Autumn groaned as she leaned against the walls of a small cave, it was full of books, notes, a small table with three chairs, and even a list of daily activities.
"I'm bored," Autumn groaned for maybe the 9th time.
"Shut up," Summer snapped back as she looked at her wall of paper and string. "Alright so I ask Leafy out, take her to the Comic store and get her the newest Power ponies comic, take her to the cinema for her choice of movie, then after the movie, we go to the park?" Summer's confidence began dying down near the end before she gave an odd yowl and ignited, setting the paper and string dictating her plan ablaze. "NO! The park is so dull, why do I keep ending with the dam park!?"
"Because Leaf storm loves the park?" Autumn offered as she approached Summer with a blanket "You know, the place she met the Princess of Friendship and her soon to be Boss the god of Chaos," once she got to her side she began beating Summer with the blanket until she killed her flames and Autumn switched to beating the burning wall.
"I know Leafy loves the park," Summer replied as she rubbed the bridge of her nose, "But I want it to be special for the two of us, I can't compete with a Princess and a literal god!" Autumn gave no reply as she beat the last of the flames out.
"Why not the cave then?" Autumn suggested as she rolled up the blanket for later use. Turning back to Summer, Autumn noticed her friend's dumbfounded look. "What?"
"You mean this cave that we hang out in all the time." Summer deadpanned. "The only creature that would find a cave a desirable date location would be a dragon."
"I mean we are like half-dragon or something." Summer face hoofed and shook her head earning yet another "What?" from Autumn
"That's just a myth. Autumn we just share a common ancestor, genetically speaking we are nothing like dragons." Summer informed her less than an academic friend.
Autumn rolled her eyes "Jeez” she said with a shake of her head “you sound like my 3rd-period teacher,"
“Can we get back on topic?” Summer demanded irritably as she tapped the wall that had once held her plan upon it “I need to create the perfect date so Leafy will love me,”
“Well I believe in you,” Autumn replied casually as she got up "I mean you've been preparing for this for over 7 years now, I'm sure one of your plans is foolproof, good luck figuring out which one though, now come one where gonna be late, we're supposed to meet Winter and Leaf at the Malt Shop, I'm sure Winter can help you form a good date, she's the only one of us who's actually gone on one after all," Summer perked up at that.
"Hey...your right!" Summer ran past Autumn and out of the cave "Winter can help me!"
Winter and Leaf were sitting in a booth at the Local Malt shop, Winter had a small Vanilla malt while Leaf was midway through her 2nd Choco-Mango Swirl Malt with a mountain of Whip cream and Marshmallows stacked ontop, Leaf was rocking a Whipped Cream Beard while she actively did her best to eat as much of her malt as she could with only her mouth and her magic.
"Leaf darling," Winter said rubbing her temple with her hooves as she tried not to look at her friend, "Why can't you just use a spoon?"
"Spoons are for small creatures, I am a large dragon, and they don't make giant Spoons so I must use mighty maw to eat my food," Her reason given Leaf continued to eat as improperly as she could.
"Honey your using magic," Winter sighed "That alone already breaks your reasoning," Winter flipped her mane back and sighed.
"Look," Leaf said as she reemerged, her creamy beard dripping into her under-mane as she looked up at Winter "I get that you think me doing this is gonna make you look bad in front of your new boyfriend, but's it's just the age-old test if he tells you that you need to drop me as a friend for the sake of popularity...then he's a Got rotting dumpster fire,"
Winter sighed "I know," She wined "But he's just so adorable, oh I really hope things work out, we agreed to meet in about 2 hours, that way it doesn't cut into our time with Autumn and Summer,"
"I still can't believe you guys are planning to take me to all our hang-out spots to spend an entire day just reminiscing," Leaf said as her beard began melting onto the large mess she had made at the table. "Remember when we use to sit at that table, but then we had to move to this one because Kirins and other creatures walking by wouldn't come in when they saw me in the window eating like this!" Leaf stuck her face into her malt and started mortar boating it. Earning a laugh from Winter.
"Oh, whatever creature ends up catching your eye is gonna be crazy," Winter gasped at a sudden idea "Is that why you're so excited to be working for Discord? Does his crazy body do it for you?"
"Winter," Leaf said in a very serious tone "I've said it before I'll say it again," Leaf storm pointed at her chest and declared proudly "Gay,"
"Oh, your no fun," Winter said as she fluffed her mane "That being said it must be so hard to have to look at me and know that this luxurious neck will never be yours for the taking.
"Oh yeah," Leaf said sarcastically "Casuse it's so hard to get a look at your neck," Winter stuck her tongue out at her friend and Leafy did the same before diving back into her malt. there was a moment of silence before Winter spoke up.
"Do you think Autumn's ever gonna tell Summer?"
"Autumn's given up I think," Leaf replied "Summer is way too into me, don't know why, we have so little in common It's amazing where even friends, she and Autumn do literally everything together and somehow I end up the crush,"
"It's just your face," Winter replied "Even I must admit I'd kill for a face like yours,"
"Maybe we should do something, Summer's never gonna tell me, and I don't wanna break her heart,"
Winter tapped her chin in thought when the door opened and Autumn cried out.
"Where my homies at?"
"The same place they always are," The waitress behind the counter said merrily, the task of cleaning up after Leaf Strom being far outweighed by the amount of money Winter always tipped as an apology. Autumn and Summer made their way to their friends and took their seats. Winter and Leaf agreeing to continue their talk in private later.
"I see the Malt dragon has returned," Summer said with a smile as she looked at Leaf, who had finished off the whipped cream and was now rocking a Choco-Mango malt mustache.
"This Malt dragon never left," Leaf replied simply before digging back in, earning a laugh from her friends as she did so.
"I love this shop," Autumn said with a happy sigh.
"of course you do," Winter said "If it wasn't for this place we'd have never met Leafy," The Trio all looked at the front Counter while Leaf Storm crawled under the table to get past Summer and made her way to the counter, she got on her front hooves and tapped the bell to signify she wanted to order again. The Mare behind the counter made her way and looked down at her happily.
"How Might I help you?" A bord-looking Teenage Mare asked dully as she looked down at the 4-year-old Leaf storm being held up by Comet so she could reach the counter.
"I want a Vanilla-Peach swirl," Leaf storm said simply "with 3 extra orders of Whipped cream on top and some Marshmallows," Leaf storm was set down while Sunrise barely managed to pay off the bill. Leaf storm looked around the establishment with a groan.
"This place doesn't hold a candle to Sugar Cube Corner," She frowned at the thought "Hu...I wonder if Sugar Cube Corner's still a thing? maybe it's a historical landmark or something? I'm confident Pinkie kept it in working order," Leaf storm paid little mind to those dining in the establishment as her elder brothers carried her to an open table and put her on one side while she sat on the other.
"I told you she could talk," Comet said smugly.
"I don't understand," Sunrise said in a mystified tone as he looked at Leaf storm, who stared blankly at him, "Dad's convinced you can't talk! I was convinced you couldn't talk, how long have you been able to talk?" Leaf storm didn't respond to him and instead looked to the window.
"If I'm doomed to constantly get reincarnated it's better not to get attached and suffer the emotional turmoil of endless loved ones dying and being replaced with random new ones,"
"Oh come on," Sunrise whined as he turned to his brother, who was sweating slightly.
"I accidentally stepped on her tail yesterday," Comet said with a shrug "And got her to help me con you into paying for malts," he frowned "I did not figure why she refused to talk to anyone though, but... technically it's progress?" as Comet and Sunrise put their heads together to try and figure out why Leaf storm refused to talk her malt arrived and gained her the attention of the table behind them, three young Kirin girls sat with their own malts while their Parents all sat another table away talking about business opportunities and other such things.
"That's a lot of whipped cream," Summer said as they watched Leaf pull the straw out and lick it clean.
"Do you think we should offer her a spoon?" Autumn asked, across from them Winter was eating her malt with a spoon.
"I don't see why you should," Winter said curtly, "She hardly looks worth the trouble, and Father said I should never associate with the lower class, regardless of what Great Granny Rarity tells me,"
"Yeah, yeah," Autumn and Summer said in unison as they rolled their eyes at her.
"Why are we friend with her?" Summer asked irritably as Winter continued eating her malt.
"Because my Mommy said it would help her and I imagine your Daddy told you the same thing," The duo sighed and looked back at Leaf storm and both lost all interest in Winter when they saw Leaf storm has stuck her head in the Whipped cream and was licking away at her malt with no care for anyone looking at her.
"Wow," Summer said in awe "I wanna do that," Upon hearing that Winter looked back at Leaf and ended up jumping over the seat to look down at Leaf.
"What are you doing?" Winter asked in confusion "You do know you're in Public don't you lower-class Kirin girl?" Leaf storm did not give any indication she had heard winter as she pulled her face out and began whipping at her creamy beard and licking her hoofs clean. "lose class Kirin girl?" Winter asked again, not use to being ignored "Can you hear me? do you have whipped cream in your ears?"
"No," Leaf storm replied blandly as she licked at her hoofs.
"Why did you stick your face into your malt? is that something lower-class kirin children do for fun?"
"No," Leaf replied "I'm just eating like a giant dragon that can't use spoons or straws cause they don't make giant spoons or giant straws," Leaf made to dive back into her food when Winter started talking again.
"So it is a lower-class kirin game?" She asked curiously "are those two your friends then?"
"No, they're my brothers," Leaf said looking over at Comet and Sunrise, Comet was looking at Leafstorm with a pair of Binoculars and turned to Sunrise who was writing in a notepad.
"Write that down, write that down," Comet said to Sunrise, confusing Leaf storm to no end.
"I don't have any friends," Leaf storm said simply, earning a laugh from Winter.
"Well that's sad, maybe you should try harder,"
"Why? you don't have friends either and you seem fine," Winter frowned at that before pointing behind her.
"I have Autumn and Summer," She said before sticking her tongue out.
"I have really good hearing," Leaf storm said as she pointed to them "and they just said there only hanging out with you because their parents told them to, that is not friendship, that is business," Leaf storm turned back and was about to go back to her malt when she heard sniffing and looked back at Winter and found her crying.
"You guys don't like me?" She asked in a voice that made Leaf Storm's ears go flat.
"Well," Sumer said with a shrug "no offense but...we don't have any feelings towards you, you never really wanna do anything with us, you just always sit across from us and don't engage in our conversations," Winter started sniffing and was about to start crying when she felt a pressure on her cushion and looked over to see Leaf storm taking the seat next to her, wiping the cream off her face with a napkin as thousands of years of being with Twilight over-rid her desire to not experience any more heartbreak in outliving friends or family.
"Alright first I apologize it wasn't my place to say that," Leaf storm said to Autumn and Summer before turning to Winter "Second allow me to teach you a few things about Friendship,"
"But you don't have any friend either," Winter wined.
"That's 'cause I'm apathetic towards life, I could make a friend if I cared but I don't so I...don't," Leaf storm heard her brother whisper among themselves and she chose to ignore them, "So first thing's first, if you want some creature to be your friend, you should probably talk with them when the opportunity arises, like now, you're all in a malt shop, why not talk about what kinds of malt's you got and why you got them? or Literally anything? A friend asks questions, it's not a friendship if you never take an interest in the one you're trying to befriend," Winter looked at her malt, then to Autumn and Summer.
"What kind of malts did you get?" She asked.
"Oh, um... I got a Strawberry," Autumn said awkwardly
"I got a Chocolate," Summer said as she picked her's up with her magic
"I got a Vanilla," Winter said, she looked at her Malt then smiled and jumped in her seat excitedly "Oh this is fun what do we do next?" She looked to where Leaf had been in excitement but found the spot empty, the three young girls all looked behind them and found Leaf was once again digging into her malt.
"What kind of Malt did you get?" Winter asked excitedly, the sheer excitement hit Leafy and she was unable to force herself to ignore Winter.
"It's a Vanilla-Peach swirl," She said with a sigh earning a squeal from Winter.
"Oh, I did it, I'm friends with a low-class Kirin girl!"
"2nd lesson, calling someone Low-class is a good way to lose a friend,"
"What's your name?" Winter asked excitedly "Is it Spring?"
"It's Leaf Storm," She replied simply.
"I'm Winter Breeze,"
"I'm Summer Rain,"
"Oh, I'm Autumn Winds," Leaf storm winced as the trio all squealed in glee, giving her an odd reminiscence feeling she couldn't quite place.
"This is so much fun," Winter said merrily as her father came over to investigate the squeals and spotted the twins, Leaf did not like the look in the man's eyes and had a sudden chill that she was about to be trapped.
"I'm sorry," Winter's father said, "Aren't you two River Moon's children?"
"why yes," Sunrise said with a shine in his eyes "You know, our mother runs an antique shop, it makes a fair amount of money during the tourist seasons, and I bet she'd love to put your products on display, you know, since your the father of her daughters only friend,"
Winter sighed as Leaf storm squeezed her way back to her spot.
"I miss anything good?" She asked as she put her hoof into her malt and began cleaning out the bottom of it while waiting for her next one.
"Just thinking about the good old days," Autumn said as she got up "Alright come on Leaf, I need to use the bathroom and I'm sure you don't want your last malt mix to mix in with your next one,"
"True," Leaf said as she once again crawled under the table and joined Autumn in going to the bathroom.
"Winter," Summer said with determination. Winter's ear's perked and she smiled
"Take her to the park," Winter said without hesitation "Leafy Loves the park,"
"I know," Summer cried out as she face-planted the table "but how am I suppose to compete with the memories of a Princess and the literal God that's about to be her new boss!" Winter shrugged.
"I'm just telling you what I know, and I know that if Leafy went out on a date she'd prefer it to be at the park,"
"How would you know," Summer said with a sigh, Winter looked across the Malt shop to the very table she had been sitting at when she first met Leaf storm and smiled before simply saying
"A Friend asks Questions,"