Long before Celestia and Luna's rule, there was a hippogriff prince who fell head over hooves for a mermare named Pearl Crystal.
Long before Celestia and Luna's rule, there was a hippogriff prince who fell head over hooves for a mermare named Pearl Crystal. What will she do to stay with him forever? It'll be the hardest choice of her life and she hopes she doesn't fudge it up.
Ten thousand years ago in Equestria, a young Hippogriff prince named Rubius is out flying over the beach when he hears singing coming from seemingly nowhere. He flies down to take a look out of curiosity. He soon sees from the shore a mermare outstretched on a rock singing. He immediately falls head over hoof for her.
Upon seeing the young Hippogriff gazing her way, the young mermare, Pearl Crystal looks up and blushes. She then jumps off her rock and goes over to investigate as she's never seen a hippogriff before. Once she's on the shore, Rubius walks over to her. "You have a beautiful voice," he says to Pearl Crystal.
"Awe, thanks," Pearl Crystal replies, blushing. "The name is Pearl Crystal by the way. What's yours?"
"My name is Rubius," replies the Hippogriff prince with a smile.
The two talk for an hour before Pearl Crystal returns to the sea. As she dives under the waves, Rubius can't help but sigh and smile. He's smitten with the young mermare and he can tell, she's just as smitten with him. Rubius flies back to his castle and tells his father about his new found love interest. Upon him doing so, his father freaks out and lectures him nonstop.
"Rubius, I've told you a million times, we don't go to Mermare Beach. Mermares are tricksters. They can't actually love you," sighs his father shaking his head.
"But Pearl Crystal is different, she's nice and sweet, she's harmless," replies Rubius.
"That's what she wants you to believe," responds his father. Rubius huffs and runs down the hall, tears in eyes, to his bedroom, where he sits on his bed and cries. Pearl Crystal is different, if only his father would see that.
Back in her trove at the castle, Pearl Crystal brushes her mane as she hums to herself. She then begins to sing to herself. "Why can't I be with the one I love? Why do his people hate mine? What did we ever do to them? Why isn't our love strong enough? Why isn't our love strong enough?" She then puts down her brush and begins to cry. She then brings herself away from tears and heads for the family archives. Maybe she can find something about the reasons the Hippogriffs hate her kind there.
Meanwhile at the Hippogriff castle, Rubius is looking through his family archives to find out why his kind hate merponies. In her family archive a few miles from the merlons castle, Pearl Crystal looks through her family archives trying to find out why her kind hate hippogriffs. After hours of searching, they soon find exactly what they're looking for-the reasons their kinds hate each other so much. The two begin to read, "a long time ago, the merponies and the hippogriffs had a Great War against each other. The hippogriffs lost when they were brought into the ocean and drowned by the king of the merponies and his queen and daughters. After that, the two sides hated each other and that hatred has survived the years and embedded itself in the descendants of the original rulers themselves." The two gasp. "No wonder our kind hate each other!" The two then return to their rooms, leaving the books behind, as not to raise suspicion.
That night in the darkness, the two meet on the beach once again. They share a kiss and a song. "Why do our people never apologize for errors of the past? Why are they so stubborn? Our love is much stronger. Our love can survive the test of time. We won't let their past quibbles keep us apart. We will find a way to stay together. We will find a way around this. We will do whatever we have to do to stay together. Why do our people never apologize for errors of the past? Why are they so stubborn? Our love is much stronger. It can survive anything, any storm. Our love can survive any storm and we'll find a way to be together, I promise. I promise." A few hours later, the two part ways with the sunrise. Rubius returns to the Hippogriff kingdom, but Pearl has other plans. She goes to the local sea shaman to see if he will give her hooves and wings, so she can be with the one she loves.
At the sea shaman's, Pearl Crystal prepares to make a deal with the shaman.
"What can I give you to get hooves and wings?" asks Pearl Crystal.
"Let me think, let me think," says the sea shaman, "what I want, I want your first child you have with the prince."
"No!" shouts Pearl, tears forming in her eyes. "There must be something else."
"Okay, the alternate choice, the Crystalline Imperial Pink Pearl," says the shaman.
"Deal!" replies Pearl Crystal, "I'll get your pearl." A few hours later, she returns with the pink pearl, hands it to the shaman, and he gives her her wings and her hooves. Seeing her new features, she bursts through the water to the surface and heads to the hippogriff kingdom to find her Rubius. Once she lands in the hippogriff kingdom, she goes and finds Rubius sitting on a cliff overlooking the ocean. She then sits down beside him and he recognizes her immediately.
"Pearl Crystal, is that you?" he says with a smile. He then embraces her in a hug.
"Yes, yes it is me," she replies, happily hugging him back. He then lets go of the embrace and takes her to meet his father.
In the castle dining hall, Rubius, Pearl Crystal, and his father sit down to dinner. The three talk for hours. By the end of it, Rubius's father agrees to let him marry the pegasus Pearl Crystal. They're both thrilled. They immediately start planning everything for the wedding.
Three days later, the two are wed with Rubius's father being kept in the dark that the pegasus he just wed to his only son is actually a merpony in disguise. He'll never know it, though, because the shaman's spell made it so as soon as she marries the hippogriff prince, she immediately becomes a pegasus forever.
A few days after the wedding, the two go on their honeymoon. The two sigh and smile as they look into each others' eyes. They are glad to finally be together and they're glad it's going to be for the rest of their lives. Pearl Crystal, even though they did an alternate trade, can't help but worry that the shaman may still come after her first child. She crosses her hooves and hopes and prays that he doesn't. She hopes he doesn't back out on his word. After all, there is a reason her kind don't usually trust the shaman because he tends to be a black faced dubious liar. Unfortunately for her, he may have just hood winked her and that thought leaves a bad feeling in her stomach.
Four years later, Rubius and Pearl Crystal have their first foal-a colt whom they name Gemmus. The sea shaman soon gets wind of this but doesn't give a care because it's not a filly but a useless colt. A colt isn't worthwhile to him in the slightest. At the hippogriff castle, Rubius and Pearl Crystal present their newborn son to the public. Pearl's father even watches the presentation of the young prince from the sea. He smiles as he sees his daughter so happy. Maybe he was wrong about the hippogriffs after all. The war was in the past and now it's time to move on. The hippogriffs feel the same. A matter of months later, the two kingdoms redact the laws prohibiting interactions between the two kingdoms. This creates a proud smile across Rubius and Pearl's faces. Every now and then, Pearl's father even comes and visits his grandson. He even gave the little colt a sea kingdom medallion. Pearl hands her son to Rubius and gives her father a hug. She then whispers into his ear, "I'm glad you changed your mind about their kind." This puts a smile on his face. She kisses him and he dives back into the sea. Pearl Crystal then returns into the castle alongside her husband and son.
Back in the hippogriff castle, Pearl goes and puts the little prince down for a nap and then goes and sits in the garden alongside her husband. They just sit there and talk for hours until they go back inside to dinner with Rubius's father and visiting dignitaries after fetching their son who has since awoken from his nap.
At the dinner, Pearl just sits there quietly tapping her food with her fork. She's never eaten fish in her life and doesn't want to start now. Rubius notices this. "You don't have to eat it," he says to her. She smiles as she pushes the plate aside. She then happily begins on her salad. Meanwhile, Gemmus happily sucks on his bottle of milk.
"So," says one of the dignitaries named Sir Grapevine, "are you sure this law redaction is a good thing? You don't want another war with the merponies."
"I'm sure, things have changed since then Anton," replies Rubius's father.
"I hope you're right, Gamus," replies Sir Anton Grapevine.
"If I may," speaks up Pearl Crystal, "the merponies have no ill intent. After all, I used to be one of them. My father is the king of the merponies. He also redacted the law. He knows there's no chance of war ever happening again just like Gamus does. Things have changed. That was several hundred years ago, now, things are different. There's nothing to get into a war over now. There's no reason to get into a war now. The world is at peace and that's the best thing to be...at peace."
Meanwhile in his underwater castle, Pearl Crystal's father is tending to a dignitary visit of his own alongside his twelve daughters. The group shares a similar conversation to the one the hippogriffs and their visitors just had. They talk about the redaction of the law for hours on end before enjoying a nice concert put on by his daughters.
That night after the dinners draw to a close, the two kingdom's rulers return to their quarters and turn in for the night. Pearl goes and puts their son down with a smile across her face. Rubius goes to their room and waits for his wife, who comes in a half hour later. In the sea kingdom, Pearl's father goes and sits down overlooking his kingdom and lets out a sigh. He's lost two people close to him now, his wife, who was killed in the Great War by the hippogriffs, and now he's let his daughter marry one of them. He regrets these decisions and now, alas, he has no choice but to live with them because it's too late for him to do anything about it. He turns around and goes into his quarters for the night and slams his door behind him. He then picks up a picture of his late wife from his night stand and presses his hoof across it and sighs. "Oh Angel Light," he sighs, "how I miss you!" He puts it back on the night stand and two hours later, finally falls asleep for the night, dreaming about his daughter and late wife as he sleeps.
The next day, Pearl Crystal wakes up as soon as the sun appears in the sky. She then goes out into the garden to tend to the flowers. It's her favorite past time now and she'd have it no other way. A few hours later, Rubius wakes up and goes and joins his wife in the garden. She smiles as he sees him enter. "Hey honey," he says with a smile.
"Good morning to you too," replies Pearl Crystal with a smile as she sets down the watering can and goes over to greet him.
The two then go and sit on a stone bench in the center of the garden. The two just sit there and talk until they hear their son start crying impatiently waiting to be let out of his crib. Pearl Crystal goes inside and takes him out of his crib and is shortly followed by Rubius. The three then return to the garden and sit down together. Their lives are perfect and they couldn't be happier especially Pearl Crystal because this is all she ever wanted and more!
Meanwhile at the sea kingdom palace, Pearl's sisters are getting ready for the annual Sea Kingdom Ball. How they hate the fact that Pearl is going to miss it all because she chose to be with a hippogriff of all creatures. Alas, there's really nothing they can do about it.
"Pearl would have loved this!" sighs her sister Amber Glow.
"Agreed," sighs her sister Azul Bluestone. The rest of her sisters nod in agreement.
Meanwhile at the hippogriff palace, Pearl Crystal sighs as she looks out towards the sea. "The Sea Kingdom Ball is tonight and I'm missing it, alas, I made that choice when I decided to become a pony to be with the one I love." She then walks back inside and goes and shuts herself in her room and cries. Rubius has no idea that she is this sad as he's too busy with business to even pay attention to her in the one time she needs him most.
A few hours later in the sea kingdom, all the merponies come to gather for the magnificent ball. As they enter, they are greeted by the twelve princesses and only a select handful ask where Pearl Crystal is, to which they are given no response. They then just shrug it off and go and enjoy the festivities. A few moments later, the princesses join in on the festivities. Once they're immersed, they soon forget that Pearl is probably missing the fun herself in the pony world and fully enjoy it for themselves without a care in the world.
After several hours of crying, Pearl Crystal goes to the garden to sit among the flowers. Not long after doing so, she is joined by her husband who has just finished up his meeting. "I heard you crying earlier, why was that?" he asked her curiously but calmly.
"It's just this is the first time I've ever missed a Sea Kingdom Annual Ball, that's all, I miss my home," she sighs. "I miss my sisters and my father."
"That's understandable, you haven't been gone that long, you've only been gone five years," replies Rubius. She then falls into his arms and begins to cry some more. He comforts her for hours until she finally cries herself to sleep on his lap. He then carries her inside and puts her into the bed and tucks her in. He then goes off to the castle library to do some reading. Reading helps him unwind after a long day's work and that is truly what he needs right now more than anything else in the world.
Three days later as she's sitting on the beach, Pearl Crystal is approached by her father and sisters. As she sees them, she smiles then flies to greet them. "How are you doing?" she says as she flies into her father's and sister's hooves and embraces them in a hug.
"We're doing fine," they reply, "how about you?"
"I'm fine, I did miss doing the ball with you guys though," Pearl Crystal replies.
"Yeah, go figure," reply her sisters with a giggle.
They spend the afternoon just lounging and talking together on the beach. Pearl is so glad to see her family again. She misses them so much and always enjoys every time she gets to see them. After about four hours, her family dives back into the sea and she returns to the castle. She's just glad she got to see them again. Honestly, that's all she could ever ask for, their love and approval considering she up and left them for the kind of creatures they considered to be their worst enemies those hundreds of years ago.
Back inside the castle, Pearl Crystal goes and tends to her little Gemmus before going off to join her husband, Rubius, in a meeting. She's glad to have a supporting family all around her on both land and sea. She's honestly the happiest pegasus in the world and nothing could change that, at least, nothing as far as she could tell.
The next morning, Pearl Crystal and Rubius wake up to the sound of alarms. They hurry and get into their clothes and go and grab their son from his crib and rush down the stairs and fly out the door. "What's wrong? What's happened?" asks Rubius as he flies straight out the door and lands. "General Rush, what happened?"
"Hippogriff Valley was attacked sire, by a rogue dragon," replies General Rush. "Your father has been trying to negotiate with him all morning." Rubius then thanks General Rush and heads off to help his father with the dragon. A few moments later, Rubius touches down and helps his father negotiate with the dragon. After several days, the rogue dragon soon leaves Hippogriff Valley and the royal family helps the townspeople rebuild. The townspeople couldn't be more thankful for the help from the leaders they admire and adore.
The next day, the royal family hosts a picnic for all the townspeople to which they all come with smiles of appreciation spread across their faces. Everyone enjoys the picnic including little Prince Gemmus who even ends up making some new friends of his own in two young hippogriff twins named Marigold and Pocket Watch and a young unicorn filly named Sparkler. The four play for hours as the adults talk above them. Everyone feels the good will and the joy and that, they feel, is the best part of helping their subjects in their time of need and the subjects gladly agree that they'd be no more if it weren't for the ruling family and their good deeds in this time of need.
