"It's really nice, isn't it? The leaves everywhere?" the voice of a little filly came up from beside me.
I smiled and nodded. "It is. I don't know if I've ever really noticed how beautiful everything looks before."
The gray filly by my side ran down the street in front of me.
"Oh, I just remembered, Sunny, there's something I've been wanting to show you! You have to see this!" she shouted at me, pausing for a moment, then resuming her dash down the paved road. The distance between us quickly grew as she dashed across the sidewalk. Leaves littered the ground. It was the beginning of autumn and the trees had begun to shed their leaves in preparation for the upcoming winter.
"Wait, don't just go off by yourself! Wait for me!" I yelled back, taking off behind her.
I followed as quickly as I could as she ran down the quiet Manehattan street. She ran out past a set of train tracks in her haste, just as the bells on the guardrails started sounding off and the set of boom gates descended. I came to a sudden halt, almost running into the bar. I took a step back, waiting for the approaching train. She looked back at me, an apologetic look in her eyes, just as the loud vehicle flew between us.
The train stretched out like an enormous snake, longer than I could see. It was one of those freight trains, dozens, maybe even hundreds of train cars filled to the brim with Celestia-knows-what. It took what seemed like ages for the train to pass. We would always play here, and these freight trains to and from Canterlot would regularly drive by here. It was still a little hard to get used to the interruptions. They were always loud, always commanding the full attention of everyone around as they passed by.
The train eventually passed by, the tail end of it moving towards the horizon, the engine of the train long out of view already. A cool autumn wind blew past me in the train's wake, leaving me staring into purple eyes. They were vibrant eyes that filled me with joy every time I looked into them.
"What are you looking at? Hurry up, let's go!" she said enthusiastically. The bars rose and I hurried past the set of tracks, the two of us continuing side by side along the street to our destination.
The park was only a few blocks away. I could guess what she wanted to show me. It must have been that tree. The ancient tree at the center of the park. It was known as a local landmark among the Manehattan ponies. It was what the park was famous for, a towering red maple tree, hundreds of years old and as tall as ten ponies. We ran through the park towards the tree, eliciting smiles from all the older ponies taking their strolls around us. She stopped in front of the maple and took her seat, staring up at it with wide eyes. I walked by her side and took my own seat on the grass next to her.
It was autumn, and the leaves of the tree had turned a flaming red color. It was gorgeous, like a single burning torch in an ocean of green. The ground around us was covered in red leaves. A few stray leaves drifted down to the ground around us, carried by the wind. A stiff breeze blew by, sending leaves into the air, swirling all around.
"It's beautiful, isn't it? I've never seen anything like this before." she said to me, "I guess you've probably seen this tree like this before, but there wasn't anything like it back in Baltimare, and I just had to show it to you!" A look of excitement covered her face.
"It's wonderful. When I was younger, my parents would take me here in the autumn too. It's my favorite thing about the season." I smiled at her.
She reached her foreleg around my back, holding me close. I felt her warmth by my side as I reached my own foreleg around her.
"Sunny, I'm so glad to be here now," she sighed, closing her eyes and leaning on me, "It's wonderful having a friend like you, you know that?"
A surge of happiness welled up inside of me. "You too, Octavia. I've never felt like I've been able to share as much with anypony as I have with you."
"Hey, can you promise me something?" she asked, looking back up at me, staring into my eyes.
"Hm, what is it?" I wondered back.
"Let's promise to come here again sometime, to see this tree again at the beginning of autumn."
I chuckled to myself. "I'm glad you like it so much. Of course we'll be back. I'm not going anywhere, you're not going anywhere, and this tree has been here longer than any of our parents have been alive. I'll be sure we come back here when another autumn begins."
So we made a promise that day. We were young and innocent. We didn't know what lay ahead for us, didn't know what role we'd come to serve in the world, but we knew one thing. We had each other, and as long we had that, the beauty of the world was ours to cherish.
She squeezed me tight.
"Class, I'd like to introduce you all to a new student," the teacher said cheerfully, looking back at the timid pony beside her. "Would you like to introduce yourself?"
A small gray earth pony filly stood on front of the class. She had light purple eyes and a dark black mane. She seemed nervous.
"Hi everyone," she squeaked out, "I-I'm Octavia. My parents just moved here from Baltimare."
It must have been hard to move. To have to leave the ones you know behind and try to make all new friends with a bunch of strangers. Even though I had never gone through something like that before, I could tell she was worried about what everyone else would think of her. I took it upon myself right then to try to make friends with this filly. To show her that meeting new people isn't so bad.
"Now, now, Octavia. Don't be shy. I see you have your cutie mark already! Most of your classmates don't even have their cutie marks yet," the teacher motioned to the treble clef on the filly's flank, "Want to tell everypony about it?"
"Um, I actually just got this a week ago, right before I moved," she relaxed a little, "I've been playing the cello for a few years now, and I really like playing music. This appeared at the last recital I played at before we got ready to leave for Manehattan."
"That's wonderful, dear! You've been playing an instrument for years already? You must be really talented now if you started at such a young age! Now why don't you take a seat over there and we will begin class," the teacher said.
Octavia stepped over to the empty chair by me and sat down, glancing nervously at the other kids around her. I decided to introduce myself.
"Hi, Octavia! My name is Sunny Scribe. I just got my cutie mark too!" I pointed to the picture of a scroll and quill on my own flank. "I read and write a lot, my whole family does! My mom's a librarian and my dad's a teacher. I got this a few days ago when I was working on a story for a school project."
She looked back at me nervously. She must not have been used to ponies being so friendly to her.
"It's... nice to meet you, Sunny. You sure are a lot friendlier than the other kids I knew back in Baltimare," she said. She smiled.
"You're just saying that. I'm sure you must miss all your friends back at home. Still, you'll get used to being here eventually, you'll see," I said to her.
"I'm not just saying that," she replied, "Well, I guess a lot of it is my own fault. I didn't really talk to anypony else, so they all just kind of ignored me. And I guess since I don't really talk to other ponies that much, I don't really have any close friends or anything. I think all the other ponies in my music lessons didn't like me, either, since I'm not a unicorn."
"Hey, don't be hard on yourself. I have a horn and can't play an instrument. Besides, we can be friends! I bet those ponies were just mad since you're so much better than them even without a horn. I'd love to hear you play!" I said enthusiastically.
"Hehe, I'll be sure to play for you one of these days," she said with a smile. She looked up towards the front of the room as the lesson began.
We were inseparable.
We quickly learned that both of us preferred the quiet solitude of the library to playing outside with other ponies. We would hang out after class almost every day, much to the ire of our parents. She brought her cello to school a few times, playing for me in a quiet classroom after all the other kids had left.
We'd read a lot, often sharing conversations about books as we shared a meal together at a fast food joint. Octavia got me into reading about music theory and music history, and likewise, I got her into history and nature. We were both fascinated by what the world around us held.
I always walked home with Octavia. On the way, we would often see a stray cat lazing about. We got to know it quite well. Eventually, it would get used to us walking by every day and would start to crawl over for us to pet it. It was a small white cat, surprisingly plump for an animal that we didn't think had an owner. As time went on I began to save a little bit of food from my lunch to feed it once in a while.
One day, I walked into class to get Octavia as I saw a bunch of kids writing on the chalkboard. Octavia was at her desk, staring down at the ground, looking upset. The kids at the chalkboard were laughing. I looked over at it, to see they had drawn a heart in red chalk. On the inside of the heart, "Octavia + Sunny Scribe" was written. I quickly marched over to the board and erased the image. I ran over to Octavia and grabbed her hoof, leading her out of the classroom. We were so innocent then.
For some reason, we thought it would stay like this forever. As elementary school drew to a close, we thought we would end up going to the same middle school, and then high school, and even to the same college, where we'd stay by each other's sides forever. Of course, we didn't think that far ahead then.
As with all things, though, time changes everything.