In earlier days of MLP she was my second favorite pony and I would sometimes even ship my persona with her. I found her so fun to have around, in part due to her reality-bending antics (not to mention she does the most with her tail of any of the ponies, I love tails).

But in later seasons she started to come across as more annoying and and I demoted her way down on my list.

But earlier this year I had a dream about her. I forget what it was about but I almost never dream about ponies. So why is she the only pony I've ever dreamed about? (Unless Chrysalis counts, when I was waiting for her final fate) The last time I dreamed about something I thought I didn't like anymore, it not only reminded me what I loved about it, but cured me of a sexist disease I caught as a kid, and thus without that one dream I'd have never gotten into MLP.

Also, in 2016 I designed a dragon OC whose personality is kinda based on Pinkie's a bit, as the comic relief who I envision sounding like her. (Regarding the tail thing she's known for powerful tailwhips too...) She lacks the reality-bending antics, or the pink (her sister is pink though, but she's more like Fluttershy). I think she's the favorite of my dragon OC's. Why? Because I designed her similar to Pinkie?

And every single time I watch the movie, when Pinkie is sad over Twilight yelling at her (and nearly blasting her), and later when she thinks Twilight was killed by the Storm King's tornado, I can't help but feel every bit as sad as her. I was reminded of this when I reached the movie on my rewatch yesterday.

Between all this, do I still love Pinkie deep down as much as I used to? (And though she was inconsiderate to Fluttershy in 28 Pranks Later, she is compassionate to her again in The Mean 6)

Of course it's too late for notions of the romantic kind of love now (besides, Cheese Sandwich is perfect for her), but as far as her being one of my favorite characters who's fun to have around, do I still subconsciously think of her as such?

Hot take, you can have a conceptual reality of what a character is like without internally canonizing every episode. In your second to last paragraph it seems like you're judging Pinkie as though she equally "did" both those things. But authors can be wrong.

When you think about whether or not you love a character, it is OK to think about the Platonic ideal of that character, the essence of the character in terms of what she means to you.

It's because you're not dreaming about Ponks. She's dreaming about you.