With the alternate title of “Why my stories are not for everyone”, a.k.a. “Why you might think my stories suck”.

Why? Why do I adore this random ball of chaotic fluff we know as Pinkie, Pinkamena, Ponka or the Pinkster? That is a simple question, with an answer that is simpler than I’m going to make it in this explanation.

To start with, let’s take a step back, to my childhood. Since my youngest memories, I’ve always been smiling. My parents love to joke that I’ve grinned my way through life since I was born, and they’ve shown me pictures to prove that, even when I was a baby I was always grinning at something.

Growing up, comedy films were always my favorite, and I loved to laugh, even when I was sick. Don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t mean I was never unhappy. I’ve cried, raged and fallen into deep depression all my life. But, no matter how bad it got, I could always still laugh. Even when maybe I didn’t feel like laughing, if I saw the right thing, I still start giggling.

Basically, I’m a giggly bitch. Always have been, always will be.

My dad says it’s the Irish in me. I dunno if that’s true or not. All I know is, it’s who I am. As such, it only makes sense I suppose that, out of all the Elements, no matter how much they may ring with me, the Element of Laughter would always be the one that I was drawn to.

It’s deeper than that, though. Pinkie reminds me of me, in a lot of ways.

I like to keep things lighthearted and positive, to keep people I care about happy and smiling, because if they get depressed then I do as well, and it can be really hard to pick myself up from that as long as they stay unhappy.

Sound familiar?

There’s more to Pinkie Pie than what’s on the surface. To me, she’s a deep character, a lot more intelligent than she first appears and, holding true to the old saying, she laughs so much, because she’s experienced her fair share of pain.

And then, there’s Pinkie’s special abilities. Admittedly, the fandom, and I am no exception, makes these a bigger part of her character than the actual show does, but it still remains that Pinkie has a latent self-awareness and an uncanny ability to break the fourth wall, reaching out to all of us in the audience with her special sense of humour.

Again, since I was a kid, I’ve loved that kind of comedy. One of my favorite movies growing up was George of the Jungle, with Brendan Frazier, which was the first time I ever saw what I eventually learned was called “Breaking the Fourth Wall”. The film made a habit throughout of having characters argue with the narrator, and directly address the audience. I absolutely loved it, and it made me feel closer to the film, and more a part of the goings on. Like I actually existed and mattered to the characters in the film.

Fast forward a decade or so, and I discovered the show Moonlighting. For those who’ve never heard of it, it’s basically where Bruce Willis got his start, playing a snarky private eye, opposite Cybill Shepherd, who played a former fashion model who, now bankrupt, becomes a P.I. to help pay the rent, and gets Willis’ character to help her out as her partner.

The show was one of the forerunners of the “Dramedy” style genre, and made frequent use of fourth wall breaks throughout, having especially Willis and Shepherd, during scenes or dialogue, turn and directly address the audience, or else make reference to the fact that they were in a TV show.

However, in spite of the humour, Moonlighting did something at the end of it’s five seasons that opened up a whole new concept to me. In the end, having learned that the show wasn’t being renewed for another season, the cast and crew decided to go out with a bang. The entire series finale was one giant fourth wall break, featuring Willis and Shepherd racing through multiple Hollywood back lots in an effort to reach a church in order to get married. It featured crew members disassembling the series sets, and cast members lying on the floor, “Dead” because they no longer had any lines in the script.

It was hilarious, but at the end, Willis and Shepherd’s characters reach a church, only to find that they’re out of time, and that they’ll never be together. The show is over so “David Addison” and “Maddie Hayes” will be no more. Their story is over. The scene ends with them sitting on the steps, in front of the altar, staring at one another in silence.

It was a fourth wall break, and a big one. That same thing that had always brought a smile and a laugh to my face. But not that time. That time, I was in tears, breaking down and weeping uncontrollably, and that made me realize that a fourth wall break didn’t have to be funny. If used correctly, it can be a major plot device, that can further a story, or bring about extreme emotion.

Hence why, in my story Pony Plots, the plotline has progressed so that breaking the fourth wall is not just a piece of comedic relief, but rather and integral part of the story and world.

In my most recent story, Pinkie’s Day Off, Pinkie being Pinkie, breaks the Fourth on multiple occasions. The story also seemed to write itself for me. I didn’t feel pressured or in a jam, once, while I was writing it.

Pinkie Pie, with her flair for the randomly insane and the crazily dramedic, to be dead serious one second and poking fun with a simple sight gag or piece of slapstick the next, is the perfect character for me. With her, I feel completely free to ignore the rules if I want, and just let the story go where it wants to go.

From a writer’s perspective, that’s why I love her.

From a brony’s perspective, I love her because she . . . She is literally everything that keeps me going in life, an envisioning of my own positivity and need to keep laughing at whatever life throws at me, even if it makes me sad.

As such, I will always love Pinkie, and always look at her as my one and only “Best Pony”, even as I acknowledge that the others are just as important as she is.

Well, I’ve rambled long enough. Until next time, everypony! Harmonia Aeternum!