The night had fled, the party was over, and the guards had dutifully watched over the cleanup of the mess their charges had made. The room was clean and ready for a new day.
Unfortunately, the same could not be said of its occupants.
Michael and Buzz were still asleep, one lying haphazardly above his sheets and the other not even on a bed at all, simply passed out on the floor.
Neil, meanwhile, was sitting against the wall, head in his hands. “I knew I should’ve stopped drinking after #3,” he moaned. “I need some aspirin!”
“Right away, sir,” one of the guards said, slipping out the door.
Neil blinked. “Huh. Having servants is kinda… nice.” Still cradling his head with one hand, he got up slowly, squeezing his eyes shut against the throbbing pain banging behind his forehead. “I’m gonna get a cup of water.” He shuffled to the bathroom, turned on the faucet, and reached for one of the paper cups. Filling it to the brim, he guzzled it down, before filling it up again and repeating.
The third cup was splashed in his face, waking him up a little bit more as he toweled off. He wasn’t quite as thirsty, and his face felt less crusty.
He still felt terrible, though.
A guard knocked on the door. “Your aspirin,” he said, handing Neil a small bottle of the painkiller.
“Thank you,” Neil muttered gratefully. Taking out one of the tablets, he tossed it in his mouth and drank another cup of water to wash it down.
Setting the cup down on the large counter, he tugged at his shirt. “Shower.”
He locked the door. Moving over to the large shower, curtain drawn, he shucked off his off-duty shirt and was working off his undershirt as he drew the curtains aside, blindly reaching for the handle and shoving it to max heat.
The water began to pour down, and almost immediately there was a shriek of surprise that quickly metamorphosed into a shriek of pure rage in two terribly familiar voices.
“WHO DARES SOAK NIGHTMARE MOON—ow.” The water shut off, and Neil looked down, mortified, to find a now-soaked alicorn with eyes clenched shut, holding two hooves to her head in a gesture he well recognized, as he had been doing the same thing only seconds before. What had originally been a snarl designed to frighten hardened warriors had degraded into a pained (yet still fanged) grimace, complemented well by the wet fur plastered to her sides, completely ruining any kind of menace which she might have been attempting on the foolish man who had assaulted her with cold water.
“Um.” He backed away, closing the curtain behind him. “You can take a shower first.”
Then he fled despite his headache as she mumbled at him in her native language (judging from yesterday’s debacle, it was probably some very inventive curse), slamming the door behind him.
“Sir?” The guards looked at him strangely, and only then did Neil realize that he was only half-wearing an undershirt and no overshirt at all.
Palm met face, back met wall, and he slid to the ground. “I’m such an idiot.”
One of the nearby guards said, “If you say so, sir.” He swore he heard one of them suppress a snicker.
“Oh, shut up.”
“If you say so, sir.”
-----
As the water squeaked to a halt and the pipes in the walls ceased their rumblings, the bathroom door opened a sliver and one cerulean eye glared daggers over at Neil, who hadn’t moved from his spot against the wall, still nursing a headache (though the aspirin had taken much of the bite out of it, thank goodness). “You soaked me!” she hissed angrily through the door. “That was NOT a pleasurable sensation!”
“Sorry,” Neil muttered back. “I have a hangover. You understand.”
“No, I do not understand why a ‘hangover’ would cause you to be so careless as to not even check the shower before using it—ow.” She winced. “Or perhaps I do.”
“Well, first of all, why were you even in the shower instead of somewhere normal?” Neil shot back, his headache getting the better of him. “It’s not like I’d need to check the shower for someone normally!”
The door opened a bit more, and Luna peered out, head cocked. “I am unsure. I do not remember much of last night, past the first drink. I think I was… what is the saying?... ‘plastered’ last night.”
“Mhm.” Neil nodded. “And now you understand why I wasn’t exactly in a frame of mind to check the shower floor before I turned it on.”
“You are forgiven,” she decided after a moment.
Then the Nightmare snarled, unbidden, “Well, I don’t forgive you, you idiot! If you were anyone else, I’d have you spitted!”
“So,” Luna teased, “I take it you have a liking to him?”
The Nightmare snorted. “As if. He’s just too visible to spit right now.” She glared at him once again. “Maybe later.”
“How about I introduce you to aspirin,” Neil suggested. “Then you won’t want to spit me, I’m sure.”
“Aspirin?” both asked.
“Ohoho.” He rubbed his hands. “Aspirin, my friends, is a pill with a few miraculous properties, but chief among them is relieving headache pain.”
“Give them to me. Now,” the Nightmare demanded.
Neil chuckled. “They’re in the pill bottle in the bathroom. Take one to start with and wait 15 minutes.”
The door slammed instantly.