"Is it just me, or does nothing seem different?" Rainbow Dash asked as the six of you stepped off of the train. The station was bustling with ponies, all boarding different trains to go to different places. It seemed just as busy as ever, if not more. Clearly the ponies here weren't aware of Null's threat.

"I guess Null hasn't made his move yet." you replied, looking around the station for an exit. Surely enough, you eventually saw a way out of the station hiding behind the crowds of ponies.

You gestured towards the exit, and then began to fly, hovering over everypony that was walking along the ground. As soon as Rainbow and Fluttershy began to follow, you began to wonder why more Pegasi weren't doing this.

"What are we supposed to do?" Rarity asked, insulted that you would choose to simply leave her behind.

"We'll wait for you at the exit." you replied, giving her a smile. You knew that she was only jokingly insulted, but didn't want to push your luck.

As the three of you flew over the crowd, you occasionally caught a glance out of a window. Already, you could see packed streets and huge buildings towering over you. This place was a lot different when compared to Ponyville, and even Canterlot. It felt... Out of place, to put it simply.
On top of that, it made you feel strange. You weren't quite sure why, but it somehow made you feel nostalgic, as if you had visited Manehatten before.

Rainbow Dash landed on the ground below the archway that lead to the outside world, followed by you and Fluttershy. Before long, you could see Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie Pie wading through the large groups of ponies towards you, at a relatively slow pace.

"About time!" Rainbow mocked, crossing her hoofs.

"Now, about that 'Null' character..." Applejack began, as you exited onto the busy streets, "What exactly does he intend to do, again?"

Thanks to Luna, you had an idea of what he planned, but you still had no idea how he was going to fulfill those plans. To be honest, you had absolutely no idea of what to look out for.
Well, aside from Null himself of course.

"Oh, I know!" Pinkie cried, in an excited manner, "He wants to trap all these ponies in the dream world! It sounds pretty fun to be stuck in a dream!"

You admired that she could explain it as if it was a good thing, but you knew that being trapped in a dream was anything but a good thing, "For each pony trapped there, his element-"

"You're element." Rainbow interrupted, still crossing her hoofs in midair.

"Right. My element, more powerful." you explained, unsure as to whether that made any sense.

Applejack seemed to look confused, telling you that maybe you hadn't explained it very well, "But if it's making your element more powerful, ain't that a good thing?"

"He has more control of my element than I do, now." you explained, shaking your head, "If my element gets stronger, that power goes to him."

Seeking to change the subject, you continued looking around. Atleast a dozen different buildings surrounded you, as you stood in a large open square. Each of the buildings towered over you, making you feel dwarfed even for a Pegasus. Considering the fact that Null seemingly hadn't arrived just yet, you saw no harm in making the most of the time you had here. After all, you had prepared all you could for the battle that would eventually arrive.

"We've got some time. How about we go enjoy ourselves for a bit?" you asked, a smile on your face.

"Storm, are you a mind reader?" Pinkie replied, happily.

While you weren't sure how much time you had, you felt like you could get something done within that time. What you wanted to do, however, you weren't sure.

"Everypony meet back here in two hours, okay?" Applejack said, to which everypony responded with a nod. Two hours felt like a long time, but you were unsure if you were going to be able to get even that.

Stood in the centre of the square, you watched each of your friends scatter towards a different activity. Naturally, Rarity began heading towards a clothes store. It had been a while since she had visited one that wasn't ran by her. Pinkie Pie began heading towards a bakery, which was also natural.
Fluttershy, who hadn't said a word since you had arrived in Manehatten, began following the signs towards the nearest park, whilst Applejack simply began wondering the streets, taking in the highrise city buildings. It was certainly a different and unique sight, especially when compared to normal everyday farm life.

Unsurprisingly, Rainbow Dash began heading towards a book store which also happened to have a Daring Do book featured in the window. You had nothing better to do, so you began to follow her, catching up to her in a few seconds.

"Oh, hey, Storm! Came to join me?" she asked, giving you a smirk.

"Yeah, there's nothing else around here that really interest me..." you said, sadly. Out of the many shops and stores located around the square, not one featured anything that you would like.

"Well I'm sure this store will have something that interests you!" she said, happily, pointing a hoof towards the book store across the street. Now that you were closer, you could get a better look at the cover of the book in the window. To your surprise, it happened to be the cover of an unreleased book in the series, set to release later in the month...

'Daring Do and the Dark World.'

Straight away, the title struck your interest, and you wanted to read it. It also kinda reminded you of the story that you had helped Twilight write for Rainbow Dash's birthday: 'Daring Do and the Library of Lost Souls'.

"Pretty cool, right?" Rainbow asked, turning to see your opinion. She had clearly noticed that you had been encaptivated by the cover of the story.

"You know, that does look pretty cool." you answered, agreeing with her. You didn't see why it mattered whether or not you liked the book, though. Either way, you were gonna go with Rainbow because you had nothing else to do for the time being.

As you crossed the street, you found yourself wondering why you didn't just fly across like you did at the station. Come to think of it, why didn't you just fly everywhere? It would take considerably less effort, and would be a lot quicker.

Breaking you out of your thoughts, you felt something... pulling against you. It was as if something you couldn't see was tugging on your left wing.

"Was that you?" you asked, turning to Rainbow Dash.

"Was what me?" she replied, and then you realised that it was a stupid question. Rainbow was walking on your right side, so there was no way she could've touched you on your left wing.

"Nevermind." you said, simply choosing to brush it off as the wind. Rainbow gave you a confused glance, before continuing to cross the street.

Eventually, the two of you reached the other side, and Rainbow excitedly began to move quickly towards the entrance of the book shop. You weren't quite sure why she was so excited, considering she had every last book in the series at her house.

"C'mon, Storm!" she exclaimed, hovering towards the front door and holding it open for you.

As you begin to enter the book shop, you felt it again. The same tugging at your left wing that you had felt a few moments prior. This time you couldn't ignore it; it couldn't just be the wind doing it.

"Where are you going?" Rainbow asked in a concerned tone, as you suddenly turned and began walking away from the book store. At first, you didn't give her a response, and instead decided to walk along the path in the direction that you wing was tugged.

"Something keeps pulling my wing..." you said, looking around for anypony that could potentially be the culprit.

"Well there's nopony around that's gotten close enough to do that." Rainbow replied, "Maybe it's, I don't know, wing strain or something?"

Wing strain. Somehow you doubted that.

Pretty soon, the path you were following split into several directions. One path continued down one street, while another path went straight through the park that you had seen Fluttershy head towards. Honestly, you were unsure of where to go next.

Seemingly sensing your indecisiveness, your wing pulled again, telling you to turn to your left. As you did, you were met with a dark alley.
You could quite say why, but something about that alley felt incredibly off. It was just an ordinary alleyway, but as soon as you layer your eyes upon it, you froze with fear. As you looked down between the two buildings at the street on the other side, the overwhelming sense of nostalgia grew ever stronger, combined with that of fear. You couldn't move.

"Storm? Are you ok?" Rainbow asked, shaking you lightly. Still, you didn't move, "Storm!"

Rainbow's sudden yell seemed to be enough to snap you out of whatever trance you had been put into. You still weren't sure why, but something was definitely wrong with this alleyway.

"S-sorry..." you said, a little startled by the sudden feeling of overwhelming fear, "It was pulling me towards this alleyway."

You weren't sure whether Rainbow Dash was confused, concerned, or even both. Either way, it definitely wasn't common to see somepony suddenly freeze with fear.

"What's so special about an alley?" she asked, flying into the shadow being cast by one the buildings. She picked up a crushed cup, examining it, before throwing it over her head onto the ground behind her.

"I don't know, but..." you said, slowly walking through the alleyway whilst looking at the walls that lined the sides, "It feels familiar, somehow."

As you continued tracing the walls with your vision, you were beginning to give up hope of finding anything, until you noticed something. Out of the corner of your eye, you caught something glinting on the floor, shining despite the fact that no sunlight was reaching it.
As you approached, you began to make out what it was, and it made you feel sick to your stomach.

"What is that?" Rainbow asked, staring down at the switch blade on the ground.

Ordinarily, a simple knife wouldn't have worried you, but as far as you knew, switch blades didn't exist in Equestria. On top of that, the blade that was laying on the ground lacked the cartoony aesthetic that the rest of the world had. It looked way too... Earthly.
It was at that moment when you began to realise what made this place so familiar.

Three hooded figures, barely distinguishable, emerged from around the corner. Their faces were covered by shadow, yet a flash of light caught your eye, slightly below one of their waists.

You stared at the other side of the alley, beginning to recall your final moments on Earth. Slowly, you turned your vision back down towards the small pocket knife, completing the chain of events.

The blade sunk into your chest as you were twisted around to face him. It didn’t hurt, not a single bit. You simply stared at the blade lodged in your chest.

That was the moment that your life as a human ended, and your life in Equestria began. In a way, it was both the worst and best thing that had ever happened to you, but right now, something else was playing on your mind.

If your memories served you correctly, your apartment on Earth was only a short walk away from here. If the alley where your previous life had ended somehow existed in Manehatten, there was a small chance that your old apartment did too. Of course, there was also a pretty high chance that it wouldn't belong to you anymore, but you weren't sure of the punishment for breaking and entering.

"Follow me." you instructed, immediately making your way towards the other end of the dark alley. This was incredibly strange, as the layout of Manehatten was unrecognisable, but for some reason the area around your 'death' seemed to be an almost exact replica of Earth, except for the cartoon aesthetic.

"But..." Rainbow whined, "Daring Do!"

"Daring Do can wait," you said, not really bothered about disappointing her right now. Something was happening and you knew it, "I have to check something."

Rainbow flew along the path at your side as you walked down the street, looking closely at every high-rise building you passed.

"Check what?" she asked, seeming a little irritated that she couldn't go to read her books.

After a only a few minutes of walking, you thought you spotted something familiar. There was a large building, several stories tall, and it looked almost identical to your apartment block. You couldn't remember much about your previous life, but the place you could recall the most was the place that you once called your home.

"We need to go up there." you said, pointing a hoof at the window and then looking to Rainbow to see if she understood. Unfortunately, she simply looked at the window, and then back to you with a confused look on her face.

"What? Why?" she asked, "You know somepony probably lives there, right?"

She almost seemed angry that you would suggest breaking into somepony's house for seemingly no reason, but you thought otherwise. You didn't know for certain, but you had a gut feeling that nopony lived in that room.
In fact, something told you that that room couldn't exist at all. The same could be said for that knife you found in the alleyway.

The way that knife looked was so... off. Almost like they had been ripped directly from Earth, or what Twilight would probably call them: 'anomalies'.

"Just trust me, ok?" you replied, trying to get her to side with you, "I don't think anypony even lives there."

You didn't wait for a response, and began to fly up to the window. You recalled that you never locked it, so it should've been easy to open from the outside.

"Ugh! Fine! You'd better be right!" Rainbow exclaimed, following you up to the window with her hoofs crossed.

As you reached the window, you peered into the room, and surely enough, no furniture was present. Not even any furniture that you once owned was in their. To you, this confirmed your suspicion that nopony was living in the room to begin with.
Hearing no protests from Rainbow Dash, you attempted to open the window, and surely enough, it was unlocked. Double checking that nopony was looking, you slid it open and flew inside, Rainbow following behind you.

"Why'd we have to come up to this old, dirty room when we could be reading Daring-" Mid-sentance, she was cut off as she turned around to face where the main door should have been. Your own jaw dropped as you looked upon the strange black portal before you.
Or, atleast, you assumed it was a portal.

Hovering mere inches away from the back wall was a large circle of pure black energy, white stars twinkling inside of it. Bordering it was a familiar yellow glow; the glow of determination magic.

Null had been here.

"Storm, what is that?" Rainbow asked, in a surprisingly fearful tone.

"We need to go." you explained, not taking your eyes off of the portal, "Null is here and we need to tell everypony."

Right now, your main concern was alerting the rest of your friends of the threat. You knew that Null was going to attack at some point, but you weren't sure when. Atleast now, you knew where his attack would be coming from.

"Ok, yeah. You go to the square and I'll gather everypony." she suggested hurriedly, as the two of you began moving back towards the open window.

As you neared the exit to what was once your apartment, sounds began to emanate from the portal. The sound of voices, but not the voice of Luna.

"Like what I've done with your memories, Storm?" the voice taunted, and it was clearly the voice of Null. Choosing to ignore it, you spread your wings to take flight out of the window, "Come and live in your past forever!"

As the dream demon finished speaking, a yellow tentacle made of magic energy shot out of the portal, black ink stains coating it in places. As your back was turned, it came close to hitting you, but thankfully Rainbow was there.

"Storm!' she exclaimed, as she pulled you to the side, barely allowing you to dodge the incoming attack. You turned to her, giving her a nod as if signalling to get out of there. Following your orders, the two of you took flight towards the window, and split up.

First, Rainbow headed towards the nearest location, the park, in order to find Fluttershy, whilst you headed straight to the square. While you were there, you could collect Rarity and Pinkie Pie too.

Landing outside the clothes shop, you instantly headed inside to find the white unicorn. After a while of searching, you eventually found her busily browsing hats. Personally, you didn't see the appeal of hats on a unicorn, as it hid their horn, but that was besides the point.

"Oh, Storm! Funny seeing you here!" she exclaimed, placing a hat back on display and placing another on her head, "Have you come to examine this marvellous selection of clothes with me!"

"No, it's something more serious." you replied, causing Rarity to look at you with concerned eyes. Sensing that you were being genuine, she placed her hat back on the shelf using her magic, and gave you her full attention.

"We found Null."

"Already?" she cried, looking around upon releasing that other ponies may have heard her, "I simply haven't had enough time!"

"I know, but we need to be ready." you said, attempting to reason with her.

Rarity looked at the many different articles of clothing she was yet to try on, thinking of her friends. She thought of Princess Luna, who was still trapped away in the dream world unable to help protect her kingdom. She thought of Celestia, who was injured to the point where she could also no longer protect her kingdom. And then she thought of Twilight, who the two ponies who she looked up to the most had been both been on the verge of death.

"I suppose I can shop another time." Rarity said with a smile. You responded with your own smile, as if thanking her. She had yet to meet Null, but when she did, she would understand why you needed everypony's help.

As the two of you left the shop, you saw that Rainbow Dash had already arrived, along with Fluttershy and Applejack.

"That was fast!" you called, catching their attention. You were honestly surprised that she was able to find Applejack that quickly, considering she had simply wondered off into the city aimlessly.

"Where's Pinkie?" she asked, looking around.

Almost as if answering her question for you, the pink Earth pony began walking out of the bakery cheerfully. Having her come to you beat having to go get her, after all.

"Oh, hey everypony!" she exclaimed, excitedly.

Before anypony could respond, the entirety of Manehatten began to shake fiercely, accompanied by a faint rumbling sound. Whatever it was, it didn't feel like an earthquake.
It felt less natural.

"What in tarnation is happenin'?" Applejack cried, attempting to maintain her balance. For you, Rainbow and Fluttershy, the shaking was not a problem as you could simply fly above it.

Looking over towards the direction of where you had found Null's portal, you could see something happening. Something was changing within the air, a bright yellow beacon beginning to shine from one of the tall buildings, "I think that answers that question!"

Everypony looked toward such the bright beacon of light, unsure of what it was, as it flowed brighter and brighter, illuminating nearby buildings in the same coloured light.
And then the shaking stopped.

In an instant, the artificial earthquake ceased completely, returning the city to stillness, only it was stiller than it once was.

You and your friends stared into the distant light, watching the figure that hovered in its heavenly glow. Basking in the glow of determination was none other than Null.
You were just glad that you and Rainbow grabbed your friends when you did. Next to you, you heard Fluttershy gulp with fear, while Rainbow looked ready for a fight.

"That's Null, right?" Applejack asked, still looking at the black pony hovering in the beacon.

You nodded in response, "The one and only."

You couldn't help but make a sarcastic comment about the pony, considering all of the pain that he had caused you and your friends. He was going to pay for it eventually, if not here, then somewhere else. You knew what he had planned, but you didn't know if you could stop it.

The only thing you knew for certain, was that the battle for Manehatten had begun.

Author's Notes:

So I'm ill, which isn't good. The next chapter might take a few days or so longer because of that, but I finished this chapter yesterday so I could post it today. I'm probably not gonna start the next chapter until I'm not ill, which is why it's gonna take longer. I know it's not really a good time, considering the next chapter is a pretty major one, but hopefully it shouldn't be too much longer.
I'm sorry about this, but I also hoped you enjoyed this chapter. It was a lot of fun to write, since it combines slice of life and the main plot into one chapter, which is something I haven't really tried before