The Charlie Charlie Challenge
"Charlie Charlie, Are You Here?"
"There." Twilight Sparkle announced, pushing her glasses up to the bridge of her nose. "Everything is in place. Are you guys ready?"
The violet-haired girl had been sitting on the couch for only a few minutes, scribbling away on a piece of paper and arranging two number two pencils in the shape of a plus sign. She had been watching videos on the internet of people participating in this challenge. The paper and the pencils were supposed to serve as a makeshift Ouija board that would be used to summon an evil spirit. An evil spirit that had came to be known as "Charlie Charlie".
Of course, Twilight knew it was a hoax. There wasn't any factual evidence that proved Charlie Charlie existed, along with every other paranormal apparition for that matter. Twilight held on firm belief that everything divine and/or paranormal had a scientific explanation behind it. For example, the makeshift Ouija board used in the Charlie Charlie Challenge could be explained through simple physics. The way the pencils were overlapped and the way the one on top was balanced - of course it would move. Why, if Twilight or one of her friends made any kind of sudden movement while close by, the pencil would indeed move on its own.
Twilight looked up from the coffee table, placing her scientific hypothesis in the back of her mind for the time being. Her friends had been off doing their own things while she had been occupied with what could be dubbed as a "passageway to hell" by some people.
Rainbow Dash and Applejack were both sitting cross-legged in the floor, Xbox 360 controllers in hand. Both were too involved with the newest Mortal Kombat game to give any indication that they were paying attention. Sunset Shimmer occupied the sofa on Twilight's far left, phone in hand. Probably scrolling through Twitter or something along those lines. In the corner, Fluttershy had seated herself in the floor, nose deep in a novel. Behind her, Rarity sat in an easy chair and was attempting to french braid the quiet girl's hair.
"Ready, Twilight!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed, popping up in front of Twilight's face, startling the latter.
Twilight sighed, placing a hand over her chest. "Jesus, Pinkie! You startled me!"
"Oopsie! Sorry, Twi-Twi! I'm just super duper excited! I've never summoned a demon before!" said Pinkie as she plopped down beside Twilight on the couch.
"No offense, Pinkie Pie darling, but I find your excitement pertaining to this occult ritual to be absolutely horrid!" Rarity spoke, putting the finishing touches on Fluttershy's hair.
Applejack chimed in. "Rarity's right. There ain't nothin' excitin' about callin' on demons from Hell. It's plum scary if ya ask me."
"Aw come on, Applejack! You and Miss Goody Two Shoes over there are just wimps!" Rainbow Dash piped up, smashing buttons on the controller. "It's all fake, anyway. Just gives people more stories to tell. You wouldn't believe some of the stories Fluttershy and I heard back in elementary school."
At the mention of her name, Fluttershy stopped reading and peeked over her book. "W-what?"
"You remember all those stories those boys used to tell? That one about the janitor who had butchered those five kids and buried their bodies under the school?"
"Oh, please don't remind me, Rainbow Dash. Those stories were horrible." Fluttershy whimpered, marking the page and closing her book.
Rainbow shrugged. "Where do you think they got the plot for Five Night's at Freddy's?"
The farm girl sitting next to her let out a loud snort. "Now Ah know that's a lie."
"The hell it is! Five kids brutally murdered by a guy who works there? It's basically a half-assed version of the janitor story. Only it happened at a pizzeria and the kids were stuffed into animatronic suits."
"I think I know what you're talking about, Rainbow Dash," says Rarity. "Is it the game about those two bears, the fox, the chicken, and the bunny?"
"Yep, that's the one, Rares." Rainbow confirmed, her eyes still on the TV screen.
The fashionista groaned, slumping back into the easy chair. "Sweetie Belle made me play it last week."
"Ah didn't take ya fer the gamin' type, Rarity." Applejack smirked, taking her eyes off the screen to look at the indigo-haired beauty.
"I knew if I didn't play it at least once, it would break my sister's little heart. Besides, I had finished my school work early and had nothing else to do."
"And?" The rainbow-haired athlete prodded. She knew of all the jumpscares in the game, and Rarity had to at least come face to face with one of them. The thought of the dignified fashionista shouting an "unladylike term" at the top of her lungs while the screen of the computer produced a black and white static that would soon refer back to the main menu on the title screen made Rainbow want to roll around in the floor and laugh so hard that it would bring tears to her eyes.
But she couldn't. Beating Applejack at Mortal Kombat for the millionth time was her first priority. Laughing at Rarity's expense could wait a little while longer.
"Never again." The fashionista huffed.
"Lemme guess," Applejack began, having turned her focus from Rarity back to Pinkie Pie's television a little while ago. "Ya either fainted or ya pissed yer pants. Which is it, Rare?"
"Both." Rarity leaned her head back on the chair and closed her eyes. "In that exact order."
Both Applejack and Rainbow paused mid-game and slowly turned to look at each other before bursting into laughter. The sapphire-eyed 17 year-old watched as the athlete and the farmer laughed at her expense, a pout forming on her face. She crossed her arms over her chest. She knew how insensitive Rainbow and Applejack could be sometimes, but this was no laughing matter! Once that bunny had popped up on the screen of the computer, Rarity was out like a light. When she had finally awaken, she discovered that she had been placed on the sofa of the Boutique by all three of The Crusaders, whom would probably be laughing about the incident for many years to come and would probably never let Rarity hear the end of it. Rarity had also discovered that she had soiled a pair of very expensive Victoria Secret underwear, which she had assumed happened while she was unconscious.
Applejack and Rainbow were laying in the floor, still cackling like hyenas. Tears ran down their faces. Rainbow had known Rarity's reaction to a Five Nights at Freddy's jumpscare had to have been priceless, but she didn't expect her reaction to knock one out of the park like that. Her high-class friend had practically passed out and pissed on herself in the process! How could she not laugh at that?
However, it was at that point that Rainbow noticed that Applejack was laughing just as hard as she was. The tan-skinned farmer was distracted for the moment, which created an opportunity for Rainbow. She could win this.
The athlete quickly recovered, wiping the tears out of her eyes and reaching for her controller that she had lain down sometime during her fit of laughter. She quickly sat up and unpaused the screen. Sub-Zero was in her control once more, and she was more than ready to use him to defeat Applejack's Scorpion. Many Mortal Kombat fans knew that Sub-Zero and Scorpion were intense rivals at one point, and most of them probably sided with Scorpion. Not Rainbow. Nah, Rainbow was a die-hard Sub-Zero fan. Mainly because she could relate to him in more ways than one.
A few punches and kicks were enough to stun Scorpion into the signature movement that preluded to a Fatality.
"FINISH HIM!" The game commanded.
With a smirk, she pushed the control stick to the left, right, downwards, then left again, followed closely by pressing the red B button on the controller. Applejack could only watch on as Sub-Zero proceeded to freeze Scorpion's abdominal area, shattering it to reveal his spinal cord. At the sight of Scorpion's spine, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Twilight turned their heads away from the gory scene, but their ears could still hear the revolting noises.
Both Rainbow and Applejack watched on with different facial expressions as Sub-Zero ripped Scorpion's spinal cord in half with both hands and hoisted him over his shoulders.
"No!" Applejack screamed, both hands flying upwards to grip either side of her Stetson.
"Yes!" Rainbow fist pumped as the Grandmaster of the Lin Kuei ripped his lifelong adversary's body in half. A gory amount of blood followed the impact, and both halves of Scorpion's body were discarded onto the ground.
"SUB-ZERO WINS!" The game announced. "FATALITY!"
Applejack growled at her athletic friend. "Ya cheated, Rainbow Dash!"
"Should've been paying attention, AJ." Rainbow grinned.
The apple farmer scoffed, removing her Stetson from her head and wiping the sweat off her brow. Normally she would've been quick to argue with Rainbow Dash, but being the respectful person she was raised to be, she decided against it. They were there to have a nice little sleepover at Pinkie's house and if she and Rainbow were to cause an uproar, it would ruin the fun for their friends.
"Alright," Applejack gave in. "Ah'll let it go fer now." She placed her hat back on her head and stood up from the floor. "Now, what are we doin'?"
Twilight opened her mouth to speak, but the energetic, party-loving girl beside her beat her to it.
"We're gonna ask ole' Charlie a couple questions through this little contraption!" She explained, her tone dripping with excitement as she pointed to the makeshift game board sitting on the coffee table.
"What kind of questions?" Rarity inquired, standing from the easy chair and joining Applejack, Pinkie, and Twilight at the coffee table.
"You can ask anything, I guess. However, I'm only looking at this through a scientific point of view." Twilight stated, adjusting her glasses.
"So, you don't believe in Charlie Charlie, Twi?" said a smirking Sunset Shimmer, who had been quiet for almost the whole night until now.
"I'm merely stating that it is completely preposterous for a spiritual being such as Charlie to exist without factual evidence to back it up. Like Rainbow said, it only serves as another story to be passed down." The violet-haired self-proclaimed genius replied.
Sunset stuffed her phone in her leather jacket pocket and stood from the couch. "Sounds reasonable. I haven't watched any videos of the challenge, but I have heard of it. While I don't share your Naturalist beliefs, and I mean that in the best possible way, you do have a point about this challenge being a giant hoax."
"Well, I for one, haven't viewed these challenge videos nor have I even heard about it. The only facts I know about it are from what you told us earlier at school today." Rarity said.
"Same here." Applejack agreed.
"Me, three." Fluttershy supplied her input as well.
"And me!" Pinkie joined in.
"I've watched a few of the videos." Rainbow said, having turned both the Xbox and the TV off before joining her friends at the coffee table in the center of Pinkie's living room. "It's the fakest thing to hit the mainstream since the Blair Witch Project."
"B-But weren't you scared of that movie, Dash?" Fluttershy asked in her quiet and delicate tone.
Everyone in the room turned to Rainbow Dash. A hushed silence filled the air.
After seeing that Fluttershy's comment turned everyone's attention towards her, she let out a nervous laugh. "W-what? No! I wasn't scared of that! C-come on, 'Shy! We all know that's fake!"
"You hid under the blanket the whole time, and the one time that you did come out you threw the popcorn bowl into the air whenever my mom came home from work and slammed the door." The cyan-eyed wallflower deadpanned.
Rainbow scratched her head awkwardly. "Y-yeah, but we were kids then. We're older now, 'Shy. Things have changed. Besides, it's not like it did any real damage."
"You put a hole in our ceiling the size-" Fluttershy began, but was quickly silenced by Rainbow Dash's hand.
"Heh heh, you are one funny girl, 'Shy." Rainbow said, casting an awkward smile towards their friends.
After a few more seconds, the rainbow-haired athlete removed her hand from Fluttershy's mouth. Rainbow did, in fact, remember the basketball-sized hole she had made in the ceiling. She also remembered feeling guilty afterwards because she knew that Fluttershy's mom had struggled to pay the bills, and the cost of the patch job for the ceiling just put more weight on the poor woman's shoulders. However, Rainbow managed to find a few odd jobs that paid well, and she managed to scrounge up the two-hundred forty-five bucks needed to patch the hole. It was the least Rainbow could've done for them, and she had only wished she could've done more.
"Anywho," Applejack interjected, breaking the awkward silence in the room. "Let's just get this over with. What do ya'll say?"
They all agreed in unison. Sunset joined Pinkie and Twilight on the couch. Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy all got on their knees surrounding the coffee table.
"And I'm going to capture all of this on film!" Pinkie exclaimed, pulling a pink camcorder seemingly out of nowhere.
Twilight took a deep breath and sighed. "Okay, who wants to ask something first?"
Everyone in the room took turns looking at each other, as Twilight patiently waited.
Applejack let out a deep sigh. 'Ah guess Ah will."
She removed her Stetson and held it in her hands, as she spoke the words. "Charlie Charlie, are you here?"
The seven girls in the room stared at the makeshift Ouija board in front of them. Waiting for the pencil to turn. Nothing happened. Twilight made a mental note in her head.
"Maybe he don't like you, AJ." Rainbow joked.
"Oh yeah? You do it then, scaredy cat." Applejack said, whacking Rainbow in the shoulder with her hat.
Rainbow scoffed. "Alright." She bent down towards the table and cleared her throat. In a shaky voice, she spoke. "Charlie Charlie, a-are you here?"
Everyone patiently waited, but nothing was happening. The silence began to frustrate Rainbow, as she grew impatient within every waking second. Finally, she huffed.
"This is a load of bullsh-"
Suddenly, the pencil turned on the game board, landing on 'YES'.
Rainbow screamed, falling backwards and scooting away from the coffee table. "H-HE'S REAL!"
"Rainbow! Christ, calm down!" Sunset shouted over the magenta-eyed girl's immature screaming.
"Shut the hell up, Rainbow Dash! Ya just breathed on it! It's fine!" Applejack drawled.
Fluttershy, witnessing her friend in distress, crawled over to the flailing and shrieking Rainbow Dash and took the younger girl in her arms and began petting her on the head. "Shhh. It's okay, Rainbow Dash. None of this is real. The challenge is fake just like you said. Charlie's not real, and you're okay."
It's like Fluttershy's comforting words went into one of Rainbow's ears and out the other, because Rainbow broke from her grasp, took the quiet girl's hand, jerked her up, and fled out of Pinkie's front door with her, said door making a loud banging noise that echoed throughout the house.
Applejack and Pinkie stood up and ran to the door to see if they could catch a glimpse of the fleeing Rainbow Dash and the delicate Fluttershy in her grasp. Both girls watched as Rainbow stuffed her childhood friend into the front passenger seat of her blue Mustang and buckled the seatbelt before slamming the door and pulling a Luke Duke hood slide. As quickly as she landed on her feet, Rainbow pulled open the driver's side door and crawled in.
A blue blur backed out of the driveway and raced down the street.
"And cut!" Pinkie exclaimed, shutting off her camcorder. "Boy, that's the fastest I've ever seen Rainbow Dash move, and she's a freaking track star!"
Applejack adjusted her Stetson with a grin. "Like a bat outta hell."
Pinkie and Applejack made their way back inside the house and closed the door behind them. They found that Rarity had resumed sitting in the easy chair with a smug yet satisfied grin plastered on her face. Twilight was still sitting on the couch, jotting down something in a small notebook. A satisfied grin also graced her features. Probably because she proved her hypothesis correct. Sunset was laying down on the other couch with her hands behind her head and her feet crossed on top of the arm rest.
"Welp, this sucker will be up on Youtube later tonight!" Pinkie says.
Sunset laughed. "Go for it! That was hilarious! Best laugh I've had in a long while!"
"I agree." Rarity chimed in. "It was quite satisfying to see some well-deserved karma at it's best."
"Rare," Applejack began. "Don't forget Ah laughed, too."
"Yes, I'm aware of that, Applejack. I'd say that you're not that far behind Rainbow Dash on the karma train." Rarity teased, leaning up from the chair and winking at the farmer in front of her.
Applejack chuckled. "Sure hope not. Ain't got time for that."
"No one does, darling. And besides, I'm just teasing." Rarity stuck her tongue out.
The apple-farmer cleared her throat before turning to a somewhat satisfied Twilight, whom had lain her notebook and pencil down on the table. The game board was absent from the table. Applejack guessed that it had been properly disposed of by either Twilight, Sunset, or Rarity while both she and Pinkie witnessed Rainbow's hilarious conniption fit.
"Ya seem satisfied, Twi." Applejack pointed out, reaching over to playfully hit Twilight on the knee before plopping down on the couch beside her.
"Indeed," Twilight confirmed with a smile. "I can proudly proclaim that the Charlie Charlie Challenge is false! With a huge contribution from Rainbow Dash, of course!"
"That was fun!" Pinkie giggled. "We should do something like that again sometime!"
The fiery-haired girl sprawled out on the couch let out a chuckle. "Are you kidding? After what's happened here tonight, I don't expect Rainbow to show up here for a long time!"
"True." Pinkie agreed. "Welp, I'm gonna go post this on Youtube. You guys wanna come with?"
"Ah gotta see this." Applejack stood up from the couch, following Pinkie up the stairs.
"Wait! I'm coming, too!" Twilight sprang up from the couch and followed suit.
"Don't leave me out!" Rarity joined the three girls.
Sunset just lay there on the couch, staring up at the ceiling. She wanted to watch the footage of Rainbow Dash's fit, but at the same time, she was too lazy to get up.
"Ah, what the hell?" She asked aloud before climbing over the couch and bounding up the stairs.
