Leon immediately awoke to find Draco in his face. Draco seemed excited for some reason, and Leon didn't know why. "What's up, little guy?"

"Wonder why I'm smiling? Go ahead, guess," Draco said.

At this, Leon's eyes went wide, and he fled to the safety of the bottom of his bed. What the heck? He just hatched two days ago, and he can already speak and walk upright. That dragon's smart, I'll give him that. He looked up to Draco, who was still waiting at the top of the bed. "How… how can you talk so perfectly in just two days?"

"Well, I've been picking up on words in your conversations and sort of learned it naturally. I can't explain how, really. I just knew," Draco responded. His voice was very much like that of a pony he knew from across the great ocean.

"No. Nobody, whether dragon or pony, can learn a language that quickly."

"Well, I can prove you wrong on so many levels right now," Draco said. He had a sort of know-it-all attitude. Leon didn't like it much, but if it was the way his dragon was, than he would have to accept it.

"Well... uh... Draco... you want to head down with me to Clover Ranch?" Leon asked.

"Would I?! Of course! Just let me get my saddle." Draco went over to the closet and pulled out a neatly made saddle. It seemed to be made of a shiny substance Leon could not identify. Leon knew, however, that he never had a saddle before. He even made his own saddle? What can't this dragon do in a few moments?

Leon attached the saddle to his back and grabbed his amulet while Draco hopped on. Leon trotted downstairs, and headed out the door. He walked over to the edge, placed his goggles on, and waited for Cloud Runner to show up. "I wonder how Cloud would react to you speaking."

"Maybe she'd react like you did; running and hiding like a little..." Draco didn't finish as Leon showed frustration at the response by smacking Draco with his wings. "Oww!" Draco yelped. Leon smiled in satisfaction after that.

Cloud came up to Leon, and greeted him. She noticed Draco on Leon's back. "Hey, little guy! How are you doing?"

"I'm doing really well. And you?" Draco responded.

Cloud Runner stood in astonishment, judging by her jaw hanging down when he spoke. "Whoa! You never told me your dragon could talk, Leon."

"Believe me, I just found out this morning. Are we going to meet the rest of them at the beach?" Leon asked.

"Yeah, they agreed to meet up there. Ready to fly, little guy?" Cloud asked Draco.

"I've flown before. I was born for this!" he exclaimed. Great, it's bad enough I knew one cocky mare at Cloudsdale, now I have to deal with one here, too? Leon thought to himself.

They readied themselves as usual, by sticking their arms out to their sides and skydiving down below.

…

They soon landed down on the beach and removed their goggles, instead of landing in the small meadow they usually landed on. The beach was just a trotting distance from Clover Ranch. The beach was quiet today, but it was a sight to behold. There were no cliffs or rocks, so when the waves came in, they only made a soft, soothing noise that could not be explained. The sand was a golden brown, and was relatively smooth considering the waves coming in.

All the other ponies had been waiting for them on the sand. Doc had been practicing the new spells he learned yesterday. Annabelle and Percy were watching the sea together, holding hooves. Chloe had been lying in the sand, waiting for the arrival of Leon. They all saw Leon and Cloud land, and when they did they huddled together, planning what they would do next. They seemed to notice Leon had brought Draco along.

"Is he coming with us?" asked Percy.

"Yeah, he is. He may be useful over there," Leon responded.

"All right, then. I discovered a spell that can allow us to breathe underwater. But we won't be able to change back until we get back to dry land. And, I must admit, you may freak out at first," Doc said.

"I've gotten more info about the place we're going to. We have to be careful with how we enter the city. The reason being because there is a war of some kind going on down there, and if we get caught in the crossfire, we're as good as dead," Leon mentioned.

"Did you just say... war!?" Doc asked in terror.

"Yeah. The mermares and the earth ponies are all fighting each other to the death. The pony we're looking for is an earth pony diplomatic leader living in the underwater city, Rapture, and if we want that amulet, we need to end this war peacefully... somehow," Leon said, a bit hopelessly.

"Mermares? What are those?" Annabelle asked.

"Mermares are ponies who can live underwater because they have fins instead of hind legs. Though they're called mermares, I'm sure there are stallions underwater as well. Who will go to each city?" Leon asked.

"I'll see what I can do about the mermares!" yelled Cloud.

"Me too. I want to find out more about this species, and why they would wage war on the earth ponies," Doc mentioned.

"I might as well go too!" exclaimed Annabelle. "I'll be sure to make a good first impression, y'all!"

"OK, so Chloe, Percy, and I are off to Rapture. That's good. I'm sure Percy has some negotiating skills that could be of great use here, don't you?" Leon asked.

"I might. But what if come into contact with hostiles?" Percy responded.

"I doubt it will happen... but if it does, Doc can use his magic and I can use my amulet. Hopefully, it won't have to come to that. Are we all set?" Leon asked.

"We're all set. Let me use my magic on us, while you three take the entrance to the city more south of here. It's in a cave that's not very well hidden, but that's to allow more earth ponies to enter. Good luck."

"You too," Leon answered. He placed his hoof in midair, and looked at the other ponies expectedly. They then placed their hooves together as well. "Let's go, Spiritual Searchers!" Leon announced.

"Wait, that's the name for the group?" Cloud asked.

Doc then turned around and used his magic to change himself, Cloud, and Annabelle into mermares. The transformation was fascinating, but looked gruesome. Their hind legs had turned into fins, which combined to make one great tailfin. They then swam out to sea.

The other three ponies and the dragon then headed south as Doc had directed. Leon explained to them the horrors that the rebel unicorn had discovered; arcane magic. After some explaining, the group had come across the only cliff on the beach. As Doc stated, the cave was hidden, but not too well. They had entered the cave, where Chloe shone her horn to provide a source of light. They walked through the cave until they came across a metal hatch. Inscribed on it was the statement Welcome to Rapture! Free of Parasites!

"Who would be considered a parasite... in this case?" Percy asked.

"Don't know. Maybe the mermares," Leon answered.

Leon opened the hatch to find some small, metal object large enough to carry four, maybe five ponies. That's what would be called a sub. Big enough to carry us three and Draco. They entered the object, finding it much roomier than they had originally thought. There were chairs for each pony to sit in, which they did, and found there was nothing else in the sub other than a service radio and solitary lever that was placed in the front of a window. Leon pulled the lever, causing the hatch of the sub to close and causing it to start moving. Whatever was happening to the ponies inside could not be stopped, and they began their slow descent to the depths below.

Leon, Percy, Chloe, and Draco sat waiting in the sub, when a screen pulled up from the bottom of the sub. The lights in the sub then went out, and it remained dark for a second. A light then shined on the screen, and a short film began to play.

"Welcome, fellow pony. I am Opus, ruler of Rapture. If you're here, then you have been weighed down by the oppression present above ground. Are you not entitled to that which you produce and work for?

'No,' says the unicorn from Canterlot. 'it belongs to Celestia.'

'No,' says the Pegasus from Caelum Lux. 'it belongs to the king.'

'No,' says the earth pony from Yonder. 'it belongs to every pony.'

"Like me, you turned away from the unfairness set forth by these so called 'paradises.' I chose the option different from these cities. I chose the equality. I chose… Rapture.

"A city where the Pegasus is not limited to the sky and its boundaries, where the unicorn is not limited by the weaker in magic, where the earth pony is not condemned to grow and produce food. And with that which you produce and work for, Rapture too will become your paradise."

The film had ended, and when the screen lowered, the ponies and dragon inside the sub were presented with a breathtaking view of Rapture. "Whoa!" all of them said in delight. You would never believe a war was happening nearby. It's just so amazing. The city seemed to resemble a retro building style similar to Manehattan's, and the city was illuminated in lights. Outside some of the buildings, giant mechanical silhouettes had been repairing and monitoring sections of the city boundaries. The sub had pulled into the city, and landed in a station of some sort. The sub went into a tunnel of darkness, and the four inside the sub waited.

…

Somewhere else in the city, ponies were monitoring every aspect of the city. They checked all security cams, and everything was as routine and normal as usual. They were on their coffee break, and they all seemed relax. They then received an alert on one of the screens, and the pony that was monitoring it had spat out his coffee in shock at another pony.

"Watch it, asshole!" the coffee-drenched pony exclaimed.

The other pony ran over to the monitor, and observed it as the Bathysphere cam. On it he saw a Pegasus, unicorn, and earth pony. He saw something else in there that he could not recognize, and he immediately reached for the service radio on the wall in the office. He dialed a code on the radio, and waited. A voice came through the other line.

"Yes. Is there something wrong?" the voice asked calmly.

"Yes, sir! The Bathysphere has been activated, and is occupied by four, repeat four, bodies. Should we deactivate the sub?" the maintenance pony asked.

For a second, there was no response. "No. I want you to welcome them, and bring them to me. I'll see who they are, and inform you what to do next," the voice answered.

"Yes, sir!" The maintenance pony then activated the procedures for the receiving bay in the Bathysphere station, and was soon ready to receive some guests.

…

Leon, Chloe, Percy, and Draco all waited while the sub continued through the tunnel. They then came out of the tunnel, where the submarine station was packed with Pegasi, unicorns, and earth ponies alike. They had all wanted to see who came down into Rapture. The sub had pulled to a stop, and the hatch opened slowly.

"Do we get out now?" asked Percy.

"I don't know about you. But I for one am not missing a reception here," said Draco.

Chloe and Percy turned towards him with surprise. "Leon, your dragon can talk?" Chloe asked.

"Believe me, I just found out this morning. He learned pretty fast, though," Leon answered.

They all walked out of the sub, where they were greeted by the residents' applause. Two ponies, dressed in security outfits, asked the newcomers to come with them.

"Are we in trouble? Did we offend any pony?" asked Percy.

"Not at all! In fact, our leader called you over personally to meet you," one of the ponies explained.

"Well, we must be welcome if they had this welcome reception organized," Leon commented. Something strange is going on... or my name is Leslie... and it's not.

They followed the security ponies through the city, which housed many more ponies than they thought. The ponies down here seemed to enjoy life down here, and they seemed more technologically advanced than most of the cities above ground were. They seemed to use technology for almost everything, whether to send messages to each other, travel throughout the city, or even to improve the food supply. Obviously the slide show was true. They weren't limited to what they could do, or what they could make.

They passed through the area, and were led into a rotunda built of glass. There, they saw a set of large, metal doors, marked with the inscription Rapture's Finest: Opus and Lexicon. The ponies that had guided Leon and his group had stood by the door, where they called on a radio to the other side. "Sir, we're here with the visitors. Should we bring them in?" one of them asked.

"Yes. Bring them in," the voice responded.

With that, the pony who called on the radio punched a code on the door. The code reader then beeped and flashed green, and the doors slowly lifted up. "Come inside," he said. The security ponies then led Leon and his group inside, where they waited. The room was an office, with two large desks, a conference table, and some podiums.

Another door inside the office opened after a while, and a Pegasus walked out from the door and into the office. The Pegasus had a faded yellow coat. He had an orange mane that was combed really well, and his cutie mark was that of a sickle. His eyes had the unusual feature of being oppositely colored; his right eye was green, while his left eye was a deep blue. He walked to one of the desks and sat down.

"Welcome to Rapture, outlanders! Allow me to introduce myself. I am Opus, leader of Rapture and the earth-dwellers! Excuse me, Jack and Johnny, could you leave us to speak? I have much to discuss with the newcomers," Opus asked.

The two security ponies nodded, and left the office. Opus then turned back to Leon's group. "Listen here, outlanders. I know who you are and why you're here. You've got a lot of guts coming down here," Opus responded coldly. Leon and his friends showed their surprise at Opus. If he knows why we're here, will that make things more complicated than they already are?

"Tell me, Phoenix Bearer, what is your royalty going to do to Rapture when he returns? Destroy it? Shut it down?" he demanded. No doubt about it. It's going to be a hell of a lot harder now...