Breaking Quarantine

Around Dis and Star, the various beings continued their various activities almost completely ignoring the two. Weapons traded hooves/claws/other limbs, right along with other merchandise from food to mundane items. The contents of the bottle however seemed not magical in any sense at all. If anything, the pony who was holding the bottle had more magic about him than the bottle itself.

"Feh." Distortion shook his head. "Those cheats... good thing I got authentication in a spell right here." He heard Star's statement and turned around, ears twitching. "Trade, huh? Yeah, I guess we could do that... but what do we have that these people'll take, anyway?" He noticed the growl. "We do have food in our saddlebags, yannow. We could just eat that."

Star shrugged. "Must have skipped over it when I looked through the saddlebags at first....Wait...Didn't Princess Twilight Sparkle say there were pre-drawn runes in our bags? And some charged magic crystals? Maybe we could trade that." He suggested, giving a small shrug. He opened the saddlebags and took out a small bit of food, munching it slowly. He also dug around his saddlebags looking for said pre-drawn runes and charger magic crystals. "Oh! Here's a question for you since you are so interested in magic, why crystals? I mean why do we even use crystals to charge with magic?" He said, more or less just to have Distortion talking that for the information.

Distortion smiled widely. "Weren't you the one ta say that ya didn't want me talkin' 'bout magic?" He chuckled, digging into his saddlebags as he spoke. "Well, ya see, the answer is that crystals are naturally conducive when it comes ta magic. It works like a proper conduit for the flow of magic, kinda like how a unicorn's horn," he tapped the relevant protrusion on his head, "lets us use magic. So magically powered machines don't need unicorns around ta power it if we just use magically infused crystals as a power source instead." He shrugged, drawing out a piece of food and chewing on it. "Or at least that's how the crystals I'm familiar with work."

It took a little digging because of the number of things crammed in the magically enchanted bag, but the organization at the very least made it possible to find the gems and pre-drawn runes. There was a decent number of them inside, roughly 8 gems of different sizes and color, and 20 slips of paper with different markings on them.

Dis's experience with magic would allow him to at least get a feel for what several of them would do. There seemed to be 7 or 8 shield making ones, 3 that would make fire, 5 that would create some kind of blast or bolt, and 4 or 5 that were a mystery.

Star looked at Distortion. "That I did..." He went back to looking in his bag, anything that Distortion said going over his head. When he finally found the pre-drawn runes and he smiled. "So magic pony. Think we can use these to trade for something? I'll leave the trading up to you if these crystals and papers are worth anything." He took out the eight gems and 20 slips of paper, giving them to Distortion. "You know more about magic and can probably tell if something is a good deal or bad."

"I know how they work, not how much they cost..." Distortion grumbled. "But fine, at least I can get a rough idea of how useful they are..." He scanned the papers. "Arright, let's see... shield, fire, regular offensive... huh. I dunno what these do." He held up the last few and scrutinised them. "Ah well. We'll find out eventually." He headed over to the nearest weapons stall he could see in the area and asked, "Hey, ya got any magic swords fer sale?"

"Arch, but of course my dear customers," the faded gold griffon replied gesturing to the wares spread about on the table in front of him. Most of them didn't seem like anything exceptional out of the collection of ranged and melee weapons. Two curved short swords that seemed to have strengthening and sharpening runes engraved onto them, a larger claymore like blade with a fire rune along it, and a dagger with a energy rune on it's pommel. "But I'll need ta see what ya got ta trade before I show anything more," the griffon continued.

There was also 4 rune guns on the table, one considerably smaller than the other three, a bow and arrows set, two spears, a set of hoof claws, and spiked shoulder shield.

"Yeah yeah. It's all the same for me." Star said to Distortion before falling him over to the weapons stall. He looked over the other stallions shoulder. His smiled as he looked over the swords. "Two swords? Not gonna be able to hold both with my hooves if I'm on the ground. Bow and arrow? I question how one without magic would hold those both..." He muttered quietly, though Distortion could hear considering he was muttering it right next to his ear. His gaze fell on the claymore and his eyes practically lit up.

Distortion shot Star a knowing grin. "Well, it looks like ya got your weapon." He turned back to the griffon. "I'll take your best rune gun. These are what we have ta trade." He took out one of the pre-drawn runes with his telekinesis and laid it on the table. "This one makes fire. We've got more where it came from, and different varieties, too, like shields." He leaned forward. "How much do ya think they're worth, hm? Enough ta get us what we want?"

"Bah, those little paper things are cheap, barely worth the effort ta make'm," the griffon said waving the things away. "All ya got of'm might get ya that dagger, but even then, I ain't makin any promises. What else ya got," he continued eyeing the two closely, wanting to make sure they didn't try to steal anything.

"Hmph." Distortion retrieved the paper and took out one of the gems instead. "Fine. If ya don't want that, then how about these. Finest gems 'round here, I can tell ya that. And there's more where this came from, too." He tapped his hoof on the table. "What'll it be?"

The griffon narrowed his eyes somewhat as he scooped up the gem with one of his claws where he inspected it. For a moment, the narrowed suspicious eyes widened as he inspected the gem, but he was quick to return to a smirking smile. "Yeah, I think we can make a deal with these. How many ya got, and what exactly do you want for them again?" he asked setting the slightly glowing stone back on the table.

Distortion pulled out three more of the gems and set them down on the table. "The claymore, please, and yer best rune gun." He waved at the selection on display. "Do ya got anythin' else, other than these? I'd like to see if there's something else I ought to be considerin'."

The griffon copped his hand down to separate 3 of the brightly glowing gems from the others. "Aye, that'll cover ya claymore, but for a single gem you'll barely get that pistol," the griffon said pointing to what was obviously one of the more cheap and poorly maintained models.

"Hm." Distortion placed another two more on the table with great care, making sure he didn't damage them. Goodness knows he probably would, given his usual ditziness with his experiments. "I don't suppose this'll be enough fer ya? These aren't exactly in great supply, yannow."

"Hmm, aye that'll get ya somethin decent," the griffon said pointing towards one of the better models on the table. The thing had three barrels, each one with it's own rune chamber and crystal holder. Basically the gun would allow somepony to have the option of shooting up to three different types of shot without having to go through the process of switching out the runes, however it could only shoot one barrel at a time. There still seemed to be a better model in that while it had a single barrel, it had a multi-rune chamber cylinder cutting the weight down significantly as well as a longer barrel and sight on it for more proper aiming.

Distortion grinned widely at the second, better model. He couldn't take his eyes off of it. "Heh heh... I wonder if I could use that as some sorta sniper rifle..." He looked back at the griffon and pointed at that model. "How 'bout that one? What'll that cost me?" He floated another gem over and almost dropped it in his eagerness, but caught it just before it hit the floor. "I got another gem here, if that'll help."

"Hmmm, trade in that gun ya got along with these 4 gems and I think we can make a deal," the griffon said hefting the slightly modified rune gun from his stock so the light would hit the weapon at a better angle. "So that's 3 gems for the claymore and 4 with the gun trade in for the other rune gun, deal?" The griffon asked holding out a single claw to shake.

"Deal." Distortion smiled widely and almost handed over the gun when his smile suddenly wilted a little. "Actually, second thoughts... would ya take another gem instead?" He clutched the original rune gun close to him. "This... means somethin' ta me. It's more like I'm borrowin' it than anything else, really. I don't think it's fair o' me to give it away." He took the last gem and placed it on the counter. "How about it?"

The griffon 'hmmm'ed at the offer, stroking the feathers around his beak in thought. "I suppose that'll do, fine, deal," the griffon said shaking Dis's hoof. He then took the pile of gems and slid the two weapons across the table towards the two ponies. "Pleasure doin business, come back when ya get somethin nice on ya," the griffon said waving them off and looking to continue business with the other customers that had been drawn to the table by the presence of charged mana crystals.

"Woohoo!" Distortion grabbed his new gun excitedly. "Oh, I can already imagine what I'm goin' ta do with this baby..." He chuckled. "I can't help but feel that we've been pretty much swindled, seein' as neither of us knew the value of any of this stuff, but still. At least we got what we wanted, eh?" He began to move off to another stall. "Now I gotta get those proper runes that're compatible with rune guns. I wonder if there's a shop like that nearby..."

Several of the nearby shops sported rune, some as just a side item, others had dozens as their primary goods. There were familiar runes, and ones that were completely foreign. A few were even blatant forgeries that wouldn't do anything. One of the shops that seemed to have a rather decent supply of mostly usable runes and the least forgeries was overlooked by the zebra wearing a cloak with the hood pulled back. Mane styled up in a mohawk with pointed tips and with the white parts dyed a bright neon green. The Zebra also sported several piercings, including 2 in each eyebrow, at least 4 in each ear, a pierced septum, and one lip piercing. "Ahhh, see's anythings yous like?"

"Hm, yes, actually, I do." Distortion slowly swept his gaze over the display. "Quite a lotta it, in fact. I want enough to fit inta this baby." He hefted his new purchase over and showed it to the zebra. "Somethin' offensive. Somethin' that'll do some damage. Heck, maybe a shield too, if I've got enough ta trade. But damage first." He leaned in closer. "I don't suppose ya got anythin' like that?"

"Heh, thens yous come tos the rights place," the zebra replied taking the rune gun and opening it's cylinder showing the three slots for runes. "Looks likes standards 6 inch runes. Picks yours choices, ands thens we's discuss prices," she continued gesturing to a section on the table that was covered in runes all roughly the same size.

There were the easily identifiable basic elemental runes combined with a force, blast, or shot mods to create various attacks from a rune gun. There were also a few different shield generating runes ranging from just a generic shield, specialized kinds that were better against their respective types, and even a few reflective ones. Then there were a few that were basically blatant forgeries, and a few that were almost completely un-recognizable.