...And Olive Finds At Least Some Appreciation For The Color Pink
Olive hated feminine stuff.
Princesses, unicorns, dolls, dresses...if it was tailored for girls according to marketing and societal standards, she hated it. She never was appealed to the stuff growing up.
In society, she was what was known as a "tomboy". Which, to her, wasn't really a bad thing. Far be it from her to care about what people thought of her, especially since her place of employment had pretty smegging good and pretty smegging diverse hiring rates.
And especially since Todd was a reformed villain now. Dear odd, would he have teased her something fierce about her liking pink.
As she finished polishing her basketball trophy from when she played on the University of Montreal's basketball team, a sigh left her lips. She'd had to polish them more often than usual, especially where her partner was concerned.
"Hey!"
Huh, speak of the devil. "Hey, Otto." She waved. "How was your break?"
"Awesome!" Otto grinned. "I found this really cool store that just opened up in town. You wanna go?"
"Now?" Olive glanced at the clock that sat on her co-owned desk. "Otto, we've got a lot of work to do."
A pshh was her response. "A little walk never hurt anyone. You could use the fresh air." He beckoned with his hand. "C'mon!"
"You're doing this just to get a bite to eat, aren't you?"
"Nah, not really. I had a big lunch. Now come on, already!"
Giving a resigned sigh, Olive followed him, not bothering to hide the smile that had crept onto her face.
"And here we are!"
Olive gazed at the sign that laid above her: Carpe Donut, est. 1989.
"It's...a bakery."
"Yes, it's a bakery!" Otto said. "Look at the sign! Look inside!"
Sure enough, the shop had quite a belt of business attached to it -- nearly every table was filled.
"Otto, when you said 'big lunch', I didn't-"
Olive blinked. Her partner was gone, within the snap of a finger. And it wasn't until she looked inside that she saw him hitting up one of the bakers at the front counter.
She gave a mighty sigh and began making her way inside. However, a pink blur made its way to the door before she could get more than a couple steps in.
"'Scuse me, sorry!"
"Oh, it's...no...problem?"
Olive moved out of the way as she watched the blur head inside. Looking through the transparent door, she saw the blur's true form: that of what looked like a pony.
Hold on...that's...
She made her way inside, standing behind the pony in line, who was, in turn, standing behind an Otto who was trying to order everything on the menu.
"Pardon." Olive tapped the pony on the back. "You wouldn't happen to be from Equestria, would you?"
"Huh?" The pony turned around, and it didn't take her long to recognize the uniform the human in front of her was wearing. "Yeah, I am! And you're from Toronto!"
"I...y-yes. How did you..."
"This isn't my first time here." The pony extended a hoof. "My name's Pinkie Pie! And you must be Olive!"
Olive's pupils shrunk. How does this...Equestrian know my name? She certainly couldn't recall meeting any Equestrians in the past...although then again, she had been living for well over 200 years now, and her memory wasn't really the most reliable.
"I am." She nodded. "It's nice to meet you, Miss Pie."
"Just Pinkie's fine!" The pony smiled. "So what brings you here? Going to eat with Otto?"
Okay, this is getting borderline creepy. "How did you know? How do you..."
"Silly filly, you're Odd Squad legends!" Pinkie said. "Everypony who's visited Toronto and knows Odd Squad knows of you and Otto!"
Odd Squad legends...Olive had to admit, such a title never really crossed her mind. She had her fans, sure, but was she really known as a legend in a worldwide organization? Somehow she doubted it.
"That so?" She put on a polite smile, her curiosity piqued. "Why don't you sit with me and Otto, and you can tell us more about yourself?"
"Can I?!" Pinkie rocked back and forth on her hooves, feeling positively giddy. "Yes!"
Soon enough, both girls had ordered their sweet treats and were sitting at the same table.
"You're a baker?" Otto's eyes shimmered. "I love cooking! You gotta give me your recipes! Every single one of 'em!"
"Yeah! I work at Sugarcube Corner, making all kinds of pastries that please all kinds of ponies!" Pinkie explained. "Here, I actually brought some for you guys to try!"
From her mane, she produced two cupcakes, both with chocolate frosting on them. Otto was eager to take his. Olive, not so much -- plain pastries were far more her style. Still, out of politeness, she took a bite of the cupcake.
"This is..." She swallowed her bite. "...really good!"
"Of course it is!" Pinkie grinned. "I know how much you like cupcakes without frosting and all that, but I figured you could use some diversity in your diet."
A laugh, forced but polite, bubbled forth. Olive gave a sigh, and then an equally-polite smile. "Thank you, Pinkie."
"No problem!" Pinkie tapped her hooves on the table excitedly. "Now, would you two mind doing me a teeeeeeeny-tiny favor? Just tell me all about your cool adventures! I wanna hear them all!"
Olive, mid-bite, glanced at Otto with a look of sheer confusion. He shared her sentiment.
Within the half-hour, Pinkie had a pile of extensive notes piled high on the table. Her brain had absorbed every single detail of Olive and Otto's cases, much to their surprise as they weren't sure she was even listening by the time they got to the "6:00 to 6:05" case.
"Whoooooa...I can totally see why you guys are legends now!" she chirped. "No wonder Olympia idolizes you so much."
Otto frowned. "And Otis?"
"What about him?"
"I gave him an autograph,"
Pinkie still looked confused, up until Olive leaned in close. "He thinks Otis idolizes him."
"Ohhh, I get it." Pinkie nodded. "Unfortunately, he doesn't. Sorry. He does respect you, though!"
Otto lowered his head dejectedly. Olive pat his back and gave a small empathetic smile.
A low rumble suddenly cut through the shop, followed by another one. Almost immediately, Olive and Otto shot up from their chairs and raced outside, nearly sending Pinkie toppling to the floor.
Stomping about and firing lasers every which way was a loose laser chicken, towering over trees and buildings. It was, perhaps, one of the most monstrous laser chickens in existence, and it made every living thing look like mere peas in comparison.
Pinkie made her way outside and stared at the sight before her. "Oh my garmonbozia." she murmured. And then, in a voice of higher volume, "LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT LASER CHICKEN!!"
As if on instinct, Olive and Otto took unisonant action. All it took was a single nod shared between them before they each whipped a piece of rope out of their backs and took off in two different directions, running in circles. The rope began wrapping around the laser chicken's legs, until with one pull it was sent towards the ground. The lasers it fired shot up into the sky.
Pinkie watched with incredible awe. Just seeing how well Olive and Otto worked in tandem put their cases in an entirely new light. Even when they began talking, supposedly about what to do next, she couldn't take her eyes away from the sight. Her mind was rushing so quickly that she missed how they mitigated the threat.
"Well, that's that." Olive dusted her hands off. "Nice job, partner."
"You too, partner." Otto pointed at the pink equine standing stock-still in front of them. "Though I think we broke Pinkie."
Pinkie blinked rapidly. "That..." She grinned. "...was awesome! I mean, the way you- and you just- and-"
"All right, all right, don't get too excited." Olive gave a smile. "You've heard about our exploits with laser chickens before, so I'm not sure why-"
"I have to go back to Equestria!"
The sudden declaration made Olive and Otto give a unisonant "What?"
"Oh, wait'll I tell Twilight about you guys! She's gonna go crazy!" Pinkie poked Olive in the knee. "I think she's gonna like you."
"Who's Twilight?"
"I gotta go! Uh, i-it was really nice meeting you two! Hopefully you can come to Equestria sometime! Bye!"
Before either Director could get a single goodbye out, Pinkie rushed off, weaving past people who looked mildly annoyed at best and outright enraged at worst.
"What...just happened?" Otto's eyes moved to Olive. "Am I in your dream again?"
"If you think I would dream about pastel-colored horses, you don't know me very well." Olive sighed. "She reminds me way too much of Olympia."
"Maybe they're twins!"
Olive opened her mouth to fire a rebuttal, then closed it.
"Ahh, you think I have something going, don't you?"
"Yes."
"Do you think we could look into that?"
"Maybe after we take a trip to Equestria..." Olive tapped her chin. "If Pinkie knows of Olympia and Otis, then I can safely assume she's been all around Odd Squad. Which means Odd Squad and Equestria have some kind of a connection."
"Odd Squad has connections to tons of alternate dimensions, Olive. I dunno if Equestria's some kind of a special case." Otto nervously looked in the direction Pinkie had run off in. "And besides, we don't even know much about Equestria."
"Yet. But we have an entire precinct of agents who've been itching for a big case like this." Olive rubbed her hands together and put on a grin that looked almost manic in nature. "Otto, let's go back to Headquarters. It's time to plan."
"...Is that pink pudding you're taking out?"
"So it is. I'm growing to like pink now."
"Add that to the list of things I never thought I'd hear."
As soon as Pinkie emerged from the portal, she booked it to Twilight's castle as fast as her hooves would take her, letting her face do the work in opening doors and her vocal cords do the work in calling out for Twilight.
"Pinkie?" Twilight took a few steps back as her friend became nose-to-nose with her. "Look, I-I'm busy here, so could you come-"
"No!" Pushing past Twilight and closing the door using her tail, Pinkie strode over to the table littered with books, shoved any intruding books off of the table, and placed her hooves on it. "This is important!"
Twilight sighed. "Pinkie, if this is about your 'secret ambassador mission thingie' or whatever you're calling it, I'm not interested right now."
"Don't quit now! 'Cause I've got some big news! Huge! Huger than Canterlot, even!"
"'Huger' isn't a word."
"Whatever!" Pinkie grinned. "I've come back from a world that has humans. Huge chickens that shoot lasers. And this really cool organization that fights all sorts of odd stuff!"
Twilight blinked in confusion. "That just sounds like the Human World I went to."
"But does it have laser chickens? Or a really cool organization that fights odd stuff?"
"I- no, but-" Twilight groaned. "Can you just get to the point?"
"Of course! If you would be so kind as to join me at this table..."
Twilight obliged, clearing away the books that littered her side and stacking them neatly. She also took the time to stack the books that Pinkie had shoved to the floor. "All right. Go ahead. Enlighten me."
What followed was about a minute of silence as Pinkie donned a cat smile and stared at Twilight knowingly. Twilight, in turn, moved her eyes around the room absentmindedly.
"Twilight Sparkle."
Twilight's gaze moved to Pinkie.
"I have discovered something that is going to blow your mind. Something that could change Equestria as we know it. Something that could even involve the other princesses!"
Pinkie leaped up and pulled down a projector screen, which displayed a familiar golden badge-shaped emblem.
"Now, have you ever heard of 'Odd Squad'?"