Pumpkin Cake hovered over the little sprout in Fluttershy’s garden. The single leaf glistened with a faint gold shimmer around the edges. A precious baby tree, just starting its long, laborious rise to fruitbearing adulthood. She carefully scooped a measured portion of minerals into the soil, then just as gingerly covered the sprout with a protective covering.
“Pumpkin!” Fluttershy stood at the door of her cottage, pressing a sunhat down on her head. A gust of wind pulled at her tail and mussed her feathers. “You need to get home now! The storm’s going to start soon!”
Pumpkin Cake raised her snout to the sky. Dark clouds poured in from every horizon. Warm summer wind took on an icy chill as low pressure met high. Magic a sickly green and malevolent purple pooled around the Everfree Forest, churning the storm into a further frenzy.
“I gotta make sure the Golden Apple Tree is safe!” Pumpkin tied the protective covering to a stake beside the infant tree. “It’s the only seed we have!”
“I’ll double-check your work!” Fluttershy nearly fell over in the face of a particularly-painful whoosh of wind. “You still have time to get home. Go!”
Pumpkin gave one last forlorn look at the tree, then galloped off towards town. Drops of rain tumbled downward to strike the pavement. The rumble of distant thunder rolled over the rooftops. The cold sting of the air was brushed aside by a flash of warmth.
Pumpkin Cake pushed her way into Sugarcube Corner, Ponyville premier bakery (and ice cream shop). It was still business hours, but the storm had driven the regulars and visitors home. All that remained were the Cakes. They sat around the bakery’s dining room, each engaged in this or that activity. Pound wiped down tables. Cup balanced her littlest, Rice, on her knee and read to him. Carrot stood within sight of the cash register, should some poor soul brave the storm and order a baguette. In the meantime, he practiced icing a tray of cupcakes, doodling whatever design came to mind. Patty Cake, Pumpkin’s little sister, fluttered around on blue wings, crashing into chairs and tables with reckless abandon.
Pumpkin trotted to her father and hugged his skinny leg. “Hi, Dad. Pinkie’s not back yet?”
“Not yet, lemon drop.” Carrot Cake’s Portrait of Spike T. Dragon in Frosting gained a set of candy fangs. “She sent a note saying they had protestors at City Hall today, complaining about the weather.”
“What’s the deal with that?” Pumpkin pulled up a chair and nestled down. She leaned her chin against her forelegs, and her forelegs against the table. “All of Equestria deals with it, ever since Cloudsdale went kerflooey. What’s City Hall supposed to do about a nationwide crisis?”
“It’s been two years since then, dear,” Cup Cake said. She moved Rice to her other lap to give it a turn to fall asleep. The three-year-old colt squirmed. “Everypony has their own idea of how long these things should take.”
The door opened, and a pink-on-pink mare stumbled through. Pinkie Pie threw off her raincoat and shook out her tail, rattling whatever bells and whistles she’d stuffed into her saddlebags. Her mane hung in damp curls around her face, barely blocking her smile in the slightest. “I’m home!”
The four Cake kids rushed as one to greet their friend. They hugged her from every angle, the pegasi among them taking to the air. Pinkie giggled and scooped them up, nuzzling their heads. “I love you guys so much.”
Rice spoke in his signature high-pitched, singsong way. “I love you, tooooo!”
When they parted, Patty to her one-filly demolition derby and Rice to his mother’s lap, Pound hovered at Pinkie Pie’s shoulder to follow her into the shop. “So,” he said, “how was work?”
Pinkie Pie’s smile turned sour at the edges. “Lord Mayor Applejack would like to apologize for the inclement state of the weather and vows to seek every avenue to rectify the situation.”
Pound grimaced. “That bad, huh?”
“Assistant Mayor Pinkie Pie would like to remind you that Weather Patrol Captain Cloudkicker should not be held responsible, as she is working with what she has.” Pinkie squinted her eyes. “Assistant Mayor Pinkie Pie would also like to remind certain idiots not to harass poor Cloudkicker when she’s trying to take care of young twins.”
Pumpkin grinned a sinister grin at Pinkie. “How many dummies has Assistant Mayor Pinkie Pie bludgeoned with comically-large hammers today?”
Pinkie took a chair, undid her ceremonial cravat, and slumped to her face. “Violence is never the solution. Unless it’s the only solution; in which case, go hog-wild.”
Pumpkin lay her head flat against the table to see Pinkie’s face behind her curls. Years of weariness lay in her eyes, behind the running mascara and glistening blue irises. The Mayorship hadn’t been kind to Applejack, nor her running mate. Still, she suspected Applejack and Pinkie Pie were the only things keeping each other sane.
Pumpkin smiled at Pinkie. “You know what always picks you up?”
Pinkie gave her a smirk. “A party? Cupcakes? Ice Cream?”
“We do have two out of three.” Pumpkin rolled her eyes up and to the left, biting back a giggle. “I was thinking more spending time with your favorite twins and their ancillaries.”
Patty Cake hovered over the table and crossed her forelegs. “I’m not a celery. Celery makes me gag.”
Thunder crashed and rain pattered in earnest as the storm reached its full swing. Lightning of yellow, green, purple, red—every color of the rainbow and many besides—struck between the clouds as the magic of the Everfree Forest had its way with the weather.
The windows rattled with tiny hailstones. Carrot took Rice from Cup and set the little colt on his back. “Weather’s getting really rough. I think it’s time to head for the basement.”
“Time for the storm shelter!” Pound winged his way upstairs. “I just gotta grab my Doublejoy Boy!”
The seven of them gathered in the cozy basement, covered in blankets and cuddling together for warmth. The storm’s rage could not reach them this far underground. They were safe. And secure.
And bored.
Pumpkin lit another candle with a spark from her horn. The book she’d been reading had fewer pages left than she’d realized, and she’d need to wait for the storm to calm down before heading back to the Seeds of Friendship Public Library. She could have taken turns playing Pound’s game, but he was neck-deep into some sort of random-number-generator strategy board game disguised as a video game. Patty Cake had worn herself out thumping into things and was curled up at Pinkie’s side.
Rice was being Rice: Tottering around and trying to stick things in his mouth.
Pinkie Pie lifted her head and surveyed the children. She pursed her lips, narrowing her eyes in thought. She caught Pumpkin’s gaze and waved her closer. “Hay, guess what? A breezie’s going to move into town.”
“A breezie? Really?” Pumpkin scooted over, her blankety hanging off her shoulders like a cape. “How’s that work? Is it even possible? They’re so fragile.”
“It’s taken a lot of work to get this far.” Pinkie smiled and rubbed Patty’s sleeping head. “They’re going to be working at the spa. She’s got a lot of knowledge of lotions and creams and calming stuff like that. She’s gonna be living with another pony who’s already modified their house to accommodate her.”
She took on a distant expression, memories playing out along her mind’s eye. “It’s the first real attempt at species integration that I’ve seen in years. At least since the changelings made Thorax their king.”
She flicked an ear down and leaned her head closer. “It’s kinda super-special to me because… well… I was the one who sorta set it all in motion. Just a few years ago, you only ever saw breezies during their pollen-gathering missions, and then they were only out a few days a year.”
Pumpkin got herself comfortable, ready to listen to a story, her boredom forgotten.
“About a year after you were born, Canterlot was attacked by the Storm King.” Pinkie Pie grimaced lightly. “You know that story. Vast armies, globe-trotting adventure, desperate race against time. The usual boring stuff.”
Pumpkin sniggered.
“What we found out after the battle, though?” Pinkie stared into the distance, her mouth pulled down in a frown. “Equestria wasn’t the first kingdom to be conquered. Lots of others, from the Hippogriffs, to the Zebras, to Lightning Gale, right up to the edge of Saddle Arabia, all had been conquered or attacked by the Storm King’s armies. And every single time, nobody had come to help.”
She brought her brilliant blue eyes to Pumpkin and smiled. “Celestia decided to do something about it. She wanted to create a big conference of all the world’s leaders. Bring everyone together in an alliance of friendship, so that if any one of us got into trouble, we’d have people willing to help us.”
“Um.” Pumpkin thought back to her lessons on geography and history, and had heard no such alliance being formed. “How’d that go?”
“Terrible!” Pinkie said. “Half of them didn’t show up, half of them went home grumpy, and the third half only stuck around long enough to eat the hors d'oeuvres.” Pinkie Pie tapped her lip. “Except the yaks. The yaks were all for it.”
She waved a hoof to manually shuffle the story along. “But anyway, that’s not important. What’s important is that I was personally planning the welcome party. I had to be ready to greet diplomats from every corner of the globe. So, in the year Celestia, Twilight, and Luna spent planning the conference, I spent it abroad! I visited each and every country and found out what the people ate, what their customs were, a little this and that about what makes them happy, that sorta thing.” Pinkie Pie shrugged. “I learned only the most rock-bottom basic stuff, but I only had a year.”
Carrot placed a plate beside her, which held a single pink-frosted cupcake. She took a lick of the frosting and hummed her approval. “Now this is where the good part of the story starts, as I near the entrance to the breezie home…”
***
Pinkie Pie’s hooves thundered down the road, kicking up flowers in her wake. The dust and pollen of the midspring air swirled around her like sparks from a magic spell. And magical it was, in its own life-giving, slightly allergenic way. Bees and butterflies hopped between plants, fertilizing seeds even as they collected nourishment for themselves.
Pinkie’s cart rattled behind her, nearly unnoticed by her earth pony strength. She went over the inventory in her head. Cake batter, streamers, protein bars, spare wheels, hammers and nails, tents, sleeping bags, pre-stamped envelopes. All critical to every stop she’d make along the way.
Except for one.
“Pinkie!” Twilight Sparkle raced behind her friend, her wings lending speed to her tramping hooves. An extra burst of speed brought her alongside the cart, and after a moment longer, alongside Pinkie. “Wait up! Th—whew!—the portal isn’t even open yet!”
“I know, Twilight, but can I really help it?” Pinkie danced down the road, never slacking in her pace. “I’m just so excited to see the cute, adorable, loveable, teensy-weensy, tiny-winy, minuscule, diminutive, baby-faced—” Pinkie paused and gave Twilight a small, expectant smile.
Twilight tilted her head, her hooves drumming up a hasty four-beat tattoo. “What?”
“This is the part where you interrupt me and tell me I’m being redundant.”
“I figured you were just being thorough.”
“Aww!” Pinkie reached out and looped her foreleg around Twilight’s neck in a warm hug. “You’re finally learning the ways of the Pie!”
Twilight let out a fully articulate and completely dignified “Whaugh!” as Pinkie’s hug took her from her feet. She trailed helplessly in Pinkie’s grip, her tail flapping in the wind. “Piiiinkie Piiieeeee!”
Pinkie dug her three free feet into the ground. Her tail flicked out to activate the breaks on her cart’s wheels as well. The cart, the princess, and the pinkest skidded to a halt a calculated distance away from a large stone outcropping. Pinkie dropped her friend and laid a nonchalant hoof on the sun-warmed rock.
Twilight Sparkle stood, took in three slow, steady breaths in quick succession, and gave Pinkie a wide, wide, wide grin. “One day, when you least expect it, I will find a way to repay you for all the excitement you bring into my life.”
“No need to repay me, Twilight.” Pinkie wriggled out of the harness. She dashed around the area, picking up downed branches, old bushes, and any other flotsam she could use to disguise her cart’s location. “Just think of it as one of the many services I provide to my friends and all of Equestria.”
Twilight Sparkle trotted along the edge of the rock, her eyes darting up and down. “Let’s see… The entrance should be right around…”
“Found it!” Pinkie said, pulling aside a bush. “It’s to the north side! Facing Ponyville!”
“Of course it would be.” Twilight joined Pinkie beside the entrance to the breezie’s community. A tunnel led deep into the rock, and culminated with a bare-faced dead end. Moss hung over the opening, concealing it from view for those not looking for it.
Pinkie pressed her face into the hole. She could see gemstones studding the floor, walls, and ceiling of the inert portal. “Hellooo! You can come out anytime you want!”
“Easy, Pinkie.” Twilight yanked her back with a spell around her tail. “We don’t know what sort of atmosphere imbalance might exist between this side of the portal and theirs. You might find yourself blown back, or create a sort of suction effect.”
“Twilight.” Pinkie gave her friend a level stare. “You know good and well that this is a friendly portal for friendly purposes, and as such would have no ill effects according to Meadowbrook’s First Law of Strange Magic.”
“Wha—?” Twilight scrunched her muzzle. “That’s not a thing! That’s not even a thing.”
“Lies and slander.” Pinkie hopped straight into the air, waving a hoof at Twilight. “Ooh! Ooh! The portal’s doing the magic sparkly thingy!”
Twilight Sparkle rolled her eyes and turned to the entryway. She muttered quietly to herself, just loud enough for Pinkie to hear her, a tiny smile playing at the corner of her mouth. “Yep. That’s certainly called a ‘magic sparkly thingy’ and not ‘time-space dilation’ with flashing lights resulting from static buildup at both ends of the portal. Professor Pinkie, you’ve done it again.”
“Aw, shucks, Twi.”
The hole flashed with rainbows of living color. A light wind hissed its way through the tiny tunnel, playing with their manes. Behind her, Pinkie Pie could feel the wind connect with the pegasus wind Rainbow Dash and her Weather Patrol were kicking up a mile or so down the road. Soon, a single road of magic-laced wind blew its way down the trail, branching to various fields ripe with flowers and pollen.
The breezies burst forth with a bustling bundle of bubbly blabber and blindingly blossoming colors. Curly manes and dangling legs mingled with wings so delicate that gossamer and morning dew seemed like wrought iron by comparison. Disproportionately large eyes blinked in the sunlight, searching out danger and delights. First one, then a dozen odd, took notice of Pinkie Pie. A yammering of the breezie tongue greeted her, accompanied by waved limbs.
“Hi everybody!” Pinkie shouted as quietly as possible. Excited though she was, she wasn’t about to forget the lessons she’d already learned. “I’m, like, super totally excited to spend time in your home. For real this time!”
The breezie at the lead of the swarm bowed at the neck and smiled. “Mebbly flurbert squeeshin dauds!”
Pinkie answered with a grin of her own. “I have no idea what you just said!”
The breezie shrugged. She pointed at Twilight Sparkle, then at Pinkie. “Mebbly. Flurbert. Beedlewheet!”
Pinkie and Twilight shared a glance. Twilight Sparkle hemmed and hawed briefly. “I’m not too good when it comes to Breezish,” she said. “But I think she said—”
A tiny voice boomed from the entrance to the tunnel. “She said ‘perform the transformation spell already!’ Let’s get thees show on the road!”
Pinkie felt her smile weaken ever so slightly. It brightened back to its full luster when she spotted the creature the voice belonged to. “Hello, Seabreeze! Nice to see you again, too!”
The breezie stood at the lip of the opening, his spindly legs gripping the rock as tightly as possible. He lowered his eyebrows at Pinkie. “Let’s get thees over weeth. Let the pollen party goo collect while I play—” He grunted, one eye twitching. “—tour guide.”
Pinkie nodded at Twilight, flashing a quick, sturdy faux salute. “Ready when you are, Princess of Magic!”
Twilight Sparkle bobbed her head, her eyes flicking to the cart. “If you’re sure you can still do this alone. I’m sure I could enchant something in the cart to carry my consciousness. Something unobtrusive and non-creepy, like a doll or a painting or—”
“Twi, we already had this conversation.” Pinkie Pie placed a hoof on Twilight’s chest and bumped their snoots together. “I’ll be fine! It’s just the breezies! It’s like literally the safest place in the world!”
Twilight pressed her lips together, humming quietly and quite insecurely.
“Besides!” Pinkie leaned against Twilight, nearly knocking the alicorn off her feet. “If you’re busy helping me and not doing your own part getting the party ready… there might be scheduling conflicts!”
Twilight breathed a heavy sigh. “You do make a compelling argument. Alright. Step back, everypony.”
Twilight’s horn glimmered, shimmered, and sparkled. The magic corona shifted from lavender, to deep purple, and finally settled on pure, sunlit white. Her mane flew back as she shot a single, precise beam into the crowd of breezies. She sent a matching spark Pinkie’s way, gripping the strong earth pony in a blinding flash.
A bubbly, fizzing sensation spread throughout Pinkie Pie’s body. Growing pains thundered up and down her legs, but resulted in them growing the opposite direction. Her mane billowed up around her head like a thousand bad mane days at once. Her insides churned and wriggled with vim and vigor and lots of other V words; like vice or valedictorian.
When the magic faded, a pink-on-pink breezie perched on a thistle in the midst of a swarm of like-bodied individuals. They gathered around her, showering her with cheers and incomprehensible words.
“Alright, shoo! Shoo!” Seabreeze bustled into the crowd, pushing breezies to and fro. “Get mooving! E’yew’re holding up the entire pollen party! Vhee hev mouths to feed! Shoo! On with it!”
With much moaning and malapropisms, the breezie procession proceeded into the wider world.
Seabreeze crossed his forelegs and wrinkled his forehead. “I should go with them.”
Pinkie Pie chucked him in the shoulder. “Aw, don’t worry abo—Whoa!” She clutched her chest and giggled like a chipmunk on helium. “Is that my voice!? Oh my gooooosh it’s so tiny! I’m like a hyperactive, sugar-charged, super-intelligent baby squirrel!”
Seabreeze looked to Twilight Sparkle with a leveled mouth. “Succinct.”
Pinkie Pie stretched out her glossy membranous wings and gave them a tentative flap. She wibbled her way through the air, eventually coming to a haphazard landing on Twilight’s nose. She patted her friend with as big a smile as she was able to conjure up in her present condition. “I guess I’ll see you in a week? To change me back?”
Twilight pressed her lips tight. She nodded softly so as not to knock Pinkie off. “I’ll see you then, Pinkie. Then I guess you’re off to wherever else?”
“Beefland, with the Minotaurs, yeah.” Pinkie bounced off and met Seabreeze in midair. She glanced between Twilight, the breezie, and the entrance looming ahead. “Heh… heh… Once more into the breech.”
“Are vhee finally done with the pleasantries?” Seabreeze grasped her hoof and tugged her towards the portal. “Good! Then here vhee goo!”
The wind caught them and carried them straightaway into the tunnel of rock. The spritzy-sparky magic tickled the frogs of Pinkie’s hooves as she passed by. She cast one last glance over her shoulder, once last look at her friend, before she found herself… elsewhere.
The air pressure, the temperature, the light, all changed immediately. It was clearly a portal to an entirely new location, far removed from Middle Equestria. The alternatingly warm and cool spring air was replaced with a level temperature, free from the randomness of natural weather. Light did not seem to come from one direction, but from all around, eliminating most shadows.
Pinkie vibrated in midair, her herky-jerky movements tugging Seabreeze and unsteadying him. He shook his head with a tiny smirk. “Easy. Vhee’re almost there. No need to get e’yewr antennae in a knot.”
“Ohmygosh I have antennae!?” Pinkie crossed her eyes to try to look at her forehead. “That’s—that’s actually pretty weird. Not sure how to process that.”
“They glow if e’yew send magic through them. Not sure what fer, but…” Seabreeze drew himself up as they reached the mouth of the tunnel. He spread a proud foreleg in a sweep over the newly revealed landscape. “Pinkie Pie, as the oofficial representative of the Circle of Elders, allow me to present Breezy Bastion!”
Memories came flooding back of her ten-second visit to the breezie home some short time ago. She peered into the world with her breath held and her eyes wide. Most things matched with what she’d seen, with an additional coat of intricate detail added in.
A castle-like structure stood tall, built into a boulder—which to the breezies was as large as a cliffside. Waterfalls ran between support pillars. Delicate flowers loomed like great cedars overhead, dropping petals as breezie children hopped between them. The crystal clear water was cool to the touch, and the flowers were warm with some sort of inner glow. Pinkie looked up to the sky, but it wasn’t the sky she knew. It shimmered with a solid light, and seemed flat to her—as if the entire location was covered by a dome of magic.
A few older breezies (at least, the wrinkles and gray manes made them look old) pointed to Pinkie with wide eyes. Children took one look at her and stampeded towards her, shouting nonsensical, musical jitters. They gathered around, the young and the old, touching her, speaking to her, dropping necklaces of strung flower petals around her neck, drawing pictures of her with bits of chalk—
“Fretzlegoobin scribblydoo!” Seabreeze shouted at the top of his lungs, waving his forelegs. “Mein fargden, blick deeble spritzensparken!”
The breezies scrambled back, but never let their smiles lessen their sparkle. A few children still hopped on their elders’ backs, waving to Pinkie Pie. She gave them a friendly wave back.
“Apologies, Representative Pie,” Seabreeze said. “Vhe’ve never, ever gotten a visitor in Breezy Bastion. Fooor… obvious reasons.” He patted her shoulder and pointed to the castle-like structure. “Vhee have to get to the villa to speak vheeth the leader breezies. As quick as possible.”
Pinkie nodded so fast that her curls bounced back and forth on her head. She flicked the crowd a wink. “If anybody here has anything special that makes them happy, just let me know and I’ll—”
“Pinkie,” Seabreeze said, “I am the oonly one here who understands Equestrian.”
“Oh!” Pinkie patted his back and wiggled her eyebrows. “Just let him know and I’ll incorporate it into my event planning!”
Seabreeze leveled his eyebrows. He opened his mouth to say something, but seemed to think better of it. “Vhell, sounds good to me. Blargen wargledeek!”
With his shouted command, the crowd parted in a line that led straight to the doors of the villa. Pinkie began the journey at a walk, but soon had to take to the air to keep up with Seabreeze. She licked her hoof and held it in the air; she couldn’t even detect the slightest breeze. “What’s up with that? How are we flying without any wind?”
“Huh?” Seabreeze tilted an ear back, but didn’t look her way. He kept his eyes forward, allowing him to steer around stray flower sprouts and other airborne hazards. “Ooh. Vhee don’t actually need the vhind to fly. It is the pegasus magic that keeps us in the air. Same as the pegasi themselves. Take a look at the road.”
Pinkie tilted her head. She looked down and saw that the road was paved over in a trail leading to the villa. But more than just paved, it was a raised highway. She angled her wings to take her lower, so that she could peer over the side of the pathway. Beneath the bricks and the pavement, she could see hundreds and hundreds of sparkling, fuzzy, multicolored feathers.
“Donated pegasus feathers,” Seabreeze sighed. “Just one of the many things vhee depend on Equestria fer.”
They landed just outside the villa, while the road continued onward through an open archway. Pinkie turned around to see that her audience had followed at what they thought was a respectful distance, their eyes shimmering with enough curiosity to injure at least a hundred cats. She gave them a wide, unbridled grin. A hundred-odd grins answered her.
Seabreeze muttered to himself as he nudged her into the villa from behind. She couldn’t understand his words, but the message was loud and clear. Her smile turned sympathetic as she cantered her way into the only building she’d seen since travelling to the breezie’s hidden home of Breezy Bastion.
She sniffed the air when a delightful scent tickled her nostrils. “Ooh! Is somepony baking honey cakes?”
Seabreeze’s expression twisted in confusion. He flicked an ear and watched her out of the corner of his eye. “Vhat’s a honey cake?”
“A cake made with honey, duh!” Pinkie bounced as she brought the recipe to mind, cross-referencing it with various other delightful treats. “Or maybe more like a donut, but much more sticky! Or—or a roll with ooey-gooey syrup made from honey! Glazed with it! Drowning in it!” She licked her lips, careful not to drool in public. “Baptized in it!”
Seabreeze blinked, his mouth a tiny life-ring in the midst of a sea of befuddlement. “Vhat’s honey?”
“Uh. The best thing?” Pinkie Pie shrugged, for lack of a better activity to do. “It’s like made from pollen and nectar and bee spit and stuff. Bees make it in their hives to feed their babies. You don’t got bees here?”
Seabreeze choked on his spit. “The last time I saw a bee it tried to kill me!”
Pinkie Pie blushed, feeling a mighty twinge of sympathy pain rolling across her body. “Ooh, yeah. Tiny. Really, really tiny right now.”
They reached a large double-door, made from wood carved from a small birch tree. If Pinkie squinted, she could see tiny impressions of breezies flying throughout the surface of the wood. As she followed Seabreeze, she couldn’t help but be distracted by a certain tantalizing scent. “So if that’s not honey, what is it?”
Seabreeze halted in the middle of pulling down one of the door handles. He looked at her with a single eyebrow raised, pouting out his lower lip. “It’s ambrosia, of course.”
Pinkie Pie’s mouth dropped as an overwhelming aroma of honey washed over her. Her eyes were bedazzled by drizzling, dripping cascades of golden liquid pouring down from the ceiling into five pools. Foot bridges arched over the rippling, glistening reservoirs in a spidering pattern. Breezies fluttered between the pools, drawing the ambrosia into buckets that Pinkie was sure couldn’t be bigger than a thimble. In the center of the room, surrounded by the glitter of gold sweetness, sat several elderly breezies, their cotton-candy-shaped manes graying with age. Pinkie approached at Seabreeze’s gestured hoof.
“The Breezy Bastion elders,” Seabreeze whispered out of the side of his mouth. “That’s Fragglerock, Widdershins, Flugelhorn, Fiddlefaddle…”
He went on, and the names filed themselves in Pinkie Pie’s mind, ready to be cross-referenced with birthdays.
“…Bugaboo, Wobegone, Sobelieve, Ballyhoo…”
Seabreeze drew himself up, his lungs filling with breath and gumption. He turned to Pinkie Pie and stood in the center of the circled cushion-bound breezies. One of the elders spoke in a hissed warble of the breezie tongue. “Fembledy wergledirb. Farleyhoot bippitybop.”
Clearing his throat, Seabreeze translated: “Lady Pinkie Pie of the Friendship Court and the Bearer of the Element of Laughter, it is vheeth great honor that vhee vhelcome e’yew to Breezy Bastion!”
Pinkie blinked. “She really said all that?”
“Breezie is a very efficient language.”
“So true.”
The next breezie elder—whose head was almost completely bald, yet made up for it with his vast, flowing, curly beard—hummed a little ditty. “Blurten vallagoob titi mamada.”
Seabreeze rolled his eyes and waved a hoof imperiously. “It is vheeth additional honor and vast humility that we accept e’yewr request to spend time in Breezy Bastion and learn vhat makes breezies happy and fulfilled.”
“Yay!” Pinkie said.
“But—” Seabreeze tugged at the collar of his suit. He tilted his head to the left and the right before continuing. “—but the breezies will not have a representative in the Conference of Allied Peoples.”
“Ha ha ha.” Pinkie paused. She smiled. She thought to giggle. “What?”
“I said…” Seabreeze blushed, his blue face taking on a distinctly eggplant shade of purple. “Vhell, you heard vhat I said! The breezies have nothing to add to the conference, so vhee are not going!”
The breezie elders all nodded to each other as people are apt to do when somebody parrots their ideas.
Pinkie Pie shook her head, her smile just the least bit dampened. “That’s silly. You’re silly. The conference is for everybody! It’s so everybody can get to know each other and help each other and protect each other in one big, happy community!”
The first breezie tossed her curly mane, nearly knocking her neighbor into the ambrosia. She cleared her throat and spoke quickly. “Squiddle dee dooberdeeba. Shushu bugaboo middlemaddle twee. Flubdididi kookoo zooberibble bubba wullup piddly bong-bong flermigglederp vallagibble dweep!”
“Um…” Seabreeze shrugged. “The council’s decision is final.”
Pinkie Pie felt her smile sour at the edges. Not like tasty sour apple, but more like an old pop-tart from under the couch. “Is that all she said?”
“Most of it is… difficult to translate.” Seabreeze sighed. “E’yew vheel be staying at my house tonight, and e’yew’ll start e’yewr tour of the Ambrosia Brewery tomorrow morning.”
He flew towards the double doors. Pinkie did not follow him. She glared at the elders (more of a very strong pout, really). She clicked her tongue and fluttered her wings at the lead breezie. “Are you kidding me? You’re going to dismiss the conference without giving it a second thought? The conference is supposed to be for everybody’s benefit! Yours, too! You can’t just blow the other species off like this!”
Pinkie smirked. She had the big guns primed and ready. With one phrase, she would have the breezies on their knees begging to join her at the conference. With one word, all their reasons for being absent would vaporize in an instant. With one thought, she would have them at her beck and call. “You wouldn’t want to be rude to the other species, would you?”
The elders looked at each other. Simultaneously, without warning, they stuck their tongues out and blew cute little raspberries at her.
“Blast! My only defense; thwarted!” Pinkie’s ears drooped. She rubbed the back of her head, looking at the congregation with her big, baby-blue eyes. “B-but why?”
Seabreeze landed beside her. He touched a hoof to her shoulder and edged her towards the door. “Miss Pinkie Pie, can I show e’yew something?”
Pinkie looked up from beneath heavy eyelids, her mouth now a pronounced frown. “Does it answer my questions in a tonally appropriate and descriptively interesting manner?”
“Aaaaaaah…” Seabreeze cracked an uncertain grin. “E’yes?”
“Okay,” Pinkie sighed.
The two of them fluttered back outside, into the wider world. The scent of honey—that is, ambrosia—faded behind them. Seabreeze flew straight up, his eyes on the sky. Pinkie Pie squinted at the clouds overhead. “Hay, aren’t we gonna run out of feather magic if we keep—?”
He paused, his hoof held straight up. He patted nothing in midair. “Not really a problem.”
Pinkie pushed forward until her hoof patted something solid where there was nothing. The nothing continued to restrain her even as she zipped to and fro through the sky. It was cool to the touch, like metal or hard plastic, with no give. She frowned. The sky looked like it went on forever, just like it always did. “Is it some kinda forcefield?”
“I think. Maybe. Probably.” Seabreeze shrugged. “It’s a dome that covers the entirety of Breezy Bastion. There’s noo vhay out, and noo vhay in, except for the portal.”
Pinkie Pie took a pace back. She turned her eyes to the horizon. The beautiful flowery valley was nestled in the middle of a mountain range. Like being in the middle of a big, toothy maw eating a cupcake with super-colorful frosting. Her breath came up short as a thought came to her. “Does… does it end at the mountains?”
Seabreeze nodded with a huff. “Thees is it. Thees is all the space vhee have at Breezy Bastion. Thees is all the room vhee have to live and survive. For all the Breezies. In the whole world.”
Pinkie Pie glanced at the portal, which shimmered in a cave mouth in the side of one of the mountains. Two breezie dudes stood guard, their antennae glistening with magic. “So… the breezies we see on the pollen gathering trip…. That’s all of you?”
“E’yes. Every able-bodied breezie goes if they can.” Seabreeze looked down, his brow furrowing, his lip cocked in the beginning of a sneer. “Thees is all vhee have. All of us live in the space contained in Fluttershy’s living room. Vhee are not a nation. Vhee are barely a town.”
He crossed his forelimbs. “That is vhy vhee have no business in the conference. Vhee cannot help anybody. Vhee have nothing to give, and the other nations wouldn’t want anything to do vheeth us.”
“But…” Pinkie Pie reached out to grasp one of his hooves. “But it’s not just for nations! It’s for all species; everybody! It’s so we can all have a chance to be friends.”
Seabreeze’s scowl faded, replaced by a dour defeat. “The elders’ decision is final.”
Pinkie blew a raspberry of her own. She fluttered back and forth a few times, scratching her head. “Not everybody at the council is some huge world-power. You guys have, like, a totally good thing going on with Equestria, so maybe there’s—”
“I vhant it!” Seabreeze tossed his arms to the sky. “I vhant to believe that vhee have something special to bring, but there’s nothing. Vhee are practically parasites living off Equestria’s generosity.”
“Oh, boo hoo!” Pinkie put her hooves on her hips. “Friendship has nothing to do with being useful to each other!”
Seabreeze raised an eyebrow. “Would e’yew stay friends with somebody who is completely useless?”
“Yes.” Pinkie Pie nodded. “And on that note, I’ve got to introduce you to Gummy one of these days.”
Seabreeze flicked his antennae. He muttered to himself in the breezie language, then waved at Pinkie. “Vhell, vhee are doing no good just floating around up here. Let’s head hoome.”
He led her through the flower forest, past dozens of colorful breezie children and their apparent grandsires. Pinkie favored them with a small smile, since they for sure didn’t deserve her grumpy attitude. Tiny houses came into view—seeming to be little more than mushrooms with rooms carved into the thick stems and massive hoods. Several lumped together to form an expansive canopy, under which several children played. Seabreeze whistled, and one tiny tot came barreling out of the crowd to tackle the older breezie.
“Papa!” the breezie boy shouted. “E’yew’re back! Is Momma back?”
Seabreeze shook his head, a smile appearing on his face despite himself. “No, not yet, son. Vhee have a visitor.” He turned to the side and slung a foreleg around the tiny boy’s shoulders. “Pinkie Pie, thees is my son, Crisperfall.”
“I’m four hooves old!”
“My wife Dandelion is on the pollen collection trip—” He added “since I couldn’t go” under his breath. “—so I guess I’m cooking supper tonight.”
Crisperfall’s wings drooped in concert with the rest of his body. “Does that mean vhee’re having wheat again?”
“Mind e’yewr manners.”
Pinkie squeezed her cheeks, puckering her lips, unable to suppress a squeal. “Ohmygoshhe’ssocute!” She cleared her throat and started again, this time with a little more clarity. “Oh my gosh, he’s so cute! And he speaks Equestrian, too?”
“I’ve been teaching him.” Seabreeze puffed his chest out proudly. “Someday maybe he’ll be the translator.”
He deflated a little once he glanced back at the portal to the outside world. “Someday.”
***
Supper was delicious. Kinda. Well, maybe serviceable. Passable. Edible.
Borderline edible.
Seabreeze had slaved over the stove trying to fry the wheat. Then he attempted to boil it. Once that failed, he settled for simply setting it on fire and placing it on a plate. Thankfully, the berries and veggies merely required slicing in order to be ingested. To a pony, the size they cut the strawberry to would have been suitable to make jam, whereas in Pinkie’s current state, it was more of a healthy portion. The broccoli seemed to be more of a bush trimming than anything, but it tasted like it should. The wheat, though…
The wheat was best left where it was, smoldering on the edge of the plate.
Pinkie leaned out the window after supper, looking up at the sky as the day turned to night. The dome above Breezy Bastion acted as a strange sort of contact lens that warped the view of the clouds and sun above them. Stars sparkled, though they became a bit more oblong the brighter they were. The moon was an eggish shape, still as clear and bright as it ever was. The curve of the lens soaked in heat to warm Breezy Bastion through the night, and shielded the inhabitants from harsh rays during the day.
She heard Seabreeze’s squeaky, warbling voice coming from Crisperfall’s room, where the father was reading his son a bedtime story. Crisperfall’s giggles and gasps brought a smile to Pinkie’s face. She focused on the happy little memory, allowed herself to enjoy it fully without adding on the baggage she’d accumulated that day. That could be dealt with the next day. For now, there was no real use worrying about it.
Instead, she took a moment to think back to when Granny Pie would read her bedtime stories. Tales of great heroes and mighty deeds. The founders of Equestria, the discovery of the Elements of Harmony, the fall of Nightmare Moon. Now that she thought about it, she had lived her own little sequel to most of those stories. A sequel to tell her own kids and grandkids, when the opportunity presented itself.
She touched the antennae attached to her forehead. Those were going to take some getting used to, especially while sleeping. She could just imagine getting her legs tangled up in them in a way her mane’s tangles could only dream of.
Seabreeze closed the book with a thump and left his son’s room. He eased himself through the hall in the middle of their cozy mushroom house, the book tucked beneath his foreleg. Pinkie glanced back and spoke quietly. “Hay, Seabreeze.”
“Eh?” The breezie took a detour into her guest room. “Vhat? Do e’yew need something?”
“Just curious.” Pinkie pointed to the book. “Is that from Equestria, or is it a breezie story?”
Seabreeze blinked, his long eyelashes whipping through the air. He took the book in both forelegs and gazed at the cover. “It’s a breezie story, passed down through the generations. An old legend. Do e’yew vhant to see?”
“Like, of course.” Pinkie Pie took the book gently, careful not to scuff the cover or crease the pages. Twilight would have freaked out if she’d been there. She knew the value of another culture’s stories. What they said about their people, what themes they might have, what details of life might have leaked through…
She opened it to a lovely two-page spread of pictures. A tiny breezie hovered around a pony, who wore a bandage on their hoof. Pinkie laughed. “It’s so pretty! It looks like water colors.”
She flicked the page, and was surprised to find two more pictures. Likewise on the next page, and the next, and the next. “Aren’t… aren’t there any words?”
“Nah.” Seabreeze shrugged. “The breezies never had a written language. It’s all oral history, and the pictures help us remember.”
“Audio-visual, huh?” Pinkie flipped further through the book. The images told the story of how a young breezie had been injured, but had quickly been saved by an earth pony. The favor was repaid, and so a cycle began of helping each other back and forth. “I can dig it.”
“The… story probably isn’t relevant anymore.” Seabreeze sniffed as he took it back. “Not these days, anyhoo.”
He winced, shaking his head and letting his poufy mane dance against the ceiling. “I truly am sorry that the council is so against the conference. I vhish the breezies had something to offer, but vhe’re so small and fragile. There’s something…” He glanced out the window, where Pinkie could just catch sight of the portal. “There’s just something important about the ponies’ and breezies’ friendship vheeth each other. I just vhish I understood.”
Pinkie gave him a shaky, uncertain grin. “Coming to the conference would help us figure it out.”
“E’yes. I know.” Seabreeze rolled his eyes, his forehead furrowing like a stone wall crumbling on itself. “Tell that to the elders.”
“I will.” Pinkie nodded. “You know what? I will. We’ll get this settled once and for all.”
“E’yes, well…” Seabreeze snorted. “Try getting breezies to work on something even a leetle bit hard. Go ahead and try.”
***
Pinkie Pie snorted awake. A loud, piercing squeal stabbed at her eardrums. It sounded like an alarm at first, until she realized it was rising and falling with individual words. It was breezies shouting. All the breezies.
She looked through the window to see the tiny creatures stampeding through the flowers. They headed deeper into the forest, away from the villa and the portal. Pinkie opened the window to see what they were running towards, but all she could see was antenna light fading into the green. Were they running from something?
The portal glowed a brilliant moonlit blue. The guards were nowhere to be seen, but she could still see shapes shifting around on the mountainside.
“Pinkie!” A rapid-fire knock rattled her door. “Pinkie Pie! Vhee have to go now!”
“What?” Pinkie hopped across the room and threw the door open. Seabreeze stood tall, his face pulled back in a half-panicked grimace. A weeping Crisperfall lay on his back, tied to his torso via what looked like a gift-wrapping ribbon. “What’s the matter?”
“Sooooom-ting got troo de portal!” Seabreeze lost control of his accent as the words poured out helter-skelter. “Slipped past de guards—soom-ting very evil bad, bad, very bad! Vhee need to get to the underground tunnels! Safe there! Go now!”
He grasped her hoof and tugged her through the hallway. She looked back to try to see what was crawling on the mountainside, but the window slipped out of view. “I don’t get it! I thought you guys controlled the portal!”
“No, no!” Seabreeze slipped into the meager sitting room, where a small fireplace lay built into the trunk of the central mushroom. Above the fireplace sat a long, metallic, pointed object. He pulled it from its mount and hefted it. “Vhee always keep the portal open so that our families can get back in. Vhee can only open every so often, so sometimes something gets through.”
Pinkie tilted her eyebrows upward. “Is that a sewing needle?”
“No! It’s a sword!” Seabreeze swished the blade through the air. “See? It’s a rapier!”
Pinkie Pie shrugged.
“Aaargh!” Seabreeze kicked the front door open and gestured for her to follow. “Come on! Vhee need to meet the others! Fly for e’yewr life!”
Pinkie Pie spread her wings and hustled after him. “From what?”
Seabreeze couldn’t hear her. Whether it was the sound of the wind, or the cries of his son, or the blather of the other breezies, she couldn’t tell. She turned her head to look to the portal again, and lost track of where she was going. She bounced off the petals of a dandelion and was sent spinning upward.
She shook off the dizziness. A glance down found the shimmer of Seabreeze’s antennae. A quick dive, executed with what little finesse she had, would catch her up in a jiffy.
She kicked up a leg, brought her wings in, and stopped short when she came into contact with ugliness incarnate. Eight eyes glared at her. Sharp fangs dripped with venom. Legs that ended with claws grasped for her. Eight legs, to be precise. The dragonfly-like wings beat up a storm behind the creature, jostling the air around her, generating turbulence.
She found herself face-to-face with a flyder. A flying spider. Know in the scientific communities as “Araneae Anansi.”
She screamed with all the air in her lungs and lashed out. She struck true, and the flyder tumbled to the ground with a deep dent in the carapace of its head.
She swallowed hard. Unlike most spiders, which were much more reasonable examples of nastiness, flyders were pack hunters. Flocking flyers. Swarming spookiness. She confirmed this theory when she noted the veritable armada of flyders bearing down on her as they launched themselves from the mountain.
Seabreeze zipped between her and the flyders, his back lacking any sign of his son. “Coom on! The tunnels are just ahead! E’yew don’t wanna get eaten, do e’yew?”
“Is that really a question I have to answer?” Pinkie flew as fast as her wings would take her. “Is Crispy safe?”
“E’yes!” Seabreeze swung his sewing needle to poke a flyder in the eye. “Just hurry, or vhee’re goners!”
There, up ahead, Pinkie saw an opening in the ground. Several elderly breezies and the two guards from the portal waved them on, ready to close up the opening with a large, heavy disk. Pinkie put on an extra oomph she didn’t know she had. Behind her, Seabreeze’s sewing needle clashed with the fangs of an Anansi.
They shot through the opening, and the disk closed with a metallic clank.
Pinkie lay face-down in the dirt for a long moment, just catching her breath. Her head swam with the exertion. She’d used muscles she didn’t know she had. Actually, she’d used muscles she’d never had before in her life. Her wings ached alongside the dull pain in her antennae. She’d landed pretty hard. She attempted to stand, but lay back down in the next instant. Her front right leg fell out from under her, and one wing was bent. That didn’t look good.
“Easy, easy!” Seabreeze grasped her beneath the shoulder and hoisted her up. “E’yew took a spill. Vhee can get e’yew patched up in no time.”
She held back a whine as her hoof ached. “I—I guess I should’ve guessed that a breezie body was more fragile than an earth pony body…”
“E’yew just need time to get used to it.” Seabreeze glowered at the metal disk holding back the army of flyders. “I’m sorry e’yew were here for that. Flyders usually don’t swarm thees early in the year.”
“Hay, what’s life without excitement?” She winced as her wing brushed against the dirt wall. “Oh, owie.”
They reached a large chamber, where the breezie elders and young ones were all gathered. They huddled in the center of the room, treating injuries and sleeping where they could. Seabreeze took a quick headcount and nodded. “Everybody’s here. Safe and sound. Looks like my ideas for emergency drills paid off.”
“You can say that again.” Pinkie rested against the wall. She clutched her injured hoof close to her chest. She didn’t know what the heck to do with her wing, so she left it alone as best she could. “Do the flyders attack often?”
“N-no.” Seabreeze shook his head, sending his mane dancing. “Usually vhee time the pollen gathering before they hatch. Since vhee have no contact vhith the outside world… Vhee don’t always get it right. Sometimes vhee have ant invaders, or a curious bird wanders in… and don’t even ask about the rat-king that invaded once.”
“A rat—?”
“Don’t even ask.” Seabreeze sighed and extended a foreleg to sweep across the room. “That’s vhy vhee have these tunnels. Because apparently hiding ourselves in Breezy Bastion isn’t enough. Vhee have to hide even deeper in the dirt to stay alive.”
He glanced left and right, then patted her shoulder. “Stay put. I’ll get e’yew some ambrosia.”
“What’s—?” He skittered away before she could finish her question. She took a moment to examine the room. The walls of the tunnels were dirt, but in here the walls were carved into the stone of the mountainside. Candles dotted the room at regular interludes, illuminating something fairly interesting to Pinkie’s mind: Large metal disks, just like the one she’d seen sealing off the caverns. They were embedded into the wall, right up to the lip of the circular device.
Seabreeze returned with a silvery cylinder in hoof. He examined her leg from every angle, squinting his eyes. “It dooosn’t look like e’yew broke it in the fall. Joost when e’yew clobbered the flyder.”
He unscrewed the top of the cylinder and filled it with a small measure of the golden liquid inside. He passed it to her and indicated that she was to drink it. It burned going down, and tingled once it got to her stomach. The tingles spread throughout her body as magic sparks, reaching into her limbs, focusing on her hoof and her wing.
“E’yew should be back to normal in a few days,” Seabreeze said. “Ambrosia works fast on simple breaks.”
“No kidding?” Pinkie looked down at her busted-up leg as Seabreeze set it. The pain was already beginning to subside. “What else is it good for?”
“Ambrosia speeds up cellular regeneration. So mostly breaks, cuts, low blood levels, that sort of thing.”
“Neat.” Pinkie nibbled her lower lip. “Any chance I could bring some of that stuff back to the surface?”
“Probably.” Seabreeze took a seat and sighed. He straightened out her wing, running his hooves along the surface to smooth it over. Like an iron smoothing out wrinkles. “Vhee make so much every season, so I don’t see vhy not.”
The cry of a baby tugged at Pinkie’s heartstrings. A gaggle of mothers sat in the center of the group, cradling their babies close to the chest and rubbing their bellies with their antennae. She frowned. The question didn’t really need to be asked, so she stated it instead. “Dandelion had to take your place in the gathering because you needed to translate for me.”
When Seabreeze didn’t reply, Pinkie said “I’m sorry.”
“It vhasn’t e’yewr doing. It vhas the council’s idea to schedule the gathering this week.” Seabreeze curled his legs against his torso. “It vhas my idea to learn Equish in the first place.”
“Why did you?”
“I vhas inspired by the stories, of course.” Seabreeze gestured vaguely with his hoof. “Ponies and breezies working together, helping each other, healing each other… Breezies like to have things the easiest way possible, but I think there’s something worth… working for.”
“I think you’re right.” Pinkie snorted. “Heck, I know you’re right. We’ve just gotta find an opportunity.”
Something tickled at the back of her left ear. She narrowed her eyes at the disk embedded into the wall not two inches away. Which, to a breezie, was more like three feet. Whatever kept drawing her attention to that was most likely Pinkie Sense related. “So, if the disk back there seals out the flyders, what do these things seal?”
“Dead ends, I suppose.” Seabreeze scratched the base of his enormous mane. “Old tunnels. The council sealed it off before I was born, so…”
He paused. He licked his hoof and held it before the disk. He furrowed his brow. “There’s a breeze behind here.”
He cupped a hoof to his mouth and shouted at one of the elders. “Gerwibbity doodle?”
“Hessenfeffer flubibibiboodle.”
Pinkie Pie leaned closer. “What’s up?”
“I asked Widdershins vhat vhas behind here.” Seabreeze placed his hoof against the center of the disk. “He said there vhere only bad memories.”
Seabreeze felt around the edge. His hoof latched onto something, offering his a strong grip. He glanced at Pinkie, then blew a raspberry at Widdershins. He gave the disk a mighty tug.
It rolled away easily, sliding against the wall. A tunnel led into darkness. He sent light glimmering from his antennae and stepped inside.
Pinkie followed on three legs and gingerly cradled the fourth. It was a round tunnel, with smooth sides. Gemstones studded the floors, walls, and ceiling. Just like—
“Just like the portal into Breezy Bastion!” Pinkie shouted. “This is another portal! Another way in or out! But—but where to?”
Seabreeze’s jaw dropped. He stared at the wall and pointed a shaking hoof at it. “I… I think I can guess.”
Images of breezies flittered across the wall, their antennae aglow and ambrosia flowing from the cups they carried. Below them, several zebras watched keenly, brewing potions and treating injuries.
Seabreeze bolted out of the portal room. He came to the next and slid it open. After spending a mere moment inside, he went to the next one. And the next. And the next. Pinkie stopped trying to keep up.
All the walls were decorated with pictures of breezies. Them, and also every other species she could think of off the top of her head. Zebras, ponies, donkeys, griffons… even a dragon! The larger creatures, every last one, had some sort of injury. The breezies, it seemed, were attending to those injuries.
Just like the book. Just like Seabreeze had done for her.
“Breezy Bastion wasn’t just the breezies’ home,” she whispered. “It was a crossroads! A shortcut to everywhere in the world! To everywhere creatures needed help.”
Widdershins shook his head. “Figaroo babaloo.”
“I don’t care if that’s all in the past!” Seabreeze stormed into the room, fury in his eyes. “Vhee have a vhay vhee can help Equestria and the whole world! Vhee can actually make a difference!” He pointed upwards. “Maybe vhee could hire some guards to protect us from the flyders! Maybe vhee could have some sort of say in vhat happens in the world around us, and not just ignore it vhen things get crazy! Vhee have the ambrosia, vhee have the portals, let’s do something about it!”
He was met with blank stares from the elders and children. Widdershins blew a fresh raspberry (Pinkie was sure his lips were about to go numb) and turned his back on Seabreeze.
Pinkie lowered her head, thinking desperately of something to say. She mustered up all the diplomacy and public speaking courses Twilight had put her through. But where to start? What to say?
“If e’yew vhon’t go then I vhill!” Seabreeze thumped a hoof against his chest. “I’ll go myself and represent the breezies! Vhee’re not parasites! Vhee’re not to be forgotten! Vhee are healers!” He held his head high, his antennae blazing with light. “Who’s with me?”
To heck with diplomacy, and full bore into the pathos! Pinkie Pie scampered to his side. “He’s right! You guys are so much more awesome than you realize! Just take a chance in the wider world! We’ll be there to help you! I promise!”
Crisperfall hopped onto his papa’s back. “I’m vheeth e’yew!”
Pinkie smiled at Seabreeze and Crisperfall. She took a step back, awaiting the volunteers ready to go to the Conference of Allied Peoples.
Nobody came. Nobody came for a long, quiet moment.
Pinkie leaned close to Seabreeze’s ear. “In their defense, you’re talking to a crowd of kids, new mothers, and old people.”
“Oh.” Seabreeze blinked. “E’yes, I can see how that might affect things.”
Pinkie Pie, Seabreeze, and Crisperfall stood quietly as the breezie elders conferred amongst themselves. Manes bobbed as heads poked briefly out of the gaggle. Eyes glared.
Widdershins stood at the head of the Circle of Elders, his wrinkled forehead severe. “Glib blub bubbaboo.”
Pinkie Pie flicked an ear down. “What did he say?”
Seabreeze pressed his lips together. “If I go, I go alone.”
Widdershins bowed his head. He stepped forward, then hesitated with one leg raised. He spoke Equish slowly, carefully, with the sense of not having used the language in a long time. “For the sake… of the visitor…”
He cleared his throat, rubbing the fuzzy collar of his skintight suit. “Vhee will allow e’yew to go. To learn about the world. To spread knowledge of the breezies. To see how vhee might fit in. But that is all. Vhee cannot yet promise to help others in their time of need. Vhee cannot yet share our precious ambrosia, because vhee are not yet prepared. Vhee will need time, thought, and careful consideration before vhee can truly join the Conference of Allied Peoples.”
He waved to the disks now lying askew against the walls. “Vhee spread ourselves too thin, in the past. In turn, vhee were thinned out. Destroyed for our healing ambrosia. Vhee decided to be hurt no longer. Vhee sealed ourselves away because vhee have no defense otherwise.”
He pointed at Seabreeze, who took a step back. “If e’yew think us ready to commit, then e’yew must go alone and prove e’yewr conviction. For one year, until the next pollen gathering party, e’yew will live among the great creatures of the world. Learning from them, allying with them, seeking the truth of the matter.”
He glanced at the other elders, who nodded approval. He closed his eyes and sat tall, with his antennae lit and his wings spread. “Seabreeze, in order to build the community, e’yew must become—for however long a time—an outcast. If e’yew chose, e’yew shall become the first High Pariah of Breezy Bastion in one-thousand years. Our ambassador to the world at large.”
Pinkie Pie gasped, covering her mouth. She watched Seabreeze close, wanting more than anything for him to agree, but just as keenly not wanting him to leave his home. Leaving home was the worst thing ever in the whole world—
Except it wasn’t really, was it? Wasn’t that exactly what she was doing now? Traveling the world and learning about it, just on a grander scale than ever before.
She had done the same thing, a long time ago. Left home to see the world and grow. She had a place to land, though. She had the Cakes to stay with and work for.
She could give Seabreeze that very same comfort and companionship.
“These guys really don’t get it, do they?” she said, resting her hoof on his back. He looked at her with a tired frown, which pulled his ears down alongside the edges of his mouth. “You won’t be alone. Not even for a second.” She turned to the Circle and wrinkled her nose. “That’s the whole point of the conference: Nobody has to be alone. I’m gonna stand beside Seabreeze, even if none of you do.”
Seabreeze hugged his son close. His ears perked up ever so slightly. “Because that’s vhat friends do.”
Pinkie winked at him. “Exactly.”
Widdershins stood carefully to his feet. “Then it is decided?”
“E’yes.” Seabreeze placed his son on his back. He shared a glance with Pinkie, then bobbed his head at the Circle. “I accept the mandate of High Pariah of Breezy Bastion.”
***
Pinkie Pie’s body shot upwards in a flash of magic. Her wings and antennae vanished, and her hooves extended to meet once again with solid ground. Dizziness overtook her briefly, soon overcome by an overwhelming sense of familiarity. The sun warmed her skin, birdsong greeted her ears, and a strong breeze kicked its way through her curly mane. She rushed forward to hug Twilight Sparkle. “Oh, it’s so good to be normal-sized again! How cool is it to be an earth pony? Super-cool!”
Twilight returned the hug with a sigh. “If I’d known you were going to get attacked by a swarm of flyders, I’d have stuck around! For heaven’s sake, Pinkie, you get into the weirdest situations.”
“Eh.” Pinkie Pie nuzzled Twilight’s neck. “Takes one to know one.”
“Touché.” Twilight returned the nuzzle before taking a step back. “So? Did you find out what you came for?”
“Yeah, kinda.” Pinkie Pie turned her eyes upward. She stuck her tongue out the side of her mouth. “Did you know that breezie saliva has medicinal properties? So, like, when they’re blowing cute little raspberries at you, they’re basically saying ‘Let me cure your stupidity’.”
Twilight Sparkle bared her teeth in a mockery of a smile. “That bad, huh?”
“Not really, except for a rough patch on the first day.” Pinkie smirked, walking to her cart to pull the camouflage away from the sides. “Some breezies really forgot what made them happy in the first place. Some are worried they might lose what they have now if they try to expand outward…”
She looked over her shoulder as three figures appeared out of the portal. “But some are willing to take that chance.”
Seabreeze stood alongside Dandelion and Crisperfall. His sewing needle sword was sheathed across his back, beneath the saddlebags loaded with food and spare leotards. Dandelion wore a flower petal in her frizzy mane. She kissed Seabreeze on the cheek, and he giggled.
Crisperfall gazed wide-eyed at the sky, so high in the air. His oversized eyes widened until they were nearly the size of peas. “It’s so big! It looks like it goes on forever.”
“I think it does,” Seabreeze said. He gave Dandelion a smooch on the nose. “Wait until e’yew see their houses. They’re like whole worlds!”
Twilight Sparkle approached and lifted a regal foreleg. “Seabreeze, Dandelion, Crisperfall, it is my great pleasure to welcome the three of you to Equestria as official ambassadors. And it is a personal pleasure to meet the three of you again.”
“Vhee owe e’yew our lives, Princess Twilight Sparkle.” Seabreeze bowed. “It will be an honor to serve vheeth e’yewonce more.”
Crisperfall hid beneath his mother’s body. He stared at Twilight Sparkle with both awe and terror at equal odds with each other. He peered at Pinkie Pie, who seemed to be a more palatable sight for his young mind. “Miss Pinkie! Aren’t e’yew coming vheeth us?”
Pinkie Pie hitched herself to the cart. She shook her head, giving the little colt a smile as large as the villa. “Not just yet, Crispy. I’ve still got a lot of creatures to invite to the conference. We’ll see each other in a few months. Until then, you’re gonna be meeting a lot of creatures, too. Maybe even some your age. Just stay safe and have fun, okay?”
Crisperfall bobbed his head. His mother scooped his up and rested him on her back. “Fleeble derbin shmaudidaud.”
Seabreeze leaped out and landed on Twilight Sparkle’s back. His wife and son joined soon after. He shouted to Pinkie Pie. “Thank e’yew for this opportunity! Thank e’yew for the courage to do something in the first place!”
“I gotta thank you, too,” Pinkie Pie said. “Thanks for making my stay something to remember.”
Twilight Sparkle took off, the three breezies nestled safely on her back. They waved their goodbyes, and Pinkie waved hers. She watched them go until they were a lavender blip on the horizon.
Pinkie rolled down the road, headed for her next destination. The Minotaur homeland of Beefland, if she had her map oriented right. Excitement bubbled up inside her. New friends awaited who she had never met before. What sort of personalities would she encounter? What sort of culture would she experience? These thoughts and more swam through her thoughts as she let instinct take control, leading her across the path with the cart rattling behind her.
The portal to Breezy Bastion flickered, dimmed, and then vanished altogether in a shower of sparks.
***
Pumpkin Cake rolled onto her back. “Do you always tell your stories in the third-person, Pinkie?”
“Only the best ones.” Pinkie Pie yawned and rested her head in the space beside Patty’s softly snoring body. “Only when I’m tired.”
Pumpkin glanced around at her family. Cup and Carrot were snoozing together, Rice snuggled between them. Pound had passed out long ago, with his Doublejoy Boy resting on his rising and falling chest. She and Pinkie were the only ones awake in the midst of the terrible storm.
Pumpkin tilted her head to the side. “Is that why you’re still working at City Hall?”
“Huh?”
“You say it yourself every day that it sucks.” Pumpkin folded her hooves beneath her chin. “If it’s not bad roads, it’s uncontrollable weather, or protestors, or Merry Mare setting up her rebound campaign. But you keep doing it.”
Pinkie’s ears drooped. “I do it because it’s important to Applejack. She saw something wrong with the world and decided to fix it. And ever since then, a lot of people have tried to make it as hard as possible to change anything. The budget’s screwed up, every holiday has an air of dissatisfaction to it, the picketers make so much noise it’s hard to think…”
Pinkie looked away, sighing through her nose. She scrunched her muzzle. “But Seabreeze is right. It’s always easier to let things happen than to make things happen.”
Pumpkin Cake lifted a half-eaten cupcake from the plate beside her little sister. She brought it to her mouth and took an appreciative bite. “And just letting things happen is irresponsible, right?”
“Sometimes.” Pinkie shrugged. “You’ve just gotta make sure you’re doing what you know is right.”
Pumpkin took another bite and spoke around the cake. “So now, eleven years later, Seabreeze ‘making things happen’ is finally paying off?”
“Little by little.” Pinkie smiled; the tiny wrinkles that dotted her face vanished. “Breezies are entering more and more communities. Ambrosia is shipped all around the world, bringing imports to Breezy Bastion that they’ve never seen before. Seabreeze and his family still travels—he’s basically the head honcho for all their international activities. Things are looking up for them.”
She laughed, loud enough to be sincere, quiet enough to leave the sleepers undisturbed. “Ambrosia’s medicinal properties basically made them a world power overnight. Who’da thunk it?”
Pinkie glanced at the clock and shook her head. “Welp. If I wanna be a help at the office tomorrow, I’d better get a little shuteye. Good night, Pumpkin.”
Pumpkin Cake moved alongside Pinkie Pie and rested against her. She smiled, letting the unruly curls of her mane intermingle with Pinkie’s. “Good night, Pinkie Pie.”
As Pinkie slept, Pumpkin thought about the story. She thought about Pinkie, and her actions past and present. Working so hard, for so little promised reward. Working so long, to only see the ripples of her actions just breaking the surface. Helping her friends wherever they found themselves, however she could. Helping them find their own worth. Their own purpose.
Pumpkin wanted to help people like that, too. Someday, she vowed, she would do just that.
And, hopefully, make Pinkie just as proud of her as she was of Pinkie.
Author's Note
This story originated as my chapter of a collab, where many authors would come together to showcase Pinkie Pie visiting various species. This collab didn’t really work out, and most of the authors didn’t submit chapters, and the collab leader got sick, and…
Well, suffice to say that this story’s been eight months in the making. Not all of it’s been writing time, but here we are.
The main body of the story’s the same, except that I removed a few references to species not in The Heart’s Promise, and I added the references to Beefland. The bookends were added after the fact, which is probably why they stick out so much in the grand scheme of things. But I felt it appropriate to present things in medias res, both to keep the internal continuity of the series, and to present Pinkie Pie’s afterthoughts.
Plus, it’s been a while since we said hi to the Cakes.
So, here’s a surprise update to The Heart’s Promise, a look back at Seabreeze, and a taste of what’s to come.
