Chapter 2 : Welcome to Equestria
'What... what the hell!?' Ian was stunned when he opened his eyes, he didn't think of the temperature difference to the Great Desert, as he was not thinking at full capacity with the wounds he just healed, but now that he was healed.
Ian knew he was no longer in his own world, as these creatures did not exist there, most creatures were of singular colors at home... these creatures were easily more polychromatic, plus their faces... those faces seemed so much more expressive than a Jaggi's.
Ian's hand instinctively went to his World's Demise at the sight of these creatures, and they reacted by flinching, one of the six's expression quickly changed though, the rainbow maned, cyan coated one spread wings and charged.
In a single swift movement Ian drew his gunlance and stabbed forwards.
In just as swift a movement, the butter yellow winged one pushed it's cyan fellow out of the way of the stab.
The super sharp point however, was stopped in midair, Ian looked at it dumbfounded before noticing a magenta glow around the tip, glancing up he noticed one of the horned creatures' horn was lit up with the same glow, and it's face looked strained, Ian withdrew his gunlance from the repulsing glow, he quickly reassessed his situation.
From his observations they seemed to be protective of their own, like a mother Rathian, but not in the way a Rathian was, he also noticed three distinct 'species' or 'races' of them, two had horns, another two had wings and the last two had neither, but looked physically stronger, and if he was right, the horned ones had some sort of telekinetic powers.
Ian took his usual stance when approaching a creature that he did not know how it acted, his shield in-front and his lance peeking out the side of the shield, ready to strike, like a coiling Lagiacrus. one of the creatures, a bright pink strong one, approached slowly, like a curious dog, extending it's muzzle towards him.
once it's muzzle bypassed his shield, it sniffed him, and then, it's body shot forwards putting itself back in line with it's head, and then it took in a long breath, before spouting the craziest series of words Ian had ever heard before.
"Hi!I'mPinkiePie!What'syourname!?Doyoulikecake!?Doyoulikeparties!?Doyouliketomoveitmoveit!?huh?huh?huh?" Ian was stunned, not only could it talk, but it could do so in a single breath and almost incomprehensibly at that, luckily, thanks to years of being grouped up with over-eager rookies, Ian knew how to discern words out of a jumble, and he answered the creature's questions as calmly as possible.
"My name is Ian, cake is rare where i am from, hence i have not eaten it, yes, i do like celebrations and what is that supposed to mean?" Ian answered all the questions in order, the other five creatures' jaws dropped at how calmly he answered such an incomprehensible muddle that calmly, while the pink one adopted a serious face and dashed off, leaving a cloudy afterimage, Ian folded and sheathed his World's Demise upon his back and took up a normal stance.
The Lavender horned creature shook it's head and stepped forwards towards Ian, it extended a foreleg towards him as if wanting a handshake, Ian kneeled down, took one of his gauntlets off and shook it's foreleg with a firm grip before standing once more, again, the remaining four creatures' jaws dropped at the politeness of what seemed to be a bug-like brute.
"My name is Ian, Master rank Hunter of the Monster Hunter's guild" Ian said with a sweeping bow before standing back up to full height, the lavender one took the lead in her side's introductions.
"My name is Twilight Sparkle, I am the personal student of Princess Celestia and local Librarian" Twilight said, introducing herself to their otherworldly visitor, doing a small pony version of a curtsey, Ian smiled at this, giving off a small chuckle.
"No need to be formal Miss Sparkle, i simply have a flair for the dramatic, please, be yourselves" the bipedal hunter said, earning a sigh of relief from the rainbow maned one who had charged him, Twilight blushed slightly before standing straight once more and pointing at he friends while introducing them in turn.
Ian was intrigued, these creatures had such interesting naming conventions, and their names seemed to fit too, the rainbow maned cyan one was called Rainbow Dash and was apparently the fastest flier around, the yellow maned orange one was called Applejack and ran a nearby apple orchard, the purple maned white one was named Rarity and ran the local fashion boutique, the pink maned butter yellow one was named Fluttershy, was incredibly shy and ran an animal sanctuary and the pink one who shot out the door was aptly named Pinkie Pie and worked at a nearby confectioners.
After introductions were over, Twilight decided to ask some questions, in almost the same way Pinkie did, Ian could tell that the lavender librarian loved learning and agreed to answer her questions, the questions started out easy, simple questions such as 'what are you', but quickly, they descended into harder to answer questions, starting with 'what are Monster Hunters and why is there a guild for them'.
"It... is hard to explain what a Monster Hunter is without first explaining what kinds of creatures inhabit our world" Ian explained, "but I will begin with the basics" he said, retrieving a medium sized handbook from his pouch, he flicked it open to a page inhabited by a drawing of a Great Jaggi and a few Jaggi and Jaggia, the ponies all grouped around the picture, small gasps of wonderment erupted from Fluttershy and Twilight at seeing pictures of foreign animals.
"These are an example of one of the most simple of monster, the small ones are called Jaggi, are the bulk of the pack and are all male, the larger ones are Jaggia, the females of the species, and lastly, the large one is the Alpha male, called a Great Jaggi, these species are mostly seen as pests and the Great Jaggi can stand twice myself when they stand upright" Ian explained, Rainbow looked surprised at the description of the species.
"These guys are the 'pests'? they're humongous!" she exclaimed, Ian chuckled at her before returning to his explanation.
"These are literally the smallest of all the monsters, Jaggi are ruthless and powerful in packs, but they pose no threat to most Hunters, their teeth and claws barely even scratch simple metal armour, but they can be even more dangerous than most if you are facing off against a much larger monster at the same time" Ian explained before flipping to another page showcasing a much larger specimen, it was a large muscular behemoth of a creature, it's lower jaw and spine were peppered with short spines.
"This behemoth is known as Deviljho or sometimes as 'the great devourer', it can reach heights of 40 metres tall, and that is not counting when it stands upright, it is one of the most dangerous, but not even the largest, not by far" Ian shook his head, he had faced off against one of the largest and eldest known Deviljho in all of written history, but it was still no match for the monstrosity that was the Daren Mohran.
The girls looked on in horror and the creature detailed on the page as they imagined in their minds what a creature that large would look like, they had seen humongous dragons in their time as heroes, but never had they seen such an evil looking creature.
From outside panicked screams could be heard, startling the mares out of their daytime nightmares, Ian's head whipped towards the door, through the hysterical screaming of the ponies he could hear familiar sounds.
The warbling cries of a Great Jaggi calling to it's pack.