“Are you ready for this, Pinkie Pie?”
“Okie Dokie Lo-Uh oh!”
“What is it?”
“I have to grab one of my friends before we can start at all.”
“Fine by me, just try to make it as quick as you can.”
With that affirmation, Pinkie pronked on down the stairs into the lobby of Sugarcube Corner. She had been interrupted on her route to town by the Cake twins, who were playing with their blocks. Deciding to have a little fun, Pinkie changed around her face with the wave of her hoof. First, she swiped it over her face moving up, “Happy!” then moving it back down across her face, “Sad!” This process repeated a few more times until the twins giggled in uncontrollable delight. Even for the party pony, neverending laughter would never suffice. Pinkie managed to pull out a sack of flour from under the stairs, and the infants cheered in anticipation.
Sadly, this joy was not meant to last, “Pinkie, do you know where I put the flour?” Mrs. Cake called out from the kitchen.
The twins’ faces drooped in disappointment, but Pinkie whispered in assurance to them, “Don’t worry, I promise you I’ll do it the next time I foalsit you.” She then answered her second mother, “It was kinda hidden, but I’ve found a sack for you.”
Mrs. Cake met her halfway at the door between the lobby and the kitchen, “Oh, thank you. We’re gonna need this if we want to make any new treats for the day.”
“I suppose that’s true. But if you don’t mind, Mrs. Cake, I should get to adventuring. I need to find a friend for a thing I’m doing upstairs with someone else.”
“Uh…you do that, Pinkie,” replied Mrs. Cake with confusion beyond belief. Any comprehension of what Pinkie tried to do had been thrown out the window after her first week joining the Cakes. She still would have asked Pinkie who she was looking for, but the hyper-energetic mare was already at the entrance, off into Ponyville to search for whoever she needed to. The store co-owner went back behind the scenes to bake the special cake for her family reunion.
A few minutes passed before a customer arrived to interrupt the flow. At least by this point, she had put the cake in the oven. She merrily greeted the patron, “Welcome to Sugarcube Corner! Is there anything I can help you with today?”
The cyan patron held her enthusiasm, but still portrayed her enjoyment, “Not yet, Mrs. Cake. I know I’m hungry, but I’m not sure what I would want.”
The baker was no pony to deny a chance at sales, “Any particular taste you’re craving?”
Rainbow Dash pondered her pallet for a moment, “Now that you mention it, I’ve been craving something fruity, like an apple or something.”
In the display, Mrs. Cake had all the treats she could have needed, “Well, we have these wonderful apple tarts,” pointing to the highest shelf on the left display.
“Thanks, but I was looking for something a little more sweet.”
Even though that wasn’t quite what tart meant in this case, she still had her backup plan, “If you want, Mr. Cake finished some new treats. It’s a treat he calls ‘Apple-bolt biscuits’ where-”
“Say no more,” Rainbow halted, as if the resemblance to her favorite team’s name was enough, “I’ll take two dozen of those awesome cookies.”
“Are you sure?” Mrs. Cake asked as she directed her attention to the top right shelf. These were no petite cookies. Rainbow had lunch with Pinkie at Sugarcube Corner before, and the plates the treats were served on were about the size of what the cookies were.
Rainbow reconsidered, “You know what, three cookies will work for today.”
Although she would have preferred selling twenty-four, she knew that would require another batch in the oven, so there was a level of gratitude, “Alright, then, that’ll be six bits.”
Rainbow promptly paid her debt and took to a small table right by the door to have a quick chomp of one of the cookies. To her, the taste was a little too bland, however sweet it was. There was nothing wrong with sweet treats, but that would be the last trait she would associate with the Wonderbolts. She ate the rest of that cookie, but wrapped up the other two for later.
Sure enough, a solo pink parade walked in, looking somewhat confused, “Hey, Mrs. Cake! You wouldn’t happen to have seen a –” Pinkie fell silent in her question, stopping to wave a hoof at her friend who she had seen while peering around the Corner.
The baker inquired of the aide, “Were you looking for something, Pinkie?”
“Nevermind, I found her!” she called back.
Found who? Rainbow Dash pondered as she surveyed the empty room.
There wasn’t enough time to ask the question, but she would receive one of her own, “Hey, Dashie, do you think you could come upstairs and help me with something?”
With an eye of skepticism, Rainbow questioned her friend, “With what? Cupcakes?”
“Not this time. I need to fix up my room for someone, and I need some help with that.”
“Someone?”
“Yup.”
After years of knowing the pink mare, she learned to best not question the antics of her friend, “Well, it’s not like I have anything else to take care of today.”
“Well, what are we waiting for?” the energized pony invoked, “Let’s get going!”
The stairway was fairly long, and after walking up, Pinkie’s door was on the first left, and she opened the door. An overwhelming shade of pink enlightened the room. What Dash could see was a bed in front of her, a closet to the right, and a window to the left side of the room. The side with the door was otherwise baren with the same bright shade of pink.
“I give up,” Rainbow declared, “where is this friend of yours?”
“Just beyond the fourth wall, he’s not here yet,” spoke a matter-of-fact Pinkie Pie.
“So when will he – what?!”
“Beyond the fourth wall. We just need to break it first, then he’ll help us out.”
There were no terms to describe Dash’s emotions. She was far from confused, but there must have been a term to compliment her sense of lacking information, “Wait, do you need this window taken out?” she asked, preparing her wings to fly out the window.
“Don’t be silly, Dashie! You’d be breaking the first wall.”
“First wall?”
“Yeah, you’d break the fabric of the curtains if you went through that one. We want the fourth wall,” her hooves first directed to the bed then the doorway, “That one’s the second wall, and we just walked in from the third wall.”
Rainbow assumed that the closet was the fourth wall, “So wait, what’s the point of breaking the fourth wall?”
“I’m getting some new drawers tomorrow and the closet isn’t necessary anymore. I figure by crashing the space around the closet, I can add more space by breaking the walls around it.”
With her experience in demolition at Applejack’s barn, Rainbow was all the more prepared, “Alright, Pinkie! Just tell me where to make my first mark!”
She went about a meter to the left of the closet, and marked it with an “invisible” X, which Rainbow saw portrayed as a purple dotted line, “Right about here, if you can at least start here, that’d be great.”
Revving up her wings, Rainbow hollered out her battle cry, “Move over! It’s time to break the fourth wall!” and with that, she rushed toward the mark and hit the wall with a----
“WHAT IN EQUESTRIA HAPPENED TO MY WALL?”
“Ugh…Pinkie, this doesn’t look like the inside of a closet. Do you realize that I’m kinda hurting (even if it is moreso from embarrassment.)”
And she even had the nerve to shrug it off, “Oh, Dashie, I didn’t mean that you should literally break the fourth wall!”
“Could one of you PLEASE explain what is going one here?”
“I thought you wrote this.”
“Pinkie, I was writing this until Rainbow decided to burst in.”
“Oooh, that explains why I called this one the fifth wall, so I wouldn’t confuse myself in a situation like this.”
“It’s happened before? That’s something you consider before telling me to dash right on into a wall.”
I had to take a deep sigh of contemplation, “Just great. There’s no way I’ll be able to explain this hole in the wall.”
At least Rainbow had the decency to offer me something, “I know now might not be the best time, but would you like an Apple-bolt biscuits for your troubles?”
As troubled as I was, I couldn’t really refuse, “Eh, why not? Never had a cookie with apples in it in the first place.”