Measure Twice Brew once

The next morning, Brewberry was awoken by a ray of sunlight hitting his face directly, forcing him to wake up with a groan. He felt terrible—his back hurt, his mane was full of leaves, and he was operating on just three hours of sleep after his intense nighttime trek through the woods. He grumbled and looked up at the blazing sun.

“Could have let me sleep a few more hours, you know,” he mumbled, annoyed at Celestia's punctuality in raising the sun once more.

He stretched and got up, yawning as he started moving west for maybe two more hours. He wasn’t sure. He wasn't particularly great at telling the time by the sun’s shadow. Eventually, though, his patient march was rewarded as the dirt road came into view. He hurried onto it and checked its direction. It ran straight for miles and miles, and according to his compass, it ran perfectly north to south. He smiled as the realization overcame him. He knew this road! He had traveled down it before—many times, in fact, when he headed to and from Ponyville from Aunt Berry Punch. He was certain that if he followed it north and uphill, he’d arrive home within a day.

So he turned north and began walking, now with a bit of a spring in his step, satisfied with his navigational abilities as he headed uphill. The earth slowly sloped upwards, with the forest to his right and cliffs to his left—part of the great plateau that was home to the Neighagra Falls.

He went uphill like this for another few hours until he could see something ahead. He could hear it too—hooves and a bobbing mane barely visible over the road from where he was. He sped up, moving towards the sound and the blotch of green, heading further uphill to see more. Once he had passed over the crest, he saw him—another pony, with yellow fur and a green mane, pulling a cart full of mysterious crates.

“Hey! You there!” he called out. “I’m Brewberry!” he yelled up the road, waving at the stranger.

He got a wave back. “I’m Emerald Shine!” replied the other earth pony as both of them closed the distance to meet.

They politely shook hooves, and Brewberry gestured at the road ahead and uphill.

“That’s the way to Mareitton, right? By the falls?” he asked, just to be sure. He got a nod in response.

“Yeah, just came from there with this haul of gems from the plateau,” explained Emerald Shine.

“Oh, I’d head right back there if I were you. And only come back down with more ponies, ideally ones who can fight,” warned Brewberry.

“Huh? Why? Are there animals from the woods?”

“No, worse—diamond dogs with clubs. They’ve been robbing travelers on this road, seemingly for a while now. Don’t ask how I know—it’s complicated. But if it makes you feel better, I can accompany you back up the road.”

Emerald Shine pondered this for a moment and eventually nodded. “Explains why fewer shipments came up here last week. Alright, let’s head back,” he said as he turned the cart around to pull it back up the incline.

They moved at a comfortable pace, chatting about banalities along the way to pass the time. Brewberry enjoyed this a lot. He felt like the worst was behind him, like he could finally relax. He was tired and weak, driven only by polite conversation and the certainty of sleeping in his family home tonight before heading back to Ponyville the next day. While he was chatting and daydreaming about his mom's incredible hay-fries, he felt a low rumble go through the earth.

“Uh, did you feel that, Emerald?” he asked.

“Feel what? That low rumble? Yeah. Weird,” said the yellow-and-green stallion.

He was already shrugging off the confusion when they both flinched as a loud crash echoed through the air, followed by smaller ones. They could hear the earth undoing itself to their left. Brewberry’s purple eyes widened as he saw the entire cliffside crumbling, the rumbling growing more intense. It felt like the road was shifting, as small pebbles and then massive rocks and boulders came loose from the ancient stone cliffside, tumbling down toward the two ponies and the wooden cart.

"Oh, Celestia!" yelled Emerald Shine, cowering in fear, trying to make himself small so as not to get hit—a futile effort with the enormous boulder bearing down on them.

Driven by panic, Brewberry acted quickly. He scrounged around his saddlebags and ripped out the final flask—a large, round one. He put it to his lips, swirling the red liquid to empty it faster, letting it whirlpool down the neck of the bottle and into his mouth before tossing the flask aside. The thundering boulder was nearly upon them.

He sprinted towards it, prompting Emerald Shine to yell after him in confusion and fear. But Brewberry didn’t listen. He felt heat coursing through his body. Heading straight for the massive boulder, he threw himself into its path, planting his back hooves firmly in the dirt as he braced against its weight and momentum with his upper body. Groaning and grunting, the potion of strength coursing through him combined with his earth pony physique to fight the boulder’s inertia with every fiber of his being. The earth welled up around his hooves like the wake of a boat as the collision between the potion's power, his physical strength, and the descending boulder reached a stalemate.

The colossal rock threatened to roll over the stallion, but he stubbornly refused to let it win. Sweat poured from him as he strained against the weight until, slowly, the boulder's descent came to a halt—just in front of Emerald Shine and his cart. The yellow-and-green stallion could only stare at Brewberry, mouth agape.