//------------------------------//
// Fun Day 
// Story: It'll be a Breeze 
// by River Road 
//------------------------------//

<It’s a portal! It’s a portal!>

<But where does it lead? Portals lead somewhere!>

<It’s a cave! I can see a cave! And I think there’s an exit, too!>

<Do you hear that? It’s water! I can hear water!>

A regal-looking, orange-furred Breezie with a mane and tail of deep and light purple stripes cleared her throat and every Breezy stopped their chattering and fluttering. Seabreeze floated to the ground next to his friends and looked up at the Sage Tombwind expectantly. Tombwind knew an incredible lot of things, even though she was still rather young for a Sage. She read books all of the time and sometimes it seemed like she knew everything about everything.

<Yes, that is indeed a portal. I never thought I would see it with my own eyes… You see, this is not the first time this portal opens…> Tombwind waited until the hushed whispers had died down and smiled. <Would you like to hear a story, about a land of giants?>






~~~~~






Tombwind looked at the group of Breezies staring back at her with bright, curious eyes and smiled. <I’m sure you all are curious about the world behind that portal, so I will tell you what I know. That portal leads to a land named Equestria. It is a gigantic world, with trees and animals bigger than you’ve ever seen before. Even the smallest fruits from the trees are often bigger than a Breezy.>

The gathered Breezies began to gasp and chatter in fear, but Tombwind quickly calmed them down. <There’s no need to worry, though. From what I’ve read, the dominant race in Equestria, the ‘ponies’, are very kind and helpful. It is still a dangerous place, but traversing it might be worth it.> She went over to a shelf to pull out a large book, opening it on a page to show the Breezies the picture of a beautiful red flower. <The old tales speak of flowers growing in the west of the land, carrying an amazing pollen that can be made not only into powerful medicine for Breezies, but also some of the sweetest candy you’ve ever tasted.>

Tombwind chuckled as the Breezies fluttered up in excitement. Seabreeze turned to the Sage with wide eyes, nearly sparkling from excitement. <We have to find those flowers! Why did we never try to get the pollen before?>

<For some reason, the portal hasn’t opened in the least thousand years… But now something must have happened to fix it. If you want to find the pollen, you need to be fast, however – the portal only stays open for seven days, after that it closes until the next year.>

The Breezies let out a collective gasp and fluttered toward the door, rushing to get back to the portal and those legendary flowers without wasting any more time. Tombwind waited until only one Breezy was left before she called out to him. <Seabreeze, could you wait a second?>

The blue Breezie with the poofy pink mane and tail stopped at the door, turning around. Tombwind fluttered over to him, smiling. <I wanted to ask you to be careful out there. It’s been a thousand years, we don’t know what the world behind that portal looks like.>

Seabreeze nodded, grinning. <Don’t worry Sage. I’m sure it’s a wonderful place. We’ll be fine.>

Tombwind chuckled. <I’m sure you will be. Now go, your friends will be waiting for you.> She waved him out of the door and watched as he flew off to follow the others. I’m sure you’ll be fine…






~~~~~






Seabreeze fluttered out into the open, looking around in awe. The exit of the cave the portal had led into was close to a waterfall, sending torrents off water towards the ground that formed a rainbow-hued mist in the air. But most of all, everything was huge. A towering cliff marked the entrance to the portal, and the trees in the distance seemed incredibly tall, even from this far away.

A large group of Breezies, almost half of their village, had gone through the portal and gathered outside the cave, each of them wearing the best and largest pollen baskets they could find. They were all taking in the sights just like Seabreeze, trying to look in every direction at once and chattering excitedly.

<Look at all these amazing things!> Twirly exclaimed excitedly. <Everything’s gigantic and wide, and it looks even greener than back home!>

<How are we going to find the pollen in this land?> another Breezie asked. <There are so many flowers down there, but none of them look like the one in the book.>

<The Sage said they would be growing in the west of the land…> Seabreeze looked up at the sun, then pointed in one direction. <We have to fly this way. At least I think that’s the right direction.>

Without hestation every Breezie turned in the direction he was pointing and started flying.

<Yes, yes, that must be it. We have to fly west!>

<Quickly, everybreezie, the pollen must be this way!>

<Oh, I can’t wait to try that candy! How much of that pollen do you think we’ll find?>

<The flower must be very rare if it makes such amazing pollen…>

<Yes, but look at how big everything is! Just imagine how much pollen we can find in just one flower!>

Seabreeze fluttered along with the others, chatting and turning his head. They had reached the edge of the forest now, and the trees were even taller and bigger than they had looked from afar. The leaves were larger than a Breezie at times, the nuts and fruits could feed one of them for a week and he could see a few animals that seemed like giants to him. Watching a brown-furred animal with a bushy tail, he could only wonder if the ‘ponies’ were as large as that. Who knew, maybe that animal was one of those ponies and he just didn’t know.

<Hey look!> Twirly nudged him to call his attention to a group of trees in the distance. <Those trees are waving their branches. Do you think the trees here are alive?>

<I don’t think so, I haven’t seen any other trees moving like that. Maybe there’s something in this world that moves tree-branches?> Seabreeze squinted his eyes. The movement seemed to get closer to them. More and more trees began moving their branches up and down, even losing a few leaves in the process. <I think it’s getting closer… Do you think it’s one of those ‘ponies’ Sage Tombwind was talking about?>

All the Breezies had stopped and turned around now to watch the trees, giving their guesses and opinions on what it could be. Of course they had seen branches move in the breeze back home, but it was never anywhere as strong as this. It had to be something else, surely.

The branches on the trees right in front of them started trembling and moving now, but Seabreeze still hadn’t seen any sign of the animal responsible for it. He turned to Twirly with a confused expression. “I don’t see anyth–> That was as far as he got before the wind hit him.

Dozens of Breezies screamed and flailed their arms as they were ripped out of the air and sent tumbling around by the sudden gust of wind. One by one they were blown into a net of vines stretching between the branches of a tree. Seabreeze held onto a vine for his life, watching Breezies all around him do the same. His eyes widened as a leaf floated towards them on the wind, aiming right for him.

The leaf hit him right in the face, ripping him from his vine. Seabreeze tumbled around himself for a moment, fluttering his wings in panic, before he managed to hold onto the leaf. Looking up, he saw the rest of his group clinging to the vines, calling his name in panic as he was pulled further and further away from them. Soon he could barely hear their voices. 

As the leaf rounded another tree, he couldn’t see them anymore, either.






~~~~~






<Twirly? Colorwhirl! Airdance!> Seabreeze coughed, his throat feeling dry and his voice raspy. He had been flying around for hours, calling out to his friends. He had left the forest and flown through a small valley that was hot and dry on one side and cold and white on the other side. He had been flying west the whole time, only stopping for a minute to drink from a river and eat from a fruit, but he still hadn’t found any sign of his friends.

With a sad sigh, he landed on a long piece of wood sticking out of the ground. There was a whole row of them, all connected by even more pieces of wood. Behind him were apple trees, hundreds of them seemingly stretching out with no end, but he didn’t care about that. All that he wanted was to get back to his friends.

Seabreeze beat his wings, slowly fluttering up from the piece of wood again. He didn’t have time to pity himself, he had to keep moving to find his friends. Looking up he saw what looked like a town, with buildings that didn’t seem too different from what they had at home, only that they were much larger. Maybe the ponies were living in those buildings. Maybe they could help him find his friends. With new hope and determination, he fluttered over towards the town.






~~~~~






Seabreeze fluttered down the street, looking around and inspecting everything. Many things looked a lot like they did in his hometown, but the streets were empty. Everything was quiet, and he couldn’t see or hear any creature. It didn’t seem that the ponies were home, but where would a whole town leave to?

“Can’t you just throw them the tickets, Twilight?!”

Seabreeze’s ears perked up and he turned around. Something that looked like a gigantic purple Breezie, without wings, with a strange horn poking out of its head and with a strange manestyle, was running towards him. Running right next to her on two legs was another, purple lizard-like creature with an even stranger green mane.

“That would mean I’d have to disappoint all five of my friends, Spike! Besides, they might start fighting over them!”

Seabreeze’s eyes went wide as the two rushed towards him. They didn’t seem to have noticed him, instead looking back at a whole horde of the Breezie-like creatures that were chasing them. Seabreeze managed to flutter out of the way just in time, but the gust the two created as they passed him was enough to send him flying into a barrel filled with apples at the side of the street.

He waited until the stomping from the rest of the creatures had ceased before he poked his head out of the barrel. The street was empty again, with no sign of the creatures left. He climbed out of the barrel and fluttered back onto the street, looking around. If his friends had come through this town, maybe they were still here.






~~~~~






Seabreeze sat down on the branch of a tree, panting from exhaustion. He had searched the whole town and hadn’t found any of his friends. After his first encounter, he had done his best to stay hidden from those creatures, diving into holes of barrels whenever one of them approached.

Looking up, he watched the sun slowly setting behind the horizon. It was getting dark, and he would need a safe place to sleep. A row of strange boxes on the ground caught his attention; they looked like they were another thing made by these ponies, but they also seemed like a safe place shielded from the weather and – most importantly – the rain.

Seabreeze fluttered towards one of the boxes at the end of the row, squeezing through a small hole to get inside. The box seemed to be filled with bags, all with the same strange symbols he didn’t know printed on them.

Seabreeze landed on one of the bags in a corner, curling up and letting out a yawn. A voice outside shouted something he couldn’t quite understand and a whistle sounded, followed by more strange sounds, but he was already drifting off to sleep.

He was already fast asleep when the train started moving.