“Ah ha ha! You have to kiss Raaaarity!” Pinkie Pie and everybody else turned their rosy faces to smirk at Applejack, who had just spun the empty cider bottle.
Applejack’s cheeks were the reddest, and she spoke intoxicated with rage, embarrassment, and drink. “Consarnit, I told y’all I didn’t want to play in the first place!” She crossed her arms, and tried not to glance at Rarity, who was flirtatiously waving from across the circle.
“Oh come now, Applejack. It is just a silly game. You simply must loosen up! Now come here…” Rarity fell forward onto her hands and began crawling toward her, the loose nightie she wore slipping down to reveal copious amounts of cleavage. Applejack couldn’t help noticing this, and her eyes nearly fell out of her head before she turned away, hiding her face behind her hat.
The other girls were laughing as they continued to guzzle down the cider. It was a toasty evening; the fresh spring air swirled around them in the open barn and several candles and a lantern lay among the empty bottles, pizza boxes, and the giggling girls in their sleeping bags.
Twilight’s face suddenly took on a serious disposition, and she looked straight at Applejack. “You have to. It’s the rule.” The other girls nodded, and quieted down.
“Twilight.” Sunset Shimmer pointed at her with a bottle in her hand. “I gotta tell you something, lady.”
“What is it?” she slurred back.
Sunset opened her mouth, staring at the girl’s violet eyes, her own eyes glazing over and losing focus. Then she suddenly began squealing and laughing, and Pinkie joined her as they rolled around on their sleeping bags, letting the cider splash around.
“Hey, watch it!” Rainbow Dash cried, picking Pinkie up by the collar of her pajamas and dropping her back onto her seat. “Come on, Applejack. Are you gonna kiss her or not? This is getting boring.”
Applejack lifted her hat and looked at Rarity. She was wiggling her bottom, appearing to be imitating a cat about to pounce on its prey. Applejack struggled again to keep her eyes in her skull. “Sorry to bore you, Rainbow,” she muttered as she turned away again.
Rarity’s shoulders slouched at the rejection, and she returned to her own spot next to Twilight. “It’s okay, Applejack,” Twilight said. “We’ll respect your wishes and desires and magic and friendship and hooray…” She began to sway.
“Hooray!” Pinkie cried, raising her arms and accidentally punching Rainbow’s chin in the process.
“Pinkie Pie! Watch what you’re doing!” Rainbow tossed her hair and took a swig of her own cider. “Well then, Applejack, you’re out of the game. My turn!”
She placed her blue fingers on the bottle and twisted it. A joking grin spread across her face as she and the others patiently waited for it to stop spinning. However, the grin disappeared when the bottle did stop and the girls let out a synchronized “oooooooh!”.
Rainbow’s eyes slowly and reluctantly followed the neck of the bottle up to a pair of pale yellow feet, and then up to Fluttershy’s glassy turquoise eyes.
She was sitting perfectly still, the same way she had been hours ago, since she took her first sip of cider. A thin smile was on her face, and she seemed completely unaware that the girls were even present.
Rainbow Dash stood up and stepped across the circle toward her friend. “Are you sure this is legal? This isn’t abuse, is it?”
Twilight’s eyes were just as glassy and vacant. “It’s the rule.”
Mustering courage, and trying to look cool while doing it, Rainbow quickly crouched down and held Fluttershy’s shoulders as she leaned in to kiss her. She was surprised when she felt how warm and soft her lips were, and she accidentally prolonged the kiss more than she had intended to. To make it appear that she was just joking around, she wormed her tongue into her mouth and faked a little moan, though she was honestly becoming quite aroused by the kiss.
Embarrassed, but not about to be a chicken like Applejack, Rainbow backed off and wiped her mouth, staring at Fluttershy’s unchanged face, then nodding and returning to her seat - the job done.
The girls were silent, shocked by Rainbow’s performance, until an even more unexpected response came from Fluttershy: “Just like at soccer camp.”
Rainbow’s eyes grew wide as the girls slowly turned to look at her.
“Whaaaaat?!” Pinkie squeaked, jumping onto her hands and knees and shoving her face into Rainbow’s burning one.
“Don’t you remember?” Fluttershy asked, turning away and smiling.
Rainbow chuckled nervously as she pulled her face away from Pinkie’s and tried not to make eye contact with anyone.
“Twilight, I have to tell you something!” Sunset suddenly broke the stunned silence, slamming her drink down beside her and grabbing the bottle in the middle of the circle. She lifted it and threw it back to the ground, shattering the bottom of it with her force. The pieces of its neck twinkled to the ground, closest to Twilight.
“What is it-” she began to respond, dazed and monotone and drunk. Sunset leaped across the circle and tackled her. The two fell back onto the floor, Sunset’s face cushioned by Twilight’s warm chest. She climbed up toward her lips and met them with her own, forcefully, then more softly, then she pulled back.
Both pairs of eyes were back in focus now, as they looked at each other. Sunset’s fiery hair framed Twilight’s blazing cheeks. Everyone was quiet again, overwhelming embarrassment keeping them hushed.
Pinkie looked back and forth between her friends, then jumped up on her sleeping bag, accidentally stepping on Rainbow’s hand while she did so.
“Ouch! Pinkie…” Rainbow growled.
She ignored her threatening glare, and squealed, “I brought cake!”
Rarity clapped her hands together. “Ooh, delightful. I was wondering about that. After all, no party is a Pinkie Pie party without cake.”
“I would like some, Pinkie,” Fluttershy whispered, as she took another sip from her still nearly full bottle of cider.
“Of course! Let’s all have some. Come on, Dashie!” Groaning, Rainbow Dash stood up and helped Pinkie cut a multi-tiered cake that she had miraculously pulled from her overnight bag. Rarity took two plates and went to sit by Applejack, offering her one of them. She took it quietly, but as Rarity joked with her, the cowgirl loosened up and began enjoying herself again.
Twilight had busied herself with cleaning up the bottle that Sunset had shattered, and Sunset was sitting back with her hands on her cheeks. When Rainbow came to give her a slice of the cake, Twilight saw on her extended hand that she had cut her finger when she broke the bottle. Blood was slowly trailing down from the wound.
“Oh, you’re hurt! Hold on, I have something for that!” Twilight scurried to her bag as Rainbow and Sunset froze. As they waited, Rainbow glanced at Sunset and gave her a sympathetic smile. She hid behind her hair and peeked up to see that Rainbow had tilted her head to look at Fluttershy, who had managed to eat one bite of her cake before returning to her drunken stupor.
Twilight returned and took Sunset’s cake for her, setting it down as Rainbow went back, sighing, to Pinkie’s side. Taking Sunset’s finger, Twilight first sprayed the cut with a sanitizer, which made Sunset twitch.
“Sorry, it stings and ssstuff,” Twilight said, slipping back into her intoxicated slur. She carefully wrapped a bandage around her finger, then without thinking, lifted it to her mouth and kissed it.
Sunset blushed, and pulled her hand back. “Oh. Thank you.” She looked around nervously, and found her slice of cake. “Do you want to share this?” she asked quickly, picking it up and offering a forkful of it up to Twilight.
However, Rainbow just then returned with a slice of Twilight’s own, and Sunset giggled anxiously as Twilight accepted it from Rainbow. Sunset looked away and tucked her hair behind her ear, but as she began to say something, Twilight stuck a chunk of her cake into her open mouth.
The cake was wonderfully sweet, and it crumbled and melted on Sunset’s tongue as she stared at Twilight’s smiling face. She laughed and picked up her cider, offering it to Sunset. “Wash it down?”
Sunset accepted it and smiled too. As she took a swig, the warm spring air wafted through the barn and swam around the friends, blanketing them in a new, exciting sensation.
