Prologue

Bright, glittering pools of light shone through the sensory visors that surrounded the cockpit. Stars they were called, seemed vibrant, teeming with life as they passed by the small deep space mining cruiser. Even the intense glow of the ship's main engine couldn't drown out the true beauty of the glimmering glow of life that seemed to touch a special place in his heart.

As a child he always would spend warm, summer or autumn nights just lying on the ground and watching the stars from afar, but here now, he was able to see them up close. They were so much more than the glittering fireflies that he used to think they were during his youth, out here, in the far reaches of space, they were very much alive to him. Each one twinkled like a flame, imbuing life with unimaginable understanding and glory. This, this was home to him, and no matter what anybody said to him about it, this is where he has always belonged.

“You alright up here rookie?” A rough, deeply feminine voice asked from behind. Whirling around, he was glad to see the ship's navigator, a rare deep magenta colored dragoness named Kirila. She bore a soft smile as she strode up to him.

“Yes ma'am. Just admiring the stars.” He whirled back around to watch more stars pass by.

“That's good and all, but remember to keep your eyes on where we're going too. Skipper would be really mad if we ran into an asteroid.”

“Yes ma'am.” They shared a sort of laugh, unaware of the gryphon who was standing in the doorway behind them.

“What's so bleeding funny eh?” She said as she walked up behind the dragoness, pulling her into a hug with a quick kiss to her neck.

“Nothing Roxy.” The dragoness responded to her girlfriend. “Don't think the Skip 'll be too happy about us, semi alone in here together.”

“Why not? Damn bloke's never given a bullocks before.” They shared a smile while the young changeling continued to gaze out the ship's visor in wonder. “What's wrong with the changeling eh?”

“Nothing, he's one of those 'star lovers'.”

“Ah.” Together, they slipped out of the cockpit before the changeling even noticed they were gone.

For nearly three weeks they had been flying around the outer rim of planets trying to find some large asteroids, but nothing they came across was of any real value. Most were too small to even bother worth trying to mine, while others weren't quite ready. Some were even big busts, with nothing to show for all their hard work drilling into them.

While it was true that most mining ships were collecting bits and pieces of asteroids for sale back on Earth, what they were collecting was far more valuable. Inside of some fairly large asteroids, and even the smaller ones, was an ore that was so rich it could fuel their ships for eons to come. Unfortunately, the process of turning that ore into a viable fuel was lost on the pony folks of Earth, and their sister the Moon.

Years ago, while he was going through flight academy, he had come across a pony who was studying the ore from the asteroids and had actually developed a way to break it down into a very potent fuel that was neither dangerous, nor did it leave any lasting effects to the mineral, or the environment around it.

Thinking back, he almost missed his best friend, Hex Floral was her name. It bright a smile to his face just thinking about her. It pained him that he was so far away from her, but he knew that she would be alright. After all, they were expecting to be married soon.

Looking around to make sure that he was alone, with the door to the cockpit sealed, he lifted up a small panel on the console and set the autopilot. Twisting in the chair, he turned on the holo-vid display and watched as the blue connection bar ran across the screen. Taking a moment to brush back his mane and straighten his collar, he looked back to the screen to see his beloved Hex, looking extremely tired. Her fatigue melted away however when she noticed who she was talking to. “Korven.” Her voice was like a choir of angels singing to the high heavens, her golden yellow eyes bearing naught but love, and her disheveled amber mane cast astray across her face.

“Sorry to be calling so late Hex, I just wanted to hear your voice.”

“It's fine babe, it's just so good to hear from you. You haven't called me since your first night away. How is it by the way?”

“It's amazing up here, there's a real sense of fellowship among the crew. Tonight the Skipper even let me pilot the ship, though I'm supposed to wake him if I need anything before the morning.” A yawn escaped his maw before he wiped at his eyes. “Wish you were here.”

“I know.” She sat back in the chair, letting him see her slightly swollen belly. “We can't wait for you to get home honey.”

“I can't either baby. Speaking of which, it is a girl or boy?”

“How did you know I went to the doctor today?”

“Lucky guess?”

“Uh huh.” She gave him a wicked grin, “It's a ...”

“Korven! What are you doing!?”

The changeling felt his heart catch in his throat as he spun the seat around to look at a tall rough looking pony who could have easily one a strong-pony competition. His bulging arms strained against their constrictive sleeves as he stalked into the cockpit. Immediately, the changeling got to his feet and saluted. “Just calling home sir.”

The Skipper looked the changeling over, then softened his expression when he saw the pregnant pony on the display. He adopted a soft expression, “Alright, anything to report?”

“Nothing so far sir. Just set the autopilot for a few minutes, if that's alright sir?”

The pony walked over to the console to check all of the instruments. Seeing that everything was running nominal, he turned to the changeling. “So, is it a boy or a girl?”

All of the color seemed to drain from the changeling's face as he turned back to his pregnant fiance. “I'm so sorry baby. I have to go.”

Before he could end the call the Skipper stayed his hand with a firm grip, “There's no reason you can't talk to your fiance Korven. I am aware that you haven't had any time to contact her since we left. So long as you keep your eyes on where we are headed, you can have a few minutes.”

The changeling nodded before turning back to the pony on the display. She smiled softly at him, looking to the Skipper. “Thank you sir.” He returned her smile, raising his hand for her to see his wedding band.

“I have six children myself ma'am, I know how both of you feel. With this job, it never gets any easier, especially when the little ones start coming along. Many people think that I'm a tyrant, a cruel pony, but I respect only those who deserve it. Your boyfriend here is willing to sacrifice his time with you to do this job, and for that, he has my respect, as do you ma'am.” With a nod, the Skipper left the cockpit without so much as a backward glance.

Korven sighed as he retook his seat, waiting patiently for her to tell him the news. “So, what is it?”

She giggled, “Well, you won't be coming home to just one girl...” A knowing smile crept across his face, while a few tears of happiness escaped her golden eyes. “I know that you always talked about wanting a son...”

“It's alright baby. A girl,I'm just happy to know that we are having a baby, the gender never mattered to me.”

“Well, it's not just a girl...”

“Wait, you mean?” His eyes grew wide at what she was implying.

“Twins. Both girls.” If it was at all possible, his smile seemed to stretch his jaw and then some. “I love you Korven.”

I love you too Hex.”

Over the course of the next hour they talked about where they wanted to raise their children, their names, what they would be like, what they would teach them, what kind of parents they would be, and so forth. It was nearly halfway through his shift before Korven realized that he needed to get back to his post, lest the Skipper never let him fly again. “Baby, I have to get going, but I'll be home as soon as I can. I love you.”

“Love you too babe.” With that, the connection was terminated, just in time too. Not even a second later the Skipper came walking back in, a mug in either hand. The strong, bitter smell of coffee wafted towards his nose, letting him smell the dark brew.

“Thought you could use something to help stay awake without your fiance to keep you talking all night.” For the first time since they had left, he actually heard the Skipper laugh.

“Thank you sir.” Korven accepted the coffee without complaint as he went about turning off the autopilot to manually fly the ship as his Skipper had ordered early in the night.

“What's her name?” When the pony was given a quizzical look he sighed, “Your fiance?”

“Oh, Hex, Hex Floral. She's an engineer, The Engineer actually that developed our new fuel system as well as fuel. She's the reason we are out here.”

“That explains why you were all too eager to come out here with us.”

“Yes sir, that's part of it.”

“And your love for the stars of course.”

The changeling nearly choked on his coffee as he looked towards the Skipper, who was watching out the visor. “There's nothing, nor anybody who has secrets on this ship. I know and hear everything. It's my job, it is my ship after all. Besides, the girls just told me about it on my way in.” No sooner had he spoken that the couple walked back into the cockpit. “Couldn't sleep either?”

Neither one said anything as the dragoness took a seat in her chair, letting the gryphon sit on her lap as they both turned to the nava-computer. It was the dragoness who spoke first, “Really felt guilty about leaving the greenhorn all by himself Skip'. Didn't seem right to me, especially with his first voyage being such a bust.”

“Couldn't agree more Kirila.” He grumbled something to himself as he walked over to asteroid sensor to find that the scope was negative for at least a few dozen parsecs away. With another grumble he went over to look at the nava-computer with the couple, wondering why in the name of Celestia they weren't finding anything of value on this voyage.

Korven went from watching them discuss something in private about their course to the visor once more, seeing that they were still flying through a solar field. A solar field is a vast concentration of energy that is expelled through streams of dancing lights, creating waves, and sometimes rays that look as if pathways with stars woven inside of them. Some of the rays seemed to be closer to the ship than before, but he paid it no mind as he caught sight of something in the distance.

The changeling pressed a few buttons on the control console to pull up a magnified view of what he was seeing, and his heart nearly stopped. Just beyond the edge of the solar field was a rather moderately sized asteroid spinning slowly on its axis, but what caught his breath was the ruby red sheen that was seeming to glow from the very edge of the asteroid, looking smooth, like a masterly crafted jewel.

Pulling up a closer examination of the asteroid, he could see that there was something written within the sheen, but it was in a language that he had never heard of, nor seen. “Skipper, you may want to see this.”

The large pony looked towards the visor, then stood up straight, causing the couple to look over as well. They could all see the beautiful sheen that the asteroid was giving off, as well as the writing. While the couple, as well as the changeling began to think that maybe they struck gold, the Skipper started to get a bad feeling in his gut.

He picked up a comset and held it close for a second. Against his better judgment, he made the decision that he knew he was going to regret for the rest of his life. “All hands on deck, we've got some drilling to do crew.”

It took nearly two hours to reach the end of the solar field, by which time the asteroid has moved closer to them. Another four hours passed as the crew spent time drilling around what they had at first thought was a trove of rubies, but turned out to be a single jewel, with some writing across the center, which is what they had seen on the visor.

In all, it was six hours after first contact that they had fully revealed the jewel. It was as large as six of the Skipper's massive arms across and tall, with large, black glyphs across the center, seven in total. Korven had taken to writing them down while the rest of the crew marveled at the sight. The Skipper himself still felt something in his gut that told him to discard the jewel, but knew that his crew needed this big payday after their big bust this voyage. Every edge of the jewel was cut to clean perfection, with a slight shimmer seeming to radiate from its presence, as if it watching, as if it was breathing, as if it was alive.

Korven was left alone with the jewel to study the glyphs, taking some pictures before pulling up some information off of their internal database, which had a direct link to the feed of information back on Earth.

An eerie mist began to seep out of the jewel, pouring out from a tiny crack that they had made in the crystal from where they had drilled it out of the asteroid. It was invisible to the naked eye, but it was still a crack nonetheless. The mist wasn't white or gray like a natural mist, this was colored a deep, rich, forest green and seemed to glow with life. The jewel began to loose its color, turning from red to a translucent white, looking as though the mist was water flowing from a glass.

Steadily, the mist began to swirl around the changeling behind his back while it leaked out. His eyes widened as the symbols appeared on the screen. Just as he was about to reach for the comset beside of the computer his eyes glazed over and went black, his vision gone. He fell to the ground as the mist began to make its way into the ventilation system above him.

By the time that the Skipper walked into the room it was already gone, and Korven was lying on the floor moaning as he tried to crawl away from the screen. The Skipper paid the crystal no mind as he ran over to the changeling, throwing him over his shoulder and racing to the infirmary.

Korven felt his body being hoisted up and over a shoulder. He could hear the metallic clank of boots against the floor, and the heavy panting of someone running. He could hear them turning down a corridor and coming to a halt. A gut wrenching scream echoed down the corridor, followed by the sound of blood spurting across the wall.

He fell to the ground, his head hitting the wall and his dreams surfacing. All he could hear before he lost consciousness was the sound of a deep, menacing growl...

Author's Note

I'm baack!!!!

It's been a long time since I sat down and wrote anything, and this is an idea that I've had for a few months now, and I finally have the time to sit down and work on it. So far chapter I is nearly done, with chapter II over a quarter of the way done. A great author on here, as well as a great friend, TheVClaw, has been so generous to lend me his OCs for the telling of this dark tale. I hope to do him proud by sticking as close to his characters as possible, and if any of your are familiar with his work, you'll know that I have two really tough characters to nail pretty well.

I have planned out a lot of this story and will be releasing it in arcs, instead of what I normally do and try to write it all at once, or really don't plan anything out. It may be slow at first, but by the climax, you'll hopefully be holding on to your seats, craving to know what happens next.

To all of my readers, thank you for being so patient with me and sticking with my through many of my failed stories. I know that I usually start a story and never end up finishing it, but I truly think that this one will change all of that, and I may even go back and finish the other ones, except for Soaring Hawks, as that story is completely dead. For Where Dragons Soar, and Firefly, I might be rewriting a few things and then sending them on their way.