Hello, my name is Neon Lights and I am a unicorn stallion.
Not long ago after Lord Tirek was defeated, Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich went into business together. The two party ponies put their minds together and started creating theme parks in order to make ponies all over Equestria happy, thus creating the Cheesy Pie Corporation.
A lot of the mascots for these parks were based off of Pinkie’s five friends, with a few smaller ones based off of the rubber chickens that Cheese Sandwich would use in his old routines.
Nine of these parks have been created with eight still in service at the time I am writing this. However I have a feeling that more may begin to collapse.
They even made some movies together of old fairy tales with Pinkie portraying a pivotal role. All the fillies and colts loved these films and they enjoyed going to the theme parks based around these films.
Now when I said there were nine parks, what I should have said was that there are nine parks here in Equestria but ten parks total. There was actually a tenth park constructed in the Zebra home country. It was set up there by Pinkie who wanted to share the fun with the zebras as well.
Despite the Zebra government giving permission many of the inhabitants were outraged, saying that the park would damage some of their ceremonial grounds.
When I talked to Zecora about this she explained to me that there are a lot of traditions held highly by zebras in her country, who would like to convince their fellow zebras that they have divine power. Many would claim to be shamans with the ability to use their potions to cast spells and curses.
Zecora explained that there are many ceremonial grounds where ingredients for these potions can be collected. Some ceremonial grounds are also used for the creation of certain potions. This can be due to special natural lighting, like a location where only the light of a full moon can reach, or where certain “phenomena” have occurred.
Despite the continued complaints, Pinkie continued the construction of the park. Or at least they tried to. The construction crews encountered numerous issues during construction. Some say it was due to shallow waters making it difficult for the ships to move. Others say it was due to zebras continually trying to sabotage the construction.
Eventually they did manage to construct the park and thus Discord’s Palace was created. For those of you who don’t know, Discord was the lord of chaos who caused havoc around Equestria. He had even joined forces with Tirek but calmed down after being betrayed by Tirek and being forgiven by Pinkie and her friends.
The park was a goofy place where zebras and ponies alike could have fun. Or it was for a few weeks. For some reason however, after three and a half weeks the park was shut down and Pinkie pulled the plug on the project.
After doing all the research on this I was curious if I could find the park. Sure it would cost a lot of bits in order to find it but I am certain that I could acquire the funds for it. I know it sounds stupid but at the time I was really curious and a part of me keep begging to solve the mystery of what had happened at that park.
It took me a while but after talking long distance with somebody from the Canterlot Library I managed to find a map to where Discord’s Palace was located.
Sometime after finding the map I received a letter from Pinkie Pie herself. The letter read as follows:
Dear Neon Lights,
I hate to ruin all your fun but I would strongly suggest that you forgot this pursuit of yours.
There are things best left abandoned and forgotten.
Please for your sake I beg you to stop pursing this fruitless endeavor.
The Cheesy Pie Corporation should be hosting a few more parties this year and we would love to have you come. Included in this letter are a couple tickets so you and a friend, relative or special somepony can come and enjoy the party.
Well, have fun. Hope to see you at the party.
Sincerely,
Pinkie Pie
The letter was unsettling. Why would Pinkie warn me about this? Was she really trying to protect me or was she trying to hide something?
In the end I choose to ignore the letter. I know now that that was a bad idea but at the time I disregarded it as utter nonsense. Thus I managed to obtain the money I needed to buy a ticket for the Zebra lands and back. It wasn't hard after I sold those two tickets Pinkie had given me, after all I wouldn't be able to use them anyway.
I let Vinyl Scratch know about my trip before I departed. She was a little annoyed with me saying I should go back to writing music and quit investigating every random thing that caught my attention. I will admit she did have a good point, but I suppose my curiosity is my one weakness.
The trip on the plane was rather boring. I slept through most of it. In preperation for the trip I had grabbed a few things and stored them in this sturdy backpack I had bought. Say whatever you want about Mr. Rich, but his company really makes some great backpacks.
When I arrived I followed the map and headed out for Discord’s Palace. This was difficult as the map wasn’t 100% accurate and I had a hard time talking to the zebras about it. Let me elaborate. The zebras are a very charismatic people and very welcoming of visitors. However as soon as I tried talking to them about the park they would stop talking to me and walk away.
In one scenario I had encountered a friendly zebra named Saithorum who was eager to talk with me about some really interesting landmarks near the coast that would be great places for me to visit. However when I asked him about Discord’s Palace the expression changed to that of worry and he mumbled something under his breath.
“That place is cursed?”
When I asked him to speak up he denied saying anything and tried to change the topic.
Eventually I managed to find my way to the park. The walls surrounding the park were chipped and covered with creeping vines. On the metal gate was a metal sign with the words “Abandoned by Pinkie” spray painted on it in pink letters.
I wasn’t sure if this was something actually left behind by the company or if it was something made by the locals.
The gate was locked by three padlocks; whoever locked it didn’t want anyone breaking in.
However I managed to find a place where I could throw a rope over the wall with a weight and crawled over. Once on the other side I made a beeline for the park's resort.
The place appeared to have been abandoned in a hurry. Paper hats of chickens and Pinkie’s face were scattered all over the ground. Some were so water damaged that they were no more than scraps of paper, drained of their happy colors.
In front of the hotel was a pool containing black muddy water. Dead leaves and fragments of abandoned party hats floated on the top of the foul water.
On both sides of the entry way into the hotel portion of the park were two statues. The statue on the left was that of Pinkie Pie while the one on the right was that of Cheese Sandwich. Both statues seemed to be high fiving over the entry way into the hotel. Most of their paint had chipped off revealing rusted metal underneath. The top of the statues were plastered white with bird droppings.
“You both have seen better days haven’t you?” I said to nobody in particular. I then took a picture of the two statues.
Walking into the hotel I noticed that much of the area was in disarray. It reminded me of one of those abandoned buildings in the movie Draconic Park II, you know the failure of a sequel to that one movie where they resurrected those different species of extinct dragon and made a park around it.
Yeah that was a bad movie.
Anyway, while I was looking around the hotel I checked the kitchen area. In the large walk-in freezer bags full of spinach and lettuce sat, their contents rotting into a thick green sludge. On the other side of the kitchen sat containers full of various sweet pastries, all of which had gone stale but were otherwise untarnished. This is probably due to all the sugar and preservatives inside them.
When I came out of the kitchen I noticed a slip of paper on the admissions desk which I hadn’t noticed earlier. It appeared to be a suggestion card which read:
Suggestion:
It seems the vandals keep breaking in through the east entrance. I would strongly suggest we increase the number of guards there. It would be much cheaper to pay another guard to watch the gate at night then to continually buy supplies to clean the graffiti off.
I decided to put the suggestion card in my backpack. After all the place was closed down; they wouldn’t need it any more.
Stepping outside I spotted a statue of the park's namesake. Despite a few noticeable blemishes the statue looked to be in good condition so I decided to take a picture of it as proof that I had been here.
When I took the picture I was startled because I could have sworn that the statue had blinked at me. However that must have been a figment of my imagination because the photograph showed no evidence of such a thing.
I walked around the park a bit to look at the rides. All of them looked to be in disrepair and some appeared to have been vandalized. There were several areas where male genitals were spray painted. I even found a sign with Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich who were sporting large blue mustaches that had been spray painted on.
As I walked around I found a stairwell with a sign saying: Employees only, hanging over it.
Now here was something that would be fun to look at. Perhaps I could find something interesting to take a photo of and maybe there would be something I could take home as a prize showing my accomplishment.
Thus I descended the steps until I came across a pair of doors. One was for maintenance and the other one surprisingly only for mascots. The door to the mascot room was locked but I was able to break it using my crowbar as a lever.
Inside the room it was dusty and in upheaval. Various costumes lay flat on the ground in disarray. There was even a photo negative version of Pinkie Pie lying flat on the floor. I took a look at one of the chicken masks on the floor and decided to take a closer look at it. When I did I was shocked by the sound of something shattering at my feet.
Looking down between my hooves I was shocked to find the partially broken skull of another pony. Its bone completely stripped of flesh. The sight mortified me. Some pony had died here and Pinkie had tried to cover it up!
Not seeing anything else in the room that could shed any light on what had happened I decided to take a look in the maintenance room. However, as I left the mascot room I could have sworn I felt something watching me.
The door to the maintenance area was unlocked. Opening the door, I was surprised to see that the power was still on and that the ceiling lights were on. As it turned out it wasn’t a room but a long hallway with various rooms branching off. Some were for monitoring the rides above, while other rooms appeared to be where some of the employees slept.
I walked down the hallway and took the bend to find myself in front of a door for security guards. This door was also unlocked.
Stepping inside I found the skeleton of a pony wearing a security uniform sitting against the right wall. On the left wall were hangers lined with security uniforms.
At the other end of the room there were a series of monitors all of which were turned off. Next to the screens was a large computer. I turned on the power in the room which brought both the screens and the computer to life.
Sitting down at the computer I started to browse its file history. There appeared to be some documents written by the security guards. They read as follows:
Week 0 Day 1 Report:
At this point there has been no sign of sabotage. Construction appears to be going as planned.
Week 0 Day 2 Report:
There is still no sign of any pony trying to sabotage the park. Construction is nearing completion.
Week 0 Day 3 Report:
It is kind of boring around here. I think management might be a little bit paranoid since no one has tried to sabotage the park yet.
Week 0 Day 5 Report:
Finally some action around here! Apparently some pony had tried to vandalize one of the water rides. Yellow graffiti of a disgusting nature was sprayed onto the side of a few of the pipes. There was a group of adolescent zebras found outside the park. However since they didn’t have any spray cans on them there is no evidence that they were the vandals.
Despite the vandalism construction is still going according to plan.
Week 0 Day 7 Report:
We are still having issues with vandals. Thankful management is hiring more ponies to serve as security guards during the night, which is when most of the vandalism takes place.
Week 1 Day 3 Report:
We now suspect that the vandals are using the west entrance in order to sneak in at night.
Also Rose Bloom keeps cheating at checkers when she thinks I am not looking. Could someone please address this issue? I know it is boring sometimes here at nights but that doesn’t mean she has the right to cheat.
Week 1 Day 4 Report:
We are still having vandalism issues and now one of the mascot costumes has gone missing.
So now we have to deal with complaints about an alligator ride with a phallus drawn on it as well as complaints from the Entertainment crew about their dumb costume.
Seriously we could use some help!
Week 1 Day 5 Report:
We managed to catch the vandals in the act and the deviants were taken into custody by the Zebra authorities. However when questioned about stealing the suit the vandals denied ever stealing it.
Week 1 Day 6 Report:
It seems the vandalism has stopped. Now things are going to get back to their old boring pace. What a shame.
Week 2 Day 1 Report:
The music in the zoo portion of the park seems to be glitching. Sometimes it starts up in the middle of the night for no apparent reason.
Week 2 Day 4 Report:
I thought I saw a mascot walking about earlier. It was late so no pony should have be in costume. I called out to whoever was inside the outfit but they remained silent. Just watching me. I shrugged it off as a joke by one of the guards and went back to work. I will talk to them about this tomorrow. It isn't funny.
Week 2 Day 5 Report:
All my fellow guards denied walking around in a mascot costume last night. This is annoying but at least it makes this job a little bit more interesting.
There were some more vandals caught tonight. Apparently they were getting in through the east gate.
At this point my eyes started to hurt from looking at the tiny white computer screen, seriously who ever thought putting small letters on a small screen was a good idea? I decided to give my eyes a break and wolfed down one of the snacks I had brought.
As I was munching on my snack I thought I saw what appeared to be a Fluttershy mascot on one of the camera monitors. The mascot was looking at the Discord statue I had taken a picture of earlier. This startled me but when I looked at the monitor there was no sign of the Fluttershy mascot.
I figured it was another trick my brain was playing on me so I decided to resume my reading of the security reports.
Week 2 Day 6 Report:
ERROR File not found!
Week 2 Day 7 Report:
ERROR File not found!
Week 3 Day 1 Report:
Alright who has been deleting all my reports! This is annoying.
Week 3 Day 2 Report:
ERROR File not found!
Week 3 Day 3 Report:
Okay so apparently some of Cheesy Pie's management has been deleting some of my reports. Don’t know why though. When I demand an explanation the higher ups tell me to mind my own business.
Apparently the vandalisms have stopped. However there have been more sightings of [Redacted]. Been talking with the Entertainment crew and apparently they have no idea what is going on. The [Redacted] are not supposed to move on their own.
Week 3 Day 4 Report:
It has spread. Now all of them are doing it. The park is being abandoned. I have only come back here to get my stuff and…
Shoot it appears they have blocked me off.
The mascots, they're…
This was where the reports ended. I was shocked by what I had read. Something bad had happened here.
After downloading what I could of the reports onto my flash drive, I left the room and walked out into the hallway. Suddenly all the lights went out, leaving me in complete darkness.
“Crap I knew I should have brought a flashlight!”
Now I know what you are thinking, ‘Neon why not just use your magic to illuminate the room?’
Well, I could have if I knew the spell. You see while I am a unicorn, I am not great at casting spells. I can move objects with my magic and manipulate musical instruments just fine, but that is the extent of my magical talents.
I couldn’t cast an illumination spell to save my own skin.
However, I can be resourceful when I need to be.
Pulling out my camera I started taking pictures, using the flash as sort of a substitute flashlight.
As I turned at the bend in the hallway I was startled by a shape. It was the photo negative Pinkie mascot I had seen earlier, only now it was standing in the center of the hallway. Its brown eyes and white pupils seem to be looking right into my soul.
I took another picture and as I did the mascot started walking towards me.
“Hello,” The mascot spoke in a squeaky voice, “would you like to see my head come off?”
Another flash of the camera and I watched as the mascot tried to pull off its head with its green fluffy hooves. The sound of fabric ripping and flesh tearing echoed throughout the hallway. The mascot continued to laugh.
When I took another picture the flash revealed that the mascot’s head had been torn completely off. Pink blood sprayed everywhere, covering the walls. Blood mingled with glittery confetti.
I took another picture hoping to find a way past the hideous creature. As I did I caught a few words written on the wall in red:
She has abandoned US!
I made a run for it past the mascot. I didn’t stop to flash the camera to see where I was going. I just kept running until I found the door.
“Awww… please come back,” the admonition giggled. “We could have SO much fun together.”
As I opened the door I saw something lung towards me from the darkness. The next thing I knew that green Pinkie mascot head had clamped its jaws down on my shoulder.
I screamed and tried to dislodge the thing biting me. After hitting it with my crowbar a few times the mascot head let go of my shoulder.
“Please stay. There are so many games I could use your body for.”
Once I had ascended the stairs I kept on running. I wanted to get as far away from that place as I could. I now understood why Pinkie Pie had warned me not to come here. This place hadn’t been locked up to keep ponies out. It was locked up to keep… them… in.
As I ran out I spotted another mascot out of the corner of my eye. It was the Fluttershy mascot I had seen earlier on the security monitors. A red substance stained the mesh in its mouth as well as its lower jaw. It just seemed to be watching me as I ran.
It wasn’t until I was over the wall outside of the park that I finally stopped to catch my breath. I then noticed some writing on one of the walls:
There is no god here!
When I returned to civilization I immediately grabbed the next plane back to Equestria. As I sit here on the plane, I am writing down my account of this story.
This shoulder wound is really starting to hurt something fierce. I should have it checked on when I get back to Ponyville.
However I can’t shake this feeling that I am tainted somehow. Even now in the safety of this plane, I have the strangest feeling that I am being watched. That perhaps not all the ponies on this plane are really ponies.
Perhaps I am just being paranoid. Now I can’t wait to finally return home and for this whole endeavor to be over with.
Author's Note
A friend of mine on Deviant Art (WBC-The-Zorgic) pointed out to me that it might be creepier if the Pinkie Mascot's blood also had confetti in it. Therefore, it had to be done.
