The Equestrian Wildcards: Doughnut mess with the baker.

by JitteryDragon

2: The one with the strange pegasus.

With absolutely no surprise, school was uneventful. The continuous cold days of winter had a way of killing productivity and draining attention. Though, even on a good day there was no cure for the pure disinterest of an easily distracted filly.

The best Oracle could manage to prevent herself from falling asleep was such fun activities as stare at the paintings on the walls, watch a fellow filly pass a note to another, or take a quick glance out the window. Rinse and repeat for an hour for best results.

Outside, the snow blanketed the entire grounds. The exception was the road to the school, kept fresh by the groundskeeper so the young ponies wouldn't get wet hooves. A small well stocked fireplace warmed the room from the back, and there was always a struggle for seats closest come winter. The only time you will ever see fillies actually arriving early to class was this season. Naturally, Oracle had not won this contest today.

Despite her best efforts, she still fell asleep at her desk twice, which only helped to remind how little sleep she actually had. Both times were in the maths class, just the word itself was enough to put you in a trance of boredom. With only the light crackle of burning wood to drown out a dull discussion about division, she planted her face into the desk and snoozed until she was rudely awoken by an understandably annoyed teacher, though the rest of the class found it amusing. She found the following class of history far more intriguing, a combination of interest in Equestria's event filled past and the fact that she liked Cheerilee, the teacher of said class.

Apparently she used to teach more classes, but the years had gotten to her and now she taught only one class, letting younger fresher ponies take up her stead. It was clear she loved her job, and the fillies she taught. Regardless of her behavior, Oracle was no exception.

One time whilst staying back in detention for putting gum in Dewdrops hair (another distraction), Cheerilee told the young earth pony about a handful of fillies about her age who were also blank flanks. They had banded together and would constantly get in trouble as they tried in vain to earn their cutie marks. They shared a good laugh when she told Oracle about the time they tried to fix her up with another pony for hearts and hooves day, using a love potion. It made some of Oracles schemes seem quite tame.

'I suppose they eventually got their marks?' She had asked.

'Of course. When it came down to it, all they needed was patience. With a bit of time, they figured out what made them special and eventually they all earned their marks.'

Patience. It was something Oracle wished she had just a little more of.

The last class of the day was outdoor sports. She also quite enjoyed this one, given she was an earth pony and had a lot of stamina in which to push herself, though she had to admit the joy on the faces of the young pegasi as they took to the air was always going to be more entertaining.

Today was different, thanks to her twisted ankle. She decided to play up her injury to the supervising teacher, and easily managed to get out of doing any activity. Rather than sit on the sidelines however, she waited till there was not a single eye upon her, and disappeared.

Her first destination was the general store, where she picked up the days newspaper. You'd have thought the owner a little skeptical of a filly running about when school was still supposed to be going, except Orange Rush was used to seeing Oracle nearly every day.

The unsurprisingly orange earth pony looked down over the counter. 'Afternoon, Oracle. Bit early than usual. Got the chills or something?'

'Yeah, you could say that.' She reached up on her hind legs and placed two bits on the counter.

'That's no good. Well, here's your paper dear. Try and get yourself some rest and hopefully I'll see you in good shape tomorrow, eh?'

'Hope so. Good day, mister Rush.'

The second destination was a quiet place to get to work.

On the edge of the south of Ponyville was a small mountain. The trees grew thicker down here, their leaves withstanding the harsher weather, and the shade brought with it piles of snow untouched by the afternoon sun. Lead by a small winding dirt path barely visible, Oracle carefully made her way to her second home, the tree-house.

The years had not been kind to the old place, the white paint had peeled and the roof couldn't hold rain if it tried, but it was Oracles all the same. No other filly seemed to care about it, perhaps because of it's dilapidated nature, or perhaps because it was so far away from anything of interest. Oracle really didn't think about it too much.

The front door creaked open, having seen better days in it's life as a... well, a door. Throwing the paper upon the desk where it unfolded stylishly, Oracle laid back into the chair right behind said desk, relieved to finally take a load off her sore leg. Then and there, the little filly could have fallen asleep, but she had work to do.

She opened the second right draw, and retrieved her notebook and pencil. The chewing gum beckoned, but she decided against it. The first right draw was next, where she pulled out a stuffed toy white rabbit. A bit beat up, but well dressed with a small hat and employed with a most important task.

Oracle slid the notebook to the rabbit, and stuck the pencil in-between his paws. 'Take a note, mister Hoppykins,' the filly said as she began to pace about the room, 'this is day three of my investigation of Sunny Days.'

The toy rabbit fell over.

'I have made a small mistake, and now she is well aware of what I am up to.' She trotted over to a curtain window, and opened it. A beam of afternoon light gave life to the room. 'Definitely a poor move on my part, but hopefully it will buy me more time as I suspect Sunny will be more careful in her actions. Hopefully, she will wait a few days before making another move. Make a footnote, the way she had asked so nervously about the flour in the first place does suggest a cautious nature.'

She stopped, and place hoof on cheek, tapping. 'Yes, underline that. Cautious, I could use that to my advantage later. Right, now I need to consider what she was-'

An eye fell on the front page of the paper. "Local bakery has been robbed of flour once again" the headline read, "giant rats suspected" it read underneath. Ponyville was not the place for thrilling news stories, so anything out of the ordinary instantly hit the front of the paper, leaving the article about Silver Spoons latest shoes somewhere in the middle once again.

Perhaps a clue could be gained from this front page article.

As she seated herself and begun to read, there was a knock at the door. How inconvenient, and a little strange considering it was still school time. Even so, she swore to Celestia if it was Red Rose coming to ask if Oracle could help find her glasses, which were likely on her head...

'Door's unlocked,' the filly said with a raised voice.

The door opened. 'Oh hey, um, good day,' replied a funny accent. Oracle waited, eyes glancing sideways. 'Are you the filly detective, by any chance?'

'Didn't read the sign, did you?' She replied.

'There's a sign?'

Oracle sighed, it must have fallen off again. 'Yes, yes I am. Oracle, filly detective at your service.' She turned around in the chair to face the doorway. 'And you-'

Oracle raised her brows, what she had expected was a filly, not a young adult pegasus. A light brown coat that seemed unkempt and a little bit ragged, the winged pony wore some sort of red scarf around his neck with a... yes, it was a backward question mark, how odd. The winged pony gave a rather silly grin in return, the glasses on his nose slipped slightly with the gesture.

'Name's Cookie Crumble. A pleasure to meet you, miss Oracle,' he said with a slight bow that was a little out of place for such a... different... looking pegasus, it made the filly chuckle a little on the inside.

She was used to dealing with younger clients. 'So, somebody steal your sweet roll or something?' Oracle asked jokingly.

Cookies mouth fell open. 'W... why yes, that's exactly what happened!'

Oracle bit her lip.

Cookie Crumble was impressed. 'Wow, you are good! When that mare by the fountain said there was a filly that was actually a detective, I was totally like... yeah sure, pull the other wing, but lo and behold! An actual detective.'

'Oh stop it, you're making me blush,' Oracle said dryly.

'She said to look for the old tree-house out near the south of the village. Still took me forever to find you,' he looked around the room, 'strange place to set up shop but I guess that's how they do it in those detective movies. Only, you know... with more smoking and stuff.'

'So, about that missing sweet roll?'

'Oh yes, right. Sorry, I wander off easily, silly me.' Cookie cleared his throat. 'Okay so this morning I went to the bakery and got a roll, because I was hungry.' He trotted across the room, as if to re-enact the scene.

Oracle stared with eyes half shut, resting head upon her right hoof.

'Then I went to the park, to eat the roll. I remember,' he tapped a hood upon his chin, 'yes, I remember putting it on the bench for just a second whilst I adjusted my scarf. It was on backwards again, I'm always doing that.'

The filly detective decided not to point out it was still on backwards.

'Then I turned around and gasp!' Cookie dramatically gasped as if to climax his rather odd performance. 'It was gone!'

'In a few seconds? Just like that?'

'Yeah, just like that.'

'You realize it was probably a pigeon, right?'

'A... pigeon?'

'Yes, it's a small bird, they like to pinch unguarded food.'

'Oh I know what they are, silly... but, really... that's it?'

'Seems like the best bet.' In all honesty, Oracle did not feel like running around the park looking for clues when the answer was more than obvious. Her leg ached enough as it is and she did not want to be moving around more than necessary, especially if it was just for bird hunting.

Cookie Crumble's head stooped low. 'Oh, well gee... that sucks.' He gave a little kick with a front leg against the ground. 'It was a really special roll, too.'

'Did it have sprinkles on it or something?'

'Oh how I wish it had. It was the only one in the store, standing upon a little white marble pedestal.' You could almost hear the music start up in the background as the pegasus turned professional food connoisseur for a brief moment. 'It looked real nice and was lovingly crafted, a twisting mountain of cream and sparkling marbles of sugar... I just had to offer her an extra bit for all the effort she must have put into her work. She was so happy she even told me about how they make the rolls using their special flour.'

Oracle's heart skipped a beat. 'Wait... special flour?'

Cookie fell back onto his rear and placed both front hooves on his mouth. 'Oh no, I was totally not supposed to tell anyone about that. She asked me to promise not to mention the special flower. Aww haystacks... I've done it again.'

Could it be? There was only one way to find out.

When Cookie Crumble's eyes glanced down, Oracle was inches from his face with a wide grin. He let a little scream in surprise.

'This case of yours just took an interesting turn. Let's go for a little walk, mister Cookie.' She faced her toy rabbit one last time. 'Mister Hoppykins, keep an eye on the place for me.'

- - -

Winter had never been a kind soul to the Ponyville park. It spent most of the year rich with color and activity. Walkways winded over open patches of grass, where fillies would often play. When the time came to bring in winter, the cheer of young ponies was replaced with silence and the vibrancy was now replaced only a shade of white. Mounds of snow had left the ground bare dirt and fall had long turned the trees into nothing more than branched remnants of better seasons past. The only reason to visit this time of year was either for your morning walk around the worn out village trail, or perhaps to admire the statues of harmony.

So many times had Oracle been told the proud story of the wielders of harmony, the six ponies that had brought peace back to the troubled times. That was long past, the filly detective hadn't even been born yet. Seemed to her nothing more than an excuse for another school trip to these marble statues that depicted six mares standing side by side with heads held high. That would have been during warmer days, you'd have hardly noticed them with all the glowing white snow under the weak evening sun.

Oracle was here with her newest find, the pegasus Cookie Crumble. An odd fellow, but that was not a special quality in Ponyville, though he tried hard to prove otherwise as the two trotted along. He spoke with an accent that the young filly had never heard before. Somewhat pitched and slangy, not native to Equestria Oracle was more than certain. She'd have dug deeper, but feared hearing his entire life story. It was enough of a shock when he had passed Oracle on the way out of the tree house, having gestured with a “mares first” gallantry, and she had spotted his cutie mark.

There wasn't one.

The fact that his rump bared no mark at all got Oracles attention more than anything else. All grown ponies had a cutie mark, that's a fact she had learned in school. Well, supposedly it was a fact. She remembered asking about if there were ponies without marks, and had received a half-hearted answer about how you earned it as long as you tried. She always suspected it was because the teachers didn't want to spook young ponies who were still waiting for their marks, and the last thing they wanted to hear was that it was possible not to earn it.

Questions popped up faster than flowers in springtime, but she shook it all out of her head. There was work to do, and that came first.

The filly detective looked this way and that way, attempting to avoid the gaze of her partner as he continued to drone on about something to do with his stay in Manehatten. The land around her was bare, you'd have easily seen another pony amongst all the white if they had bother to show themselves, but for all she knew they were in their homes where they should be. Just a little, she wished to be, too.

Oracle sniffed to clear her blocked nose once again, cursing the cold under her breath. Bitter winds were picking up from the east, and the filly detective was lacking a scarf. Only her trusty hat and jacket kept the worst at bay. Thankfully, the sun at least offered respite, whereas the moon had not been so kind last night.

'Oh, oh,' chirped Cookie, pulling Oracle out of her own thoughts and back into reality. 'Here, over here was where I was standing.' He parked himself next to a green bench by the walking trail as an angered white pigeon flew off the corner. He landed himself in the large tree that was firmly entrenched next to the seat.

'I suppose you placed your roll on the bench itself, yes?' Oracle asked.

'Yeah, then I turned my back for just a second to adjust my neckerchief, like this... oh my, it's on backwards again!'

Oracle ignored him, giving a quick circle of the seat. The tree that stood by the old bench's side was without a single leaf, but her roots reached out of the ground like waves in the ocean. A time tested old beast, she was, but more to the point an easy place to conceal oneself. The trunk was thick with its age, and no doubt was still the home of many native animals with hollowed out holes and twisted branches that could hold nests.

She trotted around the other side, and began to feel a little odd. There it was again, that feeling she always got when something felt out of place. It manifested as a small tingle in her nose that grew sharper the more she focused on it. It was an itch she knew how to scratch.

Putting her mind to work, she thought about Sunny Days. She would have seen Cookie with his back turned, and got closer. Seeing an opportunity, she then would have snatched the roll, and shot into the air.

The feeling became stronger, and she could almost see Sunny doing as she had just described in her head. But, there was something else, something she hadn't been thinking about. She had been too quick, and left something behind.

Oracle stuck out her two front legs and began digging through the snow.

'Ah, there you are,' said Cookie Crumble, joining her on the other side. 'Thought I'd lost you. Say, this would be a good tree to play hide and seek behind. Um... what exactly are you-'

The filly detective had stuck her face into the snow. Seconds later, she pulled her face out, covered with powdered white with a green feather between her teeth. She spat it out, and it floated awkwardly to the ground.

'Tada, mystery solved.' Oracle grinned, brushing off the snow on her face and leaning casually upon the old tree. She slipped, and fell back into the mound.

Cookie scratched his chin. 'A green feather. But that could only mean...' his eyes widened, '...no.'

'Yes, oh yes indeed,' Oracle replied, standing back up as if nothing had happened. She took off her hat and swiped off the snow.

'I can't believe a green pigeon would steal my sweet roll!' Cookies eyes widened even further with fear. 'I didn't even know there were green pigeons.'

Oracle slapped her forehead with a hoof.

- - -

The two sat at a table at the nearby cafe, one of the few to use actual wooden stools, rather than just a pile of hay. A far cry from its neighboring park, the cafe was teeming with ponies out for an afternoon snack, or just a place to kick up their heels after a hard days work. Cookie Crumble happy munched on a lettuce sandwich whilst a small mug of warm cocoa sat next to Oracle on the opposite side.

'Her name is Sunny Days,' Oracle began after sipping a little of her drink with both hooves on the mug. 'Very thoughtless of her, leaving behind a feather. I suspect she made off into the air, which might explain why you never saw her.'

Cookie tilted his head. 'How so?'

'Did you bother to look up?'

'Ah.'

Oracle shook her head. Ponies never bothered to look up.

Cookie finished a bite of his sandwich. 'Does she live here? In Ponyville, I mean.'

'No, it's doubtful. I had never seen her before. She just showed up a few days ago out of nowhere. No pony in Ponyville really cares about who comes and who goes, I've noticed, it just happens all the time.'

'Oh, okay. That kinda explains why no pony seems to pay much attention to me when I trotted through yesterday. Everyone always looks at me funny, I think it's because I'm always getting my scarfy on backwards.'

Oracle placed the mug on the table and slid it to one side. 'I have to ask,' she said with hooves clasped together, 'what is with the question mark scarf?'

'I'll tell you, but only if you answer me a question too.'

'Fair trade. You first, though.'

Cookie leaned back in his seat. 'Well, I found it many, many years ago, when I was young. In a hallway, go figure. Kinda dirty, but I washed it and decided to try it on.'

'And I suppose you've worn it ever since.'

He nodded playfully. 'Uh huh.'

Not really much of an answer. She realized it would have been better to have asked about his lack of cutie mark, no doubt the answer to that would be more fascinating.

So she did.

This made Cookie excited, as he jumped slightly in his seat. 'Oh, does that mean I get two questions, too?'

'Yeah,' Oracle replied with a slight roll of the eyes.

'Okay, fire away!'

'Where's your cutie mark?'

Cookie just stared in return, meeting Oracles own stare as she waited for an answer. 'I... don't really know.'

She raised a brow. 'Surely there's more than that?'

Cookie Crumble smiled nervously. 'Well, I mean I was traveling these last few years without a... um... cutie mark, I just... well, got used to not having one.' He took a brief glance at his rear. 'Is... is it important to have one?'

'Not that I know of.'

Cookie settled down, his raised posture easing back. 'Phew, that's a relief.'

Oracle also eased back, but more in disappointment, having leaned in closer out of interest. 'Not much of an answer, but an honest one, I guess. So, how old are you?'

'Oh, does that mean I-'

'Yes,' Oracle grumbled.

'Cool!' He tapped his head for a second, you could almost hear the gears in his head turning. 'I'm twenty two years, I think.'

'Really?'

'Yeah, um... is that a problem?'

'Oh, not at all. I was just curious.' Oracle thought he was a little more childish than his age would suggest. 'I'm only nine, by the way.'

'Wow, you seem so smart for a nine year old filly.'

She waved a hoof. 'Oh please, I get that all the time.'

'Here I was thinking I was super smart.'

Oracle gritted her teeth, trying not to laugh. 'What makes you say that,' she asked, having regained some composure.

'Oh, I've been wandering around for so many years I kinda just pick things up as I go along. Been to nearly every continent, and-'

She leaned in. 'You can't be serious. You've been around the world?'

'Oh yeah. Learned a lot of stuff, too. My mentors taught me everything else I needed to know before they sent me on my way, too.'

Oracle looked away from Cookie, did she hear him right? 'Mentors?'

'Oh yes, I was born in a secret ninja pegasus monk sanc... sanctu... tu... uhhhh,' he paused, trying to find a word he could pronounce, 'big temple thingy.' Looking proud of himself, his face suddenly became one of shock. 'Oh... um. Actually, forget I told you that... it's supposed to be a secret.'

Oracle rolled her eyes, once again, not believing a word he had said. 'I'll try my best.'

'Yay, thanks miss Oracle. Okay, my turn.'

'Your turn? For what?'

'Questions.'

'Oh right. Well, go ahead then.' She took another sip of her cocoa.

'How many do I get, again?'

'I lost count, to be honest. Just ask me anything you want'

'Alrighty. Um... well, I don't know what to even ask.'

'Go for what's on the top of your mind then.'

'That's a good idea! Okay... um... hm... uhhhhh.'

'Before tomorrow, please.'

'Ooh, ooh, I know. How did you get that?' He pointed a hoof right at the bruise on her left leg.

When she actually bothered to look at it, she noticed it had gotten bigger and more obvious than it had been this morning.

'Ah, this. Well-' for a moment, she thought of lying as she had with her parents, but since Cookie already knew about Sunny she decided to try and be just a little bit honest for once. 'I got this after I jumped a fence. Was trying to get away from the bakers after Sunny Days tried to lock me in their cellar.'

'You jumped a whole fence?'

'Ran up the side of a tree, and shot off right over it.'

'Cooool.'

'Um, yeah, I guess. Unfortunately, the landing was rather poor, and I twisted it. Doesn't really hurt that much, just kinda feels a little off when I put weight on it. Thank goodness I'm just a little filly huh?'

'Yeah, thank goodness. Last time I fell, it was off a cliff after kicking a hydra in the face a few times.' He proceeded to go back into explaining his actions with motion. 'Shows up out of nowhere, and nips me on one of my wings as I'm trying to get away. Then he has the nerve to bowl me off the side of this cliff where I landed kinda funny on my back leg. Felt fine for a while, just a little bruise like yours... then it suddenly got really swollen up a few days later and I couldn't walk on it for weeks.' He laughed. 'I thought I'd have to get it cut off.'

Cookie paused, and tilted his head slightly. 'Are... you okay?'

Oracle had whitened up a few shades. 'Oh, I'm fine. I think I better get going, parents would be getting worried if I don't show up soon.'

'Oh, but what about Sunny Nights?'

'Sunny Days, and we'll do that tomorrow. No school, so how about I meet you here square on lunchtime?'

'I'll be right here, well, not right on this spot.'

'Excellent. Then, a good day to you, Cookie Crumble.' Oracle slid gently off her chair, and faced the brown pegasus one last time, giving him a little bow just like the one he had given her.

Cookie watched the filly waddle off with a slightly odd limp. 'What a strange little pony,' he said to himself with a chuckle. Gazing down, he gasped in sudden realization. 'Gadzooks! I'm holding a sandwich!'

- - -

The filly detective had lost her nerves. What a nice little coincidence, meeting that pegasus, Cookie Crumble. Though a feather wasn't much proof, it was enough in Oracles mind to pursue further. Sunny Days was clearly desperate, resorting to stealing rolls. Perhaps, Oracle wondered, she'd been spooked by last night, and was resorting to an easier target. That, or she was just hungry.

This roll supposedly had the same ingredient as the flour she had been stealing before. Maybe even just a little was enough for what ever she was doing.

That begged an even bigger question that Oracle hadn't even really thought about. What was she doing?

Having just come into view, Oracle saw her father standing by the front door of their two story house. He had already spotted the young filly as she trotted over the last hill to match eyes with him. It didn't take more than a second to realize that she was in trouble, again.

'I know what gave it away,' she began as he approached with a canter, stopping him is his tracks. 'It's nothing serious, I just fell on it a little funny as I-'

She bit her bottom lip, then let out a sigh with eyes to the ground. 'You're not going to buy it this time, I'm guessing?'

'Not one bit,' her father replied. 'There's someone here who wants to talk to you.'

'I see,' she said with nerve thick in her voice. 'Whom?'

'Puff Pastry, the local baker.'

Oracles brain seized for just a moment, and the words dribbled out. 'Horse apples.'

So there sat Oracle with the gaze of both her parents, joined by the blue earth pony Puff Pastry. She wore a set of trimmed glasses on her nose, something that Oracle had noticed often when Puff was working at the counter.

Oracle didn't even wait to be asked. She spilled the beans like they had just tipped out of a fallen water tower full of them. The entire story so far of Sunny Days, and how Oracle has sensed something odd about her daily habits, then followed her just the other night to try and get evidence of her wrongdoing. It took everyone else at the table back about how honest the young filly was. She explained with vivid detail, as if to prove that she was telling the truth for once in her life. Not a single detail was left missed as she spoke with stutters and nerves as only a filly could when put in the spotlight.

'Well,' her mother began with a long breath, 'at least you're being honest.'

'I'll say,' said her father. 'You could have written a nice long book with all that.'

Puff Pastry adjusted her glasses, and Oracles eyes fell on hers. 'Well, now things kind of make more sense,’ she began. ‘When you leapt out the cellar I was certain it was you I saw. I wasn't entirely sure, since you sped by so fast... but I knew only one little purple filly that wears a hat and jacket.'

Oracle took a personal note to wear her hat less often on stakeouts.

'I had no idea why a filly of all things would be in our cellar at night, so after we cleaned up in the morning I came by here to ask. Just to ask, mind you, not probe or make accusations... or anything like that.'

'Yeah, it was me... and I'm really sorry,' Oracle said.

'Oh, don't be. No harm was done on your part. My husband and I are going straight to the watch so we can see about this Sunny Days. It's good we know who it was at the very least, that's more than I could have hoped for.'

An eye fell on the watch upon her front left leg. 'Goodness, it's getting late. My poor husband will be stuck behind the counter with no idea what he's doing.' She unseated herself, and gave a small nod. 'Thank you for the tea by the way, Heartfelt, we should do this more often.'

Oracles mother smiled. 'If you have the time, of course.'

'I can always make time for a friend. A good rest of the evening to you all.'

Puff Pastry gave one last wave as she left out the front door, looking as though she had gotten a load off of her shoulders. Oracles father closed the door, and returned to the table. Now the filly knew things were going to get serious.

'I want to know one thing,' her mother said, 'and that is why you thought it was a good idea to go out into the cold and chase after a thief in the middle of the night by yourself.'

'I didn't know she was a thief, mom. I needed evidence to prove it, there was nothing but suspicion before last night.'

'And of course your first instinct was to not tell a watch guard or perhaps... oh, I don't know... your parents?'

Oracle felt cold inside. 'Mom, I just-'

'Then you go and injure yourself, and try and hide it? What were you thinking? Seriously, Oracle-'

'I JUST WANTED TO DO SOMETHING RIGHT, OKAY?!'

The room was silent for several seconds after the burst of sound from the young filly's mouth echoed through the room. Tears began to stream slowly from her face.

'No one ever listens to me,’ she continued. ‘You all think I'm just a little trouble maker. I try and do things right, and I just get in trouble anyway. I try and tell the truth, and no pony listens to me.'

She wiped an eye with a hoof, staring at the floor. 'I hear what everypony says behind my back... oh, that little Oracle is just making stuff up. I can't do anything right.'

'If that's the case, why are you the highest graded student in your class?'

Oracle looked up at her mother.

'You think don’t I bother to ask how my own daughter is doing at school? You don't think I bother to make sure she's okay because I love her?'

'But...'

'It's not about doing right, is it Oracle?'

She didn't say a word.

'I talked to Cheerilee. She says you're the best in the class. You're smart, always get your work done on time... and you stop to help other fillies with even the most trivial issues, even if your methods are sometimes, well, a little poorly thought out.'

Her mother looked at her father, and shortly after the two of them back to Oracle. 'We talked, and we know why you do what you do. You want to be a detective, and earn your cutie mark.'

Oracle did not speak, she didn't need to. They were right.

'You do everything you can to earn it, it's why you work hard and help others. It's why you go out at night doing such silly and dangerous things. You think that doing so will somehow earn your mark. And then, when they don't, you try harder and more dangerous things.'

'Mom...'

'Yes, Oracle?'

'Why me?'

Her mother raised a brow, looking puzzled.

'Why did you pick me?'

'Oracle...'

'You could have had any filly, and yet you chose to take me home. What made me so special?'

Her mother was quick to answer. 'Because when I looked at you, and you looked back at me... well, I just felt you were the one. I know it's not much of an answer, but it's honestly what I felt. Your father was a little concerned of your rough around the edges nature, but any issue we may have had was long lost when we brought you home.'

'We'd never seen you as happy as the day we brought you here to our home,' her father said. 'I guess a better question might be why you wanted to be here?'

It was a good question, but one Oracle didn't really know the answer to. She remembered just how much joy she felt inside having first arrived. Any nerves as the wagon had pulled up to the house were lost when she first set eyes upon the two story wooden house. New opportunities, a new life. Freedom.

But even more, Oracle finally had a mother and a father. She had felt that she was finally loved.

It was enough to make her smile, though weakly.

'Do you understand, then?'

'I do, mom... sort of.'

'You're still just a filly, Oracle. You have a lot of life ahead, and you should really be making the most of what you still have as a young pony before the big world catches up to you.'

Her parents looked at each other, and shared a nod. 'We've made a decision.'

'About what?'

'A fitting punishment.'

'Oh, right... that.'

'There's a unicorn that moved into a house up by the observatory about a week ago, and has been looking for someone to help with simple chores and some other minor work.'

'I know where this is going,' Oracle sighed.

'Consider it a way to make a friend and get out some more. Her name's Sparky Scamper, and she was very intrigued when we told her a bit about you. Said she'd loved to meet a filly detective, and maybe even had a few jobs for her.'

This made the young filly come to attention. 'Truly?'

'You'll have to find out for yourself.'

'Tomorrow, I guess?'

'Yes, around lunch time she said would be the best time.'

Midday? Shoot... that was when Oracle was supposed to meet with Cookie Crumble.

'Oh, but mom-'

'No buts, I'm afraid. This is still supposed to be a punishment, after all... though one we feel would be better suited for you.'

'Yeah... I know, mom. I understand.'

'Now, I know you're a little hard to trust, especially recently, but if it would make you feel more comfortable you can go by yourself or have either me or your father accompany you.'

Oracle appreciated the choice. 'I can go by myself. I'll be careful, of course.'

'I know you will be, you're a bright filly for your age... it's time you made the most of it.'

Author's Note:

Crazy hobo pegasus who claims he's been around the world and is a monk/ ninja? Check.

Comments

[Shadowshame]

She was used to dealing with younger clients. 'So, somebody steal your sweet roll or something?' Oracle asked jokingly.

Oh my god that skyrim reference