Last time was a bust, so...here's hoping!

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Pinkamena Diane Pie (aka Pinkie Pie) is one of the most surreal, downright bizarre ponies on the show. She's almost always in a happy mood, blissfully bouncing around with so much as a care in the world. Not only that, but she can do...things that other ponies (especially Earth ponies) are incapable of reproducing, such as popping from behind brick walls, distorting her body's shape to suit her needs, and being able to wield the mighty Party Cannon. She can discern a pony's identity with a glance, remembers everypony's name and birthday (save her own, apparently), and serves as an unofficial welcome pony to newcomers. But beneath her smiles, she is an incredibly fragile pony, and even the slightest hint that her friends might not like her is enough to send her into a depressive cycle. Still, she is a kind, friendly, and fun-loving pony that wants to see everypony smile.

AND THEN SEASON 2 HAPPENED.

The Pinkie of Season 2 was a psychotic, empathy-deprived maniac who destroyed lives, humiliated her friends, and basically acted like a flankhole to even the ponies she was closest to. She hogged all the town's cider, and then loudly announced how wonderful it was to a VERY pissed Rainbow Dash. When the rest of her friends tried to explain the Pony-Pet Play Date to Dash, she put words in their mouths and made them sound like they were conspiring behind the blue Pegasus' back. When Luna came to town looking to make friends, she turned the entire populace against her just to make things more scary for the kids. And then there's "A Friend In Deed," the only episode of the show I will NEVER rewatch. I don't care if it had good character bits (which I will mention below so others will not have to suffer as I did), and I don't care that "Smile" was awesome. The Pinkie in that episode is so UN-Pinkie that it actually made me knock her down from my second-favorite character all the way to Worst Pony, and unless Season 3 can pull a miracle, that's probably where she'll stay.

When the episodes actually focused on her (and weren't "A Friend In Deed"), she came off a bit more positively. Her theme in the second season appeared to be learning how to be more responsible, and on that end it delivered. "Baby Cakes" had her learn that there's a difference between a caretaker and a playmate, while "MMMMystery on the Friendship Express" taught her that you need to actually understand a situation before you accuse someone of something they didn't do, and to look at things from a logical perspective rather than just jumping to wild conclusions that have no basis in reality. Both episodes help to highlight her key character traits while also helping to build her up in a more positive way.

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Pinkie is a lot like that kid you knew from band camp that downed an entire box of Pixy Stix before drinking a vending machine's worth of soda. Everything Pinkie does is full of energy and a lust for life. She has a habit of just bouncing instead of walking, and even when she does consent to trotting, she always has that extra spring in her step. She's almost always smiling, and will see the fun to be had in even something as terrible as a cattle stampede. Wherever Pinkie goes, she intends to leave nothing but smiles and laughter behind.

This attitude translates perfectly into Pinkie's psychology and sense of morality. As far as Pinkie is concerned, there are two kinds of ponies in the world: those that are happy, and those that are not. It is her Celestia-given duty to make sure that the latter group transforms into the former by any means necessary. And by "any means," I mean parties. Pinkie will throw a party for just about any reason, whether or not it even makes sense. The beginning of Spring? Party time! New pony in town? Party time! Pet alligator's birthday? Party time, with another the day after. Whatever the reason, you can bet that Pinkie will have some supplies tucked away, just waiting for the right time to strike. And when she has to hit the road, she brings out her Party Cannon, a literal cannon that shoots out party supplies.

Whenever confronted with a sad situation, or a person who's being mean to others, Pinkie's response is to throw a party in their honor just to make them feel better. When she witnessed Gilda being a thief and a bully, she threw a party, since it was obvious that Gilda just needed to be cheered up to be a better person. Both times Applebloom was especially downtrodden about her lack of a cutie mark, Pinkie was there to try and cheer her up. She did fail in these cases, but that was because the situations surrounding the problems were deeper than she had anticipated.

Another thing that highlights Pinkie's personality is her singing. Back in the very early days of the show (before "Winter Wrap-Up), Pinkie served as the show's official song starter, as she would belt out medleys at absolute random. If she was menaced by scary trees, she would break into song about how trees couldn't hurt her. When Fluttershy needed help over a ledge, she sung her the exact movements needed to get over. Eventually, orchestrated numbers came into prominence, but "Pinkie Pie Songs" still stick around as kind of a parody of the way other pony series (especially G1) would break into song at least once an episode, often with incredibly vapid and pointless numbers with terrible lyrics and music. While Pinkie's songs are catchy to an audience, they are still very simple, plain affairs that just convey what they need without a lot of extra frills. The only exception would be "Smile," but that was more along the lines of a regular song that exemplified everything Pinkie stood for.

While Pinkie has a lot of good qualities, she also has a rather dark past. Her childhood was spent on a rock farm, where all sense of hope and joy was beat out of her in favor of rotating rocks for seemingly no reason whatsoever. It wasn't until she saw Rainbow Dash's Sonic Rainboom that she realized how much love and joy there really was in the world, and set out to spread those feelings everywhere she went. When she tried to start with her parents and sisters, however, they had been miserable for so long that their very bodies resisted smiling. It may have taken them a few extra seconds to finally force the muscles into the right spots, but the look of hurt on Pinkie's face was more than enough to show just how serious she took this party. Perhaps this troubled childhood of hers is reflected in the kind of parties she's interested in.

While the entire cast is immature in some way (mostly to make them more appealing to kids), Pinkie is by far the most overtly childish. Her parties are made more for small children than the grown ponies she usually invites, she loves playing with little kids, and she has a remarkably simplistic view of how things in the world work. Despite her good intentions, her attempts at just singing away the problems between the Buffalo and the Settlers ended up causing the very war she wanted to prevent, mostly because her song was just that bad. In "A Friend In Deed," she is so obsessed with one donkey not liking her that she completely ignores his requests not to touch his things, splatters him with cake, humiliates him in front of the entire town, and finally destroys his most prized possession (albeit accidentally, but she shouldn't have been playing with it). The latter case was especially bad, as it took a literal ass pull from the writers to put Pinkie back in the right again.

Pinkie's idea of a party is a wild event where ponies pin tails on donkeys, bob for apples, and play an assortment of other games, all while dancing like maniacs and grooving like there's no tomorrow. In this environment, Pinkie is frequently the life of the party itself. However, once she gets set into any other kind of function, she has no idea how to behave. Her own contribution to the Gala's destruction was caused by her adamant refusal to accept that not all parties have to be loud, crazy affairs, and proceeded to mess up the band and lead the entire ball in a performance of the Pony Pokey.

Pinkie places a huge amount of value on friendship; specifically, she wants to be friends with every single pony she meets. While Twilight (the actual Element of Magic/Friendship) prefers deeper, more emotional connections, Pinkie's fine with just being that pony everypony likes to have parties with. She knows ever single pony in town, which allows her to quickly pick up on when a new pony has arrived. This attachment, however, comes with two rather nasty negative consequences. The first is that she has to be friends with everyone, so when she ran into Cranky, she was completely dumbfounded that he didn't immediately accept her friendship. (She then proceeded to destroy his stuff and make a flank of herself, but I've exhausted most of my rage today.) The second comes when she thought her friends hated her parties and didn't want to be friends anymore; she basically reverted back to her rock farming appearance, began arguing with inanimate objects, and inspired thousands of bronies to declare "Cupcakes" canon.

While Pinkie's main purpose in life is parties, she also works (and lives) at Sugar Cube Corner, the local bakery/sweet shop. While the bakery's owners, Carrot Cake and Cup Cake, appreciate how well she plans parties and takes care of their twin babies, Pound and Pumpkin Cake, they don't exactly have a lot of confidence in her on a professional level. Pinkie has only been shown baking twice; the first time was ruined because of Applejack (although Pinkie really should have turned her head at some point), while the second time produced horribly burnt cupcakes...which she still served. She also helps run the counter in a couple episodes, and apparently helps plan the parties that take place in the store, and while she's good at both tasks, the Cakes are rather hesitant whenever they have to entrust her with any more responsibility.

However, there is one thing that a lot of writers (both in and out of the show) forget: Pinkie is not an irresponsible idiot. Despite basically living in her own world half the time, she's an extremely personable, outgoing pony with a photographic memory and a keen amount of insight. As mentioned before, she knows everypony in town, down to their birthdays, what's going on in their lives, what kind of cookies they like, etc. She was able to piece together who Cranky was looking for after just glancing at a scrapbook for a few seconds. She even knew how to deal with the Parasprites when nopony else could. She realized Twilight was a newcomer and needed a welcome party before the Unicorn could get out a single word. As for responsibility, while it initially took Pinkie a little bit of time to get around to the idea, she was able to prove herself capable of taking care of the baby Cakes, and was only completely overwhelmed at the end because the two basically became diapered gods. She also took defending the MMMM very seriously, even after her friends brushed her concerns off/stabbed her in the back. In both cases, she never lost the more silly qualities that make her Pinkie; she still cracked jokes when putting the babies to bed, and was polite enough to ask if the thief was all right when they crashed into a wall.

Before we move on, though, there is one disturbing bit of fanon that we, unfortunately, must discuss. Early in the days of the show, back when most of the early Bronies were still on 4chan, someone posted a small story called "Cupcakes." In it, Pinkie was transformed into a giggling serial killer who tortured Rainbow Dash to death so she could make cupcakes from her meat. It was a shockingly disturbing story at the time, and unfortunately attracted a lot of attention. As a result, Pinkie tends to be portrayed as a murderous psychopath in a lot of fan works, to the point where ponies can't even go in a basement with her without asking if they'll be turned into cupcakes. Needless to say, this has no bearing in canon. Pinkie might be a nut, but as far as I can tell, she hasn't murdered anyone.

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One thing about Pinkie that bears notice is her range of abilities. Most of the ponies have fairly standard skills, conforming to their character attributes and backstory. Pinkie's main talent, however, lies in her seeming ability to warp space and time to her will. The laws of physics no longer apply to her the same way they do to normal ponies. If you try to scale a mountain to escape her, she'll appear right under you. Try to hide behind a barn? She'll teleport behind you. Hide by a lake? She'll be underwater, waiting for you. Not only that, but she can seemingly change her species at will. When she was dressed like a chicken in "Luna Eclipsed," she managed to run on two legs, pecked at candy like a chicken, and even laid an actual egg at one point. There is just no way to explain it.

In short, Pinkie Pie is an old-school cartoon character, something that stands in stark contrast compared to the rest of the cast. She also operates on Roger Rabbit rules; she can do anything she wants, but only when it's funny. Pinkie can slide up from under a frame, clone herself, turn a broom into a microphone, and whatever else she wants, as long as it fits the scene. Her primary reason for existing is to provide gags and humor, even in some of the show's darkest moments. In short, she is not just providing laughter to the other ponies, but to the people watching from home as well.

She also has access to the Pinkie Sense, a special ability that allows her to predict future happenings through shakes in her body. Unfortunately for Twilight, 99% of the time Pinkie predicts something, it will be aimed squarely at her. Like her ability to teleport, there is simply no explanation for this power. Indeed, the one time Twilight tried to find a scientific basis, Derpy dropped a flower pot, an anvil, a hay cart, and a piano on her head. Let's just say that it's significantly less painful if you just admit that you will never know anything about Pinkie and move on with your life.

There is, however, one power that fans generally give her: the ability to break the fourth wall. Pinkie apparently knows we're out there, watching her, and wants desperately to watch back. This is especially common in fanfiction, where Pinkie will glance at the script, speak openly about the humans watching her friends do stuff, and even travel back and forth between worlds on occasions. In all these cases, Pinkie is not a serious threat, but rather just a playful spirit who's curious about what lies beyond that invisible wall. It should be noted, however, that Word of God has clearly stated that Pinkie does NOT, in fact, have fourth wall-breaking abilities. Still, it's a fun little bit of fandom nonsense, and has lead to some of the funniest fics in the community.

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Shipping-wise, Pinkie has been bounced between partners like clockwork, but one ship in particular is rather bizarre. For whatever reason, quite a few fans like to pair her up with Discord. Admittedly, she did find the most enjoyment out of his early reign, as she loved the chocolate rain and cotton candy clouds he produced. It also fits if you subscribe to the whole "Discord is a harmless prankster" theory. That being said, you'd think the whole "I brainwashed you and made you hate your friends" thing would be a major turn-off.

Pinkie's relationship with her friends is not quite anyone else's in the show. While she cares deeply about them, she also has a tendency to act without thinking, not inform them of something important when it would be helpful, and has a tendency to get on their nerves. In the beginning, Rainbow Dash didn't even like her at all, but turned around after she showed a common interest in practical jokes. In the same episode, Pinkie also showed that as much as she likes pulling pranks on her friends, she understands that Fluttershy wouldn't take the joke well at all and puts her clearly off-limits; this is one of the reasons why Gilda scaring her angered her so much. Pinkie's interactions with Applejack and Rarity are far less numerous, although she is on good terms with Apple Bloom. She also teamed up with Rarity in "Putting Your Hoof Down" to teach Fluttershy how to be assertive, possibly tying into her protective instincts from "Griffon The Brush Off." This backfired royally when Fluttershy very loudly declared the both of them complete losers with worthless life goals; considering how cutie marks work, that is about as low an insult as you can level in Equestria. Still, she and Rarity were more than willing to forgive her, and she tried to defend her from Iron Will.

The most interesting friendship, and certainly the most fun, is between Pinkie and Twilight. The two form the show's odd couple, with Pinkie being a bouncing ball of pure energy and Twilight a highly-disciplined magic user. Twilight seems to be the one Pinkie turns to the most when she has a friendship issue, such as when Gilda came to town and when Cranky threw her out of his house. In Gilda's case, Twilight was wrong, but that was because she didn't have a complete picture of what kind of a person Gilda was. As for Cranky, Twilight (and Rainbow) were right that Pinkie should have given Cranky his space; unfortunately, Pinkie insisted on apologizing, forcing Twilight to put her face into her book, and possibly later check on her wall. The real fun, however, is when the two get to play off each other. In "Feeling Pinkie Keen," Twilight goes to ridiculous lengths to disprove the Pinkie Sense, despite everypony she runs into telling her it's not a good idea, and soon gets pummeled into oblivion for it. In the end, she admits that there are some things you just can't explain, which apparently was a supporting argument for religion or something. Meanwhile, in "MMMMystery..." Pinkie shouts out insane explanations for what happened to the cake, while the increasingly frustrated Twilight tries to get her to think logically. In the end, Pinkie admits that thinking things through and looking for actual proof rather than blindly accusing others is the right way to go.

Pinkie never really spends time with her family, at least from what we've seen. Instead, her closest connection outside of her friends is with the Cakes. Carrot Cake and Cup Cake view her as sort of a surrogate child; that is, the child that never moved out of the house and causes a lot of trouble wherever she goes. She, in turn, respects them and wants to at least make them proud of her work, even if some of the tasks she takes on are outside her usual capabilities. In fact, when they had to deal with a major order and had to find a babysitter fast, they went to Pinkie only after they had exhausted everyone else. Cup Cake had to be dragged out of the house, and even after they came back they expected the entire place to be in ruins, and were pleasantly surprised when the house was perfectly clean with the babies asleep. Pound and Pumpkin Cake, on the other hand, think the world of her and love her as a playmate, while Pinkie views herself as their older sibling or cool aunt. They also have an amazingly strong sense of empathy for month-old babies, as they can see when they've pushed Pinkie too far and quickly go to cheer her up.

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What's sad about Pinkie's development in the second season is that, of the three episodes she had a chance to shine in, two of them really did build on her as a character and turned her into a more likeable pony. And as much as I hated "A Friend In Deed," I will concede that it gave a good idea of how the community views her. That being said, I wish more people would remember her as the kind-but-loud pony that just wanted to make everyone smile, and not the deplorable individual she became in the second season.

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Well, this is all horribly wrong, so...whatever. I'll be holding off on these for a little while, if only so I can get caught up on the next chapter of BUB. See you later.