Detective Rarity in The Haunted Carousel

Chapters

Opening Email/New Morning In New Jersey
Harlan Bishop
The Joyless Joy Trent
Ingrid Corey And Robots?
Investigating the Carousel/Meet Elliott Chen

Opening Email/New Morning In New Jersey

Dear Sunset,

Well, Pinkie and I have made it over at Captain Cove's Amusement Park here in New Jersey, about to try to figure out what's behind all of the most mysterious incidents that have been happening here lately. Here's what we know: first, a horse supposedly disappeared off the carousel one night. Then, a little later, the carousel started spinning around all by itself in the dead of the night, as if it was haunted or something! And as Pinkie and I have both agreed, we refuse to believe any sort of Equestrian magic has made its way over to New Jersey, and I believe this is somewhere along the lines of a robbery. But I digress,

Another incident had occurred at the park last week, the roller coaster suddenly stopped in mid-ride for no apparent reason. Luckily nobody was hurt, but the park had been shut down until the police or any federal department knows for sure as to what has caused this most unfortunate accident.

On top of all of that, the media has the public believing that the park is cursed, but like I said before, I refuse to believe that is possible.

I'm here because the owner of the park, a Ms Lancie, is a friend of my father. She's placed me and Pinkie up at the Captain's Quarters Hotel, which is very close to the park. We're supposed to head over there right now and meet with a security guard named Harlan Bishop, I hope I don't let Ms Lancie down. Wish me luck on my first case!

Ever yours,
Rarity and Pinkie

It was nighttime in Captain Cove's Amusement Park. All the staff and employees had gone home for the day, all of the rides and machines were deactivated, and everything was quiet.

Rarity and Pinkie Pie had finally arrived at the amusement park in New Jersey, and both were very exhausted from the plane ride. The minute the got into their hotel room, they dropped their luggage and crashed right onto their beds both looking excruciatingly tired.

"Hey Rarity, maybe next time, we go a little earlier, so we don't get here late at night."

"I agree Pinkie. *yawns* But we should, we should.. probably unload our things..... first..."

Rarity and Pinkie both fell asleep on the bed they crashed on and slept like a baby and didn't wake back up. They were very exhausted from the long plane ride and they needed a break, and now, they had taken it.

The morning light had shined into their room, and was slowly moving onto the bed Rarity and Pinkie had fallen asleep on. Both were still stretched out over the bed like dogs taking up half of the plywood floor when they'd sleep.

Luckily the sound of an alarm clock woke them up, and it shook Pinkie Pie right out of the bed.

"Whoa-whoa!"

And in a few seconds, Pinkie's body slammed onto the fuzzy floor.

"I'm okay!"

Rarity got herself to get up, and rubbed her eyes, adjusting to the light.

"Morning Pinkie." Rarity groggily said.

"Morning Rarity!" Pinkie smiled. She had more energy in her than Rarity did. But then again, she always had more energy.

So Rarity then moved her way to the bathroom, while Pinkie got her clothes on, getting ready so they could head over to the amusement park to solve the mystery.

"So Rarity, what kind of things you think we can do while we're there?"

"Well Pinkie darling, the park is closed after all. We're there to investigate the robberies, however it still bothers me, whatever would a person want with a carousel horse?" Rarity pondered.

"I don't know, maybe there's a special item inside of it?"

"Well whatever it is, lets just hope we find out what."

"Aw..no worries. You've handled things like this before right?" Pinkie asked.

At that moment, Rarity emerged from the bathroom now all freshened up, and now wearing a noir trench coat.

"Well I may have handled a few crimes, but was only for minor cases like who framed Rainbow Dash or who stolen Celestia's megaphone. Those weren't major, but this...this could be a new start. This is a real life crime situation, and I need to be the best that I can be."

"Of course you will!" Pinkie grinned.

"Well, thank you Pinkie Pie." Rarity smiled.

While she was nervous about starting one of her very first cases, she was still determined that she would make it through, for it was Rainbow Dash who said, 'at the end of the day, it is we who survive'.

"Well we haven't gotten much to lose. I'm gonna go see Harlan Bishop to see if we can get into the park. After I do, I'll come back here to get you, and we'll head on in." Rarity beamed.

"Whoa wait! Do you have all the detective supplies?"

"Oh you're right, I need to check."

Rarity pulled out her purse, and opened up one of her suitcases getting her supplies. She pulled out several amounts of fingerprint duster, a magnifying glass, a little bowl with some of Pinkie's sweet treats, and of course, her cell phone.

"Don't worry, I have everything with me. I'll be back soon." Rarity replied.

"Okie-doki-loki! See you when you get back!" Pinkie smiled.

As Rarity took her key, and exited out of the hotel room, she stood to think of the position she was in. She was about to start her first real case, and she had excitement and nervousness all over. Nervouscitement if you will. And so with a serious and determined face, she walked out of the hotel, and headed straight for the park.

Harlan Bishop

Rarity briskly walked over to the gate entrance to the park, ready to meet the security guard. As she approached the entrance to the park, she picked on a few things that were clearly seen. For one, the park was obvious aquatic themed based on the title, but over the front entrance was some water artwork, along with the sign for the park, along with its logo. Its logo was in the shape of an orange life buoy with a cartoon of a shark sitting on a ring, in a striped swim outfit, a sailor captain's cap, black shades, and it was giving a grin. The other obvious thing noticable was the sign on the gate that said 'Sorry, We're Closed'.

"Closed. Of course." Rarity stated as she was observing the decor of the park entrance. The way it looked was pretty well done, and she was considering taking some of her friends over to this place once it ever reopened.

But as she was about to step in, an announcement went over the PA.

"Will the young lady who stepped into the park please make their way over to the whale's mouth on the left. Thank you."

Rarity turned her head to the left and saw what he was talking about. Over on the left, she saw a door that read 'Ahoy Mateys, Employee's Only', and the way the decoration was set, was looking like a giant whale was gonna eat whoever stood in its mouth.

So Rarity, walked right into the room, and was greeted by a security guard, spinning his chair to face her. He was regular skin, dark hair that was short, and he had a heavy Jersey accent.

"Well from the way you walked in past all those 'Sorry We're Closed' signs, you're either who I think you are, or you're one determined gatecrasher." The guard started off.

"If you believe I'm Rarity, then you are absolutely correct sir," Rarity smiled.

"That's a relief. Its too early in the day to go sicking the cops on anybody. Oh, I'm Harlan Bishop." Harlan then shook hands with Rarity, which she much obliged.

"Are you currently the only security guard on duty today?" Rarity asked.

"Yes I am. I asked Ms Lancie to keep me on while the park's closed today. Even agreed to a pay cut."

"So, you're not intimidated by all of the activity regarding the 'curse'?" Rarity asked with some interest.

"Someone swiped a horse of a carousel and now its malfunctioning. The police don't think its a big deal, and frankly, neither do I."

Rarity was slightly more than peeved. Maybe it wasn't a big deal for the carousel, but it still matters that one of the parts was stolen and she needed to know why. However, she still kept her cool as she conversed with Harlan.

"So, do you believe the carousel started up because some wires may have gotten a bit of damage to the due?"

"It makes sense to me. Of course I'm no expert. And Ingrid swears she can't find anything wrong with the carousel's electrical system, but then, I kind of think she doesn't want to." Harlan replied.

This peaked Rarity's interest. She thought Harlan was the only one gonna be working during the shutdown. But if there were other people working during it, then it'd be a good idea to see who they were, and they could be added to the suspect list.

"May I ask who is Ingrid?" Rarity raised a brow.

"Ingrid Corey. You'll probably be meeting her, she's working during the shutdown too. She's the park's chief engineer, believes in all of this wacky new-age pyscho-biogenic stuff, like if you eat food that's served from a waiter in a bad mood you'll get scurvy or something."

Rarity's look alone was deranged. She didn't have a way to respond to that, but she would end up talking to her anyway, so she just continued.

"Is there anyone else working in the park today other than you?" she asked.

"There's Elliott Chen, the park's art director, but you won't be seeing him until after you've seen Joy Trent, the park's bookkeeper. In fact, she's your next stop." he finished.

"She is?" Rarity asked.

"Those are Ms Lancie's orders. Joy pays all of the bills so she basically knows everything that's going on. And she'll give you an access card, Ms Lancie wants you the run of the place."

"That would certainly help." Rarity smiled.

But Harlan remembered something else he was gonna give her.

"Wait, hold on, I know Joy won't give you one of these, so I will."

From the desk he pulled out two cards that had pictures of a crab cartoon character, with what looked like a reader on the bottom of it, and words that read 'Insert Card At This End'.

"They're Captain's Cove Fun Cards. They let you ride the rides and play the games on the midway. I figured I'd give you two since I heard you brought a friend to help you on the case. Am I correct?" Harlan asked.

"Yes, you are. My friend Pinkie in fact is at the hotel waiting for me to get her once I'm done here." Rarity replied smiling.

"Good to hear." Harlan then gave the cards over to Rarity which she graciously accepted.

"Come back to me if you burn through those and you need another one." Harlan replied.

But a thought had crossed Rarity's mind.

"Why wouldn't Joy give me one of these?" Rarity asked with some worry.

"Well you see Joy's just kind of joy-less. It never occurred to her that you might want to have some fun while you're here. Plus, she's a newbie too, like me. Maybe she'll come around." Harlan then gave Rarity a small bit of paper which was a map of the entire park. "Anyway here's the map of the park. I've put an X where Joy's office is."

"Thank you darling, that's very helpful." Rarity cooed.

Another thought crossed Rarity's mind. There were video monitors connected to the camera's, and one of them was connected to the carousel.

"I see you have a security camera set to monitor the carousel. Does that mean you might possibly have the footage of the theft on tape?" Rarity was a little excited. If the thief was caught on camera, then maybe this case would be done quicker.

"We didn't star monitoring until after the theft. But we do have one of those so called 'hauntings' on tape. Want to see?" Harlan offered.

"Yes I do. I'd be very much interested to see the tape."

"I have the tape all cued up. I played it for the police. And like I said before, they weren't real impressed." Harlan replied after pulling out the tape and putting it in the player.

The video appeared on one of the monitors giving a shot of the carousel during the middle of the night. The beginning showed a bit of static, just before revealing the lights going on, and the carousel starting up. But the lack of sound didn't help make it any better.

"There's no sound, on the tape at least. The band organ started when the carousel did. Ran for about 30 seconds then stopped."

Once the tape was over, Rarity turned her attention back onto Harlan and continued to talk.

"Mr Harlan, I must ask, have you ever tried to prove the screwed up wiring theory?"

Harlan shook his head no. "I ain't no cop, but maybe since you and... what was your friend's name?"

"Pinkie."

"Maybe since you and Pinkie are here, maybe you two can prove it for me."

"I think we probably might. Oh speaking of which, I should probably get moving. I got some more areas to investigate and I should get Pinkie. Thank you for your time." Rarity beamed.

"Not a problem."

And with that, Rarity kindly exited the security office back outside to the main gate, where she got a surprise.

"Hey Rarity!" A high pitched voice called.

Rarity was so shocked she fell and hit the ground on her back. Luckily she wasn't harmed in any way.

"Oh sorry Rarity. My bad!"

The voice was coming from Pinkie who had been waiting for her to come out of the security office.

"Pinkie? What are you doing here?"

"My Pinkie sense went off. It told me to go meet you here, and now since you're out, I'm here! Also Ms Lancie called and told me to just go on ahead with you." Pinkie smiled as she was still full of energy.

"Oh, well, that saves me the trouble of walking back I guess. Glad to see you came." Rarity smiled as her friend helped her back up.

"So, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna go meet Joy Trent, the park's bookkeeper to get an employee access card, which should allow us to get into further areas of the park."

"Oki-doki-loki. Lead the way." Pinkie grinned.

But before they walked on out, Rarity thought back to Pinkie's reply on saying Ms Lancie called her and wanted to know what was given as orders.

"Wait, before we go darling, what exactly did Ms Lancie say?"

"She said that all the rides are shut down except for the carousel and we should take a look at the roller coaster even if we can't ride it. Plus the police are lazzzyyy! And her phone's always on. And we should just call her Paula."

"Oh, okay. Good to know. Now come Pinkie, we must go find Joy."

"Oooh!" But then Pinkie zoomed back looking at the whale decoration above the employee door. "The whale is number one on my suspect list!" she giggled.

Pinkie and Rarity then with a smile, headed off into the park to begin the mystery. Both of them looked in awe and amazement to see all of the amusement park rides and what other sorts of fun that was there. They could see a ride called the Tidal Terror Roller Coaster which they could tell seeing the tracks sticking out from the outside of the building as well as the giant red octopus on it. Another attraction that caught their eye was the Demons of the Deep Haunted House. They definitely would need to investigate that later. But for now, it was off to Joy Trent!

Author's Note

This chapter was a little experimental. Just tell me what you guys think, and if there are some constructive criticisms, I'll apply them onto the next chapter.

The Joyless Joy Trent

Pinkie and Rarity had briskly walked on over to the office of Joy Trent. It had some more aquatic artwork on it, and there was even a sign next to the door that read 'Lil Gurry Play Pond.' Rarity could easily assume it was a play pond for kids since there were kids on the cover and colored balls as well.

So they opened the door to step in, and took a seat at the chairs in front of the lady's desk, and she turned up to see them sit down.

"Hello. Are you Rarity?" the lady asked. She had a brown blazer with a pin of a sundae graphic attached to it, dark green skin with brown eyes, and short red hair.

"Yes I am. And this is my friend Pinkie. I believe you're the Joy Trent we're supposed to see?" Rarity asked.

"Yes. That's me. Sorry about the mess. So... I'm supposed to give you an access card." she replied.

"Oh its not a rush darling. If you're in the middle of something, please go right ahead and finish up." Rarity smiled.

"That's okay, just as soon as I get this little farce over." Joy was sounding a little peeved with the way she said it.

"Excuse me? What do you mean?" Rarity asked.

"You're only here because it makes it look like Paula Lancie has nothing to do with any of this 'curse' garbage."

Rarity was a little surprised at Joy's comment. Did one of the employee's not like working for Ms Lancie?

"Are you saying she did have something to do with it?" Pinkie asked.

"I've seen the way Paula runs that park. All she wants is to get more and more people through that gate. And what better way to do that than with a horse that's allegedly stolen?" Joy asked.

"But why would she ever sabotage her own rides? She can't make any sort of money with the park shut down." Rarity said.

"She probably just didn't know the park would be shut down." Joy replied.

"Does Ms Paula know how you feel about her?" Rarity asked. She was interested to know a little more about this lady, it seemed like she didn't like her boss at all.

"Of course not. I don't want to get fired. Besides, nobody's got hurt. Except for that glorified con artist who claims his neck got hurt, Lance Huffington. And the truth is, Paula offered me the job because she knew I needed the money, and I'm not entirely ungrateful. My father died recently. His estate is in bankruptcy. He used to be co-owner of the park. Two years ago, he suffered a huge financial setback and he had to sell his share to Paula. When he died two months ago, he was flat broke. Paula could have bailed him out but she didn't. Frankly I think the reason she hired me was guilt."

Pinkie paused in awkwardness after what Joy just told her. In her mind, she just gave a huge exposition dump.

"Um, okay... didn't need to know your life story..." Pinkie rubbed the back of her head.

"Right, um... aren't we supposed to get an access card?" Rarity asked.

"Here you go." Joy then handed a blue employee access card to Rarity and she placed it in her coat pocket. "That should get you to all of the private areas of the park. But if you run into problems, don't come to me, ask the chief engineer Ingrid Corey. Her office is by the haunted house. The only other people working in the park are Harlan Bishop, and the art director Elliott Chen. His office is over by the Treasure Chest souvenir shop. But try not to bug him." Joy demanded.

"Why shouldn't we bug him? Does he have a temper?" Pinkie asked.

"He's behind in his work and needs to get it done. Ms Lancie has been getting on my case about it. Well, I think you have everything, so if you can excuse me?"

"Oh, right, of course darling. Sincere apologies if we disturb you."

Rarity and Pinkie then got up, allowing Joy to get back to her paperwork. And Rarity got an idea.

"Is it alright if we can look around?" Rarity asked.

"Of course. Excuse all the clutter. I'm still trying to get this place organized." Joy said sounding focused.

Rarity and Pinkie took this time to go look around her room to investigate. And already in Rarity's notebook, Joy was suspect number two. If she has that much dislike for her boss, then maybe she might be the carousel thief. But I can't jump to conclusions yet.

Rarity opened up some file drawers and found a piece of paper sticking out. She unfolded it and read what the paper had to say, and one of the words was erased in heavy black.

"Hm... looks like stenography. Its a memo about one of those carousel horses being sold... I wonder which horse though..." Rarity said to herself. She analyzed the paper a little more but she couldn't read it. "Hm... maybe I better take this with me to try and translate that word." So she put the clue in her pocket.

Over with Pinkie, she saw a picture from that looked like progression photos. The first photo on the top was of men and women in dresses dancing with a caption that read 'The Original Sheldon Rousseau Galaxy Ballroom'. The photo on the bottom of it was showing some people working on the floor like it was being redesigned with a caption labeled 'Contevting the Ballroom -- winter of 1961 to 1962.'

"The haunted house used to be a ballroom. How's that for irony?" Joy called out to Pinkie.

Pinkie did find that fact to be a little ironic. And there was one more photo to be read, which showed the front fish design of the haunted house attraction, and the caption for that one read 'Haunted House Upon Completion-- 1962.'

"Well, I think we're done looking here. We'll come back if we have to." Rarity replied.

"Okay." Pinkie smiled.

So the two exited out of Joy's office and planned to go to another location. This time, they decided to go visit Elliott Chen, the art director.

Pinkie opened up the door and gave another knock just for the heck of it. From her view she could see a guy with a dark gray shirt and blue jeans sitting in a chair working on some artwork.

"Hang on, I'll be right with you." He called.

"No, take your time darling." Rarity replied.

But Pinkie opened the door a little too far and it hit the ledge of a table and it knocked an open can of blue paint onto the ground spilling it.

"Uh oh..."

The man sitting at the desk who they could assume was Elliott turned to face them looking very unhappy, but he was surprisingly very calm.

"Out. And do not come back unless and until Joy Trent calls me. Okay?"

And with that, Pinkie closed the door in sadness.

"Okay...."

But just to check again, she opened up the door again to see him back to his desk, but his hearing was better than she anticipated.

"Haven't heard from Joy yet. Out." Elliott called out as he raised an arm to pointed to the door.

And Rarity closed the door again.

"Well, so much for that." Rarity complained, walking away with Pinkie in defeat.

Ingrid Corey And Robots?

Author's Note

Sorry I haven't gotten a lot of content for this out. My laziness has been getting in my way. So, enjoy. Don't worry I'll try to get off my lazy butt to get more content to you guys.

Ingrid Corey And Robots?

After the disappointing failure with the meeting of Elliott Chen, Rarity decided to go investigate other areas of the park with Pinkie happily bouncing right beside her.

"Well, that could have gone better." Rarity complained.

"I'm sorry Rarity, I didn't know--"

"No, Pinkie, its alright darling." Rarity assured. "I didn't know the door was gonna hit something that would allow a paint can to fall."

So the two walked towards one of the attractions of the park, one of them called 'Demons of the Deep Haunted House'. From the look alone, they could see a scary design of an angel fish sticking out of the wall, along with its light right in front of it.

Rarity couldn't help but shudder at the sight of it.

"They certainly don't call it a haunted house for nothing." Pinkie stated.

"Yes, yes indeed." Rarity moved forward to the 'employee's only', and swiped her access card down in the reader, but instead of granting her access it gave a quiet beep and it blinked red. She tried swiping again, but still no luck. So she tried swiping the card in different ways and angles, but even then she still didn't get any signs that access was granted.

"Huh... No access. I guess we're gonna have to go see chief engineer about this." Rarity said to Pinkie.

So the two ended up walking on over to the lab of the chief engineer, Ingrid Corey.

After opening the door and entering inside they could see many things inside of the engineering room. For one, many parts and machines from what they could tell were from several different rides were sitting around, and yet they looked like they were in perfect condition. Some of the equipment and machines they could see were a cart for a track, a seat for what looked like part of some turn-table ride, and a what looked like a roller coaster tram that was in the form of a shark.

The two girls turned their heads to the right and could see a woman working on a giant spinning gear. This must have been Ingrid.

"Excuse me miss?" Rarity asked.

The lady heard and turned around to face her. She zebra-striped skin, the back of her hair was tied up, she had a blue button up shirt that was open, an inner maroon colored shirt, black dress pants, and a golden necklace in the shape of a hammer crossing over a wrench.

"Looking for someone?" The woman asked.

"If you're Ingrid Corey, then yes I am." Rarity replied.

"That's me. Ordinarily I don't do hands-on work and I'd be able to shake your hand Ms..."

"Oh good heavens, my sincere apology. I'm Detective Rarity, and this is my helpful assistant Pinkie. We're helping Ms Lancie discover what's behind all of these carousel 'hauntings'. Do you mind if we ask you some questions?" Rarity asked.

"Of course." Ingrid obliged. "Oh my... you've got B3 issues."

"What!? But I played bingo yesterday!" Pinkie exclaimed.

Ingrid looked at Pinkie with a bit of confusion until Rarity spoke up.

"Don't, question, Pinkie. But, what do you mean by B3 issues?" Rarity hesitated.

"Vitamin B3. Niacin. The vibe you're giving off tells me your low. Nothing that some natural peanut butter on a slice of whole wheat bread won't fix." Ingrid finished.

"Oh, well, thank you for the advice darling." Rarity replied sounding very confused at Ingrid's statement. After clearing her throat, she spoke again. "How long have you worked here?"

"A little less than two years. I started out in maintenance and worked my way up. I've held the supervisory position for the last ten months."

"Do you know what could have caused that roller coaster accident?" Pinkie asked with her high pitched voice.

"Someone stole a horse off the carousel and now the park is cursed." Ingrid replied with a bit of bluntness in her voice.

"Do you know why someone would steal a carousel horse?" Rarity inquired.

"Money. I hear they can be very valuable." Ingrid replied. This gave a bit of a thought in Rarity's mind. Maybe someone stole the carousel horse because there was a very rare value to it?

"How well do you know about Harlan?" Pinkie asked

"I know he's an ex-bouncer from Trenton. I also know it drives him nuts that this is one of the few places in the park he doesn't have a key for." Ingrid replied.

Rarity gave a small nod towards Ingrid's reply. Harlan wanting access to every single building and location in the park? Highly suspicious...

"Is there by any chance you can show us the blueprints for the Tidal Terror Rollercoaster? So you can show us the exact spot the rollercoaster had stopped?" Rarity asked.

"I've looked all over for those blueprints but I'm afraid I haven't seen them anywhere. I'm sure one of the other engineers knows where they are but I don't. Sorry."

Pinkie's hair deflated in sadness after what she said.

"Oh wait, I just remembered. I would like to take a closer look at the roller coaster, but the access card reader doesn't seem to be working. It has this red tag on it?" Rarity asked.

"Right. I was in the process of upgrading its main circuitry board. I'm afraid you're going to have to wait until I finish here. Unless you'd like to do it for me?" Ingrid offered.

"Do you really think I can handle it?" Rarity asked.

Ingrid chuckled slightly at Rarity's question. "Its not exactly brain surgery. All you have to do is follow the schematic inside the reader."

Ingrid then looked over at the table she was working on, and dug through a small tray, and pulled out a piece of technology and circuitry.

"Here's the new macro resistor. When you see the board, you'll be able to where it goes. You'll need to solder it in place. Which means you have to get my soldering gun from Elliott Chen."

Rarity then took the macro resistor that was offered to her, and put it in her inventory bag. She then noticed Ingrid pull out a binder which read 'Parker's Industrial Engineering Handbook'.

"Here's the engineering handbook I put together. If you have any questions about park-related electronics, it will answer them. Keep it as long as you like."

"Thanks." Pinkie then took the book and put it in her bag.

"When you're all done, remove the red-tag and take it to Harlan. That way he'll know its safe to turn the power back on to the reader." Ingrid finished.

At that moment, a cell phone began to go off. Pinkie checked her pockets, and her cell phone was off, and Rarity check hers and found her cellphone not ringing either.

"That's not my cellphone. It must be yours." Rarity stated. But she then picked up on the fact Ingrid was in no rush to go and answer it. "Aren't you going to answer it darling?"

"No, that would be rude. I'll just call them back." And with that line, Ingrid's cell phone stopped ringing, and she picked up the conversation again. "So, once you get that tool from Elliott, you should be all set." Ingrid finished.

"Thank you." Rarity replied.

"Wait a second, Rarity, the access card?" Pinkie asked.

"Oh right, of course. I don't seem to be having much luck using my access card. Am I doing something wrong?" Rarity asked.

"Not at all. I deactivated most of the readers because of the shutdown. Soon as I get done here, I'll get them back on again. Sorry. Oh and if you come across a pair of pliers hang onto them okay. Mine are missing. One of my guys must have wandered off with them." Ingrid replied with a hint of annoyance.

"Aw... don't worry. I'm sure we'll find them." Pinkie smiled. "You mind working during the shutdown?"

"Not a bit. Keeping those card readers functioning is practically a full time job all by itself. And it just so happens I adore my job." Ingrid replied.

"Well we appreciate your help darling." Rarity replied.

"My pleasure." Ingrid replied before getting back to her gear.

As Rarity and Pinkie moved away from her to look around her room, Pinkie pulled Rarity close to whisper.

"Rarity, why are we doing all the work? Shouldn't she be doing the job she's paid to do while we do the job we're supposed to do?" Pinkie asked.

"While I agree with that Pinkie, I'm sure she's incredibly busy. Anyways, lets search for a few more clues." Rarity replied.

Pinkie and Rarity moved towards the back of the room and looked at a wooden desk with an old computer looking as if it hadn't been used in quite a while. Pinkie then noticed the small paper bag with stripes covering it. But just as she was about to move towards it to get a closer look--

"Can I help you with something?" Ingrid asked.

"Sorry, bad habit." Pinkie replied.

Once Rarity had done her thorough search and couldn't find anything, she and Pinkie exited out of the building.

"I think she likes her job so much she forces everything on us." Pinkie complained.

Rarity and Pinkie stood in the middle of the park unsure of what to do.

"Hm... what to do, what to do, what to do." Rarity pondered while scratching her chin.

Pinkie then got an idea as a metaphorical light bulb shined over her head. "Maybe we could call our friends to get some help?"

Rarity beamed with a smile. "Pinkie, you're a genius!" Rarity cooed.

After dialing into her iPhone, they waited for a response.

"Hello?" Came a voice from the other end. The person to have picked up was their world's Twilight.

"Hey Twilight!" Pinkie smiled.

"Hey Rainbow. Pick up, its Rarity! Actually, Rainbow may not want to talk to you." Twilight replied.

Rarity and Pinkie shared a look of confusion. "Why not?" Rarity asked.

"She's just jealous because you two get to go solve a mystery at an amusement park. She's so jealous she's just been complaining the entire time that you two have been left." Twilight snickered.

"Hey, its Rainbow." Rainbow called on the other line.

"Hi Rainbow." Pinkie beamed.

"I don't want to talk to you." Rainbow grimaced.

"I told you." Twilight replied.

"Nah I'm just messing with you. Pardon me for a second I got to go spit." Rainbow joked.

"Quit fooling around. They are calling from long distance remember?" Twilight replied.

"Sorry. So what's going you two?" Rainbow asked.

Rarity cleared her throat, and then spoke. "Do either one of you two know anything about remote control devices?"

"My brother Shining Armor had a toy car once." Twilight replied.

"Until you broke it!" Shining jokingly called out.

"Ancient history Shining! Anyways, why do you ask?" Twilight asked.

"Rarity saw a tape of the carousel going round by itself. Freaky deeky!" Pinkie replied in her usual high pitched voice.

"And I just saw a bit of static just before the carousel began to start up." Rarity replied.

"That's electrical interference. Consistent with someone using a remote control device. And if that's the case there has to be some kind of electronic device that transmits as well as receives near, or maybe even be attached to the carousel."

"I haven't checked out the carousel yet." Rarity replied.

"Make sure you look hard when you do though. The device could be very small." Twilight replied.

"Thanks. Also, get this. Apparently one of the people who was on the rollercoaster claims he got his neck injured when the ride suddenly stopped and he's filed a lawsuit against them."

"That kind of sounds like a big insurance fraud." Rainbow replied.

"Wait, what if someone is making up a false claim? What if that was his plan all along? And what if someone in the park is in on the scheme with them?" Twilight inquired.

"The person causes the accident, the man sues, and they split the settlement. Twilight, you're a genuis!"

"We've got a motive!" Pinkie exclaimed with joy.

"We should probably get going. Oh wait, one more question. Do you have any suggestions for our next move?" Rarity asked.

"Why not go snooping in one of your suspects office? They do have offices there right?" Rainbow asked sounding confused.

"Nope, they do!" Pinkie replied.

"Thanks for the suggestion. We'll call back soon." Rarity replied.

"We'll be waiting." Rainbow replied before hanging up.

"Well Pinkie, they may have suggested we snoop in someone's office, but I for one think we need to tell Joy to call Elliott first. So we can talk to him."

"Oki-doki-loki!" Pinkie grinned.

Rarity and Pinkie headed over to Joy's office and entered inside. But once they entered, they saw Joy wasn't at her desk. This meant more opportunity to go snooping around.

"Perfect...." Pinkie whispered.

So Pinkie and Rarity entered inside her office. But as they looked around, neither one of them noticed something that was the elephant in the room. The sheet that was covering something over the file case was uncovered. But what was even stranger was the object now unveiled from it. But before they could notice it--

"Who are you, and what are you doing?" A voice called out.

Pinkie and Rarity froze stiff after hearing that voice. They thought they were all alone in the office.

"Who said that?" Rarity called out sounding scared.

"I said that. Over here. On top of the cabinet." the voice replied.

Pinkie and Rarity turned their heads to see a strange machine just sitting on the cabinet. From a few details they could see, there was a speaker from a record player on its left, it had golf clubs for feet, bicycle handles at the back and they looked like they were assembled to an Easy Bake oven. They were hesitant to go towards it, but without any other choice or idea, they moved forward.

"Keep going. Over here." The machine droned.

Once Rarity and Pinkie moved forward and were face to face with the strange thing, it spoke.

"Please identify yourself."

"Oh... uh... well I'm Detective Rarity and this is my friend Pinkie."

"Hello!" Pinkie smiled.

"Digital and audio representations of your voice and image have been entered into my memory circuits, Rarity." The device replied.

Rarity and Pinkie both still had looks on their faces with a major amounts of shock and confusion. What was this thing?

"How come you didn't say anything when we were talking to Joyless Joy?" Pinkie asked.

" I cannot interact with my environment when my visual and aural sensors are covered." It replied.

"So are you so kind of computer? Ooh, ooh, maybe you're a robot?" Pinkie squeed with joy.

"I am, Miles the Maginificent Memory Machine. I receive and process video and audio input and make appropriate reprogrammed verbal responses." Miles replied.

"What exactly is a Magnificent Memory Machine?" Rarity asked.

"It is my turn to ask a question, Detective Rarity. Why are you here, when Joy is not?" Miles asked.

"I'm afraid we got off on the wrong foot with Elliott Chen. We need to leave a message for Joy to call him." Rarity replied with professionalism.

"There is a pad for leaving messages on the desk." Miles replied.

"Okay, thank you darling. So, who programmed you?"

"Responding to the non-Joy entity is an necessary drain on my power units and is therefore disallowed...." Miles replied sounding as if he was about to die.

"What does that mean? Hello? Miles? Ugh, I guess it means he won't talk to us." Rarity replied.

"Still this thing is weird! I say we take it apart and have it ride the roller coaster." Pinkie snapped.

"Pinkie we're not going to do that. Lets just make that note, and leave it alone."

"Okay..." Pinkie whined.

Rarity then walked over to Joy's wooden desk and wrote a note on her notepad that read 'Joy. Please call Elliott C. Rarity.' They were about set to leave when Pinkie analyzed her gnawed pencil.

"Ooh.. Joy's a pencil chewer. Just like Twilight!" Pinkie exclaimed. "Ew... a little gross though."

Pinkie put the pencil back down and walked off with Rarity still questioning as to what did the heck did they just see.

Investigating the Carousel/Meet Elliott Chen

After leaving Joy's office they set out to go investigate the park some more.

"Hey Rarity, I have an idea. What if we split up, we can cover more ground that way?" Pinkie offered.

"That's not a bad idea." Rarity replied with a nod. "You got an access card?"

"Yep!" Pinkie pulled out the blue access card from her hair.

"Alright, in the meantime, I'm gonna go visit Elliott Chen to see if we can talk to him. And if I get the soldering gun from him so I can fix the card reader."

"Okie-doki-loki!" And with that Pinkie zoomed off, while Rarity wandered on her own.

Pinkie wandered over the carousel ride and was intrigued by its look. It may have looked like every standard carousel at every amusement park, but it was still extravagant to take a look at the design and effort put into the artwork.

"Oooh... pretty." Pinkie replied.

She opened up the gate and walked onto the carousel turntable. She looked around to see if anything stood out, and surely enough something did stick out. She found a spot where a carousel horse, was missing. That must have been the horse that was stolen.

Pinkie pondered over the missing horse for a moment, and walked over the middle of the carousel ride, she opened up the side and found a secret compartment. There she could see a card reader on a wall where some more paintings were, and the other side there appeared to be a wooden cabinet with a card reader as well.

She pulled out the access card and slid it down the one that was the wooden cabinet. Once it beeped indicating access was granted, she opened it up. Inside she could see a cabinet with a piece of paper attached to it that said 'Do not touch ANYTHING in here without asking me first OR ELSE!!!'. Curiosity got the better of Pinkie and when she opened it she found a bunch of bars inside.

"Huh. Nothing." Pinkie said as she closed the cabinet and looked at the sheet of paper attached to the door. She pondered for a moment and found a phone number attached to it. "Guess we'll have to call this Tink guy later."

Pinkie slipped out a little notepad and wrote down the phone number before closing the cabinets. She turned her head to the left side and found a set of pipe organs all set in a row, along with a knob set to switch to certain tracks, and a switch to turn it on and off.

"Oooh." Pinkie smiled.

Pinkie flipped the switch on and listened to the first song that played, bobbing her head up and down, side to side enjoying the tune.

Once it ended, Pinkie switched the knob to the other track but nothing was heard. She switched it back to the first track and then back to the other, but still nothing.

"Something's missing here." Pinkie said.

Without anything else left to investigate, she closed the door and turned her head to the other card reader. She slid it down and it opened up allowing her inside.

"Ooh..."

Pinkie had found herself inside the the carousel, where a giant beam stood in the middle keeping the top up, on the left there was a wooden cabinet, and on the right she found a small door in the floor.

Feeling curious, she walked over and pulled up the door revealing a set of stairs that went down underneath the carousel.

"Guess I'm gonna have to start crawling." Pinkie said.

She crouched down onto her hands and knees and carefully moved down the stairs down into the dirt underneath the floorboards above her.

"So this is the space underneath the carousel. Pretty messy though." Pinkie said as she was finally able to get back up on her feet and brush the dirt and dust off of her. She looked forward and unfortunately there was a lack of light ahead, so she slipped out a flashlight from her bag the front of her hair held it as she walked forwards.

As a bit of the light from her tiny flashlight illuminated in the darkness, it finally hit something which grabbed her attention. As she picked up it, she noticed a few details that stood out. One of them being there was several yellow pictures implying that it was a danger zone, and another thing being a small little blue box lying in the dirt.

Pinkie picked it up and took a closer look at it. It had a company logo on the bottom that read Zap Tech Transmitters, along with a remote model number, and a big red button in the middle for activation.

"Better not press that button."

Pinkie then began walking back up and crawled back up the stairs. But as she looked up she noticed something that stood out. There was a letter in the top of the ceiling that looked if it was just hanging out.

"A letter!" Pinkie exclaimed. She made it to the top, and closed the door. Looking up, she tried standing on her tippy toes to reach for it, but alas she had no luck.

"Maybe a jump should do it!" Pinkie jumped up as high as she could and she almost made it, but she was sadly a few inches short away from it.

"Oh come on!"

Once back on the ground, she scratched her chin contemplating what to do.

"Hm... I'm gonna need something to reach that."

With that, Pinkie began walking out of the carousel and she pulled out the map in her bag. There were a few locations she could check out. One of them being the haunted house, and the other being the arcade where all of the midway games were. Rarity was on her way to go see Elliott Chen to get the soldering gun and she would begin attempting repairs on the roller-coaster card reader.

"Maybe I can go check out the haunted house." With that Pinkie skipped away to go check out the Demons of the Deep Haunted House.

Over with Rarity's end, she finally stopped at Elliott Chen's office and stepped inside. And when she did, surprisingly enough Elliott didn't say anything to her about being in his office. He kept working at his desk. And as he continued to work at his desk, Rarity surveyed what he ha inside the room. She could see a giant bookcase, a lathe, a fan with pieces of tissue strips attached to it, and so many other items like carpenter supplies.

"Um, excuse me?"

The man turned himself around to look at Rarity. He had gray skin, a shirt that had tons of paint splattered all over it, and blue jeans. He also had a little button pin near the top of his shirt that had a graphic of a paint can embezzled with a crossbones sign on it.

"Ah, one of the ladies of destruction return." he said sarcastically.

Rarity wasn't the least bit amused with his poorly written joke.

"I take it you spoke to Joy already?" Rarity asked.

"Yes, I did. And you can imagine my surprise when she told me you and that really hyper girl were detectives." Elliott replied.'

"Well, I also hope she told you that we spent a full 10 minutes in her office without spilling anything important." Rarity said hesitantly, sweat running down her head.

Elliott however was still collective and continued to be polite. "Its alright, accidents happen. Besides nothing important was spilled on, it only spilled on the floor. Nothing too major. Anyways... I hear you're here to solve the mystery of the 'curse' of Captain's Cove."

Rarity nodded. "Any chance you can figure out an explanation for what's been going on around here?"

Elliott shrugged. "What do I know, I'm just an engineer. Go ask our naturopathic engineer person."

"Oh, well alright. Do you have any idea who stole that horse off the carousel?" Rarity asked.

"Its probably someone who's into junk." Elliott replied.

"That's a little odd. Ingrid said carousel horses could be very valuable." Rarity replied.

"Well yes, when they're the original horses they can be valuable, but I'm talking about the one that was stolen. It wasn't an original. Around eighteen, twenty years ago, somebody bought one of the horses off the carousel. The guy who owned the park back then commissioned some hack to replace it."

Rarity raised a brow, unamused. "So the horse that the 'hack' carved was worthless?"

Elliott nodded.

"Oh, before I forget, Ingrid said you had her soldering gun. I need to get it from you if that's alright."

"Of course. I've been meaning to get it to her but I've been a little busy." Elliott said as he pulled it from off the table and handed it to her.

Why exactly do you have a soldering gun? Rarity thought to herself as she took it from him.

"So, the fact that the park is shut down must be a big relief for you, isn't it?" Rarity asked.

"You mean because I'm behind in my work? I'd be lying if I said the shutdown wasn't helping me get caught up. Meeting deadlines has never been my forte. But I certainly hope you're not suggesting that I arrange for the park to be shut down by manufacturing this curse thing because that would be ridiculous." Elliott replied.

Rarity just kept her calm demeanor. You are definitely going on the suspect list.

"Do you ever talk to some of the other workers here during the shutdown? Like Joy Trent or that security guard Harlan Bishop?"

"Joy Trent?" Elliott huffed. "Ugh, she's like invisible even if she's visible if you can catch my drift. And that rent-a-cop? I have no desire to see anything of him."

"Why do say that?"

"Dude is way to eager to make my business, his business that's all." Elliott finished.

"Alright. Well I thank you for taking the time to answer my questions." Rarity replied.

"Keep it real." Elliott replied and then turned back to his desk to continue working.

He really needs a haircut. And a clean shirt.

Rarity continued to look around the room and in a small little box, she could see a bunch of little tissue strips held together by a paper clip. These might come in handy...

"Do you mind if I can use some of the tissue strips, along with a small roll of duct tape?"

"Be my guest." Elliott replied.

She took a bit of them and put them in her bag, along with a small roll of duct tape. She then looked to a side of a room and discovered a small little receipt on the floor. She picked up and discovered on the receipt was for 360 board feet, just for wood.

Hm... That's a lot of wood. Rarity said as she picked up the receipt and put it in her bag.

After finding everything she could get, she exited out of Elliott's office now officially ready to repair the card reader for the roller coaster.

Author's Note

I'm sorry I haven't been getting a lot of content out, but with high school starting up, its really putting a damper on my creativity juice. Don't worry, I'm not leaving Fimfiction, I'm just gonna be on temporary hiatus for writing chapters for the time being. Anyways, hope you enjoy this one and do leave some constructive/positive criticism.