//------------------------------// // Ingrid Corey And Robots? // Story: Detective Rarity in The Haunted Carousel // by FourShadow //------------------------------// 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.