Nightmares and Harmony

by Starpony999

Epilouge

Dedicated to Comickook
Who gave me feedback on every chapter and gave some good dialogue suggestions

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The Party Planner

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"You know what this calls for?" Twilight asked, once all the tears had disappeared. The four that had lived in the same town as her for years sighed in unison.

"A party?" Dawn ventured since she had been about to say the same thing. Although, she would like to note, she would have said it in a more sophisticated way.

"A par--" Twilight stopped, realizing that, for once, her question hadn't gone unanswered. "That's right! How did you know?"

"I'm the resident party pony in Canterlot, it's kind of my thing."

"Oh." The purple pony remembered how Dawn had reacted to her party earlier that night yesterday.

"I mean, all things considered, a good celebration IS in order."

"Well," Twilight's mood brightened a little bit. "Since I'm the resident part pony in Ponyville we should team up to make the best party anypony has ever seen! No less than the best for the two reigning royal sisters!"

Dawn's smile cracked. "Er, um, I tend to work better alone."

Twilight's face fell once more. She really wanted to work on what would likely be the party of the century, but she wasn't about to lose a friend over a silly matter like that. "Oh, okay. Well, if you need any help..."

Whether Twilight was going to finish that sentence or not is something the world will never know, for Princess Celestia walked over and addressed the two conversing ponies.

"Hello, Dawn, Twilight."

"Princess," The two non-alicorn ponies bowed before their ruler.

Celestia chuckled. Was she ever going to get her ponies to stop bowing everytime she approached them? "There is no need to bow, my little ponies, you did just save all of Equestria, after all." Once they had returned to a standing position, the princess addressed the reason she had approached them. "What were you discussing just now?"

"The welcome back party that Princess...." Oh drat, what was her name again? "...Luna deserves." Dawn replied.

"And the 'Congratulations on Not Getting Destroyed by the Sun' party for you!" Twilight added, earning a disapproving/bewildered look from her fellow party-planner.

"Ah, I see." There wasn't that much more that could be said about a party like that. At least her student was starting to realize just how ridiculous certain parties were. "I assume you two have already decided to work together? I cannot imagine a better party than one put on by the two greatest party planners in all of Equestria." Celestia smiled that trademarked princess smile at them, knowing full well that had not been the two's plan up until now.

"Um, er, we were just talking about that, Princess, but, um, we hadn't quite decided whether to team up or not." She paused as she saw Twilight's face light up like a Christmas tree; her smile was a little too big. Look away! Look away! "There's also the matter of whether you were going to let me plan you a party or not. You haven't let me in years."

"Of course you may. I look forward to attending the party you two put on together." At least there were some perks to being a beloved princess. Since ponies would bend over backward to make her happy, she might as well use it to their advantage.

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Later that day, on the ground floor of Sugar Cube Corner....

"Oh come on! That is not how you play pin the tail on the pony! Everypony knows that!" Dawn yelled, yanking off the paper drawing from the wall.

Twilight had tried to maintain her composure, she really had. That was the fourth game Dawn had ripped off the wall, table, or floor, and the fifth game that she had shot down. Twilight had understood when Dawn explained that Charades was hard for an Alicorn Princess. She had nodded her head when Dawn revealed how easy Pictionary was for unicorns, and had bit her tongue when the unicorn threw the paper and quills into the trash. She had laughed when Dawn showed her how she played Sorry, the pies in the face had been amusing. Unfortunately, Dawn refused to play the game the harmless way and blamed Twilight for being the reason that party game was off the table. (Ignoring the fact that Dawn had literally swiped the board off the table.) Twister had been a disaster, who in their right mind used actual twisters to play that sort of game? But Pin the Tail on the ACTUAL PONY? That was one step too far.

Her wings and temper flared as her voice rose with every word. "How dare you." It started out small and quiet, demanding attention from her companion. For a pony such as Twilight to have a low, even voice, it could command attention. "How dare you. Do you have any idea how ridiculous your ideas are?" As she spoke, the pegasus slowly advanced on Dawn. The pink pony's tail immediately went between her legs as she began to back away from the angry pony. Eyes wide in initial fear, the unicorn didn't make a peep, just giving the occasional glance back to make sure she wasn't going to be...oh no. Dawn was hooves away from the sugar cube corner.

"You have officially ruined my FAVORITE GAME." Was....were those tears pooling in the pegasus's eyes? "Do you have any idea how many times I've been ridiculed for my party planning? How many times I've double checked myself, trying to make sure its the best party these ponies have ever seen? Trying to make sure--make sure that no pony thinks I'm some--some stupid ol' pegasus who doesn't--doesn't stand a chance in the sky." Those were definitely tears, and they were coming down fast now. Twilight's eyes squeezed shut as she stopped her advance. Dawn was stuffed in the corner, Twilight's muzzle inches from her own. Slowly, Twilight backed up, turned around and began to walk off. Her hoofsteps were heavy and her wings now laid limp at her sides, she hadn't even bothered to tuck them in again. Her head hung low, and Dawn's ear began to pick up a few quiet sobs. And then... "Pin the Tail on the Pony was the one game....the one game I always got right."

Dawn sat down, dumb-founded. "I...I..."

"Didn't know." A small chuckle escaped the lips of the pegasus. "Nopony does. Nopony knows...why I'm so cheerful all the time, why I strive to make everypony smile, why I learn as much as I can about everypony and everything."

"I'm sorry. " Dawn finished, struggling to return to her hooves. That outburst may have been solely emotional, but there were definitely magical consequences. " I--I didn't mean to--" She paused before taking a step forward. "Do--do you want to talk about it?"

Twilight by now had sat down. Once Dawn had reached the pegasus, she outstretched her hoof, placing it gently on Twilight's shoulder. The pink pony could see by now how fast the tears were coming down. Twilight sniffled, using her right hoof to wipe away some of the tears, not that it did her much good.

"You know, I didn't get my cutiemark for partying." Twilight started, gesturing vaguely towards her flank. "I got it for building and creating. For sharing my love of flight with my parents."

"Were, were they not pegasi?"

Twilight shook her head slowly. "No, no they weren't. Unicorns, both of them. I suppose it took them by surprise when they found out I had a pair of wings."

They shared a small laugh at that.

"It's not quite the same, but my parents weren't unicorns like me. My sisters weren't either. Some of our extended family members still shun our family to this day, something about interbreedin' or something like that." Dawn shook her head.
"I'm not sure we actually have any unicorn blood in our veins."

Twilight giggled. "I guess we have that in common then, sort of." She sighed. "Everypony I ever met thought it was ridiculous how I tried to build flying contraptions. 'You're a pegasus' they said, 'you should know how to fly.' I never really had the guts to tell them it was for my parents. Thank Celestia that Apple Jet was there with me at flight school. I don't know why she chose to defend me from the bullies, but I'm glad she did."

There was a pause.

"Honestly," Twilight resumed, "When I realized why certain ponies were bullying me, I kind of felt bad for them. One of them never saw his parents. He never got a birthday party, and he really only ever had one friend. So I decided to do something nice for him. I threw him a birthday party, themed it after everything he liked." Twilight's tears were few and far between now. She looked up at Dawn, a small smile on her face. "I wish you could have seen the way his face lit up when he saw it. He couldn't believe I was the one who threw it for him. Heh. That was the end of his bullying career."

The two sat in silence for a while, just enjoying the other's company. Finally, Dawn spoke.

"I suppose you have a file on the Princess?"

Twilight nodded, then paused, and then shook her head. "Princess Celestia, yes. Princess Luna, no."

"Well how about we look at that file then, and maybe get some of our friends to help us compose a party file on Princess Luna."

"Are you sure?" Twilight asked, looking over at her friend.

"Postive. You can make sure it's fun for the guests of honor, and everypony in Ponyville, in essence, take care of the details. While I myself will work on the larger aspects of the planning. Like who to order the flowers from, or the baked goods, or decorations. We both have different assets, different connections. We might as well bring our strong suits to the table, instead of our weaknesses. Or, well, my weaknesses."

Twilight wiped away the last of the tears. "I...I can see that. I mean I do know a lot about the ponies in Ponyville. And if you can get us the best of the best...

Dawn smiled the widest smile she had smiled all day. "You read my mind."

Author's Note:

I have never been prouder to reread my own work. I hope you enjoy it.

Comments

[Comickook]

Wow. Downright great stuff in this epilogue. I absolutely LOVED the exchange and characterizations - especially for both Twilight AND Dawn in the latter case. I particularly liked the background details Twilight gave (especially the getting constantly teased for trying to build flying machines for her parents and big brother and discovering her love for partying by reforming a bully).

At any rate, this chapter may have taken a while, but was VERY well worth the wait.

I will most assuredly be eagerly looking forward to seeing what you come up with next, but will also more than respect the fact that you have a life outside the computer room.

[Tali_The_Lamia]

8562952
What i mean is that Twilight is basically pinkie now but shes still her intelligent self.
So she has the law defying/teleportation skills of pinkie, but shes still her Bookworm intelligent self.
Because, Pinkie isn`t really the intelligent in the show.

[Tali_The_Lamia]

I could definitely see this becoming a story series

[raven618]

So Twilight and AJ have Flutters' and Rainbow's backstory. Fascinating.

Why isn't there a sequel for this?

[Starpony999]

8789067
Sequel? A sequel? You couldn't possibly be referring to this...
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/403887/ticket-to-gallop
...right?