The rough sand burned her hooves as she walked, though after hours of walking, she had gotten used to it. As she trekked, her mind eventually slipped focus from the pulling feel she was experiencing earlier and more into her own thoughts.

Where was she again? Oh, right. She arrived here from somewhere somehow and doesn't remember a thing other than her own name and her wife whose name was probably Twilight. Twilight something. She didn't know the other part. It was stupid. Just thinking about it made her stomp her hoof in the sand, causing her to flinch because her hoof had been actually burned from traveling on the hot sand for so long.

Then she thought back to when she first woke up. It was weird- she just knew stuff. It was like a gut feeling, you just have to follow it, y'know? Maybe, since her brain obviously held answers, she could just search through it and try to remember something. Trying for what seemed like the millionth time, she closed her eyes and looked within herself only to find the same thing she had found from the previous bazillion attempts; a feeling of total emptiness. Like a part of herself was missing.

It felt unnatural, to say the least. "Yeah, just like the pull I've been following for-fucking-ever..." Rainbow grumbled to herself. "I don't know, maybe it fucking lied to me or something," she spoke to herself angrily.

And as she continued to walk, she saw the sun set in the distance before eventually going underneath the hill completely, going out of view. How long has it been?! She groaned loudly and fell to the floor, covering her face with a hoof and mumbling something about how stupid all of this was. Her muscles were growing weaker and she was running on empty. She figured it was time to take a nap.

She took her hoof off her face and looked around to find a good place to rest. Oh, right. Sand. It's all sand. "Celestia, damn it!"

~~~

Waking up the next morning was about as painful as falling asleep. Her eyes opened and got sand immediately stuck in her eyes. She spent a good ten minutes wiping herself and her face of any sand particles that got into any nook or cranny.

Walking was about the same too, that was until she started to notice a change in territory. "What the-"

As she climbed a hill of sand, she looked over and started seeing dirt. Like actual dirt. Even though there was no grass, the new surface to walk on was a nice change of pace. It lifted her moods and she walked with more of a stride in her step. Maybe she was almost there?

And as she continued to walk, the dirt started introducing some bits of rock, a little bit of dead weeds, before stretching out to actually seeing dead trees. Like full on trees, not little plants. And eventually the terrain got bumpier, more diverse, different. To be completely honest with herself, it was admittedly quite fun. She took in the new sights (even though there was not much to see) and cherished it.

It was enough to keep her entertained for a good hour or two. Well, before she got bored. Then it was back to just walking. Endless walking.

Though, her eyes lit up when she saw something in the distance. Is that a town?! "Holy shit!"

She saw, in the very very far distance, some wreckage forming what seemed to be a small village of sorts. The mysterious pull had led her in the right direction. "Thank you, whatever you are," she chuckled lightly before running off in a full sprint towards the town.

By the time she got there, she was panting, trying to suck up as much oxygen into her lungs as possible. She gave herself a second to relax, but her excitement quickly got the better of her and continued running into the abandoned establishment.

"Nice!" she spoke to herself. She spotted a building in the distance. "They even got a boutique! Well, it's abandoned, but it's still a boutique!" Though, with the feeling of new accomplishment held an unsettling feeling of familiarity. She decided to shrug it off.

Then, all of a sudden, that pull from earlier, the same one that had led her there, doubled intensity, making her stumble forwards and land on her knees. "What the heck-" Her head began to pulse in pain, like tiny daggers were stabbing at her, making her bleed all over. Then, an overwhelming sense of fear struck her heart out of nowhere.

She didn't know why, but she knew she had to move.

Quickly, she picked herself back up and started moving at a slight jog in just a direction. She didn't know where she was going, but just followed her gut feeling. The pull had for some reason stopped directing her.

Y'know, she thought to herself, I probably should not be out in the open like this... She quickly made her way to a nearby building and shut herself in. She tried to lock the door behind her, but realized that all the stuff was so broken down that the door had no lock.

"I'm safe... safe..." she muttered quietly to herself. She tried to calm her breathing.

A few seconds passed before a low growl sounded from behind her. Her eyes grew wide and she quickly turned behind her to see two yellow eyes staring at her through the darkness. "Oh, fuck!" she shouted, nearly screaming like a school-girl before booking it back outside and slamming the door behind her.

It didn't help much as the door was knocked completely off of its hinges, shattering into multiple pieces revealing the attacker. It looked like a wolf, although its fur and skin was replaced with large chunks of wood and bark, acting like armor. It bore sharp wooden teeth and its eyes glowed with some sort of magical aura. This seems familiar...

She shakily got into a battle stance and locked eyes with the beast, who bared its teeth and snarled. She snarled back. What are you doing? Those things travel in packs! Get out of there! Her brain screamed at her. They what?!

All of a sudden, she got tackled from behind her by another wooden-wolf-thingy and scraped her face on the rocky floor, causing it to cut open and bleed. She quickly turned around to face the second wolf and put up her hooves to block as the wolf's teeth came down onto her left hoof.

Panicking, she started smacking the wolf in the face repeatedly, hoping to get it loose but to no avail. Then, its eyes shun brighter than normal and its teeth started to glow before the force on her leg increased by about ten fold, making her scream in pain as it was ripped clean off, spurting blood everywhere.

She kicked the wolf back slightly and started inching backwards holding up her other hoof as defense, crying out in pain as her open wound burned like Tartarus. Her eyes widened in fear when her attacker threw the ripped limb aside and went in again for another attack, this time shoving her other foreleg aside and aiming for her neck.

She didn't have enough time to react before it bit into her flesh and shook her body rapidly, quickly snapping her neck, causing her body to go limp.

The last thing she saw were two more wolves approaching hungrily, looking ready to feast. And as her consciousness slowly faded away for the last time, a single tear fell from her eye.

"Shit!"

The ship's alarm screamed at her to do something as her right engine was taken out.

"Fuck! Oh, fuck!"

The ship came crashing down into the rough sand.

Rainbow gasped as she woke up. She could hear herself hyperventilating as her breaths echoed through her helmet, which she had on. Quickly, she threw it off and sat herself up, trying to calm her breaths as to not get a heart attack. She looked around herself.

I'm... back at the ship? She closed her eyes and shook her head before opening them again and rescanning her environment, trying to make sure that what she was seeing was real. Unless her eyes were deceiving her, she was indeed back in the ship...

"What the fuck?"

Author's Note

In case you couldn't tell, this was inspired by Returnal (even though I have not beat the game. It is really hard.). I had fun writing this chapter, even though it's quite short. Hope you like it though! Remember that feedback is always welcome!

Version History:
V1.0 - Wrote the chapter in all of its original glory. Probably will come back to it later for some small fix ups.
V1.0.1 - Made a small detail change.