Aliens, invasions, dimensions, and it's my gender that finally pushed them to their limit. Go figure, I thought to myself as I looked at all the ponies around me. It was an amusing sight to see the princesses gaping at me, though their jaws weren't as low as the rest of the mares' were. Putting a hoof underneath Pinkie's jaw, I closed it as I said, "Okay... how long are you all going to try to catch some flies?"

Getting no reply, I simply shrugged before I realized that everypony was so caught up with the discussion that none of us had ate anything yet. Hence, I started chowing down on my food, till Celestia finally broke her stupor as she asked, "You... were a male?"

After swallowing what I stuffed into my mouth, I answered, "Is that the term for stallions and colts? I didn't finish covering the dictionary Twilight gave me, but I guess yes, I was a male before I became a pony." Seeing that the rest might be breaking out of their own stupors soon, I levitated a pitcher of water over to Rarity. I quickly flipped the pitcher, dumping all the water on her at once. This resulted in the sight of Rarity sitting up shrieking in shock.

Rarity's shriek proved to be the thing to end the mass stupor as Luna shook her head before she asked, "Thou... art not showing any distress of any kind beyond... a possible query thou hath hint upon earlier."

"Well, I never really had any plans on using those 'parts' so to speak. So my gender change didn't really bother me that much, though I wondered why it happened still."

"What do you mean you don't have any plans to... use... them..." Rainbow started to say before we all turned our heads towards her, causing her to blush and shut her mouth.

"Okay... to answer that... 'question', remember when I say my race is dying out? Yeah... that's how many of us are left. Can't find a partner, and I won't be surprised if my species is actually extinct," I replied.

"Well... that certainly explains your... lack of taste in colts. Though does this mean you may have a taste in... mares in the future?" Rarity asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I know what you're going for. If that ever becomes a factor, ask me again when all four of us are of age," I deadpanned. Looking at the three princesses, I asked, "So do either of you know why I became a mare? Just curious."

The three looked at each other, Twilight completely befuddled by this topic. Fortunately Celestia seemed to had an idea as she started to ask, "Would you happen to know the gender ratio of yo—" before I shook my head. "Well, for ponykind, we have a gender ratio that favors females at a three to one rate. I assume that this may be the reason you're a mare now."

"Of course, just my luck that sheer chance is what caused this," I groaned as rubbed a hoof against my forehead. "Oh well, what's done is done. Though I have to ask, how did you manage to reach an alternative dimension?"

At the change of the subject to the source of our current woes, Celestia's expression became downcast as she said, "It was through a magical mirror created by Star Swirl. Though you don't have to worry about it being... misused again, for the mirror has been shattered."

"Good, don't have to worry about you destroying the barriers any further."

"Aether! That's not a nice thing to say! I'm sure Celestia is super sorry for th—" Pinkie started to say before I put a hoof over her mouth.

"Pinkie, Celestia messed up bad, real bad. Just saying sorry will not make up for the... side-effects of what she caused."

"You mean consequences?" Twilight said.

"Yes, thank you," I dryly replied.

Looking at me with a face full of sorrow, Celestia said, "Aether, I'm sorry that my actions brought you here, and I assu—"

"I don't give a buck about me being brought here!" I yelled, shaking a hoof at her.

Rearing her head back, Celestia asked, "You don't?"

"Of course I don't, my former life sucked! What I'm really mad about is that you put an entire world in danger of either being killed or facing the same fate my former species faced! All for some love for some stallion!" My words caused Celestia to retreat on herself, though strangely Luna only quirked an eyebrow in response.

"Art thou saying that thy life is now better as a pony?" Luna asked.

"...Yeah, it's better. No more having to worry about getting money for food, taking on dangerous jobs that can get me killed, having a family, and having real friends. Not to mention that the food I subsisted on was horrible."

Twilight's eyes lit up when the word 'friends' was brought up, but before she could ask her question, Pinkie shrieked, "You had bad food‽ You had candy and cake at least right?"

Sighing, I answered, "No, to tell you the truth, I only had some kind of paste. I didn't even know what it was made up, but it was all I could afford." This caused Pinkie to gasp in horror as she clapped her hooves to the sides of her face which turned as pale as Rarity's coat.

As I simply gave Pinkie an amused look, Twilight finally asked, "Wait, what do you mean real friends?"

"Simple, I didn't had any friends, only at best... ponies I know from my line of work. Everypony was mostly concerned about themselves, so there was no time or effort put to caring about anypony else." Before all the mares release another gasp of shock, I quickly added, "Yes, I know this may be something horrible in your point of views, but this is the reality of where I came from. Hence also why I was so angry with Princess Celestia since her actions could bring this fate to your world as well," as I finished with a quick look at Celestia that caused her to flinch.

"Anyways, maybe we should hold off on any more discussion on this matter till we ate, cause so far I'm the only one that had eaten something," I proposed, to which everypony's stomach but mine rumbled their agreement.

"Wise words, let us partake of our meals then," Luna declared, to which everypony nodded before starting to eat.

After the rest of the group had breakfast, we moved onto a waiting area. Staring at the window, I was waiting for the guard to arrive with the shards till Twilight spoke up when she approached me with her notepad floating beside her.

"So Aether, do you have any plan with the Maralus shards?"

"A few... I'm no expert since I'm just the pony that goes through the portal, but I think they are set to a frequency and are charged with some kind of energy. Maybe we can use magic to simulate the results to create a working dimensional rift. If we're lucky, we could just try to locate the breaches in this world's barrier and then hopefully opening a rift near a breach could fix it."

"I see... what were your plans before you had to reveal yourself?" Twilight asked, as the rest of the ponies look at us.

"Originally... it was to find out how I came here. Then when the first explosion occurred... it was to make sure you didn't have enough shards to accidentally open a rift."

"Wait, what you mean make sure I didn't have enough shards? I wasn't missing any from my lab."

"Took some from the forest and hid them before anypony found them. It was a few, but I thought it was enough to keep you from figuring out that they are part of a greater whole."

Narrowing her eyes at me, Twilight said, "You prevented me from learning more about those shards."

Shrugging, I replied, "Perhaps, but until I figure out things, I couldn't take a risk. So many things could go wrong, and if you did open a rift... who knows what could be on the other side." Looking straight into Twilight's eyes, I continued, "You might have opened a rift to a simple world, or to a world where the species there would come here to take over, or worse."

Blinking, Twilight looked to the side as she said, "You... have a point."

"Yeah... though when I met Discord, he was able to tell that I didn't belong in this world."

"What!" all the mares said as they snapped their attention to me fully.

"Why that little... why didn't he tell anypony about this?" Rainbow asked as her brows furrowed in fury.

"For his own amusement, he said I could bring about some chaos. Though he did warn me about what you may do," I finished as I turned my attention to Celestia.

"Warn you about me?" Celestia questioned.

"He told me that you may do something... bad to me if you learned about who I truly am."

"Why I... I would never hurt one of my ponies," Celestia declared as her expression became irritated.

"But if the world wasn't threatened, how would you have reacted to me then?"

"I would treat you with respect, and asked you about why you were here. Since you weren't here by your own will, I would have done my best to aid you in either returning home, or finding a place for you here," Celestia answered. I stared into her eyes, causing her to quirk an eyebrow as she pulled her head back.

"You're only good at keeping your emotions in check due to being over a thousand years old," I dryly commented. "So, what will you be doing with me after this issue?"

"That, would be up to you my little pony," Celestia said before I gave her a scowl. "You are certainly... a unique case. You were an alien to begin with, with knowledge on matters that no pony has. Though you also have much about our world to learn as well."

"She also have some natural talent with magic, and her knowledge of mathematics are already at a college level," Twilight added in.

"Bah, it's nothing special. I just think it's more of just being adaptable due to my former job. Also, my mathematical knowledge isn't special, I was just able to have an education when... my parents were around," I replied as my ears lowered, as everyone took on a more somber look. Though Pinkie embraced me once more as she nuzzled me, apparently wanting to cheer me up.

"Thanks Pinkie, you can stop that now," I said after a minute passed, though I suddenly felt a pressure on my horn again, causing me to rub it. "Not again."

This caused Twilight to look at me with this analytical look, "Aether, is this the feeling you were having a few days ago?"

"Girls..."

"Yeah, don't know what's causing it," I replied.

"Umm... girls..."

"Describe to me everything you're feeling right now, maybe we can figure out what's causing the sensation."

"Girls... you need to..."

"What is it Fluttershy?" I asked as my ears finally picked up on her voice, only for me to see her staring at something from outside. Turning my head to follow her gaze, my jaw dropped as all the pressure from my horn disappeared. The rest of the mares followed suit, only to gasp at what we were looking at.

"Um... Twilight... I think I now know what was causing the pressure," I commented as I stared at what looked to everypony else to be an abnormal storm appearing above a familiar forest. However, I and possibly Luna knew better, for it was the beginning of the formation a dimensional portal, one that would be exactly like the one from my dreams.