Gasping for breath, the Elements slumped on the ground, as the fractal-like portal was absorbed into itself, shrinking into nothingness. A few seconds later, Twilight's own gasps turned into relieved laughter.
"You have no idea how much that one trip made my day. Finally, we have something to go on!"
"Better yet, we freed an innocen..." Rarity trailed off as she remembered what a Windigo was. "...a mostly-blameless slave from mind control!"
"And escaped with our flanks. Can't forget about that."
"Yay."
The Elements joined in on the laugh, which was cut off when they saw the stares of the park customers exiting the Hall of Bleakness.
"...Let's celebrate back at the hotel room, why don't we?"
"Right then, fillies and gentlecolts, that's our show for today! Join us same time next week for Harmonic Beats, brought to you by the one, the only, DJ Pon-3! Now, a word from the idiot-I mean, our sponsors!"
Vinyl Scratch turned off her mic as an ad the opposing candidate for city councilman began to run, and yawned. Half-a-day of variety programming, after a week of music, did tend to wear on the unicorn for a while, especially during the fall, when walking to work became a long, protracted battle against the encroaching cold winds. Especially for Vinyl, who did not get along with the weather ponies particularly well, and thus frequently ended up having "mysteriously" been at the epicenter of a scheduled cold draft. Still, she loved her job, to the point where she passed up an opportunity to get into record contracts and become a very rich mare. She had every intention of doing her job till the day she died, and after, if she had a choice in the matter.
Getting her coat (and aerosol itching powder for the weather ponies), Vinyl went on the long journey back home..
*whirr*
The clockworked parasprite went too.
Chapter 7: Revelations of a Remorseful Minion
It had been a rather long day, what with the fight for their lives and all, so the "celebration" the Elements had in mind was more "instantly falling asleep".
Of course, every party has someone who just isn't into it, and in this case, Applejack was wide awake. Suspicion was not an insomnia cure.
After tossing and turning a bit, the farmer gave up and quietly walked over to the provisions to get some chamomile tea out, but as she was brewing the stuff, she ruminated on the battle with Bitterwind.
Or more accurately, Fluttershy's role.in all of it. About how none of Rainbow's direct attacks with her seemed to work. At all.
And...come to think of it, wasn't she acting really weird these past couple months? Fluttershy was a bit of a loner yes, had a tendency to be quiet, yes, but recently, she had not only been nearly silent, but actually seemed to be avoiding her friends.
And now, she hadn't shown a being that was obviously wounded acknowledgement, let alone kindness?
Applejack may have dropped out of high school due to...certain events that forced her to take over the farm early, but "not formally educated" and "not smart" were two entirely different things. She could tell something in the barrel was rotten, and given the existence of whatever weird magic that made her forget Pinkie's existence and the fact Fluttershy had gone with her, she began to feel something may be very wrong with her friend.
She wasn't quite sure enough to start talking about the pegasus behind her back, but she was already making plans.
"Yeah! Fly away, you jerk! Fly away and hide in the stormcloud of shame!"
For all intents and purposes, there was a reason Vinyl and the weather ponies did not get along, Actually, there were two, very closely related reasons why she and the weather ponies did not get along. One, the Canterlot weather ponies were lecherous gits, two, they apparently did not know what a "lesbian" was, not did they accept learning the definition.
Case in point, Mr. Grab-Flank. To be perfectly honest, he was only slightly worse than the usual crop of coltsplainers, "nice guys" (read here: self-righteous whiners), and macho ditzes she usually had to deal with. What was it about white-coats that brought out the worst Canterlot had to offer? She wasn't even that famous! At least this idiot had slipped up and given her something to lodge a formal complaint about.
Sighing, Vinyl prepared for the vengeful downdraft and tightened her scarf, muttering about relaxed standards and pre-Celestia attitudes.
The pegasus prostrated before the Holy One, presenting the sample of ivory fur to the mechanical stallion and his leather wife.
Wordlessly, the Reaper smiled, flipped open the lid of his lantern, and inserted the new arcane connection.
The tesseract hall of mirrors-which, officially, was named the Fifth Dimension in a fit of lacking inspiration-was even more impressive up close. The shifting of the structure through its extra dimension made it look almost like a solid and liquid at the same time, and given how it was the pure black of obsidian, it managed to do that without hurting the Elements' eyes.
"So, now that we're here...what was step 2 again?"
"Don't reckon ya had one, Twilight."
"Right. I didn't."
Twilight squinted at the Fifth Dimension. "Still, if it's anything like the Hall, the method that weird pony used should get us in. Let's see, he was examining a sewer drain.....looked almost like he was using the stones as part of mathematical formula..."
"Yes, um, about that..." Rarity sidestepped over to Twilight. "This 'weird pony'....um, how do I put this...how do you know you can trust him?"
Twilight was snapped out of her thoughts. "Huh?"
"I mean, he did unceremoniously drop us in a dangerous situation without explanation, and he didn't warn us. He could be working for the Overseers, or one himself."
"Yeah, that occurred to me too." Twilight sounded apologetic."Still, I doubt if the Overseers would drop us into anything less than an army of those 'hateless soldiers' Bitterwind was so worried about. And the way he told me he was sorry...something about that just says 'genuine'."
"If you'll pardon my asking...why?"
"I dunno. It just sounded like a genuinely apologetic pony, like I've heard that tone a hundred times before, and each time the speaker was actually sorry." Twilight shrugged.
"If you say so..." Rarity sounded unconvinced.
"The problem is...he isn't here..." Twilight was back to the drain. "And given how he was an earth pony, I really have no idea what magic he was using. It looked like he was just figuring out what stencil to use, and that paint was mundane based on the sample I brought back, but I have no idea what he was using for the basis." She stared intently at the drain, apparently hoping to stare it into divulging its secrets. No dice.
"Hey guys?"
"So, as mentioned, he was examining the stones..."
"Guys?"
"...It only makes sense for it to be the sidewalk and not the concrete, that's the bit with definable separate parts..."
"Hellooo?"
"...unless he was talking about the malformations in the cement, which is what I would do to thwart me..."
"Twilight, I think Rainbow saw somethin'."
"And I'm not most ponies, so-eh?" Twilight looked up. "What's the matter?"
"Remember how I seemed to recognize a pony I never met?"
"Uh-huh." Twilight still didn't know what that weird magic did to her, but she no longer doubted Rainbow's perceptions.
"I see two I haven't met either." The pegasus thrust her hoof northward.
At first, Twilight didn't see anything except dully-colored ponies....
And then she got a closer look, and saw two very particular dully-colored ponies, in full uniform.
Rarity did too. "Hey...aren't those..."
"Two-thirds of the Golden Beach visitors?"
"It appears so."
Omi was having a good day. There were no crashed tugs in sight, the only thing he had been asked honest questions about directions, and now he was setting up a date with Hoofer.
"So, tomorrow? I'm meant to perform at the pavilion, and I'm sure the chief won't mind if I buy lunch..."
"Nah, I prefer movies. How about, oh, the 23rd?"
"Sounds...good?"
Hoofer looked worried. "Oh...that's the day you have to get your mom to-"
"No...not that..." He pointed behind her.
Hoofer turned around.
She saw the white and lavender unicorn mares.
She turned back around, her ears pinned so far back that they may have been drawings on her face. "Is that...?"
"Looks like it."
".....DEDI?"
"Like we practiced."
As he was thinking, Omi was having a bad day....
Yep, the two carnival ponies had recognized them.
"Miss Rarity!" said Omi, perhaps a little too jovially. "Fancy meeting you here!"
"And to you, Miss...I'm sorry, I didn't get your name! HAHAHAHAAAA...!" Even Hoofer looked like she thought her laughter sounded fake.
"Twilight Sparkle, just Twilight for short, thank you. And we were meaning to talk to you..."
"Ah. Well, we're not the tour guides, but if you'd like advice-"
"If y'all going to DEDI, ya might want to do it in front of somepony that ain't the Element of Honesty."
Hoofer's jaw dropped. "You're the Element of Honesty!?"
"I reckon."
"Omigosh, omigosh! I read about all your exploits, I mean the way...you...." Hoofer's face turned as white as a sheet. "...Element of Honesty. Huh."
"Let's cut directly to the point. We know you work for the Overseers."
Both stared slackjawed at Rarity for a few seconds, then Omi cleared his throat. "Erm, can we have a second?" The two employees turned to each other, muttering.
"'Dee-di?'" Twilight whispered.
"Acronym. 'Deny Everything, Dodge Inquiries.'"
"Ah."
The two turned around, giving obviously fake smiles. "Whelp, you caught us. We work for the three hidden owners of the park."
"In fact, there's one right now!" Hoofer pointed at an area directly behind the Elements. "SALUTATIONS, MISTRESS JOPHIEL!"
"WHERE!?" Right on cue, the Elements spun around.
One half-second later, they realized the oldest trick in the book, and spun right back.
For all their faults, Hoofer and Omi were fast.
"...CHARGE!"
Octavia breathed a sigh of relief. Two hours of continuous ballroom performance, no matter how easy it was for the cello, was exhausting.
Briskly, she thanked her replacement and stocked her instrument in its case, eager to finally go home and enjoy silence in her house for once. One of the things she sacrificed for having a disk jockey for a girlfriend.
Yawning. Octavia hoisted the case over her back and began the journey back.
Thirty minutes after she left, a rather confused cellist was informed that Octavia's shift had already ended-her replacement had arrived right on time.
Which was strange, because he was taking next shift, and the overtime rush hour at the cloud factory was something his bosses had already given him a pass for.
The good news was that the pair didn't seem keen on splitting up.
The bad news was, this was apparently because they were trained to help each other when running from pursuers.
Hoofer would vault over gates and obstructions with her dancer's agility, kicking them open from the other side, while Omi would use his strength to throw obstacles in the Elements' path. It slowed them down, slightly, but it slowed down the mares quite a bit, even with the pegasi (as they went for cramped areas Rainbow and Fluttershy couldn't easily maneuver in, much to the former's embarrassment).
"Excuse me!" "Pardon me!" "Coming through!"
And high traffic.
"I'M GONNA SUE!", said one stallion, just before wincing as the pain from his coffee burn hit.
Twilight gasped for breath, teleporting to maintain what was left of her stamina. "This is getting nowhere. The only distance we've gained is on our collective list of safety fines, and they're getting smaller by the second."
Rarity, not being Our Lady of Spatial Magics, was not so capable of rapid-fire blinking, already slowing down. "Gahh...we need to...head them off somehow...guuh..."
Above, Rainbow slapped herself in the face. "Duh. Hold on, I'm going to try something."
The cyan pegasus put on another burst of speed, but not chasing after the Overseers' minions. Instead, she aimed for a pile of crates nearby, collapsing them in front of Omi and Hoofer's path.
The two immediately noticed the blockage, then skidded to a stop. They looked around frantically, but the alley the crates had blocked off was completely enclosed, the only way out a bunch of locked storage doors. Grimacing, they turned around to face their exhausted pursuers.
"Okay, ya varmits. You lost the race. Tell us what you know."
Neither said a word at first, though the two did look at each other and nodded.
Omi spoke up first. "Yeah. That was clever. Really good cheat."
"Yeah. You're on fire."
"Flattery will get ya nowhere."
"No, seriously!"
Hoofer's eyes were suddenly surrounded by oddly straight veins that glowed with a faint red light.
"You're on fire!"
*fwoosh*
"HOLY-!"
Applejack dropped to the ground, rolling to put her suddenly flaming mane out.
Omi's forelegs changed too, becoming covered in odd, complex designs that looked like mathematical formulae. "Now, will you please let us before we resort to our supply of puns? Seriously, we need to beef up our repertoire!"
*sqeeeelch-POP*
With the rather nauseating sight of Omi's muscles rearranging themselves, the strongpony's torso shrank to skin and bone while his legs became grotesquely swollen with muscles that obviously didn't belong there. Quicker than something shaped like that should have been capable of, he walloped the confused Elements, knocking them out of the way. Another disgustingly organic sound later, he looked more like a hornless, brown gazelle than a pony, which Hoofer vaulted onto before he took off, away from the mass of customers.
More stunned from shock than the hoofprint on her face, Twilight gawked. "...Aren't they supposed to be earth ponies?"
"Who cares?" Applejack shook the soot out of her mane. "They're still goin' down."
"...Right." Rainbow cracked the knuckles in her wings. "Don't let fire lady get a bead on you, hit Musclehead McGee from afar."
The mares then took off. Well, most of them. Rarity collapsed.
"Ooohh....I'll catch up later....That's not going to leave a beauty mark..."
By now, Twilight had realized chasing these two was a good-news, bad-news kind of thing.
On one hand, the reshaped Omi stuck to stealthy, (i.e. cramped ) areas now, slowing him and his piggy-backed passenger down.
On the other, his new body was perfectly adapted to the bouncy, energy-efficient strides he needed to bob and weave through the cramped area, and Hoofer was pulling her weight-she easily directed him around potential trap areas, and the one or two times an Element caught up, another blast of fire forced her to break off.
"Ugh, what is with these two? You develop superpowers, first thing you do is become a bad joke-spewing henchman? What gives?"
"I think they may have gotten their powers after the henchman thing, Rainbow. And they're brainwashed."
"Justifications won't make my mane grow back any faster, Twi."
"Or refresh my magic." Worse for Twilight, her teleports were getting slower and harder. "And where's Rarity?"
"Saw her collapse after Omi when full mutie on us." Even Applejack looked like she was getting tired. "Fluttershy, any ideas?"
"No?"
"Of course."
Another alley, another blast of fire.
"And how much of that spell does she have remaining, anyway!? It's like it's raining fire!"
"...Wait, of course!" Twilight teleported to a rooftop. "RAINBOW! HIT THEM WITH LIGHTING!"
"Um, isn't that a bit unsafe?"
"Yeah, but a little electricity burn is worth finding Pinkie, Fluttershy!" The cyan pegasus, not missing a beat, grabbed a passing cumulus cloud, rubbed it with a wing to charge it, and then kicked it directly at the park employees in a spinning blue-white ball of electricity.
There was a brief explosion, along with a yelp.
From the perspective of the two henchmen, there was a large flash of blue, then the sensation of being knocked several feet in the air before hitting something warm and furry. For a few seconds before their vision cleared, Omi and Hoofer felt the furry thing was still there, but in Hoofer's case, it was above....
Oh.
Ohhh.
Looking up at her almost-boyfriend, the pyrokinetic dancer felt a furious blush run through her body, as several competing quips jostled for being fully spoken. The foremost contender was SORRY!, with Omi, please move, and Huh, wasn't expecting this until after our second date tied for second (dear Sun why did she have to think 'tied' while looking like this stupid pervert brain).
The couple's awkward moment was only compounded when Rainbow, breathing a sigh of relief, swooped down and cut off her breath with snickering. "Hey, I know workouts get the blood pumping everywhere, but can you save it until after you spill the beans?"
As quickly as he could, an even more embarrassed Omi, rolled, off, shook, and then shifted back into brawler mode, but this time the Elements were ready-Twilight used her magic to slam him against a wall, while her idol grabbed her from behind in a wrestling hold. "Try to set me on fire again and it'll spread, sugarcube."
"Understood."
Twilight teleported in, her magic weak enough to the point where the purple aura faded in and out before the unicorn actually materialized.
"Now, before you decided to run, we were going to ask you a few questions..."
"Yeah, like why did my storm cloud cause you to drop everything and start-"
"Rainbow Dash."
"Right....I'll stop now."
"Okay then. First, where did you take Pinkie?"
Omi returned to normal. "The pink earth pony?"
"No, the Ursa Major. Yes, the pink earth pony, who else!?"
"Sorry, no dice. We were told just to lure her, we don't know what Harahel did-DANG IT!"
Nope, Applejack heard that. "Harahel? What needle in a haystack is that?"
"Um....yeah, that's an experimental drug the Overseers were playing with-"
"DON'T LIE!"
Silence.
"...Um, Rainbow, that sounded plausible to me-"
"YEAH? WELL, CERTAINLY SOUNDED LIKE A LIE TO ME!"
The suddenly screaming pegasus stared directly into Hoofer's eye.
Hoofer stared right back, and saw what was lurking there
The dancer floated in the cold, dark void, a light boring into her eyes. She felt the light bore deeper too, into her brain. Alien thoughts echoed around her brain, alien thoughts of obedience and love for her captors, alien thoughts that grew increasingly difficult to distinguish from her own. She was a prisoner in her own mind, unable to even think freely, unable to regard this...violation with the horror it deserved, because the new thoughts told her she should love the Three.
Love the Holy Ones.
Love the God-Machine.
All she could do was scream.
She shrieked.
"ALL RIGHT, ALL RIGHT, YOU WIN! WE DON'T EVEN LIKE THEM! JUST CALL OFF THE MALKAVIAN!"
Rainbow suddenly calmed down. "Malkavian?"
"Individual touched by Malkavia, also known as the Affliction. Yes, we know what it is, and we'll tell you, just don't turn your eyes on me again!" Hoofer sobbed in terror.
Realization hit the pegasus like a train. "Oh. Oh Sun. What have I done? Here, here, group hug."
The Elements piled onto the pony, or loosened their grip in the case of Applejack. Slowly, the pony's breathing returned to normal.
And then Twilight realized she forgot to keep Omi's bonds up. She spun around, and saw that he was gone.
"Hey it's okay. It's okay firebug...I'm here..."
She didn't have to look far. He was the fist pony in the huddle pile.
Once Hoofer had stopped shaking, both of the carnival ponies held up their hooves in surrender.
Twilight broke the silence first. "So, you know what's wrong with Rainbow Dash?"
"Well, technically, not anything's wrong with her. There is something wrong with the thing that lives inside her head."
"Inside her head?" Rarity had caught up during the group hug. "There's something living inside Dashie's brain!?"
"Well, mind." Omi shrugged. "It's not an animal in the sense of having an organic body."
"More like living thought." Hoofer paused. "Very off-kilter living thought."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Rainbow rubbed her head. "So, you're saying that I basically am sharing my brain with somepony else, and he's nuts?"
"More or less." Omi grinned apologetically. "A Malkavia infection isn't so much nuts so much as it has a completely alien way of looking at the world, and thought patterns to match."
"It wants to help you, but as you can probably tell, it's not very good at it." Hoofer sighed. "Chalk one up to the great and noble masters of the park."
"'Great and noble'? That's funny, the guy who told us about the Overseers said you were brainwashed."
Hoofer glowered. "Don't remind me."
Omi patted her on the back. "You'll have to forgive her. She was particularly resistant to the Anoitment process, and thus what takes ten minutes for most of us took several thirty-minute sessions."
"Ouch."
"Don't I know. And it still wore off."
"Wore off?" Applejack was suddenly very interested. "Whaddya mean?"
Omi looked nervous. "Um...well, you see..."
"We're scared to tell you."
That was new. Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Scared? How?"
"Let me put it this way-unless the Anointment somehow gave you superpowers, and thus useful, the Overseers...recycle you."
Without missing a beat, Hoofer stepped forward. "They have this weird monster called a Dalga. We haven't seen it, but it controls and builds these robots they like to call 'clockworked.'"
"Only, they weren't always robots." Omi shivered. "Once, they were Anointed who disappointed or upset the Overseers, or monsters we've captured."
"And when we see them after they've been shipped off to the thing..." Hoofer gulped. "They don't even remember being ponies anymore."
Well. No wonder Bitterwind was scared of the hateless soldiers. That's horrible.
"And if you go against them even if they decide to let you live...They don't stop just with you."
"Let me put it this way-there's a standing offer for staff to be allowed to house their families in the provided housing."
It took a few seconds for what Omi was implying to sink in, before the Elements turned white as sheets.
Twilight recovered first. "Those....bastards."
"So that's why we ran. Hoofer's sister came to live here after she couldn't pay rent, and like an idiot, I let my parents move in so I could take care of them. Even if we escaped, it'd be plastics and metal for all of them."
Silence. It was obvious that the carnival duo wouldn't budge on this issue, and the Elements couldn't think of a response.
An Element could, though. "So...that's it then? 'We really want to help you, but we're too scared'?"
Twilight stepped forward. "Look. I don't know what they did to you, or what they put you through during the 'THE OVERSEERS KNOW ALL' phase, but frankly, the ponies you've described to me aren't the all-powerful monster-gods you think they are. All-powerful monster-gods wouldn't put their employees under some crazy magical mind control and then feed them to some kind of robot-making monster when it slipped. No, if they were really that strong, they'd simply show off how powerful they were to intimidate you and then just act like normal employers. You're too weak to rebel, after all."
"No, the Overseers are bullies, plain and simple. Vicious, fanatical bullies perhaps, but really, they're not so different from these two fillies I know, only older. And just like them, they're cowards. They're too scared to boss you around directly or even give the opportunity to dislike them, so they force you to love them and when it looks like you're fighting back, they kill you for being a potential threat. And if you're too useful to get rid of, they start threatening ponies close to you."
"The only real power they have is their ability to scare you. They're good at that, but when you're not scared anymore...what more do they have?"
"An army of minions and magic up the wazoo?"
"I'M MAKING A POINT HERE!...Besides that?"
Hoofer looked thoughtful. "...Well, it's not like they know we're going to turn on them."
"For paranoiacs, they sure do skimp on the park surveillance," added Omi. "Not a security cam in sight, despite what it says on the brochure. Believe me, I've checked."
"Good! Now, can you tell us something?"
"Better yet, we'll show you. Meet us at the infirmary off Minute Street." Hoofer looked relieved to get her doubts off her chest. "We'll show you the insider's perspective on things."
"Oh, woe is me! The traitorous nerds are fighting back!" Jophiels wings were plastered to her face in mock horror. "Whatever shall we bullies do!? We need that lunch money!" She actually sounded personally offended by the comparison.
Harahel coughed dismissively as his head-mass imploded for a second. "Should we just activate the assassins now and recycle these emotional, disloyal laggards?"
Barachiel, as per natural, showed no obvious emotion, though he was examining the spatial window closely. "No. Let them lead the decoy to the conspirators and the leaks. We shall resolve this issue with patience, and we shall await the new Sentry in the mean-time."
"But do not worry. We shall deal with this intrusion personally."
"Funny seeing you back so early. Normally the shift change is late for these parties."
"Well, for once in their lives, the cellist arrived early, and the way back was quite clear. Must be an accident that slowed down the rush hour, but after the cellist got past."
Vinyl laughed. "For once, it works out! Anyway, be right back. Got this new tune I'd love to show you..." The unicorn trotted off.
"Be there in a minute!" Octavia smiled, and pulled out the phone.
"Ugh. Move. Move!"
One would not think that traffic congestion for a species that primarily walked or flew would be a problem, but no. In fact, it was worse, since Octavia ran a significant risk of one of the ponies ahead overhearing her and slowing down out of annoyance with the traditional cursing of traffic, a pastime shared by trillions of sapient beings everywhere.
Stupid donkey. "Oh, look at me, I'm super-perceptive compared to ponies!" Yeah? You missed that opening, ya big mule.
*briiing*
"Eh?"
*briiiing*
"Oh good Sun! I finally get this new-fangled mobile phone, and now you call me allll...dang....day." *beep* "Yes, Vinyl dear?"
"Octy?"
The cellist felt her blood turn to ice. "V-Vinyl?"
"...Scary unicorn....wearing mask...looking around house..."
Now her heart was in her throat. "Don't worry, j-just hang up and I'll call the cops, okay!?"
*ZAP*
*thump*
There was a second's pause as the phone dropped from Octavia's hoof.
After that, she was vaguely aware of movement, and crashing through dozens of ponies.
"So, this is the hospital, then?" Rainbow hovered around it. "Looks...exactly like I expected it to, actually."
Given how the infirmary in question was a squat, dumpy looking building that looked more like a tool shed with the Red Cross painted on, Twilight had to wonder if it was the Malkavian insight or the low opinion of the park's owners. Probably both.
"I suppose mind-whammying the vast majority of staff into obeying you mindlessly really cuts down on complaints." Rarity was looking over the infirmary with disgust. "Why is this place popular again? From the Hall to this, all I see is a complete lack of interest in the actual Beach."
"The hotel's pretty fancy, though. I'd say that the real rich costumers come fer there, and the rest of us lowly peasants get fed the bread and circuses. Pardon the pun."
"Noticed that, did you?" Seemed that the duo was already there.
"Don't worry, it bamboozles all of us," Hoofer continued. "They don't show you the run-down, half-flanked bits when giving you the tour."
"Tartarus, this isn't even the only staff clinic. The other's actually a lot nicer." Omi inspected the sidewalk. "But that's not this place's real purpose anyway. Lemme see....set of all x,.."
"'Not its real purpose? Then what-"
"Hold on a second...ah. A strange attractor for today." Omi reached into his uniform's pocket, and pulled out a sticker with a pair of oblong fractal designs on it, and pasted it on the sidewalk.
A moment later, the world flashed, and the Elements found themselves staring at a silver portal of the same design.
And at a place that wasn't the infirmary anymore...but obviously had much the same purpose.
Rather than being a large tool shed, however, this place looked like a small hospital, white walls, tasteful window, and strange, wheel-less carriages that were painted like (and had the lights of) ambulances. Apart from the cables extending from the top (no perches, though), it would look perfectly normal.
The blueish-purple four-armed humanoid wearing a nurse's cap did not.
"Staaate yer bizzznezzz."
Without missing a beat, Hoofer began to walk with an exaggerated limp. "Hurt my frog. Silly me!"
"...Thiiirrrd tiiime dis yeeearrr."
"There's a lot of glass thrown on the stage during my act."
"Truuue. Derrr'z?"
Rainbow recovered quickly from the sight, "OH SUN! MY WING! I DON'T THINK I CAN FLY ANYMORE WOE IS ME!"
"Calmm dowwwwn. Yer'lll be juzzzt fine." The nurse ran towards the hospital as fast as his lower arms could carry him.
Rainbow's jaw dropped in disbelief. "...I was hovering, dummy!"
"Yeah, the Virtues aren't very smart. They're meant for heavy lifting and construction, not thinking. That guy's probably meant for wheeling patients around. I'd advise you to fake it for his bosses, though." Hoofer paused. "Besides the Overseers, who have a clue."
Twilight shook the sheer surrealism of the moment off. "So, based on what we saw with the Hall, I'm going to assume that the 'real purpose' of the infirmary has something to do with the Containment Zone, right?"
"Yep! ...Wait, how do you know what it's called?"
"Long story. And I think the nurse is coming back."
The "Virtue" in question was running back, carrying a stretcher in the two non-locomotive arms, followed closely by a pony in a doctor's smock. Rainbow quickly remembered to fake her injury, falling back on the faux-injured wing and caterwauling.
"I came as quick as I could. You're going to be all right."
"Oh thank the Princess! Thank you, thank....you..."
Thankfully for the ruse, Rainbow was quick enough on her feet that the what is wrong with your eyes? part of that statement to go unspoken.
Which was silly, as there was nothing there to be wrong.
Nothing at all.
The next few minutes were a blur as Rainbow was wheeled in by the Virtue and the doctor with dead eyes. Hoofer pretend-limped into the front-desk, and a similarly dead-eyed secretary.
"Hurt frog. Listed. Have a seat."
She gestured to a free couch which hadn't been perched on by even more dead-eyed ponies, who were either staring listlessly into space, holding cups of water, or looking at unopened magazines.
Needless to say, this was a bit eerie.
Hesitantly, Rarity cleared her throat. "...Pardon my asking, but are these clockworked?"
Omi shivered as he shook his head. "No. Anointed."
A very unpleasant image of Omi and Hoofer with dead eyes made the rounds around the Elements' minds. Applejack not the least among them. "No wonder y'all scared of the Overseers, if this is what they do to ponies they like."
"Changing the subject," said Twilight, perhaps a bit more quickly than usual, "what makes you'll think they'll be fooled?"
"Not creative enough." Hoofer nudged a foal Anointed away from the coloring book she was holding a crayon to. She looked up, briefly, then turned a page and put the same crayon to that before freezing again. "They lack most emotions, and with that, most decision-making ability. They're worker bees, more or less. Completely enslaved to their jobs, to the point that, outside of them...take a looksee."
Of course, Twilight wasn't really paying attention to that. She was more interested in the fact that it was a foal stuck like this.
"As a result, hit them with something they don't expect, they don't know what to do. They have to get a clockworked or one of those weird creatures the Overseers make to order them around, otherwise they stop and do nothing, paralyzed by indecision and the inability to intuit," Omi continued. "Like, say, medics being hit with fake injuries."
A few seconds later, Twilight realized the strange vibrations were her and her friends shivering in the suddenly-cold air.
"...Why foals."
"Test subjects." Hoofer looked at the motionless foal with pity. "Overseer Harahel wants as wide an information net as possible for his experiments, and immature minds are a completely different beast than mature brains."
"...Experiments."
"How we know what Malkavia is." A shadow fell over Omi's face. "He's obsessed with thought and reactions to external stimuli, the stranger, the better. Mostly, he returns some of their emotions, so he can better study them...but not the ability to fight back."
"I remember one stallion he decided would make fine bait for a bunch of Tindalan Wolves and temporal flow, so he returned his ability to feel joy and loyalty..." Hoofer shivered at the memory. "All the while, he had the most...serene...peaceful smile on his face, like he was so happy to be serving the Overseers in this small way. Even as his back half turned to dust from excessive aging."
There was nothing but silence for a minute.
Twilight gulped, and changed the subject. "So, about the infirmary and this hospital?"
"Something about symbolism." Hoofer looked around, lost in thought. "A genuine hospital in the Containment Zone can only be built in the same corresponding real-world area as a hospital, a transport hub has to be build around a roller coaster, and-"
"A library near a haunted house that styles itself a museum?"
"Not my example, but good point. To make sure that prying eyes don't appear, they also build CZ facilities around the dinkiest, shabbiest places they can. to avoid accidental detection. The only place where that isn't true is the Fifth Dimension-Palone's guess is that since they formed the CZ around that, they had to create a piecemeal representation of the actual CZ generator in the real world. Seriously, I've seen it, looks exactly alike."
"So, how do you know what Malkavia is? Doesn't seem like...Hah-ray-hell would bother tellin' you."
"A Malkavian." Omi shrugged. "From what I hear, different infections can communicate with each other over light-years, and they have a genetic memory. From the few Malkavians that shake off Anointment and aren't killed, we've got the idea that it's called Malkavia back on the world it likes."
For the moment, there wasn't much else to be said. Soon, Rainbow Dash trotted briskly out of the hall, sweating. "No, seriously, I don't think it was that bad. I'll check up on it later, um, far, far away from here."
"Remember to wear guards..." echoed the voice of the Anointed doctor.
Rainbow was running back to her friends now. "That...was creepy. Princess, that was bucking creepy. They just looked at it, looked confused, and then jabbed at it a few times with forceps. Please tell me all the staff aren't all like that?"
"Most of them are normal employees," Hoofer replied. "They'd be too obvious otherwise. These are the CZ crew."
"Oh thank Sun. I really, really don't want to think about dealing with these guys....is that a foal!?"
Please be okay...please be okay...please be okay...
Those were the words running through Octavia's head as she galloped through the streets to her shared apartment
She barely even registered climbing the stares, only the locked door.
Screaming, she rammed at it repeatedly, powered by adrenaline and pure, raw fear. Even when the door gave way, she gave no thought to the pain in her shoulders, and ran to the dining room.
Initially, she was relieved. "VINYL! Vinyl! Oh, thank the Sun you're safe..."
Then she spun around the chair.
And got a good look at her face.
Vinyl's head hurt, and she didn't know why.
All she remembered was a flash of blue, a scream, a sense of pain and a flash of metal. The next thing was a sense of floating, then feeling oddly light, as if a weight she had carried her entire life had gone.
She also felt...stagnant, somehow. Sort of like a river being frozen over, if that made sense.
She also felt like what she needed to do, more than anything else, was to play music. Not that it would make her feel better, not out of a sense of obligation, but because she felt like she had to, like nervous eating. A habit.
Another scream penetrated the haze, and, blearily, examined to the source.
That was strange. She saw a grey earth pony with a treble clef cutie mark looking at...something important. She looked scared out of her mind for a little while, then, slowly, she began to nudge the something, increasingly desperately as she continued. She moved her lips, apparently shouting at the something, while her eyes began to water. She obviously saw something about the something that really upset her, and while something about her crying made Vinyl's head clear more and more, and make her feel more and more energetic, something about the mare made her want to cry even harder than she was.
Eventually, the mare slumped to the floor, sobbing into the carpet. Without thinking, Vinyl put her foreleg on the small of her back and stroked, whispering it's okay...it's okay.
The unicorn suddenly felt pain erupt across her face.
Slowly, more and more details about the mare began to present themselves to Vinyl. Her name was Octavia, for one. She played the cello, for another. She was her girlfriend and Vinyl was working up the courage to purpose, for another. Today, if she could, and announce it on the weekly show.
...That seemed like a rather important detail to miss.
But why couldn't Vinyl understand her. She was obviously making noise, but Vinyl couldn't really hear her voice, only understand its existence. Confused, she looked at the something.
That was funny. It looked like the mannequin of a unicorn. Yes, the face was off-way off-but Vinyl could swear it was a piecemeal, very lifelike representation of...
Of....
....No.
No. Bucking. Way.
Vinyl began to laugh nervously. She knew her girlfriend had poor tastes in humor (that was part of what Vinyl found so attractive), but really, making a corpse model of her would-be fiancee!? That was low.
Vinyl growled, and aimed a kick right at Octavia's backside.
It connected with nothing.
Startled, the DJ fell end over end, her head resting on the other side of Octavia.
Her leg was now inside of Octavia, touching nothing but the floor.
Realization hit.
Slowly, Vinyl looked above her, the cooling form of her mortal shell almost taunting her with her new state.
..I had a show tomorrow.....
To this day, the landlord swears that, on the night Vinyl Scratch died, he heard two voices wailing.
The time passed in dead silence after Rainbow was brought up to speed ("We're asking someone who can tell you more than us, she's here, just be patient, please?"). Slowly, the Anointed ahead of them shuffled off, not even bothering to put down whatever they were holding at the time (though the Virtue nurse took those items away). Eventually, Hoofer's name was called, and she followed the nurse to a clinic room, quietly motioning her guests to join them.
While the door to the clinic room was locked before they could go in, it was over in five minutes, Hoofer discarding a piece of broken glass in a trash bin as she walked out.
"Didn't even realize I was holding it in my other hoof. And this is why good will always win, because evil is dumb. Especially when brainwashing is involved."
There was a polite chuckle from Omi.
"Anyway, now we're here, there's someone I'd like you to meet. Again."
"Hey, nurse?" Hoofer waved down a Virtue. "We're friends of one of the patients."
"Aaannnnd?"
"She was going to give some reports on the current demographics of the Escapement guests, but was injured before she could. Badly."
"Naaaaammme?"
"Sharpy Palone."
Wait, thought Rarity. They were all free of the brainwash? That doesn't seem very intelligent.
Then she thought of the other Anointed, and answered her own question.
"Riiiiighhht thiiizzz waaaay."
What followed next was perhaps the most confusing patch of hallways and starways the Elements had even been through in their lives. Left, right, up, down, diagonal right-up; it was like a 3D maze.
Another security system, Twilight supposed. Make sure your creations are the only ones who can navigate the darn thing where your minions are most vulnerable.
Or just as likely, medical experiments.
It wasn't too long a maze, though. Soon enough, they found their way to a door entitled "Residency 393", which the nurse unlocked.
"Dooonnn't raaaizzzze yer voiicce tooooo hiiiiigh."
He of the odd speech impediment opened the door for the little party.
Compared to what else was in the hospital, this room was almost insultingly normal. There was a place for two beds, an ECG machine, a tasteful table and plant, and a collection of books. The only thing out of place was the window-looked more like it was floating in the air a few inches from the wall, and its "frame" was a bit of distortion around the side.
The stall close to them was empty, but peaceful snoring could be heard on the other side of the dividing curtain.
Not bothering with pleasantries, Omi and Hoofer walked around to the other side, and cleared their throats.
"Sharpy?"
"Wake up please."
The snoring was cut off, and there was a loud yawn.
"Yeah? You guys came here to see me?"
"We didn't. They did."
Omi motioned for the Elements to come over.
Upon coming over, it was obvious to Twilight that Sharpy Palone was not having a fun time. The security guard's body was criss-crossed with scars and burns, and her left hind leg was in a cast, placed in a splint. Her face was mostly okay, though she was in a neck brace. It was certainly okay enough to look at the elements with disdain, before she turned over in her pillow.
"Right. Okay, are you going to flay me with hot knives this time or burn out my eyes before you ship me off to the Dalga? I know how these dreams go."
"...You're wide awake, Miss Palone."
Deliberately, the bedridden mare blinked, then sighed in defeat. "Always thought you'd come here some day. 'Perception filter' my hoof."
Twilight opened her mouth, but Palone cut her off. "Let me lay out the scenario-you caught my friends, realized we were brainwashed, they told you they didn't have a choice, you were told to come here, they faked an injury, and convinced a nurse to lead you to me. Is this idle speculation at all accurate?"
"Pretty much."
"Right. So, what do you know already?"
On the other side of the spatial window, Octavia's grief was interrupted by a pair of what were apparently ponies.
"What the-Let me go! I'll make you pa-!"
She was cut off when one of the ponies turned to face her directly, revealing the golden construction that had replaced half of his face. She squeaked a little before the clockworked pony pasted a chloroform-soaked rag over her face, knocking her out instantly.
Immediately thereafter, a stallion made of metal, wearing a worn-down cloak and holding a lantern with a green light, faded into existence, next to a mare made of leather holding a horn of plenty. The stallion waved his lantern, and an odd form that looked like Vinyl Scratch's body flickered into few for a second before dissolving into green and blue flames, absorbed into the lantern.
Jophiel sighed in relief. "Finally! I'm guessing the Dalga can handle this?"
"I will do as ordered."
"So, since you know all that, you probably want to know what the Overseers want, huh?"
"Exactly!" Twilight sounded relieved.
"Well, in that case...based on all we've seen..."
"...we don't know."
The faces of the Elements hit the floor in unison.
"Hey, don't blame us! You've seen what they do to loyal minions! They don't tell us anything!"
"Ugh...And here I was, gettin' my hopes up..."
"We can give you a few theories, though, based on what we've seen..."
The Elements went back up. "Really!? Thanks!"
"But you may want to sit down. This may take a while..."
While Palone and Pals were busy explaining what led them to work for the Beach (which wasn't actually that interesting-they just needed a job), Applejack took Rarity aside.
"Um, Rar?" she whispered.
"Yes?"
"Have you noticed anythin'...weird, about Fluttershy?"
"...Not that I can think of...." she said, in an uncertain tone.
"Has she done anythin' weird lately? Or, more to the point, ain't doin'?"
"Now that I think of it..." Rarity looked at the bedridden mare and back to Fluttershy. "She isn't trying to help Sharpy...and she wasn't trying to close that Windigo's wound earlier." She paused for a second. "Or talking. At all."
"Yeah. It's almost like she's tryin' to make herself scarce, and be unnoticed." Applejack paused. "For reasons other than bein' shy."
"...You don't think the Overseers did anything when she was here with Pinkie, do you?"
"I reckon I do. And since we were all fooled into thinkin' Pinkie didn't exist, I'm wonderin' if they didn't also make us think nothin' was wrong with Fluttershy."
"...I'd say we watch her. If she becomes a danger, jump her. Though better we're ambushed then we hurt Fluttershy for no good reason."
Applejack was about to disagree with that when Rainbow noticed them. "Hey space cadets! We're learning something here."
Both Elements walked back over to the main group.
"...so as I was saying, that's how winded up to meet you,"
"I get it." Twilight looked thoughtful. "They hire help from the outside, and when the part of the pool looks useful to the CZ facilities, they Anoint you, along with some of the more isolated customers, yeah?"
"Ponies nobody will miss, and yeah." Palone shrugged. "But it's not as large as you may have thought from the waiting room."
"See, this place isn't just a hospital. It's a storage vault."
"Eh?"
"Let me explain." Omi pulled out a chair. "See, a lot of the time, the CZ doesn't need us. It just needs some of those weird creatures to do basic running of everything here. They call us for more specialized work or more complex tasks. Of course, the Anointed have to be somewhere during the work day, otherwise the normal ponies in the staff housing would get suspicious that we were home all day. Restoring emotion during down time only works so far."
"So, we have a bunch of facilities stored around the place to put jobless Anointed in, like the various waiting rooms of this one. They're styled so that the Anointed think they're waiting for something, whether for the doctor to see them, for the bureaucrats to get their paperwork back, or a hundred other things. Then when time comes around, they conclude their business and get back to their real jobs."
A thought struck Twilight. "That seems like a lot of ponies for no work. I'd imagine this place has dozen of facilities that need their help."
"Had." Palone looked at her hoof. "We had a bit of...trouble, a little over a month and a half ago."
"We don't know what it is, but we called it the Medusa of Doom."
"...Please tell me that's not another monster we have to fight."
"Not unless they caught it, no." Hoofer chuckled. "Blew up over a tenth of the Zone before it was through."
"Basically, this weird jellyfish...squid...cyclops robot monster suddenly showed up right next to the CZ Fifth Dimension and started attacking it. I was called in to fight it and direct the clockworked, but that didn't go so well." Palone tapped her cast. "We made the sudden discovery that it was very, very intelligent, when a land mine blew up in our faces and it cut off a system in the nexus that would have allowed the Overseers to reshape the CZ to our advantage. It tore away an entire console before Barachiel-he's an Overseer, he looks over park security-restored that system, and it fled before the Overseers actually arrived. The Golden Beach has been up a creek without a paddle after that-all the security systems went offline thanks to the dissolved area being the site of the camera hub. Nobody's sure what goes where, and the estimate from Barachiel says that it will take at least another month before that part is repaired. Set their plans back by weeks."
"Speaking of plans..." Twilight did the 'go on' symbol with her hoof.
"Yeah, we think it has something to do with the hotel's guests, and improving-"
"That is enough, accursed one."
The trio's eyes shrank back into their skulls at the sound of the deep, almost grandfatherly voice.
"He's here."
A barrage of tranquilizer darts hit the trio, knocking out the three of them immediately.
The sound of tutting echoed through the room. "Dear, dear. What a senseless waste of improvement. We remove irrationality and lack of focus, and then give them psionic potential, and this is how they reimburse us? Does nopony understand the concept of gratitude?"
A third voice, this one feminine and calm to contrast the masculine and energetic, reverberated through next. "What a shame. Especially the guard. It was useful on more than one occasion."
After the initial shock wore off, the Elements assumed a battle stance. "We know who you are, Overseers. Or should we say, angels?" Twilight made that last word sound as intimidating as possible.
The feminine voice yawned. "We guessed that twist already, Twilight."
"The Celebrant escaped during the anomaly's assault. We supposed he would come to inform you of us and the Creator if he did not already."
Dang it. I was hoping that would surprise them-wait. Twilight blinked. "How do you know my name?"
A chorus of malevolent snickering.
"What a pity. I told you she would not remember."
"Not unlike she forgot the real name of her governess, and the passion she and her brother shared."
"Or the morality of mocking a most trusted friend from behind a mask."
Laughter now. And more confusion.
"...How do y'all know about that?"
"We weren't talking to you, orange thing." The feminine voice sounded irritated.
"But to answer your inquiry, up until recently..."
"We walked with the Twilight, every step of her path."
"And she abandoned us."
HUH?
"Isn't that right, Apostate?"
"Or should we address you as..."
The three voices joined as one. "Mother?"