//------------------------------//
// Prologue 
// Story: Badlands 
// by Yip 
//------------------------------//

 A leaf fluttered above Ponyville.

Gusting winds howled above the surfaces of sun-kissed rooftops, guiding the leaf along its way across town. Slowly but surely, along with the forces of nature, the pull of gravity made its impact on the leaf’s path, bringing it down closer to ground level with every flutter. Its origin was unknown, its purpose unclear; but the one thing that anypony watching would know about it—if there were any in the first place—was where it was heading.

Straight towards a wide open window of a homely little tree-library, where the resident unicorn was busy brightening up her living space.

‘Ah, finally some fresh air!’ Twilight Sparkle said as she leaned her head out the window, allowing brushes of air to smooth past her purple cheeks. ‘I should’ve known better than to leave the window open. It’s not like it was going to rain or anything...’

‘Twilight, did you finally take a break from your book?’ Spike questioned from the second floor, stretching his arms as high as he could. Taking in a deep breath, he let out a bellowing yawn that nearly startled himself in his half-asleep, eyelid-drooping state. ‘I heard the creaking of the window and figured it was time to get out of bed.’

‘No, it’s fine Spike. You can go back to sleep if you need to; I was just opening the window to let a bit of fresh air come in.’ Craning her head upwards, Twilight stared at the sky, bemused. ‘I can’t believe we have had perfectly clear weather for over a month now. Spike, how long has it been exactly?’

Lifting his claws up to his face, Spike rubbed his eyes as he stumbled down the stairs. ‘Ah... how am I supposed to know that?’

‘We recorded the weather every day to make sure something like “chocolate rain” doesn’t go unrecorded like it did last month, Spike. Is your memory escaping you?’ After a slow nod from the young dragon, a quick motion of Twilight’s hoof towards a simplistic wooden desk directed Spike’s attention. The desk, while undecorated and uncoloured, held several notes and quills placed in neat order. ‘When you get there—if you manage to get there, that is—' Twilight recoiled at Spike's groggy demeanor, 'mark down “few clouds, no precipitation”.’

A sudden sense of attentiveness filled up in Spike's expression as he listened to the request, raising an eyebrow while he slowly began to grasp the situation. 'Wait, I remember that now... another day without funky weather? That's really weird, let me write it down here...' Spike trailed off, making his way towards a thin white quill. In mere moments, its small point was covered in a shining liquid stemming from a half-empty glass inkwell beside the note.

'Great, thank you Spike. Now—'

A quiet whistle sounded through the window, interrupting Twilight mid-sentence. As her horn began glowing a raspberry colour to close the window, she found that it was too late; a burst of wind thrashed its way inside, forcing Twilight’s mane to fly back and nearly knocking her off of her own hooves. As quickly as the burst had begun, a peaceful silence filled the library as her initial surprise began to fade away.

Both Spike and Twilight stood blankly, the dragon staring at the ruffled mess that his friend's mane had become. It took all of his effort to keep his laughter held in at the comedic sight.

'Well, that was quite odd.’ Twilight looked to her friend’s struggle. ‘Is something the matter, Spike? You look like you're about to sneeze or something!'

A quick gesture to her head was all that Spike could give behind his cooped-up laughter.

'I don't know what you're trying to say. What is it—oh, what's this?' Twilight's wandering eyes caught a small, indiscernible object lying on the base of her window's wooden frame. 'Ah, it looks like it came from the gust. Let's see what it is!'

Enveloping the curious item with her magic, it slowly hovered over to a purple, stuck-out hoof. The window was soon enveloped in the same glow as the object had been in and, after a quick movement inwards, the window panes were shut, blocking out any further sound.

Twilight took a look at the pink, blue-veined and almost papery article that was held on her hoof, furrowing her brow as she deepened her fascination into the recent discovery.

‘Uh, Twilight?’ Spike piped in, walking over to the unicorn to take a glimpse for himself. ‘What’s gotten you so focused? The wind is gone, you know.’

‘Yes, I know. But I can’t tell exactly what this is...’ Twilight brought her hoof right up to her eyes, ‘...it looks something similar to a leaf. It’s as if it was a teardrop and it has veins like most leaves would.’

‘So what’s the matter—oh, what is that? Pink and blue do not look good together.’ Spike was now leaning his head right over Twilight’s shoulder with curiosity etched all over his face, prompting a slight jump of surprise.

‘Don’t do that! I’m really focused on this; the surprise doesn’t help.’ Twilight pondered for a moment and took a quick glance at the rows of neat, organized books. ‘But it would help if you could find some catalogues or something for plants. Maybe one of them will have an entry on whatever this... thing is.’

A quick nod of his head and Spike set to work with his ladder, peering over every book’s spine as he passed by each one. Spike muttering several words to himself and shaking his head repeatedly was a common sight for the ensuing minutes. ‘It might just be a painted leaf or something, maybe a prank by Pinkie or somepony else,’ Spike eventually said, turning his head from his search for a brief moment.

‘That would be quite petty, even for Pinkie.’ Twilight shook her head. ‘Besides, even if it was a prank, I want to make sure of that. These veins look too authentic anyway.’

‘Yeah, but—oh, I think I found something!’ Spike pulled out a green-coloured tome from the top shelf, keeping one claw on the ladder for stability. The text proved difficult for the young dragon to grab with just one claw, however, and soon found his balance failing him; falling to the floor was, needless to say, the result.

Still clutching the book, Spike’s descent was halted immediately as he found himself surrounded by a warm, sparkling glow he had already seen several times that day. Twilight was looking straight back at him with a half-smiling, eyebrow-raised expression, and soon after released her magical grip softly enough for him to land safely.

‘Thanks, Twilight.’ Spike held out the book still clutched in his grip. ‘I think this might be what you need.’

Twilight peered over at the book’s cover, keeping the leaf in her hoof steady as she did so. The text on the front read Farmer Green’s 100 Plants! in big yellow writing, but besides that, only green covered the rest of the book.

‘Not much of a fun book, if you ask me,’ Spike inputted.

‘It’s not actually all that much fun to find plants though, is it? Let’s give this a read.’ As the book opened its contents to the two readers, a distinct cracking sound came from its pages, crying out as if from pain. ‘Wow, I’m not sure this book has ever been opened. It’s supposed to have a pleasant sound when it’s opened for the first time, so this must be quite old!’

‘Alright, where should we start?’

‘Well, we have no idea what this would be classified as,’ Twilight said, setting down the leaf in front of the book, ‘so I think looking in the index for “pink” is the best choice.’

With a few more creaks from the paper, pages were flipped from various sorts of green, brown and yellow leaves and plants ready to be analyzed. As the images of different colours and sizes were no longer present, long lists of words took their places.

‘And... here! This is the “p” index, so we should be able to find it if... ah...’

‘Twilight? Is something the matter?’

‘Well, it seems that pink isn’t even in the index, so this leaf is one of either two things; an anomaly like you thought originally, or it could be a new species of plant that nopony has ever discovered. I’d wager that it’s not some new plant, judging by its oddity, but either way we should go tell someone about this and see what they think.’

‘But whom would you ask, Twilight?’

‘I know somepony with a love for wildlife! Maybe she’ll be able to help!’


***


Twilight looked up at the flowery surface covering the majority of the structure in front of her, nearly encompassing everything save a few wooden doors and glass windows scattered here and there. Had a path not been set out towards it, it might have proved difficult to track if Twilight had not been familiar with it beforehand.

‘Look at all of that greenery, Spike. The entire roof—and more, even—is just surrounded by moss and grass or whatnot. Imagine if it was encased in pink like the leaf! That’d look pretty silly, huh?’

Spike looked flatly at Twilight. ‘You’re really curious to find out what that leaf means, don’t you?’

Twilight nodded shyly and turned towards the front door, giving it a few quick knocks before backing away a couple of paces.

‘I was ranting?’ Twilight let out an exasperated sigh. ‘Well, it doesn’t actually matter. Let’s just get this over with so I don’t have to wonder about it.

‘He...hello?’ a calm, quiet voice creeped out from the front door, just barely edging out of the slightly ajar entrance. The sliver of an opening in the door didn’t reveal much, but once a wary eye took a peep out and noticed its visitors, the door swung open. The yellow pony waiting at the front door smiled in delight as her eyes met her guests’ own. ‘Oh, hello Twilight! How are you today—oh! What happened to your mane?'

‘Huh?' A quick movement of the unicorn's hoof and her mangled mane was partially visible in front of her. Spike giggled, but was quickly silenced as a sharp glare was shot in his direction. 'Never mind that. Fluttershy, there was something I wanted you to check out—if you have the time, of course. I wouldn’t want to be a burden.’ Twilight looked to Spike’s bag sheepishly, thinking of the anomaly lying inside and how somepony else would react to it.

‘Oooh, what is it? I’ve got the whole day free, so I’d be glad to help however I can!’ Fluttershy said, smiling brightly and abandoning any hint of shyness from her tone of voice.

‘Well,’ Twilight motioned her hoof to Spike, who promptly dug into his bag and pulled out the pink leaf, ‘I was wondering if you had any idea what this thing is. We looked through a catalogue, and we couldn’t find anything even remotely similar to it—other than the fact that it’s shaped just like a leaf.’

‘Hmm, could you hold it out a little closer? I can’t get a good look at it.’’

Twilight thrust out her hoof to give a curious Fluttershy a better look. As she peered over it, her eyebrows furrowed and narrowed inward just as Twilight had done before, but this time there was no sign of interest or any emotion at all.

‘...Fluttershy?’ Twilight looked worriedly to her friend. ‘Is something the matter?’

No response.

‘Fluttershy? I know the pink might seem a little weird, but I need to know if you—’

‘BREEEEEEEEEE!’

Fluttershy’s sudden eruption came as a large surprise to Twilight, who was nearly startled away from the cottage. The leaf, however, remained perched on her outstretched hoof, unaware of the events surrounding it. Fluttershy didn’t seem too aware of herself either; her face was blank and ever-staring, gazing directly in front of her with no sign of life or movement.

‘Fluttershy!’ Twilight exclaimed, putting her hooves on her friend’s shoulder. After a few rigid shakes, still no response came from the mare.‘’Fluttershy, what happened? Why did you cry out like that?’

As quickly as it had arrived, the trance left and Fluttershy’s expression was back to its normal self. Tilting her head to the side, Fluttershy looked straight ahead with an innocent stare. ‘Huh? What are you talking about, Twilight?’ Fluttershy lowered her gaze and withdrew her eyes. ‘...Did I do something wrong?’

Twilight’s eyes opened in shock, with Spike’s own soon following suit. The leaf was all but forgotten, but it still rested neatly on the unicorn’s hoof nonetheless. ‘You didn’t know you just cried out loud like that?! Spike, don’t tell me you didn’t see that!’

‘I most definitely did, and I’m as shocked as you are!’

‘Don’t worry, there’s nothing wrong with me! Maybe it was just your imagination getting a little excited! Anypony can have active imaginations, you know!’ Fluttershy said, offering a friendly smile in place of her earlier stagnation.

‘That’s an amusing thought, but—’ Twilight stopped for a moment as a sight in the distance caught her eye. A pink, fluffy image that left just as quickly as it had arrived; but its identity was unmistakable.

A chocolate rain cloud.

‘Wait, did either of you see that?’ The only response she was met with were two shrugs followed by a subsequent head shake. ‘I haven’t seen a chocolate rain cloud since...’

‘Since when, Twilight? I didn’t see it, but I still believe you, even though that seems pretty unlikely. We see plenty of unlikely stuff every day, eh?’ Spike said empathetically, reaching out his claw to pat his friend on the back. ‘Don’t worry about it too much, chocolate rain sounds like a good thing!’

‘...since Discord.’ Twilight turned around and stuffed the leaf in Spike’s bag. ‘Spike, let’s go to the Canterlot Labyrinth!’

‘The... the Canterlot Labyrinth? I haven’t been there in ages!’ Spike recalled, racking his brain for memories he spent the big city. ‘Have you visited that place recently?’

‘Yes, when we were hunting down the elements to fight off Discord.’ Fluttershy nodded her head in agreement. ‘I can’t believe he’s back, I thought we sealed him in stone! How is any of this possible?’ Twilight shook her head to dispel her confusion. ‘We have to stop him. Fluttershy, I’ll come back soon with more details!’

‘Take care, Twilight!’ Fluttershy, acting as she normally would and oblivious of the events that transpired, called out. ‘I would suggest some rest later, you seem a little tired if anything!’

Twilight took no notice of the gesture and lowered herself for Spike, who promptly hopped on her back with his bag held securely on his shoulders. With a quick burst of speed, the unicorn galloped down the path fast enough to nearly jostle Spike off her back.

‘Hey, where are we really going? You aren’t actually going to go all the way to Canterlot right now, are you?' Spike raised an eyebrow.

'No, I'm going to try and teleport,' Twilight said between breaths. 'Some weird things are going on, and I have a sneaking suspicion it's Discord. I know you didn't see him much—if at all—but I have to warn you that he's dangerous. Crazy, but clever and dangerous.'

'Now you really are acting crazy!' Spike exclaimed. 'I mean, seriously? You think you can just teleport all the way to Canterlot from here?'

'Well, I figured with the other odd things that happened today, something weird should go in my favour. Discord is probably watching and would want me to teleport straight to him anyway. Besides, this could all just be a massive hoax! I won't be able to teleport if things are just a coincidence, so there's no harm done!'

A deep sigh and Spike gave up, defeated. ‘'Alright, I trust you. But where are we going to teleport?'

Twilight came to a sudden stop in front of City Hall. After a few moments of circling around in thought, she nodded her head and took in a deep breath. 

'I just needed to run around to gather my thoughts and rationalize this crazy thing I'm trying.' A deep breath out, and a few sparks of magic erupted from her horn, sizzling before hitting the ground and fading to nothingness. 'Well, here goes nothing. Stay close, Spike.'

'Will do.' Twilight winced as she felt a forceful tug on her mane. 'I hope you know what you're doing. For both of our sakes.'

A deep breath in, a deep breath out. Twilight continued this rhythm until she dropped into a state of complete relaxation—a state where she forgot all about the weird pink leaf and Discord—that flowed through her body; all that was left was a mental image of the Canterlot Labyrinth. As her thoughts built up the picture, a glow began surrounding her horn, slowly strengthening into a brilliant shade of raspberry.

And, in a sudden puff of magic, the horn’s glow vanished along with its owner.


***


Canterlot Labyrinth was just how Twilight remembered it: a classically simple hedge pathway with a few passages that all led to the same location and without dead-ends or enclosed spaces as it had been under Discord. Even most of the statues were placed just as they were supposed to be, staring down the freshly-teleported duo in their stone representations.

Save one glaring entry, that is.

'I can't believe that worked!’ Spike exclaimed, reeling with shock as he dismounted his companion in favour of the well-trodden soil beneath them. 'I mean, I didn't think you were wrong, Twilight, but it's still cool that you can do that!'

Twilight’s expression did not echo Spike’s sentiments, only concerned about completing their plan.

'Let's not celebrate yet. That chocolate rain cloud and this leaf are still pointing towards Discord's mischief... and now that I think about it, he may be behind the clear skies too. I figured since he should be in stone that this would be the best place to look for him.'

Spike's mind chose to wander off. 'So this is the labyrinth after all this time, huh?' Spike said, looking around with wide open eyes and keen interest etched all over his face. 'Doesn't look a touch different.’ Spike pointed a claw to a tall, intimidating statue looking down at them with stone eyes. ‘Even the draconequus statue is still here.'

'Draconequus? Spike, don’t you know that this statue is Discord?' Twilight reeled in shock. 'Wow, I didn't realize that you hadn't seen him yet. Wait a second, why is he here?'

'Hasn't he always been here?'

'No, he was imprisoned. If he's still in stone, he'd be up in Princess Celestia's castle most likely.’

Spike shrugged nonchalantly. 'Well, that's how I remember him to be. Memories stick with you, I guess.'

The word “memories” rang through Twilight’s thoughts like a sudden alarm.

Twilight’s mind whirled as her own memories traced back to the last time she met Discord. The fluttering pink leaf, the inexplicable weather, chocolate rain falling from pink clouds, Discord’s statue in the wrong place. Some of these facts are chaotic in nature, some the villain’s own trademark. Her eyes widened in shock as the realization hit her.

‘Spike,’ Twilight breathed, a rapidly growing feeling of dread creeping up on her, ‘do you remember what the sky looked like the day Celestia called us up to confront Discord?'

'It was a mostly clear sky with a few clouds, I think?' Spike muttered, looking to the clouds as if they held the answers he was looking for.

'Memories—Fluttershy, the sky, the rain—they’re just memories. They’ve all happened before we fought Discord!'

Spike narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms, looking to Twilight as if waiting for a response. After a few moments, he broke the momentary silence. ‘Twilight, you're acting crazy. What about me? They weren't my memories, and I'm here. You even said yourself that you've never seen the leaf before!'

'I might be able to explain that for you, young dragon.'

The deep, bellowing voice came seemingly from nowhere, accompanied by some approaching thunderclouds. A slight chuckle from the voice prompted a frantic Twilight and Spike to look everywhere they could, searching for the speaker’s source.

'Is that Discord?’ Twilight waited for another word to boom out, anxious to track it down. Her head darted from the hedges, to the sky and back at another hedge to try and catch a glimpse of the villain.‘Where are you? Show yourself!'

'Now, that won't be necessary for now. Let's take a look about what's going on though, shall we?' the voice said, amused. 'Based on what I've heard, these are memories, hmm? Now, the leaf seemed to be my own fault when I was being chaotic or something, but never mind silly details like that. Now, we’ve finally come to the best part. If this is a memory, then where are you right now?'

'I'm not going to play games with you!’ Twilight thundered, snorting and stomping in anger. ‘How did you escape, and where are you?'

Another crack of laughter came from the voice, followed by the further movement of the thunderclouds. 'I must say, these clouds look vicious. I'd suggest answering me before they get too close if I were you.’

'Fine,’ Twilight said, looking down in defeat. ‘I'm in... the Canterlot Labyrinth, I guess?'

'Close.' The clouds continued to roll in. Twilight’s eyes looked up and a slight shake began shuddering through her body, growing more and more violent as the clouds made their way inwards.

Twilight pondered for a few moments, with the insistence of Spike's prodding urging her to finally answer. 'My... my memories?'

'Closer, you're almost there!' The crack of thunder made its way all around them, nearly enveloping everything in its piercing screeches.

Twilight looked again with horror up at the sky as she realized the true nature of the situation. Spike followed suit with her subsequent downcast expression, aware of the implications the truth would bring.

'I... I'm in my head. I have been for the last month.'

'Yes, and?'

'The last month of memories, all the times I thought me and my friends shared...' Twilight's thoughts flickered to saving Canterlot at the Royal Wedding, to the adventures with time, to the day she got Rainbow Dash into reading and even the times when she and her friends just got together at Sugarcube Corner and had some cake. She looked back at the moments and smiled, but as the cackling voice reminded her, the smile was a lie too. '...it was all my head just making a reality for me.'

'Exactly, Twilight Sparkle! I'm so glad you were able to accept this so quickly! Now, let's talk in the real world so we can speak face-to-face, mm?'

A snap from the clouds and Twilight saw only black, rendering her unconscious as her senses slowly faded away. There was no impact on the ground, though, as far as she could tell.

She knew it wasn't a real spot of ground anyway.


***


Small slivers of light poked through Twilight's partially-opened eyelids as life began entering her body. Her every move was a creaky, stiff one, and soon she began calling out in a creaky voice for water to quench her dried-out throat. Slowly but surely, her eyes shook away the crust that had accumulated around the sides, revealing a blinding light too bright to bear as she remained lying down on a cold surface. As her eyes began making vague sense of objects when they came into relative focus, her hooves began stretch and wrench away the seized-up feelings held in for so long.

When the dust settled, Twilight was on her hooves; but just barely. It took all of her half-conscious effort not to fall, but she soon found her strength returning to her as her hunger and thirst left.

'N... no water needed. Ah, S-Spike? Where are you?'

'Remember? He was just a memory like everypony else in your head, right?' the same voice called out in front of her, albeit in a casual, amused voice instead of a bellowing one. 'He's somewhere around Equestria, I'm sure you'll find him some time in the future. Now, have your eyes adjusted? I kept you fed and watered while you were down—watered!’ it said, giving a slight chuckle. ‘Silly me, I'm treating you like a household plant now!'

A few moments went by and Twilight's surroundings were in discernible view, showcasing upside-down buildings, zigging and zagging checkerboard pathways and—to her complete lack of surprise—pink clouds sputtering out torrents of chocolate rain wherever they went.

And in front of her, sitting in a throne on the top of a marble-stone hill, was a familiar draconequus that forced her to shut her eyes firmly in disbelief, horror and sadness.

'Welcome to Equestria, Twilight Sparkle.'