Humans roamed about in every direction. Big mechanical machines that went by too many names to count zoomed by. Enlarged albino mice stomped about in the streets, sending earthquakes rushing through the area.
...Yeah, that wasn't supposed to happen. Pinkie had seen mice before. They weren't usually half the size of Canterlot.
Seeing these abnormalities wasn't exactly news to her. She'd faced down villains that looked even weirder and seen stuff in Ponyville that would get her laughed at over yonder if she told anypony else. But apparently weirdness was a big deal in this other world, because these human children dressed in business suits were always around to fight them off. She couldn't deny that it scared her a little, since she had often been called "weird" and similar adjectives by her friends and by other ponies. And she certainly was weird. What other pony had a whole world inside of their hair where they could pull out any object they desired? What other pony had the ability to make their entry and disappearance by simply popping in and out similar to a unicorn teleporting? What other pony could defy gravity, break the fourth wall, explode her body and survive? They were all...what had the kids called them? Oddities? Yes, they were all oddities. She was an oddity.
And oddities were what those kids seemed to be after.
She wanted to explore this fantastical world, but at the same time, the prospect of those kids catching her worried her. About the only thing that brought her relief was seeing a unicorn trot by that certainly didn't look like any other unicorn she had seen in Equestria. If anything, she'd have pinned it as being incredibly deformed. Why didn't the kids catch that oddity? Should she inform them, in a way that wouldn't allow them to draw suspicion to her? Maybe if she saw more of them. Otherwise they might pin her as crazy.
While exploring one of the stores in the mysterious new world, she bumped into a girl who exuded power. Pinkie wasn't exactly sure how. By all accounts, she looked like a normal human, though different from the ones in the human world that Twilight visited. Dark skin, hair tied into a bun, navy suit (Rarity had told her once that navy was a powerful color, hence why many businessponies wore it), purple shoes...the scowl on her face.
"May I help you?"
Pinkie cleared her throat. "Ah, um, yes! Yes! I..."
All it took was a simple hoof gesture...no...a simple hand gesture.
Celestia's sake, had it been that long since she had gone to the other human world? She forgot she had hands. She forgot humans had hands.
Which meant she was crawling around on all fours like an absolute idiot.
Quickly, she rose to her feet, stumbling a little as she tried to get used to the sensation of feet and being a biped again. It was practically instinctual to her as a pony. As a human in this world, not so much. "S-sorry." she muttered. "I'm..."
The other girl moved closer to her, narrowed her eyes, and whispered, "You're not Otis's sister or anything, are you?"
That question caught Pinkie off-guard. "No. Who's Otis? And I'm a sister, just...not to Otis, 'cause I don't know him! I mean I just got here, how'd I have any idea who Otis i-"
She mentally slapped herself. Ugh, her big fat mouth...she had to learn to control that.
"You just got here?" The girl sat on this for a moment, then perked up. "Ah, you mean you just moved to Toronto, right?" She nodded. "I understand. Going by your outfit, though, it seems you got admitted to the Odd Squad Academy pretty quickly. Are you on a field trip?"
"Nope!" Pinkie bit her lip and tried to backtrack. "Um, I mean, yes! Uh, I kiiiinda lost my group...but it's okay, I have a good sense of direction so I'm sure I'll find them!"
"Are you sure? Sofa So Good is a pretty big place."
"I'm sure!"
The girl looked Pinkie up and down, as though doubting her confirmation. Pinkie was sure she was beginning to sweat, which really wasn't helping her case. Still, the girl seemed to buy it as she stuck out her hand. "All right. The name's Ms. O, by the way. I run Precinct 13579 right here in Toronto."
Taking her hand and shaking it, Pinkie's brain scrambled for names like it was on fire and the mini-Pinkies were in sheer no-plan panic mode. As such, she spit out the first name that made its way into the light of coherency. "My name is Olympia! Nice to meet you, Ms. O!"
She could feel the internal groan from where she was standing.
Ms. O, however, didn't seem to mind. "Likewise. Keep it up and you'll be on fast track for graduation. Maybe I'll even have a spot open for you."
Her words only served to confuse Pinkie, as if her words weren't already confusing enough. So the pony-turned-human nodded and smiled.
"Hey! Oprah!"
Pinkie's eyes shifted past Ms. O and landed on another girl and a boy who were approaching them. Pinkie was quick to note that the boy was tall, almost absurdly so. Like Princess Luna, just as the first pony that came to mind. And just like Ms. O, he and his friend were wearing navy suits, with the only difference being that he had pants and donned a purple tie instead of a two-rowed necklace with purple beads.
If this was an ambush, Pinkie walked right into the fire.
If it wasn't an ambush, she'd probably let her jaw drop a few stories if she didn't keep it in check.
"Where were you two?" Ms. O asked. "I've been checking out baby stuff for Orson for the past fifteen minutes!"
The girl rolled her eyes. "Otto got stuck in a row of office chairs." Noticing Ms. O opening her mouth, she held up a hand. "Please don't ask me why. I only left to look at the laptop displays for five minutes."
"Don't you have a laptop?"
"Yeah. One I paid almost 1,000 Jackalope Dollars for that got destroyed by a rogue blob, remember?"
"...Oh."
Pinkie had to admit, the dynamic between the girl and Otto was similar to the dynamics she and her friends shared. It was this similarity that allowed her body to relax a little, putting on a genuine smile and letting part of her worries melt away. "D'aww, you guys must be bestest friends, huh?"
Both kids looked at her like they had just noticed her. "Sure are." Otto piped up, wrapping his arm around the girl and pulling her close. "Olive and I are partners. Though you, uh, probably already know that."
A series of choking sounds coming from the girl -- named Olive, supposedly -- paired with frantically waving limbs made Pinkie's eyes widen. "Hey, you're squishing her!"
Otto gasped, immediately setting down Olive. "Oh God, I'm so sorry." He watched as his partner bent over and began sucking up air like it was the last in stock on a store shelf. "I'm really not used to having so much strength I have now that I finished my training under Oscar. Y-you know Oscar, right? Lab Director of Precinct 13579? Inventor of gadget-combining? Ah, you probably have."
Pinkie didn't respond, instead taking a pause to think about the irony of what she just said.
"Anyway, you two, this is Olympia. She just moved to Toronto."
"Nice to meet ya!" Otto grinned and took Pinkie's hoof- er, hand, shaking it. "Let me introduce myself a bit more formally. I'm Otto, the co-Director of the Mississauga Odd Squad Precinct."
Olive weakly raised a hand. "Olive. Co-Director of the Miss-" A round of coughs interrupted her. "Mississauga precinct. Otto's my...partner. With a heck of a strong grip."
"I said I was sorry!"
"Not as sorry as you're gonna be when I wring-" Coughing. "Oh God, I felt the mucus come up that time..."
"You want me to get you some water?"
"You paying?"
"Yeah?"
"Then go get me some." Olive straightened up. "And if you're not back in ten minutes, I will find you."
"And you'll kill me?"
"Don't confuse Olympia with needless references, partner. Just get me the water."
"All right, all right. On it."
Pinkie watched as Otto walked away, then her gaze turned on Olive. "Are you sure you're gonna be okay?"
Olive waved a dismissive hand. "He does this stuff all the time. Oscar's still working on trying to get him to balance his strength so that when he hugs me it doesn't kill me."
"Good, 'cause hugs shouldn't hurt pon- people!" Pinkie bit her lip at her slipup. "They shouldn't hurt people! Hugs are supposed to be soft and warm and friendly!"
"I agree. But tell that to him." Playfully rolling her eyes, Olive smiled. "Have you made lots of new friends at the Academy?"
Pinkie eagerly nodded. "Uh-huh! I've made friends like Twilight, and Applejack, and- and Fluttershy, Dashie, Rarity!"
Oprah and Olive shared a confused glance. "I don't think you heard the last part of Olive's question." the bun-haired Director said. "She asked if you made any new friends at the Academy. Not in the city."
Now Pinkie understood the question.
And now she understood how badly she messed up.
Luckily, she had an excuse on-hoof -- or, well, on-hand -- ready to go. "Ah, s-sorry! Those are, uh, my imaginary friends. Haven't let go of them since I was a fi- a baby, it seems! Haha...aah..."
Yeah, no. Something told her that Ms. O and Olive weren't buying it. But at the same time, their expressions told her that a girl who hadn't quite grown out of the "having imaginary friends" phase of childhood wasn't exactly news in a world full of tentacle-limbed men and cute manipulative puffball creatures, which was good for her.
"Um, so anyway...why are you called Ms. O and you're called Olive? I dunno about you, but I always thought 'Ms.' was a title."
"'Ms. O' is the title given to female Directors, while 'Mr. O' is given to male ones. Some Directors are more...strict about being called that than others..." Olive jabbed a finger at Oprah. "But Otto and I are more relaxed when it comes to it. You can call us by name, not by title."
"You can thank him for that. He helped Olive to not be so uptight."
"That's not why! I would have dropped the rule anyway!"
"Uh-huh. The grass in the Odd Woods is multicolored too, you know that?"
"Oh you're not you when you're hungry. Have a juice box."
"What was that about making needless references?"
Pinkie came to the conclusion that this trio got into more spats than her friends did, though to her, it was just more proof of how strong their friendship was. Rainbow Dash would be proud, especially for how often she butted heads with Applejack and still was friends with her by the end of the day.
Oprah reached behind her back, obtained a fruit-punch-flavored juice box with the straw already inside, and took a mighty sip from it. "You should get back to your group, Olympia. You don't want them to leave the store without you."
"Oh! Right! Wow, I completely forgot." Pinkie turned on her heel. "Nice meeting you! And Otto too. Bye!"
And so, she merrily bounced away.
Unfortunately, pronking doesn't really work as well with two arms and two legs.
"I'm okay!" she called, getting to her feet in a second and resorting to running towards...well...she had no idea yet. She did know she wanted to get out of the store, though. Maybe she could visit that Odd Squad Academy. After all, if her goal was to spread happiness and smiles to this world, she needed a good launching point.
And also a good disguise, to ensure she wouldn't get smited by either this world's inhabitants or by any of Equestria's royalty. Did this place even have royalty? Were Directors princes and princesses? The more she thought about it, the more questions surfaced in her mind.
Maybe a trip back to Equestria to clear her head would help. She needed to go back to work, anyway, so it was a win-win. She'd see more of this new world later. For now, all she had to worry about was whether the portal had closed or not.