Pinkie began her story, "I grew up on a rock farm with my father, mother, and two sisters. We worked with, well...rocks! We rotated them, and when they were ready, we harvested them."
Top cocked an eyebrow, "You worked on a rock farm? How in the world were your parents ever able to make a livelihood doing that?"
"Our main customers were landscapers and sculptors, but we sold a lot of rocks to sumo wrestlers too."
"What in the world would a sumo wrestler need with rocks?"
"I don't know what a bunch of fat, sweaty ponies were doing buying our family's rocks, frankly I didn't want to ask."
Story felt a smirk creep onto his face, "So what happened at the rock farm?"
"Not much really. There was no laughing, no smiling, it was a sad place to live."
The journalist looked down, "Yeah, there are a lot of places like that."
"Until the day I saw a rainbow that is. Well, actually I saw the Rainbow Dash Sonic Rainboom, but I didn't know it at the time. But anyway, I saw the rainbow and something special happened. I felt really, really happy. As that rainbow traced across the sky, I felt like just leaping up and taking flight."
"Things must really have been sad at that farm if all it took was a rainbow to make you happy."
"It was more than just a rainbow," Pinkie's brow furrowed, "You see to me, joy is a bright rainbow. The different colors are the different types of happiness and the different ways it can find ponies."
The journalist half nodded, "I can see how that might be one way to look at it."
"Well, when I felt that explosion of joy, I knew that I wanted to feel that explosion all of the time, and I wanted everyone else to feel it too. I thought of different ways to create more smiles, when it hit me!"
"What hit you?"
Pinkie had stopped to devour a strawberry muffin in two crummy, voracious bites "Nothing hit me."
"You said something hit you."
The pink pony smiled and shook her head, "No, if something hit me I would have known it. If it hit me hard enough I might have cried."
"Well you said something hit you."
"I did?"
"Yes, when you are on the farm, and after you saw the rainbow, something hit you, like an idea came to you." Top was exasperated.
"Oh yeah, an idea came to me. Why didn't you say so?" Pinkie flashed him a broad smile and Top had an inkling that she had been playing with him.
"So an idea came to me," Pinkie continued, "I decided to throw a party. Parties are really happy, and what better way to make someone smile than with something that is happy?"
"Makes logical sense to me. Did it work?"
"You betcha! When my parents found my surprise party, they were hesitant at first, but I made them smile. It was one of the happiest moments of my life, being able to share joy. That was when I got my cutie mark," Pinkie pointed at the three balloons on her flank, "from that day forward I did everything that I could to make everyone I possibly could smile."
"Life on the farm was better then. My family was happier, and I was happier. Better yet, I was able to see my true inspiration more often."
"What, a rainbow?" Asked the reporter.
"Nope, my granny Pie. My parents used to keep my granny Pie away because they thought she was a 'bad influence' because she was always happy. After they learned how to be happy, they wanted her to come around more." Pinkie continued.
"Granny Pie taught me a lot about being happy, she taught me what she knew about baking, she taught me about well...everything! Well, my parents helped raise me, and they were important, too. If it wasn't for her though, I wouldn't be the pony I am today."
"Sounds like she was a very important person in your young life." Top cleared his throat.
"She was the most important person in my young life. My mother, father, and sisters were important, but it was granny Pie that helped shape me," Pinkie looked down in reverence, her blue eyes glistening, "she helped me become the mare I am today. She was almost always there for me when I needed her. I could talk to her about anything and she would always listen. When I was scared she could always make me feel better, and she always, always knew how to make me laugh."
Pinkie's tone had become softer, almost a whisper. She looked down and Top was certain that she was hiding tears. Bile felt like it was filling his stomach. He saw his mother, a small gray mare, bending her knees and looking over the shoulder of a small colt trying to write a news story about the food fight that happened at school that day. She kissed his forehead and told him that he was writing a great story, while his father, a large black stallion, sat in the other room reading the paper.
Top Story shook away these thoughts and cleared his throat. Pinkie smiled and looked up at him with dry eyes, and continued. "Time went by and I got older. Life on the farm was better, everyone was happy, or at least happier than they were. But I found out that I wasn't truly happy. In this great big, wide, wide, world there was a place for Pinkie, but it wasn't the rock farm."
"When I told my parents I wanted to leave I thought they would be really supportive, boy was I wrong. They told me that I was way too young and irresponsible to leave the house, but I told them they were wrong. Woah, you should have heard the yelling. I think me and my parents shouted until we couldn't shout anymore. Then they said I wasn't leaving, and that was that."
"I spent all that night and the following day thinking about what I should do. As I was working the rock farm, I made up my mind that I was going to leave the farm. But there was one person I wanted to talk to first. Without saying anything that night, I packed my bags, snuck away, and caught a train to my granny Pie's. We talked and I told her that I didn't know what to do. She just looked at me seriously, one of the few times that she did without scolding me, and said, 'Twinkie Winkie Pinkie, you are a big mare now, you need to do what makes you happy.'"
"She said she wouldn't say anything else about the matter, all she said was that I needed to do what made me happy. Can you imagine how frustrating that was? I mean really, I came all that way for advice and that was all she told me. I was so confused, I didn't know what to do."
Top's eyes had misted over as he saw him standing in front of a gorgeous, young, yet haughty purple earth mare. He protected her while he argue with his parents over whether they would approve of his union with his love. His parents didn't want him marrying a 'hoochie horse' like her. He told them that he was going to marry her no matter what they said. When his father left the room, his mother said that while she didn't necessarily approve, if he was happy she was happy. Top and his future wife were on a train that morning...
"...and that's how Equestria was won!"
"What?" Top jerked up and straightened his shoulders.
"Oh nothing, I was trying to get your attention. So, after after all of that thinking, I decided to hit the road. My granny Pie had given me the best advice she could have given me at that time. I wasn't very happy where I was, so I decided to leave. As I was preparing to go, both of my sisters arrived at my granny Pie's house. I expected that my parents had sent them to talk me out of leaving, however they were just there so that they could make sure to tell me goodbye before I left."
"My parents didn't want to talk to me, so they sent my sisters to say goodbye for them. They said that they didn't want me to go, that they would miss me, and they said sorry for not being happy all the time, they said sorry for not coming to all my parties...they said sorry for a lot of things. We all ended up crying in the end," Pinkie screwed her eyes shut and shook as she voraciously attacked another strawberry cupcake. She cleared her throat, "It was a really sad time. Part of me didn't want to leave them behind, but I knew I had to move on."
Top remembered the train ride with his future wife. She talked about how they would show his parents. After they eloped, he would get a great job, get a big house, nice clothes, and have everything they ever wanted. He never heard her, all he could see was his mother's teary blue eyes.
Pinkie's words broke through the stallion's thoughts, "There were all kinds of frowns out there that ol' Pinkie Pie had to turn upside down. As that train chugged down the track, I knew that I was heading toward my destiny."
"Where did that train take you?"
"To my destination of course, Salt Lick City!"