Nothing Personal, It's Just Rule 63

With a sequence of audible groans, a blue Earth Pony mare flipped about in her bed, her black and brown mane and tail disheveled considerably. Belly down, belly up. Belly down, belly up.

At this particular moment in time, there was but one thing on her mind. Most likely because it was occuring in her head.

Pounding. Her head simply would not stop pounding. Every time the various contents of her mind rattled against the interior of her skull, she felt discomfort.

She slowly sat up in her bed, holding one hoof to her head to stop it from collapsing back onto the luxurious tablet of white known to her and most other ponies in Equestria as a pillow, for if she did that, she would go back to the land of nod. There was no doubt about that.

"Another hangover. Well, isn't that just sweet," she muttered to herself, while slipping out of her bed. Once her hooves made contact with the floor, its cold, hard surface a stark contrast to the warm, soft support of her bed, she strained to stay standing up straight. Though she had to put a bit of effort into it (because hey, no pain, no gain), she managed to achieve it. Once she had gotten past the slight swaying for the first few seconds of using her legs, as opposed to her mattress, to support herself, she was on all fours again. With another groan, she began to start her weary journey over to the window.

"Wonder how late it is," she thought aloud as she pulled the shades open. A near-inaudible gasp and a hoof hastily held in front of her eyes were the reflexes caused by the bright rays of morning sunlight that pierced through the glass and into her eyes that had clearly not gotten the rest they deserved.

After taking a moment to adjust to the intrusion, she took in the site from the high-rise window, watching as the streets of Manehattan bustled with activity stories below. Ponies getting to their destinations via hoof, wings, or vehicles, the colours moved from place to place. The ponies down below didn't even seem to notice how ridiculously bright Equestria's benevolent ruler Prince Solaris had decided to make the sun shine this morning. Either that, or Xenna's sensitivity to light had gone up a few notches.

Probably the latter.

Suddenly feeling dizzy, she moved away from the window fortunately collapsing into a leather chair just behind her.

'Good thing that was there. I was thinking of moving it to the other side of the room!' she mused to herself.

Having retrieved the mental energy required to think, she thought further. There were plenty of things that were for certain:

• It was time to get ready for the day ahead.

• Her assistant was going to be here any minute to lead her out.

• She was not in a mood for leaving the comfort of her bedroom.

'What's a few more minutes?' she decided, forgetting about the important things that could strike today, and leaned to one side, preparing to put her brain on standby mode again.

A knock on the door sent her jolting back up before she had even finished closing her eyes. "Yo, Xenna!" called a young, male voice. "You awake yet?"

"Now I am, you inconsiderate twerp!" Xenna shouted back as she leaned into the chair.  "What's going on?"

The door to her room opened to reveal a tan unicorn stallion with a brown and orange mane. Seems like an innocent enough description, right? Sure - once you count out the fact that his horn was broken off.

Finding that not much effort had been made to lock the door sealing off access out and in the room unless the door was unlocked (which it currently was), he invited himself into the room. "So, I thought you wanted to discus-"

He broke off his sentence, noticing his employer's condition, to which he let out a sigh and frowned.

"Apparently not. Lemme guess... you stayed out drinking again last night, didn't you?" he deadpanned.

"Glad to see you're having a good morning, Sakuyi," snapped Xenna, managing to lift her rump, which bore a cutie mark of a quadrilateral shape on either side, off the chair and land back onto her feet. Perhaps hangovers served as a reminder that all good things come at a cost - you go out and have some drinks, it takes a toll on your Bit savings, and furthermore, you wake up with a headache that felt like it could indicate the Third Reign of Eris.

"Please give me a moment," she told her assistant. Sakuyi just waited and watched as Xenna struggled to make her way over to the nightstand positioned next to her bed, and after a few moments of searching, found her glasses.

"Alright, sonny," she addressed the hornless Unicorn standing before her as she slowly fitted her glasses on her face. "What is it you wanted to discuss?"

Sakuya simply gave the blue mare a puzzled look. "I think we'd better get you something to eat, and then it's down to the office, yeah?'' he suggested. Under ordinary circumstances, it should have been Xenna, the boss, telling Sakuyi, the assistant, what to do, but in her current situation, without good directions from somepony, Xenna would have been slumped on that couch for quite some time.

Sakuyi wrapped his hoof around Xenna's nape and guided her towards the door and out of it, hoping that she'd come to her senses soon enough. When you're managing an organisation, you can't really afford to have hangovers unless you have an assistant to haul your flank over to the office.

Is this story getting boring for you, my friends? Please don't go - we've got plenty more lives to focus on. Manehattan is a pretty populous city, after all.