Halloween that year was certainly one to be rememberedthat was hard to forget. Three people ended up hospitalized in the aftermath of the Penthouse Shooting, one from a bullet wound, one from falling and hitting her head, the last from being trampled over. Hailey ended up in custody, as did Justin. Pretty much the entire group was suspected of drug use because of their claims that demonic horses had attacked after killing two school mates, who were found to be perfectly fine.
Jemaul carried a good deal of guilt on his part, even months later. The whole approach was his idea. It was only luck that ensured no one was killed by those stray bullets, and that only one person was hurt by it. Miss Daphnes, or Granny D as he officially took to calling her, used it as the basis of his first lessons. It was right out of marvel, but it was still an important one. With power, no matter what type, came responsibility to match.
It turned out he had magic potential of his own, one the curse and it's circumstances blossomed into a full talent that he and Granny D were still working on determining the full scope of. It was possible that was part of the reason her little punishment spell turned the way it did as well.
They had managed to get the amulet back to her despite all the excitement in the area. Jemaul and Matt had gotten split up in the initial retreat, the latter taking the stairs while the former fled on his own wing power. Between the police converging on the apartment for the reports of shooting, the ones that were in the cemetery investigating the reports of 'screaming kids' and even an animal control unit, there was a lot of hoofwork involved.
There was also another reason why putting the night behind them was difficult. The spell had turned into a curse of some power. Curses like that leave their marks. Jemaul didn't lose all of the night vision or keen hearing the bat pony form had granted him, nor did his fangs fully shrink. The odd attraction to salt he developed was just the icing on the cake. Aside from sharing the fang quirk, Matt didn't lose a changeling's ability to smell, or how ever it was they detected emotions. While it was muted, and he didn't seem to feed on emotions, or in the least need to feed, he was still an empath. Helping him adjust was another project Granny D was working on with them.
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Granny D swatted Jemaul with a folded newspaper as his eyes wandered from the small flame flickering in the tiny bowl before him. "Pay attention, boy! If you plan to finish this in time, you can't be glancing away every time someone giggles!"
"Can you blame him though Grammy," a little girl's voice called out, "this is really funny!"
In the next room, Matt and Delilah's granddaughter, Emily, were both on the couch with an episode of My Little Pony playing. The girl was not what Matt had expected when he first saw her. The little girl looked to be the same age as Jamie's sister but with a pale complexion and dark brown hair.
Matt couldn't help but snicker a little. "Come on Jamie! You can do it!" He then leaned over to Granny's kid and whispered, "totally can't," earning a giggle from the child.
Jemaul's face twitched as he held back a scowl, staring into the depths of the flame. It wasn't quite a normal fire, burning on kindling made from stripped willow that was steeped in moonlight. In short, it was far more magic reactive than a normal flame. He grit his teeth and tried to focus on the dancing flames.
"Elements are one of the primal ways to understand magic. Every act can be seen as having a basis in one or more elements, and it can help you understand personal limitations. Now, fire isn't a force you have a natural talent with, but you do have skills with air, and a breath fans the flame," Granny D lectured from behind him. "In turn the flames cast flickering shadows, which you also are drawn to. Find a link between the Air and the Flame and the Shadow and use the flame, use the flame to light the candle. Simple as pie."
"Air… fire… shadow... " Jemaul murmured. The tiny flame flickered in the light breeze as Granny D circled, and the tiny flames it cast shifted. Change: a change in the air leads to change in the fire which lends to change in the shadow. He chose that as his focus.
"Keep talking to it," Matt jeered.
This time Jemaul did scowl, but schooled it back. All he needed to do was light a fire… A tiny green flame caught on Matt's hand.
Matt out a yelp of surprise as he saw the fire appear, quickly attempting to swat it out with his hand. "Jamie!!"
The flame grew, feeding off not only Jemaul's talent, but the trace magic in Matt and the power of his emotions. As it did, it left behind not charred flesh, but a familiar black carapace. Jemaul started panicking too. "Oh crap, what did I do?"
Granny D sighed and whopped Jemaul with her newspaper again. "Didn't I tell you to focus?"
"Umm Jamie! I'm turning into a bug again in here!" Matt hollered, desperately smacking at the flames.
Jemaul tried to shift to that special 'spell vision' he had been taught, but he couldn't focus enough to make clear sense of it and just tried pulling back the spell. A flame started up on his own hands. "Ah, come on!"
"I'm trying to teach how to do something aside from changing back into ponies," Granny D complained. She brushed off one of the chairs before sitting, ignoring the panicking teens and her cheering granddaughter. "Honestly. There are times when I can't tell if you are a talented student, or a hopeless one. Nothing you can do but wait for it to play out."
"What!?!" Matt stood in the doorway; his entire right hand already turned into a hoof.
"Seriously?" Jemaul had tried rubbing out the flames, but that only spread it to the other hand, so he just stared at the slowly spreading fur in resignation. "Can't you do something about it, Granny D?"
"Consider it the penalty for not completing your assignment properly," Granny D chuckled. She pointed at Matt. "And yours for distracting him during his lesson."
"Well buck me," Matt sighed in defeat.
"Didn't Jamie turn you into a changeling last week?" Emily asked innocently.
"That was an accident!" Jemaul said quickly. The bright side was that those 'accidents' only worked on himself and Matt. Thanks to the curse, they counted as having another self. Granny D did say there was a slim chance it might work on something like a werewolf too, but he wasn't in any rush to test that one. Still, it meant he wasn't able to just turn someone else into a pony, much to Lisa's displeasure. He deliberately kept that fact that because of his magic he had to periodically go pony from her.
"Right," Matt scoffed as he sat down on the floor, "I swear if I become your test subject; I'll bite your flank so hard..."
"How was I supposed to know I could throw a spell that far with my wings," Jemaul said, resisting the urge to scratch as the flames fused his fingers together. "At least this version doesn't hurt. Just feels warm, is all."
"I suppose it's a good thing your family couldn't make it for dinner after all," Granny D remarked as the two bickered. No one had expected her to have opened up as much as she did. As she put it—taking apprentices changed people.
"Yeah, feels almost nice," Matt mused as he watched as his shoes fell off flat as his feet melted into hooves.
"It's not fair Grammy," Emily pouted, crossing her arms and stomping adorably. "How come I don't get to be a pony?"
"You're not old enough, Millipede" Jemaul said reflexively. It was the stock response he gave to Lisa whenever she asked, and to Emily as well. When the Millipede and the Timbit teamed up though…
"Honestly, I have no clue," Matt simply said as he winced slightly, the joint in his arm shifting to its new position. "Well that hurt far less this ti- OW OW! Nevermind!" He hissed as he looked down to see his legs starting to shift.
"I apologize for that," Granny D huffed, slapping the paper on her knee. Maybe one day she would actually read it. One day. "My magic is focused through the earth. The earth does not change easily, nor without suffering. And I was upset at you when I cast it. Emotions affect magic as well.
"Jamie-boy here is more talented when it comes to transformation kinds of magic. It's why his slips tend to turn you two back into ponies." she continued. "It's the first spell his magic remembers."
"Oh yay me," Jemaul muttered.
"And I'm sorry, honey," Granny D said to Emily. "If I tried, you wouldn't like it. Maybe when Jamie gets better you can ask him nicely."
Emily turned and looked pleadingly at Jemaul. In a flair of flames his wings appeared and flared in shock, pushing his shirt up to his neck. He jabbed a hoof at her, a few tongues of fire still lingering in places. "No way! Don't try that look with me, Millipede! Timbit does it all the time."
Emily's puppy dog eyes didn't cease one bit as she pooched out her lip, "please!!"
Matt couldn't but laugh a little as he watched the display before him. "Thank Faust I don't have a little brother." The majority of his skin had already turned into carapace as the flame started creeping up his neck. "Though I probably was like this for my own bros when I was her age."
Probably because it was his own spell, Jemaul's changes finished first. At least the flames were more representative and hadn't damaged his clothes. True, he and Matt kept an extra set or two in one of the empty drawers in one of the guest room, but still. He shook his head and pulled his shirt off. "Still no."
"But please," she pleaded, getting eye level with the now batpony Jemaul, "you're so adorable! I wanna be adorable too!"
"Come on, let the kid have her cake," Matt said, still laughing to himself as the change finally finished, leaving a changeling in a now very baggy T-shirt and jeans.
Jemaul muttered something under his breath. "Granny D, can you please explain to them that I can't do anything like that?"
"Not yet, anyway," she agreed.
Emily sighed in defeat, "well pooh, but I still wanna be a pony sometime." With a huff and a pout, she left the room.
"It has to be an age things," Jemaul sighed. "The only reason Timbit is worse is because I live with her."
Matt just shrugged before he managed to pull off his shirt with minimal difficulty. "Your sis likes me, so I don't know what you're talking about," he said with a shit-eating grin.
"Just wait till she wants something from you," Jemaul muttered. Anything further was cut off when an all too familiar newspaper whacked him about the ears, making him yelp.
"Don't forget you messed up your lesson," Granny D scolded.
Matt couldn't help but snicker but that was quickly cut short by a look from Her. Even if Matt still knew Granny Rags better now, she still scared the ever living piss out of him when she went witch mode.
"Still… I suppose we can use this chance to get you two colts in shape," she smiles slowly. "Let's start with ten laps around the estate, hmm?"
Matt's eyes widened in alarm. "I can barely run three as a human!"
"No use complaining," Jemaul sighed as Granny D got up and walked off humming happily. "She's all for you magic users being at least moderately fit, and you know you can't stop her when she get's going. At least we get a little stipend from it."
"Hurry up, you two!" she called out.
"But I hate running!"