> Twister
>  by AJtheRaven
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Hey Dashie, thanks for coming, oooooooooooh you brought cupcakes, good call! Come on in! Wow, Rarity, we’re having a slumber party, not going on vacation! That's a lotta suitcases! I hope there's a lot of tasty goodies in there! TWILIGHT, WHAT IN THE NAME OF CHOCOLATE CHERRY PIE DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING???!!! You're not supposed to bring math homework. This is a slumber party! Give me that! FLUTTERSHY, IS THAT A BABY BUNNY YOU BROUGHT WITH YOU??? Awwwwww, look at his little cutesy-wootsie face!!”
All of this was rattled off by Pinkie Pie in about two seconds. The girls, however, were too used to her antics to be surprised. Stepping into Pinkie’s house, Dash handed her the cupcakes and knuckled her shoulder in a friendly fashion. Rarity sniffed, citing something about ‘ladies needing to be prepared for anything’, and carried all five of her suitcases into the house. Twilight wrested her math papers out of Pinkie’s frosting-and-sprinkle-covered grasp and hastily stowed them away in her backpack before they could undergo any further damage. Fluttershy allowed Pinkie Pie to pet her bunny before carefully resting him inside her bag. 
“Don’ Ah get a special greetin’?” Applejack questioned, her grass-green eyes bright with curiosity as she gave Pinkie a firm hug and walked inside. 
Pinkie giggled and closed the front door. “Nope. You didn't do anything weird. See? No foods, animals, homework, or extra suitcases. Perfectly one hundred percent normal. You're always the normal one.”
The cowgirl paused, not sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing. “…Oh.”
Pinkie chuckled again and squished her into another hug. “It's okay! We need a normal one to keep us from going too crazy!” 
“Yeah, Ah think it might be too late fer that,” Applejack answered wryly, her lips twitching in a grin, as she stared at Rarity pulling a pile of scarves out of a suitcase and Rainbow Dash systematically taking a bite out of all the cupcakes she’d brought just to be annoying. 
Apparently, Pinkie didn't pick up on the sarcasm. “I'm gonna call Sunset. She's in the backyard.” Sunset Shimmer had come over with Pinkie after school, while Applejack had offered to pick up all of her friends in her rusty pickup and join them a couple hours later. 
Rather than going into the backyard to call Sunset, as her friends expected, Pinkie took a deep breath and shouted, “SUUUUUUUUNSEEEEEEEET! THE GIRLS ARE HERE!”	
Rainbow massaged her ears, glaring hard at her friend. “Sheesh. That was loud.”
“The pain threshold for sound is 120-140 decibels,” Twilight commented dryly. “I'm pretty sure that was at least 180.”
Sunset Shimmer staggered in through the sagging screen door that led outside, her wavy hair slightly disheveled. “Pinkie, what the heck? People could probably hear that two towns over! Isn't your family at home?” She acknowledged the rest of her friends with a wave and a smile. 
“Nope! I told them I was gonna have a party with someone who spends hours hogging the bathroom, someone who keeps animals and lets them poop everywhere, someone who mumbles calculus really loudly in her sleep, someone who breaks TVs by throwing the remote at them when she can't find the channel she wants, someone who wears boots that thud louder than elephants, and someone whose once tried to hypnotize a whole school into loving her … and for some reason, my family was reeeaaaaaally eager to go somewhere else for the night.” Pinkie Pie looked genuinely confused while she inadvertently pointed out her friends’ flaws, and no one could resist rolling their eyes. They knew she wasn't trying to insult them. “Well, anyway, the sound got you inside, didn't it?” Pinkie shrugged innocently in Sunset’s general direction and then got down to business. “Okay, listen up, everyone! I have a super-duper-duper-uber fun party planned! First: go get into your jammies, pajamas, PJ’s! Whatever you wanna call ‘em! Hey, I just realized something! PJ sounds a lot like AJ! Isn't that cool?”
Rainbow snickered and nudged Applejack’s shoulder. “Hey, PJ. That nickname’s gonna stick.”
“Oh, shut up.” The stocky farmer swatted her best friend away with her ever-present, dilapidated but loved Stetson. 
“Time’s-a-ticking, people! Go change! Chop chop!” Pinkie clapped her hands sharply and then faltered. “Oh, wait… I have to go too.” The group of girls dropped their bags to the floor, with the exception of Sunset, who had put her bag in the bedroom when she'd first arrived, and split up to go find places to change. All of them found a bathroom or bedroom with ease except Applejack and Rainbow, who both tried to take the last remaining bathroom and ended up wrestling each other for it. Applejack was smaller but stronger and won the fight, leaving a very disgruntled and embarrassed Rainbow to have to change in the kitchen.  
They regrouped in their pajamas after no more than five minutes and settled themselves on the couches that ringed the television in Pinkie’s comfortable living room.  Rarity was a vision in a pale purple silk nightgown. Fluttershy, too, had a nightgown, but hers was yellow and less ornate. Twilight’s consisted of a plaid, fuzzy shirt and pants  -modest and practical, just like her - complete with a set of house slippers. Pinkie’s was a rather odd, bright pink cross between a gown, a kilt, and lederhosen. Dash was dressed in tight-fitting black shorts and a scruffy tank top, while Applejack had a thigh-length white shirt and fuzzy red socks (a gag gift from Rainbow last year on her birthday, as evidenced by the fact that the socks had the multicolored lightning-and-cloud pattern Dash had tattooed on her bicep sewn into them. Still, Applejack had never had the heart to throw them away, and was even starting to like them, although she'd certainly never admit it… least of all to Rainbow herself.)
“We’re making good time, people!” Pinkie announced cheerfully, holding up a pocket watch that she had apparently pulled from her unruly pink mane of hair. “It's only six o’clock. We have time for a party game before the pizza I ordered arrives! So what's it gonna be?”
“How about Uno?” Fluttershy suggested in her characteristically meek tone, her hand snaking into her bag so that she could fondle the ears of her bunny. 
Rarity shook her head, her carefully coiffed, royal purple curls bouncing around her alabaster forehead. “No, darling, we need a game with more finesse. More… drama. Like chess.”
“I second that!” Twilight agreed excitedly, using her index finger to push her glasses further up her nose. 
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Yeah, okay. You two go play that while the other five of us figure out a game that more than two people can play. Hey, how about Monopoly? I love that game. I always win.”
“Yeah. ‘Cause y’always cheat,” Applejack reminded her sharply from her spot next to Rainbow on the armrest of one of the couches, where she was sitting with her knees tucked up to her chest. 
Rainbow stuck her tongue out and blew her a raspberry. “You're just jealous ‘cause you're always the first one to get out, PJ.” Her magenta eyes glittered with mischief. 
“Am not!” the blonde protested, taking offense at the challenge to her game-playing skills at once. She was so annoyed that she didn't even hear the nickname. “Ah jus’ - ”
“Okay, you two!” Sunset held up a hand. “No Monopoly. You'll kill each other. How about Pictionary or something?”
“Nonono, wait! I have an idea! How about Twister?” Pinkie chimed in gleefully. 
Her friends mulled that over for a while. “Hey, that's a good idea,” Rainbow finally said. 
Sunset scratched her head in confusion. “I'm sorry, what's Twister?”
She was met with a collective gasp from her friends as their mouths simultaneously fell open in shock. Pinkie Pie was the first to say what everyone was thinking. “HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW WHAT TWISTER IS?!” she screeched, her eyes wider than dinner plates. 
Sunset Shimmer recoiled. “Whoa. Okay. This is a big deal, apparently.”
“Of course it's a big deal! Twister is only the most fun game, like, ever! How long have you lived here without discovering it?” Rainbow still couldn't believe it. 
“Well, only three years. But… heh… nobody wanted to play games with me or invite me to parties back then, so…” She laughed bitterly. “What this really boils down to is me being a jerk, again.”
Applejack leaned over to give her rough pat on the back. “Awww, cheer up, sugarcube. It's all in th’ past.” She smiled encouragingly at her, and Sunset smiled back. 
Rainbow turned to Pinkie, her eyes steely and determined. “That's it. We're playing Twister. We have to. Sunset’s been missing out.”
“I, for one, agree,” Rarity added. “Normally, I would never play such a rowdy, unladylike game. But since Sunset doesn't know what it is… I think that counts as an emergency.”
Pinkie beamed as the others chimed in with their approval. “Cool, brb!” She dashed away, thudding down the basement stairs to fetch the game. 
Twilight took it upon herself to explain the rules to Sunset while the Pinkster was gone. “Basically, there's a mat with twenty-four colored circles on it: six red, six blue, six green, and six yellow. There's a referee who spins a spinner that has left foot, right foot, left hand, and right hand on it, along with each of the four colors. So the referee calls out what color to move your body part to, and every player has to follow her instructions. The catch is that you lose if your knee or elbow touches the mat. There are a few more minor rules, but we can explain those as we go along. Anyway, the game doesn't really have any intellectual purpose whatsoever, and - ” She caught sight of her friends glaring at her and gulped. “But, of course, it’s fun, because anything you do with your friends is always fun! Heh…”
Sunset chuckled. “I think I got the rules. But why is it called Twister? It doesn't sound like it has anything to do with tornadoes.”
Rainbow smirked, her eyes gleaming wickedly. “Oh, you'll see. It's not that kind of twister.” 
Pinkie returned holding two a spinner and two Twister mats in her arms - yes, for some reason, she appeared to own two of the mats. She tossed the spinner and one of the mats to Rainbow, who caught them easily. “Here, help me set up! I brought two mats so we can have two people on each, and then the winners from each mat can play against each other!”
“Fine by me. Who wants to be ref?” Rainbow asked, shaking out the Twister mat and laying it on the floor with Applejack’s help. 
“Me,” Fluttershy volunteered immediately, as everyone had known she would. Rainbow sent the spinner over to her in an underhand toss. The pale girl saw it coming and cowered away from it, giving a tiny shriek as it hit her on the head. 
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “You're supposed to catch it.”
Blushing, Fluttershy mumbled something unintelligible and stooped down to pick it up. By the time she had retrieved the spinner, both mats had been set up, and the players were ready to begin. Pinkie took charge immediately, but no one complained, since it was her sleepover party and playing Twister had been her idea in the first place. “Alright, let's get started! Dashie, AJ, Sunset, you take that mat over there! Twilight, Rarity, and I will take this one!”
“Um,” Fluttershy said softly, “are you sure it's a good idea to let Dashie and AJ have the same mat?”
Pinkie shrugged. “A little bit of friendly fistfighting just make things more fun!” Applejack and Dash shot each other evil grins, looking forward to the competition. 
“If you say so…” Fluttershy bit her lip worriedly. 
Rarity looked worried as well. “Pinkie, darling, I have to compete against you? I’ll lose for sure.”
Pinkie wiggled her eyebrows. “Why? Are you scared you can't beat the master contortionist? Are you chicken? Hmmm? Hmmmmm?”
The fashionista’s eyes flashed, her earlier apprehension vanishing. “Oh, it. Is. On! Nobody calls me a chicken!”
“Prove it!”
“I will! Hmph!” Rarity stalked over to the other end of the mat, but she was smiling. She knew it was all in fun. 
The six girls arranged themselves on the mat according to the instructions. On one mat, Applejack and Sunset stood at opposite ends with one foot each on a yellow and blue circle, with Rainbow Dash facing the center with each foot on a red circle. The same positioning was repeated on the other mat, with Pinkie Pie, Twilight, and Rarity, respectively. 
Fluttershy nudged the spinner with one finger. It made a feeble half-revolution. “‘Shy, you can do better than that!” Rainbow groaned. 
“Sorry,” she mumbled, spinning it harder. “Um, right hand, blue.” Everyone shifted to do so. 
Fluttershy spun the spinner again. “Left foot, green.” Most of the players simply moved their foot to the closest green right next to them, but Twilight intentionally moved her foot to the circle right next to Rarity’s so that she was stretched out diagonally across one corner of the mat. Rarity gave her a suspicious glare. She was planning something. 
“Right foot, green.”
“Crap,” Rainbow cursed. She was now in awkward position with her stomach upward and one arm bent beneath her. Applejack couldn't resist a slight snicker at her predicament, to which she responded by sticking out her tongue. 
“Right hand, yellow.” Rarity suddenly looked furious, realizing now what Twilight’s plan was. She had maneuvered so that Rarity was going to have to slide under either her or Pinkie to reach a yellow circle. Deciding that Twilight was less likely to accidentally knock her over, Rarity swallowed her irritation and wiggled underneath Twilight, her fingers scrabbling for a yellow. By the time she'd found an open one, her face was practically in Twilight’s stomach. “Thish ish very undignified,” she mumbled into Twilight’s shirt. 
“What was that? I can't hear you,” the dark-haired girl, said, beaming proudly at her strategy. Trust her to try to apply to her wits to a simple game of Twister. 
“Right hand, red.”
Pinkie bent her elbow backwards like it was no big deal at all, even though it should have been impossible, and found a vacant red. The others quickly followed suit, although Applejack was now having to twist in ways that made her wish she was wearing more than just a thigh-length shirt. 
But Rarity’s time had come. Desperately glancing behind her at the nearest crimson circle, she tried to sweep her arm out from underneath Twilight, wobbled, and fell to the floor. “Oh! How positively infuriating! I was so close!” Disregarding her sweaty purple curls, Rarity crawled off the Twister mat and stood up, pouting. “You tricked me!” she accused Twilight, pointing a well-manicured fingernail at her. 
“All’s fair in war and Twister!” Pinkie said cheerfully. “Well, the phrase is something like that, anyway. Nice game, Rarity!”
Mumbling under her breath in a manner that was rather unlike her, for Rarity had often said that ‘ladies don't mumble’, Rarity sat down on the couch, curled her fingers into a delicate fist, and rested her heart-shaped chin on it. Despite being annoyed at being the first to lose, she still wanted to keep watching the game. 
Twilight got what was coming to her on the next turn, when she accidentally twisted her hand and fell on her side. Rarity couldn't resist a delicate giggle. “You can come and join me on the sidelines, darling.”
Not looking too happy about the prospect, Twilight up and sat next to Rarity, moodily crossing her arms. Pinkie Pie beamed. “Whoo-boo!! I won! Now I just have to wait for my next opponent!” 
Applejack, Rainbow, and Sunset narrowed their eyes at each other. It was time to up their game. 
“Right foot, blue,” Fluttershy intoned. Just for fun, Pinkie followed her instructions even though she didn't need to keep playing anymore. Applejack and Rainbow had to spend a few minutes figuring out how to maneuver themselves, but they managed it in the end. 
“Hey, this game is pretty fun,” Sunset declared as she completed the instruction. “I think I'm getting the hang of this.” Indeed, she was performing almost as well as Pinkie Pie, albeit with slightly less flexibility. 
“Left foot, green,” Fluttershy said. 
Applejack groaned. “Awww, phooey. Ah’m gonna have t’ go around Dash somehow.” Tightening her calf muscles to keep her balance, Applejack swept her foot underneath Rainbow’s body to the nearest green circle. The unfortunate consequence of this movement was that Rainbow was left staring right at AJ’s rear end… which was already being quite precariously covered in the first place by her shirt. 
“Nice view,” Dash smirked, grunting as she tried to complete the instruction herself. 
Applejadk blushed and managed to flick Rainbow’s shoulder with one of her fingers. “Shut up.”
“Left hand, green.” Fluttershy blinked. “Oh, dear. Pinkie, that looks painful. Are you sure you’re alright?”
“Never been better,” the Human Pretzel assured her cheerfully. 
“Okay, well, if you say so…” Still dubious, Fluttershy gave the spinner another spin. “Left hand, red.”
The game continued in this fashion for nearly fifteen minutes. Applejack and Rainbow absolutely refused to lose to each other, Sunset was excited to have discovered a new skill, and Pinkie… well… Pinkie just had the odd ability to bend every part, including her head, 180 degrees. But Rarity and Twilight were getting annoyed that their game was taking so long. “Applejack, Rainbow Dash, can't one of you just concede?” Rarity protested. “Surely the pizza will be here soon. We need to keep moving with the evening.”
“No can do, Rares,” Applejack grunted, shaking her head stubbornly. Sweat dripped from her forehead. “Ah’m gonna keep playin’ ‘til Ah send Rainbow t’ th’ ground or die tryin’.”
“Yeah, me too,” Rainbow agreed devilishly. 
Rarity cocked an eyebrow. “Well, at the rate you two are going, dying is actually a possibly. You're sweating buckets, both of you.”
“Well, what do you expect? Beating Applejack is hard work,” Rainbow fired back. 
“That a compliment?” Applejack said curiously. “Ah wasn't sure ya even knew how t’ give one.”
“Oh, ha ha. Hilarious.” 
“Okay, um, I have your next instruction,” Fluttershy interjected hastily to break up the bickering before it morphed into a real argument. “Right hand, blue.”
Well, Applejack got her wish. Rainbow did indeed collapse. Unfortunately, she took Applejack down with her in the process. As Rainbow reached around AJ to put her right hand down, the stretch proved to be too much, and she wobbled and fell with a cry of alarm. Applejack gave a ‘Ha!’ of pleasure… and then Rainbow’s toe brushed against her leg, causing Applejack to collapse on top of her with a stifled yell of alarm. 
The two of them stared at each other in open-mouthed shock for a few seconds, Rainbow pinned beneath Applejack’s smaller but thicker frame, and then the bickering started. “What th’ hay? That ain't fair! Y’all knocked me over!” Applejack complained, poking Rainbow’s chest none-too-gently. 
“Are you kidding me?! You're the one who made me fall!”
Applejack narrowed her eyes and pressed her forehead to Rainbow’s, just daring her to keep arguing. “An’ how, exactly, did Ah do that?”
“You - you - ” Rainbow Dash flailed her arms helplessly. “I don't know, you jinxed it or something! There's no way I would have fallen on my own, I'm too good!”
Eyes flashing indignantly, Applejack clambered off Rainbow opened her mouth to retaliate, but Sunset managed to clap her hand over her lips before she could do so. “Okay, okay! Break it up! You both got out, no point arguing about who did it, right?” 
Applejack sighed and gestured for Sunset to remove her hand. “Alraght, fine. Ah don’ wanna start an argument.”
“Well, I do! I can't believe I lost! I hate losing!” Dash sat up and crossed her arms over her chest with a pout. 
“Yeah, we all know. Now let's go get a snack in th’ kitchen t’ help ourselves cool down, alright?” 
“Fine, whatever.” She still looked too angry to move. 
Sighing, Applejack got to her feet, hooked her finger around Rainbow’s collar, and single-handedly started dragging her across the floor into Pinkie’s kitchen, her muscles rippling from the enormous strain. Dash crossed her arms and frowned even harder, and made no move to help Applejack out, but neither did she complain. 
Pinkie giggled and clapped her hands together. “Goodie goodie, it's just you and me, Sunny! The fight is on!”
“I suppose it is,” the flame-haired girl agreed, still surprised that she'd managed to make it this far even though this was her first time playing Twister. 
A brief scuffle occurred in the kitchen over who got the last bag of Cheetos, but finally Applejack and Rainbow emerged and plopped down next to Rarity on the couch, having elected to share the bag. “Go, Sunset! Whoop Pinkie’s butt!” Rainbow cheered, waving her Cheeto-smeared fingers in the air. “She's been beating us at this for way too long.” Twilight, too, cheered for Sunset, while Applejack and Rarity took Pinkie’s side to be fair. 
“Right foot, yellow,” ‘Shy intoned softly. 
Sunset and Pinkie hastened to follow her instructions. It was almost frightening how Pinkie was able to contort her body - at one point she was bent over backwards with her arms at opposite ends of the mat. Sunset had about a tenth of this level of flexibility, but since she was the only person on the mat, she had a lot of room to maneuver and was able to scrape by. 
Ten minutes later, there was still no clear victor. This was the longest time that Pinkie had gone without winning in a game of Twister; she usually managed to win in five minutes or less. The room was filled with tension. The other girls had started standing up and walking around the room, peering at Pinkie’s and Sunset’s postures and offering helpful advice. “Maybe jus’ move yore leg a bit forward t’ distribute yore weight more evenly,” Applejack suggested. Pinkie’s lederhosen getup wobbled as managed to follow the advice. 
Amusement danced in Fluttershy’s eyes. “Left foot, red.”
And that's when it happened. Pinkie swung her foot around to the red circle, missed the mark… and fell. Her elbows slammed into the carpet. 
Silence hung over the room. Even Pinkie Pie was too stunned to speak. Then, slowly, Sunset allowed her uncomfortable stance to drop and fell back onto her knees. “I won,” she mumbled softly. “Oh my Celestia, I actually won!”
“My goodness,” Rarity agreed, her eyes shocked. “It seems that you have.”
All of a sudden, Pinkie burst out laughing. Her round, smiling face exuded energy as she rolled onto the Twister mat, her hands wrapped around her knees, giggling. 
Sunset scratched her head in bewilderment. “Uh… what's so funny?”
“Nothing!” she beamed. “I just like to laugh when I'm happy! That was a reeaaaaally good game! I'm not sure I've ever been beaten at Twister before…  except maybe by Maud, but, meh, that was ages ago.”
“It's true, Pinkie. That was quite impressive.” Twilight Sparkle swept off her glasses and polished them with her shirt. “I had calculated the probability of you winning at only around 8.2 percent or so, factoring in Pinkie’a, erm, uncanny twisting abilities, and - ”
“Okay, we get the picture,” Dash interjected hastily. “It was a good win.” She gave Pinkie a high five. “Seriously, that was amazing. You should get, like, a medal. I don't think any of us have ever beaten Pinkie at Twister.” Fluttershy nodded in agreement.  
Applejack bobbed her head. “‘S’true. Pinkie’s twistier’n a whirlwind.”
Sunset Shimmer chuckled at the odd expression. “Well, thanks for being so happy for me, guys. I'll admit it feels good to win a game I've never heard of on my first try.”
Rarity stole a glance at her crystal watch. “Well, perhaps there's time for you to play and win another game you've never heard of. Does anyone have any suggestions?”
“I know! I know! Candyland!” Pinkie shouted gleefully. 
Sunset pulled almost the same face that she had when her friends had been first talking about Twister. “Sorry, but what's Candyland?”
“Gassssssssp! You don't know?? Eeeeeee we just have to play it! This is gonna be so much fun!” the pink-haired girl squealed. 
Rainbow groaned and thudded her head into Applejack’s arm, her shoulders sagging. “Ohhhhhh crap.”