The world was still. No soothing breeze permeated the void. For all of a thousand hours or more, the air had been silent.

In all of the pony’s long and uneventful life in the calm darkness, the winds had never been far away. Since when she had found the rock, the air moved fast on the odd occasion, giving the opportunity to run and jump and play in its encouraging arms. But often the air moved slowly. A gentle melodious breeze where one would enjoy falling asleep in its embrace. The wind was always there to see Oecee run and play and tumble. It was always the friend that made Oecee’s mane flow in regal ripples like that of a celebrated war horse. Always around to keep Oecee and the rock company.

Although the air would calm down to no more than a slight flow on a regular basis, it seldom remained at rest for more than an hour or two. So tranquillity was nothing new, but this persisting stillness unknown to pony and rock alike. Not the overbearing kind of unknown that accompanied the first gale. Nor the quiet, strong unknown that came with the discovery of rock.

The pony sat next to the rock, looking around with curious eyes. No, this was the type of new that involved absence. When something you thought should be there was suddenly gone. When you have no way of knowing where it has gone or why it has left. The loss of a friend for reasons unknown is a terrifying subject. And it is this fear that Oecee felt when the breeze did not return.

She huddled closer to the boulder. A shiver passed through her body, the cold stone supplying little comfort. It may have been still and uncaring, but right now Oecee saw the stone as sturdy and strong. While she had cried for many days over the disappearance of her oldest friend, the rock had stayed by her side, dependable, stoic and most importantly, present.

She hugged the stone.

“It okay, Rock,” She whispered, “Wind come back soon.” Oecee herself was not sure if the words were meant for the rock’s comfort or her own reassurance. For the rock never spoke to her, she never knew what it was thinking. But she would have wanted the comfort had she a friend to hold her, and so she did for the stone what she hoped would help appease its mind.

More hours passed to see the little pony hugging her rock while looking every way she could with growing concern. Tears streaked her face and darkened the rock in which she sought comfort, “All be okay, Wind come back.” Whimpering, she lay down again to sleep.

Oecee awoke to the still air once more. No matter how many naps she took, the breeze never returned upon her waking. She worried for it. Maybe it was lost? The thought never had occurred to the little pony before. She had always been the one to lose her way. The wind had always been the one to lead her back to the rock. The little pony had always assumed that wind could find its way anywhere, that it knew everything. After all, the wind never tripped and fell like she did.

But it could be that the wind was fallible after all. She had not done anything different that would drive the breeze away, and as far as she knew, the rock hadn’t either. So the wind must simply be lost. And just as the wind had found her and brought her back to the rock countless times when she wandered off, so she would return the favour and bring the breeze home.

At first, Oecee tried to take the rock with her to find the wind, but it was too heavy to lift and carry on her back, and rolling it got too tiring after only a few steps. The blue pony sighed and petted the rock. She nuzzled it goodbye before turning around and steeling her resolve.

And so, with the determination of a filly setting out on a quest for ice cream, Oecee scrunched up her face, held her head high and took her first step away from the rock.  She walked in the first direction she looked, for there was no way of knowing where the breeze may be.

Each step sent a shiver along her leg at the aspect of abandoning her only point of reference in the void. The pony had little experience in quests such as this. Despite the utter terror she felt as each step took her further away from her one remaining friend, she felt alive. There were not many things that could happen in such a lifeless void, each and every possible experience had been passed by and every possibility explored countless times since the pony first awoke. She looked back every half dozen steps to keep the rock in sight.

Such an experience to leave the safety of her home that this was, it excited her. There was no safety net in the form of winds that should bring her back to the rock should she get lost. If she couldn’t find her way back, she would be lost. Just like the wind had disappeared, she too would lose her company and be alone for as long as she could imagine in the blank void.

It was a terrifying idea. But she smiled. Oecee still turned back every few steps to keep the rock in sight, making sure to walk away from it in as straight a line as possible as her way of keeping a clear path back. With all her heart, the little pony wished for her to be able to return safely to the rock. And if all went well, with the breeze in tow.

It didn’t take long before the rock disappeared into the distance and she stopped having to look back. Trusting her own hooves to take her forward in a straight line as best she could, Oecee walked. Soldiering on, mouth set in a hard line and eyes focused strongly ahead, her hooves made no sound as she trotted across the dark expanse.

A thousand hoofsteps later, she kept walking. Knowing that the wind couldn’t be too far away, her spirits were high.

Ten thousand steps later, she walked. She had yet to find the wind, but the wind was faster than her, so that would be expected right?

One hundred thousand steps later, she glanced back, missing her gravely friend. The wind must be near. Oecee had never ventured this far from the rock, what could possibly possess the wind to go such a distance?

A million steps further on, the quest was looking bleak. Oecee had yet to feel a single hair on her fur covered body to bend, signalling the presence of wind. Maybe she should have put in the extra effort and rolled the stone with her? Sure it would have been slower, but at least she would have been less lonely.

Ten million steps later, the little pony sat down to cry. She fell back hard on her haunches and bawled like a foal. She missed the wind, she missed the stone, and she wished none of this had ever had to happen. Where had the wind gone? Why had it even left? They had everything they could ever want! A small, heavy, lazy, rocky friend; an omnipresent, soft, invisible, windy friend; and a medium sized, playful, colourful, pony friend. There was no reason for the breeze to leave! Didn’t it know how sad it would make the little pony?

…Unless it was looking for another friend.

Oecee’s head shot up as she came to this realisation and stopped crying. ”More friends?” she whispered to the void, “New friends?”

She pondered this idea, it certainly had good implications. New friends were always welcome to join them if they could. And how much more fun could they all have with a fourth member?

Oecee giggled as she tried to think of what a new friend could be like. Imagine if they were soft like the wind, but you could touch them like the bodies of her and the rock. What if they were bigger than her? What if they were bigger than the rock and her together? She smiled at this thought. Oh, how fun would such a friend be! She hoped the new friend liked to move as much as the wind and herself.

The pony tapped a hoof to her chin, considering how she would meet this hypothetical friend. When she first met the rock, she didn’t like it. It had hurt her because she didn’t know how it liked to play. Another thought entered her head at that moment. The new friend could be big and fast like the wind, but tough and solid like the rock. Oecee shuddered to think about how a friend like that would hurt her if it tried to play.

She frowned, whatever the new friend was like, if there was a new friend at all, she would have to be careful when she met it, lest she get pummelled to paste by a greeting hug. The pony shook her head to clear her thoughts. Whatever the case, she needed to keep going to find the wind and so she stood up to set off once again.

Immediately, her fatigue caught up with her and she let out a yawn that would have sent a manticore to shame. Legs ached from miles of walking and she hadn’t given herself a wink of sleep since the set out all those hours ago.

Oecee rubbed her eyes and looked behind her. She had come a long way. For now, she would rest, and set out again when she felt better. The pony smiled as she lay down to sleep, head pointed forwards and tail towards home, she thought more of what a new friend could be like. She drifted off quickly on account of her weary mind and sore muscles and dreamed of fun adventures with new and strange friends.