Chapters AppleJack's vision came back into focus, looking down a dock with the ocean on her right. Directly next to the dock was a ship, but all that was above the water was the crow's nest. In front of her was a staircase leading to a pair of extremely large gears, looking worn, but still functional, even though stationery. At the base of the staircase was some form of box with a lever on top of it. To her left was a sliding door of some kind, which opened to the slightest pressure from her hoof. It opened to a dimly lit staircase, which AppleJack decided she might investigate later. For now, searching for someone who could help her was top priority.
The earth pony went straight forward. The staircase leading up to the gears branched onto a wooden path leading to the buildings in the middle of the island, which seemed to be the same that she saw in the book. Next to the path, however, was a wrinkled piece of paper. With nopony around to talk to, AppleJack thought this might be a good hint to where she was. As such, she picked up the paper and looked over the writing.
Catherine,
I've left for you a message
of utmost importance in
our fore-chamber beside
the dock. Enter the number
of Marker Switches on
this island into the imager
to retrieve the message.
Yours,
Atrus
Looking up from the letter, AppleJack saw two buildings in front of her. The closer one was constructed from marble, with a domed roof and a wooden door. In the center of the door was an ornate golden plate with an image engraved of two odd bipedal creatures. Next to the door was another box identical to the one at the base of that staircase. A "Marker Switch," if the note hinted anything about it. The far building was much larger, and seemed to be built directly into the mountain on her right. The path leading to the buildings branched off to the left and straight ahead, the former leading into the wooded part of the island, and the latter leading to some form of elevated brick path that veered off behind the large building.
"The number of marker switches..." AppleJack muttered, turning the switch in front of her, "I reckon I should figure that out. I might be able to find somepony around here."
She set down the path once more, deciding to check the buildings after she'd seen the island. Turning right onto the elevated brick path, she saw that it lead out to a large brass rocket, with one of the marker switches next to it. There was a darkened panel on the side of the rocket, which looked like a door, but wouldn't open. AppleJack pulled the lever on the marker switch. Nothing seemed to happen.
AppleJack turned back down the path and started going towards the other end of the island. The first thing she saw was eight stone pillars, four on each side of the path before it went into the forest. Right in the middle of the path was a stone basin, which had a sunken model ship inside. Next to the basin was another marker switch, which had the same result as the previous when AppleJack pulled it.
Going further down the path, AppleJack found a shed and a log cabin in the woods. Next to each of them was another marker switch, with no different result.
Finally, AppleJack reached the end of the path, finding another shore of the island. Several yards away from the tip of the island was a clock tower sticking out of the water. On the base of the tower was the last marker switch. "On the dock, by the gears, by the first building, the spaceship, the model ship, the shack, the cabin, and the clock tower. There are eight marker switches," AppleJack said to herself, turning to go back to the dock.
The door opened to the same dark stairway as before. The pony started to walk down the steps, to what looked like a pool of water with a button on the side facing the entrance. Looking around the dimly-lit room revealed a few arches sticking out of the dome-shaped stone wall. Next to the entrance was a small panel with a paper pinned to it.
SETTINGS - DIMENSIONAL IMAGER
Topographical Extrusion Test--------------40
Water Turbulent Pool-------------------------67
Marker Switch Diagram----------------------47
At the top left corner was a small button. AppleJack pressed it, and the panel opened to reveal a two-digit dial that currently displayed "67" on the wheels. There were buttons above and below each wheel, and one in the bottom right. "The number of marker switches..."
0 8
A series of beeps, first low, then high, sounded after AppleJack put in the two numbers. She went back to the "pool," which no longer showed any water, but had several small lights of some kind inside it. As she pressed the button, the image of a face appeared. The creature inside wasn't a pony. Sort of a balding monkey, with stubble around his mouth. All of his hair was grey. The creature spoke.
"Catherine, my love. I have to leave quickly, something terrible has happened. It's hard for me to believe... most of my books have been destroyed.
Catherine, it is one of our sons. I suspect Achenar, but I shouldn't leap to conclusions... I'll find him and Sirrus as well.
Oh, I should have known better than to have left my library unchecked for so long!
Well, I have removed the remaining undamaged books from the library and placed them in their places of protection. You should not have to use the books until I return, but... if you've forgotten the access keys, remember the tower rotation.
Oh, and don't worry Catherine, everything will be fine. I'll see you shortly. Oh, and erase this message after you've viewed it just to be safe.
The sun was setting when AppleJack exited the forechamber. It was time to check out the large building, since her exploration had yet to yield a way back home. She walked back up the path to the building. In front of it was a courtyard, with eight thin pillars on either side in a symmetrical fashion, and a large birdhouse with a sunken model ship in the middle. The library was large, and somewhat intimidating to the farmer due to the sheer size of the place. AppleJack walked in slowly, only to find that the structure was just as deserted as the rest of the island. The room was octagonal, with reddish wooden floors and walls, and columns at the corners. The ceiling had a spiraling cloud pattern on it, and a simple black chandelier hanging from the middle. Straight across from the entrance was a bookshelf, with many of the books on it looking scorched. A few looked like they'd survived, but most of them had clearly not. To the left of the bookshelf was a picture of the wall that the bookshelf was in, but with a difference. Instead of a bookshelf, there was a short staircase leading to a crooked hallway. To the right was another picture, this one of the entrance, looking straight out at the birdbath in the middle of the courtyard. To the right of the picture of the entrance was a book that looked similar to the one that had brought her here in the first place, except with no text on the cover, and blue. A red book of the same kind was across from it, to the left of the picture of the hallway. To the left of the red book, a small map of the island, labelled "Tower Rotation," rested in its frame. A fireplace occupied the space to the right of the blue book.
By the time AppleJack had the chance to take it all in, night had enveloped the outside, accompanied by frigid winds. She'd just spent the better part of the day looking around this strange place. Finally, she approached the red book, noticed a red page right next to it, and opened it. It had the same kind of panel as the Myst book, but with one major difference; The panel in this book was like a television with no reception. Tinted pink, but with the little specks all over it. There was even a 'static' type of sound coming from it.
"What in tarnation..?" AppleJack muttered, before looking through the rest of the pages. Right at the back of the book, there was a torn edge at the spine. Six pages seemed to be missing. AppleJack yawned, noticing her exhaustion. "I can't really look for a way home if I can't think right," she reasoned, remembering the incidents during Applebuck Season last year. After a few moments of internal debate, she went to a corner of the room and curled up to go to sleep.
------
AppleJack bolted upright, running to the exit. She nearly made it to the dock before she realized she wasn't at the farm. The memories of yesterday hit her. The book, the island, the switches. AppleJack sighed and turned back to the buildings. She walked to the door of the small one and pushed it open.
The room she found had a red-padded chair in the middle, with some kind of computer above it. "This would've been nice last night. . ." AppleJack deadpanned. She turned and left the room, going straight back into the library. She approached the blue book and looked inside. A similar snowscreen to that of the red book, but with a light blue tint instead of pink.
She finally noticed it. A page sitting on the stand right next to the blue book. She looked back at the red, and saw another page as well. "I wonder. . ." she turned the book to the back, finding the same kind of tear at the back as the red book. She brought the page to the inside of the book, trying to align the torn side with the tear in the book itself. A humming sound echoed as the page snapped itself in, merging as if it were never removed in the first place. AppleJack dropped the book in surprise.
She picked it back up and opened it to the panel. Static still dominated the image, but the face of a creature like the one who left a message in the forechamber flickered on repeatedly. This one was younger, and more heavyset.
The creature spoke, repeatedly interrupted by the static on the page, "Sirrus?. . . Is that you?. . . Who are you?. . . …see you… Achenar… help me. I’m… bring me… blue pages to… forever and ever… blue pages… I must have the blue pages… Bring them to me, please."
"Hello?" AppleJack said, "Can you hear me?"
There was no response from the thing inside the book. AppleJack closed it and picked her saddlebag up, reaching in for one of her water bottles. Her hoof brushed the notebook she'd dropped into the bag with them.
"Best not keep everything in my head," she said to herself. pulling the notebook out with the water bottle. She took a drink as she wrote.
-----
I found myself stuck on a strange island. The book I found took me here, and I don't know how to go home.
------
AppleJack wrote descriptions of the various locations she'd found while searching, before she remembered the red book. She stood and approached it, repeated what she had done with the blue, and watched the panel.
Another creature, like the last one, but thinner, without the beard. He spoke in the same interrupted manner due to the static appearance of the panel.
"Who are you? …must help me… bring me a red page… I can’t… I can’t see you… need a red page, you must… please… bring… I beg of you to bring… page… help… I am Sirrus… given up long ago… There is one thing I need to be resolved… you must…"
AppleJack closed the book again, and looked at the pictures by the bookshelf. She approached the one on the left. The picture showed a hallway, with a small set of stairs leading into it. The stairs appeared to contain books. The farmer looked at the bookshelf, and back at the picture, comparing them mentally. Finally, she reached her hoof out and touched the picture.
The image swirled for a moment, before the clunking of machinery echoed through the library. A door closed at the entrance through which she came, and the bookshelf slid back and down, becoming the staircase and entrance depicted in the picture. AppleJack took note of the secret hallway in her notebook, and approached the other picture.
The picture depicted the basin outside the library in the daylight, framed by the exit of the library.
She tapped the picture, and the same swirl appeared in the image that formed in the other. accompanied with the whirring of machinery as the bookshelf returned to the original position, and the door opened.
AppleJack examined the map on the wall, before her stomach rumbled. "Ah, ponyfeathers," she muttered, and she trotted out of the library, looking for food. If all else failed, she could resort to the old method of eating the grass off of the ground.
In her search, she found a stone plaque in the ground with a name engraved. Another strange name: Ti'ana.
Atrus. Catherine. Sirrus. Achenar. Ti'ana. A strange naming convention for a strange new race of creatures. But a grave appears the same no matter where you go. Some may be more ornate than others, but this plaque with Ti'ana's name on it was unmistakeable. AppleJack walked away from the grave, respecting the dead as she'd always been taught to do.
------
Finally, AppleJack had enough. She crouched down and started to eat the grass. It was bland, but it would have to be good enough.
After her meal, AppleJack returned to the library and examined the map. Touching pictures had done something each time. First, sending her to this island to begin with, then opening and closing the library's door and secret hallway. She stepped closer and outlined pictures appeared on the map. A gear at the location of the large stone gears, a boat where the sunken ship was docked, a spaceship where the spaceship rested, et cetera.
In the middle of the right side of the map was a circle, with a line extending from it all the way to the right side of the frame. She reached her hoof ahead and touched it. The symbol rotated a little bit, the line now pointing just a bit further down.
AppleJack touched it again and held her hoof there. The line turned red as it aligned with the gear. She pulled away, as the entire island rumbled. "The tower rotation," AppleJack said softly, before going and tapping the portrait to open the hidden passage. She walked down the hallway, slowly and carefully, to find an elevator at the other end.
She took the elevator up. It stopped and rotated at the halfway point, before reaching the upper floor and opening again.
AppleJack found herself facing yet another empty room, and the biggest challenge she reached on the island yet. A ladder. Plainly built for the bipedal creatures she'd been seeing in the art, recordings, and books. "Land sakes. . ." she muttered.
The mare leapt as high as she could on the ladder, struggling to keep a grip with her hooves. After a few tries, she managed to get to the platform at the top, and was immediately met with the sight of the island outside. The tall, skinny window she found faced the large stone gears by the dock. Nothing else on the platform caught the farmer’s attention.
AppleJack turned back and slid down the ladder, before walking around behind the elevator and finding another one. She climbed it, with more ease than the previous one, and saw a stone wall. The only thing of apparent significance on the wall was a brass plaque bolted to the middle.
2:40
2, 2, 1
“What in the hay is that supposed ta mean?” AppleJack asked, “It’s gotta be some kind of clue.” She slid back down the ladder and went back into the elevator. Closing the door, she pressed the button and rode the cage back down to the library.
The farmer closed the hidden door to open the way out, and trotted to the gears, looking for anything that a time and three digits would make a difference. “Maybe it’s on some kind of timer. To reveal itself at 2:40,” she said to herself. She looked to the clock tower. It said it was noon. AppleJack sat down and waited.
And waited.
The time on the tower did not change at any point. “Consarn thing must be broken,” she muttered as she stood up. She took her notebook out and started another entry.
I’m trying to find these pages that seem to have some strange magic about them. Two creatures are trapped in these books that the pages have been torn out of. They talk like ponies, but look more like balding monkeys, or something like that. I’m trying to get into these ‘places of protection’ to find more books with that weird magic. The other pages are likely hidden in these other books, but at the moment, I’m lost on what to do. 2:40 and 2, 2, 1 are my only clues, and they have something to do with the giant gears by the dock.
AppleJack put the notebook away and looked back at the tower. “Maybe I’m lookin’ at this the wrong way,” She said as she stood again. She cantered towards the clock tower, thinking about how it wasn’t moving, and perhaps she could manipulate it to say 2:40, and that might trigger whatever machine needed to be activated to work the giant gears. Then she saw it. One thing she missed in her previous exploration of the island; a box on the ground with two valves and a button. The box was connected to the ground, and obviously wouldn’t move. AppleJack put her hooves on the large valve on the left and turned it counterclockwise. It seemed designed to turn in 30 degree angles, as that was the easiest to go. AppleJack looked up at the tower. It now said 12:05. “That’s it,” she smiled and turned the left valve again. It only affected the minute hand on the tower, causing it to go to the next number.
The farmer turned the valve six more times to plant the minute hand on the 8, before moving to the smaller valve on the right. She turned it once. Just as expected, it moved the hour hand to the 1. She turned it once more, so that the clock said 2:40. Then she looked at the button. A big red button with no labels, but it was connected to the box that had the valves. She brought her hoof down on the button and pushed it in. A bridge of gears came up between the island and the clock tower. “Okay, now I can get to the clock tower and inside it without getting wet,” she said, trotting across the bridge and opening the door. Inside was a strange contraption.
The contraption had a gear right in front of it on a pedestal, two levers, and three gears above with the number 3 facing AppleJack. A weighted chain on the left and a third lever on the right were also present, but didn’t seem as directly connected as the levers on the main contraption. She pulled the lever on the left and released it. The top two gears turned so that the 1 on each of them were now facing the front. “Two, two, one,” the mare said to herself as she tried the lever on the right. The bottom two rotated so now the numbers facing were 1, 2, 1. Then AppleJack noticed the chain had gone down since she’d pulled the levers. A few more levers pulled and the chain reached the bottom of the room, then went straight back up as the entire machine reset. “Oh, land sakes!” AppleJack said, “I’ve got a certain number of moves!”
She looked outside and saw that it was getting dark. She turned back to the contraption and tried several more times to no avail. “I’ll try again tomorrow,” she told herself as she left the clock tower and walked back to the observatory by the library. “It’s not a real bed, but it’ll have to do,” She mumbled as she looked at the red chair. Soon enough, she curled up in the chair and went to sleep.
In the morning, AppleJack set out once more, back into the library. Pressing the tower rotation button again, she watched the line rotate around a few times, and saw it turning red at the dock, the large tree, and the spaceship.
“The red must mean it’s set to point the tower at that landmark, and give the hint to the puzzle guardin’ that place of protection,” The farmer said as the line reached the gears once more. “But how do I get that contraption to 221?” She trotted back to the clock tower, and started trying again.
------
The earth pony exclaimed in frustration and stormed out of the clock tower. “How in the hay am I supposed to do that?!” She shouted to the heavens as she started back to the library.
After turning the tower towards the dock, she took the elevator to find the hint. The plaque had three dates and times listed on it.
October 11, 1984, 10:04 AM
January 17, 1207, 5:46 AM
November 23, 9791, 6:57 PM
She wrote the dates down in her notebook, “Where do I use these dates?”
AppleJack searched the island for any calendar to no avail. After stopping to eat, she went back into the library and turned the tower to the large tree. She took the elevator up and transcribed “7, 2, 4” from the plaque into her notebook.
By the time the sun set, the first six pages of her notebook had all the transcriptions from the tower. For the gears, there were the time and combination. For the ship, the dates. For the tree, she had “7, 2, 4,” which she wrote “another combination?” beneath. Finally, in association with the spaceship, she’d written “59 volts.”
With a yawn, AJ walked into the little building to sleep for the night. She didn’t take notice of the machine above the chair even as she curled up and shut her eyes.
AppleJack went out the door and grazed for a bit before returning to the clock tower and attempting the contraption inside. By the time the sun indicated the time to be much past nine, her frustration nearly peaked again. She drew her notebook and wrote another entry.
I've been stuck here for more than a day now. All the different gizmos around this island confuse me, and the only two around that I can talk to don't seem trustworthy. I don't know what to do... I'm completely lost without my friends.
Twilight would know what to do.
After writing her new entry, the farmer leaned against the machine with a sigh, pushing down on the left lever.
click
click
click
The orange ears perked as the pony heard multiple clicks. She stepped back and looked up at the numbers. 1, 3, 3. “That’s it!” AppleJack exclaimed excitedly, pulling the lever on the right and holding it down to see if her thought was correct.
The bottom two gears rotated with the first click. The second click accompanied the middle digit rotating on its own, continuing until the chain to the left reached the bottom and restarted the machine.
AppleJack pulled the lever on the left again. 1, 1, 3. She pulled the lever on the right. 1, 2, 1. She pulled the lever on the left, and held it down.
click
2, 3, 1
click
2, 1, 1
click
2, 2, 1
As soon as the machine reached the right combination, the gears stopped. The large gear in front of it rotated clockwise for a moment to reveal an empty chamber underneath.
“Huh?” AppleJack started, “What in tarnation am I supposed to do with--“ she cut herself off, “The giant gears by the docks!”
The excited equine gladly galloped from building to boatharbor and skidded to a halt before the stairs. As she’d expected, the large stone gear had rotated, only a quarter of a circle now visible above the ground. She walked up the stairs and looked into the now open chamber under the gear.
Another book rested before her, closed, with no title about it.
"Man.. I'm beat..." AppleJack said as she walked slowly back to the farm, "How in tarnation does Pinkie Pie throw such a great party on such short notice?"
The orange earth pony barely remembered what she said to her brother and sister before she went to bed. She woke up and checked her clock, 12:34 "Land sakes!" She leapt to her hooves and ran out the door, headed for the orchard. Big Mac was out at a meeting for his speech club, and AppleBloom was at school. Fortunately for AppleJack, Big Mac had cleared about half the apples they needed to clear before she'd even woke up.
The heat was beating down on the orchard, prompting AppleJack to grab her saddlebag and put a couple of water bottles inside with a notebook. She went into the trees with her bushels and carts, beginning to buck. The day seemed uneventful, other than sleeping in. Until a thick leather-bound book fell on her head. The pony looked over the book, confused, "What in tarnation..." She slipped the book into her saddlebag.. And promptly forgot about it.
AppleJack finished putting the apples in the storage cellar, and went straight to the farmhouse. As she reached towards her saddlebag, she felt the book from earlier, and brought it out to take a look. It was bound in green leather, with simple black lettering on the front cover: "MYST."
Upon opening the book, AppleJack saw weathered pages and, on the first page, a panel that would look like a photograph if it weren't for the fact that it was a spinning view of a turtle-shaped island with a tower at one end and a forest at the other.
She couldn't shake the feeling that there was something different about that panel. Looking through the rest of the book would show no hints of circuitry or magical symbols. Finally, she placed her hoof on the panel. There was a lurching feeling in her stomach, as she fell into the image.