//------------------------------// // The Pelopeneighsian War: Of Berries and Messengers // Story: Equestria and the Olympians // by Mrtyranno //------------------------------// The room was large, filled with upward reaching structures, that towered over the two individuals in the room. One of which was an Alicorn, a pony with the wings of a Pegasus and the horn of a Unicorn, with a purple coat. Her mane and tail were dark blue with a pink and a purple streak running through them and upon her flank was a mark that bore the image of a large purple star surrounded by small pink stars. This was a cutie mark, a symbol that informed what the special talent of each pony that bore such a mark was. In the case of the Alicorn, her’s was magic itself. Her name was Twilight Sparkle and the pursuit of knowledge thrilled her and she was here to learn from the earth pony across from her. The earth pony had a plum coloured coat with a raspberry pink mane and tail. Her eyes the colors of fandango, her mark being that of grapes and a strawberry. This was Berry Shine, the most renowned brewer for kilometers. The bubbles frothed back and forth as the juice solution was poured from a measuring jug surrounded by ethereal purple magic into the small cup. As she set the jug down, Princess Twilight looked at Berry Shine with a hopeful yet nervous glance. The small hum of the large brown and mauve copper swan-necked stills that covered the expanse of the distillery hall only served to add to her uneasiness as Berry Shine picked up the drink she made and eyed the solution. With a calm sip Berry Shine paused as she looked like she was in deep thought before setting the cup down and giving Twilight a sad look. Twilight’s ears turned downward in despair as her thoughts of failure and being unlikeable ran rampant in her heads. As if reading her mind, Berry tapped the oak table the cup and jug were on to get Twilight’s attention and said, “I’ve had worse first tries from people I’ve tried to teach my craft to. Some have even made me sick. It’s drinkable, but it’s Manehattan quality and not Sweet Apple Acres quality” To Berry’s relief Twilight’s ears perked up ever so slightly but Twilight asked, “So...what exactly did I do wrong with making the brew?” Berry pondering before quickly replying with her assessment, pointing her plum coloured left hoof at the jug, “You added too much water to the mixture. Water is good for reducing the, for lack of a better word, punch of it but too much of it and the taste dissolves to the point that it’s barely detectable. What you need to do is figure out through trial and error what the right solution is.” Twilight replied with surprise, “But the books told me that this was the specific level of water, I took the measurements down to the last drop. This was still a disaster.” Berry slammed her hoof on the table with a stern face gesturing to the jug once more, “Books can only go so far Twilight. There are many situations where simple book knowledge can fail you. A lot of times you will have to be unorthodox about things even if they do not seem right at the time, but the results will surprise you. It may have tasted fine to you, but consider quality,” Berry’s expression then softened, “But thank you for coming to me with this, I want you to keep practicing on your own time and let your friends continue to try it out.” Twilight nodded her head in appreciation, taking care to magically pick up the jug and cup as the two ponies headed out the main door to another room full of jugs, cups and large juice bottles. After depositing her items she walked out with Berry Shine to the front of the store behind the counter where a female unicorn with a maya blue coat was attending to customers. Her periwinkle mane and tail had a pigment blue streak running through them and her steel blue eyes took notice of Twilight and Berry Shine emerging from the door, as she turned revealing her hourglass cutie mark, she uttered a sigh of relief. Opening the cash register, she uttered a groan as she said, “I was wondering when you would be finished Berry. These customers don’t like to take orders according to a strict timetable.” “I appreciate your patience Minuette.” Berry chortled out, “Thanks for watching the store for me.” Minuette nodded and pulled out a small watch from the cash register, putting it around her neck as she pushed past the salon doors connecting the counter to the rest of the store where a dozen ponies were lined up to get their order of juice. As Minuette left the store, she looked up at the sign of the brand new store that said, “Berry Shine’s magnificent juices, our products have a nice Punch” Twilight picked up a hoofkerchief and wiped the sweat from her brow as she noticed 2 ponies, a dragon and a tortoise with a helicopter rotor attached to its back waving her over. Smiling she trotted over to them and sat down next to her small purple dragon companion Spike who was ingesting the last of his coconut juice with a content look on his face. Across from her were two of her best friends, the always bubbly pink party pony with a balloon set cutie mark, Pinkie Pie, and the blue Pegasus with the rainbow coloured mane whose cutie mark featured a rainbow lightning bolt, Rainbow Dash. Nodding to everyone present they made their way out of the store. As soon as they left the doors Tank the tortoise activated his helicopter rotors and hovered in the air as his owner Rainbow Dash unfurled her wings and joined him in the air, slightly a few centimeters off the ground. The four were walking in the direction of Princess Twilight’s grand crystalline tree castle, that stood out amongst all the other structures in the little town of Ponyville. The hustle and bustle of the small town filled the air as a school bell rang, signifying that the school period was over for the day. Young foals scampered in the streets, and three young fillies were standing atop a fountain all trying to balance on it, though falling for their efforts. “I don’t get it Twilight.” Rainbow Dash stated with confused look on her face, “Why do you need to learn how to make brew’s the Earth Pony way? Can’t you just use your large amount of magic to simply poof a good tasting drink into existence?” Twilight shook her head before replying, “Food magic is extremely powerful and complicated. It requires a knowledge of how each food is made and the exact composition in order to taste right. I need to not only study the compound structure of each individual ingredient but learn the proper mixture so that they taste right.” Pinkie Pie giggled, bouncing off the paved cobblestone road as she noticed Rainbow Dash was mentally droning out Twilight’s words as the Alicorn rambled off more about the difficulties of making food using magic. Pinkie’s thoughts erratically turned to the idea of being able to make a banquet of the most delicious cakes in the country with just a mere thought. That in turn made her salivate as her next thought started to form as her nostril slammed into Tank’s shell. Pinkie in surprise rubbed her snout as she and the other two ponies and Spike looked at Tank who sported a look of awe. Spike raised his claw and looked upwards to try and spot what the hovering Tortoise was looking at. Twilight noticed that Tank had turned off his rotor and was on the road bowing. The other residents of the town that were in the area noticed this odd sight and then looked up as they heard a boom in the air, and what everyone saw startled them as a large figure came flying towards them. It had the shell and feet of a great green tortoise. Large chocolate brown hawk-like wings were attached to each of its four feet. Instead of having the reptilian tail of a tortoise it ended in the fluffy tail of a grey hare that was stretched out with spines on the sides. Atop it’s head were two large ram-like curved horns with a brimmed red cap in between. On his shell was painted the image of a purple Crocus flower and slung to it were large mail packages and a lyre coloured in the patterns of a tortoise shell. The great Testudine beast landed at an unbelievable speed in front of Tank, folding its wings against its feet as it did so, and looked at the small tortoise as Twilight began to appreciate its size. The animal was 3 metres long with a skull 1 meter wide and 3 meters tall. Lowering its long mottled grey sagging neck the giant Tortoise like creature nudged Tank with its snout and then appeared to notice Twilight and the others before fixating on Spike for a few seconds before rearing its head back and opening it’s beak. “You are the Alicorn named Twilight Sparkle?”, the creature asked Twilight, it’s large oval blue eyes bearing down on Twilight. Twilight gulped as she nodded, noting in the corner of her eye that a lot of the residents of Ponyville were in hiding, except for some reason, the various mail-ponies that did not seem too perturbed by the great creature’s presence but instead were bowing as well as Tank. Then the wheels in Twilight’s brain kicked into gear as she added all the facts together. Gathering her courage, Twilight looked up at the creature straight in the eyes with a confident appearing pose and replied back, “Yes, and I welcome you to Ponyville, Hermes Olympian lord of herds, travel, trade, heraldry, language, athletics, thievery and messages,” she finished with a graceful bow as her practice with the high Alicorn ruler Celestia had taught her. Hermes looked surprised at this but then threw back his head and gave a great laugh which reverberated throughout the town. Looking down at Twilight again, he posed the question to her, “I suppose Celestia and Luna taught you the proper way to greet an Olympian young one. That is good on you. As to why I’m here, I think it’s pretty obvious.” Before Twilight could respond Pinkie jumped up and excitedly, her apprehension all but forgotten as she screamed out, “Is it because you have a super special message for us?”, her eyes looking like they were about to pop out of her head with perturbed Hermes. Slyly he thought “Dionysus would love this one”. Hermes nodded and to everyone’s surprise his eyes suddenly gave off a golden magical glow as one of the backpacks on his shell opened up and a scroll rose out of it, covered in golden ethereal light before landing in Spike’s claws. Hermes furrowed his brow at Spike and asked him, “Am I to understand that your dragonfire is a method of message transportation?” Spike gulped and nodded in response. Hermes paused and stared intently at Spike before finally saying, “I’m very annoyed that I did not conceive of such a method. I have to give praise to Celestia sadly for that. Though you save me the trouble of flying to Canterlot to deliver a similar message. You and Celestia and correspond and give me your answer when you are ready. I think I will stay in this town and enjoy its novelties while I wait for you. I do advise to be quick, are not known for being very patient.” Before any being had the time to respond Hermes zipped past them, leaving a trail of dust in his wake. Rainbow Dash’s jaw dropped as she saw the speed at which the great tortoise moved. Meanwhile Pinkie Pie and Twilight looked at the letter in Spike’s hand that still had a glow about it. “Get the others,” Twilight said hurriedly, “Let’s go to the Castle and see the contents and figure out what’s going on. If the Olympians want something from us, then we better not keep them waiting or disaster might come to Ponyville and Equestria.” Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash nodded and scurried off to get the other members of their group, haste guiding their hooves and wings.