How to Interrogate a Unicorn

by marmalado

4. Go on a Magical Journey

If you still haven't found out the truth, ask the unicorn to take you through a magical land of rainbows and clouds. The unicorn will always say yes to this. While on the trip, ask, "Hey, did ya do it? C'mon, did ya?" The unicorn will tell you the truth because it is feeling so happy and free.

---

"Find this 'Rainbow Dash' and go with her and Rarity to Cloud Town."

Silence fell among the group in response to Oprah's declaration.

"T-to Cloud Town?" Olive asked.

"Yes. That is Rarity's homeland."

"Um, if I may, darling..." Rarity lifted a hoof. "We live in Equestria, not in Cloud Town. But if you are allowing me to visit one of the wondrous lands you have in this world, then I am more than happy to go."

"You don't live in Cloud Town?"

Rarity shook her head. "We came here from Equestria...somehow. I certainly have never heard of Cloud Town before."

Oprah blinked. "Well, that's something I wasn't expecting."

"Neither was I." Otto agreed.

"Anyway, Cloud Town is often used as a last resort in unicorn interrogations, since it's one of the places where unicorns live. Odd Squad legend states that no unicorn can resist its charm and beauty." Oprah shrugged. "I guess we'll have to see how it works on unicorns from other worlds."

"And that means..."

"You'll have to ask Rarity, yes."

Olive groaned as Oprah waved her hand in a "shoo, fly" gesture. Rarity raised an eyebrow, and briefly wondered why Olive had to ask her when she had already agreed to go, before realizing that asking was most likely part of procedure.

Slowly, Olive walked over to the expectant unicorn. She had been dreading every second since her partner and her boss came to the door, and was dreading interacting with Rarity beyond "bad cop" interrogation even more. Nonetheless, though, it was something that had to be done -- attempting to push past both children would end with her on the losing side, with an injury or two as a mark of Oprah's incredible strength.

"Do you..."

A clench of the fist.

"DoyouwanttogotoCloudTownwithme?"

A blink from the unicorn.

"Oh my odd, I can't believe I just did that..."

And then a smile.

"Why yes, darling. I would love to go to Cloud Town with you. Provided we bring along Rainbow Dash as well, of course."

---

And that was how one 12-year-old girl, one full-grown unicorn, and one full-grown Pegasus found themselves up in the sky and standing on clouds. What met their vision was nothing but blue skies, multicolored rainbows, and the sun sitting high.

"There's nothing here!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, flying about as she briefly explored the area. "Did this 'Oprah' or whoever even send us to the right place?"

"Yes." Olive replied, her voice sounding strained and tired. "This is Cloud Town."

"And how exactly can I stand on these clouds without some sort of spell?" Rarity trotted in place for a moment.

"Anyone can walk on clouds here. No spells needed."

"Ooh! How marvelous!"

"Now c'mon. Follow me."

The trio began to walk (or in Rainbow's case, fly), and a couple minutes later, they began to make their way through a village where the structures were made out of clouds. The place was bustling with unicorns of all different colors, and both Rarity and Rainbow Dash were quick to note that they looked nothing like the unicorns back in Equestria. They looked...creepy, in a way they were unable to describe.

"Is...is that how ponies look in this world?" Rarity asked, very much unnerved by the sights.

"No. This is how horses look in this world. Ponies here look smaller than that." Olive pointed to a duo of unicorn fillies who were laughing and galloping past them. "See? That's what they look like."

"Eugh. I'm sure they're nice ponies...er, horses...but no thanks." Rainbow shook her head.

As they traveled through the village, Olive gave explanations to every question the two ponies threw at her, from why every building was made only out of clouds to what powers the unicorns of her world had. Each question she answered, however, didn't snap her out of her "I have to do this but that doesn't mean I have to enjoy it" mood.

"Agent Olive!"

A short while after the trio left the village, they were met by a rather tall and rather lustrous unicorn stallion who began to approach them. He certainly looked like every other unicorn in Cloud Town, as Rarity and Rainbow were quick to note, and his voice was deeper than most of the stallions they had met in Equestria.

"Your Highness." Olive took a bow, and as if on instinct, Rarity and Rainbow took bows as well.

"Oh, you brought guests!"

"Yes. This is Rarity, and this is Rainbow Dash. They come from another world called Equestria."

"Hello, darling." Rarity waved.

"Hiya." Rainbow gave an awkward smile, attempting to remain polite while also choosing to remain silent on the fact that the unicorn's mouth wasn't moving when he talked.

"Hello! I am the Unicorn King. I live here in Cloud Town!"

"Do you now?" Rarity laughed. "That is quite interesting! Do you, um, rule here?"

"Indeed I do!" the Unicorn King replied. "And as a matter of fact, one of the first decrees I ever made was giving all guests free fish and chips. Would you all like some?"

"Yes, please." Olive said.

"What are 'fish and chips'?" Rainbow asked.

"Oh? You don't have fish and chips in your world?" The Unicorn King tilted his head. "Perhaps it's better if I show you."

He began to trot away, and the trio followed suit, Rarity and Rainbow exchanging concerned glances with each other. They knew about fish, and they knew about chips, but they weren't quite sure what to make of the concept of seemingly combining them together.

The two ponies lagged behind Olive, so much so that by the time they arrived, she was sitting at the circular table with a plate of fish and chips already in front of her, and two other plates of fish and chips on the other side. She waved at them, but they felt too uneasy to wave back.

"This is fish and chips!" the Unicorn King exclaimed. "As you can see, the fish is pure breaded haddock, freshly caught. And the chips are really French fries!"

Rainbow spread her wings and glided over to one of the plates, taking a seat at the table and eyeing the food in front of her. She had to admit, it certainly smelled nice...and her stomach was beginning to growl.

"Rainbow Dash, don't you dare!" Rarity scolded, galloping her way over to the table and taking a seat next to her friend. "Allow me to do the honors. If, by some horrid chance, I end up dying, please give my regards to Twilight, Spike, and the others."

Olive rolled her eyes. "It's not gonna kill you."

Rarity disregarded her former interrogator's warning, instead using her magic to levitate the fork and knife that sat next to the plate. She cut off a thin strip of haddock and gave it a couple sniffs before sticking it in her mouth. As someone who had never eaten fish before, she was quite surprised by the warm and smooth sensation she could feel as she chewed.

"Well? How is it?" Rainbow asked.

The unicorn swallowed and blinked a couple times. "It's...good!"

"It is?" Rainbow immediately went for her fork and knife and cut off a large chunk of haddock, scooping it into her mouth. After a couple seconds of chewing, her cerise eyes widened and began to shimmer. "It ish!"

A sigh left Olive's lips as she watched the ponies happily eat their fish and chips now that they knew what it was, as she took her own piece of haddock and ate it.

"I'm glad you all are enjoying it!" the Unicorn King said. "So what brings you here?"

Olive swallowed. "Ms. O made me come here with Rarity and Rainbow Dash as part of an interrogation. Although it really seems more like a punishment for me."

"Ah, yes, now I remember. You're the agent who doesn't like unicorns very much, right?"

"Mhm."

The Unicorn King took a moment to think about how he should handle this particular guest, before he perked up. "Why don't you do me a favor?"

Olive's eyes widened. "A favor?"

"Yes. Would you mind polishing our orb of power? It's gotten a little dusty in recent days."

"Dusty? How so?" Rarity asked. "I wouldn't think such a place as this would have any dust."

"Oh, you'd be surprised." The Unicorn King chuckled. "That orb needs polishing so often, it's ridiculous! But try as I might, I haven't been able to find an alternate power source yet."

"What does it even power?" Rainbow asked.

"Everything. Think of it as our version of oil."

Rainbow didn't have a rebuttal to that, blinking as her brain tried to process exactly how an orb powered an entire town.

Olive could feel a groan rising inside of her, but stopped as she realized exactly what doing a favor for the king would entail: a wish, any wish, granted to her, and only to her. "Yes!" She nodded. "Just let me finish my fish and chips first."

"But of course. You may come find me in the throne room at my castle when you're done." The Unicorn King turned and began to walk away, and it was only then that Olive broke out one of the most mischievous and most cocky grins she had ever made.

"Darling, might I ask why you wish to do such a simplistic task as polishing an orb? I do realize he is a king, but does he not have ponies- er, um, other horses who could do that themselves?"

"You probably won't understand, but...if you do a favor for a unicorn in Cloud Town, you get a wish granted."

"Oh no. I don't like where this is goin'." Rainbow remarked.

"I do like where this is going." Olive pointed at Rarity. "I'm going to use my wish to get rid of you, and every single unicorn in my world."

"Uhh...wouldn't you use it to get rid of every single unicorn in our-" A hoof to Rainbow's mouth quickly stopped her speech, and she could only muffle in protest.

"You wouldn't!" Rarity exclaimed. "I understand you don't like unicorns, but...to get rid of all of them is just..."

"Wrong? Immoral?" Olive scoffed. "Say what you want. It won't sway me any."

"And what about Oprah? If she finds out what you've done, then-"

"I'll get fired, probably. Or, I could get away with it, since I'm one of her best agents." Olive shrugged. "It doesn't matter to me, so long as I never have to look another unicorn in the face again."

The girl quickly ate the rest of her food and dashed off. "Go and see the sights before your demise, Rarity!" she called, before she became nothing more than a speck in the distance.

"We should get outta here and find a way to tell Twilight and the others!" Rainbow started to take flight, but Rarity's magical hold on the end of her tail stopped her from going anywhere.

"No. There is a small possibility that she'll change her view." Rarity stared at the spot where Olive had gone. "I am willing to hold on to that possibility. That Unicorn King has something up his sleeve...and I trust him."

"Are you crazy, Rare?! You barely even know him! This isn't some unicorn stallion from Equestria, ya know!"

"I'm aware." Rarity released her magic grip on her friend and looked back at her barely-touched food. "Let's finish eating our fish and chips. When we do that, we can keep an eye on Olive."

Rainbow stammered as she tried to get a coherent sentence out, and even glided over to where Olive had taken off as though wanting to take off after her. After a few moments, however, a sigh escaped her mouth, and she went back to her plate of fish and chips, feeling a pit of hunger still lingering about in her stomach.

---

It had been about ten minutes since Olive had arrived to the throne room, and she had quickly taken notice of how murky and crusty the orb of power looked. It was a wonder that Cloud Town hadn't fallen into ruins, but she supposed the magic that made up the orb's innards weren't affected.

The Unicorn King sat on his throne proudly. "Just clean it, and clean it well."

"Okay..."

"And we can talk while you do it."

"Oh, joy." Olive didn't mean to be so sarcastic towards someone of a higher ranking than her, but she couldn't help it. Whatever Rarity had done to her, it had put a serious dour on her mood.

As she pulled a rag out from behind her back and got to rubbing the dirt and grime off, the Unicorn King cleared his throat. "I might as well get straight to the point here, Agent Olive. Why do you hate unicorns so much?"

Olive stopped rubbing.

"It's because of Alectrona, isn't it?"

She glanced at the Unicorn King.

"It is." The King sighed. "Believe me, I've read The Second to Last Unicorn many times over myself. But you are aware that she's just acting out because she's in an unfamiliar world?"

Olive had no response.

"Never mind the fact that being uncooperative is one of her personality traits in the book."

"S-so what?" Olive blurted. "She didn't need to give me a hard time."

The King sighed once more. "When you were walking through Cloud Town, what did you feel?"

"Like every unicorn would give me a hard time."

"And did they?"

"No..."

"They were just going about their daily lives, living happily and peacefully." The King smiled. "I'm sure they've taught this at the Odd Squad Academy, but unicorns are viewed in high regard by agents for their grace and beauty. Sure, there are some that commit odd crimes...but do those unicorns represent the entire population?"

Olive scoffed. "That's the same thing Rarity said."

"And does Rarity represent the entire unicorn population?"

Silence fell across the room. Olive bit her tongue and held her breath, before she responded with a resigned "No."

The King prepared to speak again.

"But! That doesn't excuse the fact that she didn't give me a hard time, Your Majesty. All Rarity had to do was answer my questions. Instead, she made the decision to make the interrogation hard on me by any and all means possible." The girl sighed. "I just...don't understand. She doesn't know me. I haven't done anything to her but what I have to do as part of Odd Squad interrogation procedure."

"Did she actually commit the crime?"

"Well...I don't know..."

"Maybe you should extend an offer of friendship towards her instead of treating her with hostility. After all, isn't friendship in Odd Squad's nature?"

Olive blinked and took a few moments to process the news before an expression of guilt fell across her face.

"Your Majesty! There's a unicorn here that requires your assistance!" called a voice from outside.

"I will be right there!" The King looked at Olive. "Reflect on my words as you're cleaning the orb. See if you change your mind."

As he left, Olive watched him go, but her vision soon became blurry from the tears that formed in her eyes. She tried to fight them back, but it was a battle she lost in a matter of seconds, and she could see the tears drip onto the clouds she was standing on. She vigorously shook her head, trying to regain some vision so she could see and finish the task she was assigned.

It didn't take her long before she had started to really cry. She was crying so hard, in fact, that she didn't notice the orb's gentle glow shining on her.

---

Through quite a few directional mishaps in the Unicorn King's cloud castle, Rarity and Rainbow arrived at the throne room as fast as their legs (and wings) could carry them. What met their view was a tall double-door made out of clouds.

"Um, pardon me? Mister Unicorn King?" Rarity called out.

No response.

"Maybe he's out?" Rainbow shrugged. "He probably wouldn't mind if we just went inside."

"I have to concur there."

Rarity lit up her horn, and was surprised when her magic caught the handle of the cloud door. It slowly opened, and they made their way inside.

"Rarity, look!"

The unicorn glanced at where her friend was pointing. Right in her line of sight was a human girl clad in navy and red, deathly still and laying on the ground. The orb stood on a pedestal, only partially cleaned, but glowing.

"Is that...?"

Rarity began making her way over, staring at the girl. Upon closer inspection, she realized that the girl was none other than... "Olive?"

Rainbow flew over to Olive and examined her, flying in circles around her. Rarity, on the other hoof, scanned her from the ground, and was relieved when she saw her back rising and falling.

"Darling, it's all right! She's just sleeping!" the unicorn called, making sure to keep her voice low. She sat down and turned Olive over onto her right side.

"Well, thank Celestia!" Rainbow exhaled a sigh of relief and kept her voice low as well. "But why is the orb of power glowing?"

"Who knows. But we should stay away from it, just to be sure." Rarity looked towards the throne room door. "I do hope the Unicorn King comes back soon...who knows what else this orb does besides provide a power source?"

As if on cue, the sound of hoofsteps grew closer and closer, signaling the King's return. Rarity and Rainbow turned around, their expressions filled with fear as he opened the door.

"Oh! Rarity and Rainbow Dash, was it?" the King said. "What a surprise! What are you two doing here?"

"W-well, we thought, um..."

"We wanted to check on Olive, but we found her like this!" Rainbow blurted out. "We didn't touch your orb, Your Majesty, sir, we swear!"

The Pegasus shut her eyes tight, as though expecting to be scolded.

Instead, the King let out a joyous but quiet laugh.

"I find it endearing that you two care so much about a girl you hardly know."

Rainbow opened her eyes.

"Don't worry about her. She's only sleeping." He turned towards the door. "Guards!"

Two unicorns, one cyan and one pink, entered and responded in unison, "Yes, Your Majesty?"

"Please take this girl to one of my cloud beds so she can rest."

"Of course, Your Majesty."

Olive was soon surrounded by a magical aura, her unconscious body floating past the equine trio. In a poof of magic rather than a flash, a cot made of clouds was materialized, and her body was laid to rest on it. Just as quickly as they arrived, the two guards left the room and closed the door.

"Is she gonna be okay?"

"She'll be fine."

"And what of the orb?"

"It won't affect you two, don't worry. This orb of power, while it does serve as a wonderful energy source, has more to it than you would think. One of the most recent discoveries we've made is its power to relieve others of their stress and worries." the King explained. "It's likely that my words to Olive reached her, and she became so overwhelmed with emotion that the orb put her to sleep."

"Is that supposed to happen?" Rainbow asked, feeling unnerved even in spite of the King's explanation.

"Yes. It's all according to Oprah's will."

"Oprah? How so?" Rarity tilted her head.

"She called me before and told me about the situation. We both agreed that using the orb of power to help Olive would be the best course of action."

"So all that time...you knew why we were here?"

The King nodded to Rarity.

Both the unicorn and the Pegasus shared a glance with each other, unsure of what to make of this whole situation.

"But what about cleaning the orb?" Rainbow asked.

"Oh, I could just do that myself!" Taking the orb in his hooves, the King reached down and pulled a tuft of cloud from the ground, using it as a makeshift rag to remove the dust and grime. Within a minute, it was gleaming and glowing brightly. "You see, when someone does a favor for a unicorn, they are required to grant them a wish in return. I had hoped that would be a test for Olive, to see what she would wish for."

"But Olive wanted to get rid of all the unicorns in this world! She said so herself!" Rarity cried out.

"I don't think that's what she wishes for now." The King placed a gentle hoof on Rarity's shoulder. "But as for what her wish is...we will have to see."

Rainbow and Rarity could only look at the King with worried expressions dancing on their faces, hoping that whatever the orb had done to Olive, it had worked.

---

Olive's eyes slowly opened to meet an orange-and-yellow sky above her, a faded rainbow gracing it with its presence. She rubbed her head and sat up in her cloud bed. "Where am I? What happened to me?"

Her question received no response, as her ears were filled with nothing but silence.

She slowly got out of bed, taking in her surroundings. Although it was hard to make out, the room she was in looked much like a bedroom, and she quickly deduced that she was somewhere in the Unicorn King's cloud castle.

"Rarity? Rainbow Dash?"

A pause.

"...Your Majesty?"

Suddenly feeling very alone, Olive rushed towards what she thought was a door and flung it open. With no signs of life still, she raced down the hallways, not caring about if she got lost. There was something bigger weighing on her mind, anyway.

As she turned another corner, she could see the sun up ahead, making its way down to earth but also seeming to guide her to where she needed to go. She ran as fast as her legs could carry her, being so focused on where she was going that she didn't seem to notice tears beginning to prick at her eyes once more.

After what seemed like hours of running, she stumbled into the throne room, taking a faceplant onto the ground.

"Darling?"

Olive's head raised, and as soon as she saw who was addressing her, with that oh-so-sweet and oh-so-silky voice, she gasped. "It's you! It's all of you!"

"Heya, kid!"

"Olive, you're awake! Wonderful to see you. How are you feeling?"

Olive got to her feet and dusted bits of cloud off of her knees. "Yeah...I'm awake. I'm feeling..." Her gaze moved from Rarity, to Rainbow Dash, to the King, and back again. "Better. Relieved, even."

"It looks like everything worked out, then."

Rainbow opened her mouth to speak after the King, but before she could get a word out, she found herself enveloped in a hug. It felt strangely warm, and she could feel her mood instantly lift.

"Thank you both."

"For what, darling?"

"Both you two and the Unicorn King helped me to realize something." Olive broke away from the hug. "Unicorns really may not be all that bad. And...I probably should have tried to befriend you instead of treating you harshly, Rarity. Even if you are the suspect in an odd crime."

"Oh, yeah, um...about that..." Rarity's ears folded down. "I was the one that did it."

"What?"

"It's just...I wanted to use my magic here, but I feared it wouldn't work. So I tried using it on a tree. And I was trying to figure out how to get the gems off of the tree..."

"I know it sounds dumb. And believe me, she was dumb." Rainbow chimed in, much to Rarity's chagrin as she gave an eyeroll. "But we really didn't mean any harm!"

"We're really sorry."

This time, it was Rarity's turn to shut her eyes and wince, preparing for Olive to yell at her. Instead of yelling, though, the girl gave a chuckle.

"I knew it. If I hadn't been so aggressive, the interrogation would have been over with much sooner." She sighed. "But I understand. You're not the first one who's done stuff like that when they enter a new world. And actual villains have done far worse."

Rarity breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank Celestia."

"Um...I'd like to extend an olive branch." Reaching behind her back, the girl pulled one out and pressed a button near the bottom that extended it outwards slightly. "Of forgiveness and friendship."

Rainbow snickered at the pun. Likewise, it got a laugh out of Rarity too, and she used her magic to grab it, a smile forming on her maw. "Gladly."

"It's always a happy ending in Cloud Town!" the Unicorn King declared.

"How corny." Rainbow smirked.

"Come on. Let's head back to Headquarters."

As the trio began to walk away, the Unicorn King gave a whinny. "Wait! Don't you want your wish granted, Olive?"

Olive turned around, her eyes widening as she suddenly remembered. "But I didn't finish cleaning your orb."

"Ah, I'm willing to bend the rules just this once." the King said. "So, what is your wish?"

It was a tough question to answer. Olive looked down at Rarity flanking her on one side, then looked up at the hovering Rainbow flanking her on the other. She took several moments to think about what she wanted -- whether to use the wish for a selfish desire or a selfless one -- before an idea formed in her head.

"Exactly how did you two get here, again?"

---

In a cloud of magic smoke, both Rarity and Rainbow Dash materialized in Equestria. Shortly afterwards, another pony materialized, landing on the ground with a thump.

"Wow, that Unicorn King's magic is some powerful stuff." Rainbow remarked. "We really are back home!"

"Are you all right, darling?"

"I'm fine."

From seemingly out of nowhere, Rarity magically produced a mirror so the other pony could see her reflection. What she saw wasn't her human form, but rather, it was her pony form. With her tan fur, brunette mane and tail tied into corkscrew ponytails, and her cutie mark of a red hexagonal symbol with a basketball and a baseball bat layered on top of it, she looked nearly the same, much to her surprise -- even down to the top half of the Odd Squad Investigation suit she was wearing.

"Whoa! I look...so odd!" The other pony eyed her hooves and wagged her tail, trying to get used to the weird sensations and new bodily extensions she had. Perhaps one of the most striking additions to her body was her unicorn horn, which sat proudly atop her head.

"So, Olive? This is Equestria. More specifically, this is Ponyville, our home." Rarity moved her hoof across the landscape that greeted the trio, where ponies went about their daily lives, chatting and laughing and running errands.

"A place of wonder and amazement...where long-lasting friendships are made and dreams come true?!"

Rarity chuckled. "Well, that is exaggerating it a little, but yes."

A breathy "wow" left Olive's lips, her chocolate-brown eyes shimmering as she gazed upon the new land that stood before her. She happily waved to some ponies who were walking by, her heart swelling with joy when they waved back.

"Can we go on a tour? Right now?!" she asked excitedly.

"Of course. We can take you to meet our other friends." Rarity looked up to the sky. "Just follow us!"

"Yeah, you're gonna love it here. It's awesome!"

As Rarity and Rainbow took off towards a rather large castle adorned with a huge crystal on its top, Olive watched them go for a moment. She took in the sights once more, of all the ponies and creatures and buildings, and smiled before standing up on her hind legs in an attempt to run. Naturally, she didn't get very far, and fell before she could get even a few steps in.

"Hey, wait for me!"

She got back on all four hooves and tried to run on those, but that proved to be fruitless as well, as she tripped and fell seconds later.

"Never mind! Just...I'll, uh...catch up with you!"

Sighing, she got back up once again and decided to walk the rest of the way to the castle, chuckling and shaking her head. Even in spite of her mishaps in walking and running, she felt confident that she had done a turnaround from hating unicorns and wanting them dead to befriending them. And as her reward, she had come to a world full of friendship and magic to seal the deal. She felt like a new person -- or perhaps, a new pony, now. She wanted to make all sorts of unicorn friends, even if agents ate them or treated them like criminals.

Which reminded her...she never did get to know Rarity in-depth. She was sure that pony had a lot more to her than sticking gems onto trees and causing strife for those who messed with her. Never mind the fact that Ms. O probably wouldn't be happy about her not returning to Odd Squad and facing the consequences for her crime.

But Olive thought, let her boss get mad. She was going to befriend Rarity, no matter what it took. To her, that was the biggest priority right now. Odd Squad could wait.

After all, "trying and failing to save the world is better than not trying at all", or so her boss said.

Who's to say it couldn't work for friendship, too?

Comments

[LordBucket]

This was a very interesting idea, but the delivery falls a little flat. The first half reads like the end of a longer story. We're informed that Olive hates unicorns, and we're informed that there's history behind this, and we're informed of a bunch of things, far more than we're shown those things. Then the second kind of goes off the rails and becomes fairly random. The story has a random tag, sure, and it definitely belongs there, but there are enough moments where I didn't know what to expect even in the next paragraph beyond "ok, this is happening" that it started to get a bit dull. Like listening to stream of consciousness rambling. Competently written rambling, but yeah...could have done with a little more cohesion towards the end.

And the ending didn't feel very convincing. You spend several chapters informing us how much she hates unicorns, and then BAM no more, and she likes them so much that she uses a wish to go to Equestria, trite statement about friendship, the end. For that sort of complete turnaround to happen, it needed to be demonstrated with a clever twist, or a daring adventure that changes hearts and minds, or at least some sort of emotionally charged event happening to the protagonist. Instead you went with "apply magic orb, poof, the end." It's unsatisfying.

It's not a bad story, but I feel like the idea was a lot better than the delivery. The entire story is setting us up to expect that this world's unicorns are crazy. But then we meet one and he's nice and trusting and helpful, and he gives out a wish because he has such faith in the quality and moral character of a human who hates unicorns. Ok, that's all well and good for a certain sort of story, but that's not the sort of unicorn this story sets us up to expect. If that's what unicorns are like, all wise and majestic and kind...then how did the first half of the story where unicorns drive people crazy even come to be?

I'm not necessarily expecting an epic here, but I went into this excited to see a new thing, but by halfway I was pushing through to see a punchline that never arrived.

[marmalado]

11375289

This story originally started out as something fun and silly (hence the Random tag) before I decided to make it take a bit of a more serious turn, which, I'll admit, is where the trouble lies. Guess my brain got too addled with mashing two different ideas (the episode "How to Interrogate a Unicorn" but with an Equestrian unicorn, and Olive's seething hatred of unicorns so what if she meets an Equestrian unicorn?) and it didn't blend together very well. To be honest, maybe I'll make a sort of spinoff story where I can flesh out the latter plot a little bit more (it's an interesting plot to me), and remake this one with the more fun and silly plot.

The aim with all of my Odd Squad crossover stories is to establish the world to those who have either never heard of the show, or have heard of it but don't watch it. Which, I'll admit, I do kinda suck at, especially in regards to this story, because it sounds like I didn't establish much of the Odd Squad elements very well.

But I digress. Thank you for the lengthy criticism, it's much appreciated! I'm not overly used to crossover stories just yet, but hopefully I can get the hang of it a little better in time.

[Ryshinki]

Nice story.