After my quick announcement that I was not of this world, Princess Luna informed the group that I was needed in Canterlot to help stop a potential crisis. There was a bit of protest, but when they were invited to come along, in addition to me explaining that it would be better to explain it to everypony all at once, it calmed their curiosities for the moment. So after summoning a couple more carriages, we were ready to go.
"These ponies got here quick," I commented as I sat in one carriage with Pinkie and Applejack, though Twilight wanted to sit next to me. Knowing that she would probably barrage me with questions, I asked Applejack to sit next to me instead.
"What do you mean by that?" Applejack asked.
"Well, since the nearest city is Canterlot, that would sti—gah!" I said before the pegasi took off into the air, with the carriage along with them. "What the buck are they doing?" I shrieked as I hanged onto an edge for dear life.
Pinkie looked at me and exclaimed, "Oh no! I forgot that since you're an alien you didn't know that we'd be flying to Canterlot!" as she slapped her hooves to the sides of her face.
Raising an eyebrow, Applejack said, "Umm... didn't you know that we were goin' to fly there? I mean, we do have pegasi pulling the chariot."
Wait, they call this carriage a chariot? I really need to learn more words, I thought to myself. "Well, in my defense, this 'chariot' doesn't look like it was supposed to be use for flying purposes. What is keeping us from falling off?"
"Magic," Applejack simply said.
"...Of course," I groaned as I sank my head into my hooves.
After a bit of silence as we gained more altitude, Applejack broke the peace as she said, "So... you're an alien..."
"Yes... yes I am... or was... it's complicated," I replied.
"What do you mean by that?" Applejack asked.
"Well... I was a different species before I came here... but now I'm a pony...and I have no idea how that occurred."
"I see. Well, Aether, I reckon that you have some explainin' to do for lyin' to us."
Cocking an eyebrow, I looked at Applejack as I said, "Oh, really? So what did I lie to you about?"
"Well, for one you didn't tell us you were an alien."
"Nopony asked me if I was an alien," I deadpanned.
"Oh... well your age for ano—"
"The age I had given you was basically my original age put into your world's method of tracking age, so that wasn't a lie either."
"...How about your family?" Applejack asked, only to withered as I gave her the Death Glare.
"I didn't lie about that," I said through gritted teeth. Suddenly I felt a hoof on my withers, causing me to turn around to see Pinkie with an expression of concern on her face.
"Aether... since you told us that you were an alien... I wonder... how do you really feel about me?" Pinkie asked.
I blinked in surprise of Pinkie's question, my eyes darting around in confusion before I took a breath to calm myself down. "Pinkie... you've taken care of me for my entire time in your world. You put up with my own antics and treated me with kindness that was only matched by my own parents. Pinkie, you've been family to me, regardless of my origins."
After hearing my words, Pinkie's muzzle split into a wide smile as she hugged me in her vice-like grip. "You're family to me too, Aether," Pinkie said as she shook me around in her choking hug.
"Air, I need air!" I sputtered out after giving her enough time to hug me. Pinkie loosened her grip on me but still kept me in a hug, though I decided to let her have that since I put her into a doubtful state earlier. Though, I did give Applejack a flat stare when she smirked at the two of us.
It wasn't long before we finally arrived at Canterlot, and even though I could see the city from Ponyville, seeing the city up close was another matter. The city was so magnificent, and was cleaner than any other city I had ever seen. I even gawked at the sight of the castle, for it was like looking at some wonder of the universe thanks to its aesthetics. As the chariots began to land, I finally caught my first personal glimpse of Princess Celestia, who was awaiting for our arrival. While she was an imposing and impressive pony like Luna was, I couldn't help but remember Discord's words about her. This led me to begin to think up reasons for her to not toss me into the sun, or something just as bad.
After the chariots landed and we all got off them, I saw all the non-princess ponies bowing to Celestia. I just followed their lead. As I raised myself from my bow, I saw Celestia walking over to me as she said, "It's good to see everypony again. I take it that this is the filly that knows what's going on?"
"Er... maybe Princess Celestia. I only know of possibilities and what is coming over to your world. I don't know what is causing them, and me, to appear in the first place. Also, you can call me Aether Aura," I said, keeping my tone respectful but my eyes deadlocked on her. However I did see from the corner of my eyes that Twilight was twitching in anticipation, probably from curiosity about what my original name was.
Nodding, Celestia replied, "As important those matters are, I believe we can discuss them in a more private location. If you all would kindly follow me to the dining room? I feel that many of you have yet to have breakfast." At the last word I could hear the stomachs of all the mares around me grumble, though mine didn't due to me knowing the severity of the situation.
We followed Celestia, with Luna at her side, until we reached the dining hall where I was greeted with the greatest breakfast my eyes had ever seen. The variety of food there was so great I had no idea what I wanted to try first as I mindlessly took a seat next to Pinkie, who was quickly filling her plate with everything in reach.
"I take it you had not seen quite this much food from where you originated?" Celestia asked as she levitated some food over to her plate.
"Yeah..." I dumbly replied before I decided to do what Pinkie did as I levitated samples from each dish I could find.
"For a being that claimed to be an alien, it appears that you have fine control over your magic. Unless you possessed magic beforehoof."
"No, I didn't possess magic before I became a unicorn. Also, I didn't even hear of magic before I came to this world."
"Wait, how many worlds have you been to?" Twilight asked, her eyes burning with curiosity.
"Hmm... I can't give you an exact number... but I've been to at least one hundred worlds," I answered, to which I received the sight of all Twilight and her friends' jaws dropping.
"...A hundred... worlds!" Twilight exclaimed, her eyes wide with shock.
"Yeah... but it depends on your point of view. All of my travels consisted of traveling from one dimension to another."
"Wait, not only you're an alien, but you're from another dimension?" Rainbow asked, her head cocked as she gave me a skeptical look. "Sorry, but this is getting hard to believe now."
Sighing, I replied, "Yeah, I know, but I gave Luna a glimpse of my memories as proof."
"Verily, the memories Aether gave us was indeed something no foal nor even a full grown pony would be able to imagine. Hence her claim to be not of this world appears to be valid," Luna said.
"As fascinating to know the truth about your past, Aether, I'm curious as to what aid you could provide for the princesses," Rarity asked.
"A good question, Rarity, one that I will answer myself. For you see, since just over a month ago all of Equus had been tormented with the appearance of mysterious monsters in their dreams. All races were experiencing these nightmares, but from what Aether said to Luna during her own dreams last night, these nightmares could be the forewarning of an invasion," Celestia replied, causing all the ponies to gasp in shock.
"R-r-really?" Fluttershy asked as she trembled in fear.
"Yes, which is why I'm here, because, like me, these creatures originate from another dimension," I answered.
"But.. how can a filly like you be of help? I mean, I know you're highly mature and athletic, but you're too young to know enough to address this problem, much less be sure of what could happen," Twilight stated.
Sighing, I replied, "I'm only young in terms of a pony's lifespan. Twenty nine years is already past the point of adulthood for my species."
This caused all the ponies to stare at me in shock, till Applejack asked, "You were an adult?"
I nodded.
"Well, that explains how you know so much about sex," Rainbow replied flippantly, causing everypony to blush and look at her in surprise except for Celestia, Luna and Fluttershy, who just looked at her in confusion.
Coughing to get their attention back, I said, "Well, that is only partially correct, but I don't want to elaborate on that right now. The important thing is that my appearance, the nightmares, the explosions, and the war machine could only be caused by something wrong happening to the natural dimensional barriers of your world."
"Wait, so the reason for those explosions was something coming into our dimension?" Twilight asked.
"Yes, though I believe it was the presence of magic that caused the explosions to occur to the probes. The things that were crossing over," I added when I saw the looks of confusion on everypony’s faces.
"Fascinating," Twilight said as she summoned her notebook and quill to her side as she began to scribble down some notes.
"Yes, I'm know you're interested in what I know, but let's get back to the matter on hoof," I said before I turned my gaze to the two sisters. "In order for me to help, I need to know what could have damaged this world's barrier."
To my surprised, I saw Celestia averted her gaze away from me as she said, "We believe that our barrier was damaged due to an event that happened a few months ago."
"Considering that my appearance was about a couple months ago, that event could be the origin, but can you give me more details please?"
Taking a deep breath first, Celestia said, "The event was our dimension merging with an alternative world."
I just stared at her for a moment before I squeaked out, "Did you just say... that your world was merging with an alternative version of it?"
My response surprised the princesses when I saw them glanced at each other before Celestia said, "Yes, but we managed to avert the crisis and restore balance to both worlds."
I just stared at the princesses before I said, "Okay... regardless of the balance being restored, at least one world would come out of that with its barriers damaged. There is an interdimensional law that forbids travel between alternative dimensions for reasons like that."
"Wait, but you said you travel between dimensions. Doesn't that mean you're breaking the law?"
"Alternative dimensions only Rainbow. The dimensions most species travel between are not alternative versions of one another and when you use the correct methods of travel, leaves no risks of damaging their barriers. Though I wonder, what caused the merging of the two dimensions in the first place?"
Celestia suddenly looked dejected as she said, "Well.. it was cause of my alternative self... she wished to invade our dimension; having knowledge of it due to my visits to her dimension thousands of years ago."
As everypony looked at me for my reaction, I just sat there, not presenting a single emotion as I asked, "Why did you visit that dimension?"
"It was part of Starswirl's experiments... I met an alternate version of Luna that I spent time with while... Luna was imprisoned on the moon—" Luna let out an annoyed huff as I remembered my history lessons "—and a pony that I had... an 'interest' in."
"Alright then," I said as I gave her a nod.
My reaction caused Celestia to give me a curious look as she asked, "You're not bothered by this?"
"No... I'm not bothered," I answered with a straight face, before I hopped off my chair, engulfed it with my magic, and tossed it at Celestia's face.