//------------------------------//
// Chapter XLVII: Mark 
// Story: Distorted Fate 
// by Silvak 
//------------------------------//

        As I looked on my flank to see the Cutie Mark that either was a silver curved shooting star or a crescent moon with a star at its lower point, I was suddenly pulled into another embrace by Pinkie Pie. “Aether, you got your Cutie Mark!”

        “Yes, I saw, but ca—”

        “Oh, I can’t wait till we get back to Ponyville! I have so much to plan for your cute-ceañera!”

        “But can yo—”

        “All the fillies and colts of Ponyvi—” Pinkie said before I stuffed my hoof into her mouth, though she still made some muffled sounds as she continued to ramble on.

        “You don’t seem to be too excited about getting your Cutie Mark Aether,” Twilight stated, causing me to look at all the ponies to see their confused expressions.

        “Oh! Um… it’s not that I’m glad to have one, it’s just I’m a bit confused on what it is exactly,” I explained, causing the ponies to examine my Cutie Mark more closely. If only I could get this recorded, it’s hilarious that they are technically staring at my plot. 

        “It looks like a curved shooting star to me,” Celestia said.

        “Thou art wrong dear sister, for Aether’s Cutie Mark is surely a crescent moon with a star on it,” Luna responded.

        “Looks to me that it’s what Luna said,” Rainbow added in.

        “That’s cause you don’t see things for what they are dear. I say that Celestia is right, for Aether’s Cutie Mark must be a graceful shooting star,” Rarity countered. It didn’t took long for most of the ponies to get into a debate on what my Cutie Mark was, with some of the guards even muttering amongst themselves on that matter. Even Pinkie got into the mix after she pulled my hoof out of her mouth, though she was just sputtering off random nonsense for some reason.

        Meanwhile Discord just laughed at the scene, saying “Aren’t you a small bundle of chaos, even your own Cutie Mark can cause dissent!” to which I just rolled my eyes at him.

        “Everypony, hold on for a moment!” Twilight yelled, causing the arguing to stop, for the moment at least. “Instead of just arguing what it looks like, how about we figure out what her Cutie Mark means. Maybe that will tell us what it really is.”

“You actually have a point there, though since I know so little about Cutie Marks… I’ll just let everypony else figure it out,” I said as I was subjected to my rear being the center of attention again.

“Normally a pony gets their Cutie Mark when they found their special talent… but I don’t recall seeing a Cutie Mark when we were heading to the portal…” Twilight announced.

        “Neither have I. It seems that during the closing of the dimensional portal was when little Aether here was getting a Cutie Mark,” Celestia declared. 

Wait… if what Celestia said is true… all I did was advised more on that… wait... I thought to myself before I eyes started to widen as I realized something. “Oh no… no no no no no!”

        “Aether, what’s wrong?” Pinkie asked as she gave me a concerned look, the others starting to do the same.

        “No way I’m going to let my Cutie Mark give me that as my destiny!” I shrieked.

        “What in tarnation are you talking about?” Applejack said, cocking an eyebrow in curiosity.

        “From Aether’s reaction, I think she realized what her Cutie Mark means. And by the sounds of it, she doesn’t seem pleased by it,” Celestia explained.

        Twilight was opening her mouth to say something before she stopped as her eyes widened. “Wait… Aether, do you think your special talent lies with dimensi—”

        “Nope! No way! That isn’t going to my destiny!” I screamed before I pointed a hoof at Celestia. “And there is nothing you can do to make me change my mind!”

        “Whoa whoa, hold it a minute shortstop. What the hay are you freaking out about?” Rainbow asked.

        “What I think Aether is so worried about is—” Celestia said before pausing to stop a rock that I picked up and thrown at her, “—is that her special talent is related to dimensions. There was nothing else that could have resulted in her Cutie Mark due to its appearance.”

        “That makes sense, we had to use magic as part of the means to create a rift, so the star on her Cutie Mark must represent magic. Though I don’t know what the crescent moon or tail of the star would mean then,” Twilight replied.

        “I have my own theories on that. Remember the magical mirror at the Crystal Empire? It was linked to the lunar cycles, so maybe this link persisted to the barrier and shown itself in Aether’s Cutie Mark as the crescent moon. However, I know that is a bit far-fetched, so I have another theory that if it’s not a moon but the tail of a shooting star as I suspected, then a shooting star could represent Aether’s dimensional travels.”

        I was about to protest against their speculations on my Cutie Mark till I heard about this magical mirror Celestia mentioned, causing me to ask, “What’s this about a magical mirror?” This caused not only Celestia to go wide-eyed but Twilight as well, which caused me to cock an eyebrow in surprise. Narrowing my eyes, I then stated, “This better not be another alternative dimension problem, and you better not be tied to this Twilight.”

        After a moment of silence, I threw my forehooves into the air as I shouted, “Oh come on! What is wrong with you ponies‽ Is Princess Luna the only princess here with any common sense!”

        As Discord snickered at Celestia’s and Twilight’s discomfort, Rainbow butted in when she yelled, “Give Twilight a break! She only went when Sunset Shimmer stole the Element of Magic!”

        “Who’s Sunset Shimmer?” I asked as I tilted my head.

        “Sunset… is a former student of mine…” Celestia answered. She then reared her head back as I gave her a flat stare.

        “...Okay. I’m not mad at Twilight anymore… but I’m still mad at you Princess Celestia,” I stated with rage evident in my voice. “Also, there is no way anypony is going to use me for more of this dimensional stuff. I cross the line at fixing the problems you made princess, nothing more,” I declared as I crossed my forelegs over my chest.

        As Twilight was about to open her mouth to protest, Celestia raised her hoof to stop her, before placing said hoof on my shoulder. “Aether, nopony expects you to do anymore than you already have. You have done more than anypony could ask for, much less for one that is a stranger to our world.”

        I cocked an eyebrow as I asked, “Really?” to which I received a nod in reply.

        “I don’t see what’s the big problem though, you’ve been to hundreds of worlds,” Rainbow commented.

        “Well, let me see what could make me not want to do that kind of stuff anymore… Well, there was the several times I had to flee for my life from a horde of creatures that wanted to eat me. Then there was the time where a mob of natives wanted to burn me alive. Oh, I can’t forget the time that some native wanted to hunt me down and put my head on a wall,” I responded in a deadpan manner.

        My answer gotten the obvious reaction of everypony gaping at me, until Luna broke the silence as she asked, “Wait, how doest thou know that the native intended… that?”

“Well… while it was hunting me, I manage to stumble across its home. I thought to use it as a hiding place for a time, but… well let’s just say what I saw pretty much said the native’s intentions,” I answered, shivering at the memory.

“Wait a minute,” Twilight said as she turned her attention to Discord. “You knew about Aether being from another world, and you were here right after the princesses closed the portal. Why didn’t you tell anypony about this?”

“Simple my dear, no pony asked me about it,” Discord said with a flip of his paw.

        “Why you no good two timin’ varmint!” Applejack yelled.

        “Please, like anypony would believe me in the first place. Besides, I knew Aether would be able to fix any problem that dear old Celestia has caused.”

        “Well, why didn’t you lend a… paw and help the princesses close the portal? Unless you were behind that,” Rainbow accused.

        “Why Rainbow, you wound my heart,” Discord replied as he fell over, kicking a leg out like he just died. He then disappeared to only reappear right behind Fluttershy as he asked, “Fluttershy my dear, do you honestly think I’m behind this?”

        “Well… I…” Fluttershy started to say as she looked at the angry Rainbow and then at Discord her looked at her with watery eyes. “I don’t think you would do something like this… this seems more… harmful than chaotic.”

        Before Rainbow could make some kind of retort, I cutted in, “Then why are you here Discord? I know you enjoy chaos, but I highly doubt you would showed yourself then after it all ended.”

        “Finally a pony that doesn’t want to point a hoof at me the moment they see me. To be honest, I did enjoy seeing you and the princesses deal with that mess the portal was spewing out. However I also came here to congratulate you on fixing the problem Celestia caused.”

        “Fixing the problem? Wait, does that mean…”

        “Indeed you little alien, the barriers have been restored, more or less.”

        “Wait, how can you tell?” Twilight asked. “And more importantly, why would you care?”

        “Why Twilight, I couldn’t have aliens coming in and turning Equestria into a wasteland, if what Aether told me is correct. It would be fun at first, but then there would be nothing left. Then it would be dreadfully boring. Besides, I’m the Spirit of Disharmony, of course I would know when the barriers aren’t normal.”

        Letting out a sigh of relief, I said, “Well, that’s good to know then, no more things slipping in. Now we just have to worry about something coming in intentionally.”

        “Intentionally? Are you saying that we could still have something dreadful come to our world?” Rarity asked, lifting a hoof to her mouth in shock.

        Nodding, I answered, “Yes, though I have no idea when they will come. Could be in months, could be in years, or maybe even centuries later. But I do know that they will come, you can’t have so many probes lost without anypony noticing. Some species will investigate, eventually. For now though, we have a bigger problem.”

        “Another problem, what danger must we face now?” Luna questioned.

        “...All the stuff that came out of the portal?” Seeing blank looks, I facehoofed as I continued, “We need to gather all the stuff that came out and inspect it carefully. You may not think so, but it is possible that something dangerous came out.”

        “I’ll have the Royal Guard screen the forest,” Celestia replied.

        “Okay… just make sure that they actually prevent ponies from getting into the forest this time.”

        “This time?”

        “Your Royal Guard are horrible at their job. I was able to sneak in, take some shards that I had hidden, and got out with not one of them wiser. I even tossed a rock at a tree, only to see one guard investigated, then went on patrol like nothing happened.”

        “I’ll… have a talk with them when I can,” Celestia said as she blinked at that revelation.

        “Be sure that you do… I just realized something…” I said as my ears folded down.

        “What is it?” Twilight asked.

        “Remember the last time something happened over White Tail Woods?”

        “Of course we remembered, who can’t forget an explosion out of nowhere like that?” Rainbow complained.

        “Well… who would be interested in checking out something that normally doesn’t happen around here?”

        “What are you talkin’ abo…” Applejack started to say before her eyes widen. “Apple Bloom!” she yelled as she turned tail and ran in what I think may be the direction of Ponyville. 

        This of course got Rarity to make the same realization as she shrieked, “Sweetie Belle!” as she quickly followed Applejack.

        “...You don’t think the Crusaders would come here… right?” Rainbow asked, only to receive a deadpan look from me.

        “Rainbow… it’s the Crusaders. On another note, we really need to keep them away from this stuff, unlike the explosion, I have no idea what dangerous stuff came out of the portal. For all I know, it may turn one of them into a horrible monster.” My words of course led to the predictable result of causing the rest of Elements to freak out before they ran off to follow their two friends, with the Royal Guard following suit.

        “Do you really think that could happen?” Celestia asked.

        “Eh, it’s a possibility, though highly unlikely. Still, best they get find the Crusaders before anything happens.”

        “Then why art thou not following them to aid your friends?” Luna questioned.

        “Cause I have enough excitement in one day. Also, if they see me with my Cutie Mark coming out of the forest, it’ll only make them want to come in even more,” I explained as I rubbed a hoof against my head.

        Still… how am I going to explain this to them without them getting anymore terrible ideas…