That night, there was a draught coming through the shattered window of the toadstool home, but no one paid it any notice. Apart from that minor hiccup, the other fey had done a pretty good job restoring the interior.
Saltshaker snoozed in the corner. Wrapped in his tiny blanket, he occasionally frowned and kicked at some unseen presence, knocking away some of the fabric.
Next to the wall, Seabreeze slouched over the pebble and tapped his hoof impatiently on the card. All but three of the pieces were black, while his own white pieces stood corralled against the left edge. He glanced up at his partner, who was smirking. Both of them lit their antennae in the fading light, and soon the world was just them, two heads bent over a white board.
“All right,” he said, “you win. You might as well get your gloating over with.”
“Oh,” she said in mock surprise. “Do I? What, for the third time in a row?”
“Ha ha.” Yet his heart wasn’t in it. He glanced out the open window, to where the pink portal was shrinking and would, tomorrow, dim and finally vanish. No more light filtered through now; the Breezie village was dark and silent.
There were only Breezies left in the village at all. Everyone else had disappeared, waiting for the World Harvest proper. It was, for a moment, just like the old days when nothing was going to happen. He sighed and turned back to the board.
“What are you thinking about?” Zephyrine rearranged the pieces for a new game.
He shrugged. “Nothing much. Being nice and not being nice. What the World Harvest is going to be like now. Also, when are you going to clear out the Springtails?”
“Never. After what happened, they’re now our good luck charm.”
Seabreeze opened his mouth to argue, but then closed it again. It is not urgent. There is always another season.
“Well, do not let them get too out of control, OK?” he said.
She nodded with a smirk and placed the last piece on the card. While she leaned forwards to plan her opening, Seabreeze fiddled with his sleeve. Thoughts of the next portal opening crowded into his mind, along with the joys and horrors that came with wondering what it’d be like with the other fey species coming along.
“Um…” he said. “I was thinking. Maybe next time the Ring Portal opens… normally, we just bicker and argue and end up drawing straws about it. But I was wondering if this time…”
The thought occurred to him, slotting into place with barely a click: Sometimes, you have to be cruel to be kind…
“I am not leaving Saltshaker alone in the house,” she said flatly. “He’s not coming with us either. You know he gets upset whenever we leave him alone.”
“Ha! He was not so upset when he had that Flutter Pony larva with him. Look, we coddle him too much. It is not good for him. He needs to break away from us at some point and stand on his own four hooves.”
“He can barely crawl.” Still, she pouted out of interest, and then forced it back when she realized it was showing.
Aha. “I mean he can stay with one of our friends back here. You did not really think that I wanted to leave him on his own? But he will grow up, and he will have to learn how to be an individual. It is more important now than it ever was.”
Zephyrine skewed her jaw and peered down at the pieces opposite. “You think it’ll do him some good?”
“He is strong and young and free-spirited. I think it will do him a lot of good. It is not like we will stop loving him, or looking after him, or seeing him grow up into a good Breezie. And we would be together again, just like in the old days when we were strong and young and free-spirited too. When we go into the big fields of Equestria, I can show you all the pretty flowers you used to love.”
Both of them stared at the board. Both of them, as one, sighed.
“Ah yes.” Zephyrine folded her forelimbs. “I know what you're talking about. Remember when we used to pick those and try to make wreaths in our manes?”
A dreamy smile fluttered across Seabreeze’s mouth. “How could I forget? You were so bad that you almost strangled me with a daisy. And do you remember when we almost flew into that porcupine, and I had to pull the quills out of your mushroom pouch?”
Zephyrine flicked her antennae with a hoof. “Ha! That was a good one! I got a better one: the time we tried waltzing our way through the breeze on the way back! I lost all my pollen and half of yours that day.”
“Oh yes! The look on your face! I thought you were going to faint when old Piffle found out and started shouting at us! No, there were better ones even than that.”
“Like what?”
He paused for dramatic effect, and then leaned forwards and whispered: “Flying doughnut.”
Even through the heavy blushing that met these words, both of them burst out with laughing, clutched their sides, and almost fell onto the fungal floor. In the corner, Saltshaker snorted and they shut up at once. A few errant giggles broke out when they sheepishly returned to their seats.
“Good times,” he said to the board. “So we will do it?”
She folded her front limbs. “Fine. But you’re going to find a decent babysitter.”
“Yes, I am. You have nothing to worry about.”
“You're right. That’ll be your job.” Quicker than blinking, her hoof shot forwards and the white piece cut across the grid’s cells. “Haha!”
That is more like it! To face the world alone is not for me. But if we could do it together, there would be nothing I could not do. Seabreeze settled back down to play the game, and an impish smirk flashed across his face. Sometimes, you have to be kind to be cruel…
“You know I let you win those three games, Zephyrine?” he said casually.
“If you say so. Let’s ‘let me’ win again then, shall we, Seabreeze?”
Seabreeze puffed up his chest. “Seabreeze? You would call him Seabreeze? He who faced the Flutter Pony hive and tore it down with nothing but his wits and skills? He who braved the curse of the ancient Fey Ponies and the wrath of all their descendants? He who fought and captured and so converted the runaway Vox? He who faced the cruel world and had to drag the Last Minuters back home? Oh no no no!”
His hoof shot out. A black blur crossed the board. White bounced across the floor.
“I,” he said with a smirk, “am the Big Breezie.”