The strange house on 149 South Main Loop

It was an extremely strange house. Although one could easily see the relatively simple physical core, it did not take the greatest of magicians to notice the various heating, cleaning and various maintenance enchantments that had been rather haphazardly placed on the structure. As such, it was proving rather difficult to sell off the house or even give the house to another pony, as Intel had to try and convince prospective future owners that it wouldn't spontaneously combust. Of course, it wasn't really help by the fact that it had burst into flame in the past, but such judgement was really unfair, for two good reasons. One, the fires were dealt swiftly with the extinguishing enchantment opnly leaving him a little bit drenched, and two, the fires were caused by Intel's own experiments, rather than any fault of the enchantments.

Despite the careful reasoning, it was downright next to impossible to convince ponies to live in 'a magic house', least of all because it was on the unfashionable side of the main square.

After the fifth prospect decided glimmery really wasn't his colour, Intel was feeling sour, and rested his head against the FOR SALE sign in front of his house. The whole business was getting on his nerves...

Night Flutter was walking blissfully down the road, looking at the various houses present as she did, a saddle bag slung over her back which carried her own written compilation of the most common enchantments she did and the items she was or had enchanted.

Because that was her trade, when she stepped by the rather scary looking house, she couldn't help but stop and admire it. In concept, it was genius and would set the standard for the future in residential safety. But in execution...

It was horrifying.

She glanced down and saw the pony, resting his head on the sign. She hesitated a moment, but couldn't resist, and approached.

"Excuse me. Are you the owner of this house?" She asked. "My name is Night Flutter. I focus on item enchantment."

Intel rolled his head to look at the unicorn mare that had approached him. With a tiny 'oh', he scrambled to his feet, dusting himself off before holding out a hoof. "Intelligent Design. Theoretical Mage. Intelligent by name, not really by nature. Call me Intel instead."

A nervous smile formed on his face. "We-ell, yes. This is my house, hopefully not for much longer, and yes, it has been enchanted to a considerable extent." He frowned at the structure. "It shouldn't be too dangerous, though. Some of the spells are makeshift, I admit, but..." He sighed, giving up on trying to make it sound better than it was. "I did get a little bit carried away with it. A lot, actually. You see, you start enchanting bits and bobs to make life a bit easier, but then those enchantments need more enchantments and you realise more things can be taken care of, and then it repeats itself."

"It is safe, right?" he asked with mild concern, "It's stable and not going to implode in on itself, and I haven't missed a fatal flaw in the enchantment?"

Night couldn't help but smile slightly as the pony before her scrambled to his feet. She chuckled softly and lifted her hoof as well, tapping it before putting it back down. "Nice to meet you, Intel." She greeted.

She listened as he spoke about the house, and she examined the structure. "Why do you want to get rid of such a wonderful place?" She asked, walking closer to it, examining the various enchantments. "There are more enchantments than any one pony would need, but it is still a marvelous." She really did like it.

She glanced back to him as he asked if it was safe, and then looked it over. "Well. I see that you've overlapped too many Enchantments, and they're malfunctioning some. The issue with enchanting things is that too much and the energies mix and cause problems." She explained, walking along the side of the house. "While I don't the the house is going to implode, it's possible that the enchantments will burn themselves out and in the best possible scenario, just stop working."

She paused. "Hmm..." She examined the house closely. It's take some work, but...she could fix most of them, and do away with unnecessary ones.

"Oh, I'm moving back home to Canterlot," Intel said, "This house was my home only for a little while, and I don't really think I should keep it if I'm not living in it. That's all."

He snorted and shook his head. "Enchantment density laws were never my thing. Too many assumptions and variables, and that's before you factor in transfiguration uncertainty principles." He tilted his head slightly. "Is there anything you can do with it? I could sell it to you if you wish. Not many ponies would really know where to start with a house like this..."

Intel raised a hoof to his chin in thought. "And especially with the custom ones like the dish collecting and washing one, there's really no established thing to reference about it. By the way, may I ask if you learned enchanting at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns? I only did the basic classes for that particular stream, but I may have seen you around there."

"Oh, you are? I visit there often, selling my wares. It's a wonderful place. I wish I could live there." So it was only a temporary home? "If I may ask, what was it about Ponyville that made you move here from Canterlot?"

"Well, typically I follow the rule of hoof that you should never overlap more than three energy fields. Otherwise the energy waves mix and rebound and keep it from working right." She looked away from the house and back to him. "I can fix it, easy, though I already have a home, so really I don't need this one." It was nice, but her home was perfectly fine and she didn't want to go through the hassle of packing just to change houses. Now if she was moving to, say, Canterlot...

When Intel asked her if she ever studied at the school for gifted unicorns, she shuffled nervously. "Well. I got a letter of invitation, asking me to enroll, but...I loved my home and friends too much to leave. I was given copies of the course books, though, and I studied those in my spare time. Graduated top of my class." She thought back to it and, while she loved her friends, sacrificing such an opportunity would haunt her forever. All of her school friends were all gone, off on their own lives. She'd only postponed the inevitable, really.

"But just because I didn't go doesn't mean I'm not good at what I do!" She felt the need to defend. "I could have attended if I wanted, but..." She lost her steel and shifted again. "Anyway. I don't want the house, but... I could help you fix it." She looked up and met Intel's gaze, feeling a little embarrassed now in the face of such a clearly higher bred unicorn than her.

Intel laughed nervously. "My family heavily suggested I take a break from my work after I kinda..." He waved his hoof without much commitment. "...you know. Burnt out one of the labs in a far too effective demonstration of magical amplifiers, repeaters and reflectors. Thank Celestia I'd installed my Dampeners before or Celestia might have had to be called in to deal with the resonance cascade. So I decided to set up shop here. It's a nice place, but it's a bit too..." He gestured, trying to form an adjective. "...crazy, sometimes."

Intel sighed. "Sometimes, I really do I think I'm lucky, more than I deserve. How many more worthy ponies than I missed out, just because of the random chance of birth? It's troubling to think about that too much."

Looking over the house, he shrugged. "I transfigured some of the excess energy overlap into enchantment bonds to put an upper bound on some of the effects, and to hold some of the bits and bops together. Oh, and into gradient modifiers to cycle air flow against the temperature charm. That was a doozy, had to research some pegasus tricks to form that. IT would have been somewhat easier if the door was a revolving one, but that would have been expensive to actually install. Had to make do with the physical structures already in place. I started with basic triangulation overlay, but I couldn't pass up transfiguring enchantment bonds. They are extremely fun to work with." He blushed. "Uh, if I'm speaking nonsense, tell me so I can stop. This is usually the bit where ponies stop listening to me."

Night couldn't help but smile and chuckling lightly. "I know where you come from. I've had a few enchantments go awry. One time I was in the library, making a weatherproofed headscarf, and the most eccentric pony came in and startled me, and I set it on fire!" It was funny when she thought back to it. "This place can be odd, but it's fun. You never know whats going to happen, though it is nice to be able to go about your business without worrying about anything going wrong."

"Well, studying there does give somepony an advantage, but in the end, it does come down to skill, right?" Night suggested. "And there's always a place for somepony, they just need to find it." She smiled.

She glanced over to the house as Intel began to talk, and she listened. "Hm? Oh, no, don't stop. This is fascinating! What kind of bonds did you use, did you affix them to the house itself or to a physical object like a candle holder or something?" She asked. "How did you manage to maintain airflow to a reasonable level, so it didn't tear up the house or send papers flying, and did you consider a screen door?"

She was still listening, Intel, and was actually asking questions.

"Well, skill is all well and good, but nothing beats conversing with like-minded ponies, sharing ideas and experiences, providing differing perspectives on seemingly familiar topics. I would not have the same knowledge I have today if it weren't for my peers and colleagues." He grinned. "Even if some of them were doddering old fossils."

"The enchantment bonds bond the enchantments, well, to each other. It's why I can pack so many of them in one place without them repelling each other out of entropy. Really cool transfiguration trick, a little bit advanced. Change the force that repels, into a force that binds. Not transfiguration 101. More like 764. Love it. Was much more a transfigurer than an enchanter, but the best fun truly is in mixing and matching magic all in this wonderful web of...wonder."

"The thing about a revolving door is that at no point in time is there a continuous air flow between inside and outside. So I used a New Tonne fluid disruption spell on the windows and door so that constant pressure from the air ensures it doesn't go through, but the sudden push of a pony will. Played absolute havoc with my security charms..."

"Oh I agree. I'm disappointed you're leaving for Canterlot so soon after having met you. Timing doesn't seem to be in my favor." It as true. She really liked talking to this pony, he was smarter than a lot she had encountered.

"Hm. I can see how that words, but it may also be why they're malfunctioning. You're putting too much strain on the enchantments themselves. Maybe if the enchantments are attached more to the house and less on themselves, it might be a bit more stable. You'd have to get rid of some of the less necessary spells, but even one or two enchantments brings a house's value up. Even by removing some, you got nowhere to go but up at this point." She suggested. "I don't do a whole lot of transfiguration, I stick mostly to enchantments, though I know enough to do something kind of like this." At that moment, she wished she had accepted her invitation and possibly met this pony sooner. She listened, fascinated, and found his intellect charming. He may deny it, but this pony was a smart one.

"Ah, I see." She muttered, rethinking his design and seeing it now. She smiled and tried not to laugh at the thought of his struggles against a series to tripped security charms. "That sounds like it was a fun evening."

"I have plenty of friends in Ponyville to warrant me visiting regularly," Intel grinned, "And now I have another, Ms Flutter. It's only a brief train ride. And you're welcome to visit in Canterlot if you so desire."

"Thing is, attaching too many enchantments to a physical object deteriorates its reality presence, making it go strange..." Looking at the house again, he amended. "Okay, maybe it's strange anyway. The area, if not the house itself. The problem is then removing the right enchantments so that the web of spells doesn't fly completely apart..."

[Gaaah. I'm sorry I haven't posted. Work has been chaotic and I just didn't have much time to get on.]

Night flutter blushed slightly as Intel said she'd be a reason to visit, and she shifted around awkwardly and tried to smile. "I'll be sure to." She said.

She'd look to the house and tilt her head. "Well, I think if we work together, we'll have little trouble getting it fixed.~" She'd smile.