Momodora: Equestrian Adventure

Chapters

Chapter 2 - "It would have happened sooner or later."
Chapter 3 - "Do you want me to spoon feed you?"
Chapter 4 - "Wait, you're telling me I'm rich?!"
Chapter 5 - "I told you they're a vengeful bunch!"
Chapter 6 - "Is it over?"
Chapter 7 - "Where the hell can I find a bell made of solid gold?"
Chapter 8 - "Am I interrupting something?"
Chapter 1 - "I refuse to believe this is the afterlife."
A Moderately Sized Author's Note of Questionable Importance

Chapter 2 - "It would have happened sooner or later."

Chapter 2 - It would have happened sooner or later.

"So what is the name of your village, Bold?" Kaho couldn't help but ask. She could have dealt with silence back when she was still wandering the desert alone, but it became unbearable when there was an another living person nearby.

"Our village is called Oasis." Came the response, nearly causing her to trip.

"Wait, really?" She asked in disbelief, suppressing the urge to giggle. Laughing seemed like an inappropriate response.

"Yes. The name is cliché I must admit, but it's how my ancestors called it from the moment it was founded." out the corner of her eye, she saw Bold roll his eyes in annoyance.

"So I presume that the village is literally built around an oasis?"

"Obviously. We could sustain our population without trading but that doesn't stop us from doing so. It increases the town's prosperity and that's always good. And I'll have you know that our peaches are considered a delicasy even by the pickiest nobles in Canterlot." The stallion explained, an overly obvious note of pride in his voice.

"How old is your village? I'd imagine the water would have to run out at some point."

"Around five hundred years, give or take a few decades. The water itself hasn't ran out and won't anytime soon." Bold spoke those words, as if he heard them a few dozen times himself already.

"Are you sure? I imagine that when it happens the results will be catastrophic." Kaho asked, concern filling her every word. Bold smiled widely before responsing.

"You don't need to worry girlie! We have specialists come over by train from Canterlot every three years, to check the level of water in the underground river that fills the oasis. But it does warm my old heart to see that youngsters still care about other ponies." He spoke to her in a warm tone, smiling even wider.

Kaho blushed slightly at the last sentence, but after a few seconds of mulling the information over, a look of confusion appeared on her muzzle.

"What's a train, if you don't mind me asking?"

"You've never heard of a train before girlie? Well, then imagine a few iron wagons on wheels big enough to hold more than ten ponies each, connected together, travelling on a railroad, dragged by an engine that's powered by burning coal. It's a fast way to travel, for sure. You can get from Oasis to Dodge Junction in a few hours, which would take an entire day on hoof with no breaks, and that's assuming you don't get lost in the desert." Bold described, watching as Kaho's face slowly shifted from confusion to amazement.

"That's incredible! Everyone back where I'm from has to travel on foot! Travel in between towns and villages can be as long as a few weeks!" She shouted loudly, unable to contain her excitement.

"Easy there girlie! Trains sure are amazing but they're nothing to lose your head over!" Bold exclaimed loudly.

"Oh, uh sorry," Kaho said, starting to blush yet again.

"You don't need to apologize girlie! Everypony can get a little overexcited every now and then."

"Yeah, that's true I guess." She admitted awkwardly.

The conversation was cut off, as both didn't really know what to say, resulting in them walking in silence. In that time Kaho's mind started to wander as she followed after Bold wordlessly. Should she try to find a way home? Or find a new place to live? Did she even know where to start looking? Like Bold said, the world was still largely unexplored and seeing as she was in unknown desert with an entirely new race, she could be only Gods know where. For all she knew Lun could be on the opposite side of the planet, behind some mountain that's impossible to scale or some other unpassable obstacle. But if so, could she just give up?
Should she?
Perhaps the best option was to explore what's known to these ponies. Maybe if she found some point on a map that she recognized on the maps back home, she could find her way back. But even then… she wasn't human anymore. They wouldn't recognize her. And by the time she would reach Lun, if she found a way, everyone she knew would probably be already dead of old age. She could be dead of old age. After all she didn't know how long a unicorn lives.

"Girlie? I don't like seeing that look on your face." Bold said suddenly, startling Kaho.

"Wha- What do you mean?" Kaho asked nervously.

"You've got that look on your face… and I've gotta say girlie, ponies as young as you shouldn't have looks as if they're planning their own funeral. Unless there is something you're not telling me." Bold explained, giving her a worried look.

"No it's… I'm just… thinking. About my home. You wouldn't happen to know where Lun is?" The priestess asked quietly.

"No I don't girlie. Is that why you're sad? You don't know how to get home from here?" Bold asked, pity in both voice and eyes.

"Bullseye." Kaho muttered bitterly.

"I can't help you with finding your way home, I'm afraid. That is something you'll have to do on your own girlie."

"I know that. I just don't know where to start. I have no idea where I am. I've never seen a map that had a desert on it. I only know what a desert even is because I've heard a merchant use the word once, and was curious enough to ask." The mare's frustration was starting to leak out of her voice.

"Well… what were you doing before you woke up in this desert? I know you said you were a human before but maybe it's related to what you were doing." Bold asked, uncertainty in his voice.

Kaho froze. Her limbs refused to obey her orders to move, as she painfully recalled her death a second time that day. Her eyes screwed themselves shut as she started to feel the horrid feeling of the curse sinking into her flesh, causing vomit to come up to her throat, followed by complete numbness and lack of sensation as if her body was trying to mimic itself dissapearing. She fell over, sand flowing into her open mouth, which was twisted in a silent scream.

"Dear Celestia… girlie?! What's wrong?! Come on answer me!"

Bold was shaking her, trying to get her to respond but it was all in vain. At that point Kaho just laid there, barely aware of anything happening to her. In a short moment that seemed to last an eternity to her barely conscious mind, she managed to blissfully pass out.

"I think she's waking up nurse." A familiar voice exclaimed.

"And you would be right. Please move farther away Bold, I don't know how she's going to react. Be prepared to restrain her, if she starts tossing and turning again. " Another voice, this one feminine.

Those words greeted her as she came back into the land of the conscious. Kaho slowly opened her eyes. She was laying on a bed in a completely white room, full of strange aparature, most of which was connected to her and making strange sounds. Bold was standing in the corner of the room, looking tense. Then she noticed a mare, the probable owner of the second voice. The mare had a gray coat, and an bright blue mane. Her emerald eyes were staring carefully at her, monitoring her every move, as she stood above her with a strange item that had a needle sticking out of it within her hoof. She tried to raise her forelegs to rub her eyes but found she couldn't. An quick investigation brought the answer - she was restrained with straps of unidentifiable material. She asked quietly, gazing at the needle.

"What happened? Where am I?"

Bold started to speak but was interrupted by the mare.

"That's what we'd like to know. As for the second question, you're currently in Oasis hospital, intense care."

Kaho remembered what happened before she passed out. She felt bile climbing her throat again but her limbs didn't freeze this time.

"Oh… I know why I freaked out earlier if that's what you're asking. It's just… I think when you mentioned it, it settled in."

"Oh, I'm sorry girlie. I shouldn't ha-" Bold started, only to get interrupted by the restrained mare.

"Don't. It would have happened sooner or later. It's better I deal with this now, than cover it up." - She took a deep breath. - "I died."

The other two gasped and shared a look, but didn't interrupt the mare laying on the hospital bed.

"I mentioned that I was a high priestess, right? I was sent to travel to a city named Karst. It's Queen… she was was driven insane by something. She attempted to merge the worlds of living and dead, cursing the city and land around it in the process. I cleansed her, but it… required taking the curse from the whole city and surrounding lands into my body. I… couldn't have lived through it. I'm alright now, just kinda… shaken up, about dying." Kaho ended with an another deep breath.

"Dear Celestia… that's something girlie. I'm sorry you had to go through that." Bold's voice was full of pity.

"As am I. Well if anything, you don't seem to be unstable anymore. Just give me a moment and I'll release you. Nurse Clear Cut by the way." The mare introduced herself.

"Kaho Reinol." She said and patiently waited as the nurse released her from the straps.

The process took a while but Kaho waited patiently, glancing at Bold every now and then. He looked like he wanted to speak but wouldn't for the fear of saying something wrong. She understood why, and was thankful for it but didn't speak to express the gratitude.

Finally Clean Cut stepped away from her while gesturing at her to stand up. Kaho did so, managing to roll of the bed and falling on all your hooves. Before she could do anything else though, Clean Cut reached out to her horn and took off a simple metal ring from it.

"That would be all. I'd like you to show up tomorrow morning, so I can check if there's anything else that's wrong but for now your free to leave." The nurse announced giving her a small smile.

"Thank you nurse Clean Cut." Kaho replied, smiling herself.

"Oh, and Kaho? Please carefully consider who you choose to tell about your previous life. Not everypony is as open minded as me or Bold. Most just won't believe you. Just introduce yourself, say you were lost in the desert and had a heat stroke. Also here is your bag. And I believe Bold is holding onto your bow." She handed it to the priestess.

"Thanks again! Goodbye nurse!" Kaho exclaimed before grabbing the bag with a hoof and putting it on her back, leaving the room, with Bold trailing behind her. She found herself in a completely white hallway. There were a few chairs here and there, mostly placed near doors and sometimes occupied by other ponies. Kaho was actively trying to not stare curiously at them, but it was a losing battle. These ponies had a very interesting array of colors for their coats and manes. Was it all natural or did they dye it?

"It's rude to stare, young mare." A voice brought her back to reality. She shook her head before looking around, trying to find the source.

"Over here!" The voice called again, this time from behind her. Kaho turned around only to find Bold standing behind her, a faint expression of amusement on his face. She shot him a questioning look but he only shrugged in response.

"Up above!" The same voice exclaimed, and Kaho suddenly became aware that adults in the hallway were looking at her with pity while children were giggling. She was moving her head around faster and faster, trying to find the source but to no avail.

"Down below!" This time Kaho's head moved so fast, it started to hurt but she was rewarded with the sight of something very small, black and yellow zipping between her legs. She blinked and turned to Bold, her eyes pleading for an answer. He chuckled heartily and spoke.

"Alright, that's enough Honey! Stop toying with the poor mare." There was a giggle in response as bee flew out from beneath her and landed on the floor near the stallion. There was a yellow flash of light, momentarily blinding her. When her eyesight returned she saw that in where the bee previously was, a unicorn mare was standing. She had a snow white coat and a striped yellow, black mane. Her eyes had a distinct golden color and were currently busy looking incredibly amused. She was also very short, as with her horn she only barely reached to Kaho's chin. Bold coughed into his own hoof before speaking.

"Girlie, this is my wife, Honey Bee. Honey Bee this is Kaho Reinol who I've found lost in the desert and helped."

"Hello miss Honey." Kaho said automatically, trying to wrap her head around a bee suddenly becoming a full grown, if short mare.

"Please, if you insist on calling me miss, call me miss Bee. I like to reserve Honey for my husband." She said, while getting up on her hind hooves to give said husband a kiss on the cheek.

"Sure." Kaho was still rather caught up and didn't notice the marriage starting a conversation of their own.

"So what happened dear? It's not every day that I hear about you rushing into the town, with an unconcious mare on your back. Did you take up being a knight in shining armor when I wasn't looking? Can I sign up for a rescue one day?" She asked teasingly.

Bold to his credit only rolled his eyes at the teasing.

"I'd rather we speak in home about the first one. It's a rather... private matter for Kaho. And... who knows? Maybe I'll rescue you one of these days. We'll see if you deserve it." He grinned when she pouted at him.

"How did you do that?" The priestess finally spoke up, directing her question at Honey Bee.

"The transformation? It's a spell that got me my cutie mark." Bee responded casually, not even looking at the priestess.

"You don't exactly have a place to sleep do you Kaho? Come with us to our home, we can give you the spare bedroom until you know what to do. " Bold proposed, causing Honey to look at him curiously.

"Are you sure Bold? She looks like she could afford to stay at the hotel." She asked him, still maintaining her position.

"Positive. And you'd want to hear what she has to say." The stallion's response caused Honey to direct her curious look at Kaho. She involunturarly shivered under the mare's gaze, as while it wasn't malicious, she felt like her soul was being stared down.

"Alright then, let's go! I can't wait to hear it!" The small mare exclaimed joyfully, dropping down on all four hooves before heading for the exit, bouncing up and down happily.

"Is she always like this?" Kaho asked, staring at the small pony bouncing down the corridor, a mark of a bee with a rather big stinger adorning her flanks.

"That, she is girlie. And that's exactly why I feel in love with her." Bold answered, a warm smile appearing on his face again before they started to follow her.

Author's Note

Took some time didn't I? It's good that I have an app for writing on my phone because I could never sit down and type out two thousand words in a single sitting. Also kinda late but I'm warning that there will be a lot of headcanon in this fic, though nearly all of it will be focused on the Momodora part, as the series is rather vague about things that aren't the main plotline. Hope you enjoyed the new chapter!
- Whiskas

Chapter 3 - "Do you want me to spoon feed you?"

Chapter 3 - " Do you want me to spoon feed you?"

"So what you're basically saying is... you have reincarnated?" Honey Bee asked, not looking away from her notepad and pencil suspended in her yellow aura. Once the storytelling started, she became oddly serious, though it was understandable. All three of them were sitting in the living room of the married pair's home. Said pair occupied the couch, while Kaho sat on the armchair across the wooden table, located in between them.

"Kind of? I'm still myself and remember everything but I have a different body that I'm still not quite used to. Speaking of which... could you teach me how to do magic with the horn thingy? I don't have hands anymore, would rather not rely on magical items and I'd rather not use my hooves until I get the balance down perfectly." Kaho said, trying to ignore the feeling of being some sort of test subject. Honey Bee was making her kinda uncomfortable with noting down everything she said. Or at least she thought the other mare did so, she didn't exactly see what was being noted down.

"Of course! I planned to do that anyway when you explained your situation. Ponies would inevitably ask questions about a unicorn that can't even use telekinesis. We'll start immediately after we eat dinner. And about that... Bold dear could you warm up the tomato soup?" Honey Bee asked, still not looking up from her notepad and frowning slightly before using the eraser on the pencil to scrub something out.

"Right away! Rice or macaroni?" Bold asked, getting up and walking towards what Kaho assumed to be the kitchen.

"Macaroni!" Both mares answered at the same time.

"Dinner in five minutes!" Was their only response.

"So how long do you think it took you to reincarnate?" Honey Bee questioned Kaho.

"What do you mean? I thought reincarnation was instant." Came the confused response.

Honey Bee actually looked up from her notepad while touching the eraser end to her chin, giving the impression of looking thoughtful.

"Not quite. The majority of known species on Equis don't believe in reincarnation. The species with the biggest amount of believers are minotaurs and gryphons. They believe that reincarnation doesn't happen instantly. Rather after death they are judged by their respective gods to be either sent to heaven or hell. If they happen to be thrown into hell their souls are tormented to atone for their sins. After that they reincarnate to have an another chance at getting into heaven." Her host explained, before looking back at her notepad again.

"Oh, that makes a lot of sense I suppose. I'm not sure then. I don't think we have the same calenders but just in case... what's your calender based around?" Kaho asked, becoming thoughtful herself.

"It's nine hundred ninety nine after Discord. Does that tell you anything?"

"Not at all. To be honest I have no doubt that our calenders are different. My home is somewhere in the areas you haven't even explored, so the important events that your calender is built around, we probably don't even know about." Kaho shrugged finished with a shrug.

"True, true. Changing the topic... what gods do you believe in? I'm curious." The short mare asked, the notepad being lifted into the air again, after she put it down a few seconds earlier.

"Well in Lun everyone believes in three Gods. As the high priestess I'm no different. The names of our Gods are Chiemi, Milori and Luna."

"Interesting... three gods,-" Honey Bee muttered to herself before asking in louder tone. "-What are their domains?"

"Chiemi is the Goddess of healing and healers, faith and spirit. Milori is the Goddess of protection, travel and everyone traveling, trading as well as nature. She's the one that granted Lun the Sacred Tree. Luna is the Goddess of the moon, stars, night, dreams and nightmares. She disappeared around thousand years ago, but we still believe in her, and that she will come back." Kaho finished explaining, satisfied to be able to talk about a topic she knows the most about. Honey Bee didn't notice said satisfaction as she was busy furiously scribbling on the notepad.

"Why do you keep believing in Luna when she abandoned you? Just to clarify."

"She did NOT abandon us!" Kaho snapped, causing the other mare to shrink slightly into the couch in reaction. Kaho took three very deep calming breaths before continuing.

"Sorry... it's just that, many people ask that question but they don't understand, the relationship that we have with our Gods."

"And what is that relationship?" Honey Bee asked cautiously, keeping her eyes on the priestess.

"It's simple but at the same time not. The Gods defend our village, keep us healthy, grant bountiful harvest, keep the monsters away and back when Luna was more... active, villagers were protected from nightmares as well. But in return we have to give them our faith so they have the power to give us those things. The weaker our faith, the more we suffer and hurt. Our Gods aren't malicious - We are the only ones that believe in them, so only we can give them the strength to help us. If we stopped believing in them they would lose power quickly, and in turn the blessings they give us would be gone. Besides, we have proof that Luna is still around, even if she is not doing as much as she used to. Every other decade, a child reports seeing a tall, beautiful, winged woman banishing their nightmares before quickly leaving after making sure they're okay." Kaho finished, looking away from her host towards the window. The sun was as high in the sky as it could be and was beginning to slowly descend towards horizon. She began to reminiscence her own meeting with one of the Gods. It was a life changing experience for her younger self, driving her into becoming a priestess. She still remembered the meeting perfectly as she recalled it as often as she could and it was her most treasured memory.

A cough brought her back into reality. She glanced back to see Honey Bee pointing to the bowl and spoon that were laying on the table in front of her. Bold was sitting next to Honey and already eating his own portion, hoof somehow holding the spoon. Kaho lifted her hooves awkwardly and stared at them before looking Honey in the eyes with a pitiful look.

"What's wrong Kaho? You didn't protest against the tomato soup."

"I... don't know how to hold the spoon with my hooves." The priestess admitted, blushing real hard.

"Ah..." There was a moment of silence at the table. All three of them looked unsure about what to say, before Honey's face twisted in a malevolent grin. Bold moved a bit further from his wife, an uneasy look on his face. Honey then spoke very slowly and clearly, never losing her grin, with a tone that could scare even the ones that fear nothing.

"Do you want me to spoon feed you?"

The reaction was immediate. Bold stared incredulously before exploding in laughter. Kaho began sputtering, the blush on her face achieving the color of an actual tomato. Her cheeks were so hot you could probably boil eggs on them.

"W-wh-wh-what? N-no!" She managed to choke out, causing Honey's grin to widen to a nearly impossible size.

"But we wouldn't want you to starve now, would we? Besides... I'd consider it practice for when we have children in the future!" The last part was directed to Bold, whose laughter got caught in his throat before he outright fainted on the spot. Kaho tried to escape but it was already too late. A spoon loaded with tomato soup forced it's way into her mouth. It flipped upside down, dumping it's contents onto her tongue, granting her enough clarity to think "Delicious!", before the spoon flied out of her mouth. She turned to look at the smaller mare and froze at the sight. Honey Bee was standing on the table with both the bowl and the spoon in her yellow aura. Her grin didn't grow bigger in the time Kaho wasn't looking, instead it now looked downright sadistic.

"Here comes the traaaaaaaain!" She sang, forcing more soup into her mouth. Kaho teared up and closed her eyes. The following ten minutes were the longest ones in her life.

"Since you got turned into a unicorn instead of being born as one, we need to start with the most basic of basics." Honey Bee began her lecture. They now were sitting on the couch together, alone in the house because Bold left to buy groceries.
"First, close your eyes and concentrate on your horn. You said you possess magical items so you should be able to identify how magic feels. Find that feeling in your body and try to focus on it." She said, before nodding to Kaho to start trying.

The high priestess was silent. Her eyes were closed and the only sound that reached her ears was her own breathing. Soon even that stopped as she dropped into a sort of a trance. She knew how to meditate - most priestess's knew how to do it. Occasional quiet contemplation of oneself was encouraged, as it helped to ease the stress day to day life would bring. This time however was different. Kaho was focusing not on sorting through her emotions but on a feeble feeling originating in her body, a bit above and away from her forehead. The magic in her horn was weak - nothing like what she felt using her own magical items or even fighting humans or monsters that knew how to do it. But that was to be expected. After all she didn't exactly have the time to practice it back in her youth. Religious rituals, occasional celebrations in the village, monsters that didn't know better even standard day to day life, it all occupied time. Learning magic took time and while she could have made time in her schedule for it, she simply didn't believe it was worth dedicating all her free time for. Magic was spectacular, she didn't deny that. But the time it took to get to a level of being capable of thoughtlessly tossing huge spells around in mere seconds was simply too long.

"I found it." She muttered.

"Good. Now try to touch it. Not physically of course, do it with your thoughts."

"How do I do that?"

"Focus on the magic once again. Then try to form that hand you spoke of mentally and grasp the magic delicately and whatever you do do not try to squish it. That would result in your horn exploding." Honey explained.

Kaho shivered, but obeyed the shorter mare. She imagined her right hand forming within her chest and reaching out for her horn. The magic within her horn actually moved away from the nonexistent hand, causing her to frown but she didn't stop moving her hand towards it. She finally managed to grasp it, at the tip of her horn as it couldn't run farther away. The moment she made contact, it's resistance stopped completely and it wrapped itself around the "hand".

"I've touched it and it wrapped itself around my hand." She declared quietly, surprise in her voice.

"Good, good. Everything is going perfectly. Now you can stop imaging the hand and open your eyes now." Honey Bee announced, satisfied. Kaho did so opening her eyes and glanced at her magic teacher. Honey was levitating the pencil she used before, and placed it on the table in front of them.

"Now that you've reached out for your magic and it obeys you, try to lift the pencil from the table. It should be easy, simply focus on it and use the magic to lift it." Honey explained. Kaho nodded and focused on the pencil. It didn't move at first but after a while her horn lit up while a light bronze aura began to very slowly envelop it. She patiently waited until it was fully covered in her aura then attempted to lift it, only for the aura to fizzle out of existence in response. She looked at Honey.

"It's okay Kaho dear, you don't have to get it on your first try. Just keep up at it and eventually you'll do it." The host encouraged.

It took several failed attempts and her head was slowly starting to hurt but she finally managed it. The pencil was floating in her aura and she started moving it around slowly, for the fear of dropping it yet another time. When that didn't happen after a few seconds, she sped up the pencil and the aura flickered but did not disappear. She gave a triumphant smile and looked back to her teacher to see the mare grinning back at her.

"Great work! Now with some practice you should be able to hold heavier objects. Keep practicing telekinesis and remember that magic is like a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it gets. In time you will probably have enough of it to cast actual spells, like a fireball for an example. Now any other questions?"

"Could I ever be capable of doing a transformation like you?" Kaho asked a bit awkwardly.

"Maybe. My transformation spell is definitely hard for someone not specializing in transformations, and I myself am only capable of casting it because of my cutie mark. Someone powerful like Celestia's apprentice could manage it easily but that mare is like a forest fire compared to an average unicorn's spark." Honey Bee muttered something under her breath that Kaho didn't quite hear.

"Ah, alright." She said in a dejected tone.

"Why are you so disappointed? Don't tell me you already have the ambition to become a powerful mage?" Honey mused while giving her a curious look.

"No, no it's nothing like that!" Kaho assured her. "But I've also been meaning to ask... what's a cutie mark?"

The other mare stared at the priestess before sighing.

"This is going to be a long day isn't it? First I become a magic teacher, now I have to teach biology, follow that up with history and Celestia knows what else. Alright, make yourself comfortable because this lesson suddenly became a lot longer..."

Author's Note

Hi guys! I managed to finish this chapter today, so I may have some time to start the fourth one tomorrow. I would also like to inform you all that on Monday school is starting so I will probably not have enough time time to write one chapter as fast as I did before. If I do post a chapter it will likely be on the weekends. Hope you enjoyed this chapter!
- Whiskas

Chapter 4 - "Wait, you're telling me I'm rich?!"

The sun rays fell on Kaho's face, waking her up. She slowly lifted her eyelids but quickly slammed them shut, as the stream of light seared her retinas. She groaned and slowly got up to a sitting position, still not opening her eyes. The green bedsheets fell off of her onto the bed as she lifted her hooves to her face and rubbed it furiously. Finally, she dared to look around the room. It wasn't very furnished, as there was only a nightstand and the bed she slept on. Her bag was laying on the ground near said nightstand, her white cloak on said nightstand, and her bow was leaning against the wall in corner of the room to her right. She could hear children... or foals as she learned from Honey Bee, playing outside already. She remembered her host also mentioning that the children were the village's alarm clock, always outside by nine o'clock unless it was raining. Kaho got out of the bed and slowly made her way towards the kitchen. It was silent, cries of children growing distant and faint as she moved away from the windows, only the sounds of her hooves hitting the floor tiles reaching her ears.

She found a note on the kitchen counter. It was written elegantly with Honey's signature at the bottom. The note read
"Kaho, Me and Bold went outside to shop for certain things. We won't be back for an hour or so, so please make yourself some breakfast. Try not to leave the kitchen too much of a disaster by the time you're done. Have Fun!
Honey.

Kaho didn't find the smiley face on the back of the note reassuring.

Two failed attempts later, Kaho managed to make herself a sandwich with butter, minuscule amounts of a horribly malformed tomato and a single leaf of lettuce. It turned out that attempting to slice tomatoes, when you don't have hands and your magic cuts out every other second from the motion of cutting said tomatoes is a bad idea. By the time she was done with the first "slice", it didn't actually look like a slice of tomato but more like a juicy red massacre. She dumped the most of it in the trashcan, before wiping the juice of the table and herself with a bunch of paper towels. Butter wasn't actually spread, as there were big chunks of it flattened against the tortured slice of bread. The leaf of lettuce was the only thing that wasn't horribly tortured one way or another and that was only because tearing out a leaf from the vegetable and laying on the bread couldn't really be messed up. A horrible abomination of a sandwich created, Kaho stared at it for a moment before taking a hesitant bite out of it.

It tasted horrendous, more butter than actual bread, tomato or lettuce combined, but she persevered reducing the monstrosity bite by bite. It was terrible and she almost threw up by the time she was halfway but she finished it. Immediately after she looked for something to drink, to wash away the dreadful taste of butter away. The priestess's gaze fell on the water tap and she dove towards it in desperation. Kaho fumbled to lift handle before reaching her mouth into the sink and drinking. She downed the tap water gulp after gulp. She stopped after a while, sighing in relief. Her taste buds were saved from the nauseating taste of butter!

"Okay, telekinesis is something I have to practice because I don't want to suffer through something like that ever again." She murmured.

Some time later Kaho was outside, wandering around the town. Ponies around were giving her funny looks and she guessed it was caused by the bow on her back. She didn't care too much about said looks, that bow sawed her hide more times than she could count. In her eyes, it was just more reasonable to handle certain threats from a distance, hence the bow. Not all priestesses had the option to fight from distance. Others threw paper charms, but in her experience those were harder to prepare than simply buying arrows from a merchant or even making them yourself. On the other hand the paper charms could be augmented with powerful magic, boosting their power. It was certainly a difficult choice, as the bow took practice to shot but even that was not as time consuming as learning to throw paper charms in a straight line and across the room. She could do it but she wasn't the best at it.

Kaho quietly realized that she's been standing in the middle of the road and that was only attracting stranger looks to her.

She moved forward, now looking around and trying to find anything of interest. The town wasn't anything special, at least in the spot she was in. Simple houses with foals running about, sand under her hooves, trees in the distance and... shouting in the distance? She redirected herself, listening and trying to catch what was being shouted.

"Enchanted cowls, hoods and cloaks! Stay safe from the desert heat!"

"Potted plants of all kinds! Potted plants of all kinds for your plant filled house pleasure!"

"Delicious peaches! Delicious Dora pe-"

But Kaho stopped paying attention as soon as the "Dora" reached her ears. Memories surged and a different view slowly came into being, substituting the current one. There was a wooden gate with two tall men in their twenties standing guard with spears leaning against shoulders. A short girl stood in front of her, tears welling up in her sapphire blue eyes. Her brown hair was messy and she was panting. Both were wearing the same clothes. The girl was grasping a very big red leaf with her trembling hands and there was a wooden bow on her back.

"Kaho! Please don't leave! I don't want you to go!" The girl cried out pitifully.

"Donna please... I don't want you to get hurt. I understand your desire to come with me but this time it's different. This time it isn't a single monster wandering out of it's territory. We've been partners for three years now and you know I don't like you endangering your own life. Karst has been in a horrible state for a few weeks now and it's starting to spread. I need to go now." She replied, tearing up a bit herself.

"B-but I don't want you to leave me too..." The girl named Donna whispered, sobbing quietly.

"Donna I would never leave you. I'm doing this for your own good, so you don't have to. Please, understand that." Kaho hoped the conversation would end quickly, as she did not want to start crying right now.

"Y-you promise we'll see each other again..?" Donna asked, sniffling loudly. In response Kaho grabbed both her hands, causing the leaf in Donna's hand to drop to the ground soundlessly.

"I swear upon the Gods that we both, oh so cherish, that we will see each other again." Kaho said seriously. And just for a moment, the wind picked up considerably, it got a bit warmer, everything went silent and their hands glowed.

"K-Kaho? Did y-you ju-just?" Donna stumbled over her words, before Kaho interrupted.

"Make a sacred oath? Yes I did, I'm the high priestess, I can make those as easy as it is to take a breath. Donna trust me, we will see each other again. Now please... don't hurt yourself before I come back Donna."

Donna's face lit up like a Christmas tree before she saluted and spoke.

"I won't get hurt before I see you again! Or my name isn't Donna Doralina!" She spoke as formally as she could while her face was completely red and in tears. Kaho smiled and chuckled, ruffling her hair.

"Great! Now I need to go, but I'll be back in a few months. Please keep the village safe." And with those words she turned around and departed, walking the dirt road leading away from the village.

Several minutes passed and she encountered the last familiar face she would in a few months. Her brother was waiting near the road, sitting on tree stump.

"Kaho."

"Keith."

"You won't come back." His voice wasn't, sad or angry. He was merely stating a fact.

"I made a sacred oath to Donna. I will come back." The sentence caused him to snort.

"What did you say? "We'll see each other again"? I hope you know that covers both of you meeting in the afterlife sister."

"Keith..."

"Kaho. I want you to reconsider. You shouldn't leave alone. I'm not saying you should take Donna." He hastily added seeing her expression darken.

"Take some other priestess with you. This isn't something you can do on your own and you know it."

"I won't risk anyone's life Keith. This is something I'll have to do on my own." He sighed.

"I knew you wouldn't. Honestly I don't know what I expected."

"Keith if it will be like you said... please take care of Donna. I'm all she has and if I won't come back, you need take her in."

"I will... I was trying to make you not want to leave but look at me, bowing down to your every whim." He said humorlessly, slumping in defeat. He got up shortly, walking over to Kaho and hugging her. She awkwardly hugged him back, tears in her eyes.

"Goodbye sister."

"Goodbye brother."

And they've never seen each other again.

Kaho blinked away the tears gathering in her eyes. That was a memory, a particularly painful one. She didn't know how much time passed before her reincarnation but Donna was probably six feet under now. She knew that when she dies, Donna will be there waiting for her to rip her a new one. The girl, while painfully shy and clumsy, had a hidden spark within.

She was vaguely aware that other ponies were still staring at her but she ignored it. The priestess continued onward towards the marketplace to buy one of those Dora peaches. She couldn't shake off wanting to taste one, not after that memory resurfacing.

She got to the stand, where an white earth pony stallion with a yellow mane stood next to the boxes of fruits, covered from sunlight by a few planks slapped together, imitating a roof.

"Well look here a customer! What can I help you with miss?" He asked in an incredibly smooth tone.

"How much for a Dora peach?"

"Two bits, my dear customer, only two bits!" He exclaimed loudly.

"Um, I'm not exactly from around here. Tell me do you accept munny as a currency?" She asked, only now realizing that she might not be as wealthy as she thought she was. While around two thousand munny wasn't exactly a fortune, it was a sum that could allow you to live modestly for three or four months. A face made by the booth pony made her realize that she might actually be broke.

"Munny? Can't say I've ever heard of such a currency. However there just so happens to be a currency exchange office not so far away. Turn to your right, walk to the nearest crossroad, turn left and you'll see it! Be sure to come back for the peaches!"

"Thanks. I'll be back soon, I hope." She replied absentmindedly before starting to follow the directions the stallion gave her. She really did not want to ask Bold or Honey for money. She was already living under their roof and eating their food for free. She didn't want to ask for money too!

"Okay, turn left and..." She turned around the corner to see a bunch of brick houses. There was, however a small white building with a sign that said "Currency Exchange" and had a bit symbol down below. She made her way towards it, silently wondering just what would be the exchange rate. Fifty munnies a bit? A hundred? Maybe a thousand? That would shoot down her plans of wandering around Equestria, without the money she couldn't buy food. She could always take a bath in a river and she learned to sleep on many surfaces during her time as a human.

She walked through the front door and was immediately greeted with a sight of an dark purple unicorn stallion with a black mane, sitting behind the counter, swinging back and forth on a chair. Said chair was emitting sounds that made Kaho doubt it's durability. There were a few shelves around the room, mostly empty. A door was located directly behind him. His eyes were closed and he didn't seem to notice she came in. She closed the distance between the two of them and knocked on the wooden counter. There was no response from the stallion.

"Hello?" She called out.

The unicorn jerked on his chair, falling of off it and sprawling on the floor. Kaho winced and leaned over the counter to see if he was alright.

"Aughh, Celestia damn me and my sleeping habits." He groaned out while rubbing his head with his left hoof. The mare gaze followed his movements for a few seconds before she asked.

"Excuse me sir, are you alright?"

His head shot upwards and her brown eyes were met with his nearly black ones. Their gazes were locked for a moment or two before he broke it, glancing at the fallen chair.

"Well... this is embarrassing." He coughed before getting up. "I am alright though. This wouldn't be the first time this happened. My name is Dark Shadow and before you say anything, mother was on lots of drugs when naming me."

Kaho rose an eyebrow. He coughed again, awkwardly looking away.

"So what can I help you with?" He asked trying to not look her in the eyes.

"I'd like to exchange currency. Munny for bits."

His eyes widened, then a smile appeared on his lips.

"Finally! I don't get a lot of business in this town but it's still better than when I tried to do it in mainland Equestria!" He exclaimed, putting his hooves on the table and staring into her eyes. Kaho took a step back at the sudden change but lit her horn to take her bag off her back. She opened one of it's pockets and spilled some of the munnies on the counter. Shadow's eyes widened again before his horn lit up with black aura and he lifted one of the munnies to his eye. He closely inspected the small pink star shaped object before looking back at Kaho, looking just a tiny bit pale.

"How many do you have with you?" He asked looking back at the star in his black telekinetic hold.

"Around two thousand. It's hard to count these little guys." She admitted, trying to not act bothered by Shadow's sudden change behavior. "So how many of those for a single bit?" She tried to be nonchalant. She really did. But her plans depended on having at least some money in the near future. And that resulted in her asking him incredibly nervously.

"Dear client you could upset the economy with what you have here! A single "munny" is worth around at least five bits!" He all but shouted.

"Wait, you're telling me I'm rich?!" She asked, voice brimming with disbelief. He snorted in response.

"Disgustingly so. If you spent all of this reasonably, you could in theory live out your entire life without having to do anything for the rest of it." He explained quickly. The priestess sat down on her plot because, quite frankly this was getting just a bit too intense for her.

"Wow... Never thought I'd be rich. That's... definitely something."

"I can imagine. Do you have actually have an idea why you're so rich?" She shook her head.

"This." He lifted an another munny and held it in front of her. "This is raw solid magic. Any semi solid wizard would sell his soul to get this amount of it. I could probably cover the entire desert in shadows if I ate all of this and I have not dedicated my life to it. If this is your country's currency girl, any rich mage could, no is a walking disaster waiting to happen."

Kaho suddenly realized just why Fennel and Choir could toss around extremely powerful spells during their fights with her so casually. The church of Lord Esselin is a very large religion with a lot of followers in and around Karst City. Dozens of pilgrims each week, and the only time they stopped coming in was when the Queen went insane. No one was coming into the city for months, so their munny had to rapidly depleting with the monster attacks on their monastery. She realized with horror showing on her face that the pardoner and the arch priestess of the Esselin church were very, very far from the height of their power when she fought them. And both of those fights have been extremely close calls. The sisters clearly did not mess around.

"Well how much do you want to trade in?" Shadow's voice interrupted her grim realization.

"I presume you don't actually have enough bits for me to trade it all in?" She asked, already knowing the answer.

"Obviously. This job might pay well but I don't have nearly enough money from both the office and my own savings combined to reach a quarter of that round ten thousand you have there. I can give you five hundred bits at most, lady. Actually what is your name, you still didn't introduce yourself." He asked.

"Kaho Reinol. And I'll take that five hundred Shadow."

"Hm. A very unusual name but then again you aren't from around these parts so I guess it's to be expected. Give me a moment and if you could, please count out a hundred munnies for me." He said before turning around and opening the door behind him and leaving the room. Kaho got up from her sitting position and started to slowly count out the hundred munnies the stallion asked for. She wasn't thinking during the process. Before she finished the door opened but she didn't let that distract her. Finally finishing she took the excess munny from the counter and dumped it back into her bag. Shadow was standing nearby a very big bag of bits hovering next to him. Kaho pursed her lips.

"That." She noted. "Might be a problem. I can't lift that much with my telekinesis." Shadow blinked in response.

"Yeah, really glad you told me that now."

"Don't you start being passive-aggressive on me!"

"So how about I this. I'll hold the money for you. You should be able to get an extra size wallet, by which I mean a one that has a pocket dimension enchantment on it."

"How much does one cost?"

"Hundred bits." She sighed.

"Where?"

"There's a merchant selling those in in the marketplace. Fat, blue, earth pony. Can't miss him. Come back when you get it and I'll give you the bits."

Kaho groaned. This was not her day. She left the store, taking one hundred fifty just in case, without more words being exchanged. A minute later she was back in the marketplace trying to find the merchant Shadow spoke of. It was hard, since apparently in the time she was gone more stalls were put down and occupied which obscured her vision. She did however spot the white stallion who sold the Dora peaches. She did get a bit hungry during the wait for Shadow so she decided to but a peach before looking further for the wallet seller.

"Hello my dear customer! How did my advice work out for you?" The stallion asked as soon as she got within his view. Kaho was surprised he remembered her at all but chalked it up to something a merchant should know.

"Very well mister." She said warmly. "I'd like one Dora peach sir." She said lighting her horn and fishing out two bits from her lot more heavier bag.

"Pleasure doing business with you!" He exclaimed as she walked away, biting into the peach. It was incredibly sweet, just like Donna. Her eyes started scanning the crowd of ponies. She didn't have the time to find what she needed though as screams reached her ears, followed by the sound of a bell ringing throughout the entire town. Ponies around started to panic. She grabbed a pegasus mare before she could fly up int the sky and shouted over all the noise.

"What's happening!?" The mare looked into her eyes, screamed the answer and flied away. Kaho's telekinetic control over the peach weakened before failing completely. She stood dumbfounded as the crowd rushed around her trying to find a place to hide. The answer echoed loudly in her ears and thoughts.

"Elementals! Sand elementals are attacking!"

Author's Note

This chapter was sponsored by Google results for "Synonyms for horrible". This chapter became a lot longer when I got to the two thousand words mark. I wrote two and a half thousand words in the last two days so I'm gonna be burnt out for a while. I hope that the memory scene actually made someone feel something resembling sadness. I couldn't really introduce Donna before so it's probably hard to care for the scene. I don't really know. If you want to and have the time, let me know in the comments if you felt something. Anyways, hope you enjoyed the chapter!
- Whiskas

Chapter 5 - "I told you they're a vengeful bunch!"

The crowd of panicked civilians almost trampled her when she tried to go against the flow. But Kaho calmly pushed forward until every last pony was past her. Only then did she, oh so calmly took the bag hanging of her neck and placed it on the ground. Her horn lit up and the bag opened, it's tightly packed contents falling out on the sandy ground. Without a word, she lifted the folded leaf and placed it on the ground beside her. Then she picked up the pocket incensory which layed on it's side having been the first item to fall out of the bag. Kaho tapped the metal lightly, the magic within the item lighting the charcoal and incense inside aflame, causing smoke to lazily pour out upwards. A light bronze aura surrounded the leaf and it floated to the incensory. It floated in the smoke for ten seconds or so before tapping the incensory again, stopping the smoke. Kaho experimentally whacked the leaf against the sand a moderate distance away from her. Flames exploded in the spot before quickly fading away leaving a puddle of molten glass which solidified quickly. She nodded, satisfied before hanging a small black sachet in shape of a gift box adorned with a red bow on her neck. She took in a deep breath, feeling her muscles tense before almost sneezing as the acidic smell from the item entered her nose. Lastly she took out a small blue crystalline seed and ate it, reveling in it's delicious sweet taste. A few seconds passed and her vision visibly tinted in the same sapphire color the seed had. The incensory was deposited back into the bag which was once again hung from her neck.

The high priestess was prepared to fight.

The town was eerily quiet. Kaho slowly walked street after street but she found nothing aside from the glances of civilians from inside the buildings they hid in. Every other minute she could hear a scream or shout, though it was impossible to tell what was being said as the person was too far away to be heard properly. What she found most troubling was the fact that the sand monstrosities that caused everyone to panic, weren't anywhere in sight. Kaho was starting to wonder if it wasn't all a drill, until she walked out of an alley she took out to the biggest open area she's seen in the town.

A small sand elemental not too much bigger than her, was slowly moving through the... she wasn't actually sure what the space was supposed to be. But it was moving away from her, which probably meant it didn't notice her with whatever senses it had. Kaho briefly considered if she wanted to fight this one or search for the bigger fish.

"Well... if anything it's better to fight a smaller one and come up with a strategy for the rest, rather than blindly rushing to fight the bigger ones." She muttered, before starting to sneak towards the monster.

It proved to be oblivious to her advance and kept lazily moving forward. Kaho started moving faster, the closer she got, the leaf floating up and to her right. She was less than five meters form it before it turned and attempted to smash her with it's right arm. She yelped before clumsily rolling away.

As she got up from her terrible attempt at a roll the sand elemental already managed to reform it's arm and was now surging towards her. She jumped to the right as the sand moved past her and managed to tag it with the leaf as it passed her. It was hit in the left arm, where the sand briefly caught fire before melting and instantly solidifying still attached to her opponent.

It turned back and tried shaking off the glass, which didn't even budge remaining stuck to it. The alive pile of sand seemed to become a bit distressed, causing Kaho to smirk. It nonetheless tried the same tactic - clearly it wasn't very intelligent. This time the priestess just sidestepped as the creature didn't appear to have the idea to attack with it's arms while rushing her. She hit it again, this time in the right arm with the same results. The monster recognized that it's tactic wasn't working anymore and opted to just smash her by combining both of its limbs into a single massive one. Kaho only jumped backwards and hit hard the arms the creature combined for it's attack. The flames exploded and it's arms melted together with the ground before the glass hardened. The sand elemental roared inhumanly and tried to pull it's arms backwards but to no avail. It appeared that the glass that was it's arms a few seconds ago was still a part of it in some sense, as the parts of it's body that were unaffected by the explosion couldn't break contact with the newly formed glass.

"So it seems that the melted sand is still a part of your body and you can't just remove and replace it. Good." She mused, smiling and slowly moving forward, causing her enemy to try and back away. She carefully touched the glass - it wasn't exactly cold but it wasn't burning her hoof either. She got up on it and smacked the now single arm where it still was sand. Another explosion of fire yielded the same results as before - this time the glass was coming up to where the elemental's "head" was. It was now trying to frantically run but it didn't work. The priestess gave a last glance before smacking it in the featureless head.

She jumped down and looked at the result of the fight and was subsequently surprised as her foe was still struggling.

"So the head isn't the weak spot. Annoying but refreshing, I guess." She commented drily. Kaho started hitting the sand in different place to see if that yielded any result. Soon there was an entire glass statue and the sand around the base of it was moving very weakly.

"This suddenly became very annoying. Come on, there has to be a way to destroy you..." She muttered starting to inspect the former threat from all sides.

"Nothing special about the head... Arm doesn't have anything interesting... Aha!" She exclaimed as she noticed an object of some kind located in the chest area of the creature.

"But how do I get to you? Maybe..." She took the bow off her back and opened her bag fishing out an arrow. The projectile head wasn't made of iron like a standard arrow but rather from tungsten. The whole arrow had to be designed in much detail for it to be able to fly like a normal one would. It was hard firing it from a large distance as it gave to gravity much faster than a standard one would but Kaho was an experienced archer. And shooting point blank at an unmoving target. It didn't get easier than that.

She drew the string with her telekinesis - which was hard as she still wasn't good at it. The arrow was held in magic instead of being held up by the finger, though she would release the hold as soon as she'd let go of the string. She took aim and fired at the statue. It shattered upon contact with the tungsten arrowhead. The somewhat nice looking monument broke and she cursed, looking away as glass flied at her. Kaho turned back to see the ground covered in sharp pieces of glass and found the object she was looking for perched on a rather big fragment. She put the bow away before examining the object.

"It's just a rock? Seriously?" The priestess commented, picking it up with her magic, then she noticed that the sand which was previously attempting to flee, ceased moving.

"Well what do you know? It is because of the rock. Maybe it contains a spirit which animates the sand? I'll need to find out later because now is not the time." As soon as she finished the sentence, a massive wave of sand flew out of a street on her right stopping a moderate distance away from her before splitting into four different elementals of varying sizes yet all bigger from the one she just vanquished.

"Right, really not the time. They aren't going to go easy on me." The priestess muttered worried, slowly backing off. Kaho started considering running away from this fight. She wasn't anywhere near her previous level of skill and no one was around to assist. Running away didn't always mean you were a coward, just that you knew you wouldn't be able to win the fight. She turned around and took a deep breath preparing to run but paused as the smell produced from the sachet on her neck finally managed to affect her.

Kaho turned towards the elementals, fury on her face so visible you might as well attach a sign pointing to her that spelled out "Caution: Mad Mare", if she didn't break your legs for attempting first.

"You want to fight!? Come and get me then!" She screamed starting to charge at them. The creatures seemed confused to witness their prey running towards them instead of away but didn't complain, moving forward, their arms ready to reach for her and grab her and crush her.

The distance between the wall of sand and the mare was rapidly dwindling but just as the anger-driven high priestess was about to run into the lethal embrace, she jumped, pushing herself away from the ground. The jump took her high into the air but it was just not enough to let her jump over the enemy.

Then to surprise of anyone being capable of being surprised that was witnessing the fight, the priestess jumped again mid-air, a few red leaves appearing beneath her hooves and gently drifting down to the ground. The second jump's force allowed to fly above the danger and she slammed the sacred leaf down on the second elemental from the right, the smallest one alive. The resulting explosion sent her flying onto the ground ten meters away. She tumbled for a bit before coming down to halt and getting up nearly instantaneously. Her foes already managed to turn around and were starting to spread out, recognizing that "prey" wasn't as harmless as they presumed. The testament to their thoughts was standing in between them. The entire elemental she hit was currently made of glass, the sand around it weakly struggling as the one from before. Kaho snarled.

"Weakling!" She ran forward, ignoring the threat of other untrapped enemies and smashing the leaf against the glass. The resulting flames might not have damaged the statue but the force with which her weapon impacted with certainly did. The glass shattered into a million pieces and the mare ripped the rock from the inside of a larger unbroken shard.

She was now surrounded by living sand, yet totally unconcerned. If anything she was got angrier.

"COME ON! I CAN'T BELIEVE I WANTED TO RUN AWAY FROM YOU STUPID IDIOTS!" She screamed again much louder this time which provoked the two remaining ones. The bigger one was apparently content with watching from a distance, not moving closer. They rushed from two different sides, arms outstretched to grab.

Kaho growled and ran out of the danger zone, causing the monsters to slam into each other and mix. She turned around to asses the situation, finding that they yet manage to untangle themselves. She gave an evil grin before jumping forward, the leaf in her aura hitting the conjoined elementals. A burst of heat and a large patch of glass was holding them together. The grunts of despair were like music to the enraged mare and she stood there in place listening for a second or two. That almost proved to be a fatal mistake as they quickly managed to separate as much as they could before an arm of the one on the left slammed where she standing half a second ago. She jumped to the left before dashing forward to the elemental that just attempted to strike her. An explosion swallowed half of the monster rendering it incapable of attacking. The other one attempted to disconnect itself from it's companion by attacking the glass connecting them with it's other arm. It succeeded and immediately abandoned the fellow monster, leaving it to the enraged priestess. Two more detonations followed, one turning the trapped enemy into glass, the second shattering and killing it.

The mare turned her eyes towards the escapee and dashed after the retreating foe. It didn't run very far, slowed down by the chunk of see-through material which previously bounded it to it's kin. Kaho smacked it in the back stopping it in place before lunging and striking it with her right leg where the stone was. The fragile material most of the enemy was made of at this point broke and she ripped out the rock with her hoof, causing the sand to cease it's movement and fall to the ground harmlessly. Her entire leg was bleeding heavily, cuts on top of each other, shards of glass stuck in the wounds. If unattended, it would cause her to bleed out in minutes and Kaho knew it.

She also absolutely did not give a damn.

She turned towards the biggest elemental, the one that stayed in the back. She began charging, ready to end this farce of a fight but tripped and tumbled as the sachet's enraging effect wore off.

She suddenly gave all the damns.

A loud whimper escaped her mouth and tears welled in her eyes as the pain from her right leg broke through the fog of anger surrounding her mind, dissipating it. She would have screamed out in pain if she had the time but had to roll to the side to avoid being smashed by the monster instead. Kaho got up quickly, careful not to place too much weight onto her injured right leg. She hit the monster with the leaf but there wasn't nearly enough force behind it as before. Still majority of it's chest was covered in glass, slowing it down a bit. The priestess was on the defensive now, frantically dodging wild swings while barely having enough time and focus to attack herself. She managed to hit a few more times but her strikes were not as powerful as before, resulting in the monster being covered in small patches. The stone was visible but Kaho knew she wasn't capable of mustering enough force to to shatter the glass holding it in her current condition.

"If only I could eat a few bellflowers from the bag..." She lamented in her thoughts before the monster finally hit her in the torso with one of it's swings. Kaho cried out in pain, feeling some of her ribs crack and was sent flying from the sheer force. She impacted the ground around ten meters away from her position and layed there, not capable of getting up anymore and coughing up blood. The sand surged forward, stopping just before her.

"Is this is the ending? Well, guess I'll meet with Donna when we're both dead after all." She thought. The elemental raised it's arms and slammed down. A sword cleaved it's way through it's torso, shattering the glass and hitting it's stone. The sand which would have turned her into paste lost it's momentum before falling onto her, burying her under it. There was a shout of alarm and a moment of silence. The sunlight came back as a familiar face dug her out of the pile. Bold dragged her out with a grim expression.

"Girlie! You're not dead yet!" His face brightened and Kaho couldn't help but smile weakly herself before wincing in pain. Then he looked at the condition her body as in and frowned.

"Dear Celestia... I don't think she'll make it." He muttered.

Kaho was not happy with those words. Kaho really did not want to die just after being rescued. So she grit her teeth and ignored the pain of her everything hurting, lighting her horn and opening her bag.

"Search for..." She coughed up some more blood. "Bellflowers. Plants, green, bell-shaped. Can't miss them." She mumbled, barely hanging onto consciousness. Bold obeyed searching through her bag before pulling out three of them. He looked at her questioningly and Kaho grabbed them with her magic before flinging them into her mouth and chewing as fast as she could. She could feel the internal and external bleeding stop, wounds on her leg closing over the shards. Her vision cleared and her heart calmed down a little. She shakily stood up and noticed that she and Bold weren't the only ones here. Honey stood with Shadow a bit to the side watching their surroundings, both of their horns lit.

"What's in these plants girlie? You were dying a few seconds ago!" Bold asked amazed.

"They're magical. And they don't fix everything. I still lost a lot of blood, have a few cracked ribs and glass stuck in my right leg." She explained, taking a few deep breaths to calm down.

"A visit to the hospital can wait!" Honey called grimly and they turned to her. She was staring at something with an unidentifiable expression on her face. Shadow behind her was pale and pointing a shaking hoof at the same thing. Bold and Kaho turned their heads to the thing the other unicorns stared at and froze. A few streets away they could see a sand elemental towering over the buildings nearby it. It appeared to be fighting, if it's attacks where of any indication. A few pegasi were flying around it. It let out a roar and Kaho noticed it had a human-like face. She turned to Bold.

"Why is that thing in the village?" She asked stunned.

"I told you they're a vengeful bunch!"

Author's Note

I am so lazy. I had two thirds of the chapter done in a week and the last thousand was written today. I haven't edited it much because I'm too damn tired with writing right now. Next chapter will have a boss fight and probably some more stuff, not sure about the second yet. I hope that the fight scene from this chapter was pleasing though. Don't expect the next chapter soon as math is kicking me all around the room and making me feel horrible. Also I hate how often I have to use the word "glass". It hurts to look at.
Hope you guys like the chapter anyways!
- Whiskas

Chapter 6 - "Is it over?"

The group composed of a high priestess, a town guard, his wife and a currency exchange shopkeeper did what presumably all groups composed of the same members would do while confronted with a three stores tall village destroying monster made of sand.

They ran towards it. Though in Kaho's case it was more like hobbling. And Shadow was tripping over his legs, pale at the thought of facing something way beyond his league. Bold's and Honey's faces were those of grim determination but it was clear they weren't thinking highly of their chances.

Needless to say none of them were looking forward to this confrontation.

Kaho's vision lost it's sapphire tint around the time they started moving towards the monster. That resulted in a pain filled gasp as the only completely safe body enhancer she had ran out. Bold turned towards her but she shook her head. They continued, but Bold was walking closer to her in case she fainted. She ran through the list of items in her bag that could help her right now and wouldn't worsen her condition. The Tainted Missives were out as they hurt both body and spirit by injecting spite and hatred directly into both. Definitely not safe or reasonable in her current condition but sometimes useful. The Faerie Tear was not useful in this particular situation, or at least she assumed so. Unless the elemental could curse things or poison people or burn them. She shook her head. She really couldn't see it doing that. The Magnet Stone was useless, same with the Dull and Edea's Pearls because there's no way you can poison sand. The Clarity Shard was a good idea if she wanted to blind herself right now. She didn't have any fingers to put her rings on. The Astral Charm would be useful, since luck is something she'll need a lot of right now. Those really weird arrows that the Karstian Archery used were not something she bothered to acquaintance herself with, except the ones she used a few minutes earlier.

Her magic items that cast spells would cause collateral damage. Not acceptable.

Kaho took a deep breath and settled with the fact that she might not be of much use in this fight. But maybe she could pass some knowledge along, presuming the townspeople, didn't know all of it already.

"Miss Bee, do you know any weaknesses of these monsters?"

"No, I don't. The same goes for the rest of the town. If we knew any, they wouldn't be a problem." Honey answered keeping her golden eyes on the monstrosity they were approaching.

"Well, while I was fighting the ones that almost killed me, I found out some things."

Honey's head snapped back towards Kaho and she fixed her with a look.

"Tell me. I'll run forward to repeat what you say to others. Quickly because lives are at stake!" She exclaimed while speeding up.

"They are vulnerable to fire hot enough to turn sand into glass. The glass parts restrain them, because they can't move them and they seem smarter the bigger they are. I also found out that there are stones inside their chest area that seem to animate the sand. Taking them out killed them or at least disabled them." As soon as Kaho finished explaining, Honey's horn glowed and there was a flash of yellow light, same as yesterday and she flied away as a bee.

"That does explain why they die when you cut them there enough times." Bold mused, increasing his tempo just a tiny bit.

"Fire hot enough to melt sand into glass..? That's crazy! Do you know how hard it is to make a fire that hot magically!" Shadow exclaimed, face even more nervous than before.

"Well technically water would also turn it's sand into mud which would at least slow it down but-" Kaho shrugged somehow,"- we are in a desert." Shadow shot her a look at that.

"You're not making me feel any better."

"Well sorry if I can't help trying to lighten my mood after almost dying." She deadpanned in response. Shadow looked guilty after those words.

"Stop arguing like foals! This isn't the time for this!" Bold exclaimed, and both of them jumped in surprise though Kaho quickly regretted it.

"How long do we have before we're going to be in the fight?" Kaho asked, lightning her horn and opening the bag once again. A few seconds later the Astral Charm was hanging of her neck and the Black Sachet was back in the bag.

"From what I'm seeing we'll be joining the guard in thirty seconds." Bold commented, speeding up again.

"Do you know if there's anyone capable of creating a fire hot enough to restrain it?" She asked, feeling her stomach trying very hard to tie itself into a knot.

"I think Honey should be capable of cranking up at least five fireballs to that level. Blowtorch is definitely capable of throwing much more of them around. He's probably doing it right now. I'm not sure about anypony else. It would definitely be a stretch for them." He responded, face growing more grim with every second.

"I think I can make one." Shadow spoke up nervously. He didn't appear to be confident about it.

"Save it as a last resort then." Bold replied.

They turned right after reaching a crossroad and were greeted by the sight of a column of sand rising from the ground and moving about rather fast. The massive elemental occupied an another empty space, same as the one she fought the smaller ones in. There wasn't a lot of room to run around in it, but it wasn't impossible. Two earth ponies rushed past them, carrying an unconscious bleeding pegasus on their back. Kaho assumed they were going to the hospital. Kaho winced when she saw the winged pony bleeding from their mouth, nose, ears and a hole in their torso.

A bright yellow flash appeared up above them and Honey fell down to the ground, rolling to prevent any of her bones from breaking.

"You're here!" She shouted.

"What's the plan Honey?" Bold asked. She let out a humorless laugh.

"There isn't! Sound Mind was rushed to the hospital a few minutes ago, no one can agree about anything, half of our guard is panicking and the other half is convinced that we should try to escape!" She took a deep breath.

"As you can tell the situation is far from optimal."

"Escaping doesn't sound like a bad idea right now." Shadow muttered absently, sitting on his flank and staring in horror.

"It would chase us down. We live in the desert but that thing is the desert." Bold shook his head. "Anyone got any good ideas?"

"The fire?" Kaho half asked, half reminded because the other mare didn't mention anything about it.

"Sunny is getting Blowtorch here, he lives on the opposite site of town and it was his off day. He decided to sleep in. They should be here in two minutes." Honey answered, her horn starting to glow.

"That's way too long, we need to start right now before it wipes out everyone!" Kaho argued.

"I know!" Honey turned towards the monster who was swiping at the remaining pegasi. A fireball about as big as Bold shot out of her horn straight into the elemental's head. An explosion of fire swallowed it's head and the surrounding sand. The glass on top of it's head was reflecting sunlight straight into their eyes, so it was harder to notice that it was now focused on them.

"Uh, oh." Honey made a weird face. It could have been described as one of a child who just realized that his parents did hear them mutter that curse.

"Dodge!"

The warning was entirely unneeded because their group was already moving. They scattered, Honey and Bold to the left and Shadow with Kaho to the right. The gigantic arm slammed down on where they were standing two seconds ago. Kaho took the opportunity to smash the leaf into their enemy. The amount of glass created by the hit was unsatisfactory. The arm moved to crush Honey and Bold against a building. Everyone looking in their direction gave a shout of alarm. Honey threw herself at her husband and grabbed him, horn glowing. There was a bright yellow flash, a loud crackle and both of them suddenly weren't there.

"Miss Bee can teleport?" Shadow asked, making the best impression of a fish Kaho's ever seen. The priestess only rolled her eyes at his reaction before grabbing him with her undamaged hoof and dragging him away from their foe. Seriously teleportation couldn't be that rare. She fought people and things that could do it a lot. She looked around trying to spot where the pair teleported to but couldn't manage to spot them. She did spot the next fireball impacting the right shoulder of the beast. It let out a deafening roar and both her and Shadow fell to the ground covering their ears.

"That thing can scream really damn loud!" Shadow shouted. Kaho only turned her eyes to him, still laying on the ground and deadpanned when the noise finally stopped.

"Really? I couldn't tell." He blushed in response.

"Sorry."

The priestess rolled her eyes and slowly got up, trying not to strain her right leg. Some cuts already reopened and more would soon follow if she didn't stop running around. But it wasn't like she could just drop out of the fight. The monster was currently occupied with her hostess who threw an another fireball, this time at the right arm, immobilizing one fourth of it. She already casted three and her husband was sure she could manage five. Honey's usefulness in restraining the thing was rapidly dwindling. That meant someone needed to step up their game and Kaho was willing to do just that despite the risk.

The mare opened the bag again and quickly consumed an another bellflower to heal the injuries on her leg before taking out a piece of bloodied paper. She speedily read through the contents, cringing when she felt her body burning, as the horrible, horrible words entered into her brain, their hateful message hurting her being. Kaho crumpled the paper in her magic. The world seemed more bleak, darker, evil, not worth living in. She shook her head to clear her thoughts before returning the text into her bag. The priestess ran forward and levitated the leaf up to the right arm of their enemy to hit it. Yet another explosion of fire was born from her strike today, nearly completely covering the limb in glass. She jumped away ready for a retaliatory strike from the monster, ready to run but no blow came.

She looked up slightly confused. The creature's right arm was completely restrained and the left one was reared back ready to attack... itself?

The glass exploded in every direction, as the elemental hit it's glass arm with the sand one. She heard screams of pain and shouts of alarm. It only took her half a second to register the fact she was one of those screaming. There were at least five shards of varying sizes stuck in her and countless more that grazed her. Her vision blurred, the world darkened.

The priestess grit her teeth and pulled out two more bellflowers and ate them. The bleeding stopped, but there was even more glass stuck in her body.

This was decisively not her day. Oh, how much time she'll spend at the hospital, assuming she lived through this fight. Kaho just couldn't wait. Her vision cleared a bit, but not completely. She estimated that she couldn't afford to lose much more of her blood, unless she really wanted to die today.

The priestess looked up, trying to judge if their chances have shot up with the right arm gone or-

"Dear Goddesses..." These words didn't really convey the horror she was feeling. The giant was supposed to lose an arm, make this fight easier, winnable. Instead there was sand flying off the ground attaching itself to the arm that was supposed to be gone. She fell to her knees, staring. Some part of her was screaming. Get up you idiot! Fight! Don't give up! but she just couldn't muster the will to do that. If she had been a human this fight would have gone differently. She still didn't figure out how to utilize the Karst Crest pieces in this form. It would take a miracle for the fight to swing in their favor.

"Cavalry has arrived!" A feminine voice called out, which was followed by a series of explosions. Kaho idly noted in her head that it was a weird thing to hear a pony say and she should probably ask about that later. An orange coated unicorn with a red mane was standing on a nearby roof, throwing fireballs like nobody's business. Nearby a pegasus was flying around, futilely stabbing their spear into the sand. It took all of two seconds for the regrowing arm to stop. The monster roared this time a bit quieter and Kaho noted again that it shouldn't be doing that with it's head being glass. It tried smashing the unicorn with it's other arm but was stopped almost immediately by more fireballs. The priestess let out a sigh of relief.

Then the elemental charged the building on which the unicorn who was probably Blowtorch was standing.

The pegasus with the spear let out a shout of alarm before swooping in, grabbing Blowtorch and flying away. The building collapsed and the beast turned around. Kaho suddenly realized she was still standing in place, without anything to hide behind. She backed away hastily, though their opponent seemed to be paying attention to Blowtorch. It tried to move it's arms around by rotating it's torso to break the glass.

"Blowtorch! Glass it's torso, NOW!" Honey shouted from somewhere.

"Can do!" He called back, as the pegasus put him down on an another roof. The monster surged towards him and Kaho rolled to the side to avoid the oncoming wall of very painful death. She got up and turned just in time to see his horn glowing an insanely bright pink before a wall of flames erupted from him. It couldn't stop in time and ran straight into it.

The roar of fire quieted down in a few seconds, after he stopped his spell before sitting down. There in place stood a giant statue of warped see through material.

"Is it over?" Someone called out.

"It isn't until we take care of the rock inside of it!" Honey answered, though Kaho still didn't know where she was.

"And how are we gonna do that? I'm not exactly keen on having it break out, just so I have to stop it again." Blowtorch said rubbing his head with a hoof. The pegasus - a mare, probably Sunny, Kaho realized as she touched down and hugged the orange unicorn. Honey walked into the strange space Kaho still couldn't determine purpose for, with Bold at her side. Both of them were bleeding from numerous wounds, though they didn't seem to be that bothered by it so Kaho ignored it for now.

"So how do we do it?" Sunny asked.

"I can rip out the rock, though I think it won't be enough to do this one in. It was more capable than it's smaller kin so I wouldn't put past it to be capable of living trough it." Honey answered again, because apparently she was an encyclopedia now.

"I'm pretty sure I can break it after you do that. These muscles aren't just for show you know, Honey?" Bold jokingly flexed. His wife rolled her eyes, amused.

"Okay then, everypony move away, Bold get ready." She commanded, as Bold took his gigantic sword of his back.

Honey's horn glowed yellow and the rock was ripped out of it's hold. The instant it was out sand swirled, moving towards it. There were shouts of alarm, Blowtorch lit horn, Sunny lifted her spear, Kaho levitated the leaf up. Bold calmly jumped forward and hit the magical rock vertically with his sword. It went straight trough and the sand stopped.

There was a moment of silence before the rock split into two halves. Everyone stared at the sword.

"What?" Bold asked with an innocent expression.

"What is that sword made of?! That was solid rock!" Sunny asked.

"You can ask my wife, I'm sure she'll share that information with you." He gave them a daring look. Kaho glanced at her hostess and noticed the expression on her face. She interpreted it as "Ask me that and I'll gladly rip out your spine." And Kaho would know, she's seen that one before. And she was now also becoming aware of the fact that there still is a lot of glass in her body. That probably wasn't optimal for her health. Dizzily she looked at them and spoke, swaying slightly to the left

"Well, I'm sure you all have things to do, like cleaning up this mess but would anyone mind helping me to the hospital?" She grunted.

Everyone present actually looked at her and noticed the sharp shards sticking out of her and the many scratches she was covered in. At the drying blood clinging to her fur. In the next five seconds Bold already had her on her back and was galloping through the streets. Sunny flied by them, too fast for them too catch up. Honey Bee was behind them but was slowly catching up despite her smaller size. And Kaho thought as her eyelids started closing and the world started quietening around her that maybe, it was her fault for not raising their attention to her sorry state sooner. There was some shouting about something, but she wasn't paying attention right now. What she was thinking about is that this was a perfect time for a nap.

So she closed her eyes and fell into deep sleep.

Author's Note

Mid-week Update! Also, Oh my God. I'm sorry for the delay but while I'm doing better at school right now and theoretically should have more time, there are issues with written assignments. Every time I get one handed out to me, I write and it just feels like it saps all my inspiration and motivation away. The next chapter will come out God knows when at this pace and I'm sorry about it. Good news is that December has a lot of days where you don't go to school because of all the holidays. I should be able to write a fair bit then. This chapter isn't edited and I may work on that tomorrow or sometime later. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this one and hopefully you'll all get the next one soon. Take care!
- Whiskas

Chapter 7 - "Where the hell can I find a bell made of solid gold?"

Being awake hurt. Kaho, if asked would say that she'd rather be unconscious right now. But Kaho was a good girl. Kaho would wait.

Kaho, was also currently on a lot of painkillers.

Kaho's bloodstream was as close to what would be to the lethal dose of morphine as one could get to without actually dying.

She was unaware of said fact, and probably for the better.

So while it could have hurt more and it probably did, she didn't notice. But it still hurt a bit. A bit of pain everywhere. Not enjoyable.

She might have been on some magical painkillers as well. She wouldn't know. The weird ring that that one nice nurse, which the name of she couldn't recall at the moment had, was also on her horn. It didn't let her do magic. When she tried to take it off, a weird, big yellow blob, which called her "girlie" came in and stopped her. It told her to be patient and lay in the bed like a good girl.

Kaho listened, of course. She was, after all, a good girl.

But while Kaho was a good girl, she was on a crap ton of drugs, so she simply forgot. You really couldn't blame her, forgetting all those twenty something times. There were many infinitely more interesting plain zany things just floating through her vision, one after another. But as long as she remembered, she would keep her promise to the nice yellow blob. Kaho was, after all, a good girl.

But one time when she took it off and no one noticed she did magic, and something else ran in. It was smaller than the yellow blob and white in color, with alternating yellow and black on it's top. It shouted something at her. Kaho didn't understand but that was okay. This wasn't the yellow blob who would yell at her for doing... something. So doing magic was probably fine.

Oh, how wrong she was.

Turns out the white blob could be much more scary than the big yellow blob. White blob was not nice at all, unlike Kaho. Kaho was scared by the white blob and started crying. It stopped it's horrible verbal assault of incomprehensible sounds and hugged her. Kaho was scared at first but the blob was no longer mean. The white blob apologized soothingly and Kaho didn't cry anymore. It even gave her an actual solid piece of the universe! Then Kaho had to promise to not do magic again. She was sad but remembered that she shouldn't anger this blob. The blob gave her an another solid piece of the universe and it bled rainbow juice! The juice wasn't tasty and she decided she won't drink it ever again. The blob laughed a bit after scolding her (gently this time which Kaho found lovely!), and told her to write on the first gift. She made her write "I won't do magic." and made her promise she would be more patient this time.

Kaho didn't forget. Not this time. Especially since the title of The Goodest Girl, was at stake!

So she waited. She smiled and laughed at the things in her vision, always remembering to look at her card before contemplating trying to do magic.

Eventually, she grew tired. Kaho fell asleep listening to the sounds of the universe even when the soft, incomprehensible words of the white blob reached her from beyond the Great Gate To The Even Greater Outside. They made her feel better and cozy, and there was a gentle warmth in her heart.

Kaho fell asleep.

She regained her awareness.

The first thing that welcomed her back into the world was a steady beep of something nearby. She was told what it was by her hostess when she was teaching her about Equestria. Really, medicine here was so advanced here it was actually off putting, in a way. Back home they had to make do with herbs and magic. There were some medicines that were widely available everywhere but they were only for often encountered diseases like the common cold. Nothing close to being capable of curing wounds she received as a reward for being sloppy.

The second thing to welcome her into the world was the sun's rays, falling directly into her eyes, again. She gave a small sigh after wincing. It would be nice to wake up without feeling the sun's glare on her.

The third thing to disturb her was pain. She was in it. Her wounds hurt, she was sure that headache was actually about to kill her and worst of all was the beeping that intensified said headache by hundreds of times.

There was also silence, however often it was interrupted by that infernal beeping. She was glad for that silence. It gave time for thought. To mentally come back to the fight and think about what she could have done better. And there was a lot of things she could have done better. It wasn't as horrible as it could have been, she decided to herself. Definitely room to improve, if only because she's still unused to this body. This equine body.

That still feels so weird.

She considered her situation while staring blankly at the wall. Eventually, sleep took her away again.

The next trip into the land of consciousness was caused by the sun, of course. Kaho was really starting to think that this Celestia had it out for her. The priestess found herself alone in the room again. And then something hit her.

"Dear Goddesses." One could not not hear the terrified note in her voice.

"I haven't prayed for two days! Of course I'm unlucky!" She gasped, rather dramatically. It was a fair concern however. Any priest or priestess should maintain contact with their respective gods, or bad things would follow. You can't just devote yourself to a god and then abandon them. It tends to irritate them at best and at worst... well, no one ever speaks about those cases. Of course things were slightly complicated as Kaho's gods were not the strongest ones around and her bond with them hasn't yet reached it's full potential. So she needed the item they've chosen to help channel the prayers of their followers.

"Where the hell can I find a bell made of solid gold? Those cost a fortune." She groaned.

"Definitely not my week. And I'm only like... three days in?" She asked herself, hooves covering her embarrassed and rather stressed face.

"Actually it's two weeks and two days." Clean Cut answered, walking through the door, idly flipping through a clip board.

The priestess looked ready to faint.

"Please, do not pass out. I would rather get this over with now, rather than later." The subtle note of annoyance had not eluded Kaho.

"Get over what now?" She asked cautiously. Clear Cut took a deep breath, closed her eyes and exhaled.

"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING PUNCHING GLASS!? Do you have any idea, how utterly inane that was?! You're lucky you had those magical fruits of yours or you wouldn't have made it!" Kaho yelped, moving away from the gray mare who just blew her top rather loudly and was advancing on her in a rather threatening manner.

"I think you should give the girlie some space." Bold said slipping into the room with a relived look on his face. The nurse whirled to him with a furious look on her face. She took a deep breath ready to start screaming again and... calmed down. For a few seconds she looked incredibly tired and old.

"Look, Bold. I didn't give her a clean check of physical health seventeen days ago and asked her to come for a check up the next morning to see her landing on my operating table the next day." She let breathed in and out again and turned to the still wary priestess.

"Kaho, sweetie, look I'm sorry for yelling at you. But when you are a doctor and you send away a patient just for them to come back three quarters into their grave the next day you can't help but feel a little frustration. It doesn't help that I've been holding back my lecture about attacking things that are made of fragile and dangerous material with your own hooves for quite some time now."

"I thought you were a nurse?" Kaho asked, slightly unsure of what to think and wanting to switch to a different topic.

"That's just what everyone calls me. It started out as an annoying nickname on medical university made up by a bunch of jokesters but it grew on me." She admitted.

"Don't change the topic." She said shaking her head slightly. "That was completely irresponsible of you. You are a grown mare so I trust you'll learn a valuable lesson form this. But if I see you or even hear about you getting hurt in a similarly stupid manner, I will be... most displeased."

Kaho nodded her head up and down like an aggravated bobble head. The other mare just sighed.

"You'll remain here until the next day until I'll check if everything healed as it should have." After saying that the mare left.

There was a moment of silence.

"So... is everyone alright?" Kaho asked.

"Yes, they are girlie. No one died thankfully, ponies in critical condition were stabilized and are on their way to recovery. You were the last one to be carried in."

"That's good. It would have been awful if anyone died because of me." The priestess admitted.

"It wasn't your fault girlie!" Bold protested loudly. "You were only defending yourself back then. It's not your fault those monsters can't take a hit to their own egos."

"Yeah... you're right. But people still got hurt, though."

"But no one died. No one was crippled, no foals were hurt. Everyone will recover fully in a month or two."

"Still it reminds me of things... in the past." Her voice was somber. Haegok... it wasn't stopped in time for there to be no casualties, even with the help of those two strange girls. The village was quiet for a month as everyone grieved the loss of family and friends. Kaho became an orphan that day. Donna became one as well even though she never learned what killed her parents. Kaho thought it was for the best. The girl didn't need to know that the God the village worshiped, turned on them.

But the worst part was the silence of their Gods. They used too much of their power to heal and protect and aid them against that Betrayer. It took years for them to regain their strength for the tiniest of blessings. Years where the villagers starved each winter, because the crops were too small, where sickness was more common than anytime else.

"You alright girlie? You've got that look on your face again."

"I'm okay. Just remembering the past."

A heavy silence fell on the room. Bold tried to restart the conversation a few times but was ultimately shot down every time. He eventually left, leaving Kaho alone in the hospital bed. It wasn't very long before she was asleep once again.

Author's Note

This chapter did not want to get written. I got sick and it sapped away at my motivation and then my mad procrastination skills got involved. Then I really just forgot where this chapter was going. I had a plan when I started writing it, I swear. It's low quality and very short. It also ends pretty badly because I can't do much more with it. Honestly I'm ending it right now so I'm no longer stuck in the corner. The next chapter is where things should start to pick up pace. Kaho will be leaving Oasis soon.
Hope you found the tiniest scrap of enjoyment in this one.
- Whiskas

Chapter 8 - "Am I interrupting something?"

"So can I leave now?"

"Yes, you can. But if I see you back here within the next week, you won't avoid me talking your ears off!" Clean Cut snapped.

"Yes nurse." Kaho said solemnly, leaving the hospital room.

"You can get your things back at Bold's house." The nurse said without turning around, cleaning the room.

The priestess left the hospital and started wandering the town. The sun was high up in the sky, it's rays beating down on everything below harshly. Kaho slowly made her way towards the married pair's home, trying her best to ignore the whispering and stares directed at her. Ponies seemed to be attempting to drill holes into her body with their eyes and she was really not liking that. Then a small pony - a foal walked up to her. He had a green coat and a red coat and his yellow eyes were looking at her in... reverence?

"Miss?" He asked in a squeaky voice.

"Yes? What do you want child?" She asked, glad that some of the attention was now directed to him.

"I wanted to thank you for protecting our home."

"You don't need to do that. It's my duty to protect those in danger regardless of who they are." She spoke warmly. The foal walked up closer, got up on his hind legs and stood up to hug her. It was nice. He backed away and ran up to a group of other foals which started to chatting excitedly. Kaho continued, relieved that not everyone was looking at her now. It took her a few minutes to find the house again since she only once walked the road from the hospital to it. She knocked on the door and waited. The door was opened in a few seconds by Honey Bee.

"Oh! Welcome Kaho. I see you've been released from the hospital."

"Yes, with a threat of a verbal lashing if I come back too soon." She explained.

"Oh, well. That's just how Clean Cut is. In any case, I'm glad you're back on your hooves already!" The other mare exclaimed, giving her a big hug.

"Thanks." Kaho said, blushing slightly.

"Now come on in. You'll be getting your things back and we can talk a bit before dinner." Honey stepped aside, allowing the priestess to enter.

They walked inside, Honey closing the door with her magic. The living room was empty but there was a ridiculous amount of noise coming from the kitchen. It seemed like Bold was cooking again. "Maybe he's the cooking type of man." Kaho thought. She sat down on the couch, while Honey turned towards the guest room Kaho slept in before. Half a minute later her hostess came back with all her things plus a tiny purple wallet with yellow dots on it.

"Thank you. But what's this..?"

"Ah, Shadow dropped by a few days after the whole incident and said that he got you the dimensional wallet you needed. Your bits are in it."

"Oh, I'll visit him and thank him later then."

"And now onto the important bit!" Honey exclaimed, dumping everything onto Kaho.

"Which is..?" She asked after taking everything off of her.

"I want to hear all about those things you used when you were fighting! For research purposes!" She gave a winning smile and the same notepad and pencil as before popped into existence next to her with a yellow flash. Kaho sighed resigned before starting to explain.

"Alright, but after that I get to ask you some things as well." Honey nodded and made a 'go ahead' gesture.

"Well the first thing I used was the Pocket Incensory. It enhances any item held in the smoke it emits with fire, causing the item to cause small explosions of flames with each hit. They grow in size and are hotter the stronger you hit. I then hung the Black Sachet on my neck. It induces a horrible smell that makes you stronger, though at risk of entering a frenzied state where you lose most of your capability for coherent thoughts and nearly nullifying all pain you would feel. The frenzy wears off quickly and the user might experience a shock when they suddenly feel all the pain they previously ignored." She paused for a while to breathe.

"Then I ate a Crystal Seed. It also enhances your strength though it doesn't do much besides that and tinting your vision slightly blue. The plants I ate to stay alive are Bellflowers. They're fairly common where I come from. They can magically heal wounds, stop bleeding both external and internal but they can't fix broken bones. They're also unbelievably sour and the first five times you consume them you'll probably regret doing so a lot. Like throwing up, a lot." She concluded.

"Thanks! Now what do you want to know?"

"How did you meet Bold? I'm curious." Honey's face soured for a tiny fraction of a second but Kaho still caught it.

"I was doing an errand for... my employer at the time." She looked away. "It was here in the desert. I was supposed to find a specific item for her and come back. It was supposed to be a simple job. Turned out to be anything but that." She let out a humorless chuckle.

"Turns out a group of bad ponies was out for the item as well. We ended up fighting to no surprise. Just me against ten others. I might be good but I'm not that good. I probably would have died if he didn't find us at that moment." She paused.

"Admittedly it was much more complicated then I expected at first." Bold's voice came from behind them. Kaho looked back while Honey just looked away.

"To me it was just an unknown mare about to be killed by some strangers. But it was still someone to be protected. I came in and we defeated them. I was conflicted, I admit as she already killed four of them and murder is the greatest crime one may commit in this country. But... I saw the desperation in her eyes. She was only defending herself. So I helped. Honey didn't make anything easier on me when she fainted after the fight. What was I supposed to do with four corpses, six fainted aggressors and her?" He finished. Kaho was staring wide eyed at both of them.

"When I came to, he was nearby, standing guard. I didn't want to attract attention at first. This wasn't in the script and I never was in a like that before. So I pretended to still be unconscious. He found me out pretty quick and started questioning me. That was the hardest conversation in my entire life. I had to explain what happened, why was I here and for what purpose, why did I kill the-" Honey's voice cracked as she tried to continue. Nearly instantly Bold was at her side, holding her close.

"She lied throughout the entire conversation. Somehow managed to convince me they were some evil cult despite them not having any signs of it. I mean there were no black cloaks, painted faces or blood sacrifices around which normally tend to give away these things, so I don't know how she did it. Said she needs to go back to her employer and face her punishment. And here I finally managed to object."

"He told me he'd help me explain. He saw the situation, knew that I had to do what I did." The unicorn interrupted with puffy eyes, filled with tears.

"We weren't capable of dragging these ponies by ourselves. We left them there and went back to my home in Oasis. We went in at night so no one could see that she was covered in blood. She took a very long shower and in the morning we were on our way to mainland Equestria." He continued.

"She was calm like always but I knew it was just a mask. It always is. You learn that after a while under her. I explained the situation from my perspective and Bold from his. I don't know what she was thinking but I was... retired. I still run errands for her occasionally but mostly I just live on monthly stipend as long as I go to my monthly psychiatrist appointment in Canterlot so I don't have... issues." She finished.

"Oh, I... didn't expect that. Sorry for bringing it up." Kaho apologized awkwardly.

"No, it's okay. My psychiatrist said it's better to open up to people instead of bottling it in. I'm just... cautious not confess to anypony unless I trust them." Kaho blushed at that.

"Do you really trust me that much?"

"Yes." She said confidently. "From what I've seen and heard you're someone who can be trusted. You'd risk your life for others and seem like a genuinely pleasant young mare, so I feel like I can do it." She explained.

"How many people you've told already?"

"You're the first one I've told personally"

"Oh. Oooooh. That's... a lot of pressure. Well, I won't betray your trust Miss Bee." Kaho stammered, the blush returning full force and then some.

"Please. It's just Honey to friends." Her hostess gave her a very warm smile. Kaho blushed even harder and the married couple shared a short laugh at her expense.

"Thank you for the dinner. I'm going out for a few things." Kaho said.

"Alright. Be sure to come back before it's dark. The town gets really cold at night." Honey called out as the priestess stepped out the door.

The sun was approaching the horizon and it was getting darker with each minute. She decided to go to Shadow first. The walk was uneventful. She knocked on the door to his currency exchange office before coming in. He predictably was swinging back and forth on that creaky chair again with his eyes closed. She rolled her eyes and walked forward. She grabbed the chair with her magic 'and isn't that cool?' she thought while stopping the chair. With her thoughts. His eyes slowly opened and he gazed around confused with half-lidded eyes before seeing her.

"Oh, hi Kaho." He paused. "I swear I'm not asleep on the job all the time."

"Sure, whatever you say. I came here to thank you for the wallet." She responded. He narrowed his eyes slightly before responding.

"You didn't need to, I sensed your gratitude earlier in the day." He explained casually, giving her a smug look.

"I'm sure you sensed me coming here as well then. Would explain the way you greeted me when I came in." The gauntlet was thrown.

"Yeah, I have a way to make mares feel special I know."

"I'm sure you have to drive away dozens of adoring girls each day."

"Yeah. It's a bit hard on me having to do that everyday. I don't let it get to me, of course. I'm far too great for that."

"Yeah, with a name like that I would be surprised if you weren't a cunning leader of a dark cult bent on world domination. Humble beginnings for someone of your caliber."

"Don't worry I'm sure there will be a place for you in the new world order." He paused. "Somewhere."

"Probably as the heroic resistance's mascot. I'd be great for morale." Kaho boasted.

"Not the leader?" He tsked. "Disappointing Kaho, but it's good that you know your limits."

"No, the resistance leader always gets overthrown by their right hand with a chronic backstabbing disorder and an unhealthy desire for power. And at the end of the day the mascot is plain better, since they get all the credit."

"The heroic sacrifice you'd do to prevent my backup plan to destroy the world, means you wouldn't live to tell the tale and no one would know how you defeated me." He countered. Kaho raised her eyebrow.

"Backup plan to destroy the world?" She asked.

He scoffed in response. "If I can't have it, no one can."

"Of course you realize that I'm too good of a person to just die like that at the hands of an evil overlord. There would be a light from the heavens and all of the gods would bring me back to life and make me the ruler of everything because of my heroic deeds and my selflessness." Kaho said condescendingly.

"My evil cult would revive me as an evil god after centuries when the time is right to upset the balance of good and evil once again, which you wouldn't expect." He shot back.

"True." She admitted. "No one could expect such a failure to be revived, just to be defeated again by the line of my heroic descendants."

"How am I a failure! I took over the world once and am back as a powerful evil god fueled by hundreds - No, thousands of bloody sacrifices?!" He asked disbelievingly.

"But you failed the first time and won't get the second chance because I secretly suspected something like that would happen and prepared my child, who prepared theirs and so on." Kaho said, victory in every line of her body.

"You can't do that! That's cheating!" He exclaimed.

"You did it before me, Mr. "I suddenly have a dark cult", so you have no room to complain." Kaho justified.

Shadow stared for a moment before bursting out laughing and shaking his head.

"Very well. I am defeated. Good match." He offered his hoof. Kaho shook it, giggling herself.

"We have to do that again sometime." He said when they've calmed down.

"Sure. We might need to change the topic since I've obviously got you beat on good versus evil." She teased.

"That you do. We might only need to change sides though. We'll see how it will go next time I guess." He commented.

"Yeah, you're right. Now I'm off to do the rest of my errands. Goodbye!" She called as walked outside.

"Goodbye!" He called back.

Kaho left the building, shaking her head slightly.

"That was very enjoyable. We really do have to do that again." She mused, walking towards the market. The merchants were slowly starting to pack up their merchandise. She quickened her pace, looking around for the bell. After a few minutes of looking around, she spotted a pegasus stallion with a collection of various trinkets a tiny collection of bells included. Kaho walked up to him.

"Excuse me, do you maybe have a golden bell?"

"Sure do, lady! Covered in gold or made of gold?" He asked.

"Made of gold. How much for one?"

"Fifty bits."

The priestess fished out the wallet out of her bag and pulled out the bits, handing them over to the pegasus. In turn he gave her the bell.

"Pleasure doing business with you lady!" He called out as she walked away. It was getting darker and colder with every minute so she sped up. Not so long and she was standing before the couple's house and knocking on the door again.

"You don't have to knock every time! Just get in!" Honey's annoyed voice called out from the inside. Kaho blinked, before lighting up her horn and opening the door. The priestess walked in, closing the door behind her and blinked once again, not sure how to feel at the sight before her. Bold was laying on his belly on the sofa while Honey was standing on him and... jumping up and down?

"Am I interrupting something?" Kaho asked, her voice and odd mixture of confusion, embarrassment, amusement and simultaneous bemusement.

"Yes." Honey growled through gritted teeth while still looking at Bold.

"Just go to your room girlie. We're just having a... lover's spat." He answered grinning at his wife.

Kaho only shook her head and did just that. Before she managed to close the door to her room she heard a "Give it back already!" followed by "You need to take a break and relax." and a "I am relaxing! With research!".

Kaho took of her cloak off and tossed it on the bed before placing the bag on the nightstand after retrieving the bell from inside. She placed the bell on floor before her and took the closest position to kneeling possible in her equine form.

Closing her eyes she began to pray.

Author's Note

This chapter has been written and released early (by yours truly) to make up for the horrible thing that was chapter 7. I had much fun with this one, though the ending was a bit rushed as I took a five day long "break", before writing the end. I'm going to shout out myself from the 7th of January for being a real man and powering through two thousand words in like two or three hours, a true record for one like me. If you have any possible topics for Shadow's and Kaho's future "debates", let me know and I'll see if I can write something with that (IF you want to see more of them). Hope you people enjoyed this chapter and I'll see next time. Take care!
- Whiskas

Chapter 1 - "I refuse to believe this is the afterlife."

Chapter 1 - I refuse to believe this is the afterlife

Kaho's eyes slowly fluttered open. She lifted her head and gasped quietly. All around her, was a desert as far as she could see, but her mind wasn't focusing on that at the moment.

"W-what? I'm alive? But I… I died." Kaho whispered, slowly lifting herself up to a sitting position. The vivid memory of her death, echoed in her thoughts. Her body slowly dissapearing as the curse sinked into it. The look of regret and guilt on the cleansed Queen's face as she looked towards her, before collapsing from exhaustion.

She tried to rub her eyes with her left hoof, but stopped as soon as it came into her view. The mare stared at it silently for a minute before looking at herself to confirm that it was, indeed attached to her body. And upon seeing that she was a small, cream coated, red maned unicorn, with a red leaf on her butt instead of being a normal human girl, Kaho promptly fainted.

"This can't be right. I should be dead and not alive, and I definitely shouldn't be a tiny pony with a horn. Or a… unicorn? I think that's what they're called." Kaho muttered while looking over herself. When she woke up again, she had realized, that she was not dreaming. She even confirmed it by pinching herself with one of her new hooves… somehow. Questioning that fact didn't seem like a good idea at the time, if only to protect her now fragile sanity for longer. Gods knew she was already confused and unstable from her apparent resurrection, and that meant she didn't need other impossible things to keep happening. Kaho took a deep breath.

"Alright, Kaho, calm down. Freaking out won't help. You need to check if you have everything and where you are."

Kaho took off her bow from her back before taking off the bag and looking inside to check what was still in it. She first took out a folded red maple leaf out of it and unfolded it revealing it's massive size. It was half as big as her when she was a human so now it was just a bit bigger than her. Kaho laid it out on the sand and started taking out other items and placing them on it. The priestess turned pony was suprised to see that she still had everything with her, despite the fact that she was stranded in the middle of nowhere. She also noted that the empowering effect of the hibisco tea had worn off, since the leaf she bathed in it, lost it's green color. She sat down on her rump and started muttering.

"Ok… so possibility one is, I died and this is the afterlife. Possibility two is, I haven't died and someone took me here and turned me into a small unicorn that can talk." She sat quietly in thought, ignoring the heat of the sun bearing down on her.

"I refuse to believe that this -" The mare gestured with a hoof to all to the things she saw around herself. Which was a couple of cacti, a big rock and sand. A whole lot of sand. "- Is the afterlife. Therefore I had to have lived through my body dissapearing when I sealed away the curse." Kaho sat in silence for a few minutes.

"Someone had to grab my spirit before I died for real and put me here. Maybe that's why I'm a unicorn? My body was destroyed when I absorbed the curse so… it might be," She said standing up, the sand shifting around her hooves.

"So I still got the whole 'being alive' thing going on for me. But I don't fancy myself dying from dehydration after being saved. I should find some water because I doubt ten bellflowers will last me very long here." And so Kaho moved further into the desert.

Kaho frowned. She was walking for what seems to have been hours now and all she ever saw was sand, rocks, a couple of cacti and more sand. Her throat was getting more and more dry with each minute and she was starting to feel tired already. Her cloak thankfully protected her from most of the heat, but even with it she wouldn't last very long.

"There has to be… a way... To get out this damned desert." She rasped, raising a leg to wipe the sweat of her forehead, which in turn caused her to trip and fall over face first into the ground. She raised her head and spat out the sand that got in her mouth.

"Alright, I need some liquid." She reached out for her bag and opened it, fished a bellflower out of it and threw it into her mouth. She then crushed it with her new equine teeth and breathed out a sigh of relief as the sour juice of the plant flooded her mouth.

"Okay, that's much better," She said after swallowing. A frown appeared on her face shortly after.

"But it won't last long. I've got to keep moving. So much for the idea of a break, I guess."

And so she moved on, further into the desert.

"That was way too close!" Kaho shouted, rolling to the right, narrowly avoiding being hit. Just a minute ago some sort of sand monster rose out of the ground and started attacking her.

She jumped out of the way of an another strike, this one aiming straight for her head.

"This is bad, I can't use the leaf or the bow to fight, and it won't give me time to search for my magic items in the bag."

The mare muttered, backing off slowly while the monster pulled itself together from slamming into the ground where she was seconds ago. She couldn't use her weapons with this new body, as she found out the moment the mass emerged. She was still clumsy on her new hooves, though atleast she already had experience with being a qudraped before.

"Oi, there girl! You need some help with that ugly pile of sand?" A gruff voice called from behind her. She turned around and saw a big, tough looking stallion whose hoof was reaching for the broadsword slung across his back.

"Yes, please!" She shouted back at him before starting to run in his direction.

But the monstrosity decided in that moment, that it was time to stop playing with it's victim, now that it apparently had armed backup and with surprising speed surged forward, it's intent clearly to crush her under it's weight.

In an instinctive reaction, Kaho jumped backwards and unknowingly lighting her horn, tore the gigantic maple leaf from the sacred tree out of her bag and smacked it across the monster's face, bringing it's momentum to zero instantly.

All three of them stopped dead.

The priestess was wondering why the leaf was surrounded in light bronze aura and floating next to her. She did not notice the quiet humming, or her horn glowing the same color.

The alive pile of sand tried to comprehend with what little intelligence it had, how it's prey managed to hurt it with a leaf.

The stallion only stared dumbly at the absurdity of the scene that just played out before him.

They stood quietly like that for a moment.

After a good ten seconds passed someone finally acted. The stallion burst into deep laughter and Kaho shortly followed, giggling despite the situation. The monster slowly retreated into the sand, still unsure of what just happened.

"Sweet Celestia, oh that was priceless girlie! That's the first time I've seen a sand elemental get stopped by an oversized maple leaf!" He shouted, grinning like a madman.

Kaho herself was smiling despite the danger she was just in a few seconds ago.

"What's your name girlie? Where did you come from if you don't mind me asking?" He asked, wiping a tear rolling down his cheek.

The priestess turned her gaze to the stallion who came to her rescue. He was much taller than her and powerfully built and had a yellow coat resembling the shade of sand around them. It was no wonder she didn't see him before he announced his presence. His messy mane was only a few shades darker, and his bright blue eyes were still the twinkling with amusement. His face was… equine-ish. Kaho had no idea if it was supposed to be handsome or not since she was new to this "being a small horse thing". She did however note the curving scar cutting through his face diagonally from upper left to down right. It came dangerously close to his left eye. She then realized he was waiting for an answer.

"I'm Kaho, high priestess from a village named Lun."

The stallion's smile strained a bit and he asked slowly.

"Excuse me for asking but are you one of those zealous types? The ones preaching that Celestia is our one true goddess and demanding they worship her?"

Kaho blinked in surprise, before responding.

"No, this the first time I've heard about this 'Celestia' person. In Lun we worship our own gods that protect the village from harm in exchange. I also know a few others gods that were worshipped in other places but I heard nothing about this 'Celestia'."

The stallion's eyebrows raised and his mouth formed an 'O' as he looked at her.

"Well you just keep getting weirder girlie, let me tell you that. First I find you running away from a sand elemental, then you spontaneously whip out a massive leaf and smack it in the face, and now you're telling me you from a place no one knows who Celestia is." The stallion rubbed his head with his hoof.

Kaho took in a deep breath. If what she was about to say caused the stallion to think she's insane, he might just leave her here, which would not be a preferable course of action. But she decided to risk it and spoke her mind.

"I also believe that I changed bodies. Before I woke up in this desert I was a human. They're bipedal creatures unlike ponies. And also I have no idea how I'm still holding the leaf even though I'm not touching it. And now that I look at also why is the stem glowing bronze?" She asked the last question while moving her face closer to it, in order to inspect it.

The stallion blinked and started intensely staring at Kaho. After a few seconds he reached out with and poked her horn. The horn and the leaf both stopped glowing instantly and the second drifted to the ground soundlessly.

"Alright, I believe you."

This time it was Kaho's turn to stare.

"You actually do?"

"Yeah. No actual unicorn would let a small poke like that stop their telekinesis. My wife told me that. And we live in a magical world girlie. Weird magical phenomenons happen every other week all over the world, which still is largely unexplored."

She sighed in relief.

"Thank you mister…?"

The stallion smacked himself in the face in reaction to her question.

"Oh, where are my manners! I'm terribly sorry girlie! My name is Bold Protector. I'm a guard in my village. I'm on patrol searching for ponies like you that get lost in the desert." Bold spoke offering her a hoof.

"And mine is Kaho. Kaho Reinol." She reached out for it and they shook hooves for a second.

"Well we should head over to my village girlie. I doubt staying in this place for long is a good idea. The sand elementals are known to be a vengeful bunch," Bold said.

Kaho looked back at the spot in which she was nearly crushed a few moments ago.

"Yeah, let's go."

The pair took off into the desert, the high priestess led by the patrolling guard towards his hometown.

Author's Note

Hello! Hope you enjoy my first fic on this site! It won't be updated regularly because I'm lazy, but hopefully updates won't take too long.
- Whiskas

A Moderately Sized Author's Note of Questionable Importance

It has been seven months without a sign of life from me except for switching the story's status to "On Hiatus" about midway through. Now I'll be honest with you here. I blocked myself with the ending of the last chapter and forced myself into coming up with an actual prayer for Kaho to say. For the five months after that I spent time trying to come up with something acceptable and never once did I find anything. That slowly chipped away at my resolve to come up with something, anything and I gave up on this after the end of the school year.

Then I got a summer job.

Yeah. That went well. I still have two weeks left before it ends and I'm tired as all hell after each day but, somehow I managed to achieve enlightenment during a weekend about three weeks ago.

The prayer is done. It is not something I'm overly proud of but it will do. So I moved on with the chapter and lo and behold I got myself stuck on something else. I have just got past that block. The chapter is not done yet-It's still pretty far from it and I really don't want to write while I still have to work. This fic is not dead yet, and I'll try to keep it that way. Hopefully I'll manage a chapter before the end of the year. Anyway I'm off to write some more words.

[EDIT: Would you people be okay with me writing other fics, before I finish this one? I mean I'll still do it if I feel like it, since motivation to write isn't always focused on this fic in particular but just checking. Also with my writing speed we'll be here for actual years.]

This message will self-destruct after I post the next chapter.