You can do it, Breezies! – The Mane Six

In the cold open, Fluttershy is training the rest of the Mane Six to cheer quietly. The Breezies are going to coming through Ponyville on their migration, and a loud cheer may distract them. This is a lovely reversal of Rainbow Dash trying to get Fluttershy to cheer louder in “Sonic Rainboom”. Also reminiscent of “Luna Eclipsed” with the ponies voice getting softer each time. Eventually, she’s happy with their stage whisper cheer.

As the episode proper begins, all of Ponyville has gathered to watch the Breezie migration. Rainbow Dash, Flitter, and another stallion are providing the breeze, which has to be very gentle. As Fluttershy explains to Mr. and Mrs. Cake, the breeze will activate the Breezie’s magic and help them get their pollen home safely.

Rarity has decided to commemorate the occasion with a sequin-covered purple gown, that is pretty much blinding, and may distract the Breezies. Rarity finally agrees that one can have too many sequins, and takes off her gown to reveal a blouse even brighter underneath. Needless to say, this has to go too.

The Breezies come into town, looking like tiny fairy ponies with enormous (proportionally) wings, thin bodies and legs, and long eyelashes for both males and females, who are virtually indistinguishable. One Breezie (Seabreeze) is shown calling encouragement (or perhaps more likely, imprecations) to the others. Spike wants a closer look, but is having trouble seeing through the crowd. Standing on Pinkie’s back is no option either, since it might make her explode. He eventually gets the best seat in the house by climbing a tree. Unfortunately, his dance of joy at getting so close to the Breezies dislodges a dangerous menace: a single leaf!

He just twigged to the fact that something bad is about to happen.

The leaf accidentally floats into the path of the Breezies, breaking the air flow and separating a group of about a dozen stragglers, including Seabreeze, sending them into spins in the turbulent air. The wind crew are unable to re-connect them with the larger group, and to avert disaster, Fluttershy leaps into action. She manages to safely catch all of the wayward Breezies, and bring them down to the ground. Seabreeze thanks her in the pony language, revealing that not only is he a he, but that he is the only one who can speak pony, although they can all understand it. Spike comes to grovel for his mistake, and is forgiven by Fluttershy and the others, if not so quickly forgiven by the Breezies themselves. Fluttershy decides to take the Breezies to her cottage to rest for a few minutes from their ordeal before being sent on their way again.

The Breezies settle in for a rest, and despite Seabreeze urging, insults and frustration, keep making excuses to continue taking advantage of Fluttershy’s kindness and hospitality. They don’t want to leave, and Fluttershy doesn’t have the heart to force them. The various ponies visit to check if they are ready to go, but each time, Fluttershy asks for a few minutes more.

Eventually, Seabreeze has had enough, and he sneaks out to try to make it home on his own. He is nearly killed by falling acorns and ends up crashing into a beehive – to the annoyance of the bees inside. They are quite ready to sting the poor little guy to death, when Fluttershy finds him. When her asking nicely doesn’t make the bees back off, she gets firm with them, and tells them in no uncertain terms to get lost. Realizing that she needs to do the same with the recalcitrant Breezies, Fluttershy learns that being kind doesn’t mean you can never be firm, making her eyes shine with the Rainbow Shimmer.

They return to the cottage, and Fluttershy tells the Breezies it’s time to go. Despite her stern attitude, she ends up shedding a few tears after they leave. Meanwhile, the wind team is finding it difficult to find a balance in the breeze. The Breezies are too few in number to handle the strength of wind needed to get them home in time. Luckily, Twilight has recently learned a spell that will transform the Mane Six into Breezies themselves, enabling them to reach Breezie critical mass, as it were. This really shows her power upgrade, as she effortlessly casts a spell that targets all the Mane Six, and the Breezie group simultaneously. Despite a rather awkward middle stage, they all end up as Breezies.

Hey, it IS easy being Breezies! You lied to me, Title Card!

Both Twilight and Rarity retain their horns, meaning that Rarity has been temporarily upgraded to alicorn status as well! Their ranks bolstered, the group manage to use the breeze to return across Equestria, with Seabreeze showing that he is much more encouraging and even apologizes for his previous rude behaviour. Finally, they reach their destination and float through the portal into Breezie land. The Breezies meet up with their loved ones, particularly Seabreeze, who is happy to see his wife and child again.

This emotional reunion has to be short-lived, however. The portal is closing, and the Mane Six Breezies have to return to Equestria. Fluttershy says a final farewell to Seabreeze, who gives her a flower as a present. As the portal closes behind them, Twilight returns them to their original forms. Luckily, Fluttershy’s flower increases in size with her (somehow) and as the episode ends, it shimmers with a rainbow once more. Key, get!

Thoughts about the episode

I enjoyed this episode for its world building, and for gracing us with another Key. Having watched some G3, I was already familiar with Breezies as a concept, although of course, they have been greatly reimagined here. Where in G3 they looked like miniaturized versions of the other ponies (albeit with long antennae and butterfly wings), here they look much more insect like. They’re also very much out of their element in Equestria, which makes one wonder how they manage to survive without pony assistance. Of course, it’s possible that this sort of event only happens at very great intervals.

I don’t really have a problem with Twilight knowing a Breezie transforming spell that helps her save the day in the end. Is it a convenient plot-device? Most certainly. Is it a Deus Ex Machina? Undoubtedly. My point is, this often happens. This isn’t the first time Twilight has pulled a useful spell out of nowhere, with no prior indication or a scene where she learns it. It’s not even the fifth time. She has used the following spells, with various levels of hand-waving and effectiveness: a make-parasprites-stop-eating spell which backfired (“Swarm of the Century”), a gem-finding spell which she was taught by Rarity off-screen (“A Dog and Pony Show”), a walk-on-clouds spell which she found and even cast off-screen (“Sonic Rainboom”), the failed Failsafe Spell and successful memory-restorer spell (“Return of Harmony”), the also backfiring want-it-need-it spell (“Lesson Zero”), a laser blaster spell and remove-illusion-from-Changeling spell (“A Canterlot Wedding”), a reverse-personal-gravity spell (“The Crystal Empire”). Why is this instance so much worse in many fan’s opinions?

Secondly, the Breezies have obviously been a hot topic in Ponyville, otherwise the entire town wouldn’t turn out to watch them. From “Boast Busters”, we know Twilight is often inspired to research things she hears about, such as her research into the Ursa Major, so it’s not much of stretch to suppose she was inspired to do research on the Breezies off screen and thereby discovered the spell she uses at the end.

Although the male and female Breezies are nigh identical, it does seem as if the difference lies in the length of the mane and tail hair. When we finally see Seabreeze’ family, his wife has the long hair and mane (the baby of course could be either, since even if were a girl, she wouldn’t have been alive long enough for her hair to grow out.) In every scene where the Breezies embrace, you will notice that each pair has one Breezie with long hair and one with short hair.

I’m going to assume they’re all heterosexual. Or at the least, that they’re all metrosexual.

The eyes theory (males have round eyes, females have slanted eyes) doesn't hold true even for the real Breezies. If it isn't the hair length, then there is no real way for us as viewers to tell the genders apart.

Yes, this episode has some flaws. The character based jokes fell a bit flat. Some things were not well explained regarding the Breezies themselves, such as why only Seabreeze was so keen to get home when other Breezies also apparently had loved ones. As stated, the resolution was a bit forced, although not unforgivably so.

The way Fluttershy learned her lesson is also a little bit different to previous episodes like this. Here, it was an understanding that Fluttershy should already have learned in “Putting Your Hoof Down” with Angel… that showing kindness does not equal being a doormat, as she was definitely being to the Breezies. She also didn’t have to choose between her friends and her own wishes, as Pinkie, Rarity and Rainbow Dash did. This could be why they didn’t fit this episode into the naming pattern for Key episodes that the first three did, although perhaps that “pattern” was just a coincidence.

It’s not a perfect episode by any means, but I still enjoyed it. I’d been looking forward to the Breezies, and I don’t feel cheated. I also think the Mane Six look great as Breezies. Despite that, the flaws are there, making this episode less than it could have been.

Pros: Breezies. The Mane Six as Breezies. Key episode. World-building.

Cons: Question marks. Forced resolution. A moral that perhaps should have been learned before.

Final Rating
5 – Celestia Rank: A great episode. It will be re-watched frequently.
4 – Luna Rank: A good episode, but with one or two problems that prevent it from being great.
3 – Spike Rank: An average episode. Positives and negatives are balanced.
2 – Discord Rank: Worth watching once. After that, turn it to stone and put it in the garden.
1 – Nightmare Moon Rank: Send it to the moon!

Stay Breezie!