Re: A new arrival {open}

[Paradox]

Quantum snickered. "Heh. Ok. I'm ready. Let's go."

[Lance]

Scint gave Quantum a half-confused look, but it changed to a smirk shortly. playing me like a violin for laughs, huh? good to know he's humerous... Scint turned his head straight again, and started picking up his pace, "alright, keep after me, but not right beside me. the larger the crowd that goes through here, the more attention it pulls, and frankly,  a group of ponies entering an alleyways can be considered very suspicious. also, might want to consider covering your nose.

Scint then trotted ahead, and quickly vanished after taking a sudden turn to an alleyway on the left.

[Paradox]

Quantum continued to smile faintly. It was good to talk to somepony who could handle being messed with. Suddenly, Scintillance disappeared around a corner. Hmm. He slowed somewhat as he reached the corner and slipped around it. Now he understood that last statement. He stopped for a second to shake his head; the odor made your average heap of garbage trivial in comparison. He wasn't quite sure how sensitive the Griffons' sense of smell was, but it certainly would keep anything purposefully going this way out.

[Lance]

Scint was already slightly ahead, at  the "end" of the alleyway; the rest of it was apparently walled off by a large solid fence made of various wood sources, and the whole alley was full of trash of all sorts. Scint laughed when he saw Quantum shake his head, "Be thankful that normally you won't have to go through this way, Scint pointed behind him, "the real path's right behind this fence, but this is a bit of a short-cut for me. Also, going through here lets me show off... this, Scint's horn started glowing again, and a large symbol coloured by Scintillant's magic slowly formed over the ground, gradually transforming into the Avian. (clicks for pics) once finished, Lance stepped on, and the Avian started hovering slightly above the ground. Scint waited for Quantum. there's enough room for two ponies to stand on it; that was the purpose of the spell, after all. "you can hop on, or you can find your own way past these; I recommend doing that when I'm not around to make things easier. go on, don't be shy, just a flying unicorn, nothing weird about it whatsoever." Scint gave a hearty laugh; he was always so prideful about his conjurations, and the Avian was no exception.

[Paradox]

((I can't help but feel that that pic is missing something))

Quantum stared.  Not at Scintillance, but what he was being supported on.  Hard light.  Freaking hard light.  Theoretically, such a thing was possible, but he had never in his life heard of such a technique actually being used.  He reached out with his magic to touch it; his magic slid off like water.  At least that was predictable.  Magics usually didn't mix.  Still, it would have been nice to be able to figure out at least part of how it worked.  The applications of a true hard light structure would be numerous; levitation would be the least of its functions.  He could see it used for weapons, defense, and even medical applications.  Just how sharp was light anyway?  The higher frequencies in the spectrum could be fairly small, so a blade would be ridiculously sharp and probably ridiculously durable.  This was not to mention what would happen if one were to put a regular beam of light on a target first then convert it to hard light.  Energy lance right there.  Wait... lance...  

 Quantum continued to stare as he ran through these possibilities, forgetting for the moment the actual reason they were there and the fact that he was supposed to be getting on the glowing structure.  His eyes once again gained the look of one who really wasn't entirely present.

[Lance]

Scint gave Quantum a couple seconds of awkward silence. but then he got bored. after two seconds. "uh... Flashie?" he asked, and then resumed "Equestria to Flashie, come in. This is the second time the connection cut, technical difficulties have proven eminent. He moved from a standing to a sitting position on the Avian, and hovered closer to Quantum. "otherwise, you look like you're staring at a ghost. even more seconds passed, and Scint inhaled a huge gasp, "You can see ghosts!?" his jaw dropped, but he really was just getting bored and trying to fill the awkwardness with words.

((and yeah, cutiemark's missing, never bothered to finish photo-shopping the pic xD))

[Paradox]

Quantum barely heard Scintillance. He took a step foreward before stretching out a hoof and poking the hard light construct. Apparently satisfied with this test, he pulled out a set of lenses from his cloak with telekinesis and looked closely at the construct with them for several seconds. Frowning, he proceeded to step onto it and began tapping it with his hoof while looking at it through the lens array.

[Lance]

contrary to popular belief, the construct woulld have been cold to the touch. Very cold. Scint continue to look at Quantum confusedly, but hey, he's on the Avian now, so they could get going. Scint and Quantum started floating (on the Avian) slightly higher and slowly made their way above the fence. "you know, I'mm honestly partially surprised you can look at this thing and not go blind; you wouldn't believe how many ponies get mad at me for flashing up a high-profile super-bright spell at them... but you? you're looking at this thing through a lens, I'm impressed! Scint was either ignorant or oblivious to Quantum's odd behaviour. likely the latter.

[Paradox]

Quantum finally looked up from his investigations. He blinked. "Well, try staring at molten materials all day for a job. Also, I'm good with light. It's useful to know when you tend to work with glass and optics." He looked down again. "But, in all my time spent messing with it, I have never seen it act like this. What do you do to make it like such? And what are its physical abilities?"

[Lance]

the two hovered over the fence and descended. the other side was very much like the previous alley, but with a lot less trash, and what appeared to be an unusually large (and empty) dumpster. "what do I do..? Well, for all I know it's my cutiemark talent to be able to use a telekinesis spell on light itself just as easily as I would water, so to speak. then I just "pull" the light together and compress it into a shape of my choosing... and physical abilities? Well you've already seen it support the weight of two unicorns, and so far the only things that have managed to break my constructs were arrows, though thankfully they just lodge into them and never fly perfectly through, and a giant snake.

[Paradox]

"Tele..." Quantum looks back from Scint to the construct then back to Scint and back to the construct several times rather quickly. Looking finally at Scintillance with a horrified expression, he nearly shouted, "THEN WHY IS IT GLOWING?!?!"

[Lance]

" huh... never really thought about that... The Avian landed, and scint hopped off, keeping a strange silence until replying, well if I thought back to good ol' physics class- not one of my best subjects, by the way -my ability simply freezes light, ergo, slowing the  speed of light to a visible level. from magic class, my aura's color is yellow, so if any form of light hits it, wether I grab it in telekinesis or just generally doing anything, it would be colored yellow, the same reason my coat is brown and why grass is green. third, I've a magic instructor that explained to me how my spells are... 'imperfect.' the only reason it's leaking like is because that's exactly what my magic's doing; leaking. I keep pulling in more light to maintain a conjuration, meanwhile, light seeps through my grip. kinda like filling a bottle with water, after you've poked tons of holes into it; might be filling it fast enough to make up for the lost water, but that doesn't mean it's not leaking. I've been working on fixing that, though." Scint suddenly cringed, gripping at his head "The smartness! it smarts! and hurts! Hey, I think I figured out where the verb word "smarts" comes from! Scint ended his pain suddenly with a gleam in his eye and a smile that probably shouldn't have been there.

[Paradox]

Quantum calmed down at that considerably. "Well that makes a lot more sense then." He thought about it for several seconds more. "Hmm, I suppose it might be a good thing... If it kept on absorbing light and not emitting anything... The energy pressure might cause it to explode... Or could be focused into a heck of a beam..."

[Lance]

Scint shook his head, as neat as being able to fire a beam of light would be, I've found it to be far beyond my capabilities, if not impossible. Incredibly tasking on my stamina, extending my magic any farther than five meters, and the only times I ever attempt that, I normally let go of my control on the construct and just let it disintegrate as it goes on, and conjure a replacement. But... that's just starting to sound a little bit egotistical on my part. Scint dissolved the Avian, and then remove the lid off a nearby sewer grate, revealing a ladder going Luna-knows how low. "we're heading underground from here."

[Paradox]

Quantum shrugged. "Ok then. You'll have to show me how to do that later. Please. Lead on". Following Scint into the sewer, thoughts continued to drift across his mind. Perhaps that construct grew stronger the more light it absorbed, but it leaked at an equal rate right now. If it was a bit more efficient, then it was likely that it would go into a feedback loop and eventually break when the light pressure overcame the magic. If it was perfectly efficient, it would more or less look completely black, minus any visible aura, and would likely rapidly build into a light bomb.... Quantum's eyes widened for a fraction of a second. He paused to pull out his pendant and give it a careful look.

[Lance]

Scint chuckled, "at best I might be  able to teach to to conjure up an orb of light, but for all I know, this isn't as easy a magic as you might think. see, the first time I actually conjured anything, I passed out from exhaustion. Now I even have a cutiemark to it, so I can only assume it's not something you can shove into your average "do-it-yourself" spellbook and..." Scint always was a bit absent minded, and simply jumped to his first conclusion when he saw Quantum pull out a doohicky. "'bit of a random time to pull out a compass, don't you think?"

[Paradox]

Quantum looked up from it and held it out to Scintillance to look at.  "It's not a compass.  It's a magical artifact that was given to me called Starbreaker.  I really don't know what it is or does beyond the fact that this orb here absorbs all light.  And I mean all.  It is as black as space and doesn't reflect anything from the surface.  It also doesn't seem to do anything with the energy save to convert some to heat.  I was thinking about your spell and, well, I'm now wondering whether it's a good idea to have it on me if it could possibly explode from the stored energy."

[Lance]

Scint pondered the stone a bit, and concluded, "Well, from the little bit that I can scrap together, I can make a few assumptions already; first of all, if it's giving off heat, then you're already alright, as it's continuously giving off that energy after all, and refusing to add more light than it can handle by releasing more heat. Furthermore... it's highly unlikely for any  magic artefact to possess a permanent effect without some power source, so it might be releasing even more energy in terms of magic transmutation, turning solar energy into magical energy for it to continue its effect. of course, all this is coming from educated guessing, so I could be wrong... but if it's lasted so long without exploding, I suppose it has a system of sorts to filter out energy one way or another, probably that you haven't seen. even after studying Silvern's books about magic theory and artefacts, Scint never thought he'd find himself in the position to be able to talk about magic knowledgeably. there was a certain giddy feeling that excited Scint about the moment.

[Paradox]

"That's... a good point."  Quantum responded.  He returned the Starbreaker to under his cloak.  He wasn't completely satisfied with the answer though.  Although it was true that it released energy as heat, the temperature never changed. It was always the same amount.  It still could be that the energy was being used to energize the binding spell.  In that case, it could be ridiculously strong seeing as he had no idea how old it was.  Something else struck him.  "You mentioned that it could be converting the light to magic.  So... do you do that?  I mean, a construct that did that and had enough light could become insanely hard and durable.  I wonder if it would take a while to energize though..."  He trailed off into thought once again.

[Lance]

Scint took no time to think before responding, "yes and now. for an artefact to be charged by the natural energy within the sun and store that power, absolutely yes, like that stone of yours. However my constructs need a lot more energy than the sun can provide at a time, so I can't directly convert solar energy into the constructs energy. It was a concept Scint's already pondered before, and he's already worked out most of the kinks in the magic; it simply won't work like he'd want it to. Scint sat down by the grate, sensing that their walk would be at a temporary pause, since they're still talking.

[Paradox]

Quantum was silent.  It was a pretty good amount to take in, but he was still determined to learn the spell at some point, hopefully sooner rather than later, so that he could really figure out its limits.  But no matter.  There was little more to be discussed this instant.  He gestured into the grate.  "We can finish this later.  Ladies first."

[Lance]

Scint smirked, said nothing and gestured for Quantum to go on, in a gentlecolt-ly way, eyes closed and still that cunning grin of a foal that was laughing on the inside.

[Paradox]

Quantum's gaze was firmly and intently fixed on the grate so that he somehow completely failed to see Scintillance's gestures. He now appeared halfway between willful ignorance and once again being spaced out.

[Lance]

after a few seconds of nothing, Scint opened one eye to see what's going on, and then the other when he saw Quantum was daydreaming again. "em... is this a chronic thing?"

[Paradox]

For the most part, Quantum appeared not to respond. He was completely still apart from a slight flicker in his eyes, as if he had started to glance at Scintillance and had stopped himself just too late.

[Lance]

Scint trotted a little closer and examined Polar sarcastically, "there's gotta be a reset button on here somewhere... maaaaaybe... he  then poked Quantum's nose, exclaiming "Boop!"

[Paradox]

Quantum clasped his hooves to his nose in surprise... unfortunately removing all forward support and causing him to fall forward.  Straight towards the open grate.

[Lance]

Scint was never the fastest pony, but he immediately noticed the lack-of-balance stance (as he had fallen over from it far too many times). He tried to catch Quantum before he fell down the grate, but probably the most he'd have managed to do was grab him by the tail, or possibly barely missed him and grab nothing at all; on or the other.

[Paradox]

Quantum fell.  He felt a slight tug on his tail as Scintillance attempted to catch him but was just too late.  His flailing hooves just missed the edge of the hole as well.  A second after, there was a clang and a grunt of pain, like one having the breath knocked out of him.

[Lance]

Scint Thanked Celestia that this drop wasn't so deep. After about a five meter drop,  Quantum would have found himself at  the edge of a classic sewer; a river of sldge would  run through the middle of the tunnel, and on either side of said river is a "sidewalk" made of stone. Scint called after Quantum, "are you OK?"

[Paradox]

Quantum was stunned for several seconds. He had landed on his hooves, fortunately, but the impact was heavy enough to cause him to collapse sideways into the metal ladder, which had generated the clang. His legs and side hurt and he answered Scintillance with a complainy "oowwww" before he lit his horn for a look around.

[Lance]

Scint saw quantum's awkward state on the ladder, and the reply slightly relieved him. "ok, so you're ok enough to be able to say 'ow,' I think that's good enough for now. think you can get yourself down that ladder or am I going to have to do something drastic?"

[Paradox]

Quantum looked up at Scintillance with an irritated expression. "Hilarious. Now are you going to show me this thing or is this for the quips about the trash can?"

[Lance]

Scint had a glint in his eye before releasing an overconfident smile. Well then, Quantum... he trotted towards where the lid of the sewer grate was placed, and threw it into the air as he exclaimed "clear me a path!" and jumped down the hole, sliding down the ladder with two hoofs holding onto it before eventually reaching the lower sewer where Quantum was. he let go of the ladder and posed triumphantly... before opening his eyes suddenly and realizing his hooves were slightly bruned by the slide. he blew onto them furiously "hot hot HOOOOOT! and then a *clang* of metal could be heard from above as the grate landed... only partiaully covering the hole, however. Scint looked up, disdained with his  failiure to do this whole fiaso as stylishly as he wanted to, "OH COME ON!"

[Paradox]

Quantum rolled his eyes and telekinetically shifted the grate until it covered up the hole completely. He increased the luminosity of his horn until the local area was fairly well lit. Fortunately, it didn't actually smell that bad. The sludge in the channel was an interesting mix of green and, of all things, magenta. Nevertheless he took a step back from the edge and looked at Scintillance. "Now, if you are done trying to inflict grievous bodily harm to both yourself and me, how about we get moving. I would like a place to recover from what I hope are not broken ribs."

[Lance]

well if your ribs were broken, I don't think you'd be able to get yourself moving like that, so I think that's a good sign. We'll be needing to go... that-away! either Scint's hooves instantly healed, or it was like they were never burned in the first place, Lance started trotting in one direction for Quantum to follow. "you know, normally, light magic's left up to me.

[Paradox]

"What, is it because you think you're so bright?" Quantum replied as he began to follow. "The name really says it all, and I'll admit, those constructs are pretty bright but all that contrast can't make it that easy to see."

[Lance]

Lance snorted. that's sort of a laugh (I think) (well I hope) "Only as bright as dull can be. sorry, inside joke. and I don't use those constructs for general lighting, only for fighting or other... various uses. one's a hook, got a shield... you saw the construct that lets me fly... ok before I totally lose my train of thought, what I mean is, don't measure my constructs for their light. this one though..." Lance took a few seconds to concentrate, and his horn started to glow, and so did the rest of the sewer, with a slightly yellow hue. "how's that for 'easy to see?' Oh and don't look up. seriously." above Quantum and Lance was his construct; unlike his other constructs, where there was a focus of sorts (weight, shape, durability or something) the orb was purely concentrated light.

[Paradox]

Quantum ignored Scintillance's warnings and looked at the orb for a second before snorting.  He briefly considered generating a copy of the werelight before deciding that it would only lead to a rapid downward cycle of serial escalation.  Instead he snarked to Scint "Brilliant idea as usual.  Too bad it's so dim though.  But thanks for the concern for my night vision."  He shifted the magic about his horn subtlety so that it kept glowing, but also left an imprint in the air; a shimmering ribbon of light that continued to illuminate the sewer behind them and only began to disperse after 10 meters or so.

[Lance]

Scint was instantly concerned when Quantum looked up; just about any pony that took a direct stare at that orb was blinded by a few seconds, not just by their eye-sight but by their rage at Scintillance for blinding them. and then there's quantum, who was about as phased by light as Lance was. Which is quite a feat, really. Scint almost let his jaw drop, but made sure to keep it in place. At least until Quantum did that "ribbon-of-light" thing. and then his jaw did drop.

"Now that's impressive! you gotta teach me that one some time. Is it... tangible..?" Scint couldn't help but reach out to the ribbon...


[[I honestly don't know how the light would react. either it's intangible because quantum made it, or tangible to Scint's touch because of his passive magical affinity to light (like a pegasus to a cloud or something.) I'll leave that to you ^^]]

[Paradox]

Quantum glanced back at the trail of light. It swirled like luminescent mist as Scintillance's hoof passed clear through it.  The shift caused a disruption to ripple up both sides of the ribbon of light and dissipate it into a faint shimmer in the air, similar to the warm glow that surrounds the flame of a candle.  "I'm not exactly going to be tying anypony up, if that's what you mean.  It's not really that much.  I simply caused the air to retain the luminescence of my horn."

[Lance]

Scint repeated the words focusing on the light, "Retain the luminescence..." he then pulled out some sticky notes from his pocket, and a pencil, and started jotting the words down, "retain...the lumi...nescence... I'll look into that one next time I'm working on my spells. Thanks, bud! also, about your eyes... you sure you're ok? I mean... most ponies spend at least two seconds cursing at me for casting a light orb like this..."

[Paradox]

Quantum gave him an even stare.  "I already told you.  I work with molten glass.  Staring at a simple orb of light for a few seconds does not compare with having to differentiate between sections of molten glass in an intricate sculpture.  Also, I don't swear.  It does nothing for anypony."

[Lance]

"Light immunity and can't curse. You're like, a gift from... somewhere. I don't know. anywho... remarkable, I know exactly what you mean on the cursing ordeal. Can't curse, myself..."

Ahead was a tunnel that bore through the sewer walls on the right, splitting the path into a sort of T-turn. "ah, now that's a good sign. A warning though, the dogs around here are bound to change the tunnels eventually, so you'll want to learn a sense of direction rather than memorise tunnels."

[Paradox]

Quantum looked on silently. He had never been terribly good with mazes but it couldn't be that much trouble if there were already ponies down here. Still, perhaps some sort of marking to identify things at first? He would quickly scrawl a symbol into the passages they took.

[Lance]

Scint only barely noticed Quantum in time before conjuring the Aegis between Quantum and the wall. "no symbols, no markings. we can't leave any signs of life down here, else nosy griffons will investigate. and even if they don't investigate, the diamond dogs would get upset and kick us both out of the underground, with or without all our blood in our bodies. Try to keep that in mind." he added the last remark with a smile and a chirping tone.

[Paradox]

Quantum stared at the shield for a few seconds. Curious that it should work like that. His own magic still brushed the wall, its slight aura invisible behind the construct. Other bits of information drifted through his subconscious and were filed away. He turned. "Fine. It's on you if my desiccated corpse is found somewhere in here later."

[Lance]

Scint chuckled, "Sure, I'll keep the life insurance too. Oh, a-" Scint cringed and emitted a short groan, suddenly, almost as if some invisible entity poked his eye, and he dispelled the Aegis quickly, before looking back up to his already pre-conjured orb of light. A tear drifted off his cheek before he wiped at it. "...I'm sorry you had to see that."

[Paradox]

Quantum raised an eyebrow at this. "See what? Are you trying to keep your constructs a secret from me?" He turned to continue down the tunnel. "Let's go in any case. I feel like I've been down here for months!"

[Red Shirt]

They didn't come far. After some more turns, a low rumbling began to make itself known, quickly rising to levels hard to miss. Too quickly. To those who trod these tunnels regularly, it was of little surprise that just a moment later the ceiling behind the two ponies gave in, cutting off the way back. A moment later, a hole opened up in the wall a little ahead and three Diamond Dogs came out, blocking the path forward.

The biggest - and at the same time broadest - of them sniffed in the ponies' direction and snarled. "Stinky pony."

"And glowing pony!" added the one to his right, only half the size of his big brown companion, but he seemed to make up for it by carrying a sword. Though, it was a somewhat rusty one. "Easy to follow!"

"Who are the ponies?" asked the third one, the only one who could actually be described as walking fully upright, while the other two both featured humps as was often the rule for Diamond Dogs. However, he also was the lankiest one, looking as if it wouldn't take much more then the buck of a foal to throw him down. But at least the way he approached the ponies didn't tell of a lack of confidence. However, it did tell of a dislike he seemed to have towards the equines, as he snarled just as much as the big talking boulder who had initially noticed Scintillance' current odor.

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