Pinkie Pie

Pinkie Pie, full name Pinkamena Diane Pie, is an earth pony from Ponyville and one of the main characters of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic. She is often seen hanging out at Sugarcube Corner, whether assisting Mr. and Mrs. Cake at work, or holding parties for the various ponies of Ponyville. She writes and performs many songs, and has a pet toothless baby alligator named Gummy. She represents the element of laughter.

Development
Pinkie Pie is based on the G3 pony of the same name. The G3 pony's coat is pink, with her mane and tail a lighter shade, and her cutie mark is three balloons with curved strings. The current Pinkie Pie's cutie mark matches that of a pegasus pony from G1, Surprise. Lauren Faust had published concept art of Surprise which bears a strong resemblance to Pinkie Pie, only with a white and yellow color scheme and pegasus wings. The Hasbro published a recolor of the image in their Style Guide for Pinkie Pie, complete with pegasus wings. Pinkie Pie ultimately remained grounded and her wings were given to Fluttershy.

Personality
Pinkie Pie is an outgoing, energetic pony who loves sweets and often speaks and acts in non sequiturs. She has a fondness of parties and a tendency to throw them on a whim. Pinkie Pie plays many instruments and frequently breaks out into song. She also tends to skip rather than walk like most earth ponies. She is often not taken seriously even by her closest friends, who call her out on her seemingly illogical behavior in Swarm of the Century, among other instances. She is almost always excited, and manages to keep her excitement after winning thirty-five consecutive games of tic-tac-toe against Rarity in Dragonshy, while they wait for Fluttershy to catch up. Rarity adds with disinterest, "best of seventy one?"

Pinkie teaches the other ponies to laugh at their fears in Friendship is Magic, part 2 through an impromptu musical number, and helps Twilight accept things even if she doesn't understand them in Feeling Pinkie Keen. She plays a series of pranks on the residents of Ponyville with Rainbow Dash in Griffon the Brush Off, saying "[she] loves to have fun". She very conscientious about this, though; when she pranks someone it's in such a way that no harm is done and the victim gets a laugh from it too. She'll never prank someone if she knows it might hurt them, such as Fluttershy because of her extreme sensitivity. When Gilda lashes out at Fluttershy and makes her cry, she decides to take measures against her "Pinkie Pie style" by throwing the griffon a party, laden with pranks for all the guests. Unfortunately, Gilda manages to become a victim of all the pranks and leaves in fury.

Pinkie shows her insecure and somewhat deranged side in Party of One. After her friends give her flimsy excuses for missing Gummy's "after-birthday" party, she breaks into a fit of paranoia which "deflates" her hair and ends up with her abandoning her friends for inanimate objects, pretending they are real. She even has an argument with them, complete with weird spasms. Rainbow Dash forcefully pulls her out of her unhinged party and drags her back to her friends. When she finds out her friends did not abandon her, she promptly returns to her usual cheerful self and her hair bursts into its normal shape.

Pinkie Pie's personality is magically altered by Discord in The Return of Harmony, part 1. Pinkie finds herself in a balloon garden filled with laughing balloons. At first, Pinkie enjoys it, calling it "the greatest balloon garden [she's] ever seen". However, one of the balloons latches on to her leg and lands her in a mud puddle, and the atmosphere changes into a menacing one. A bunch of other balloons surround her and laugh, and afterwards Discord appears and tells her that her friends aren't laughing with her, they're laughing at her. The balloons, formerly sporting benign, smiley faces, distort themselves into the familiar faces of the main cast, even developing their voices and colors, and close in on Pinkie Pie, still laughing. Pinkie's eyes swirl in a "hypnosis" effect and her coat and mane become much grayer. She becomes moody and grumpy, and gets angered when anypony laughs or shows signs of pleasure, suspecting it's at her expense. Near the end of the next episode, Twilight restores her previous color and demeanor through a "memory spell". Afterwards, she is seen being carried away in a wheelbarrow, giggling and remarking "I turned gray! Can you believe it?"

Partying and singing
Pinkie Pie is first introduced as a talented party-thrower with a tendency to burst into song. She runs off to plan a party for Twilight Sparkle immediately after seeing her for the first time, and throws many more parties throughout the series. Her first party was thrown for her family, which is how she got her cutie mark according to her own telling in The Cutie Mark Chronicles. She frequently sings songs of her own writing, but the other ponies' reactions are not always favorable. They react skeptically when she begins singing for the first time in the show, and her audience reacts very negatively in Over a Barrel.

Baking
Pinkie Pie works at Sugarcube Corner, a confectionery in Ponyville. The shop is run by Mr. and Mrs. Cake, who also let the residence above the shop to Pinkie. They "love her as a daughter", according to the show's creator.

On occasion, Pinkie bakes highly unappetizing batches of cupcakes and muffins, though both were the fault of her temporary assistants: Apple Bloom, who has no experience with baking; and Applejack, who is otherwise an excellent baker, is at the time half deaf from kicking trees, and generally out of her senses from sleep deprivation. When working on her own in Green Isn't Your Color, Pinkie Pie decorates cupcakes that appear perfectly fine. At Twilight Sparkle's welcoming party she enjoys cupcakes with hot sauce, though the spiciness of the rainbow in Sonic Rainboom overwhelms her.

Ice-skating
Pinkie Pie is also an exceptional ice skater, stating that she's been skating since she was "an itty-bitty liddle-widdle twinkie-Pinkie". She shows off to Twilight with spins, jumps, and skating in a variety of poses during Winter Wrap Up, where her skill earns her the task of scoring the ice on frozen lakes to make it easier for the rest of the weather team to break said ice; though coordinating the other ice skaters seems to be difficult for her, as shown later in the episode where the ice chunks have been scored too large.

Pursuit
While more a cartoon gag than an actual skill, Pinkie Pie has is very apt at appearing right next to her target. Pinkie Pie can evenly match Rainbow Dash's flying speed In Party of One, where she pursues her and comically appears right next to her at her destination, sometimes being present even before Rainbow Dash reaches the destination. When Pinkie keeps Twilight to her word in Green Isn't Your Color, she pops out of a basket of sponges, a basket of apples, and even from the reflection-side of a mirror every time Twilight is about to slip up on her promise.

Pinkie Sense
Pinkie Pie has a strange ability to predict the future through various twitches and involuntary motions made by her body, which is shown in Feeling Pinkie Keen. Applejack explains that the ponies in Ponyville pay heed to Pinkie Pie's "Pinkie sense", even going so far as to catalog them, especially given that her twitches may just as easily end up affecting them. Even though it doesn't make much sense, the ability goes largely unquestioned by Pinkie Pie and the others. This annoys Twilight Sparkle to no end, and she insists on finding an explanation for this ability. Twilight literally bursts into flames with anger after a day of the ability's cause unproven; however, she ends up accepting the Pinkie sense anyhow by the end of the episode. In The Mysterious Mare Do Well Pinkie Pie's sense returns again when she uses it to save a team of construction workers from a collapsing building.

History
Pinkie Pie tells the Cutie Mark Crusaders in The Cutie Mark Chronicles that she was raised on a rock farm with her two sisters and her parents. Her family's coats and manes are earth-colored, muted browns and grays. When Rainbow Dash's sonic rainboom clears the clouds and paints a rainbow across the sky, the shock wave frizzles Pinkie Pie's hair, giving it its distinctive curl. Subsequently, Pinkie Pie experiences magnificent joy, and smiles. She then decides to dedicate her life to making people happy and throwing parties. When she invites her family to their first party ever, her mother reveals her full name, Pinkamena Diane Pie. The Cutie Mark Crusaders end up unsure whether Pinkie Pie's story is true or not, especially since she concludes by stating, "...and that's how Equestria was made. Maybe someday I'll tell you how I got my cutie mark!" The flashback doesn't account for "Granny Pie", mentioned in Pinkie's Laughter Song, who taught her to laugh at her fears.

Reflexivity and "cartooniness"
There are several instances when Pinkie Pie shows awareness to the cinematic and cartoon elements of the show, so-called "breaking the fourth wall" between the stage and the audience. She reacts to fade-outs and iris-wipes, and often looks directly "at the audience." Many scenes in the series are set to directly face the audience, among them the Winter Wrap Up song where most background ponies look at the viewers, and Hush Now Lullaby where Sweetie Belle actually stretches her neck to the screen, but Pinkie Pie seems to perform these actions with more frequency.

She is highly "cartoony", frequently performing cartoon-staple feats such as eye-bulging, wild takes, and unusually angled cuts into the frame. Lauren Faust, the series' developer and show-runner for the first season, encouraged the crew to keep the "wacky gags" exclusive to Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie's merry skips resemble Pepé Le Pew's, particularly in Griffon the Brush Off where she pursues Rainbow Dash and comically appears right next to her wherever she goes. Her costume and waddle in Dragonshy are reminiscent of Daffy Duck's four-legged body in Duck Amuck, and the many contraptions she uses to reach Rainbow Dash and Gilda in Griffon The Brush Off are similar to Wile E Coyote's ACME devices that he employs in order to catch the Road Runner. She runs in the air in Feeling Pinkie Keen, and runs at full speed backwards in Swarm of the Century. She Appears in the same frame multiple times in the song Cupcakes from Call of the Cutie.


 * Gallery of Pinkie Pie being cartoony

Hasbro.com description
''To say that Pinkie Pie marches to the beat of her own drum is certainly an understatement! Giggly, playful and brimming over with energy, it's not unusual to find this pink pony prancing and skipping joyfully through the streets looking for fun, doing cartwheels, singing a song in a silly voice and making up her own ridiculous lyrics. By far the silliest pony around, nothing makes her happier than evoking a giggle and a smile from her friends. She is the freest of free spirits, always acting on her whims, following her heart, talking your ear off and getting a laugh or two along the way. ''

Hubworld description
''Pinkie Pie is a free spirit who prances to the beat of her own drum. Actually, she prances to the sound of her own singing. She's playful and full of energy. She can talk till the ponies come home. She loves to invent silly songs, giggle, skip, and make her friends laugh.''

Teacher for a Day description
''Pinkie Pie keeps her pony friends laughing and smiling all day. She believes everyday is worth celebrating and loves to throw parties with her pony friends.''

''The only thing Pinkie Pie loves as much as her friends and parties are SWEETS! She loves to visit the Sugarcube Sweet Shop.''

''She is always positive and helps the ponies see the bright side. You can count on Pinkie Pie for Lots and Lots of fun!''

My Little Pony magazine description
''What a ball of energy! Pinkie Pie is super girly and loves to make everybody happy, throw parties, eat sweets and talk and talk and talk!''
 * Giggly
 * Fun
 * Chatterbox

Songs

 * See also all songs in the series

Songs by Pinkie Pie:
 * Laughter Song (Giggle at the Ghostly / Face Your Fears)
 * Pinkie's Gala Fantasy Song
 * The Ticket Song
 * Hop Skip and Jump song
 * Evil Enchantress song
 * Cupcake Song
 * You Got to Share, You Got to Care
 * Pinkie Pie's Singing Telegram
 * I'm at the Grand Galloping Gala
 * Pony Pokey

Appearances

 * See also character appearances

Pinkie Pie appears in all episodes, excepting episodes eight, seventeen, eighteen and thirty-one, and only has a cameo appearance in Boast Busters.

Merchandise

 * See also toys, merchandise

Pinkie Pie's likeness is used for several toys and appears on several T-shirts.

Quotes
"What kind of welcome party would this be if it were quiet? I mean, duh, bo-ring. 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 every pony, and I mean every pony in Ponyville, and if you're new, then it meant 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 then you must be lonely, and that made me so sad, and I had an idea, and that's why I went [gasp], I'll just throw a great big ginormous super-duper spectacular welcome party and invite everyone in Ponyville. See? And now you have lots and lots of friends."

- ​Friendship is Magic, part 1​

"Sometimes it's just really fun to be scared."

- Luna Eclipsed

Gallery



 * Pinkie Pie image gallery

Trivia

 * Fluttershy says that Pinkie Pie is a year younger than her in the episode Griffon the Brush Off. In Party of One, Pinkie Pie's birthday is a day after Gummy's.
 * An animator on the show, John Irving L. Prudenciano, revealed that Pinkie Pie's full name is Pinkamena Diane Pie a few months prior to the airing of The Cutie Mark Chronicles.
 * Oddly enough, Pinkie's various spontaneous songs are the only ones perceived as "abnormal" by the rest of the cast.
 * A recolored version of Pinkie Pie as a filly is present during Rarity's play in The Cutie Mark Chronicles. She's the third filly, dressed as a chocolate cake.