Observation wasn't her most impressive quality, but it was only Pinkie Pie who could observe this. Ponyville had five major roads that lead out of the city and to other parts of Equestria, but only four were traveled upon. The fifth lead to the empty countryside, where nopony dared to journey. It didn't seem like the most likely pony, but eventually somepony was going to do it.
Pinkie Pie had been having a normal day, at least for Pinkie. She had thrown a party for the stallion that had just moved into town, visited Twilight seventeen times, and was thrown out of Rarity's store after covering a dress in glitter. Of course, the dress was in desperate need of glitter, and Pinkie Pie had glitter stored just about everywhere. Only for emergencies.
It had been the first time that the pony had come across this road, and curiosity had gotten the better of her. The road ran for a great distance, disappearing into the horizon and blocking its entirety from view. It went up hills, then down hills, and then up hills again. It winded for miles, snaking through the countryside and into wasteland.
"I've never been to that part of Equestria before." Pinkie was determined to spend the rest of her afternoon finding where this mysterious road would lead her. Taking a deep breath, she began her journey, bouncing merrily along the dirt road.
The road winded through multiple terrains. Beginning as a grassy area with trees speckling the area, the road lead out of Ponyville and into a meadow, cutting through the grassy ground. Flowers were spread across the field, giving a beautiful aroma that covered the area. Butterflies flew from one flower to the other, collecting their pollen. Pinkie smiled, wondering why nopony came down this road more often, it was beautiful!
As the dusty road went further and further into the meadow, the amount of flowers began to diminish. Slowly, green grass became brown soil and butterflies became dead trees. Standing to the side of the road, the dead trees watched as Pinkie trotted down the road, singing a happy tune to herself. Like hands reaching out to the sky, the trees loomed over the road, keeping watch on those who journeyed on the road less traveled by.
It wasn't long before the road passed by a fence. The gate had been torn off long ago, and in illegible writing somepony had written "Do not enter" on a sign that hung loosely from one nail. It had been worn down through the many years it had hung there, with the edges rounded out and dirt that had somehow fused with the plastic. Pinkie didn't notice the sign, and continued along, absorbed in her song.
What lay beyond the fence was horrifying. After trotting for a couple more minutes, Pinkie had finally reached a dead end. In front of her lay a wall that spread out infinitely in each direction. It reached into the sky, until the top of the wall couldn't be seen. To any normal pony, it would just be a rock wall, but Pinkie was different.
Almost every other pony was born without the special ability, but Pinkie wasn't like them. She was the only one that didn't see the rock wall. Instead, she was able to see past the mere surface of the structure. It was like it was only glass, and she could gaze right past it. Upon the wall there was a small etching that had been worn away over time. Smudged and worn down, it read: "He For All."
Through the glass, Pinkie stared long and hard, eyes wide open. What she saw changed her life forever. Without any humming or singing, she galloped back to Ponyville to relay what she had just found out to her friends.
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"Twilight!"
Pinkie Pie burst into the library through the door, not bothering to knock. She was panting, unable to speak but trying to anyway.
"Pinkie Pie, slow down. What's going on?" Twilight stared at the pink pony. Something wasn't right about her. Her eyes were wide open, her mane was a mess, and she had a wild look to her. This is weird, thought Twilight, Even for Pinkie Pie.
"You have to listen to me Twilight."
"Alright, I'm all ears."
"Okay, so I was going down this road to see where it went, and it was really fun and there were lots of flowers and fun trees that looked like rakes, but at the end of the road there was a wall and..."
"Oh I know what you're talking about," interrupted Twilight,"You mean the 'He for All' wall."
"No you don't understand..."
"It's okay Pinkie, I read plenty of books about that wall. It was built by our ancestors to keep the wicked creatures of...."
"Twilight!" Pinkie was beginning to lose patience, "Would you just listen to me?"
"Alright, but make it quick I have to get back to my studies."
"I went to that big wall, but I saw what was behind the wall. And this is.."
"Oh Pinkie, you crack me up! You can't see through a wall!" Twilight let out a small giggle, understanding that this was just another one of Pinkie's misunderstandings of how the universe worked, "Walls are solid, you can't see through solid things unless they're transparent, and rock is not transparent!"
"Twilight, I'm serious. I looked through the wall and I saw what was on the other side!"
Twilight decided she'd humor the silly pony, "Oh really? And what did you see?"
"I saw everything Twilight! All that matters is that," Pinkie pie swallowed, "We don't exist."
Twilight stood still for a second, not sure how to process the information. Then, she broke out into uncontrollable laughter, wiping a tear from her eye as she fell to the floor.
"Oh Pinkie! You're so funny! Thanks for the laugh but I really need to get back to work." Twilight was about to pick herself from the ground when Pinkie trotted angrily to the unicorn and stood over her.
"No Twilight, I'm serious! We don't exist! We're just made up characters being controlled by a weird-looking pony from behind the wall!"
Twilight raised an eyebrow, realizing that Pinkie wasn't making a joke. She put a hoof to her chin, pondering what would be the best way to explain to Pinkie why what she was saying was totally crazy. "Pinkie, how can we not exist? We're speaking to each other right now aren't we?"
"No you don't understand! There's a pony that is behind the wall that's controlling everything we do! Whatever he wants us to do, we're forced to do it!"
"Pinkie, that's just nonsense, nopony can control what we do. Watch." Twilight didn't move for a bit, and at a random interval, moved her hoof forward. "Are you trying to tell me that somepony is controlling whether or not I did that?"
"Yes! We're just imaginary, we don't actually exist!"
"Pinkie, nopony can just make things happen. We choose what we do and don't do."
"Ugh! Twilight would you just listen to me? This odd looking pony writes these words on some sort of paper, and as they get written down we do whatever he decides we do!"
Twilight rolled her eyes, obviously Pinkie had been at Party Time's house and drank too much of his special juice. She decided to play along, "Pinkie, if there's somepony controlling what we do, then what's his name? He ought to have a name."
"I don't know!"
"Well then how can he be real if he doesn't have a name?"
Pinkie sighed, trying to think of a name, "His name is Henry."
"Henry what?"
Pinkie looked around desperately for something that would help her think of a last name. Books, no. Shelves, no. Spike, no. Looking out of the window, she saw Applebloom tossing a ball to Scootaloo. That's it!
"Throw."
"Henry Throw?"
"Yes." She gave a nervous smile, hoping Twilight wouldn't question her further about the name which really didn't matter.
"Well that's a silly name."
"Nevermind his name, what's really important is that he controls our world. This is life changing!"
"If he's so powerful why haven't I ever heard of him? Where's he been all this time?"
Thinking quickly, Pinkie searched for a reason she could give Twilight to shut her up.
"He was stuck in a house with no door."
"Why would anypony build a house without a door?"
"I don't know, but the point is that he's been walled in for a long time and he just got out today."
"Walled in?"
"Yah, he couldn't get out of the house so he's just been stuck there for a while. But that's not important. What's important is that we go find out who he is."
"Pinkie. There is no pony that controls us, there is no glass wall, and we certainly do exist. You need to take a nap."
Pinkie groaned, there was no way she was going to convince Twilight without hard proof.
"Hey you!" Pinkie called out into the sky. Twilight looked up, half expecting to see Rainbow Dash, but instead only saw the ceiling.
"Pinkie, who are you talking to?"
"Shh, I'm trying to communicate with him!"
"Pinkie, are you still..."
"Hey, I was wondering, would you mind making it rain real quick?"
"Pinkie, it's sunny out and the sky is clear, why in Equestria would it rain?"
Pinkie was positive that something would happen. She looked out of the window, anticipating rain at any moment. Minutes past and still no rain had fallen. Pinkie looked up at the ceiling once more and snarled at it, making faces and calling it names.
"Alright Pinkie, that's enough crazy out of you today, why don't you go home and..."
"That's it!" Pinkie had spotted a small piece of paper and a quill on Twilight's desk. With a wide smile she trotted over to the paper and picked it up, motioning for Twilight to come.
"Write a story on this piece of paper."
"What?"
"Just do it," Pinkie commanded, watching eagerly as the quill worked upon the parchment, leaving characters, plot, and setting in its wake.
Minutes passed as the unicorn reluctantly wrote a basic story, including two main characters who were having a conversation at Sugar Cube Corner about their day. Twilight rolled her eyes and wrote the story without any enthusiasm, wondering why she was still bothering to listen to Pinkie Pie. The quill hit the paper once last time, leaving the last period at the end of the story.
The story was quite interesting. It consisted of two characters, Lee Breeze and Shell Dough. Lee had gotten a new pet but didn't know what to feed it. Shell says, "You should try wheat, Lee." So Lee tries wheat and its the perfect food. Then he exclaims, "I'm sure glad Dough's my friend!" Then the story ends.
"What was the point of this again?" asked Twilight, she was slowly becoming more uninterested with Pinkie's unusual amount of crazy.
"The characters in that story, they're just like us! They live in a world just like we do but don't know that they don't exist!"
"But if we don't exist, how can we make ponies that don't exist?"
"It's a non-existent world within a non-existent world."
"So there's two levels to this non-existence?"
"Exactly."
"Well then how do you know if the pony that is making us exist actually exists?"
Pinkie's eyes opened wide. She had never thought of that before. This revelation caused her head to go spinning. Her mind was working faster than it had ever done before. Are we an imagination within an imagination? How far does this go, when does it stop?
"Also," began Twilight, thinking of another point, "How can somepony control what we do, when we control what the ponies in the stories that we write do?"
"I don't know! I don't know anything anymore!"
"Pinkie calm down, it's all just a bunch of bologna, no need to worry about it."
"But Twilight! What if this guy decides to stop writing about us? What happens then?"
"Nothing Pinkie, nothing will happen. It's all a lie."
"It can't be a lie! It just can't! I saw it with my own eyes!"
"Give it up Pinkie, just move on with your life. Go home and take a rest."
"No, that's exactly what he wants me to do!" Pinkie stood up, looking skywards, her eyes searching for something. It was hopeless, she would never know the truth at this rate.
"Pinkie, seriously, you need to get some slep."
"Did you just say slep? See Twilight! That's a spelling error! The pony who controls us made a spelling error and you said it!"
Pinkie, that doesn't mean anything.
The two ponies stared at each other, not speaking.
"You see? If he doesn't make you say anything then you don't say it!" exclaimed Pinkie.
"How is he supposed to make me say things? That doesn't make any scientific sense."
"He puts these small dots around the words that you say, and you say them! He probably forgot some. See Twilight? This proves it! This is going to change everyponies' life!"
"Pinkie, calm down! Why don't we go back to the wall and I'll show you that it's just a big rock. Follow me."
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After another long journey, Pinkie had made her way down the road once again, but this time she spent the majority of the time looking towards the sky, planning to see "him" looking back. Soon enough, Twilight and Pinkie had arrived at the great wall.
"See Pinkie, just a giant rock wall. Nothing to worry about." Twilight smiled, hoping Pinkie would finally snap out of her total insanity.
It was still the same for the poor pink pony. What she saw was her life, everything she was doing, even at that exact moment, being put together. Piece by piece. Word by word. She couldn't handle the pressure of it, it was all too much. Without thinking she turned around and galloped back toward Ponyville, but this time she had no intent of seeing anypony.
Twilight followed close behind, trying to comfort the pink pony and show her what actually existed, but it was no use. She ran back to Ponyville, not thinking about how tired she was or how bad her legs ached.
When she reached her home, she ran straight for her room and slammed the door. She lifted her head to the heavens and yelled out in agony to some unknown being, "Why are you doing this to me?!"
"Pinkie Pie and the fourth wall? The guys at fimfiction are going to love this..."
