Pinkie, with her fresh pair of wings, walked into the Department of Insufficiently Advanced Technology. Ronyo followed close behind and closed the door behind them. He sat on a stool while Pinkie pronked onto a beat-up couch.

They sat and stared at each other for a moment.

And another.

"Get it out of your system," Ronyo said with a sigh.

"What system?" Pinkie blurted. "You had a nice program for organizing notes and everything, and now you're just using a markdown editor? And you're on like your third one?"

"I feel pretty good about this one," Ronyo mumbled.

"Yeah, because Scrivener was too 'complicated' for you to use so you just kept putting it off and now it doesn't even work on your Mac. Also how many different computers are you going to be writing this on?"

"Too many," Ronyo shot back. "It's almost like I'm the kind of person that keeps redesigning his website instead of actually writing content for his website."

"No kidding! Except you won't even put this on your website because it's a fanfic. Speaking of!"

She fixed Ronyo with a glare. "What was with that introduction?"

Ronyo shrank into himself. "What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean!"

They sat in silence.

And more silence.

Ronyo opened his mouth... and shut it. Several times.

"I need you to say it," he said finally.

Pinkie raised an eyebrow. "For the benefit of the audience?"

Ronyo shrugged. "Yeah, and I need to know what your problem is."

"But you know. You already know."

Ronyo sighed. "That's my problem, though," he groaned. "I know everything that happens so I just imagine everything happening and I don't write it down. That's why it's taken so long. That's why I keep going through so many programs and computers and things because I'm trying to find some spark of..." He threw his hands up in frustration.

Pinkie looked concerned. "Why are you like this?"

Ronyo groaned. "If I knew that—"

"No no," Pinkie waved him off. "Not Evan. I mean you. Ronyo. Why are you like this?"

Ronyo shifted uncomfortably. "What... what do you mean?"

"I mean you can be anything you want! You're in complete control here! Why did you weird me and Twilight out when we first met you? Why make me so suspicious of you? Why do you let me keep yelling at you like this?"

"I'm trying to be honest," Ronyo mumbled.

Pinkie scoffed. "Bucked up a perfectly good self-insert is what you did. Look at you, you've got anxiety now."

Ronyo laughed despite himself.

Pinkie smiled and poked him with a hoof. "Okay, so you're being 'honest.' What does that have to do with you acting like a weirdo?"

Ronyo exhaled loudly and leaned back in his chair. "It's like... I don't actually know what's going to happen. I'm putting us in these situations and seeing what happens."

"But you planned this?" She flexed her wings and motioned to her horn.

Ronyo nodded. "You know how there's 'plotters' and 'pantsers'? Writers that plan everything out and writers that just see what happens? A friend of mine described me as a 'quilter.' I want some things to happen, but that just means I have to get the circumstances right. If I can't get those circumstances, it can't happen.

"For example," he motioned to Pinkie's wings. "The original outline was you making Nine a meal that reminded him of growing up on Gallifrey. He'd laugh, you'd poof, heeeey Macarena. But when I sat down to write it, it wasn't enough."

"You pushed me farther," Pinkie said quietly.

"For this to happen," Ronyo said, "I had to push you as far as you could possibly go. Overextending your party powers over a huge amount of time and making a Ratatouille-level dish wasn't enough. You had to be pushed, and Nine had to be impacted more." He shook his head. "Otherwise, the story isn't real."

Pinkie's hair had slowly deflated through Ronyo's explanation. "And you're going to push the rest of them, too."

Ronyo nodded. "If I can."

Pinkie got up and stood at her full height, wings extended. "Why shouldn't I try to stop you?" she said. The quietness in her voice was more threatening than Ronyo had expected.

"Because I don't want you to be separated," he said after a moment.

Pinkie considered his answer and nodded. Her hair bounced back, though not at full buoyancy.

"That, and I just think y'all are awesome," Ronyo added with a smile. "I mean, I read through the MLP Loops at least three times. Seeing all six of y'all at the tops of your game like that... that's what I want for you."

Pinkie nodded slightly. "Just promise me you'll tell them."

Ronyo nodded back. "I will. When they're ready."

Pinkie opened her mouth to retort, thought for a second, then didn't. "Yeah," she said with disappointment, "you're right." She sat back down. "But I still don't get why you chose to be weird when we first met."

Ronyo shrugged. "It's how I think I would act were I to see Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie walk into my life."

Pinkie blinked. Then she turned to the side an

Hey.

... did you just

Yeah. I did. Stop it.

Stop what?

Stop acting like everyone is secretly annoyed by you. They're not.

What are you talking about, Pinkie?

You had your self-insert meet me and, instead of getting in a meme-off or bonding over a shared love of key lime pie, just came off as kinda sus.

I'm trying to keep things believable.

I'm sure you are. And you did. But give yourself a little more credit than that.

... Thanks, Pinkie.

You're welcome! Though you probably–

Yes, I am talking to someone about it. Can we go back to at least acknowledging the fourth wall now.

"Yeppers!" Pinkie said.

"So!" Ronyo said. "I take it you're much more aware of the story now?"

Pinkie took a deep breath. "Yeah! I mean before I just knew that saying some things would be funny and make somepony laugh so I would just say them even though it didn't make a lot of sense to me and it made other ponies look at me funny but they figured it was just me being me but now I know who was laughing and I'm so happy I could make them laugh but now it's like my Pinkie Sense is up to eleven and I'm seeing things from so many different angles and it's kinda big and there's a bunch of things that don't make sense but I know they're funny and I want people to laugh but it's like I don't know what I'm looking at all over again and—"

Ronyo interrupted her. "What is love?"

"Baby don't hurt me."

"And I brought you myrrh?"

"Myrrh-der!"

"Get to Del Taco, they got?"

"Fre sha vaca do!"

"Not sure if laughing with me?"

"Or at me."

"Disregard females?"

"Acquire currency."

"There are some things money can't buy?"

"For everything else there's MasterCard."

"Do you love the color of the sky?"

"Which one."

"I've connected the two dots."

"YOU DIDN'T CONNECT SHIT!"

A beat of silence, and they both cracked up laughing.

"Yeah," Ronyo said. "You're making actual pop culture references now."

Pinkie's eyes widened. "You mean... that's your world?"

"Mmhmm. Well, the author's world."

"But aren't you...?"

Ronyo shook his head. "No, I'm the author's self-insert. There's a difference."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning I'm going to experience things the author doesn't, and I'm probably going to end up very different as a result."

"Eh," Pinkie said with a shrug. "Tomayto, tomahto."

Ronyo rolled his eyes but smiled. "Anything else, Deadpool?"

Pinkie's hair instantly went flat. "Don't..." she said quietly. "Don't call me that."

Ronyo nodded. "Right, sorry. You're both fourth wall aware, but you're much less..."

"Stabby," Pinkie finished.

"Yeah," Ronyo said. "People can't laugh if they're dead."

Pinkie nodded. She took a deep breath, put her hoof to her mouth, and re-inflated her hair.

Ronyo smiled. "We should probably get back," he said.

"Yeah," Pinkie said. "I mean, it's episode five and you're only just now getting around to the adventure hook."

"Hey, now, I brought the multiverse hook in at the first episode!"

Pinkie shook her head. "But not the excuse for traveling from universe to universe."

Ronyo sighed. "Look, I'm working with what I've got he—"

"G.M. BLACKJACK DID IT!" Pinkie yelled. "IN A CAVE! AND ALL HE HAD WERE SCRAPS!"

Ronyo stared blankly at Pinkie. "Well, I'm not G.M. Blackjack."

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