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.