The Rainbooms, or rather "Rainbats", were staring out into the darkness of a nighttime forest they didn't recognize. Twilight and the others were scanning their surroundings with echolocation.

All they saw around them was seemingly endless forest. Although, they could make out large amounts of flying insects. The "sight" of all these insects made the girls lick their lips in response.

"That's interesting. I'm finding this abundance of insects to be... appetizing" Twilight said.

"I know, darling. I'm too hungry to find focus on the fact that these are insects" Rarity chimed in.

"I think it may be because of the fact that since we're all insectivorous bat species, we must have the instincts of bats" Fluttershy guessed.

"Well, since we're hungry for bugs, let's not sit here with our bellies growling! Let's eat!" Rainbow said before jumping off the tree.

"RAINBOW!!" the girls cried out in unison.

But Rainbow didn't fall to the ground as they feared. Instead, she flapped her wings and took off like a lightning bolt. Being a Brazilian Free-Tailed Bat, Rainbow was fast. She was eating insect after insect at an incredible rate of speed. The Rainbats took this as the cue to take off and eat.

The Rainbats launched themselves into the air all at once to fly off and hunt. Applejack spotted a centipede crawling up a tree and threw herself at the creature, crunching it with her teeth. Pinkie ate several June bugs, which left a strangely sweet taste on her tongue. The others were focusing on mosquitos, gnats, and moths. The girls were all surprised at not only how good the insects tasted, but the amount of insects they ate.

After a few hours of hunting, the Rainbats met back at their roost to rest and digest. They all had the contented looks on their faces that came with having full bellies.

"I can't even remember the last time I ate that good" Rainbow said.

"I ate more than I thought was possible" Fluttershy chimed in.

"That centipede tasted like pork" Applejack said.

"Those mosquitos are surprisingly filling" Sunset said.

"Who knew June bugs could taste like cupcakes?" Pinkie asked.

"Well, now that we've eaten, we need to decide what to do about our current situation" Twilight said.

"Twilight's right. We need to figure out how to return to our world. Obviously, building another portal device is out of the question" Sunset said.

The rest of the girls started to put their heads together to figure out what to do next. After a few more minutes of thinking, Pinkie's ears shot up.

"I have an idea! Why don't we try to find other bats and talk to them to see if they anything about our situation?" Pinkie suggested.

"Talk to other bats? I'm not sure how many of them would know about the subject of humans turning into bats or transport between worlds" Sunset said.

"How do we know unless we try? Besides, if we can understand each other, we should be able to communicate with other bats" Fluttershy said.

"Well, it's the best idea we've had so far" Rainbow said.

"Agreed. Investigating by interviewing other bats might just be our best shot" Rarity said.

"Alright, let's go find other bats" Twilight said before taking off flying. The rest of the Rainbats followed suit.

A Few Hours Later

The Rainbats have been flying until their wings were sore. The found a good tree to stop and rest their wings for a bit. They were all panting from the effort of flying.

The girls hadn't found any other bats. No matter where they looked or how far into the forest they flew, there didn't seem to be any other bats to talk to. It did explain why the insect population was so abundant in the area, though.

The girls could make the beginning of dawn with a sliver of sunlight rising over the horizon. They had to find a place to roost for the day. It wouldn't be safe for them to be flying around in daylight.

The Rainbats made it back to the hollow tree they first woke up in and decided to roost there for the day. It was best for them to rest before trying again the next night. Perhaps some bats will be passing through the area. They hooked their claws into the wood and were quick to fall asleep.

At Dusk

The girls were woken up by unfamiliar voices coming from outside their roost. They were voices that the girls could understand. This meant that these voices must be coming from other bats. Finally! Other bats to talk to.

Twilight crawled to the entrance of the roost and looked outside with her echolocation. In her mind's eye, she could make out two other bats perched in some of the branches above them. The other girls gathered and tried to make their way to the other bats.

These other bats were different species. There was a female Eastern Red Bat and a male Silver-Haired Bat perched on the same branch having a conversation. Twilight decided to be the first one to greet themselves.

"Uh, hello!" Twilight greeted.

The two strange bats looked at Twilight and her friends. The male Silver-Haired Bat looked at them a waved his right wing at them.

"Oh, hi. We're new to this forest. My name's Shade Silverwing", the young male said.

"Hey there. I'm Marina Brightwing" the female greeted.

"Hi, my name's Twilight. These are my friends" Twilight said gesturing her wing to the others.

The others all introduced themselves in kind. Once the introductions were over, Shade and Marina looked at them with confused looks on their faces.

"Is that how bats name themselves in this forest?" Marina asked.

"Yeah. Is there a problem with our names?" Rainbow asked defensively.

"No, it's just a bit new to us" Marina replied.

"So, what brings you to this forest?" Applejack asked.

"We're looking for Shade's colony" Marina said.

"Were you separated from your colony somehow?" Fluttershy asked.

"Yeah. A storm blew me off course. I woke up on an island where I met Marina" Shade replied.

"Were you and your colony heading somewhere?" Rainbow asked.

"We were heading to our Hibernaculum after our summer roost, Tree Haven, got burned down by the owls" Shade replied.

Twilight's eyes widened. "Wait, owls burned down your roost?! How?! Why?!"

Shade looked away from them in shame. He was obviously upset about something involving this incident. Marina wrapped one of her wings around him in comfort. It took a while for Shade to respond.

"The reason the owls have fire is because they keep fire burning in secret nests hidden somewhere. As for why they burned our roost, it's because I broke the greatest law known to all bats: I looked at the sun" Shade said.

The Rainbats looked somewhat confused by this. So Shade committed a great taboo by being a bat that looked at the sun, a law enforced by the owls, and the owls punished his entire colony for it.

"That's awful" Fluttershy said.

"Yeah. What gives those owls the right to burn down your roost?" Rarity asked in anger.

"It's because of the Great Treaty. Don't you know your history?" Marina asked.

"Sorry, but we don't really know about this Treaty. What is it?" Pinkie asked.

"Basically, all bats were punished for not taking any sides in the Battle of the Birds and the Beasts. As punishment, bats have to fly at night. But the great Nocturna gave us gifts to act at night" Marina replied.

If the girls had to guess, this "Nocturna" they spoke of was some kind of deity the bats worshipped.

"This is quite interesting. Where were you heading again?" Sunset asked.

"We're on our way to Shade's colony's Hibernaculum and reunite with his colony" Marina asked.

"Hibernaculum?" Rainbow asked.

Now Shade and Marina were looking confused. They were probably thinking that these were the strangest bats they ever met before. Twilight decided to answer for them.

"A Hibernaculum is where bat colonies migrate to to hibernate" Twilight informed Rainbow.

Bat colonies, especially those species that lived in temperate climates, tended to split up depending on the time of year. In the summer months, bat colonies split in to nursery colonies and bachelor colonies. Nursery colonies were made up of mother bats and their pups. Bachelor colonies were made up of adult males. But in the fall, bat colonies would reunite, mate, and migrate to their hibernacula to hibernate.

"What about you? What's your story?" Sunset asked Marina.

Marina showed the Rainbats one of her wings. Fastened near her thumb was a metal band. It was obviously placed there by humans, showing that humans did exist in this world. Marina then pulled her wing close to her in shame. Sh obviously seemed to hate her band.

"What's wrong?" Applejack asked.

Marina took a little while to respond. "I have no colony anymore because of this stupid band. I was banded by the humans in the spring. I immediately went home after that, but when the other Brightwings saw the band, the elders banished me. They think the band is a curse"

Sunset flew over to Marina and gently nuzzled her ear with her nose. Marina gave a small smile at the gesture.

"I found a nice island with no other bats around. I've been living there with no one else to talk to until Shade arrived" Marina said.

"Our leader, Frieda, has a band just like Marina. Frieda will accept Marina with open wings, no questions asked" Shade said.

"This Frieda sounds like a great leader" Twilight said.

"She is. She defended me even when the owls threatened to burn down our roost" Shade said.

"She sacrificed your home just to save you? She really sounds like a great bat" Rainbow said.

"Yeah. She's kind and wise" Shade said.

Twilight suddenly got an idea. "Is it alright if we join you in looking for your colony? We've been meaning to look to join a true colony for a while"

Shade and Marina seemed to be considering this. After a bit, they looked back at the Rainbats.

"Alright, come with us. If you want to join the Silverwing colony, I know they'll accept you all" Shade said.

"Alright, then. Let's all go to Hibernaculum!" Marina exclaimed before taking the lead to fly off.

Shade, Marina, and the Rainbats took off to head for Hibernaculum.

In a Human City-Nighttime

Two pigeons were happily joking and laughing while perched on the roof of a human building. Their backs were facing one of the building's ventilation shafts.

"So get this, Mark kept trying to fight this other pigeon, right? But he just kept hitting the other pigeon in the head with his own head. But then I realized he was trying to fight his won reflection in a window!" one of the pigeons said.

His partner laughed hysterically. They were both laughing so hard that they didn't see the two dark shapes coming out of the vents.

The first pigeon was laughing with his eyes closed. Over the sound of his laughter, he could hear the laughing of his friend suddenly stop. He opened his eyes to see that his friend was no longer there. But the next sound he heard was even more terrifying. He heard the sounds of bones snapping and flesh ripping.

He turned to see the horrifying sight of his friend being seemingly absorbed by a giant black shape. The shape was eating his friend! Another dark shape was looking at him with hungry eyes.

The pigeon realized that these two creatures were bats. But they were bigger and more dangerous than any bats he had ever seen before. They were also big enough to kill a pigeon easily. He didn't want to stick around to get eaten next.

He flew off before the second shape had a chance to pounce on him. He had to go and report this to his superiors.

Author's Note

I'm going to be sticking more closely to the book than to the show because the show took a lot of liberties. Please read the books before watching the show.