Orange and amber leafs rustled in the trees as the autumn breeze passed through them, carrying several from the branches where they had spent their entire lives down to the moist and waiting ground below. Diamond Tiara pulled up the collar of her jacket against the chill of the changing seasons. The traditional Running of the Leafs would begin soon, but until then, the leafs had been for the most part allowed to remain on the trees, their rich shades of yellow, orange and red acting as one last tribute to nature before the onset of winter.

It was already beginning to grow cooler, and the days were growing shorter. The sometimes stiff breeze brought with it the moist smell of the leafs, the strangely sweet scent of freshly harvested straw, and of course the smell of the year’s last apple harvest. This season was always so beautiful- -and for some reason, it always made Diamond Tiara so very sad.

“It’s already starting to get dark,” said Silver Spoon, pulling up her scarf until it was almost over her mouth and marveling at the sky overhead.

“There’s still a few hours left,” said Diamond Tiara, picking up her pace slightly while still being careful to avoid the muddy patches on the path.

“I don’t know why he wanted us to come all the way out here. But I’m kind of glad. I love this time of year.”

“Of course you would. You’re an autumn. You actually match. I just end up looking like a weird pink splotch.” Diamond Tiara sighed. She was pretty sure she knew the reason they were out here, but gave the one that their mutual friend had given instead. “He gave some math reason. Blabbered for most of a scroll about it. I probably still have it. You’d probably like that sort of weird smarty thing.”

“It probably has to do with the interdimensional lay lines. My guess would be he still hasn’t figured out how to come in parallel and has to avoid the castle.”

Diamond Tiara raised an eyebrow. “Trying to grow a horn, Silver?”

“I wish.” Silver Spoon looked up at the leaves and smiled. She, like Diamond Tiara, had grown in the past years. She was now- -to Diamond Tiara’s unending chagrin- -the slightly taller of the two. Her mane had also been substantially shortened, her fillyhood braids forgone for a more utilitarian bob. She still wore glasses, though, and a necklace consisting of a single pearl- -her very last, its brothers all having been sold years before out of necessity.

Silver Spoon giggled excitedly, and for just a moment Diamond Tiara thought she saw the filly that she had once been. “I haven’t seen him in years,” she said, smiling widely and trotting to catch up with Diamond Tiara. “We used to spend every summer together…until your parents stopped inviting me…”

“He’s missed you. A lot. To the point where I actually started to get…you know…a little jealous.”

“Jealous? Of me?” Silver Spoon laughed, and Diamond Tiara frowned. She actually had been starting to become envious of Silver Spoon- -on some level, she supposed she always had been- -and did not like her admission being dismissed so lightly.

Silver Spoon’s expression fell, and directed her eyes downward, as if she were examining the thick roots of the ancient trees that bordered the well-packed path. “I know you want to ask me. It’s okay.”

“If you don’t want to talk about it- -”

“No, it’s okay. Mom’s apparently living with some rich sculptor twice her age, trying to ‘find hersef’. And dad…we don’t know. Nobody does. But there’s a rumor that I have a half-zebra brother somewhere in Prance.”

“And they haven’t written to you?”

“Not at all. It’s like I never even existed to them.” She shrugged. “So what else is new?”

“Well,” said Diamond Tiara, stopping and looking slightly up at her best friend. “That makes them huge, fat, silver-colored jerks, doesn’t it?”

Silver Spoon smiled. “Yeah. They really are, aren’t they?” She sighed, and the pair started walking again. The path was growing rockier, and the trees were growing increasingly large and thick. “I guess I was always just an inconvenience to them. But to be honest, I’ve always been jealous of you.”

“Me?” Diamond Tiara’s mind instinctively went to the place it always went. “Because I have money?”

“Money? No. Of course not. Why would you even say that? It’s because you always had two parents who actually cared.”

“I have a dad who was always too busy to actually pay me any attention and a pink sack of- -”

“Spoiled really does care about you, Diamond. She’s just really, really, really, really, apocalyptically bad at it.”

“You do realize she’s trying to replace me, right?”

“Replace you? With what?”

“Don’t you dare say a pig! She’s trying to have a son.”

“A son? Isn’t she, like, fifty something? Why would she want to put herself through all that?”

“Because apparently she doesn’t trust in my ‘ability to produce an heir’ for the company I should be inheriting.”

“So you aren’t actually producing your own heir, right?”

“No, of course no…” Diamond Tiara paused and her eyes narrowed. “Wait a minute…are you saying I look pregnant?”

Silver Spoon’s face scrunched. “No.”

“Good. Because I’m not pregnant, and I’m not fat, and I DON’T LOOK LIKE MY MOTHER!”

“Um…I didn’t say that last one.”

“But you were thinking it!”

“Oh, look at the time,” said Silver Spoon, looking down at her foreleg. “Shouldn’t we…um…you know…”

“You don’t have a watch, Silver.” Diamond Tiara looked down the path. It was barely past noon, but the shadows of the Everfree were already starting to elongate. She did not want to be out here at night- -but more importantly, she was even more excited than Silver Spoon was. More excited, and far more nervous.

The scroll that Diamond Tiara had been sent had a set of coordinates inscribed beneath the prodigious amount of excited mathematical gobbledygook that explained why this particular set of coordinates was required. Diamond Tiara understood the coordinates slightly, but eventually had to rely on Silver Spoon to fully decipher them- -both the numbers themselves as well as the truly horrendous hoofwriting of a begin that had clearly never held a quill before but insisted on trying to do so instead of sending a data-cog like a normal pony.

The coordinates led to a swampy clearing. It smelled disgusting, and Diamond Tiara shied away from the bubbling muck.

“Eew…it’s so wet,” she said, sticking out her tongue.

“That’s what he said,” said Silver Spoon, leaping playfully between the mossy hillocks emerging from the bog below.

“He did not!” protested Diamond Tiara.

“Relax,” said Silver Spoon, taken aback by Diamond Tiara’s sudden outburst. “I was joking.”

“Oh. Well…so was I.” Diamond Tiara sat down in a mossy but relatively dry area and crossed her forelegs in a harrumph. She was not angry at the joke so much but at the fact that aside from being taller, thinner, and prettier, Silver Spoon was also more athletic than her- -and did not even seem to notice. Diamond Tiara knew that Silver Spoon was her friend and that those thoughts were petty, but she could not help it. The lessons her mother had taught her in fillyhood were difficult to erase.

“So,” said Silver Spoon, standing atop the tallest of the squishy, hollow mounds that dotted the bubbling peat below. “When’s he getting here?”

Diamond Tiara barely had time to shrug when a tremendous burst of white light filled the clearing, nearly blinding her. The air seemed to vibrate and then shifted outward in a resounding explosion.

“Whoa!” cried Silver Spoon, rearing up on her hind legs as she lost her balance, spinning her forelegs.

“Silver Spoon!” shouted Diamond Tiara, standing up but moving too slow. Silver Spoon fell over- -and landed directly on top of one of the two ponies that had appeared spontaneously in the clearing.

“Gah!” cried a clearly male but slightly distorted- -and unusually high- -voice. “Something’s on me something’s ON ME! And it’s…oddly soft…”

“Hey, Pick,” said Silver Spoon.

“Silver?” said Diamond Pick. “Did I say soft? I totally meant ‘firm’ and ‘well-muscled’. Eight out of ten would eat.” He poked her flank again. “Actually…this would make a pretty nice rump roast…”

“Ahem,” coughed Diamond Tiara.

“Diamond!” cried Pick- -which sounded odd and ridiculous, considering how they both had the same first name- -jumping to the side and allowing Silver Spoon to fall toward the muck below before she was caught by his much larger companion. “I’m so happy to see you! You look…slightly less firm. But in a good way!”

“And you are almost the same size as a normal pony now. Well, a normal filly.”

Pick glared up at her. There was really no way to tell; his respirator mask was mostly featureless save for the manifold system at the bottom and the two optic ports on either side. He actually had grown somewhat since the last time Diamond Tiara had seen him, but because of his build, it was impossible for him to ever LOOK large. Unlike a normal pony, his body was vertically flattened, giving his legs an almost insect-like appearance. His head, likewise, protruded forward from his body instead of sitting above it as Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon’s- -or really, any pony’s- -did.

Still, he was large enough with the frayed, moth-eaten robes he wore over his much better maintained protective environment suit gave at least part of the impression that he was vaguely shaped like a non-morlock.

“Whoa,” said Silver Spoon, looking up at the “pony” that was now holding her. “When did you get your own drone?!”

Diamond Tiara gave the machine a cursory look. It resembled a traditional pony- -which was odd, considering that it was built by morlocks- -but taller, its body coated in thick but heavily worn anodized metal. Its silvery face was mostly devoid of expression, save for a pair of characteristic dull red and perpetually disapproving glass-like eyes. It looked pretty much identical to the morlock drones that Diamond Tiara had become accustomed to.

“Ever since my sister finally decided to part with one,” said Pick, pulling a long cable out of the drone’s front chest port that connected its core to the circular dial imbedded in the front of his armor. “You have no idea how long it took me to convince her that I needed one…I mean, I may be a complete genius, but I still need auxiliary processing power for the long-range teleports.”

Diamond Tiara eyed him, and he looked away. “Pick, how many tries did it take you to get here?”

“Just two. The first time I ended up somewhere…else. I’m pretty sure the surface-goats there were ACTUALLY goats. And they were not happy. They said mean things to me.”

“I would really think you’d be used to it by now,” said Silver, allowing the mute metal pony to place her gently on another hillock. “Considering, well, you know. HER.”

“What are you talking about? I’m the best fillyfriend that somepony like HIM could ever have.”

“You’re probably the ONLY fillyfriend he could ever have.”

“Hey! That’s not true! Just last week my parents were talking about arranging a marriage for me!”

Diamond Tiara’s heart skipped, and Silver Spoon seemed to notice. “With who?” she asked.

“With…well…with my sister.”’

“EEEEWWW!”

“They didn’t talk about it for very long! And that’s perfectly acceptable in morlock culture! Sometimes! Well, no, not sometimes, but…” He sighed. “My family is weird like that. Frankly, if my sister had asked them to, they probably would have force me into it. I think she’s gunning for at least an eighth-tier prince, though.” He looked up at Diamond Tiara. “And, also frankly, my sister is butt-ugly. You are marginally better looking.”

“You’re not.”

“Wow. I’ve forgotten how much I missed you.” He jumped awkwardly out of the swampy area and hugged Diamond Tiara. It was awkward- -his hugs always were, due to the difference in their body layout- -but the thermal elements of his suit felt warm and he smelled strongly of cinnamon. Diamond Tiara had forgotten how much she missed him, and she just wanted to keep holding on.

“Can I have hugs too?” asked Silver Spoon.

Diamond Pick looked up at Diamond Tiara. She considered for a moment, and then nodded. “One hug. But keep your hooves off the rump roast.”

“Ah, yes. Still preserving the best cuts for yourself, I see.”

Pick and Silver Spoon hugged- -something even more awkward to watch, considering their more substantial difference in height. They then disconnected and Pick looked around.

“I’ve got my parent’s guest house for the next few weeks,” said Diamond Tiara. “Silver’s already been living their while she…manages things. But I’ve already had a space set up for you.”

“Assuming you’ll want to use the separate space,” said Silver Spoon, nudging Pick. Diamond Tiara knew him well enough to know that he was awkwardly blushing under his mask.

“We might have a problem with that, though,” said Diamond Tiara, looking up at the mining drone. “I mean, I know what a drone is. Silver knows what a drone is. You probably do. But RichTech hasn’t even come close to trying to get your family to sell us any, let alone bringing them to market. It’s going to freak some ponies out.”

“I’m not a complete idiot,” said Pick. “Check this out.” He lifted his hoof and turned an element on the dial on his chest. The drone responded, and facets of its body opened to reveal its cube-shaped core. Its surface then seemed to distort, and an image rapidly formed around. The image resolved in color and shape rapidly, and Diamond Tiara found herself facing either an extremely large and disapproving stallion or an extremely large and disapproving but very butch mare.

“See?” he said. “Just like the last time I came, but way bigger. And clearer.”

“Wait,” said Silver Spoon. “You came to Ponyville? When did that happen?”

“Seriously? How could you forget that? We took that baking class, remember? We made a cake, and then found out that sugar makes morlocks extremely ill?”

“It serves you right,” said Diamond Tiara. “After that morlock food you fed me…”

“You definitely enjoyed it.”

“Yeah, until you told me what was in it!”

“What was in it?”

“You don’t want to know,” said Diamond Tiara and Diamond Pick simultaneously.

“Oh wait…I remember that! Yeah, that was when Applebloom was having that whole ‘crisis of faith’ thing. That was you?”

“Yes! Wait- -how did you know that wasn’t me? My early projections weren’t that good. So you thought- -” He finally noticed that the corners of Silver Spoon’s mouth were quivering as she suppressed laughter and realized what Diamond Tiara had already known. “Oh. Very funny.”

“You’re not very bright,” noted Diamond Tiara.

“I’m brighter than the two of you taped together. And shoved in a lantern, I suppose.”

“Weird fantasies much, Pick?” She looked up at the drone, and then at Pick. “Speaking of weird, aren’t you going to change?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because he shouldn’t have to,” said Diamond Tiara. “He’s a pony, just like us. He shouldn’t have to hide who he is.”

“Diamond…” said Pick, somewhat surprised.

“If anypony has a problem with you, they can take it up with me.”

“Thank you.”

“We’ve known each other for, what six years now? You’re not a bad pony. Plus, you’re my date for the Pony Prom. Unless you’ve got cold hooves?”

“No, my hooves are quite thermally sufficient. In fact…I’m really excited to dance with you, Diamond.”

“Aww,” said Silver Spoon. “This is so darn cute…and kind of weird, actually.”

“Trust me, you’ll be getting a dance too, Silver.”

“Um…it might be hard considering, you know, the height difference.”

“Not with him. With me.”

“Oh,” said Silver Spoon, her eyes widening. “Oh my.” She giggled slightly, and Diamond Tiara smiled- -only to suddenly reach for her head as powerful pang of pain rain through her brow.

“BUCK!” she cried.

“Diamond!” cried Pick, rushing to her side.

“It’s okay,” she said. “I’m fine.”

“You’re still getting the headaches?”

“It’s just the stress,” said Diamond Tiara, waving him away. “Ow…hurts like crazy, though.” She groaned and ignored the pain. “I’m fine.” She forced a smile. “We should get back before it gets dark. Tomorrow we have to…” A genuine grin crossed her face despite the pain in her head as devious and terrible thought came to her mind. “Heh heh…oh yeah. We’ve got a lot to do tomorrow.”