"Why..." you sighed, exhausted from the work you had done today at Sweet Apple Acres, "Why is there so much to pack!"

You stood in the middle of your room, staring at one side of the room where at least a dozen different objects were located. During the amount of time you had lived here, you had no idea that you even owned this much stuff.

To start, there was a desk that you rarely used. You probably didn't need to bring furniture with you, but what was on the desk was a different story.
At least three different Daring Do books were piled up neatly on one side of the desk, as well as a fourth one laying open in the middle. You rarely used the desk, but the last time you did you clearly forgot to put your book away afterwards. Looming over the open book was a small desk light, and you were unsure about whether you would need that.

By Earth's standards, this wasn't a lot, but in Equestria? Cardboard boxes were a lot less common than you would think, and even then, there was still the issue of having to get said boxes up to Rainbow's house.
Which, in case you forgot, was floating.

"Do you need any help?" Twilight asked, cheerfully poking her head into your room through your open door.

"Probably..." you said, slowly looking around your room with an increasing feeling of dread in your stomach. The amount of packing you were going to have to do was beginning to play on your mind.
Or at least, that was what you thought was causing the sense of dread that was lingering over you.

At least Twilight seemed pretty happy about packing stuff away, so that made you feel a little better.

"Why do I even have this stuff?" you asked yourself, deciding to take a look under your bed. There was a few bags of bits, which was to be expected, as well as an empty shoe box. Pony's did not wear shoes, so how that got there was beyond your comprehension.

"This might speed things up a little." Twilight said, her horn suddenly starting to glow purple. You watched as almost everything in the room was swept up in a torrent of purple smoke and placed into the one box that wasn't full. Even then, there was still quite a lot of things remaining under your bed.
It was like a portal to another world. A world where everything was made of junk and bits

"Yeah, I think it did." you said, watching as Twilight finished up closing the box, "Hey, why doesn't Spike come up and help?"

"That's not a bad idea. Spike!" Twilight called. You weren't sure what Spike would do to help, but his company would have been welcome nonetheless.

As Twilight continued to call for the baby dragon, you could feel yourself becoming increasingly dreary. It was like every day you had ever worked at Sweet Apple Acres had suddenly been thrown onto you in an instant.

"Twilight, I don't feel so good..." you said, very much aware of your increasing fatigue, "Maybe we could finish packing tomorrow?"

Twilight instantly stopped calling for Spike, who seemed like he hadn't heard her anyway. Chances are, he was already asleep.

"Sure! Are you feeling ok?" she asked.

You didn't feel bad, so to speak. It was just a tiredness like you had never felt before. The only thing that really did make it feel bad, was that you didn't understand why you were feeling it.

"Y-yeah, just tired..." you answered, the need for sleep still on the rise. You instinctively began to make your way towards the bed, which thankfully didn't need to be packed.

"Ok, well... Get some rest, ok?" Twilight instructed, maintaining her usual positivity, "We'll carry on packing in the morning."

Twilight seemed to be staying optimistic about your sudden fatigue, but in reality she was a little worried by it. She had never seen somepony go from perfectly fine to almost asleep in under a second.

"Ok. Night, Twilight." you replied, slowly getting into your bed.

Twilight switched off the light with her magic, and slowly closed the door. Now, the only thing illuminating your room was the faint yellow light of the corridor. Even the moon seemed darker than normal, as if it's usual keeper was busy with something else.

You closed your eyes, your sleepiness still escalating due to unknown reasons, and instantly you were asleep. It was almost scary how fast it happened.

And then you opened your eyes again, only to be greeted to something that was oh so familiar. The recurring dream from when you had first arrived in Equestria was back, and it was just as vivid as you remembered.

Your old apartment room was still just as you left it, only this time you weren't in your human form. You couldn't even remember it. That part of you was long gone; now only faint recollections of past experiences remained.

Sitting up in your bed, you attempted to stretch out your wings, but to no avail. You were well aware that this was only a dream, but this felt real.
It almost felt like you truly had entered another world.

Looking out your window, the sky was still blood red, just like last time. The clouds were dark, and the streets of Manhatten were abandoned. Nothing living was here, except for you.

Or that was what you thought.

That constant unintelligible voice that always seemed to be present in this dream was still humming away in the back of your mind, but something else was here. Another being was lurking in the dream with you, and its presence felt malicious, to say the least.

Confirming your suspicion that you weren't alone, the relative silence was interrupted by a clawing at your window. Whatever it was that was out there, it wanted to get in.
You wanted to get away from it, play it safe, but you also felt the desire to stay and watch. Your instincts were telling you to stay back, but your curiosity told you otherwise.

Soon enough, the cause of the clawing made an entrance. Clinging onto the outside of your window was the most horrific entity you had ever seen.

It was all black, almost as if staring into a void, and had four long, spindly legs which connected to its spherical body. It almost resembled a spider, but with far less legs. The only facial feature it had was one huge red eye dead centre in the middle of it's body.
The most surprising thing about it was that, despite clearly not being a pony, it had it's own cutie mark. On the side of it's pitch black body was an orange ball, with a yellow disk in the centre. It almost looked like the yellow colouring of its cutie mark was being locked away by the orange.

The creatures glowing red eye pierced you, but still you didn't feel the need to run. It was now beginning to claw at your window even more aggressive, and you could now see scratch marks forming on the glass.

You could feel yourself beginning to become a little scared, but then you felt something else.

The feeling of another presence in your dream. And, thankfully, this one felt a lot less... evil than this creature. It felt calming, in a way.

Whatever that other presence was was either invisible, or simply hadn't showed up yet, as right now it was still only you and the creature. That was until you felt a tap on one of your forelegs.

Turning around in an instant, all you could see was Princess Luna standing before you. This was a fairly strange situation to meet in, but at last you were able to see her in person. But... was she even real?

"Run." was all she said to you, forcing you out of your bed with a powerful gust of magic. You were about to question why, but you instantly understood when you heard the sound of shattering glass.

The creature was in your room. And that wasn't all, there were also multiple of them, each with the same exact cutie mark.

"Oh, shit!" you exclaimed, as you quickly turned towards your bedroom door.

Princess Luna fired a purple beam of light towards one of the creatures, causing it to dissolve into nothingness in a spectacular array of purple lights, "Go! I'll hold them off!"

You weren't about to argue with her. Swinging open your door, you immediately began sprinting down the corridor that waited outside. You thought about what a strange dream this was to be having, but something told you this wasn't just a dream.

After what felt like a minute of nonstop running, the corridor never seemed to end, constantly expanding further and further into the foggy horizon.
Perhaps you hadn't been running all that fast after all, as Princess Luna had somehow caught up to you, without any of the creatures giving chase.

"Walk into the wall." she instructed, a manner of seriousity about her.

"Ok..." you replied, a little confused. Even though this was a dream, you had your doubts that walking into a wall would-

Oh. It seemed that walking into the wall actually did take you to somewhere. In fact, you couldn't even recall a room like this being here.

It was a plain room, with no real decorations, and just boxes. Boxes were scattered everywhere. Chances are, this room didn't really exist, and simply existed right now due to your dread of packing the remaining items back in your room.

Princess Luna let out a heavy sigh, before taking a seat on one of the many boxes.

"You probably have a lot of questions." she said.

Despite being in the presence of royalty, you didn't feel it necessary to be all that formal. Especially considering what had just happened, "Yeah, what were those things?"

"I, and the many other ponies who have seen them, call them 'Observers'," Luna explained, "We call them that because of what they do. They observe dreams."

You took a seat on the box opposite her, instinctively stretching your wings to fly up to it, but then remembering that you couldn't fly.

"Are they meant to attack like that?" you asked, having a slight feeling that their names were misleading.

"No, but they seem to be... attracted to you quite strongly, Storm." she said, looking up finally meet your eyes.

"Me? What for?" you asked, "I mean, aside from being from another world."

Despite never directly telling either princesses, if Celestia already knew about your secret, then Luna almost certainly did too.

"I trust that Twilight has told you about your abilities?" she inquired. Assuming she was talking about determination, you nodded your head, "That is why. While we don't know much about your magic, the Observers seem to take a liking to it."

"If that's the case, then doesn't that mean that they've been exposed to determination before?" you asked, feeling your mind filling up with different theories.

"It may. There was only one other pony to ever use determination magic, and he dissapeard without a trace. Maybe the Observers got to him?" Luna explained.

You remembered the stories that Twilight had told you about that mysterious pony. About how a mysterious shadowy figure would roam the outskirts of cities, a yellow glowing horn with untraceable magic.

"Did you... know anything about that pony?" you asked, feeling a hunger for more information. If you were ever going to get anywhere with this power, you at least needed to know how to use it.

Luna closed her eyes for a brief moment, staring at the floor as if in recollection.

"It would be wise that you don't find out more than you need too." she said, opening her eyes.

Was that a threat? Maybe, but you also couldn't understand why she was still being so formal. Of course, she was one of the princesses, and this was a pretty serious situation, but now that the immediate threat was gone, there was no need to be so formal, "It appears your waking time is soon. We don't have long."

"Long for what?" you asked, feeling a sudden sense of urgency.

"Your task." she replied. As if you didn't already have enough to do. You had to pack boxes. That was more than enough things to do, thank you.
Noticing your lack of a reply, Luna continued, "You must find out how to control your magic, Storm."

"How do I do that? I don't even know what my magic is!" you exclaimed, suddenly feeling incredibly pressured.

"I'm sure your friends would be willing to help you." Luna said, with a smile. That had given you some ideas, to say the least.

Surely 'determination' wasn't just a name, right?

"Once you have control of your magic," she added, her smile quickly fading. You stared her dead in the eyes for a second, but her smile returned, "I will tell you what to do next."

"What do I need my magic for though?" you asked, suddenly wondering why you had to learn your magic. So far, you couldn't see any real reason to learn it, other than to learn more about it.

Luna didn't reply, and instead all you could hear was the shrill cry of an Observer in the distance.

"Just try to learn your magic, and we'll meet again." Luna said, reassuring you with a smile. You weren't really sure how you were supposed to contact her, but your trusted her.
Maybe you could get Spike to send her a letter?

"Ok..." you replied. You had to admit, you were a little unnerved, "It was nice to meet you, princess. Except for the part when we got attacked."

"It was nice to meet you too, Storm. Farewell for now." Luna said, laughing slightly under her breath as you felt yourself begin to awaken. The dream world around you, aswell as all the characters within it, began to fade away.

Pretty soon, you were back in the Golden Oak Library, resting on your bed. Turning yourself around so that you were no longer facing a wall, you could evidently see that it was very late at night.
There was no point in getting back up, so you assumed it best to actually get some sleep now.

After all, now there was even more for you to do. You had to move in with Rainbow and learn your magic as soon as you possibly could.

You had to admit, learning this ability that was practically unheard of seemed... impossible.

But if you stayed determined, maybe...

Just maybe...

You could do it.

Author's Notes:

I'm back a little earlier than I thought. I wrote most of this chapter the same night I posted the last one, so this wasn't too hard to finish off. The next few chapters are all more story focused, but there are still a few slice of life ones in there. There is also another mature chapter planned, just as a heads up.
For some reason, I had a lot of trouble keeping Luna in character. I don't know what it is about her, or if I even succeeded, but I really struggle to write her dialogue. That's a problem because she's a pretty important character from this point onwards.
And one more thing, what do you all think of the cover art? I'm not really sure, as an MLP art style is something I've never really tried before. If you all like it, I'll keep it, but otherwise I'm always up to try something else. The more I experiment, the higher the chances of something better showing up, after all.
Anyway, thanks for reading!