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The park seemed emptier these days.

Fall was in full swing, and the lower temperatures combined with the less than sunny conditions that often followed meant that many regular park patrons were choosing to stay home for cocoa and movie nights. A few of the shops were starting to go into "off season" hours, closing early and taking extra time to come up with new ways to get those who did brave the park to visit their businesses. Candy Dandy had piles of marshmallow ghosts next to black licorice spider cookies, and orange lights decorated her large windows. Toy stores were finding the cutest plushies they could to show off, and many cafes were offering hot cider and fresh coffee to those who were feeling the chill in their bones.

The maintenance crews were having a hard time keeping up with the leaves. Since Phonyland was supposed to be both amusement park and abode to a large population of phonies, it was a large place, with many side streets as well as large main walkways. And along most of these streets were trees, bushes, and flowerbeds. A few phonies were diligently working, raking leaves while others pulled up dead flowers and planted winter blooms.

Wabi Sabi sat and watched the leaves get raked away with a little sadness. He liked the colors of the leaves, and the way they scattered themselves along the ground in such a random fashion. The flowers too, he watched a little sullenly. Some of them weren't quite dead yet; pale facsimiles of what they once were, but still pretty to look at.

He shifted his weight to keep the chill out, wrapping his jacket a little tighter around his small body.

Wabi Sabi jumped a bit when somephony spoke nearby. He looked down at the blue filly holding a pouch, and tilted his head to one side.

"What am I doing?" he repeated, looking back at the maintenance phonies. He realized it probably looked a little odd, sitting there staring at a group of folks working hard. His ears flicked back, then forward.

"I was just watching them work." he said a little sheepishly. "They're gathering up all the leaves, and I was getting my last look at them before the orange and red are all gone." He spoke with a slight Japanese accent, a barely noticeable trait passed down through his family on his father's side.

"What are you doing?" he asked, looking at the pouch in her mouth. "Shopping?"

Wabi Sabi's smile faltered just a bit. "Well." he said with a sigh, "The leaves are pretty, but they aren't alive anymore. And when they stay on the ground for a long time, they turn brown and soggy. Some phonies don't like the look of it."

He pushed a leaf off of the bench he was sitting on. "Do you want to sit?"

"Your collection huh? It must be very special for you to carry it around everywhere. I'm Wabi Sabi by the way. You can call me Wabi though, if you don't want to say it all." He offered the other foal a smile as he patted the seat next to him.

Wabi Sabi giggled "Well that's a really nice name!" Out of Orbit huh? He liked all of the o's involved in it. "You could shorten it to Orbit...or maybe..." he paused, thinking. Being lots of small words, it was hard to connect them all to make a suitable nickname.

His attention was drawn away from coming up with a nickname by Orbit asking him a question.

"Often? No. But every once in a while, especially now. Fall is my favorite season. I like to watch everything go from perfect to imperfect." He figured it was a strange reason to like fall, but he couldn't help it. The leaves looked so pretty when they weren't all green and healthy.

Ah yes, his words turned out to be confusing after all. He took a moment to gather his thoughts, and then closed his eyes.

"I think...it's really confusing." he said, trying to put the words in the right order. Sometimes, he found that words like to switch themselves, and then his sentences didn't make sense.

"I think you're right though, about nothing about the seasons being perfect. There's plenty that's imperfect, but I guess that would depend on what you think perfect is..." No, he was going way too deep. He paused, then started again.

"Trees are always thought to have leaves." he started, fumbling a bit. "Bright green leaves. And that's well and good. Complete trees are pretty in their own right. But there's something about....leaves..no, imperfect leaves. I can't stop looking at them. They're so much prettier to me I guess." another sheepish grin.

"I'm not very good at expressing it, I'm sorry." he said, blushing.

Wabi was so grateful for Orbit's understanding. Or lack thereof, but grace toward it. The foal often found that while some of his siblings knew what he was talking about, oftentimes other phonies did not. It made him feel a little strange, like an alien. But Orbit didn't make him feel like that.

He looked at the marble, turning on the bench so he could stick his nose as close to it as possible. His eyes were wide as he took in the tiny details inside; the glitter, the color, the way that the stuff in there seemed to move...

"Wow." he breathed, orange eyes shining. "It's so pretty. And none of them are the same ever?" Like what he heard was true about snowflakes, though he had never seen a real snowflake before so he couldn't test that.

"Where do you get them?" he asked, tilting his head this way and that to see how the light changed.

He marveled at the second one just like the first. "They're amazing! I wonder how they're made!" It was like having a ball of the very stars themselves!

What she said struck him in his core. "That would make sense!" he said excitedly. Galaxies can't all be the same! Every one has different planets and stars...it's like the leaves!" Suddenly, his understanding of the cycle of the world expanded.

"Maybe there's a galaxy just like this out there somewhere!" his excitement was palpable now, and Orbit was the one to thank for it. His eyes practically sparkled.

"Orbit, you're amazing!" he concluded, sitting up straighter to look at her. "Thank you for showing me these!"

Wabi had no idea that he had thrown the filly for a loop. He was still contemplating the idea of an innumerable amount of different galaxies when Orbit took back the cause of it.

He blinked a little, barely hearing her say that she needed to find something. "That's....that's ok." he said, shaking his head as if he had a fly buzzing around him. He looked away from her rummaging, watching the work phonies finishing up the street they were on. Most of the leaves were gone now; the hedges were neatly trimmed, and a few flowers that had wilted were replaced with bright blue blooms for winter. They were lovely in their own right, centers glimmering like jewels.