Authors Note: Well, here goes nothing, I guess. I've been working on this for a few days now, and I hope that whoever does read this will be able to enjoy it. This story has a very Sci-Fi tone to it in some places, especially in the beginning. I have not defined the particular species of the non-pony characters simply because I wish to let the readers imaginations decide what they are. I stuck a crossover tag on here because it sort of is, between my own created universe and the MLP universe. Mature with /possibility/ of sex and certainty of gore. Anyways, on with the first chapter!

Space... an infinite expanse of unknown wonders. Home to countless mysterious celestial bodies... stars and planets, wormholes, asteroids, black holes and many, many unexplainable mysteries that may forever remain such. Not a single sentient species in existence could help but gaze up into it at some point and simply wonder... how much? How much was out there? Where does it begin, and where does it end?

To this, there may be no answer... however, this could not hinder the dreams of the many forms of life it contained... dreams of knowledge and understanding, dreams of... more. Dreams of an existence beyond existence itself, far transcending reality... for reality itself was nonexistent pseudo-limitation that lesser unenlightened beings placed upon themselves. To challenge it would be the greatest and most rewarding endeavor one could ever set forth to accomplish...

...In space, however... reality had its own way of challenging them in ways they could never prepare themselves for. It was there, within this seemingly serene ocean of stars, that everything they once knew would mean nothing. All logical perceptions of “reality" would be challenged, and sometimes even shattered. To hold dearly to any true perception of reality whilst traversing the endless depths of space was a death sentence to ones sanity. It is a place where impossibility is in itself impossible.

Bridge to Captain Draelin...

"I've been out here for so long now... I wonder how my mother is doing... she was so worried about me when she found out I was being sent out on an exploration mission into deep space..."

A young, female captain sat reclining within her quarters, pondering silently. She had just been assigned her own ship several weeks ago, something which at her age was almost unheard of. She was only nineteen years old, and yet her mind had the intelligence and maturity of someone twice her age.

There were, however, no visible indications of it. She looked her age, and perhaps even a slight bit younger. This, of course, had earned her the resentment of some of the more senior officers.

Bridge to Captain Draelin!

Captain Venara Draelin nearly fell from her seat as the comms system operator boomed at her.

"Yes?"

She sighed, wondering what boring bit of information, unworthy of her attention, would drift through the comms now.

"We have encountered a very strange... field, or barrier, of some sort."

She arched a brow, now a bit curious. "Is it naturally generated?"

"We do not believe it to be natural. It is surrounding an entire solar system."

Venara came even closer to falling out of her seat. She really needed to get the back of the thing extended. "I'm... sorry... could you repeat that?"

Obviously she could not have heard what she had just heard.

"The field or barrier in question is surrounding an entire solar system. Our scanners have not been able to penetrate into it... however, we are able to establish a visual beyond it."

Venara stood up and stretched a bit. "I'm on my way."

"Acknowledged."

Venara walked out of her quarters, making her way quickly down the corridors, wincing a bit as the floor had been perhaps a bit too well polished, the lights on the ceiling glaring off their surface, right into her sensitive eyes. "Oh, yeah, make the damn floor a mirror why don't they..." she said to herself with slight frustration, entering one of the teleport hubs.

With a bright flash, Venara appeared on the bridge, noticing everyone was already standing and gazing at the image on the viewscreen in awe. She froze in place as she saw something she believed to be absolutely impossible. The solar system's sun was... moving.

"Is this display working correctly?"

One of the officers nodded. "Yes, Captain. It is functioning correctly."

Venara couldn't help but feel a tinge of excitement shoot through her. This was an unprecedented discovery; a solar system that defies the very laws of reality itself. She wasn't entirely sure what to think, as she was far too busy trying to analyze what she was seeing from a scientific viewpoint. Despite her efforts, she could not for the life of her understand how a solar system where the sun revolved around a single planet could work.

Wait a minute... it stopped! Dead in its tracks! It was all Venara could do to prevent herself from gasping. "Incredible... simply incredible..." she said quietly.

"Should we attempt to send a probe inside?" one of the crew asked nervously.

Venara pondered a moment. She knew that disturbing an unknown anomaly in such a way could have an unforeseen, possibly disastrous outcome. However, for this instance, she decided that there was no other possible course of action that would further their knowledge of a system they were otherwise shut out from.

"Do it," she said simply, hoping for the best. Her instincts were usually right... usually.

With a few simple moments of tapping away at a projected computer interface, the crewman launched a small probe from one of the bays. Venara watched it with interest as it collided with the barrier and winced a bit as she saw it explode violently.

Moments later, a strange, wide beam projected itself from the barrier, swiping over the ship. Venara took a few steps back, almost panicking, but quickly getting a grip on herself. "What... was that?"

Something was wrong. Was that energy field... alive? Perhaps connected to some sentient AI system? There was no damage to the ship. However, this event was unsettling to say the least.

Something was different about today. She wasn't entirely sure what it was, but there was definitely a sort of disturbance... something small, but most definitely a disturbance; some interruption in the cosmic flow.

"Is something wrong, sister?" a soft, somber voice came from behind Celestia.

"I am not sure. Something seems a bit... off," she said, turning to face Luna with an unreadably blank expression. "Did you feel it as well?"

Luna nodded lightly, looking up to the sky above. "It was an odd sensation. A shift of sorts... a strange pull from the heavens. I am uncertain of what it means."

Celestia stepped back inside from the balcony, walking past Luna, deep in thought. "I will have to look into this. You should get some rest, dear sister," she said plainly.

It was obvious to Luna that her sister was at least somewhat concerned about this... disturbance. However, she had no intention to pursue the matter further for the time being. The sun had just been raised, and she was ready for a good day's slumber. She retired to her royal chambers, leaving her sister to her thoughts.

Celestia took a seat on her throne. She had very little time to contemplate the disturbance, as she would soon begin receiving her morning audiences. It was Friday, her busiest day of the week. Still, try as she might, she could not force herself to ignore it. The sensation she felt from the disturbance confused her. She could not tell if it was a good or bad thing. Of course, random disturbances rarely meant anything good. Naturally, she had always forced herself to always be as optimistic as possible whenever she could.

With a sigh she resigned her thoughts to her daily duties, even with the strange disturbance lurking on the edge of her mind. She made a note to herself to inform her student, Twilight Sparkle, of this strange occurrence. Certainly a being with such a fine attunement to magic would have felt it as well. It would have to wait for the time being, as ponies were already lining up outside for audiences.

It had been several hours since the strange beam had flashed across the ship. Everything seemed normal, and the ship's chief engineer had concluded that it had been some form of scanner. Venara was still heavily concerned about this event, and had sent an interdimensional message to headquarters. She had pondered attempting to probe the distant planet using her psionic abilities, however, considering what had happened to their probe, she quickly dismissed this as an unwise course of action.

Many thoughts raced through the young captain's mind as she awaited a reply from headquarters. Her report had been as detailed as she could possibly have made it.

Could it be... them? No... no, it couldn't be. The great war ended many, many years ago. If there were any remnants of those vile beings, certainly they would have surfaced by now. Still... I cannot imagine any other species capable of such advanced technology. To shield an entire solar system, and certainly, this barrier must have been in place for a very, very long time. Ugh, stop jumping to conclusions, Venara! They must be friendly... they detected our presence and our ship is intact.

Venara's thoughts were interrupted as one of the crewmen, in charge of sensors and outgoing communications, began to panic. "Captain! There is a ship emerging from dimensional warp, it's.." he did not even have time to finish his sentence. A massive ship phased into reality near the much, much smaller vessel... no, it only looked close due to the size of it.

Venara wanted to faint, but couldn't. She knew this ship. Her heart skipped a beat, knowing what it meant.

"...The Valkarion II..." she said shakily.

Even her strong resolve was shaken by the fact that the Empire's flagship itself had responded, and with such swiftness. She gulped, knowing full well what was about to happen, doing her best to brace herself.

Without warning, the ship's viewscreen was filled with the frightening visage of the most feared and revered sovereign they served. Her face was shrouded, covered by a seemingly broken mask that was held together loosely as if by magic, a flowing blue flame slowly pulsing around it, and a single, white glowing eye peering out through a single large gap, obviously intended for that specific purpose.

The crew of the small ship all moved from their seats and bowed, as well did Venara, still shaking slightly. "E... Empress Krysallus..." she stammered, finding a low, respectful tone.

"Rise, my dear Venara,” said the Empress. “This is no time for such worthless formality." Her voice was seemingly twisted with multiple tones, which made her sound as intimidating as she looked. She did not speak as roughly as one would expect, however. She seemed quite pleased.

"Y... Your Imperial Majesty, I apologize. Might I ask, what is the significance of my discovery, to have brought you so far from the capital?" Venara asked as she stood slowly, doing her best to look directly back at the Empress, despite the obvious fear she had of this being.

The Empress did something Venara had never seen her do before. She smiled... warmly, even. That couldn't mean anything good.

"My dear Venara... I have been searching for many, many ages for such a system, as had been described to me many millennia ago by my mother before me. Very few artifacts are capable of such incredible power, to be able to envelope an entire system in such a strong, protective barrier. It may very well be the single most important discovery made in the history of the Empire."

Venara could hardly believe what she was hearing. Had SHE really been responsible for such an important discovery? The fact that her Empress was smiling so sincerely told her it had to be. She wasn't entirely sure how to respond at first, as it was all so overwhelming. Finally she responded, a bit clumsily, but sincerely. "I am... honored that I have been able to serve you so well, my Empress. How do we proceed?"

The Empress's expression grew serious. "If the artifact that I believe to be here is actually here... this system may be in grave danger in the foreseeable future. I must personally proceed in my search for it on my own. There is no other being capable of passing through the barrier undetected. Your job is to remain here and ensure that no foreign entities attempt to penetrate the barrier. Use any means to stop such intruders. Use the Valkarion's overdrive cannon if you must. Do not allow anyone or anything to attempt entry."

Venara was taken aback. Not only did the Empress just say she was going to enter the system alone, but had authorized the most destructive weapon ever conceived to prevent foreign entry. The Valkarion's overdrive cannon was designed to lay waste to an entire solar system with a single shot by firing directly into a system's sun, causing it to supernova... something that had been used for that purpose only three times in history. Whatever threat the Empress perceived would have to be dire beyond belief to warrant use of such force.

"M... My Empress... I understand and obey." she said a bit hesitantly, bowing low.

The Empress could detect the deep concern in Venara, despite her best attempts to hide it.

"Do not worry for me, dear Venara,” she said with a light chuckle, which sounded absolutely terrifying with her voice. “I can most certainly look after myself." With that, she vanished, and the screen went back to displaying the planet which the system's sun had been orbiting.

Venara sat back in her seat uneasily. This did not help her at all. The river of thoughts that was once flowing through her formed into a violent maelstrom which she could barely contain. She had so many questions which she knew she had no authority to ask.

This is all just too strange... How can the Empress... why did she... how does this... what is this artifact?

Venara's thoughts were broken by the chatter among the crewmen on the bridge. She grumbled a bit, before focusing herself, slamming her fist down upon the armrest of her seat with a loud thud.

The crew stopped their chatter immediately and stood to salute their captain nervously.

"Well,” Venara sighed. “I don't know what the hell is going on, but you all heard her Imperial Majesty's orders. Full combat alert status and standby," she ordered sternly. It seemed foolish to put the tiny ship on full combat alert with the near infinitely more massive solar destroyer so close to them. However, she had her guidelines to follow, and she wasn't the type to take a direct order from the Empress anything but seriously.

Krysallus sat calmly in her seat within her chambers, staring at her reflection in the mirror as she was assaulted with a barrage of concern from her Lord General. She didn't seem to pay him any mind as she was lost in deep thought.

Curse this wretched mask that binds me... curse the title that controls me... curse the status which directs me... curse it all. If only I could be free from this... this meaningless existence. Thousands of years I have lived, and yet I never truly have. Why?

I must find this artifact... it is my only hope to save myself... to save my people from myself. It all must end sometime.

Krysallus turned to her Lord General with a half-hearted smile. She spoke again, though not in the terrifying voice she had used when addressing Venara, but with an incredibly soft and gentle one. "This is something I must do... alone. You know how powerful I am. You have no need to worry," she reassured him.

The Lord General sighed and shook his head. "I still cannot believe you are going to do this. You have no ide-"

Krysallus stopped him. "Yes, I do. I have a lot of ideas what could happen. If it happens, it happens. You cannot avoid your fate forever. I am confident, however, in my own ability, as you should also be."

The Lord General stopped and went silent. He shook his head again before departing. Once the Empress's mind was made up, there was no will strong enough to deter her from whatever purpose she had set for herself. She knew she had an able heir to her throne, despite the dear being so incredibly kind-hearted. She was old enough to understand the weight of her responsibility, should any unfortunate event occur.

Krysallus was ancient, and indeed powerful, but even she was not entirely certain of exactly what would happen once she slipped past that barrier. She would be venturing into a realm where all of her power might mean even nothing. The possibility of its contents, however, made the risk well worth the potential reward.

It was time. Krysallus stood and gave a deep sigh before vanishing from her chambers, reappearing in space with a flash of light. Any normal being would have been killed instantly by the raw exposure to space. To Krysallus, it was as if she were on her own home planet, only without any gravity. She smiled as she felt the weave of existence around her, circling a hand around in front of her as if to touch something.

I have always felt so peaceful in space. Everything is enveloped in such a blissful silence, and yet... the cold, dead and empty space mortals believe this to be is so full of life... the raw essence of the universe... but how could they ever understand?

She stopped herself lingering too long, reaching forward to lightly touch the unseen barrier before her. A strange tear formed, an odd rip of sorts, closely resembling a deep wound from a jagged blade or shard of glass. Instead of blood, however, a bright light poured from this tear. Krysallus felt herself become enveloped within it, closing her eyes as her form was pulled helplessly inside, the tear shutting as quickly as it appeared.

There was a wave of strange sensations pouring through her as she passed through the strange portal she had created. Her form had ceased to exist and there was but the raw essence of her being in the form of pure energy. Her thoughts still flooded through her, flashing inconceivable memories through her faster than even she could perceive a single example of. Some of these memories, she noticed, were not even her own. The thoughts soon became fuzzy, and finally faded, before a brilliant flash of colors swept through her... and then, blackness.

Silence.

I knew you would come...

Someday you would find me...

Now you have... almost. Almost...

A sharp, painful sensation shot through Celestia, causing her to twitch and wince slightly. It was all she could do to keep herself from crying out in pain. This was far more than a disturbance. This was serious.

The tall pegasus stallion before her looked frightfully confused. "P... Princess Celestia? Are you al-" his words were cut off by a commotion outside, which he quickly turned to investigate. Realising his rudeness, he turned back around to apologize, however, Celestia had vanished.

The sight outside was incredible. A bright, smoldering object flying down towards the ground below. It was followed by a bright glowing streak of red flame. This was unusual. The trail of a comet doesn't glow in that manner. Whatever this was, it was magic. Powerful magic. It shone so brightly that most of the citizens in Canterlot were forced to shield their eyes from this blazing bright object that fell from the heavens.

Moments later, somewhere in the plains below Canterlot, the object crashed with not a sound, but a flash and violent shaking of the ground. It was extremely unusual for it not to produce a sound, however there was soon an extremely powerful gush of wind that shot in all directions before vacuuming back into itself and disappearing, converging upon the very large crater which now adorned the earth below.

Most ponies were terrified, but even through the fear, curiosity drove many to flock to this crater despite the incredible distance. Nothing like this had ever occurred before. At least, not to their knowledge.

Celestia carefully approached the center of the crater, a look of utter shock enveloping her visage as she beheld the sight before her. Even she, of all ponies, could not believe what lay before her.

Luna had been awakened by the commotion and soon appeared not far behind her sister. She approached with a look of deep concern. "Sister... what has happened he-... W... WHAT?!" she exclaimed, wide-eyed, as she finally gazed down to see what had her sister in such utter shock.

At the center of the crater, fast asleep, lay a very, very young filly. She could not have been more than three years old. Her coat was a deep, blood red color, and her mane and tail were a darker shade still. Crimson, with the slightest hint of violet accentuating them in jagged streaks. Her eyes were the most beautiful silver, seeming to glow ever so slightly as she looked up to Celestia with a soft smile, strangely unafraid.

None of this was what surprised Celestia, for this little filly was of none of the three primary pony races. Despite the seeming impossibility, she was an Alicorn.

"S... Sister.... What sh-" Luna was cut off by Celestia's hoof to her mouth.

Celestia closed her eyes briefly, contemplating this. "What else can we do? I am... particularly concerned at this extremely unlikely event, however... this little one is still... despite where she may have come from..."

Celestia was finding it increasingly difficult to speak as the little Alicorn moved to hug her front-left leg tightly. She was unusually affectionate, and seemed to understand that she was... like them.

Celestia regained her composure quickly. "...She is one of us. This universe is full of mysteries. Whoever... or whatever she is, there is some purpose for her here. What that purpose is... I do not know."

Luna still looked quite alarmed, but knew her sister would be able to handle this. Still, she had never seen Celestia as shocked as she had been just then. It scared her.

She finally relaxed a bit and sighed, unable to avert her gaze from the little Alicorn filly, whom was firmly nuzzling against Celestias leg. Even she had to smile at such an adorable sight. She wasn't sure why but the presence of this new little mystery suddenly made her feel somewhat... content. The few bits of shock and fear faded away as if they were never there.

Celestia could sense other ponies approaching. They were still far enough away not to realize the Princess was there. Without a thought, she vanished in a flash of light, along with the little filly Alicorn. Luna followed a moment later, following her sister's lead.