//------------------------------// // Rumble in the Great Desert // Story: Monster Hunter P - Friendship is Survival // by LakieLegion //------------------------------// Chapter 1 : Rumble in the Great Desert Ian secured the last strap on his Brachydios armor, the glowing red of the portions on the armor lit up the small but dark quarters in the dragonship he sat in, he reached for the large silver lance propped up by the wall, he opened the ammunition compartment of the World's Demise gunlance and started polishing the metal compartments of the heavy piercing weapon, a knock sounded from his door. "Ian mate, we're approaching the Jhen Mohran, head up top when you get ready." Came the voice of one his fellow hunters on this mission, a large Jhen Mohran had appeared in the Great Desert heading for the desert city of Loc Lac. Ian stood up and clasped the lance shut and ran a hand along the length of the weapon, before picking up the large matching shield beside him in his left hand, he opened the door, the crew were running frantically in the small crew quarters below the deck, Ian calmly strode up the stairs to the deck and quickly spotted the large Elder Dragon approaching the ship. Quickly it was obvious it was not the usual species of Jhen Mohran, Ian frowned, the large whale-like sand dragon was usually much less aggressive-looking, with a pair of tusks and a a more smooth hide, this one, however, was different, spines lined the body, and the two tusks were replaced with a long, ridged, knife-like horn. "Th-That's not a normal Jhen." Stammered one of the other hunters, Ian glared at the large creature on the horizon. "No matter, our mission is to prevent it from destroying Loc Lac, and that is just what we shall do." Ian said, readying his gunlance, the captain of the ship stepped up beside them "That is no normal Mohran." The Captain shook his head, "'Tis a Daren Mohran, a more. Aggressive subspecies, we should send a faster ship back to tell the city to evacuate." Ian nodded. "Agreed, send a fast small ship back to the city to begin evacuations, if we succeed, then no worries, if we fail." Ian paused for a moment, "let us not think of that outcome." the others steeled their gazes and nodded before readying their weapons, it would be a long fight. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Aaaand done" Came the voice of a lavender unicorn, a large circle had been drawn on the floor in chalk, a large complex magical circle for a spell to view other worlds, Twilight Sparkle and her friends stood along the outsides of the circle. "So what kinds of worlds can we see Twilight? I wanna see an alternate version of me!" said Rainbow Dash, who struck a heroic pose, Twilight rolled her eyes at her friend's antics. "I have no control over what we see Rainbow, I would need to write the 'address' as it were to do that, and I don't know any specific alternate worlds" Twilight explained to her egotistical friend, Rainbow just pouted, Twilight took her position to cast the spell, "get ready girls, I'm about to open the window" Twilight said as she lit her horn. The chalk runes lit up, one by one, inside the circle, and slowly, color bled into the middle, opening a window viewing a large ship sailing on sand. Explosions boomed as cannonballs flew from cannons towards a large spiked creature, a bipedal creature aimed a bow at the large creature, multiple large arrows flew from the weapon and bounced off the hide of the monster. Twilight and her friends gasped as they saw the battle taking place in a large desert, the window zoomed in on one of the creatures with a red glowing bug-like exoskeleton wielding a large silver lance and shield that seemed to be directing the other bipeds. The large creature submerged itself under the sand and the bipeds looked around frantically for the monster, the bug-like one spotted it rising from the sand in the distance and face the front of the ship, in a single movement he folded his lance in two and placed it on his back and ran for a large button on the deck at the front, he picked up a large sledgehammer and looked towards the large creature. "What is he doing!?" Rainbow yelped, the girls watched as the monster charged at the ship, it's large knife-like horn pointed at the ship, ready to skewer it, as it got close the biped slammed the hammer down on the button. a second later a large spear burst it's way out of the front of the ship and slammed into the creature, parrying the large knife and stabbing the monster in the side of the face. As the spear retracted the monster roared in pain before submerging once more, another roar came in the distance and the bipeds turned to it, the monster rose from the sand once more and charged again, the one with the bow dashed for a large crossbow on the side of the boat and grabbed a bolt before nocking it to the large construct. As the creature neared the ship the biped taking aim fired, large bolts tied to ropes shot out of the ship and imbedded themselves into the creature, it roared once more as it writhed in pain, one of the others, wielding a pair of sharp swords fired the cannon once more at the creature as the bowman shot more arrows. As the monster's horn leveled with the ship the lance-man jumped onto the creature's back and ran along to a large crack in the spine of the monster, he stabbed at the weak spot in the creatures armor a few times before slamming it down, the creature pulled a small trigger on the handle and the tip of the lance erupted in explosions, knocking him back a step. Rainbow Dash looked on in pure awe at the creature hefting such a large weapon with ease, the creature once more leveled it's spear with the crack, this time a bright white jet of flame came from the tip of the weapon, after a few seconds the weapon exploded in a large flame, pushing the biped back a few steps, a compartment opened up on the side of the lance, glowing bright red with heat and steaming heavily. The monster roared and writhed in pain and the biped was thrown off it's back into the air, the girls watched as the creature threw it's head up and then quickly slashed through the air, the large bone protrusion easily sliced through the hardwood of the ship, the girls watched in horror as the ship tumbled over the sand, breaking and flinging bipeds everywhere. Carnage was an understatement at the wreckage of the ship, wood and blood was everywhere, multiple unarmored bipeds were crushed under heavy wood, others had lost limbs, and even a few had been speared by wood and arrows, the survivors mourned the losses, the window moved to the armored one that was thrown off the back of the monster and slowly neared his wounded body. What the girls didn't expect was for the window bring the biped to them, as the window neared his body, he slowly came through, still unconscious, the window closed once he was through. the girls cautiously approached him. "Is... is it dead?" Rainbow Dash whispered, Fluttershy slowly approached the head of the creature and listened, she could barely make out a ragged breathing, the timid pegasus looked to her rainbow maned friend. "It... is alive" she squeaked, afraid of the creature, she jumped as an audible groan was heard from the biped, it's hand slowly reached for a pouch hanging from it's waist, it grabbed a murky brown potion, brought it to it's head and then grabbed the sides of it's head and pulled up. The girls inaudibly gasped at what appeared to be it's head came off, underneath was a head similar to the armor-less bipeds, it's hair was long and black, it's grizzled face that was once handsome was in a grimace, it lifted the brown potion to it's mouth and swallowed the entire mixture. The creature sighed after taking the potion and then sat itself up and opened it's eyes.