Equestria, the land that has long since been ravaged by monsters and fantastical creatures of the like.

It all started after the banishment of Nightmare Moon. The monsters hid themselves from Equestria fearing the wrath both diarchies of ponykind could descend upon them, but when they learned of the banishment they saw a chance.

Monsters began rapidly appearing all across Equestria catching ponykind off-guard. Early blooming cities were ravaged and destroyed, big towns didn't fare any better, and villages were all but razed to the ground. The death toll of the pony race rose the fastest it had in history, and many ponies thought it was the end for them all.

Princess Celestia, believing there was still hope, thought up of a system called Adventurer Guilds. The Guilds were a way for any civilian ponies to volunteer and get reimbursed to fight against the monster's onslaught. But as a safety precaution ponies had to partake in Ranking Trials before they entered a Guild. Ranking Trials started out with simple low-tier tests that gradually got harder and harder as a pony progressed through them. Depending on how a pony faired they could receive Rank-D, the lowest rank, or in extremely rare cases Rank-SSS, the highest known rank.

The Guild system caught on across all of Equestria with the still standing cities and towns constructing Hubs— a place where anypony can go to join and/or hang out with a guild; even the few still-intact villages had their own little Hubs. Whether it be for the rewards, the sole purpose of slaying the monsters, or to see who could achieve the highest rank, ponies all around Equestria gained the inspiration to vigorously train and fight back.

Years passed since the monsters first began their invasion and ponies only got stronger during the long conflict. The struggle between the monsters and ponies grew to a stagnation; neither side winning or losing. It was like that for centuries upon centuries more, until one day an unknown cloaked figure wandered their way into a small town with a single objective.

To eradicate every last one alive.