They decided to go to the haunted house, first.
There was no particular reason for this, it was just that the Elements had run out of ideas as to the most likely area. Well, apart from the Escapement Hotel itself, since the center of a particular persistent magic area was also where it was strongest, and thus it made sense to put a base there. On the other hand, Rainbow Dash had a screwdriver taken to her mind, presumably by a security system, and thus it made more sense to figure out what the Elements were actually dealing with, first.
Unfortunately, one part of the park looked as suspicious as any other part. Eventually Fluttershy just decided to go with instinct and choose the cliche place-to-hide-weird-and-possibly-horrific-magical-effects-in-an-amusement-park, ye old haunted house.
It wasn't much to go on, especially if the angels had read any horror novels at all, but it was a start.
"Velcome, to ze Hall of Bleakness!"
If the "pony" saying this hadn't been a golem, and thus the actual pony responsible for this mangling of the Trotselvanian Accent Of Nightmare Night Festivities was somewhere far, far away, Twilight would have...well, not slapped, but definitely would have been a massive irritation as she went over the finer points of pronunciation.
"Yes, velcome one and all to zhe finest and the greatest gallery of zhe worst and pettiest bullies to have ever existed on this, or any other world. Come, vhone and all, to zhe piecemeal racereations of zhe awful hoomanz....if you dahre. Muwhahaha!"
"Yeah. 'Finest and greatest gallery.' Unfortunately, we spent all of our budget on maintaining the gallery, so we hired this goofball instead of an actual greeter." Rarity held her head. "Never thought I would see the day when I ached for Discord's Fancy accent..."
"At least he kept the durn thing up." Applejack glared at the mechanical greeter. "Did Flim and Flam sell the voice recordin' or somethin'? ....actually no, ah find even them passin' this off as good hard to believe."
"Well, they bet they would fondle a fish on camera if they lost. Can't really blame them." By now, the other Elements had gotten use to these sudden flashes of oddness from Rainbow, so nopony batted an eye. Twilight had long ago added too many enough things on her internal Catharsis Journal involving the angels and rusty spoons to get any more satisfaction out of it.
...She also wrote down in her internal Memo Wall to work on this newfound vengeful side she had. But that could wait.
"So, guys? I guess we just go in?"
"No objections."
"Right. Into what I am sure is going to be a perfectly accurate and well-researched look into the Bleak One myths."
If Twilight's sarcasm wasn't apparent outside the Hall of Bleakness, it certainly was in retrospect.
"And so, did the dark witch Dr. Blight turn the sky dark with her evil science, and secrets she selfishly stole (try saying that five times fast) despite no mortal having meant to know them..."
On the model, innocent, big-eyed foals ran from a rather unflattering caricature of...well, she was supposed to be a yellow-haired human, but none of the Elements bought it.
"...why, pray tell, is she wearing that outfit?" Rarity narrowed at the straps of leather covering as little of her body as possible to qualify as clothed. "Unless all the human fashion designers are misogynist colts in puberty, I fail to see why a wizard would wear something she'd use to excite her special somepony in daily life. Particularly while working."
"While we're at it, why does she have scales? Or red eyes? Or fangs?" Rainbow Dash was hovering to get a better look at Blight's caricature face. "Aren't humans supposed be mammals? Live births? This lady looks like her dad married a dragon,"
"Screw her, what in the stars is wrong with these here foals?" Applejack shoved out a hoof in disbelief. "Those tears make it look like their eyes are leakin' out, which wouldn't be strange given how they're larger than anything else on their face."
"Oh dear. Sugar Glurge comic flashbacks..." Rarity shivered as she thought of the moralistic tracts occasionally left at her door.
Twilight was scribbling furiously, noting down everything wrong with that single model alone. "Oh yes, and what does Mr. Narrator mean by 'things mortals are not meant to know'? You don't need a licence from the Princesses to say that two plus two is the same as two times two..."
"Hey, if you five would pardon me? There's kind of a line back here..."
The Elements' opinions did not improve as they neared the end of the Hall.
"Yes. Please, let us all hear more of how all things not pony is bad. Please, lead us bravely forward into the bleak shadows of the eightieth millennium ."
Twilight would have had a frustrated eye twitch at the portrayal of humans only turning good after being turned into ponies, but after certain events in the past few weeks, the two-dimensional cardboard cutouts took on a whole new, whole darker meaning.
Applejack, who had been through a similar, incredibly moralistic haunted house of even less quality, was not as liable to break into a long-winded rant on cultural privilege and hypocrisy, but was even less impressed. "Halos. You gave the Canterlot Guard, some of the most hard-boiled, bravest, darn-tootin' no-poo crapkickers in all of Equestira...halos. Ah suppose we should be givin' a round of applause. It takes skill in screwin' up to put halos on ponies who imprison and slay monsters. What next? Dry water, perhaps? Forested deserts? A dog that moos?"
"Leaving aside that, this mural just...doesn't....work." Rarity was walking around the art piece in question, examining it as she did. "The bright, cheery colors clash with the dark ones on the other side, not to mention the rest of the Hall. This would be forgivable if the rest of the attraction started to cheer up here, but no. It's like a zit with a smiley face. Minor, perhaps, but it's directly across from an iron maiden with a human in it, suffering," she cleared her throat, "karma."
"And a pony collaborator being banished to Tartarus along with the Unredeemable, simply because she was tricked into working for him earlier. Yeah, great moral there, guys." Rainbow hovered next to the offending model. "Unless the moral is that she was so devoted that she followed her boss there. Then she's me, and thus automatically awesome."
"I'll be sure to remember that I ever am overcome with the urge to take over the world. All hail Rainbow Dash, General of the Gloaming Army, here to force you to actually make something tolerable to ponies with brains, on pain of death." Twilight pocketed her notes in her bag, and began to move towards the exit "Let's go. There's nothing here except a bunch of moralists and jump scares. Fluttershy is probably getting bored out there..."
"Actually, it wasn't a complete waste. We at least know how the patrons view the world."
Applejack thought on Rarity's words, then shivered. "Ah'm already a little more scared of them. Emperor Dictatus has nuthin' over them in the 'crazier than an outhouse owl' department..."
"Well, technically, it could be that they aren't this creepy in reality. Could be part of a five-part plan to indoctrinate the youth, the second part being using fluoridated apple cider..."
Rainbow trailed off as she felt the stare of the pony behind her."
"Right. Rambling. Leaving now."
"So girls, what did we learn today?," said Twilight, in the most insincere voice she could muster.
Great. A whole day, wasted on what is perhaps the worst attraction in the park. Go us. Only two weeks left in our stay, and we've learned nothing.
"Well...I learned that any intelligent being not from Equestria is evil, and should brainwashed into happiness or locked up in hell."
And that you can half-flank everything in the design department and somehow still remain in business.
"Ah learned that if ya think that Celestia is occasionally wrong about anythin' at all, you turn automatically evil and a willin' slave of alien invaders. Also, that so long as ya feel bad about doin' bad things, it's like ya didn't do bad things at all!"
"I learned that white tape gets everywhere. Seriously, it's like half the back wall is covered in the stuff."
"Um, what white tape?"
"...Forget I said anything." Rainbow looked downcast again.
"Well, at least we know where not to look. Time to go back to the...."
Twilight's eyes narrowed.
"...drawing...."
No, her eyes doth not deceive her.
"Hey, isn't that the guy who kept on pushing us forward through the hall? What's he chalking on that sidewalk?"
The pony in question was hard at work, almost seeming to mutter to himself as he drew strange symbols into the ground that, upon looking closer, appeared to be mathematical equations. Or an equation.
"...convert to linear...multiply by metric....null set....natural numbers alone...."
"Um sir?" Twilight trotted over to the stallion. "I know you like drawing and all, but graffiti is vandalism, and I don't want you to be fined...sir?"
"....unify....set of all x....ah. There we go...." He took out a stencil and a spray can from a backpack.
"Sir?"
*fsssh*
"Sir, I really have to...stop..."
The stencil was that of a Sierpinski triangle.
A fractal.
Before Twilight could even think, the stallion finished spraying out the design an removed the stencil, revealing the complete graffiti. He looked at Twilight with eyes with the blue-blackness of dusk fading into night.
"I'm sorry, Twilight."
The triangle flashed with magical energy, and everypony not the Elements felt a sudden urge to not look at the area of the painting.
When the urge dissipated, only the stallion was left.
In his sanctum, the Dalga was suddenly woken up by the blaring of alarm klaxons. Checking the data feed, he felt his the bottom of his overly large stomach falling out.
"ALERT! UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS OF THE CONTAINMENT ZONE! ALERT!
"HOW DO YOU KNOW MY...name?"
The dusk-eyed pony was gone. So, for that matter, was the graffiti.
The fractal and the equations were not however. They just weren't drawings anymore.
Instead, the equations formed a rotating halo around a now three-dimensional fractal triangle. The triangle in question was the soft silver of mercury, with each of its individual triangles rotating as well, in opposing directions. Looking at it made Twilight's eyes hurt from the strain of looking at all the individual moving parts. She turned around, blinking.
When her vision returned, Twilight shared the gasp all her friends had already had.
The Hall of Bleakness was gone. In its place was a vast tower, seemingly built out of grid patterns, light, and circuit designs. At its apex, ten stories high, a network of similarly glowing cables extended outwards into the sky, fading into nothingness as they traveled farther out.
That wasn't the most fascinating thing though. At the very top, a series of artificial perches, as though designed for birds, blossomed out like a strange weather vane.
Even as she looked at the the tower, there was a flash of movement from the wires, and something-like a green, three-eyed lizard with many tails-scurried up the perch, fastened its tails on a ledge, then hung upside down, extending its golden frills.
A glass, blue lens extended from the bottom of the perch and focused on the lizard-thing. Something golden came out of the lizard thing's frills, and into the iris. The frills turned bronze, and as the stream stopped, the iris ducked back in its alcove, at which point the lizard-thing dropped off its ledge...and flew. There were no apparent wings, just the tails fanning out.
Another pair of...flying lizards quickly rushed up from the cables and did much the same thing as Twilight walked over to Applejack. "What do ya think they are?"
"I don't know. Maybe magic collectors, and this is some kind of power station? We look like we're in the same place as the Hall was, except for...the Hall. And the ponies. I think this must be some kind of magical pocket dimension, something like the basement of Star Swirl the Beard-"
"Submit to order."
Everypony froze, then slowly turned around the face the synthesized, mechanical voice.
A flying lizard hung in the air, staring at the Elements. Its eyes were glowing orange.
"....Sorry?"
"Passphrase incorrect. If you do not issue the proper passphrase within three minutes within three tries, you will be queried. Repeating code: Submit to order."
If it tries to find out who we are, its going to raise an alarm. Okay...um, sounds like something vaguely religious, like the Chant of the Sun, it expects something in return to the phrase, um..."
"...What do ya mean, 'queried'?"
"Passphrase incorrect. Repeating code: Submit to order."
"Applejack. Please don't say anything, it might take that as...an attempt..."
Oh, great job, Twilight. Now we have to...wait, it's not doing anything.
And indeed, the flying lizard remained silent, and except for one of its eyes stopping its glow, it remained motionless.
"Open sesame."
No response.
"Twilight, um, why do you think-"
"NO QUESTIONS! IT RESPONDS TO THEM!"
Still nothing from the sentry.
Okay...so the passphrase is a question...it's a servant of the God-Machine...vaguely religious...
...Please let this work.
Drawing on her memory of the Chant of the Sun, where ancient unicorns would recognize that, without them, the Sun could not rise, she spoke "But without Machine, what is Order but a dream?"
Nothing for a second. Then its eyes suddenly retreated in its skull with a whirr, and different eyes, blue ones, took their place. "Access approved. Please state your business at the archive station."
Relief and excitement coursed through Twilight's body. Archive station! A library! This was not only a treasure trove of information on the angels, this was her element.
Rarity caught on too. "Ah yes, dearie. We were asked to help retrieve the, uh, building plans for the Escapement, but, um, we spilled punch on our old copies, and, uh, the building inspector won't leave until he gets them."
Rainbow joined in. "Man, that was really stupid of us."
The sentry clicked. "Please note that, in the future, you are to keep official blueprints away from eating areas in the future. Delays are not acceptable and you will be noted for carelessness. Please follow me." The sentry flew towards the archive, and tapped on its doorless wall. A series of rapid flashes played around the tapped area, at which point the sentry flashed its eyes in a complex sequence.
Suddenly, part of the wall dissolved into blocks and odd shapes, which then reconfigured themselves into the shape of an open archway. "When you wish to exit, please use the console labeled 'Escapement Lobby.' Thank you for your service." The sentry flew off.
Twilight couldn't resist. Speaking in the most monotone voice she could muster, she said "Also, I let someone into our base though I did not in any way validate their identity at all and bought their story at face value. Please define 'fine pot' and how it relates to a black kettle."
That got a small chuckle out of Rainbow, and the Elements wandered in. As they walked in, the archway reshaped back into a wall, as if it never was there.
The watching clockworked sparrow took note of this, and began to broadcast.
"The other attendants of this conference will explain how they got there, and how easily they entered the archive station."
Barachiel sounded honestly annoyed. That was not a good sign.
Jophiel looked down, guiltily "None of my scenarios predicted that a pony would be able to enter the Zone. Not without knowing how first. Thus, all of them were based around a traitor attempting to damage the Infrastructure from within, not going through the front door."
"...And this somehow conflicts with tighter security for outside invaders....for what reason, precisely?" Harahel wasn't annoyed from the tone of his voice, just bewildered.
"...Most of those precautions were based around protecting everything from sabotage. And in my defense I was working on a budget."
"This brings us back to the matter at hand." said Barachiel, dissolving and the reforming close to his siblings to emphasize his point. "How did the Apostate and her fellows manage to reach the Zone in the original place? There has been nothing from the decoy to suggest this..."
"I don't know! All I know is that there's now a door there."
"...We will have to find a way to extract them without damaging the archive."
"...Well. I officially like the angels' sense of decor for the places they actually think are important."
Rarity was looking about the interior of the archive, fascinated.
The tower appeared to be bigger on the inside, though whether that was optical illusion caused by the massive amount of bookshelves covering the walls or not was difficult to say.
It was truly magnificent. Here and there, clanking and ruffling, hundreds of gears sorted and resorted thousands of books, following an order that could almost, almost be parsed from watching it. Every so often, a book with a blank white cover would pop out of a shoot attached to a near wall, and the golden stuff from before would be blown on it, causing it to be reshaped into a new, more unique book, and it would join the shuffle. The gears themselves were quite pretty, covered in golden filigree and strange, greenish patterns that looked like layered, jagged lines. The walls were white, pristine marble with strange devices and copper wiring dotting it here and there, supported by great granite pillars. On each pillar was carved, in Equestrian, The Mind Is The Temple, And This Sacred Place The Holy Land. Welcome, Anointed Ones.
"Pardon me?"
Another flying lizard, this one's eyes already glowing blue, flew down.
"I am Archivist Serial Number 30-7-9-60. I believe I can be of assistance, madames?
Well, I can't fault them for being polite to their minions, Twilight thought. "Yes, we're going to need records on the construction of the park, and on anypony named Pinkie Pie who visited the park a little over two months ago-"
"I'm sorry, but data on unofficial blueprints and guests directly involving park operations is classified by order of the Overseers. You will have to show written, legal permission to access such records."'
Right. Evil overlords don't tell their henchmen anything of value, no matter how nice they are. Bad plan. "Oh, okay. In that case, we will need all unclassified information on all current operations of the Golden Beach..."
"Sometimes, I really hate this Ban."
Jophiel was still scribbling on the spatial window the Dalga made.
"Frankly, it would be nice to be able to hurt threats without having to plan for it in advance. Let's see....if I put this here....and I put it here....then this would...."
"...Of course. So simple. Thank the Creator for cold-proofing."
"I dunno about you, sugarcube, but this ain't even fancy, incomprehensible magic babble to salt of the earth like me. It ain't even not-laypony Equestrian! What the hay is it sayin'?"
As much as Twilight hated to admit it, she had to agree with Applejack. Whatever technical language the angels spoke, it fit not even the most arcane and bizarre jargon on the planet, particularly given how they sprinkled theological and spiritual terms everywhere. "Quarterly report on synaptic commandments," said one table. "Results of reversed polarity as pertaining to apocalyptic interface" said another. There was mention of a "salvation" in reference to repairing a "magi array." About the only thing that she was able to glean was use of a fuel called "Aether", which she guessed was key to the God-Machine's power source and the angels' home.
"Oh, I see. So if the magi array suffers from corrosion due to the Ialdabaoth Effect, the Ophite procedure is recommended to stem the effects of Essence Bleed before it begins to affect a saint, and the nearest raqib should be alerted to the mark of Cain on the ark..."
Not that Rainbow, who had apparently gone into full nutcase mode, didn't understand them. Or at least, didn't think she didn't understand them.
"...Dashie?" Rarity was trying very gingerly to penetrate this new episode of weirdness.
"And in the case that seraphic security is needed, you are advised to-huh, someone blotted this out with white tape. Oh well, didn't refer to something we needed! For redemption, you are asked to bring a ratchet...."
"Rainbow Dash..." A pained expression graced Rarity's face.
Twilight got up to help, but (and, given who Twilight was, probably thankfully-she had become more social, but shaking somepony out of a manic episode without hurting their feelings was still probably beyond her), a buzzing noise interrupted her. She turned around, to find a flying lizard (or was that an Archivist, now?) with golden eyes, holding a page.
"Madame. I believe this may be key to your questions..."
"Um...thanks? Sorry, but I don't think I asked-"
Nope. Already gone. Except for the page.
Shrugging, Twilight decided it couldn't hurt to read it.
Once, there was a Foolish Maiden who was never happy. She had everything in the world, but her body offended her. The Maiden believed that her beauty was a curse, and prevented her from having any friends.
So she tore off her skin, and with it her beauty of knowledge. She tore off her body, and with it her beauty of action. And then she tore off her spirit, and with it her beauty of thought.
And then the Maiden became useless, and utterly unimportant to the world at all. It was foolish to think without her beauty, she could be anything else. The End.
The beauty's story, on the other hand, had just begun....
Twilight blinked at the words. Clearly somepony didn't like somepony else very much. She wondered why the Archivist had brought this to her.
Shaking her head, Twilight set down the paper, and shook off the cold.
...Wait, when did she become cold?
And what was with sorting gears? They were slowing down.....
Suddenly Rainbow shot up into the air and assumed a fighting stance. "Zach. They're here."
"Rainbow, who is....Zach...?" Rarity caught on to the sudden chill too. "...why is the filigree on the walls changing?"
A terrible ghastly sound, somewhere between a whinny and a wolf howl, echoed through the archives, and the room went dark.
A pair of glowing orange lights came out of the darkness, and fixated on the Elements.
Then, with a whirring click, they shifted, and became a dark red.