Measure Twice Brew once

Brewberry looked pretty beaten up when he boarded the flying chariot, handing over the only bits he had on him as he collapsed tired in the chariot while it lifted off. Leaving and entering the Everfree Forest could be quite taxing which is why he didn't like to make the trip often. In his saddlebags, he already was short on multiple of the potions he had brought for emergencies. He had to squander a potion of strength, a potion of speed and a potion of vines on the way out of the forest to stay in one piece. Arguably him being an earth pony was the only reason he wasn't more exhausted.

The chariot lifted off and the gentle swaying and rhythmic flapping of wings lulled the stallion to sleep. Snoring softly as they passed over the Everfree Forest, vast swaths of farmland and even passed by Canterlot. A few hours later in the deep dark of night, Brewberry blinked and stretched, waking up under the light of Luna's gentle moon.

He wasn't sure where they were or if they even had passed Canterlot yet. What he did know was that the night was much too cold for his taste. His body seemed to agree as the harsh winds in his face made the stallion sneeze. To his horror, he couldn't stop himself, and as the sneeze rang out, his body immediately shrank to the size of a chicken once again. He was swept off his hooves by the sudden shift in size and footing, and a particularly unfortunate gust of wind. Thisblew the stallion out of the chariot, sending him careening towards the ground, flailing and yelling for help before his tiny body had the wind driven from its lungs as he landed on a tree branch. At his small size, the wide pine tree branches and needles cushioned his fall greatly. He cascaded down the tree from branch to branch, grunting and wheezing each time another branch met his chest or back. Once he reached the ground at a manageable but still painful velocity, he finally caught his breath.

“Damn, I owe you something if I ever meet you,” he said as he looked up at the moon, addressing princess Luna for what he presumed to be divine protection. He looked down at himself, sneezing again in the process, shooting back up to his regular size. He noticed the wet stains in his saddlebags, “Oh no luna preserve me!”

He opened the bags and was greeted by shattered glass, colorful stains and loose corks all over his bag's contents. He sighed with exasperation and emptied his bags on the moonlit forest floor to take inventory. Most of his supplies were wet but generally usable. The biggest loss was the shattered remains of 10 more potion flasks. Once all the unbroken flasks were accounted for he counted 1 rubber skin potion, 1 potion of strength and 1 potion of invisibility. Not much compared to the wide selection he had originally packed. He sighed and closed his bag. Luckily for him, his compass was still intact, so he squinted at it in the dim moonlight to find north. Whether he was past Canterlot or not, he knew that heading pretty much straight north and looking for major water streams was his best bet thanks to the falls being almost perfectly north of Ponyville and Canterlot.

He began wandering through the night, sneezing due to the light cold he had caught in the air. Each time his body shrunk, he cursed and used a leaf to try and tickle his nose into sneezing again. Marching north blindly was already chore, so he tried to keep the time doing it as a tiny version of himself to a minimum. He wasn't exactly keen on being caught out at night at comfortably bize size for a timberwolf or something similarly mean. He had about 5 of these incidents by the time his ears perked up, he could hear a distant rushing, definitely water. He turned to head to the direction of the noise, excited and frankly thirsty.

As he rushed to the sound of water and the dark trees became more sparse towards the riverbank, he froze. In the dark, he saw an outline. Multiple outlines. A group of animals were drinking at the river. He crept behind a tree for cover. Once one of the animals looked up, Brewberry realized it was a pack of wolves, maybe timberwolves? He couldn't tell in the dark. Either way he knew backing away and heading to the river at a different location would be the better choice. So he slowly backed up, paying careful attention to each step. When his left back hoof touched a twig, he carefully lifted it before it could snap. He wasn't careless enough to be caught up in such a simple mistake. To his chagrin, his cold didn't much care if he was in danger or not and despite him trying his best, the stifled sneeze might as well have been thunder. The stream of the water was not loud enough to cover the wet muffled sound of the stallion sneezing again and shrinking to chicken size. He panicked and began running as he saw the first wolf turning away from the water and towards him. The animals' eyes gleamed in the moonlight and brewberry did not intend to see them up close.

So he ran as fast as he could on his short tiny legs, hearing the howl of wolves behind him as they gave chase trying to find what exactly had made the noise. He could hear their paws hitting leaves and branches getting closer and closer as he blindly dashed through the underbrush. Being small had advantages, branches and bushes that would have stopped him were now merely things to flit by above his head as he dove under them. He could feel his heart pounding and his heavy breaths irritated his weakened lungs. He sneezed again, jolting back to normal size mid gallop. He moved much faster, but the wolves now had a clearly visible and audible target. He wasn't sure, but he thought he could hear them speeding up. The white stallion didn't dare to look back and just kept running until his instincts saved him from certain doom as his body came to a halt faster than he could process the small ravine. He stood at its edge, barely able to catch himself from falling over the edge. It was too wide to jump, but also too deep to escape downwards. He heard the wolves closing in, so he had to think fast. He reached into his saddleback, rummaging around till his hoof grasped the familiar flask, long with hard edges, like a gemstone with a cylinder at the top, slim and filled with what he knew to be a yellow liquid. He ripped out the cork with his teeth and downed it. He felt like his skin and fur was pulling tighter to his bones and muscles, he hated that feeling even if it only lasted a moment.

He dropped the flask as he heard a growl. He finally turned to see the 5 wolves encircling him, ready to pounce, but clearly hesitant with him standing so close to the ravine. He grinned, feeling very clever for what he was about to do. He faced the wolves and gave them a playful wave as he stepped backwards off the edge while pulling his saddlebag infront of him, clutching it as he plummeted down towards hard rock and unforgiving earth. He curled into a ball as much as possible before the ground hit his back, driving the air from his lungs. Usually a fall from this height would be disastrous to even an earth pony body, but instead of coming to any harm, Brewberrys body sprung back up as his back warped and stretched before flinging him back up to the other side of the ravine. He even managed to pull off a little flip as he landed back on solid ground, facing the snarling snapping wolves on the other side of the ravine.

He was down 1 rubber skin potion, but he felt that it was definitely worth it despite now being limited to only 1 potion of each type. He put the saddleback back on and turned, looking back at the wolves as the pounding of his heart began to slow.

“Shame no one saw that beside them. That was a sweet flip,” he mused out loud as he headed back in the river’s direction.