Lore Events Draft

In the years before transients arrived on the scene, the settlement that would come to be known as Outer Hayven was a small outpost on the edge of the southern Equestrian frontier. Other than a small military presence of Royal Guards and some researchers, there wasn’t much to it. The hostile environment surrounding the outpost wasn’t conducive to expanding it into something more permanent. However, as the researchers and guards continued to gather intel and learn about the area, the more it became apparent that the land and sea in this area was ripe with riches, resources, and ancient secrets held in long-lost ruins. Word started to spread around Equestria.

Sizeable numbers of settlers didn’t start to come until on and after April 22nd, 2017. That was the day that large numbers of ponies, griffons, and other creatures popped into existence all around Equestria and the world. Both Equestrians and these strange aliens were equally perplexed, but it quickly became clear that this was a large-scale event, as many of these beings claimed to be “humans” from a planet called Earth. Equestrian intelligence was able to corroborate these former-humans stories to determine that they really did have a sudden influx of immigrants to their world, who soon became known as “transients”. Biologically indistinguishable from the world’s natives in virtually all respects, it made it easier for the Equestrian government to provide and help these poor souls master their new bodies and learn about the world they’d found themselves in.

Many transients expressed a desire to live among their own kind, in cooperation with and alongside Equestrian natives, of course. The large numbers of these transients made the solution obvious: Equestria was on the verge of expanding into rich, uncharted territory, and offered transients a chance to stake out their claim in these areas with Equestrian aid and support. Outer Hayven would quickly become the most prominent of these largely-transient settlements.

Within a few days, literal boatloads of transient ponies, griffons, zebras, and kirin were now in the newly-named Outer Hayven, a chance for these transients to make a go of it. In collaboration with the natives who provided aid, resources, training, and pony-power, transients quickly established Outer Hayven as a permanent settlement. For a while it was essentially a city of tents and shacks, the only building that had been fully erected so far was the Equestrian Embassy, the epicenter of Equestrian presence. Equestrian natives and transients worked together side-by-side, encountering and overcoming significant difficulties. It wasn’t long before a food shortage occurred, forcing Hayvenites to scavenge and conserve what little food was available while they waited on re-supply. Their resilience pulled through, and it wasn’t long before couriers brought in a heap of food from Baltimare. Not long after that, Hayven secured it’s own food source by planting farms and gardens to avoid another food crisis, but by this time the supply line had been ironed out with a combination of sea ships, airships, and couriers delivering supplies on schedule. The relatively close proximity to Baltimare up the coast helped. As quick and convenient as shipments by sea and air were, sometimes, whether do to the nature of the supplies or other logistical reasons, it was necessary to employ caravans and couriers to traverse the land on-hoof. This was the most dangerous way, as hostile wildlife, bandits, and even malevolent spirits were numerous along the way. Eventually, couriers and caravanners literally stamped out trails that would serve as land routes, literally trailblazing the way with their hooves.

Within the first week, a large cache of Emerald Goo was discovered near the town. Governor Tulip, the de-facto leader of Outer Hayven during it’s earliest days, send out a team to secure it from large bugs that had holed up there. It was successful, and Outer Hayven and the rest of Equestria now had access to an immense resource to help with growing crops.

Also in those early days, researchers sent out a group of transients to locate a certain group of frogs, leading to an immense discovery of the truth behind their king frog. Their picture was taken and disseminated in the science journals, giving Outer Hayven and transients further positive publicity.

Perhaps the most profound discovery was an ancient ruin that seemed to hold some kind of teleporter. One of the explorers, Tea Time, managed to translate the ancient lettering and found that this was the doing of an ancient, extinct, and incredibly advanced civilization that also had alien origins (but wasn’t Earth). One of these ancient beings was discovered, having been in stasis for some 2 million years. The explorers complied with her request to shut off her life support and set her free, but she still lived in a presence that manifested through Starry Steps, one of the explorers.

In perhaps the first high-profile case of banditry, a group of bandits took a large caravan hostage, including mares, foals, and stallions. A group of transient Hayvenites formed a team that infiltrated their camp and rescued the hostages, and the Royal Guard quickly came in and apprehended the bandits. This was perhaps the first publicly visible act of the heroism Hayvenites would become known for.

Later that same year (2017) was one of the most tragic of incidents in Outer Hayven’s history. Miners had gone missing underneath the town while mining. A small group was sent down to find them, but they opened up a passage that led to a much larger series of caverns during their search. A large group of bipedal cat-like beings, known as Copper Cats, quickly approached the small band of ponies with pitch forks and torches. Their intention was immediately declared to eat the ponies, and they proceeded to attack en masse. The group of 3 transients and 2 royal guards barely managed to establish a front line that held long enough for reinforcements to arrive from above ground. The front line the searchers had formed was built up into a defensive position, manned by Royal Guards and ponies from the newly-established Crystal Company, a private security group that was frequently hired by the Equestrians.

A small group of ponies infiltrated the Cats’ line and delved deep into the caverns, finding the disturbing acts the Cats were committing even against their own. Eventually they found the missing miners, but they all quickly became pursued by a group of hostile ghosts. After escaping the ghosts, the group with the newly-found miners made their way back up to the caverns, at the exact moment the Copper Cats launched an all-out attack on the Hayvenite line with the intention of overrunning Outer Hayven. The Royal Guards, miners, and Crystal Company managed to defeat the attack and clean out the catacombs of the Copper Cats, but not without significant loss on both sides.
(This brings us up to October-ish of 2017)