Pinkamena and Diane Pies' Turn on Earth

In a previous chapter, I talked about what Pinkie Pie learned from me and others. In this chapter, I’ll talk about what Pinkie Pie taught me about herself and about myself.

As I mentioned before, Pinkie and I watched the cartoon “My Little Pony Friendship is Magic” together. And, I have already mentioned how some of those episodes affected the two of us. But, there are also other episodes that affected us, and in different ways.

Pretty much from the first day, the pink party pony and I watched episodes of the show. And, it was interesting to see how the show affected Pinkie Pie. For instance, when she saw herself on the show doing things that should’ve been impossible in reality, she tried doing those things. Of course, she found out the hard way that bending reality in reality was more difficult than it looked. She tried walking through a wall, only to end up getting hurt, or at least hitting her head hard enough on the wall that she had a headache for maybe an hour afterwards.

As it turns out, she could bend reality the way she saw herself doing in the cartoon, but only when a camera was aimed at her. The only problem with that was situations like that were extremely rare, which meant she had little chance of doing the things she saw her cartoon self doing.

When she did have a camera aimed at her, most of the time she could only affect the camera. Whatever camera shaking she did, for instance, was strictly her physically shaking the camera. And, the only way she could keep a closing hole open was, once again, by influencing the camera; in that case, keeping the lens aperture open.

But, that wasn’t the only effect the show had on her, as several episodes taught both of us about her and how the other ponies in the show saw her behavior.

For instance, from watching the episode “Feeling Pinkie Keen,” Diane learned of different ways she could communicate to Pinkamena about impending dangers and wonders around her. From several episodes, both of us learned that a talent represented by a cutie mark becomes so important to a pony that it pretty much occupies his or her whole life. Living with Pinkie Pie taught me that Equestrian ponies, at least, aren’t that different from humans. But, the episode “Ponyville Confidential” made it especially clear that when it came to concepts that ponies and humans would consider slanderous, we really aren’t all that different.

There were other effects that watching certain episodes of the show had on the two of us.

For instance, as we watched the episode, “Party of One,” I suppose I shouldn’t have been all that surprised to see how it emotionally affected Pinkie Pie, seeing herself go through what she did in that episode. I remember seeing her in tears as she watched herself being hit so hard by the alleged news that her friends didn’t want to be her friends anymore, and didn’t like her parties.

I remember asking her, "Pinkie, are you alright?"

She sniffled and whimpered, "You're so lucky. You don't know, you'll never know, what it's like to have only one talent. Because you have so many talents, if one of 'em stops working, you can always work with another one until the one that failed starts working again. Me, I just have one talent. If it fails me, well, you saw for yourself what happened to me."

I asked her, "Isn't that kinda pessimistic?"

Pinkie answered by asking, "Tell me, if you'd been there, not in my place, but if you'd been there, what would you have done?"

I remember answering, "Well, I'd want to help, of course. I'd want to let you know that you're not alone."

Pinkie leaped into my arms, hugged me, and said, "Thanks, Daddy."

After that, it seemed that the episode "Party of One" was never quite so traumatizing to her.

When we watched the episode “Sonic Rainboom” together, seeing Rarity lose her butterfly wings and fall, then Rainbow Dash rescue her, Pinkie Pie turned to me and asked what I would’ve done in that situation. After getting clarification that she meant what if I’d been part of the audience watching, I answered that I’d call out to Rainbow Dash and let her know as soon as possible that Rarity needed her help. For all intents and purposes, I’d support Rainbow Dash as much as possible through her problems. And, as often as I could before the incident, I’d remind Rarity to keep a humble attitude, that being humble would help her keep her wings longer.

When we watched the episode “Baby Cakes,” Pinkie Pie asked me if I’d help her if I’d been there, and I answered that I would. And, I had the same answer for her similar question about helping her defend that MMMM cake in the episode “MMMystery on the Friendship Express.”

And, of course, questions of that type rested on the premise that, by the time I was in those situations, I’d already watched the episodes and would know what to do in those situations.

Such was the case when we were watching the episode, “Too Many Pinkie Pies,” and saw the number of copies of the pink earth pony increase due to the mirror pool she’d apparently found in the Everfree forest near Ponyville.

When we watched the episode “Magical Mystery Cure,” Pinkie Pie became particularly upset when she saw what looked like Twilight Sparkle being vaporized by beams that shot out from the element jewels on the neck braces of the bearers, including her own. I had to hold and comfort her until she saw that Twilight hadn’t been killed by them after all, that she'd spend time with Princess Celestia and come back later with a pair of wings.

By the time we got to watching the episode “Pinkie Pride,” the pink earth pony already knew that if I were there, it’d be to support her. She just wanted to know what plan of action I’d have for her. Her main question was would I agree to the goof-off until Rainbow Dash got hurt, or would I have a different plan to follow? My idea for a solution was for her and Cheese Sandwich to make a list of the different components of the party that they could agree on, then show Rainbow Dash how each of them would demonstrate each component, and give her, that is Rainbow Dash, the choice of which pony had the best demonstration of each component. Hopefully, the two party ponies could join forces to provide her rainbow-haired friend with the kind of party she’d want. As I remember, Pinkie Pie liked that idea.

When we watched the episode “Party Pooped,” I think I might’ve offended Pinkie Pie when I talked about the behavior of the yaks. I remember saying something to the effect that someone, some pony, should’ve drawn the line, and let the yaks know what is and isn’t acceptable behavior in Equestria; that if aggression was all the yaks understood, someone should’ve communicated directly with one of them on that level, perhaps specifically with Prince Rutherford. That idea didn’t appeal too much to Pinkie Pie. It was fortunate, in the episode, that such an approach eventually proved unnecessary. I still have to wonder, though, if it had become necessary, would Twilight have been willing to use that kind of approach?

When we watched the episode “Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?”, Pinkie Pie brought up the point that people might think that the solution to the problem came too quickly. And, personally, I’ve thought about that for quite a long time. It may be just the same way in this time as in the time when this episode is made that people either don’t have an experience where they keep simple problems in themselves until they threaten their destruction, as Princess Luna was portrayed doing in the episode. And, even when the problem is shouted from the rooftops, sort of speak, it is hopeful that people will listen and run to assist the one with the problem. How fortunate is it for people if they find themselves in the kind of situation where they do have friends to come to their assistance. But, for most of us humans, we’re stubborn. And, when someone shouts, unless we’re looking and listening, we don’t hear. And, evidently, Equestrian ponies are the same way, or at least very similar. But, when the problem is finally identified, and a solution found, more often than not the implementation of the solution is simpler, and takes a lot less time, than we could have imagined; and we can end up feeling foolish for having kept the problem hidden away for so long. I think I said as much to Pinkie Pie. Whether she understood at the time or not I may never know, but I think she grew to understand as she watched humans around her.

When we watched the episode “The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows,” Pinkie seemed disappointed in herself that she’d forgotten so quickly the lesson she’d taught Twilight in the episode “Green Isn’t Your Color.” She was happy to see herself keeping her promises, especially her Pinkie promises; but she was unhappy with herself for forgetting that one lesson about keeping a secret. Still, she knew that if I’d been there, I would’ve helped her.

These are just a few examples of the questions Pinkie Pie had for me as we watched episodes of “My Little Pony Friendship is Magic” together, at least those of the first five seasons, the only ones we had, for the first time.

There were a couple episodes that appealed to me, in particular because of a certain gray pegasa with yellow hair: “The Last Roundup,” and “Slice of Life.” Having disabilities of my own, disabilities that kept me from really fitting into society, I felt something of a kinship with that pony, who, in that first episode, was called Derpy, and, in the second one, Muffins. I wouldn’t trade Pinkie Pie for the gray pegasa, nor the experiences I had with the pink earth pony for those I might have with Derpy, or Muffins, or whatever you wanna call her. After all, I wonder how well Pinkie would’ve fit in if all the other ponies had known what I'd learned about her.

Pinkie Pie found a way to fit in by filling a niche that was evidently unoccupied by any other ponies in Ponyville. Did this Derpy, this Muffins, also have a niche to fill? Apparently she did make at least one friend. And, another way I found respect for Pinkie Pie was that she wasn’t jealous of the gray, yellow-haired mare. While she did have a small part at the beginning of my “Hey, Batter!” game, Pinkie Pie had the greater role. I’m considering giving the gray pegasa more of a role in the expansion.