//------------------------------//
// 13 Sleeping Cupid 
// Story: Potion Panic 
// by gaitiem 
//------------------------------//

	By the time that Apple Bloom deboarded the train, it was already dark. She had been shaking all over and internally panicking, but a stewardess seemed to notice and gave her a cup of hot chocolate on the house. She still had a lot to worry about, but the kindness made her feel a little better.
When she arrived at the station. She was surprised to see a brown cowpony hat hovering along the plane of her vision through the train windows. She gasped, then promptly sighed, tired of being surprised after a long day. She considered trying to sneak out of the train car, in case she was in trouble, but decided that it would be better to take it like a pony.
As she disembarked, Applejack took her up in her hooves and held her tight. “You’re okay!” she exclaimed. It occurred to Apple Bloom that maybe Applejack was more worried than upset. “What Sweetie said was true!”
“Sweetie’s okay?” Apple Bloom asked. “What did she say?”
“After the fire brigade heard her callin’ from in that big ol’ fire she caused, she came and told me how she started it,” Apple Bloom was recoiling to hear what Applejack had heard. “She said that you took her out into the field cause she had some kind of, uh, feelin’s she had to work out.” That, so far, was true. “She said it didn’t help much, and she got so out of control that the magic in her horn went all willy nilly, teleportin’ you away and startin’ a fire.” That sounded like Sweetie Belle was leaving Discord out. 
Apple Bloom was not sure why Sweetie Belle would try to cover for Discord like that, but she certainly did not want to rock the boat. “Yeah,” Apple Bloom said, “that’s pretty much how it went down. I mean, I didn’t see her start the fire, but I guessed from where I was that she must have done it, on account of the smoke.” Applejack put Apple Bloom on her back and gave her a little nuzzle before beginning to walk home. Suddenly a very important question popped into Apple Bloom’s mind. “Is the orchard okay!?”
“Mostly,” Applejack said, “besides the parts that the fruit bats were already infectin’. Only time will tell if they decide to move in to the East Orchard. Right now, they’re all hold up in Fluttershy’s cottage. I guess nobody ever burnt that down on them before, huh?”
“Ha ha, yeah,” Apple Bloom said, beginning to let her guard down. She just needed to ask one more time for clarification “Sweetie Belle is okay right? And where is she.”
“She’s safe at home with her momma and daddy,” Applejack said. “I took her there myself after the fire ponies saved her.”
The next question was awkward. “We’re not pressing charges, are we?”
“No need to get lawyers involved in this, Sugarcube,” Applejack chuckled. “Those trees weren’t doin’ us no good anyhow, and a little forest fire is good for the soil. We didn’t lose anything important, thank Celestia.” Applejack just about started to tear up. “You know, until I saw you at the train station just now, I thought Sweetie was coverin’ her tracks sayin’ she just ‘sent you away’ and you didn’t just… well, you know.”
It took Apple Bloom a minute to understand the implication. “Huh, sorry if I scared you sis.” She began to hold tighter to her sister as they moved back home. “I hope you don’t end up worryin’ about me the way Big Mac does about you.” 
“He doesn’t worry about me,” Applejack said with quivering uncertainty. The two of them went home, where there would not be as many apples as there had once been awaiting them, but, by their lucky stars, there would be enough to get by.
Apple Bloom was laid in her bed gently by her strong sister, who left the room, only to re-enter and keep tabs every so often throughout the night. Though at a glance it seemed that Apple Bloom was sleeping soundly, her dreams would be frantic, though methodical. She knew from the beginning, when she told her two friends that they would not be able to see each other for the rest of the day and overnight, that the overnight part would be just as much of a challenge as the day. Normally, ponies could not travel between each others dreams. Thanks to a friend of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, however, they had been allowed to meet in their dreams in the past.
“Luna!” Apple Bloom called out consciously to the dreamscape. “Princess!” she called again.
“Princess Luna!” rang a call from the distance. “Oh, hi Apple Bloom!” It was Sweetie Belle!
“Sweetie!” Apple Bloom called out. “It’s good to see ya. Applejack told me you made it out alright.”
“Yup. My mane got a little singe to it, but mostly I’m fine.” The evidence was present on the projection of herself in the dreamscape: the ends of her mane and a strip of her tail was black as cinders. 
“Looks alright on ya, actually. Anyways, since we’re meeting, I guess it must mean Luna is gonna show up at some point. Hopefully Scootaloo hasn’t started dreamin’ yet. We gotta make sure you two don’t see each other here either, or this will all have been for nothin’.”
“You think seeing each other in a dream will be the same as in real life?” Sweetie asked.
“Based on my research with test animals, I have no earthly idea. Better safe than sorry, though.”
“Don’t worry about it too much, Apple Bloom. If we have to try it again tomorrow, I promise I won’t summon Discord and burn down your orchard again. Pinkie Promise!” 
“Well, that’s a relief.” Apple Bloom said. “It will all be for nothing anyways if you guys see each other in the night and not the day. Better to nip it in the bud right now. I got a feelin’ that-” As she was saying it, she heard a voice from inside the dream. “Did you hear that?” Both were silent for a while, trying to catch the voice a second time. “It might be Luna, or it might be Scootaloo. Quick, dream something up to hide yourself in!”
Sweetie Belle thought a moment. “My cloak!” she exclaimed. “Finally, it will come in useful.” Like the Phoenix, Sweetie Belle’s black cloak rose from the ashes, larger and better for hiding a pony's face behind. She quickly put it on, just as the sound of a distant voice became clearer through the misty mind-work. 
“Look what though little ponies hath done to me!” Luna’s voice bellowed out. “You have made me believe that the black cloak hath gone out of style, when it is quite to the contrary.”
“Luna!” Sweetie called out. “I don’t know if you heard me earlier, but thanks so much for your help!”
“You have yourself to thank, and to blame. The same could be said of your friend.”
“Apple Bloom?” Sweetie asked. Her friend was standing steadfast as psychic bars were forming around her.
“I’m sorry it has to come to this, Apple Bloom, but I am not just your friend and guide. In the night, I am the law, and I need to behave as such. You tampered with a dangerous love poison formula, created powerful magics without a licence, and performed undocumented testing on house pets. You will need to see justice for this.”
“If you’re gonna try to make me confess,” Apple Bloom said, straight to the point. “I have conditions!”
“It seems you were expecting this,” Luna observed. “Praytell, what are these demands.”
“First, you can’t cause Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo to see or hear each other in their dreams.” 
“Certainly, I shall not. Anything further?”
This was the most important feature, but sensing that she wasn’t asking for enough, Apple Bloom tried to weigh the odds in her favor. “I get to pick what judge I want.”
“They must necessarily be a valid choice, but I will hear it.”
“Twilight Sparkle.”
“I see your game. Very well, but I have conditions of my own before we formalize this deal,” Luna said in a playful manner.
“Name it.”
“Your trial shall occur tonight, in Twilight Sparkles world of dreams. We must expedite the process of law, you understand.”
“Alright, I’ll take it,” Apple Bloom agreed.
“Not so fast,” Luna exclaimed, “this condition is steep: The court shall not be required to provide you with witnesses. You and Twilight shall be the only ponies summoned to attend.”
This was harder to agree to. She thought she could renegotiate, but she was still getting the better end of the deal, and so finally, she said, “I’ll agree to that.”
Luna’s eyes lit up to a blinding radiance as the cage began to fade into the floor, taking Apple Bloom with it. “Then the deal is struck, the dice are cast, and your fate hangs in the balance.”
“Oh no,” Sweetie cried out, too slow to catch the cage as it fell. She turned to Luna with a fire in her eyes. “Apple Bloom has been spending all day, dealing with all kinds of stuff, because I drank her potion, and you think she needs to go to prison for it?”
“I’m sorry, little one, but the law is as it is. I sincerely doubt she will be incarcerated. It was quite clever of her to choose a valid judge she knew personally. Princess Twilight will likely consider this an intellectual curiosity or a teachable moment first or foremost, and a sentencing hearing only as an afterthought. With the stakes that low, I had to ensure that she had a very low chance of success, for balance you see. Honestly, I would have let her off far easier if she hadn’t posed such a clever contest...”
“So that’s why you said she isn’t allowed to have witnesses? So she would lose?” asked Sweetie.
“Half correct again, as it were,” Luna said with a smirk. “Yes, it is true that, with a confession and no witnesses, Apple Bloom is quite guaranteed to fail. However, I did not say she could have no witnesses, only that none could be summoned.” She was looking as Sweetie expectantly, but Sweetie could not yet understand. “If a couple of ponies, at least two, who were personally affected by the actions of the defendant, just so happened to show up, they could testify to the defendant’s innocence freely.” Finally, Sweetie understood what Luna meant. 
“I could testify, and so could Scootaloo. But if we both go looking for the right door, we’ll end up meeting, and what Apple Bloom was trying to do will be all for nothing.”
“If there were another way to do it would you want to testify for your friend?”
“Of course I would,” Sweetie answered. “If there’s even a chance that Dream Twilight is meaner than Awake Twilight, I have to do something to help. I can’t watch my friend be punished when she tried so hard to fix her mistakes.”
“You still have that black cloak don’t you?” Luna asked.
“I could walk around blind, I guess,” Sweetie said, missing the point by a certain margin. “It would be really hard to find the right door to Twilight’s dreams, though.”
“Just keep yourself cloaked all over, unseeing, and mute. I’ll be back in just a moment.” Sweetie immediately regretted suggesting the plan. She hated being blind, especially in the context of a dream, because it usually meant that something horrible is waiting when she finally has her sight back. More than one nightmare has involved her hiding behind a couch or some other cover, only to take a quick peak that gives her location away to whatever scary pony or monster she was trying to avoid to begin with. 
“I have returned,” Luna said. “I have the other witness with me, and they are going to guide you through the realm of dreams. You only have until the end of the hearing to find Twilight’s room among the many doors to many dreams. If you wish to succeed, you must keep close to each other and be persistent, but don’t say a word or look beyond the veil.”
Without another word said by anyone, Sweetie Belle felt herself being pulled away from her standing position. As she tried to synch up the speed of her hooves with her guide, she wondered who it was. The most obvious “other witness” for her to get would have been Scootaloo, but who was to say. Deaf, dumb, and blind, Sweetie couldn’t tell one hoof from another. With so little stimuli, her mind began to wander.
She began to wonder whether it was Scootaloo who was dragging her around, or somepony else. Luna did promise not to reveal the two to each other. How could she justify joining them together, even under these circumstances, if she meant to keep that promise?
Maybe she didn’t mean to. Maybe she wanted Sweetie Belle to peak out, to see whether it was really Scootaloo, so that her deal with Apple Bloom would be broken. Apple Bloom would be free, and they could all find another solution, like just staying up all night. Perhaps that was really the plan afterall. She put her free hoof to the veil, and she wondered whether she should hold it firm or remove it outright.
Either way, they were certainly exploiting a loophole of some kind. They were witnesses, even if they weren’t being summoned, and that seemed to break the spirit of the agreement. Luna could know that Twilight would not accept the wording as valid, and we would be breaking Apple Bloom's end of the deal as well. What does Luna got out of persecuting ponies, anyways, and why could she not have let Apple Bloom off with a warning?
If she had really intended for Apple Bloom to be punished for what she did, why would she help them at all? She then thought that it may have been Luna who was leading her all this way herself, only claiming to have brought another witness. She could be leading little Sweetie Belle around to nowhere, or to the place that dreams go to be forgotten. Was she simply being taken out of the way, or lead endlessly on by some mere phantom, dream apparition of a hoof without an arm to guide it?
If the hoof she felt could be nothing but a dream, then who is to say that it was not her own dream? Perhaps, if she lifted the veil, all she would see would be one of those horrors from her nightmares, leading her to some dark part of her own mind. Alternatively, it might be Scootaloo as she would see in a dream, leading her to some romantic fantasy which she could not afford to experience at the moment.
The darkness progressively made each new thought and fantasy feel more real as time went on. She wondered whether she had been with Scootaloo when she began her journey, which by this point felt as though it had been an hour in length, but had been swept away by some resident of the unconscious mid way through. With her dreamlike perception of sensation and memory, she could not decide whether she had felt her hoof slide out of her guides at some point, only to be taken quickly by some other hand. She began to feel intensely with her projected hoof to better examine what incorporeal thing she was “holding” with it. What had felt like Scootaloo’s little hoof began to feel at times like the larger hoof of the princess, then like the claw of a dragon or the hand of a centaur, then like a hand more false and ghostly than she expected out of another visitor to the false and ghostly world. 
Her hoofing became unsteady with the unsavory feeling of holding a tentacle, such had she convinced herself that it was. She nearly tripped over herself, and found that she would quite like to have fallen, if only to feel how her guide, whoever it might have been, would lift her up, and to distinguish if it was Scootaloo after all. Her hoof became uneasy on her head as she began to lift the cloth that blinded her little by little. 
The anticipation was too much for her. Doubting the senses she had retained, she wanted only to see with her eyes and hear with her ears that she was safe in this unfamiliar land with her ill-begotten special somepony, whether it would doom them or not. Part of her held firm, trusting that her friend Luna had put her on the right path and would not have let her stray, but these thoughts became further and further from her mind as time went on. Her veil was all the way above her head now, and all she had to do was open her eyes to see who is was guiding her through this nightmare, darkly.
“Thud thud thud!” came a rapping at the door. Sweetie quickly repositioned her blinder. The sound had come not a moment too soon.
“Come in!” chimed the familiar voice of Twilight Sparkle. Sweetie had to contain herself so as not to call out in relief, or even sigh too loudly, at this development. 
As the two ponies crossed the threshold into another dream, they heard their friend call out to them from inside “Scootaloo! Is that Sweetie? You guys haven’t seen or heard each other, have you? Wait, don’t answer!” Apple Bloom shifted her attention to Twilight. “Judge Twilight, can we maybe see these two one at a time?”
“Sorry, Apple Bloom,” Twilight answered, “but we can’t just take a break right in the middle of your sentencing to talk to friends. Unless they have some important information about your crime-”
Apple Bloom interrupted her, “They do! But they can’t see or hear each other ‘till morning.”
“Ah,” Twilight postulated, “because you’re trying to wear off the spells effects. Fine, I’ll have to interview the both of you in separate rooms.” She paused a moment. “Actually, under the circumstances, I might as well make it different cities.”
Sweetie heard a magical crackle and hiss as her body was teleported into another place, or, rather, setting in the mind of Princess Twilight Sparkle. “You can take off the get-up now.” Trusting Twilight, Sweetie removed her black robe and cast it to the floor of The Crystal Capitol. Having only been to the Crystal Empire a few times, she was still somewhat mystified by the architecture of its central feature. As she was surveying the crystal work, she noticed Shining Armor show up with a tray of cakes and tea. “Well,” Twilight Sparkle began, “now that we can speak freely, let me ask you: do you want to testify to the innocence of Apple Bloom?” 
Sweetie answered very directly, “I do.”
“What makes Apple Bloom’s crime, which she has confessed to, unworthy of punishment, in your mind,” Twilight asked bookishly.
“Yeah, she made the potions, but she was really careful and responsible with them,” Sweetie Belle testified. “She could have let me and Scootaloo think that everything was normal and we weren’t under the effects of anything, and we would have believed it, but she did everything she could to let us know and get us better. If she wasn’t so responsible, or didn’t care about us, she wouldn’t be on trial, and that’s just not fair.”
“Are you saying she should be rewarded for how she handled the situation?” Twilight asked.
“Well, I wouldn’t go that far…” Sweetie admitted. “The point is, she made a mistake and she fixed it. Nobody should have to go to jail for that. No harm no foul, right?”
Twilight took a deep sip of her tea. “Well said, my little pony. You may now awaken. Just drink the tea in front of you and-” Twilight was interrupted as Sweetie Belle slurped down the tea in front of her, unphased by the illusion of steam emanating from it. 
“Bye Princess Twilight,” Sweetie said, dissolving. “See you later.”
“Huh, weird,” Twilight observed, “She must have done this before.”
Waving goodbye to her imaginary big brother, Twilight teleported the tray, cups, kettle, and herself to the center of an Appleoosa horse race where Scootaloo was waiting for her, watching the action go down. “I see you’re enjoying yourself,” she observed.
“You’ve got a pretty active imagination, Twilight Sparkle,” Scootaloo replied.
“I’m sure we’ll have a great time, but what fun is watching a race without tea.” She levitated the kettle to pour another cup full of tea in the cup opposite her own.
“I don’t see what good tea is in a dream,” Scootaloo remarked ignorantly. Twilight was amused by the difference between these two fillies.
“I’m sure it will add to the atmosphere. More importantly, do you want to testify in favor of Apple Bloom?”
“I do,” Scootaloo responded while attempting to balance the cup of tea in the middle of her left hoof with her right hoof. 
“I have to say, Scootaloo,” Twilight said, dropping a level of formality as she bit into a tiny cake, “You’re awfully forgiving for somepony who has been, I’m just gonna say it, mind controlled by a potion. I know a lot of ponies who would be more hung up about something like that.”
“I don’t really feel like I’ve been mind controlled,” Scootaloo confessed, eyeing the sweets and realizing that, trying to hold the drink, she would be completely unable to grab them.
“Well, that’s the sign of a job well done, to some,” Twilight said.
“I know it doesn’t mean much,” Scootaloo admitted, “but I feel like I’ve always felt this way about Sweetie Belle. She was only my marefriend for half a day, but even before then I remember feeling like she was more than just a friend to me. I…” It was difficult for Scootaloo to say, “I don’t think she would have fallen for me without the potion, but I think I would have for her.”
“She didn’t behave affectionately before the potion?” Twilight asked.
“Sure she did,” Scootaloo responded, “but that’s how she is. It’s in her name, ‘Sweetie’. She’s trusting, caring… she would act the same way to an Ursa Minor if she met one.”
“You don’t think she sees anything in you like you do in her?”
“I don’t see why she would,” Scoots said. “She trusts me, and all I do is take her out of her comfort zone. I mean, I’m the one that teased her so bad she decided to drink the potion in the first place. I never know when to stop, and it always gets us in trouble. She’ll probably hate me once she isn’t under its spell.”
“You teased her into drinking it?” Twilight asked.
Scootaloo remembered why she was there. “Yeah, that’s right!” she confirmed, “I’m responsible for what happened, not Apple Bloom. Heck, we wouldn’t have even been messing with her stuff if it wasn’t for me trying to prank her, and corrupting poor innocent Sweetie to do it with me. If anypony deserves to be on trial, it’s me! I’m the criminal! Put me on the stand!”
“I don’t think that’s going to be necessary,” Twilight said assuredly. “You may go. Have you finished your tea?”
Scootaloo looked down on the steaming liquid and gave it a sip. Noticing it wasn’t hot, and, in fact, was not real tea with real tea flavor, she drank it down quickly. “Alright, I finished my tea, what happens n-” as she was saying it, she faded out of Twilight’s vision. 
“Very interesting,” Twilight said, contemplating the witnesses testimony.
With a flash of light, Twilight appeared back in her balloon above Ponyville, where she had been engaging the trial of Apple Bloom. Spike was there, in his fully adult dragon glory, holding a chalkboard on which she had written down all the particulars of Apple Bloom’s love poison recipe. Apple Bloom was in the balloon itself, or, rather, in a cage inside the balloon. Besides this, there was a magical floating door and hovering carpet that the two witnesses had entered from.
“Well,” Twilight addressed Apple Bloom, “I just had a very interesting discussion with your two friends, and I’ve come to a conclusion on your punishment.” Apple Bloom attempted to remain steadfast in the face of potential doom, but couldn’t help but think to herself please not banishment to the moon, please not banishment to the moon, please not… “I’ve decided,” Twilight went on, “to wave all punishments.”
“What!?” Apple Bloom called out, “Really?”
“Yes, really,” Twilight said, “because, as Sweetie Belle put it, ‘no harm, no foul’. Just the fact that they were both willing to show up to defend you should be evidence enough that you did nothing wrong, or, at least, nothing you haven’t made up for. That is, as long as they’re the only ponies that have been exposed to your little experiment…”
“The rest of the potion we poured out onto the soil,” Apple Bloom clarified. “Sorry I didn’t mention that earlier.”
“Well then, I think I can justify letting you off with a warning,” Twilight Sparkle said securely. “At the same time, I was curious about something that Scootaloo had said. Are you one-hundred percent sure that this is the exact formula that you used when you were making your potion?”
“The imperial to metric conversion might be off a little, but otherwise it’s just what I did,” Apple Bloom said.
“Interesting. I’m going to ask that you come and see me in the afternoon once I’ve had time to run the math and a few projections,” Twilight said. “Otherwise, you’re free to go.” The cage around Apple Bloom puffed into a cloud of vapor upon her saying so. “Unfortunately, we’re out of tea, so you’re going to have to jump out of the balloon in order to wake yourself up.” 
Apple Bloom looked down on Ponyville and felt dizzy from the height. Looking away, she jumped down out of the balloon, looking up at it as she fell down and out of her rest. “Wait, Apple Bloom!” Twilight called from above. “I was joking! Oh well.”