Black Butterfly!Tjqw8oY5fYCountry code: blank.gif, country type: blank, valid: No.25976
You know what the really scary thing is? I think this episode has actually made me... *gulp* understand Pinkie Pie.
No, no, hear me out:
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Pinkie's origin story might not be completely true (we do now know she actually gets delusional when she cracks up) but there's definitely a kernel of truth in it. She certainly had a horrible, lonely childhood (perhaps even worse than what we saw, or what we saw might be accurate), until she saw the Sonic Rainboom, and its unexpected beauty taught her to smile and drove her to party, be wacky, and go out and find friends; her true nature, the thing that makes her special, hence: cutie mark.
Now, Pinkie Pie needs her friends. No: Pinkie Pie desperately needs friends. (And a massive hug. *sniffles*)
You see, when she gets lonely, it takes her back to where she was before. She can't get like that again; she simply can't. She'd fall apart. She'd throw parties with inanimate objects in a desperate attempt to rekindle what she needed, and had, and lost. She'd become a crazy cat lady: give her time. (Actually Cupcakes does not seem like an impossible stretch now: she actually is the kind who could snap in her despair; but she doesn't want that, and it's definitely not happened yet!)
Pinkie Pie therefore cannot be lonely. She needs friendship so desperately that she at least knows everypony (and I mean everypony) in Ponyville. To the extent that if a completely new pony canters into town she's never seen before, and I'm going to highlight this bit, because this actually gives us one of the biggest clues into the logic leaps that Pinkie Pie's brain makes:
>PINKIE PIE: That's silly! What kind of welcome party would this be if it were quiet? I mean, duh, boring! You see, I saw you when you first got here, remember? You were all, "hello", and I was all, (GASP)-- remember? You see I never saw you before; and if I never saw you before that means you're new ('cause I know everypony, and I mean everypony in Ponyville); and if you're new, it means you haven't met anyone yet; and if you haven't met anyone yet, you must not have any friends; and if you don't have any friends you must be lonely, and that made me so sad; and I had an idea, and that's why I went-- (GASP)
One of the first things she's ever said to her new friend, and she's actually admitted right there in the middle of the sentence without noticing it that she used to be lonely and sad. Bless her. The thought of losing her friends (FOOOR-EEEEV-EEEER!) is primally terrifying for the poor pink pony: it'd make her lonely again, and that made her so sad she worries so much about how she'd feel and what she might do. She can't be lonely ever again; so she went out and made friends, and threw parties all the time, and (quite honestly) went completely over the top fruitloop about it (but hey, that's Pinkie!). She needs the attention to stave off the loneliness. Being ignored scares her because it makes her lonely. She's actually pretty paranoid about even the possibility of losing her friends, because she needs them so very much (which, uh, we've seen in this episode; it's not a constructive thing!).
Pinkie's cutie mark is balloons. You see, the thing about balloons is that on their own, they're deflated. They need something to fill them; then they become a pretty, floaty party icon, bringing joy to everypony around them. With a balloon, that's helium. With Pinkie, that's the love, kindness and affection of her friends. Without it, they'd just deflate again, and they're actually kind of delicate and easy to pop. She needs friends around her to keep her puffed up (see also: the hair); and she's so happy that she has friends who love her very much that she's a bouncy maniac of a party machine who wants to share that love and make the world smile with her.
Actually, the moral of this episode really resonates with me, and it really is a lesson Pinkie does need to learn about friendship: you don't need to worry that real friends will abandon you. They won't, because they're real friends. It's OK to trust them, and it's OK to trust yourself to them, because they will be there for you.
Big hugs for you Pinkie, from one little paranoid party pony to another!
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