear. as long as when you say "gem pony" you mean "Silvern Gleam," then everything's in order." Scint then spoke to Quantum, "Good news, you don't have to worry about getting lost, now."

"And the phrasing of that implies that there is bad news."  Quantum simply resigned himself to following along wherever he was being led, guessing that in time he would get what he came for.

Scint thought to himself for a second. Quantum would be fine, actually. but bringing a stranger to the undermarket... doesn't put Scintillance himself in the good position. " well, the bad news is that the bad news doesn't apply to you, but to me, so leave that that to me. Scint followed after the dogs, with some concern in his gaze, now that he realized the weight of his actions.

The dogs mostly kept silent, only quietly talking with each other and keeping an eye on the ponies. The way led to the south... at least most of the time. Regularly they took turns that were certainly unnecessary, and without seeing anything to get an orientation, that usually was enough to obscure the direction they were headed in.

Eventually they reached tunnels likely familiar to Scintillance, since he had to traverse them regularly. When they reached the steel door that marked the entrance to Silvern Gleam's shop, the dogs simply stopped, waiting for something to happen.

Scint chuckled as the dogs just came to a laughable hault. He casually trotted past them, felt the key stone in his pocket, and avoided pulling it out, best to avoid diamond dogs attention to enchanted gems, and generally keep them in the dark about how to access Silve's store, now that he was thinking straight. He audibly spoke at the steel door, "Activate voice recognition. Code name: lightbulb. Rank: better than yours. Scint had barely stopped himself from bursting into tears of laughter, but otherwise looked like this was completely normal. He then triggered the key-stone-gem-thingy in his pocket, and smiled. Open sesame.

The door would slide aside as Scint took a couple steps forward, "I'm going to have to ask you lot to stay out here, she's not fond of unfamiliar presences. he then stepped deeper into Silve's store, calling out, "Hey Silve? if you're around, give a shout. some diamond dogs here want to skewer me because they don't recognise me."

Quantum frowned as Scintillance approached the shop ahead.  From the way Scintillance was acting, and the way the door itself responded, it was obviously enchanted.  He had no idea, however, why Scint was talking to the door.  No enchantment he had heard of recognized voices.  Then again, the brown unicorn had surprised him before with his various constructs.  Oh well.  Might as well figure some of it out.  He reached out to touch the door itself with telekinesis.

Silvern quickly showed up in the front room of her store in her usual attire: Nothing, except a white scarf slung around her neck, and a red hairband in her mane. For her, it was a normal business day, so she was prepared guests, but Lance' description of the situation made her huff in annoyance. And technically, he was late for work, which probably was also reason to be annoyed, but as far as she knew, the dogs might have been responsible for that. "Since we started the rebellion, the dogs have become pretty unwelcoming. They weren't exactly nice before either, but at least they didn't care to pester ponies quite that often", she said as she let her inner eye wander over the group outside. "Well, get them in, including your pony friend. Would be rude to let him wait outside. I'll be back in a moment." With that, she moved back into the private parts of the shop.

Quantum would find that the door was perfectly easy to move with telekinesis, now that it was already open, and it would require a relatively good feeling for magic to notice that it was indeed enchanted, and it would require much skill to determine what the enchantment did... or actually it would only require to shut the door again, as it would refuse to open again afterwards, not moving an inch.

The room they would be led into was small, and quite simple. The concrete walls were mostly bare, safe for a wooden sign above a door opposite to the entrance, calling this place "The Magic Eye" and featuring a stylized version of the organ. In the center stood a low table on the carpeted floor, already with a jug of water and several mugs present, and simple pillows for sitting placed around it. Directly above the table hung a glowing crystal from the ceiling, providing a comfortable amount of light.

Scint nodded, and proceeded to head back outside to call the company in. "she says y'all come in. but considering that I just did that, do you guys still need her to recognise me? whatever, just... just come in, I'll let Silve handle you." Scint then felt a faint magical presence, and turned to notice the bright glow on the door; quantum's messing with it. "Quantum stop messing with the door he then retreated back into the store for the dogs (and pony) to follow, realizing that he just felt a magical presence, thinking to himself 'huh, I guess I'm getting at that spell-sight business after all... or is Quantum's magic just too obvious not to notice..? he hoped for the former.

Quantum nudged the door several times with his telekinesis.  It shifted as if a normal door albeit perhaps a little heavy.  Fair enough.  He then proceeded to grab it entirely telekinetically and move it a a little.  Still nothing interesting, which could be interesting in its own right.  He released it and thought for a few seconds.  There was evidence playing for one of two things.  Either the door or some other mechanism was enchanted, for impetus had been provided, and was too cleverly placed to be seen, or there was somepony opening the door from a hidden location.

There was one more test Quantum was wont to try.  As far as he could remember from school, magics did not tend to mix well.  It could be possible that an enchanted object could be manipulated by another unicorn's magic, but he did not remember anything for certain.  However, even in that scenario he thought that perhaps the same object could not be enchanted by two separate unicorns.  Therefore, the test would be to enchant the door.  He prepared and had just activated a simple spell to cause the door to glow blue faintly when Scintillance returned.  His train of thought broken, he followed Scint inside without viewing the results.

After being hit with the spell, the door glowed indeed, but only for a short moment as the enchantment failed to stay. However, it still closed on its own after Quantum and the dogs - who certainly knew enough already to know that Lance was telling the truth, but still didn't even consider letting the matter drop this easily - had passed through it into the short corridor leading to the room.

The dogs seemed somewhat eager to meet Silvern Gleam, and when she came back a few moments later with a pouch in her mouth that suspiciously chinked when she put it on the table they grinned in anticipation. While Sil moved around securely, she made sure to act as blind as she looked as response to the unknown visitors, her ears constantly turning to securely locate the source of a sound and her eyes not quite lying on the target as she talked to the dogs. "Welcome to the Magic Eye. If I understood that right you need me to identify him?" she said, holding a hoof roughly in Lance' direction.

"Yes, identify!" confirmed the smallest dog with a fast nod, his eyes not on his conversation partner either, but on the bag on the table.

"He's Scintillance DiCanterlot Charmer, my assistant since about three weeks, and I honestly thought your patrols would already know that by now", Sil answered rather coldly, but still picked up the pouch again and threw it over. "Here, I hope that works as motivation to inform your colleagues about him and not bother him and me unnecessarily. I don't think you would appreciate if my work falls behind because of such trivialities."

She had thrown the bag in direction of the answering voice, but the alpha dog of the patrol held out a paw and grabbed it out of the air. "Yes, it will work", he said after quick look into it. "We will not bother you again."

At least until you find another excuse, Silvern thought as her horn glowed for a moment and the door to the outside tunnels opened again. The dogs understood easily, and left without another hitch. "Lance, remind me to teach you the gem finding spell", she said once they were gone and the door closed again. "But for now... have you taken a nap in a dumpster or what is that smell?"

Lance was glad to see those dogs off, and quite keen on learning that gem-finding spell. and then Silve mentioned his smell... "oh, really amazing guess Silve, you're spot on right about that. but honestly I'm about as confused about why I woke up in a trash-can as you are... wait, no... yeah, Scraps offered me a drink- y'know, the monochrome earth pony we cured -and the rest is a blur. I think I have an innexistant tolerance to alcohol. Lesson learned, never again. come to think of it I might want to look around for him later, ask him what happened. and I can't be that bad, can I?" Scint took a loud whiff of his under-arms, and immediately yelped. "WHOO-WEE yeah I smell that bad. Quant, how did you possibly put up with me up till now. Hey Silve, mind if I steal your shower for a bit?

Quantum stayed silent as he had entered the room.  He quietly moved to a corner where he sat down and looked around at the room.  Simple and obviously meant for business.  Of much more interest was the owner of the shop, a unicorn named Silvern Gleam.  It was clear from her actions that she actred blind and indeed when he managed to get a good look at her eyes, it was clear that she truly was.  No lens could be that unfocused and still be expected to work. Her ears however seemed to work well pinpointing sound so he stayed as still and silent as possible.

To Scintillance's offhoof question Quantum replied with nothing but a subtle shrug and tilt of his head.  Truth be told his sense of smell was rather insensitive.  He himself had also not washed for several days and still had the grime and dirt of travel and the sewers on him anyway.  Silly question altogether.

"Actually, I insist. I do expect to get customers, and I don't think your current smell would make them more likely to buy. Besides, it would make it hard to concentrate on my work", Silvern said, then pointed her eyes roughly in Quantum's direction, smiling politlely. "But maybe you should introduce me to your friend first?"

Scint rebounded a hoof off his forehead, "oh right! you two haven't met yet, sorry for forgetting introductions." Scint turned to face Quantum, "Quantum Flash, this is Silvern Gleam, she's blind, if you can't tell by her eyes, so you can make funny faces at her and she won't know. sometimes. I don't recommend trying it though. Scint then turned to face Silvern; an unnecessary gesture, but all the better to project his voice in her direction, at least. "Silvern Gleam, this is Quantum Flash. he's one of the few ponies that can look at my conjurations and not be blinded, which is an impressive feat if you can recall. Also he's fairly new to manehattan, so try not to overwhelm him.

Quantum stayed sitting down.  Since Silvern really was blind, she wouldn't mind and in any case he was curious as to whether she really could discern Scintillance's expressions like he hinted.  Perhaps it was a case of partial blindness?  But no, he could see her eyes quite clearly now and could tell with certainty that this was not the case.  Quantum nodded habitually and spoke.  "Ave.  I am Quantum Flash, just as he said.  It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.  I do believe it is more likely my fault for disturbing the Diamond Dogs; I hope it wasn't too much of an inconvenience."

"Don't worry, I'm quite sure those dogs would have acted exactly the same without you there", Silvern reassured Quantum smilingly. "Especially once they found out that Lance is my assistant I'm sure they weren't going to let him go without trying to get some gems from me. Giving them some stones is an easy way to get them on your side, so they usually get what they want. I doubt this has anything to do with you." She sat down at the table and waved a hoof at the provided water. "If your thirsty, please help yourself. So... new to Manehatten. Lance has certainly dragged you into something by bringing you here. May I ask where you know each other from?" Though Sil was acting friendly - and had currently no reason not to do so towards Quantum Flash - the still very little detailed story had caught her attention with the simple fact that Lance was already known to her as not being very careful, and so she wanted to know just why her assistant had been planning to lead this pony into the Undercity.

"oh, met him quite recently, actually!" Scint chimed, "he's a lot more fun than most monotone ponies around here. and one for discussing the back-door workings of magic. Instant friendship, you just can't argue with that. Scint poured himself some water; he didn't know how much he drank last night, but he sure felt thirsty in the morning. "speaking of workings, how late am I? haven't had the chance to find the ti-oh right. Scint just remembered he had a new golden watch. again, he would have to ask Scrapper about how that happened... mreso about what happened to his missing rings. "Whoah I'm late. Really, really sorry, Silve..."

"Well, it's a bit more than just recently.  I was still in the train station when your fine assistant decided that his trashcan spa trip was over.  Rather surprising, but a good conversation starter.  He was attempting to explain himself to some other new arrival named... Polar Chrome I think.  In any case, he starts talking about some secret or another of his, but this ends up with Polar thinking he's crazy and leaving. In any case, Polar made a point and I need a place to stay, so Scint brought me here."  Quantum summed up.

During Lance' explanation, Sil didn't mind how the story went. In fact, she was intrigued by the comment he had made about Quantum and magic, and though "quite recently" might seem a little short, it sounded as if they really just got to know each other quickly enough.

However, Quantum corrected the facts in a rather disconcerting manner. Her expression grew cold and irritated, but Quantum certainly wasn't the target of this anger. Silver turned her head slightly in Lance' direction, eyes closed for she didn't care to keep up useless courtesies right now. "What in Celestia's name were you thinking?" she said almost hissingly. "No, don't answer that, apparently you haven't been thinking at all!"

"You talked about the Undercity to perfect strangers, in a public space observed by griffon guards, after probably drawing a lot of attention to yourself... HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?!?" Silvern had stood up and crossed the short distance between her and Lance, her eyes now actually wide open in an expression of fury.

Scint was pretty sure he chose his words well. But Quantum's "help"... kinda put him in a tough spot. He was left speechless for a few seconds before throwing Quantum a quick look and moved his hoof over his mouth like closing a zipper. good thing Silve was mostly blind. "Well with all due respect it wasn't entirely like that. I started giving them advice on places to stay in Manehattan and then offered my last hideout as a place to stay and... well I've never told you how I found the undermarket, did I? There was a Diamond-Dog trap way too close to it. I jumped out the window after a griffon confrontation, and then realized that it was a tunnel leading to the under-market, which as you know, normally has to be kept a secret, but if he was going to use my old hideout, he should have at least known why there was a hole in the ground. I don't think he'd have gotten any luckier than I was when a group of ponies found me. less likely that he would've survived the fall. and I lead him to the undermarket so I could explain that without being observed by griffon guards. where safer to talk about the under-market than in the under-market?"

…

If Scintillance thought Silvern wouldn't notice the gesture while she was focused on him, he was wrong. It was that gesture that, once Lance had finished babbling his nonsense, prompted Sil to dismiss the informative content of the past few seconds as likely corrupted, and instead tap another source to get the needed situational data. "Take a shower, we'll talk later", she ordered her assistant angrily as she turned back to the table and took her seat again.

The moment she focused on Quantum Flash again, her cold expression instantly broke up, and made place for an apologetic - but somewhat tired - smile. "Sorry about that. You did nothing I could possibly blame you for, and I doubt we have anything to fear from you. But deciding this practically spontaneously is, quite honestly, foolish. We have too much to lose down here. You'll be as welcome in the Undercity as anypony else, but for the moment, we can't allow you to leave to the surface again. Until we got to know you a bit." Suddenly her expression brightened up to a smirk. "Which might go quite quickly, judging by your interest of the magical aspects of my door and Lance' description of you."

Scint glumly  obeyed. at the moment, he really could use a shower, and really there wasn't much that he could do to soften that conversation. at least he knew he was telling the truth, so if Silve compared details again, he should still be fine. unless Quantum did that on purpose. he felt a bit betrayed, on the inside.

Scint head towards  the bathroom and closed the door behind him, removing his watch first after inspecting it for a few seconds, quietly talking to himself "I just don't know where you came from." he proceeded to leave it the corner, then moving onto removing his rings, only to remember he didn't have them any more. then removed his green shirt... and once more realized it wasn't green now, but rather red. same style, but of a different color. "Geez... what happened last night..?

Lance left the pile of clothes in the corner and proceeded to the shower, but took a quick look in the mirror first, and kept walking... and then turned back to look at the mirror. He was pretty sure something was a bit out of place, but disregarded it. "shower first. wait." one last look in the mirror... and something that was pretty much comparable to a little filly screaming  echoed through the room. his hair and tail were suddenly half-died yellow, and his mane was styled so... differently. Sure, he liked it, but... "What happened last night!?"

He sprinted back to the bathroom entrance and peeked through the door, "WHAT IN THE NAME OF SWEET CELESTIA HAPPENED!? Silve, is your bathroom mirror enchanted or did I overdose on sexy-potions, because there's a hunk of a stallion in the wall and I do not remember looking like that!"

Quantum was about to reply to Silvern when a surprisingly high pitched scream reached his ears.  He turned in surprise only to hear Scintillance complain of being... too good looking?  He stood still for a second before cracking up and laughing until his side began to hurt.  He managed to calm himself down before turning back to Silvern.  "I apologize.  That was exactly the last thing I expected.  What was it that you said?  I'm afraid it has quite slipped my mind in the moment."

Silvern sighed in annoyance. Normally she would have found it funny as well, but right now she wasn't able to laugh about Lance' antics. And she especially didn't like to have to tell Quantum again that he would be stuck in the Undercity for some time.
"No, the mirror is not enchanted", she said in iritation, head turned around to the door. "And you're asking the wrong pony to judge your appearance. However, I'm quite certain that everything you've seen is indeed real. Welcome to the results of alcohol."

With that, she considered the topic to be over, and turned back to Quantum. "Now, I just informed you that you'll be free to tread the Undercity, but we can't allow you to leave it until we've gotten to know you a bit", she said, again with apologetic, but firm expression, that once again turned into a small smirk. "Normally that should have happened before you came here, but with your apparent interest in magic I'm sure we won't have trouble getting to know each other."

Scint couldn't have expected much from the blind mare, he knew that much... but laughter from Quantum..? Scint just sunk bank into the bathroom, found his sticky notes, and jotted down onto his to-do list, "locate scrapper" before proceeding with his shower. Not much else he could do at the moment anyway.

Quantum smiled at this news. Really it wasn't a problem for him to stay, since he had come seeking secrets in the first place, although he still did want to take a look at the city to see how it had changed over the years. The potential to learn more about magic was far more tempting though. He answered "No problem. I don't mind staying if I can happen to learn about such magics as those constructs. It's sort of a hobby for me to try to investigate... Uhm... 'Creative' uses of magic. If Scintillance really is your assistant, I bet you know even more."

"Yes, I think we'll get along just fine", Silvern said smilingly, though it was once again short lived. "Unfortunately I need to talk with you about something else. What did Scintillance tell you on the surface, and especially while this other pony was still around? I'd like to know what kind of information are wandering the surface right now."

Scint was getting bored. plus the shower felt just a little too cold. Scint turned the heat up quite a bit, became annoyed with the slow transition, and just turned the heat a little further. still bored, so he started singing to himself. "I'm siiiiiiinging in the rain... just siiiiiiinging in the rain... oh, hot. HOT. HOT, BLOODY HOT! AAAAAAAAAH! HALP! AEGIS!" Scint conjured his trusty Aegis to protect him from the boiling water, causing a short flash of light to resonate from the bbathroom, while he turned the heat down. he practically whined at the water, "Why can't you turn colder fast enough..?"

Quantum thought for a second.  Even if it had only been a few hours ago, things had happened since then, things which were much more interesting and important.  "Well... both Polar and I were in need of a place to stay, so he offered us his old safehouse, I think he called it.  He kinda got cagey after that talking about what he called 'Manehattan's biggest secret' or some such; a secret so important to be secret that we would have to be sworn to absolute secrecy.  Polar was apparently not impressed with this as he asked how much of a secret it could possibly have been if Scintillance was fine telling it to two random strangers.  He kinda left at that point.  After that, Scintillance led me on a line of questions about Diamond Dogs which led me to guess that they were being used for sabotage.  After that, we got a bite to eat then headed on over here."

"So at least he knows nothing very specific. But depending on Polar Chrome and who he talks to about this, Lance might have to watch out on the surface. That featherbrain", Silvern said with a sigh before shaking hear head clear. "But I'll worry about that later. Scintillance was right when he called this 'Manehatten's biggest secret'. We have a whole city underneath Manehatten, if you actually want to call it a city. I fear the term slum is often more fitting, but at least we're safe from the griffons. They might know we're down here, but thanks to the Diamond Dogs they won't get here without the tunnels collapsing above them", she explained the situation as far as Quantum would have figured out anyway. Certainly he'll also notice the rebellion, which had a public headquarters in the center of the Undercity after all, but Silvern didn't want him to think that she had something to do with a rebellion just yet. So she quickly changed the subject. "Nonetheless, the less reason we give them to try, the better. I hope you'll take that a little more serious than Lance. Otherwise... found anything interesting about my door?"

Quantum shrugged. It wasn't easy to suppress such natural motions even when you know somepony can't see them. "I don't think you have too much to worry about me. I'm an excellent secret keeper. If something doesn't need to be said, I won't be the one to say it. But your door? All I noticed is that it opens automatically to some sort of passcode. What's so special about it that you ask random strangers what they think?" He was not quite sure whether he should reveal everything he knew or suspected just yet.

"I'm not asking out of nowhere. I know that you've tried to put an enchantment on it, with relatively little success", Silvern smilingly explained how she had come up with the subject. "And Lance said your one to talk about magic. Makes me wonder just what you were able to discover in your little examination." She was generally careful when it came to talking about her own abilities, and the topic would certainly lead to that, but in the end, there were too few unicorns left able to talk about magic in detail, and so she didn't care to pass up an opportunity.

Aha.  Quantum's guess had been right after all.  The door had indeed been enchanted, but the exact nature of the enchantment of course was a mystery.  What surprised him far more was Silvern's knowledge of the attempt.  Perhaps part of it alerted the owner to magical or physical probes, but such a layered enchantment would probably be quite complex.  

"Impressive.  I have to question how you know that though.  It's not like I even knew the success of that test.  I have my own ideas, but I would hardly say them, would I?  But it's obvious it's enchanted, and I would say now it's not the only thing.  Is it?"

"Well, that the door is enchanted is indeed easy to find out. Figuring out that enchantment however takes a bit more, and modifying it ist most certainly impossible for anypony not very well versed with magic. You shouldn't try too hard, though. The spell really doesn't like being messed with and might react aggressively instead of just notifying me", Silvern gave a warning, though she didn't lose her smile. The death traps protecting her shop were seldom tested, but she was still quite certain that they would do their work, and she didn't want a simply curious pony to accidently activate them.

Not wanting to follow the topic of her shop's protection, she changed the direction of the conversation a little bit while she "searched" for one of the mugs on the table with a hoof - she wouldn't give hints towards her magic sight - and pulled it close. "If you need something enchanted and can't do it yourself, I'm the pony to go to, so you can expect to find many enchanted objects in here."

Another faked search, and Silvern got hold of the water filled jug. Holding one hoof slightly into the mug, she began to pour with the other.

Quantum's eyes lit up- probably figuratively. "Really now.  So you are an expert at enchanting.  If you don't mind me asking even on our first meeting, I would like to learn about it.  I've had a little experience, but hardly enough.  Oh wait!"  He remembered something suddenly, "Could you possibly tell me what this is?"  He took out the Starbreaker pendant and placed it down on the table with an audible *click* and watched closely.

Silvern put the jug down as soon as the water in the mug touched her hoof, grinning inwardly as Quantum put the artifact on the table. She had noticed in the moment he had come into the shop, and it was in fact the biggest reason why Silvern wanted to talk about magic. Those enchanted lenses he had with him were interesting as well, but this one had caught her attention. Of course she had tried to analyze it as far as she could while it was in his pocket and she was distracted, but she hadn't been able to figure it out already. Now that it lay in the open however, things were happening. She noticed that it began taking in energy from somewhere, but she couldn't yet tell why.

To hide how she was actually seeing the artifact, she located it on the table with a hoof and built up a basic magical connection to it, making her horn and an area around the artifact glow, but not the artifact itself. She effect on Silvern's magic was barely noticable, but with magic perception like hers it immediately got her attention. Some of the lost energy that was normally projected outwards was drawn inwards, into the artifact. She focused on it and try to figure out what kind of energy that was exactly, and suddenly found the spell quite familiar. She had seen something like this before, performed by Shadowstrike. And on a closer look, the spells were actually almost one and the same. Not completely like performed by the same unicorn, but close enough that there was probably a connection between them. "Light absorbtion", Silvern said musingly. "But for what purpose I can't tell by a short inspection. Definitely an energy storage, but it's not freely accessible. Quite possibly for a certain use and nothing else. Seeing how well charged it is, I take it you found no use for it so far." Her horn stopped glowing again and she focused on Quantum again. "I'm sorry, but if you want a full identifications, that would cost. However, depending on how interested you are in this, I would also be willing to simply buy it from you after I analyzed it. Unfortunately I can only give you an actual offer once I know what exactly it does and how much it's worth."

Scint finally stepped out out of the shower, wearing a pink towel spotted with different images of lemonade. he was drying his mane as he noticed the artifact,"oh right, that stone! takes in "light" energy, apparently, and I'd assume it expends some of it has heat energy, but for the most part, there's still the wonder of how much energy could still be stored in there, and isn't let out. Still worried about it exploding, Quant?"

Scint almost forgot Quantum would be super interested in seeing Silvern, considering her enchantment-background. he figured, having to come across Silvern down here was for the best after all.

It was disappointing that Silvern had not been able to figure out much more than he had already known, but Quantum noted that she had made the investigation with a magic probe and very quickly too.  Obviously her other senses were sharper because of her blindness, but she had shown no difficulty finding it and had not even touched it.  Hmm.

But, business.  He cleared his throat briefly before responding.  "And just how much would this full investigation cost?  I would certainly like to know but it's probably not worth it if I blow all I have." He had, of course, saved some money before venturing to Manehattan, but high prices would rapidly eat through his moneybag.

"Quita a lot, actually", Silvern answered to Scintillance, and eveloped the object in magic again. "Let it lie around for an hour in a strong light source and you'll get it to overcharge. Though, theres something that might be a safety mechanism." The glow of her horn momentarily intensified and the crystal on the ceiling dimmed down to about half its previous strength, leaving a rather gloomy atmosphere, but still enough light for Lance and Flash to see properly.

"I currently estimating its worth between 400 and 800 or maybe even a thousand bits. For the analysis I usually charge 30% of it's value", Silvern gave Flash the requested, though inaccourate information. "It's too large of a range to make a concrete offer, but I can analyze it anyway and tell you what the information would cost once I know it. If the price is too high for you then, I'll simply get back your artifact and I'll keep the information to myself."

Scint managed to fight his urge to whistle, and thought to himself; if Quantum had made a living off molten matereals that obviously acted as intense sources of light, that artifact must have either already exploded, or had a safety mechanism as predicted. and Scint didn't take too kindly to the sudden lack of light... but maybe Silve was right. "I'd trust or master enchanter on this one, might wanna lay low off the light spells with that thing, and probably keep it away from me!" Scint joked. of course he'd have to help study and examine it later.

Quantum considered the proposition for a few seconds. A minimum cost of 120 bits would put a sizable dent in his quite limited funds and he was rather not willing to part with it.  Even if he didn't know exactly what it was for, it was still a fascinating thing that he would not part with easily.  As well, he really did not want to just hand over information about it to complete strangers to do with as they pleased.  It just didn't seem smart.  "No deal."  He said finally.  "It's just not worth it."  He took it back and placed it in an inner pocket again.

Though she was a little disappointed, Silvern wasn't surprised about the decline and didn't lose her smile. In current times, most ponies didn't exactly have the money to deal with artifacts, and so she mostly relied on a couple of steady customers with high income. However, she wasn't afraid of dropping the price, especially for a customer acquisition. "Not knowing what might happen once it overcharges is a bit of a risk", she began trying to convince him. "But admittedly, artifacts are expensive wares. What about this then: You let me analyze it, and I'll tell you what you need to keep it from becoming a health problem for free. Further information for... let's say 20% of the full value. You'll still have the possibility to take it or leave it."

Scint was rather surprised by Silvern's sudden generosity. But then he realized that at the end of the day, the task of analysing an artefact wasn't just a job for her, but a bit of a hobby as well; she really wouldn't have had any quarrels analysing something just for the fun of it. but... this is business talk now, and Scint figured he might as well not stick around to bother the transaction. He up and dressed himself before heading out into Silvern's library. "dunno about you, Quant, but a minimum price of zero bits to know how to not explode sounds like a good deal to me. I'll be out back if either of y'all need me. Scint tried to recall the name of that book he started studying, "Silverstone's "Magic Theory," right Silve?"