My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S1/E25 Party of One/YMMV

Alternate Aesop Interpretation: At first, it looked like this episode was steering towards the aesop "just because your friends don't want to play all the time doesn't mean they don't care about you any more," or "sometimes real life takes precedence over partying." Her friends' evasions and excuses seemed perfectly sympathetic even before we knew they were planning a surprise party; many people, especially introverts like Twilight and Fluttershy, would not want to go to a big party the day after they just had one. Plus, people do have to work and sleep at some point.
Fridge Brilliance: Pinkie Pie starts to sweat and slow down her singing invitations during her visit to Rainbow Dash. While this might be the result of her many costume changes, it more likely that she was burnt out as a result of being at a higher altitude.
- Alternatively, it could just be that she was getting tired from running back and forth all over Ponyville and singing her invitation song five times in a row.
- Pinkamena's imaginary friends are Replacement Goldfish for her real friends:
  - Mr. Turnip is Applejack (southern accent)
  - Rocky is Rainbow Dash (brash attitude, deep scratchy voice, apparent closeness with Pinkie)
  - Sir Lints-A-Lot is Rarity (posh, upper-class british accent, apparent high-class attitude)
  - Madame LeFlour is Fluttershy (quiet, timid sounding voice)
  - For some reason, Twilight and Spike are left out.
- Applejack, the Element of Honesty, was never fully lying. Rainbow Dash WAS bringing supplies (for the surprise party), and they were indeed constructing a new interior for the barn (specifically, constructing a surprise party).
Fridge Horror: After Pinkie snaps, she invents a bunch of new friends to attend Gummy's after birthday party, one of which is a pile of rocks named Rocky. When Rainbow Dash arrives at her house, she knocks over said pile of rocks, essentially killing Rocky.
- Who represented Rainbow Dash
Harsher in Hindsight: A rather infamous FiM fanfic 'Cupcakes' features a psychotic Pinkie Pie mutilating and torturing Rainbow Dash to death, in horrific and gruesome ways. That doesn't happen in this episode of course, but Rainbow Dash being alone in a room with a deranged and possibly violent Pinkie Pie made fans familiar with the fic more than a little uncomfortable.
- It should be noted that Word of God has said that all the Season 1 episodes were written before the pilot even aired. Still a creepy coincidence though.
- Here's one not "Cupcakes" related: At the time, Pinkie's breakdown was one of the scariest cases of a mane character going crazy in the series. Not no more! :D
Idiot Plot: The episode hinges on Pinkie Pie forgetting her birthday, which is understandable, because she's Pinkie Pie. To a lesser extent, there's also the fact that a surprise party was being thrown in her honor with nobody running interference, nor any other countermeasures to deal with the fact that Pinkie Pie could catch them setting up (even when they had to pick up a cake at her home/place of employment).
- And for some reason, "don't ruin the surprise" was far more important to the other ponies than the fact that their surprise-ee was becoming increasingly distressed and angry over their furtiveness.
Nightmare Fuel: You know the part.
Tear Jerker: Given the other ponies' actions in this episode to keep the surprise party a secret, AND that Spike accidentally confirmed Pinkie's suspicions, how could you NOT feel bad for her?
- Not to mention her breakdown near the end. If Rainbow hadn't arrived when she did... I don't know. *breaks into tears* I don't even want to think about it!
- You don't need to deplore the others' actions to feel sorry for Pinkie. This series is perfectly capable of showing complex enough interactions that they lead into conflict without having anyone suddenly become nastier for no reason. But just because it's mostly happening in her head doesn't make it any less serious for her.

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