The Tycoon
How was Dan supposed to explain all of this? One minute he had given a tearful goodbye to Rainbow Dash and her friends before he was to return to his world…as where he was supposed to go. Now he didn’t know what had happened.
He would’ve have expected to end up in his house, now he had turned up back in his pony appearance stranded along a long prom at some large beach town, did the princesses made a blunder navigational-wise? Strangely enough, that wasn’t the least of his concerns right now, right now, all he wanted to know where he was.
All around him there were ponies, not humans as he might've thought, enjoying the day, heading in and out of shops scattered along the front row of buildings situated on the prom. Dan saw electric trams rumbling up and down the promenade with tourists, all seemingly to be having a wonderful time.
Stumped at wondering where he was, he started to fly above the town to get a better look around him. Behind him, there was a long, large yet packed beach cramped with ponies of all ages. To his left the prom continued on right up to the horizon. Even with it being such a clear sunny day, he still found it hard to make out how big this place was. In front of him, behind the front row of shops, lay even more buildings of various shapes and sizes that carried on right towards a long river near the horizon, beyond that was a highway and a section that led into this town.
“This can’t be Equestria…or Earth!” Dan muttered to himself in disbelieve. There was nothing like this in Equestria with trams, Freeways and cars…and with many ponies here, it wasn’t Earth either.
Finally he took one look to the right, and lo and behold in the distance…was an amusement park. Dan rubbed his eyes, as he couldn’t quite understand what he was seeing. Though he was some distance away from that park, he could make out a large roller coaster that seem to dominate to the skyline around him. He could also just see other roller coasters of similar sizes all cramped together.
Though he may have only known some small parts of modern Equestria history, never did he read anything that said any place had a giant amusement park sitting right near the coast.
There was no point to try and think what was going on around him, the only thing he could do was head over and see what that place was. He began flying towards and as he flew nearer, he began to feel a sense of excitement building up in him, like he would’ve felt when he was a young kid on Earth when his parents would take him to some exciting place.
Down below him, there were countless ponies heading towards this place, Pegasus ponies like Dan himself flew in the air to avoid the swarm of crowds below them. It only just dawned to him that the crowds he saw not long ago all seemed to be heading to this place among other attractions that were likely to be here in this town. That or perhaps this was the only major attraction in town.
Finally he arrived at the entrance to the park, were literally thousands of ponies were shunted through five different entrances at quite a rate, strangely to Dan, they weren’t paying to get in.
He rubbed the back of his head wondering why this was the case. “What…? Why aren’t they…?”
Glancing over to his right, he stopped mid-sentence when he noticed a large billboard in bold yellow letters saying ‘BALTIMARE PLEASURE BEACH…THE GREATEST FREE AMUSMENT PARK IN THE WORLD!’
“So I’m in Baltimare…and explains why so many ponies are getting in without paying,” Dan muttered to himself and looked around again. “But from those photo’s in Twilight’s library, this doesn’t look like it.” Indeed, the entire town seemed to look like an old British beach town he’d seen in magazines back on Earth.
Still, with this park being free to get in, it didn’t hurt if he decided to have a little mingled around this park. So with that, the blue Pegasus dived into the crowd to join the fast moving line to the entrance.
XXX
As Ace entered the park, he couldn’t help but notice that nopony ever seem to recognize him by either call out his name or even asking him if he was Ace or anything about his hero status. It seemed that whatever world he was in, he was just a random stallion. And as soon as he went through the retro-ish entrance, he gasped as he looked around him. Nearly every ride in this park was literally built on top of one-another, and this was from what he was seeing at the entrance.
It didn’t help that he couldn’t stop to drink in the rest of his surroundings as the mass crowd of ponies pushed him forward and nearly crushing him in the stampede. Thankfully he avoided such a fate and quickly flew up into the air and getting out of that crowd.
“Damn cheek!” He cursed under his breath at how rather rude these ponies were. This certainly wasn’t Equestria by any means! He was about to fly off to explore more of this place, until he heard a voice.
“Hey you!” A male voice called out. “You! The blue Pegasus flying in the air there!”
Dan bit his bottom lip. He was probably in a no flight area and was being told by security to get down. As he turned round to look, there standing there was an older green unicorn stallion with a grey mane and tail and a neatly trimmed moustache and dressed in neat suit and also a gear stick as his cutie mark. But the strangest thing was that the stallion was smiling at him a motioning to come over to him.
Taking another look around him to see if any pony were watching him, he flew down beside the green stallion. Suddenly, as soon as he touched the ground, the green unicorn placed his fore hoof on Dan’s back. “Congratulations!” The green stallion boomed happily.
“Wait what?” Dan stuttered in confusion. “What’d you mean ‘congratulations’”?
The older stallion pulled his fore hoof away from Dan and looked at him with a warm smile. “Don’t you see? You are our millionth guest this season!”
“…What?”
“And because of that, you’ll have a chance to meet with the boss himself!”
“…WHAT?”
“Oh I’m sure he’ll be please to meet our—“
“What is going on?!” Dan barked angrily, it was all happening all at once for him. First he ended up in some alternative universe of Equestria where he is nobody here and now he was being awarded by some strange stallion saying that he was a millionth guest. And if he was that certain guest, had this guy been watching guests entering the park everyday of the season? His mind was teeming with questions he wanted to know.
The brunette stallion then drew a sigh before asking the unicorn a question. “Alright Mr. I don’t know what to say that I’m here, but what is your name?”
The green unicorn slightly gasped before hitting the side of his head lightly. “Oh heavens my apologies, sir!” he cleared his throat before giving Dan a hoof shake. “My name is Duffy Dipper, Operational manager here at the Pleasure Beach. And you are?”
“Erm, Blue Bass, but just call me Ace,” Dan replied, going by with his pony name. Not surprisingly to Dan, Dipper didn’t react to his name. “And what is this award I get?”
Duffy Dipper smiled at the younger stallion. “Ah that’s the good bit of the deal. Every year, this place earns over five million guests a year, and every millionth guest that enters will get a place at the top with the park owner, a tycoon he is, and, A.K.A, get to work for the park!”
Dan stared at the unicorn with a blank expression. Him, the 7th element, now to work on an amusement park? From one thought, it did seem like a fall from grace and an unusual fate for him to have. Despite that, the thought of the owner being a tycoon seemed strangely familiar to something he heard back on Earth, though he wasn’t so sure…
“…Well then, sir?” Dipper asked, breaking Dan out of his concentration. He seemed to have zoned out for a moment there. “You want to see the boss himself?”
“Well…” Dan uttered before pausing to look over to the park, drinking in the sight of cramped rides stuffed together before looking back at the green unicorn. “Alright then, guess it can’t hurt.”
“Ah wonderful!” Duffy replied happily before leading Dan into a large white building nearby the entranceways. “Come this way, hopefully our own tycoon will be in a good mood today.”
Good mood today? The thought of it made Dan shivered. Already this day was turning out more stranger than what he’d thought.
As they entered the building, they passed by many corridors that had many old and new photos of the park over the years it seemed. Though he didn’t have time to stop and admire them, he had to meet the owner.
During the saunter through the corridors, it felt like walking through a maze and Dan seemed to lose track how long they had been in this building to find the office.
“Here it is!” Duffy Dipper said over to Dan as he pointed over to a varnished wooden door with a golden plate nametag on the door that said ‘B. Arrow – Park Owner’.
“Hang on a minute—“ Dan said noticing the name on the door, before Dipper knocked on the door interrupting Dan.
“Come in,” came a voice from behind the door, a rather gruff one.
As Dipper opened the door, they entered into a large office space with more pictures in frames hanging on the wall around the room. Looking in front of them, a large glass window looked over the park, and there was a desk and a black leather chair that whoever was in it had his back turned on them. The pony was on the phone with a long phone cable stretching from a retro like phone.
“Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard it all before!” The stallion yelled on the phone. Dan almost recognized the voice being a gruff Scottish type. “I ordered the ride for ten million, not twelve!”
The chair turned round, and there sitting in that chair was a stallion that Dan acknowledged instantly.
Blue Arrow!
Dan’s eyes widened at the stallion in the chair. There was Blue Arrow, the Red Hoof commander back on the Equestria he knew, with his red and white mane and tail, his red eyes and his grizzled look about him. But the difference with him was that he was dressed in a nice suit, his mane didn’t cover his eyes like they would do, and in fact were neatly combed back. While Dan kept eyeing at the older stallion’s appearance, Blue Arrow carried on arguing in Scottish slang on the phone to whoever it was.
“Listen daft works! I ordered that ride for ten million, and if ye dinae agree on that, the deal’s aff!” And with that, he slammed the phone down on its receiver which such a force that it startled Dan and Duffy.
A long silence followed after Blue Arrow’s outburst with him breathing heavy. He then looked up to face the pair before given them a small smile on his lips.
“Erm, well then…I apologized for that, ye cannae trust coaster companies these days, always can pull a last minute trick on ye,” Blue Arrow explained, this time, more calmly. He then turned his gaze over at Duffy Dipper. “Now then, can ye tell me who this is?”
The green unicorn’s face lit up. “Of course, Mr. Arrow! This is the millionth guest this season!”
Dan gave a nervous smile as he glanced left to right trying to figure out what to say, still stunned at seeing that the tycoon was none other that Blue Arrow. The Caledonian blue stallion though gave the younger stallion a warm smile as he walked up to Dan. It was then Dan noticed as Blue Arrow walked away from the desk that his cutie mark was no longer a Red Hoof, but instead it was of a roller coaster. This certainly wasn't the real Blue Arrow.
“Ok, I don’t think I’m in the other Equestria now,” Dan thought to himself, though his thoughts were interrupted when Blue Arrow began to speak to him.
“So then, lad. What’s yer name?” He asked in a warm and friendly manner.
“Erm, Blue Bass, though I’m nicknamed Ace,” Dan replied, knowing that this Blue Arrow would not know who he was.
The older blue stallion nodded his head in acknowledgment. “Alright then, now then, are ye one of these theme park enthusiasts or a random member of the public?”
Him, a Theme park enthusiast? Now it must be said that Dan wasn’t much of roller coasters, though he did have some friends back on Earth who were and would spend money to go on rides around the world, he just thought they were slightly crazy.
“…Just some random guy,” Dan replied duly, though suddenly, Blue Arrow’s smile became almost to size of the moon and clapped his fore hooves together.
“Perfect!” He boomed proudly and placed a friendly fore hoof around Dan’s shoulders. “Your just the lad I’m after! These coaster freaks try ta’ get in and run the place, but they dinae ken how much these things cost and could even run us into bankruptcy.”
The brunette stallion stood there, staring at Blue Arrow with a stunned expression. Those guys he knew back on Earth would’ve done anything to get to this point where he was.
“B-but, sir,” Dan intervened. “I know nothing about running a theme park, why do you want me for this?”
Blue Arrow kept on smiling as he led Dan out of the room. “That’s the best trick, Ace,” Blue Arrow explained. “An average guy like you can keep an eye on money while we build these steel monsters.”
‘An average guy like him?’ Dan shook his head with a slight chuckle that sounded like a cough; this Blue Arrow had no idea what he’d been through before he ended up in this alternative world.
Dan bit his bottom lip. “Well, it is kinda nice getting this but…do you think I should start from the bottom and work my way up?”
“Of course not!” Blue Arrow said proudly. “It’s a special stance you’ve gotten, don’t think anypony else would do something like this.”
“He’s right you know!” Duffy piped in from behind them. “Mr. Arrow knows how to run a good amusement park. He is a Roller Coaster Tycoon you know!”
Dan suddenly thought about that phrase Duffy had mentioned.
“Roller Coaster Tycoon…?” He thought, the name ringing a bell in his head. “Where have I’ve heard that before…?”
XXX
From that day on, Dan was given the place of ride designer for future rides, though due to his lack of not knowing how to work like this, the majority of his time were spent with him doing nothing other than sitting at his desk in his office overlooking the park and think about his friends and family he had on Earth and the real Equestria he knew.
It had been two weeks since he was appointed this job, and Dan still remembered that he had to leave Equestria as if he stayed there for any longer, Earth would freeze forever. He should’ve been worried like sick over how he might’ve caused Armageddon on Earth, but as he was in some other world, he had no idea to panic or not. One thing was for certain though in his current situation, he just didn’t like this job.
Still, he did have time to look over some of the history of the park and was quite surprised of what he found. The park first opened one hundred and ten years ago, when it was only a handful of vintage rides, since then over the years, the park grew in size with new modern rides added year after year. Most notably, the park had owned by the Arrow family since it first opened (a family that emigrated from north of the border), and Blue Arrow was the current member of his family to own the park.
Despite all of this, how was it that he was to end up with this position?
Still, it he did have to admit that he liked the view of the park from his window where he could see friends, families…and lovers, all enjoying themselves.
“That could’ve been me, Dash and Blaze in there,” he sighed sadly to himself. Just then came a knock on his door, startling Dan.
“Oh, erm, come in!” He called out towards the door. As the door slowly opened there standing there was park manager, Jambo Runner, though nicknamed as J.R by much of the staff at the park. No not that J.R…
J.R was quite a beefy built earth pony stallion with a brown hid, a short black name and tail, dressed with a simple white shirt with a black tie and a radio microphone as his cutie mark.
“Hello sir,” Dan greeted J.R, though the earth pony didn’t look happy.
“It’s a darn shambles on the Revolution!” He snapped angrily.
“What’s happened?” Dan questioned worriedly.
J.R sighed as his head lowered in disappointment. “There’s a family trying to get on with their kids who are under the height meter, but they are causing a big argument and customers are being put off by this.”
He paused as he rubbed face with his fore hoof. “Remember, if there’s something going on, guests won’t pay.”
Dan grunted in agreement. Though it was a park that was free to enter, guests had to pay to get on any of the rides here, and it looked like that today was going to be one of those bad days.
“Sorry for snapping at you,” J.R apologized to Dan. “I just wanted to get away from it, don’t mind if I stay up here to take a break?”
The blue Pegasus pony shrugged his shoulders. “It’s fair with me.”
J.R smiled and went over to the water cooler in the room to get a drink before sitting down on a chair on the other side of the desk. They remained silent for a period as J.R kept drinking his water while Dan scanned over various plans for what would be a new ride for the park. “So then…what’s the news from the park?” Dan asked, breaking the silence.
“Rumors really from the staff,” the brown pony replied in a bored manner.
Dan cocked an eyebrow at J.R. “Oh yeah? What about then?”
J.R shifted in his seat. “They say that park has some unpaid debts, big ones I might add.”
Dan suddenly remembered this, even among the top ranks of staff at the Pleasure Beach, there had been some doubts about how much Blue Arrow had been spending.
“Same thing up here with those rumors,” Dan added dimly.
The park manager shuddered. “Yeah? Well Celestia knows what’s going on in the money department, because that has to be the worst place to be working for the park.
“Yeah…” Dan sighed sadly. It was true that after reading some more history about the place, since Blue Arrow came in, he had been spending a huge amount of money on major rides and attractions.
Though as they were, they were simply just rumors, though the fact Blue Arrow kept quiet about did make Dan suspicious at times.
The two stallions remained silent as they instead looked out of the window. Little did any of them know it then, that Mr. Arrow’s money rumors would soon come to light.
XXX
Less than a week had gone by since that day, and in terms of working for the park, it had all been pretty normal. It was also nice that he had gotten himself some good pay and had be able to buy himself his own flat, though it wasn’t quite a nice looking building with it being in a notorious area. Still, all goof fun one could guess.
It was now just after ten at the park and Dan was off for the night. One interesting fact about the park was that the park was opened up to midnight during the summer months, and even at the time, the park was still buzzing with guests, mostly the drunk ponies who had came in from the closed bars.
Before leaving his office space, he took one last look at the park, and no matter how many times he saw it at night; it still took his breath away. When it came to nightfall, the park was glowing with some many colours of lights covering nearly every area of the park. And with it being near the sea, Dan joked to himself that there was no need for a lighthouse with the help of the Pleasure Beach.
After a quick look of admiration, he left the room and walked down the corridor, heading for his flat.
He had just rounded a corner when suddenly he heard shouting from further down.
Dan stopped and looked around where the sound was coming from. Just then he saw in front of him a rather flustered looking Duffy Dipper running up to him, with a sheet of paper floating in the air thanks to his magic.
“Duffy? What is it?” Dan asked with concern as the green unicorn stopped running when he was near him, panting heavily from his run. “Oh Celestia, you won’t believe what has happened, Blue Bass!” Duffy said worriedly.
The blue stallion looked at the sheet of paper still floating in the air. “What is it, Duffy?”
By now in almost in instant, Duffy suddenly looked really worried. “The debts! The taxstallion has finally caught up with Blue Arrow!”
Dan felt his stomach had been chucked into a bucket of cold water, he dreaded to think what was on that letter. Without a second thought, he grabbed the piece of paper and began reading it.
It was worse than he thought.
On it, it included large unpaid bills from over ten years ago! And the cherry on top was the final bill total at the bottom of that sheet. Dan’s golden eyes widen in shock.
“Oh my…please tell me that’s a phone number,” Dan gasped at final line.
“Oh no,” Duffy corrected. “Nine hundred and thirty six million in debt!”
The blue Pegasus was speechless. Those rumors from not long ago, were all true, but the truth was far worse than anypony could ever know. He then remember Blue Arrow saying that coaster enthusiast were likely to spend on more, but Blue Arrow had only gone out and done it himself.
Such a hypocrite.
“What happens now then?” Dan asked the green unicorn, but he taken aback to see the Operations manager on the verge of a break down. Dan knew that Duffy’s place at this park meant a lot to him by the look on his despaired face.
“It’s just…just…”
The older stallion then felt a hoof on his shoulder. “Listen, sir. I’ll hand it over to him. You head home, ok?” Dan assured him.
Duffy drew in a shaky sigh. “Sure…yeah, I will. Just what will Blue Arrow think?”
Dan sighed, as he turned round towards the other end of the corridor. “I don’t know, and I don’t know what will happen.”
And after given the older stallion a nod, he flew down the corridor, clutching the tax bill in his fore hoof. As he rounded the corner, he noticed that his fore hoof was becoming transparent, just like when he left Equestria. “Oh no, not now!” he gasped as he flew faster down the corridor.
He was about to leave this alternative world.
It didn’t help either that with these corridors being a maze, finding Blue Arrow’s office was quite difficult. The more it took for him to try and find the door to that office, the more transparent he became.
He started to panic as he looked around desperately. Out of the corner of his eye, he finally saw the door with Blue Arrow’s name written on it. Without a moment’s thought, he flew as fast as he could in such a restricted space.
As soon as he was near the door, the corridor was engulfed in a golden glow that illuminated the hallway.
Dan had left this world and that remained was a large tax bill that lay there by the door.
To end this, Dan did return to Earth exactly how he left it and that his teleportation between the real Equestria and Earth had a small hiccup on route, ending him up in this Equestria.
Though Dan is now safe and sound by this point, what Blue Arrow, the so called great Roller Coaster Tycoon of Equestria, will do to get around his unpaid taxes is something to wonder about…later on, the Pleasure Beach was…
