The sun shone brightly through the window, a bright warm blanket of light draped over the table in the kitchen of Carousel Boutique. To one side sat the alabaster unicorn who lived there; on the other side, the buttercream pegasus who was her best friend. As they sat, they sipped from their cups.

“We should make a podcast,” Rarity said.

“Ooh, I was just thinking the same thing! What do you think it should be about?” Fluttershy smiled.

Rarity let out a little sigh. “That’s the hard part, isn’t it? Really, all the most interesting topics have been done to death. We’ve got to think outside of the box.”

“Or... we could always try thinking inside of the box.”

“Oh? Whatever do you mean by that, darling?” Rarity asked.

“Okay, hear me out, but... what if we did box reviews? We could get a bunch of cardboard boxes—I know the Apples have a ton of them—and we could climb into them and talk about which ones are the most comfortable.”

Fluttershy scooted her chair out from the table and stood up, trotting over to the kitchen counter. From the stovetop, she picked up a teapot—an ornate, ancient thing—and started to walk back to the table with the thing between her teeth.

Suddenly, there was a very loud noise. HRR-KRTCHT!

Fluttershy jumped, startled, dropping the teapot in the process. Time seemed to slow down as the antique china spiralled towards the ground, and—

“I’d love to talk about boxes!” Rarity exclaimed. Fluttershy opened her eyes—which had instinctively snapped shut—to see that, miraculously, the teapot hadn’t fallen to the ground and shattered; it was suspended aloft by a shimmering blue magical aura. Yet even though the teapot was saved, a pool of the liquid had spilled onto the floor, soaking Fluttershy’s hooves.

“Oh, I’m so glad, Rarity,” Fluttershy said wearily. “I was a little afraid that you might not want to... it’s not exactly your usual style, you know.”

“Oh, but I am quite familiar with boxes. I often have to use them when packaging up some items to be sent across Equestria to my other boutiques. Not really the dresses, but more hats and other accoutrements.” Rarity set the teapot down on the table, and then picked up a cloth rag from the counter in her magic. She moved as if to wipe up the liquid, but—

“Boxing is the best!” another voice exclaimed. The cabinet beneath the kitchen counter burst open and a smiling pink pony popped out, her mane floofing up as she stood up. “I am so freaking ready to punch things!”

Rarity facehoofed. “Not that kind of box, Pinkie. Less Strong Bad hands, more cardboard.”

“I’m quite fond of those big refrigerator ones, they’re really quite cosy,” Fluttershy remarked.

“Yeah, they can be great to punch!.” The pink pony leapt over to the puddle on the ground, and started licking. “Hey, this is also punch! Weird.”

Rarity grimaced; Fluttershy just stared.

“That’s tea, darling. What in Celestia’s great green Equestria gave you the idea that it’s punch?”

“Everything’s punch!” the pink pony said with a grin. “At least if you don’t think about it.”

“Uh-huh. Anyway, back to the cardboard boxes,” Rarity said, skeptical.

The pink one smirked. “Ugh, but that makes me so card-bored.”

A beat. Then, all three of them laughed, uproariously.

“Pinkie, could you please get out of my house? We have some podcast planning to do, and it would be much easier if you didn’t interrupt us all the time.”

“Only if you make me! Hee-hee!”

And, much as the sun kept shining on down through the window of the Boutique, life went on.