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Recap / My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic S4 E16 "It Ain't Easy Being Breezies"

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Mane Six: You can do it, Breezies!

Written by Natasha Levinger

Fluttershy is organizing safe passage for the Breezies, tiny fairy-like ponies who will be traveling through Ponyville with their collected pollen. They only have two days to reach the portal to their homeland, and the slightest thing could throw them off. When the Breezies appear, the whole town gathers in the square to watch them pass through. Spike, wanting a better view, climbs up on a tree branch and accidentally dislodges a leaf. Even this tiny obstacle is enough to disrupt the current of air the Breezies are riding, and a group of them are separated from the main herd. Fluttershy takes wing to rescue them

Seabreeze, the irascible (and apparently self-appointed) leader of the lost group of Breezies, insists they get right back on schedule. But the other Breezies need some time to recover, so Fluttershy takes them to her cottage to rest. It soon becomes obvious that the other Breezies would rather stay and enjoy her hospitality rather than resume the dangerous journey home. Seabreeze insists that they must go, but Fluttershy continues to give in to the demands of the slacking Breezies in the name of kindness. Finally, Seabreeze has had enough, and he leaves on his own.

Fluttershy gives chase and finds Seabreeze being menaced by a swarm of honeybees. She calmly and gently asks the bees to back down — and when that fails, she firmly orders them to leave. She tells Seabreeze that she sympathizes with his frustration but gentleness will get better results than anger and verbal abuse. The Breezie retorts that Fluttershy wasn't gentle with the bees. It's then that Fluttershy realizes that there are times when kindness means forcing others to listen to you, and that she must order the lost Breezies to start on the journey home. She returns to her cottage, firmly evicts the Breezies, and then sags against her door in tears.

In a clearing, the wind a few pegasi generate is either too strong or too weak for the group of Breezies because of their small number. To help them, Twilight casts a transformation spell that turns all of the Mane Six into Breezies, allowing the group to travel together. Along the way, Seabreeze shows what he has learned from Fluttershy, using encouragement and support rather than insults to motivate the struggling Breezies. They pass through the portal to the Breezie Kingdom with moments to spare, reuniting the weary Breezies with their families. As the Mane Six, transformed back to their normal selves, leave for Ponyville, Fluttershy is wearing a Breezie flower in her mane — a gift from Seabreeze — which gives off a rainbow shimmer...


Tropes:

  • An Aesop:
    • Being kind doesn't mean doing whatever someone else wants; it means doing what will help them the most in the long run.
    • Just because you're trying to help, being too tough just makes you look mean and makes it harder to get your followers to listen to you. A true leader knows that they need to balance tough love and tenderness to get the best results.
    • There is such a thing as being too nice: The somewhat excessive hospitality and the stress of having to travel long distances spurred the breezies to rebel against Seabreeze and side with Fluttershy with a spoiled and doting attitude.
  • Aesop Amnesia: Until near the end of this episode, Fluttershy hasn't remembered from "Putting Your Hoof Down" not to let others push her around. That being said, in that episode Fluttershy learned to stand up to others for her own sake, whereas in this one she learns that sometimes she shouldn't give in to what others want for the sake of what's best for them.
  • And That's Terrible: A rare non-villain example invoked by Fluttershy describing the Breezies' predicament.
    Fluttershy: I do know that if you don't leave soon, you may never make it back, and that would be terrible.
  • As Long as It Sounds Foreign: The Breezies have an accent that falls somewhere between a Scottish and Scandinavian. Seabreeze, in particular, sounds very much like Dexter. Kudos to Brian Drummond for a spot-on imitation of Christine Cavanaugh.
  • As You Know: The episode opens with Fluttershy explaining to the rest of the Mane Six that, as they know, the adorable fairy creatures known as Breezies are about to come through Ponyville.
  • Audible Sharpness: The bees' stingers.
  • Balloon Belly: The Breezies each get one after Fluttershy feeds them.
  • Bioluminescence Is Cool: Seabreeze demonstrates that the tips of the Breezie's antennae glow.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Seabreeze's group of Breezies look innocent and seem well behaved, but they don't hesitate to exploit Fluttershy's hospitality and aren't the slightest bit interested in continuing their journey home. Combined with the fact that they were at the tail end of the flight to begin with, Seabreeze's accusations seem more accurate than anything else.
  • Black Comedy: When Fluttershy realizes that Seabreeze is missing, the first place she checks for him is under her hoof.
  • Body Horror: The Mane 6's transformation into Breezies — in which their limbs, head and torso shrink down individually and in random order — doesn't really look all too pleasant. Rarity herself is disgusted when one of her front hooves shrinks to Breezie size.
    • Averted in that we don't see how Twilight, Rainbow, and Fluttershy's Alicorn/Pegasus wings are transformed into their Breezie wings.
  • Bowdlerise: In the Treehouse TV airing of this episode, two lines from Seabreeze are censored:
    Seabreeze: I wish we did not need that stupid breeze to activate our magic!

    Seabreeze: There is nothing special about these losers!
  • Call-Back:
    • In "Sonic Rainboom", Dash tries to get Fluttershy to cheer loudly. Here, Fluttershy is trying to get Rainbow Dash and the other Mane Six to cheer more quietly (because loud noises will upset the Breezies). She even ends the Cold Opening with a small "yay." This scene even takes place in the same field that the original "Sonic Rainboom" occurred at.
    • Fluttershy mentions that she knows so much about the Breezies because she went to study them during "Three's a Crowd". This is why she wasn't around to halt Discord's shenanigans in that episode.
    • Like Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy has a moment of realization that causes her eyes to flash rainbow, and gets an item from someone she helped that also shines rainbow — in this case, a flower from Seabreeze.
    • Twilight has been going back to the Castle of the Two Sisters to research the crystal chest, which is where she found the transformation spell.
  • The Cameo: Purely for the purpose of a Shout-Out; Time Turner and Roseluck appear for a brief moment in a scene that would otherwise have no reason for them to be there.
  • Cluster F-Bomb: Downplayed; despite being able to speak English, Seabreeze goes on one rant to the Mane Six in the Breezie language that Fluttershy politely refuses to translate. Make of it what you will.
  • Continuity Nod:
    • The pair of sunglasses Fluttershy puts on to shield her eyes when Rarity unveils her sparkly cloak that nearly blinds everyone is the same pair she once wore to disguise herself from the public back in "Green Isn't Your Color".
    • Another reference to "Green Isn't Your Color": When Rarity thinks her outfit has too much purple, she accuses Twilight of being too polite to admit what was wrong, just as she was in that episode.
    • One of the Breezies asks Fluttershy for a tiny glass of water.
  • Cruel to Be Kind: The lesson Fluttershy learns. It may hurt to be stern with the Breezies and force them to leave, but letting them stay in Ponyville where they'd be in danger would be much worse. Similarly, to save Seabreeze from the bees, she's stern with the insects when being gentle wasn't working.
  • Cute Critters Act Childlike: The group of breezies that board up with Fluttershy's cottage all act adorable, helpless and only seem to want to have fun despite the dire-ness of the situation. The only one who doesn't act this way is Seabreeze.
  • Cuteness Proximity:
    • The Breezies cause this to pretty much everypony. Pinkie Pie is visibly straining to hold back her squeeing, and Fluttershy gets this just thinking about them.
    • Even Spike isn't immune to the Breezies' cuteness; his joy at getting to see them so close from the branch makes him hop back and forth, which is what dislodges the leaf that causes all the trouble.
    • The Mane Six at the end when they get to see the Breezies reuniting with their families at home, and especially Seabreeze's baby.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Seabreeze during his first conversation with Fluttershy.
    Fluttershy: Oh, I understand the language of all kinds of creatures!
    Seabreeze: (rolling his eyes) Ooh, you must be so proud.
  • Easily Forgiven: Played with. Spike accidentally releases the leaf that knocks half the Breezies off course, and he is really upset about it, but Fluttershy forgives him and points out that any one of them could have made that mistake. The Breezies, however, are a little less willing to let him slide, so he quickly excuses himself.
  • Everything's Better with Sparkles: Discussed by Rarity and Fluttershy, with Rarity's sequin-covered jacket — and the blouse under it — shown as subversions in-context.
  • Everything Trying to Kill You: The pony world is not a friendly place for Breezies.
  • Flat Joy: The proper way to cheer on the Breezies, as loud noises would distract them. Naturally, Fluttershy has to teach the others how to get it right.
  • Frothy Mugs of Water: While they're staying at Fluttershy's cottage, the Breezies have a party in which they slug back shots of grape juice. (Actually, they're drinking from tiny droplet-sized thimbles, but proportionally they are as big to the Breezies as Apple Family Cider mugs are to ponies.)
  • Gentle Giant: Fluttershy, from the Breezies' point of view; the other ponies also qualify, to a minor extent.
  • Heel Realization: A mild example when Fluttershy realizes that her kindness is actually endangering the Breezies and keeping them from getting safely home.
  • Hold Your Hippogriffs: Seabreeze uses "everybreezie" and "nobreezie" the way the ponies use "everypony" and "nopony"; this is especially clear when he says "Home... where everybreezie is like us," pointing out how different the Breezies are from ponies and "everybreezie" else.
  • Impractically Fancy Outfit: Rarity, as is her raison d'ĂȘtre. She takes off her glittery purple jacket because Fluttershy convinces her that all the sequins would distract or blind the Breezies. What she's wearing under the jacket is so bright we can't clearly see it.
    Rarity: (nearly incandescent) I suppose this won't do either?
  • Informed Obscenity: Seabreeze unleashes a rant in Breezie language when the others refuse to try riding the breeze again. Fluttershy refuses to translate.
  • Jerkass: Seabreeze, the head Breezie, repeatedly insults his fellow Breezies and is incredibly ungrateful to Fluttershy despite the fact that she's trying to help them. However, much of that stems from his desperation to return home to his family, and he learns to be more kind and supportive of his Breezie brethren. Unless his group only turned into a bunch of slackers when they met Fluttershy, he's been putting up with their shenanigans for some time. That makes his lack of patience considerably more understandable.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: As mean as he is to the other breezies, Seabreeze is right to stress the urgency of their need to return home while the other Breezies are slacking off. The lesson he learns is that his Point will get across better if he's less Jerkass.
  • Lens Flare: Rarity's coat and outfit she is wearing underneath.
  • Lilliputians: "...So tiny".
  • Magic Pants: The Breezie-sized flower that Seabreeze gives Fluttershy is able to enlarge itself when she transforms back into a pony. This may be an effect of being a Rainbow Key.
  • Midair Bobbing: The Breezies whenever floating. In fact, they don't seem to need to flap their wings at all when stationary (and flap very little even when moving), hinting it's more levitation than flight.
  • Morphic Resonance: When the Mane Six are transformed into Breezies, they still very much look like themselves. They even keep their cutie marks (which real Breezies don't have), and Rarity and Twilight get to keep their unicorn horns (unlike this fanart that was drawn before the episode aired).
  • Mouse World: The Breezie town resembles a pony town, but in miniature.
  • Mushroom House: The Breezies' hidden home dimension is filled with mushrooms of this sort, with caps with glowing blue undersides. Unusually, however, the homes don't seem to be in the stems themselves. Instead, the tall, thin stems only have a doorway at their base, while multiple windows dot the broad caps high in the air, with the impression being that the living areas are only in the caps and the stems are mostly for access.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • Breezies were the names of the small insect-like ponies from the G3 animated series, features carried over to the G4 versions.
      • Once again, a Breezie tangles with a beehive — this time with actual bees in it.
      • Seabreeze was also the name of one of the G2 ponies.
    • Within G4:
      • One of the Breezies has Nightmare Rarity's mane and tail.
      • There's another portal with a narrow window of opportunity, albeit different from the one in the feature film.
  • Never My Fault: Played for Laughs when Rarity shows up to the Breezie viewing in a cloak covered in sequins.
    Rarity: Oh, there's too much purple on this isn't there? I knew it. But Twilight refused to admit it.
    Twilight: What!? I —
  • Never Say "Die": Fluttershy says the Breezies could "never survive" in their world. It's probably the closest the show has ever gotten to verbally implying death.
  • No Indoor Voice: The Mane Six, with the exception of Fluttershy, have difficulty cheering quietly. While Fluttershy can do so with a sweet little voice, the rest have to resort to a hoarse whisper.
  • Noodle People: Compared to most ponies, and even their G3 counterparts, the Breezies have very thin bodies.
  • Our Fairies Are Different: The Breezies resemble minuscule ponies with fairy-like features such as damselfly wings and long antennae.
  • Painting the Frost on Windows: An interesting multi-layered variant. The Breezies need to complete their migration with their pollen to help change the seasons in their Mouse World dimension, but this migration relies on their protective magic being activated by a breeze generated by Pegasi.
  • Pardon My Klingon: Seabreeze gets fairly colorful with his Breezie-ese when Fluttershy shows clear reluctance to let the Breezies leave.
    Applejack: Uh... what did he say?
    Fluttershy: (blushing) I'd... rather not say.
  • Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: to the Cheetos advertising tagline "It ain't easy being cheesy."
  • Prehensile Hair: Fluttershy seems to use this to move Breezies gently.
  • Prehensile Tail: Pinkie uses her tail to hang from a tree in the Cold Open.
  • Prompting Nudge: When Fluttershy suggests to the Breezies it is safe to leave now, one ostensibly sneezes, then nudge another Breezie, who follows the lead and starts coughing.
  • Ridiculously Cute Critter: The Breezies are noted several times to be this In-universe.
  • Scary Stinging Swarm: Seabreeze crashes into a beehive, and the residents are more than a little upset at the damage.
  • Scenery Porn: The Breezies' homeworld is depicted very artistically, with lush colors, a sunset-colored sky, and a foreground dominated by waterfalls and luminous mushroom-houses.
  • Ship Tease: Time Turner and Roseluck; see Shout-Out below.
  • Shout-Out:
    • Time Turner and Roseluck appear with each other again, with Time Turner inexplicably wearing 3D glasses.
    • Seabreeze. He's a tiny fae creature with a dark blue coat, a vaguely-Scottish-ish accent, and anger issues. He's a pony version of a bloody Nac Mac Feegle.
    • Though it's very likely to be coincidental, when Fluttershy rescues the out-of-control Breezies, one of them says something in Breezie-ese that sounds suspiciously like "PewDiePie". It even uses the same tone as Pewds's "My name is Peeewdiepie!" catchphrase.
    • When the Fluttershy tells the Breezies she can't let them go while they're sick, Seabreeze yells "D'oh!"
  • Spanner in the Works: The carefully planned assistance for the Breezies' migration couldn't predict Spike's minor accident and the leaf that separated several of them from the main group.
  • Speaking Simlish: The Breezies speak in gibberish (fans note it kind of sounds like a strange combo of Scots and Swedish), though Seabreeze can speak English, albeit with an accent.
  • Stealth Pun:
    • One of the Breezies wears a mushroom cap as an actual cap.
    • The Mane Six (minus Fluttershy) in the cold open; see No Indoor Voice above.
  • Surrounded by Idiots: Seabreeze may've been too harsh with his compatriots, but then It Ain't Easy Being Civil, when your compatriots are shortsighted and self-indulgent dead-beats, who are eager to abandon their homes and families (even if one argues it's their business, they are also denying Seabreeze the return to his family) for the sake of stuffing their mouths and lazing off at Fluttershy's expense. If that wasn't bad enough, they are doing this in a world that is a Death World to them, and they are disrupting an important supply mission for their world.
  • Tears of Joy: Fluttershy sheds them after seeing the Breezies reuniting with their families.
  • Tears of Remorse:
  • Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Averted. There is no obvious difference between male and female Breezies, though clearly the ponies and other Breezies can tell them apart.
  • Took a Level in Kindness: Seabreeze realizes that yelling at the others isn't right, and he starts helping and encouraging the Breezies who are having trouble instead.
  • Tough Love: Fluttershy finally realizes that by helping/coddling the Breezies too much, she was doing more harm than good. The only way to help them was to be firm, for their own survival.
  • Transformation Sequence: Twilight uses a spell to turn the Mane Six into Breezies so they can help them on their journey home.
  • Travel Montage: Used when the Mane Six as Breezies help the rest to the portal to their home.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Spike causes Seabreeze's group of Breezies to be separated from the rest by bouncing on a branch and accidentally releasing a leaf that disrupts their migration.
  • Vanishing Village: The Breezies' home is only accessible by a portal that closes in a certain amount of time.
  • Violent Glaswegian: Though the general accent used by the Breezies is a mix of Scottish and Scandinavian accents, Seabreeze as the leader and Brave Scot of the group has a much stronger and violent dialect.
  • What the Hell Is That Accent?: The Breezies' accent sounds like a strange mix between Scottish and Scandinavian. Or Eastern European — Seabreeze sounds an awful lot like Dexter, especially in his cadence and in the way he pronounces "stupid".

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Seabreeze vs. the bees

Fluttershy must save Seabreeze from a swarm of angry bees.

How well does it match the trope?

3.91 (11 votes)

Example of:

Main / ScaryStingingSwarm

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