Rolling Back Home

Articulus, a crippled pony, rolled up to the Town Square, moving his hoof off the control to his wheel-chair, looking around. He was scared to be back, if he had to be truthful to himself, but also.. Happy to be back. He looked around, and called out, "Is anypony here?" His voice was unusally gentle and soft, very strange for a male pony.

For once, the town square was quiet as Intel worked on the cloud. His gaze was locked on the rogue mass, a thunder cloud in a mass of other 'normal' clouds. He had made sure nopony was around to be affected by the fallout in case something went seriously wrong, but something like that shouldn't happen. It was going to be a simple growth spell, after all.

Attempting a growth spell on a cloud was something new, let alone an enchanted one. If he got this right, there might be a stable combination of of earth-pegasus-unicorn magic, a breakthrough in magical theory. If it worked. If it didn't...

"Is anypony there?"

If it didn't, the cloud might release all its water at once, throughly drenching Intel and the book he was using as a reference. The scientist shut his eyes tightly, trying not to think about what Twilight would do when he returned the ruined book. Sporting the friendliest smile he could muster, he turned to face the pony that had spoken.

He had to admit, he was surprised when he saw the pony in the wheelchair. He couldn't remember seeing another pony like that before. With difficulty, he stopped himself staring and initiated conversation.

"Hello," he said with a tired voice, "Can I help you?"

Articulus looked at Intel, and blinked, rolling up to the other pony. "Oh, hello. I see your working a cloud spell, yes?" He asked, pointing with his free hoof at the book. He then shook his head. "I'm surprised that Ponyville hasn't changed at all since my younger years." Artie said, and frowned, then shrugged. "I'm Articulus Abrams." He said, introducing himself, extending a hoof to Intel, smiling warmly.

"Intelligent Design," came the reply, with a tentative acceptance of the hoof, "Don't be fooled by the name."

He considered explaining the fact that it wasn't going to be any normal cloud spell, but one that potentially could create raw reality, the very essence of being. Furthermore, it would have been easy to abort, averting magical catastrophe. Magic dampeners had been placed around the square if it came to that, anyway.

He didn't say this though, recalling the glazed expression his explanations always seemed to give ponies who hadn't studied advanced magical theory. It got very tiring having to explain every last detail, like the words 'and' and 'the' in some infuriating cases. Instead, Intel chose to focus on the other thing Abrams had said.

"Oh, so you came from here, then?" Intel said inquisitively, "I just moved recently from Canterlot to this village- town- area. It looks deceptively peaceful, I'll tell you that."