It was an ordinary afternoon in the Skydive kingdom the previous day to the events mentioned before. The sun shone brightly, birds tweeted, and everycreature was doing their usual chores. Nothing special was going to take place, nothing scheduled at least.

It was a magnificent city-state, worth of jealousy, with grasslands that reached the horizon and several lakes, whose waters were as pure as the raindrops, perhaps even more. They were scattered throughout the fields. Hippogriffs would extract great amounts of the water, both for themselves and for the rich people of other nations, who bought it not for its qualities, but to presume of consuming the precious liquid.

The city itself was similar to Canterlot regarding the material used for every construction, white marble. Its buildings were all made of it. Many chapels were distinguishable from the distance, with their gigantic bells to warn the whole city and beyond of their presence, windows with stained glass of all colours, shaping themselves into pictures. In the variety of them, there were hippogriffs praying on their knees around a white ball of pure light. Others displayed the city with a distinctive pearl overlooking it, darkness enveloping the surroundings which were away from it.

The houses were all magnificent, statues of the owner or owners were placed in the façade, lots of columns supporting the structures, magnificent balconies with plants of great visual delight. Ornaments, integrated with the very structure of every building, were also present. Their shapes different on each one, but always beautiful. Baroque in its splendour was the style which gave all this beauty to the city. It was first created by this neutral race but later on, effect of its splendour, replicated in some places of Equestria.

The castle where the king of this race was located was very much alive, guards moving from one place to another, chefs cooking nonstop. Noblemen were traveling as well inside it, from one room to another, always discussing about properties, money, companies, religion and more. The king was the only one who sat idly on his throne.

Precious ebony wood and a seat which was as red as blood, the trail matching the seat perfectly, those were the qualities of the royal seat. The most discernible fact about it was that it had a pearl on top of it, levitating. It was blue coloured, shining brightly in pink, very close to white, in its middle.

The room was completely white except for the furniture and the banners, those had a red background with a yellow border and a hippogriff with a spear to his side on the middle, yellow as well. The throne itself wasn’t at floor level, it had two short steps, incorporated with the flooring, making the ruler stand higher than the rest.

The reason for all the hustle and bustle was pretty simple, the city was ruled by an unfair government in which the rich were always making agreements and trades of loans of money, lands, companies, everything that you can imagine to earn as much money as possible. This, of course, affected the lives of the farmers who lived in the fields and of the whole citizenship who didn’t have the same economical level. Those were living a hell, working really hard, to spend all the money they earned in taxes and food, the basics needs for the hippogriffs only. Leisure time was almost inexistent, the weekends or even the Sundays alone.

None of that went through the king’s mind though, he was only worried about his income, in how to make the country even more profitable than it already was. Plus, he was afraid of the situation in the dragon lands, if the rest of nations did go to war then the economy could be severely damaged, it could even collapse completely and lead the nation to ruin.

As he dismissed more patricians from his court he raised a hand and made two snaps of his talons. A butler made his way towards the king from the left side of the room. He had entered from a door, the place beneath was of no interest to anyone who was in the big line to speak with the monarch, neither the creature walking out of it.

Once the finely dressed slave came close enough to his master, he gestured for him to come even closer, so that he could speak to him without drawing unnecessary attention.

“Is Snowgust all set up to depart? I don’t want our reputation of attending on time to be shattered.” Whispered the monarch, an English accent present.

“He is, your majesty. All ready and willing to leave.” Returned, without any kind of feelings, the butler.

“Perfect!” He cheered quietly. “Now tell him that…”

“My king!”

He was interrupted by a soldier in golden armour which covered only his head and his chest, the latter having an incrusted gem. It was more an ornament that it was a defence. Despite the sunlight entering through the enormous windows and finding its path against the armour, it didn’t reflect the light.

Everyone in the room shifted their vision to him in surprise and cleared a path for the monarch to be able to see him. The ruler was first to speak.

“Is there a problem?”

“And a big one your majesty! Storm clouds, unnaturally black coloured, are headed our way! We have asked the local pegasus about it and he said that he didn’t have scheduled stormy weather!” Concerned and tired, that’s the perfect way to describe his voice.

The king’s eyes immediately shot open and he looked at the pearl hovering over the throne.

“You!” He suddenly looked back at the golden armoured guard and pointed at him. The attention of the room was now fully on him.

“Y… Yes, king Riveron?”

“Communicate the captain that I want all the population out of the ground and into the sea! Every warrior must be ready to fight at every moment! I also want two more guards to go to the lake city and warn the queen! And remember, nobles are the priority for the escape.” He sounded desperate and afraid, yet sure of what he was doing. He turned around and was going to grab the beautiful pearl when he was interrupted again.

“But, what is the message to her higness?”

The king slowly turned around, he uttered the so expected answer when his back faced the seat.

“Tell her, that we are going down there and that we need help…”

Riveron stopped for a brief second before saying the rest, spoken in a very quiet voice.

It was a very shocking phrase.

The guests all looked at each other In confusion after hearing it. The soldier, however, didn’t have time for that, he simply nodded and replied.

“Yes your highness!”

The warrior proceeded to run into another room inside the castle, the rest of them inside the place escorted the remaining invitees outside.

“People will die, I myself am at a huge risk, but I must do my best effort to protect my kingdom, even if it means death.” Thought the monarch.

He finally took the much precious pearl and held it with both of his talons as he admired its beauty, like if he had never seen it before.

“If that mongrel wants a fight, I will give it to him, and one that will never forget.”

He sat on his throne like how a biped creature would, bending his knees the wrong way and resting his extended arms over the arms of the throne, the pearl resting on his legs.

Some time later, all the soldiers were informing the whole city to flee. They did so through yelling. There was a particular pair of them who had found themselves in front of one of the churches, which was full of prayers at the moment. One of them was in the left side of the enormous doors, the other was in the right one.

“Here we go.” Said the one in the left, followed by a push to open the door, mirrored by his now silent partner.

A long paced squeak was heard by everyone inside the religious construction and by the guards themselves as they opened the door. Everyone rested their visions at them, some with an annoyed face for being disturbed, namely the Bishop and priests, while others had a shocked and confused look.

The same guard spoke again. “The king has ordered a complete and immediate escape from the city! We are in great peril here!”

There were no more sting eyes looking at them, terror and confusion were the replace.

“You must head to the closest lake hole, retreat to the underwater city now! Go, go, go!”

Every set of legs and talons reached the floor at the same time, to later run outside, pushing everyone who stood in their way, children and old alike.

Both royal defenders stood outside of the holy location, avoiding any damage from the stampede of creatures controlled by fear. A feeling which, in certain situations, can lead to kill others, just to remain alive ourselves. But for what were these people doing it? To keep living a miserable life devoted to work and no enjoyment? But well, that’s just the animal instincts kicking in, I guess they were somewhat justified.

At the same time, two others were in the shore of a “lake hole” as they called them. Without thinking twice, they jumped into the water, but before falling into it, both placed their talons to their chest, more precisely, on their gem. Immediately after, several sparks of pure magic which then became many more surrounded them, becoming a cape, enveloping them completely. Afterwards, the cape disappeared in a magnificent show of lights and their new bodies were displayed. Half siren, half pony was the new anatomy they possessed. It all happened in a second.

Below the surface and into the water you could watch a much more open space than just a single lake, as if it were a complete sea. Numerous holes were visible above, all quite far away from each other and displaying the clouded sky or a mountain depending on your angle of sight.

The sound of water being pushed at high speeds and in high quantities was the only thing heard by the soldiers along the way which they acknowledged, nothing else was important so they ignored it all.

The orders received led them very deep down, the water pressure not having any effect in them.

Structures made themselves visible eventually, coral as the main material, giving the city a very unique beauty, one that only this race could appreciate, since the rest didn’t even know of its existence.

The coral was structured into long tubes with glass between them, leaving a fantastic sight of the ocean’s flora and fauna for every citizen to admire from their home. The entrance to those buildings was built from below, an open hole without any kind of doors.

The underwater city, unlike its counter partner, wasn’t inside walls, all the opposite in fact. Since they were sure that no other race could threaten them while submerged they didn’t waste any effort in protecting the city, only some guards in the main palace.

The rushed pair of armed hippogriffs went straight for the royal building. When they were close enough, both dived and then made a thrust upwards, getting themselves into the throne room through the main hole, located in the exact middle of the place.

At the unexpected arrival of two guards from the surface, the Queen felt confused and curious.

“What brings you here?” Self-assured and uninterested was her tone.

“Your highness!” Saluted both at the same time. “The king has ordered us to deliver a very important message.” Both spoke once again, tiredness and anxiety present in their voices.

“Yes, what is it?” It was the queen’s turn to feel anxiety and express it through words.

She would shoot her eyes open in shock at the mention of the following words.

“Upper Skydive has been captured!”

Author's Note

I felt off writing this, everything else I wrote could have been trash but I felt like this time it was bad.

Anyway, hope it wasn't like that and that you enjoy. As always, suggestions and pointing out mistakes are always well received. Gotta improve!