Hnnng (Patreon)

There's a growing body of research in psychology that posits that our parents shape who we later find attractive. Nothing incestuous of course (Freud's theories have long been dismissed), the general idea is that our parents provide a unique brand of love to us as children, and we later pursue people who subconsciously remind us of our parents (appearance, senses of humor, love languages, warmth). We seek out love that is already familiar to us.

Consider then, that Moondancer has been programmed since birth to gravitate toward trashy disaster-prone dumbasses, because his mother is Trixie. Pandora's eccentric antics are familiar and oddly comforting to him. His love for Pan is as persistent as it is vexing, Moony really wishes his heart had picked anypony else.

(Or does he?)

This is canon, btw. At least the fact that Moony is an emotionally stunted, bitterly repressed clown in love with a bigger clown