//------------------------------//
// 25 - Not A Moment To Lose 
// Story: Expanding Horizons 
// by mechafone 
//------------------------------//

Spark Storm. Sohl, Mimosa and North Wind all stared down at the little nymph hybrid that had ridden lightning from halfway across the world. How the hell had she done it? Not even Spark Storm could do that! The alicorn before the quartet frowned. Riding the lightning...this was no ordinary creature. It appeared to be a nymph, but no nymph in the entire world could do what she had just done. His gaze turned to Mimosa, who looked completely shocked and...a little happy?

Sohl suddenly broke the silence as she lurched forward and snatched the little nymph, who squeaked in alarm. "Mine!" the harpy called. She stood back to her full height, winged arms encapsulating Orea. "Anyway, sorry to disturb you, your Majesty! We'll just be on our way..." Mimosa stood perfectly still as Spark Storm and Sohl slowly backed up. "Think of where you want to be, Spark..."

"You are going nowhere!" the alicorn bellowed angrily, his horn lighting up with a shining, aurora-like light. Mimosa leapt backwards, shoving the three others back towards the shimmering portal. Spark tumbled in the snow, taking Sohl's advice to heart. He didn't want to be anywhere near this place. There was a buzzing energy rifling through his fur, and suddenly the biting cold was gone, replaced with a less dangerous cold. He, Sohl and Orea had reappeared back in the tundra dome.

Spark Storm picked himself up, barely registering a crying voice. He turned after a moment to see Sohl consoling a distraught nymph child. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," Sohl whispered, quietly kissing Orea's face. She turned to look over at Spark Storm. His gaze was still angry, but the pouting look on the harpy's face, and what they had just witnessed...he threw his muzzle to the sky and let out a long, drawn out sarcastic groan. 

"We're gonna have words, Sohl. Mark me," he told her before she reached up and pulled him into the huddle, her clawed hands running through his mane as she planted a kiss on his forehead. He blinked and stared at her. She was never this...gentle. 

Orea giggled and held her legs up to her father until he crouched down and lifted her into his forelegs. She squealed with happiness, prompting Sohl to let out a quiet groan. "Ugh...there it is..." As annoyed as she sounded, the smile she sent Spark Storm told him that she was happy to have the psychic connection between them again.

"Orea," Spark said after the trio had settled down in the snow. "What was that? How did you-" 

Spark could not finish as Mimosa finally returned through the portal, but barely alive. His whole body appeared to be frozen, smashed and frozen again. He toppled forward, shuddering and twitching. Sohl let out a yell of panic as she rushed to him. "Shit! Spark, get Orea away from here. Take her back to the command center, find Frankie or Bombyx, and...probably Cyno." She picked up Mimosa's body and took off running. "Don't worry about North Wind following us, he won't!"

"How the hell do you know that??" Spark yelled after her, but decided he didn't want an answer. He threw a look to Orea that said 'follow', and ran off. The two ran for a good ten minutes before they found tracks in the snow, and came face to face with Callie and Ramani. "No time!" he yelled as they ran past the two. "Follow us, we have to find Bombyx right now! Mimosa's hurt!"

"How th' dickens did Mimosa get hurt in his own sanctuary?!" Callie called, running after the two. She set her eyes on Orea, immediately noticing the similarities between the two. "And when were you gonna tell me you got a kid??"

"Much drama here, I am having fun!" Ramani announced. Spark threw her a brief look, then stopped to catch his breath once they reached the tram. 

"Ok. Callie, do you know where to go?"

"Uh...yeah..." the griffon paused, glancing at the company. It was probably ok. She slid her claws under a panel that was meant to blend in with the console, revealing a single green button. She pressed it and replaced the panel. The train warbled, and seemed to lift off of the tracks. In fact it was turning, and attached itself to a new set of tracks that ran up the walls. "Hold on..."

The train ran up and up, forcing it's occupants to hold tightly to the seats as it eventually moved upside down along the ceiling, where it eventually disappeared into a large compartment that opened up and swallowed the train, then sealing shut again. The ride had now gone dark as it moved along a tunnel. The tunnel opened up into a small train station that had six other tracks that disappeared down into their respective tunnels, other routes for the trains to escape into the ceiling.

As the four of them disembarked the train, Spark Storm let his eyes wander around the big station. So they were somewhere just inside the ceiling of the dome? How was there sunlight underneath them when this place was covered with solid metal? And..." Callie, how come you know so much about this place?" 

Callie lead the small group towards a dull grey office, a large room filled with monitors and other technology that Spark didn't even know existed. "I told ya, this is one of my favorite places to be, Sparky. Not just 'cause of the company, I'm kinda an intern, jus' learnin' the ropes. If there's ever an emergency, and I'm guessin' there is, I can help out. Sometimes I'll take a week an' just be here." The griffon switched on some lights and sat at one of the consoles, flicking some switches. Images appeared on a few of the monitors, showing different spots within the biodome. 

"What imagination!" Ramani gushed as she looked around the room, her tail flicking back and forth with fascination. "Such genius to collect and display!" She looked around the room, spotted some blank papers, picked up a pencil made from charcoal that was lying around, and immediately began drawing.

"Ok, now can ya tell me," Callie said, turning to Spark and Orea. She paused, again almost seeing double. She opened her mouth to continue until she noticed that Orea didn't just have Spark's colors, but..."Hooooly mmmff...Spark! She's a nymph! Did...did you an' Ampelus..."

Spark Storm raised his eyebrows with a deadpan stare at his old friend. Beside him, Orea giggled and shook her head. "Ampelus is my aunt! Her sister was also named Orea. She is the one that gave me to daddy!"

Before Callie could have another crisis, Spark sighed and began, "'Gave' as in she literally gave me Orea. She slipped her little seed into my mane and she kinda...popped up like this overnight."

"Riiiiight..." Callie frowned and turned to look back at the monitors. She flicked another switched and grabbed a mic, switched it on and spoke, her voice blaring throughout the entire dome, "Bombyx. Frankie. Come to command immediately for report on an injury incident. Top priority." She switched off the mic and sighed, turning to Spark Storm. "Now...how th' heck did Mimosa get injured? There's nothin' in this biodome that could hurt him."

"Unless...we stepped through a portal in the tundra zone."

Callie's eyes bulged, her feathers billowing out from her body. "What?! Why would anyone go through that portal!!" She turned from them, lightly chewing on a claw. "How...how?!" She turned to face him again. "Only someone who knew how to use it in the first place could do it! Don't ya know what's on the other side?!"

"I do now!" Spark frowned. "I was...trying to talk with my friend Sohl, and-"

"Oh. There's that."

"...You knew she was here?" 

Callie balked, then cleared her throat uncomfortably. Spark sighed and shook his head. "I guess I'm going to have to get comfortable with more of my friends keeping secrets from me. It keeps happening."

"I...knew, yeah. Sohl's been...under a lotta pressure, Spark Storm. You remember Cyno? Well...she's been protectin' him. He's really important. Harpy and griffon tribes...they're at war, but they declared a stalemate. Lotsa bad blood goin' on in Breen right now, as you mighta heard, Sparky. So...they declared a truce. Cyno is a physical representation of that. So long as he's alive, neither side is allowed to attack the other."

"I've heard of the war here and there...what's the fight about?"

Callie sighed and glanced at the monitors. "Its over the Heldren Cliffs."

Spark frowned in confusion. "...The what?"

"It is the end of the world!" Ramani chimed in.

The  other three turned to stare at her and her growing pile of drawings.  She rummaged through her pile and brought a page to Spark. It was a  highly detailed drawing of a split in the ocean, a split that ran for  miles. Jagged rocks could be seen on either side, and figures that  appeared to be harpies flew about the area. "Geez, kid...this is really  good," Spark told the zebra. "But...what do you mean 'the end of the  world'?"

"There's a lotta speculation about what it means, but Mimosa's the only one that really knows the true meaning...so I'm told," Callie said, stepping over to take a look at Ramani's drawing of the cliffs. She smiled and patted the zebra's shoulder. "This is really impressive!"

"Excuse me, but what's going on?" Bombyx asked quietly as she appeared in the doorway.

"Mimosa's been injured, I don't know how badly..." Spark told her. "Sohl and I went through the portal in the tundra zone. We came face to face with an alicorn called King North Wind..." Bombyx and Callie both went slack-jawed. "Mimosa sacrificed himself to get the three of us to safety."

"You actually met North Wind? And you lived? Sparky, you don't know how lucky you are!" Callie told him, looking thoroughly horrified.

Bombyx had a similar look on her face until she noticed little Orea. "Uh...uh...Um..." she fumbled, still shocked from the initial news. She sniffled and rubbed at her eyes. "Mimosa...is he alive?"

"I believe he is, if just barely. Sohl picked him up and told us to find you or Frankie. Bombyx, who is he? Who is North Wind? Is he so powerful that he could actually kill Mimosa?"

The nymph let out a sob that she'd been holding in. Spark and Callie made to go to her, but she held up a hoof for them to stop. "King North Wind is..." Bombyx said with a trembling voice. "...he is the physical manifestation of anger and hatred. He creates creatures called windigos that feed on negative emotions and can create horrible cold. To be in North Wind's home...Mimosa stood little chance..."

Spark Storm shuddered. "What kind of hatred could be strong enough to harm the oldest dyad on the planet?"

Bombyx stifled another sob and turned to face Spark Storm, a mix of silent horror and...what with that look? Pity?

Before he could ask her about it, another voice called from outside the office. "Okay, who jumped onto the magma dragon this time-" Frankie was saying. He stopped when he saw the small group standing around. "Sheesh, looks like a funeral in here."

Spark and Callie both winced audibly at this. Bombyx, however, let out a choking sob. The tiny griffon rubbed his scruffy mane awkwardly as Bombyx approached the console and pushed a button with a trembling hoof until the temperate woods came into view on the screen. They could just make out Sohl, carrying Mimosa's prone body. "Holy beans!!" he exclaimed, staring at the harpy in the monitor. "Why didn't you start with this?!!


The water churned, bubbled, and finally a massive shape erupted from the water. It flew straight up the side of the cliff, thirty feet into the air and landed halfway up the bank among a heavy cluster of trees. Ampelus, in her nymph form, with all four feet planted on the ground, struggled to keep the monster from closing his jaws around her, vines wrapped around his massive nose and mouth. The monster's fins, tipped with poisonous spines, dug into the earth, pulling himself closer. "You plant people are a joke! You've done nothing but run from me. I swallowed you once, but this time I'll chew you to pieces first!"

"Mimosa handled you like a minnow in a little pond..." she replied, straining just to speak.

"Mimosa isn't here, and you're no Mimosa! Daddy isn't here to save your weak ass," he said with a laugh. He flipped his tail roughly, pushing himself further inland. Ampelus let out a grunt of effort. She could feel herself losing ground, could feel the air displaced every time Lusus snapped his jaws at her face. She felt tears of fear stinging at her eyes. She strained again, feeling her grip losing strength. Was this it? Would she die here, never to see Spark Storm again? Or her father?

Her father. The billions-year old dyad, who had said that she would eventually take over the mantle of overseer of the planet from him. Ampelus could handle you easily... Mimosa's words echoed in the nymph's head as she realized what had been happening to her today. She had been internalizing and hiding from what she knew to be the annoying truth: Mimosa was right about her, and about everything. This was...infuriating. She let out an angry growl as she suddenly felt everything: the island, the soil under her legs, the roots and minerals and all the trees they were connected to. 

Lusus was so close now. One more push and he'd have that little bitch in his jaws! He made to bite, only to find that new vines had slithered in a circle around his nose and upper jaw, likewise around his lower jaw. And not just vines, they were so strong that he found his jaw in danger of unhinging. "...Is this it?" He heard. He struggled to free himself, even as he felt his body further constricted around his dorsal fin. He groaned wordlessly as the nymph came into sight at his left side. "This is all I had to do?"

"Gaagh...gghhhaaaaagh!" Lusu complained wordlessly. What the hell was this? Just seconds ago she was struggling to keep out of his jaws! What the hell was going on?? 

"Yes, I feel that way too, sometimes," Ampelus said conversationally, experimentally tapping at one of the massive shark's teeth. She smirked a little as his mouth twitched, and his whole body shook, trying to free itself. It was no good at all, as her vines, stronger than ever before, held him tight. "Hm..." The vines wrapped around his body snapped with sound, thick thorns appearing to scratch at his body. It did little more than drag small bloody lines across his back. 

"Y...yoooouuu...bith! Ouuu can' scrath me!"

Ampelus grinned up at her captive, a most mischievous glint in her eye. "So your skin's super tough." Her own vines began to grow out of her body, mixing with the soil. She raised them up so Lusus could see them, bits of iron from the ground and mixing with long-hidden volcanic glass lining her thorns. "I wonder how easily you'll tear up from the inside?"

A look of abject horror passed over the monster's eyes. Mimosa had been terrifyingly strong, but he wasn't sadistic! The beast immediately shrank, his pony form granting him escape of the vines. Ampelus let out a gasp, she hadn't expected this. The much smaller Lusus turned and ran, his pony form diving off the cliff and back into the sea. He was an excellent runner, but running from a nymph into the trees was suicide.

The nymph let out a sigh. She was too surprised to try and grab him, but she supposed she'd have more opportunities to get rid of this Lusus. She looked down at her vines, still holding onto the hardened minerals. So this was the kind of thing she could do now? Her father had been alive for much, much longer than she, had had his entire lifetime to hone his abilities. What would she be able to do in a few thousand years? 

She frowned. Where would she be in a few thousand years? What would she be doing? Would she be guarding the planet like her father had always done, or keeping to the shadows and minding her own business, like her father had always done? And...who would keep her company? Everyone that she knew or loved would be gone. Spark Storm had been in Ampelus' life for a few years, not even five years, yet in that amount of time everything would be different, wouldn't it? She sighed and shook her head of these thoughts as she turned and headed back towards the beach, and towards the others. There was still one more snake to deal with.



Flash Fire watched Ampelus take off into the air, fending off a crow-like griffon. What the heck was going on? She thought for a minute of going after the two, but after just a few seconds they'd gone out of sight. She looked around until she caught sight of Russet Hearts and Trixie. The two of them were engaged in a game of volleyball with that stallion from before, the cute one that looked like the sunset. Another glance along the beach and she found the ones she was looking for. Only now, their numbers had increased. Two new ponies to look after?

The male was a gray unicorn with an electric blue mane, a bit of a mohawk that seemed to travel from his head all the way down his back to his tail. She made a face at him, and glanced at his female companion. She stood out even more than he did. Her body was an intense yellow-green, while her full, voluminous mane was a dark blue. Were they actually trying to blend in, or were they completely inept changelings? She approached the two, a sarcastic lop-sided glare in her eyes. The male glanced from Kecnik to Madalah nervously. "Uh...hello, there...firey...madam..."

"Seriously?" she dead-panned. "This is the best costume you could change into? Also...when did we get five changelings?" she added to Anorax.

"It's...a bit of a long story," he said apologetically. "And ease up on 'em. The island doesn't have changelings...usually, anyway. And they don't need to hide who they are on Breen."

"Must be nice," Flash Fire drolled, and immediately wondered why she said it like that. "Um. What's it like over there? I've never even heard of Breen before a few days ago."

The changelings looked between each other for a moment. "Well, there's so much...Breen is larger than Equestria," Madalah told her after a moment. "It is spread out over a massive continent that keeps traveling north and connects with the frozen wasteland at the planet's northern most tip. Most of Breen is temperate, though. It's a bit chilly sometimes, and if you're not among trees, you're among cliffs. Vast, tall cliffs with plunging waterfalls. There are many places to hide in Breen, if you know where to look."

Flash Fire took a moment to take this in. She had never even seen all of Equestria. Breen was bigger?? The very thought was staggering. "Hm. Ok. I have a rudimentary idea about the life forms we'll likely encounter. Kirin, changelings, I imagine some pony villages, griffins..."

The Breen changelings looked between each other. "You really don't know much about it, do you?" Echo asked her carefully.

The unicorn let out an exasperated sigh. "No, I do not. Celestia didn't go into it with a lot of detail..."

"There are many dangers in Breen, many of them hidden. Many of them...not so hidden. Our biggest issue is with the kirin, of course. The next biggest threat after them, though, are the sub kirins."

Flash Fire blinked with a blank expression. "The...what?"

Light Fire shook her head and approached Flash Fire, her antennae twitching and lowering to dangle in front of the unicorn's face. "It'd be better if you could see it for yourself. Is it alright?"

Flash Fire again blinked blankly. What had happened to the changeling's disguise? She had been opposite colors just seconds before! And she was in full changeling mode! "Wh-what did you just do??"

"I told you she wasn't ready..." Echo said with a sigh. The unicorn glared at him. He was still a unicorn, so why...? 

"Y'know, I might be 'ready' if somepony would just explain to me what's going on!" 

"She's got a point," Anorax quipped. "You can't just keep secrets and then get annoyed when they're not in the know."

"Thank you," the unicorn said with slightly less agitation. 

"All right, I'll explain how my powers work before I show you the sub kirin, because that's not as important..." Light Fire said with a roll of her eyes. Her yellow mane billowed with magic, her green eyes glowing. "As you may have heard, changelings in Breen are...different. Instead of a hive-like behavior, each changeling is unique...we all have different strengths and abilities. Mine is two-fold. I can affect the minds of others, either influencing them, or reading their thoughts on a surface level. I can gleam information that you may be thinking of on a whim, but I can't pull secrets from deep in your head."

"Soooo...by influencing others, I'm guessing you've got some kind of cloak on you. You're...not changed at all, are you? That's why your disguises are so bad! Ponies can't see your true forms until you get close!"

Light Fire nodded appreciatively. "Yes. Like Anorax said, we're not used to having to be transformed. If we can help it, I just hide us. It's a lot less demeaning. Oh, and..." She grinned and twitched her antenna again. A small ball of flame materialized before her. Flash Fire could actually feel it's heat.  "I'm also a bit of a pyro. I like it's warmth."

Flash Fire bit back a grin. "Kinda there with you. Ok, so...thanks for filling me in...now, would you kindly fill me in the rest?"

The changelings let out a collective sigh as Light Fire nodded and closed her eyes, her antenna lightly brushed against the mare's face. So this was why she was asking permission...

Immediately images drifted across her eyes. Images of pony-sized creatures, mostly dark in colors, walked before her. Flash Fire had seen images of kirin before, but this was different. They were much shorter, had odd-shaped horns, their manes and tails were extremely voluminous, and were often in direct contrast to their dark bodies. Some had red markings, and all had serpentine eyes. She watched as they shot spells at some unseen enemy, balls of magical light, often wrapped in electricity.

She gasped as she heard Light Fire's voice in her head, echoing quietly. "The sub kirins are an example of cruelty. Long before the kirins began their barbaric campaign, the kirins began experimenting with other races. They wanted to create a sub class of their species, perfect for combat and security measures. They eventually succeeded. The sub kirins are resilient soldiers, obedient to a fault, and are produced en mass."

En mass? The unicorn thought. Like they're weapons. Like they don't matter, she heard the changeling in her head. The kirins have become cold and cruel. They no longer invite other races to see their great cities. They no longer partake in societal practices. They force other races and other cities to submit to rule, submit to their barbaric ways. It's an erasure of culture, and a spreading of blind hatred.

Flash Fire let out an audible sob as she was given a vision of this. Streams of boiling water cutting through buildings, cities crumbling. Creatures that she had never seen before ran from their towns, only to be herded carefully. Survivors were enslaved, at least, those that wanted to live under rule. Others were slaughtered. The land became stained in blood, then washed clean by the kirin themselves, creating sloping canyons and waterfalls, descending down into darkness. She saw the kirin city, standing pristine from atop a massive plateau, with the other regions now positioned beneath it, some below sea level. Beneath the kirins' feet.

"This...this is what Breen looks like, now?" she asked breathlessly.

"Yes. They terraformed a large portion of Breen this way," Light Fire said with her own voice, the images fading. The kirin city, Phear, stood as an enormous monument, basking, it seemed, high up in the sky. Every other Breen city for fifty miles were forced to look up at the city in order to see it. Every city in that range, of course, were kirin survivors, cities that had been subjugated.

Flash Fire frowned and shook her head. "Ok, so kirin cities bad, very bad...but Breen is much larger than Equestria, you said, and Equestria itself is no little sandbox. What else is there to be concerned about?"

"Well, there's the delkano; they used to be carnivorous, but after a while they became farmers. This all happened way before the kirin thing. They're currently hiding a big group of children beyond an inaccessible mountain pass."

The unicorn made a face. "Hiding from the kirin?"

"Yes," Light Fire answered. "It's possibly the biggest and maybe the last resistance group against the kirin within two hundred miles of Phear. The kirin keep trying to get there, but they're constantly blocked and thwarted by a small tribe of griffons."

"Griffons??" 

"Yes,"Echo said with some pride. "They're not normal griffons, either. They're known as 'aberrations'. Griffons are normally part predatory bird and part cat. No one knows how that came to be, but that's how it is. The aberrations are...a little unorthodox. Take...what's her name? The duck."

"Mallory," piped Madalah.

"Ha-ha," Flash Fire chuckled with oozing sarcasm. "I get it, mallard duck, Mallory. It's so stupid!" She laughed again, and found herself at the end of five disdainful glares. "Uh...oh. that...that wasn't necessary...sorry," she muttered with painful awkwardness. "S-so, about the duck-uh, Mallory?"

"She's...an aquatic griffon," Light Fire said with a small smirk, trying to hide how physically painful that had been for Flash Fire. "I certainly don't know many griffons that live in the water, but she's...unique. Her physiology is unique as well, not just the places that she thrives in." The changeling again touched the unicorn's face with her antenna. The unicorn saw the image of a brilliant green griffon, with yellowish green undertones, and...an actual bill. "Her bushy tail also hides a hidden poisonous barb."

"Well, uh...very unusual," Flash Fire said when she'd regained her personal space. "I didn't know that kind of thing could happen."

"She's probably the most unique of the griffons, but according to their tribal laws, she's not what they consider the most...offensive." 

Flash Fire waved off the images and frowned at the changelings. "Wait, wait. I get they're different, but they're considered offensive?"

Anorax looked at the others, also in the dark about how griffons treated those they found different. "Yes..." Madalah said sadly. "The 'aberrations' are shunned. They're either made to live apart from other griffons, or chased out of their villages, or at worse...killed."

"What? That...doesn't make sense," Anorax's sentiment was shared with all present.

"It has to do with bloodlines and purity," Light Fire said with a sigh. "Most griffons are very obstinate in the purity of their blood. 'Aberrations' are an insult in their eyes, and they don't tolerate impure blood."

Flash Fire tried not to let her temper flare. Instead, she pressed once again with her curiosity. "So...what would classify as the most offensive type of griffon?"

"The kind that implements canine characteristics." Light Fire's antenna once again touched Flash Fire's face, and she saw a griffon whose colors may as well have been ice. Her body color was white, the fur on her back and head a blueish green color, her wings bluish white. Her eyes were striking against her white and dark colors, deep pools of crimson red. Her most distinguishing feature, however, was her clearly canine tail. Flash Fire could barely comprehend how anypony could hate her - she was stunningly beautiful. 

"Griffons...hate this?" she asked, her voice trembling with emotion.

"Yes...unfortunately, or fortunately, however you want to look at it - griffons have a different concept of beauty. And while Crista here is, by many definitions, quite beautiful, she is ostracized for simply looking like this."

"I don't get it. I've met griffons before. They didn't seem nearly so...I don't know the word for it - racist? Specist?"

"Of course, you may have noticed that there are different griffon tribes around your kingdom, strewn about far and wide. This is because they have decided to leave the brutal griffon tribes that boast such pure bloodlines. As such, many griffons have very little concept of being kind or friendly."

"That's very informative!" a new voice chimed in. All eyes turned to it's source, a nearby bush. Six thin needles shot out from the bush into the necks of each changeling and unicorn, each one falling to their sides with a gasp. Seaweed Cyanide crept closer, now in her pony form as she stood over Flash Fire, an unnerving grin on her face. "I'll have to add that to my information on certain species. Might come in handy later. For now, though, I really need to have a private discussion with you, little fire sprite. Don't worry - I didn't just kill you guys. I mean, I'm supposed to, but I need to know something first..." And with that, the bubbly, yet somehow empty seapony hauled Flash Fire up onto her back and left the beach, leaving the changelings immobile and helpless.