"So he's all-powerful, he knows everything, he controls everything that happens, right?"

"We don't have time for your--"

"This is important! Omnipotent, omniscient, in control, right? Then why ask him for anything? Isn't he the one who set in motion the needs in the first place, and doesn't he already know everything we want?"

The wind drifted across the grassy meadow in waves, making the grass billow and almost shimmer.

"This is the old dead end about Fate. Just the act of asking--"

"Not Fate! Control! We'll do what he wants us to do, and we'll get what he wants us to get. Why ask?"

"Can't you stop questioning everything for one minute? Why can't you just ask like a normal person?"

"Because I don't like the higher power! I don't want to submit to something that seems fundamentally amoral to me. Something that goes around making people do what it wants. You hear me up there? I'm not kowtowing to you!"

"Please--"

"Please what? Please shut up, or he'll hear me? He already knows my thoughts! Please swallow my pride and just ask him for something like everyone else? Fine, I'll ask him for something. HEY WRITER! I WANT A PONY!"

And with no clear reason or mechanism, there was a pony, a shaggy pony the color of butterscotch with a white, silky mane and liquid eyes. A few moments later, like an afterthought, a saddle appeared in the grass beside it.

They stared at the pony. Then they looked up into the clear, empty, robin's egg sky.