The Point of Departure Between a Chaste and a Promiscuous Pinkie Pie · 11:10pm Dec 15th, 2014
I. The Question
Thinking about the future chapters of Pinkie Sense and Sensibility, I have noticed that fanon representations of Pinkie Pie tend to depict her either as extremely chaste (not only virginal, but in some versions as never having seriously romantically or sexually kissed) or extremely promiscuous (to the point of being willing to have sex with pretty much anypony she doesn't actually dislike). It's very rare to depict her as moderately sexually-active.
I'm no exception to this, of course; as you know I'm going with an extremely chaste Pinkie (having only kissed in party games before falling in love with Cheese Sandwich). By some measures, her rather restrained mother, Cloudy Quartz, was actually less chaste, since, though Cloudy was still a virgin when she married Igneous Rock at 25, she was (in various and escalating ways short of full intercourse) sexually-active (with Igneous) from 15-16 on (they had originally planned to wed when Cloudy turned 18).
But then Pinkie (unlike Cloudy) wasn't seriously in love with anypony as a teenager. Which gets to the heart of why Pinkie is depicted as either very chaste or very promiscuous. Namely: before Season Four, Pinkie isn't even Ship Teased with anypony, nor does she act like somepony at all experienced in love. Yet she is, very obviously, a hedonist, and what's more, an idealistic hedonist -- her life philosophy could in part be described as "Sharing pleasure makes ponies love one another -- so I must do good by throwing parties so that Ponies can love one another."
So, either she's had no or very little sexual experience -- or she's had a lot, and with a lot of Ponies.
I. Why a Chaste Pinkie?
Whether or not this leads to a chaste or a promiscuous Pinkie depends greatly upon her sexual morals. Does she see sex as something to be shared only with a true lover, or to be dispensed like any other party favors? I tend toward the former view, but I can easily see why some fanfic writers choose the latter.
My reasons to incline toward a chaste Pinkie are as follows.
(1) Sexual morality is mostly learned from one's family. Pinkie's family looks sexually conservative. I also follow the lead of Ask the Pie Sisters, in which Marble and Limestone (who are clearly around 16-20) are implied to be virginal, and are definitely shy around stallions (I modeled Cloudy's behavior, a lot, on a combination of Marble's shyness and Limestone's optimism).
It's true that Pinkie's been living for half her life with the Cakes, rather than the Pies. But the Cakes don't seem particularly wild either. They're a loving couple -- which means that they are presenting Pinkie with a strong model of marital love. They seem as if they would reinforce her parents' moral teachings, while being more willing to openly have fun.
(2) Pinkie in canon has a very strong sense of honor, as shown by how seriously she takes her Pinkie Promises and the keeping of entrusted secrets. Where her honor applies, she may even be more honorable than Applejack.
The question is whether she thinks her honor applies to sexual matters. Here, I should point out that certain elements of the modern 21st-century West are very atypical in thinking that it shouldn't. This in turn originates from an assumption that sex should ideally be free from any moral considerations, which derives from a complex causation going back to 19th/ early 20th century intellectual Marxism and (a serious popular misunderstanding of) Freudian psychology. My Equestria is modeled on the late 19th / early 20th century West, crossed with an idealized Eastern benevolent despotism, so most Equestrians wouldn't think that way (only the mostly decadent-urban Fast Sets).
(3) Pinkie's ideal party isn't a raunchy sexual orgy. It's a children's party. She takes this to the point where she believes practically on principle that adult parties (the Grand Galloping Gala, Cadance's Royal Wedding) should be essentially like children's parties. She demonstrates this in both word and deed in canon. Pinkie is profoundly childlike, rather than lascivious, to the point where I suspect that she would even be at least a little childlike in romantic love.
(4) Pinkie cares enough about others that she would not at all want to harm them, even indirectly. And being an Ethical Slut is extremely difficult unless one is fairly callous about causing at least indirect harm to others. One would have to avoid anypony in a couple (which means one would have to know about all couples, which is within Pinkie's abilities) but also avoid anypony who might grow attached to oneself (which is much more difficult, and especially difficult to do without behaving callously to such Ponies).
In fact, most of the reasons why Pinkie would be sexually desired are also reasons why she would trail heartbreak if she was promiscuous. She's vivacious, nice and charismatic. In short, she's loveable -- and, therefore, Ponies granted her favors would fall in love with her. Letting them down at that point would hurt them far worse than saying "no" to them when they first propositioned her. Pinkie would wind up with a hate club composed of ex-lovers and those whom she outcompeted for those ex-lovers -- yet we see no such thing. Pretty much everypony likes Pinkie Pie -- which would be less probable if she were promiscuous.
Finally
(5) Pinkie is awesome. There's something almost sacred about her Bringing of Joy, and this quality would be lessened if she were merely the town bicycle -- with training wheels.
III. The Point of Decision
But, of course, this does not fully answer the question as to how and why Pinkie chose this path. For, make no mistake about it -- even in my relatively sexually-conservative Equestria, Pinkie Pie's extreme extroversion would lead her into situations in which she would at least be propositioned. She throws parties for everypony, and she's cute and cuddly, and in canon enjoys hugging and nuzzling others -- behavior which at least some Ponies would misinterpret as "she's easy, and horny." Yes, even in my Equestria.
At some point in her life -- probably around age 13-15, when she got old enough that she was no longer perceived as just a "small filly," but now as a "young mare" -- stallions (and a few mares) would have started making passes at her. And at that point, she would have to define her own sexual morals, because if she didn't think that it was wrong for her to just have sex with those toward whom she felt mild liking, she would behave in such a fashion. Simply to be nice. It follows naturally from Pinkie's assumptions.
This in turn implies that some Pinkies did decide to become sexually active, just to be nice to her friends. And what's more, due to the nature of Pinkie's consciousness (she's at least vaguely aware of the actions of her alternate and future selves), even if the majority of Pinkies chose to hew to the morals they learned from their parents, they grasp the alternative.
The likely reason why mainline Pinkie didn't become promiscuous was a combination of one, two or three of the following: (1) efforts by her family, including her Cake kin, to prepare her for these hazards of being a party pony; (2) awareness of mistakes made by her alternate and future selves; and (3) having been first propositioned by Ponies who did not mean her well (quite likely as a 13-15 year old Pinkie, being neotenous, would have impressed most stallions as being even younger.
There of course could be Pinkies who met more or less compatible Ponies in their teens -- but they are no longer in the parallel pasts of the mainline, because then we would have seen a canon Pinkie with either coltfriends or ex-coltfriends. Canon Pinkie doesn't fall in love until maybe Season Four. Those Pinkies would however be somewhat accessible to Pinkie's own consciousness, since her mind is essentially a Pool of Truth where her own selves are concerned.
At some point in her life -- probably some time before she actually had any opportunities in this regard, the young Pinkie made a decision about how she should sexually behave. And she stuck to it, with all the stubborn tenacity that this very silly but very honorable Pony sticks to all her important decisions.
And thus, the Pinkie that we see. Whichever one she is.
I disagree with this, in part. While those things set the stage, what actually divorced sex from morality was the industrial production of condoms and the invention of the pill. It's important that sex be linked to morality where there's a risk producing offspring involved: any community is going to have an interest in making sure that only happens between responsible and prepared adults. And while the human sex drive always overrode that in some cases, defining that as immoral was the strongest check. (And yes, there have always been methods of birth control, but most were less reliable, less widely available, or more expensive than the latex condom or hormonal birth control.)
It's not a coincidence that promiscuity became less demonized the less risk was attached to it for most of the population. So, that's an important question in any Equestria, I think: Is there openly available and widely used birth control? If there is, that's likely to have a big effect on how promiscuity is seen morally, especially depending on how long it's been available. (If it hasn't been around long, one might see something like our modern world where "traditional morality" is against promiscuity while "popular morality" is accepting of it.) And if you use an estrus system, that also would have a similar effect, though it also might have the effect of making ponies less interested in sex most of the time, which might make the morality of it a moot point.
2655835
Pinkie don't need no steenkin' condoms -- she can directly twist probablity to ensure that she has as few or as many foals as she wants in her life. She only gets pregnant if she wants to, and when she wants to. She could probably induce parthenogenesis if she wanted to, though then she'd make Pinkie-clones (the real biological kind, not magical demonic dopplegangers). She's Pinkie Pie, and she bounces through life on her own strange path.
Having said that, you've completely missed the larger issues of her choice and thus the whole point of my post. Her honor tells her to pursue which ever path best fulfills her mission, and maintains her own moral integrity. Simply avoiding unwanted foals is the least of her considerations. The real question is: which path spreads Joy, and which Sorrow. And the answer's not obvious.
The claim that contraception negates all issue of honor and morality regarding sex kind of ignores the history of the last half-century. Love is Love, and beings without Love are monstrous, and where Love is involved emotions are strong, and one can't simply be pneumatic and expect this to work out well. Even the culture I based on the society from Brave New World -- the Changelings -- look at "play" as part of a social alliance.
Part of the immoral connection to promiscuity is based off of religion, Jewish, Christian and Islamic beliefs about the purpose of sex. Traditional religious teachings have always been that sex is for reproduction, promiscuity is sex for pleasure. This is also why masturbation, prophylactics, homosexuality and bestiality are sins. All equally wrong according to religious doctrine.
In early prehistory, Jewish thought was that men only had so much semen, and to waste it was punished by God (there's actually a parable about a man who pulled out of his wife and was struck down by God). The idea has stuck around and grown in the thousands of years since. Got to love these kinds of ethical arguments.
I seem to remember anthropologists saying early humans moved in herds of 150 people and promiscuous sex used as a way to foster ties between them. But even if it work that way once doesn't mean it would work in modern times. Same applies to ponies I think.
I think the main reason why Pinkie rarely gets depicted as being sexually moderate is because she's a personality of extremes. Character psychology aside, no one expects Pinkie to do anything by half measures. Whether it's planning a party or the depths of depression, Pinkie throws herself completely into it.
Personally, I think Pinkie would be aware of sex and how it works ("How do you know about this stuff, Pinkie?" / "I grew up on a farm, duh." / "... a rock farm." / "No, she's right, sugarcube. It doesn't matter what kind it is, you learn this stuff on a farm.") but would choose big, fun-for-all parties over private parties for two. After all, why make one pony happy and and a lot unhappy, when she can everyone happy?
I honestly don't give much thought to sexuality in my characters. I have considered it in general terms. (Indeed, one blog I keep meaning to write is an analysis of the various physical traits that each tribe originally found attractive, and how Discord managed to warp that into the bizarre multidimensional preference spectrum of modern ponies.) But the Mane Six specifically? Not so much. Really, it seems like they have more important things to worry about most of the time, though that never stopped Rarity from building the Trendershrine.
In any case, nice analysis of Pinkie appeal.
2655835 Actually, some social historians push the big sexual revolution back even further: not the pill, but the motor car. Privacy, ability to get away from supervision, and, well--just a getaway, period. Assuming Ponyville is the size it is, and considering that Pinkie is besties with everypony, she would be hopping in and out of the sack like a jack-in-the-box. And somepony's going to get mad.
Here's where personal interpretation steps in: I can't pretend that I'd be comfortable with a "and then they banged" culture. I'm not going to say that people who write Equestria that way are wrong, but I personally couldn't write it. I'm a very monogamous person, and "and then they banged" Equestria would be an Equestria in which I'd be very, very personally unhappy. (If it matters to anyone, this isn't a religious issue so much as emotional wiring.) So I wouldn't write things that way. Although:
Yeah, I kind of agree with this. Now, I COULD imagine a Pinkie who was so dedicated to making ponies happy that sex WAS a kind of Joy-Bringing, sacred in its own way, and that it would have to be as free and unrestrained as her party-throwing. I've even had Cheese worry that it wouldn't be right to become Pinkie's lover because "she's Joy. She's everypony's." So the problem there could be construed not as avoiding sexuality, but monogamy. It simply wouldn't be right to monopolize her or tie her down. But then we STILL have a Pinkie to whom sex means something. Sleeping with Pinkie would be a special gift, a party just for you, possibly a once in a lifetime experience. And here we run up against another thing, which is:
Pinkie's so childlike that (again, personally) imagining her with lots and lots of ponies is just kind of ikky, like Shirley Temple fucking everyone at MGM from Louis Meyer on down. Again stressing that this is a personal preference, not an absolute.
And also, I'm tired of reading Promiscuous Pinkie. Promiscuous Pinkie is almost as widespread (hur) as Baked Goods Pinkie. It almost gets to where readers take it for granted that "oh, yeah, Pinkie'll sleep with anything with a pulse." That just makes her shallow, but then a lot of people write her that way anyhow.
2656130
2655890
I think what I'm saying is that in an Equestria with a more open morality, or even one like our own with different ponies having different view points (like the one I wrote in Good Ponies Don't... Do They?) I would make Pinkie someplace in between: I see her as seeing sex as a very specific way of making ponies happy. I don't think she'd sleep with just anyone, or host orgies, but I think if she knew that, for instance, a pony was scared or nervous about sex she'd want to help them. Almost a sex therapist view of it: it's not dirty or bad, and it's also not the best way to make most ponies happy, but if that is what a pony needs she's happy to help.
Pinkie obviously does know about adult parties, and the adult parties she knows about (and by implication, takes part in) are the raunchier kinds. The sort Vinyl Scratch would hold. Obviously not suitable for the Grand Galloping Gala or a Royal Wedding, although on the second try she finds a compromise.
The arguments about sex making her lots of enemies are pretty silly -- everything she does would make her lots of enemies if people could actually hate her. She wouldn't take it at all seriously, so only people who weren't taking it seriously would actually make any headway -- that would filter out the hardcore romantics and monogamists. They'd get flirted at, if they somehow were in the space where she was being sexually active, but that's probably as far as it would go before they got extremely confused.
And if despite that, someone she banged wanted a deeper relationship, she would find them a relationship. Just not with her.
And she doesn't need freaky magic powers to do any of this, just the ridiculous social acumen she's always shown in the show, and the way everyone laughs off everything she does as 'Pinkie being Pinkie'.
There is a dark side to a Promiscuous Pinkie Premise, however. It would mean she's probably unable to have kids. Because there's no way she wouldn't *want* to get pregnant. Did you see how she acted around the Cakes' foals? Maybe she's just too young to be fertile, yet. Pony ages are always weird, with the age of consent for various things coming well before physical maturity. (See, multiple ponies leaving home to strike out on their own while clearly still fillies and colts.)
2656209
Yeah, I think that's what I was trying to imply with:
2656249
Citation, please? This does not appear in the show I've been watching, not even implied offstage.
Okay, I found this an interesting read overall, and generally worth reading and pondering. However, I couldn't leave without commenting on this part:
If this is really what you think, you do not know what an ethical slut is, and the way you spoke of it simply erased the whole idea of 'ethical' from it. It's not intended as callous - quite the opposite! The whole point of the book and the idea behind it is finding within oneself and one's surroundings the ability to be sexual without inherent shame, and to embrace desire openly, clearly, and honestly. An ethical slut might approach a couple or one part of a couple, but because they are ethical they would smile and move on if that relationship was closed. And if they screwed up they'd do their best to rectify things.
And your last point, that of avoiding getting close to people, is perhaps even further from reasonable. Some ethical sluts might avoid romantic entanglements, but that's neither the ideal nor the norm - it's a personal choice for an individual's life. Some ethical sluts are the precise opposite: they are happily sailing on the sexual sea while looking for the ship that will take them home. Not because they are lost at sea or incomplete without another, but because that's how they get around.
So... with all that said, I still enjoyed reading this. I just had to say my piece
And I still love your stories!
Light and laughter,
SongCoyote
2656249
There's no actual canon reason to believe that Vinyl Scratch is promiscuous either, though since there's less information in general about her there's no obvious reason why she isn't, either. What we know about Pony Vinyl is that she's cheerful and obsessed with playing music via electronics to entertain others, and is probably rich and technologically-inclined; what we know about Humanoid Vinyl is pretty much the same, plus brave, smart and cares what happens to others. I don't actually see "promiscuous" either stated or implied by those attributes.
Also, though I kind of like the notion of her being Octavia's either best friend or lover, there's no evidence of this either. Plus, if she was Octavia's lover, then that would make it less likely she was promiscuous (since she'd be in love with one particular individual -- namely Octavia).
One argument that could be made against Promiscuous Pinkie leaving a trail of broken hearts and tears in her wake would be that when all is said and done, it's still Pinkie. It's hard enough to stay mad at her normally, and if she was willing to sleep with a pony, she probably felt close enough to them to not just love 'em and leave 'em. She'd do something to make them feel better, as is the Pinkie way. Throw 'em a party and help 'em find a better private-party-partner, probably.
Alternately, Pinkie might approach it like a very serious game... one she won't play with you if you don't know exactly what the rules are, and agree to play by them. ("Always wear proper protection, no biting (unless you ask nicely~), and remember that it's all good, clean FUN!")
2656249
Reality doesn't work like that. Not normally. Pinkie could make it work like that, but only by dint of precognition (to stay out of trouble) and probability twisting (to fix any trouble she wound up causing when she failed to avoid it by precognition).
You speak of "hardcore romantics and monogamists" as if it were some sort of odd perversion. Most people in the real world become attached to charismatic, vivacious individuals who are willing to have sex with them, and are dismayed to find out that it wasn't meant seriously. That is normal, and it's because they are looking for mates. And most people are looking for mates, not just sex, most of the time.
Plus, Promiscuous Pinkie is putting herself in direct competition with mares who may be more seriously interested in the stallions in question -- and who will not appreciate her shattering their serious romantic hopes just to play sexual party games with the males in question. Generally speaking, it is not males who most strongly condemn female promiscuity; it is rival females. She would have to be very careful with whom she trifled.
Promiscuous Pinkie, because she'd still be nice and care about hurting Ponies, would have to be very, very careful what she said and did in general -- much more careful than Chaste Pinkie, who need merely figure out how to say "no" nicely (and who probably tries to find the ones she says "no" to somepony else who might be more interested in them). If she wasn''t, she'd leave a wake of Sorrow worse than the one left by Winningverse (and maybe even worse than the one left by Degradingverse) Cloud Kicker. See, Ponies like Pinkie.
2655961
The reason why the promiscuous get less sexual respect is that people, being sapient, evaluate the behavior of others in an attempt to model their motives. "I will let you have sex with me because you are dear and beloved to me" is a more valuable offer than "I will let you have sex with me because, meh, why not?" That is the reason that applies regardless of contraceptive technology. That is, in point of fact, the fundamental reason why the promiscuous get less sexual respect even today.
There are other reasons. Even with contraceptive technology, a subculture to be long-term successful must replace its numbers either by breeding or recruitment. The more it breeds, the less it need recruit, and hence the less dependent it is upon intellectual fashions for its survival. This means that issues of females finding reliable males to help raise their children are still relevant. Promiscuous females are less likely to find them, because males would rather raise their own children than the children of others. Promiscuous males can of course pursue a scattershot reproductive strategy, but this works less well given more advanced contraceptive technology, for the obvious reasons.
The Equestrian Ponies are mildly matriarchal rather than mildly patriarchal, and their religion is closer to Confucian philosophy than Judeochristianity. However, they are high-k sapients in which females carry their young for almost a year and then raise them for a decade to a decade and a half, and consequently they are under much the same cultural-evolutionary pressures as are Humans. This means that they develop pretty much the same attitudes toward cad vs. dad and coy versus easy that we have, in the iterated social game of courtship (see A Robust Solution).
2655981
Pinkie is very "aware of sex and how it works." Not only did she grow up in a rural community, but my Pinkie's grandmother is a brilliant midwife and Pinkie herself is a precognitive who can view other worldlines -- including ones where she is promiscuous or otherwise sexually active (there's one fairly probable alternate, for instance, where she was never promiscuous, but married Big Mac when she was in her late teens).
You're assuming that the only thing keeping Pinkie from having lots and lots of sex is ignorance of the possibility.
2656130
Yep. That's when ordinary late-teens and twenty-somethings could finally find privacy far away enough from people who knew them to spend time alone together unremarked. This too is not too far in Equestria's future, whether we assume normal technological progress or the Lensman Arms Race of the Shadow Wars.
There are lots of places around Ponyville at which one could find privacy.
And yes -- that's the big problem. I think that given Pinkie's precognition she could avoid the stallions who might fall hopelessly in love with her and zero-in on the ones who would only be using her (dreary thought!). And her eidetic super-equine memory would keep her clear of the ones who already had wives, betrotheds, intended or simply serious marefriends. The problem would come from other mares who had crushes on those stallions, or who were involved with them in ways short of "officially serious," who would be jealous of her.
How jealous? They'd have a nascent goddess (whether they guessed it or not) in their small town attracting away their potential lovers and husbands. How jealous do you think they'd be?
And Pinkie is canonically horrified when she really hurts somepony. This doesn't look very Joyful for anypony involved.
Now, would Pinkie think this through in a logical fashion? No, that's not how her mind works. She gets short-term causality, and she gets codes of honor, and she can directly perceive bad consquences (though not always the details) through her precognition, to the point that she's very bad at consciously thinking things like this through. She would subconsciously intuit that it was a bad course of action, and hence avoid it ... unless she thought that she should do it to spread Joy, because she was one of the first Pinkies to make this particular mistake. Though her family upbringing would provide her some protection against falling into this trap.
2656617 This is just... a disconnect between your worldview and what I've experienced of reality I guess? You keep making all these assertions that just aren't true, every time this subject comes up. You're obsessed with all of these philosophical... things. That's probably the most polite word I can use for them.
'Hardcore romanticists and monogamists' are the minority of people who can't deal with casual sex. It's a thing that happens, all the time, and usually doesn't cause problems for anyone, because people can tell the difference between reality and fantasy. If we assume ponies are different from humans, they're different in ways that make it go much, much smoother.
Most people are vaguely looking for mates. They wouldn't be expecting to find them at a hypothetical Pinkie Pie sex party. After the first time they got laughed at for obsessing over someone, they'd get over it unless they were a psychopath or a rapist.
There are people who wouldn't be into it. Maybe there would even be ponies who wouldn't be into it. Pinkie wouldn't do it with them, just like she presumably is hiding it from at least some of her friends (notably, Twilight, who's too much of a nerd, and Fluttershy, who's very sensitive). They wouldn't be horrified if they found out, but they'd prefer not to hear about it, so she doesn't tell them. Rarity would probably not be interested, but would want to know. Applejack and Rainbow Dash are potential participants.
2656306 She drops all the beats, yo. She drags out the young rebellious teenager music and attitude at random, and she's friends with somepony obviously meant to represent a club deejay. I'm not going to pretend that that stuff is all about sex, but the people I knew who were into it were *really into casual sex*.
Obviously there's not going to be any direct reference to promiscuity because it's a kid's show. They didn't even show Mrs. Cake being pregnant. For all we know, ponies don't have sexual organs and have babies when two ponies who love each other very much go to the hospital for a session in front of the magic mirror from which baby ponies are summoned -- that was the canon G1 method of pony reproduction, more or less.
2656645
Not at all!
I didn't mean to imply that your Pinkie wasn't aware of sex (I have been reading Pinkie Sense & Sensibility and Divine Jealousy), I was just trying to establish my own position on the Chaste vs Promiscuous scale -- to wit, that she wouldn't be naive about such things, but wouldn't pursue them either. Her reasoning would be along the lines of "Who has time for sleeping around when there are parties to plan?"
Seriously, without the joke in the middle, what I said was:
(and only now do I notice that left out "make" before everyone there...)
2656701
Oh, I get it ... I actually thought at first you meant that she would choose huge sexual orgies over sex with specific lovers!
2656715
Ah, gotcha! Maybe I should've phrased it as "big, family-friendly parties" instead of "big, fun-for-all parties"... sounds less like a coy way of saying orgy, that way.
2656700 I . . . think you and I live on different planets, that's what I think. I also think judging people by the kind of music they like and the fact that they enjoy partying doesn't make a lot of sense. In fact, it is just this far from the "oh, hey, she's really friendly, I bet she wants to fuck me" attitude which is my real problem with Promiscuous Pinkie. There is no logical connection between enjoying people and having fun and wanting to have sex with everyone.
I'm also pretty sure that "wanting to fuck everyone" isn't in the job description for a DJ. But hey, I know! We can go through the music on my ITunes list and decide whether I am more or less likely to be into casual sex!
*hits shuffle*
"Ring of Fire"
"Cocaine Habit Blues"
"Drunkard Special"
Dear, o, dear. There goes my reputation.
2656701 Pretty much what I think. She's not dumb. Of course she knows the way it works. And we've seen what happens to her when different friends want her for separate social occasions one on one!
2656637
Wasn't saying that it should be like that in modern Equestria. With the onset of sapiance much more care would be required for raising foals, necessitating a more close knit family structure. That's in addition to cultural changes which make that lifestyle unattractive.
Of course, normal pony actions are out the window with Pinkie. Being a child of Paradise she'd probably see sex as weird. Until she met a certain special stallion she liked enough to consider even thinking of that way. My own headcanon has her as much a romantic as Rarity, if a bit more innocent.
Of topic, I've never really liked the idea of modern Equestrians going through estrus. Seems like something that would lessen with the development of sentience and culture to little more than one week a month of mares being less-than-fresh. But I'm not an evolutionary biologists.
2656749 I think that's exactly what we're all doing in this thread -- judging Pinkie's potential for promiscuity based on a wide variety of indirect signs.
The music thing specifically was to counteract the false claim that all Pinkie Pie does is throw children's parties with balloons and Pin the Tail on the Pony. That's what she does in front of kids, or the Princess, or at work, but we know for a fact that it's not the extent of her interest in parties.
That leaves you open to theorize what else might go on at those other parties that she isn't willing to talk about with all of her friends. It's a way to make a promiscuous pinkie plausible; you're never going to find proof.
2656700
There's no good and yet nice way to say this ... maybe you need to hang out with classier people? Because if most of the people you've met in your life are just fine with engaging in random sex, that's just sad.
I have no idea what you're talking about. Considering disparate philosophies, and how cultures evolve, is very important if one writes stories set in another culture and doesn't want to simply make it a Generic Sleazy Club Scene. Which, note, not even our culture is, though there are some subcultures that in part work like that.
If that's what you meant, anyway.
Most people don't have casual sex. They can deal just fine with its existence, they just avoid it. This is true even today, and was more true a century ago, when we were technologically where Equestria is now. The technology is relevant because it affects the sorts of cultures likely to evolve.
Wow, you must take much more interesting rides on public transit than do I ...
BUS DRIVER: Fellating couples must move to the back of the bus. The front seats are reserved for group sex only.
Um, if it's actually happening, within the world one is living, it's reality rather than fantasy.
APPLEJACK (pulling suddenly away): Pinkie, why are you tryin' to stick yore tongue up mah butt?"
PROMISCUOUS PINKIE (trying to get back into position): Hush, Applejack. It's just a fantasy.
APPLEJACK (turning rapidly): No, t'aint! Stop doing that!
PROMISCUOUS PINKIE (whines): But Terrycloth says it's a fantasy!
APPLEJACK: No, you were really tryin' to stick yore tongue up mah butt. And who the hay is Terrycloth?
How exactly are you getting from "Friendship Is Magic" to "Therefore, we all have lots of casual sex?"
Okay ... aside from the fact that people do sometimes start serious love affairs from a casual sexual encounter (something I'd think you'd notice, since you're commenting from the city where buses have regular, handicapped and orgy sections), I am sort of in awe at the phrase "Pinkie Pie sex party" -- an event not even vaguely implied by canon.
PROMISCUOUS PINKIE: Ooh, you're new in Pornovi -- I mean Ponyville! And if you're new that means that I haven't thrown you a Welcome to Ponyville party yet! And that means I can make a new friend! So I need to know just one thing -- which orifice do you like it in the most?
TWILIGHT SPARKLE: What?
PROMISCUOUS PINKIE: What, you thought I specially liked you? Hee-hee-hee-hee-hee! Boy, you're silly! Everypony, laugh at the silly pony! Wait ... where are you going? I'm the one who makes everypony smile ...
... since, as we well know, only psychopaths and rapists have any hard feelings at all, or even long-term emotional pain, from discovering that sex they thought was meaningful was actually casual. Because "Indifference Is Magic," after all.
CHRYSALIS: Fan out, my children! Find psychopaths and rapists! Only they have the emotions we need!
What, Ponies who wouldn't just want to form a big heap and mate with the nearest object shaped vaguely like a sex organ? No, say it isn't so!
Because Deception Is Magic?
TWILIGHT SPARKLE: If I found out about somepony having casual sex, I would be very shocked. Not because I have any morals or class or high expectations for my friends, but because I'm too much of a nerd. I'll probably wind up alone and unsatisfied, just like my poor nerdy brother Shining.
CADANCE: What?
TWILIGHT: Oh come on, you're into Ogres and Oubliettes too. You're alone and unsatisfied too, just like Shining.
CADANCE: Twilight, do you remember that big party in Canterlot? The one with me, and you, and Shining.
TWILIGHT: What, your wedding?
CADANCE: Yes, my wedding. (pauses, expectantly)
TWILIGHT (not getting it): And?
CADANCE: Wow, you really ARE too much of a nerd.
TWILIGHT (sobbing): I know!
CADANCE: Gosh, I was going to tell you about Skyla, but ...
TWILIGHT: Your foal?
CADANCE: Yes! My foal ... (*holds up hooves in 'keep going' gesture*)
TWILIGHT (shocked): Wait ... you had sex?
CADANCE (nods happily)
TWILIGHT (very shocked): Oh no! You had casual sex! My brother's going to be so upset -- I think he kinda likes you ...
CADANCE (losing patience): No, Twilight, I had sex with your brother. We're married. That's what married couples do. We had sex and we had a foal. Do you get it now?
TWILIGHT (incredibly shocked): My brother had casual sex, too? (faints)
Oh, you mean a "nerd" like that?
Terrycloth, Twilight Sparkle is a member of the Canterlot gentry and has been raised at the heart of intrigue for the whole continent. Where do you get the idea that she's that naive from? Just because she personally is highly intelligent and has strong moral values doesn't mean that she's ignorant. Quite the opposite.
PROMISCUOUS PINKIE: Sex.
FLUTTERSHY: Eep! (faints)
Are we talking about the same Fluttershy who hangs out with an aggressive buck rabbit and a Chaos God?
RARITY: Spike, darling, could you do me a favor and attend the Pinkie Pie Sex Party and write down everything that happpens?
SPIKE: Anything for you, Rarity.
APPLEJACK: Do Ponies at random? Sure thing! After all Ah'm the most dependable and loyallest of Ponies!
RAINBOW DASH: I'll be 20% more erotic than you!
APPLEJACK: Oh, we are on!
Sorry, based on what do you get the notion that those two are particularly promiscuous?
Um, aside from fact that she is a deejay (that's what you call Vinyl's profession), and the fact that in canon she seems obsessed with music rather than other Ponies, and the fact that you've just very insultingly stereotyped everyone into any sort of club scene (other than a sex club), and your assumption that Pony music clubs work just like the sleaziest Human ones ... she doesn't have a particularly rebellious attitude. She's shown as cheerful, helpful and brave. The most rebellious thing either the Pony or Humanoid Vinyl does is have a backup pair of earphones when Principal Celestia takes her big ones. Which is -- um -- disobedient at worst.
You view the world through smut-colored glasses.
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So your theory is that Pinkie Pie must do "adult" parties (by which you mean sex parties) because Vinyl Scratch is a slut (based on zero evidence, other than the fact that she's a deejay)? Seriously? Despite the fact that in canon it's been mentioned that Pinkie far prefers children's style parties?
Hey, you want to know something else? Pinkie Pie doesn't wear pants. The trollop!
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Uh... no? Stop right there?
The point of this essay was not to mock the notion of a Promiscuous Pinkie, but rather to delineate how such a Pinkie might operate and still be a Joy Bringer rather than a vortex of social destruction. I'm well aware, for instance, that some of the writers I like, such as Ardashir and Alara J Rogers, have a (relatively) promiscuous Pinkie.
When I talk of a Promiscuous Pinkie's reality warping and super-equine intelligence being applied to avoid hurting Ponies in consequence of her promiscuity, I'm not being facetious. She actually has both abilities, more or less in canon, and is very strongly opposed to hurting other Ponies and would go out of her way to avoid it. She frequently in canon uses both to help others. I agree with Scoots2 that if Pinkie was promiscuous, she'd do so in such a way that she brought Joy to others, specifically:
which means that for her it would be an expression not merely of eros but also of agape. Which also implies that she would have to be very, very careful not to hurt Ponies this way. And it would be very easy to hurt Ponies this way, if not done right.
Sex is not just like eating a meal, unless one is either very cold about sex, or very obsessive about food.
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I simplified, but your chain of reasoning is based on massive sexual amorality by association. The Human club scene is full of casual sex, so the Pony club scene must also be full of casual sex. Vinyl Scratch sometimes DJ's for clubs, so she must also be into casual sex. Pinkie Pie sometimes has Vinyl Scratch DJ for her, so she too must be into casual sex. This is a chain which if it was for anything other than "casual sex," which you seem to view positively, you would find absurd.
2658810 No, the primary reason I'd expect Pinkie Pie to be promiscuous is that the difference between promiscuous and chaste people that I've seen is how seriously they take sex, and Pinkie tends to not take stuff seriously. I can't see her being in a monogamous relationship without hating herself. She has serious issues denying her impulses and if there was an alternative that let her have her cake and also her other cake and maybe a cloud kicker or two, she'd take it.
The party thing was just pointing out that the kids' parties are not, as you said, the only type of party she's interested in. Because otherwise, sure, she might just be immature and not into sex yet. But I don't think that's true -- there are implications that she goes to the type of parties that (in an Equestria where sex existed) would have sexually active people for the same reason they have sexually active people in real life ('attractive young people who want to rebel against society'). It's not saying 'she knows a DJ and therefore must be a sex fiend', it's negating a disqualification.
And I have said this over and over and over and over and you're *still* putting the word 'must' into my mouth. Stop it.
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Pinkie takes some things very seriously. Friendship is one of them. As Love is a modified form of Friendship, I can see her taking it very seriously indeed. Pinkie's sense of honor is easily as ironclad as Applejack's when regarding things she takes seriously. We have seen this repeatedly shown in canon, starting with "Green Isn't Your Color."
As Scoots pointed out, a Promiscuous Pinkie Pie is possible, but she would still be very nice to others. Which means, she would be very careful with whom she had sex in order to avoid bringing them more Sorrow than Joy. This is not as easy as you imagine; while sex feels good and warm and accepting, it also brings all sorts of emotions in its train, both on the part of the participants and on the part of others who may have interests in them.
You're arguing that Pinkie could just pretty much have sex with anypony she wanted, no hard feelings. Real life doesn't work that way. Yes, sometimes there would be no hard feelings. Sometimes, she would find that her casual lovers became obsessed with her (she's a nascent goddess, after all). Sometimes, she would break up existing couples. Sometimes she would earn the hatred of those who were strongly attracted to Ponies whom she lured away to herself.
A Human who behaved like that would be at great risk of sparking violent crimes. The Ponies are less violent than we, so what's more likely are hurt feelings, in some cases heartbreaks. Ponies would dislike Pinkie Pie if she behaved like that. Pinkie, even if she was Promiscuous Pinkie, would dislike Pinkie Pie if she behaved like that. Because Pinkie's not merely Ethical, she's All-Loving; and she explicitly in canon wants to make Ponies Smile, not Frown. She's horrified when she hurts somepony.
I disagree. Pinkie is clearly capable of extremely strong Love; she's manifested it toward her friends in canon. She's also demonstrated considerable Loyalty. Just because we haven't yet seen her in a romantic relationship doesn't mean that she's incapable of one.
She is quite capable of denying her impulses when she feels a strong reason to do so. Also, the impulses which she canonically has difficulty denying revolve around food and parties, the first of which rarely harms her (she has an insanely rapid metabolism, probably to fuel her super-equine abilities) and the second of which it is both her job and her pleasure to promote.
Cloud Kicker is the poster child who by contrast demonstrates why Promiscuous Pinkie would have to be careful about with whom she had sex. Cloud Kicker is a tornado of emotional and social destruction, even in Chengar Qordath's stories. Do you get that? The guy who thinks she's cool and fun and decided to write epics about her writes her as destructive. He just thinks the destruction she causes is amusing from a comic and dramatic perspective.
Up until Season Four, she manifests no canon attractions toward any stallions. Not even to the point of sultry aside glances or being mildly flustered. The obvious exception -- her "Gotta Share" song -- is a stage act. And it shocks everypony who knows her, which implies that this is not her normal mode of behavior.
You're also assuming that if she goes to any kind of parties other than kids' parties that it means that she has sex there. And it's clearly stated in canon that her favorite sort of parties are the ones organized like children's parties.
I'm pretty sure that sex exists in my Equestria. I've referenced sexual relationships in most of my stories. I even have steamy love scenes in some of them. I haven't written actual clop yet, but what the heck do you think (for instance) Bulk and Fluttershy were doing together at the start of Divine Jealousy and the Voice of Reason? And why do you think Discord is jealous of Bulk in that very same story?
I'm also pretty sure that sex exists in canon Equestria. Just because something's not shown explicitly on screen does not render it nonexistent. Refer to my earlier dialogue here between Absurdly Nerdy Twilight and Princess Cadance for an example of characters who are canonically sexually active. Why yes, marriage counts. In reality the most sexually-active people are married or in long-term relationships. Know why? Because they don't have to take time LOOKING for partners!
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"Sexually active people" does not necessarily mean "sex parties." Though these exist too, in my Equestria. The Fast Sets sometimes have them. Also note my reference to the country house parties in "City Courtship." And this isn't a purely recent thing -- what do you suppose Luna's oblique reference to the Crystal Empire having been "decadent" means (among other things)? Just because I'm not shoving something in your face every other chapter doesn't mean it's not there.
Yes, I modeled my Equestria on the Edwardian Age Anglosphere. If you don't think there was a heck of a lot of sexuality in the Edwardian Age, you haven't paid much attention either to the social history or the historical fiction of the era. The main difference is that Equestria has somewhat less sexual repression (and much less prostitution and rape) than was common in that time among Humans. And no, "less sexual repression" doesn't mean "constant orgies," either. It means that they are more willing to admit to sexual relationships. Oh, and they're okay with variant sexual orientations.
A more accurate term for 'attractive young people who want to rebel against society' is 'airheaded sluts.' (*) Because harming oneself (and casual sex generally does) as a form of vague rebellion against nothing much in particular is STUPID. What is the point of the rebellion? "I'll show Daddy I'm my own person by fucking everyone at the party!"
Another accurate term is 'potential victims,' because groups like that attract predators, since they are casting aside the normal caution which would protect themselves against predation. And yes -- though the Ponies are nicer than humanity, they are not so nice as to entirely lack criminal, sociopathic and even psychopathic elements.
The Mane Six aren't airheaded superficial sluts and they aren't potential victims. They are intelligent, strong-willed and powerful mares, the exemplars of the Virtues of Harmony. No, they're not perfect. Yes, they've made significant mistakes in their lives (my stories discuss some of these in detail, and Rarity excoriates herself about this in one particular flashback in Divine Jealousy and the Voice of Reason).
But they aren't interested in damaging themselves in some futile and idiotic rebellion against nothing in particular. They have real responsibilities and real foes to fight. The people you describe are behaving stupidly, not heroically, and the Mane Six really ARE heroines.
Scoots outlined how a heroic, admirable Promiscuous Pinkie Pie would work (though she goes for a Chaste Pinkie for similar reasons to myself). You didn't like that outline because you want to believe in a world where everypony can have casual sex without causing any harm.
You want that world? That culture? Read Hive Hunger-Prime Is Falling. Because the 'lings have essentially no sexual inhibitions, though not being insane they aren't obsessed with sex, either. And, since they're not as heartless as your ideal Ponies, they do have a tendency to sexually play more with 'lings they like, to the point where the incidence of play can be used to track friendships among them.
My freaking Changelings are classier than your Pinkie Pie. That is sad.
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(*) Both male and female. The most promiscuous person I ever knew was male, and he damaged both his own life and the lives of others very severely in the process of acting on his sexual obsessions.
2658939 Wow. I thought I kept everything that might set you off out of that, but even mentioning the topic obviously makes you go right off the deep end. I think I'm going to stop talking about this with you now.
2658995
I'm sorry that logical reference to the actual show has that effect on you.
2658878 Without getting into all the other issues, the main thing I was scratching my head about was trying to imagine a scenario in which Pinkie threw a party to which she only invited some of her friends and not others! "We're having a party, only don't tell Twilight about it,"---how does Pinkie react when they did that to her? It wasn't pretty. Plus she has no filter, so it wouldn't be a big secret. Sure, she'd invite Fluttershy to her butt plug party. It would be Fluttershy who said "um, no," but at least she didn't leave anypony out.
Maybe I just plain like Pinkie more than you do? I can't tell. She sure isn't selfish, which could be an argument for her sleeping with lots of ponies. She wants everypony in on the fun, even if she's bad at figuring out what would be fun to them. She sincerely loves her friends to the point where she's terrified of losing them. She's clingy, too. And the "hating herself" if she were in a monogamous relationship--why would she "hate herself?" That sounds like she takes something seriously. It all seems somewhat odd, and it does sound like some other views I've read that come down to "lol Pinkie Pie, she's so random and stupid." If that isn't what you meant, my apologies--I'm not trying to engage in any kind of war or bullying against you.
Pinkie's so hep that she wouldn't think she's rebelling. She just is who she is, promiscuous or not, serious or funny, and she's got tons of integrity. It's one thing I love about her.
I'm not saying "Jordan is right and you're totally wrong," and I'm not pushing off a moral pov, or at least, I'm trying not to--but I do have to disagree about Pinkie being selfish, stupid, and shallow. I hope you don't think that way about Pinkie. Like I said, I love her.
2656405 Yep, that'd work, too. I'm not saying every Pinkie has to match my Pinkie or that there's only one way to be ethical. Even in real life it's much better to run into people who make their thinking about sex clear from the get-go. The problems crop up when one person either doesn't communicate it or lies about it. "Suuuure I'm monogamous, baby" because the person wants to get into your pants isn't ethical, and I don't think that's what you meant. And if they lie to themselves about it--well, then you're in deep trouble, and not just about sex, about anything. A person who doesn't know who they are and isn't honest with themselves isn't a good person to be friends with.
And speaking from experience, it is hard to say "no, I don't go for this on the third date and I am choosy and I do not want to do this right now." People do assume that you must be really religious, and if not, you must be some kind of weirdo. I stopped dating for a long time because I got sick of feeling pushed. I'm better at boundaries now, so "no, I don't want to" is easier to say, and if someone thinks I owe him sex because he bought me dinner two times, that's not my problem. It's also why I prefer not to do expensive dates early on. It's usually a recipe for "hey, I deserve this. You owe me." Or maybe it's just been my bad luck to run into some jerks?
But this isn't about me--it's about Pinkie and how different writers choose to write her. There's lots of good ways.
2656754 I'm not nuts about the estrus idea either, although if the idea would be that they'd only be interested in sex for short periods of time during the summer months, which is what horse estrus normally looks like, that would explain a lot about why they don't get distracted all the time! It could be an interesting premise. Usually, though, the idea only gets used in certain kinds of clopfics with "WISH FULFILLMENT" written in letters on 'em ten feet high.
2659382
"... because she's so much of a nerd that she'd be shocked by all the sex." Yeah. For,as we all know, people who are into books or science and stuff like that have no knowledge of sex. And certainly never have any sex, right?
Actually, I do think that Twilight would be shocked if Pinkie threw the kind of party Terrycloth is envisioning. But not because Twilight's a "nerd." Rather, because Twilight has high moral standards. Though if Pinkie was really promiscuous and did throw orgies, I think that Twilight would accept it, and still love Pinkie. Twilight's not into turning on her friends for being different from her in ways short of being evil.
Twilight would be hurt by an attempt at concealing this from her, though.
I think that Porno Party Pony Promiscuous Pinkie Pie would invite all of the other five. I don't know if any would want to come, but she'd make sure to invite them. It would be rude to do otherwise, unless explicitly told not to invite them.
I can state without reservation that you do. You may even like her more than I do -- though I most definitely love Pinkie as a character, and would love her as a person were she real.
Yes. Note that in the original essay I argued that Pinkie could go either way on the moral issue, and with the same motivations in either case -- be good, have fun, make other Ponies happy.
I totally cannot see Pinkie laughing at the caring and monogamous. Even Promiscuous Pinkie wouldn't be about celebrating the joys of promiscuity qua promiscuity; she'd be about celebrating love, which is just the same as Chaste Pinkie. The difference between Chaste and Promiscuous Pinkie lies in her beliefs about how to do it, not in her goal. Either Pinkie would see love as admirable and beautiful.
... and this where Uncaringly Promiscuous Pinkie, as a character conception, falls apart. While I could see Pinkie romantically loving more than one Pony, and even being willing to spread sexual joy to Ponies she didn't romantically love, just to make them happy, I can't see Pinkie being indifferent or uncaring about it. That's simply not Pinkie. Pinkie is a creature of Light and Love. Pinkie cares -- almost by definition.
Being sexual but sexually uncaring is the sort of thing the shallow clone-Pinkies would do, if they had been cloned from a Promiscuous Pinkie.
That's odd too. The only rationale I can see for this, on the part of a Promiscuous Pinkie, is "Because now I can't share with others," in which case she'd probably get into a semi-monogamous relationship instead, where some things were reserved only for her True Love and others were to share with everypony. (This is true in a sense even of Chaste Pinkie -- she doesn't stop being friendly and even physically-affectionate to other Ponies just she romantically loves Cheese or Big Mac or whomever).
Note: any Pinkie must have some boundaries between public and private life, or she'd go mad.
Exactly. And Pinkie's neither random nor stupid. She has definite goals, and she proceeds intelligently to achieve them. Her logic is strange and clearly based on non-standard powers of perception, but it works, which is the ultimate test of truth.
Indeed, to me Pinkie seems strongly-motivated and super-intelligent.
Same here. For that matter, I've always seen the sex-as-rebellion thing as truly silly and shallow -- one is making decisions about one of the most intimate possible actions based on striking a pose of rebelling against conformity? And doing so in exactly the same manner as everyone else on the scene? Really?
Or they tell you this to manipulate you into saying yes, or assuage their own embarrassment about not being so amazingly seductive that you dropped your own standards for them.
Which is a fairly insulting assumption on their part -- that your love is something to be purchased.
On estrus ... I assume that the Pony mares are more sexually receptive (and fertile) on a 21-day estrus cycle, with a longer seasonal fluctuation peaking in summer (which is why I have Hearts and Hooves day be early June -- it's a remnant of what was once a strong seasonality, setting up what were once temporary mating arrangements but which now tend to be more permanent (this was also around when the Big Brother Herds would come back home during the Time of Extermination). And stallions get excited by marescent. I based this on real equine sexuality.
But the Ponies are sapient. And civilized. And quite sentimental about their sexual relations. Which means that this cannot be overwhelming to the point of Erotic Mind Control. Being sapient, only very stupid or uncaring mares would fail to take their cycles into account when monitoring their own desires and deciding whether or not to start a love affair. (None of my Mane Six are nearly that stupid or uncaring). And stallions are brought up to restrain their behavior, especially around mares in estrus, because restraint shows intelligence and kindness, and hence is more sexually and socially attractive.
So no, in estrus the mares do not all get a glazed look on their eyes and fling themselves at the nearest vaguely-male entity in their presence, and the stallions don't go insane and try to mount everything shaped like or smelling like a Pony female. Some Ponies might behave like that, but they are considered to be either depraved or suffering from mental illnesses, depending on the severity of their lack of self-control.
Consider this: Humans are more or less permanently in mating season. Do we usually act like that?
I actually do have a Pinkie Pie that falls between the extremes of chasteness and promiscuity.
My Pinkie Pie rejected her family's sexual morality because she rejected everything about her family's beliefs that didn't immediately seem to a teenager as if it would promote happiness, cheer and fun. Her family believe in austerity, silence unless something important must be communicated, muted colors, and hard physical labor (they don't see party planning as work because so much of it is logistics, which is mental. Pinkie may work harder than her family does, but they wouldn't perceive it that way.) Pinkie opposes all those things, so she checked all the moral beliefs she'd been raised with against whether or not she thought they were harmful or helpful to the ideal of causing happiness. Pinkie accepted their beliefs about things like not harming other ponies, forgiving your enemies, and so on, because she could immediately see how those related to making ponies happy, but a prohibition on sex made no sense to her -- if you want it, and your partner wants it, what's the problem?
As she got older, and made a few mistakes as a teenager, she has come to recognize what the problem is, but didn't return to her family's ways. Pinkie still believes that there is absolutely nothing wrong with sex with someone you like and trust and desire, as long as nopony's going to get hurt. But she's much more aware of the ways in which sex can be emotionally hurtful now that she's an adult with some experience. So nowadays, Pinkie will sleep with anypony who wants her if she likes them, trusts them, and knows them well enough to know there will be no emotional complications -- not just "are they married or seeing someone else", but are they truly okay with sex without monogamy? This level of caution with sex is actually harder to pull off than chastity.
Pinkie likes most ponies, and trusts most of the ones she likes, and knows a lot of ponies very well... but knowing them, she also knows they wouldn't honestly be comfortable with non-monogamy. They'd want a level of exclusivity she's not willing to provide. She lives in a small town, after all, not a big city, and folks tend to be more sexually conservative there. So while she would choose to be promiscuous if she had a large number of partners available who would be okay with that, the fact that there aren't means that Pinkie doesn't actually have sex with very many ponies. Particularly since becoming one of the Elements of Harmony, her obligations to her teammates, who are her closest personal friends but who aren't for the most part sexually interested in her, have precluded her maintaining a number of friends-with-benefits relationships as she had in the past; she hasn't exactly broken up with anyone, but she has made it clear to them that though they are still her good friend and she cares for them, her obligations to Equestria don't leave her much time to spend with them. So she's not really sleeping with anyone at the moment.
In Pinkie's case I don't even think you could call it casual sex. (My character who does do casual sex is Discord, and he's actually slightly pathological about it, a combination of fear of developing emotional attachments that aren't reciprocated, ideological belief in Chaos, and posturing that nothing affects him emotionally.) Pinkie doesn't do monogamous sex, but she is anything but casual in her selection of partners and her treatment of them, because above all else she fears causing others unhappiness. So you couldn't really call her promiscuous -- her belief system allows her to be promiscuous, but there just aren't enough ponies with a similar belief system, that she knows, to allow her to have a lot of partners.
2718062
I'd call your Pinkie Pie fairly promiscuous -- but believably so for Pinkie Pie.
See, the thing about Pinkie Pie is that she's very much an All-Loving Heroine. No, I don't necessarily mean that sexually, I mean that in the sense that she has tremendous good will toward others and will go far out of her way to try to be nice to them. Now, because she's rather childlike and has a slightly alien perspective on life, she sometimes messes up the attempt (though she learns how to carry it off better and better as she matures and gains both knowledge and wisdom).
So she would never be okay with intentionally wrecking other Ponies' lives just for sex. But a Promiscuous Pinkie Pie might mess things up by accident. After which, of course, she would feel horribly guilty, do her best to try to patch everything up, and choose better strategies the next time to avoid repeating her mistakes. Eventually, she would do just as you describe -- have sex with others only if it would make them feel better and cause no long term harm to anypony. And she would eventually become very competent at avoiding such harm.
This is in sharp contrast to Cloud Kicker, or especially Winning-Through-Degradation, where harming others is obviously at best no skin off her nose, and at worst an essential part of feeding her Shadow Vice demonic symbiont.
Incidentally, my concept of Winning Through Degradation, and the Shadow Vices in general, derives essentially a non G-rated version of Sailor Moon Negaverse villains. Which I think suits My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic just fine.
2718062
Essentially, what you get -- and some don't get -- is that a Promiscuous Pinkie Pie is still an extremely nice Pony, who would go far out of her way to avoid doing harm. That's the nub of the issue.
It's true that Pinkie's been living for half her life with the Cakes rather than the Pies but the Cakes don't seem particularly wild either. They're a loving couple which means that they are presenting Pinkie with a strong model of marital love. I do notice you missed the Mr.Cake's reaction when Mrs. Cake had foals. Them being swingers is canon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9VGVxsSeyk
Them shifty eyes.
Also your ideas that a lot of other cultures look at sex as tied up in honor is moot, too. Just as many civilizations look at sex as a more open thing than that. Also that's all based on a preditory species (humans). Prey-based intelligent species like ponies would quite likely have very differnt social morals.
Point four is down right judgmental and incorrect. You equate being open to sex with anypony with harming others if they are not open to sex. Pinkie is more than willing. She just doesnt go and try to get others to have sex if they don't want to. You're talking about two different acts. Had you been raised in the 60's you would know better. There again is a difference between offering sex to every pony, and being willing to have sex with anypony. You confuse the two.
Your argument stands on point one and three and that's it and half of one is wrong. Her family vs her new family. Besides, you are just as likely to raise a deviant as a conformist from a conservative family. I suspect you've never had kids. That leaves point three and only point three. I wont argue against its truth but its far, far from the solid argument you think your five points make since four are pretty much meaningless and or wrong.