Twilight woke with a hiss of pain as a beam of sunlight tried to drive through her eyes like a stake of molten steel.
"Ow ow ow, Celestia, please turn the sun down!" She hissed as she buried her head under the pillow to try and calm the war drum beating in her skull. Twilight swore she heard a giggle that sounded like her mentor but she couldn't be sure with her head trying to implode.
"Well, look who's awake." Spike's voice said from the side of her bed, making her body flinch at the volume.
"Please keep it down Spike, My head feels like it's in a vice right now." She grumbled, only to get a chuckle from Spike in response.
"Well, it just goes to show that you shouldn't bar hop more than once, let alone multiple times in one night," Spike said, making Twilight's gut to twist in worry. Peaking out from under the pillow she noticed a cup of water on the nightstand with a potion bottle next to it.
"It's a hangover potion. It's not a cure but it will take off the edge so you can get through the day without feeling like your eyeballs are gonna pop like overripe grapes." He barely finished his sentence before he watched a purple blur grab the potion and disappear under the covers of the bed again.
After a few moments, Spike heard a sigh of relief and Twilight emerged from under the covers. She still squinted through the light but she didn't feel as much pain this time. Spike offered her the cup of water and Twilight gulped it down greedily, her throat feeling as dry as a dessert. After she set the cup down she took a deep breath to center herself before she spoke.
"What happened last night Spike? I remember chunks and pieces of it but it's all jumbled at the moment." She could remember making a new friend and enjoying the night with them but she also remembered something about whipped cream, a rubber chicken and a can of mushroom soup so she couldn't be too sure what was real or not.
Spike just shook his head and waved his claw for her to follow him.
"Breakfast first, then we can get into explanations. A few will probably be answered even before you sit at the table." He said as he walked through the door and down the stairs to the dining/kitchen room. Twilight followed him slightly confused until she was standing in the doorway and could only stare in a mix of shock and morbid amazement.
Her new friend, Split Mane, was sitting at the table looking very nervous with a stack of pancakes nearly twice the size of a ponies head fully in her mouth. Twilight blinked but Spike spoke before she could.
"You just couldn't wait?" He asked the guilty looking mare. Even with his back turned to her Twilight could imagine the cocked eyebrow and the look of 'are you serious' he was giving her. Well for Split's next trick Twilight watched said mare swallow the entire stack of pancakes whole. Her academic mind was going into maximum overdrive trying to figure out how Split's throat was able to take something so big and not make her choke.
Spike just sigh in defeat.
"I'll start on the next batch." He moved toward the kitchen stove but not before leveling a glare at Split that made the mare break out in a nervous sweat.
"And you will wait for everyone this time missy." He pointed two claws at his eyes before pointing at her. She nodded her head rapidly in understanding. Twilight couldn't help it as a snicker escaped her. The scene of small Spike scolding a mare into obeying when said mare could no doubt swallow him in one gulp was just too crazy not to laugh at.
"Glad to know you can laugh at my misery." Split glared at Twilight but it only made Twilight snicker harder.
"You should have waited then." She said before walking into the room and sitting at the table with a grumbling Split. Seeing Split swallow the stack of pancakes helped some of the jumbled memories click into place and she couldn't help but smile to herself as she remembered the incident between them in the street.
Remembering that made Twilight serious about something.
"Hey, Split?" She asked getting a hum fro,m split letting her know she'd been heard.
"I know you're not a pony, or at least not fully and I'm curious as to where your... unique features come from." The question was implied and Split made to speak but Spike's voice made her pause as he walked up to the table and placed several plates of fresh pancakes down.
"She's a Kuchisake Mare which translates to Splitfaced Mare, named obviously for the larger than average mouth they possess which is used to catch and quickly swallow their prey. Her species is somewhat related to the Hone Mare and the Taka Mare but nopony's certain if or when the lines split and divided or if they were separate species all along." Spike stated, rattling off facts like a living encyclopedia.
A pin hitting the floor would have sounded like a sonic rainboom with the levels of silence as Twilight and Split goggled at Spike in shock while he just cocked his head to the side in confusion.
"What?" He asked, not seeing how what he told them had opened up a massive can of worms. The one who informed him of this didn't help matters much either.
"Spike you just told them something that you shouldn't have known and you expect them to just accept that at face value?" A small voice said, drawing all eyes toward the center of the table. Standing there, not much higher then a hoof is wide, was a mix of a spider and a mare. Her mare-like upper body had dark green fur and her mane was a dark pink with her eyes a bright blue. Her lower spider-like body was, well, like a spider, with eight legs and a large abdomen all a slightly shiny black color, though her pedipalps looked similar to a pony's back hooves. The only other color was a patch of bright orange on the top of her abdomen which was vaguely shaped like a web.
Realizing his mistake Spike smiled sheepishly.
"You're right Nim, I guess I'm just so used learning and spouting off facts about yokai and such I just didn't think twice." The little arachnid nodded her head but jumped in shock the massive, sparkling eyes of Split seemed to appears right next to her. She found it quite unnerving how the mare was staring at her.
"Soooooo cuuuuuuuute!" Split squealed and made to scoop the little spider mare up in her hooves if they weren't suddenly held against the table by a pair of wooden hooves.
"We will not allow a ruffian such as your self to lay a hoof on our adorable little Nimmy." A head and body followed the hooves from the table top making Split's eyes go wide as saucers and Spike to face claw, hard. Nopony noticed the strands and chinks of Twilight's mane start to split and spring up in odd places or how her eyes were darting back and forth between everypony in the room.
The new pony's body looked like a carved piece of wood, only able to move freely and fluidly. Her eyes though were a deep sap green.
"Trim, I've asked you quite a few times to not use the furniture and only use the floor and walls for manifestation, Please don't make me ask you again," Spike asked, his eyes narrowing at the wooden mare. A tinge if green appeared on her cheeks and her upper body sank back into the table re-appearing from the floor opposite of Spike at the table.
"Now that we're all here, I'll get on with introductions," Spike said, still not seeing how close Twilight was to a nervous breakdown. Holding out his hand the small spider mare climbed onto it and waved at everybody at the table.
"This cute little lady's name is Nimble Thread, though we all just call her Nim for short. She's a rare breed of mini JorÅgumo, though her race does not deserve all the negative rumors it's gotten over the years." Spike said and Nim sighed heavily.
"A few bad apples ruin the bushel." She said getting a gentle nudge from Spikes' thumb and smiling at him in thanks for the small comfort. She crawled up his arm and rested on his right shoulder. He gestured to the wooden mare across the table from him.
"This here is Trim, she is similar to what is known as a Furutsubaki no rei, or in laypony terms, a tree spirit. She's the spirit of this amazing tree me and Twilight call home." Spike said.
"That's 'Twilight and me' Spike, proper grammar is important when speaking to others." She corrected only getting a deadpan look from Spike.
"And she's a stickler for perfection, so Twilight, you and her should get along really well." Spike quipped with a smirk turning his head to look at his sister. Only now did he notice that her mane was sticking up in multiple directions, her pupils were pinpricks and he could tell she was about to lose it.
He quickly got up to try and calm her down but he never made it in time.
"Hey, Twilight look! You and I made the morning paper!" Split Shouted, darting to Twilight's side with a grin that would make Pinkie's look tiny in comparison and shoved the morning Ponyville Press in front of her. Twilight looked at the big, bold print on the front page.
'Crazy drunken unicorn goes on a rampage through Ponyville causing multiple injuries and tens of thousands of bits in damage!" Under the heading was a color picture of Twilight standing in front of what was left of a building, yelling as she threw a can of mushroom soup at one of the town guards, while she was wearing a rubber chicken on her head with a full whipped cream beard that reached to her knees. There was even a little speech bubble next to her head to let her know that she had said. It read 'I'm Star-Swirl the Bucking Breaded! Not SANTA! YOU GOLDEN TURD!' and in the background was Split, laughing herself to death on the ground.
it was all her brain could take. She watched as it wished her luck and got ran out of town. Suddenly her mane snapped back into place, her eyes became normal and she smiled at Spike, making him very nervous and double scared.
"I'm so glad I have something soft underneath me." She said calmly, confusing everypony at the table until her head fell hard into her stack of pancakes from TMI.