The next day had already dawned and Luna had already left for Hollow Shades. Twilight was waiting for her train to Appleloosa with her insect glaive and Kinsect on her back, along with her new Zinogre armour protecting her body. Celestia and Rainbow Dash had come in wheelchairs to see their friend off, much to the worry of the lavender mare. They had managed to convince her otherwise, but Twilight still couldn't help but worry for them, especially in their condition.

"Really, you guys don't have to be here" Twilight reassured her friend and teacher "You guys are in terrible condition and anything could attack at any time! What if-"

"Twilight, it's cool" Rainbow Dash assured her friend "The place is under higher protection from Canterlot AND Cloudsdale, so were all good. I'm just glad that Gore Magala thing never got to the train station, or this trip would've been impossible for you."

"Thanks for looking out for me, you guys..." Twilight spoke with a smile.

Suddenly, the train appeared in the train station with the words 'Appleloosa' on the side of the engine. This was no doubt Twilight's ride. The conductor then stepped out of the engine and onto the platform.

"All aboard!" he hollared. Turning back to Rainbow Dash and Celestia, Twilight hugged them both, one at a time of course, before turning away and hopping on-board the train. The train then began to move to it's new location.

"Goodbye!" the lavender Unicorn waved to her friends "I'll return soon! I promise!"

"You better!" her rainbow maned friend shouted back "I'd hate to have to see another friend missing!"

"Best of luck to you, Twilight!" Celestia waved her student goodbye. Eventually, the train was out of hearing range and Twilight could no longer see her friends wave, or even see her friends for that matter. She had completely left Ponyville and was on her way to her next town. She found a seat with a table and took off her stuff, trying to get a bit of rest for the long road ahead of her. Unfortunately, that wasn't what life had planned for her. A teal Pegasus mare with a moss green mane, Lao-Shan Lung dual blades equipped to her sides and Lavasioth armour on her body sat in the seat across from the lavender mare. A cocky grin was plastered across her face.

"Why hello there, pretty one..." the mare said "My, my... I've never seen quite a weapon like that before in my life. Where'd you get it?"

"I'm sorry but... Who are you, exactly?" asked Twilight, not really wanting the mare where she was sitting presently.

"My deepest, humblest apologies, lady of everything..." Twilight could tell the mare was either being a suck-up or trying to hit on her "I am Teal Speck, mistress of the sand, where we're going. And may I ask what name has been blessed onto such a pretty mare such as yourself?" she held out a hoof across the table.

"Twilight" the purple maned mare shook Teal's hoof "Twilight Sparkle. I'm a new Monster Hunter going to Appleloosa in order to get some new armour."

Before Twilight could bring her hand back, Teal Speck brought it close to her muzzle and kissed it like a prince would in a fairytale. Blushing angrily, Twilight took her hoof back and gave her guest a warning glare, earning a smug grin from the teal Pegasus.

"A newbie, huh?" Teal spoke "And one with a lot of spice to her to boot. Just how I like my mares..."

"Teal Speck, are you trying to hit on me?" Twilight asked in a crossed tone.

"Now what gave you that assumption, pretty one?" the teal mare continued ignoring Twilight's glaring warnings and continued to obviously hit on her "Was it my dashing looks and kind personality?"

"More along the lines of your facial expressions" the insect glaive wielder admitted "You're either very silly or very drunk. Either way, I don't feel comfortable with your presence, so may you please leave me be?"

"Ouch... That's a little harsh baby, don't cha think?" Teal just kept on smiling away "But I promise I won't try to hit on you anymore if you let me stay. Pinkie Promise, kay?"

"Well..." Twilight thought long and hard whether or not she should allow her uninvited guest to stay with her before finally coming up with an answer "...okay then. But so long as you're at this table, you're here to talk with me and NOT hit on me, got it?"

"Yeah, yeah, I got it..." the moss green maned Pegasus rolled her eyes "So, tell me a bit more about yourself Twilight, and I'll tell you a bit more about me, okay?"

"Sounds fair..." the lavender mare loosened up a bit from Teal's presence "Well, you already know my name, um... I'm a student to the princess and only recently have I been interested in hunting monsters."

"You're a student of the princess?" Teal asked with a grin "That's kinda haw- haw- ha- ah- awesome..." she saved herself from digging her pit deeper than it already was "My apologies, it's my nature. Carry on and I'll try not to say anything about your beauty... Dammit!"

"It's fine..." Twilight began to smile as well at the teal mare's somewhat enjoyable personality "Anyway, a previously unknown monster now classified as the Gore Magala attacked and utterly destroyed my town of Ponyville."

"Ah, yes, so I saw" the moss green maned mare recalled seeing a wrecked town not a few minutes ago "Were there any survivors?"

"Most ponies survived, yes" Twilight somberly nodded her head "But all that did have been hospitalized due to extensive injuries."

"That's sad..." Teal sighed "I remember when my own home was attacked by a Diorekkusu. I've gotten over it since, but hey, never hurts to looks back on the past, right?"

"Yeah..." Twilight heavily breathed in and out before cheering up a bit "So, what exactly do you do?"

"Me?" Teal Speck perked up as well "I'm a professional Monster Hunter, baby! I'm coming from Baltimare to get some armour like you are, though I'm doing it for a slightly different reason."

"Why? To impress a mare?" the lavender Unicorn giggled a bit.

"N-No!" the teal Pegasus blushed a bit "I'm getting armour to help me defeat a monster that's been causing earthquakes in the town as of late. Folks are saying it's a Lagiacrus that's causing all the hassle, so I wanna get what I can here and head on back to finally kill the Lagiacrus and... um..."

"And?" Twilight questioned her guest's unusual way to finish her sentence "And what?"

"Um... no, it's nothing" Teal shook her head "Let's just forget about it, kay? Kay. Well, it was nice knowing you, Twilight Sparkle!" she got out of her seat to head off somewhere else "Be seeing you around, I suppose. Oh, and may I say you are looking simply stunning today!"

"H-Hey!" shouted Twilight "You Pinkie Promised!"

"I promised that I wouldn't hit on you at the table, my fair lady" smirked Teal before she began walking off "You'll grow used to my attempts at getting a kiss out of you eventually..."

"That sneaky little..." Twilight was about to be cross at the mare, but she couldn't help but smile at Teal's persistence in trying to get her to be her very special somepony "Eh, I might get used to it eventually. Here's hoping nothing bad happens along the way, right?"

XXXXXX

Nighttime fell over the land and Twilight was currently trying to sleep on the couch she originally sat in when she first boarded the train. However, she couldn't sleep due to the shaking and noises of the train. She heard a loud and deep roar come from outside the train, and when she looked to see what was out there, she saw three Diablos, two of which smashed their horns together in a duel for the third, which was obviously female. However, she quickly realized that the roar of a Diablos wasn't that deep. She also realized soon enough that most of the shaking and rattling wasn't coming from the train. It didn't take her long to figure out something else, something huge, was out there.

Quickly and quietly she took her insect glaive and Kinsect, put them on her back and got out of her seat to try and find out where Teal was sleeping. Entering the cabin ahead of hers, she heard somepony loudly snoring. She then discovered exactly who was making such a sound. She shook the teal mare she met earlier today awake.

"Twilight?" Teal whispered "Could you really not resist me until morning? I mean, I'm flattered, but I'm also trying to take a snooze."

"Look, there isn't much time" Twilight whispered back "We have to go to the top of the cabin."

"Wait, why?" the teal Pegasus questioned.

"Something big is chasing us, and don't say I'm wrong because I'm not!" loudly whispered the lavender Unicorn.

"Alright, okay, I'll come with you..." spoke Teal as she slowly got up from her couch and followed Twilight up onto the top of the cabin via a maintenance ladder off to the left side of the entrance to Twilight's original cabin.

XXXXXX

"Twilight, you're pretty and all in the moonlight, but I don't see anything big in these sands" Teal admitted after the two had looked around for twenty minutes trying to find what Twilight was looking for "I think I'm going to head on back down to the cabin and catch some zees."

"But I could have sworn..." the purple maned Unicorn sighed in disappointment "The vibrations of both the train and that supposed monster were completely different, making it seem like there was something else out there. But I guess it was just an earthqua-" Twilight scrunched her eyes a bit out into the desert as she thought she saw a rock formation move all of a sudden. Then, to her surprise, the rock formation sank into the sea of sand.

"Teal!" she called the mare back up "Teal, I saw something!"

Hearing this, the moss green maned Pegasus quickly came back up to see what all the commotion was about.

"What did you see, baby?" she asked.

"Just look!" Twilight twisted her head towards the sea of sand. It was there when she finally saw it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1AahsoMuHY

Slowly, the sand around a certain area began to shift, as if something large was trying to emerge from it. Then, a few rocky scales showed themselves popping out of the ground, surprising the teal mare. Just as quickly as they had appeared however, they slowly sank back down into the sand. Whatever those scales belonged to wasn't done with the train just yet, as the two felt the train rumble around a bit. The rumbling continued until finally a gigantic, whale-beast covered in spikes with four legs, a tail and a gigantic horn on it's head popped out of the ground and flipped over the train, nearly flipping the train as it landed.

(Music should stop here)

"Sweet mother of god!" Teal shouted "What the hay was that?!"

"I honestly have no idea!" Twilight shouted in panic "I've never seen something so massive in any of my books! Not even the large Elder Dragons could match that thing's size and power!" her look of panic then turned into a look of pure joy "Teal, we might have stumbled across a totally new species!!"

"Well, that's great and all," the teal mare began "but my question is, how was it able to go so undetected by everypony if it's so loud and big?"

"That's actually a good question..." Twilight thought "But no time for that now. We need to drive it away before it reaches the train and either eats us or leaves us stranded in the middle of the San Palomino Desert! Do you know where the cannons on this train are?"

"I think they're in the back of the caboose" Teal recalled "Here, I'll pick you up and fly you over there, kay?"

"...fine..." Twilight sighed and allowed herself to be carried away by the moss green maned Pegasus.

XXXXXX

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRLMtK-x4tA

Twilight and Teal wasted no time in manning the cannons as soon as the got there. They loaded the new, multiball canon up with as many cannonballs as they could and waited for the monster, which she has decided to name George for now, to emerge from the sand so they could begin firing away at the beast. Eventually, George showed it's ugly face right in front of them, which meant it was also eating up the tracks as it swam through the desert.

"It's eating the tracks, the little, er... big bugger!" Teal Speck shouted "Now how'll I get back to Baltimare, huh?"

"There's always another way, Teal" Twilight tried to calm her down "For now, focus on cracking it's horn, okay? That should be enough to drive it off."

"Gotcha!" the teal mare nodded before she aimed up her cross-hair on her targeting system and fired one of the metal balls at George's tough and rocky hide. She didn't hit the horn, but the gigantic monster did seem to be inflicted by pain as it roared and sank a bit into the dry sea.

"Nice!" the lavender mare who manned the other cannon praised "But we're not done yet!" she fired a cannonball at George, which hit the giant horn but didn't break it off "Darn, it's too tough!"

"What if we fired at the same time?" suggested Teal with a shrug.

"That might not fully break it's horn, but it just might be enough to drive it away!" Twilight nodded "Right, ready..." they both prepped themselves to fire the cannonballs "Aim..." they lined up their cross-hairs "And... FIRE!!"

They both pressed the fire button at the same time and sent two of the heavy iron balls barreling toward George. The balls hit the gigantic sand monster and cracked it's horn a bit, making it roar in agony before deciding to bail away from eating the train tracks and the train itself.

(Music stop)

"We did it..." Teal let out a sigh of relief "That was pretty intense, baby. You hurt?"

"How could I've been hurt?" Twilight asked "We were at least fifty metres away from George."

"You're seriously going to call it George?" the teal, and more than likely lesbian, hunter asked her lavender accomplice "That isn't a very threatening name for this kind of monster."

"Yeah, but I had a theory" the purple maned Unicorn said "If this thing hadn't been seen before by pony kind, then that means it's some sort of ancient monster reawakened somehow, which also means it already has a name. Once we get to Appleloosa, I'll have to ask the elder about something like this."

"I follow, I follow..." Teal Speck nodded in agreement "Right, well, now that this is over, wanna head back to my couch and-"

"In your dreams, Teal" Twilight rolled her eyes before heading back into the line of cabin cars that the main engine was pulling along via the door to the caboose.

"Ouch... She'll warm up to me one day..." the moss green maned hunter smiled before looking back out into the desert "But I'm going to have to find a way back sooner rather than later or else I won't be able to defeat that Lagiacrus and... No, you'll make it back Teal. You just have to believe in yourself."

XXXXXX

The next day had dawned and Twilight had already explained to the engineers that the railroad tracks were taken out by a giant creature, meaning they couldn't get back to Ponyville or anywhere that wasn't Dodge Junction or the San Palomino Desert. They didn't believe her until the main engineer came up and said that he saw the monster as well fly over the train and nearly shake it off the track. After hearing how Twilight and Teal saved the train, he offered to let her and the teal hunter off the train for free. Once the train reached Appleloosa, he held up his promise and never let the two hunters pay.

"Ah, take a whiff of that air!" Teal exclaimed before taking a deep breath in a smelling the scents of the desert town "Manure and hay; just what a hunter likes to smell after a long day of work."

"Maybe for you, but not for me..." Twilight held her nose "I'd much rather like the smells of Ponyville or even-"

"Twilight?" asked a strangely familiar voice to the lavender Unicorn "Is 'at you?"

Twilight looked around frantically to try and find the source of the voice until finally, she came face-to-face with a certain orange mare with a blonde braided mane with a Stetson hat on her head. She was currently with some crutches, but the lavender mare recognized her immediately.

"Applejack?" Twilight asked before smiling and proceeding to hug her country friend "Oh Applejack, I missed you!"

"Ah missed ya too, Twi" Applejack hugged her friend back "But what are y'all doin' 'ere anyhoo? Have ya finally took up huntin' monsters?"

"Yeah, I have" the lavender mare nodded after releasing herself from the hug "But there's no time for social stuff yet! There's a giant monster out loose in the desert and we have to-"

"Whoa, hold yer horses 'ere, Twi" the blonde mare calmed down her friend "Yer sayin' y'all saw a giant monster out 'ere? Hmm... Could be coincidence but..."

"But what?" the purple maned mare spoke quickly "Please tell me you know something about that thing!"

"Ah think ya best come with me" Applejack jerked her head, telling Twilight to follow her. Twilight nodded and called Teal, who was currently trying to hit on another mare, over to follow the country Earth Pony. They were soon to learn what this menace was, and what exactly the limit of it's power was.

Author's Notes:

And done! So, I'm at school right now, but there's a free period, so I'm all good. So yes, if you couldn't have figured it out by now, the thing their going up against is a Dah'ren Mohran. It's not a spoiler if it's obvious! But our heroes don't know that yet, so there's still KINDA the element of surprise, I guess?

Teal Speck is owned by tealspeckles, and since he didn't provide a name for his OC, I named her myself. Art thouest happy with thy choice? Great!

Be sure to say in the comments what monsters you want to have appear in this story!

Be sure to Like, Comment, Favourite and Follow me, and until then, happy hunting!