//------------------------------//
// Ali-whata-corn? 
// Story: Lyra's Voyages 2: On Strange Tides 
// by Prince_Staghorn 
//------------------------------//

Day 1...

I can't believe I'm actually going to Concordia! You grow up hearing about the place, but actually going there? That's SO COOL! I mean, Concordia's so different! It's just a lot of vast plains, valleys, mountains, and canyons, and the cities are HUGE! The wide spaces are a sharp contrast to the Everfree Forest covering most of the continent.

The airship's moving along at a good speed, and we're crossing the border now. In the distance I see a massive gathering of storm clouds. Ditzy spoke up.

"That's Storm Valley. Under those clouds is a huge valley surrounded by mountains, except for one pass. It's full of dinosaurs! And some of them are intelligent, but they're not nice."


***
 

When I got off the ship, I saw beings I had only heard about.

They were winged ponies, with tan fur, lion-like paws and tails, and golden eagle eyes. Sphinxes! 

They were all dressed in armor, and all were staying stone still. Between them was a mare I had only read about in history books. She was as tall as Princess Luna, dressed in brown dragonleather battle armor, pink with an electric blue mane, and three blue lightning bolts on her flank. 

The three of us bowed before Firefly, Princess of Concordia*. From that angle, I could see the stump on her forehead where Tirek had cut off her horn in battle so long ago.

"So, you're the ones who are heading over to see snakebutt?"

She reminded me a lot of Rainbow Dash. I nodded.

"Well, come on, then!" She smiled and began trotting off. we followed, Maud having to go out of her normal walk in order to keep up. 

As we followed Firefly, I saw more sphinxes, along with two other creatures in good numbers.

One was a pig-sized type reptile, with a parrot-like beak and a small crest, resembling a Protoceratops. These were called Bix, and mainly worked as librarians and scholars.

The other was an alicorn-sized reptile, bipedal, with a hard, domed head. In appearance, it resembled a Pachycephalosaurus. These were called Grekk, Ditzy informed me, and were actually very smart.

None of that, however, compared to what was waiting on the boat for us.

She was a sea-green mare with a white mane. Her short, slightly curved horn was gold, and her wings were folded at her sides. However, her back legs were mechanical, attached to a harness/belt around her dolphin-like tail. I had never seen a pony like this!

She smiled and offered a hoof. "Ocean Wave, head of the Concordian Cryptid Researh Foundation. You must be Lyra Heartstrings."

Numbly, I nodded and shook her hoof. Firefly smiled.

"Well, I'll leave you all to go. See ya soon, O-W!"

"See ya, Stella!"

Firefly bristled, but smiled and flew off.

Maud was, surprisingly, the first to bring up what i was thinking.

"I've never seen a pony like you before"

A straight-to-the-point statement. Typical Maud. Ocean Wave took no offense and smiled.

"I'm an Alimaricorn."

Ditzy spoke. "An ali-whata-corn?"

"A Sea Alicorn. No, I'm not royalty, my parents were kelp farmers. I'm just here to join you on this little adventure."

I finally spoke.

"So, how rare are alimara... alamaro... sea alicorns?"

She tapped her chin, thinking. 

"Pretty rare. We're nomads, and we mostly stick to open ocean, since shallow water is where you land folks tend to use your nets. We're not that good at magic or flying either."

I absorbed the information. Of course, I knew alicorns weren't as unique as many thought. There were three alicorn princesses in Equestria, one in the Crystal Empire, two in Concordia, one in the Black Isles, one in Henosis, and a Prince in Haissan, who was Celestia and Luna's little brother, but those were the extent of current alicorn royalty, not counting Celestia and Luna's other two brothers and parents, or Twilight's daughter Nyx.

Besides them, however, alicorns were common in Los Haygas, and could be found in good numbers in several places across the globe. What's more, besides alicorns, there were also the multi-winged, single-to-tri-horned Buraq of Khaan and the bat winged, one-horned Isomnequi. And now there was the Alimaricorn before me. (HA! I knew i'd get it right!)

This promised to be interesting