Espirit's eyes slowly opened, but she really, really wished they hadn't. Her head was pounding, her breath was short and she felt as if she'd just been run over by a carriage pulled by rampaging buffalo. Every muscle ached. She shook her head and looked around.

She was laying in the middle of a small field. Off in the distance, she guessed a few miles at least, she could see a little tiny village. Slowly she got to her hooves and let out another pained groan. The area was surrounded in tiny little streams, which filled small puddles. There were tiny tree-like bushes all over. The air was crisp and the aether felt nice and pure. Aside from the pain coursing through her body, everything felt quite nice and relaxing. There was a weird mountain with symbols a bit away, though just looking at it made her head hurt.

She sat down and tried to regather herself. She couldn't remember what happened, though. The last thing she remembered was the three of them putting their hooves to the stone and then Mirage giving her instructions. She said it was a lot like going through the crystals, but without a power source and using conjurer, thaumaturge and arcananist magic. It hadn't made much sense to her, though. Then something happened and now she hurt all over. Thankfully, the pain was beginning to fade.

She took a deep breath and looked to the village. Something about it seemed odd, but she shrugged and started trotting to it. After a few dozen feet she was standing just outside the main street and she realized why it had seemed so strange.

She wasn't seeing it from really far away. She was taller than the buildings, she was seeing the very roof tops. The buildings were little more than the size of toys. She let out a shriek and stumbled backwards, stumbling over one of the bushes and crushing it under herself. A moment later she realized that it was not, in fact, a bush. It was a tree. A normal tree. SHE was just massive.

She let out a scream and looked around, a new horror spreading over herself. The little streams were rivers, going towards the puddle lakes. The houses were pony shaped and the tiny little hills must have been great mountains. She didn't know where she was, but one thing was clear. She was a giant. Whatever they'd done had grown her to the size of a castle.

“AHHHHHH!” she screamed again, looking around fearfully. Oh buck, what if she'd stepped on somepony? She lifted her hooves, but all she saw was dirt. There was a light whoosh and she looked up. In the distance she could see a small swarm of butterflies making their way towards her. She slowly tried to start relaxing, the sight of the colorful bugs helping to calm her nerves. A gentle, flowing cloud of the insects. They seemed normal sized, which meant she had to be normal sized. She giggled at the silliness of the whole prospect and shook her head. Obviously she was standing in the middle of some kind of model, that was it. Why there was one out here, she had no idea. But she was sure Mirage had something to do with it.

“Mrga buggen doggen!” a voice called from the butterfly cloud.

Espirit looked up again and her heart jumped into her throat. Those weren't butterflies at all. They were little tiny ponies, smaller than her hoof. All with giant butterfly wings and antennae. Also, many were wielding spears, bows and adorable little rope. The zebra let out a shriek as they started launching arrows and spears at her. She quickly covered her face and tried huddling up in a little ball.

For a few seconds the little attacks continued, then another voice called out. “Haggen booten doot!” The attacks stopped. She slowly peered up at her hooves. A few of the spears had managed to lodge into her legs, though most had bounced off harmlessly from her coat and garments. She slowly pulled those that lodged out. She let out a soft whimper before looking up. The mass of tiny ponies now surrounded her, weapons flying around them. She feebly waved a hoof.

“H-hi?”

“Abben noogen doof!” one of them called out, a small blue one dressed in the most adorable armor she'd ever seen.

“I... I don't understand?”

“WOGGEN MISHA WOON!” the little pony called out. Once again the spears and bows were raised. She shrieked and buried her head into her legs. There was plenty of murmuring over head and after a few moments she felt something land on her front legs. She slowly looked up and stared into the eyes of the little blue pony. “Woggen misha woon!” It then fluttered up into the air and pointed to where the cloud of mini ponies had come from.

She gulped. “You... want me to come with you?”

“Woggen misha woon!” it yelled again, before pointing at her with one of its long slender legs, then pointed back again.

She gave a nod and slowly got to her hooves. The cloud moved up a bit, but she was dreadfully aware of the fact they still had their weapons aimed at her. The little blue one flew off ahead and, slowly, she followed after it. Occasionally it would say something to her, but she had no idea what it could be. The voices behind her didn't make any sense either. How could anypony understand these things?

She was led for at least twenty minutes, across great adorable hills with bumps, around a little forest that came up just past her knees, even over a great mountain that a few of the little ponies seemed to be climbing. She cringed when they caught a look of her and then fell off. “Sorry!” she called after them.

Then she saw it. An adorable little castle surrounded by little tiny homes, the likes of which, had she been born a filly, she might have played with as a child. She let out a little squeal of delight as more of the little ponies seemed to rise up from it. They weren't wearing armor or bearing weapons, they just watched her with wide eyed fascination. She couldn't deny it, they actually were quite adorable. If she wasn't pretty sure they intended to kill her, she'd probably have grabbed a few for great, but delicate, hugs.

As it was, she stopped outside the city and smiled as the little creature yelled something to her, before flying towards the city. After a few moments more of the little creatures flew out, flying into the sky and yelling little things in her general direction.

“Mooten galoof psha!”

“Rogen hagen doof!”

“Romoa petti ood!”

She just stared with wide eyed fascination. She wondered if perhaps these creatures were friends with the breezies. They had antennae, but they were so small and--

She gasped, her eyes going wide. “You're just little babies! No wonder I can't understand you, it's baby talk! Awwww, that's so adorable!” She'd have to make sure to talk with their parents about letting them play with such dangerous toys. What if the little dears had hurt themselves? She looked around.

It all made sense. This was all just an elaborate toy land for the baby breezies. It--

Then her eyes fell on one of the hovering babies. It was holding what looked like a very, very small bundled up package in its arms. Kind of like one would hold a little baby. She shivered and her eyes went wider before looking through the crowds of them. She could pick out more of them, here and there. Little babies. Realizations began to dawn on her. “Y-you're... you're the breezies, aren't you?”

There was suddenly silence and all the breezies nearby turned towards her. “Did you understand that? Do you know what I'm asking? Are you the breezies?”

“Muggen dooka token!” one of them yelled. Suddenly four of them dived down, soaring back towards the castle.

Espirit smiled. “So you are the breezies? Err, do you understand what I'm asking?” She hummed and rubbed her chin. There had to be some way to communicate with them. Some way to breach this language barrier. Ah hah, she had it. She'd talk louder and slower. “ARE! YOU! THE! BREEZIES? I! AM! A! ZEBRA! I! COME! IN! PEACE!”

Despite her raising of her voice and talking as slow as she could, they just kept fluttering about. But they were watching her now, so at least that was a little different. She smiled and then held out her right hoof to them, palm up. “I! AM! FRIENDLY! NEED! YOUR! HELP!”

“Morroka doh alna dooka flootershii?” the blue one asked.

Espirit just stared for a moment, before shaking her head. “NO! COME! FOR! HELP! MUCH! DAMAGE! DONE! TO! OUR! WORLD! NEED! HELP! HEALING! MAGIC!”

The breezies just fluttered about, shrugging at each other. Then, there was another burst of activity from the castle and the four who had flown off returned. Great books were clasped to their chests, pink ones with pictures of butterflies on the covers. “Flootershii! Flootershii! Flootershii!” the breezies began to chant. Espirit just smiled and nodded, wishing she had any idea at all what they were talking about. The breezies landed on the castle wall and started flipping through the books. Finally, one looked up.

“You pawnie?”

Espirit blinked and tried to grasp what that was. She then gasped. “Yes! Pony! I pony! Well, technically a zebra, but that's close enough. Really, most ponies consider...” She trailed off at the looks of confusion from them. “Yes, pony.”

“You aye tick?”

Espirit blinked and just started. “I... have ticks?”

“You aye tick!”

“What is aye tick?”

There was a lot of yelling then and suddenly the weapons all seemed to come out, aimed at her again. She yelped. “I-I don't know what aye tick is! I'm not--” Her eyes widened. “No! No attack!”

There was more murmuring amongst the breezies until finally they nodded. “Peas?”

“Yes! Peace! Come in peace!” she said, holding both her hooves up and smiling.

More confusion. She sighed and lowered one hoof. “Peace.”

More murmuring and then the blue one talked with them for a few moments. It then nodded and flew up to her face. “Obden noogle rono doof.” It said before motioning her to follow. She shrugged and trotted after the breezie as it led her a little away from the castle. It then stopped in front of one of the trees besides a clearing. “Dodle hoppen do--” The rest of the words were cut off by the most adorable war horn she'd ever heard. She looked up in time with the breezies. Off in the distance she could see another small cloud of color coming their way. Her eyes widened and she shook her head. “N-no.” A few breezies flew around to surround her, while the others moved towards the cloud, their weapons drawn. She couldn't believe it. She was going to have to watch them wage war on each other! How could such adorable, cute little mini ponies--

The cloud came closer and she let out a little gasp, followed by a small giggle. It was not, in fact, other breezies. It was something she had quite a lot of knowledge of how to deal with. She started trotting towards the cloud, but the blue breezie quickly blocked her way. “Hoogen doogen doe!” it yelled at her.

She giggled and shook her head, waving her hoof dismissively. “Relax, it's just a cloud of parasprites. I know how to deal with these.” She then trotted around the little breezie and made her way towards the cloud. The main force tensed up as she came closer, but didn't move to stop her.

She couldn't believe how big the cloud of parasprites were. She'd only ever seen the small ones. She kept trotting towards them none the less. They were completely harmless, to ponies. The main problem they had was they fact that they multiplied so quickly and could completely decimate an entire village's food stores in a matter of hours. A cities in a day or two. It was all based on a peculiar defensive act they had due to an imbalance in the aether in their bodies.

Their main instinct was to continue multiplying until they had enough to create a special sort of aether residence within themselves. By sending aether through one to the others, they'd cycle through it piece by piece and a tribe of a dozen or so would be able to keep itself fed and in a quasi-hibernation for decades, sometimes even centuries. They drew a little bit of aether from the world, but not enough to really damage anything. It would usually take a natural disaster or predators nearly wiping out the entire tribe to disrupt the cycle enough that they had to repopulate.

The biggest problem with that was that it could take hundreds of them to do it naturally. Fortunately, there were plenty of ways to jump start the process. It was said that ponies of old would use music to get the parasprites into the proper rhythm and set them into the cycle. Music was still used, a little bit, but not quite to the same extent. She trotted forward, the parasprites moving around her. Their little wings tickled her face and she could feel a few landing in her mane and snuggling up. They were such cute, adorable creatures. Not as cute as the breezies, but still cute.

She trotted for a few moments, the cloud flowing around her, before she lowered her hat a little to keep her mouth clear. “Ahhh ah ah ahhhhh,” she sang lightly, before coughing. “Err, sorry. Never really been much of a singer. Okay, here I go ahead! Ahhh ah ah AHHHH!” She cringed at the high pitch. “Ow. Right. Mare. Ahem. Ahhh ahhh AHHHH AHHHHHH! OooOoooh ahhhhAHHHH.” It wasn't much and she was sure if any other pony could hear her, they'd have laughed their flanks off. But the parasprites had stopped their buzzing and were slowly flowing down around her like rain. “Ahhhh ahhhh ohhhhhh. Ahhhh ahhhhhhhh oohhhhhhh.” She really wished she knew how to play an instrument. And had an instrument. Her voice had never been very good at this. Finally though, the last of the parasprites had fallen to the ground around her, watching closely. “Ohhhh OHHHH ohhh...” They began to lightly wiggle about with the beat of her sounds.

She began to gently reach out with her magic, flooding some aether into the nearest parasprite as she sang. Its eyes widened and its wings retracted into its body until it was just a little ball. Then its eyes began to close and it fell over, half asleep. The aether began to spread out to more parasprites. One by one their wings retracted and they began to fall down as well, rolling up against each other. Within a few minutes the entire cloud was all nestled up into a little ball, aether gently being drawn from the earth while they cycled it through each other, some being released into the air. She grinned and gave a little nod.

She started to trot back towards the city and, to her smug satisfaction, she could practically see the dropped jaws from here. When she was just a few feet from the castle, one of the parasprites flew up to her, holding its book tightly. “How?!” it demanded.

She giggled. “Well, it's simple.” She pointed to her chest. “I am a conjurer, a guardian of the land. It is my job to help maintain the balance between the aether in the world and parasprites, despite how well their intentions may be, are dangers to it. We learned long ago how to properly deal with them without causing any problems.” She then glanced back and let out a shriek. “NO! STOP! STOP STOP!”

The breezie holding the book then quickly flew past her. The other breezies had surrounded the sleeping creatures and looked ready to slaughter them. Not only was it cruel while they were defenseless, doing it would just weaken the tribe and set them off again. Parasprites weren't the kinds of creatures you could just mindlessly slaughter. The breezie stopped in front and waved its book around frantically. “Hoogen doogen doy! Flootershii! Flootershii!”

There were some objections, but the breezie kept pointing towards her. Slowly they began to back off, flying back towards the castle. The breezie that had flown to stop them flew back, landing on her nose. It then flipped through the book for a few moments before nodding. “Tee atch. You tee atch.”

Espirit frowned and tried to process, before nodding. “Ah! Teach! Yes! I teach!”

There were more murmers before the breezie flew back down to join the others. “Flootershii! Flootershii!” they started chanting again. She smiled nervously as a few of the breezies flew down into the castle yet again. After a few moments, the main doorway opened and six breezies flew out, carrying a big blue book between them. Emblazoned across the front were three little pink butterflies. They flew the book up to Espirit and held it in front of her.

“Err... t-thank you,” she said before lightly taking it in her hoof. She opened it and cringed. The pages were old and a bit dried out. But the words still shown through from the pages, crystal clear. There was magic in the book, she could feel it. Not much, but enough to keep it from being damaged too badly by the passage of time. She flipped a few more pages before letting out a shriek at the title page. “FLUTTERSHY?”

“Flootershii flootershi!” the breezies started chanting.

Espirit stared at the book before flipping through it some more and gasping. The text was readable, but only just. The letters were the same they had been whenever this book was made, but the spelling of the words made half of them indecipherable. Fortunately, there were pictures. They told a million words.

The book was about how to maintain and properly treat breezies. How to communicate with them, ensure they had a proper diet, care for them. For a few moments Espirit couldn't help but feel a giddy surge rising within her. She couldn't believe she was actually holding the book of one of THE heroes of legend! Fluttershy, the--

She then frowned and looked down at it again. There was no way. Fluttershy likely wasn't that uncommon a name, so it was probably a different Fluttershy. There weren't really any legends about the hero dealing with the breezies, either. But it was a step in the right direction. She quickly flipped through it and grinned as she came to a number of phrases. They were a bit crude, but they could help.

“Oogden obben dob,” she said softly, grinning to them. She was trying to say she was looking for their help, but they just stared at her for a few moments before a new on flew up.

After a few moments looking in their book, it looked up at her. “You ned halp?”

She nodded and looked back inside it. “Uhhhh... okay. Friend is... Wanr ooten firdalird.”

There was a gasp from the breezie and it looked back into its book. “Fried baton hertz?”

“Yes! Friend beaten and hurt!” she looked to the notes again and then smiled, before pointing towards the parasprites. “Eeya taga gook, oogden obben dob?”

The breezie nodded. Most of the other breezies looked confused, though she couldn't blame them. She wondered how old the language she was using was. Especially as bad at speaking it she was. But the one with the book started yelling and there was a cheer from the breezies. She couldn't help but smile and feel that a deal had been made.

Now she just had to find out how to get back home.