"Soooo..." Rainbow said as soon as you entered her house, "How the heck are you able to use magic?"

That was a question you had been wondering yourself. You had always been thinking about how you can use your magic, but never really considered how you had magic to begin with.

"I actually have no idea." you said, only to be met with another question.

"Well what can you do? I mean, what you just did has to be the most awesome thing I've ever seen!" she said, making you blush despite not knowing how you did it. It wasn't very often that Rainbow Dash gave somepony a compliment like that.

"I think I froze time..." you said, reliving the moment over and over again in your head. It was quite difficult to comprehend, honestly.

Rainbow gave you an abrupt laugh in response, as if not believing such a thing was possible, "No way! You just teleported or something!"

Right. Anypony that saw you would think you teleported. They wouldn't exactly be able to see you when time was frozen. That being said though, maybe you didn't actually freeze time.

"To me it seemed like time was frozen, but maybe my magic just makes me fly faster?" you wondered, moreso talking to yourself rather than responding to Rainbow.

"So you were flying that fast that it looked like you teleported?" she asked, beginning to seem a little more confused. You could understand why, as time was quite a difficult concept to understand the more you thought about it.

"No, but maybe I was flying faster than time..." you theorized, beginning to realise that your magic seemed to primarily affect your flight speed, "That would also explain how I didn't cause a Sonic Surge when we first raced..."

"I knew it! You did cheat!" she exclaimed, seeming amused that you finally admitted it.

"Yeah, but..." you began, "I still don't really know what causes it."

Rainbow could tell that you were disappointed, as despite saving her life, you still didn't understand what caused your abilities to trigger.

"Why not try doing it again? I mean, I think it'd pretty cool to see it again." she suggested, but you really weren't feeling up to it. It was pretty difficult flying back up to the house; using that much of your magic had taken a lot out of you.

"I don't think I can. I might go take a nap or something." you said, beginning to make your way towards the stairs.

"Huh? What for?" she asked, seeming a little disappointed. Despite her eagerness to see your magic in action, you hoped that she would understand.

"Using that much magic has really tired me out. Pegasi aren't even supposed to use magic, after all." you explained.

Rainbow gave a frown, realising that maybe she was being to demanding. She couldn't really expect you to use your magic for no good reason when you didn't even know how to activate it.

"Oh, right. Sorry." she said, apologetically.

You gave her a warm smile, hoping to lift her spirits, "Hey, it's ok. I'll see you when I wake up."

Rainbow responded with her own smile before you turned and continued your way up the stairs. Entering Rainbow's bedroom, you leapt onto the fluffy cloud bed and felt warmth embrace you. It still surprised you how nice lying down on clouds felt.
For once, you could fall asleep with the sun shining down on you, rather than the moonlight.

Almost instantly, sleep came.

Not long later, you opened your eyes, but you were not in Rainbow's room. Instead, you were in a black void, illuminated only by magical yellow streaks that lit up the sky like galaxies.
It was really quite beautiful.

There were no stars, simply colourful novas of yellow light that streaked across the sky like tye die. Ontop of that, it was also strangely silent. Nothing at all made a sound.

"Greetings, Storm." you heard a familiar voice call from behind you. Almost proudly, you turned around to Princess Luna standing with you in the void.
If she was in your dream, then you had surely made some progress with your magic training.

"Hi." you said, awkwardly. Even though you had met both the princesses, you were still unsure of how to start a conversation with them.

"I see you've made some progress in your training." she said with a smile.

"Not really. I know how to use it, but I don't know how to activate it." you said, sadly. You were hoping that after the events of that race, you would know at least a little more about your magic.

Luna let out a faint laugh, as if knowing something that you didn't, "I'm sure that deep down, you'll know how to use it when it's needed."

You weren't sure what that meant, but were thankful for her encouragement either way.

"I did say I would tell you more once you had learnt your magic, right?" she asked, even though she already knew the answer, "Well, I suppose the time has come."

Even though you didn't know what there was to tell just yet, she was building it up like the climax of a story. Surely it must've been important.

"That Unicorn that once stalked the cities of Equestria... He had no name, but his goals were known. Atleast to me and my sister, anyway," Now you could see where this going, "With the amount of ponies in places like Manehatten, determination was quite a common trait there."

This didn't feel like the time to interrupt, so you simply sat and let her continue her story.

"Although you and him are the only ponies able to use determination magic, any pony who feels determination excretes it into the air, like a magical aura. This Unicorn seaked to absorb as much of this energy as he could in order to enhance his magical power. If he was to succeed, Equestria would fall."

As she explained, you began to wonder what happened to this evil unicorn. Thankfully, the answers to all of your questions were coming up.

"Me and my sister found out about his plans, and I banished to the dream world and destroyed his physical form. Now he lives as..." Luna paused for a second, before continuing, "Now he lives, shattered into many pieces, as the Observers. We simply call him 'Null' as he lacks the ability to exist in the physical world. This is also why the Observers seem to be so attracted to you, Storm. They can sense your magical capabilities, and wish to harness it for themselves in order to become whole again."

You could feel worry beginning to well up inside of you. If you were to be caught by the Observers, dream or not, there was a chance that Equestria would be put into danger. Danger that the elements of harmony potentially wouldn't be able to save it from.

"I can see that this is worryingly you..." Luna said, solemnly. You had to admit, it didn't exactly make you feel good that the shattered soul of an evil unicorn was trying to drain your magic from you.

"Yeah... A little..." you sighed. 'A little' was probably an understatement. The fate of Equestria had been resting on your dreams for a long time, and you ever even knew it.
Thankfully, the Observers had only appeared once, and Luna had appeared to save you. But if she wasn't there to save you... That was something you didn't want to think about.

"Don't worry. Pretty soon, you will awaken the seventh element. Then, no matter what the Observers try, they will never be able to break you." she said, reassuringly, "Actually, you may have done just that already."

Princess Luna gave you a smirk, once again indicating that she knew you something that you didn't.

"What do you mean?" you asked.

"You haven't happened to be glowing yellow recently, have you?" she asked, an all knowing smirk on her face. Then you began to recall that moment...

The moment when you saw that boulder falling towards Rainbow Dash, almost ensuring her death. But then you began to glow yellow, and time stopped.

"Yeah, actually." you said, thinking back to your theory about being able to fly faster than time.

Princess Luna gave you a proud smile, "Then the seventh element is already awake."

She turned to face the swirling yellow novas that were strung across the black sky, and so did you. Your jaw dropped with amazement as the golden yellow swirls began to moved, weaving across one another, until they finally met.
Together, the yellow swirls formed the seventh element. Your element. A golden yellow lightning bolt, flipped upside down as if reflecting off of something.

"The element of determination." Princess Luna said with a smile, watching over it proudly, "This element represents something, much like the others. While the element of kindness represents ones ability to feel compassion, and the element of loyalty represents ones ability to stay true to something or somepony, this element represents your ability to bounce back after a defeat."

You had honestly never been more proud. You actually had your very own element of harmony.

"No matter how many times you are knocked down, you will always get back up again. In the end, that is what determination is." Luna explained, turning to face you.

Despite the overwhelming feeling of proudness you could feel, there was a question lingering in the back of your mind.

"Where are the black stains?" you asked, the smile disappearing off of your face as you stared at your element. Compared to the time you had seen it in your dreams prior, it looked to... shiny.
It looked to new, too colourful. While the element in your previous dream wasn't emitting any light, and had shadowy stains all over it. The outline was black, emitting dark fog as if corrupted, while here it glowed the brightest yellow.

"What do you mean, Storm?" Luna asked, seeming confused. Perhaps the last time you had seen your element in a dream, it had been merely that.

A dream.

"Oh, nothing, it doesn't matter." you said, deciding to forget about it for the time being. After all, you would much rather focus on the positives of this moment.

"Very well," Luna said, a smile returning to her face, "Now that this element has awoken, Null should not be able to drain your magic. Even the Observers cannot overpower the strength of an element of harmony."

Luna looked at you proudly, before giving you one final task, "Now all you need to do is tell the others about your element. If you ever need to use it, it will be at it's most powerful with the other elements alongside it."

So all you had left to do was tell the others? Easy enough. You could organise a meeting at Sugarcube Corner and tell them all there.
Although, you were unsure how they would all take a seventh element being added to the roster.

"But don't I need something to wear? Like, to summon my element?" you asked, recalling the crown that Twilight needed to wear in order to use her element of magic.

"No. As long as you are determined enough, you can summon it whenever you need to. You already did it once." she said with a wink.

The one time you had used it, it had been an accident and Rainbow's life was on the line. Surely it wouldn't come down to having to use it again, right?
Despite this, you could feel excitement welling up within you.

"It seems our time is running short." Luna said, sensing the end of your dream nearing.

You only had a few moments left before you would wake up in Rainbow's bed, but you still had one thing left to say to her.

"Thank you." you said, a smile on your face.

Luna seemed almost surprised by your sudden gratitude, "What for?"

"For guiding me." you explained.

"It was my pleasure." Luna replied sincerely, with an equally warm smile on her face. As soon as those words left her mouth, you could already feel your grip on the dream world loosening. You were waking up.

You gave your element of determination one last look, before closing you eyes.

A blinding flash filled your vision, and as soon as you opened them, you were met with white walls and sunlight shining onto your face.

"Finally! I was about to get in and fall asleep with you!" a scratchy voice exclaimed behind you.

Rolling over, you were met with Rainbow Dash standing at the foot of the bed. Honestly, it hadn't really even felt like you had slept, but clearly it had been quite a while.

"How long has it been?" you asked, sitting up and rubbing your eyes. The light hurt your eyes a little, but the more of the pain you fought through, the quicker your eyes would be able to adjust.

"A few hours at least," she explained, "But now that you're awake, we can go finish that race and see who the better flyer really is!"

As much as you would have liked to finish the race, it didn't really seem safe anymore. Not that it ever was, but you get the point. Besides, you had something else you needed to do.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea. I've got something else I need to do though," you said, giving Rainbow Dash a look of curiosity, "We have a meeting to attend."

Author's Notes:

So guys, we did it. We reached a thousand views on this story. The fact that we reached this number in such a short amount of time is just phenomenal and I'm just amazed.

If you understood that joke, then you're amazing.

In all seriousness though, 1,000 views is a point that I never saw this story getting too, and in just a few months aswell. This was just a story I wanted to write because I didn't like the fact that FiM ended, so I wanted to write this as a sort of 'It doesn't have to end' kinda thing, but knowing that 1,000 people have taken the time to read this just blows me away. Thank you all so much, because without all of you I probably wouldn't still be writing this.

It's all of you that help give me motivation to keep writing, and help to keep the FiM community alive. Thank you.