Pinkie Pie ran from the tree house library in search of more boxes to open. She burst into Sugarcube Corner and ran past a startled Mrs. Cake.
“Pinkie, what are you—”
Pinkie reappeared and slapped her hoof over Mrs. Cake’s mouth to shush her. Their eyes met and Mrs. Cake looked at her with worry. Pinkie Pie’s eyes darted left and right and she ran into the panty without a word. Mrs. Cake was hesitant to follow, but peeked around the corner to see Pinkie Pie upending cereal boxes over her head. She picked up several individually wrapped toys, and inspected them with scrutiny.
“Pinkie, dear, are you—”
Once more her words were cut off by a pink hoof against her lips. Pinkie looked around nervously before diving out the nearest window. Mrs. Cake simply stood there in confusion, and looked at the mess she now had to clean up.
Pinkie Pie peeked in the window of a random house as a family was sitting down for breakfast. A bowl of Happy Crunch was being passed around the table, and Pinkie eyed it longingly. Just as the young colt sitting at the table went to pour his own bowl, Pinkie Pie burst from the box. The family cried out in fear as the pink pony sent flakes of cereal flying across the kitchen.
Pinkie Pie searched through the flakes until she found the prize. “Another whistle? She asked angrily. “Where is that mystery prize?!”
“Please, whatever you want, just take it! Just don’t hurt us!” The father of the household held his wife and young son close as the pink pony turned to look at them.
“Do you have any more Happy Crunch?”
“In the cupboard,” the stallion replied, shakily pointing his hoof to a wooden cupboard. “Just take it, please, it’s yours.”
Pinkie ravaged the cupboard until she found the box she was looking for, which she promptly tore open. A glow-in-the-dark top fell out of the flakes and Pinkie Pie picked it up excitedly. She consulted the box only to find it was one of the default prizes she hadn’t gotten yet.
She turned and smiled happily at the frightened family. “Sorry about that, I’ll be going now.” She bounced out the front door and let it shut behind her. The family just looked from one another in confusion.
Pinkie Pie continued to bounce all the way to the grocery store in downtown Ponyville; the automatic doors sliding open as she bounced on the pressure pad. She made her way to the cereal aisle, and stared in awe at the rows of brightly colored boxes. Casually, she whistled to herself as she approached the red and yellow Happy Crunch boxes.
The sound of cereal pouring onto the linoleum was barely audible in the crowded super market. That is, with the exception to a trained associate.
“Clean up! Aisle 4!”
Pinkie Pie looked up to see a uniformed stallion running towards her levitating a broom and dustpan. She tried to quickly sort through the flakes for the prize. Another pair of fake ear rings emerged, and she stood up nervously.
“It just…broke open—yeah! That’s what happened!” Pinkie Pie explained to the associate. He looked down at the pile of cereal and back up at Pinkie Pie.
“Feel free to pick out another, we won’t charge you for this one.” The associate smiled and began sweeping up the spill. Pinkie Pie grabbed another box off the shelf and pretended to read the back for the first time.
“Oh, a mystery prize inside? How fascinating!”
“Yeah, that hundred thousand bit prize is pretty cool too,” the employee said as he finished sweeping up the cereal. “You have a good day, ma’am.”
“You too!” Pinkie shouted as the stallion ran off. She quickly checked to make sure she was the only pony in the aisle and ripped open the box. “Oh no. This one is damaged too.” She spoke like a bad actor reading from a script as she upended the box onto the floor. A Princess Celestia bobble head toy fell out of the box and Pinkie recognized it as being one of the normal prizes.
“Darn these flimsy boxes,” the stallion said, walking back up to Pinkie Pie and the mess she’d made. “I’ll stay here until you find one that stays together.”
“Oh, that’s so nice of you!” Pinkie Pie smiled as wide as she could; her right eye twitching a little. She grabbed another box and shook it as furiously as she could. The glue on the box held tight to her disappointment and she put it back on the shelf.
“Something wrong?” The stallion looked at Pinkie Pie in confusion.
“I’ll be right back,” she replied. Without another word she bolted from the aisle and left the confused stallion to clean up her mess. She returned after he finished, pushing a large shopping cart which she filled with every single box of Happy Crunch on the shelf.
At the checkout, Pinkie Pie held up the line as the cashier scanned her three dozen boxes one by one. The ponies in line all looked at her with raised eyebrows, and she chuckled nervously, “It’s REALLY good cereal.”
When she left, she was nothing more than a pile of bags with pink hooves sticking out the bottom. She trotted home blindly; an occasional twitch alerting her of impending collisions.
“Hey Pinkie!” a familiar voice from above shouted. “Is that you?”
Every-pony’s favorite blue pegasus swooped down off the cloud she’d been napping on, and landed next to the moving mass of shopping bags.
“Oh hi Rainbow!” Pinkie shouted, sticking her head out of the bags to look at her friend.
“Did you go on a shopping spree or something?” Rainbow Dash asked, poking through one of the bags. “Happy Crunch? Pinkie, are these all full of Happy Crunch?”
“Yep!”
“Why?” Rainbow Dash grabbed one of the boxes and flipped it over in her hooves.
“Because one of them might have the mystery prize inside it, and I WANT IT!” Pinkie Pie let all her bags fall to the ground, and tackled Rainbow Dash. “I mean, it could be ANYTHING!” She got extremely close to her pinned friend’s face and whispered, “aaaaanythiiiiing.”
“Pinkie, I think you’re getting a bit—”
“En…Ee…Thing.” She pronounced the syllables slowly, continuing to stare into Rainbow Dash’s eyes. Finally, she let Rainbow Dash stand back up.
“Alright,” Rainbow said, brushing herself off. She picked the box up and went to put it back into the shopping bag. “I mean, what could they possibly put in a box to get—” Rainbow Dash trailed off as her eyes saw the 100,000 bit prize for finding the mystery prize.
“I don’t know, but I want to know!” Pinkie said, grabbing the box away from her friend and tossing it back in the bag. Without a word, Rainbow Dash disappeared into the sky, leaving behind a rainbow streak in the air. Pinkie Pie’s already messy mane was ruffled by the sudden gust of wind caused by Rainbow Dash’s take-off. She stared off into the sky, wondering where her friend was off to in such a hurry.