"SURPRISE!"
Levi yelped in fear as the lights suddenly flicked on, illuminating the room and revealing 10s of ponies occupying it as confetti shot from a cannon and slowly floated down from the air. Levi felt relief wash over him as he saw all of the friendly faces in the crowd, watching as they released balloons into the air and cheered. Spike and Twilight almost jumped out of there skin, but that surprise on Twilight's face was replaced by annoyance in a few seconds, per usual for her.
A pink pony with poofy pink hair suddenly jumped up in front of Twilight, her crystal blue eyes looked as though they were gonna pop out of her head. "SURPRISE!" She shouted, Twilight flinched from the sudden noise that was almost as loud as the whole crowd saying it together.
"Hi I'm Pinkie Pie and I threw this party just for you!" The pink pony greeted, the same pink pony that ran away from the three earlier that day. "Were you surprised! Were you! Were you! Huh huh Huh!" Pinkie asked incessantly, bouncing over Twilight's head and back onto the ground next to her. Levi was amazed at how Pinkie was doing this.
"Very surprised, libraries are supposed to be quiet!" Twilight retorted.
"Well that's silly! What kind of welcome party would this be if it was quiet? Duh! A boring one!" The pink pony replied in her energetic and cheerful voice.
As Twilight started her walk over to the snack table through the crowd of ponies, Pinkie followed closely behind her bouncing around all the while. "You see I saw you and your friend there and you were all like 'Hello' and I was all like-" She took a sharp breath to imitate a gasp as Twilight closed her eyes and tried to block out Pinkie's voice, her voice cut through all of her attempts to tune her out.
"Remember!" She exclaimed, prancing up to catch up with the unicorn after stopping for a second. "See I never saw you before and if I never saw you before that meant you're new because…" The pony went on and on as Twilight sighed in annoyance, continuing her unbearable walk over to the snack table.
"And if you're new that means you haven't met anyone yet!" Pinkie exclaimed as Twilight finally got to the table, grabbing a red glass bottle with her mouth and pouring it into a wooden chalice on the table.
"And if you haven't met anyone yet that meant you must not have any friends! And if you don't have any friends you must be lonely! And that made me so sad!" The pink pony continued as the red liquid flowed into Twilight's chalice, putting the bottle down when it was full.
"And then I had an idea and that's why I wentGASP!" She imitated the gasp once again as Twilight grabbed a straw with her teeth and dropped it into the red liquid, taking a few gulps.
"I'd throw a great big ginormous super duper welcome party and invite everypony in Ponyville!" Pinkie exclaimed loudly, prompting Levi to take a good look around the room at every pony that was in there with them.'This can't be all of Ponyville'Levi thought to himself as he looked around.
She jumped behind Twilight and all four of the ponies they spoke to today gathered around her, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy hovering over her and Rarity and Applejack standing next to her. All of them adorning friendly smiles that Levi couldn't help but grin at.
"And now you'll have lots and lots offriends!" Pinkie shouted as Twilight took one last gulp of her drink, immediately regretting her decision. Her face twisted in discomfort in an instant, she turned around to face the other ponies, her cheeks were puffed out and bright red as tears fell from her eyes and sweat began to drip down her face.
"You alright sugarcube?" Applejack asked, concerned.
Her face turned bright red as she jumped a foot in the air, her hair and tail turning into an orange flame in the blink of an eye as steam threatened to erupt out of her ears. Levi took a step back in surprise as the unicorn dashed towards the stairs in the air, Levi and Spike watched as she trotted upstairs but not before grabbing her saddlebag with her magic and bringing it with her.
"Damn" Was all Levi managed to say at the sudden reaction from Twilight, Levi still couldn't believe what he just saw was real.
"Awww she's so happy she's crying" Pinkie commented, a big toothy grin on her face.
Levi grabbed the bottle and examined it, finding a large orange fire symbol on the front, he felt confused at the realization that it was hot sauce. "Hot sauce?" He thought aloud curiously, turning his head over to the pink pony. "Why?"
"What pony doesn't love hot sauce!" She replied enthusiastically, zipping over right next to Levi and dousing a cupcake with hot sauce, popping it into her mouth right after. Levi looked at her amazed as she swallowed the cupcake without even chewing it, with the paper on and all.
Pinkie noticed the puzzled expressions from all of her friends including Levi and Spike and responded with "What? It's good!" with enthusiasm in her tone. Levi along with the rest of her friends laughed at her antics as Levi grabbed a green bottle next to the hot sauce on the table.
He examined the lime green bottle, finding nothing on the bottle that would give away what it is. Levi decided to trust his instincts about the drink and grabbed a wooden chalice off the table and filled it with the unknown drink. Levi put the bottle back down on the table and saw Spike was filling his cup with the same drink, Levi held his drink up to the small dragon and asked "Friends?"
The dragon gave a nod and a small smile as he reaffirmed "Friends", clashing the two cups together as they each took a big swig of the unknown drink. The drink tasted strongly of apples but it was also terribly bitter, making Levi's face twist from the taste.
"Ooooh..shit!" He said under his breath, looking at the drink like it was a liquid from another planet. The urges he's been feeling from the lack of alcohol slowly faded away after the swig, making Levi wonder what kind of drink it really was.
"You like it sugarcube?" The blonde pony asked, walking up next to the taller man.
"Oh yeah totally, it's just really bitter" He commented, his taste buds still reeling from the bitterness of the drink. "You know what this is?"
"Oh, it's apple cider whiskey! Brand new from Sweet Apple Acres!" She answered proudly. Levi looked down at the swirling liquid in his cup, excitement and nervousness swirled in his head at the same time, deciding whether he wanted to get flat out drunk in front of the ponies or keep it to a minimum.
He looked down at the pony, a smile covering her face, and commented about the drink "This is amazing Applejack!"
"Why thank you" She replied, smiling sheepishly and tipping her hat towards the man. He looked down and saw the cup was halfway empty, he promptly grabbed the bottle and filled it up to the brim with the whiskey, feeling relief wash over him as he finally found a way to satiate his urges.
"LET'S KEEP THIS PARTY GOING PEOPLE!" Levi bellowed from downstairs followed by cheering and wooping from the crowd of ponies. Despite it being muffled by the walls, it was still irritatingly loud.
Twilight groaned in annoyance in her bed as she continued to flip through the pages of her old book, trying desperately to block out the noise from downstairs and focus on finding evidence for Nightmare Moon's return.
She found page after page of unimportant information, information about spells and other historical events in Equestrian history. Twilight rubbed her eye as she flipped the page, the text caught her attention, the lack of it was the thing that caught her eyes.
The title at the top read "HUMANS" in black bold letters, under it was lines upon lines and paragraphs about them. Weirdly enough however, they were all redacted and blacked out, like somebody wanted to hide the information from whoever stumbled upon the book.
"I'll ask Levi about this, maybe he'll know" Twilight thought aloud, glancing towards the door below her bed that led to the staircase that went downstairs, groaning once more as heard the cheering and laughter of the other ponies.
She hoped that Levi would see that this was important to her, that she needed to study and maybe he would come up and help her, but instead he was down there encouraging their partying and behavior.
She flipped through more of the pages, growing impatient with each page of insignificant information that she either already knew or wasn't worried about. After flipping one final page, she finally found what she was looking for.
"Yes!" She cheered to herself quietly, reading the top of the page which read "THE ELEMENTS OF HARMONY"
Twilight smiled down at the paper and began to read as Levi kept the party alive downstairs, much to the annoyance of Twilight.
Levi stumbled over to Rainbow Dash in the corner of the room as she hovered in the air with her drink in hand, scanning the room with her eyes seeing what every pony was doing to pass the time.
"Hey Dash" Levi greeted, feeling a little tipsy.
"Hey..uh-" "Levi" He interjected.
"Levi," She corrected herself, "You mind If I asked you something Levi?" She asked after.
"Go ahead"
"So..um.." She stuttered, trying to find the right words, "Um..what are you?"
Rainbow expected the man to get offended but surprisingly he didn't. "I'm a human," Levi answered, "I'm not from here either. I'm from a place called Tuscaloosa"
Rainbow cocked her head at the man, "Tuscaloosa? Never heard of it"
"I'm not surprised, it's not a really well known place anyway" He replied, covering his mouth with a closed fist and burping afterwards from the whiskey.
"It sounds awesome!" Rainbow exclaimed, putting a smile on Levi's face.
"It was pretty awesome, damn shame the people weren't so awesome" Levi replied, his smile fading ever so slightly but still present on his face.
Rainbow looked confused and asked "What was so bad about the people?" Levi glanced up at the clock and saw he had been partying for hours, he eagerly finished his whiskey with multiple loud gulps. His face twisted in discomfort and mouth felt in pain from the bitterness but he was starting to get used to the drinks taste.
"That's a story for another day" Levi replied, letting his hand with the empty cup in it hang down by his side.
"You wanna hang out sometime? Just the two of us?" Levi asked, hoping for the cyan pegasus to say yes. Ever since he first saw her when Twilight was sent to check the weather, Levi felt a special connection to Rainbow, like he already met her before but he knew he hadn't.
Rainbow was a little weirded out by this, considering they were right next to each other and could just talk here, but she accepted. "Totally! You know where to find me right?"
"Up in the sky clearing the clouds," Levi responded, "Livin' the life"
Rainbow chuckled, "You know me". She looked into Levi's green eyes and didn't see just a human she had just met, but an old friend, it was like she was staring into the eyes of a friend she hasn't talked to in years. She couldn't break away from the eye contact the two were sharing.
"Dash?" "Huh--o-oh my bad.." She stammered as she blushed with embarrassment, rubbing the back of her head with her hoof with a nervous laugh.
Levi yawned, his tiredness and the whiskey combined started to make it hard for Levi to keep his eyes open, Rainbow could tell how tired he was. "Well I'm gonna go get some shut eye" Levi yawned, handing Rainbow his empty cup as she took it in her hoof.
"Put that up for me yeah?" He asked, starting to stumble away from the rainbow haired pegasus. After walking a few steps away from her, he waved his hand weakly over his shoulder and called out "Adios Dash" in a sleepy voice as he continued to stumble forward.
Levi walked to the bottom of the stairs and trudged up the stairs, one step at a time he stumbled and staggered up them and almost fell multiple times. As Levi disappeared up the stairs, Rainbow Dash still hovered there holding Levi's empty cup and her halfway full cup, she looked down at Levi's cup as a confused look overtook her features.'Adios?'Rainbow thought to her head, looking over at the staircase where the man was just a few moments ago.
Levi swung open the door to Twilight's room, allowing the cacophony of sound from the party to infiltrate her room for a few seconds. The tired man kicked his shoes off as Twilight asked "Why'd you run off Twi? It was a blast down there"
Twilight could tell by his tone and voice that he needed sleep, desperately, that combined with the whiskey made for a man on the brink of unconsciousness. "I have important things to study about," Twilight remarked, "Like this"
Levi shuffled over to the ladder that led to the bed on top and started slowly climbing, putting his feet on each rung on the ladder like an old frail man trying not to fall off.
"What are you doing?"
"Going to sleep" He grumbled in response.
Twilight took a quick look around the room, finding there were no other beds beside hers. "Great" She whispered to herself sarcastically, scooting her and her books over to the other side of the bed.
Eventually, Levi made it to the top after what felt like hours and laid down on top of it, the bed creaking and groaning under his weight. As soon as his head hit the pillow, he was out like a light, and the silence of the room was quickly filled with the man's light snoring.
Twilight looked at him peacefully sleeping, thinking to herself what the future would look like with him in it. Would he live with her forever? Would he go live with Princess Celestia? Would they actually develop a genuinefriendship?
Just the word made her irritated. She sat up and leaned against the bedframe and brought the book about the prophecy she brought up to her face and began to read. As the sun began to sink into the horizon more, casting darkness over Ponyville, Twilight couldn't expect what was going to happen at the celebration. One thing was for certain, tonight would form a strong bond between the poniesforever