"Sweetie Belle, wake up dear." Rarity nuzzled her sister gently, eliciting no response from the slumbering filly. "Sweetie you wake up this instant or so help me," Rarity said as she yanked the covers off Sweetie's bed. Slumbering beneath the covers as well were Applebloom and Scootaloo.

"Maybe we ought to just leave them be a bit longer," said Applejack from beneath the brim of her hat. "Little extra shut-eye ain't gonna hurt none."

"I think they've had quite enough rest." Rarity spared a sideways glance at Applejack. "You wouldn't be trying to postpone confessing the 'little mistake' you made, would you?"

"Only thing I'm tryin' to put off is the mess of a headache those girls are in for when they wake up."

"Unless they sleep for the next week I think you're out of luck, AJ." Rainbow Dash pulled her head out from under Sweetie's bed, an empty bottle in her mouth. She tilted her head back, tasting the last few drops inside before dropping the bottle. "At least it was a good batch for their first time," Rainbow chuckled.

"Consarn it RD, this ain't the least bit funny!"

"We're going from 'not funny' to 'downright sad' in about five seconds." Rainbow Dash flew to the curtains and yanked them open wide, letting the light of the late morning sun fall on the girls. She took a deep breath, and then, "HEY SQUIRT WAKE UP IT'S TIME FOR A LESSON FROM THE 'WISH I KNEW THIS LAST NIGHT' CLASS!"

Sweetie, Applebloom, and Scootaloo snapped awake. For a moment they scrambled around in a state of shock. The scramble slowed to a halt as the force of sun and scream met between their ears and bloomed into a migraine. The girls fell back down onto the bed, desperately grasping for some sort of shield against the pain.

Rarity hit Rainbow Dash hard in the shoulder. "What are you [i]thinking[/i]? You can't just wake them up like that!"

"May as well make it fast and be done with it," Rainbow Dash said.

"But—"

"—Complaints later, treatment now," Rainbow Dash cut in. "Do you have any hoity-toity flavored fizzy water?"

"I have carbonated citrus beverages, yes," Rarity replied.

"Great. Go grab that, and some aspirin if you any. Applejack, you..."

Applejack turned from looking at the girls writhing on the bed, their heads now huddled beneath a single pillow. "Who the what now? Where'd Rarity run off—"

"—Pity party later, sisters now." Rainbow flicked the brim of AJ's hat. "Time to finish getting them up." Rainbow closed the curtains up again. "You're on pillow duty."

"Fine, fine." AJ yanked the pillow off the top of the girls' heads, exposing their frightened red eyes to the world.

"What's wrong with us?" Sweetie asked.

"Maybe we're sick or something," Scootaloo answered as she rolled herself upright.

"You're in the throws of your first hangover," Rarity said as she walked back into the room, floating several fancy green bottles of water beside her. She twisted off the caps from three bottles and handed them over to the girls. They each took a long, greedy drink.

"What's a 'hangover?'" Applebloom asked.

"It's what happens after a pony drinks too much alcohol," Applejack answered. "By the looks of the bottle Rainbow Dash pulled out from under Sweetie's bed you three are hurtin' something fierce."

"But we didn't have any alcohol, we swear!" Applebloom looked back and forth to Sweetie and Scootaloo, each nodding in turn. "We split the bottle of cider you gave me last night and that's it. Promise that's all." Tears began pooling in the corner of Applebloom's eyes.

"Calm down there, Sugarcube, y'all didn't do anything wrong. I'm the one who messed up. Wasn't watchin' what I was doin' last night and I mislabeled a whole crate of our special hard cider with the regular stickers. Damned fool of a screw up, Ah could'a made a mess a folk sicker than a herd of motion sick Pegasus on the first day o' flight school and then we'd really be down a—

Rainbow Dash elbowed Applejack in the ribs, just hard enough to bring her back to there and now.

"Right. What I'm tryin' to say is: I'm sorry. I'd like to make it up to you, if there's any way I can."

The three fillies look at each other for a few moments, talking in the silent way best friends sometimes do. They nod, having reached consensus, and say together, "breakfast."