• Published 30th Mar 2014
  • 16,169 Views, 866 Comments

Golden Grace, Headless Headaches - Thadius0



Defating foes from Beyond? Easy enough. Making Celly see where her mistakes lie? No problem. Being torn apart and reborn because of the Golden Sun? Okay, that one, I admit, knocked me for a loop.

  • ...
51
 866
 16,169

Side Chapter 1 - I think the universe just shivered

Author's Note:

This chapter done by Isaac3924.
And the reason the chapter is titled like it is is because...
Well, you'll see.

Pyre woke to the sun streaming in through the window of his house. Grumbling a bit, he tossed over to the other side of his bed so as to get away from the infernal light. Sighing with his eyes still closed, he began to drift back to wondrous, wondrous sleep.

Until another light began to exude from the direction he was now facing.

Cracking open an eyelid, he stared straight ahead at whoever was causing the disturbance. His bloodshot eye shot around the room a bit until finally focusing on the glowing red-yellow figure in front of him.

The Mars djinn cackled to itself in amusement, brightening the light it was producing now that it knew for certain that Pyre was awake.

Pyre stared at the little bugger for a full minute. His one eye glaring at it, until finally he leapt towards the immature little prick denying him his rest.

Only to be met with a wall to the face.

Pyre groaned in pain as he slumped to the floor.

The djinn laughed uproariously from behind him.

"Notveryfastforapegasusareya?"

Pyre seethed at the djinn's words before exhaling deeply.

The djinn had entered his house maybe a few months ago and had not ceased to bother Pyre from that moment onwards. It would follow him around town usually riding along his back, which Pyre now tolerated seeing as it was too quick to catch. When it first began doing this Pyre would try anything from throwing it off with his wings to, when he got bothered enough, bucking about trying to shake it loose. It would just jump off then hop back on when Pyre had his back turned.

Pyre realized it was just more pragmatic to accept it.

Not to mention it was almost incomprehensible to understand. It spoke so fast that its words almost blurred together. Pyre was getting better at understanding it now, but it was still a bother.

Pyre just decided to get up and move on with his day.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After getting ready and having a nice breakfast of waffles, with the djinn's inane prattling going on in the background, Pyre stepped out the door with the djinn on his back, taking a deep breath of fresh air, ready to start the day.

Until he was blind-sided by a brown blur crashing into him and knocking him onto his side.

Pyre and his assailant rolled onto the ground into the middle of an intersection where a number of ponies stopped to stare, while a good amount of them continued on with their day already used to the shenanigans taking place.

They tumbled a bit more until their momentum died down and they settled onto the road with the blur atop Pyre's prone form.

"Yeesh, you'd think after all this time you'd remember to look both ways when you leave your house." Said the voice above him.

"I mean I wasn't even hiding this time!"

"Grr uff of mph Amph-erf."

"What was that?"

"I phaied," Pyre swatted his wings against the one holding him down, causing them to jump off to avoid them, allowing him to raise his head, "Get off of me Amber."

"Aww, don't be so mad Flare." Amber chuckled to herself, "It's all in good fun. Besides we wouldn't want to break with tradition now would we?"

Pyre made to speak up but Amber kept rambling, "Why, because of our traditions we've kept our balance for many, many months, here in Newvale. If we didn't have our traditions, our lives would be as shaky as.... as....." She pondered for a bit, tilting her head to the side before perking up and slapping a fist into her other paw, "A filly on the roo-"

A hoof quickly entered her mouth stymying her rant.

"That's enough of that," Pyre deadpanned, his eyes half-lidded. "I get it, you're not going to stop."

Amber then spat out his hoof and gave him a mock glare. "Don't you know where those hooves have been?! All over the ground!" She points an accusing claw at Pyre, "And you decided it was okay to insert it into my oral cavity!?" She threw her paws up into the air, "I'm going to have to sue you for emotional distress!" She began to look around, "Where's Common when you need him?"

Pyre slapped a hoof to his forehead, with the djinn giggling in the background, having jumped off his back the minute he was blind-sided.

"You done?" He asked, letting the edge show in his voice.

Amber shrugged, "Just about. Might have a bit more rhetoric in me later...... Maybe even a tirade!"

Pyre sighed, "Whatever, let's just get going, I have a few things to pick up at the market."

Pyre turned and trotted away towards the market, until his tail was grabbed and pulled back by Amber.

She spun him around to face her and gave him a bit of a strained smile, "Actually..... I could use your help with something."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"We're going to what?" Pyre asked, his voice loud enough to echo a bit, denoting the absurdity of what he was questioning.

Amber dug into her ear with one of her claws twisting at the volume of Pyre's voice.

"This is the third time I've explained this, how can you not wrap your head around it?"

"Humor me." Pyre growled out. The djinn on his back hopping about hanging from his wings and mane on occasion.

"Fiiiiiiiiiiiine~~~," Amber groaned out. Trudging through the trees with Pyre beside her, heading to their destination.

She cleared her throat and began, "Aboyami came up to me yesterday, asking for a favor. She wanted me to head to Ghastly Gorge to get some...... quarray eel droppings."

Amber looked to the side and could see the stallion glaring at her.

"There's a reason as to why!" She exclaimed. Taking a deep breath, she began, "You see, the eels digest some of the crystals in the gorge along with whatever other animals they might catch. When they're done digesting it, and... you know," She shrugged her shoulders, "Doing as nature intended, they excrete this yellowish crystal-clay mush." She waved her arms in a motion as if describing its shape, "When Aboyami gets her hooves on them she can make a sort of mortar that when laced with a mixture of water and blueberries dries instantly." She got a grin to her face, "So it can work as a sort of portable clay, slap it onto a wall, smoosh something onto it, splash the water, and you've got a permanent addition." She eyed Pyre, "Due to the bonus that the mortar is nearly impossible to break when dry, it'll also work as great construction material."

"So why can't Aboyami do it herself?" Pyre asked, glaring at the djinn, who was now swinging off of his tail. "She's more familiar with the area anyways."

"She said she needed to head to Canterlot today with Shiver, Silver, and Snow. Something about confronting sun-butt or something."

They both paused and spat to the side thinking of the princess, while neither really hated her, since both were accosted by the guard. However, it was still the princess's guard, and so she was still at fault in a way.

"That the reason why Silver was going around asking about our grievances a few days back?"

"I think so," Amber nodded. "But she came to me due to the whole beacon thing, and you know, its effects."

Pyre nodded, staring at the little entourage of djinni that surrounded Amber. About a dozen or so Venus djinn were around here, some wild, some from the village. They were sitting complacently on her shoulders, or sometimes swimming in the very ground.

There was always one djinn around Amber though, her personal favorite, named Crust. It looked like a regular Venus djinn, but seemed to be covered with a layer of hard rock making it appear a bit bigger than the others, but not by much. His ability was pretty self-explanatory. He allowed Amber to cover herself in a suit of rock, crystal, really any nearby earthen material, that increased her defense and strength, at the cost of some speed. It had really helped out a few times when heavy materials needed to be moved about the village.

After she had been used by the star, more and more Venus djinni seemed to flock around her, drawn by some sort of force or another, she also seemed to have better control over her Venus psynergy as well, so that much was obvious as to why her services were required, but there was still one more thing.

"But why am I here?" Pyre asked, his right eye twitching a bit due to his own frustration and the nameless Mars djinn pulling at his right ear.

"Because of those wonderful appendages of course!" Amber pointed down to his wings.

"See, while I may be a diamond dog, that doesn't mean I can dig through diamonds, or solid rock for that matter," she began explaining, "While I could use psynergy to break through, I'll need whatever energy I can have to fight off those eels. And," she lifted a clawed finger from her paw, "A fun fact about Ghastly Gorge and quarray eels, while the gorge itself is completely made up of rock, old quarray eel tunnels tend to get filled with dirt and are usually connected with newer tunnels, the problem is finding them, they're a little few and far-between. So," she tapped a finger to her forehead, "You got it memorized? Or do you still want to complain some more?"

Pyre harrumphed loudly, but continued trotting along, the Mars djinn now laying on his back.

"You know," began Amber, a smirk on her face, "you're really picky when it comes to the things you complain about Flare."

Pyre gave her the stink eye, "What are you going on about now?"

"Well, it just seems to me that there are certain things you choose to let bother you." She explained, "You don't blow up about it unless you get really upset of course, letting things sort of simmer and build pressure, before," Amber moved her open paws out to the sides, "Ka-blooey!.... It's probably not all that healthy, but that's not my point. Anyways, my point is, how come you've never complained about the whole pouncing thing?"

Pyre's eyes widened a bit, but only a margin, "What are you talking about, I told you to get off of me just today."

"Yeah, but you never complained about it." She waved her paws in front of her, "You know, like tell me to stop or berate me or anything. Seems a little strange..." She trailed off a bit, smiling.

"Th-" Pyre was sweating a bit, by the end of Amber's questioning, but quickly regained composure. "That's because I know you wouldn't stop even if I asked." He muttered. "And I know you enjoy it, so I'll suffer a bit."

"*pfft* Don't lie to me," Amber crossed her arms, "If you hate it so much why are you always smiling while I tackle you?"

"Wh- what?"

"Can't fool meee~~~!" Amber teased, booping Pyre on the nose, his cheeks flushed in embarrassment.

He stood there slack jawed for a minute while Amber continued onwards whistling a merry tune to herself, before he finally came to his senses.

"Lies! All lies!" He shouted out.

Amber just laughed and kept on walking, Pyre behind her, grumbling to himself the whole rest of the way.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Alright, I'll be in there for awhile Flare, you can go ahead and look around the gorge a bit if you want. There aren't any other predators around here, because of the eels, mostly just smaller animals."

Pyre nodded and watched as Amber dug into the dirt hole he had found, higher up into the gorge. He turned in the air and proceeded in a sedate pace going the opposite direction of the river's current at the bottom.

The djinn was pulling on his mane a bit, "C'monyagottagofaster.Thisissoboring,whyareyousoboringandslow?Yougottagozoomzoomzoom!"

"Look you little speed-freak." Pyre growled out at the annoyance, "I can do whatever I want, and you can do whatever you want, so just get off my back, and run around as much as you want, and just keep running and running and running until you're far away from he-"

Pyre stopped as he heard a shrill shriek ahead of him.

An orange blur was falling from the top of the gorge hurtling to the ground.

Pyre's eyes widened as he realized someone was falling to their death right in front of him.

"Sol dammit!" He began to beat his wings faster trying to get to what he could now tell was most likely a filly due to the size and the screams.

The wind was blowing in his face his mane swept back from the rush of the air, but still the filly fell faster, he wasn't going to make it.

"Thisstillisn'tfastenough." The djinn added his two cents. "You'rejusttooslowyou'llnevermakeitintimeshe'sgoingtodieandit'llbeyourfault."

Pyre grit his teeth, not even bothering to turn to the diminutive djinn on his back and yelled out, "Then help me already!"

The Mars djinn smiled to itself, "That'swhatI'vebeenwaitingfor."

The djinn poured its power into Pyre and he felt something build up in his wings, "What's going ooooOOOOONNNN?!?"

Pyre blasted forward heading straight towards the screaming filly, a trail of flames behind him. His wings were wreathed in fire, with several small jets of flame propelling him forward. Pyre's lips were pulled back from the speed he was going.

"Don'tflap!Justguide!" The Mars djinn yelled out.

Pyre barely took notice, orienting himself towards the flailing filly, grabbing one of her hooves at the last moment, "Gotcha!"

The filly looked up wide and teary eyed at her savior, her purple mane blowing from the speed they were now traveling. Until Pyre took note of the wall he was now heading towards at unheard of speeds and let loose a scream which caused the filly to notice the new impending doom she now faced and screamed as well.

"Flareyourwings!Flareyourwings!" The Mars djinn shrieked.

Doing the exact opposite of what years of flight told him to do, Pyre took the Mars djinn's advice and spread both of his wings as wide as he could.

"Nowmakethejetsmorepowerful!"

Pyre focused on the flames willing them to grow in intensity. The jets immediately responded turning blue and pushing back Pyre in the opposite direction. Straight into another wall.

"Notthatpowerful!"

"I'm trying!"

Pyre took a deep breath and oriented the spouts of fire on his wings in the opposite direction of the wall he was now heading towards, the filly gripping tightly to his neck.

He eased up on the power slowing down as he approached the wall until finally, his flank hit the wall lightly. Sighing in relief, he hovered there in mid-air suspended by the flames.

"That. Was so. AWESOME!" A tomboyish voice yelled out, directly next to Pyre's ear, causing them to go flat in pain.

"I was all like, 'aaaah no, somepony save me,' and then you were all, 'I'll save you!' And then you zoomed in and whoosh and catch and, and," the orange coated filly just stared at Pyre in awe, "Just wow."

"Uh-huh," Pyre grumbled as he carried the filly up to the top of the area where he saw her falling initially, only to be met by two more fillies who upon seeing the one in his forelegs jumped forward and latched onto her and Pyre, shouting about how worried they were and scared and all the other general things while Pyre began to tumble a bit, trying to adjust the flames due to the suddenly added weight.

"Off. Off. Get off!" Pyre yelled out, wobbling over the edge of the gorge.

The fillies finally jumped off of him and landed a foot or so away from the edge while Pyre allowed himself to land as well, a little bit closer to the edge.

Taking a deep breath, he turned to the fillies and was about to question them, right before he was interrupted by the yellow one that had a pink bow tied to her mane, "Thanks fer saving Scootaloo, mister."

"Yeah," piped up a squeaky voice coming from the white unicorn filly, "We were really scared...." she trailed off a bit, sniffling, wiping away the tears in her eyes. Now that Pyre noticed, he could also see that the earth pony's eyes were red as well.

"It's fine, I just want to know what you three are doing out here, this isn't the place for fillies to be all by themselves."

"Well ya see mister, uuuhh..." The yellow one began, pausing, not knowing the stallion in front of her.

"Pyre."

"Right! Well ya see mister Pyre," the yellow filly picked up again, "Me an' my friends here, Scootaloo," she pointed a hoof at the orange pegasus that was still looking at Pyre with a sort of gleam in her eyes. It was a bit freaky to be honest, "Sweetie Belle," the white unicorn was indicated and gave him a big smile, before her eyes drifted to a bright red and yellow blur on Pyre's back that quickly zoomed off down into the gorge, leaving the unicorn blinking owlishly. "An' me Applebloom," the earth pony indicated to herself and flashed a toothy grin. "Are tryin' ta get our cutie marks, cause we're...." her hooves reached around the other two fillies who took notice and inhaled deeply along with Applebloom in the center.

Pyre was beginning to feel a bit apprehensive about the whole situation, when, "THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!!" The three fillies shouted from the top of their lungs making Pyre almost fall off the edge, his back left hoof actually hanging off it for a bit before he regained his footing.

"I think I've officially gone deaf in one ear." Pyre muttered as his right ear began to flop back and forth trying to regain its hearing.

He addressed the fillies again, "That still doesn't explain why you were out here, and why you," he pointed to the orange pegasus filly who looked a bit embarrassed, "Were falling to your death."

"Well, we were tryin' to get our cutie marks in cliff climbing." Apple Bloom piped up. "So we could be," she took in a deep a breath followed by the other two.

Pyre's eyes widened having a general idea of what was about to come, but was too late at raising even a single hoof to his ears.

"CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS CLIFF CLIMBERS, YAY!!!" the combined shout echoed across the gorge causing some of the nearby slumbering eels to violently jolt awake, one of which hit the ceiling of its nest and promptly fell back into unconsciousness.

And the yell also caused Pyre's left ear to now give out, "That's okay, really, I didn't want to hear anyways." Pyre turned back to the fillies, shaking his head, so as to restore his sense of hearing, "So you decided to find your special talents," the three fillies nodded with smiles on their faces, "By going to a tall gorge," once again they nodded, "And throwing yourselves off said gorge-"

"That's not true!" Apple Bloom said.

"Yeah, we had rope!" Scootaloo motioned to a ratty rope that was barely holding together at the seams tied to a tree. "It just didn't hold." She folded her hooves across herself, a smug smile on her face, sure that she had proven that the trio had taken the correct precautions.

Pyre stared at the rope for five seconds.

"Fine. You threw yourself off a cliff, with what used to be a rope."

"Bu-"

"And then promptly fell to your death." Pyre turned a cold gaze at the orange filly. "You were lucky anybody was here at all." he continued with a quiet whisper from Sweetie Belle to Apple Bloom asking, "Doesn't he mean anypony?", who shrugged just glad that Scootaloo was getting the brunt of the lecture for now.

"And all for butt-marks?"

The three fillies gasped in unison, "Hey, ya'll don't know what you're saying!" Apple Bloom lashed out. "You jus' don't remember what it's like to be called a blank-flank, since you've already got your cutie mark!"

"Yeah!" Squeaked out Sweetie Belle. "Just because you're older doesn't mean you can trivi- trivial-..... make fun of cutie marks!"

Pyre sighed, "I'm not, it's just that throwing yourselves off cliffs doesn't seem the right way to do it."

"Well how else are we supposed to find out what were good at?!" Scootaloo's wings were buzzing in anger. "Everypony else knows what their good at besides for us!"

"What about everybody else?"

The three fillies quieted down after hearing Pyre's response. "What do ya mean 'everybody'?"

"What about the griffins, minotaurs, dragons, diamond dogs, changelings, donkeys, and even manticores?" Pyre questioned, "What about them?"

The three fillies' mouths dropped open as if never having contemplated what it was like, as a certainty, not ever knowing what their special talent would be, and how others even dealt with that.

"No answer right? Typical. I'll tell you," Pyre continued, "The other species of our planet get by just fine without knowing for sure what their special talent is, because they've waited and learned on their own. They don't need a special symbol or something to tell them that, and you three don't either."

"For all you know, you could be doing your special talent every day, and you all are none the wiser." A smug grin was on his face by the end of his explanation, staring at the fillies' shocked expressions as they digested the truth that was laid in front of them.

He had to get back to business though, "Now, I'm sure someone from your town is worried about you, so you should hurry back along." He turned around ready to glide down to Amber, sure she was finished by now, until he felt a tug on his tail.

"Not until you answer some of our questions." Scootaloo asserted, puffing out her chest trying to appear more intimidating. Combined with puppy dog eyes from the other two fillies behind her.

It was quite cute to be honest.

Groaning Pyre conceded, knowing true power when he saw it. "Fine. But only three."

Apple Bloom started first, "Where are ya from? The next batch of zap apples is coming in and I'd like ta send ya some, for helping Scootaloo here. If ah can convince my big sis."

"Newvale, and if anything just send us seeds and instructions on how to take care of them, it'd be more beneficial for the town."

"Sure can do," Apple Bloom beamed, "I'm sure Applejack wouldn't mind if we...."

The rest of what Apple Bloom was saying was lost on Pyre as he realized that this filly was sister to one of the elements. Sweating a bit, he tried to rack his brain to think of a way out of a catastrophe involving a certain brewer back at the town.

"Um, actually," he began hesitantly, "Your family is probably working all the time right?"

The filly nodded, "Eeeyup, there's always some sort of chore to do around the farm."

"So, well.... why don't you send it to my town by mail? You got a mail-stallion or mail-mare in town right?"

"I don't know, Derpy tends to lose a lot of packages." Apple Bloom thought aloud.

"Trust me," Pyre said, "It'd be better that way."

".....Well alright, but if it gets lost there's nothin' more ah can do for ya."

Pyre let out an internally held breath glad for having dodged that crisis.

"How'd you do that flame thing?" Scootaloo butted in, pushing Apple Bloom aside, who let out an indignant, "Hay!"

"It was so awesome, and fast, and cool, not as cool as a sonic rainboom, but just wow!" The pegasus filly beamed, awaiting an answer.

Pyre ground his hoof into the ground a bit thinking as to whether or not he should answer. On the one hoof, the less ponies that knew about psynergy the better, on the other, it was probably going to be pointless in a few years time as more and more adepts were born due to the beacons' influence.... and the psynergy stones they were already selling.

"It's something called 'psynergy'," Pyre demonstrated by lifting a hoof and igniting a flame causing Apple Bloom and Sweetie to jump back a bit, while Scootaloo loomed in with a, "Coooooool...."

"And before you ask, no, it's not magic." He willed the flame away and set his hoof down, "And only a few people can do it," he added, "You'd need to be able to see a djinn."

"Is that what that thing that flew off your back was?" Sweetie Belle piped up.

"Wait, what?" Pyre turned his head around to look at his back only to see that the Mars djinn had indeed left at some point during his conversation.

"Why that no good, stinking little!" Pyre fumed for a bit, before calming down. "Whatever, and yes," he turned to Sweetie Belle who was busy arguing with Scootaloo and Apple Bloom as to whether or not the djinn was really there. "And it looks like you're an adept. Congratulations. Just make sure you don't approach any weird creatures that your friends can't see in the wild. Those are wild djinn, and it's best to steer clear of them." Sweetie tilted her head to the side not really understanding but deciding to heed the advice.

"Right, last question, and hurry it up, I've got places to be."

Sweetie raised her hoof, expecting for Pyre to call on her. When he didn't and just stared at her, she lowered the hoof to the ground smiling sheepishly, before asking "I was just wondering Mister Pyre sir, how did you get your cutie mark?"

Pyre's eyes widened remembering the moment he had gotten his mark and repressed a shudder of remembering what led up to that moment of his life.

"Ooh that's a good one Sweetie!" Scootaloo said, "We haven't heard a good cutie mark story in a while."

"That's right," Apple Bloom added, none of the fillies noticing Pyre's face as it darkened a bit. "Ah'll bet mister Pyre here's got a doozie of a cutie mark story!"

The fillies turned to Pyre only to see him about ready to leap from the gorge and glide down back to where he came from.

"Hey!" Sweetie Belle cried out, her voice cracking, "You haven't answered my question!"

"I choose not to. That's not a story for little fillies as yourselves. Besides I already answered your question about the djinn, that's three right there."

"Can't you tell us something?" Scootaloo asked.

Pyre turned his head and looked at the three fillies who all took a step back at the look of weariness in his eyes, as if he had aged physically in front of them.

"Let's just say not all cutie marks have a happy story behind them and leave it at that okay?" He gave them a small smile, and turned his head back.

"I just hope yours do."

Pyre then leapt from the cliff and dived down, spreading his wings halfway, gliding back to Amber, leaving three fillies to ponder the words he left them with.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"What took you so long, Flare?" Amber asked, as Pyre landed in front of her, folding his wings to his sides. "You really enjoy the scenery that much?"

Pyre shrugged as he went to pick up some of the bags filled with eel droppings. "Just met a few locals from Ponyville. Maybe got a new source of food from them, don't know how good it'll be."

"You mean the town of ponies that houses the six closest mares to Celestia, not to mention a new princess?" she asked, one of her eyebrows raised questioningly.

"I.... guess so?" Pyre shrugged, his expression a little squeamish.

Amber snorted in amusement, as Pyre continued to pile on the saddle bags.

"For someone who claims he's antisocial, you sure do know how to make strange friends."

"It's not like I try to, it just sort of happens." Pyre grumbled.

"Yeah, yeah, speaking of friends," Amber grunted a bit as she hefted a backpack over her shoulders, "What happened to your little buddy? You two were practically inseparable," Amber snickered, causing Pyre to give her a pointed look.

He was about to respond when suddenly, "Watchout!Ihaven'tlearnedtobrakewiththesethingsyet!"

He was bowled over by a red blur that slammed into him, and caused them both to skid a few feet hitting the gorge's wall.

Pyre's eyes rolled in their sockets a bit while Amber rolled on the ground laughing her arse off.

Once his eyes were back to normal, he looked down at his barrel, to see a somewhat familiar sight in front of him.

The Mars djinn had come back but this time it had some additions. It seemed a bit more streamlined, aerodynamic. But the most notable aspect about it were the jagged wings protruding from its sides. They looked mostly ridged, but it seemed that they could be folded up, but they definitely were not designed for flapping. Instead, it seemed the way the djinn gained speed and moved through the air were from spaces in between the bladed wings that exuded jet flames that propelled it forward.

Shaking its head, the djinn looked around and then visibly brightened when its eyes landed on Pyre.

"Iknewyou'dbeabltohelpmeoutIjustknewit!" It gushed rapidly. "Iwasjustmissingthatonepiece,andyoushowedmewhatitwas!I'dneverhadbeenabletothinkofthat!"

Pyre was about to remind the djinn that he could only ever understand half of what it was saying, and to speak in smaller sentences only for the djinn to speak up again this time much slower.

"Sorry, boss. I've still sort of got to get used to this."

Pyre's eyes boggled out of his skull, as he stared at the mars djinn as it finally spoke at a normal speed.

"You mean to tell me," Pyre paused to gather saliva in his suddenly dry mouth, "That you could speak normally this whole time?"

Pyre wasn't sure what he looked like at the moment, but judging by how the djinn shrunk in on itself and the general feeling of sheer malice that was rolling through his eyes right now, made him think for no reason in particular to call it a 'shooty look'.

"Whoawhoa calmdownbossI-" the mars djinn paused and took a deep breath before continuing. It seemed to almost be straining to speak slowly. "Look, I could only dothis until now, I sort of learned earlier upthere in that whole youknow lifeordeath situation what I needed to know."

Calming down a bit, and a little curious as to what the Mars djinn was getting at, Pyre asked "And what was that?"

"Control." The djinn immediately answered, "See, I always thought thatspeedwas what mattered most, but it was like Icouldn'tgoany faster at a certain point, and Istillcouldn't learn my name." The djinn continued, "So I beganlooking around in Newvale for an adept that couldhelpme progress in life, andloandbehold, I found you." It nudged a wing at Pyre.

"At first I was wondering astohow you could help me, and I really doubted thatyoucould. But still a djinn's noseknows. So I decided to stick with you for a while seeifyoucouldhelp me figure itout. And then," the djinn spread its new wings as far as it could small jet flames spurting out "You showed me what you could do ifyouasserted control! I learned that speed is great, butit'snothing without being able to control it!"

The jets suddenly flared up more, causing the djinn to spiral about in the air before it cut the power and landed in a heap in front of Pyre.

"ObviouslyI'vegottoworkonitalittlemore." It straightened itself out, and looked to Pyre, "That's why I'll be staying with you for a good long while, asadebt and to better learn howtocontrol myself."

"...... Does this mean, that you won't be waking me up at seven AM every morning?"

"Ofcourse!" Pyre sighed in relief, "Nowit'llbesixinthemorning! Fortraining!"

One could almost hear glass shatter as Pyre processed what was said and his face twitched at the thought of waking up at six every morning. Knowing that he had no choice but to accept his awful fate.

Amber giggled a bit at what was transpiring, "Sucks to be you doesn't it Flare?"

"Thanks for caring, you fleabag."

"Eh," she shrugged her shoulders, "I try. Now c'mon! Daylight's a-wasting!"

Hefting the bags up, Pyre regarded the Mars djinn. "So what do I call you now?"

"What?" the djinn asked.

"You know," Pyre began to move forward, "Your name."

"Ohright!" The djinn hopped onto Pyre's back, twirling around a bit, "Call me Jet."

".....Well it's fitting I suppose."

Jet nodded enthusiastically and took to the air with a "Wooooo!" doing a few flips and tricks.

Pyre caught up with Amber and asked, "So how much of those droppings were you able to get?"

"A good amount, but to be honest they won't last us all that long, seeing how useful it is. So," Amber reached into a side pouch of her backpack and dug out a roughly oblong shaped sphere, "I snatched this!"

The sphere's surface was rough and mottled with splotches here and there upon it.

"Is that an egg?" Pyre asked, a little trepidation in his voice.

"Got it in one!" Amber smiled, "I read that the minotaurs domesticate quarray eels, and they grow much smaller. Probably due to being in a different environment or something. This also holds more than one eel in here, probably four, eel eggs tend to do that. Anyways, this means we can get a steady supply of the droppings rather than having to go all the way out to the gorge and risk getting eaten!" Amber smiled at her accomplishment while Pyre seemed a bit more skeptical.

"And where exactly did you find that egg?"

Amber shrugged, "It was in that abandoned nest you found for me, the eggs are pretty hardy, and tend to go into a sort of suspended state if there's nothing to keep them warm after a while."

"And you're sure that we won't be attacked or anything on our way out?"

"Weeeeeeell...."

Pyre's right eyelid twitched, "Well, what?"

"Sometimes, mother eels who just laid a clutch get a little maternal, and will adopt an egg from another clutch if they find one." Pyre glared at her, "But the chance of that happening is like one out of ten, so we should be fi-"

A cracking splitting sound was heard behind them, causing the two to turn and look as to what caused it, only to be greeted by a purple-pink fin heading directly at them, attached to the much larger eel that was currently burrowing towards them.

"Time to run!" Amber yelled frantically, already speeding away as fast as her legs could carry her, Pyre right on her tail.

The eel let out a roar as its prey began their escape.

"I hate you!" Pyre called out loudly, only to be met with Amber's wild laughter as they continued to run for their lives, "I hate you so much!"

"Then stop smiling!"