To Turn on a Light

Pinkie Pie smiled. It was fake. "Alright Everypony! Who's ready to play some PARTY GAMES?!" She reached over and grabbed some tails for pin the tail on the pony. Her audience stirred a little. A few ponies glanced up. Pinkie sighed. well who can blame them? she thought, after what they've seen...what I've seen. She blinked. The memories were clear in her mind. Battle. War. Death. She shook her head. These ponies don't need to be reminded of that, they get enough of that on the battlefield. She glanced at her cutie mark. 3 balloons. A party pony. She remembered a time when she could have enjoyed it. Not having to force her smiles and fake her cheers of delight. The thought made her want to cry. She blinked back tears and reapplied her smile.

"Well okay," She grinned, "I'm going to be over here playing pin the tail on the pony and nopony's going to get to enjoy it with me." She trotted over to the tailless pony poster.

"What's the point?" an unfamiliar brown stallion asked."How can you smile like that? This isn't a game. This is WAR." a few other ponies in the bar nodded their agreement. Pinkie recognized them. Who is this pony?

"What's your name soldier?" She squealed with a false delight.

"Sandwich" he replied, "Cheese Sandwich."

"Well Cheese," She thought for a moment. "I don't know about you, but if I woke up every morning not knowing whether or not I would go to sleep the next night, I think I would try to be cheery all the time so that if I DO die, I'll die happy!"

He scoffed. But Pinkie looked a little closer and could see. It was small, but, was that a smile? "SoooOOOOoooo! are you going to pin this tail or what!?

Cheese sighed as he stood up, abandoning his drink. "Got nothing better to do."

Pinkie grinned. Nopony had ever joined one of the party games before! She tried to get them to every night, but they all but seemed to have given up. What's the point if you might just die the next day anyway? "Anypony else wanna join?!"

Reluctantly but miraculously, a few other ponies got up too. One or two of them were also smiling. Smiling awkwardly, as if they hadn't smiled in a long time and the feeling was foreign to them, but smiling nonetheless.

Pinkie smiled. It wasn't fake. She had almost forgotten why she became a party pony in the first place. She remembered now as she watched the blindfolded ponies sheepishly giggle as they spun.

A smile is worth more than any battle victory.