Frost settled gently on the gravestones as the flowers at their feet wilted in the brisk, cold autumn. The graveyard seemed devoid of life, fitting, perhaps, for the resting place of the dead. Even the trees looked mournful as they stood with their branches bare and their colors dim and somber. Not a thing stirred, save it were for the scattered blades of grass bowing in the slight breeze and a single crisp, brown leaf on a single, slumbering brown tree fluttering along with them.
The leaf clung to the tree, unwilling to follow its brothers to the ground where they lay rotting and covered in ice. Oh, how it missed the days when the sun would shine and the world would sing, inviting all to come and hear its music drifting through the air, soft as a newborn chick's feather. The leaf would have the loveliest conversations with the tree to which it belonged, but when the cold had begun and the tree entered its long slumber, the leaf spoke only to its brother leaves. That too ended when, one by one, each leaf fell gently and slowly to the ground, unable to stop their lazy descents to their frost-covered doom at the foot of the tree they so loved.
Now, only this one, lonely leaf remained. It looked at the gray sky as it reminisced. All it had ever known was the conversations with the tree and fellow leaves, the song of the earth, and the grievers coming to mourn their lost loved ones in the graveyard which had always been home to this little leaf. It recalled their pained expressions, their tears that flowed freely down their cheeks to which the leaf had paid little mind as it had sung with the earth. Now the leaf felt pained itself, having lost all it had ever known and loved. All but the branch it now refused to leave.
The wind picked up and the leaf quivered aimlessly in its misery. As the wind grew in strength, the leaf became aware of the air that was battering its thin frame. The leaf renewed its grip, but its flat shape caught the wind as it buffeted the leaf from all sides. The leaf looked to the sky in desperation and held on with all its might, its attention trained solely on the feat of staying attached to the tree it had always called home. It dipped and swirled as the wind relentlessly tackled it, gradually losing its grip. The determined leaf grunted inwardly, a grunt that soon turned to a scream as the last precious thing the leaf had left its grasp. The scream morphed into a howl of remorse as the wind carried the leaf up into the gray sky.
The leaf's heart plummeted below the ground as its body continued to rise. It lamented over its losses, torn up inside because of the countless treasures it had lost in its short life. Now its life was nearly over. It stared at the tree for as long as the tree remained in sight, and as the leaf rode on the wind and the tree disappeared from view, the leaf still searched the horizon where the tree stood, somewhere, far out of the leaf's reach.
The leaf was suddenly awoken from its trance by a loud bubbling sound entering its 'ears'. The noise sounded jubilant, a sound which was unwelcome to the leaf whose life had just lost all meaning. It blocked out the noise and instead focused on the forsaken sound of the wind. The leaf could not keep the strange sound away for long, however, as it penetrated the wind and insisted on being heard. The leaf relaxed the more it heard, and thought of how this sound reminded it of the song of the world. The leaf blew along wondering what could make such a noise, and soon it found itself blowing around two fillies as they ran and jumped and climbed on a small playground, all bundled up. The leaf suddenly realized what the bubbling noise was: laughter. The leaf had never heard real pony laughter before, only the sobbing of terrible sadness.
The song of laughter filled the leaf and carried it higher, far above the happy fillies. It listened to their music until the strong wind had pushed the leaf too far away, high into the sky. The leaf was again alone with only the cold wind to listen to. Suddenly, the leaf's ears perked up as it heard a high-pitched honking sound from not far off. It could just make out the words of cheerful geese as they flew on their way, taking advantage of the strong wind which lifted up their wings. The leaf drifted closer and swirled around the legs of the geese, enjoying their funny conversations and learning what a goose's laugh sounded like. The leaf enjoyed the geese's company so much, in fact, that it was over all too soon, and the leaf slipped away unnoticed. The geese's music slowly faded away and the leaf strained to hear more in vain.
The leaf was concentrating so much that the sudden thwack of its body hitting a window startled it. The leaf attempted to ignore the pain and looked inside the small house whose window it was pressed against. The leaf saw a young couple cuddled up next to a warm fire inside. The crackling music of the fire lifted the leaf's spirits, but not as much as the couple's obvious love for each other. A lifelong yearning yawned open in the little leaf's heart, a yearning the leaf never knew was there. The leaf wanted to be cuddled and loved as the couple was. A leaf never experiences such a thing as it clings to its branch and knows only the pseudo happiness of idly listening to the song of the earth.
The leaf watched the loving couple until the very last second as it skidded around the window and continued on its way. It expected to again hear nothing but the forsaken wind, but a soft murmur drifted along with the leaf. It was somehow familiar yet unrecognizable to the leaf, but the leaf welcomed it nonetheless as it soothed the leaf's broken heart and enveloped it in peace and warmth.
The soft murmuring song followed the leaf and the leaf attuned its ears to the lulling rhythm and slowly fell into a light sleep. In the leaf's dreams it heard the song of the earth as well as the song of laughter, the song of crackling fire, and the song of love. Another tune added to theirs and the leaf realized that it was the song that had lulled it to sleep.
As the leaf basked in the wonderful sounds, it realized what this new song was. It was also the song of the earth! The tune had changed to a softer, more delicate one and had been lost to the leaf's deaf ears. The leaf had wanted only to hear the song of the time when it was green, and had turned its back to the song of the earth as it changed into this lovely, somber melody. The leaf had been lost in sadness and unwilling to experience true joy once it had lost all it had ever known. Now it was free to have that joy, to fly around in the skies for the remainder of its life and listen to each song the cold autumn had to offer.
The leaf awoke from its rest and found itself above the heads of many ponies as they hurried on their ways on the sidewalk, next to the road swarming with taxis. The leaf looked at them in despair, realizing that they did not hear the song, just as the leaf had once been deaf to it. The leaf wanted for nothing at this moment save to be able to find a way to somehow allow them to hear it, to make their own laughter and to be free. The leaf found some degree of happiness and satisfaction as it watched families with huge smiles on their faces walk by, friends enjoying each other's company, and others smelling the breeze and listening to the bird song that chirped with the song of the earth.
The leaf had been so lost in thought that it just now noticed that it was much closer to the heads than it had been just a short while before. The wind slowed and carried the leaf lower and lower. It mingled with the ponies, both the happy and not, until it came to rest on the hard stone sidewalk.
Ponies bustled around it, not once looking down to see the dry leaf which had retreated into a place inside itself to enjoy the blessings it had been given and the precious lessons it had been taught in the last moments of its life. To the leaf, it was here that its life ended, not on a cold sidewalk under a pony's hoof, crushed into crisp pieces that flew away in the faint breeze, free.
