//------------------------------//
// 6 Too Young 
// Story: Potion Panic 
// by gaitiem 
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	After school, the new lovers met up once again, silent as the grave. They were now clear on the history of what led them to this moment, but the course ahead was only half-revealed. Sweetie stared at Scootaloo, still struggling to reconcile her feelings with their origins.
She looked back to Scootaloo, and wondered what she was thinking about. Was she still as hopelessly in love as she was, as angry, or as sad? 	Before, she thought she could tell. She thought they had a connection, the kind that only special someponies have, where she could tell what each other could feel without needing to say it. She thought she could tell before, but now she was sure she must have contrived something from a look or a tone like she could otherwise.
Apple Bloom joined them shortly. She struggled to meet their eyes. Sweetie sighed, “So what do we do now.” 
“Well, now y’all gotta go without seein’ each other ‘till tomorrow,” AB said. “Did y’all come up with plans to keep y’rselves occupied? It’s not gonna be easy to get through the day if y’r just sittin’ around mopin’.”
“Before we do anything like that, we need to stop by the treehouse,” Scootaloo said.
“Why’s that?” AB asked.
“That potion is still mostly full,” Scootaloo said. “We can’t risk anypony drinking it again. We’ve gotta poor the rest of it out.”
This was sound, and nopony objected to it. Sweetie thought, immediately, that by “anypony,” she meant the two of them. It would be hard to go back to being just some filly after being Scootaloos mare-friend. At least that’s how it seemed now. Maybe Scootaloo thought that, if they looked at the potion again, they might find that Apple Bloom was wrong, and they really did drink a potion with no effect on them. It was too big a coincidence that yesterday would just happen to be the day they fell in love, and just happen to be the day they drank a mysterious potion, that much was obvious now. She could not see any hope in it, but Scootaloo might have felt differently. 
When they got there, it was just as Apple Bloom had left it yesterday. She assessed the potion again, and confirmed that it was the same love poison she had been testing, the same potion Sweetie and Scootaloo had sampled the day before. The was no questioning it now. 
They all gathered beneath the clubhouse. Apple Bloom uncapped the potion, took the neck of the flask in her throat, and cocked her head the other direction. When it seemed to be done pouring, she shook it to make sure that every last drop was spilled at the base of the tree. 
Sweetie Belle looked over to Scootaloo. She might not have known what Scootaloo was feeling at all times, but anypony could see that she was on the verge of tears now. Sweetie held her as she began to sob. Apple Bloom thought she should try to comfort her as well, but didn’t feel right about it. She knew it was an accident, but could not help but feel like it was her responsibility more than anypony else’s that they were in this situation. She timidly reminded them, “If there’s anything you wanted to say before things go back to normal… well, you know.”
“It’s not fair,” Scootaloo whimpered, fighting back the tears just to speak. 
Sweetie Belle wanted to feel the same way, but couldn’t rationalize it. She knew most ponies her age would not have the kind of relationship 	Scootaloo and her had had. It seemed fair now that they were being split up, even if she hated it. She said, “I guess we’re just too young.”
“That’s what’s not fair!” Scootaloo clarified. “I’m sick of waiting! I hate that no matter what we do, we’re always stuck in the same place: being little kids forever! I can’t stand it anymore! Why don’t I get to have a cutie mark, fly with my own wings, or fall in love with my best friend? Why is it that when I think I’m close to what the rest of my life is going to be, it slips between my hooves?”
Sweetie could not answer any of these questions. Their weight on her mind was no less than that on Scootaloo’s, but it only broke her when she realized she she had no idea how to console her would-be special-somepony. What could she say that so many ponies had not said already? It won’t last forever, it’ll happen before you know it, it can’t be rushed. These words were just dismissive before, but now they stung. The future full of possibilities was cluttered, random, as good as dark, and now she had known one that she feared would never come true again. Not only would she and Scootaloo never be special to each other again, but there was also the chance that Scootaloo would find their continued friendship awkward, and break it off. She had no future with Scootaloo, not even seasonally, and that was as good to her as having no future at all.
Are we separated right now? She thought in a moment of inspiration. No. Right now, I have her in my hooves. She held Scootaloo closer to herself, teary eyes spilling over as she did, and rested her muzzle on her mare-friends shoulder, prompting her to do the same. She held as though she feared Scootaloo would be eaten up by the ground beneath them if she ever let go. She felt her embrace perfectly reciprocated, Scootaloo’s bawling winding down as she held tighter.
Apple Bloom was unsure of how to feel, or whether she should even be watching the sweet yet concerning display. Some part of her felt that she had to watch, a part she guessed was Applejack, to make her see the course of events that came from her mistakes at the most affecting. She felt like crying herself, but tears would not come. She decided it was for the best that the two of them should get a moment to cry out loud and commiserate together, while she should cry alone, on the inside. As much as the three were under no strict time code, she knew she would have to commence the break-up eventually.
“Here’s the part where we gotta split up,” Apple Bloom said, regretfully. Her two friends reluctantly broke off and stood beside each other, attentive to Bloom’s instructions. “I don’t know how cat physiologisms compare to pony, but since y’all were still crazy for each other after a night apart, I want to play it safe and say y’all can’t see each other until this time tomorrow. Do y’all have some way to keep yourselfs busy?”
Scootaloo answered first, “Rainbow Dash was talking a couple weeks ago about taking a trip to Cloudsdale, just the two of us. It will be really far away from anywhere we could run into each other.”
“That’s a good plan, Scootaloo!” Apple Bloom said. “And you, Sweetie?”
“Honestly, I haven’t really been thinking about it. I forgot to,” Sweetie admitted.
“I kinda expected one of you to come up empty, at least,” AB said. “Well, you can go crusading with me then. It will be good to keep an eye on at least one of y’all. If I notice you quit pinin’ for Scootaloo, I’ll know Scoots is probably stopped pinnin’ too, and y’all can go back to being friends again.” She tried to end on a high note, but she met with little response from the pessimistic pair. She went on, “So, Scootaloo, once you get back from your trip, head to the treehouse, and I’ll find you there to say whether we’re in the clear yet. That way, you won’t have to find us.”
“Right,” Scootaloo acknowledged. She moved to unhitch the waggon from her Scooter. The length of the handle hit the red wall with a “thud,” and the waggon moved an inch away from the reverberations of it. She took hold of her handlebars and took a breath before calling back at last “Bye, 	Sweetie Belle. I’ll miss you!”
Sweetie couldn’t form the words. She still felt like crying again, but couldn’t. Her body betrayed her feelings, or at least clothed them modestly, and part of her was grateful for that. Another part wanted to cry out desperately for Scootaloo to stay. Between the two, all she could do was to raise her hoof, half in waving, and half in reaching out to something far beyond her grasp. 
Scootaloo realized she would have to be the one to turn her gaze first. She did it fast, like tearing off a bandage, turning her Scooter toward town in one jerk motion and scooting away on it with eyes closed. She opened them again, and she was speeding away from Sweetie Belle on the old country road that had been their daily route. 
As Scootaloo became distant, Sweetie felt a force to move her. She picked up her hooves to follow Scootaloo in a vain attempt to catch her on hoof. No sooner had she done this than Apple Bloom tackled her, anchoring her to the roots of the treehouse. Sweetie did not fight back, but went limp as the adrenaline and emotion left her little body. 
Apple Bloom felt like she was holding a sack of potatoes. She tried to prop up Sweetie into some shape that resembled a pony, but could not. 		“Hey, you’ll see her tomorrow,” she said, trying to get her friend to perk up. “You’ll hardly notice the time go by.”
“What makes you think so?” Sweetie asked, genuinely curious. 
“Cause,” AB answered, “part of it you’ll be asleep, and part of it will be you gettin’ yer cutie mark!”
Of all the days to be hopeful, Sweetie thought, today was not the one. “I don’t think I’m in the mood for discovering my special talent. If I did right now, I wouldn’t want to remember it.”
“Well,” Apple Bloom retreated, “then we can do whatever you wanna do. Anything! Even if it’s somethin’ I told ya, ‘nah’ a hundred times to… we should!”
“That’s nice of you to say Apple Bloom…” she was about to say that it was all for nothing, but she had a thought instead, “... I guess there is one thing I could do.”