//------------------------------// // Chapter 23- The Truth of the Prophesied // Story: To be a Breezie // by Obsi //------------------------------// Accompanied by a crackle of discharging magic, I unceremoniously flopped into a field of snow. Gasping for air, I tried to ignore the searing lances of  pain shooting through my horn as it tried to rid itself of the excess energy by shooting out a variety of colorful sparks. A side-effect of an overly hasty teleportation-spell. With my heart hammering in my ears, I rose from the ground. A noise of rushing water came from behind a treeline, the spider-river, as I’d started calling it. Still in the breezie world, the first place I could think of. “Kalypso?” Forced to blink from the sunlight reflecting off the snow, I frantically looked around. But there was only snow, trees, no sign of her, only my saddlebags. Levitating them onto my back, I shielded my eyes while I scanned my surroundings, dread rising up inside me. Where is she? Did I leave her behind with the windigo? Did she end up somewhere else? Did she land… underneath me? I forced myself to stop that thought, to not jump up or lift my hooves. Any wrong move might kill her, I thought as I fought the cold claws of terror around my heart, tried to ignore the stinging sensation in my hooves that had been pressed into the snow for too long already. A glimpse of light caught my attention. Lighting my aching horn, I gently scooped a big ball of snow around it, levitating it closer. I gasped in relief as I spotted the glowing end of an antennae inside it, then gently dropped the snow around the tiny breezie’s body. For a moment, I simply marveled at just how tiny she appeared, she could easily sit atop my muzzle with room to spare. Then my brain halted all such observations as I saw the state she was in: Shivering, with her eyes almost closed, she landed limply on my hoof, barely reacting to anything around her! She must’ve been buried in the snow since the windigo arrived, or maybe she’d been hit by fringe elements of it's attack, but what could I do? Warm her! My brain demanded. OF COURSE, I shouted back at my useless cerebrum. But how? It’d take too long to start a fire, my own coat is covered in snow, and I can’t use friction, one wrong move and I would kill her as sure as the snow would! With my mind raging, I did the only thing I could think of. Levitating her limp body upward, I put her on my tongue and closed my mouth around her. Truly, one of my brightest moments. It was hard to describe how it felt to suddenly know what a friend of yours tasted like. Salty, from the sweat I was sure, but with a hint of sweetness underneath, not as much as candy, but undeniable… I wanted to shake my head to stop myself from creeping out… myself even more, but I didn’t dare move my head instead entirely focusing on not swallowing. It didn’t help that said previous observations about Kalypso’s taste were making my mouth water. Please wake up, I silently begged, nervoulsy looking over my shoulder for any signs of the angry spirit- there was no guarantee it couldn't catch up to us, still. A sudden, terrified shriek alerted me to my friends awakening. A heartbeat later, a painful heat rose up in my mouth, forcing me to gasp for air. The moment my lips parted, Kalypso clung at them, with glowing feelers, before tossing herself out. A daring escape, if it hadn’t been for her insectile wings moistening in my saliva. Barely able to spread the weighted wings, she couldn't catch enough air to float, or even stop her descent. Her shout when my magic stopped her fall was equally surprised and mortified. In full panic, she struggled against the purple aura holding her, before coming face to face with me. Her eyes seemed to grow to nearly encompass her entire head as her tiny jaw dropped. “Please, mighty spirit, I am a loyal servant of Frinjiòn!” she shouted, yet it was as quiet as a whisper to me, her voice nearly as high as Pinkie’s when she’d finally consumed an amount of sugar even she later judged to be too much. “P-please don’t eat me, I’m barely worth a bite to you.” “I-I’m not gonna eat you, Kalypso!” I said, before feeling an urge to slap myself at the astonished look in her little face. Did I think she’d recognize me like this? “It’s me, Twilight.” “T-Twilight?” Kalypso stuttered the name like she’d never heard it before. Then, a look of shock crossed her face as she looked up and down my body, gasping as the realization dawned on her. “But that’s impossible- I-I must be dreaming.” “N-no, it’s not, sadly.” I tried a nervous grin, causing her to flinch in sudden fear. Shouldn’t have shown my teeth… “Besides, if it was a dream, wouldn’t that mean it was gonna happen later on, frindrì?” Kalypso’s mouth opened and closed a few times, her gaze still travelling over my body. It seemed this bit of news still needed a whole lot of digesting. “Are you a goddess?” she whispered, reverence underlying in her voice. I hesitated. A shouted rejection burned on my tongue, I didn’t want her to speak to me in that tone, I wanted her to speak to me like she did before! My feathery wings itched, screaming for a proper preening. Though, technically speaking, didn’t Celestia and Luna count as goddesses in Equestria? Didn’t that make me one too? It wasn’t the first time I’d pondered that question, but it always seemed so… unfitting, I was still just me! And I certainly did not want Kalypso to think of me as being somehow above her. Which would be hard to do, considering I was at least fifty breezie-heights above her. “No, I’m not a goddess.” I explained, shaking my head. “Then a spirit?” Kalypso bit her lip. “I-I’ve seen you battle the winds of Fjermengard!” “I’m not a spirit either!” I exclaimed. “I’m… I’m from a different world, Honeydew already knows. Everyone there is like me.” “They all have the bodies of gods?” “No- it’s normal there.” I stammered. “I’m just- look, everyone in my world is this tall, and we’re… powerful, but I’m still just Twilight, okay? I-I’m still the same pony- err, breezie you met, ditzy silly ol’ Twilight who doesn’t know how to survive on her own.” Careful to keep my teeth covered, I gave her a reassuring, if shaky smile. Kalypso’s feelers bobbed as she took a long breath. “I-I’m not dreaming, am I?” “I’m afraid not. I’d offer to pinch you, but that wouldn’t be very safe, huh?” Suddenly, I noticed a chill going up my spine as the wind picked up, causing my ears to stand up. Kalypso felt it too, looking up in alert. “I’ll answer your questions in a moment.” I hurriedly told the breezie. “But now we have to go. Can you hold onto me?” “I-I think?” Kalypso swallowed, shivering as both wind and snowfall grew in intensity. “Just put me in your ear, not your mouth.” Ear, of course. If I was less focused, I would have smacked myself for not thinking of that earlier. As it was, I simply lifted Kalypso up to my head, where she used my mane to help her climb safely into the ear. Meanwhile, ignoring snowflakes beating against my face, I focused my magic on our destination. For one moment, barely a heartbeat long, all sensation dissolved as the ground fell away from my hooves. Then we popped back into the world, at the next landmark I remembered, about halfway to the village. “W-WHAT WAS THAT?” Kalypso shouted, startled by our  sudden change in location. As it turned out, even a breezie’s shout could be painfully loud if they were only inches away from your eardrum. “Teleportation.” I grimaced, plucking her out with my magic so I could rub my ringing ear. “Should’ve warned you.” “You can do that..” she whispered, astonished. “A-and how are you holding me?” “Magic.” I answered briefly, before placing Kalypso ontop of my head, close enough to the ear that I could still hear her, but not… too close. “Is this okay? Can you hear me like this?” “O-of course I can, you’re loud.” she responded. “But… magic! And you could do that all along?” Reminding myself not to nod for the safety of my passenger, I chose to answer curtly. “Yes.” “But why didn’t you tell us?” Kalypso shouted. “Why didn’t you just teleport us to the highbreeze-clan? Why didn’t you chase off the rat that attacked Honeydew, why didn’t you at least fly us there? You probably could’ve brought us there in a day! Couldn't you have used your power to get all the food we needed?” With every question, she seemed to get a little angrier. “Why didn’t you help us, Twilight, when you were… this, all along?!” I flinched under the last shout. “I’m sorry, Kalypso, but it’s not that simple-” “I only see you with power enough to defy a spirit and travel by thought alone, how is it not simple?” “First up, I struggled to keep it at bay!” I rebutted. “And even though I’m… powerful, I guess, that doesn’t mean I can just cast spells to fix problems without a care in the world!” I took a cold breath to cool my temper. Suppose I can be glad that she feels safe enough to get mad at me. “Look at me, Kalypso, how much do you think I have to eat in this form? If I stayed like this, I’d probably eat through your storage in a couple days. And if I stayed on my own, I would’ve had to find that much food, and I haven’t got the faintest how to survive out here! Believe me, as strong as I might be, you still absolutely saved my life when you convinced the elder to take me in.” “But… when the rat attacked-” “Sure, I could’ve chased off the rat, but you and Honeydew were too close, I could have squished you under my body. Besides, I actually did help afterwards. Remember how I found shelter and food afterwards? That was the one time I could use it to help.” “I do remember.” Kalypso muttered. Anticipating her next question, I hurriedly cut in: “And no, I couldn't have teleported him to safety, I can only do it with places I know, and where it is in relation to where I am. It’s pretty hard to keep a sense of direction in the forest.” There was a moment of silence as I trudged through the snow. “Why didn’t you tell us?” I let out a snort. “The elder would’ve let me starve out here if it weren’t for you. Letting him know didn’t seem like a good idea. Besides…” hesitating, I shot a glance at a bunch twigs we’d glided past yesterday. “It was kinda fun to be a breezie.” “What about me and Honeydew though?” Kalypso asked, her voice carrying a strange undertone. Was she feeling betrayed? But she’d always known I was hiding something, heck, she’d been lying to me since the first moment we met! And yet, she still managed to make me feel guilty. “I told Honeydew. Well, he knows a few bits and pieces, he’s never seen me like this and he only believes me to be as big as a rat, at most” “Well,he’ll be surprised when we come back. You know, he told me he’d found a large and juicy berry with you, but I don’t think he expected it to be this large.” While she let out a dry laugh, I bit my lip. “Are you going to tell the others?” Kalypso paused. “You still want to keep it a secret?” she asked, a sudden edge to her voice. “Even now that we’ve seen one of the spirits of Fjermengard and you were able to fight it? You think I will keep that a secret from my clan?” “I didn’t fight it, not really, I escaped!” I hissed back. “I’m sorry if you thought I could keep them away, but I can’t.” shivering, I remembered the tremendous power present in the icy bolt of the creature. Even in that short engagement, I’d struggled to match it’s strength. In an extended fight, I could only rate my chances as slim. “Maybe if I had backup, or knew a weakness of theirs, I could fend one off, but even then, using magic like this is tiring. Worse, it makes me hungry.” Sighing, I dug in my saddlebags and brought forth my sandwich, grimacing at the way the somewhat stale lettuce, once soaked in the juice of tomatoes, was now dry as a desert. Letting go of my breath, I took my first bite, trying to ignore the guilty feeling that came with being fully aware just how much food this would be for the breezies. But one should never cast transformation spells on an empty stomach. It was too easy to accidentally take on properties of whatever food you were thinking off when you should have been concentrating. “So, it seems like hiding is still our best and only option.” Faintly, I could hear Kalypso mutter a curse.