Dear Princess Celestia,
I hope you are well. This letter may be a bit longer than usual, but what I have learned today is probably one of the most exciting lessons in all my time here in Ponyville. You see, it has to do with my friend Pinky Pie and her truly amazing ability to predict the future.
You remember my first letter about Pinky was almost eight months ago. When I discovered Pinky's ability, I couldn't have been more skeptical. You know that even after I accepted that it was real, I had a terrible time rationalizing it. I am still very sorry for my accusation that the whole thing was a prank you pulled on me, I know that hurt your feelings.
What I learned, not today but gradually over all those months, is that there was a rational, scientific explanation the whole time, and I never would have seen it if I hadn't learned to believe in my friends and their beliefs.
You see, much like my other earth-pony friend AppleJack, Pinky has exceptional natural abilities that benefit her special talent. While AJ has more strength and endurance then any pony I know (which help her to manage her family farm), Pinky Pie actually has astounding perception! Her eyes, her ears, her nose, in fact all five of her senses are capable of detecting things that no other pony would notice! This helps her special talent by manifesting as very strong empathy, letting her know when another pony could use some cheering up with a party, or knowing when a little prank will make them laugh and not cry or get angry (unlike Rainbow Dash, who really upset her Griffin friend with her pranks! But that was another story).
I've noticed this ability of Pinky's at other times. More than once, Spike and I have searched all day for a book in the library that Pinky could find in seconds. When a pony goes missing, Pinky is very often the one to find them. It was so uncanny that for the longest time I really just accepted this as dumb luck. When Pinky's ability manifested as “Pinky Sense,” though, I kinda lost it. It made no sense, and it worked too well to be dumb luck!
It really took me calming down and trusting my friends to slowly learn the truth. Pinky can see and hear everything, but unfortunately all this information is too much for her! Pinky is sensing everything all the time, but she has to ignore most of it to keep herself sane! (And I'm sure we could joke about using the word sane for Pinky, but let's keep this serious.)
The idea came to me when I was talking with AJ on the farm one day and Granny Smith's knee started aching, so she went to get her raincoat. AJ and I joked about this, but we looked upside to see Dash and the weather team pulling clouds in for a downpour. As you and I both know, when Pegasai bring in a lot of clouds quickly, it increases the pressure in the air, which made Granny's knee start to hurt. It was science all along, but it was so well hidden that most ponies decided to just believe in it!
So, believing in Pinky and her Pinky sense, I started hanging out with her and learning all I could. Most importantly, I stopped trying to disprove it like I had been before, and instead let it surprise me. Only then did the truth of Pinky's wonderful ability start to appear.
I thought back to that first day. Pinky's predictions are mostly about objects moving and people reacting. My friend Rainbow Dash and I did a test, and it turns out Pinky can detect many moving objects and their directions all at once! Dash and I first discovered this by playing darts while Pinky was blindfolded. It wasn't hard to guess that Dash was hitting bull's eyes, but my tosses were terrible and Pinky could guess my score every single time! When I threw one wide, she even knew exactly which tree my dart was stuck in! This mixes with Pinky's amazing sense of empathy to know when people are flustered or restless, which is how she could guess a frog would jump from Fluttershy's cart.
When I fell into a ditch, Pinky could tell the direction I was walking and my distracted frustration, all with her back turned! The cart splashing me with mud was the same thing, she knew I was flustered and heard the cart coming right for the mud puddle. Her alligator-detecting achy neck is part of her bond with her unique pet, who gets into all kinds of mischief that Pinky is always able to sort out. Opening doors, falling objects, it all comes back to trajectories and empathy.
What's important, though, is even though I understand it more, it doesn't make it any less special! The bottom line is that Pinky can't control it. It's a truly amazing side effect of her very special talent. Do you remember the "Doozy" I told you about that day? With the hydra? Even though I know Pinky can hear as far as Froggy Bottom Bog, even though I know Pinky can tell when I'm upset or curious all the time so it makes sense she knew I was on the verge of believing in "Pinky Sense," even though I believe she could just sense lots of things moving in lots of directions that would guide me safely across the cliff to escape the hydra, and even though months of research and friendship have given me enough science to rationalize that whole event, I still feel like something magic happened that day.
So, Princess, what I learned hasn't changed. There really are amazing things in this world. It could be Bighoof, or the Lock Ness Seahorse, or a twitchy tail that predicts the future. Often there really is a rational explanation, but sometimes it's so well hidden that you have to believe in it to even see it. More importantly, I learned how important it is to have faith in your friends’ beliefs. Just because I don't believe in them doesn't mean their beliefs don’t work for them! When we don't understand things, we all have different beliefs to explain them, and only by embracing and sharing each other's beliefs can we ever figure out the truly mysterious things in our world.
Ever your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle.
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