Cheerilee rests her chin on her desk with her hooves crossed over her forehead, trying to block out sunlight and apply pressure to her throbbing migraine.  She sighs miserably and treasures her few moments of silence during the class's recess time.  Her hangover has certainly hindered her ability to teach, but the school board wouldn't allow her anymore sick days so she's been toughing it out all morning.  The plum colored earth pony counts the seconds, dreading the inevitable ringing of the bell as it steadily approaches.  

"How does Berry deal with this every single day?"  Cheerilee grumbles to herself and closes her eyes, reaching blindly along her desk to try and find the large mug of green tea that she expects to still be warm.  She manages to find it, though nearly knocks it over in doing so, and brings it to her lips to take a drink.  She slowly swallows the lukewarm tea, keeping her eyes closed as the mug empties, only to be interrupted by the bell.  The noise is something out of a nightmare for her, causing her to jump and cringe, spilling what's left of her tea onto herself and her desk.  "You've gotta be f--"  Cheerilee looks up as her door opens and immediately corrects her language, "fooling with me."  

"S'cuze me, Miss Cheerilee?"  Apple Bloom is the first one through the door, puzzling the teacher since she can see all of the other fillies filing into the school from out her window.  

"Oh, nothing.  Just had a little spill, that's all.  Were you waiting outside the door?"

"Yeah...  I wanted to ask you somethin' in private but I couldn't think of a good way to say it..."

"Well, would you like to talk with me after school instead?"  Cheerilee silently curses herself out for offering any extra time away from her bed, but can't help herself from extending a hoof to a student in need.

"I would but I think Applejack needs my help around the house today."  

"Oh, well don't worry, I'll just walk you home and we can talk then."  Cheerilee can feel her rational mind screaming obscene remarks about her intelligence at her from inside her head as soon as she makes this offer.  

"Wull thanks a million, Miss Cheerilee!  That'd mean an awful lot."

"You're very welcome, Apple Bloom.  Now go take your seat, I think the others should be getting in here soon."

Apple Bloom cooperates and sits down at the front of the class like usual, though can't help but make a quick comment about her teacher's condition.  "You're lookin' kinda sick by the way, did ya eat somethin' spoiled last night?"

Not unless you count my sister...  Cheerilee thinks to herself, cracking a smile and feeling as if she'll throw up at the same time.  "Yeah, that's probably it." Sweet Princess when did I get such a filthy mind?

She looks up from her desk after grabbing a small wad of paper towels from the roll that she keeps in one of her drawers, cleaning herself and the wooden piece of furniture off of all remaining tea.  The children are in their seats, but certainly aren't paying any attention.  She can see Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara making some kind of snickering comment about the three 'crusaders' as they sit amongst themselves.  She can't make out what any one of them is actually saying over the cacophony all around the room.  The teacher sighs and pulls out her day planner, flipping it open to the current date and addressing her class.  "Alright my little ponies, settle down.  I've got a quick lesson planned before you go home today, so we're going to spend the next few hours learning about..."  She pauses to look down at her self-assigned curriculum.  She's very organized and has kept to her plans all year, even through this misfortune, though it seems the powers that be have a sense of humor.  She gulps as she reads her written (and forgotten until now) lesson plan aloud for the kids in a jittery, almost frightened tone,  "The dangers of alcohol..."

"Hey Twilight?"  Fluttershy's gentle voice lightly brushes over the unicorn's mane as they lay together on Fluttershy's couch.  Twilight uses her magic to place a bookmark into the levitating book in front of her, lining up the bottom of the piece of paper with the line that she's ended on.

"Hmm?"  She adjusts herself to be laying on her back, head turned to face the yellow pegasus with a smile on her muzzle.

"Did you want to do anything tonight?"

"What do you mean?"  

"Well...  I'm perfectly happy to just lay with you here for the rest of the day, have a nice homecooked meal and then spend the night with you again, but I just thought I'd check if you wanted to go out or do anything at all."

"Hrm..."  Twilight closes her book and sets it down, looking up at the ceiling and thinking for a few seconds.  "We are pretty boring aren't we?"

"I didn't say that!  I was just curious is all..."  Fluttershy breaks eye contact when she feels like she might have offended the unicorn.

Twilight smirks and rolls onto her side, facing the pegasus and tangling their forelegs up together, staring face to face on the little sofa.  "Oh relax, Fluttershy, I was only kidding.  Did you have anything in mind?  Because as long as I'm spending time with you I'm game to go do just about anything."

"Well, it's a little warmer tonight than it was yesterday.  Why don't we have an early dinner and then... go out someplace."

"Go out after dinner?"

"Mhm, I don't mean anywhere in town.  I mean we should go out.  Like... let's say we head out to the edge of the Everfree forest, not much of a walk from here, but we can get away from the Ponyville lights and just watch the sun go down and the stars come out.  Something quiet."

Twilight sits there and thinks for a minute, knowing from her voice inflection that this is a commonly desired practice for the nature-loving pegasus, and so figures that there's no harm in it whatsoever.  The unicorn leans forward and gently presses her muzzle against Fluttershy's, softly smooching her, but not letting it fall too deep right away.  "Let's do that, then.  It's been a while since I've watched a sunset."

The yellow pony smiles and gently closes her eyes, tilting her chin away and giggling very softly.  "Yay."

"Soarin'?"  Pinkie Pie lifts her head off of the stallion's chest, adjusting it to look him in the eye somewhat during their fading moment of afterglow.

"Yes?"  The pegasus looks down and slowly strokes Pinkie's cotton-candy shaped mane; he can't quite tell if this is how she always looks, or if this is just the pink pony's own version of "bed-mane".

"I know this is kinda silly of me considering what just happened and all... I guess old habits just die hard... but I'm not entirely sure I want to rush into a relationship right now..."

"Breaking up with me already?"

"No!  No, no no not that...  I just...  Well, I'd like to keep it kinda slow.  Everything in my life seems to rush around, and everypony seems to think of me like that...  I was kinda hoping after this we could go out on a few dates before things got serious... have fun with it, no need to rush right?"

"To be honest I know how you feel, Pinkie..."

"You do?"

"You try being a professional racer for a living and not being expected to live your whole life in the fast lane...  I think I wouldn't mind just taking it nice and slow with you."

The pink pony nuzzles back against Soarin's chest, listening to his calm, strong heart and shutting her eyes.  "You're the best."

"Nah, but I'm definitely top five."

Pinkie just rolls her eyes and pulls her two-tone light pink and hot pink blanket over her head, leaving Soarin's neck and head out of the barrier.  Soarin' has other ideas however, moving himself down under the blankets and tickling the earth pony as a kind of revenge for her improvised game of hide and seek.  This is a move that he'll learn to regret however, because although Pinkie is very ticklish, she has a tendency to flail her hooves, and this can be dangerous to certain areas of the male anatomy when performed in a confined space.

Big Macintosh sits on a large easy-chair across from the Apple family sofa where Applejack and Rainbow Dash have no trouble showing off their obvious affection for each other.  Granny Smith has decided to leave the home for a few hours and head into town for some 'provisions', though the rest of the family has no clue exactly what she'll be getting.  This doesn't discourage the three of them from just taking some time to catch up and relax, though, so they simply sit in the living room chatting away about various farm-related activities.  Rainbow Dash lets most of these fly over her head, feigning interest with the occasional nod of silent approval.  Applejack holds her forelegs around Rainbow's waist as she sits back against the sofa, clutching her marefriend in her lap and holding the pegasus close; something that Rainbow Dash certainly doesn't mind in the least bit.

"I have a question."  Big Mac keeps his usual, pensive countenance as he looks past the happy couple and onto each and every one of the various heirlooms and decorations around the living room.

"Shoot."  Rainbow smiles projects her command just before she wriggles in the earth pony's lap to make herself slightly more comfortable.

"I figure this is gonna come up sooner or later, so we might as well figure it out now.  Are you ever gonna come out of the stable to Granny Smith?"

Applejack hesitates to answer this question, and simply drops her chin onto Rainbow's shoulder with eyes scanning over the top of the window to allow her a soft distraction while thinking.  "I dunno...  I'm frankly not sure if we even should...  I mean, she's gettin' on in years, and keepin' a secret isn't exactly all that hard around her, plus I kinda doubt we'll have to do it for very long..."

"Applejack!  I never thought I'd hear my own sister say something like that!"  Macintosh is appalled at the deviousness of the mare's statement.

"Yeah that's pretty horrible, AJ, even by my standards..."  Rainbow Dash chimes in with an equal level of surprise, though still cloaks it in a somewhat non-serious manner.  Rainbow has some trouble switching from care-free to careful when the situation warrants it.

"Wull I don't mean it to be!  Just...  It's no secret that Granny Smith is as old as Ponyville itself, and...  Well, I just don't want the most recent thing she ever remembers being that I'm a disappointing abomination..."  Applejack's tone switches from defensive to self-loathing mid-sentence; the only pony she ever gives a hard time to is herself, and it always shows.

"What kinda granddaughter is willin' to let her granny kick the bucket without telling her that she found the love of her life?"  Big Macintosh doesn't get angry very often, but when it comes to family loyalty he can still get a bit touchy.

"Mackie, please... may I?"  Rainbow waves her hoof at the stallion to try and calm him down, using a nickname that, unbeknownst to Rainbow, he hasn't heard since Granny Smith could still bounce him on her knee.  He feels it strike home, sighing and allowing the pegasus to take over.  

"Ah'm sorry, I didn't mean to let my temper get the better of me."

"It's alright, Mac.  No hard feelin's."  Applejack, obviously bottling up some kind of heavy emotional burden, does her usual routine of trying to make somepony else feel better to channel all of that pent up energy.

"AJ, Macintosh is right, but he wasn't exactly saying it right.  I know I'm not really the pony to be giving family advice, but I'd treat them like really close friends if anything else...  It's not my place to tell for you, but I really encourage you to do it.  If we can tell our friends, why can't we tell our family?"  Rainbow's use of 'our family' really strikes deep with Applejack.  She really does consider her part of the family, and the lack of protest from Big Macintosh indicates he feels the same way.

"Awwh...  You guys are right.  I guess not sayin' somethin' is just as bad as lyin' to somepony's face."  Applejack pulls her chin away from Rainbow's shoulder and buries her eyes into it, trying to hide her face from the expected flood of "tisk-tisk"s from the two ponies around her.

Rainbow Dash moves off of Applejack's lap and sits right next to her, leaning over and kissing her sloppily on the cheek, forelegs wrapped around her and holding her close.  "Just remember who you are, AJ.  I never wanted to change you, so don't start doing things now that you never would before."

"We're family, AJ.  We'll always love you no matter what.  Just be willing to trust that Granny will feel the same way."  Macintosh steps over and sits down right in front of Applejack and Rainbow Dash, giving a calm and collected look with his statement.

Applejack can't help but feel a tear form in her eye along with a big smile across her face.  She sniffles and reaches her free foreleg out to welcome Big Mac into the hug.  "I love you two."