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// Prologue - Pinkie's on a Boat! 
// Story: Monster Hunter Pie 
// by BronyArmitage 
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Boat rides. Pinkie loved boat rides. Always. However, every other boat ride she'd been on usually involved other people. She'd never taken one with her only other companion being a cat that could only speak broken Common. She heaved a sigh as she leaned over the edge of the boat, staring at her broken reflection in the gentle waves. The sun beat down on her from the apex of its course through the sky. She grumpily wondered why in the wide world that she had agreed to take the afternoon ship to this island. Sailing overnight would have been much less...Sunburn-y. She could feel the small of her back slowly cooking to resemble the color of her vibrant pink hair, which she'd pulled back into poogie-tails for the occassion.

Pinkie's eyes drifted over to her trunk. She stood and made her way over to it, the Felyn making an odd sound somewhere between a purr and a chirp. She flipped open the latch and opened it, digging through for whatever armor the Guild had set her up with to go over her clothing. She had a vague idea of what she was getting into when she decided to become a Monster Hunter, but the island she was being shipped to was an area just recently put under the Guild's jurisdiction and no one knew much about it. They informed her that a liaison had been dispatched earlier in the week to start gathering information on the village and the surrounding hunting grounds so that Pinkie wouldn't be flying completely blind. They had told her the liaison's name, but she couldn't bring it off the tip of her tongue.

To her surprise, the contents of the trunk were different than what she thought. She found a set of leather armor, but in addition to that, she discovered a vast array of weapons that she had learned about back on the mainland when she was still in the Monster Hunter academy. She was digging through all of them until she discovered one that she was unfamiliar with. It had a large warning label attached to it, and was folded up into an odd shape. She could tell that it was compacted, as many of the Heavy Bowguns she saw at the academy used the same technology. Attached to the warning label was a note. She opened it and started reading, her eyes lighting up with each word:

"Miss Pie,

The contents of this trunk all belong to you in accordance with Code 19 of the Guild handbook, which states that any Hunter legally performing duties under the order of the Guildmaster, or a similar liaison, will not go unprepared into a potentially dangerous area.

Also, within this trunk is a prototype of a new weapon the Guild needs thoroughly tested. It was submitted to us by the Wyverian Artisans Guild, and before we can start marketing it to other Hunters, we need to make sure the new technology is not dangerous to the user or to others.

That being said, we would like to inform you that you are not required to use this weapon, and may deal with the threats around Moga Village as you were taught at the academy.

In closing, should you decide to use the prototype Switch Axe contained within, we would like you to report its effectiveness on the field of battle and how it handles against the undiscovered monsters around Moga Village.

Good Hunting,
Assistant Guildmaster Luna"

"Wooooooow..." Pinkie lowered the letter into the trunk and reached in, delicately pulling the Switch Axe out into the sunlight. She marveled at it. She'd never seen something so fantastic in all her days at the academy. In the back of her mind, she knew that all the new Hunters had received one of these prototypes, but she selfishly wanted to believe that she was being entrusted with a sacred mission. To use and master this weapon. To be renowned as the Hunter who unlocked the secrets of this incredible piece of Wyverian technology. She was snapped out of her reverie by the Felyn boatmaster.

"Moga Village, ho, madam!" he shouted, his accent very thick with the Felyn tongue. Pinkie bounded to the edge of the small ship, grinning broadly. This was it. Her adventure was about to begin. And she couldn't have been more excited.