The mare automatically realized she was dreaming yet again as she opened her eyes drearily, revealing a vast emptiness of pitch-black that spanned for miles at end. Giving a frown of annoyance, she suddenly noticed she was sprawled across the floor, legs spread like an eagle, and slowly got to her hooves. A long series of pops and grunts escaped her tensed muscles as she stretched out her appendages in what seemed like ages.

As Rainbow popped her neck with gritted teeth, she suddenly became aware of another presence somewhere behind her. She reached for her revolver, and instead of the emptiness she was met with last time, a familiar metal object touched her hoof. Quickly inserting her hoof into the cuff, she brought the firearm out of its holster and spun around, expecting a large creature of some sort.

The void of her surroundings was the only thing that met her gaze. Eyes narrowing in concentration, her prominent hearing ear shot up, listening for a disturbance in the relative silence she was trapped in. Nothing. Not a snapping branch, not a gunshot, nothing. It was as if she had just heard it, but the mare wouldn't comply to her inner thoughts. Instead, she closed her eyes, concentrating even harder than she had before.

Clip clop

Opening her eyes with confirmation, she brought the revolver's iron sights up to her eye level and aimed at the creature she now saw in front of her.

Lime green stared into magenta, the razor-like pupils within almost daring the mare to blink away from it. Its jet-black skin was almost invisible to the Pegasus, but her newly sharpened vision all but painted a picture of the hole-filled surface. Sickly blue hair cascaded down from a likewise topped crown, a long, jagged horn erupting from the forehead of the monstrosity that stood before her.

It laughed a disturbing laugh and quickly vanished into thin air as Rainbow fired off a round into the nothingness. As her frustration began to show, she reached into her pocket to retrieve an extra bullet, but found no such thing. Looking through her other pocket gave the same results.

Well then, five rounds left...son of a bitch..

Her senses perked up yet again as she heard an ominous sound coming from her 6 o' clock. Turning tail, she found the being staring at her, it's leathery green wings beating slowly as it hovered in the air. Bringing up her revolver to fire a shot, it disappeared yet again, the round flying off into the distance.

Four...come on out you bug-

Rainbow suddenly felt a heavy weight slam her to the ground, and as she struggled to break free of it, her eyes caught another familiar object lying across her chest, strapped within a worn leather holster.

Her opponent suddenly backed away from its armed victim, placing pressure on the knife wound now present within its neck. Suddenly, the green blood that leaked from the opening began to fade, its origin closing itself up with a glow of the being's horn. It was much smaller than the bug the mare saw before, with full green eyes and a bald, black head.

"Come and get it bug," she said, grabbing a hold of her revolver and aiming it at the insect in front of her. As her hoof slowly pushed the trigger, an orange blur emerged from the blackness, tackling her opponent with bone-crushing strength. As it writhed in pain, its attacker suddenly ended its life with the snap of its neck. The mare dropped its head with a plop and dusted itself off, taking off its light brown Stetson and wiping its brow.

"Rainbow, watch out-"

The mare stopped herself midsentence as said Pegasus threw an elbow behind her, causing the bug attempting to sneak up on her to grab its chest in pain and fall forward onto its face. Its head slowly raised to survey its situation, only to be answered with a well-placed .44 round to its brain. The blood that splashed onto the barrel of the revolver didn't even phase its owner as she lowered it and turned back to her friend.

"Applejack, are you okay?!"

"Ah'm fine Rainbow," she replied, accepting the hug her friend suddenly wrapped her in, "Ah was wonderin' th' same thing until ya did....that.."

Breaking away from the embrace, Rainbow replied, "Oh pfft, that was nothing. What the hell are these things?"

"....so ya don't remember anythin' do you? Last time Ah asked ya, ya disappeared on me."

Scratching her head in thought, Rainbow said, "No, I don't. All I remember was the wedding..."

"Y'all must've blacked out when the changelings attacked then-"

"Changelings?! I thought those were just native to the Badlands! I didn't know they were someplace else too!" The Pegasus exclaimed, mouth hanging open in disbelief, "So what even happened then?!"

"Well Rainbow, Ah think you'll need to sit down if ya wanna hear all of this..."

The mare complied, sitting down on her haunches as she suddenly released a breathe she hadn't realized she was holding, awaiting the grave news she never thought she's hear..

Author's Note

Just a quick update here, it's a short one for purposes related to the next chapter.