I tweaked the coil slightly. If I made it too tight, I messed the current up entirely; I made it too loose and the current wouldn't be strong enough for what I needed. I had made a few electromagnets in the past, but never one to do what this one was built to do. I had been reminded by the racist force field that protected Equestria of Humania's main protection from invasion, i.e. the Tesla Electromagnetic Fence.
The Tesla Electromagnetic Fence was named after one of human history's greatest inventors. It circled the entire country and was seven meters high all around. It was left off most of the time for safety and energy saving reasons; but when it was turned on, it could polarize and attract even non-metal objects. The electromagnet I was currently building would never be that powerful, but if my calculations were correct, I had just built an electromagnet ten times more applicable and useful then the Tesla Electromagnetic Fence.
“Dax, look at me,” I ignored Pest, nothing could be more important than the Dax-Magnet. I mentally removed that name from my list of names for my invention. I could revolutionize everything anyone or anypony ever thought about the electromagnet.
“Dax, I'm not kidding, you haven't left this room in three months. I'm running out of peanut butter and patience,” there is no way it has been more than a month. But how can there be no peanut butter? We had twenty jars last time I had checked. I finally glanced at Pest, solely to satisfy my curiosity. Before I could ask about the peanut butter, I had an answer. Pest was eating directly from a jar of half empty peanut butter.
“This is your fault, Dax. You've left me to my own devices for so long, I ate all our Nutella and I'm almost all of our peanut butter,” she took another large and exaggerated spoonful of peanut butter and shoved it into her fanged mouth, “what are you even making in here?”
“Pestilentia, I am going to kill you, but not right now because I'm proud of this and I want to share. Before you stands the worlds one and only repelling electromagnet. Normally, an electromagnet polarizes the metals around it and they attract north to south; this magnet alters its own current and makes a sort of ‘negative pole’ that only can repel metal. But with the flick of a switch it becomes a regular old electromagnet,” I beamed with pleasure. This magnet could make me famous. Put my name in a textbook or something. Thinking of all that fame made me nervous, fame almost always led to popularity and that led to people wanting to see you. As much as I hated that idea, I would never keep the world back from a great discovery. I started walking towards the fridge that we kept my battery cells stored.
“Before you test it, could you go into town and pick up some food? We're running low on everything,” I stopped dead in my tracks as what Pest asked me to do soaked into my brain.
“Go outside? Were the ponies live? And... converse?” I felt fear well up in my system at the prospect of talking to a new community, getting asked who I am, or, even worse, make a friend.
“Oh, god forbid you go out there and talk with somepony!” Pestilentia yelled at me. She stared down with her murky blue eyes. I would never say it to her face, but I liked the way her eyes looked.
“How can you manage to always be giving of positive emotions around me?” She asked, seemingly out of nowhere. I sometimes could forget that as a Changeling she could read my emotions like a book. She assured me she never looked at my emotions when I was depressed or something because Changelings had a habit of reacting to the emotion they were feeding on.
“In all honesty, I don't know. You have always been a constant in my life and are my only friend; you're just great Pest,” the words left my mouth as if they had always been there, and I felt a moderate peace at saying them.
“That's really sweet and I feel the same way,” I saw a twinkle in her hazy blue eyes, “but you still have to go get groceries. Moneys on the counter,” I walked away feeling her eyes on me. I grabbed money and hit the switch on the garage door.
Unwanted light flooded my little workspace like a plague or disease. I shielded my eyes to no avail, Celestia herself was dead set on ruining my day.
-Pest's perspective, same time-
I watched Dax walk away to, to him, seemed a treacherous and unforgiving adventure. Wow, Dax's vocab was rubbing off on me, next I would say “moist” or “caress” in a non-joking manor. Was I developing feelings for Dax? Seemed like it. Wonder were that path would take me. I couldn't tell if he felt anything back. Was he gay?
I picked up my jar of PB and started licking the inside clean. Despite what everypony thinks, changelings could eat and needed real food. The best bet as to why the ability to eat emotions formed is that there wasn't enough food in the badlands (shocker) we called home. Eventually we adapted to feeding on the ever bountiful crop of radiated emotional magic residue. Or something. I wasn't really listening to that explanation.
I took a step and almost tripped on a metal part of one gadget or another. I really did the right thing, sending Dax out. When Dax gets really into something, he starts to get dangerous to himself and others. He hadn't slept more then ten minutes at a time in the three months he had locked himself away and barely ate enough to stay alive.
Sometimes he really worried me.
If he died, were would I be in life? I owed Dax and his family so much that it wasn't even funny, they had taken me in when I was only seven years old and living off of the streets. Dax had been only about a year younger so we got along very well since the start. Like a “Find one of us to find the other” close. I had built a few friendships in a couple different forms but Dax had always been the strongest emotional supplier out of all of them. He had befriended me, Pest. Not a disguise. Not one of my OC's. Pestilentia, herself.
I heard a few sounds outside and reflexively pulled up a disguise. My current go to disguise, a lanky and green earth pony. I peered through the open garage door to the front door.
Standing away where three ponies, the first was... strange. Even this far away her excitement tasted sweet and sugary with an unbound urge to have fun. She had a hot pink and unkept mane of curls that screamed “life of the party” and a coat of a lighter shade of the same color.
The second was no less strange. I tasted a very strange emotion on her; unwavering loyalty. Very few could brag of that trait, even fewer radiated it from this far away. Her appearance was, in all honesty, a little gaudy. A rainbow of colors adorned her mane and tail atop a cyan coat, she obviously had a runners build (I guess flyers build was more appropriate, given she was a Pegasus). But I had to admit, she pulled it off.
The third was not a pony, but a griffon with white plumage and a brownish orange lions fur. She gave off a very bitter and resentful taste. Some changelings like that but I've always been a positive girl myself. Unlike the other two, her emotional radiation was weak, I couldn't have gone in depth on her emotions if I tried. She didn't feel strongly enough or put her heart and soul into anything. Her amber eyes seemed lulled and uncaring
I wonder what they wanted? I dug my snout into the PB jar to ensure it was all gone before I threw it away and watched the show.
“Are you sure that this is the new ponies home, Pinkie?” The rainbow themed one asked.
“Absolutely positutely! My Pinkie sense said that there was a new pony family in town, and that they lived over here!” The pink one, I guess Pinkie, shouted frantically.
“Whatever, lets just prank them or whatever then leave,” I didn't like this griffin girl. I quickly memorized her face so I could give her a bad name later. Pinkie agreed with my dislike, if her emotions were truthful. I flicked the house security switch on to ensure that some distance was kept.
“We can't prank them until we know them, Gilda, it's just rude! Don't you agree Rainbow Dash?” I liked Pinkie, she was overflowing with happiness and content. Rainbow Dash had confidence and humor, I liked her too. Gilda was filled with tension and viciousness to a small degree, but mostly a sense of self image. It was kind of sad to taste.
“Don't be a lame-o. Lets just...” Gilda was quickly cut off mid-sentence as she stepped into the area monitor of Dax's home security thingy.
«Warning: the action you are about to do is in direct violation of Humanian laws and restrictions. Please cease and desist immediately or punishment will be issued»
The voice was cold, uncaring and metallic. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie seemed scared by it, but Gilda laughed.
“Humanian? This is a humans home! Those weaklings don't have the guts to stop me from entering,” Gilda turned to the ponies, “the only thing you should worry about are their guns!” She put a lot of emphasis on the word guns.
“Back home in the Gryphon Territories, we had this old coot of human female. Like, as old as that green pony back in Ponyville,” there was a surge of anger from Pinkie, “She sold these weird electric things. Anyway, one day a griffin, big guy, tried to rob her in broad daylight for fun. No one tried to help her, we thought she would just lose the fight and cry or something, but she didn't need the help. He pointed a spear at her and she pulled this pipe looking thing. Boom! She pulled the trigger and his entire body exploded into a bloody mess!” I could taste fear and disgust from the two ponies. Gilda seemed to have even more, though she was masking it.
“Yeah, I don't know if we should break into a humans house,” Rainbow Dash said intelligently.
“We have to give them a welcome party, even if they're a meany rude pants,” she looked at Gilda as she said this.
I did some quick calculations in my head. Guns = Super Death Wands. Super Death Wands = a great heavy metal band name, though that was beside the point. I had a great idea that involved me transforming into Dax and pointing a gun at them to scare them away. It was fool proof.
Normally I hate transforming into humans, it gets into your brain. The first thing I felt this time as I transformed was smarter. Humans magic makes them a lot smarter then average, they can work mathematics and scientific stuff as if it were child's play, but the weirdest part of transforming into human is what it made you lose: your ability to not care. As a human, everything peaked my interest. How did this work? How did that work? Why was there only one season of Firefly?
Turning into Dax was at least ten times more difficult. Not to toot my own horn, but I was so skilled at transforming that, when I transformed into another being, I matched there magical prowess. For earth ponies I matched strength and farming abilities, but for humans I matched learning capabilities and industrialization abilities. Goddesses, it was already taking affect. Industrialization? I barely knew what that word meant. Dax was some kind of human god of learning.
I could feel Dax's phenotypes beginning take effect. His black, sort-of long sort-of short curly hair; his smooth and young face; and his un-callused hands. His clothes also appeared in their full jump suit stature.
This was going to be fun.