The Real Question · 7:11am Mar 2nd, 2014
I'm sorry for my blog post earlier. And I am sorry for precisely one reason: there is a post I need to make today, and that wasn't it. Any other post is entirely superfluous. I just hadn't realized at the time what was needed.
Spoilers, by the way, if you haven't seen "It Ain't Easy Being Breezies." You never did tell me if you care about spoilers, Kitsune.
Alright, have we got that out of the way? Good, good.
So the question that I absolutely must ask today is: what in Discord's name is up with the breezies who venture to Equestria? I mean, it's a very dangerous job they've got. Equestria is a vast expanse of things large enough to squash them. A single leaf is a major hazard. And they need to travel across it for days, spend I-don't-even-know-how-long collecting pollen, and then make the same journey back, all before the portal closes. Obviously, then, they send their best and their bravest.
Wait, no, they send a bunch of cowards with mediocre flying skills and no ability to focus on long-term goals. Also a bunch of breezies that we don't get a chance to evaluate, and must simply guess about. So I can see a few theories:
1) Most of the pollen-collecting breezies are more like Sea Breeze (fit for the job, in other words), but by separating the tail of the breezy pack, we got the ones who had allowed themselves to fall behind, who were the least suited for visiting Equestria. This implies poor organization, as there should always be an experienced group bringing up the rear and making sure that no stragglers get left behind. If that leaf had cut through the line slightly further back, it would have missed Sea Breeze, and then the breezies blown off course would have been completely out of luck. They'd have waited too long to leave, for sure, and they wouldn't have made it back home in time. I'm not sure if any of them would have survived until the portal reopened.
2) Pollen collecting is a huge job, and most or all breezies who are physically capable of making the flight go. And if many of them are woefully unprepared, well, that's just how the cookie crumbles. We can again criticize the organization, but it's not nearly so strong of a criticism, because the truly suitable are just such a small fraction of those making the journey. There's just not enough of them to go around.
3) The selection process for pollen collecting is deeply flawed, and there is little if any correlation between those chosen and those who should be going.
4) The breezies who are sent for pollen are in large part the most expendable breezies. They send out a few breezies like Sea Breeze who have at least a vague idea what they're doing, since they can't rely on the unskilled leading the unskilled for such an important job, but the main body of the pollen collectors is drawn from the young and unmarried with no dependents. That way it's not as bad when they don't come back.
There's a part of me that's quite drawn to theory #4, but I think that's just the morbid part of me, so its vote doesn't count for much. Let's say my top pick out of these is theory #2. That breezy swarm did look pretty big as it was approaching Ponyville.
